The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕

Published: September 23, 1909

Publisher: Harper Perennial

Format: audiobook & e-Book

Pages: 360

 

 

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“He had a heart that could have held the empire of the world; and, in the end, he had to content himself with a cellar.”

SYNOPSIS:

First published in French as a serial in 1909, The Phantom of the Opera is a riveting story that revolves around the young, Swedish Christine Daaé. Her father, a famous musician, dies, and she is raised in the Paris Opera House with his dying promise of a protective angel of music to guide her. After a time at the opera house, she begins hearing a voice, who eventually teaches her how to sing beautifully. All goes well until Christine’s childhood friend Raoul comes to visit his parents, who are patrons of the opera, and he sees Christine when she begins successfully singing on the stage. The voice, who is the deformed, murderous ‘ghost’ of the opera house named Erik, however, grows violent in his terrible jealousy, until Christine suddenly disappears. The phantom is in love, but it can only spell disaster.

Leroux’s work, with characters ranging from the spoiled prima donna Carlotta to the mysterious Persian from Erik’s past, has been immortalized by memorable adaptations. Despite this, it remains a remarkable piece of Gothic horror literature in and of itself, deeper and darker than any version that follows.

 

 

A Reader’s Guide to Reading “S.” by J.J. Abrams & Doug Dorst

S. by J.J. Abrams & Doug Dorst is one of the most underrated books ever. I have seen this in bookTube when it first came out but I have never seen a lot of book reviews, it’s mostly book hauls. But even so, I was intrigued because of the unique format of the book. There are handwriting from two individuals who exchanged notes on the margins of the book with inserts here and there that added the experience to the story.

Furthermore, this is the book that you need to read from cover to cover literally. You need to read the Foreword of the translator and even the footnotes. If you are the type to skip both foreword and footnotes, this is not that book. You must read EVERYTHING.

The book looks like an old library book. Complete with the Book For Loan on the front and the list of the people who borrowed the book. Even the spine of the book has a sticker from the library.

Let’s ignore the different lighting of each photo.

However, no matter how beautiful this book is, it might be overwhelming when you don’t know how to read this book properly. Plus, there are problems that readers might encounter like the misplaced inserts or where to start when reading this book. So this post is all about helping out those who have this and don’t know where to begin because I am telling you, if you read this the wrong way you might find this book more trouble than it’s worth.

S. by J.J. Abrams & Doug Dorst

RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕

Published: October 29, 2013

Publisher: Mulholland Books

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 456

 

 

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“… we create stories to help us shape a chaotic world, to navigate inequities of power, to accept our lack of control over nature, over others, over ourselves.”

SYNOPSIS:

One book. Two readers. A world of mystery, menace, and desire…

A young woman picks up a book left behind by a stranger. Inside it are his margin notes, which reveal a reader entranced by the story and by its mysterious author. She responds with notes of her own, leaving the book for the stranger, and so begins an unlikely conversation that plunges them both into the unknown.

The Book: Ship of Theseus, the final novel by a prolific but enigmatic writer named V. M. Straka, in which a man with no past is shanghaied onto a strange ship with a monstrous crew and launched on a disorienting and perilous journey.

The Writer: Straka, the incendiary and secretive subject of one of the world’s greatest mysteries, a revolutionary about whom the world knows nothing apart from the words he wrote and the rumors that swirl around him.

The Readers: Jennifer and Eric, a college senior and a disgraced grad student, both facing crucial decisions about who they are, who they might become, and how much they’re willing to trust another person with their passions, hurts, and fears.

 

 

Recent Reads (Apr. 20-26, 2020)

The Community Quarantine in my country has been extended again for another 15 days. Because of that, I feel like I have a lot of time to read. But then again, I did not read much during this week. After reading 3 books for 3 days for Stay Home Reading Rush, I kinda fell into a short slump. I let myself unwind a little and just watch movies and did not pick up a book until Friday night. Even so I managed to finish 2 books which are both great reads.

I don’t want to get this intro too long, so let’s get into the books!

 

3 Best Sites to Get an ARC

ARC or Advance Reader Copy is something that I always wonder as to how and where fellow readers got it back when I was new in the reading community. Back then, I thought that ARCs are only for the influencers or popular people in the community. But later, I found out that ARCs can be requested to a website. You don’t need to be popular but you need to make sure that you will give a feedback to the books that you requested.

So basically, this is like a beginners guide to where you can request an ARC. I know there are other websites aside from the three that I am about to mention but these three is where I get my ARCs and I think they are easy to navigate.

 

 

What I Like About You by Marisa Kanter

RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑

Published: April 07, 2020

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Format: e-Book

Pages: 416

 

 

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“And I can’t help but think it’s funny, the way you can be literally so close to someone, but somehow closer with words and social media accounts and pixels in between.”

SYNOPSIS:

Can a love triangle have only two people in it? Online, it can…but in the real world, it’s more complicated. In this debut novel that’s perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Morgan Matson, Marisa Kanter hilariously and poignantly explores what happens when internet friends turn into IRL crushes.

Is it still a love triangle if there are only two people in it?

There are a million things that Halle Levitt likes about her online best friend, Nash.

He’s an incredibly talented graphic novelist. He loves books almost as much as she does. And she never has to deal with the awkwardness of seeing him in real life. They can talk about anything…

Except who she really is.

Because online, Halle isn’t Halle—she’s Kels, the enigmatically cool creator of One True Pastry, a YA book blog that pairs epic custom cupcakes with covers and reviews. Kels has everything Halle doesn’t: friends, a growing platform, tons of confidence, and Nash.

That is, until Halle arrives to spend senior year in Gramps’s small town and finds herself face-to-face with real, human, not-behind-a-screen Nash. Nash, who is somehow everywhere she goes—in her classes, at the bakery, even at synagogue.

Nash who has no idea she’s actually Kels.

If Halle tells him who she is, it will ruin the non-awkward magic of their digital friendship. Not telling him though, means it can never be anything more. Because while she starts to fall for Nash as Halle…he’s in love with Kels.

 

 

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

RATING: 🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑

Published: November 28, 2006 (First published Oct. 16, 1959)

Publisher: Penguin Classics

Format: e-Book/audiobook

Pages: 182

 

 

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“People… are always so anxious to get things out into the open where they can put a name to them, even a meaningless name, so long as it has something of a scientific ring.”

SYNOPSIS:

First published in 1959, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House has been hailed as a perfect work of unnerving terror. It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a “haunting”; Theodora, the lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own. 

 

 

Stay Home Reading Rush Wrap-Up

This mini readathon is really a fun one until I get to read my last book. I was on track with reading one book per day, given that the book that I am reading is quite short and not more than 200 pages. But the last book on my TBR is my biggest downfall and even though I managed to finished 3 books, I am still disappointed with myself.

I have managed to complete 3 challenges by reading 3 books. So let’s get into this wrap-up and talk about the books that I have read.

 

Summer Fling by Sarah Morgan

RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

Published: July 01, 2011

Publisher: Mills & Boon

Format: Paperback

Pages: 365

 

 

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“We don’t all behave according to one rule book. We’re all different people, looking for different things. None of us is perfect.”

SYNOPSIS:

Have you heard? The place to be this summer is in love!
Life in the sleepy island of Glenmore is filled with tranquil lazy days. Bliss! But this summer the gossip mill is running overtime – love is most definitely in the air…

Poor Evanna has been infatuated with her boss forever – to him she’s just part of the furniture. Rumour has it this summer she’s decided to get noticed. No more sensible suits for her…she’s bringing out the stilettos!

Kyla can see Evanna is in love with her brother and if she had her way she’d knock their heads together. Oh well… Kyla has other, more pressing distractions – the new island doctor is gorgeous! Dr Ethan sticks out in the picture-perfect island like a v. handsome sore thumb.

Ripples are running through the tranquil waters of Glenmore – secrets, scandal and more than a little flirtation! It’s going to be a summer to remember!

 

 

Stay Home Reading Rush TBR

It’s been awhile since I last join a readathon. I was still undecided if I should join or not but I found myself searching for books that could match the prompts for this round of the reading rush. And so as not to waste my effort, I finally decided to join.

The reading rush will run from April 16 (Thursday) up to April 19 (Sunday). This is shorter than the normal reading rush but who cares? Just as long as I found a new excuse to read 4 books in 4 days.

I decided to have a wide range of variety for this readathon. My normal genre is mystery/thriller, dystopian, sci-fi and fantasy but this time, I plan to read different genre. I have chosen a horror classics, a YA romance contemporary, middle grade (?) & a New Adult contemporary; and these genres are not something that I usually reach out to and a readathon is a good way to push myself to read these genres.

So here are the prompts for this round:

Now let’s get into the books that I plan to read for this reading rush!