I recently read Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones and LOVED it. I adore the Studio Ghibli movie and had never really believed that the book could match the way I felt about the film. But I was so wrong! This book added so much to the movie for me, and I enjoyed it equally as much, just in a very different way. Here are my thoughts on why you should read this book too. Please let me know your thoughts, as well as any differences you spotted between the book and the movie!
I’ve started a Youtube Chanel
Hey, it’s been a while!
I’ve disappeared a little bit from my blog and from book reviewing in general over the last couple of years. Alongside a billion life changes, my time to read (and particularly to post about what I read) had really dropped. Over the last few months, however, I’ve been reading more again, and the desire to post about what I am reading has come back. I really felt that I needed to do something a little different though, as every time I tried to come back to blogging/bookstagramming it felt a bit flat to me. I’ve had a dream of starting a Youtube channel for years, and now felt like the perfect time.
So…if you want to continue to hear my thoughts on books, as well as watch me renovate my home in Cornwall, do please check out my channel and subscribe if you like! Your support would mean the absolute world to me!
I posted my first video today, which you can watch here:
Thank you so much for all of your support, follows, likes, comments and friendship over the last few years, and I hope you will join me for this next step.
Jen x
BOOK REVIEW | COLORLESS TSUKURU TAZAKI AND HIS YEARS OF PILGRIMAGE BY HARUKI MURAKAMI
TITLE: COLORLESS TSUKURU TAZAKI AND HIS YEARS OF PILGRIMAGE
AUTHOR: HARUKI MURAKAMI
AND PHILIP GABRIEL (TRANSLATOR)
PUBLISHED: 12TH APRIL 2013 (FIRST PUBLISHED)
2ND JULY 2015 (THE EDITION I READ)
PUBLISHER: VINTAGE
FORMAT: PAPERBACK
RATING: 4/5 STARS
“We truly believed in something back then, and we knew we were the kind of people capable of believing in something – with all our hearts. And that kind of hope will never simply vanish.” Continue reading “BOOK REVIEW | COLORLESS TSUKURU TAZAKI AND HIS YEARS OF PILGRIMAGE BY HARUKI MURAKAMI”
WHAT IS INSTA-POETRY?
What is ‘insta-poetry’? It’s more than simply posting a poem on Instagram. There’s a certain power in sharing any form of art online, where it can be accessed by anyone, shared by anyone, and commented on by anyone. The Instagram scroll also means that a few seconds is often all that your post can expect to pull from someone.
I’ve been able to ask my questions about Insta-poetry to some poets currently sharing their work on Instagram. In this post, they share what Insta-poetry means to them, the importance of online community, and the Instagram-poetry style.
GIFT IDEAS FOR BOOK LOVERS
☆ A WATCH
Whenever I find myself in town with a few minutes to spare, I’ll almost certainly find myself between multi-coloured spines, the scent of ink on new paper, and the display tables of new and classic titles alike. I’ll look down from the rustic wooden shelves to my watch: I can pass just a couple of minutes in this bookshop before I need to catch my bus. I won’t lose track of time, I’m not even buying anything!
If you’re book lover friend is anything like me, their thought patterns have digressed in an equally hopeful direction. They will also know that a watch is an essential in a bookshop!
I recently received the most stunning wooden watch from JORD Watches, and think it would make the perfect gift! Partly because its dark sandalwood strap and deep emerald green face match the old bookshop aesthetic perfectly, but also because a watch is an essential item when lost in the enchantment of a book shop. Continue reading “GIFT IDEAS FOR BOOK LOVERS”
BOOK REVIEW | AN ENCHANTMENT OF RAVENS BY MARGARET ROGERSON
TITLE: AN ENCHANTMENT OF RAVENS
AUTHOR: MARGARET ROGERSON
PUBLISHED: 26TH SEPTEMBER 2017
PUBLISHER: MCELDERRY BOOKS
FORMAT: HARDBACK
RATING: 3.5/5 STARS
“Yet no matter what they were doing, everyone in the forest waited with an indrawn breath, waiting for the taste of autumn, the smell of change, the first news of a king and queen unlike any the world had known before.” Continue reading “BOOK REVIEW | AN ENCHANTMENT OF RAVENS BY MARGARET ROGERSON”
HELLO TWENTY EIGHTEEN | CHALLENGES AND BLOGGING PLANS
It takes me a week to properly think about my New Year’s resolutions, or challenges (I don’t do resolutions – they’re too resolute and solid and therefore impossible!). It takes me a few days to feel the year out, I think. The first week of the new year hasn’t been anything particularly spectacular or different. Other than a step-up in my dissertation research, and more exams and study, the first half of my 2018 looks like it’s going to be much like 2017 in it’s day-to-day-ness. (And then we don’t think about the after-graduation half). When I make goals before the new year has even begun, I run the risk of creating a list of goals that don’t fit into my year. ‘Write a blog post every week’ doesn’t fit into my year. I’ve trialled writing a little bit of my novel in a journal every day so far this year. I wanted to write a couple of pages a day. ‘A couple of pages’ doesn’t fit into my day, every day. A few lines, however, does.
So these are the goals I have settled on. The ones that feel like they can be carried along with me through the day-to-day of my 2018:
☆ Write every day – I plan to write something each day towards my novel, in a little notebook. Be that one sentence, or one piece of dialogue, a description, or a character’s thought. This is more manageable some days than opening up my laptop and following a chronological outline. So far, I’ve managed to write at least something each day all week. One day that was a few pages, another day it was three sentences. I’m hoping that this will keep me in my characters’ heads and their stories all year, even if I don’t get the chance to finish a typed-up novel.
☆ Read a broader range of genres – I don’t have specifics for this. I just want to give anything and everything a try, rather than my usual go-to’s
☆ Post on my blog at least twice a month – Twice a month doesn’t sound a lot, but posting even once a month has become a challenge for me over the last few months. I posted a lot less on here over November/December due to some intense deadlines (final year problems!). So I’m making a plan to post at least twice on here each month this year. And in the months where I’m not suffocated by essays, hopefully that will be much more!
☆ Combat feeling guilty for relaxing – By this, I mean that, rather than working 9am-11pm (that’s seriously what I was doing Monday-Saturday for the last few weeks of last term), I’m going to stop after dinner and read for an hour, or write for fun for a few minutes, or even just make myself a hot chocolate and listen to music. And I’m going to challenge myself not to feel guilty for doing it!
☆ Read my Bible more – my goal every year is to read my Bible every day, which is still my goal, but I am very bad at doing this. So I’m just going to carry on trying to read it more.
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Those are my five challenges for the new year, bookish and otherwise.
Have you set any challenges or New Year’s resolutions this year? What are you hoping to achieve/challenge yourself to do?
FAVOURITE READS OF TWENTY SEVENTEEN
☆ Autumn by Ali Smith
review
Sometimes, a book comes along that simply, unexpectedly, blows you away. Other than a beautiful cover, and my favourite season for a title, I knew very little about the content of this novel before reading it. Never having read an Ali Smith book before, I was unsure of what I would think of her writing style. After closing the final page of this book, Ali Smith’s entire works found their way into my TBR! This is a melancholic, yet hopeful examination of post-Brexit Britain, and it was done thoughtfully and with just the right amount of wit. It was easily my favourite read of the year.
☆ Caraval by Stephanie Garber
review
Caraval was pure fun to read. It felt like a Night Circus meets Professor Layton mash-up – in the best possible way. Not often do I finish a book and want to open it up and start again immediately, but this was one of those books. I’ve already planned my re-read to prepare for the release of the sequel in 2018.
☆ Magic with Skin On by Morgan Nikola-Wren
review
2018 has been a year of discovering lots of modern free-verse poetry. I think I’ve read seven or eight new collections (much more than my usual one or two poetry books a year). So I’m saying a lot when I say that Magic with Skin On was my favourite poetry collection of the year. This collection of poetry and prose was moving, lyrical and utterly breath-taking in its crafting of language. It has become the poetry book I recommend to all, whether poetry reader or not.
☆ A Million Worlds With You by Claudia Gray
review
This was one of the first books I read in 2017, so it clearly stuck with me
throughout the year. A Million World With You is the conclusion to one of my recent favourite sci-fi series, and it was so refreshing to read a final book that satisfied every loose end, character arc, relationship and still kept me on my toes.
☆ Of Dreams and Rust by Sarah Fine
The sequel and conclusion to the Of Metal and Wishes duology; a steam-punk Phantom of the Opera retelling (yes, it is very cool). I enjoyed the first book, but the sequel made these books into some of my favourites. The characters were wonderful, and their development in this second book was brilliant. The exploration of culture and war was so interesting when set against a steam-punk backdrop.
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What were your favourite reads of the year? Let me know in the comments!
CHRISTMAS BOOK HAUL
Books usually make up a large proportion of my Christmas gifts. This year, I had asked for only one. Which turned into two. Which turned into five. You can relate, right!?
At least I’m putting some new shelves up soon, and will be able to fit all of the extras into my little room without doing the annual book clear-out (don’t make me give away any more books!).
I thought I’d share which books I received with you, and tell you why I asked for each one.
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TRAVELLING THROUGH EUROPE IN BOOKS
Books have the power to transport you across the globe and take you to new places. I thought I’d share some of the books that have taken me around the world, and recommend some of them to you. Let’s start with the books that have let me travel around Europe… Continue reading “TRAVELLING THROUGH EUROPE IN BOOKS”
READER IN A REVERIE 