Showing posts with label series. Show all posts
Showing posts with label series. Show all posts

Friday, February 12, 2016

Valentine's? How about Galentine's!?

There will be lots of posts about love, relationships and romance in the next few days. You will be bombarded with ads displaying hearts, chocolates, all the things your loved one needs and wants.  And trust me when I say, I LOVE love!  I think that you should treat your significant others with kindness, support and kisses everyday of the year and increase that by 1000x as February 14th comes around the corner. 

I just like the lesser known holiday - Galentine's Day ALOT too!!!!


Galentine's Day?! - 
You maybe asking yourself, what in the world is that?   
Galentine's Day is a day for ladies celebrating ladies.  You can all thank Leslie Knope for this fancy celebration.  It's the day when you get to drop the beau or boo and grab your best gal pals.  Then you get to shower them all with glitter and sweets and warm fuzzies - ya know, you get to tell them how wonderful they are and remind them they are the greatest women in the world?!?!  It doesn't matter that sometimes you fight like cats and dogs and others you drive each other crazy.  No measly disagreement or difference matters on Galentine's Day. 

  The books below are my picks for Galentine's Day.  Each and every one showcase female friendships that are compassionate, supportive and consistent.  They prove that ladies celebrating ladies doesn't have to happen only once a year. 

Friendship by Emily Gould

The story of best friends, Bev and Amy.   Friends for years, the two face a crossroads at the age of 30.  A novel with a deep understanding of what it means to be in a long term friend relationship, it showcases the bad with the good.


Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Attachments, according to the reviews is a love story. And it is. It’s a love story between Beth and Lincoln, IT security guy and movie review gal. But, it is also the story of a genuine friendship between two women who work in The Courier newsroom, Beth and Jennifer. They talk about what’s going on in each other’s lives. They talk about what scares them. They talk about anything, and that’s what originally gets them noticed. 


The Group by Mary McCarthy

Mary McCarthy’s most celebrated novel follows the lives of eight Vassar graduates, known simply to their classmates as “the group”  from graduation throughout their lives as adults. Time passes, some friends grow apart and some become entangled in one another's lives.  When one of them passes away, they all come back together again to mourn her loss.  Regardless of where life took them all, it is clear that to be a member of their "group" is to be loyal and supportive. 


Ghost World by Daniel Clowes

No one would argue that your teenage years are the most difficult.  Best friends Enid and Becky face them head on in this cult classic graphic novel, Ghost World.  From growing up to growing apart, this novel is likely to rip at your heartstrings or keep you laughing as you recall your own experience of finding yourself as a moody, overzealous and stubborn teen.    

Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante
The Story of the Lost Child

The entirety of the Neapolitan Novel series is a beautiful story about two friends, Elena and Lila.  The books are a conscientious portrayal of two women  living in Italy and a touching reflection on the nature of true friendship.

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Five Things


The Book: American Housewife: Stories by Helen Ellis

Helen Ellis and her collection of short stories of American housewives is refreshing and razor-sharp.  Don't be fooled by the sweet faces.  The women lurking here aren't timid.  They feel everything from disenchantment to anger to hysteria.  The women Helen has created are vivacious and authentic, and I for one would be honored to sit in on their bookclub.




Bliss Drops Earrings



Cool Lilac Cardigan



Loly In the Sky Ballet Flats
Photo Credit: Random Acts of Pastel






Females Are Strong As Hell Hoop Art

*I'm certain most readers have been there.  You're reading and suddenly the movie version of the story begins to play in your head.  Please tell me I'm not alone in this.  My Five Things series is an ode to that.  Each week, I choose a book and select five items I could easily see being in the movie version.  Enjoy!



Thursday, January 28, 2016

The Crossroads of Should and Must by Elle Luna


 “If you want to live the fullness of your life—if you want to be free—you must understand, first, why you are not free, what keeps you from being free. ” 


The Crossroads of Should and Must: Find and Follow Your Passion stemmed from an honest essay Elle Luna published April 8, 2014 describing her personal journey navigating her own crossroads of 
Should and Must.  

In it, Elle Luna states:

"Should is how other people want us to live our lives.  It's all of the expectations that others layer upon us.  Sometimes, Shoulds are small, seemingly innocuous, and easily accommodates.  "You should listen to that song," for example.  At other times, Shoulds are highly influential systems of thought that pressure and, at their most destructive, coerce us to live our lives differently."

"When we choose Should, we're choosing to live our life for someone or something other than ourselves."

"Must is different.  Must is who we are, what we believe, and what we do when we are alone with our truest, most authentic self.  It's that which calls to us most deeply.  It's our convictions, our passions, our deepest held urges and desires - unavoidable, undeniable, and inexplicable.  Unlike Should, Must doesn't accept compromises."

"Choosing Must is the greatest thing we can do with our lives."




Elle Luna describes ways in which we can all identify our true passions through self-reflection.  


She also goes on to distinguish between a job ("something typically done from 9 to 5 for pay"), a career ("a system of advancements and promotions over time where rewards are used to optimize behavior"), and a calling ("something that we feel compelled to do regardless of fame or fortune").  

She recalls the momentous time in her own life when she realized which she had as a young professional working at a fast paced startup.  She notes that she was challenged, but not fulfilled.  She goes on to explain her slow transition from one to another and her ultimate leap of faith in chasing her calling above all else.


Lastly, Luna recalls with detail the Fear that exists when we decide to take a leap of faith and follow the path of Must rather than a life of Should.  She vividly illustrates her own experience and how she overcame her own uncertainties in order to live the life she dreamed of.





Everyday we decide how we want to live.  We can continue to live as we are, or we can decide to take a new path - a path that may be frightening and unknown but has the potential to lead to a much more fulfilling destination.  
With Elle Luna's words, those who choose their Must quickly see they are not alone.  
In fact, they are in very good company.   

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Reasons to be Excited

Just a few of the books I'm looking forward to 
coming soon to a bookstore near you:

By: Nelly Alard

An astute and honest portrayal of how one relationship fares following an affair.


By: Amber Sparks

A collection of fantastical short stories.
Recommended for fans of Aimee Bender, Ben Loory or Karen Russell.


By: Maylis De Kerangal

Heart transplants happen everyday.
But to date, no one has written about the experience quite as beautifully as Maylis De Karangal.


By: Julia Claiborne Johnson

Take one Bel Air mansion. Add a reclusive literary phenomenon (with a fast approaching literary deadline), an eccentric little boy and a young woman to keep everything from falling to shambles and this is what you get. 

I'm already hoping there is a movie!


By: Muriel Barbery

  She's back.  This time with a story of two children summoned together by their
mystical connections to music and the natural world. 

Sidenote: Muriel Marbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog is one of my favorite books of all time.


Thursday, January 21, 2016

The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon by Alexander McCall Smith


“all of us had a view from somewhere, a view of the world from
the perspective of who we were, of what had happened to us,
of how we thought about things.”  

The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon is the 14th book in a popular series called The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.  For those of you who are familiar, welcome back.  And for those of you hearing of this series for the first time, grab a chair as I introduce you to Precious Ramotswe and her associate detective, Mma Makutsi - two marvelous women with a knack for uncovering the truth.

This particular novel takes on two puzzling cases.  First, Mma Ramotswe is approached by the lawyer Mma Sheba, the executor of a late farmer's estate.  The farmer has left the majority of his land to a nephew, but Mma Sheba believes that the young man claiming to be the nephew is not who he appears.  Her second case is a call for help from the owner of a new salon, The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon.  The owner has been the victim of threats and a horrible bit of gossip intended to ruin her salon.  Mma Ramotswe agrees to investigate both, and as always finds the truth to be much more complicated than she had ever bargained for.       

Meanwhile, at the office, Mma Makutsi has been a little different lately.  Mma Ramotswe is certain that she is pregnant, but Mma Makutsi has been silent on the matter.  It is clear throughout that the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency would not be the same without the two women solving cases together.  They are more than co-workers.  They really are the best of friends and this friendship truly shines in this novel.  

Each and every time I step into the world of Precious Ramotswe, I smile as I check in on (what feel like) old friends.  This series can best be described as the coziest of cozy and the characters astound you with their honest interactions.  If you are looking for a mystery with a dose of female friendship thrown in, you have a winner!

Saturday, January 16, 2016

Five Things


The Book: The Swans of Park Avenue by Melanie Benjamin

From the 1950's thru the 1970's, New York high society largely revolved around the Swans - a group of posh NYC women.  As a friend and confidant, Truman Capote found himself hearing their deepest, darkest secrets. When Truman Capote published the short story, "La Cote Basque 1965" illuminating just that, his life gallivanting within the social circles of New York came to an abrupt halt.  








*I'm certain most readers have been there.  You're reading and suddenly the movie version of the story begins to play in your head.  Please tell me I'm not alone in this.  My Five Things series is an ode to that.  Each week, I choose a book and select five items I could easily see being in the movie version.  Enjoy!

Friday, January 15, 2016

Reasons to be Excited

All of these books are whispering out "read me!"
Which books are calling out to you?

By Simon Van Booy
Simon Van Booy's writing will paint tiny pictures in your mind.
The grace and honesty that his characters embody will stay with you forever.

by Jonathan Envision

If Harriet can make her life work after all that she has been through,
no one has an excuse for saying no to the scary or unexpected. 



By: Patricia Cavalli

Patricia Cavalli was wrong. 
 Her poems will change the world one person at a time.



By: Hannah Rothschild

If a painting could talk, it would tell you stories you would never dream of. 



By: David Mitchell

You will find yourself screaming at the characters to turn around and run. 
They have no idea what they are in for once they enter Slade House.


Saturday, January 9, 2016

Five Things

I'm certain most readers have been there.  You're reading and suddenly the movie version of the story begins to play in your head.  Please tell me I'm not alone in this.  You think to yourself  - 1.) Why has no one made this movie yet?  It would be amazing!  and 2.) No one could possibly make this quite as good as I see it right now.  

My Five Things series will be an ode to that.  Each week, I will choose a book and select five items I could easily see being in the movie version.  Enjoy!



Animals is the story of Laura and Tyler, two good friends that have been painting the town red for the past ten years.  Drunken debauchery and YOLO is their life motto, until one of them starts to think about making a drastic change.