Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth and Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

First off I'm going to apologise if these reviews are terrible nonsense. I had an 8 1/2 hour shift at work today (which meant getting up at the ungodly hour of 5.45am) and apparently I'm still awake enough to type. So here goes... I've had a super productive couple of reading days, and have managed to power through both of these books. They're both very light hearted, easy reads, aimed at a YA audience, but they are both VERY different.

Divergent by Veronica Roth is your classic dystopian novel. Set in the future, when humanity is trying to fix its flaws, humans have been dived into different factions based on which character traits they value the most (ie, honesty, self-less-ness, knowledge, bravery etc). In your sixteenth year, you get to decide which faction you are going to join - whether you stay with the faction you've grown up with or whether you leave behind everything and everyone you've known and start life in a new faction. This is the point at which we meet Beatrice, our main character. Beatrice feels like she isn't enough for her faction, but also doesn't know which faction she would fit into. Beatrice has one of the hardest decisions of her life to confront, whilst at the same time being aware of the stirrings of trouble in the stricture of humanity.

This sounds like a heavy topic, but at it's heart this story is a YA read. Whilst it does deal with some tough themes (most importantly, especially in YA, the idea of growing up and becoming your own person and being comfortable in your own skin), it's also got romance and (I hate to say it) a bit of cliche thrown it to make it a really easy read.

I really enjoyed this book, it was faced paced, with just the right amount of world setting and I can 't wait to read the sequel and watch the film. However, I am a little disappointed about the way the romance was done in the book. Without spoiling things, it becomes obvious to the reader (although of course Beatrice is oblivious) that there are two guys who like her, and when she finally realises, she has to reject one etc etc. Now, I don't mind a love triangle situation, but it kind of felt like there was a love triangle for love triangles sake.

That being said, I do think the eventual romance is important to the story, although the family ties/ personal growth should have been more of a driving force through the novel, rather than just the beginning. I gave it 4/5 though, and powered through it in a couple of days despite it being nearly 500 pages long (the quickest I've read a book of that length since Potter I think - high praise indeed)

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell - as I said in my TBR, I picked this up in lieu of there not being Eleanor and Park, and when I started reading it I was a bit disappointed. However, the tables quickly turned, and I soon found it hard to put down.

Again this was a super light and easy read, lighter than Divergent even though it is aimed at the slightly older spectrum of YA. I say this because the usual YA trope is to have the 16/17/18/19 year old character who has to learn something important about themselves, whereas this book featured adults as the main characters, with jobs and established identities. It's 1999, the internet is just becoming established and we're following Lincoln: a 29 year old IT technician who still lives with his mum and works the night shifts at a newspaper company, monitoring the new in-company email system. It's his job to send warnings to any users who are sending non-work related emails. Beth and Jennifer's emails appear in his filter a lot. But he never sends them a warning and instead becomes engrossed in their lives.

This is a lovely little love story. Funny and romantic, the female characters are believable (ie. they don't just talk about men, although men do get spoken about) and Lincoln in endearing. The fact that this story is about adults is really what elevates it from the traditional YA love story - it somehow feels more real when the people falling head over heals have had long term serious relationships beforehand.

I gave this 3/5 on goodreads, but to be honest it's more of a 3.5/5. I can't wait to pick up Eleanor and Park now, and I'd really like to see how Rowell's writing will have progressed, and if she can capture the same sense of believability with younger characters.

Writing all of that has actually made me sleepy (result!), so,

Goodnight and TTFN

xx

Currently Reading: Vagina: a new biography by Naomi Wolf

Tips and Tricks for Surviving 1st Year at Uni

So, you've just sat you're A2 exams, you're anxiously waiting for your marks to come back, and the whole summer is stretched out before you... University feel a long  way off, something to look forward to (hopefully), something to be afraid of (maybe), something to prepare for (definitely). But how can you prepare? Here's my little guide to get ready for University living! (Bare in mind, this will be tailored to arts/literature courses, but there's a lot of stuff which is general good practice)

a) Money, money, money 

1. Check out how much money you're going to be getting from student finance, then check out the cost of your accommodation. Sometimes, the amount of money you'll be getting in won't quite cover the cost of the rent. 
2. Equally, check when you have to pay rent, and the date your student finance gets into your account.  Don't get caught out by not having the money in your bank account on the day the rent needs paying! Most uni's will have the option of either paying monthly rent, or termly. With the monthly rent, you'll have more money in your bank account for more of the term. However, some monthly rents will start before you get student finance in. If you pick termly, you're bank account is going to get hit pretty hard  each time the money goes in. However, you'll have a better idea about how much money you realistically have to spend (or save) over the course of the term.
3. Either way, it's a good idea to do a mock budget. I sat down with a calculator and worked out that if I set aside a certain amount of money for rent, food, clothes and books, I'd be left with £18 per week for other 'fun' things. Realistically this might not be exact - you might spend a lot more or less on some of the necessary things, leaving you with more or less money for extras - but it can give you a good starting point.
4. Get a job. You ARE going to need more money. I know people whose parents paid for their accommodation, but still ran into debt. Get a job over summer, earn some extra pocket money, and SAVE IT. You'll have plenty of free time to spend with people who might be going away, you can spare the odd evening to earn more cash. You won't regret it.
5. Put as much money as you can in a savings account - but make sure its one that you can still access. Every month, I put the majority of my earnings in a savings account, leaving myself less to play with in my daily account. This means I feel poorer than I am, so save more money by spending less.

b) Do the work!

1. Preparing for seminars is really important. Remember, you're paying up to £9,000 per year, and even if the first year 'doesn't count you don't want to just throw that money away. Attend as many lectures and seminars as possible, you'll finds yourself a lot better prepared for the second year, when it really starts to matter.
2. Practise over summer. This might sound ridiculous, but if you're on a lit course, you're going to have to do a lot of reading. Reading is a skill that you can train yourself to do, so read for half an hour every day. You'll soon find yourself getting quicker and better at it. Equally, you're going to have a read more than one book at a time, so practise swapping between texts. A lot of uni's will have reading lists available, so if you know you're slow, get ahead.
3. For non-reading based courses, keep up with revision. Its amazing how much knowledge can melt away on long summers days. I'm not saying spend every second with your nose in a text book, but set aside an hour or two every week to keep your brain ticking over.

c) Remember your friends

1. Spend time with your nearest and dearest over the summer, and make the most of it.
2. Set up Skype or another messaging service of your choice, and start chatting to each other in a routine. Or, if you're staying close to home for uni, arrange a day a week when all your friends are likely to be free. The biggest mistake I made was loosing contact with some of my closest friends in the first term of Uni. Keeping in touch is so important, especially if they are stuck in a boring gap year job whilst you're off having fun with bright and shiny new friends.

d) Have fun!

1. You're paying for the experience of Uni just as much as your paying for the education. When you get there make the most of what they have to offer - go to plays, poetry nights, gigs, the gym, the library. A lot of things with be cut price for students - I went to a play for £6 and poetry nights for £3, and the gym/pool is only £1.60 a go. My biggest regret if not using these facilities to their full extent.
2. Don't spend all your money on booze. You want to remember your year. A couple of mates of mine went a little freedom crazy, and now they're seriously paying for it (both in the liver, the mind and the wallet).
3. You'll have a lot of free time at Uni, and no one will tell you what to do with it. Use it.
4. Join at least one society. I have made all my closest friends through society, and I'm living with people in my society. Some of the best hours of uni have been spent in society. Most are cheap to join if not free (mine was £3) and they are so worth your money.

e) Ask

1. The biggest skill Uni teaches is to ask questions. Whether this is in a seminar, for an essay, or for help (scholarly or emotionally), the University is there for you. You are paying for a service, and that service includes the lecturers or the finance officers or the dean of students giving you a hand. They will appreciate being asked, rather than you struggling through and not doing the best you can.

I know some of this is perhaps more dedicated to what to do when you get to uni, rather than what to do before Uni, but its all stuff to think about. Oh, and if you've got a shared kitchen there's no need to bring toasters, microwaves, kettles etc. Most Uni's will provide the basics, and if not, you can work it out between your flatmates what to buy. You don't want to end up with 12 toasters but no kettles!

Best Wishes!

xx

Excuses for the Haitus

Ok, so my life has legitimately been a crazy blur of photoshoots, saying goodbye to my friends who are leaving for uni, extra shifts at work, going to the theatre and spending time with the people I love. And I know it's almost been a week since I last posted. But I need this break at the moment, because I'm doing things I don't want to miss out on. So, sorry for not keeping up this BEDA lark, but things got crazy hectic (as in I'd leave my house at 11 am and not get home till 11 pm - bearing in mind I've been ill, and don't normally sleep in but I've been catching up on snoozes and what not).

So, I'll write properly soon, pinky promise!

Best Wishes,

xx

Juggling

Hey gang! (I've been doing the 8 minute abs training thing... it's impossible to start any conversation with words other than 'hey gang' now).

So, I'm sure I've spoken about this before, but it is something that dominates in my life - and that is the art of juggling.

Now, I'm not saying that I am secretly ace at throwing multiple objects into the air and catching them again. Although I wish I was. What I mean is the art of juggling various aspects of my life - something that is slowly getting easier but I don't think will ever go away. Living at home has proven a lot harder in the juggling aspect than I ever thought it would. I assumed it would be easy to mix uni work with uni fun with uni friends with home friends and home fun and home life and work work. Man did I have it wrong! Over most of the last two terms, all I've really wanted to do is get the most out of uni, even if that means missing out on some of my homey things. I've wanted to experience things and really connect with the people who I'm going to be spending a majority of my time with over the next two years. And if i was living away from home, that really wouldn't have been an issue. However, because I was embroiled in this daily commute, it's meant that I haven't been able to meet up for spontaneous things, or just go out in the evenings when other people go out. It's also meant that my friends at home have been a lot more demanding of me than they would have been had I moved out. They expect me to have the same amount of time for me as I used to - which i just don't. I would never have expected them to come and visit me at uni had I moved there, but because I live at home they expect me to be able to go to them and for them to come to me and for me to meet up places when I already spend so much of my times on buses or trains or driving. And I hate that (not seeing them, the amount of time I spend on the road). Thankfully, we're starting to work things out now - we've arranged one day every week when we will meet up. However, even this leaves me with the short straw. One of my friends wants us to meet up in her lunch break, which I get, but it means I loose an hour out of my day just travelling to and from the meet up place. She sees it that as we only get to spend an hour of her time with her we should sacrifice that too. But she doesn't realise how busy my days can be - even the days when i only have a couple of hours of scheduled lecture or seminar time.

It's the same with my uni friends. Although they are usually more understanding about those sorts of things, when they want to go out for a night out, they don't get that I can't always come. They don't understand how expensive it is for me to get a taxi home, because they don't really understand how far away I live. Which isn't their fault, I know, but still. It just makes things complicated.

I love all my friends to bits, and I'm so willing to make time for them - I just wish they would understand that sometimes I have to be selfish because I'm paying nine grand a year for this experience.

Maintaining friendships is hard at uni. You'll see that sometimes things fall by the wayside. But if you love each other, they'll pick up. And when we do meet up, things slot back into place, its as if we still see each other everyday at high school or college.

I hope you're all well, and let me know in the comments if you've had similar experiences at uni, or if you're worried about these sorts of things.

Best Wishes!

xx

The Come Back Blog... Maybe....

Hello Munchkins! Sorry I haven't been around a lot  at all recently, but I've had a crazy amount of reading, essaying, module-choosing and general life stuff going on. So this will either be a very long post filling y'all in or a very short post that says ahhh so busy!

1) Reading. I've started doing a lot more reading outside my course, which is something I've been missing over the past 6 months or so. Every single book I picked up that wasn't on my course I'd end up feeling really guilty about and never completing, and although I enjoy most of my course books you get a totally different feeling when you read a book you want to read, rather than something you have to read. This left me in a bit of a reading rut, if you will, where I wasn't really enjoying reading at all because it felt like a task. I've never felt that way about reading before, and it made me a bit worried to say the least, especially considering my choice of degree. However, when the year started I set myself a goal on goodreads.com, so I'm trying to read 40 books this year. So far I'm on 10, including books for my course and (most importantly) a couple of other books I've picked up along the way, which I will be posting a review of shortly.

2) Essays. So I've had a couple of essays in since I last wrote, and have also got a mark back for one of them. I got a First!! I'm so ridiculously happy it's a little bit unreal. The only problem now is that now I know I can do it, I'm going to get really hard on myself if I don't carry on getting firsts. Which is a bit silly, as a 2.1 in your first year is frickin' good! But yay! Party time!!

3) Module Choosing. This was STRESSFUL. The actual selecting of the modules was easy enough, but the reserve choices freaked me out a bit. I really want my first choices, so I'm a tad nervous if I don't get them. Ah well, I'm sure I can sort things out at a later date if things don't turn out how I'd like them to be...
For my first choice I've picked: 18th Century, Poetry Writing, Prose Writing, Shakespeare, Three Women Writers, and Contemporary fiction. So this should be good!!

4) General Life Stuff. So, my grandmas haven't been all that well recently, and although its probably nothing to worry about, it's been stressing my folks out a bit, which in turn stresses me out. I guess that's actually the bulk of the life stuff, but it feels like a lot more. Oh, and I'm trying to book a holiday to France and nobody is communicating with me and that's unnecessarily stressful too.
In good news, I'm the new Secretary of the Creative Writing Society! Yay! i am very honoured to have be awarded the role... despite the fact it was only me in the running!

Anyway, so, new plan. I really need to write more, and here is an outlet I really should sue more often. So, here's what I'm thinking: new post, 3 times a week. Either on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday or Monday, Wednesday, Friday - we'll see how it goes, eh? Also, posts on a variety of things. Sometimes beauty, sometimes book, sometimes general life and sometimes a piece of creative writing. Sound like a plan? Goodo. It's in writing now...

Best Wishes!

xx

Why do we study?

As a student in her second semester of uni, I've been thinking about this quite a lot. Why am I here, what worth does this have, all that kind of stuff. The scary questions, if you will. The days when a university degree meant you'd get a well paid job are long gone. Even the days when you'd be more likely to get a job graduating with a first from a reputable uni are fading fast. So, that kind of the begs the question: in a world obsessed with the acquisition of wealth, why am I paying in excess of £9,000 for my university degree.

Maybe it's because I want to postpone reality for a little bit longer? It's easy to be a student - not in the sense that the work load is easy, by any means, but in the sense that I get given money from the government to live on. I'm not expected to pay my way just yet, or to have a full time job. I don't have to worry about money problems - or at least not to the extent that "grown-ups" (and I use the term to mean adults who are not in full-time education) do. I live a relatively comfortable life - nothing is expected of me. This is very plausible.

Maybe it's because it's what I think I'm meant to do. All my life I've been told to go to uni and get a degree. That surely must have had an effect on me! But, I don't think this is the case with me. I am the first person in my family to go to uni (well, my dad got a degree with open university, but it's not exactly the same thing). I think in my parents eyes, this means I am still a child. They went straight into the world of work - they had far more responsibility at my age than I do now. But maybe they didn't - maybe it's just a different kind of responsibility?

The most likely answer I think, is a love of learning. I really enjoyed school. I know, it's strange, but I did. And I think to succeed at uni you need to enjoy learning - even if you didn't enjoy all of school, then you need to have enjoyed whatever it is you're studying. Me? I loved literature. I love sitting down and reading and for that to be an ok, worthwhile and encouraged thing. I love that I can sit and type this, and that this can be considered helpful for my degree. I enjoy lugging books around with me, seeing their beautiful spines lined up on my bookshelf, ready to be broken.

Ultimately, there's no real answer to this question. it's probably a bit of everything. But it's interesting to think about.

Best Wishes,

xx

'I'll type more posts,' she said...

Right, so, yeah. I know I said I'd try for a couple of posts a week, but these first two weeks back at uni have been hectic. I've been house hunting and have a shed load of reading to do (so much more than last term). I started this post with all the intentions of finishing it last Thursday - suffice to say that didn't happen. So pretend it's last Thursday for the time being, I'll let you know when you can escape the past again!!

*

Loving being back at uni, and it's only been a couple of days. My timetables not as good as it was last term though: I have a 9 'o' clock start now! That's almost like proper work!!

So far, I really like the sound of my seminar leaders, which is the most important thing at the end of the day. On my course, a majority of the contact time we get is in seminars, so if you didn't get on with the leader it could hold your whole grade back.

Most of my seminar leaders seem to be pretty young, no older than their mid thirties, which is quite nice. My Literature in History leader is slightly easier to understand than my last one (who was lovely, but her phrasing choices were sometimes a bit over my head). My Reading Texts tutor is really nice. She was half an hour late for our first seminar because she is new and got lost, but she filled us with confidence about her teaching credentials. She's given us a door-stop of a book to read though - she's suggesting we try to read for four hours per day! I used to think it was pretty good if I read for two! Guess I'll have to buck up my act a bit this term. On top of that book, in LiH is giving us pretty much a book a week to read, which should be interesting to say the least. The only seminar I haven't attended yet is my Writing Texts seminar. I have attended the lecture though, and it was alright, but I don't really like the lecturers style very much - although I know she's a lovely person, and our lectures change week on week so it's not a huge deal.

* Back to present *

I still feel pretty much the same about my seminar leader and my lectures as I've just said. I've been to my Writing Texts seminar now. It was alright - but the leader is a PhD student. This isn't a problem per say, but she just lacks the confidence of a regular tutor. I'm going to give her a couple of weeks, but if I don't get on with her I might ask to move groups. She seems like a lovely person, but at the end of the day I'm the one paying a ridiculous amount of money for this, so I want the best I can get out of it, y'know?

Recently my whole world has been consumed with housing, housing and more housing. We have a back up property, but we want to make sure we get a nice place that suits us all - so far proving to be a little tricky not only because we've maybe left it a little late, but also the weather is so not on our side. It's pretty much snowed constantly for the past 5 days, which means I've been stuck at home unable to get onto uni campus. So I've had to miss a couple of viewings, which sucks. I trust the judgement of my fellow house mates though! So hopefully things will turn out ok.

Some words on the snow then. I love the snow, don't get me wrong. But I am kind of ready for it either to GO AWAY or, more importantly, GET OFF THE ROADS. I almost got stranded in Norwich the first night it snowed, so now I understand why grown-ups always moaned about it so much when I was little.

Speaking of getting stuck in Norwich and housing - my housemate had a bonding session for us and cooked us a roast! How lovely is that!!

Right, I'm typing this in the uni library, so I should probably do some work now...

Best Wishes!

xx

Reflection and Resolution

Ok, so it's the New Year. A time for reflection and a time of resolutions. So I guess this is what this post will be about.

Catch-up-time: The last time I posted I was a bit down - not just with a hideous illness that wouldn't clear itself for weeks, but also with life. I felt a bit alone and very lost. However, a couple days after that post things began to look up. Firstly, one of my uni friends suggested we live together, so it's looking like I might actually have the makings of a plan for next year. Which can only be a good thing. As much as I love my family, their constant jibes about how I'm an adult so I should be doing things more independently (every time I ask for their advice) are more than getting on my nerves. Secondly, Christmas happened. I love Christmas, the food, the company, the present giving - all of it. There is something inherently lovely about a time of year when people cuddle up by the fire and give each other things to let each other know they love them. I just like that a lot. When I was little I used to just get excited about the gifts, and whilst unwrapping a present will never lose it's tiny thrill, the act of giving the perfect gift is even better.

All of this hasn't been without it's complications. My 'home-friends' have all been missing the love a little. We didn't really meet up at all through November, which made us all feel unwanted, left out and alone, and all of us were completely oblivious to the fact each other felt like that. It's started to look up again now. I think we've began to realise that the nature of our friendship is changing - its growing into something more mature and we need to be more mature about it. It's so easy to hang out with the home crew because everything just slides back into normal. It's just nice. And I think we're appreciating the good times a bit more now.

Things are looking up now. I'm an optimistic person. That's not always a good thing - it leaves me open to disappointment and heart ache. But I always argue that if I do get hurt I'll mend easier because I look forwards, not backwards. New Years is a time for looking forwards. Here are my resolutions - or rather my goals - for the next 12 months:

1) Stop texting whilst I'm in conversation - I do it far too often and it's just rude, particularly if I'm with people who i don't get to see so often.

2) Update this blog more regularly. I have all these ideas for posts and I never get around to writing them. That needs to change. I'm not promising once or twice a week, but at least every fortnight would be good for me.

3) Compile a portfolio - all this last semester I got given a lot of starting material and was told to write this up to create a portfolio. Needless to say, I haven't done this yet. This is more of a short term goal, but I really need to achieve this.

4) Read more - not just course stuff but I need to make time for reading. If I have some down time, I need to get off the Internet or turn off the telly, put on the kettle and curl up with a book. Recently I read a book that re-kindled my love of good literature (I'll review it soon) and I just spent half of yesterday reading with the fella (I didn't have much choice - he borrowed 'Catching Fire' and powered through it. I fell asleep whilst he read till 1.20am. He took 'Mockingjay' with him.) so hopefully that'll encourage me.

5) Be proactive. I have a habit of doing the easy thing - especially when that easy thing is sit and do nothing. I need to, to borrow a phrase from Hank Green, grab life by the testicles. This is the most important of all my resolution, and it kind of encompasses them all. It's only by being proactive that I'll be able to achieve my goals. It's gone past the time in my life when I can breeze through - I need to work hard. And that's not a bad thing.

And finally, 6) Say no. Over the past term I've found myself getting more and more exhausted. that's why I was so ill - I was too tired. The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind and I can feel myself slowly getting more and more shattered again. I've got to learn i can say no, and I can focus on myself for every so often.

Be strong, be true, be good and spread love.

TTFN xx

Why, hello there stranger!

Lord only knows how you got here, but somehow you've managed to stumble upon my little bloggy-thingy-ma-bob. You poor poor soul.

I guess this should really be some kind of introduction - although the "About me" section thing kinda sums it up - but just in case you didn't read it (or want more detail): Hi :) I'm a University student studying English Lit with Creative Writing, and I suspect it'll become pretty apparent that I love reading and writing (so don't expect many short posts). I've always wanted to be an author since I was a but a babe (Although, matter of fact, that's a little bit untrue. I found an old school worksheet that listed my dream jobs as either a) a singer in a band, b) a pop star (I differentiated between the two, apparently) or c) an owner of a shop. I had high hopes for my life.). I applied for accommodation at my university of choice, but because I supposedly live too near to my uni I was declined, despite the fact I live outside the 12mile unguaranteed radius, and will now have to take a train and a bus to get to uni everyday. As you can tell, I'm not bitter about this. Not bitter AT ALL. NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST. NOPE. VERY UNBITTER, UNRESTENTFUL PERSON SITTING OVER HERE. So it looks liked I'm going to be living at home for the time being, which sucks.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love my family. I get on great with my parents, most of the time, and my little sister ain't so little anymore (she's just started college - ahh scary) so it's not like she's a nuisance or anything. But having accommodation is part of the whole university experience, and experience I'm paying £9,000 a year for thank you very much, and it's not like I'm a kid anymore. Hell, I NEED some independence. So quite a few of these blog posts will be documenting the ups and downs of living at home whilst studying - they'll be labelled as "Sorry, No Vacancies" or SNV.

I also work a little part time job (although the amount of times they've called me in over the summer to do extra hours it's pretty much been a full time job) at a local supermarket-but-not-really-because-it's-not-that-big-but-is-still-a-chain-store-type-thing. It's not a bad little job, I get on great with people there and its easy enough work, but man has it made me determined to do well at uni! I CANNOT be doing that for the rest of my life, I think my brain would decompose.

I love music, fashion, going for long walks... blah blah blah, insert generic girly stuff in here that is true but also kinda dull just to list. I also took Politics at A level and had two of the best teachers in the world which made me totally fall in love with it. There appears to be a growing feminist movement among young women of my age (or there abouts), particularly in America with the presidential campaigns and the huge controversy surrounding Mitt Romney and other Republicans beliefs in reference to women's rights, rape and abortion - which I find completely fascinating. (So expect posts/rants about that).

I think that's about it for now... guess we'll just see how it goes...

Byeeee xx