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review: rooftops of tehran

book info: on sale: now copy from: public library pages: 348 review written: 21.12.17 originally published: 2009 edition read: Penguin NAL 2009 title: Rooftops of Tehran author: Mahbod Seraji In a middle-class neighborhood of Iran's sprawling capital city, 17-year-old Pasha Shahed spends the summer of 1973 on his rooftop with his best friend Ahmed, joking around one minute and asking burning questions about life the next. He also hides a secret love for his beautiful neighbor Zari, who has been betrothed since birth to another man. But the bliss of Pasha and Zari's stolen time together is shattered when Pasha unwittingly acts as a beacon for the Shah's secret police. The violent consequences awaken him to the reality of living under a powerful despot, and lead Zari to make a shocking choice... my thoughts: This book was first published in 2009 and I remember adding it to my list around that time but never actually reading it since I preferred checking out library books to ...

The Secret

topic: faeries

I love good faerie stories. They're far more complex and interesting than the typical vampire or angel or werewolf thing (should I call this grouping of topics, VAW?) Honestly, there hasn't been a single faerie book that I've read that wasn't terrible. Some examples of my favourites.




The Lament books by Maggie Steivater are more cultural and emotional, and brilliant. The Wicked Lovely books are rich with just mad fun and wicked fantasy plots. The books following Tithe are equally amazing! Melissa Marr and Holly Black are goddesses of Faerie fiction. I love them both to death!

topic: faeries 

All my topic posts have been complaints, but this is not one of them. I think it's because faerie books are more difficult to write that there aren't so many generic ones out there. Wings, by Aprilynne Pike, is amazingly creative, with the concept that faeries are plants, or function like plants. She writes lots of details into it that weaves sense into fiction.

why do I like them so much?

 It takes loads of creativity and imagination to create faerie stories. You've got a whole new culture to define,   a race to create and give realistic qualities to, and a complicated political structure to build. Given that there are foundations, such as the Seelie and Unseelie Court and Fae like Oberon and Titania and that sort of thing. And also tales of faeries in many cultures, but there's always foundations when writing anything. 
 When there's a lot of time and effort and depth in a book, the book becomes more enjoyable, more realistic and true. For instance, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of The Rings series. He created entire languages, histories and "religions" that took many many years to build, and from that he wrote the world of Middle Earth. To write up an entire world from his mind! Fantasy writers definitely have it hard.

as a reader

From the other topic posts, I don't enjoy mindless reading. As an awesome blogger commented: 

"a significant percentage of YA lit is made for the indulgence of the teenage sense rather than the engagement of the teenage mind"  ---Julia

YES! Exactly! Most Faerie themed books fall into the small percentage of YA Lit that DOES engage the mind. It's thought provoking fantasy, which in my opinion is the best type of fantasy. As a reader, books that tug at my brain are books I'd love to read.

as a writer

 To those writers who dare to write Faerie themed books, I applaud you. It's definitely a challenge it even begin a novel of this sort, but to make it good is phenomenal. Keep writing, you Faerie novelists, because if you can accomplish this, you're a very talented writer. 

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Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff

Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff Series:   The Lotus War #1 Source:  gifted hardcover Publisher:  Thomas Dunne Books Publication Date: Sep 18, 2012 Age Group: Young Adult A DYING LAND The Shima Imperium verges on the brink of environmental collapse; an island nation once rich in tradition and myth, now decimated by clockwork industrialization and the machine-worshipers of the Lotus Guild. The skies are red as blood, the land is choked with toxic pollution, and the great spirit animals that once roamed its wilds have departed forever. AN IMPOSSIBLE QUEST The hunters of Shima’s imperial court are charged by their Shōgun to capture a thunder tiger – a legendary creature, half-eagle, half-tiger. But any fool knows the beasts have been extinct for more than a century, and the price of failing the Shōgun is death. A HIDDEN GIFT Yukiko is a child of the Fox clan, possessed of a talent that if discovered, would see her executed by the Lotus Guild. Accompanying her father on the Shōgun...

topic: nasty or noble?

source: tumblr " And he understood human nature so deeply, not just our great capacity for virtue and for goodness, and for love, but our capacity for pain and destruction and anger." Tom Hiddleston on Shakespeare There's something about the way Mr Hiddleston (Mr Hiddleston, haha, why am I so formal? I don't know him personally, so I don't feel like I'm privileged to address him on first name basis) says things, about the characters he plays or on human nature itself, but whenever he says something like this, I get very inspired. Mind you, I haven't taken psychology or studies on human nature at all, so I don't speak from professional knowledge.  "I believe we are born clean slates, and we all have a capacity to be nasty or noble" Nasty or Noble? They're two halves of a whole, I think, and we have to embrace both parts in ourselves. A person that is completely nice, completely passive and serene, is empty. He that never yells, or spea...

topic: happy books or sad books?

This blog post is prompted by a discussion I had at lunch on Friday with my table of friends. We're all book lovers, so it became a passionate discussion. I make myself happy, even when I'm not. If someone were to ask me "Are you happy?" I wouldn't know what to respond. I think because I'm quite bubbly at school, people automatically assume that I'm just always happy all the time. I'd beg to differ: I'm not a very cheery person when I get home. It's because of my introverted-ness. I know you're thinking "What? Then why is she bubbly at school?" Because I like being friendly, but school usually drains out all my social-ness and I recover over the weekend by staying in room all by myself and doing things alone. Back on topic. We asked a question: "Which do you prefer, sad books or happy books?" I said, "I like sad books" And that fired off into passionate "argument". A friend (let's call her C) told...

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