50 books to read before you die discussion

April read from our list of Books they didn't tell us about. A big thank you to Natalia for agreeing to lead this discussion.

Hi everyone! So I just wanted to quickly introduce myself. My name is Natalia, I am from Washington, DC, and I will be leading this (well, technically next-give or take a day) month's discussion for TFIOS. Before we started, I just wanted to ask if anyone has a preference as to a reading schedule? I could work one out, but I just wanted to see what everyone thought.

Also, I know April doesn't begin until tomorrow, but I just wanted to throw this out there so you could keep it in the back of your minds as your reading.

How does the ever-present possibility of death have an effect on Hazel Grace's attitudes towards both life and the people around her? What about her relationship with Augustus?

Can't wait to start reading with you guys [officially as of tomorrow]!

All the copies of this book were checked out of the library. I'll have to wait for it. :0(

Kim wrote: "All the copies of this book were checked out of the library. I'll have to wait for it. :0("

I'm sorry to hear that :(. I hope you're able to find one soon!

:0) one came in today. I'll pick it up later this week.

I brought this book home friday and haven't been able to get my hands on it yet. My 3 teens keep picking it up and wandering off with it. :0)

All copies of the book were checked out at my library as well but I managed to get hold of an audiobook. I just listened to chapter one and I'm loving the book so far.

I am reading the Kindle version - I started last month. I had not knowledge of this book until they started filming in my neighborhood last summer... Yes, John Green was here, no - didn't meet him (or any of the stars)

Natalia wrote: "Hi everyone! So I just wanted to quickly introduce myself. My name is Natalia, I am from Washington, DC, and I will be leading this (well, technically next-give or take a day) month's discussion fo..."

I read the book a little earlier in the year so I will comment as the rest go along. I do want to say that it was a terrific book. Much better than I thought it would be.

I was disappointed by Green's Looking for Alaska, nervous to read this one

Lisa wrote: "I was disappointed by Green's Looking for Alaska, nervous to read this one"

Lisa the book is worth reading. I was skeptical when I started reading but WOW. It is a book that grabs you and takes you on a journey that you could not have imagined from the start. It is a book that is going too make you laugh, giggle, think and cry rivers when you are done. Good luck!

Hi everyone, sorry I've been MIA the past few days, my grandmother had back surgery and she's been having some trouble getting back to her old self. But I wanted to ask everyone what your opinions of Patrick are, because I feel like he's a bit of an interesting character. Do you feel like, in a way, his enthusiasm helps him to cope with his own experiences with cancer?

Also, just a warning, if the tears haven't started flowing yet...oh they will

Natalia wrote: "Also, just a warning, if the tears haven't started flowing yet...oh they will"

I had given the book to my son's girlfriend to read and she had bright it on a road trip. Needless to say she called me up as they were driving home and said "You didn't tell me to being a whole BOX of tissues!"

Natalia wrote: "Hi everyone, sorry I've been MIA the past few days, my grandmother had back surgery and she's been having some trouble getting back to her old self. But I wanted to ask everyone what your opinions ..."

Sometimes I felt he was TOO positive. Kind of like "If I'm not happy it's (cancer) going to come back". But then some of the time I thought it was just to keep everyone positive. I guess I just never belied in his sincerity.

Oh my god! This book is amazing. I finished it yesterday and i just cried and cried and cried. The letter was beautiful. Pure beauty from Augustus. I would like to thank John Greene for writing books because they are amazing. I want to read Paper towns next.

I am a JH/HS science teacher. The girls in my classes have discovered this book and it is making the rounds. I need to finish fast so public library can loan it to one of them. The two girls who have finished both absolutely loved it, and I can see why. The characters are not stereotypes of sullen selfish teens (except maybe Isaac--but who of us can blame him). You just have to be fond of these characters. There is nothing that makes me put a book down faster than a protagonist who is unappealing--almost killed "Catcher in the Rye" for me.

My library finally came through. I started out 55th on the list, and figured I wouldn't get the book before the group read had migrated into May, but they had 20 copies, so now I have it. I've just started, five or ten minutes in. The narration is by a 17 year old girl. I don't have a problem with that, except that it seems to be written in the junior-in-high-school style of a teenage girl. I much prefer literary fiction. I've abandoned books for the sin of being written in the modern vernacular. I don't have a problem with that as the voice of a character, but please not the narrator. I'm already convinced I'd like this better if it had been written in the third person. Somebody tell me that this won't be so bad.

I was pleasantly surprised

Buck wrote: "My library finally came through. I started out 55th on the list, and figured I wouldn't get the book before the group read had migrated into May, but they had 20 copies, so now I have it. I've ju..."

Buck, this won't be so bad. But maybe it helps that I was a high school girl and that I work with high school students. Oh and Buck, high school girls do talk like this - not junior high students.

Completed the first six chapters. At first I was all like "Whoa" but then I was like okay, whatever. I doesn't suck. I know, right?

John Green is writing in the convincing voice of a teenage girl. Convincing to me, at least. I currently know only one teenage girl, 13, but I have known teenagers and actually was one once. While I've been conscious of the high school vernacular, I was amused when in her narration Hazel said, "I thought about him in that way, to borrow a phase from the middle school vernacular."

Augustus doesn't talk like a teenager. His almost-too-clever repartee reminds me of the movie Juno [ Juno: The Shooting Script ] also about a teenage girl with trouble.

So, my initial reservations have eased and I'm enjoying a reasonably well written book. Haven't gotten to the box of Kleenex part yet.

Loved Juno!

I wondered about Patrick. He's turned his life and soul into being a cancer survivor. I can imagine how different and isolated he feels- having his surgeries, he would no longer produced testosterone, his body would have undergone feminization (high voice, less facial hair). I wonder what sort of identity this leaves him with; if he succumbs to despair, he is another victim. But possibly his super- positive style is an emotional defense against the anxieties of relapse and loss of identity.

I was thinking of how a man would react emotionally as well as physically? I know when women have to take male hormones its not just the physical side effects its also emotions that are impacted. I also wonder if that affects his anxiety level but also his level of empathy.

I read this in a weekend. Don't quite agree that it is a must read. While the love story is endearing, and the characters are charming, I didn't find anything extraordinary about it. It's a pretty glossy version of teens with Cancer. It did remind me of Juno, which I found enjoyable as well. I didn't need a box of tissues at any point during the reading.

When Van Houten returned their emails, he seemed so suave and literary, in a Peter o'Toole-ish sort of way. Boy, did that mental image change. He was, of course, right about fictional characters having no continuation after the fiction has ended.

So now I am up to Chapter 15, about 2/3 to 3/4 through, and I'm wondering how the debacle of meeting him in person will affect their appreciation of their favorite work of literature, now that they are back home.

No Kleenexes yet.

Kim wrote: "I read this in a weekend. Don't quite agree that it is a must read. While the love story is endearing, and the characters are charming, I didn't find anything extraordinary about it. It's a pretty ..."

I agree Kim. It's quick. I enjoyed it, especially the dialogue but I kept remembering My Sister's Keeper and A Walk to Remember. Thus far I've thought that Green tries to put a new spin on old topics but doesn't quite succeed.

Buck, I didn't need Kleenex at all.

Up to Chapter 20. Augustus' is deteriorating and so is the writing style - getting more abbreviated. Also, a downturn in the mood, but not yet sad enough for tears.

I think for me it brought tears as I've had a lot of people who have/had cancer around me lately with death following close behind. One of those deaths is a high school student. So maybe I'm reading the sadness into the book.

Finished. It's not a bad book, but maybe overrated.

(view spoiler)[ In the first part of the book, Green does a good job of developing the characters and establishing a plot. This part culminates in Hazel and Augustus traveling to Amsterdam to visit Van Houten, who turns out to be a complete jerk. With their return home and Augustus' decline, the story telling seems to suffer. The chapters got shorter, and more fragmented; and the story deteriorated. A poignant moment was the pre-funeral in which Augustus arranged for Hazel and Isaac to eulogize him. Van Houten showing up at Augustus' funeral was unexpected, and ultimately for the story, rather pointless. I felt that Green dropped the ball with Van Houten. He was a jerk when they met him, he was a jerk at the funeral, and he was a jerk at the finding of Augustus' letter. The only role his character really played in the novel was to deflate the feeling that Hazel and Augustus shared for Van Houten's novel, which was an important element in the first part of the book. The final bit, Augusts' letter to Van Houten, which ultimately was intended for Hazel, was an okay wrap-up, I suppose, but it could have been so much better. (hide spoiler)]

No Kleenex.

No tears here either. I'm not sure why considering I'm 7 months pregnant and commercials make me cry. Maybe it's because I actually found it to be uplifting? Or maybe I've been coping with a lot of real-life illness and death lately and it seems like these characters dealt with these issues very well...maybe even too well so that it didn't feel real to me. Anyway, I enjoyed the book and found some of the themes compelling. It's difficult to discuss without having spoilers in my comments but I liked the imagery of the universe and the stars and our relationship (or desire for one) with them. Beautiful writing.

I am so not including this in the must-reads list. It's overrated.

So I was fascinated by Van Houten ending an Imperial Affliction midway through a sentence, found that a shocker, thought I'd engage in a bit of book-hurling of I was Hazel.
I was reading Dead Souls this week past, guess how Nocolai Gogol ended his book? Mid sentence!

So i got the book a little late, im about a third of the way through and im really liking it so far. Im glad i got it. If i keep this up i should be done by sat.

Lisa wrote: "So I was fascinated by Van Houten ending an Imperial Affliction midway through a sentence, found that a shocker, thought I'd engage in a bit of book-hurling of I was Hazel.
I was reading Dead Souls..."

Do you think it was really a statement on how abruptly life ends or (view spoiler)[ do you think he was too drunk to finish it? I'm old and I've slept since reading this now, did it say if Van Houten started writing the book when his daughter was still alive? If so he may have just lost the will to finish. (hide spoiler)].

Natalia wrote: . But I wanted to ask everyone what your opinions ..."

I am seeing Patrick through the teenagers' eyes. He is too positive. They have cancer and it is active in their bodies now. The narrator has terminal cancer when she is describing him. It would be hard to be positive about cancer. Plus--she sees him as a dorky adult. I am a teacher, and my teens see a lot of us as dorky....

Kim wrote: "I read this in a weekend. Don't quite agree that it is a must read. While the love story is endearing, and the characters are charming, I didn't find anything extraordinary about it. It's a pretty ..."

I haven't cried either. I thought I knew what would happen to each of them about half way through so was prepared. The teen I know who have read it love it and they warned me I would cry--they are teenage girls! Crying comes easily. This book was written for teens so I imagine the girls were caught off guard by the reversals in health. As a book written for teens, I think it is excellent.

Mary wrote: "I think for me it brought tears as I've had a lot of people who have/had cancer around me lately with death following close behind. One of those deaths is a high school student. So maybe I'm readin..."

It is true that we are all in different situations so will feel things differently. I never cried during a movie until I was 36 and had had a baby. I still haven't cried reading a book, but maybe I will have to be grandma first (or watch someone I love die of cancer).

Kim wrote: "Lisa wrote: "So I was fascinated by Van Houten ending an Imperial Affliction midway through a sentence, found that a shocker, thought I'd engage in a bit of book-hurling of I was Hazel.
I was read..."

Yes. Although, after we meet strange Peter, you might imagine it ended that way because the author decided he didn't feel like continuing.

Kim wrote: "Do you think it was really a statement on how abruptly life ends or..."
Two years ago, a friend of mine committed suicide. I saw her the Monday and received a phone call at work on the Tuesday, she was gone. I went to sit in the kitchen at work and remember struggling so hard to do what needed to be done that day: see my patients, meet with the Prof, hand in my thesis, drive home. Her life was over, her presence in my life was gone; and I wanted to pause the world around me to process and mourn.
Life isn't neat like books. Not everything resolves at once. Some things never resolve. Perhaps what Van Houten was trying to say was when you lose some one important, you want everything around you to just stop. That in perspective, the other parts of life cease to matter for a time. Or that focussing on the other parts seems unnecessary

But Hazel doesn't want life to stop when she dies. She doesn't want to be a grenade. Her biggest fear seems to be her parents not being able to exist as childless. Maybe that is what scares her about the mom in AIA. She stops in midsentence as surely as her fictional daughter.

For me that was what made the book special you had this juxtaposition between Van Houten and Hazel. I felt Van Houten quit living and that's we he can't write or function and that's what's so upsetting to Hazel because it reinforces her biggest fear - not that she will die but that everyone who is important to her will quit living when she's gone.

Janet, maybe that's the reason for Hazel needing an ending to AIA. She identifies with Ana, they have several similarities. If the characters in AIA have a good life without Anna; then by proxy Hazel can assume those around her will be ok.
Van Houten is the complete antithesis to what Hazel wishes those around her will be without her.

Mary wrote: "For me that was what made the book special you had this juxtaposition between Van Houten and Hazel. I felt Van Houten quit living and that's we he can't write or function and that's what's so upset..."

That's an astute observation, Mary, that hadn't occurred to me.

Janet wrote: "Natalia wrote: . But I wanted to ask everyone what your opinions ..."

I am seeing Patrick through the teenagers' eyes. He is too positive. They have cancer and it is active in their bodies now. Th..."

I'm going to go back to my experiences with cancer because this last week my co-worker who has Stage 4 ovarian cancer that is back for the 2nd time in less than 4 years said something to me that made me think of our discussions here, especially about Patrick being too positive. I was asking her about her sister (who isn't very nice) and she said she can't talk about or think about her because she was only going to be positive. I had noticed these last few weeks she's been almost maniac happy but thought she must have gotten good news and qualified for the study but hadn't wanted to talk about it yet. She hadn't, just the opposite and when she was explaining about her attitude she said "I have to put every negative thought away so that I don't think of dying because if I do I'll die". She is too afraid that one negative thought will lead to more and she's going to give up hope. A friend of mine had a similar reaction she'd only continue to talk with us if could we stay'd positive. She wouldn't listen to the TV or radio for the same reason. People have strange reactions when coping and each of us deal in different ways to life experiences. I think it's why I added this to my favorites list and why I cried (but I'm also a sap when it comes to books) because for me it wasn't just a young adult novel, it was a book that touched a chord from my experiences.

Lisa wrote: "Janet, maybe that's the reason for Hazel needing an ending to AIA. She identifies with Ana, they have several similarities. If the characters in AIA have a good life without Anna; then by proxy Haz..."

Lisa that is exactly what i thought. Hazel wanted to know what happened to the rest of the characters because she wanted to know that they were ok and that they went of with their lives after mourning Anna. She wanted to know that her parents could survive loosing her and continue on with their lives.

As for Patrick i didnt give it much thought as i read through the book as i did last night reading through the post. I know that some people believe in the power of thought and attraction and that you have to be positive to attrack positive things into your life. So for someone with cancer or in remision it might be better to put those thoughts aside and try and be positive about the situation so as to not attrack the cancer back into your life.

Over all i enjoyed the book. I did cry, but im very emotional period, tons of books, movies and tv shows have made me cry. The twist sort of surprised me but i thought something was up when they were in Amsterdam and well then it turned out i was right. Before that i kept thinking the book might end mid sentence. To prove that when you die, some things are left unfinished. i really liked the way it ended and i am going to look in to more of his books. My friend recomended Paper Towns.