England Trip Photos

Hi everyone! I'm back from my England trip and it was awesome (and very cold). I thought that today, instead of a book review, I'd share some photos. It was a pretty long trip and I took around 500 photos (I think?) so here are (most) of the places that we visited:

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre - I highly recommend going for the tour. I hope that I can catch a performance there someday!

Saint Paul's Cathedral - Absolutely beautiful, be prepared to climb many, many steps if you want to go up to the dome. The tour is also worth attending.

Dragon of London

Tower Bridge

View of Oxford from the Sheldonian Theatre:

Stonehenge:

Roman Baths:

Bath Abbey

Surprisingly, photos are allowed inside too!

Jane Austen Center - a must-visit if you're a fan of Jane Austen. The center focuses on her time in Bath, but there is an informative talk (given before you head to the exhibition area) about her life. The tea room on the third floor serves delicious food! Do try the Jane Austen blend of tea.

Shakespeare's Birthday in Stratford upon Avon.

Cadbury Factory (It's no Willy Wonka, but if you're a fan of chocolate, I think you'll enjoy it).

Hadrian's Wall

Old Trafford

Random shot that I took from the car:

And my book haul! I decided that instead of the usual souvenirs (like keychains or bookmarks), personal souvenirs would be books. So I ended up buying nine books, which I'm really excited to read(:

And that is my trip in a nutshell. Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Some Photos from Okinawa

As you may know, I've been on a holiday in Okinawa. While I'm still going through the photos that I took using my camera, I thought I'd share a few photos that I grabbed with my phone (yes, I definitely took too many photos):

Manzamo Cape

Taking a break at a cafe - The photo looks odd because the food was originally very dark and this was my best attempt to lighten it.

My sis and I at the beach.

Photo of said beach - I am in love with the beaches at Okinawa! The water is so clear!

One of the whale sharks at Churaumi aquarium - The aquarium was really cool and it's definitely a must-visit if you're ever in Okinawa! It is a little crowded though.

This photo was taken at Shuri Castle - also another must-visit spot. Do try the tea set (310 yen for sanpin tea + 4 types of sweets!)

At the entrance of Gyokusendo caves. It's part of a larger attraction called Okinawa World so if you ever want to explore caves, experience Okinawan culture and see some snakes, this is the place to go (we did not go see the snakes because I am not a fan).

My sister and I in Okinawan kimonos! We got this taken at Okinawa world as well!

I'll be blogging about the trip in detail at my other blog once the photos are ready, so feel free to check it out.

I also got quite a bit of reading done on the trip, so the reviews will be appearing here soon!

Teaser Tuesday: Manhattan Mayhem edited by Marry Higgins Clark

Hey! I'm finally back for a teaser Tuesday! Right now, I'm making my way through Manhattan Mayhem, a series of short stories.

Teaser:

"Even is my favourite great-granddaughter. I never expected to be so fond of a girl with a guy's name, but in this century of yours - mine was the last one - I guess one size fits all." (From 'Serial Benefactor' by Jon L. Breen)

What's your teaser this week?

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read 

• Open to a random page 

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page 

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) 

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

P.s. I took some photos recently, and I just shared them on my other blog, if you feel like taking a look. I thought of you guys since I was also reading Snuff that day. Most of the photos are of nature though (This is one of the two 'book photos'):

And one more photo:

Easter Break!

Hey everyone! I've got tons of reviews waiting to post, but it's Holy Week and I don't have much time to be on the Internet. Plus, I've got to prepare to go back to Japan, because I leave Monday night.

I'll probably see everyone next Tuesday (if I can).

Please enjoy this photo of flowers :D 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Hey everyone! My mom announced a last-minute trip, so I won't have access to my computer for a while. So, I figured I'll take the chance for a blogging break till the New Year for a blogging break (unless I get time in between Christmas and New Year).

In advance,

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Quotetastic Saturday: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

I was going to post more about WriteOn today, but they're having this "interview an editor" thing going on, and I want to see what happens before blogging more about the site.

So instead, I present another one of the quote posters that I made recently:

This is one of my favourite quotes from one of my favourite books: Fahrenheit 451. My other two favourite quotes from the book are:

"It was a pleasure to burn."

And

"I'm seventeen and I'm crazy. My uncle says the two always go together. When people ask your age, he said, always say seventeen and insane."

If I took the right photos, I'll definitely pair them together. If you really like this poster and want a hard copy, I present my Zazzle store (I chose the cheapest option for this poster, but it turned into a custom size, so I can't do anything about the price). Feel free to click on the link and look around :D

Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 Poster by SweetTeaandFiction
Check out more Ray Posters at Zazzle
TODAY (18/10/2014) ONLY: 10% off when you quote WEEKENDS4FUN at checkout

The $7.50 Bunny that Changed The World by Gretta Parker

If you love Bunnies, you will love this book.

I love all cute and adorable animals, so I love this book. Also, I have a few people in my stream who adore bunnies so, well, it rubs off.

This very short book is about Flopsy, the facebook famous bunny. Unfortunately, since I've never really followed Facebook famous people/animals, I have no idea if it's true. But, from the pictures, he is a really really adorable bunny.

So, to sum it up, this book is about Flopsy's life, from his point of view. Interspersed are a lot of pictures of Flopsy.

Did I enjoy this book? Of course! Cute animal pictures forever! But I would think that this isn't really a book to read, it's a book you buy so that you can coo over the pictures of adorable bunnies with long fluffy fur.

Excuse me, I need to go and convince myself that I'm incapable of taking care of pets.

Disclaimer: I got a free copy of this book from the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.

Break Time~

You may or may not know this, but I'm currently on my summer vacation! I'll be heading for Tokyo for a camp on Tuesday (and then heading home to Singapore), so I'll be on a break for about a week! I will post a review on Monday, but after that things will get quiet around here. I'll try to resume posting once I've reached back to Singapore.

And it's been quite some time, but I finally found a good picture/quote combination! Hope you like it (photo is mine, words belong to Chesterton)

You can read my review of Tremendous Trifles here.

Happy 200th Birthday Pride and Prejudice!

Dear Miss Austen,

Thank you so much for Pride and Prejudice! It's the first book of yours that I've read, and the book that made me fall in love with your works. I bought a cheap green Penguin copy on a family trip to Kuala Lumpur  and I probably spent more time reading that actually enjoying the sites (don't worry, we go there quite often). And when I got back to Singapore, I was distraught when I lost it one day on the way to school. It's one of the only two books that I've gotten upset over losing.

Well, at least this feeling went away when I bought an exact same copy.

I know Pride and Prejudice must be the favourite of many people (and rightly so), so I don't dare claim that I'm your biggest fan. I will say that I love Pride and Prejudice, and that I read it over and over again.

Love,
Eustacia

And that's my love letter to Jane Austen! This is part of the Pride and Prejudice 200th Anniversary blog hop, hosted by Alyssa Goodnight and Stiletto Storytime. You can find out more, and a list of participants here.

In addition, I have something else to contribute! While I can't narrow down my one favourite quote from Pride and Prejudice (I might as well quote the whole book), I did make one quote picture by picking a random quote an a (hopefully) matching photo that I took. Enjoy!

Quote: Silence by Endo Shusaku!

So yesterday, I managed to get my hands on the Japanese version of Silence by Endo Shusaku (read it. It's awesome!) If you don't know, this was my EE book, so I'm really psyched to be able to read it in its original language.

This is how the book looks like:

And I realised, I actually have a similar photo, taken from my room window. So, without further ado, here's my favourite quote from the whole book, in both English and Japanese:

Click for a bigger view. 

Looking for Contributors to the December issue of An Excuse For Company!

Hey friends,

If you remember, last month, I debuted the book-ish e-magazine An Excuse For Company! I hope you downloaded it and enjoyed reading it!

Now, I'm looking for contributors for the December issue. It's Christmas-themed, but you don't have to submit only Christmas related posts. You can submit any of your blog posts/book reviews/book news that you want to share with everyone. Even photos are welcome (as a cover photo)!

Submitting is really easy. Just leave me the link to your blog post and an bio in the comments by the end of this week (16/11/2012) and I'll include your post in the next issue. Please note that I won't accept LGBT or erotica book reviews/news.

^_^

More books for review!

Yesterday, I got more books from Zondervan that I'm really excited to share with you. It's my 3rd time receiving physical books, but the excitement never wanes(:

*Pssst: please excuse the lousy photos. I was way too excited to take good photos.

This is the biggest package I've gotten so far <3

The reason for all this books is that I (sadly) haven't read the Dragons of Starlight series by Bryan Davis before, so Charleen very kindly sent me the whole series.

The Dragons of Starlight Series consists of four books: Starlighter, Warrior, Diviner and Liberator:

Sorry bout the camera strap. I was too excited and didn't notice.

As you can see, there was a slight mistake and I got two copies of Starlighter and Diviner, but not Warrior. They're sending over a copy of Warrior so I can do a full review, but more importantly (for you guys anyway), I've been given permission to host a giveaway for the extra copies of
Starlighter (Book 1) and Diviner (Book 3)! I'm still working out the details, so feel free to tweet/comment with suggestions.

Another really awesome looking book I got is Aldo's Fantastical Movie Palace by Jonathan Friesen:

I'm really interested in the magical movie theatre premise. I can't wait to read it.

Here's the book trailer:



Well, I know what books that I'm going to bring with me to Hokkaido (I have a 16 hour train ride, a plane ride, and a lot of train time ^^)

Friendship (Quote)

"Flowers are lovely; love is flowerlike, Frienship is a sheltering tree."

-Samuel Taylor Coleridge-

After I took this photo, I was suddenly reminded of the quote above. I know quotes (and photos) don't need dedications, but this is for all my wonderful friends (both in Japan and Singapore). You know who you are. I really can't thank you enough for all you do (which really is putting up with my nonsense - something that is very hard to accomplish)

First Physical Book Review Copy

Guess who's over-the-moon with happiness? Yes, it's me! Less than an hour ago (less than half-an-hour ago in fact), the DHL person came to my door with a package. It looks like this:

And the close up shows that Zondervan is the one who sent it to me~

This is the first time that I got a physical review copy. For most, Singapore is too far to mail something to, which is why I'm so happy. While ebook copies are good too, my heart lies with the printed word. I'm sure you're wondering about the book (why look at the package? Show us the goods!). Well, it's a really lovely hardback copy:

I haven't read the book yet so I can't tell you the synopsis, but after reading the leaflet/insert, I found a book trailer, so you can watch that instead of reading a synopsis. But if you don't want to, my sister summed up the synopsis she read with ""half angel half human got love story. I like."



Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! 生日快乐！誕生日おめでとう！

In honor of his birthday, here's one of my favourite quotes (I hope I haven't used it). Unfortunately, I can't quote the whole poem because that would be the whole book. Which I'm sure is somehow copyright infringement. So, here's a small quote:

"You'll get mixed up, of course,

as you already know.

You'll get mixed up

with many strange birds as you go.

So be sure when you step.

Step with care and great tact

and remember that Life's

a Great Balancing Act.

Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.

And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?

Yes! You will indeed!

(98 and 3/4 percent guarantted)"

This is from Oh, The Places You'll Go. Although, having been looking through past photos, this is the place where I want to go now:

This pretty little spot is called Huis Ten Bosch in Japan, and it reminds me of my Secondary 3 trip, which in turn inspires feelings of sehnsucht (a German word which according to Lewis is the "inconsolable longing" in the human heart for "we know what not")
But anyway, if you do not own a copy of Oh, The Places You'll Go, I suggest you go and buy one right now. It's a wonderful poem and has way more meaning that just a kid's poem. It was actually recited at my school prom night in honour of our graduation (and this is when I was 18), so it's really for both grown-ups and kids.

Happy Valentines Day!

Sorry, no reviews today. I spend today at my alma mata (Methodist Girls' School). In the morning, I had to video my mom's art class for her art class. It's actually really refreshing to see girls who are camera shy/avoid the camera instead of looking for fame. In the afternoon, I held my first craft session at CF (Christian Fellowship). We made .... -drumroll- ... corner bookmarks!

Here are the three samples that I did:

All Three samples, one for each shape

And it was so fun! The girls are so cute and really creative. One of them (Keisha), even gave me the bookmark that she made, I'm really touched! It was really hectic at first, trying to oversee 20 girls at one time, but so worth it. And worth the hand-cramps I got on saturday from cutting 32 pieces of templates - in fact, they finished all the templates(:

So, here are some photos of them at work, as well as some of the bookmarks they made:

I love how unique these are!

One of the smaller girls. I'm happy that all of them could participate (there's
a 5 year age gap between the oldest and youngest)