St John Greene ~Mum's List~

Read: My Kindle

Paid: £1.99

Reason I choose it: I saw this at the library but never borrowed it at the time so when I saw it on Amazon I decided I wanted to read it.

Summary

Kate and Signe had 2 gorgeous little boys Reef and Finn. Reef was a healthy little baby but things suddenly turned for the worse when he became ill. At first doctors didn't know what was wrong with him, mum had a battle on her hands trying to convince doctors that something wasn't right and then eventually they found a doctor who discovered he had a very rare cancer around his pelvis area. There were lots of we aren't sure if he'll live, walk etc... but Reef beat the odds by first staying alive and then by getting up and walking. In the midst of his illness Kate had found out she was pregnant and gave birth to Finn at 7 months! They thought the worst of it was over, only one day Kate discovered a lump in her breasts and that resulted in her creating mum's list where if the worst happened she wanted her husband to have something to pull him through the days but also to leave a small piece of herself behind.  

My Opinion
I am in 2 minds about this book. First it is a book that really gets you thinking about your life and how you need to attempt to fulfil your dreams as you don't know what's around the corner. The Journey of Signe with his boys was really sweet. On the other hand it is very repetitive of Kate's list, it would have been better to have had the list printed at the beginning and mentioned as Signe completed things or considered doing something... instead he started with one and listed about 5 in one go. Then it also felt like he was just trying to get in to the public eye all the time with a big party, this lists, his son's cancer etc... and then dropping names of things he was working on. I actually got to the point then where I only read it to complete the book to see how things worked out but didn't care so much about the people anymore.


My Rating

It's a book thing...

I received this mini letter a while back and as you can see its turning out to be a not so mini letter anymore. This time we decided to go for the theme of favourite books and I loved this whole envelope (with contents of course).

 

The envelope is based on a book but I can't remember which now. The postage stamps related to a comic which I'm quite curious about but I haven't read comics in years so I don't even know all the British ones anymore even though I have postage stamps of a comic book range.  The postcards start with Alice in Wonderland, Lolita and Rosano Tijenas. I didn't know about the last 2 until I received this letter.

 

I now need to create my own but I need to decide on what I have to do so hopefully I'll be back soon with on a post on that.

 

Have you taken up creating your own mini letters?

 

Emma Donoghue~Room~



Read: Paperback
Paid: Borrowed from the library
Reason I choose it: It sounded interesting.

Summary

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.

(taken from the internet but not the actual blurb)

My opinion

I knew this book was written through the voice and thoughts of a 5 year old but I was imagining the 5 year olds that I work with... a good level of spoken English with decent sentences considering most of them are speaking it as an additional language. I've no idea what level of English Jack is speaking at but its even poorer then my niece who is 3 and a half and can speak better then this child. Your probably thinking yes but Jack only has his mum and the TV to learn from but we didn't speak any English with my niece until she was about 2 and a half and even then it was because she started to communicate to us this way because she had picked it up from TV. She even pestered her mum to go to school because everyone on TV did and my sister and I did. 

 It was just too irritating to get my head around and the sentences jumpy and not really coming together to make sense.

My Rating

My turn now...

Yesterday I showed you thing that I would be giving to people and today I decided to share with you some of the things that I have received mostly from children...

A handful of 'Thank You' cards, shop bought and handmade which were just so sweet, I could have cried.

I received 2 bunches of flowers which were exactly the same which is a good thing as I just put them both together to make a bigger bunch. I also received another pot of flowers which I really liked and I can't wait to keep it growing like my Roses one. I really now need to get a house to store all these wonderful plants in.

I received way too much chocolate but I'm not complaining as next year I'll be lucky if I get anything at all. With Ramadan hopefully starting on Saturday they will take forever to get eaten.

I also got a mug which I forgot to photograph and I'm too lazy to get up and do it now.

The background paper is cute don't you think, it looks so oriental and I'll have to think of something to be able to craft with it. I received this book from the teacher I worked with which sounds so interesting but its a little like wreck this journal in that some aspects of it are childish but I don't care as I know I'll have fun practising my drawing skills and relaxing. It would have made a nice cut out and keep idea for each area too. Like looking up different cushions, lamps etc... for your rooms to co-ordinate. Someone asked to see the inside on my Instagram so I took some photos of that too...

Tomorrow is my last day and I can't wait as I'm truely and utterly exhausted. For the first time in ages I slept all night and was rudely awoken by my alarm clock at 6am for my niece. I really could have kept sleeping.

I'm really not looking forward to September which makes it worse knowing my holidays will soon fly by.

Are you going on holiday this summer or will you be lucky enough to have some time off too?

P.S My cups were a hit!

Stephanie Grace Whitson ~Sixteen Brides~

Read: On Kindle

Paid: Free

Reason I choose it: I'd only just got my kindle so downloaded a lot of free books. I later had to delete many of them as they belonged to a series and the rest of the books were around £9 each.

Summary:

Fifteen women respond to an advert placed by Hamilton Drake saying that they are able to claim homestead in order to better their future. He makes it all the more real by providing paper etc... but his actual motive is to get the ladies to Nebraska and then use them to gain some money from men there looking for wives. The sixteenth lady joins them by mistake when she is running away from her past and is swept into the group on the train.

Once on the train the ladies learn the truth and it all becomes all that much more clearer when they reach Plum Grove and all the men come to see which ladies have turned up. Six of the ladies dig their heals in and refuse to go on ahead to find a prospective husband and they go on to create a great homestead with a few adventures in between....

My Opinion

This is a christian related book where each chapter begins with a couple of lines from the bible. This didn't bother me as I was able to just not read it and continue with the story which had only a small reference to the church.

It was a book worth reading and seeing how things develop for each lady but the only downside for me is that you never actually get to find out what exactly all the women are running away from... ok so all of them have lost a husband in the war but for some you get hints of under lying problems. I also felt one or two of the characters didn't have enough attention paid to them so you never got to really know them. So overall there were still a general mysteries and unanswered questions.

Rating
As there were not that many dull moments I would say it's

Liebster and Book......

Awarded to me by Yoshi

About the Award: • The Liebster Blog Award is given to upcoming bloggers who have less than 200 followers.
• The Meaning; Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.

The Rules:
1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.
2. Answer the questions the tagger has set for you plus create 11 questions for the people you've tagged to answer.
3. Choose eleven people and link them in your post.
4. Go to their page and tell them.
5. Remember, no tag backs!

I better get started and tell you 11 things about me....

1. I'm a person who mostly drinks water. It partly comes with having severe asthma as a child and fizzy drinks used to make it worse especially coca cola. Now it doesn't bother me but I don't like the taste, on very rare occasions I will drink fruit juices or diluted juices.
2. People try to stereotype me because I'm a Pakistani female and I dress traditionally. They always get a shock because I'm opinionated and they don't like it, also I like the more adventurous things. When I went to Nandos a couple of weeks ago one of the servers came over and joked with me about only wanted my chappattis and curry. When I went to the counter to order the lady was first shocked that I asked for a vegetarian burger, then I was going to ask for orange juice (as it was included in the price) and she just handed me a glass and told me everything was over there! It turned out it was all fizzy drinks and hot beverages, when they bought our food, I mentioned it and they nearly fell over themselves wondering what I was moaning about. Most families you will find have bottles and bottles of coca cola... not mine though.
3. I only learned to drive at night, even after all these years I still find it really uncomfortable to drive during the day... I think its one of the reasons I struggled to pass my test. It hasn't got anything to do with rush hour as the roads are pretty much the same, its just that I'm an evening/ night person.
4. I suffer from anxiety which is probably why I suffer from tiredness and stomach aches (but some things I think are medical too). I think I may have always suffered from it but its more noticeable to me over the years as I had a myomectomy operation, my dad died six months later, getting married, started a new job and then my granddad passing away all with in 2 months.... I notice it more now though because I imagined I'd get a house within months of my husband coming to England only its just over 5 and a half years since he came. I didn't look for about 2 years as he didn't have a job and I couldn't buy a house in the price of my mortgage and deposit. I just imagined life to be so different to what it is but its my own fault for not just doing things instead of waiting until I had a house.
5. When ever I go into the city I always have to make sure I go to WHSmith, Poundland and Bobs.
6. We grew up eating tonnes of fruit as well as junk food, so now I can't go a day without eating some form of fruit. Someone at work once said for my lunch I eat more fruit then they eat in a month. There are still so many pieces of fruit that I haven't tried and I can't wait to discover them.
7. My favourite colour is yellow and its something I'd wear even though my family can't cope with it, thankfully for them I hardly wear it. I actually saw some yellow footwear yesterday that I was going to buy but then didn't. I am mostly drawn to bright bold colours but then there are times when I like pastel colours.
8. I can never understand why when I say my sister, people say oh your sister-in-law and when I say sister-in-law they think its my sister. A few people have done this every time they speak to me and usually its the same people. I have 4 sister-in-laws (2 in Pakistan, 2 in England) and 1 sister.
9. I never write a shopping list as I usually know what I need but once at the supermarket my niece drives me insane with wanting to see the toys that I end up forgetting things and have to go back again the next day or a couple of days later.
10. My sister and I didn't get along until she moved out. There are still moments when I find her irritating and I've stopped going out shopping with her every weekend.
11. The more I want to save money, the more I seem to be spending it. They are things that I can use but I don't have a desperate need for them.

Now on to Yoshi's questions for me, these are tough but I'll try and answer them.

1) If this were your last day to live, what would you like to wear (a dress, your fave clothes,..) and what would be your last words?
Hmm... something colourful and uplifting. My last words would probably be Oh my god!

2) Which fantasy world would you like to live in?

Moomin Valley
3) What's your craziest quirk?

Some days my husband may bring something to eat on his way home from work. No matter how much of it I may have eaten or how full I am I always have to have a biscuit.
4) About what are you very picky?

Anything to do with meat, it something I don't enjoy but eat to make things easy for myself as otherwise I'd have to cook 2 meals. I don't like meaty take aways either so its always hard in what to buy when we have our take away once a week.
5) If you could change one small thing in this world, what would it be? (just a small one!)

Giving people the option to die if they are serverly ill and will die anyway, like cancer sufferers. In some countries its allowed but in most its not. I think the option should be given to parents with serverly disabled children even though some may see it as selfish if the parent took that option. I would say that it should have a minimum age through like 8 years old as you can't tell as a baby how that child may develope, it may surprise some people.

6) If you were allowed to wish for one talent, what would you choose?

To be able to draw, its something I always wish I could do.
7) What's the most important thing in life for you?

Being content with what I have.

8) If you had all the money in the world, but were only allowed to spend it in one day, what would you do?

A house for all 4 of us, the house will be decorated from top to bottom with everything to new, a car for all 4 of us, an unlimited supply of stamps, all the books I want to read and own,  I'd book a couple of holidays, buy a lot of items to give away on make my day, buy all the fancy craft gadgets, I have so many charities I want to give to this would be a great opportunity to do it.

9) If your life were a book, what would be the title?

What can I say....?
10) Tell 3 bad habits of yours.

• I rub my tongue on the top of the inside of my mouth when I am sleeping. I think I do it because of irritating sinuses.
• I've always irritated people for wiping my nose too much, one person even went as far as hiding the tissue box! I thought it was better then sniffing as my nose isn't actually snotty its just that blocked feeling at times.
• I'm loud when I talk, I know it annoys people but I don't always notice it at first. Its because I think my mum is a little deaf even though she's never been tested for it and was always loud so we've just picked it up from her.

11) Write one word (or more if needed) to each of the following words, that immediately comes to your mind (Like I say "Flowers" and the word that immediately comes to my mind would be "Colorful").

- Boyfriend~ companion

- Sweets~ cravings

- Crazy~ Nutter

- Best~ friend

- Meme~ fashion

- Black~ berry

- Strawberry~ delicious


Also received this one

From Everyday Lifes

 

Thanks so much!

 

I won't pass either award on as I know some people don't like getting them but if you would like them, I don't mind you awarding yourself and others it.