My Most Anticipated Books of 2016!

With a new year comes new resolutions which you may or may not keep, new blog posts waiting to be written and read and, above all, lots and lots of new exciting book releases!

Today I'm sharing some of those new releases I'm most excited about. If there's a book you've been anticipating but I haven't included in my list, let me know so that I might check it out. I've tried listing the books according to their release dates although for some it hasn't been finalized yet.

A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab

Released on: February 2nd

This is the sequel to A Darker Shade of Magic, which I haven't actually read yet but which I'm hoping to soon. I read Vicious by the same author last year and loved it and I can't wait to read more of her books.

Stars Above by Marissa Meyer 

Released on: February 2nd

This is an anthology collecting the different companion short stories Marissa Meyer wrote for her series The Lunar Chronicles and it will come with a bunch of newly written stories as well. While I'm still a bit sad that the series is now over, this collection comes as a little bonus trip back to the universe of Cinder, Scarlet, Cress and Winter.

Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

Released on: March 8th

This will be the first book in a new Shadowhunter series, set in the same world as The Mortal Instruments and taking place a few years after the events of TMI's last book. TMI and the Infernal Devices, the first two Shadowhunter series by Clare, are among my favorite YA fantasy series and I can't wait to read more books set in this universe. Also, I hope some old fan favorites will be making cameos in Lady Midnight!

The Hidden Oracle (The Trials of Apollo #1) by Rick Riordan

Released on: May 3rd

After angering Zeus, the God Apollo is banished from Olympus and sent down to Earth as a mere mortal. With the looming threat of countless mortal and immortal enemies who want nothing more than to get back at him now that he's mortal, Apollo decides to seek help at the one place where he might still find some: good old Camp Half-Blood. 

This marks the start of a new series set in the Percy Jackson universe. As excited as I am by the promise of some more of Greek demigods and Camp Half-Blood, I'm also a little apprehensive as to how the book will be executed. Apollo will be going to Camp Half-Blood as a mortal teenager. Sure, sounds just like your regular Rick Riordan quest adventure. Except for the tiny fact that this newly mortal teenager is actually the father to a whole bunch of kids at Camp Half-Blood! I will be reading the book because I'd read anything by Rick Riordan, but I'm just a little anxious as to how it'll play out. 

The Hammer of Thor (Magnus Chase #2) by Rick Riordan 

Released on: October 4th

Here's one Rick Riordan book I'm totally hyped for. Last year I read the first Magnus Chase book and really enjoyed it. The last pages of the book left us on quite a cliffhanger and I can't wait to see how this sequel unfolds from that point. This series follows the adventures of a Norse demigod and much like previous Riordan series, it's full of gods, monsters and myths come to life drenched in a fair share of humor and sarcasm. 

Heartless by Marissa Meyer 

Released on: November 8th

Along with Rick Riordan and Cassandra Clare, Marissa Meyer is one of my favorite YA authors. I absolutely loved her Lunar Chronicles series and now that she has a new book coming out, I have more of her cool universes and beautiful prose to look forward to. Heartless will be a retelling of Alice in Wonderland focusing on the Queen of Hearts. I'm not sure yet about the details but so far, the premise looks very promising. 

So those were some of my most anticipated book releases of the year, although I'm sure I'll be adding more titles to my TBR as the year unfolds. Which of these books are you most excited for? Let me know in the comments!

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Cover art by Of Stacks and Cups via Pagemodo

My Bookish Resolutions of 2016

I'll be honest. While I'm very good at coming up with New Year resolutions, sticking to them is an entirely different story. Still, I thought I would dedicate my last post of the year to those bookish resolutions I really, really, mean to see through. 

Oh and I just realized what I wrote just now. This is my last post of the year. Wow... Just, wow! 

2015 has been a special year for me. I turned 22, graduated from uni, recovered from a one-year long reading slump and got back into reading again and most importantly, I created this blog ^^ Yep, Of Stacks and Cups isn't even one year yet and still, it feels like I've been doing this for years.

And so, before I start with my resolutions, I wanted to thank all of you guys for visiting my blog and making this whole blogging thing such a fun venture. I've made a bunch of new friends here on the blogsphere and I only hope to get to know even more of you next year. It's been a great year guys ^^

And now with my resolutions. No more stalling now :D

Read all the unread books on my shelves

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At the time I was writing this post, I had a total of 29 unread books on my shelves. I know that it's not an impossibly huge TBR and I'm hoping to get through most of them in the first half in the coming year.

Participate in a Read-a-Thon

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I love reading blog posts about them, I love watching videos about them and yet, for some reason, I've never participated in one before. If you have one you think I would enjoy participating in, feel free to let me know.

Read 100 books in 2016

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Normally, I would say that it's fairly easy for me to get through 100 books in a year. In 2016 though, I'll be starting my Masters degree and I know I'll have less free time than I had this year. In 2015, I managed to complete my Goodreads challenge of reading 120 books by reading a total of 170+ books. I want to take things a little more easy in 2016 and cut that count down to 100.

Read a Shakespeare play

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I've been meaning to read a Shakespeare play for ages now but never got around to doing so because the language felt a little daunting to me. I do wish to remedy to that in 2016 and I'm thinking I might start with A Midsummer Night's Dream. If you've read other plays by Shakespeare, feel free to recommend me one to start with.

Read the Lord of the Rings

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The first time I tried reading The Fellowship of the Ring I couldn't really get into the story and had to put it down. My sister has since then read the whole trilogy and has gushed about it so many times that I feel like I simply have to give these books another go. 

Give Neil Gaiman another chance

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I seem to be one of the few people on the planet who's not completely in love with Neil Gaiman's books and honestly, I can't really explain it. I do admire Neil Gaiman as a person and love reading his blog posts. Yet I can never really seem to fully enjoy his books. In 2016 I'm planning to read another of his books and see if I like it. I'm thinking of going with Neverwhere. What do you think?

So that's it for my bookish resolutions of 2016 guys. Comment down below and tell me what your resolutions are! I wish you all a Happy New Year and hope you all have a blast. See you all in 2016 ^^

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Cover art by Of Stacks and Cups via Pagemodo   

Christmas Giveaway Hop Announcement!

Hey guys! I hope you've all been having a great November. Today I'm back with an exciting announcement!  

To celebrate Christmas with all of you, I've decided to host a Christmas Giveaway Hop in December. And of course, my fellow blogger friends are all welcome to join it the fun ^^ 

If this sounds like something you might like to participate in, here's what you might want to know:

The little story behind this Christmas hop...

I've only started blogging in February, so this will be my first time celebrating Christmas with my blogger friends and readers. In a perfect world I would have loved to send gifts to all the new, amazing friends I've made this year on the blogsphere. Since that's a tad difficult though, I thought I would organize a giveaway instead.

Do you want to participate? Here's what you need to do.

Simply send me an email to tell me you want to participate, or add the link to your blog in the link up at the end of the post. You have till the 9th of December to confirm your participation. Check the top section of the right sidebar for my email.

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Things to include in your Christmas Giveaway Hop blog post

1. You need to include the cover picture I've put at the beginning of this post. 
2. You must mention the host of the giveaway and include a link to their blog.
3. Finally, at the end of your post, you must include a list of all the other bloggers participating in the giveaway hop with links to their blogs. You'll find all those links in the link up at the end of this post.  

How long will the giveaway last?

The Christmas Giveaway Hop event will last from the 10th till the 24th of December. I'll be announcing the winner of my giveaway on my blog during the following week. Every blogger to have participated in the event will announce the winner(s) of their giveaways on their blogs and contact them whenever they want during the following days. 

When should I post my giveaway?

The hop will last from the 10th till the 24th of December and you can start your giveaway at any point during that period, so long your giveaway ends on the 24th. I'll personally start mine on the 10th.

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What should I give away ?

If you wish to participate you can choose basically anything you want to give away as a prize. If you have a book blog, it could be a book or any bookish goody like a bookmark or maybe even a bookish jewelry or accessory. Or, you could pick a Christmas themed item. Basically, you can give away anything you want ^^ 

I'll personally be giving away a book of the winner's choice through the Book Depository and you're totally free to copy that idea, hehe!

Should I make my giveaway international or not?

That's entirely up to you. I'll be making mine international but you're free to limit your giveaway to your region only.

And that's about it for this announcement. Please email me or add the link to your blog below if you wish to participate in the hop. Let's all have a great December guys ^^

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My Little Halloween Party!

Happy Halloween! 

Hi guys! Today I thought I would show you some pictures from my little Halloween party. Here in Mauritius, we don't actually celebrate Halloween, which is a pity 'cause I do really love Halloween. So, I figured I would do my own little celebration by putting up some decorations and baking some cookies. I thought it would be also fun to make some DIY stuff and so, some of the decorations I'm about to show you are things I actually made myself throughout the month of October. 

We didn't have that many people over, so we celebrated by having a cozy little tea party. Since people don't dress up for Halloween here, I didn't go for an actual costume. I did want to wear something festive though, so I got this little hat from eBay. If we actually did costumed parties here, I would have probably gone as a gender-bent Mad Hatter. I'm holding on to that costume idea for when I'll be able to do a real Halloween costumed party ^^

You can't have a party, even a little one, without things to munch on, right? I'm actually bordering hopeless when it comes to the kitchen but I was able to find a super easy biscuit recipe and made a bunch of these cute Halloween cookies. Can you spot the little bats and pumpkins? 

                                                             

We also had some cute cupcakes to go with our biscuits and tea. Nope, those I didn't make myself, haha. What I did make though were paper lollipops to decorate the table. They came out so cute I'm thinking I might make some for Christmas too. 

I made this cute little garland thing for my bed and used a mix of printables and picture cutouts for the TRICK OR TREAT decoration.

Next, there's my pumpkin paper lantern which I bought from a local shop. I thought it looked a bit simple so prior to wearing my little hat, I used it to dress up the lantern with it. The masquerade mask is something I had bought for my first Halloween party, back in 2014. Last year I had gone for a Gothic spooky theme, hence the mask. The BOO decoration was very easy to make. I just printed some large letters and tied them with some ribbon.

Here's my little witch corner, with my Witch Ball invitation poster and two vintage Halloween greeting cards I found online. I also wanted a wreath for my bedroom door and since I couldn't find any neither on eBay nor in the local store I mentioned above, I decided to make my own. Now, it was my first time putting together a wreath, hence the amateurish look, but I'm quite happy with the finish.

I bought a tiny broom from a shop that sells home and garden supplies. I then dressed it up with some ribbon and tulle and voila: a cutesy Halloween broom ^^ 

Follow me on Instagram for more Halloween pictures!

There are a bunch of pictures that I took but couldn't include here because I didn't want this post to be overly long. You can find these pictures on my Instagram by clicking here. If you've also taken some Halloween pictures, feel free to share links to your blog and Instagram down in the comments ^^

I hope you enjoyed this post! If you want links to the items I bought on eBay or the various printables I referred to, feel free to let me know in the comments. Happy Halloween everyone! 

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Instagram, News & Some Other Chit-Chats With You Guys!

Today I have a few info to share with you guys. I also need your opinions on a few things, so make sure you read till the end ^_^ 

Alright, let's start with info #1:

 I finally got Instagram!

Well, it's actually a Bookstagram! It took me a while to get down to getting Instagram, partly because I wasn't very happy with my skills with photography. I can't say I've become much of an expert photographer since then but the encouragements I got from some friends, including blogger friends, with regards to my photos, have finally convinced me to try my hand at Instagram. So, here I am with my blog's official Bookstagram ^_^ If you like my photos, you can click the link in the sidebar to follow me. And yes, I always follow back! Here's a little glimpse of what I've been up to on Instagram recently:

And if you want to share with your Instagram with me and other people, feel free to add a link to your profile in the comments below.

Okay, now onto info #2. And I'm going to need your advice for that one.

I'm starting a new feature soon and I'd love to hear from you about it!

Those of you who've been following my blog since a few months know that I'm from Mauritius, which is a small island in the Indian Ocean. Most people don't know much about Mauritius though, which is why I thought I would start a new feature on my blog to show you around my island. These posts will be divided into two parts. In the first part, I'll give you a virtual guided tour of a place or part of the island. Then, in the second part, I'll show you the book(s) I brought with me on the trip and which I'm currently reading. So, what do you think of that? Does it sound like something you might enjoy reading? Let me know your thoughts in the comments! Here's a little sneak peak of Mauritius:

I'm also thinking of doing some vlogs along with these posts. I'm not sure about that yet, 'cause I have basically zero experience with vlogging. It might be fun to film a bit during my trips though and share those vlogs with you. What do you think? Again, do let me know in the comments :)

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Chocolate Frogs And Other Harry Potter Treats (HP Month)

Those of you who have read my previous Harry Potter Birthday post know that a few days ago, my little sister turned 18 and to celebrate I threw her a Harry Potter inspired party. Today I'm going to show you the Harry Potter themed treats I made for the party, including little DIY tips and links to the eBay stores where I found some of the stuff I used. So to start, we have the must-have of all HP parties...

Chocolate Frogs 

To make these, I first had buy a frog-shaped mold. I found mine on eBay here but Amazon.com also has these if you're interested. To make my chocolate frogs, I also had to learn how to melt chocolate. Those who've tried it before know how easy it is to screw up and end up with burnt chocolate. Fortunately, I learned a little technique which makes the whole process super easy and practically fail proof. 

Melting your chocolate and making the little frogs

1. The first thing you need to do is break your chocolate into even pieces. Chocolate bars are easy to work with because they are already marked evenly where you're supposed to break them. 

2. Place your chocolate pieces in a microwave safe bowl. Place the bowl in your microwave and set it to 30 secs. 

3. Once the first 30 secs are up, take the bowl out of the microwave and stir the chocolate a little. Since chocolate can actually retain its initial shape even when melted, this will help you know whether or not it's melted. Don't worry if at this stage it's not melted yet. 

4. Put the bowl back into the microwave and set it again to 30 secs. Afterwards, take the bowl out, stir your chocolate and then put it back for another 30 secs. 

5. Repeat this process until you have melted chocolate with a similar consistency to, say, Nutella. You chocolate will really start to melt around the 2nd or 3rd trip into the microwave.

6. Once you have your melted chocolate, you need to work fast because your chocolate will start cooling and hardening quickly. 

7. With a spoon, take your melted chocolate and place it in the mold. 

8. Once the mold has been filled, leave the chocolate to cool. You can start unmolding your little frogs after a bit less than 2hrs. I was terrified of screwing up since it was my first time making anything like this so I ended up waiting for two solid hours before unmolding my frogs. You probably don't have to wait that long though!
9. And here's the final result:

The Chocolate Frog Cards

You can find free printables online including this one. I wasn't satisfied with the designs available online though, so I decided to make my own. I designed these on Microsoft Word with pictures I found online. After printing my cards, I folded then along the middle line and then glued both sides together. And in case you were wondering, the messages are written in French :) If you want more precision on how I made my cards, send me an email and I'll gladly give you further explanations.

The Chocolate Frog Box

You can find free printables of the boxes with the original design from the Harry Potter parks online, such as this one. I even printed one but at some point during the process of building the box I realized that it would end up being too small for my chocolate and card. So I instead downloaded a free printable of a pillow box here and used that as my box. I made a couple of Chocolate Frog labels on Microsoft word and stuck them on my box. And yes, Chocogrenouille is French for Chocolate Frog ;)

Bertie Bott's Flavored Beans 

This one was even easier to do than the Chocolate Frogs because you can just buy jellybeans to use as your Flavored Beans. I got a free printable of the box online here and after putting it together, I just filled it with my jellybeans. The only tricky part was probably getting the pointed top of the box right. 

So that's it for my Harry Potter treats. If you want to know more about any of the items mentioned here, don't hesitate to send me an email! In my next post I'll show you the crafts and DIY projects I made for my sister's HP party. Until then, you can check out my Harry Potter Birthday post to have a look at the crafts and decoration items I'll be talking about in my next post. 

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A Harry Potter Birthday (HP Month)

Hey guys. So some of you might have noticed that I was quite absent these past two weeks, with me not posting anything and not replying to your comments. Well, the thing is that I've actually been super busy organizing a surprised birthday party for my little sister, Pooja, who turned 18 this year. I might be moving out next year for uni and if I do, I'll end up missing her birthdays for at least a couple of years. So, to make up for the birthdays I'll be missing and to leave her with good memories for the years when I won't be here, I decided to turn our house into Hogwarts and throw her a Harry Potter themed party. 'Cause not only is she a Potterhead too, but it's also not everyday your little sister turns 18!

The Birthday Girl

My sister and I have been Potterheads since always. We've fangirled together over many series but Harry Potter remains our shared favorite. While my favorite Hogwarts House is Gryffindor, Pooja is totally a Slytherin. 

The Gifts

The Harry Potter Gifts

Apart from a bunch of other gifts, I got my sister a few Harry Potter stuff too, including this Slytherin scarf, and the Hogwarts pendant. Both the scarf and the pendant comes in different designs for the different Houses. You can find them on eBay at relatively low prices by clickling on the above links.

And since you can hardly call yourself a witch unless you actually own a wand, I just had to get Pooja her own. I got her Harry's wand (right picture), which I found on eBay here. This store also sells the wands of other characters such as Sirius, Snape, Dumbledore and a bunch of others. My wand though (left picture) was custom made by a friend of my dad's out of mahogany wood. Also, can you spot the Hogwarts Express train ticket and the Marauder's Map in the pictures? I made both myself using printables I found online. If you're interested in making your own, just click on the above links. 

My Harry Potter Crafts and Decorations

I planned my sister's birthday in a story format with her even getting her own Sorting Ceremony. You can find Sorting Hat replicas online but those tend to be rather pricey and I'm too much of a DIY newbie to attempt making my own. So instead, I just used a regular witch hat which I kept folded for a couple of weeks to give it that beat-up Sorting Hat look. 

These are the things I made myself. I made a bunch of potions, including the Felix Felicis pictured above, by filling discarded perfume bottles with colored water. I then scattered my little potions on the party table and in different rooms of the house. The Weasley clock (bottom left) was made from a free printable I found online here. The broom from the picture on the right was possibly the hardest to make. There are a lot of YouTube videos that show you how to make your own Quidditch broom but I personally found them too hard to make on my own so I instead went for a simpler model using a normal broom and a mop handle. 

I wanted the magical feeling to last throughout the day, so I put little nods to the Harry Potter universe all over the house... including the bathroom! When my sister went to take her shower in the morning, she was surprised to find a framed mermaid picture in the bathroom along with a cupcake soap with Honeydukes written on the box. The soap is actually from a local shop that sells candy and cake shaped, homemade soaps. Even if you're not from Mauritius, you might still want to visit their Facebook page to look at the pictures of their awesome cupcake soaps.  And yep, they smell just as good as they look!

Cake and Treats

Since this was a HP party, we just had to have Chocolate Frogs. These were surprisingly super easy to make. In an upcoming post I'll tell you how to make your own, including the box and card, with links to free printables for the box and the eBay store selling the frog shaped mold I used. For the birthday cake, I wanted something that remained close to the magic/HP theme and ended up selecting this one because of the stars and color scheme. You can find the original model on which this cake was designed here. 

The Party

If you look closely, you can spot my homemade potions in the bottom left corner. There's also my Gryffindor scarf draped over a chair in the top right area. 

I also had little witch hats as table decorations, which I made out of black paper after cutting out the models for the cone and round base from a free printable I found here. 

Final thoughts

I made this from a HP font I found online. I just printed each letter on a separate page, before cutting and arranging them on the wall to form Happy Birthday. 

Like I said at the beginning of this post, I may or may not be here to celebrate my sister's birthday next year, so I wanted this one to be really special. Here's a picture of us with our witch garbs. Who said Gryffindor and Slytherin can't hang out?!

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