HPMOTW: Favourite Character

Harry Potter Moment of the Week is hosted over at uncorkedthoughts!

This week is a freebie so I decided to tell you guys about my favourite character! My favourite character is hands down Ron Weasley. Ron is quite a popular favourite character but he and all the other Weasleys if we are being honest, seem to be hated quite strongly by a select few in the fandom. Don't ask me why, I can't comprehend their hate... 

But we're not here to discuss about people who hate Ron, we are here today to talk about why I love Ron Bilius Weasley so motherducking much.

1. Stayed at school during Christmas break for his friend that he (at that point in time) has only known for a few months. Let me emphasise that he stayed at school. 
2. Had a broken feet but still stood in between his friend and a presumed psychotic mass murderer. 
3. Ron just defends his friends without a second thought. Another example, when he decided to use that slug spell on Malfoy after he called Hermione a mudblood. 
4. Is really funny. 
5. His flaws are my flaws as well. The insecurity of never measuring up to other people's achievements, the thinking you're never good enough, always being overshadowed....I understood Ron. It was actually kind of scary to read my fears.
6. Loyal to his friends and tries to always be there for his friends.
7. So brave. Spiders are his worst fears but still went with his friend into a place filled with giant spiders. 
8. Just overall a 10/10 friend
9. I like to think of him as the heart of the trio. 
10. I'm just going to repeat again what a great friend Ron is. Ron is the kind of friend I want to have and aspire to be. 

The Arrival by Shaun Tan (review)

I am very much a list oriented kind of person. When I write a list, it gives me great satisfaction to cross something off that list. So yeah, when I wrote this Top Ten Tuesday post, I made it my mission to read most of the books on that list. I've gotten through 4/10 of the books on that list! Go me!! Woooo!!!

Today I'm only going to review one book.

The Arrival by Shaun Tan

Title: The Arrival

Author: Shaun Tan

Date published: 12 October 2007

My rating: 5/5 stars

*goodreads

*This review will contain spoilers. However, in the case of this book I don't think the spoilers I mention will detract from your enjoyment of the book nor are they very 'spoiler-y'. 

I love this book. I really do love this book. I want to show this book to every single human being on the planet. This graphic novel has no words, it's told entirely in pictures so language won't be a problem -you just have to be able to read facial expressions! If you're not very good at reading facial expressions, then I will explain the whole thing to you!!! 

Every single picture in this book is beautifully illustrated, take your time to look at each drawing. The book has a very vintage feel to it. The drawings all have a slight yellow tint to it reminiscence of old photographs.

This book affected me emotionally. My parents are immigrant as I mentioned in the aforementioned Top Ten Tuesday post. To a certain extent I am also an immigrant because I wasn't born in Australia but I'm young and malleable, I adapted with a lot more ease than my parents. I don't quite understand the hardship they went through and my parents aren't particularly keen on sharing. I don't resent them for that at all! But this book did help me understand them a little bit more; the struggle of leaving your family behind for a country where they screen you and ask you personal questions, a completely reasonable thing to do but does leave a person feeling emotionally and mentally drained; the struggle of experiencing a whole new culture -new food, new language, new everything; the struggle of finding a job; the struggle of missing your family.

Being an immigrant is hard which is the number one reason I want everyone to read this book -so they realise just how hard it is and that they'll be nicer to them. I want to punch every single person who rolls their eyes and gives an exaggerated exasperated sigh when talking to someone whose first language obviously isn't English.

However, being an immigrant isn't all bad as Tan reminds us. There are good people you meet along the way. People who invite you to dinner, who open up their family to you. People who tell you stories of their life and what they've been through and why they too left their country just like you did. The best feeling of all has to be being reunited with your family. Tan captures this emotion or should I say, emotions, perfectly. 

So pick up this graphic novel. It's a short read, it's all pictures but I guarantee that those illustrations will stir something deep within you. It's a story about immigrants that everybody, immigrant or not, will be able to relate to as the world Tan depicts is familiar yet strange. 

Top Ten Things I Like/Dislike When It Comes to Romance in Books

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted over at TheBrokeandBrookish

Likes:

1. Healthy relationship where one person isn't wholly dependent on the other person
2. Guys describe as being super hot. I just love it. Thank you @god for tight black shirts.
3. Unexpected twists that makes sense. For example, you don't expect A to end up with B but they do and it's totally plausible and not as if the author pulled that out of his/her ass
4. Just cute fluff. Like when the couples are just holding hand and they are embarrassed to do it. Or if they go on a cute date like picking out Christmas tree ornaments or something. I love those. Makes my heart so fluttery.
5. The build up. I. Love. The. Build up. I like the moment they start realising that they have feelings for each other and how their heart pounds when they see the other person in the room. And we, the readers, know that they both like each other and that the feeling is mutual but they don't  know and it's simultaneously frustrating and awesome. 

Dislike:

1. The whole 'it's so cute that he likes me so much that he stalks me'
2. The whole 'it's so cute that he likes me so much that he becomes so possessive of me!!!'
3. The whole 'I can't live without you'. I get that it's suppose to be sooo romantic but just the idea of needing someone till the point of losing them makes you want to die...? that doesn't sound like a very healthy relationship. I mean metaphorically this sentiment is okay with me but sometimes in YA they portray it literally and I'm like.....uh no?
4. The whole love triangle thing. I like a good love triangle. I mean, love triangles are so exciting!!! But I hate it when it's so obviously unnecessary and just distracting from the main plot. Like, dear author our main protagonist is in the middle of a revolution she doesn't have time to entertain two different guys declaration of love. Also, I want to know more about the revolution rather than the love triangle.
5. The whole 'we're the only ones left in this world so we should be together'. I get that surviving the apocalypse or whatever is a great boding experience but like do they always have to have romantic feelings for each other?? Can't I have a platonic apocalypse buddy kinda story?

HPMOTW: Worst Harry Potter death

Harry Potter moment of the week is a meme hosted over at uncorkedthoughts!

There are a lot of deaths in Harry Potter. There's a whole list of all the deaths in the books over here. I interpreted this week's moment in two ways: one) the character that had the worst way of dying or two) the character whose death I handled the worst. 

For the first, I think the worst way of dying would be to be burned alive. So Crabbe's death from the seventh book is horrible. It's also a little ironic how he was the one who caste the Fiendfyre curse and the only person it consumed was himself. Death by fire is in my opinion, terribly painful. Apparently with drowning, you get a moment of serenity right before death. I don't know how true that is but I would pick drowning over being burned alive. Did I mention Crabbe was alive before the fire got him? Yeah, he was. 

On the other hand, for the character whose death I handled the worst is Hedwig tied with Cedric. 

God JK Rowling didn't even dramatise Hedwig's death. Maybe she wanted to make it seem like Hedwig's death happened really fast and it was really fast. It made me really sad. I was like 'wait, Hedwig HEDWIG HEDWIG got hit!?!?!'. When I realised what it meant that Hedwig got hit by a killing curse I was sobbing so hard. Hedwig wasn't just an owl, she was also Harry's friend. Hedwig's death symbolised the end of Harry's and also in a way mine, because I was turning into a teenager when I read it. I just get very emotional about Hedwig, okay?

Now on to Cedric Diggory. There were deaths before Cedric but the one who died were always the 'bad guys'. For example, Quirrel and Diary!Tom Riddle. Cedric was the first character who was good and who died. It makes no sense that Cedric had to die. He was such a good guy. He was never mean to Harry and he even tried to get people to stop being mean to Harry. It was then that little me realised that sometimes good people die for no good reason. That epiphany hit me hard. 

Top Ten Graphic Novels I Can't Believe I Haven't/Want To Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted over at TheBrokeandBrookish. 

Also, let's just pretend that I didn't have a Top Ten for last Tuesday...I was busy and didn't manage to come up with ten books. :(

Anyway, this week it was Top Ten Books you want/haven't read from X genre. My genre this week, as you can see from the title, is graphic novels!!! I love graphic novels but sadly I don't own many cause they are expensive and my local library doesn't have the best selection. So my option is to go all the way to the city library for a graphic novel. As a result, there are a lot of graphic novels I want to read and that I can't believe I still haven't (shake my head @myself) read.

one

Title: The Arrival
Author: Shaun Tan
Date published: 12 October 2007
My rating: -
*goodreads








I found this graphic novel accidentally while looking up the other books on my list on goodreads and this was on the recommendation thing at the side. Out of curiosity, I clicked on it because there's a freaking chameleon on the cover.

According to goodreads, this story follows an immigrant. I love stories about immigrants. It's just a subject that's so close to my heart. To see what my parents gave up -family, friends, a stable job; just so they can move to another country that they presume will provide me with more opportunities for a better future. I can't comprehend what that must feel like and my parents don't really enjoy bringing that joyful *sarcasm* topic up so I'll try to understand through my favourite medium -books.

two

Title: The Encyclopedia of Early Earth
Author: Isabel Greenberg
Date published: 29 October 2013
My rating: -
*goodreads








Head on over to the author's website to look at just how pretty the illustrations are. It's mostly black and white with mostly one colour to accentuate each story.

From what I've read about this book, I've gathered that it's a story about stories. It's also a love story?? I don't really understand how the love story fits in but the two lovers can't touch. I love Pushing Daisies and if you've watched Pushing Daisies then you know the two love interest, Ned and Chuck, can't touch. So yeah, I dig the whole no touching thing.

three

Title: Ghost World
Author: Daniel Clowes
Date published: April 2011
My rating: -
*goodreads








This graphic novel details a friendship growing apart. It's just really sad to watch people are best friends become just acquaintances. Losing a friendship sucks.

I expect that I'll be crying lots because of this book. So yeah, really looking to crying my eyes out. Sometimes crying can be very cathartic.

My google searching tells me that there is also a movie adaptation. I might do a book & movie comparison.

four

Title: Locke & Key, Volume 1: Welcome to Lovecraft (Locke & Key #1)
Author: Joe Hill, Garbriel Rodriguez (artist)
Date published: 29 September 2008
My rating: -
*goodreads








I know nothing about this book except that it's horror (I'm trying to step out of my comfort zone) and that it has keys which open a door to something that I assume will be terrifying. Hopefully, I don't get too scared and not pee for like ten days.

five

Title: Seconds: A Graphic Novel
Author: Bryan Lee O'Malley
Date published: 15 July 2014
My rating: -
*goodreads








Finally, a new Bryan Lee O'Malley graphic novel!!! I'm so excited!!!! Plus, look at the girl on the cover, how adorable is she?!?!

The premise also seems promising. The Seconds in the title refers to second chances. One thing after another goes horribly wrong in Katie's life and Katies wishes that she could get a second chance. And Katie gets instructions on just how to obtain those second chances.

six

Title: Fun House: A Family Tragicomic
Author: Alison Bechdel
Date published: 8 June 2006
My rating: -
*goodreads








This book was so freaking hyped back in the day. I'm hoping that I finally get to read this graphic novel 9 years later (god, I'm so old now).

I feel like I should confess something right now: I like going into books knowing almost nothing about it. I like feeling surprised as I'm reading a book. I hate spoilers. I never read ahead, not even the last line of the book as some people do. I just don't do that. I go through the book in an orderly fashion, from the cover to back. Sometimes when I find out a lot about a book before I read it, I form expectations of what the book will be like which often differs from what the book actually is. I always end up disappointed.

The only thing I know about Fun House is that it deals with homosexuality. That's it.

seven

Title: Akira (Akira #1)
Author: Katsuhiro Otomo
Date published: 26 Decembed 2000
My rating: -
*goodreads








The anime adaptation has a cult following which is how I found out about the manga through that adaptation. Fun fact, the anime and manga are both by the same person -Katsuhiro Otomo.

From the cover, the manga looks very dystopian. I know the main character rides a cool as red motorcycle because the same motorcycle is feature in the movie poster.

eight

Title: Persepolis 2 (Persepolis #3-4)
Author: Marjane Satropi
Date published: 2 August 2005
My rating: -
*goodreads








I've read the first two novels in the series and enjoyed it immensely. I don't know why I haven't read the rest. The first two books followed the story of Marjane growing up in Iran. It's just so interesting to see the lives people lead in different countries.

nine

Title: Hark! A Vagrant
Author: Kate Beaton
Date published: 27 September 2011
My rating: -
*goodreads








This graphic novels has short little comic strips that tells an event in history in a very humorous way. I've read a few pages here and there. I really need to finish the whole thing. I've just kind of been in a book slump.

ten

Title: The Complete Maus (Maus #1-2)
Author: Art Spiegelman
Date published: 1 October 2003
My rating: -
*goodreads

By the Swastika on the cover, you can tell that this book is a story about the horrors of the Holocaust.

I was studying about World War II in school. When I am learning something in school, I like to pick up storybooks or watch movies that relate to what I'm currently learning which is how I came across this graphic novel.

My local library finally has this book so yay, I can finally read it!