“The basic approach to minimalism is this: The less unnecessary stuff you have, the less you have to pay for, maintain or worry about. The less you have to worry about, the less stressed you will be, which means your physical and mental capacity will be reflected in a healthier light.”
—Julia Green
(Via L Howells)
Drawing With Light by Julia Green.
Julia was my head tutor on my Masters degree and the driving force behind my love of writing young adult fiction. She is a beautiful writer and so I knew I would love Drawing With Light…
Kat and Emily have grown up without their mother for almost as long as they can remember. And now Dad is with Cassy and they all muddle along together well enough - even though they are living in a cramped caravan while their new house is being renovated. Then Cassy and Dad tell them that Cassy is pregnant, and everything seems to shift. Emily feels a new urge to find her own mother. How could she have left them the way she did? Never writing to them? Not communicating with them? And as Emily begins her search, not knowing what she will find, she is at the same time embarking on a new relationship of her own, that of her romance with Seb. This is an evocative and finely drawn novel about family relationships, in particular that of mother and daughter, and the shifting emotions of a teenager trying to make sense of her family and her world.
Well, she didn’t let me down!
Wonderfully written, Green’s narrative wraps you up and carries you through Emilys world as it shifts, changes and grows. It’s a novel about first love, family and being who you are.
Read it.
VJ x
Book 68 of 75.
Julia-of-divergent
Today it was the choosing ceremony, the second one since my own. This year it’s Dauntless responsability to conduct the ceremony so everything has been crazy the past few days. Almost no one is making their normal jobs, but trying to make this work well. Yesterday, I went to bed only at midnight, when everything was ready.
And here I am, at five o’clock in the morning, awake. A nightmare didn’t let me sleep well.
Everyone is asleep, as logical. I wasn’t the only one who stayed up late. And since the ceremony starts at 10:00, there’s no reason for anyone to be awake.
Given that I’m bored, and I have pretty nothing to do for the next hours, I decide to go to the cafeteria, maybe to eat a little of the leftovers of dinner. But when I get there, I surprisely notice it is not empty. A blonde girl is sit on one of the chairs, grabbing a cup of coffee, staring at nothing. I recognize her face, but I can’t say from where. Instinctively, my feet move right to her table, and I expect to be noticed.
So I just learned that someone I don’t know, but know of because of friends who were friends with her, died very recently.
I’m not quite sure how recently, but she was posting on facebook until last week and now her page is full of a flood of ‘goodbyes’ that started about 9 hours ago.
.
.
.
It’s strange to think of how life and death touch hoards of people in ripples like that. I’ve probably met miss Julia, but she doesn’t really stand out in my memory. Still, I feel her death acutely in how it affects, and is going to affect, my friends.
