A December/January Book and Poetry Haul

Firstly, apologies for the (relatively) long absence! I've just been finishing off some assignments I should have done over Christmas. You know, just the usual. Also, with these long winter nights/short days at the minute I keep forgetting to take photos early in the day while I can still take advantage of some natural light. Legitimate #bloggingstruggles right there.

Anyway, I'm back now with a little book haul. These are just a few books I've gotten recently either for Christmas or just from the other day when I had a little peek into Waterstones on my way around town and decided to treat myself.

W.B. Yeats with poems selected by Seamus Heaney

I've really been enjoying a good poetry anthology recently. It's no secret that I love Yeats, he's among my absolute favourite poets so I asked my mum if she'd get me this anthology for Christmas specifically because the collection had been selected by the late Seamus Heaney and I just feel like this combination couldn't actually get any better. I may have even shed a small tear at the sight of this.

John Keats with poems selected by Andrew Motion

I also asked for this lovely Keats anthology. I haven't read much Keats in the past but I saw 'Bright Star' earlier this year and just fell in love with the film and the story and so have since resolved to read some more of his work. 

'Poems to Learn by Heart' edited by Ana Sampson

Ok so, this is a really nerdy fact about me but I started learning poems off by heart at quite a young age. I'm not really sure why I started, I just remember having to do a comprehension in English class on 'The Lady of Shalott' by Tennyson when I was about 9 or 10 and loving the poem so much I just decided to learn it by heart. Then, throughout my last years of primary school we had handwriting classes where we'd practise by writing out poetry- cue my very first introduction to Yeats through 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree'- and I started learning those off too and since then it's just something I've kept doing. It's strange but I find it really relaxing and it's also been a helpful practice for me especially during times when I've suffered from bad anxiety since it really takes your mind elsewhere. 

Anyway, I spied this anthology, 'Poems to Learn by Heart' and just couldn't not get it. It's separated into chapters by subject matter, which is everything from magic to love to war. I'm yet to have a proper look at it but I'm very much looking forward to having some time off where I can really spend some time looking through. (I've just had a quick look and 'The Lady of Shalott' is in there- this is fate, pretty much).

'The Girl with All the Gifts' by M.R. Carey

Finally, after receiving so many recommendations, I decided to pick up 'The Girl with All the Gifts' by M.R. Carey and 'Gone Girl' by Gillian Flynn. I actually already have 'The Girl with All the Gifts' on my Kindle, but recently I've really been feeling like there's nothing quite like an actual real, physical book. Don't get me wrong, I love my Kindle (especially because e-books are so much cheaper!) but it's just not the same. I just find it so satisfying when you're really getting through a book and you can see the bulk of it getting thinner as you go along. Kindles almost make reading quite laborious in that sense because you're just sort of continually flicking through this endless wordy abyss. And besides, I've pledged to read the printed word!

'Gone Girl' by Gillian Flynn

I know I'm a little late on the bandwagon with 'Gone Girl'. To be honest I wasn't actually planning on ever reading it just because, despite the hype, I just didn't really think it sounded like my kind of thing. However my friend, Hilary assures me it's an excellent read so I thought I'd finally give it a go.

Have you read either of these books? What did you think?

Book Review | All the Beggars Riding by Lucy Caldwell

Lara and her younger brother, Alfie, living in London during the 7os and 80s, are used to their father's absence. As a Northern Irish plastic surgeon, he spends most of his time in Belfast attending to bomb victims of the Troubles and only coming back to work at a Harley Street clinic and to his family in London every other weekend.

However, When Lara is twelve he is killed in a helicopter crash and it is then the truth of his double life is revealed. He has another wife, another family, other children in Northern Ireland and Lara's mother is, in fact, his mistress.

I found this in Waterstones in a section of Irish authors and picked it up for my granny for Christmas because she's normally all over this sort of thing. However, the blurb intrigued me so much I ended up reading it on my Kindle myself.

This book was basically everything I expected- an insight into a painful and complicated family situation that transpires as the result of one man's selfishness and the effect it then has on his children, both at the time and in much later years, as an adult Lara struggles to make sense of her childhood and understand her father for the person he really was.

One thing I really liked about this book is that there was nothing at all pretentious about it. I think this was partly down to the fact that Lara, as the narrator, is portrayed as simply trying her hand at writing for the first time in order to get her family's story down on paper. Actually, Caldwell captured the character of Lara and all of the emotion of the story so well that I  had to check to make sure it wasn't an autobiographical novel, and it wasn't. The author's life is in fact world's away from her character's, Caldwell being both younger and a Cambridge graduate which I think really shows her skill as a writer.

However, there were times when I did find Lara's character as an adult a bit annoying, mostly for her tendency for self-deprecation and 'woe is me' attitude. Also, I will say this is quite a heavy read at times and for anyone who likes to see all (literary) conflicts resolved at the end of a book, you might find this one a little frustrating. Overall though it's definitely a worthwhile read. [Rating: «««]

Goodbye 2014 | New Years Day on the Coast

Hello folks! First of all, Happy New Year!! I hope you've all had a lovely past few days. I'm so tired at the minute- I go through phases where I don't sleep very well and only got a couple of hours last night- so please excuse me if I ramble or if this post just doesn't make any sense. 

With the coming of the new year, of course, my Bloglovin' feed has been full of new years resolutions and posts reflecting on the year gone by. I thought about writing something similar myself, a little round-up of my experiences in 2014. It seemed like the logical thing to do- obligatory, even- but in the end I've decided not to. 2014 definitely wasn't the worst year I've ever had. In fact, it was a year filled with new friendships, new experiences and an abundance of happy memories. It was also the year I started my blog, which has probably been one of the best decisions I've ever made. At the same time, though, 2014 has been a year fraught with difficulties and enormous challenges, and for that reason I'm really not a bit sad to see it go.
Instead, I look forward to the future. I'm really not sure what 2015 has in store for me but I'm really excited to find out. Ideally, I want it to be a year that changes me for the better, I want it to be a year that grows me, and ultimately, a year where I take really good care of myself because I don't feel like that's something I've been particularly good at in the past.

I spent this New Years at my aunt and uncle's house up in the Antrim coast with the pair of them, my mum, my sister and my two cousins. These are just some photos of a walk we took on the beach at White Park Bay on New Year's Day. We'd spent all that morning playing Mario Kart and eating chocolate cake and then thought it would be a good idea to get out of the house and into the fresh air before it started getting dark. The weather wasn't great, but I almost feel like the rain added to it in a way. I know I look like a little bald gnome- don't laugh at me!

Anyway, I'm going to go and get a bit of sleep now before I go stir-crazy! Sending you all so much love and well wishes for 2015. I really hope it's a great year for all of us.