April Wrap Up: Being social, Allegiant movie and RAVEN KING

Tags

Allegiant, Amy Zhang, Blue Lily Lily Blue, Elementary, Falling Kingdoms, Half Lost, Lady Renegades, Maggie Stiefvater, Morgan Rhodes, Rachel Hawkins, Sally Green, The Raven Cycle, The Raven King, This is Where the World Ends

WOW April was an exciting month.

First of all, I was so busy that I didn’t get around to posting my March wrap-up until the 18th. That was awkward.

So, of course, to ensure that didn’t happen again, I wrote this post two weeks ago, and then added to it as things happened.

Of course this post is STILL late…because I needed time to take pictures and upload them and that takes time that I do not have, but never mind.

April was the month of me being social apparently

There was a week in April when I hung out with people and didn’t get home until late three times. THREE. In ONE week.

But I got to hang out with people that I don’t get to see very often, so that was awesome.

I hung out with people I met at NextGen

As I mentioned in my January wrap up, I went to a Christian Leadership conference-thingy called NextGen, where they give us heaps of awesome advice on running a youth group.

Anyways, while there, I made friends! And we kept in touch, and decided we should organize meet-ups so that we can still see each other. It was awesome.

My friend got married

When I was in primary school (kindergarten – year 6, for those who are unfamiliar with the Aussie schooling system), I had two best friends. One of them moved away as we started high school.

Anyway, one of those friends got married last August, and the other one (the one who moved away so I rarely get to see anymore) FINALLY got married a few weeks ago (they’d been engaged for almost 3 years).

So that was exciting.

WE GOT A PUPPY

His name is Percy. He is adorable.

I helped run a Circus-themed holiday club

Once a year, my church runs a holiday club for primary-school kids. Usually, this runs in the Easter holidays.

The plan is simple: we spend the Monday setting up, Tuesday-Thursday is the actual thing, and then Friday is packing up.

It. Is. Exhausting.

We had over 50 kids for all three days. I was in charge of teaching circus skills.

Basically, this means that I spent three days teaching kids in groups of 20 how to juggle. (We did other things, too: ‘tightrope’ walking, hula-hooping, limbo…but juggling was their favourite).

By the end of the week, I was literally fit for nothing but curling up in my bed and binging TV shows.

Speaking of which…

CAN WE PLEASE TALK ABOUT HOW AMAZING THE ELEMENTARY TV SHOW IS?

Elementary is a Sherlock Holmes-inspired show in which Sherlock is a recovering drug-addict living in America. Joan Watson starts off as his Sober Companion, but stays on to learn about detective work.

Anyway, this show is approaching the end of season 4, and I swear IT JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER!

Like, seriously, I’m dying here. This show’s awesomeness has killed me.

I saw Allegiant

Thanks to Kinokuniya, I got to go see Allegiant two weeks before it came out.

You can read my thoughts about the movie here.

Basically, it was made more enjoyable by the people I was with.

THE RAVEN KING IS HERE! IT EXISTS!

I HAVE READ IT AND IT WAS PERFECTION! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO CONTINUE WITH MY LIFE??

Also, my sister made me this AWESOME dress!

It took me about 11 hours to read (it’s the sort of book I like to take my time reading) which means I finished it about 8:30am the morning after I got it.

And I would like to thank The Book Depository and the post office people for getting the book to me THE DAY it came out. If it had come any later, I would have had to wait another week to read it (I was determined to read it in one sitting).

Bookish Info

Books Bought:

This is Where the World Ends, by Amy Zhang
Half Lost, by Sally Green
Lady Renegades, by Rachel Hawkins
The Raven King, by Maggie Stiefvater

Books Read:

Falling Kingdoms, by Morgan Rhodes
Blue Lily, Lily Blue, by Maggie Stiefvater
The Raven King, by Maggie Stiefvater

So, only three books this month, but I didn’t want to get into anything else before Raven King, and I’m still in post-Raven King book-hangover mode.

---

And that’s that. How was your April?

Stacking the Shelves: The Yearly Edition

Tags

A Discovery of Witches, A Thousand Pieces of You, Aimee Carter, Alexandra Bracken, Amy Ewing, Amy Zhang, Anna Dressed in Blood, Are You Seeing Me?, Beautiful Darkness, Blood Of Olympus, Blood Promise, Bloodlines, Blue Lily Lily Blue, Boundless, Bram Stoker, Brigid Kemmerer, Captive, Cara Lynn Shultz, Claudia Gray, Corruption, Crown of Midnight, Cynthia Hand, Dangerous Creatures, Darren Groth, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Days of Blood and Starlight, Deborah Harkness, Debra Driza, Demonglass, Disruption, Dracula, E. Lockhart, Endless Knight, Endlessly, Evernight, Falling into Place, Four: A Divergent Collection, Frostbite, Gayle Forman, Half Bad, Hallowed, Heir of Fire, I Was Here, Into the Still Blue, Jennifer L. Armentrout, Jessica Shirvington, Josephine Angelini, Julie Kagawa, Kami Garcia, Kasie West, Kendare Blake, Kiera Cass, Kiersten White, Kresley Cole, Kylie Fornasier, Laini Taylor, Last Sacrifice, Legend, Leigh Bardugo, Let the Sky Fall, Let the Storm Break, Maggie Stiefvater, Margaret Stohl, Marie Lu, Masquerade, Michelle Hodkin, Mind Games, Never Fade, Obsidian, Onyx, Opal, Opposition, Origin, Paranormalcy, Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, Pittacus Lore, Pivot Point, Poison Princess, Rachael Craw, Rachel Hawkins, Raising Demons, Rebel Belle, Renegade, Revenge of Seven, Richelle Mead, Rick Riordan, Rick Yancey, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sacrifice, Sally Green, Sarah J. Maas, School Spirits, Secret, Shadow and Bone, Shadow Kiss, Shannon Messenger, Silver Shadows, Sinner, Sister Assassin, Spark, Spell Bound, Spirit Bound, Split Second, Stacking the Shelves, Supernaturally, Talon, The 5th Wave, The Assassin's Blade, The Dark World, The Darkest Minds, The Eternity Cure, The Fiery Heart, The Forever Song, The Goddess Test, The Golden Lily, The Immortal Rules, The Indigo Spell, The Infinite Sea, The Jewel, The Lost Files: Hidden Enemy, The One, The Retribution of Mara Dyer, The Selection Stories, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Young Elites, Throne of Glass, Through the Ever Night, Trial by Fire, Under the Never Sky, Uneartly, Vampire Academy, Veronica Rossi, Veronica Roth, We Were Liars

Stacking the Shelves is a thing where we talk about the books we’ve collected in the past week. These can be bought, delivered, ARCs, ebooks, etc.. Pretty self-explanatory.
Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tygna’s Reviews

This week, in honour of the new year, I’m doing things a little differently.

I’m doing a post on ALL the books I bought this year!

It’s going to be epic.

Also, please note, I have actually been working on this post since October. This thing has taken me 3 MONTHS to create.

Enjoy.

Books Bought:

And here’s what you’re seeing in the picture

Whole series bought:
Unearthly Trilogy, by Cynthia Hand
Obsidian Series, by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Blood of Eden Trilogy, by Julie Kagawa
Pivot Point Duology, by Kasie West
Under the Never Sky Trilogy, by Veronica Rossi
Vampire Academy Series, by Richelle Mead (incl. Movie companion & Ultimate Guide)
Paranormalcy Trilogy*, by Kiersten White
Sister Assassin Duology, by Kiersten White
Disruption Duology, by Jessica Shirvington

Whole series currently available bought:
Bloodlines, by Richelle Mead
The Arcana Chronicles, by Kresley Cole
Let the Sky Fall, by Shannon Messenger
The 5th Wave, by Rick Yancey
Throne of Glass, by Sarah J. Maas

Other:
Secret/Sacrifice, by Brigid Kemmerer
The Selection Stories/The One, by Kiera Cass
The Goddess Test/Captive, by Aimee Carter
Raising Demons/Spell Bound/School Spirits, by Rachel Hawkins
The Dark World, by Cara Lynn Shultz
Four: A Divergent Collection, by Veronica Roth
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson
Sinner, by Maggie Stiefvater
Masquerade, by Kylie Fornasier
Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods/Blood of Olympus, by Rick Riordan
Renegade, by Debra Driza
Legend, by Marie Lu
Dangerous Creatures*/Beautiful Darkness, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Talon, by Julie Kagawa
Revenge of Seven/Hidden Enemy, by Pittacus Lore

*Not pictures because I forgot that I bought them this year and I didn’t remember until after I put all the books back

Special Mentions (ordered, not received):
Rebel Belle, by Rachel Hawkins
The Retribution of Mara Dyer, by Michelle Hodkin

Books Won:

Now, I didn’t have to pay for all my books last year…rafflecopter was kind enough to allow me to win several books, plus bookish events enabled book winning.

Won from blogs:
Are You Seeing Me?, by Darren Groth (Thank you Notebook Sisters!)
Falling into Place, by Amy Zhang (Thank you Book Nerd Reviews!)
Blue Lily, Lily Blue, by Maggie Stiefvater (Thank you Miss Page Turner’s City of Books)
The Jewel*, by Amy Ewing (Thank you Genie in a book!)
Spark*, by Rachel Craw (Thank you again, Notebook Sisters!!)

*Not received yet

Won at events:
A Thousand Pieces of You, by Claudia Gray (BTCYA)
The Mortal Instruments series, by Cassandra Clare (CoHF Book Launch) (I gave these to my sister…she loves me)

Miscellaneous:

Presents (Birthdays, Christmas, etc.):
We Were Liars, by E. Lockhart
The Young Elites, by Marie Lu
Shadow and Bone, by Leigh Bardugo
The Darkest Minds/Never Fade, by Alexandra Bracken
Trial By Fire, by Josephine Angelini
Days of Blood and Starlight, by Laini Taylor
Dracula and Other Horror Stories, by Bram Stoker

Books I got for free (through various means):
Evernight, by Claudia Gray
A Discovery of Witches, by Deborah Harkness
Anna Dressed in Blood, by Kendare Blake
Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor
Half Bad, by Sally Green
I Was Here, by Gayle Forman (ARC)

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So…that was all the books I got my hands on 2014.

How was every one else’s year?

Top Ten Tuesday

Tags

Amy Zhang, Bloodlines, Blue Lily Lily Blue, Books I Read In 2014, Bram Stoker, Cara Lynn Shultz, Disruption, Dracula, Falling into Place, Four: A Divergent Collection, Gayle Forman, Half Bad, If I Stay, Jessica Shirvington, Julie Kagawa, Kasie West, Kiera Cass, Kiersten White, Maggie Stiefvater, Mind Games, Pivot Point, Richelle Mead, Sally Green, Sarah J. Maas, Sinner, The Dark World, The Immortal Rules, The One, Throne of Glass, Top Ten Tuesday, Vampire Academy, Veronica Roth

Top Ten Tuesday is a thing where we get given a topic, and we have to list our ‘top ten’ things for the topic. Pretty self-explanatory.
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This Week’s Topic: Top Ten Books I Read In 2014

I’m going to start by saying this is a cruel topic…HOW am I supposed to pick 10?

1. Vampire Academy and Bloodlines, by Richelle Mead
The whole of both series. Seriously, WHY did I wait so long to read these? They are so amazing!!!

2. Throne of Glass, by Sarah J. Maas
Again, whole series. Just so awesome!

3. Sinner, by Maggie Stiefvater
An unexpected extra story featuring Cole and Isabelle from Shiver…IT WAS AWESOME!!

4. If I Stay, by Gayle Forman
Oh, this made me cry! It was a 4 hour long audio book that I started at midnight and finished at 4am. So worth it.

5. Dracula, by Bram Stoker
I’ve wanted to read this for YEARS! And it did NOT disappoint.

6. Four: A Divergent Collection, by Veronica Roth
After the less-than-fantastic book that was Allegiant, I am SO GLAD Veronica Roth wrote this. It made me remember why I loved Divergent and Insurgent so much.
Even if I did spend most of it going “this person’s dead, this person’s dead, that one is still alive, but crippled, oh look, another dead person…”

7. Pivot Point, by Kasie West
Both books. Seriously loved these.

8. The One, by Kiera Cass
Great ending for the series. Seriously, fantastic.

9. Mind Games, by Kiersten White
Loved it. Seriously. I’ve loved all of Kiersten White’s books.

10. The Dark World, by Cara Lynn Shultz
I loved Spellbound and Spellcaster, so naturally I bought this as soon as I could..
I loved it!!

And because there is NO WAY I am sticking with 10, here are some more…

11. Half Bad, by Sally Green
ASDFGHJHGF! Amazing.

12. The Immortal Rules, by Julie Kagawa
Another book I’d been meaning to read this for years. And again, I was not disappointed.

13. Blue Lily, Lily Blue, by Maggie Stiefvater
Yes, two Maggie Stiefvater books, but they were both JUST SO GOOD!!

14. Disruption, by Jessica Shirvington
I can’t believe it took me so long to getting around to reading this author. This book was amazing, as was its sequel.

15. Falling into Place, by Amy Zhang
There is one reason this is so far down the list is because I only finished it on Sunday.
Oh my goodness, I TOTALLY get why people love this book.

Top Ten Books that have Stayed With Me

Tags

Bloodlines, Blue Lily Lily Blue, Brigid Kemmerer, Cassandra Clare, City of Bones, Divergent, Gayle Forman, Gillian Rubenstein, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, If I Stay, J.K. Rowling, Maggie Stiefvater, Percy Jackson, Richelle Mead, Rick Riordan, Space Demons, Spark, Suzanne Collins, Vampire Academy, Veronica Roth

I was tagged to do this one a little more recently than the others by the lovely Renee, who hangs out on Tumblr at Book Boyfriends. Now, I must talk about 10 books that have stayed with me. Let’s do this.

1. Harry Potter, by J.K. Rowling

I think this sort of goes without saying…

2. Percy Jackson, by Rick Riordan

This series is the reason my sister reads. I will be forever thankful to Rick Riordan for writing these books.

3. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

This book was basically my ‘Welcome to Dystopian! There are things other than Twilight out there!” Before reading Hunger Games, I pretty much exclusively read Harry Potter and Twilight. There were other books, but The Hunger Games pretty much is the reason I read such a range.

4. City of Bones, by Cassandra Clare

Anyone who saw my series review of these books a few months ago will know that I have very mixed feelings about this series. But I think the fact that I read City of Heavenly Fire months ago, and am still thinking about all the issues I had with it warrants it a spot on this list.

5. Spark, by Brigid Kemmerer

I am constantly going back and rereading this, and it makes me cry every single time.

6. Divergent, by Veronica Roth

Every now and then I’ll almost start crying on the train because of the ending, but this was still a truly great series.

7. If I Stay, by Gayle Forman

If there is anyone who has read this book and it hasn’t stayed with them, I want to meet that person and ask them what is wrong with them.

8. Vampire Academy/Bloodlines, by Richelle Mead

I only began reading these in March this year, but I LOVE THESE BOOKS!!!

9. Space Demons, by Gillian Rubenstein

I have a bit of a funny history with this book, because we were in year 7 and we had to pick an Aussie author’s name out of a hat, and research that author and write a book report on one of their books. I got Gillian Rubenstein. Now, I did the assignment and everything (using a different book, who’s name I can’t remember), but then later went back to read more by this author. I immediately dismissed Space Demons because of the name. I then saw a book called Skymaze, which looked interesting until I realised it was the sequel to Space Demons. The same thing happened with Shinkei. So I was like “Fine. I’ll read Space Demons!” And I loved it. And I still love it, 8 years later.

10. Blue Lily, Lily Blue, by Maggie Stiefvater

This whole series, actually, but BLLB is my favourite (so far…there’s one more to go). They are just so amazing, and so different, and I just love them.

This Week in Books

Tags

Blue Lily Lily Blue, Insurgent, Julie Kagawa, Maggie Stiefvater, NaNoWriMo, Talon, Veronica Roth

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo begins today!!

Due to the fact that uni is still happening, and exams are coming up, most of my writing will be restricted to weekends and the last week of November.

However, I’m still going to try.

And good luck to everyone else participating.

Insurgent Posters

You can view the interactive 3D posters here.

*EXCITEMENT*

Books released:

Talon, by Julie Kagawa

Books Read:

Blue Lily, Lily Blue, by Maggie Stiefvater
I just want to start by saying that I did not read this intentionally…IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!!
But it was SO GOOD! I don’t know what it is about those books, but they are just so amazing.
Also, I think my feels died a little.

Miscellaneous:

Because everyone needs this photo in their life:

Just one of the many marvellous pictures that you get to see if you follow me on instagram!

This Week in Books

Tags

A Court of Thorns and Roses, Blue Lily Lily Blue, Corruption, Disruption, Jessica Shirvington, Kiera Cass, Maggie Stiefvater, Sarah J. Maas, The Heir, This Week's Adventures

On the Internet

So…some internet stuff has happened this week, and I felt like I needed to say something about it. I don’t want to be more specific, because chances are, some of the people involved knew exactly how wrong it was, and they’re just doing this for all the attention.
The saying “all publicity is good publicity” exists for a reason.
So, I’m just going to say this:

1. Stalking is not ok under any circumstances.
2. Using pseudonyms online is not illegal.
3. Bloggers are allowed to dislike books.
4. A negative review will not ruin an author’s career, stalking a reviewer and bragging about it more than likely will.

Also, there was this thing about how reading Percy Jackson was bad for you…or something ridiculous like that. For that, I’ll just say this:

1. People can read whatever they want.
2. Language is constantly changing, and when you tell kids to only read the classics, you’re basically saying that the language of the past is the only language worth knowing. Let kids read what they’ll understand!!
Then they can go for the harder stuff.

Books released:

Blue Lily, Lily Blue, by Maggie Stiefvater
I’ve got my copy 🙂

Cover Reveals:

First, we have A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas

(Not related to the Throne of Glass series)

And we also have The Heir, by Kiera Cass:

SO EXCITED!!!

Books Read:

Disruption and Corruption, by Jessica Shirvington
Started Disruption AGES ago, but only finished it in the last week. I finished Corruption today…THE FEELS!!
They were both amazing, and I can’t believe it has taken me so long to read this author.

Black Ice, Becca Fitzpatrick
DNF.
I tried. I really tried. But I really could not stand any of the characters. Reading the synopsis on goodreads got me further in the story than me actually reading it did. I made it to chapter 5.
So, after DNF-ing Hush Hush, and now this, I think it’s fair to say this author isn’t for me.

Stacking the Shelves

Tags

Amy Zhang, Blue Lily Lily Blue, Falling into Place, Maggie Stiefvater, Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves is a thing where we talk about the books we’ve collected in the past week. These can be bought, delivered, ARCs, ebooks, etc.. Pretty self-explanatory.
Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tygna’s Reviews

Books Won:

Falling into Place, by Amy Zhang
Thanks the team from Book Nerd Reviews.

Blue Lily, Lily Blue, by Maggie Stiefvater
Thanks to Sarah at Miss Page-Turner’s City of Books.

Thank you guys, SO MUCH!!

This Week in Books

Tags

Blue Lily Lily Blue, Brigid, Cinder, Maggie Stiefvater, Marissa Meyer, Sacrifice, This Week's Adventures

Blue Lily, Lily Blue:

The Blue Lily, Lily Blue trailer is here!

And Maggie Stiefvater has written music for Blue Lily, Lily Blue, which you can listen to here:

 

Snow Like Ashes:

On Epic Reads you can read an exclusive prologue to Sara Raasch’s Snow Like Ashes, Icicles Like Kindling, here.

Books Released:

Sacrifice, by Brigid Kemmerer

Books Read:

Cinder, by Marissa Meyer
I’ve been meaning to read this for ages, finally got around to it. I loved it.

Top Ten Tuesday

Tags

Blood Of Olympus, Blue Lily Lily Blue, Brigid Kemmerer, Disruption, E. Lockhart, Jessica Shirvington, Julie Kagawa, Lisa M. Stasse, Maggie Stiefvater, Michelle Hodkin, Revenge of Seven, Rick Riordan, Rick Yancey, Sacrifice, Spring TBR, Talon, The 5th Wave, The Maze Runner, The Retribution of Mara Dyer, The Uprising, Top Ten Tuesday, We Were Liars

Top Ten Tuesday is a thing where we get given a topic, and we have to list our ‘top ten’ things for the topic. Pretty self-explanatory.
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

This Week’s Topic: Top Ten Books on my Spring TBR list

Originally, this was a ‘Fall TBR list’, but in Australia, there is no Fall (we call it Autumn), and Autumn doesn’t happen until March, so I changed it to Spring…figured it made sense…

I’m splitting this list into two. The first 5 will be books that aren’t out yet, the last 5 will be books that are already out.

Books not out yet:

1. Sacrifice, by Brigid Kemmerer

2. Blood of Olympus, by Rick Riordan

3. Talon, by Julie Kagawa

4. The Retribution of Mara Dyer, by Michelle Hodkin

5. Blue Lily, Lily Blue, by Maggie Stiefvater

Books already out:

6. The Uprising, by Lisa M. Stasse

7. The 5th Wave, by Rick Yancey

8. We Were Liars, by E. Lockhart

9. The Maze Runner, by James Dashner

10. Revenge of Seven, by Pittacus Lore

And bonus (because of the Between the Covers Book Club):

11. Disruption, by Jessica Shirvington

This Week in Books

Tags

Beth Crowley, Blue Lily Lily Blue, Crown of Midnight, Divergent, Gayle Forman, Heir of Fire, If I Stay, Jennifer L. Armentrout, Maggie Stiefvater, Opposition, Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, Pittacus Lore, Revenge of Seven, Rick Riordan, Sarah J. Maas, This Week's Adventures, Veronica Roth

The Revenge of Seven:

The Revenge of Seven is HERE!!!

However, due to uni assignments, I haven’t been able to read it yet. *sad face*

Divergent:

Divergent is OUT ON DVD!!!
I haven’t got mine yet, but it’s only a matter of time…

If I Stay:

If I Stay is now in Australian Cinemas (as of Thursday). I haven’t seen it yet, but I’ll be going sometime within the next month.

A Trip to the Bookstore:

So, as yesterday’s Stacking the Shelves will inform you, I bought 3 books in the past week. On Thursday, upon arriving at the bookstore (looking for Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods), I discovered that Heir of Fire was already in stock.

I was quite excited, especially when they had Percy Jackson there, too.

However, it was not to be. As it turns out, I am literally out of money. So I told the store I would be back on Monday with the money.

To be continued…

Blue Lily, Lily Blue:

Maggie Stiefvater has recently announced on Twitter that it will soon be time for her to start sharing teasers for Blue Lily, Lily Blue. *flails excitedly*

Beth Crowley:

Beth Crowley’s album Porcelain Heart comes out on Tuesday!!
If you pre-order today or tomorrow (click here), you can still get a signed copy.

Books Read:

Crown of Midnight, by Sarah J. Maas
ASDFGHJKL!! I would have Heir of Fire by now…but alas.

Opposition, by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Unsure as to whether or not I will have finished this, but I accidentally read 150 pages without realising how much I’d read…I’ll definitely have finished it by next week.