ophelia
@coffeestainedbooks
blogger
Review 03/05/22: rtc, happy pub day!!
*****
04/05/22:
Thank you NetGalley for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Get ready for a google docs rant review kids, this is going to be a bumpy ride.
Never thought my rating of a book could change so much throughout reading it until I read this one, How To Be The Best Third-Wheel. AKA another reason why you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover (because sometimes books with pretty covers turn out to be boring and a waste of your time!). I picked up HTBTBTW, thinking that I would read a fun rom-com about third wheeling and it delivered that, and it delivered even MORE of that and not in a good way. This book was so unnecessarily long, that I just couldn’t stand it anymore and started skimming the last 100 pages. Though, I must say, it did have a great dedication:
“To my love life- thank you for being so nonexistent that I had to write this.”
This book is about Lara Dela Cruz (what even is that name-) going on a vacation to the Philippines and returning back to school only to find out that all of the members of her girl gang have boyfriends now. Instead of being a normal person and a good friend, she treats them like shit for having boyfriends (????) and then plays the victim. I had an unpleasant experience with those kinds of people, so it was quite fun to read about (ironically I requested the book because I was third wheeling at school after my friend had a new boyfriend)!!!!! I just wanted to hit her with the back of the thickest book I own in my bookshelf. I know that it sounds malicious and weird but I really, really hated her. She was just this selfish, whiny and ungrateful 16 year-old who was not even close to being mature (or even pretending to be mature, for heaven’s sake). I’m not a psychologist
Reklam
welcome to another episode of "why is this girl constantly hyperventilating when she's talking about books" series. it's good to see you here.
"I do not know where the laws come from, but I know I could sooner halt the tide than change them"
okay. *inhales*
this book was ADORABLE and HEARTBREAKING. it was an emotional rollercoaster and i like my rollercoasters emotional and unstable. this graphic novel covers the topics of coming-of-age, coming out and getting out of comfort zones. i CRIED during two scenes. yes you guessed it, the coming out scene (i don't want to spoil it so i won't be talking about the other scene). i couldn't have thought of a better ending, it might even be the best ending i've ever read! the illustrations and the colour scheme was GORGEOUS. and i love how the author was inspired by Pinterest when designing the characters' clothes. THE PLOT was perfect. to conclude, let's hype this book up this month because it truly deserves to be recognised.
*exhales*
thank you for making it this far <3
Where to start? I loved this book. The banter? *bangs credit card on table*
Rivalry? *screams into pillow* Set in a bookstore? *inhuman screeches* Also, this was the first book I read on my kindle so yay! Beware: minor spoilers!!
"My name sounds like a beautiful language on his tongue, and I want to be fluent."
If I were to summarise "Last Chance Books" without spoiling anything, I'd say that it was about an indie bookstore Books & Moore and a new chain of bookstore called Prologue that opened right across the street. The rivalry between the son of Prologue's owner; Jasper Hamada and the nephew, soon-to-be-manager of Books & Moore, Madeline Moore. The writing style was very funny, I snickered many times while reading it. It felt as if I were talking to my friends and not just ink on a paper (T-T)
"Get ready to call your store Epilogue, because this is going to be its last chapter"
The rivalry was very fun to read about and the pranks they pulled- oh my God. LAUGHED, SNORTED, GIGGLED. However, the transition from rivals to lovers happened way too fast or I was just so used to reading slow-burns, I honestly don't know. But it was not convincing enough, I think their relationship was rushed in a way. Could've been better, but then again, this is a debut book and therefore is open for improvement.
"I thought I'd had more than enough of him, marked him as Did Not Finish, but now I feel like every part of him will remain To Be Read."
The bookish lingo had me screaming and annotating like crazy. I really want to work at a bookstore and have a cute rival across the street in some point of my life. LIKE COME ON. This book also emphasised the importance of supporting your local bookstores and/or libraries. They might not have the ability to monetarily stay open, hence need
I ABSOLUTELY loved this book. All thanks to Farah for recommending this book so that she, Sarah and I could read it this month! Elliot is my favorite book boyfriend and he set the bar too high now, so he’ll stay that way for a while ;) The book was so beautiful, it had everything: first love, first heartbreak and other firsts. I finished this book earlier today (I was in a reading slump, I would’ve finished this in 3 days. On the other hand, this book got me out of the slump!) and throughout the day I always thought about this book. I really didn’t want it to end, I could’ve kept on reading if only it had 4000 pages but not 400. To summarise, this book has become one of my comfort books and I would definitely read it again!! <3 (recommending this book to anyone who sees my review)
Update: Apparently this author is transphobic!! BYE HON :) ps: everything I wrote here was before I've learned that.
We should all be feminists. Why? Adichie responds to this question impressively in her book which is a 30-maximum 40 minutes read. I really enjoyed reading this book, it was quite easy to read and the author was straightforward whilst bringing together her thoughts on the argument and stereotypical views on feminism.
“[...]his advice to me was that I should never call myself a feminist, since feminists are women who are unhappy because they cannot find husbands. So I decided to call myself a Happy Feminist.”
There are many quotes that I absolutely loved, and you will not believe how many quotes I have underlined in this book which has about 30 pages, but I had to narrow them down to add some to my review.
“[...]we say to girls, ‘You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful but not too successful, otherwise you will threaten the man. If you are the breadwinner in your relationship with a man, pretend that you are not, especially in public, otherwise you will emasculate him.’ But what if we question the premise itself? Why should a woman’s success be a threat to a man?”
Gender expectations have become a great obstacle that prevents us from pursuing our interests. As Adichi said, women are not born with the cooking gene, and it is ridiculous how men rely on women for the act of cooking, for the act of nourishing oneself just because it is "uncanny" or "feminine" for a man to cook. This is how society views men who cook, hence it is now normalised that women should be the one cooking dinner instead of men.
“The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are. Imagine how much
Reklam