What Time Is It?

I will be setting up a summer time series on this blog about what to do this summer in the UK, London, which books are best for holidays etc etc. This is named What Time Is It? after the HSM2 Song - (abbreviated to WTII?) because HSM

I am queen of making series I just can't live up to, but let's give it a shot, eh?

Review #37 - Lean In For Graduates by Sheryl Sandberg

This, dear readers, is the famous book by Facebook-executive-super-powerful Sheryl Sandberg. This is basically regarded as the feminist bible and it deserves all the praise it has received. The graduate edition has the original Lean In within it plus extra chapters that are relevant to graduates.

I am a feminist in the modern sense rather than the mysogynistic "if you're a feminist you must hate all men and be super angry" way. However it was really interesting to me for one) giving me and insight into the workplace and two) showing me what needed to be changed about the world. Side note - it made me so aware how amazing my school is at treating the girls so well. It was just really illuminating all round and made me very aware about how to make things better for women.

It was engaging and I think that is one of the main advantages to this book because it is so rare in non-fiction books. It made me think a lot in a good way and I really enjoyed that aspect of it.

Some chapters felt quite irrelevant to me as a 17 year old (like how to balance work and children; I am basically still the problem you have to balance work with). However, the graduate chapters were really good. Rosianna, who is a wonderful youtuber, is in this version as one of the extra chapters so go Rosianna (it's really good).

I think this book is extremely important culturally and therefore you should definitely try and read this.

I would recommend this if:

You want an insight into being a woman

You want to make your life better for women

You want a really engaging book about feminism

I gave this five stars 

On My Shelf

This is a blog response to a video made by Sanne aka booksandquills (who I met in October at Cheltenham Literature Festival and she is lovely).

This is a series where you talk about the books you wouldn't normally talk about. A set of numbers in pairs are assigned to you randomly, the first number being the bookshelf and the second being the book. You then talk about the books

The numbers set by Sanne are:

1,5

Squids will be Squids

This is a book I got (I think) when I was six. It's a set of fables with slightly odd morals such as "elephants never forget, except sometimes" and "everyone knows frogs can't skateboard, but it's kind of sad that they believe everything they see on TV." It's just a really funny book with great illustrations.

2,5

Scrap Simple

I used to scrapbook a lot but I stopped when I started to get busy with GCSE stuff but this book was really cool, but far too ambitious for me.

6,3

A Map of the World according to Artists and Storytellers

This book is geographically inaccurate but it is one of my favourite books ever

4,5

Brooklyn Girls

I do own a lot of fiction, promise. This is a book I got as an ARC and I loved it because it's new adult that isn't about romance romance romance, the lead has a career goal and initiative. It's exciting and pleased my little feminist heart. We don't need no man

7,11

The Care and Keeping of You

This is an American Girl book because I was so obsessed with American Girl for a long part of childhood. I don't need this anymore because it's very much about puberty (and at 17, you'd hope I was out of puberty) but I loved this book so I can't bring myself to throw it out. It was just really formative and really important to me from about 11-13.

If you do want to do this my numbers are:

8,2
5,7
3,10
1,1
10,4

Review #36 - Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Scarlet is the sequel to Cinder in The Lunar Chronicles. Where Cinder was a futuristic version of Cinderella, Scarlet is a futuristic version of Little Red Riding Hood. It still has the same evil-Lunar themes running throughout it and the plot of Little Red Riding Hood run alongside the plot involving Cinder and Kai.

The plot lines were weaved together really well between the chapters involving Scarlet and Wolf and the chapters involving Cinder and Kai. Both Scarlet and Kai's chapters talked about Cinder which was done really well, especially in the Scarlet chapters. It managed to have its own plot line without compromising the sequel-ness of it.

I was much less emotionally invested in the romance in Scarlet than I was in Cinder. In Cinder my heart and soul was obsessed with Kai and Kai and Kai but Wolf was just an interesting character rather than the kind of guy I want to marry/be my boyfriend/general male interest. Also, frankly, he has fangs and that's weird.

It wasn't quite as fast moving as Cinder and that was a shame as Cinder had this great flow to it and it just felt really natural, whereas this felt a little bit stinted, pace wise. However I really loved the last 33% as it was so fast moving and I was just obsessed and all I wanted to do was read.

Kai was so annoying in this book, however to give Meyer credit, her female characters kick butt and are not whiny at all, whereas Kai is sort of the opposite to this. We get it - he feels betrayed.

Little Red Riding Hood is a much shorter fairytale than Cinderella so the plot felt ad-libbed for most of it which was a shame. It just didn't feel as clever as Cinder. However, I loved loved loved the bit about "grandmother what big teeth you have!"

I would read Cinder first if you do want to read this.

I would recommend this if:
You want more than just Cinder
You want a sci-fi book that isn't totally focused on a demographic of 14/40 year old boys
You want a fairytale with a twist

I gave this three stars. Good, but not stunning.

Look at this fan art though

Review #35 - The Letter to the King by Tonke Dragt

The Letter for the King is a Dutch children's book that has just been translated into English. I got this at the American Book Centre in Spui, Amsterdam. The man on the checkout told me that this is one of his all time favourite children's books. I'm pretty sure it's up there in mine.

It's about a 16 year old boy, Tiuri, who is sitting in a chapel keeping his vigil before being knighted the following morning. He hears a knock at the window and opens the door and undertakes a dangerous task that stop him becoming a knight.

I think if I were to compare it to another children's book I'd compare it to The Hobbit. However, I hated The Hobbit (sorry Tolkien lovers) and I really loved Letter to the King. It has the same dynamic and both involve travelling to a destination and back from it. Letter to the King however is has no fantastical beasts or creatures (think BBC Merlin without the magic and bromance, mainly knights riding through places) which I really enjoyed. Also Letter to the King felt very much like all the plot points linked unlike The Hobbit which felt like a collection of shore stories. The Letter to the King's plot twists were better and more exciting. The style seemed to really work with The Letter to the King.

I really liked the pace of Letter to the King especially as it started very quickly which is actually what sold it to me. It had me hooked from a very early point. It does slow down but I don't think the matters. The suspense keeps it going from the constant danger he feels.

I read a lot of books that are either set in America or feel American because the YA genre is dominated by the US. This was beautifully European as a book. I felt like I had a lot of heritage as a book, in it's European Dynamic and the history of it with it's forests and knights and wars about land. I felt like this was a real strong point to this book.

The relationships between the characters were captured really well and were complex especially as there was a lot of prejudice to Tiuri. I liked the misconceptions. My favourite character was the horse. That horse. I think it's because it is Tiuri's validation as a hero symbolically.

If you get the amazing hardcover version like I have (I'm not sure about 1) if there is an English paperback 2) if it contains the map) it has a beautiful map at the cover which made the story really come alive and a lot of the reason I loved this book was because I could relate this book to something visual.

I would read this book if:
You want a children's book that is just wonderful
You want a book that captures European culture
You just want to own the world's most beautiful book

Five stars for you Glenn Coco, you go Glenn Coco

Review #34 - Anne Frank: The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography by Sid Jacobson & Ernie Colón

This is the Anne Frank graphic biography which goes from her parent's early life to her death and her family's death in the concentration camps. It covers the time after her diary ends and it's sad and gorgeous and perfectly done.

I got this at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam which was underwhelming due to the sheer volume of very loud seven year olds. I was so impressed with the 9/11 memorial when I went in the summer and the british war graves in France when I went three and five years ago on school trips but this didn't quite have the same effect.

I've always really struggled to read the actual Anne Frank Diary as it is very long and I find it hard to be very interested in historical fiction and non-fiction. I really liked the graphic novel as it also went into her experiences after she left the annex and it was more accessible. The speech was done well and it was excellently paced.

The book is absolutely gorgeous and is definitely my favourite graphic novel. It captured their day to day lives really well and I think they did a very good job at capturing their personalities. It was just done really well.

I would read this if:
You want to know more about Anne Frank
You are just about to visit Amsterdam
You want to know more about European History and Nazi Occupation

I gave this five stars.

The Wall

So I'm really struggling to blog at the moment. Honestly, I'm really struggling to be creative at the moment. I'm trying to write and read but it's hard. I'm putting pressure on myself to review the Anne Frank graphic novel and do the sunflower award thing but the more I push myself, the more I just stop being able to write coherent English.

It's exam season at the moment in the UK and my AS levels mean a lot to me. Far more than they should but they do because I've worked so hard all year and I'll be gutted if I don't get my grades. 

I've started running and I walk everyday because my back starts to go into spasm if I don't which sucks. Also I'm on some mad power tidy at the moment. I am really enjoying these tasks, oddly.

I will return to blogging soon but right now, it will be sporadic.

Night 

March/April 2014 Wrap Up

March

1. Matched by Ally Condie (★★★☆☆)
2. Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut (★★★★☆)
3. The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas (★★★★★)
4. The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan (★★★★☆)
5. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (★★★★☆)
6. Half Bad by Sally Green (★★★★☆)

April

1. Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini (★★★★☆)
2. The Isobel Journal by Isobel Harrop (★★★☆☆)
3. Struck By Lightning: The Carson Phillips Journal by Chris Colfer (★★☆☆☆)
4. The Boy in the Smoke by Maureen Johnson (★★★☆☆)
5. Circle Line: Around London in a Small Boat by Steffan Meyric Hughes (★★★☆☆)
6. The Year of the Rat by Clare Furniss (★★★☆☆)
7. Anne Frank: The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography by Sid Jacobson, Ernie Colón (★★★★★)
8. The Letter for the King by Tonke Dragt (★★★★★)

9. Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (★★★★☆)

London Count for March: 4
London Count for April: 2

Exciting things from March and April

I went to Amsterdam for three days.

I wrote to Alexia Casale and she wrote back. We're twitter friends now.

I went to the Hunterian twice

I went to Columbia Road Flower Market with my friend Brodie.
My blog won a Sunflower award which I'm doing asap

1. I want to do well academically eugh revising
2. I want to get interviews for medicine  (n/a)
3. I want to start writing a novel  myehhhhh
4. I want to get well enough to go to South Africa with Biology.  I ran the other day. This is absolutely amazing.
5. I want to write more. I've been so busy
6. I want to write more reviews. I think so (to quote Nithya - "you've been writing a lot lately")
7. I want to blog more consistently. I think so
8. I want to do more for my future.  Really struggling. Seriously, hospitals, please let me shadow you?
9. I want to take more photos.  Doing so much better #100happydays
10. I want to keep my room tidy. Doing much better. And then I started revising.
11. I want to be more productive.  Yes I'm doing so much more
12. I want to stop being terrified of growing up. Uni prospectuses have made me so excited.

Review #32 - Circle Line: Around London in a Small Boat by Steffan Meyric Hughes

I am going to apologise up front for this review because I'm post-migraine and therefore a little less eloquent than usual.

Circle Line is a book I found in that travel bookshop on Long Acre and anyone who knows me knows I love London (I mean really love this-is-where-I-belong kind of love). This is a book about sailing around London along canals and the Thames in a week. I bought this because I am obsessed with London (also it's freaking gorgeous) but it didn't quite live up to my little fangirl heart. 

The first couple of chapters are full of sailing jargon which I felt made me feel excluded from the readership. I get it, it's a book about sailing, but it was very much marketed as a book about London because that is where the market is. I felt like when you know someone in a group of friends so you hang out with them and you just feel awkward: you don't get their jokes and they all went to that party you didn't go to. It was odd because I always feel that books are talking directly to me and that I am the only readership but I felt excluded by this book.

Some parts were really slow which was a shame because some bits were pretty interesting (especially the bits about Paddington as a westerner. I will have passionate conversations about trains with Nithya). Some of the history was really interesting but the part about turtles was a little slower.

I love maps in books but the one at the front of the book was quite hard to read in relation to places mentioned in the book, even for someone who spends quite a lot of time in London. The book wasn't quite clear enough to not have a map but it might as well as had no map.

This is my first ever book on travel so it could be super good for travel I just didn't love it.

I would recommend this if:

You love sailing and it consumes your life

You love London and it consumes your life

You want something a little bit different

I gave this three stars.

Today is for... (2)

• Doing a physics practical exam
• Doing your first A Level exam
• Revising on the train
• Going for celebratory ice cream
• Going to the adventure playground
• Falling off the end of the slide
• Listening to Taylor Swift
• Being told off for singing Taylor Swift in the library
• Doing chemistry papers
• Walking four and a half miles
• Going to Topshop to buy Disney merch
• Going to GBK
• Getting a veggie burger
• Going for a girly chat 
• Driving home by myself
• Taking photos of books for blog posts
• Talking to my parent's friends
• Getting payed by the book depository in commissions
• Reading Sheryl Sandburg