“Dreams are illustrations from the book your soul is writing.”
–Marsha Norman
Near-future Reading
Recently, I had the pleasure of reading a few book proposals (of books that are being published later this year) courtesy of a class that I am taking at NYU for editing/book publishing. I cannot wait for two of them to come out, but had some negative feelings towards the third. It wasn’t that I disliked it as much as it was that I felt the story was being presented (by the author) as something that it really was not. The event that is supposed to formulate the whole book, in reality, only makes up a small percentage. It’s mainly a bildungsroman centered around religion, which is perfectly fine, even though that doesn’t really interest me, but then it should be marketed as such instead of what it is about. I realize that this might be a little confusing, but I really don’t want to give away anything substantial of this book, since it has not been published yet, and I do not know what the finished product looks like.
The first one that I liked is dual memoir (Impossible Odds) by Jessica Buchanan and her husband, detailing what it was like for both of them for the three months that she was kidnapped by pirates in Somalia. This happened roughly a year and a half ago, and is interesting to me for several reasons, the first being the dual perspectives on the situation, how Jessica was trying to survive and her husband Erik was trying to save her, the ways that he was going about it, the fact that SEAL Team Six swooped in overnight and rescued her. Everything about this sounds interesting, and I am not someone who reads non-fiction often. A MUST pre-order.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1476725160/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_6?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
The second one that I liked (The Longings of Wayward Girls) is a novel by Karen Brown. I like women’s fiction, and I like thrillers (I love Emily Giffin and Tana French), and this is a bit of both, so of course I would like it. This is told through the character of Sadie, both as an adult and adolescent. I always find stories that vacillate between past and present interesting because I feel that you get to know more about the character through their experiences rather than just being told of them. The proposal contained almost eighty pages of story, and I expressed so much enthusiasm about it that I was given an advanced copy, of which I am currently reading. It’s not the final edit, but I feel like at this point it mainly just needs to be copyedited. But, it is a definite buy as well! (Sadly, it will not be available until the beginning of July)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1476724911/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
A Snowy, Cold Start to Spring
Even though spring began nearly a week ago, the cold, snowy-ness of winter seems as if it doesn’t want to be left behind. Not only did we have a snow storm last week, but it appears that it is snowing today as well.
As you know, I am not a fan of snow. It’s pretty coming down, and in those first few hours, but after that it turns ugly as it mixes with the dirt on the ground, melting in huge puddles that make walking unpleasant, but I do not pretend to believe that snow cannot happen in the spring. After all, it has occurred in the middle of April on my birthday.
Spring, not unlike New Years’, is a time of new beginnings. The earth comes alive with colors that have been hidden for what seems an eternity, the days start to get longer, and the cold breezes of seasons’ past are replaced with warmer ones (or, they will be when winter decides to release us from its chains). We come out of our hibernations, even if it is just to take a much needed walk, or sit on the roof of your friend’s car, parked by the jetty overlooking the bridge, while having dinner and avoiding the rats. Yes, rats live in the jetty by me, which is rather disgusting and sad, because otherwise Melissa and I would have a perfect time there…that doesn’t stop us from going and enjoying the view, just makes us cautious of where we plop ourselves. Our days venturing onto the jetty itself were ended last year when we actually saw one pop up onto the rocks (and you can hear them too). We have not been there this year yet, but give us a few weeks and we will.
Spring is one of my favorite seasons, and I will not let this unsightly weather drag my mood down. I am looking at floral-y summer dresses to cheer me up, and I recently purchased a pair of coral flats which I intend to break out later on in the week (hopefully). On this snowy day and night I will be curled up, catching up on Vogue and continuing my current book.
“To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere without moving anything but your heart.”
–Phyllis Theroux
“Let Your Heart Lead the Way”
Recently, as I was combing vogue.com, I came upon a new edition to their Vogue Daily section: horoscopes. It had been a while since I had kept up-to-date with my horoscope, or for that matter, since I had read my horoscope at all, but I decided to give it a go. As in all horoscopes, I don’t feel that they are always accurate, because, how can they be, but I kind of like these a lot actually. Here’s today’s horoscope for Aries from Vogue:
Today is for dreaming. Let your heart lead the way. “Following your bliss” can be the realization that everything you desire, you already possess.
Today, I have spent much of the day in front of my computer, working on a book proposal assignment for a class of mine. It was for a fictitious book by an author that I love. It should be a book, but sadly is not as of yet. Here I sit, hair twisted up, glasses on, still in pajamas, and I feel as the horoscope says…that these days, my heart is leading my way. And that makes me smile. Another reason why I love Vogue.
“Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”
–Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice
The Devil in Silver
About a month ago, I finished reading a book entitled, The Devil in Silver, written by Victor LaValle. It was one of my Christmas presents from my amazing boyfriend, who picked it out from a list of top books of 2012 (in the top five), despite not being sure if I would love it or not. The story sounded interesting enough, but I wasn’t completely sure either. Lucky for me, I had just finished a book a few weeks before and was scant of anything that sounded interesting (don’t get me wrong, I have quite a few books at home that remain to be read, but sometimes you need something that is completely different and therefore refreshing). I have been on one of those hard-to-get-into-anything book moods for a while now (don’t you hate those?) and picked it up right almost right away. I was hooked immediately.
The novel takes place inside a fictional mental hospital in Queens, NY, where the main character, Pepper, is taken by police after he is arrested for something that he can’t even remember. At first he is hesitant and throughout much of the book tries to convince everyone that he doesn’t belong there (but does he?), then he comes in contact with a deformed, monsterish patient one night. In time, he befriends a few patients in hopes to vanquish this monster…”the devil.”
One thing about this book I would like to say. Many times I have argued that I prefer reading books that are exceptionally written with a less interesting story; I have actually read books where I didn’t care about the characters at all, but they were just so beautifully written that I couldn’t help myself…I had to keep reading to the end. I’ve had this argument with my boyfriend (and others), and although they agree that it is nice to have an exceptionally well written piece, they would sacrifice the writing for a more interesting story. Case and point, The Game of Thrones. I started reading it because I had made my boyfriend read Tana French’s In the Woods (mine was the case of an exceptionally written novel and a great story, as are all Tana French novels), but only got through the first three hundred pages. I found the writing to be good (not great), and the story, although interesting, way too clunky. Similarly, in The Devil in Silver, LaValle’s story is interesting enough to grab my attention, but I feel that his writing is a bit mediocre, and it seemed more like he was telling the story in his own speaking voice rather than in his writing voice. That didn’t stop me from liking the book, just made me think about how I could make it better.
The moral of the story: I guess I can read and like books that are not exceptionally written…but I prefer the ones that are.
Treating Yourself Every-so-often, is Nice
I am not the girl who goes to the salon every week, or every few weeks, to get my hair or nails done. Although, there have been times where I have gotten myself into a mani-frenzy and gone regularly, it only lasts for a month or two, and is immediately followed by multiple months of bare nails, or at-home-manis that sometimes are so awful that they have to be removed instantaneously. As far as hair goes, I am never happy unless I’m the one washing it. I don’t exactly know why this is, especially since so many people that I know love to get their hair washed before getting it cut, but I just don’t. I am not the girl who cannot leave the house without first applying make-up…more often than not, I am bare-faced. Not that I don’t enjoy wearing make-up, because I do, but I just do not love wearing it every day.
Despite these things though, I do consider myself to be a girly-girl, and here’s why:
I love dresses and shoes. Despite my lack of adequate closet space, where I literally had to re-organize it last year to accommodate my collection, I still look to buy more…or at least look at more (not necessarily purchasing).
I love getting dressed up to go out just as much as I love wearing yoga pants and leggings, which is why, last week, after over a week of not being able to do a lot of things due to a minor surgery on my back, I decided to treat myself. I was going to a wine tasting with my boyfriend Friday night, so Thursday, I got a mani, and Friday, after work, I went to this place called Dry Bar. There are a few locations scattered around the city, and it has become quite popular as of late. For those of you who don’t know about it, they wash your hair and do blowouts in a pretty, sunshiny environment, with girly show/movies playing in the background, and you get a drink, all for only $40. It was fabulous. My hairstylist was really nice, and even though she made my hair a little bigger than I would have liked (I chose a wavy style with some volume), I knew that it would be tamed within an hour…because my hair is always in charge. I would definitely go back once in a while. Oh, and my drink of choice…champagne of course! After the wine tasting, which was not good – we discovered that, despite all the hype that I’ve heard about Chilean wines, they’re not that good (or, at least that’s how we felt) – I was more than happy to put on a tee and yoga pants, and sit at home with friends…drinking much better wine. I had make-up on, my hair and nails done, and I felt pretty.
elizabethsara 