Month: September 2014

Emma Watson Has Something To Say and You Need To Listen!

I first saw this video yesterday when the UN published it on their YouTube channel and Emma Watson’s words of gender equality had me choked up. We all know that this is a problem and yet so many of us do so little to make a change for the generations that are yet to come.

This speech has gone viral and I hope it goes on further. I hope that her words can shake the very core in us and make us even more hungry for a change!

Be a part of the HeForShe movement!

https://www.facebook.com/heforshe

A Monsters Call by Patrick Ness (Review)

A Monsters Call is based on an original idea by Siobhan Dowd.

In A Monsters Call we meet Conor. Conor has the same dream every night. The same nightmare. He’s had this exact same nightmare ever since his mother first fell ill with cancer. Since the first time she started treatments that doesn’t seem to work as well as they should. 

But one night differs from the others. One night the Yew Tree that stands close to their house comes to life. It turns up at his window and wants the most dangerous thing of all from thirteen year old Conor. It wants the truth. 

The tree will return to tell him three stories and tells Conor that the fourth time it will be his time to tell the tree his story. 

***

A Monsters call is an amazing novel filled with love, loss and hope. 

It’s a fairytale but not quite. A story that has your heart hopping and breaking.

An incredible insight to a child’s point of view when having to see the most important person in his world coming down with illness. The hopelessness of being a bystander. The challenge of trying to stay a child when his surroundings forces him to act like an adult.

A Monsters Call was impossible for me to put down and as soon as I finished it, it had a new home on my shelf of favorites.

five-stars

A monsters call

If you would like your own copy of the book: CLICK HERE 🙂

***

A few of my favorite quotes from A Monsters Call:

“Then the Monster paused again.

   You really aren’t afraid, are you?

   ‘No,’ Connor said. ‘Not of you, anyway.’

The monster narrowed its eyes.

    You will be, it said. Before the end.”

“Don’t think you haven’t lived long enough to have a story to tell,”

”  ‘The green things of this world are just wondrous, aren’t they?’ his mother went on. ‘We work so hard to get rid of them when sometimes they’re the very thing that saves us.’  “

“You do not write your life with words, the monster said. You write it with action. What you think is not important. It is only important what you do.“

Shake it OFF

I’ve never really been a big Taylor Swift fan, but I love the message of this catchy tune!

We all have negative things that happen in our lives. You could choose to bury yourself in them or you could shake them off. It can be a bad relationship or friendship, a job that you hate going to, a town you feel stuck in or anything that drags you down.

I’ve talked about this so many times, and I can guarantee you that this won’t be the last time. If there’s something you are not happy with, then change it!

It can be hard on so many levels and so many ways, but what is the point of this life if we don’t follow our heart and chase down happiness?

Sometimes money can be something that gets us stuck in our ways and I get that, but there are times when we just need to take a leap of faith and take some risks!

There’s no denying that we all will face our end some day, but how lucky are we to be able to start on a new beginning every single day?!

So shake off all that negativity and focus on all that is and can be great in your life!

Go out there, do what you love, be true to yourself and find your true happiness!

I’m cheering for you all the way!!

Some Goodies to Share!

I love to share inspiring and beautiful things with you guys!

I thought my night would be all Apple and writing, but since the live streaming of the Apple launch was a disaster (and that is saying it as nicely as I possibly can) and my tendonitis is kicking up like crazy at the moment I got to have some quality time with YouTube. There I found a few things that I wanted to share with you.

Let’s start with a new treat from Shots of Awe:

Second I found a new upload from SoulPancake about success:

And then there’s this beauty:

Motivation in Poetry

I consider myself quite the positive person, but as I have mentioned in other posts; It can be hard to be positive in a negative world.

Some days I need a cup of extra motivation. I find this motivation in poetry, literature and art in general. I find it in smiles, friends and kind words. I find it my son, my family and flowers on the ground.

I needed a little of that motivation today, and as I searched around for poetry that was new to me I stumbled upon Mary Oliver and her poem “The Journey”. Now I’m sharing it with you.

***

The Journey
 
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice–
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do–
determined to save
the only life you could save.
– Mary Oliver
mary-oliver
Have a great day!
And don’t forget:
Bj5fxkgCQAAHxW-– Nishan Panwar

The Medea Complex by Rachel Florence Roberts (Review)

BASED ON A TRUE STORY 1885. Anne Stanbury. Committed to a lunatic asylum, having been deemed insane and therefore unfit to stand trial for the crime of which she is indicted. But is all as it seems? Edgar Stanbury. The grieving husband and father who is torn between helping his confined wife recover her sanity and seeking revenge on the woman who ruined his life. Dr George Savage. The well-respected psychiatrist and chief medical officer of Bethlem Royal Hospital. Ultimately, he holds Anne’s future wholly in his hands.

***

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I feel very honored to have been contacted by the author of this novel and was given a Kindle copy of The Medea Complex to read and review it.

Thank you, Rachel!

I found the story behind the novel fascinating and maybe even a bit more knowing that it was based on a true story. An interesting story that early on comes with a lot of questions that you want to read your way to the answers to.

There were aspects of this book that I really liked, but there were also some that just was not my cup of tea. The parts I really liked was the way that it shifted from the different people in the story’s point of view. It gave it more of a range and mystery. I had a little trouble with some of the language that felt out of place for the time in which the story is set. And when some of the big answers came at the end I found it a bit out of place with the thoughts of the characters from the beginning of it. I think it would have benefitted from being written in third person and not first person.

But all in all I found the story entertaining and different!

***

3-stars-out-of-5

One of my favorite quotes from the book:

“I put down my pen – Miss Fortier has confirmed my suspicions. I know exactly what caused Anne’s insanity. Books. Women and their books.”
If you would like your own copy of the book, CLICK HERE or on the picture below:
historical-fiction