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Movie Monday...With the MTV Movie Awards taking place last night and the summer blockbuster season in full swing, I’m delighted to announce the return of my film related book challenge! It was so lovely to receive such a great response to the challenge back in January, so I thought the middle of the year would be the perfect time to bring it back. Once again, it will be a weekly challenge and this time the hashtag is #glenjensjulychallenge so do please use the hashtag so I can see your posts! In keeping with the spirit of the MTV Movie Awards, the prompts for July are: 🎬 July 1st-8th: Best Hero July 9th-15th: Best Villain July 16th-22nd: Best Kiss July 23rd-31st: Best Film 🎬 The prompts are open to your own interpretation and allow for a variety of film adaptations, whether they are Hollywood blockbusters, Shakespeare stories, scary movies or the beloved series Harry Potter. I can’t wait to see all of your creations! 🎬 P.S. Last time, I was able to give quite a few books to participants as a thank you for joining in the fun. While I wasn’t able to give everyone a book due to the fantastic response, I would love to be able to do the same again, so your efforts should hopefully go rewarded! 😊

“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” 📖 I’m delighted to announce that @theartfulelle @literarianlife and I are hosting a readalong of Wuthering Heights next month to mark the bicentenary of Emily Brontë’s birth date on July 30th! The readalong will be at a relaxed pace, with one discussion at the end of the month on July 30th to coincide with the anniversary. Will you join us? 📖 It feels really special to be helping host this readalong and reread Wuthering Heights. Not only is July my favourite month, Wuthering Heights is my favourite book and one of the first books I studied at school that really taught me about the power of writing and words and it made me feel really passionate about classics. I feel even more sentimental about the readalong as Elle was one of the first people I became friendly with on BG and we’ve hosted a few readalongs together now. She also gave me this lovely Boddington edition when we met for the first time last year at the @bookstagramhay Meet Up! I got to meet Clare for the first time then too and the three of us got to reunite back in Hay recently at this year’s meet up. It’s so lovely that we can host this readalong together and I do hope you can join us! Don’t forget to use the hashtag #WHreadalong200 if you do! 😊💜📖

Another belated #grimdragon post for the Doorstoppers prompt! 2666 is one of my current reads for the #2666readalong I’m hosting with @brgntteva who is holding this week’s discussion right now, so do head on over to join in! I’m actually struggling with this book as it’s not quite what I expected. The difficult dilemma is whether to continue on with it as it’s so big! I want to try another bit and hopefully I will start to enjoy it, but it’s quite a commitment to stay reading such a huge book if it’s not enjoyable. How long do you give a book before you give up on it? 📚 I previously hosted a readalong of Gone With The Wind with Eva, which was another huge book, but an amazing read! IT was another readalong read, this one hosted by @jobis89. Despite its sheer volume, I read it in three weeks! I know some people read at a remarkably fast pace compared to me, but I was delighted to read such a huge book in such a short space of time! I guess I read it quickly because I loved it so much and couldn’t wait to pick it up at any opportunity. So here’s hoping I can make it through this big book too! 🤞🏻😂 P.S. I have a very exciting announcement for a readalong for next month, so stay tuned! 😉

A belated post for the #grimdragon prompt Favourite Book of the Year (so far). Trying to decide on just one was impossible, so I managed to whittle it down to six! These are six completely different books and I loved them all for so many different reasons. I’ve had quite a great reading year so far and I look forward to reading even more excellent books during the rest of the year. I can’t believe we are halfway through the year already! There are so many books I want to read before the year is over. What have been some of your favourite reads so far this year and what do you hope to definitely read by the end of the year?

“To be taken hostage by Fatima Mirza’s heart rending and timely story is a gutting pleasure...I guarantee you will be different when you close the book.” - @sarahjessicaparker 💫 Released today in the U.K., A Place For Us is the debut novel by @ffmirza and tells the story of an Indian Muslim family - Rafiq, Layla and their three children Hadia, Huda and Amar. The story opens with Hadia’s wedding and the question of whether the estranged Amar can be trusted to behave himself after three years away.... 💫 A Place for Us examines themes of identity, belonging and love as it explores a family adapting to a world of two cultures. The story unfolds by flashing back to the past to reveal what led to Amar’s disappearance as it weaves through the years of the family’s history. While at times the non-linear narrative was confusing, it allowed the story to sway seamlessly between multiple decades to explore what it means to belong. It is a book that demonstrates the importance of characters over plot - an excellent point raised and discussed by @theclubofbooks recently. The multiple narrative perspectives in the novel allows the reader to gain an insight into each character and the complexities of different family dynamics and one’s sense of place. Interestingly, the only perspective that isn’t shown is Huda’s - perhaps emphasising the middle child syndrome theory even further. 💫 Having grown up mainly with my father and brother in a village in catholic Ireland, my childhood and family life couldn’t have been more different to the characters in this novel. Yet I completely related to them in so many different ways. From the deep intimate thoughts of characters to the petty arguments where television remote controls are thrown, this is a story that I completely fell in love with and it helped me understand that the way we can see ourselves and our family members is often an incorrect interpretation. I felt such a range of emotions whilst reading this novel and I can’t recommend it enough. I can see why Sarah Jessica Parker chose it as her first acquisition for @hogarthbooks and I’m so glad I picked up this proof copy at work at @rossiter_books recently!💙

Today’s #grimdragon challenge is Messy Stacks, so here’s a very messy stack in all its glory! This is one side of my bed, where books have been placed with the intention of sorting out for reshelving and where more recent books have been left now that I have run out of shelf space. As you can see, it’s quite an eclectic mix with no order. Where else would you find a Daphne Du Maurier alongside a gem like Victoria Beckham’s autobiography?! 🤷🏻‍♀️😂 Being a huge Spice Girls fan, there are some books I just have to keep! 😅 So do you spot any favourites or any guilty pleasures like Geri Halliwell?! 🙊🤣

June 2018
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
« May
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30

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