30 Day Challenge!

November 6, 2013November 6, 2013Leave a comment

Good evening my lovely bloggers! Sorry for being away for a couple of days I have been extremely busy with an essay and a portfolio item but I am back just for a little while! So, today the question issss….day 18, a book that disappointed you. Another difficult question because disappointing can still mean that you overall you still enjoy the book. Therefore, for me a book that I enjoyed but at times found disappointing was Sister Missing by Sophie McKenzie,

Sister, Missing takes up the story of sixteen-year-old Lauren two years after the events of Girl, Missing. Life is not getting any easier in either her adoptive or birth families as exam pressure and a recent family tragedy take their toll. Lauren’s birth mother takes Lauren and her two sisters, Shelby and Madison, on holiday in the hope that some time together will help, but a few days into the holiday eight-year-old Madison is kidnapped while in Lauren’s care, under circumstances suspiciously similar to those in which Lauren was taken years before.The kidnapper demands a huge ransom for Madison’s safe return – and is threatening to kill her if the police become involved. Can Lauren save her sister, and stop the nightmare happening all over again?

So time to explain myself (as always.) The only reason this disappointed me was because I didn’t feel like that it stood up to the brilliance of the book girl missing. I felt that the story was also too similar, and although I understand it was an almost sequel I thought the stories were too close in terms of plot line and also that it was too expected and a point inevitable in terms of the first book. Overall I really enjoyed it however it didn’t stand up to the brilliance of the first book.

30 Day Challenge!

November 4, 2013November 4, 20132 Comments

Wow, day 17! Seeing as university life is messing with my ability to read and review constantly I have kind of been relying on these as posts and its aggravating when I want to share my opinions of books with you! However! I finished a hilarious book last night and there will be a review up tonight! So apologies for the lack of reviews recently! Right, so onto today’s question. Now I know I always moan about the book challenges that they are difficult and confusing but today I actually knew the answer straight away! So, I haven’t read the book (*shock horror*) I know and it is on my list of thing to do, but I think its going to be quite special so I want to wait until I have time, when I haven’t locked myself in the library for days on end trying to finish essays on whether Hume thinks we can standardise taste! However, my mum printed this quote off for me thinking I would like it and it is now my favourite ever quote and so thanks Mummy Julie. So my favourite quote from a book is…..

Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision.You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of eternal passion.That is just being “in love” which any fool can do.Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.Those that truly love, have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.

Louis de Bernières, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

Beautiful isn’t it….?

30 Day Challenge!

November 3, 2013November 3, 2013Leave a comment

Afternoon my lovely book bloggers. How are we this morning? I am feeling fabulous went to see JessieJ last night and she was absolutely incredible; not going to lie I sang so hard I thought I would have lost my voice this morning! However I was woke feeling inspired and brilliant! Right, enough about the star that is JessieJ and onto the 30 day challenge! Right I could have guessed this was the next question, favourite female character from a book would have, have, have to be Lisbeth Salander from ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo’ series.

She is strong and introverted, wacky but incredibly strong. Upon her first appearance in the series, she is described as “a pale, skinny young woman who had hair as short as a fuse, and a pierced nose and eyebrows. She has a wasp tattoo about two centimeters on her neck, a tattooed loop around the bicep of her left arm, another loop around her left ankle, a chinese symbol on her hip and a rose on her left calf. On those occasions when she had been wearing a tank top, a dragon tattoo can be seen on her left shoulder blade. The survivor of a traumatic childhood, Salander is highly introverted, asocial and has difficulty connecting to people and making friends. She is particularly hostile to men who abuse women, and takes special pleasure in exposing and punishing them. This is representative of Larsson’s personal views and a major theme throughout the entire trilogy

I recently discovered that Larsson stated in interviews that he based the character of Lisbeth Salander on what he imagined Pippi Longstocking might have been like as an adult. In the trilogy, Salander has the name “V. Kulla” displayed on the door of her apartment on the top floor of Fiskargatan 9 in Stockholm, Sweden. “V. Kulla” is an abbreviation of “Villa Villekulla”, the name of Pippi Longstocking’s house. As a child I was a huge fan of Pippi Longstocking so this only reinforces my love of the character Lisbeth Salander.

She to me is a star!

30 Day Book Challenge!

November 2, 2013November 4, 2013Leave a comment

Afternoon my lovely fellow bloggers! So my I’m not feeling to great today my tummy feels like a washing machine but I am powering on and blogging to you! To attempt to help my struggling tummy there is a steaming pan of tomato pasta bubbling and it smells gorgeous! So I had better hurry so I can devour it in a minute. So, the question for today is favourite male character. I took me ages to think of this and I have no idea why! My favourite male character would have to be Sherlock Holmes! Hands down! When I hit the ages of around 11 I came obsessed with Sherlock reading as many titles as physically possible! Sherlock is such a mysterious and eccentric character!

Although in his methods of thought he was the neatest and most methodical of mankind… [he] keeps his cigars in the coal-scuttle, his tobacco in the toe end of a Persian slipper, and his unanswered correspondence transfixed by a jack-knife into the very centre of his wooden mantelpiece… He had a horror of destroying documents…. Thus month after month his papers accumulated, until every corner of the room was stacked with bundles of manuscript which were on no account to be burned, and which could not be put away save by their owner.

What appears to others as chaos, however, is to Holmes a wealth of useful information. Throughout the stories, Holmes would dive into his apparent mess of random papers and artefacts to retrieve precisely the specific document or item he was looking for. Watson frequently makes note of Holmes’s erratic eating habits. The detective is often described as starving himself at times of intense intellectual activity, such as during “The Adventure of the Norwood Builder”, wherein, according to Watson:

[Holmes] had no breakfast for himself, for it was one of his peculiarities that in his more intense moments he would permit himself no food, and I have known him to presume upon his iron strength until he has fainted from pure inanition.

He is eccentric and also odd but also incredibly clever and his sure that is the pure brilliance of Sherlock and why he is the my favourite male character.

30 Day Challenge!

November 1, 2013November 1, 2013Leave a comment

It’s a little bit later this morning and its definitely coffee break time for any of you doing work, so get the black coffee brewing and a slab of carrot cake and take a look at my post today for the 30 day Challenge. So, the idea of a book being turned into movies can be a bit of a sore spot for a lot of readers. I am also a little bit of a book snob, meaning I will not go see a movie if I am planning to read the book. At time this has left me a little out of the loop, however it’s something I just will not do! I find this question difficult, mainly, because I can see a film and agree that it doesn’t stand up for the brilliance of the book however still really enjoy it, therefore the word desecrated leaves me a little blue.

However I do have a film and it almost physically hurts to put it and that is, ‘The film of Alice and Wonderland by Tim Burton.’ Now I haven’t really spoken about this before on here but I am a massive Tim Burton fan. His style and skill is for me exceptional and he manages to make the weird and wacky so ethereally beautiful and exquisite to watch. Whilst the beauty of the partnership of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter ( who is my absolute favorite actress) who almost always seem to be cast together during his films (I know why this is) is always incredible. Right back on topic. I did not experience the same exultant joy when I normally watch Tim Burton films and honestly and personally I found it difficult in the beginning to decide whether the film was a remake or a sequel. The first half of the film seems to follow the original Alice story almost beat for beat. We meet the distinctive characters and many of the lines and quips mirror the film. It wasn’t until the characters started saying she had been there before that it clicked and I could distinguish that it was a sequel. Confusing right?

Secondly I thought the characters were over played to make them different especially the mad hatter, who’s personality and accent appeared to change a number of time throughout the film leaving me further confused. Additionally Burton seemed to play on making the film exceptionally dark and Gothic in character overall. In one scene, in order for Alice to get into the castle, whilst she is shrunk down to tiny size, she must hop across a bunch of severed heads floating in the moat. For me it was a play to far for Burton. However one of the positives was the Cheshire cat! I loved the representation in the film and thought it was brilliant! However for me it was too far removed from the Alice and Wonderland book i read so long ago!

30 Day Challenge!!

October 31, 2013November 1, 2013Leave a comment

Good Morning!! It is 10 in the morning and I am slaving away in the library! (Not that this will shock most of you as I’m always in here!) But today I have a problem with the question! Who has an ultimate favorite author, when you are constantly reading books that are unknown to you. If you were perhaps talking to Lizzy aged six it would have been Roald Dahl hands down, or maybe aged ten Lizzy, maybe Jacqueline Wilson or Megan McDonald, then you hit Harry Potter and it’s J,K Rowling! As an avid reader I can never know when a new book will take my imagination and I will find a new book and a new author. I honestly, am going to abstain here and and say I cannot pick! (I know, *boo, hiss*)

30 Day Challenge!

October 30, 2013November 1, 20131 Comment

Right, so today I have posted about a number of things with a small but unintentional HP theme! Apologies! However I did not post my answer to the 30 Day Challenge! With so much work to do and so much reading to do for my course, (who knew philosophers had so much to say! *wink-face* )I have been too busy to fit this in recently but I promise I will be back on top with everything soon do not worry!

So today is another extremely hard question, (how do they think of them all!) however as always I have an answer (if you haven’t kept up I’m on day 12!) So, my answer for a book that you love but hate at the same time is….50 Shades of Grey,

Right before you all scream at me in pain and horror, I thought the writing was shocking, the plot lacked conviction and there was no agony as you always knew that it was going to all be fine; however, I couldn’t help be pulled along by the intimidating Mr Grey, the endless giggles I had reading bits out with my friends, and trying to hide it whilst I read it on the bus. All in all it means that it always brings a wry smile to my face when I find it lurking in my room. I know you will all be laughing into your cappuccinos and thinking what has got into Lizzy! But In the UK, it’s the fastest-selling book ever in both physical and eBook incarnations and when it was released there was an extra print run for the UK market, to meet demand: 2.75 million copies I can’t be on my own in this can I? Guilty pleasures and all that?

30 Day Challenge!!!

October 27, 2013November 1, 20131 Comment

Gooooood Morrrrninnngggg! Right so the clocks went back so I had extra time to read in bed (just finished Rowling’s book ‘A Casual Vacancy!) and I have in my hand currently a delicious skinny caramel latte so I am surprisingly chipper this morning. So today is a book that I hated and unfortunately I have quite a few which is horrible to say, although I would answer the questions as a book I liked so little I couldn’t finish them, hated sounds so much nastier. So I have two for you, and the first is… How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff. I unfortunately despised this book and tried to read it at least five times but never really got into it. I don’t think it was the writing but the story never wove itself into my imagination and I couldn’t become hooked on the plot or the characters. When writing this post I did look up a few reviews and it was described as hauntingly beautiful by one reader and now I feel I may have missed out. However I recently heard that the book is being made into a film and I am steeling myself to go see it and finally understand what the book is all about!

The second will probably be a little bit of a shock to a few of you and that is the book Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. “Without this child, we shall all die.” Lyra Belacqua and her animal daemon live half-wild and carefree among scholars of Jordan College, Oxford. The destiny that awaits her will take her to the frozen lands of the Arctic, where witch-clans reign and ice-bears fight. Her extraordinary journey will have immeasurable consequences far beyond her own world… sounds perfect doesn’t it and for most of you I’m sure it was. However, even though I was an avid reader as a child this book never connected with me after several times attempting to read it, and it stays with the rest of series stuck on the top shelf. Maybe I should have a go, until then its a book I have never ever finished!

30 Day Challenge!

October 22, 2013November 1, 2013Leave a comment

First things in order, apologies for not posting for the last couple of days, have been struck down with an overload of work and dissertation reading but I have managed to squeeze you in before I go back to read about whether we can trust our own minds. Fun right. Any how the question for today is… a book that reminds you of home.

There are so many answers I could have for this however there is one that will probably always remind me of home and that is ‘The Vegetable Race.’ I’m so sad that I can’t show you a picture of this or tell you the author because I can’t find it online anywhere. It’s a simple but lovely plot about a group of vegetables that race. It sounds boring, but as a child I could not get enough and made my parents read it over and over and over (and over and over and over) again. it was read so often that my parents often tried to throw it away, however it is still snugly sat on my bookcase just in case I want to drop in and give it a read another day! I will update this when I’ve emailed to find out the author and get a picture! Ciao!

30 Day Challenge!

October 19, 2013November 1, 20131 Comment

Good Morning! So, today I am being an extremely keen student and I am in the blogging to you from the library on a Saturday, (starting to feel like I love here and its only october!) Anyway, today the question is, ‘A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving! Extremely hard question again but I have a very definite answer and that is the Great Gatsby!

Yes, an odd answer but I was forced to read this book when I was at school, (like most other people that studied English Literature at school,) and I really didn’t like. However as I continued to study and understand the plot and the characters I fell in love with the glitz and glamour contrasted strongly with the decay of the American Dream.

Now I know most of you will have read this, but if you haven’t come across this brilliant book here’s a quick plot synopsis. The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. The story primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his quixotic passion for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. Considered to be Fitzgerald’s magnum opus, The Great Gatsby explores themes of decadence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess, creating a portrait of the Jazz Age that has been described as a cautionary tale regarding the American Dream.

I loved the book and if you want to read book you can find my review of the book in my reviews section! Ciao!