Tuesday, October 17, 2017

If Two Trains Leave at Midnight by Meredith Rose | A Book Review

If Two Trains Leave at Midnight by Meredith Rose | A Book Review by iamnotabookworm!

This book just screams Math is fun! Math is fun if you love it and if you have the aptitude for numbers and equations. But if you are a word-person, simply you'll find Math a pain in the butt. And if you won't try hard enough, there would be no use making numbers, x's and y's make sense. Me? I actually love Math, but before I memorized the Table of Multiplication, I found long division tedious and annoying. Until, one of my classmates tried to show me how he solved long divisions. I realized, the only secret is to memorize the multiplication table. Unlike in this story, he was unsuccessful in teaching me because I found the solution all by myself, which isn't exactly a secret at all. 

If two trains leave at midnight...is the most used algebra problem ever.  I think everyone has been asked to solve this train-problem at least once. This is my first time to read a romance story with Math in it. And it was not awkward or forced at all. Math perfectly fits into the whole equation of the story. 

I am not sure if I was unfortunate not to experience being tutored by my crush. That would have been a nice experience to look back on. But I did have a similar experience. The guy helping us pass the UPCAT (University of the Philippines College Admission Test) was a looker so it was not so hard paying attention with the summer heat full on and with only a fan to fight it. Our rooms did not have air-conditioning. He was giving us pointers on how to pass the exam. I did pass the test but I decided not to study there. Looking back, I should have, but during that time, my heart was telling me no.

This was fun, with that secret meeting place right in the middle of a hidden forest and the LARP game (live action role-playing) and Dungeons and Dragons. Reminds of episodes of Big Bang Theory where the guys were playing the same game. 

At first, I find Cate irritating the way she brushes Math like it's a really complicated subject and beyond her comprehension. I think she was just not trying at all because she just wanted to piss off her parents. She was trying too hard not to like Math because she doesn't want to follow in her parents footsteps. She knows what she wants and it's far from her parents expectations. It took someone she was interested in hanging out with to make her appreciate Math. 

I give this 3.5/5 Math books. This story brought back memories of my student days. Days spent in the study halls doing group study or working on our feasibility study. This also reminded me of times when my friends would visit me at home to ask my help about their confusing homework. I think I was pretty good at tutoring for free back in high school. That was how my mom got the idea that I would make a good teacher and was pushing me to take Education but I had my mind set on something else.




It makes me feel old and wistful, like looking at a pair of shoes I can remember adoring as a child and realizing now they won't even fit on my fingers much less my feet.
- Meredith Rose, If Two Trains Leave at Midnight - 





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