An ocean apart, a world away (Lensey Namioka)

The book follows a 16-year-old Chinese girl called Yanyan in 1921, who always wanted to become a doctor. To achieve her dream she leaves not only her family, country and the surroundings she's comfortable in, but also her first love Liang, a Manchurian rebel, behind to study medical science in Ithaca, New York. That's a quite unusual decision to make for a young woman in that time, so she has to deal with different problems during her stay in America such as racism and sexism.

I can't even tell you how much I love this book. I got it about four or five yearsago, read it several times since then and enjoyed it so much every time I picked it up. The writing isn't even that good (don't get me wrong, it's not bad, just nothing special), but the story is fantastic. First of all, I really liked reading about characters with Asian background in a historical fiction novel since I know nearly nothing about historical Asia (thanks to the german history classes which only focus on Germany, Europe and sometimes America). The main character Yanyan is simply amazing. She's such a strong and independent young woman, she's able to defend herself (she knows some kung fu moves, so she's badass as well) and fight for her dreams. She encouraged me so much to take the classes I'm really interested in, even though it meant to be seperated from most of my friends. Sadly its still rather unusual for girls to work in technical jobs and it's sometimes really hard to be only surrounded by boys, but I'm really glad I made the decision to take chemistry and physic and I'm not sure I'd been confident enough to make it if I hadn't read this book.

Rating: 4.5/5 ✹

So you should definitely pick this book up if you're into historical fiction because it's a really short book with a so beautiful, touching and inspiring story. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do!

Leah

Reading Habits Tag

So you get to know us a little bit better we're gonna be doing a book tag.

Question 1: Do you have a certain place at home for reading?

 

Vicky: I always read in one corner of my bed with a pillow next to me because it's so comfortable there and when it's starting to rain I like sitting in front of the open window.

Leah: When it's warm enough I love to read outside in my garden or I just read in my bed, which is right next to the window (and cozy af).

 

Question 2: Bookmark or a random piece of paper?

 

Vicky: My bookmarks are pretty cute so I guess bookmarks.

Leah: I was using just random pieces of paper for some time (because I don't really own any bookmarks), but recently I realized how cool post-its look in my books.

 

Question 3: Can you stop reading anytime you want or do you have to stop at a certain page, chapter, part, etc.?

 

Vicky: I usually stop after ending a chapter, but sometimes when I'm in a hurry I just read a few pages and stop in the middle of a random page.

Leah: I have to end every chapter I've started, which is really horrible when I'm running late for  something.

 

Question 4: Do you eat or drink while reading?

 

Vicky: I'm never eating while reading a book because I would just destroy its beautiful pages.

Leah: I usually don't because I'm just too scared of ruining my precious books.  

 

Question 5: Can you read while listening to music/ watching tv?

 

 Vicky: I can't read without music! I'm used to listening to movie soundtracks or just random music in the backround.

Leah: I love listening to music while reading, but I really can't watch tv while reading because I wanna focus on one activity.

 

Question 6: One book at a time, or several at once?

 

Vicky: Normally I read only one book at a time because otherwise I would mix up the stories, but sometimes I'm forced to read several books for school.

Leah: I only read one book at a time so I can dive into the story without any interruptions and confussions. 

 

Question 7: Reading at home or everywhere?

 

Vicky: I enjoy reading at home because I need some privacy while reading (It's a bit awkward to cry in public because of a book...).

Leah: Definitely everywhere! I love carrying a book around with me and I start reading at every opportunity.

 

Question 8: Reading out loud or silently in your head?

 

Vicky: Silent in my head?! I think my family would be pretty confused if I start talking in my room randomly.

Leah: Is there anybody who doesn't read silently?

 

Question 9: Do you read ahead or skip pages?

 

Vicky: Actually I read the whole book! But there are a few books/series I didn't really like so I just skipped to the last chapter to know what happened at the end.

Leah: I never skip because it'd just ruin the beautiful story for me.

 

Question 10: Breaking the spine or keeping it new?

 

Vicky: I love it when my books look new but when I read a good novel all over again it is possible that the spine gets hurt.

Leah: I'm trying to not damage it, but I also love it when you can see that the book was read often.

 

Question 11: Do you write in books?

 

Vicky: No, I don't! 

 Leah: Never! If there's something really important to note, I write it on my post-its I use as bookmarks.          

 

We hope you liked our book tag,

Vicky and Leah 

Introduction ♥

Hey,
my name's Leah and I'm a fifteen-year-old girl from Germany who's in love with books. My favourite genres are fantasy and contemporary, so basically everything by Sarah J. Maas and Cassandra Clare. Apart from that, my life's pretty boring. So I spend my time watching tv shows, painting my nails and listening to indie music (and yes, I like being antisocial). And I love baking because food is awesome.

Hey,
I'm Vicky (or actually Viktoria), fifteen years old and I'm from Germany as well. I really like reading contemporary and fantasy books, especially John Green and Cassandra Clare. Except from that, I mostly play soccer, watch tv series and hang around with my friends.

So what we're planning to post is everything related to books and fandoms such as book recommendations, any kind of tags and reviews of our favourite tv shows. We hope you'll enjoy our little blog.

That's all for now,
Leah and Vicky