So this book tag is quite long, but we hope it's not too dreary and you'll enjoy it nonetheless!
Author you've read the most books from
Leah: My most read author is Cassandra Clare. I've read the whole Mortal instruments and Infernal devices series, the Shadowhunter codex, the Iron trial and seven of the short stories from the Bane chronicles, which makes a total of 11.7 books.
Vicky: The author I've read the most books of is probably R.L. Stine. He's written the Fear Street books and I have read like 30 stories from that series.
Best sequel ever
Leah: I absolutely loved Crown of midnight by Sarah J. Maas and of course A clash of kings by George R.R. Martin. Another sequel that I think is amazing is P.S I still love you by Jenny Han.
Vicky: Actually that's a hard question and I guess I don't really know... but I'm currently reading Crown of midnight and until now I can totally agree with Leah!
Currently reading
Leah: I'll start reading The maze runner by James Dashner tonight and I'm actually quite curious to see whether I'll enjoy it or not, since I've heard a lot of different opinions on this book.
Vicky: As mentioned above I recently started the Throne of glass series which I love so far and I just got to the second book.
Drink of choice while reading
Leah: I don't drink anything special while reading, so I guess either water or tea?
Vicky: Okay, I have this kind of tradition that whenever I read before having breakfast (especially during the holidays), I drink a cup of hot chocolate. So I think that's my drink of choice.
E-reader or physical book?
Leah: Definitely physical book! I love the feeling of holding a book in my hand, turning the pages and actually seeing the progress I'm making.
Vicky: Physical books, of course! They are beautiful and I can't help but love the good feeling you have when you hold it in your hands.
Fictional character you probably would have dated in high school
Leah: I have absolutely no idea. Maybe Josh from the To all the boys I've loved before series by Jenny Han? It'd probably be someone completely ordinary, but smarter than the average guy is, and I suppose he would stick to nearly every rule, just like me.
Vicky: I'd say Adam from If I stay because I also like ordinary boys who are just the normal teenager like me. And Adam is a musican and I totally appreciate that!
Glad you gave this book a chance
Leah: When I was about eight years old, I didn't want to read the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling because the German covers look horrific and scared me so much! Voldemort kind of looks like a spider (and I'm terrified of those!) and Harry just looks like a complete psychopath. Anyway, in the end I did pick them up and I'm so grateful I did, because Harry Potter was such a big part of my childhood.
Vicky: Maybe I forget about a book but the only one I can remember is a Fear Street book and the cover scared me so much I was afraid of reading it (You probably just think about how scary the German book covers are but the original covers from Fear Street are not better... but the Harry Potter ones are!).
Hidden gem book
Leah: So far pretty much everything I've read were well-known books, so I'll just pick one of my most favorite German books, which is When Hitler stole pink rabbit by Judith Kerr,
because I guess it's not that established in other countries.
Vicky: Free to fall by Lauren Miller! This book is amazing. I've discovered it in the library and I'll pick it up again to read it another time bc it was sooo good!
Important moment in your reading life
Leah: Probably reading City of bones (and of course the rest of the series). It really got me into this world of fandoms, bookstagram, booktube and all this amazing stuff.
Vicky: I think reading The hunger games was an important book for me bc it made me a real fangirl and it also got me in the whole fandom world with booktube, bookstagram etc.
Just finished
Leah: I finished The book thief by Markus Zusak a few days ago and I didn't even manage to read the first 50 pages without starting to bawl my eyes out, so especially the last part just killed me.
Vicky: Thorne of glass by the amazing Sarah J. Maas. I love this book and I'm so excited for reading the next books of the series.
Kinds of books you won't read
Leah: I'm honestly not the biggest fan of thriller, but a genre I'll certainly never touch is erotica.
Vicky: Probably erotica as well.
Longest book you've read
Leah: I'm not sure at all about this one, but I think it's A storm of swords by George R.R. Martin with 1123 pages (plus an appendix with 50 pages).
Vicky: I guess Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix with more than 1000 pages?!
Major book hangover because of
Leah: A dance with dragons by George R.R. Martin. I'm literally not able to stop talking about the series (I'm sooo sorry!) and having to wait so long for the next book isn't making it any better.
Vicky: Resistance by C. J. Daugherty bc the end was too much to take for my little fangirl heart and I had to wait for the next book to come out for way too long (It has been published by now and I'm so glad about it).
Number of bookcases you own
Leah: I only got one kind of big bookshelf in my room, but there's a huge one in our living room.
Vicky: Now it's getting a bit complicated... I don't have a regular bookshelf but instead of it there's a huge shelf above my bed and I use it as a bookshelf (I don't think anybody can imagine what it looks like xD). So in fact I own many smaller parts of a bookshelf (#actuallybeingconfusing)
One book you have read multiple times
Leah: I've read a lot of books actually at least twice, so I'll just choose the Hunger games trilogy by Suzanne Collins.
Vicky: I often read books more than once, so I'll simply choose The fault in our stars by John Green which is my favourite book.
Preferred place to read
Leah: I love sitting on my super cozy bed while reading. But I read basically everywhere, so as long as there's a place to sit on or a not too crowded corner where I can stand, I'm happy.
Vicky: My bed/couch bc it's soo comfortable sitting in a corner reading something. But I like reading everywhere as well, so I actually don't have a preference.
Quote that inspires you
Leah: My most favorite quote right now is this one from A game of thrones by George R.R. Martin, because it just shows how important family and friends are:
"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives."
Vicky: Okay, that's another hard question bc I feel like there are so many wonderful quotes I could choose. But one quote that inspires me since I've read the book is "Fake it 'till you make it." from If I stay. It just gives me the feeling that I can do more things than I think I can. But as I said above, I can't write down all quotes that inspire me!
Reading regret
Leah: I haven't read An abundance of Katherines by John Green yet, even though I really want to.
Vicky: By now I haven't read Anna and the french kiss by Stephanie Perkins, but it's on my tbr list!
Series you started and need to finish (all books are out in series)
Leah: I still need to read the third book in the Silver: the book of dreams trilogy by Kerstin Gier. It's probably not happening very soon, because a lot of people disliked this book, even though they enjoyed the first two books in the series.
Vicky: I made a mistake by stopping after the first book of the Vampire academy series bc I've lost my interest in it. But instead of studying I was watching videos of the movie cast yesterday and now I'm really looking forward to reading those books.
Three of your all-time favorite books
Leah: I can't choose at all. There are just way too many fantastic books out there!
Vicky: I can only agree with Leah. I'm sorry!
Unapologetic fangirl for
Leah: Basically everything? I love fangirling about all my favorite books, tv shows, movies and artists/songs.
Vicky: Too many things! I feel like I'm fangirling about something all the time (either books, tv series, movies, musicans or soccer games).
Very excited for this release than all the others
Leah: The winds of winter and A dream of spring by George R.R. Martin! TWoW will hopefully be released in spring 2016 (before the sixth season of HBO's Game of thrones aires) and I don't even want to imagine how long we'll have to wait for ADoS. The wait is seriously killing me. (That's why I have such a huge respect for the people who've picked up A game of thrones when it was released in 1996 and have been waiting for the end of the series for nearly 20 years so far!)
Vicky: I can't wait for the next John Green book to come out but since it hasn't been announced yet when it'll come out my answer for this question would be The crown by Kiera Cass (Please tell me I'm not the only one who doesn't like the cover... The girl doesn't look pretty or natrual!).
Worst bookish habit
Leah: I like to think I don't have any bad bookish habbits, but I definitely broke the spines of a few of my paperbacks (unintentionally of course!).
Vicky: I honestly don't have a bad bookish habit... I suppose.
X marks the spot: start at the top left of your shelf and pick the 27th book
Leah: The 27th book is A court of thornes and roses by Sarah J. Maas. This book was just epic and one of my most favorite books I've read this year for sure.
Vicky: Last sacrifice by Richelle Mead is the 27th book on my shelf and I can only repeat how excited I am for finishing the Vampire academy series.
Your last book purchase
Leah: The last books I bought were Happily ever after by Kiera Cass, Six of crows by Leigh Bardugo and Ice like fire by Sara Raasch. I'm pretty proud of myself for only buying these three books the past month, since I really have to stop spending soo much money on books.
Vicky: When I was at the book store the last time, I bought Red queen by Victoria Aveyard and The girl on the train by Paula Hawkins. And I'm proud of myself bc I didn't spend that much money on books this month either and I think that's a success!
Zzz-snatcher book (last book that kept you up way late)
Leah: It happens way too often that I don't get even close to sleeping enough due to reading. But the last book that I've read and couldn't put down at all was Six of crows by Leigh Bardugo, and I'm not even mad because being tired was so worth reading this stunning book.
Vicky: It has to be Throne of glass another time. I couldn't stop reading it till midnight (or even longer) and it was a mistake somehow bc I had an exam the following day and I was pretty tired when I woke up. But I think it was worth it!
Monday, November 30, 2015
Friday, November 27, 2015
Night School by C. J. Daugherty
Today
I’m gonna be talking about a series I love pretty much and it’s called Night
School by C.J. Daugherty. I honestly don’t know if those books are famous or not but I enjoyed
reading them. Also I wanna say sorry for not posting recently but school is stressing
the hell out of me and I have to do other stuff as well (Btw, thank you for
running the blog more or less on your own, Leah ♡). Anyway, I simply gonna start now.
(I unfortunately don't own a physical copy but this is the cover)
So the series (I’ll probably be mostly
talking about the first book so that I can avoid spoilers) is about Allie
Sheridan, a fifteen-year old girl who’s having a tough time after the sudden disappearance
of her brother. When she broke in her school and got arrested, her parents send
her to a strict boarding school in the middle of nowhere. At first Allie doesn’t
like the Cimmeria Academy with a mysterious club called Night School. Only
special students are allowed to take part and to know anything about what they’re
doing. But when a class mate is murdered Allie tries to find out more about her
death and the role the Night School plays.
Of course there are some pretty cute/hot guys who can’t be left out. In fact Allie meets to boys whose names are Carter and Sylvain and she soon gets closer with both of them (yep… another love triangle).
Of course there are some pretty cute/hot guys who can’t be left out. In fact Allie meets to boys whose names are Carter and Sylvain and she soon gets closer with both of them (yep… another love triangle).
So actually the first few chapters are just
like in all those stereotype good-girl-gone-bad-after-a-tragic-event-stories:
Allie gets caught, is sent to that special boarding school and soon makes new friends.
But I love how the story goes on with many surprising turns and emotional
scenes (the author didn’t care for my fangirl feels…) and I enjoyed reading it
so much! Furthermore the pupils are not allowed to leave the ground so after
some time you can imagine what the school building looks like and where Allie’s
living. I personally prefer books that describe a place well and that give you
the feeling of being in that certain place (You already know that a book is
good when it includes a map, don’t you?), so it was like the perfect series for
me.
I can only recommend this book to
everyone! Reading it won't be a waste of time…
Vicky
PS: I just noticed that for some reason the letters are very small but I don't know how to fix this problem so sorry for it.
PS: I just noticed that for some reason the letters are very small but I don't know how to fix this problem so sorry for it.
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Six of crows (Leigh Bardugo)
Before I begin this review, please take a moment to appreciate the absolutely stunning cover. I honestly love everything about it - the colors, the beautiful font and the incredibly gorgeous design.
The best six criminals of the city Ketterdam are on a nearly impossible mission to free an important prisoner and finally escape their lives full of danger and problems with their generous award. But they're not the only ones after this mysterious convict, so a race not just against time, but also other ruthless gangs and governments begins for Kaz, Inej, Matthias, Nina, Jesper and Wylan.
I don't even know where to begin. I'm sorry my summary is so short, but I don't want to give anything away and want you to just experience it without knowing too much, the same way I did. Because this book was just spectacular. I can't think of many other books that never failed to suprise me like Six of crows did. That's probably why it was so compelling to me and kept me up way too long. The story was fast-paced and thrilling from the first page to the last. I loved how their adventure full of epicness, but betrayal and sacrifices as well, was the main focus of the story, and the bit of romance that was in it was done in a really subtle and touching way. I am often rather bored and annoyed by the whole romance stuff in books, but the couples from this book grew on me so much, I found not one, but three new OTPs.
It was refreshing to see all those diverse characters, both in sexuality and race. Learning more about them, their thoughts and histories through reading the different point of view chapters was amazing. I instantly fell in love with all of them and seeing all their flaws and mistakes they make throughout the story made them so likeable! You wouldn't want to miss experiencing the huge character development and the powerful feelings and emotions they all go through.
The writing was fantastic and Leigh Bardugo did such a great job at creating a beautiful world with so many different nations and traditiones and even languages and I'm seriously grateful I picked this book up, so I can dive and get lost in it.
Rating: 5/5 ✹
Six of crows is definitely one of my most favorite reads from this year and I can't wait for the second book in the series, which is called Crooked kingdom and will be realeased in September 2016. To survive this wait I plan on reading the Grisha trilogy, which is set in the same world and was obviously also written by Leigh Bardugo. I'm looking forward to dive into these books, since they'll surely be just as amazing as Six of crows is.
Leah
The best six criminals of the city Ketterdam are on a nearly impossible mission to free an important prisoner and finally escape their lives full of danger and problems with their generous award. But they're not the only ones after this mysterious convict, so a race not just against time, but also other ruthless gangs and governments begins for Kaz, Inej, Matthias, Nina, Jesper and Wylan.
"The water hears and understands. The ice does not forgive."
I don't even know where to begin. I'm sorry my summary is so short, but I don't want to give anything away and want you to just experience it without knowing too much, the same way I did. Because this book was just spectacular. I can't think of many other books that never failed to suprise me like Six of crows did. That's probably why it was so compelling to me and kept me up way too long. The story was fast-paced and thrilling from the first page to the last. I loved how their adventure full of epicness, but betrayal and sacrifices as well, was the main focus of the story, and the bit of romance that was in it was done in a really subtle and touching way. I am often rather bored and annoyed by the whole romance stuff in books, but the couples from this book grew on me so much, I found not one, but three new OTPs.
It was refreshing to see all those diverse characters, both in sexuality and race. Learning more about them, their thoughts and histories through reading the different point of view chapters was amazing. I instantly fell in love with all of them and seeing all their flaws and mistakes they make throughout the story made them so likeable! You wouldn't want to miss experiencing the huge character development and the powerful feelings and emotions they all go through.
The writing was fantastic and Leigh Bardugo did such a great job at creating a beautiful world with so many different nations and traditiones and even languages and I'm seriously grateful I picked this book up, so I can dive and get lost in it.
Rating: 5/5 ✹
Six of crows is definitely one of my most favorite reads from this year and I can't wait for the second book in the series, which is called Crooked kingdom and will be realeased in September 2016. To survive this wait I plan on reading the Grisha trilogy, which is set in the same world and was obviously also written by Leigh Bardugo. I'm looking forward to dive into these books, since they'll surely be just as amazing as Six of crows is.
Leah
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Before I fall (Lauren Oliver)
Before I fall follows 17-year-old Samantha Kingston, who has seemingly everything you want: she's pretty, is one of the most popular girls in her High School and dates the perfect guy. But on Valentine's day she gets into a fatal car accident after leaving a party with her drunk friends and instead of dying straight away, she awakes on the exact same day again and is forced to relive it seven times. This gives her the opportunity to change her perspective, rethink her actions and be fearless in standing up for what she believes in, because she has nothing left to lose.
"So many things become beautiful when you really look."
I have to admit that at first this book kind of had a Groundhog day vibe, and while that movie and its concept bored me so much I couldn't bear watching it longer than 15 minutes (and it was incredible predictable as well), this book was a completely new reading experience for me and definitely not an average contemporary novel with just a cute romance in it. I was sobbing throughout the entire time reading this really touching book and honestly couldn't put it down. I also loved seeing the huge and powerful character development Sam went through and the way her priorities and actions changed during every time she relived that day. But most important, the story really made me think about all the times I unintentionally hurt the people around me with my words and behavior and what actual damage I could cause without even meaning to, because the story is so realistic. I was able to relate a lot of the things that happened, but also characters to the real actions and people I see nearly every day in my school, so finishing the book left me with such a weird feeling and a different view on the way people are treated not just in school, but in general and what kind of consequences it can have. Apart from that, the most important topic in this book definitely is how unlasting your life actually is, and that really made me appreciate the now I'm living in and helped me to stop worrying about the past as well as the future quite a bit. I loved the small piece of text on the very first page of the book, probably because it reminded me so much of someone important to me I lost some time ago, but it's way too beautiful to not feature it here anyway:
"Maybe you can afford to wait. Maybe for you there's a tomorrow. Maybe for you there's one thousand tomorrows, or three thousand, or ten, so much time you can bathe in it, roll around in it, let it slide like coins through your fingers. So much time you can waste it.
But for some of us there's only today. And the truth is, you never really know."
Rating: 4.5/5 ✹
Hopefully you enjoyed reading this review and might check the book out. And I promise you, even if you didn't enjoyed Lauren Oliver's Delirium series, you'll like this story a lot more!
I hope you're having a great day,
Leah
We probably won't be able to post regularly because we're quite busy studying for upcoming tests. We'll do our best to post as often as possible!
Monday, November 2, 2015
Baking inspired by books - Lemon cakes
I just want to say at the beginning of this post, I'm nothing close to a professional baker, but I simply love baking, so I thought I'll share this really easy and quick recipe with you, that reminded me so much of one of my most favorite book series. I hope you'll enjoy reading this and maybe you'll even give it a try!
"There's going to be lemon cakes and tea," Sansa went on, all adult and reasonable. Lady brushed against her leg. Sansa scratched her ears the way she liked, and Lady sat beside her on her haunches, watching Arya chase Nymeria. "Why would you ride a smelly old horse and get all sore and sweaty when you could recline on feather pillows and eat lemon cakes with the queen?" (AGOT, Sansa I)
Later came sweetbreads and pigeon pie and baked apples fragrant with cinnamon and lemon cakes frosted in sugar, but by then Sansa could not manage more than two little lemon cakes, as much as she loved them. She was wondering wether she might attempt a third when the king began to shout.(AGOT, Sansa II)
As every reader of the A song of ice and fire series by George R.R. Martin knows, Sansa Stark absolutely LOVES lemon cakes. The last time I ate lemon cake before reading these fantastic books was probably over five years ago, so I wanted to eat some and when I made them, I realized they taste amazing. They're really lemony and pretty moist (God, I hate that word) and just delicious. One small warning: the "frosting" (or whatever you wanna call it) is really sweet (and quite unhealthy), but since Sansa has such a sweet tooth, I'm sure she'd love it. The lemon cakes are probably not fancy enough to be similiar to those she ate in King's Landing, but I can definitely see her snacking on them with Sweetrobin in the Vale!
Ingredients:
Batter: Frosting:
-200g butter -30g butter
-200g sugar -30g sugar
-4 eggs -1 egg yolk
-1/2 lemon (1 TS lemon juice, lemon peel of half a lemon) -30 ml lemon juice
-2/3 teaspoon vanilla sugar/extract
- 200g flour
-1 pinch of baking powder
Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 175°C (Use the hot air function)
2. Stir your butter, then mix in your sugar and vanilla sugar/extract first and add the eggs one by one and mix everything together.
3. Add in your flour, baking powder, lemon juice and peel and stir until you have a creamy batter.
4. Put the batter in any kind of baking pan or mold. (I used really cute looking flower shaped silicon molds.)
5. Bake them for about 15-25 minutes. Make sure to take them out of the oven BEFORE they turn golden-brown. Let them cool for 20-30 minutes before you add any kind of glaze or frosting.
6. For the glaze, melt your butter, then add in your sugar in small portions and stirr until it's completely dissolved.
7. Add in your egg yolk and place the container with the mixture over a pot with boiling water and let it sit there for at least 10 minutes to kill off possible sallmonella in the raw egg yolk.
8. Mix the mixture once it's cooled down a bit with as much powdered sugar as you like to create a pretty thick glaze. Spread it onto your lemon cakes, let it harden and enjoy! (Use some lemon peel to decorate and make them look extra fancy.)
(Just mix 1 teaspoon lemon juice with about 30g powdered sugar to create an even simpler, yet still delicious glaze for the lemon cakes.)
So I really hope you enjoyed this slightly different post and you understood all the steps! I won't share recipes often, but whenever a book inspires me to bake something specific, I'll probably post it here. Happy baking!
Leah
"There's going to be lemon cakes and tea," Sansa went on, all adult and reasonable. Lady brushed against her leg. Sansa scratched her ears the way she liked, and Lady sat beside her on her haunches, watching Arya chase Nymeria. "Why would you ride a smelly old horse and get all sore and sweaty when you could recline on feather pillows and eat lemon cakes with the queen?" (AGOT, Sansa I)
Later came sweetbreads and pigeon pie and baked apples fragrant with cinnamon and lemon cakes frosted in sugar, but by then Sansa could not manage more than two little lemon cakes, as much as she loved them. She was wondering wether she might attempt a third when the king began to shout.(AGOT, Sansa II)
As every reader of the A song of ice and fire series by George R.R. Martin knows, Sansa Stark absolutely LOVES lemon cakes. The last time I ate lemon cake before reading these fantastic books was probably over five years ago, so I wanted to eat some and when I made them, I realized they taste amazing. They're really lemony and pretty moist (God, I hate that word) and just delicious. One small warning: the "frosting" (or whatever you wanna call it) is really sweet (and quite unhealthy), but since Sansa has such a sweet tooth, I'm sure she'd love it. The lemon cakes are probably not fancy enough to be similiar to those she ate in King's Landing, but I can definitely see her snacking on them with Sweetrobin in the Vale!
Ingredients:
Batter: Frosting:
-200g butter -30g butter
-200g sugar -30g sugar
-4 eggs -1 egg yolk
-1/2 lemon (1 TS lemon juice, lemon peel of half a lemon) -30 ml lemon juice
-2/3 teaspoon vanilla sugar/extract
- 200g flour
-1 pinch of baking powder
Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 175°C (Use the hot air function)
2. Stir your butter, then mix in your sugar and vanilla sugar/extract first and add the eggs one by one and mix everything together.
3. Add in your flour, baking powder, lemon juice and peel and stir until you have a creamy batter.
4. Put the batter in any kind of baking pan or mold. (I used really cute looking flower shaped silicon molds.)
5. Bake them for about 15-25 minutes. Make sure to take them out of the oven BEFORE they turn golden-brown. Let them cool for 20-30 minutes before you add any kind of glaze or frosting.
6. For the glaze, melt your butter, then add in your sugar in small portions and stirr until it's completely dissolved.
7. Add in your egg yolk and place the container with the mixture over a pot with boiling water and let it sit there for at least 10 minutes to kill off possible sallmonella in the raw egg yolk.
8. Mix the mixture once it's cooled down a bit with as much powdered sugar as you like to create a pretty thick glaze. Spread it onto your lemon cakes, let it harden and enjoy! (Use some lemon peel to decorate and make them look extra fancy.)
(Just mix 1 teaspoon lemon juice with about 30g powdered sugar to create an even simpler, yet still delicious glaze for the lemon cakes.)
So I really hope you enjoyed this slightly different post and you understood all the steps! I won't share recipes often, but whenever a book inspires me to bake something specific, I'll probably post it here. Happy baking!
Leah
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