Leisure Reading C/O the Library

Finding time for leisure reading is not particularly easy. Between school, work, and life, I just don't have an hour the day that I am willing to give up to chill with a novel. When I wind down, I would prefer some trashy vampire filled teen dramas than a bunch of words on paper that create a plot that requires concentration to follow.

When winter break came around, I decided to start using the library to procure new reading materials for free. After all, why would I want to read the books that I paid for months/years ago that sit on my shelf, ripe for the picking?? I figure now is as good as a time as any to provide you with simple reviews.

One Day took me all of one day to read. The story follows a couple through their lives together and apart, but all events occur on the same date, July 15th. I found their relationship intricate and was constantly wondering how things would turn out. After about the first 50 pages, I did the unthinkable.

I read the last page of the book! I never do this. I was also forever convinced the ending was going to be terrible as I did not know the context of those sentences and concluded the worst. Don't worry, I will not comment one way or the other how this wonderful love story ends, but like any book/movie that I deem amazing, I was left breathless. (and a bit damp with tears)




Room was my next pick. I read numerous reviews praising the story and style. Sadly, about half way through, I realized this book was not for me, but I wanted to see it to the end. There is nothing I hate more than not knowing the ending. On my book shelves there are books that took multiple attempts before I got to the end, but I have always found that I was just not in the right place for that particular story. (My eye is on you, Life of Pi)

This story is told from the voice of the five year old boy in the story. I enjoyed seeing life through a child's eyes. Every object had a name, even if the name was generic, the lamp was named Lamp. The child and his mother are kept in a room, she was kidnapped and we subsequently find out he was born in this very space. The room is all the boy knows and understands. I think the main reason this book did not sit well for me is that I was simply not in a space that could handle a book that revolves around kidnapped people. Honestly, there will probably never be a point where this kind of story would go over well for me, right now, I couldn't even praise the writing style without feeling guilty and morally corrupt.



If you are a science nerd, and love of the cuff personal observations and comments (see, this blog), then this book is for you! I took the book out during a very stressful point of the current semester. Renewed the book twice, and then decided to keep it and accrue fines until I finished, which I did last night. The Minuteman Library system is currently ready and awaiting my 60 cents in fines.

This book was worth those six dimes. It covers all aspects of the space experience including the physics of moving in space, the use of chimps in NASA's early days, space food, and even space sex. Mary Roach has a way with words, and footnotes. I would be interested in reading her other novels, I have a feeling she could make any topic enjoyable.

Starving for Katniss

Right before I left for Florida I remembered to purchase my marketing textbook on amazon. Since I was going to spend over $100 on a book for school, I figured why not up that bill up a smidge for some fun books to read before classes started.

The Hunger Games Trilogy has been everywhere lately. Many magazines and blogs have given these books rave reviews stating that Katniss was the character Stephanie Meyers wished Bella could be. The girl is strong, level-headed, and self-sufficient.

When I was surfing through Amazon, I noticed that I could buy each book in hardcover separately for less than the box set. I figured this was a safer way to handle things. If the first didn't grab me, I would have the option to send the other two back. But if I was hooked, there would be no delay in finding out what happened next.

Flash-forward six days after opening book one.

OMG those books are like crack for your imagination.

I don't want to ruin any of the adventure or images for you. Just simply trust me and start reading. The initial focus of the trilogy is the Hunger Games - which is an annual event where district children are randomly chosen to compete in an arena to the death. This mayhem is considered entertainment for the Capitol citizens (the upper echelon) to see children ages 9 - 14 kill one another. These people are unaffected by the deaths, as their children will never be selected to fight, and thus have no connection to the contestants beyond the one they bet on. Although I would estimate the first novel focuses on the "sporting event" for about 75% of the pages, I was still able to feel emotionally connected to the characters.

Don't worry, the book isn't solely focused on the killing, there is a love story intertwined in which involves Katniss and two boys, but it isn't a traditional triangle. Katniss isn't daydreaming about boys, she stays focused on family and her own abilities for the most part. She was a breath of fresh air as a female character - who is to appeal to tweens - who was determined, powerful, and not forgetting how to breath because a hottie sent her a loving gaze. I love her.

Now don't delay, go read these books so we can discuss them :)

Versace, I am a fan

If I am concerned about the cost of the dress at Kenneth Cole, clearly I should not be day dreaming about the Versace 2010 Spring Collection. Oh well, these gowns crave attention, and so I will give it to them.


Personally I think I am too pale for an all white dress and would never be able to strut around in public in one. (The exception to that statement would be on my wedding, but even then I would guess I would go more bone than white)

I do love the way strips of fabric are used to create a bodice that flatters the female shape. The model does not appear to have a large bust, but the silhouette of the dress gives her almost an hourglass shape by accentuating the small waste and shapely bottom.

Additionally, having a set of straps connect into the hardware that is found on the torso makes me think that dress doubles as its own accessories. Maybe the dress is worth it as I wouldn't need to invest in a necklace?





I find the close up of this dress is more pleasing to the eye than the picture of the whole garment. The main reason being that I find those silver shoes to be too matchy matchy in color and thus become rather distracting. Maybe if the shoes didn't go so high up shin, but even then, it just seems like a bad decision.

The technique used in the bodice and along the side is interesting. It gives a feel of a feminine armor. Something that is delicate and yet indestructible.

The more I look at the whole gown, the more I realize I actually prefer it to be shorter. I know that if it was chopped here it would be too short, but honestly, the long gown just makes the whole thing look really, really heavy.





This is the last look I wanted to chat about. Again, I think the close up on detailing is way more interesting than the gown as a whole.

Both the teal and purple are intense and I think because the model's skin is so pale the cutouts work. The neutrality of the skin tone almost gives the dress a feel of another fabric than of peek-a-boo cutouts.

I wouldn't say that the dress should be cut super short, but I think if it was cut above the knee the look would be more flattering. There is something about how the fabric pulls along the lower half of her body that just irks me.

**All photos were taken from projectrungay.blogspot.com**

Team Jacob?

Yum

Saw New Moon tonight with a bunch of friends. It was amazing. The movie was so much better than Twilight, the acting has improved. Don't take this as me saying that the movie is going up for an award. I'm just saying that I could probably watch this one more than three times. It was a common agreement that three was the maximum number that one could sit through Twilight.

Jacob Black has an amazing body. Everyone in the theater took a deep breath in when we first saw him shirtless. That happened over and over again throughout the movie. Edward is Edward, but Jacob totally has an amazing body and well, for now, I am on team Jacob.

Here's the whole wolf pack. Sigh

It only takes five months to make the Fashion Bible...

See. The sun never sets on a bad ass.

Two weeks ago, I saw The September Issue, which if you don't know, is about the creation of the 2007 September Issue of Vogue. The documentary provides insight not only into how the issue is made, but small glimpses of both Anna and Grace. These two remarkable women are the genius behind the top fashion magazine in the world.

There is speculation that Anna was the inspiration for the character of Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada. After seeing The September Issue, I understand where the thought comes from. Anna is certain with her decisions and does not need an extra moment to form an opinion, and for this, she is able to create a master piece month after month.

As much as I enjoyed learning more about Ms. Wintour, Grace Coddington stole my heart and gave me a job to dream about. She is the top fashion editor in the magazine and creates, by far, the most amazing spreads. I only recently became a Vogue subscriber, but it was easy to flip through the issues I have in my house to confirm that my favorite spreads were done by Grace. At 68 years old, she is still producing great work and appears to be one of the few individuals who know how to stick up to Anna.

One of my favorite moments was after the final shoot in the documentary where she uses the camera man as one of her props. She realizes as the shots are being touched up that Anna may wish to tuck his tummy a little, and Grace immediately gets on the phone to editing telling them they better not touch his gut! I have to admit, letting him keep his body as it is, does add to the photo. She has a gift. I was not the only one who was smitten by Grace and her somewhat dumpy dresses/skirts and hippie sandals (no disrespect Grace! I love that you wear what is clearly comfortable!!)

I love the line in the Huffington Post article towards the end...

"They like to dictate the hair, the makeup, the clothes, the photographer – and that's annoying. I like to do that."

So Grace, if you see this, please let me know if you need an assistant. I am completely and absolutely fine with dropping everything here and following you around the world that is Vogue.

Harry Potter Six: Teenage Lustfest

I know movies are never as good as the book. I know that in the case of the Harry Potter novels, the movies most of the book is overlooked and left out. What I didn't expect was close to three hours of teenage hormones. I knew that they would probably cut out some of Tom Riddle's past but I never anticipated that we would focus on Ron's snogging and the awkwardness between Harry and Ginny.

Hey, the movie was still good. The quidditch scenes were great. All of the people I was with agreed with the statement that the cinematography has gotten way better since the first one back in 2001. The director/producer/whoever is really getting this whole magic thing down.

What watching this movie reminded me that I really want to reread the series. I will have to before the last movie comes out (or I should say movieS). Very proud of my set, they are hardcopies and came in their own trunk. I could totally go to wizard school with them.

Back to being a 20 something

Actual chat from this afternoon:

me: any good books lately?

friend: actually reading one right now

called the summer of 1949

it's a baseball book

so I don't think you'd be too interested

me: i think you would be correct

me: i am reading twilight four. a trashy ass book

friend: haha

way to be 15
As of 8 pm tonight, I finished book four of the Twilight series. For a second I thought I could officially return to the world of a 25 year old. Then I had a stroke of genius that while I did some packing tonight I would watch the Twilight movie. NOW I am done being 15.

Book four was interesting, not particularly satisfying. Definately no Harry Potter Seven - speaking of H Potter, seeing movie six tomorrow!!!! - but this book did keep me going. I purchased it for $5 from a guy on the street while walking home on Sunday and have been religiously reading about 100 pages a night since. The book is trash, but it is addictive!

One of the girls subletting a room in my apartment informs me that the author has talked about writing a fifth novel. I just googled this tip - low and behold Stephanie Meyers is attempting to milk this series for as long as she can. She is in the midst of writing Midnight Sun (the Twilight Book from Edward Cullen's eyes). I hope she doesn't plan on rewriting them all like this. I may end up reading this next book, but I was kind of set on the fact that this cheesey teenage romance novel was over and done with in four episodes. I don't need this to be dragged out any longer.

Pretty AND Economical. Perfect

Saturday was filled with some very girly adventures. In addition to purchasing new underwear (see previous post), there may also be a charge on my credit card for some AWESOME new MAC products.

Coolest thing that I got would be the pallet that you can buy to hold eyeshadows. Instead of purchasing their their individual eye shadows, you can purchase the pallet and then buy magnetic eye shadow thingies that pop right in. Thus, giving a home to up to 15 colors. You get the same amount of the makeup, but now you have something way easier to carry and you don't have to worry about loosing one. AND to top it off, the magnetic circles cost less than the regular tubs. More pretty for your buck!

I did ask if there was any way for me to pop out the shadows I have from their individual packet, but I was told that wouldn't be the best idea. The guy helping me said he heard very sad tales ending with broken makeup. I am taking that as my cue to leave things as they are and just build up the pallete from now on.

Interesting side note, these palletes are also way better for the shadows as they help absorb the shock that it tends to be exposed to when being carried around in a purse or luggage. I never really thought about how travel could damage make-up but now I know.

In addition to the new eye shadow, I also got this great stick thing that enhances eye shadows. You draw it on your lip first wait like 15 seconds and apply the color. Man does it work! Super awesome product!

Jamming out in NYC

Part of my weekend involved listening to live bands. Thursday night The New Surreal was playing at Uncle Mike's. I sadly just missed them. They are awesome. I have seen them play in Providence, my friend dates the guitarist... But really check out their myspace! I can't really review them right now as it's been awhile, but I'm sure if my bus had been 2o minutes faster and the stupid metro machine didn't give me a hard time it would have been awesome.

After they packed up I saw this kid named Clayton Senne play. He is now located in Florida but originally from Kansas. I enjoyed him a lot. At the time I was convinced he sounded like Ben, but now that I am not drinking I realize he does not at all. But I am pretty sure his speaking voice sounded similar. He plays keyboard and it is just him up on the stage. It was a great set to listen to while we all unwound from a day at the office. The waitresses at Uncle Mike's have to dress in costumes! They were really great girls and we totally chatted about different dress-up ideas. One was a slutty ghostbuster recently and was reprimanded for it, which seems ridiculous based on the idea that what they were wearing that night was acceptable. I am not one for "slutty [insert occupation]" costumes, but I would have liked to see/steal that one.

Saturday night we went to the National Underground to see a friend of friend play in Comic Tales of Tragic Heartbreak. The girl who was on before them was a folkish hippish singer. Her voice was pretty sweet and she was later pulled in to do an impromptu duet with the lead singer of Comic Tales. She skat for a while in the duet, I have never seen someone do that before, and I am pretty sure what I heard was skill. She totally was able to feel the beat and rhythm of the music. The singer of Comic Tales was a total ham and would go around dancing with girls in the bar and play his trumpet where ever. At one point he came over to us and had me push the keys while he played. While you can go ahead and listen to the music that they put up on their sites, I have to say that they are way better live. The lyrics are hysterical but the main reason we all liked it was because he was really about getting us involved and dancing.

The EYES have it

On Friday, my friend and I did some shopping in NYC. Sephoras are all over the place and so we hopped in, as I was still in major need of a new eyeliner and one of y'all said it was a good place to find some. Needless to say, the women there are amazing. I was wandering around with no idea of what to look for and eventually was able to catch the eye of one of the employees. She immediately took me around the store showing me her favorite products for not only stay put waterproof eyeliner but also a number of other products that my make-up shoe box desperately needed. Here is the run down of what was purchased this weekend:

Urban Decay's 24/7 Glide-on Eye Pencil - ZERO. This was by far the best of the eye liners I tested. Before consulting the expert, I had drawn a number of lines on my hand testing out other brands. She showed me this one as I asked for a really dark shade and again I drew on myself. It looked amazing. When I went to clean off my hand with the make-up remover they have out for customers all the other lines wiped off easily. The Urban Decay line stayed put for a while longer. I did already use this pencil Saturday night, and it really was so much better than what I have been using.



Dior's Diorshow Black Out Waterproof Mascara They have a whole display that compares mascara lines. There are even little graphics which help you understand which will lengthen, curl, volumize or something else that I can't remember. The cut-out was still a bit much for me to comprehend so I asked my expert her opinion. I explained that since I wear contacts I needed something that didn't flake. She said that any good waterproof mascara should never flake. I also said I wanted the product to volumize my lashes as the stuff I currently had just lengthened and that wasn't helping with the overall look I was aiming for. She pointed me to Dior. I was a little gun-shy about going for this one as it is DIOR, but thought I should just go for it. Again, used it Saturday night. AMAZING. I am in love with this product.


eye BRIGHT by benefit This product is an eye brightener. It helps combat dark circles under your eyes. I have never really attempted to deal with the fact that my poor sleeping habits do affect my appearance. There are times that I attempt to use concealer, but that really doesn't do much. This pink stick will neutralize the color! (I also learned that if you suffer from a more red tone, green will neutralize that. Make up is really fascinating at times). I haven't used the product in real life yet, beyond when the expert attacked my face with it. But it did appear to work its magic.

I did come away with a few other boring things. Concealer stick, brush cleaner and pencil sharpener but those items don't seem to warrent their own little paragraphs. I will note that the casher that I had was super nice. At the swag thing I went to a month or so ago, I had signed up for Sephora's rewards card. Apparently, my information was entered correctly because she couldn't look me. I had to refill out the form. When the woman and I finished chatting and what not, she threw in a free lip gloss. I made sure to compliment her on her rings - they were fabulous.

Can't remember the last time...

I was this engrossed in a book that wasn't embarrassing to admit to - not like the Twilight days.

Just finished "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson. The book is amazing. I borrowed it from a friend of mine and at the beginning I had expressed that I liked it and it was an easy read. She replied back, saying that the end was intense! Oh man, she was right! I coudn't put the book down. I was about half way down the night of my most recent kickball game and when I got home from the game I ended up reading till 2 am. The only reason I put the book down was because I knew I needed some sleep before I go to work.

The next night I started reading around 11 and finished around 12:30. It was such a great ending. I can't wait to read the next one. The author handed in three manuscripts to the publisher and passed away before this one was even published. It has gotten rave reviews. The second one was released this year, I don't know when the third one is set to go, I hope soon!

Go out and read it! I would lend you a copy but I don't own it myself. :)

Dear Om, your cocktails are ummmm lacking

The title of this post was way funnier in my head than I think it is to actually read, I apologize but I just didn't want to think of something else. Yesterday I wanted to go the beer garden after work to enjoy the beginnings of what appears to be an amazing weekend (and possible week) of weather. I was able to convince a co-worker of mine to come along so I wouldn't be some weirdo sitting/standing by herself. We got the beer garden and sadly way to many other people had the same idea. Given that we had others meeting us we decided to find another location and ended up at Om because we had never been and heard good things.

Their food was overall decent - my sweet potato raviolis were awesome. The sauce was delish. But the other dishes ordered seem to fall flat. So that averages out to decent. The drinks on the other hand were like drinking juice. I would really suggest staying away from that place. For $11 a pop you should be able to feel the alcohol, you shouldn't really taste it as they claim to us high end stuff like Grey Goose but really you could have fooled me.

After Om we went over to Redline. One of my favorite places and accidentally crashed a HBS social, it was fun. The drinks were way better. :)