Recently Bought Books

So it’s been a while since I did a post showing what books I bought. The last one was back in January, so there’s quite a few books to show. So let’s get cracking!

Fiction

From the top down

-The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie. I bought this in Charlie Byrne’s in Galway

-Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult. It’s actually my sister’s book but it’ll be mine until I read it!

-Juniper Lemon’s Happiness Index by Julia Israel. I kept hearing about this book so when it was announced as the offical book for the BookTubeAThon I decided to pick it up

-A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas. I had owned the first book in this series, A Court of Thorns and Roses, as an ebook for ages and when I finally got around to reading it in July, I had to go buy this one so I could keep reading!

-Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. I got this in the little free books box at one of the local libraries.

-Harry Potter and the Philopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling. This is the 20th anniversary Slytherin paperback edition, HAD to have it!

-Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson. Charity shop buy

-Beatlebone by Kevin Barry. This was on offer at Eason’s for a few euro.

-The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel. A friend gave me this ARC edition of the book

Non-Fiction

From top to bottom

-Ticket to Ride by Tom Chesshyre. Bought this in Manchester Airport after a hen weekend, it’s a book about different train journeys

-Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. I’ve only read one Sedaris book so when I saw this in a charity shop I thought I’d pick it up

-Walking Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way by Paul Clements. Bought this in Waterstones in Cork

-Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrase Tyson. A Goodreads Giveaway win!

-Dent’s Modern Tribes by Susie Dent. A book about the unique lingo used by different professionals.

-Mail Obsession by Mark Mason.

-Fat Chance by Louise McSharry. The lovely Chloe from NurseFancyPants gave me this book!

E-Books

-Eat Sweat Play by Anna Kessel. I read this earlier this year after borrowing it from the library, so when it was on offer I snapped it up as it something I see myself rereading and going back to

-Dear Ijeawele by Chimamanda Nygozi Adichie

-A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan. I saw Books and Pieces talk about this and when it was on offer I decided to get it and give it a chance.

-The Summer Seaside Kitchen by Jenny Colgan

-Caraval by Stephanie Garber. I’ve seen a lot of hype about this, I’m still not sure I want to read it but it was on offer so I decided to get it

-You Had Me At Hello by Mhairi McFarlane

-To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

-Love and Gelato by Jenna Evan Welch

-Lie with Me by Sabine Durrant

-Just Haven’t Met You Yet by Cate Woods

All these were free books on Amazon or iBooks. There were other free ones that I didn’t get, I picked these as I’ve either read the author before or heard good things.

Audio Books

-Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare. This was a free download on Audible

-Prudence and Imprudence by Gail Carriger. Books 1 and 2 in The Custard Protocol. I liked listening to the Parasol Protectorate so much that I decided to get these as audiobooks as well

-Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly. I’ve yet to see the film but I thought I might listen to the book

-Shrill by Lindy West. I have a feeling this one will crack me up!

-The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

-The Butterly Effect by Jon Ronson. Free Audible short and I do love Jon Ronson

Phew! Quite a list, I need to keep on top of things and not wait 9 months or so to do a book purchases post. If you’ve read any of these I’d love to know

December Nail Polish Haul

Hello! So I was looking at the nail polish I’ve bought recently and realised I’ve managed to pick up a nice amount of new polishes and thought I’d show them on here. I’ve picked them up in Superdrug, Boots, Penneys, Claire’s Accessories and Dealz.

The first four polishes are Superdrug exclusives for Barry M. The first two, Nutcracker (the bright pink one) and Twinkle Twinkle (the rose gold one), are the two autumn/winter Superdrug exclusives (Boots have two as well). The next two, Gingerbread (warm bronzes) and Icicle (sparkly topcoat), were a free gift once you spent a certain amount on Barry M products. The Gelly Hi Shine is Blackforest, the first black Gelly from Barry M. I picked it up in Boots when I was buying something else and I had a voucher to use. The final one is Jingle Bells. It was the Superdrug autumn/winter exclusive for 2014, which I didn’t pick up at the time (I did get one of the Boots and the Tesco one) but when I saw this one in Dealz (Poundland) I snapped it up!

 

The first two polishes are from Essence and their Little X-Mas Factory limited edition colllection. There’s four polishes and I got Meet Me Under the Mistletoe (the green) and Let’s Take an Elfie (sparkly white). The other two polishes are a gold and bright pink. The next polish is a PS Nail Polish from Penneys/Primark in Burnt Orange which also describes the type of shade it is! I picked it up as it reminded me of Playing Koi by Essie, though I don’t think it’s a dupe. The next two are from China Glaze and I picked them up in Dealz. They are Mistletoe Kisses (green glitter) and Glistening Snow (silver glitter). Mistletoe Kisses is from the 2010 Holiday Collection and Glistening Snow is from the 2012 Holiday Collection. I picked up the Claire’s Liquid Metal in Rose Gold because there was an offer on that day and it was less than half price. Of course, just after my Essence Colour of the Year post with the Rose Quartz shade, they then brought out a blue one. This is called Jeans On! and it’s their pick for Serenity. Finally this PS Metals comes in a range of shades, this is the silver one. I have previously picked up the rose gold one too.

Phew! Lots of polishes, including some good scores from Dealz! It can pay to have a good root around every now and again. I have some posts planned to show off some of these but if you have any requests for swatches let me know in the comments below.

Recent Book Accquisitions

Hello! It’s been a while since I showed the books I’ve bought. I had a post in April showing some of the books I had got, including some books I won, and of course there was my LA Bookish post. I’ve managed to accquire a few more books since then and thought I’d do a post showing you those books.

 

From top to bottom

Knit London by Emma King

I saw this in TK Maxx reduced to a few quid and couldn’t resist it. Look how cute it is! I don’t have many knitting books so it’s nice to try and build up my collection a small bit.

 

 

 

 

HHhH by Laurent Binet- This book has been on my TBR for a while and it was 25c in a charity shop! Hopefully having a copy of this book will encourage me to get around to reading it quicker than it would have.

 

Empire of Storms by Sarah J Maas. I preordered my copy and when it arrived it also came with this map and mug! I was so thrilled, it was a fun surprise.

 

 

 

 

 

The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave- My sister bought this book and I nabbed it off her. I don’t know much about it but it is beautiful! Just look at the front cover and the inside. So pretty

 

 

Hygge by Charlotte Abrahams- Hygge (pronounced HUE-gah) is a word that is all over the place at the moment. It’s a Danish word and at it’s most basic it means having a nice warm atmosphere and enjoying life’s simple pleasures with friends and family. I’m currently listening to The Year of Living Danishly and hygge has been mentioned a lot so I requested a review copy of this book from Orion’s new imprint Trapeze Books. I can’t wait to get stuck in and truly learn what hygge is. The book is so pretty too, the cover is rubberised, the triangle are gold foil and the dark triangles are fuzzy!

 

 

Dear Lupin by Roger Mortimer and Charlie Mortimer- I’ve seen this book before but don’t know that much about it. I know it’s non-fiction and it’s done in letter, which was the real reason I picked it up (that and the fact it was super cheap!)

 

Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw- So this isn’t a new buy for me, I bought it a year ago and then misplaced it. I was beginning to think I actually hadn’t bought it in the first place! It then turned up in a random place. This was 99p from The Works.

 

I’ve also picked up a few e-books as well, all picked up on Kindle for cheap.

 

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers- I got this on offer because it was a pick for the Rick O’Shea Book Club. Around the same time the audiobook was also on offer but I decided on the ebook. I’ve read this one already and loved it! You can check out the review here.

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir- I’ve heard a lot of good things about this book and it’s not in the library so I said I’d give it a chance.

The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen- I actually have an ARC of the second books so I needed to get a copy of the first one! I think the 3rd one is out now so once I get reading this I can power through them all if I enjoy this.

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie- This is based off her TED talk and everyone should read it. It’s short and I read it one morning while waiting to collect my mother. You can read my review here.

The Vegetarian by Han Kang- This has been a book I’ve heard a lot about all summer long so I’m intrigued to give this a chance. It’s supposed to be a bit odd so I’m not sure what to make of it but there’s only one way to find out and that’s to read it!

And that’s it! Sometimes I wish I could buy more books and if I had the money no doubt I would. But I need to start working my way through the books I already own first. That might be my challenge for next year.

If you’ve read any of the books above I’d love to hear about them. Leave me a comment below

US Beauty Haul

While in America in June I managed to pick up a few beauty bits that I thought I’d show here. If I had had more money to spare, I definitely would have bought a lot more stuff! Alas, I had to bit a bit frugal so there’s always next time. The main places I went to were Walmart, Sephora, Target, Bath and Bodyworks and Walgreens. I didn’t get anything when in Sephora or Walmart, nothing took my fancy.

Clockwise from top left

Warm Vanilla Sugar Shower Gel from Bath & Body Works- It was on offer and I do love vanilla scented items

Maybelline Full N Soft Black Mascara- I LOVE this mascara and I’m so sad it’s not sold over here. I often get others to bring me back this when they’re in America so I had to get another one!

Revlon Nail Polish in Holographic Pearls- This is a holographic top coat and it’s beautiful!

Sinful Colors Kylie Trend Mattes in Kitty Pink- Out of all the Kylie polishes from Sinful Color this one stood out the most to me

Be Joyful Shower Gel from Bath & Body Works- Another one that was on sale, it’s described as ‘fizzy clemintine, frosted jasmine and shimmering sugar’.

Sinful Colors Star Struck Collection in Rocket Out- This top coat is packed with white red and blue stars and silver glitter. It was perfect for 4th July!

Maybelline Color Blur Matte Lip Pencil in I’m Blushing!- I was drawn to this as it’s a new product and hadn’t heard about it. It has a lip colour on one end and an eraser at the other. So you can wear the colour like a matte cream pencil all over or place the colour in the middle of your lips and smudge and blur it out with the eraser to create a softer smudged look. The bluriness doesn’t really work on me as I have tiny lips but I still really like product.

Pop Beauty Nail Glam in Mint Magic- I’ve wanted this for SO long, it’s a bright mint green. I have loads of mint green shades but this so bright and vibrant, almost neon like.

I’m happy with my little haul, I wish I had found more nail polishes but I’m glad I got my hands on what I did! If you’ve tried any of these or like the look of anything let me know in a comment below