New Year, New Look!

Happy new year, everyone!

As you can probably tell – I don’t really need to make a blog post about this, really – there’s been some changes! They’ve kinda been a long time coming.

I stuck with my old theme for a really long time – longer than any other theme I’d had. So, inevitably, it’s a little sad for me to see my old little blog banner go… But I am loving this new look.

I’m in year eleven, and I’m not great at managing my time, which is not going to be useful in the coming months. Whilst I was planning and scheduling blog posts through December, I realised I was going to need some more motivation to blog. Since September last year, I’ve been in some sort of blogging slump (I wrote about two posts in three months – I’d just scheduled things previously so you couldn’t tell). I realised I’d been slowly losing my love for blogging, the deeper I got into year eleven.

So, my plan is… If I change things up a bit, and start this year with a shiny new look, I’ll be more motivated to post!

It’s been working so far, actually – picking out a new theme and designing a new header weirdly pulled me out of my reading and blogging slump. So, fingers crossed I’ll be able to balance school work and blogging up until Summer – because without this part of my life, I think I’ll go a bit insane!

I’d love to hear your thoughts about the changes I’ve made! Do you like them?

(Personally, I’m really into my new header. It’s looking less cluttered, and it was pretty fun to splash some paint around IRL and fiddle around in Photoshop:) )

15 in 15: What I’ve been Loving this Year

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I hope you had an awesome Christmas and/or holiday!

In 2014, I made a huge infographic of my favourite reads of the year. It took ages, and I read a ridiculous amount last year, so that list was pretty big. I like summary posts, and I thought – why not write about just my top fifteen books of 2015? And, while I’m at it, why not throw in some other things too… So here’s a post of my top fifteen books, albums and movies/tv series of the year! Most of the things mentioned in this post are relatively new (out this year) but some are recent discoveries I’ve made.

(shhh the Blue Neighbourhood music video trilogy totally counts)

Have you enjoyed any of the things I’ve mentioned above? What’s been your favourite discovery of this year?

Have a great 2016!

2015: in Words and Pictures

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It doesn’t feel right to be sitting down at my laptop right now, condensing all the great things that have happened this year into one blog post. This year has been one of the most important ones of my life so far, and so many great things have happened. It’s all flown by!

Here’s a few highlights of my year, bookish and non-bookish. I did a similar post last year and would like to make it an annual thing, as it’ll be nice (or embarrassing? I always laugh at my old posts) to look back on these in the future.

One of my favourite bookish events happened in this month – I was lucky enough to get tickets to a talk by Gayle Forman at Foyles when she visited the UK promoting I Was Here. I really admire Gayle’s books so it was a fantastic opportunity to meet her.

I took early entry exams in this month in science, PE and ICT. I was freaking out about them for months (except for PE, which I had… a week’s notice for. Thanks school) and all but one of the five exams were in one week. It was terrifying, considering this wasn’t near as many GCSEs as I’ll be doing next year. However, I’m really glad I took them early and got passing grades in them.

After all of the exam madness was over, I went to see Carrie the Musical in London. It was in a relatively small theatre in Elephant and Castle, and only ran for a couple of months, but it definitely deserves to come back! It was eerie and gory and fantastic.

This month was so exciting. In the first two weeks, I had my first ever work experience placement at a publishing company. I got to work with some fantastic, inspiring people and it’s helped me in starting to decide what kind of a career I want in the future.

Almost accidentally, I somehow managed to get some of the tickets to the #AskPaperTowns event in London. I went with my mum and a friend and it was such an unforgettable night – what was said to be a Q&A with John Green was unexpectedly also joined by Cara Delevingne and Natt Wolff – and hosted by Dan and Phil. It was such a surreal day and I also was able to meet Emma Blackery and LukeIsNotSexy, two YouTubers that I’ve loved for years!

Also this month, Sci Fi by the Sea, which is fast becoming my favourite convention, was brought back to Herne Bay for its third run. It was even bigger than the last one and there was so much cool stuff there! I love seeing this convention grow every year.

YALC! This second year was even bigger and better than the launch of this event last year – a new venue and almost a whole floor dedicated to YALC at this year’s London Film and Comic con meant so much was going on. I’m really thankful to have been invited to a blogger’s breakfast before events started on Sunday, and I had a great time in talks and workshops for the rest of the day, catching up with people and of course, buying books. One of my highlights of the day is actually one of my highlights of this year – after years of talking online, I finally met Siobhan Curham, author of True Face – she’s such a fantastic person and inspiration.

At the end of July, I worked at a summer camp at my school (I did the same in 2014, but unofficially). Those two weeks were incredibly important to me, as I learned so many skills through being on the camp’s media team. I think after those two crazy weeks of photography and filmography, I’d actually like to go into a media related career!

I went on one of the best trips I’ve ever been on in August – to Amsterdam. It was such an unforgettable holiday and I would love to revisit the city sometime in the future. It was fascinating to see Van Gogh paintings in person and visit Anne Frank’s house. And, looking back on it, it’s quite laughable how long I dragged my family around for looking for the TFiOS Bench. There’s a bookish recap of my trip on this blog, and a photos on my photography blog here and here.

Oh, yep, and I made a new blog! It’s called geetakesphotos and it was created when I realised I wanted a place to document my everyday happenings, and adventures, that wasn’t a neglected hard drive. I bought a DSLR with my first Saturday job wages in June and I am loving getting into photography, and sharing it all publicly on my new blog. I’d love it if you could check it out!

After Amsterdam, I spent the rest of my Summer preparing for year eleven (translation: sleeping) and volunteering at my local library for a second year. I love working there so much, as it’s so rewarding to be a part of the process that awards children for improving their reading and encouraging their love for it!

November was full of mock exams. I also took my early entry English Language GCSE. It was even scarier than all the exams I did in May put together, because it’s one of the subjects I really want an A in, especially if I’m doing English at A Level. My mock exam results for English Language were a bit up and down, so I’m just crossing my fingers until I found out how I did in January!

I also went to my first concert this month (the same day as said English exam – I’ve never been so tired, but it was worth it). Seeing Imagine Dragons and Sunset Sons live was such a cool experience, and they were fantastic first concert choice. I’m so grateful to have been able to go. There’s a recap about it on my photography blog!

And, finally… I started applying to Sixth Forms. That’s scary. I’m really excited for whatever place I ultimately receive, because I’ll finally be studying just the subjects I enjoy. I can’t get over how cool it’s going to be to actually learn about films and/or photography for real classes very soon!

–

Also, here’s a quick top five favourite blog posts I’ve written / hosted this year:

The Tour in Between Guest Post: Nancy Tucker’s Recommended Reads

Book Review: The Big Lie by Julie Mayhew

Songs and Stories #2

Books About Books: An Infographic

Infographic: Autobiographies I’ve Read in 2015

Thank you, as always, to all of the publishers and authors who send me books to review and give me great advice about the industry. Although there’s been a bit of a lull in reviewing on this blog lately (year eleven madness) I’m hoping to pick up my old blogging habits again in 2016.

Watch this space next week for a similar blog post, about my top reads of the year – I’m also going to be sharing some of my other favourite discoveries of 2015.

End of an Era

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~~bet you all thought ‘end of an era’ meant i was giving up blogging hah~~

I went to see Mockingjay: Part 2 a few nights ago. I was blown away. Of course, at points it felt a little dragged out, as any book split into two films does. But that was okay. I didn’t really want it to end.

The Hunger Games was the first YA book I read. I was in a charity shop (I always thought this was in 2008 but it must have been 2009 at least, now I’ve done the maths), and it was on the adult shelf my dad was looking at. I picked it up because it was that cool collectible edition with the changing cover. It looked quite good. I put it back because my dad said it looked a little violent.
A girl tapped me on the shoulder when she saw me put it back. She looked about sixteen, and when I think back to it, she was actually a bit like a present version of me, with blondey-gingery hair and glasses… But anyway.
“I really recommend that book. It’s SO good. You’ll love it!” She said. I smiled at her, gave my dad a pleading look as if to say “It can’t be that violent, then!” And persuaded him to buy it. output_J4k28u

I read and reread it all the way up until the end of year six. I was so stunned by the story. It was nothing like the younger-age books I’d had access to read before. This was full of violence, gore and rebellion, but an underlying message about how powerful it can be to act against the bad things in society. I was in love with it. I had never loved characters so much before.
My friend in primary school and I took to obsessively talking about it at every given chance, and hanging out on the Hunger Games Wiki page. (If you look hard enough on there, there’s a bunch of blog posts by Wiki users creating their own Hunger Games fanfiction. I’m so glad I’ve forgotten my username. I’m not reading through my rubbish again 😛 )

I had finished all three books a while before the movie had been announced. I was ecstatic when I found out I’d be able to see it on a big screen. This was huge, as huge as Harry Potter to me, if not an even bigger thing, because I was actually starting to communicate online with people from the fan-base, which I hadn’t been able to do when Harry Potter movies were being released. I would take over my mum’s computer every day after school to obsessively refresh Hunger Games news sites.

I went to see the first movie with two of my closest friends and I’m pretty sure they had to hold in the urge to tell me to shut up, because I was sniffling the whole way through.

Just before Catching Fire came out, I started to really discover fandom culture. I joined some of those fan groups on facebook for various books and films. While I was taking in all of this new fandom culture, I was also starting to ‘properly’ blog, and I was being sent increasing amounts of teen books to review. It was so exciting – I jumped from The Hunger Games to The Enemy by Charlie Higson, then to Divergent by Veronica Roth, then to a plethora of other things. I started going through the teen section of the bookstore. I was a pain in the butt to everyone I knew, because I became overexcited when anyone referenced Katniss.

It was great.

Catching Fire and Mockingjay: Part 1 were so brilliant. I’m so glad to have grown up from the ages of 9 – 15 with these films. I think it’s the perfect time for them. They introduced me to so many things.
Without The Hunger Games, I don’t think I’d be the YA reader I am today. Without The Hunger Games, I don’t think I’d really think the way I do now – the books introduced me to the idea of questioning norms and the way the media can distort things. It’s scary, how close some events in the stories are to real life. There’s serious life lessons in them.

To be honest, The Hunger Games led me to discovering so many new things online and in fiction that my visible obsessiveness died down a little. I haven’t seemed as excited about the last two films’ releases – I’ve hardly put anything on social media about them. But inside, this fictional world still bears a lot of meaning and is one of the most important things I’ve read and watched.

Mockingjay: Part 2 came out the week before my mock exam week, so I couldn’t see it for a while. When I did, it was a bit overwhelming. When the credits started to roll, I was hit by the fact that there wasn’t going to be another film next year. This was the end of them, this was it.

It feels a bit like the end of an era. It is the end of an era. I’m probably going to look back on this post in a few years and groan about how soppy I can get over this stuff, but ah, well. Because The Hunger Games really is an important series to me.

To the girl who told me to buy that book – thank you.

Infographic: Autobiographies I’ve Read in 2015

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Sorry about the internet absence. There hasn’t been a post on here in three weeks. Welp. A lot of bloggers are very good at timekeeping and balancing different things in life … But it turns out I’m not very good at keeping up to date with blogging during my GCSE year. I actually wrote most of the posts you’ve seen since September during August!

I hope that over the Christmas holidays I can start scheduling for the new year, so I don’t neglect this blog too much over the next six months. As an apology for the random disappearance, here’s an infographic I’ve been working on between revision sessions. Click on it for a high res / larger version you can zoom in on, if the writing appears too small on your screen!

Thank you Piktochart, aka the most fantastic infographic maker I have ever encountered, for making this infographic so beautifully easy to create (this isn’t a promo, I just love Piktochart a lot <3)

You can read slightly longer reviews of some of the books featured on this graphic here –

The Time in Between by Nancy Tucker // Tomboy by Liz Prince

Page to Screen: YA Books That Would Make Great Movies

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A lot of people seemed to love Paragraphs to Pictures, a blog post I published a few weeks ago on the YA books I’d love to see adapted as graphic novels. So, here’s a follow up post – this time, I’m looking at some books I would love to see on the big screen! PicMonkey Collage I’m normally team The Book Was Better when it comes to adaptations of books I love – take City of Bones, Stormbreaker or Harry Potter for instance – some of the increasing number of YA novels that have been brought to the screen. As brilliant as the films are, there’s always something more magical about reading the printed word and imagining the scenarios in your head.

I went to see Paper Towns a few weeks ago. I loved the book and it may be my favourite John Green novel – but the movie was unexpectedly maybe even better than the book. I thought the cinematography was perfect – scenes such as Q and Margo driving around the town at night captured beautifully. I think the story was translated fantastically.

It got me thinking about other YA books that I love and treasure. What if these works were brought to big screens? Who would I pick to play characters, or direct the film? Here’s a list of some titles I think would be brilliant on screens.

ALL OF THE ABOVE (James Dawson, Hot Key Books)

As soon as I put down All of the Above, I wanted to pick it up again. It’s a beautifully messy book, capturing the life of a teenager flawlessly. There’s lots of scenes I imagined so realistically in my head – I’ve never really envisioned a book’s setting so in-depth as I did with All of the Above! There’s potential for lots of beautifully shot scenes in the crazy golf course at night, where Toria and the crowd she falls in with hang out. Polly would totally be played by Cara Delevingne, as Cara has that crazy-awesome personality.

THE NEXT TOGETHER (Lauren James, Walker Books)

I am obsessed with a TV show called Orphan Black at the moment, which is about a woman called Sarah Manning, who finds herself falling into a dangerous spiral of events when she discovers she is a clone. The actress, Tatiana Maslany, portrays lots of different clones and it’s amazing. I was watching Orphan Black around the time I read The Next Together, and my thoughts while reading were often about how riveting a film of this book would be. Not only because the plot is constructed so well, and the different eras would be so cool to stitch together in a movie, but like Orphan Black, the same two actors would be portraying many different versions of themselves. It would be awesome.

ARISTOTLE AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE (Benjamin Alire Saenz, Simon & Schuster)

Aristotle and Dante is a beautifully written novel. Everything about it is beautifully crafted. Old me would say making this book into a film would be a terrible idea because you’d lose the magic of the writing. But I think seeing it in a different medium could bring a whole new level of magic to it. Also, of course – both of the main characters are LGBT* and Mexican. Name one movie out there with two PoC & LGBT* leading characters… *radio silence*

AN EMBER IN THE ASHES (Sabaa Tahir, HarperVoyager)

This book was one of the most epic fantasties I’ve read in a long time. It was fast-paced, gripping, and didn’t want to be put down for a second. I adored the characters and the writing evoked so much imagery for me. I couldn’t stop imagining the Empire in my head, how it would look and feel. I have a feeling Peter Jackson would be a pretty good choice as director / producer, as he’s fantastic at creating beautifully detailed alternate worlds – he did a stunning job with the world of The Lord of the Rings.

ALL THESE THINGS I’VE DONE (Gabrielle Zevin, Pan Macmillan)

All These Things I’ve Done is a dystopian novel where chocolate is illegal and the main character is part of a famed family that sells it. It’s so hard to describe (I recommend it to people all the time, but there’s no way to put its brilliance into words!) but it’s gritty, emotional and captivating. Anya Balanchine is one of my all-time favourite protagonists and she would be so cool on a big screen. The setting would be quite interesting to depict in a different medium, too, as it’s 2083 New York with a mafia undertones.

So, there’s my choices! What would yours be?

Songs and Stories #2

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I’m so excited to see what people think of this post 🙂 A few months ago, I wrote Songs and Stories, in which I paired some of my recent favourite reads with songs I loved that bore similar meanings or messages. It was really fun to do, but I’d only ever intended it as a one-off post. However, over recent months, I’ve been scribbling down some more ideas for book and song pairings. I came up with quite a few more, so I thought, why not make a Songs and Stories #2?

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green // Soil, Soil by Tegan and Sara

“All you need to save me
Call (call)
And I’ll be curled on the floor
Hiding out from it all
And I won’t take any other call.”

This song is probably Tegan and Sara’s saddest, and to me some of the lines really resonate with John Green’s story – the sorrowful yet romantic lyrics go perfectly. The mood of the song is just right!

THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST by Emily Danforth // Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko

“Isn’t this why we came? Gotta get with you
Girls like girls like boys do, nothing new”

Cameron Post is about a gay teenage girl who grows up in a very conservative town and is sent aweay for being who she is. Girls Like Girls goes with the book for obvious reasons – especially because the message of the song is that being different is nothing new!

OFF THE PAGE by Jodi Picoult & Samantha Van Leer // Believe by Mumford and Sons

“I don’t even know if I wanna believe
Anything you’re trying to say to me /
So, open up my eyes
Tell me I’m alive.”

Off the Page is all about Delilah and her boyfriend Oliver, who is literally a prince from a fairytale. I love it because it’s a story about how much people believe in childhood stories and writing. This Mumford and Sons song is perfect.

THE NEXT TOGETHER by Lauren James // Someone New by Hozier

“Don’t take this the wrong way,
You knew who I was with every step that I ran to you”

In The Next Together, two characters fall in love. They will die – but they’ll be reborn again, years into the future, and the cycle will repeat – except they don’t remember their past lives. This is one of my favourite Hozier songs and it’s about someone falling in love with a different person, every day, and I think some of the lyrics fit Lauren James’s story quite well!

Do you agree with any of the pairings I made? Do you have any songs and stories suggestions?

And, of course – would anyone like to see a Songs and Stories #3? 😀

Book Review: Harry Potter: The Character Vault by Jody Revenson

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Published 25th September by Titan Books.

26805823 Goodreads Synopsis: Unlock new information about your favourite characters from the Harry Potter movies with this definitive coffeetable book profiling the good, the bad, and everything in between within the Harry Potter universe. Dive into the personal journeys of beloved Harry Potter heroes, and an insightful look at the motivations and actions of the films’ most notorious and complicated villains.

Concept art, behind-the-scenes imagery, and film stills track everyone from Harry, Hermione, and Ron to Dobby, Mad-Eye Moody, and Dolores Umbridge, telling their complete stories as they evolve throughout the film series. A comprehensive collection of the movies’ beloved characters, this beautifully designed book is the ultimate Harry Potter character overview.

My Review: I know I mostly review fiction here, but when I was offered the chance to review this from the lovely people at Titan Books, I jumped at the chance to be able to share my thoughts on this gorgeous book!

Of course, I grew up with Harry Potter, and the stories will always hold a special place in my heart. However, I recently realised I hadn’t actually read the books or watched the films in a long time. After poring over this book over a few hours, I’m really eager to get back into the wizarding world again. It’s given me some serious nostalgia.

The Character Vault wasn’t actually quite what I thought it was going to be; I had assumed it would be a compendium of information about the characters, like a cute fact file. It was actually more heavily focussed on the development of the visual representations of them in the films – especially their wardrobe designs. So, not what I’d expected, but it was still fantastic to read through!

All of the artsy, behind-the-scenes stuff that goes into creating films interests me, so naturally every aspect of this book really appealed to me. Reading about how all of the iconic costumes for the main characters were developed was so fascinating – and this book takes its time to go very in-depth, into how both costume designers and actors collaborated on aesthetics and looks. Every few characters, there’s some stunning spreads of concept artwork too. Cue flailing.

The book is split into rough sections – from school students, to professors, to the order of the phoenix. Each character has between two to four pages of movie stills, character sketches and art design details. Every page is a visual feast, beautifully presented and incredibly fun, whether you’re reading every detail or simply flicking through the pages. Also, there’s a little bonus poster in the back, aaaah!

Overall, Harry Potter: The Character Vault has definitely reignited my love for Harry Potter and now I want to go and reread and re-watch everything! This is the perfect gift book for a fan, especially one who’s into film making, as it provides such a fantastic insight into how the most iconic characters of the world were created. It’s a gorgeous book, perfect for leafing through when you’re in a Harry Potter mood.

My Rating:

I received a copy of Harry Potter: The Character Vault from the publisher, in exchange for a review. In no way at all did this affect my thoughts.

Book Review: All About Pumpkin by Natasha Farrant

Books About Books: An Infographic

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I haven’t made an infographic in a while, so I picked a random topic and played around a bit on my favourite graphics creator – enjoy! Open the image in a new tab for a better quality.

Do you have any favourite similar books, that have fictional worlds within fictional worlds? 🙂