The Jewelry Recipe Book | Nancy Soriano | Reviewed By Erin

Monday, 27 April 2015

The Jewelry Recipe Book | Nancy Soriano | Reviewed By Erin

Review copy c/o Netgalley

The Jewelry Recipe Book is a great new guide to creating statement jewellery pieces and encourages readers to express themselves through crafting.

One of the great things about this tutorial book is that the projects aren’t just focused on one material or technique. Instead, they are split into sections depending on the materials used including ribbon, studs, paper, shells, leather, shrink plastic, felt and many more.

Each tutorial features a beautiful full-page colour photograph of the finished piece as well as smaller images to accompany the short step-by-step instructions. In addition the book offers lots of handy tips for not only basic techniques but also related topics such as necklace lengths, choosing colours and ways to make the designs suit your body type.

A lot of the projects in The Jewelry Recipe Book are simple but very effective and there is a wide variety of styles to suit different tastes. Although I can see the book appealing to a wide audience I think it would be particularly well suited to creative teens as many of the jewellery projects appear to be targeted at this age group.

Although as someone who has created and shared tutorials not all of the ideas in the book were new to me, I still think there is a nice selection of projects here. My two top picks would have to be the Asymmetrical Rings made from wire & crystal beads and the pretty Woodland Crown made from tiny pinecones.

With projects that are great for beginners this is a neat little jewellery craft book full of fun ideas that will encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and leave you feeling inspired. 

 

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Group Collaboration | Ficitonal Dinner Parties

Saturday, 25 April 2015

Group Collaboration | Ficitonal Dinner Parties

Welcome to another group post where this month we're talking dinner parties! One of our favourite questions to ask fellow book bloggers is which five characters they would love to invite to a dinner party so we thought it might be fun to ask the same question to our team here at BB! Here's the characters that made the cut....

Don't forget to leave us a comment letting us know who you would choose!


All all of my guests are all inherently nerdy and feel really passionate about something - whether that's books, video games, or magical creatures! After some coercing (and maybe some ice-breakers) I reckon they would all come out of their introverted shells and make fantastic company at the dinner table. I feel like Luna especially would bring out the best of everyone in the group - though Cath may have to contain her inner fangirl speaking to actual Luna Lovegood.

• Edward (Teddy) Todd - after reading this book I would have loved to see things from Teddy’s point of view, I would ask him lots of questions
• Brian Jackson - he would be able to provide entertainment
• Luna Lovegood - one of my favourite characters from Harry Potter, I’d love to learn more about her
• Finnick Odair - because he would be able to add a bit of cheekiness and fun to the evening
• Haymitch Abernathy - he’s quite a character and would add an extra element to the evening

I would think you would never run into danger of conversation running out with this group of dinner guests. All five are incredibly intelligent and quick witted, so I feel that the flow of dinner talk would not only be intellectually stimulating but would get pretty philosophical very quickly - especially with Albus and Mr Penumbra in the room. I do worry about the atmosphere turning heated though, with great minds comes even greater and polarising opinions. We may end up having to wrestle Elphaba and Jo off Sherlock at the end of the night...and not in a good way.

• Elizabeth Woodville - I'd like to ask her if she knew her sons (the princes in the tower) were dead or not. And if she knew they weren't, did she know what happened to them?
• Anne Boleyn - she is one of my favourite English queens. I'd like to know if all the wrong that has been done to her was deserved or not.
• Katherine Of Aragon - was she, or was she not married to Arthur, Prince of Wales? She was an amazing woman and stood her ground, no matter what. And it'd be fun to sit with her and Anne Boleyn.
• Joan of Arc - she would get along great with Katherine of Aragon I think! What inspires me in Joan is her faith and how it got her to do things that are unimaginable. I'm not religious, but it's still incredible what she pulled off.
• Lord Voldemort - why has he become such a dark, evil wizard? What has led him to become so cruel? I know he's the odd one out here, but still.

All base images sourced from unsplash.com

Who would you invite to your dinner party?

Our May group post is all about audiobooks! If you'd like more information about getting involved email us at bloggersbookshelf@gmail.com or tweet @blog_bookshelf

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The Reaper's Daughter | KM Randall | Reviewed by Anjali

Friday, 24 April 2015

The Reaper's Daughter | KM Randall | Reviewed by Anjali

"You may have​ heard of her before ... They call her the Grim Reaper."

Blake is a pretty normal teenage girl - she's got an amazing boyfriend, a funny best friend called Shelby, she is on the cheer-leading squad, and is an adrenaline junky. Things start to change when she turns 18 however, starting with catching the eye of a strange boy in the bleachers, and then with the death of her boyfriend. Blake is suddenly thrown into a world she didn't know, didn't believed, existed. Not only can she see dead people, but they want her to help them cross over. The strange boy in the bleaches turns out to be Rishi, a young death deity, who tries to explain to her that her mother, whom she thought was dead, is alive and wants to meet with her. He fails to mention, however, that her mother is actually pretty well known, at least in some circles; she's the Grim Reaper.

As Blake tries to come to terms with the fact that her mother is the Grim Reaper, and her best friend, who dabbles in the occult, is all rather accepting of this news, and that she herself is a death deity, she must travel with Rishi and Shelby to the Underworld, a place where her mother has been banished from, to retrieve the scythe, which is the source of Grim's powers and ability to be able to reap people. To do so they have to sneak into the place where Hades has it, and get back out alive.

I enjoyed this book. It was a fun (if not deadly) take on the story of the Grim Reaper, and was full of travel and adventure. The characters were great, and I especially liked Shelby, and how she is connected to the story so much more than some of the other books these days. The best friend had a key role in the story, rather than being someone who was sort of put to one side as new people and characters and drama take over the protagonist's life. I did enjoy the story line, and the explanations given for the things, like how there are different death deity for different parts of the world, and how some of the supernatural things work. I find that sometimes in supernatural/paranormal stories little details are overlooked and you just sort of have to accept them for what they are, and not think about the flaws too much. But I think that Randall did a great job in creating a whole world, rather than just bits and pieces sort of story.

While there were parts that were predictable, and moments I got really frustrated with Blake (something that's quite normal for me and main characters), I did really enjoy the story. I think I would have liked to have read more about Grim and have her in more scenes, but it's the beginning of a series, so I suspect she'll be more in the follow book/s. The Reaper's Daughter comes out on May 9th, so if this sounds like your type of book, make sure you grab a copy.


Thank you to KM Randall, via Erin Latimer, for providing me with a copy of this book for an honest review. 
Image from Good Reads

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Pretty Girl-13 | Liz Coley | Reviewed by Christina

Wednesday, 22 April 2015

Pretty Girl-13 | Liz Coley | Reviewed by Christina

Pretty Girl 13 is about Angie, a thirteen-year-old girl who gets kidnapped whilst out camping with her friends. Fast forward three years and she is outside of her house with no memory of what has happened whilst she was missing. Angie begins to uncover the darkest corners of her mind with help from a psychologist in order to find out what happened, who is responsible and why she can't remember.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. Whilst I was reading it, I enjoyed it and I was gripped by the plot line so it kept me turning each page. However, some parts made me question the psychology behind the ideas. I'm a psychology student but haven't studied the aspect that is relevant to this story (saying what it is would be a spoiler) so I'm not sure how accurate the therapy and psychological theories were, which annoyed me a bit and is definitely something I'll be looking into. Whilst reading the story, I found it was intriguing, if not slightly predictable. The main storyline and previously mentioned spoiler is the most obvious to me, as I had predicted it practically from the start, but that didn't take away my enjoyment when reading this book.

Angie was an interesting main character and I liked the little glimpses of her personality that we saw. The book was mainly written in third-person, which I found a little jarring, but was necessary for the storyline to be communicated to the reader effectively. I couldn't pick this book up then put it down, as it took a while to get back into the writing style - this book calls for longer reading periods so you have as little stop time as possible. I would definitely recommend reading this book, particularly if you are a fan of psychology and mental health. The twists and turns towards the end were what tipped this book into the four-star realm for me. If you're looking for a psychologically disturbing thriller, this one may be for you.

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Being A Book Blogger | Interview With Rachel aka Purple Owl Reviews

Monday, 20 April 2015

Being A Book Blogger | Interview With Rachel aka Purple Owl Reviews

Welcome to another edition of Being A Book Blogger where today I'm talking to Rachel the author of Purple Owl Reviews! Here's what she had to say about her most memorable review, an exciting dinner party and her blog's unique owl theme...



BB: For any of our readers who haven't yet discovered Purple Owl Reviews could you tell us a little bit more about the girl behind the blog?

I’m not sure there’s much to tell. I’m a native Michigander and have only ever left to go to Iowa for college (Midwestern, through and through). My hobbies are pretty basic: reading, quilting, and baking. I’m currently a cubicle troll, looking for a library job. I am right-handed but am getting closer and closer to being ambidextrous.

BB: How did you get into book reviewing? And what has been the biggest challenge so far?

I didn’t intend to do a lot of book blogging. Some friends and I were doing a reading competition and I thought it would be fun to start up a book blog to keep my friends updated on what I was reading (this predates Purple Owl Reviews).

Then, last April, I stumbled across the Dewey 24-Hour Readathon. It was such an immersive, social experience that I found myself actually wanting to do more blogging and interacting further with other readers. Quite an achievement for the book blogging community given how anti-social I can be.

As for challenges, I’d say the biggest one is figuring out a comfortable pace for reading/reviewing to keep it in balance with everything else going on in my life.

BB: Which of your reviews are you most proud of? Which was the hardest to write?

I don’t know that it’s the one I’m most proud of, but it is my memorable for me: Grim Hearts by JD Fitzgerald. I remember this one the most because it was one of the first ARC’s I ever received. The publisher told me, before I finished reading, that they had to postpone the publication date because no one liked the ending. I loved the ending and had no problems saying so in my review. The book still hasn’t been published, last I checked.

As for the most difficult to write, there are several contenders. Most of them have the keyword “meh” associated with them. Any book that leaves me feeling “meh” is the most difficult to review because I have nothing to say. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t noteworthy, either.

BB: You have a unique rating system of 'hoot's on Purple Owl Reviews. How did you come up with this idea and the owl theme?
 
I’ve always liked owls, especially when I was a night owl (I’ve since established myself as a morning person). When I was in Iowa a barred owl flew within arms reach of me on my walk home. Owls, in mythology, can see when others cannot, so what better symbol of a reviewer?

The Hoots as a rating system stems from two phrases: “I don’t give a hoot” and “what a hoot!” I could have used this as the basis of a thumbs-up/thumbs-down rating system, but I prefer the flexibility of my current system.


BB: Which 3 books or series are at the top of your TBR list right now?

I really need to get caught up on the Ex-Heroes series by Peter Clines. I only have one more book to read before I’m caught up, but so many other books get in the way. I also want to read the book my husband got me, The Complete Book of Swords. And, if my reading ever slows down, I’d love to re-read The Silmarillion, my favorite Tolkien book.

BB: Just for fun, if you could invite just five fictional characters to a dinner party who would you choose and why?

- Barry/Zzzap from Ex-Heroes, because every party needs someone who has a limitless supply of pop culture references and bad jokes.
- Kyrtian from Elvenborn, because I want to know what happens in that world after the books left off.
- Mike Ross from Pennies for the Ferryman so he and Barry could discuss the differences in ghosts from their respective worlds.
- Archivist Fable from The Realmsic Conquest: The Hero of Legend, because I’m hoping to get some lessons from her on archival magic.
- Natani from TwoKinds (webcomic), because I want to know more about Keidran culture.

BB: Finally, we would love some recommendations, which book blogs are your favourites to read?

Without a doubt, Estella’s Revenge and Bibliognome

Where To Find Rachel Online: Blog | Twitter

Images c/o Rachel, interview by Erin

I'd like to say a huge thank you from all of us here at BB to Rachel for taking part in this interview. If you are a booktuber or book blogger and would like to be featured in a similar post we'd love to hear from you - just email us at bloggersbookshelf@gmail.com for information!

We're very pleased to announce that Rachel is also the newest member of our review team here at BB! Look out for her first post next month :)

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Bookish Links #3

Saturday, 18 April 2015

Bookish Links #3

It's time for another Bookish Links roundup! Here's what the team have been reading and loving lately...

1/ Books In A Box! - in a recent post Jamie shared a brilliant comparison between two of the most popular bookish subscription boxes; Owl Crate & Uppercase.

2/ All About The Heroines - this article we found over on Mashable has an interesting insight into the favourite heroines of a whole bunch of authors. Who would be your top pick?

3/ A Bookish Survey - the results of Book Riot's reading habit survey are a fascinating read! Click through to find out more about their reader's book buying habits, which formats were most popular and how many books were read.

4/ Six Degrees Of YA - ever wondered just how many of your favourite YA Reads are connected? This fun graphic shows how many popular adaptations are connected by the amazing actors they share.

5/ #HufflepuffPride! - we couldn't resist including this cute post from Buzzfeed which shares 19 reasons everyone should want to be a Hufflepuff.

6/ Upcycled Book Displays - if you're looking for a little unusual bookshelf inspiration, look no further! This roundup showcases book storage created using everything from skateboards to ladders, lego and even a piano!

7/ The Young Elites Is Set To Hit The Big Screen! - Marie Lu's 2014 YA novel is on the path to becoming a film, adapted by the company who brought The Maze Runner to life. We can't wait to see it!

Don't forget to leave us your favourite bookish links in the comments! 

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