Review | The Life Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo

The KonMari method of tidying has revolutionised organisation and minimalism all over the world. Since the age of 5, Marie Kondo has been tidying her own house and life, and has had clientele all over Japan. The Life Changing Magic of Tidying intends to teach you how to only keep the items that you truly love, how to discard the rest and to make your space into one in which you are truly happy. 

I really want to downsize my things, and to make my space into a happy one. I have enjoyed sorting through my things already, but reading this book has made me really excited to start tidying and making my place into a happy place! 

Book Review | Lament by Maggie Stiefvater

Sixteen-year-old Dee is a cloverhand – someone who can see faeries. When she finds herself irresistibly drawn to beautiful, mysterious Luke, Dee senses that he wants something more dangerous than a summer romance.

But Dee doesn’t realize that Luke is an assassin from the faerie world.

And she is his next target. – from Goodreads

Having read Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater, which I really enjoyed, I was looking forward to Lament. However, it wasn’t what I had hoped for. 

Top 3 Books I Read in July 2017

Over the course of July 2017 I read 17 books! Of those, here are three which I really loved:

1. Daughter of Smoke and Bone (#1) by Laini Taylor
   I looooooooved this book! It was wholly encompassing and a brilliant fantasy novel. Karou is a really interesting character and Laini Taylor is such a fabulous writer. I really, really loved this book, and I highly recommend it to everyone! I can’t wait to read Book 2 ASAP!
2. Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu
   Oh-em-geeeee! This book was FABULOUS! It doesn’t actually come out until September 2017, but WHSmith have copies already for the Zoella Book Club. This is such a brilliant book about feminism and zines, and I really hope it inspires so many young people out there when it officially comes out.
3. HHhH by Laurent Binet
   This book has a lot of hype surrounding it; and it’s very easy to see why. This is the most unique book I’ve ever read. It’s a historical novel like no other, and it’s about two parachutists who I can’t even believe I haven’t heard of before. I would have loved to have written this book myself, let me tell you that! If you love history, if you love faction, if you love uniqueness, read this book!

So there you have my three favourite books of July 2017! What did you read this month? Have you read any of the books I wrote about here? Let me know in the comments below! 😀

Book Review | Ink by Alice Broadway

Every action, every deed, every significant moment is tattooed on your skin for ever. When Leora’s father dies, she is determined to see her father remembered forever. She knows he deserves to have all his tattoos removed and made into a Skin Book to stand as a record of his good life. But when she discovers that his ink has been edited and his book is incomplete, she wonders whether she ever knew him at all. – from Goodreads

I thought that the premise and, indeed, the execution of Ink was such a brilliant idea. I love that this is a really tattoo-positive novel, too. 

Book Review | The Glory by Lauren St John

Alex is a classified young deliquent. Sent by her mum and stepfather to Camp Renew, a boarding school in America, across the Atlantic. 

Will is a would-be vet, currently flipping burgers and wishing that he could take care of his father and his horse, Shiraz. 

The Glory is a 2000 mile endurance race across four states over the USA. Both Alex and Will have signed up for the race. Now all there is to do is win. 

I really, really loved The Glory. It was such a brilliant story! 

Book Review | Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland

Henry has gotten through life just fine, thank you. No scandals, none of his name in the paper. Until, that is, he met Grace Town.

Grace is unusual. She dresses in boy’s clothing; she has a cane; she talks when she wants to and who she wants to; and Henry is absolutely infatuated. Grace is a mystery, a ball of string to be unravelled. Henry wants her to be his, and he is going the right way about it. 

But Grace isn’t all that Henry wishes she could be. Something he is going to find out. 

I really loved Our Chemical Hearts. I thought that the story was really beautiful. Krystal Sutherland also has a great talent for writing; it was, overall, a complete pleasure to read.

Book Review | Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Eleanor Oliphant has learned how to survive – but not how to live. She leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes to work every day, eats the same meal deal for lunch every day and buys the same two bottles of vodka to drink every weekend.

Eleanor Oliphant is happy. Nothing is missing from her carefully timetabled life. Except, sometimes, everything. One simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has built around herself. Now she must learn how to navigate the world that everyone else seems to take for granted – while searching for the courage to face the dark corners she’s avoided all her life.

Change can be good. Change can be bad. But surely any change is better than… fine? – Goodreads

This book was… interesting.

The writing style put me off at first. It was quite staccato-ed, and although I guess that was the point of it, it was difficult to understand. However, it definitely grew on me. It really gave Eleanor such a unique voice, that eventually I was thinking in that way of talking too.

The plot was difficult, because there were many subplots all combining into an almost coming-of-age/discovering yourself story. It was, actually, really quite nice to read and I liked that there was a mystery of what was happening, what Eleanor’s past had been about.

I also liked that Eleanor was different, but still appreciated. It was, I suppose, a bit wish-fulfilling, because of course if you’re not liked, you’re not liked – people aren’t secretly harbouring a friendship with you (sorry, but it’s true). So, whilst I did like this plot point, of Eleanor discovering that ~she does fit in after all~, it was really tricky to actually believe in it.

That is what is so strange about this, I guess; it is so unbelievable, overall. I figure that the book was really good. I was gripped the entire way through, I really loved it and was thinking about it for days afterwards, but overall? It was so unbelievable. Well, not all of it; just some of it, I guess. It was just difficult for me to understand, perhaps, especially because this was definitely an adult novel and despite the fact I am legally an adult, in actual fact, I definitely am not.

I think that this book will become a new best seller, because it is wholly unique and wonderful in its own right. I really loved reading it, and it was the right book for me at the right time in which I was reading it, but all in all I don’t think that it’s a new favourite of mine, in the grand scheme of things. However? Overall, I would definitely recommend it, partly because of just how different it is.

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TITLE: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
AUTHOR: Gail Honeyman
GENRE: Adult
PUBLISHER//YEAR OF PUBLICATION: HarperCollins // 2017
NUMBER OF PAGES: 299
ISBN: 9780008172114
GOODREADS
PERSONAL SOURCE: ARC sent by NetGalley
RATING: 3.5/5

Book Review | Stranger, Baby by Emily Berry

Stranger, Baby is a book of poetry by up-and-coming poet Emily Berry. In this collection, a mixture of poetry, play, and prose, Berry has a sense of fantasy, humour, estrangement. Berry digs deep into her past of childhood loss and dedicates this book to her mother. A book of mourning, exhilaration and the ocean: ‘A meditation on a want that can never be answered.’ 

It took me a while to get into this book of poetry. Berry is a writer of wonder. She writes wonderfully, but I don’t really read much poetry like this.

Book Review: Sex Criminals Vol. 3 by Matt Fraction & Chip Zdarsky

When Jon and Suzie have sex, they can stop time. Literally. And when they stop time, they rob banks.

As you do. 

But it seems that they’re not alone and the self-appointed Sex Police want to stop them from doing what they’re doing. And that’s why we have Sex Criminals: Volume Three. 

Sex Criminals is really weird. Like, the premise is weird. The writing is weird. It’s just weird. 

Book Review | Windfall by Jennifer E Smith

Alice doesn’t believe in luck – at least, not the good kind. But she does believe that she is in love; with her best friend, Teddy. On his eighteenth birthday, she buys him a lottery ticket as a joke – but to their astonishment, he wins $140 million and changes everything. 

At first it seems like a dream come true, but it quickly spirals into more of a curse than a windfall and Alice begins to wish she could take the ticket back. But she knows that you can’t change time, better than anyone. Will she and Teddy ever find their way back to each other? 

I really enjoyed this novel. I think it’s a really feel-good YA, and I got through it so quickly which was an added bonus. It’s a real dreamy book – both in the way of winning the lottery, and the way it was written! I felt so relaxed reading it, although I was completely unable to put it down.