2015 Book Reviews

As part of my 2015 New Years Resolutions, I set myself the goal of reading 10 books this year. It's not too ambitious a goal given the average reading speed. It was more about making time for it and trying to make it a priority in my life. I've read some fantastic books this year as a result of this goal and I thought it might be worth sharing a summary of these books in case you're looking for any reading inspiration.

'The Help' by Kathryn Stockett
This is one of my all-time favourite films so I thought it was about time I read the book that inspired it. I'm glad that I did since, like most books, it was far better than the film. I loved that the different sections were written like the characters would talk with Aibileen's sayings and Minny's blunt attitudes. It's a truly beautiful story and I can't think of a single flaw in the writing or the story.
10/10

'Shanghai Girls' by Lisa See
I'm not sure what attracted me to this book in the first place. I hadn't had it recommended to me in any way. I just saw the cover and read the blurb then decided it would be the perfect book to transport me to another time/part of the world. I wasn't wrong. This is the story of two sisters in Shanghai during the war who go from being wealthy model girls to poverty stricken runaways from the Japanese bombings at the time. It is a tremendous story which I would recommend to anyone looking for something different that is set in history without too much of the history coming into it.
10/10

'A Year of Losing the Dating Game' by Samantha Bye
I read this on recommendation of a colleague as it was actually written by someone we work with. It's a short book but I can honestly say that I couldn't put it down. It's the tale of a single women in the modern dating world with references to Tinder and one night stands. It's a very honest and true representation of what it's like to meet people in this day and age so it turned out to be quite a refreshing read. Moreover, it made me more grateful than ever that I've found someone as wonderful as Fraser and that it was before the invention of Tinder too.
10/10

'The Almost Moon' by Alice Sebold
This was a random download onto my Kindle years ago on the basis that I'd enjoyed The Lovely Bones a few years back. I decided to read this without looking at the blurb so dived straight into a story without knowing a thing about it. I won't lie to you, it's not a lighthearted story. In fact, it's about a woman murdering her agoraphobic and dementia-stricken mother by suffocating her with a towel and follows the 24 hours after this happens. There are lots of flashbacks to her childhood which help to shape the background of what led her to take such an action. Ultimately, you end up questioning whether or not her actions were justified. I like any book that inspires you to question your own moral compass so would thoroughly recommend as a result.
10/10

'When You Are Engulfed in Flames' by David Sedaris
After the heavy read above, I decided that something light would be good across the summer and picked up this book. It's a collection of short stories or 'essays' by David Sedaris capturing various anecdotes from his own life. I don't think I've ever laughed out loud because of a book as hard as I did while reading this. It is so well written with such perfect comedic timing that I ended up looking for interviews with David Sedaris on YouTube once I'd finished it just to see if he was as witty in person (I was not disappointed).
10/10

'Lucky' by Alice Sebold
I then decided that I could manage another heavy read and went for this auto-biographical memoir from Alice herself where she describes her experience of being raped. The story starts with the event itself and then follows her recovery afterwards and the years following as she works with the police to capture and convict her rapist. It explores the experiences of a raped girl in the justice system of the time and how (shockingly) the attitudes towards rape victims haven't seemed to change in the 20 years since the book was published and the 40-odd years since the attack happened. I think that this is a very important read for anyone. Alice Sebold strikes the perfect balance between humour (as a coping mechanism afterwards) and the grave seriousness of the event itself.
10/10

'Life of Pi' by Yann Martel
I can appreciate that I am years behind the curve on this one, but again it was a case of seeing the film first (thanks, Channel 4) before deciding that I had to see the film. The book was more incredible than the film and was another one that I was hooked by almost instantly. My only complaint was that I hated the Canadian author character. I think this was a leftover from the film where the very English Rafe Spall tried to do a Canadian accent which felt like nails on a chalkboard to me. I couldn't shake this image even when reading the book. However, those parts are minimal and (again) it was a book that led me to question myself and my own beliefs which I loved.
10/10

'Before I Go To Sleep' by SJ Watson
This was another random Kindle download which I really enjoyed reading. It's about a woman who loses her memory each night when she goes to sleep (self-explanatory from the title) but there's a thriller element in that she slowly starts to discover (by keeping a journal) that she's being lied to each day. The story is about her discovery of what is truth and I really enjoyed the character's journey through the book. I was delighted to see that they'd made this into a film but the key element - the journal - had been turned into a video diary which I thought was a bit shit. I've yet to see the film and may decide not to given how much I enjoyed the book.
10/10

'Eat Pray Love' by Elizabeth Gilbert
Again, I'm late to the curve with this one and it was another book read as a result of my enjoyment of the film (Julia Roberts can sell me anything). I loved this book, I really did. I wasn't expecting much from it but actually it contains a lot of wisdom without being overly preachy. Some of the jokes were a bit flat in places but overall there were some very good lessons to be learned from her experiences and I found these very useful when trying to overcome some stress at work towards the end of the year so would definitely recommend this.
10/10

'The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake' by Aimee Bender
This is the story of a young girl who can taste the emotions of the people making the food she eats. It sounds like a load of bollocks but actually the story is quite enjoyable as it follows the dysfunction in her family as well as a young girl trying to find her place in the world. However, I can't fully enjoy this book because the author has decided to remove the inverted commas from the writing so that there's no indication when someone is speaking. She said that this was an 'aesthetic' choice but I really don't like it. It makes it really difficult to read for me because you'll be halfway through a paragraph before realising that the character is actually speaking the lines rather than it being her internal monologue. Apparently blurring the inner and outer monologues is the point of doing this but I really didn't like it and it made the book difficult to read for me. For that reason, it will be the only book that I mark at less than 10/10 this year.
6/10

I hope that this has been useful to some of you when looking for a new book to read. I can't wait to get my teeth into some new novels next year and see where these take me. I don't think I'll be able to get through quite as many but I'll certainly try. Please leave any book recommendations in the comments below for me to take a look through as well :-)

Tabitha
Xx

2015 New Years Resolutions: My Results

At the end of 2014, I set myself some very specific goals for this year and I am delighted to confirm today that every single one of these goals has been achieved and surpassed in some cases. It's been a fantastic year as a result and one I'm proud of too. The full post about these goals is here but in summary, I had the following goals:

2015 New Years Resolutions 
1. Read 10 books
2. Update the blog 4 times a month
3. Fully pay off overdraft
4. Lose 6 stone
5. Have a dental check-up
6. Drink at least 2L of water a day

1. Read 10 books
I'll admit that I slacked on this one a little bit until about halfway through the year where I learned to utilise my lunch hour for reading rather than binge watch Netflix. However, I managed to achieve this one in the end and have a post coming out tomorrow with a short review of each book read. This goal felt second nature for me in the end because I really do love to read, it was just a matter of making this more of a priority.

2. Update the blog 4 times a month
This one was a struggle. Again, it was about making it a priority but I found that I ended up writing all four posts in one day with them all releasing towards the last few days of the month. It was an ambitious goal but one I'm proud that I kept. I can still say that almost no-one actually reads this blog but it felt really good to do a bit of writing and force myself to make time for it too.

3. Fully pay off overdraft
I'm going to say that this is definitely one of my achievements that I'm most proud of. It was difficult to do but I have not only managed to clear the £2,000 of debt I was in through my overdraft but actually put away savings in excess of that amount too. I scrimped like a trooper of course, but most of this came down to being very fortunate with overtime hours at work. In fact, since January of this year, I have been starting at 07:00 every morning right the way through to my last week before Christmas break. This included at least one five hour Saturday shift a month. This meant an extra 10 to 15 hours a week at work which definitely made a difference in my ability to save as well as the quality of my work too. Win-win all round!

4. Lose 6 stone
I did it! On 22nd of November this year, I got down to my lowest weight and a total of 84.4lbs lost which is the equivalent of 6 stone (84lbs or 38kg). I managed this through the simple act of calorie counting using the MyFitnessPal app. It's a free app that I believe most people have heard of or used before, but it just makes keeping track of my food and drink so easy that it became second nature. I've still got a few more stone to go until I reach my goal weight but this 6 stone chunk has been such a massive chunk off  that I'm well on my way to this goal.

5. Have a dental check-up
I actually felt a bit ridiculous once I'd had this check-up. I can't imagine why it was such a big deal or why I put it off for so long. I'm not scared of dentists (well, not that much) nor was I worried about the cost. Again, I think it was a case of making it a priority which is something this resolution forced me to do. So in May, I called up my local dentist's office, got myself registered and went to see the dentist. I needed one filling and had my teeth polished to perfection by the lovely dentist there. In November, I saw her again for another polish. I intend to keep going every six months as recommended and feel that I've set up a new healthy habit that is easy to keep.

6. Drink at least 2L of water a day
I actually bossed this one. I've never been more hydrated in my life and I feel so much better for it. I've got a little cup at work that I was getting through several times a day. I tried to stick to plain water where possible. However, I found this sugar-free 2-calorie squash in Aldi that doubled my water intake because it was so delicious in November. I'm fairly confident I've been doing 3 or 4 litres a day easily, particularly as I found I was less hungry the more hydrated I was and it was therefore easier to stick to my calorie goals too.

All in all, it has been a very productive and very rewarding 2015. I definitely feel like having specific goals really helped me keep my resolutions and I'm genuinely so pleased with myself. I've had a tremendous year and I'm grateful to everyone that supported me with these goals.

Tabitha
Xx

My Aldi Swap

I started this month with a challenge to myself. For most of this year, I've been living on frozen food from Tesco. At the start of each month, I'd order a month's worth of frozen food. It was convenient, but for almost a full year I'd found I was eating pretty much the same thing.

So for November I decided to drop the monthly shop and try a fresh weekly shop at Aldi. I hoped I would save money but also eat fresh nutritious food. 

I got exactly what I hoped for. Not only do I save over £40 a month when you compare the items to the Tesco equivalent, but I also saw a big whoosh of weight loss to boot!

I felt inspired to Instagram the vast majority of my meals (yes, I'm that sad) so here's some of my favourites:

Tabitha

Xx

My Little Box | November 2015

Just like Birchbox, I should start by saying that I've cancelled my subscription to My Little Box this month. This is an even bigger surprise to me because just a couple of months I was so in love with this box and really enjoyed receiving it.

However, the last few months of boxes have just been so disappointing. It's like they reached their first anniversary of being in the UK and just gave up. This gets mentioned in their Instagram comments a lot, but it's hard to enjoy the UK boxes now when the French and Japanese versions are always so much better.

It was a little tin instead of a box and I got very excited about what might be inside. Then I saw this:

The apron is cute, sure. But where the hell is the sweet?! There's a sweet hand cream that is a bit marshmallowy but this will be cream 10,000 received from My Little Box now. Not forgetting there was a  hand cream in the last box as well. How dry do they think my hands are?

Then there was a little perfume that smells like Poundland's own cat piss.

Finally there was that shitty foamy face wash that long time readers will remember I HATED when Birchbox sent this a few months ago. 

I'm not even going to list the contents, I'm that disappointed. It's just too much money each month to justify when the contents are this cheap.

So very disappointed!

Tabitha 

Xx

Birchbox | November 2015

I'm going to preface this post by saying that even though this box was a lot better than last month's, it still wasn't good enough to retain my custom and I have now cancelled my Birchbox subscription.

I know, it's a big shock given how much I loved their boxes just a few months ago. But I, like many of their customers, have very little patience when I don't feel like I'm getting my money's worth. 

Birchbox November 2015 Contents:

So Susan Featherlash Mascara | £18

Lord & Berry Silhouette Neutral Lip Line | £9

Delarom Creme Acquaconfort | £34

Pure & Light Organic Revitalising Facial Exfoliation | £25

Beauty Protector Beauty Cream Body Lotion | £8

Thumbs Up Rosa Nail Wraps | £6.99

So Susan Featherlash Mascara

This is a lovely light mascara for days when you want a more natural look. It does flake off though so it's a bit of a pain by the end of the day.

Lord & Berry Neutral Lip Liner

I tried this out but I'm not convinced that it made a difference at all. That could just be where I don't tend to find that my lipsticks bleed/smudge if I don't wear a lip liner.

Delacrom Creme Acquaconfort

I can't remember if I've tried this or not so this definitely didn't make an impression.

Pure & Light Organic Revitalising Facial Exfoliation

I actually really liked this but there was only enough for two uses. It smelled of light citrus and had enough exfoliating grains that my skin felt amazing afterwards.

Beauty Protector Beauty Cream Body Lotion

The smell of this was amazing but it was a bit too oily for my tastes. 

Thumbs Up Rosa Nail Wraps

I haven't tried these yet as they're a little more Spring than Festive but I definitely think they're cute.

I'm not saying I'll never go back to Birchbox, but I don't think I ever really recovered from the horrific October box and it has tarnished this box for me. 

Tabitha

Xx

Review | Maybelline Super Stay

We are well into Autumn and nearly Winter now so all manner of dark berry shades have been gracing my lips. While I can get away with a darker lip, I fully intend to. 

By far my favourite dark berry shade is this absolute beauty of a product by Maybelline. This is their Super Stay 24 Ultimate Red lip colour in Always Crimson (575). I swatched this on the back of my hand in Boots and couldn't get rid of it without severe scrubbing so this is definitely a product made to last as long as it promises.

I tried it on my lips for the first time today. The first layer was perfect and I shouldn't have touched it, but being a fool, I put the balm on before it had dried properly and then tried to put another layer on top to even the colour that I had smudged. It still looked amazing but it did flake off when I ate lunch so I definitely recommend one layer that you allow to fully dry.

The colour is gorgeous and there's a massive range from light nudes and pinks right the way through to the darker vampy shades that I enjoy most. 

10/10 - Highly Recommend 

My Little Box | October 2015

As mentioned in my Birchbox post, the My Little Box from this month was a little disappointing. You know I've always enjoyed every box I received but this one let me down.

The theme is "creativity" though I see none of that in the contents. They're usually really good at including little accessories/activities with their boxes so this should have been an easy feat for them.

Instead, I've got a box of skincare - something I've said before that I have absolutely no interest in receiving.

My Little Box October 2015 Contents:

Baija Hydrating Cream | £12.90

Polaar Genuine Lapland Hand Cream | £16.90

My Little Beauty Creme de Minuit | £15

My Little Box Wire Wrap Beads | £16

My Little Box Tote Bag | £15

Yep. Three creams, plastic beads and a tote bag. Officially my least favourite box that I would send back if I could. Add to the fact that this box was late so they had to send out a replacement. I wish they hadn't bothered.

The Baija cream is okay - like a big standard Shea butter scent wise and texture wise.

The Polaar cream had barely any scent at all. Rubbed in nicely without too much of a sticky feeling.

The Minuit Creme was a lovely scent and was soft on the skin.

The creams themselves were good quality but I'd prefer them to have been spread out across the next three months rather than all at once. 

I'm hoping next month will be a LOT better to make up for this. Two bad subscription boxes really is bad luck.

Tabitha 

Xx