Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts

Thursday 10 April 2014

TAG|| Harry Potter!

Hi Lovelies!

I saw this tag on Shona's blog, over at Shona Louise , and HAD to do it! I am one of the biggest Harry Potter nerds going. I've been captivated by them since I was a child. They were a massive part of my childhood and I'm still a big fan now and so I'm actually really excited to do this tag!

First experiences of Harry Potter:

I was in my final year of primary school. We had reading time on Friday afternoons and Harry Potter And The Philosophers Stone was one of the books chosen.This was before it was well known. I remember being hooked straight away and couldn't wait for friday afternoons to hear the next chapter.

Which film have you watched the most?

Goblet of Fire. It was so brilliantly made and I think it kept very true to the book. It was my favourite book in the series as well, next to the final one of course.

Favourite moment out of all the films?

Ahhhhh this is such a tough one there are so many! I couldn't possibly name just one so a few are: When Hagrid gives Dudley a pig's tail. When they take Polyjuice potion for the first time. When Hermione punches Draco Malfoy in the face. When Umbridge gets her comeuppance in the Forbidden Forest. When they sneak into the Ministry of Magic. And of course, the epic battle between Harry and Voldemort in the final film.

If you could be any of the Harry Potter characters, who would you be, and why?

I'd probably want to be Ginny. I found her super annoying in the films but she gets to kiss Daniel Radcliffe so it wouldn't be so bad haha!

If you could learn one thing at Hogwarts what would it be?

Definitely charms! Or Transfiguration would be awesome too.

Favourite teacher at Hogwarts?

McGonagall! She was a great character, tough as old boots and Maggie Smith was cast perfectly for it.

Hope you've enjoyed reading this and I tag any of you Harry Potter fans out there to do it! 
  

Monday 31 March 2014

Book Review #3 Feel The Fear...And Do It Anyway!

Hi Lovelies,

I wanted to share with you, the latest book I've read, called Feel The Fear...And Do It Anyway! by Susan Jeffers. This has been one of the most powerful and inspiring books i've ever read.

Let me start by saying how I came across it. I have always been a natural worrier, to the point where the smallest setbacks would send me into a spiral of anxiety for days. Confiding this to a friend, she recommended this book. Now, I won't lie, at first I was hesitant, I thought it was going to be one of those patronising self help books with a load of phschology ramblings. But I promised to give it a go so I ordered the book and as soon as it arrived I got stuck in.

The lady that wrote this is a complete genius. She explains how we attract good things into our lives by being positive and happy, and seeing the good in bad situations, she explains it in a language I can understand. The bottom line of the book is to teach you how to be a confident and secure person, and to have a healthy balanced life, through the power of positive thinking. I know it sounds a bit quirky and hippy but everything in the book made complete sense. There's lots of exercises throughout to get you started. E.g. Go for one whole week without complaining or bitching about a single thing. Now this may not seem that difficult, but believe me, it really was. I had no idea how much I complained about, from my train being late in the morning, to someone that had been rude to me that day. I was surprised how difficult I found it to smile through my annoyances and move on!

This book teaches you  to appreciate and focus on what you have got, not what you don't have, and how to live everyday to the fullest. To put yourself out of your comfort zone and by doing so, increasing your confidence. It teaches you that it's ok to feel scared, but to do what scares you anyway, hence the title.Some people might think this is all common sense and that's how you should live anyway, well, lucky you, because for alot of us that suffer severe anxiety, it's extremely hard to stay positive and confident when things aren't going the way that you want.

This book is definitely for anyone that wants to change their mindset to be a more secure and positive person and to see another side of themselves! I definitely feel alot more relaxed and happier, in the knowledge that whatever isn't going right, I can handle it.

You can purchase the book here for £5.59 from Amazon.

Have any of you read this or something similar? Would love to hear your thoughts!

Wednesday 6 March 2013

Book Review #2 || Life Of Pi

Hi Dolls!

Hope you're all having a good week!

I have just finished the hugely successful book 'Life Of Pi',by Yann Martel, which has recently been made into a film, so I thought I would share my thoughts about it with you all.

The storyline is set in the 1970's and is about a teenage boy named Piscine, shortened to Pi, who lives in India with his parents and brother. The family own a  Zoo, but they decide to move to Canada so have to sell all the animals to other Zoos in America/Canada. They set off for Canada by ship with the animals in tow. After a few days at sea there is a huge storm which causes the ship to sink, Pi is the only human who makes it on to a lifeboat...but he is joined by a fully grown Tiger, a Hyena, an Orangutan and a Zebra with a broken leg. This is where the story really begins.                                            I have to say, the first 100 pages I found pretty hard going. The style of writing is not the most exciting and the build up to the story is, dare I say it, quite dull. But I'm glad I persevered because once you get past that on to the real adventure, you will not be able to put it down! I won't spoil the rest just in case you want to read it or watch the movie, but it is a tragic, beautiful story about Man's will to live and just how far your survival instinct will push you.  It teaches you a great deal about animals in the wild too and makes you realise how similar they are to us.  Tigers are my favourite wild animal, I think they are beautiful and interesting so it was amazing to read more about the mind of a Tiger and it's interaction with humans.

I liked the fact that it was so unpredictable, as soon as I thought I knew what was going to happen next, something totally different happened which is very refreshing.

However, the ending was somewhat of a disappoinment if i'm brutally honest.Without saying too much, there is a huge twist which was fascinating to read but left me feeling confused. I like to finish reading a book feeling satisfied but I unfortunately finished it feeling mislead.

All in all, a great story once you can get past the slow build up. I would definitely recommend it to anyone to read, and if you do, please do let me know if you could make sense of the ending!

Friday 7 December 2012

Book Review ------- The White Queen, Philippa Gregory

Hi Beauts!

For all my fellow bookworms, I feel compelled to review my latest read as it is brilliant! 

The White Queen is not the normal type of book I would read as it's set in the Tudor times and I’ve never really been a fan of that era.
But a friend convinced me to read it after saying how good it was and she was right. It’s written in modern words so there’s none of that “where for art though” old English language that I cannot understand in the slightest. It’s an old book written for modern times.

Its based on a true story too, although alot of it seemed to be rumours which Philippa portrays as fact. But to be fair, If the story was told exactly how it happened back then i'm sure it wouldn't be nearly as interesting!

There's 3 main books in the series: The White Queen is the first, then The Red Queen, and then The Lady Of The Rivers, is the third book.

The first one is centred around Elizabeth Woodville, a young woman who catches the king of englands eye, marries him and from then on has to fight a constant war to protect herself and her family from jealous Royals who don't believe she has any right to be queen, or her future sons to be king since she doesn't have any royal blood. It includes the real life mystery of the disappearance of her two sons from The Tower of London, who even today, no one really knows what happened to them. This book has plenty of Drama, twists and turns and is a real page turner.  

I really enjoyed reading this and would definitely recommend it to anyone that loves a good book even if you don't think it's your type of thing. I can't wait to read the next one!  

Has anyone else read these? Would love to hear your thoughts!

                                                                       Laura xoxo