Review: Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Author R.J. Palacio

Title: Wonder

Author: R.J. Palacio

Published: 2012 by The Bodley Head (Random House group)

Pages: 313

Find it at: Amazon

My Rating: 5/5! <3

Goodreads Blurb!

I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.

August (Auggie) Pullman was born with a facial deformity that prevented him from going to a mainstream school—until now. He's about to start 5th grade at Beecher Prep, and if you've ever been the new kid then you know how hard that can be. The thing is Auggie's just an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face. But can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, despite appearances?

R. J. Palacio has written a spare, warm, uplifting story that will have readers laughing one minute and wiping away tears the next. With wonderfully realistic family interactions (flawed, but loving), lively school scenes, and short chapters, Wonder is accessible to readers of all levels.

My Thoughts!

The use of words here might seem lame, but Wonder is a wonderful story. August (Auggie) Pullman is a ten year old kid with a facial deformity (craniofacial abnormalities). That shouldn't be something to define him by, but it's also something that cannot be ignored, not at first anyway. It's hard for him to deal with it and within the carefully presented story in Wonder, we live through a year in Auggie's life as he makes a major transition - going to school for the first time in fifth grade, after having been home-schooled for years. It's not a sad story, but it's a lot about dealing with problems. It's about friendship, love and kindness and all the human things that take time to develop, but develop they do. He's most certainly not disabled, so his parents choose to send him to a regular school. It's hard for August to initially find himself the center of attention for so many people at once. He's used to being stared at, or perhaps the quick saw-you-but-ohmygod-I'll-look-away kind of awkward look, but definitely not coming across a huge group of middle schoolers who could be mean, awkward or totally kind. 

Pic credit: Mr. Solarz

Wonder is August's story, but it's also about his family. His mom, dad and fourteen year old sister, Olivia, all of whom love him to bits. You'd think having an unusual face would be hard, and it sure is, but the book also explores how people around August deal with it. It's quite heart-warming to see how much his family loves him, and how the problem makes some of their habits different from other families. One of the best things about this story is that it is full of optimism. Auggie's family, his teachers and the friends he eventually makes, all learn to love him and make him feel confident of his abilities. He's a normal kid with a classic reverence for Star Wars and love for his dog, Daisy. He's smart, intelligent, sometimes witty and honestly sincere. And let's face it: very, very brave.

The book explores not just August's life, but also those of other characters, which is again, one of the coolest things about this book. It's been written and presented just so well. You wouldn't really get to judge anyone, because just when you are about to form your opinions of a character, bam! You'd get their side of the story. When Olivia (Via) does something you'd be inclined to say is wrong, she'd put in her story, and then you'd think even more broadly and look at Auggie as a normal dude. I think the writing style does something to the book's overall feel. It doesn't ask you to pity a boy with a haphazard face, even when it talks about his problems, because it shows how people do try to deal with it, how they themselves learn a lot and how it is possible to get over anything with love and kindness. It is very much capable of instilling in hope. Like Auggie's mom says, "there are always going to be jerks in the world. But I really believe that there are more good people on this earth than bad people, and the good people watch out for each other and take care of each other."

I loved all the characters, with the slight exception of Julian, the mean kid who bullied Auggie, but now since in the latest version of the book, the author has included a chapter on Julian, I'm looking forward to reading it! Perhaps that would explain things from his point of view, just like it was done with others. I loved the girl called Summer too. We so need more kids like her! And like Jack. Apart from the emotion-invoking writing and complete, lovable characters, Wonder is also a great example of a really good book. Maybe now that my work involves looking at these sort of things and that's why I'm observing it, but it has many elements that a budding writer could make use of. But coming back to the story, another thing that struck me were the dialogues - it was like each character spoke on its own, in their unique voice. Those are capable of making a reader laugh, smile, giggle, feel anxious, whatever, on their own accord. The ending is brilliant! I couldn't have been more satisfied, although I didn't want the book to end either. Oh, Mr. Tushman (yep, that's his name!), I liked you in the beginning and all through, but you took all the love with the ending! :')

I can see many re-readings in the line! Wonder is recommended to everyone. 

Some quotable quotes from the book:

“If every person in this room made it a rule that wherever you are, whenever you can, you will try to act a little kinder than is necessary - the world really would be a better place. And if you do this, if you act just a little kinder than is necessary, someone else, somewhere, someday, may recognize in you, in every single one of you, the face of God.” 

“Do people look the same when they go to heaven, mommy?"

"I don't know. I don't think so."

"Then how do people recognize each other?"

"I don't know, sweetie. They just feel it. You don't need your eyes to love, right? That's how it is in heaven. It's just love, and no one forgets who they love.”

“The things we do are the most important things of all. They are more important than what we say or what we look like. The things we do outlast our mortality. The things we do are like monuments that people build to honor heroes after they’ve died. They’re like the pyramids that the Egyptians built to honor the pharaohs. Only instead of being made out of stone, they’re made out of the memories people have of you. That’s why your deeds are like your monuments. Built with memories instead of with stone.”

“Here’s what I think: the only reason I’m not ordinary is that no one else sees me that way.”

Review: Winners by Danielle Steel

Danielle Steel

Title: Winners

Author: Danielle Steel

Published: 2013 by Bantam Press

Pages: 334

Find it at: Amazon

My Rating: 3.5/5

Goodreads Blurb!

When a horrific chairlift accident leaves 17-year-old competitive skier Lily Thomas paralyzed, she must come to grips with the fact that she'll not only be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life, but will never fulfill her lifelong dream of winning Olympic gold. Meanwhile, her wealthy father, who has doted on Lily since her mother died when she was three, is devastated as he watches his only child lose all she once cherished and suffer through the arduous road to recovery. 

But just as all hope seems lost, Lily meets Teddy, a young man even more badly injured than she, but as doggedly determined to live an enriching life. Danielle Steel is at her best in this powerful story of a father and daughter triumphing together over unthinkable tragedy, creating new lives for themselves and providing hope for others along the way.

My Thoughts! 

Winners revolves around restructuring your life after a tragedy. 17 year old Lily Thomas is a ski champion training for the Olympics. During a holiday she suffers an accident that makes her paraplegic for life. The story is about Lily, her father whose life revolves around his only child and others who're associated with them in different ways. Almost everyone has been in a tough situation at one point or the other, and the story tells how Bill Thomas, Lily's father, makes life easy and worth living for everyone. Once he's accepted his child's fate (after being in denial and having the world's best doctors look at her), he strives to do everything he can to make her life amazing, and help others like her. 

With a friend's help, he manages to build a facility for SCI kids, a project that meant a whole new life for not just the patients, but the many people he teamed up to make this project a reality. Lily meanwhile copes with her new life with a lot of optimism among moments of despair. She befriends Teddy in the rehab facility, a boy her own age and strikes a grand friendship. She's given a new lease of life when her physical fitness tutor suggests she try for the Paralympics and with a renounced zest for skiing, she starts training for it while coping up with school. 

The story's good and surmises that not all lives that seem perfect remain in that form forever. Human lives are frequently encountered by sadness, loss and depression and those don't look at perfection or poverty. They strike everyone. And when it a good life shattered, it takes effort to feel good about life again. Lily's strength and willpower, her passion for skiing and love for her father makes her go through her recovery and future life. Many people are involved in making it better for her. Her doctor, Jessie, who faces a tragedy of her own when her loving husband Tim dies, leaving four children with her. Teddy, the new friend who becomes her soul twin and best friend. Everyone who wants to help Lily are approached by her dad and they help him build The Lily Pad, the new facility for children. 

The characters seemed well-formed but some of the relationships (work and personal) seemed a little "too" perfect to me. In fact, a lot of things seemed to fit in tremendously well and mostly because Bill was indeed a billionaire. I'm not biased, but I'm sure the way Lily's life transformed even after such an injury, it wouldn't have been the same had her dad been a middle class man. But then the book is about the so-called perfectionists and none of the characters are snobbish and apart from what he does for her treatment and building the facility, there's not much "boasting" about it. In the end it's just a father and daughter's story and how they make "winners" out of everyone involved in The Lily Pad project. 

The writing although simple and easy, seemed a little repetitive to me. There is little deviation from the main theme, although it does go into other characters' personal lives too. It just could have been a shorter book, I guess. I enjoyed some of the lighter moments, especially Teddy's dialogues and it wasn't a really depressing book, but not something absolutely profound either. It's simple, nice and gives a good message. A little "too" perfect for my taste, but it's a happy ending, so that's cool! 

It's an easy read for readers looking for a story about hope, determination and triumph in the face of tragedy. Recommended for: Young Adult, Teenagers, Adult readers.

"It's just when we need it most that we don't reach out for help. And I look at what Carole went through and realize how insignificant my problems were, even if I thought they were monumental and worth ending my life over. They weren't. And thank God I didn't. Look at all the good things that have happened since... It's a whole new life."

Thank you Random House publishers for this book! :)

Classic Talk # 2: The Old Man and the Sea

Ernest Hemingway

Title: The Old Man and The Sea

Author: Ernest Hemingway

Written in: 1951, published in 1952

Find it at: Amazon

Accredited with: The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953 and cited as contributing to the Nobel Prize for Literature to Hemingway in 1954!

Pages: 144

"It's silly not to hope. It's a sin, he thought". This line from the supposedly outstanding short story by Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and The Sea perfectly summarizes what was one of the most pivotal themes for me in this book: hope. 

Set in the seas of The Gulf, this is a story about an old man named Santiago, a boy Manolin and a big marlin (a kind of fish). It's a story of the old man's struggle as he sets out to fish after 84 days of no luck, full of hope and determination. Because of family pressures, Manolin is unable to accompany him, although he cares deeply for the old man and helps him get ready for the journey by bringing him fresh sardines for the bait and getting the equipment ready. The old man sails off in his skiff and it is after hours of baiting and waiting when finally he feels the line get stiff. Finally he's caught some fish, although he might have been a big fish because he started swimming on its own course, taking the old man and the boat along with him. The story is about this journey, about the man in his aged demeanor and his habit of talking to himself (because he's alone now), about how he struggles to catch this big fish, bigger than the skiff itself! 

The old man's thinking to himself, talking to himself and in this one can observe how different it might have been had the boy been with him, as the old man also observes. They could have taken care of everything together, but as it was, he was being rowed by the fish far into the sea for almost three days. Most of the writing is internal dialogue, the man talking to himself or to the sea or to the fish and thinking back to his small shack in the small village where he lives, thinking of the boy and thinking of life. What I found so.... peculiarly cute (I'm sorry if this word doesn't fit the actual literary understanding, but this is just my perspective) was how Santiago respected the fish too. He understood that as a fisherman he has to kill them, but that's the way it is to be. Natural. "He is a great fish and I must convince him, he thought. Thank God they are not as intelligent as we who kill them; although they are more noble and able".

Isn't the cover gorgeous?
I have this one! :D

Santiago offers hope, like I mentioned before. He's tired and his hands are bleeding and cramped, his shoulders ache and he had to eat raw, distasteful fish, but he still holds on to the big fish because that is what is meant for him to take. Even afterwards he's battling back home, fighting more creatures of the sea, yet he's hopeful. Apart from the hope angle, I found parallels to his philosophical thinking. "I do not understand these things, he thought. But it is good that we do not have to try to kill the sun or the moon or the stars. It is enough to live on sea and kill our true brothers".

With all these thoughts for company, he's contemplating if what he has done and been through at the sea was right and if he was worthy of it. This is one thing I was sad to see. From how I interpret it, when the old man continuously thinks it was wrong for him to go so far out, it says if you have stepped out of the zone society has created for you, even if you don't feel you can't do it, if you fail you would think you did the wrong thing because what you did wasn't expected from you. I don't know, that's just one way I interpreted. Although yes, it does show him as a victor in the end, it being a "victory in defeat" so I guess it makes up for it. "But a man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated."

This is a beautiful story, albeit a short one. That's what makes it simple too, I guess. I loved the way it was written, although at some parts I thought it was repetitive, but they turned out to be the old man's thoughts and I suppose it is supposed to reflect the way he was thinking. I got this book sometime last year but got around to reading it now. For my 2013 Reading Challenge, I had decided to read up classics, but I've managed to read just three of them. :| I hope to make up for it this year itself! Classics are just so.... classic! ;)

  

PS- This book has been made into a movie twice! Once in 1958 and once in 1999. You can watch the 1999 movie on youtube here.