Bookish Ramblings

 Leigh Bardugo's novels following various characters in the Grisha Verse was picked up to be a netflix show in April 2021. There are currently 8 episodes out however we have been promised that there will be more coming! This show is titled Shadow and Bone, the same title as the first book of Bardugo's original trilogy.  The show does not only focus on events from this book but instead uses the duology Six of Crows and changes the story slightly. At first, I thought this would annoy me as the crows never meet Alina in the novels but now they are in the same situations with each other. It did not annoy me at all, I loved how they took both books and gave us a new story. In my opinion, making a book into a screen adaptation and trying to get it as close to the book as possible is inevitably going to annoy some readers and cries of 'the book was better' and 'that didn't happen in the book' will rise. With this show, readers don't really have the grounds to s...

Hello hello hello! June, as we all know, is pride month. That’s why my tbr for June 2022 is filled with LGBTQIA+ stories to celebrate that these books are out in the world. At the beginning of this month I submitted my dissertation for my undergrad degree in English. For that paper I researched some of the history of sexuality laws and it made me so grateful of how far we have come in our love for all people. A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue – by Mackenzi Lee This historical fiction YA novel follows Henry Montague, or as we know and love him – Monty. Monty is raised as a gentleman but he is truly a rogue at heart. Drinking too much, gambling and sleeping with countless women… and men. Monty is bisexual in a time when this love could only be shown behind closed doors. Monty is in love with his best friend Percy who is leaving for college in Holland the following year. This book follows the two, along with Monty’s sister and a glorified baby sitter, on their year long tour of...

I'm not going to lie, this challenge was a lot more difficult than I anticipated. You have probably guessed by now that I did not complete this challenge - but, that doesn't mean I am disappointed.  I started the month out relatively well reading Seige and Storm by Leigh Bardugo in two days. I love the Grisha verse and, honestly, this may have been my downfall as I wanted to badly to just jump into Ruin and Rising and know what happened next. I resisted this urge and instead picked up a contemporary thinking that this would take my mind off the fantastical world Bardugo has created.  The contemporary I picked up was Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King. I have enjoyed every A.S. King book I have read and this one was no exception. However, I was reading slower and gazing longingly at my collection of Bardugo books knowing that I wanted to jump back into that world. I didn't consider the possibility until after the challenge that I could have swapped the 'read a sequel...

  OWLs Read-a-thon! Hosted by Book Roast  this read-a-thon gives you prompts in order to create your dream career within the Wizarding World.  This reading challenge was created in 2019 and, unfortunately, I haven't seen many people continue the challenge. I have decided to pick this challenge up for the next two months and challenge myself to become a 'Healer'.  OWLs Exams - July To begin my studies as a healer I need to take 8 classes, 5 set and 3 that I can choose from.  The 5 compulsory subjects are... Herbology - Read a book with a plant on the cover Charms - Age-line: read an adult book Defense Against the Dark Arts - Reducto! Read a book with the title beginning with an 'R' Potions - Next ingredient: sequel Transfiguration - Sprayed edges or a red cover And the three I chose were... Care of Magical Creatures - Read a book with a land animal on the cover Arithmancy - Read a work written by more than one author Muggle Studies - Read a contemporary  My ...

 I have been doing a lot of work recently on my professional development and one of these pieces of work focused around communication. I learnt that it is much better to listen actively rather than trying to plan what your next reply will be. I struggle with this a lot as my brain is constantly firing with thoughts and plans and ideas but audio books have helped me learn how to focus on one audio input and really listen to what is being said.  The last audio book I listened to was King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo which is a fantasy book that moves quickly and has quite a few characters throughout the novel. I chose this book as I am enjoying the entire Grisha series and wanted to continue it but also because I knew that with a fantasy book I would really have to pay attention to follow the storyline. I couldn't zone out and then start listening again as I would be lost.  Listening to audio books has really helped me to focus on listening to what is being said and the retain...

  They Both Die at the End – Adam Silvera They Both Die at the End is a book about two boys – Rufus and Mateo – who receive a call telling them that they are going to die by the end of the day. They find each other through the ‘Last Friends’ app and spend their last day together, bonding and bringing out the best in each other. Throughout my reading of this book, I was getting progressively worried that Mateo would die in the crossfire from Rufus’s fight with Peck and his gang. Each time the perspective shifted to show another member from the gang, each time they followed Rufus, I worried about Mateo. I thought at one point how unfair it would be for Mateo to die because of the Last Friends app which he only went on due to his death cast call. This made it impossible to put the book down as it was so fast paced and so many things were happening all in one day. There were so many times that I cried at this book. One of these was when they visited Mateo’s mother’s grave. Mateo ...