All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

I enjoyed it sooo much!  It is beautifully written. It’s as joyful as it is heartbreaking.  All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven is a book that knocked me off my ass!

captivating!

captivating!

I loved how the author painted the characters Theodore and Violet.  Their characters worked so well together.  They were so opposite yet so the same.  Their characters were presented in a beautiful interwoven style just the way I liked it. You get to see, hear and feel both of their perspectives.

You will get so invested in the characters of both Theodore and Violet.  It is a book that will make you fall in love with these two and – without giving away anything – will later reduce you to tears and will make you badly miss them.

I particularly got so captivated by the character of Finch.  I love the way he adopts a persona.  Though perceived by others as someone who is weird, he can become somebody that is either a slightly different version if not a better version of himself.  Add to that is his adoring wit.  He could be very funny and quirky yet so deep, romantic and definitely full of sense and essence.  He is such a unique character every reader I guess would be snuck up and drawn in by his passionate persona.

such beautiful words...

such beautiful words…

All The Bright Places is one of those few stories that would slowly and gently grab your heart as in like you have fallen so much deeply in love.  And yet after sometime it will crush you into emotional bits and pieces.  I was not happy with the ending but it is one ending that is a must to make this book a remarkable book.  The heartbreaking twists at the end parts of the story would make you get to love it.

Somehow, I think 5 stars aren’t enough for such a remarkable book.  I will definitely give it as many stars as those shining in the entire universe because All The Bright Places truly deserves them.

Nakaka…!

Two Glances and a Pinch

Two glances and a pinch is what made my day today.  These very simple acts are the movements I made that totally made my day different from the rest of the days that has passed.  I know that such is a silly thought for such an old soul like me.  But today I was feeling like I’m in my first few weeks of high school, shivering and shuddering because of an absurd chance of mingling with a person of infatuation.

The Christmas Season has passed, a new year is on a roll and last year’s events and highlights are now officially a memory.  But today is some kind of a different highlight.  I received two short glances from the person I have been thinking, wishing and praying for and that I got to give a light pinch to that person’s arm before I walked away.

Walking away, I felt the electric current in my right hand.  The lucky hand that pinched the arm of my object of infatuation.  And as I walked away, I felt my left hand being so jealous of my right hand.  And while I walk away, I can feel my lips curving into a happy shape known by all as ‘smile’.

While the electricity in my right hand starts to wane as I walk away, I wanted to let everyone near me to hear me shouting, “Hello, all of you!  It’s a beautiful day! A perfect day! A day of possibility!”love photo

Santa Maria!!! Salamat!

The Superbook Knows That Love Always Wins

A considerable amount of my time growing up during my pre and early teen years was spent by watching the original cartoon animation series The Superbook.  It is an anime series that chronicled the events in the Bible’s Old and New Testament.

joym chris and gizmo

joy, chris and gizmo

The Bible in its written form can be so intensely deep and enormously ornate in words, idiolect and terminologies.  Because of this, its thoughts, teachings and philosophies can be at times so difficult to understand.  Because of this, The Superbook then was my early basis and reference on how to understand the stories and teachings of the Bible.

And from among all episodes of this valuable anime series during the 1980s (including its re-runs dubbed in Filipino language), never did I saw Christian, Joy and their toy robot Gizmo encounter an episode that being gay and falling in love with a person of the same sex or gender is a sin.

Maybe it is because the creators of The Superbook series knows that it does not take a person to read, know and understand the Bible to realize that falling in love is not a sin.  I guess The Superbook creators knew that love is universal and that love is beautiful.  I guess The Superbook knows that there’s no book on “how” and there’s no book on “who” when in comes to love.

The same thought that this music conveys…

Ay lab Superbuk! Ang kumontra, Chaka!

They’ll Never Love You Like I Can

love photo

Having so much love to give that is already spilling out of the brim yet no one wants to take is the most pathetic feeling.  This is according to last Friday’s episode of Forevermore, a Filipino TV series shown nightly.

I guess I would have to agree on it for I have been experiencing the same for the last 22 million years.  But still I’m hopeful that my patience will pay off and my waiting to give away love will pass like what a bad season does.

While patiently waiting, I am singing Sam Smith’s latest single entitled Like I Can

Antay antay lang…

A Love That’s Not Broken Just Bent

Today is Valentine’s Day.  It is but appropriate to write something about love, fidelity, infatuation or even lust. Instead, I’m opting to post a song that is not about sweet crazy love neither bitter broken love.  It is a song that is in between.   The composition is so good it can be a song for the hopeful (who wish to revive their feelings and learn to love again) or the hopeless (who wish to move on and learn love again).

For sure, considerable numbers of people today are trying their best to  rekindle their affection towards the person they once was fascinated with or are trying their best to find a way to get out of a ruptured relationship.  As what the song says… it is a love that’s not broken just “bent”.

A happier Valentine’s Day to those who are at this situation…

Gud lak na lang…

Do you have “The One That Got Away”?

Human beings 40 years old and above at one point in their early lives has encountered a special relationship with another person may it be in the form of unexplainable infatuation, true love or irrational lust.  It is the special feeling that you at such a tender age thought would last forever.  But at some point in time it is destiny who will judge that both your cards just didn’t fall the right way which results to your drifting apart.

Since destiny joked on you by encountering unexplainable and uncontrolled circumstances, feelings of regrets sets in.  Longingness to relive the special feelings and yearning to revive the failed sensation ensues.  This regret, longingness and yearning is like an unresolved bump in the throat, it is like an unsolved crime caused by incomprehensible mystery.

As you age, the only option you will have is to admit, recognize and endure that the person whom you had a failed mystifying affection for is the One That Got Away…

Kung ikaw ay cuarenta pataas at wala ka nito, siguro dahil ikaw ay isang pinagpala o kaya’y di ka lumalabas ng bahay sins bert. : )