HOLIDAY READS

And I am back!! It's been a while since I've blogged about what books I read. If you haven't checked out my Instagram posts, I went overseas these school holidays. Sadly, due to my sort-of overpacked luggage, I wasn't able to bring any books to read. However, I did read one as it was gifted to me during Christmas and I whizzed through some books when I returned, just before school starts (which is tomorrow - eek). So here I am, compiling all the books I read these school holidays and I hope you enjoy the rest of your holidays/wish you luck in this upcoming school year.

The book which I read whilst on my holiday was Rich People Problems which is the last book of Kevin Kwan's popular series Crazy Rich Asians. Speaking of that, my fangirl heart kinda died while I was in Singapore and visiting some of the filming sites. This last book in the series is definitely not as romanticised as the first novel - but rather shows the very dirty side of rich love. However, I do however think it shows the most insight into the crazy rich life and actually made me realise I don't want to be rich to avoid being surrounded by people like the greedy family members in the novel.

I started reading The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants by Ann Brashares prior to my trip and finished it on my return. When reading the synopsis or reading but not understanding, it may be considered as a shallow teen book about romance and friendship but when you really think deeper, (read the author interview if the book has that - it really helped) there are meaningful messages. The protagonists in the novel are diverse in personality and everyone can relate to someone. It also tackles issues adolescents face and provides strength and hope to overcome such issues if the reader is also dealing with similar challenges.

The next one is another one I started reading prior to my trip and it's Michael Faudet's Smoke & Mirrors. As his previous collections of poems, it is beautifully written and transports you into the writer's mind and makes you think what experiences they've had to write such a beautiful piece. It is also the type of poetry that makes you sit and reflect about your own life and can give you strength ie. during a break-up, making you believe that you can push through.

**Edit: whoops I forgot to add this book but better late than never (hehe)

Another one I read was Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I would recommend this if you enjoy picking a part the meaning of texts, figurative language, etc. and I prefer it over George Orwell's 1984 simply because it drags less. However, it is quite a confusing pleasure read as there's so much symbolism so what I did was read some Spark Notes to help me better understand and it definitely helped!

This one surprised me, and I'm sure I've finally made my primary school teachers proud who keep saying during parent-teacher interviews that I need to read more non-fiction books. The title of the final book is 50 Political Ideas You Really Need To Know by Ben Dupré. I picked this one up at the library because I'm doing Global Politics 3/4 for VCE (I skipped 1/2) and during class I had no idea what the teacher or anyone was saying and the teacher recommended this book. If you're wanting to learn the basics of politics (mind you, it's very American) or are struggling to understand the terminology in politics class, I highly recommend this book. There isn't heavy jargon and anyone with a pretty extensive vocabulary will have no difficulty understanding the text. The format of each term is also constructed so that the reader can pick and choose what they want to read (there's a summary, timeline, a very short summary of each term (I'm talking about 2-3 word summary), a 'digging deeper' section as I like to call it, and the main text which walks you through how in history the ideology/term has been executed and/or theorised).

Links to books discussed:
Rich People Problems
The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants
Smoke and Mirrors
Fahrenheit 451
50 Political Ideas You Really Need To Know