Book Thoughts: The Fault in Our Stars

Title: The Fault in Our Stars
Author: John Green

Grab a box of tissues and this book, sit down, and prepare to bawl your eyes out and then want to go back to the first page and read it again and again.

This book is freaking fantastic and it's also an emotional train wreck. Hazel and Augustus are both teenaged cancer patients trying to figure out how to live with their circumstances. I mean, when an author as talented as John Green is writing a book about a subject like cancer, you know it's going to be a tear-jerker, and TFiOS does not disappoint.

Very rarely can a book make me laugh out loud, cry, laugh some more, and then sob through the last eighty pages. Even rarer is a book that can do that and then make me want to pick it up and start right back over again. TFiOS does that and more.

I don't know how much I can say without spoiling too much, but: Swedish hip-hop, Amsterdam, the Literal Heart of Jesus, and a cast of characters that is entirely unforgettable -- you NEED to read this book.

Book Thoughts: Paper Towns

Title: Paper Towns
Author: John Green

Ever since I started this book, I have been asking myself one question: WHY did it take me so long to start reading this?! Paper Towns was fantastic. Simply fantastic.

It's written from a guy's perspective, so there is guy humor, which was a little weird for me in places because, well, I'm not a guy. But that aside -- gahh, I don't even know what to say to express my love for Paper Towns. It's funny, it's sweet, it's heartbreaking, it's beautiful. I laughed out loud several times while I was reading it (I love when books can do that), but there were parts too that were just so full of meaning, and it's just awesome. This book is made of awesome.

It is one of the most quotable books I've read in a long time (I'd share a few, but then I wouldn't ever stop and this post would go on forever, which I don't think you want). I got this one from the library, but I'm thinking I may have to go buy a copy, like, right now, because it's one that I already know I'm going to want to read again.

I'm not actually telling you a whole lot about the book, I guess, but that's because I really don't know what to say. The characters are so real, and the story is engaging, and I couldn't put it down. I laughed out loud a lot (yeah, I said that already) and it really made me think (which I love), and also, there are frequent literary references and poetry quotes (that right there is enough to win me over). If you haven't read Paper Towns, I don't know what you're still waiting for. Go get a copy right now.