I can't believe it's March already! And yet so much has happened in the first two months of the year I'm almost surprised that we're only just at March. I started seeing a guy called Luke at the beginning of January and had my first Valentines for about three years (in which I got this adorable handmade door sign!(1)) and have generally had a wonderful few months with him. He flies to Canada tomorrow, and we knew that when we were setting out so though I'm going to miss him the goodbyes weren't too melodramatic.
We also had pancake day (3) in which my own apron was entirely for aesthetic effect as my kitchen-savvy housemates were in charge of the batter and the flipping, while I was in charge of the application of delicious toppings and of course the very important eating process.
The lovely Coralie Bickford Smith (illustrator of Penguins clothbound classics and writer of the Fox and the Star) came to do a signing with designer Paul Barnes at my branch of Waterstones. They were both lovely and Coralie spent a lot of time talking to guests and signing books and I had a great time putting together the displays (4).
The lovely Coralie Bickford Smith (illustrator of Penguins clothbound classics and writer of the Fox and the Star) came to do a signing with designer Paul Barnes at my branch of Waterstones. They were both lovely and Coralie spent a lot of time talking to guests and signing books and I had a great time putting together the displays (4).
The last few days of February were intense! I had a job interview for a new, more senior role at a different Waterstones, and got the job!! So I'm really sad to be leaving my current friends at Waterstones, but excited to go on to new challenges, more hours (and better pay... ahem.) And I really shouldn't only work part time... I end up sitting around derping with Tom all day, which leads to pictures like (2). After my job interview I worked a NINE HOUR SHIFT HOLY HELL and then got home and into pyjamas just in time for Luke to come over and stay for a few nights before he leaves the country. We had a lot of fun, we went to London Zoo and made friends with some teeny tiny monkeys (5), got attacked by an escaping parrot, saw baby gorillas with their mama and generally had an awesome time.Then on the last night we had a house party and bought all of our various nerdy weird-ass friends together (6). It was a really good night and lovely to hang out with my work friends somewhere that doesn't involve a rota.
So February has been jam-packed and lots of fun. March is going to involve considerably more hard work and challenges, but after two months of essentially bumming about it's something I've been craving.
Let me know how your month has been and what you've got on the cards for March!
Isabelle
xox
I don't generally follow recommendations when it comes to books. I usually like to browse through books in shops or online and figure out what I'd like. There's something lovely about finding a gem among rows and rows of choice, and going into a book with no expectations and knowing very little about it. However this Sunday I found myself buying three books, all because other people who share my reading tastes have read and loved them and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
The Vegetarian - Han Kang (trans. Deborah Smith)
I've seen this doing the rounds on Booktube, and have become intrigued by the praise it's been receiving. It seems like every booktuber I enjoy and respect the opinion of loves this book, while a few whose tastes differ vastly from my own were not impressed. It's a dark, gnarly portrayal of South Korean family dynamics and as I've been wanting to read more books in translation and non - white authors, love shorter books and am a sucker for strange unsettling slightly creepy stories, this seemed perfect for me.
All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
Ok so I knew this was about a blind girl in WWII. And honestly that is a premise I felt like I would hate. It sounded like another Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and that is a book I honestly hate. Nothing annoys me more than a book that just cranks out the sad to try and pull the heartstrings and roll in the money. So this was on my 'never going to read this list for several months, however one my oldest friends Holly and my buddy and fellow bookseller Kieran both absolutely love that book have specifically told me I need to read it. So I'm taking the plunge and giving it a try. I'm actually about 50 pages in and honestly I'm really liking it so far!
All the Birds in the Sky - Charlie Jane Anders
I had seen this book on various tables at work. I really liked the cover but never found myself interested enough to pick it up and turn it over to see what it's about. I figured it was probably one of those stories that's described as 'a dazzling portrayal of childhood and identity' or some shit like that. However I started to see it cropping up over Booktube and blogs, and again it seemed to be loved by everyone who shares my tastes. It turns out it's about a mad scientist and a witch who team up to save the world...which sounds amazing!!
I'm really looking forward to reading these now, and if I enjoy them I'll probably find myself taking recommendations more often!
Thanks for reading,
Thanks for reading,
Isabelle
xox
Ok, so you see this falling apart, disgusting, might be moulding or maybe that's just a stain, not sure where page 118-19's actually gotten to, scuffed and creased to shit book? This is one of my most prized possessions. Like most kids my age I went through the Harry Potters and loved them, I had other series I became heavily invested in and wolfed Jacqueline Wilson books one after the other. I read plenty as a child and have plenty of books saved from my younger years.
The thing about this book though, is that nobody else has read it. It's a translation from a little known German author and was bought for me by my mother in a Borders about 5 months before the company closed it's stores. Whereas most of my childhood reading experiences are shared and loved by many, Mimus is all my own. I've never known anyone else who's even heard of it before I've told them, and yet it's one of my favourite books. Mimus was my first experience as an individual reader, to read and experience a book all by myself, not just another Jacqueline Wilson read at the same time as all my friends. I also read this book to my younger brother when I was a teenager, doing all the silly voices. For years I read this book over and over again, sometimes cover to cover but often just picking out my favourite passages and plot points and revisiting them. My point being that this book is well loved, and in becoming well loved, it has also gotten battered to within an inch of it's life.
It's easy, when you keep up with book-tube and book blogging to fall into the trap of seeing books as aesthetic objects. The 'dream' is usually peddled as rows and rows of white shelves lined with pristine books, clothbound editions and series with matching covers, and for a few years I bought into that. I was obsessed with keeping my books like new, I didn't want to bend the spines or write in the pages, I only wanted to buy books in the prettiest editions available, or, if the only covers I could find were ugly, I was sometimes completely put off buying the book! I barely even read the books I bought. I realise that for a little while I stopped actually being a reader and just became a collector.
It was Mimus that got me to come to my senses. I found it in an old schoolbag tucked away in a drawer as I was moving out of my parents house, and when I first saw how creased and stained it was, how the pages were coming loose and the spine was cracked to shit, my first thought was "Oh God I used to love this book, but this is ugly, I'm going to need a new copy." But then I remembered sitting on the floor of my messy bedroom with my brother doing the stupid voices while he laughed. And of sitting in bed on cold evenings flicking through to find my favourite bits and reading them again and again, getting food on the pages and bending the cover as I rolled over in the blankets. I sat down and started reading Mimus and suddenly books were books again. The rows of beautiful, pristine, unread books on my shelves seemed soulless and stupid.
It was Mimus that got me to come to my senses. I found it in an old schoolbag tucked away in a drawer as I was moving out of my parents house, and when I first saw how creased and stained it was, how the pages were coming loose and the spine was cracked to shit, my first thought was "Oh God I used to love this book, but this is ugly, I'm going to need a new copy." But then I remembered sitting on the floor of my messy bedroom with my brother doing the stupid voices while he laughed. And of sitting in bed on cold evenings flicking through to find my favourite bits and reading them again and again, getting food on the pages and bending the cover as I rolled over in the blankets. I sat down and started reading Mimus and suddenly books were books again. The rows of beautiful, pristine, unread books on my shelves seemed soulless and stupid.
In the last three years I have grown up, stopped being a tool, and am now financially responsible for myself. Second hand bookshops are my best friends, I love highlighting and scribbling in all my books and I enjoy a certain satisfaction looking at the creased spines on my bookshelf. I recently discovered The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison in a charity shop for £1.20, with two different sets of scrawls and underlining already in the pages. I love the idea that two people have already owned my book and I get to see how they felt about the same story as I was reading through. I'll probably donate it again at some point, to pass it on to someone else, so they can have the same experience I did.
Let me know how you feel about this? Are you happy to let your books get ugly? Or do you prefer to keep them in good condition?
Thank you for reading!
Thank you for reading!
Isabelle
xox
It's Valentines Day at the end of this week! And for the first time in four years I actually have a Valentine! Yay for romantic validation! It won't be a big thing as we both have work but we're swapping presents and sarcastic cards and I'm making him dinner so provided I don't land us both in A&E with food poisoning it should be a good day.
I'll be honest I'm not a really big fan of 'romance' books. I find the genre can be too soppy and mushy, completely humourless or unrealistic, or sometimes what's shown as love in the narrative actually translates to creepy, scary, 'what the fuck are you doing in my bedroom watching me sleep ew ew ew gtfo!'
Nevertheless, there are a few books that I would count as 'love stories' that I thoroughly enjoyed for one reason or another, so if you're a grumpy little cynic like me, give some of these a try and maybe you'll find yourself warming to the romance genre.
Maurice by E. M. Forster - Follows a man in the dawn of the twentieth century, coming to terms with his attraction to men. Forster's narrative deals with the pain of feeling like the only way you can experience love is one for which society will call you sick and put you in prison. This was the classic that I read that made me realise that I could love classics. It's beautiful and emotional and has stayed with me for years.
A Simple Story by Elizabeth Inchbald - From something tragically beautiful to something fuzzy and hilarious. A sombre Catholic Priest suddenly becomes guardian to his old friend's daughter. The clash between the quiet studious Dorriforth and the witty, outgoing Miss Milner is hilarious and the characters surrounding them rolling their eyes at the inability of these two idiots to just get together already for god's sake is just the best thing. Miss Milner is also a treasure, far from the fragile, delicate pot plants you usually get in this period, Inchbald gives Miss Milner a sex drive, a personality and a razor sharp wit. There's also a second half of the book that completely changes and is just as fantastic as the first. Elizabeth Inchbald was one of Austen's favourite authors and if you find a lot of classics very dry and dull, this may change your mind.
Nevertheless, there are a few books that I would count as 'love stories' that I thoroughly enjoyed for one reason or another, so if you're a grumpy little cynic like me, give some of these a try and maybe you'll find yourself warming to the romance genre.
Maurice by E. M. Forster - Follows a man in the dawn of the twentieth century, coming to terms with his attraction to men. Forster's narrative deals with the pain of feeling like the only way you can experience love is one for which society will call you sick and put you in prison. This was the classic that I read that made me realise that I could love classics. It's beautiful and emotional and has stayed with me for years.
A Simple Story by Elizabeth Inchbald - From something tragically beautiful to something fuzzy and hilarious. A sombre Catholic Priest suddenly becomes guardian to his old friend's daughter. The clash between the quiet studious Dorriforth and the witty, outgoing Miss Milner is hilarious and the characters surrounding them rolling their eyes at the inability of these two idiots to just get together already for god's sake is just the best thing. Miss Milner is also a treasure, far from the fragile, delicate pot plants you usually get in this period, Inchbald gives Miss Milner a sex drive, a personality and a razor sharp wit. There's also a second half of the book that completely changes and is just as fantastic as the first. Elizabeth Inchbald was one of Austen's favourite authors and if you find a lot of classics very dry and dull, this may change your mind.
The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm - Something a little different, this is actually a non fiction book discussing love in all it's forms. From instinctive motherly love to religious devotion, love shown as innocent hand holding all the way to a BDSM relationship. It's incredibly interesting and engaging, and my mama bought my copy at a used bookshop, and it's full of little scribbles, bits of paper and a note in the front saying 'Much love, for Christmas 1971, S' and I love that the book has been aprt of someone else's love story already!
By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart - Smart's landmark work reads almost like an epic poem. It records the tragic true story of Smart's love affair with poet George Barker. It's a story told almost entirely in emotional waves that come crashing through the narrative. But far from soppy and insipid, Smart's writing is searing and powerful, presenting the sheer force of love in all it's stark reality.
Therese Raquin by Emile Zola - Zola's masterpiece makes my list for presenting love in it's most dark, twisted nature. The eponymous heroine is trapped in an unhappy marriage with her sickly cousin. She finds freedom in a turbulent love affair, but the passion of the lovers pulls them down a dark path. Therese Raquin is a dingy, gripping novel about how gnarly and destructive love can be. Perfect for if you really want some anti-valentines sentiment.
Frenchman's Creek by Daphne Du Maurier - Finally, one of my favourite love stories of all time. Daphne Du Maurier is known for Rebecca and Jamaica Inn, two very dark gothic stories, but Frenchman's Creek is bawdy, silly and equally excellent. Set in the 1600's, Lady Dona has always been 'one of the boys', but secretly longs for a life of love and passion. She runs away to Cornwall and...wait for it... begins a passionate romance with a sexy French pirate who is hiding out in caves near her summer home. Like what the actual fuck? Frenchman's Creek is RIDICULOUS and, I imagine, if you had come off the back of the rest of her works and were looking for something of the same literary quality as Rebecca then you might be disappointed. But if you take it for what it is, which is silly, trashy, period drama pulp then it's an absolute joy. Frenchman's Creek had me rolling around by bed squealing with laughter at the sheer perfection of the whole thing, and it's something I am saving to reread when I really need my spirits lifting.
So these are my Valentine's Day reads. If you've read any let me know what you thought and feel free to leave your own recommendations!
Thank you for reading,
Isabelle
xox
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet - Becky Chambers - 2015 - Hodder and Stoughton
*Reading Copy kindly provided by the Publishers for Review*
"'I cannot pretend the war never happened, but I stopped fighting it long ago. I did not start that war. It should never have been mine to fight.' He sank down so that he could look Rosemary square in the eye. 'We cannot blame ourselves for the wars our parents start. Sometimes the very best thing we can do is walk away.'"
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is a masterful blend of sci - fi and literary fiction. It centers around a rag tag cast of characters that make up the crew aboard a ship as they complete their tasks of punching wormholes through space for intergalactic travel between worlds.
The sheer scope of the worlds created by Chambers was incredible. Our main focus is the crew of the Wayfarer but through their journey together, as their personal stories are unfolded we get glimpses into this enormous expanse of worlds full of diverse cultures, religions and moral values. Chambers does a beautiful job of painting each different species as diverse within itself, just as humans are, as opposed to the planets of hive minded beings often found in sci-fi. The depth of imagination that Chambers has is incredibly impressive and it was a delight to find out about each different planet and it's inhabitants.
The individual characters are the standout point for me. The Wayfarer's crew are all incredibly rich, interesting people, and come together to make a unit that is as much a family as it is a crew. They may butt heads and disagree, some of them straight up dislike each other but reading about the ways in which they share each others lives and look after one another is actually quite beautiful. The side characters are also incredibly fun and I want to throw this book at all sci-fi and fantasy writers who recycle the same character tropes for women over and over again because Chambers creates a multitude of complex female characters seen constantly throughout the novel and I fucking love it.
Ultimately, although this is without doubt a sci - fi book, it is so much deeper than your average pulpy action packed space mission. This book is, at it's core, about what it means to be alive. What it means to be a person and how a group, whether it's the crew of one pokey little space ship or the entire Galactic Commons, can come together as a family or break apart into chaos.
I feel like if you loved The Martian by Andy Weir, I feel like this is a natural next step. Sci - Fi written in a witty and unpretentious style but incredibly memorable and full of depth. This was my first five star review for 2016 and it's going to take something very special to meet the standard this has set.
The sheer scope of the worlds created by Chambers was incredible. Our main focus is the crew of the Wayfarer but through their journey together, as their personal stories are unfolded we get glimpses into this enormous expanse of worlds full of diverse cultures, religions and moral values. Chambers does a beautiful job of painting each different species as diverse within itself, just as humans are, as opposed to the planets of hive minded beings often found in sci-fi. The depth of imagination that Chambers has is incredibly impressive and it was a delight to find out about each different planet and it's inhabitants.
The individual characters are the standout point for me. The Wayfarer's crew are all incredibly rich, interesting people, and come together to make a unit that is as much a family as it is a crew. They may butt heads and disagree, some of them straight up dislike each other but reading about the ways in which they share each others lives and look after one another is actually quite beautiful. The side characters are also incredibly fun and I want to throw this book at all sci-fi and fantasy writers who recycle the same character tropes for women over and over again because Chambers creates a multitude of complex female characters seen constantly throughout the novel and I fucking love it.
Ultimately, although this is without doubt a sci - fi book, it is so much deeper than your average pulpy action packed space mission. This book is, at it's core, about what it means to be alive. What it means to be a person and how a group, whether it's the crew of one pokey little space ship or the entire Galactic Commons, can come together as a family or break apart into chaos.
I feel like if you loved The Martian by Andy Weir, I feel like this is a natural next step. Sci - Fi written in a witty and unpretentious style but incredibly memorable and full of depth. This was my first five star review for 2016 and it's going to take something very special to meet the standard this has set.
Thank you for reading!
Isabelle
xox
xox
My first graphic novel of the year, and of course it had to be a Batman one. The Long Halloween is a quintessential Batman story, doing a really solid job of blending 'Batman: Kickass Superhero' with 'Batman: World's Greatest Detective'.
In TLH Batman's crime fighting career is still in it's relatively early days, and Gotham's wackier antagonists like Joker are small time weirdos, as opposed to big bad super-villains. Batman's main fight is with the various gangs of Gotham, and a mystery killer who, beginning on Halloween, carries out a series of murders on public holidays. There are also elements of this story line that can be seen reflected in the second installment of the Dark Knight trilogy, and it's a lot of fun to see how the story and ideas were picked apart and reshuffled and translated into the movie for a different genre and audience.
One of my favourite things about the Batman franchise is seeing how different characters are portrayed in different stories; their outfits, abilities, personality etc. TLH features most of Batman's adversaries including The Joker, Catwoman, Poison Ivy (who is particularly interesting,) and Riddler and it's always a nice surprise when a character is dressed differently or taken in a different direction from what you're used to.
My favourite thing about this story is that Batman gets it wrong, and at a serious cost. All too often Batman and other heroes like him become basically invincible, Any trap they fall into was all part of a bigger plan, everything ends with some incredible victory. In The Long Halloween Batman has to come to terms with his own failings, and deal with the guilt that comes with the hurt he causes.
The artwork is pulpy and scratchy and to be honest not my favourite. It reminds me of the sheer crock of shit that was Batman Gothic (0/10 do not recommend). It's not terrible but Selena Kyle looks a little bit like Michael Jackson dressed up as a creepy fortune teller and Joker's teeth look like baleen. I've seen versions of Bruce Wayne I liked much better too. Boy doesn't suit a widow's peak.
Batman The Long Halloween isn't my favourite graphic novel by any means, but I enjoyed it and it's definitely a classic must-read for any fans of the Bat.
I'm hoping to get another two book reviews in by the end of January! Stay tuned!
Thank you for reading
Isabelle
xox
How do we reconcile the imperfections of feminism with all the good it can do? In truth, feminism is flawed because it is a movement powered by people and people are inherently flawed.
Bad Feminist was the second book I read this year, the first being Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and the two in succession kicked off my reading year beautifully. Bad Feminist is a collection of essays in which Gay talks about a range of social issues, centering around gender and race.
| I think this is what How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran was trying to be. It covers feminism in all it's complexity, in a broad and accessible way, drawing on examples from pop culture, such as movies like Django and The Help and of course Robin Thicke's infamous Blurred Lines, to show the ways in which social inequality of both sex and race still exist in a world that many claim treats everybody as equal. The majority of the ideas in essays focusing on inequality between the sexes were familiar to me, though it was very interesting and somewhat horrifying to learn more about the Southern states of America and the political struggles over rights to contraception and terminations. I didn't realise it was so damn terrible. What I really enjoyed was the insight I got into the black experience, which is something I hadn't been expecting to be included to the degree it was. A major flaw in 'liberal white feminism' is the tendency to ignore racial inequality as interwoven with gender inequality. The two come from the same place, the same set of cultural priorities, and it is a huge failing of anyone who advocates for one, to disregard the other. I was also really happy to see her discuss 'feminism' as a term for a very broad ideology, which can be applied to a wide range of different ways of thinking. Often feminism is thought of as this hive of borg queens all working to topple men into the dust. *eye roll*. Instead Gay argues that feminism is simply the desire for equality and freedom between the sexes, and that freedom and equality mean different things for different people. Roxanne Gay is fun and engaging and has a real gift for discussing ideas and building arguments with passion and personal experience, without sacrificing intelligent, critical thought. It's not exactly the magnum opus of the current fight for equality, nor is it going to spark massive debates and create some kind of new wave of feminism, but it's an excellent place to start
Isabelle
xox
|
I had a pretty good reading year. I finished only twenty two books overall but of what I read I absolutely loved a ot of it, and think I'm really starting to cultivate my reading tastes and learn what I love. (Mostly women's literary fiction, fantasy and graphic novels.) I thought I'd share my most loved books of 2015. I've seen some people listing 10-15 but as I read far fewer books than most of them I just picked my top five:
5. Nimona - Noelle Stevenson
The only graphic novel to make it to my list. A lovely story about friendship and how hard it is to feel alone. This story started out a whole heap of fun and cuteness and ended up ripping my heart out and throwing it on the floor. The art is also the cutest thing ever.
4. The Magic Toyshop - Angela Carter
A beautiful dark fairy tale-like story of a young woman coming of age. I've never been so captivated by imagery, and Carter's characters are strange hall-of-mirror figures: human but distorted into odd mythical creatures.The whole thing was like something out of a captivating dream.
3. A Room of One's Own -Virgina Woolf
A teeny tiny little essay that calmly and quietly asserts that women do not get enough opportunity to achieve their ambitions, and that the life of women is one of restriction and compromise for the ideals of men. Clever, gentle and charming, much like Woolf herself.
2. Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
The one book I read this year that made me think 'yes, this is the kind of novel I want to write'. Eugenides' sprawling novel follows Calliope and her parents and grandparents, exploring gender, sexuality, identity, and how past secrets will always have consequences. Masterfully crafted and told with skill and beauty, Middlesex rekindled my love of reading mid-way through the year and the story stays with me still.
1. The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison
It was a tough decision between the two but Morrison came out as my favourite book of the year. Read in a day, this short novel tells the devastating story of Percola, a young black girl living in 1940's Ohio, who longs for blue eyes. The novels follows her and her family through the reality of the black experience in the Southern states at the time, and the fact that the events of the novel were simply a reflection on reality made it even more heartbreaking. Morrison's book is one that I would urge anybody to read. Short and powerful, and will stay with me forever.
Thank you for reading!
Isabelle
xox
Isabelle
xox
Hey hey! long time no see! It's officially 2016 and I've decided to come back to blogging. This blog is now Folded Paper Foxes, and is all spruced up with a new theme and header and will now be more or less solely a book blog.
Kicking off 2016 I've made some reading resolutions, just to help expand my reading and broaden my palette a little.
. Read More Non-Fiction - I've been slowly dipping into non-fiction in the last six months and really want to get into the habit of reading at least one piece of non-fiction every month. I'm growing up now, and starting to form opinions on things like politics, social debates and science and want to make sure that my knowledge is as rounded and solid as it can be, because there's nothing worse than an opinionated person who hasn't got a fucking clue what they're talking about. I will not be that person.
.Reread Harry Potter - I read each Harry Potter book, all the way through, once, when I was younger. Well I actually had Stephen Fry read me quite a few of them, on brightly coloured cassettes! I remember loving them at the time, and having the fourth and fifth on pre-order to make sure I got my copy, but for some reason the love and warmth I had for the Harry Potter universe hasn't stuck with me the way that it has for a lot of my friends, so this year I've decided I want to reread the series and rediscover the magic of my childhood. Plus I'd be very interested to read them as an adult, with a more critical, analytical brain. I'm hoping it doesn't spoil it for me.
.Read More Graphic Novels - This doesn't have any particular backstory. Essentially I really enjoy graphic novels, but keep putting off reading them in favour of novels. I want to try out some new, different graphic novels such as Saga and Sex Criminals, and also expand my collection of titles from the DC Universe.
.Reduce my TBR books to under 10 - So for a few months I've been working for Waterstones... and that means 50% staff discounts... and proof copies... and that means that I've bought a ridiculous amount of books and the busy Christmas period has meant that I've had no time to read much at all! This has all culminated in a shamefully large amount of books hanging around on my shelves as yet unread. This is not ok. So essentially my next year of reading needs to be geared towards working through this backlog and stopping buying armfuls of books after work.
So with some goals in mind I'm kicking off this year as I mean to go on and have a stack of books to help me get started on my reading goals:
January TBR
The Awakening ~ Kate Chopin
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K Rowling
Unspeakable Things - Laurie Penny
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K Rowling
Unspeakable Things - Laurie Penny
Bad Feminist - Roxane Gay
Batman: The Long Halloween - Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale
Batman: The Long Halloween - Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale
Five books is a pretty good number for me to read in a month. I'm not the sort of person who races through books but as graphic novels don't take too long maybe I'll end up getting through a few more.
That's all from me for the moment! Thank you for reading, I'll be back soon with my top books of 2015.
Isabelle xx
I turned twenty two recently and as part of my present my lovely flatmates got me a box of LUSH goodies. I've been pretty boring when it comes to bath products recently, preferring to keep things simple and affordable (Ahh student poverty) but having been given the opportunity to try out some new things I've become a little more decadent again and as a result my skin has been feeling 'lush'! Bad pun alert. Among the goodies were these three products and as I've been using them for the past few weeks I thought I'd let you know what I thought.
Rub Rub Rub Shower Scrub
Ooh you guys this stuff is amazing! I love exfoliators but often find that they can be a bit rough and harsh and leave my skin feeling irritated. Not this bad boy. Super fine granules in a gorgeously girly bright blue goop that lathers up in the shower and gently polishes the skin while keeping it baby soft. It's also great for (weirdly) working into your hair as a shampoo, as the salt creates some serious volume and helps create texture that makes it easier to style and the smell is glorious to have wafting around your face all day. Would definitely recommend, I'm getting a big tub of this the second this runs out.
Vanilla Dee - Lite Body Lotion
I usually use my Soap & Glory body butter as an after shower moisturiser but have been using these for the past few weeks. It smells amazing. The scent is vanilla but it's not that sickly sweet baby-toy-plastic vanilla smell, it's a really deep, hot, starchy vanilla that's incredibly grown up and really yummy. My skin always feels hydrated and silky and though it probably won't replace my usual body butter it's a lovely product and I'm going to finish it all. I'd recommend giving it a sniff if you're in a LUSH shop as it's definitely something I'd have overlooked if it hadn't been given to me. It really is Dee-Lite-ful! ... Sorry.
Gorgeous Facial Moisturiser
This is just a dinky little sample but it's lasted me ages! It's a nice creamy moisturiser with very little in the way of colour or fragrance. My skin is 'normal', not too oily and not too dry either and for me this was a bit on the rich side for daily wear, I felt that my makeup seemed to get a little greasy after a few hours which I obviously don't want. For me this actually works really nicely as a night cream, patted a little on after cleansing my face. I've never been one for using moisturiser at night (Beauty treason I know) simply because the thickness of creams geared for night time often mean I wake up with a greasy face and get prone to breakouts. With this however I wake with plump healthy feeling skin and feel all grown up now that I'm using a night time moisturiser... even if it's just a day cream being sneaky. It'd probably be good for dryer skins during the day if you need something quite rich to keep your skin smooth and nourished.
Hopefully that was in some way helpful to you, it's been a while since I did anything beauty related, I'm not sure exactly how to go about it. I can really feel myself getting back into LUSH again, I always seem to go through phases, is it just me? I had forgotten how much I enjoyed their products but I'm very tempted to go in there soon and have a browse, especially with their Christmas bits coming out! If I buy anything more I shall let you know how I get on with it. Until next time, thank you for reading, let me know what you've been using recently to keep your skin feeling 'lush', ahaha... that wasn't funny the first time was it? Ahem. Don't get up, I'll show myself out.
Hey look! It's been less than a month since I last posted! What are the chances?
So I'm back at university and you know what that means, my already unimpressive blogging consistency takes a nosedive. But I am trying to keep up some regularity and have been reading all my favourite blogs even if I haven't had the time to leave any thoughtful or insightful comments.
I thought I'd keep the ball rolling by featuring my October 'TBR' books (I term I'm stealing from BookTube). I mentioned on my Instagram how much I liked that they were all quite colour appropriate for the autumn and, although none of them are especially 'spooky' they all sound quite dark and creepy and great for Halloween reads.
The Gunslinger ~ Stephen King
I'm a big fan of Stephen King but I've never tried his long running fantasy series, which is bizarre because I love me some fantasy. The Gunslinger is the first in what I usually see described as something like 'A Western style Game of Thrones' which sounds really fun. I mentioned a while ago that since finishing what's written of the A Song of Ice and Fire books and the entirety of the Emperor's Edge Chronicles (which I'll be reviewing in the coming weeks) I've missed having a series on the go. There's something so great about a big world with characters you spend a lot of time with so I'm hoping this'll rekindle my spirits and give me another fantasy world to flail hopelessly over.
The Shining Girls ~ Lauren Beukes
I know next to nothing about this book but my friend Holly has said it's amazing and she has excellent literary tastes so I'm looking forward to it. I get the impression it's a crime thriller in the vein of the Gillian Flynn books but with some type of supernatural/ magic realism elements to it so I'm really intrigued. It's not the genre of books I usually go for but I'm always looking to branch out so I'm excited to try something new.
Alias Grace ~ Margaret Atwood
For those who don't know, I love me some Margaret Atwood. She's a sassy bamf who writes awesome literary fiction in a wide variety of genres but that all fit together in a very distinct style. I'm actually lucky enough to be studying a module dedicated to her this year so that's really exciting! This is one of three books on the reading list I have yet to tackle and it's one of her chunkier ones. It's historical fiction of sorts surrounding the true story of Grace Marks who is accused of murdering her employer in 1840's Canada. I'm already a few chapters in and enjoying it so far, though like all Atwood novels you have to let the narrative wind round you for a bit before she closes in on you and smacks you in the face with her sheer amazing-ness.
So that's what I'm hoping to read in the next few weeks. I will probably review The Shining Girls independently, Alias Grace along with a few other Atwoods (I'll have read eight by the end of the year so I'll probably review them in groups.) and The Gunslinger depends, I may wait and see if I read on in the series before I form any major thoughts.
Let me know what you think or if you've read any of these books. I should be back in the next few days with some beauty and skincare so stick around and I have a free day Wednesday so I'm going to come and perv on all your blogs and catch up with you all.
Did I mention I was getting back into graphic novels? Probably.
I adored graphic novels back when I was in my early teens but the demands of school life meant that I had to cut back on more frivolous past times to make time for studying and unfortunately graphic novels didn't make the cut. As a result I couldn't keep up with my favourite titles and after a while found that I had lost interest, as I tend to do with things I know I can't commit to fully.
However recently I've been getting the graphic novel bug back and getting it bad! I thank (or blame) Tumblr to be honest. I wandered into the DC fandom section and immediately found myself right back where I used to be. Batman comics and cartoons where a huge part of my childhood but having been out of the loop I had no idea how much the DC Universe had changed! I suddenly found myself being simultaneously flooded with nostalgia for my old childhood loves and excited to see what the new rebooted series were like so once my University exams were over I went out and grabbed a few titles to reintroduce myself the the Batman universe.
I've read quite a few of the more recent installments now as well as a couple of classics I had missed out and thought I would share some with you. To keep the posts from being being abhorrently long I decided to split them up and review them in little bundles rather than ambush you with a whole summer's worth of deranged 'catch-up' reading. This consists of the first of a big series and two classic stand-alones.
Batman and Son
Grant Morrison's run is one of the most popular and well known series in the more recent canon, so I figured there could be worst places to start. This is the first of the trade paperbacks (when all the little single comics are collected into one big volume) so I picked it up and jumped straight in. I really enjoyed it and can see why it's so popular. In terms of the individual issues collected in it, there are a few that were a bit of a miss and one that just seemed pointless and forced in but overall the story arc was great and the artwork in most of it was really crisp, clean and bright which I love. In this series Batman finds out he has a son! I already knew this as it was something that was hard to avoid while browsing Tumblr fan pages but I was really excited to see what Damian would be like, I pictured him as this cute little baby 'Bruce Wayne' who would be the perfect little batman in training. LOLWRONG. As it turns out Damian Wayne has been raised by his mother, the daughter-of a-war-lord and all around badass Thalia Al Ghul and as a result he's not exactly been brought up with the best of moral guides. When Batman allows him to stay at Wayne Manor he promptly beats the crap out of Tim Drake (the current Robin) and declares himself entitled to the position of Batman's sidekick. Oddly enough Bruce Wayne isn't hugely impressed. To add to Bats' troubles there seems to be various Batman 'tribute acts' running round Gotham taking the law into their own hands.
I thought this was loads of fun and already adore the homicidal little brat that is Damian Wayne. Probably not somewhere to start if you have no background knowledge of the DC universe beyond the movies but if you know your basics and can tell your Dick Grayson from your Tim Drake I think this could shape up to be a really good series, I'll keep you posted as I get through the run.
The Killing Joke
Everyone knows the Joker. Even if your Batman knowledge extends to 'that guy with the cape and the silly voice' the Joker is an iconic villain and probably one of the greatest in superhero history. Or maybe that's just me.
The Killing Joke begins with Joker having broken out of Arkham Asylum and going after Commissioner Gordon and his daughter. It's dark and pretty brutal and the grisly contrasted with this very bold art style with a bright acrid colour palette which gives the whole thing a wonderfully creepy, macabre edge. The narrative flashes back and forth between this and what we are told is the Joker's back-story, detailing how he went from an ordinary man to maniacal clown prince of crime, although even by the end of the book it's hard to decide how much of what we are told is true given the form in which we are given the information.
I also really enjoyed this, my only complaint is that is was very short, it took me less than an hour to get though which, when you've paid eight pounds for something, is a bit of a disappointment in terms of getting your money's worth. Regardless I'm not a bit sorry I bought it as it's one of the most famous stand alone volumes and it's a great addition to my newly growing graphic novel shelf. Again this might not be right for complete beginners simply because it is so short but if you don't mind paying the money I think it's great.
Arkham Asylum
Most superhero storylines are very fast paced and action orientated. This one is something a little different. It's April Fools Day and the inmates, led by the Joker, have taken over Arkham Asylum, declaring they will kill all the staff unless Batman agrees to take their place and lock himself in with them.
In terms of plot... well there isn't really one. It basically boils down to Batman having a wander through Arkham Asylum encountering some of the people he put away: Scarecrow, Harvey Dent etc while every so often the story flashes back to the origin of the Asylum and Arkham, the man who built it. What the story lacks in 'POW' fight scenes and cheesy hero/villain banter it makes up for with expertly wound tension and an art style like nothing I've ever seen in a Batman comic before. The whole thing looks like one of those dreams that's not an outright nightmare but that's horribly unsettling and creepy and from which you can't make yourself wake up.
I bought the fifteenth anniversary edition, which has, at the back, the original manuscript and a few pages of sketched storyboards too and I absolutely loved that. I loved reading Grant Morrison's manuscript scene by scene and flicking back to see how the artist, Dave Mckean, had interpreted his words into art. Honestly that for me was one of the best bits so if you were to buy it I would highly suggest spending a little extra just for that. Not really one for beginners (again... I really haven't thought this through) but if you're looking for something a bit different to try this is a really interesting one. I keep opening up my favourite pages and just marveling at how creepy and beautiful they are and it's made me interested to see if Dave Mckean has done anything else for the DC Universe.
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So those are a few that I've read so far. I might make this something I do every few months perhaps? I can't justify buying enough graphic novels to do them more regularly, as they're quite expensive for how long they take to read and I do have rent and bills to pay (oh the joys of being a grown up.) But if you enjoyed this and would be interested to see more please let me know. I feel like I neglected to factor in that most of you aren't particularly well versed in graphic novels even if you're interested in getting into them, so I might try and put together a sort of 'crash course' reading list for introducing yourself to the DC/ Batman universe without getting confused in all the different runs and stand-alones and crossovers and spending a fortune in the process.
I'm going to go do something useful now. If you've made it this far good on you! Here's something embarrassing as a reward: When writing the title of this blog I knew I'd done something wrong but couldn't figure out what it was. I read it over and over, confused about what I'd messed up and why my brain was telling me I'd dome something stupid and then, after about ten minutes, I finally realised: I'd written "Batman Addition" rather than "Batman Edition".
That £9000 a year course in English is clearly paying off.
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