My guilty pleasures.

 I have made a list of my top 10 guilty pleasures as this morning at  work I was indulging in a few of these, which I maybe shouldn't have as I am trying to eat healthy!
The definition of 'guilty pleasures' are those things that we shouldn't like, but we do anyway. Although we shouldn't really feel ’guilty’ about doing something we like, I thought it would be a fun little blog post to get you thinking of yours!

We’re going on holiday…again.

 In September myself and my boyfriend are going back to Tenerife for the second year running! We initially decided not to go on holiday this year because we wanted to save up for a house…but we needed something to look forward to and what better way to spend his birthday than to go abroad again! We booked up rather late as we only have until the end of the month to pay the holiday off and only really have two months to save for spending money, but I don’t mind as long as I can sit by the pool and get a tan!
I am so excited for September because not only are we going on holiday but I will be starting my English Literature degree shortly after it, I can’t wait!
I will be creating a post on my Summer/holiday purchases in the coming months, so watch this space!

21st Century Disney Princesses.

 During my childhood I was obsessed with Disney films and I had hundreds of them on VHS back in the 90’s. Dina Goldstein imagines what the lives of the Disney princesses would be like if they lived in society today; they are truly amazing and highlight the real issues which affect women such as self-image, illness and male expectation. The collection also showcases the society we live in, whether it be politics and war or the destruction of the environment.
The series, which is called 'The Fallen Princesses' is incredible and if you would like to see the collection click below!

I’m currently reading..

'The Awakening', by Kate Chopin.

 ’When first published in 1899, ‘The Awakening’ shocked readers with its honest treatment of marital infidelity. Audiences accustomed to the pieties of late Victorian romantic fiction were taken aback by Chopin’s daring portrayal of a woman trapped in a stifling marriage, who seeks and finds passionate physical love outside the straitened confines of her domestic situation.
Aside from its unusually frank treatment of a then-controversial subject, the novel is widely admired today for its literary qualities. Edmund Wilson characterized it as a work “quite uninhabited and beautiful written, which anticipates D. H. Lawrence in its treatment of infidelity.”

I am looking forward to reading this novel as it recognises the issue which still affects women today which is the social expectation and confinement of marriage. Although I don’t morally agree with affairs in any way, shape or form, this novel intrigues me to delve into the mind of a Victorian woman trapped within an oppressive marriage and offers an interesting subversion of the generalized view of extramarital affairs, as it is the female character engaging in an affair, not the male.

My review of ‘We Need to Talk About Kevin’, by Lionel Shriver.

 Eva, Kevin’s mother narrates the story in a series of letters to her estranged husband Franklin. Their son, Kevin Khachaturian, murdered seven students who attended his high-school, a cafeteria worker and a teacher.
The novel explains Kevin’s upbringing and childhood in the eyes of his unmaternal mother, perhaps as a way to try and understand why he murdered his fellow classmates and staff at his high-school. It also portrays the life his mother Eva has now after the massacre, how she avoids certain people at supermarkets so that she won’t get abuse, how she had to move from her big house to a small flat, her struggles as a parent and her lack of maternal instinct, to name a few.
Overall I thought the book was fantastic, as not only does it
it also offers an insight into the mind of a psychopath, highlighting the age-old subject of nature V nurture.  

Bank Holiday.

 Apologies for the lack of posts recently but I've had a pretty hectic weekend! I went bowling, played mini golf and got a bit merry on Bank Holiday Sunday!

I am currently finishing up my review of 'We Need To Talk About Kevin' which I will post in the next couple of days, but in the meantime here are a few places I visited over the Bank Holiday weekend.

I'm currently reading...

 'Shortly before his sixteenth birthday, Kevin Khatchadourian kills seven of his fellow high-school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher. He is visited in prison by his mother, Eva, who narrates in a series of letters to her estranged husband, Franklin, the story of Kevin's upbringing. For this powerful, shocking novel, Lionel Shriver was awarded the Orange Prize for Fiction.'

I have been meaning to read this book for a while, since sixth form to be exact, which was about four years ago. I was given the book as a goodbye-your-going-to-uni present from my A-level teachers at the time, who gave everyone in the class a different book to keep. One of my English Literature teachers said that this was one of her favourite books and that I would enjoy it because I was very into psychology at the time.

The book has also been made into a film and stars Ezra Miller (who plays Patrick in 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower') as the main character Kevin Khatchadourian. I am rather intrigued to see Miller play a different role as I have only seen him in 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower.'

I really can't wait to read this book as I have always been interested in criminal psychology and have recently watched a documentary on the Columbine high-school massacre which took place in Columbine, Colorado in 1999. Although the book deals with a rather sensitive issue, by offering the narrative from Eva's point of view Shriver can allow us to attempt to understand Kevin's childhood and question whether his psychopathic actions were rooted in childhood (nurture) or in his very being (nature).