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Review: The Silver Mask by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black

Review: The Silver Mask by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black

“Everyone hates death, Call.” “But not everyone has to be its enemy.” If you haven’t read the first three books in the Magisterium series yet, look away now: things are about to get spoilery. At the end of The Bronze Key, Call’s best friend Aaron bit […]

Review: Clean by Juno Dawson

Review: Clean by Juno Dawson

‘I sigh. it’s all so improbable. How can I be ‘an addict’? I’m seventeen years old. I always sort of aspired to a coke problem as I turned thirty, but never this.’ Lexi Volkov is in rehab, and she’s not fucking happy about it. Just […]

Top Ten Tuesday: Recommendations for my daughter

Top Ten Tuesday: Recommendations for my daughter

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish, but was recently relocated to That Artsy Reader Girl

This week is a freebie week, so to celebrate it being exactly four weeks since I gave birth – phew, time has flown! – I decided I’d talk about the ten books that I’m going to recommend to my daughter when she’s old enough. I’m a huge reader (if you hadn’t guessed…) so I’m hoping that she’ll inherit my bookworm tendencies, but if she doesn’t I’ll be satisfied if she just reads these few novels.

 

10) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Last year, I decided to challenge myself to read all of Jane Austen’s novels. While Pride and Prejudice isn’t my favourite, it’s one of those books that everyone talks about. I wish I’d read it earlier, and I’d definitely recommend it to my daughter as a way to get her into reading classics.

9) Asking For It by Louise O’Neill

Asking For It by Louise O'Neill

I wouldn’t be recommending this one until she was quite a bit older, because the content is harrowing, but it’s an important book which – sadly – is likely to remain relevant in the future.

8) Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

If I’d read Fangirl when I was considering going to university, I probably would have taken the leap and gone far earlier. There aren’t enough YA novels in university settings, but Cath and Wren manage to represent the opposite ends of the university experience and make it far less scary.

7) Countless by Karen Gregory

Countless by Karen Gregory

Partially because Karen Gregory is from Swindon and it’s cool to celebrate local authors, partially because it’s one of the strongest debut novels I’ve ever read.

6) Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda is the book I wish I’d had in my early teens. It helped me accept my sexuality and own who I truly am, and I hope that it’ll do the same for my daughter. It’ll also show her that I’ll accept her, no matter who she likes or wants to be with.

5) The Collector by John Fowles

The Collector by John Fowles

I didn’t think classics could be fun and exciting until I read The Collector, and it’s a great gateway drug into older books.

4) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a remarkably short book, so even if my daughter doesn’t like reading she should be able to force herself to get through this one! I loved it because it’s an easy read with a serious topic at heart, and it made me want to grab life by the balls.

3) Looking For Alaska by John Green

Looking For Alaska by John Green

I have a love/hate relationship with John Green, but I loved Looking For Alaska. She’s bound to try a John Green novel sometime, so I hope she’ll pick up Green’s debut novel and enjoy it as much as I did.

2) The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven

The Exact Opposite of Okay by Laura Steven

Again, I wish I’d had this book in my teenage years. I’m going to teach my daughter not to take shit from anyone, but this book will really support that teaching and show her that guys who call themselves nice normally aren’t.

1) Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens

Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens

I’ve been reading the Murder Most Unladylike series over the past couple of months, and I haven’t been able to stop wondering how great it would have been to grow up with these books. As soon as I start reading to my daughter before bed, I’m going to be buying copies of the Murder Most Unladylike books and introducing her to the wonderful world of Wells and Wong.

 

If you’re interested in purchasing any of these books, please consider using my Amazon Affiliate link (found in the book’s title). If you’d like to read more about each book, please click their cover: you’ll be redirected to their Goodreads page.

 

I hope you enjoyed this Top Ten Tuesday! What one book do you find yourself constantly recommending to people?

Alyce

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Review: Intricate Deceptions by Jennifer Rayes

Review: Intricate Deceptions by Jennifer Rayes

When Jennifer Rayes contacted me asking if I’d like to read and review a copy of Intricate Deceptions, I jumped at the chance. Focused on the victim of a human trafficking operation, it sounded unlike any book I’d ever read before. With the amount of five […]

Review: Out of the Blue by Sophie Cameron

Review: Out of the Blue by Sophie Cameron

‘It was our 9/11, our Princess Diana, our JFK. You’d always remember where you were when you heard about Being No. 1.’ Ten days after Jaya’s mother died, Beings started falling from the sky. Over the course of eight months 85 Beings fall, and no […]

Review: Things I Wish I’d Known edited by Victoria Young

Review: Things I Wish I’d Known edited by Victoria Young

Things I Wish I’d Known was recommended to me by a friend who used to work in Waterstones, because she said that so many pregnant customers said it was a necessary read before giving birth. I thought I might as well give it a go: it’s a collection of non-fiction essays – always a fast read – and I was sure that something one of the mothers said would resonate with my experience of pregnancy.

I actually ended up relating the most to the first essay in the collection, written by Adele Parks. In it, she discusses her fears that her individuality would be dismissed after the arrival of her child and that she would just be referred to as “—-‘s mother”, a worry which I’d discussed with a few of my friends towards the middle of my third trimester.

“I’d had a vision that it would be just me, my husband and our baby. Naive, I know. I felt extremely connected with my baby and I adored him, but I was not always comfortable with the new people who entered my life. I sometimes found them to be a distraction from the real business of mothering.”

– Adele Parks

This was another fear which I shared with Parks.

When we learnt that the midwife and the health visitor would be appearing at the house regularly throughout the first couple of weeks of the baby’s life, I was filled with trepidation. I knew that it happened to all mothers and we weren’t being picked on, but I’m a very anxious person and I hate the tension that comes with knowing someone will be coming to your home but not having a definite time for their arrival.

We were told it could be any time between 9am and 4pm, and I was filled with worry: what if we’d just managed to get her to sleep, and the midwife turned up and started poking and prodding at her? The one piece of advice that we kept hearing was to never wake a sleeping baby!

However, reading that I wasn’t the only mother who shared these worries helped put me at ease. I still wasn’t looking forward to their visits, but at least I no longer felt terrified of them… And when they did arrive, they were all so lovely. It was actually nice to have some contact with the outside world, because we were living in our own little bubble for the first few days.

Another valuable piece of advice came from Emma Freud:

“Don’t forgot to read a couple of chapters on what to do with the baby once it’s born. It’s very easy to use all your energy learning about the birth (which lasts about one day) and forget to learn about looking after the thing that gets born (which lasts about 81 years).”

After the antenatal classes I felt pretty prepared for the birth, so I was beginning to think ahead to what we would do when she arrived… But I hadn’t done any research regarding it, which was a little short-sighted. Luckily, a couple of days before reading this essay I’d picked up a copy of Baby Milestones (and will be reviewing it at some point!) so I made that a priority read and learnt a lot of indispensable advice that I used during the first few days of her life. Unfortunately, because she came early, I hadn’t completely finished it… But I’m reading a week at a time, so that the information is fresh in my mind.

Those two essays were my personal favourites, but the entire collection is a joy to read. Some are scarier than others, but if you’re fed up with people skirting around serious topics and you just want to hear straight-up honesty, you’ll adore them.

The most important thing is that all of these stories are true and none of them are sugar-coated. If you want a real idea of what it’s going to be like to have a newborn baby, Things I Wish I’d Known will give you that.

 

If you’re interested in learning more about Things I Wish I’d Known, check it out on Goodreads. If you decide to buy a copy, please consider using my Amazon affiliate link: I’ll earn a few pennies from your purchase. Thank you! 

 

If you’re a parent, is there anything you wish you’d known before your little bundle of joy arrived?

Alyce

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Review: Thirteen Chairs by Dave Shelton

Review: Thirteen Chairs by Dave Shelton

I hadn’t heard of Dave Shelton before he was announced as the British Books Challenge Author of the Month for April, but I decided to check out Thirteen Chairs when I saw that they had it on the library catalogue. A collection of thirteen ghost stories masquerading […]

Blog tour: The Goose Road by Rowena House

Blog tour: The Goose Road by Rowena House

Hello, and welcome to my stop on The Goose Road blog tour. I’m so excited to be teaming up with Walker Books to welcome Rowena House to The Bumbling Blogger to share her top tips for budding writers and how to get published – but first, let’s […]

Top Ten Tuesday: Favourite books I’ll never reread

Top Ten Tuesday: Favourite books I’ll never reread

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish, but was recently relocated to That Artsy Reader Girl

There are a few books that I reread constantly, but normally when I love a book I find it impossible to reread it. I worry that it won’t live up to expectations the second time around, and I don’t want my feelings towards the book to be tarnished if I look at it more critically during a reread.

These ten books are ones that I’d like to reread, but I probably never will.

10) Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Landline is a conflicting one. I gave it five stars as soon as I finished it, but I rated it too quickly. Whenever I think back, I just find myself getting annoyed at the story and I can’t remember anything that I liked about it! If I reread it, I might find myself rediscovering why I thought I loved it so much in the first place, but I think it would just lead to me getting frustrated with myself for being too excited to finally finish it.

9) Divergent by Veronica Roth

Divergent by Veronica Roth

I want to reread the Divergent series, but I hated Allegiant so much that I can’t convince myself to do it. Divergent was my favourite book until the final book in the trilogy was released, and I want to read it again to see if it is as good second time around, but I don’t want my heart to be broken if it’s not.

8) Entangled by Cat Clarke

Entangled by Cat Clarke

When I read Entangled I was in the middle of a brutal reading slump (meaning I was literally reading one book a year…) but I sat and read Entangled in one extremely emotional sitting. It was a very personal story that had a deep impact on me, but I’m in a much better place emotionally now – I don’t think it would hit me as hard second time around.

7) The New Hunger by Isaac Marion

The New Hunger by Isaac Marion

I regularly reread Warm Bodies, and I gave The New Hunger five stars when I read it back in 2015, but looking back I can’t remember it adding anything to the story so I can’t convince myself to reread this one.

6) Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One blew me away when I read it, but since then my boyfriend has been overly critical of it and I’m not going to be able to stop myself hearing his comments if I reread it. That would certainly dampen my enjoyment!

5) Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

I loved the second book in the Grisha trilogy, but I didn’t like the first or third books that much. I don’t feel as though I’d be interested in rereading this series, even though I know that the second book is one of the best series installments I’ve ever read.

4) Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens

Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens

I’ll probably change my mind on this one, because I only started the Murder Most Unladylike series back in February and they’re still very fresh in my mind. However, I normally struggle to reread mystery stories because I can remember the culprits and the plots don’t grip me as much second time around… That might not be the case with these, but it makes me feel less inclined towards revisiting them.

3) It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

I think I’d find It’s Kind of a Funny Story far too difficult to read now, knowing that Ned Vizzini committed suicide and this novel is all about his struggle with depression.

2) Looking For Alaska by John Green

Looking For Alaska by John Green

When I read Looking For Alaska I was a very different person. Not only have my reading tastes changed throughout the years, but my personal feelings towards some of the subjects covered in John Green’s debut novel have shifted, too. The first time I read Looking For Alaska I thought it was one of the best books I’d ever read, but I’m not sure I’d feel the same if I read it again now.

1) The Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

The Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

It would be pretty difficult to reread a book in the middle of a series, but I hated the first and final novels in the Tearling trilogy so I’m not interested in rereading the entire thing. However, the second book is one of my favourite books of all time, and I can’t think of another novel which is as brilliantly crafted or utterly gripping.

 

If you’re interested in purchasing any of these books, please consider using my Amazon Affiliate link (found in the book’s title). If you’d like to read more about each book, please click their cover: you’ll be redirected to their Goodreads page.

 

Have you read any of these books, and if so are you planning on rereading them? Leave your comments and your Top Ten Tuesday links down below!

Alyce

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Baby Bumble begins

Baby Bumble begins

Hey everyone, In case you missed it, I made an announcement on Twitter last month… I had a baby! I’m absolutely over the moon, and glad that I can finally share the news. My partner and I decided to keep the pregnancy private – only […]
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