Beatiful Disaster

As mentioned in my last post I have been reading!

And if you only read one book, Okay books for the year then I would recommend Beautiful Disaster by Jamie Mcguire.

 

This was recommended and bought for me by my friend who I visited Alton Towers with.

The story is engaging and compelling, however the part that intrigued me about this book or more the set is that Beautiful Disaster is from Abby’s perspective and then you get Walking Disaster from Travis perspective.

 

I first came across the concept when the first Twilight was being filmed and Midnight Sun was leaked, however when it failed to be published as a result I gave up all hope of reading a story like it.

Now before you cry but some books will flip character perspectives, Yes but not like this.

What I truly love about this is they say there are two sides to every story and with this concept you can see and understand both sides. Not only that its finally out of my YA/Fantasy reading at the moment.

"Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand.

Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby wants—and needs—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match"

There are so many times in Walking Disaster I was blown away, not by a plot twist but at the way events occurring in Beautiful Disaster made me so mad at Travis I would really be mad until the plot moved along, made me want to cry for him in Walking Disaster as his actions, his feelings became clear.

Essentially these books are a love story, a big completed messed up love story. Its so reliable ok so most of us haven’t been having around the local underground fighting right, at least I hope not! but the all consuming logic defying start of a relationship, or just a person.

As amazing as theses books are part way thought Beautiful Disasters I did start to find myself turned off by the co-dependent

 nature of the characters. There is just something unappealing to the dysfunction of it,

Also there is one plot twist, I will wait till you have read it before I disclose what it is, but it feels so inorganic, like its was just there for the page count. At this point it didn't, even in both books, feel like it fit the characters personalities or the truth of what would happen in the situations, and I found myself both times a little disappointed. 

However this didn't change my enthusiasm and will be reading more of Jamies books.

Overall even with its minor flaws, I have fallen in love with these books,  I would give them 4.5/5 . 

xoxoxo

Update

Hello!
Sorry I have been so quite this month.
My friend visited last weekend and we went to Alton Towers :) Which was awesome but we also camped so I just couldn't think straight by the time I got home let alone blog.
Also I have been reading non-stop for the past couple of weeks, so I have been working on confessions of a book journal just not in a way you guys can see.

I feel every time I sit down I feel like am appologising to you for my lack of posts, so am now deciding to write a few over the weekend and post one a week, also am going to carry on writing, so hopefully every Sunday night there will be a new post up, if not more often.

I feel I should explain a bit, in my last blog I mentioned good work news, I can now tell you all that my contracted hours have increased which is great for me. Am on the road to full time work sort of, but mainly its good because at the moment I am loving my job. For the past few years I never thought I would get to the point where could go into work and well enjoy it. Feel engaged and not just like I was on auto-piote. Its great and wonderful, however it does mean that when i come home i want to write, have every intention to but that i loose energy.

The second reason is well me.
I am rubbish at communication, as in really pants. I have best friends who I love dearly and want to know all about their lives, but also can forget to call/text/email/snail mail/carry pigeon any form of communication for well months in some cases. Its not that I don't care, its just a failing in my brain! And every now and then they need to remind me to contact them. I can go thought really long good patches and then just drop of the face of the earth without meaning to. Am the same with social media, am just not great at uploading photos of my days out, or telling you all what a great/bad day I've have. Its gotten now to the point where I don't even understand how to use them.
I do have a twitter attached to this blog, and I do use it however I think it may have been about a month this a tweeted anything. I mean to, I really do, I just think am just not born at the right time. I could probley cope with having to send a letter a month to friends and family to update them with how things are but day to day I just cant seem to follow.
However if I could sit and talk face to face with people everyday I would be in heaven, as I can do that, and really prefer it.h

My long point is that this blog is essentially another form of communication and I can be driving along going "ooo I should blogs this and see if the blogosphere agrees with me" but then.....................well you get this post.

So am trying to do better, and am working on it, because the joke is I enjoy it, and I look at others blogs and aspire for my little blog to be like there, however like anything it takes time and practice.

Thank you all of you who are baring with me in my teething stage of Confessions of a book journal we will get there, and I hope in a year or so we can all look at this post and laugh

xoxox

Film and TV show adaptions

When I first started writing this post I have to be honest with you, it was just a ramble of complete annoyance.

As some of you who follow this blog may be aware I have been reading Charlaine Harris Sookie Stackhouse series, when I started I was only ruffly aware that they were the books True Blood was based on.
Well I loved the books and couldn't read anything else until I finished the series, then I could not wait to watch the TV show that everyone had raved about. Everyone seemed to love it, even people who read the books, which I think is sometimes a rarity.
It's safe to say that I had high hopes. So can you imagine my outrage when I realised that the TV show I was so excited about wasn't really what I expected!
I had the house to myself, and i sat down to watch it, giving my full attention, laptop away, ipad/phone ignored, just me and Bon Temps, and my commentary went something like this:
"What?!?! NO THAT'S NOT RIGHT?! WHY ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?!"
Now don't get me wrong, I expected some changes but it almost felt like someone had skimmed the books, and taken out the main events, it didn't matter if the characters where right, or if the events leaving up it were correct as long as they where there that's what counted.

I feel like there is a danger of turning this into a massive rant against True Blood, and I can promise you its not, as episodes pasted, I fell in love with the show in its own right, and once I regarded it as something in its own right I learnt to love it. Enjoy each characters development and just enjoy the show (I can't wait to see series 6)

However this did bring to my attention something that I find conflicted with.

I don't really enjoy Films and TV shows made out of books I enjoy, however am like a gold fish and every time I see they are getting made, I get really excited, bug everyone I know into going to the cinema with me or to come over and watch a show, to just leave disappointed.

I understand that with films where is a time constraint, you have 2 hours to tell a story that could last weeks, with TV shows I find it harder, because I think that you have to a certain about unlimited time to again tell the story.
However what frustrates me is the complete reworking of things, if something doesn't or wont translate to the screen that well then fine, remove it, and work it in somewhere else. But DON'T just remove stuff and then add random extra because if this is done it changes the main body of the film/show and it stops being part of an actuate representation of the book.

This is true in so many films, everyone has who has accidentally been stuck listening to my rant about this has agreed! I always get the response "Yeah I had that in *insert your film/show*"
The problem doesn't even just belong with book lovers, i find it with everyone who had read ANY book that has had a film/show.

My main problem with it is this, the fans of the book are the reason the film/show is being made in the first place, and what do they want to see? The story in the book! Not some story that someone else thinks is an improvement on the original.

Now am pretty sure i know where i am in this argument but i have two main problems:

First, I still want to see the Films/Shows because eventually I will get over it and enjoy them. And if am not reading I love watching films, I find now it almost replaces music if someone if over, I have a friend and when we get together we sit and chat and then just watch all the crappy telly that we shouldn't enjoy but do. If books I enjoy stopped being made into films we would loose some of you viewing!

Second and really more important is that even though it drives me crazy, it makes some people read. For example years ago I watched the film Chocolate and fell in love with it, this then drove me to read the book, at the time i has having a book funk and just couldn't get into reading, that one film, drove me back into the world of reading that i missed.
I think for some people it can broaden there reading, after all you are more likely to give up 2 hours of your time to watch a film, which you may not like, than depending on your reading speed, maybe a week, or longer on a book my may not like.

For this reason along I cant stop watching the films, in general I will try and read the books before the film as a personal preference, however if i watch a film, enjoy it and then learn there is a book you can almost guarantee I will read the book, because no matter what is it always better because its more fleshed out, you can understand the characters more clearly, some things in the film which just happen are put into better context!

Writing this post has been hard because in the moment it was so bitterly disappointing I wanted to tell you all that the films/shows are dull and week in comparison, and that I wouldn't watch any again. However that's just not true, Vampire Academy is being made into a film, and I know I will see it, along with countless others, there are books I still wish would be made into them. Also while writing this piece am on my second viewing of The Hunger Games which makes me want to read the books, which I would not have done if I had not stumbled across the film.

And above all else I love that they can make myself and others read books, and this is something I hope continues.

Do you always see films based on books? Have any films inspired you to read? Any books to films that you like?

Buy books and Save the world!

Hello fellow book people!

First off I have to admit this is a really really cheeky post, so for taking advantage of you am very sorry in advance.
Now that's out the way lets get on with this....

While at work (I know sometimes I have to stop reading) I came across the Give as you Live campaign.
You sign up and download it, from then the charity you choose will receive a percentage of what you spend online as a donation.........the best part of it is it doesn't cost you anything.
For example Waterstones have pledged to donate 3% and The Works 6% of what people spend to their chosen charity though this scheme.

Am working on launching this for League of Friends in Sheffield, all there donations go to providing equipment and services for Sheffield Teaching Hospitals (That's all 5 hospitals across the city)
So the cheeky part would be can you please spare 5 mins on this link and help me raise some money for us.

http://www.giveasyoulive.com/join/leagueoffriendssheffield 

Also you can change the charity at any time, so you can raise money for a specific charity or just a cause, so you can help your local area too.

This way we can all buy books (And loads of other things) And save the world! Also helps ease my book buying guilt :P

Thanks for taking the time to read this post!
xx

PS Sorry this is a bit of a plug for the charity that I work for! However you can use it to support anyone!

Weird Book Habits and General Update

I think I've written this post twice already and seem to be having a bad writing week, so here it goes this is being posted no matter what.......

This week has been a bit of a whirl wind. I have good news regarding my job, but am sworn to secrecy at the moment. Am hoping next week I can tell you all, though its safe to say after a mad year things are finally looking up.

I hate to be super cheesy but I feel I can tell you guys, I really am having one of those, so this is my life moments, and am happy about it. When I left uni its was the first time really I had no plan. Don't get me wrong things didn't always turn out how I thought they would, for starters am not some wacky scientist, who is a also a rock star with a part time job at Woolworths! (yes you read that right, don't ask me why but when I was 8 it was what I wanted to be "When I grew up")

However when one thing ended I ALWAYS knew where I wanted to go next, and this time I couldn't. And honestly it was terrifying,

So continuing this theme of properly sharing too much, I realise the more I talk about books to people and while trying to work out what to write for the blog, I have some really odd Book habits.

Therefore here at my Top Ten Weird Book Confessions in no particular order............

1.My book shelves are organised; my favorite books are the top, least favorite at the bottom. A book series has to be all on the same shelve, it can't be divided over a couple of shelves. 

Authors work has to be in chronological order from when published and on one shelve.

2. I LOVE new books, because I can break the spine myself. which means when I read it at again I can see where I stopped before.

3. All my books I dog ear the pages.

4. Unless its a second had book, then I avoid it like the plague.........why?

5......because its known another life and its not fair........

6......yeah in case you didn't get it from number 5 I seem to personify books sometimes.

7. I try to keep my TBR pile to a maximum of 10,but a minimum of 2 

8. I always have to finish a book I start, even if am not enjoying it, though I have been know to cheat and start reading another book, and keep the other one out beside it, so I can say am just reading a different genera.

9. I feel guilty if I start a series of books and don't finish all the books

10. My mood tends to reflect where I am in a book, if something bad happens to a character it tends to upset me for the day until I get to a happy bit, therefore I always try to finish reading on happy bits, so people don't have to put up with me.

Am sure there are plenty more, and as I think of them I will try to update/add them.

How about you? Do you have any book confessions?

Tethers

There is sooo much I want to say in this post I feel I should apologizes now if I waffle a bit.

"In the wake of a cold Victorian winter, Karl Scheffer and Esther Emerson discover an anonymous journal filled with strange passages and bizarre scribblings. The journal soon draws them into a covert and sinister conspiracy, a conspiracy centred around an otherworldly artefact with the power to change everything"

When I first read about this book its concept grabbed me and straight away it was one of those books I just wanted to read. 

Having received my copy I was planning on reading it straight after I finished my current book however then the book funk hit. I didn't open it for a good few weeks, partly because I wanted to give it a just and fair chance, and knew at that time anything I picked up wouldn't have fit the odd mood I was in.

However one rainy afternoon (seriously its meant to be summer) having not read for WEEKS (which is really unusual for me) I found myself staring at it on the kindle app.

At first I thought, well I will just give it a page and see........well at 10 pm that night I was still reading.

I can honestly say I LOVED this book, and owe Croxall a massive Thank you for breaking my reading funk. 

I think this is going to always be one of those books I remember, as ones that were so good I forgot about everything else.

People who follow my twitter will properly have seen that I missed sleep some nights as I was reading too much.... YAY!!!!!

What really stood out for me was the voices the characters are given, I really felt like I was watching Karl, with a K, and Esther come to life, and show me their story. And having moved to the area (sort of) recently I really felt that the dialect, and colloquialisms are perfect. One thing that did stand out was that rather than just mention there accents Croxall using colloquium in there speech  which feels more organic to me.

The story moved on smoothly and the pace never left me bored, only guessing what would happen next.

This is defiantly a book I would recommend to anyone, but especially school kids, I think this is one of the books that would get them reading, and make them realize that reading is fun. Though at 22 I was still captivated.

Another thing I also noticed was that my usual Kindle-disease didn't get to me. Being a bit of a freak I cant stand the kindle, I think it has a place in the world however that place isn't with me. I like BOOKS, I want to be able to hold the pages, see how far I am in the book, not see that am 62% of the way though! Ops sorry that's a rant for another day........ The point is normally I just cant get though a book on the Kindle, or I do but I have no real connection to it there a few exceptions to this and I am pleased to say Tethers is one of them.

I was nervous about starting it just because I didn't want my prejudices of the format to get in the way of the story, I think it speaks volumes for the writing that it didn't

Now the only thing left to do is get myself a Paperback copy, so I can re-read it, and have it sit happy on my bookshelf. While I eagerly await the next installment. 

I give this book a 4.5 out of 5

HELLO

Hello Blogosphere

Am sorry for my really long absents! I don't really know what happened it was almost like I suddenly got snowed under.

My folks went away, and after so many months of not being on my own I suddenly went into hibernation and let NETFLIX take over my life. Then I started my new job (which is far better than I thought it would be) and I really just lost touch.

I also got in a reading funk, I just couldn't begin to pick up my book, my head was just to full. Looking back I think I just got a bit nervous, I knew after months of searching/jumping though hoops  I was finally starting work, and my brain just kinda couldn't cope with the idea, don't get me wrong I love working and HATED my unemployment with a passion, and lived in fear that I wouldn't be able to get employment, however I don't no the area and had my routine and it was sort of comfortable, and am crap with change. 

On top of all that I wanted a change in job, and was freaking out that I was falling behind in my life while watching friends get degrees and get careers I was applying for jobs and being rejected and living back home, with no job let alone career. 

However AM BACK, my funk as lifted and am reading again AND baking and just generally happier. Plus I ve kind of gotten over myself. It looks like am in a good work place for progression and could get a career, and finally sort of got that not everyone has a degree and really a lot of the people I was at uni with are in the same position.

So hopefully onward and upwards, I am hoping to do a post at least once a week, and FINALLY update this poor blog after months of not doing it.

Thanks for putting up with me :)