Month: November 2014

Fangirl – Rainbow Rowell

~ Natalie Cotterill ~ Leave a comment

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Genre: Young Adult – Chick Lit.

Target Age: About my age, 16 years old.

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Summary: It’s about a girl going to college and having to find her own person as before she used to do everything with her twin. Cath, the main character, loves to write fan fiction and her roommate and friends help Cath to become herself.

My opinion: I really, really enjoyed this book! It was a great book to pick up and read a chapter of when I came home from school or to take a break from homework as the chapters weren’t too long. Cath is relatable and I immediately liked her, which made the book so much nicer to read. I’d had my eye on this book for a while as it really appealed to me so when I finally got it and couldn’t read it as I had no free time I was gutted. Then half term came and I was so happy as I could read it (despite the fact that I was supposed to read a “proper book” for english lit… oh well!). If any young adult is looking for a relaxing book to curl up with then this is a must read as it’s lighthearted but not too shallow that it gets irritating (well I didn’t find it irritating anyway). There were plenty of twists and turns to keep me interested and wanting to know what happens next. The only thing that would have made it even better would have been a little more emotion, but that’s just me! Not that it was totally heartless, because it did make me laugh and feel sympathetic etc towards the characters. Just a little more emotion – because I love immersing myself emotionally in a novel. Now to read ‘Eleanor and park’ by Rainbow Rowell too! Plus, can I just add how much I love the colour of the cover? Green is my all time favourite – as you can see from the pillow and duvet cover – my room is green, white with a bit of pink! So I think one of the reasons I wanted this book so much was because of the cover – I know, “Don’t judge a book by its cover” but this was a good judgement, so it’s acceptable…!

Rating: 4/5

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Procrastination…

~ Natalie Cotterill ~ Leave a comment

I’m writing this quite late at night, having only just decided on the subject of this post. What a surprise – typical me. Ask any of my friends, and they’ll tell you I tend to put things off until the night before… Not good when I have essays and a lot of work for school!

The reason I’m writing this post is because I’m putting off planning chapter seven for my story, which I’m writing for NaNoWriMo… and I’m behind by so many words… and the rest.

What I’m trying to say is that procrastination is not that great, and recently I’ve been trying to make myself do things instead of just sitting playing on my phone and putting them off. It doesn’t always work, but sometimes it helps.

Well, I’m just going to finish some french homework (which I have put off finishing) and listen to some music now!

Autumn!

~ Natalie Cotterill ~ Leave a comment

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So autumn arrived a while ago and it has to be the most beautiful season. It’s not my favourite season, because it’s getting colder (and I don’t cope well with being cold) but I love it when I’m sitting at home or going on a walk. Not so much when I’m sitting in my English classrooms and both of my teachers like open windows and it’s freezing. But still. I went out with my boyfriend the other day to take some pictures of this season because it’s so lovely with all of the colours in the trees. Sadly, it’s nearly winter and every day there are less and less leaves on the trees and more making a gloomy, slippery mess on the pathways. I’m not a winter person, I’d happily hibernate, despite my birthday and christmas being in December!

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Then comes Halloween / Samhain which is fun (apart from the constant ringing of the doorbell – I am the Scrooge of Halloween and never answer) but I do like the idea of dressing up and some of the decorations available are quite cute too. Not that I dressed up or decorated the house. I have such an exciting social life I stayed in planning NaNoWriMo.

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And of course, November has arrived and NaNoWriMo has begun! I’ve decided to try and complete it. I didn’t hear about it that long ago, and I’ve never written anything longer than about 13,000 words, so 50,000 is going to be a huge challenge, especially seeing as I seem to have extended exam questions thrown at me for three of my four subjects, but hey. It’s worth a try. If I complete half then I’ll have written more words for one piece of work than I have before, so that’s something! But I was surprised the other day when I discovered that the book I am currently reading (Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell) was actually written (well, started – it’s really quite long) during NaNoWriMo. That’s inspiring, especially as I bought it ages ago to read because it looked good as opposed to reading it because of it being written during NaNoWriMo! I may do a little review type blog post for it when I finish it (if I ever get time to read). I know it’s a YA, but I like YA novels, the characters are relatable and they’re easier to read than other books, but a lot still have a depth to them which keeps them interesting.

I’ve just realised that I’ve completely gone off topic – this post is titled “Autumn!” so talk about autumn.

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Another great thing about autumn is that chestnuts are back in the supermarket! I love them, I don’t know why, but I do! They’re ridiculously unhealthy because I put loads of salt on them and I always end up with sore fingers from peeling them but they’re so good!

Jumpers are another amazing thing about autumn! I can actually wear jumpers and be the perfect temperature. I love snuggling up in them. Maybe I’m weird, but it’s nice.

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I’m loving scented candles too at the moment, and I think that my obsession came at just the right tine as there’s something about lighting a candle during a dark evening. They make the room seem so cosy and relaxed, which helps when doing homework! And they smell amazing. Which is obviously a bonus!

Anyway, next week won’t be so much rambling… I really should think of specific topics and not something I can veer away from so easily. Bye!

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