The Social Networks Tag

This tag was originally created by Youtuber Faultydevices and she took aspects of several social networks and created questions around them. Her video can be found here. Ariel Bissett however changed the questions slightly, you can watch her video here, and as I prefer her adaption of the tag it is her questions I am going to be doing.

Twitter: Your favourite shortest book.  The Cay by Theodore Taylor This book was read to us while I was in primary 7 and I never really forgot it. I was given it as a Christmas present two years ago and after rereading it I still felt the same. It is a really moving story particularly considering its only 118 pages.
Facebook: A book everyone pressured you into reading.  The Fault In Our Stars by John Green I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t really fussed about reading this book. I have read a number of stories about people dying of terminal illness and this was just another to me, but a friend of mine got tickets to go and see John Green and I felt like I couldn’t go without having read it.
Tumblr: A book you read before it was cool.  Twilight by Stephenie Meyer I bought Twilight way back in 2006 with some birthday money I had and I picked it up purely because I liked the cover. Little did I know I was about to fall in love with the book and lend it to all my friends and endure the agonising wait for all the sequels. Before I knew it, it was a massively popular book and it was being turned into a movie and although I do love the book its hard not to feel like you’ve lost a bit of the magic of finding a great book.
Myspace: A book you don’t remember whether you liked or not.  When It Happens by Suzane Colasanti I have no idea what I thought of this book. I remember getting it in the mail from amazon. I remember reading it and it not taking very long but I have no idea if I liked it or not. I’ve currently got it rated 3 stars on Goodreads but it might be time to refresh my memory of this one.
Instagram: A book that was so beautiful that you and to instagram it.  I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith I hadn’t really been interested in this book, but when I seen this version of the book I finally picked it up and decided it was worth buying. I don’t actually have Instgram but if I did I would have shared this cover.  
Youtube: A book you wish would be turned into a movie.  Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway The whole way through reading the book I kept imagining how good it would be to see it as a film so it was an easy choice for this question. The book is full of interesting description of devices and adventures that I think could be translated beautifully to screen.
Goodreads: A book you recommend to everyone.  All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque I found this question really hard because everyone has their own taste in reading and it’s quite challenging to find a book that covers everything. What I’ve gone for in the end is one I think everyone should read. This book is about the First World War. It tells the story of an ordinary soldier who fought like so many others, but what I think is most important is that it’s from the point of view of a German soldier and his story is no different from a British soldiers’.

What I’ve Been Reading in 2014

As I haven’t been blogging so far this year I wanted to catch up on the books I’ve been reading. So far I have managed to read 28 books and I feel like I am going slow however I am currently on track for Goodreads goal for the year of 60 books. Sadly I’ve not found anything this year that’s really blown me away, I have enjoyed some books, but most of them have just been OK. Currently I am reading The Fellowship of the Ring which isn’t helping me feel like I’m reading fast but I am getting through it and so far liking it so hopefully the second half of the year will be a better one for reading.

Rainbow Rowell   

My very first book of 2014 was Eleanor and Park which I enjoyed it a lot and have since read both her other published books; Fangirl and Attachments. I didn’t realise this former was an adult book till I got into it but it was just as good as her other work telling a really interesting story about three characters who’s lives are coming together. Fangirl is her other YA book and was a very easy read with a really enjoyable contemporary story that would make a perfect summer read.

Patrick Ness  

This year I have also got to sample some more of Patrick Ness’ work. Firstly I picked up A Monster Calls as they had it at a cheap book store. I was expecting it to be a creepy thriller type story but it turned out to be a very beautiful story about a child learning to deal with illness that definitely left me with wet eyes. More Than This on the other hand was more of a sci-fi story looking at the capabilities of the internet and a very different view of life after death.

War Books 

I also wanted to show some respect to the 100th anniversary of WW1 and the 70th anniversary of the D-Day Landings in a personal way by reading books set during the war. I’ve managed to read a few thanks to the library but the one that I enjoyed most was All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. Unlike a lot of war books I have read it was set during World War 1 but what made it more interesting was it is from the point of view of a German solider and it very much put across the fact that in the end, it was just boys who have done nothing wrong but fight for their country.

Adult  

Another person goal of mine has been to branch out with me reading, particularly to stop being afraid of adult novels. The Dark Heroine by Abigail Gibbs was one of the first books I read this year and I really enjoyed it. It’s a dark romance involving the paranormal and was an intoxicating read. My biggest surprise of the year was a book I picked up in the library purely for the name. The Library of Shadows by Mikkel Birkegaard turned out to be an exciting adventure with a touch of magic and I think will definitely be making me top reads of 2014.

Classics  

Similarly reading more classics is on my list for the year and I recently read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. This was one of those books that stays with you long after you close it. There isn’t a huge plot to the book but the society and the ideals presented in the book give you plenty to think about. Another more modern classic I’ve got through is Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. This was never on my To Read list and I hadn’t seen the film but when I over heard my friends talking about the twist in it I decided to give it a shot. It was certainly an interesting read and having now seen the film I am glad I read the book first.

Series    

There’s been a lot of good and bad series going about the last few years and I’ve not got many on the go at the moment but I did have Shattered by Teri Terry to look forward to. This was the final book in a dystopian series and this last book was quite a change from the first two. I enjoyed the change of setting for this book, however I feel there was maybe a little to much worry about the romance. A better balance of romance to action could be founf in The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey which I only recently finished. This book turned out to be another one that was different from what I was expecting but definitely in a good way. I can’t wait to see where this series will go. I finally also managed to pick up The Giver by Lois Lowry. It was a very quick read with some interesting ideas but it didn’t blow me away like I had expected.  A book I had never planned really on reading but picked this year was The Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. I have seen the start of the movie adaptation of this several times but never made it to the end so it is good to finally know what happens. I’m not going to carry on with these at the moment but I did find it a worth while read and certainly an entertaining one.

Booksplosion 

Lastly is We Were Liars by E Lockhart. This is being read by a group of booktubers I watch and being so short I figured I would just give it a go. It’s a book you need to go into not knowing anything about it however for me I was expecting a great story from all its hype and sadly it didn’t live up to that.

There have been more books this year but these are the ones I feel are worth noting about. I am looking forward to hopefully getting through so more noteworthy books soon and maybe getting some good review up soon!.

 

 

 

The Book Burger Tag

This tag was created by Booktuber RyanReadsBooks and you can watch his video here.

In this tag, you build a “burger” with books that answer the questions representing each layer of the burger. I have tried to include some different books from my shelves as it always nice to give a shot out and recommendation to those great books that get lost behind the hype of the books in the media.

1. You start out with your bottom bun, What book is your favorite start to a series?

 I knew I liked this book but it wasn’t till I reread it that I realised just how much I love it. That book is Divergent by Veronica Roth. I enjoyed the characters, the world and this plot of this book and it made me want to read more. 

2. Now you add a burger patty, What big (400+ pages) book do you love?

 Trying to pick just one book is hard, but I want to go with books that don’t seem to be well know so I’ve gone for Blood Ties by Sophie McKenzie. This ended up being the first book in a fantastic action packed duo-logy. The story was gripping due to it’s strong plot base and I would highly recommend this book to people who enjoy action books.

3. Now you need cheese and lettuce, What is one small (200- pages) book you read and one small one you need to read?

 A 200- pages that I ave read and enjoyed is The Short Second Life Of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyers. I wasn’t expecting anything from this book but it turned out to be a really really enjoyable read.

One that I want to read is Number The Stars by Lois Lowry. I recently read The Giver and found it a very easy read but also interesting and the blurb of this one has also caught my attention. 

4. Now you need to add a tomato, What is one average size (200-400 pages) book you either loved or hated? 

 I had to go for another book I loved to share with you an author I really like but doesn’t seem to be known at all. Notes From The Teenage Underground by Simmone Howell. I read this book while I was in secondary school and it is one I still remember the enjoyment I felt whilst reading it. Simmone is an Australian author and I have read all her books but this one will always stick with me.

5. Now you add a sauce, What is one book you thought you would love but hated, or vice versa?

 Tomorrow, When The War Began by James Marsden was a book I was really looking forward to. I had been reading a lot of dystopian and this one interested me with both its plot and I’m not ashamed to admit it but its cover. However I was totally disappointed. There was too many characters that weren’t developed enough and I felt the plot was totally unrealistic. 

6. Lastly, you need to add your top bun, What book that ends a series are you dreading the release of or one you did because you don’t want it to end?

 This was easy. Brothers To The Death by Darren Shan. This was the last book in The Saga of Larten Crepsley, a phenomenal companion series to go along with The Saga of Darren Shan. It followed the life of Larten Crepsely and the final book brought together his story with Darren’s perfectly, along with providing you interesting  information about lot of recognisable characters. I would definitely suggest reading this if you enjoyed The Saga of Darren Shan. 

      

The Book Sacrifice Tag

This tag was created by Booktuber Ariel Bissett who’s video you can find here. It’s a fun way to get talking about those books that we just hate, everyone has them however please remember it is meant to be fun and no as an insult.

There are four scenarios and only one type of book can help solve them, so which ones do you hat enough to use to save yourself?

1) An Over-Hyped Book: Let’s start this off with a Zombie Apocalypse! Let’s say you’re in a book store, just browsing, when BAM! ZOMBIE ATTACK. An announcement comes over the PA System saying that the military has discovered that the zombies’ only weakness is over-hyped books. What book that everyone else says is amazing but you really hated do you start chucking at the zombies knowing that it will count as an over-hyped book and successfully wipe them out?!

This was quite a hard one for me. There are a few hyped books I don’t agree are worth the hype but not necessarily hated. However In the end I have gone for the Uglies Series by Scott Westerfeld. I had lots of hope for this book and I enjoyed maybe the first half of book one but it all went down hill from there. Tally was a really dislikable character and I didn’t enjoy the plot. The last book that was later added was alright but not enough to be saved from the zombies. 

2) A Sequel: Let’s say you’ve just left the salon with a SMASHING new haircut and BOOM: Torrential downpour. What sequel are you willing to use as an umbrella to protect yourself?

This was quite easy for me, there was one sequel that disappointed me more than any and that was Requiem by Lauren Oliver. The first book in this series Delirium was ok and then I really liked Pandemonium so I was excited for the last book in the series. However the enjoyment didn’t continue. It wasn’t totally terrible but sometimes the disappointment increases the negative feelings. 

3) A Classic: Let’s say you’re in a lecture and your English teacher is going on and on about how this classic changed the world, how it revolutionized literature and you get so sick of it that you chuck the classic right at his face because you know what? This classic is stupid and it’s worth detention just to show everyone how you feel! What Classic did you chuck?

This was a hard one for me. I haven’t really read a huge collection of classics, and the ones I did read at school I actually enjoyed. However I have made a decision and that is The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood. I jut couldn’t get into the way it was written and although I did get through it and the idea behind the society was interesting the actual story didn’t grab me. 

4) Your Least Favourite Book of Life!: Let’s say that you’re hanging out at the library when BAM global warming explodes and the world outside becomes a frozen wasteland. You’re trapped and your only chance for survival is to burn a book. What is the book you first run to, your least favourite book of all life, what book do you not fully regret lighting?

Easy!. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. I despise this book more than anything else in life. It was depressing, even for me who enjoyed that kind of book,  the story did nothing for me. I don’t understand why people like it so much or cried at it, I felt nothing for the characters. The mum in particularly I couldn’t stand. I will admit this hatred may be increased by the fact I had to do a personal study on it in school but I just find nothing to like about it at all. I would have no problem what so ever burning every copy of this book ever published.  

   

This will be my first post of 2014!

I abandoned my blog without explanation at the start of 2014 and I’m only now considering getting back into it. Before I do however I though I would share my decision to stop.
That paragraph makes it sounds like something super serious happened, but it didn’t at all. (Although know I think about it my reading dropped off after my papa died so maybe there is more too it than I think). However that’s not why I stopped blogging. I’ve always wanted to blog, and I am so proud of myself for my blog up till now, especially that I kept it giving constantly for over a year. The problem I was having was that I was pressuring myself to write reviews when sometimes I just really didn’t want to. I know I could have just stopped reviewing everything but I decided that a break was what I wanted and so I took one.
My reading this year has taken a slow pace and that’s kept me away from blogging but I feel like I want to start it up again. What’s really helped is that I’ve started watching booktube. I’m not going to set up a channel myself, I’m not good with cameras but it has made me realise I don’t need to be a fast reader and I don’t to review everything I just need to decide what I want from this and then go from there.
So to start with I’m gonna do some of the booktube tags that I love as blog posts!. Hopefully I’ll get some comments but mostly I just can’t wait to have a shot myself!.

The Reflections of Queen Snow White

What happens when “happily ever after” has come and gone? 

On the eve of her only daughter, Princess Raven’s wedding, an aging Snow White finds it impossible to share in the joyous spirit of the occasion. The ceremony itself promises to be the most glamorous social event of the decade. Snow White’s castle has been meticulously scrubbed, polished and opulently decorated for the celebration. It is already nearly bursting with jubilant guests and merry well-wishers. Prince Edel, Raven’s fiancé, is a fine man from a neighboring kingdom and Snow White’s own domain is prosperous and at peace. Things could not be better, in fact, except for one thing: 

The king is dead. 

The queen has been in a moribund state of hopeless depression for over a year with no end in sight. It is only when, in a fit of bitter despair, she seeks solitude in the vastness of her own sprawling castle and climbs a long disused and forgotten tower stair that she comes face to face with herself in the very same magic mirror used by her stepmother of old. 

It promises her respite in its shimmering depths, but can Snow White trust a device that was so precious to a woman who sought to cause her such irreparable harm? Can she confront the demons of her own difficult past to discover a better future for herself and her family? And finally, can she release her soul-crushing grief and suffocating loneliness to once again discover what “happily ever after” really means? 

Only time will tell as she wrestles with her past and is forced to confront The Reflections of Queen Snow White.

This book really surprised me, in a good way. Although I read the blurb I didn’t really appreciate that it was going to be a mature book dealing with grief and hope and not just a future continuation of a well known fairy tale. Dealing with grief has a very personal connection to life at the moment and I found Snow’s feelings about her loss very true. The use of the mirror to help her come to terms with this was inspired and I think a very powerful way to explore the process. Throughout the story we relive some of the best and worst moments of Snow’s life and I found the writing particularly beautiful. It wasn’t complex but care has been taken to use the right words to describe both setting and feelings. I was particularly shocked by the end of chapter 7 when the story included a more detailed personal memory than I had expected to read  however the writing captured perfectly an experience that was a pleasure to read. The more harsh memories however was also written well so as to capture the pain of the moment without being too gruesome. Of course what is important is how Snow deals with reliving them. In her grief she has lost her hope and strength believing it to have been down to Charming but with the mirrors help she is able to realise that within her there are still these qualities and through her daughter they can keep his memory alive and continue to live happily.  

Top Ten Tuesday – Top 8 New To Me Authors I Read In 2013

This week the topic from The Broke and The Bookish is our Top Ten New To Me Authors I Read In 2013. I have read quite a few new authors this year, 21 I found out when I sat to compose this list however picking my favourite was actually more complicated. In the end I have just gone for 8 as the others I didn’t really enjoy.

• Annabel Pitcher
• Anthony Horowitz
• Bernard Beckett
• Mark Zukas
• James Dashner
• Dee Shulman
• Charlotte Bronte
• Lauren Destefano

What Great New Authors Have You Discovered This Year?

Top Ten Tuesday – Top Ten Books On My Winter TBR List

I’ve not been involved on Top Ten Tuesday for a while due to life but back this week with our topic from The Broke and The Bookish being our Top Ten Books On My Winter TBR List.

    

• The Reflections of Queen Snow White by David Meredith
• The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
• Fever by Lauren Destefano
• Sever by Lauren Destefano
• Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
• The Dark Heroine by Abigail Gibbs
• Red Ink by Julie Mayhew
• Bad Faith by Gillian Philip
• The Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
• Neil Gaiman – I’ve never read anything by him before! please suggest something for my first.

   

What Book Are You Looking Forward To Reading Through The Winter?

Re-Read Review – Mockingjay

For me this book starts to become a bit more about Katniss and her feelings for Peeta. Although I agree that this trilogy has never been about the love triangle there is a little more of that in this one. When I first read this trilogy I didn’t have a preferred male till this book and I’m ashamed to admit it was the loss of Peeta and his devotion for Katniss that made my decision for me. Gale in this on the  other hand becomes way more vengeful and if I am honest really bothers me. In the larger scheme of things though this time round I found it much easier to understand that Katniss is still in a games. Only now it’s not only Snow manipulating her but also Coin and Plutarch. This is what makes the series interesting. That in some way the rebellion could turn out just as bad for everyone and Katniss can see that. More importantly there are people behind her that will fight with her to try and make the right change knowing she will do as she always has done, be herself.

Re-Read Review – Catching Fire

The first time I read this series this was my favourite of the three and it still is. I had forgotten how much of the book is set in the districts and because I wasn’t lost in the excitement of the first time I could read a bit slower and take it all in. Katniss’ desperation to stop the rebellion is so strong and when she feels shes lost hope convincing Snow she stops being so reserved with Gale. However for me Gale becomes more annoying in this book. His burning need for revenge begins to show through and it just goes downhill from there. The arena in this book is also a lot more interesting than the first and without being morbid I like the mental picture I get of the clock.  The relationships also become interesting to read. Katniss interactions with Mags, Finnick and Joanne are so well written and portray different feeling that are great to read about. Of course I would be lying if I didn’t say I also enjoy watching her fall in love with Peeta, however much the end breaks our hearts. The ending of course is great, and although the book is better I love that it has been portrayed so well in the movie.