I’d been in a put of a book slump, but the past couple of weeks has rejuvenated my love of literature, and has got me very excited to think about the books I’d love to get my mitts on!
Of course, I have tonnes of books unread on my shelves, but like any bookworm (read: hoarder) I am always looking for interesting new tomes to add to the list…
Continue reading “Books I’d Love to See Under my Christmas Tree!”
Some writers begin their novel planning with a plot; some begin with a character. Either way, the protagonists, antagonists, side characters, and even the background ones are all crucial to your novel and knowing your characters can make or break a readable, engaging story.
I made a mistake when I began writing my last novel: I didn’t get to know my protagonist like a friend. I knew who she was, her background, and her motives, but I didn’t actually know her. I ended up having to pause in my writing and develop her characterisation, because otherwise she simply felt too flat.
Continue reading “Preptober 2021 | 5 tips to develop your characters”
How do the summer holidays always go by so fast?! Even though I am now a teacher, not a student, it still feels like the last day of school was just yesterday!
In August, I did not read as many books as I wanted to. Thought I thought it was going to be a relatively quiet month, August turned out to actually be rather hectic and busy. I did a lot of adventuring and day trips, as well as a couple of overnight trips; I finished my Masters, and my first edited novel; and I had a good time! Maybe August wasn’t as productive and book-filled as I’d expected, but sometimes that’s not a bad thing.
Continue reading “Monthly Reading Wrap Up | August 2021”
I swear, I only went in for, like one book. Maybe two, at a push. Certainly not the *cough* five I came out with…!
I haven’t done a book haul on this blog for a while, but these books seriously excite me, and I want to share them with you!
Continue reading “Brighton Book Haul!”
I stopped doing TBRs a while ago, simply because I wasn’t reading the books I listed! Now, I write down 3 books I would like to get to each month in my reading journal, and most months I get to at least 2!
However, I thought I’d share some of the books I would like to read this August. As a teacher, August is my summer holiday, and even though I have things to do and a book to edit (!!), I’m hoping to have a couple of hours a day to read.
Continue reading “Books I Would Like to Read in August!”Another month is over in 2021, and I can’t quite believe how fast it’s going! The first four months of the year crawled by at a snail’s pace, and now they’ve flown by!
July was quite a busy month for me. I finished my first year of teaching (my training year, but it was also a full year!), went to stay with my partner, had a mini-break, and attended my first wedding reception as an adult! It was a blast, and I had a really lovely month, especially the last few weeks of it.
Books That Matter delivered another stellar box this month, and even though, for the first time, I already had the book, I was still very excited to open it.
“Herland” was themed around feminist utopia and dystopia. In recent months, pop culture has seen the rise of dystopias once again, with the likes of books released in the pandemic as well as hits such as The Handmaid’s Tale. I think it’s a really interesting theme to have a book box themed around, especially a feminist one like BTM.
Continue reading “Unboxing | Books That Matter: “Herland” | July 2021″
10-year-old Samkad lives with his Father and his village in the Philippines 100 years ago. Life is not always fair and is not always safe, but Samkad is awaiting the day he becomes a man. But then a new boy arrives in the village, bringing someone called an “American” with them, and war is about to come.
I read Bone Talk as I will be teaching it at school, and this book raises a lot of questions that I think will be fascinating to discuss (though they could be tricky too!).
Continue reading “Review | Bone Talk by Candy Gourlay”
March was a pretty slow reading month for me! I had eyes bigger than my brain for my to be read list, and ended up reading 4 books over all. Whilst this isn’t necessarily bad, it’s frustrating to me as someone who wants to read a lot!
Continue reading “Reading Wrap-Up | March 2021”
Why do I get halfway through the year and decide to do something new? Honestly. I cause myself headaches sometimes.
After watching a few videos by the amazing booktuber Nayareadsandsmiles, I thought I would re-evaluate what I’ve been reading and how much I read! Therefore, I have a few more goals that I want to aim towards for the rest of the year.
2:1 Diet (of books)
Naia said that she wanted to read 2 books during the week and 1 at the weekend. I think this is a brilliant target and I want to take it on myself. Obviously I probably won’t always reach this, and I won’t stress about it, but it’s nice to aim for something.
1 eBook per week
This one is pretty self explanatory but I’ve already had this goal for 2 weeks and I have so far failed. Oops. I have a massive backlog of unread eBooks and I would like to get through some!
More BAME books
I want to read so many more BAME books! You can see my blog post about examining my white privilege through literature in which I talk about this in more detail.
And that’s it! What do you think about my goals? After evaluating your reading from the first half of the year, do you have any more yourself?
Keep reading!
Sprinkled With Words 