Mid Year Book Freak Out Tag

Hi! A book tag again! *laughs manically*

Hem. I was tagged by Kourtni at Kourtni Reads. I’ve seen this book tag on a couple of other blogs and it’s definitely interesting. Lets see what I can come up with then.

Best Book You’ve Read So Far in 2017

I know this isn’t a 2017 book, and I know I’m like a million years late on this one, but I am just in love with Fangirl. I feel like when Rainbow Rowell wrote Fangirl she was writing just for me. I related to Cath on so many levels: from being the last of your friends to still be fandoming, to dealing with anxiety, to watching your best friend  ignore you for alcohol, to taking care of your parent. So many feels, and such beautiful writing!

The College Freshman Book Tag

Created by Little Blind Book Finds. View the original post here.

It’s been ten entire years since I was a freshman in college. Wow. It doesn’t feel like it. I’m not very good at this adulting thing… Anyway, but because I am a teacher and my husband works at a university, I don’t feel all that removed from the college experience, so this book tag really caught my attention. This should be fun!

Rules:

1. Give credit to the creator. (That’s Little Blind Book Finds, y’all.)
2. Answer the questions to the best of your ability! You don’t have to be in college or have gone to college to answer these!
3. Tag three people to complete the tag.

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The Roommate

Roommates can be a hit or miss experience freshman year, especially when you don’t get the opportunity to pick who you room with. Name a character you’d love to be roommates with and one you’d hate to be roommates with.

There are two book characters that I would have loved being roommates with in college. The first is Cath from Fangirl. Cath would be a great roommate because she is low-key, preferring to stay in rather than going out all hours of the night (just like me!), and low maintenance. She would be there to hang out with on a Friday night when everyone else was out partying, but if I needed some space she wouldn’t be desperate for my company. Plus, if we can just pretend Simon Snow is Harry Potter, than we could have been the biggest fangirls of all time together. I don’t know anyone else who loves Harry Potter like I do! The other character who would be a great roommate is Sam Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings. If he took care of me the way he took care of Frodo, I would call myself one lucky hobbit.

I would absolutely never ever want to be roommates with Draco Malfoy. He’s a jerk, he’s a racist, and I would get tired of hearing him talk about himself all the time. And even though his mom was always sending him sweets, I bet he never shared.

5 Reasons to Love Rainbow Rowell

1. Her Books are Magic

The first time I read Eleanor and Park it was like being in love for the first time. It was so vivid, so real. In some ways it was more real than first love, because time has dimmed those memories and feelings. But it was also so gritty, so horrible. It was like reading all of the worst things about being human. Somehow the two blend together to create something … special.

When Rainbow Rowell writes her characters leap off the page. They’re like your best friend, someone you’ve known your whole life, but you still get to go on the emotional adventure of getting to know them. Her stories tug on your heart strings, sometimes tug until they break. I don’t know how to explain it. I’m a reader, not a writer.

Review: Fangirl

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
Maturity Level: 5 (language)
View on Goodreads
Rating: ⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆

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Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan…

But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving. Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words… And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

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How does Rainbow Rowell do it? How does she manage to write novels that are so real? I mean, most of the time when you read a book, even if it’s “realistic fiction” you are aware of the fact that those people aren’t real, and even if a situation is one you yourself have been in you manage to stay somewhat removed. I think that’s often why I enjoy reading. I get away from whatever is going on in my life for just a little while and escape to a place that isn’t real. But when you read a Rainbow Rowell book, it’s like the characters are living and breathing. She perfectly captures everything that is wonderful about life, especially first love, but also everything that is terrible about it. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like magic.