My Weekly Recap: 29/08/2015

This week has been a bit slow on the blogging side of things. I am absolutely exhausted at the moment, so I haven't really had the energy to do too much. I did one post where I decided to do a chapter by chapter series recap of the Throne of Glass series, which took forever. That took me five straight hours to type up, left me with a ridiculously sore back and meant I had to skip dinner! But it felt totally worth it and I am rather proud of that post. 

I've not done as much reading as usual this week, mostly because I have been too tired to concentrate. I'm on a medication that, whilst it is really good and helps me, it's main side effect is insomnia, which means I haven't been getting a good nights sleep. It sucks always being tired, but completely unable to get a decent nights sleep. But the medication helps with everything else, so it's a side effect you kind of just have to deal with. I'm going to try and get more posts up next week, I have one or two already drafted. 

I've begun to realise just how many unread books I own. My bookshelves are more like my own personal bookshop/library. As I can go there and browse through them all looking for my next read. But it's probably not good to own hundreds of unread books. So I have been limiting my book buying! I've had one pre-order come in, but haven't bought any other books this week. I want to try and get through some of the ones I own first. 

The Throne of Glass Series: Recap

Hey guys, last year,  few years ago I did a complete chapter by chapter recap of the first four Throne of Glass books, in preparation for reading Empire of Storms. I decided to actually make notes of every chapter. I always need to reread a series when a new book is released and it is very time consuming, especially in a series as long as this. I posted my chapter by chapter recap here on the blog and it proved very popular, it still brings a ton of people to my blog even now. I didn't add Empire of Storms at the time, as I didn't take notes whilst reading. I have just done a reread of it, having read my original recap to avoid having to do a whole series reread, and have now added Empire of Storms. Kingdom of Ash comes out in just a few days so I probably won't have time to add that to this.

I have a terrible memory and know a lot of you guys have this problem too. Sometimes it isn't possible to reread before starting the next book, and you are left a little confused and unsure about all the details. So I really hope this chapter by chapter recap is helpful to you all. This took forever to write up and I haven't gone through it all yet, so there might be spelling errors or really crap punctuation and I apologise. I broke the books down chapter by chapter as it seemed the easiest way.This may contain far too much information, but I noted down a lot! 

I feel it goes without saying, but I will say it anyway, this post is going to contain spoilers for all five of the first Throne of Glass books. I like to think you all already realised that!

You can go to individual posts for all the recaps using these links:

Throne of Glass
Crown of Midnight

Heir of Fire
Queen of Shadows
Empire of Storms
Tower of Dawn
Kingdom of Ash

Crescent City recaps:

House of Earth and Blood

House of Sky and Breath

ACOTAR recaps:

A Court of Thorns and Roses

A Court of Mist and Fury

A Court of Wings and Ruin

A Court of Frost and Starlight

When I'm Not Being A Bookworm: Netflix Binging

Believe it or not, my whole life doesn't completely revolve around book. Yes, most of my expendable income goes on books. Yes, most of my free time goes on either reading books or blogging about books. And, yes, I work in a library and am surrounded by books all day. But sometimes, I take a break from my bookworm ways and do something that doesn't involve books - it's a real struggle, but I do it! 

One of the things that I turn to is NETFLIX! Netflix is amazing, especially after a long day at work. When I come home at night, sometimes I'm too stressed out to relax and read, but too tired to take the time to blog. This is when it's perfect to collapse onto my bed and binge watch a show on Netflix. I'm sure I am not alone in this, I assume a lot of my fellow book bloggers do this too. Today, I thought I would share the shows that I have recently binge watched, or am currently obsessed with! Then hopefully you guys can recommend me some shows too. 

Paper Towns by John Green: I Just Don't Get It!

Title: Paper Towns
Author: John Green
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Buy this book: Amazon (UK) / Amazon (US) / Book Depository 

Who is the real Margo?  Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificent, adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she opens his bedroom window late one night and summons him to join her on an ingenious campaign of revenge - he follows.  After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to find that Margo has not. Always an enigma, she now becomes a mystery and Q soon learns that there are clues to be following in his search for Margo. 

This is my second John Green book and I wish I could say that I absolutely loved it. But I didn't. I read The Fault in Our Stars and I really enjoyed that one, although it wasn't an amazing 5/5 read for me. I hear so much praise and love for John Green, so I really wanted to try more from him to see if those books blew me away and impressed me as much as they seemed to impress everyone else. I didn't find that to be the case with Paper Towns, in fact, I ended up enjoying it less than The Fault in Our Stars.

The story follows Q, a boy who is in love with Margo Roth Spiegelman and has been since they were children. They spend one crazy night together, and the next day Margo disappears. She leaves little clues behind that Q follows in order to track her down. The story IS Margo Roth Spiegelman, which I wouldn't mind if I found her to be an interesting and likeable character. She isn't. Q is actually obsessed with her and in all honesty...

Night Owls by Jenn Bennett: Review, Author Interview & Giveaway

Title: Night Owls
Author: Jenn Bennett
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Buy the book: Amazon (UK) / Amazon (US) / Book Depository

Feeling alive is always worth the risk. Meeting Jack on the Owl - San Francisco's night bus - turns Beatrix's world upside down. Jack is charming, wildly attractive... and possibly one of San Francisco's most notorious graffiti artists. But Jack is hiding a piece of himself. On midnight rides and city rooftops, Beatrix begins to see who this enigmatic boy really is. 

Reviewing this book is going to be so hard because all I want to do is scream at you about how absolutely fantastic it was. This book just completely amazed me and I have fallen a little in love with it. It instantly topped my top reads of the year list and became a firm favourite of mine. So I am going to try my best in this review to explain all of the reasons why this is an incredible read that you have to read! I also just want to take a moment to explain that this has a different title and cover in the US. There the title is The Anatomical Shape of the Heart, so make sure to keep and eye out for it and buy it at the first opportunity you get!

This is one of those books where I know that I won't be able to review it well enough to do the book justice, but I am going to try my hardest. I have so much I want to say about this book, but no idea where to even begin. I don't want to overwhelm you with all of my thoughts, but I do want to adequately express and explain why this book became an instant favourite of mine and why you should run out and buy it. I feel like the best way to do this is in LIST FORM! Yes, time for a good old list.

Reasons Night Owls is one of the best books I've ever read: