New Year New Books!

Love, Freedom and Aloneness: The Koan of Relationships by Osho 

My rating: 3/5 stars

“It is beautiful to be alone, it is also beautiful to be in love, to be with people. And they are complementary, not contradictory. When you are enjoying others, enjoy and enjoy to the full; there is no need to bother about aloneness. And when you are fed up with others, then move into aloneness and enjoy it to the full.”

I think the best way to enjoy this book, is to read it in small chunks spread out over time. It’s definitely not a sit-down-and-finish-in-one-night type of book. I think reading it all at once would take away from the time needed to reflect on each chapter of the book.

For the most part, I found Osho’s views intriguing and it often made me question my perspective on love, freedom, relationships, attachment, aloneness and loneliness. It also made me question the reasoning behind some of my actions.

At a certain point, it did become a bit repetitive which made reading feel like a chore. Also, Osho could sometimes come across as unrealistic..

I’ll definitely be re-reading the pages in this book that resonated with me/made me really question myself.

For now, I’ll leave you with some of my favourite quotes from each of the main sections 🙂 :

Love

“The people who say life is meaningless are the people who have not known love. All that they are saying is that their life has missed love.”

Relationships

“And each person is such an infinite mystery, inexhaustible, unfathomable, that it is not possible that you can ever say, “I have known her,” or “I have known him.” At the most you can say,”I have tried my best but the mystery remains a mystery.”

Freedom

“Everyone, of course, talks about freedom, but no one has the courage to be really free because when you are really free you are alone. If you have the courage to be alone, then only can you be free.”

Aloneness

“To be alone is a great opportunity, a blessing, because in your aloneness you are bound to stumble upon yourself and for the first time remember who you are. To know that you are part of the divine existence is to be free from death, free from misery, free from anxiety, free from all that has been a nightmare to you for many many lives.”

 

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

My rating: 5/5 stars

“And the moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”

Disclaimer: This review reeks of extreme bias. It is public knowledge that Peter Pan is my favourite story of all time. Of. All. Time. Therefore, if there is any fault in J.M. Barrie’s writing, I cannot point them out, for I did not see them.

The story of Peter Pan is the most perfect, most magical story to ever be written thank you very much. It’s even more magical if you read it with the Peter Pan (2003) soundtrack playing in the background. Or read a chapter and watch the correlating scene. Sigh.

I stretched this book out for the entire month of January 

and I’ll obviously be picking it up again sometime this year. I had been wanting to own this particular edition for a while now and I’m so glad I finally got my hands on it. For now, I’m just going to put it back on my shelf and stare at it because it’s just so beautiful.

 

Titans, Volume 1: The Return of Wally West by Dan Abnett

My rating: 4/5 stars

“My name is Wally West. I’m the fastest man alive.”

Words I like to see, read and hear 🙂

If you know me, you know Wally West is quite possibly my favourite superhero in the DC universe. I couldn’t tell you why I love him so much but I do. Okay that’s a lie, I could tell you but then this review would be 2 pages long. After first falling in love with him from the TV show Young Justice, my love for him has continued to grow since then. This love also extends towards anything he is a part of. Like the Teen Titans/Titans and the entire Flash family <3.

I received Titans, Volume 1 as a Christmas present from one of my best friends; along with Volume 2 (which I will get around to reading next month).

I really enjoyed this Volume. It saw the gang coming back together and fighting as the team we all know and love. It saw Wally pushing speed barriers like never before, and proving himself to be one hell of a Flash.

 

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

My rating: 4.5/5 stars

“Twelve hours ago I received a phone call telling me I’m going to die today, and I’m more alive now than I was then.”

Me: *reads book titled ‘They Both Die at the End’

Characters: *die*

Me:

 

Guys, you can know from the beginning that someone is going to die and trust me you still will not be prepared when it happens. Even though the entire book is just one giant count down to their inevitable deaths, you still will not be prepared!

So this book is set in present day except there’s this organization called Death-Cast and they alert people of their Death Day. They don’t tell you how or exactly when you’re going to die, they just inform you that you will be dying sometime within the next 24 hours and encourage you to live your best life within the remaining time you have left.

Our protagonists of this story, Mateo & Rufus, obviously both receive a call from Death Cast at the start of this book. They meet through an app called Last Friend which is basically like Tinder but for people who are dying within 24hours. In the span of 24 hours Mateo & Rufus set out to live their best day yet, encouraging each other to do the things they’ve always wanted to do.

At one point, I wanted to stop reading just so I could keep Mateo & Rufus alive. This was such a beautiful, heartbreaking and wonderful story; & I am still very much grieving the loss of these two precious souls.

 

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

My rating: 5/5 stars

One word to describe this book: EPIC!

I heard there was going to be a movie adaptation of this book long before I was able to get my hands on a physical copy. I did everything to avoid seeing anything movie related. I avoided watching the trailer. I didn’t want to see what any of the characters or the setting looked like.

When I initially picked up this book, I took one look at the font size on the pages and let out the heaviest sigh. I thought to myself “well, this is going to take me forever to read”. Ha. Wrong. I read this book within 3 days. In between lunch breaks, tv show commercial breaks, that little window between waking up and having to get ready for work. I read this book at every available opportunity because it was just so freaking good!

I realize now that I have rambled on about this book without actually telling you anything about it.  Ready Player One is set in the year 2044. If you thought humans of today spend way too much time online, 2045 takes that to a whole other level.  In the future, people spend more time in the OASIS, than they do in real life. The OASIS is a virtual world where you can do anything, be anyone. You can attend school, work, go to football games etc. The OASIS was created by James Halliday, think of him as the Steve Jobs of today but 10x smarter and powerful.

Before Halliday passed away, he recorded a video stating that he had hidden 3 keys that open 3 gates in the OASIS game. And whoever made it through all the gates first will inherit trillions of dollars and  have complete control of the OASIS. And so begins the Chaos. Everyone, from anti-social teens to greedy multi-million dollar corporations are trying to make it to the final gate. For years, there isn’t a single break through, until Wade Watts aka ‘Parzival’ finds the first key and suddenly its not just a game, it’s life or death.

This book is packed with action, humour, suspense and lots of 70s & 80s pop culture references. Loved every minute of it, and by far my favourite read of the month!

You can check out the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSp1dM2Vj48

 

The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur 

My rating: 3.5/5 stars

I don’t think I’m a fan of Kaur’s poetry style in general. I did love the drawings, short stories, and there were some really hard-hitting problems.

This was one of my favourite poems:

“they convinced me
i only had a few good years left
before i was replaced by a girl younger than me
as though men yield power with age
but women grow into irrelevance
they can keep their lies
for i have just gotten started
i feel as though i have just left the womb
my twenties are the warm-up
for what i’m really about to do
wait till you see me in my thirties
now that will be a proper introduction
to the nasty. wild. woman in me.
how can i leave before the party’s started
rehearsals begin at forty
i ripen with age
i do not come with an expiry date
and now
for the main event
curtains up at fifty
let’s begin the show”

– timeless