Book Review: Good in Bed

Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner

So I don't usually pick up Chic Lit, but this was an option at a book exchange that the book club had at Christmas. I had read Jennifer Weiner's book In Her Shoes and liked it, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Review from Amazon.com
It is tempting at first but unwise to assume Candace Shapiro is yet another Bridget Jones. Feisty, funny and less self-hating than her predecessor, Cannie is a 28-year-old Philadelphia Examiner reporter preoccupied with her weight and men, but able to see the humor in even the most unpleasant of life's broadsides.

Even she is floored, however, when she reads "Good in Bed," a new women's magazine column penned by her ex-boyfriend, pothead grad student Bruce Guberman. Three months earlier, Cannie suggested they take a break apparently, Bruce thought they were through and set about making such proclamations as, "Loving a larger woman is an act of courage in our world." Devastated by this public humiliation, Cannie takes comfort in tequila and her beloved dog, Nifkin. Bruce has let her down like another man in her life: Cannie's sadistic, plastic surgeon father emotionally abused her as a young girl, and eventually abandoned his wife and family, leaving no forwarding address. Cannie's siblings suffer, especially the youngest, Lucy, who has tried everything from phone sex to striptease. Their tough-as-nails mother managed to find love again with a woman, Tanya, the gravel-voiced owner of a two-ton loom.

Somehow, Cannie stays strong for family and friends, joining a weight-loss group, selling her screenplay and gaining the maturity to ask for help when she faces something bigger than her fears. Weiner's witty, original, fast-moving debut features a lovable heroine, a solid cast, snappy dialogue and a poignant take on life's priorities. This is a must-read for any woman who struggles with body image, or for anyone who cares about someone who does.

My Review:

I think this book was typical Chic Lit, which to me means generally enjoyable and also a light and "feel-good" read. The book was funny at times, easy to read and relate to, yet at the same time delightfully unrealistic in places.

I don't have much to say about this book, since I think it was described pretty well in the Amazon.com description. I will at least mention; however, that I did like Weiner's other book In Her Shoes better.

Overall, I think this is a great read if you are looking for something light, fast-moving, and a happy ending. Great vacation or beach read!

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think?

-K

Book Review: The Time Traveler's Wife

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
This book was another one that I nominated for the book club that I belong to... I had read it before and wanted to share it!

I found some wonderful summaries of this book, but they were really long, and I don't want anyone to get bored with this post. Here is a good short one from About.com. The original can be found HERE.

About.com Review:

If you read the back of The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger you may wonder whether it is science fiction or romance. It is neither. This is not your average time travel fantasy involving a machine and scientists eagerly trying to break the space-time continuum. In fact, Henry DeTamble wishes he did not travel through time. He does so involuntarily, and when he does, he wakes up in another place and time, naked, nauseous and ravenously hungry. Henry's time travel drives the story, but is not really what the story is about.

The Time Traveler's Wife is about love. It is not, however, a romance novel, or anything close to it. The novel pushes on philosophical questions of meaning and purpose. It is built around connections and longings. At the center, there is love, but there is also a lot of real life description--family tensions, punk rock shows, jobs, friendships. Niffenegger describes the world so realistically that you will find yourself believing that some people are actually plagued with involuntary time travel. If you are like me, you'll also wish Henry and Clare were your friends.

One of the best things about The Time Traveler's Wife is the way it is told from two perspectives. It also does not follow linear time. The structure mimics the lives of the main characters. In doing so, it enhances the empathy you feel for them.

I highly recommend The Time Traveler's Wife for anyone who wants a compelling read that will give you much to think about and feel.

My Review:

As I mentioned before, I had read this book a few years ago, and really enjoyed it. It had been awhile since I read it, and since the movie is supposed to be out later on this year, I thought I'd nominate it for our book club to read (we like to go see movies together too!).

I enjoyed this book just as much as I did the first time I read it. It has a very unique and interesting story-line, as well as a wonderful love story. I know that from the title and description this may sound like a sci-fi book, but I hardly think it could completely fall under that classification, so don't let that scare anyone off!

While one of the main characters (Henry), is a time-traveller, the story doesn't revolve around the science or details of his time travelling. Rather than focus on this (which could turn this into a Sci-Fi genre), the story focuses on the relationship between Henry and Clare, and their most uncommon and NON-sappy/mushy/cliche love story (if that makes any sense). While Henry is involuntarily time travelling, Clare must patiently wait for him, sometimes for years at a time.

I don't want to go too much further into the plot, since it is summarized pretty well above without giving any "spoilers".

Bottom Line: I would definitely recommend this book. I do want to say that the book club had mixed feelings on the book, mostly due to the sometimes confusing issue of the time travelling, and where he is, and how old he is (and as a result, how old Clare is). This is something that I had to overlook (and NOT over-think)... I think in the end it all makes absolute sense and was a beautiful love story. Although some of the other readers were confused about the time-travelling issue, they did say that they liked the love story aspect of the book.

As I mentioned before, the movie comes out later this year (IMDB currently says August, but still no trailer for the movie). Since there isn't currently a trailer, here are some pictures from the movie that were on IMDB. The leads will be played by Eric Bana (The Other Boleyn Girl, The Hulk, etc) and Rachel McAdams (The Notebook, Mean Girls). I'm really excited about the casting choices!

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think?

-K

Book Review: Water for Elephants

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Review from Amazon.com

Jacob Jankowski says: "I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other." At the beginning of Water for Elephants, he is living out his days in a nursing home, hating every second of it. His life wasn't always like this, however, because Jacob ran away and joined the circus when he was twenty-one. It wasn't a romantic, carefree decision, to be sure. His parents were killed in an auto accident one week before he was to sit for his veterinary medicine exams at Cornell. He buried his parents, learned that they left him nothing because they had mortgaged everything to pay his tuition, returned to school, went to the exams, and didn't write a single word. He walked out without completing the test and wound up on a circus train. The circus he joins, in Depression-era America, is second-rate at best. With Ringling Brothers as the standard, Benzini Brothers is far down the scale and pale by comparison.

Water for Elephants is the story of Jacob's life with this circus. Sara Gruen spares no detail in chronicling the squalid, filthy, brutish circumstances in which he finds himself. The animals are mangy, underfed or fed rotten food, and abused. Jacob, once it becomes known that he has veterinary skills, is put in charge of the "menagerie" and all its ills. Uncle Al, the circus impresario, is a self-serving, venal creep who slaps people around because he can. August, the animal trainer, is a certified paranoid schizophrenic whose occasional flights into madness and brutality often have Jacob as their object. Jacob is the only person in the book who has a handle on a moral compass and as his reward he spends most of the novel beaten, broken, concussed, bleeding, swollen and hungover. He is the self-appointed Protector of the Downtrodden, and... he falls in love with Marlena, crazy August's wife. Not his best idea.

The most interesting aspect of the book is all the circus lore that Gruen has so carefully researched. She has all the right vocabulary: grifters, roustabouts, workers, cooch tent, rubes, First of May, what the band plays when there's trouble, Jamaican ginger paralysis, life on a circus train, set-up and take-down, being run out of town by the "revenooers" or the cops, and losing all your hooch. There is one glorious passage about Marlena and Rosie, the bull elephant, that truly evokes the magic a circus can create. It is easy to see Marlena's and Rosie's pink sequins under the Big Top and to imagine their perfect choreography as they perform unbelievable stunts. The crowd loves it--and so will the reader. The ending is absolutely ludicrous and really quite lovely.

My Review:

Everything that I could say about this book has basically been said in the review above, which I think was quite well done. I did really enjoy this book, although parts of it actually really turned my stomach. There were also some very funny parts though, and a very interesting and page-turning storyline. I also enjoyed reading the back section of this book on how Sara Gruen gathered her inspiration to write this book.

So I would say that I would definitely recommend this book, I think it was well-written and fast-moving. Sara Gruen did some great research before writing this book, and I think that a lot of it is quite factual and even more interesting because parts of it are based on true stories!

As always, let me know if you have read this book, and what you thought about it, or if you decide to pick it up and read it!

One more thing...

Has anyone here read the the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand? Geez, I am trying to get into this thing. It was chosen by my book club as our "Big One" (it is a little over a thousand pages, and quite literally in about size 7 font). I am having quite a problem getting into the book and was hoping if someone could tell me if it gets more fast-paced.

Book Review: The Almost Moon

Hmmm... I realize I finished this book before the book in my "I am currently reading section".

I actually picked this book up first, set it down to read The Historian for awhile, and then picked this back up after seeing a scary movie a week ago, and being too freaked out to read anything scary. LOL, I know, it's dumb.

I have been pretty scatter brained about reading lately, I have been picking things up, then switching to another book. I did finally finish this one this morning though...

The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold

It was hard to find a very good plot summary/review of this book. Here is what I found at a Wikipedia entry that seems pretty accurate:

For years, Helen Knightly has given her life to others: to her mother, to her father, to her husband and now-grown daughters. When she murders her mother, her life changes.
The novel begins with Helen's murder of her elderly mother, Clair. Clair, a former lingerie model, suffers from an undisclosed mental illness (of which agoraphobia is a symptom), that only intensifies at the onset of old age and dementia. Over the following twenty-four hours, Helen enlists the help of her ex-husband Jake (who becomes an unwilling accessory to her crime), begins a relationship with her best friend's adult son, while on the run from the police. Present day events are interspersed with recollections of Helen's childhood, and her often traumatic relationship with Clair.

My Review:
I have previously read Alice Sebold's other two novels, Lucky and The Lovely Bones. I didn't care for Lucky but I DID really love The Lovely Bones. Sebold chooses topics that are hard to talk about, and for this reason, I think the way she approaches them isn't always enjoyable to read. I thought that The Lovely Bones was enjoyable despite dark subject matter, because of so many other redeeming story lines in the book.

I felt the same way about The Almost Moon that I felt about Lucky. The Almost Moon seemed very forced, and I feel like Sebold relied on her shocking subject matter more than an actual story line. The main character has absolutely no redeeming qualities, in my opinion, and there aren't really any other likable characters in the book. This always makes it hard for me to like a book.

Sebold also seems like she is trying to create more meaning and depth to her writing than is actually there. I can understand that she wants her book to have meaning and to make the reader think, but it just wasn't quite there. Basically, I felt like she was trying much too hard, and the forced effort shows in this book.

So if you decide to pick up any books by Alice Sebold, I would recommend The Lovely Bones over this book and over her memoir Lucky.

Have you read this book? What was your opinion?

Book Review: Shoe Addicts Anonymous

From Amazon.com:
Arriving just in time for beach-read season, the effervescent hardcover fiction debut of cookbook author and romance novelist Harbison features four D.C.-area women who meet weekly to swap and chat about... shoes. Trying to get a handle on her massive consumer debt, Lorna Rafferty posts an Internet ad looking to trade footwear with women who have good taste and wear size seven-and-a-half. A senator's trophy wife, Helene Zaharis, is dreaming of escaping her loveless marriage when she stumbles upon Lorna's post. Overweight phone sex operator Sandra Vanderslice struggles to overcome her agoraphobia long enough to attend the shoe meetings. After a few funny missteps, the threesome finds a fourth member, Joss Bowen, the nanny of a shrewish socialite's hellion boys. Joss couldn't care less about shoes, but uses the group as a reason to get out of the house. Harbison does a fine job of showcasing how each woman is trapped—Lorna by her debt, Helene by her marriage, Sandra by her self-image, Joss by her employment contract—and how the fresh eyes of the group allow them to see themselves in a new light. Harbison creates vivid, convincing characters and handles them well. Reading this novel is like eating a slice of cake.

My Review:
So this was another choice from my book club that I belong to. It's not what we normally pick, since we usually go for more "thought provoking" or discussion starting books. However, this was nominated I believe five months in a row by one of our members, and we finally chose to read it.
I'm not a big "chick-lit" reader. Not because I don't like them, just for some reason it isn't what I reach for in the book store. I did think that this was a cute book, perfect for vacation or some light reading by the pool. So if you are looking for some chick-lit or some light reading, I would recommend you pick this one up!

I have to admit though, I have no idea what the book club is going to discuss tonight about this book...

Book Review: The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb

The book that I have recently finished (another pick by my book club), is The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb. I have read Wally Lamb's other two books She's Come Undone and This Much I Know is True. And enjoyed both very much. In fact, I would definitely include This Much I Know is True as one of my favorite books.

Also, I read this book on my mom's Kindle. Basically, a Kindle is an electronic book which can instantly download thousands of books as well as store thousands at a time. It also has an "electronic paper" display, made to look just like real paper, no back lighting or glare! It truly is easy on the eyes to read, and font can be adjusted as well.



My mom saw this on Oprah, and just had to have it, and I had the honor of taking it for a test run! And for a bonus, this normally $25-30 book cost a mere nine dollars on the Kindle. Of course there is that first price tag of the Kindle itself, and I don't think I will be making that purchase anytime soon. :(

Anyways, here is my review for the book, since this was supposed to be a book review, not a product review!

Excerpt from Amazon.com Review:
When forty-seven-year-old high school teacher Caelum Quirk and his younger wife, Maureen, a school nurse, move to Littleton, Colorado, they both get jobs at Columbine High School. In April 1999, Caelum returns home to Three Rivers, Connecticut, to be with his aunt who has just had a stroke. But Maureen finds herself in the school library at Columbine, cowering in a cabinet and expecting to be killed, as two vengeful students go on a carefully premeditated, murderous rampage. Miraculously she survives, but at a cost: she is unable to recover from the trauma.
Caelum and Maureen flee Colorado and return to an illusion of safety at the Quirk family farm in Three Rivers. But the effects of chaos are not so easily put right, and further tragedy ensues.

While Maureen fights to regain her sanity, Caelum discovers a cache of old diaries, letters, and newspaper clippings in an upstairs bedroom of his family's house. The colorful and intriguing story they recount spans five generations of Quirk family ancestors, from the Civil War era to Caelum's own troubled childhood. Piece by piece, Caelum reconstructs the lives of the women and men whose legacy he bears. Unimaginable secrets emerge; long-buried fear, anger, guilt, and grief rise to the surface.
As Caelum grapples with unexpected and confounding revelations from the past, he also struggles to fashion a future out of the ashes of tragedy. His personal quest for meaning and faith becomes a mythic journey that is at the same time quintessentially contemporary—and American.The Hour I First Believed is a profound and heart-rending work of fiction. Wally Lamb proves himself a virtuoso storyteller, assembling a variety of voices and an ensemble of characters rich enough to evoke all of humanity.

My Review:
Well, I’m not quite sure how to start a review on this book. As explained above, this book begins by centering on the attacks at Columbine High School. I admit that this part was hard to read, although very eye-opening. I was in 7th grade when Columbine happened, I believe, and it just seemed so very unreal to me. I only heard about things through other people, since I really didn’t read or watch the news. I didn’t realize at all the horrible reality of what had happened there.
This novel also addresses post traumatic stress disorder, addiction, the prison system, abuse, natural disasters, wars, chaos theory, and the current state of our country, just to name a few. Throw in a mummified baby (yes, really) and there doesn’t seem to be anything that Wally Lamb doesn’t throw into this book.
This book was very long, and at times a little tedious, but I stuck with it since I absolutely love Wally Lamb’s work. I think that this book could have used a better editor, and would have made a great book if just one or two major themes were represented.
I guess I kind of feel like there’s so much to be said, that if I started, I would bore you to tears, so I will just end this with my opinion on the novel.
My opinion is this: I did like this book, and I think that if I hadn’t had such high expectations from Lamb, then I would have enjoyed this much more. I was also under some pressure to finish this book quickly, as I was reading it on my mom’s Kindle (that she was constantly asking if I was done with yet), and it was a book that my book club chose that I didn’t even finish in time for the meeting. It was okay though, because half of us didn’t, and the others that did admitted to skipping over the old diary entries sections. I think that overall this was quite a depressing book, and while I did like that the ending was a little hopeful, I still didn’t walk away from the book with the same uplifted feeling that I felt after books such as A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and of course, The Alchemist.
Would I recommend this book? To someone who enjoys reading a lot and has time for a thick book like this, Yes. To someone who just wants some light reading? Absolutely not. Not only is this book long, it has very dark themes and moments, in my opinion. I in fact, had to set the book down a few times, because it is sometimes just so hard and even overwhelming to see on paper all of the horrible things that have happened in our country just in the past ten years, which is how long it roughly took Lamb to write this book I believe. He included basically everything, Columbine, 9/11, The war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina. It can be a lot to take in, but I feel that this was a good novel if you know what you're walking into, which I pretty much did after reading some reviews.

As always, if you pick this book up, or already have, please let me know what you think!

-K

Book Review: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

This book review is actually on a book that I read a few months ago. I am currently reading The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb. Let me just say, it’s pretty massive, and my book club meeting is coming up fast. It’s around 800 pages, and is by no means a “light” read (regarding subject matter). Light reads of that length, I can tear through, but this one so far has some pretty serious subject matter. For example… if it were a book about a certain dashing, handsome, and literally glittering vampire (cough, Twilight series) then 800 pages really wouldn’t be that much of a biggie.

Anyyyways…

This review is on The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Amazon.com Review

Like the one-time bestseller Jonathan Livingston Seagull, The Alchemist presents a simple fable, based on simple truths and places it in a highly unique situation. And though we may sniff a bestselling formula, it is certainly not a new one: even the ancient tribal storytellers knew that this is the most successful method of entertaining an audience while slipping in a lesson or two. Brazilian storyteller Paulo Coelho introduces Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who one night dreams of a distant treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. And so he's off: leaving Spain to literally follow his dream.

Along the way he meets many spiritual messengers, who come in unassuming forms such as a camel driver and a well-read Englishman. In one of the Englishman's books, Santiago first learns about the alchemists--men who believed that if a metal were heated for many years, it would free itself of all its individual properties, and what was left would be the "Soul of the World." Of course he does eventually meet an alchemist, and the ensuing student-teacher relationship clarifies much of the boy's misguided agenda, while also emboldening him to stay true to his dreams.

"My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy confides to the alchemist one night as they look up at a moonless night. "Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself," the alchemist replies. "And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity."

My review:
Let me just say, this was such a wonderful book. In one word, I would describe it as inspiring. This was another one that my book club read, and that I had nominated for us to read. I believe that all of us enjoyed this short and simple read.

What drew me to this book was the title, to begin with. As defined above, alchemy is obviously a fictional (or is it?) talent, of turning base metal into gold. I have also heard of an alchemist described as someone taking something plain or ordinary, and turning it into something beautiful and extraordinary. I can see both definitions in this book.

A particular part of this fable really struck home with me. In part of his journey, Santiago ends up in a crystal merchants store, helping him sell crystal. Without giving away too much, I will say that the crystal merchant has big dreams of travelling somewhere, and has dreamt of going to this special place his entire life. After what I believe is a year of extreme growth in sales due to Santiago’s natural abilities to improve the business, the crystal merchant had a good deal of money saved up and business was still improving. Santiago mentioned that he now had enough money to go where he has always wanted to go, but the crystal merchant declined. His explanation was this: he had dreamt of this place and imagined such wonderful things about it for so long, that he was afraid that once he got there, it could never compare to what he imagined in his dreams. So he preferred to keep it just a dream.

Right after I read that, I set the book down, and realized that the crystal merchant’s dream was the same as my dream of writing. For so long I’ve wanted to write and publish something, and have been told by friends and family that I should, because they loved everything else I had written. Well, maybe I’m scared to write something because I’m scared that it will never live up to my (and other’s especially) expectations.

But to read the story in that context… I just thought the crystal merchant was being ridiculous. So really, maybe I am too.

Well, to be honest, this is a book that is hard to write a summary of, but I will say that I highly enjoyed it and found many parts of it to be quite inspiring and other parts romantic as well. I really liked the love story in this book, and what girl doesn’t like a good love story?
So if you are looking for a short and great read, I would highly recommend The Alchemist, and I know many, many others would too!

If you read it, as always, let me know what you think!

-K

Double the Fun

Above: Myself, Lilah, and Skipping Christmas by John Grisham


For this post I have written two different parts... I decided to just throw them together right here, since I know that sometimes when people post a new entry, I usually only see the newest one!


So first, my book review, and then a fun tag that I received!


Amazon.com Review:

John Grisham turns a satirical eye on the overblown ritual of the festive holiday season, and the result is Skipping Christmas, a modest but funny novel about the tyranny of December 25. Grisham's story revolves around a typical middle-aged American couple, Luther and Nora Krank. On the first Sunday after Thanksgiving they wave their daughter Blair off to Peru to work for the Peace Corps, and they suddenly realize that "for the first time in her young and sheltered life Blair would spend Christmas away from home."

Luther Krank sees his daughter's Christmas absence as an opportunity. He estimates that "a year earlier, the Luther Krank family had spent $6,100 on Christmas," and have "precious little to show for it." So he makes an executive decision, telling his wife, friends, and neighbors that "we won't do Christmas." Instead, Luther books a 10-day Caribbean cruise. But things start to turn nasty when horrified neighbors get wind of the Krank's subversive scheme and besiege the couple with questions about their decision. Grisham builds up a funny but increasingly terrifying picture of how this tight-knit community turns on the Kranks, who find themselves under increasing pressure to conform. As the tension mounts, readers may wonder whether they will manage to board their plane on Christmas day. Skipping Christmas is Grisham-lite, with none of the serious action or drama of his legal thrillers, but a funny poke at the craziness of Christmas.


My Review:
This book was actually chosen by my book club that I am in for our December read. I have to say that it isn’t generally what I would choose for myself, while I have heard people rave about John Grisham, I just haven’t had much interest in his genre of books. This was, of course, a Christmas book, and therefore quite a different book for Grisham to write.

Overall, I think that this book is good for what it is. It’s a short, quick read, and it’s a Christmas novel. What more is there to say? I went into the book not expecting much, and frankly, I didn’t find much. I felt that characters were unlikeable and underdeveloped (though the book is only about 220 pages, so that could be a problem with character development as well).

While I don’t ever want to give any part of the story away during my book reviews, I will say that I felt like parts of the book were extremely unrealistic. I guess I just can’t imagine a neighborhood where people are genuinely appalled that someone would “skip” Christmas. I’m not really sure why they would think it was their business. Then again, I also live in a pretty diverse state, and a town that while not quite a large city, could never be described as a small town anymore. I guess if someone didn’t celebrate Christmas on our street we would assume they had good reason; or to be honest, I really wouldn’t notice!

I guess what bothered me most was the way that the Kranks planned their lives around their daughter, Blair, who was much too old to be acting as spoiled as she did in the book. Granted, her character is always presented as a privileged and even spoiled “girl”, so I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised at the outcome of the book.

I did; however, like reading a Christmas book and I think that I will pick up another one next year to “get in the spirit” of the Holidays. Just maybe a better one next time!

So bottom line: this book is good for what it is. It was inexpensive, and very short, and meant to be somewhat of a satire. Pick it up for some light reading, but don’t expect too much from it! Also, there is a movie made after the book called “Christmas with the Kranks”. I have heard that the movie is pretty bad, but maybe will have to judge for myself!


And now for my "tag"...


I can’t believe what a dork I am. Brandi (of Excess Baggage) tagged me literally days ago in her blog. Brandi, I promise I read your blog, and often, I just don’t know how I missed this entry! I think it was what I mentioned before about sometimes only seeing the most recent one on my dashboard when I log in.

Here are the rules:

List 10 honest things about yourself, and then pass the award on to 7 bloggers. (I don’t think I actually KNOW seven bloggers… so I will do my best!)

1. I will be 22… tomorrow!

2. I am a perfume-aholic. I LOVE perfumes and I don’t buy them nearly as often as I want to, 'cause they’re too freakin’ expensive!

3. My favorite food can generally be lumped into the “Asian food” category. I especially love Japanese and Thai, and quite fond of Korean as well. My favorite by far is Sushi, but if you ever come to see me, I will make you try my favorite Thai place as well. Well, okay, I won’t MAKE you, but I'd highly recommend it ;)

4. If a song has crummy lyrics, I generally will hate that song. I can’t stand the stupidity of some song lyrics, and I guess that’s the general reason why I don’t really like Rap/R&B music.

5. I love, love, love to read! I doubt this comes as a surprise to anyone, since I probably mention it a few times in my blog. I belong to a book club (and NO it isn't a bunch of old ladies! LOL), a group that I have come to love so very, very much. I have met some amazing friends in my book club!

6. I'm obsessed with Vitamin Water. Yes, I am aware it's not as good for you as water. Yes, I am aware it is pretty loaded with calories. No, I will not give them up! Seriously though, they are basically my one vice. Other than nail biting. Oh. And shopping.

7. I have a little wiener dog, which you probably also already knew from my blog, if you are a reader. She is seriously the best dog ever, in my life I have had many pets, and I loved them all, but not a single one was like her. Yes, I'm obsessed.

8. I LOVE headbands! I wear one pretty much every day, and feel naked without it. The same generally goes for necklaces, it's just a staple for me to wear it!

9. I love taking pictures of things. Someday I would love to invest in a high-end camera and just take some amazing pictures when travelling. I like the camera that I have, but I feel like it just doesn't capture things as beautifully as they are in real life. It bothered me the entire time that we were on our little trip to Alcatraz.

10. I love to write. I would love to start writing fiction again, but just feel like I don't have the time to just sit there and do it (which really is probably bs, since I'm sitting here writing this blog). Well, okay to be fair to myself I did start this blog to get inspired to write, and have found that it's been coming easier lately.


Well there ya go! Ten honest, and completely random facts about me... I will tag... (and if you've been tagged, feel free to tell me or ignore it, I know there's no point in doing it twice).

1. Brittany

2. Bridgett

3. Remo

4. Jenn

5. The author of Pretty Little Pictures



Have fun :)


In other news, just have to mention that Russ and I finally got our new mattress! Instead of doing Christmas presents for each other, we decided to "get ourselves a present", and finally get a nice mattress. Our old one was terrible. We got an AMAZING deal, and it was delivered yesterday night. Last night was one of the best nights of sleep I have had in a long time!



Thanks for reading!

-K

Book Review: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

Summary of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - from the book jacket:

Lily is haunted by memories – of who she once was, and of a person, long gone, who defined her existence. She has nothing but time now, as she recounts the tale of Snow Flower, and asks the gods for forgiveness.

In nineteenth-century China, when wives and daughters were foot-bound and lived in almost total seclusion, the women in one remote Hunan county developed their own secret code for communication: nu shu ("women's writing"). Some girls were paired with laotongs, "old sames," in emotional matches that lasted throughout their lives. They painted letters on fans, embroidered messages on handkerchiefs, and composed stories, thereby reaching out of their isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments.

With the arrival of a silk fan on which Snow Flower has composed for Lily a poem of introduction in nu shu, their friendship is sealed and they become "old sames" at the tender age of seven. As the years pass, through famine and rebellion, they reflect upon their arranged marriages, loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their lifelong friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a brilliantly realistic journey back to an era of Chinese history that is as deeply moving as it is sorrowful. With the period detail and deep resonance of Memoirs of a Geisha, this lyrical and emotionally charged novel delves into one of the most mysterious of human relationships: female friendship.

My review of the book:

Asian culture, both past and present, fascinates me to no end. This book held the same mystique that book such as Memoirs of a Geisha (Robert Golden) and The Hundred Secret Senses (Amy Tan) have provided for me in the past. Books such as these almost seem to open the door to another universe, one in which everything centers on bizarre tradition and duty. The very idea of foot binding in itself is both gruesome and at the same time, extremely fascinating to me.

A pivotal point in Lily’s life is when her feet are bound and her entire life changes… for the better. She is able to land an incredible match with her future husband; whose family is of much higher wealth and status than her own. She is able to do all of this mostly because of her perfectly bound “lily pad” feet. She does; however, endure excruciating pain, including being forced to walk on her tightly wrapped feet until her bones slowly break in her feet. Her younger sister also undergoes this process at the same time, and dies in the process due to complications and infection.

Above: A real example of "bound" feet

On the other hand, Lily’s “old same”, Snow Flower, who is graceful, beautiful, and of (seemingly) good status, sees her future take a turn for the worse as her family deteriorates. While Lily sees herself wed to someone far above her family’s status, she finds that she owes much to Snow Flower and the woman’s education that she has provided, and she is sad to see her "old same" wed to a lowly butcher (which in that region was considered a very low status due to it being an “unclean” practice).

Well, before I start summarizing the entire book (or giving anything away for those who may pick up the book) I will just say that I, personally, very much enjoyed this book, though I don’t know if I would recommend it to everyone. If you are interested in Asian culture (including foot binding and women’s practices), then I would highly recommend this book. However, I did find myself becoming bored with some parts of the book, and irritated with others. I guess my problem is I have trouble with the horrible way that women were treated, and phrases such as… “Nothing is as evil as a woman’s heart” and in another part, when a miscarriage occurs, they imply that hopefully it was a girl that would not bring trouble into the world. That being said, that isn’t the book’s fault, because sadly, it’s most likely very close to the truth!

If you pick up Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, I hope that you enjoy it, and let me know what you think!

To read more about Nu Shu - the secret language this book centers around, please click here.

Also, please let me know if my book reviews would interest you in the future… I read a lot, and love talking about what I read, but want to know what you guys think as well!