November 2015 TBR

Since last month I strayed far...far away from my October TBR, I decided to make a smaller one for this month, so hopefully by doing that I can read what I want to read, and I can get out of this reading slump I'm in.

I plan on reading:

1. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
2. 100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith
3. The Odyssey by Homer
4. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

I'm hoping that I can start to slowly pick up writing again this month, or at least try to. I also have a lot of travelling around to tour universities for next fall, so I'm hoping I can get a lot of reading done on those long drives. Have a great month everyone, and happy reading, writing, and NaNoWriMo!

October 2015 Wrap-Up

Hey all! So this month, I read a total of...four books. This month was just INSANE for tests and assignments for me, coupled with a horrible, painful reading slump, so not much reading was done.


I read:

• ★★★.5☆☆ The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• ★★★☆☆ Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• ★★★★☆ Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores by Jen Campbell
• ★★★★☆ Through the Woods by Emily Carroll

The first book I read was The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. It wasn't on my original TBR for the month, but I found it on my shelf and saw the illustrations in it, and I decided to give it a go. I throughoutly enjoyed the beginning of the book, but at one point I had to force myself to get through it since I found some parts were a little repetitive. After a little while though, I was back to really enjoying it and I managed to finish it in one last sitting. I enjoyed the story, but I really liked the characters, and the illustrations were absolutely amazing. I  wish there were more illustrations in the book!

The second book I read was Lord of the Flies by William Golding. I read it for my school book club, and I can see why a lot of people enjoy the book, but I honestly was not a massive fan of it. I personally found the characters to have no development throughout the book, and I found the story very slow, even though it is a very short book. I'm glad to be able to say that I've read it, but I will probably never be reading it again.

The third book I read was Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores. I'd heard of it before, and I found it in my local library to I decided to give it a go. I sat down and read the whole book in about twenty-five minutes, and I enjoyed it. I laughed out loud quite a few times, and I had the same reaction that the booksellers were having in the book. I enjoyed the short, quick read and I recommend it to anyone who works in retail or customer service, whether you like books or not.

I also read Through the Woods the same night I read Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores, and I really enjoyed it. I've never been a massive fan of graphic novels, but the few that I've read this year I really enjoyed. This book was creepy and dark, and a perfect Halloween read. The illustrations were amazing and they told the story perfectly. The book is composed of five short stories, and I really enjoyed all of them. They were easy reads, and the illustrations really helped to tell the stories.

October 2015 Book Haul

So, this month I got a total of just three books. I wanted to try and read more books than I bought this month, which was successful...but I only managed to read four books. The books I got this month are:

Young adult:

1. The Clockwork Scarab by Colleen Gleason

Adult:

1. You by Caroline Kepnes
2. Marley & Me by John Grogan

The next few months I will most likely to be buying a lot more than three books, so I'm glad that I was able to cut it down this month, because it helps me catch up on my massive TBR pile.

Top Ten Tuesday (5): Fictional Crushes

It's been awhile since I've done a Top Ten Tuesday, but school for me has just been absolutely insane. So, I thought I would try a light, (relatively) easy post for this week to ease me back into it!
This Tuesday I thought I would tell you all about my top ten fictional crushes, so here we are, in no particular order.

1. Jace Wayland from The Mortal Instruments
2. Will Herondale and Jem Carstairs from The Infernal Devices
3. Augustus Waters from The Fault in Our Stars
4. Akiva from Daughter of Smoke and Bone
5. James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser from Outlander
6. Malyen Oretsev and The Darkling from Shadow and Bone
7. Sam from Shiver
8. Cas Lowood from Anna Dressed in Blood
9. Noah Shaw from Mara Dyer
10. Warner from Shatter Me

Review: The Martian - Book to Movie Adaptation

This is a little something different for me, but a lot of people requested it so I figured I would give it a go!

I really, really enjoyed The Martian by Andy Weir when I read it back in July of this year. I gave it a 5/5 star rating, and I absolutely loved it, so I was extremely excited when I found out I was able to see The Martian for its opening weekend. I had superbly high hopes for the movie because of how much I loved the book, and I am so glad that I can say that I wasn't disappointed.


I'm going to start by saying that the movie and the book are both very different from each other, and that I'm not going to lie and say that they're the exact same. Some aspects of the movie were different from the book, and they left quite a bit out of the movie, but they stayed true to the story and that is all that really matters in my opinion.


Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him & forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded & completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—& even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—& a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him? (Synopsis from Goodreads).


I'm going to start with the basics of a movie - casting. Personally, I really liked the casting. A few characters were nothing like I had originally pictured them while I was reading the book, but I actually liked the casting of the people in the movie much better then what I had imagined. I found all of the acting to be very believable, and every actor/actress pulled me in and made me believe what they were saying.


I LOVED the setting of the movie. I am a science and space nerd, and seeing how realistic the surface of Mars was, and how detailed every square inch of the red planet was, the space nerd in me just loved every second of it. As well as the setting, the wardrobe was all very well designed. They were a lot different then what I had imagined (which was more of a space suit then what they had in the movie), but I really enjoyed being able to imagine all of the different scientific discoveries that we had made in order for us to be able to design and create the suits that they had over the time period between present day and the future, when The Martian takes place.


The plot, like I said in the above paragraphs, was very similar to that of the book, but there were a few differences. Thankfully there was nothing major missing, but there was a few scenes in the book that I really loved, and I was disappointed when they didn't make the cut into the movie. I understand that the movie was already 2 hours and 22 minutes as it was, and with even more details and scenes the movie could have been upwards of 4 hours, but that would have just made the movie even better. In the book, each and every obstacle that Mark Watney faces is something that makes him want to quit and give up, but instead we see him constantly pushing himself to come up with an idea to fix and solve the problem. Each obstacle helps Watney largely develop as a character, and I feel that by having more obstacles, and more parts of the book in the movie, it would just make it more believable and the viewers would be able to connect with him even more than without them.


Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. I loved how they kept all of the characters very defined, with each characters having their own personality, from disco music to Watney's sense of humor. I really liked the casting, the setting, and the wardrobe, as well as how they decided to film and create the movie. I recommend seeing the movie after reading the book, as there are a lot of details that you miss out on while watching it, but you don't need to read the book at all to enjoy the movie. I loved it, and I will most likely see it again while it's still in theatres!

October 2015 TBR

Hello everyone! This month seems to be a lot more hectic than I had originally planned for, but I really want to get a lot of reading done this month, especially over the long Thanksgiving weekend I have this coming up weekend!

I plan on reading:

• Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholke (Between #1 - reread)
• Between the Spark and the Burn by April Genevieve Tucholke (Between #2)
• Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin (Masque of the Red Death #1)
• Dance of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin (Masque of the Red Death #2)
• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding

I have already read The Graveyard Book, and I am currently reading Lord of the Flies for my school Book Club, but I also want to read at least three of these other books. Specifically the Between duology by April Genevieve Tucholke, and Dracula. Hopefully I can read all these books, but I guess we'll see what happens this month!

September 2015 Wrap Up

Hey all, it's my favourite time of the month, the end! It's usually more stressful for school, but I absolutely love the feeling of a new start, and I love seeing all the books everyone got, and read, over the course of the month! This month, I read a total of 6 books, which I think is really good considering school started for me this month.

• Say You Will by Eric Walters ★★★.5☆☆
• Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider ★★★★.5☆
• Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo ★★★☆☆
• Shadow and Bone (The Grisha #1) by Leigh Bardugo ★★★★.5☆
• Siege and Storm (The Grisha #2) by Leigh Bardugo ★★★★☆
• Ruin and Rising (The Grisha #3) by Leigh Bardugo ★★★★★

Say You Will by Eric Walters was a bit of an impulse buy last month, being signed and being an Eric Walters book. I read a lot of his books when I was younger, and I wanted a nice quick contemporary read. Overall, it was a very cute, contemporary read. It is only 192 pages, with a larger font, so I was able to read it in one short sitting. It is known as a young adult book, but it seemed like it was for a younger age group then I had originally anticipated. I just had my prom this past school year, so I was able to connect with a few of the characters due to the stress from prom, but that's as far as I really was able to connect with the characters. It was a very cute read, and I will most likely read it again in the future when I need a pick-me up or if I just want a very short read to get me out of a slump.

I went into Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider with very high hopes, as I had read her other book, The Beginning of Everything, in 2013. And boy, were those high hopes reached. I was able to connect with so many of the characters, and I loved each and every one of them. It was beautifully written, and the plot was so compelling and grabbing, I read it in just two sittings. I have a full review under the review page of my blog, so check that out if you want more information!

I read Love and Other Perishable Items because it had been sitting on my shelf for over a year, and I needed a short book to get me ready for my Shadow and Bone trilogy buddy read with my lovely friend Yeldah (@beautiful.bibliophile on Instagram) It was an alright book, but I expected much more from it. I felt that a lot of the story was being dragged on and that even though it is a short book to begin with, it could have been even shorter in length. I laughed at a few points, and it does have a few good humour aspects to it, but I couldn't really connect with the characters.

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo was definitely the best book I have read this month (thus far anyways). It was the first fantasy book I have read in a few weeks, and I have really been missing my fantasy reads.

Shadow and Bone takes place in a very different world, where some people are born with powers and are called Grisha. They are seen by some as saints, and others as witches. The story follows a young Alina, as she discovers that she is actually Grisha, and her massive change in her life and what must happen to her, and what she must do, with her newfound powers. This book was beautifully written, the characters were all witty and lovable, and the world was absolutely to die for. I have a full review up on the review page of my blog if you want more info!

Siege and Storm wasn't quite as good as Shadow and Bone was for me. There was a lot more world building in the first one (which is to be expected when it's the first book in a fantasy trilogy) and I felt like this book was supposed to be a lot more about character development, which I didn't see as much of as I would have liked. Other than that, I loved the twists and turns the characters were forced to deal with, and the writing style was just as beautiful as the first one. Definitely worth reading this series!

I also read the final book in The Grisha trilogy by Leigh Bardugo, Ruin and Rising. And just, wow. This book had me sitting there with it in my hands for the longest time after I had finished reading it. It was the ending I had wanted, plus a lot more that I just loved. There was the right amount of closure, and everything worked out perfectly, in my opinion. I would really really love more about these characters, and I really hope that Leigh Bardugo will write more about them (*hint hint wink wink*) and soon. It was an amazing final book, and I will definitely be re-reading this trilogy many, many more times.