BR: Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine - 3/5


"At first I thought that he was being surprisingly and uncharacteristically thoughtful, but then I realized that he simply didn't want to arrive alone. Some people, weak people, fear solitude. What they fail to understand is that there's something very liberating about it; once you realize that you don't need anyone, you can take care of yourself. That's the thing: it's the best just to take care of yourself. You can't protect other people, however hard you try. You try, and you fail, and your world collapses around you, burns down to ashes." ~ Chapter 17, page 159.

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine like a wine…. or vodka but that doesn’t rhyme. It will only take you few pages to realize that Eleanor is not fine. I picked this book at the train station newsagents because it had a sticker “Costa Coffee Awards winner 2017” on. Costa coffee is my favourite coffee chain. While we share the same love for coffee, when it comes to books it is not that straightforward.

I felt like everything that the cover was promising wasn’t true. “Funny”? Absolutely no. “Tribute to loneliness?” Yes, there was a lot of loneliness…
This book was very depressing to read and I really struggled to get through the beginning of the book. I didn’t enjoy it and I was really worried about dear Eleanor. It was one of the saddest and most depressing books I read so far. 

But let’s talk more about Eleanor as she is the main character and the focus of the whole book. What I liked about Eleanor was how literate she was. I wish I had vocabulary similar to hers I wish I could express myself the way she did. She used the language of Jane Eyre or Bronte sisters. I also liked her observation skills. She noticed lots of details that we all miss in our daily routines. This is something we should all learn from her and try to notice and appreciate our surroundings more. What I didn’t like about Eleanor was her mental state. I wish she took action, that she searched for help sooner or spoke with someone about the problems… I wish someone noticed, that someone helped...  I have no idea what it is like to live the way she did and I wish that no one ever does. But I also know the world is not as we want it to be and for Eleanor, the world was very dark. 

The story was divided into three parts: Good days, Bad days and Better days. I can tell you that the Good days section was the most depressing one. Was this the intention of the author? Or was this just my perception? Better Days gives a little bit of hope that after 30 years of existence Eleanor will finally live. 
The author doesn’t really focus on the story, and that is the reason why I didn’t enjoy the book as much. I felt like the events were pure tools to show what mental state Eleanor is in and are secondary. The major part of the book were her the internal monologues and thoughts. 

As I praised the vocabulary and the expressions that Eleanor used, I have to give credit to the author as well. I believe the book was very well written. You could see the difference in age, accent or social status of the characters when they spoke


I know I have said that I didn't like this book and it is true but I am not going to say it was a bad book because I can see that it was well written the characters had depth, there was a lot of progress that Eleanor did from the beginning to the end, but I know now that this is not my cup of tea…

I am going back to the fantasy and young adult which brings more adventures, magic and new lands that need to be discovered.

Synopsis: 
Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. All this means that Eleanor has become a creature of habit (to say the least) and a bit of a loner. 

But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.





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May Bullet Journal - Hello May and Hello Honne



May; the fifth month of 2018. I am shocked how fast is this year flying. April was a busy month for me and with moving into the new house and my driving lessons I don’t even know how fast it was over. I did my new monthly spread for the month of May literary last minute before the beginning of the month. Here is the brief overview; I hope you will enjoy it.

For the May I decided to go with grey scale and I got inspired by my favourite band Honne who is playing in Amsterdam this month. I am very excited to see them live again and my bullet journal reflects that perfectly. 

Hello May and Hello Honne. If you now wonder who is Honne and want to search for Andy and James on social media, type @hellohonne. You will find the official profiles of the band and stay up to date with their music.


The calendar or agenda is not very important for my bujo as I use my phone to stay on top of my appointments. But I like to write few events and important dates into my bullet journal so this simple and easy calendar is perfect. As a rule, I like to have an interactive page on one side and a visual one on the other. This picture of a woman watching waterfall is from a magazine like most of my bujo pictures. 



Those of you who follow me longer know how much I love circle mood trackers. I absolutely love the way they look when they are empty and even more at the end of the month when they are colourful. I also enjoy the process. I find the circle mood tracker great for the visualization of my moods. I also think I finally found the key that suits me well with only three moods – good, normal and bad. This May is about music that is why I decided to try a different type of a mood tracker. I found this inspiration on Instagram if you want to see the amazing original post go to @momdotlove and show her photos some love.
I decided to include the list of books I read during the month of May and the ideas for my blog articles - both boxes are inspired by amazing @piesnprose who you can also find on Instagram. This page was finalized with the photo of Andy and James and coffee… because good music and good coffee is a perfect combination.



The last spread for this month is a reflection. I really enjoy doing this section. @piesnprose bujo stories videos were also an inspiration for this box. It takes only a few minutes at the end of the month and it helps me to remember and process the things that happened or what I achieved and how I felt during the month.
I am always trying to match the photo on the page to the “reflexion” box. This one struck me particularly as a great match because the woman is taking off her fake mask and she is showing her real face. And this is what the reflection box should be like. My real thoughts. It will make even more sense if you google the meaning of the word “honne” you will find out that it is a Japanese word that  that describes the contrast between a person's true feelings and desires (本音 hon'ne, "true sound") and the behavior and opinions one displays in public (建前 tatemae, "built in front", "façade"). I don't don't think I could have found a better picture to match this definition. 

The last page of my May bullet Journal consists of a quote and reding tracker. I am not overly excited about quotes, but I like to include one to each month to complete the whole look. I also do my best to find the quote that matches the theme of the month. This month I also added a reading progress as well. I didn't do this last month and I kind of missed it. 

The whole May bullet journal is a tribute to my favourite band Honne. If you decide to listen to them let me know how did you like the music. 



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