Releasing the screenplay the same time as the film was a stroke of genius. I loved being able to read Rowling's (flawless) script before seeing the movie - really made the whole experience more magical.
Releasing the screenplay the same time as the film was a stroke of genius. I loved being able to read Rowling's (flawless) script before seeing the movie - really made the whole experience more magical.
Oh man, I loved Anne. Loved that for once, an Austin heroine was older, mature, and turned a man down. My Jane Bennet funko agrees.
This was beautifully written and the prose was breathtaking, but it was also a bit ... boring? A book with so much talent (and WOWZERS so much sex) really had no excuse to be so dull in places. I'd have felt differently if I'd sat and read it in a day, but because I could only grab a chapter or two at a time, it definitely dragged more.
Spent the weekend with Newt, drinking Butterbeer in Hogsmede. He was a complete gentleman, didn't even try to cop a feel.
Bad bad bad. Ridiculous plot. Bad writing. Just really bad. At least my cake was good. Always trust in the cake.
My first Christie and I loved it! Watching the new BBC adaptation right now too and it's so well done. (Also: might have a small crush on Aidan Turner!)
A little more wordy, and a little less thrilling than expected, but still a cracking read. Will definitely be spending more time with the Dublin murder squad.
The pick for our October book club, You surprised me by being 50% a creepy thriller but also 50% light porn haha. Let's just say that I had an interesting time reading it at my education conference last weekend.
My Halloween / October 2016 TBR pile! It's my busiest work month though ... Will I get through them all? // also, the most adorable mummy tea bags because Japan has the cutest stuff.
Unpopular Opinion Alert : I did not love this trilogy. It started off okay, but instead of building on experience and momentum, it ended on a very weak note. There was something forced about the writing, and something extremely juvenile and undeveloped about the two protagonists, which made some of the slightly more adult things they thought and did really creepy ... And not in the way Riggs intended it to be. The covers were great though.
I LOVED this book. It has everything that turns me on : the fascinating history of a major media conglomerate (the BBC), the true story of a queer feminist icon (Hilda Matheson), the social insecurity of Britain as it hung between two World Wars, suffragettes and the men who feared them, and a plot that effortlessly balanced fiction and fact. Someone make a movie about Matheson ASAP please. (Edit : deleted this by mistake hence the repost)
This was one of my picks for my Halloween reading list last year! Busy compiling my 2016 October TBR and need suggestions! Any recent thrillers you couldn't put down?
I'm definitely in the minority here, but I didn't love this. Granted it was a million times better than Eat, Pray, Love (Gilbert isn't a bad writer - pity she'll forever be judged by that tragedy) but Alma was insufferable and at the end I was left thinking 'so what?' -- a death knell to a book of 600 pages.
Anybody else getting really excited for the publication of Blood for Blood?? It's coming sooooon! Also excited for : snow. It can't come soon enough, this summer has been a killer!
What a riveting, heartbreaking debut novel on slavery, antiblackness and heritage. One of my favourites of 2016 // Read on a roadtrip through the Japanese mountains.
The perfect summer book! Fast paced, crazy plot twists, enough new pop-science to keep it fresh. Loved it! Want this as a movie ASAP.
Tess! Buck up gurl, stop throwing stones at yourself. Life isn't that bad! Yes, you live in extremely patriarchal times with double-standard landmines under every step,but you're not making your own existence any easier. (This book required the ingestion of A LOT of ice cream, it was no light and lovely Madding Crowd).
Halfway through and LOVING it. Also, ate 1/3 of my chocolate frog before having to give up ...that thing is solid!
The blurb compares this to Americanah & while I see similarities, it feels a lot lighter. Behold the Dreamers is the story of a Cameroonian couple trying to make it in New York & has a whole cast of interesting, well-drawn characters. I love reading novels about the African diaspora,there are so many experiences & viewpoints yet untold. But while I enjoyed Mbue's beautifully written debut, it lacked a bit of heft -the ending left me wanting more.
3.5 / 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Beautifully written, but the plot lagged in parts (probably because I'm not really interested in art and can spend max 10 minutes in an art gallery). Sara was a wonderful character though, would love an entire book on her. Also : more Japanese latte art - my favourite kind.
Can't WAIT for the movie! Ps. I'vs been sorted into Ravenclaw and Horned Serpent. You?
Much better Austen adaptation than the messy Eligible, in my opinion. This was breezy and funny, nothing massively impressive but far from the drivel that rewrites of classic novels usually bring about.
This was so fun - I really want my own clockwork octopus now, someone make one for me immediately. The writing wasn't perfect, and the characters were a bit 1D at times, but the world building was great and the cover sublime.
Photo taken at the abandoned Anne of Green Gables theme park called Canadian World in Hokkaido, Japan.
Phenomenal piece of research packaged up in a compulsively readable history of just how exactly human beings have managed to destroy everything.
This was just okay. There were some shining moments and paragraphs that made me yell 'YES!' but many essays were similar and there wasn't a lot of insight added to the feminist discourse (apart from the stunning final essay). If you're looking for a feminist read, pick Bad Feminist.
I recently reread Bad Feminist and We Should All Be Feminists, both of which were even stronger and more amazing the second time around! Now on : The Geek Feminist Revolution. Coupled with some tea and a salted caramel baumkuchen cake finger, this feminist spread is delicious.
My 2016 Austen kick has seen me reach for quite a few adaptations and spin-offs to accompany my rereading of the original novels. While most have proved quite disappointing (ahem, Eligible), this was surprisingly great! The Downton Abbey take on Pride and Prejudice added a whole new level.
Everyone stop what you're doing and read this! It's phenomenal! Historical fiction based on the life of Margaret Mead, it has everything - adventure, moral upheaval and a love triangle!
A brilliant character sketch of a deeply flawed and scandalous Holly Golightly -an egocentric racist who somehow managed to win me over despite all her awfulness.I loved the feeling of Holly's New York, her utter lack of self restraint, her tactless candidness.
I read Middlemarch last year & I'm still exhausted by it - it was a marathon! It's one of those books touted as genius and so I feel like I'm too stupid to have fully understood it because it left me feeling a bit meh. Maybe I'll wait another 10 years, maybe I'll come to appreciate it when I'm 40.
This is one of my favourite nonfiction books, if not my favourite. It reads like a thriller, made even scarier by the fact that it's all happening around us. I have a definite brain crush on David Quammen.
Surprised by how much I enjoyed this. Much better than the other Jojo Moyes I've read but that might be because I was picturing Sam Claflin the whole way through.
LOVED this! A meta gothic Austen that broke the heck out of the fourth wall. My only complaint : The ending was way too rushed.
PKD! What an imagination! The end of this was a bit confusing, but it wouldn't be a true PKD experience if you didn't feel a bit 'huh?!' at the end.
I know this is getting mixed reviews, but I loved it! Fun, fast paced, and completely tongue-in-cheek, I'm hoping it gets made into a movie ASAP.
"...What strange and thrilling times we live in. A world you felt, at one point, might be full of nothing more than reality singing competitions and Donald Trumps and Kardashians and Angelina Jolie's cute ethnic kids and Carson Daly, a world that hardly seemed worth saving,worth all of this effort."
I've been blessed with above average scaredy-cat tendencies so if you're someone who handles creepiness well, ignore me when I say : THIS IS A TERRIFYING TRILOGY. It's well written and imaginative as hell, but also chilling.
I loved The Moor's Account for being unlike any book I have ever read before. Many novels are reconstructions of stories already told- well known plots seen from different viewpoints. This however, was a story of exploration that was itself a bold,adventurous piece of imagined historical fiction.
Twee cupcakes to go with the ridiculous tweeness that is this book. I'm struggling to finish it so hopefully the sugar high will push me across the finish line.
One of 2016's must reads, When Breath Becomes Air made me cry like a baby. I recommend you read it alongside Gawande's Being Mortal to fill in the few academic gaps that Kalanithi leaves. Both books are essential for mortals of all kinds.
After reading Marra's wonderful debut last year, I was worried that he'd experience the Sophomore Slump. However The Tsar of Love and Techno is superb, with stories that go down like shotglasses full of Russian history- just a mouthful, but oh so strong.
Technically very well written but lacked the heart and biting wit that would've made it a winner. There were too many POV with very few I was willing to root for.
I was lucky enough to get an arc from Random House on Netgalley and I spent all weekend engrossed-couldn't put it down! Cline is an amazing writer and while the creep cult factors were high, the real marvel of the book is how she manages to portray the angst of being a teenage girl. Wonderful debut.
Phenomenal writing about characters I can't seem to stop thinking about, even though I finished it a month ago. The kind of book that sticks to your bones.
I'm a Sittenfeld lover (Prep!) and a devoted Janeite so thought this would be a match made in heaven. It wasn't. Might be a good beach read for someone else, but was just a disappointing Saturday for me.