Book Review: Finding Audrey - Sophie Kinsella

I am a massive fan of any and all books by Sophie Kinsella so when I heard she was writing a book for young adults I was hoping it was going to be ordered into our library. It was and as soon as it arrived I took it before it was even catalogued and have finished it within a day.

The story focuses on the main character Audrey she suffers with generalised anxiety disorder she can't leave the house and wears dark sunglasses all the time to avoid eye contact. She then meets her brothers friend Linus who sends her funny notes and slowly draws her out of her comfort zone to leave the house to go to Starbucks.
Linus is charming, funny and sweet and makes getting better seem achievable.

I feel that Kinsella perfectly captures the feelings that are attributed with anxiety and while I found the main character to be slightly irritating at times with the constant stating of being ill it is very true to the disorder- that it causes a person to focus solely on themselves and how they're feeling opposed to others so the characterisation was spot on.

The relationship between Audrey and Linus is ever so sweet and it keeps you routing for her to recover. As part of her recovery Audrey is told to keep a video diary of her family and of herself interviewing them. For this parts of the book were written in script form which I felt was a clever idea that showed things from an unbiased perspective.

I found the majority of the other characters to be hilarious especially the conversations between Audrey's mother Anne and her brother Frank. Anne being a daily mail addict constantly trying to do what she thinks is best for her children with some rather hilarious results including throwing her sons computer out of a window.
While Frank is the gaming addict who manages to have a clever response to practically every question.
I found the conversations between these two add some much needed humour to balance out the serious side of the book.

Overall I found this book to be a good read (I read it in a day after all) and i think that this will definitely be a good read for teenagers who may be suffering with anxiety. It's a subject that isn't fully understood or talked about often and this book characterises the feelings relating to it perfectly! A definite must read!

Mini Weekend Away Packing Tips

I will be heading to Jersey for a mini weekend away shortly. For this holiday we only have 10kg of hand luggage.
Surely that should be enough for a three night stay?
However I am a terrible overpacker I always pack too much and prepare for every eventuality rain, sun, a freak snow blizzard...

I am trying to learn the error of my ways and pack more sensibly so here are a few tips for packing everything you need into your hand luggage:

1. Wear your heavy clothes on the plane jeans, trainers etc.

2. Roll your clothes up so they take up less room.

3. Most hotels supply shampoos and conditioner etc so why take it with you? Especially as the hand luggage has a liquids limit. Worst comes to worst you'll have to buy some shampoo while you're there.

4. Minimal make up is the best. You're going on holiday do you really need a full face of make up? Take the minimum you need for going out on an evening. Saves on your liquid allowance and any heavy bottles.

5. Plan outfits in advance. Take different tops and the same bottoms so you can switch up outfit. Take a few different necklaces to accessorise.

6. You only need the basics a pair of jeans, a pair if shorts and a few tops. Two pairs of shoes and that's that.

7. Make sure you don't use all your weight allowance in case you want to buy a few things.

Those are my packing tips. Comment any other tips you may have.

Note the above cases aren't mine saw them on Google images they are such cute colours!

Thanks for reading xx

Classic Fiction Challenge

Hi All,

For those of you that don't know I work in a library this means that the majority of the conversations between staff are about books, books and more books.

Being an avid reader this does not bother me in the slightest - however the other day we were discussing Harper Lee's new book Go Set a Watchmen which is in effect the sequel to the well known classic To Kill a Mockingbird (even though it was written beforehand).

It occurred to me as this conversation was going on that I have never read To Kill a Mockingbird - I vaguely remembered watching the film once in school but have never read it cover to cover.

I then went on to think well what stories that are considered classics have I read?

I could count the number of these on one hand! Two! Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein.

How is it that I have grown up being an avid reader and yet I've read hardly any classic literature!?

So I have set myself a challenge the next lot of books I read will only be classic books and once I have read them I will post a review of each on this blog.

My list to read is:

1. To Kill a Mockingbird (this is downloaded and waiting on my Kindle)

2. 1984

3. The Hobbit

4. Jane Eyre

5. Great Expectations

6. Tess of the D'ubervilles

7. Lolita (Not pictured need to buy this)

8. Sense and Sensibility (also need to get this one)

 

How many of the classics have you read?? Which ones would you recommend??

My Week in Photos Take Two

Word of warning beforehand the majority of these photos are pictures of food if you are hungry look away now. Please note I have done more with my week I just appear to enjoy taking pictures of my food.

Sweet little lunch my aunt packed for me with fruits and sweets.

 

One of my step-moms greyhounds, when I 'm over there she has to lie as close to me as possible. She also likes to get up at 6 in the morning and start jumping about. Greyhounds are crazy!!

Quite possibly the nicest sweet ever!!

My aunt cooked me tea and it turned out pink due to the beetroot. The picture doesn't do justice just quite how pink the sauce is!

As part of our weekly evening in watching a film me and my aunt have to have snacks and somehow muggins that I am ended up spending £10 on ice cream!! However as you can see the ice cream was very posh and thankfully turned out to be extremely nice!! Honeycomb ice cream is by far my favourite.

Went up town shopping with the bestie and ended up in an American sweet store getting a pick n mix. First one I have had in years! Love the fizzy rainbow belts!

In an effort to eat healthier I have been eating a lot more fresh food salads, fruit and some pastas.

These colouring books are amazing the pictures are so intricate and pretty!! Colouring really does help you de-stress! There are loads of different ones you can get animals, fairytale, cats etc. They're going for around £6 in the works and you can get them in Tesco's for £5.

Trying to stick back to my milk free diet (lactose intolerance not a fun thing!) however this korma sauce tastes so much nicer than a regular one. Its made with coconut milk so potentially healthier!

Finally Michael Kors sent me an email about their new collection of bucket bags. I'm so in love with this bag!! Sadly at £315 it has a very hefty price tag, but just look at it so pretty!! The dusty rose on the inside is so nice aswell!! Guess I'm just going to have to wait for the sales!

 

So those are my photos of the week I have actually done other stuff that doesn't just involve eating went out for a friends birthday on the Saturday clubbing was good fun. My aunt held a little tea party gathering type thing at her house which was ever so cute but as I wasn't using my phone no pictures were taken that day. We did have a good little music session though and eat a lot of food! The remainder of the week has been spent getting on top of the usual boring things we all have to do tidying cleaning etc and also sorting out the details for my mini break to Jersey it's fast approaching and bar it being booked we have arranged no details so far!

 

What have you all been up to this week? Any random photos of the week to share?

 

Thanks for reading! xx

Weekend Haul

 Time for a very girly post now! I went shopping at the weekend and that usually means I'm about to make my bank account cry ever so slightly.
I thought I would share with you all a few of my purchases:

 

It was my friends birthday at the weekend so I went on the hunt for a going out outfit. I don't go out clubbing very often so my outfit choices are usually very limited and consist of mostly black clothing. I decided to jazz things up abit and got the above outfit from H&M such a bargain only £12.99! Such a lovely royal blue body con dress I normally wouldn't feel overly confident in something so clingy but this dress made me feel great! I also got the above necklace to accessorise I'm not very good at matching jewellery with outfits but I am learning to be more girly and I think the above necklace goes well with the dress.

 

Until the other day I was a Lush virgin so to speak. I would always walk past or browse thinking that smells nice and never actually try anything. So while perusing this time I decided to actually give some of the products a try, I've heard good things about the face masks I did want the cupcake face mask but it was sold out (sad times! ) So I opted for Mask of Magnaminty instead which is supposed to be good for problem skin once I have tested it out I will let you know!

 

I also picked up one of the bath bombs/bubble bars this one is Creamy Candy if you like sweet things this is perfect! I used it the other day and could smell it on my skin for the whole day after.

 

 

 I also picked up this cute little jumper/top from H&M they have some really lovely summer clothes in at the moment.

 

My final purchase of the day was the Urban Decay Eyeshadow Snatch from Debenhams as I had a 5 pound reward to use up (got to love beauty club points) It's such a pretty colour and I had wanted it for a while so I caved and thought why not?! It's almost like a creamy goldy pink from different angles.

 

So that was my Saturday purchases in a nutshell let me know what you think if you happen to own or have used any of the above products.

 

Thanks for reading xx