Thursday 30 July 2015

Comment on Quotes: Anne Frank's "The Diary of a Young Girl": Introduction.

This won't be the last time you see Anne Frank on my blog, oh no, I'm dedicating a post series to her and she's going to be featured in my second upcoming series, because she really does mean that much to me and so many, many other people.



If you don't know who she is, she was a wonderful girl born in Frankfurt, Germany, on June 12th in 1929. She lived in Amsterdam with her family during WW2. They had to run away from their home from the Nazi persecution, and went into hiding in a place Anne frequently named "The Secret Annexe". She actually planned to write a book on her time there named just that and based on her diary until the tragic events hit them. Anne wrote everything into her diary. She was found on August 4th 1944. She died with her sister, Margot, in Bergen-Belson concentration camp in Germany, sometime in March 1945, just weeks before British soldiers liberated the camp. Otto, Anne's father, found her diary was was keen to send her message on to the world. I imagine he wanted to fufill his daughters' wish, and that he achieved very well.

You can find more information on Anne Frank's life here, which is where I got the little details from to fill in the gaps ;)

Anyway, I find her such a role model and inspiration for myself and many young girls across the world that I can't just write a discussion post and be done with it. I want to dedicate quite some time with dear Anne, and this is one of the ways of doing it, also giving people who read my blog a chance to interact their thoughts on Anne Frank's quotes (the ones I pick out to feature, anyway...) and we can have a little discussion about it...maybe? Okay, yeah, I know, that one may be far fetched, but I hope you enjoy knowing a bit more about me and seeing a lot more on Anne Frank!

Austin's version of the much better post that Loz already made; The movie.

*Insert corny one liner that Loz will undoubtedly sigh at*

Well, my post is going to be on a quite a bit different wavelength than Loz's was. I'm gonna focus on other things, and I'll be zig zagging around topics like a madman. Anyways, let's get the show on the road!

As you may or may not know, Lorna and I are long distance, and, have been our whole relationship. Now, I was never really the type of person who wanted a long distance relationship, but something about her just made me completely forget that was a thing in my mind. It took me nearly a month later to realize "oh yeah, I said I wouldn't do this exact thing I'm doing right now, how silly of me", but it didn't change a thing. For quite a while, I was just drifting in and out of skype calls, and playing games with all my friends and such. I had heard recently that our resident nutcase (let's just call him Gabe), had been on Omegle and found someone to join the call, who ended up bringing a friend with her. Now, knowing this, I had chosen to purposely avoid the skype calls for a bit, since I liked to avoid situations like that. The last time they invited girls to the call, they had scared them, and our mutual friend had accidentally said something racist and upset the other. Yeah, I wanted to avoid another situation like that.

After much convincing on their part, I finally joined the call, and I heard a quite heavenly voice, that at the time, I thought I might have been dying and an angel was talking to me. No, though, it was Loz's voice, and she was saying hi. During that whole skype chat, we talked in the text box, because everyone was being too damn loud to talk over voice. She had called my voice nice, and that was one of the few times I'd been compliment on anything personal like that, it was weird. Like, someone actually liked me for who I was? Madness. Well, I had quickly added her, and we chatted like no tomorrow, and we ended up dating like a week later. Maybe two weeks? I dunno, it was insane. We got lucky, we rushed it, and it's worked out.

Now, I'm going to deviate from what Loz did, and do a little something else. I love Lorna with all my heart, but I'm going to explain something that I feel like drives both of us crazy, but is made up for! She is so very stubborn, but it can be very adorable, especially when she grumbles. Also, whenever I compliment her, she denies it EVERY TIME. That makes it very hard to compliment her, but I assure you, it happens at least ten times a day anyways. I make her KNOW how I feel about her. And there is nothing she can do about that.

Now, I'd like to say a little something about my future plans with her. I hope that she'd be willing to let me pay for her plane ticket to some visit me here in Ohio, but I'm perfectly okay with whatever she chooses, because I trust her, and I want it to be an important moment in her life for HER. I'm the kind of person who is just like "eh, whatever works for me", and I get the feeling I always will be as well. I just want to someday soon be living with her permanently, and hopefully in Canada, we'll see what the future brings!

Sorry mine was a lot shorter than hers, but, she is the better writer after all! Please leave comments on hers, I most likely won't notice any because I'm lazy. Hope you enjoyed!

Edit: Oh, and, I love you, Loz. You buttmunch <3

Monday 27 July 2015

Monday Missions #8

Hey!!

So, I haven't been reading anywhere near as much as I should be since I got my new laptop, I haven't used a laptop in so long. It's just gaming, gaming, gaming lately. I mean, come on, Minecraft servers are wonderful, they should be embraced for their perfection.



Getting off the point, this week I am going to continue reading what I have been reading for the past few days. Oddly enough, very unusual for me at least, I am reading two books at once! (wow, whoa).

Book one, "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank. We should all know what this book is about by now but if you don't, let me fill you in. Anne Frank is a beautiful, intelligent and wise young girl who lived during WW2 in Germany (I believe). As you may or may not know, this was also the period of time in which the Holocaust happened, an event which killed millions of Jews. Anne Frank was one of them. When she was thirteen, her and her family were whisked away to live in a secret annexe in her fathers' workplace (I think, I always get confused on that part) with another family, and a man named Mr Dussel. They lived there for quite some time in secrecy before she was taken away to a concentration camp. Her father, Otto Frank, was the only survivor and had saved Anne Franks' diary, the thing she held most dear to her. It had been edited frequently over the years (as the original content contained information about her sexuality, etc., which wasn't seen as okay to talk about so openly in her time period, something like that), but I am reading one of the most recent copies.

As far as the enjoyability goes, this is the second time I am reading the diary. Obviously, it's going to be slow in places and uninteresting in parts, blah blah blah, but it's a diary and was never written with the intention of it becoming a book. More to the point, it is the diary of a young girl, this is more well written then probably any other diary you would find of any other person her age. But, the fact I am reading this a second time should tell you how much I am enjoying it. She is so, so wise and smart.

Book two: "Alfie: The Doorstep Cat" by Rachel Wells. This follows a very adorable, young and cuddly cat, Alfie, who's owner had died from old age and who's roommate kitty 'sister' had died from sickness, he was left homeless. His owner's daughter said she wanted to send dear Alfie to the shelter, but he wanted to take it into his own paws and left. He had a traumatic time in the streets until he reached a road that was very much in need of an equally troubled, lovely kitty!

It's from a cats perspective, which is quite interesting, I can't remember the last time I read a book from an animals' perspective. I avoid them, as they're usually said, and this book is no different but I will save the details for when I finish it, it's either going to be a mini review or a full review, but it will be talked about, mark my words!

I doubt I'm ever going to get on to reading more books this week and, if I do, it's going to be a complete spur of the moment decision to see what book I go for. I have been eying up "Fangirl" by Rainbow Rowell recently, but also the forth book in the "Gone" series by Michael Grant, "Plague", we'll see what I pick!

Thank you for reading and *gasp* we have a photo, for once!
See you for my next post (don't forget to follow ;) ) bye!

Saturday 25 July 2015

Me and My Boyfriend's Second Anniversary! - How We Met

Quite humorous that we still haven't met yet, isn't it? 

*insert cute photo of us kissing in front of a waterfall or something here that we haven't gotten yet due to above reason*

*coughs* anyway, what would be a perfect couple thing to do for this date would be to do the girlfriend/boyfriend tag but we already did it here and here that I published late last month, so it would be pretty stupid to do an updated version this early (kinda wish I waited for July, but I completely forgot, to be honest). 

Due to him working and being in a long distance relationship (he lives in Ohio, I live in Wales), we aren't going to be doing anything for our anniversary. We might watch a movie or something, but that's about it. 

HOWEVER, I recently found an idea on YT through a pretty wacky woman who I have forgotten the name of and I don't think I'm subbed to her, where she had an anniversary journal that she shared with her husband of seventeen years. They had a photograph of them together on their wedding day on the front of the journal, and throughout it, she wrote about what she did on their anniversary along with photos and gas prices, bread prices and milk prices, which was the part that probably interested me the most. This is something I am not going to start anytime soon, we're clearly not married, but maybe if we do in the future, this is something we can do, thought you might wanna hear about the idea too! 

Back to the original point, I think it's time I shared that little story of how we met, don't you? 


Way, way back in April of 2013, I was with a boy called Dylan* who I had been with since August 17th 2012. We weren't happy together, that much was obvious. We would argue a lot, and constantly doubt each other, and would much prefer others' company to each others. It got so severe that we had a huge tiff around April 6th, and we broke up. This being my first proper boyfriend who I guess I loved, but wasn't IN love with (I realize this now), I was devastated. It took me down such a vivid and different pain then what I had ever have expected.

I went straight to my best friends at the time for comfort, and I will always hold it close to my heart how much they helped me that day. I spent the rest of April in tears, refusing to leave my bed unless for school, my grades dramatically dropping and in June, I had my exams - you'd think I would have been better by then? Well, I wasn't. I was very emotionally invested in a boy who wasn't good for me. We never even talked much on the phone, we only had two short and sweet conversations, of which I was the one doing most of the talking. Goodness knows why I was so distraught over this. But, I guess you are, when it comes to first loves.

Around the end of June, I had started to get over him and get 'out there'. I joined a dating website, one I had been using since I was fourteen (but I didn't meet Austin on there, no worries about that) but barely visited it. I was quite fond of being by myself, I found, with just my friends to talk to. I had no intentions of getting back into a relationship, but my personality hadn't done a complete turn over just because of a traumatic break-up, I was still needy of attention and that would never change. 

I went on Omegle, a lot. To be honest, I still do. It's entertainment, and you might be surprised to find out how many good people can be on there if you go on the question section instead of the one to one where you'll mostly just find people asking you for your age, gender and name, and probably where you live, too. Be warned, though, the amount of despicable people you have to get through first is like walking through the ocean with rocks taped on your every pore.  It's been a while since I went on there, I've forgotten the specifics, but you know exactly what I'm talking about.

I came across a boy. Not Austin, this was just a very wild, young boy. At this point, I was willing to talk to anyone. If you have never been lonely, then I can not describe fully how it can make you do the craziest things - but, hey, it turned out to not be so crazy after all. He gave me his Skype, so I added him. I had no intentions of ever doing much more then talking, but introduced me to an even wilder group of boys in a group chat. I eventually gained the courage to join them in a call.

Even crazier, I enjoyed it. Sometimes, I still find myself missing it. Going off the point again, aren't I? Well, anyway, Austin came along a little while later. Everyone in the call was talking about him, and how he was hard to get a hold of nowadays (whatever that meant). I was getting eager to meet him, even though at this point I only knew his Skype/Steam username and not his actual name.

Eventually, he arrived. I was mostly attracted to the voice, seeing as I couldn't see any of them. They were all very loud, we didn't get the chance to speak in anything but the text box. We found that we got along really well. And I mean really well. We were, of course, teased because of this. He then went on to message be privately, always checking if I was okay and saying good morning and making me feel welcome when the group calls were noisy and I wasn't being chatted to.

And then came the day where we got together. At this time, I was sixteen, and pretty naive of everything (still am, really). I thought the male had to ask you out, despite me being eager to do it. So...well, I told him to ask me out. I even said what he should say. When he did, I said yes (duh) and he spent a short while lying on his bed because he's an awkward soul who didn't and doesn't know how to talk to girls.

Ever since then, I have realized what actual love is and what it feels like to not feel belittled and unloved by your own partner. Sure, I may be only eighteen and he twenty-one, but it feels like I have found someone who, even if we're not together forever, will be with for a very long time at the least.

If you have gotten this far in the post, I thank you dearly, and I do hope you enjoyed it. Please tell me if there's anything in my writing you could say I need to improve, and I'll see you next time.

- Loz. 

* Names have been changed for the sake of privacy. 

Tuesday 21 July 2015

The Greatest of Updates!

Guess what?!
Well, you're probably not at all exited about this but I have a new laptop!!!! 
Which means, eventually, this blog is going to get so hardcore improved - especially since it's the summer holidays, and I have a long while till college starts up - and we might even get to the point where I can have daily blog posts up! My friend from ThePerksofMollieQuirk can do it, and she is one of my top blogging inspirations, maaaaybe if she can do it then I can too? Maybe?

Anyway, I was just so exited about that, bye!

Sunday 19 July 2015

July Weekly Reading Wrap Up #2

Y'know, writing these are not easy when you don't have a laptop/computer but I must tally onwards and one day, when you see a dramatic improvement, you will know why! 

Annnnyway, in Monday Missions this week you might have recalled me saying I was reading "Misery" by Stephen King and then I was going to move on to "Coraline" by Neil Gailman, and I am thrilled to say I actually finished both by Friday came along! This reading slump is really losing it's grip on me, and soon I will be back to reading three books a week! Especially now that it's the summer holidays and I don't really have much to do, once my huge room is cleaned up, going through those things in no time! 

Currently reading is Anne Frank's "Diary of a Young Girl" for the third time now and I can't wait to talk about that in more detail later on in the month, it's even more emotional then I remember it being and I'm not sure why that is...why it's more emotional, I mean, pretty obvious why it's emotional. The second book I am currently reading, but haven't got far enough in to give you any sort of opinion, is "A monster calls" by Patrick Ness, the third book by him that I have read and I think I quite enjoy it right now but again, I haven't even reached fifty pages so I can't tell you for sure. 

(Sorry for the lack of photos, next weeks' posts - unless tags - should hopefully have a couple of photos here and there)

Thank you for reading and sorry to ask you this, but if you have the time, please follow me on Bloglovin' just so that I know I have someone who enjoys reading these posts, it'll really make my day, thank you in advance. 

Thursday 16 July 2015

Mid Year Book Freak Out Tag!

I've done so many tag posts recently, but this is probably the one that's going to be published first because, well...mid year tag. It's basically like a time limit. This is another tag created by ReadLikeWildfire. I wasn't tagged, I wasn't tagged to do any of these and I never tag anyone, I just think they're fun to do so if you want to do, why not? 

Best book you have read so far in 2015?

I can't even remember what I read in 2015, let me go check Goodreads one moment.  
Oh my goodness, I loved so many of them, this is going to be hard.
Hmm, it's probably going to be "Carrie" by Stephen King because, quite frankly, I realted a lot to Carrie in the movies but we related even more in the book, it was fast paced and enjoyable with a few slow parts but honestly it was a great book and will probably eventually be re-read. 

Best sequel you have read so far in 2015? 

This one is easy, I haven't read any series really apart from Bridget Jones and the Gone series by Michael Grant, and I have to say from the Gone series so far it's probably going to be "Hunger". It was fast paced, gruesome, action packed, wasn't slightly boring, so much conflict and insanity, it was excellent. 

New release you haven't read yet but want to?

I don't much care about new releases, I see a book and if I think it looks good and it's cheap then I buy it, and that's the extent of how I read. But, I am really looking foward to Ransom Riggs' "Libiary of Souls" coming out in September, which I believe is the finale of the trilogy. "Hollow City" left with such a cliffhanger, it was horrible, I'll be re-reading those this late August so that my memory is refreshed by the time Souls comes out. Although, I do have a new release that I'm planning to read soon, "Mind Games" by Terri Terry. It came out in March, so I guess it doesn't count as a new release anymore, does it? I don't know, I don't care, I'm interested in the book. Nobody on my GR's has read it yet, though, and I'm not sure how good or bad that sign is yet. It'll let me develop my own opinion on it though so I can't wait to read it.

Most anticipated release for the rest of the year?

Again, "Libiary of Souls" by Ramson Riggs, I'm pretty ecstatic about that. 

Biggest dissapointment? 

An awful lot of books lately have been a dissapointment, probably because of the reading slump (that I think I have reached the end of, yay). Probably a middle-grade favourite for a lot of you Americans, but we never read it here in the UK - at least not in the school I went to - but "Hatchet" by Gary Paulson, it was so boring and so slow paced and I get that in a real survival, it wouldn't all be on your toes so yeah, it was realistic in some parts - although, not really - and I want more of it explained, like how life was like when he got back home in more detail, but he never really described anything I wanted to know in the book in detail. No idea how he managed to stretch that book out into a five part series, but he did. 

Biggest surprise? 

I haven't read that many books this year yet, so I really don't have very much to go from, but it was probably "Hunger" by Michael Grant as I really didn't like the first book very much, it was okay but it wasn't my sort of thing and the only reason I wanted to continue on with the story in the first place was that I had the whole series on my bookshelves and I didn't want to give them away without at least trying them first, because if I didn't hate or dislike the first book I will usually go ahead and read the second book anyway. I thought it would be just the same as "Gone", but it wasn't, it was better. 

Favourite new author? 

Not a huge fan of romance, but probably Lucy Diamond, I just love the type of people she writes about and how...sweet and lovely it is to read one of her books, especially when going through difficulties in life or having just pushed through a particularly difficult book. I love her. Even though her writing is not perfect. I also really like Saskia Sarginson, and can't wait to buy her next new book, "Without You". 

Newest Crush?

Eh, nobody. None of them really struck me as the type of charecter I would want to know in real life. I haven't got around to reading my new Rainbow Rowell books, though, so maaaaybe one might come soon, who knows? Right now, though, none of them. 

Favourite charecter? 

Diana from the "Gone" series, Coraline from "Coraline", Carrie from "Carrie"  and Nella from "The Minaturist", I can't really pick between them. 

Book that made you cry?

Books...books don't make me cry. "Carrie" made my heart feel quite sad, and "Diary of a Young Girl" (Anne Frank) always does make my eyes water, but books don't really make me cry. I haven't cried since I read TFIOS two years ago, but that was two years ago, if I read that now, I don't even know if I would like the book enough to make me want to cry. 

Book that made you happy?

All of them did, in their own way, I can't really pick out one. "Coraline" by Neil Gailman is a book I am reading right now, so I'm just going to go with that one, the cover is gorgeous and it's such a scary, awesome story that if I ever had kids, I would love to read it to them. 

Favourite book to movie adaptation that you saw this year?

Aside from "Coraline", I'm not a big movie person, I just watch horror/thriller/suspense type of movies, or family friendly type of movies, and I never usually watch movie adaptations from books, I just read the book. 

Favourite review that you have written?

I'm not really a fan of any reviews that I have written so far, I'm still learning my style of writing and the way I want to write and what I want to write about and how I will entwine the information I want to say about the book into a well written and well structured review, so right now, I haven't written anything I can look back on and be proud of just yet. 

Favourite books you have bought this year or received? 

"My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult because I only have that on kindle but I loved the book so much that I don't understand why I never bought it in paperback, and I saw a non-movie edition for cheap in a charity shop and was amazed. I also found a first edition hardback of Harry Potter "Order of the Phoenix" and a first edition paperback of "Deathly Hallows", so now I have three first edition hardbacks and three first edition paperbacks. I'm pretty happy about that. I'm pretty glad that I finally own "Carrie", and I also found the White Rabbit Chronicle trilogy for £5 and I was thriled about that, too, but I still haven't read it. 

What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

Uh, hmm. I want to get the White Rabbit Chronicles out the way, read that book by Ransom Riggs, finally finish the "Gone" series, and that's all I really want to finish by the end of the year, anything else is just going to be freestyled, I read what I please.

Thank you very much for reading, I hope you stick around to see more, g'day!

 

Totally Didn't Book Tag

This book tag was created by ReadLikeWildfire on YT.

I haven't done one of these in a long while, I don't think, and I am really in the mood for writing and making a new blog post but I have nothing to write (just finished a discussion on "Carrie" though, that'll probably be published way before this has) so, hey, why not do a tag?! 

I'm pretty much never tagged to do any of these so if you're wondering why I'm not linking anyone, it's because...there isn't anyone. There's no rules for this, dude! 

(this is meant to sound like a valley girl, which I don't know if I can pull off, but we're going to try)

Let's get to these questions then, leh-go:

Totally didn't need a sequel/s.

I feel like there's so many books I could answer for this question but the one that is springing to mind the most is the Mortal Instruments series...the first three books were great. They didn't need to add to it, really, the last three books just failed in my expectations and made me think more negatively about the series as a whole. Not a fan of Cassandra's writing anyway. Too long, drags on, and Clara is fucking annoying. I don't even remember if that's her name, but she drove me up the wall, do we really need more of her? No. 

Totally didn't need to have more then one point of view.

Hmm...I honestly don't mind when in third person, but in first person, nu-uh, and I'm going to have to pick "Alligent" by Veronica Roth which is written from both Tris's perspective and Four's perspective. Uh, they were really annoying (I mean, Tris was okay but I hated chapters that included Four, no thank you). Why. Though, there's more problems with that book then just that.  

Totally didn't need to change the cover art in the middle of the series.

The Mr Mercedes series by Stephen King. I haven't read it yet, I didn't even know it was a series when I first got it but I saw it had a second book to it and it didn't match the first. It did have a vague similarity that all of King's books do to each other but the covers alone are not obvious enough to say they are even remotely connected. 

Totally didn't need to have a love triangle. 

Every book ever. 
Ever.

Totally didn't need this book to be included in the series. 

An old one, but still much loved by me, is probably "Destined" and onwards in the "Marked" series by Kristen and P.C Cast, is it? Well, it was an amazing series and the plots and twists were really great (I read it when I was fourteen, and judging by who my boyfriends were, I had a small judgement on what was great) but these books onwards fell flat for me. The curiousity of what would happen at the end of the series was not enough for me to want to continue. 

Totally didn't need a cliffhanger. 

"Hollow City" by Ransom Riggs. I'm sure we can all feel the pain of that as we read that last page and knew the next book wasn't coming out until late this year (pre-ordered for me, by my boyfriend, thank you Austin). 

Totally didn't need to have just one point of view. 

I may get a lot of people mad over this but I wished in the Harry Potter series, it wasn't just from his viewpoint. I mean, technically, it wasn't. But, for a majority, it was all centered around Harry and I can understand why that was but to see from other peoples' viewpoints would have been really cool. 

Totally didn't need to have that much hype.

Again, every book ever. But, a recently read one that sticks out in my mind is "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins. It was good, but it wasn't that good. 

Totally didn't need to have that irelevent book reference.
(For example, fans of The Hunger Games will love Divergent). 

The Percy Jackson series, as even though it's okay for a middle grade book (pretty good, actually), it's not okay to be compared to Harry Potter - they only vaguley relate. 

Totally didn't deserve any of my time. 

Hmm..."It's Kind of a Funny Story" by that dude I can't remember the name of, can't say I much care, or "Creed" by James Herbert...those two stick out quite well right now, I can't think of any others. 


Thank you for reading, I have great fun doing this, so I hope you enjoy them too. If you want to do the book tag, I'll leave the questions underneath this sentence (copy and paste, yo).  

  1.   Totally didn't need a sequel/s.
  2.  Totally didn't need to have more then one point of view.
  3.  Totally didn't need to change the cover art in the middle of the series. 
  4.  Totally didn't need to have a love triangle. 
  5.  Totally didn't need this book to be included in the series. 
  6.  Totally didn't need a cliffhanger. 
  7.  Totally didn't need to have just one point of view. 
  8.  Totally didn't need to have that much hype.
  9.  Totally didn't need to have that irelevent book reference.
  10.  Totally didn't deserve any of my time.

Wednesday 15 July 2015

Changing the Face of Beauty - Maddy Stuart





  “If the average person could see the beauty Maddy has inside, how loving and caring she is and if that is what people measured beauty on, then most of the models in the world would have Down syndrome”

For a while now, I have been following Maddy on her Facebook page (which I unfortunately can't link right now, but look up Maddy/Madeline Stuart, and she should pop up under pages) and admiring her journey. It's not just the fact that I, too, have a disability but it's how eager and determined she is to achieve her dream, something I feel like I and many others are lacking and admire.

She's an eighteen year old woman from Australia, and she battles Downs Syndrome. She has been eager to change the way the world see's her disability from day one, and even lost weight - something a lot of people with Downs Syndrome have a problem with. She ditched the unhealthy eating habits and switched to a good exercise regime and a healthy diet. She was, and still is, determined to change the way we see beauty and become a model.  

Well, Maddy did it! She landed her first major modelling contrast with a company called Mainfesta, a US-based women's athletic wear company, that targets women of all shapes and sizes (I hope they ship to the UK, these sound like the type of people I am eager to support). Apparently, she is also reciving plenty more offers from other modelling agencies. 


Must remember to give thanks to her full-supporting mother, Rosanne - this family is apparently filled with people with beautiful names, and beautiful people. Her mother says how Maddy is eager to change how people discriminate against disability. 

"People with Downs Syndrome can do anything, they just do it at their own pace."

I think Maddy here is a perfect example of what people mean when they say personality will shine and the beauty will show on the outside. I think a lot of disabilities are not seen as beautiful simply because of the prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination these people face, not that they are not pleasing to the eye. I hope Maddy becomes a role model towards others like her, and before you know it, the world is filled with divergence in the modelling industry and little girls and boys can look up on a huge screen and think "Wow, s/he looks like me!". It doesn't have to be a dream or something far away, it can be reality, but if you don't try, how can you expect anything to happen? 

Thank you very much for reading, Loz x

Monday 13 July 2015

Monday Missions #6

My reading month in June was terrible and, I'm afraid, so is July with all the stress that it brings with it. 

But, as you would have read in yesterday's post, I am currently reading "Misery" by Stephen King and I am flying through this book quick now the boring hump has past me! Oddly enough, these types of dark books make me feel a whole lot better about anything I am going through so I'm not entirely sure what my next book of the week is going to be, but it'll probably be something dark or I'm going to read "Coraline" by Neil Gailman, it's my ultimate feel better movie and I can't believe I've had the book on my shelf for two years now and it still hasn't been read. 

So, thank you very much for reading and I'll see you all next time. 

Sunday 12 July 2015

July Weekly Wrap-Up #1

I know I had a bunch of books I said at the start of this week in Monday Missions, but...none of them have been read. Instead, I opted for another option. Of course, this week is my very last week in school after eight years, forever, and my college hasn't corrected the forms yet so I don't know if I'm accepted into Animal Care Level 1 come September, and I'm 19 very, very soon...for some reason this, among other things, is causing me great stress and anxiety. I am one who struggles to read when upset, even though when I am upset is when I need books the most. 

But, you didn't come here to know that crap, you came here to know what I managed to read this week, and I got 225 pages into "Misery" by Stephen King (in the edition I am reading, that's almost 60%). I am really enjoying it so far, the first half was pretty boring but then Annie started to get worse and worse and she became more and more interesting and crazy. Bit of a weird one to read given my current state and the fact that I'm about to go to bed real soon, but it's such a good read 

Thank you for reading, and I'll see you in my next post (whenever that'll be), cheerio.  

Thursday 9 July 2015

Bookish Pet Peeves!

I have been thinking a lot about my pet peeves when it comes to books recently because they're really fucking annoying and therefore they refuse to leave my brain and I always find these kinds of posts interesting, so hey, why not? Maybe you can relate to these, maybe you can't, but either way...they really annoy the doodles out of me.

Edit: RAGE!

Number One. 

"Now a moving motion picture!" stickers or whatever the hell they say that you can't remove. Can you not? It completely ruins the cover, but the liklihood is that the cover is already ruined anyway because...

Number Two. 

Book/movie tie-in covers. I am forever grateful that Harry Potter never had that problem, and even though I'm not a huge fan of Divergent and haven't seen the movie, I do like that cover but a majority of the time, unacceptable! 

Number Three. 

I don't even know what they're called but they're usually on the front or back of the cover in quotations, some author or news editor saying some positive feedback on what they thought of the book. Can you keep that inside the pages, if you have to do it all? Please, and thank you. 

Number Four.

When romance overtakes the entire plot. If the book is not specfically about romance, it's not neccesary, and I don't particullary give two craps how hot that guy is or how beautiful that girl is, I want to know more about demons and witches, thank you very much. 

Number Five. 

Book covers with a human on the front. Yes, humans are beautiful, but...I prefer artwork of a human. I think it looks so much better when it's artwork, because that novel is a work of art in itself and it just ruins the cover. 

Number Six. 

I honestly don't mind broken spines, although I try not to do it myself, but I buy a lot of charity books lately and sometimes the spine is so ruined, it's like...how? Did you really need to bend the spine that much, isn't once or twice enough? 

Number Seven. 

"I'm a damsel in distress! Oh, don't worry princess, I'll come and save you!" 
Because the concept of a woman saving herself is just unheard of. 

Number Eight. 

While I'm on that topic, when an author tries to make a posessive and over-obsessed, almost controlling man seem cute because he's "Protecting his woman" or whatever the fuck he's trying to do is just...no. Again, a woman having the ability to control her own life and make her own decisions is clearly not okay. 

Number Nine. 

The topic of mental illness and how it is romantized or simplified in books. As if social anxiety is being cute and shy. Excuse me while I go punch the author in the face and make them do some research. 

Number Ten. 

Instalove.
Need I say anymore?


  I'm going to end this here, it was super long, so I cut it in more or less half so you can look out for a part two published...eventually...I'm really bad at publishing things when I spend ages writing them out, to be honest. 

Wednesday 8 July 2015

Book Review/Talk: Carrie by Stephen King.


Carrie knew she should not use the terrifying power she possessed. 
But one night at her senior prom, Carrie was scorned and humiliated just one time too many, and in a fit of uncontrollable fury she turned her clandestine game into a weapon of horror and destruction. 

  Published 1974. 
Read from June 24th - 6th July. 
Movie cover edition published by Hodder, 242 pages. 
Given rating: four stars. 
 "But hardly anybody ever finds out that their actions really, actually hurt other people! People don't get better, they just get smarter. When you get smarter, you don't stop pulling the wings off flies, you just think of better reasons for doing it"
- Sue Snell. 


Carrie, Stephen King's popular first novel that had three movie adaptations, is about a young teenage girl attending what I believe was her last year at high school. She had been viciously bullied by not only her classmates, but a large majority of the school and even by her own overly religious mother. Carrie, however, has a telekinetic power, the gene triggered by her traumatic life. One day, she has her first period in what would be every girls' nightmare - naked, in the shower room. Instead of the girls being sympathetic towards her, they taunt her (which, luckily, gives them a well deserving punishment). This, however, is only the start of Carrie White's story. 

I want to start by saying how much I loved this book. It had flaws, and I was reading it in the middle of a reading slump so wasn't enjoying it to the full extent I'm sure I would have done, but overall it was fantastic. I wouldn't say I'm a huge fan of King, despite owning quite a number of his books, but they are horrific and terrifying and everything a horror book should be. 

 I felt like I knew Carrie White. I wouldn't say I had a traumatic bullying experience as Carrie did, and I certainly never had a mother like Carrie's, but yet I can sympathize with her to the point of almost understanding her. I ( as I have mentioned before) have ASD - Autism Spectrum Disorder - depression and anxiety, and I'm also overweight. If you are similar to me or Carrie, you know none of this would get treated well at all in a place like high school. I could feel Carrie's anger, I could feel her pain, and I have had that image of trapping everyone who had ever intentionally caused be hurt in the school gym and never letting them back out. I'm sure a majority of people have, none of us have ever really wanted to do it (I would hope). Her snap was totally understandable, it's hard to believe King was never a Carrie White himself with how accurate it was.

The novel jumps back and forwards from present to future quite a lot, but unlike a lot of other novels I have read, it is clear what time period we are in. Present is spoken from third person perspective, usually in the form of Carrie, Sue (a person who took part in the taunting shower scene), Chris (an evil bitch, that's putting it nicely), Billy (way worse then Chris), and some teachers around the school, as well as Carrie's mother Margaret. The future is written like a news article, a book extract, or in the form of an interview and can vary from third person to first person. This form of writing can give us a look in to the science behind TK, my favorite part about that being it only affects females.

Now, the flaws of this book are mostly due to my own morals and understanding of the world more then actual flaws in the book. I struggled to understand why her full name was never used and, instead, even her overly religious mother called her Carrie. If that's what she wanted her to be called all along, why didn't she? I'm pretty surprised she wasn't called something incredibly obvious, like Eve. From my small amount of research I have done, the history behind the name Carrie is that it is an Italian or French name meaning a song of joy and also means manly/masculine. I couldn't find any religious ties to the name at all, and for someone like Margaret, I find it all highly unusual. Another flaw of the book I found it had was how she was made beautiful, and that appeared to be the only reason people liked her in the prom and beforehand. But, I'm noticing a woman's appearance is a trend in most male-written books and it's a huge turn off for me personally. In a book, personality really does triumph over looks. And, my last flaw, was how...stereotypical that prom was. I have never been to a prom, and the reasoning for that is because of social anxiety and bullying, yes, but also because I have no interest in it - and King made it seem like this romance and wearing dresses was all a female dream. When, really, I couldn't care less about them. Again, just my own morals and opinions thinking they're flaws more then actual flaws in his writing.

Overall, I was highly impressed with this novel and would recommend it to anyone. I enjoyed it so much that I ended up moving on to another King novel, "Misery". And, yes, I will be delighted to write a review on that as soon as I have finished it, I really want to improve on this kind of thing so please do tell me what are my flaws here - I can't improve as well as I want to if I don't know where my mistakes are. Thank you for reading. 

And I'm just going to leave these favourite quotes here: 

"Whenever anything happens in America, they have to gold-plate it, like baby shoes. That way you can forget it." 

- Sue Snell. 

"She was thick through the waist only because sometimes she felt so miserable, empty, bored, that the only way to fill that gaping, whistling hole was to eat and eat and eat"

- Carrie White


- Loz :D

Charity Shop Book Haul


    

 Until recently, I never fully appreciated the wonderful thing that is a charity shop's book section. In fact, I never really wandered into them at all. I stuck to discount stores and supermarkets. I found nothing in them of interest to me, though. Instead, I stopped by at the three charity shops in my town (there's more, but I'm lazy, I just wanted to hurry and get home).

"A Monster Calls" by Patrick Ness (£2).


Conor has the same dream every night, ever since his mother first fell ill, ever since she started the treatments that don't quite seem to be working. But tonight is different. Tonight, when he wakes, there's a visitor at his window. It's ancient, elemental, a force of nature. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth. 

First published 2011.
This edition published 2012. 
Awards won: Carnegie Medal, Kate Greenaway Medal, Galaxy National Book Awards, Red House Children's Book Awards, UKLA Book Awards.
Author of "Chaos Walking" trilogy. 
236 pages long. 
No damage to spine. 
Ripped on the front cover. 

Goodreads rating: 4.27 stars (49, 958 ratings).

Pretty sure everyone, at this point, has heard of "A Monster Calls", and on multiple reviews that I have read, it is said to be not as good as his "Chaos Walking" trilogy...in my case, I haven't read that trilogy so I'm hoping that this will be an advantage for the overall enjoyment of this read. I haven't read anything from Patrick Ness before, this book might just be a 'make or break' in terms of whether I read the trilogy or other works by him - I don't feel like wasting my time on anymore bad books.

"Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl".(£2)


Remains the most poignant true-life story to emerge from WW2. 
In July 1942 Anne Frank and her family, fleeing the horrors of the Nazi occupation, hid in the back of an Amsterdam warehouse. Anne was thirteen when the family went into the Secret Annexe and, over the next two years, she vividly describes in her diary the frustrations of living in such confined quarters, the constant threat of discovery, the hunger and fear. Her diary ends abruptly when, in August 1944, she and her family were finally discovered by the Nazis. 
Anne Frank died in March 1945, aged fifteen, in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. 

First published in GB by Viking in 1997
This edition published 2002. 
A girl called Gabrielle Jenkins wrote inside the book in a glittery purple pen her name and drew a flower, underneath a quote in pencil says "Jirus (or Sirius, it's unclear) is upset. I wonder what he wants with Jesus". 
First page slightly ripped, nothing important to the book missing. 
Spine moderately damaged. 
335 pages long. 

Goodreads rating: 4.07 stars (1, 506, 273 ratings).

Likewise, everyone should know the story of Anne Frank and the secret annexe by now. Sad that that's what it has become now, a story, but all my thoughts on this book will be said when I have re-read and analyzed the book in closer detail. I have a stolen school addition (sorry, high school, my fourteen year old self didn't have the money to buy it) but it's a tiny hardback with stiff pages and is just too...'schoolastic' to be enjoyed. I wanted my own copy. I saw one a short while ago, but it was a terrible edition, and I'm glad I waited. I like the cover of this a lot better.

"A Little Princess" by Frances Hodgson Burnett (Puffin Classics Edition). (£1.35)


When Sara Crewe's father is made bankrupt, Sara is reduced from enormous wealth to terrible poverty. At Miss Minchin's school, where she had been a privledged student, she is now forced to work as a servent. But Sara has a loving heart and a quick imagination, and she knows that with the right spirit, she can remain a princess inside. 

First published 1905.
This edition published 1994. 
No damage to book whatsoever. 
296 pages long. 

 Goodreads rating: 4.19 stars (159, 593 ratings).

When I was a child, one of my favorite authors was Jacqueline Wilson. In her books (the one springing to mind right now is Cookie), she mentions some of her most loved books, including Anne Frank's diary and "A Little Princess". Even since my childhood, I have been keen to find this book but not so keen to spend a lot of money on it, because it's probably going to be a book I read once and once only. However, that was before I read what it was about. I'm highly interested in the movie, too, now that I know it's a movie.

"Harry Potter and the Dealthly Hallows". (£2.99)


No description needed. 

First published 2007.
This edition published 2008.
First edition paperback. 
607 pages long. 
No damage to book whatsoever. 

Goodreads rating: 4.58 stars (1, 400, 326 ratings).

I bought it simply because it was a 'first edition' paperback of the novel. I already have three books in 'first edition' hardback and this will make it three books in 'first edition' paperback. The only book I don't have the original cover for is "Goblet of Fire". The need to buy this was more of a need for my book collecting side then actually needing the book - I, of course, already have a copy of it.

"Shadow of the Titanic" by Andrew Wilson (50p, 2 for a £1 offer)


In the early hours of 15 April 1912, the Atlantic Ocean was alive with the sound of screaming as 1,500 passengers of the once majestic liner titanic struggled to stay alive in the icy waters. 
The echoes of that night reverberated through the lives of each of the 705 survivers, and shadow of the titanic tells their extraordinary story. 
Although we think we know the story of the titanic, little has been written about what happened to the survivors after the tragedy. How did they cope? How did they remember that terrible night? Today, one hundred years after that fateful voyage, this book sheds new light on an enduringly fascinating story, seen through the eyes of those who survived. 

Mild damage to spine. 
Small pen marks in pages. 
Published 2011
This edition published 2012.
350 pages long. 

Goodreads rating: 3.84 stars (801 ratings).

When I was younger, I used to have a huge interest in the tragedy of the Titanic disaster. It was one, and still is, of the few historical dates that I remembered. It's a reason unknown to myself, but my great interest in this 'tale' continues today. The 1900's (if you couldn't guess if you've been here a while) is one of my favorite topics to read about. I would hate to live there or be a part of it, but I would love to go back in time and watch them as a bird watches crowds, it would be a dream. I'm going a bit off topic, but the idea of this book interested me and I can't wait to see how it reaches expectations.

"Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte (£1, 2 for £1 offer)


Cathy and Heathcliff, childhood friends, are cruelly separated by class, fate, and the actions of others. But uniting them is something even stronger: an all-consuming passion that sweeps away everything that comes between them. Including death. 

No spine damage. 
Pen marks, dog-eared pages. 
First published 1847. 
This edition published 2009. 
331 pages long. 

Goodreads rating: 3.79 stars (765, 259 ratings). 

Again, bought mostly because it was a classic I heard about a lot as a child. I'm not a fan of love stories, especially one's in the past, but I might just be pleasantly surprised. I just remembered I saw "Jane Eyre"...let's hope that's still there when I go look for it, shall we (huge turn off, by the way, that the front of the book had a reference to Twilight by saying that this was Bella and Edward's favorite book...uh, I hope not).

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I did writing it.




Friday 3 July 2015

Monday Missions #5

There's been a lot of stress and anxiety in my life right now, so that on top of my mini reading slump, I'm only picking one book to read this week and a couple of options if I by miracle get through it and finish it before next weeks Monday Missions. 

I thought I would include the book I am reading right now, even though I am probably going to get it finished today so I can move on to my chosen book of the week, and that is "Carrie" by Stephen King which is one of my favourite "horror" movies of all time (all three adaptations) and if I had known there was a book at the time I had watched the first adaptation quite a while ago, then I would have read it first, but despite knowing the story of Carrie quite well this book is simply a wonder to read and I love it so, so much (quite the lengthly paragraph right there, huh). It's probably going to get a 4.5 stars. 

So, onto the book of this week, I have chosen "Plague" by Michael Grant, the forth book in his "Gone" series. Obviously, I can't say too much without spoiling the first three but in the previous book, things had spiralled out of control and it began to take a more political edge to it. Sometimes, I heavily enjoy reading about politics but recently is not one of those times and it really spoilt the enjoyment of the book for me. Also, a lot of things had been answered which made any exitement or curiosity for the forth book simmer by quite a bit. Nethertheless, I am hoping something in it will turn and surprise me, I am eager to get this series finished with so I can start a new one (although not too fast, I am really enjoying it, finishing it will be bittersweet).

Options for if I do manage to finish "Plague" are the new Rainbow Rowell books I recently bought in the month of June, and I usually don't cave into the hype until the hype has long died down and the books aren't even brought up anymore, but something about the descriptions from added friends on Goodreads made me eager to pick them up...so I did. Although, not too keen on romance right now, so another possibiliy that I really want to read is "Mind Games" by Terri Terry, author of the "Slated" trilogy, or what I assume is a trilogy. I believe it came out early this year, and is a standalone dystopian YA...something I have never read a standalone of before. This will be new to me. I have also never read a book from this author, I'm interested to see how this book will represent her writing. 

Thank you for reading, this is all for this weeks Monday Missions and sorry for the lack of picture, complications came up today that made it too difficult to achieve but I just really wanted this post to come up today. 

June Monthly Book Haul: Part Five: Other

 The shortest, and last, part of the book haul is the small portion of books I bought that are not enough to fit in their own category. These books are all books I have been wanting for what feels like quite a while so here you go, read on to know my thoughts on them!



"Work in Progress" by Connor Franta (Unread)

 Published 2015.

 This book is simply beautiful. The graphic design was immense, the photographs throughout the book were stunning and really grasped Connor and his love for photography, and the actual content was like watching one of his vlogs (just less funny). It had different visuals on life that he wanted to share and, despite not being a fan of Connor Franta to the level of which I would call myself a fan, I still deeply enjoyed this book and gave it a four out of five stars on Goodreads.

"My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult (Read)

Published 2004. 

When the movie of "My Sister's Keeper" came out, I watched it every single day. It was one of my favourite movies - it was like poetry. I haven't watched it in a while now, only because of how sad it is. It was also the first review I wrote on any book was when I read this the first time on Kindle. I had been looking around for the physical copy for a while, but had never found it. I never published that review and I don't think I have it anywhere, either. Which saddens me. I found it for £2 in a charity shop on the same day I found "Carrie" and was thrilled! It wasn't even a movie cover edition. It's not an amazing novel - it has way too many metaphors and all the parts that aren't from Brian, Anna, Kate or Sara are just boring, and yet it's one of my most re-read books. 

"A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawkins (unread).

Published 1987. 

I'm sure I don't need to say what this is about, but I have an interest in science and always wish to advance my brain on the subjects that I love so I can get really deep into it and work on things from there. I have read a little bit of it, and I was always more interested in biology then physics, and therefore know little about it - nontheless, I will trek through and let you know what I thought about it in the wrap up of whatever month I eventually get to it.


If you missed the other parts, it was Romance, Horror/Thriller, Historical Fiction and YA. 

Thank you SO MUCH for reading and even more so if you got through all the parts of the book haul - I'll be seein' ya!

June Monthly Book Haul: Part Four: YA

 Lately, I have been a lot less keen to read YA books and I am not sure why. It's very much "Once you have read one, you have read them all!" type situation because they're all so similar. But, these particular books either caught my eye or were just cheap or something, so I thought why not? Let me know what you thought of these if you have read them. 



"Mind Games" By Terri Terry (Unread).

 Published 2015.

I don't want to give too much away, going into books blind is the best way to do it, but this is a standalone book by the author of the "Slated" trilogy (at least, I think it was a trilogy) from the perspective of Luna who can live in real and virtual worlds at the same time, something she wants to keep a secret but one day, she is singled out for testing and can't hide it anymore. The safest thing to do would be to fail, but Luna wants something better. I can't wait to get into a standalone again, because at this point I'm sick of reading YA series - I'll let you know what I think of it, it might be read for the month of July!

"Every Second Counts" by Sophie McKenzie (Split Second #2) (Unread).

 Published 2014. 

This is obviously second in a series so I don't want to spoil anything if you do want to read the first one, but it's really a teenage crime/spy novel type of thing. Split Second was about a bomb going off in London and the two teenagers, Nat and Charlie,  want to do some digging to find out what was underneath. It's been a while since I have read the first one so if I want to read this one, I have to go back to that one and I will be writing a review on that because there is a lack of reviews for both of them. And I want to practice my writing skills so I can better! But, anyway, they were pretty decent reads although not amazing and it makes sense as to why they are not as popular as they could be.

"The 100: Homecoming" by Kass Morgan (Book #3). (Unread)

 Published 2015. 

When I bought this, I had no idea it was the third book and nor did I know it was a TV show. Something about aliens named "The 100" coming on earth and humans isolating themselves? Honestly, I don't know, all I do know is that it's science fiction and I am starting to really love science fiction. 

"Messanger of Fear" by Michael Grant (Book #1).(Unread)

Published 2014. 

As far as my understanding goes, this is about a girl who Mara who has seemingly forgotten all but her name and is put through a series' of games. The Messenger can see darkness in your heart and the damage it inflicts on the world around you. He will offer you a game if you go unpunished. Win, they can go free. Lose, and they will live out their greatest fear. It seems pretty terrifying and I can't wait to read it. Will probably wait till I am in the right frame of mind though! If I am judging Grant's ability to produce terrifying events from the Gone series alone, I should not expect this to be a light read, that's for certain. 

Other parts of the book haul:

Romance
Horror/Thriller
Historical Fiction
Other

June Monthly Book Haul: Part Three: Historical Fiction

I've only recently got into historical fiction after reading "The Miniaturist" by Jessie Burton (you should read that, but please go into the book knowing that it mostly focuses on the lives of the people in the house and not on the miniaturist itself, otherwise the ending with not much answer will probably disappoint you) and liked it so much that I entered a giveaway for "Penny Heart" and amazingly won it, although I haven't read any of these books so I can't tell you if any of them are any good D:



"Penny Heart" by Martine Bailey (Unread)

Published 2015.
There's not many reviews on this book so I think I might write one when I eventually get round to reading it (probably quite soon) but this is sort of like a crime thriller set in the past and probably involves a lot of domestic abuse as it is the 1900's. Sorry I can't give more then that, I'm a bit confused by the premise of this book but if you want to know more, then read it here on Goodreads

"Before the Fall" by Juliet West (gave up on)

Published 2014. 
Again, not many reviews, so I might write one on this too but I did try to read this, and the huge amount of sexism shown in the first ten pages (although expected for the 1900's during WW1) put me off. It follows the life of a woman named Hannah who, while her husband is away fighting in the war, she is searching for a job and looking after everything (not much different from the modern parent) while falling in love with someone else. All in the title, really.

"The Beekeeper's Apprentice" by Laurie R. King.

Published 1994.
Again, not sure what it's about so you can click here if you want to know more but I think it's like a Sherlock Holmes' retirement, crime detective sort of book (odd amount of books on crime for someone who isn't keen on the genre) that a friend on Goodread's read and really enjoyed so I wanted to give it a try! The cover also looked a lot like "The Great Gatsby", it was beautiful. Yeah, yeah...never judge a book by it's cover but there's no harm in it! 

Other parts in the book haul:
Other.  

Thank you for reading!

June Monthly Book Haul: Part One: Romance

As always, late to the bandwagon, but I'm not a fan of doing things scripted as of late (not that I needed to tell you that, just take one look at this blog). But, also late to the bandwagon in a different way, as Rainbow Rowell has become a favourite author of many, many people and I've only just got my hands on them. Usually, I avoid the popular books unless I really want to read them so the less popular or not popular books can get a chance too (and they're pretty amazing sometimes) but that's a whole other blog topic I have been meaning to talk about.





"Fangirl" by Rainbow Rowell (Unread).

Published 2013. 

The thing that caught my eye about this book is that it's about twins. I love reading books about twins. Although I am fairly close to my sister in the fact that we hardly ever fight (physically or verbally) and we usually help each other out, we're not close in the fact that we know a lot about each other or that we talk about our life with each other but that's mostly due to our personalities. With twins, you get this bond that is so different from any other and it makes a really enjoyable and interesting read. I don't wish to be a twin, I'm quite content with the relationship I have with my sister, but I often wonder what it would be like.

"Eleanor and Park" by Rainbow Rowell (Unread).

Published 2012. 
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This is about a girl called Eleanor, who has frizzy red hair and wears weird clothes, and Park, who likes music, books and being invisible. I believe this starts off as a friendship and blossoms into a relationship. I'm not sure how much I will enjoy this book, I've heard mixed things about it, but my favourite reviewer on Goodreads, Emily May , said a comment in a recent review (I can't remember which one) on how she liked the friendship-to-relationship type of theme in the book even if the book never ended up being a huge success for her. The relationship I have with Austin started off as a friendship and now we've been together two years this month, so I have a weakness for this kind of thing. I hope it's as good as my expectations.

"Hens United" by Lucy Diamond (Unread)

Published 2009.

The last Diamond book I read, "Sweet Temptation", didn't do so much for me as "Over You" did but, despite the sugar sweet endings and the easy-to-guess plotlines, she has a way of writing characters that makes you fall in love with them and can cover dark topics in a serious way without it getting depressing. "Hens United" is about a group of women after the hen night that takes place before a wedding. I believe one is divorced, one is unhappy...and I love nothing more then reading about broken marriages.

"Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop of Dreams" by Jenny Colgon (Sweet Shop #1) (Unread).

Published 2012. 

This is exactly as it sounds. Rosie gets dragged away to the candy shop owned by a relative of her boyfriend and she thinks it will be uneventful but she is wrong. She also discovers the history behind the jars of sweets. I've never really been a huge candy person, I'm more of a chocolate person and savory stuff for the most part, but I have heard so many good things about this book that I didn't want to turn it away. I finally picked it up. Plus, I am quite interested in the historical background of sweets. Especially mint humbugs. 

Other parts:

Horror/Thriller.
YA. 

Historical Fiction.
Other. 


Thank you for reading!





June Monthly Book Haul: Part Two: Horror/Thriller.

The photo is missing Carrie because, at the time of the photo taken, I had it in my school bag downstairs and I was exhausted. I thought about re-taking it today but I hate how late I am to publish this haul so fuck it, it's going to get published today. Just know that it was bought, pretend it was there.



 "Finders Keepers" by Stephen King (Mr Mercedes #2) (Unread).

Published in 2015.
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My lovely boyfriend bought this for me when he found out that I had the first book of this trilogy but none of the rest - and this was a couple of weeks before I started to see the book everywhere, poor guy! Anyway, this is the only one here that I haven't read, the second book to the "Mr Mercedes" trilogy (which is actually a crime thriller and not about a car like I thought it was...hey, don't judge me like that, it's not like King hasn't written about crazy cars before!). I have no idea what it's about as I don't want to read the back through fear that it will spoil the book but I think it's advancement on a character in "Mr Mercedes".

"Carrie" by Stephen King (Reading).

 Published 1974. 

Pretty sure we all know what the story of "Carrie" is (or you should do, after three movies - I love them all, by the way) but if you don't, it follows the story of Carrie White and her overly religious and abusive mother, Margaret. Carrie has had telekinetic powers since she was tiny, but her traumatic late period triggered it's full power and, perhaps, that's what the power was waiting for. I love love love the movies because of how much I can relate to Carrie (fat and autistic, you can imagine how well that was treated in high school) right down to her weird behavior and physical characteristics in the book - I've only ever managed to read a short bit of it each time because I could never get my hands on a physical copy, but eventually did in a charity shop for £2 (with the beautiful Chloe Grace Moretz on the front...usually don't like movie editions, but it's Chloe).

"The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins (Read).

 Published 2015. 

This follows from different perspectives, but mainly focuses on Rachel - an alcoholic living with a vague friend after her inability to have a baby and the divorce with her husband (Ben), who remarried to a woman named Anna with a baby of their own. She pretends to go to work everyday on the train and looks down at the street where her train stops everyday to look at a 'happy couple' she names Jess and Jason - the same street where Ben and Anna lives, in the house she used to live in. I enjoyed this book. It was slow at the start and is familiar to "Gone Girl" (or so people say, I have never read it and have no plans to) but it caught up. The end was predictable, but I really loved Rachel and Megan and strongly felt their pain - even though everyone in this book seemed to be obsessed with marriage, babies and destruction.

"Creed" by James Herbert (Read but gave up on).

Published 1990.

As much as I enjoyed "The Secret of Crickley Hall" by Herbert, his other books have been nothing but disappointment and this one was no different.  It follows the life of Joe Creed, the paparazzi. Living up to the (mostly correct) stereotype of paparazzi, he is a horrible, hypocritical, sexist, sex-obsessed man who is quite content with ignoring his son and hurting other people. Unlike other characters' you are meant to hate but still feel for, he had nothing I wanted to feel for. Even when the demon wanted to steal his pictures and stole his son, tormented Creed, I felt pretty glad about it and was not so secretly hoping Creed would just die. My guess for what the ending ends up being is that (I guess a spoiler?) the demon was made up by his imagination or something, even though that doesn't make much sense because nothing adds up - I guess I will never know the ending. 

Thank you for reading, please continue on with the haul posts if you are enjoying them, I'll see you in my next one!

Click below for other parts of the haul:

Romance.
YA. 
Historical Fiction. 
Other.