Let's Talk About Books Baby!

May

Books Bought:

The One & Only- by Emily Giffin

Allegiant (ebook)- by Veronica Roth

Books Read:

Insurgent (ebook)- by Veronica Roth

A Game of Thrones (audiobook)- by George R.R. Martin

The One & Only- by Emily Giffin

Ok... So let's just be real and call a spade a spade... This month was pop culture on steroids as far as the book choices I made! I feel like I need to get into something more substantial and meatier for the next few months to make up for this pop binge!

 

So I pressed on with the Divergent series and book 2 still had my interest piqued. I like the main characters and am weary to press on because friends that I know who have read the whole series say that the third book ruins it... I may have to take a while before I get around to the third one, however it is downloaded and waiting on my nook!

Onto Game of Thrones... Last summer I watched the first season with my sister after she had listened to the first book. I was hooked on the show instantly! I wanted to watch the second season but my sister said we had to wait until she listens to the second book which she let me know she wouldn't get around to for awhile what with working full time and being in the final year of her bachelor's degree. So throughout the past year... I've debated... Do I hurry and read the books too? Do I just press on with the show without her? Friends lent me the first book and it sat on my shelf for months before I returned it to them chalking it up to the fact that I just might not want to read them. Then the new season premiered on tv and social media was all a flutter with excitement... So I checked out the audiobook from the library and listened to it everyday. I'm just going to say I like the show WAY more. I don't know if it's because I've never been an audio book type of girl or if it's because I saw the show first or what? We'll see, stay tuned. 

Now for Miss Giffin's new one! Let me just say Lauren Conrad and Candace Bushnell aside, Emily Giffin is my most chick-lit-y author I read and so obviously feelings of it being a guilty pleasure book accompany my excitement and giddy-ness!  This one was all about a girl working at a University and she is obsessed with football! Needless to say, I breezed through this one and 💜'd it! 

What about you? Are you reading anything good? Have any guilty pleasure reads? What do you think of the show vs  books in regards to Game of Thrones?

Let's Talk About Books Baby!

April

Books Bought

No Matter the Wreckage by Sarah Kay

The Other Story by Tatiana De Rosnay

Portraits and Observations by Truman Capote

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Greenwich Village Stories Published by Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation

Add more 'ing to your life by Gabrielle Bernstein

Insurgent (ebook) by Veronica Roth

Books Read

NW by Zadie Smith

No Matter the Wreckage by Sarah Kay

The Other Story by Tatiana De Rosnay


As the weather gets warmer like all the flowers that are blooming I seem to be coming out of my winter hibernation... that means... less reading.  However, based on my books bought list I seem to have not lost my gusto for throwing down some dollars for the love of literature!

Onto books read...

In true 2014 form, I read another book by the incomparable Zadie Smith.  While this one still does not top On Beauty, (will anything ever?) I still can see the greatness in this book.  A friend of mine phrased it perfectly when he said that she writes books that are syllabus ready.  They are books for the now, books full of heavy topics... where we stand socially, politically, racially, financially and how our place in the world affects our humanity.  Gotta love a conscientious writer!

April being poetry month I figured I'd delve into a poet that is new to me but is a sensation on youtube with her spoken word performances, and a true all star at TED talks.  I first heard of Sarah Kay when a favorite singer of mine instagram'd a picture of herself with the poet and my favorite author Liz Gilbert. I thought... "shoot if my favorite singer and author are hanging with this poet she must be somebody worth looking into".  Of course I watched her TED talks and then without any hesitation I ordered her book that was due to come out the following week.  I devoured this poetry book.  Who knew that poetry could be so hip?  It spoke to me, and yes, I've had modern poets speak to me before, none more so than Rebecca Lindenberg; but now I have another one to add to my list.  I look forward to more collections of poetry from this amazing poet!

And lastly, the newly published in America, The Other Story.  Ever since Sarah's Key, I wait for the next translated book of Tatiana De Rosnay's.  They are always entertaining.  While this main character was something of an arse, I still liked this story and wanted to see the way things would play out.  The book was interesting in the fact that social media and our ego-centric lives was a main theme and in a sense this story holds a mirror up to our (society's) behaviour and shows us how truly ugly it can be when we become obsessed with our phones in our palms more than the we care for the actual people in our lives.  Yet here I am blogging about it.  Will we ever learn?

Well I don't know how many or what books the month of May will bring, but I do know I'm looking forward to my little sister's college graduation, helping my parents with their yard, and welcoming family visitors from out of state!  What about you?  What is May bringing you?  What have your read lately?

Let's Talk About Books Baby!

(I know, my picture is lame this month... I blame it on the fact that I had a library book that I had to turn in mid-March).

Books Bought

The Haunted Life and other writings- Jack Kerouac

A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties- Suze Rotolo

Just Kids- Patti Smith

The Village: A History of Greenwich Village- John Strausbaugh

In Secret- Emile Zola

The Paradise- Emile Zola

Books Read

Divergent- Veronica Roth

Fools' Gold (Order of Darkness, #3)- Philippa Gregory

You'll be Okay: My Life with Jack Kerouac- Edie Kerouac Parker

Hey Folly- Mary Margaret Alvarado

A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties- Suze Rotolo

Ahh... the month of March and the joy of a bountiful tax return!  To Barnes & Noble I go!  As you can tell, I bought some books this month! That's right!  I do it in the name of fruitfulness and research!

Not much to say about my purchases because as of yet, I haven't read the majority of them, so let's discuss them in the future shall we?

On to books read:

Divergent- What can I say?  Entertaining, but definitely not literature.  I got sucked in to the idea of reading this book when I saw the trailer for the movie at the premiere of Catching Fire.  Of course there are the rabid fans out there who can claim that they read the series long before you could walk into the bookstore without bumping into a pile of these books on every table and shelf.  Of course I can claim that I worked at the bookstore before all the movie-goer crowd caught on, back when I was only selling this book to the rabid fan.  Turns out America's love of the teen series continues, when will we learn that nothing, and I mean NOTHING will ever be Harry Potter?

Fools' Gold- Alas, another teen series.  Difference is... I seem to be the ONLY person on the planet reading this one.  Which begs the question... how has it made it to three books released with a fourth already announced? Got me!  It's a quick read, entertaining, different than the other mainstream stuff that has been coming out in the past decade that's for sure.  But what else would one expect from Philippa Gregory?  (Still holding tight to my #1 most read author on goodreads- oh the shame!)

You'll be Okay- Loved this one! Learned a lot about my dear Kerouac, and I don't want to jinx anything but has given me my first non-autobiographical idea for a book project!!! Love, love, love!

Hey Folly- Saw this poet perform in Boulder a couple of months ago, finally read the book!  Love it!  Is it just me or is poetry becoming super cool again? Or has it always been and I just fell off the wagon for awhile?

Freewheelin' Time- The first book officially read in the name of research for said project that I don't want to jinx!  Loved it, it's delicious!  Not so much about Bob Dylan but definitely about the woman that was his muse and the inspiration for one of the most beloved album covers of all time.  

What about you? Read anything good lately?

Let's Talk About Books Baby!

 

Alas, February... I'm a little behind!

Books Bought

Changing My Mind- Occasional Essays by Zadie Smith

 Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

Books Read

 Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on love and life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed

Ok... months like this one happen in my life more than I'd like to admit: months where I buy books and then I don't immediately read them.  Sometimes a girl just feels like going to the bookstore and buying something, even though there are plenty of purchases at home that still need to be read. What can I say? I'm working on it!

This month I am proud to say that one year after starting it I finally finished the beast that is Team of Rivals, and yes, even though it took me so long and it was a book I would set down and not come back to for months... it is still awesome!  As a person who is spent many hours academically and recreationally studying Lincoln and the Civil War, I have to say the ending of this book made me think about things I'd never thought before.  I'm not giving anything away (at least I hope) by saying that upon Lincoln's assassination (gasp), I'd never thought about how his cabinet members must have felt.  Can you imagine?  Here in your younger days you were a political rival to this man, only for him to pick you to be a part of one of the most historically important cabinets in our history, to then fight for this nation to stay together and free a whole race of people only for him to end up shot and dead!!!! WTF?!?!?!?   Some of these men I truly believe had a better relationship with Lincoln than his crazy wife did (not in any other way than friendly working professionals... all you conspiracy theorists!) I just think how tragic it all is.  One of the cabinet members who went on to serve many Presidents wrote how late in life he had a dream he was delivering an important message to the White House and when he opened the doors it was Lincoln sitting behind the desk.  He said he woke up weeping.  Chills.  This book only re-affirms what I've known since I was in 2nd grade, Lincoln is my favorite.

February brings Valentine's Day and this year one of my new favorite magazines (Darling magazine) suggested on a facebook post that this Valentine's I should discover a romantic classic.  Not a bad idea, hence, Northanger Abbey.  When I lived in England, Bath was one of my favorite places so needless to say I've visited the ol' Jane Austen museum and own a beautiful set of all of her books.  Shamefully, I've only ever read Pride and Prejudice.  I know that Austen is intended for younger girls but when I had read her the first time around (about 9th grade) I felt really overwhelmed with the flowery language.  It has always put me off reading her again.  Needless to say, I am a lot older now and more versed in older and fancier English then I was back then.  This book definitely felt like a book for young girls.  It was cute though and a quick read.

Zadie, oh Zadie how you slay me!  So... my second Zadie Smith book in two months.  Maybe this will be a trend this year... But, while White Teeth is highly praised, I think it may have been all that before there was On Beauty, this book just simply pales in comparison to her later work.  Both are notable and as my work colleague and fellow Zadie Smith enthusiast says, "Seems like they are made for literary discussion", I just can't help thinking that if you start out with the best, it will be tainted.  My suggestion: work up to On Beauty.  You almost need to, because over a month later that book is still haunting me with it's rich meaning and it's dark, beautifully broken characters.

Dear Sugar, where to begin? Could your words be anymore beautiful?  Could your advice be any more profound?  It's amazing how you took the worst things life threw at you and sculpted it into compassion, acceptance, and stories that will give even the most broken of us hope.  LOVE THIS BOOK. 

Happy Readings Everyone!  

*Suggestions welcome!

Let's Talk About Books Baby!

So, there is a man named Nick Hornby who came out with a book over the holidays entitled, Ten Years in the Tub, I came across it at Barnes & Noble after seeing it on the McSweeney's website.  I love the idea of this book, this man has been writing a column for Believer magazine for 10 years in which he talks about two things every month: books bought and books read.  Love it!  So, it's the end of the first month of a new year and I can think of no better time to implement this into my blogging routine than now.  I know there is technically still one more day left of January, but I think I can safely say that between now and the end of tomorrow I will neither buy another book nor finish one.  (Although, I prematurely named my favorite albums of 2013 before the end of the year and wouldn't you know it... Beyonce went and dropped her surprise album which has quickly become one of my favorite, if not the best album released last year.  So we can be wrong and we can be surprised.)  But I'll take my chances.  Here we go...

Books Bought

On Beauty by Zadie Smith

NW by Zadie Smith

The End of Love by Marcos Giralt Torrente

Hey Folly by Mary Margaret Alvarado

The Wrong Side of Paris by Honore de Balzac

*Find it in Everything by Drew Barrymore

Books Read

The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

Tout Sweet: Hanging up my high heels for a new life in France by Karen Wheeler

My Invented Country by Isabel Allende

On Beauty by Zadie Smith

The End of Love by Marcos Giralt Torrente

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

*Find it in Everything by Drew Barrymore

Ok... first let me explain something, I am known for buying books and then not reading them for years, so it is a miracle that I've read 3/6 books I bought within the month that I bought them (although Miss Barrymore's is a photography book so it doesn't "really"count).  Let me also say that I don't usually read 6 books in one month, but I had made this goal at the beginning of the year to watch way less television, and so there you have it.

A few things I want to note about the books that I read this month... According to goodreads Philippa Gregory is the author I have read the most of.  I don't know how I feel about that other than to acknowledge that I am addicted to Tudor/War of the Roses historical fiction, so there you have it.

I adored Tout Sweet and already wrote a blog post about that, if you missed it, here it is.

I chose to read the Allende memoir because she is coming to visit Denver and I've been trying to decide if I should go hear her speak (it is not free) but I have never actually read one of her books.  *gasp* And now I have.  I also learned loads about Chilean culture/history, so I feel like a better person for reading this book.

I'm going to come back to Zadie Smith in a moment.  But let's talk about The End of Love for a moment.  This is Torrente's first book to appear in English, and I am waiting with bated breath for more!  This was a book about love and the ways in which it disappoints us or haunts us.  It was 4 short, beautifully written stories.  It reminds me of the movie Babel, here are these glimpses of characters that you can feel extremely connected to without even knowing their names but simply by observing them and relating to the plight of the human condition.  Beautiful.

Now with Kundera, I have had The Unbearable Lightness of Being on my shelf since I lived in England, I know this because I remember the moment I first heard of this book.  I was on a train ride to London and a girl and boy sat across the aisle from me.  She was reading this book, and he asked her how it was.  They began discussing it and as she did she kept flashing the cover back and forth.  I read the title and I couldn't believe that the title of a book could be so awesome.  I wanted to know what it was about, so the next time that I took a drive up to Milton Keynes for coffee and some book browsing, I purchased that book.  And there it sat on all of my many different shelves in the many places that I have lived since that year.  I don't know why I suddenly had the mad desire to read it right this moment (probably because I saw the list of my most read authors on goodreads and thought, "how embarrassing" haha).  I learned a lot about the Czech Republic and the Soviet occupation in this book.  The first half of the book is immaculately written, dang near flawless... loads of sex and infidelity.  I'll admit I got a bit lost on the second half, but not enough to realize why this is heralded in book circles as a relevant contemporary classic.

Now... for On Beauty, I devoured this book over a weekend.  It was a book that you just want to live in.  I remember when I finished I went to Chipotle to grab some dinner and as I was walking out, still deep in my own thoughts reflecting about this awesome book I just read, and it all clicked!  I needed to hurry and get back to my car, because I kid you not... tears were welling in my eyes.  I know why she called it On Beauty and the more I thought about the characters and the content... I was just extremely moved.  Definitely one of my favorite books ever... which means it's going to be really hard to read her other books because I'm scared they will never be as good as my first one that I read by her.  Yet, I love this author and her style so much that I know inevitably I'm going to read everything she's ever written.

As for the two books that I bought that I haven't read... well, I leant NW to a fellow reader who worships at the alter of Zadie Smith, and as for Hey Folly I picked it up last weekend at the author's poetry reading so I'm looking forward to delving in more closely.  

What are some of you reading?  Any suggestions for February?

When I listen to Wednesdays...

When I listen to the song "Rock Steady" off the Rock Steady album by No Doubt, I always think of my sister Ashley.  In the years before I became a "grown up" and moved all over the place, Ash and I developed this weird bond where we'd have these little sleepovers in her room every night; we'd scratch each other's backs and time the length of scratching based on the episodes of The Golden Girls which we would watch on Nick at Nite (don't ask me what a then 12 year old girl found hilarious about The Golden Girls, but Ash sure did love that show).

So... back to the song.  No Doubt's Rock Steady album came out December 2001.  At that point I think I'd been a fan of them since I was 12 years old, so needless to say even though the album was being named a sell out album, and critics were claiming that the infamous Gwen Stefani had lost her edge and was now pop, I was ecstatic nonetheless!  To this day, it still is probably my favorite album of theirs.  Anyway I remember the cold December night that I stopped at Best Buy to make my purchase, if I remember correctly I also bought Nirvana's Unplugged album and the Smashing Pumpkins Greatest Hits (what can I say... I was late to that party)!  Anyway, I remember starting the car and fighting with that dang No Doubt cd.  You guys remember that plastic wrap and sticker that came on cd's, right?  At last I managed to free the cd from the case and put it in the dash!  I practically didn't listen to anything else for a year!

I had lost my job that November, but hey this was before America waged war on Iraq and the economy tanked, and I guess since I lived at home... splurging on three albums did not seem like it would make a huge dent in my finances.  But the point of me telling you that I was "unemployed"-- while still being a student mind you, is just to tell you that I was home more than usual.  I remember seeing almost every episode of TRL over that winter break and of course driving around places and dancing in my room and whatnot.  Whenever I hear this song I remember all that, but mostly I remember singing with Ash, "Our love is so rock steady."  And while I know that this isn't some big sister anthem, I always think to myself that's exactly what my relationship with Ash is... it's rock steady.  Any ups or downs that I've had in my life that little girl has been by my side, she's my steady rock.

When I listen to Wednesdays... (a day late)

When I listen to Joe Purdy, I can have a whole myriad of feelings, luckily in my shuffle I got "Come Back Down Joe" off the Only Four Seasons album (Joe also has the same song on the Sessions From Motor Ave album), I like the latter version on Only Four Seasons much more.  This song reminds me of the West End of London, neighborhoods like Covent Garden & Leicester Square.  There's really no particular reason that this song stirs up those feelings.  Maybe it's because I discovered Joe when I lived in England and this song just reminds me of the kind of song that some wayfaring vagabond would be playing on the corner of one of those neighborhoods as tourists move about them, throwing coins in the troubadour's guitar case, making their purchases at the outdoor markets, and deciding what pub or cafe they are going to grab lunch at.

While in the past some Joe Purdy songs were the soundtrack to my ambien filled nights, the songs that I assigned to my most bittersweet memories, for some reason this song never felt that way.  This song reminds me of the me I was discovering in '06-'07, the me that was inherently different than who I should have been being married to Dave.  The me who was discovering she loved Europe just as much as she loved her own country, the me who on some level knew that Dave and I weren't meant for each other, (but the me who was too afraid to let go of him for letting go of him would mean letting go of those places).  This song is beautiful books, latte art, cobblestoned streets, and independence.

I don't know why, but that's just what I feel when I listen to this song.

I've been lucky enough to see this artist 3 times, he's just amazing.