Books and Songs (1)

Sometimes, when I listen to a song, I think it matches up perfectly with a book I've read. And sometimes, when I read a book, I think it matches up perfectly with a song I've heard. This feature is all about showcasing some of these books and songs that I think fit together really well.

I've been wanting to start doing Books and Songs posts for awhile now, so I'm very happy that I've finally gotten around to it! You'll probably see these posts pop up occasionally on the blog, so if you like the idea of more Books and Songs posts please let me know down in the comments! :)

BOOK: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
SONG: Bad Blood by Bastille
LYRICS:
We were young and drinking in the park
There was nowhere else to go
And you said you always had my back
Oh but how were we to know

That these are the days that bind you together, forever
And these little things define you forever, forever

All this bad blood here, won't you let it dry?
It's been cold for years, won't you let it lie?

If we're only ever looking back
We will drive ourselves insane
As the friendship goes resentment grows
We will walk our different ways

WHY: 

Unfortunately, We Were Liars is an easy book to spoil, so while I'll try to be as vague as possible, I recommend not reading this explanation if you haven't read We Were Liars yet.

We were young and drinking in the park 
The Liars are young and reckless

There was nowhere else to go
The Liars are stuck on the island with no other options

These are the days that bind you, forever
The Liars' time spent on the island forced them to bond with each other and form their friendship
These little things define you forever, forever
The seemingly small actions the Liars make end up affecting them forever (Cadence's actions especially!)

All this bad blood here
The Liars consider the Sinclair family to have "bad blood"

If we're only ever looking back/We will drive ourselves insane
Cadence's character in a nutshell

As the friendship goes resentment grows
Cadence starts to resent the Liars when they don't answer her emails

We will walk our different ways
In the end, Cadence and the Liars walk their different ways

Aside from the lyrics, I think the mood and tone of "Bad Blood" matches up with the mood and tone of We Were Liars. They're both kind of dark and edgy, and even a little eerie.

BONUS SONG: Things We Lost in the Fire by Bastille
LYRICS:
Things we lost to the flames
Things we'll never see again
All that we've amassed
Sits before us, shattered into ash

I was the match and you were the rock
Maybe we started this fire
We sat apart and watched
All we had burned on the pyre

These are the things, the things we lost
These are the things we lost in the fire fire fire

Flames-- they licked the walls
Tenderly they turned to dust all that I adore

WHY: I'm just going to present this song without comment. If you've read the book, you'll understand.

So, do you guys think this book/song match-up is a good one? What book would you pick for these songs? What song would you pick for this book? Let me know down in the comments!

Waiting on Wednesday (46)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine.

My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories by Holly Black, Ally Carter, Matt de la Pena, Gayle Forman, Jenny Han, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Myra McEntire, Stephanie Perkins, Rainbow Rowell, Laini Taylor, and Kiersten White
From Goodreads:
If you love holiday stories, holiday movies, made-for-TV-holiday specials, holiday episodes of your favorite sitcoms and, especially, if you love holiday anthologies, you’re going to fall in love with MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME: TWELVE HOLIDAY STORIES by twelve bestselling young adult writers, edited by international bestselling author Stephanie Perkins.

I love holiday stories, holiday movies, made-for-TV holiday specials, holiday episodes of my favorite sitcoms, and holiday anthologies, so I'm like ninety-nine percent sure I'm going to love My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories. This anthology features some of my favorite authors (Stephanie Perkins! Holly Black! Ally Carter! Gayle Forman! David Levithan! Kiersten White! So many!), so I have super high expectations for this book.

What are you waiting on this week? Leave links to your WoW posts below so I can check them out!

Book Covers: The Good (Rachel)

Hello everyone and welcome to part one of a series I'm going to call Book Covers: The Good, The Bad, and The Girls in Dresses, in which I will share some of my favorite and least favorite book covers. Today's post is The Good!

When I made the list of books to feature in this little series, I found that I have the most good covers that I want to share, so that's awesome! I like way more covers than I don't like, so good job designers/book publishing people!

The covers of How to Love and The Chaos of Stars are simple but gorgeous. I like that the focus is on the words instead of cluttering the covers with images. The colors are bright and beautiful, and these covers definitely stand out in a bookstore.

The words are definitely the main focus of the covers of The Infinite Moment of Us and The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, but both of these covers also feature a couple. These books are both romances, so it's important to accurately depict the topic, but I like that the images of the couples are smaller and less important than the titles.

I'm not crazy about the couple on the cover of Meant to Be, but the beautiful colors more than make up for it. I mean, just look at that stunning rainbow! The Unspoken cover has beautiful, simple artwork. I really like the dark silhouettes against the bright background.

The cover of The Diviners appears pretty simple at first glance, but once you take a closer look, you see that there is so much intricate detail. It's stunning, especially in real life! The computer screen does not do this cover justice. The Fault in Our Stars has a very simple cover, which has become so iconic in the past few years. I now refer to that particular shade of blue as "tfios blue," and the color has become instantly recognizable as being the cover of The Fault in Our Stars.

I love that the cover of Daughter of Smoke and Bone is entirely black and white, except for the one pop of color. It's absolutely gorgeous. The cover of Shadow and Bone also has a great color scheme: the gray/black/white with a little pop of red. The fonts used for both of these titles are also really striking and artistic.

I'm usually not a huge fan of couples on covers (except when they're tiny details like some of the above covers), but The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer has a gorgeous cover. The dark colors and the fact that the couple is in the water give the cover a mysterious tone, and I really like the way the title is layered over the people in such a cool font. The cover of No One Else Can Have You is unique and intriguing. The sweater material is such an interesting choice to put on a book cover, and it's so freaking awesome.

What do you think of these covers? Love 'em, hate 'em? What are your favorite covers? Let me know down in the comments!

Rachel Rambles About We Were Liars

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
From Goodreads:
A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.
We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart. 
Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

My initial reaction upon finishing this book was: "What. The. Fuck." We Were Liars is the strangest book I've ever read. This means it's really hard to explain and review, but I'll do my best.

I've been anticipating We Were Liars for a long time. I'm a huge fan of E. Lockhart's previous books, so obviously I was excited to read whatever she decided to publish next. When I first read the summary of We Were Liars, my excitement transformed from "oh my gosh a new E. Lockhart book!" to "oh my gosh that book sounds freaking amazing!"

We Were Liars is mind-blowing and weird and haunting and beautiful and disturbing and surprising and fantastic. It is nothing like E. Lockhart's other books, nor is it like any book I've ever read. We Were Liars is impossible to describe or summarize accurately. It's one of those books that you just have to read for yourself. You have to trust everyone who tells you to read it, because there's not much else to say other than, "you must read this book."

So, that's all I'm going to say. You must read this book. Stop reading reviews of it, go get yourself a copy of it, open it, and start reading. Try not to have any expectations. Just...read. You might love it, you might hate it, but I promise you won't regret reading it. The experience you'll get from reading this book is unique and unprecedented. So just go for it. Take a chance and read this book.

Rachel's BEA Book Haul

Hi guys! So the three of us talked all about the books we got from BEA in this post, but since that post only covered the highlights, I thought I'd share with you my full book haul. I ended up with so many books that I had so many things to say about, so I filmed two separate videos. The following videos are parts one and two of my BEA book haul. They're really long (like 20 minutes each!), which I am sorry about, but I wanted to share details about each book and tell everyone why I'm excited about them instead of just showing you the books. :D

If you attended BEA: what are the most exciting books you picked up? If you did not attend BEA: which of the above books are you eagerly anticipating? Let me know down in the comments!