Scotland..

Hello World,

The past week, I've literally toured the country. I came back from London on the Sunday, then on the Monday I was in the car driving up to Scotland. 
This is going to be more of a photo post, as there not really a lot to say about Scotland. All I can say though is thank you to the school kids squeezing my butt and potentially getting me sick. Nice one.

Claire.

London Bound.

Hello World.

The past few weekends have been crazy for me. The first part was participating in one of my friends weddings. It was the first wedding of the year and the first 'grown up', I ever went to. When I say 'grown up'? It was the first wedding I went to where it wasn't a family or some friends through the parents. No it was a wedding with an actual friend of mine. Surprisingly that kind of hits you, that your not as young as you once was. 


Another thing I did was visit London. Although I have done that many times throughout my 'adult life', it has grown into something where a friend and I stay the night down there. It's becoming a bit of a novelty now. Fancy seeing a play? An overnight stay in London here we come. 
We went to see Wicked. Not so much grown up now, but I still can't get over how incredible it was. 

It sounds pretty lame, but one of the things I've never done in my life was visit Buckingham Palace. It's creepily strange to see tourist squeezing themselves up to the fence of the Palace and I'll never get over how uneasy I felt seeing them. But it just another thing to tick of my list of places seen.

 Yes. Even my friend, Christina couldn't get over why I wanted to see the Piccadilly Circus advertisement board all closed off and boarded up like this, but it was something I wanted to see because it will undoubtedly be in history books.

There you have my London trip. 

Claire.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle #BookReview

Hello World,

Another book review. Two this year. I am actually on a roll with reading books. ^Holds a momentary dancing to self^

After reading Holding Up The Universe, I immediately went to read Jackson's book, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, because it was Niven character's favourite book.
What is We Have Always Lived in the Castle? 
It starts with a girl called Mary Katherine. She lives in a house; Blackwood manor with her sister Constance and her Uncle Julian. The story start six years after the death of her family, who was all murdered by poison and all that was left was Constance and Uncle Julian. Due to the situation of the murder the village in which they live in all believed that Constance was held responsible of the poison. 
The village hated the Blackwood family and Mary Katherine seem to share the same feelings towards them. Confined in the house and never leaving except for Mary Katherine occasional trips to the village. 

This story is targeted at teenage audience and it is quite a haunting story. Mary Katherine holds a childish view upon the world, being eighteen, she is quite incapable of looking after herself.

I don't know. Shirley Jackson has left a lot for me to think about, but the one thing I can't comprehend is that Niven character; Libby felt connected to Mary Katherine. I personally do not see it. The connection I made between the two, is there reluctance to leave their house and connect with people outside of their box. Mary Katherine was perfectly happy to live inside of her 'Castle' and would do anything to stop entering her little world. Why the spoiler for this book is that Mary Katherine was the one who poison her family and set fire to the house because someone tried entering her house. 
One thing though and I realise is that because Libby was so involved with relating to Mary Katherine she never allowed herself to learn from the character. Which she does learn through her relationship with Jack. 
Have I just learned something? 

I actually enjoyed reading something so different to what I normally read. It made me think differently and although I am still learning from the book, I know one thing. I couldn't be confined to living in one castle. I would want to live in many castles. 


Claire.

Holding Up The Universe. #BookReview

Hello World,

I type and delete sentences because it confirms my trail of thought.


Today I am writing a book review, on Holding Up The Universe by Jennifer Niven. I'll let you in on a secret. I have a guilty pleasure for Young Adult novels. Well more of a guilty pleasure for teen romances. Like High School Musicals, books around teen romances and falling in love. Yes, I was a Twilight fan.

Jennifer Niven previously wrote a book called All The Bright Places and I was totally in love reading this book. You can read the post of my review other here.Blog Post.

Hearing Niven was releasing a new book, I grew excited and I couldn't wait for the release and grab my hands on a copy. What did I think of the book?
It is a romance story between two high schoolers. Libby and Jack. Libby is a young woman who has spent most her life in bed for being severely overweight, where she has imaginary friends that involves quite a bit of Supernatural references. Not going to lie, I laughed to much at these references. Jack is someone who cannot remember you face a prosopagonsia. It's kind of like you mind never register the features on the face, so you never really know who you are talking to. 
Libby is new at high school facing all the old faces again and having to deal with it all. After a brief encounter that involves mild bullying they develop a unlikely romance. 

Its kind of cute their romance story. Compared to Niven All The Bright Places story, I felt it wasn't that great. But I still enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone looking for an easy read and little cute romance story. The writing is styled to suit a slightly more younger reader, but still holds the young adult references. 
Libby the character referred to herself as someone from another book, We Have Always Lived in the Caster by Shirley Jackson. After making a few searches I found that it and brought to read and compare. You'll be able to read the review HERE. 

Claire.

Books I want to read this year..

Hello World,

I've seen a lot of people doing posts on the books they want to read during the coming year and they have been so interesting to watch or read because, it is a great way to share books. So naturally I want to jump onto the bandwagon and share with you some books that I would like read this year..
Here is four books I really want to read this year

1. Magician- Raymond E. Feist: A fantasy novel. I believe Raymond E. Feist is quite the famous fantasy novelist and I quite surprised I have never come across his works before. The Magician is about an orphaned boy named Pug, who is destined to become a Magician, a master one at that. I really am looking forward to reading this book and delve into the writing of fantasy fiction. 
2. Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki- Murakami: It's not a year if I don't read a Murakami book. So being able to read one of newest novels will be quite exciting. It's about a man called Tsukuru Tazaki, he had four friends at school, all of which had been named after colours. One day they announced that they didn't want to see him anymore. Tsukuru goes through it all to find out why.
3. The Miniaturist-Jessie Burton: This book was picked up because all my reader friends raved about it. I am still unsure, but I am determined to give it ago and see what happens. It kind of about this young woman receiving a wedding gift of a miniature house exactly the same as her own and each dolls inside are a replica of her family. It seems the miniature house holds the fate over her own house. It does sound quite interesting.
4. The Colour Purple- Alice Walker: I have been picking this book for ages. When I say ages, I do actually mean years but just never had the courage to buy it and read it. Until one day, during a weekend in Bath I was having some alone time in a bookshop. I gave into the desire and brought it. It is about a young woman named Celie, she had quite a difficult upbringing to life, where she has been abused and many other things. She meets another woman and discovers her own powers and joy. 

There you have it. I will be sure to do book reviews once I have finished reading them. Just stay tune, it could take me all year.

Claire.