Update: February 2019
Another month has come and gone. February was a month of contradictions: we had a full week of weather that felt close to summer here in the UK. This felt like such a relief after some dreary and cold weeks, but it’s also incredibly scary in the context of global warming. Personally, it has also been a month full of ups and downs for me. I applied for a job (which was a long shot to be honest) and didn’t get it. My research has been slightly disappointing and my shop is still not online (though it’s close now!). On the other hand I have been enjoying creating and designing…
Update: January 2019
We’re almost through the last day of January over here in the UK. I can hear a collective “ALREADY?” from everyone coming to the same realisation. Most of the people who made New Years Resolutions will have already kind of forgotten about them and Christmas is already a full month closer again. Personally this January has been pretty good for me. I moved to a flat on my own, started seriously working on the handmade business I want to start (soon!) and I made some decisions about my future with thesis submission looming on the horizon. All in all, I’ve been feeling quite confident and happy about my life choices.…
Best Reads of 2018
The end of 2018 has come and gone and it’s again time to look back on the year and list the best book I read. A lot happened in 2018! I moved back to the UK after two years in Australia and started the last year of my PhD. I was able to spend the Holidays at home again for the first time in three year. I’m starting up my own little homemade business and I’m moving in to a flat by myself. So many exciting events and so many promising things for the future. What seems to be a theme since I started my PhD, is that I haven’t…
Fall Into Fantasy Readathon: End Result
As I could have predicted, I didn’t manage to read 4 books in the 8-day Fall Into Fantasy Readathon organised by Penguin Teen. I did manage to finish half as many books and I loved them both. The first book I finished is Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan. This is what it’s about: Each year, eight beautiful girls are chosen as Paper Girls to serve the king. It’s the highest honor they could hope for…and the most cruel. But this year, there’s a ninth girl. And instead of paper, she’s made of fire. In this lush fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the…
Fall Into Fantasy Readathon (Penguin Teen)
Yikes, I’ve committed to something again that is probably not going to work out… But that doesn’t make me any less excited to tell you that I’m joining the people at Penguin Teen for their Fall Into Fantasy Readathon. It starts today (18/11/2018) and ends the 25th of November. In that time we’ll be reading at least 4(!) books off our TBR pile. People who have followed my pace of reading in the past know that this is a major stretch for me. With everything going on in my life, I barely read one book a week sometimes! But anyway, here are the 4 books I’ve chosen to…
Friday Firsts: Girls of Paper and Fire – Natasha Ngan
Friday Firsts is a meme that runs every Friday on Tenacious Reader. It will feature the first few sentences/paragraph of the book I’m currently reading and my first impressions. I first spotted this meme when it was first launched and it has taken me way too long to finally join in, but here it is! Enjoy! The book: Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Published: November 6th, 2018 Pages: 380 ARC? No There is a tradition in our kingdom, one all castes of demon and human follow. We call it the Birth-blessing. It is such an old, deep-rooted custom that it’s said even our gods…
Update: September
Read Malice and Valour by John Gwynne I read Malice for the first time when I received and ARC back in 2012/2013. It was one of the first paper ARCs I ever received and therefor it has always had a special place for me. I waited for all four books to come out to read them all, because I knew this was going to be an extraordinary story. I re-read Malice this month and then went straight on to read Valour. I’m loving it, what a story! Currently Reading Ruin by John Gwynne Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce Received Tempests and Slaughter by…
Update: What I’ve Been Writing
Hello everyone! It’s been pretty quiet on the blog again. I promise you though, I haven’t forgotten my promises from January! The last few months have been crazy. I have been working on something for a long time now, specifically writing something. I started it approximately two years ago at the start of my PhD and yesterday it finally got published! *Insert excited squealing here* Unfortunately it’s not a kickass Fantasy of Science Fiction book, but it’s a scientific literature review about my field of work. Combining writing scientific work and book reviews has been a real challenge for me, which is why I focused on the science more. Obviously…
Update: 2017
2017 has been an incredibly busy year. I’m slowly finding my place in the world through travel, volunteering and my work. It has been a slow year for the blog unfortunately. I’m sad I don’t have as much time and energy anymore to update more often. At the same time I’m learning so much, about myself and about what I want my future to look like. I’m still very keen to keep putting up reviews whenever I can, so that’s what I’ll continue to do. What have I been doing lately? Well, I coached my quidditch team here in Adelaide and we have went to Nationals in December. I’m also…
Update: February
February was another busy month for me: I bought a car (watch out Australia!) and I’ve decided to move house. Unfortunately I have not been able to keep to my ‘one-book-a-week’ resolution, but I’m eager to catch up. Work has finally settled into some form of routine, with less things going wrong which is really good for my stress-levels. This also means I now have a bit of time to explore what I want to add to the blog from now on. Exciting! I’m going to have a look around at interesting memes started on other blogs that I could participate in and I’ll be starting up the weekly Spotlight…
