Books & Bobs

Reviews and musings from an aspiring writer, wistful traveller and lifelong booknerd.

[bookmania]

We need never be hopeless because we can never be irreparably broken.

John Green, Looking for Alaska (via bookmania)

[charheartsbooks]

I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.

Audrey Hepburn

[charheartsbooks]

Having just finished reading the Divergent series by Veronica Roth, I am now seriously excited about this movie.

If you are looking for your next dystopian Hunger Games fix, then I really recommend this series. However, as is often the case with these sort of books, the first in the series is definitely the best and they get progressively worse from there. The plot of the third book stumbled a bit, especially as the author decided to write it in dual narrative rather than from the viewpoint of Tris as the first two books had been, and the ending was plain shocking. So shocking in fact that I wouldn't be surprised if they decide to change it for the final film. 

Despite those things it is still a brilliant series, and it is very easy to get lost in the story and the characters. The premise - that after a great war society has been divided into factions, and people decide where they belong based on aptitude tests taken at sixteen - is really interesting. Then of course there is the enticing romance between the kick-ass heroine and the dark and brooding hero. All in all Divergent has just the right ingredients for a great YA dystopian series, and I really recommend reading it before you go to see the film.

A word of warning though - like in Game of Thrones, no character in Divergent is safe, so don't get too attached. 

[charheartsbooks]

Well I can't grow an epic beard, but still. This is a great answer.

[charheartsbooks]

"My name is Darcy. I see the extraordinary in the everyday and the wonder in the world around me. This is my first book. 

In this book you will find out:

How to calm an Angrosaurus rex with some Maltesers.

Running away with a reluctant pet lamb in tow leads to sore kneebows.

Baby brothers LOVE being dressed up as girls (they don't, they prefer zombie snakes)"

I am more than a little bit excited about the fact that the wonderful DARCY BURDOCK is out today! Congratulations and HAPPY DARCY DAY to Laura Dockrill!

"The world is so lucky to be invited into the colourful imagination of my favourite person! You're going to have fun!" - Adele

Meet Darcy at http://darcy-burdock.tumblr.com/

[charheartsbooks]

Just noticed this band poster irony in my living room.

[netgalley-deactivated20180102]

NetGalley Devours: Big Change for Stuart by Lissa Evans

We have one more children’s book review for you this month! Keep an eye out for the Children’s Book Roundup in your inbox later today for even more great children’s titles available on NetGalley.

Have you read and reviewed Big Change for Stuart too? Let us know via Facebook or Twitter! #NGDevours

Big Change for Stuart by Lissa Evans (Random House Children’s Publishers UK, pub date: May 2, 2013)

Recipe

Mix magic mayhem and mystery with fiendish puzzles and pulsating peril to make a truly compelling confection.

Description

Stuart Horten – ten, but looks younger – is now the owner of a magician’s workshop. Except that without his Great-Uncle’s Last Will and Testament, he can’t actually prove it. Which is a problem, since someone else wants it as well: someone who has a lot of money.

The workshop contains seven magnificent stage illusions, but when Stuart starts to investigate them, he discovers that each is the gateway to a magical adventure, with a puzzle to solve, and a clue to extract.

As the clues mount up, the adventures become riskier. Friendship is strained, danger looms, and Stuart has to decide what sort of prize he really, truly wants. [From the publisher]

Review

I have to confess I don’t read much Children’s fiction – but this title really caught my eye. My favourite book as a child was Stuart Little and finding another little Stuart was too much to resist, especially as my first child is due in a month!

While Big Change for Stuart is a sequel to Lissa Evans’ Little Change for Stuart, it works perfectly well as a standalone novel (in fact …

Read More

[gamechangershow]

[charheartsbooks]

These just made me laugh out loud. Happy Valentine’s Day!

[charheartsbooks]

Don't you just love the random names some parents come up with for their children? This is a list of my current favourites. In particular Usmarine. She is American. Her father is a US Marine. Yes, really. And L-a is pronounced "Le-dasha". But spelt L-a.

[charheartsbooks]

[bibliophilem-deactivated2019122]

Submission courtesy of operativesystemlain

[charheartsbooks]

Oh, books, what books they used to know, Those children living long ago! So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV set away, And in its place you can install A lovely bookshelf on the wall.

Roald Dahl

[vintageanchorbooks]

Writing tips from Toni Morrison via The Paris Review… 1. “Write when you know you’re at your best.” 2.  “There’s a line between revising and fretting” 3. A good editor is “like a priest or a psychiatrist.” 4. Don’t write with an audience in mind, write for the characters. 5. Control your characters. 6. Plot is like melody; it doesn’t need to be complicated. 7. Style, like jazz, involves endless practice and restraint 8. Be yourself, but be aware of tradition Details here.

[charheartsbooks]

Incredible cupcakes created by RHCP Marketing Assistant Rachel to celebrate publication of QUEENIE by Jacqueline Wilson!

[vintageanchorbooks]

1. Addiction: Othello, Act II, Scene II 2. Arch-villain: Timon of Athens, Act V, Scene I 3. Assassination: Macbeth, Act I, Scene VII 4. Bedazzled: The Taming of the Shrew, Act IV, Scene V 5. Belongings: Measure for Measure, Act I, Scene I 6. Cold-blooded: King John, Act III, Scene I 7. Dishearten: Henry V, Act IV, Scene I 8. Eventful: As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII 9. Eyeball: The Tempest, Act I, Scene II 10. Fashionable: Troilus and Cressida, Act III, Scene III 11. Half-blooded/hot-blooded: King Lear, Act V, Scene III/ Act III, Scene III 12. Inaudible: All’s Well That Ends Well, Act V, Scene III 13. Ladybird: Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene III 14. Manager: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act V, Scene I 15. Multitudinous: Macbeth, Act II, Scene II 16. New-fangled: Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act I, Scene I 17. Pageantry: Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act V, Scene II 18. Scuffle: Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, Scene I 19. Swagger: Henry V, Act II, Scene IV/A Midsummer Night’s 20. Uncomfortable: Romeo and Juliet, Act IV, Scene V

[watercolour-tattoos]

[charheartsbooks]