A Week in December by Sebastien Faulkes

This is the second book that I have read as part of my reading challenge that I set a few weeks back.

Sebastien Faulkes is one of my favourite authors although I have to say I have preferred his books set further in the past (ie. Birdsong, Charlotte Grey, Human Traces). Nevertheless, I had high hopes for this book!

From pinterest

The story focuses on a number of people who live in London and whose lives are intertwined one week in December sometime around 2007/2008 ish. There are quite a lot of characters ranging from wanker bankers to an Eastern European footballer to a would-be terrorist bomber. There are so many characters that it took a while for me to work out who everyone was and how they were connected. I think this is why I was slow to get into the book (and the reason it lay unfinished above my bed for so long!).

 It touches on a lot of modern themes such as causes of recessions, terrorism, loneliness and seemingly common in Faulkes' novels, mental illness. It also touches on love in a few stories, enough anyway to satisfy my sugar coated demand for a few happy endings!

One comment on the back said it was 'hilarious' which I didn't agree with. It was amusing in parts but with a black humour, mocking aspects of modern culture such as reality TV programs.
 
I would recommend it if you haven't read it. Although if you're like me, I'd read it in a short space of time to keep track of all the different characters! If you have read it, what did you think?

Sorry for the short review again, but I don't really know what else to say!

Cheerio!

Picks of the week/ Weekly roundup

Beauty
I've sort of rediscovered this kit. The eyeshadow pot in RSVP is really pretty and the whole look is just very fresh but polished. The concealer is also pretty good! It was a gift from a friend a while back and I'm still very grateful :-)

Source

Books
The only book I've finished this week is How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran and you can see my review (if you can call it that) in my previous post.

Film
I received this as a Christmas present and have only just got round to watching it. It was brilliant. Very random but very funny! 

Source

Food
I tried the Sorted Food coconut crusted chicken recipe (link). It was really tasty! I didn't make a papaya salad as we didn't have a papaya but I just did a normal salad with corriander and lime juice. I didn't take any photos I'm afraid but I can definitely recommend it! It was like healthy (ish) chicken nuggets and chips.. with a twist!

Music
I managed to download this song free from Amazon. It's strange because now it's 89p....  I really like it. It's not new or anything but I've just downloaded it this week!

I'm sorry for a pretty sparse post. I haven't mentioned quite a few categories just because I have nothing to really say about them! It's quite late at night and I wanted to get something up and just to say that I'm off for a few days, visiting a friend and so won't be posting!

Cherrio!

Learning how to be a woman with the help of Caitlin Moran

Caitlin Moran's book, 'How to be  a Woman' follows her life from an overweight, friend-less 13 year old through Brit pop to marriage and two children. I approached this book with caution as very few 'chatty' books like this can sustain my attention for however many chapters. She covers topics spanning a wide field of women related topics such as feminism (mostly), fashion, children, marriage and abortion.

Find it here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Be-Woman-Caitlin-Moran/dp/0091940737

She does it with a chatty style and enough slightly crude anecdotes that actually did manage to keep my attention. I kind of think she's trying to make feminism 'cool' again, trying to move it away from the 'man hating' image of previous decades. She touches on important topics that lots of women just don't discuss like abortion and topics that are maybe discussed more such as the portrayal of women in the media.

I definitely recommend it! (for men and women!). She talks a lot of sense without preaching or judging in a funny lighthearted way.

Please excuse my awful attempt at a book review. I haven't done one of these since school but I thought it'd be interesting! Plus this means I'm one book down for my book challenge!

Picks of the week/ Weekly roundup

Fashion
My fashion pick of the week is this wonderful cardigan that we found when sorting through my mum's wardrobe. It was knitted for her by her aunt ages ago and she's given it to me! It's really cosy and great just to throw on!

Beauty
I've been striving for a dewy/  iridescent skin look lately- I think it looks very youthful. I want to buy a powder that gives me this finish (any recommendations?) but for now I've been using my clinique colour rub and the highlighter that comes in the sleek contour kit. You can see both these items in this post.

Books
Before I started my reading challenge I actually finished two books this week. One was a chick lit book called RSVP. It was okay, classic chick lit. The other was a Poroit 'Peril at End House'. I really enjoy Agatha Christie books. They're so easy to read and very entertaining!

Read more about it here

Music
I've added this section this week. Mostly because I've become obsessed by this song by Emili Sande. I think it's kinda a through back to big 90s tunes by Whitney Houston and people like that. I love it!

Film
My film this week is One Day. I'm a huge fan of the book and I wasn't keen on seeing the film because I thought it might spoil it! I saw it last night however and I enjoyed it! I thought Anne Hathaway's accent was truly awful but it didn't take all of the enjoyment away. Jim Sturgess is sweet!

From Pinterest

Money
I've been fairly good. I bought some cosmetics but nothing extravagant. I need to keep it up though!

Food
I made another banana loaf. Because I've given up chocolate I made this one with hazelnuts and rum soaked raisins! It looks crumbly in this photo but that's only because we we impatient and wanted to taste it before it cooled!

Health and Fitness
I've been swimming and cycling this week. I'm still not 100% (come on immune system, start working!) so I'm happy with what I've done. I've also given up chocolate for lent although I had an ice cream today (with chocolate in and didn't realise until about an hour later!).

So... aims for the week ahead.. pretty much the same as always, spend and eat less and exercise more!!

Hope everyone's had a good week :-)

Half- finished books

I have a bookshelf above my bed and I thought I'd show you the pile of books on top of this bookshelf that has accumulated over the past few months.

I obviously like a bit of danger when I sleep!

 
Some of these books I've started reading but never finished, others I have read (mostly the Christmas related chick lit... ahem!) . I'm really bad at staring books and not finishing them so I'm going to set myself the challenge of finishing all of these books that I've never got around to finishing!

My reading list for the next few weeks

How To Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran- I'm a couple of chapters into this one. It's good so far. I can't remember why I didn't finish it!

The Kashmir Shawl by Rosie Thomas- I've started this one. I was enjoying it, but it never grabbed me and more excited books came along..

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell- I really haven't read more than a few pages so far..

A Week in December by Sebastien Faulkes- Sebastien Faulkes is one of my favourite authors but there was so many characters in this that I kept forgetting who everyone was.. I just need to push on!

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert- I've read about 3/4 of this. I took it travelling with me a few months back. I haven't loved it so far but continued reading while I was away but promptly forgot about it when I got back. It'd be silly not to finish it now!

Northern Lights by Philip Pullman- I read the whole dark materials trilogy years ago but started to re-read this a while back. I got quite a way through but this was just before christmas and I think I forgot about it when new shiny books appeared!

Anyway... I'll write reviews of the books when I finish them. I'm going to try really hard to finish all of these before I find new books to read. This may be a challenge as if you haven't already guessed, my attention span isn't great lol!

What are you reading at the moment? Do you recommend it?

Cheerio!

Picks of the week/ weekly roundup

Fashion
This week I'm going to pick a combination of clothes. It's my H and M top (see below) paired with pale pink jeans. The weather has warmed up a bit and so paired with a cardigan and coat, this combination reminds me that spring is just around the corner!

Beauty
I dyed my hair this week. I have dark blonde/ light brown hair naturally that lightens in the summer. The past few years, I've had occasional highlights that have built and built and following a trip to South East Asia a few months ago became very light and golden. I decided to go back to my roots (literally!) and I used Clairol nice n' easy non permanent in 91, dark blonde. I left the tips untouched to give a slight ombre effect and I really like how it turned out! It was very easy (as the name suggests), my hair feels in great condition so I am one happy customer :-).

Films
I saw Crazy, Stupid Love on Valentines Day. I really enjoyed it! It was  different to standard chick flicks and it had Ryan Gosling in!!It's centered around a couple who decide to get divorced and the people around them. Definitely recommended!

From pinterest

Books
I still haven't read any books- dammit! Need to change this!

Food
I made this chicken with a red thai and peanut sauce  on Friday. It was very tasty but I forgot to put the corriander (cilantro) in! Ooops! Never mind, it was still nice, but I guess it could have been better! We had it with brown rice, broccoli and carrots.

Image from Kalyn's kitchen. I forgot to take photos.

Money
Not too bad. Bits and bobs here. I've decided however that I'm going on a spending diet. More on this to come later in the week!

Health and Fitness
I'm feeling a bit better now and I've been swimming a few times and am planning on running in a few hours. I really need to step my fitness up a bit if I'm going to do a triathalon (which is on my 30 by 30 list) in the next few months, even if it is a beginners one!


Now for some weekly goals:
- Be on a spending diet.
- Focus on triathalon training at least 5 days next week.
- Continue trying not to snack between meals (haven't been doing very well on this one!).

Recent things I have enjoyed...

Call the midwife

Source

I'm really enjoying this new series on BBC1. If you haven't heard of it it's about the experiences of a young midwife in the east end of London in the 1950s. It's funny (it has Miranda Hart in it!), heartwarming and sad all in one go Love it! It's filled a Downton Abbey shaped hole in my Sunday evenings!

Home-made cake stand

I got the idea to do this from  this blog post that was featured on the guardian. I scoured charity shops for plates and got the middle bit from ebay ( search for three tiered cake stand fixing) for a few pounds and ta da... I'm really happy with how it turned out. The plates in total were £3.20 so it was pretty cheap to make, not to mention fun! I might make some more and give them as presents this year!

The Rules of Civility

I recently borrowed the book from the library and demolished it in 24 hours tops! I love reading about the 1920s. It had the glamour of The Great Gatsby but told from a female perspective of a kind of a rags to riches storyline with a twist. Definitely recommended!

If anyone has a book/ tv show/ project that they've enjoyed recently I'd love to hear about it!