You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
elouisedouglas's Reviews (721)
http://louiser89.com/2014/01/04/review-j-k-rowling-harry-potter-goblet-fire/
http://louiser89.com/2014/01/07/review-j-k-rowling-harry-potter-order-phoenix/
http://louiser89.com/2014/01/10/review-j-k-rowling-harry-potter-half-blood-prince/
http://emmaloui.se/2017/12/06/sarah-j-maas-a-court-of-thorns-and-roses/
http://emmaloui.se/2017/12/08/brandon-sanderson-the-way-of-kings/
I wasn’t sure what this book really was about when I asked for it for Christmas, but I like reading books by strong independent women, and Mayim Bialik is one of those to me. Not afraid to speak her mind and to practice her religion (she’s Jewish) without fear of being judged. I just wanted to read what she’d written to see what it’s all about.
As it turns out, this book was a book about puberty and growing up as a girl (hence Girling Up), and was aimed at pre-teen and teenage girls. As such, it was most definitely not the right kind of book for me, and (thankfully) I didn’t learn anything from it, but I can see how it would be perfect for young girls.
The whole facts of puberty were laid out plain in a matter of fact way (no shying away from more sensitive subjects including sex), but written in a way that would be really accessible to someone young and inexperienced. As well as dealing with the physical changes, Bialik also talks about the emotional changes too and weaves her personal experience throughout the book to let you know that you’re not alone.
All I can say is, I really wish I’d had this book when I was 11, 12 or 13, it would have answered so many questions that I had which weren’t answered clearly for me for a long time after I should have known the answers!
Posted on: http://emmaloui.se/2017/12/26/mayim-bialik-girling-up/
As it turns out, this book was a book about puberty and growing up as a girl (hence Girling Up), and was aimed at pre-teen and teenage girls. As such, it was most definitely not the right kind of book for me, and (thankfully) I didn’t learn anything from it, but I can see how it would be perfect for young girls.
The whole facts of puberty were laid out plain in a matter of fact way (no shying away from more sensitive subjects including sex), but written in a way that would be really accessible to someone young and inexperienced. As well as dealing with the physical changes, Bialik also talks about the emotional changes too and weaves her personal experience throughout the book to let you know that you’re not alone.
All I can say is, I really wish I’d had this book when I was 11, 12 or 13, it would have answered so many questions that I had which weren’t answered clearly for me for a long time after I should have known the answers!
Posted on: http://emmaloui.se/2017/12/26/mayim-bialik-girling-up/
I think the fact that I started this book 3 weeks ago probably gives you a good idea what I thought of it. It was only 400ish pages long, but it felt like a long hard slog to get to the end. The plot was just really slow and it felt like there was a lot of emphasis placed on certain areas and others were just skipped over entirely.
To say that the main plot line was a series of tests to determine the new King’s Champion, there were too many times where the entire test was skipped over in a single sentence telling you who had been eliminated, which felt like a bit of a cop-out – give me some action please!
That, of course, left much more time for the stupid love-triangle slash will-they won’t-they series of events which seriously dragged the book down in my estimation. I prefer my female leads to be a bit more kick-ass and a bit less doey-eyed than Celaena was, and more than once I just wanted to give her a kick up the backside and tell her to pull herself together.
It also felt like it took way too long into the book before any ‘real action’ started, it must have been over halfway before I felt it pick up – this is probably the main reason it took 3 weeks to read.
When I started reading, I reserved the next 3 books in the series on my library e-reading app so that I could go straight on to the next ones without waiting, but after 2 weeks of reading and not even getting to 50% through, I returned the others so someone else could have a go. I may come back to them at a later date and see if book two can pick up the pace somewhat, but for now I want to read something more compelling!
Posted on: http://emmaloui.se/2017/12/27/sarah-j-maas-throne-of-glass/
To say that the main plot line was a series of tests to determine the new King’s Champion, there were too many times where the entire test was skipped over in a single sentence telling you who had been eliminated, which felt like a bit of a cop-out – give me some action please!
That, of course, left much more time for the stupid love-triangle slash will-they won’t-they series of events which seriously dragged the book down in my estimation. I prefer my female leads to be a bit more kick-ass and a bit less doey-eyed than Celaena was, and more than once I just wanted to give her a kick up the backside and tell her to pull herself together.
It also felt like it took way too long into the book before any ‘real action’ started, it must have been over halfway before I felt it pick up – this is probably the main reason it took 3 weeks to read.
When I started reading, I reserved the next 3 books in the series on my library e-reading app so that I could go straight on to the next ones without waiting, but after 2 weeks of reading and not even getting to 50% through, I returned the others so someone else could have a go. I may come back to them at a later date and see if book two can pick up the pace somewhat, but for now I want to read something more compelling!
Posted on: http://emmaloui.se/2017/12/27/sarah-j-maas-throne-of-glass/
I was a late-comer to the world of Gilmore Girls, I’d heard of it of course, but only started to watch it when it came to Netflix last year. And what’s not to like, a program about an independent woman and her equally independent daughter, who just so happens to love books…
I binge watched the whole thing on Netflix in a matter of weeks, so when I read that Lauren Graham had written an autobiography that obviously covered her time on Gilmore Girls and the reboot, I knew I wanted to read it.
While reading, it was hard to tell the difference between Lauren and Lorelai, they seem to have very similar personalities, bubbly and chatty and unable to stop talking. This felt more like a nice chat with a friend over a glass of wine than a 200+page book, I read the whole thing in one go, staying up til after 1am to finish reading. In fact, if I’d read the back of the book before I dived in, I would have read this, which couldn’t have been more true:
This book is like a cozy night in, catching up with your best friend, laughing and swapping stories, and—of course—talking as fast as you can.
If you ever watched the Gilmore Girls, I would definitely recommend this as a lovely sneak peek inside that world, as well as finding out more about what makes Lauren tick and what lead her to Lorelai.
Posted on: http://emmaloui.se/2017/12/28/lauren-graham-talking-as-fast-as-i-can/
I binge watched the whole thing on Netflix in a matter of weeks, so when I read that Lauren Graham had written an autobiography that obviously covered her time on Gilmore Girls and the reboot, I knew I wanted to read it.
While reading, it was hard to tell the difference between Lauren and Lorelai, they seem to have very similar personalities, bubbly and chatty and unable to stop talking. This felt more like a nice chat with a friend over a glass of wine than a 200+page book, I read the whole thing in one go, staying up til after 1am to finish reading. In fact, if I’d read the back of the book before I dived in, I would have read this, which couldn’t have been more true:
This book is like a cozy night in, catching up with your best friend, laughing and swapping stories, and—of course—talking as fast as you can.
If you ever watched the Gilmore Girls, I would definitely recommend this as a lovely sneak peek inside that world, as well as finding out more about what makes Lauren tick and what lead her to Lorelai.
Posted on: http://emmaloui.se/2017/12/28/lauren-graham-talking-as-fast-as-i-can/
We left the first book in this series in a really interesting place, Feyre had returned to the spring court with Tamlin, but bound to Rhys for one week a month as part of the bargain for saving her. Regardless, Feyre is happy as it means she can be with the love of her life. And of course the small matter that Feyre is now an immortal Fae, a conversion necessary to stop her from dying.
But quite quickly, the dream with Tamlin shatters, as he leaves her alone in the house for long periods of time, won’t let her join in with anything more dangerous than eating her lunch, and then resorts to locking her in the house to prevent her from leaving.
But still, she loves him and is going ahead with the plans to marry him as soon as possible. But of course, Rhys isn’t happy with those plans and turns up in the middle of the ceremony to take Feyre away to the Night Court. But this seems like it may be a blessing in disguise, as Feyre soon realises that her life with Tamlin was no life at all.
But her life with Rhys is about to get much more complicated, and much more dangerous…
I won’t go too much further into the plot as I don’t want to give away more spoilers than I already have, but all I will say is that this book for the most part feels action packed all the way through. There were a few times when it felt like it was going a bit slowly, but those parts didn’t last long.
I stand by my comment on my review of the first book in this series that although this might be a ‘young adult’ book, it’s definitely not aimed at the younger end of the spectrum. There’s quite a lot of graphic content in there which wouldn’t be appropriate.
And the ending. Wow, the ending. Nothing that I expected at all and leaving my thirsting for more, desperate to know what Feyre and Rhys will do next. I’m so glad I have the third book in this series checked out of the library already so I don’t have to wait, although I think I’ll wait a couple of days til the first of January so I can complete the last 3 books of my challenge first!
Posted on: http://emmaloui.se/2017/12/29/sarah-j-maas-a-court-of-mist-and-fury/
But quite quickly, the dream with Tamlin shatters, as he leaves her alone in the house for long periods of time, won’t let her join in with anything more dangerous than eating her lunch, and then resorts to locking her in the house to prevent her from leaving.
But still, she loves him and is going ahead with the plans to marry him as soon as possible. But of course, Rhys isn’t happy with those plans and turns up in the middle of the ceremony to take Feyre away to the Night Court. But this seems like it may be a blessing in disguise, as Feyre soon realises that her life with Tamlin was no life at all.
But her life with Rhys is about to get much more complicated, and much more dangerous…
I won’t go too much further into the plot as I don’t want to give away more spoilers than I already have, but all I will say is that this book for the most part feels action packed all the way through. There were a few times when it felt like it was going a bit slowly, but those parts didn’t last long.
I stand by my comment on my review of the first book in this series that although this might be a ‘young adult’ book, it’s definitely not aimed at the younger end of the spectrum. There’s quite a lot of graphic content in there which wouldn’t be appropriate.
And the ending. Wow, the ending. Nothing that I expected at all and leaving my thirsting for more, desperate to know what Feyre and Rhys will do next. I’m so glad I have the third book in this series checked out of the library already so I don’t have to wait, although I think I’ll wait a couple of days til the first of January so I can complete the last 3 books of my challenge first!
Posted on: http://emmaloui.se/2017/12/29/sarah-j-maas-a-court-of-mist-and-fury/
.jpg)
Considering this has been out for so long and been sitting on my shelf pretty much since it was released, I can’t believe I haven’t read it properly. I think I flipped through it quickly when it was bought, but it didn’t have a ‘read’ date on Goodreads. And since I have 2 days left to read 3 books in my 2017 challenge, it seemed like this would be perfect.
I found this book quite informative, reading a bit more about creatures you hear about during the Harry Potter books/movies. I do wish I’d read it properly before I saw the Fantastic Beasts film though as I would have had more of an idea what the creatures were.
My main complaint with this book was that it was just text. I know there’s now an illustrated version, but I did think there might have been some sketches in of some of the creatures and I found it a bit disappointing that there weren’t. I did, however, like the little doodles that had been ‘added by Harry and Ron’. Like this delightful one:
Childish but fun nonetheless.
Being so short and with such large text, it was a quick read and quite pleasant, but I think I will enjoy the illustrated version much more!
Posted on: http://emmaloui.se/2017/12/30/j-k-rowling-fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them/
I found this book quite informative, reading a bit more about creatures you hear about during the Harry Potter books/movies. I do wish I’d read it properly before I saw the Fantastic Beasts film though as I would have had more of an idea what the creatures were.
My main complaint with this book was that it was just text. I know there’s now an illustrated version, but I did think there might have been some sketches in of some of the creatures and I found it a bit disappointing that there weren’t. I did, however, like the little doodles that had been ‘added by Harry and Ron’. Like this delightful one:
Childish but fun nonetheless.
Being so short and with such large text, it was a quick read and quite pleasant, but I think I will enjoy the illustrated version much more!
Posted on: http://emmaloui.se/2017/12/30/j-k-rowling-fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them/