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About Lenn

I write about my personal thoughts, experiences, and bookish fixations.

For so long, I kept myself away from people. I forced myself to keep everything bottled up inside for somewhere along the way, I lost it. I stopped trusting people because I don’t know who the real ones are anymore. They keep hiding behind their masks.

I learned to keep everything to myself. To just sleep through the night with all these thoughts, with all the monsters in my head. I swear it’s getting worse, the monsters are getting bigger and they keep feeding themselves with all the things inside my head. I don’t know, maybe I’ll keep losing it until there’s nothing left of me.

My First Book Signing Event!

So yesterday was the first ever book signing event I attended, since I wasn’t really active in such events before. But a few months ago, I have been reading book blogs and read a lot of exciting bookish events. Ever since, I really wanted to go to events, plus I actually want to meet my fellow book bloggers and be friends with them. We actually got there at around 10:15, and whoa, I was already the 107th person to register!! And to think that the mall has just opened at the time.

At around 4PM exactly, National Bookstore was filled with excited Kiera fans! Everyone was actually screaming when Kiera appeared in front of us and, I assumed, she was actually touched by the crowd’s warm welcome because she was teary-eyed! There was a short interview before the actual signing started, and four people had the chance to ask her a question. I was so speechless since she was just a few steps in front of me.

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© Stay Bookish

It took an hour and 30 minutes before I actually had my books signed. I am still thankful for being the 107th person. Holy guacamole, there were 600+ people in there who wanted their books signed.

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© Stay Bookish

Finally, the most awaited. I get to hug and talk to her!!! Though, the event’s team were quite in a hurry because I understand that there are still a lot of people at the back. But still, you guys!! I was able to hug and talk to Kiera! Jeez, my feels!!! :’)

I left as soon as I got my books signed and as soon as I thanked and hugged Hazel! I really owe her one, because I forgot to bring a camera. It was nice of her to suggest of taking my photo since it was my first ever book signing. I am also glad to have met her, since she was actually my inspiration in putting up this book blog ♥

imageNo. 107!
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I am just so happy that my books are signed! The really long line + the wait + being scolded by Mom for going home late was all worth it! Kiera has been so kind and patient to all of us! ♥

Book Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

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Rating: ★★★★★

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris, and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together, they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes-fascinating, sometimes-exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret: one she’s kept hidden from everyone, because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly-perfect society, she also learns that her secret might be what helps her save those she loves … or it might be what destroys her.

I have been planning to read this for a long time, but I was always so broke when I visit a bookstore. And when I heard that they’re already making a movie out of it, I was eager to read it, so when I accompanied my brother to buy art materials, I didn’t hesitate in buying it anymore, since I don’t want to watch the movie first before reading it.

The story catches me off-guard with Tris’ determination and belief. Despite all the obstacles she’s been through in the initiation, she manages to stay strong and prove all the people around her that even though she’s a girl, a Stiff and small, she can still be brave and courageous. I learned that selflessness isn’t actually far from being brave.

Divergent will surely keep you up at night with the eagerness to know what will happen next in Tris’ extraordinary journey. With this, here is what really moved and made a mark on me. Straight inside my heart:

“I believe in ordinary acts of bravery; in the courage that drives one person to stand for another.”

Insurmountable

I keep on saying that my dream is to inspire the world with my words, and now, I realized that I keep saying them whenever someone asks me, “What do you want to do that will truly make you happy?”. Yet I don’t even think I did something remarkable through my words that could at least inspire a few people.

Sometimes, when I’m alone, my thoughts drift to things and I am filled with thoughts to say and write, but I seem to lack the courage to let people know about it because I’m afraid that I might not be able to put the right words together to inspire them or to even make them read it.

Sometimes, it’s when I do not intend to write that the words simply fall naturally good together. And usually, that side of me appears when I am alone and in a daze, at night when I am the only person awake, when I think and even when I read. That part of me comes out without me knowing and intending to.

Book Review: The Mortal Instruments (Book Four): City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

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Rating: ★★★★

It took me almost a month to finish this book. Not because I got bored or something, but because I had so many school works, defenses and projects to attend to.

But finally, I was able to finish reading it last night. I was actually excited about reading it because the first three books was really awesome. I really read almost half of the book during the first few days of reading it, but a lot of things got in the way lately… The story actually made me giddy and all because of the events that had unfolded in the first few chapters.

Though, I’m not going to elaborate any further because I might write things that’ll spoil you guys. But it’s just that, I really hate how it ended. It pissed me off, literally. </////3

Book Review: On A Night Like This by Ellen Sussman

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Rating: ★★★

It took me a long time to read the book because I kind of got bored in the first few pages. When I got in the middle, it thrilled me, wanting to know what will happen next to Luke and Emily, Blair and Amanda.

It’s disappointing at the end though, because it ended without knowing if Blair tried to fight her illness or not, and what happened to Emily after Luke left.

Book Review: The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

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Rating: ★★★★★

I read it for two days. The story was just so grand. I can just feel Hazel’s pain and I wanted to just jump inside the book between the pages and letters and hug her and tell her that she’s just so strong and that if I was in her shoes I wouldn’t be able to survive.

I cried. Twice. After what happened to Augustus and after reading the last page. The words John Green used was just so moving that it made the story stay and linger in my heart. His words literally killed me.

“Some infinities are larger than other infinities.”

Book Review: Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho

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Rating: ★★★★★

After reading the book, I’ve come to realize that a lot of tragic things happen to each and everyone of us before the true happiness arrives. In the middle of reading and turning pages, I found myself helping Maria look for her true love and reach her dreams, I just never thought the book would give me that kind of feeling of happiness after reading its ending. It never occurred to me that such book will make me teary-eyed.

Really, Paulo Coelho is such an amazing writer. He never fails to give me knowledge about a lot of things, may it be love or life.

Book Review: Looking For Alaska by John Green

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Rating: ★★★★★

Upon closing the book, I found myself staring blankly in space. Thinking.. thinking about love, happiness, suicide, religion, the Great Perhaps, suffering and death. I thought of all the things I did in the past 18 years and wondered if it was all worth it; if I was already worth remembering. I wanted to go out there, launch myself into the real world, I wanted to get out of the sugar-coated world I built to cover up all the grotesqueness in life and look for my Great Perhaps before I die.

Looking For Alaska is one of the books worth reading and having a copy of. It is one of those books that I really find very moving. ♥

How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!

🙂

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Put all the negativity aside and make room for all the positive things in life. There maybe tons of ups and downs but always put in mind that despite and in spite of everything, never ever give up. Never lose hope, because everything will be okay. In time.

Yes, it is easier said than done, but all you have to do is have faith and always embrace life’s grotesqueness to find your way to the happiness you have long been searching for.

Never forget that God has reasons, and whatever His reason may be, put your trust on Him for He knows what He’s doing. Smile and do your best!