Happy New Year!

Sheila at Book Journey wants to know what everyone is reading to start off 2016 and is hosting a fun event to find out. I’m reading Leah Remini’s book Troublemaker. I got it as a Christmas gift from my sweet sister-in-law. It’s about how Leah was born and raised in Scientology and ultimately escaped from it. I love celebrity memoirs, I love memoirs of former cult members, this is the perfect book to start the year off with!

I’ll be back tomorrow with my end of the year wrap up. Happy New Year!

I’m back! 2016 Reading Challenges

Hi everyone! I guess I unintentionally took the month of December off from blogging. I’m not sure how that happened but hopefully this break has restored some of my blogging mojo.

It’s the end of another reading year – time to reflect on what we’ve read in 2015 and do a little planning for 2016. I haven’t participated in any reading challenges for the past few years – mostly because I usually fail miserabley. However, I’ve found a couple of challenges for 2016 that look that look fun and I’m going to give them a go.

The first is the 2016 Read Harder Challenge at Book Riot.  This challenge is made up of 24 tasks designed to stretch your reading boundaries. Example tasks are: “read a horror book” and “read a book of historical fiction set before 1900”. Books can count for more than one task so you don’t necessarily have to read 24 books to complete the challenge. An added bonus – send a photo of your completed task in to Book Riot and get a 30% discount in the Book Riot store!

The other challenge I plan on participating in is the 2016 Winter Reading Challenge that my local library is hosting. The theme is Classics Remixed, meaning particpats will read books inspired by a classic novel like Lady MacBeth’s Daughter by Lisa M. Klein or Wicked by Gregory Maguire. If you complete the challenge, you get a limited edition 2016 Winter Challenge mug. I mostly just want the mug.

How about you? What challenges are you joining in 2016?

Give the gift of Stitch Fix for Christmas!

You all know how much I love Stitch Fix right? Did you know that Stitch Fix has gift cards?  They make great gifts for the fashionistas in your life!

Does someone on your Christmas list already subscribe to Stitch Fix? Give them a Stitch Fix gift card that they can use towards their next Fix! Do you know someone who you think would like to start using Stitch Fix? Give them a Stitch Fix gift card! Stitch Fix gift cards are available in three convenient options: by-mail, email and print-at-home. Be sure to order by December 18 to receive the by-mail option by Christmas. You can order gift cards by clicking here.

(This post contains affiliate links.)

Book Review: Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alice Bechdel

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
Published in 2006
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Meet Alison’s father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family’s Victorian home, a third-generation funeral home director, a high school English teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with his male students and a family babysitter. Through narrative that is alternately heartbreaking and fiercely funny, we are drawn into a daughter’s complex yearning for her father. And yet, apart from assigned stints dusting caskets at the family-owned “fun home,” as Alison and her brothers call it, the relationship achieves its most intimate expression through the shared code of books. When Alison comes out as homosexual herself in late adolescence, the denouement is swift, graphic — and redemptive.

I first heard of Fun Home when I read an article about how it was on the summer reading list for incoming freshman at Duke University and a group of students were boycotting it. They said it was pornographic and that its homosexual themes violated their Christian moral beliefs. Learning a group is trying to ban or boycott a book is one sure way to get me interested in reading it.

Fun Home is Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir of her life growing up. Fun home is what she and her brothers called the family-owned funeral home her dad ran. This was the first adult graphic novel I’ve read. (And by adult, I mean for grown-ups, NOT porn.) I was really surprised how drawn into it I was. I didn’t realize that characters could be so defined in the graphic format. I really felt for Alison, having to grow up with such distant, detached parents. Her pain and confusion over her father’s death jumps off the page.

The only way that Alison and her father relate to one another is through a mutual love of books and reading. Fun Home is peppered with literary references and comparisons that went completely over my head. Once again I’m pulling the “I was an accounting major so I didn’t read any classics in college card”. If you have, you may enjoy the references and Alison’s book will have even more meaning for you. However, I still liked this book a lot anyway.

There were a few nude drawings in this book, when Alison figures out she’s a lesbian and starts having relationships with women. However, Alison is a talented illustrator and they looked like works of art in my opinion. If the scenes had been described using words, they would have been much more graphic. I am applying Justice Potter Stewart’s “I know it when I see it” test of obscenity and this ain’t it.

As far as the homosexual themes in the book goes, yes this is a memoir written by a lesbian about her relationship with her gay dad. It’s a gay book. But isn’t one of the great things about reading learning about people who are different than you? Reading helps one develop a deep sense of empathy. Maybe you might even learn that people you once thought were evil are not. Maybe that’s a scary thought for some people and they would rather live in their insulated bubbles. I’m glad I’m not one of those people. However, I should thank the students at Duke for alerting me to this book’s existence.

Put Fun Home on your list of challenged books that must be read!

Audiobook Review: Patience and Sarah by Isabel Miller

Patience and Sarah by Isabel Miller
Publisher: Audible Studios
Audiobook Release Date: September 15, 2015
Narrators: Jean Smart and Janis Ian
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Set in the nineteenth century, Isabel Miller’s classic lesbian novel traces the relationship between Patience White, an educated painter, and Sarah Dowling, a cross-dressing farmer, whose romantic bond does not sit well with the puritanical New England farming community in which they live. They choose to live together and love each other freely, even though they know of no precedents for their relationship; they must trust their own instincts and see beyond the disdain of their neighbors. Ultimately, they are forced to make life-changing decisions that depend on their courage and their commitment to one another.

Patience and Sarah was first self-published by the author in 1969. It became popular and eventually found a publisher and was the recipient of the American Library Association’s first Stonewall Book Award in 1971. It’s a historical novel based on the life of Mary Ann Willson, a painter who lived with her companion Miss Brundage in a log cabin on a few acres of farm land in the early 19th century in Greene County, New York.

Patience and Sarah alternates between the first person narrations of the two women. Actress Jean Smart is Patience. Her melodic, almost hypnotic voice is perfect for the refined Patience. Singer-songwriter Janis Ian is Sarah. Her voice is perfectly aligned with Sarah’s naïve and rough around the edges personality.

Patience and Sarah is a wonderful love story. The prose evokes the emotions between the two women perfectly. I liked that this novel had a generally positive atmosphere about it, although the women definitely faced obstacles. Sarah’s father beat her when he found out about her relationship with Patience and Patience’s brother asked Patience to leave town when he found out. But so many lesbian novels, especially from the period this book was published and before, never let the gay characters be truly happy because the publishers felt like the characters had to atone or be made to suffer in some way to counteract their “sin” of being gay.

I’m not surprised that this audiobook has been nominated for the Grammy award for Best Spoken Word Album. It was a pleasure to listen to. Crossing my fingers that it wins!

(I received a complementary copy of this book for review.)

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Book Review: Inside the O’Briens: A Novel by Lisa Genova

Inside the O’Briens: A Novel by Lisa Genova
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
Paperback Release Date: September 24, 2015
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:
The breathtaking new novel from the author of Still Alice, which was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Julianne Moore. Joe O’Brien is a Boston cop; his physical stamina and methodical mind have seen him through decades policing the city streets, while raising a family with his wife Rosie. When he starts committing uncharacteristic errors – mislaying his police weapon, trouble writing up reports, slurred speech – he attributes them to stress. Finally, he agrees to see a doctor and is handed a terrifying, unexpected diagnosis: Huntington’s disease. Not only is Joe’s life set to change beyond recognition, but each of his four grown children has a fifty-fifty chance of inheriting the disease. Observing her potential future play out in his escalating symptoms, his pretty yoga teacher daughter Katie wrestles with how to make the most of the here and now, and how to care for her dad who is, inside, always an O’Brien. Inside the O’Briens is a powerfully true and tender elegy to the resilience of the human spirit.

I loved Lisa Genova’s book Love Anthony so I was very excited to get my hands on her newest book, Inside the O’Briens. Genova puts her background in neuroscience to use again, this time to explore Huntington’s disease. I knew next to nothing about the disease going into the book. It is an awful degenerative disease with a horrible prognosis. There is no treatment or cure.

The child of someone who has Huntington’s has a 50/50 chance of having the gene that causes it. If one has the gene, then one will get the disease. Since the only cause of the disease is having the gene, one can go through genetic testing at any time to determine if one is gene positive. This raises an interesting dilemma. If you had a parent with Huntington’s, would you want to know if you will also have it? Especially knowing that your life will be significantly shortened?

This novel explores both what Joe is going through as a person living with Huntington’s and what life is like for Joe’s children, who must decide whether or not they want genetic testing themselves. Joe’s life as the disease progresses is heartbreaking. He goes from being a tough police officer who is always in control to someone who needs to rely heavily on others in a relatively short period of time. Genova does a fantastic job of getting into Joe’s mind and the complex emotions the disease’s progression brings up for him.

With regard to Joe’s children, Genova focuses Katie, Joe’s youngest daughter. The novel alternates between Joe’s point of view and Katie’s point of view. Katie struggles immensely with whether or not to get tested. How will her future be affected if she’s gene positive? What will happen with her relationship with her boyfriend Felix? If she’s positive, will he want to stay with her, knowing that the only way to have kids will be through IVF? Is it fair to stay with him on the chance that she is gene positive and he would end up having to be her care taker? Will not knowing make her life more or less stressful? Genova starts each section of the book with a fact or two about Huntington’s. Once of them was that over 90% of the children of people with Huntington’s choose NOT to get tested. That seems like a staggeringly high number to me.

This book brings up so many thoughtful questions though wonderful characters and a great story. It’s the first book I’ve read in quite a while that I could not put down. I read it in two days. Joe and Katie’s struggles were authentic and made me empathize with them. I felt like I was right there in the thick of it with them.

A word of warning. This book ended way before I thought it was going to. I read it on iBooks and was surprised when it ended about 20 pages before I thought it was going to. The book is not one that wraps up every plot point in a neat little bow. I was just left staring at my iPad with my mouth hanging open, stunned that it was over all ready. The good news is that the extra 20 or so pages are a discussion guide and author interview both of which were interesting. I liked reading about Genova’s writing process in the interview. This book would make an excellent book club selection and the discussion guide would be a great supplement for a group discussion. This book is definitely in my top five reads of 2015 – I highly recommend it.

(I received a complementary copy of this book for review.)

Page to Screen: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

Did everyone see Mockingjay Part 2 this weekend? I really liked it for the most part. It followed the book closely, with some dialogue taken straight out of the book word-for-word. Just like the other movies, we get see things going on behind the scenes that Katniss is not aware of. That wasn’t possible in the books because they are written in first person from Katniss’s point of view.

When I read the book, the action sequences were confusing to me. I couldn’t picture what was going on in my head as I read. The movies condenses the action while leaving in the most important parts. Seeing in on the screen greatly clarified to me what was going on in the book.

As you probably know, Philip Seymour Hoffman, who plays Plutarch, passed away before the movie was completed. The filmmakers found clever ways to include him. My only criticism of that was that they seemed to over emphasize Plutarch’s presence in those scenes. It was as if they were so proud of themselves for including him that they wanted to point it out to the audience. That pulled me out of the movie when it happened to think, “Oh yeah, that guy’s dead in real life but there he is.”

They made the ending 100 times cheesier than the way the book ends. It seriously made me cringe.
However, I was pleased with the movie overall. My husband, who hasn’t read the books, enjoyed it too. I liked it at least as much as the book and maybe even a little bit more. Goodbye Katniss. It’s been fun.

What did you think?

Week In Wardrobe: GYPO Winter 2015 Style Challenge

Another season means it’s time for another Get Your Pretty on Style Challenge! The Winter + Holiday 2015 Challenge is now open. You all know how I love these challenges. It’s amazing how wearing a nice outfit puts me in a good mood and makes me more productive. Yoga pants are so cozy that they tend to glue me to the couch!

In case you haven’t seen my other challenge posts, this is how they work: You sign up for the challenge and are sent a shopping list of all the items you will need to style the challenge outfits. The challenges are not about buying an all-new wardrobe. Alison encourages shopping in your own closet for the items first. All of the items mix and match – you will be building a wardrobe “capsule”. Dressing for the day becomes a snap – you have all the items needed for the outfit, just put them together and go! There is room for creativity too – you can use a different color scheme than the sample items on the shopping list or make substitutions. You will be granted access to the challenge Facebook page where you can post your daily outfits and see how other people put their outfits together. It’s a fun, supportive community.

Alison says, “This is my biggest challenge yet with 26 outfits total.  You’ll also get “dress it up” and “dress it down” options for every outfit on the list.  This challenge includes three holiday dress up looks perfect for all of your upcoming events.”

• Early Bird Registration Opens:  11/20
  
• Early Bird Registration Closes:  11/27 at midnight ET
• First Outfit Release:  12/13

You can sign up for the challenge here.

Some of my outfits from the Fall 2015 Challenge:

Book Review: Bream Gives Me Hiccups by Jesse Eisenberg

Bream Gives Me Hiccups by Jesse Eisenberg
Publisher: Audible Studios
Release Date: September 8, 2015
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Taking its title from a group of stories that begin the book, Bream Gives Me Hiccups moves from contemporary LA to the dorm rooms of an American college to ancient Pompeii, throwing the reader into a universe of social misfits, reimagined scenes from history, and ridiculous overreactions. In one piece, a tense email exchange between a young man and his girlfriend is taken over by his sister, who is obsessed with the Bosnian genocide (“The situation reminds me of a little historical blip called the Karadordevo agreement”); in another, a college freshman forced to live with a roommate is stunned when one of her ramen packets goes missing (“She didn’t have one of my ramens. She had a chicken ramen”); in another piece Alexander Graham Bell has teething problems with his invention (“I’ve been calling Mabel all day, she doesn’t pick up! Yes, of course I dialed the right number – two!”).
United by Eisenberg’s gift for humor and character, the witty pieces collected in Bream Gives Me Hiccups explore the various insanities of the modern world and mark the arrival of a fantastically funny, self-ironic, and original voice.

Jesse Eisenberg is a fantastic actor and hilarious when he is interviewed on talk-shows so I had high hopes for the audio book version of Bream Gives Me Hiccups, his debut short-story collection. It’s a mix of longer, more in depth short stories and vignettes, some of which are so short they are almost one-liners. The longer stories are witty, ironic and insightful. My favorite one was the series of letters written by a college freshman, severely lacking in self-awareness, to her high school guidance counselor. I was amazed at how well he captured the mind of a selfish teenage girl – and how well he sounded like one in his narration of the story.

A lot of the vignettes are funny, stream of conscience musings. They were a fun, little break in between the longer stories. The audio book is largely narrated by Eisenberg with a few supporting characters. He is as amazing at narration as he is at acting. I think listening to him narrate the stories added another layer of fantastic on top of an already wonderful book. It exceeded my expectations for sure. I recommended it to everyone.

(I received a complementary copy of this audio book for review.)