My Life...

Right now, this is exactly how I feel...

Over the last two months I struggled a bit with my life in general. My summer break started at the beginning of July and everything was fine. I was looking forward to spending more time reading and blogging but I never was really good at having too much spare time (yes, I said it - too much spare time). I always liked a structured day. During high school I always got grumpy at the end of the holidays or rather at the beginning of August (which was the middle of my holidays). I need structure in my life and in my days and right now I am lacking just that.

I spend my days mostly browsing the internet and either reading, sleeping or watching way too much TV. I feel really bad about that but there's nothing I can do to change that. It feels a bit like I am standing behind me, yelling at myself to get going but I just can't!

Why am I telling you this? Well, I decided to take a break from blogging for at least this week. Uni starts again in October but September is my preparation month where I decide which exams to take at the beginning of the semster, organizing my courses, etc. This week I want to get some structure back in my days, decide on what I want to do with my uni life, social life, blogging life and get back on track. I need to make some decisions and I will try to do this over the course of the next couple of days.

Hope to see you soon guys!

My Life...

...in books

Showcase Sunday is weekly meme hosted by Vicky at Books, Biscuits & Tea.

It is a possibility for us to show what amazing books we got during the week.

 

It's been almost two weeks since I returned from London and I still haven't shown you my haul. I am really sorry but last weekend was my dad's birthday celebration and I couldn't find the time to write a Showcase Sunday post. Tomorrow the last week of holidays of school starts and this means that I have to work again and will hopefully find myself more organized and able to post more regularly again. 

 

 

Which now concludes my Terry Pratchett Discworld novel collection :) I now have every book in this series at least once. 

This week I took a little tour of my local bookstore and discovered some books I needed on my shelves. 

Clicking on the book cover will bring you to the book's Goodreads page

...in books

It's that time again - it's time for Bout of Books!

Bout of Books is a week long read-a-thon hosted by the amazing ladies Amanda and Kelly and it is a chance for us readers to make an effort to minimize the number of books on our TBR pile. It's a time for reading, cheering each other on and just having fun with all the amazing people in the book blogging community.

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, August 18th and runs through Sunday, August 24th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 11 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog.

My goals for this week of reading madness are the following:

• try to read at least 100 pages a day
• read Legend by Marie Lu - my book club book of this month
• comment more on blogs of other participant 
• try to make it to at least one Twitter chat  
• have fun!

If you want to participate go check out all the details at the Bout of Books website. I can highly recommend joining because it really is a fun filled bookish week.

Bout of Books Daily Updates

 
Monday
Number of pages I've read today: 136 pages
Books I read: On What Grounds
Books I finished: 0


Tuesday
Number of pages I've read today: 134 pages + 40% on my Kindle
Books I read: On What Grounds + Boomrang
Books I finished: 1

Wednesday
Number of pages I've read today: 60% on my Kindle
Books I read: Boomerang
Books I finished: 2

Thursday
Number of pages I've read today: 0 pages
Books I read: -
Books I finished: 2

Friday
Number of pages I've read today: 88 pages
Books I read: 13 Little Blue Envelopes
Books I finished: 2

Saturday
Number of pages I've read today: 0 pages
Books I read: -
Books I finished: 2

Sunday
Number of pages I've read today: 58 pages
Books I read: The Girl in the Clockwork Collar
Books I finished: 2

...in books

 
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and Bookish. 
This week the girls want to know my

Top Ten Books I'm Not Sure I Want To Read

This week I'll tell you some of my little book secrets. There are some books in that list that are highly popularbut I still haven't read them. I know that many of you love these books to pieces but hear me out....

Admission by Jean Hanff Korelitz

 

Eyes like Stars by Lisa Mantchev
 

Divergent by Veronica Roth
 

Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran
 

The Fault in our Stars by John Green
 

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
 

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
 

Beautiful Creatures series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Okay, who here wouldn't buy a book with Paul Rudd on the cover? Seriously...

I'm also not saying that I'll never read them. I'm pretty sure I'll read Divergent one day and I won't say no to finishing the Beautiful Creatures series but today I will tell you that I cannot see myself reading the last three Harry Potter books or The Fault in our Stars - I just can't. Sorry!

...in books

Review

Carrots

by Colleen Helme

First sentence:

My life changed that day because I didn't have any carrots.

Summary:

Shelby Nichols is an average woman who is married to the only guy she ever fell for. Her life is organized and predictable, revolving around her husband and two children. All that changes the day she stops at the grocery store for some carrots. As the cashier rings up her purchases, a gunman is busy robbing the bank inside the store. When a customer grabs the robber's mask, he is shot and everyone runs for cover. Everyone except Shelby, who finds herself face to face with the killer. The next thing she knows, she's lying on the floor with a bullet wound to her head. Luckily, the bullet only grazes her scalp, and she doesn't suspect any lasting affects until later, when she suddenly 'hears' what people are thinking. With this uncanny ability, her life takes on a whole new dimension. Her kids think she's bossy and too old to understand them, but that's nothing compared to her husband. He says he loves her, but what is it about the redhead at work that he doesn't want her to know? As if that isn't enough, the gunman knows she can identify him, and he's out to silence her forever. In her fight to stay alive, she is saved from certain death by a handsome hit-man with ties to organized crime. This pulls Shelby even deeper into danger, where knowing someone's thoughts can not only hurt her feelings, but get her killed.

source: Goodreads

My opinion:

Carrots is the hilarious first book in the Shelby Nichols series – one more series to add to my unfinished series shelf.

Shelby just wants to buy some carrots for dinner but is clearly at the wrong place at the wrong time. She gets shot, is taken to hospital with a head wound and after waking up can her other people’s thoughts. As you can imagine this leads to some confusion and quite a lot of trouble.

I really enjoyed reading this book. The story is unique and the characters are well portrayed. Many, even the obviously bad guys, are extremely likeable – Ramon being one of my favorites – and the others are annoying as intended.

Shelby is an amazing main character – she not only tries to cope with her new skills, manage her kids and a household while suddenly having employment which she is not entirely sure she really wants.

My favorite character by far is Ramon who is a real sweetheart even though he has to mimic the bad guy to everybody else. He and his struggle with dealing with Shelby are portrayed so well.

All in all I was impressed by the way Colleen Helme managed to incorporate all the characters thoughts into the story. It gave the book a new dimension and due to Shelby’s gift some really funny things happened.

If you like cozy mysteries or enjoy reading some fun contemporary(ish) adult novels, I highly recommend giving Carrots a try. 

The books in the Shelby Nichols series are:

• Carrots
• Fast Money
• Lie or Die
• Secrets That Kill
• Trapped by Revenge
• Deep in Death

For more information about Colleen Helme visit her Homepage, Blog or Facebook page.

...in pictures

I love going to the zoo!

 I always have and always will. 

When I was a child I spent a lot of time there either with my parents or my grandparents. I loved watching the animals but during my pre-teen years these poor things lived in small cages and had little to no space to hide or play in. The zoo in Vienna was founded by one of our emperors during the 18th century and it seemed like the zoo hadn't changed a lot from then till my teen years.

During that time the zoo got a new director and he started introducing big changes. Some of the buildings are historic buildings which had to be protected but he found ways of building new areas for the animals, enabling them to live a better life and installed hiding places and lots of greens. The cages became big outdoor facilities and if you can remember how sad the animals were before those changes, you feel proud every time you enter today's zoo because it changed so much.

These days I either visit the zoo with Judith and her little boy or I'm taking my camera to snap some pictures.

This is what I did some weeks ago and here are some of them:

Vienna is pretty sucessful in breeding panda bears and we currently have our third panda baby which will, in a few years, be given back to China since our pandas are still owned by China so they get our babies to set them free.

Our cheetahs currently have three babies. Aren't they adorable?

 

After year of renovating the area of the polar bears it was reopened in May and we finally have two new polar bears. They have a huge area now with deep pools and lots of rocks and places to hide and inside there's a lot of information about the bears on display for us to read.

I always loved the seals and when they get their food each day it is a HUGE show for the visitors. Since I'm not able to watch it when I'm there with Jan because he's still not old enough to appreciate them, I usually stay and watch when I am alone. It is still hillarious.

 And a day in the zoo wouldn't be complete without visiting the tigers.

My Life...

Every summer I pack my bags and am off to visit one of my favorite city in the whole wide world - London!

I cannot tell you why I am so in love with the huge city, full of people running around but visit London is vacation. Vienna is a lot smaller and not as busy as the British capital but when I visited for the first time in 2004, I was hooked.

I went on a school trip to Cambridge for a week and we drove down to London for a day and visited the Royal Observatory in Greenwich and took the boat back to Westmister. There we were told that we now had 3 hours to do whatever we wanted and after that we went back to Cambridge. 3 hours? No way, that we were able to do or see anything. So me and one of my boys took a walk up Whitehall and ended at Picadilly Circus. We sat there, did some people watching and enjoyed soaking up the flair. When we came back to meet the rest of our class, we were the ones who had a good time. The others either got frightened at the London Dungeon or went shopping on Oxford Street (which meant rushing from store to store). That day I knew I had to come back as soon as possible.

Since the summer of 2004 my mum and I go to London each summer and enjoy a few days of vacation, book shopping, people watching and amazing food (yes, I never had a bad experience with English food).

 

This year marks our 10 year anniversary and I am so ready to take my passport, head to the airport, board a plane (which I not really like doing but it's London, Baby) and go to the city that feels like a second home to me now.

Have a great week because I sure will!

My Life...

Monthly Rewind

July

  

My Pic of July

I went to the zoo twice this month. Once with one of my best friends and her baby girl and once with my mum and my camera to take some pictures. More to come soon.
 

July in Some Words 

July wasn't the best month for me. The weather was a micture of a lot of rain and high temperatures = humidity and I hate these weather conditions. I had some tutoring session but other than that I had little energie to do stuff so I am hoping that August will be a lot better.

3 Songs that Were Popular on My i-Pod

George Ezra - Budapest

The Dandy Warholes - We used to be friends 

Julia Sheer - Dear John


Books I Read this Month 

Janet Evanovich - Fearless Fourteen 

Terry Pratchett - Making Money 

Bernie Su & Kate Rorick - The Secret Diary of Lizzie Bennet 

Rachel Gibson - Daisy's Back in Town 

Terry Pratchett - Raising Steam

Colleen Helme - Fast Money 

Lindsey Kelk - About a Girl 

C.J. Daugherty - Night School

Janet Evanovich - Finger Lickin' Fifteen

9 books
2843 pages


a TV series I liked this Month

Yes, I did it again. I went on a huge Veronica Mars binge fest and I enjoyed every second. My plan was to watch the remaining episodes of season 2 I hadn't seen and watch season 3 before my DVD of the movie arrives at the beginning of August but after dreaming night after night after night about Logan (not that this is a bad thing. Not at all!) I had to take a break before starting season 3 but I think I'm ready now. 

Things I'm Looking Forward to in August

• Going to London for almost a week with my mum. It is a tradition of ours and this year will be our 10 year anniversary. I cannot tell you how excited I am. I'm writing lists of things I want to do, books I need to buy and other products I want to look into. I can be found with a guidebook in hand to see if there's anything we haven't seen. I am soooooooooo excited!
• It's my dad's birthday on the 15th and since it is a national holiday here in Austria we are celebrating with the whole family. 
• Babysitting my favorite little boy while his parents are on an evening cruise enjoying themselves - hopefully ;) 
• Having more time to see my friends and hug my two favorite guys. Yes, I miss them. 
  

Felix in July

 Felix' "I have no idea what you want but if I would I would do it" face. I love this little rascal!