ＯＮ ＭＹ ＲＡＤＡＲ ➳ darius the great is not okay by Adib Khorram

Format: Hardcover
Publication: August 28th, 2018
Publisher: Dial Books


❝Darius Kellner speaks better Klingon than Farsi, and he knows more about Hobbit social cues than Persian ones. He’s about to take his first-ever trip to Iran, and it’s pretty overwhelming–especially when he’s also dealing with clinical depression, a disapproving dad, and a chronically anemic social life. In Iran, he gets to know his ailing but still formidable grandfather, his loving grandmother, and the rest of his mom’s family for the first time. And he meets Sohrab, the boy next door who changes everything.
Sohrab makes sure people speak English so Darius can understand what’s going on. He gets Darius an Iranian National Football Team jersey that makes him feel like a True Persian for the first time. And he understand that sometimes, best friends don’t have to talk. Darius has never had a true friend before, but now he’s spending his days with Sohrab playing soccer, eating rosewater ice cream, and sitting together for hours in their special place, a rooftop overlooking the Yazdi skyline.

Sohrab calls him Darioush–the original Persian version of his name–and Darius has never felt more like himself than he does now that he’s Darioush to Sohrab. When it’s time to go home to America, he’ll have to find a way to be Darioush on his own.❞

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Pre-order it on Amazon | Book Depository | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble!

July 2018 Wrap Up

 

 *・°JULY 2018 WRAP UP*・°

hello!! i actually read for once lol here’s my little wrap up. all my thoughts are on goodreads so just click the link and find my review/updates :-)

• A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic, #1) by V.E. Schwab  ★★★★★/5 stars

• A Gathering of Shadows (Shades of Magic, #2) by V.E. Schwab ★★★★½/5 stars

• A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic, #3) by V.E. Schwab ★★★★★/5 stars

• What If It's Us by Becky Albertalli & 
  Adam Silvera 
  ★★★★½/5 stars

The Sun and Her Flowers [REVIEW]

• Paperback 
• 256 pages
• Published by Andrews McMeel Publishing

      my rating: ★★★/★★★★★ (3/5 stars)

“From Rupi Kaur, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of milk and honey, comes her long-awaited second collection of poetry. A vibrant and transcendent journey about growth and healing. Ancestry and honoring one’s roots. Expatriation and rising up to find a home within yourself.”

mini review

I think Rupi Kaur is a great person and I’ve seen her art on Tumblr before Milk & Honey came out so obviously, I end up reading her poetry. I was not a fan of Milk & Honey at all. I don’t know if it was the hype or I just genuinely hated it but I didn’t like it. You’d think I wouldn’t read her second poetry book because of this but nah, I read it anyway. I read them in one sitting so why not? 

I have to admit, I enjoyed this one a bit more. I still can’t wrap my head around her type of “poetry” because it doesn’t make me really think or feel anything? There’s a few that I bookmarked but other than that, it was a pretty average poetry book. I wouldn’t buy a physical copy. The art was kind of bad, too?? I don’t know if that’s because it was on the kindle but it was laughable. A long with some of the poems in there. I would’ve given it 4 stars if it weren’t for some of the dumb poems I came across. #rip

There's Someone Inside Your House [REVIEW]

There's Someone Inside Your House

by 

Stephanie Perkins

I received this as an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

NO SPOILERS! :-)

5/5 stars.

So, Stephanie Perkins can write about anything, amazingly, I might add. From lovey dovey contemporaries to one of the most gore-filled and thrilling YA novels I’ve ever read. I usually steer away from horror/thrillers for obvious reasons (they scare me) but I couldn’t say no to this one. It’s the only horror I’ve ever anticipated and I was not disappointed! This entire book was exciting to read and I devoured it all in one sitting because I. needed. more. 

For the most part, we follow the POV of a Hawaiian main character in a somewhat new town. Like said in the description of the book, tons of people die. horribly. Weirdly enough, that’s what made the book so enticing. Better yet, you figured out a huge secret to the plot midway and somehow, she was able to keep you on the edge of your seat, flipping through each page like crazy just to know more. The book was able to trick you all the way until you got to this specific scene. For a young adult book, I am pleasantly surprised at what came out of this novel and in the best way possible. It was well done and put together properly. It didn’t feel messy even though she had several key elements. Not only that, but it wasn’t just a thriller either! The backstories of the main character are so important and I love the representation in the characters. (Hawaiian, Hispanic, etc.)

Speaking of the backstories and family dynamic of the characters, this was also key to the plot. I like how her relationship with her parents didn’t automatically fix all the sudden when something tragic had happened. Instead, it revealed that things don’t always work out and some people are always terrible. Our side characters relationship with his brother was also dear to me. I like how this put the spotlight on kids who have guardians that aren’t their parents and sometimes, this is whats better for them. 

This was the perfect horror novel for the upcoming season. I’ll definitely need to pick this up again near Halloween. There’s Someone Inside Your House definitely shows some of her best writing. Stephanie Perkins, the horror/thriller genre has been missing you.

booktubeathon tbr '18

it's that time of the year again! booktubeathon 2018 has begun. :-)

2018 Reading Challenges: 

1/ Let a coin toss decide your first read. 

The two books in question are The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas or The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas...

The coin ended up on heads so the book I'll be reading for this challenge is The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas!

2/ Read a book about something you want to do. 

For this, I chose What If It's Us by Adam Silvera & Becky Albertalli because it's set in New York and I'd love to live there once or even just visit!

3/ Read and watch a book to movie adaptation. 

I decided to read the first Harry Potter book for this one. :-)

4/ Read a book with green on the cover. 

Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone has a little bit of green on the cover so I'll be using this book for that challenge!

5/ Read a book while wearing the same hat the whole time.

I'm going to try doing this with What If It's Us by Adam Silvera & Becky Albertalli because I'm actually already 36% into it lol shh

 6/ Read a book with a beautiful spine. 

Autoboyography by Christina Lauren has the most beautiful spine! Therefore, that's my read for challenge #6

7/  Read seven books.

Wish me luck! Are any of you participating? Be sure to tell me! I'd love to know. :-)

Are you keeping up with my reads on Goodreads? You should be! (opens in a new window)

Blog Update 07/29/18

Hello! I've transferred and am still transferring all my content from my previous blog I held through Tumblr. It's a lot of work and it'll take awhile so until then, my blog is under construction. It's not perfect and I need to do more editing to the HTML but I decided to launch this blog because I'll be updating it more than Tumblr (hopefully). lol

Join me in this process so I'm not a complete mess and I stick with using Blogger. It's definitely new to me but I think I'll get the hang of it. While I loved using Tumblr, it didn't come off as professional and was a lot more unorganized.


For more recent content and conversations, follow me on my instagram @uponthepages!

Until then, wish me luck!

My Signed Book Collection

𝕞𝕪 𝕤𝕚𝕘𝕟𝕖𝕕 𝕓𝕠𝕠𝕜 𝕔𝕠𝕝𝕝𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟

hi! i’m here to share with you the signed copies i’ve obtained throughout my reading life. The first picture displays all my signed copies and the second one is personalized copies! Enjoy :-)

• Carry On by Rainbow Rowell [personalized]
• Holding Up The Universe by Jennifer Niven
• All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater [personalized book plate]
• Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
• Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell [personalized]
• Looking for Alaska by John Green
• Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
• They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera [personalized, i met her!]
• The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater [personalized]
• The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater [personalized]
• The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater [personalized]
• The Retribution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
• Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard
• Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas [personalized]
• Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas [personalized]
• Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas [personalized]

Not Pictured

• A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab (Collectors Edition)

All my personalized copies are from ordering from indie shops that they’ve agreed to do personalized copies with like Books of Wonder or in Rainbow Rowell’s case, I think it’s the Bookworm in Omaha. I actually met Maggie Stiefvater so that’s how I have ¾ of the Raven Cycle books signed! Other books were probably pre-orders or signed copies in laying around in bookstores. :-)

Tash Hearts Tolstoy [REVIEW]

Tash Hearts Tolstoy

 by

Kathryn Ormsbee

  ＮＯ ＳＰＯＩＬＥＲ  ＲＥＶＩＥＷ

ⓡⓐⓣⓘⓝⓖ: ★★★★½/5 [4.8/5]

first, I want to mention the two reasons why I picked up this book.
- internet famous movie nerds
- asexual main character (ngl, this one definitely the main reason why. I was not at all disappointed.

So, Tash Hearts Tolstoy is about an ace girl who's in her last year of high school (i think?) and her friends who have a online web series of a modern day Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. One day, their online series becomes incredibly popular because of a shout out from a web series celebrity on Twitter. Tash gets caught up in the rising fandom and fame of their series, Unhappy Families, that causes a friction between her family, friends, internet and all. This portrayal of internet fame and how they needed a break from it all really showed how it's not as easy as people think. Along with the negative comments, these things really got to her. It gives you that side of an internet personality that you never seen or often reject. Oddly enough, her stress within this book is so relatable to a senior in high school. She wants to pursue her dream but it feels impossible to her because her dream college is too expensive and she has average test scores and grades. This builds her character immensely because all you really get to know about her is her love for movies, her dream, and her relationships and sexuality. (RANDOM NOTE: She's also Buddhist? It's talked about so much throughout the book (I am too) and I loved that we got to see a religious character that wasn't Christian or Catholic, even though those are rare to see in books too.

Speaking of that, I found this incredibly significant to the book. I haven't read a book with an ace main character because, well, they're rare. I feel like this was executed so well. Her constant anxiety about whether or not a boy will ever like her and that people wouldn't completely understand. I loved the support of her friends and how they googled it immediately after she had told them about it. I loved the scene between her and a boy who likes her who is openly sexual. In fact, I think it was one of the best parts of the book. She was such an accurate portrayal of what an ace feels, thinks, and deals with because of their sexuality.

A quick mention, the family dynamic in this book was also fantastic. Her sister is going through a rough time and causes Tash to stress. Then, her parents throw new information on her that does as well and this advances the family relationship so much more and I was LIVING. Not to mention, her family is Czech and it went into detail about the history (love).

For some reason, I couldn't give this book a straight 5 stars but I guess you could round it up to that. I don't think it's something I'll come back to but it was impactful. I finally found something I could see myself in when it comes to her anxiety.  I found myself reading her dialogue and realizing I've said the same exact things once. There's so many things in this book that make it unique like the asexuality, the Czech background, the Buddhism mentions, the family dynamic of not only her family, but a friend's family with someone with cancer, the internet fame reality, etc. I'd totally recommend this book to people. I loved it.

find this review on Goodreads.

find this book on book depository | amazon | barnes&noble

Have you guys read this book? How did you like it?

Turtles All the Way Down [REVIEW]

Turtles All the Way Down 

by 

John Green 

• Hardcover 

• 286 pages

• Published: October 10th 2017

•  Dutton Books for Young Readers

my rating: ★★★★★/★★★★★ (5/5)

I’ve been thinking about this book a lot. The day after I finished it, it’s the only thing I thought about. I thought about it so much and how it impacted me, it was hard to handle. I told myself I’d write a review when I’m comfortable coming back to it with my feelings all together. They’re not and I don’t think they will ever be? This isn’t a bad thing. In fact, I love it when books make me feel this way. These are the books that become my favorites. I’ve sat down and recorded a few videos of myself talking about it because no one had finished it yet and I needed to figure out what I’d say in my review. I had so many things to say, definitely on the spoiler-y end, but if I have to say anything, it’s that it was real and I loved it.


John Green has always written books that interested me. From Paper Towns and the wanderlust angst, to The Fault In Our Stars and the love it showed me. But they felt like stories to me. These books just felt like books and nothing more. I’d re-read them occasionally and meet with the characters again. With Turtles all the Way Down, I feel like I’m stuck with Aza. I’ll think about this book a lot. Whenever I’m having a “thought spiral,” I’ll probably think of the ending and maybe I’ll try to calm down. John Green has mentioned that this book is personal to him and you’re able to see feel that whenever you’re reading it.


Before I get too deep into personal thought, let me talk more about the book itself. We follow Aza, a girl struggling with OCD and her best friend Daisy, as they decide one day they’re going to try and solve the mystery of the billionaire who recently went missing in their town in order to receive the reward. A long the way, Aza gets in touch with the billionaire’s son, Davis, who she used to be friends with as a kid. Aza’s OCD is very much shown through her constant fear of disease or specifically, C Dif. Feel free to look it up. It’s complicated. 


While I am going to talk about the characters and plot individually, I want to talk about her OCD and anxiety first. It’s obviously something very important to this book as we follow her life having OCD and we’re in her head a lot, just like she is in hers. You get to see the broken down rawness of her OCD a lot in the first chapter, which is a brilliant idea. Props to John because we refer back to that first chapter through out the entire book whether it’s mentioning the disease itself or her story life metaphor. The thoughts she has going on in her head are hard to read. I’m not going to lie to you. It’s difficult and frustrating because you feel like it’s your mind. It’s how mental illness should be displayed. John Green doesn’t dumb it down and he doesn’t make it look easy. It’s not romanticized, it’s unbearable. This aspect is important to me in a novel because the romanticization of mental illness is YA literature has been around for so long and as someone with mental illness, I want something real. The only reason this book was tough to talk about afterwards was due to the fact it made me think of my own anxiety. While she does have OCD and I can’t mention if he directly states anything about having anxiety, it’s definitely there in her actions at some points. There’s a scene that stood out to me and my anxiety where she tells him about a mathematician,

“I told him about this mathematician Kurt Gödel, who had this really bad fear of being poisoned, so much so that he couldn’t bring himself to eat food unless it was prepared by his wife. And then one day his wife got sick and had to go into the hospital, so Gödel stopped eating. I told Davis how even though Gödel must’ve known that starvation was a greater risk than poisoning, he just couldn’t eat, and so he starved to death… He cohabited with the demon for seventy-one years, and then it got him in the end.” (pg. 203)

I wish I could thank John personally for this. His writing style is so unique because of all these littles things and metaphors he'll add in order to explain something that just make so much more sense than if you were to simply explain it. That's one of the beauties of this book. 


Now while this book does follow a mysterious plot, I think the most important and climatic scene in the book is Aza dealing with her OCD at the end of the book. Obviously, John mentions how "Mental illness is a story told in past tense" but THIS ONE ISN'T. Aza even talks about how she feels like she's in some kind of story and how she's the author and this isn't past tense...

THE REST OF THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS. IN ORDER TO CONTINUE WITH HIDDEN SPOILERS, READ THIS REVIEW ON MY GOODREADS :-)

I Have Lost My Way [REVIEW]

I Have Lost My Way

 by Gayle Forman

- Hardcover 
- 304 pages
- Published on March 27th, 2018
- Viking Books for Young Readers

my rating: ★★★★½/★★★★★ (4.5 stars)

I was sent a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

**if any, spoilers WILL be hidden**

“They may be complete strangers, with different lives and different problems, but there in that examination room, they are measuring sadness the same way. They are measuring it with loss.”

I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman follows three POVs: Freya, Harun, and Nathaniel. Freya is our main character who’s lost her voice while recording her debut album in order to build from her internet fame. Nathaniel is struggling personally and has just arrived in New York City with only a backpack and a map. Harun, a New Yorker, struggling with his identity and coming out to his family. Whenever one of them ends up literally falling on the other and one of them is a bystander, they become close in a span of a day and help each other understand the loss they’re all facing and how to cope with it.

Gayle Forman is well-known, rightfully so, for If I Stay and it’s sequel. I was first introduced to her writing whenever I read If I Stay and nothing about it was memorable to me. I felt different about her writing while reading this book. It was incredibly detailed but the writing was beautiful. When writing about such heavy topics like she covers in this book, it’s perfect that she was able to side it with such a smooth and elegant writing style.

I definitely have to say this book is perfect for binge reading. If you have a night where you can just get cozy in bed and read a book, you should pick this one. It’s short and it takes place across one single day but it’s never boring. Each character is so interesting and uniquely different that there wasn’t really a POV that I preferred. Somehow, the reader gets an in-depth background into each character so you actually end up knowing them by the middle of the book which is astounding for it’s pace. I actually did read this all in one sitting and I ended up staying up until like 2am in order to finish it. I’ve read a few books that take place throughout a day but this one was fantastically done. 

There was a lot going on within this book but it wasn’t too much. There was Freya’s POV and her music career, her relationship with her sister and her father. There was Harun’s POV with dealing with his sexuality, his boyfriend, and his family. Then there was Nathaniel’s point of view dealing with his concussion, his relationship with his father and his future. Alongside all of that, we get their relationship and their stories together. It felt like the perfect drama but it was also so thought-provoking and heartwarming. The ending was so beautifully done and this honestly feels like some of Gayle Forman’s best work. 


What I Didn't Like: I had one problem that I noticed very early on within this book that didn’t really affect my reading experience but I did realize it early on and was kind of worried. It’s definitely something someone else might bring to attention due to how important #ownvoices is now in the Young Adult genre. I believe it’s okay to write a character different from you as long as you’re not writing their struggles. For example, a straight man can’t write a book about a lesbian struggling to come out. In I Have Lost My Way, Feyre comes from a partially Ethiopian family and it’s very prevalent in the book due to her dad’s position. But, personally, I feel like her character and family dynamic seemed very well researched, appropriate, and respected. As for Harun, I feel like Gayle Forman walked the line. While it’s very clear she did research and is knowledgeable about Islam (from my understanding), I was uncomfortable reading her write about his struggles being a gay Muslim in a very religious family because it isn’t truly authentic. Here’s a few of the lines that I consider “walking the line” when it comes to writing the struggles of a POC character. 

“His older brother Saif started middle school on the day 9/11 happened, and after that he began calling himself steve and refusing to attend mosque.” 

But she doesn’t expand on this or use it as a plot point which is why I don’t think this book is bad. Continuing on, while talking about himself, Harun says:

“And anyway, it’s not like any American carrier would be eager to hire a pilot named Harun Siddiqui.” 

which makes me refer back to why I believe a POC should write about their struggles before anyone else should. It just seems wrong and unnecessary??? 

Like I mentioned before, I feel like Gayle Forman did this in the best way that she possibly could. Harun's character was actually the most fleshed out within the book and every scene with his family was great. This is just a personal preference of mine. Other than that, this is by far my favorite book by her.

SEE THIS REVIEW ON MY GOODREADS.

find this book on book depository | amazon | barnes&noble

books with bisexual characters [RECS]

hi! here’s a list of some bisexual recs! i haven’t read all of these so i can’t speak for the quality of all of them but i do know that all of these should have bisexual main characters. :-) 

a few disclaimers before anyone else asks: Carry On is a gay m/m romance but he definitely dated a girl for like 4 years beforehand and a part of me feels like he’s probably bi… don’t attack me. Everyday by David Levithan is considered bisexual/pansexual fiction so i included it in this list. Here’s a link that mentions something about it. Lastly, yes, I accidentally used the wrong book for Becky Albertalli’s book. I apologize lol

              HAPPY PRIDE!! ENJOY THE BISEXUAL CONTENT YOU DESERVE!!!

• Far From You by Tess Sharpe
• Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy
• Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
• Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert
• The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzie Lee
• Love in the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block 
• Boyfriends with Girlfriends by Alex Sanchez
• Cut Both Ways by Carrie Mesrobian 
• Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli (i accidentally put the wrong book plz forgive me)
• Coda by Emma Travayne 
• Everyday by David Levithan 
• Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
• Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell