nuggets of niamh

I had a wonderful Christmas, thank you for asking, and I hope you did, too! I was well and truly spoilt by my family with lots of lovely gifts (including a few books!) and we had an absolutely amazing Christmas lunch! I'm honestly still a bit full from all the food I've eaten over the past few days... But now that Christmas has been and gone, we've come to the end of December, and with it, the end of the year. Can you believe that 2018 is over?! For many, now is the time to reflect on the year that was and look ahead to the next. Personally, though, I need a little more time to come to grips with it all, so today, I'll just be looking back at what happened during the month of December. 

Merry Christmas, everyone!  By the time you're reading this, Christmas Day will be in full swing in my house! We will likely be beginning to prepare lunch ahead of the arrival of our guests and I definitely will have already opened all of my presents! Fingers crossed that at least a few of them will be books! This is the wish list that I gave my family this year (complete with specific editions as well, of course!), so I hope that I'll have found a few of them under the Christmas tree this morning! Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by  Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl , with a new topic to respond to every week.

With Christmas now only a few days away, what could be more appropriate than a fun, festive-filled tag?! The Twelve Days of Christmas Book Tag is based on the song of the same name and the aim is to select a book that fits the theme of each line of the song. So without further ado (and with very little context), let's commence!  The Twelve Days of Christmas Book Tag was originally created by Ashley @ Falling Down the Book Hole  and I was tagged by  Dinara  @ Dinara Tengri .

I swear no matter how many books I read, my TBR pile never shrinks. It just continues to grow and grow until it becomes multiple piles and, oh no, now it's a sea of books and I can't see the floor anymore. But that's not what this post is about. Not really. Although my TBR "pile" does somewhat resemble a small ocean, today I am discussing just ten (well, eleven) books that I'm hoping to read this summer. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I tend to gravitate towards contemporaries in the summer months, however, I've since realised that I have A LOT of fantasies to catch up on. So it looks like some of those contemporaries may have to take a backseat. Nevertheless, I'm excited to read each and every one of the following books so if that's any indication, then it's going to be a great summer!  Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl , with a new topic to respond to every week.

2018 has been THE year for YA adaptations, with films such as A Wrinkle in Time  and  Ready Player One  finding huge success at the box office and Netflix's  To All the Boys I've Loved Before  and Dumplin'  also extremely popular with audiences. I myself absolutely loved TATBILB and watched it multiple times shortly after it was released! I was also lucky enough to see an advanced screening of Love, Simon  earlier in the year, which I adored! Both films received critical acclaim for the performances of their lead actors and actresses and were also lauded for their diversity – something not often accurately represented in blockbuster films. Unfortunately, apart from TATBILB, Love, Simon  and Maze Runner: The Death Cure  (which we won't talk about), I haven't had the chance to watch any other 2018 YA adaptations yet. But I'm hoping next year will be a different story! Because there are some seriously amazing YA adaptations schedule...

I love a good series – the longer the better! But with all the enticing shiny new releases that just keep popping up on Goodreads and Bookstagram, it can be hard to keep up with sequels to that series you first started reading five years ago.  Especially if you're like me and are TERRIBLE at remembering what happened in the first two or five or TEN books.  Because then you need to reread. And as enjoyable as it can be to revisit the first few books in one of your favourite series, it takes sooo long . And who has time for that with all the shiny new releases?!  Over the past year or two, I've made a concentrated effort to try and finish part-read series. In fact, just the other day I finally caught up on  Brotherband  by John Flanagan and am now continuing the Monster Blood Tattoo  trilogy by D. M. Cornish – a series I started in PRIMARY SCHOOL but never completed. Whoops.  But of course, I also read multiple *new* books this year, so, ...

Bridge of Clay  by Markus Zusak Published: 9th October 2018 by Picador Australia Format: Paperback Pages: 592 ISBN: 9781760559922 RRP: $32.99 ★ ★  ★  ★  Bridge of Clay is about a boy who is caught in the current - of destroying everything he has, to become all he needs to be. He's a boy in search of greatness, as a cure for memory and tragedy. He builds a bridge to save his family, but also to save himself. It's an attempt to transcend humanness, to make a single, glorious moment: A miracle and nothing less.

Summer has well and truly arrived here in Australia. At least where I live. We've already had multiple days of 35°C+ weather and it's only the start of December. All I can say is thank goodness for air conditioning! During the warmer months, I tend to read a lot more contemporaries. I couldn't tell you why, but they're just not something I reach for in winter. As a result, I have a bit of a backlog of contemporaries on my TBR at the moment (more on that in a few weeks!). And today I thought it would be a great idea to add EVEN MORE to that list! So for this post about the perfect summery books, I'll be discussing five that I've read and loved, and five that I've yet to read but think would be ideal for this season! Spoiler alert: Despite only last week raving about how much I like platonic relationships in books , I can't look past a cute summer romance!  Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl , featuring a new top...

Um, did I blink and miss November? Or maybe I took a nap one day and woke up a whole month later? Seriously, where did this month (and the rest of this year!) go?! The first two weeks of November were super busy for me: I was in charge of planning and organising a two-night camp for the Girl Guide unit that I run. This was the first time I've ever done anything like this and it was all just a little bit stressful. And A LOT of work! But, thankfully, everything went really well (minus a small hiccup involving a possum and a fuse box) and it ended up being a great weekend! Although, I was completely exhausted by the end of it! The last two weeks have been a little more relaxing. In the lead up to the holiday season, I've been catching up with friends and also starting to prepare a few things for Christmas. It's never too early to start brainstorming gift ideas, after all! But I've also been allowing plenty of time for myself – keeping up with my reading, obviou...

Let's face it, book friendships are often better than book romances. I'll choose a story with a well-developed, beautiful friendship over one with a sappy, romance-heavy plot any day. Plus, non-romance books aren't plagued by annoying, overused tropes like the brooding-bad-boy-with-a-dark-secret or insta-love. I mean, who ever heard of insta-friendship?! Platonic relationships are as diverse as the fish in the ocean: every friendship, every family is unique. So there's really no limit to the kinds of platonic relationships you can encounter in novels. Some of my favourites make me so happy (or sad), even now just thinking about them! Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by  Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl , with a new topic to respond to every week. 

Thanksgiving is not a holiday that is traditionally celebrated in Australia*. However, as the year draws to an end, it doesn't hurt to reflect on the things one is thankful for. *Except for in the territory of Norfolk Island, where it is celebrated on the last Wednesday of November.  I wouldn't be who I am today without the books I've read throughout my lifetime. They have been my constant friends and companions, and have helped me through more than one rough time in my life. Naturally, I am immensely grateful to the authors for creating and bringing those stories to life because, without them, the books simply wouldn't exist. But I also have to thank my parents: for reading countless stories to me throughout my childhood, and thus fostering in me a love of reading that has persisted to this day.  It is impossible to pinpoint a single moment or name an individual book that inspired my love of reading – it's been an ongoing love affair virtually ever sinc...

Over the past year or two, I've acquired quite a few new release and backlist YA fantasies. Many are the first in a series and because I'm partway through so many other fantasy series, I've been hesitant to pick them up. However, Penguin Teen recently announced an exciting new event: the Fall Into Fantasy Readathon !  The goal of this readathon is to read at least four fantasy books off your TBR, so it's the perfect incentive for me to finally  pick up some of those fantasies that have been languishing on my shelves. #FallIntoFantasy will take place from November 18th – 25th and its hosts are Hailey @ Hailey in Bookland , Cece @ ProblemsofaBookNerd , Naya @ NayaReadsandSmiles , Emma @ EmmmaBooks , and  Monica @ SheMightBeMonica .

As a devoted enthusiast of all things books, I LOVE bookish items! They're the perfect things to indulge my love of my favourite characters, ships, and series. And they're also a great way to support our fellow bookworms who have turned their love of books into a business. I've been subscribed to The YA Chronicles , an Australian book subscription service, for two years now and every month I look forward to unboxing the creative, and often exclusive, bookish goodies contained within. In this way, I've been introduced to many incredibly talented artists and designers, some of whom I'm delighted to feature in this post! So read on to discover the top ten bookish items that I would sell a kidney to own. (And likely would have to because postage to Australia is so damn expensive.) Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl  with a new topic to respond to every week.

It Ends With You by S. K. Wright Published: 6th September 2018 by Hachette Australia Format: Paperback Pages: 256 ISBN: 9780349003177 RRP: $19.99 ★ ★  ½ 'If I'd told the truth, it would have been fiction' Everyone loves Eva. Beautiful, bright, fun, generous - she's perfect. So when her dead body is found in a ditch in the local woods the only thing anyone wants to know is: Who could have done this? It has to be Luke, her boyfriend. He has the motive, the means, the opportunity and he's no stranger to the police. Even though the picture is incomplete, the pieces fit. But as time passes, stories change. Told from six narrative strands, this cleverly woven and utterly compulsive novel challenges preconceptions; makes you second, third and fourth guess yourself; and holds an uncomfortable mirror up to the way societies and systems treat those they perceive to be on the outside.

We live in a world where hundreds of thousands of new books are published every year. Many won't interest me and most won't even cross my radar, but when I do hear about an upcoming or recent release that sounds intriguing, it gets added to my " Want to Read " shelf. When I read the book, it is removed. It's as simple as that. However, for every book that I do read, there's always another one or two or three or more to take its place. In this way, my digital TBR pile is constantly (and often exponentially) growing. Indeed, it will be physically impossible for me to read them all in my lifetime. And that's not even considering all the books that were released in decades past.  In the book blogging community, we often focus on new releases so intensely that we neglect any books not published within the current year. But not today. Today is all about those backlist books. The ones we said we'd read when they were first released but never got ...

Another month has passed us by and suddenly it's November and there are only 53 days until Christmas. (But who's counting.) I swear it was only June last week? WHERE HAS THE YEAR GONE??? Regardless of how it happened, October is over. That means it's time to discuss the month that was! Inspired by Cait @ Paper Fury , I've decided to write this wrap-up as an #amcurrently post so that I can gush about all the things I've been loving during the month, not just books! So, without further ado, let's get into it!

Tomorrow's the day, folks! It's time to put the final touches on your costume, light those pumpkins, and venture outside for some witchy fun! Or, if you're like me, it's time to snuggle up in bed and settle in for an evening of reading and/or watching Netflix. As a child, my family never celebrated Halloween. I went trick or treating once or twice with friends and had a great time, but it just isn't a big event in my calendar. That being said, I still appreciate the eerie atmosphere (even though it's Spring here in Australia, not Autumn) and I love reading and watching similarly eerie books and TV shows at this time of the year. So, if you're staying in this Halloween and looking for a deliciously spooky book or TV show, look no further! For this week's Top Ten Tuesday, I've listed five of each that I think are perfect for the occasion! Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl  where, every week, there's a ne...

Is it Friday already?! I don't know about you but this week has flown by so quickly for me! I've spent the past few days tweaking small features of my blog layout and planning future posts, but it wasn't until yesterday that I actually got around to writing this one. Oops. The Bookshelf Scavenger Hunt tag was created way back when by TheLibraryOfSarah on YouTube and even though I'm about five years late to the party, I thought I'd give it a go!

Villains.  We love to hate them and sometimes, we hate to love them. But every good story needs at least one good villain. Or two. Or, better yet, a whole cast of nefarious characters. Now THAT is the kind of book that I want to read! Today I am discussing my top ten favourite villains and what makes them so evil (or not, as the case may be). This is my post for Top Ten Tuesday, the weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl .

Spring has sprung, er, the cows have come? Somehow I don't think that's the rhyme, but moving on... We are well and truly in the midst of spring here in Australia - the magpies are swooping and the jacarandas are in full bloom. A perfect combination. It has also been raining here in Brisbane for almost two weeks straight, but we won't talk about that. To celebrate spring, I thought I would share with you three recently* released #LoveOzYA books that I think would make the perfect seasonal reads! (And that I really should read.) *Look, they're all 2018 releases, okay? That's recent enough for me.

Happy Tuesday, everyone! I'm here with another TTT post and this week it's all about libraries. Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by   Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl  and every week, there's a new topic to respond to. Today, I'm twisting it up a little so read on to find out... why I love libraries  - - -

I love lists. Lists are the best! Which is why Top Ten Tuesday is the PERFECT meme for me to participate in! If you didn't know, Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl . Every week, there's a new topic to respond to and this week's topic is longest books I've ever read  So, without further ado, here are the top ten longest books I've ever read (from shortest to longest):

While everyone in the Northern Hemisphere is pulling on their winter knits and drinking pumpkin spice everything, it's spring here in Australia and it's starting to heat up. And as much as I love the warm weather, it unfortunately doesn't really promote those cosy Halloween vibes. Nevertheless, I don't want to miss out on all the spooky goodness! That's why, this year, I've decided to participate in Spookathon , a week-long readathon created by the delightful and effervescent Lala from BooksandLala  and co-hosted by the equally delightful and effervescent Peter ( Peter Likes Books ) and Shannon ( Bookerly ).

Why, hello there! Yes, it has been a while. Over a year, in fact. And where have I been, you may be asking? Well, actually, I've been physically BURIED under my enormous TBR pile. I'm sure you know the feeling. But now I'm back!  And  2018 has been such a good reading year for me so far! It turns out that vivisepulture via books is super conducive to increasing one's reading productivity. Who would have thought!