M.E - A Poem

Another different kind of post from me today! This poem was originally posted on my personal blog last year (linky-link) but I figured there might be some readers of this blog who would appreciate it. I wrote this to raise awareness of M.E, the illness I've been living with since 2005. It's a very personal poem as it stems from my own experience of the illness. I hope it gives you a little idea of what it's like to live with M.E.

M.E

Virus, not well, mild frustration,

Missing out my education,

Visit GP, desperation,

Blood tests, waiting, agitation,

Still so sick, a bad sensation,

Return to GP, preparation,

Bloods clear, now what? Anticipation,

Hospital the new location,

See consultant, evaluation,

“You have M.E”, a revelation,

Explains the illness, grabs attention,

I’m not alone, a celebration

List of symptoms, expectation,

“No cure yet though”, hope deflation,

Just more waiting, stirs emotion,

Wiped out, pain, poor concentration,

Sickness, joint pain, bad digestion,

Fatigue, weak muscles, debilitation,

Insomnia, sleep deprivation,

Bedbound, housebound, isolation,

For some comes hospitalisation,

Have to stay strong for duration,

Where’s the help, consideration?

Benefits battle, messed up nation,

Struggle through the registration,

Misunderstood by population,

Media writes words of fiction,

“M.E not real” a fabrication,

Still I fight, no liberation,

Too ill to learn, no graduation,

No job at all, no work promotion,

Charities help, make a donation,

Volunteers at their station,

To help with my incarceration,

Recovery the destination,

For now in my imagination.

Thank you for reading! I appreciate this is different from what I usually post and I hope it doesn't put anyone off. I'd really appreciate you sharing any posts you find useful and educational as the whole aim of M.E Awareness Week is to share the message of what M.E as an illness is really like. Thank you!

New Adult on Total Teen Fiction

Recently I've started to branch out and start reading New Adult, which is something I've been wanting to do for a while. Because of this, I wanted to address the issue of NA here on the blog - what is it? Is it different to YA? What are the common misconceptions? As well as deciding whether or not to review these books here on Total Teen Fiction.

Let's start with the basics!  

What is New Adult? NA (for short) is an age category for books, in the same way that YA (YA is generally 13+) and 9-12 (also known as middle grade) are. NA usually focuses on characters aged 18-25 years old. This means whereas in YA we may see characters dealing with school life, characters in NA might be at college or working. Because of the older age of the characters and intended audience, they can take on a slightly more mature tone than YA books.

What are the common misconceptions? NA has come under fire for being YA with loads of added sex. Obviously with YA being aimed at younger readers, sex is an issue that is touched upon but not in so much detail. NA novels do tend to tackle it a bit more head on but not all NA has sex in it. There's also the expectation that NA is all contemporary romance. This is certainly a genre that is popular within the NA category but, like YA, NA covers all genres from fantasy to romance to paranormal.

When I first started hearing about the rise of NA, I was really excited. As a 22 year old I really want to read about characters my own age and facing similar issues that people my age face. I've recently started downloading some NA titles to my Kindle and can't wait to get stuck in. I think NA and YA have very similar audiences and writing styles and so would appeal to a lot of the same readers. For that reason, I am planning to feature NA reviews on the blog. I hope you'll all be as excited as me about the great books I have lined up!

Total Teen Fiction will always remain a predominantly YA blog and I will state in my NA reviews what issues the books deal with an any mature themes so that people can make an informed choice as to whether that book is for them or not. But in the same way that I read and review the occasional middle grade or children's book, I will also feature NA. I'm a firm believer that age is irrelevant when it comes to reading choices. I spent my teens reading grizzly crime fiction that contained much more shocking stuff than anything I've seen crop up in NA so far! What you read is always a personal choice.

I hope this post has made things a little clearer and feel free to shoot me any questions in the comments!

For more information about New Adult I highly recommend the following links:
The New Adult Book Club - Goodreads
"New Adult books - What they are, why i love them and why you should read them" - Bookish Treasures
NA Alley
"New Adult fiction is the hot new category in books" - USA Today

Another Post About Google Reader and Bloglovin!

If you read a lot of blogs (like I do) you'll have noticed a wealth of people posting about the closure of Google Reader. I'm not entirely sure what the consequences will be to my GFC followers when it shuts down on 1st July, but if you use Google Reader to keep up with your blogs then you'll definitely need to find an alternative.

As a reader of blogs myself, I decided to sign up for Bloglovin' on the recommendation of Lucy over at Queen of Contemporary. After a few days of playing about with it I've decided it's the site for me! So I wanted to do a little blog about it to explain how it works.

It's free to sign up (you'll need an account by either logging in with an email or your Facebook account) and once you're on there, you can start following blogs either by searching manually or by importing your blogs from Google Reader. (It took me a few goes to import my blogs but then I realised you just need to be logged into the right Google account when you try and import them - duh!).

Once you've followed a few blogs they'll start showing up in your feed on the home page. Unread posts are marked and they'll switch to read once you've clicked through to read the post, or you can manually mark them as read. This makes it super easy to keep up the latest posts. I would definitely recommend downloading the app which is really handy for reading on the go. I use my iPod touch a lot for checking things like Twitter and I'll now be adding Bloglovin' into that routine. You can also "like" posts which makes it really easy to go back and find posts you want to remember or look up again.

What's great is that it works for both Blogger and Wordpress blogs so now I can follow them all in one place - hurrah!

If you want to get ahead of the game before Google reader closes then you can now follow Total Teen Fiction on Bloglovin'. There's a button in the sidebar over there ---> or you can find the blog at the following link:

Total Teen Fiction on Bloglovin'

If you're looking for other ways to keep up with my posts in future then I also use NetworkedBlogs which is another alternative. Again it's easy to follow blogs and have them all in one place. You sign up using your Facebook account. You can find Total Teen Fiction on NetworkedBlogs here:

Total Teen Fiction on NetworkedBlogs

But don't panic! I still link all my posts to Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr as well as adding all my reviews to Goodreads, so it won't be too hard to track me down!

I hope that's made things fairly clear. I was totally confused by all the Google Reader talk because I'm not that up on my tech, but basically looking for a new way to read blogs is sounding like a sensible idea right now. Do you have any other recommendations for ways to keep up with your favourite blogs? Let me know in the comments because I'd love to check them out! If this post has confuzzled you then let me know that too and I'll do my best to make it clearer.

Thank you so much for following and supporting Total Teen Fiction. You're all awesome!

Review: Amazon Kindle

I've been considering getting an e-reader for a while and when Amazon discounted the basic Kindle for one day only last week, I seized the opportunity! In this post I'll be giving a review of the Kindle and talking about how I've got on with it after a week of being a Kindle owner. Enjoy!

Setting up: I was so pleased with how easy it was to set up the Kindle. It was already linked to my Amazon account when it arrived so all I had to do was switch it on and connect it to my home wifi - all of which took about 2 minutes! The user guide is loaded on to the Kindle already, along with 2 dictionaries and a welcome message. If you've bought anything from the Kindle store before to read on another device (I had Kindle books on my iPod) you can access them from "archived items" and load them on to your new Kindle which was super easy. In the box is the USB cable which you use to charge the device via your computer and transfer any items you want to put on manually. The only problem I had dragging and dropping items on to the Kindle was when I didn't drop them into the "documents" folder and they didn't appear. Once I moved them I was good to go!


Using the Kindle: The basic e-ink wifi Kindle doesn't have a touchscreen, but uses a five way button at the bottom of the device and page turning buttons on the side. There's a home button, a back button, a menu button and a keyboard button which brings up an on-screen keyboard which you navigate using the five way button. The on/off switch is at the bottom next to the USB port. The page turn buttons are ideally placed (they're also available on either side of the device) and it's so easy to get to the next page. Comparing it to touchscreen e-readers I've used in the past, it's an awful lot easier as you don't end up accidentally double tapping and turning two pages! My main worry was how tricky typing would be but the layout of the on-screen keyboard is quite easy to get around and it hasn't been too problematic. When you're browsing the Kindle store and want to search for something specific, it comes up with a list of options based on what you type as soon as you start inputting letters. This is an absolute lifesaver because usually I've only had to type in three or four letters before the option I want has come up - then you only need to select it!

Extra features: My favourite feature on the Kindle is being able to create "collections" which are sort of like Goodreads shelves! This makes it easier to organise your books and find them when you're looking for something particular. I've created a currently reading, read and to-read collection, as well as sorting books by genre/type and having my freebies all in one place. The Kindle allows you to bookmark and add notes or search the book by hitting the menu button whilst reading. I haven't tested these features out yet but it'd be great if you want to made a note of something or be able to find a certain part of a book.



The books: I've already been taking advantage of the Kindle store on my iPod but now I have a Kindle I've gone a little crazy. There are plenty of free books available on the Kindle store and getting them on your Kindle is really simple. You can either shop on the device by hitting the menu button and accessing the Kindle store that way. If your device is in aeroplane mode you'll need to make sure you turn on the wifi but if you try and do it whilst your wifi is off then it comes up with a message asking if you'd like to switch it on anyway. You can also use your computer to send books to your Kindle. They'll get there immediately if you have your device on and connected to the internet. If not then the next time your device is connected it'll start downloading it for you. I'd recommend checking out the bestselling list on Amazon daily as sometimes books are free for a short period of time. Signing up to the Kindle Daily Deals email is great too, to be alerted of items on offer for 99p for one day only. I also use Smashwords to get hold of free books.

Accessories: You'll probably need a case to put your Kindle in to keep it safe, even if you're not going to take it out and about. I managed to find one for under £7 on Amazon (I got this one here) and it's fantastic! Really good quality for the price and lets you have access to all the buttons and the USB port. Wall socket chargers are available from Amazon if you'd rather charge that way that via USB, but e-ink devices have a great battery life, just be sure to turn the wifi off when you're not using it.

Niggles: So far there's only a few things that have bothered me with the Kindle. One is that I realised after a few days that I hadn't been turning it off, I'd just been putting it on sleep mode! To fully turn off the Kindle you have to hold the on/off switch down for a long time which is sometimes a bit fiddly. If your finger slips off the button then you just end up putting it in sleep mode and having to start again. The other disappointment was not being able to borrow books from the lending library. I was hoping I'd be able to as I use Amazon Prime but I'm not the paying member, I'm a guest on somebody else's account, so whilst I can take advantage of the free next day delivery, I can't borrow books from the Kindle store.

Price: £69
Buy: Amazon|Waterstone's|Tesco|Argos

2013 Book to Film Adaptations

I recently came across this great article about the book to film adaptations coming out in 2013. This year some of my favourite books will make their film debut. I adore going to the cinema anyway so what could be better than combining two of my favourite things! In this post I discuss which films I'm excited to see and which books I still need to check out before the films come out (I always like reading the book first!). Enjoy.

Most Anticipated

City of Bones
(Cassandra Clare)
 

I'm a huge fan of Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series so I'm completely giddy about the film adaptation coming out this year! The first trailer already tickled my taste buds. 

Starring: Lily Colins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Robert Sheehan

 Released: 23rd August 2013

Read my review of City of Bones
Watch the trailer

Beautiful Creatures
(Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl)
 

I read the book last year after seeing the film trailer. I really loved the characters and it looks like the film adaptation is going to really do justice to the magic in the story!

Starring: Alden Ehrenreich, Alice Englert, Viola Davis, Jeremy Irons, Emma Thompson and Emmy Rossum 

Released: 13th February 2013
Read my review of Beautiful Creatures
Watch the trailer

Catching Fire
(Suzanne Collins)

I love The Hunger Games trilogy and the first film blew me away with how great the acting was and how faithful they were to the book. Catching Fire is my favourite book from the trilogy so I'm really excited to see how the film lives up to it!

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson

Released: 22nd August 2013
Read my review of Catching Fire

Books I need to Read!

The Host 
(Stephanie Meyer)

I'm still yet to read Twilight but I've heard better things about this book. With the film coming out this year it might just tempt me!

Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Max Irons and Diane Kruger

Released: 29th March
Find out more about the book on Goodreads 
Watch the trailer

The Seventh Son
(The Spook's Apprentice by Joseph Delaney)

This has been on my to-read list for a while after I saw it described as a book for Harry Potter fans. The film adaptation will be released under the title The Seventh Son.

Starring: Ben Barnes, Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore
Released: 18th October 2013
Find out more about the book on Goodreads

Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters
(Rick Riordan)

I read the first Percy Jackson book last year and enjoyed it! Haven't got round to seeing the film yet (I've heard not so good things about it) but might have to get round to watching that and reading the book before this film is released!

Released: 16th August 2013
Starring: Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario and Brandon T. Jackson
Find out about the book on Goodreads

Which 2013 film releases are you most looking forward to? Have you read any of these books? Let me know in the comments!

YA Book Playlist

Recently I've heard a few songs on the radio and thought "ooh that reminds me of that book!" so I decided to put together a little collection of songs and the books I think they go with. Enjoy!

Book: Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Song: Beneath Your Beautiful by Labrinth and Emile Sande

This was one of those songs I heard and automatically thought of the book. I just love it! It has such beautiful lyrics and I reckon it's perfect for Echo and Noah.

Book: Before I Die by Jenny Downham

Songs: Knockin' on Heaven's Door by Avril Lavigne

I Know You Care by Ellie Goulding

I picked two for this book. The first one is a cover version I've always loved by Avril Lavigne. I think it sets the mood just right.

This song by Ellie Goulding was used in the film adaption of Before I Die (Now Is Good). I still haven't seen the film but I love this song!

Book: Wonder by R.J. Palcio

Song: Wonder by Naughty Boy ft Emilie Sande

Okay this one is totally obvious because they share a title, but I think it fits in with the book too! It's such a positive, uplifting song.

Book: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Song: Girl on Fire by Alicia Keys
 

Another obvious one based on the title! But a great, feisty song for the girl on fire herself, Katniss.

 

Book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

Song: Stay by Hurts

This song always makes me feel of the Ron leaving scene in Deathly Hallows and Hermione's reaction. It sums up their relationship in general pretty well too. Great lyrics.

 Book: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Song: I Can't Speak French by Girls Aloud

Because all the songs above were quite emotional ones I wanted to throw in something fun!

 

I might do this again some time because I loved getting all these songs together, and I'm sure there's loads I missed out! Is there a song that makes you think of your favourite book/characters? Let me know in the comments! :)

NaNoWriMo: Day One!

It has begun! November is National Novel Writing Month - also known as NaNoWriMo. The aim is write 50,000 words in 30 days and it is brilliant and terrifying at the same time! Last year I managed it in half the time, only I had a lot less on my plate and I was a lot better at planning... But I'm back again and we shall see how it goes!

This year I'll be writing (or aiming to write!) a YA contemporary novel called Regret. My love of YA is something that crosses over into my writing, too!

I'll be keeping track of my progress on the blog, mainly because it will become my focus over the next month! I still have reviews to post so those will carry on.

If you're taking part in NaNo then you can add me as a writing buddy here: My NaNo profile.

I've added a word count count widget to the side of the blog so you'll be able to see my progress. Day one has seen me write 2000 words (so far!).

Good luck to everyone else taking part!

My Bookshelves

So I mentioned in my round up this week that I was getting new bookshelves, and so I've decided to dedicate a whole blog post to them! Here's a little tour.

New bookshelves - hurrah!

I'm still rejigging things a bit because I'd like some kind of order to them eventually, but right now the focus is on them not being piled up everywhere... As I've mentioned a lot, most of the books I review for my blog come from the library. It's a good think I have to return them because I managed to fill this bookcase pretty quickly (oops!). I've dedicated my top shelf to YA <3



I've reviewed most of these!

I'm thinking I'm going to have to start investing in more Flipbacks because a) I love them and b) they're certainly a lot easier to store!




My much loved Flipbacks



I'm a huge Jodi Picoult fan as this shelf somewhat demonstrates...



My new Jodi Picoult section!



These are my wall shelves, which look a lot neater now I've offloaded some of the books to my new shelf. Of course organising my books is an awful lot harder when one entire bookshelf of mine is dedicated to Harry Potter, but I wouldn't have it any other way <3

The bottom shelf here is my Potter shelf, which includes French copies of all 7 books

Do you have the same trouble storing your books?

Bookmarks!

 Bookmarks! I love bookmarks. I realised lately that my supply of bookmarks is becoming somewhat of a hoard. I couldn't live without them, though. Ever since I banished my page folding days and became obsessive about looking after my books (I hate breaking the spine - I've had people comment that my books don't look read!) I always make sure I have a bookmark on hand.

So for this post I thought I'd share some of my favourite bookmarks!

 

London 2012 has been everywhere recently, and when I wasn't watching the Games I was, of course, reading. I picked these up whilst in London for the Olympics. The bookmark on the right came free from Foyles. Love that shop! The Team GB one has had the most use. Nothing like supporting your team whilst enjoying a good book.

 

Promotional bookmarks! I got the top one free in a book I bought and the bottom one came free with a review copy book I was sent.

 

And of course bookmarks make great gifts! The above bookmarks were presents from friends. Aren't they cute?! I love using the Expecto Patronum one with a Harry Potter book. Makes it even more magical.

Of course, makeshift bookmarks have to do sometime. I've found the ultimate makeshift bookmark is the print out from the library machine. When I take books out it gives me the option to take a receipt which has the return date on. If I use that as a bookmark then I never forget when to take it back! I've never had a late fine so it must be working.

Do you use bookmarks or are you a page folder? Maybe you're like a certain family member of mine who just leaves the book open, turned over on the sofa arm? (I disapprove of this...) What are your favourite bookmarks? Let me know in the comments.

Back to Blogging!

Hi everyone! I'm back from my summer holiday so just wanted to update my lovely readers and let you know that regular blogging will resume as soon as possible - hurrah!

I'll post a proper post on Sunday documenting all the book news I have from over the past 2 weeks (I have SO much to talk about) and reviews will start appearing regularly again, too.

Thank you so much for your patience and for continuing to visit the blog!

Sarah x

My Blogging Journey

This blog has been up and running for a few months now and so I thought it would be nice to share a little bit more about how it came to be! This is my book blogging story.

Although I started this blog only recently, I'm not new to blogging or to reading and reviewing books. For over a year and a half I've been using Goodreads, which is one of my favourite websites ever. The longer I was on that site, the more detailed my reviews became. What started out as a few sentences slowly grew into a few paragraphs. But I still wasn't ready to take the leap into book blogging.

Last year I started my own personal blog. I often found myself needing to express myself in ways I couldn't quite fit into a 140 character tweet. I began using that to share my thoughts and to raise awareness of M.E, an illness I've lived with for nearly 7 years. I saw what a great way it was to reach people and it was good having a place to go when I needed to share my feelings.

I've always loved teen fiction. It's my ultimate comfort genre and where I'm happiest as a reader. There's a slightly deeper level to it as well. My health problems mean I struggle with concentration and memory, which isn't the most helpful when you love reading! Whilst there are plenty of adult novels and genres I love, sometimes I just find them too hard to read. I love that teen fiction can be exciting, gripping and deal with the most poignant issues, but without you having to wade through heavy, dense text to unravel them. That doesn't mean there isn't brilliant, innovative writing in YA because there is. There really is. But sometimes when your brain is all fuddled and reading is hard, you want those books you can slip into like a worn pair of slippers. YA is that kind of genre to me.

I love so much about YA and over the past few years I realised just how passionate I was. When friends asked me for book recommendations I would always pick a YA title I had read recently. I loved seeing people enjoy books that I'd recommended to them. I think sharing my love of books and reading amongst my friends is one of the most fulfilling parts of those friendships. And that's when I realised that I could do this. I could start a book blog.

It had always been something I'd been a little intimidated by before. I didn't know if I could write a review worthy enough to stand on its own in a blog post, that people would enjoy reading. I didn't know if I'd be able to read enough to maintain a blog. Reading is still something I struggle with because it takes a lot of energy and time. Because of my health issues I have to take regular breaks between reading to rest. I get headaches, I can't concentrate for long and I have a very limited supply of energy. I'm not a naturally fast reader. But it's still my passion. It means it's even more worth it when I finish a book because I feel like it's an achievement - because to me it is! There have been times over the past few years where I haven't actually been well enough to read. Having one of life's greatest pleasures taken away from me in the past makes it something that's even more precious to me now.

For me blogging has become something for me to focus on and in the short time I've been blogging, it's become one of the most important things in my day to day life. I regret not starting this blog sooner! I can't wait to carry on blogging and sharing my books and discoveries with you all. I love reading other book blogs and becoming part of the community of bloggers out there. Discovering new books to read on other people's blogs has been one of the best things about starting my own! I constantly find myself inspired to write new posts and share things on Twitter with fellow readers. I want to thank everyone who's visited TTF so far and made this experience such a good one! I can't wait to carry on blogging and chatting with you all.

Thanks for reading and keep checking back for more reviews!

Sarah x

Holiday time!

Hi everyone! I just wanted to update you on what will be happening for the next few weeks. It's summer which means holidays are calling!  Apologies if the blog goes a little quiet. Normal blogging service will be resumed when I get back in a few weeks.

I've got a few drafts saved which I will schedule. Blogger being technology and technology being tempremental (none of my scheduled posts in the past have ever posted *grumble*) I have a few back up plans to make sure something will appear whilst I'm away. Fingers crossed! I'll reply to emails and comments when I get back :)

To tickle your tasetebuds, upcoming blog posts include my reviews of Hush, Hush and Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, as well as a few opinion posts. My Friday Finds post will go up tomorrow as usual, too.

I'll still be on Twitter whilst I'm away (addicted) so keep up with me on there! @TotalTeenFic

I hope you all have a great summer of reading, enjoy the Olympic games and I'll see you again soon!

Sarah x