The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

Book: The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

Publishing date: January 17th 201

Publisher: HarperCollins

Pages: 307

Goodreads: Link

Synopsis: 

Ivan is an easygoing gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all.

Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he’s seen and about his friends Stella, an elderly elephant, and Bob, a stray dog. But mostly Ivan thinks about art and how to capture the taste of a mango or the sound of leaves with color and a well-placed line.

Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from her family, and she makes Ivan see their home—and his own art—through new eyes. When Ruby arrives, change comes with her, and it’s up to Ivan to make it a change for the better.

Katherine Applegate blends humor and poignancy to create Ivan’s unforgettable first-person narration in a story of friendship, art, and hope.

Review:

I have no idea what made me pick up this book. Was it the adorable cover that kept staring at me at the bookstore, or perhaps some unknown cosmic power, but I am glad I ended-up reading it. It was cute. It was funny. It was sad. To be truly honest, I was unsure of whether to write a review for this at all or not. It is not like there are a lot of other gorilla-narrated-books out there that I could compare this to. 

While reading I experienced many mixed emotions. Was I to laugh? Was I to cry? How come a seemingly cute and simplistic action of a gorilla made my heart clench? I questioned my own view on animals a lot, and I guess that was exactly the point. Most humans tend to look down on animals and doubt the capacity of their intelligence in comparison to our own. 

This book, being from the perspective of a gorilla, raises a lot of interesting points. Are the lives of animals too simplistic or perhaps we, humans, over complicate everything. If miscommunication between people can cause misunderstandings then it is safe to assume that our inability to communicate with animals causes us to mistreat them whether that is on purpose or not. That is what The One and Only Ivan reminds us of.

In conclusion, I think that this book is worth a read. Interestingly constructed and cleverly told - The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate is a touching story of friendship and finding a place of your own in the world.

List of Books I have read this year:
 https://mybookaddiction101.blogspot.com.ee/2017/08/books-read-in-2017.html

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Book: Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Publishing date: September 27th, 2016

Publisher: Orion Children's Books

Pages: 536

Synopsys:

After pulling off a seemingly impossible heist in the notorious Ice Court, criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker feels unstoppable. But life is about to take a dangerous turn—and with friends who are among the deadliest outcasts in Ketterdam city, Kaz is going to need more than luck to survive in this unforgiving underworld.

Review:

Crooked Kingdom - a wonderful story about determination, perseverance, loyalty, and wit. A tale showcasing that no matter how many times life gets you down, you can always climb back up. I loved seeing all the characters battling their own demons and how through many struggles they still managed to have tiny victories. 

I loved the diversity in characters. The difference of their cultures, of their backgrounds. How no matter the differences people are still capable of finding common ground. Crooked Kingdom was refreshing in its unpolished character faults. How it shows that regardless of our backgrounds, none of us are immune to hardships. I found this fact strangely inspirational. Thinking - wow, if they could go through all of that, then I could get through everything life throws my way as well.

I would like to see this story continue. Perhaps a final book that could mend my heart after Crooked Kingdom so unceremoniously ripped it out. It will take me a while to recover from the 100 reasons this story gave me to cry. Every single tear shed was worth it though. A bittersweet price for a wonderful story.

*Spoilers ahead* Disclaimer: Might contain ranting.

Books Read In 2017

Here is a list of books I've had the privilege of reading this year. I did not include all the fanfiction I read for the simple reason of it being impossible to track. Some of these are children's books, so don't be surprised. The length and the target demographic don't really matter to me. You can learn from all of them. The list will be updated periodically up until the end of 2017. Here, in the actual order that I've read them:

Helpful Websites For a Writer

Sometimes, when you are on a roll or already in the editing phase, simplest of things can escape your mind. The following short list of websites exists in order to make your life much easier. Since these places exist you might at least utilize them to their full potential. They are free - well, for the most part, and quite easy to use.

WordCounter

The name itself is quite self-explanatory. But rather than just telling you your documents word count, it tells you which words you use most often and tell you how many times they appear. This is the perfect tool to combat repetition!

Tip of My Tongue

You know that horrible moment when you are trying to finish a sentence but the perfect word just keeps escaping you? So you sit there, minute after minute, running random syllables and sounds through your mind, trying to trigger the memory that would allow you to remember your desired word. Sometimes an epiphany hits and sometimes it doesn't. This website exists to help you out with remembering.

Readability

Use this website to measure how easy your text is to read. Not only does it grade your text but it also underlines the sentences you might want to take a second look at. Give it a try!

First Confession

As people, we tend to set standards of our own for every aspect of our lives. There are also times we break those standards even though we ourselves create them. This confession is a story of a time, I broke a standard I set for myself. This particular story is not one I thought I would ever reveal. But I have realized over time that as embarrassed of it as I am, I also find it as something I can look back on and laugh.

I pride myself as a book lover, however, my reading habits are not exactly common in most readers. Ages ago, one of those habits came back to bite. If my memory doesn't fail me, this story takes place when I was in fifth grade. This was the time for me when I first got into reading. I flew through giant books in a matter of hours, rather than days. Till this day I have no clue how I managed that. All that reading, of course, made the impressionable little me treat a favorite book as the gospel truth and demand friends to read them as well. After all, how could they possibly go on without the enlightenment?

One summer day after weeks and weeks of brainwashing, I had finally convinced my best friend to read a book that I loved so dearly. It took her about a week, an odd piece of memory that for some reason still exists, but after she was done I couldn't wait to fangirl over all of the parts that I loved. Bash all the characters I hated. We talked for a good part of an hour before she dropped a complete bomb on me. I do not recall her exact words but it went something like this:

"It is very interesting how They included an LGBT plot line."

Wait, what? I was SO confused. Now the words themselves hold no specific importance other than the fact that they are true to the actual event. The real point here is that I truly had no clue as to what she was talking about. I swear that at the time the book was my absolute favorite. Yet SHE knew more about it than I did. 

What happened is that I am and have always been an impatient reader. If I fall in love with a plot point, I sometimes have a tendency to skip over sentences or paragraphs - in my earlier years even chapters. Well, it turns out that in that horrible habit of mine, I missed an ENTIRE SUB-PLOT. To make matters worse, by that point I had read the book twice and still had no idea that part of it existed.

I was embarrassed. In that moment I pretended that I knew exactly what she was talking about. Even though I was lying through my teeth. It took me eight years to own up to that deed and admit the bluff to her. We laughed it off. She playfully made fun of me for a while but we have moved now. Sometimes that story still comes up at our get-togethers. We laugh. I blush. Then life goes on. 

I wish I could tell you that that experience had thought me an important life lesson. That I no longer skip boring parts. Yet that would be a lie. Although, I am proud to say that I have never since skipped an entire plot line. As small of a victory as that might seem to everyone else, it is one that I hold close to my heart.

That is all I have for today. Thank you for reading this confession. 

Master of Short Stories? Places to Get Published

Everyone has to start somewhere, so why not here? The following is a list of publications that are that are open to new faces as long as you fit with their vibe. The list includes possibilities for a variety of genres and styles. So if you have something to share, why not give it a go?

Before submitting your work, however, make sure to thoroughly read the provided guidelines which differ for every publisher.

Please note that the places mentioned on this list are not the only publishing uppertunities. They are simply the ones that stood out to me personally. If these for one reason or another do not suit you, please keep in mind that there are dozen other options out there - if only you care enough to look for them.

1. One Story

Chose to put this one at the very beginning for convenience sake. One Story is pretty self-explanatory: a literary magazine that publishes one great short story every three to four weeks, and nothing more. The main criteria for getting a shot at being published? A story “that leaves readers feeling satisfied and [is] strong enough to stand alone.” Works can be any style or subject as long as they are between 3,000 and 8,000 words.

Further on Submission Guidelines:

 https://www.one-story.com/index.php?page=submit

Deadline: September 1 to May 31

Payment: $500 plus 25 contributor copies

2. The First Line

A quarterly publication that provides you with a writing prompt. Each issue contains short fiction stories (300-5,000 words) all of which begin with the same pre-assigned first line. There is also an option of writing a nonfiction critical essay (500-800 words) about your favorite first line from a piece of literary work. For those up to the challenge, there is also an option of writing a four-part story that uses each of that year’s first lines. For further information please check out the submission guidelines link.

Further on Submission Guidelines: 

http://www.thefirstline.com/submission.htm 

Deadline: Each line has its own deadline. February 1 (spring); May 1 (summer); August 1 (fall); November 1 (winter)

Payment: $25 to $50 for fiction; $25 for nonfiction plus a contributor’s copy

3. The Sun Magazine

The Sun Magazine offers some of the biggest payments, yet that also means that the chances of making it are lowered. While The Sun Magazines guidelines DO specifically mention personal writing and provocative political/cultural pieces, they also mention that the editors are “open to just about anything.” Works should remain under 7,000 words. Take a look at their previously published work, submit something the editors love, and you could get a nice payday.

Further on Submission Guidelines: 

http://thesunmagazine.org/about/submission_guidelines/writing

Deadline: Non-specified

Payment: A one-year subscription plus $300 to $2,000 for nonfiction or $300 to $1,500 for fiction.

4. Virginia Quarterly (VQR)

Open to emerging writers, VQR accepts short fiction (2,000 to 8,000 words) and nonfiction (3,500 to 9,000 words) like travel essays that examine the world around us. Worth noting that they are not big fans of genres such as romance.

Further on Submission Guidelines:

http://www.vqronline.org/about-vqr/submissions

Deadline: Submission periods are June 15 to July 31 and October 1 to November 15. VQR also accepts nonfiction pitches from June 15 to December 1.

Payment: Generally $1,000 and above for short fiction and prose.

5. Shimmer

When it comes to Shimmer, they “encourages authors of all backgrounds to write stories that include characters and settings as diverse and wondrous as the people and places of the world we live in.” Shimmer’s editors are after contemporary fantasy and “speculative fiction” with strong plots, characters, and emotional core — the more unique the better. You will want to keep your stories under 7,500 words.

Further on Submission Guidelines:

http://www.shimmerzine.com/guidelines/fiction-guidelines/

Deadline: Opens for submissions on September 4 

Payment: Five cents per word

6. The New Yorker

Last on the list but far from least is The New Yorker. Adding this publication to your portfolio puts you in a whole new league. Odds of making it, however, are astronomically low. It accepts both standard short fiction as well as humorous short fiction for the “Shouts & Murmurs” section. No word counts are mentioned.

Further on Submission Guidelines: 

http://www.newyorker.com/about/contact

Deadline: None-specified

Payment: Vaguely mentioned, yet it does provide you with HUGE bragging rights.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo a.k.a Best Money I Have Spent

Book: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Published: September 29th, 2015

Publisher: Henry Holt and Company

Pages: 462

Goodreads: Link

Synopsis:

Criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker has been offered wealth beyond his wildest dreams. But to claim it, he'll have to pull off a seemingly impossible heist:

Break into the notorious Ice Court

(a military stronghold that has never been breached)

Retrieve a hostage

(who could unleash magical havoc on the world)

Survive long enough to collect his reward

(and spend it)

Kaz needs a crew desperate enough to take on this suicide mission and dangerous enough to get the job done - and he knows exactly who: six of the deadliest outcasts the city has to offer. Together, they just might be unstoppable - if they don't kill each other first.

Thoughts:

The thought of reading this book terrified me. So many times before I had given into the hype and read books that I ended up disliking. When it came to Six of Crows, it seemed almost as if everyone including their grandmother had read this before me. After which all the praise for the story felt artificial. Yet despite the small yet loud voice in my head telling me to do otherwise, I decided to buy the book and read it after all. I can't even begin to explain how glad I am of that decision!

Six of Crows was great! The writing was well done and enjoyable. The pacing of the story was also on point. I absolutely loved the way world was built up. The magic system was cool. There are lots of different cultures that have really intriguing dynamics. All of the characters were very lovable and quickly became close to my heart despite their many faults. They all have interesting backstories and distinct personalities. The way they interacted with each other was incredibly human and relatable.

I took a very strong liking towards the female characters. Both Nina and Inej are, for lack of a better word, kick-ass. They're feminine, but not useless. Both of them possess a set of skills vital to the success of their endeavor. They don't try too hard to be rebels or to be bad-ass, to deny their own nature nor to prove they can play with the boys, they're just themselves and that is beautiful. No damsel in distress can be found here.

Of course, there was also romance but what I loved the most about it was the fact that it did not get in the way of the main plot. The relationships are not simple. They all have their own sets of skeletons in the closets. Those complications, made the characters feel that much more real. My heart bled for all of them.

One of my favorite parts of this book was that it managed to gracefully touch upon subjects that most of us find uncomfortable. Taboo subjects that we try to avoid at all cost in everyday conversation. The fact Six of Crows acknowledges all of those things saying: "Hey, this is something that does happen in the world and there really isn't a way to sugarcoat it or pretend that it isn't real." This is the first time I have read a book that tackles subjects of that kind. I have to admit, I was uncomfortable reading those parts even though Leigh Bardugou didn't really go into great detail - a fact that I am thankful for. But I am glad that those were part of the book. I feel like acknowledging the reality and enlightening people on the matter is a very important thing to do.

In conclusion, I would like to say that I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It is so much more than a heist story. It is full of people who have hit lowest points in their life yet still kept on going. It shows that there, in fact, is a speck of light in the darkness and I find that truly inspirational.

*The following contains spoilers. You have been warned!*