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Thoughts of a Bibliophile



Oh, I love books! For so long I only read on my kindle but ever since I have started to buy physical copies, I cannot seem to stop! As Christmas was coming around the corner, I was very good this month in not buying every single book I wanted, hoping I would get some more for Christmas (which I did and I was so happy and lucky to get!

I must have been in a very contemporary mood at the beginning of this month as all the books I bought were in that genre. I have already read all of these and have a full, spoiler free reviews posted so I will only give a short synopsis of the book and what I thought, linking the rest of my review in the title of the book so you can see in more detail what I thought of each one!  



The Upside of Unrequited by Becki Albertalli
Published by Penguin, 2017
Genre: Young-adult Contemporary
Pages: 336
Rating: ðŸŒŸðŸŒŸðŸŒŸ

Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love- she's lived through it twenty-six times. She crushes hard and crushes often, but always in secret. Because no matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can't stomach the idea of rejection. So she's careful. Fat girls always have to be careful.

Then a cute girl enters Cassie's orbit, and for the first time ever, Molly's cynical twin is a lovesick mess. Meanwhile, Molly's totally not dying of loneliness - except for the part where she is. Luckily, Cassie's new girlfriend comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick. Will is funny and flirtatious and just might be perfect crush material. Maybe more than crush material. And if Molly can win him over, she'll get her first kiss and she'll get her twin back. 

There's only one problem: Molly's coworker Ried. He's an awkward Tolkien superfan with a season pass to the Ren Faire and there's absolutely no way Molly could fall for him. Right?

Goodreads

This was such a lovely light, feel-good read. It is no secret that I loved Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda so I really wanted to try Becki Albertalli's other book to see if it was just as good. I still love Simon more, but I fell in love with this story and it's characters too. Remember to click on the title of the book to get my full review!



Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Published by Macmillan, 2013
Genre: Young-adult, Contemporary
Pages: 549
Rating: ðŸŒŸðŸŒŸðŸŒŸ

Cath is a Simon Snow fan. 

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan...

But for Cath, being a fan is her life - and she's really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it's what got them through their mother leaving. Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like characters for every movie premiere. 

Cath's sister has grown away from fandom, but Cath can't let go. She doesn't want to.

Now that they're going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn't want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside her comfort zone. She's got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fanfiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can't stop worrying about her dad, who's loving and fragile and has never really been alone. 

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And doe she even wants to move on if that means leaving Simon Snow behind?

There is a lot going on in this book! More than I actually realised whilst reading it. I am very behind the times in reading Fangirl as I feel like everyone has years ago or it like me and feel that they should have already and guilty that they haven't. It is another light read that is fun but you can really get involved with the characters. Again, click on the title for my full review! 


One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus
Published by Penguin, 2017
Genre: Young-adult Contemporary/ Mystery 
Pages: 358
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Pay close attention and you might solve this. 
One Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention. 
Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. 
Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. 
Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing. 
Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher. 
And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app.
Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who's on the loose?
Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.

Goodreads

I really enjoyed this. It was slightly clique but I think it was meant to be and actually played to the story more than if everyone was unique and a never before seen character. I did guess the ending halfway through but I didn't mind too much as I loved reading about the characters and what they were going through throughout the whole ordeal. 


Release by Patrick Ness
Published by Walker Books LTD, 2017
Genre: Young-adult Contemporary
Pages: 287
Rating: ðŸŒŸðŸŒŸ

Release is one day in the life of Adam Thorn, 17. It's a big day. Things go wrong. It's intense, and all the while, weirdness approaches...

Adam Thorn is having what will turn out to be the most unsettling, difficult day of his life, with relationships fracturing, a harrowing incident at work, and a showdown between this gay teen and his preacher father that changes everything. It's a day of confrontation, running, sex, love, heartbreak, and maybe, just maybe, hope. He won't come out of it unchanged. And all the while, lurking at the edges of the story, somthing extraordinary and unsettling is on a collision course. 

Good reads

As you can tell by my star rating, I didn't enjoy this book very much. I thought the two perspectives, one from Adam and one from this strange dead girl/ghost queen, didn't merge very well and I could have done without the latter. I really enjoyed reading about Adam and his life so would have wanted more about him. I think I missed the point with this one...


Onto what I got for Christmas... My family were so generous with all their gifts and I got so many lovely presents, some of which were obviously books. Whilst I did write a very long list (basically my entire TBR list) I got a few surprises in there too which was fab! I am so excited to read every single one! 

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Published by Vintage Classics, 2010 (originally published in 1877)
Genre: Russian Classic
Pages: 963

Anna is a beautiful, intelligent woman whose passionate affair with the dashing Count Vronsky leads to her ruin. But her story is also about searching for meaning, and by twinning it with that of Levin, an awkward idealist whose happy marriage and domestic trials form the backdrop for a similar quest, Tolstoy creates a rich and complex masterpiece that has captures the imagination of readers for decades. 

Edition Blurb

I have wanted to read Anna Karenina for a long time now and when I saw this edition, I knew I had to finally pick it up. Now, this is a HUGE book. Not only is it 963 pages long, but the actual dimensions of the book are bigger than your average paperback. It is going to take me some time to read this and I don't want to dedicate all my reading time to it for a month or two as I won't be able to read anything else in that time. Instead, I have made it one of my resolutions to read it over the next year. That way I can enjoy it more and other books that I really want to read too.

I have never tried any Russian Literature before and am really intrigued as it has such a renowned reputation. I am excited, if not a bit daunted, to get stuck into this over the next few weeks!

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Published by Vintage Classics, 2014(originally published in 1814)
Genre: Victorian Classic
Pages: 560

Fanny Price's rich relatives offer her a place in their home so that she can be properly brought up. However, Fanny's childhood is a lonely one as she is never allowed to forget her position. Her only ally id her cousin Edmund. When her cousins befriend two glamorous new young people who have arrived in the area, Henry and Mary Crawford, Edmund starts to grow close to Mary and Fanny finds herself dealing with feelings she never experienced before.

Edition Blurb

I love Jane Austen. Each one of her books I seem to love more than the last and I cannot wait to finish reading all her works. I believe I now own a copy of all her works but have only read three (Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Persuasion) so need to get working through those! This is a beautiful edition as well which always helps to encourage me to pick up a book!

Northanger Abby by Jane Austen
Published by Vintage Classics, 2014 (originally published in 1818)
Genre: Victorian Classic
Pages: 286

Catherine Morland is a young girl with a very active imagination. Her entry into the fashionable social scene in Bath results in an invitation to stay with new friends at Northanger Abby, but Catherine's naivety and love of sensational novels lead to embarrassing and entertaining consequences. 

Edition Blurb

A book about someone who loves books? I'm there. I think this is the Austen that my teacher said was her poke at Gothic Literature which was very popular at that time. Hopefully, it will be both fun and interesting to read as a lot of the books I have to read for school are in the Gothic genre.

A Court of Thorns and Roses Box Set by Sarah J Mass
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing
Genre: YA Fantasy

Feyre is a huntress.

She thinks nothing of slaughtering a wolf to capture its prey. But, like all mortals, she fears what lingers mercilessly beyond the forest. And she will learn that taking the life of a magical creature comes at a price...

Imprisoned in an enchanted court in her enemy's kingdom, Feyre is free to roam but forbidden to escape. Her captor's body bears the scars of fighting, and his face is always masked - but his piercing stare draws her ever closer. As Feyre's feelings for Tamlin begin to burn through every warning she's been told about his kind, an ancient, wicked shadow grows.

I am halfway through the first book and so far so good! Not sure if I like it as much as I did Throne of Glass but that took until the third book to get really good so I am going to stick with it! I have so many people raving about this but also not liking it so much so I am interested to see how this one goes! Plus, getting the boxset means that I can just marathon it and really get into the series!

May We Borrow Your Language? by Philip Gooden
Published by Head of Zeus Ltd, 2016
Genre: Non-Fiction
Pages: 359

The English language that is spoken by one billion people around the world is a linguistic mongrel, its vocabulary a diverse mix resulting from centuries of borrowing from other tongues. 

May We Borrow Your Language? explores the intriguing and unfamiliar stories behind scores of familiar words that English has filched from abroad; in doing so, it also sheds fascinating light on the wider history of the development of the English we speak today. 

Full of etymological nuggets to intrigue and delight the reader, this is a gift book for word buffs to cherish - as cerebrally stimulating as it is more-highly entertaining.

This sounds like such an interesting book. I was saying in my 2017 wrap up post that I have read no factual books this year and I am going to change that this year and this seems like the perfect way to start! I love learning about different languages and one of my regrets is not carrying on French for A Level but it is one of my aspirations to become fluent in a foreign language.

The English language is so strange as it is made up of so money others and is the most spoken language across the world. I really think that I will enjoy this read and it will help me to understand more about my language!


And that is that! Quite a lot there for me to work my way through (I also got a £20 book token which I may or may not have spent already...) and will keep me busy! What bookish treats did you get this Christmas?

17:00 1 comments


2017 has absolutely flown by and I cannot believe that we are getting ready to welcome the new year already. It has been such an important year for me and I have had some of the best experiences of my life (so far) in these past 365 days. 

I went on my first solo travel trip to Sri Lanka for four weeks during the summer and had the most amazing time - I would recommend everyone take a trip out there and try somthing on their own. It was slightly daunting to start, but I made some of the nicest people, some of whom have become close friends now, and halfway through the first week I was having too much fun to feel scared any longer. It was an amazing way for me to feel some independence and freedom, as well as to broaden my outlook on life by experiencing a new culture that is is so polar to our western life. 

I also decided, after coming back from my trip that I would make the full change of Kizzi May into a book blog! It has been the best decision as I can now blog about what I truly love, with the odd random post of different things that are going on in life to change it up a little. I have really loved being apart of the book community, especially on Instagram where everyone is so lovely and welcoming. I have managed to slowly but surely increase my following on Instagram, and am posting every day (with the odd one missed now and then!) and I am so happy with my progress as it has been a real focus of mine these last few months. I also really love taking the photos, planing it all out and its become a small hobby - if Instagram posting can be a hobby?

And so onto my bookish overview of the year... 

This is where my geeky side is really shown as I have made some charts on excel to visually see my reading year so I hope you enjoy! 

I have read a total of 41 books which is 9 short of my Goodreads challenge. I am disappointed that I didn't make my goal of 50 but I had a very busy year and important year with school so I had a very slow start to the reading year and an even slower middle to the year but in the last three months I have managed to pull it back. So overall I am actually happy with what I got. I think I was maybe slightly over ambitious with what I could achieve with everything else I had planned for this year. 

It is pretty clear to see that my most read genre is fantasy. Apart from Harry Potter, before this year I hadn't really read much of fantasy and it wasn't until I started watching a lot more booktube that I became interested in the genre but I have definitely become a firm fan! My first read was the Red Queen series which I read right back in January and I fell in love with it. A lot of people say it's similar to everything else they've read but I suppose as it was my first dip into the genre, I could fully enjoy it!

My second most read is contemporary. I have always read contemporary as they tend to be such easy reads and mostly light a fluffy which is just what I want to read if I am feeling a little stressed and want a break from school work. Which means I have been reading them quite a lot recently... My favourite new author that I have found this year has to be Beck Albertalli. I love both her books and I am sure you have heard me say this many times if you have read my recent posts, but Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda was one of my all-time favourite reads of this year and I cannot wait for her new releases in 2018.

If you have been on my Instagram page at all, you will have noticed that I often post about my beautiful classics which have to be some of my favourites. I don't tend to blog about them as fewer people are interested (but if you are let me know what kind of posts you would like to read about!). But I do love a good classic. A few of these I had to read for school, like Wuthering Heights, Frankenstein, but some others that I really loved was North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell and a modern classic was Rebecca.

Another thing I noticed was that I haven't read a single non-fiction book this year. I have flicked through a few but I haven't sat down and read, cover to cover, anything that wasn't completely made up. So I will definitely have to change that next year! I did manage to get a good amount of both adult fiction and young adult fiction which is good. I expected to have read more YA as they tend to be easier to get through so I can marathon them a lot more easily!

And I have read some very good fiction books this year! I am quite picky about my star rating and it has to be a phenomenal read in order to get 5 stars but I managed to read 4 which is pretty good!
My four 5-star reads of the year were: 

  • Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
  • The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
  • Simon Vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becki Albertalli
  • Heir of Fire by Sarah J Mass. 
Amazing books. I won't list all 18 of my 4-star reads, but here are my top six 4-star reads of the year:

  • Kings Cage by Victoria Aveyard
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
  • Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
  • Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
  • We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
  • Tower of Dawn by Sarah J Mass
These aren't in any order as that would just be too difficult! It's hard enough just choosing a few!

And so that is pretty much my year in books in a post for you! I love looking back at the year and this post is probably more interesting to me than to you but I hope you did enjoy it! How was your year? 

I also found on my Goodreads, my year in books where they have rounded up some facts about my reading year which was pretty cool so here are some of those to finish off"

Pages read: 16 430
Shortest book: Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote (157 pages)
Longest book: Empire of Storms by Sarah J Mass (693 pages)
Most Popular book on Goodreads: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee ( 4 592 901 reads)
Least Popular book on Goodreads: A Shiver if Snow and Sky by Lisa Lueddecke (276 reads)
Most Popular book on Good reads: Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo (4.62 avg.)
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About me



Hi, I'm Kizzi, and welcome to my blog! I am a UK blogger who loves to talk anything book related!

The main genre I read is fantasy as I love their elements of weird and wonderfulness!

I am currently working on outlining my first novel and I want to keep a record as I work my way through it, so plan on posting updates every now and again when I get to any big land marks but I post more updates on my Instagram account so feel free to check that out in the link below.

If you have any book recommendations or reviews you would like to see, or writing projects you want to discuss, I would love to talk about them with you so please email of dm me on Instagram :)

Thank you for visiting my blog and happy readings!

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      • December and Christmas Book Haul
      • A Bookish Overview of 2017
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