Book Review: Bloom

Bloom: navigating life and style, Estée Lalonde  

As a subscriber to Estée's channel, I all but climbed on my desk and shimmy-danced when she announced her book in this video. As a subscriber to Estée's channel, I all but climbed on my desk and shimmy-danced when she announced her book in this video. I know there is often a lot of mixed opinion about YouTubers writing books but I knew her book would be amazing, and I wasn't wrong.

Bloom is centered around what and how Estée became who she is today. She discusses everything, and I mean everything -there's no holding back, which is so refreshing. The book kinda revolves around the idea of blooming into the person you are meant to be and if our souls were flowers, Estée's would be the most beautiful out of the bunch!

With eight sections, Bloom covers life, people, work, beauty, fashion, home, travel and food and is almost wrote as though she is talking to you over a cup of tea which makes the experience even more personal. I found the sections about her childhood and her past relationships with food incredibly emotional purely because of how much I resonated with her experiences. I'm not one to judge a book by its' cover, or appearance, but I found the layout, quality of pictures and general aesthetic of the book really pleasing. I know that may sound odd to some people, but the font, page colours, page number layouts, etc are all things a bookworm like myself appreciates in a book (imagine trying to read font you can't stand or that is too small).

End thoughts: I loved this book. It's almost like a survival/motivational guide that resonated with so many aspects of my life growing up as well as giving me wise words and strength to continue on and to always listen to my heart. Bloom is the book I wished I had growing up, and the book I am probably going to gift all the young girls and women in my life. It is a must-read.

Have you ever read Bloom? What did you think? 

Cheerio for now! 
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Studies | 16

I have been studying with the Open University since October 2014. This year I am studying module A215 Creative Writing, which will be my third year with the OU and my third module towards an open degree. Due to my health, I am a part-time student which means it will take twice as long as a full-time student but I will get there eventually. 

The A215 Creative Writing module was actually the module which attracted me toward studying with the Open University so in many ways my first two years of study weren't just towards my degree but they were almost stepping stones to get to this module. The module is divided into five sections with it covering the creative process, writing fiction, poetry, life writing, and the final section is centered around going public with your writing. 

So far I have really enjoyed the module, and feel my writing has really improved in the short time I have been studying and practising certain techniques. I think a lot of people have this notion that writing is easy; that you sit, pour out a couple of sentences and then simply string them together. It doesn't work quite like that. There is a lot that goes into it behind the scenes; such as freewriting, clustering, character creation, developing your style and voice, etc. 

While I have really enjoyed the module so far, that's not to say that it has come without its' difficulties. Through the writing process I have noticed that writing is subjective, and while I may think it is perfect at that moment in time I may go back to it a few days later and be appalled at myself for not picking up on certain mistakes or decide that I dislike the entire piece. Writing is something that happens within a moment in time and when you return, you may not necessarily like what you read. Another thing I have noticed is I make a lot of silly/simple mistakes like mistyping/writing words (using the wrong words, leaving out words, etc) and so reading aloud has become my best friend; which is also a great tool for testing punctuation and sentence lengths. 

I have really enjoyed this academic year so far. I can't wait to look back to compare my first few pieces of work with my last few pieces when I complete this module. 

What do/did you study? 

Cheerio for now! 

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