Between Shades of Gray || Ruta Septeys

Title: Between Shades of Gray

Author: Ruta Sepetys

Length: 344 pages

Publication date: March 22, 2011

Genre: YA historical fiction

Rating: 5/5

When I finished reading Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, I made a comment to my husband that my heart was not okay. He asked why I felt like that, and I had to think about it for a moment. I think it's because the effect this story had on me reaches farther than just a fictional story.

I find myself constantly reaching for stories set in WWII, and most of them take place in Nazi Germany. This one was a first for me. This book is from the point of view from Lina, a 15 year old girl living in Lithuania in 1941, which is when Stalin was in power of the Soviet Union. Lina's family ends up getting deported for "crimes" against the Union, and they are put on trains headed to labour camps in Siberia. This is a story of their survival amidst the most deplorable and loathsome conditions, and them holding on to hope of being able to go home soon.

Sometimes I try to figure out why I like to read these kinds of stories so often. Of course, they are based on real life occurrences, and to read about the evil ways these people were treated makes me sick. It breaks my heart to think about how people are able to convince themselves that certain groups are not even human anymore and treat them worse than animals. (Reminds me of our society's attitude toward abortion, but this isn't about that.) It's just horrible to think about, and yet to see how Lina's family and their group of people banded together was so incredibly beautiful. In the midst of inhuman conditions, they showed each other such kindness. They banded together and became a fortress among themselves, and it was so beautiful.

This book was incredible, just incredible, and I want everyone to read it now. I could go on and on, but I want to you experience it for yourself. I borrowed this from this library and I'm going to be buying a copy for myself, this is something I can see myself reading again and again.

I love you, Friday

Hi friends! It's Friday! I am excited about it! Last weekend we were out of the house basically all weekend, so nothing got done around the house. I mean, we were either at church or with family last weekend, so that was all good, but my poor house needs a clean. So my plans for this weekend include giving my house a good cleaning, doing laundry, and all of that fun stuff.

Of course, I also have some actual fun plans too. Tonight is home-made pizza and movie night with Chris. Tomorrow, after I'm done my cleaning, I plan to film a bunch of videos for my YouTube channel, and get one or two edited. In the evening we are going to hang out with some friends, and if I have time in between I'll probably just do some reading.

On Sunday after church Chris is going golfing with his dad and brother, so I will enjoy my solitude in my house with a good book, maybe some letters. I'm slooowly getting back into writing letters, and it's been fun.

What I'm reading this weekend: Fire by Kristin Cashore. This is the second book in the Seven Realms trilogy, the first book being Graceling. This is an excellent fantasy series, I'm highly enjoying it so far!

This week I have been obsessed with tiny homes. Don't ask why, but for some reason I just really want to live in a tiny house now. We watched a documentary on Netflix, called TINY: A Story About Living Small, and it was quite good. Today I've been watching videos on YouTube about tiny homes. Some good channels are relaxshacksDOTcom, Tiny House Giant Journey, Living Big in a Tiny Home, and Kristen Dirksen, they have tons of tours of tiny homes. Also this one is amazing and I would live in it in a heartbeat.

What are your plans for the weekend? Leave a comment and let me know!

At the Water's Edge || Sara Gruen

Title: At the Water's Edge

Author: Sara Gruen

Length: 348 pages

Publication date: January 1, 2015

Genre: Adult historical fiction

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

Madeline Hyde, a young socialite from Phiadelphia, reluctantly follows her husband and their best friend to the tiny village of Drumnadrochit in search of a mythical monster - at the same time that a very real monster, Hitler, wages war against the Allied Forces. What Maddie discovers - about the larger world and about herself - through the unlikely friendships she develops with the villagers, opens her eyes not only to the dark forces that exist around her but to the beauty and surprising possibilities. (summary from Netgalley)

I am a sucker for fiction set in WWII, so this sounded like it would be right up my alley. Unfortunately, it didn't really do the trick for me. For the majority of the book, it felt like nothing was happening. It felt like the author didn't know what kind of book she wanted to write, so she mixed a few different books together, which made things feel disconnected at times. The characters felt flat for me for most of the book as well. The last third of the book vastly improved, and I actually started to care about what was going on, but it couldn't redeem the rest of the reading experience that much. I've never read anything else by Sara Gruen, but if you like her previous books, you might like this one as well. Overall, I would give this a pass. There are a lot of great books out there more worth your time.


I received a digital copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

4 Things I Liked About Wild in the Hollow by Amber C. Haines.

Title: Wild in the Hollow

Author: Amber C. Haines

Length: 208 pages

Publication date: July 28, 2015

Genre: memoir

Rating: 4/5 stars

I had heard literally zero things about Wild in the Hollow, and I'd never heard about Amber C. Haines either, but I saw the cover on Netgalley and decided that I wanted to read it. I am so glad that I did. I'm not going to say that the book was perfect, but it was definitely enjoyable and gave me a lot to think about.

1. The writing of the book was extremely poetic, which was a nice change of pace for me. I have read books that try to weave a faith story, trying to be poetic and meaningful, but it ends up feeling forced and fake. I did not find this to be the case (in general) with this book. Haines' writing is legitimately poetic. I will admit, there were times when her usage of metaphor was a bit much - in one instance, she was speaking of something literally, and I thought she was using a metaphor! But the writing style did grow on me. It was nice to see someone's life through such a poetic lens.

God's love is before my eyes, and it is staid. It is my hope. I keep my eyes on him. If I do not see his love, it is my eyes that have moved.

2. Haine's life has been very tumultuous. There have been a lot of pains and hurts in her life, and the honesty with which she wrote about them was very refreshing. Even though my hurts have been different from hers, I still felt like I could connect with her on a deeper level because of her honesty.

3. One of my favourite things about the book was seeing the emphasis she places on community in her life. So often I see that the god of individualism and self in our society has lead us to believe that community is not important, but that is such a lie. I was so refreshed to see someone praising community and the importance of it in our lives.

4. The whole story was constantly a reminder that God can take all of the ugly, broken things in our lives, and somehow give us beauty and joy in the midst of it.

I wouldn't say that I agreed with every viewpoint that Haine's has, but through the book you can also see how her viewpoint on things changed over her life. If you are looking to read a moving memoir, I would recommend this one!


I received a digital copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Colliding With Destiny || Sarah Jakes

Title: Colliding With Destiny

Author: Sarah Jakes

Length: 215 pages

Publication date: September 2, 2014

Genre: Christian inspirational

Rating: 2/5 stars

Way back in 2014 I received and read Colliding With Destiny. I had been excited about the premise, but ultimately it fell flat for me. I just had a look at the book on Goodreads, however, and apparently only 2 other people felt the same way as me about this book. So maybe you'll feel differently, who knows?!

Colliding With Destiny is an exploration through the life of Ruth. Sarah Jakes uses her own stories from life to guide you through the trials and heartaches that Ruth faced, and by doing so brings this well-known story to another light. The goal is to inspire you to collide with your divine destiny, allowing God to lead you there.

The Meh:

- So much of this book felt repetitive and forced. I think the whole book would have been a lot shorter if she hadn't kept making the same statement over and over, just phrased in another way. The structure of the book is looking at a section from the book of Ruth, and then the author connecting things that happened in her own life to what happened to Ruth. In my opinion, the connections were often quite forced. It also seemed like the author made generalizations to serve her own purposes, just adding to the forced feeling through a lot of it.

- There was a journal section at the end of each chapter, and they often felt disjointed from the rest of the chapter. Often I didn't even find anything in the prompt that I could journal about! I didn't think they made a lot of sense or impact in a devotional sense. 

The Good:

- Sarah Jakes has had a hard life, and her honesty about it was very encouraging and refreshing. She makes it clear that she made bad choices, and that obedience to God has made all the difference in her life. 

- I found this book more motivating or meditative, rather than devotional. The author made a lot of statements that made me think a little bit longer, which I appreciated. A couple examples:

"We make life so much more difficult that it has to be, all because we make God an option instead of a priority." - pg. 138, Colliding With Destiny

"Those called by God must be willing to have faith strong enough to withstand the rejection of others around them." - pg. 170, Colliding With Destiny 

I would not recommend reading this book as a devotional, but rather as a motivational/inspirational book. There are good lessons to be learned from Sarah Jakes' life, and the overall message of the book was solid.

I received a digital copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

I'm Participating in ARC August!

I found out about this awesome concept from my friend Samantha at Thoughts on Tomes, and I just knew I had to join in for this! I am easily swayed by the newest book I get, so my poor advance reader copies tend to get ignored. This is a fun way for me to get motivated about reading them!

This event was created by Read.Sleep.Repeat, and you can find all of the information for it on their blog.

The Rules:

The rules are very simple:

• It may be a physical ARC or and eARC but it MUST be an ARC.
• It can be an ARC that has released as long as it is an ARC.
• This is meant to be fun!! Feeling like you are being “forced” to read is the best way turn a fun event into a yucky obligation.
• Update posts! You can update once a week, every other week or once for the whole darn event. This update can be in the form of a blog, Tumblr post, vlog, link to your “ARC August 2015″ shelf, or even an Instagram pic!

My TBR:

I have only 3 Netgalley ARCs that have not been published yet, so those are my priority. Then I'll pick up whatever strikes my fancy yet. I don't know if I will read ARCs exclusively or if I'll throw other books in there. (I haven't gotten to read Armada yet, after all.) I am currently participating in the Booktubeathon, and I am not reading any ARCs for that. The rest of the month should be good though! 

I have listed my books mostly in order of publication/how much I want to read them. 

Wild in the Hollow - Amber C. Haines
From a Distant Star - Karen McQuestion
Mechanica - Betsy Cornwell
Anchored - Kayla Aimee

How to Fly with Broken Wings - Jane Elson

Audrey & Bill - Edward Z. Epstein 

Tolkien - Devin Brown

Puppet - Pauline C. Harris

How We Deal With Gravity - Ginger Scott
The Paper Magician - Charlie N. Holmberg
Portal 24 - Meredith Stroud
Cannonbridge - Jonathan Barnes 

I am hoping to get my updates up every week either on this blog or Instagram. My monthly wrap-up will be on my YouTube channel at the end of August. Are you going to participate in this? If you are, leave a comment down below and tell me what you're reading! 

Lizzy & Jane || Katherine Reay

Title: Lizzy & Jane

Author: Katherine Reay

Length: 339 pages

Publication date: October 1, 2014

Genre: Adult contemporary

Rating: 4/5

Elizabeth is a professional chef in New York, with her own successful restaurant. But lately the magic seems to be gone, and something is off with her cooking. In order to find that spark again, Elizabeth goes home to Seattle to visit her family: her father, widowed after her mother passed away from cancer when she was a teen; and her older sister Jane, currently fighting her own battle with cancer. The trip becomes more than Elizabeth or Jane could have guessed, and leaves Elizabeth questioning her career, relationships, and faith.

This book hit really close to home for me. After losing my father to cancer a year and a half ago, cancer stories always impact me on a different level. Picking this story up, that was not what I was expecting, but I was pleased with Reay's depiction on how cancer affects the whole family. I found the story to be quite realistic in its portrayal of emotions, relationships, and situations the characters found themselves in.

This story has a romance sub-plot (what else could you except from a story whose heroines are named after Jane Austen's most famous sisters?) but at the heart of it this book is about family, which is a refreshing change. There are also good friendships to be found here, which I always look out for as well.

I feel that I should note that this story does revolve heavily around cancer, so that might be very stressful for some readers. Also, there is a scene where a character suffers an injury that, while not horribly graphic, imagining it made me quite squeamish indeed. Other than that, I couldn't recommend this more.


I received a digital copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

The Martian || Andy Weir

Title: The Martian

Author: Andy Weir

Length: 369 pages

Publication date: September 23, 2012

Genre: Science fiction

Rating: 5/5

Mark Watney is in trouble. He's on the fourth manned expedition to Mars, and on the sixth day of the mission, an intense storm forces them to abandon the mission, and in the chaos, Mark is left stranded. On Mars. By himself. Oh, and the storm eliminated any communication with Earth. So Mark has to figure out how to make his limited supplies last until the next expedition arrives... in 4 years. But Mark is smart, and he's bound to figure out how to make it, right?

I had heard for months that this book was amazing. I even bought it and had it on my shelf, somewhere close to the top of my TBR (to-be read) pile for a few months. But then I watched the trailer for the movie adaptation, and I knew I couldn't put it off any more. That day I picked it up, and within 2 pages I was glad that I had made that decision, and by page 6 I had laughed out loud at least once. Really.

The Martian was quite different from what I was expecting when I picked it up. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't what I got. First of all, this is a very scientific book. After all, it is about an astronaut trying to survive on Mars. He does that through science. And Mark Watney is very smart. This book is filled with his scientific calculations, and yet I never felt bored! Sometimes it went over my head, but Weir did such a great job writing it in such a way that it was accurate and still somewhat entertaining.

I also really liked the character of Mark Watney (I just really like to refer to him by his full name.) He was very resourceful, and his sense of humour was great. That's what made the book for me. He had a very dry sense of humour, and he would react to situations very differently from what I would (ie he remained calm whilst I would have sat in my spacesuit and cried for a year.) The only thing that I would have liked to see more of was a bit more of the emotional and psychological effects of being completely alone for many months. You get a hint of that at the end, but just a hint. But this isn't necessarily that kind of book either. This isn't a story about Mark Watney's emotions. This is a story about his survival. He's too busy trying to grow potatoes in Martian soil to worry about his feelings.

This story is told mostly through Mark making log entries, but there are chapters focused on the people back at NASA and his crew on the ship, which I thought was interesting. Seeing things from their view as they try to get Mark off of Mars alive, and then reading his own account after was really cool. It filled in so much of the story.

This is a survival story at its finest. Really, when the very atmosphere of the planet you are on will kill you, it makes for a really intense story at times. There is some moderate swearing, but I didn't find it to be gratuitous. To my memory there was one allusion to two characters having sex, but other than that there wasn't any sexual content either. If you're looking for a really exciting and funny story that has you holding your breath as you reach the end, this might be for you!

(As a side note, last night I dreamt about Mark Watney. In my dream, his family was with him on Mars, but the rest of the situations were the same. One night, a dinosaur (really, brain?) came into their living area, destroyed his potatoes, and killed his sister. I was really really upset about the potatoes being destroyed.)

The Last Heiress || Mary Ellis

Title: The Last Heiress

Author: Mary Ellis

Length: 304 pages

Publication date: February 1, 2015

Genre: Historical fiction

Rating: 3.25/5

English heiress Amanda Dunn sets sail from England for Wilmington, North Carolina, where she hopes to somehow restore shipments of raw materials for her family's textile mills, which have been severely disrupted by the American Civil War. She also anticipates spending time with her twin sister Abigail and Abigail's husband, who happens to be in the cotton industry himself. While working on her business dealings, she also meets a young grocer who catches her eye, and suddenly business isn't the only thing on her mind...

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would! It wasn't without flaws, but I liked the story. It is a historical romance, but it didn't feel like the romance wasn't the extreme focus above everything else, and I didn't find it annoying. 

I've not really read anything set during the Civil War, so I don't know much of the history and details of it. This provided enough detail of what was going on without confusing me with names too much, but it did sometimes assume that the reader had at least a rudimentary knowledge of the war, which I wouldn't stay I have. It was interesting to learn some more about it. 

I have mixed feelings about the characters. They didn't feel very complete sometimes, just like simple characters. In the last quarter of the book the main characters each went through changes that didn't have much lead up, so the changes felt very abrupt. However, the characters weren't boxed into a single trope either. I think the potential was there for the author to do more with them. They weren't bad characters, just nothing really deep. The faith part of this story was very surface level, just casual mentions to God. It could hardly be called a Christian fiction.

Overall, I did enjoy this book, and I would recommend it for fans of romance or people interested in American history. 


I received a digital copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

The Invention of Exile || Vanessa Manko

Title: The Invention of Exile

Author: Vanessa Manko

Length: 304 pages

Publication date: August 14, 2014

Genre: Historical fiction

Rating: 2/5

Austin Voronkov is a Russian immigrant to Connecticut in 1913. As an inventor and engineer, he loves the opportunities he has in the United States. He has met a beautiful American woman named Julia, who agrees to become his wife. But Austin is wrongly accused of being an anarchist, and as a result he and his wife are deported to Russia. Over the next several years, they move from place to place in Europe, having 3 children along the way. Because of the Russian civil war and unrest in Europe, the family decides to go to Mexico, where they will try to get permission to go back to the US. Julia and the children are eventually able to return to their home, while Austin must stay behind in Mexico. Over the years of their separation, Austin must deal with his feelings of isolation from what he knows, and struggles to stay connected to his family.

This book had a lot of promise. The summary sounded really interesting to me, right up my alley. I really enjoy historical fiction and I hadn't read anything set in this situation. However, basically everything about his book was a big disappointment. The writing seemed like the author was attempting to be very poetic, but it just came across as scattered. There were SO many sentence fragments, I couldn't even handle it by the end. The scattered writing also made the story feel horribly repetitive; in fact, if it had been written/edited properly, it probably would have lost 50 or 60 pages.

The dialogue was another problem for me. It was often strained, and not because of Austin's grasp of English. The characters felt quite disconnected from each other, like they were strangers being forced to interact, or bad actors without chemistry. I will say that the author was very good at painting a picture of the setting. I really did feel like I was in Mexico with Austin. Unfortunately, as this was a character based story, that wasn't able to carry the story.

I also had a problem with how the author handled the characters. A few side characters were introduced, and then dropped with no mention again. There is a significant antagonist of the story, a character that causes Austin incredible amounts of stress, to the point where he looks over his shoulder all the time for this character. This character seems like a big deal, yet two-thirds of the way through the book, it seems like the author literally forgot about him! He, the huge problem for Austin, just stops being mentioned at all. He doesn't have any last lines, Austin stops giving him any thought, and it makes you wonder if he was even in the book at all?

The ending was horrific - it was such an anticlimactic letdown! I actually kept trying to turn the page on my ereader because I could not accept that I had reached the end! It felt like a section of pages had to be missing! I was so upset because after struggling through the story, I didn't even have a good ending to show for it!

Now, in full disclosure, I did have a galley of it, and I truly hope that there were things legitimately missing from it that are in the final copy of the book. The story truly did have a lot of promise, but the writing was too weak to pull it off. This is a debut novel, and I feel like if the author keeps working at it, she could have some wonderful stories in the future. I also feel like a strong editor might have made all the difference with this book.


I received a digital copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

The Villa || Rosanna Ley

Title: The Villa

Author: Rosanna Ley

Length: 417 pages

Publication date: August 5, 2014

Genre: adult contemporary

Rating: 2.5/5

One day Tess Angel receives a letter from the solicitor of a man she never met, saying she inherited his villa in Sicily. The man, named Edward Westerman, was Tess' mother Flavia's employer when she was a young woman. The thing is, Flavia never went back to Sicily after she left when she was in her early twenties, and she never spoke about it with Tess. Because Tess has so many questions about what her mother's life was like growing up, and why she has inherited this villa in the first place, she goes to Sicily to do some investigating. Flavia struggles with her daughter's decision to go to her hometown, and has to deal with all of the memories that come flooding back. And in the meantime, Tess' daughter Ginny is dealing with her own problems of deciding what to do with her future now that she's completed high school. The story follows these three women as they face the past and make decisions that will greatly affect their futures. 

I was intrigued by this book mostly because it was set in Sicily, and didn't look much at what the plot was, to be honest. So I didn't have many expectations for this book. And unfortunately, this book was not very enjoyable for me. First things first, the writing was really clunky. Ever been a passenger in a car with someone who is learning how to drive manual, and they aren't quite picking up on how to shift gears? That was how reading this book felt to me. The sentences didn't always flow very well, and the author really liked to use ellipses and dashes excessively. It did smooth after the middle of the book, but it still wasn't great. 

I don't have much to say about the plot of the book. It was alright, pretty basic, kind of predictable. It would make a good beach read.  But mostly I didn't like the characters all that much, especially Flavia. **Spoilers ahead** As a teenager, she meets a man named Peter and they fall in love. Peter has to leave, and for 6 years Flavia pines after him. Finally she decides to go to England to see if she can find him. She does end up finding him, but he's married with a child by then. So Flavia is heartbroken, and ends up getting married a couple years later, even though she'll never love him the way she loves Peter. After Flavia gets married, Peter comes waltzing around and tells her that he's left his wife because he "was never happy with her." At least Flavia doesn't run out on her husband, although that would have preferable to what she does end up doing, which is her having an emotional affair on her husband for 25 years. These people have been separated for THIRTY-THREE years and yet they think their love is true love. NO. I'm sure this was supposed to seem romantic, but it was just pathetic and it made me upset. I do not condone cheating at all, under any circumstances. By the time you find out what Flavia and Peter were doing, it was about 75% into the book, otherwise I might have stopped sooner. The worst part? Flavia doesn't think it affects her husband at all, that it has nothing to do with him. Well, Flavia, you are an unbelievably selfish person if you believe that. At then beginning of the book, Tess is "the other woman," and you can see where she gets that trait from. (At least she smartens up and leaves the guy)  That whole storyline was enough to sour my enjoyment of the book.

Overall, The Villa is just a mediocre book, and I feel like there are better books out there for you to spend your time on. I didn't hate everything about it, but I just can't recommend it.


I received a digital copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Top 5 Favourite Books of 2015 (so far)

Hey guys! Today is Top 5 Wednesday! Top 5 Wednesday is a Goodreads group, and you can find the information here.

I really liked this week's topic, but I didn't have time to make a video, so I decided to write a quick blog post about it. So this week's topic is your top 5 favourite books of this year so far. It was pretty easy for me to choose, but they are in no particular order, because I don't roll like that.

5. The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
         This actually the first book I picked up this year, actually. I read it while we were driving home after our Christmas holidays. This is a great dystopian/urban fantasy type story, and the story and the characters just pulled me in. The writing wasn't always my favourite (the author has a tendency to rush through action sequences, which left me feeling lost at times) but overall it was a gripping story and I was just wrecked at the end.

4. Paris Letters by Janice MacLeod
        I read this book just a couple weeks ago, and I still think about something or other about it just about every day. It's a memoir of a woman who decided to save up for a year so she could quit her job and live in Europe for 6 months. The title gives away where she left her heart. The writing was quite beautiful, and I could really feel the author's passion for the decisions she made and the things she was experiencing. It made me feel like I could save up money for a year so I could quit my job too!

3. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
        If you are any kind of geek, or have any interest in video games or the 1980s, this book is going to be right up your alley. The story is set decades in the future, in the 2040s, and the world basically exists in a virtual reality online. The creator of this world passes away and leaves clues for the world's most epic scavenger hunt. Again, this was a story that just pulled me into the world, and I loved (almost) every page! There were a couple things that I found offensive (a rant of heavy Christian/religion bashing, and a crude sexual reference) but otherwise it was so much fun!

4. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
         I love me some WWII fiction, and this was a beautiful one. Doerr's writing was just incredible. He was able to weave together a moving account of two children from different sides of the war, growing up in the middle of it. I was often amazed at his attention to detail, and how he was able to intertwine all of these events to create one long thread. By the end I had experienced all the feels multiple times. Keep your tissues handy.

5. The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson
        I had heard a lot of hype about this book, and I had reached a point where I had to read it because I was scared of getting spoiled! If I had started reading this on a Friday night, I would probably have read most of it through the night. This was such a well-crafted fantasy world! A princess runs away from her wedding, and the prince she left and a hired assassin are sent to bring her back. The tricky part is that we don't know which one is the prince and which one is the assassin. I got so into that part, trying to figure out if my guess was right. But this book is so much more than an awesome fantasy world and a crazy twist. The characters are so awesome, I loved all of them. The princess is one of the best female characters I have read in a long time, and there are good lady friendships! I couldn't ask for anything else, except maybe the second book in the series, like, yesterday!!


What books would make your top 5 list? Leave a comment and let me know!

Summer is here and I'm excited about it.

Summer is almost here! Well, today we have a rainfall warning, but it still feels more and more like summer. Church activities are winding up, and there's a lot more free time on the horizon. I never realized how much you love free time until I started working full time. That was an adjustment. Sometimes I really miss working part-time. I had a lot more time for housework and hobbies.

I have many plans for the summer already, such as:

• doing a bedroom refresh 
• having a garage sale with some friends and getting rid of so much junk
• doing some DIY projects, like painting a couple bookshelves and building an end table
• going to the zoo (I haven't been to the zoo in like a decade or something, and they've added a ton of new things since I was there last)
• writing back to my poor pen pals who probably wonder why I went off the radar
• getting so much reading done!

These are the two tables I'm looking at making. I might make both. We'll see.

I hope to enjoy some of the last two while sitting outside in my lawn chair apparatus. I call it an apparatus because I wouldn't know what else to call it. It's two Adirondack chairs attached with a table in the middle. Very handy. But the table is broken so I have to fix that. And I want to get some cushions, for maximum comfort. I've got my eyes on some seat pads from IKEA, because I'm too lazy to make them myself.

What would you call this thing? Anyway, here it is, freshly painted in my favourite colour. That table wasn't properly attached, so it came off and now I have to fix it.

I'm also quite excited for summer weather, as a lovely bistro just a short walk away from my house is selling gelato. I am pleased to announce the stuff tastes like heaven, and I anticipate walking over there many evenings with a book.

What are you looking forward to this summer?

The Fangirl's Guide to the Galaxy || Sam Maggs

Title: The Fangirl's Guide to the Galaxy: A Handbook for Girl Geeks

Author: Sam Maggs

Length: 208 pages

Publication date: May 12, 2015

Genre: non-fiction

Rating: 2/5

I heard about this book last winter, and I thought it sounded really cool. I definitely consider myself a fangirl and a geek, so this sounded like it would be right up my alley. Plus the cover was adorable! So I was pretty excited when I was able to receive an ARC of this book from Netgalley.

This book is basically an introduction on how to be a lady geek. The author lists many things that have extensive fandoms online, such as Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Supernatural, and many more. There are chapters on fan fiction, conventions and how to navigate them, feminism in the geek world, and other things.

Unfortunately, this book fell very flat for me. The beginning of the book was a list of swag that members of certain fandoms can be seen wearing or owning. That's really all it was. And the book stayed at that shallow level. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I was really hoping for something more in-depth. This really just felt like a book for people who want to be geeks because it's trendy. I also felt like some of the author's points were contradictory, and the whole book felt like a boring mess. I skimmed so much of it because it just wasn't interesting, or it was old information to me as a longtime fangirl.

AND THERE WEREN'T EVEN ANY REFERENCES TO THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY! What?? You copy the title and don't even talk about it at all??

There were some short interviews with well-known girl geeks, and that was neat to see their different perspectives on what being a fangirl means to them. For me that was the only good part of the book. And I had it as a galley, so the formatting on those pages was really messed up and it was hard to read! Sad.

In the end, I would give this book a pass, but make your own life choices!



I received a digital copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Doing a new thing on the internet.

Hello friends, how are you? What is new? I miss your lovely faces. If you still stick with me here, then bravo, you! I have a thing to mention that is new with me. In August, I started a YouTube channel! I know, it's weird. But it's been really cool so far.

This summer I discovered that there are people on YouTube that talk about books. And that was a revelation for me. People, talking about books? Amazing! For a couple months I was really content to just watch other people's videos, but eventually I wanted to start talking about books, too. With the encouragement of Christopher, I started filming videos and uploading them. It was really out of my comfort zone to start, but once I started, it wasn't even that bad!

I still have a lot to learn about making and editing videos, and my videos aren't the best yet, but I've actually had a pretty good response to my channel so far. I have met some really cool people so far, and even if I never comment or interact with people I subscribe to, I still feel like they're my friends. It is really fun to talk about books that I'm reading, books I want to read, and hearing book recommendations from other people. It is so awesome to be a part of the BookTube community.

I called my channel Little Prairie Library. I think it's clever, it rhymes a little bit to help you remember it, it tells you what my channel is about, and it is personalized to me! (I am a prairie girl to the core of my heart) I also started a dedicated blog for book reviews, to tie in with my YouTube channel. I wanted to have a separate blog for reviewing books, because it's apparently easier to get ARCs (advance reader copies) from certain publishers if your blog is just dedicated to books. The blog is still under construction, but there are some reviews already up.

I would love it if you would go check out my YouTube channel and subscribe to me there, as well as follow my book blog!

UDON Manga Classics: Pride & Prejudice

Title: Pride & Prejudice

Author: Jane Austen (original); Stacy King and Po Tse

Length: 376 pages

Publication date: August 19, 2014

Genre: classics, manga

Rating: 4/5

Content rating: G

Back in October, I received this book for review, and I recently realized that I didn't actually get around to writing my review on it! Bad me. I read it in October, shortly after I finished Les Misérables, and I enjoyed it equally well. 

Where the art in Les Misérables is more standard manga, I would say that this adaptation is more of a shoujo manga: the art style is very cutesy, a lot of chibi panels, hearts and flowers in random places, etc. I thought that the art style made it quite fun to read. It's also appropriate for younger readers, if that's a concern for you.

I think the adaptation was quite faithful to the original story. Mrs Bennett was her usual hilariously annoying self, Lizzie over-thought everything, Mr Darcy was brooding... it was fantastic. The characters are so fun to read in the original, and seeing them play it out on the page was a nice experience. Again, if you want to get into classics, but feel intimidated by the original, this would be a good place to start, and get used to the story. That is, if you haven't watched the movie 187 times (like I have..). I have really enjoyed my experiences with UDON's manga classics, and I'm planning to pick up some more in the future. 

I received a digital copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.