May Reading Round Up

With a total of almost 30 hours spent on planes in May, I thought I would get a lot of reading done. Unfortunately, flying makes me sleepy at the best of times, and my brain decides that reading is the perfect way to fall asleep when I'm in the air, so I actually didn't get much done at all. In fact, I think I would have read more if I'd been at home the whole month. Oh, well!

May Reading Round Up

Somehow my most stressful months always end up being great reading months. Probably because I like to hide from all responsibility by burying my head in a book instead! The good news is I somehow managed to meet all my deadlines and still read six books. Don't ask me how. Just know that I did. 

April Reading Round Up

April was not a good month for my reading. I can't even use the usual excuse- sure, I had some deadlines but they were all in the first two weeks. Beyond that? I think I was just a bit lazy! I'm making a promise to myself that May will be better!

March Reading Round Up

It's nearly April so I should probably combine this post with next month's, especially as we're three weeks in and I haven't even finished one book yet (it's a chunky book, to be fair!), but I feel guilty about the complete and utter lack of content. Can't wait until I've finished these next two essays and I have time to blog again! Still, March was a pretty good reading month. Six books- and some big books at that- which kind of makes up for April's impending disappointment!

February Reading Round Up

I went from reading 14 books in January to just 3 in February. That's not great, is it? I don't even know why it dropped so much- I was way busier in January than I've been this month. Perhaps it's because I don't have any short books left over, or because I've been tackling the bloody massive Order of the Phoenix for a couple of weeks. Either way, there's no denying that February wasn't the most productive of reading months.

Reading Wrap Up // January

Look at all these books, guys! Look at them! Count them- there are 13 but I forgot one when I took the photo. I read fourteen books in January! That's nearly a whole quarter of my yearly target. Woohoo! 

December Reading Wrap Up

December turned out to be a surprisingly good reading month for me. Considering I had so much going on, I was amazed to finish five books. Admittedly, three of them are tiny but that's not the point!

November Reading Wrap Up

I miss writing book reviews. I loved them so much but the problem was a) they took forever to write and b) nobody ever read them. It just got easier to stop. Of course, I include the books I've read in my 101 in 1001 reviews each month but I feel like I want to start talking more about them, rather than just "here's a photo of some books". Because of this, I've decided to create monthly reading wrap up posts where I can share what I thought about each book without going into a full, in-depth individual review.

Top Books of 2015

For the first time ever, I managed to achieve my goal of 50 books. In fact, I ended up reading 53 books which is amazing for me! I've had a look over these 53 books and chosen my six favourites. 

Book Review // Stiff - Mary Roach

Perfect choice of book review for Halloween, right? When I first found out about Mary Roach's Stiff, I bought it immediately and dived in the second it arrived. Remember 2008's Stephen Fry in America where he visited the body farm? That was the highlight of the series for me and I was thrilled to find out that this book had more information on the University of Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility, to give it its full name, as well as a whole host of other ways cadavers are used after being donated to science. Since watching the recent Channel 5 documentary Body Donors, it's something I've been considering and figured this book would give me an insight into what may happen to my body after death if I decide to do so.

Book Review // The Fireside Book of Death

This is it, guys. This is the book that got me interested in death. When I was about 8, I'd read The Fireside Book of Death from cover to cover and this summer, my dad gave me his copy. It was an emotional moment, I can tell you!

Book Review // Mort

Rich recommended I read Mort. He's a big fan of Terry Pratchett and reckoned this would be right up my street. Having never read any Pratchett before, I'd been nagged at for ages to read one and finally got round to it. I'm not entirely sure I'll be reading more. 

Book Review // A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

This book, guys. Where do I even start with this book? If there was ever a book that changed the way I viewed the world and sculpted my path in life, this would be it. My dear grandma had been telling me all about this book for a good few months before she gave me a copy for Christmas when I was 15, and I absolutely devoured it. For a couple of years now, my Grandma has been begging me to write a review and I've finally done it, although I'm uncertain whether she'll ever read it, unfortunately. To be honest, I put it off because this book means so, so much to me and I was worried I'd either get comments along the lines of "I hated this stupid book", or someone would read it based on my recommendation and hate it. It's so very personal to me that it seems a great risk to through my views out there. I truly believe it is one of the greatest books ever written, and it's a huge shame that it is so grossly overlooked.

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn- Betty Smith

Book Review // How To Be a Woman

3 years ago, I read that article in which Caitlin Moran said she doesn't wear high heels because it would be easy to rape or murder her, and that billionaire heiresses never get raped or murdered. She really said that. Right at that point, I decided that Caitlin Moran was a knob and wanted nothing to do with her. This summer, I saw a copy of How To Be a Woman in my local charity bookshop and snapped it up, figuring it would be great fodder for inspiring rants. And then something unexpected happened. I actually kind of liked it. Erm, and by "kind of liked it", I mean loved it. Whoops!

How To Be a Woman- Caitlin Moran

Book Review // Hot Feminist

Ooh, this book has ruffled a few feathers, hasn't it? If I'm honest, that's the precise reason I bought Hot Feminist- to see what all the fuss was about. You see, I'm not a very good feminist. My understanding of feminism is that men and women should be treated as equals, which is supposedly what feminism is all about. I can get behind that. But then it all becomes about Not All Men being bad, and 25% of women being made CEOs, and topless models being in cahoots with The Patriarchy, and then it loses me. And then I get confused. And wondering if I'm actually a feminist and, if I'm not, am I letting all of womanhood down? And then enters Polly Vernon, like a feminist guardian angel, sweeping me up in her arms and tucking me under her extended-metaphorical wing...

HOT FEMINIST- POLLY VERNON

I knew I was going to like this book as soon as I read the first page. Yes, I was apprehensive. Of course I was- did you see the Twitterstorm about it? Within the first chapter I was hailing Polly as a feminist Jesus... although I should probably stop with the religious metaphors.

Book Review: The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Don't you just love Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame? Lovely Quasimodo, exotic Esmerelda and dashing Phoebus working together to defeat Frollo. Such a happy, feel-good film. I bet the book is just as joyous, right? Erm... no. If you imagine the exact opposite of the Disney film, you'll have the book. Basically, Disney wrote a nice, family storyline and then used the title and characters of a classic book. It makes no sense! It would be like re-releasing Toy Story under the new title Circles of Hell. Why, Disney? Why?

The Hunchback of Notre Dame- Victor Hugo

Overcoming Perfectionism^- Roz Shafran, Sarah Egan and Tracey Wade

During one of my CBT sessions, my therapist referred to a model in this book and, as it looked helpful, I bought myself a copy. As I've mentioned many times, perfectionism is a real problem for me and underpins all of my issues with anxiety so I was hopefuly that this book would help give me some tools to deal with it.

Book Review // Children of the Jacaranda Tree

Children of the Jacaranda Tree^- Sahar Delijani

c/o Orion

I'm really eager to learn more about Midde Eastern history so Delijani's novel, based on the realities of Iran's political unrest, seemed a good place to start. Although it's fictional in terms of characters and personal events, the locations and national circumstances are true.

Children of the Jacaranda Tree, Delijani's first novel, tells the story of three women and their families affected by the political unrest of Iran in the 1980s. As the story progresses, we learn how the women, all kept captive within Evin prison for their roles in political activism, are linked: Azar, whose daughter is born within the prison walls; Firoozah, who copes in prison life by working with the authorities; Parisa, whose young son has forgotten who she is. Although the novel is based around these three women, the stories are mostly played out through their families, and the effect their mothers' imprisonment had on them many years into the future.

I'll be very honest: I got confused. There are so many characters, all of whom are linked in a variety of ways, and the web got me into a right pickle. Evidently this is something that was mentioned before publication as there is a "Who's Who" at the beginning that I had to regularly refer to. This confusion was doubled by the format of the stories: They switch back and forth between families, locations and time frames. As I read, characters disappeared and reappeared according to the story which made for hard work.

However, Delijani's use of language is absolutely beautiful. The way she describes Iran through the use of sights, sounds, scents and tastes is masterful and really builds up a multi-dimensional image of life for the families at the time. Despite this, there is no sugar coating. Her writing lays out the realities of Iranian life bare and forces the reader to inspect them carefully: This is what life was like.

As beautiful as Delijani's writing is, I just couldn't get past the muddling in my mind. I found it difficult to appreciate the story as I couldn't grasp how families and events were linked, which unfortunately hindered my enjoyment of the novel. For this I give it three out of ten.

If you're also interested in Middle Eastern history, I recommend I Am Malala. Different in the sense that it's a memoir, and based in Pakistan rather than Iran, it's nevertheless a poignant and moving glimpse into what happens when people speak out against tyranny in Asia. 

Bloglovin' // Twitter // Instagram

Book Review // Get Rich Blogging

Get Rich Blogging^- Zoe Griffin

I bought Get Rich Blogging for the simple reason that it pops up on blogs so often and I'm looking to make some more money out of blogging (which is going to lead to some exciting things but you'll find out about that soon enough!) To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. If you want a book that recommends keyword stuffing, asking other bloggers to put you on their blog roll and spamming other Facebook pages with your links, this is the book for you.



Get Rich Blogging is written by Zoe Griffin, a former showbiz columnist who has found success with her entertainment blog, Live Like a VIP. Her book aims to share the secrets to her success and teach readers how they can make a six-figure sum from their own blogs. The first part looks at the basics of how to build a blog and the second part interviews bloggers from different areas of blogging such as fashion, beauty and food.



Unfortunately, the majority of Get Rich Blogging has nothing to do with making money and is instead a guide on how to set up and maintain a blog. Of course this is important- you can't make money from blogging without knowing how a blog works, after all- but I did find the title quite misleading.

This wouldn't be such a problem if it was a helpful book which, sadly, it's not. It's quite clear that Griffin has a limited understanding of the technology behind blogging which is apparent in her frustratingly unnecessary information. For example, every time she mentions a website, she includes the full url in brackets, sometimes even with the http:// eg: "You can use Blogger (http://www.blogger.com)". This completely slows down the pace of reading and adds absolutely nothing since, you know, you can't click a link when it's written in a book. Another example of this is her explanation of HTML complete with (hyper text mark-up language). I don't know about you, but that definition means nothing to me. Until I read this book, I didn't know what HTML stood for and it didn't hold me back. Rather than actually explaining what it is and what it does, Griffin just breaks down the acronym and leaves it at that. Not helpful.

I also found huge problems with some of her advice. As I said above, she recommends keyword stuffing as good for SEO (search engine optimisation, as she happily points out) and contacting successful bloggers to ask if you can be placed on their blog roll. When it comes to promoting your blog, her first tip is to use merchandise such as pens with your blog logo on, followed by hosting a party and inviting magazine editors. That may be easy for an established showbiz reporter to achieve, but not so much for your standard blogger starting out. Furthermore, there are some horrendously inaccurate and outdated statements such as "advertisers won't take you seriously if you're using a free blogging service" and mentioning live chats on Myspace. This book was published in 2013 and it mentions Myspace.

Did I learn anything from this book? No. Not a thing. Pretty much the only thing it says in terms of making money is to keep up good content and people will discover you, although it does also have a massive list of PR companies for big brands. 



Have I made it clear enough that I didn't like this book? To be perfectly honest, I rolled my eyes through the whole thing and for that, I give it 2/10. 

This is a very old blog post, as you will be able to see, but Blog Inc, although with its own problems, was a much more informative read.

Book Review // The Life and Death of Sophie Stark

The Life and Death of Sophie Stark^- Anna North
c/o Orion Books

Sophie Stark is a young, striking filmmaker obsessed with creating the perfect film and capturing the world as she sees it. Isolated and somewhat of an enigma, the key figures in her life, from her brother to her ex-girlfriend and her husband, struggle to understand the workings of her mind. As she becomes ever more consumed by her mission, these loved ones tell her story from their perspective.

Sophie is a fascinating character, both vulnerable and tough in equal measures. As the story is never told through her eyes, we are left as bewildered as the people who tell her story, although we have the benefit of multiple perspectives to piece together a clearer idea. 
North's writing is beautifully perceptive and welcomes us in to study the realities of human nature: Every character, including Sophie herself, have elements we will recognise and relate to. Perhaps we all have a Sophie inside us. Perhaps this is what we would be like if we allowed ourselves to retreat inside our own worlds.

The running themes of life and death are clear, although I would prefer more subtlety here. However, the thread of capturing life that flows throughout the text is very powerful and forces us to think about the realities of life and how we capture it. What is left of us after we cease to live? Are we ever able to fully capture our sense of self? 

North's storytelling is so clear and her characters are so interesting that I was hooked throughout. However, I would have preferred more subtlety in the themes and for that reason I give it six out of ten.