18/9/18 17:03
Good Afternoon Guys and Gals!
I'm becoming more and more aware of the length of time passing from when I last posted on here - I know that it's been just over a month now since the last book review and Slimming World update!
If anyone has been curious as to the reasons for the silence, it's because I've started a course through work! I'm currently studying for a Certificate in Credit Management (that's my job - I'm a Credit Controller at a Newcastle Law Firm) and I chose to do both units simultaneously which is way more intense than I was expecting, I'm currently doing around 12 hours a week of study in addition to the 40 I do at work.
Because of this, I've had limited time to read recreationally and I worry that if I did start reading something I liked, I'd never read my textbooks! It's torture, especially considering I recently bought the whole collection of the Game of Thrones books, and am DYING to get started on them! I think that'll be a journey for next year.
I have 2 or 3 book reviews still in draft form from the past couple of months which I'll get around to finalising and posting soon, and as for Slimming World progress, I've officially lost half a stone! I've gone from 10st 3lbs to 9st 10lbs so that's super, I'm still going on with it as I'm only halfway to my goal, although I have stopped going to the classes (what's the point in paying £5 every week, when I can carry on with similar principles and just weigh myself at home?) I also did try to set a time goal of reaching 9st 6lbs by 16th October, so I'll need to lose 4lbs in 4 weeks to hit that - cross your fingers for me! I'll set a reminder to update this around the 16th to let you know if I've been successful or not.
Ta-ta for now, hope you're all full of happiness and health and all that x
Animal Farm - George Orwell ~ Review
14/8/18 17:06
SO.
FIRST OF ALL.
I started reading the foreword and it straight up spoiled that one of the characters dies, what the heck? Why would you put that as a foreword and not an afterword? If anyone reads the edition with a foreword by Ann Patchett, don't read it if you don't want spoilers! So stupid.
The story essentially details a farm where the animals, inspired by a wise old boar, conspire to take over and rule the farm human-free. They successfully do so, running drunkard Farmer Jones and his wife out of their house. The pigs, being the smartest of all the animals, take the role as leader. They come up with a constitution, as follows:
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.
"Oh," the animals think. "We must have remembered incorrectly." A few days later they see the pigs drinking whiskey, found in the farmhouse. The animals go back again to the rules, and they see:
5. No animal shall drink alcohol to excess.
"Silly us," the animals think, "I forgot to excess." Not long after that, the animals witness the pigs murder an animal who disagrees with an idea they came up with. The animals think "That's not right, the rules definitely said no animal shall kill another!" They go to the rules once more, and read:
6. No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.
Slowly, the pigs start to become more human, more nefarious and the animals end up worse off than when Mr Jones was in power. It's a perfect example of an attempt at communism, but just like many similar events throughout history, it's just an illusion. The plot is based on the Russian Revolution in 1917, and all of the characters are based on real people/social groups (you can find a list of who is representative of who here).
I really enjoyed reading Animal Farm. It was short but sweet and much easier to read than 1984 was, which I was surprised by as it was written by Orwell two years previous (although it is a satirical children's book so I don't know what that says about my reading abilities!). I always like to take a little while to digest what I've read before writing a review of a book such as this one, where it's definitely written as a political statement and it's glaringly obvious that it's not just a tale of some talking animals. Often I get epiphanies days after finishing books like these on how it's relevant to today's society. This time it came to me while at a dinner party at my Aunty and Uncle's house and after some gins got the best of me, I started bleating* on about how communism is a lie and everything is corrupt.
I also realised that Animal Farm is essentially Trump's America. Trump is literally another Napoleon and I don't know what to do with that information considering Trump's ties with Russia. If Orwell had written 'fake news' coming out of the pig's mouth, I wouldn't even blink twice. Plus, he does lives up to the description of a corrupt pig! :) :)
5/5 - I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who studied Sociology or Philosophy at GSCE or A-Level - the Marxism is heavy with this one. It made me really quite existential when I was reading it, I just kept going on about how communism is the dream but nobody on this earth will ever be able to fully achieve true communism and that is so sad. I got thinking about this and lost all hope for humanity, all I wanted was to go home, get under my duvet and sleep until the world ended :) :) :) Why must we be controlled by corruption and greed? If there's anything to scare young people into voting in elections, it's Animal Farm - nothing like a bit of totalitarianism to show how important being able to think for yourself is!
*Pun intended. Bleating.. get it? Sheep? Animal Farm???? No?
SO.
FIRST OF ALL.
I started reading the foreword and it straight up spoiled that one of the characters dies, what the heck? Why would you put that as a foreword and not an afterword? If anyone reads the edition with a foreword by Ann Patchett, don't read it if you don't want spoilers! So stupid.
The story essentially details a farm where the animals, inspired by a wise old boar, conspire to take over and rule the farm human-free. They successfully do so, running drunkard Farmer Jones and his wife out of their house. The pigs, being the smartest of all the animals, take the role as leader. They come up with a constitution, as follows:
- Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
- Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
- No animal shall wear clothes.
- No animal shall sleep in a bed.
- No animal shall drink alcohol.
- No animal shall kill any other animal.
- All animals are equal.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.
"Oh," the animals think. "We must have remembered incorrectly." A few days later they see the pigs drinking whiskey, found in the farmhouse. The animals go back again to the rules, and they see:
5. No animal shall drink alcohol to excess.
"Silly us," the animals think, "I forgot to excess." Not long after that, the animals witness the pigs murder an animal who disagrees with an idea they came up with. The animals think "That's not right, the rules definitely said no animal shall kill another!" They go to the rules once more, and read:
6. No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.
Slowly, the pigs start to become more human, more nefarious and the animals end up worse off than when Mr Jones was in power. It's a perfect example of an attempt at communism, but just like many similar events throughout history, it's just an illusion. The plot is based on the Russian Revolution in 1917, and all of the characters are based on real people/social groups (you can find a list of who is representative of who here).
I really enjoyed reading Animal Farm. It was short but sweet and much easier to read than 1984 was, which I was surprised by as it was written by Orwell two years previous (although it is a satirical children's book so I don't know what that says about my reading abilities!). I always like to take a little while to digest what I've read before writing a review of a book such as this one, where it's definitely written as a political statement and it's glaringly obvious that it's not just a tale of some talking animals. Often I get epiphanies days after finishing books like these on how it's relevant to today's society. This time it came to me while at a dinner party at my Aunty and Uncle's house and after some gins got the best of me, I started bleating* on about how communism is a lie and everything is corrupt.
I also realised that Animal Farm is essentially Trump's America. Trump is literally another Napoleon and I don't know what to do with that information considering Trump's ties with Russia. If Orwell had written 'fake news' coming out of the pig's mouth, I wouldn't even blink twice. Plus, he does lives up to the description of a corrupt pig! :) :)
5/5 - I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who studied Sociology or Philosophy at GSCE or A-Level - the Marxism is heavy with this one. It made me really quite existential when I was reading it, I just kept going on about how communism is the dream but nobody on this earth will ever be able to fully achieve true communism and that is so sad. I got thinking about this and lost all hope for humanity, all I wanted was to go home, get under my duvet and sleep until the world ended :) :) :) Why must we be controlled by corruption and greed? If there's anything to scare young people into voting in elections, it's Animal Farm - nothing like a bit of totalitarianism to show how important being able to think for yourself is!
*Pun intended. Bleating.. get it? Sheep? Animal Farm???? No?
The Tattooist of Auschwitz - Heather Morris ~ Review
3/8/18
The Tattooist of Auschwitz is the unbelievable true story of Lale Solokov and his life as a Tätowierer in 1942-1945. It was his job to tattoo the 6 digits used as a form of identification on to the arm of each and every man, woman or child who came through the gates of Auschwitz II-Birkenau, a combined concentration and extermination camp. Lale kept his story a secret for many years and was frightened to reveal many of the darker parts of his story, as his job of Tätowierer gained him extra food rations and certain privileges - he suffered from survivors guilt, and feared people would view him as a Nazi collaborator. It was only after his wife, Gita, died that he freed himself from the tale of his concealed past. This book was published on Holocaust Remembrance Day 2018.
Heather Morris spent three years with Lale documenting his story. She claims that despite it being listed as "Historical Fiction", the finished book is 95% true. Morris' commissioning editor, Angela Meyer, stated the following in response to a question on Goodreads:
Having found all of the above out prior to reading it, I was fairly surprised at how much of an easy read this book was for me. I was expecting it to be jarring and gruesome, but it was more like a journal of a love-sick young man. Intertwined with his somewhat PG* account of day to day Auschwitz was a seemingly doomed love story, which in any other setting would be described as beautiful. I found it quite amusing that, Lale lived through some of the most abhorrent, horrific circumstances known throughout history for almost 3 years of his life, yet his memory of it was completely drawn to the aspects relating to Gita and how she made him feel - that was the story that Lale told. It just goes further to show how accurate Morris' depiction of Lale is - a real ladies man.
Despite the above, there are moments that are horrible to read. I was specifically hit hard while reading a chapter involving a character named Leon which shook me to my core, and as soon as I saw the name Josef Mengele, my heart sunk so fast that I think it may have resided in my foot for a while. I do think this is worth reading, even if only to make you think, how could this have happened? How could so many human beings have so little mercy?
My only criticism of The Tattooist of Auschwitz is that it wasn't long enough! I finished it in 3 days while I was on holiday but then I missed Lale and his cheery optimism. I do understand why it wasn't longer - I certainly wouldn't have wanted to taint Lale's story, but I do wish it had delved a little deeper and had been a little more descriptive. Having said that, Lale had to actually live through this hellish experience and was re-telling it all 60 years after it had happened, so I can hardly be mad at him for not wanting to go deeper into the details. I'm pleased to rate this a 4/5, and I hope Lale and Gita are happy together, finally at peace.
* As PG as an account of a horrendous concentration/extermination camp can be.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz is the unbelievable true story of Lale Solokov and his life as a Tätowierer in 1942-1945. It was his job to tattoo the 6 digits used as a form of identification on to the arm of each and every man, woman or child who came through the gates of Auschwitz II-Birkenau, a combined concentration and extermination camp. Lale kept his story a secret for many years and was frightened to reveal many of the darker parts of his story, as his job of Tätowierer gained him extra food rations and certain privileges - he suffered from survivors guilt, and feared people would view him as a Nazi collaborator. It was only after his wife, Gita, died that he freed himself from the tale of his concealed past. This book was published on Holocaust Remembrance Day 2018.
Heather Morris spent three years with Lale documenting his story. She claims that despite it being listed as "Historical Fiction", the finished book is 95% true. Morris' commissioning editor, Angela Meyer, stated the following in response to a question on Goodreads:
"...creative or dramatic license was taken, such as when she..." (Morris) "...had to fill in small blanks in time, or delve into characters' thoughts. At one point she puts Lale and Gita together, when they were not (when the planes fly over the camp), and some of the names of smaller characters, while representative of real people, are invented."She also goes on to say that the conversations Heather and Lale had were usually recorded in some way, and having seen the footage, many of the conversations are word-for-word as Lale told them. It also seems Morris may have had researchers look into certain aspects of the story, as Meyer then says that researchers have confirmed that Lale's story is accurate with what they know to be true from that time.
Having found all of the above out prior to reading it, I was fairly surprised at how much of an easy read this book was for me. I was expecting it to be jarring and gruesome, but it was more like a journal of a love-sick young man. Intertwined with his somewhat PG* account of day to day Auschwitz was a seemingly doomed love story, which in any other setting would be described as beautiful. I found it quite amusing that, Lale lived through some of the most abhorrent, horrific circumstances known throughout history for almost 3 years of his life, yet his memory of it was completely drawn to the aspects relating to Gita and how she made him feel - that was the story that Lale told. It just goes further to show how accurate Morris' depiction of Lale is - a real ladies man.
Despite the above, there are moments that are horrible to read. I was specifically hit hard while reading a chapter involving a character named Leon which shook me to my core, and as soon as I saw the name Josef Mengele, my heart sunk so fast that I think it may have resided in my foot for a while. I do think this is worth reading, even if only to make you think, how could this have happened? How could so many human beings have so little mercy?
My only criticism of The Tattooist of Auschwitz is that it wasn't long enough! I finished it in 3 days while I was on holiday but then I missed Lale and his cheery optimism. I do understand why it wasn't longer - I certainly wouldn't have wanted to taint Lale's story, but I do wish it had delved a little deeper and had been a little more descriptive. Having said that, Lale had to actually live through this hellish experience and was re-telling it all 60 years after it had happened, so I can hardly be mad at him for not wanting to go deeper into the details. I'm pleased to rate this a 4/5, and I hope Lale and Gita are happy together, finally at peace.
* As PG as an account of a horrendous concentration/extermination camp can be.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman ~ Review
25/07/18
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine has a list of achievements longer than my arm. To name just a few, it won Costa's First Novel Award last year, and was also selected to be WHSmith's Book of 2017. For 12 weeks, this book was in the Sunday Times Top 10, and Reece Witherspoon has even bought the film rights as a project for her media company, Hello Sunshine, and is considering the role of Eleanor herself.
This is my first (and probably only) book review of July 2018, mainly because it's the first book I've finished in the past few weeks that I've been really excited to write a review for. Believe it or not, I was actually put off reading this for about a week because the blurb sounds a bit boring. As it turns out, I read the first page and realised Eleanor has the same job as me - so yeah.. probably is boring! (Just kidding). I absolutely loved this book, I really did. It's a book that I hope my imaginary future kids read, that's how much I enjoyed it. But let me tell you imaginary future kids, Eleanor Oliphant is not completely fine.
I've decided that this book can be best described as a Comedic Tragedy - I've garnered a lot of strange looks on the metro on my way home from work because I can't stop giggling out loud, but at times it's also left me feeling rather deflated and miserable. Does anyone else get the feeling that their mood is directly influenced by what they're reading? That's definitely the case for me, and this book really made me feel feelings - specifically Eleanor's feelings, as 9 times out of 10 I had nothing to feel upset about, so I applaud Gail Honeyman's ability to make this happen. Just as in life, the tone of the book changed from page to page to make me feel happy, or sad. There was never too much of either, it was wonderfully balanced and was always funny, thanks to Eleanor's hysterically literal thinking habits and obscure demeanour.
Eleanor is a character who struggles very much with social skills, for reasons which are gradually revealed throughout the story. She is so literal and so, dare I say, basic, that she often leaves the rare people whom she interacts with gawking at her in astonishment and confusion. She, despite all of that, is completely charming, lovable, and bloody hilarious.
One thing I loved in particular throughout EOICF were the pop culture references - trying to work out what they could be before someone explains it to Eleanor (or doesn't) is really fun. If you read this book for yourself, which really I hope you consider doing, you'll see what I mean. They're dotted all the way through the book and they make for a good laugh.
Despite the first few chapters sounding as though it's going to develop into a romantic story, things aren't the way they seem. I won't spoil for you what happens with the musician, but this book is not a cliché romance novel, and instead a book to celebrate and appreciate life, friendship, and the beauty that can be found in the little things. It's the warm cup of tea made just the way you like, a comfortable sofa, or the smell of good grub. It's knowing someone's thinking about you, having someone check in on you, and maybe even just the comfort of having a friend.
As I'm writing these reviews, I log onto my blog each day and note down how I'm feeling - a lot of the time, these are questions which get answered so I delete them, but I noted this one down just after I'd finished my lunch break yesterday with around 60 pages left to go:
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine has a list of achievements longer than my arm. To name just a few, it won Costa's First Novel Award last year, and was also selected to be WHSmith's Book of 2017. For 12 weeks, this book was in the Sunday Times Top 10, and Reece Witherspoon has even bought the film rights as a project for her media company, Hello Sunshine, and is considering the role of Eleanor herself.
This is my first (and probably only) book review of July 2018, mainly because it's the first book I've finished in the past few weeks that I've been really excited to write a review for. Believe it or not, I was actually put off reading this for about a week because the blurb sounds a bit boring. As it turns out, I read the first page and realised Eleanor has the same job as me - so yeah.. probably is boring! (Just kidding). I absolutely loved this book, I really did. It's a book that I hope my imaginary future kids read, that's how much I enjoyed it. But let me tell you imaginary future kids, Eleanor Oliphant is not completely fine.
I've decided that this book can be best described as a Comedic Tragedy - I've garnered a lot of strange looks on the metro on my way home from work because I can't stop giggling out loud, but at times it's also left me feeling rather deflated and miserable. Does anyone else get the feeling that their mood is directly influenced by what they're reading? That's definitely the case for me, and this book really made me feel feelings - specifically Eleanor's feelings, as 9 times out of 10 I had nothing to feel upset about, so I applaud Gail Honeyman's ability to make this happen. Just as in life, the tone of the book changed from page to page to make me feel happy, or sad. There was never too much of either, it was wonderfully balanced and was always funny, thanks to Eleanor's hysterically literal thinking habits and obscure demeanour.
Eleanor is a character who struggles very much with social skills, for reasons which are gradually revealed throughout the story. She is so literal and so, dare I say, basic, that she often leaves the rare people whom she interacts with gawking at her in astonishment and confusion. She, despite all of that, is completely charming, lovable, and bloody hilarious.
One thing I loved in particular throughout EOICF were the pop culture references - trying to work out what they could be before someone explains it to Eleanor (or doesn't) is really fun. If you read this book for yourself, which really I hope you consider doing, you'll see what I mean. They're dotted all the way through the book and they make for a good laugh.
Despite the first few chapters sounding as though it's going to develop into a romantic story, things aren't the way they seem. I won't spoil for you what happens with the musician, but this book is not a cliché romance novel, and instead a book to celebrate and appreciate life, friendship, and the beauty that can be found in the little things. It's the warm cup of tea made just the way you like, a comfortable sofa, or the smell of good grub. It's knowing someone's thinking about you, having someone check in on you, and maybe even just the comfort of having a friend.
As I'm writing these reviews, I log onto my blog each day and note down how I'm feeling - a lot of the time, these are questions which get answered so I delete them, but I noted this one down just after I'd finished my lunch break yesterday with around 60 pages left to go:
I don't want this book to end, and I really don't want to leave Eleanor - p.323Sometimes when I finish a book, it takes me a while to leave it behind, and I knew this would be one of those books. It still has me gripped, my brain feels fuzzy and I miss Eleanor. 5/5, I've already recommended it to several people, and I'll likely continue to do so. Gail Honeyman, nice one.
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Attwood ~ Review
12/06/18 19:27
I can't remember the first time actively I took notice of The Handmaid's Tale. I had seen trailers for season 2 of the Hulu series fairly regularly, it almost seemed like it was following me around. It eventually came up on my GoodReads, which was when I found out that it was a book (yay!) and that it was written by Margaret Attwood. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw her name, as I'd recently attempted one of her much earlier novels (her first, in fact) and I couldn't finish it - a shame because I had done a small amount of research on Attwood before starting The Edible Woman and thought she was fab - I'd never read anything before by a feminist writer. So, I bought a copy of The Handmaid's Tale, (via e-book, because I couldn't wait for it to arrive) and I got to reading.
The Handmaid's Tale more than deserves it's rave reviews, it has a fascinating and totally compelling storyline and I could not put it down*. This was my first dystopian novel* and it totally floored me. The basis of this terrifying civilization is that extreme pollution and radiation has caused widespread infertility, and a Christian totalitarian state named Gilead has taken over. Women are oppressed and have their rights refuted, and are forced to either;
if fertile, become:
a)sex slaves Handmaids (women who have previously broken a law who are forced to carry and birth children for wealthy households), or
b)sex slaves Jezebels ("entertainers"),
if infertile, become:
a)slaves Marthas (housekeepers), or
b)slaves Unwomen (infertile women/feminists/lesbians/women who follow a different religion/Handmaids who fail to get pregnant after 6 years. They are forced to work in labour camps called the Colonies, where they attempt to get rid of toxic waste - this is in short, a death sentence.)
There's more to it, but you get the picture. All women are completely tyrannized, it's petrifying and its worst element is, it's not all that far-fetched. This isn't a novel depicting an impossible society - it's a warning for future generations.
I really thought this novel was written beautifully by Attwood, at many points throughout the book I found myself pausing specifically to admire metaphors used to illustrate Offred's position, which isn't something I can say happens to me too often. I also called my sister, Sophie, numerous times to tell her how much I was enjoying it*, along with anyone who's ear I could talk off about it.
Spoilers! Please scroll away now if you want to read the book, or skip to the conclusion! Have you seen my review of The Girls by Emma Kline?? It's based on the Mansonserial killer cult family and it's really good. Are you gone? Good. First of all, I can't believe Ofglen committed harry carry*, I was devastated! I found out while I was midway through the book that Alexis Bledel plays Ofglen in the series, and I'm a big Gilmore Girls fan, so I hated picturing this! I plan to watch the series soon, so at least I was able to brace myself.
Let's talk about the final chapter, which I almost didn't read because I thought it was a boring analysis. Just in case you didn't read it and made the same mistake that I almost did, the chapter is a continuation of the plot, based in a university approximately 200 years after Gilead took over, where a guest speaker is conducting a lecture on the accuracy of a manuscript. This is referred to as 'The Handmaid's Tale' and is an assemblage of thirty transcripts of anonymous tapes found in a previously locked army storage trunk in an underground 'femaleroad' in Maine. They talk for a while about their attempts to find out Offred's real name, and who her commander was, but I'll let you read that yourselves. Now, being the ever-optimist that I am, I refuse to take anything from this other than the idea that Offred escaped. I've entertained the idea that maybe she didn't. Maybe she was simply taken by Mayday, who as we know took her away from her posting under the guise of violating state secrets, and was allowed to tell her story for the education of future generations. She could have then been re-posted, or sent to become a jezebel. I only hope that she wasn't sent to the colonies.
Spoiler Free Zone Below
I think the only critique I have of The Handmaid's Tale, if you can call it a critique, is that it's slightly difficult to understand the whole plot until you've finished the book - Attwood has a funny way of revealing small bits of background information at a time, so that the scene feels almost like it hasn't fully been set until the very end of the book, and even then I had questions, for example, I couldn't work out why Econowives weren't also forced to be Handmaid's. It's a peculiar writing style, but I can't say that I totally disliked it, it certainly had me on my toes and pondering things in-between chapters.
The Handmaid's Tale is going to receive a well deserved 5/5 from me. I absolutely loved it, from the first page to the last. Beautifully written, fantastic plot. Margaret Attwood has been firmly redeemed in my eyes, and I'll be looking to read more of her work soon.
Laura x
* I missed my stop on the metro home one night while reading it because I was so engrossed and ended up having to get 2 more metros to get home :) :) :)
* Excluding my first attempt at George Orwell's 1984, which didn't go quite as swimmingly.
* Much to Soph's distain, as this was next on her reading list but she was going through an intense exam period at uni and had no time for recreational reading. Poor gal, love u <3
* Just googled Harry Carry and found out it's actually "Hara Kiri" and it means suicide by disembowelment!!!! what the heck
"Nolite te Bastardes Carborundorum."
I can't remember the first time actively I took notice of The Handmaid's Tale. I had seen trailers for season 2 of the Hulu series fairly regularly, it almost seemed like it was following me around. It eventually came up on my GoodReads, which was when I found out that it was a book (yay!) and that it was written by Margaret Attwood. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw her name, as I'd recently attempted one of her much earlier novels (her first, in fact) and I couldn't finish it - a shame because I had done a small amount of research on Attwood before starting The Edible Woman and thought she was fab - I'd never read anything before by a feminist writer. So, I bought a copy of The Handmaid's Tale, (via e-book, because I couldn't wait for it to arrive) and I got to reading.
The Handmaid's Tale more than deserves it's rave reviews, it has a fascinating and totally compelling storyline and I could not put it down*. This was my first dystopian novel* and it totally floored me. The basis of this terrifying civilization is that extreme pollution and radiation has caused widespread infertility, and a Christian totalitarian state named Gilead has taken over. Women are oppressed and have their rights refuted, and are forced to either;
if fertile, become:
a)
b)
if infertile, become:
a)
b)
There's more to it, but you get the picture. All women are completely tyrannized, it's petrifying and its worst element is, it's not all that far-fetched. This isn't a novel depicting an impossible society - it's a warning for future generations.
I really thought this novel was written beautifully by Attwood, at many points throughout the book I found myself pausing specifically to admire metaphors used to illustrate Offred's position, which isn't something I can say happens to me too often. I also called my sister, Sophie, numerous times to tell her how much I was enjoying it*, along with anyone who's ear I could talk off about it.
There were also moments where Attwood took such a fantastically objective, almost bird's eye view of life, and gave us these beautiful but eerie analyses in abundance, which I thought were so smart and out of the box."A rat in a maze is free to go anywhere, as long as it stays inside the maze."
"No mother is ever, completely, a child's idea of what a mother should be, and I suppose it works the other way around as well."
"He was not a monster, to her. Probably he had some endearing trait: he whistled, off key, in the shower, he had a yen for truffles...How easy it is to invent a humanity, for anyone at all."
Spoilers! Please scroll away now if you want to read the book, or skip to the conclusion! Have you seen my review of The Girls by Emma Kline?? It's based on the Manson
Let's talk about the final chapter, which I almost didn't read because I thought it was a boring analysis. Just in case you didn't read it and made the same mistake that I almost did, the chapter is a continuation of the plot, based in a university approximately 200 years after Gilead took over, where a guest speaker is conducting a lecture on the accuracy of a manuscript. This is referred to as 'The Handmaid's Tale' and is an assemblage of thirty transcripts of anonymous tapes found in a previously locked army storage trunk in an underground 'femaleroad' in Maine. They talk for a while about their attempts to find out Offred's real name, and who her commander was, but I'll let you read that yourselves. Now, being the ever-optimist that I am, I refuse to take anything from this other than the idea that Offred escaped. I've entertained the idea that maybe she didn't. Maybe she was simply taken by Mayday, who as we know took her away from her posting under the guise of violating state secrets, and was allowed to tell her story for the education of future generations. She could have then been re-posted, or sent to become a jezebel. I only hope that she wasn't sent to the colonies.
Spoiler Free Zone Below
I think the only critique I have of The Handmaid's Tale, if you can call it a critique, is that it's slightly difficult to understand the whole plot until you've finished the book - Attwood has a funny way of revealing small bits of background information at a time, so that the scene feels almost like it hasn't fully been set until the very end of the book, and even then I had questions, for example, I couldn't work out why Econowives weren't also forced to be Handmaid's. It's a peculiar writing style, but I can't say that I totally disliked it, it certainly had me on my toes and pondering things in-between chapters.
The Handmaid's Tale is going to receive a well deserved 5/5 from me. I absolutely loved it, from the first page to the last. Beautifully written, fantastic plot. Margaret Attwood has been firmly redeemed in my eyes, and I'll be looking to read more of her work soon.
Laura x
* I missed my stop on the metro home one night while reading it because I was so engrossed and ended up having to get 2 more metros to get home :) :) :)
* Excluding my first attempt at George Orwell's 1984, which didn't go quite as swimmingly.
* Much to Soph's distain, as this was next on her reading list but she was going through an intense exam period at uni and had no time for recreational reading. Poor gal, love u <3
* Just googled Harry Carry and found out it's actually "Hara Kiri" and it means suicide by disembowelment!!!! what the heck
1984 - George Orwell ~ Review
04/06/18 22:30 (Monday, zzz)
Good Evening Comrades!
1984 is a highly rated, well-known classic which I'd wanted to read for ages - for those of you who don't know, this book originated the ideas of both Big Brother and Room 101. I finally got around to giving it a try in February, but I'm not going to lie, I found it really boring and gave up on page 60.
I was bewildered because, how can a novel so highly rated, which inspired multiple successful television programs be so rubbish? I spoke to a few people about my frustrations with the novel, and they insisted it was fantastic and worth reading, so I was determined to give it another try (after all, 60 pages out of 336 isn't exactly a good basis to criticise a book.. a fitting idiom comes to mind*). On my second attempt, I jumped in with both feet, managed to get through what I read in January quite quickly and went on to finish the book, hurrah!
Here's a brief summary of Orwell's 1984 (spoilers omitted), courtesy of CliffsNotes:
"Winston Smith wrestles with oppression in Oceania, a place where the Party scrutinizes human actions with ever-watchful Big Brother. Defying a ban on individuality, Winston dares to express his thoughts in a diary and pursues a relationship with Julia."*
SO, on with my thoughts. 1984 is written in thirds, which I think will be the best way to review how I felt while reading it.
ONE
Jumping back in, I found that no, I'm not crazy, the storyline is very dry for the first 33*%. It's just paragraph after paragraph of Winston waking up, going to work, working, eating his dinner, then coming home - so as exciting as you'd expect. It introduces the boring, bland characters, and sets a very mundane scene while explaining the extent of the totalitarianism - think Hitler's Germany, pushed to the extreme. Everyone has an intense "you're spying on me, I'm spying on you" mentality. In essence, this third does what you need, but not what you want.
My thoughts: "This is rubbish and I'm bored, get on with it so I can read something else."
TWO
During this third, the story gets far more exciting... until you reach "The Book". For approximately 2 chapters, Winston Smith reads a book titled, 'The Book'; it's all very meta. These pages I honestly felt like skipping, they were just hard to read and it felt boring again - it had just gotten exciting, haway man. I stuck with it though, and I found it helped significantly to listen to an audiobook (I listened to this one) while reading along - otherwise I felt I was reading the words but not digesting any meaning, and what's the point in that, I may as well skip it.
Eventually I did manage to understand what was being said, and it was really interesting - albeit a bit l o n g. The Book is mainly an analysis of 1984's society, and while a lot of it is somewhat obvious, it is also highly helpful in the understanding of the most common Newspeak words, doublethink and such, which you need in order to understand a lot of the talking points in the final third, so read it.
My thoughts: "Oo Winston you little rebel, this is getting exciti- Oh. I have to read this? Really?"
THREE
Epiphanies, epiphanies everywhere. This third was fantastic, and well worth the wait. I don't want to spoil anything major for anyone, so I won't go into too much detail. My only criticism of this book is that I wanted more about Room 101! It made my skin crawl and I had to stop reading every few paragraphs for feeling sick, but that just goes to show how well written it is.
My thoughts: "Holy *insert your favourite profanity here*, it's brilliant!"
Now, I'm going to attempt a conclusion of this book without blabbering on too much - believe me I've blabbered on about it enough to my boyfriend, who half-listened while I ranted and raved about my realization during the final third.
I'm rating 1984 a 4/5. Yes, the first third might be bland, as are the characters, but this is part of the beauty of it - it makes it so relatable. I don't know about you, but my day to day life is fairly dull and wouldn't make for good reading, much like the first third of 1984. Winston could be any ordinary man or woman, an innocent bystander in a world of power-hungry adversaries.
1984 teeters on the edge of being creepy - I've seen a number of people say it should be listed under the horror genre. While I don't completely agree, I can't say it's not spooky when considering that it was written all the way back in 1948, and many of the issues brought up in 1984 are so relevant to issues we're facing today as a society - so much of the analysis, particularly in "The Book", made perfect sense applied to the way we still live now. The link between 1984's telescreens and our smartphones/social media isn't a leap by any means - how many apps do we let run in the background that track your location or spy on what you're searching for online? It would be so easy in this modern world for a government similar to that in 1984 to take over and control our thoughts and actions - an issue that came to light recently regarding Facebook's influence over America's 2016 election. This book should absolutely be read as a warning.
* Don't judge a book by it's cover, anyone?
* Despite their relationship being a prominent storyline, this is NOT a love story.
*(cont.) .3333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333...
"We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end."
Good Evening Comrades!
1984 is a highly rated, well-known classic which I'd wanted to read for ages - for those of you who don't know, this book originated the ideas of both Big Brother and Room 101. I finally got around to giving it a try in February, but I'm not going to lie, I found it really boring and gave up on page 60.
I was bewildered because, how can a novel so highly rated, which inspired multiple successful television programs be so rubbish? I spoke to a few people about my frustrations with the novel, and they insisted it was fantastic and worth reading, so I was determined to give it another try (after all, 60 pages out of 336 isn't exactly a good basis to criticise a book.. a fitting idiom comes to mind*). On my second attempt, I jumped in with both feet, managed to get through what I read in January quite quickly and went on to finish the book, hurrah!
Here's a brief summary of Orwell's 1984 (spoilers omitted), courtesy of CliffsNotes:
"Winston Smith wrestles with oppression in Oceania, a place where the Party scrutinizes human actions with ever-watchful Big Brother. Defying a ban on individuality, Winston dares to express his thoughts in a diary and pursues a relationship with Julia."*
SO, on with my thoughts. 1984 is written in thirds, which I think will be the best way to review how I felt while reading it.
ONE
Jumping back in, I found that no, I'm not crazy, the storyline is very dry for the first 33*%. It's just paragraph after paragraph of Winston waking up, going to work, working, eating his dinner, then coming home - so as exciting as you'd expect. It introduces the boring, bland characters, and sets a very mundane scene while explaining the extent of the totalitarianism - think Hitler's Germany, pushed to the extreme. Everyone has an intense "you're spying on me, I'm spying on you" mentality. In essence, this third does what you need, but not what you want.
My thoughts: "This is rubbish and I'm bored, get on with it so I can read something else."
TWO
During this third, the story gets far more exciting... until you reach "The Book". For approximately 2 chapters, Winston Smith reads a book titled, 'The Book'; it's all very meta. These pages I honestly felt like skipping, they were just hard to read and it felt boring again - it had just gotten exciting, haway man. I stuck with it though, and I found it helped significantly to listen to an audiobook (I listened to this one) while reading along - otherwise I felt I was reading the words but not digesting any meaning, and what's the point in that, I may as well skip it.
Eventually I did manage to understand what was being said, and it was really interesting - albeit a bit l o n g. The Book is mainly an analysis of 1984's society, and while a lot of it is somewhat obvious, it is also highly helpful in the understanding of the most common Newspeak words, doublethink and such, which you need in order to understand a lot of the talking points in the final third, so read it.
My thoughts: "Oo Winston you little rebel, this is getting exciti- Oh. I have to read this? Really?"
THREE
Epiphanies, epiphanies everywhere. This third was fantastic, and well worth the wait. I don't want to spoil anything major for anyone, so I won't go into too much detail. My only criticism of this book is that I wanted more about Room 101! It made my skin crawl and I had to stop reading every few paragraphs for feeling sick, but that just goes to show how well written it is.
My thoughts: "Holy *insert your favourite profanity here*, it's brilliant!"
Now, I'm going to attempt a conclusion of this book without blabbering on too much - believe me I've blabbered on about it enough to my boyfriend, who half-listened while I ranted and raved about my realization during the final third.
I'm rating 1984 a 4/5. Yes, the first third might be bland, as are the characters, but this is part of the beauty of it - it makes it so relatable. I don't know about you, but my day to day life is fairly dull and wouldn't make for good reading, much like the first third of 1984. Winston could be any ordinary man or woman, an innocent bystander in a world of power-hungry adversaries.
1984 teeters on the edge of being creepy - I've seen a number of people say it should be listed under the horror genre. While I don't completely agree, I can't say it's not spooky when considering that it was written all the way back in 1948, and many of the issues brought up in 1984 are so relevant to issues we're facing today as a society - so much of the analysis, particularly in "The Book", made perfect sense applied to the way we still live now. The link between 1984's telescreens and our smartphones/social media isn't a leap by any means - how many apps do we let run in the background that track your location or spy on what you're searching for online? It would be so easy in this modern world for a government similar to that in 1984 to take over and control our thoughts and actions - an issue that came to light recently regarding Facebook's influence over America's 2016 election. This book should absolutely be read as a warning.
* Don't judge a book by it's cover, anyone?
* Despite their relationship being a prominent storyline, this is NOT a love story.
*(cont.) .3333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333...
Hello... Is it me you're looking for?
29/05/18 17:03 (Happy Tuesday!)
Okay, a small apology to myself and any prospective readers for neglecting this blog for *ahem* a little while (I know almost 3 months is more than a little while but lets breeze over that).
My reasons for the abandonment period are simply as follows:
I FEEL LIKE I'M TALKING TO A WALL.
I realised after my first two or three posts that BlogSpot isn't a website which generates traffic on it's own and therefore, nobody will stumble across my blog looking for someone to follow. There just aren't enough people on here, things have moved forward in the past few years and people in abundance now do video reviews on YouTube.
There isn't an easy way to "subscribe" or "follow" the way you can on YouTube, and there's no 'dashboard' or 'timeline' in which to view all of the blogs you follow, such as on Instagram.
The intellectuals betwixt us might now ask me, "Why not just move to YouTube then? If you want traffic, why don't you just do video reviews? They're far easier for the audience, that way they can put their headphones on while they're walking to work, or even connect their phone to a speaker and listen while they're in the shower, or while they're making their tea."
I know, I know - it makes total sense, and I'll admit for a while I was tempted but, my god, I don't have the self confidence for that! I don't have any clap backs for critics, and I will cry if someone says something mean about me (I already know and think it all myself, bog off).
I think I'm happy just writing my silly little book reviews on this. Besides, people are mean on YouTube*, and I know there'll probably be more people reading what I put out just to laugh at me talking to myself than there will be people actually curious as to what I think about a book. (Jokes on you though cause you're the one giving me hits on my blog, ayooooooooooo!)
Moving on!
I've been reading and reading and reading* so I've got some book reviews mid-draft, and I've also got a recipe that I'd like to share SO, onwards and upwards and lets all pray together that this won't be another of my many "hobbies" which I give up after a few weeks. Anyone remember when I tried to learn German? No? That's cause I gave up after 2 weeks.
Tschüss! xx
*For the internet is mean and full of trolls. (Here can you believe we have to wait until 2019 for Game of Thrones?)
*I've also been watching season 2 of Love Island on Netflix (I am weak, it's so good).
Okay, a small apology to myself and any prospective readers for neglecting this blog for *ahem* a little while (I know almost 3 months is more than a little while but lets breeze over that).
My reasons for the abandonment period are simply as follows:
I FEEL LIKE I'M TALKING TO A WALL.
I realised after my first two or three posts that BlogSpot isn't a website which generates traffic on it's own and therefore, nobody will stumble across my blog looking for someone to follow. There just aren't enough people on here, things have moved forward in the past few years and people in abundance now do video reviews on YouTube.
There isn't an easy way to "subscribe" or "follow" the way you can on YouTube, and there's no 'dashboard' or 'timeline' in which to view all of the blogs you follow, such as on Instagram.
The intellectuals betwixt us might now ask me, "Why not just move to YouTube then? If you want traffic, why don't you just do video reviews? They're far easier for the audience, that way they can put their headphones on while they're walking to work, or even connect their phone to a speaker and listen while they're in the shower, or while they're making their tea."
I know, I know - it makes total sense, and I'll admit for a while I was tempted but, my god, I don't have the self confidence for that! I don't have any clap backs for critics, and I will cry if someone says something mean about me (I already know and think it all myself, bog off).
I think I'm happy just writing my silly little book reviews on this. Besides, people are mean on YouTube*, and I know there'll probably be more people reading what I put out just to laugh at me talking to myself than there will be people actually curious as to what I think about a book. (Jokes on you though cause you're the one giving me hits on my blog, ayooooooooooo!)
Moving on!
I've been reading and reading and reading* so I've got some book reviews mid-draft, and I've also got a recipe that I'd like to share SO, onwards and upwards and lets all pray together that this won't be another of my many "hobbies" which I give up after a few weeks. Anyone remember when I tried to learn German? No? That's cause I gave up after 2 weeks.
Tschüss! xx
*For the internet is mean and full of trolls. (Here can you believe we have to wait until 2019 for Game of Thrones?)
*I've also been watching season 2 of Love Island on Netflix (I am weak, it's so good).
The Girl in 6E - A.R.Torre ~ Review
27/02/18 21:03 (Tuesday Zzz)
Going to keep this brief, as I'm not wanting to go too much in depth with this one... you never know who's reading, or might read in the future! (Hello, future employers..?)
This book was recommended to me by GoodReads*, which by the way is a fab website if you like to read. On there you can give a rating of 1-5 stars to all of the books that you've read and from that they recommend new books that they think you'll like, and if you're interested they also show you where you can buy them fairly cheap. You can also link to your Facebook and see what your friends and family are reading, and create a 'want to read' list, so if you spot a book that your aunty Barbra is reading and you think it sounds good, you can add it to your list and not forget about it, like I always used to do.
Surprise surprise... this book is about a serial killer, although this is falls into the 'Erotic Thriller' genre. Thrillers in book form I'm all about, the Erotica though... not particularly my cup of tea. (No, I've never read 50 Shades and no, I don't plan to. Although I did watch the first film and it made me laugh really hard.)
So now that we've glazed over the genre, let me tell you that this book was so up my street, I picked it up on Monday and I had finished it by Thursday night. I wasn't sure whether I was confident enough to read it in public, but after the first few chapters I couldn't put it down, so I gingerly read it on the metro, I cautiously read it on my lunch break at work, and I got home and brazenly read it for half an hour after my dinner each night.
The book centres itself around Deanna Madden, a serial killer who locks herself away from the world and works as a camgirl under the pseudonym Jessica Reilly. Jessica has a number of clients, a lot of them absolutely bizarre and hilarious to read about, but has one who reveals a dark fantasy about a 6 year old girl named Annie. One day, Deanna hears on the news that a young girl of the same age and name has gone missing close to where this particular client lives, and she's faced with a moral dilemma when the authorities don't take her seriously.
One thing that I really loved about this was that within the first 1/3 of the book, there are a few short chapters (a page or three at most) which are from 6 year old Annie's perspective and in each she is interacting with an older male figure who would fit the description of Jessica's disturbing client. Torre keeps you guessing as to who the guilty man is - father, uncle or best friend's dad, and I found it very interesting that reading the short chapters with the premonition of one of the men being guilty, I straightaway presumed that each man was the antagonist, but once I found out who it actually was, I took the time to read each chapter back, and realised that a prejudice can go a long way in making someone seem evil.**
I'm struggling to find a critique for The Girl in 6E. The book was so well written, the plot was gripping and... wait for it... NOT PREDICTABLE. I hate so much when I get halfway through a book and everything from there goes down the predictable 'lovey-dovey, everything is perfect, love conquers all' direction, and honestly at one point around the halfway mark, I did think this book was going down that route, but thankfully it didn't (not too much, anyway). I didn't find it too gory, though I will say it's not for the faint hearted, especially the chapters about Jessica's cam sessions.
It's got a 4/5 from me, I'm so impressed and I found out thanks to good old GoodReads that there's a sequel, which I may well add to my want to read list.
L x
* #notsponsoredjustgood
** Life lessons from Laura x
Going to keep this brief, as I'm not wanting to go too much in depth with this one... you never know who's reading, or might read in the future! (Hello, future employers..?)
This book was recommended to me by GoodReads*, which by the way is a fab website if you like to read. On there you can give a rating of 1-5 stars to all of the books that you've read and from that they recommend new books that they think you'll like, and if you're interested they also show you where you can buy them fairly cheap. You can also link to your Facebook and see what your friends and family are reading, and create a 'want to read' list, so if you spot a book that your aunty Barbra is reading and you think it sounds good, you can add it to your list and not forget about it, like I always used to do.
Surprise surprise... this book is about a serial killer, although this is falls into the 'Erotic Thriller' genre. Thrillers in book form I'm all about, the Erotica though... not particularly my cup of tea. (No, I've never read 50 Shades and no, I don't plan to. Although I did watch the first film and it made me laugh really hard.)
So now that we've glazed over the genre, let me tell you that this book was so up my street, I picked it up on Monday and I had finished it by Thursday night. I wasn't sure whether I was confident enough to read it in public, but after the first few chapters I couldn't put it down, so I gingerly read it on the metro, I cautiously read it on my lunch break at work, and I got home and brazenly read it for half an hour after my dinner each night.
The book centres itself around Deanna Madden, a serial killer who locks herself away from the world and works as a camgirl under the pseudonym Jessica Reilly. Jessica has a number of clients, a lot of them absolutely bizarre and hilarious to read about, but has one who reveals a dark fantasy about a 6 year old girl named Annie. One day, Deanna hears on the news that a young girl of the same age and name has gone missing close to where this particular client lives, and she's faced with a moral dilemma when the authorities don't take her seriously.
One thing that I really loved about this was that within the first 1/3 of the book, there are a few short chapters (a page or three at most) which are from 6 year old Annie's perspective and in each she is interacting with an older male figure who would fit the description of Jessica's disturbing client. Torre keeps you guessing as to who the guilty man is - father, uncle or best friend's dad, and I found it very interesting that reading the short chapters with the premonition of one of the men being guilty, I straightaway presumed that each man was the antagonist, but once I found out who it actually was, I took the time to read each chapter back, and realised that a prejudice can go a long way in making someone seem evil.**
I'm struggling to find a critique for The Girl in 6E. The book was so well written, the plot was gripping and... wait for it... NOT PREDICTABLE. I hate so much when I get halfway through a book and everything from there goes down the predictable 'lovey-dovey, everything is perfect, love conquers all' direction, and honestly at one point around the halfway mark, I did think this book was going down that route, but thankfully it didn't (not too much, anyway). I didn't find it too gory, though I will say it's not for the faint hearted, especially the chapters about Jessica's cam sessions.
It's got a 4/5 from me, I'm so impressed and I found out thanks to good old GoodReads that there's a sequel, which I may well add to my want to read list.
L x
* #notsponsoredjustgood
** Life lessons from Laura x
Peel Off Eyebrows? Maybelline Tattoo Brow ~ Review
06/02/18 21:10 Tuesday (my least favourite day of the week)
From Marlene Dietrich to Cara Delevingne, when it comes to makeup, eyebrow trends are and have always been a bit of a talking point. Think of all of the extreme 'trends' over the past few years: remember the slug brow? How about the more recent feather brow? My first documented attempt at penciling in my brows came at around early 2012, and I've never held back since - though thank our Lord and Saviour J Christ, I can confirm that they look significantly better now than they did in High School*.
So I picked up this product from a Superdrug in Middlesbrough while visiting my boyfriend's wonderful family because I was running out of my Revolution Brow Kit which was out of stock (credit where credit is due - this is a fab palette, it lasts forever and is so inexpensive). I figured I may as well try something new rather than something I knew I wasn't a huge fan of, so although I was hesitant in buying the Tattoo Brow, I was looking forward to trying it.
I ended up not actually running out of my old kit as soon as I'd thought, and didn't need to use TB until we'd come back home, which suited me fine - I had a feeling sleeping with no makeup on other than some dark brows would probably look a little strange and there's no fun in trying to explain what I've got on my face if I bumped into any of Ben's family on the way to the loo in the middle of the night!
Right, so here are the steps that Maybelline advise:
"Step 1:
Clean your brows and apply over existing brow hair. If any mistakes are made or you need to reshape, use a cotton bud to easily remove before it sets."
The formula dries really quickly, so you have to be fairly quick while working with it, and if you make any mistakes you better have a makeup wipe at the ready!
"Step 2:
Leave your new brows to set for at least 20 minutes. For super long wear, set the product for up to 2 hours."
I dunno about you, but I don't have 2 hours to
hang about waiting for my brows to tint on a daily, so I decided if I was going to use it, I'd just leave it on overnight.
"Step 3:
Peel off by starting at the inner corner of each eyebrow. The tint will be revealed underneath, giving you naturally fuller looking brows.
Please note: To make the most of your long-wear tint, try to avoid exfoliating or harsh cleansers."
So, I've had this product for about 3 months now and it's not something that I use every day but I do like to use it on a Sunday night when I know the next morning I'll be knackered when I get up for work, so I feel like I've got some pretty conclusive results about this product. For an early start like a Monday morning, this stuff is really handy if you want an extra 10 minutes of kip - I want to look made-up and presentable for work but I want that to happen in the least amount of time possible because I value my sleep way more than my appearance, especially before 8 in the morning! It's simple to apply, dries quickly and believe it or not, it actually does come off easily too so long as you don't put it on too thin.
The problems I'm having with this product is that yeah, it will last up to 3 days... but only if you try extra hard to not put your face under the shower over that time, and regardless you'll have to touch them up on the second day. By the morning of the third day, my brows are always significantly more orange than I'd like them to be, so I tend to keep them on for the 2 days, and on the second night I exfoliate my face and make sure to get the tint off. Then it's easy to re-apply again if you fancy it.
Another problem I struggled with in the shop was choosing the right colour for my face - they only provide three brow colours, Medium Blonde, Medium Brown and Dark Brown. As I have quite dark hair, I figured that dark brown should be my colour, and I think it's the closest I could get, though to be honest, it does seem to be a little on the grey side.
Something to note is that Maybelline & L'Oreal (who are the parent company of Maybelline) test on animals. I've recently been trying to switch all of my makeup to brands that are cruelty free and I encourage everyone to do the same if you are so inclined. I was fooled into thinking that Maybelline had joined the fight against animal testing, however upon looking further into it, I found out that they still sell their products in China, where animal testing is mandatory for all imported cosmetics. If you're interested in learning a little more about which brands are and aren't cruelty free, you can look on Cruelty Free Kitty's website, where they have a list of brands who have confirmed that they don't test on our furry friends.
I'm slapping an overall score of 3/5 on this product - I love that it saves me time on a Monday morning when I can't be arsed to put anything on but some concealer and a swipe of mascara. My advise would be to make sure the eyebrow goop is distributed evenly before it dries or there'll be patches when peel-time comes and your 10 minute potential lie in will be wasted.
* Bonus pic of how I honestly used to do my eyebrows in High School. Highly embarrassing seeing as it was easily found on Google Images just a year ago by typing in the name and location of the school. (Sorry about the quality, it's since been deleted and this was the best I could do).
From Marlene Dietrich to Cara Delevingne, when it comes to makeup, eyebrow trends are and have always been a bit of a talking point. Think of all of the extreme 'trends' over the past few years: remember the slug brow? How about the more recent feather brow? My first documented attempt at penciling in my brows came at around early 2012, and I've never held back since - though thank our Lord and Saviour J Christ, I can confirm that they look significantly better now than they did in High School*.
So I picked up this product from a Superdrug in Middlesbrough while visiting my boyfriend's wonderful family because I was running out of my Revolution Brow Kit which was out of stock (credit where credit is due - this is a fab palette, it lasts forever and is so inexpensive). I figured I may as well try something new rather than something I knew I wasn't a huge fan of, so although I was hesitant in buying the Tattoo Brow, I was looking forward to trying it.
I ended up not actually running out of my old kit as soon as I'd thought, and didn't need to use TB until we'd come back home, which suited me fine - I had a feeling sleeping with no makeup on other than some dark brows would probably look a little strange and there's no fun in trying to explain what I've got on my face if I bumped into any of Ben's family on the way to the loo in the middle of the night!
Right, so here are the steps that Maybelline advise:
"Step 1:
Clean your brows and apply over existing brow hair. If any mistakes are made or you need to reshape, use a cotton bud to easily remove before it sets."
The formula dries really quickly, so you have to be fairly quick while working with it, and if you make any mistakes you better have a makeup wipe at the ready!
"Step 2:
Leave your new brows to set for at least 20 minutes. For super long wear, set the product for up to 2 hours."
I dunno about you, but I don't have 2 hours to
hang about waiting for my brows to tint on a daily, so I decided if I was going to use it, I'd just leave it on overnight.
"Step 3:
Peel off by starting at the inner corner of each eyebrow. The tint will be revealed underneath, giving you naturally fuller looking brows.
Please note: To make the most of your long-wear tint, try to avoid exfoliating or harsh cleansers."
So, I've had this product for about 3 months now and it's not something that I use every day but I do like to use it on a Sunday night when I know the next morning I'll be knackered when I get up for work, so I feel like I've got some pretty conclusive results about this product. For an early start like a Monday morning, this stuff is really handy if you want an extra 10 minutes of kip - I want to look made-up and presentable for work but I want that to happen in the least amount of time possible because I value my sleep way more than my appearance, especially before 8 in the morning! It's simple to apply, dries quickly and believe it or not, it actually does come off easily too so long as you don't put it on too thin.
The problems I'm having with this product is that yeah, it will last up to 3 days... but only if you try extra hard to not put your face under the shower over that time, and regardless you'll have to touch them up on the second day. By the morning of the third day, my brows are always significantly more orange than I'd like them to be, so I tend to keep them on for the 2 days, and on the second night I exfoliate my face and make sure to get the tint off. Then it's easy to re-apply again if you fancy it.
Another problem I struggled with in the shop was choosing the right colour for my face - they only provide three brow colours, Medium Blonde, Medium Brown and Dark Brown. As I have quite dark hair, I figured that dark brown should be my colour, and I think it's the closest I could get, though to be honest, it does seem to be a little on the grey side.
Something to note is that Maybelline & L'Oreal (who are the parent company of Maybelline) test on animals. I've recently been trying to switch all of my makeup to brands that are cruelty free and I encourage everyone to do the same if you are so inclined. I was fooled into thinking that Maybelline had joined the fight against animal testing, however upon looking further into it, I found out that they still sell their products in China, where animal testing is mandatory for all imported cosmetics. If you're interested in learning a little more about which brands are and aren't cruelty free, you can look on Cruelty Free Kitty's website, where they have a list of brands who have confirmed that they don't test on our furry friends.
 |
| Naked Brows for reference. (I didn't actually have any eye makeup on, it's the Snapchat filter that makes it look like I do) |
 |
| Brows with the product on (tongue out to hide the spot on my chin, ayy lmao) |
 |
| This morning at around 8am - no other makeup on my brows. |
I'm slapping an overall score of 3/5 on this product - I love that it saves me time on a Monday morning when I can't be arsed to put anything on but some concealer and a swipe of mascara. My advise would be to make sure the eyebrow goop is distributed evenly before it dries or there'll be patches when peel-time comes and your 10 minute potential lie in will be wasted.
* Bonus pic of how I honestly used to do my eyebrows in High School. Highly embarrassing seeing as it was easily found on Google Images just a year ago by typing in the name and location of the school. (Sorry about the quality, it's since been deleted and this was the best I could do).
Sally Hansen - "No Chip" Super Acrylic Top Coat ~ Review
01/02/18 19:47 (Thursday)
Evening!
I recently discovered Simply Nailogical's YouTube channel, and before anyone says it - yes, I know I'm late to the party but I've binge-watched hours worth of her videos in the last 2 weeks to make up for it.
I've never been too mad on doing my nails or watching tutorials of stunning girls (or stunning boys, lets not assume any genders) doing some tiny intricate nail art designs, mainly because I bite my nails when I'm stressed so they always look stubby, but also because I just don't have the patience or precision for it. Since discovering the always hilarious and relatable Cristine however, a fire has ignited within me for holographic nail polishes and peel-off base coats. As the fire in my belly grew over the past two weeks, so did mywant need for more nail polishes. So, on my work lunch break I ventured out into the center of Newcastle, steering myself through the crowds of Geordies and trying not to get too visibly annoyed when I caught myself stuck behind a group of slow-walkers.
I got to Northumberland Street, slipped into Superdrug, and I suddenly felt an all-too familiar sensation come over me... "go on, treat youself... you deserve this". I hadn't done anything worth a reward, but haway, once the thought is in your head, we all know it's too late to stop it. I wandered over to the Sally Hansen display and I saw sitting there the holy grail: Sally Hansen's NO CHIP, SUPER ACRYLIC PROTECTION Top Coat. It was priced at £4.75, and it seemed like a dream. You don't get much stronger than acrylic when it comes to nails, and as for 'No Chip', all of my problems were solved.
I rushed home from work and painted my nails a royal blue colour with a silver holographic glitter accent nail, then put on this all-singing all-dancing top coat. I made sure to not do a single thing until it was completely dry: we're talking almost an hour, I wasn't about to take any risks.
Next morning, as I was brushing my teeth, I held up my nails to the light to examine my handiwork* and noticed that every single nail had multiple vein-like cracks running from the cuticle to the tip! Absolutely dumbfounded as to what I'd done to cause this, I went to work, bearing in mind that I have an office job, which is hardly strenuous on my hands - within 3 hours of being there, I noticed that on two of my fingernails, large chips in the middle of my nail had completely flaked off. By this point, the polish had only been on for around 15 hours and I was fuming.
By the time I returned home from work, the majority of the nail polish on several of my fingers had come clean off, and it looked worse than any regular nail polish would look without the top coat after about 4-5 days. Just in case there was something that I had done which had caused the nail varnish to chip off so quickly, or if perhaps it was the blue polish underneath which hadn't mixed well with it, I tried again with another polish I had. I tried to do the thinnest coat I could possibly do in an attempt to give it a fighting chance, and this time around the polish stayed on for a full 24 hours before it started chipping off. Wow, what a drastic improvement (!).
The one and only use I've found for the crappy top coat is putting it on my nails before I go in the shower - if there's anything I've learnt from Cristine, it's how fragile your nails become if you shower when they're bare, so the crappy top coat has now become a strange pre-shower habit. I suppose it's better than showering with a pair of marigolds on!
Overall, I'm giving the Sally Hansen No Chip Top Coat a -3/5. That's right, minus 3. I've included a picture of the bottle and packaging below, you'll see that the largest piece of font on the bottle is the text that states "No Chip" so as a rule, you'd expect it to do the opposite of make your polish chip off within hours of the first application.
Generally, Sally Hansen is a great brand for all things nails and has a superb reputation for dishing out top-notch products, so I was really disappointed that I not only wasted money in buying this, but also that I wasted my time in applying my other beautiful new nail polishes. Do yourself a favour and on this occasion spend your money on something else instead - may I suggest one of these Barry M Molten Metal nail polishes?
That's all for now x
* Pun absolutely intended.
Evening!
I recently discovered Simply Nailogical's YouTube channel, and before anyone says it - yes, I know I'm late to the party but I've binge-watched hours worth of her videos in the last 2 weeks to make up for it.
I've never been too mad on doing my nails or watching tutorials of stunning girls (or stunning boys, lets not assume any genders) doing some tiny intricate nail art designs, mainly because I bite my nails when I'm stressed so they always look stubby, but also because I just don't have the patience or precision for it. Since discovering the always hilarious and relatable Cristine however, a fire has ignited within me for holographic nail polishes and peel-off base coats. As the fire in my belly grew over the past two weeks, so did my
I got to Northumberland Street, slipped into Superdrug, and I suddenly felt an all-too familiar sensation come over me... "go on, treat youself... you deserve this". I hadn't done anything worth a reward, but haway, once the thought is in your head, we all know it's too late to stop it. I wandered over to the Sally Hansen display and I saw sitting there the holy grail: Sally Hansen's NO CHIP, SUPER ACRYLIC PROTECTION Top Coat. It was priced at £4.75, and it seemed like a dream. You don't get much stronger than acrylic when it comes to nails, and as for 'No Chip', all of my problems were solved.
I rushed home from work and painted my nails a royal blue colour with a silver holographic glitter accent nail, then put on this all-singing all-dancing top coat. I made sure to not do a single thing until it was completely dry: we're talking almost an hour, I wasn't about to take any risks.
Next morning, as I was brushing my teeth, I held up my nails to the light to examine my handiwork* and noticed that every single nail had multiple vein-like cracks running from the cuticle to the tip! Absolutely dumbfounded as to what I'd done to cause this, I went to work, bearing in mind that I have an office job, which is hardly strenuous on my hands - within 3 hours of being there, I noticed that on two of my fingernails, large chips in the middle of my nail had completely flaked off. By this point, the polish had only been on for around 15 hours and I was fuming.
By the time I returned home from work, the majority of the nail polish on several of my fingers had come clean off, and it looked worse than any regular nail polish would look without the top coat after about 4-5 days. Just in case there was something that I had done which had caused the nail varnish to chip off so quickly, or if perhaps it was the blue polish underneath which hadn't mixed well with it, I tried again with another polish I had. I tried to do the thinnest coat I could possibly do in an attempt to give it a fighting chance, and this time around the polish stayed on for a full 24 hours before it started chipping off. Wow, what a drastic improvement (!).
The one and only use I've found for the crappy top coat is putting it on my nails before I go in the shower - if there's anything I've learnt from Cristine, it's how fragile your nails become if you shower when they're bare, so the crappy top coat has now become a strange pre-shower habit. I suppose it's better than showering with a pair of marigolds on!
Generally, Sally Hansen is a great brand for all things nails and has a superb reputation for dishing out top-notch products, so I was really disappointed that I not only wasted money in buying this, but also that I wasted my time in applying my other beautiful new nail polishes. Do yourself a favour and on this occasion spend your money on something else instead - may I suggest one of these Barry M Molten Metal nail polishes?
That's all for now x
* Pun absolutely intended.
The Girls - Emma Cline ~ Review
31/01/18 13:24 (Still a Wednesday)
Straight off the bat, I'll tell you that I have a slight obsession with anything based on serial killers - for example, I absolutely loved watching the series Dexter when I first discovered that on Netflix.
One of my Sisters (I have 3, pray for my parents) gave me this book for Christmas, and although I'd not heard of it before I was really excited to get into it. The blurb reads as follows:
"If you're lost, they'll find you...
Evie Boyd is fourteen and desperate to be noticed. It's 1969 and everywhere the heat of a Californian summer beats down and restless, empty days stretch ahead.
Until she sees them. The girls. Hair long and uncombed, jewelry catching the sun. A scattering of young women who are everything she is not, each utterly sure and at one with everything seemingly beyond Evie’s reach. And at their centre, Suzanne, black-haired and beautiful.
Willingly, she begins to drop into their tranquilised circle, oblivious of the danger that sits so cruelly at its centre. If not for Suzanne, she might not have gone. But, intoxicated by her and the life she promises, Evie follows the girls back to the decaying ranch where they live.
Was there a warning? A sign of what was coming? Or did Evie know already that there was no way back?"
It didn't take much research to find out that the book is actually somewhat based on the Manson Family, who I'll admit, I didn't know too much about - only that Charles Manson, thehead of the family leader of the cult, had died only a month before, so I read up on a few different articles online to give myself a bit more of a background before I started.
If I'm honest, I found this book really difficult to get into, the first few pages had me so confused - each paragraph would switch without warning from present-day Evie, to 1969 14 year old Evie. Once I got over that, I realised that the first 30 pages or so seemed like Emma Cline had taken a thesaurus and replaced every other word with the most bizarre synonym possible, or tried to combine several sentences together which I found irritating. For example:
"Everyone was healthy, tan, and heavy with decoration, and if you weren't, that was a thing too-you could be some moon creature, chiffon over lamp shades, on a kitchari cleanse that stained all your dishes with turmeric."
It just seemed slightly too forced and overwritten at times, though definitely more in the first 30 or so pages than in the rest of the book.
Had it not been for my Sister asking me when we spoke on the phone, "How's the book going?", I really don't think I would have finished it, but having pushed and struggled through that first section, I ended up really enjoying the story. At first it put almost a desirable and unexpected* twist on the life of the Manson Family, and from Evie's narration you can almost understand why the girls were sucked in by Manson and his way of life. It's the kind of book that left my brain pleasantly frazzled when it finished, and it took me a few hours to get out of Evie's head.
Overall, I'm giving it a 4/5 and most likely will read again. I'm still mad about some of the ridiculous 2-for-1 sentences but I'll totally forgive Emma seeing as it was her first published novel (and in comparison, lets not forget I got an 'E' in English Lit/Lang).
That's all x
*Way more lesbian sex than I expected in a book revolving around a 14 year old girl.
Straight off the bat, I'll tell you that I have a slight obsession with anything based on serial killers - for example, I absolutely loved watching the series Dexter when I first discovered that on Netflix.
One of my Sisters (I have 3, pray for my parents) gave me this book for Christmas, and although I'd not heard of it before I was really excited to get into it. The blurb reads as follows:
"If you're lost, they'll find you...
Evie Boyd is fourteen and desperate to be noticed. It's 1969 and everywhere the heat of a Californian summer beats down and restless, empty days stretch ahead.
Until she sees them. The girls. Hair long and uncombed, jewelry catching the sun. A scattering of young women who are everything she is not, each utterly sure and at one with everything seemingly beyond Evie’s reach. And at their centre, Suzanne, black-haired and beautiful.
Willingly, she begins to drop into their tranquilised circle, oblivious of the danger that sits so cruelly at its centre. If not for Suzanne, she might not have gone. But, intoxicated by her and the life she promises, Evie follows the girls back to the decaying ranch where they live.
Was there a warning? A sign of what was coming? Or did Evie know already that there was no way back?"
It didn't take much research to find out that the book is actually somewhat based on the Manson Family, who I'll admit, I didn't know too much about - only that Charles Manson, the
If I'm honest, I found this book really difficult to get into, the first few pages had me so confused - each paragraph would switch without warning from present-day Evie, to 1969 14 year old Evie. Once I got over that, I realised that the first 30 pages or so seemed like Emma Cline had taken a thesaurus and replaced every other word with the most bizarre synonym possible, or tried to combine several sentences together which I found irritating. For example:
"Everyone was healthy, tan, and heavy with decoration, and if you weren't, that was a thing too-you could be some moon creature, chiffon over lamp shades, on a kitchari cleanse that stained all your dishes with turmeric."
It just seemed slightly too forced and overwritten at times, though definitely more in the first 30 or so pages than in the rest of the book.
Had it not been for my Sister asking me when we spoke on the phone, "How's the book going?", I really don't think I would have finished it, but having pushed and struggled through that first section, I ended up really enjoying the story. At first it put almost a desirable and unexpected* twist on the life of the Manson Family, and from Evie's narration you can almost understand why the girls were sucked in by Manson and his way of life. It's the kind of book that left my brain pleasantly frazzled when it finished, and it took me a few hours to get out of Evie's head.
Overall, I'm giving it a 4/5 and most likely will read again. I'm still mad about some of the ridiculous 2-for-1 sentences but I'll totally forgive Emma seeing as it was her first published novel (and in comparison, lets not forget I got an 'E' in English Lit/Lang).
That's all x
*Way more lesbian sex than I expected in a book revolving around a 14 year old girl.
A Blog?!
31/01/18 8:58 (it's a Wednesday).
Morning.
I wanted to start a really simple blog because I've recently just wanted to vent my opinions on things, and Twitter doesn't give me enough characters, even with the 280 update (plus people get really touchy on Twitter and I was always a bit crap at debating... a blog seems way less intimidating).
I've got no experience in blog/review writing, I did once upon a time take a combined English Literature and Language A-Level but I ended up with an 'E' in that, so not one to brag about. So far, I've decided that I want to review books as I'm big into my reading, possibly some recipes as it's hard to not be a food lover when there are so many delicious things out there that you can put in your mouth, and other little beauty bits too - I treated myself to a Birch Box subscription at the very start of the year and I get 4/5 little bits every month, so I suppose it's a start (I've already hoyed January's box out, so won't be reviewing that one).
I'm a 22 year old millennial*, and I'm British, so naturally I do love a good old complain - though generally I'm optimistic and I tend to look at the world through rose-tinted glasses.
That's all for now x
* Please note, I will not be reviewing avocado and coffee, I don't think I'm overly entitled or selfish (unless you push in front of me when I'm waiting for public transport in which case I will knife you with my eyes), and I'm not a special little snowflake who gets offended at everything - although I am pro-feminism, and pro-equal rights for everyone, regardless of sex, gender, sexuality or skin colour. Yaaaas girl werk #deathdrop. I'm also not scared to GIF my way out of a conversation.
Morning.
I wanted to start a really simple blog because I've recently just wanted to vent my opinions on things, and Twitter doesn't give me enough characters, even with the 280 update (plus people get really touchy on Twitter and I was always a bit crap at debating... a blog seems way less intimidating).
I've got no experience in blog/review writing, I did once upon a time take a combined English Literature and Language A-Level but I ended up with an 'E' in that, so not one to brag about. So far, I've decided that I want to review books as I'm big into my reading, possibly some recipes as it's hard to not be a food lover when there are so many delicious things out there that you can put in your mouth, and other little beauty bits too - I treated myself to a Birch Box subscription at the very start of the year and I get 4/5 little bits every month, so I suppose it's a start (I've already hoyed January's box out, so won't be reviewing that one).
I'm a 22 year old millennial*, and I'm British, so naturally I do love a good old complain - though generally I'm optimistic and I tend to look at the world through rose-tinted glasses.
That's all for now x
* Please note, I will not be reviewing avocado and coffee, I don't think I'm overly entitled or selfish (unless you push in front of me when I'm waiting for public transport in which case I will knife you with my eyes), and I'm not a special little snowflake who gets offended at everything - although I am pro-feminism, and pro-equal rights for everyone, regardless of sex, gender, sexuality or skin colour. Yaaaas girl werk #deathdrop. I'm also not scared to GIF my way out of a conversation.
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