𝐈 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐡𝐨𝐦 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐰𝐞𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐨 𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬. 𝐓𝐨 𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤, 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐛𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐦𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞.
I specialize in wedding video editing and have expertise in various styles. Whether you're looking for a romantic, cinematic, or documentary-style video, I can customize it to meet your specific preferences. With my experience working with diverse clients, I can bring your vision to life and create a wedding video that truly reflects your unique story. I have the expertise to transform your raw videos into captivating and heartfelt stories. Trust me to bring out the magic in your footage and create videos that will leave couples and their loved ones in awe. Let's collaborate to make wedding videos that truly shine.
CONTACT ME TODAY!
+ MY FB ACCT. https://www.facebook.com/buang.buang.9237
https://reddit.com/link/1403g8m/video/ix0xp5dq0y3b1/player
CLICK HERE TO CHECK MY WORK SAMPLES

I recently went to Japan. What do you do with a few spare days, in a country that is awash with amazing denim and has an amazing public transport system? You go nuts, all over the place.
I benefited greatly from discussions in this forum and elsewhere. Here is a consolidated list of my notes for the next travellenutcase.

New Denim

You can find a list of denim stores here: https://www.reddit.com/rawdenim/wiki/shopsinjapan/.
Here is my map of places of interest: https://goo.gl/maps/xLDo3R8Cdd4vEiBr9. ^{Note the list is as of May 2023, it is not continually updated.}
Shops in Japan typically open late (10 or 11am or even later) and close late (7pm or later). Some are closed on random weekdays, so check opening hours on Google Maps before going. Some, but not all, shops offer tax-free shopping. You get 10% off, but you must be able to show all the items you bought on the way out of the country, so plan accordingly.
It is common to take off your shoes before entering the change room. Some places will ask you to try on t-shirts without taking off your t-shirt. Some shoe shops will give you a pair of socks to put on before you try shoes (so wearing your skin-tight jeans might be problematic ;)
If you visit multiple stores, you will see lots of things you want. You need to be strong and pace yourself, but you also need to keep track of your finds. After a while, it all becomes a delightful indigo-infused blur. I took pictures of the 'maybe' items, including with the tag showing the style, size and price, to be able to go back if I decided to buy it.

Raw Denim in Tokyo

PBJ, The Flat Head, Edwin, Fullcount, Studio D'Artisan and Japan Blue are all in the Harajuku area and you can visit them on foot in one afternoon.
Hinoya and Amerikaya are in the Ameyoko district of Ueno, a delightful rabbit warren of small shops built under the rail lines. I found 2 more denim shops in the maze which I cannot remember the names of anymore. Go in and have fun, and don't be afraid to ask.
Jelado, Warehouse and Evisu the Tokyo are relatively close to each other in the Ebisu area. I enjoyed Evisu - the seagull paint is not my style, but the store had a good stock of lovely denim, not a drop of paint in sight (they can add paint on request).
Evisu, minus paint

Special Note on Iron Heart

The Iron Heart Tokyo store is on the outskirts of Tokyo, nearly 2 hours by train (and train, and bus, and walk) from the centre of Tokyo. Their Osaka store is also in the suburbs, but a comparative stone throw from the centre, about 30 min by train.
I visited the Osaka store and I loved it. The store is quite small, but they had good stock levels. I spent 1.5 hours there, and way more money than I would care to admit. I will definitely make the pilgrimage to the Tokyo store next time I'm there. Is it obvious? I am a fan.
Iron Heart Osaka

Special Note on Socks - An Unexpected Pleasure

I visited many shops and tried on many jeans, looking for that perfect pair. And one pair was my limit. So, as a consolation prize for myself and the shop attendant whose time I just wasted, I bought socks in most stores. They are all made in Japan, of excellent quality, and nice and thick, perfect for boots.
As a result, I now have a collection of The Flat Head, Fullcount, Evisu, Iron Hear and Redwing (I know, I know, but you see the connection) socks to last me until the next trip.
Socks, socks everywhere!

Second Hand Shopping

Japan has an amazing re-use culture, and their second hand shops are a delight to visit. They also have an obsession with American/vintage/military clothing that reminds me of the obsession some of us, me included, have with Japanese clothing. Independent vintage shops in inner-city areas of major cities (Harajuku in Tokyo, the centre of Kyoto, etc) tend to stock imported clothes, so you will find racks of used Levis and Wrangler, army surplus, and mainstream designer brands.
To find more locally-made clothes, including raw denim, I resorted to visiting used clothing shops in the suburbs.
Kindal and 2nd Street are 2 chains of second hand clothing that have shops in many cities.
There is a group of ' Off' shops: Mode Off specialises in clothing. Some (but not all) Book Off shops have clothing, especially if they are called Book Off Plus. Off House and Hard Off might also have clothing. Look at in-store pictures on Google Maps to see if they have clothes.

Love it when the moon is looking pretty. Can't wait to get a little telescope for my phone and a better tripod.
Samsung S22 Ultra, 60x raw.

​
THE LOST CHILDREN
​
Once a camp of people stopped on the bank of a river.
There were but a few lodges of them. One day the little children in the camp crossed the river to play on the other side.
For some time they stayed near the bank, and then they went up over a little hill, and found a bed of sand and gravel ; and there they played for a long time.
There were eleven of these children. Two of them were daughters of the chief of the camp, and the smaller of these wanted the best of everything.
If any child found a pretty stone, she would try to take it for herself.
The other children did not like this, and they began to tease the little girl, and to take her things away from her.
Then she got angry and began to cry, and the more she cried, the more the children teased her ; so at last she and her sister left the others, and went back to the camp.
When they got there, they told their father what the other children had done to them, and this made the chief very angry. He thought for a little while, and then got up and
went out of the lodge, and called aloud, so that everybody might hear, saying :
" Listen ! listen ! Your children have teased my child and made her cry.
Now we will move away, and leave them behind. If they come back before we get started, they shall be killed.
If they follow us and overtake the camp, they shall be killed. If the father and mother of any one of them take them into their lodge, I will kill that father and mother.
Hurry now, hurry and pack up, SO that we can go.
Everybody tear down the lodges, as quickly as you can."
When the people heard this, they felt very sorry, but they had to do as the chief said ; so they tore down the lodges, and quickly packed the dog travois, and started off.
They packed in such a hurry that they left many little things lying in camp, — knives and awls, bone needles and moccasins.
The little children played about in the sand for a long time, but at last they began to get hungry ; and one little girl said to the others, " I will go back to the camp, and get some dried meat and bring it here, so that we may eat."
And she started to go to the camp. When she came to the top of the hill and looked across the river, she saw that there were no lodges there, and did not know what to think of it.
She called down to the children, and said, " The camp has gone " ; but they did not beheve her, and went on playing.
She kept on calling, and at last some of them came to her, and then all, and saw that it was as she had said.
They went down to the river, and crossed it, and went to where the lodges had stood.
When they got there, they saw on the ground the things that had been left out in packing ; and as each child saw and knew something that had belonged to its own parents, it cried and sang a little song, saying :
" Mother, here is your bone needle ;
why did you leave your children ? "
" Father, here is your arrow ;
why did you leave your children?"
It was very mournful, and they all cried.
​
There was among them a little girl who had on her back her baby brother, whom she loved dearly.
He was very young, a nursing child, and already he was hungry and beginning to fret.
This little girl said to the others : " We do not know why they have gone, but we know they have gone.
We must follow the trail of the camp, and try to catch up with them."
So the children started to follow the camp.
They travelled on all day ; and just at night they saw, near the trail, a little lodge.
They had heard the people talk of a bad old woman who killed and ate persons, and some of the children thought that this old woman might live here ; and they were afraid to go to the lodge.
Others said : " Perhaps some person lives here who has a good heart.
We are very tired and very hungry and have nothing to eat and no place to keep warm.
Let us go to this lodge."
They went to it ; and when they went in, they saw sitting by the fire an old woman.
She spoke kindly to them, and asked them where they were travelling ; and they told her
that the camp had moved on and left them, and that they were trying to find their people, that they had nothing to eat, and were tired and hungry.
The old woman fed them, and told them to sleep here to-night, and to-morrow they could go on and find their people. "
The camp," she said, " passed here to-day when the sun was low.
They have not gone far. To-morrow you will overtake them." She spread some robes on the ground and said : " Now lie here and sleep.
Lie side by side with your heads toward the fire, and when morning comes, you can go on your journey." The children lay down and soon slept.
In the middle of the night, the old woman got up, and built a big fire, and put on it a big stone kettle, full of water.
Then she took a big knife, and, commencing at one end of the row, began to cut off the heads of the children, and to throw them into the pot.
The little girl with the baby brother lay at the other end of the row, and while the old
woman was doing this, she awoke and saw what was taking place.
When the old woman came near to her, she jumped up and began to beg that she would not kill her. " I am strong," she said. " I will work hard for you.
I can bring your wood and water, and tan your skins. Do not kill my little brother and me. Take pity on us and save us alive.
Everybody has left us, but do you have pity. You shall see ' how quickly I will work, how you will always have plenty of wood.
I can work quickly and well." The old woman thought for a Kttle while, then she said : " Well, I will let you live for a time, anyhow.
You shall sleep safely to-night." The next day, early, the little girl took her brother on her back, and went out and gathered a big pile of wood, and brought it to the lodge before the old woman was awake.
When she got up, she called to the girl, " Go to the river and get a bucket of water."
The girl put her brother on her back, and took the bucket to go.
The old woman said to her : " Why do you carry that child every where? Leave him here." The girl said : "Not so. He is always with me, and if I leave him he will cry and make a great noise, and you will not like that."
The old woman grumbled, but the girl went on down to the river.
When she got there, just as she was going to fill her bucket, she saw standing by her a great bull.
It was a mountain buffalo, one of those who live in the timber ; and the long hair of its head was all full of pine needles and sticks and branches, and matted together.
(It was a Sii'ye- stii'tnik, a water bull.)
When the girl saw him, she prayed him to take her across the river, and so to save her and her little brother from the bad old woman.
The bull said, " I will take you across, but first you must take some of the sticks out of my head."
The girl begged him to start at once ; but the bull said, "
No, first take the sticks out of my head." The girl began to do it, but before she had done much, she heard the old woman calling to her to bring the water.
The girl called back, " I am trying to get the water clear," and went on fixing the buffalo's head.
The old woman called again, saying, " Hurry, hurry with that water."
The girl answered, " Wait, I am washing my little brother."
Pretty soon the old woman called out, " If you don't bring that water, I will kill you and your brother."
By this time the girl had most of the sticks out of the bull's head, and he told her to get on his back, and went into the water and swam with her across the river.
As he reached the other bank, the girl could see the old woman coming from her lodge down to the river with a big stick in her hand.
When the bull reached the bank, the girl jumped off his back and started off on the trail of the camp.
The bull swam back again to the other side of the river, and there stood the old woman. This bull was a sort of servant of the old woman. She said to him :
" Why did you take those children across the river? Take me on your back now and carry me across quickly, so that I can catch them."
The bull said, " First take these sticks out of my head." " No," said the old woman ; " first take me across, then I will take the sticks out." The bull repeated, " First take the sticks
out of my head, then I will take you across."
This made the old woman very mad, and she hit him with the stick she had in her hand ; but when she saw that he would not go, she began to pull the sticks out of his head very roughly, tearing out great handfuls of hair, and every moment ordering him to go, and threatening what she would do to him when she got back.
At last the bull took her on his back, and began to swim across with her, but he did not swim fast enough to please her, so she began to pound him with her club to make him go faster ; and when the bull got to the middle of the river, he rolled over on his side, and the old
woman slipped off, and was carried down the river and drowned.
​
The girl followed the trail of the camp for several days, feeding on berries and roots that she dug ; and at last one night after dark she overtook the camp.
She went into the lodge of an old woman, who was camped off at one side, and the old woman pitied her and gave her some food, and told her where her father's lodge was.
The girl went to it, but when she went in, her parents would not receive her.
She had tried to overtake them for the sake of her little brother, who was growing thin and weak because he had not nursed ; and now her mother was afraid to have her stay
with them.
She even went and told the chief that her children had come back.
Now when the chief heard that these two children had come back, he was angry ; and he
ordered that the next day they should be tied to a post in the camp, and that the people should move on and leave them here.
"Then," he said, " they cannot follow us."
The old woman who had pitied the children, when she heard what the chief had ordered, made up a bundle of dried meat, and hid it in the grass near the camp.
Then she called her dog to her, — a little curly dog.
She said to the dog: — " Now listen.
Tomorrow when we are ready to start, I will call you to come to me, but you must pay no attention to what I say.
Run off, and pretend to be chasing squirrels.
I will try to catch you, and if I do so, I will pretend to whip you ; but do not follow me.
Stay behind, and when the camp has passed out of sight, chew off the strings that bind
those children ; and when you have done this, show them where I have hidden that food. Then you can follow the camp and catch up to us."
The dog stood before the old woman, and listened to all that she said, turning his head
from side to side, as if paying close attention.
Next morning it was done as the chief had said.
The children were tied to the tree with raw hide strings, and the people tore down all the lodges and moved off.
The old woman called her dog to follow her, but he was digging at a gopher hole and would not come.
Then she went up to him and struck at him hard with her whip, but he dodged and ran away, and then stood looking at her.
Then the old woman got very mad and cursed him, but he paid no attention ; and finally she left him, and followed the camp.
When the people had all passed out of sight, the dog went to the children, and gnawed the strings which tied them, until he had bitten them through.
So the children were free.
Then the dog was glad, and danced about and barked and ran round and round.
Pretty soon he came up to the little girl, and looked up in her face, and then started away, trotting.
Every little while he would stop and look back. The girl thought he wanted her to follow him.
She did so, and he took her to where the bundle of dried meat was, and showed it to her. Then, when he had done this, he jumped up on her, and licked the baby's face, and then started off, running as hard as he could along the trail of the camp, never stopping to look back.
The girl did not follow him.
She now knew that it was no use to go to the camp again.
T,heir parents would not receive them, and the chief would perhaps order them to be killed.
She went on her way, carrying her little brother and the bundle of dried meat.
She travelled for many days, and at last came to a place where she thought she would stop.
Here she built a little lodge of poles and brush, and stayed there.
One night she had a dream, and an old woman came to her in the dream, and said to her, "Tomorrow take your little brother, and tie him to one of the lodge poles, and the next day tie him to another, and so every day tie him to one of the poles, until you have gone all around the lodge and have tied him to each pole.
Then you will be helped, and will no more have bad luck."
When the girl awoke in the morning, she remembered what the dream had told her, and she bound her little brother to one of the lodge poles ; and each day after this she tied him to one of the poles.
Each day he grew larger, until, when she had gone all around the lodge, he was grown to be a fine young man.
Now the girl was glad, and proud of her young brother who was so large and noble-looking. He was quiet, not speaking much, and sometimes for days he would not say anything.
He seemed to be thinking all the time.
One morning he told the girl that he had a dream and that he wished her to help him build a pis'kun.
She was afraid to ask him about the dream, for she thought if she asked questions he might not like it.
So she just said she was ready to do what he wished.
They built the pis'kun, and when it was finished, the boy said to his sister :
" The buffalo are to come to us, and you are not to see them.
When the time comes, you are to cover your head and to hold your face close to the ground ; and do not lift your head nor look, until I throw a piece of kidney to you."
The girl said, " It shall be as you say."
When the time came, the boy told her where to go ; and she went to the place, a little way from the lodge, not far from the corral, and sat down on the ground, and covered her head, holding her face close to the earth.
After she had sat there a little while, she heard the sound of animals running, and she was excited and curious, and raised her head to look ; but all she saw was her brother, standing near, looking at her.
Before he could speak, she said to him : " I thought I heard buffalo coming, and because I was anxious for food, I forgot my promise and looked.
Forgive me this time, and I will try again." Again she bent her face to the ground, and covered her head.
Soon she heard again the sound of animals running, at first a long way off, and then coming nearer and nearer, until at last they seemed close, and she thought they were going to run over her.
She sprang up in fright and looked about, but there was nothing to be seen but her brother,
looking sadly at her.
She went close to him and said : " Pity me. I was afraid, for I thought the buffalo were going to run over me."
He said : "This is the last time. If again you look, we will starve ; but if you do not look, we will always have plenty, and will never be without meat."
The girl looked at him, and said, " I will try hard this time, and even if those animals run right over nie, I will not look until you throw the kidney to me."
Again she covered her head, pressing her face against the earth and putting her hands against her ears, so that she might not hear.
Suddenly, sooner than she thought, she felt the blow from the meat thrown at her, and, springing up, she seized the kidney and began to eat it.
Not far away was her brother, bending over a fat cow ; and, going up to him, she helped him with the butchering.
After that was done, she kindled a fire and cooked the best parts of the meat, and they ate and were satisfied.
The boy became a great hunter. He made fine arrows that went faster than a bird could fly, and when he was hunting, he watched all the animals and all the birds, and learned their ways, and how to imitate them when they called.
While he was hunting, the girl dressed buffalo hides and the skins of deer and other animals. She made a fine new lodge, and the boy painted it with figures of all the birds and the animals he had killed.
One day, when the girl was bringing water, she saw a little way off a person coming.
When she went in the lodge, she told her brother, and he went out to meet the stranger.
He found that he was friendly and was hunting, but had had bad luck and killed nothing.
He was starving and in despair, when he saw this lone lodge and made up his mind to
go to it.
As he came near it, he began to be afraid, and to wonder if the people who lived there were enemies or ghosts ; but he thought, " I may as well die here as starve," so he went boldly to it.
The strange person was very much surprised to see this handsome young man with the kind
face, who could speak his own language.
The boy took him into the lodge, and the girl put food before him.
After he had eaten, he told his story, saying that the game had left them, and that many of his people were dying of hunger.
As he talked, the girl listened ; and at last she remembered the man, and knew that he belonged to her camp.
She asked him questions, and he talked about all the people in the camp, and even spoke of the old woman who owned the dog.
The boy advised the stranger, after he had rested, to return to his camp, and tell the people to move up to this place, that here they would find plenty of game.
After he had gone, the boy and his sister talked of these things.
The girl had often told him what she had suffered, what the chief had said and done, and how their own parents had turned against her, and that the only person whose heart
had been good to her was this old woman.
As the young man heard all this again, he was angry at his parents and the chief, but he felt great kindness for the old woman and her dog.
When he learned that those bad people were living, he made up his mind that they should suffer and die.
When the strange person reached his own camp, he told the people how well he had been treated by these two persons, and that they wished him to bring the whole camp to where they were, and that there they should have plenty.
This made great joy in the camp, and all got ready to move.
When they reached the lost children's camp, they found everything as the stranger had said. The brother gave a feast ; and to those whom he liked he gave many presents, but to the old woman and the dog he gave the best presents of all.
To the chief nothing at all was given, and this made him very much ashamed.
To the parents no food was given, but the boy tied a bone to the lodge poles above the fire, and told the parents to eat from it without touching it with their hands.
They were very hungry, and tried to eat from this bone ; and as they were stretching out their necks to reach it — for it was above them — the boy cut off their heads with his knife. This frightened all the people, the chief most of all ; but the boy told them how it all was, and how he and his sister had survived.
When he had finished speaking, the chief said he was sorry for what he had done, and he proposed to his people that this young man should be made their chief.
They were glad to do this.
The boy was made the chief, and lived long to rule the people in that camp.

I don't know where to start. Maybe by just telling you that I love, LOVE this book. I brought deep dive synopsis if you want to get the general idea of what this is about but you don't have time to read the book.
​
May's book pick
BOOK: I’ll give you the sun by Jandy Nelson
PITCH: https://www.reddit.com/GMMTV/comments/13b5l2h/book_club_may_book_pick/
TW: Sexual assault, character death, mentions of drug abuse, under-age drinking.
Characters:
Noah Sweetwine: introvert, is close to his mother, his passion is painting. Twin brother to Jude.
Jude Sweetwine: extrovert, is close to his father, clashes with her mother, is more inclined to sculpting than any other art form. Twin sister to Noah.
Brian Connelly: one year older than Noah, has a scholarship playing baseball, likes to collect meteorites, only comes to the Cove during school breaks.
Oscar: British, photographer and model, has scars on his face, tattoos and heterochromia. Three or four years older than the twins.
Dianna Sweetwine: Jude and Noah’s mom, she writes for an art magazine. Free spirited.
Benjamin Sweetwine: Jude and Noah’s dad, he’s a doctor.
Grandma Sweetwine: Benjamin’s mother. She’s dead.
Guillermo García: sculptor, was once interviewed by Dianna for her magazine. He’s considered a Rockstar among his peers.
Zephyr: bullies Noah in highschool, likes Jude.
Fry: friend of Zephyr’s, also bullies Noah.
Heather: friend of Noah, has a crush on him
Sandy: Jude’s teacher at CSA (California School of the Arts)
The Cove: where Noah and Jude live.
CSA: California School of the Arts, prestigious art school. Noah dreams to attend here.
​
Plot summary from Super summary:
https://www.supersummary.com/ill-give-you-the-sun/summary/
The story opens as Noah is being chased by two older neighborhood boys who regularly bully him. He manages to escape and make his way home. At dinner, Dianna, his mother, announces that she has a message from his dead grandmother, Grandma Sweetwine. She thinks that Noah and his twin sister Jude should apply to California School of the Arts. Noah is thrilled, though Jude and Benjamin, their father, are not. Dianna and Benjamin argue as the twins discuss Grandma’s message in the adjoining room. Noah tries to cheer her up, suggesting that Grandma thought of CSA because of the beautiful sand sculptures of flying women that Jude has been making down at the beach. In preparation for the CSA application, Dianna begins to take the twins to art museums. She announces a drawing contest between the two, but is so awed by Noah’s work, she calls off the contest even before looking at Jude’s art. Jealous of Noah’s talent and the attention it draws from their mother, Jude’s relationship with Noah begins to sour. She stops going to museums and begins to hang out at the beach instead. Noah believes that if Dianna ever saw Jude’s sand sculptures, everything would change; although he has taken pictures of Jude’s sculptures, he does not show them to anyone.
Over the summer, Noah begins to visit the CSA campus to watch a live drawing class conducted there. During one of the sessions, the model, Oscar, catches Noah practicing sketches outside the window of the class. Oscar is dismissed later that session for being under the influence and he stops modeling at CSA. When Jude sees Noah’s drawing of Oscar, she is so taken by it, that she trades Noah the sun, stars, trees, and the ocean in exchange for it, as part of a game they have played since childhood in which they divvy up the universe.
Noah also meets and befriends Brian, a new boy who has moved in next door. Brian is the star pitcher on his boarding school team and is also deeply interested in science and astronomy. Noah is immediately attracted to him, and the boys begin taking rock collecting walks together. Brian becomes popular with the neighborhood girls, and for the first time in Noah’s life, he is cool by association. Noah blows off Jude when she attempts to reconcile with him and starts spending all his time with Brian and others. Jude is furious at Noah for stealing her friends, and at a party, she manipulates a game of Seven Minutes in Heaven so that she and Brian go into the closet together. A distraught Noah leaves the party and tears up every single sketch he has made of Brian, as well as the one of Oscar which he gave to Jude, before deleting every picture he has taken of Jude’s sand sculptures.
One afternoon, Noah makes his way over to Guillermo Garcia’s studio, a famous sculptor whom Oscar once told Noah about. He watches Guillermo and his work from afar, and on his way back, runs into Dianna parked surprisingly close to the studio. Over the next couple of months, Dianna begins to act strangely, always absent-minded and lost in thought. She even forgets Benjamin’s birthday. Dianna and Benjamin eventually tell the twins that Benjamin is moving out for a while. The twins watch Benjamin leave and confide their fears and worries in each other; Jude also assures Noah that nothing happened between her and Brian, and they reconcile.
Brian comes back to visit over Christmas break, and Noah goes for a walk with him where they finally kiss. Brian wants to keep their relationship a secret, as he worries it will end his baseball career. He has been harassed for his sexual orientation in the past. However, Dianna walks in on the boys masturbating together one day, and a terrified Brian immediately ends things with Noah. Not wanting Dianna to tell anyone else, Noah follows her out of the house believing that she is going to meet Benjamin. Instead, he sees Dianna meeting and kissing Guillermo. Distraught and heartbroken, when Noah runs into Brian with one of the girls on the way home, he reveals Brian’s secret to her. Back home, Dianna tells Noah that she is going to marry Guillermo; as she leaves, Noah yells at her that he hates her. Dianna’s car veers off a cliff, and she dies in the resulting crash, and a guilt-ridden Noah lies to Benjamin and Jude that Dianna was on her way to reconcile with Benjamin. Noah also visits Guillermo and repeats the same lie, blaming Guillermo for Dianna’s death. Two weeks after Dianna’s death, Noah jumps off Devil’s Drop, a high cliff overlooking the beach and almost drowns. Jude pulls him out and revives him. Upset and furious with her brother for almost abandoning her, Jude does not mail Noah’s CSA application along with hers.
Two years later, Jude is a student at CSA; when Noah didn’t get an acceptance, he destroyed all his work and stopped making art completely. Jude was pressured into losing her virginity to an older boy the night Dianna died and believes that this invited bad luck and led to Dianna’s death. Following this, Jude cuts off all her hair and exclusively dresses in drab clothing, in a self-inflicted “boy boycott.” She also obsessively follows the dictates of Grandma Sweetwine’s “Bible,” a handwritten collections of beliefs and superstitions about luck. Jude is regularly visited by Grandma Sweetwine’s ghost; while Dianna does not appear to her, Jude believes that Dianna is responsible for the fact that all of Jude’s clay work at CSA ends up mysteriously shattered.
Jude’s mentor, Sandy, tells her that she was accepted at CSA because of the pictures of the sand sculptures that came in with her application. Jude is confused, as she had not sent in any pictures and didn’t even know any existed. Now, however, she is in danger of losing her spot at CSA, because of all the breakage in the kiln. Jude decides to work in stone so that Dianna cannot shatter her art; she plans on creating a sculpture that will impress Dianna and force her to forgive Jude. Sandy directs her to Guillermo but warns her that Guillermo has not mentored or taught in over two years after something tragic happened to him. On her way to meet and convince Guillermo, Jude stops by a church where she runs into Oscar. He seems strangely familiar, but she can’t quite place him. Oscar flirts with Jude and takes pictures of her before leaving. At Guillermo’s studio, Jude encounters a haggard and drunk Guillermo who asks her to go away; upon repeated knocking, Jude is surprised to see Oscar open the door, but he, too, turns her away. On her way home Jude receives a message from one of Noah’s friends that he plans to cliff-dive off Devil’s Drop. Jude hides and waits for him, planning to save him if necessary, but as has been happening recently, when Noah jumps, he miraculously slows down before hitting the water.
Noah and Benjamin find Jude looking up Guillermo and his work on the internet, and both seem shaken. Jude later finds that all her bookmarks about Guillermo have been deleted from her laptop. Jude goes to Guillermo’s studio again, watching him work through a window. Guillermo catches her watching him and apprehends her while she tries to run away. He invites Jude in, and seeing her desperation to work in stone, agrees to mentor her. Jude begins to work with Guillermo; before the sculpture of Dianna, however, she realizes that she wants to make one of her and Noah instead. During her time with Guillermo, Jude also grows closer to Oscar. She learns that Guillermo saved Oscar’s life, taking him in and helping him get clean some years ago. Oscar confesses his attraction to Jude; however, the intensity of his own feelings scares him, and he begins to retreat from Jude, going on to kiss another girl.
Jude decides to try and make things right with Noah. She Googles Brian and finds that he is now mildly famous for being a high-performing, openly-gay baseball player. Jude emails Brian a link to a message Noah consistently posts on a website called Lost Connections, asking Brian to forgive him and meet him again. Jude also emails her mentor at CSA asking for a meeting with her and Noah; she decides to give up her spot for Noah. Before she can confess the truth to Noah, however, she finds out that he is on the verge of jumping off the highest, most dangerous cliff on the beach. Jude arrives in time and manages to save Noah along with Oscar’s help. A drunk Noah explains whenever he jumps, Dianna always saves him at the end, slowing his fall. Oscar helps Jude get Noah home; he visits her in her room later that night, apologizing for his earlier behavior before kissing her. Jude finally recognizes him as the face in Noah’s painting. However, Oscar catches a glimpse of a family picture on Jude’s dresser, and leaves abruptly when he realizes that Jude is Dianna’s daughter.
When Jude shows Guillermo the sketches of Dianna she has made for the sculpture, he comes to the same realization and tells her he cannot mentor her anymore. Noah and Oscar arrive at the studio as well, and the truth about Dianna is revealed. An overwhelmed Jude leaves along with Noah. Noah apologizes to Jude for having lied to her and Benjamin, and the two grieve Dianna together. Jude also confesses to what she did about Noah’s CSA application, and Noah is elated that he was not actually rejected. Noah shows Jude a wall he has been secretly painting at an abandoned construction site; he does not care about art school anymore, having recently rediscovered the magic in art for its own sake. Noah and Jude tell Benjamin the truths about Dianna and CSA, and he forgives them both graciously. They also discover that Guillermo is the one who sent the pictures of Jude’s sand sculptures to CSA. Jude believes that they are all destined to be in each other’s lives and wants to continue working with Guillermo. Noah reaches out to Brian directly, and the two reconcile. The book ends with Benjamin realizing and accepting Noah’s sexuality when he sees the boys holding hands together.
You can also check LitCharts: https://www.litcharts.com/lit/i-ll-give-you-the-sun/summary
​
Quotes:
About the invisible museum (the invisible museum is how Noah envisions the paintings he wants to bring to life, some do and some don’t, but it describes his thought process which I find super cool):
- One of his arms is choked around my neck, the other braced across my torso like a seat belt. He’s bare-chested, straight off the beach, and the heat of him is seeping through my T-shirt. His coconut suntan lotion’s filling my nose, my whole head—the strong smell of the ocean too, like he’s carrying it on his back . . . Zephyr dragging the tide along like a blanket behind him . . . That would be good, that would be it (PORTRAIT: The Boy Who Walked Off with the Sea)—but not now, Noah, so not the time to mind-paint this cretin. I snap back, taste the salt on my lips, remind myself I’m about to die—
- Because I can see people’s souls sometimes when I draw them, I know the following: Mom has a massive sunflower for a soul so big there’s hardly any room in her for organs. Jude and me have one soul between us that we have to share: a tree with its leaves on fire. And Dad has a plate of maggots for his.
- His soul might be a sun. I’ve never met anyone who had the sun for a soul.
- “I paint in my head,” I tell him. “I was the whole time.” I’ve never told anyone I do this, not even Jude, and I have no idea why I’m telling him. I’ve never let anyone into the invisible museum before. “What were you painting?”“You.”
- In my mind, I can draw Brian with lightning.
- I watch him as he razors through the crowd, nodding his head to guys, returning the smiles of girls, like he belongs. How is it he belongs everywhere? (PORTRAIT: The Boy with All the Keys in the World with All the Locks)
- I close my eyes and drown in color, open them and drown in light because billions and billions of buckets of light are being emptied on our heads from above. This is it. This is freaking everything. This is the painting painting itself.
​
About Jude and Noah:
- I don’t know how this can be but it can : A painting is both exactly the same and entirely different every single time you look at it. That’s the way it is between Jude and me now.
- I remember how Jude gave up the sun and stars and oceans for my drawing of him. I’m going to steal it back from her. I’m going to take everything from her. If she were drowning, I’d hold her head under.
- And most important, I don’t worry when I come home one day and find a note on the kitchen table written by Jude asking Mom to come down to the beach to see a sculpture she’s building out of sand. I don’t worry that I take the note and bury it at the bottom of the garbage can. I don’t worry, not really, even though it makes my stomach hurt to do it, no not my stomach, it makes my soul hurt that I could do it, that I actually did it. I should’ve been worrying. I should’ve been worrying a lot.
- [...]and when he revived, the second I knew he was okay, I slapped him as hard as I could across the face. Because how could he have done this? How could he have chosen to leave me here all alone?
- Noah had stopped breathing. So there were these moments when I was in life without him. For the first time. Not even in the womb were we apart. Terror doesn’t come close to describing it. Fury doesn’t come close. Heartbreak, no. There is no way to describe it. He wasn’t there. He wasn’t with me anymore.
- I took from my brother the thing he wanted most in the world. What kind of person does that?
​
About Brian:
- That’s when it occurs to me that maybe the rocks are weighing him down so he doesn’t rise into the air . . .
- I try to prick the balloon that’s lifting me into the air by telling myself I shouldn’t be this excited to see a guy I only met a day ago. Even if that guy carries the galaxy around in a bag!
- I’m thinking the reason I’ve been so quiet all these years is only because Brian wasn’t around yet for me to tell everything to.
- I don’t worry that when Brian and I are alone in the woods or up on his roof or in his living room watching baseball (whatever), he puts up an electrical fence between us, and never once do I risk death by brushing against it, but when we’re in public, like at The Spot, the fence vanishes, and we become clumsy magnets, bumping and knocking into each other, grazing hands, arms, legs, shoulders, tapping the other on the back, even occasionally the leg, for no good reason except that it’s like swallowing lightning.
- I don’t worry that when I get back to my seat, it all starts again, but this time our legs find each other immediately and he grabs my hand beneath the armrest and squeezes it and we electrocute and die.
- “I love you,” I say to him, only it comes out, “Hey.”“So damn much,” he says back, only it comes out, “Dude.”
​
Grandma Sweetwine’s bible:
- “You have to see the miracles for there to be miracles, Jude.” She used to say this a lot. It’s the very first passage she wrote in the bible. I’m not a miracle-seer. The very last passage she wrote in the bible was: A broken heart is an open heart.
- “I will bathe in vinegar, down some raw eggs, and start looking for a wasp nest ASAP to put on my head.”“I do not understand this,”he says. “To reverse the leanings of the heart. Ancient family wisdom.”He laughs. “Ah. Very good. In my family, we just suffer.”
- I went to Grandma’s bible, desperate, but it didn’t matter how many rosehips I put in my tea, how much lapis lazuli I hid under my pillow, I couldn’t get rid of the rage.
​
About Oscar:
- Hot guys should be forced into footie pajamas.
- No woman can resist a man who has tidal waves and earthquakes beneath the skin.
- “When I want to ask you to abandoned buildings or kiss those lips of yours or stare into your otherworldly eyes or imagine what you look like under all those baggy drab clothes you’re always hiding in or ravish you on some grimy floor like I’m desperate to this very minute, I’ll just bugger off on my Hippity Hop. Deal?” He holds out his hand. “Friends. Just friends.” Talk about mixed signals; he’s like a roller coaster that talks.
- I’m filled with something I can only describe as recognition. Not because he looks familiar on the outside this time, but because he feels familiar on the inside.
- I blew it. I did. I should’ve kissed him. One kiss, then I could die. Well, wait, no freaking way, if I’m going to die, I want to do more than kiss. Way way more.
​
Art wisdom:
- Because that’s what all this is about. Nothing else. We wish with our hands, that’s what we do as artists.
- Is there something you need in the world that only your two hands can create?
- “It’s okay to be addicted to beauty,” Mom says, all dreamy . “Emerson said ‘Beauty is God’s handwriting.’”
- What slumbers in the heart, slumbers in the stone.
- “If only the heart listen to reason, right?” He puts an arm around me. “C’mon, what is bad for the heart is good for art. The terrible irony of our lives as artists.” Our lives as artists.
- “I don’t think you are okay,”he says. “Sometimes you work the stone, sometimes the stone works you. I think today the rock win.”
​
PREVIOUS BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION: PS I spook you by SE Harmon.

Personally, love a hand rolled joint with Elements paper and Raw tip.