We've all been there....

Haven't we?

I mean, we tell ourselves that we are going to be going on a book ban, and then we go and buy new books to add to our collection, to add to that pile of books in the corner of your room, or on a shelf, tucked away out the way so you don't trip over them. And yet we don't actually read them for a very long time...hell, I have books on my bookshelves that I have owned for over four years, maybe even longer that I haven't even read yet!

Atrocious, I know!

But on the bright side, I have plenty to choose from if I can't find anything to read at all. And as well, I'm pretty sure most of my books are second hand, over here in the UK, charity shops are amazing places to find bargains in. And not to mention, most of the time, the books look brand new, not a single crease within the pages or spines. Sure some others have been clearly, well read and loved and I love that too! To me, each crease in the spine of a book tells it's own story, so does the pages if there's stains and marks on them. I mean...who knows, one of those creases could've been someone reading the book during heartache, another could be from a moment when they read the book to escape reality, another could be from a moment the person shared the book with their friends, loved one or just someone they know.

To me, books aren't just paper, ink and glue. They are stories. They are a escape plan, a travel plan to another world. Books are a gift to a friend, a loved on, a stranger. They give the person, who is holding it in their hands a chance to explore another life time, another reality. Whether the reader is new to the book style, or someone coming back to it time after time, it's never going to stop making us feel alive when we read the words.

“Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent. What I wonder is why everybody doesn't carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life.” 

― Stephen King

I can't really remember how old I really was when I first started reading, but I do remember my favorite book as a kid and that was 'A tiger who came to tea.' I loved it so much and read it so much that my mum had to tape the pages together because it was falling apart. I think I owned that book until I was around fourteen/fifteen and I finally had to pass it on during a clear out.

But it was a book that I have loved all my life and if I was to ever have any children, I think I would hunt a copy down and share it with them.

Well....who knew this blog post would have a life of its own. I had started writing it with the intentions of showing you guys the new books which I had brought today. August was actually meant to be a month of book ban for me, but it clearly didn't work out lol.  

But here, have some photos of the books that I brought.

I hope that you have had a great Monday, so, until next time guys, I'll see you around.

Does anyone else buy books just because of their covers?

Yes.

That is the answer to my own question, there has been many times that I have brought books just because I loved the cover art. The latest is a book called Ink. It's so beautiful and shiny! I think even a crow would want the book lol.
See for yourself:

And then we have a few other books that I've picked up just because of their cover art, but really, how can you not buy them? I mean, just look how pretty they look. It's like looking at a bookstore and deciding not to go inside if you don't buy them.

Review: One of Us is Lying

One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Okay, so other than some person on Instagram being a total ass and spoiled the ending for me when I asked if anyone else had read the book yet.

I completely loved this book! It was kickass and had me hooked from the get go!! As well, it had me hooked since it made me think of the movie, The Breakfast club. Which is one of my all time favorite movies, apart from there's no death in the movie lol. I would totally recommend people reading this book and to give the author a lot of praise.

Can I get a Nate from somewhere? Pretty please? No....awe, okay.

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Review: The Quality of Silence

The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Holy Hell..... What a book!

For starters, The Quality of Silence is the first book that I have read, where one of the main characters have a disability, (being deaf). It was a completely new experience to me, but one I enjoyed greatly from the get go. TGOS was filled with action and suspense from the very first page and kept me intrigued, reading the book in less than two days I felt drawn in to the world that Ruby and Yasmin was in. From the moment they started their journey to the moment the book ended. Although saying that, when I finished the book, I couldn't help but go WHAT! How could it end that way? I honestly wanted there to be more, I hoped that there would be more. But other than that, I really enjoyed the book.

(Spoilers below, if you don't want to know more, stop reading now)
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From the moment Yasmin and her Daughter Ruby get's off the plane from England in Alaska, they have trouble, believed to be dead in a fire that wiped a whole village out, Ruby's mother sets out to find her husband and Ruby's father, believing that he is alive and not gone like the police say he is.
Setting out to get to the destroyed village, Yasmin and Ruby search for a rigger who would be willing to drive them to another city. When they are turned down, Yasmin starts to loose hope until another driver tells her about a driver who owned his own rig.
Willing and happy to take them, Yasmin and Ruby starts their journey across the wildness of Alaska. After a short while of being on the road, the driver of the rig notices headlights in his mirror, thinks it could be another driver on the road.
#As they drive, Ruby believes that her father is alive and well since her mother hasn't told her about the fire which has burnt the village down. As they drive, Ruby soon makes friends with the driver and find themselves talking about music and other things until they arrive at a rest stop, the last before open country for hundreds of miles.

While Yasmin is inside buying more food and drink, Ruby comes rushing in, explaining to her mother that their friend and driver had taken ill, soon he is returned to Fairbanks and Yasmin has to take matters in to her own hands.
Driving herself and Ruby in to the unknown, they soon encounter a fierce storm, making er worry even more after emails from a strange email address start to come through on Ruby's laptop, plus, those headlights are still following her and the truck.

Being forced to continue driving, Yasmin soon comes to the ice road that she spoke about to the driver and starts to test the ice until finally her and Ruby have to leave before they go down with the rig when it starts sinking.
Sending a flare up in hopes that the police will find them, mother and daughter starts walking and running to get of the ice, in sheer hoplesness, Yasmin starts shouting for her husband before she notices a torch running towards them. Stopping in fear, she holds Ruby close before the man appears and it's like her whole life is fixed when it turns out to be her husband, alive and as well as he can be after being out in the snow and storm.
It's not long before the officer who spoke with Yasmin at the start of their journey appears, telling them that he has the guy who was following her and Ruby. Matt tells them all everything which had happened and how he had found the villagers dead before he is shocked to know that a fire had been set to hide the truth behind their deaths. While the officer turns out to be one of the bad guys, Ruby sets off in the dark to get to a high point on a mountain so she can connect to the internet long enough to send out her blog and tweets for help.
The bad man ends up shooting the officer after he turns and helps Yasmin and Matt when they go after Ruby. Once he arrives and sees that she has sent the tweets out, the bad man, Jack, shoots the laptop before disappearing in to the night, leaving the family alone on top of the mountain.

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Review: The Lie

The Lie by Helen Dunmore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What would you do if you blamed yourself for your friends death?
But what more, is it if it happened in France, in the middle of no-man's land, during world war one?

This is how Dan feels, haunted by his friend, Dan tries to return home a few years after the war has finished. Like anyone who has gone through the horrors of the war, they just want to life quietly and get on with his life.

But after the death of the old woman that he had lived with, Dan finds himself lying to people of her condition, what seems like an innocent action of burying her on her own land, like she wanted, leads to an action which will see Dan reunited with his friend Fredrick.

Set in a quiet Cornish, coastal town during 1920, Helen Dunmore once again weeves a tails of war mixing with present life and the horrors that it brought.
She leads us through a battle of Dan's mind when it comes to visiting Fredrick's sister. We are shown moments from Dan's childhood and moments from when he is deployed for the trenches in France and in the middle of battle.

Along with a heartbreaking novel from the very first page, Dunmore starts each chapter with a insight taken from real books and magazines that soldiers would've read back in ww1. It helps to set the whole novel in to it's setting, and even as jumpy it may seem to some people when we jump from Dan's present to his past, to me, it flows perfectly.

As only the second book of Helen Dunmore's that I have read, the first being, The Greatcoat. A ghost story set in ww2 and the present.
The Lie is a book that will jerk at your heartstrings and have you leaving your heart with Dan at the end.

It's a book that I know I will read again and again. If I could give this book more than 5 stars, I would give it ten and plenty of praise to Helen Dunmore.

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In a Heartbeat - Animated Short Film

Review: Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Growing up, I thought I had known the story of Oliver Twist, through the school plays and reads that I had down in my early life in school. But sitting and reading through this book, I found myself being surprised a lot in the ordeal that young, Mr. Twist had to go through and just how he had managed to find himself in to a good place.
I am grateful that I had gotten a chance to read the novel by Charles Dickens and come to know the real story from what I had always believed I knew about Oliver Twist, which to come to admit was pretty much nothing apart from the famous. 'please sir, may I have some more.' And his time with Figgins, the jew.

It's opened my mind up to a lot of questions about what stories we get taught in schools and at a young age, which is changed and reshaped for our younger minds, keeping out all the bad things like the murders and the deaths of the gang and Miss. Nancy. It makes me wonder just how many other tales we were told as children from famous authors has been changed to make them more safer for our little minds.

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Review: The End of Mr. Y

The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An interesting concept of science and maths and the wonders of the whole world. The End of Mr. Y is a novel filled with twisting turns and concepts that leaves your mind bungled with thoughts and questions of...what if?

Although a little slow in the beginning, I quite enjoyed reading Thomas's novel, she has a way of counteracting tough and scientific terms in to an understand that even a simple mind could possible understand. Along the way, we meet many characters who both have big roles within the rest of the novel and just quick and brief encounters with the reader.
We travel all over the world within the mind and even by road with out main character Ariel, who in search of her teacher/boss/friend ends up coming across the cursed book of The End of Mr. Y and starts to get pulled in to the story line and in to the dangerous world that the book brings her.

It's a book I would recommend to anyone who would want something to help them stay awake at night or on a long journey, I promise you that you will not be disappointed with the novel of Scarlett Thomas

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Book Travel Project.

This book has traveled around a few different places over the world, and is currently on the way to America, if not already there. I started a book project with a couple of people,  sadly three who had joined up to be part of it disappeared and never took part. But I still had three other people and it's on the way to the last person before being returned to me.

And I can't wait. 

I enjoyed The Long way to a small angry planet a lot. Sure it was a little hard to get in to at first because it was a different kind of story, with all the space ships and what not included, there was a lot of words that I didn't really understand. But the further I got in to the book, the more I started getting in to the story line and the more I started to enjoy the different characters. 

I honestly can't wait until the book is returned to me so that I can see what everyone else has thought of each of the characters and different parts, their input on different matters and their opinions throughout the book.

It's been a long time coming, but I'm sure it wouldn't be long before it is returned. I will post photos of my favorite parts once I do have it back in my hands to share with anyone who ends up viewing my blog.

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I think I wanted to cry by the end of the book, it's so sad but uplifting at the same time. I honestly think that this is one book that is going to stick with me for quite a while. After having it sat on my bookshelf for so long, I'm glad that I have finally gotten around to reading it.

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The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Imagine, growing up in a town with no women, a town where everyone and anyone can hear what you and others can think. A town where even the animals can talk too!

It sounds like an alright town, right?
But what if, that you don't fit in to the town and their plans?
That's what Todd Hewitt find himself like.
Just a month until he turns thirteen, turns in to a man in the towns eyes, Todd knows that he doesn't fit in since he is the last boy left in town.

He's grown up, being told that all women were killed by a virus, released by the creatures who lived there before...But then his whole life is changed when he comes across a girl in the swamp.
Just what is the truth in town?

Setting of with just the girl and his dog, young Todd is set on a course that challenges him, challenges everything that he had ever known in his life.

The knife of never letting go, is filled to the brim with adventure, loyalty, friendship and challenges.
I found that it was hard to put down, even after the upsetting parts, it's a book filled with courage.

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