Rainy Day Reads

I was excited when I found this book at a used book sale, because I have heard so much about Toni Morrison’s writing and I have been meaning to get a hold of one of her books. So this was my chance and I grabbed it!  I must say that I am a bit disappointed. I was expecting a beautiful story, but instead I found it a bit dull and a little confusing at times. She jumps back and forth in time and the narrator changes and sometimes it takes just a bit too long to catch onto that fact, which makes it a bit of a confusing reading experience.  Beware of spoiler bits below! The story is all about the people and the different relationships between them, and for me, that gets a bit boring in the long run. I like a plot driven story, and while I do think there was some plot development in the book, it almost always came in the form of flashbacks. These flashbacks were spaced far between, so you got to know the backstory of how these people ended up where they are at the beginning of

I just finished this book and thought I would get the review done as quickly as possible before I forget what I have to say about it. I had high hopes for this book, since the hype surrounding it and the movie adaptation has been huge. Albeit I am a little late to the party, since the hype was at its highest a few months ago, I would say. But I finally got around to reading it and I have to say I was sorely disappointed. Beware of spoilers below!! I started reading and the story seemed like it would be suspenseful and full of exciting reveals and discoveries. It starts with a boy with no memory. He only remembers his name, Thomas. He is sent to a place full of boys just like him. The place is called the Glade and it sits inside a giant maze. The boys have been trying to escape this maze for two years, meanwhile building a functioning society. Thomas arrives and things start to change. This sounds like an amazing story, but about halfway through the book, I realized I was bored.

The castle is the hallmark of the city of Edinburgh, perched on top of an extinct volcano. It traces its history back to the little Chapel of St. Margaret from the 1100s, which is the oldest building in all of Edinburgh. I went there in 2005 when I was doing the big Interrail trip of Western Europe with my friend. The castle was at the top of the sightseeing list in Edinburgh, and it did not disappoint. Included in the admission price was a free group tour, and we took advantage of that. I think you just get more out of a place when you have a guide. Of course, there is a big difference between guides, some are good, some are bad, but our guide in the castle was really good. He told us all the "obvious" stuff, but also the fun things you might not get from reading a guide book. We saw the cemetery for the dogs of the soldiers that served at the castle and the cannons that had never been fired, because they were navy cannons, which means that they were meant to be

This book was written by Patrick Ness, but it is based on an idea from Siobhan Dowd, who passed away before she could finish the book she had in mind. It is illustrated by Jim Kay, and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Kate Greenaway Medal. Beware of spoiler-y bits below. Nothing too revealing, but it's hard to talk about this book without mentioning a few key points. This book is about a boy who gets visited by a monster. The monster comes to the boy to help him come to terms with what is happening in his life and how he feels about these events. The monster will tell the boy three stories and then the boy has to tell the monster the truth. And that scares the boy, because he is afraid to even admit the truth to himself. The stories the monster tells all take an unexpected turn, but the monster has good reasoning for how these stories end. And these stories make you think about right and wrong and the grey area and what people are willing to do in order to achieve their

I recently finished this book, which is the last book of the "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" trilogy by Laini Taylor. The first book of the series is called "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" and the second is called "Days of Blood and Starlight". I bought the entire series on a whim, because every booktuber on Youtube seemed to be raving about this series. The shop only had the two first in stock, though, so I started reading the series and then I debated whether or not to buy the last one, since the first book didn't really intrigue me that much. But I read the second one, because I already had it (and I have a hard time stopping in the middle of something) and about halfway through this really picked up for me. So I bought the third book to finish off the series.  Beware of a few spoiler-y bits below. Nothing too bad, but if you like going into a book "blind" stop reading here! The story was epic, including magic, monsters, angels and d

I am going to Morocco soon (YAY!) and being in town yesterday, I took the opportunity to buy a few items for the trip. It turned into a bigger shop than intended, so I thought I would share my little haul. First of all there are a few essentials, like sun block, bug spray and bug bite relief creme. Sun block especially for the lips is important too! You don't want crispy lips! I always opt for quite a high SPF as my skin does not tan well. This is a new type for me though, as I have not tried the Ambre Solaire SPF 50 before, so I hope it will actually absorb into the skin and not just sit on top like a white coat of paint (I am pale enough as it is). Cremes with high SPF sometimes don't really absorb that well, but Ambre Solaire is usually okay. Then I got a few pouches for packing. I thought these small one from Tiger were especially handy. They have suggestions for what to put in them like q-tips and your toothbrush. I will definitely use the small ones for q-tip

So I am a bit of a hoarder. And I like to keep my house as a museum, everything is on display! It has never bothered me before that my house has always been a little cramped and messy because of the countless picture frames, souvenirs and books scattered over every available surface. But recently I have started to feel like maybe I do have a few too many things on display...just a few! Therefore I have started a project. I am going to organize my belongings, get rid of things I don't use or need and move my furniture around to hopefully create a bit more space and flow in my apartment. I have already started and I must say I am quite proud of myself. Being a hoarder means it's really hard to throw things away, and I get emotionally attached to random things like my old broken shoes, notes from school, old doodles etc. And I have tried many a time to organize my things and throw stuff like that away, but I always get caught up in the good memories attached to these things an

For some reason I thought this was a roadtrip book...maybe because of the truck on the cover. But anyway...it's not! And once I got over my disappointment (I have a thing for roadtrip books) and confusion as to when they were going to get moving, I really enjoyed the book. It is about two boys who meet one summer at the local swimming pool. We follow their friendship over a year or so, as they discover who they are and come to terms with these discoveries. We follow Aristotle, or Ari, as he builds this new friendship with Dante and explores his own feelings and thoughts on the cusp of adulthood. It is a moving and tender book, that has won a whole slew of awards, but I didn't love it as much as I thought I would based on the hype on Youtube. It was a little slow-going for me, especially in the beginning when I was still waiting for them to take off on a roadtrip. And that is all down to me and my random expectations as to the plot. But still, once I realized that this was n

This is a graphic novel and it's the first one I have read of it's kind since I stopped reading Donald Duck (does that count as graphic novels?). Brian K. Vaughan is the writer and Fiona Staples is the artist. I enjoyed both the story and the art, but I must say I don't think graphic novels are for me. I don't know why really. When I was reading it, I found it really hard to take the time to really look and appreciate the art and not just read the bubbles and rush through to the end. I guess I could practice that, but I am not sure I want to invest that much in it. As I said I really liked the story but it was just over too soon. And I guess that is sort of the point with graphic novels. They are really short, for the most part, and are made to be series. But at the cost of an actual novel hundreds of pages long, I can't be satisfied with the small chunk of story line in each graphic novel. That was my problems with graphic novels in general. As for this one s