30 Day Challenge!

November 14, 2013November 14, 20134 Comments

Good Morning Bloggers! Once again I am in the library starting a new essay, however I decided to take a few minutes out and blog to you! So, I am finally making my way through this challenge and it’s the last couple of days. So, today is a book that makes you cry. I find these questions hard because there are my fail safe answers, and then there are my slightly different answers! So I’m going to be clever today. (Well attempt to be!)

So… my fail safe option would have to be the Book Thief by Marcus Zusak; if you haven’t read it you need to get your hands on IT NOW! This gorgeous, captivating account of a nine-year-old foster child during the holocaust is probably at the top of my cry pile. Death’s unsentimental narration makes it all the more raw.

The second is a little different, and that is ‘Leftovers’ by Stella Newman. It’s not an all out extremely emotional roller-coaster, however it made me giggle horrendously at times and there were a few tears of laughter. At times I had to explain myself for laughing out loud! A brilliant book that is definitely worth a look! (Also expect a review soon!)

According to a magazine, Susie is a ‘Leftover’ – a post Bridget-Jones 30 something who has neither her dream man, job, nor home. She doesn’t even own six matching dinner plates. According to her friend Rebecca, Susie needs to get over her ex, Jake, start online dating – or at least stop being so rude to every guy who tries to chat her up. But Susie’s got a plan. If she can just make it the 307 days till her promotion and bonus, she can finally quit and pursue her dream career in food, then surely everything else will fall into place. If only her love life wasn’t so complicated…A sharp, witty and refreshing novel about love, friendship and enjoying what’s left on the table.

30 Day Challenge!

November 13, 2013March 30, 20141 Comment

Morning fellow bloggers! This is the day that I will finally give in my essay on the standardisation of taste! However I also start serious work on my essay on ‘Great Philosophers’ which is horrible seeing as I have no time for a break between the two. However this is still a day for excitement and another 30 Day Challenge Post!

So today is day 21 and I am nearly through! As always with this thing I have a problem with the question which will come as no surprise if you have been reading these day to day! What does it mean by novel? I’ve looked up a definition and it says…’a fictitious prose narrative of book length, typically representing character and action with some degree of realism.’

So the answer to this question is….’Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott’ Little Women was a fiction novel for girls that veered from the normal writings for children, especially girls, at the time. The novel had three major themes:” domesticity, work, and true love, all of them interdependent and each necessary to the achievement of its heroine’s individual identity.However I never finished it! It is one of those unfinished books that I gave up on when I first started reading novels properly and wasn’t completely used to them. One day I will try again to finish it. Until then I tried but unfortunately failed, however it is still the first novel I remember reading. Although to be honest it inspired me to go on and find books I really loved and continue reading! So alls well that ends well. Ciao

30 Day Challenge!

November 12, 2013November 12, 2013Leave a comment

Hello bloggers, you have caught me in my lunch break university, and after a morning of read, referencing and general panic I thought I deserved a couple of minutes to write to you and answer the question of today which is your favourite romance book.

Firstly, I have a problem with the question! How could anyone pick! I am going to be a general pain and not pick one but write about a couple of my favourite romance books because I am a sucker for a good romantic book!

Alternative: If you’re looking for something a little different in the romance category Addition by Toni Jordan in an absolute stunner.

‘Grace Lisa Vandenburg counts. The letters in her name (19). The steps she takes every morning to the local caf? (920). The number of poppy seeds on her orange cake, which dictates the number of bites she’ll take to eat it. Grace counts everything, because that way there are no unpleasant surprises. Seamus Joseph O’Reilly (also a 19) thinks she might be better off without the counting. If she could hold down a job, say. Or open her cupboards without conducting an inventory, or leave her flat without measuring the walls. Grace’s problem is that Seamus doesn’t count. Her other problem is . . . he does. As Grace struggles to balance a new relationship with old habits, to find a way to change while staying true to herself, she realises that nothing is more chaotic than love. (If you would like to know check out my review in the reviews section!)

Or maybe the Chocolate Run by Dorothy Koomson will take your fancy? Another slightly different love story.

Amber Salpone doesn’t mean to keep ending up in bed with her friend Greg Walterson, but she can’t help herself. And every time it ‘just happens’ their secret affair moves closer to being a real relationship, which is a big problem when he’s a womaniser and she’s a commitment-phobe.

While Amber struggles to accept her new feelings for Greg, she also realises that her closeness to Jen, her best friend, is slipping away and the two of them are becoming virtual strangers. Slowly but surely, as the stark truths of all their lives are revealed, Amber has to confront the fact that chocolate can’t cure everything and sometimes running away isn’t an option . . .

The Chocolate Run is a delectable tale of lust, love and chocolate.

(There is also a review of this book in my reviews section! So check it out!)

Finally my third favourite is another slightly different love story is….. On mystic Lake by Kristin Hannah

Annie Colwater’s husband has just confessed that he’s in love with a younger woman. Devastated, Annie retreats to the small town where she grew up. There she is reunited with her first love, Nick Delacroix, a recent widower who is unable to cope with his silent, emotionally scarred young daughter. Together the three of them begin to heal. But just when Annie believes she’s been given a second chance at happiness, her world is turned upside down again and she is forced to make a choice that no woman in love should ever have to make.

Another stunner of a book! Each of these is a little different and that’s what makes these some of my favourite romance books! Ciao

30 Day Challenge!

November 8, 2013November 8, 20132 Comments

Good Afternoon my lovely bloggers! Finding these a little hard to keep going cannot wait to get to the end but I will finish it I promise! So, today I am answering favourite book turned into a movie, and it’s a cheesy one for today! I read this book whilst on holiday many years ago and I remember my mum telling me not to read it as it was trashy and terrible! I ignored her, as every teenager and read it almost in one sitting. A couple of years later the book came out as a film and I fell in love with it all over again, re-read the book, and immediately bought the film. Even to this day it will always bring tears to my eyes watching the film, and I would have to argue that films are never quite as good the books, this one came pretty close.

SO….the my favourite book turned movie is……’P.S I love you, by Cecelia Ahern

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*)