Shiver, Linger, Forever by Maggie Stiefvater for £5 altogether at this bookshop of sorts at my local shopping centre… BUT given my trauma from reading too many fantasy fiction books over the past few years and the repetitive story lines, I’m not sure if I should get them and hurt myself more.
Are they worth reading? Help o’ Tumblr people :(
You guys must know by now that I LOVE going to book events and I wasn’t going to miss this one. (Well… I almost did because of a flat tyre and I was 30 minutes late.)
Me with the lovely Sarah Rees Brennan, Cassandra Clare and Maureen Johnson (It looks like i’m photo bombing this picture but I swear i’m not)
(Please ignore my squinty eyes, my eyes can’t handle bright flashes )
Here’s Maureen creeping on me after she signed my books.She’s probably trying to kill me; you know, like she does. (I will explain that in a cut to avoid spoilers for those of you who haven’t read City of Lost Souls yet.)*
I had a bunch of books signed by Maureen and City of Lost Souls signed by Cassie. Unfortunately I forgot to bring Clockwork Prince with me to have signed but hopefully Cassie comes back when Clockwork Princess is published and I can have it signed then.
I love Cassie, Maureen and Sarah, they seem like great friends, they’re brilliant writers and they’re hilarious. What more can you want?! Definitely check out their books and if they ever have an event near you go see them!
Also go vote for Maureen to win Queen of Teen!
*Click read more for my explanatory spoiler*
In your opinion, what on-screen production has done the novel it was based on justice?
Bloomsbury will be releasing Quidditch Through the Ages, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them and The Tales of Beedle the Bard as a hardcover box set.
I’ll definitely be buying this when it comes out :D
(Source: mugglenet.com)
Letterbox Love is a weekly meme hosted by Lynsey @ Narratively Speaking
We’ll be posting Letterbox Love posts from now on to show what books we’ve bought received etc.
Farhana, Radiya and I went to the Nicholas Sparks event at Foyles in London. I bought The Last Song, The Lucky One, Safe Haven and The Best of Me. I got all these signed as well as my old copies of The Notebook and The Wedding.
The Making of Us by Lisa Jewell was sent to us to review from Random House. Thank you so much for this Najma Finlay.
I think I already posted that I bought City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare a few days before publication. I also bought a ticket to the Cassandra Clare and Maureen Johnson Stratford event this month.
I won Die for Me and Until I Die by Amy Plum in a giveaway from Vivienne @ Serendipity Reviews. I was sent the books from Atom a few days ago, so thank you Vivienne and Atom :)
I bought Wonder by R J Palacio and this Hunger Games Mockingjay Pin from Waterstones. I was so excited to buy the Mockingjay Pin because I’ve been looking for it everywhere!
Now that I have more time on my hands I’m excited to start reading more, since I’ve fallen behind on my 100 Book challenge :S
To match our twitter icon :) I’m still working on a site mascot-type-thing, this little guy is my first attempt!
My rating: 3.5/5*
Summary:
‘What would you do?’
Jodi Picoult is infuriatingly great at making you wonder what the hell you would do if you ended up in life’s most challenging situations. Sing You Home was not what I first expected because of the twists in it. From the blurb, I thought it was just about a divorce and the desire of Zoe Baxter to have children, no matter what the cost- even though it cost her her marriage with Max Baxter. After nine years of trying and failing to have a baby, going through IVF nad miscarriages and a stillbirth which unfortunately takes its toll on the marriage, Zoe falls in love again and finds somebody new to have a family with. Only her lover is not who Max wants her to be with – SPOILER ALERT Zoe falls in love with a woman- and a battle ensues as the two try to lead their lives the way they want.
My thoughts on the novel:
It’s interesting for me how two people can be in love… and then not. How could you live and love someone for years upon years and then just not? Of course, time pulls people apart but if you’ve been married for 938402384-2 years, how do you just end it? This was something that really drew me into the story because it was quite intriguing how Zoe and Max loved each other but when we see their new interests, it’s almost as if their marriage was- not irrelevant- but meager in comparison to the new passions. I started looking around at couples more wondering whether they were simply content to be together or actually overjoyed and crazy in love to be together. I felt like the love stories in this book didn’t really match up to my desires because I love me some good old Romeo and Juliet WE GON’ DIE FOR EACH OTHER! Although the couples in Sing You Home surely would have… I felt a bit bored with the love stories.Max needed to be seriously slapped. His new love interest was actually BORING. It just didn’t appeal to me. I loved how Zoe and Vanessa were best friends; emotionally you can understand their relationship because it’s so supportive and loving. I think it was the best relationship in the novel. But physically, I didn’t get the attraction which made me wonder if homosexuals read hetrosexual love stories and find those boring because it doesn’t appeal to them? The book honestly opened my eyes to the dark side of being outcasted and made me ask who has the right to take away somebody’s rights, simply because we don’t agree with their lifestyle? We all preach democracy but only within our own standards.
Picoult opened my eyes to the reality of love not having to be true to work. Although clearly it won’t last forever. I wonder how many couples there are in the world that simply stay together out of tradition or convenience. Anyway, back to the story, there is another character who I really loved – she was probably my favourite. Lucy is a seriously depressed teenager on the verge of suicide whose defensive sarcasm and jokes made me wonder how many horrors people hide behind cold eyes. You know how we’ll call so and so an evil bitch for being so rude and always a mean ass- well, think twice before you call somebody something negative because you honestly have no idea what they’ve been through.
This was a really thought-provoking read although at times I got a bit bored. I would recommend to those who want to be challenged on their views because this book honestly shows you what we should base our values on- not prejudices and pre-conceived judgments.
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We had no idea how great it would be to see Nicholas Sparks. He had us all in the audience laughing from beginning to end. It was so inspiring to listen to him talk about his experiences and how he followed his dream. We loved how confident he was when talking to us; it made him seem so friendly and down-to-earth. From hearing about what he’s gone through and using that to create his stories made me feel so… wowed’ to be in his presence. He was pretty captivating whilst he spoke; not once did I daydream or think about anything else other than this brilliant author standing in front of me and talking about how he came to be an author.
I was so nervous when I went to get my books signed. (thank you Yasmina for The Lucky One) I think I may have been a little over-excited. Farhana seemed so cool and collected. But I think we were all slightly shaky- Yasmina’s knees were knocking apparently. My voice shook LOL. It was my first author event I’ve been to though and the first Novel Nerds field trip. What a great day!
HE PUT HIS ARM AROUND YASMINA!!! :D
Yasmina and Nicholas Sparks are totally best friends now. He was so sweet. To be fair, he should have hugged her seeing as he made her cry during his talk about the books he wrote. When he told us the story behind A Walk To Remember, Yasmina was in tears. Bless.
Farhana asked him how he was finding it in London. He was like “It’s pretty rainy here,” and she replied “Yeah, this is about as sunny as it gets for us.” True point.
