B3THANY READS

Dear Santa, So, it's Christmas Eve. I imagine you're pretty busy right now but... You know I'm your favourite earthling so you won't mind making some time in your hectic schedule to read this, right? Here on my blog I have already written about the bookish things I want for Christmas, but there's something else. There's a few more presents that would make me super happy on Christmas day, but there's a catch. They're not things you can buy. They are Christmas wishes. Here they are: Please may you help me learn how to properly dress myself? I'm fed up of wearing clothes I don't particularly like just because it's something to wear. I want to look nice and feel myself. I need to be way less awkward over the phone. Can't stand it. Please can I have some more confidence? Can you help me get a hold of my anxiety? Yes, it's gotten better in the past year but it's still very, very prominent in my life. Pretty please? I...

I did this post last year so I thought I would keep up the tradition and do it again this year! 1. Read 10 books Last year, my goal was to read 15 books (which I managed!), but I don't think I will be able to achieve in 2019. I will be in my last year of university, working on my dissertation, playing lots of badminton and doing exams... So I would be happy if I read 10!! 2. Reach C1 level in French I'm currently on my year abroad in Switzerland in order to improve my French for my degree. At the moment, I'm probably a strong B2 but I would really love to gain confidence and proficiency before I go back to uni in September. Fingers crossed! 3. Dissertation  I mentioned this before, but I will be starting my dissertation when I go back to uni in September. All I ask of myself is that I get a really good start, decide on my topic and work really hard. I'm actually looking forward to going back to uni and uni work so hopefully I can do this one! 4. Trav...

Inspired by Spotify's 'Your Top Songs of 2018' feature, I thought I would go through the soundtrack to my year. In total, I listened to 101,410 minutes of music on Spotify this year... So, I'm going to try to whittle it down to my top 10 songs I had on repeat for the past 12 months! 10. From Now On, The Greatest Showman This film was super popular this year so it's no surprise that this song is in my top songs of 2018.  I saw the film in the cinema with my sisters and absolutely loved it! I especially loved this song - it made me cry! (Unpopular opinion: this song is ever so slightly better than This Is Me). 9. Love Will Tear Us Apart, Joy Division Obviously I had heard this song way before 2018 but it has a special place in my hear this year. I was working at Next over the summer for some extra money before my year abroad. One day, my dad gave me a lift to work in our convertible Mini Cooper - we had the roof down, sun shining and blasting this song ...

Following on from yesterday's post, I thought I would come up with what presents I would give to my favourite characters from the Shades of Magic series! Well, the characters that are still alive... *sobs* Lila Firstly, I would give her 'Great Women Who Changed the World' by Kate Pankurst. Yes, I know this is a children's book but I just feel like Lila would really enjoy it. Also means she can use it to brush up on her English! Then I would give her a really good map and compass. At the end of the last book she sets out to sea with Kell (which I love), so she needs the best equipment she can get. I thought about giving her a new pocket watch but realised it would only be a disappointment and remind her of what she lost... Not very festive. Kell Kell definitely needs something to remind him of Maxim and Emira while he's travelling. So, I would give him a photo frame for him to put photos of his family into. We know Ke...

The Shades of Magic series is the first series I've read in its entirety in a really long time. I think the last time I read a series from beginning to end was when I read the Percy Jackson series at age 11ish. So, I thought I would dedicate today's Blogmas post to all my thoughts and feelings about V.E. Schwab's trilogy! (Be warned - major spoilers). I found out about this series through Hannah's ( A Clockwork Reader ) YouTube channel, and I always like the books she recommends so I trusted her on this one as well. It took me almost 5 months to read the entire series because I like to space things out and give myself variety in between books. What's cool is that you can see the seasons changing in the photos of the books I took! A Darker Shade of Magic Photo taken on Totland Bay, Isle of Wight First up, 'A Darker Shade of Magic'. When I first started reading this book I really liked the mad King George character from Grey London. I thought he wa...

I'm pretty sure everyone's favourite thing about Christmas is the food. Or at least it has to be in your top 5 favourite things, otherwise that's just illegal. So, as I'm spending the run up to Christmas in another country, I thought I would talk about what I like about Swiss Christmas food in today's Blogmas post! Crepes I know, I know. Crepes in Europe are basically an all year round thing. But there's something extra special about them when you get them at a Christmas market. There are so many choices, there's always a long queue of people excitedly waiting for their treat, and it warms you up in a very sugary way! I always get the chocolate crepes (NOT Nutella), and here's one I had at Bulle's Christmas market. Churros Here's another Christmas market speciality. Churros! I know they are originally from Spain but for some reason Christmas markets in Switzerland are littered with churro stalls. Every time you turn a...

This is the last instalment in my mini-series, so here are my family's Boxing Day traditions! Boxing Day is dedicated to our extended family. We have a very relaxed morning and then usually go over to our cousin's house just after lunch time. We sit around, chat and play games for a few hours until it's time for dinner. Dinner is usually left over turkey and all the left over extras from the day before which is dreamy. After dinner we play more games and then we do presents! Boxing Day is a very relaxed day, so that's all the traditions we have in our family! ***** What are your Boxing Day traditions?

Here are my family's Christmas Day traditions! Even though my sisters and I are all in our 20s, we still always wake up super early. Well, 9am is still 'early' to me. We also still look through our stockings in our parents' bedroom like children. Don't judge us. Then we come downstairs and have breakfast! In our family, Christmas Day breakfast is always croissants and pain au chocolat with jam, marmalade, chocolate spread and everything else delicious i the continental breakfast world. The Christmas grocery shop is the only time my dad will buy the branded fruit juice for breakfast. The ONLY time. He knows how to treat us. While we eat breakfast we listen to Junior Choice on BBC radio 2 - they play lots of old school songs that we all love, especially my dad. After breakfast, we move into the living room where we open our presents! We open one each, starting with the eldest and finishing with me, the youngest. You can imagine the suffering I endured as a ...

I thought I would do a mini-series within Blogmas about what my family Christmas traditions are, starting with Christmas Eve! So here is what my family and I get up to on Christmas Eve. To be honest, nothing much happens on Christmas Eve until the evening.  Both last year and the year before I was working at Next over the Christmas period. As Christmas staff, this meant I was obligated to work on Christmas Eve to get the shop ready for Boxing Day sales - so I was busy for most of the day. From what I can remember, Christmas Eve when I was younger was just full of excitement and bouncing around the house with my sisters. What we do do every year is go to church in the evening for the Christingle service! For those of you who don't know, Christingle is a Christian (shock) church service to celebrate Jesus, God and everything to do with Christmas. It's like a normal carol service, but everyone is given a Christingle - an orange with a red ribbon tied round it, a cand...

After reviewing my favourite and my least favourite books of 2018, it's time to look forward to what's to come! Here are the books I'm excited to get my hands on in 2019: 'Children of Virtue and Vengeance' by Tomi Adeyemi If you have read my favourite books of 2018 post, this will come as no surprise to you. 'Children of Blood and Bone' was my absolute favourite book of this year, so of course I can't wait to read the next in the trilogy! This series is the perfect mix of magic, fantasy and adventure and I love it so, so much. It comes out in March 2019, so I don't have that long to wait! 'Speeches of Note' by Shaun Usher I wrote a Blogmas post about my favourite book I received as a Christmas present , which was 'Letters of Note' by Shaun Usher. So, when I heard there was another in the series, I couldn't wait to read it! I think this one is already out, so I will get it when I go back ...

As 2018 comes to a close, it's time to see whether I kept my New Year's resolutions for this year... (If you want to see my original post, click here ) 1. Read 15 books Yup!! As of a week ago, I hit my Goodreads goal of reading 15 books this year! I had a lot more free time this year because I'm working rather than studying, so I managed to read 3 more books than last year. The year isn't over yet, so I might even read more! Here are the books I read this year, and links to reviews if I posted them: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling Turtles All the Way Down , John Green The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil,  Stephen Collins How To Stop Time , Matt Haig Children of Blood and Bone , Tomi Adeyemi Harry Potter and the Prisoner Azkaban , J.K. Rowling A Darker Shade of Magic , V.E. Schwab Notes on a Nervous Planet , Matt Haig A Gathering of Shadows, V.E. Schwab When the Moon Was Ours , Anna-Marie McLemore The Girl With All the...

If you have read any of my other Blogmas posts then you might be sick of me mentioning it, but ... Guess what?! I'm on my year abroad!! So for today's Blogmas, I thought I would summarise my first thoughts as my first term here draws to a close. Here's some context. I study Comparative Literature and French at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England. So, like most English universities, I go on my year abroad in my third year. I had three options; to study, work or teach English. I didn't want to spend another year studying if I didn't have to, so I wanted to work. As I had previous experience tutoring English to school kids in England, I thought I would apply for teaching English. So that's what I did! For your year abroad you can pretty much choose where you want to go in the world. However, for the English Language Assistantship, you can put down your preferences but aren't guaranteed anything. I fell in love with Switzerland after a school tri...

What's Christmas without going to a Christmas market? As I'm spending the year in one of the most Christmassy places in the world, I thought I would take full advantage of the festivities here in Switzerland. So far I have gone to Christmas markets in three different places, so I thought I would share my experiences for today's Blogmas post! Montreux, Switzerland I had heard Montreux held the best Christmas market in Switzerland, so I booked a hotel and off I went. Firstly, Montreux is up there amongst my favourite places in Switzerland. I came here once before in the summer, but visiting in the winter is an entirely different experience. As you walk down the hill from the station to the lake, you are met with a stunning view. One of my favourite parts of this Christmas market was how, every so often, the mountains would peep from behind the stalls as you walked by. It was really easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the crowd and forget about ...

I have stolen this idea from Jenn over at Jenniely as I couldn't decide what to post for today's Blogmas! 1. Are there any books you started this year you need to finish? Technically, yes - I have started reading 'The Little Book of Lykke' by Meik Wiking and want to finish it by the end of December. As it's non-fiction and a little bit self-help, I usually dip in and out of it when I feel like it. It's a nice change from the fantasy I have been reading a lot of recently. I'm also currently rereading The Walking Dead graphic novel series in French, but as I'm rereading it I'm not pressuring myself to finish them all! 2. Do you have an autumnal book to transition to the end of the year? Not really! I read all of my 'autumnal' books in October/November time (such as 'When the Moon Was Ours and 'The Girl With All the Gifts'), so I'm all autumn-ed out.  3. Is there a new release you're still waiting for? Yes! The...

Following on from yesterday's Blogmas post, I thought it would only be fair to talk about my least favourite books I read in 2018 as well! Luckily, there aren't actually that many books that I read this year that I disliked. I know lots of people say 'life is too short' to finish reading a book you're not enjoying, but I like to finish them for multiple reasons... If I put a lot of time and effort into a book, and have read past halfway, you can be sure I'm going to stick it out to the end and finish that thing. I need to reach my Goodreads goal, damn it. Reading a book that you didn't particularly like always provides good conversation topics (and blog posts!) So, without further a do, here are my least favourite books of 2018! When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore Oh, boy. When the Moon Was Ours had been on my TBR for a very long time. If I'm honest, the only thing that made me want to read it was the cover, and the blurb wa...

As of the time I am writing today's Blogmas post, I haven't yet reached my Goodreads goal of 15 books in 2018. I am currently on number 14, so hopefully I will get there eventually. However, as the year is drawing to a close, I thought it would be nice to talk about my favourite books I read in 2018. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi  Photo taken on Totland Bay, Isle of Wight I feel like I have not stopped talking about Children of Blood and Bone since I read it. Go and look at my Twitter feed (@b3thanyreads) and you'll see what I mean. I read this book during the Easter holidays whilst on the Isle of Wight with my family. From the moment I started reading it I knew it was going to become one of my favourite books, and I could not wait to read it all. First of all, this Waterstones special edition cover is STUNNING. And the story inside is just as beautiful. It's pretty much the perfect book for me - it has high fantasy, magic, interesting chara...

I'm currently on my year abroad teaching English at a Swiss high school and, during the last few weeks of term before Christmas, I was asked to do a lot of 'Christmas in the UK' cultural lessons. I made a PowerPoint about all the traditions we have around this time of year, and then I decided to share the most popular Christmas songs. Going through Spotify Christmas playlists made me so happy, so I decided to dedicate a Blogmas post to it! 'Santa Claus is Comin' to Town (Live)' by Bruce Springsteen Listen to it here Bruce Springsteen is a strong family favourite in my house, so this song is doing a great job at making me homesick every time I listen to it.... Thanks, Bruce. Nah, I'm only kidding. Even though the song does remind me of home, it's a nice feeling. I can't wait to be back home singing this song with my sisters at the top of our voices from my Dad's record player in the living room.  'All I Want for Christmas' ...

***Happy first week of Blogmas!*** Here's another gift guide for you! But this time with a slight twist. This is a very personal gift guide - the books I would give to a friend as Christmas presents. Ranging from good introductions for non-readers to a few of my absolute favourites for fellow bookworms. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern First up is The Night Circus . As well as being one of my all time favourite books, The Night Circus  would be a really good introduction to fantasy. The magic is infectious and definitely left me on a high for a few days after finishing it (which only took me a day and a half! That's a PB for me). Unfortunately I haven't got any of my own photos of this book as I got my copy from the library. So this image is from Amazon. If you'd like to read my review of The Night Circus , click here ! Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn Speaking of good introductions, Gone Girl would be the perfect intro to a myste...