The 15 in 2015

 

New Years, how dare you be looming upon us once again?! It seems like only yesterday I was ringing in 2014 and only a short time before that I was cowering under a table welcoming in the year 2000. I remember it so well, with all it’s doom  and gloom lurking in the shadows; as the fireworks crackled, the world was anxiously awaiting Armageddon in the form of a Y2K bug threatening  a massive shut down on a global scale,  or alternatively a massive tidal wave wiping out all of humanity* (The name Nostradamus was thrown around a lot that year)

*neither of which happened but Y2K did give Will Smith something to rap about.

Every year it’s the same old hoopla: most countries trying to out do each other with an epic fireworks display, news programs cover and discuss the end of year frivolities and #DrunkGirlsOfNYE becomes a tag, if not an entire instagram account. Meanwhile I stay tucked up in bed or on the couch because I don’t do crowded place,  I don’t like drunk people and if it comes to choosing between going outside in the cold or staying at home wrapped in blankets, I know which I’d choose!

New Years: that wonderful time when we say goodbye to the old and ring in the new. We make empty promises to ourselves that we will be better than the year before or we set ourselves goals that are destroyed minutes later. Yet…here I am…doing it all over again! I feel like I should set one goal this year: “My New Years Resolution is to keep my New Years Resolution for a whole year”, if I can keep that resolution I may start being more successful when I set legitimate goals.

I have every intention of setting goals for 2015, because even if I don’t achieve them, they are something to strive toward. This year, I am giving myself the 15 of 15. 15 goals for 2015 that I have every intention of trying to at least attempt to give it a go at achieving.

So here it is, my 15 of 15.

Oh how cliché am I? Embrace the cliché!  Anyway, lets see how far I can get; I’m hoping to keep at least one of these active for the whole year, then I can cross off at least two of my goals (see number 15? It’s a loophole). For goal number 2 I am acquiring the list from popsugar that I may have seen on another blog and thought was a really good idea. My reading has stopped this year for a multitude of reasons, so it will be a case of prioritising and using my time wisely in order to fit in a few minutes of reading every night!

I’ve already taken a look through the list to see if there are any categories I can plan ahead for. Ensnared by AG Howard will be my book for “A book with a one word title”; Karen Fowler will by author for “ A book written by an author with your same initials”; and A Week In Paris by Karen Hore will be the book I’ve started but haven’t finished. I’m going to set myself a reading diary for a multitude of reasons but most importantly it will hold me accountable for my reading. I know a lot of the I push myself to finished a chapter at a time, but I think if I set myself a limit of 5-10 minutes of reading per day, then I am more likely to accomplish my goals.

I may not be able to maintain all 15 goals, but I’m going to give them a fair chance; that isn’t be being a pessimist, it’s reality! It can be hard enough maintaining 1 goal and I’ve set 15. Most of these however aren’t overly complicated, they are simply choices. I just have to remember to take a breath, think about the choice and then make the right choice.

Dear world, what is on your list of resolutions for 2015? Don’t like resolutions? What are your goals? What is on your to-do list? What do you want to achieve in 2015?

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27 in 27: The “done” list

 

In honour of my impending 27th birthday I came up with this idea to help “celebrate”. I know 27 isn’t really a big deal, not like 18,21 or 30, but never the less it is a reminder that I am getting older (wiser? smarter? prettier? more fun?) and instead of being a bad thing, it should more positive! In order to do so, I’ve created this list of 27 things I have done in my life thus far; things which are accomplishments, happy times, and things which remind me that with ever year that passes, good things happen.

1. I graduated High School
2. I graduated University
3. I got my drivers license
4. I’ve bungee jumped
5. I’ve sky dived
6. I’ve hiked up the highest mountain in Wales (Mt Snowdon)
7. I’ve read the entire Harry Potter book series
8. I’ve run in 4 Mother’s day classics (8km)
9. I’ve consumed an entire litre stein of beer in Germany
10. I’ve been on the fastest steel roller coaster in the world (Forumla Rossa)
11. I’ve been white water rafting
12. I’ve seen the pyramids in Egypt
13. I’ve abseiled down waterfalls
14. I’ve been skiing
15. I moved (a lot)
16. I’ve been on a cruise ship
17. I’ve gone camping
18. I’ve gone paragliding
19. I’ve parasailed
20. I’ve been to Bangkok, Cambodia & Phucket
21. I’ve travelled through most of Europe
22. I did a road trip starting in Ireland, into Northern Ireland, Scotland, England & Wales.
23. I’ve eaten raw sea urchin
24. I’ve had a piercing (vertical inverse navel piercing) in Amsterdam
25. I’ve been to 2 concerts (Good Charlotte and John Butler)
26. I’ve had my wisdom teeth taken out (is this a good thing?!)
27. I’ve lived for 27 years

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Book Review: Unhinged

Unhinged by A.G. Howard

***Please note: This is the second book in a series and the review for the first book, can be found here. Splintered by A.G. Howard.

Blurb on The Back:

In Splintered, A.G. Howard’s dark reimagining of Alice in Wonderland, Alyssa Gardner was crowned a Queen in Wonderland. Yet she chose to leave her subjects so she could live in the human realm. For a year she’s been trying to be regular Alyssa again, with her boyfriend, Jeb, her newly returned mom, her friends, the prom, and the promise of a future in London.

But Morpheus, the seductive, manipulative netherling who haunts her dreams, won’t let her leave her legacy behind that easily. Neither will Wonderland, which appears to be suffering from her neglect.

Alyssa is torn between two worlds: Jeb and her human life…and the intoxicating wildness of Wonderland – and Morpheus. When those worlds collide and Wonderland starts to invade her “real” life, Alyssa must find a way to keep the balance between the two realms or lose everything she loves.

My Thoughts:

This book ultimately decided what it is about this series that I love and what I hate. What I love is the dark, whimsical, magical and haunting world that is Wonderland and everything in it and what I don’t like is the “reality” aspect and the almost whinging teenager that is Alyssa. I kind of loved her in the first book and started getting really annoyed with her in the second.

I’m still addicted to this series, the first book had me hooked within it’s pages; the second book has me faltering a little bit but I enjoyed it never the less.

I did mention, when reviewing Splintered, that there was an love triangle aspect that was sort of on par with Twilight and the whole Team Edward and Team Jacob. I guess for this book Team Edward would be Morpheus – offering Alyssa an immortal life with some mystery and excitement where as Team Jacob would be Jeb – offering Alyssa a quiet, stable life which is filled with their dreams of becoming artists etc etc. See what I did there? I tried to make the life with Jeb sound a little bit more exciting than it presents itself. Long story short, I’m team Morpheus and I kind of knew that from the very first book but the second book put everything into place for me. I’m drawn toward liking Wonderland and all it’s darkness and mystique; I’m drawn toward the adventure and thrill; I’m drawn toward the seductive and playful Morpheus and long story short, Jeb bores me. Sure, he’s selfless and would do anything for Alyssa and I feel bad for him but BLAH.

Have I digressed? I feel like I’ve digressed a little bit. I didn’t love this story as much as Splintered and I think that has a lot to do with it being set in the “real world” rather than in Wonderland. Was it a good story? Yes, it was great; it added a lot of plot twists and changes to things learned in the first book and I especially loved the cliff-hanger ending. I think it’s a great second book in the series and I still love the characters and so I can’t wait for the release of Ensnared!

Added note: The font is still dark purple and beautiful – I was expecting Dark Blue though!

Rating: 4/5 Stars

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Book Review: Splintered

Splintered by A.G. Howard

Blurb on The Back:

Alyssa Gardner hears the thoughts of plants and animals. She hides her delusions for now, but she knows her fate: she will end up like her mother, in an institution. Madness has run in her family ever since her great-great-great-grandmother Alice Liddell told Lewis Carroll her strange dreams, inspiring his classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

But perhaps she’s not mad. And perhaps Carroll’s stories aren’t as whimsical as they first seem.

To break the curse of insanity, Alyssa must go down the rabbit hole and right the wrongs of Wonderland, a place full of strange beings with dark agendas. Alyssa brings her real-world crush – the protective Jeb – with her, but once her journey begins, she’s torn between his solidarity and the enchanting, dangerous magic of Morpheus, her guide to Wonderland. But no one in Wonderland is who they seem to be – not even Alyssa herself…

My thoughts:

I’m so obsessed with this book.

First of all, my confession is this: I have watched all the variations of Alice in Wonderland movies but I can’t recall ever really reading the book, nor have I read Through the Looking Glass. That being said, I am familiar with both stories and I generally have a good idea of what happens. Personally, I love the Alice in Wonderland story and I’m obsessed with it.

(I just remembered – as a child I had Alice in Wonderland and The Looking Glass on cassette…but I only ever listened to Wonderland and that’s why I know it so well)

When I found out about this book, I had to have it and I had to read it. I kind of love the idea of “what happened next” when it comes to classic books and so forth; sometimes i can end horribly and destroy the mystery of “what happened next” but in this case I really loved it! I loved the spin on the original story and I love the love triangle emerging throughout the book (even if it is a bit Twilight/Bella/Edward/Jacob for my liking). I also love the descriptive detail of the outfits and the style and I find the whole book to be very descriptive in that regard but not in an overly annoying “flouncy” sort of way; it was detail in modest sort of way.

Again, like most books I read, I like when there’s a bit of a twist and you might not necessarily see things coming; it’s those moments when you’re on the verge of your seat because you know something is going to happen or some sort of confession is going to come out and you just have to keep reading until it happens. For me, when I read a book, that’s a great feeling.

I love the beauty of this book, the cover is gorgeous, the font-type and chapter headings are beautiful and the font-colour is a gorgeous dark purple but not in an overbearing sort of way.

Overall, I loved this book and couldn’t really fault it…actually, that’s a lie, I didn’t love that it was set in Texas…it’s such a trivial thing but when I was reading and found that out…it was a little bit disheartening? Again, it’s trivial and other than that I can’t fault the book really!

Rating: 4 & 3/4 out of 5

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Book Review: That Loving Feeling

That Loving Feeling by Carole Matthews

Blurb on the Back:

Ever wondered what you’d do if your relationship lost its spark?

Juliet Joyce has been happily married for twenty-five years. But with two children who treat the house like a hotel, a mother who’s just moved in and a father who’s announced he’s gay, Juliet and her husband Rick have little time for romance.

Enter Steven Aubrey – last seen twenty-six years ago, when he jilted Juliet on their wedding day. He ignites a passion in her that she though was long gone. But will Steven sweep her off her feet or can Rick rekindled that loving feeling they’ve lost? There’s only one way to find out…

My Thoughts:

Very, VERY, rarely do I find myself hating every character in a book. I think we found a winner here though. Actually that’s a lie, there are one or two characters that aren’t really significant that I don’t mind, but the majority of the characters I hate.

Some are hated because I feel like they were written with the intention of being disliked, but the others are just hated because I personally think they are idiots.

This is a story of a middle aged couple who are essentially going through a crisis of being bored with their relationship which has fallen into a stale sort of comfort zone. It’s a story which I am certain plays out on a regular basis in reality simply because relationships can have their rollercoaster type moments. Unfortunately (fortunately?) I didn’t really connect with the characters as it was very hard to understand where they were coming from. I’m not middle aged and I haven’t been married for 20+ years; it’s hard to sympathise (empathise?) with a character when you can’t really feel what they feel in a situation. That being said, I don’t doubt that I’ve reached a point in past relationships where I’ve felt something along those same lines of stale-comfort-zone.

I liked the story but I didn’t love it and that isn’t a criticism of the writer or the writing style; even the content would be ok, I suppose. My problem is that I have a strong dislike for these types of stories; Happily Ever After by Benison Anne O’Reilly was very similar in content and I hated that simply because you find yourself wanting to scream at the characters because you can see where they are going wrong and want them to know they are making the wrong choices. I guess that’s life really; if I had someone looking in on my life they’d probably have given themselves and aneurism for yelling at me so much.

Did I like the book? I felt it was unnecessarily long and draining but still somewhat enjoyable. I didn’t like the characters even though they had their own little quirks and they were interesting (I just hate them as “people”) but just for once, if I pick up one of these types of books, I want the characters to say “ok, my life sucks, but I’m going to do something to fix it right now instead of looking for a way out; if I’ve tried every possible thing to fix it and nothing works, then we’ll figure out a plan B AND I’ll be honest about it”. But that would hardly making for an interesting story right?

Rating: 2/5 Stars

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Damn you Dichotomy of Gender

 

A couple of weeks ago, a catalogue was distributed around the nation in which I live regarding a massive toy sale that occurs every year. Basically, this catalogue gets release around the middle of the year/end of financial year and parents go crazy stock piling toys for Christmas.

I for one love junk mail like this; I love flicking through the pages and seeing all the junk I could buy for myself (because I’m just a big kid at heart) and it’s not just limited to toy catalogues. I pretty much love all catalogues that enter my mail box except for the supermarket ones because I don’t need to see that broccoli is on sale; I don’t care for discounted broccoli but a giant Transformer Bumblebee, that’s a whole different story!

Upon my first flicking through the catalogue, it didn’t take me long to realise there was a huge problem. (For most, this wouldn’t be classified as a “huge problem” but for those of us who actually kind of like the idea of gender equality, it represents a little bit of a blip of the problem-radar).

Obviously, with such a big sale, the catalogue had to be divided into sections. It is this that I had a concern over. This catalogue was divided into the following sections: Pre-School Toys, Girls Toys, Boys Toys, Indoor Activities, Outdoors, Kids wear & More and Moves & Gaming. Now, I understand that with so much content there had to be a way to categorize the toys but I can’t help but serious despise the categorization of “girls toys” and “boys toys” especially because as a child, I would have clawed my way through crowds in order to get to the toys which according to this catalogue are considered “boys toys”.

I despise the fact that toys such as Kitchen and Shopping play sets with Pots, Pans, Groceries and cash registers are classed as girls toys, while power tools and Lego are identified as boys toys.

I will give credit where credit is due and recognize that some toys such as barbeques and some construction play sets were placed under the more ambiguous category of “indoor activities” but included only images of boys playing with these items. Again, credit where credit is due; at least these toys weren’t categorized under male or female play items.

Why do I have such an issue with this? I didn’t really want to write a blog post regarding this catalogue to be honest; it was only after viewing a photo of a friend’s young son playing with a kitchen set that I really felt like I wanted to get my thoughts down. Like I mentioned earlier, half the toys that fall into the category of “boys toys”, I would have loved to play with; there isn’t anything wrong with me, I’m quite confident in my female gender, I love all my girl parts and I just so happen to be attracted to males. I played with lego as a child, I also played with barbie dolls, I loved playing on the excavator truck play equipment at one my schools and I loved playing with playdo in the kitchen type play set I got as a present. While we’re on the topic of toys I had as a child: I hated most dolls and teddy bears, they gave me severe nightmares and still to this day cause me anxiety; I loved ambiguous, non-gender specific toys which gave me room to use my imagination and 9 times out of 10, I just loved the box the toys came in because it meant I go to turn those boxes into whatever my heart desired!

Back on the point; my issue with this catalogue is this: it concerned me that in this day in age we still feel the need to…I’m going to say influence the idea of gender roles. Girls have kitchens, baby dolls, super market play sets and toys which don’t require much construction because their place in society is to be the dutiful, mothering type and need to learn the domestic activities whilst boys on the other hand are geared toward more investigative, constructive, manual labour and adventure roles with toys such requiring more assembly such as Lego,  power tools & action heroes.

What if a child wanted to grow up to be a chef? Kitchen, Kitchenware and fake food all fall into the category of “girls toys”; sorry. What if a girl wanted to become an architect (or at a young age, perhaps she wanted to be a superhero!), Oops, apparently these all require toys which fall into “boys toys”.

I don’t have an issue with any of these toys, all these toys look like a whole world of fun (especially the Lego) I DO have an issue with the LABELS that have been placed on these toys; why in a society that should be moving forward (albeit slower than Australia is moving North) do we still insist on using such archaic labels for children’s toys?

And if you don’t think Children recognize what’s going on because “they are young”. Children aren’t stupid, most of them read or will learn to read and can identify when a catalogue says “boys” and “girls” toys. Give them some credit! They will learn these categories and they will grow and accept this ideology.

 

(P.S. My apologies for not having a strong argument; I really didn’t take as much times as I would have liked to really explore this issue and have supporting academic articles, this was more of a ranting opinion more than a substantive argument)

(P.p.s. Why am I apologising? This is my opinion, I take that apology back)

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Book Review: The Overnight Socialite

First of all, I have to apologise if any formatting issues occur with the publication of this blog post. My laptop kicked the bucket and so I’m using a very old, very glitchy, laptop that has many quirks; including, it appears, a very outdated version of windows live writer.

This week I read The Overnight Socialite by Bridie Clark.

The Blurb on The Back:

In this beguiling retelling of the classic Pygmalion, we meet Lucy Ellis, a Manhattan transplant who dreams of making it as a fashion designer but instead toils away on a Garment District assembly line. Poor Lucy is starting to think the unthinkable: maybe it’s time to pack it in and move home to Minnesota. Then, during a torrential downpour, at her most bedraggled and disheartened, Lucy meets Wyatt Hayes IV, man-about-town and bored Ph.D. anthropologist.

Wyatt has just been publicly dissed by New York’s reigning socialite, and boasts to his best friend that he can transform any woman – even a trailer-born nobody like Lucy – into this year’s “It” girl. Set against the gold-plated world of Manhattan’s social elite. The Overnight Socialite, a media sensation in its own right, puts a witty twenty-first century spin on a timeless story of transformation and unlikely love.

My Thoughts:

I really should read, and pay attention, to the blurb on the back. It wasn’t until I typed the blurb on the back that it all really sunk in what I had just read. Here’s the thing, I’ve never read Pygmalion but I generally know of the story and apparently I really should read it, (go figure) and so didn’t know at the time of reading The Overnight Socialite that this book is a modern day retelling. Essentially, I read the entire book thinking I was reading a scrip to a really bad sequel of She’s All That and basically imagining Rachel Lee Cook and Freddie Prinze Jnr in the lead roles of the book. This book, to me, at the time of reading, was She’s All That meets Gossip Girl (I never watch the latter but I’m very familiar with She’s All That and I confess that I did land up watching that movie upon completion of The Overnight Socialite).

There were some things that I liked about the book. I liked that it hooked me and I couldn’t put it down, even though I felt so negatively about it (remember, “I thought it was a really bad sequel”) but I generally liked the characters and was hooked into their personalities. I don’t know if it’s just me but I was really shipping two of the characters together (I won’t write any spoilers) but they didn’t land up together I wasn’t too impressed.

I, surprisingly, didn’t love the ending either. I mean it was good, it was all tied up nice and neatly but it just felt too neat, too abrupt and just too….clean. I was just expecting more of the ending, more action, more heartache,just MORE.

Is it a good read? Yes. Is it an easy read? Yes. Did I love it? Not as much as I would have liked. I liked the writing style of Clark, I just wanted more; I think I might try and read some of her other work and see just how creative she can be.

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