5 Reasons I’m Looking Forward To London WattCon 2016

In 2014, Wattpad held their first London WattCon. I went, and it was so much fun, so of course I had to go to the next one the following year! This Saturday (3rd December, from 11:30 to 17:00), I am attending the London WattCon 2016, and I am infinitely excited. Jess (bookendsandendings) is also a Wattpad ambassador, and is needed slightly earlier, so I’m going with her to help set up.

I used to be completely obsessed with Wattpad. In fact, I used to have a story up on there that reached 10k reads before I unpublished it (it was a story I’d started writing aged 12, I’m sure you can understand why I wanted it deleted from the internet). Now I just like to read on it when I have time, but I still think it’s an amazing platform and love going along and joining in with these events. Rather than going into the details of everything that’ll be happening, I thought I’d list just 5 of the reasons I can’t wait for this Saturday!

How politically correct is ‘Politically Correct Bedtime Stories’?

Politically Correct Bedtime Stories (by James Finn Garner) has been on my radar for quite a while. I’ve seen it quoted online a few times, and finally got my hands on a copy to read it.

First published in 1994, I thought that this must be relatively outdated, and so I was interested to see just how politically correct this book really is. One thing that I’d gathered by the time I’d finish the introduction was that James Finn Garner was ahead of his time. Not by long – a decade or two. He ended his introduction by referring to his novel as a ‘quest to develop meaningful literature that is totally free from bias and purged from the influences of its flawed cultural past’. Which essentially means that any criticism I may have found, Garner has already acknowledged  and apologized for.

Review – Birdy

Title: Birdy
Author:  Jess Vallance
Published by: Hot Key Books
Publication date: 2nd July 2015
Pages: 272, paperback
Genre: YA, thriller

Frances Bird has been a loner for so long that she’s given up on ever finding real friendship. But then she’s asked to show a new girl around school, and she begins to think her luck could finally be changing.

Eccentric, talkative and just a little bit posh, Alberta is not at all how Frances imagined a best friend could be. But the two girls click immediately, and it’s not long before they are inseparable. Frances could not be happier.

As the weeks go on, Frances finds out more about her new best friend – her past, her secrets, her plans for the future – and she starts to examine their friendship more closely.

Is it, perhaps, just too good to be true?

***

In my post ‘New York Times By the Book Tag‘, I’d said that the next book I wanted to read was Birdy by Jess Vallance. I don’t read many stories that focus on friendships (I tend to lean more towards the romance or fantasy sides of YA), but I was really looking forward to reading this one. Upon consulting the useful pie chart in the bottom corner of the blurb, I discovered that this book was about friendship, obsession, trauma and . . . blackbirds?

YA Trends of the Past

This Friday, I thought I’d bring back some old YA trends: dystopian and paranormal (or fantasy) novels. By this point, much of the world is sick of these genres after having years of books such as Twilight and The Hunger Games in pride of place in bookshop windows. Personally, these genres are two of my favourites.

A lot of people make jokes about the coming-of-age cliché that was so popular a few years ago, but it was popular for a reason: those books were good. I’ve read and reread a huge number of dystopian and fantasy novels, but here are just a few favourites. All of the books included are part of a series, as I feel these genres are most enjoyable when there are multiple books to develop the story-line.

New York Times By the Book Tag

A couple of days ago, I was reading new blog posts from bloggers I folllow and saw I was tagged by the lovely Jess from Book End and Endings to do the New York Times By the Book Tag! This tag was originally created on YouTube by Marie Berg, and I thought it looked like a really fun tag to do.

I’m still relatively new to blogging, and so have never done a tag before, but I really enjoyed doing this. After spending an hour writing enthusiastic answers to each of these questions, I looked at the word count and realised I could’ve written the entire of an English assignment due in by the end of the week. Never mind, I’m still considering it time well spent!

Review – The Square Root of Summer

Title: The Square Root of Summer
Author:  Harriet Reuter Hapgood
Published by: Macmillan Children’s Books
Publication date: 2nd July 2015
Pages: 272, paperback
Genre: YA, romance

‘My heart is a kaleidoscope, and when we kiss it makes my world unravel . . .’

Last summer, Gottie’s life fell apart. Her beloved grandfather Grey died and Jason left her – the boy to whom she lost her virginity (and her heart) – and he wouldn’t even hold her hand at the funeral! This summer, still reeling from twin heartbreaks, Gottie is lost and alone and burying herself in equations. Until, after five years absence, Thomas comes home: former boy next door. Former best friend. Former everything. And as life turns upside down again she starts to experience strange blips in time – back to last summer, back to what she should have seen then . . .

During one long, hazy summer, Gottie navigates grief, world-stopping kisses and rips in the space-time continuum, as she tries to reconcile her first heartbreak with her last.

***

I’ve been itching to get around to this book for literally months. Love, angst and just a little bit of time travel – what’s not to love? By the time I started reading The Square Root of Summer, it was November, so completely the wrong season, but that wasn’t going to stop me.

Autumn Releases

These are some books that have been released this October or November that I have yet to read. A few of them are floating around my house, shooting me betrayed looks every time I walk past because I haven’t read them yet, but I just haven’t had much free time these past couple of months. Nevertheless, these are books I am very excited to read. In the future I think I’ll try to make more posts like these, but on a monthly basis (e.g. January releases), and I’ll aim to do them at the beginning of the month.

Review – Dan & Phil Go Outside

Title: Dan & Phil Go Outside
Author: Dan Howell and Phil Lester
Published by: Random House
Publication date: 3rd November 2016
Pages: 224, hardback
Genre: Non-fiction

YouTube sensations Dan Howell (danisnotonfire) and Phil Lester (AmazingPhil) were just two awkward guys who shared their lives on the Internet . . . until now. Dan Howell and Phil Lester, avoiders of human contact and direct sunlight, actually went outside. Traveling around the world on tour, they have collected hundreds of exclusive, intimate, and funny photos, as well as revealing and candid side notes, to show the behind-the-scenes story of their adventure. Fans of Dan and Phil’s #1 New York Times bestseller, The Amazing Book Is Not on Fire, and their more than 10 million YouTube subscribers will love this full-color book featuring never-before-seen photos and stories from Dan and Phil.

***

This is the second book written by Dan and Phil, their first, The Amazing Book is Not on Fire, being the basis of their tour, and this new one, Dan and Phil Go Outside, documenting it. I bought a copy of TABINOF when it came out last year, and I loved it; I received my copy of Dan and Phil Go Outside a day early, as I attended the ‘Dan and Phil Go Outside On Stage Event’ (or ‘DAPGOOSE’). This is obviously not a story book, but I am a huge fan of Dan and Phil, and I also owned three Jacqueline Wilson annuals when I was younger, so this was exactly the branch of non-fiction that grabs my attention.