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?

Announcing From Screen to Page!

Throughout the year I'm going to be continuing with my Classics & Contemporaries and Stories & Songs features, but 2015 is going to see the introduction of a new feature on my blog: From Screen to Page!

I know I mention it more than I probably need to, but those of you who've been following my blog for a while will know how much I love historical fiction. The thing is that love isn't limited to books; I love a good historical drama, too, whether it's a film or a TV drama.

In my experience people who don't like historical fiction will at least watch a historical drama, and a lot of those people will enjoy what they see. As a lover of historical fiction it's one of my aims to encourage more people to read it, especially people who feel intimidated by it or feel that they need to be a history expert to enjoy it, and that's exactly what From Screen to Page is for!

In each installment I'll pick a historical film or TV show and recommend a piece of historical fiction I think people who like that film/show would enjoy!

I'm really looking forward to adding this feature to my blog, and I hope you enjoy it whether you're a fan of historical fiction or not! 

Look out for the first installment of From Screen to Page next month!

Spring TV Wrap-Up!

Today I'm going to do something a little different and talk about some of the shows I've been watching recently. I don't consider myself a TV buff at all - I tend to read more books than watch shows, and I'm envious of people who can dedicate their time to so many different shows and keep on top of all the characters and plotlines.

What I tend to do when it comes to TV is wait until a series is finished - either entirely, so that I have a few/several seasons to watch, or just the first season so I can get a taste for it and see what I think - and then watch it, rather than watch it as soon as it comes out. I'm lazy when it comes to TV, and it's really easy for me to grow disinterested; a show has to be really good to keep me waiting for a new installment each week, so I prefer being able to marathon an entire season over the course of a few days.

So far this spring I've finished four shows: Channel 4's New Worlds; BBC's The Crimson Field; Hannibal Season Two and Orphan Black Season One.

Let's get the worst over with first, shall we?

I decided to watch New Worlds after I saw a trailer for it advertised at my campus cinema and realised it would be on TV when I went home for Easter in April. From the trailer it looked like it was going to be pretty epic.

As you might have guessed from my love of historical fiction, one of my favourite things to watch on TV is a good historical drama, and I particularly love anything set in the 16th or 17th centuries. New Worlds is set during the reign of Charles II and takes place both in England, where the English are growing tired of Charles's tyranny, and across the ocean in Massachusetts, where the colonisers are trying to break away from English rule while also fighting against the Natives for their land.

What I thought was going to be the first season of a long series turned out to be a Mills and Boon-esque four part mini-series, with terrible character development and a plot which fell flat despite having so much potential. This show was a real disappointment and I really wouldn't recommend checking it out.

Thankfully I had three other shows over Easter to keep me going: Hannibal, The Crimson Field and Game of Thrones - I won't be talking about Game of Thrones here because season four hasn't finished yet!

Luckily for me where Channel 4 failed the BBC stepped up. This year marks one hundred years since the start of WW1, so over Easter the BBC broadcast a six-part drama, The Crimson Field, which follows a group of women who travel to France to work as volunteer nurses.

I really enjoyed this show, so much so that I'm hoping there's going to be more of it in future! Despite only being six episodes long, it used those episodes wisely to include as many stories - from the early management of shell shock to the punishment of deserters - and as much character development as possible without making the show feel crowded. 

I'd definitely recommend it, whether you're a fan of historical dramas or not!

Last week saw the finale of the second season of Hannibal; a show that has become one of my all time favourite dramas on television since its premier last year. Following the first season's amazing finale, the second season follows Will Graham's pursuit for justice by any means necessary - even if that means teaming up with the very man who incriminated him in the first place...

My love for this show knows no bounds. Not only is it a brilliant reimagining of Thomas Harris's stories, with both male and female three-dimensional characters, it's also visually stunning. Even if you've never read the books or seen the films, everyone is aware of Hannibal Lecter, and despite the fact that the show deals with something as brutal as murder and cannibalism it's still a piece of art in its own right.

The end of the second season was just as shocking as the end of the first, and I can't wait for season three! If you haven't checked this show out then I highly, highly recommend it, though the second season in particular might not be an enjoyable watch for the squeamish.

Hannibal came to an end the same weekend in which there wasn't a new Game of Thrones episode, so to stop myself from pining too much I decided to pick up where I left off when I started watching Orphan Black some time last year.

I watched the first two episodes of the first season last year, and even though I liked what I watched I didn't love it enough to continue watching it. The past couple of weeks, however, I've been seeing it all over Tumblr, so I decided to give it a try and I ended up marathoning the rest of the first season - from episode three to episode ten - in the space of about three days!

The show follows Sarah Manning, a con artist whose life is turned upside down after she witnesses the suicide of a woman who looks exactly like her.

I enjoyed this show so much more the second time around; Tatiana Maslany is an amazing actress and I loved the story. I'm a big fan of stories which feature any form of science vs. religion, and as someone who's just starting to get into sci-fi this show was perfect for me. I'm not quite ready for alien races and spaceships, but a sci-fi thriller I can handle.

One day I'll be ready for space. One day.

I haven't started watching the second season of Orphan Black yet but I will be soon, and I'm hoping to continue watching American Horror Story: Coven, another show I watched the first two episodes of and have enjoyed so far. I'm rather picky when it comes to shows involving witches, somehow they always end up cheesier than I'd like, but so far AHS isn't shying away from the darker side of witchcraft, and I love that.

As far as other shows go I'm also planning on sating my lust for historical dramas by finally watching Vikings and Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Ever since I went to see Pompeii a couple of weeks ago I've been craving something else gladiatorial and I've heard great things about Spartacus - I love a good rebellion story.

I'll be back with another TV wrap-up in the summer!

What have you been watching recently?