New Year's Resolution! (Sort of!)

Updating this blog is my new year's resolution, internet.

That is, I am going to be a year older very soon, and I feel like this is a good time to try and do the things I love more. i.e. Blogging, reading, blogging about reading, and eating copious amounts of chocolate.

So here I am - back on the blog train (and clinging on for dear life) - and here is how I started writing!

Above and beyond all other things, I am a fangirl.
If you take books out of the equation, I am quite un-extraordinary. My earliest memories are of reading - or being read to, if you go back far enough. I've spent the best part of my 21 years on Earth cultivating a love bordering on obsessional of books, Disney, and all forms of fiction. I worked my way through my childhood bookcase, and when I ran out of stories I began to write my own.

I grew, and with me grew my love of books. The Hobbit. Enid Blyton's School Stories. The infamous series that changed my life and helped shape me into who I am today: Harry Potter.

At first, my stories were fairies on garden paths, wizards and witches in far off lands. And then - without knowing it - at the age of 8 I began to write fanfiction. I didn't know that was what I was doing at the time; I only knew that I wanted more for my favourite characters, and the only way to get more way to write.

For years I emulated other writers, delving into their worlds and pulling their characters into my own. I was always writing original fiction on the side, but it was fanfiction that helped me find my voice. Since then, I've left my fanfic roots behind a little - though that's not to say that I don't still read it - with a view of pursuing my original fiction. 

And here I am: 21 years old and about to graduate from university, still not entirely sure how live is supposed to work, but writing harder and faster than ever before.

Above and beyond all other things, I am a fangirl. But now, I'm a fan of my own work, too.

Thanks for reading, Bookies! What's your history with reading/writing? Let me know in the comments!

xoxo

Return of the Blogger

Hey Internet!

It's true - I'm alive! I kind of dropped off the face of the earth for the last couple of weeks! Things have been super hectic, what with having been away in France and then getting my new university reading list in order, among other things. On the other hand, although I haven't been writing here so much, I've been doing a lot of reading!

Most recently, I finished off Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth - I'll hopefully put a review up on here soon! I really feel like I'm going back to the very basis of my love of fantasy novels when I'm reading Percy Jackson; mythology mixing with reality is one of my all-time favourite things to read.

This summer I've also been working on the preparation and basic research aspects of what is effectively my dissertation. For those who don't know, I'm a third-year Creative Writing student at the University of Winchester in the UK and I love it there! On of my modules this first semester back is my ECP - Extended Creative Project - which serves as the dissertation portion of the course. It gives us, as students, a chance to work on anything we like, within reason. I know students who are writing blogs, travel pieces, music and lyrics, poetry, experimental prose-- you name it, someone is probably going to do it!

(If you couldn't tell, I'm pretty excited about this module!)

I'm also going to be taking a module on comics and graphic novels this term, which is being led by the lecturer who I was assigned as my ECP tutor.

(His wife writes for Marvel comics - I may be fangirling a little!)

So, yeah, all in all, I'm sorry for being so absent lately! I promise to be better in future! *definitely not crossing my fingers behing my back!*

Keep reading and keep Baking Bookies!
x

If I Stay: Review (SPOILER FREE!)

I have so many books in my bag at the moment, this GIF pretty much sums up my life! But the one I finished most recently is here for a review - so let's get on with it!

If I Stay - Gayle Forman

Just listen, Adam says with a voice that sounds like shrapnel.
I open my eyes wide now.I sit up as much as I can.And I listen.
Stay, he says.
Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?
Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it's the only one that matters.
If I Stay is a heartachingly beautiful book about the power of love, the true meaning of family, and the choices we all make

 - Goodreads Synopsis

Let's just start of with this: If I Stay was not the Augustus Waters of books that I had thought it might be. I wasn't exactly satisfied by the ending - perhaps because the novel is largely focused on the past and when we're suddenly catapulted into the present I was still trying to get to know Mia as a character.

That's not to say that it wasn't an enjoyable read, though, especially if you don't mind a bit of gloom in your books. Forman creates an incredibly empathetic narrative, although I personally felt that the hints of humour which peppered the novel were not quite enough to balance out the grief (which was more like shoving a chili pepper into your sandwich, if we're going to carry on the meal-time metaphor).

Had I read this book when I was 16, I think I would have been smitten with it - completely and without a doubt. 20 year old me, unfortunately, found it hard to connect to a character who was introduced and isolated so quickly. This is just my personal opinion, though! Overall, the book was very readable in its language and structure, as well as providing a great new take on the coming of age story, and the consequences of our our choices.

Fans of the Young Adult genre and books like The Lovely Bones and My Sister's Keeper - I recommend this to you particularly.

This novel gets 3 stars from me!



So, until next time: keep reading, and keep BakingBookies!

The Name of the Wind: Review (SPOILER FREE!)

Hey there, internet! Belle says it best - I just finished The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.

First off, let me just say that I've been looking for a high fantasy novel to love the way I love this novel my whole life. Gosh, TNotW, where have you been all this time? I guess I've been pretty unfortunate with this kind of story in the past; you know, page upon page of wordy description, language so elevated that you need a stepladder to even begin to understand...

Luckily for me, this wasn't one of those books! Rothfuss has this really wonderful skill of using perfectly understandable and readable language to create a world just as vivid as any other high fantasy novel I've ever read. Only, this time, the pages seemed to fly by rather more effortlessly.

I will admit that the beginning was a tad bit slower than I would have liked, but it soon gives way to the full force of Rothfuss' story-telling ability. The further into the book I got, the more I understood the need for the opening to be such a different pace to the rest. This, I think, is another of Rothfuss' great talents: foreshadowing and recalling pieces of information placed so subtly that you probably ought to read the whole thing again. And again.

Another factor which really cemented my high opinion of this book was the balancing of the elements of fantasy and romance. Really, when I'm searching for a good fantasy novel I'm not really thinking about romance particularly, and I know quite a few people who might hesitate to read something billed as 'fantasy romance'. TNotW surprised me by inadvertently-not quite-sort of falling into this category. Though, for the love of good books, don't let this stop you reading it. Whilst romance does play a part in the narrative of the story, it is by no means the driving force of the novel. It's natural. It has its own place in the writing.

I think saying any more about this might begin to constitute spoilers, so I'll leave it at this: The Name of the Wind is, in my humble opinion, a wonderfully written novel which deserves to be read by as many people as possible. I especially recommend it to fans of the fantasy genre in general, fans of urban fantasy, Harry Potter fans, etc. People who like adventure, school stories, coming of age, magic, music - you name it, we've got it.

TNotW gets five stars from me!



Happy reading! Keep on BakingBookies!

Book Hauls and Comics and Blogging, Oh My!

Hey Internet! In a shocking turn of events, it's dazzlingly sunny in England right now! Obviously, I had to take advantage of this fact and use it as an opportunity to take a trip into London. The Boyfriend and I had tickets to the British Museum's exhibition, Comics Unmasked, as well as a need to pick up the newest issue of The Wicked and The Divine from Forbidden Planet. I probably don't need to mention the fact that I insisted on spending a great deal of time in bookshops, do I?

I've been meaning to pick up the first installment of the Vampire Academy for ages, since I see so many GIF sets going around on the other blogs I follow, and Sabriel and The Knife of Never Letting Go have been recommended to me more times than I can count. Gayle Forman's If I Stay has also been made into a movie, thus begins my frantic scrabble to read the book before the film comes out!

I'm super excited to get to read these new books, though with all the course material I've got to read for the next semester of university, who knows when I'll have time! 

The Wicked and The Divine is a series that I'm so excited about, I can barely put it into words. The basic premise, without spoiling anything for you, is that twelve gods are reincarnated every ninety years as celebrated musicians. They're revered as the gods that they are with many fans attending their concerts as religious experiences. 

Cool, right? And, even more exciting, is that the creator Kieron Gillen has specifically chosen to feature gods who haven't been focused on in other mediums - we readers are getting to explore the cultural significance behind a completely different set of deities than are usually mentioned in the media.

In terms of reading, I'm currently half way through The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss and I'm really enjoying it. The pacing was perhaps a little slow at the beginning, but it picked up pretty fast and suddenly I find myself half way through what is, undeniably, a rather chunky book. 

I also seem to find myself not slowing down. A sure sign of something good! 

(It's a trilogy - help me, I can't stop!)

Ciao for now, Bookies! Keep reading!

A New Leaf

Hey internet! This is the new blog address to be twinned with my Tumblr page, so that I'm reachable by those who maybe aren't so comfortable using the Tumblr platform (parental units, I'm looking at you). BakingBookies has become my URL mostly due to the combination of my two greatest loves in life: baked goods and reading.

Ah Alice... You understand me!

Blogging about my reading habits has always seemed to me to be a great thing: talking about books, sharing thoughts on books, reading books along with other people! And the communities of book bloggers I've come across so far have all been lovely and so happy and willing to talk a newbie through the basics of these blogging shenanigans. It's not my first time at the blog-rodeo, however, and I can't wait to get stuck into sharing my love of the written word with you!

As always, this blog will hopefully stay updated at least once at week. That is, provided that my sieve-like brain and powers of procrastination don't completely murder my work ethic! You can expect reviews, rambles, rants, and perhaps the occasional snippet of my own work.

If this is going to work, I'd better get back to reading! Ciao for now, chaps and chapettes - keep on BakingBookies!