Sunday 26 April 2015

Book Review: All I Know Now

Author: Carrie Hope Fletcher
Rating: 5/5


Blimey! This is such a fantastic read! While reading I felt like I was genuinely sitting down with Carrie, having a cup of tea and a chat about the ups and downs of life with a bunch of comical anecdotes tagged on.

All I Know Now is a manual for those in the 'Teen Age' who need an Honorary Big Sister to help guide them through life based on said sister's experiences. The sister, in this case, being Carrie.

The book itself is split into eight acts, each of which are based on a particular subject such as the Internet and Turning That Frown Upside Down. I thought this made the book extra fun compared to the standard chapter-per-subject idea. (It's also rather fitting considering that Carrie is Eponine of Les Mierables.)

The thing I loved about this was that it didn't feel like some flawless pro-at-life was dictating how to go about being a person. Carrie's filled this with anecdotes from her not perfect but incredibly amusing Teen Age and reflected on how she sees herself now. That's it. She is giving advice to her younger self that may help you. She doesn't sit down and say 'right, here's what I think and you better jolly well do this'. She simply explains how she thinks positivity helps and gives ideas based on her own experiences.

Sunday 19 April 2015

My Current TBR Pile (April 2015)


My TBR pile is beginning to dwindle as it feels like forever since I last bought any new books. Some of the books I have to read are ones I've owned forever but just haven't gotten around to reading yet because other, more exciting, books fall into my hands.

1. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Confession: I haven't read this before. I know, I know. I should have read it by now, but I just haven't. While we're here, I'm also going to admit to not having read any Jane Austen novels yet either. And swiftly moving on...

2. Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

I picked this up at the beginning of the year because my friend was reading it and suggested it to me. It involves a scavenger hunt surrounding books from what I can tell from the synopsis, plus a love story.

3. Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick

I read the first two Hush Hush books last year but decided to take a slight break from them to read other things. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the series - because I did. I enjoyed it a lot. I just wanted to read other things before returning to these books.

Sunday 12 April 2015

Book Review: Bomb

Author: Sarah Mussi
Rating: 3/5
Publication date: May 7th 2015

When Genesis goes on an internet date she is only anxious that this latest guy won't be 'The One'. She's not at all worried about meeting a dodgy bloke or getting in too deep. And when her date appears she texts her best mate, Jackson, to let him know that she thinks this time, he just might be 'The One'. And he texts her back with a huge: I LIKE.
It's the one all right. But not in the way she expects.
For when Genesis wakes up the next day, she can't remember a thing. She can't remember where she is, or how she got there. And she can hardly move because she is strapped into some kind of body armour ... and then a voice sounds in her head: 'Get on to the 37 going north. You are strapped to a vest made entirely of explosives. At the push of one button I can detonate you right where you stand.'
To her horror, Genesis has become an agent of mass destruction. The countdown to detonation begins now... (taken from Goodreads).

I received Bomb through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and I think it may have been a draft edition due to my copy being 100 pages over what is stated on Goodreads. I'm hoping that this condensed version is a lot more gripping than what I read. I felt that some parts were extremely gripping but the whole novel lacked this on a whole. Some chapters were very much there purely for transition. 

Sunday 5 April 2015

Liebster Award Nomination!


This a bit of a personal, get-to-know-me kind of post. Recently Found Some Paper did a similar post and tagged me to answer some questions of her own (ah, exciting!). You can click here if you want to have a little browse through her post. 


So, here are the questions I have been asked by Uli.


1. What’s your favourite movie of all time?
Is it bad that I don't have an answer to this? My movie-favourite is changing constantly. I think I love a film until I watch another film and instantly have the urge to persuade everyone and anyone into watching it! Just give me all the movies and all the time to watch them! But if I have to pick just one I'll go for Matilda (sorry other favourite films). Matilda is a film I've loved watching since around the age of nine. I read the book countless times as a child and it was probably my favourite childhood story of all time, too. I remember watching the film one time when I was home from school feeling ill and watching the Bruce Bogtrotter cake eating scene really didn't help - it's safe to say I didn't watch it for a while after that. 

Thursday 2 April 2015

Exam Panic: REMAIN CALM!


It's that time of year again when those of us with exams approaching start to panic as everyone around us seems to have already started revising. Have you started yet?

Luckily I only have four exams this year but there is an awful lot of things of remember: every single little feature of ten pieces for Music (why, oh why, is there no scores or tracks in the exam for these?) plus general theory; a bunch of case studies with theorists, key scenes and characters for Media Studies; quotes, criticisms and terminology for Literature; frameworks, theorists and concepts for English Language.

So here a few tips that I use to make it all seem feasible.