Book Review: Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

Today I am back with another review :-) I'm sorry I have not been posting but honestly I didn't have time. I also don't want to spew up any random post in a hurry. I will try my best to post regularly but, no promises.

Anyways back to the review, I went to Kinokuniya a couple of weeks back in Dubai and obviously I nearly lost it. I don't have that many pictures there, but I will put what I have and other thoughts in the upcoming posts (hopefully.) I bought Eleanor and Park alongside other books and I was very excited because it had been on my list for a long time now. Let me first add the synopsis and then I'll briefly talk to you about the plot.

[sorry for the terrible pictures. I tried to make it artistic and all, but in my defense I don't have my sisters pro cam that makes an idiots photo's look good. Hopefully in the next post.]

Rating:★★★★

Synopsis: Eleanor is the new girl in town, and with her chaotic family life, her mismatched clothes and unruly red hair, she couldn't stick out more if she tried.

Park is the boy at the back of the bus. Black T-shirts, headphones, head in a book - he thinks he's made himself invisible. But not to Eleanor... never to Eleanor.

Slowly, steadily, through late-night conversations and an ever-growing stack of mix tapes, Eleanor and Park fall for each other. They fall in love the way you do the first time, when you're young, and you feel as if you have nothing and everything to lose.

First of all, the story is set in 1986 which is always a bonus. Eleanor is a girl with big, curly and almost fiery red hair. She arrives one day to a new school where Park is in. The way they meet each other is unpredictable (at least by me, I expected something more cheesy.) Then the whole story line starts off. 

If I am going to be honest, I am not much of a fan of romance novels. I do have my exceptions, but they are a very few. However, what I really enjoyed about this book is how realistic it is. Let me clarify, first of all we got the story both from Park and Eleanor's point of view. Also, the way both the characters acted, thought is pretty much what any tenth grader might act like/ feel. Therefore, this is what makes the story relatable, whether you are about their age or you're older you remember how very-young-love was. 

I know a lot of people complain how annoyingly they acted, how stupid were their thoughts, but that is the whole point! If you remember yourself a couple of years back you would feel this way. You would cringe on every single thing you said, wore and did. (at least that is the case with me)

“Damn, damn, damn," she said. "I never said why I like you, and now I have to go."

"That's okay," he said.

"It's because you're kind," she said. "And because you get all my jokes..."

"Okay." He laughed.

"And you're smarter than I am."

"I am not."

"And you look like a protagonist." She was talking as fast as she could think. "You look like the person who wins in the end. You're so pretty, and so good. You have magic eyes," she whispered. "And you make me feel like a cannibal."

"You're crazy."

"I have to go." She leaned over so the receiver was close to the base.

"Eleanor - wait," Park said. She could hear her dad in the kitchen and her heartbeat everywhere.

"Eleanor - wait - I love you.” 

― Rainbow Rowell, Eleanor & Park

Sometimes I roll my eyes while reading but, I still think it’s cute. Another thing I loved about this book, is that Rowell did not fail to make me laugh. I laughed multiple times out loud, I was baffled. Sometimes it’s ridiculous but I'd still laugh. I think that is because its relatable. 

I think as well, that Rowell did not shed light and describe the theme of domestic violence in great detail because, the story is not mainly about that. From the title Eleanor and Park, we could deduce that the novel would be about them. When you are a teenager, living a hard life, you would want to seek escape. Which I believe is the reason why the author did elaborate much and focus around that theme. It is more of how Eleanor acted because of that, how it affected her and not her mother(or her stepfather). I also wish that the part leading to the end was not very rushed out, that bit annoyed me because I expected more to happen not suddenly rushing towards the end. 

In the end, I think this book would be different to everyone. The reason I love it so much because it’s realistic, Rowell did not make it cute, cliché and smooth just to entertain the reader, no she just recreated a segment from high-school some would love to forget at times. Therefore, when you'll read it keep that in mind. 

P.S. I typed my review on my phone in the bus this morning.

I don’t why I thought you should guys know.

Happy reading,

Alya

Book Review: Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Hello again readers, Today I'm back with a book review of a book that I finished this morning. My thoughts about this book are still fresh, so why not write up the post now. Also, I want to have a new post at least once a week or maybe once in two weeks. I want this to be reasonable so that I do not slack after a month or something. I am not sure if you have a good memory or not, but I guess because I read a lot of books many of them after a while I forget the characters names and most of the plot line, perhaps I would only remember some fragments that made me laugh or, effected me in some way. That is why reviews are also a good thing to write, whenever I want to remember my thoughts about a certain book.

I have read this book using my school's Kindle. Yes, I did say my school's kindle, pop your eyes back into your sockets (I know, I know, I'm hilarious) Our school allows us to borrow Kindles as long as we have signed the contract, so that if it gets damaged we pay up. I'm not sure if this is normal, but I sure was surprised when I heard we had Kindles and we could take them home. I personally do not like anything that takes place of the physical book. One that you can have on your shelf, you can touch the pages and smell. It is a different and much more beautiful experience. However, the Kindle makes it easy to read as its on a screen, its size is perfect and it does not hurt your eye. I do not think I am buying a Kindle anytime soon, maybe if I had to travel and I could not take books with me or something of that sort, then it would be convenient. For now if I ever feel like it, I could borrow it from school.

Now let me get to the book.

Rating: ★★★★

Synopsis: An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Creatures once extinct now roam Jurassic Park, soon-to-be opened as a theme park. Until something goes wrong...and science proves a dangerous toy.

First of all I remember Jurassic Park as a movie when I used to be younger, that used to scare me and it contained dinosaurs. Thankfully, I couldn't remember any of the plot or the book would be semi-ruined to me. When I borrowed the school's Kindle to read a book for my book club, I found this book along with the other books saved and I decided on impulse to read it, then get to the book for the book club (since there is still time and I'd rather read that before the book club meeting. Again, to have it fresh in my mind.)

The story starts off by giving you trivial details about the plot. It keeps you wondering how the cloning took place, are those really loose dinosaurs and keeps you questioning. I did like that however, it was a bit longer than what keeps you satisfied. However, after the intro the story started picking up speed and swallowing you in.

A really enjoy science-fiction books and I have not read many (now I am planing to, if you have any suggestions of cool science-fiction books please comment below.) which is why I decided to read this book. I love how Crichton introduces us to many real theories (I looked up the acknowledgements) in particular, I was really interested by the Chaos theory. Here is a little extract of the book where Malcolm explains the theory:

This doesn't quite explain it, I guess I didn't take a picture where he explains it. He did explain it several times; basically the entire time he speaks towards the end he elaborates more about his theory. This part of the book I really liked and I agree with what he says.

One character- other than Malcolm- that caught my attention was Lex. She is such a peculiar child. The way she reacts to certain situations, the phrases she says such sometimes lead me to thinking she is not fully normal. I am not sure if Crichton is shedding some light on how children are affected by divorce and ill treatment, or if its just me reading way into it.

Overall, I think this book is a good read. In my opinion, Crichton is very thoughtful and creative, he has a great way of sending the message to his readers, as well us throw in a lot of theories that I sure did devour. I would like to read the second book sometime in the future because I really want to know what would happen next.

Until next time,
Alya