Bruges 2019| CarenzaOnBooks

For the first time in years, I went on a proper holiday and left the country. I had been desperate to go away, so my family and I decided to go to Bruges. This was a very last-minute decision, but it ended up being one of the best holidays of my life. 

Day One

The first day was mostly filled with travelling. It took us most of the day to get to Bruges, but this was actually quite fun so I didn't mind. We caught the Eurostar from London to Brussels, then a train from Brussels to Bruges. It was lovely as soon as we arrived. We dumped our bags at our apartment and went into the city. We did some exploring and also picked up some things for tea. It was a quiet day for us, but we were tired from travelling and we wanted to get up early so we could go do more the next day. 

The famous Market Square featuring the Bellfort 

A bookshop I visited but didn't buy anything from

Day Two

Day two was filled with what I would call the tourist bucket list. We did the majority of the tourist tick-list on this day. First port of call was to go up the Bellfort. As tiring as it was going up all those stairs it was worth it for the view alone. We were actually very lucky as while we were up there, the bells started ringing and it was nice just to be able to listen to them while appreciating the view. We then went and did another tourist tick-list and went on a canal boat tour. I had wanted to do one of these before we came and was very happy to tick it off my list. We did some more exploring of the main tourist attractions, including the Minnewater aka the Lake of Love before stopping for a quick snack at a cafe. Belgium is famous for its waffles and when in Belgium, you have to have one. They were amazing. I could have died happy at that moment in time. After our pit stop, we continued walking and walked around the outside of the city. We saw some of the gatehouses and finally ended the first part of our day by going up inside a windmill. We then went back to our apartment, had tea before heading out to this nightclub type place run by Bruges only vampire. It's called the Lucifernum, it's like a museum and a bar all rolled into one. It was another bit of good fun and we walked home at night time, meaning we got to see the city all lit up. 

View from the Bellfort 

View from the Bellfort

Canal Boat Tour

Lake of Love

The best waffle I have ever eaten

One of the windmills in Bruges

View from the windmill

Inside the Lucifernum

Bruges by night

Day Three

We started day three with one of the walks from our book about walks (I'd recommend buying one of these books as you get to go around different parts of the city). We saw some of Bruges theatres amongst other things. This day was filled with visiting lots of Bruges churches. We went to a lot this day. The churches we visited included the Cathedral, the Basilica of the Holy Blood and Our Lady of the Pottery. We also went into one of Bruges bookshops and I got Harry Potter in Dutch/Flemish. I also saw a really cool cat by the Jan van Eyck square. This day was a lot less packed compared to the other day as we were exhausted from the previous day and the weather wasn't great, so we had a chilled day. 

One of Bruges theatres, sadly under reconstruction  

The cool cat I saw by the Jan van Eyck Square

The Basilica of the Holy Blood

A Harry Potter display in Brugse Boekhandel

Our Lady of the Pottery

The Cathedral 

Day Four

As the previous day had been filled with churches, this day was filled with museums. You could get a pass to a list of museums that was valid for three days and as we knew we were going to go to lots, we went and got it. The first museum we went to was called the Groening Museum, this had lots of paintings from Flemish artists. We then went to the Gruuthuse Museum, which had been a medieval mansion before becoming a museum. Finally, we went to Sint Jan's hospital and museum. This had a large collection of medieval doctors items and Memling paintings. We ended our day by visiting the fish market stalls before heading back to our apartment. 

The Groening Museum 

A dog outside the museum 

The Gruuthuse Museum 

The Sint-Jans Hospital and Museum 

The Fish Market

Day Five

This was our last full day in Bruges, so it was a day filled with all the things we hadn't done and wanted to do. First stop was Astrid Park, which was used in the film In Bruges. We had great fun pretending to act out the scene from the park while nobody was around. We then went to somewhere I had wanted to go which was Books and Brunch, a bookshop cafe place. We didn't actually eat anything, but it had a really nice ambience. After that, we bobbed into a couple of churches before heading to the Frites Museum. It was good fun learning about the history of potatoes and chips, we then had to have lunch there. We did another church and museum before heading back to our apartment to pack. We decided to eat out this night as it was our last night in Bruges. We went to a restaurant that our host recommended to us. The food was delicious, we then waddled back to bed. 

A cat I saw on route to Astrid Park

Astrid Park

Books and Brunch

A church we visited

Another church we visited

Lunch at the Frites Museum

Tea

The restaurant we ate tea in

Day Six

Our final day in Bruges. We had accidentally booked to be travelling back on a national holiday in Bruges, so we headed for the train station and spent several hours in said train station before boarding the train home.

The view from our apartment 

  

  

Fleabag the Play Review| CarenzaOnBooks

Photo taken from Google

Title- Fleabag
Writer- Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Theatre- Wyndham's Theatre, London
Running Dates- last show on September 14th, broadcast live through NT Live on September 12th, encores expected 
Running Time- 65 mins with no interval
Cast- Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Genre- dark comedy
Rating- 5/5 stars

Plot

See the hilarious, award-winning, one-woman show that inspired the BBC’s hit TV series Fleabag, broadcast live to cinemas from London’s West End. 

Written and performed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag, Killing Eve) and directed by Vicky Jones, Fleabag is a rip-roaring look at some sort of woman living her sort of life. 

Fleabag may seem oversexed, emotionally unfiltered and self-obsessed, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. With family and friendships under strain and a guinea pig café struggling to keep afloat, Fleabag suddenly finds herself with nothing to lose.

Playing to sold-out audiences in New York and London, don’t miss your chance to see this ‘legitimately hilarious show’ (New Yorker), broadcast live to a cinema near you.

Taken from National Theatre Website 

Opinions

I was already a huge fan of the TV show and was extremely lucky that the run of this show overlapped with my birthday, meaning I got tickets to see it the day after my birthday. I was very excited to go and see it. It did not disappoint.

Being in the same room as Phoebe Waller-Bridge, a woman who inspires me so much that I wrote one of my university assessed pieces about her, was a privilege. Getting to see her perform took my breath away. I will start this by saying that the play is very different from the show. As it was originally written for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, it has an abnormally short running time for a West End show. It gets going right away and you are immediately thrown into Fleabag's world. She is just as funny and unapologetically herself in the play as she is in the show.

The only downside of having seen the show first was that a lot of the jokes were the same and therefore didn't have quite the same effect on me as they did on people who hadn't seen the show. Also, the fourth wall element is very different in person. It still works wonderfully, you just don't get these cheeky glances from Fleabag that we do in the show. 

Waller-Bridge is a superb writer and keeps your attention for the whole time. The big revelations of the show shock you, to the point where one of them had the whole audience gasp. I've been in very few shows where they manage to achieve that. She keeps you on your toes the whole time, not quite sure which way the story's going to turn. 

I loved the minimalist setting and the use of voices through speakers. I think that a more elaborate set and production would have taken away the Fringe vibe that you get from the show. Waller-Bridge hardly leaves her chair, and if she does it's just for a few seconds at a time. 

I am so glad that I got to see this show and if you have a chance to go see it I would highly recommend. It is a very funny, dark comedy with lots of adult themes performed to perfection.      

Things I Wish I Had Known Before Going to University| CarenzaOnBooks

September is here and that can only mean one thing- universities are about to start. As someone who started university this time last year, there are many things I wish I had known before starting. I've made a little list of ten things I wish I had known before I went to university. 

Laundry Will Be the Bain of Your Existence 

This is something me and my new flatmates bonded over early on in the term. The laundry room will become a place you hate and something you dread doing. If you are lucky enough not to have to use Circuit Laundry to have clean clothes, then this is something you will (hopefully) not have to experience. At my university, we had the displeasure of having to use this dreadful app. It would have been manageable if it had just been using a rubbish app that was making laundry an unbearable task. It was also the terrible washing machines that made laundry something I dreaded. It might just have been me, but whenever I washed my clothes, they never felt clean. As doing a laundry run would cost you the best part of £2 per wash, I would wait until I absolutely had to do some laundry before washing everything. My tip to you would be when your mum or dad offers you the chance to wash some clothes at home, take it up!

   

You Will Find Your People

If you are anything like me, then the main concern about starting university is "will I have friends?". This was one of the only things I dreaded before starting university. The best places to find people with similar interests are on your course and through societies. You might also get lucky and find you have loads in common with the people you are living with. I bonded very quickly with the people I am friends with because we did the same course and had similar interests within the course. I also know that joining societies is a great place to meet people with similar interests.   

Getting Along With the People You Live With Makes A Huge Difference

It's not always going to be the case, but if you can get along with the people you live with, then everything suddenly becomes a lot more bearable. I got incredibly lucky and am even living with four of the people I lived with this academic year. I'm not saying that you have to be best friends with them, but if you can manage a friendly relationship with them, then life will be easier for you all. 

It Is Possible to Be A Non-Drinker at University

Most of us will know about the heavily ingrained drinking culture at university, but it is possible to survive as a non-drinker. This is something I am planning on making a more in-depth post about in the future. Personally, going out and getting drunk isn't my cup of tea, and I have managed to survive a whole academic year like this. Be honest with people about not being interested and most people will understand and respect your decision. 

Having a Home Away From Home

Moving away from home can feel daunting, but if you put a bit of effort into your living space, it can be the difference from surviving university or feeling homesick and dropping out. Again this is something I am planning on making a whole separate post about. A few quick tips would be to print some photos to have some kind of memory wall. Most universities provide students with a pinboard and pretty much everyone I knew filled there's with photos. Another quick tip would be to pick a few favourites knick-knacks from home to make your room feel like a home. I brought a few Pop Funkos with me and it made sure that when I walked into my room, I felt like I was at home. 

   

Not Everyday is Going to Be a Good Day

Like any other stage in life, university isn't going to be all sunshine and rainbows. We all know that university is supposed to be the "best years of our life", but the truth is, that in the moment, it isn't. Bad days are inevitable. It could be linked to something in your personal life, something academic or you are simply having a bad day. It took me the entirety of my first term at uni to realise that not every day was going to be wonderful. Looking back, my first year of university was great, but at certain moments it was downright awful and that is completely fine.   

Independence is Real

Unlike school or college, it is up to you to do everything. Frankly, your lecturers won't care if you haven't done the set work as it isn't them you're letting down, it's yourself. It is up to you to keep on top of your work. That doesn't mean you have to be drowning in academia all the time, but you are paying to be there so it is worthwhile to do the reading. Even if it is a lot and there is nothing more you'd rather do. 

You Can Have a Life at University 

Before going to university, I expected to be drowning in work by the end of my first week. Obviously, this does vary from course to course, but on the whole, there is time to have fun. I'm lucky in that my course has fairly low contact hours, but I spend a good chunk outside of those hours working. I also spent a good chunk of time having fun with my friends. It's finding a good balance between the two and making sure that the scales don't tip towards one more than the other.  

Time Flys When You're Having Fun

It still amazes me how quickly each term goes by. Most universities in the UK operate on a two-term schedule, with each term lasting twelve weeks. Even though twelve weeks is three months, it goes by so quickly. If you're worried about feeling homesick, then I'm sure you'll be relieved to know that the terms fly by and you'll be home for Christmas before you know it. The best thing about this is you'll have around four to five weeks off to go home. 

   

Grades Don't Define You

This is something I wish I had known even when I was in school. I am a very ambitious person and I always like to think I'll get the top grades. Spoiler alert- I often don't. That isn't to say I don't get good grades, but I'd beat myself up if I got a grade that was lower than what I was hoping. The first thing to know about university is that they mark things very differently. It's marked through a percentage scheme and it is notoriously hard to get the highest mark. On my course, a First (the highest you can get on any degree) means that your work is essentially publishable. It is rare that first years get these kinds of marks. I was down when I got my first few marks back as they weren't what I was hoping for. I wish someone had grabbed me at this point and told me that a 2:1 is a good grade. 

I hope these little tips will help you get through your first year of university and if you're like me and have completed your first year, then share your "things I had wished I had known" list in the comments as I'm sure my experience is very different from everyone else as it was unique to me.  

Carenza x  

My Edinburgh Fringe Trip 2019| CarenzaOnBooks

For the sixth year in a row (or maybe the seventh, I'm losing track), I went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I love going to the Fringe each summer, it's always one of the highlights of my summer and this year was no exception. I will be honest and say that this was probably the smallest amount of shows I've seen at the Fringe. I only saw four of the five I had planned, which meant it was quite a small trip. Except for last year, I've only been able to attend the Fringe for one day meaning the number of shows I can see is limited. However, even though I only saw four shows, I saw some really good shows.

Show One- Vampire Hospital Waiting Room

This was partly for research for the play I've been writing this summer, but my family and I decided that we should go an see this show. It is a mashup of various genres and was a great start to my trip. A comedy musical set in a hospital waiting room while one of the doctors tries to become a vampire. It was a laugh a minute, filled with great songs and funny moments, some of which I expect weren't planned but were funny nevertheless. It took stereotypes used in these types of horror films and ramped them up to make them even funnier. It was clear from the beginning that this was a bit of a piss-take show, which are always good dun at the Fringe. 

The Missed Show- The Accident Did Not Take Place

Sadly, this was a show that we just missed arriving in time for. We had thought it was on at 1:15, but it actually started at 1pm so we just missed it. Some venues at the Fringe are very strict about the late arrivals policy and this was one of them. We arrived at 1pm, and we weren't allowed admission. It was very frustrating to not be allowed in, but sadly you have to accept this policy. It became more frustrating as at our final show of the day, they were letting people in a good ten minutes after the show had started and even started it five minutes late to allow people to arrive. I hope this is something that is fixed for future Fringes.  

Show Two- Anguis 

The only bit of "serious" theatre we saw at the Fringe. It was a play written by Sheila Atim, the Olivier award-winning actress. The story was told through a live podcast typesetting. The podcast was a scientific one and the person being interviewed was Queen Cleopatra. At the surface, it was about two strong women from different eras, but underneath there were themes of the struggles of women in science, women in general and the treatment of people of colour. It was punctured with moments of humour and had some excellent songs in it. If Sheila Atim was to write another play, I would happily go and see it, knowing I was in safe hands. 

Show Three- West End Producer Live: Free Willy

If you are familiar with the theatre world, then you will have undoubtedly heard of West End Producer. If not then here's a very quick summary- a man in a somewhat scary mask (sorry) talks about life in the West End in a flamboyant way. I'll be honest, this was my least favourite show we saw. It wasn't a type of show I'd normally gravitate towards as I'm not a fan of audience participation and it wasn't my style of comedy. It was still very interesting, but the audience participation and scary mask really put me off. I think my family enjoyed it more than I did. And the rest of the audience seemed to enjoy it, just not me. 

Show Four- Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea-Witch

Another spectacular show by the Fat Rascal Theatre company. I saw Vulvarine last year and we were desperate to see their new musical. A feminist, anti-body-shaming retelling of the Little Mermaid from the perspective of Ursula? What's not to love? It was another laugh a minute, with rewritten versions of famous songs from the Little Mermaid including Kiss the Girl being about consent and Part of Your World about Ariel being desperate for a quick shag. The set was incredible, the cast was phenomenal, it was the best show I saw this year. The only sad thing was that I had to run to catch the train home as soon as it ended. I will happily and definitely go and see anything they do again. They are a theatre company to keep an eye on.             

The Provoked Wife RSC Review| CarenzaOnBooks

Photo taken from RSC website

Title- The Provoked Wife
Writer- John Vanbrugh
Theatre- RSC, Stratford-upon-Avon
Running Dates- last show on September 7th
Running Time- 2 hours 40 mins plus 20 min interval
Cast- Alexandra Gilbreath, Rufus Hound, Caroline Quentin, Jonathon Slinger
Genre- Restoration Comedy
Rating- 3/5 stars

Plot

Written in 1697, this restoration comedy proved controversial at the time of its release due to its themes of marital adultery. John Vanbrugh’s typically sexually charged play deals with women’s rights, deceit, distraction and unfaithfulness – all to the backdrop of 17th century England.

Lady Brute seeks distractions from her rude, boorish and drunken husband Sir John Brute. Theirs, it seems, is a marriage of convenience: wed for sex and wealth respectively.

Secretly however, she finds solace in a dashing male suitor named Constant – seemingly the antithesis of her obnoxious and disrespectful husband.

With her niece, Belinda, the pair disguise themselves and set out on forbidden trysts with Constant and his friend Heartfree, who is courting the young Belinda.

Meanwhile, an unwitting Sir John is hauled before the courts for drunken disorder, dressed in none other than his wife’s frock!

It appears however, the pair’s infidelities are not secret to all. The vain, jealous and aptly named Lady Fancyfull has caught wind of the situation. She also vies for the affection of Heartfree – obsessed to the point of disguising herself as his wife in order to throw Belinda off the scent.

Antics come to a head when the lovers are exposed at the Brute’s home following the surprise and unexpected return of Sir John. Dismayed by the scandalous situation, and with a very real fear of being ‘cuckholded’, Sir John engages Constant in a duel of Manlihood, but soon backs off.

Will Lady Brute elope with her dashing champion and abandon her marriage, or stay with her sour husband? Surely love will triumph for a wife provoked?

Taken from RSC website

Opinions

I had never heard of The Provoked Wife before I went to see it and restoration comedies are usually a good laugh, as you would expect from the genre, but this was different to other comedies I had seen. At the time of its first performance, it was considered shocking. Going in, I was expecting a fun night, and while to some extent I did have a fun night, I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped I would. 

Like a lot of plays from that era, it suffers from the tragedy of being overwritten. At almost three hours long, it rivals even Hamlet in length. And this is already a cut down version of the original text. It could be that since I started studying creative writing at university, I have become hyper-aware of when something is overwritten, but if I was to submit something like this for my degree, I would be told I was failing the old "show don't tell" mantra young writing students have drilled into them. Every time something happened to one of the characters, they would have a small monologue or speech about how they were feeling. It started to get a bit repetitive.

Despite this downside, the cast was a remarkably strong one. It didn't matter that at times you felt they were droning on, the performances were very good and made you want to care about the characters. The central character of the Provoked Wife, played by Alexandra Gilbreath, had a fine balance wanting revenge on her husband and not wanting to go against societal expectations of the time. She was supported by a very strong cast including Jonathon Slinger as her husband, Rufus Hound as Constant and Caroline Quentin as the mad and brilliant Lady Fancyfull. Slinger as Sir John Brute was wonderful. Even though he was horrible, you came to realise that he did care for her, he had just been going about it in the wrong way and you actually felt sorry for him. Hound as Constant was another wonderful addition to the cast. He was sweet and caring towards Lady Brute, you just wanted them to live happily ever after. Finally, Quentin as Lady Fancyfull was spectacular. This was someone who was so stuck in their own head that they believed everything they said was true. A superb performance from the whole cast.

The RSC is known for its great musical and dance moments within their plays and this was no exception. The music was used to move the story forward and were some of the most entertaining moments of the show. Paired with brilliant sets and costumes, at times you forgot you were sat in a theatre in 2019 and believed you had been transported back to the era of the play.

A solid production from the RSC, if the running time had been a bit shorter and the ending had a slightly different outcome, then it would have been rated more highly.     

Review- Ghosts of the Shadow Market by Cassandra Clare and Others (Contains Spoilers)| CarenzaOnBooks

Title- Ghosts of the Shadow Market
Author- Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brenan, Maureen Jonhson, Kelly Link and Robin Wasserman
Series- The Shadowhunter Chronicles
Published- 2019
Page Count- 624
Publishing House- Walker Books
Genre- YA Urban Fantasy
Rating- 3/5 stars

About the Authors

Judith Lewis (née Rumelt, born July 27, 1973), better known by her pen name Cassandra Clare, is an American author of young adult fiction, best known for her bestselling series The Mortal Instruments.

(Taken from Wikipedia)

Sarah Rees Brennan (born 21 September 1983)  is an Irish writer best known for young adult fantasy fiction. Her first novel, The Demon's Lexicon, was released June 2009 by Simon & Schuster. Brennan's books are bestsellers in the UK.

(Taken from Wikipedia)

Maureen Johnson (born February 16, 1973) is an American author of young adult fiction. She has published thirteen young adult novels to date, including such series as the Truly Devious novels, the Shades of London series, and Suite Scarlett. Johnson's work has also appeared in numerous written anthologies and comprises notable collaborative works with her contemporaries, such as Let It Snow, a holiday romance novel currently under adaption to film for distribution by Netflix.

(Taken from Wikipedia)

Kelly Link (born 1969) is an American editor and author of short stories. While some of her fiction falls more clearly within genre categories, many of her stories might be described as slipstream or magic realism: a combination of science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, and realism. Among other honors, she has won a Hugo award, three Nebula awards, and a World Fantasy Award for her fiction, and she was one of the recipients of the 2018 MacArthur "Genius" Grant.

(Taken from Wikipedia)

Robin Wasserman (born May 31, 1978) is an American young adult novelist.

Wasserman grew up outside of Philadelphia and graduated from Harvard University and UCLA. Before she was an author she was an associate editor at a children's book publisher. She currently lives in Los Angeles, California, and is on the faculty of the Mountainview Low-Residency MFA program at SNHU.

(Taken from Wikipedia)

Plot

The Shadow Market is a meeting point for faeries, werewolves, warlocks and vampires. There the Downworlders buy and sell magical objects, make dark bargains, and whisper secrets they do not want the Nephilim to know. Through two centuries, however, there has been a frequent visitor to the Shadow Market from the City of Bones, the very heart of the Shadowhunters. As a Silent Brother, Brother Zachariah is sworn keeper of the laws and lore of the Nephilim. But once he was a Shadowhunter called Jem Carstairs, and his love, then and always, is the warlock Tessa Gray.

Follow Brother Zachariah and see, against the backdrop of the Shadow Market’s dark dealings and festive celebrations, Anna Lightwood’s first romance, Matthew Fairchild’s great sin and Tessa Gray plunged into a world war. Valentine Morgenstern buys a soul at the Market and a young Jace Wayland’s soul finds safe harbor. In the Market is hidden a lost heir and a beloved ghost, and no one can save you once you have traded away your heart. Not even Brother Zachariah...

Ghosts of the Shadow Market will be co-written with Maureen Johnson, Robin Wasserman, Sarah Rees Brennan and Pulitzer finalist Kelly Link and will initially be available digitally.

The first eight stories will be published as e-books from around March 2018 monthly, with the final two available in a print bind-up of all the stories, to be published in 2019.

(Taken from Goodreads)

Opinions

Normally, I am a huge fan of anything and everything that Cassandra Clare published, but this is the first time since I became a fan of hers that I haven't actively liked her book. I had really enjoyed both of her other novella bind-ups that had been published, but I found I didn't care much for this one. To me, it felt like it was published because there was a lot of nostalgia in some of the stories and to set up books that haven't been published yet.

If I'm being honest, I preferred the stories about the Lost Hours characters as it was nice getting to know what they were like. There was one novella that I absolutely loved, which I'll talk about in a bit. I also did like getting to know about Kit's backstory as he is one of my favourite characters. There were some stories that were about obscure characters, which to me, felt like they did need to be told. 

My absolute favourite story was Every Exquisite Thing. This was the second novella in the book and it was hands down the best. It delved into the backstory of Anna Lightwood, a character that will feature in The Lost Hours. It was my favourite because of the great representation. Anna is a genderqueer lesbian in a time when something like that would have been frowned upon. I loved this little story and I hope we get to see more from Anna as she is a character I am beginning to love wholeheartedly. 

The introduction of Mina Carstairs filled my heart with such joy. Seeing Jem have the family he wanted for so long made me feel insanely happy. To further this, the inclusion of Kit in this family almost brought me to tears. I'm hoping that in the Wicked Powers we will see some kind of brother-sister dynamic between the two. The fact the Jem named his daughter in honour of Will made me fall in love with the TID cast all over again. I may not have been the biggest fan of the novella she was introduced in, but the scenes with baby Mina were adorable. 

Review- The Paper&Hearts Society by Lucy Powrie (Contains Spoilers)|CarenzaOnBooks

Title- The Paper&Hearts Society
Author- Lucy Powrie
Series- The Paper&Hearts Society (Book One of Three)
Published- 2019
Page Count- 355
Publishing House- Hodder's Children Books
Genre- YA Contemporary
Rating- 4/5 Stars

About the Author

Lucy Powrie is a blogger, YouTuber and author from the UK. Lucy is the creator of #ukyachat on Twitter. In 2015 Lucy won a UK Young Adult Blogger Award for Champion of YA. When she's not reading, she enjoys cuddling guinea pigs and eating Oreo chocolate, but let's be real: she's mostly always reading. Her debut novel, The Paper & Hearts Society, will be published in June 2019 from Hodder Children’s Books.

Taken from Goodreads

Plot

Tabby Brown is tired of trying to fit in. She doesn't want to go to parties - in fact, she would much rather snuggle up on the sofa with her favourite book.
It's like she hasn't found her people ...
Then Tabby joins a club that promises to celebrate books. What could go wrong? EVERYTHING - especially when making new friends brings out an AWKWARD BUZZING feeling all over her body.
But Olivia, Cassie, Henry and Ed have something that makes Tabby come back. Maybe it's the Austen-themed fancy-dress parties or Ed's fluffy cat Mrs Simpkins, or could it be Henry himself ...
Can Tabby let her weird out AND live THE BEST BOOKISH LIFE POSSIBLE?

Taken from Goodreads

Opinions

I have never watched any of Lucy's videos before and to be honest, I bought this on a bit of a whim. Probably the main reason I bought it was because Lucy is a similar age to me and I wanted to read a book written by someone who was like me. I knew very little about it going into it and I was a tad sceptical because of the whole "YouTuber writes a book" problem. I assumed this was going to be another YouTuber hopping on the book bandwagon and releasing something that was good, but it wasn't great. It was nice to be pleasantly surprised and found wrong.

Contemporary is a genre I rarely read as I prefer Urban Fantasy. I wasn't expecting to enjoy it that much, but upon picking it up, I couldn't put it down. Or rather, I didn't want to put it down. I was invested in the story from the first chapter. To me, the best way to describe this book is as a fun and fluffy Contemporary that you'll fly through. I read this in a day. In fact, I read this within a few hours. It was one of the best reading experiences I've had in a while.

The characters were well-developed and had room for development. I liked them all as they all had their own unique characteristics. The only character that rubbed me up the wrong way was Olivia because at times she came across the tiniest bit pushy and as an introvert myself, she was a very extroverted introvert. It was a minor fault I found and it is totally a personal preference and no fault of the authors. 

The LGBT representation in this book was great. Olivia is revealed to be demisexual and it is unclear what sexuality Cassie is, but she and Oliva start a relationship in this book. It has been revealed that the second book is going to be much more LBGT heavy than the first and I am here for it. I really enjoyed the development of their relationship as it wasn't instalove (which is something I'm not the biggest fan of). I enjoyed the conflict at the start of their relationship as to me it felt realistic.   

Another great bit of representation was the mental health representation. Tabby has anxiety and suffers from panic attacks throughout the book. I felt it was well handled and didn't trivialise the issue at all. It was also nice to see a group of friends being supportive when one of them is clearly suffering. All of Tabby's friends were able to be there for her when she wasn't feeling great and to me that was a heartwarming part of the book.

I loved the bookish road trip that they went on. It made me really want to go travelling with my friends and do something impulsive like that. The underlying plot of the book was very emotional. It felt relevant to today's audience as cyberbullying is still a huge issue and needs to be tackled more. 

The only reason I knocked off a star was that I felt that the way the characters were written as though they were much older. Until the ages of the characters were actually stated, I had assumed that the group was between the age of 16-18. However, they were between the ages of 15-17. I would have liked for them to have been a tiny bit older as once I knew how old they were, I found it a tiny bit harder to connect with them as they weren't a similar age to me anymore.

Ian McKellen on Stage Review| CarenzaOnBooks

From Ian McKellen's Website

In May, I had the privilege of seeing Sir Ian McKellen on his 80th Birthday Tour in my home town. As soon as I found out about this tour, I was desperate to see it. McKellen is such a well-known actor, I wanted to see what he was like in person rather than through a screen.

The premise of the show is all about McKellen's life and his journey to becoming the actor he is today. It took you through all of his famous roles from Gandalf to the many Shakespearian parts he has played in his life. You also learned more about him as a person from his upbringing in Bolton to his time at Cambridge. 

An important part of the show was McKellen's sexuality and his involvement in LBGT activism. He was the second ever gay man to be knighted. He told us tales of how he rebelled against society and was openly gay from a young age. It was heartwarming to see him talking about something that he was clearly passionate about.   

The show overall was captivating from beginning to end, with all the money raised going to charity. I knew very little about Ian McKellen before seeing this show, but afterwards, I had a newfound appreciation for him. I look forward to seeing what he does next and wish him the best of luck on the rest of his tour.

The set

A blurry photo of the Programme

  

Review-Beautiful Boy by David Sheff (Contains Spoilers)|CarenzaOnBooks

Title- Beautiful Boy- A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction
Author- David Sheff
Series- N/A
Published- 2008, republished in 2018
Page Count- 390
Publishing House- Simon&Schuster (Scribner)
Rating- 5/5 stars
Note- this book focuses heavily around drugs, specifically meth. It also deals with heavy topics such as being an addict, mental health and near death experiences.

About the Author

David Sheff is an American author of the books Clean: Overcoming Addiction and Ending America's Greatest Tragedy and Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction.

Taken from Wikipedia 

Plot

What had happened to my beautiful boy? To our family? What did I do wrong? Those are the wrenching questions that haunted every moment of David Sheff’s journey through his son Nic’s addiction to drugs and tentative steps toward recovery. Before Nic Sheff became addicted to crystal meth, he was a charming boy, joyous and funny, a varsity athlete and honour student adored by his two younger siblings. After meth, he was a trembling wraith who lied, stole, and lived on the streets. 

David Sheff traces the first subtle warning signs: the denial, the 3 A.M. phone calls (is it Nic? The police? The hospital?), the rehabs. His preoccupation with Nic became an addiction in itself, and the obsessive worry and stress took a tremendous toll, but as a journalist, he instinctively researched every avenue of treatment that might save his son and refused to give up on him. Beautiful Boy is a fiercely candid memoir that brings immediacy to the emotional roller coaster of loving a child who seems beyond help.

Taken from Goodreads

Opinions

I had never heard of David or Nic Sheff before I saw the trailer for the movie adaptation, which came out earlier this year. I had planned on seeing it, but life got in the way (as it does). So, when I saw the book in The Works for £3, I couldn't resist. I'm not one to normally agree with front cover blurbs, but the blurb (by the Daily Mail of all people) is accurate. It should be "mandatory reading for every teenager and every parent of one". I have to admit I knew next to nothing about being a drug addict and the recovery process. The things I did know came from various TV shows such as Patrick Melrose and Sherlock, both which feature drug addicts as central characters. Bizarrely, both star Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role.

Non-fiction is not normally a genre I gravitate towards. In the years since I have started my blog, I've only read three non-fiction books. As a reader, I think that knowing what you are reading about has happened makes it harder to read. Despite the fact that I wanted to know what was happening, at times the subject matter was upsetting and I had to stop myself from reading it. David Sheff, who is first and foremost a journalist, knows his way around words. The way this book was written meant that I was emotionally invested as a reader. Every time something bad happened to the Sheff family, I felt as if I was there and was experiencing it with them. 

The narrative of this book starts with Nic as a teenager/young adult, coming home from university. David believes he has been clean this whole time, but it transpires that Nic has been using the entire time he was at university. It then flips to the Nic being born, and slightly before that, with his parents' marriage. We follow David and Nic as Nic grows up. As a reader, you are trying to pinpoint the moment Nic begins to fall down this path, but you can't. To the audience, it as if Nic starts using out of nowhere. By the end of the book, it is revealed that Nic is now an adult and has been clean since his early-mid twenties. You feel a sense of relief knowing that he is alive and well.

Something I particularly enjoyed about Sheff's writing was how he intertwined his own life with various points of Nic's. He shows how he was a reckless teenager and took drugs himself. We learn of his friend Charles, who was a drug addict, addicted to meth and who eventually died from complications from his addiction. Through this, Sheff is not parroting the usual "drugs are bad, I never did drugs, you are bad etc". It gives us as readers a refreshing take on what is becoming a reoccurring storyline in fiction and in everyday lives. I also enjoyed the way he included his family, especially his two younger children, Jasper and Daisy. Seeing their lives in all of this offered us moments of hope, yet it also showed us how it can affect children.

My only critique of this novel is the "info dumping" for want of a better word. At points it felt that Sheff would go off on tangents, giving us so much information about drugs and drug culture. During the first half of the novel, it was informative, but in the second half, it began to feel like a torrent of information. This could be because Sheff is a journalist and is used to fact over fiction, but for me as a reader, it felt a little bit distracting.

There is actually a "sequel" to Beautiful Boy. Nic Sheff wrote his own account of what happened to him and published it in a book called Tweak. 

  

 

Lumos Wand Installation| CarenzaOnBooks

A few weeks ago, in the pouring rain, I visited the Lumos Wand Installation outside St Paul's Cathedral. I'm not sure if it's still there, but if it is, I would highly recommend that you go as it was really good. If it wasn't for the rain, I'd have really enjoyed it, but we got totally soaked.

A close up of Queenie's wand, which is one of my favourites.

A slightly blurry photo of Harry Potter's want.

Another slightly blurry photo of all the wands together.

Representatives for Lumos were selling the limited edition Newt Scamander pin, so I had to get one!