Between Shades of Gray

Okay, so I know that I haven't posted in a while. In fact, one of my New Year's Resolutions was to post regularly, but I guess that's not happening. Oops! Anyway, on my last post, I promised a detailed explanation of Between Shades of Gray, so that is what I'm going to do. This is a really good book, but it's been a while since I've read it, so forgive me if I don't do it justice. I'll try though!

Between Shades of Gray, by Ruta Sepetys is about a 15 year old girl named Lina who is on the path to fulfilling her biggest dream: being a world renowned artist. Sadly, Lina, her brother Jonas, and their mother are being deported to Siberia by the Soviet Secret Police. Lina's father has been separated from them, and they have no idea where he is. Set during Stalin's reign, Lina uses her art skills to pass along messages, hoping they will reach her father. Along their journey, Lina does everything she can to keep her loved ones safe, all the while documenting everything that happens in her art. She hopes that once the war is over, she can show people the horrors they faced in the labor/concentration camps and one day return to Lithuania. 

I have very mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, Ruta Sepetys does an amazing job at portraying the hardships that people deported from their home countries had to go through. Most books set during this time period are focused on Jews in concentration camps and Hitler. You don't find many where the greatest enemy is Stalin and the Soviets, at least in my experience. Lina and her family aren't Jews. In fact they celebrate Christmas, but they still had to leave their home. On the other hand, this book is absolutely, 100% heartbreaking (at least for me). It is sooo sad! Now, I am the kind of person, who watches movies and reads books that are only a tad bit sad and, finds them upsetting. Holocaust movies, books, event the general topic I find especially upsetting. The problem is, so many of these books are very good so I read them anyway. A good example of this is The Book Thief. I had tears cascading down m face like a waterfall (okay this is a major exaggeration, but I still cried) while I was reading the book. The same thing happened with the book The Boy on the Wooden Box (which is an autobiography by the way), except I had to refrain from crying because I was in a public setting. Both of these books are absolutely amazing by the way and I strongly recommend them. Anyway, I kinda started rambling. Where was I? Oh, yeah, the book is heartbreaking.

Things that are sad about it:

-People dying

-The conditions

-The topic

Basically, as if the subject isn't sad enough, the way Ruta Sepetys conveys what is happening in her writing is even more sad. However, don't let this discourage you. You are probably better with sad things than I am so you will have no problem reading this incredible book.

One thing that I really liked about this book is that throughout it, Lina has these flashback memory type things. I really enjoyed these because as we see Lina growing and maturing, we get to see the events that helped make her who she is. In addition, this book has huge character development. Not only with Lina, but also with Jonas and side characters like the bald man and the girl with the doll. At the beginning of the book, Lina is young and ambitious and thinks that she will get to go home in no time. By the end, she is doing everything she can to protect those she cares about. Jonas and the girl with the doll are forced to grow up in a matter of weeks. They have their entire childhoods taken away from them. 

However, despite all the hardships that Lina, her family, and her new friends go through, they stay light-hearted because they know that is the only chance they have at survival. They celebrate Christmas and look after each other. There is even some romance (but not a lot). 

This book is a real eye-opener in my opinion. As I said before, there really aren't that many books about what STALIN did. They are mostly centered around Hitler. Also, Ruta Sepetys created Lina's story after much research and hearing people's first hand accounts about their experience in labor and concentration camps. 

All in all, I really enjoyed this book. It's the untold story of what thousands of people went through under Stalin's reign. It really shows the horrors that that they faced during this time and it is incredibly written. I strongly encourage you to read this book and honestly if I could, I might force you to. Like add it to the school curriculum or something. It could be the book that we have to read in language arts every year. So read this book and I sincerely hope that you like it as much as I do. 

If you have already read Between Shades of Gray or you are currently reading it and want more like it, Ruta Sepetys recently came out with a book titled salt to the sea. I have not yet read this book, but I really want to. It is about, well, I've gone on long enough. Those of you who are curious can search it up. If you really want to know, tell me in the comments. Sorry this post has become longer than planned. Hope it wasn't too boring. Check out my poll and bye for now!

 PS. So, I just looked at the Goodreads review for this book, and they do a much better job of explaining it than I do, so here it is:

Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.

Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously--and at great risk--documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.

(Pictures Courtesy of Goodreads)

A Small Update

So since I last posted, I've gone through a few books.

#1-  Anne of Windy Poplars

So this is the 4th book in the Anne of Green Gables Series and I can honestly say, that the others are a 100 X better. Half the book is written in the format of letters from Anne to someone else whose identity I would rather not disclose, as most of you have probably not even read the first book, but in case you do (and you should) I don't want to ruin anything. Also, none of the original characters are in the book, other than Anne and a couple others that only make a brief appearance. Anne is the principal of a high school in a new place, and so there are all new characters, not many as good as the old. This book kind of serves as a transition between the end of the 3rd book and the beginning of the 5th. Personally, I didn't like it very much and couldn't wait for it to be over. However, don't let this discourage you from the rest of the books. They are amazing!!! My advice is read all the books, but skip over this one. You won't miss anything, I promise. I read the whole series through at least twice, some of the books more than twice, without knowing that Anne of Windy Poplars was the 4th. I always thought the 4th was Anne's House of Dreams which is the fifth. The only reason that I now know better, is because of Goodreads! 

#2- Jesse's Girl

This was a very interesting (for lack of a better adjective) book. The way I came across it: After a very, very, very, very long day, my family was going to my friend's house for a get together. We have this group kind of thing, where all of us meet at someone's house once a month, if you know what I mean. I was tired, and all I wanted to do was read, but there weren't many books that I hadn't already read. My friend had gotten this book from the library, along with others, earlier in the week. She told me to read this book, that it was a romantic comedy. IT IS NOT A ROMANTIC COMEDY!!!!!!!!!! It is just plain old, romance. Now I don't really read this kind of thing, so I can't judge if it was a good book or not, but I don't know. I mean, I guess it wasn't too romancy. See, the book is basically about this girl who wants to be a musician and so for her school's career shadow day, she gets to shadow Jessie Scott, this really famous country music star or whatever. Of course, they get together, and then he thinks she's using him to get a music deal, and then they get together again, and you know. Classic love story. One good thing that can be said about this book is that it has music, but I don't know how much better that makes it. Unless you are the kind of person who reads romance or you want to try something new, I wouldn't read this book. For me, since I don't read books like this (like ever) I thought it was very awkward, but you know, maybe it is something that you would enjoy. Also, since I didn't do the best job at explaining this, it is kind of like the movie Starstruck but not as good.

#3- Between Shades of Gray

Not 50 Shades of Gray, Between Shades of Gray. They are completely different. Between Shades of Gray is a super good, super sad book and from the point of a teenage girl, who gets sent to a labor camp with her brother and mother during Stalin and Hitler's reigns of terror. I'm not going to go into too much detail right now, because it deserves its own post, so keep an eye out for that, and I will try for it to not be too long, but no guarantees.

Check out these books and others on https://www.goodreads.com/
Pictures courtesy of Goodreads.

So this update, became a little longer than I intended, sorry about that, but since it was 3 different books, hopefully you didn't get too bored. Check out my poll. I've only had one vote so far and it has been up for about a month!!! Bye for now!

My Pet Peeve

Hey everybody, so I know this is kind of different from what I usually write about, but I promise that it is related to reading. It's also pretty short, which is a good thing after my post on The Giver. Here goes:

My pet peeve is people mistreating books. You treat your phones and your clothes and iPods, etc. with perfect care, why not books? For example, when people fold the corner of a page to keep their place. If you can't remember what page you are on, get a bookmark! Also, when you check out books from the library and they are in horrible condition. The pages have stains and some of pages even have gross crusty stuff on them! These books are the reason I prefer buying new books over using the library. You just ruined a perfectly good book with your food and folding corners and throwing it around like a football. News flash-It's not a ball!!! It contains knowledge, and history. Not necessarily a history for our world, but say a history for an alternate reality, and if not that, books are the way some people escape reality. When I'm stressed out or frustrated, I read, because reading about other people's problems, whether they are realistic or not, helps you forget about your own. If books are mistreated, what is the point of reading that book? It makes it less fun. Instead of enjoying the story, all of your attention is on that one gross spot on the page. What's the point in reading that book? There isn't one. When a book is gross, nobody wants to read it (at least I don't, and I don't think any of my friends would). This is why people shouldn't mistreat books and it's annoying when they do. Seriously, to all those people out there who mistreat books, I'm not trying to be offensive or anything, but you just took all the enjoyment out of something I do to relax and have fun-which probably makes me sound nerdy, but it's true, I read for fun. Then again, this whole blog is about books, so I guess it's kind of a given that I read books for fun.


By the way, this isn't my only pet peeve. One of my bigger ones at the moment is when people's sweatshirt strings are uneven. It just bothers me, but a) that isn't related to this blog and b) it is kind of hard to write about and this post started off as a Language Arts assignment.We had to write about a pet peeve so...

PS. Check out the poll on the side of my blog!

New Book v Old Book

(Barnes and Noble Book v Library Book)

The Giver

The Giver

By: Lois Lowry

Note from me: Hello. The following post is about the book The Giver. At first it is going to seem like this post has no point, especially if you have not read the book before. It is going to seem like I am rambling and at first it will bear no resemblance to the actual book. Please keep reading. There is a point, I promise!!! Just keep reading!!!

"I'm starving," we've all said this at one point or the other, but what we don't realize is that it is not true. You have never been starving. Unless, of course, you belong to a poor family who lives in a poor country and you barely have enough money for food; to the point that you go days without a decent meal. However, this is probably not true, because if you didn't have enough money for food, you probably wouldn't have a phone, or computer, or tablet, and would therefore, not be able to read this. You are reading this though, and by conclusion, you have most likely not been starving. I'm not saying that you have never starved in your life though. Maybe you went camping in the middle of nowhere and ran out of food, what do I know? I'm just saying, if you're reading this, it is highly unlikely that you have ever been starving, not impossible, just highly unlikely. Now where was I. "I'm starving." Everyone says it. You've never been starving, yada, yada, yada. Right, so the point I'm getting at is precision of language. It doesn't exist in society today. I mean just look at all the similes, metaphors and hyperboles we use every day. Also, schools just don't teach grammar like they used to, or maybe that's just America (don't take this the wrong way, I'm American, I love America).

In a society like ours, we just don't care whether or not what we are saying is true. "But I don't tell lies," you might be thinking right now. That is also true (unless you do lie which I have no way of knowing, but let's pretend for the time being that you don't). You see, it all boils down to one thing: precision of language.

"I'm starving,"   you're not starving, just extremely hungry.

"I hate ______." You don't hate them, just extremely dislike them.

Now think, what would it be like to live in a society where you had to be precise all the time. If not, you would get in trouble. You're not allowed to lie, at all; even by accident. Got it? Good. Now add to that. In this new society, everyone wears the same thing, all the time. You're probably thinking, that's not so bad, it's just a uniform. Well, now take away all the color from the picture in your mind, all of it. You should only have black, white and varying shades of gray left. Now, take away the idea of grandparents. I mean, you parents still have parents, you just don't know them, and you probably don't realize they exist. Imagine not getting to pick your career. Someone picks for you, when you are 12! Imagine, every family being the same. A mom, a dad, a brother, a sister. Imagine having to apply for a spouse. You don't get to pick who you marry. Imagine taking a pill every day, that prevents you from falling in love. Imagine not giving birth to your child. Imagine having a curfew. Imagine having to bike everywhere you go. Imagine not knowing anything about the past. Imagine not knowing anything about snow, or sleds, or hills. Imagine not knowing about birthday parties or Christmas, or music, or oceans and sunshine, lakes and boats. Imagine not knowing anything other than your community and the way life is. 

Blissful ignorance, right? You can't miss something you've never had. Except that 1 person does know what could have been. One person does know about the world we have today. One person knows about color and love and real, actual happiness. (Of course he also knows about pain...) This person is called The Receiver, The Receiver of Memories. 

In this specific community, The Receiver's name is Jonas. Jonas is just like everyone else until The Ceremony of 12. This is when you get your job assignment, and your training begins. Laborer, Birthmother, Assistant Director of Recreation, Engineer, Caretaker of the Old. All commonplace every day jobs that are assigned to someone or the other every year; until the Chief Elder gets to Jonas. Receiver of Memories. There hasn't been one in 10 years, and that one didn't work out too well. 

Picture of the book. Yay! 

When Jonas begins his training he meets The Giver. The Giver was the old Receiver of Memories and now he must transfer all those memories to Jonas. Memories of happiness and strength, but also memories of pain and sadness. As Jonas continues his training (receiving the memories), he feels more and more detached from his family and friends. However, he relishes in learning about the past. Back when everything wasn't the same, when people had choices. Every day, he and the Giver and explore the past until one night, Jonas has to leave very unexpectedly to save someone he loves. Will he have enough strength? Now a major motion picture, The Giver is a story about the power of emotions and inner strength.

I really liked this book. It made me think, especially at the end. I give it, probably 4.5-5 starts. I hope you read it, or at least watch the movie, if you haven't already. The movie was really good, just like the book. Honestly, at times, I liked the movie more than the book. 

Please check out the poll on the side of my blog. The question is, "Do you read the books that I write about?" I would really like to know. Well, that's it for now. Sorry, it took me so long to get to the point, but I hoped you kind of liked it anyway. Hopefully you weren't too bored and actually made it to this point. Anyway, tell me what you think. It's a really thought provoking book. 

Bye, for now!

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

By: Ally Carter

Picture from Goodreads

What would you do if you were a spy who fell in love with an ordinary boy? If you could speak 14 different languages and could take down someone double your size in about 2 seconds?  If you lived in a mansion with other spies, ate gourmet food and used evapopaper (paper you can eat) instead of real paper? If you had to keep your relationship a secret from skilled ex-spies like your mom and teachers all the while navigating this relationship with a normal boy who thinks you are a normal girl? What would you do?

Cammie Morgan goes to the Gallagher Academy, an all girls school where the girls learn to be spies. This year Cammie and her friends are taking Covert Operations for the first time. During their first "mission" Cammie meets a boy named Josh. Josh is normal in every sense of the word. He goes to a public school, has normal friends who he hangs out with and has a normal family- a mom who loves baking pies, a little sister still in elementary school, and a dad who owns the local pharmacy. Nothing extraordinary here. When Cammie meets Josh, her whole world turns upside down. Suddenly, she is sneaking out of the Gallagher Academy every weekend and hanging out with her secret boyfriend.

What do you do if you are in a relationship with an ordinary boy, who thinks you're an ordinary girl, when you're anything but? Read this book to find out!

I probably give this book a 3.5-4 out of 5 rating wise, but I get that it's not for everybody. It's kind of a romance novel, but with a twist. It's like romance+spies. It's spymance! *Insert Jazz Hands Here* Okay, sorry, that was really cheesy. I know I said it's romance, but there isn't really that much romance. I mean they only kiss once, I think. Besides, do you think a romance novel would include digging through trash to find clues, tailing people through town and hacking into emails?! I don't think so!

Anyway, in case you end up reading this book and you like it, the second book is called Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy.  Let me know what you think.

Bye for now!

Anne of Green Gables 2.0

So, I know I didn't do a great job at describing Anne of Green Gables last time, but in school we had to write a Goodreads review and this is the book that I used for it. I think I turned out better, but tell me what you think:

Anne -with an E Shirley, has never had a place to call her own.

Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert are an old pair who know next to nothing about children.

Who would think that they would ever meet? However, when Matthew goes to the station to pick up the boy that they have chosen to adopt, there isn’t one in sight! Only a skinny, red-haired, freckled girl who appeared to be waiting for someone. After questioning the station master, Matthew realizes that the girl is waiting for him. There must have been a mistake, but he can’t just leave her there. He decides to take her with him. Shy by nature, Matthew decides to let Marilla break the news to the young, eager faced-girl who just can’t stop talking from excitement. During the short ride from the station to Green Gables (a farm house on Prince Edward Island), Anne manages to not only win over Matthew, but the reader as well.

Anne of Green Gables is an amazing book full of love, laughter, and tragedy (not very much though). In short it is full of life. Join Anne as she experienced the ups and downs of life, gets herself and those closest to her in “scrapes” and let’s her imagination run wild.

One thing I especially loved about this book is that it gives an accurate portrayal of life. In some books, the character’s lives seem so glamorous and unreal. The characters don’t make mistakes, but not in Anne of Green Gables. Anne makes mistakes, she starches handkerchiefs, flies into tempers and dyes her hair accidentally on purpose. To be sure, she also has her  good traits. She is smart, imaginative and has a big heart. She loves her friends to the moon and back. Another thing I liked about this book is that the characters are so lovable and dynamic. Throughout the book, you can see them growing and not just in stature or age. The characters learn from their mistakes, and you can see their personalities and interests developing and expanding. Their dreams are changing, and the things they looked forward to as children, don’t hold the same wonder and reverence, once they become older. The characters are so lovable that once they enter your heart, they stay there forever, no matter what. You feel like you’ve known them your entire life. That you’ve spoken to them and played with them and lived with them. You feel as if, should they have existed, you would have been the best of friends with them.

One thing I didn’t like so much about Anne of Green Gables is that it was published in 1908. That’s over 100 year! It’s not the age of the book so much that I don’t like, it’s the language used in the book. Some of the phrases that were very common back then are nearly lost now. This made the book a bit confusing at times, but it was still really good.

People who might like this book are readers who like classic books such as Little Women and/or Jane Austen novels. In addition, if you like realistic fiction, you would probably like this book. Readers who like strong female characters might enjoy this book as well. Even though there is no action/fighting, which is what you typically associate with strong female characters (Hermione Granger, Katniss Everdeen, Annabeth Chase), Anne is as strong as them all, in her own way.

Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables

By: Lucy Maud Montgomery

Anne of Green Gables is a great book about an orphan girl named Anne-spelled with an E Shirley. She is adopted by Mathew and Marilla Cuthbert and goes to live at Green Gables, a farm house on Prince Edward Island. The book follows Anne's life over the first few years of her adoption. Anne of Green Gables is a heartwarming story about a young girl and all her mistakes and triumphs. It is about growing up and learning that life isn't always the fairytale you dreamed it was when you were young. It is about learning that you can't always get what you want (like puffed sleeves) but you should be thankful for what you have, because things can be so much worse. Through Anne you learn that dreams are just that, dreams, even if they do come true sometimes. You learn the glory of an imagination. Through this book you learn what it means to be a human, with all the good and bad, the character traits and flaws, the successes both big and small, along with the shortcomings. You learn that no victory is too small and no voice is insignificant. Join Anne as she encounters the ups and downs of life, gets herself and those she loves in "scrapes" and just has fun.

I love this book so much. I've probably read it like a gazillion times. Even more, or just as many times as I've read Harry Potter. Of course, this book is shorter than Harry Potter so it is easier. Anyway, even if it doesn't seem interesting, you should still read it, because it is a lot better, than what it sounds like. I didn't really do it justice. Just read it, it is great. I think you'll like it. It's just one of those books that you like. Especially if you like classics, like Little Women, you should read this book. Also, if you haven't read Little Women read that too. It's also really great. If you like realistic fiction books you would probably really like this book. It is set in the past, so if you like historical fiction, you might like it as well. I just think that anyone would like this book regardless, of what genre they like though. If you are interested, and you should be, even though I described it really badly, I know for sure that they have it on Kindle. In fact, they have pretty much the entire series on Kindle. I got the Anne of Green Gables Collection and it has most of the books and more!

So, yes, this is a series, but it isn't one of those series's where you just have to read the next book. In fact for the longest amount of time, I didn't even know it was a series, until I got the book on Kindle. (I have a paper copy of this book too). In case you were wondering, the order of the books in the series are as follows: Anne of Green Gables; Anne of Avonlea; Anne of the Island; Anne of Windy Poplars; Anne's House of Dreams; Anne of Ingleside; Rainbow Valley and Rilla of Ingleside. I have read all of them except for Anne of Windy Poplars and Anne of Ingleside.

I'm now going to post the Goodreads review, because I just did a really bad job at describing this book and you will probably be more inclined to read it if you read this summary. 
Everyone's favorite redhead, the spunky Anne Shirley, begins her adventures at Green Gables, a farm outside Avonlea, Prince Edward Island. When the freckled girl realizes that the elderly Cuthberts wanted to adopt a boy instead, she begins to try to win them and, consequently, the reader, over. --Goodreads

I know the book still doesn't seem really interesting, but it is really entertaining and it's so easy to get attached to the characters. Please, please, please, give it a chance. Also, don't forget to check out my polls, I have them on the side, and sometimes people realize they're there, but not usually.

PS  Did anyone notice the google picture on Monday, November 30th? The picture was of a red haired girl doing various things like eating with old people and reading with a black haired girl. That girl was Anne!!! It was in honor of Lucy Maud Montgomery's birthday! Anyway, I just thought that was cool...

Bye for now!

This a picture of the copy of the book that I have,
 as taken by me, with my phone. Sorry for the glare.