Tag: love

The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks

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I’ve been on a bit of a Zac Efron kick lately and this is probably one of my favorite movies that he’s starred in, so of course I decided to read the book.

This was actually a really nice break from some of the longer, more serious books that I’ve been reading lately. I actually read the first half of this book so fast that I really delayed finishing it because I didn’t want it to be over.

It was nice how there were little differences from the movie like Logan meeting Keith at the beginning. This was actually really interesting because it set up the hatred Keith had for Logan even before he was with Beth.

The different perspectives for each chapter really worked to tell the story from all sides. When authors do this in books a small part of me always thinks about how I had professors in my writing classes say that this is lazy storytelling. I don’t really care about it though or think that it’s lazy, Game of Thrones does it and that’s one of my favorite series. It’s almost necessary sometimes and helps to bring a story together from different points of view.

The end had me freaking out. I almost cried when Zeus was in the creek. I was seriously more worried about him that anyone else, and they made it seem like Logan died too! I was actually really angry that they would do this in the book and almost put it down. Super relieved when I kept reading and found out that he had survived.

Love, Rosie by Cecelia Ahern

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Here’s yet another book that I decided to read because I was obsessed with the movie. Don’t worry, I promise it won’t be the last 😉

When I decided to read Love, Rosie I had no idea that the entire book was made up of letters, emails, and instant messages. At first I was a little put off by it, but it actually made it a lot easier to read and it was a good way to show the personalities of all of the characters.

Man, this book was frustrating. They loved each other for SO long and it took SO long for them to finally be together. At least in the movie they were still pretty young when the ended up together.

I guess this story really resonates with me because I have a “friend” in my life right now who for awhile was someone I only communicated with through text messages. We seriously went for about 9 months texting every day before meeting and so love stories like this remind me of it. I hope that if I’m going to end up with this person, like Alex and Rosie *eventually* did, that it happens faster than it did for them.

I was glad that Alex’s kids were grown up by the time he finally ended up with Rosie. It would’ve felt wrong if Rosie had broken up his family so that they could be together.

I did have to re-watch the movie after I finished reading and I just have to say, it’s so crazy how much they sped the whole story up! I mean, I totally understand why they did it, it’s just insane how quickly they went through everything!

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

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Okay, so I love love loved this show. Everything was so good – the acting, the plot, the relationships. Literally everything.

I was really surprised when I started reading the book because it actually takes place in Australia. I have to admit, I didn’t think that people from Australia would be as gossip-y as Americans, but I guess that’s kind of a dumb assumption to make. Everyone gossips and everyone lies sometimes.

There were a few other differences from the show – Madeline and Renata both had more kids, there was no Madeline affair, and as always there were way more details to the story.

The book was really good. I found myself picking it up just to read one or two chapters and not being able to put it down. Just one more, I kept telling myself.

When I read this there was a lot of talk about a second season of the show and how they would continue the story after the book ends, but I think there’s a lot that they could do with this next season. The characters are amazing on their own and I would honestly watch them just hanging out and gossiping about each other. I also think that there is a lot more to explore with Renata’s character and with Bonnie’s character. We didn’t get to see too much with them this past season and they’re both very interesting characters.

I loved it. It was sad, but good, while still being sad. I’m very excited to see what’s to come next season and to have these characters live on for a little while longer.

Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice by Nam Le

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0b2538f8487213a6e95a42b9460b6958“For inspiration, I read absurdly formal Victorian poetry and drank Scotch near. How hard could it be? Things happened in this world all the time. All I had to do was record them.”
Nam Le. “Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice.”

In a creative writing class that I took a few semesters ago my professor told us that in short stories every line has to count. Nam Le definitely made every single line of “Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice” count.

The story showed the life of a struggling writer, how he struggles to find something to write about, and how he struggles with his relationships. He is unable to open up to his girlfriend, who very clearly cares a lot about him, and he is unable to relate to his father.

I think that the title definitely describes the relationship between the character and his father. That struggle between love and honor, pity and pride, and compassion and sacrifice. All of these themes are strong throughout his storytelling and make it a really great story to read.

Anyone can understand and relate to the struggles between a parent and a child. Parents give you life and raise you to be the person that you are, but you still struggle against them. You want to do things for yourself and have your own opinions and experiences without their input. Breaking away from your parents is an important part of growing up and becoming more independent. However, breaking away can sometimes leave you in a position where you aren’t comfortable. They still feel the need to take care of you and you still want to please them.

I think it would be really hard to express all of these feelings in a short story and Nam Le did a really good job doing that.