Me Before You...

I finished The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes deciding that this was an author I definitely want to read more of. And so browsing through her books I knew I had to get Me Before You, after all it was the one that my friend had confessed to loving and crying to.

I didn't really know what to think before starting, I seem to be doing that a lot these days. And to be honest I never really felt like I wanted to read a book with the main character named Lou. I'm judgy with names, I know I shouldn't. But the combination of a great cover, another good book by Moyes, a deal on amazon, and great reviews led me to know that not getting it would only result in a lost on my part. 

So we are introduced to a seemingly plain Jane almost boring Lou who loves her job but loses it because the owner of the cafe she works in decides to close it. Right off the bat, Lou sounds like the type of girl you can count on if you gave her a chance, she just haven't done much to have a reason to. But being unemployed leaves her no choice but to change her normal rhythm of life.

Cue Will. Young successful good looking someone who lives life to the fullest and creates experiences instead of waiting for life to take over. That is until he has an accident that turns him into the man he never wanted to be. Will's mother is desperate to have any trace of her old son back and hires Lou the be his carer. She is fighting with all her might a battle she may have placed hopes too high for, but he's her son and a mother's love knows no end.

The story is essentially the  interactions of Lou and Will accompanied by their family and some friends as they fight their way through this thing that has changed all their lives. It traps you in the small confined world of Lou Clark and Will Traynor not loosening it's grip until you have no more words left to read. I always find that fiction tends to be he genre that reads the slowest for me but this was certainly not the case here. This book was supposed to keep me entertained for at least three days but instead it was all over in two, and only because I started late in the day and my eyes were drooping so heavily I couldn't keep them open. 

I felt like I was listening to Lou as she flashes back onto a distant painful memory. Moyes' characters felt so real I feel as though somewhere in England Lou and Will really do exist not less because their town is so much like the one I'm in. Sleepy town with a historic castle and summer breathing a breathe of fresh air. 

This book hardly contained any surprise for me, I hardly had a moment where i was left stunned mouthing oh my God to myself, but it was never boring and always left me wanting more. As I got nearer to the end, the reviews started making sense although I hoped I was wrong and this only intensified the need to know how it all ends. Needless to say, I fell victim to the weeping bug and found myself with more tears than I cry for myself and too much sadness for a 19 year old on a Friday night. I was still crying for a good minute or so after finishing the last sentence, it was that sad.

This might spoil the ending a bit, but Independent on Sunday likens Lou and Clark to Emma and Dex from One Day by Dave Nicholls. Now that is another book so sad I can't bring myself to watch the movie to relive the whole thing again. I clearly remember repeating no no no in disbelief when you know what happens to Emma, especially not after all that they been through. I don't know why I read this review after finishing and went crazy thinking Moyes and Nichols are so cruel to maker fall in love with their characters and twist my heart out at then end. The clue was there all along...

I guess with so many people hinting at what comes (me included) there is hardly any surprises to be thrown at you in the book. But it doesn't need to. This book is like the friend you know that has sad eyes because of her pain that you know about but it is still heartbreaking every time her story is repeated. It is definitely a story that stays in your mind and as Independent on Sunday states one that you would want to share with fiends (damn they got it so right). 

So I urge you to go out and get this book and read it at once. If not, your lost.

Buy from:
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Would I recommend this book?

Yes

How much do I rate this book? 

5/5

Would I read other works by this author?

Yes

ps if I seem a little scatter brained, it's probably because I'm a little high on emotions. You see, I just finished reading the book. I mean just.

The Girl You Left Behind...

The Girl You Left Behind tells the story of two women, Sophie in the 20th century, and Liv in the modern world. Eduoard Lefevre paints a portrait of his wife Sophie and when he leaves her for war, the painting captivates the Kommandent of the town. She in turn, faces difficult decisions risking what reasonable life she has left to be reunited with him.

The description at the back of the book writes how this portrait is given to Liv in modern times by her own husband who then dies suddenly. Sophie and Liv's lives though a hundred years apart, are intertwined together by the portrait.

I've wanted to read something by Jojo Moyes for quite some time. To be completely honest, it was because of the lovely designs of the covers of her books rather than the description. I believe its because I am not completely familiar with the more mature fiction to know which authors I like and which I don't. But a friend told me that Me Before You was an absolute cry fest and that gave me the push to finally invest in a book by her. However, at the time, I wasn't in the mood to be torn apart so I decided to buy The Girl You Left Behind instead. Also because I was intrigued by the whole entwined lives of Sophie and Liv. I was curious as to how it worked.

The odd thing was that I read this book right after The Book Thief, another book about war, or affected by war. And thus the mood was pretty much sombre. I was travelling around Amsterdam at the time yet when I had free time, I always resorted to taking out this book and reading it. So it was definitely an interesting read that kept me very much in their world making me want to know what happens to the characters.

Sophie's story very much involves the German Kommandent and her fellow French towns people. The hatred of the French towards the Germans was well illustrated by Jojo Moyes, I never even knew it existed. As the lives of her characters unfold, it was interesting to see how perhaps the Germans were not that evil after all. Perhaps all they had was a truly charismatic and manic commander, brainwashing all his people. The Germans were human. As Sophie starts to see this side of the Germans, she puts herself and her family in spite of the rest of the towns people. The struggles war brings upon people involved and not involved causes too much pain.

As for Liv, I really liked how the connection with Sophie was tied up altogether. I don't think I should say much about it as you do need to get through quite a bit of reading to get to this, and I hate spoilers. But rest assured, its not some unbelievable completely manipulated twist, nothing crazy dramatic. It is something completely plausible. Liv's story is about her trying to get over the death of her husband. His death left her with nothing and the days that go by seems even more wasted as she is still so young. 

Both stories end nicely. I hope that doesn't give away too much. I really enjoyed the story and it was quite a good hearty read as well, 514 pages in total. Well worth the money, I'd say.

Buy from:
Book Depository
or

Would I recommend this book?

Yes

How much do I rate this book?

4/5

Would I read other works by this author?

Yes, in fact I just bought two other books from her. Impulse shopping... feeling pretty guilty now.

Hope this helps. Thanks for reading!

Book haul (or the lack of control of buying books)...

So I went a bit crazy buying books not so long ago...

The only thing I can say is whoops... I figured I was going to buy books at some point or another, so why not just get them all? So I doubled my away from home book collection in 5 minutes. I was also thinking about all the time I would have on my hands since its my summer holidays, I was right.

Anyway, here are the names of the books I bought:

1. The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

2. What's left of me by Kat Zhang 

3. The Last Letter From Your Lover by Jojo Moyes

4. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

5. Cinder by Marissa Meyer

6. The Elite by Kiera Cass

7. The Noughts and Crosses Sequence Malorie Blackman

There you go. I'm kind of broke too. But guess what, I went and got myself and iPhone 5 yesterday. Whuutt?? Yea, you heard right. It was not impulsive, in fact I've been thinking of switching to a smartphone for two ish years now but always managed to convince myself that its not worth it. So finally I upgraded and naturally it would have to be the latest version of the iPhone since I know I'll be hanging on to this one for a real long time. 

My awesome possum case :D

I have to say, I like it. Obviously it's not a drastic change of life or whatever but I do enjoy having one. The only fear I have is my phone getting stolen now cause before i knew no person in their right mind would bother stealing my old phone. Anyways, happy days :)

I also got an awesome phone case! I think I'm more excited by the case than the actual phone itself. I know something's wrong with me..

Hope you have a great day today!

The Book Thief...

This was one of those books that I keep picking up and putting down every time I find it in the bookstores. I would look at the cover and think how interesting, read the description and always decide not to buy it because of uncertainty of how the book would pan out. It took about two years and a lot of raving from various different people about how good the book is for me to finally part with what little money I have to have one I could call my own.

So the gist of the story is that it follows the life of a girl called Liesel Meminger who was a child at the untimely period of World War II in Germany. What sets the book out even more is that it is told through the narration of death. 

I think one of the problems before I bought the book was that I did not have an idea of what direction the book would veer in. That was the uncertainty that held me back. In all honesty, it took me a while into the book before I manage to find a grasp on it. I regret that I cannot be one of those people to say fantastic things about the book, I just found myself going through the story very slowly. To be fair, I was reading this in between breaks revision and during my exam period, so such a serious book would not have manage to grab my tired attention.

The first struggle was to get used to the way the story was presented. As mentioned, it was told through Death and I have never read anything else told by Death, or even Death as a person (somewhat). The next thing was that it went by pretty slow. There were not a lot of exciting events happening, much more of wartime mundanities, which are probably not that mundane at all. But it was certainly interesting if not educational.

Although what I have said so far seems to be pretty negative, I do not think the book is bad at all. In fact, I think it is really good. However, I do think that the reader needs to be in a certain time and place, and also a state of mind to be able to appreciate fully the story. It is like a work of art that needs more understanding than just the naked eye in order to have emotions stirred up. I wondered why I didn't enjoy it as much as I probably should and thought maybe its because I do not really feel such a deep connection with WWII in relation to Europe. WWII was devastating all over but people are always bound to hurt more when it comes to something close to their heart, like home. In addition, I do not really know too much about the war itself let alone its devastation and effects in Europe. Therefore it might have contributed to why I could not feel what the author probably meant his readers to feel. 

It was odd however, that I visited the Anne Frank House a few days before I finally managed to finish the book. After that visit, I did feel that the story was livelier, but at the same time, it could have been because it was the climax and would have been anyway without the visit.

The book does make you make you question certain things in life. It brings to the front human greed and faults and paints humanity in its realest picture around the time of the war. Its quite sickening to think that people would engage in war even with the devastation it brings to people not directly in contact with war. Even though the main character was a girl who had to go through tough times no one should ever need to go through, I find that Hans Hubermann intrigued me the most. I feel like he should not have been in that period and were he living in another more pleasant time, he would reflect the good side of humanity. Kind, caring, generous and loving to people in his own special way. Its such a shame how war tears apart lives that were perfectly fine to start with.

I do not think I can say too much without being inaccurate due to the fact that I started the book such a while ago and have forgotten many bits of it. But I do know that it is a good book that can stir up great emotions within some people. I liked the book and would probably re read it with a better equipped knowledge of WWII next time. Although I do not think this book as one of those with a sense of urgent need to be read, I do think that it is certainly one you should not miss.

Buy from:
Book Depository

Amazon

Would I recommend this book?

Yes, but I would suggest having a little knowledge about Nazi Germany and WWII. (Most people probably do already)

How much do I rate this book?

3.5/5

Would I read other works from this author?

Yes

Hope this helps. Thanks for reading!