TFiOS Magic

Book #14 is a reread from last year.

I can't give The Fault in Our Stars by John Green enough praise, but for the sake of avoiding redundancy, I will redirect you to my original review here.

I reread it for a Speech piece for two of my students and I am SUPER excited to see what comes out of it!

#11

11 books and still going strong! I'm really hoping I'll be able to make 30 this year.

For book #11, I read the last John Green novel I hadn't read yet, which I borrowed from a friend.

Katherines, like all John Green books, was a pretty quick read. I read it in one sitting. I wasn't super impressed. Like, it was a John Green book, so it was good and I liked it. But it's definitely the least enjoyable of all his books. It was cute and it was funny, but it didn't yield the emotional connection that Looking for Alaska or The Fault in Our Stars or even Paper Towns did.

So now that I've read all of his books, I can rank them from best to least good (I don't like to say "worst" in this case because that seems to imply that John Green has bad novels).

1) The Fault in Our Stars. By far!

2) Looking for Alaska

3) Paper Towns

4) An Abundance of Katherines

5) If you can count this one because it was only half written by John: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

Paper Towns

So, like, I'm pretty much super-student.

I have a busy ass schedule. I'm a full time student, I work two jobs, I volunteer a few hours a week, AND I DRIVE ALL OVER THE DAMN PLACE TO GET EVERYWHERE.

Those are things I have to do. The following are things I still miraculously find time to do:

-Go to the gym three days a week (like, OMG, that's impressive considering RUNNING SUCKS)
-Do all the assigned (yet completely unnecessary) textbook readings for my classes that "ain't nobody got time for"
-Go to most of the not-required-of-me Speech tournaments to support those angsty teens (and basically live vicariously through them when they earn lots of shiny ribbons/medals/trophies)
-READ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For fun!

I have just finished my fifth book of 2013, Paper Towns by John Green, and I am so totally on track for my goal of 30 this year.

It was pretty good and John Green-ish. I mean, it was more teenagery than TFiOS, which annoyed me at times. In fact, a lot of the middle was annoying basically because I feel like he was making gooshy themes/lessons superobvious and spoon feeding them to me. I do not want to be spoon fed those types of things while I'm reading. I just want the feel them, you know?

But. BUT. The ending, as always in John Green style, was wonderful. I actually enjoy reading about teen characters that aren't sucky and bratty all the time because, guys, they exist in real life.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that I pretty much rock at balancing my life, but one area of my life that is a GHOST TOWN at the moment (like, I won't even use the word lacking because it's nonexistent) is my social life. NO SOCIAL LIFE WHATSOEVER. That needs to change because I have a feeling that the older I get, the more difficult this will be. I think I am already an old lady at heart.

#9: The Fault in Our Stars - John Green

There's nothing like being so engrossed in a book that you stay up impressively late flipping the pages until the end. And your eyes are so tired of being open that your contacts are all dry and sticky.

I've read a lot of good books, but it's been quite a while since I've experienced the above.

Good God, even the cover is beautiful.

Green's "The Fault in Our Stars" far exceeds my expectations. And I had high expectations (due to the extreme praise in word-of-mouth reviews) despite its classification of a young adult novel. Which shouldn't be any reason to hold it back. Although I occasionally enjoy picking up books geared toward a younger audience, I've stayed away from those lately because their authors simply tend to lack respect for their readers (a concept put into words by a friend of mine as we discussed modern teen novels).

What makes John Green unique in this sense, is that he doesn't write something that is fluffy and happy and shallow just because his audience is younger. But rather, he fully intends and expects his younger reader base to understand and appreciate mature musings of the world.

"The Fault in Our Stars" is a heartbreaking story that pulls on heartstrings. But it's also much much more than that. Instead of just a compelling story, it is a compelling story that's written beautifully. I found myself on several occasions rereading some of my favorite lines, just because the way the sentences are put together is brilliant. I couldn't possibly adequately convey the beauty that are the words on those pages.

And it is beautifully written during the humorous parts, the more somber parts, as well as the thoughtful parts. Not to mention, the balance between these three is perfection.

Extraordinary read! Five stars and two thumbs up for this one! Definitely the best of the year so far.

WIN!