Month: November 2015

Book Blogger guilt

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Being a book blogger is awesome, but not all the time. I’ve found that along with the receiving free books, and the excitement of getting books before they are released to the peasants of the public, getting to participate in blog tours (and knowing that authors actually know you exist!), there can be a lot of guilt. Last month for example, I committed to writing a post about ebooks, and in return for this post $40 was to be donated in my name to Books for Africa. I did not write that post. Poor children in Africa did not get that donation, and I feel terrible about it. I did have a good excuse (what with my father being gravely ill – He is back in hospital unfortunately), but I still feel terrible about it. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. So I have decided to list all the things that make me feel like a guilt factory when it comes to blogging, and how I avoid dissolving into a puddle of …

Book Review – Lirael by Garth Nix

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This is the second book in The Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix (sometimes referred to as the Abhorsen series), if you haven’t read the first book in the series, Sabriel, you can check out my review here (if you like. No pressure). As with most of my reviews of sequels, this one will be short and will contain no spoilers of Sabriel or Lirael. What’s it about: Sensible girls, less sensible boys, Necromancy, and sassy talking animals. So the first book in the series, Sabriel, is about a young girl who is the daughter of the Abhorsen (Big Daddy Necromancer). When her father goes missing, she must travel through the Old Kingdom, which is full of dead things that want to eat your face, to find him. And the fact that Sabriel is one of the most sensible protagonists I’ve ever encountered, just makes this book lovely to read. So what about Lirael? Lirael is the story of two separate characters, about 14 years after Sabriel. The story of Lirael starts off with poor …

Book Review: Railsea by China Mieville

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 “People have wanted to narrate since first we banged rocks together & wondered about fire. There’ll be tellings as long as there are any of us here, until the stars disappear one by one like turned-out lights.” What’s it about? Basically, it’s a retelling of Moby Dick, but instead of a whale, we have a giant carnivorous mole rat, and instead of a ship, we have a train. Sounds awesome? That’s because it is. This is one of China Mieville’s works that is more suited to a younger audience, but this guy can really write for any age. “As long as humanity has rolled on the railsea, the rigours & vigours & bloody triggers of the underground have been legendary.” What did I think? It’s completely brilliant. Go read it now. I’ve never read a more cleverly written book in my life. This was just brilliant. It has a non-traditional sentence structure that reads a bit like poetry. I actually found myself only reading this book home alone because the writing was just so wonderful …

Five beautiful editions of Alice in Wonderland

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There are so many beautiful editions of Alice in Wonderland out there and sadly, I don’t have them all (life is so unfair!). But I thought I would share five of my favourites with you because they are so pretty. The Penguin Clothbound Editon The Penguin Clothbound editions are all beautiful and fairly inexpensive, and the Alice in Wonderland one has flamingos! Who doesn’t love flamingos? Anyone? Didn’t think so. You can find it here. The Barnes and Noble Leatherbound edition (well, one of them. There are about five different versions) I have at least three different B&N leatherbound editions of Alice in Wonderland, but this one is probably my favourite, mainly because Alice is sitting on a throne like a boss. You can find this beauty here. The Camille-Rose Garcia illustrated edition This edition is so gorgeous. It has some of the most beautifully vibrant illustrations. I received this one as a gift, and I was actually surprised by how bright and beautiful it is. I now want her versions of Snow White and Cinderella. …

A long overdue book haul.

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Hello, dearest ones. As you all know I have been off thesis-ing. I have also had my father almost dying from septic shock because a damn surgeon doesn’t know how to wash their hands properly, thrown into the mix (he’s totally fine by the way). Anyway, it’s been chaos here in Tina-land. BUT some good things have also happened, I have been offered a job, but it does mean extending out my PhD so I can get a bunch of experiments done before the next grant round. So that means that my thesis writing has become a little less frantic, and hopefully that will mean I will actually be able to read something other than scientific journals. There just really aren’t enough dragons in scientific journals. Anyway… Book haul! First up is the riffle paper version of Alice in Wonderland. It this looks familiar, it’s because it sort of matches the Puffin in Bloom books (it’s not the same size, but similar otherwise). Getting this in the mail was so exciting because I pre-ordered it …