Recommendation: Books that make you cry

'The Fault in Our Stars' by John Green
'Struck by Lightning' by Chris Colfer
'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' by Stephen Chbosky

Top 10 Tuesday: Books that would be on my Syllabus if I taught Feminist Literature 101

Top 10 Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish! Today's topic is books that would be on my syllabus if I taught Feminist Literature 101:

Book Review: Muirwood: The Lost Abbey

'Muirwood: The Lost Abbey' by Jeff Wheeler, Matthew Sturges, Dave Justus, Alex Sheikman, Lizzy John

Rating: 2 stars

A copy of this book was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Maia, the daughter of king Comoros, has been secretly learning magic despite it being forbidden in her kingdom for women to do so. When she is recruited by her father, she is sent on a mission to save her kingdom.

I loved the cover art for this book, so I was a little disappointed with the internal art as well as the story itself. The cover suggested a story filled with adventure and magic with a strong female heroine, but I felt let down on all of those aspects.

Photo Gallery: Book Haul

'The Shock of the Fall' by Nathan Filer
'One Day' by David Nicholls
'Gone Girl' by Gillian Flynn
'The Help' by Kathryn Stockett

-Helia

Top 10 Tuesday: My Auto-Buy Authors

Top 10 Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish! Today's topic is authors whose books I would buy without hesitation:

Top 10 Tuesday: My Most Read Authors

Top 10 Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish! Today's topic is authors I've read the most books from:

1. Cassandra Clare (12 books)

I was not even surprised when I checked goodreads. I was obsessed with The Infernal Devices when I first read them.

2. Rick Riordan (10 books)

I read the Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus series over the past two years and my love of Greek Mythology only grew.

3. J.K. Rowling (7 books)
Obviously. I really want to read some of her newer books.

4. C.S. Lewis (7 books)

Narnia was one of the first magical lands I read of that I genuinely wanted to live in.

5. Eion Colfer (7 books)

Artemis Fowl was my childhood. I've still yet to read the final book.

6. Cathy Cassidy (7 books)

Wow, childhood books are a theme here, aren't they? Every kid in primary school was reading these books.

7. Jill Marshall (7 books)

And the kids books don't end! I encouraged my sister to read the Jane Blonde series too.

8. Ali Sparkes (5 books)

The Shapeshifter series: not the most well known, but certainly one of my favourites as a kid.

9. Julia Golding (4 books)

I have a vague memory of The Companions Quartet, only that they filled the void that was the first few years of High School.

10. Chris Colfer (4 books)

Have a gushed enough about Chris Colfer already? No? Didn't think so.

Is your list similar to mine, or totally different? Let me know who your most read authors are!

- Helia

Photo Gallery: Shelfie

Book Review: Lois Lane: Cloudy With a Chance of Destruction

'Lois Lane: Cloudy With a Chance of Destruction' by Gwenda Bond

Rating: 3 stars

A copy of this book was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

'Lois Lane: Cloudy With a Chance of Destruction' is a short story tied to the novel 'Lois Lane: Fallout', which was released in May 2015. It tells the story of a young Lois who moves frequently and has a love of many (but not all) explosions.

I do not wish to spoil too much as the story is relatively short, but I found Lois a genuinely likable character. She has personality, is smart and an attitude that may have the potential to get her in a lot of trouble, yet she is kind hearted without being a pushover. 

Overall, I found the story entertaining despite knowing little background on Lois in terms of comics or film. For me personally, this story was not engaging enough to encourage me to read the novel it prequels, but I found it enjoyable and may reconsider picking it up in the future.

Find this review on Goodreads

-Helia

2015 Reading Challenge: August Update

I have completed half of the popsugar reading challenge! The books I have read this year can be found on my Goodreads under the 2015 Reading Challenge.

-Helia

Writing: why you shouldn't let go of your passion

Writing is a huge passion of mine, and lately I have neglected it. I kept making excuses for myself, some of them valid such as having to prioritise school work, others less so. I'd write down the occasional notes and go through what I'd written previously, but I could not bring myself to actually sit down and do it.

There are several reasons for me doing so. One of these reasons was that what I wrote felt inadequate. They say that you ought to write every day, or work to a schedule which encourages you to write frequently and when you do so, not everything you write is going to turn out great. As a perfectionist hoping to write a fantasy book trilogy (having never even written anything longer than 15,000 words of an uncompleted story so terrible it couldn't be saved) writing continuously is a challenge. Writing to a high standard every day is impossible. When the goal is to write something so large, motivating oneself is a difficult task.

I kept putting my story off, telling myself I will write it later when I was in a better frame of mind. But the truth is that there isn't always a better time to do things. It got to the point where I was too scared to write because it had been so long. All it took was a couple of weeks to completely throw me off, my confidence gone. Once that happens, it's difficult to get started again.

This goes for all passions or hobbies. They require commitment, which can be a hard thing to give.

Here are 5 Quick Tips I've learnt on how to stay motivated:

1. Just write it. It doesn't matter how terrible it is or if you know you could do better. The chances are that you are going to go over it again at a later point because having a perfect first draft is impossible, so it doesn't have to be great straight away.

2. Write for you. If it's something you enjoy then it shouldn't matter. Don't think about what others think of your writing, because it's not them that you are trying to please. You are your number 1 fan as well as your top critic, so you should prioritise your thoughts before anyone else's.

3. Go through things you've written before. Learn to laugh at the embarassingly bad things you have written, but acknowledge that there was some good as well. Know that you can only improve from what you've written in the past.

4. Write a little every day. Last night I only wrote 310 words, but it made me feel so much better to know that at least I was making progress again.

5. Know that there is never going to be a better time to write. You have to make the time. It's alright if one day you can't write, but try to write regularly even if you don't follow a set schedule.

I can't say that I follow all of these tips myself all the time, but I am trying to, as writing is something that is very important to me.

If you have any other motivational tips or writing advice in general I'd love to hear it! Just leave a comment below.

-Helia