I'm going to college soon and I've had some difficulty finding books about starting college or even about college life. So, naturally, being the blogger that I am, I decided to make a list of books about college that I've read. I've asked Mari to help because this is quite a difficult reading list to make.

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?

How in the world do you have a college reading list and not include Fangirl? Frankly, you don't. This is probably my favourite book of this list and stuff like move-in day really resonates with me. It's a book I'm going to keep in mind when things go wrong, and I think it's a must read for any college bound student.

Congratulations! You have been admitted to the most prestigious university in the world. Now what are you going to do?

Callie Andrews may not have money or connections or the right clothes, and she may have way too many complications in her love life, what with

Gregory
the guy she loves to hate ...

Evan
the guy she'd love to forget ...

Clint
the guy she'd love to love ...

and Matt
the guy she really should love ...

all vying for her attention.

But she has three fantastic roommates (best friends or her worst nightmare?) and a wholesome California-girl reputation (oops) and brains and beauty and big, big dreams.

Will it be enough to help her survive freshman year at Harvard?

I'm hoping against hope that this isn't what college will be like. It's fun to read about, (and I did give this one to a friend a while back) but I wouldn't want to live like Callie does. Except, well, going to Harvard sounds super cool. I'm just not too crazy about the party lifestyle, although my future school does have a bit of a reputation seeing as the legal drinking age is 18... I guess I'll have to remember that four boys is way too many. I'll be reasonable and pick three. :)

For Erin Blackwell, majoring in creative writing at the New York City college of her dreams is more than a chance to fulfill her ambitions--it's her ticket away from the tragic memories that shadow her family's racehorse farm in Kentucky. But when she refuses to major in business and take over the farm herself someday, her grandmother gives Erin's college tuition and promised inheritance to their maddeningly handsome stable boy, Hunter Allen. Now Erin has to win an internship and work late nights at a coffee shop to make her own dreams a reality. She should despise Hunter . . . so why does he sneak into her thoughts as the hero of her latest writing assignment?

Then, on the day she's sharing that assignment with her class, Hunter walks in. He's joining her class. And after he reads about himself in her story, her private fantasies about him must be painfully clear. She only hopes to persuade him not to reveal her secret to everyone else. But Hunter devises his own creative revenge, writing sexy stories that drive the whole class wild with curiosity and fill Erin's heart with longing. Now she's not just imagining what might have been. She's writing a whole new ending for her romance with Hunter. . . . except this story could come true.

This book is strange in the sense that it's exactly what I would want: a business major that is paid for, but I guess Erin would rather write. There's nothing wrong with that, except that I'm incredibly jealous of her. Ahem. Anyway, this one is much more of a romance, and I liked it when I read it. It's not a story very relevant to my situation, so it may not be all that useful for college.

After everything that happened—my first boyfriend, my first time, my first breakup—jumping back into the dating game seemed like the least healthy thing I could do. It’s not that I didn’t want to fall in love again, since that’s about the best feeling ever. But as a busy college premed still raw from heartbreak, which is the worst feeling ever, I figured I’d lie low for a while. Of course, as soon as I stopped looking for someone, an impossibly amazing—and devastatingly cute—guy came along, and I learned that having a new boyfriend is the quickest way to recover from losing your old one.
The moment we got together, all my preconceptions about romance and sex were turned upside down. I discovered physical and emotional firsts I never knew existed. I learned to let go of my past by living in the present. It was thrilling. It was hot. It was just what the doctor ordered.
But I couldn’t avoid my future forever.
In Daria Snadowsky’s daring follow-up to Anatomy of a Boyfriend, eighteen-year-old Dominique explores the relationship between love and lust, and the friendships that see us through.

This one is for all those pre-med wanna be's out there (I'm one). This one is a fun look at university from the perspective of a freshy after she gets past the introductory lessons and heart breaks. This one focuses a lot on the sexual relationships that arise as the characters depart from their parents and grow into adults who can decide for themselves and then also pay for the consequences on their own. An interesting outlook and a fun read.

When Jacqueline follows her longtime boyfriend to the college of his choice, the last thing she expects is a breakup two months into sophomore year. After two weeks in shock, she wakes up to her new reality: she's single, attending a state university instead of a music conservatory, ignored by her former circle of friends, and failing a class for the first time in her life.
Leaving a party alone, Jacqueline is assaulted by her ex's frat brother. Rescued by a stranger who seems to be in the right place at the right time, she wants nothing more than to forget the attack and that night - but her savior, Lucas, sits on the back row of her econ class, sketching in a notebook and staring at her. Her friends nominate him to be the perfect rebound.
When her attacker turns stalker, Jacqueline has a choice: crumple in defeat or learn to fight back. Lucas remains protective, but he's hiding secrets of his own. Suddenly appearances are everything, and knowing who to trust is anything but easy.
This was the first and one of the only NA novels I loved. Easy is set in a university environment and captures many details of university life which makes a curious Mari very happy. There are dorms and lectures and TA's! I really enjoyed this one not only does it tell an interesting story with some darkness in the edges but it also highlights university life in a way not many other books do.

Allyson Healey's life is exactly like her suitcase—packed, planned, ordered. Then on the last day of her three-week post-graduation European tour, she meets Willem. A free-spirited, roving actor, Willem is everything she’s not, and when he invites her to abandon her plans and come to Paris with him, Allyson says yes. This uncharacteristic decision leads to a day of risk and romance, liberation and intimacy: 24 hours that will transform Allyson’s life.
A book about love, heartbreak, travel, identity, and the “accidents” of fate, Just One Day shows us how sometimes in order to get found, you first have to get lost. . . and how often the people we are seeking are much closer than we know.
The first in a sweepingly romantic duet of novels. Willem’s story—Just One Year—is coming soon!

Just One Day isn't my favourite of Gayle Foreman's work but it does stand on its own. I really liked seeing the healing and growth process that the main character went through after her initial "day". Also, one thing that I think this book carried through quite well is that everything doesn't always go as planned because life cannot be lined up in a perfect row and planned out. Things change, people change and we have to be able to see that. (So deep :P)

What's On Your College Reading list?

-P.E. and MARI

Author: Rainbow Rowell
Date of Publication: September 10 2013
Pages: 445
Source: Librarian (thanks!)

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?

Goodreads

Review:

Fangirl is my first Rainbow Rowell read, and another foray into a genre I don't usually seek out: contemporary. I liked a lot of the story but there were also some parts that weren't to my liking.

The ending, for example, felt abrupt. There wasn't a clear problem so the story kind of went along for a while, and although there were positives to this sort of plot, it made the ending weak. It was like the story was fading already, so the point at which it faded was arbitrary. I suppose that's the first thing about Fangirl that I like and don't like. The plot just seems to go on and on about Cath's life. It's totally intentional, but if you don't like Cath or the writing style, the plot of Fangirl won't save you. It's definitely one of those stories that's about the process, not the ending.

I was pretty happy that I liked the writing style almost instantly, and grew to like Cath. I'm going to university next year and I don't know where I'm going, and it's hard to find books about this. I thought the beginning of Fangirl was perfect because it captured the excitement and the terror of moving out (at least the way I imagine it). I think what was so powerful about Fangirl, what drew me in right away, was that I believe everyone has a bit of Cath inside of them. It's so easy to relate to Cath because awkward moments are everywhere, and sometimes I do wish people would just go away, and maybe I am terrified to go to the dining hall too. She was a character that had a clear personality, but someone I could relate with so well, and I enjoyed experiencing the world through her eyes.

The character development in Fangirl is phenomenal. I mentioned that the plot wasn't the biggest highlight. I have this philosophy that if the plot isn't going to be good, the characters have to be, and this was absolutely true for Fangirl. Have you ever looked at a person and wondered about all the little things that make them who they are? My sister, for example, always wears a headband and hates hair in her eyes. It's a really tiny thing about her, but I notice it because I am her sister and I know her in a way most people will never know. That was how Rainbow Rowell treated her characters. They were like people with mannerisms that she was describing, and she really nailed their essence. The weren't just words on a page- they had a presence, and I loved it. It made Fangirl much more real and Cath's interactions so fascinating.

A byproduct of the fantastic characterization were the fantastic relationships. For example, Reaghan was Cath's roommate. Reaghan was a little bit scary, a little gruff, frowned a lot, had a history and a life outside of Cath. Somehow, she was perfect for Cath. She took Cath under her wing and she sometimes said some mean things, but she said them with love. Their relationship developed from two strangers sharing a room to friends. All the relationships developed like this: slowly, and carefully. The character was introduced, and slowly they became more integrated into Cath's orbit (or not).

I don't know how I got through this review without mentioning the actual fangirling part. Cath is an enormous fan of a series that resembles Harry Potter. She writes incredibly popular fan fiction and she is in the process of writing Carry On, which is like the eighth book in the series (before the actual eighth book comes out). Cath loves her fictional world and it's constantly in the back of her mind. It's a lot like her comfort blanket and it's a part of who she is. Obviously, I can relate in many ways seeing as I write in a blog and get vaguely (okay, fine, totally) obsessive about anything I really care about. It was cool that at the start of every chapter there was a little bit of media that kind of introduced the reader to Cath's favourite fictional world.

Furthermore, I enjoyed Cath's fan fiction, and the way that she felt about it. There was a conversation Cath had with some random at what I think was a library, and she basically met another Simon Snow fan, and the two were talking and this conversation just felt so real because this is how I've made many friends- by fangirling. Anyway, it's a huge part of the novel and Rainbow Rowell explains it quite well. Fandoms have become infinitely more popular in the last few years and there's a whole generation of Beliebers and Directioners ready to be set loose on the world. I would be curious to read a book about them now, but I digress.

The best way to describe Fangirl is that it's a book about life. More specifically, it's about the life of Cath, a fan fiction writer and an English major. A lot happens, because it's her life, but I don't think there is a clear cut story. Fangirl is awesome if you have ever wondered what life is like as someone else. Sometimes, it feels a little slow, and other times the moments are so perfect it's like you're living them. Either way, I enjoyed this glimpse into another world and will be looking forward to reading more by Rainbow Rowell.

-P.E.