Wonderful Words #1

Hey Guys, 
So I decided to start a new "series" on this blog, where I share quotes that really stayed with me after I heard it, read it, whatever, just quotes I really like. Feel free to do it as well and comment on this post linking your post so that I can see it. I hope you enjoy this! 

“There will come a time when all of us are dead. All of us. There will come a time when there are no human beings remaining to remember that anyone ever existed or that our species ever did anything. There will be no one left to remember Aristotle or Cleopatra, let alone you. Everything that we did and built and wrote and thought and discovered will be forgotten and all of this will have been for naught. Maybe that time is coming soon and maybe it is millions of years away, but even if we survive the collapse of our sun, we will not survive forever. There was time before organisms experienced consciousness, and there will be time after. And if the inevitability of human oblivion worries you, I encourage you to ignore it. God knows that’s what everyone else does.”

• Hazel (The Fault in Our Stars by John Green) 

“Sometimes it takes more courage not to let yourself see. Sometimes knowledge is damaging – not enlightenment but enleadenment.”

“He said you couldn’t pretend the terrible things in life didn’t happen. You can’t clean it up. You keep all the refuse and the scars. It’s how you learn. And try to make improvements.”

“I was aware too how strange adults were, how theirs lives were vaster than they wanted anyone to realize, that they actually stretched on and on like deserts, dry and desolate, with an unpredictable, shifting sea of dunes.”

• Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.”

• The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich

Friday Finds #2

FRIDAY FINDS showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased). It is hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading.

Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich

While appraising the estate of a New Hampshire family descended from a North Dakota Indian agent, Faye Travers is startled to discover a rare moose skin and cedar drum fashioned long ago by an Ojibwe artisan. And so begins an illuminating journey both backward and forward in time, following the strange passage of a powerful yet delicate instrument, and revealing the extraordinary lives it has touched and defined.

Compelling and unforgettable, Louise Erdrich's "Painted Drum" explores the often fraught relationship between mothers and daughters, the strength of family, and the intricate rhythms of grief with all the grace, wit, and startling beauty that characterizes this acclaimed author's finest work.

This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers

It’s the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self. To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually wantto live. But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group’s fate is determined less and less by what’s happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life—and death—inside. When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?

House Of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

The story focuses on a young family that moves into a small home on Ash Tree Lane where they discover something is terribly wrong: their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.
Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story -- of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.

I am super excited for these books, expecially House of Leaves, I've heard it's supposed to be a (excuse my language) complete mind-fuck, very disturbing, but also super awesome!

Until next time, Happy Reading,

Helene

GIVEAWAY: When The Siren Calls by Tom Barry

When The Siren Calls by Tom Barry is being published in November of this year and Tom has been very nice to provide the book for this Giveaway. If you guys are interested in getting your hands on this book, why not join in and try to win it?

Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:

"Restless and neglected, Isobel is suffocating in a stagnant marriage. Suave and charismatic Jay is fighting for survival. An invitation to visit Jay's resort in the hills of Tuscany sparks Isobel to imagine a life of freedom and excitement.
Dismissing her husband’s objections, Isobel pursues Jay to Tuscany on the pretext of searching for a holiday home. After fighting anguished guilt, she abandons herself in a passionate affair, with her controlling lover encouraging Isobel to push beyond her sexual boundaries.
But all is not as it seems in the idyllic Tuscan retreat, and Isobel finds herself trapped in a web of intrigue, deception, and betrayal. She is one player in a dangerous love triangle, unsure whether Jay is her saviour, or her nemesis. As her world falls apart, she must choose between the woman she thought she was, and the woman she has become."

Looks good, doesn't it? I think so, I am definitely reading this next.

This giveaway is open internationally, so all of you can join in!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you want to know more about the author, Tom Barry, here you go;

Web: http://www.tombarrywrites.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/tombarry100

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/WhentheSirenCalls

Friday Finds #1

FRIDAY FINDS showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased). It is hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading.

What We Saw At Night by Jacquelyn Mitchard

Like the yearning, doomed young clones in Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, three teenagers with XP (a life-threatening allergy to sunlight) are a species unto themselves. As seen through the eyes of 16-year-old Allie Kim, they roam the silent streets, looking for adventure, while others sleep. When Allie's best friend introduces the trio to Parkour, the stunt-sport of running and climbing off forest cliffs and tall buildings (risky in daylight and potentially deadly by darkness), they feel truly alive, equal to the "daytimers." On a random summer night, while scaling a building like any other, the three happen to peer into an empty apartment and glimpse an older man with what looks like a dead girl. A game of cat-and-mouse ensues that escalates through the underground world of hospital confinement, off-the-grid sports, and forbidden love. Allie, who can never see the light of day, discovers she's the lone key to stopping a human monster.

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

From Maggie Stiefvater, the bestselling and acclaimed author of theShiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes a spellbinding new series where the inevitability of death and the nature of love lead us to a place we’ve never been before.

Before I Die by Jenny Downham

Tessa has just months to live. Fighting back against hospital visits, endless tests, drugs with excruciating side-effects, Tessa compiles a list. It’s her To Do Before I Die list. And number one is Sex. Released from the constraints of ‘normal’ life, Tessa tastes new experiences to make her feel alive while her failing body struggles to keep up. Tessa’s feelings, her relationships with her father and brother, her estranged mother, her best friend, and her new boyfriend, all are painfully crystallised in the precious weeks before Tessa’s time finally runs out.

All of these look super awesome, and I am so excited to read them all! 

Until next time - Happy Reading,

Helene

Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers

Goodreads   Amazon   Author

Climbing to the top of the social ladder is hard--falling from it is even harder.  Regina Afton used to be a member of the Fearsome Fivesome, an all-girl clique both feared and revered by the students at Hallowell High... until vicious rumours about her and her best friend's boyfriend start going around.  Now Regina's been "frozen out" and her ex-best friends are out for revenge.  If Regina was guilty, it would be one thing, but the rumours are far from the terrifying truth and the bullying is getting more intense by the day.  She takes solace in the company of Michael Hayden, a misfit with a tragic past who she herself used to bully.  Friendship doesn't come easily for these onetime enemies, and as Regina works hard to make amends for her past, she realises Michael could be more than just a friend... if threats from the Fearsome Foursome don't break them both first.

First off, I want to start by saying that this book was not what I expected, and that is not a bad thing, at all! I just didn't expect it to be so deep. Which it is. This book it truly amazing. It's heartbreaking. But it truly is an amazing piece of writing. The story is of a girl that falls from popularity and becomes the victim, and even though this girl has been a complete bitch to so many people, you start to feel for her, you start liking her, even though you should hate her. 

The fact that Courtney Summers has been able to write a likable bitch is amazing, the character is such a developed character, she has more to her than what you first think, and that is an amazing thing, when a book has great characters, like this one. All the characters are amazing, they are so different, so complex, but at the same time, you can relate to each of them in some way, well except the Fearsome Foursome, they are terrible people. But all I want to say is that this book is really worth the read, or a listen, in my case I listened to it, but I think I might buy this book too, because I loved it so much. 

So, what I want you to do now is go read this book, and be blown away by how great it is!

Rating; ♥♥♥♥♥

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

Release date: 2, January, 2012
Publisher: Headline Publishing Group
Age group: Young Adult
Pages: 215
Format: Hardback
Challenge: 70 Book Challenge


Who would have guessed that four minutes could change everything?
Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan’s life. She’s stuck at JFK, late to her father’s second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon to be step-mother that Hadley’s never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport’s cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he’s British, and he’s in seat 18C. Hadley’s in 18A.
Twists of fate and quirks of timing play out in this thoughtful novel about family connections, second chances and first loves. Set over a 24-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver’s story will make you believe that true love finds you when you’re least expecting it.

First Line: "There are so many ways it could have all turned out differently."

This book was sweet. At times it was so sweet it could make your teeth hurt. But it was sweet in a good way, not in that so-sweet-I-want-to-puke way. It was nice. The story takes place in only 24 hours, but really, that is enough time, at least for this book. It tells the story of Hadley, and I loved the way Jennifer had incorporated the stories from Hadley's past, that way we got to know her. 

The storyline was great, it was inventive and it was random, which I really liked, I loved that this book wasn't just about love it was also about family and the complications that come with divorce.

On to the characters, they were amazing, both Hadley and Oliver are such loveable characters, they are relatable, which is really nice, and they are such a funny pair, they play off each other very well when they are together and their relationship evolves in a nice way. It's not instalove, like in a lot of chicklit, which I think is great (..eventhough I like reading some of that sometimes too). 

I really enjoyed this book quite a lot, it was a wonderful story. That is why I am giving it four loving hearts;

♥♥♥♥

Until next time - happy reading,

Helene

Giveaway time!

I hope you guys like giveaways.. Cause here is another one. It will be open for two weeks, which means that it will be open until July 3rd.

I have one rule for you guys: 
People that have won a previous giveaway are not allowed to participate because it would be unfair for those who are entering for the first time.

So, with that said, Good Luck to you all!

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Release date: 2, December, 2010
Publisher: Dutton Books (imprint of the Penguin Group)
Age group: Young Adult
Pages: 372
Format: Softcover
Challenge: 70 Book Challenge

Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris - until she meets Etienne St. Clair: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home. As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near - misses end with the French kiss Anna - and readers - have long awaited?

First line: "Here is everything I know about France: Madeline and Amèlie and Moulin Rouge."

When I first bought this book is was because of all the good things I had heard about it, but to be truthful, I was a little hesitant to buy it, and I considered not doing so because to me it just didn't seem that appealing, by the first glance. But as it is, this book turned out to be everything that everyone had said about it. I really understand why there was so much hype around this book, because it is a really great story. 

It's a classic example of  "Don't judge a book by it's cover." This book might look cheesy and like one of those tales where two people meet and everything is perfect and then they get married and live happily ever after. But it's not, the story is cute, but it's also written in a way that makes is realistic, which I loved. Stephanie Perkins has done a remarkable job writing this, because I felt like Anna could have been me, you know?

The writing was great. The story was great. Everything about this book was simply great. It is definitely a book worth checking out if you haven't already, and I for one am going to read Stephanie's other book "Lola and the Boy Next Door"

Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥

This book gets five hearts because it is deserves it. 

Until next time - Happy Reading,

Helene

Long time, no see...

Hey *incert awkward half-wave-thingy*

I know I've been gone for the longest time, but the truth is I just had so much to do, I am not just saying that. It feels like these past few months I have done nothing other than reading for exams, doing homework and lots of other school-related things. This year in school has been so busy, seeing as I officially graduate tomorrow afternoon, it's crazy! 

But anyway, now I am back to reading books that are not school related and the summer holiday is (hopefully) going to be filled with a lot of blog posts for you guys. If there are any people still reading this blog, ehehe. I will not promise to post on a regular basis because I have found that I kind of suck at staying interested in blogging.. But I will try. And I am also not just doing book reviews, but I'm going to just write about everyday things as well, like traveling, because this Friday I am going to LONDON, and I am so so so excited about it! I love London. And if any of you blog readers are in the area comment and maybe we can meet up or something, that would be awesome. 

But speaking of London, that is where I will be living starting September. I am going to university there, studying English Literature, which I am stoked about. I cannot wait to move out and start living by myself, and in London no less, can things get any better!? Anyway, of you guys have anything to share at all, or you just want to talk feel free to comment or send me an e-mail at; areweinfiniteyet@hotmail.com

Love,

Helene

And the winner is...

From now on I am going to be sending the winner an e-mail so when they win, so I am sure they know that they won. But anyway, the winner of this months giveaway was Vicky B!

The book of your choice will be headed your way soon, and to everyone else, thank you so much for participating in my giveaway!

As for the next giveaway, it will be up pretty soon. I am going to London during easter so I might just get something to giveaway then, making next months giveaway a little bit more exciting, what do you think?

Until next time - happy reading,

Helene