Last Week's Shenanigans (4th July - 10th July)...

While in terms of actual activities this week hasn't been all that exciting, Monday turned out to be very fruitful for Mat and I. You may all know that we're currently on the hunt for a flat to rent together (our first 'home', just us two) and we finally found a nice one on Monday afternoon! Our offer has been accepted so we're just waiting on all of the paperwork to go through and fingers crossed, it'll be ours! I've never felt more excited for a place to call mine, and I can't stop looking up things I want to buy for the flat itself: kitchen utensils, cushions, you name it I've thought about it. I didn't realise how much I love interior design until now! Whatsmore, I have some very exciting things coming up at work which I'm super hyped about, but I won't say anything until it's all official.

Other than those exciting developments, not a lot happened. I had to swap a few shifts around meaning I actually didn't get a day off on Sunday like usual. Instead, I worked which wasn't a whole lot of fun. One of the ladies at work is leaving though so after our shift, we all went to a nearby Italian for a meal. The company was wonderful though sadly I can't say the same for the restaurant experience. Still, it was a nice night out that left me totally shattered and glad for a day off the next day. 

I Read:

I Received:

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Memes:

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Enjoyed That Have Under 2000 Ratings On Goodreads

Book Review: The Jungle Books; Rudyard Kipling.

Amazingly, I actually managed to read two books in one and didn't realise it until I was halfway through the second. I had no idea that (a) 'The Jungle Book' is a collection of only fourteen short stories, and (b) that 'The Second Jungle Book' existed. What I actually ended up reading this month was both of those collections combined, and I'm pretty pleased about this turn of events! So here is my review of 'The Jungle Books' which is both the first and the second combined together!

SOURCE: Bought
TYPE: E-Read

TITLE: The Jungle Books
AUTHOR: Rudyard Kipling
SERIES: The Jungle Books (#1 & #2)
PUBLISHER: Barnes & Noble Classics
PAGES: 386
GENRE: Children's, Classic, Adventure, Short Stories

RATING: 3.5/5 Stars

Blurb:
Rudyard Kipling pours fuel on childhood fantasies with his tales of Mowgli, lost in the jungles of India as a child and adopted into a family of wolves. Mowgli is brought up on a diet of Jungle Law, loyalty, and fresh meat from the kill. Regular adventures with his friends and enemies among the Jungle-People--cobras, panthers, bears, and tigers--hone this man-cub's strength and cleverness and whet every reader's imagination. 

Mowgli's story is interspersed with other tales of the jungle, such as "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," lending depth and diversity to our understanding of Kipling's India. In much the same way Mowgli is carried away by the Bandar-log monkeys, young readers will be caught up by the stories, swinging from page to page, breathless, thrilled, and terrified.

What I Liked:

• The idea behind this book is extraordinarily clever and Kipling paints a very interesting picture of both India, and his time period through the eyes of the animals he encounters. It is clear that he was interested in them and knew a lot about their behaviours, and I liked that he came up with such creative ideas as to what the animals themselves thought of humans. Favourite stories for this included 'Her Majesty's Servants' in which a young soldier who understands animal speech eavesdrops on the animals in camp, and 'How Fear Came' in which Hathi the elephant tells Mowgli how man was created and Shere Khan's ancestral history.
• Comparing the differences between film adaptations that I've seen of the story, and these books. Characters such as Baloo and Kaa change, the first being old and wise rather than comical, and the second actually being a very good friend of Mowgli's. Other characters such as King Louis are nowhere to be seen, as the monkeys are a total law unto themselves. The book is also a lot more violent than the films which is as it should be, because the Jungle is a very dangerous place. There is blood and gore and animals behaving like...well...animals.
• I enjoyed that not all of the stories focused on Mowgli's adventures my favourite being 'Rikki-Tikki-Tavi', about a mongoose who protects a human family from snakes that wish him harm and another that I liked was 'The Undertakers' which told of three hated river-dwellers: the Mugger Crocodile, the Jackal and the Adjutant Stork who have a conversation about man. In fact, not all of them even focused on the Jungle either, as 'The White Seal' is from the perspective of a Northern-furred seal and 'Quiquern' follows an Inuit family! All very interesting, well-researched and at times funny to read.

What I Disliked:

• Not all of the characters were as loveable or strong as in adaptations I've seen. Mowgli actually irritated me throughout this book quite a lot, and I didn't really root for him at all. I miss his naive, young innocence which Kipling actually wrote to be a boyish arrogance. Shere Khan is also not the great villain that used to terrify me and poses as not much more than a minor annoyance who turns out to be easily outsmarted in the end. A real shame as there were so many great things about this book otherwise!
• Kipling's writing style is a bit of a trawl to get through, and this is mostly due to it's set time period. Some conversations have to be reread more than once in order to fully understand the gist of them, and I often found myself skimming parts of this book because the text became confusing or laborious to read. This is probably the biggest reason that I didn't end up giving this book a glowing five-star review!

Overall Conclusion:

This was a really fun read with some great stories and I'm so glad I got to read both books in one rather than just one set of the stories without finishing Mowgli's journey off. Kipling researched both setting and animals well and he had clearly studied their behaviours and then wrote the laws of the jungle and various animal observations around that. Kipling was true to the nature of animals too and 'The Jungle Books' are violent and bloody at times, despite being children's books. At times the writing style was difficult and that brought down it's overall rating by quite a bit. Nevertheless, I am so pleased by this read and hope to delve into Kipling's work at some point in the future.

Top Ten Tuesday: My picks for 'Books I Enjoyed That Have Under 2000 Ratings On Goodreads.'

I have been looking forward to this category ever since I saw it on the list! I love recommending books that are underrated to people, and a good way to find out the books that truly are is by seeing how many Goodreads ratings they have!

1) 'Pantomime' by Laura Lam.

Number Of Ratings: 1754

I absolutely adore this read, which is quite recent, and if you're a fan of diversity in your characters then you should too. Because the MC is androgynous! The story focuses on Gene, who is raised to be a girl by her noble family but feels like she's neither male nor female. In an attempt to run away from those who feel like they're 'fixing' her, she becomes Micah a young trapeze artist. There's plenty of Fantasy and drama involved but I was just so impressed by Lam's writing style and originality.

2) 'Seven Ways We Lie' by Riley Redgate.

Number Of Ratings: 770

Every teen should read this book. Period. It just covers issues that teenagers face so well and did a great job of representing a high school environment that is actually relateable. In short, this book focuses on the lives of seven teens who each face challenges and problems and their individual story threads intertwine into wonderful finale. I loved the complex characters that Redgate wrote too, each representing a 'sin' but having their own distinctively positive traits to match. This is also a great book for diverse casting: there's even an openly Pansexual character!

3) 'Neverland' by Shari Arnold.

Number Of Ratings: 142

I'm shocked and appalled at how little attention this book has received. It completely blew me away: writing, story-line and the awesome Peter Pan references made it a clear winner in my eyes. It deals with the tough subject of bereavement well and I really liked what Arnold managed here. 'Neverland' tells the story of Livy Cloud, whose recent loss of her younger sister to a terminal illness has left her heartbroken. Meeting the mysterious Meyer changes all of that and she's drawn into a world that makes her curious to live again. At times it was a little dark too and delved into the realms of sinister, but this book gave me that special kind of feeling that only comes when you read something really good.

4) 'Sunbolt' by Intisar Khanani.

Number Of Ratings: 1262

Intisar Khanani is one of my favourite writers. She's blown me away with (so far) two majorly awesome books that were short, yet filled to the brim with action, adventure and incredibly strong female characters. I'm a huge fan. Hitomi, the MC of this extraordinary Fantasy novella, has magical powers that she must hide in order to survive. The political intrigue, magical system and stealthy heroine were certainly enough to draw me into a gorgeously intriguing prequel to 'Memories Of Ash' which I'm looking forward to reading soon!

5) 'The Sunken' by S.C. Green.

Number Of Ratings: 47

While Steampunk isn't my usual read, this is the book that made me wonder if it could be a genre that I need to get more of. Green takes a whole lot of crazy elements; alternate Victorian London, churches built to worship the arts and technological innovation, vampiric creatures that are created by a mad King George and dragons. Then, she just...makes them work. I'm still waiting on the sequel for this one, but I'm so blown away by how creatively everything drew together and the writing itself was really very good.

6) 'The Tale Of Raw Head & Bloody Bones' by Jack Wolf.

Number Of Ratings: 509

I will never stop rooting for this book. It was my first read for this blog and while the grammar use took a bit of getting used to, it was just so clever. Tristan Hart is a young, bright lad searching for an opportunity to heal people and learn more about the human condition. The problem is that he suffers from secret delusions and desires, that could cost him both his place in renowned scientific circles, and the lives of those he cares about. It is a very dark read, but I loved the mix of unexpected romance, fantastical gypsies and fairies and a well-researched historical fiction. Bravo!

7) 'Thin Air' by Michelle Paver.

Number Of Ratings: 22

This ghost story was a very recent read of mine and I loved it. Set in the 1930s, it tells the tale of a mountaineering expedition that plans to follow in the footsteps of one that failed thirty years prior. One in which two survived, but five died...and only four of them laid to rest. There was a great mix of atmosphere and supernatural events in this chilling book and Paver's writing blew me away. Anyone who fancies settling down with a relatively short, spooky read should consider this top of the list.

8) 'Good Kings, Bad Kings' by Susan Nussbaum.

Number Of Ratings: 1466

This book is a diamond in the rough. It has probably the most diverse character list I've ever seen in a book and tells it's story through such an array of real characters that I wanted to read it over and over when I'd finished it. It's subject is the US mental health system and residents found in nursing homes there. This book challenges the idea of disability and the stereotypes surrounding it. There's representation for the physically disabled and those suffering from mental health issues, as well as an ethnically diverse cast and great LGBT presence too. Seriously, just read this book!

9) 'Beautiful Broken Things' by Sara Barnard.

Number Of Ratings: 763

I'm fairly sure that as this book has made it into Zoella's brand new book club, it won't stay at a low rating score for long. But I'm going to rave about it anyway. Ladies and gentleman: a book that focuses on friendship. There's no romance to be found here which I really enjoyed because I feel like too many YA books tell teens that finding the love of their life is top priority. There's a lot of issues to explore in this gem of a book: toxic friendship, abuse, mental health, suicide, jealousy etc. It's a fantastic debut from a UK author that writes beautifully.

10) 'Spinning Starlight' by R.C. Lewis.

Number Of Ratings: 953

It's been a while since I read this book but it mostly makes the cut because it's a sci-fi take on an unusual Fairy Tale that doesn't receive much attention. Liddi, the female lead who goes on a mission to rescue her captured brothers from being trapped inside a portal, was very smart and not too reckless which I was glad about. I liked meeting the various alien species, the romantic sub-plot didn't get in the way too much and the planet concepts were super cool! I'm intrigued t read 'Stitching Snow' another Sci-Fi Fairy Tale retelling!

Last Week's Shenanigans (27th June - 3rd July)...

Despite the fact that the week has not been busy as a whole, it has still felt very big to me. Monday was probably the busiest day. Having stayed the night at my parents, we spent most of the morning milling about before heading to a hairdressing appointment early afternoon. Then, we spent the rest of the afternoon with Mat's family which was nice. I got so much reading done! Monday was so vital in my managing to catch up with all of my June reading! We returned home and watched the final Game Of Thrones episode which was a roller-coaster of emotions from beginning to end and I'm so sad that we now have to wait so long for Season 7!

The rest of the week was of course spent at work, but when we weren't slaving away I actually found time to watch a lot of TV as well as everything else. Tash and I majorly caught up on Once Upon A Time Season 5, so we only have a couple of episodes to go now. The flat generally have also been watching Orange Is The New Black and while they're only a few episodes in, I'm pretty impressed with the season so far. At work, I also received a pretty big shock, which led onto an amazing new opportunity that I can't really share as of yet. But I'm excited now and I can't wait for the next few week's developments. Sunday, my day off, actually ended up being pretty productive: I blogged, I cleaned, I cooked and I sorted some things that have been hanging over my head for a while out.

I Read:

I Received:

- 'A Boy Made Of Blocks' by Keith Stuart: Approved on Netgalley (27/06)
- 'The Book Of Lost Things' by John Connolly: Bought on Amazon (03/07)

Memes:

Top Ten Tuesday: Series That I STILL Need To Catch Up On
Six Degrees Of Separation: #ZoellaBookClub Choice

I Posted:

June Wrap-Up
Planned Reads For July
Story Sprites Sign-Up Post

Six Degrees Of Separation: YA Edition! (#ZoellaBookClub Choice)

Every month I look forward to joining in with this meme, and this month is no exception! Jim from YA Yeah Yeah is exceptional when organising it and I am becoming a huge fan of the book choices based on themes rather than a specific book (last month's focused on #ReadProud, find my choices here). This month's 'theme' is Zoella's brand new book club! For those who haven't heard of it, then google her eight choices because there are some really good ones. I've read two of the eight and only hadn't heard of one of them, so I'm excited to eventually get stuck into them all!

My #ZoellaBookClub choice is 'All The Bright Places' by Jennifer Niven! I actually only finished this book a couple of days ago, but boy is it worth a read. I loved it! It handles some tough topics sensitively and builds some really great characters to get attached to and fall in love with. If you've seen Zoella's recommendations and simply don't know where to start then I would personally suggest this one. If you're a fan of road trips, teenage romance, contemporary YA or reads that make you cry then definitely read this.

Speaking of crying, you may have gathered that 'All The Bright Places' made me shed a few tears. In fact, I bawled like a baby. A book that easily springs to mind when I recall books that have made me ugly cry is 'The Fault In Our Stars' by John Green. It's an obvious choice I know but there's no denying that these two books are similar. Both are full to the brim of a slightly morbid obsession with death, eccentric characters who think ridiculously deeply into things and speak metaphorically, and plenty of travel here there, and everywhere. And while I don't want to spoil either of their endings, both books are incredibly sad.

'The Fault In Our Stars' predominantly focuses on Terminal Illness, a topic rarely found in YA. But it's not the first book I read on the subject: 'Before I Die' by Jenny Downham is. My friend at school (all those years ago) allowed me to borrow this from her and I have to say that it broke my heart in so many ways but also became one of my favourite books that year. There are elements to 'The Fault In Our Stars' that grate on people's nerves, and this is a much realer version of that book. The teenagers speak normally, there's a bucket list, and of course a romance that made a younger me melt.

Ahh Summer 2010. Such a long time ago, and I barely remember it, but I read a lot. As well as 'Before I Die', I also managed to get into Stephanie Meyer's 'The Host' which was basically my attempt to reconcile with Meyer's writing. I'm going to promote this book a lot because I really preferred it in comparison to her other work: body stealing aliens, a love triangle that was actually important to the plot, and an ending to die for. There were rumours of a series that never materialised, but I much preferred it as a standalone anyway. I urge people to give this book ago, even if you're feeling sceptical.

Of course you can't talk about Meyer without talking about...'Twilight'. The very name of this book makes me shudder nowadays, but while I didn't overly enjoy it as a young teen, I didn't hate it nearly as much as I do now (I didn't fully understand the huge problems in this series). Anyway, aside from the two books having the same author there's not a huge amount that they have in common (love triangle aside). I much prefer 'The Host' and I really wish that 'Twilight' and it's sequels had been at the same standard.

'Finding Sky' was also a pretty old read of mine. In fact , it must have been a couple of years ago that I picked up this book and read it in my boyfriend's room at his Uni Halls while he was at a lecture. This was the book that 'Twilight' should have been, and it runs with very similar ideas: a large family of 'gifted' individuals, a heroine freshly moved into a new, American town and a 'bad boy meets good girl' romance. Even the villains are very reminiscent of the Volturi. But it just doesn't have the same level of creep factor that 'Twilight' has, and Sky is a billion times more likeable than Bella. 

Story Sprites Round 5 Sign-Up Post!

I really enjoy playing these boards so I'm excited to be writing this post! For those that don't know what this is, the Story Sprites challenge is run by Great Imaginations and is a really fun game with some adorable Sprite prizes! These are the ones I won in Round 5!

These are the four I managed on the last board and I'm pretty pleased that I managed 4 out of 5! The only path I managed to guess correctly was Yael from 'Wolf By Wolf'. 

Here's the next board!

These categories are pretty tough and guessing the characters that will spring from them is even tougher. I have three months to figure it out now!

Planned Reads For July.

I've had a really tough time choosing reads for this month, and I'm not entirely sure why! Part of the reason is that I want to buy new books but am forcing myself not to until I'm further through the TBR pile I have stacked at home. I've finally managed it though and I'm pretty excited about my choices as a whole!

1. 'The Jungle Book' by Rudyard Kipling. This is a classic that has been playing on my mind ever since I watched the live-action film in the cinema earlier on this year. I've never actually read the story despite watching various adaptations of it and I really feel that I ought to at some point soon. It's top of the list this month!

1. 'Angels & Demons' by Dan Brown. This is one of those reads that I've had half of my eye on throughout my reading life, wanting to read it yet finding a ton of things I want to read more. There's a lot of controversy that surrounds this series and that has piqued my interest. Most of the reason that I want to read this series however stems from the fact that my boyfriend enjoys it and I once read some of a later book over his shoulder and found myself pretty hooked. Enough to want to give it a proper chance.
2. 'The Rosie Effect' by Graeme Simsion. I read the first book, 'The Rosie Project', over a year ago now, while I was on holiday in Crete. I loved it. It was hilarious, light-hearted and while I'm a little worried that book two might lose some of the magic, I'm really excited about getting round to this book. I can't wait to find out what Don Tillman has been up to and finish this series once and for all!
3. 'The Girl Of Ink & Stars' by Kiran Millwood Hargrave. I can't wait any longer to read this book, not after admiring it's absolutely gorgeous cover! I think it sounds like a really interesting read too and I haven't managed to read a book focusing on monsters or cartographers any time recently. Plus, it's Middle Grade too! It's been ages since I've read a book for that age range so I'm excited to see what it brings to the table Fantasy-wise.
4. 'The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes' by Arthur Conan Doyle. I'm slowly and steadily making my way through this beast of the book and it's time to start the third in the Sherlock Holmes series, which as I understand it, is a collection of short stories. It's an interesting format change and one that I think will work well for the mystery solving duo. I can't wait to reacquaint myself with the world's snarkiest detective and his long-suffering companion.
5. 'Sisters Red' by Jackson Pearce. I'm fairly certain that this book has been sat on the TBR pile since I started this blog, maybe even before that! Like I said, Fairy Tales are kind of my thing and I'm in a real mood for a decent retelling. 'Red Riding Hood' is one of my favourites so I'm looking forward to seeing a different take on it. I'm instantly drawn to the idea of 'sisters' in this. Am I sensing vibes of 'Rose Red & Snow White' here too?I hope so!
6. 'City Of Bones' by Cassandra Clare. For some reason, I've been avoiding this series like the plague and I'm not sure why. I'm a huge fan of Holly Black, and Cassandra Clare is a known friend and fellow writer of hers. However, the controversy of plagiarism and accusations by some that it's as bad as 'Twilight' in some ways has no doubt put me off. I received a copy of this book around last Christmas as part of a book prize box that I won, and I have to say the cover at least is beautiful. Besides, despite so much hate, Clare retains an extraordinarily large fan-base too. I think it's time to judge these books for myself.