I love a challenge. Specially those online lists, you know? The ones with prompts and suggestions and themes. I love them so much that, last year, there was a point I was participating in five different ones. Me and my friends even created different group chats for each one, which may sound insane. And it actually is. But it was so much fun! Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.
So, letters have been a recurring theme for me these days. More specifically, how letters can bring hope. One Million Lovely Letters, by Jodi Ann Bickley, was published on my birthday in 2014. I added it to my Amazon wishlist on May, 2015. I don’t even remember how I came across it, but it sat there for all these years until it recently popped up with a promotion. I don’t know about you, but I love a good book bargain! So I bought it. And it was perfect timing. Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.
“What is reality except for the things that people universally experience the same way?” Who would have thought that Hank is the better writing Green brother? Okay, okay, this comparison isn’t fair. They write in wildly different genres. But, damn Hank. Damn. The book starts when April May, a graphic design graduate whose true passion is fine arts, is going home after a long day of work. It’s 3 a.m. It’s also NY, so the fact that she was still at work at that time is not so surprising. Anyway, she’s on the street, and that’s when she walks by this massive statue. It’s unlike anything she’s seen before — like a ten-foot-tall Transformer wearing a suit of samurai armor. After a rather relatable inner monologue about how we take so many remarkable things for granted on the daily, she decides that that is not going to be one. She calls a college friend, Andy, who has a YouTube channel, and tells him about this thing and that they should make a video about it. So, they do. By the time she wakes up the next morning, the video is already viral. News quickly spreads that there are Carls (the name she gave to the statue) in dozens of cities around the world — everywhere from Beijing to Buenos Aires — and April, as their first documentarian, finds herself at the center of an intense international media spotlight. And that’s how everything starts. This story has many layers. This is one of those books that you’ll have to read again at different times of your life to find new meanings. At this point of my life, though, if I could sum it up in one word, it had to be relevant. [I’ll get a little spoilery for the rest of the post, so if you haven’t read already and don’t want to know what happens (I absolutely recommend this approach), stop reading now! But come back later, please!] Notice: JavaScript is required for this content.
One of my favorite things to read about is the human condition. I love to sit, depict and reflect on everything that makes us what we are. Love? Faith? Music? Mathematics? Utter confusion and lack of direction? Yes, all of it. I love it even more when this is discussed in a different, original way. In today’s post, I’ll talk about three books I’ve read recently that did just that. For reasons unknown, they all involve aliens. I’m not particularly a fan of extraterrestrial matters, and I know that writing about aliens might not be exactly original, but I assure you these skilled authors didn’t disappoint.