My Name is Tara Waters

18 year old based in Amsterdam, student at the UvA. I like books. Pizza's good too.

[remnant-thoughts]

It isn’t uncommon to find galaxies in the eyes of a person, and to find a whole universe in their soul, or stardust in their words. But they’re never the same. Never the same space, the same world, the same light.

“I can’t find her” remnant-thoughts (via remnant-thoughts)

[that-was-not-supposed-to-happen]

A fateful bet (part 6)

(Draco x Reader)

“Come on try again.” Draco said.

You were frustrated because you couldn’t get this one spell right no matter what you tried.

“Forget it, it’s not working. I can’t do it.” You said with a sigh.

“Yes you can. Move your wand like this.” He took your hands in his and made the correct movements.

You did it again, like he had shown you muttering the words along. Nothing happened.

“Ok that’s it.” You exclaimed.

Draco pulled you to into his lap, resting his hands on your hips.

“We’ve barely even started, try again.” He said.

It’s funny how life goes sometimes, you thought. You had gone on that date with Draco, not expecting much of it. In the end you two got together and started going out. For real this time. He could be very charming, if he wanted to be. All the things you had disliked about him, turned out to be quite attractive to you now.

Things change. Sometimes they do so slowly, you don’t even notice. And when you finally do, it’s already too late.

You had started out hating the guy with all your heart but somewhere along the way your hate had turned into love and your heart was lost, forever.

As it is with many things, we can’t always choose who we fall in love with. It shouldn’t matter anyway. Love is love no matter what.

“Did you hear me Y/N?” Draco asked.

“Uh, sorry. I was thinking about some stuff.”

“Yes I can see that.” He said and laughed, “You’re cute, spacing out like that.”

“Oh shut up.” You said jokingly.

“Make me.”

You crushed your lips to his and slung your arms around him. Kissing Draco always left you breathless. Honestly, it was so good you couldn’t even remember how you could have hated him.

“I know I am irresistible but we’re still in the common room.” Draco said with a grin.

Ah yes, that’s how. Cocky bastard.

“Let’s try again, shall we?”

[tarawaters]

... What's the internet gonna fight about now because LEO GOT THE OSCAR <3

[tarawaters]

Congrats, Leo!!!! About time too <3

[tarawaters]

I want to be the friend you fall hopelessly in love with. The one you take into your arms and into your bed and into the private world you keep trapped in your head. The one who will memorize the things you say as well as the shape of your lips when you say them. I want to know every curve, every freckle, every shiver of your body.

Unravel Me - Tahereh Mafi

[hplyrikz]

There’s a brief moment when you first wake up where you have no memories, a blissful blank slate, a happy emptiness, but it doesn’t last long and you remember exactly where you are and what you are trying to forget.

Carrie Bradshaw, The Carrie Diaries (via hplyrikz)

[theweirdwaysoftheweylandsreads]

So I have seen posts going around booklr of people wearing big socks and reading, while surrounded by knick knacks, so I thought I’d give it ago.

What do you mean this isn’t the same? What’s wrong with it? I have all the criteria met. I even shaved my legs especially for this.

You can’t please anyone these days.

More to come, whether you like it or not.

[tarawaters]

This is THE Valentine's Day card.

[2-fast-2-curious]

The Story of Romeo and Juliet Condensed Into a Single GIF

[tarawaters]

Book Review - The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

Release Date - Oct 15th 2013 Genre - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery Publisher - Little, Brown and Company

It is 1866, and young Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On the stormy night of his arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of twelve local men who have met in secret to discuss a series of unexplained events: A wealthy man has vanished, a prostitute has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely ornate as the night sky. Richly evoking a mid-nineteenth-century world of shipping, banking, and gold rush boom and bust, The Luminaries is a brilliantly constructed, fiendishly clever ghost story and a gripping page-turner.

After I got this book recommended to me, I was a little wary - combine the length of a Tolstoy novel with a Victorian style and a setting that is bound to make any Australian roll their eyes (what is it with people and New Zealand?) and I wasn’t exactly very happy, but I decided to be open-minded and give it a shot. 

... No, seriously, why is everyone so obsessed with New Zealand?! Lord of the Rings was a 13 hour NZ tourism commercial! Anyway...

The style this book was written in was a pleasant surprise. I thought that a modern writer trying to create a Victorian voice for 800 pages would be an abysmal disaster, but I actually found that it was more accessible than your basic Victorian novel, concise and beautifully done. I applaud you for that, Catton.

But the success pretty much ends with the format. In terms of the story, as soon as Catton began describing the story of the third character, I was lost. And there are twelve main characters. TWELVE. I get the entire concept of having twelve characters, twelve zodiac signs, but it was too much and had the effect of being overwhelming. Speaking of the zodiac signs, I didn’t really understand the relevance of this to the plot; to me, it was just an additional thing to worry about.

As the timeline reached the present and events began to unravel, I began to struggle. To me, this book was already too long in the first place, but the complicated story made it feel even longer and my enthusiasm had kind of dissipated.

For a book that had made such a big deal of itself, I expected there to be a massive ending. Imagine that. A massively amazing plot twist, right at the end of the novel, that justified the last 800 pages. Something great. Like Anna Wetherell being an alien in disguise! It was gonna be awesome!

Nope.

The ending of this book was just totally flat. Like, I went through 800 pages and no action, no aliens, nothing exciting, just two characters listening to the rain? COME. ON. 

To summarize, while the style of The Luminaries was commendable, for a book that made a really big deal of itself the ending should have been stronger, Catton should have thrown the whole zodiac idea out of the window and cut the number of characters in half. Nothing was accomplished in this book that could not have been accomplished in a much easier to stomach 400 pages, it’s not like it set out to change the world or something. It’s worth a read because of the style, but it really needs to be your genre and your thing for you to be totally in love with this. Or you can read the first 300 pages, accept that you will probably never reach the end, and make up your own ending because fanfiction is amazing. That would also be a pretty good option.

[tarawaters]

Book Review - Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

Release Date - July 15th 2015 Genre - Fiction Publisher - HarperCollins Publishers

Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch--"Scout"--returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise's homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in a painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past--a journey that can be guided only by one's conscience. Written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman imparts a fuller, richer understanding and appreciation of Harper Lee. Here is an unforgettable novel of wisdom, humanity, passion, humor and effortless precision--a profoundly affecting work of art that is both wonderfully evocative of another era and relevant to our own times. It not only confirms the enduring brilliance of To Kill a Mockingbird, but also serves as its essential companion, adding depth, context and new meaning to an American classic.

I really wanted to love this book.

After reading something monumental like To Kill a Mockingbird, you really don’t expect there to be a sequel because of how canonical it was. It’s like giving the Bible a sequel. Because of how much I loved the first book, I dived straight into this one without a second thought, and I hoped it would be an exception to the sequel rule.

Nope.

I have observed a rule when it comes to sequels - each book is worse than its predecessor. And Go Set a Watchman was no exception.

The book started really well, and it felt almost as if you were coming home to the characters. The warmth was tangible, and this book even had the allure of *gasp* a blossoming romance!

And then Harper Lee killed off a treasured character, destroyed the character that we grew up looking up to, re-introduced the undertones of racism that were supposed to be resolved in the first novel and just to finish it off threw the romance out of the window.

Good. Great. Excellent.

Urgh! I so wanted to like this book, but the plot was just so flawed! It was like the author went along and just undid everything that she had pulled so perfectly together in the first book! What was the point of that?!

Sheldon perfectly expresses my feelings towards Go Set a Watchman. This shouldn’t have happened in the first place, Harper Lee should’ve known when to stop and I never expected her to pull a stunt like writing a sequel. Just nope.

If you want to preserve everything you love about To Kill a Mockingbird, don’t read this.

[books-wrote-my-story]

“Isn’t that what stories do, make real things fake, and fake things real?”

[tarawaters]

‘After all this time?’ 'Always’

R.I.P. The Legendary Alan Rickman. Thank you for being part of my childhood.

[tarawaters]

I am still totally shipping this.

[tarawaters]

I suppose each of us has his own fantasy of how he wants to die. I would like to go out in a blaze of glory, myself, or maybe simply disappear someday, far out in the heart of the wilderness I love, all by myself, alone with the Universe and whatever God may happen to be looking on. Disappear - and never return. That's my fantasy.

Edward Abbey

[kimpossibooty]

I JUST WANT TO PLAY QUIDDITCH AND GO TO TRANSFIGURATION CLASS AND BUY MY SCHOOL BOOKS AND HAVE HOLIDAY FEASTS IN THE GREAT HALL AND TALK TO THE GHOSTS AND GO TO HOGSMEADE AND PRACTICE SPELLS AND BE A WIZARD IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK

[bookswithbenefits]

So where is my damn letter?! 

[tarawaters]

Book Review - All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Release Date - Jan 6th 2015  Genre - Young Adult Fiction Publisher - Knopf Publishing Group

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.

Okay. I can write this review without thinking about the trauma this book put me through. Okay.

When it said on the back of the book ‘for fans of The Fault in Our Stars’, I never expected this level of trauma. You thought Augustus Waters was bad? You still can’t get over that? Think again. If you were even in the slightest touched by the death of Augustus Waters, this book will send you on a downward spiral that will end with intensive therapy.

When I picked up this book, for the first few chapters, it really wasn’t living up to the hype from what I could see. Violet’s character seemed stereotypical - the popular girl that’s been through some kind of trauma and has decided to get over it by not getting over it. Your basic YA female character, rejecting the world and everything. Theodore Finch’s character was also reminiscent of something. He was basically Augustus Waters without half the virtues of the actual Augustus Waters. So for the people preparing to read this book, you will either look at Finch’s character and roll your eyes or you will fall madly in love with him instantly because of the entire ‘I play guitar I’m a bad boy’ thing he has happening, which is mildly attractive.

These characters somehow end up in the same position; at the top of the Bell Tower, talking each other off it in their own way. When they are grouped together (to Finch’s insistence) on an assignment for U.S. Geography, the entire readership managed to predict what was going to happen and here comes the love story, which while well-written, was pretty much expected.

A little more into the book, we see the two taking a trip to a never-ending body of water, where Finch dives in a little too deep and gives Violet the scare of her life. At this point, anyone who knows the meaning of the word ‘foreshadowing’ is going ‘uh-oh’. It was at this point when the words on the page began to burn into my corneas and I became glued to the book.

Another suicide attempt later, the reader already has a pretty good idea of where the story is headed for Theodore Finch. But, because we are stupid young things in love with this boy now, we dare to hope for the best. Then the thing happens. The thing that will fucking tear your heart out and had me waking up at 6AM and questioning the meaning of life. I’ll tell you this - I never cry at books. Except for Fault in Our Stars. And now this. This book was even worse, because it left me with this empty feeling in my stomach like there was a hole there.

You wanna know what we saw in Augustus Waters? He didn’t die voluntarily. Augustus Waters had no choice and it was tragic and it was horrible and we couldn’t stop it and I still can’t forgive John Green, but I understood. Here, the theme of suicide is actually dealt with in a much more hands-on graphic way than I have ever seen it dealt with before, and it’s even more painful to the reader because we feel as if the character had a choice!

While this book is extremely valuable and close to my heart as it has changed the way I see things entirely (and because of some personal issues), to me it sends the wrong message. Niven aims to help people feeling suicidal, show that there is hope, and having one of her main characters commit suicide and describing it so graphically isn’t exactly blazing with a hopeful message. But this book definitely has shock value and it will raise awareness. Even if it does make you completely depressed and absolutely HURT YOU LIKE NO WORDS EVER HAVE BEFORE, I applaud any literature that can make me howl with tears.

Congratulations, Jennifer Niven. Now all you guys, if you have a strong stomach and are 100% sane and equipped to handle this book, go pick it up!