Top Ten Tuesday | What's in a name?

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Best Character Names' and as soon as I read that I forgot every clever/fun name I've ever heard. I thought of doing some kind of theme, but in the end I decided to go for ten character names I just happen to like for various reasons. These aren't necessarily my favourite character names but the first ones that came to mind - on with my list!

Orc Dave from Rat Queens by Kurtis J. Wiebe and various artists: I love Rat Queens, it's like World of Warcraft meets Dungeons and Dragons and a lot of drunk women, and one of the things I loved most about the first volume was the introduction of a group who call themselves the 'Four Daves' with each member being distinguished by their race. I love the idea of four men in a high fantasy world sharing the name Dave, and Orc Dave is adorable.

The Dragon from Uprooted by Naomi Novik: It's no secret that I didn't enjoy Uprooted as much as I hoped I would, but I did like The Dragon a lot purely because he was such a grumpy git and, therefore, very deserving of the name.

Kaz "Dirtyhands" Brekker from Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo: I fell in love with this book earlier this year and I think Dirtyhands is such a brilliant nickname for a gangster.

Atl from Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: There's such a unique take on vampires and various vampire species in this novel and I love Atl, but I also love her because I don't think I've read a novel before that's included a character with an Aztec name.

Sabriel from The Old Kingdom by Garth Nix: This one's just a pretty name! I've always liked it; the title of this book is what first drew me to it when I was around 13 or 14.

Stanley Yelnats from Holes by Louis Sachar: If my surname was Yelnats, I would not hesitate to call my son Stanley if I had one. It's just a wasted opportunity if not, right?

Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: Katniss is another name for the sagittaria or arrowhead plants, which is a very fitting name for an archer, I think, without being an obvious link!

Sirius Black from Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling: Speaking of obvious links, as much as I love Remus Lupin I'm never going to get over the fact that Rowling essentially named her werewolf Wolf McWolf. I do love Sirius's name, though; I like the name Sirius anyway, but that Sirius is the dog star is a nice touch for a man who can transform into a dog, and a much less beat-you-over-the-head touch than Remus Lupin.

Dolphin from The Illustrated Mum by Jacqueline Wilson: I loved Wilson's work when I was younger and I never forgot Dolphin and the simplicity that her mum named her that because she likes dolphins. As a little girl I couldn't help thinking it'd be a very cool name to have.

Carswell Thorne from The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer: There are all kinds of fairy tale-inspired Easter eggs throughout this series, but I loved the tip of the hat to Rapunzel when the witch pushes the prince out of the tower window and he's blinded by thorns with this one.

Which names made your list this week?

Top Ten Tuesday | O Captain! My Captain!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Top Ten Authors I'm Dying To Meet / Ten Authors I Can't Believe I've Met  (some other "meeting authors" type spin you want to do)'. You may or may not know this, I have no idea, but I studied Creative Writing for four years at university and got tutored by some brilliant writers, but today I thought I'd talk about some of the authors I wish I'd been able to have some lessons with while I was a student - they're all writers I still wouldn't say no to a lesson with now!

Sarah Waters: I love Waters' fiction, The Little Stranger is one of my favourite books, and I think the stories she chooses to tell are fantastic. The focus of my MA was how historical fiction can be used as a tool to write women, the LGBT+ community, poc and any other form of 'other' back into history, so to be tutored by a woman who specialises in LGBT+ historical fiction would have been amazing.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: I read Adichie's story collection, The Thing Around Your Neck, earlier this year and loved it. She's also a very political, outspoken person and I think I could learn an awful lot from her.

Margaret Atwood: The woman's a genius, what more is there to say?

Samantha Ellis: Some Creative Writing MA courses in the UK make you choose between focusing on solely prose or solely poetry, but what I liked about my course at Lancaster University was that you could explore anything you wanted to. Having said that, I've never tried my hand at writing scripts and I think part of that is because we didn't have any tutors who specialised in them, and Ellis is a playwright as well as a writer of non-fiction. She also seems like a genuinely nice human being and I think a workshop with her would be really interesting - if nothing else we could gush about Anne Brontë together.

Alison Weir: I haven't actually read any of Weir's books yet (something I'm hoping to change this year!) but I think she'd've been a great tutor for me during my MA because she's both a historian and a novelist, and I think I could have learned a lot about knowing when to separate fact from fiction and knowing how much research to do without driving myself around the bend as I sometimes found myself doing.

Gail Carriger: I've been struggling to write fiction since I finished uni and entered the world of full-time work, which I'm finding really frustrating and it's making me lose my confidence when I sit down to finish an incomplete short story, and there's something about Carriger's work that seems so indulgent and fun that I think a workshop with her would encourage me to actually get some words on the page.

Angela Carter: Sadly Carter died in 1992 when I was a measly 4 months old so I'll never have the opportunity to be taught by her, and, if I'm being honest, I'm not actually the biggest fan of her work aside from The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories. She did teach at the University of East Anglia, one of the best unis in the UK for Creative Writing, and I think workshops with her must have been fascinating because she was so radical.

Robin Hobb: Another author I haven't read but I'm planning to read this year. I think we can all agree that Hobb is the biggest female author in the world of high fantasy and I think she'd have a lot to teach me about building a whole world, with its own countries and cultures and environment, from scratch.

Kurtis J. Wiebe: Something else I wasn't able to explore at uni is writing for comics and graphic novels, and as Rat Queens is my favourite graphic novel series I'd be happy to have a workshop all about writing for comics with Wiebe.

Roald Dahl: Yet another author who has shuffled off this mortal coil, and one who would be 100 now if he was still alive. Dahl died the year before I was born but he was still a huge part of my childhood - I got my dad to read Fantastic Mr. Fox to me so many times that I think we both knew it by heart - can you imagine having a workshop about writing for children with this man? Yes please.

Who did you talk about this week?

Top Ten Tuesday | Ten Bookish Facts About Me

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Ten Facts About Me', whether they're personal, bookish or any other kind. So this week I decided to do something a little different: these are facts about me that I share with various heroines from various books!

1. Like Hermione, I loved school. I was also a bit of a know-it-all, but I think Hermione is far brighter than I ever was.

2. Like Mary, I was raised in Yorkshire. I was also born there, but I moved around to a few different places and had three different primary schools before we finally settled for nine years in North Yorkshire, which is a beautiful part of England.

3. Like Matilda, I love to read. And like Matilda I've loved to read since I was very young. I wouldn't have a book blog if I didn't!

4. Like Sofia, I was once religious. I really enjoyed Sofia Khan is Not Obliged because it's one of the only books I've read where a main character has practised a religion and hasn't been mocked for it, and the plot hasn't involved her losing her religion. I class myself as agnostic now, but I was christened Catholic and as a child I loved going to church with my mum; I still find churches to be very comforting places even now.

5. Like Nix, I love history. Sadly I can't time travel like Nix, but a girl can dream...

6. Like Violet, I'm short and stocky. I have big hands, big feet and big boobs, but I'm only 5'2". Trying to put together a whole new outfit is a nightmare.

7. Like Catherine, I'm a fangirl. I don't let my favourite books and shows influence me so much that I'd accuse another person of murder, but I can certainly empathise with Catherine's ability to get a little carried away with a good novel!

8. Like Jo, I have sisters. Jo is the second oldest of four sisters while I'm the youngest of three, and I'm the youngest by quite a few years; there's only two years between my big sisters, but there's ten years between me and my oldest sister and eight between me and my middle sister.

9. Like Meche, I've loved a friend.

10. Like Alexia, I mainly attend parties for the food. Omnomnom.

Which heroes and heroines from fiction are you similar to?

Top Ten Tuesday | She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Ten Characters Who Are Fellow Book Nerds'; this includes characters who read, characters who write, characters who work in a bookstore... You get the idea.

This will be my last TTT post for a few weeks, as I'm going on a sort-of hiatus to get some much needed writing done!

Oddly enough I did struggle with this list a little. I have a lot of books about readers on my shelves, but I haven't read a lot of them yet; Among Others by Jo Walton, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, and The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly are all books I still need to read.

While I often find myself reading about readers, I think writers have a tendency to gravitate towards readers, I also read a lot of books about people with other interests. As an avid reader I already know what it's like to be an avid reader, so I like to read about people who enjoy music and maths and science and food.

Anyway, in the end I actually ended up with eleven rather than ten. I tried to narrow it down, but I didn't want to cut any of these characters from my list!

So let's get the most obvious choice over with first...

Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling: Of course Hermione was going to be on this list, and I wanted to include her because she seems to read more nonfiction than fiction, particularly while she's at Hogwarts. I don't read about enough characters who enjoy reading history books and academic books, so I couldn't leave Hermione out!

Jo March from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: Jo reads and writes voraciously, and she's always been one of my favourite classic heroines because of it. The book can be a little sickly sweet at times but I love the March sisters, and I particularly love the 1994 adaptation starring Winona Ryder, Claire Danes, Kirsten Dunst, Susan Sarandon and Christian Bale!

Catherine Morland from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: Northanger Abbey is a fairly recent read for me, and I loved Catherine's obsession with Gothic Literature. I ended up studying a lot of Gothic while I was at university, so it was fun to revisit so many of the tropes with Catherine. I'd love to think that if Catherine were to live in the 21st century she'd be a big SFF fan, dragging Henry Tilney to Comic Con so they can cosplay as Han and Leia.

Sebastian from Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Did you really think I was going to miss an opportunity to mention this book? You thought wrong! I fell in love with Meche and Sebastian when I read this book, and it was nice to see Meche as the science-minded character while Sebastian took up the role of book lover, as so often it's women who are portrayed as artsy and men who are portrayed as logical.

Dee from Rat Queens by Kurtis J. Wiebe, Roc Upchurch, and Stjepan Šejić: I think any introverted book-lover could relate to Dee who, while at a party, was much more interested in reading her book than being hit on.

Haroun from Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie: If you haven't read this book then I highly recommend that you do, especially if you're a fan of retellings and books about books. Haroun learns to love stories all over again when he goes on an adventure to save the Sea of Stories, which is being poisoned and putting his father Rashid, a storyteller, out of business.

Matilda Wormwood from Matilda by Roald Dahl: Matilda is another character who just had to be on this list. I think Roald Dahl will always be remembered as one of the best children's authors of all time, and one of the reasons he was so brilliant was because he wrote for everyone. Not only is Matilda a fun story, but it's also a deeply hopeful story for the people in this world who, sadly, are born into families that just don't appreciate them.

Lirael from Lirael by Garth Nix: Another introverted bookworm, I first read Lirael when I was around fourteen and I've loved The Old Kingdom series ever since. Both Lirael and Sabriel are quite bookish, but Lirael is similar to Matilda in that books help her to feel less alone.

Dash from Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan: Really I could have used Dash and Lily for this, but I decided to go with Dash because, if I remember correctly, he liked to collect dictionaries. If that's not a book nerd then I don't know what is!

Maddy Whittier from Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon: When you're allergic to basically everything and you can't leave the house, you have a lot of time to read.

Mo Folchart from the Inkworld trilogy by Cornelia Funke: There were so many characters I could have picked from this series for this topic, but I ended up going with Mo because he was one of my favourites. It certainly doesn't hurt that I picture him like Brendan Fraser in my head. (Yes, I know, the film adaptation was terrible, but Brendan Fraser is very pretty, okay?)

Who made your list?

Top Ten Tuesday | Best Books of 2015 (So Far!)

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Top Ten Books I've Read So Far in 2015'. I didn't know if I was going to get to ten at first because, while I read plenty, there are only a few books each year that really, really stick with me. Or at least that's always been the case before. This year, however, has been a great reading year so, and I hope it continues that way!

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent: This was the very first book I finished this year, and it's just stunning. If you're a fan of quiet, emotionally bruising historical fiction then this novel is most definitely worth checking out. It's gorgeous. (You can check out my review here!)

Rat Queens, Vol.1: Sass and Sorcery by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Roc Upchurch: This graphic novel is a miracle. It's like someone took everything I ever wanted to see in a high fantasy story, gift-wrapped it and then handed it to me. It's fun and funny and fantastic - read it! (You can check out my review here!)

My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland: This book was such a pleasant surprise. I expected to like it, but I didn't expect to love it. And I loved it. Angel is such a refreshing heroine in the world of urban fantasy, and I love her. (You can check out my review here!)

Fairest by Marissa Meyer: I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was disappointed when Winter's release date was pushed back to November, though I'd much rather wait for a book Marissa Meyer is happy with, and I was a little wary of a prequel starring Levana for the simple reason that I very rarely come across villain stories that I like. I'm not interested in villains with sob stories; give me villains who just relish being unforgivably villainous. That being said, I thought Levana's story was fantastic. It was so twisted and believable, and while it made me empathise with her a little it didn't make me dislike her any less, which is just what I want from a villain's story. (You can check out my review here!)

Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Probably my favourite book of 2015, I just fell head over heels in love with it. I wasn't alive in the '80s, but this book is one of the only books I've read that's reminded me of how it felt to be a teenager. I found reading this book so emotional, in a wonderful way, and I can't recommend it enough. Also it's witchcraft with '80s music in Mexico City, how could you not want to read it? (You can check out my review here!)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson: After reading The Haunting of Hill House last year I wanted to pick up some more Jackson, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle was the one that most appealed to me. I just loved it. There's something about Jackson's writing style that creeps under my skin and takes root there, and I love that.

American Vampire, Vol.3 by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque and Sean Murphy: I've really gotten into this series this year, and I just loved Volume 3. I loved both of the stories, I loved the characters... I just loved it! (You can check out my review here!)

Jane Eyre's Sisters: How Women Live and Write the Heroine's Story by Jody Gentian Bower: This was my first non-fiction read in a long time, and I bloody loved it. If you're a fan of heroines, you'll enjoy this book, and if you're a fan of the way stories are written, you'll enjoy this book. For any students out there who are currently writing essays or dissertations around heroines and women writers then this book would be great for you, but it's an enjoyable read as much as it has the possibility to be an academic one. As a reader I enjoyed this, and as a writer I found it really useful!

How To Be a Heroine by Samantha Ellis: Jane Eyre's Sisters whet my appetite for more non-fiction, and as I already owned How To Be a Heroine and it was also about heroines I decided to pick it up. Whereas Jane Eyre's Sisters focuses more on how we write heroines, How To Be a Heroine focused on how we read them. It's a delightful book. (You can check out my review here!)

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: I didn't pick this book up for the longest time because so many people told me to read it, and I'm always wary of hype; books are never as good as you want them to be when you hype them up. Then this month I decided to pick it up and went into it with no expectations whatsoever, and I really enjoyed it. Some books really are beloved classics for a reason, and this is one such book. I'm so glad to finally have it under my belt.

Which books made your list?

Top Ten Tuesday | Lights, Camera, ACTION!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is 'Top Ten Books I'd Love To See As Movies/TV Shows'. I love adaptations; there's always the fear that an adaptation is going to be terrible, especially if it's an adaptation of a book you love, but from a critical point of view I find all adaptations fascinating. I love to know why certain decisions were made: why the costumes look the way they do, why that setting was chosen, why that actor was cast, how the director first came to know the book if they knew it before at all.

I love films and there are a few TV shows I adore, so while I'm certainly no expert I tried to assign a director to each of these make-believe adaptations because I thought it'd be fun to give an idea of the kind of adaptation that I'd love to see!

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson: I read this not too long ago, and Jackson has quickly become one of my favourite authors - she's certainly my favourite horror writer! Heavily inspired by the above cover, I'd love to see Henry Selick create a monochrome stop motion adaptation of this. We so often associate stop motion with children's films, and I think that combined with how grotesque you can make stop motion figures would make for a really atmospheric southern gothic film. Henry Selick's no stranger to adaptations, he's the director of Coraline and also the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas and, most recently, The Box Trolls.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie: I had to read this during my first year of uni, and though I wasn't expecting to like it I ended up loving it. It's such a fun, vibrant story - well worth a read if you're a fan of retellings - and I think this would work wonderfully as a Studio Ghibli film. Studio Ghibli are also familiar with adaptations; they're the company responsible for the brilliant adaptation of Howl's Moving Castle!

The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris: Okay, so obviously The Silence of the Lambs already has an amazing film adaptation starring the fantastic Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster - if you haven't already, watch it, it's so good - but I'm also a huge fan of the show Hannibal, created by the marvellous Bryan Fuller who's also adapting Neil Gaiman's American Gods for TV. I'm really hoping the show gets the rights to Clarice so they can eventually tackle the Silence of the Lambs story in the show.

American Vampire by Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque: I can't be the only one who thinks this would make a really fun TV series, right? I've really gotten into this series this year, and if it were to be adapted I'd love to see someone like Guillermo del Toro at the helm. I feel as though del Toro would be a wonderful fit because he could handle the darker, spookier elements, he's the director of Pan's Labyrinth and the executive producer of Mama after all, and he'd be able to co-ordinate all the action sequences, too, as he's the director of the Hellboy films and Pacific Rim. He's no stranger to TV, either - in fact he's one of the co-creators of The Strain, which just so happens to deal with vampirism.

My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland: Personally I think this would make such a fun Tim Burton movie. Just so long as Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter weren't playing the leads. Don't get me wrong, I love them, but it's time to give some other actors a bit of work! Burton has this habit of mixing bright, vibrant colours with really macabre situations (e.g. in Corpse Bride the land of the living is black and white, whereas the afterlife is bright and colourful) and I think that would work really well with this story.

Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant: I mean... this story's just meant to be adapted into a found footage horror movie, right? It'd be so much fun to watch, not to mention creepy as hell if given to the right creative team.

Rat Queens by Kurtis J. Wiebe, Roc Upchurch and Stjepan Sejic: I've heard rumours that this series is going to be adapted into an animated series, and I really, really hope those rumours are true.

The Crown by Nancy Bilyeau: There have been an awful lot of historical fiction adaptations on the BBC recently - The White Queen; Wolf Hall; Poldark; The Strange Case of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - but I'd love to see some more ladies in these adaptations, and given that so much of The Crown takes place in a nunnery I think it'd be a really fun crime drama to watch.

Feed by Mira Grant: Yet another Mira Grant book. You all know how much I love this one, and though I'd be worried that an adaptation wouldn't do it justice I do think this book would make an amazing TV show. Every episode could open with one of Georgia and co.'s blog posts, or at least that's how I imagine it.

Where She Went by Gayle Forman: I thought the adaptation of If I Stay was really good, so I'd love to see an adaptation of the sequel, too.

Which books made your list?

Monthly Wrap-Up | May 2015

Wow, May flew by! It was a very busy month for me, so I didn't read as much as I might have liked, but I certainly made up for it with other stuff.

Rolling in the Deep
by Mira Grant

Reviewed here!

The Great Zoo of China
by Matthew Reilly 

Reviewed here!

Rat Queens, Vol.2: The Far-Reaching Tentacles of N'rygoth
by Kurtis J. Wiebe, Roc Upchurch and Stjepan Sejic 

Reviewed here!

Jane Eyre's Sisters: How Women Live and Write the Heroine's Story
by Jody Gentian Bower

May was a bit of a slow reading month for me, but that's alright. It was very busy at work and I figured it's about time I stop making myself feel bad for 'not reading enough'. The Great Zoo of China was a little bit of a disappointment, but it wasn't the worst thing I've ever read, and everything else I read I really enjoyed - especially Jane Eyre's Sisters, which was my first non-fiction read of the year. I really need to read more non-fiction because that book was amazing.

I continued to watch Game of Thrones, until a certain episode I'm sure many of you have been hearing about. A little further down I link to a post all about sexual violence in epic fantasy that basically sums up why I was so upset with the way Game of Thrones went; Sansa is one of my favourites and the show treats her like garbage. I also wasn't impressed with the way things were going for Daenerys this season; Benioff and Weiss don't seem to understand that a woman doesn't have to be unlikable to be 'badass'.

Never say never, but for the foreseeable future I won't be watching Game of Thrones. I'm so sick of the gratuitous sexual violence that there really is no need for.

On a brighter note, Penny Dreadful returned this month and it's great! I really enjoyed the first season, and so far I'm really enjoying this one, too. Helen McRory makes for a very cool villain, and I still love Ethan Chandler. He's such a cutie.

Okay

I also got into The March Family Letters this month. I tried getting into it about a month or so a go but I wasn't really feeling it, then I discovered they were doing some really interesting things with the sexuality of their versions of these timeless characters and now I'm hooked! I think it just took a little while for the show to find its feet.
For those of you wondering, The March Family Letters is a webseries similar to The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, and it's a modern day version of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. I really like what they've done with it so far (although their version of Amy does take a little getting used to!) and I recommend checking it out. You can find it on YouTube here.

Oh, and this month my parents and I went to see Far From the Madding Crowd. I really enjoyed it and so did my parents. This is a very important factor, as Far From the Madding Crowd is my Dad's favourite book and he's INCREDIBLY sceptical of adaptations, but he said it was a very faithful adaptation so I'm glad he liked it. Carey Mulligan was an adorable Bathsheba Everdeen (it was a little odd hearing that surname when it wasn't preceded by 'Katniss') and I thought they cast Gabriel Oak, William Boldwood and Sergeant Troy really well, too. It's a great film - I recommend checking it out if you're a lover of period dramas!

Here are a few posts I wrote in May that I'd love more people to check out!

Speculative Fiction for Austen Fans

Food from History

An Interview with Sam Roads and Kat Nicholson

My Problem with Peeta

As I said before, May was a very busy month!

It was my Dad's birthday right at the beginning of the month, on the 1st May, so that weekend my family and I - me, my parents, my sisters, my brothers-in-law, my nephew and my nieces - took a trip up to Derbyshire, where we went to The Heights of Abraham and Gulliver's Kingdom.

It was a nice trip, but I was glad to get back home. It was a very family-orientated trip, and while both my sisters are married with children and in their 30s (there's 10 years between me and my oldest sister) I'm still finding my feet in my 20s after uni, so big family holidays aren't really my thing. It was nice to see everyone, though - particularly my youngest niece, who is 6 months old.

This month I finally succumbed and bought myself a kindle, and I love it! For years I was convinced I wasn't going to get an eReader because I love physical books so much, but I'm literally out of shelf space and to be honest there are a lot of books I want to read but don't want to read enough to buy a physical copy of. Plus now I have a netgalley account and I've got the opportunity to read and review books before they're released!

It was the Eurovision Song Contest in May. Last year I was in uni, and my best friend and I watched it together through Skype which was a lot of fun. This year I went to my friend's Eurovision party in Swansea; there were around 10 of us there, and each of us had to pick a country and bring a themed snack. I chose Greece - I love that country - and took around a bowl of Greek salad, complete with cherry tomatoes and feta cheese, and a couple of pots of honey Greek yogurt.

It's a European feast!

The party was a success, and a lot of fun!

For the first time ever I went to The Hay Festival this year. For any of you who aren't familiar with it, The Hay Festival is an annual literary festival that takes place in Hay-on-Wye - the town of books - and it's somewhere I've been meaning to go for a while now. Luckily for me I got to go with work this year, which meant I actually ended up organising a drinks reception for the centenary of WW2 writer Alun Lewis and it meant I got to go to the two Alun Lewis themed events for free!

omnomnom reception nosh

I also saw Malorie Blackman. Malorie Blackman! Only one of my favourite authors from my childhood/pre-teens and only the author of one of my favourite books of all time which was also the first book that made me cry. I knew she was going to be there, sadly I couldn't go to her event as it was on at the same time as one of the Alun Lewis events, but I did take my copy of Noughts & Crosses just in case. I did see her signing books, but the queue was huge and sadly I was too busy with work stuff to wait to meet her. But one day I will!

stealthy shot

I had so much fun, and I'd love to go back to Hay next year for a shameless book festival holiday, there was such a lovely atmosphere and it was such lovely weather and it was just lovely.

This is a new little section of my monthly wrap-ups. I've seen a few bloggers sharing posts they've really enjoyed by other bloggers, and I decided it was about time I did the same because I follow some amazing bloggers and their posts deserve to be read!

Cecily @ Manic Pixie Dream Worlds wrote a fantastic post about Sexual Violence in Epic Fantasy

Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies wrote about the tropes and genres she's So Over

Cristina @ Girl in the Pages wrote a brilliant post about whether or not we're Too Hard On Our Heroines

Cait @ Paper Fury wrote a great post on Writing Diversely

Mallory @ The Local Muse wrote a great introduction to European Romanticism

Deanna @ Deanna Writes wrote a fun post about Not Reviewing Books

Kat @ Murder of Goths wrote a guest post @ She Might Be Loved all about Body Positivity

So how was your May?

Review | Rat Queens, Vol.2: The Far-Reaching Tentacles of N'rygoth by Kurtis J. Wiebe, Roc Upchurch and Stjepan Sejic

Rat Queens, Vol.2: The Far-Reaching Tentacles of N'rygoth

by Kurtis J. Wiebe, Roc Upchurch and Stjepan Sejic

My Rating: 

This booze-soaked second volume of RAT QUEENS reveals a growing menace within the very walls of Palisade. And while Dee may have run from her past, the bloated, blood-feasting sky god N’rygoth never really lets his children stray too far.

You can check out my review of Rat Queens, Vol.1: Sass and Sorcery here!

As I'm sure many of you know I read the first volume of Rat Queens back in January and absolutely adored it, and I've been anticipating the release of the second volume ever since. Volume 2 takes off immediately from where Volume 1 left off, and I still love this world and these characters - not to mention the humour!

More than once I genuinely laughed out loud while reading this curled up on my sofa, meaning I got a few odd looks from my family; Hannah is the Queen of Sass and her attitude warms the cockles of my cold, black heart. I love her relationship with Sawyer too, because I'm weak for a good ol' fashioned OTP. The same goes for Violet and Orc Dave - in fact I love Orc Dave.

As is usually the case with graphic novels, the plot of Volume 2 was a little bigger than that of Volume 1; I can tell this is a series that's going to continue to expand and grow, and I like the direction it's going in. I really enjoyed the glimpses into Hannah and Violet's pasts we were shown in this volume, and I'd really like to know more about Hannah's mother who seems like a very cool lady, but what I loved most was that we saw a little more of Dee. I look forward to continuing to learn more about her in future, because what we learned in this volume was pretty darn cool; I particularly loved the way she talked about how the religion she was raised with is still a part of her, and she doesn't have to discard her entire culture just because she disagrees with a part of it.

Honestly, the only real flaw I found with this volume was that it wasn't long enough. I want more, and I want it now!

If you haven't read this series yet, read it!

Top Ten Tuesday | My TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is a FREEBIE! So I decided to talk about ten books on my TBR I'd really like to read soon.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke: This book is a bit of a beast - my edition is so heavy, it's like a brick - and I've owned it for a while now, but I'd like to read it soon because the BBC have adapted it for TV and it looks so cool. I'd like to try and read the book before I watch it, though!

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison: One of the things I've realised recently is that I'm not actually the biggest fan of high fantasy. I can watch it, but reading it I just get so bamboozled by all the different names and just the idea of an entire different world. I'm dumb, and I love fantasy that's in our world. I want to get back into high fantasy, though, and I've heard some amazing things about The Goblin Emperor.

This Strange Way of Dying by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: Silvia Moreno-Garcia's debut novel, Signal to Noise, is my favourite book of 2015 so far, and now has a firm spot amongst my favourite books of all time. This Strange Way of Dying is her first collection of short stories, and I'm dying to read more of her stuff - plus isn't that cover stunning?

The Sundial by Shirley Jackson: So far I've read The Haunting of Hill House, The Lottery, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle and loved them all. Shirley Jackson has quickly become one of my favourite authors - she's definitely my favourite horror writer - and The Sundial sounds fantastic. I've been getting really into modern classics recently, particularly modern classics written by women, and Shirley Jackson's gotten me really into southern gothic stories. I'm looking forward to this one!

This Book is Gay by James Dawson: This is a piece of non-fiction I've seen around on Booktube a lot recently. James Dawson's a YA author, and this book talks about what it's like to grow up as LGBT+. I think this book will be really interesting.

Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout: I've heard this is one of those really addictive YA series that's bordering on the ridiculous, and I'm totally ready for a guilty pleasure kind of read.

Denton Little's Deathdate by Lance Rubin: I saw Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight review this book about a month ago, and the premise just really intrigued me. It's been a while since I read any YA and this sounds fun despite the rather dark premise!

Rat Queens, Vol.2: The Far Reaching Tentacles of N'rygoth by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Roc Upchurch: I'm so excited for this! I pre-ordered my copy and I'm hoping it'll here at the end of this month.

A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab: I've owned this since February, heard nothing but amazing things about it, and yet I still haven't read it yet. What the hell's wrong with me?

White Trash Zombie Apocalypse by Diana Rowland: I love this series, and I want to read more of it. If you're a fan of urban fantasy or you want to read a series with a really original take on zombies, I recommend picking up these books!

What did you guys talk about this week?