Our Bookish Christmas Wish List 2015

2015
Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've last blogged. It's been a crazy term for me, I'll tell you guys all about it in a separate post, but for now, I'm checking in to let you guys know about my Christmas wish list for this year! :) There's only 3 days left til Christmas and I'm excited! Are you?

So here is my bookish wishlist, and although I'm surely not getting any of these, it's great to daydream sometimes, right?

1. Kincso Nagy's Harry Potter design concept
This designer created a design concept for Harry Potter books, which includes glow in the dark covers and pop up illustrations inside. Isn't it beautiful?! I would totally buy these books if they were actually created!

Beryl and Audrey's 2016 Bucket List

2015
We're pretty excited to finish this year already and just say hello to 2016. We feel like a huge mess this week cause of being unproductive, eating more than 5 times a day lol, and having no pep training. :( Finals are also coming next week! UGH! SAVE US!

Enough of us blabbering and ranting, let's get down to business! (to defeat the Huns) HAHAHA. Kidding guys.

NUMBER 1:
GET FREAKING ABS

Since last year and the year before that and before that and before that, we've been wanting to have abs! It's just a mixture of hard work and perseverance which we don't really have.

HASHTAG GOALS
NUMBER 2
MAKE A PERSONAL BLOG

Don't get us wrong we LOVE this blog, but we love other things too like fashion, beauty, and food. We've also been wanting to create one since forever, so we hope to make one SUCCESSFULLY, It's not that easy ya know from creating the design and all those especially since we're not experts.

NUMBER 3
BERYL WILL FINALLY DECIDE WHAT SHE WANTS TO BE

I need serious help because I have zero idea what I want to be in the future, what i want to take in senior high and in college! I have no choice though because I can't be a bum forever.

LIFE UPDATE

2015

We've been gone for a while in the blogging world so we feel like we haven't shared to you details of what we've been up to. We have the exact same excuse as all the other times we've been gone, which is that school's been taking up all of our time. It was finals week last week, so we've all been really busy trying to catch up with all the deadlines and cramming for all the exams. We can't be sure of whether or not we'll be busy this week, so we'll try to update you with this blog post as much as we can and give you all the details now in case we don't have time to blog again.







So as we've said earlier, all we've done this week is basically study, study, study. We've also been really stressed out for the past two to three weeks, literally we've been breaking out and everything. A lot of things have been going on really, apart from the finals, we've had a lot of projects, papers and essays due too. Another thing is that we have an upcoming performance for our intramurals that we've been practicing for non-stop. We finally found the time to blog today since we pretty much finished everything already. Even though we're definitely more chill than we were a few weeks ago, we still feel quite horrible actually. We haven't really been getting enough sleep and all the aspects of our life from school to family to friends to extracurricular activities have been overloading, so we have been sleeping late and waking up early even on weekends. Even so, we're taking the time to blog right now since we've really missed it. We hope that we can be more consistent in the weeks to come. 

By the way, we're nearing 200 followers!!! We're super happy and excited about it, and we would like to thank you all so much for sticking with us even though we haven't been doing anything lately. We'll try to blog more and maybe host a giveaway??? No promises! We would also like to apologize in advance because we might not be posting a lot of book reviews in the near future since we really haven't had the time to read anything at all. We'll try to think of new things to post that you guys will hopefully enjoy just as much. :)







Hey guys!! Kimi here! And I'm so scared to face the blogging world because I haven't been doing any blogging or reading in the past month! frown emoticon Ever since school started I've been bombarded with never ending acads and org work. You guys might now know, but I'm a president of my organization in college and it's taking up most of my time these days. We've been organizing a lot of activities and been doing outreach projects (since my org is a socio civic org) so I've been quite stressed lately. I really was on the verge of a breakdown for a while back there, but I was able to pick myself back up by watching The Duff (my ultimate feel good movie from now on) and listening to Hannah Montana music (yes it still works for me until now!). I'll probably find more time to read, and blog by October; hopefully things have settled down by then. And I'll be posting my hauls and travel stories soon! I just went to the Manila International Book Fair and I can't wait to share my experience with you guys! It's my 3rd year and it's still so wow to see so many books in one place! I hope I can do it soon. Thank you so much for sticking around with us, despite all our shortcomings.

We promise we'll be around more once we're less busy! And we'll do something for you guys just as a little thank you! <3




Book in Review: All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

2015
Title: All The Bright Places
Author: Jennifer Niven
Publishing Date: January 6th, 2015
Publisher: Knopf
Format: Paperback
Rating: 5/5 stars

Summary:

The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor and Park in this exhilarating and heart-wrenching love story about a girl who learns to live from a boy who intends to die.
Soon to be a major motion picture starring Elle Fanning!
 
Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him.
 
Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death.
 
When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink.
 
This is an intense, gripping novel perfect for fans of Jay Asher, Rainbow Rowell, John Green, Gayle Forman, and Jenny Downham from a talented new voice in YA, Jennifer Niven.
Where do I even begin to describe how beautiful this book is?

I think I just found the best book of 2015 even if it's just January. It's funny because every time I read a really really good book, I am surprised at how speechless I get; whereas if it's a bad one, I always know what stuff I didn't like and I tend to point those out in my reviews. But what to say when I'm blown away with such a gripping and emotional read that made me cry for 2 hours?

Because I am NOT okay, and I don't know when I will be okay, or if I ever will be okay. And every time I see this book, let alone think about it, I tend to have the reaction of  throwing stuff and bursting into ugly tears and just kicking people from sheer sadness and anger - so don't you dare mention this book to me in person if you don't want to be turned into a punching bag or a crying shoulder. 

The blurb of this book tells us that it is for fans of John Green and Rainbow Rowell. These are really heavy claims, and I wasn't too sure since most contemporaries always tell us that it's "for fans of John Green" even if they are NOTHING alike, save for the genre. But man, does this book deliver. I don't want to sound like I'm a PR or Marketing agent, but yes, this is for fans of John Green and Rainbow Rowell, and you better read it, because oh my God, nothing will compare, and nothing I say will be enough to tell you how beautiful and lovely this is.

All the Bright Places is not just a fictional story about two teenagers who struggle with their brokenness and their constant efforts to hold on with life. It rings with honesty and rawness, and what we read about in this book are things that real people struggle with everyday. There's depression and mental illnesses like bipolar disorder, and these are struggles that we see with our eyes in everyday scenarios. No matter how fictional this story may be, it is real to me, and it should be to anyone. This book is not about how two people fall in love and suddenly just save each other from their problems. This tells us that it's not easy, and everyday is a hard struggle to stay in the Awake, and that it's so easy to slip off into the unknown and just turn everything off. This book shows us that there are good days, but that there are bad ones too, and yet we can keep fighting everyday so we can get more good ones. This tells us that you can hold on to each other as much as you want, but sometimes it's not enough, it's not that easy to fix, and one day it will just eat you alive until you succumb to it and you finally make the leap. 

Depression is not just a quick fix like a band-aid; it should be a constant process of healing and getting yourself together. It's not your fault if things aren't enough, it's not your fault if you can't control it, because somehow it becomes a part of you. And it's okay to ask for help, it's okay to admit you can't do it anymore, because depression is a scary thing and it burns inside you until you just can't take it anymore. It's not just about feeling sad or down sometimes or wanting to kill yourself; it's about struggling to stay alive, and fighting for your life, and looking for good reasons to live. 

There's a huge social stigma that mental illness is just a choice, and people want to suffer and that it's just a form of weakness or they are trying to get attention. But no matter what others think, these issues are real. And it's exactly because of these social stigmas that make people with these conditions not want to seek support or help. And that should change.

All The Bright Places is one of the best portrayals of mental illness and suicide. It's so hauntingly emotional and real, and I think this is one way to get people to understand and accept these issues. It's incredibly gut wrenching and touching to read, and this book complete broke me. This book demands to be read and I can't stress how much this book deserves every bit of acclaim and praise, even if all of them will never be enough.

All The Bright Places gave me a subtle reminder of why I even started reading - and it's because there's just something about these books that invoke feelings into me. And this one, is a keeper.


Twenty-Fifteen ♡

2014 highlights
2014 was an awesome year. It was the year we decided to create this book blog, and what a blast it was! We really didn’t expect that we would get this far, even reaching our 1st blogversary last January 1st. So now it’s time for us to look back on the highlights of our 2014 and our goals and resolutions for 2015.




1. Officially started our Blog
This blog has actually been around since late 2013, but we only decided to officially open it as a BOOK blog on the 1st of January, 2014. Check out our welcome post!

2. Book Blogger Love-A-Thon 2014
This was one of the most fun things we did in 2014! We had a blast doing all these challenges but what made it even better was how much love we felt in the blogging community.


3. Soupy Sundays
Soupy Sundays was our attempt in doing discussion posts about any topic in general, every Sunday. Well, we haven’t written one in a LONG time but here’s to looking back to our first discussion post in our Soupy Sundays Feature! 

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2015 Reading Challenge
Kimi has read 3 books toward her goal of 100 books.
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