Books || August Book Haul/What I've Been Reading

Welcome to my monthly book post where I tell you what books I've purchased and what I've been reading this month:

I gave in and bought a few this month as a payday treat and I may have finished my 50 book challenge but that hasn't stopped me reading

Purchased:

Scorch Trials - James Dashner

Beatrice Letters - Lemony Snicket 

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks - E Lockhart 

The Fire Sermon - Francesca Haig

Trouble - Non Pratt

Read:

Scorch Trials - James Dashner

Beatrice Letters - Lemony Snicket

The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank

Trouble - Non Pratt 

Keep up more often with what I've been reading on Netgalley: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/37310175-cloee-cooper

-Cloee xoxo

Books || July Book Haul/What I've Been Reading

Welcome to my monthly book post where I tell you what books I've purchased and what I've been reading this month:

This month I proudly stuck to working my way through my currently to be read list which is getting rather high and only purchased two new books (which I'd actually pre-ordered months ago, so technically this month I didn't buy any new books sadly for me, but happily for my ever overflowing bookshelves).

Purchased:

Go Set a Watchman - Harper Lee 

Life with a Sprinkle of Glitter - Louise Pentland (Sprinkle of Glitter) 

Review Copies from Netgalley:

Black-Eyed Susans - Julia Heaberlin

Concentr8 - William Sutcliffe

Read: 

Since You've Been Gone - Morgan Matson
Emily is left a list of things to do during the summer, pushing her comfort zone, when she mysteriously disappears Emily is left to complete the list with the hope that it will lead her back to her best friend. 

Geek Girl - Holly Smale 

Fitting in is hard, and sometimes we'll do anything to do it - but that doesn't necessarily mean that its the right thing. Take pride in who you are even if you are a 'geek'

The Sky is Everywhere - Jandy Nelson 
Beautiful story about dealing with grief, finding yourself and love. 

Fire Colour One - Jenny Valentine 

What Milo Saw - Virginia Macgregor
Heart-warming story of a young boy who sees more than everyone around him. I'd recommend for fans of Wonder 

Everyday - David Leviathan 
What would you do if you moved bodies everyday? I have to say I didn't really enjoy this book as much as I'd hoped, I just didn't get on with the main character at all and found the further the book went on the less empathy I had. The concept intrigued me but I wasn't a huge fan of the execution.

Another Day - David Leviathan 

I preferred this retelling to the original personally.

Go Set a Watchman - Harper Lee  
The much anticipated 'sequel' of To Kill a Mockingbird, I'd been waiting for this since its announcement as I am a HUGE fan of Mockingbird (I even had a poster on my wall at uni, full review coming soon. 

Life with a Sprinkle of Glitter - Louise Pentland (sprinkle of glitter) 

Full review coming soon.

Paper Towns - John Green 

What with the movie release coming soon, I HAD to reread the book, naturally. Upon first reading I have to say it was probably my least favourite John Green book, I just really hated Margo. Having seen the movie trailers etc. I thought maybe it was time to give her another chance. Full post on my thoughts whilst rereading coming soon (warning will include spoilers)

Alice's adventures in wonderland and through the looking glass - Lewis Caroll

Keep up more often with what I've been reading on Netgalley: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/37310175-cloee-cooper

-Cloee xoxo

Books || June Book Haul / What I've been reading

Welcome to my monthly book post where I tell you what books I've purchased and what I've been reading this month:

Books || May Book Haul / What I've been reading

Craft || Craft Haul

One of my goals for this year was to get more crafty, so I thought it was about time I went out to get some more supplies and I wanted to start scrapbooking, but any excuse to go shopping. So here's what I managed to gather in my little trip into my local town centre (although a trip to hobby craft may be on the cards). 

Books || April Book Haul / What I've been reading

 
This month I've tried to reign in my book spending and as my to be read list is piling up pretty high now I thought now might be time to stop. I'm also in the process of planning another trip to the Warner Bros Studios and want to re-read all the Harry Potter books before then, so at the moment May is dedicated to the series.



Purchases:

All I Know Now – Carrie Hope Fletcher

How to Build a Girl – Caitlin Moran

Peter Pan and Wendy – J. M. Barrie (I have a collection of 'old' books – or as my sister calls them 'dirty books' and I couldn't resist adding this beauty to my collection)

The Cat's Quizzer -Dr Seuss (I also collect Seuss books) 

Kindle: The Time In Between – Nancy Tucker

What I've Been Reading:

The Girl on Train – Paula Hawkins
This book was on my to be read list for quite a while and I have to say I was a little disappointed. After being dubbed 'the next Gone Girl' of course the hype for this book was pretty big. I have to say that I didn't think it was worth the hype that has surrounded it. I found it hard to engage with any of the characters and found I had little sympathy for any of them, on the whole they just got on my nerves because most of them just had no motivation to change their situations. What I did admire however was the writing style and division of chapters in the repetitive cycle of the morning and evening journey mimicking the commute and the stop start motion of the train in the narrative style. 

Recipe for Life - Mary Berry
I'm not usually one to read autobiographies but Mary Berry is an idol of mine so I'd been putting off reading this one for a while. I managed to get through this book pretty quickly due to a number of train journeys primarily, but also because Mary's voice guiding you through the events. I obviously don't want to give away any details (and if you too are a Mary fan you'll probably know a lot) but my love for her grew so much after reading this. Her work ethic especially is just so inspirational. 

When God was a Rabbit – Sarah Winman
I initially found out about this book as it was one of this years World Book Night titles and therefore a book that could inspire those who don't normally read for pleasure to do so. It was definitely very fitting for this, the book was so easy to read. There's always something I love about books written from a child's viewpoint, its probably just the naïvety of the narrative and being able to see something from an innocent viewpoint once again. This book transitions throughout so you see the character growing older and how perspectives change as you get older and how relationships grow. 

All I Know – Carrie Hope Fletcher
I've only just started reading this one, but I will definitely finish it by the end of April as I've got plenty of travelling going on this week. I'm only 50 pages in so far, but I'm enjoying it, it is the warm hug in book form it promises to be. 

Books || March Book Haul

                                          

     

Shopping is quite a dangerous habit, for some its an addiction, whether it be clothes, shoes, stationary, make-up... for me its books. Despite having many books to read I can never resist picking up more, as my book shelves are starting to overflow I'm starting to realise what a dangerous habit it has become, but one I can't stop as there's a part of me that fears running out of new books in my room to read. Due to this crazy addiction (yes I'm willing to admit it's a problem) this may just become a regular feature on the blog as I myself love snooping through other people's shelves and seeing what they've been buying and reading.

Beauty || Everyday Make-up Haul

I'm no beauty expert, but in the past few years as I've started watching more Youtube and reading more blogs I have become a beauty lover.  Before my second year of uni when I discovered make-up tutorials on Youtube and started to take more time and care about what products I was buying and more importantly how I was applying them I was pretty clueless. 

I used to just wear make-up because everyone else did and wore too much too often. Now I'm older (and definitely wiser) I steer clear from the bright colours and the eyeliner for day to day and try to keep things simple. For an everyday look I try to keep things, simple light and go for a 'no make-up make-up look' so when I have a more formal occasion and put that little extra effort into the way I look its noticeable. So here's my recent beauty purchases, which consists of almost everything I wear on a daily basis.

Books || February Book Haul

                                     

As an avid reader I am constantly collecting new books on my travels or sometimes just on a rainy afternoon on Amazon and this month I have managed to acquire A LOT. I was extremely lucky at the beginning of the month to have a work experience placement at Penguin (an absolute dream) and they have a set of shelves where each department basically puts any books they don't need or want anymore for anyone to take and your entitled to two a day, so I definitely took advantage to get some more variety into my personal library. I've also indulged in some kindle offers and rather guiltily bought myself some books when buying presents for someone else. So here's all the books I've gotten throughout the course of February:

Work Experience:

So the following are the books I got whilst during my work experience, so are published by either Penguin or Random House

The Accident Season – Moira Fowley-Doyle – A book I'd heard a lot about during my previous work experience at Random House I had to satisfy my curiosity when I saw copies available  

Little Lies - Liane Moriarty

The Day We Disappeared – Lucy Robinson

Techbitch – Lucy Sykes, Jo Piazza

Recipe for Life – Mary Berry  - Despite this being an autobiography, which are usually aren't my type of thing I just couldn't resist as a huge fan of Mary

Him & Me – Jack Whitehall

Love Tanya – Tanya Burr – As someone who has been a fan of Tanya's for years I couldn't resist picking this one up whilst I was there

The Lorien Legacies: The Lost Files – Pittacus Lore – I've never gotten round to reading these despite reading the rest in the series since I thought these were only available as e-books so it was great to get a physical copy  

Kindle Purchases:

I know these books were all on offer around Valentines day so I decided to give into romance and treat myself

Lobsters – Lucy Euson and Tom Ellen

The Lover's Dictionary: A Love Story in 185 Definitions – David Levithan  - Having heard a little about this book, my curiosity was definitely peaked and given the low price I couldn't resist

The Rosie Effect – Graeme Simsion – I fell in love with the Rosie Project and Don Tillman when I read it so after trying to resist because I had so many other books to read I finally gave in to the second instalment of the story

Penguin Little Black Classics:

I saw these in a Youtube video and couldn't resist when I went into Waterstones, for 80p a piece and  the perfect size to fit in your handbag it would be rude not to buy a few. There are a total of 80 in the collection and for now I chose:

(No. 15) Femme Fatale – Guy de Mau Passant

(No. 33) The Beautifull Cassandra – Jane Austen – Which I hadn't heard of before so am very

much looking forward to giving it a go.

(No. 42) The Yellow Wall-Paper – Charlotte Perkins Gillman – I know this was reference to frequently in criticism for the module I did at uni on Victorian and Decadent literature and shamefully I can't remember whether I read it or not, either as a second read or a first I'm looking forward to it.

(No. 53) The Goblin Market – Christina Rossetti – I remember reading an extract in A Level English to compare it with Chaucer's Wife of Bath, but despite being intrigued by the poem have never read the whole thing, so after much anticipation I look forward to reading this.