jennysandiford

[jennysandiford]

🎆Happy New Year from Mongolia!🎆 • A quiet start to the new year here as we are still in lockdown. The good news is their is hardly any air pollution this winter. It feels like a good start to a new year 😊 • ❄If you want to learn more about Christmas and New Year in Mongolia, check out the link in my bio 🎄❄ • I hope that whever you are in the world you have a great start to your year 🥂🚀👑🌟 (at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CJdyan5ldOQ/?igshid=p08254gjgyyw

[jennysandiford]

🌟Happy New Year!🌟 Have we read any of the same books this year? Which ones have you read? • 📚I love how Goodreads sums everything up for me! Thanks Goodreads 😊 • 📚MY 2020 READS 📘Books read 74/ 68 📘Longest Book- House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City)- 803 pages 📘Average book length- 332 pages 📘24,606 pages read • 📚My top five reads for 2020! 📗House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City) by Sarah J Maas 📗Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson 📗The Fifth Season by N.K Jemisin 📗Atomic Habits by James Clear 📗Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert • 📚My reading goals for 2021 📕Read more Sci-fi 📕Read more Urban fantasy 📕Get through my Netgalley reviews faster 📕Read more indie authors- fantasy and sci-fi (let me know if you have any recs, especially Colonization Sci-fi🚀) 📕My Reading Challenge 2020 was 68 books. I managed to get to 74! I think I’ll keep the same reading goal for next year. • ✨🎆Hope you all had a great year of reading and have a great start to 2021!🥂📚🚀🎆🎇 • ❓How many books are in your reading challenge for 2021?❓  • #goodreads #readingchallenge #2020readingchallenge #2020reads #goodreads📚 #bookworm #bookrecommendations #bookreview #bookstagram #worldoffiction #nzbookstagrammer #nzbookstagram #books #bookishgirl #bibliophile #yafantasy #fiction #bookaddict #fantasyreads #bookgeek #fantasy #endof2020 (at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CJdqlJugJzm/?igshid=dr2ufo1pit0c

[jennysandiford]

🎉Best Fantasy Books of 2020!🎉 • 🏆The Goodreads Choice Awards winners were announced today. Checkout my website to see who won! ➡️link is in my bio⬅️ 🎉blog posts includes the lists of the 10 best YA Fantasy and Sci-fi books, and the 10 Best Adult Fantasy Books of 2020.   🎉What's the best fantasy book you've read this year?   #goodreads #goodreadschoice #bestfantasybooks2020 #fantasybooks2020 #bookworm #bookrecommendations #bookstagram #nzbookstagram #books #bookishgirl #bibliophile #yafantasy #fiction #bookaddict #fantasyreads #bookgeek #yalit #bookblogger #booklist (at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CIibG7HgTbc/?igshid=liskirqwz6q2

[jennysandiford]

🎉Best Fantasy Books of 2020!🎉 • 🏆The Goodreads Choice Awards winners were announced today. Checkout my website to see who won! ➡️link is in my bio⬅️ 🎉blog posts includes the lists of the 10 best YA Fantasy and Sci-fi books, and the 10 Best Adult Fantasy Books of 2020.   🎉What's the best fantasy book you've read this year?   #goodreads #goodreadschoice #bestfantasybooks2020 #fantasybooks2020 #bookworm #bookrecommendations #bookstagram #nzbookstagram #books #bookishgirl #bibliophile #yafantasy #fiction #bookaddict #fantasyreads #bookgeek #yalit #bookblogger #booklist (at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CIibG7HgTbc/?igshid=liskirqwz6q2

[jennysandiford]

🌻New book review🌻 🧞‍♂️The Stolen Kingdom 🧞‍♂️By Bethany Atazadeh @authorbethanyatazadeh • 🧞‍♂️I am a huge fan of Aladdin, so when I came across this book I had a good feeling and high expectations. I’m happy to report I was not disappointed! • 🧞‍♂️I’d describe it as a creative, more in-depth version of Aladdin, but with an all new plot. • 🧞‍♂️I really enjoyed the high-stakes plot, and binge read this book in a few sittings. It has the original Aladdin theme of ‘boy meets girl in the marketplace’, but with so many more twists and turns! • 🧞‍♂️There are Kingdoms in danger, royal balls, people in disguise, a few heists, Jinni magic, magical beings, and plenty of secrets. • 🧞‍♂️Checkout my website for the full review! Link in bio • ❓Is anyone else a big fan of Aladdin?❓ • #bethanyatazadeh #fairytaleretelling #aladdin #thestolenkingdom #bookworm #bookrecommendations #bookreview #bookstagram #worldoffiction #nzbookstagrammer #nzbookstagram #books #bookishgirl #bookphoto #bibliophile #yafantasy #fiction #bookaddict #fantasyreads #bookgeek (at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CITBi5gguDT/?igshid=1sxtgxvnz5sfj

[jennysandiford]

🌷Do you have a furry friend writing buddy?🌷 • 🐱This is my writing buddy Shimo. He's not very helpful and can often be found lounging across my computer keyboard and howling for food just when I get a good idea to write down. • 🐱But him and his partner/nemesis, Chinggis, are both good to talk to during the day. I can pretend I'm not talking to myself or my characters. • 🐱Thanks to both cat and human buddies of instagram for keeping me company during NaNoWriMo 😺 • 🐱I've nearly hit my nano goals, but will be continuing on to 100k, so will still be keeping up the daily mission. • 🇲🇳We are in super lockdown mode here in Mongolia. The first community cases of Covid-19 were found a week ago and everything is closed and we are stuck inside until at least the 1st of December. • 🇲🇳A good excuse to keep writing 😊 I can see police check points out my window on the main intersection. The police are there to check IDs and make sure you aren't straying from a route to the supermarket 😊. Funt times! • ❓tell me about your furry friend and how they keep you company 🐱🐶🐵🐺🐹🐰🐷🦄 • My kitties @chinggismittens • #nanowrimo #nanowriter #nanowrimo2020 #writershelpingwriters #writerslife #bookworm #writing #bookstagram #bookaddict #magic #authorsofinstagram #amwriting #writersofinstagram #catsofinstagram #lifeofacat #kittylove #shimo (at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CHp4C2JAkat/?igshid=1tq7q5xy5hth9

[jennysandiford]

🌻Book Review🌻 Across the Nightingale Floor (Tales of the Otori #1) by Lian Hearn • 🏮This was one of my favourite books as a teenager, and I recently re-read it and fell in love again. • 🏮It is a rags to riches and coming of age tale, set in a fantasy world based on Medieval Japan. • 🏮This is the first book in the Tales of the Otori series, and they are all worth reading. • 🏮What stands out the most for me, is the wonderful atmosphere. The descriptions of the changing seasons, the smells of flowers and the animals, creates a transporting experience to a new world. • 🎋Takeo’s world turns upside down when the secret community he grew up in, the Hidden, is discovered by a powerful warlord and destroyed. Takeo is adopted by the mysterious Lord Otori Shigeru under strange circumstances, and his life takes a new turn. • 🎋He finds himself part of a family of ancient assassins with unique abilities in stealth and magic. Takeo trains to cross the elaborate Nightingale floor, a floor designed as a security system against assassins. • 🎋Can Takeo develop the skills needed to avenge his family and perhaps change the world? • 🏮"I did not want to spend the night on the lonely plain. I was afraid of ten thousand ghosts, and of the ogres and goblins that dwelled in the forest around it. The murmur of a stream sounded to me like the voice of the water spirit, and every time a fox barked or an owl hooted I came awake, my pulse racing." • 🏮❓What Asian inspired fantasy books do you love?❓🏮 • #acrossthenightingalefloor #lianhearn #talesoftheotori #bookworm #bookrecommendations #bookreview #bookstagram #worldoffiction #nzbookstagrammer #nzbookstagram #books #bookishgirl #bookphoto #bibliophile #yafantasy #fiction #bookaddict #fantasyreads #bookgeek #yalit #fantasybooks (at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CHpwuMQAKy4/?igshid=1l4208n81ismg

[jennysandiford]

🌻Carry On Book Review🌻 By Rainbow Rowell • 🔮I knew I would love this book before I read it. It is set in a wizarding school and follows a boy wizard destined to save the world from an evil force. Sound familiar? • If you like Harry Potter, you will probably like this, but don’t expect to be anything like Harry Potter. Yes, there are wizards, magic and a dark force looming. • But the reason this book is so good is the romance (enemies to lover romance) and the strong character relationships. • The story follows the build up and realisation of the romantic feelings between Simon and his roommate Baz. • 🔮If you have read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, you may already know a lot about Carry On before reading it. Fangirl is the story of a girl writing an epic fanfiction that the world can’t get enough of, and that story is Carry On. • So to make that less (or more) confusing, the author of these books, Rainbow Rowell, first wrote Fangirl and then decided to write the fanfiction from her fictional world. And I’m so glad she did! • 🔮The story follows Simon Snow as he returns to school for his final year. As much as he hates his roommate, Baz, an arrogant jerk who has made his life hell for the past seven years, he finds himself concerned when Baz doesn’t turn up at the start of the school year. • After Simon receives a strange message from the other side, and Baz eventually turns up, strange circumstances lead them to the idea of forming a temporary truce. But it turns out Baz has been keeping a lot of secrets from Simon, and not just the fact that he’s a vampire. • Things to love about this book: 🔮Chosen one prophecy gone wrong. 🔮School of magic. 🔮LGBTQ romance. • 📕❓Have you read Carry On? Let me know what you thought of it ❓📕 • #carryon #simonsnow #rainbowrowell #bookworm #bookrecommendations #bookreview #bookstagram #worldoffiction #nzbookstagrammer #nzbookstagram #books #bookishgirl #bookphoto #bibliophile #yafantasy #fiction #bookaddict #fantasyreads #bookgeek #fangirl #fantasybooks #yalit #yareads (at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CHc9jFhgb6k/?igshid=l5okuxklhy6d

[jennysandiford]

🐱New blog post- Cats of Istanbul 🐱 • Cats might not be the first thing you think of when planning a trip to Istanbul, but they are wonderful bonus attraction! • Check out my website to see lots of cat photos and to learn more about the cats of Istanbul. • ➡️Link in bio⬅️ • #kedi #catsofistanbul #catsofistanbul🐾 #istanbulcats #istanbul #istanbultravel #travelistanbul #catsofturkey #catsofinstagram #instacat #cats #kitten #travelblogger #travelblog #blogger #traveltheworld #travellife #catsandtravel #travel #travelcats (at Istanbul, Turkey) https://www.instagram.com/p/CG95WiOlWXw/?igshid=1aw9lfaj7k4qs

[jennysandiford]

🌻The Random House Word Menu🌻 • 🍔This is a very useful book I came across years ago in a second hand bookshop. • 🍔For anyone who loves lists, this is the book for you! I am one of these people. • 🍔Basically this is a book of lists on every subject you can imagine. I find it really useful for flicking through to get ideas. But also to learn new words on subjects I’m not familiar with. It’s a great starting point to find what I need and then do further research. • 🍔Check out the other photos for a few examples of lists from the book. • 🍔Its also just fun to just read random lists of words (or is this just me😅😂???) • 📕❓What's your favourite book to help with your writing?❓📕 • #writingcommunity #writershelpingwriters #writingtools #wordmenu #nanowrimo #nanowrimo2020 #writingtips #authorssupportingauthors #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #bibliophile #bookworm #bookrecommendations #booknerd #writerscommunity #writer #preptober #preptober2020 (at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CG40NUCATBW/?igshid=1fkt2j0wzfclv

[jennysandiford]

🌻Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert🌻 • 🌻This is the perfect, motivating read for Preptober. I loved this book so much, and I know it will be one I read over and over again. It is inspiring, energising, and full of wonderful advice about living a creative life. • 🌻Here are some of my favourite quotes:  • 💎“The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them. The hunt to uncover those jewels—that’s creative living. The courage to go on that hunt in the first place—that’s what separates a mundane existence from a more enchanted one. The often surprising results of that hunt—that’s what I call Big Magic.” • 💎“And when I refer to magic here, I mean it literally. Like, in the Hogwarts sense. I am referring to the supernatural, the mystical, the inexplicable, the surreal, the divine, the transcendent, the otherworldly. Because the truth is, I believe that creativity is a force of enchantment—not entirely human in its origins…I believe the creative process is both magical and magic.” • 💎“You do not need anybody’s permission to live a creative life” • 💎“here’s a trick: Stop complaining. Trust me on this...There are so many good reasons to stop complaining if you want to live a more creative life. First of all, it’s annoying. Every artist complains so it’s a dead and boring topic. Second, of course it’s difficult to create things; if it wasn’t difficult, everyone would be doing it, and it wouldn’t be special or interesting. Third, nobody ever really listens to anybody else’s complaints, anyhow, because we’re all too focused on our own holy struggle, so basically you’re just talking to a brick wall. Fourth, and most important, you’re scaring away inspiration. Every time you express a complaint about how difficult and tiresome it is to be creative, inspiration takes another step away from you, offended.” • 🌻If you are a creator of any sort I highly recommend reading this book! • #bigmagic #preptober2020 #nanowrimo #nanowrimo2020 #preptober #writingcommunity #writershelpingwriters #bookstagram #writing #writinglife #writingtools #authorsofinstagram #creativelife #magic #booksofinstagram #bookrecommendations #book (at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGpawAUgTws/?igshid=1i3ujqz51ake1

[jennysandiford]

🌙What's your favourite fairytale retelling?🌙 • 🧚🏿‍♀️Current read- The Puppet Master’s Apprentice by Lisa DeSelm • 🧚🏿‍♀️I’m loving this book so far! Described as Pinocchio meets Frankenstein. This dark fairy tale retelling is about a young girl commissioned to build an assassin for a dark-hearted tyrant. • 🧚🏿‍♀️This book comes out today so check it out! Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC of this book. • 🧚🏿‍♀️This story follows Pirouette, a girl that was once a tree. Her father created her as one of his marionettes and brought her to life under a rare blue moon. Now it is her turn to save her father. • 🧚🏿‍♀️Here is the official blurb: 🌙Impressed by the work of the puppetmaster and his apprentice, Tavia’s ruler, The Margrave, has ordered dozens of life-size marionette soldiers to be sent to Wolfspire Hall. When the orders for more soldiers come in with increasingly urgent deadlines, the puppetmaster’s health suffers and Pirouette, his daughter and protégé, is left to build in his stead. But there is something far more twisted brewing at Wolfspire—the Margrave’s son wants Pirouette to create an assassin. And he wants her to give it life. 🌙With Tavia teetering on the brink of war and her father dying in the dungeons, Pirouette has no choice but to accept. Racing against the rise of the next blue moon—the magic that will bring her creations to life—she can't help but wonder, is she making a masterpiece...or a monster?🌙 • 🧚🏿‍♀️This book is so addictive and easy to read. I recommend it as a great Halloween read! • #thepuppetmastersapprentice #netgalley #bookworm #bookrecommendations #bookreview #bookstagram #worldoffiction #nzbookstagrammer #nzbookstagram #books #bookishgirl #bookphoto #bibliophile #yafantasy #fiction #bookaddict #fantasyreads #bookgeek #fairytale #retelling (at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGSO0jsgm24/?igshid=5hpvzc19s4cx

[jennysandiford]

🌿I'm already missing this summer weather in Mongolia! It's very much autumn now. 🌿The trees are changing colour and it's getting a bit chilly. 🌿We went to a bbq over the wekend and it was -3 degrees and snowing. 🌿Possibly time to accept that winter is nearly here 😂 • #mongolia #winteriscoming #summertime #travelblogger #traveltheworld #travelasia #travelmongolia #travel #travelgram #mongoliatravel #ger #mongolianger #yurt #blogging #travelblog #traveladventures (at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGPM9mGFcGI/?igshid=gu28lr1pt7ef

[jennysandiford]

🌿What book are you looking forward to reading in October?🌿 • ⚜Day 30 #FantasyChallengeSeptember- ☆Most anticipated novel release☆ • ⚜I'm super excited about the release of The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue by V.E.Schwab. coming out October 6th! • ⚜The book: A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget. France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world. But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name. • #irememberaddie #FantasyChallengeSeptember #fantasybooks #theinvisiblelifeofaddielarue #veschwab #magicofbooks #bookstagram #newreleasebooks #addielarue #read #writingcommunity (at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFw1ZhYAau6/?igshid=c3lipmf1pfic

[jennysandiford]

🌿Who are your favourite book couples?🌿 • 🗝Day 29 #FantasyChallengeSeptember- ☆Favourite relationship from a fantasy novel☆ • 🗝One of my more recent favourite couples is Elisabeth and Nathaniel from Sorcery of Thorns. • 🗝I loved this book and the enemies to lovers romance. It was perfectly paced and had so many good moments! Have you read it? • #FantasyChallengeSeptember #fantasybooks #sorceryofthorns #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #enemiestolovers #fantasy #yalit (at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFwzn7Agz28/?igshid=1lzt55ctliyf

[jennysandiford]

🌿Were there any good fantasy books published the year you were born?🌿 • 🐋Catch up- Day 24 #FantasyChallengeSeptember- ☆Fantasy book published in your birth year☆ • 🐋I had trouble with this one. There were hardly any fantasy book I’d heard of from my birth year, and I hadn’t read any of them! • 🐋Then I came across Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera, a New Zealand author. I’m not sure if this even counts as fantasy, but it’s as close as I could find. • 🐋“Eight-year-old Kahu, a member of the Maori tribe of Whangara, New Zealand, fights to prove her love, her leadership, and her destiny. Her people claim descent from Kahutia Te Rangi, the legendary ‘whale rider.’ In every generation since Kahutia, a male heir has inherited the title of chief. But now there is no male heir, and the aging chief is desperate to find a successor. Kahu is his only great-grandchild—and Maori tradition has no use for a girl. But when hundreds of whales beach themselves and threaten the future of the Maori tribe, Kahu will do anything to save them—even the impossible.” • 🐋I know I read this as part of a school project back in the day, but I can’t really remember it, so I won’t comment on the book. But it is well known in New Zealand. • I will recommend the movie, I recall it being pretty good and gives an incite into New Zealand culture and Maori mythology. • #FantasyChallengeSeptember #whalerider #witiihimaera #newzealandauthor #nzauthor #nzwriter #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #nzbooks #bookblogger #writingcommunity #readersofinstagram #readmore #nzbookstagram #nzbookstagrammer #maorimythology #mythology #mythologyretelling (at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFmfyMbggYW/?igshid=mb2bbnbw1e66

[jennysandiford]

🌿What survival skills would you have if you were stuck in a dystopian world?🌿 • 🏹Catch up Day 23- #FantasyChallengeSeptember - If you’re stuck in a dystopian novel, which survival skills would you have? • 🏹I would have stealthy skills for food gathering. Basically scavenging and creeping around looking for anything edible. 🏹Or hunting rabbits with a bow maybe? I can’t survive very long without eating so I’d need to stay on top of the food thing! • #FantasyChallengeSeptember #dystopian #divergent #bookstagram # bookblog #bookworm #yalit #bookblogger #booksaremagic #readingtime #bookcommunity #writingcommunity #writershelpingwriters #writerslife (at Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFmb1J8A71N/?igshid=c0qgwxcj4wl9