The Exchange

Organizing bookshelves as therapy

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:15:53 +0800

This is what I did this weekend:

Show us photos of your shelves too!

This was a post by Kubi who’s glad she’s still home.

Currently reading The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet by Reif...

Sat, 18 May 2013 19:45:56 +0800

Currently reading The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet by Reif Larsen.

This was a post by Kubi who is looking forward to a tub of yoghurt for dinner.

Dean Winchester wants you to read.

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:22:01 +0800

Dean Winchester wants you to read.

wordpainting: Cutest thing I’ve seen all week.

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:21:41 +0800

wordpainting:

Cutest thing I’ve seen all week.

Photo

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:21:10 +0800

"His books were the closest thing he had to furniture and he lived in them the way other men live in..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:20:47 +0800

“His books were the closest thing he had to furniture and he lived in them the way other men live in easy chairs.”

- Laura Hillenbrand

rainbowrowell: thesanityclause: So got the unsourced post...

Fri, 17 May 2013 11:52:31 +0800

rainbowrowell:

thesanityclause:

So got the unsourced post taken down, and now I’m putting all of them, including WGWG, into one post as a master post. To my followers I swear this is the last time I’ll shove these drawings in your face, I’m just trying to make it easier for people who wanted them all in a group. Hopefully having them all together will keep people from reposting it without a source again.

Anyway, all of the John Green books, plus Will Grayson Will Grayson. c:

THIS IS AMAZING FANART!

I LOVE YOU, TINY COOPER!!

Review: Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Fri, 17 May 2013 11:51:00 +0800

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

In a world where people born with an extreme skill—called a Grace—are feared and exploited, Katsa carries the burden of the skill even she despises: the Grace of killing. She lives under the command of her uncle Randa, King of the Middluns, and is expected to execute his dirty work, punishing and torturing anyone who displeases him.

When she first meets Prince Po, who is Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change.

She never expects to become Po’s friend.

She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace—or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away…a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.

I’ve recently read too many books promising a strong female lead, only to come away from them frustrated and disappointed. Too long have I been searching for a true heroine, and I finally found her in Katsa. In a nutshell, I love Graceling by Kristin Cashore.

Katsa reminds me of Katniss as she was in the first Hunger Games novel - smart, efficient, and determined. Both also faced impossible odds with grace and composure. But perhaps what Cashore does better than Collins is the development of the love interest. Sometimes in emphasizing the strength of the female characters, the men are pushed into their shadow. With Katsa and Po, it is a relationship of equals. A woman can be empowered without her partner having to shrink in comparison. In combat, Katsa does surpass Po, but it is a point of respect between them. He says to her:

“But you’re better than I am, Katsa. And it doesn’t humiliate me. It humbles me. But it doesn’t humiliate me.”

The male character is secure in himself, and complements our female lead rather than competes with her. Also, Katsa rejects marriage in favor of “being true to herself.” (Read: http://kristincashore.blogspot.com/2009/01/mawage-mawage-is-what-bwings-us-togefer.html). Po understands this and even lifts her up. Kristin Cashore deftly manages a balance between Katsa’s need for independence and her encompassing love for Po. Katsa shall not wither at the sight of a good-looking man, dammit! Nonetheless, a woman can be strong and also embrace her sexuality.

The adventure takes place in the Seven Kingdoms, which is a rich terrain of eccentric rulers and their eponynmous cities, daunting mountain passes, and forests brimming with wildlife (they never seemed to run out of rabbits to roast). It actually made me think of Eugenides’ world from Megan Whalen Turner’s The Queen’s Thief series (which you should also read). The Graces are especially fascinating, these extreme skills being either a source of awe or fear. It is against this backdrop that Katsa discovers herself and her humanity. The fights, so colorfully described, were extremely entertaining. And I’m not going to hide my satisfaction over the fact that Katsa wipes the floor with everyone.

This was a post by Kubi whose days in the mountains are numbered.

A quickie while being a writing machine. And now, the...

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:25:13 +0800

A quickie while being a writing machine. And now, the laundry!

This was a post by Kubi who can absorb picture books.

This was a post by Hanna, who is comforted by poetry and dark chocolate cheesecake.

Wed, 15 May 2013 22:53:15 +0800

This was a post by Hanna, who is comforted by poetry and dark chocolate cheesecake.

This was a post by Hanna, who has finally gone back home.

Tue, 14 May 2013 19:20:27 +0800

This was a post by Hanna, who has finally gone back home.

This was a post by Kubi who is curled up with this good book.

Sun, 12 May 2013 20:39:54 +0800

This was a post by Kubi who is curled up with this good book.

"Well-read people are less likely to be evil."

Sun, 12 May 2013 18:45:05 +0800

“Well-read people are less likely to be evil.”

- The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket (via prettybooks)

gayleforman: Where She Went, Gayle Forman

Sun, 12 May 2013 18:40:57 +0800

gayleforman:

Where She Went, Gayle Forman

housingworksbookstore: lucyknisley: comicsworkbook: Behold...

Tue, 07 May 2013 10:52:52 +0800

housingworksbookstore:

lucyknisley:

comicsworkbook:

Behold THE INFINITE CORPSE, a jam comic started in secret over a year ago by Aaron Renier, Nate Beaty and the other cartoonists of Chicago’s comics collective Trubble Club. Based on a combination of Raw’s Narrative Corpse project and Scott McCloud’s idea of the “infinite canvas,” it’s a kind of exquisite corpse comic focused around the skeleton Corpsey. There are already 200+ cartoonists who’ve participated (Art Spiegelman, Alison Bechdel, Pen Ward, Carol Tyler, Ivan Brunetti, Lilli Carré etc etc etc) and now it is open to everyone. So go, read! Contribute! Be a part of this ground-breaking new project!

-Jessica Campbell

I’m in this! I was a founding member of Trubble Club, and it’s awesome to see all it has wrought.

Wowowow this looks so good, excited to read more!

This was a post by Hanna, whose Sunday was spent eating ice cream in a garden, looking for...

Sun, 05 May 2013 21:47:01 +0800

This was a post by Hanna, whose Sunday was spent eating ice cream in a garden, looking for dresses, and talking about important things with her secret agent lover man. She is currently reading this book.

'You look like you,' he said. 'You with the volume turned up.'

Sun, 05 May 2013 11:50:18 +0800

This spectacular book surprised me in many ways.

First of all, that first line (“XTC was no good for drowning out the morons at the back of the bus.”) grabbed me by the collar and pulled me in. I knew that the story was set in 1986 and that a friendship would be formed through music and comic books. I expected bouts of nostalgia and plenty of geeky references but I didn’t know how affected I would be and how much crying had to be done. I devoured this book like cake but there were moments when I had to pause and come up for air. It was pretty intense and as Kubi would say, it caused many an uglycryface.

There is nothing extraordinary about these two characters. They are two teenagers who have often felt like they are on the outside looking in and they are just trying to find their place in the world. Nothing extraordinary happens either. They are just going about their daily lives, doing everyday things. But what is extraordinary about this book is how genuine these characters are and how much the book captured the awkwardness and the ache of falling and being in love. There were no profound mumbles or impeccable blahs. It was a genius move to write it in the third person and to use alternating perspectives between Eleanor and Park because it allowed the reader to really know what they were thinking and feeling at that exact moment. There is no restraint in terms of expressing their thoughts or emotions and it makes them genuine and relatable. It was so intense and intimate that reading it made me feel like a thief because it felt like I was robbing them of their privacy.

The book is masterfully crafted and beautifully written. Rainbow Rowell’s sentences and descriptions are delectable. For Eleanor, Park’s trench coat “smelled like Irish Spring and a little bit like potpourri and like something she couldn’t describe anyway other than boy.” For Park, Eleanor “looked like art, and art wasn’t supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.”

I loved John Green’s review of the book wherein he said that “the obstacle in ‘Eleanor & Park’ is simply the world. The world cannot stomach a relationship between a good-looking Korean kid and Big Red. The world cannot allow Eleanor a boyfriend of any kind, because she’s poor and fat and dresses funny. The world cannot allow Park a girlfriend because he likes wearing eyeliner, and everyone knows that’s gay. The world is the obstacle, as it always is when you’re 16 and truly in love.”

This book made me grateful to be young and in love and to be living in a world where beautiful stories such as this one exists.

READ THIS BOOK.

Then come back here and let’s talk about it.

This was a post by Hanna, who is thinking about ice cream, as always.

Photo by: Harriet Russell

"‘And you look like a protagonist.’ She was talking fast as she could think. ‘You..."

Sat, 04 May 2013 18:49:19 +0800

“‘And you look like a protagonist.’ She was talking 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.’”

- Rainbow Rowell, Eleanor & Park

The summer months often make me feel either somber or drifty, so...

Sat, 04 May 2013 09:55:29 +0800

The summer months often make me feel either somber or drifty, so I’ve been needing some ballast to keep me steady. Deborah Harkness’ A Discovery of Witches is seeing to that.

This was a post by Kubi who is feeling restless.

This was a post by Hanna, who is excited about a multitude of things.

Fri, 03 May 2013 18:00:09 +0800

This was a post by Hanna, who is excited about a multitude of things.