Study Blogging?

Recently I wrote a post about the fact I've not been reading much, and therefore don't have much to review, so I've been at a bit of a loss for blog post ideas. Since writing that post I have discovered a side of tumblr that called themselves 'studyblr' or 'studyspo' and had a bit of a brainwave that, particularly through exam season, I could become, at least in part, a study blog. 

It's my guess that the kind of people who are into book blogging are probably very similar to the type of people who are into study blogging so I thought it might be a good way to keep this blog active while continuing to work hard for my last year of school. I've got a few ideas for posts so far such as things that keep me motivated to study and my study essentials but if you have any requests feel free to leave me a comment or to tweet me @abookandabrew to let me know.

I'm excited about this progression for A Book And A Brew and I'm excited to get back into blogging again! Let me know what you think of this new development. I'm also using studyblr to keep me motivated so follow me on tumblr if you'd like to do the same!

Lucy x

I Haven't Forgotten About You, A Book And A Brew

It's been a while since I last wrote something to go here. I think about writing something for this blog a lot, but as usual life is a little busy at the moment due to school work which means I don't have much time to read and since this is usually my space for reviewing what I've read, I find I don't have anything to write about.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still reading. I'm just not reading much (we're talking like a book every 3 weeks or so here) and what I am reading doesn't seem like the type of thing you'd be interested in reading a review about. While there may be a select few of you interested in what I've been reading that relates to my History A2/A Level course, I'm sure the majority don't have any particularly strong feelings towards books about Nazi Germany or Britain during the 1900s.

I guess I just wanted to update you a little bit and let you know that although there's not many words appearing on here, I've not forgotten about or given up on this blog at all. I know things are going to be a little crazy from now until the summer but I assure you that I will post what I can, when I can.

If there are any other types of posts you'd like to see in the meantime feel free to leave me suggestions below! And if you're missing blog posts feel free to go over to twitter.com/abookandabrew and say hi/nag me to write something!

Lucy x

Reading Resolutions 2015

Back in 2013 I attempted the 50 books challenge and, despite not finishing it, did pretty well. In 2014 I aimed to read 30 books throughout the year, a smaller number because I was aware of the reading I'd have to do for school and that I have much less time meaning 50 books was not a realistic goal. For 2015 I've decided to do things slightly differently.

I have set my goodreads goal to 20. A fairly low number that I know I will achieve. 2015 will not be about how many books I read cover to cover, that's not the type of reader I want to be. Instead I've set up a few reading goals or resolutions for myself to make sure my love of reading perseveres throughout the stressful year that lies ahead for me.

Read at least one book every other month just because you want to read it. Last year I found that throughout term time I wasn't really reading anything because I wanted to read it. I have found myself ridiculously far behind on ebooks I've been sent and my tbr pile seems to be growing by the minute. So many things to read just makes me feel a little over whelmed and that just takes the excitement out of reading. Reading is something I enjoy and I plan to remind myself of this by not depriving myself a little bit of YA every now and then, despite it not being on the syllabus for any of my subjects.

Utilise time: read on the bus! I find that when I get home from school at 5pm and have work that needs to be done for the next day I just can't motivate myself to read before I go to sleep. I do, however, have about 40 minutes of time on the bus on the way home from school every day that is usually spent doing nothing more than staring blankly out of the window. Using this time to read has worked in the past and could make a big difference to how much reading I can get done.

Don't finish bad books. I have a real habit of finishing bad books just because I want to add them to be 'read' pile on good reads. Next year if I get more than halfway through the book I am going to allow myself to mark it as read, meaning hopefully I can spend more time reading good books, time currently spent finishing bad ones.

While I am sure I will still have a little voice in the back of my mind saying to read more because I've not read enough, I'm going to try and stick to these and remind myself of them though 2015.

Do you have any reading goals or resolutions for 2015? Are you attempting the 50 books challenge? Let me know in the comments below!

Lucy x  

I Failed At NaNoWriMo

When I wrote the post saying I was attempting NaNoWriMo a few weeks ago, I really didn't want to have to write this post. But alas, the typical thing happened and life got in the way and everything just got far more hectic than it was in October, meaning I failed rather miserably.

Although technically I failed as I didn't even reach 10,000 wor

ds, I'm still pretty proud of the fact I planned out a novel and wrote just short of 10,000 words of it. I think that alone is an achievement in itself, especially as that was almost exclusively written in the first week or so of November. After that everything got a little too busy and I wasn't able to write much at all and when I did have time I was too tired but these things happen.

Technically, yes, I failed, but I'm not really thinking of it like that. I wrote nearly 10,000 words that I wouldn't have written had I not attempted NaNoWriMo and since the whole idea of it is to get people writing more than they would normally, I would consider that something at least.

Did any of you manage to complete NaNoWriMo? If you did, I applaud you. It is no easy feet.

Lucy x

NaNoWriMo

For those of you who may not have heard of NaNoWriMo before, it is 'National Novel Writing Month' and the aim is to write 50,000 words in the month of November. For more information check the website here.

Back in 2012 I attempted NaNoWriMo and it's safe to say it didn't exactly go to plan. I didn't even get a fifth of the way through the word goal and if I remember rightly my story was, to be quite honest, horrendous. While I wanted to attempted it the following year I was just too busy and I knew there was no point even trying it, as I did not physically have the time to write due to school being pretty hectic at the time.

But that leads us to this year, where I have a lot more time and have found friends who also thought it would be fun to attempt NaNoWriMo 2014 so after a few conversations about it and setting up a Facebook chat between the three of us, we have decided to do it and motivate each other. I think one of the issues I had back in 2012 is that no one knew I was doing it, meaning I had no one to motivate me when I was finding it difficult to write. I was so worried about not finishing it that I decided the best option was to not tell anyone I'd started it. This year I've decided that I'm not going to do that. While it would be annoying if I don't manage to finish it, that's not the point for me. I love to write, as you can probably tell my the fact I run four separate blogs, but I've never seriously attempted writing something as long as a novel, so this will be a very new experience for me!

If you're looking for a writing buddy, feel free to add me as one!

Have you done NaNoWriMo before? Are you attempting it this year? If you've got any tips for me leave them below! I have a feeling I'll need them!

Lucy x

5 Fun Facts About A Book And A Brew!

As it's been a busy few weeks and I've not got much reading done, I don't have a book review for you today. I thought instead I'd do a different kind of post for a change and realised there are a few things you may not know about A Book And A Brew. So here we go! I present to you some fun facts you may not have known about A Book And A Brew!

1) If you comment on my blog, I will without a doubt check out your blog.

As I'm still at a stage where my blog is relatively small in the blogosphere I don't get many comments on what I post. This means I have the time to have a little nosey look at who is commenting on my blog and what their blog is like. Very often I will then proceed to follow them on bloglovin so if you want a new follower on there and think I'd like your blog, leave me a subtle comment some time! (Or just a very obvious one below telling me you think I'd like your blog and we should be friends either works)

2) This is not my only spot on the internet.

Something that may come as a bit of a surprise is that this is not my only blog. I have a few other ones such as my personal/lifestyle blog lucytregidon and my beauty blog itslucyslook. Some of you may wonder why I don't just throw everything in together on one blog but I've found as a reader of other blogs I am often far more interested in one style of post. I may enjoy someone's book reviews but not be quite so fond of their beauty posts. That's why I like to keep things separate, so people know where they stand with each blog! I'm also a musician and as such have a YouTube channel. I don't upload videos regularly (we're talking a few a year) but if you'd like to head over there and watch a few of my videos, leave me some feedback and maybe even subscribe while you're there you'd make me a very happy Luce.

3) I love the name of this blog more than you probably realise.

It's such a great feeling when you have an idea and instantly think it is a brilliant idea. It's even better when you do that and then still think months later that it's a brilliant idea. For a long time this blog was called thebeautyinwords.blogspot.co.uk but it never really sat right with me. It wasn't what I wanted my blog to represent and it didn't capture my writing style at all. That's when I thought of A Book And A Brew. I shared the idea with one of my best friends who was as excited as I was by it meaning it wasn't one of my ideas that only I find good (that does happen quite often) and I proceeded to change the url. Not only that, but I also created a google account (although 'abookandabrew' was taken so I had to miss the first 'a' off which was why my contact email is 'bookandabrew@gmail.com') and then later a twitter account.

4) The banner for this blog is more perfect than I could have ever hoped and I didn't even give my friend my ideas when I asked her to make it for me.

For those of you who aren't aware, my banner was made by my wonderfully talented friend Ishani. Knowing she was good at this sort of thing, I asked if she could consider making me a banner because I was really struggling. That was all I said and she got back to me very quickly with the design you can see at the top of the page. It was exactly what I had in mind and I feel like it encompasses the spirit of my blog so perfectly I will never be able to thank her enough.

5) I'm 17.

Those of you who pay attention to the side bar will already know this but I feel some of you may have accidentally over looked it. I am 17 meaning I am still in school and blogging has to be a secondary thing for me no matter how much I love it. You may have noticed that blog posts decrease dramatically during term time and although it is sometimes that I don't have enough time to write posts then, it's often that I don't have the time to read the things I want to review. I try to schedule posts so I keep uploading regularly although it's not always possible as I'm sure anyone in their last year of school will tell you!

So there we have it! 5 fun facts about A Book And A Brew! Let me know if you enjoy this kind of post. It's something a little different to the norm but I enjoyed writing it so I hope you enjoy reading it and I'd be happy to do more things similar in the future! 

Lucy x

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

228 Pages

Rating: 3/5

Format: ebook

Buy it: thebookdepository (paperback)


After seeing endless good reviews of this book, when I saw it was available on amazon kindle for £1.99 I decided to give it a shot. I went in to it not knowing anything about it because I'd heard it was best to go in blind and while I still agree that it is best to not know the plot, I didn't enjoy it as much as I was expecting to.


I had to convince myself to keep reading with this book which is usually not a good sign. If I hadn't heard so many good reviews I would've probably given up with it and that is something I very rarely do. I can see why people enjoy it as the good points raised are definitely things I can see, but I just did not enjoy it at all.

It would seem that this is a real marmite book: you'll either love it or you'll hate it. Unfortunately I didn't love it but that doesn't mean that you won't.

Have you read We Were Liars? What did you think of it? Did you love it or hate it?

Lucy x

The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey

457 Pages

Rating: 4/5

Format: paperback (library copy)

Buy it: thebookdepository

The Fifth Wave is a dystopian novel in which humans are being destroyed in waves. Cassie, her father and her brother have survived until now but as they anticipate the fifth wave things start becoming more difficult. When Cassie and her family are separated she does everything she can to reunited them, but it's not quite as simple as that.

I picked this up when I was at the library last mainly because I'd heard people talking about it online. For a while I wasn't convinced by it. I found the beginning to be a little repetitive and I think the same book could probably have been written in less pages but overall it was definitely a good book. I found I couldn't put the book down for the last 100 pages or so and didn't really want it to end when it did, but at the same time I doubt I'll read the rest in the series (I didn't actually realise it was a series until I started reading it and added it to my goodreads). 

Overall it's a good book but I didn't find it particularly mind blowing.

This book is great for anyone who likes dystopian novels like The Hunger Games or Divergent and if you enjoy that type of book I'd definitely recommend it.

Have you read The Fifth Wave? What did you think of it?

Lucy x

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

325 Pages

Rating: 5/5

Format: Paperback

Buy it: thebookdepository

Eleanor is the new girl in town and doesn't fit in at all. Park is the boy on the bus who tries to be as invisible as possible. They slowly open up to each other and fall for each other with the help of mix tapes and comic books. As it says on the back of the book, 'they fall in love the way you do the first time, when you're young, and you feel as if you have nothing and everything to lose.'

I've been reluctant to read Eleanor & Park for a while. I've seen so many reviews online saying it's incredible and I didn't want to go into it with high expectations just for it to not meet them. That being said, after I read Fangirl a few weeks ago I knew I had to read this. Eleanor & Park is one of those books that deserves all of the hype it gets.

By far my favourite thing about Rainbow Rowell's writing is how realistic her characters are. Her characters are flawed. They are not perfect. They have traits about them that are not desirable and that's what makes them so fantastic. I find I get much more attached to a character who is imperfect because they just seem all the more real. Eleanor, Park and all of the people around them feel so real that I couldn't help but love this book.

I had been warned by a commenter on a blog post where I'd mentioned that I wanted to read this soon to have tissues at hand for the ending so I was on the look out for something sad to crop up the whole way through the book but I still didn't think it would play out as it did. Although I'm much more of a fan of happy endings, as most of us are really, I completely see why the ending was necessary and it just added to the realism of the whole story.

I would definitely recommend this book. It warns on the back of the book that it's not suitable for younger readers but for anyone older than about 14 I would recommend it. It's a fantastic and realistic book that deals with very real, very important issues.

Have you read Eleanor & Park? What did you think of it?

Lucy x 

84 Ribbons by Paddy Eger*

345 Pages

Rating: 3/5

Buy it: thebookdepository

As someone who has always loved dance, particularly ballet, I was interested in this book as soon as I saw the cover, but I have to say I was a little disappointed. While this is a good book, it wasn't as good as I was expecting which is possibly partially my fault for having expectations that were too high.

84 Ribbons is the story of Marta, a teenager in the 1950s, as she moves away from home to join a ballet company. While she's always dreamed of becoming a professional ballerina, her experiences as one aren't exactly what she had in mind. She makes two friends immediately who continue to be her best friends and, of course, there is a love interest.

This book deals with some important issues surrounding the ballet community such as eating disorders and ballerinas overworking their bodies and these issues are dealt with well. My only problem with the way the author deals with these sensitive topics is that they sometimes feel like unnecessary stereotypes. We only meet a handful of dancers throughout the book and the majority of them struggle with one of these two issues. While ballet is undoubtedly a physically demanding profession and it is likely that things were different in the 1950s than they are today, it would've been nice to see more characters who were strong dancers with healthy eating habits, as the majority of dancers do not have eating disorders and reading this book felt like the opposite.

While it was by no means my favourite book, I feel like it is a decent book and I didn't necessarily dislike it. I just wouldn't rush out to recommend it to all of my friends.

Have you read 84 Ribbons? What did you think of it?

Lucy x

*I received a copy of this book for review via netgalley

The Coldest Girl In Coldtown by Holly Black

419 Pages

Rating: 4.5/5

Buy it: thebookdepository

This was another library find that I picked up purely from hearing good reviews about it online and, although I wasn't really expecting much, I was surprised by it! I found it really engaging and it's definitely the type of book that is easy to lose yourself in. I've been struggling a bit recently with finding the motivation to read more than about a chapter without getting bored but I sat and read about 200 pages of this when I woke up today because I couldn't put it down.

The book starts when Tana, the protagonist, wakes up the morning after a party to find herself in a bathtub still in the house of the party. She wanders through the rest of the house expecting to find her friends awake and cooking breakfast but instead finds everyone who had been at the party dead, other than her ex-boyfriend who has been chained up in the same room as a vampire. She very quickly finds out that her ex-boyfriend was bitten by a vampire and when trying to escape, Tana comes very close to being bitten too. So close that she's not sure if the infection has been passed on to her. The story then follows Tana, Aiden (her ex-boyfriend) and Gavriel (the vampire who had been chained up) as they head towards the Coldtown, a quarantine to keep the vampires from infecting humans and what happens once they are inside.

I thought this book was brilliant. It was fantasy that has been written in a way that makes you almost believe it's not. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone in search of a good YA read with believable characters and a strong plot that is not centered around romance. There is some romance in this book but it definitely takes a back seat for the majority of the book.

Have you read The Coldest Girl In Coldtown? What did you think of it? 

Lucy x