Tag: reading

Book subscriptions🤗

Hi😁

One of the (many) things that I love about books is that book subscriptions exist! For me, nothing beats wandering around a book store, but receiving a monthly book parcel in the post is just😌 A little gift from me to me🤗

I currently have a monthly book subscription to Reposed and did also have one with Bookishly if you would like to check them out.

What I love about the Reposed subscription is that it’s not just about the book you receive. They take the time to include handmade chocolates, teas, beauty products and/or stationary. All made independently and to the highest standards. So you dont just pay for a novel, which is great in itself, but you’re also paying to help local and independent businesses.

The novels that are sent in the Reposed subscription are modern literary fiction if that’s your jam. Or if you’d like to start reading more modern fiction then definitely give this a go! They handpick the newest, inspiring and insightful novels to send and I’ve enjoyed every single one.

February’s box of goodies!

If modern fiction isn’t your thing, not to worry, Bookishly is there for you! They will send out classic novels that they have beautifully re-created the cover to in house. And if classics aren’t your thing, there are so many different types or book subscriptions out there from Crime and Detective to YA to Women led/feminist literature to just receiving a completely random book, there’s a subscription box for you!

xo

Booktour of LDN: Persephone Books

Hi!

I spent a couple of days in the good ol’ UK capital this week and decided to pay a visit to one of my favourite book stores – Persephone Books.


Persephone Books reprints neglected fiction and non-fiction by mid 20th Century (mostly) women writers. There are around 132 books that they publish that range from novels to stories to diaries to memoirs to cookbooks!


This is a must for any book lover or bookstore lover to add to their list. If you get the chance whilst you’re in London, definitely give it a visit! The books range from around £12-£13 or you can grab 3 for £33, and a lovely  little extra is you get individually crafted bookmarks for each if the books you buy!

I picked up 2 novels and a book of poems – The World that was Ours by Hilda Bernstein, It’s Hard to be Over Thirty by Judith Viorst and A Lady and her Husband by Amber Reeves. Can’t wait to get stuck into these so keep an eye out for my reviews🙂

If you would like to check out their catalogue, head on over to the website!

xo

You’ll be the prince and I’ll be the princess. It’s a love story, baby just say yes.

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Hello 🙂

I love love. I love romance. Give me heart wrenching, tear jerking couples pushing and pulling at each other, not realising they’re made for each other only to recognise it at the last moment to love happily ever after. Give me couples who shouldn’t be together or are enemies who fall in love, along with all the other soppy clichés. I’m a sucker for it. Ahhh ❤

But that’s not to say I enjoy reading romance novels where that becomes the only plotline and everything else redundant. For me, I like to have romance in novels/literature as an added bonus rather than being the main plot. I don’t want characters to be reduced to being love interests, I want their love to add to a story, to enhance it further, to be a driving force. More often than not however, that’s the case. Whether it be women thrown into a narrative, reduced to being nothing more than a one dimensional sexual character, or a male character being written purely to enhance a female’s story – to give her story purpose – because she can’t have a purpose without a man surely(!) I want flawed characters. I want them to fall in love with the person and the not the idea of romance. I know that it might be a little hypocritical to say that given that the first thing I said was I love romance. I mean the whole idea of romance is to sell an idyllic version of it right? To allow us to fulfil our fantasies and escape to a world where everything is easier and simpler, where a boy would come in and sweep you off your feet or a girl would give everything up for you in a heartbeat, you take one look at the movie industry in the 90’s and you can see that, it distorts or perceptions and our ideas of what love and romance should be and more often than not, the reality never lives up to the fantasy.

But. When you think of the best fictional couples, or when I think of my favourites, the ones that instantly spring to mind aren’t the perfect couples where everything goes right. My favourite literary couples are the ones where actually, everything goes pretty wrong. Where they butt heads and clash. Where they have a difference of opinions but compliment each other, making each other whole. Love is imperfect so why shouldn’t the couples be imperfect with it? Love is blind and romance is a fantasy, but what I love about my favourite fictional couples is their resilience, their strength and their fight for one another. Give me Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy with their different stances on pretty much everything. Give me Ron and Hermione who are imperfectly perfect for each other (no matter what JK says!) and give me Oliver and Jennifer who show that romance will never die.

“The very essence of romance is uncertainty.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays.

xo

Book Review: Alice

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Hello everyone😊

Hope you’re all having a fab day!

I recently read Alice by Christina Henry and I loved it! I really enjoyed the way in which Henry distorts the story and the characters I grew up reading. The plot we’re accustomed to reading becomes sinister and the story itself takes on a much darker tone, while all the while being imbued with the magical elements that captivated us as children. Our beloved characters are re-imagined and Alice is no longer the wonderous child-like protagonist we know and love. Instead she follows a much darker path.

Henry’s adult interpretation of Carrol’s beloved characters allowed me as a reader and a lover of classical literature, to envision a whole new world for Alice. A world that isn’t fairytale like, but gritty and real. I connected with Alice’s struggle in this novel – her quest to find answers, her need to know more, to find her place – and Henry’s writing ensures the story is easy to follow, the characters relatable and this new world that we find Alice, in fascinating. Henry has appealed to the masses with adding a dystopian spin to the plot (Hunger Games, Maze Runner etc etc), but what sets this apart is the incorporation of well known characters.

One of my issues with the story was the lack of character development for Alice herself. I really would’ve loved to have seen her come into her own and become the rebel with a no-care attitude. At times her character development felt rushed or stilted, but this is a trilogy and I can’t wait to read the next instalment to see where the story and character development goes!

“Beware the claws that catch…”

xo

Waiting for my Heathcliffe

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Hello!

I hope you’re all having a lovely day!

I have had the best day today😁 I travelled along to Haworth in West Yorkshire to visit the Brontë Parsonage to have a wander and a gander.

It’s so beautiful😍❤

I am a Jane Austen girl at heart, but the depth of characters and raw emotion you feel when reading Brontë novels is inspiring. It’s no wonder that Austen and the Brontë sisters are constantly compared – on the surface they’re similar, women writers talking about love and romance – but once you get into the stories they differ wildly.

It’s no secret that that Brontë sisters, especially Charlotte, disliked Austen and her literature. They felt she didn’t write about real women, real passion, or anything of real, solid substance. I disagree, but when you read them side by side it’s not hard to see the differences. The Brontë sisters romantic plots are darker and their men wilder – Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre are perfect examples, while Austen focuses more on satire, social realism and class through romance. Could you imagine Mr Darcy roaming Derbyshire stricken with grief like Heathcliffe does on the Yorkshire moors?

Jane Eyre takes a lot from Charlotte Brontë’s own life – the death of her sisters, her schooling and her anguish at these. They say write what you know, and Charlotte certainly does this. The theme of wanting to belong runs throughout the novel and we see Jane try and find her place and her worth from the classes of Lowood to the halls of Thornfield. She must find herself without jeopardising who she is and what she stands for. Rochester is not her happy ending nor the man who saves her. He is the man she chooses, and who is her equal.

I hate that people say you’re either a Brontë fan or an Austen fan, they offer very different things through their literature. So just because you favour one over the other doesn’t mean you can’t still love and enjoy the other. I know I’m still waiting on my version of Heathcliffe/Darcy😊

xo

Paris = amazing pastries + books!

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Hello 😊

I recently had a lovely mini break in Paris which was amazing – full of gorgeous architecture, yummy pastries and patisseries and divine food.

But one of the most exciting parts of the trip for me was going to Shakespeare and Company. Urgh. It was so beautiful and stacked floor to ceiling with books😍

Shakespeare and Company bookshop – Paris (taken from Google images)

Anyone who loves books, will love this bookshop! It has such a rich and diverse history having had some of the greatest literary minds wander the shelves, from James Joyce to Ernest Hemmingway to Ezra Pound, becoming a cultural hubbub of inspiration and passion. Fun fact! The shop actually houses aspiring writers and artists in exchange for helping out around the store, and the shop’s motto is actually “be not inhospitable to strangers lest they be Angels in disguise.”

I made sure to treat myself to a book (obv) which you can get stamped whilst you’re there, and a lovely tote bag. Who doesn’t love a good tote? I aptly picked Murder on the Eiffel Tower by Claude Izner purely because I was in Paris and thought why not pick a book based here? Also, I don’t read enough murder mysteries and thought it’d be a nice switch up from my usual reads.

Murder mysteries are always so conflicting for me as a reader. I’ve never been completely shocked or thrown off the scent – I’ve read some really bad mystery books (both in terms of plot and writing style) which could be why that genre is not my go to. Does anyone have any good recommendations?

If you’re thinking of paying a trip while you’re there, be prepared for a wait. It can get very busy and they only allow a certain number of people in at a time. But once you’re in you’re in to spend as long as you like perusing the shelve and all the hidden nooks and crannies. There’s an upstairs as well so make sure you don’t miss that! Its right in front of the Notre Dame so you’ll be able to admire the beauty of the cathedral. Also, its not too far of a walk from the Jardine de Luxemburg if you fancy a stroll around the gardens.

I’d highly recommend Paris and I can’t wait to head back some day.

xo

Tbr: January

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Hello 😊

So many books, so little time!

I’ve splurged on quite a few books over the past few months but haven’t read any of them (yet!) So I should probably get a move on, read them, and then buy more 😁

So here’s my tbr for the month, hopefully I get through them all! (I’ve linked them all if anyone would like to buy 😊)

  1. Swing Time – Zadie Smith
  2. A Court of Mist and Fury – Sarah J. Maas
  3. Outlander – Diana Gabaldon
  4. Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
  5. So Happy it Hurts – Anneliese Macintosh

I’m currently reading 3 of these at the same time because I just couldn’t pick one to start and I’m already halfway through How to be Happy so we’ll see how it ends. At the moment the story itself isn’t really gripping or keeping me interested (I started it in November…) But it is a light read, so I’m easing myself into the year with a nice and gentle story😊

I also want to re-read a few if I get the chance.

(I may have put in another book order after writing this…)

xo

New year, new…?

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Ah 2017. What a year.

I’ve decided that heading into 2018 I’m not going to go with the‘new year, new me’ mantra. It’s far too much effort for one, and secondly, i’m kinda happy with who I am right now, so why change myself completely right? Instead this year i’m going to build on who I am and what I want out of my life, personally and career wise. Not that 2017 was a terrible year for me, but it could have been so much more. There were low points and hardships as always, but there was so much to be grateful for and happy about.

This poem from Milk and Honey really enforces and encapsulates what 2017 was all about, for me anyway. In 2017 we saw the power of the people✊ From women’s rights to LGBTQ rights, to speaking out against sexual harassment and assault to the BLM movement, 2017 was all about the power of saying no. No more to staying quiet. No more to being walked all over. No more to hiding in the shadows. Refusing to quench the fire of injustice and sitting idly by. I would like to thank Donald Trump in that respect. His outright and blatant racism, homophobia, sexism and general idiocy has brought about an outpouring of defiance from us as a society, as communities and as human beings.

Milk and Honey – Rupi Kaur

We’re tired of all the bullshit that’s been fed to us over decades. Our opinions do matter no matter what anyone else tells us otherwise. Do our opinions make us less beautiful? Hell no. It’s our opinions that make us who we are.

So I’m going to carry the momentum and mantra of 2017 into 2018, I refuse to let the fire burn out. I’m going to build on it, re-enforce it and use it. Use it to take risks and not allow people to put me in a box.

xo

One of my favourite quotes!

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Ah quotes, quotes, quotes. All the quotes. Quotes for daaaaays.

“And though she be but little, she is fierce.” – William Shakespeare [A Midsummers Nights Dream]

This is one of my all time favourite quotes and one of the things I live by and try to embody. In fact, before I knew of this quote I introduced myself at university as “small yet mighty.”

For me, this quote shows that there is nothing to be afraid of from being labelled as ‘fierce’. I may be little in height (or perceived as’smaller’ as a woc, poc, or just because I’m a woman), but those insignificant details won’t stop me from being fierce. It won’t stop me from standing up for what is fair, what is right and what is just.

It’s also (for me) a nod to all the women in the world, who’ve come before me and paved the way for the world we now live in. Things aren’t perfect, we can definitely attest to that, but we’re on the way to making the world a more inclusive place. There’s just a few blocks ahead of us.

I may be little, but oh man can I roar.

xo

Introduction to me?

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Hello everyone! Hope you’re all well😊

I was recently told by a friend of mine that my blogs aren’t personable enough. So while I develop my writing style, I thought why not do a #meetthebookstgrammer blog with some added q’s ( I probably should’ve started with this one tbh).

So here goes!

  • Where are you from?

Manchester, England.

  • When did you start blogging?

March 2017.

  • Would you rather be an author or publisher?

Publisher. But I’d love to have the confidence to dabble in serious writing.

  • Do you prefer standalone books or series?

Series usually, but there are great standalones that I adore. Can I say both???

  • Authors who inspire you?

Urgh. So many. But J.K Rowling and Jane Austen always aaaand Toni Morrison and Khaled Hosseni.

  • Where in the world do you want to travel to the most?

New York. But I want to see the World tbh, just need the time and the money.

  • Favourite book to film adaptation?

Not a film, but Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. The show sticks closely to the novels and the writing/plots that makes them great, but they also change things up still keeping in line with the characters and stories. I just feel like books to film adaptations are pretty much always a let down because there’s so much to cram into a short space of time.

**EDIT**

Gone Girl! Man that was a great book to film adaptation. They did slightly downplay the psychotic nature of the main female protagonist I felt, but kudos on capturing the destructive nature of the book on screen.

  • Least favourite book to movie adaptation?

Ooh there’s a few🙃. Eragon. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. The Hobbit. The Golden Compass (Northern Lights). I could name so many more.

As much as I adore the books, the HP films were a little let down compared to the amazing writing of Rowling. Although I have to say Prisoner of Azkaban (for me) is the best HP book to film adaptation. It stuck to the magic of Rowling’s writing and really brought to life the story. Alfonso why you no do all 8🙁

Having said that about the series as a whole, they can stand alone from the books which I do think is a great thing. They allow more people to come into the Potterverse even if they’re not the biggest readers.

  • Cats or dogs?

Cats, but I do love dogs too.

  • If you were stuck on a desert island, which 3 books would you take with you?

Urm…err…hmm…well maybe…ahh…the…gah…help!

  • Favourite quote?

Most of you probably have the same problem as I do, in that I can’t pick just one! But one that’s stuck with me over the years is:

“Though she be but little, she is fierce” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare.

Good ol’ Wills!

So that’s me pretty much! I’d love to see your answers to these questions or just the general #meetthebookstagrammer q’s😊

xo