Sunday 31 December 2017

Mental Health Book Bingo TBR


The MH Book Bingo is almost upon us and I am super duper excited! First things first, if you have no idea what I'm on about please make sure you've read my announcement post πŸ˜Š
I meant to upload this post quite a while ago but as usual life got in the way so I'm only just getting around to it, here is what I intend to read for the bingo!

Because January is The Month Of Exams™ I'm not sure if I'm going to get a full bingo but here are the books I am currently planning to read in the month and the categories which I'm using them for as well as some others which I (over)ambitiously hope to get around to at the same time. Other categories for books I am reading are in italics in case people are looking for ones to fill a gap




My main five choices:
The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer - Delusions/hallucinations rep
Countless by Karen Gregory - ED rep
Under Rose-Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall - MC with 2+ MI's; Agoraphobia rep (ownvoices); romance with MC with MI
10 Things I Can See From Here by Carrie Mac - LGBT+ MC with MI; Anxiety rep
The Skeleton Cupboard by Tanya Byron - Nonfiction about MI

Others I hope to find time for:
Cheer Up, Love by Susan Calman - Memoir about MI
Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher - Bipolar disorder rep (ownvoices)
Asking For It by Louise O'Neill - Depression rep/free space


Let me know if you're also planning to get involved in #MHBookBingo and if you need any requests then please drop me a comment or tweet me or the @BingoMH account! I'm so excited about doing this readathon now and I can't wait to read more mental health books with everyone!

2017 : My year in books

It seems pretty wild to me that I'm already writing my second-ever yearly wrap up?! How have I had this blog for that long already, I still feel like a complete newbie but hey here we are.
2017 has been a wonderful bookish year! I went to YALC for the first time (which was so much fun) I doubled my reading challenge from last year - and met it!! Not to mention getting to know a lot more wonderful bloggers and booky people πŸ˜„
So a big thank you to everyone who has chatted to me throughout this year, I hope you the new year brings you many blessings and I appreciate you SO much.

Top Five of the Year:

Unconventional by Maggie Harcourt - I cannot put in to words how much I just really loved this book?!? Heck, it was just like the perfect fit? You know like, when a book just comes at the right time for the place that you're in in your life and provides you with a beautiful happy escape? That's what Unconventional did for me! It's not the kind of book I would usually give 5 stars to but I DID and it is so deserving of them!! (Going to stop raving know bc I've already reviewed this properly and I should chill out)

Girlhood by Cat Clarke - This book is deep as heck and I think it dealt with some difficult issues pretty well. It also has a bi main character and a gay supporting character (if I remember correctly) which y'know I am always a fan of πŸ˜

A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Barnard - I also read Beautiful Broken Things this year which I also loved by AQKOT wins out because it's just so good!! A well researched insight in to selective mutism and a little bit of deaf culture too I loved it; I'm on the committee for the sign language society at my uni and this book actually encouraged me to go for the position because deaf awareness is really under-represented but also so important so ye! Read it if you haven't already!

The Foxhole Court (and the whole All for the Game series😎) by Nora Sakavic - This was recommended to me by a friend who said it was honestly one of the best/most painful-in-a-good-way series and I was not disappointed! A beautifully broken and annoying yet precious set of characters and lots of diversity! It's a slow burn but I promise you it's worth a try!!

Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu - This book was just really really good, it's such an encouraging feminist read!! I related so much to almost all of Viv's experiences in her school and I wish I was a bit more like her tbh! Honestly well worth reading - SO GOOD.

"Oh I'll finally get around to this in 2017!" - a book I meant to read but never did:

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh - Has been recommend to me so highly but loads and loads of people and I finally managed to get hold of a copy a month or so ago so I am determined that this year I actually will read it!

A book I didn't like as much as I anticipated:

The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon - it's not that I didn't like this book, it's got some really nice diverse main characters and I loved that, I think maybe just because the genre wasn't what I would always go for and it had so much hype that maybe I expected to really love it even though it wasn't really purely my kind of book. I don't know but it's definitely still good (and that cover 😍).


So there you have it, a quick wrap up of the past year; I read 40 books which is twice as many as the year before and I'm super excited to see what reads 2018 will bring!

What was your top book of the year? Any particular books you're really looking forward to next year? Let me know in a comment below; I hope you have a wonderful New Year and thanks so much for reading ❤️

Monday 18 December 2017

Mental Health Mondays #16 : Festive Special πŸŽ„

Welcome to my extra-special festive Mental Health Monday! In this post I want to focus a little bit on Christmas and mental health and what it means to me. As always, this post is based upon my experience and I'm not trying to put forward any views other than my own so please take that into account as you read - Thanks!

'It's the most wonderful time of the year', it's a time for celebrating; spending time with loved ones and generally enjoying yourself. However, it's unfortunately not quite as simple as "It's Christmas lets put all our troubles away and just enjoy ourselves!" for those of us with mental health conditions. There's usually a lot going on, there are lots of responsibilities and expectations on you and as well as being expected to buy loads of presents and wrap things and cook for 99 people, or whatever your Christmas set up is, you're supposed to put on a big smile and be sociable and cheery regardless of anything else that's going on!