SUMMER READING LIST

The module portion of my Masters is over! It's a bittersweet feeling for many reasons, but it does mean that I no longer have academic reading lists longer than my arms to get through each week, so this summer I can finally get back into reading for fun regularly!

I'm putting myself on a strict budget this summer because I don't want to be working too much while I'm writing my dissertation, and that means I'm going to be (mostly) limiting myself to books that I already own but haven't gotten around to reading yet. Fortunately, I have twelve of those with me in York, so this summer I'm determined to get round to all of them!

TIPS FOR TACKLING CREATIVE ANXIETY

One of my very favourite bloggers, the lovely Bee over at VIVATRAMP, did a post quite some time ago about getting rid of creative anxiety, and it's helped me to this day. If you have any sort of creative endeavour at all: writing, painting, blogging... making tiny models of politicians out of plasticine and making them have debates, you'll know that sometimes our creative process becomes stifled with doubts, and our ability to do and make the things we love grinds to a halt. Having dealt with this plenty over the years I thought I'd spread the love as a fellow creative person and share my own tips for tackling fears and worries relating to creativity.

BOOK REVIEW | THE CRUEL PRINCE BY HOLLY BLACK

Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.

I am not normally a YA fantasy reader. I really enjoy children's fantasy, but YA just never quite seems to push my buttons but, in the middle of a stressful few weeks of my MA, I just felt like I wanted something fun and low stakes to read. So I just picked up the first YA fantasy book that caught my eye and I'm really glad that I did. 

This novel centres around Jude, a mortal taken with her siblings to be raised in fairyland for reasons I won't spoil. The Fairy Folk aren't the cutesy twinkly flower garden type, this fairyland is full of war, politics, drunken parties and trickery. Think the Artemis Fowl Faeries with an overlay of Game of Thrones. We follow Jude as she navigates growing up mortal, and therefore considered lesser, as she tries to establish herself in a land to which she does not belong.

SPRINGTIME IN ROME

I've been drowning under the weight of academic work recently and, as a result, my blogging has slowed down. Fortunately my essays are all completed now, so I finally have some time to share my adventures in Rome last week.

Alex and I haven't seen too much of each other recently. Not surprising given that we currently live many hours drive/train away and are both busy people, but we decided to celebrate a little milestone together by taking a trip to Rome. Alex organised most of it and came up trumps with a gorgeous little B&B just outside the heart of the city. We were just a walk or short metro ride from almost everything that Rome has to offer, and could spend cosy evenings in peace and quiet.