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What I’m reading: August Bookhaul!

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Hello to my lovely readers! It’s time for this months book haul and this month it’s more than my normal six books because I won an amazon voucher for some writing I did for Endsleigh Student Insurance company!

This months books are a mix of shop bought, reccommendations and a few on the amazon 3 for £10 offer that I am in love with. So here we go!

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Pretty Think – Jennifer Nadel 

This was one of my recent finds in the YA section at Waterstone’s it was tucked away but immediately got my attention. A teenage girl, an older man and attacks happening around town? Count me in.

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The Tiny Wife – Andrew Kaufman 

Another one of my wandering finds as I was looking for another one of Kaufman’s book (which I’ll talk about later) the plot sounded weird and wacky and the Tiny Wife is one of many characters in this book. It’s really short and I’m very excited!

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Never Always Sometimes – Adi Alsaid 

This was recommended to me by my friend Becky who I met at book club. It’s a typical boy/girl YA read by the looks of things and I’ve already started it. It’s not as exciting as I hoped for but I still have a fair bit of it left so hopefully it will pick up!

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All my friends are superheroes – Andrew Kaufman

Just the title of this grabbed me, I read it in one sitting the day I bought it and I am SO glad that I picked it up! There are awesome illustrations, great original ideas and I’d happily read this again. This is the special 10th anniversary edition with more superheroes in it, I’d recommend paying the extra!

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Hope in a Ballet Shoe -Michaela and Elaine DePrince

I love stories of going against the odds and winning, I suppose they speak to me on a personal level. I’d been looking at this book for a while, so when I saw it on 3 for £10 I had to get it. I’m really hoping this will be a great memoir.

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Yes Please – Amy Poehler

I haven’t watched a lot of Amy Poehler, but from what I have she’s funny. Funny is good. Last month I chose to read Lena Dunhams Not that kind of girl instead of this. It was awful so this month I decided to give Yes Please a go. I hope it’s better, a lot better.

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How I Lost You – Jenny Blackhurst 

I had to have a thriller in there didn’t I! I love these kinds of novels, a little dark, a lot of secrets. The main character was charged with murdering her baby son and sent to a psychiatric hospital, but what if they lied? I’m sure I’ll be up all hours reading this.

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Extraordinary Means – Robyn Schneider 

Another YA novel, this time about a sick teen who gets sent to boarding school, he believes to die. Then he meets some trickster loving friends. This novel has a big of a TFIOS feel about it but with less love and more laughs, I hope I’m right!

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The Day We Disappeared – Lucy Robinson

A chance buy on this one, two women running away from something the reader doesn’t know about. Sounds interesting and some good reviews!

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Bad Feminist (A Collection of essays)  – Roxane Gay

I watched Roxane Gay’s Ted Talk about this collection and ever since I’ve had to read it. It just spoke to me, this things she mentioned I found myself nodding along with and after just reading the introduction I’m already excited because this seems like someone who really knows what she’s talking about, especially as a young woman. I’m so excited about this one!

These are my 10 books for this month and I’m planning to get through all of them by the end of the month. Have any of you read these or would you like to read them, let me know!!

On the topic of books, my reviews are every Thursday with the following for the rest of the month:

20th – It’s Kind of a Funny Story

27th- The Fever

3rd (September) – 15 Reasons Why

10th – We are completely beside ourselves

17th – Suicide Notes From Beautiful Girls  

Film Review: Trainwreck

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Tonight after seeing a hilarious trailer, the girls and I went to watch Amy Schumer’s Trainwreck. Now I’ll be honest I’ve heard her name everywhere but had absolutely no idea who she was, I now officially have a soft spot for Amy. I’m still surprised I didn’t pee my pants because I was laughing the whole way through, it’s hilarious and so for my first film review I thought this would be a good place to start.

So I think the best way to explain what trainwreck is like is think American Bridget Jones but a million times funnier and a million times cleverer oh and a big dose of Lebron James ( who I now have the biggest crush on). I honestly think this could be the chick flick rom com of our generation because even if you don’t get wasted, smoke dope and have sex with a lot of men this film find a way to speak to you. For me it was a scene where people are talking about having kids around Amy, she’s freaks the f*** out and I just wanted to stand up in the cinema and shout YES, FINALLY SOMEONE GETS IT AND PUTS IT IN A MOVIE. Amy isn’t looking for love, at the beginning she’s pretty happy and has a successful job and her own apartment. The introduction of her love interest isn’t her being hopeless and letting go of who she is but letting someone in who can give her encouragement to be the best she can be.

I think Amy represents most of the people I know at some point in their lives, she’s happy she’s doing her thing. The best part though was that she didn’t change for anyone, she’s still herself the whole way through the film, there was no awful gym montague while she tried to ‘get skinny’ or complain with girlfriends endlessly. Amy just did her thing, her way.

The fact that Amy Schumer wrote this film makes me fall in love with it even more. I hate that thing when people are surprised when women are funny I mean hello we’re 50% of the world population, of COURSE we’re funny. Amy’s been able to write all kinds of characters in this film and I was laughing every few minutes, I’d happily sit through the film again and laugh just as much.  It’s great to see women kicking butt in Hollywood and women of a NORMAL size too. Hallelujah.

I think the only think I could say was a little bit of a let down was that there was some jokes that could be considered racist and that was a bit annoying, but I don’t know it was just something I noticed that didn’t really need to be there, like the fact that Amy doesn’t have any black friends is pointed out in the movie, something I just didn’t get. I’m not getting all keyboard warrior and slamming it but there were a few jokes that didn’t sit right with me that’s all.

If you haven’t guessed by now I’m going to give Trainwreck 5 stars *****! It was hilarious, a good story (with quite a few steamy scenes I’ll add) and I completely loved it. Amy Schumer has a true talent for comedy and it’s right that so many people are talking about her right now because she deserves it, I can’t wait to see what she does next. Oh and just as a note, if you are a little bit squeamish there are one or two little bits that might make you want to puke, just close your eyes, it’s fine.

See the trailer below and wet your appetite before you go an see this fab film for yourself!

7 years, 7 facts

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I’ve been lucky enough to spend the past 7 years with a wonderful human called Ali 🙂 He features in my posts quite a lot so for our anniversary I thought I’d put together 10 random facts about us! Oh and dont forget the cute  embarrassing pictures to go with each of them! I promise this won’t be too sickly sweet!

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Fact 1: We’re in a band together! Yes, Ali is one of the members of No People Club. We write a lot of songs together and have been in various bands together for the past few years. Before I was ever in a band with him I used to help out with his band at school.

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Fact 2: We’re both perfectionists in very different ways. Ali will spend hours over a mix (he’s training to be a sound engineer), like I will an assignment. If we both have something to do in the same week it can get a little tense.

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Fact 3: I have never and hopefully will never see Paramore without Ali. We both absolutely LOVE the band and have been to a show every time we’ve known about it. This is a picture of us from our first Paramore show in 2010!

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Fact 4: There is no shame in this relationship. One of the pros and cons of being together since we were young teenagers is that we’ve seen each other go through the awkward teenage years, there’s not much left to be embarrassed about. 406334_10150721436408206_1359220205_n

Fact 5: I’m the crazy one, he’s the quiet one.

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Fact 6: There was a huge group of us who would count down for Ali’s house parties when we were teenagers. They were awesome with the best memories we could make(some of which I can’t share on here because they’re pretty awesome but we would not like to reach the parents of the people that went). It was like a classic ‘high school’ american party but with better music and ordering domino’s pizza. The picture is of us from his 16th birthday party.

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Fact 6: After getting me to look into uni, Ali then had a gap year so we could start at the same time, even though at that point we weren’t sure if we were going to the same uni.

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Fact 7: Ali missed his prom, instead he say at home with me (I was a year too young to go)  watching TV, building lego and eating pizza before going to a friends afterparty. He was the first person I told when I got accepted.

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Happy Anniversary Ali, I love you! 

P.S I’m totally not sorry that I posted these pictures, you’re welcome 😛 

My First Book Club!

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Yesterday was a busy day, after spending most of the day in the office at Kingston Hill working on The Student Room for results day I was pretty exhausted by the evening. I could have easily gone home, microwaved something and curled up in bed but I’d been looking forward to my first Young Adult Book Club all month talking about Ned Vizzini’s It’s Kind of a Funny Story which is next Thursday’s review. Book Club is something I’ve never done before and after missing out last month because of Basingstoke Live so I was determined to go.

Buuuuuut, determination is hard when you’re anxious. As usual my anxiety reared its head as I was walking to town with thoughts swimming around my brain. What if everyone knows each other? What if I’m the oldest? What if no one shares the same opinion as me?! Part of me wanted to run (ha, I wish I mean struggle to quick walk) away and forget about it.

As usual the staff at my local Waterstone’s were lovely and engaging. I got there half an hour early and had a lot of conversations with different members of staff and got compliments about my jumper again ( It’s says – Me? Wrong? Never. on it and it went down a storm at the office). Then I bumped into a girl who bonded with me over books we loved and that’s just the beginning.

At this point let me introduce Becky who is scarily similar to me and feels like she’s been a friend for years! I think she’ll feature on my blog again! We hit it off straight away, she’s heard of my band (!!) and ended up talking way after the evening had finished. The only worry that came of my anxieties was that I was the oldest non staff member of the group, but that didn’t matter. The girls were great and I’m already thinking of some people from uni I want to bring down.

It was a big step for me tonight to do this when I didn’t know anyone. It’s the kind of situation that makes me incredibly anxious and panicky but I did. It’s nice to do something that only I’m really interested in and meet other people who like it too. I’m definitely going to be going for the rest of the year which is super exciting and something to look forward to every month. So I would say it was a success! I also treated myself because I was proud with two next YA books (of course), a new fox keyring, some pens, an about me type book, a to-do notebook, a new academic diary, Harry Potter Pop and some brightly coloured pens! 🙂

Are there any other YA readers out there who can give me some good recommendations?! Throw them my way!

Book Review: Keep Your Friends Close – Paula Daly

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You’d trust your best friend with your life…right?

Natty has the perfect life, a successful business, two daughters she adores and her teenage sweetheart as a doting husband. While the stresses of work build there is nothing Natty can’t handle…apart from maybe her mother in law. That is until she receives a phone call that her daughter is desperately ill, her oldest friend steps in to help out but what Netty doesn’t know is that this could be the start of her world beginning to unravel.

I will start out by saying that Daly’s novel is delicious and addictive.I give you fair warning, this book will keep you up until the early hours desperate to know what’s going to happen next. There was no part of me that wanted to put this novel down at any point of the day. Daly has an incredible talent for creating a world in which anything can happen and anyone can have secrets you’d never even consider. If there was anything I’d change about this novel it’s that I’d want it to continue. I want to know what happens after it ends because it was just so damn good.

The protagonist, Natty, is a determined woman, she’s worked hard for all she has and has never had a reason not to trust her best friend, until now. There are twists, turns and ‘oh my god’ moments throughout the whole book. I also particularly liked her daughters, they grow as the book goes on and become incredible characters, in fact I would have liked to have known more about them. I was also pleased to see the return of Joanne, the policewoman (those of you who have read Just What Kind of Mother Are You? will remember her).I also found the character of Eve to be written in a breaktaking way. I hated her, but at the same time I couldn’t get enough. I’ll leave it there in fear of spoilers.

It’s hard to write a review for a novel such as this because I could easily drop in some spoilers without realising. Each twist and turn has been carefully thought out and although there are some clues throughout, there is still the ability to shock, especially in relation to Natty’s past…Daly’s one of those writers that once you’ve read one of her books you’re hooked and I can’t wait to get my hands on her latest novel this summer. I only have a few weeks to wait but I can assure you Keep Your Friends Close has wetted my appetite and I’m sure it will do the same for all of you. 

It should not come as surprise that I’m giving this novel five stars *****. It is written with a sharp mind and pure talent on Daly’s part. I read this book in less than a day, with other things to do. The thought will always be at the back of your mind too, who do I really know? This novel really is a must read, I promise you wont regret it.

Daly’s new novel The Mistakes I Made is out on the 27th August.

This is not a sponsored post.

Review by Chloe Metzger

My experience of Acupuncture

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As a part of my fracture recovery I semi-voluntarily get stabbed with tiny needles all over my spine and occasionally my legs. Doesn’t that sound like fun? What I thought was just something that you paid people to do if you were slightly mad, is actually funded on the NHS. Now I’ll be honest I was very sceptical about the way this works and if it works at all. I’m still trying to figure it out myself. After weeks and weeks of still not being able to move and a little persuasion I was booked in to acupuncture.

I said last week that things are only slightly improving with my spine, leading me to be willing to try anything and everything to get rid of some of this pain and get a more active lifestyle back (I was supposed to be super ripped by this point, then I decided to fall off a horse). Meeting Nicola I was nervous, more than nervous but because she is absolutely fab she managed to make me feel informed enough to give it a try. Nicola is the most amazing physio, she answers any and all of my questions, encourages me and understands when the pain is a little bit too much. I don’t think I would have let anyone else use me as a dart board three times.

A lot of people ask me things like what does it feel like? Does it hurt? Do you watch? I can answer honestly that it feels like someone is jabbing you, not in an ‘oh my god what the hell are you doing’ kind of way. Some lucky so and sos don’t feel it at all apparently, I most definitely do. For me there are certain points which are quite painful, whereas others are just a bit annoying, for example there’s one in the middle of my lower back that I’ve had every time and I can usually ignore it. Another point that I had today was on my hip which lead me to swear out loud, it didn’t feel great and the weirdest one I’ve had so far is the backs of my knees, I don’t even know how to describe that. Obviously with it being on my back I can’t watch it, nor would I want to.

If you don’t like needles, scroll past this next image…

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Sometimes it can cause pain afterwards and, you guessed it, I’m one of the lucky few who get a fair bit of pain after. I can also get sleepy too. I’ve had 3 sessions and I haven’t seen any incredible results yet unfortunately. I’m going to have a few more sessions, partly because we tried the alternative today and I nearly cried in pain as Nicola tried to relax the muscles. I can’t say that I’d recommend it to people other than to help curb a needle phobia, I’m starting to not be that bothered as long as I don’t have to see it.

I think if I wasn’t struggling so much with pain and it hadn’t been so long I would have held off. I don’t see it as anything magical or groundbreaking, that said it might be more to do with what’s wrong with me rather than the actual treatment, who knows. I’m hoping that after pain clinic and seeing the Neurosurgeon I can finally get back on track, get rid of acupuncture and get back into some fitness!

Image from paramount-physiotherapy.com

Remembering Robin Williams, one year on

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One year ago today, the world sadly lost Robin Williams. While some people are talking about him ‘passing away’ it’s not the truth, there was nothing graceful in Williams’ suicide. There were obviously a lot of problems that he didn’t want the world to see, but would we have wanted to? Would we have wanted to hear this man who made us laugh so much tell us that he wasn’t ok, that he was trapped in a darkness that eventually took his life. I grew up, like many others, watching Robin and laughing, Mrs Doubtfire was one of my ultimate favourites as a kid I could happily watch it over and over again.

When I heard that he had killed himself this horrible dark wave came over me. I just didn’t want to believe it, Robin Williams, depression, suicide? It couldn’t be true. I wanted to break down and cry, not because Robin was famous, because it was another bright and incredible person lost to suicide. It’s something that is so misunderstood. I personally felt so low, if he couldn’t make it, if it got him what hope was there for the rest of us. That was a bad thought but a year on I’m still sad, like many others but I can still watch Robin’s work and hope that he knows how loved he was by thousands.

Suicide is something that needs to be spoken about. Is it nice? Of course not and no one likes talking about death, especially someone wanting to take their own life. But we need to take away the taboo because that could save someone’s life. I can’t guess or assume what could have saved Robin, no one can, but we need to make sure that he and the millions of others who have killed themselves haven’t died in vain.

I’m not going to leave you with sadness, instead I will leave you with laughter, what Robin did best.

Sleep well Robin, we miss you.

Image rights go to ABC

10 things I’ve learnt living with a boy

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A year ago today I moved in with a boy, A REAL BOY. While tonight is very different from a year ago, as in the flat is actually remotely clean and there is not a microwave meal in sight, it’s made me realise that I’ve actually learnt a lot living with Ali in the last year. We did get a fair bit of stick when we told people we were going to move in together, a lot of people made judgements that it would ‘ruin the uni experience’ and that it would stop us going out. I’ve been encouraged by Ali to go out as much as I damn well want (which part of me suspects is to do with him wanting time to slob out on his own. So here are 10 things that I’ve learnt living with a boy!!

Men and Women’s definitions of clean are very different

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While I want to living room clean, he’s more concerned with my shoes in the hallway…it’s a struggle.

Space is important

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Before we moved in together I spent the majority of my time at his, hating being alone. Now I revel in our weekends apart for the fist day or so because I can literally do what I like…it’s always nice when he comes back eventually though.

It’s nice having someone to come home to

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Especially after a few  too many Sambucca’s and need a bit of help getting into my PJs. That and if I’ve had a bad day it’s great to know you have  a cuddle at home for you.

Play-fighting/pranks are on of THE greatest parts of life

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We are overgrown children, tickle fights, play fighting and switching to light off on each other when  they’re trying to go to the loo. Who said living together meant growing up?

I  can’t cook…I really can’t cook

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I’m a hopeless cook, Ali on the other hand is not. Screw gender stereotypes.

You don’t have to speak to enjoy each others company

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It’s hard to explain but just knowing someone is there is enough sometimes. I’ll work on my stuff he works on his and we’re completely happy.

Morning hugs can change your whole  day

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Honestly it can change my whole mood if I get hugs in the morning before going to work or uni.

Sometimes you will want to kill them…and that’s okay

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You can love someone as much as you want but some days they just need to go away, far, far,away.

Buying the other person take away is true love. TRUE LOVE.

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Fried Chicken after a stressful day? Nothing says I love you more.

It’s actually kind of cool

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I actually really enjoy living with Ali, even if he drives me crazy he’s a pretty cool dude to live with and now I couldn’t imagine it any other way.

Spine Update: 15 weeks in

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Now and a few weeks ago

So here we are, it’s been 15 weeks since my accident and 13 since I found out that the pain was actually a compression fracture and severe bruising on my spine. Ouch. After a stack of doctors appointments, tears, physio and recently having tiny needles stuck in me in what they call acupuncture. It’s been 15 long weeks and I’m still not really anywhere near the end.

I’m still taking pain meds, still in pain and not able to walk far and walking isn’t a good idea either. It sounds like a lot of negatives but I’m not completely bummed out, I’ve realised that there really are some amazingly supportive people around me and I really am happy. I don’t know if I’ll go back to riding, it really depends on what the surgeon says, I’m more focused on making sure I don’t do any more damage to my spine. Nothing is worth the pain and nearly losing the ability to walk.

I just wanted to write this post as a little update for all of you who asked after me and tried to cheer me up or sent me bits and pieces. I’ll keep posting updates when I hear something, I have pain clinic at the end of the month and hopefully I’ll be seeing the Neurosurgeon sooner rather than later (although they’ve been really messing up with it and I feel quite let down). I’m also still trying to do a little physio and any fitness I can, I really hope that changes soon.

Thank you again to everyone, I really couldn’t have done it without you all.

Book Review: The Baby- Lisa Drakeford

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chloe temp

1 party, 5 friends, 1 unexpected guest.

Imagine you’re in the middle of your 17th birthday party, drinks are flowing and your having a great time when you realise you haven’t seen your best friend in a while. You’re not ready for what you find. Your friend is on your bathroom floor about to give birth to a baby you know nothing about, and apparently neither did she. Olivia’s head is spinning as she has to help her best friend Nicola deliver the baby. Little does she know this baby will blow their friendship group apart. This is the start of Lisa Drakeford’s novel The Baby. The book is divided into five sections, one for each of the main characters Olivia,  her best friend Nicola, her controlling boyfriend Jonty, her gay friend Ben and her little sister Alice. We see the aftermath through each of their eyes, but all isn’t as it seems.

I’m always interested in books that focus on teenage parents and have been for as long as I can remember. As someone who stood by their best friend as they had a child at the age of 17, I was intrigued to see what Drakeford would do with her characters. It’s easy to assume that a child changes things, but I feel like there was almost too many issues with the characters and not enough novel. There are complex relationships within the group, Olivia is struggling in a controlling relationship with Jonty, Jonty hates Ben for his closeness to Olivia. The only character that isn’t involved with the group, but in my opinion has the best chapter, is Olivia’s sister Alice. Alice has no friends of her own but observes everything around her and loves helping out with Nicola’s baby at any given moment. She’s just the strange little sister but through her eyes you see more than through any other, she was my favourite character by far. As for Olivia, I felt like she was a kind of punch bag throughout the whole story and I really struggled to like her. I would have like to have seen more of Nicola and how she copes with her daughter and more of Jonty’s backstory, that was something I really enjoyed and made him a much more relatable character.

There is a big twist towards the end of the novel, which I couldn’t stand. It kind of derails the entire plot up to that point and then adds a real question mark to the end of the novel. After reading 200 pages I was beyond angry and frustrated at the twist, I’m pretty sure it’s a love or hate scenario, there will definitely be people who recommend the book to their friend on the basis of the ending, although I’m not a fan.

I’m giving this book two stars **. I really wanted to enjoy it but there really are too many issues in one short book for me to enjoy. I think that the biggest reason for my low rating is the twist at the end, it kind of ruined it for me. It isn’t that I completely loved the book throughout, but I did struggle with having positive feelings about it at the end.

Review by Chloe Metzger