The Nanny Diaries- By Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, both who are former nannies. The book satires upper class Manhattan as seen through the eyes of their children's caregivers.

Okay, this movie I remember seeing, but not the specific details. As in most cases, the book is better by far. The major difference being that in the movie, the main character Nanny is a post-grad who just takes a nanny job because she does not know what to do with herself. In the book, Nanny is still in school and majoring in child development. I think this is important to note because this character has a passion for working with children that the movie character just doesn't portray correctly. The satire in the novel is amazing, and situations that Nanny goes through redefine both 'stressful' and 'awkward'. 

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone- By J.K. Rowling, is the first novel in the Harry Potter series. The plot follows Harry, a young wizard who discovers his magical heritage, as he makes close friends and a few enemies in his first year at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. With the help of his friends, Harry faces an attempted comeback  by the dark wizard Lord Voldemort, who killed Harry's parents when he was just one year old.

Every once in awhile I feel the need to revisit these books, and I am glad that I did. I really had the chance to remember accurate details that the movies changed, and it was nice to see characters in their true form once again. 

The Cuckoo's Calling- By J.K. Rowling, under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, is a crime-fiction novel. A private investigator is hired by the adopted brother of a famous supermodel. The supermodel supposedly died of a suicide, but the brother suspects foul play.

This is not my preferred genre, but I can say that I quickly loved the characters as they were introduced. There were a lot of smaller characters that I had a hard time keeping track of, but the story itself was well-written, and interesting. The novel only takes place over about a month, but there is some great character development, and the story is a fast read. 

A novel about a young woman in the repressed culture of Edwardian era England? Count me in! A Room With a View is not unlike a standard song by The Smiths; a light and seemingly fun story, hiding more serious themes. It is a Bridget Jones-esque story of a young woman torn between two love interests, but also being emotionally and physically sheltered by those around her. 

Plot: Lucy Honeychurch is touring Italy with her overbearing older cousin and chaperone, Charlotte Bartlett. They meet a Mr. Emerson and his son, who are straight-forward and a little blunt, causing Charlotte to have an immediate dislike for them. Lucy likes them, and continues to spend time with them in Italy, but is confused over her feelings for the younger Emerson. In the second part of the novel, Lucy is back at home in England and newly engaged to another man, Cecil Vyse. Although most of her family are not overly fond of Cecil, they agree that he is a good "match" for Lucy by social standpoint. However, the Emerson's re-enter the Honeychurch's lives as they come to stay close-by in England. Lucy struggles with her inner feelings for the two young men in her life, as well as being influenced by close friends and family. 

What I liked about this novel was Forester's overly-blunt opinions of English society during this time period. Not only are there issues of class to be dealt with here,  as the Emerson's are at a different class level than the Honeychurches and Cecil Vyse, but there are social and gender issues to be dealt with as well. When Lucy expresses a concern, members of her family don't take her seriously simply because she is an 'emotional young woman'. Several times throughout the novel she has an adult male family friend speak on her behalf, simply because he is a male and therefore, must be correct. When Lucy makes decisions that are unconventional, her family inwardly agrees that her decisions are the best, but because they are socially frowned upon, they disagree with her, while the whole time, the narrator blatantly states why this is wrong. 

I am currently reading four different books, so hopefully that will add some variety to these posts as I have been on a classic-kick as of late (damn you Rory Gilmore book list!). However, I highly recommend reading a classic novel outside of school requirements, even if it is one you've already read. Now I get to try to con Kyle into watching the movie, huzzah! 

A Room Of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf, based on a series of lectures she delivered at Newnham College, and Girton College, two women's colleges at Cambridge University. The essay employs a fictional narrator and narrative to explore women both as writers and characters in fiction, it is in fact, non-fiction. The essay is most commonly viewed as a feminist text, because of Woolf's notable argument for both a literal and figurative space for women writers within a culture dominated by patriarchy.

The spine of this essay maybe fairly thin, but Woolf manages to cover a lot in these pages. Most notably, the title, stating that in order to be a successful writer, women must have a room of their own in order to do so. Meaning, they must have money. However, women are kept from such things due to their relative poverty and lack of financial freedom. In order for women to have "a room of their own", they would have to have extremely wealthy parents. Woolf also brings up a lot of other interesting points, such as Judith Shakespeare (William Shakespeare's sister, a fictional character she created for the essay). What if this woman did exist with the same talent as her brother? It would not matter, because her gift would be denied to her because women are not granted the same opportunities as men. 

I don't want to spoil the rest of the essay, so I won't give anymore of it away. However, it really is interesting to see Woolf's arguments pan out in today's society. Being financially secure enough to write is still an issue among many people, especially women, however, could J.K. Rowling have written Harry Potter if she was not starving and forcing herself to use her talent as a means of survival? It's possible, but she proved that she could write, even while on welfare and as a single mother at that.  However, she didn't use her full name Joanna Kathleen Rowling, instead she choose to use J.K. Rowling .Why? Because J.K. could be anyone, where Joanna is a recognizable female name. Still proving that women are denied a lot of the same literary opportunities (not to mention loads of others) as men, even in our modern society. 

Feeling Christmas-y yet? I still have work to do, but I am looking forward to tomorrow and Wednesday. I have a billion of cookies to make, a trip to the grocery store, gifts to do a crappy wrapping job on, Christmas eve dinner, more cheesy movies to watch with Kyle, and of course Christmas day! Family, food, and Doctor Who! Woot woot! 

To help get me more into the holiday spirit, I finally got around to reading A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. My friend Jamie had wanted to pick up a copy when we went to John K King books in Detroit last month, so of course I had to pick up a copy as well. It was hard not imagining the Muppets while reading this, not going to lie. But I am glad that I read it, it was just as awesome as any version of the movies that are out there, as well as being a very quick read. 

A Christmas Carol tells the story of bitter old miser Ebenezer Scrooge, and his transformation resulting from supernatural visits from Jacob Marley, and the ghost of Christmases past, present, and yet-to-come. 

This book exposed the practices in the meat packing industry in the early 20th century, concerning many Americans. Sinclair wrote the novel after spending several weeks working incognito in the Chicago stockyards before publishing this first in a newspaper, then in a novel. A film adaptation was made, but has since been considered lost. 

This was a very well-written book, and was shocking as well as heart-breaking. Not only did Upton Sinclair succeed in painting a mental image of how horrifying life was for the working class during that time, but he also created characters that the reader becomes attached to, even going as far as referring Jurgis as "our friend" several times in the novel. Sinclair also succeeded in making me even more leery of proceed foods, even though times have obviously changed since then. Either way, an excellent read indeed. 

Not only am I behind on my 2013 Goodreads reading challenge, I am behind at posting reviews. WHATEVER. I had read A Thousand Splendid Suns (by the same author) two years prior,so I knew what I was getting into with this book. I still cried. 

Broke into three different parts, The Kite Runner tells the story of two close friends; Amir,  a wealthy Pushtun boy, and his servant Hassaun, a Hazara. They are the same age, and live on the same property with their fathers. Hassaun's father is also a servant, but, like Hassaun, he is well-loved by the family and considered a family member, despite their different social statuses and roles in society. Amir and Hassaun have vast differences, different backgrounds, different education (or lack their of, for Hassaun), and different lifestyles. However, they share the same passion for stories, playing games, and of course, kite fighting. In Kabul, 1974,  kite fighting is the highlight of of the winter season for Amir and Hassaun, until one incident drastically changes their relationship. 

Five years later, Amir and his father Baba decide to leave Kabul after the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan. They make for Fremont, California to start their lives basically from scratch. During this time, Amir realizes that he may never live up to his father's expectations of himself. He does however grow up, while dealing with the many difficulties that life throws at him, but he never really stops thinking about Hassaun. Amir eventually decides to return to Kabul to visit an old friend who is in need, only to learn that the Kabul he once knew has changed greatly. 

Trying my best to not give away any spoilers here, but this book really was wonderful in so many ways. The critical reception of it will tell you that, however, I really loved the relationships between so many of the characters, and a personal (if still fictional) experience with the vast changes Afghanistan went through in just a few decades. I think my favorite aspect of the novel was the fact that Baba reminded me of my own father in many ways. A hard worker, who wants what is best for his child. But when he hung up a poster of Ronald Reagan and Amir rolled his eyes (inwardly), that nailed it. 

The book is a fast-read, and I highly recommend it. That is if you haven't already read it :P 

I am I am I am. 

You are a tree. You are the very trunk of the tree that you are sitting in and there are branches all around you. Each branch is a boy, a job, an idea, a city, a country. Each branch is an option. There is absolutely nothing holding you back, nothing that is going to push you from your place as the trunk of that tree, except for one thing: Time. 

First you have until the end of the month, then the week. Then. Then people, the ones you love, start offering up your options; So you didn't get into that writing course, why not take another summer course? Why not learn short-hand? Why not get ahead of the game and start your thesis? Why not, why not... 

Why not in your mind turns into why bother. Why bother changing out of pajamas when you will put them back on at night? Why bother changing into pajamas at all. Why bother washing your hair every single day. Why bother eating? You can't sleep. You go a few nights, a week, an entire month without sleeping. It's because of the damn tree. All those branches, which one do you grab? You wait too long and they all wither and die. 

Esther Greenwood can't write. She can't physically write out a note, or even a letter. She is an A student, she studies and studies and does not know when to stop. Until she is home one Summer, the Summer when she realized why she cannot write. She has no experience in anything.  Esther can't sleep so she is sent to therapy. It doesn't work, and she is sent for electroshock therapy. That, that goes wrong. Esther just wants to sleep, so she carefully swallows an entire bottle of pills, writes a note to her Mother, telling her that she is going for a long walk, then proceeds to crawl under her house. She is found and sent to an institution, which is a branch, just not the one she wanted to reach for.

Esther's anxieties are the same as almost any post-grad, what do you do with your life when you are done with college. Only Esther's come before she even graduates. She knows one thing, she wants to write. The problem? She has not experienced anything to write about. What value is your life, when your mind can't cooperate with your one desire? Esther's mission then begins to be that of understanding, acceptance, and finally, control.

Sylvia Plath 

The entire time I read this book, stereotypical as it is going to come off as, I felt her. I associated with her. I eat my food in a bizarre yet manner-of-fact way, I assume that if I look like I know what I am doing it is perfectly fine to eat that way. When I am faced with something new that I am shocked over, beyond words, I typically just nod and act like I have been exposed to it before. I am blunt. Oh and I am an English major. One that wants to be a writer and not a teacher. But there is this one issue...I have not experienced anything yet. I however do not feel that I need to experience placing my head inside an oven a la the ingenious, yet tragic Sylvia Plath so fear not. 

Oh and before I forget, the lovely Amanda from The Upside of Wonder featured me on one of her "looks I love" posts, go check out all the other awesome girls who were featured! Thanks Amanda!!

Who is Artemis Fowl? A 13 yr old criminal mastermind, following in his Father's footsteps to plot, and follow through plans of highly illegal activities. He is rich, he is intelligent, and he is fearless. When he was 12 he managed to steal a large sum of gold from the fairies that used to inhabit the planet earth, and now live inside it, down in the dark away from the humans who took over millions of years ago and to this day very few even know that the fairies exist. Fairies like Captain Holly Short, the only female member of the LEP. 

Since the whole gold-stealing incident, the fairies are not too fond of Mr. Fowl. In fact, once some mischief happens beneath the earth's crust, mischief involving lots of AA batteries that can only come from one place, that is, above ground, the fairies bring Artemis in for questioning. Once secured in the underground that is the fairies domain, they are a little disconcerted when they realize that Artemis is not the human that they are looking for, and yet with the brains and quick thinking that young Mr. Fowl comes equipped with, they could use his help. They are slightly more than surprised when they discover Artemis needs help as well. He needs to find his Father who was kidnapped two years ago. All Artemis knows is that his Father is being held in Russia, and he will do whatever it takes to save him, even if that means teaming up with an unlikely partner. Holly Short.

This young-adult book is part of a series that is very quick to read and pretty humorous. There is little depth to the plot, yet the story moves fast and keeps the reader entertained. If all the action and fighting does not catch your attention, then the unusual fart jokes probably will.

Eoin Colfer

Eoin Colfer is an Irish author, and although he has written other books, he is most well-known for the Artemis Fowl series. His work has been compared to J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series (as if you didn't already know that) and here is an interesting factoid for you, in September 2008, Colfer was commissioned to write the sixth installment of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series "And another thing....". 

Personally, I would really like to read the rest of the Artemis Fowl series, and the rest of Colfer's books for that matter (The Wish List is a great one as well), however, I have banned myself from buying anymore books until I work through the three milk-crates full of books in my possession.

If ever the term 'epic failure' was to be applied to my life, it would be at this moment. I have never felt as much wonder/anger/enjoyment in my life after finishing a book as I have when I closed this book, flipped it over to the cover, traced the lettering of the title, and finally exhaled. What kind of impact will it make on my life? Will/can I apply anything that I learned from this to my life? Will I become a more open-minded person? I don't know. I wish I did. I sometimes believe that the lighter, fluffier literature that I read has more of an impact at times. I know that your favorite book or author cannot cover all genres, and I don't want to be so quick to replace David Sedaris as my literary hero, however...

I am beyond frustrated with myself that I did not read this book before meeting Junot Diaz, then again, what would I say? That I am a product of my environment and have had no exposure to any Dominican culture other than when Carla ripped Turk new one every time he forgot what her nationality was until she finally broke into song during that musical episode of Scrubs, singing her aggravation away to her husband? That I had to keep the internet close-by while reading in order to translate the few phrases that I just did not understand, regardless of the context it was in? That I understood each and every Tolkien, and Star Trek reference that was made and that I would chance learning to play D&D if it meant that I could be Oscar's friend? But then again knowing Oscar's track record with women, would my attempt at friendship conduct more damage than good? I don't know. I don't think I can even manage a decent review of the book, but I will try. Because even though at times I wanted to hurl it across the room, even though at times I had to reach for tissue because the text was so blurred by my hot tears, even though I received many a disproving stares in public for laughing out loud so hard I thought I would piss myself, "The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao" has become one of my favorite books that I have ever read.

Oscar Wao is a misinterpretation of Oscar Wilde in the book, however, the nickname sticks. "The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao" is written in a series of pros, where the narrator is anything but unreliable. There is a blatantly honest tone as the reader is directed into the lives of one family, struggling with an ancient curse that tears a destructive path for generations. The reader is learned through layers of stories of struggle and series of facts, blended and mashed together to eventually form Oscar, the ghetto-nerd who would appear to be too innocent if he wasn't coated in the curse. 

Oscar is the polar opposite of the females in his family, he is weak, he is unattractive, he has a great love for the sci-fi fantasy world and for food, and most importantly,  even though he fails miserably each and every opportunity, women. Oscar fails in almost every way at being a true Dominican. There is a great fear in him that he might die a virgin, blasphemy to Dominican males everywhere. Readers follow his life, set in what we assume is sometime in the 1990's, as well as taking trips to the past through the narrator, who's calm anxiety to get the story to us readers is apparent through each and every f-bomb peppering the pages, but is to be expected when our narrator has to educate the readers on the nature and rein of Trujillo, who is an enormous factor in the story.

 This completes my first book for 2011. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested, but it just might not be for the faint of heart.

Last night Kyle finished his last ever final exam at OCC!! :) I am sooooo proud of him!! It is really hard going to school while working full-time, and he did it :D We are going to celebrate soon, either go out or have a big family dinner or something. Whatever Kyle wants, and hopefully this fall he will be attending either Wayne State or Oakland. I think he might be leaning toward Oakland because I am going there, it would be cool to have Kyle in class with me again :) After Kyle got out of his exam, we took Louie for a walk and Kyle took my outfit pics by the railroad tracks in Royal Oak. Do you notice anything odd about this outfit?

 Hrmm....how do you think this happened?

He is just too cute for me to stay mad at. Sigh. I really don't know what I would do without him...probably attack my kitties more. Last week I managed to finish "Death of a salesman".  I think this was the first play that I have ever read that was not required reading from school, but it was a nice change. I am not really following any system with the books I chose. I have acquired sooooo many of them over the past few years that there is a huge variety, and I want to read them all! So I basically started at the top of the pile, and I am working my way down.

Details:

Top-ae

Necklace & belt-F21

Shorts-thrifted 

Tights-CVS

Shoes-alloy

Hoodie-Victoria's secret

Song "Kiss from a fist" by Florence and the machine

I have realized that as it has been getting warmer, most of my outfits have been taking on a more autumn look (the leaves don't help). It is hands-down, my favorite season of course, but I think with the weather being so nice I really need to incorporate more of my spring wardrobe. This is another tunic that I bought, and then never really wore because they make me look pregnant, but then after buying a few high-wasted bottoms, I have more use for them. 

This week I am going to feature another book, but this time it is a non-fiction one. I just finished reading SLUT! by Laura Tenenbaum for my women and gender studies course at Oakland. It actually is a well-written book about females that have fell victim to "slut bashing" and how it affected their lives. There are several real stories told by women in this book that are horrible to read because you feel so bad. It also is about how women bash each other constantly, most of the women in the book who tell their "slut" stories, say that the girls were the worse. I really don't want to give too much away, but I highly recommend this book. 

**It's She&Him Day!! :D

Details:

Tunic & Skirt-F21

Tights-CVS

Shoes-Second skins etsy

To-do list:

Clean apartment

Finish Homework 

Buy Food

Start WGS Paper 

Presentation

Inspired by my friend Dan's latest blog, and also, my ethnic lit class; I decided to do a book review on a great book that I just recently read (in one sitting) for class. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

First of all I would like to mention that Sherman Alexie is an amazing author. He has won many awards for his work, and also an independent film "Smoke Signals", 1998, was made (screenplay written by Alexie) based of his book "The Lone Ranger and Tonto fist-fight in Heaven" (which I also highly recommend seeing). He is also a well-acclaimed comedian. I have watched a few of his interviews, including one with Steven Colbert, and I am looking forward to reading more of his work. "The Absolutely True Diary" is based off of Sherman Alexie's own childhood, and it is written for young adults. Although I think anyone who has read this can agree that adults will appreciate this novel.