Newquay Part Two - The Beach

After our lovely trip to the zoo my feet were already aching in my new sandals (I know, I know, who wears new sandals to the zoo? This idiot does) and it was just about lunch time so we grabbed some chips and headed down to the beach, where I got to soak my tired feet in the ocean. 

After we were quite finished being completely soaked by unexpectedly large waves we made our way back into the main town and stopped off in a Ben & Jerry's ice cream parlour and I had a really delicious strawberry cheesecake milkshake.

Then we went to Boots so that I could buy blister plasters. Seriously, never wear new sandals to the zoo.

If you'd like to see more of our day (or me making an absolutely charming face) then you can watch this lovely video that Jess made on her youtube channel.

Also, totally unrelated (yeah, right), if you have any tips about how to heal particularly bad sunburn, then I would love to hear them. Really. I am really not just saying that.

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Newquay Part One - The Zoo

Check out that cool frog guy! (It could be a frog girl. I don't know its frog life.) I am ridiculously pleased with this photograph.

On Friday I went to Newquay with a few friends and took a lot of photos. I've managed to scale them down to a far more manageable number, but I've decided to split the day into two blog posts anyway, just so that I don't overload you with images!

We started the day at Newquay Zoo. It's quite a small zoo but the animals sure did love having their photos taken! Towards the end of our trip my friends were joking about me being 'the animal whisperer' and 'Stasia Dolittle' because so many of the animals seemed to be looking straight at my camera and posing for me! The meerkats especially...

(These are two of the three friends I went with, in the maze at the zoo. Not actually zoo animals, but pretty close.)

After we finished at the zoo we spent our afternoon at the beach and popped into a Ben and Jerry's ice cream parlour, but you'll have to wait until Tuesday for those photos!

I hope you're all having a great weekend!

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The Mortmain.

Okay so technically this cocktail is actually called a 'ninja turtle' and it's one I've been making for a few years now, but the colour just instantly reminds me of Topaz and Rose dying all of the Mortmain's clothes green, and it complements the cover of my edition of I Capture the Castle just as Rose's Crème de Menthe complements her hair. So in honour of Dodie Smith and Read Women Month I am renaming this drink The Mortmain!

The Mortmain

Ingredients:

• Gin
• Blue Curaçao
• Orange juice
• Ice

Method:

• Half fill a tall glass with ice.
• Add 1 measure of your favourite gin (I usually use a shot glass for measuring) and 1/5 a measure of blue curaçao.
• Top up with orange juice.
• That's it!

Now you can sip your delicious Mortmain with your feet rested in the kitchen sink while you try not to get too carried away with those Americans who just moved into town!

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My favourite books by women writers.

For today's Read Women Month post I thought I would share some of my all time favourite books by women writers. You'll definitely have heard of most of these but if there are any you haven't heard of (or any you have heard of but are unsure about picking up) then maybe you'll find something new and great to read!

The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

Welcome to the magical underworld of Venice, Italy. Here, hidden canals and crumbling rooftops shelter runaways and children with incredible secrets...

After escaping from their cruel aunt and uncle, orphans Prosper and Bo meet a mysterious boy who calls himself the "Thief Lord." Clever and charming, the Thief Lord leads a band of street children who enjoy making mischief. But the Thief Lord also has a dark secret. And suddenly Prosper and Bo find themselves on a fantastical journey to a forgotten place. What they discover there will change the course of their destiny. 

I read The Thief Lord years and years ago but I still remember the feeling of magic and adventure in every page. Funke is fantastic at creating atmosphere and this book is 100% responsible for my wanting to visit Venice ever since I read it. I remember getting so lost in this book and never wanting to put it down (which is actually exactly how I felt about another of Funke's books, Inkheart).

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

 Eleanor is the new girl in town, and with her chaotic family life, her mismatched clothes and unruly hair, she couldn't stick out more if she tried.

Park is the boy at the back of the bus. Black T-shirts, headphones, head in a book - he thinks he's made himself invisible. But not to Eleanor... never to Eleanor.

Slowly, steadily, through late-night conversations and an ever-growing stack of mix tapes, Eleanor and Park fall for each other. They fall in love the way you do the first time, when you're young, and you feel as if you have nothing and everything to lose. 

You've probably already heard of Eleanor & Park. Everyone's heard of Eleanor & Park and most people have already read it. I included it in my favourite books of 2013 and even though it's such a recent read I have no qualms whatsoever about including it as one of my favourites ever. This is one of the sweetest, most heartbreaking, and most engrossing books I have ever read, and I'd recommend it to absolutely everyone.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Cassandra Mortmain is no ordinary teenager. She belongs to an extraordinary family including a father suffering from writer's block and a lute-playing stepmother, Topaz, who communes with nature near the wild, tumble-down castle that is their home. Cassandra's diary reveals how their lives are changed forever when two American brothers arrive to lay claim, not only to their home, but also their hearts.

I Capture the Castle is quite possibly my favourite book ever. The characters, the setting, the writing style - everything is perfect (except for the cover of my edition). I honestly can't praise this book enough. The characters are all so interesting and multi-dimensional, the writing is gorgeous, Cassandra and her family live in a castle that's falling down around them, and don't even get me started on Stephen.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Orphaned, penniless, Jacob Jankowski jumps a freight train in the dark, and in that instant, transforms his future.

By morning, he's landed a job with the Flying Squadron of the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. By nightfall, he's in love.

In an America made colourless by prohibition and the Depression, the circus in a refuge of sequins and sensuality. But behind the glamour lies a darker world, where both animals and men are dispensable. Where falling in love is the most dangerous act of all... 

Water for Elephants is just a beautiful story, beautifully written. I loved the circus setting and the story had me gripped from start to finish. It's romantic and dramatic and it's got pretty much all of the elements you would want from a really great story. Including an elephant.

Avalon High by Meg Cabot

Avalon High, Ellie's new school, is pretty much what she'd expected. There's Lance, the hunky footballer. Jennifer, the cute cheerleader. Marco, the troublemaker. And there's Will - the most gorgeous guy Ellie's ever met. She can hardly believe he likes HER.

When Will says he thinks he's met Ellie before, things start getting a little weird. A feeling that grows as Ellie discovers the strange bonds that entwine Will, Lance, Jen, Marco - and herself.

As darkness turns to danger, can Ellie stop the horrific chain of events that is about to engulf them all...

I don't know if you can tell but my copy of Avalon High is extremely well read. I've read it way too many times to count and a certain friend of mine has borrowed it almost as much. I've read a lot of Meg Cabot's books and loved every single one of them (The Princess Diaries series being another particular favourite) but something keeps drawing me back to this modern high school retelling of the Arthurian legends. I never tire of re-reading it.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling

When a letter arrives for unhappy but ordinary Harry Potter, a decade-old secret is revealed to him that apparently he's the last to know. His parents were wizards, killed by a Dark Lord's curse when Harry was just a baby, and which he somehow survived. Leaving his unsympathetic aunt and uncle for Hogwarts, a wizarding school brimming with ghosts and enchantments, Harry stumbles upon a sinister adventure when he finds a three-headed dog guarding a room on the third floor. Then he hears of a missing stone with astonishing powers which could be valuable, dangerous, or both.

Well you've definitely heard of the Harry Potter books but I can't make a list of my favourite books written by women and not include them. The Harry Potter books shaped me in a way that no other book ever has or probably ever will. It's impossible to pick just one favourite but I've chosen The Philosopher's Stone for this list because it's the one that started it all and there are some absolutely adorable moments between the main trio that just make me smile every time.

What are your favourite books written by women? Let me know in the comments.

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Some Sunday Photos

I've been buying a few too many new clothes this week (including these leggings and the dress below) and trying to teach myself how to shoot in manual mode. I think I'm slowly getting the hang of it.

My parents have gone away for a few days and Jess is staying with me until they get back. We're probably going to spend the whole three days watching movies and eating far too many snacks, if past experience is anything to go by.

I hope you've had a good weekend. x

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Read Women Month Tag

For today's Read Women Month post I thought it would be fun to make a quick tag post. Turns out questions for tags are a lot more difficult to think of than I expected, so the more interesting of these questions were actually suggested by Saruuh, who is a true godsend.

So, without further ado, the Read Women Month Tag.

Your favourite book written by a woman

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

The last book you read that was written by a woman

Heist Society by Ally Carter

Your favourite non-fiction book written by a woman

How To Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

Your favourite series written by a woman

The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling (Obvious and predictable but true)

Three favourite female authors

Meg Cabot, Rainbow Rowell, JK Rowling

A book you love, written by a female author, that you don't think enough people have heard of

Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier

One woman writer you've been meaning to read but haven't yet

Tahereh Mafi (I will get around to reading Shatter Me one day, I swear!)

Your favourite female-written book that people often look down on

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer (I have a sneaky feeling most people might say this one)

Your favourite female character in a book written by a woman

Mia Thermopolis from Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries series

Your favourite female friendship in a book written by a woman

Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley from the Harry Potter series

A male-written book you wish had been written by a woman

Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (Really I would just love to see any of Hemingway's plots written by a woman and with a female protagonist.)

And that's it. Short and sweet!

I'm going to tag Saruuh, Jen, and anyone else who wants to do it. You don't even have to be taking part in Read Women Month, I just want to share the women writers love!

If you do decide to do this tag then please let me know, I'd love to read your answers!

Do I use too many exclamation points? I think I might.

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My Read Women Month TBR

1. Campari for Breakfast by Sara Crowe

Life is full of terrible things. Ghosts of dead relatives, heartbreak... burnt toast. 

In 1987, Sue Bowl's world changes for ever. Her mother dies, leaving her feeling like she's lost a vital part of herself. And then her father shacks up with an awful golddigger called Ivana. 

But Sue's mother always told her to make the most of what she's got - and what she's got is a love of writing and some interesting relatives. So Sue moves to her Aunt Coral's crumbling ancestral home, Green Place, along with a growing bunch of oddballs and eccentrics. Not to mention the odd badger or two... 

There she fully intends to write a book, fall in love, and learn to live decadently.

I mentioned Campari for Breakfast in my Top 5 books I'm most excited for in 2014 post at the start of the year and I've actually already started reading it. I'm only about 100 pages in but so far I'm really enjoying it. I love the setting and the characters and I'm already fairly certain that this one is going to end up being a favourite.

2. Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford

Fabulously fashionable Polly Hampton - with her startling good looks and excellent social connections - is beginning to wilt under the glare. Groomed for the perfect marriage by her mother, Lady Montdore, Polly instead scandalises society by declaring her love for her uncle 'Boy' Dougdale, the Lecherous Lecturer, and promptly eloping to France.

Love in a Cold Climate is the sequel/companion to Mitford's The Pursuit of Love, which I read earlier this year. I found The Pursuit of Love a little hard to get into at first but did ultimately really enjoy the story and the writing style and I've heard that Love in a Cold Climate is considered by some people to be the better of the two books so I'm really looking forward to reading it this month.

3. Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klausmann

Nick and her cousin, Helena, have grown up sharing sultry summers at Tiger House, the glorious old family estate on the island of Martha's Vineyard. As World War II ends they are on the cusp of adulthood, the world seeming to offer itself up to them. Helena is leaving for Hollywood and a new marriage, while Nick is to be reunited with her young husband Hughes, due to return from London and the war. Everything is about to change.

Neither quite finds the life she had imagined, and as the years pass, the trips to Tiger House take on a new complexity. Then, on the brink of the 1960s, Nick's daughter Daisy and Helena's son Ed make a sinister discovery. It plunges the island's bright heat into private shadow and sends a depth-charge to the heart of the family. 

I bought Tigers in Red Weather sort of on a whim last summer and at the time I was really excited to read it but I guess I just got distracted or something and it's been sitting on my TBR shelf ever since. I really am hoping to finally get around to it this month though because all the synopses I've read make it sound really interesting and exciting and definitely like something I would enjoy.

4. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

For years now the Ramsays have spent every summer in their holiday home in Scotland, and they expect these summers will go on forever; but as the First World War looms, the integrity of family and society will be fatally challenged.

Okay so maybe I was supposed to read To the Lighthouse when I was still at uni and maybe I just sort of skipped the accompanying lecture and seminar because I had already decided what book I wanted to write my essay on but I have honestly been intending to actually read this one ever since then. I read Mrs Dalloway in my first year of uni and enjoyed it despite the stream of consciousness narrative so I'm really hoping that I'll like this one too. And hey, Virginia Woolf was after all the woman who said 'For most of history, Anonymous was a woman' so it seems only right to acknowledge her work during Read Women Month.

5. The Rehearsal by Eleanor Catton

A high-school sex scandal jolts a group of teenage girls into a new awareness of their own potency and power. But when the local drama school decides to turn the scandal into a show, the real world and the world of the theatre are forced to meet, and soon the boundaries between private and public begin to dissolve.

One of my favourite university lecturers actually recommended The Rehearsal to me after she read some of my own work but with all of the books that we had to read for university I almost forgot about it until a few months ago when I spotted the kindle version being sold for a discounted price in the amazon store as part of a kindle daily deal. I've read the first few chapters already but I'm really hoping to finish it this month.

6. Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter

Katarina Bishop has worn a lot of labels in her short life. Friend. Niece. Daughter. Thief. But for the last two months she's simply been known as the girl who ran the crew that robbed the greatest museum in the world. That's why Kat isn't surprised when she's asked to steal the the infamous Cleopatra Emerald so it can be returned to its rightful owners.

There are only three problems. First, the gem hasn't been seen in public in thirty years. Second, since the fall of the Egyptian empire and the suicide of Cleopatra, no one who holds the emerald itself keeps it for long, and in Kat's world, history almost always repeats itself. But it's the third problem that makes Kat's crew the most nervous and that is simply... The emerald is cursed.

Kat might be in way over her head, but she's not going down without a fight. After all she has her best friend - the gorgeous Hale - and the rest of her crew with her as they chase the Cleopatra around the globe, dodging curses, realising that the same tricks and cons her family has used for centuries are useless this time.

Which means, this time, Katarina Bishop is making up her own rules.

I read and reviewed Heist Society, the first book in this series, last month and really enjoyed it so I'm sure I'm going to enjoy the other two books in the series. I'm hoping I'll have time to at least read the second book, Uncommon Criminals, this month and maybe even the third, Perfect Scoundrels, but we'll see about that. I think 6 books might already be pushing it!

Are you planning on taking part in Read Women Month (you can click that handy little link to find out more if this is the first you're hearing of it)? If you are then what books are you planning on reading for it?

I'll be posting about #ReadWomenMonth on Twitter, Instagram, and here on this blog throughout the month and I'd love for you to take part!

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