Book Reviews

READERS ARE LEADERS
On this page I'd like to put kind of summaries of some of the books I read. However, a summary is never close to the real book.  It's a kind of talking about what happens throughout the book in brief (I might leave certain details and stick to the main ones). I'd like to share what I read, not only titles, but what a book is actually about. Enjoy!
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The Fault In Our Stars/John Green
The story deals with Hazel, a 16 year old girl who has cancer. This girl goes to a Group Support where other patients go and talk about there cancer disease and their feelings and how they are doing. Hazel doesn't like the Support Group that much but her mother always encourages her to go and make friends and act like a teenager. Hazel is her parents only child and her health and happiness is all their concern. She prefers reading books and watching TV.

At one of the sessions with the Support Group, a new guy joins them and he keeps staring at Hazel without stopping. The guy's name is Augustus who is 17 and who got his foot cut due to cancer and is now free of the disease. Hazel waits her mother outside the Support Group holding her oxygen tank that she takes everywhere since she breaths through it, otherwise her lungs collapse. Augustus talks to her and asks her if she would like to go with him. At the beginning, she says no but in a fun and a polite way. Both Hazel and Augustus have the 'comedy spirit' and they turn everything into something that can be laughed at. Hazel agrees to go with him and tells her mother to leave, her mother feels happy that finally Hazel will do something other than reading and watching TV. At Augustus's house, Hazel meets his parents who call him 'Gus' and she gets to know each other, she likes reading and he likes video games. Speaking of video games, Gus gives Hazel a book about one of his favorite video games, somehow  to prove that video games are fun. Hazel in return gives him a book An Imperial Affliction (AIA) by her favorite author Peter Van Houten. The last talks about a girl and her fight with cancer. They agreed that each will read the book and give their opinion on it. Hazel finishes first and when Gus finishes, he discovers that the book doesn't have a real end like books should. The story just ends without knowing what happens with the girl with cancer or any other characters.
Both books became essential for Gus and Hazel and they lead to phone calls, and both books became the major subject of the phone calls. Gus gives the same reaction that Hazel gave knowing that the AIA doesn't have an end, and Hazel tells him that she's read it thousand of times and she still wants the end. Hazel also tells Gus that she wrote an e-mail  to the author asking for answers for some questions in her mind but he never replied. The two cancer patients start to like each other more and more but without saying so. During a phone call, Gus tells Hazel that he has found Mr. Houten's assistant and sent an e-mail and got a reply. Hazel goes crazy about it and asks for details. Then Hazel herself e-mails the assistant asking for the answers she always wanted.
The assistant one day decides to invite the young teenagers to Amsterdam to see Mr. Houten and to take some answers about An Imperial Affliction . Both Gus and Hazel couldn't believe it that they get to meet the author of the book that haunted their thoughts all the time and that has been the subject of all their phone calls and their time together. Gus suggests that Hazel uses her wish to be able to travel (cancer patients get a wish that they can use to do what they want. There is some kind of organization that grants them the wish and affords everything). Hazel tells him that she used her wish long time ago. She went to Disney!
Because of Gus' love toward Hazel and because he wants her to be happy meeting her favorite author (he also wants to meet him) he decides to use his wish that he still had. He asked the organization if they can get them to Amsterdam. They agree and everything gets planned. However, Hazel suddenly gets sick and struggles to breathe, so she goes immediately to hospital under intensive care. She doesn't allow Gus to go into the room to see her in her terrible health condition and he waits for her everyday. Hazel knew that she wouldn't be able to travel in that condition. Her parents are so worried and so protective and they have spent all their money on cancer treatment. When she gets home, she still wants to travel. They continued trying to see if they can find a solution. Hazel's doctors discuss her condition and then they agree that she can travel but there must be lots of care. The organization that gave Gus his wish took care of everything and Gus, Hazel and her mother head to Amsterdam.
There they spent a great time, and when they met Mr. Houten he wasn't what they've expected. He was a pessimistic person and he cursed and never gave Hazel and Gus the answers about AIA . He insisted that he didn't want to see them and he blamed his assistant who set the meeting. He also insisted the the book ends the way it did and there is nothing more about it. Hazel tried to get answers or at least make him think of what might have happened in the story, but Mr. Houten was as rude as he was stubborn.
Gus and Hazel decided to make a good memory out of their trip though they were mad about what happened. They confessed their love and they spent good time seeing the city. When they got back Gus got sick, and he told Hazel that cancer came back before they travel but he wanted to travel with her and enjoy his life. He knew he was going to die so he asked Hazel to write something for him she would say when he dies. With time Gus's condition started to get worse and worse until it was time for his departure. Gus passed away leaving Hazel alone, but he has promised her to write her what he would say when she dies. Hazel knew that he wrote something but she couldn't find it. She asked Mr. Houten's assistant to look for something that maybe Gus wrote and sent to Mr. Houten before his death. The assistant finds four papers written about Hazel and e-mails them to Hazel who reads them with tears in her eyes.
 
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A Million Little Pieces/ James Frey
This book is sorted to be a memoir. All the events happen in one place. James Frey is the main character of the book who is 23 years old and is addicted to alcohol and drugs really bad and who has some troubles with the law.

The story starts with him waking up in the middle of nowhere finding himself going on a plane somewhere. His parents meet him in the airport and everything is a mess. He's taken into a rehab to deal with and cure his addiction problem that put his health and his life in a big misery, suffer, and pain. First, they start with him in a Medical Unit to get detoxified which is hard and unpleasant. Later, he moves to the unit where others who have been there for a longer time are. There are all kinds of addicts who also have jeopardized their lives for drinks and cracks and other stuff. He spend his first hours there not talking to any and not sitting or caring about any. His first days are the hardest because he is still suffering from adapting his body to new habits and quitting the ones he had for almost his whole life for he started doing drinks and drugs at a very young age. He suffers and vomits everyday multiple times waiting for his body to heal from bruises (worse than bruises).
His first friend was a man called Leonard  who always supported James. James didn't like his supervisor or others who lecture him and give him duties. James is advised to follow the AA and the Twelve Steps which is part of the program that helps overcoming addiction and that all people in the rehab follow. However, James doesn't believe in that program and he believed that only he and his decisions can help him through. Only one time James tried to escape, but Leonard got him back inside the unit telling him to think more. James wanted to stay for only 24 hours and then leave again. Inside there is some kind of routine where they wake up, do morning jobs, have breakfast, have lectures, meet with supervisors and counselor, have lunch, do what they need to do, have dinner, go to bed.
In the dinning hall patients talk about their reasons to come to the rehab, how they feel about it, some laugh about it and some curse everything! James tells all what is happening around him. His brother Bob and two of his friends visit him and he starts to get to know a girl there named Lilly who is also in the rehab (though talking to women is not allowed- one of the rules). While he suffers from the inside, James shows support to others in the same room or in the dinning hall. Even when he feels the world will crash, through his words and his hugs gives others the strength to continue their fight. In each moment, he gives a detailed description of his state, feelings, thoughts, fears, hopes, bad moments, happy ones, etc, that gives the reader a sense of the truth in his life and the reality behind the feelings. He kind of starts to have good moments for the first time in years so he doesn't leave.
Day by day he starts getting better without following the rehab's program which surprises Joann, James psychologist, and at the same time upsets other supervisors because to them the ONLY way to get better is following the Twelve Steps. James is a stubborn and he has his own ways of thinking. Also, his parents joined the Family Program to help James, and though he hated it at the beginning he was very thankful and he started to open his thoughts to his parents and communicate with them even when he felt bad for hurting them. His relationship with Lilly starts to get more serious and they meet outside where no one can see them. They open their hearts to each other and talk about their problems. He also reads a book from his brother the Tao that makes sense to him and relates somehow to him, the book kind of empowers James to pursuit the fight his own way.
James was planning for his life outside, he wanted to finish his time in jail then move to Chicago to find a job and stay will Lilly. One time Lilly and James got caught meeting which makes Lilly run away because they told her she can't meet James anymore. James ran after her because he knows that she can't get better outside the rehab. He gets help from his supervisor who didn't agree with him to run after her first. While looking for her, he encounters drugs and drinks and dealers for the first time since he got into the rehab. He fights the temptation and hardly focuses his mind on one thing, Lilly. He finds her in a mess and gets her back to start treatment again.
Things get better and better for him and he starts to believe more in himself and that he can succeed out there in the outside world. He gets the support from friends and from supervisors who deal with his problems with the law in three states to find considerable solutions.
Since James has done all his part in the rehab he gets out hoping to do his chores in jail and then go out finding his life while Lilly gets better and waits for him. The first thing he does right after going out is going to a bar, not to drink but to fight that urge of needing a drink and to prove that he can do it which he could (the story ends here where James enjoys his ability, trust, and confident for being able to stay away from bad habits and to move on).
At the end of the book James gives the news about his friends in the rehab, most went back to their addiction and got caught or died. His best friend and number one supportive man Leonard was doing great and stayed sober and he died because of sickness. Lilly, went out of rehab she stayed sober but she committed suicide because her grandmother died. They figured out her death the same day James finished his time in jail.