Recent Reads Of Summer

Right, so part of my internet and general happiness hiatus also included a tiny reading hiatus. I haven't been reading at the pace that I normally do, but I've still managed to squeeze in a few reads before bed time!

Here are some of my recent page turners!

1. Winger by Andrew Smith - Probably my favourite book in a long time. It's so normal. And hilarious. It kind of reminds me of the male version of Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld but without the socially awkward main character. I originally saw the book on this list and I'm so glad I bought it! It's about a high schooler at boarding school and his life in a crap dorm, on the rugby team, and being 2 years younger than everyone in his grade. Really easy read, and includes cartoon that the main character draws himself to narrate his life!

2. Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close - Again, a book that is so completely normal. (My taste in books goes one of two ways : the completely normal lives of people or dystopian over the top plots.) I enjoyed it  mainly because I could totally relate to the characters (mostly the 20-something and wtf am I doing at my job aspect of it) and it was such an easy read! I'd definitely recommend it if you want a girly read and you're going through a quarter life crisis! (And even if you're not, you'll still like it!)

3. Gone Series by Michael Grant - Right, so I basically plowed my way through this series. Six books in total. I was completely hooked. Mostly I just wanted to know how the hell it was going to end! There were aspects of it that totally annoyed me; there were so many useless characters that I just wanted to write out of the book! But in all honestly, I liked the concept of it. Basically, everyone over the age of 15 goes 'poof' one day and they can't escape this dome that traps everyone inside. If you like this type of genre, I think you'd like this series. However, be warned that all of the main characters are 14 years or younger. It's an immature read at times, but I think overall I was able to look past it.

Side note, I still have not finished The Host. I cannot get into it. Has anyone read it before? Is it just really slow to get into?

What have you read recently that you enjoyed or would recommend? I have loads more books on my list; I'd love to hear what's on yours!

Soon To Be Recent Reads

(In case you missed it, here is what I'd actually classify as Recent Reads if you're looking for something new!)

There are many (read: LOADS) of books on my radar at the moment, so I thought I'd share with you what's next on my list!

Look at me getting all artsy with the photo! #not

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling - I am super excited for this book! I love Mindy; I wish I was half as funny as she is. I got the sample (always get the sample... they're free!!) on my iPad and was cracking up within minutes. I can't wait to open this up sometime this weekend!

The Host by Stephanie Meyer - I was very skeptical to buy this. I'm like the anti-Twilight advocate of the world. (Okay okay, I read Twilight when I was 16 and loved it. And then my love just faded into hatred.) But I saw it for £3.99 at Sainsbury's and thought 'why not?' I also couldn't resist because it was made into a movie, and being on the pro-books side on the books v. movies debate I knew I had to give it a chance!

(Sidenote, I'm a few chapters in and actually had to re-read the back to figure out the plot. Totally did not start off the way I expected, but we'll go with it!)

1984 by George Orwell - Random. I know. I've been meaning to read it for a while now since it is the original book in this dystopian literature craze (can you call it a craze now?), but I'm kind of.... nervous. When I think of 1984 I think about required school reading (cringe. who ever liked those?!), except for the fact that I never had to read it for school! I did have to read Animal Farm when I was 13, and that wasn't so bad. So I'm giving this a shot. I'm not expecting Hunger Games/Divergent/Delirium/Matched type of reading. But I will give it a shot.

What do you have on your bookshelf waiting to be read at the moment?

Recent Reads

I am a book worm. (Second post in a week about books. Just sayin'.)

It started when I was about 7 years old and I had (what seemed like) an infinite supply of The Babysitters Club Little Sister books (Karen was like, my BFF) and I would keep my nose in these books for days on end. 15 years later, my obsession has not subsided (at all.) and I would still rather read in bed all day than go out and socialize with the cool people my age.

Sorry, I'm not sorry.

Anyway, I've read a bunch of books that have been absolute page turners over the past few weeks that I thought I would share with you guys! (Along with one of my many many many good quotes from each!)

1. Delirium Trilogy by Lauren Oliver - I heard so many good things about this series (and apparently they made a TV show pilot episode that was trying to get picked up by Fox... It didn't... Thoughts??) and was thoroughly impressed until the last chapter of the last book. I don't think I've ever been more angry at an ending. Regardless, it's a good concept and a good series. It's a dystopian series (think along the lines of the Hunger Games and Divergent) where love is considered a disease. Girls and boys are kept mostly separate until they're "cured" at age 18. Once you're "cured" by a brain intrusive medical procedure, you can't catch the 'deliria' (love). But it also changes your mentality; fun and old memories really stop mattering. You also get paired with someone (to marry) based on a personal evaluation. Affection really doesn't exist even with your partner and children. With this book, I like the concept (I'm just a sucker for dystopian societies... sue me!) and I like all the twists and turns throughout the series. This is definitely a page turner. I couldn't put any of the 3 in this series down. Don't let my hatred for the ending skew your judgement; most people would probably love the ending.

2. Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld - The only way I know how to describe this book is that it has "How I Met Your Mother" syndrome.... It's basically one long pointless story just waiting to find out the end. However, I still enjoyed it. (And I got it from the '3.99 or less' page on iTunes, so that's always a plus!) It's about a girl who goes to boarding school (on scholarship) for all 4 years of high school. And the reason I liked it so much is because the main character, Lee, is so ridiculously like myself, only more extreme! She's so socially awkward that you can't help but root for her, but you also want to just punch some confidence into her. Admittedly, there were times where I felt almost identical to Lee. I'm constantly people watching or just inside my own brain a majority of the time that I'm oblivious to everyone around me. And that's basically the entire book -- viewing the world from her introverted, prep school perspective.

3. Matched Trilogy by Ally Condie - More dystopian fiction. Gotta love it. Only this time, the Society controls everything. Everything. Food, clothing, school, work, recreation, and your Match. You get Matched at 17 to someone, and that's who you end up with. Simple as that. I liked this trilogy because I didn't feel like it was over the top. Yes, Society controls everything, and that's a bit extreme. But it wasn't like crazy fight to the death games or forced medical procedures or anything weird. It was the most normal (and least violent), futuristic form of dystopian society I think I've read so far. And the 3 main characters... All equally amazing. Even if you aren't into Hunger Games/Divergent/Delirium types of books, I'd still recommend this because it's the most realistic and natural.

What have you read recently that you enjoyed or would recommend? (And if you want to nerd out with me about any of these books/series, email me! As always, I'd love to hear your opinions!)

One Of My Best Kept Secrets

Okay, so it's not really a secret... But I'll fill you in anyway.

Recently, my book obsession has skyrocketed. I always joked how my addiction to reading was making me purchase books faster than I was financially capable of. And shhhh! Do not tell me to get a library card! I like LOVE my ever growing book shelf and admiring my collection. (Side note, does anyone want to buy me a bigger book shelf?) I think I would cry if I had to give a book back; we all know I am too good at re-reading them.

More recently, however, I've been buying books on my iPad. And thank the heavens I discovered the 'Great Books for $3.99 or less' page! (Oh and yes, I still have American iTunes... Oops!)

And there you have it, folks: My best kept secret.

See, I told you it really wasn't a secret!

If your looking for some good books but don't always want to splurge, definitely look at the 'Great books for $3.99 or less' page! They offer a bunch of different genres and they all have at least 20 books in the list!

This '$3.99 or less' page honestly changed my life. I'm not even kidding. Last summer I bought a book for 99 cents because, well, why not?! It was the first book in The Mortal Instruments series (titled 'City of Bones'), which is being made into a movie coming out in August. That series plus another series by that author are just below Harry Potter on my favourite books list. That's huge.

Since then, I've purchased many a cheap book off of iTunes, none of which I regret. So here are just a few tips if you do decide to check out the cheap option!

1. Check back often - They add and remove books from the lists quite often. This definitely keeps your options open!

2. Get the samples first - They're free! If you can't wait to read more once the sample is done, you know you are in for a treat!

3. Only go for a certain number of stars - Personally, I only really consider buying these books if they are over 4 stars. That sounds harsh; 4 stars is a great score out of 5 on iTunes. But from what I've noticed, there's obviously a reason why it's ridiculously on sale. So unless I've heard good reviews elsewhere, I won't buy a book from there unless it's over 4 stars.

4. Don't just buy it because it's cheap - I have to talk myself out of sale purchases all the time. Just because it's cheap, doesn't mean it's worth it. If you know you're not going to like it or get through it, don't bother!

5. Look at page numbers - Sometime on the list you'll find shorter books, such as 'midquels', on the list that are only about 40 pages long and go with another book you may or may not have read. So keep an on the page number. If it seems like a low number of pages, it's probably not a full fledged book.

Hopefully this helps your reading addiction like it did for me!

Letting A 22 Year Old Loose Around Hogwarts

I told you last week that I went to the Making of Harry Potter Warner Brother's Studio Tour.

Mind = blown.

It's much different than anything I had ever seen before, and blew my expectations out of the water.

Everything is there. Every inch of the tour is covered in props, costumes, sets, secret hidden snitches, etc. I probably missed a lot of stuff, but also found a lot of stuff too (like the sword of Gryffindor is up on a shelf in Dumbledore's Office... It's so discrete and hidden up there!) 

I took about um-teen thousand pictures that day, but I'm just going to show you a bit of my favorites!

(And if you know me at all, you know that I don't even have to add the "paid for this tour on my own", "am not being sponsored for this", "all opinions are my own". Seriously, I'm a Harry Potter fanatic. It's been my life since I was 11. And all of the above quotes are true anyway.)

(Oh and side note, I say this every time there is a photo-heavy post... My camera is crap. It takes pictures underwater but no part of this tour was underwater so.... Sorry!)

The Great Hall. The real set. A-freakin-mazing! So many costumes, including the Hogwarts robes through the years of filming!

Gryffindor Common Room with costumes from the 3rd film. Filled with props and random trinkets. Literally could have looked in there for hours. (By the way, did you know that the character Dean Thomas is a West Ham fan?! The things you learn in the studio tour....)

Dumbledore's Office with everything in it, including the Pensieve and the Phoenix entryway. These are the robes from Richard Harris, the actor who played Dumbledore in the first two films. The robes of Michael Gambon (Dumbledore in the rest of the films) are in the Great Hall.

I've always had a soft spot for the Goblet of Fire book and movie. It's my favorite book in the series and I think I've read it the most times out of all of them! This is the Triwizard Cup and the egg clue from the movie. I freaked out when I saw them!

And look! The top of the egg clue is an owl!! I read the little paragraph on the side of the display where it mentioned the owl opener at the top. Of course I had to get a pic!

Snape in his potion's classroom. I always had faith in Snape throughout the books. I knew he had to be good somehow... Fun fact, I wrote a letter to Alan Rickman (the actor who played Snape) and he sent me his autograph! I was fangirling for years....

The Knight Bus!! The inside was seriously impressive considering it's just a bus! (P.S. it always bugged me that in the movie, Harry didn't tell Stan his name was "Neville Longbottom" on the bus.... In the book he does...)

Privet Drive. The first ever thing you see in the HP films is Privet Drive. It brought me back to being an 11 year old and loving the first film. Fun fact, I've watched the Sorcerer's Stone so many times, I know every single word without the movie even being on... I can start reciting it right now if I wanted to! ("I should have known that you would be here... Professor McGonagall....")

Diagon Alley was probably my favorite set to visit on the tour. It's probably one of my favorite sets in the film anyway! They had every shop from the film and even from the book that you probably never see or hear of in the films.

Ollivanders! The wand shop!

This was seriously impressive. It a model of Hogwarts! But they explain how in the movie, any shots where they go over top of Hogwarts or show it not close up, they've filmed this model. You'd think it was all computers in the movie, but it's not! It's crazy! They have little TVs showing you different parts of the film and how they used this model to film it.

Oh and yes, I'm on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team now. Duh. (When I was younger I actually thought about what position I'd play, and I'd definitely be a Chaser!) This was not only a photo opportunity, but a video opportunity as well! They had you soaring around in the TV screen through London, over lakes, around Hogwarts; it was AMAZING!

And if you didn't already know what a big nerd I am, well now you do! 

Seriously, I've been to the Island's of Adventure Harry Potter theme park, and this was a million, no, trillion times better. I also went with people who weren't particularly fans of Harry Potter, and they loved it! The tour takes about 3 hours, but it doesn't feel boring or time consuming at all! And in the middle, they have Butterbeer! Which also tasted better than the Butterbeer in the theme park to be honest! I had a blast to say the least!

What do you think? Would you spend a few hours here in HP world??

The Useless Facts Of Tay

When I saw Whitney was doing a "Facts of Me" link up, I nearly fell over with excitement. Such a clever idea from my fellow Nole Girl!

I love random facts about people. I wish people would introduce themselves with something completely ridiculous rather than the basics. I don't care how normal you are; I want to know that you wish the sky was made of hedgehogs and have a phobia of Styrofoam. We'll be best friends forever.




So here are some incredibly useless facts about me.

1. I've lived in England for nearly 4 months, but every Sunday I still look at the Target sales ad to see what things I "need" from there. I could probably live on Mars and I'd still look at the Target ad.  

2. When I find a book or book series that I like, I go crazy and read all day long to finish it. (At the end of this week you'll get to see what world I'm currently trapped in at the moment.)

3. I want to do a triathlon. I don't own a bike or any useful swimming gear.

4. I worked on a cruise ship for four and a half months. It was both my favorite job and my least favorite job. Downside: 14 hours days and zero days off. Perk: I got paid to go snorkeling in Maui.

Look, ma! No hands!

5. My fingers are "double jointed", which just means they're overly flexible. They overextend instead of going straight. I can bend my thumb all the way forward and all the way back to my wrist. It freaks most people out.

6. I spend a ridiculous amount of time watching "Beauty Gurus" on YouTube. You'd think I was massively into make-up. Nope. I SUCK at doing makeup!! I watch all these tutorials and fail miserably at them. If someone wants to teach me, I will pay you in hugs and Harry Potter facts.

7. I love braids. French braids, fishtail braids, waterfall braids, I've even masted the 5 stranded braid.

8. I'm so overprotective of my chap stick. I feel I have super bragging rights whenever I finish some Burt's Bees without losing it. You should be able to put that on your resume.

9. I think I accidentally started collecting English sports jerseys. I have 4 Southampton FC shirt, an England football shirt, an England cricket shirt, and an England rugby shirt. Oops!

10. I also accidentally started my shot glass collection. I bought a shot glass from London and one from Paris the first time I went abroad for my friend and ended up never giving them to her. Now every place I visit I have to buy a shot glass.

11. I've never seen "The Notebook".

12. I used to LOVE making t-shirts. I was obsessed with tie dye and puffy paint. And then I would legitimately wear them out in public. I look back and am like "WTF was I thinking?!" Although, I still think this personalized homemade crossword puzzle shirt is amazing.

The perks of being a camp counselor... Being able to dress like a fool. 

13. I love the number 13! It's my lucky number.

14.  I've been to Disney World in Orlando, Disney Land in California, and Disney Land in Paris. It's my life goal to go to every Disney park in the world!

15. I hate bananas. I tell people I'm allergic to them so that they don't come near me.

16. I started going to FSU when I was 17. Here's some advice for all the kiddies out there: don't go to college until you're 18. You'll spend many nights alone, not clubbing, watching The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Or maybe that was just me....

This is seriously what I used to do.... Take pictures on my new laptop. Oh look, another homemade t-shirt. I wish I was kidding.

17. My hair is naturally super straight. I absolutely hate it most days.

18. I put Frank's Hot Sauce on everything. I'm so happy they sell it in England!

19. I'd probably order off the kids menu if it was more socially acceptable. I'm sorry, I don't care about your catch of the day or fresh garden salads or whatever. Give me chicken nuggets and fries, please. And one of those coloring sheets and crayons while you're at it. And a Shirley Temple. With Vodka.

20. I touched Tom Felton's hand (the guy who plays Draco Malfoy in HP) at the Deathly Hallows Part 2 premiere in London. We're best friends now (I wish).

That's him! He touched everyone hand, but mine was definitely the best.

Let's be friends! Let me know if you do the link-up!

Halloween: Across The Pond Style

I'm going to say something.... And please don't judge me or think differently of me because of this... Because we are all entitled to our opinions....

I'm not a big fan of Halloween.

I know, I'm a rare breed. I'm sorry.

I think I liked it when I was little. Each year I dressed as a different Disney Princess and went trick or treating with friends. And then I went home, changed costumes, and went trick or treating again and got more candy.

(Sadly, all of my cute princess pictures are in America. I know you're devastated.)

And then you get older and it becomes socially less acceptable to trick or treat. You either get invited to cool Halloween parties or screw the norm and still go trick or treating and say "I DON'T CARE HOW OLD I AM! I WILL ALWAYS GO TRICK OR TREATING!" (me).

High school consisted of marching band Halloween parties since our last major competition/evaluation always fell around Halloween.

Yes, I said "marching band Halloween parties". No, that is not the next American Pie movie.

Sadly, this is the best picture of me as an awesome 80s workout girl. Because you know, I know soooo much about the 80s because I definitely lived it. (I was born in 1990...) I was such a cool senior (NOT). 

Still never got invited to those cool kid parties.

And then came college! Which did me no favors either...

I was the yellow Ninja Turtle.... There is no yellow Ninja Turtle. We were a group of 5 and I got shafted because I went "I love the color yellow!"

Sadly, this Halloween pictured above started the worst month of my life. I'm not even joking. That night I ended up in the ER with an allergic reaction to something I still don't know, then I got tonsillitis, then I got ANOTHER allergic reaction to the medicine they put me on for the tonsillitis. October 31st and all of November 2009 was spent in bed and on the Benadryl diet.

Multiple trips to the hospital, doctor, and allergist + my entire bank accounts worth of medical bills = I'm still alive.

Maybe that's when I started not liking Halloween.

The last two years I didn't celebrate at all. Or you could say I dressed up as a "studying college student whose evil professors scheduled multiple exams the day after Halloween" which was entirely true.

This year, I have made ZERO plans for Halloween. Again, I'm not a fan. But I think it's because of my genuinely lackluster Halloween's for the past few years.

I have decided though, if I do dress up tonight, I will dress up in true nerd form like her....

 Denim Vest . . Denim Shorts . . Long Sleeve Shirt . . Nerd Glasses . .  Belt

This is Kathy Beth Terry, from Katy Perry's music video for Last Friday Night.

It all started when the music video came out. My ever so charming Fiance said "Hey, that looks like you!" He just seems to think any brown haired nerd with glasses "looks like me". I also apparently look like that girl from The Big Bang Theory (no, not the hot blonde one) but that's another story.

So I've come to terms with my nerd status. Clearly you must know by now that I'm not your typical 20-something. While everyone is dressing up in animal ears or some slutty version of the Village People, I long to be Kathy Beth Terry.

The thing is, I'm not too sure how big Halloween is here in England....

Everyone I speak to says something different, like that it's not very big at all or it's more about witches and wizards and scary stuff and less about dressing up as anything and eating candy.

I don't know how I feel about that, because for the first time I kind of anticipated a good Halloween! I don't have any tests tomorrow (or ever.... I graduated....) and *fingers crossed* I don't get any allergic reactions later! I'm not planning on going to a marching band party (I wonder if those exist anywhere other than my high school), but I'll survive!

So what do 20-something adults do in England for Halloween?? Or rather, what does anyone do in England for Halloween??
What are you guys dressing up as? Any fun Halloween plans on either side of the pond??