Birthday and Christmas Book Haul!

I'm back! I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas (or if you don't celebrate it, a very nice holiday/family-seeing time), and I hope that everyone has a very happy 2014. 

I can't remember whether I said or not, but my birthday was at the beginning of December, and I turned 17 - and I got a lot of books. I also got loads for Christmas last week, so I thought I'd combine them and do a gift-book haul. It's a long one, I'm afraid...

1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky. I haven't read this before, although I've seen the film (with Emma Watson in), and so for a while I've wanted to read the book because I really enjoyed the film. It's about a boy who's going through a rough patch, and how he survives high school.

2. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers. A couple of months ago, I asked on Twitter for more classics to read, and this is one of the ones that came up quite a lot. It's about a deaf-mute called John Singer who becomes the confidant of everyone in his small town, and I thought it sounded really interesting.

3. Between Shades of Gray, by Ruta Sepetys. Now this one I have read before, and oh how I cried. It's  set in 1941, and is the story of a Lithuanian girl called Lina, and how she is moved from labour camp to labour camp by the Soviet Russians. It's a very moving read which I would recommend to anyone.

4. The Girl Who Fell From The Sky, by Simon Mawes. I wrote about this last week.

5. How Language Works, by David Crystal (Nerd Book #1). This is a book all about language, how it is formed, how languages die, how we perceive speech and dialect and multilingualism, to name just a few. I'm really looking forward to reading this as Linguistics is something that I'm very passionate about and I want to take further.

6. 84 Charing Cross Road, by Helene Hanff. This true story is a collection of letters between Hanff, in New York, and the booksellers at 84 Charing Cross Road, London. They become firm friends and I'm excited to read it.

7. Vivian Versus the Apocalypse, by Katie Coyle. I discovered this book by watching a video by Sanne Vliegenthart (booksandquills - there's a link under the 'My Favourites' tab), who works for Hot Key Books, the company which published this book, and I immediately wanted to read it. It's about a girl whose parents disappear after a religious rapture, which she doesn't believe in, and how she and the others who are left behind deal with what comes next.

8. The Story of English in 100 Words, by David Crystal (Nerd Book #2). This book tells the story of the English Language, and how it evolved over time, by using 100 words that all represent significant changes in the language's development.

9. The Lost Estate (Le Grand Meaulnes), by Alain-Fournier. This is the English translation of a book that I have in the original French, but haven't been able to understand much of - hopefully with the help of this translation, I'll be able to work my way through the French.

10. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce. I'd heard good things about this book, and when I read what it was about, I was intrigued and so I am looking forward to reading it. It's about a man who unexpectedly leaves home, and walks from one end of the country to the other, in order to "save someone else's life."

11. Where Angels Fear To Tread, by E.M. Forster. Again, I've seen the film and wanted to read the book - it's about a widow who embarrasses her late husband's family by running away to Tuscany and  becoming involved with a much younger man.

12. The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien. I felt I had to read this because all my friends are raving about both the book and the film, so I'll be reading this before I see either of the films. I think it's a prequel to Lord Of The Rings...?

13. The Night Rainbow, by Claire King. This is a book about a young girl named Pea growing up in the South of France, whose neighbour Claude may be keeping a secret...

14. Some Kind of Fairy Tale, by Graham Joyce. This is, according to the blurb, about woods and clearings, folk tales and family histories, and I'm really looking forward to reading it.

15. The Isobel Journal, by Isobel Harrop. I was looking through this the other day, and it's so beautiful! A lovely book full of sketches and photos that completely sum up the life of a teenage girl - and she studied English Language A-Level!

16. Wordsmiths and Warriors, by David and Hilary Crystal (Nerd Book #3). This book picks out moments in the history of the English Language that were specific to a certain place, and tells you all about the development and what it means to the town/city/village today.

17. Last, but by no means least... Behind the Scenes at Downton Abbey! Need I say more? :)

The Girl Who Fell From The Sky by Simon Mawer, among other things.

So although I did babysit last Saturday (the 14th - sorry again), I didn't have abundant free time as I was watching The Paradise and re-reading The Fault in Our Stars, which I reckon are perfectly adequate excuses for not writing.

I did my speech at the dance show.... and I didn't die!! I was petrified before going on, but after that, it was fine! I didn't have much time to think about it after, which probably helped: I had to go on, talk, go off to give Miss the microphone, then come on again and dance. Two days later, I had to talk to my tutor group because I wanted to be a tutor rep (I didn't get it, by the way), and I wasn't scared at all! This can only be a good thing and it means I'm one step closer to becoming a teacher, as overcoming my glossophobia was one big obstacle in the way. Hopefully now I am on the way to eradicating it completely, and this has made me very happy.

One of the books I got for my birthday was called "The Girl Who Fell From The Sky" by Simon Mawer, and this weekend I read it. It didn't take me too long to read, and so it was ideal for whiling away a Saturday afternoon after work. It's about a young woman called (among other things) Marian Sutro, who gets drafted into the SOE to go undercover in France during WWII. She has to do loads of training, including but not limited to shooting a gun and setting up a secret rendez-vous in Bristol. 

Eventually she finds herself parachuting into Southern France, then she travels to Occupied Paris in order to seek out a nuclear physicist who is of great use to the British government and scientific community. It was a fantastic book which I really enjoyed, and would highly recommend to others. One thing I really liked about it was the words, phrases, sentences and even whole conversations in French, which anyone who has read this blog before will realise is something I really like. It appealed not only to my literary nerd nature, but also to my language nerd nature, and I really love books that do that.

That's all I can think of to write for now, and I probably won't write again until the new year, so to all those who celebrate it, Merry Christmas, and to all those who don't, Happy Holidays, and to everyone, have a happy new year, and I'll see you all again in 2014 :)

I am 17!

So again I must apologise for neglecting this blog. Sorry.

But it was my birthday on Friday, and now I am 17! Loads of my friends are getting driving lessons for their birthdays, but I'm not - turns out my parents' cars are the two most expensive to insure for under 24s. Instead, I got.... a Cambridge satchel!! It's a 15", and it's red. I like red. I also got a red spotty purse and lots and lots of books (not complaining). One of my other best gifts was a sheep hottie which I have named Minimoy. I suppose I must now give context: the French name for the film "Arthur and the Invisibles" is "Arthur et des Minimoys", and it took my friend and I a long time to work out the word "Minimoy" when we had to translate a film review. We have since adopted it into our respective idiolects, along with "le wifi", which my French teacher thoroughly hates.

It was our school music concert yesterday evening, and I was performing as part of the second steel band, Panem (formerly Pan O'Chocolat - don't even ask). We played "Hot Hot Hot", and had a really great time, although we had to say goodbye to our old LSP (Leader of Student Progress - Head of Year), as it was his last concert before he leaves to be Head of Music at a new school after Christmas. It was very sad - he was our LSP for five years, from year 7 to 11, and I will miss him enormously, as he was a fantastic influence, and he was very easy to talk to.

In a whirlwind week of performances, it's our school dance show tomorrow, and I will be in two dances, and I'm also being a runner, and I have to introduce one of the dances. To 400+ people. It would be an understatement to say that I am terrified. I haven't done public speaking since year nine (three years ago), and I absolutely hated it. So that'll be fun.

Anyway, au revoir and adiós, and I'll try to update you on the speech on Friday, as I'm babysitting then, and will have (hopefully) abundant free time.

Things

So this week, I have discovered the joys of learning about my ancestry. It turns out that I have a LOT of relatives. Including a third cousin, two years younger than me, who is French.
I have also dropped dance AS as I was finding the workload too heavy, but that has meant that I've had to start General Studies. The only upside I can think of about General Studies is that it might give me some ideas of things to write about on here, although unfortunately I will not be writing my views on the Burqa.

I also have some big news. In February, I am going to Spain for a week's work experience, and we've just found out where we're going - Segovia! I've promised my friend, who isn't going, that I will blog every evening to keep her up to date, so it's up to you lot to hold me to that promise.

In other news, Catching Fire comes out on Thursday, but I don't know when I'm seeing it yet, although when I do see it I will hopefully review it on here. Also: Doctor Who! Not long to wait now for the 50th Anniversary Special!

So yeah... There's some things. Byeee!

Matilda the Musical

This week, it was half term, and on Thursday, I went to London to see Matilda the Musical at the Cambridge Theatre in Covent Garden.

Matilda (by Roald Dahl) has been one of my favourite books ever since I was little, and still holds a special place in my heart because it was the first book I read in another language - my Spanish teacher lent the Spanish version to me last year. I'm not going to insult your intelligence by going too deep into the plot, but basically it's about a little girl who loves books.

The musical was fantastic - it was really energetic and exiting, although it had its sad parts too, and really captured the essence of the story. The little girl who played Matilda when I saw it (there are 4) was Lollie McKenzie, and she was absolutely amazing - she can't have been older than 7 or 8, but she had not only lines to learn, but songs and dances and cues as well! I've always had the greatest respect for actors, especially those in the theatre, because I'm awful at public speaking, but for a little girl to sing, dance and act so beautifully to so many people, she must have a huge amount of talent.

The music and lyrics were written by comedian and musician Tim Minchin, who is great and brought a new lease of life to the story. I highly recommend that you go and see it. You can buy the studio album of all the songs here.

When we were in London, we also went to Ladurée in Covent Garden, where I had the most delicious macarons you could ever imagine: one salted caramel flavour, and one raspberry. Yum. After the production, I insisted upon going to Foyles on Charing Cross Road, where I bought The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. I'm only a couple of chapters in, but it seems to be really good, and a bit of fun.

On the topic of books, this week my mum got out her French A-Level texts for me to try and read: I have La Symphonie Pastorale by Andre Gide and Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier. Wish me luck as I try to plough through them!

Back to school tomorrow, so I should probably get to bed. Night!

Matilda the Musical
The Hundred-Year-Old Man

Je fais du baby-sitting (and half term!!)

Babysitting - the best-paid job in existence. I get paid £5 an hour for, today, reading my new book and watching YouTube videos. Previously, things I have been paid for include: revising my French verbs and video chatting with my friend. Whilst drinking hot chocolate. Not bad.

And it's finally half term! A week of… well, mainly homework, but other things too - tomorrow I'm going out for lunch and shopping with my friends :). I'm very very very glad it's the holidays.

Ooh! Something related I learnt in German yesterday: Nächstes Woche, ich bleibe zu Hause. (Look it up).

Anyway. Today my copy of Allegiant came!! I am up to page 420 - it took me about four and a half hours. (Another thing you should know about me - I read quickly). It is FANTASTIC. You should read it. All of you. Even the two of you in South Korea. I see you - you can't hide ;-)

I won't do spoilers until November, to give people a chance to read it.

I can't really think of anything else to say - so adiós, au revoir and auf Wiedersehen to all of you :)

Buy Allegiant here

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Hi. I'm back.

I've just finished reading "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak, and I thought I'd review it. I'm looking to do quite a few book reviews in the future, so hopefully I'm not too bad at it!

Firstly, my copy has a beautiful cover: it's made to look like old parchment, and has a picture of a little girl dancing with Death. The story is set in war-time Nazi Germany, and follows the story of a little girl named Liesel and the people who live on her street in a town just outside Munich. It is narrated by Death (the Grim Reaper, if you will), and documents his(?) relationship with her. Liesel is a member of German society, which I found very interesting as the only other books that I've read that have been set in Nazi Germany were written from the point of view of a Jew, or an otherwise 'inferior' person in the eyes of the Nazis. She lives with two foster parents, as her mother and father were taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel does not know this, but the only thing she knows about her absent father is that he was labelled "Kommunist" by the Nazis. It takes her a long time to figure out the meaning of this label, but when she does, she is accepting of it. She is told to behave well, as she has brown eyes, which wasn't consistent with Hitler's "Aryan" dream. However, she grows close to her foster father, as he teaches her to read and write - this is why she steals books. Her first book was found on the ground at her younger brother's funeral, and together she and 'Papa' work their way through "The Grave Digger's Handbook". She gradually steals more and more books, eventually forming a friendship with the Mayor (Bürgermeister)'s wife through her passion with words. When her foster father faces a time of great peril, she stands by him and helps him keep his secret about the 'Fist-Fighting Jew' in return for him not telling anyone about her thievery.

I really enjoyed this book because it was so emotional. I particularly liked the use of German words peppered through the text, as I have a personal interest in languages, and I have just begun to learn German myself, but I'm not sure when I'll need to use "Saumensch" or "Saukerl" in one of my classes!! (Look them up!) I'm also really interested in history so I found the cultural elements of the setting interesting. It was beautifully written and very moving. I would heartily recommend it to anyone :)

The video that introduced me to this book
The Book Thief on Amazon
The Book Thief at The Book Depository

Stress and No Creativity.

I won't lie - I am very, very stressed at the moment. I thought I'd got on top of sixth form and the workload, but I was wrong. I don't know what else to say, really. I have no creative inspiration tonight. Sorry.
Here is a picture of a cat that looks like a bat that I found on Tumblr to keep you going until I can come up with something interesting. Because it's October.

How You Can Help a Child to Walk

See. It's only been a week. I'm not late.

I have to say that I am surprised at that, as I have had a LOT of homework recently, but to be honest, it is too late to be writing about the law on advertising in French. 

Now on to my main point: my little cousin, Daniel, is six, and has cerebral palsy. This means that he can't walk, or even stand, unaided. He has been offered the chance to have an operation which will cut the spastic nerves in his spine and allow him to learn to walk. This is an amazing opportunity for him, but it is only possible to have this surgery in the USA. His family are trying to raise £55,000 to cover the cost of this surgery and Daniel's physiotherapy afterwards, but they can't do it without our help. I have managed to persuade the Performing Arts lot at school to feature One Big Step for Daniel (his charity) as their main charity in the Christmas Dance Show this year, but even though this week the total has smashed through the 2/3 mark, it could still use your help.

Before you do anything else, please watch Daniel's video.

Daniel's JustGiving page is here.

This is his website.

Please. You could change a little boy's life by helping him to walk.

Life and Downton Abbey (SPOILERS)

And we finally have the return of Downton Abbey! After nine long months of waiting, last night we got to see the Crawley family (and the downstairs staff) six months after Matthew's tragic death at the end of the Christmas special. We saw Mary being cold and lonely in her grief as her family came out of mourning, but after a few harsh words from the Dowager Countess and butler Carson, at the tenants' lunch she was wearing purple again! We also got our first look at baby George, heir to the Downton Estate and the Grantham Earldom, as he began his nursery life with his cousin Sybbie under the care of a nanny so mean, prejudiced and spiteful it was hard to believe she could have lasted as long as she did, but anyone calling the 1-year old granddaughter of an earl 'half-breed' (making her somewhat reminiscent of Dolores Umbridge in that sense) surely should get what's coming to them.

Off the topic of Downton Abbey (although I could talk about it all day), I have a very busy life at the moment. Aside from the piles of homework I have for my five A-level subjects, I also spend my 'free' time playing in the school steel band, dancing in the school dance company and learning German at evening classes. This week I am also helping at my school's Open Evening, touring guests around the school. See! Busy life! On top of that, I also have a job. Yep, a job. I make coffee. And waitress. And clean a lot.

Another thing I do is watch far too many Youtube videos, so I thought I'd let you know my favourite channels. I love the Vlogbrothers, John and Hank Green, and all of their associated channels (Crash Course, Sci Show, Mental Floss, Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Hankschannel etc). I also love John's books and Hank's music. I watch Sanne Vliegenthart, who has two channels, booksandquills and inturretandtree, and vlogs mainly about books, sometimes in Dutch. On the language front, I also watch Gaëlle (thefrogsbif), who vlogs about all sorts of things, but sometimes in French. Some other channels I watch are dailygrace, which is really funny, and charlieissocoollike, who is the first British Youtuber on this list!! The final two channels I watch are Rosianna Halse Rojas (another British vlogger)'s channel and Lauren Fairweather's channel, where she sometimes sings about Harry Potter.

I hope that my next few posts will be a bit more interesting, but I see these two as a bit of an introduction to me and my life. I hope you don't mind. Also, if you have any suggestions for this you want me to talk about, then leave a comment or contact me through twitter or tumblr (links above).

So I've started a blog...

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately, and I figured that wasn't necessarily a good thing. So I thought I'd make a blog.

I should probably start by telling you a bit about myself. My name is Tess. I'm studying for my AS levels, at a sixth form near Bristol, in Spanish, French, English Language and History. I'm also learning German. Hence the "Word Nerd" bit in the title of this blog.

I'm a big reader, and at the moment my favourite book is The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, although I am currently reading three other books: Bajo la Misma Estrella, the Spanish translation of TFiOS; Looking for Alaska, also by John Green; and The Etymologicon, by Mark Forsyth.

I would also consider myself a Nerdfighter, Potterhead and Whovian, so beware of the occasional fangirling moment!

Another thing I enjoy is cookery, and having just received two new Spanish cookery books and some tapas dishes, hopefully at some point in the near future I'll be able to post some pictures and recipes.

I can't think of anything else to say, so I guess I'll leave it there. I'll try to put up a new blog post at least weekly.