Meet my guest reviewers!

I haven't really mentioned very much about my personal life on this blog lately (that is mostly what my Twitter stream seems to be for lately!) but it's been a struggle lately. A death in the family that I'm still getting over, my father in and out of hospital, an end of the year exam for my university course, and my ever present difficulties with my mental health seems to be taking their toll on my blogging and reading mojo lately. Thankfully, and I really do mean thankfully, three very nice people have stepped forward and have volunteered their time and energy in order to help me out. I couldn't be more appreciative of this. It really makes me heave a big sigh of relief knowing I have some back-up. So Carrie, Kulsuma and Jenni, THANK YOU.

But enough about me. Please do say hello and make Carrie, Kulsuma and Jenni feel very welcome! (also? go follow their blogs and support three awesome UK bloggers!)

----------------------------

Carrie - Hi everyone, I'm Carrie and I blog over at Teabelly (teabelly.wordpress.com). I started blogging in 2006, on Livejournal (where I still can be found) and started my public blog in 2007. It's not an especially focused blog, it's just about my life, with book and film reviews thrown in. I also started roller derby this year, so there's a lot about that, and my many bruises.

I'm 30 years old, live in London and work in publishing, but not with the 'fun' books. I'm definitely more of a fiction reader, and some of my favourite books and authors include Barbara Kingsolver/The Poisonwood Bible, John Irving/The World According to Garp, and Margaret Atwood/The Blind Assassin. After reading The Hunger Games series this year I started to get back into YA fiction. There is some amazing stuff out there at the moment, and I'm enjoying discovering it.

----------------------------

Kulsuma - Hi! I’m Kulsuma. I’m 20 years old, though I’m much younger than that at heart. I am currently doing a degree in English Literature and Creative Writing which I’m enjoying very much. I’m in my third and final year and am wondering what to do after I finish. Any ideas? I love reading, writing, music, movies and food! Can’t forget about food.

My obsession though, is books. I love reading books. My favourite genres are dystopian and fantasy but I also love action, adventure and contemporary. Basically, all of them. I have so many favourite books, but the ones topping the list are Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling (which is a given, of course), The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer and The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver, all of which you must read if you haven’t already! If you need more recommendations, just ask. I’m not sure if I should say which books I don’t like as I tend to be in the minority. For example, I didn’t like Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater and Divergent by Veronica Roth *ducks out of the way of the rotten vegetables thrown at her*.


*I would like to add that Kulsuma blogs at sunshine and stardust*

----------------------------

Jenni - I can't remember a time when I didn't love books. Not content with filling every spare inch of space of my parents' house with books I now live in Aberystwyth, which reportedly has more books per person than anywhere else in the world, and am fulfilling my earliest dream of becoming a librarian.

My To-Be-Read pile is often threatening to tip over, and when it starts to look a little more stable I add to it from my endless selection of bookmarked reviews and book lists. I read books from most genres and am always willing to try something new.

When I'm not reading I can be founding blogging at Juniper's Jungle or on twitter as @juniperjungle. I also watches far too much telly and share my thoughts on that at TV Canary

I am an aspiring author and hope to finish my first draft sometime before the end of 2011.

----------------------------

Thank you very much, you three! You've probably already seen one or two of their guest reviews already on the blog, but do expect to see more coming soon.