The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath // Book Review ♡

Hello there readers of my blog, how are you on this fine fine Wednesday? I'm feeling pretty lousy, the weather is gross, and exams are coming up which is also gross however one of the things that has been getting me through at the moment is reading, and after re-reading all the Harry Potter books at the beginning of the year, I read the Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and I finished it last night, so I thought I would do a review on this modern classic.

Book Description (taken from Amazon):

"Esther Greenwood is at college and is fighting two battles, one against her own desire for perfection in all things - grades, boyfriend, looks, career - and the other against remorseless mental illness. As her depression deepens she finds herself encased in it, bell-jarred away from the rest of the world. This is the story of her journey back into reality. Highly readable, witty and disturbing, The Bell Jar is Sylvia Plath's only novel and was originally published under a pseudonym in 1963. What it has to say about what women expect of themselves, and what society expects of women, is as sharply relevant today as it has always been."

Review:

I'm going to start off by just saying I really enjoyed this, it's short as it's only 20 chapters and it's written beautifully. I would compare the writing style to the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald but it is maybe not quite as detailed as that, but it is word pornography. The story itself is very intriguing especially if you're interested in mental illness anyway, which I am. I'm going to say right now, if you're easily triggered be careful whilst reading it because I picked up on some subtle pro-mia and self inflicted harm, so if you are feeling triggered at any time put the book down and walk away. I found Esther's character really interesting because she's very sensitive and has always had good grades but her life takes a bit hit when she has to return back home, and that's when she really sinks into a deep pit of depression. She has some bad experiences with doctors but the ending shows that perhaps she has moved past this, and is ready to move on. I don't want to spoil the ending but I found the character Joan really interesting because she is very much like Esther but I believe she shows what would happen to Esther if she took a different path in her life, they had the same boyfriend and a similar lifestyle so they are very similar characters. 

Rating out of 5:

On goodreads I rated this book as 4/5, I rate books very highly in general but I feel this truly was a great book. It was recommended to me and I've always felt I should read it because it's a modern classic. I also went and looked up Sylvia Plath during my reading of this book because apparently a lot of the events mimic her life, and now I've become very interested in her life too which is good (her life was not good though haha). Overall, I would definitely give this a read if you're interested in mental illness and like descriptive writing because it fulfils both of those areas. I very much wanted to watch the film adaptation of it but the reviews of it make it seem terrible so I might wait until it's very cheap before buying it!!

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! I quite like the idea of doing book reviews, at least for the next few months whilst I have exams and can't really go out and do things - thoughts?

♡

Tag Tuesday #1: Thankful for Blogger Friends Tag ♡

Hello there!
So I said in a post a while ago (I think) that I wanted to do less tags because sometimes I'll do tags everyday so now I'm going to restrict it to once a week or less, the basic idea being that I do it on a Tuesday hence the title Tag Tuesday so that my blog does have tags sometimes but so it's not just tag after tag after tag.

I was tagged in the Thankful for Blogger Friends tag by Charlotte and you can see her post here, she seems really lovely and I really enjoy reading her posts so please check her out and follow her :)
This tag is split into two parts, the first part being about blogging in general and the second part being random questions about myself. On with the show!

Blogging and I:

1. How long have you been blogging? My first post went up some time in August, maybe a week or two before my GCSE results came out. I was probably thinking I was going to fail all of my exams and I needed to do something productive haha.

2. Are there any bloggers who helped you out/encouraged you when you first started your blog? I wouldn't name anyone specifically because all of my followers seem to encourage me with kind comments.

3. What Social Media has given you the most traffic to your blog? Is there a platform that you don’t use? According to my stats on here, I get quite a lot of traffic from tumblr probably because if I write a new post I'll usually post a link on there. I sometimes post links to blogposts on twitter too, but most of my traffic comes from tumblr and other bloggers on here referring their followers to me haha. I don't really use weheartit or pinterest, I have an account on pinterest but I've not really gotten into it however every now and then I'll look at their DIY posts on there - being the Potterhead I am I'd really like to make lots of Harry Potter themed items, I am currently knitting a Gryffindor scarf with the help of my Mum.

4. How often do you post? Do you have a regular schedule? I don't really have a schedule, if my heart isn't in a post then I will most likely not post it. I usually make a post at least once a week though. I don't really think 'oh gosh I haven't posted I need to go and post something' because if I know I wouldn't read that post then I don't see the point of writing it/

5. Where do you blog? Usually from my bed haha

6. What camera do you use? What photo editing software do you use? I just use my iPhone 4s, I do want to purchase a Canon 600D but the problem is that it's expensive and I haven't quite persuaded my parents that it would be a good purchase yet however I'm hoping to get a job and hopefully I can work up enough money to buy one. I use the app 'vscocam' to edit my pictures, it's the same one I use to edit my photos for instagram but I usually use a different filter for blog photos.

7. How did you come up with your blog name? I'm absolutely terrible at coming up with usernames or URLs (I've changed my tumblr URL many times) so it took a couple of changes to get this one. I was just thinking of those flower crowns you can get and how people sometimes make daisychain crowns, and princesses wear crowns right? I was actually wanting to change my blog URL - thoughts?

8. Do you do any regular “series” posts on your blog? I do Music Monday but that's not exactly regular, that's more of something I do once a month and I've only done it a couple of times. This is my only 'series' type thing, I don't know if Tag Tuesday will take off, I just want to stop clogging up my blog with tags because I do them far too often haha.

9. What draws you to a blog? A nice layout and posts that I know I'm going to read, I'm always drawn to blogs that have a lot of Primark hauls.

10. What turns you off of a blog? Not having the option to follow via GFC, and if I know that the blog isn't my style. It's all well and good that you can get away with outfits like those but it's not me and I wish you all the best but.. well I'd rather follow a blog that I can read pretty much all of the posts and be interested in them.

11. How many blogs do you subscribe to? Are they all beauty related? I read a lot of blogs so I'm not going to say how many I follow, they're not all beauty related. Most are fashion and beauty, but I follow one or two recipe blogs and I quite like personal blogs too.

12. When do you generally read blogs? In the evening or afternoon with a herbal tea

13. What is your favorite/least favourite type of post, and why? My favourite posts are primark hauls because I love primark but I prefer going when I know what type of things are in stock so I can sort of plan how much I'll want to spend. I don't much like reading nails of the day posts because I'm not much of a nail polish person and the nail polish people are wearing doesn't interest me very much.

Some facts about me:

1. Where do you live? Tell us a bit about your city! I live in North West London under an hour away from the centre. It's a nice area because there are open green spaces but also lots of options for shopping.

2. What about your home? I think my house was built over 50 years ago. The man who built it built most of the houses on my road but built my house for himself so originally the plot took up the size of two or three houses but then he sold off the land. 

3. Single or taken? Single haha

4. Do you have children? No no

5. Do you have pets? No, I once had a fish but she died. When I picked her out in the store she was swimming away from all the other fish so I thought she needed a friend, my parents didn't tell me she was clearly the sickest one in the tank, then she didn't eat anything and a few months later she died..

6. Do you have a “day job”? Unless fangirling over fictional characters counts as having a day job, no no I don't

7. How tall are you? I'm 168cm which is just under 5"7

8. Do you have siblings? Yes, I have a younger brother and two older half sisters.

9. 3 words to describe yourself. Sarcastic, obsessive, enigmatic 

10. Who is your style icon, and why? I don't really have a style icon, but I quite like the way Molly Ringwald dressed in the 80s haha

11. 3 favorite bands or musicians. The Beatles, The Smiths, and then for my third it comes between Ben Folds Five and Arctic Monkeys and I can't really make that decisions so have four favourites haha

12. 3 favorite movies. Talk about a hard question.. Back to the future, Bridget Jones' Diary and Pretty in Pink but I feel like this changes all the time depending on the mood I'm in

13. 3 favorite books. John, any of the Harry Potter books.. (does that count as one? I'm counting it as one), and  Little Women

14. 3 random/weird facts about you.

• I have never ordered anything from Starbucks
• I love Hugh Grant films even though I find rom-coms really cheesy, he has such charm I don't know
• I was sorted into Gryffindor on Pottermore (if  you want to add me, you can do so here)

I quite enjoyed doing this tag, and I hope this was a good start to my new series - Tag Tuesday. I've not exactly made it a series to keep you my followers excited for every Tuesday because I'll upload a tag, but more so I don't post lots of tags and I can restrict it a little bit. I will try and do more varied tags that aren't so focused on beauty and fashion too, thanks for reading :)

I tag all of you to this because I consider you all to be my blogging buddies, please post links to your answers to these questions because I love to read them!!

♡

2014 Reading Challenge ♡

Happy New Year people on the interwebs!

I know many of you have probably been making new years resolutions (or completely poo-poo-ing the idea) but I have sort of made a resolution myself for the first time I think. I can't remember any other resolutions I've made, perhaps I made them and failed so decided to block it out from my memory.

Anyway, I've set myself a reading goal on the website Goodreads for 2014. My goal is to read 15 books this year, that might not sound a lot to you but I haven't done much reading since GCSEs and now A levels. 7 of those books will be Harry Potter because after going to the studio tour I feel I need to read it again, also I've been physically unable to watch the films after having a movie marathon after the tour - I am emotionally broken, I can barely watch clips without dying internally. I'm also wanting to read the Bell Jar which I received for Christmas, I'm hoping to read a lot more this year. If you want to add me on Goodreads, you can do so here. I'll accept anyone as a friend on there. It's a cool but geeky website I suppose, you can rate books, add books to your 'to-read' list, add favourites, write reviews, do quizzes, and there are forums so you can discuss the books - I took some enjoyment in discussing a Jaqueline Wilson book from my childhood on there.

That's all for now, I was thinking of doing book reviews on here too but I'm not sure. If that's what you'd like to see then please comment, thanks :)

Green Beauty Characters Tag

So I saw Evelyn do this tag and she tagged all her followers to do it, and it looked like a bit of fun, not like I have homework to do or anything.. haha..



1.  On my nightstand you'll find: A lamp, my iPhone on charge, a small clock, a fan and a coaster

2.  The literary character I'm most like is: (take this quiz and share your answer) Tigger from Winnie the Pooh.. hmm I don't know what to make of that

3.  I'm currently obsessed with: Playing Candy Crush.. sorry not sorry

4.  My favourite superhero is: Spiderman

5.  Favourite beauty product of 2013: Miss Sporty Pump Up Mascara 

6.  If I could have dinner with anyone dead or alive it would be: Paul McCartney

7.  Winter is coming - how do you prep your skin for battle?  I've actually been facing a battle from last week but now my skin is really good, I used aqueous cream on the driest parts of my skin, used a flannel to exfoliate and used Simple Moisturiser and now my skin feels like a dolphin.

8.  My perfect date night makeup consists of: what is a date and where can I buy one

9.  My go-to skin-beautifying snack/drink is: I didn't realise this was a thing lol water I guess

10.  My TV boyfriend is: Freddy from Skins is the only person who comes to mind, he was so sweet

11.  If my evening clutch could only hold one beauty item it would be: A trusty tin of vaseline

12.  One beauty tip I would pass on to my real/fictional daughter: never get lazy with your cleansing routine, your face will suddenly get 23902390329 spots and you will never get rid of the scars

13.  The most nostalgic item from my childhood:  My teddy bear called Munchkin who I have had since I was about 6 or 7

14.  My favourite TV show/s of the moment: I've gotten back into Glee and BBC Doctors is probably the only show I stay faithful to, no one has really heard of it but it's a daytime soap on BBC and it's rather good even though the stories recently haven't been great.

15.  My favourite quote is: "Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans" - John Lennon

I tag all of my followers to do this tag and please post a link to your version of this, thanks :D

The Books Q and A Tag

So I saw this tag on this blog and it looked pretty interesting so I decided I would do it as it's a bit more cultural I think.




Q. What are you reading right now?

A. Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov, if you haven't read it or watched a film adaption of it then I really recommend it. It's really interesting the way it's written because you're in the mind of a hebephile (basically a paedophile but a paedophile who lusts after adolescents), so you empathize with him and if you don't understand the book then you might conceive the book to be beautiful but it's  apathetic so you can't sympathize with any one character, I already know how it's going to end because I watched the 60s film but there's a lot they couldn't get away with filming then so I'm learning a lot more about the story from the book and it adds a whole new perspective which is really interesting.

Q. Do you have any idea what you'll read when you're done with that?

A. There are a few books that I want to read, I'd like to read the Great Gatsby because I started reading it but then my exams came along and I just didn't have the time to finish it, then I watched the movie when I was on the plane on my way back from America and it made me want to read it even more, I had watched a TV adaption a while ago but the Leonardo DiCaprio one is very very good. I'd also quite like to read Catcher in the Rye because I read somewhere that the man who killed John Lennon (Mark Chapman) was reading this before he shot him and I'd be interested to see whether there was anything in the book that might have triggered it, also my Dad has read it and suggested it but my Mum read it and didn't think much of it so I'd be interested to see how it is.

Q. What 5 books have you always wanted to read but haven't gotten round to yet?

A.  Frankly I'd like to read as many books as possible (with the exclusion of the twilight saga), but I suppose I'd like to read To Kill a Mockingbird because I've watched the movie and it is just one of those books that I feel I should read. Also Anne of Green Gables, Life isn't all ha ha hee hee, Pride and Predjudice (seen the Colin Firth Adaption and quite liked it), and The Fault in Our Stars which I feel I should've read ages ago and I want to read it before the movie comes out (with Nat Wolff in it eeeeep) 

Q. What magazines do you have in your bathroom/lounge right now? 

A.  I don't bring magazines into the bathroom, and my family don't really bother with magazines so we usually just have a TV guide in there..

Q. What's the worst book that you've ever read?

A. I think I've pretty much liked every book I've liked, if I've not liked it then it's because the story doesn't appeal to me but it's usually still written quite well. An example of this would be Pretty Little Things by Jilliane Hoffman, my friend bought it for my birthday telling me that I would like it a lot but it was the creepiest book I have ever read and when I finished it I felt pretty scarred so now I stick to books that aren't going to emotionally damage me.

Q. What book seems really popular but you actually hated?

THE TWILIGHT SAGA, as I mentioned before, I haven't read it actually so I guess I shouldn't judge it but from what I've read of it (short sections and the movies) I just cannot fathom why you'd want to waste your time with it - sorry not sorry.

Q. What's the one book that you recommend to just about everyone?

A. If you are interested in John Lennon then I would recommend John by Cynthia Lennon, it changed my opinions on John so much and I cried for about an hour after I finished it and for the rest of the week I couldn't think straight because I felt emotionally shattered but it was brilliant. The first book that comes to mind that isn't related to John Lennon is noughts and crosses, I've read the entire series but the original book really draws you in and I think the concept is quite interesting. 

Q. What are you favourite 3 poems?

A. I don't really have specific favourite poems to be quite honest, I love reading poetry but nothing has really stuck with me. That being said, I love the Roald Dahl poems but otherwise I don't really have favourites.

Q. Where do you usually get your books?

A. Usually amazon, the works, or waterstones

Q. Where do you usually read your books?

A. In bed

Q. When you were little did you have any particular reading habits?

A. Not really

Q. What's the last thing you stayed up half the night reading because it was so good you couldn't put it down? 

A. John - Cynthia Lennon

Q. Have you ever 'faked' reading a book?

A. Probably in school but otherwise no, I enjoy reading and I wouldn't want to fake it

Q. Have you ever bought a book just because you liked the cover?

A. I do like nice book covers but I judge a book on the content of its character.

Q. What was your favourite book when you were a child?

A. I absolutely loved the Horrid Henry books when I was younger but my favourite book when I was younger was probably Sleepovers - Jaqueline Wilson

Q. What book changed your life?

A.  I'd probably have to say Lucky Man - Michael. J. Fox, he's so optimistic and such a role model for me considering I tend to be more on the realist/pessimist side and I wish I could be more optimistic like him, and I genuinely hope there will be a cure for Parkinson's disease in his lifetime.

Q. What is your favourite passage from a book?

A. The only one that seems to come to mind is from The Twits - Roald Dahl

"If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bare to look at it. A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” 

Q. Who are your top 5 favourite authors?

A. Louise Rennison, Roald Dahl, Malorie Blackman, Vladmir Nabokov, J.K Rowling

Q. What book has no one heard about but should read? 

A. I'm not really a book hipster so I don't  think I could say, however I used to love The Foot Book by Dr Seuss when I was younger but no one seems to have heard of that.

Q. What is your favourite book from a first time author? 

A. Most of the authors I have read books from write a few books so

Q. What is your favourite classic? 

A. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

Thanks for reading, and I tag you all to do this and please comment and refer back to me please thanks :-)