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Sundress Weather is on the Horizon

I don’t know about you, but I have been dying to shed the rest of my winter wardrobe in favor of the less is more approach, otherwise known as summer clothing.  Now, I know that that phrase is usually reserved for covering up and showing less skin, but with warm weather on my mind, you’ll have to forgive me.

For a long time, I was under the impression that the more money you spend on clothing, the nicer they will be and the longer they will last.  For the most part that is true, but there are a few things that you definitely don’t need to spend a lot of money on.  T-shirts and tank tops come to mind.  After years of spending a lot of money on these items, I ventured into Aeropostale and have been shopping there ever since.  Their tees and tanks are so inexpensive that you can purchase multiple pairs, they’re comfy and they last.

A few years ago, I decided to do the same thing with sundresses.  One of my reasons for this is that it enables a more diversified wardrobe without making you go broke.  Also, the summers seem to be getting hotter, and I’ve found that sundresses are comfy no matter how much you spend on them, though, the cheaper they are, the thinner the material is, which I think is great for those exceptionally brutal days, the ones where, no matter what you do, you cannot stop yourself from sweating.

The trick with sundress shopping is that you need to know what styles you like, and where to go.  I started with Forever21, and although I have some dresses from them, I was never completely satisfied – some fit me pretty well, but others just looked terrible on.  I have some cute dresses that I got on sale from Victoria’s Secret, but for the most part, their prices are more than I want to spend.  I’ve gone back and forth between stores, not finding what I want, then an idea crept into my head.  If I love the tees and tanks at Aeropostale, why not try their dresses too?  The prices range from $40 to $60 (for a maxi), but always seem to be on sale.  I purchased a cute yellow floral, originally $39.50, on sale for around $18.85 (that dress is now only $11.85 btw).  When it arrived in the mail, I tried it on and loved it.  There are a few more that I have my eye on and will probably be purchasing in the near future, guilt free.

 

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“The best work in literature is always done by those who do not depend on it for their daily bread and the highest form of literature, Poetry, brings no wealth to the singer.

Make some sacrifice for your art and you will be repaid but ask of art to sacrifice herself for you and a bitter disappointment may come to you.”

 

-Oscar Wilde

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Tana French – In the Woods and the as Yet Unwritten Sequel

As my Tuesday evening class comes to a close, and my final project/presentation is on the horizon (tonight), I wonder, what if.  What if my book idea for my project came true and Tana French wrote the book that her fans have been waiting for?  I know that it’s kind of a dorky wish, but I would be ecstatic!  I really would.  Haven’t you ever hoped beyond hope for one of your favorite authors to write the book you know everyone wants to read?  I’m sure I’m not alone in this.

Tana French’s first book, In the Woods – which won several awards including: the Edgar Award, the Barry Award, the Macavity Award and the Anthony Award – tells the story of Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox, who work on the Dublin Murder Squad together.  They are assigned to a case involving the murder of a young girl whose body is found in the woods-turning-archaeological-dig on the outskirts of Knocknaree.  Twentyish years before that, three kids were playing in the same woods when two disappeared.  The “sole survivor” was found clinging to a tree with blood filled sneakers; that kid being none other than Rob Ryan.  He never regained his memory and his two friends were never found.  Oh, and also, no one knows that Rob is the kid from that case except for his family and his partner Cassie.  Could these two cases be related?

Throughout the novel, we become lost in French’s prose; she’s a fabulous writer, definitely in my top five, perhaps even top three.  We follow Rob and Cassie as they attempt to solve both mysteries – even a chilling (to me) scene where Rob decides to camp out in the woods overnight alone – alone with his thoughts, trying to bring the past to the foreground, and with the murderer for the current case still on the loose.

As I’ve said before, this book kept me up at night, even going insofar as giving my nightmares which culminated in my waking up screaming in the middle of the night and turning on all of the lights in my apartment.  But despite these things, I love her books.  Also, it should be said that I am a bit of a scared-y cat.  I jumped out of my seat several times in the theater when I went to see M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village, resulting in my friend laughing at me and my renewing my vow to never watch horror movies.  I am aware that The Village is not actually all that scary, but I wanted to give you a sense of how easily I get scared.

Back to In the Woods.  The end of the book left more than a few readers disappointed and dissatisfied, myself included.  While the murder of the young girl is eventually solved, the other mystery, the one of the two kids, the one that intrigues us more, sadly, is not.  Tana has come out with three more books since then, but none of them have helped shed light on the mystery that I so desire to be solved.  Even my coworker, the one who introduced me to her work to begin with, refuses to pick up another one of her novels until the events to this mystery are brought to light. 

Enter my idea for her long awaited sequel and my project entitled, Back to the Woods.  In it, Tana would bring back her first two characters, Rob Ryan and Cassie Maddox, who haven’t spoken in the five years since the last case that tore them apart.  Rob had all but given up on ever solving the mystery of his friends’ disappearance.  One day, he is going through boxes of stuff at his parents’ house, and he comes across a clue, something that had been overlooked for years.  Things start clicking in Rob’s brain and he starts having flashbacks of a childhood he had long since buried away.  Those flashbacks and that clue are what drive Rob to break the years’ long silence and contact Cassie.  After all, she was the one who had stood by him and supported him as he had tried to open up the past before.  This clue and those flashbacks could be the key to actually solving the disappearance and probable murder of his friends, the one that has been haunting him throughout his whole life.  It is the reason why he pushed Cassie and everyone else in his life away.  With the help of Cassie, Rob goes Back to the Woods in an attempt to answer long sought after questions and release him from the past.  The woods may have been destroyed, but that doesn’t mean that the answers aren’t there.  Rob has been living with them ever since, and maybe now he will have the courage to dig deep enough and let it all out.  But, in a twist to the story, because it wouldn’t be a Tana French novel without a few, Cassie is hiding something from Rob.  Could she have had the key all along?

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 Of course, that is only my idea.  As of now, this book doesn’t exist, but what if it did…wouldn’t that be nice?  I would run as fast as my feet could take me to the bookstore and pick up a copy.  Perhaps one day…

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Sarah Pekkanen’s The Opposite of Me

When I first picked up The Opposite of Me, I thought that the title was pretty straight forward.  After all, it’s about two twin sisters who are complete opposites.  Alex is thin, has red hair and turquoise eyes, and works as a model.  She is the epitome of beautiful.  She is engaged to an incredibly handsome and charming rich man who adores her.  And there’s Lindsey.  She has brown hair and brown eyes, and is about to be made VP at the advertising firm that she works at in New York, the smart sister…until everything blows up in her face and she finds herself jobless and moving back home to her parents’ house in Maryland.  Only, no one knows the real reason of why she is there.  Lindsey is embarrassed about the turn of events and also wants to remain “the smart sister” in her parents’ eyes.  So she lies, biding her time until she can get back on her feet.

As Lindsey desperately tries to start her career over, she begins to learn more about herself and realizes that there is life outside of work, and (gasp) outside of advertising.  One evening, Lindsey bestows an act of kindness onto a stranger and ends up not only making a friend, but being pointed into a whole new direction, one that she never would have considered.  She begins to question everything about her life and her relationships, or lack thereof.  This gives way to a string of events that will change both Lindsey and Alex’s lives forever, but it also brings them closer together. They kind of trade places, but is that really what happens, or is it actually the real way they were supposed to be all along.  In a way, it’s exactly what they both needed.  They were so focused on what they felt they needed to do with their lives, and what was expected of them, that they didn’t take the time out to think about what they themselves really wanted. 

The Opposite of Me isn’t a tale about two twin sisters that are completely opposite, and it isn’t about making the best of what life throws at you either.  It’s about Lindsey and Alex as individuals who learn that there is another side to themselves, that they are not necessarily what they have molded themselves out to be.  It’s about two sisters who, despite their differences, are actually more similar than they could have imagined. 

Pekkanen makes you realize just how precious life really is, that what you do with it is as important as the relationships that you make along the way.  But she also makes you question yourself as well.  She makes you want to look in the mirror and really think about who you are as a person, and if you are where you want to be.  Do you recognize the person staring back, or is there someone else entirely that you could be?  We all have different facets of ourselves, and as we grow as individuals certain things get pushed aside in order for other things to flourish, but maybe it’s those things that we neglect that would make us the happiest.  The Opposite of Me shows us that sometimes, it’s okay to change your life’s plan if that change will allow you to start living again.

I leave you with a quote to entice you to read this book.

 

“If we don’t fight it too hard – if we don’t cling to the person we used to be and instead let go of the paralyzing fear and turn into who we’re meant to be next – it’s easier.”

-Sarah Pekkanen, The Opposite of Me

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Karin Tanabe’s The List

In The List, Karin Tanabe tells the story of Adrienne Brown, a woman who leaves her life in New York behind for the chance of a lifetime, a job at the Capitalist.  In New York, Adrienne wrote for the magazine Town & Country, she was given free designer clothes and accessories, and encouraged to hae a life outside of work, but something always seemed to be missing.  Politics.  She loved politics, which is why, when Adrienne got the offer to work at the Capitalist, based in Washington, DC, she didn’t hesitate.  The only thing she hesitates about is calling her parents and asking if she can move back home

As it turns out, working at the Capitalist, or the List as everyone calls it, isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.  Adrienne is assigned to the Style section, which is about as low as you can get.  She gets zero respect from her coworkers.  They keep their heads down as they pass by and have private conversations in front of Adrienne and the other Style girls, as if they don’t exist.  Her job consists of chasing down celebrities at functions, trying to get quotes from them, or accidentally overhearing conversations and turning them into stories.  She has to get up at five in the morning, six days a week (her only day off is Saturday), and she’s expected to write at least ten stories a day.  If she takes even a second to breathe, her boss is down her throat about not being productive.  Where is the fun in that?

One restless night, Adrienne decides to take a drive and stumbles onto what could be the biggest story the Capitalist has ever had…involving one of their employees and a powerful person in office.  Adrienne becomes consumed with this, obsessive at times.  She even enlists the help of the one person in the world who you wouldn’t expect. 

The List, loosely based on Karin Tanabe’s experiences of working at Politico, is fast-paced and witty.  Author Sarah Pekkanen describes it as “The Devil Wears Prada meets Capitol Hill,” and I couldn’t agree more.  Adrienne thinks that working at the Capitalist is everything that she wanted, and in some ways it is.  She learns to write (and think) faster, but she never truly fits in.  She doesn’t dress the part of a reporter and she doesn’t completely think like one either.  She sits on the story for so long trying to put all of the pieces together to make it perfect, that she almost loses everything.  It is only after she is left in a motel room that Adrienne is able to gather all of her strength and finish the job.  But even then is a story ever truly finished?

Karin Tanabe has crafted a great story that will grip you until long after the novel ends.  A novel that is so gripping, that you can’t put it down, and one that you continue to think about weeks later, is the best that you can get.  It also makes you wonder to what extent the truth meets fiction.  It is, after all, based on the author’s own experiences.  How much of it is fact and how much of it is a figment of Tanabe’s own imagination?  The List is a must read for anyone who is looking to lose themselves in a story.  It only took my three days to read, which says a lot and I personally cannot wait for her next book.

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Friends Forever?

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about friendship.  How can you tell the difference between a good friend and a bad one?  The ones that will last forever versus the ones that are for right now or have already expired? 

I’m not sure if there is a right answer for this because everyone is different – every friendship is different – but I feel like it is simpler than it seems.  Your friends are people who are there for you.  Period.  How they, themselves can express that, or how they choose to, is another story.  There may be circumstances that are beyond their control, ones that physically limit their roles in your life. 

There are a few people that I can think of who fit into this category; one being my friend John.  He and I have known each other for over half of our lives.  For a long time, he was my go-to for advice – both personal and about guys.  I didn’t always like what he had to say, but a lot of the time he was right (okay, most of the time).  He’s in the army so there are long stretches where I don’t hear from him, but that doesn’t make him any less of a friend.  Thank goodness I have branched-out a bit, or who knows where I’d be.  It also helps that I have a boyfriend that I can talk to about anything, one who actually listens to me, doesn’t judge me and won’t hesitate to tell me when I’m wrong or right.

Then there are the other kind of friends, the ones that are only around when it is convenient for them, ones that are there for the positive things but avoid the negatives.  I’ve had friends like these, and I think everyone has.  Sometimes it takes a while to recognize the signs, but once you see them, there really is no sense to ignore.  Your friends don’t all have to be your best friends for them to count.  You can have bus friends, shopping friends, coffee friends, yoga friends…the list is endless really.  Just because they may not all have a significant role in your life doesn’t mean they are bad friends.  The bad ones are the ones that don’t act like friends, the ones that you need to let go of.  Originally, I had started this post towards the end of January, after a huge fight with someone who was supposed to be a good friend.  I had been in her wedding party, attended her child’s christening, even hosted her and her then two-year-old in my very un-baby friendly apartment (yes, things were broken and my only set of house-keys was lost temporarily).  The fight was on-going, spanning over a month, and really unnecessary, but too many words were said that could not be taken back.  I had been there for her when she needed me, but the one time that I could not adhere to something, she couldn’t handle it; the fact that I had tried to be accommodating didn’t matter.  It was upsetting to lose her as a friend, but in the end it was the only decision to be made.

I believe that everyone enters your life for a reason, to teach you a lesson that you would otherwise not have learned.  Some people will leave your life after you learn those lessons and some will continue onward with you on your journey, be there with you for the good times and the bad, as you close chapters in your life and start new ones.  There are some friends that I have had forever, that I’ll always keep a special place for in my heart no matter the distance that grows between us, and some that will fade away into the night and become past memories.  Friendships do not have to last forever to be good, but they have to be true friends to last forever.

“That was it.  That was all of it.  A grace so ordinary there was no reason at all to remember it.  Yet I have never across the forty years since it was spoken forgotten a single word.”

-William Kent Krueger, Ordinary Grace

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Sarah Pekkanen’s The Best of Us

It had been a while since I had read and enjoyed a new (new to me) chick-lit author.  I had tried a few different ones, but none of them seemed to stack up.  Then, I was introduced to Sarah Pekkanen’s writing, and subsequently purchased all of her books.  One down, three more to read!  I’m excited!

In her fourth book, The Best of Us, Pekkanen explores the friendships of four college friends (three women and one man) who travel to Jamaica with their spouses on an all-expenses paid vacation to celebrate the birthday of one of their own. 

Tina is married and struggling a bit with the task of raising four young children.  Allie has just found out about a life-threatening illness that she may potentially end up with.  Savannah’s husband moved out, leaving her for a nurse who works in his hospital – information that she has not shared with anyone.  And then there’s Pauline, the wife of Dwight, who, in trying to make him happy, sets up the whole vacation for his birthday with his college friends.  Pauline is cold and uninviting, but as we get deeper into the story, we learn that there is much more depth to Pauline, and a secret that she has been hiding for all of her life with Dwight.

Among the reunion of old college friends, the hours spent both on the beach and in the villa, and the non-stop partying, there are darker forces working as well.  Secrets emerge (old and new) and each relationship (friendship and romantic) is tested.  There is jealousy, betrayal, love and everything in between that you could think of that would emerge when old friends get together.

I had previously read her e-short stories and was really looking forward to seeing how she handled the task of writing something bigger.  Given the number of main characters, I was a bit unsure if there would be enough depth to each of them to make them believable, but I was happy to find out that there was.  I really enjoyed this book.  It is a must read for anyone who likes chick lit, also for people who are fans of Emily Giffin, which I am as well (Pekkanen’s style has been compared to Giffin).  The Best of Us is a tale of old friends and what happens to those friendships when you grow up and live separate lives.

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Survivor-a-thon

The popular reality show Survivor has been on for quite a while, nearly thirteen years to be exact, but until a few weeks ago, I had never seen one episode despite the popularity of it.  It was a Wednesday evening, and Billy and I were flipping through channels trying to decide what to put on.  We flipped on Survivor, and since one of our friends is a huge fan of the show, decided to give it a chance.  I have to say, it was entertaining.  I haven’t turned the new season on since, but Billy has been watching it.

Fast forward to last Thursday.  I spent the night (my birthday-eve) in Brooklyn so that I wouldn’t have to lug around an overnight bag to dinner on Friday.  Billy pops in a dvd of a previous Survivor season (All Stars) and we become hooked, watching multiple episodes a night, even waking up on Sunday morning at my apartment to watch one.  After realizing that there was only one more episode left and that I could not persuade Billy to give me the last dvd before he saw it, I traveled back with him to Brooklyn to have tea (I left my new tea infuser there by accident) and watch the final episode.  Although we had already known who was going to win, we were still hooked.  I don’t think I’ll ever become obsessed with the show, but I can definitely see myself watching a few seasons of it.