Book Review: All The Light We Cannot See

I am fortunate enough to have found and joined a book club that started at the beginning of the year. It's the first one I have ever been a part of and I'm so excited about it. Usually, I'll read something and want to discuss it with others and instead have to settle for devouring reviews (or, you know, writing my own. . .). 

Our first book was All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Spoiler Alert: this story is phenomenal.

via

Book Review: Big Little Lies

I'm just going to give it away: Big Little Lies is a great, fun read. 

I was a little disappointed in my first book of 2015 so it was extra exciting to update my Goodreads with this one. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty is another one of those books that has been gracing Best Of lists and there apparently will be a limited television series based on it starring Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman (verdict: SO EXCITED! TV was the way to go, it'll play out much better on a week-to-week basis than if it were a movie).

via Amazon

In the interest of complete honesty: is Big Little Lies some great, moving piece, some literary art? No - not to me, anyway. But I had so much fun reading it: the characters are great (and relatable - I can name a Madeline, a Celeste, a Renata in my every day life without hesitation), the storyline is interesting, the themes are easy to pick up on without being shoved in one's face. . . I really cannot ask for more in a novel.

ipsy Review: January Glam Bag

New month, new shiny pink envelope! Wee! 

Like last month, I was SO excited to come home to my new haul (bonus: it came a day early!). Also like last month, I totally posted slightly annoying shit to my Facebook in order to get the Sneak Peek so that I knew what was coming. 

Despite that, I was surprised at the size of the items - in a pleasant way. 

From left: LaFresh Eco-Beauty Be Good. Good Day. Day Moisturizer. (Malin & Goetz) Mojito Lip Balm. Manna Kadar Cosmetics Sheer Glo. Hikari Cosmetics Mechanical Eye Liner in Smoke. Pacifica Natural Mineral Coconut Eye Shadow.

Perhaps it comes as no surprise that I was all about the Fresh Start theme to this month's bag - after all, I specifically mentioned wanting to focus on my skin. Having seen some of the other items that were sent and having used these items for a little over a month, I definitely think I won the ipsy lottery this month.

Book Review: The Girl With All The Gifts

Although I didn't get any Amazon gift cards for Christmas, I did receive cash and I sure did beebop over to Giant Eagle to purchase a gift card for myself. Fuel perks and books? Win.

I loaded up my Kindle with a handful of books and decided that I'd get one more new one in and save the rest as items toward my goal of 100 books read in 2015.

Based on recommendations by a few girlfriends, I went with The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey. 

source | True Story: I had a little thrill when I saw the Joss Whedon quote. Worlds colliding!

Despite what my husband thinks (and, apparently, as my book reviews might suggest), I do not read solely YA novels. I love them, yes, but I do not exclude other books outside of this category. That having been said, I do not know if I would have found The Girl With All the Gifts on my own. It's dark and there's a pretty heavy scientfic presence.

Note: this book is awfully hard to review without spoilers - I found myself typing, saying "oh shit," and consequently deleting quite often. I think I managed to complete the post successfully, however if you find the review lacking substance, this is why. Also, for what it's worth, the reviews on Goodreads are fairly unedited regarding spoilers - I recommend looking it up on Amazon instead. 

Book Review: BZRK

As a huge fan of Michael Grant's Gone series, I was pretty excited to discover BZRK. 

As I mentioned in my last review, I'm pretty terrible with summaries, so let's leave it to the experts at Amazon:

Set in the near future, BZRK is the story of a war for control of the human mind. Charles and Benjamin Armstrong, conjoined twins and owners of the Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation, have a goal: to turn the world into their vision of utopia. No wars, no conflict, no hunger. And no free will. Opposing them is a guerrilla group of teens, code name BZRK, who are fighting to protect the right to be messed up, to be human. This is no ordinary war, though. Weapons are deployed on the nano-level. The battleground is the human brain. And there are no stalemates here: It's victory. . .or madness.

BZRK unfolds with hurricane force around core themes of conspiracy and mystery, insanity and changing realities, engagement and empowerment, and the larger impact of personal choice. Which side would you choose? How far would you go to win? 

via Goodreads

When one is a fan of YA, as I am, it is almost impossible not to run into an almost disappointingly easy to read writing style, a tone that is simplified for its targeted audience* - take note, folks: that is not the case here.

Book Review: The Jessica Darling Series

Once upon a time, there was a really angsty, miserable teenager. She was convinced that she was better than her hometown (Spoiler Alert: she totally was) and that she was full of untapped potential. She was a giant bitch all throughout high school, a chip on her shoulder and a grimace on her face all four years. 

This girl found solace, as many a teenager before and after her, in books. She would walk to the local library after school and check out as many books as her extra bag would allow - sometimes up to ten. She would often stop at the Dunkin Donuts next to the library, order a coffee, and start reading one of her books before she'd catch the bus home. 

Surprise: that girl was me.

I wrote a post when I was still blogging for Weddingbee about who I was in high school, so I'll let that speak for itself. The books, though, that got me through, have such a special place in my heart - specifically The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (this book affected me so much that I kept a list of quotes and their page numbers in my purse until college. . .when I put them on my wall), Violet & Claire by Francesca Lia Block, How to Deal (which is actually two separate novels, That Summer and Someone Like You) by Sarah Dessen and the Jessica Darling series by Megan McCafferty. 

I am sure that there are many deep and involved reasons why I decided to re-load the well loved series onto my new tablet after it had sat on a previous reading device, untouched and un-thought of for quite some time; why I had been thinking about Jessica Darling so much as of late that I decided to re-read the books right before Jon and I were heading on a five-day-stay in our hometown for the holidays; why I devoured the books and couldn't wait to write about them. I'm sure that there's a lot to be said about the power of my subconscious regarding this decision - but I'm not the one to say any of it. I'm just happy to have reunited with those who feel like my old friends. I'm happy to have re-connected to them and to the story and I'm happy to have an outlet that allows me to express all of this.

images via Wikipedia, copyrighted to Three Rivers Press and Crown publishers

It's hard for me to review the books adequately as individuals as each time I've read them, I've read them in rapid succession, so that it's essentially one long, great story, so I'm reviewing them in their entirety as The Jessica Darling Series.

Ipsy Review: December Glam Bag

I don't know exactly how the whole containers-of-goodies-arriving-via-mail-once-a-month-for-a-low-price phenomenon originated, but I am far from complaining. I love mail, I love goodies, I love things for cheap: sign me up.

A combination of frustrating skin, general aging (yup, I went there) and a need to look like a human most days has led me to delve further into the world of makeup. A drugstore makeup girl since my early days (I think I was in seventh grade when I first started wearing eyeliner), I've relied on my friends Cover Girl and Maybelline pretty heavily. When my skin first started acting up, I went to Almay for foundation purposes, hoping the more expensive and seemingly fancier formula would help. And it did, for a bit, but alas, here I sit at 25 with combination skin, a fairly persistent 2 p.m. shine and an increasingly circle-y, wrinkle-y under eye situation. YIKES. 

Plus, I do like makeup. I think I'm a fairly simple girl as far as most things go, but I enjoy me a good eyeshadow color. I'm also fortunate to have become close with a handful of makeup gurus in the past year or so and they're good at keeping me updated on trends and how-to's. As a result of all of the above I've been exploring things like lipsticks and a whole routine of primer, foundation, bronzer and blush. . .even if it intimidates the shit out of me. I went to Sephora recently with one of my best friends and my hands were clammy.

So, something like Ipsy is pretty perfect for me. I'm able to try out a handful of things each month in the privacy of my own home for $10. I wavered between this and Birchbox for a little (the BFF  I mentioned above is a longtime Birchbox subscriber and loves it), but a co-worker convinced me to go the Ipsy route for a few reasons: you get more full-size products, they're typically more attainable products (not necessarily found at a specialty store) and they're more economically priced items. Basically, a gift for makeup babies like me, trying to spread their wings and fly freely and confidently with no fear of cake or crease. 

Thus, I present to you my first Ipsy adventure: December's Thinking of You Glam Bag: 

From left: Crown Infinity Shadow/Crease Duet Brush, Nourish Organic Renewing Eye Cream, tarte deluxe lights, camera, lashes 4-in-1 mascara, NYX Butter Lip Balm in Red Velvet and Bumble and bumble. All-Style Blow Dry. 

Book Review: We Were Liars

For as long as I can remember, I've been an avid reader. I embody almost every stereotype about a bookworm: begging to stay awake for "just one more chapter", laying by the window with the streetlamp to keep reading when my previous request was denied, burning through The Baby Sitter's Club books and moving on to my mom's Danielle Steel collection in elementary school, garnering the most Accelerated Reader points in middle school, being a regular at the library and having to have a dedicated library tote big enough for all of my books in high school. . .the works. One of my friends calls me Gretchen Grundler, from Recess; Jon calls me Twilight Sparkle.

image via Disney Wikia

When we moved into our new place, I had a vision for a small space near the front of our apartment and conveyed it to Jon, who agreed it was perfect - thus, my reading nook was born. 

#ApartmentLife : My Reading Nook. On the opposite wall is a bookcase (although, admittedly, I'm a Kindle girl these days).

All of this to say: I like to read.