#itgrowsback Donate your hair now!

After a few months of growing out my (previously) luscious locks I made the grand leap into donating them to Beautiful Lengths, an amazing organisation, supported by Pantene, who provide free wigs to women undergoing cancer treatment. 

Wigs made out of real human hair can cost between $800-$1,500. This an extravagance many cancer patients can't afford after hefty medical bills. Donating your hair means someone gets to experience a little bit of normality in a very stressful and emotionally/physically draining time.   

After recently losing a family member to a long battle with cancer and with the upcoming release of John Green's The Fault in Our Stars, there was no better time to donate and bring awareness to such a wonderful organisation. Tell all your friends, family, your twitter followers, your tumblr followers.. everyone!

If you have more than 20cm of hair to spare please consider donating to this wonderful cause and remember... #ITGROWSBACK! 

Coming Soon... some new & old releases

Over the past few days I've been hit hard with the dreaded uni overload. The so called overload includes four major essays and a course summary due within 2 days of each other, so I'll be taking it slow with the blogging over the next couple of weeks. But once I regain my spare time these books will be pounced upon! 

The massive stack of books I can't wait to start reading!

I'm really looking forwarding to starting these babies, especially Allegiant. I've been putting this one off for a while now. I purchased this highly anticipated conclusion to the Divergent series on the first day of its release but its been sitting on my book case every since. Why? I've seen spoilers over the net, nothing that outright tells me the ending but I feel as if I still know the ending without being 100% certain. One thing you'll need to know about me is that I hate spoilers! This is a little troublesome as I am a Tumblr and Facebook addict and sometimes you just can't escape the grasps of spoilers within their depths. 

Side Effects May Vary, Popular and Half Bad are the very exciting releases from Penguin! I've also heard amazing reviews of Eleanor & Park and The Maze Runner from a few books friends.

Be on the lookout for some very exciting reviews coming up in the next month (and a bit)!

 

The YA Highlight of Brissie's Nightlife - #PTALive

The amazing team at Penguin Teen Australia returned for Brisbane's second round of #PTALive. If you haven't heard of PTALive before, and live in the Brisbane region, you're definitely missing out. This (hopefully) yearly event coincides with the Gold Coast Supanova weekend and explores the newest YA fiction coming in 2014. Not only do you get a sneak peak of upcoming releases but you also get to fangril with like-minded and equally obsessed YA addicts! It doesn't get better than this!

Follow the PTA team on twitter https://twitter.com/PenguinTeenAus

Last years event was held in the cute little book store of Black Cat Books, which had previously held Rachel Caine's Morganville signing, but was upgraded this year to the Queensland State Library. Why? Because Brisbane is utterly obsessed with YA fiction and attendance skyrocketed! Never had I seen so many YA readers and bloggers in one place collectively squealing over the thought of Dominic Sherwood being cast as Evan Walker (Yes, okay that was just me. But seriously people, it better happen) and tearing up as we watched the The Fault in our Stars featurette.  

It's events like this where you have the chance to meet some amazing new people! The group was filled with readers, bloggers and fans a like and it truly gives you the opportunity to immerse yourself in your passion. Some of the lovely Brisbanites I met include Jemina, Chiara, Kate and Jean (go check them out, they are absolutely lovely girls!). From the shouts of passion coming from the crowd there is no doubt it was a super fun and energetic group of book lovers in attendance. 

You never know who you'll sit down next too! Surprise Jemina!

The awesome Georgia, Kate, Chiara, Jeann, and Jemina,

PTA explored the upcoming books of 2014 as well as the recent new releases. However, it wouldn't be a PTA event if we didn't gush about the recent Vampire Academy movie adaption (Did you see one Christian Ozera, damn boy), the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Emma Approved and give some serious Fault in Our Stars love out, as seen by the flurry of TFIOS poster running into the night.  

What's even more exciting is the announcement of Penguin Teen Australia TV. Yes, that's right, TV! Every fortnight we will be getting a new video, created by the hardworking Felicity, exploring some hard hitting YA questions and filled with a tonne of pure awesomeness! Coming to computer screens near you soon...   

If you missed out, don't worry! PTALive will be in Melbourne on Monday 14th April at Hoyts Cinema Melbourne Central, but make sure you RSVP by tonight (9th) to secure your spot! It's a must attend event on the YA calendar!  

A shout out to the PTA team and Felicity for all their hard work and to all the lovely people I met for the making the night so exciting!

I shall sign off with my PTA inspired top reads. I think the next few weeks are going to be pretty great in book world. 

My PTA inspired Top 5 to Read: 

1. Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy
2. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell 
3. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
4. Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld (Sept 2014) 
5. The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey (Sept 2014) 

Song of the Week - What You Wanted

We have all watched the emotionally scarring The Fault in Our Stars trailer and no doubt shed a tear for our beloved Gus and Hazel, so the first ever 'Song of the Week' gets dedicated to the fantastic musical backing from One Republic.

Close your eyes and think of a smiling Gus. No tears yet, guys. Save them for the movie, we are definitely going to need them along with a few boxes of tissues.

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS - THEME SONG TRAILER

The Fault in Our Stars is the best selling novel from John Green, due out in Australian theaters June 5th. Check out the trailer below! 

TFIOS will be making regular appearances here on Written Suggestion. Look out for my top '10 YA Books You Need to Read in 2014' post coming soon.

The names Suggestion, Written Suggestion.

I don't know how you found your way here but I am pretty thankful you have and I apologise now for the tacky and overused Bond opening (I just couldn't resist, we all love Mr Bond *cough* Daniel Craig *cough*).

The concept of this blog has been rolling around in my head for a while and I finally thought it was time to make this little pipe dream a reality.

I love reading. However, this fantastical love affair with literature wasn't always present in my life. I used to despise it. I know, weird right? I don't know if this was because I couldn't stand my parents persistent encouragement or the fact that I didn't have the confidence to start something that I might not fully comprehend or have the capabilities to achieve.

Fear can be unforgiving and it can consume you in the process, but nothing beats the feeling of accomplishing something you thought you never would. So here I am, due of course to an ultimatum put to my child self by a loving friend, "read or live your life in the dark". Since then, I have seen an unfathomable number of worlds, experienced journeys so grand only the imagination would allow and parted with so many characters it's not even funny. Seriously, it's not funny. 

So I've created this little page in the back alleys of the Internet to share my experiences with the books, movies and television I come across in my every day life. I hope that in sharing my love for literature a few more people fall in love just as I have.

I will also share some of my earthly experiences: the dreaded uni days, book events and the occasional special milestone. Currently, I am studying a dual degree in Arts/Communication, majoring in History and PR, hoping that one day the little historian inside me will break out into the publishing world. I guess only time will tell. 

I leave you here, before you get tired of my ramblings, with my favourite quote of the past few weeks:

A word to the unwise
Torch every book
Char every page
Burn every word to ash
Ideas are incombustible
And therein lies your real fear
-Ellen Hopkins