Argita Reads Books

Just a bunch of books I read and enjoyed

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Daisy Jones & The Six

Rock ‘n’ Roll, Drugs, Addiction, Fame, Love, Family, Friendship. Every element of life is very well painted in this novel set in late 70s. I think it is very interesting to see Billy’s struggle in finding his way between choices, between the man he can become and he choose to become. For himself, and his family. 

This book is just so addictive I couldn’t put it down! 

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Harry Potter and The Order of Phoenix

Author: J. K. Rowling

I can’t say much, but this is my most favorite Harry Potter book. I totally can relate to Harry’s anger and sadness and feeling lost after Sirius’ death. And I just love how Ron got his first spotlight here in this book (being a Prefect), and then brought Gryffindor to win the Quidditch championship. Yes, I am #TeamWeasley! 

Accio Half-blood Prince!

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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Author: J. K. Rowling

734 pages later... I finally put down my 10th book of the year! I had a great brief discussion with my EPI 731 TA yesterday just before class. She said she just finished reading Harry Potter Series for the first time, as an adult. She told me Goblet of Fire is her most favorite book, although Prisoner of Azkaban is her favorite movie. I personally like Order of Phoenix best. 

It is always interesting to learn about other’s experiences with Harry Potter. Me, for example, I read Harry Potter series the very first time when I was 12 or 13. I sought comfort from it after my dad’s passing. Now that I remembered it, it is exactly this book (Goblet of Fire) that I read on the week my dad passed. I remember one of my dear cousins just stuck this book under my nose to stop me from crying and I ended up reading it during the whole week of my grievance over my dad’s premature passing. When I was in college, and knew enough English, I re-read the series in English and I remembered saying “Wow, it’s amazing how reading this in a different language can give me new thrills” to myself. I am not sure how many times I have been re-reading this series, it is still the most fun thing to do! 

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A Woman is no Man

Author: Etaf Rum

Heartbreaking, inspiring, and relatable are three words that I can say about this book. Throughout the book, Etaf Rum tells a very beautiful story, and on-point perspective about woman values in Islam. I really like the way she shows readers that things are changes, women’s role has been evolved and we deserve as much as education and opportunity as men. I really like reading how each character developed throughout the book. 

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Maid:Hard Work, Low Pay, and A Mother’s Will To Survive

Author: Stephanie Land

Maid is one of January’s Book of The Month picks, but I just got the chance to read it in February. Reading through the highlight (before getting the actual book), I knew all along that I will like this book. And the book delivered! Reading this book gave me a new perspective (from my mom’s perspective) on how to live my family life. The book tells us about a struggling mother that is trying her best to give her daughter the best life she could have. Depending on government supports, unable to pay rent, and daughter being sick are just few of complications Stephanie must face. 

I can totally relate to Stephanie’s life struggles. I was big enough to see the same struggles that my mom had to go through. I definitely had a new appreciation for my mom’s sacrifices and her best effort to provide me with decent life growing up. I even took a pause during my reading to give my mom a call, to say thank you for all of the thing she has done for me, for my sister. 

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The Things I Would Tell You

The things I would tell you is a compilation of beautiful pieces: poem/poetry, short story, script, short article from such great writers. I didn’t know that I will need this kind of book for me to be reconnected with my roots and religion. This book brought up issues faced by moslem women all over the globe. I may not have the same struggle and complications as some of these women, but I really appreciate the new perspective and understanding about the hardships that these brave women are facing!

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The Handmaid’s Tale

Author: Margaret Atwood

When a friend is asking me to describe this book, there was one word that just crossed my mind: DARK. Not ghostly dark, but philosophically dark. Seeing the value of a woman in the Gillead era is definitely heart breaking. 

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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Author: J. K. Rowling

I am a proud (Ravenclaw) Potterhead, I will try to at least reread the Harry Potter series once in a year. But 2018 was a bit tight for me I just managed to read the first two books. So I guess, I have to start my re-reading early this year (i.e., continuing last year’s unfinished business). This is not my most favorite book, but it is so refreshing that Harry doesn’t have to deal with stinking Voldemort in his third year! Most favorite moments in this book, you may ask? 

Harry discovered that he has a Godfather and that his Godfather is an innocent man 

Riding Buckbeak sounds pretty cool

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Jackie after Jack

Author: Christopher Andersen

Her life turned after one big tragedy. Being in the spotlight definitely made everything harder for her. She tried to seek comfort, and found her new love, but must protect the Kennedy legacy for the children. This book tells Jackie struggles in life post Kennedy assassination, including her controversial marriage to Ari Onassis. To be honest, at some point during my reading I hated Jackie’s gut, but in the end, I see redemption, and I just love how she finally found her inner peace by working, hard!

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Me Before You

Author: Jojo Moyes

You may have seen the movie! Yes, it is beautiful. Although I got to say that the movie didn’t do the book any justice. Not the movie is not good, but the book sort of shone a new light on the more complex emotions between Will and Lou. And I sort of see Lou’s feeling from my mom’s perspective. Can you imagine to live without the love your life? But to be honest, I don’t want to read the second and third book. I just want to leave the love of Lou for Will.

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Here I am

Author: Jonathan Safran Foer

It is no secret that I am a big fan of the Foer brothers. This books tells a story of a Jewish family in the midst of political shake and natural disaster (in another part of the world). Grief and affairs are just a few spices to the Bloch family’s dynamic. I got to say that I bawled towards the end of the book. 

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Good Omens

Authors: Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

I decided to re-read this all-time-favorite fantasy comedy for all of the geeks out there as I am preparing myself for the TV show release. Yes, amazon picked this book up for a TV show but they didn’t tell us the release date (YET)!!!

“Good Omens” is thrilling, funny, and witty, and everything you can expect from the genius minds of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman and more. The plot revolves around the two very unlikely-to-be-friends characters (Aziraphale -angel- and Crowley -demon-), which became friends (without them realizing) as they are in need of each other’s help to stop the Apocalypse. They just love to live in the human world where there are books (Aziraphale’s obsession) and fast cars (Crowley’s obsession), and well, good food (Argita’s obsession). However, there is one major problem, there is a mishap during the Antichrist placement. So the clock is ticking, but they have to race with the dukes of hell and other Good and Evil forces to find the ticking time bomb.  

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2019 Reading Challenge

I enjoy and love reading for fun (not so much for education purposes :p), but I have never set a reading goal in my entire life before. So, some years I could read 30 books and there will be times where I just don’t have the time to do my fun reading and ended up reading 5 or less books per year. 

In the past few months I have been researching and following some bookstagram accounts, and I cleaned up my Goodreads account (yes, Goodreads in sooo messy but it is still a good way to keep track of your reading), became a member of “Book of the month” club, subscribed to “The Book Review” podcast, and back on Pinterest, just to find some inspiration on how to get a more organized reading experience (including how to organize your bookshelf). So, I started off 2019 fresh. 

And my 2019 reading challenge is to read 24 books. 

Seems reasonable. Not a very “bookish” number, but that is alright. I need to test the water out and see if this system is working. And after several consideration, I think TUMBLR is the perfect portal for me to share my readings. This way I can post the photo of my reading status and write a little review in the same post (I just can’t imagine how are those “bookstagrammers” are doing this in IG (yes, IG has some nice filter). But this way, I can have more control, right? so it is like the combination of things that I could do in both IG and Goodreads. 

So I will start posting books that I read this past January in timely order (yes, this is February already). 

Enjoy, Argita