April 12, 2013

Sisters & Books

On Wednesday, April 10, I saw a few posts on Instagram and Twitter about National Sibling Day. Since I was unable to post anything about my sisters and me then, I thought I'd take today to talk a little bit about them - and this is totally related to the blog, I promise.

I love my sisters. Even though it's been three years since any of us have lived full-time in a house together, I still feel as close as ever to them. Now that we're all older, we get along better for the most part, though there are arguments and dramatic walkouts from time to time. The thing is, in spite of our differences (and there are plenty), we all love each other and do our best to be supportive, encouraging and there for one another.

L-R: Melissa, Carmela, me & Rachel
I have two sisters - Melissa and Rachel, and I'm the eldest. You might be wondering why there's a fourth girl in this picture. That girl is my cousin Carmela, who grew up with us and is also my sister (at least in my heart). So, when I count them, I have three sisters, and not just two. Each of us is very different from the other, and yet somehow we fit together perfectly (which is probably a God-given gift).

So yes, I'm extremely grateful for each one of them, and happy to have them in my life. Even though I live millions of miles away, I know that they're always there for me and that I'm always going to be there for them. These are the girls I'd jump on a plane for and fly home if they needed me, the girls who I want to see triumph and figure things out and achieve all their dreams. I love them very, very dearly. 

Happy National Sibling Day loves. You are very much missed and loved.

As a reader, I try to share my passion for reading with my siblings. Carmela is as big a bookworm as I am, and she's slowly but surely building up her library. Mel, on the other hand, is more of a mood reader, and she often picks up books she sees and finds interesting at stores. Rachel is the most reluctant reader, though I know she's managed to read a book or two or three when she's in the right mood for them.

I thought I'd share some of the books that my sisters and I have read, loved or recommended to one another over the years. It's quite the collection, and I'm sure that in the years to come, it'll continue growing.
Like I mentioned, Rachel is the most reluctant reader out of the three. While she's read a few books, the one I remember her most enjoying was The Princess Diaries. I have recommended Anna and the French Kiss to her, but I'm not sure if she's read it yet.

My sister Mel, on the other hand, enjoys reading almost as much as I do (and she's even reviewed Every Day). While we share a taste for historical romances, we both also read and loved Divergent. I convinced her to try Unearthly, and she got me to read Twilight (the whole series). Other recommendations that have come from her include City of Bones (and the rest of the series, the first three of which I've read, but forgotten - so maybe I'll read it again before the movie is out), The Host (which she just read and really, really loved) and Dark Lover (and the rest of the series, which I've heard quite a bit about from other bloggers too).
Carmela, on the other hand, is my bookworm soulmate in the family. We read a lot. The one difference between us is that I prefer fantasy novels and she's all about the classics (She's only seventeen. I know, right?). We meet in the middle with our love for contemporary novels and our mutual love for a series you may know called Harry Potter (which she re-reads every single Christmas). I recommended The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight and Wanderlove to her when we were at a bookstore together - she loved them. We both read Amy & Roger's Epic Detour within a month of each other, and loved it. Without her, I would not have discovered the awesomeness that is Percy Jackson and The 39 Clues. And she's the one currently encouraging me to just go for it and read Les Miserables.

There you have it! Those are just a few of the books that I've read and shared the experience with my siblings. I will now leave you with a picture that I love of all four of us just because.


YOUR TURN - How do your siblings feel about books? About reading? Do you share reading experiences with your siblings? How often do you recommend books to your siblings? How often do they recommend books to you? Do your tastes in books match theirs or are they completely different? 

21 Comments:

  1. Girl, I love this post!! I'm like you - I've gotten so much closer with my sister now that we're older. We've always been close, but since we're three years apart, we didn't always have a lot in common. Now she's definitely my best friend and we talk all the time and I go to her for advice about everything.
    My sister likes to read, but she's a LOT more casual about it. She doesn't really read YA with the exception of things like Harry Potter and she just finished The Hunger Games trilogy a few months ago, but I also took many of my favorite adult series from (like Meg Cabot)!
    What a fun post! <333

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  2. My sister never reads unless it's a cookbook :p I did recommend her Divergent and she devoured. I believe she quite liked the Twilight books, but overall, she likes watching television more. It's a shame, because I would love to talk with her about books :) But we have enough other things in common.

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  3. Great post! It's lovely to see how close you are to your sisters. I have an older brother who is fourteen years older than me and we are extremely close. My brother doesn't love reading but sometimes he'll feel like reading and go get some non-fiction books at the library! :)

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  4. I love this post! I do try my best to have a relationship with my siblings, I have a sister & 2 brothers. My sis & I are pretty close & we both share a love of books, altho me more so than her, so its nice we have that. But we also get each other on another level that I cant find w/anyone else & I'm so grateful for that. I love all your pics!

    Vivian
    Confessions of a Vi3tBabe
    Deity Island

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  5. LOVE this post! it's so cute! :) I gifted my two half sisters with the Hunger Games trilogy (they're 12 and 14) two summers ago and they absolutely LOVED it PLUS it gave us something to talk about :) -S

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  6. I always love how you share posts about your personal life. It's fun to get to know the blogger behind the blog! I think it's awesome you and your sisters share books. I only have two older brothers, and I'm not even sure they know how to read. (Okay, that may be a bit harsh. But they definitely don't read for pleasure.) I'm jealous!

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  7. My sisters are both readers, but not nearly as voracious as I am! Haha, I do share a love of Cassandra Clare's stuff with my youngest sister, Jenna, while other younger sister tends to like the sappy Nicholas Sparks stuff.

    This post is super cute, as all of your family posts are!

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  8. My sister (and only sibling) isn't a huge reader. She has some neurological disabilities so I can understand why. She recently got an ereader, and I convinced her to try some YA titles - I told her about all the YA book bloggers there are out here in the blogosphere! That made her feel less "babyish" about reading, and it's something she's better able to handle, and I think she may be starting to read more. :)

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  9. This is so cute!! lol I love sibling posts, especially about sisters. My sister's kind of a mood reader too. She only reads when she really feels like it, though I try to force her to read all the time. More often than not, it doesn't work out. lol. Great post! :)

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  10. THIS IS SO ADORABLE. I wish I had sisters! It's amazing to see how much reading personalities vary even within the same family. For instance, I've got a twin brother, but he doesn't read fiction AT ALL. Ever. He's non-fiction or nothing. There have only been a few novels he's ever straight up loved, which is simply baffling to me. I love him, obviously, but we are VERY different.

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    1. HOLD UP I JUST LOOKED CLOSER IS THAT YOU AND IAN SOMERHALDER EXPLAIN PLEASE

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  11. What a cute post! My sister is also a reader, much pickier than me but over the years I have still managed to toss some winners her way (like Gabrielle Zevin's All The Things I've Done/Because It Is My Blood and Marie Lu's Legend/Prodigy).

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  12. what a great post ALEXA! I am an only child so I couldn't participate in national sibling day. I love how you combined your love for your siblings and reading together!

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  13. Thanks for the lovely blog manang! Honored to be included in the national sibling post hehe. ;) Oh and yes, classics are the bomb. Read Les Miserables soon okay! Then we shall venture out to the others together. :) (P.S. Catcher in The Rye & To Kill & Mockingbird were great too)

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  14. This is such a sweet post! I think it's nice that you can share your love of books with your sisters. I don't have a sister but when I was a teen, I shared books with my cousin who's the same age as I am.

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  15. What a great post. I just kind of stumbled onto this blog, and I'm so glad I did!

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  16. This is such a lovely post, Alexa! I love that you all read to varying degrees :)

    My younger sister has only just got back in contact with me/our family and it's nice to re-connect. She doesn't really like reading, I'm sure she thinks it's uncool :p

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  17. I love that you've shared this with us! I have two sisters of my own so I can relate to a lot of this. My younger sister has only just started getting more and more into YA (I sometimes make her check out books for me from her school library now, hah), though she initially started off as a bit of a reluctant reader. My older sister only reads classics, which drives me insane. I try to recommend books to them both when I can, though they rarely listen. ;)

    Also, am I seeing things or is that you with IAN SOMERHALDER? O_O

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  18. I love this post! I personally have 3 sisters, so I can relate to you alot! My older siter got my twin sister and me into reading when I was a bit younger, but she doesn't have as much time to read books as us, since she's becoming a doctor. And she reads "older" books than us. But, she introduced us to great books in my childhood like Ella Enchanted and The Narnia series( for some reason, I can't remember the name!). My little sister is also a fanatic of reading( but she oddly doesn't like MG books). My whole family actually loves reading( even my brother!). Thanks for sharing a great post!

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  19. Aw, you guys are so cute! I love that you share your books with your sisters. And I can totally see the family resemblance among the three of you--so sweet.

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  20. This is such a cute and fun post! It's wonderful that you got to share your love for books with your sisters (really, sharing a reading experience with family and friends is amazing), and it's great that you got each other to read books you would have missed out on otherwise :) I have two younger brothers, one of whom doesn't like reading at all. But the youngest (he's 10 right now) is starting to love reading more and more. I'm currently reading Percy Jackson to him, and he also loves Diaries of a Whimpy Kid (which I haven't read, but I love that he loves it). I do share my love for reading with my dad, and I remember many conversations we had about Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and (right now) Percy Jackson, which he's also reading. Bookish conversations are the best, especially with the people you love the most :)

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