BOOK REVIEW | IF WE WERE VILLAINS BY M.L. RIO

If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio - Published June 2017 by Titan Books - ⋆⋆⋆⋆

"Actors are by nature volatile - alchemic creatures composed of incendiary elements, emotion and ego and envy."

BOOKISH CHAT | HOW I READ SO MUCH

Like a lot of people I was a voracious reader as a child. I would stay up late holding my battered Harry Potter next to my nightlight, ruining my eyesight just for a few more chapters. Then, as school got busier and homework piled up (and I actually made friends to spend break-times with), the habit dropped and I went from reading several books a week, to virtually none. Even studying literature at university, I read some of my course material and not much else. 

I went from the ages of about fifteen to twenty not reading much of anything at all, and it's only in the last couple of years that I've really picked up the habit again. I know a lot of us would like to read faster and get through more books, so I thought I'd share a couple of suggestions based on what has worked for me as I re-developed a reading practice. 

BOOK REVIEW | THE SILENCE OF THE GIRLS BY PAT BARKER

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker - Published August 2018 by Penguin - ⋆⋆⋆

BOOK REVIEW | GHOST WALL BY SARAH MOSS

Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss - Published September 2018 by Granta - ⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆

DO YOUR BOOKS SPARK JOY?

Mari Kondo has been causing quite a stir among the book community. As I mentioned in my recent Instagram post this isn't because she explicitly said anything bad, but because the internet loves demonising, drama, and self-righteousness. If you've missed this, essentially the KonMari philosophy is all about really thinking about what you want and need in your life, and making a conscious decision to only buy and keep objects that are explicitly necessary, or spark a certain joyful feeling in you.

FEBRUARY GOALS | RAISING MY BLOGGING GAME

Oh my god the first month of 2019 is already over! January was a weird month because on the one hand I did a lot of really lovely things, but on the other some pretty horrible stuff happened. So it was a bit of a mixed bag. One of my personal goals was to stop being a crappy friend and always finding excuses not to see the people I love, and in January I made the effort to go see almost everyone I'd been flaking on, and was so proud of myself and delighted to catch up with some of my favourite people. 

I'm hoping to hold myself more accountable to my goals this year. I'm that person that will set huge elaborate idealised lists of things I want to do in a new year, only to flake on them by April, so I'm going to start tracking my goals on the blog, in order to hold myself accountable. So without further ado...