The Book of Dust

I have been trying to write this post all day. I don't know how to express my feelings. THE BOOK OF DUST. AFTER ALL THIS TIME. I had given up hope. I honestly thought we were never getting it, and even if we were, I thought it would be an encyclopaedia or something, with a few short stories. NOT A WHOLE NEW COMPANION TRILOGY.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, yesterday (or technically, midnight today, but I saw it before I went to sleep), it was announced that Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, would be releasing a new companion trilogy about Lyra. In October. Of THIS YEAR. I direct you to this article for more information.

WAS ANYONE EXPECTING THIS?! The few people who knew must have had so much trouble keeping their mouths shut - I know I would have been singing from the rooftops. 13/14 year old Liz ADORED the His Dark Materials trilogy. There are some books that just change you as a person, and this series did that for me. I think I cried for like, a whole day after finishing The Amber Spyglass. I vividly remember my young teen self writing in my diary about it (those were the days).

I was so shocked when I heard this news that originally, I didn't believe it. Then when all the newspapers started releasing their articles, it finally hit me that after all these years of waiting, The Book of Dust was actually a thing. A thing that we could read. About LYRA. And some new characters - but LYRA.

The first book in the trilogy (the one releasing in October) is set ten years before Northern Lights. I have to admit, I am not super enthused about this (I want to read about adult Lyra so much, but we don't get to see her 'til book two), but I am putting my trust in Philip Pullman. More info on the books here.

So essentially, this rambling wreck of a post is just me saying I'm really, really excited for this new trilogy. But also terrified, because what if these new books ruin everything? What if my childhood is destroyed? I'm scared. I do not want this to be Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. In any case, I sense a reread of the original trilogy coming on (though I really don't want to cry for ten hours again after The Amber Spyglass...)

Will and Lyra forever.

(I wonder what the real cover will look like?)

Read More

The Princess Diaries - New Covers and Series Appreciation

You may or may not know that I am a huge The Princess Diaries fan. Huge. The Princess Diaries was one of the first YA books I ever read and it's pretty much the reason why I now have a massive collection of YA and can't stop buying more books. To celebrate the series' 15th birthday (I feel so old) and the release of the new middle-grade spin off series AND the new adult The Princess Diaries book, Royal Wedding (which I am very excited to read - review coming soon), Macmillan has redesigned all the covers of the series, so I thought I'd do a side by side comparison and share it with you all!

I apologise for my photography - I have as much skill as a llama on wheels

So here you can see the new cover of book one (left) and the old covers for the entire series. I have to say, the old covers will always have a place in my heart, but I do really like the new ones too! I only have the first book in the new cover so far, but here's what they look like together:

Image courtesy of Macmillan

Aren't they pretty? I love the colours, and the faces the model makes on each book. Mia has always been a bit awkward so I think having awkward faces on the covers is brilliant and lets you know that the book is going to be funny (these books are hilarious - if you have not read them, I can't even tell you how much you're missing out). It looks like the books have been renamed too, and I think the new titles match the actual content of each book a bit more (though the old ones made it really easy to know which number book in the series you were reading). The new covers of books 1-3 are out July 2nd, and the new covers of books 4-5 are out August 27th. To find out more, and to see the rest of the new covers, click here.

Here's a direct comparison of the first books (ignore the "only 99p" mark on the old cover. There's a story about that - and about how I first came to love The Princess Diaries series - which you can read here). Very different, but honestly, I adore both. My old cover is very well loved (you can't see the pages but if you could, you'd be able to tell I've read that book many, many times) and the gold is a bit scratched up from when it's been taken off the shelf and reshelved lots of time. I think the old cover is still appealing - great font, a crown on the front, nice colour scheme - but the new one is a bit more modern and will appeal to younger people today more than the old cover. It's also more representative of what actually happens in the book - Mia's surprise at learning she's a princess (whereas the old cover just has a bunch of bottles of random cosmetics on it - and while I still love it, it's doesn't really tell you much).

Here's my entire collection! Ahh it's making me feel nostalgic. I remember waiting for books 9 and 10 to be released (on the right). I'm still pretty annoyed they're not the same size as the rest of my books as well, but I've learnt to live with it! :P. I feel a reread of this series coming on soon... And if you're wondering what those books at the top of the photo are, well, see below:

When I said I was a huge fan, I meant it. The four books at the bottom are novellas that were never released in the UK, so I bought the US editions. And the the large book at the top is a yearbook (from 2008!) that I *think* my mum may have bought for me (honestly, I can't remember, though it'd be fitting if she did, as she bought me the first TPD book and is why I got hooked on the series). I even had that flowery background as my wallpaper on my phone for years (it was a freebie from Meg Cabot's website if I remember correctly) and I used to constantly browse the Meg Cabot Message Boards as well. I was a little bit obsessed, if truth be told.

Now, I'm an adult (just about), and while I haven't read these books in a while, I still look back on them fondly, and I'm pretty sure that when I do eventually read them again, I will love them as much as I always did. So I'm sharing my collection with you, and hopefully you will be as excited as I am for these new covers, and the two new series that have just been released! My review of Royal Wedding should be coming soon, so keep an eye out for that if you're interested.

I hope you enjoyed this post, and please please please, if you've never read The Princess Diaries series before, pick it up. It's so fun and hilarious and a perfect set of books to read in the summer.

(P.S. If you're really old school, you may remember the old old covers of TPD series that looked like this:

Image from Amazon UK

I never had these covers, but remember seeing them in the library. They were redesigned to the gold crown style before the series was finished though - so I'm sort of glad I never had these ones, even though they're really cute, because the later books in the series wouldn't have matched the earlier books at all and that would have been a travesty.)

Read More