The Travelling Bibliophile • A Book & Travel Blog
Casual book blogger, sometimes travel blogger. If you're looking for book reviews or recommendations and travel ideas, I've got you!
While trying to ignore the fact that the flat is getting overtaken with books (no more shelf or stacking space!), I’ve looked through the books coming out for the first half of 2017 and listed down those that tickled my fancy. I can’t say I’ll be able to read them all, since I’d have to buy them first and that, plus the space issue…erm. But we’ll see how long my self-control lasts, eh?
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Foreword: I’ve always liked scents. I used to spend money on oil fragrances from indie sellers (yes, I was into BPAL) but I’ve given up on that as it needs a lot of testing to find the right fragrance for you. Skin/body chemistry makes the scent different on application after all, not to mention any temperature changes from shipping that might affect the oils. Candles and wax melts, however, seem more stable — at least what it depends on most is the craftsmanship. When using wax melts, I might sometimes test it on my electric and tealight wax burner depending on how intense I want the fragrance to be. I am aware, though, that this means shorter fragrance life for the wax tart, and I will definitely mention it on the review if I used the tealight burner with it.
William & Joseph makes scented candles inspired by books and, at the time of writing, Disney. The shop owners are based in England, UK, and seem to be very nice guys. My item was lost in the mail (having issues with lost packages in our flat building recently, so whether it was stolen or lost in shipping, we still don’t know), and they replied promptly to my messages about it and were so helpful in making sure I would definitely get the second parcel they sent out.
Their candles are made with “superior grade paraffin wax”, and at present, are priced at £12.95 and does not including shipping. If this appears a bit pricey to you, I suggest reading more of this review.
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In case you have been living under a rock this year, themed subscription boxes are now all the rage, and I’ll just direct you to the wiki page to read all about it.
Illumicrate is a book-themed subscription box curated by Daphne, who has established herself as a UK book blogger over at Winged Reviews. It’s a quarterly service, which I must admit is the basis of its appeal for me, since I figure she gets time to really source out which books are coming out to include in the boxes, as well as speaking to various creatives and independent retailers about bookish merchandise.
This is also my first ever subscription box, and I was very impressed with the contents! And so without further ado…
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A Gathering of Shadows is the sequel A Darker Shade of Magic written by V.E. Schwab. It also appears to be the second in a series of three books1, because three is a magical number (also refer to recent popular book and movie success The Hunger Games, and somewhat less successful Divergent series).
It picks up from the end of the last book, four months after Kell and Lila parted ways in Red London. Kell has no idea where Lila is or what has happened to her; he just assumes she has gone off to board a ship to explore more of the world as she had told him she wanted to do. Meanwhile, he is slowly unravelling being cooped up inside the castle, his movements limited and monitored by the king due to the events in the previous book.
And now here I must cut off the rest of the post with a warning: there will be a few spoilers underneath, at least regarding character development. I will still try to keep most of the plot unmentioned.
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Gosh, it has been awhile, eh? Between comings and goings for work holidays and stressing over the wedding, I did not have much time to sit and make up a nice post (other bloggers would know how much time it actually takes to put one of these together!). Then when I was ready to do so, I was struck by the dreaded reading slump, and was stuck uninspired with any book I pick up — Sense & Sensibility and We Have Always Lived in A Castle could not pull me in how ever much I tried. It wasn’t that I did not want to read and I was forcing myself; I very much wanted to read something, but nothing was just clicking! That happens to a lot of readers too, right?
Anyhow, the book that broke my slump came at the most random moment — I was out shopping for Christmas presents and was at a Waterstones looking for stocking fillers, when I felt my tummy calling for lunch. I did not want to sit through a meal looking at my phone, so I determinedly tried to find a ‘lunch book’. Nearly went for a John le Carré, but found The Graveyard Book at the ‘Books for Syria’ pile. Loved the cover, loved the little blurb at the back (which is a dying thing at the moment — another rant for another day), so went straight to the counter and bought it! It’s not exactly a Christmas read, but I couldn’t care since I was just so glad I can get rid of this slump!
Neil Gaiman, author of this lovely novel, said that it was inspired by watching his then two-year-old son riding his tricycle between gravestones in the sunshine. This is in stark contrast to the boy in the book, Nobody Owens, who plays around his world — the graveyard — when the moon is high. Known to the “community” as Bod, his playmates, teachers, and guardians are otherworldly, incorporeal beings, and he is taught that there is great danger to himself beyond the gates of the graveyard.
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