All about Me tag

Dear Reader,

Rules:

1. List eleven facts about yourself
2. Answer eleven questions given to you by the person who nominated you (I was tagged by mariesbookblog​)
3. Ask eleven new questions of eleven other people. Don’t nominated the person who tagged you (unless you’re a rebel)

Facts:

1. I'm obsessively organised.
2. I hate crumbs.
3. My fiance is exactly 3 weeks older than me.
4. I'm getting married on 22nd March 2015.
5. There hasn't been a time that I haven't had a book to read, since I was 14.
6. Last month I finished writing my first novel (it's a pseudofairytale).
7. I have 15 other ideas-for/partially-written novels...
8. I have two brothers that I love dearly.
9. I've lived my entire life in London (UK).
10. I have over 250 books in my bedroom.
11. And finally, I've been wearing a hijab since I was 11 and chose to do so of my own free will and against my father's/family's wishes. 

Questions:

1. Are you an introvert, an extrovert, or somewhere in between? Mostly (especially socially) I'm an introvert but my profession (high school teacher) doesn't allow me to display my introvert nature while working. 

2. How do you take your tea (or coffee)? Tea is best when it's milky and sweet!

3. Hogwarts, Narnia, or the TARDIS? I love you Narnia, but I'm sorry, Hogwarts has indoor plumbing (even if the plumbing houses weeping ghosts and giant serpents).

4. Cats or dogs? Cats. Definitely cats.

5. What is your favorite TV show? (list three if one is too hard) I cheated: 

1. Arrow/The Flash
2. Once Upon a Time
3. Downton Abbey/Sherlock (even though they aren't being aired at the moment and I have to make do with re-watching old episodes)

6. What position do you read in? Sitting (anywhere really but preferably in bed)

7. What is your favorite holiday? I don't celebrate "holidays" per se. (I'm British and we don't even call them holidays). But religiously I do celebrate the two Eids.

8. What is your favorite movie? (list three if one is too hard) Where do I start!!!! (I'll give one from each of my favourite movie categories)

1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
2. Beauty and the Beast
3. Saving Mr. Banks

9. What is your favorite color? Right now it's somewhere between forest green and teal.

10. What is your favorite meal? My mum's homemade spinach and potato curry (will eat it with almost anything).

11. What five books should I add to my 2015 reading list?

1. The Lunar Chronicle (especially Cress) by Marissa Meyer
2. The Butterfly Mosque by G. Willow Wilson
3. Sunshine by Robin McKinley
4. Fire by Kristen Cashore
5. Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson

I Tag: (Sorry if you've already been tagged or you've done this tag before)

1. bookpillows​
2. bookishwallflower​
3. heartwayland​
4. meanstoabookend​
5. shewalkswithwings​
6. mutemedicmoonie​
7. sammymfrost​
8. notareal-nerd​
9. wittybookdragon​
10. thebookhangover​
11. bumblebookbee​

My questions for you are:

1. What is your favourite childhood book?
2. Who's your role model
3. What are your three favourite ships?
4. Do you have a pet? (If yes, what animal is it? If no, which exotic animal would you keep as a pet?) 
5. What are your top five favourite genres in books?
6. Which author do you dream about meeting in person? (Time travel is possible in dreams)
7. Which fictional character would be your best friend?
8. Is there a story you really really want to read but haven't found it yet? If so, what is it?
9. Actual books or ebooks?
10. One memorable quote that really got to you?
11. What five books should I add to me 2015 reading list?

If anyone else, who isn't tagged, wants to do this tag then they are most welcome. 

Take care and keep reading,

Nida

Rainbow Books

Dear Reader,

When sleep evades you, procrastination levels are high and you have this internal compulsion for everything to be colour coordinated, THIS is what happens:

I have no regrets!!!

Nida

my Space edition 2014

Dear Reader,

It's that time of the year again: for my annual Book Shelf Tour. You can see the previous "my space" posts by clicking on the links: 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 (where I made a video). Wow, this is my 5th year now! Though I have not been posting regularly, I have definitely been reading constantly and, given my book-buying-habits, it's no surprise that my bookshelves have changed significantly over the year. So without further ado, here are my 8 or so bookshelves:

1) The Fantasy Corner: It is probably my favourite part of my bedroom.

Starting with the top row are the fantasies that occur in our world though we common humans are blind to it all. From left to right, we have Coraline by Neil Gaiman, all of Maggie Stiefvater books (many of which are signed) and Percy Jackson & the Olympians series by Rick Riordon.


On the bottom row are fantasies that take place in magical worlds conjured from the author's mind: The Old Kingdom Trilogy by Garth Nix (technically Shade's Children is a dystopia but it's here because I wanted to keep all the Garth Nix books together), Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas, the Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo and the Graceling Realm Trilogy by Kristin Cashore.  

This shelf holds many of my pretty stand-alone hardbacks, including The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt and a signed copy of A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. These are followed by my Beloved Inkworld Trilogy by Cornelia Funke, my favourite two Jostien Gaarder books and enchanting The Golem and The Djinni by Helen Wecker.   

Down on floor we have my Red-Box of Harry Potter books along with Tales of Beedle the Bard, Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them and Quiddtich Through the Ages. To keep Harry Potter company I have Cassandra Clare's The Infernal Devices (one of my favourite YA trilogies) and City of Heavenly Fire. I also placed the Leviathan Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld here, even though it's actually steampunk.
 






And even after all these years, Christopher Paolini's Dragons are still in battle with Stephanie Meyer's Vampires and Aliens atop my wardrobe.






2) My Classics (& Poetry):

This one, in my opinion is the most beautiful shelf in my room. I love waking up to the sight of it, though the photo does not do it justice, especially as all the titles are obscured. From left to right:

• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Middlemarch by George Elliot
• After that are all my Charles Dickens books - Bleak House, Great Expectations, then in the red leather and gold is Nicholas Nickleby (though I bought that copy recently, it was actually printed in 1936, making it the "oldest" book in my bedroom), Hard Times, Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities. (Aside: The only ones missing from my Dickens Collection are Little Dorrit and A Christmas Carol. May be they'll be there by next year, Inshallah.)    
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo in light blue. 
• A Round the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne
• Peter Pan by J.M.Barrie
• Then in the passionate bright blue is my little Bronte Sisters box-set, made up of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.    
• Next to that in cheerful orange are the six Jane Austen novels in the order they were written - Northanger Abbey, Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Emma and then finally the bittersweet and sophisticated Persuasion.    
• On the other end, lying flat, are books related to Jane Austen or her work including The Secret Diaries of Lizzie Bennet by Bernie Su and Kate Rorick and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith.  

And because my love for classics could not be contained on just one shelf, there was over-spill onto the shelf just below:

• We start with my two favourite Elizabeth Gaskell novels - Wives & Daughters and North & South.
• Then Sir Walter Scott takes over with Ivanhoe, Waverley and The Bride of Lammermoor.
• Besides that are a few autobiographies - Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah, Living with the Enemy by Freddie Knoller and The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.
• Then some modern classics including The Book Theif by Markus Zusac, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

After To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, it seems as though poetry holds courts:

• Starting with a translation of Selected Poems of Rabindernath Tagore,
• followed by The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin. I am not a fan of Philip Larkin, that pretentious, misogynistic pig. I do not like his poems and had to study this anthology for my A-Levels. But I keep a copy of The Whitsun Weddings to remind me that the world and people are incredibly varied, and what I might despise might be another's delight.       
• Then much more down my alley, we have Ariel by Sylvia Plath, 
• Beowulf translated by Seamus Haeney, 
• and The Collected Poems of William Wordsworth, Thomas Hardy and John Keats. (Of my favourite poets, the only ones I don't unfortunately have are William Blake and Robert Browning). 

3) The Original Shelf:

With the exception of Philip Pullman's Sally Lockhart Series (which are historical Crime/Thrillers), this shelf mostly contains my favourite high-fantasy. Here's a quick break down, from left to right:

• The Chronicles of Narnia (box set) by C.S.Lewis.
• My Tolkien Collection - Tales from the Perilous Realm, The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, The Lord of The Rings Trilogy and then a lovely little Arthurian Legend Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. 
• Continuing with the theme of King Arthur and his Knights, we have Idylls of the King and Selected Poems by Lord Alfred Tennyson, (Did you think I'd forgotten about him in the poetry section when mentioning my favourite poets? ... Well Alfred Tennyson gets a special place all to himself.)    
• More Arthur in T.H. White's The Once and Future King and T.A.Barron's Merlin: The Lost Years.
• Then we move on to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carol, and my favourite Alice-retelling The Looking-Glass Wars Trilogy by Frank Beddor.  
• On top of all of that is Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (in 3 volumes) and The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanne Clarke (a delightful combination of Jane Austen and Neil Gaiman). 

4) A Hodge-Podge:

This shelf is hard to explain. I'm not sure how it happened either, but here there are books from all over the place (generically speaking).

• Kate Mosse's mature real-world fantasies - Labyrinth, Sepulchre and The Winter Ghosts.
• Followed by Susan Hill's The Woman in Black, Dolly and The Small Hand. These are the only real "horror" books in my bedroom.
• More Neil Gaiman - The Graveyard Book, Neverwhere and Stardust.
• Then come 2 of the funniest books I've ever read - Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Prachett and The Princess Bride by William Goldman.
• After that are two books where a female is kidnapped - Sunshine by Robin McKinley and Stolen by Lucy Christopher.
• Some fairytale re-tellings - Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce, Beauty by Robin McKinley and Beastly by Alex Flinn (I dearly wish that The Lunar Chronicles where on this shelf but, alas they are only on my kindle, for now.)  
• Which leads to a wonderful array of children's books - The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman, Fairy Tales by The Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Andersen, Tales from The Arabian Nights translated by Andrew Lee, Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book and The Man Who Would Be King and finally The Story of The Treasure Seekers by Elizabeth Nesbit.    

5) Science, Sci -Fi & Dystopia:

Lying flat under my jewelry box are a handful of non-fiction science books including Cranioklepty by Colin Dickey, which I have reviewed here, Aspirin by Diarmuid Jeffreys, The Female Brain by Dr. Louann Brizendine and The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean.
After that we have some slim, black volumes of classic Sci-Fi by Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, and some classic Dystopia: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and The Handmaid's Tale by Margret Atwood.
Then moving into more modern times, we have the incredibly engulfing Shatter Me Trilogy by Tahereh Mafi, the time-traveling Ruby Red Trilogy by Kerstin Gier and end with Veronica Roth's Divergent Trilogy. (If it wasn't for my Kindle, then this shelf would have also contained The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins, the Uglies Series by Scott Westerfeld and the Delirium Trilogy by Lauren Oliver.) And hopefully "coming soon" to this shelf will by the The Maze Runner Series by James Dashner.

6) Shakespeare/Graphic Novels:

Starting on the right this time we have my second favourite Shakespearean comedy (The Taming of The Shrew) and favourite tragedy (Othello), followed eloquently by Shakespeare's Sonnets and Poems. Then comes a whole collection of Manga Shakespeare, including my favourite comedy: Twelfth Night, and history: Richard III. These were a wonderful birthday gift from my brothers.

After that is the graphic novel version of Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Illustrated by Cassandra Jean whose work I have been following online for quite some time now. She's quite talented.

Then we have a set of official comics centered around my favourite video game series Assassin's Creed, that I love playing with my brothers (hence the comics were also a gift from them). And finally, my childhood/teen obsession with Avatar: The Last Airbender series in exemplified in the beautiful Collected Editions of their spin-off comic book. (I still need to get The Rift which comes out some time next year.)

7) The Library Books:
I think the title is rather self-explanatory, and nothing more needs to be said about this collection other than the fact they're all due by some time this month.

And here's what it looks like when you put almost all of the above together (not including the fantasy corner of course):

8) My Deen:
The Window - which primarily contains books written by Muslims or about Muslims. The real stand-outs of this crowd are:

• G. Willow Wilson's Alif, The Unseen, The Butterfly Mosque (her autobiography) and Cairo: A Graphic Novel
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (I Haven't yet read his And The Mountains Echoed so I can't say how that compares to his previous work).
• From My Sister's Lips by Na'ima B. Roberts and her teen-novel Boy vs. Girl.

The Desk - this is where all of my Islamic books are housed, including: biographies, Islamic-lifestyle guides, books on Ahadith, with the Qur'an, in both Arabic and English, at the heart of it. On the very end are my Notebooks (which have drastically increased in number) and The Fat Grey Book (where resides all the poetry I have ever written).

And I think that's all for now. Take care and keep reading.

Nida

the Book Burger tag

Dear Reader, 

So the object of this book tag is to build a burger using books you own, and it was created by booktuber RyanReads. However, I came across it on Sue Moro's channel, who shares my enthusiasm for fantasy, sci-fi and all things escapism. 

Burger building time!!!

1) First we need the bottom bun. Choose the first book of a series that you love.

Not including The Hobbit, this was the first ever dragon-book I read and have loved it since. Also (as mentioned previously) this book holds a very special place in my heart because it was key in bringing me and my best friend, Codename: Pixie, together; and we have been friends for 10 years now.    

2) Now we need the burger meat. Choose a meaty book that you've recently read and enjoyed (400+ pages).

With a grand total of 533 pages, The Invention of Hugo Cabret was an absolute delight to read. It's light on words, more than half of this book is actually full sided intricate sketches, made by the author, that tell the story as much as the narrative and are not just complimentary artistic drawings (like in the Leviathan Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld). Though you can't really understand the power of this until you read it yourself. Plus, the pages have this thick, beautiful texture that often I'd lift my fingers from the page to make sure I hadn't smudged the pencil drawing.  

3) Next we add a thin slice of cheese and lettuce. Choose two thin books: one you've read and enjoyed and one you want to read but haven't yet (200 pages or less).

With only 167 pages, this is my rather-blue but leafy lettuce. I read this one a year or two ago when I spent a winter reading ghost stories. 

A 153 paged very-read Leicester cheese. Though, I kind of cheated on this one; I'm actually in the process of reading The Sign of Four, as opposed to having never read it as the challenge requires. You can even see my beaded-bookmark hanging out of it.

4) Time for a nicely sliced tomato. Choose an average sized book you loved or hated (between 200 and 400 pages).

Fire has a total of 334 pages. But finding my tomato was a lot harder than I thought it would be since the majority of the books I own are 400 pages plus. It is plausible for me to work out the exact number of pages in an "average" sized book for me, but it'll take too long and honestly I'm not all that bothered to find out. 

5) Now you add a sauce that you've never tried before and you don't know if you'll love it or hate it. Choose a book that you thought you'd love but hated, or a book you thought you'd hate but, in the end, loved.

The Ringmaster's Daughter is one of those rare books that I thought I'd really like but ended up hating and not being able to finish it altogether. 

6) Finally, we need the bun on top to complete our burger. Choose the last book of a series that you are/were dreading the release of because you don't/didn't want the series to end.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows definitely fits that bill. I knew there would be a final battle, and doubt less people would die. But it was more than just that. The characters in this series had been a constant presence through out my adolescence, and reading the final book in the series truly felt like saying good-bye to old friends. Though it's not a permanent good-bye, as I can re-visit their world any time I wish.   

And finally, this is what my burger would look like put together: 

Quite a mouth full, if you ask me.

Nida 

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman: Review

Dear Reader,

Synopsis:

In the capital city of the country of Gorredd, the exceptionally talented 16-year-old Seraphina lands the coveted job of Assistant to the Court Composer, Viridius. Her role entails preparing for the week-long celebrations, that'll lead up to the 40th anniversary of the Peace-Treaty with the dragons, and giving music lessons to the Queen's grand-daughter and second heir, Princess Glisselda.   

But Seraphina has a secret: she is half-dragon, the evidence of which lies under her left sleeve, where silvery dragon scales grow instead of skin. Her mother was a dragon in human form, and though she had died of child birth, in Serphina's mind she left her a "pearl" of her memories; memories that will help Seraphina greatly when the fragile peace between humans and dragons is threatened after the death of the Queen's only son, the beloved and charming Prince Rufus.       

***

Rachel Hartman has created such a well developed world and characters. I especially like the maturity with which it ends, that sets it apart from the majority of other young adult (YA) books that I've read so far. Other than the dragons, the best thing about this book is Seraphina herself. She is intelligent, thinks on her feet, and is bold and brave, without being unlikable. She has quite a few vulnerabilities but also has her priorities in order, (i.e. save the royals family first, restore peace and order, then worry about falling in love with the wrong person).And in spite of all that happens and the self-loathing Seraphina feels at the beginning (a surprisingly common theme in many YA books), at no point did I get annoyed with her, or any of the characters in fact. I did not feel that Seraphina was ever being overly whiny/self-pitying (which was a major problem I've had with the Shatter Me, Divergent, The Mortal Instruments and The Hunger Games trilogies). There is also a wonderfully malicious villain (revealing the name of which would be a major spoiler) and a really nice ensemble of characters to support Seraphina. My favourites include:

• Orma - Seraphina's teacher, who also happens to be a mathematically-orientated dragon, 
• the lively and multifaceted, Princess Glisselda, 
• Prince Lucian Kiggs - Glisselda's fiance, the bastard-grandson of the Queen, captain of the Royal Guard and "possessor of too many titles", 
• and Fruit-Bat - the silent, orange-eating, tree-climbing, dark-skinned, curly-haired little boy that lives in Seraphina's mind.    

However, the plot can feel the tiniest bit slow at times, when there isn't actually a lot happening. But it does all build-up to the big finale, which does not disappoint. Furthermore, I felt that this book discussed prejudices, race, what it means to have humanity, religion and science in a very sophisticated way. And though it is the humans that originally invaded and settled into the dragons feeding/breeding grounds, this book goes far beyond the "Natives vs. Settlers" scenario, in discussing intermingling of cultures, the back-clash from those opposed to that "dilution", as well as what can be gained from peace and the price some will pay in order to protect it. I was also pleasantly surprised to find quite a bit of diversity in Seraphina which isn't often common in this type of book. To add to that, the light humor, the interspersed refrains of music and the dash of romance balance it out enough to make Seraphina a fun and greatly enjoyable read. 

Even several days after finishing the book, I still find myself thinking about Seraphina and the adventures she would have gone on and how young Princess Glisselda would prepare for the on-coming war. So much so that when I found out that there is actually a sequel planned for release next year, I was exceptionally excited. InshaAllah I'll be reviewing that too once it's out.

Nida