Mini Review Tuesday: May Wrap Up

Hey Everyone,

Today's review post is of all the books I read in the month of May. Now, I'm going to be honest with you in saying that I was in a massive reading slump in May and only managed to read a few little children's books. I have yet to finish a regular book but have now started reading a few books and will hopefully complete one of them in June. So let's get into the books I read in May.

Title: The Bad Guys: Episode 1
Author: Aaron Blabey
Publication Year: 2015
Publisher: Scholastic Australia
Goodreads Link: 
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25448261-the-bad-guys
Sentence Summary: The big bad wolf is tired of being seen as a bad guy and so he ventures out with some other "misunderstood" creatures to show that they are actually good.
Mini Review: I discovered this book at work when we first received it as a new release. A workmate and I thought it looked cute and started to flick through it and thought it was hilarious. I then decided to buy it and read it straight away. I re-read it this month as the newest book in the series came out at the beginning of the month. I absolutely loved this book and thought it was really funny. The story follows The big bad wolf who starts off the book explaining to the reader that he isn't as bad as the stories make him out to be. He then becomes determined to prove it by recruiting three other characters (Mr Snake, Mr Piranha and Mr Shark) who are also normally seen as bad guys and plans to go out and do something heroic. This is a great book for both children and adults as there is a little bit of humour for everyone within story. The text is also accompanied by awesome art work by Blabey who also writes and illustrates his own children's picture books. I really loved everything about this book despite how simple the story was. I could really tell that Blabey put in a lot of little details into the art and the dialogue which I found really entertaining. I highly recommend this book and will probably be reading the other two books that are currently out, really soon.
Star Rating: 5/5 Stars!

Updates Post: Where Have You Been?

Hey Everyone,

So if you follow my instagram, you may have seen that I failed to post on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. You may have also noticed that I have had a lot of weeks lately where I miss a day or two. The reasons why this continues to occur varies as there has been some instances where I have been sick or I had an event on that day and hadn't been able to prepare anything but other times it's simply because I have been too tired. I have been really busy with work over those last few days that I seem to end up falling asleep whenever I try to write. I don't want to create posts that seem rushed or that I didn't really care and so as work may continue to be quite crazy over the next few months, I have decided to bring my posting schedule down to just 3 days.

By 3 days, I mean that I can guarantee at least 3 posts for you all each week but depending on my roster for the week, I may be able to write a few more. So here is the new blogging schedule:

Tuesday: Review Posts (Includes; Full Reviews, Mini Reviews, Series Reviews & Monthly Wrap Ups)

Wednesday: Top 5 Wednesday Posts

Thursday: Variety Posts (Includes; Tags, Instagram Wrap Ups, Book Hauls, etc)

Top 5 Wednesday: Characters You Defend

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is all about characters that I tend to defend when talking about particular books with other people. We are all guilty of doing it and I am no exception to this as everyone has characters that they love and that they hate which may be different to someone else's. So here are my top 5 characters that I always defend. Let's get into it.

5. Draco Malfoy From The Harry Potter Series By J.K. Rowling

Since finishing the series, I finally got more insight into Draco's life and story. Prior to this, I hated him purely based on his behaviour in the first couple movies. I now find myself actually defending his behaviour when other people tend to shut him down. It all kind of makes sense at the very end of the series. I'm not saying he was a great person but in the end you really see him turn around. (Photo: Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy in the films)

Mini Review Tuesday: Graphic Novels III

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is a collection of mini reviews for another three graphic novels I have read. So let's jump right into it.

Title: Copper
Author: Kazu Kibuishi
Publication Year: 2010
Publisher: Graphix
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6928839-copper
Sentence Summary: Short tales of the adventures of a boy and his talking dog.
Mini Review: Kazu Kibuishi is a Genius! After reading the Amulet series I was looking for more Kazu Kibuishi because I really loved the story and art in that graphic novel series. I then found this gem in a book store and again fell absolutely in love. Copper is a comic strip series about a boy named Copper and his dog named Fred. It tells the story of all the adventures they go on together. It was incredible! The story-lines were simple and entertaining which I liked but also some of the stories had some great meanings to them which was really fantastic. In the end, the main thing that made me love this book was the extraordinary illustrations. I am just absolutely in love with them just as I was with his other series. They are so adorable but also had such amazing detail and connections to the stories through each of the images. This book was almost a 5 stars book for me but it was set up as a story per strip and so there was not much depth to each tale. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would love to read more of the comic strips for Kibuishi ever decides to create more.
Star Rating: 4.5/5 Stars!

Wrap Up Saturday: April Instagram Book Challenge #1

Hey Everyone,

So today's post is a wrap up of how I did in the April Instagram Book Challenge. Just like last month, there are many different ones you can participate in and I actually participated in two fun challenges. Today I will just summarise one of the challenges I posted for. The first challenge I chose to do was created by @Celinereads and @foksha_1996 on Instagram. So in case you didn't see my posts each day, here are all the photos I posted with their captions.

"Hey Everyone, I am really enjoying these daily photo challenges and so I will be doing another one for April created by @celinereads and @foksha_1996 I can't wait to get into it. #celineandfarahapril16 #aprilbookchallenge #bookstagram"

Book Tag Friday: The Bookish Theatre Tag

Hey Everyone,

Today's tag post is one that I saw Bekah over at Bekah AwesomeBookNut on YouTube do earlier this week. I thought that it looked like a lot of fun and figured why not do it for you guys today. I love musicals and so I think this is the perfect tag for me as I get to combine books with theatre shows. This awesome tag was originally created by Julia over at Novel Noise on YouTube. Be sure to check out both Bekah's video and Julia's video of this tag as they are both pretty awesome. Now let's get into the tag!

1. Spring Awakening

(Favourite translated book) 

The Strange Library By Haruki Murakami: Translated from Japanese, This was such a clever little novella about a boy who gets trapped in his local library. It was both creepy but also really creative story full of interesting text and illustrations that I will probably read over and over again for many more years to come.

Book Series I Need To Complete #2

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is the second part of a post that I made about a month ago that was all about book series that I need to complete. There are so many of them that here is just another handful of ones that I have failed to finish. I also plan to do one about the comic book series that I follow but today is just about general book series. Let's get straight into it.

Series Title: Anna And The French Kiss Companion Trilogy
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Number Of Books: 3
Series Status: Completed
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23525495-anna-and-the-french-kiss
Sentence Summary: Forced to attend a boarding school in Paris by her father, Anna now has to adjust to a new country as well as a new language when she would rather be back home in Atlanta with her best friend and almost boyfriend. That all changes when she meets the handsome and taken Etienne St. Clair who quickly becomes her new best friend. Stuck in a beautiful country with a charming new friend, what could possibly go wrong?
Books Read: 
- Book 1: Anna And The French Kiss (2010)
- Book 2: Lola And The Boy Next Door (2011)
Books Left: 
- Book 3: Isla And The Happily Ever After (2014)

Top 5 Wednesday: "Summer" Reads

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is all about summer reads. Now I'm going to be honest and say, I haven't read very many summery reads and the ones that I have read, I have mentioned before in previous posts. Not wanting to repeat titles again and again, I have decided to mix things up for this weeks top 5 post and list 5 books I want to read that has the word summer in the title. So without further ado, lets get into the list.

5. The Square Root of Summer By Harriet Reuter Hapgood 

This is a book that has just been release this month and I must say that I definitely sounds like a read that I will enjoy. I have been seeing it around and I absolutely love the cover, so I'm surprised I haven't picked up a copy yet. 

Review Tuesday: Amulet Book 1-3 By Kazu Kibuishi

Hey Everyone,

Today's review is of the graphic novel series, Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi. In honour of book seven being release only a couple of months ago, I figured now would be a great time to review each book for you all. So today, I will be reviewing the first 3 books in the series. I have however read up to book 6 and so another review will come out soon for the rest of the books that are out. Now let's get into the review.

Series Title: Amulet
Author: Kazu Kibuishi
Illustrator: Kazu Kibuishi
Number of Books: 7 (Currently)
Series Summary: A children’s adventure series that follows the main character Emily Hayes (“Em” for short) as she embarks upon a magical journey through the world of Alledia. As Emily (with the company of her brother and mother) move into her late grandfather’s old house, she discovers a magical amulet whilst exploring and puts it on. Immediately her life is turned upside down as the family discovers that there is more to their grandfather than they thought. After her mother is brutally taken away by a strange creature, it is all up to Emily and brother, Navin to venture into a strange world to find and save her.

April Book Haul Part II (2016)

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is the rest of my April Book Haul. I was suppose to have this post up on Saturday but I unfortunately got ill. I'm still a bit sick but really wanted to have this post up for you guys today. So here is the rest of the books I got in the month of April.

NON-FICTION

Title: Cole's Funny Little Picture Book
Author: E.W. Cole
Publication Year: 2013
Publisher: Hardie Grant Books
Link: http://www.hardiegrant.com.au/books/books/book?isbn=9781742706283 (There is no Goodreads page for this book)
Short Summary: E.W. Cole was the owner of the famous Cole's Book Arcade in Melbourne which made him the first ever bookseller in Australia. In 1879 he published this book which compiled stories, puzzles and riddles. In this new edition, readers can now enjoy some of the great rhymes, poems, games and illustrations that appeared in the original book (which has now gone out of print). A book that has entertained families for more than a century, has now returned to fill more homes with happiness and laughter.

Book Tag Friday: The Book Calendar Tag

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is a tag that I found while searching the internet for a new book tag to do. I stumbled upon this one and thought that it sounded really interesting. This tag is called The Book Calendar Tag which I found on a blog called Debra's Book Cafe which is run by Debra. The original creator of this tag was MoMo from The Booktube Girl on Youtube. The idea of this blog is that there is a question for each month of the year which corresponds with a holiday. I thought it was really original and am excited to be doing it. Be sure to watch the original video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl3w41JnN20 and Also read Debra's post here: http://debrasbookcafe.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/the-calender-book-tag.html.

Let's get started!

January: New Years 

(Name a new release coming out this year that you are greatly anticipating.)

Harry Potter And The Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling: I'm sure the whole world is anticipating this book right now and that includes me. When this book got announced, I wasn't overly thrilled because I hadn't read the books yet but I have now finally read them all and I just can't wait to get my hands on this new book. Definitely the book I'm most looking forward to getting.

QBD The Bookshop Blog II

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is all about the posts that I have had put up on the QBD Blog. A little over 2 months ago, I put up a post that included the links to all the reviews I have written for The QBD Blog and since then I have written a few more posts. So in case you missed any of my posts on Instagram about each review, Here they all are for you to view. Also if you would like to see the last post I made about the QBD Blog, you can find it at: http://louiseereads.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/qbd-bookshop-blog.html.

Be sure to visit the QBD blog in order to read all types of reviews from more avid readers: https://blog.qbd.com.au/

Let's jump into all the posts I have made since the last update.

Post Title: Louise’s TOP 5: DC Comic Trades

Title/s Included: 
- Birds of Prey Volume One: Trouble In Mind by Duane Swierczynski & Jesus Saiz
- Batman Volume Three: Death Of The Family by Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo
- Secret Origins: Volume One by Various Authors & Artists
- Batgirl Volume One: The Darkest Reflection by Gail Simone & Ardian Syaf
- Suicide Squad Volume 1: Kicked In The Teeth by Adam Glass & Various Artists

QBD Link: https://blog.qbd.com.au/2016/04/26/louises-top-5-dc-comic-trades/

Top 5 Wednesday: Characters You Are Most Like

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is all about characters that I share traits with. We have all read a book and felt like we connected with one of the characters as they reminded us of ourselves. That is what this week's Top 5 list is about. Here is the 5 characters, I feel that I am most like. Let's get into it.

5. Min From "Why We Broke Up" By Daniel Handler 

Despite that fact I didn't like this book, I was still able to relate to Min in some ways. It is quite obvious that she was a sentimental type of person as she kept a lot of little mementos to represent the special times that she and Ed shared. I too do this type of thing but not exclusively to relationships. I love to keep things such as tickets from movies and name cards from weddings as they mean something to me. I too keep them in a box and some times go through it to reminisce. This is a very similar thing that Min does.

Review Tuesday: The Graveyard Book By Neil Gaiman

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is a review of a book that I read last year. I had heard so many good things about this book and the author that I'm surprised that I didn't pick up the book earlier. This book is The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman who is an award winning author.

So let's just jump straight in the review.

Title: The Graveyard Book
Author: Neil Gaiman & Chris Riddell (Illustrator)
First Publication Year: 2008
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Goodreads Link: 
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6687860-the-graveyard-book
Plot Summary: When someone known as "the man Jack" murders a family one evening, he realises that there still one member of the family he has yet to attend to. The little one year old had coincidently wondered out of their cot and out of the house, just in time to escape the criminal. Ending up in a nearby graveyard, he is found by ghosts that live there and they decide to raise him to protect him from 'The man Jack." As the little boy grows up, he begins to discover more about the world outside the graveyard but the real question is who is "The man Jack" and why did he kill this boy's family?

Wrap Up Saturday: April Wrap Up

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is a wrap up of the books I read in April! Before we get into the post, I would just like to mention that I have decided to make a change to the type of posts I will be making on Saturdays. I have noticed over the last couple of months, that at the beginning of each month I end up writing a lot of wrap up posts on Thursdays. I have some new ideas for future posts that I want to put up on Thursdays and so I have decided to dedicated Saturdays to my wrap up posts. These posts will include monthly wrap ups, instagram challenges and book hauls. As a result, I have also decided to combine the mini review posts with the full reviews on Tuesdays. I hope you guys enjoy this new arrangement. Book blogging is still really new to me and so I am still testing things out but I am loving it so far. Now let's get into the wrap up!

Title: Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows
Author: J.K. Rowling
Publication Year: 2007
Publisher: Bloomsbury Childrens Books
Goodreads Link: 
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22037483-harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows
Sentence Summary: The epic conclusion to the Harry Potter series, where Harry has his final battle with his number one enemy.
Mini Review: This was a great last book to this fantastic series. I was kind of hoping to finish this book in March with the rest of the series but unfortunately didn't get it done in time. This series turned out to be way more than what I expected it to be and as a result, I ended up loving it more than I ever thought I would. I really enjoyed this last book as there was a great amount of adventure as well as action and mystery as we reached the final battle. Though I did know quite a few things that were going to happen in the end, I did still quite enjoy the book and still got surprised on many things that I hadn't already been told about. There were still a great deal of twists and turns in this final instalment, despite me knowing some of the bigger events. I will say though, that the only reason why I didn't give it 5 stars is because I did find some of the beginning moments to be quite slow. Other than that, this was great and was quite a satisfying conclusion to this series. J.K. Rowling is an amazing writer and story teller and I am excited for the new Harry Potter type books that are due to come out this year. It was definitely a great time to finally read the series.
Star Rating: 4.5/5 Stars!

Book Tag Friday: How I Read Tag

Hey Everyone,

Today's second post is a tag I found while googling for a new tag to do. This tag is called the How I Read tag and I found it through Ashley at Climb The Stacks on Youtube. I'm not too sure who the original creator was, so if you do know, please let me know in the comments. This tag is all about how I read and this should be an interesting tag to answer. If you would like to see Ashley's answers you can view them at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMXTWolCVe4. Lets get into it!

1. How do you find out about new books to read?

I normally find out about new books through work (I work in a book store) or through people on goodreads & youtube. It is so dangerous watching book hauls at the end of every month as I hear about new books that sound great and so my TBR grows longer. 

2. How did you get into reading?

I'm not too sure, when I was younger I loved to read and would read whatever I could find. For as long as I've known, I have been into reading but I think it has only been over the last few years that I've really been into it and tried to read more each month.

Book Tag Friday: The McFLY Book Tag

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is a tag that I'm so happy to have found. So as many people know, I love the UK band McFLY and last week they had announced that they are going back on tour in the UK. Even though I won't be seeing them, I am still really excited that they are performing again after a couple of year of being McBusted rather than just McFLY. So in honour of this exciting news, I found this book tag all about McFLY songs that was inspired by the Taylor Swift book tag. The original creator of this tag was a youtuber named Juh Claro. Her video is in Portuguese and so I have translated the questions or have altered them to what I think she was trying to say. If you would like to watch the original video, you can view it at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvr6pyhy2Cw. Let's get right into it!

1. All About You 

(A book with a sweet romance)

Billy And Me by Giovanna Fletcher: I think that it's only fair that I pick one of Giovanna Fletcher's books for this question as this song was actually written for her by the lead singer of the band (Her husband), Tom Fletcher. I really did find the romance in this book to be really sweet minus all the drama that took place. They were a cute couple and I'm so excited for the sequel that comes out this year. 

April Book Haul Part I (2016)

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is the first part of my April book haul! If you follow my instagram, you might of seen an image I posted of all the books I got in April. There is quite a few of them and so I decided to split the whole haul up into two posts. This first post will contain all of the fiction books and the next post (which will be out next Thursday) will be the rest of the books. Let's get straight into it!

FICTION:

Title: Second Life
Author: S.J. Watson
Publication Year: 2015
Publisher: Text Publishing
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24835900-second-life
Short Summary: A psychological thriller about the impacts of living a double life. Julia is determined to find out the truth about what happened to her sister and why she was killed but how far will she go in order to get to the bottom of things? Is she willing to lose everything for what she wants?

Top 5 Wednesday: Authors You'd Want To Meet

Hey Everyone,

Today's post is all about authors I would love to meet, but more specifically authors I would like to meet who will be at Book Expo America (BEA) or Bookcon this year. These two events are two of the biggest book conventions in the world that take place in the US. Unfortunately I won't be going to either of them as I live in Australia but never the less, these are the top 5 authors I would of liked to have seen if I were attending. Let's get into it!

5. Jenny Han 

(Book Con)

Author of some well know contemporary series which include "The Summer I Turned Pretty" Trilogy and the "To All The Boys I've Loved Before" Duology. To be honest, I have yet to read any of her books but they are titles that I really want to get to because I just know I will enjoy them. I would love to meet her as I would love to learn more about her. I've heard great things about her books as well as her as a person through people online and so I'm sure she would be super nice. I also follow her instagram and love it. 

Review Tuesday: Batman Vol 1-3 By Scott Snyder

Hey Everyone,

Today's review is of another DC comic series that I have started but have yet to finish. The Scott Snyder run of the Batman series is one that I have been following for about a year now and in 2015, I was able to read the first 3 volumes as well as volume 5. I hope to catch up and read the rest of the volumes soon but for now I will just review the three volumes for you guys today.

Let's get into it!

Series Title: Batman (Batman Vol. II)
Author: Scott Snyder
Illustrator/s: Greg Capullo & Jonathan Glapion
Number of Books: 8 (Currently)
Series Summary: A new era of adventures and missions of the Dark knight as he comes face to face with both old and new enemies who want to take him down and claim the Gotham city as their own. Accompanied by not only his side kick, Robin but by his whole Bat-Family that include Batgirl and Nightwing, Can Batman protect his city as well as maintain his positive social image as Bruce Wayne?


Title: Batman Volume 1: The Court of Owls
Publication Year: 2012
Publisher: DC Comics
Goodreads Link: 
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15798376-batman-vol-1
Review: I went through a huge comic book kick throughout 2015 and that’s when I finally got into DC Comics. I actually started off by reading the fifth volume of the series as I was looking for a book that specifically had the Riddler in it and the salesman recommended for me to read number five and said I wouldn’t need to read the prior books. After finishing that book, I was completely hooked and wanted to start the series from the very beginning. This volume was definitely a good start for the new batman story as it builds the world and the story surrounding Batman. It was perfect for someone like me who knew very little about the previous Batman books as it explained what needed to be explained during scenes and so it all made perfect sense. It is quite obvious that this was the first book of the series as it wasn’t anything extraordinary but it did leave the story in an exciting position at the end. At times it did get boring but I tried to not let it get to me as I know it was just mainly made to give a taste of what was yet to come in the next volume. One thing that I did really like in particular was the art work/style as I felt it fit perfectly with the story and the atmosphere it was trying to establish. This was a great way to start off my Batman obsession but can definitely say that the plot does get better with each volume.
Star Rating: 3/5 Stars!

Instagram Book Challenge: April Potter Challenge

Hey Everyone,

Sorry there weren't any posts for the last few days and thank you everyone for being very understanding. I was going to post three catch up posts today but have decided to just make double posts on Friday and Saturday this week. In the meantime, here is one catch up post that I was suppose to put up last Thursday. I've been meaning to do this challenge all month and so I'm glad I finally got a chance to do it today. So for the last few months, I have been participating in a lot of bookstagram challenges but there was one in particular that caught my eye in the middle of last month (April).

#Potterreadingchallenge is a monthly challenge that was created by Sally over at The.Booklovers.Guide on Instagram. The cool thing about this challenge is that it is all about Harry Potter, which is what I've been obsessed with for the couple months. Unfortunately, I only just discovered this challenge around the middle of April and felt it would be pointless to start from there. So I have decided to do a full blog post, completing all the questions and simply just answering them like a regular book tag.

There are 30 prompts and so let's get started!

1. Your House

Hufflepuff: As soon as I finished reading the books, I took the Pottermore Sorting Test as well as a few other sorting quizzes online and I got Hufflepuff as a result for all of them. I read the description and I must say that I fits me perfectly. (Photo: Hufflepuff crest from Pottermore)

2. Favourite Magical Creature

Phoenixes: I loved reading about Fawkes and the powers that a Phoenix has. It seems like they would be a loyal and helpful companion.