28/07/2015 - 10 Characters Who Are Fellow Book Nerds

Hello, and welcome back to my blog. So glad that you are here. Today is Tuesday, which means it is once again time for a Top 10 Tuesday. Today's topic is 10 Characters Who Are Fellow Book Nerds, which is always fun. Let us begin:

1. Hermione Granger from Harry Potter Series by J.K Rowling

2. Liesel Meminger from The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

3. Charlie from The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chboksy

4. Matilda from Matilda by Roald Dahl

5. Hazel Grace Lancaster from The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

6. Guy Montag from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

7. Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

8. Takao Kasuga from Aku no Hana/The Flowers of Evil by Shūzō Oshimi

9. Henry & Clare from The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

10. Toru Watanabe from Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami


Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed, tell me below in the comments! Like, comment and follow, and until next time, à bientôt!

22/07/2015 - Top 5 Side Characters that Deserve Their Own Series

Hello, oncemore! Today is Wednesday, which means it is time for yet another Top 5 Wednesday! The topic today is Top 5 Side Characters that Deserve Their Own Series. Alas, let us commence:

5. The Marauders from Harry Potter Series by J.K Rowling. Let's be real, if you have never wanted to read about the high school lives of the Marauders at any point, you're lying. They are such interesting characters; I am sure it would be hilarious to hear of their exploits, and touching to read the story of James and Lily getting together. Make it happen!

4. Dumbledore from Harry Potter Series by J.K Rowling. J.K Rowling creates too many great side characters. I would love to hear about Dumbledore's life: his relationship with Grindelwald, his youth and his dealings with a younger Tom Riddle. It would add depth to his character and prove to be a truly exhilarating series, I'm assured.

3. Sakamoto Satsu from Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. Chiyo/Sayuri's sister and her got split up after being taken away from their family. I feel like hearing about Satsu's plight after this would be interesting, especially after the turn of events which takes place later in the novel (which I shan't reveal because you should all read this novel).

2. Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - Atticus Finch is seen by many as a virtuous man and the archetypal character. It would be interesting, I think, to see his past life and where he got these controversial (for the time) views from. I am rather afraid to read Go Set a Watchman because I may lose this image of Atticus, but I am going to anyway.

1. Erik from The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux - I love Erik! And I feel so sorry for him! I want to read about his childhood, even though this will probably be the most heart-wrenching story ever. I want to hear the story from his perspective, so I can hate the end result even more.



Thank you for reading! If you agree, leave a comment below telling me! Like, comment, follow and above all else, happy reading!

21/07/2015 - 10 Books That Celebrate Diversity

I'm back after disappearing for a while for Top 10 Tuesday! The topic today is 10 Books That Celebrate Diversity, such as racial minorities, LGBTQ+ characters, neurotypical characters, etc. Without any further ado, let us begin:

1. Dead Famous by Ben Elton - This book has LGBTQ+, neurotypical, and racially diverse characters, mainly due to the nature of the story, based on Big Brother, where many different people are brought together.

2. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon - The main character has Asperger's Syndrome.

3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - As much as this novel shows the oppression of racial minorities in America, it does celebrate them as a group and shows sympathy towards their plight.

4. Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis - As a book about hedonism in the 1980s, LGBTQ+ characters feature strongly.

5. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky - This book has LGBTQ+ characters with depth and poignancy, as well as the main character, Charlie, having mental issues after a trauma in childhood.

6. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey - This book is about the treatment of mentally ill people in mental hospitals in the mid-20th century, showing that people with mental illnesses are not terrible people, contrary to beliefs at the time, and celebrating the diversity they bring.

7. The Future Diary/Mirai Nikki by Sakae Esuno - My favourite anime and manga of all time! This celebrates different characters, including LGBTQ+ and neurotypical characters, which add depth and interest, and make it just sensational.

8. The Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling - This brilliant series explores a variety of characters, including LGBTQ+ in Dumbledore, racial minorities and many more. It also brings in a new kind of minority, to do with magical bloodlines, which Hermione gets attacked about for being a 'mudblood', which I think shadows racist attitudes in society today.

9. The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis - Ah, Bret Easton Ellis is just great. I think this is my favourite work of his. This book celebrates LGBTQ+ characters as they explore sexuality with everyone else in the novel in an almost nihilistic fashion.

10. Hideous Kinky by Esther Freud - The mother in this novel explores Sufism, a special variety of Islam, to find personal fulfillment as they get used to life in Marrakech.


Thank you for reading! If you have read any of these novels, tell me in the comments! I would love to hear your opinions! Like, comment and follow, and until next time, farewell.

Review: Dangerous Liaisons (Les Liaisons Dangereuses) - Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

Bienvenue; today I shall be reviewing Dangerous Liaisons, or, in the native French, Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, which forms my 'L' for my A-to-Z Challenge 2015. It is a classic French epistolary novel written in the 18th century, scandalous and controversial upon its release, and highly rated! And for good reason, I enjoyed it immensely, scoring it 5 stars on Goodreads.

The premise of the novel intrigued me before I had even started: duplicitous characters manipulating others as pawns in their own entertainment, the 'dangerous liaisons' which ensue bringing disastrous consequences along with it. How very risqué for a novel from this era! So compelling! The exhilaration did not halt during its reading either! I was interested from the very start. The style the novel is written in, a collection of letters, allowed for a multilateral overview of events, giving in depth descriptions of emotions, feelings and agendas of the many characters as things happen around them. The way the correspondence was written also greatly tickled my humour: I enormously enjoyed the sassy remarks from the characters, especially the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, who I found to be the most entertaining (which, I suppose, was the aim). Their interactions were what drove the narrative, with the supplementary letters between them and other characters and between other characters themselves, added depth and increased the intrigue towards the plot.
The novel is essentially a celebration of libertinism in the aristocracy of Pre-revolutionary France, although apparently not noticed at the time considering Marie Antoinette enjoyed it! I felt bad about it, but the manipulation, salacity and eventual unadulterated malice demonstrated by some of the characters was very fascinating to witness, and left me sneering in congratulations towards their escapades. Madame de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont were two-faced, insidious and nefarious, seeming to revel in their own contriving debauchery, and yet I savoured every drop of evil they rained down on the social circles they frequented. I smirked as they worked on all their wicked schemes, tapping into their radiating aura of malevolence. It truly was a magnificent sensation
As well as this, the numerous love triangles, which could be referred to as love webs considering their complexities, were some of the most well-developed of any I have read about. This is a perfect analogy in fact, like a spider's entanglement, because eventually those who trespass into it will be destroyed by its master. The novel is masterfully crafted by Laclos, causing sympathies to waver between the characters as it reaches its dramatic and intense climax at the end.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys classic novels as I do, especially those who like France, its history or books which originate in the French language. My next challenge is to read this novel in the native language, which will sure be a challenge, but I hope I can do it... at some point in the future.

Thank you for reading, if you enjoyed it or have read this book and either agree or disagree with my thoughts, leave a comment below and inform me! I would love to hear your opinions! Like, comment and follow, and until next time, ciao!

15/07/2015 - Top 5 Anticipated Pre-Orders for the Rest of the Year

Hallo Miriam, ich heiße Ben! Yes, welcome back, my dears. Wednesday has once again befallen us, with yet another Top 5 Wednesday following in its wake. The topic this time is 'Top 5 Anticipated Pre-Orders for the Rest of the Year'. A tad bit of a struggle for me considering I have a rather potent affinity to classics, but alas, I have done my best. And here it is:

5. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee - Yes, I am fully aware that this book TECHNICALLY came out yesterday, HOWEVER, I have highly anticipated this book for quite a while, and I felt that this should be an exception. Having read and severely enjoyed To Kill a Mockingbird, the news of a sequel (even though it was written before TKAM) was music to my ears. Let's just hope it is good so I don't despair for all things good in this world.

4. The Big Lie by Julie Mayhew - I don't usually get that hyped over YA books; however, after seeing BooksAndQuills talk about the book in her June Book Haul Part I video, and hearing the premise, I was intrigued. Set in a practically dystopian future where Germany won the war and Britain is under Nazi rule, this book tells the story of a woman's dealing with the society, as well as playing out a lesbian romance over the tragic backdrop. An LGBTQ+ novel set in a dystopian world... seriously, what is there not to love?

3. Time and Time Again by Ben Elton - After scrolling through Waterstones, I came across this gem. My sister, Kristi, and I both very much like this author, having already read a few of his books (Past Mortem and Dead Famous) and enjoyed them immensely. The premise for this new novel sounds spectacular, and I am now very excited to read it.


2. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara - The fact that this book is on this list is agitating, because I know in the USA this book has been available for a couple of months now. However, across the Atlantic in good old England, it isn't available for another month, and thus it features on this list. I first saw this book after reading Emily May's review on Goodreads for it. Although she only gave it 3 stars, I was wholly interested by the sounds of the plot and I greatly wish to read it. It was going to be my 'Y' for my A-to-Z, but now with the hitch that IT ISN'T ACTUALLY AVAILABLE YET IN THE UK, I will just have to read it at a later date. Depressing yet bitter sweet... just my cup of tea.

1. And finally, at Number 1 is *drum roll* Selp Helf by Miranda Sings! No surprises here, really. She is one of my absolute favourite YouTubers (her AND her creator, Colleen Ballinger), and I have met her, so I am absolutely obsessed! Her book, due to be released later this month, will surely be hysterical and it will do her comedic presence proud. I am assured of it.



And thus, there ends my Top 5 Wednesday for this week! Are you excited for these titles too, (or do you have the privilege of being American and already owning some of these titles?) If the answer is yes, tell me in the comments below! If you enjoyed it, like, comment and follow, and until next time, farvel!

14/07/2015 - Last 10 Books That Came Into My Possession

This is me, holding my 10 books...
honestly, I'm so damn hench...

Hello, I am ever so glad to see you here once again. Today is Tuesday, and that means it is another Top 10 Tuesday, the topic of this one being 'Last 10 Books That Came Into My Possession' - these include library books, purchased books and review copies (not that I have received any of those yet... *hint*). Anyway, let us begin:

10. A Work in Progress by Connor Franta
9. I Hate Myselfie by Shane Dawson - the story behind my acquiring of 10 and 9 is rather humorous, at least I think so. So, I tried to order these two books together from Waterstones because I heard the hype and I like the YouTubers so I decided to read their writings. However, I ran into issue: the (god-awful) updated Waterstones website was not computing my order... and I ended up trying again, multiple times. On the fateful day of the books' arrival, I ended up with 3 copies of each, and I was going to be forced to pay for all three orders... which evidently was not going to happen. Hence, I called up Waterstones and they refunded the orders and it turns out that I had actually made 8 failed orders and 3 successful ones... which is quite an achievement in my opinion! (I got the Waterstones points for all three orders though muhahaha)

8. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen - bought for 20p from my local library at their book sale! Thank goodness I work there early on Saturdays, or that would have been snapped up rather quickly! Classics are NEVER on the book sale!

7. Chocky by John Wyndham - I am very excited for this! It will be my 'W' for my A-to-Z Challenge 2015. I bought it from the Waterstones store because I had read Day of the Triffids and it is one of my favourite books, and the premise for this sounds utterly fascinating! I can't wait!

6. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
5. Daddy Love by Joyce Carol Oates
4. Golden Boy by Abigail Tarttelin - Very excited to read this for my 'T'! It is about an intersex child who identifies as male, but starts questioning after a traumatic event. I have never read anything about intersex characters in novels before, and I don't know as much about intersex people as I do the other members of the LGBTQ+ community, so I am very intrigued by this novel, especially considering its acclaim.
3. The Boy Who Could See Death by Salley Vickers
2. Don't Cry, Tai Lake by Qiu Xiaolong
1. Frog by Mo Yan

The books from 6 to 1 are all from the library... I took 6 books on a mass Exodus from the shelves in order to fulfill my A-to-Z Challenge, which my sadly pitiful bookshelves at home to not satisfy... I bring dishonour, I agree.

That is that! If you have read any of these books, tell me your opinions below! I would love to hear what you thought about them! From numbers 8-1 are books I haven't yet read, so I would highly appreciate your opinions on them so I can compare my thoughts after having read them! No spoilers though, please, I beg you. If you enjoyed, like, comment and follow, and until next time, auf wiedersehen!

Review: The Book of Laughter and Forgetting - Milan Kundera

Hello, did you miss me? I have been gone for longer than I expected. But I am back, hurrah! And I am reviewing my K for the A-to-Z Challenge 2015, which was The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera. This was supposed to be really good, but if you follow me on Goodreads, you would realise I didn't enjoy it and gave it 2 stars. Here is why:

Where to begin... well to start with, I like the cover! Very pretty, and it was drawn by Milan Kundera himself! Alas, that is one of few redeeming qualities.
Telling a series of tales of hedonism and oppression in Prague during the Soviet control, this book was praised by many authors, including another author I have issues with (Salman Rushdie), which immediately concerned me. Those concerns were not wholly unfounded. There was meant to be an underlying theme throughout the whole thing which permeates poignant meaning... what was it, may I ask? I obviously missed something. All I could see through the fog of perverse behaviour, settings and descriptions were twisted opinions, annoying pomp and unsettling eroticism. I feel quite uneasy at having dodged something in this novel which is so potent... maybe I take things too literally. I don't know; either way I didn't like the book.
I don't see how a woman, isolated on an island, being fiddled and apparently raped by a horde of children has a meaning... and whatever the meaning is that I couldn't scrape from the context, I'm not entirely sure I want to know what it is. I also severely hope that Kundera was being sarcastic with some of the garbage the characters he wrote in spouted: justifying misogyny as the only true form of rational masculinity, glamourising and romanticising rape... to name but two. There was no discernible plot (which I think is important, despite my knowing that this book is a collation of tales), the ideas jolted erratically between each other, it was really rather confusing, and ultimately, quite dull. The light in the darkness of this novel is that the writing, when you actually got around to understanding what on earth he was on about, is actually very good. I did, in parts, feel a spark of excitement and interest in the plight of some of the characters, before those sparks were extinguished and the story line deranged into some peculiar farce.
Overall, I did not like it, and struggled through it. I feel slightly bad for slating it thus, especially considering its apparent popularity, but it is my opinion. I realise now that it is called The Book of Laughter and Forgetting because the story is laughable and the book forgettable!

Thank you for sticking here until the end of my slander, I appreciate the devotion. If you have a differing opinion to mine, which would not surprise me, leave it in the comments below! I would be interested to see what you thought. Like, comment, follow, and until next time, vaarwel.