The Book Bloggers and Books Tag!

I saw Alexa @ Alexa Loves Books do this tag, originally created by Kaitlin @ Reading is My Treasure, and I thought it looked like too much fun to pass up. The Book Bloggers and Books Tag basically involves talking about some of your bloggers and the books you think they're advocates for, or the books you most associate with them.

So I've selected a handful of my fellow bloggers, and I'm going to do just that!

Natalie @ A Sea Change

Natalie is a huge fantasy fan. She loves Terry Pratchett - she's recently been reviewing the Tiffany Aching books on her blog - and Uprooted is one of her favourite books of the year, in fact I ended up reading it myself because she loved it so much. Poor Natalie also has the misfortune of knowing me in real life, which means I'm constantly throwing books at her while screaming 'READ THIS AND THEN TALK TO ME ABOUT IT', which is basically what happened with The Lunar Chronicles. It's one of those series I've been pushing on all of my friends, and luckily for me Natalie will often seek out the books I recommend to her. What a good egg.

Mallory @ The Local Muse

Mallory's one of the few people I know who makes me want to give Austen a second chance. For some reason Emma is always the Austen I associate with Mallory, I think purely because I can vividly remember her very enthusiastic review of it. She's also a huge Cat Winters fan, she's really made me want to check out her work, and I've lost count of the amount of times she's told me I should read The Handmaid's Tale. I promise I'll get to it, Mallory! I really recommend checking out her blog, especially if you're a fan of classics.

Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight

Is this cheating? Nah. I love The Hunger Games, I think it's an excellent trilogy, but I've never met anyone who loves it as much as Shannon does. I love it when people talk about the books that mean the most to them, and it's very clear that this trilogy is very important to Shannon - she's the blogger I most associate with it. Even if she does like Peeta...

Check out Shannon's blog for even better gif usage!

Micheline @ Lunar Rainbows

A very blue-toned selection for Micheline! I really like how those three look together, actually. Like Natalie, Micheline's another blogger I associate with fantasy. She wrote a post all about how much she loves Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for Harry Potter Month, which she co-hosted with Faith @ GeekyZooGirl, and I know she's a big fan of Brandon Sanderson and Garth Nix, too.

Deanna @ Deanna Writes

If there's one thing I've learned about Deanna, it's that she loves Meg Cabot. Somehow she's one of those authors who managed to pass me by when I was younger, but Deanna loves her books so much I really want to check one out for myself. She recently wrote a post all about her love for Ready Player One for Sci-Fi Month, hosted by Rinn @ Rinn Reads, which is another book I need to get to. Basically Deanna's responsible for a lot of the books on my TBR...

Cait @ Paper Fury

There are three things I know for certain that Cait loves: Maggie Stiefvater, Derek Landy and dragons. Basically if Stiefvater and Landy teamed up to write a dragon book I think it'd make all of her dreams come true. The Raven Boys is yet another book I still need to get to, but I read Demon Road a few weeks ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Unfortunately I've never been able to get into A Song of Ice and Fire - I've tried reading it and I've tried listening to it - but the books have such a huge fanbase (including Cait!) so I'd like to give it another try in future.

I'm not going to tag anyone because I'm lazy, so if you want to do this tag then do it - I'd love to see which books you associate with other book bloggers!

This Week in (e)Books

This Week in Books is a feature created by Lipsy @ Lipsyy Lost and Found which gives bloggers an opportunity to share what they've read recently and what they're hoping to read next. I didn't take part in Top Ten Tuesday this week because Tuesday was a very busy work day for me - I went to the Hay Festival! - so I wanted to do something else this week, and I love any opportunity to talk about what I'm reading.

Perhaps you guessed this by the title, but I bought myself a kindle this month! I never thought I'd get an eReader; I'll admit when eReaders first came about I'm afraid I was one of those awful people who hated them and thought they 'weren't real books', but I've since learned the error of my ways and come to appreciate how useful eReaders can be. I'm always going to love physical books - I love the feel of them and the smell of them and the pretty covers - but since buying my kindle I've loved it, and I've found it so much easier to carry around in my bag when I'm on the bus or the train. So all the books mentioned this week are kindle editions!

At the moment I'm about a quarter of the way through Jane Eyre's Sisters: How Women Live and Write the Heroine's Story by Jody Gentian Bower and I'm really, really enjoying it. I don't read as much nonfiction as I should - in fact this is my first nonfiction read of the year - and I guess a lot of the reason behind that is I find it very difficult to read nonfiction that doesn't have a really casual, readable quality. Dry, dense nonfiction books tend to remind me of the books I had to turn to at university whenever I had to write an essay, which in turn makes me incredibly sleepy.

But this book is brilliant so far. Jody Gentian Bower has a great narrative voice, and I've highlighted so many passages and quotes already. For any of you interested in the idea of the heroine or just writing women in general, I definitely recommend checking this fairly new release out!

The Great Zoo of China by Matthew Reilly was my very first completed book on my kindle, and it was okay. It was fun enough for me to read to the end, but I had too many issues with it to rate it highly - my review will be going up on Friday if you want to know my thoughts on it!

I've never been a big fan of the question: 'what do you plan on reading next?' because that totally depends on my mood. After finishing Jane Eyre's Sisters I could decide to read more nonfiction or I could turn to some fluffy contemporary or I could read a collection of short stories. It all depends on my mood. I do have Katherine Addison's The Goblin Emperor on my kindle, though, and I've heard nothing but amazing things about it; it has an average rating of 4.10 on Goodreads, which is pretty damn good, and not too long ago I was talking about how I've been eager to get back into high fantasy, so I think I might give this one a try!

But I also have a few other books I'm in the middle of that I'd like to finish soon, too!

Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

What are you reading?

What's Up Wednesday! | 09/07/14

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop created by Jaime Morrow and Erin L. Funk as a way for writers and readers to stay in touch!

What I'm Reading

Sadly I haven't really done any reading this past week, so I'm still in the middle of Equal Rites, Deadline and The Tenderness of Wolves. I'm hoping I'll get the chance to finish one of them soon!

What I'm Writing

I'm still working away on my portfolio, which is the main reason I haven't really done any reading. I still have quite a lot of work to do, and I end up making myself feel guilty for not doing any work if I sit down and read for a bit.

What Inspires Me Right Now

Oddly enough I think knowing most of the other people on my course are stressing about their portfolios as well is making me feel better, and giving me a little more confidence. I think it's easy to convince yourself you're the only one going through something, and when you realise you're not it takes a real weight off your shoulders!

What Else I've Been Up To

On Saturday one of my friends was celebrating her birthday, so a group of us were invited to her house for a BBQ - it was my first BBQ of the year, and it was a really warm, sunny day so it was lovely. Plus I got to try some ginger wine which was very yummy. We spent the majority of the day playing Bullshit (I'd never played a card game before, so that was interesting) and Werewolf, which is sort of a more sophisticated version of Wink Murder. It was a really fun day, but thanks to the trains being ridiculous I didn't get home until midnight, despite leaving my friend's house at half past nine!

Other than that I've just been working on my portfolio, applying for jobs (wish me luck!) and organising a visit home. I'm off home on the 20th for two weeks just for a change of scenery - last year I managed to get all my coursework done at home by taking over the dining room table and setting myself a routine every day, so I'm hoping I can get a good chunk of my portfolio done while I'm there.

What's new with you?

What's Up Wednesday! | 02/07/14

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop run by Jaime Morrow and Erin L. Funk as a way for writers and readers to stay in touch!

What I'm Reading

I'm trying to get through as many witchy books as I can right now, so at the weekend I read Witch Hill by Marcus Sedgwick, which is a middle grade novella. It was a fun read, but I felt as though it could have been better. 

Then I came across an old, battered copy of Terry Pratchett's Equal Rites for just £1. I'm about a third of the way through it now and I'm really enjoying it - it's so much fun!

What I'm Writing

Progressing with my novel has had to stop for now, as I now have two months left to put together my 30,000 word MA portfolio. I have a few new scenes I need to write, but mostly I have a lot of rewriting to do. A lot.

What Inspires Me Right Now

It's been really warm and sunny here lately, and it's a lot easier to get out of bed when the sun is shining outside!

What Else I've Been Up To

Since last week I've seen The Fault in Our Stars and How To Train Your Dragon 2, and I enjoyed them both. It took me a while to convince myself to go and see TFiOS, and in the end I decided to see it because I was interested in seeing how it was adapted, and I think it was done well! However, I still can't help feeling a little put out that Shailene Woodley claimed in an interview that she isn't a feminist because she 'likes men'.

I just think it's sad when women who are in a position where other women, and young girls, will listen to them, decide to pull the whole 'anti-feminist' thing. There are people who claim to be feminists and basically ruin the name for everyone else, but the majority of feminists - myself included - just want to live in a world where women are considered as people, not objects, and where they're not blamed for being sexually harassed and made to feel guilty if they choose to have an abortion.

Anyway, there's my mini rant over!

How To Train Your Dragon 2 isn't officially released in England until July 11th, but for some reason there were showings on at my cinema last weekend so a friend of mine and I went to see it! I really enjoyed it; the animation and the music are gorgeous, and the story was great, too. I just wish I had a Toothless of my own!

What's new with you?

July Reads!

This month I gave myself a fairly ambitious TBR and then fell into a horrible reading slump, so next month I'm going to set myself less to read with the hope that that somehow helps me to read more. Reverse psychology's weird.

All three of the books on my TBR this month are books I'm already a substantial amount of the way through, and I want to finish them soon!

Deadline

by Mira Grant

Shaun Mason is a man without a mission. Not even running the news organization he built with his sister has the same urgency as it used to. Playing with dead things just doesn't seem as fun when you've lost as much as he has. 

But when a CDC researcher fakes her own death and appears on his doorstep with a ravenous pack of zombies in tow, Shaun has a newfound interest in life. Because she brings news-he may have put down the monster who attacked them, but the conspiracy is far from dead. 

Now, Shaun hits the road to find what truth can be found at the end of a shotgun.

Equal Rites

by Terry Pratchett

The last thing the wizard Drum Billet did, before Death laid a bony hand on his shoulder, was to pass on his staff of power to the eighth son of an eighth son. Unfortunately for his colleagues in the chauvinistic (not to say misogynistic) world of magic, he failed to check on the new-born baby's sex...

The Tenderness of Wolves

by Stef Penney

1867, Canada: as winter tightens its grip on the isolated settlement of Dove River, a man is brutally murdered and a 17-year old boy disappears. Tracks leaving the dead man's cabin head north towards the forest and the tundra beyond. In the wake of such violence, people are drawn to the township - journalists, Hudson's Bay Company men, trappers, traders - but do they want to solve the crime or exploit it? 

One-by-one the assembled searchers set out from Dove River, pursuing the tracks across a desolate landscape home only to wild animals, madmen and fugitives, variously seeking a murderer, a son, two sisters missing for 17 years, a Native American culture, and a fortune in stolen furs before the snows settle and cover the tracks of the past for good.

What are you planning to read in July?

J.

What's Up Wednesday! | 16/04/14

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop created by Jaime Morrow and Erin L. Funk as a way for writers and readers to stay in touch!

What I'm Reading

At the weekend I finished my first Shirley Jackson novel, The Haunting of Hill House, and I really liked it; I'm really eager to read more of her work now, particularly her short fiction - I still haven't read The Lottery!

I'm also currently reading three other books: I'm still reading Maria V. Snyder's Scent of Magic, I'm about a third of the way through Essie Fox's The Goddess and the Thief (which is a great read for fans of Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone) and I've just started Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, for the third challenge in the Hogwarts House Reading Challenge! I've been meaning to read Good Omens for a while now, so I'm really excited to have finally started it! 

What I'm Writing

Honestly I've been a bit naughty this week because I've barely done any writing. I've started to realise that the LGBT retelling of Beauty and the Beast I've been working on could be stretched into something longer than a short story, but I don't want to start writing another novel when I'm still working on Bloodroot and Bracken.

I've also been making notes on a shiny new idea I've had this past week, which is also historical/paranormal fiction. I can't seem to be able to break away from the genre, but I don't care!

What Inspires Me Right Now

Again, reading! So far April's been a great reading month for me, and there's nothing more inspirational than learning from published writers!

What Else I've Been Up To

On Friday I went to see Noah. It was... interesting. It wasn't the worst film I've ever seen but it wasn't spectacular either; it was nice to see the story of Noah being portrayed in a darker way, it is basically an end of the world story after all, but it felt as though the director had had too many ideas that he simply mashed together, meaning that the end of the film felt like the end to a different film than the one I started watching at the beginning.

Before I went to the cinema I had a look in The Works and came out with three books for only £5 (how could I resist?). I got myself copies of Stephen King's The Green Mile, Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora, and Charlotte Brontë's The Professor. I'm not a big fan of Stephen King's novels but I really like the film adaptation of The Green Mile, and I've heard great things about the book.

Then on Saturday I met up with two of my friends in Cardiff, neither of whom I've seen for quite a few months, so it was lovely to catch up! I always enjoy going into Cardiff - the shops are great - and while I was there I bought myself a little jar that looks like a honey pot (it's so cute!) so that I could make myself a TBR jar.

I've been wanting to make a TBR jar for a while now, and the bonus challenge for Ravenclaw in the Hogwarts House Reading Challenge is to make a Ravenclaw-themed book jar. So after I bought my jar I bought some blue paper to write all of my unread books on (shockingly, I own 128 unread books!), and then I made a blue and 'bronze' easter chick; I'll just pretend they're eagle chicks!

And of course I'm still watching Game of Thrones and Hannibal, and they're both so good! The latest episode of Game of Thrones was just brilliant, whereas the latest episode of Hannibal broke my heart a little bit. Poor Dr Chilton, he's grown on me. 

I've also started watching The Crimson Field, which is a historical drama about a group of women who journey to France during the First World War to work as volunteer nurses. I've only watched the first episode so far but I really enjoyed it, and I highly recommend it!

I feel like I could use their expertise myself, the past couple of days one of my wisdom teeth has been really sore, so it looks like I'm going to have to go to the dentist and see if it's growing through like it should be or if I need to get it removed. Hopefully it feels worse than it is!

What's new with you?