We Are Called to Rise is set in the context of an (as far as I can tell from the blurb) unspecified war, and follows the lives of a series of apparently unconnected people who are not actively part of the war in the battlefield/front line sense but whose lives go on in the background. Apparently it's about loss, courage and resilience, and the reviews are really positive so I think I'll enjoy this even if it is a bit of a random choice. I'm not quite sure why I picked it up but it's a pretty attractive book.

The Margaret Atwood novel is one of those things I've been on the lookout for in charity shops recently, basically because I want to read some of her stuff. I didn't look too closely at it before picking it up, but it's a historical fiction about some real-life murders that happened in 1843 and one of the servants convicted of the crime. I love crime and historical fiction so hopefully this will be ideal! 

The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany

Deafening by Frances Itani

The Yacoubian Building is set in Cairo, specifically in a building where a mixture of people of different social classes live, inhabiting every floor from grand apartments to the rooftops. From the blurb I get the impression that it's a realistically-written novel, about the contradictions between modern life and tradition and generally concerning the lives of the building's inhabitants. I love books like this where the characters and places are vividly drawn and seem to leap off the pages...

Just LOOK at this book - isn't it utterly gorgeous? Deafening is set on the eve of the First World War and tells the story of a relationship between a young deaf woman and a man who is sent to the front and how they survive the separation. I don't think I've ever read anything where the main character has a disability like this so it should be interesting to see how the author writes it.

Blood Red Snow White by Marcus Sedgwick

Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka

I had a sneaking feeling that I already owned Blood Red Snow White but I've had a good look and haven't come across it on my shelves so I can only conclude I must have *nearly* bought it in previous years. Anyway. As far as I can tell, it's set in the Russian revolution of 1917 and follows an Englishman abroad in Russia and his relationship with the country and his homeland. The blurb describes it as a mixture of 'fairy tale, spy thriller and love story' which sounds promising!

Elizabeth is Missing is one of those books I seem to have been hearing about for ages, so I finally bit the bullet and picked it up (I say that like it was a traumatic decision, it really wasn't lol). The main character is Maud, an elderly woman with dementia who is convinced that her best friend Elizabeth is missing, although everyone around her dismisses this notion as the confusion of an old lady. I think it's a really interesting premise and I'm excited to see how it pans out.

Fear not, I haven't suddenly developed a love of eastern European agricultural vehicles - this is merely the amusing title of a novel, A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian. If I'm honest I picked it up because of the title and couldn't quite bear to part with it even though the story isn't my usual kind of thing: it's about two estranged sisters whose widowed father marries a glamorous blonde Ukrainian divorcee and their joint efforts to oust her from the family. But it definitely has potential for a quick, light-hearted read so I thought I'd add it to the stack of books I was carrying around.

And that's everything I got!

It's September and the start of the new academic year, but it occurred to me that I hadn't yet wrapped up the old one. I intended to do this post at the end of the year, around June, however what with one thing and another I was incredibly busy throughout the whole summer - but I still wanted to keep some sort of record of my university experience that I can look back on so here we are! I did a similar thing last year, you can see my review of my first year here. I've decided to divide it up into three sections again: the city, the course and accommodation. Get ready because this is going to be another long one...

As a second year, I lived in a student house which meant I saw much more of the city than I had in first year when I lived in college and attended lectures a mere 10 minute walk away. It was great to experience more of the (admittedly tiny) city of Durham, and even venture into the outskirts *gasp*. I also started volunteering at a local Scout group which was a really lovely way of getting involved with the local community and getting away from the university bubble for a couple of hours each week.

One of the main things that helped with this was figuring out the bus system, which I made extensive use of throughout the year. Before that I'd hardly ever taken buses, apart from my school bus, so it was a little bit daunting at first but once I got the hang of it and learnt all the routes and numbers I was able to travel around quite efficiently. For example, there wasn't a direct bus from my house to where I had lectures, but I soon worked out which two buses I would need to take and after a while realised that it can be quicker to change at a certain stop than to go via the bus station. My house was a solid 30 minute mostly uphill walk to lectures and 40 minutes to college, so it was definitely worth taking the bus, especially on wintry northern days!

The academic side of my university experience improved enormously this year thanks to the modules I took, which I had a fair amount of choice in. It's typical to be able to specialise in your second year with any course, but for me especially it was a relief not to have to take any physical geography which I absolutely hated in first year. My compulsory modules this year were 'Social Research' and 'Theories and Concepts in Contemporary Human Geography', and for the optional ones I chose 'Political Geography' and 'Social and Cultural Geography'. All in all I think I made some good choices because I enjoyed both of the optional modules and they covered some really interesting topics, like for instance geographies of disability and theories of nationalism. They also proved to be the modules in which I got my highest marks for essays and exams, far beyond anything I had achieved the previous year. While we're on the topic, I also managed to get one of my essays published which was pretty cool, even if it was just in an undergraduate journal - I had to present it at a conference which was stressful as I'm not great at public speaking but it was a great experience and I suppose now I can say I'm a published writer??

I also kept up my French module that I'd taken the previous year, although at the next level up. Again I think it was a good decision because it took the pressure off when it came to the dreaded term 2 where essay deadlines were concentrated, and meant I had one less exam to worry about (I did have an exam for French, two in fact, I just didn't worry about them!). Interestingly, though, it was the module I got the lowest mark in which I suppose is a testament to my improvement in modules relating to my actual degree.

Another course-related highlight was a 5-day research trip to Liverpool that I went on at the end of term 2. Even though our chosen topic was a bit weird (diversification of religious spaces, which meant a lot of hanging around in churches and cathedrals), the actual research was pretty successful and my group got some good data and ultimately made a decent project out of it. I really enjoyed the social side of the trip, as although it was fairly full-on and we were expected to dedicate the whole day to gathering data, in the evenings we did various activities and chatted and socialised with the academic staff which was surprisingly hilarious.

The other thing worth mentioning that's related to my course is my dissertation, which we had to start thinking about around December last year because the Geography department is ridiculously organised. Over the course of the rest of the academic year we had to submit various ideas and proposals, and I soon got mine down to the topic of European and national identity in the experience of European School students. I'm currently doing the fieldwork for it at my old school, which basically consists of interviewing groups of kids about their experiences. I'm enjoying it because I find the topic immensely interesting, but I can tell I'll be so relieved to hand this in come April!

Because I lived 'in college' in first year this year was my first living independently in a student house, which also meant the first time cooking for myself and generally being a responsible adult and sorting things out in the house when they went wrong. The house itself was gorgeous and modern, absolutely not the kind of think you'd expect from a student house but it was correspondingly pricey and quite far from lectures. I actually really enjoyed cooking for myself and not being constricted by college mealtimes, and although I hadn't been totally ignorant before I learned a lot about cooking and cleaning! It was also so nice to be able to collapse on the sofa in front of the TV in the evenings, and to share a shower and toilet with 2 other people instead of 14.

As I lived so far from college I didn't end up going back there very often, only really for formals and similar events. Although I really loved living in college as a fresher and it was a big part of my uni experience, I felt (and a lot of my friends agreed with me) that I'd sort of outgrown college and I was eager to move on to other things. Living out of college was was generally a good experience, despite some issues with my housemates, so although I had the option of moving back into college I'll be 'living out' again this year (albeit with different people and in a different house).

And that's a wrap! I think I've summed up the main points of my second year. If the contrast between my first and second year is anything to go by I hope third year is going to be even better, although being my final year it does mean that I have to start thinking about what I'm going to do after I graduate - at the moment I'm thinking of doing a masters, but I haven't planned any further ahead than that. Let's just get through third year first...

x

Last week two of my uni friends came to stay with me in Belgium, one from Friday to Sunday and the other from Sunday to Thursday! It was so nice to see them and catch up, especially as one is on her year abroad currently and won't be in Durham when I go back in a month or so. I was determined to show both of them as much as possible in a short space of time, so it was a pretty hectic week to say the least and I saw more of Brussels in six days than I have in years, especially now I don't live here permanently. It was great to have an excuse to get out and about and go places I wouldn't usually bother to go!

One of those places was actually a secondhand record shop around the Grand Place area, which I'd spotted on Google maps when planning our daily itinerary and really wanted to visit. I have a vinyl player that I got for Christmas a couple of years ago, but I have very few records (just some of my favourite modern albums) so I've been wanting to build up more of a collection including some vintage items and this was the perfect opportunity.

We actually went to two shops in the end and I got two LPs in each. They were all about €7 each  - or maybe slightly more, I can't remember cos I've taken the prices off now - which I think is more or less average for secondhand records.

I actually really like the sound of rock and roll but I don't know much about it so I thought something like this 'Rock and Roll party' record was ideal for me to just get to know the genre a bit more. It just has a collection of hits and even some French songs I think, although I haven't listened to both sides all the way through yet. I also love the cover art, it's so bright and fun and garish and seventies.

It was only after I'd left the shop that I realised the Grease record is actually Grease 2 and not the original which is kind of annoying, as although it's not my favourite thing I do at least know some of the songs from Grease, but I realised that I'm not really that bothered. I've never seen Grease 2 but who knows, maybe I'll find something I like on this one.

OK so if I'm honest, I bought both of these mostly for the cover aesthetic and only partly for the contents. The one on the left is a compilation of 'silver screen favourites' from old movies which seems like the kind of thing one ought to own on vinyl, and from what Google tells me the Marilyn Monroe one is actually a modern release of her singing some tracks from movies. Which is cool. But also just loooook at the cover, I love it. I definitely can imagine both of these playing atmospherically in the background on a rainy night, with a slight crackly fuzz from the record player adding to the ambiance...

I've been feeling fairly uninspired with blogging lately (hence the lack of posts) so I thought it was time for a change. It's something I've been meaning to do for a while but I just couldn't think of a name I liked enough until I eventually decided on 'geosophy' - I like that it's quite vague and doesn't make you think of anything specific (cos lets be real this blog is a complete mishmash and I rarely post about books anymore so 'bibliophilia' didn't really fit), but at the same time it has a subtle nod to my degree and interests and also to my actual name. I googled it cos I thought it sounded like a real word, and turns out it means 'the study of geographical knowledge from any or all points of view' which I suppose is fine even though I'm not planning to post about geography. Anyway. Unfortunately I've had to hyphenate it in the url because the non-hyphenated version was taken, but it annoys me a lot less than the '0' in 'bibli0philia' ever did.

The second big change is obviously the theme. I wanted something quite minimalist and clean and I was messing around with the built-in simple blogger theme for ages but I just couldn't get the effect I wanted, so I looked into themes you can download and found this one. I'm really not that tech-y so it took me a while to figure out how to get it onto my blog but I think I've done a decent job, even though there are a few little details that my perfectionist mind isn't quite happy with yet. But I think the overall effect is worth it and hopefully I can tweak those little things!

I hope you like the new look and name - here's to a new era of my little space on the internet!