The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon | Review

The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads | Amazon

Synopsis:

The year is 2059. Nineteen-year-old Paige Mahoney is working in the criminal underworld of Scion London, based at Seven Dials, employed by a man named Jaxon Hall. Her job: to scout for information by breaking into people’s minds. For Paige is a dreamwalker, a clairvoyant and, in the world of Scion, she commits treason simply by breathing.

It is raining the day her life changes for ever. Attacked, drugged and kidnapped, Paige is transported to Oxford – a city kept secret for two hundred years, controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. Paige is assigned to Warden, a Rephaite with mysterious motives. He is her master. Her trainer. Her natural enemy. But if Paige wants to regain her freedom she must allow herself to be nurtured in this prison where she is meant to die.

Books to buy your children/younger siblings to teach them about #BlackLivesMatter (10yr+)

I would firstly like to say that I am of course no expert on this topic and I am not trying to place my voice in front of the Black Community. When I posted my support on twitter, I asked the book community if they would like me to do a series of posts about the Black Authors, Artists, Documentaries and Black Voices which I have studied during my Masters Degree as I did my Dissertation on this topic and many said yes. It is not down to the Black Community to help educate you on this topic, it is down to yourself to find the information.

I first wanted to start with a post about Children as I have seen many parents asking for advice on how they can better teach their children about this movement. As I mentioned, I am in no way an expert on this topic, please introduce them to Black Content Creators who are sharing their experience. But in the hopes of helping to spread awareness, I have listed 4 books below, which I believe every parent should have their children read so they get a better understanding on systematic racism and what is currently happening. Please also sit your children down and have the conversation with them, talk about it.

There are SO many books out there which you can buy, these are just a select few which I have chosen as I have read them myself and they are truly amazing. I will also include links to other creators with lists which will help you.

NOTE: I put 10 yrs + for the content being about Police Brutality, Violence and Racism but if your child has read books like The Hunger Games then I see no problem with them reading these.

Unpopular Opinions: 5 Books I Didn’t Enjoy.

The unpopular opinions tag has been floating around booktube and book blogs for a while now and I thought now was finally the time I put on my big girl pants and shared some of my unpopular opinions too. So here are 5 books which I didn’t really like…

Managing Anxiety in the Covid-19 Outbreak

As you know, outside of this being a book blog, I also like to discuss Mental Health to try and help as many people as I can. In light of recent events, I thought now was a perfect time to try and help those of you who might be struggling.

Having Anxiety at the best of times is incredibly hard but during a pandemic as country after country declares national emergencies, newspapers are full of devastating stories and scary statistics and social media is filled with videos, its even harder.

There are numerous ways your mental health might be affected, and I truly believe this is a time that many people who have never dealt with mental health issues will come to understand what its like to a degree. Many people will suffer during these moments, many people will feel isolated and alone but please remember whilst we are in a dark and scary time, you are not alone. We are all in this together.

It can especially be hard for those who don’t have supportive family members as they will be on lock down with them for a long time. It can be daunting and particularly scary as no end seems in sight.

Here are some tips on how you can help manage your anxiety:

Its nearly been a year… so where have I been?

April 15th 2019.

That was the last date I updated my blog and you’re probably wondering, where have I been? In all those days and months that passed, I must have a fair few stories to tell?

To sum it up very fast, I passed my driving test, I worked, I graduated with my masters, I got sick, I got my heart broken, I went on holiday, I got a car. I lost my love of reading. 

Nothing drastic changed in my life… I got sick and i’m still having some tests but quite frankly the thing that made me stop blogging was simply my work. I work in Marketing and PR and since last being here, I have had a promotion which means more responsibility and more clients. It’s stressful at times but I’ve got a much better handle on it now. When I left, my job was using up all my creativity, I would pour myself into my job then come home and watch Netflix to switch off. I stopped reading, I stopped blogging and I disappeared from this world.

In-fact I lost my love for reading during this time too and I am desperate to get it back. I haven’t read a new book since last year and the one I did read, was a re-read and even then… I skimmed it. I never forgot about my blog and this community though, I kept wanting to make a come back and force myself to find my love once again but I never did. Until this week… I forced myself to log in and I noticed the statistics. Whilst being away, my blog has lived on and people still visit every single day which made me realise that people actually like reading what I have to say? That’s crazy to me BUT it means the world that you wish to listen and read along to my words. So I’m determined to come back. So buckle up guys, because we are about to go on a journey. The tale of how a girl finds her passion once again. Are you in?

I’m not sure where to start so if you have any suggestions or requests then please comment below as I would LOVE to hear them. I’ve missed you all terribly and I am so sorry for disappearing.

Here’s to making 2020, OUR year. 

 

Let’s Chat – Was I a Reading Snob?

Well what a starter headline that is… am I right?

I’ve been in and out of blogging for what probably is about a year now.
I said I would do better and I never did, frankly life is CRAZY but I won’t bore you with the details of why I left again. What I will say is how my new job makes my brain somewhat broken, which is what left me to the discovery of how I was once a reading snob… which probably isn’t the right term for it really, but read on and you’ll hopefully understand what I mean.

Books I Read in 2018

Hey Guys!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! As we are coming up to the New Year I wanted to do a post on the books I read in 2018. This year I had set my Goodreads Goal at 50… and well I read 19. But even though I am considerably out on achieving that goal, I am taking this as a major win.

Get To Know Me Tag

As my follower and view count goes up and the time I have had this blog get’s longer I realised I should do a Get To Know Me Tag, for all my new followers who may wish to know more about the little old creator of Mortal Reader. This specific tag I didn’t take from anywhere in particular but instead picked some questions from other popular tags and pooled them together.

So let’s get nosey…

Most Popular Books on my TBR

Hi Guys,

Today I am doing a Top Ten Post inspired by Heather @TheSassyBookGeek as she recently did a post titled Most Popular Books on my TBR. Be sure to go check out Heather’s blog, she is such a sweet girl with amazing bookish content.

I thought this post was a fun and great idea so I decided to take a look at the books I owned and the ones that are still waiting to be picked up!

Update; Where I’ve Been.

Hi Guys!

Gosh it has been 22 days since I last posted or interacted here on my blog… it feels like a lifetime. So where have I been?

Considering I’ve been gone from blogging for just over 3 weeks I figured I needed to do a post to explain my absence. I have posted some things on twitter for those who follow me on their but a lot of you don’t and you deserve an explanation as to why I dropped off the edge of the world for a little while.

Over the past 3 weeks a lot has happened in my life, university has begun to get stressful and many deadlines are looming over me. As you will know I am studying for a Master’s Degree and will be finished in September, so you can imagine the amount of essays looming as well as the Dissertation. So I took a few days to try to get myself organised, but then my nan got ill and rushed into hospital, there was a death close to our family, work commitments, being snowed in and missing uni and having to catch up… I was tearing my hair out. I was and still am so stressed but today I feel motivated to come onto my blog and return. I have missed it so so much.
I miss reading posts, posting and just interacting with everyone.

As I write this I have no ideas of what post to write next because I haven’t read anything for fun in 3 weeks… just articles for university. I am going to brain storm and get my creativity bug back and start reading a book.

I want to take a moment to thank every single person who has reached out to me, DM’d me, tweeted me, commented. Everything.
Over the past three weeks you have helped me so much and whilst I was struggling, it felt so good to know people were rooting for me to come back.

I can’t wait to make a proper comeback. If there is any posts you would like to see the most please comment and let me know. and please accept my apologies for leaving you. I feel so guilty, as if I have abadonded you. I’m sorry for that!

Thank you for your constant support, thank you for your commitment to me.