The Overflowing Library

Another quiet month for me book wise sadly. Here's what I managed to get through over the past month. Books Read in October Royally Obsessed by Meg Cabot (4 stars) Tonight the Streets are ours by Leila Sales (3 stars) Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone: Illustrated edition (5 stars) Life and Death Twilight Reimagined by Stephenie Meyer (3 stars) Prom Princess by Meg Cabot (4 stars) After Iris by Natasha Farrant (4 stars) The Hollow Boy by Jonathan Stroud (4 stars) Book of the Month Yes this is cheating but the pictures throughout this book are so beautiful that it couldn't not be my book of the month this month. Events Attended None sadly. On the Blog Blog Tours Zeroes Blog Tour Railhead Blog Tour Monsters Blog Tour AWOL series A series of posts from me catching up with reviews AWOL intro post Activity books Books I wished I'd DNfed TV and film tie ins Books I loved I also blogged about the 2016 releases I am looking forward to....

Another month and another set of books I cannot wait to get my hands on. I'm mostly focusing on 2016 releases this month ready for the new year. Jolly Foul Play by Robin Stevens - Out March 2016 Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong have returned to Deepdean for a new school term, but nothing is the same. There's a new Head Girl, Elizabeth Hurst, and a team of Prefects - and these bullying Big Girls are certainly not good eggs. Then, after the fireworks display on Bonfire Night, Elizabeth is found - murdered. Many girls at Deepdean had reason to hate Elizabeth, but who might have committed such foul play? Could the murder be linked to the secrets and scandals, scribbled on scraps of paper, that are suddenly appearing around the school? And with their own friendship falling to pieces, how will Daisy and Hazel solve this mystery?   I  love this series. I cannot wait for this to be released. How Not to Disappear by Clare Furniss - Out January 2016 Hattie's summer ...

Today I have been offered an extract from Monster by CJ Skuse to share with you all as part of the Monster Blog Tour

I wanted to review this books separately because I loved them all. It didn't happen because of life so I want to at the very least give them an airing on here so you all know how awesome they all are. All of the above by James Dawson This is a funny and moving love story about friends, first loves and self-discovery by Queen of Teen 2014. When sixteen-year-old Toria Bland arrives at her new school she needs to work out who her friends are in a crazy whirl of worry, exam pressure and anxiety over fitting in. Things start looking up when Toria meets the funny and foul-mouthed Polly, who's the coolest girl that Toria has ever seen. Polly and the rest of the 'alternative' kids take Toria under their wing. And that's when she meets the irresistible Nico Mancini, lead singer of a local band - and it's instalove at first sight! Toria likes Nico, Nico likes Toria, but then there's Polly...love and friendship have a funny way of going round in ci...

I received these two books in the last month to dip in and out of Buffy: Demons of the Hellmouth Demons of the Hellmouth is a fully licensed guide to the vampires and other demons that flocked to the Sunnydale Hellmouth in Joss Whedon’s cult TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer . This in-universe illustrated guide is written by Rupert Giles, and also contains handwritten notes from Buffy and Willow. This unique book promises a diabolical romp through the highlights of the beloved show. I love Buffy and was therefore excited to read this. However I must say it didn't really do it for me. There was nothing in it I didn't already know and the 'notes' from Buffy and the gang didn't feel like them enough for me to buy it which put me off sadly. Harry Potter: The Character Vault Unlock new information about your favourite characters from the Harry Potter movies with this definitive coffeetable book profiling the good, the bad, and everything in betwe...

These are the books I've read over the last few weeks which I wish I'd given up on. In some cases it was definitely as case of it's not you it's me with the state I've been in. In other cases, based on reviews from my blogger friends, it definitely isn't just me. Silence is Goldfish by Annabel Pitcher My name is Tess Turner - at least, that's what I've always been told. I have a voice but it isn't mine. It used to say things so I'd fit in, to please my parents, to please my teachers. It used to tell the universe I was something I wasn't. It lied. It never occurred to me that everyone else was lying too. But the words that really hurt weren't the lies: it was six hundred and seventeen words of truth that turned my world upside down. Words scare me, the lies and the truth, so I decided to stop using them. I am Pluto. Silent. Inaccessible. Billions of miles away from everything I thought I knew. Tessie-T has never really felt ...

The first in my series of mini reviews are for a variety of activity books. I haven't read much of late so these books have been a godsend for me Secret Garden: Artist's Edition by Johanna Basford I actually loved this colouring book. It has a variety of really sweet drawings and I loved that you could take the pages out completely. I doubt very much I'd be framing them because it's not really something I'd be interested in doing but the fact that you could is a really nice idea DC Super Heroes Origami I was so excited to receive this book. I started out making wonder woman's tiara which worked out fab but everything else I tried was rubbish. The instructions were unclear and fiddly and pretty much every item ended up being screwed up and flung across the room Colour me Mindful series by Anastasia Cartis I really love this series and these little colouring books. The thing I like most is the size. That are smaller than most colour...

You might have noticed over the past six weeks or so I have been rather absent both on here and on Bookish Brits and twitter. Things have been stupidly busy at work and I've not been in a brilliant place as a result of being completely overwhelmed with work stress which means I really haven't read much at all and not felt like reviewing anything. I've also managed to backlog myself and it has meant I've not wanted to blog anything because it just seems like another mountain I need to climb. So the next few posts to follow are going to get me caught up with several little reviews of the bits and pieces I've been reading of late and to let you know that between now and the end of the year I might not be about much. If I do read anything I've keep goodreads updated but I'm hoping to give myself a bit of time without much pressure to get everything sorted. As a rule November / December tend to be quieter month for review copies now is a perfect time for me to ...

G is for Guardians There is a garden where the gods meet.           It is not a real garden.   Everything here, from the topiary yew hedges to the snow which drifts down from the dark grey sky to cover the lawns, is made of code. But that does not matter, because the gods are not real gods. They are ancient AIs, computer intelligences which live as tides of information in the Datasea. It amuses them to think of themselves as gods, and to treat human beings as the gods once did, in tales from Old Earth. And it amuses them to meet here, in this virtual garden, when they need to discuss the wayward ways of humans. The Guardians arrived early when I started writing Railhead . How had human beings come by this incredible hyperspace railway? I had no idea how it worked, so I decided that maybe nobody in the book knows how it works, either - it ’ s based on maths which is beyond human abilities, and must be the work of ...

Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan & Deborah Biancotti is published by Simon & Schuster, priced £7.99 Margo's writing space: In the picture you can see my new standing desk arrangement, made using an Ikea step stool. Just to be meta, on the laptop screen is a picture of my rented Writing Room, which I'm in the process of moving out of in favour of the new Writing Shed that's nearly built in my back yard. Right now I split my writing location between my kitchen table and the spare room with the standing desk. My writing habits, when I'm drafting, are to write as early as possible. Fall out of bed and start, before doing anything else and especially before eating breakfast. Then eat breakfast. Then get back on it. For Zeroes , write (on the laptop) a chapter (max 2000 words) in a day, maybe two on a good day; for solo work, write (longhand) ten pages (roughly 3300) in a day. Finish with a note about what to tackle tomorro...