Autumn Ninja Book Swap Reveal

If you follow me on twitter (I say me, really I mean the Ninja Swap account as I hardly use my personal account anymore) you'll have seen that it's been the Autumn Ninja Book Swap. I signed up for two parcels and now both of mine have arrived and I was absolutely spoiled rotten!

My first parcel was from lovely Tracy of Postcard Reviews and contained the following

• A gorgeous handmade card (quilled. I used to love quilling when I was younger!! Really exciting to receive!)
• We Were Liars by E. Lockhart from my wishlist. I've been excited to read this book since everyone was talking about it on twitter. I'll be getting to it soon!
• A gorgeous little butterfly bookmark that I immediately started using!
• The Year I Met You by Cecilia Ahern which wasn't on my wishlist but which Tracy loves and wanted me to read. I have read a couple of Cecilia Ahern's books before and enjoyed them so I'm excited for this and love that she used the swap to share something she loves!
• Fry's Chocolate Creams which I haven't had for years (mostly because they're among the few chocolates my sister can still eat so she steals them :-p) and which are gorgeous
• Some lovely hand cream
• A kit to make my own earrings because I said I like crafting. This is just really thoughtful and I can't wait to make them. 
• a set of three pairs of sparkly studs
• And finally a SNITCH NECKLACE THAT'S ALSO A CLOCK!! This is immense and amazing and so obviously immense and amazing that I actually got one in each of my parcels, what are the chances??! 

Thank you so much Tracy for the thought and care you obviously put into this gorgeous parcel. 

My second parcel turned up on a day when I just wasn't expecting post at all and was from Kate of Books with Bunny. As well as the aforementioned Snitch necklace of awesomeness it contained

• A chocolate frog contained a Hagrid card, which lasted all of 5 seconds once I'd opened the parcel
• A lovely letter introducing herself
• Home by Marilynne Robinson. I've still not read any Marilynne Robinson but I'm hoping this will give me the push to finally start Gilead which has been on my shelves for yeeeeears
• Another Day by David Levithan, which I will admit to squealing a bit over! I really loved Every Day earlier this year and I cannot wait to read this companion novel!
• An awesome bookmark which says 'my workout is reading in bed until my arms hurt'. This is the truest and I love it. 
• A pencil with the name of Kate's series of books on it! 

I loved this parcel! Stuff tied up with ribbon is just the best and it was so me - a little parcel of unexpected joy :-) 

If you've posted about your Ninja Swap parcel you can link up your posts and check out everyone else's here. 

Also in case you haven't seen, Nonfiction November is back again this year, as is my Nonfiction Book Swap. Sign up is open until November 8th and you can get the details for the swap here and the Nonfiction November event here.

As always you can follow the swap on twitter (@NinjaBookSwap) or email ninjabookswap@gmail.com to get a reminder when sign up opens for the Spring swap!

Currently: It's Been Far Too Long (& a Bit of September Wrap Up)

It's been too long since I did a Currently post and I'm feeling a little disjointed with my reading so it felt like time! Also I've been up for waaay too long this morning due to Benji's current thinking that it's a good idea to refuse to eat most of his dinner and then wake up at 5am complaining of hunger. The joys of parenthood.

Time and Place 7:10am on Sunday morning in my (fairly chilly) front room. Benji is watching Winnie the Pooh and I'm 'resting' (aka reading The Bookshop Book and blogging). We've just been making dough for English Muffins, because I like to utilise the time when having to get up at ridiculous o'clock for no reason, and doing some painting.

Eating and Drinking: Tea. In the biggest mug I could find. I just had a scone with blueberry jam as well but we're waiting for Rhys and Sam to wake up before we have breakfast proper.

Reading I'm going to do this in two parts; one what I'm reading now and then what I read during September. I'm reading a few things at the moment. Firstly, If I Fall, If I Die by Michael Christie is longlisted for the Giller Prize this year and was my pick after I decided that I'd read one long/shortlisted book for each of the prizes I follow. I'm a couple of chapters in and it's really intriguing so far. It's about a boy, Will, whose mother doesn't let him go outside and what happens when he does eventually venture out. Then I'm reading Running Like a Girl by Alexandra Heminsley which Charlotte recommended ages ago and then I found totally by accident in the library last week. As an ex-runner so much of what she says resonates and it's absolutely hilarious. I'm sort of hoping it will help pull me back into the running thing. I'm picking my way through Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray as one of my reads for RIPX but I can only read it during the early part of the day because it's creeeeeeepy and I'm a wuss. It's brilliant so far though - every bit as good as The Diviners. Finally, and as previously mentioned, I'm rereading The Bookshop Book by Jen Campbell as sort of research for my London Bookshop Crawl (of which more later).

During September I finished six books which is absolutely not bad for me nowadays. They werrrrrre; The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas (to make up for me being the only person in the world who hasn't yet got Queen of Shadows. Thankfully my sister bought it so I can borrow it when I next see her in a few days), Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell, which my sister and brother-in-law sent Rhys and I as a sort of amalgamated birthday present, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver which were both rereads during ReReadathon #2, Cress by Marissa Meyer (for The Lunar Chronicles Readalong that I've been taking part in), and When It Happens to You , a beautiful collection of inter-related short stories by Molly Ringwald, of Breakfast Club fame.

Loving The Ninja Book Swap! I signed up for two parcels this time around and received my first one yesterday and it was awesome as usual. The book choices were great - I've been wanting to read We Were Liars since everyone was talking about it a while back, and Tracy also sent me one of her favourite books which is entirely in the spirit of the swap - send people stuff they'll love and also connect and share the things you love! She also sent me chocolate, a kit for making my own earrings, a beautiful bookmark and a SNITCH NECKLACE which I didn't discover til I was going to bed last night is ALSO A WATCH. I am the most excited about this and will be wearing it all the time. Tracy, you are fantastic and completely made my day!

Acquiring We're on a spending freeze in October which means we're only buying essential groceries and paying for necessary travel (to work and occasional trips with the boys) and the bills and direct debits we usually pay for. Immediately prior to it starting I bought Rhys season 1 of Smash which he'd been talking about for a while. When I saw it in Asda for £5 I couldn't resist! We also got Mr. Turner and The Book Thief movie on 2 for £10 in HMV. Also Laura sent me her old Penguin English Library copy of Moby Dick (thanks Laura, it's beautiful!) so I'm ready for Hanna's readalong!

Watching We've been watching The Great British Bake - Off obviously. I'm totally hoping that Nadiya will win because she's great. We've also been watching Hairy Bikers: Northern Exposure which is really interesting. I love learning about different types of cookery and it's very inspiring. We're also watching the latest series of Gareth Malone's choir. This series features acapella groups and it's fun. Also, obviously, Dr. Who has started up again so we've been watching that, although I haven't seen last night's episode yet because I decided it looked too creepy for me to watch right before going to bed, so we'll watch it this evening probably.

Making I've been making quite a bit, particularly since we've been on this spending freeze. Yesterday I made potato soup with bacon which was amazing. I may share the recipe during the week as it's brilliant and super simple (and cheap!). This morning, as mentioned, I've made English Muffins, and I've also used the spending freeze as motivation to finally finish sewing the last sleeve into a jumper I started knitting for Ben a year ago.

Anticipating So many good things coming up! Sending and receiving my second Ninja Swap parcels, putting together my #OTSPSecretSister parcel for October (it's so great!), Ben's third birthday, a blogger meet up in Stratford-upon-Avon towards the end of the month, and then Nonfiction November and the nonfiction book swap I'll be organising again during it. Also the London Bookshop Crawl despite it still being four months away. I sent out preliminary emails on Friday with a poll to vote for the bookshops you most want to visit. If you're interested in joining us have a look at my ideas here and you can also sign up with your email and I'll email you the rest of the details I have so far! Any booklovers in London or who can get there for a Saturday in Jan/Feb are welcome to join us!

That's what I'm up to! What are you reading? Are you planning to come on the bookshop crawl?

Ninja Book Swap & Me

Today was a day which pretty much sucked epically. I mean, it had some really great moments (a lot, actually) but at the end of it my overall impression was of losing my temper and children misbehaving. I hate days like this - no matter how much I reassure myself that I wasn't as awful as I think I was it still feels like I've failed, however somewhere in the middle of a long debate about how long one actually needs to be on the potty for when doing nothing (45 mins is apparently totally necessary) I heard the postman arrive and deliver something which sounded distinctly parcel shaped. This was my mini Ninja Book Swap parcel and it pretty much saved the day. It also got me thinking about the swap in general.

You see we have a cycle, the swap and I. When we're in the throes of a swap and I'm spending a lot of time on twitter talking to people about it and via email trying to sort stuff out and it's generally taking over many of my waking hours I get a bit stressed by it. During the February swap this year there were a lot of postal issues, none of which were the fault of the people taking part, but all of which caused stress for various reasons to various people. Because the swap is such a joy bringer I tend to get really upset for people when their parcel is delayed or hasn't turned up and after February we had decided to drop the summer swap this year and give ourselves some time to recharge before Halloween. Then I did what I always do and I started missing the swap. I missed talking to people about it, missed the organisation, missed buying gifts and making a parcel and getting to know new people. In short, I missed all the things that stress me about it when I'm doing it! And so I decided to run a mini Ninja Swap and everything I love about the swap came flooding back to me.

I love the Ninja Book Swap. The entire premise  of creating a thoughtful parcel of books, gifts someone will like and a note and actually connecting with people you only know online or hadn't known at all before is just something I feel so positive about. No matter the stress when something isn't going to plan I know that in the end we are doing something good here. During the Meet the Ninjas project I launched to fill the intended gap between February and September this year I've heard people's testimonies of how the swap has affected them and I love that I helped that to happen. Over six full swaps so far we've only had three people try to take advantage of us, and while this may be inviting that to happen more (I really hope not) it gives me such hope to know that in a world of awfulness there really are this many amazing people who will sign up to spend their hard earned money on a beautiful parcel to send to a stranger to make their day a little bit better.

The first swap Hanna and I ever ran I think we had ten participants, at least half of whom were bloggers we already knew and had somewhat bullied into playing along. Since then we've had lovely Kayleigh take part in every single swap (besides this last mini one) and I think Ellie as well, although she may have joined us for the first Halloween swap. My memory is hazy. We've also accumulated a core of people whose names I love to see on the sign up sheet. It's fantastic with an event like this to have a body of people you know you don't have to worry about. They know what they're doing, their parcels are always incredible and they're just generally a pretty awesome bunch of people.

In light of the reason behind this post, I wanted to take a moment to note all the other swap parcels that have arrived fortuitously and helped improve days. Firstly I  have to thank Charlotte for sending me an incredible first ever swap parcel, which probably played a big part in my desire to keep the swap going! The third swap (February 2014) I signed up for two parcels, both of which were amazing. The first one from Sheli arrived just as I had got home from being out in a thunderstorm, for which I had been under dressed and was literally dripping and shivering as the postman rang the doorbell. As I opened it there was a large amount of shrieking and jumping up and down. Lovehearts and chocolate in a thunderstorm is just meant to be.

 My second parcel from that swap actually formed the beginning of a beautiful (pen)friendship. Nahree sent me this parcel which I was so amazed by that I updated Rhys during every stage of opening it, like 'oh my good it's all wrapped in different coloured tissue'... 'oh my god she's drawn little clues on each gift'... 'Rhys! Rhys! She's written me such a sweet letter'... 'She sent TEA!'. The last one got a response - he's a big tea drinker, my husband, but seriously this parcel was fantastic just because of the effort and thought that had gone into it. A little while later we started writing letters to each other and we've been penpals for about a year now.

The other parcel I got that fits this category was from Jess of Literary,etc. It was for the Halloween swap last year and I was still struggling with the concept of being a mother of two and was generally overwhelmed and then this parcel turned up all the way from the U.S.A (god knows how much it must have cost her to post it!) and made me happy for the rest of the day.

Every single parcel I've ever got for a Ninja Swap, and I think there have been eleven so far (I sign up to send and receive two for most of the swaps now) has been incredible and amazing regardless of how many books and gifts it has contained. It really isn't about that for me. I will list the books I've got from Ninja Swaps at the end of this post and you will see that it is an awesome list, but it's actually not even the most exciting thing about getting a swap parcel. The most exciting thing for me is the person who's put the parcel together for me. I particularly love it when I get a little note detailing the reasoning behind each gift, as with Nahree's and Jess's parcels above, but even if not it's always so heartwarming when you're opening a parcel that a stranger has spent their time putting together and making beautiful for you. I also really love seeing people's excitement on social media when they get their parcels, and reading their posts about their swap experiences. Literally every time, no matter how stressed I've been in my personal life or whatever by the end of the swap I've felt amazing just seeing how much happiness it's brought.

Every single Ninja Swapper who's done the swap properly makes my day better. Long may it continue.

Special mentions for a few people who help with their awesomeness (because I'm never likely to win a major award): Hanna (obviously), Esther and Miriam, Rhys, Emma, Sarah, Nahree, Kayleigh, Ellie, Ellie, Laura, Katie, Debbie, Kristen and many many other people - the list would pretty much go on forever.

Books I've Been Ninja Gifted:

Un Lun Dun by China Mieville
The Outsider by Albert Camus
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
The Little Beach Street Cafe by Jenny Colgan
The Happy Hooker: Stitch n Bitch Crochet by Debbie Stoller
The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
Lightning Rods by Helen DeWitt
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
The Dead Travel Fast by Deanna Raybourn
A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Peter Panzerfaust: The Great Escape by Kurtis J. Weibe
The Storied Life of A.J Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

The next swap will be September/October. To find out more information check out our blog or to be added to the list for a reminder email when sign up opens email ninjabookswap@gmail.com. Alternatively follow us on twitter @NinjaBookSwap, where I've pretty much amalgamated the swap account and my personal one and talk about a bit of everything.

Things Which Have Been Happening Lately

Some of you will know about the recurring awful thing that's been going on in our family for the past couple of years, about which I am generally very mysterious and fairly depressed. We (by which I mean me) have dealt pretty well with the bulk of it, primarily because it involves a family member and so only really involves us indirectly, however about a year ago we had an unexpected event happen in connection with it and it left me feeling pretty powerless and scared, and in the last week we've had a totally unexpected recurrence of the same event which has left me a bit dazed. We're still waiting for the outcome of what's happened, which is always the worst bit because I spend my time convincing myself that the worse possible scenarios will definitely happen and generally stressing myself out more than I need to. Hopefully I've learned how to deal with it enough from the past two years to not have to absent myself from blogging this time, but if I'm more vague and all-over-the-place than normal then I hope you'll forgive me! Also for how totally cryptic I'm being!

So anyway, this is a really a reorientation post. I've been struggling with a review of MaddAddam for a few days so I'm taking a break from it to give you a little bullet pointed sort of post about what's going on around here! Firstly, for those who are interested, I'm now 17 weeks pregnant and in the annoying stage of being too fat for my normal clothes but too thin for maternity clothes, meaning I'm continually pulling my trousers up, which isn't the best look for work, but never mind! I heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time last week, which was pretty lovely :-) Unfortunately EVERYTHING (for which read this and this) that I'd really like to do this year is either happening just before or just after I'm due to give birth, but never mind!

Books wise, I finished MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood this week, as well as The Mark of Athena, the third in the second series of Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan, and The Forgotten Affairs of Youth by Alexander McCall Smith. The latter two I probably won't review, because, well, Percy Jackson is Percy Jackson, really. They're very entertaining books, but there's not a huge amount that's new to say about them, and the Alexander McCall Smith is one in the Sunday Morning Philosophy Club series about Isabel Dalhousie, which I really enjoy and find mildly hilarious but again there's not a huge amount to say except they always make me want to go to Edinburgh. Again, probably something for next year! 

I've just remembered I'm also meant to be reading Macbeth before the end of the month for The Classics Club Twelve Months of Classic Literature Challenge I decided to participate in at the end of last year. I should probably get on that...

I also signed up for another Coursera course. After the epic failure that was me signing up for Modern and Contemporary American Poetry AND Comic Books and Graphic Novels, both of which had heavy workloads and quite a bit of reading AT THE SAME TIME as going back to work and then finding out I was pregnant again (so basically just a bad idea), I decided to sign up for another course which probably has waaaaaaayyy too much of a workload for the time I actually have available, but it looks really fun and has a cool reading list and as a bonus I'm pretty sure Hanna is doing it too. Because we have to do everything together now, I blame the Ninja Book Swap. So yes, this is the course and I'm super excited about it!

Speaking of the Ninja Book Swap, sign up info for the first ever Valentine's edition can be found here. Basic premise (for those who don't know) is that you sign up, are given a swappee, make them a nice parcel of a book or two from their wishlist (which don't have to be new, just in nice condition), a little gift and a card telling them who you are and then post it. Meanwhile somebody else does the same for you and it's just generally ridiculously fun, so if you haven't signed up you should and if you can't take part for whatever reason you should still definitely tell all your friends about it :-) Oh, and you should follow us on twitter for all the updates! @NinjaBookSwap

Finally, if you want to sponsor me for the reading I did for Great Ormond Street Hospital back in December (final page count is still to be determined, but I read A Tale of Two Cities plus at least one other book and some bits and pieces, so it's a fair amount!) it would be hugely appreciated and you can do so here.

And that's pretty much my life in a nutshell. I feel like somebody should be doing a drumroll....

Announcing The Valentine's Ninja Book Swap!

Guys I'm so excited, the Ninja Book Swap is baaaaaack! :-D The awesome Hanna and I came up with this idea in the summer of 2013 because we couldn't wait until Christmas and Secret Santa to exchange parcels of awesome bookishness with our fellow bloggers. We've now decided that this will be a three-times annually event - at valentine's, summer and Halloween. Obviously there's no pressure for you to participate in all of them, you're very welcome to join in when you want and not when you don't feel like it/can't afford it or whatever. 

The basic idea, for those who haven't done it before and a reminder for those who have, is that you will express your interest (I'll explain how in a minute) and then we will pair you up with somebody who you will then make a little parcel for, containing a book or two (these don't have to be new but should be in a condition you'd be happy to receive yourself) and a little present plus a card revealing who you are and send it off and wait for the ensuing internet squeals. Meanwhile somebody else will be doing the same for you. Sound fun? It is! 

If you'd like to join us here's what you have to: 

• Please send us an email at ninjabookswap(at)outlook(dot)com by January 30th. 
• In your email you need to include the following: 
• Your name and your postal address. 
• Your blog link and a list to your wishlist, or if you don't have a wishlist, a list of 5-10 books you'd like to read
• A short list of your likes and dislikes so that your person can choose a little gift
• Whether or not you're happy to send your parcel internationally
• If you want to you can sign up to send (and receive!) two parcels, please let us know if you'd like to do this!
• We will then send you an email with details of the person you are sending your parcel to by February 1st and will need you to have sent your parcel by February 10th. 
• **********SUPER IMPORTANT INFORMATION*********** When sending your parcel PLEASE get a proof of postage (I'm not sure what the international equivalent is, but basically you need to be able to prove you've sent your parcel on the date you said you did just in case it doesn't turn up!). There aren't usually any problems, but it makes it easier for everyone involved just in case your parcel should go missing, to have proof of postage. Thanks!
• Once you've sent your parcel please send us an email at ninjabookswap(at)outlook(dot)com and another once you've received your parcel. This is just so we can keep track and make sure everybody's got their goodies!

That's it! If you want to post about the event on your blogs that would be great, to help us spread the word! To keep up with what's going on and have a look at other people's parcels of loveliness, come and visit us on twitter (@ninjabookswap) and you can also use #ninjabookswap. If you'd like to post about what you get that would be great - once the parcels start arriving we'll put up a post where you can link up your posts as well. Who doesn't want to get a parcel full of lovely bookish surprises, especially on Valentine's day? Come and join us, you know you want to!