#bookramblings

[yuzu-all-the-way]

Yeah, so... I made a side blog for posting bookish things and re-blogging non-skating related stuff @lia-bookrambles

I'll see what I'll do with it 😅

#new side blog #had to find a way to combine 2 hobbies without cluttering one blog #sideblog

[figureskatingcakes]

I am very new to the figure skating fandoms and everything, and the only social media thing I have is tumblr and youtube, so could you recommend some tumblr/youtube accounts that have the latest figure skating news? I am very curious.

Thank you

Sure thing! There are many good figure skating news accounts but I will only choose the best.

YOUTUBE ACCOUNTS

MAXRO on youtube

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

TUMBLR ACCOUNTS

@yuzu-all-the-way - *usually* always active

@myjunkisyuzuruhanyu - is a safe blog and always has long *interesting* replies for your questions.

@shomagravity - translations and videos *of figure skating*

@jennibeultimate - not always fs but is usually active

#asked and answered #thanks for the ask! #figure skating #youtube

[bookwormhistorian]

last night  i was back in my favorite place; murakami’s world. i finished reading  after dark. i believe that for previous non-murakami readers, liking after dark will depend on how many of his books you have read before. if after dark is your first, you will probably think nothing happens in it, it ends abruptly and leaves so many unanswered questions. but for me, it was a refreshing feeling from beginning to end. murakami’s stories often feel like meditation on loneliness. it’s the characters, the language, the atmosphere. there isn’t another world i want to be in than this, it gives a feeling of belongness to me like nothing else does. if somebody asked me what kind of writing i enjoy the most, my answer would most definitely be murakami style of writing. he always wants to make it certain that you understand the fact that he is no different than us, he too is searching for answers in order to find meaning and understanding in life. therefore, i believe that his writing gives us a mirrored view of ourselves. the world he creates is always bizarre and (oddly) believable at the same time. i want to spend all my day sitting on my couch, wrapped in a blanket, not being disturbed by anyone so i can keep losing myself in his world. after dark, too, is not exactly straightforward. there are certain elements that you want answers from though they won’t be resolved. he will draw you into the story and want you to guess what's going on. i have the feeling that he is similar to david lynch in that sense. you will want to spend the night in their company and you will be looking at different states of consciousness. PS: one day he will win that nobel prize. i speak that into existence, i have planted that seed and i will see the harvest!

#haruki murakami #after dark #bookramblings #literature #booklr

[bookramblings]

The Midnight Library

Author: Matt Haig

Published by: Canongate

Pages: 288

Format: Hardback (Independent Bookshop Edition)

My Rating ★★★★★

Between life and death there is a library.

When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.

The books in the midnight library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren’t always what she imagined they’d be, and soon her choices place her in extreme danger.

My thoughts:

From the author of How to Stop Time and The Humans comes this poignant, unique novel about hope, regret and forgiveness - and a library that houses second chances.

This is a captivating and warm story of a young woman who is just done with living. She sees no place for her in the world. And so, she ends up in the secret library...a place where she has an opportunity to take a different path, lead an infinite number of different lives, and try and find what it is that makes her truly happy.

I love Matt Haig’s message throughout his books of gentleness and kindness. And this may well be my favourite so far.

Of course, the library consists of books, all green in colour. The library also exists between life and death. Firstly, Nora has to look at the huge tome of the Book of Regrets. In it are all the times where she regretted a particular decision at a turning point in her life or other small different possible turns. The library has a limitless number of books, and these books are far from ordinary.

Haig sprinkles gold dust in each book, offering Nora the opportunity to see how her life would have turned out if each and every decision at every point in her life had been different. The various books illustrate the endless possibilities that life holds for Nora and all of us. Nora explores each book, with inquisitiveness and curiosity, the widely different lives that could have been hers, no easy task as she has to slip into each new life with the complications of being unfamiliar with it and do so without alerting the other people close to her.

Nora is allowed the opportunity to become a "slider", to go and try out the lives she might have had. She starts with the bigger decisions like what would have happened if she had continued with a particular relationship, or a particular career path etc. If she is content enough, she will stay in the other life, if not she will return to the library, but time in her "root life" is running out. It is certainly one to get you thinking. I was thinking about major turning points in my own life when I may have chosen differently, and I would have had a totally different life. As always, the author makes you think about what really matters and it is done with great humour and real heart. There's something cosy and safe about this book, despite there being many occasions when Nora Seed is in peril. I’m so glad I was able to read it in just a couple of sittings from home as the rain poured outside. It felt perfect for this time of year as we approach the final few days of October.

Imagine It's a Wonderful Life of our times. A beautiful, heart-warming hug of a book. Matt Haig knows how to pull on your heartstrings and he does it oh so well. It’s been snapped up for a film adaptation by Studio Canal, and I’m really intrigued to see it the story told on screen next!

The Midnight Library is quietly profound and deeply meaningful. It’s one I know I’ll remember for a long time. What a beautiful book, as expected.

Overall reaction:

#reaction #bookrecs #bookreviews #themidnightlibrary #bookreviewer #bookstagram #booksoftumblr #bookstagrammer #bookish #bibliophilelife #bibliophiles #bibliophilesunite #fantasyfiction #newbooks #bookstoreadin2020 #readmorebooks #bookramblings #bookramblingsbyolivia #igreads #alwaysreading

[anderam]

One of my favorite lines from one of my favorite series! I fell in love with Celaena's story from book 1. I thought that she was written perfectly, not only her but the world around her. I can't wait for #towerofdawn though, to explore other places in Erilea and YRENE!! (Need I say more?!) So excited to what she can do now. To be honest, when I heard that the ToG 7 will be moved next year to make way for ToD, I was slightly disappointed. At the beginning of the series, I saw Chaol as a friend for Celaena, and I think he's a good character but not interesting enough (I rooted for Dorian so bad). But after CoM, i just lost connection to Chaol's character and felt like his parts in the books is like 'meh!' I felt this way until ¾ of QoS. But now, I get more and more excited to know what will happen to him. I don't know why, maybe it's the hype? Or because Yrene will be there or because did I mention how badass the cover for ToD is? All I know is I'm looking forward to it. This turned out to be a long post now. Haha. 📖📚🤓 #sarahjmaasbooks #bookramblings #bookworm #bookstagram #books #pages #vanillapen #vanillapenapp

#towerofdawn #sarahjmaasbooks #pages #bookstagram #vanillapen #vanillapenapp #books #bookworm #bookramblings

[mitskigf]

bunny got killed because he was an annoying, homophobic, sexist piece of shit. also did i mention he was annoying?

#43% in #he's v v v annoying #the secret history #tsh #bookrambles

[0liviascarlettrose]

So excited to have over 5 thousand followers! Thanks to all you fellow bookworms 😘 #bookramblings

#bookramblings

[bookeverlasting]

Literacy Challenge I accept the challenge from @it.sgottabethebooks to post 11 books I love. One per day. No explanations, no reviews. Just book covers. Each day I'll ask a friend to take up the challenge, to promote literacy and create (or increase) a reading list. Day 1: I challenge (encourage): @bookramblings https://www.instagram.com/p/CXZ63OUNir6/?utm_medium=tumblr

[jmwalkerauthor]

Reposted from @bookramblings (@get_regrann) - Today is all about lounging around and taking a break from everything and picking up a good book and reading! One author I can always count on for a good read is @jmwlkr! I always know I’m in for a treat!! Lucky me, I’m currently reading her upcoming release Broken Scars!! ⭐️ #bookworm #book #blogger #bookblogger #reviewer #bookreviewer #bookporn #bookgasm #bookstagrammer #bookstagram #booknerd #booknerdigans #review #chapters #alwaysreading #instagood #love #keepcalmandreadon #romance #bestbooks #bestreads #reads #read #reader #bookish #shelfie #love #jmwalker https://www.instagram.com/p/Bztmq2sABnK/?igshid=mxn3fibslmq5

#bookworm #book #blogger #bookblogger #reviewer #bookreviewer #bookporn #bookgasm #bookstagrammer #bookstagram #booknerd #booknerdigans #review #chapters #alwaysreading #instagood #love #keepcalmandreadon #romance #bestbooks #bestreads #reads #read #reader #bookish #shelfie #jmwalker

[booknerdaddict]

[Blog Tour] First We Were IV by Alexandra Sirowy

[Blog Tour] First We Were IV by Alexandra Sirowy

Hello, everyone! How have you been?! Welcome to today´s stop for the Blog Tour of First We Were IV by Alexandra Sirowy! We would first like to thank Brittany from BookRambles, Alexandra Sirowy and Simon and Schuster for giving us this amazing opportunity <3 Our post for today is: If you were going to invent a secret society, what would its rules be? I think that rules are very fundamental in…

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#Mystery #YA

[bookwormhistorian]

i finished reading “a christmas carol and other christmas writings” by dickens and although i struggled through “the haunted man” and “the ghost's bargain” it    was a delight to read. not having experienced christmas more than once or twice myself before (luckily i do now since i started living in germany), it was an unfamiliar yet a very comforting feeling. i simply adored the atmosphere and made me feel sad that christmas was so quickly over and i didn’t get to properly enjoy it because of corona :(

#charles dickens #a christmas carol #bookramblings

[bookramblings]

A collection of ramblings, photographs and thoughts on books I have read or am currently reading. All images and text by Olivia Lawton. 

https://www.instagram.com/bookramblingsbyolivia/ 

Check out my main website at www.bookramblingsbyolivia.com

#coffee #bookramblings #bookstagram #bookramblingsbyolivia

[bowiesglassspider]

 Everyone thinks that the apocalypse will come in one of few ways, war, nuclear fall out or that old favorite zombies. But if they stopped and looked they would see how ridiculously fragile we really are, for as a species we rely on and trust in things which are not tangible. At base there is religion, which when looked at subjectively can not be proven or disproven for those who know have no way of contacting us or when they do it is never really concrete.

Then as you build up through to society it becomes more apparent. As however you like to think of it society is not real, you can not touch it, you can not enforce it whilst being outside of it and it is of the norm to be within it.

And finally we come to the crux, the achilles heel of what some might call a near perfect structure. Electricity. Electricity is the ultimate weakness if you truly think about it, everything, every last thing you believe is normal in your day and age is thanks to those wonderful rushes of electrons. Your light, your entertainment, your money and your transport relies entirely on something that in most cases is one simple switch from vanishing. And what if. What if someone flipped that switch, but not just the little switch on your fuse box but the big all powerful switch, the big red button that controls the normality of your life.

It would stop.

Life as we know it would grind to a halt, power would hold for a while but as back ups and generators crumble so will normality in society and after all faith can only hold for such a time before that too vanishes. 'We are doing our best' would mean nothing when you are cold, niceties and manners are nothing when you are fighting for that last loaf of bread in a looted co-op and 'love thy neighbor' is naught when he is stealing your pets for a stew. 

#Sometimes I ramble ideas for stories #I would have a book by now if I had an attention span #bookramblings

[bookwormhistorian]

i finished nabokov’s laughter in the dark in one sitting and didn’t want it to come to an end. i just wanted to fully take in nabokov’s genius. i love how he always leaves you both mesmerized and disturbed at the same time. he is so incredibly good at writing not so lovable characters in a tragic, funny and intelligent way that nothing comes near it in perfection of storytelling. what a book 10/10

#bookramblings #laughter in the dark #vladimir nabokov

[bookramblings]

The Girl Who Reads on the Métro

Author: Christine Féret-Fleury

Published by: Mantle

Translated by: Rob Schwartz

Pages: 202

Format: Hardback

My Rating ★★★★

‘Have you heard of the principle of releasing books into the wild?’

When Juliette takes the Métro to her loathed office job each morning, her only escape is in books – she avidly reads on her journey and imagines what her fellow commuters’ choices might say about them.

But when, one day, she decides to alight the train a few stops early and meets Soliman, the mysterious owner of the most enchanting bookshop Juliette has ever seen, her world will never be the same again…

For Soliman also believes in the power of books to change the course of a life – entrusting his passeurs with the task of presenting the perfect book to the person who needs it most – and he thinks Juliette is up for the job.

And so, leaving her old life behind, Juliette will discover the true power a book can have…

My thoughts:

An ode to booklovers everywhere, this gem of a book follows Juliette as she rides the Paris metro to and from work and muses about her fellow passengers and their reading choices.

One morning, avoiding the office for as long as she can, Juliette finds herself on a new block, in front of a rusty gate wedged open with a book. Unable to resist, Juliette walks through, into the bizarre and enchanting lives of Soliman and his young daughter, Zaide.

Before she realizes entirely what is happening, Juliette agrees to become a passeur, Soliman's name for the booksellers he hires to take stacks of used books out of his store and into the world, using their imagination and intuition to match books with readers. Suddenly, Juliette's daydreaming becomes her reality, and when Soliman asks her to move into their store to take care of Zaide while he goes away, she has to decide if she is ready to throw herself headfirst into this new life.

What follows is an uplifting story, lots of lists of books, some you may recognize, some you may wish to add to your own list.

Most books similar to this are drenched in romance and thank goodness that this one wasn't. I’m really not a big fan of cheesey romance in my reading, and it was refreshing to see the plot not take a predictable or dull route in that direction. The book is actually a sweet and very moving celebration of the power of books and how they can unite us.

I would describe The Girl Who Reads on the Metro as a belated coming-of-age story about a young woman who dares to change her life and find her freedom. I especially loved the idea of the passeurs who give out books to strangers based on their perceived need for a specific tome.

This is a sweet short read, perfect for fans of Jean-Paul Didierlaurent and Antoine Laurain. I loved the setting, the quirky characters and intriguing plot.

The writing is whimsical and entertaining, with hints of magical realism and many heart-warming moments. The ending was lovely and exactly what I wanted for Juliette.

All in all, this book certainly exceeded my expectations. However, I do feel that the novel could have been even stronger if its ideas were more fully developed. It’s a shame it wasn’t just a bit longer to allow for more in terms of character growth and backstory. I also felt that the charm and importance of the setting could have been better explored for a novel set in such a beautiful city.

If you enjoy reading, I really do think you’ll love this modern homage to books and bibliophiles. I know I did.

Overall reaction:

#thegirlwhoreadsonthemetro #paris #metro #parismetro #french #frenchfiction #frenchwriters #Christine Feret-fleury #mantle #mantlebooks #bookrecs #book reviews #bookreviews #book reviewer #bookramblings #bookramblingsbyolivia #olivialawton #bookstagram #bookstagrammer

[bookramblings]

Heroes

Author: Stephen Fry

Published by: Penguin Books

Pages: 462

Format Hardback

My Rating ★★★★★

Bellerophon had never ridden Pegasus so high. It was a cloudless day, but he shivered in the rush of cold air. The land below now took on an intricate, ordered pattern that reminded Bellerophon of barbarian carpets from the east. He searched the landscape for anything that might betray the presence of the Chimera.

He leaned forward and urged Pegasus down. The forest in the foothills was ablaze. The Chimera saw Pegasus diving out of the sun and reared up, claws thrashing. The jaws of the monster opened wide to blast one last great ball of fire, and Bellerophon hurled the lance…

My thoughts:

Heroes is the companion to Stephen Fry’s last book, the bestselling Mythos.Similarly to Mythos, this is a hugely fun, engaging and enjoyable read. It continues where the first book leaves off and Fry moves from looking at the Gods themselves to this time exploring the Heroes, Demi-gods and offspring of the Gods who are still remembered today.

Every story is brilliantly retold with Fry’s distinctive style, and his sense of humour really shines through. Through his writing, these dramatic, funny, tragic and timeless tales take on new life and make for exciting reading on every page!  

I loved every minute of it: the different stories and the sense of an overarching plot that weaves throughout the book. My personal favourites included the tales of Orpheus, Atalanta and Bellerophone, which told with Fry’s unique wit, are particularly entertaining and immersive.

The story of Orpheus entering the Underworld in an attempt to rescue his wife, Eurydice is one tale I certainly won’t forget. The moment when Orpheus uses his music to brighten even the darkest corners of the Underworld felt very surreal and intriguing:

“Orpheus reached the climax of his song to Eros. It wound its way along the passageways and through the chambers, galleries and hallways of hell, binding all who heard it – the servants of Hades, the emissaries of death and the souls of the departed – in a spell that took them, for as long as the music played in their ears, far away from the remorseless miseries of their endless captivity and into a kingdom of light and love.”

Another especially charismatic hero is Atalanta, who unexpectedly survived after being abandoned and ‘exposed on a mountainside to die’ by her own father. Rescued and initially raised by bears, Atalanta eventually grew to become the most faithful servant and adherent to the goddess, Artemis. Displaying true determination, it is said that she “ran faster and shot straighter than any man.” Sounds like real girl power to me!

I also loved learning more about the heroic Bellerophon, and the story of how he captured the winged horse, Pegasus, in order to help him slay the monstrous Chimera. It was wonderful to read about the bond that developed between the two of them, and Fry’s vivid storytelling at times even made me feel as though I too was being lifted up and up into the clouds, hurtling along with Pegasus and Bellerophon on their latest adventure Filled with exhilarating chases and battle scenes, impossible puzzles and riddles, acts of cowardice and real bravery, not to mention murders and incredible sacrifices, Heroes is more than just a retelling of Greek myths. Ultimately, it tells stories of what we mortals are truly capable of - at our worst and at our very best.

Stephen Fry's retelling of the myths of Greece's heroes is such a delight.An absolute must-read for anyone interested in Greek mythology, and I also feel these books will greatly appeal to fans of fantasy fiction. If you enjoyed Mythos, you will love Heroes. If you haven’t even read Mythos, you’ll still love it, and I feel that Heroes will also work well as a stand-alone read if need be.

Overall reaction:

#stephenfry #stephenfrybooks #mythos #heroes #greekmyths #mythology #greekmythology #heracles #hercules #zues #olympus #gods #godesses #atalanta #greek #fiction #bookreviews #bookramblings #bookramblingsbyolivia #bookblogger #bookblog #bookblogging #blogger #blogging #currentlyreading #fantasyreads #fantasyfiction #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer