Bookish Naughty or Nice Tag

I have taken part in the Bookish Naughty or Nice tag before and love that it seems to have become a Blogmas staple! When I took part last time I reviewed my life prior and think this time round I am just going to review the last year, seems fair right?

The lovely Jenn @ Jenniely came up with the festive treat a couple fo years back, and as the wonderful Jenna @ J K Exploring tagged me in it this year, I thought I’d quite like to find out if I have been any better this year. I have tagged a few of you lovely people at the bottom, but as always if you would like to take part, please consider yourself tagged.

Rules

– Tag & link the person who tagged you
– Tag and link me/this post (if you would be so kind, I love reading your answers!)
– Tick/cross off the ones you’ve done
– Tag another 10 people!

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Blogmas | 2019

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…..Hello everyone, and welcome to the most wonderful time of the year! December is officially begun, we’re opening little doors on little calendars and we are gearing up for Christmas big time. And so arrives Blogmas. After much consideration, I have decided to take part this year!

New Year’s Resolution: Final 2018 Check In

Well that’s it. 2018 is all but over and it’s been a mixed bag. I’m not going to lie to you, I’ve found 2018 hard. Some of that is circumstantial, some self-inflicted, but either way, it’s not been one of my best years. I do however feel like there are things that I can learn from 2018 that will put me into a better frame of mind to attack 2019 and make it my year! Let’s see how I’ve done with this year’s resolutions.

Around The Year In 52 Books | 2019

Evening all, I hope you’re all well and not stuck in any form of rut in this middle ground between Christmas and New Year. We’re quite lucky in our house, my Mum’s birthday falls on the 28th December so we usually do something to celebrate and it’s a good way of seeing through this Chrimbo Limbo. It’s a time I like to use to think about what worked and what didn’t work throughout the year and things that I would like to carry on with, or start ready for the new year.

With this in mind, I’ve been thinking about books, readathons, and reading challenges. The year is nearly out and I think I am going to really struggle to complete 2018’s Around the Year in 52 Books challenge but I have quite enjoyed this particular one. I wrote about my struggles and feelings relating to this sort of thing a few days ago and now as I have thought about it, I have chosen this as the only year long reading challenge I am going to attempt in 2019.

As the year goes by and I begin to fulfil the challenges, I plan to update the list and state which book I read. I am also planning on updating my Goodreads throughout. If you decide to take part too then there is a great Goodreads group that is the epicentre of all things relating to the reading challenge and has hints and ideas if you’re struggling for an idea in a particular area!

T5W: Books I Didn’t Get To in 2018

Happy St. Stephen’s Day! Happy Boxing Day! Happy Hump Day! Whatever you celebrate, I hope you’re having a fantastic Wednesday, and if you’re a Christmas kinda person, I hope your Christmas was filled with fun and happiness and lots of great food! I had a really nice Christmas, lots of good food, family, generous gifts, and even a quiet bit of reading and TV watching in the evening. It made me think about the books I was given, and also, the books I have at home that I really wanted to read this year and never managed to! This Top 5 Wednesday came at a pretty good time then really, didn’t it?!

If you want to find out more, or take part in, Top 5 Wednesday, click here to find Lainey and Samantha’s Goodreads page.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I hope you’re all having a delightfully festive day, that Santa has brought you everything you wanted and everything you didn’t know you wanted, and that you’re enjoying spending time with the important people in your life. As it’s Christmas Day, I thought I’d share a few bits from our Christmassy celebrations, and by ours, I mean Christmas at my Mum and Dad’s.

Christmas Tree(s)

In our house, a dilemma as old as time has been debated. Do you have a fake tree? Do you get a real one? The answer? Get both! So every year my Dad goes as early as possible to the garden centre and buys the biggest real tree that will fit in the tree shaped gap in the front living room, and my Mum puts her artificial one in the bay window in the dining room. She has recently got a new one, but the old one was too nice to throw away and since they have had a conservatory/living room conversion the old tree now sits proudly in there. That’s 3 trees. They’re awesome and pretty and well decorated, but that is not all folks. Outside there is a fourth tree, that has lights and red baubles and sits proudly in the front garden!

Christmas Table

My Mum and Dad love Christmas. Who am I kidding, we all do in our family, so each year we end up acquiring new Christmassy items for the house. These range from salt and pepper shakers to napkin holders to glasses to paintings, I mean literally everything. The Christmas table cloth goes down and we decorate the table with all manor of festive delights. It’s great!

Christmas Dinner

This is a touchy subject. What belongs on a Christmas dinner? Turkey or ham? Sprouts or no sprouts? Mash or Yorkshire puddings? We’re very much a turkey and roast potatoes family, no Yorkshires, lots of veg, and the world’s greatest stuffing (bacon, mushroom and onion = glorious). No matter which way you have it, whether you’re a sprout lover or hater, a meat eater or vegan, I love a good Christmas dinner picture. (And Yes, that is sweetcorn on my Christmas dinner because that’s how I roll).

Christmas Extras

My Dad loves a weird Christmas decoration, and last year he outdid himself. I had completely forgotten that he had bought giant Santa hats…for the chairs that we sit on at the table. Yes, the probably lower the tone of the Christmas table, but who cares, they’re pretty awesome. He then slide away during Christmas dinner preparations and suddenly…boom…the TOILET HAS BEEN SANTA-ED. I mean that’s when you know there is serious Christmas decoration dedication!

Do you have any Christmas traditions or decorations that are awesome/funny/unique?

What do you have on your Christmas dinner?

2018 End of Year Book Survey

I think it’s safe to say that everyone likes to sit back at the end of the year and have a look back at what they have achieved over the previous 12 months, reading and blogging are no different. So, last year when I was perusing Perpetual Page Turner, Jamie’s wonderful blog, I stumbled across this fantastic bookish survey of her own invention that was in its 8th year and decided to fill in the survey! It’s a great post, with lots of reflective questions, and the bonus is that she has put a link on her original post so that you can have a looksie and a nosey through everybody else’s posts, and increase your 2019 TBR pile. You’ve probably guessed already, but, I’ve decided to do it again this year!

So, before I dive on in, please look at her original post, and maybe think about joining in too (don’t forget to credit her)! I would also like to point out that I repeatedly mention Emma. She is one of my good friends, who also happens to put up with me by living in the same house, and is someone I credit for telling me about a lot of the books that I have read and enjoyed. Her blog can also be found @ The Terror of Knowing!

*All stats are correct at the point of writing, but we have a week to go so some things might change!

Children of Blood and Bone | Review

Title: Children of Blood and Bone

Author: Tomi Adeyemi

Rating: 5 Stars

Dates read: 30 Jun 18 – 08 Jul 18

Publication date: 08 March 18

Publisher: Macmillan Children’s

Genre(s): Fantasy, YA

Description:

They killed my mother.
They took our magic.
They tried to bury us. 
Now we rise.

Zélie remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. When different clans ruled – Burners igniting flames, Tiders beckoning waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoning forth souls.

But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, anyone with powers was targeted and killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope. Only a few people remain with the power to use magic, and they must remain hidden.

Zélie is one such person. Now she has a chance to bring back magic to her people and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must learn to harness her powers and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.

Danger lurks in Orïsha, where strange creatures prowl, and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to come to terms with the strength of her magic – and her growing feelings for an enemy.

DC/NYC | Day 6

When we planned this trip, we had always planned to spend a decent amount of time in Washington DC and then travel up to New York and cram as much into a 24hr period as we could. So, after a last great day in Washington, we were ready to hop on the train and hot foot it up to New York City. I didn’t love NYC last time I went. I mean it is impressive, it’s good, but it’s not completely my cup of tea, so Emma and I were going to experience things more up her street and see if that changed my mind.

The Bookish Book Lover Tag

It’s a Friday evening and I am tired and home alone as Emma has now left for home to spend the festive period with her family, so I decided to have a little go at the Bookish Book Lover Tag, which was created by Shantelle @Shantellemaryh  (it seems her blog doesn’t exist anymore) I and which I actually saw over at Emma’s blog The Terror of Knowing yesterday evening. I’m a book lover, I like a tag, sounds like it’s up my street. Let’s not mess around too much and just get on with this thing: