It's Top Five Wednesday time again! Top Five Wednesdays is hosted by Lainey over at GingerReadsLainey and you can see the complete list of Wednesday-ers here. This week's topic is 'top five fictional cities'.

I actually found this week's topic quite difficult as most fictional cities I've encountered are part of either a dangerous or dystopian world so they're not exactly wonderful places and you definitely wouldn't want to visit! But I did manage to come up with a handful of really interesting fictional places that I loved reading about and would love to explore. So here we go, in no particular order:

01. Bixby, Midnighters.
The thing about the city of Bixby in Scott Westerfeld's Midnighters trilogy is that it's actually a real place in Oklahoma. But the I'm referring to the fictionalised Bixby that appears in the books where the secret hour of midnight occurs where everyone is frozen except for a select few, born on the stroke of midnight, who have interesting powers. It has a rich history, an exciting presence and all sorts of paranormal intricacies which are probed into in the books. This concept is just so interesting and something I'd never seen before and I'm fascinated by the fictional Bixby and it's strangeness.

02. The Fairy Kingdom, The Land of Stories.
I absolutely love Chris Colfer's The Land of Stories, a middle grade fantasy series where two children discover the parallel universe of the Land of Stories, where fairytales are real. It's a really funny, original and heart-warming fairytale retelling and all the cities or 'kingdoms' depicted in the land are so well realized. I love all of them but I'm particularly infatuated with the Fairy Kingdom, it's just described as such a beautiful place, and come on, who doesn't want a unicorn friend?!

03. Hobbiton, The Lord of the Rings
Although Middle Earth is an amazing, beautiful and exciting place, you've got to admit that the majority of it is kind of dangerous, except for Hobbiton. I understand Bilbo and Frodo and the rest's need for adventure but frankly I'd love to live out my days in Hobbiton. Simple, beautiful country living, second breakfast and fireworks displays with Gandalf seem pretty great to me. Give me the Hobbit life any day.

04. Dorne, A Song of Ice and Fire.
Now I haven't actually finished reading A Song of Ice and Fire so I can't speak for the whole series but from what I've encountered, Dorne seems pretty great to me. I know it's probably more dangerous than my other picks as those Dornish love to fight but it also seems kind of chilled and beautiful and exotic. The Dornish people are more accepting than other Westerosi and I kind of love that.

05. Hogsmeade, Harry Potter.
I'm pretty sure there's a rule where I have to fit Harry Potter into every Top Five Wednesday post, but wouldn't you want to visit Hogsmeade?! I wanted to just put the entire Wizarding world but that's stretching the topic of 'fictional cities' quite a bit, so I chose Hogsmeade. It's close to Hogwarts, it's beautiful in the winter and Honeydukes just seals the deal for me. I'd move in tomorrow.

So those are my top five fictional cities! What do you think of my choices?

If you've done a Top Five Wednesday post please link it in the comments below, I'm always looking for new blogs to read!

Dear August,

You've been a strange one. From blazing hot sunshine to epic downpours, it seems, like me, you haven't been quite sure if you're coming or going. I've been a little bit all over the place myself this month, very unsettled and some days have been cloudier than others. You'll be gone soon August and although I'll be sad that you're taking summer with you, I'm looking forward to the crisp, fresh start that September brings along with it's slightly less welcome cooler weather.

There have been some bright and happy moments that have helped me through your month, August and this post is all about the joyful things you've brought me.



01. Guava Juice
I first discovered the joys of guava juice whilst visiting my sister in Malawi last year. It was almost unbearably hot every day whilst I was there and one of the many joys was being able to cool off with little cartons of this beautiful drink. When I got home, I briefly looked for it on the shelves but was unsuccessful and just figured that you couldn't get it here. Fast forward to shopping in Asda a few weeks ago and lo and behold, there it is, guava juice, in England! I was so happy and stocked up in large quantities. It's been so beautifully refreshing on the hot and sticky days we've been having this month and I'm so grateful that it's back in my life again.

02. The Body Shop Tea Tree Cool & Creamy Wash
This face wash has been a bit of a lifesaver this month because all hell has broken loose on my skin due to my very unsettled diet and sleeping pattern. It's creamy consistency means that it's not stripping like some other tea tree products and it really does a good job of calming down redness and reducing breakouts. I also love this because it works really well in the shower which is great for my bad days when I don't have the energy for a full over-the-sink skincare routine. It's also a really good price at only £6.00.

03. The Great British Bake Off
So I can't believe I'm admitting this, but until this month I'd never seen The Great British Bake Off before. I knew that everyone goes crazy for it and I figured that it was just another competition show like Masterchef or The Apprentice, which I find kind of exhausting. But this month it a new season of Bake Off started and I decided to give it a go. Boy am I glad I did, it's AMAZING. It's so different to all those other competition programmes because it's so much nicer and less stressful and there's CAKE (duh). I think what I like about it is that everyone's so nice to each other and I actually really enjoy watching the challenges. I also love joining in the #GBBO chats on Twitter every Wednesday. I've also got my boyfriend into it and I think he's even more obsessed than I am, he keeps prompting me to watch YouTube videos of profiteroles and pies. It's very sweet (HA! so punny...).

04. WH Smith 30 Assorted Fine Liners
At the beginning of August I scored what was quite possibly the bargain of the century (or at least of the month). I was casually browsing in WH Smith one day, drooling over the stationery, as you do, when I came across this amazing pack of 30 fine liners in all the beautiful colours of the rainbow. I'd been lusting over an £18.00 pack of 30 Staedtler fine liners which I had tentatively placed on my Amazon wishlist so you can imagine my delight when I discovered that the WH Smith set was only £5.99! I nearly fainted then and there. Well that's a slight exaggeration, but I was at the till before you could say 'stationery addict'. I've been using them whilst journalling and in my Johanna Basford colouring book and they write and colour beautifully. I'm so in love with them, especially the more pastelly colours, so run out and grab these now if they're still there!

05. Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
I had a hard time choosing, as I read some excellent books this month, but I think this was probably my favourite read (so far, as I'm slightly pre-scheduling this so I haven't finished my monthly reads). I was kind of nervous in case I didn't like it as I've loved her other books so much but I was not disappointed. It was really amazing and I'll talk about it more in my monthly wrap-up.

06. Podcasts
This month I've been loving podcasts so hard. It all started out with Serial, which I know I'm majorly late to the game on, but after all it's major hype I finally decided to give it a go this month and I was totally hooked. If you somehow haven't heard of it (have you been living under a rock?!) then I'll tell you that it's a series of 12 podcast episodes that revolve around the 1999 murder of high school senior Hae Min Lee. It's kind of hard to explain why it's so amazing so you should just trust me on this one and give it a go, even if you're not usually a true crime fan I can promise you that you won't regret it. I finished up Serial in just a few days and was left wanting more, as the second season hasn't started yet, and that's when I discovered Criminal. The narrative reporting style is similar to Serial but each bite-size episode revolves around a different topic to do with crime. It's super interesting and addictive and if you loved Serial then you'll love this. I've also been really enjoying This American Life, which is a podcast institution in itself so doesn't really need explaining. If you've never tried podcasts before, I urge you to start now.

So those are all the things that have been brightening my days throughout August. As I said, I'm looking forward to September as a fresh month full of possibilities.

What's been your favourite thing about August? Please let me know below!

"There is nothing gutsier to me than a person announcing that their story is one that deserves to be told," writes Lena Dunham, and it certainly takes guts to share the stories that make up her first book, Not That Kind of Girl. These are stories about getting your butt touched by your boss, about friendship and dieting (kind of) and having two existential crises before the age of 20. Stories about travel, both successful and less so, and about having the kind of sex where you feel like keeping your sneakers on in case you have to run away during the act. Stories about proving yourself to a room of 50-year-old men in Hollywood and showing up to "an outlandishly high-fashion event with the crustiest red nose you ever saw." Fearless, smart, and as heartbreakingly honest as ever, Not That Kind of Girl establishes Lena Dunham as more than a hugely talented director, actress and producer-it announces her as a fresh and vibrant new literary voice. [summary from Goodreads]

My rating: ☆☆☆☆.5

I'm going to start off by saying that if you dislike Lena Dunham then this book probably isn't going to change your mind, it's so full-on-Dunham that it will probably make you gag. But if you like Girls, or, like me, you love Lena, or you just love excellently written thoughts, then you'll LOVE this.

A lot of people have argued that Lena is too self-indulgent and her book is devoid of real meaning or gravitas, and I believe that these are the same people that Lena refers to early in the book when discussing her decision to write Not that Kind of Girl:

"As hard as we have worked and as far as we have come there are still so many forces conspiring to tell women that our concerns are petty, our opinions aren't needed, that we lack the gravitas necessary for our stories to matter. That personal writing by women is no more than an exercise in vanity and that we should appreciate this new world for women, sit down, and shut up."

When I read a lot of these negative reviews, a part of me gets where they're coming from, there were times whilst reading that I did roll my eyes and wonder whether the book was just an "exercise in vanity". But then I reminded myself of this early paragraph and came to my senses; just because these stories might not be politically groundbreaking or emotionally life-changing, why shouldn't they be told? Particularly by someone who tells them so well. Lena's writing is SO tight, her turns of phrase are just excellent and were laugh-out-loud funny enough to have me quoting them to my MOTHER (context: my very sheltered, innocent, catholic mother [!!!]).

I would also argue that there IS a certain kind of wisdom to be found in her words. To read a young woman talking frankly about her body, her mental health, periods and realistic sex is kind of remarkable. In her essays Lena is graphic and above all gut-wrenchingly honest, and I think her frank approach to a lot of issues is something young women (and everyone else) need. Not that Kind of Girl demonstrates that no matter how much is handed to you (and Lena has had a lot handed to her) life is still messy and gross and difficult sometimes. But it's also fun and ridiculous and every situation offers an opportunity to learn, about yourself, about others, about your place in the world.

Despite Lena's intense privilege (successful artist parents, liberal upper-middle-class upbringing in NYC), I actually related to her quite a lot and there's no doubt she's worked damn hard to get to where she is. Situationally, she is worlds away from me, but at times I felt that in a lot of ways her mind works exactly like mine (whether that's a good or bad thing is as yet undecided) and I see myself in many of her reminiscences and observations. There were just so many moments whilst reading where I thought 'yes! It's not just me, someone else thinks like this too!', here's just a couple of those:

"How permanent virginity feels, and then how inconsequential."

"I haven't had a crush on a woman since, unless you count my confusing relationship with Shane from The L Word."

"I didn't know why this was happening. The cruel reality of anxiety is that you never quite do. At the moments it should logically strike, I am fit as a fiddle. On a lazy afternoon, I am seized by a cold dread."

or on slightly more questionable moments; 'yep, been there':

"I cover up this [self] hatred with a kind of aggressive self-acceptance."

(on a story about a toxic relationship) "If I was writing this then, I would have glamorized the whole story for you."

"Throughout the day I often ask myself, Could I fall asleep right now? and the answer is always a resounding yes."

Lena Dunham is sharp, smart and hilarious and her stories, at the very least, are incredibly entertaining. I think that anyone who believes they have a story to tell should tell it, especially if they write so excellently as Lena. So whilst I respect the opinions of all the brutally negative reviewers, I'm going to firmly disagree and state that although Not that Kind of Girl probably won't change your life, it's still bloody brilliant and there's a plethora of good reasons to read and enjoy it.

Have you read Not that Kind of Girl? What did you think?

Welcome back to Top 5 Wednesday! Top Five Wednesdays is hosted by Lainey over at GingerReadsLainey and you can see the complete list of Wednesday-ers here. This week's topic is 'book series you wish had more books'. 

At first I thought this was going to be really easy and most of the time when I finish a series I'm dying to read more from that world. However it turns out I haven't finished that many series, I've started quite a few but haven't finished them. But I did manage to pick out five series that I would like to read more from, some of them I'm more passionate about than others but I did enjoy all of the ones I'm going to talk about. So, in no particular order, let's get into the series':

01. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
Let's just get the obvious out of the way first. I don't even need to explain this one, I'd read anything based in the wizarding world, to misquote John Green: "frankly I'd read [Molly Weasley's] grocery lists", and to properly quote Hank Green: "I know I wanna hear the one about Hagrid's dad and Hagrid's mum. I really do think that that's nearly impossible, and I think there's probably a good story there, for book eight." 


02. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Now this isn't really a series in the traditional sense but each of three books intertwine in small ways and I really like that. I haven't even read Isla and the Happily Ever After, the third book in the series, yet but I already know that I want more of this series. It's just so full of feels and makes me unreasonably happy and the way that the series is written opens it up for endless possibilities.

03. The Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness
I don't want to give any spoilers for this dystopian fantasy series but I'll just say that the way the final book ended left me wanting SO MUCH MORE. This is one of my favourite series of all time, it's fast-paced, intricately woven and heartbreaking and I just love it so much. Basically, I would read anything by Patrick Ness, particularly anything set in this world, I'd read it out of a bin.

04. The Shatter Me trilogy by Tahereh Mafi
When I read Shatter Me, the first book in this trilogy, I really didn't like it. I didn't feel like the plot was very well developed and the flowery overly-metaphorical writing drove me crazy. But I decided to give the rest of the series a chance based on others' recommendations and I'm so glad I did because it got SO much better. I also think that the series ending was really abrupt and I was completely convinced that there must be a sequel because I was sat there thinking 'wait...that's it?!', and it turns out that was it and there weren't any more books. So I think this should be rectified and Tahereh Mafi needs to get on that asap.

05. Paper Aeroplanes by Dawn O'Porter
Paper Aeroplanes and it's sequel, Goose, are YA contemporaries that follow two best friends on Guernsey throughout their last few years of secondary school. Now I'm pretty sure that this is an unfinished series with more books in the works but as far as I know there hasn't been a release date set for the next book, so it still counts for this tag! It's one of the only series I've read with a very strong focus on friendship rather than romance. There are boys involved but it's not the centre of the plot, and I LOVE that. I really, really need to know what happens to the characters next and I could honestly read about them forever.

So those are the top five book series I wish had more books, I'd love to know your thoughts on this topic and if you've done a top five Wednesday post be sure to leave a link to it in the comments below so I can check it out!

This past week I've been taking part in the Bout of Books readathon which has been an unexpected amount of fun! The readathon started last Monday the 17th and carried on through Sunday 23rd, there was a lot of fun and interaction on Twitter using #boutofbooks and I've found a lot of great new blogs to follow from that. I also really enjoyed posting my updates on Instagram:


In my TBR for the readathon I picked out four books I wanted to read and I managed to read three of them so I'm pretty pleased with that. Just like with my TBR Takedown wrap up I'm going to save my thoughts and ratings of the actual books for my monthly wrap up but I thought I'd share my daily readathon progress with you and how I found the overall experience.

Monday 17th - pages read: 205, total pages read: 205.
I started off the readathon with Touching Darkness by Scott Westerfeld, which is the second book in the Midnighters trilogy. I had already started this the day before but I was only about 30 pages in so I figured I could count it for the readathon. I read managed to get through most of the book as it's a pretty easy read and the plot moves quite quickly. I'm really enjoying this series and it was definitely a good start to the readathon.

Tuesday 18th - pages read: 171, total pages read: 376.
I finished up the last 70 pages of Touching Darkness pretty quickly and moved onto Attachments by Rainbow Rowell which I read about 100 pages of in one sitting, it's that good.

Wednesday 19th - pages read: 0, total pages read: 376.
Okay so this day was a bit of a fail, I wasn't feeling too great and then I spent the evening with my boyfriend watching Bake Off which I don't regret for a moment, it's okay to take a reading break now and then.

Thursday 20th - pages read: 280, total pages read: 656.
This was the day that I read the most and I think it was because I took a little reading break the day before. I spent most of the afternoon finishing off Attachments which I fell completely in love with and it gave me all of the feels. I was feeling a bit book hangover-ish after that and only read 24 pages of my next book, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, before bed.

Friday 21st - pages read: 0, total pages read: 656.
Another fail day, I can't even remember what I did but it wasn't reading.

Saturday 22nd - pages read: 138, total pages read: 794.
I was feeling really ill on Saturday and unfortunately had to cancel my plans to go and see Paper Towns but it was sunny so I managed to get a little time outside to read. I also joined in the last #boutofbooks Twitter chat which was completely overwhelming but so much fun! If you've never participated in a Twitter chat before then I highly recommend doing so, but I would advise you to use something like Tweetcaster in order to keep up with everything!

Sunday 23 - pages read: 240, total pages read: 1034.
Sunday was the last day of the readathon so I really wanted to get The Secret Garden finished and at the start of the day, with 240 pages still to go, I wasn't sure I was going to. But I managed to get some reading done outside, which always helps, and I stayed up until I'd finished the book, which was just before midnight - success!

Total books read: 3
Total pages read: 1034

I didn't manage to get to my fourth readathon TBR book, Remix by Non Pratt, during the readathon, but I'll definitely be reading that before the month is out. My favourite book of the week was Attachments by Rainbow Rowell and I'm really pleased that I managed to get three books read :). I actually read more total pages than I did during my last readathon so I'm really happy about that!

Overall I really enjoyed my first Bout of Books experience and am already looking forward to the next one which will be in January next year! Be sure to check out the website for more information and how/when to sign up for the next one!

Did you take part in the readathon? If not, will you be joining in with the next one?

01. Listening to endless episodes of the Criminal podcast and This American Life. Seriously, I don't know what I did before podcasts. They're like super-interesting documentaries that you can multi-task to.

The very first photo on my blog (I do hope my photography has improved)

As I'm currently participating in the Bout of Books readathon I thought it'd be a good idea to do a quick and fun post today. Reads and Daydreams on Youtube recently created the Bookish Beginnings tag and although I haven't been tagged by anyone I thought it'd be fun to do. It's all about how I got into reading and what made me into the book blogger that I am today. So without further ado, onto the questions:

01. Tell us about what you loved to read as a child
I've been obsessed with reading for as long as I can remember. At school I raced ahead with the sort of 'learning to read' books and was very quickly reading a few years above my age level. My primary school library was very small and I'd soon read every single book in there and was begging for more, I would go to the town library and take out the maximum amount of books and read them all. I would read anything I could get my hands on but I the first books that I remember really loving and reading over and over were Jacqueline Wilson's books. They were the first books I encountered where the characters didn't have 'perfect lives' and actually dealt with real issues. I remember loving Jacqueline Wilson's books because the characters were just so different from me and I loved reading about their lives as I found them so interesting. 
.
2. What was the fist Adult Fiction you tried to (or want to) read?
For some reason my primary school library had a copy of Great Expectations and as I'd read every other book in there I gave it a go. I don't think I particularly understood or enjoyed it at the time but I was the kind of bratty child that loved to boast to everyone that I'd read it at the age of ten. After that we read some adult fiction at school but I don't remember the first one I picked out for myself. I probably just read whatever books of my parents that I could find around the house.

3.What was the classic book that you read (not because of school)?
Again that was Great Expectations but the first classic (or literary canon) book that I read because I actually wanted to was Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. My sister had read it for school and really enjoyed it and so I really wanted to read it too. I loved that book and was disappointed when I didn't get to study it for school.

4.Tell us about a book that made you realise a new favourite genre or writing style.
I think that reading Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird and Pride and Prejudice when I was a teenager made me realise that I actually really enjoyed classic literature, and that it wasn't dull or boring like I'd convinced myself it was. I've read classics ever since, as part of university study and also for pleasure and they'll always be a favourite genre of mine.
One of my other favourite genres is YA and the strange thing is I didn't read a whole lot of YA when I was actually a teenager. I guess there were YA books but it wasn't really a genre back then. When I was at university I started watching the Vlogbrothers on Youtube and from being a fan of them decided to read John Green's books. I wasn't really that into Looking For Alaska but I still remember the night that I first read Paper Towns. I started it at 10pm and didn't put it down until I'd finished a few hours later. I was completely blown away by it and thought 'I HAVE to read more books like this'. A few years later and YA is definitely one of my favourite genres and I'm grateful to John Green for opening up that world to me.

5. What was the first literary prize-winner that you read (or want to read)?
Lauren said in her video that this is a book that you read (or want to read) because you saw that it was a prizewinner, not just something you've read that happened to win a prize. This is such an interesting question to me because I don't generally pick books to read based on that but it's something I've been thinking about lately with all the buzz around the Man Booker longlist. I feel like it'd be a valuable thing to try and read some of the long or shortlisted books to be more aware of the style of fiction that wins awards. I do know that  The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan won last years Man Booker prize and I definitely do want to read that at some point.

6. What was the first piece of translated fiction that you read (or want to read)?
I'm not sure I've actually read any translated fiction apart from some things for university that were translated from old and middle english. That's pretty bad isn't it? I do want to read both One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which are both pieces of translated fiction.

7. Tell us about why you started Booktube/blogging and what it was like to film your first video/write your first post!
I don't have a Booktube channel...yet ;) but I started blogging because I've been reading blogs for years and before Christmas last year I was introduced to Booktube and thought, I really want to do this. But I was a bit too much of  wuss to start a YouTube channel and I'm a better writer than I am a speaker so I decided to start my blog. I've had blogs before (which I quickly gave up) and I really wanted this to be a proper commitment. I'd been thinking about it and planning it for about a year before actually writing my first post (which is kind of a cringy introduction post that you can see here) and decided to finally give it a proper shot in March of this year. I just wanted a place to talk about the books I love and express my creativity through writing and photography. As I'm currently struggling with a chronic illness, I'm unable to work so blogging helps me feel productive and fills my time. It's something I do because I really enjoy it and I hope I can keep it up.

If you're reading this post then I tag you to do this!