#salt to the sea

[asoftepiloguemylove]

Ruta Sepetys "Emilia;" Salt to the Sea // Cynthia Cruz "The Glimmering Room;" Diagnosis // @herchainsaregone // Jamie Varon Does The Universe Fight For Souls To Be Together? // The Edge of Seventeen (2016) dir. Kelly Fremon Craig // Marya Hornbacher Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia // Sue Zhao // Clementine von Radics // pinterest // Billie Eilish What Was I Made For?

[froggos-are-superior]

[greenwrites]

1. Franz Kafka

2. Ruta Sepetys

[talkfastlibrary]

A sneak peek to a Bradley fic I’ve been slowly working on for the last couple of months. I don’t want to post it until it’s completed but I’d love to know your thoughts!

It’s titled: Salt to the Sea

Bradley wakes at his usual time of four thirty, makes his coffee, adds going to the grocery store for some food to his laundry list of things to do and goes back out to fix the shutters. When he awoke, there was a notification from the dating app he used to meet Vanessa and sure enough, it was her asking if he’d like to get together again. His thumb hovered over the keyboard before he resolutely deleted the app.

It only causes trouble and he didn’t want to be known as the town’s player, especially the ballerina. He gathers his Bluetooth speaker and plays an old eighties playlist he made named after his dad. Hearing his favorite songs makes it feel like he’s with him.

He gets lost in his sanding until he feels alerted in his body that someone is behind him. He turns around and can’t believe his eyes but she’s there. The ballerina is on her bike wearing a pretty floral pink dress and reflective sunglasses. And she’s stopping her bike behind his Bronco, grabs something from her basket and steps off.

“Good morning,” she chirps, lifting her sunglasses up on her head.

Bradley gulps trying not to get lost in her eyes. They’re so big and blue.

“Morning,” he mumbles. He awkwardly sets his sander on the shutter.

“You’re the new guy in town, right?” she rests her hand on top of the thing in her hand. It’s something covered with a white towel.

“Yeah, I moved here at the beginning of the month. I’m Bradley.”

“Welcome to Doveport, Bradley,” she smiles and he swears his heart stops. “I brought you a blueberry pie, I hope you like blueberry?”

“Um, yeah, yeah I love blueberry. Um,” he goes to take the pie but then sees he still has his work gloves on. He removes them, wipes his hands on his jeans, then grabs the pie from her. Their pinkies brush in the slightest way. He wonders if she feels the electric spark like he does. “Thank you, that was nice of you.”

“You’re welcome. You’re cleaning up the place nicely,” she compliments, eying up the house. “I always thought hibiscus would look lovely against the pillars.”

Bradley curves his body towards the house and imagines the bright, colorful flowers in front of the porch. He remembers the varying oranges, pinks, yellows and purples of the hibiscus while he was in Hawaii.

“Yeah, they would actually,” he agrees. “They’d bring a nice Hawaiian tropic feel to the place.” He faces her again. “Um, I still have some fresh coffee inside. Would you like some?”

He’s choosing to ignore how many times he’s said ‘um’ while speaking with her and hopes she doesn’t notice.

She checks her watch on her left hand. It’s a dainty rose gold with a blush pink face, it winks at him in the light.

“I would but I don’t want to be late,” her tone is apologetic. When her big blue eyes meet his, he can see she truly is apologetic.

Then, he takes in her appearance. She’s wearing a pretty floral pink dress and a pair of nice white sandals. Her toes are painted pink and she has a few toe rings. Now, Bradley’s not saying he has a foot fetish, but he’s never seen cuter toes before.

“Where are you going, a wedding?”

“No,” she smiles. “Church. And I’m in with the babies this mornin’ but i wanted to properly welcome you to town on my way in.”

“Thank you. Apart from Walter and Shirley, this is the best welcome I’ve had.”

“Well, good. Would you like to accompany me? I attend the second service and that starts at 10:45.”

She stares up at him, dark blue eyes hopeful. He would love to accompany her anywhere in the world, but–

“Uhh, I’ve never really been to church before. Except for funerals.”

Too many funerals….

“Oh, that’s all right. The music is great and Pastor Wade always has funny puns. If you ever want to check it out, let me know.”

She heads back to her bike then Bradley remembers something.

“Hey, wait,” he takes a few steps towards her. “You didn’t tell me your name.”

A warm breeze lifts her hair, the sun shining gold in the auburn strands. It looks so soft and silky, Bradley won’t deny how he wants to see if it’s as soft as it looks.

“I’m Ophelia. Have a good Sunday, Bradley. Maybe I’ll see you later.”

She turns her bike around, climbs on, then pedals from his driveway onto the road. Bradley stares after her until she disappears around the trees. Her blueberry pie is still in his hand. The bottom of the pan is still warm.

“Ophelia,” he murmurs. He loves how her name sounds like a song.

[book-buni]

all the books I read in march 2024

1) “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand*

2) “The Do-Over” by Lynn Painter

3) “Ash House” by Angharad Walker

4) “The Prince and the Pauper” by Mark Twain

5) “Jane Against the World: Roe V. Wade and the Fight for Reproductive Rights” by Karen Blumenthal - ❤️

6) “The Ghosts of Rose Hill” by R. M. Romeo

7) “Scattered Showers: Nine Beautiful Short Stories” by Rainbow Rowell - ❤️

8) “The Metamorphosis” by Franz Kafka - ❤️

9) “Salt to the Sea” by Ruta Sepetys - ❤️

10) “The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power” by Deirdre Mask - ❤️

11) “The Ghost of Midnight Lake” by Lucy Strange

12) “Again, But Better: A Novel” by Christine Riccio - ❤️

13) “Emma” by Jane Austen - ❤️

14) “The Shame” by Makenna Goodman - ❤️

15) “Can We Talk About Israel? A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted” by Daniel Sokatch - ❤️

16) “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett - ❤️

17) “Far from the Tree” by Robin Benway - ❤️

18) “The Lost Property Office” by James R. Hannibal

19) “A Little Princess” by  Frances Hodgson Burnett - ❤️

20) “Instant Karma” by Marissa Meyer - ❤️

21) “Once Upon a Broken Heart” trilogy by Stephanie Garber - ❤️

22) “Rosehead” by Ksenia Anske

*For Atlas Shrugged, I did enjoy reading it as a book but I didn’t agree with its values; with what the author (Ayn Rand) was trying to convey with her philosophy of objectivism. I did enjoy reading Anthem by her, but maybe I was too young to fully comprehend the intention of the story. I will say though that although I believe being selfish is good for one’s mental health, I do think there should be a limit to it. There’s such a thing as being too selfish (or maybe that’s just me). The type of people (aka Donald Trump) that like “Atlas Shrugged” probably says something about the book itself. But that could also just be me. In summary, this book made me think a lot of things and I would recommend trying it out just as a book, but I also wouldn’t recommend it because of what’s inside the book. Two very contradictory statements but take it as you will.

ALSO IF YOU WANT TO ASK ME WHY I GAVE A BOOK HEARTS OR WHY I DIDN’T DON’T BE AFRAID TO ASK SORRY FOR THE ALL CAPS

[beau-butterfly]

Emilia, and her daughter Halinka together in a snowy forest. Enjoy the terrible picture quality; my hands were shaky. -Beau

[bookoholic-rosie]

Emilia deserved better.

Rest In Peace Beautiful.

[rollerskateingtea]

I need some one to read salt to the sea so I can talk to some one about it like it’s the kind of book you realize that rock bottom has a basement and I love it I read it multiple times

[hopefully-multilingual]

books to read if you're in search for something new (in no particular order):

Cardiff, by the Sea

And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks

A Deadly Education

I Burn Paris

If We Were Villains

The Secret History

Neuromancer

The Woman Who Turned Into A Vending Machine

Salt to the Sea

House of Leaves

The Anatomy of Evil

Good Omens

My Sister's Keeper

Death in Venice

Sing to the Dawn

The Accidental Malay

The Power of Geography

Dead Poets Society

I have not read some of these books, and am unaware of the trigger warnings (if any) so I urge to you to look them up before reading if you assumed that they would be here, thank you and happy reading!

[uaravsh]

"I become good at pretending. I became so good that after a while the lines blurred between my truth and fiction. And sometimes, when I did a really good job of pretending, I even fooled myself."

- Emilia, Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

[ya-book-quotes-est1999]

“Just when you think this war has taken everything you love, you meet someone and realize that somehow you still have more to give.”

- The Shoe Poet, Salt to the Sea

[semper-legens]

189. Salt to the Sea, by Ruta Sepetys

Owned: No, library Page count: 378 My summary: Emilia. Florian. Joana. Alfred. Four young people from different lands, all thrown together in the chaos of the Second World War. East Prussia is being evacuated. Desperate people are fleeing the country to the ships promised to take them far away. But disaster is lurking on the horizon. When it's every person for themselves, who will live and who will die? My rating: 3/5 My commentary:

I thought I'd never read this book before. And yet, when I got about 50 pages in, it started to seem familiar - strangely familiar. I've read a couple of Ruta Sepetys' books before, namely I Must Betray You and Out of the Easy, which I haven't covered here. The former I didn't like, the latter I actually enjoyed. This is one of her earlier works, though not the earliest - it's apparently something of a sequel to a book called Between Shades of Gray, which I'm 90% sure that I haven't read. To its credit, I don't think not having read the earlier book hampered my engagement with this one. But less charitably…I wasn't all too keen on this one, it has to be said. While it wasn't bad in and of itself, I found it to be sensationalist and simplistic, and overall didn't quite live up to my expectations.

This story is about the Wilhelm Gustoff, a ship that was meant to be evacuating refugees from East Prussia during World War Two, but was sunk by Russian torpedoes, killing roughly nine thousand of the ten thousand people aboard. The story follows four teenagers - pregnant Polish girl Emilia, Lithuanian nurse Joana, Prussian boy Florian, and Nazi recruit Alfred. More on them later. The story follows the refugees as they travel to the ship, and the trials they face along the way, then ends with the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustoff. There's a lot of promise here - the chaos towards the end of the Second World War, the point of view of civilians from Eastern Europe which isn't so often told, an eye on a historical tragedy which the average reader might not have heard about.

But everything here was just a little bit too simplistic. Alfred's parts of the story kept hammering in how cowardly and weaselly and pathetic he is, Emilia's chapters made her seem like a saint, Florian's angst and brooding over how he's totally gonna be killed if he gets found out really doesn't fit the crime he's committing, and Joana's past is ill-defined and her story focuses more on her relationship with Florian. It's obvious that Florian and Joana are going to be the survivors. Emilia is too innocent, and Alfred is too bad. Even factoring in the extended cast - blind Ingrid is the first to go, then rude giantess Eva, then the sympathetic Shoe Poet. The child survives, because he's an innocent in a much purer way than Emilia. It's basic storytelling, and once that who's-going-to-make-it tension is gone, there really isn't that much left in the narrative to write home about.

And the narrative style is just too overblown for me. Every chapter is screaming look I've got secrets am I not the most mysterious thing to you, to the point where it just gets annoying. And the secrets themselves aren't all that shocking. It doesn't take a genius to guess that Emilia is a fantasist and the child she's carrying was concieved after an assault, or that Alfred's apparent sweetheart Hannelore isn't actually his sweetheart, and that he turned her in to the Nazis. Florian's whole thing, that he's carrying a small part of the Amber Room in defiance of Nazi Gauleiter Erich Koch, isn't all that compelling either. I was assuming he was involved in some anti-Nazi action - while this is technically anti-Nazi, it's hardly lifesaving revolutionary work. Joana, meanwhile, the audience is expected to be familiar with, which means I couldn't get much of a read on her. It's so disappointing, this could have been really good, but I was just taken out of it at every turn.

Next, three brave girls escape captivity in Australia.

[iexist-in]

Opening a random page in books and reading the first paragraph cause I'm bored part 3

Some at home did not appreciate my cleverness or abilities. They saw me a s a birdie with a troubled wing that should remain close to the nest. They didn't know the truth. I am quite confident that no one is aware of my ingenuity and objectives. I just might surprise them all, Hannelore. War is full of duty and decision. You know I have made that commitment. Yes, life can be only lonely for the truly exceptional, darling. So I build my own next and feather it with thoughts of you.

Page 151

Salt to the Sea

[numberonestuckyshipper]

Emilia Stozek

I was just messing around with the whole digital art thing again so If anyone here loved Salt to the Sea as much as I did here’s Emilia for you!

[bookoholic-rosie]

Guilt is a hunter.

Fate is a hunter.

Shame is a hunter.

Fear is a hunter.

- Salt to the Sea

[nat-reviews-books]

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

I really liked this book, I loved that the different narrators had their own narrator for the audio book, and each did a great job of making their character shine. I could not put this book down long, I finished it in just over 24 hours (it's a 9ish hour audio book).