TOP TEN TUESDAY – 12th December 2017

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week they post a different topic that one of their bloggers answers, and they invite others to join in, by posting their answers as a comment of by creating their own blog post.

It’s been a whole month since I joined in with Top Ten Tuesday, but I’m glad to get back into the swing of things with this week’s topic. I’ve read some great books this year, and this is a brilliant opportunity to reflect on them (and maybe get others to read them too!)

Top Ten Tuesday: 7th November 2017

My Top Ten Tuesday game has been fairly poor recently, so has my blogging. Turns out working 9-5 and running a blog requires some serious time management, and more that a little motivation. The clocks went back this week, and the darker nights have made me a little lazy, but I’m back and hoping that a little bit of preparation will help me get back on track! This week’s topic is: Top Ten Characters Who Would Make Great Leaders.

I thought I’d pick ten characters who would make great leaders because they don’t follow the status quo. They push for change even when that means making themselves vulnerable or they are always there for the people who need them. Some of them just march to the beat of their own drum.

Starr from The Hate U Give

She’s brave, passionate, and her courage to stand up drives change and gives other the encouragement to do the same.

Simon from Simon Vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Simon has a refreshing take on the world, and of high school. He handles some difficult moments well, and doesn’t compromise who he is. Although he does make mistakes and apologises for them.

Lila from A Darker Shade of Magic

Lila literally barges into the action, whether Kell wants her their or not. She seizes the opportunity for adventure, even when that means stumbling into a world that isn’t her own.

Oliver from Submarine

Oliver’s world is weird and wonderful. He sees things in a way others doesn’t. It makes him act a little irrationally, and sometimes insensitively but he never tries to change for others. I don’t think he even realises not everyone sees the world the way he does.

Hermione from The Harry Potter Series

Hermione is who she is and she doesn’t hide it, even when the Malfoys of the world try to rile her. And she fights for those who can’t find for themselves.

Roxy from The Power

Roxy comes from a world dominated by men, and despite her limitless power she doesn’t let it go to her head as others do. She’s tough because she has to be, and she makes her own way.

Ponyboy from The Outsiders

Ponyboy is a greaser, but that isn’t all he is. He’s intelligent, sensitive, and sees that privilege isn’t everything. Even at his age he sees that different doesn’t necessarily mean better.

Eleanor from Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

Eleanor has a beautiful view of the world, and she’s honestly a delight to read about.

Jane from Jane Eyre

Jane comes from a traumatic upbringing, and despite her horrific childhood, she works hard to become something and she never wavers.

Prof. Andrew Martin (alien) from The Humans

The alien in The Humans is a wonderful character, who without the inconvenience of social norms, is able to be more human than the rest of us.

 

Which characters do you think would make great leaders?

TOP TEN TUESDAY- 3rd October 2017

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week they post a different topic that one of their bloggers answers, and they invite others to join in, by posting their answers as a comment of by creating their own blog post.

I’ve missed out on the last few weeks of Top Ten Tuesday, but I’m back and looking forward to sharing this weeks picks! The topic is Top Ten Book Boyfriends/Girlfriends (which characters do you have crushes on?), but I’m picking characters who have a special little place in my heart.

READING LISTS: Mental Health in Books

Mental Health Awareness month was back in May, and in honour of that month I decided to read Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson. Over the past year of blogging, I’ve realised I can be a little less varied than I’d like to be in my reading, and now that I’m reaching the end of my dissertation, I feel like I can finally start to branch out. My mental health is something that I often take for granted, it’s not something I have to think about much, and that can mean that I forget not everyone is the same. These are six books I’ve read that have changed my perception of mental health.

REVIEW: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Spending time with Eleanor Oliphant never felt like a chore. Having a person who doesn’t like to divulge where they live, confide there inner life to you is little short of a gift, and Eleanor’s world was a delight. From the start, Eleanor was more than a character. The moment she walked into her office, past the co-workers who mocked her, she felt real. Even now, I can imagine her insisting I call her Miss Oliphant. In the two and a half days it took me to read the book, I kept updating my sister on Eleanor’s progress as if she was a friend I’d just gotten off the phone with.

What’s surprising is that despite her colourful perspective of the world, Eleanor doesn’t have a life. She has an existence, one that is defined by routine. She works, she eats her Tesco meal deal, she listens to The Archers and every weekend she drinks two bottles of vodka to carry her through to Monday. She doesn’t have friends, a social life or aspirations, she has crosswords and a potted plant. It took me until her first Wednesday night phone call with her mother to realise that it wasn’t that she didn’t want those things, but that she didn’t think she deserved them.

A childhood spent with a cold, cruel mother with lavish tastes and foster families who passed her one time and again, have given Eleanor a limited experience of love and care. She values decorum and good manners over kindness and sincerity because she’s never really known anything else. But then she stumbles across a musician who just might be the one, and in her quest to meet him she inadvertently befriends the IT technician at work who fixes her computer.

Raymond is the complete opposite of Eleanor, driven by emotion over logic. He does things because he feels it’s the right thing to do, rather than because he thinks he should. It was an absolute delight to watch Eleanor watching Raymond with the sceptical fascination of a visitor at the zoo, and how their friendship helped her navigate the hazardous world of social interaction. She’s so fixated on transforming her appearance in preparation for her fateful encounter with the musician that she doesn’t realise how much she’s blossoming from the inside.

Eleanor takes her first tentative steps into the world and realises that you might not need other people, but sometimes you want them. And that’s fine too.

Rating: 5/5

MISC: WWW Wednesdays- 19th July 2017

WWW is hosted by Taking on a World of Words. Each Wednesday book enthusiasts share their reads by answering three questions:

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

WWW Wednesday: 12th July 2017

I don’t know how I’ve actually managed this, but guys I read more than one book this week. Hurray for me! It probably means I’ve been doing more reading than working (like I should have, oops) but I can’t bring myself to be disappointed by that. But I am a complete fool because I was preparing this post for tomorrow and then realised that everyone was already posting theirs. Then it dawned on me. Today is Wednesday. Oops. So I’m going to update this post with lovely pictures tomorrow hopefully!

WWW is hosted by Taking on a World of Words. Each Wednesday book enthusiasts share their reads by answering three questions:

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?