Tag Archives: books

215: Review – July

Posted on August 2 | Comments Off

Review 2012
Books
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier (started Not Finished)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (Started Not Finished)
We Can’t Go Home Again by Max Dubinsky (Started Not Finished)

I keep starting books this month but haven’t finished any – that’s really bad!

Films
Men In Black 3
Magic Mike
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax
Jersey Girl
Adventureland

Places
Milton Keynes
Bristol
Cardiff
Bridgend
Bath (briefly on the way to Stonehenge)
Stonehenge
Avebury (long enough to see the stones similar to Stonehenge)

Month in Bullets

  • When to the Open Mic as normal at The White Horse at the beginning of the month had planned on playing Price Tag and Next To Me if there was time. In the end I played bass while my friend Bex sang Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen and then got asked to play acoustic while one of the guys sang. I have no idea where I pulled it from but only made like one mistake and it was because I wasn’t sure where the chord change came. Eep!
  • Bex and I were asked at the last minute to play a short set at the Oxfam store in Bedford High Street as part of the River Festival. The Oxfam store were advertising the Oxjam Festival that is on later this year. We started early and so when our friends showed we were almost finished. In the end, we ended up playing Call Me Maybe (as it’s kind of become our party piece!) and Price Tag by Jessie J (it was just as easy as it looked!)
  • We had our first proper “family” holiday. We stayed in Bristol and explored the local area, we went to Bridgend in Wales and I met Freya and ate fudge. (The Scottish Tablet was my favourite. Can’t find a link to it but this is to the main online store). We also went to Stonehenge, Bristol Zoo, Cardiff Millennium Stadium, Cardiff Arms Park and Clifton Suspension Bridge – Although not in that order!
  • My friend Hels asked me to organise games for her baby shower – I’m super excited but have also realised how few games there are for baby showers that don’t involve dummies (special request from the Mum to Be!)
  • I’ve spent a bunch of time trying to redesign my blog. I’m not sure it’s completely right and I’ll probably end up tweaking it some more but this is what it looks like for now – what do you think?
  • Also I’ve either gone down with a cold or I’ve succumb to hay fever – preferably the first!!

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Posted in Adventures, Books, Family, Films, Friends

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110: Life Thru a Lens {Photo Heavy}

Posted on April 19 | 2 Comments

Blogging seems to be a little past me at the moment but I have been snapping away like mad with my phone – mainly via Instagram. So I thought I’d share some and explain a bit more of what happens in the pictures.

We made it! #stockport #wedding #friends

My friends tied the knot this weekend. At the end of April it’ll be a year since I helped Dave (the groom) move up to live closer to his fiancée.

#selfportrait of sorts. #wiwt

I don’t really do dresses – I go through stages where I think about being more girlie and dressing up more and then through my own laziness most of the time (or I can’t find a dress that fits right) I stick with trousers and get on with the day. I think if I worked in a job where I was meeting with people on a day to day basis (rather than the people I work with I’d probably make more of an effort). While we were filing time between the ceremony and the evening reception do, we grabbed some food and then went for a walk around a local park. I managed to snap this photo while walking along a wall.

In the countryside #peakdistrict

On the way back to the motorway we took the pretty way – I snapped away taking a bunch of photos to occupy myself. Thankfully the sun came out and light up the hills amazingly. There are a bunch more pictures of our journey home on my Flickr Photostream.

I haz goodies from @chantillysongs!!!!

Look what arrived on Monday – as part of the Kickstarter project that kicked off Chantilly’s project to record her EP I got an envelope of goodies including a CD copy of the EP, a CD copy of her older EP and a postcard – it was very exciting especially given that I got home in a bit of a mood and the minute I saw the post on my doorstep I was so excited!

This is book 7 I think of 2012. Just saw that it was dedicated to #EstherEarl. A fab #nerdfighter who will be missed but never ever forgotten.

A while back my friend Adam told me about The Fault in Our Stars being released by John Green and if it was pre-ordered then it would be signed. Well I pre-ordered. The day the books were due to arrive there were rumbles (or shoutings) around the internet that copies were being delivered but they weren’t signed. The following day my copy arrived and thankfully it was signed. Well I finally read it and it’s sad and happy and memorable. I opened the first few pages and read the dedication – it was to Esther Earl. Esther was a fab girlie who was taken way before her time. She had cancer and she passed away from it last summer. I hadn’t ever met her in person but I’d seen her YouTube videos and somehow that made her more real to me (I mean like not just random YouTuber who I’d never meet in person etc etc – I make sense to me!). Some of the plot is set in Amsterdam and me and Chris went to Amsterdam for our honeymoon – almost five years ago!

My disposable fountain pen ran out :(

I like writing with a fountain pen. I have a posh nice Parker pen at home but I tend to use these disposable ones on the go so that if they get lost or misplaced it’s not too expensive to replace them (we’re talking £2-3 rather than £10-20). I have been using this blue one at work for about three weeks and it died on me yesterday.

That's me, my MacBook and my @hugstronger bumper sticker! Woohoo!

HUGStronger is about helping college girlies find their place – amongst other things. Kaleigh and her team hosted a similar project to Kickstarter via a website called Indiegogo. I was able to donate to this and received a bumper sticker – well I didn’t want to stick it to the bumper of my car but I decided to stick it to the front of my MacBook.

Finished #books #reading #2012 @realjohngreen

I think this makes it Book 7 of 2012 – I have caught up need to keep reading to stay on track to read 25 books this year (that’s about 1 a fortnight). I’m now reading Divergent by Veronica Roth after my friend Cat suggested it to me. So far it’s good – I think I’m about a quarter through it. (Actually according to GoodReads it’s 13%).

#imlisteningto Chantilly on my way to work. @chantillysongs

I grabbed this CD from my post pile this morning and stuck it on in the car this morning – I needed some sunshine giving how gloomy and rubbish it was outside. My favourite track is “Just The Way You Are” although “Escape” is replaying in my head as I write this post. (You can find Chantilly’s blog here).

8 days to go #birthday #dontforget

And to finish, it’s my birthday in 8 days – and yes I am probably going to tweet about it every day between now and then lol. I found out earlier today that I am birthday buddies with Ellefie (which I did already know) and ClareBot (which I didn’t know!). I’m a year older than ClareBot and a year younger than Ellefie.

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Posted in Adventures, Blogs and Sites, Books, Family, Friends, HUGStronger, Marriage, Me and That Boy, The Fountain Bedford

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098: Review: March

Posted on April 7 | Comments Off

Review 2012

March

Books Read
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse Book 1)
Heat Wave by Richard Castle
Interrupted by Rachel Coker
The Half-Stitched Amish Quilting Club by Wanda E. Brunstetter

Films Watched
The Hunger Games

Month in Bullets

  • My blog turned 5! The celebrations didn’t go quite to plan but I still had two fab guest posts from Rickie and Mrs GLW – it’s a starting point anyway! Maybe I have a month long blog birthday or something as the other posts appear.
  • My first birthday present arrived – and I did a little dance. I’ve been watching Hairy Bikers latest series and after every episode I’m like “I want to make that! NOW!” I’d added the cookery book (that accompanies the series) and it arrived on Friday 30th. I finished work early and there it was waiting for me in the porch.
  • Me, Mum and her BFF are going to see the Hairy Bikers on tour when they are in Cambridge in November – I’m so excited and it’s not even my birthday yet lol.
  • We’ve been living and breathing The Fountain in our house. We were working towards the opening which happens today. I blogged about the opening at a very late/early hour  this morning when I should have been sleeping (it was like Christmas – it was too exciting to sleep!)
  • I’ve got a new notebook that I am hoping will keep me more organised and will keep my blog posts up to date and things like that. Let’s see how it goes.
  • Lent is almost over and Easter is coming – I keep meaning to catch up with 40Acts as well.

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Posted in 40Acts, Adventures, Being A Christian, Fostering, Friends, Monthly Reviews, Reading/Books

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077: Book Review

Posted on March 17 | Comments Off

Interrupted by Rachel Coker

4 out of 5

In fifteen-year-old author Rachel Coker’s young adult debut, young Allie Everly’s life is changed forever by the illness and death of her beloved mother and subsequent adoption by an older woman in Maine. Bitter and feeling unloved, Allie rejects her new mother and her new mother’s faith and throws herself into her poetry, until Sam Carroll, her best friend from the past, arrives. With Sam comes a host of confusing emotions, and Allie finds she must overcome her past in order to find forgiveness.

This is a young adult book that is aimed at 15-18 year olds – I’m 25 and loved it!

It was so sad when Allie’s Mum dies especially as it leaves Allie so alone in the world. The book is set around World War 2. It’s referred to more in the second “half” than in the first and even then the war isn’t really happening in a way – it’s kind of over there in the distance rather than here and happening to us. I think the time it becomes a bit more real is when Allie and her friend’s discuss the Normandy landings in 1945 and whether the husband/boyfriends of the girls will return safely.

The story kicks off in Tennessee where Allie lives with her mother. Her mum has what’s referred to as “the sickness” – I don’t think it’s ever actually given a name but the way her memory lapses and she gets confused and agitated made me think of Alzheimers.

Some of the language was a bit modern for the time it was set but ultimately it didn’t matter the story was awesome all the same.

Although Allie is quite mean to Sam for a chunk of the story. You can tell that his love never stops for her and he wants to help her through losing her Mum even if Allie thinks shutting the world out is a better option. I love the way that Beatrice and Irene adopt her like she’s always been part of the family, even when Allie doesn’t want their love and care it’s still there working it’s way into her live.

I found this – it’s the book trailer for Rachel’s book – it’s so exciting! (Almost makes me want there to be a film version of it?!)

You can find the hardback here
.

I received an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) on my Kindle from Zondervan via NetGalley. All the opinions are mine.

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Posted in Being A Christian, Blogs and Sites, Books, NetGalley, Writing

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075: Book Review

Posted on March 15 | Comments Off

The Half-Stitched Amish Quilting Club
by Wanda E. Brunstetter

 

The Half-Stitched Quliting Club

4 out of 5

Amish widow Emma Yoder’s first quilt class brings the most unlikely people together. There’s Star, a young woman yearning for stability; Pam and Stuart Johnston, a struggling couple at odds in their marriage; Paul Ramirez, a widower hoping to find solace in finishing a quilt; Jan Sweet, a rough and tough biker doing some creative community service; and Ruby Lee Williams, a preacher’s wife looking for relaxation when parish problems mount. But as these beginning quilters learn to transform scraps of material into beauty, their fragmented lives begin to take new shape with the helping hands of each other and the healing hand of God.

I really liked this story – at first it was a little hard to get into but around half way through it picked up and I couldn’t put it down. The point of view of the story flicks between the seven main characters (I think it comes from an eighth person at one point but I’m not entirely sure). I found this was good because it mean that you go two or more peoples view of one conversation – at one point it’s a husband and wife’s (Pam and Stuart) opinion on an argument that they have.

Emma is such a lovely character and reminds me so much of my Grandma – this probably helps me relate to Star as well as Star loses her Grandma before the story starts and I lost my Grandma back in 2008 and also I was a bit of a rock chick when I was at school and university (Although I’ve mellowed out lots now!) Emma has the idea of the quilt class and when the people come together she begins to question if that’s what she’s supposed to be doing. When that fear comes to her she looks for the plan God has for her and the bigger picture – she gets over her fear to serve God. This can be one of the hardest things when we hand over our lives to God and give him the reins! (Don’t we just know it at the moment!) I wanted to be part of Emma’s quilting class – I can imagine learning to make quilts by being taught by the Amish people must be seriously amazing.

I loved the way in which all the ends were tied up at the end of the story – I’d tell you all about them but that would ruin the story! (Spoilers sweetie!)

You can find the paperback edition on Amazon UK here or the Kindle version here.

 

I received an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) on my Kindle from Barbour Publishing via NetGalley. All the opinions are mine.

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Posted in Books, NetGalley, Reading/Books, Reviews and Mentions

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054: I Love Lists Thursday

Posted on February 23 | Comments Off

Lists Journal
 

Last week my new toy arrived. I’m on my second book so far and so this week we have two lists – first the books I have read on my sparkly new Kindle followed by my wishlist. Lots of pictures this week.

 

Read/In Progress

Extremely Loud and Incredible Close

Got but haven’t started

(My version has a really boring cover! This cover is better!)

 

Wish List of Sorts


 

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Posted in Books, I Love Lists Thursday, Reading/Books, Thursday

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027: Life. Edited.

Posted on January 27 | 6 Comments

So this is going to sound crazy – as mad as this is I like the idea – so what if I got rid of all my reading books. I know, I know how crazy am I given that I’ve spent a bunch of my wages on books or DVDs. I make a list of all the physical books and sell them or give them away. I can then get a Kindle and collect the books in that realm. Okay so I’ve always been for the paper books as there is something about holding the book and turning the pages – but what if I cleared the book cases.

How many of my DVDs do I actually watch? How many on the shelf haven’t I watched since I bought them – what if I took them in and traded them in at the second hand store – okay I might just get 50p or so per film but given the price of downloads via iTunes and other media platforms – do I need the actual DVDs? Is there a legal way of copying them to a hard drive rather than having the physical disc? There are films I miss at the cinema but what about just downloading them – I can store them on a hard drive and then play from there (DVD nights might have to change but who knows people I know might adopt my DVDs)

So let’s start with the books – I can solve that one easier.

  1. Let’s make a list of my books.
  2. I sell them or given them away. I can post a list here on my blog and you cover the shipping (and maybe some towards the book), or I sell outright on eBay or swap them somewhere like BookMooch. If that doesn’t work I give them away – there are plenty of charity shops in Bedford. The money from selling the books will in the long run cover the cost of the Kindle (other eReaders are available lol)
  3. I then have two empty book cases – I can Freegle them, advertise in the church newssheet or put them in at the local auctions.

Yeah it would be crazy and some things would be easier than others but what about it? I acquire bits, I can only just close the cupboard in my bedroom because it looks like a bomb blew up in it. In a way I started this a week ago by offering some unused fabric on FB and Twitter (it was taken by a FB friend).

Over to You

  • Am I crazy or is it a case of “One’s junk is another’s treasure”?
  • Can you imagine doing it?

More information can be found at Life. Edited.

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Posted in Books, Life. Edited.

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011: The Fault *Not* in Our Stars

Posted on January 11 | Comments Off

I would class myself as a Nerdfighter – if you don’t know what a Nerdfighter is please look here.

So John Green who is one half of VlogBrothers is an author. He writes Young Adult (YA) books which are probably technically out of my age bracket (I’m 25 – am I supposed to still read Young Adult Fiction?!).

I love Paper Towns, Looking for Alaska is kinda sad and not what I expected but I still enjoyed it all the same. Will Grayson, Will Grayson was my first John Green book that I bought pretty much straight after release (I think within the week of release was when I purchased it). I even blogged about An Abundance of Katherines back in 2009.

Yesterday I received my confirmation email from Amazon UK my copy of “The Fault in Our Stars” has been despatched and should be with me by Saturday. That gives me until then to finish up some of the 6 books that I currently have on the go. I have to finish at least one to be on track with the goal of 25 books read in 2012. Anyway back to the confirmation email…..How exciting – then again I’ve started seeing tweets appear today – the pre-ordered special signed copies aren’t signed.

Thankfully this video appeared yesterday to correct it in a way but I want to ask – What are Amazon doing? Surely there was some form of lack of communication between the publisher and Amazon right – but apparently it seems to be Amazon Europe who are so far affected by it.

So time will tell – will mine be signed? I’m thinking no given that my two Twitter friends who also pre-ordered have both received unsigned copies.

(On another note this is quite funny)

EDIT: When I got in from work yesterday, my copy was there waiting for me. It had a signed copy sticky label on the front cover and when I opened it there was the signature – I got mine from Amazon UK and it arrived signed.

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005: I Love Lists Thursday

Posted on January 5 | Comments Off

Lists Journal

 

I’m the queen of to-do lists in my house – I have a notebook and I write lists – I writes lists about the films I want to see and the books I want to read, I also keep a list of the films I’ve seen and the places I’ve been. I am a lister. I’ve even joined in with 30 Days of Lists in the past.
I think I struggle with the 30 Days in a row thing but I’ve decided that Thursday are going to be for lists – hence I Love Lists Thursday.

First up we have Books to Read in 2012. I’ve decided to match Lydia’s goal/resolution of reading 25 books in 2012 and here we go. (BTW did you know that Les Mis is about 2700 pages long. To read that in a fortnight I have to read 192 pages a day! Although I have a plan of how to fit that one in)

  1. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
  2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  3. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
  4. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
  5. When Got was A Rabbit by Sarah Winson (started before Christmas just not finished)
  6. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
  7. Stealing Phoenix by Joss Stirling
  8. Finding Sky by Joss Stirling
  9. The Church of Facebook by Jesse Rice (I was given this for my birthday last year and still haven’t read it!)
  10. Love Wins by Rob Bell (Again was given for my birthday but never read it)
  11. The Snowman by Jo Nesbo
  12. The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo
  13. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse Book 1)
  14. Emma by Jane Austen
  15. The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of The Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

Now you clever ones out there will notice that there are only 15 books on my list – that’s because I’m bound to pick up some books along the way and so they will fill in the gaps as the year goes on. Also quite a few of the titles above appear on my 25 Before I’m 26 list.

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The Friday Read: No 20

Posted on November 25 | 1 Comment

The Friday Read

The Book You Plan To Read Next

There is a whole pile of books that I plan to read next – whether I’ll actually manage to read them is a whole other thing.

The Lord of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (Started didn’t finish)
Labyrinth by Kate Mosse (Started didn’t finish)
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

and many more that could be the next one….Either way I’ve challenged Our Sidekick to read each day. His English Teacher is encouraging him to read more each day to widen his vocabulary and bring up his reading age to what it should be when he leaves school. Well to do that for every minute he reads a book outside of school I will match – so on Tuesday after Parents Evening we sat and read for like 15 minutes it was awesome (and our house was so quiet!)

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Posted in Books, Friday, Reading/Books, The Friday Read

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