Bookish Ramblings

 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 ...