Showing posts with label Human Universe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Human Universe. Show all posts

Monday, 6 February 2017

January Wrap Up. 01/2017

Hellloooo! I'm back!! How have you all been! I kind of had an unintentional three-week break without telling anyone I was going, but hey! Surprises keep it interesting! And don't worry, the ridiculous amount of exclamation points will stop now.

I've missed blogging so much... you don't understand how hurt I was when I had to swap reading and blogging for studying and failing. But February is going to be different, I can feel it in my bones.

Plus, because of all the studying and the dying and the general unpleasantness, I'm already a book behind schedule on my Goodreads reading challenge. How I managed to mess it up already I have no idea. But I managed to read 5! That's not bad, right?

This month's conquered books include...


• A short story collection by Indrajit Garai.
I was sent this collection in exchange for an honest review and they weren't half bad! Yes, they needed some work, but I tried to pack my review with as much constructive criticism as I could. It was Garai's first work of fiction, and Englis may not have been his first language, so they were better than expected! You can find my full review here!

Human Universe by Professor Bian Cox.

I don't normally read non-fiction books, but I've had this for a while and decided, why the hell not! I'm incredibly intrigued by the sciences, particularly chemistry and physics and this book broadened my knowledge in both. I'd recommend it to any fellow nerds out there! You can find my full review here!


If I stay by Gayle Forman
I started 'If I Stay' on November the 11th of last year and I'll hold my hands up and say I lost it. Yep, it was in my bag when I got home from school, and when I set off the next day I wasn' there. I blame the goblins. But when I did finally find it, I'd read it in a matter of days. It's such a beautiful book, everyone's got to love it! You can find my full review here!

The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson


Talking of beautiful books, 'The Sky Is Everywhere' is definitely one of them! I'd started reading another of Jandy Nelson's work, 'I'll Give You the Sun' but I decided I wanted something shorter, so I naturally shifted to her other novel. This is an amazing book and it also features poetry, which makes it even better! I'd definitely recommend it. Stay tuned! This review will go out this Saturday!




We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Yet another great book! 'We Were Liars' by E. Lockhart is definitely one of the strangest books I've read in a long time. It's painfully dull, then hits you right in the feels when you least expect. I cried. For. Hours. I haven't typed this review up yet, but I can tell it's going to be incredibly long. Mark it in your calendars folks, the full review will be going up 18/02/17. Or you could follow my blog... then you can be reminded about all my posts! 

Book of the month

So, I may have only read 5 books this month, but I still have a favourite! Drum roll, please... My book of the month is  'The Sky Is Everywhere' by Jandy Nelson! I'll go into more detail as to why when I post my review on Saturday. But what I will say is that it's a truly heart-breaking book that got all the hype it deserved. I couldn't have asked for any more from it, it was simply unbeatable!

Favourite book merch stores

I don't order a lot of merch simply because a) It's expensive and b) I don't have a lot of money. But there was a huge sale on the home of all merch, Society 6, so I managed to grab a couple things. I bought the most beautiful tote bag from Bookwormboutique which reads 'Books are uniquely portable magic'.You can find it here if you're interested! I also bought a wonderful mug from Evie Seo which has a quote on it from ACOMAF. I haven't read this book yet, but it's an awesome quote anyway! You can find it here if you wanted!

Currently reading

The book that's carrying on into February with me is Caraval by Stephanie Garber! I'm a quarter of the way through and I am LOVING it so far. But then again, who isn't? This book was hyped like crazy, which is always some cause for concern, but so far, this book is yet to disappoint! Plus can we take a sec to talk about the cover? It's. Freaking.  AMAZING. I live in the UK so I got the whole split book thing (half black and half white) and it's maybe one of the best covers I've ever seen... PLUS when you sneak a peek under the dust jacket HEY PRESTO there's a pretty design in gold there! Yeah, you heard me, gold. I got the circus tent edition which is all I've ever wanted and maybe just a sprinkle more. Which one did you get? From having a gander on social media, the circus and the rose are probably the most popular, but did you get something different?

Pre-orders

I've decided to buckle down and get a little more serious with my blog. Some weeks went without reviews, Top 5 Tuesday disappeared into the abyss, and I was generally a bit of a failure. BUT NO MORE. I'm going to start putting a lot more time, effort and a little more money into this baby of mine. In order to make my amazing readers happy, I'm going to start preordering a couple of books each month to make sure my reviews a with the times. Because it's all well and good me getting a review out, but if it's a super mainstream book that was released a billion years ago, chances are you've already read it and reading a review won't be super helpful. So earlier last month I preordered Caraval, which is already here and I'm munching it up as fast as I can to get it to you, plus, 'History Is All You Left Me' by Adam Silvera which is arriving shortly. I could only buy two because that's all the budget allows, I hopefully made good choices. If there's ever any books you guys really want me to review, drop me an e-mail or use the blogger contact from and I'll see what I can do! I'm super duper open to ideas and I can't wait to hear what you suggest!

Book news

Book news! Book news is a new little segment weekly post thing that I'm going to start doing on my blog. The name is definitely open to suggestions as I realise how crap it is. If something major happens in the book community, like a ridiculously fantabulous cover drops, or new editions of books which are lit af arise, I'll be there!

Speaking of fantabulous cover drops a new lit af editions... ACOWAR AND HARRY POTTER!!! Yes, I haven't read ACOMAF yet, but you don't have to admire the beauty of the artwork. Being in the UK, I naturally prefer the US edition which is a tad unfortunate, but hey hum what can you do?


Image result for ACOWAR

What do you guys think? Which is your favourite? Would you rather eat a finger than read an S. J. Maas book? LET'S DISCUSS.

Plus let's talk about Harry Potter I love Harry Potter I haven't read all the Harry Potters yet which makes the fact that I love Harry Potter even better because I'm an early admirer and did you know Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone turns 20 this year I did you know why because new editions are being released and its super cool and they're the houses which are super cool and I have to say all this in one super long sentence because I don't have time for proper punctuation Harry Potter is too important do you think those magic quills that can write have perfect punctuation or do you think the older they get they start to slip or do you think there are some really illiterate quills about that make the user look really bad because they chose a quill that couldn't write I think I'd have a quill as a pet I'm rambling am I rambling I think I'm rambling.....THERE'S GOING TO BE A RAVENCLAW THEMED COVER!!!!! 
Image result for harry potter 20th anniversary edition

I'll have 10 please, plus a Slytherin one. I didn't realise but, apparently, I have quite a lot of Slytherin properties about me, which I never even thought about. Thanks BuzzFeed for helping me figure that one out!

Summary
This cold and rainy January has been pretty good in the world of books, as it turns out. Let's hope February continues in January's footsteps. Plus, a little bit about me, I didn't realise February had two 'r''s in it until year 9 (aged 13). Embarrassing or what?

How many books did you manage this month? Has your Goodreads challenge beaten you already? It's ok, who hasn't it beaten? What's your best book of the month? Which upcoming book are you most excited for? Which Harry Potter house do you belong to?Are you a frequent Society6 shopper? What's your favourite shop? I WANT TO GET TO KNOW YOU GUYS!!!


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Sunday, 15 January 2017

Human Universe (Wonders of Brian Cox, #4) by Brian Cox and Andrew Cohen: Review

24803451Author: Brian Cox and Andrew Cohen
Genre: Science, Non-Fiction
Pages: 288
Published: September 11, 2014
Publisher: William Collins
Price: £5.84   (Paperback from the Book Depository)
          £17.46 (Hardback from the Book Depository) 
          £4.99   (Kindle Edition)
Series: Wonders of Brian Cox
Source: Bought

Trigger Warnings: None


About the book, taken from Amazon:

Human Universe tackles some of the greatest questions that humans have asked to try and understand the very nature of ourselves and the Universe in which we live.
Through the endless leaps of human minds, it explores the extraordinary depth of our knowledge today and where our curiosity may lead us in the future. With groundbreaking insight, it reveals how time, physics and chemistry came together to create a creature that can wonder at its own existence, blessed with an unquenchable thirst to discover not just where it came from, but how it can think, where it is going and if it is alone.
Accompanies the acclaimed BBC TV series.


My review:

Man, this book was awesome! It's my first time reading a non-fiction book of this sort, and I had no idea what to expect. Well, I sort of did... I knew that it could go one of two ways: I could be completely hooked, or it could bore the daylights out of me. And I think it did its fair share of both.

Three of the sections were amazing. They were beautifully written, compelling and incredibly inspiring. With the best, in my opinion, being 'Why are we here?'. 'Why are we here?' explained how we are each important, as we are a result ridiculously small odds and thousands of years of evolution, yet we are each insignificant in the grand scheme of things. The chance of you walking this earth is one in a billion, yet new babies are born every day, so it can't be that remarkable that you exist. The discussion that happened in this section was one of the most thought-provoking things I've ever read.

The only thing that I didn't particularly like about 'Human Universe' was its habit to leave me behind. I've only had a few months of A-Level study, so I didn't understand quite a lot of the things discussed, but that's definitely more my fault than the books. And due to my mind wondering to other things, rather than trying to understand material beyond my level, I had to reread many chapters. This happened quite often in the 'Are we alone?' and 'Who are we?' sections. I'll be sure to reread 'Human Universe' when I've studied the material in more depth.



Have you read 'Human Universe? Read any of  Brian Cox's other books? Have any non-fiction book recommendations? Let me know in the comments!



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