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Wild strawberries in blu ray this month!!!!!!!
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#day146 goin to the pool!
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get out of there cat. grocery bags are for groceries.
I got this book from the lib when Lainey mentioned it in passing in a post last week. I didn’t even really read what it was about, I just figured, what the heck! First off, some funny things, I didn’t realize it was a memoir, but hey, I love biographies so great! And two, I had no idea that this person is famous (or relatively famous). So I went into reading it thinking it was a fiction story about something, I didn’t know what.
Emma has mental health problems. Suicidal thoughts - and she acts on them occasionally. She also cuts herself and has some destructive tendencies. She has wonderful, loving, wildly eccentric parents, she has a beautiful imagination and thought process. If only she wasn’t so sad. Emma is also a famous writer, something that she kind of dances around but doesn’t linger on. I love that. In real life, Emma Forrest has interviewed some of the most famous people in popular culture. But she only mentions one famous person she interviewed, and that was Brad Pitt. And all she mentions is that she told him he wasn’t as good looking as the guy she was seeing. Smirk.
This book has 3 kind of parts of her life that it explores - her relationship, her admiration, her respect for her psychiatrist, who truly loves and supports her in a platonic and professional way. A success story. The second part is her relationship with the world - her parents, her mental health, New York, her friends, her lovers. Then it speaks to her passionate, incredible, heartbreaking relationship with GH, who in real life, is Colin Farrell. Just enough smut to get you googling, you know?
I want to say that this book is non-linear, but that’s not true, it is a linear story that follows the timeline of her life. It does jump around, but not so much that it distracts you. She has such a strong voice, and such an interesting way of describing the world, this really was a book worth reading. I found myself so fascinated not by what was happening, but how her thoughts processed what was happening to her. This is a great read!
Truth is always, always, always stranger than fiction. My passive obsession with the Royal Family continues, and for this month’s satisfaction, I read “The Last of the Duchess” by Caroline Blackwood. Blackwood is a journalist from the UK and sets out to find Wallis Simpson in the 80’s. After the Duke of Windsor died, she kind of disappeared and no one was really sure what happened to her. Turns out she had a crazy ass lawyer who was obsessed with her and hid her away in seclusion.
What started as a hunt for the Duchess of Windsor turned into the story of her bizarre lawyer, Maitre Blum and her erratic compulsion to control the Duchess AND the world’s perception of her. So bizarre and yet so interesting at the same time - for instance, The Duke and Duchess were known as being very social, out partying until dawn on a regular basis. But by the 80’s, if you said that in print, Maitre Blum would attempt to sue you for defamation, even though it is basically fact that they were drinkers and socializers. And really, who cares if they were? Maitre Blum did. She was so overwhelmed by her desire to control the Duchess, that she would sue anyone who threatened her own perception of her.
Honestly - this book is bizarre and yet you can’t put it down. It’s not going to win a Pulitzer but for someone who lived such an incredible life, to have it end the way it did is … well, it wasn’t fitting. Wallis Simpson did not end with the bang she would have wanted.
Flew through this book this weekend! Crossing the Borders of Time is an incredibly romantic memoir about a young pair of star crossed lovers separated in WWII. Shut UP, right!?
First things first, I’m not spoiling a thing for you. Trust that this is extremely well written, told through the voice of the heronine’s daughter, who happens to be a writer for the NYT and other major publications. So the voice the story is told in is excellent.
Secondly, I actually learned a ton about WWII that I didn’t know, and I wouldn’t call myself someone who is historically ignorant in these types of things (I know the difference between the Treaty of Versaille and the Geneva Convention) but I actually learned a ton about France’s role in the war post occupation. It was all sunshine and heroes and sexy resistance fighters, let me tell you that.
Third, you know those books where you almost get frustrated because the characters just keep barely missing each other and you almost want to throw the book across the room (like I did the first time I read Gone with the Wind, and declared it a giant waste of time because it didn’t end how I wanted it to end)? This is one of those books :)
To the library!
I see this and now I want it so bad!!
#lentwish
(via Dead Writers Cologne/Perfume Oil 10ml Bottle by SweetTeaApothecary)
Just when I wrote that I had no time to read, here I am, powering through this book in 2 days…
I powered through Hymn of the Tiger Mother in two days. What a fascinating read!
So for me it was interesting, because I am pretty open to most cultural differences. Although The Cpt and I both come from similar Western cultures (middle class, Caucasian, children of baby boomers, small business owners), even our own sub-cultures within that are surprisingly different. It takes all kinds to make the world.
So I wasn’t particularly offended by Amy Chua’s method of parenting as described in this self parody memoire - infact, I was a little in awe of it and I could see her point of view and I could even see where her hard a** style is really what Western culture needs MORE of today.
That being said - I was mainly shocked by how much energy it must take for her to parent like that. To sit and argue and try and force her kids to practice whatever for 2, 4, 6 hours. It would be EXHAUSTING. I mean, seriously - half the time, I am exhausted battling to get the cats off the kitchen counter and that battle usually just tossing the cats on the floor 4 times before they sulk away.
All in all, I thought this book was really well written and so so interesting - I only hope that as a parent, whatever my parenting style is, that I have half as much energy to put into my children’s wellbeing and future.
A Book for Happiness – lovely cover of a 1936 Book Token card designed by Gwendoline White
Complement with some actual, modern-day books for happiness.
I have not posted a book review in a while - solely based on the fact that I have not read enough of any book to be able to share it.
I pick up books and I can’t get more than a chapter in. I find wonderful books I want to read and I put them on hold at the library and return them, two weeks later, unread.
So apologies, my book loving friends. The book reviews might not be today or might not be tomorrow but they’ll be back!
So REMIND ME to go through this list in greater detail…
One of our favorite things about the holiday season is the recap of the year in books! Publications, websites, and readers everywhere begin pulling together what they think is the cream of the crop — the best books of the year. Take a look below through some of the lists we’ve pulled together, and keep an eye here for additions to the list as we approach the end of this stellar literary year.
There’s something that makes me laugh about a novel with the caption “Now a major motion picture!” on the cover. Maybe because I don’t feel like movies give books validity, but maybe it’s also because that is the perfect terminology for a person who didn’t know that this book was produced into a movie.
Book Review: Stolen Innocence
A funny holiday choice for me - I only picked it up because it was on the Librarians Recommend shelf ( which, by the way, is a great idea!) and I sometimes tune into Sister Wives, so why not?
Considering Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS) is not a subject I have spent much time looking into, I’ll Coles notes it in case you’re the same as me: these are the scary, über religious people who make you afraid of Mormons, who will steal your friends, brainwash them, make them wear ugly dresses and then abuse them. Yucky.
But this book, I would say, gave a very fair and unsalicious account do growing up in the polygamist community ruled by Warren Jeff’s (now in prison). The author is an escapee who was married to her first cousin when she was 14, but I will say, she fairly portrays the love her family had for each other, and the obvious emotional, financial and mental manipulation that her family was subject too from the higher ups of the church.
This is not a gruesome portrayal of life inside the FLDS - it is well told, it is intriguing, you begin to care about all the characters and you can see many sides through the story telling. The story itself - her upbringing, her marriage, her escape and her testimony against Warren Jeffs makes for an excellent plot line - truth is in so many ways stranger than fiction.
A great read - took me 3 days but to be fair, I am sick and have nothing else to do…
Although this is not technically a book, this online magazine is one of the most valuable finds of ,y holiday season. It’s called Mental Floss and its that perfect type of magazine that has rarely any articles over 2 pages long (meaning you can read them in one sitting), it’s filled with ridiculous yet well written stories and facts that only drive you to google them for more information and best of all - it’s free. If you have some time today, check out mental floss.com OR you can download it for free on you iPad. I have thoroughly, thorough enjoyed it so far.
Book Review: Beautiful Tonight
“People have been trying to persuade me to write a book for years. And for years I have resisted. I have has the most extraordinary life, and ultimately the most rewarding and enriching life. And I wouldn’t change a day of it. I was part of the sixties revolution, I have known the most beautiful and talented people, and I have been married to two extraordinary creative musicians… Now I feel the time has come.”
What a nice book title.
Beautiful Tonight is the autobiography of Patti Boyd. Patti Boyd was married to both George Harrison and Eric Clapton, two incredibly talented musicians, to be modest and humble on their behalf.
I was excited to read this book - I thought that this must be one heck of a lady. To attract two of the most minds of such enormous creative intelligence, you’d have to have something pretty incredible to offer. However, poor Patti Boyd is apparently as modest as I was earlier in this post- she most certainly did not spend the book describing her own creative conquests.
I wanted Patti Boyd to be as incredible as she was beautiful. I wanted her to be driven, creative, complex, strategic, I wanted her to be independent and a fighter. Patti, as far as her own autobiography describes, is none of those things.
Patti had two great men fall in love with her, and was somewhat emotionally abused by both of them, and then ended up getting walked over in subsequent divorces (although I’m not actually sure about that, because she doesn’t really seem to work at all after her marriages) and then talks about asking both George and Eric for money for things. Huh. The book was exactly as my mum described it - name droppy, but I only recognized about a third of the names so the importance was lost on me a little bit…
In the end, I couldn’t figure out what I leaned from it. I learned a little bit about George Harrison and Eric Clapton, I leaned a little about modelling in the sixties, I learned a little about Buddhism and spirituality and I learned a lot about being passive in a marriage.
But in the end, it was still a good library read - the ghost writer was great, and it was an easy and interesting enough read.
This book review is a little different for me.
I usually on review books I like. Why? Because if I don’t like a book, I quit reading it after 50 pages. I don’t finish it. How can I review it?
But Mrs. Kennedy and Me was recommended as a good vacation read by my friend Kendra, like a zillion years ago, but I had to wait until I could get it from the library, and when I put my name on the hold list, I was like 37th in line or something.
SO - here’s the long and short of my review. Jacqueline Kennedy is - to some people - one of the most fascinating women of the 20th century. I personally don’t find her all that interesting, but maybe the myth is based on people’s face to face interactions about her intelligence and presence, because there has yet to be a book that convinces me she’s anything interesting.
ANYWAYS - so Jackie has the potential to be incredible interesting. And she was a part of a major time period in American history - the presidency and assassination of JFK. This is a memoir written by Jackie’s chief Secret Service Agent, Clint Hill, who had totally unparalleled access to her life.
Clint Hill has managed to take someone interesting and a time period that is incredible interesting and make them so boring it took me two weeks to finish a 200 page book. When I look back at every story and chapter in the book, it irritated me - each one has the potential to be fascinating. But this book is boring.
You win some - you lose some.
Because honestly, this will take me a while to read.
SO HAPPY to have gotten this in the mail yesterday. When we were in Palmy with my parents, we went to see the movie Lincoln, which was fan.tast.ic. SO GOOD.
The movie was based on this book, Book of Rivals, which speaks to Lincoln’s strategy in picking his closest cabinet members and advisers. Apparently, this is a book that Obama held close to him and read during his 2008 Democratic nomination campaign. When he was nominated, he took Lincoln’s strategy in selecting his biggest rivals in the nomination campaign as his closest allies going forward - hence why Hilz is Secretary of State and the best human currently on the planet.
I’m pumped to read this - REALLY pumped - and so glad my Dad sent it to me!! But the turn around on this book review might be a little longer. This mother is heavy.
The other day I went to the library to pick up a Tolstoy, but it was out. So instead I came out with Valley of the Dolls. Which I hated after 60 pages.
This chickita banana is reading Anna Karenina, which I’m also looking forward to myself. I think I’m going to buy a copy because I might pick it up and put it down a few times, but I also want to find the right copy. I don’t want a flimsy paper back with thin pages, I need something with a little weight to it. As well, I don’t want it to be too heavy.
Did I show you the items I got from the Banana Republic limited edition Anna Karenina collection? Time for another post perhaps…
