Meg's Favourite: YA books to read

And we're back!!
Hello?
It's Me....

But this isn't Adele speaking lol.

*snaps back to normal mode again*

So I promised to make this a new series for 2016 and this post was actually meant to go live last week but you know, life and PMS, mostly PMS happened. I am really sorry.

For today's post I thought I'd talk about fiction because I love fiction. I cannot read a non-fiction book to save my life but give me a piece of that fiction and my mind shuts down until that story is properly devoured.
Add young adult fiction to the mix and I become a total zombie.

Yes, feel free, judge all you want but I am that 22 year old who reads books decades below her. Well, one decade to be precise, but still. I really shouldn't be reading this shit. I should be reading the Sydney Sheldon's and Dan Brown's and Sophie Kinsella. John Green should not be one of my favourite authors. I am an adult. I should love being an adult and do adult things. NOT!!

Anyway, here is a list of my ultimate top 5 Young Adult fiction books plus my favourite uber mushy and deep quotes from them :))

1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.

This book! Dear Lord this book!! I can't even! Like honestly, every time I think about it I start to get emotional. Perhaps because the author did a fantastic job of painting the picture of a little youngin who is just learning how to deal with emotions and being human and basically just life.

This one had me all up in my feelings I even blogged about it here. And it is a masterpiece. A stunning work of art. We've all been that kind of broken and Chbosky reminds us that this situation is never permanent.

"... I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons and maybe we'll never know most of them but even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from we can still choose where we go from there...."

2. Looking for Alaska by John Green
This book is just the SI Unit for BFF goals.  I fell in love with this book because Alaska is that beautiful, unpredictable ball of energy we all wish we had as a best friend growing up. And in a way we all have that one Alaska kind of person in our lives, the one who comes in shakes our world and then leaves and we are left wondering what to do next, Plus the way the author tells the story is a slight twist from the normal first person narration and I think that is really cool.

" ... we need never be hopeless because we can never be irreparably broken."

3. Paper Towns by John Green
John Green is on this list. Again. Because I wish John Green was around when I was thirteen, oh how I wish. So this one for me is a win just because I fell in love with the journey Quentin was on. Like every other book in this genre there are a lot of self discovery moments and the way he uses his words, laaawwd!! This book is about a friendship and an adventure in pursuit of that friendship.

"... I'm in love with cities I've never been to and people I have never met."

4. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

This has to be the ultimate teenage love story, well besides the one between one Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters of course, Also I think it is the one book which provides encouragement to that awkward girl who has a lot of problems back home that indeed stuff gets better, It actually does. And it did. Spoiler alert... the author failed to give us a happy ending in this one. Which sucks but this one is totally worth the disappointment.

"Holding Eleanor's hand was like holding a butterfly or a heartbeat. Like holding something complete and completely alive and he'd expected her to feel like heaven plus Nirvana plus that scene in Willy Wonka where Charlie starts to fly."

5. The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

Between watching the movie I'd recommend the books because the books help you understand more about the situation in the wondrous land of Panem that prompted Katniss to step out as tribute setting off the whirlwind of events that followed. I am not big on fantasy fiction but I fell for this one because there is something really captivating in the story. Also Liam Hemsworth. Liam freaking Hemsworth.

*dreamy sigh*

But to enjoy his yumminess you need to watch the movie, Which isn't the worst idea but please read the books first. They will not disappoint.

"It's the things we love most that destroy us."

Till next time, thanks for dropping by. 

Love and sunshine,

Megan :-*

all my images are from Google. 

Taking Stock in October:)

I shouldn't be writing this. I have an exam in a few hours. I should read. But look where my very low attention span has me ending up? I apologize for my silence. With the past few weeks trying to keep up with my blogging for the Story Moja Festival and posting content on my new baby I just haven't had time for this site. Also school. School is the reason. For me neglecting this blog. For my stress. For headaches. For global warming. For everything negative including bad WiFi lol :D.

But I hope you, my dear readers are well. I miss you guys. And the occasional sweet comments you tend to leave. I promise a post on how the Story Moja Fest went once I can clear up my schedule a bit. Believe me it was everything and a bag of Awesome Ugandans lol. In the meantime here is a little Taking Post because let's face it you have nothing better to read or why else are you here? 

Enjoy.

And have a month filled with beauty, flowers and dreams coming true.

Love and Light.

Me xoxo.

Cooking: (next question please)

Eating: Alpenliebe sweets. Because caramel just makes me melt :))

Drinking: Water. I can finally finish a litre of that h20 easily and I have been doing this daily for almost 2 weeks now. Yaay me:). I notice the difference too. My legs look great. Yes my legs. Because they are very sensitive to positive changes in my diet. So this is me joining the drink more water bandwagon, try it:))

Reading:Salt by Nayirrah Waheed. Best anthology I have come across, except that one she also wrote called Nejma. And of course Bone by this steaming cup of melanin called Yrsa Daley-Ward which is equally awesome. Poetry is where I find the unspoken words of my soul and those poets are just life!!

I downloaded the three from Kindle thanks to some super amazing offer sometime in September. Loove them.

Wishing:That 18th could get here already. I have a trip I am craazy excited about and I wish we could fast-forward to that time and then let that weekend last forever. Also to blog about it or not? Hmmm.

Enjoying: The sunshine

Dear el nino, please take your sweet sweet time getting here.

Waiting: To do an exam at 2 p.m.

Loving: Some sweetheart people I have been hanging with lately. They may be strangers but they are such sweethearts(although they may be too G to admit it). Love you guys :**

Watching: Nothing. But tomorrow the Love and Hiphop addiction continues after my paper. Also I realized I have a thing for trash TV. Like my new program of interest is E!'s WAGS.

Hoping: That my grades this semester will be decent. Because hoping for perfection is a bit of a stretch. Degrees are hard. Think twice before doing them. Seriously.

Listening: To Miguel's album Wildheart. It is everythaaang! Some of the lyrics are kinda twisted, but you can always skip those tracks right? But his is what I like to think of as whiskey music. The kind of music to get you all zoned out while you sip a little something something on the rocks. And his voice is just soo yummy. I am in love. So so much love.

Wearing:Red lipstick. I feel like I may have a lipstick smudge somewhere though. It's one of those days.

Following: Nayirrah Waheed's instagram. Best poetry page I have come across thus far.

Feeling: Nothing. Like this whole waiting for afternoon papers is not my thing.

all my images from Google.

Charlie Made Me Cry.

I write this post feeling very emotional as I struggle to conceal my balancing tears from my workmates.
Yes, I know tears and the office have no place together but I have finished my tasks for the day and I'm just stalling because I'd rather enjoy the free wifi for a bit than walk alone because everyone isn't finished yet.
Anyway back to business.

I am 8 pages away from finishing Stephen Chbosky's 'The perks of being a wallflower'.
 So if anyone is wondering why, it is because of Charlie. Yes Charlie. And Sam. But mostly Charlie.

Therefore today's post is about Charlie and hugs.
Mostly hugs.

Have you ever needed a hug?

Like, have you ever found yourself feeling so broken or scared or alone?
Have you ever had moments when the material things didn't matter because the kind of low you were feeling opened your eyes to how it is all an illusion.

I wrote earlier about how pain makes one a philosopher. But have you ever been too shattered to even contemplate this- the kind of broken that leaves you feeling like you are just floating in space and you aren't even sure what anything is anymore?

Well, if you haven't feel free. Close this page. I promise my next post will be much happier, I might even include a cat video or something.

But if you have, well let me ask you one thing, have someone ever given you a hug at this precise moment?
In the midst of you feeling like you are shattering into three million pieces like a piece of thin glass, has anybody just perceived you and just reached out and literally held you together?
Probably they did it because they were meant to. Or even better they don't usually do such things but maybe it was some unknown external force that touched them and miraculously made their hands curve around your body and suddenly you were able to keep it together.
How did it feel?

Did you suddenly feel lighter than doing 4 hours daily at the gym for a year could ever make you feel?

If your answer to at least most of the above questions is yes, then you know what the sheer power of this act is.
I could give you a definition of what a hug is but let me explain it to you with one simple phrase:

hug= the magical glue that keeps people from crumbling into a million pieces when they feel more fragile than a sheet of ice.

This simple act. I have no idea what magic it contains but whatever it has, it heals everything. 

Maybe it is like the universal symbol of love. It can't be a kiss because Jesus was betrayed with one but a hug? A hug is the way an African parent who does not know how to show emotion can tell you after 16 years in this horrid education system of ours that they are proud of you.

A hug is the way a baby whose vocabulary is underdeveloped tells her mummy that she appreciates the way she takes care of her. A hug is the one simple act that speaks volumes where words can't. That's why people hug at funerals because it's the only way to communicate togetherness in the wake of this unsolvable mystery called death.

A hug means 'I love you.'A hug means 'I may not understand what you are going through but I am here and for now I hope that is enough reason to keep it together a little longer.'

 A hug is sometimes the difference between 'I don't want to live anymore' and 'I think I'll give this life thing a shot just one more time.'

A hug can save a life.

I realized this one time when the security situation in this country and in my neighbourhood had got so bad and I came home and I found this police officer walking around boldly with a gun and I just lost it because at the time we weren't really sure if the same officers were behind the whole insecurity issue in my neighbourhood. See, if you can't feel safe in the one place you have called home for over 10 years where can you be safe?

I entered the house and went full out crying. But my mummy dearest in all her motherly patience held me tight and for that split second in between letting out this torrent of I tears I finally felt that even though the world is a scary place, one way or the other everything will be okay.

And it was like I could breathe again for the first time.

That's how powerful a hug can be. And do not even let me go on about how the millions of hugs kept me sane that time my dad was sick and I'd go to school not sure if I would ever see him again. Maybe that's how even though I went under for a while, I never really lost my it because somehow the millions of hugs I got kept me together.

Back to Charlie, everytime I read about him I want to give him three hundred million hugs. I guess maybe because he is at this stage where he feels all alone and sometimes even those close to him never really get him and that makes me feel sad. 

And Charlie is so sensitive and feels emotions in a very deep and powerful way. 

Honestly, Charlie is kind of broken and messed up.

But then again aren't we all? The only difference is some of us have a wide circle of friends who are equally messed up and broken in their own way so we get to bond over that as we support each other in our messed up brokenness. Charlie doesn't have that luxury and that makes me sad. Sometimes when I see how he is about to fall apart I wish so hard that I could hug him and hold him together  but I can't so I just cry quietly with him instead and forget about my own messed up and brokenness.

That sounds kind of fucked up right? 

Well tell me something that isn't new.

Anyway I know you have a Charlie in your life. Or maybe you see someone with Charlie-ish tendencies. Someone who seems to have a little trouble getting through their days. Please don't let them shatter into a million pieces without trying as hard as you can to hold them together.

After all, we have all been there once and someone saved us by giving us a hug that made everything seem okay again.

And if you haven't read about Charlie, I really think you should and join me in mentally wishing we could give him a million bear hugs.

Love,

A very emotional Meg.

Love

Because the heart is a black box.
Every conquest, loss or rejection leaves its trace.  We love in the shadow-sometimes benign,  sometimes malevolent- of every disappointment,  betrayal or fulfilment.  We love-and no god can control the feeling or mitigate the consequences.

Priya Basil-The Obscure Logic of the Heart.

A Literary Christmas

"So you want a story I will tell you one"

Once upon a time an exhausted young lady wandered into a mall to engage in some retail therapy.As she went about her window shopping she went into a bookstore in pursuit of a classic novel her meagre student allowance could afford and then she saw it. A brand new blue paper back. But what struck her the most were the writings on the cover. 'And The Mountains Echoed, ' by the author of the critically acclaimed novels 'The Kite Runner' and 'A Thousand Splendid Suns.' She smiled. She stared. She sighed. She swore she would marry anyone who bought her that book for her birthday.
So every so often she would pass by the bookshop and dream about the day she would get lost in those four hundred pages.

Long story short, she did. And it was worth the wait. Khaled Hosseini hypnotized her with every carefully chosen word. He has a gift, no wonder she a bit too boldly admits he is her favourite author. (She did this even in front of those bookshop attendants who looked at her like she was from an alien planet.) In the five days it took to finish the book, she was lost. Lost in time, as his story spanned decades. Lost in space,  because this time he didn't limit his setting to Afghanistan. This time, he took her to The Island of Tinos in Greece, San Francisco, Paris, even Kenya.  She didn't just read a best seller this time. No. She read a work of art.  And it was the best Christmas Gift anyone could have given her.

Sadly, I don't switch between first person and third person as gracefully as Khaled does. But I couldn't end this piece without adding a personal touch. I had a lovely Christmas thanks to that book. 
And as I dread the new year and the change it often brings, I am grateful for those things whose beauty remains unchangeable like that feeling you get when you read a great piece of writing. Cheers to all the great writers out there. Thank you for your timeless talent.

And lastly a Happy belated Christmas loved ones and have a beautiful blessed new year.