I'm still getting into Bastille if I'm honest, but I'm quite addicted to some of the songs from this album, including Pompeii, Bad Blood and Laura Palmer.

What's not to love about HAIM? My favourites from Days Are Gone are Edge, Falling, Honey & I, If I Could Change Your Mind and My Song 5.

I've got to admit it, I love all the songs on Troye Sivan's EP TRXYE - but Happy Little Pill will always be my favourite.

I didn't watch all the Sherlock episodes as they aired, as it was only at New Year that I saw the beginning of series 3 and decided I loved it. I then watched all the previous episodes which my brother had recorded, but a few weeks ago when I went back to watch them again I found they'd all been deleted, so naturally I ordered the three series from Amazon. It really is a five star TV programme, and the complicated yet masterfully worked storylines and cinematography are worthy of a full length Hollywood movie.

Houndstooth Leggings from Ale-Hop

I got these leggings fairly recently in Spain, but I've been wearing them non-stop ever since I got them as they're just about the comfiest thing ever.

I was eyeing up these leggings for days, telling myself I had more than enough leggings and that I shouldn't let myself be attracted by the price, but in the end I was powerless to resist. These were an incredible €5, and of course in a houndstooth pattern which will go so well with so many things in cooler weather.

Another slightly more snazzy hairband, this one has a wire running through it. They were available in various colours and styles, but I really like the effect of the white against the gold chain.

x

Genre: contemporary YA fiction, realistic fiction

The Sky is Everywhere is one of my favourite contemporary YA fiction novels: for me it's on a par with modern classics like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and the best of John Green's works. The main character is Lennie Walker, who is dealing with the aftermath of her older sister's sudden death. She has always felt safe in her sister Bailey's shadow, but now she suddenly finds herself very much the centre of attention. Of course there's a love element, and it appears Lennie has two boys to choose from: her dead sister's boyfriend Toby, and Joe, the new boy in town.

The things I love most about this book are Lennie's quirky family, and the entirely capable and skillful way in which the author deals with grief. The characters are larger than life but quintessentially human, including Bailey who doesn't actually appear in the novel. I also love the handwritten poems and stories between chapters, which I felt really brought the story alive. I would recommend this to anyone who likes a good old tear jerker!

Rating: 8/10

Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick

Genre: science fiction, dystopian, apocalyptic

The story begins with 17-year-old Alex hiking through the wilderness, carrying her parents ashes and slowly dying from a brain tumour. Suddenly the Earth is struck by a huge electro-magnetic pulse, killing thousands and affecting the rest either not at all, converting them into flesh-eating cannibals, or (in Alex's case) giving them a superhuman sense.

I used to be obsessed with dystopian fiction, and I bought this trilogy a couple of years ago when I was right in the middle of that phase. Being somewhat of a connoisseur of this particular genre, I easily recognised several elements of other novels in it: the massively earth-shattering event that happens at the beginning of the story, also seen in the Gone series by Michael Grant; the 'other people' to be avoided similar to The Other Life by Susanne Winnacker and Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts; the survival element of The Hunger Games; the unravelling of society as we know it of The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham. But all those pieces build a story which is complex, well written and brilliantly paced. It suffers a little from both poor character development and too many characters in places, but that's mostly in the second book. On the whole I would recommend it if you liked any of the books I mentioned above.

Rating: 8/10

Genre: fairytale

This novel is based on the Grimm fairytale of Maid Maleen, and the story is essentially identical. When a beautiful princess refuses to marry the prince her father has chosen, he is furious and locks her in a tower for seven long years. The story is told from the point of view of the princess's maid, Dashti, who writes in diary entries about their time in the tower. But the princess is spoilt and used to the abundance of the court, and as they run out of food Dashti soon realises they must either escape or slowly starve. What they find when they do break free from the tower is something they never expected...

I've never read anything quite like The Book of a Thousand Days, but I enjoyed it immensely. The author writes effortlessly and the story is well structured, the characters vivid and alive.

Rating: 7.5/10

At the House of the Magician by Mary Hooper

Genre: historical fiction

And last but not least, some historical fiction! At the House of the Magician is the first in a trilogy by Mary Hooper, one of my favourite historical fiction authors. Set during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the main character is Lucy, a young girl who runs away from home and finds a job as a maid in the household of Dr Dee, the court magician. Lucy is more than a little nosy and in among the strange and sinister elements of the house soon uncovers a terrible plot: the Queen's life is in Lucy's hands...

This was one of the first novels set in the Elizabethan era that I owned, and it's perfect if you don't know a whole lot about the period - there's a lot of simple historical detail, along with a glossary at the back of the book which explains any difficult words. A nice touch is some instructions for making lavender wands, which feature a lot in the first few chapters of the novel.

In terms of the actual story, the characters are well-drawn and the suspense masterfully worked. I think it was intended for a slightly younger audience than myself (the print is larger than usual and the writing uncomplicated), but I love this trilogy with a passion and will keep reading them again and again.

Rating: 9/10

I hope this inspired you to look into at least one of these books this summer, let me know which one you'd most like to read!

x

Bubbilicious Skater Dress - $130

Bonjour,

A few weeks ago I started making a series of polaroid sets on Polyvore, each featuring one of my favourite music artists. I posted a few here, but since then I've published a lot more and made them into a collection, which I thought I'd share the best of here on my blog too.

The process is a simple one: I simply find a photo of the intended artist, choose a polaroid frame from the ones I have saved along with a background, and then proceed to embellish with fillers which suit the theme of the set. I had a lot of fun making these, as it was nice to let the creative juices flow and not always stick to my usual 'template'.

I thought I'd start off with my pencil case and its contents. The case itself is from Asda and cost about £3, I love it because it's simple but timeless, and perhaps more importantly it's sturdy, stays upright and doesn't spill pens everywhere like some others I've had. Inside I keep a ruler, a couple of pencils, a compass (actually my mum's from when she was at school, I find it works better than any modern plastic ones), a four-colour Bic, a highlighter, a couple of pens, a black double-ended felt tip for doodling, Tippex, scissors, a rubber and a pencil sharpener. I also have a flat hole punch (at the back), which is a super cool gadget that comes in handy when we get sheets handed out and I want to file mine away quickly. I always carry a lipbalm too - this one is the watermelon one from H&M.

Next up is a very technical piece of kit: this is my TI-nspire with its case. It's basically a really fancy calculator which does graphs and spreadsheets and all sorts of complicated things I never use it for. We had to buy them a few years ago, and we actually use them in the calculator part of our Maths exams, and in things like Chemistry, Physics and Geography. It weighs a ton and takes hours (sometimes days) to charge up, so it's not exactly an easy calculator to use, but we have to have them and cart them around all the time.

The folder on the left I carry literally everywhere with me at school. Rather than taking a whole folder home just for the sake of one piece of paper I need for homework, I put the sheet I need in here, along with anything other odd bits of paper. It's also got spare sheets of lined, squared and plain paper, just in case. The other thing is a set of lined double sheets we need for French tests - typically very specific and difficult to find.

These Atoma notebooks are the kind everyone uses at my school, and they actually originate in Belgium, which is fitting. They're great because you can take sheets out and put them back in in different places, but they're also usually really expensive, depending where you buy them - these particular ones cost €6.99 each in AVA! I'm going to use these for History, Biology and Maths.

I also tend to use these thin folder to put handouts in for certain subjects, namely Maths, Geography and Biology. I put dividers in nearly every folder, as they're so useful for keeping things organised.

These days I use folders more than I used to. I'll keep one of these at home to decant Maths handouts into when we've finished that topic, and the others will be used for French, Dutch and Philosophy.

These white folders (also from AVA) are my absolute favourites, because they have a clear plastic pocket at the front which means I can easily personalise them with a cover, which can then be swapped over if needed. The English one is recycled from last year, but I did the App English (basically the advanced course option I take alongside the main course) cover the other day. I just took a sheet of coloured paper for the background, stencilled the letters onto white card with a black pen and mounted that on a border. Here's a close up of each:

This is a little notebook I use to write down what work I have to do that day when I get in from school. I also have an agenda which I carry around with me at school and write down my homework in, but I use the notebook to write down ongoing things as well, such as studying for tests and other pieces of long term work I should be doing too. I start a new page each day, and write down every last thing I have to do, which often means rewriting stuff for a few days. It might seem a little over the top, but this way I never miss anything and I never have the awful feeling of walking into a class and realising I've totally forgotten about the day's homework. The other agenda I use I get given by my school in the first few days, so I can't show it here.

This is the bag I use for school. I know it's technically a handbag, but very few people use actual rucksacks at my school, especially in the upper years of secondary. It's obviously too small to put any books in, so I carry those instead. It contains my pencil case, agenda, purse, a bottle of water, fancy calculator, keys, USB stick, and usually a comb, compact mirror and extra lipbalm.