On My Nightstand: August

 

{“Eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably." -C.S Lewis}

 

Hello! It's been a little while, but I am here this week to share what I am currently reading, interested in, and working on this August.

 

Currently Reading

I am currently reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell as part of my AP English summer reading requirement for the upcoming year. The nonfiction story of success has spent 166 weeks so far on the NY Times Best Sellers List.

 

In Outliers, Gladwell argues that it has become no longer enough to look at what a successful person is like, but rather, in order to understand their rise to the top fully, we must look at where these people are from: their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Throughout the book, the author reveals why no star hockey players are born in the fall, why Asians are good at math, and that Bill Gates and the Beatles are more alike than we realize.

 

Interested In

As a blogger, I've learned that it's important to be active within the blogging community. Therefore, not only do I write my own posts, but I read lots of others as well. Sites like Feedly, Bloglovin', and Blogher allow readers to follow numerous Internet blogs, and store them all in one organized location. (You can find and follow Off The Shelf on all of these sites!) 

 

Most of the blogs I read daily deal with books of course, but I also follow a large collection of food blogs. As you already know, I really love to bake. Cookies, bars, brownies, muffins, breads - you name it! I was drawn to all of these sites because of their fabulous photography, quirky and fun writing, and easy to follow recipes.

 

Here are some of my favorites:

my name is yeh

Cupcakes and Cashmere

Erica's Sweet Tooth

Pastry Affair

 

Working On

Although NaNoWriMo is not until November, I've been working on a story of my own since the spring. I honestly haven't written much past the exposition, but I've got most of it planned out in my head. I've written other novel-sized work before, but this time has been different, as I've realized my writing has become stronger. Here are some other things I've noticed:

 

1. I am the type of writer who writes novels and stories out of order instead of chronologically. If I am stumped as to what comes next after a scene I have just written, I don't sit around and wait for the inspiration to pop, instead, I'll write a scene that I know might happen chapters away. When I attended the writing program at Alfred University this summer, I learned that I am not the only one who writes this way. In fact, I met people who write their stories backwards even, starting with the end, and working towards the beginning!

2. Research is so completely necessary! This story is my first attempt at historical fiction, so I'm learning how to write in this genre as I go. It's been difficult, as I've realized that even the little details have to fit historical context if the characters, setting and plot are going to be believable to the reader. And then, because the Internet is just so damn distracting, I have found myself doing more searching and clicking than actually writing!

3. A good pen seriously makes all the difference. It sounds silly, but a really nice pen makes me really happy. Being left-handed, I always tend to shy away from pen when possible, as blotchy ink always gets smeared by my hand when I write. Finding a pen with ink that doesn't blotch or stay wet too long is very hard, but when I do find one, remembering where I put it is even harder :)


On My Nightstand: March, June

Read More

Review: REMAKE by Ilima Todd

First of all I have to say sorry for being SO MIA lately.  Summer is hard, having 2 kids is hard.  I'm still reading, but do a lot of my reviewing on goodreads and call it a day.  Maybe one of these days I'll do a catch up, what I've been reading post, but for now I HAD to share with you this AWESOME ARC I read! 

REMAKE
by Ilima Todd
Hardcover publication Oct 14, 2014 from Shadow Mountain

Placement in the Pile: Top Picks!

Summary:
Nine is the ninth female born in her batch of ten females and ten males. By design, her life in Freedom Province is without complications or consequences. However, such freedom comes with a price. The Prime Maker is determined to keep that price a secret from the new batches of citizens that are born, nurtured, and raised androgynously.

But Nine isn't like every other batcher. She harbors indecision and worries about her upcoming Remake Day -- her seventeenth birthday, the age when batchers fly to the Remake facility and have the freedom to choose who and what they'll be.

When Nine discovers the truth about life outside of Freedom Province, including the secret plan of the Prime Maker, she is pulled between two worlds and two lives. Her decisions will test her courage, her heart, and her beliefs. Who can she trust? Who does she love? And most importantly, who will she decide to be?

Review:
Wow! I absolutely adored this book. I was instantly drawn into the character's world and voice. Nine is completely believable and 100% genuine in her thoughts and responses to things.

The world Ilima Todd creates is so beautifully creepy and unique I was just in love with it, but I think the juxtaposition of that and how life could be. It's very powerful. She doesn't shy away from the stickier subjects involved with the society she creates, but in the end it still has a great message. I think it was just a beautiful poignant novel!

What is "freedom" to you?  What is "choice"?  And what would you choose are all big questions that are presented in this novel. And really in the end it was all about Nine's right to choose who she wanted to be.

I am also so torn about the guys in this book too! Don't worry it's not like a big love triangle. But I love them both. I think she made the right choice, but I hope we get more from the other guy and he finds his happy ending too!

 I am emotionally invested in these characters! And that, my friends is a very good thing! And I am assured by the author that book 2 is coming!  And I am beyond excited about that.

Read More

Midsummer Muse

{Lake view from a hammock}

“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”     -F. Scott Fitzgerald

 

I almost named this post "Mid-Summer Blues", given that I've been a bit down recently. I suppose it's because I've just gotten all four of my wisdom teeth removed, that I just finished Jojo Moyes' extremely sad Me Before You (review coming soon), and that I've realized that the summer is already half-over.

Don't get me wrong, I've been having a wonderful summer so far - reading lots, kayaking a bit, sleeping in, and venturing out. But still, I can't seem to shake the feeling that with every day that passes, I'm inching closer and closer to what is supposedly the toughest school year yet.

 

In spite of all that, there are several small things making me happy as the hot days of July come to a close. For example, J.K Rowling recently released a new Harry Potter short story that surmises Harry and his friends' post-Hogwarts lives. At thirty-four-years-old "there are a couple threads of silver in the famous Auror's black hair" and he is happily married to Ginny Weasley, who is now a sports journalist for the Daily Prophet. The story was posted on Pottermore, and has since left many readers wondering if more short stories will follow anytime soon.

 

A writer on the Barnes & Noble Book Blog acknowledged that feminism is finally on the rise in literature. The interesting article discussed that two of the most recent book series bestsellers, The Hunger Games and Divergent trilogies, and their box office adaptions have paved the way for the strong, female protagonist. The female authors of these books also wrote under their real names, unlike J.K Rowling (Harry Potter) and Lemony Snicket (Series of Unfortunate Events) who wrote their work under gender-neutral pseudonyms so that their books could be marketed to both boy and girl audiences. The writer for B&N wrote, "One could be a fluke, and two an anomaly, but three or more is a pattern. More than a pattern, even: a sea change. What’s going on here? Why is the kickass heroine ascendant? And where literature leads, does culture follow?"

I'm sitting here writing with my headphones in. Sam Smith's Nirvana is currently flowing through the wires and into my ears, and as I listen to the lyrics and the taps of my fingers on the keys and the post-thunderstorm winds rustling the leaves on the trees, I'm beginning to feel better. I honestly didn't know what "nirvana" meant when I first heard the song, only knowing that I liked the beat of the music, but I have since looked it up: Nirvana (n) - (in Buddhism) a transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self.  I suppose its a sort of afterlife, but it also reminds me that we each wish to be happy. But also that despite how much we work to be happy, worrying about a new school year for example that hasn't yet begun makes happiness harder and harder to obtain.

Happiness is this ever hopeful goal that comes and goes and never lasts quite long enough. I believe the summer is the best time in which to be happy, and when we look back, its the season where we will find some of our happiest moments. No matter how small these moments of happiness are, (even as simple as reading about Harry again) or how petty (jumping into the pool with a group of friends on the count of 1,2,3...), when remembered, they will no doubt bring about a smile.

 

And I believe Fitzgerald's Nick Carraway was right when he said that with the coming of summer we all begin anew, because the summer is always a time for discovering ourselves in unexpected ways and in unexpected places. This was true for me, as I found myself becoming a better writer, as well as better educated in the literary field when I attended Alfred University's Creative Writing Program a few weeks ago. Summer is also a time for discovering a new favorite ice cream flavor, for finally reading that new bestseller, or for getting that new haircut so that when school rolls around you feel like a different person. Summer only lasts two short months, but nonetheless, it could be two of the best.
 

Reading this over, I've realized this post has gone in an entirely different direction (tacky inspirational direction) than I had originally intended, but hey, sometimes writing does that. I'm okay with it, and I hope you are as well :)

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Read More

Life After Life

Life After Life

Kate Atkinson

544 pages

"Ursula found it very odd to think that up above there were bombers being flown by men...They weren't evil, they were just doing what had been asked of them by their country. It was war itself that was evil, not men.    -page 411

Ursula Todd is born on a cold and snowy night in 1910. She dies before she can take her first breath. No sooner does she die, that she is born again, on the same cold and snowy night, in the same English country home. Ursula continues to die, in various ways and at varies ages throughout her life, but just as soon as darkness falls over her, Ursula is reborn, allowing her to live an infinite number of lives. As the 20th century barrels towards it's second cataclysmic world war, Ursula's seemingly unusual lifestyle may give her the power to save the world from its destructive destiny.

Kate Atkinson's Life After Life deals with the delicate idea of choices, and it argues that even the individual's smallest choices, can shape the face of history. But is the author right? It seems silly to believe that my choice of chocolate over vanilla will have some sort of worldly effect, but with more pointed decisions, like the one below that refers to Hitler, it is possible to be persuaded by Atkinson's argument.  

“'He was born a politician.' said Eva. No, Ursula thought, he was born a baby, like everyone else. And this is what he has chosen to become.”  

The novel marches itself thoroughly through many of the early 20th century's most historic moments: World War I, the roaring 20s, the Spanish Influenza, and the Blitz of the United Kingdom in World War II. Atkinson assumes from the beginning of the story that the reader knows a certain amount of historical context, and therefore does not provide a grand overview. But rather, she uses the narrative technique of in medias res, which means "in the midst", to throw the reader right into the setting,  using small details to reveal time and place.

I was curious though, so part way through the novel I found myself doing a bit of research on  England throughout the 1900s (Wikipedia is good at times like these).  Since I have now done some background reading, I can tell you that Atkinson's historical details are spot on, and her short fragmented style of writing allows the reader to feel the disjointed chaos of the time period.

The Blitz of 1940-41 consisted of over one-hundred German facilitated air-raids on the United Kingdom. The bombings were strategic, targeting London a total of 71 times, and other important cities ten or more. A good portion of the novel takes place during these years, and Ursula volunteers in the recovery squad that helped to locate and help survivors. Ursula herself dies in one of these attacks, even though she'd been hiding in an underground bomb shelter.

I love how novels can teach you so much, and maybe that's why I'm drawn to historical fiction time and time again. I love going into history class and already knowing lots about a particular time period because of something I have read. Sylvie, Ursula's mother, seems to agree...

“Sylvie’s knowledge, like Izzie's, was random yet far-ranging, ‘The sign that one has acquired one’s learning from reading novels rather than an education…”

I found the story a bit slow moving during certain moments, perhaps I found this so because since Ursula keeps living her life over and over again, many of the same events are revisited several times. This would be my only major complaint of the book, other than that the multiple lives were at times difficult to follow.

Along with its strong sense of setting, Life After Life also exhibits very strong characters. Often  in novels, the main character's family is pushed to the background, remaining mysterious and static to the reader. In this book however, the Todd family is very much the opposite. Ursula's siblings: Maurice, Pamela, Teddy, and Jimmy are very much alive and prominent. Their story is told alongside Ursula's in away that is believable and impactful. In fact, without them, there would be very little story at all. Ursula's infinite resurrections allow her to not only try to save the world from pain and suffering, but also the people she loves as well.   

Life After Life is a complicated, but smartly written novel, aimed at deepening the reader's perspective of history, choices and fate, and the idea that life can offer so much, if we allow it.

“'What if we had a chance to do it again and again, until we finally did get it right? Wouldn't that be wonderful?'”  

Life After Life was the winner of the 2013 Goodreads Historical Fiction Choice Award and was named one of The New York Times' 10 Best Books of 2013.

Story Line - 7/10
Narrator's Voice - 8/10

Writing Style - 8/10

---

Overall - 23/30

Read More

The Paris Wife

The Paris Wife

Paula McLain

314 pages

"We were all on the verge now, bursting with youth and promise and little trills of jazz...Girls everywhere stepped out of their corsets and shortened their dresses and darkened their lips and eyes...Youth, in 1921, was everything."  -page 40

Hadley Richardson expected her trip to Chicago to be simple - as she was a simple girl with simple wishes. What she did not expect however, was to fall madly in love with Ernest Hemingway. After a speedy courtship and wedding, the newlyweds set sail for Paris, where the Jazz Age has already swept what becomes known as the "Lost Generation" right up into its chaos. Once there, Ernest throws himself into the novel that will become The Sun Also Rises while Hadley struggles to balance the roles of friend, wife, and muse. All too soon, a deception more complicated  than either of them could have imagined, blows the marriage they had built on loyalty and love, to pieces.

My reading of The Paris Wife was another side effect of my addiction to Jazz Age-America and Paris. It was an extremely important decade for women, and so much great literature and art arose from the joy and frivolity that followed World War I. I often wonder if I would have had the guts to sneak into a speakeasy for a shot of vodka, or the self-confidence to light up a cigarette with other women loving the freedom of hiking up our skirts past our ankles.

The Paris Wife is the second novel I have read (the first being Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald) that tells the story of the wife of one of America's greatest writers. Both novels explore the creative conflicts that occurred within each couple and detail the time period vividly. Although someday I hope to be a great writer myself, and not just the wife of one, both novels give an eye opening account of what it's like to live in literature's circle.

I almost missed Paula McLain's author's note at the very back of the book, it was not until I began to write this review that I found it, and now I'm quite glad I did. McLain makes it clear that The Paris Wife is a work of fiction, therefore making Hadley and Ernest fictional characters, but she also notes that she tried to make them as true to themselves as possible. The author mentioned that she did not travel to Paris to do research, but rather did not make the trip until after the book was published. The best part of the trip she said, was standing below the window of 74 Rue du Cardinal Lemoine, the apartment where Ernest and Hadley lived together throughout their years in Paris.

Hadley Richardson's voice is authentic and engaging throughout the novel. She captivated me with the simple lens through which she looked at life, and the genuine feelings she had for those around her. Cameos from other literary figures such as Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, James Joyce and the Fitzgeralds, can be read throughout the novel, but McLain makes a clear distinction between Hadley and these famous characters. Hadley was content with living her life, rather than making an extraordinary one, as people like Ernest and F. Scott Fitzgerald were obsessed with. McLain does an excellent job in juxtaposing these too separate views, and encircles the plot around it in a way that leads to the dissolution of the Hemingways' marriage.

Hadley divorced Ernest in 1927, even though she was still in love with him, after struggling with their differences and upon learning of his affair with Pauline Pfeiffer. She says, "He had four wives altogether...It was sometimes painful for me to think that to those who followed his life with interest, I was just the early wife, the Paris wife" (page 311).

But then, a few lines later she notes, in what is my favorite quote of the novel:

"We knew what we had and what it meant...and there was nothing like those years in Paris, after the war. Life was painfully pure and simple and good, and I believe Ernest was his best self then. I got the very best of him. We got the best of each other."

The novel had a much sadder ending than I had expected, and I was left feeling both happy that Hadley had found love after Ernest, but extremely upset that happiness had never found Ernest. The ending of The Paris Wife becomes all the more heart-wrenching, when noting that in the last few pages of Ernest's memoir, A Moveable Feast, he writes of Hadley, "I wish I had died before I ever loved anyone but her."


The Paris Wife was the winner of the 2011 Best Historical Fiction Goodreads Choice Award and was named one of the Best Books of the Year by People Magazine, NPR and The Chicago Tribune.


Story Line - 9/10
Narrator's Voice - 10/10

Writing Style - 9/10

---

Overall - 28/30

Read More

The Movie vs. The Book: The Fault in Our Stars

"I believe we have a choice in this world...about how to tell sad stories. On the one hand, you can sugarcoat it. Where nothing is too messed up that it can't be fixed with a Peter Gabriel song. I like that version as much as the next girl does. It just isn't the truth. This is the truth."

 

After months of waiting, I saw The Fault in Our Stars movie on opening night with some friends. The theater was so crowded that they had to turn many people in line behind us away!

Hazel Grace Lancaster was played by Shailene Woodley (Divergent), Augustus Waters was played by Ansel Elgort, their friend Isaac by Nat Woolf, and Mr. and Mrs. Lancaster by Sam Trammell and Laura Dern respectively.

Above are the opening lines to the movie, and right away Hazel tells the viewer that this is not your traditional love story. My friends agreed that this was one of the best parts of the movie because it makes the story more real, and less Nicholas Sparks-esque where everything is made better with an apology in the rain and a dramatic kiss.

 

Here are a few small differences between the book  by John Green and the movie:

1. Hazel's friend Kaitlyn and Gus's ex-girlfriend Caroline Mathers do not appear in the movie. Although Kaitlyn had a small role in the book, she offers a view into just how removed Hazel is from a normal teenage lifestyle. Caroline, who dies of brain cancer before the novel begins, has a pivotal role because she weighs heavily on Hazel's mind as she wonders what effect her death had on Gus.
2. No V for Vendetta. When Hazel and Gus first meet at support group, Gus invited her to his house to watch the movie and in in the book, Hazel summarizes it by saying: "The movie was about this heroic guy in a mask who died heroically for Natalie Portman, who's pretty badass and very hot and does not have anything approaching my puffy steroid face." The plot of the movie symbolizes Gus's obsession with heroism, and his quest to live a meaningful life.
3. The ending. Very small changes are made, but they were definitely for the better. Unfortunately I can't explain it any more than that because...SPOLIER ALERT.

My favorite part of the movie was Hazel and Augustus's dinner in Amsterdam at Oranjee.  The movie did not show the flowering trees, or have them sit by the canal, but Gus still professes his love in the best way possible ("I'm in love with you, and I'm not in the business of denying myself the pleasure of saying true things.") and my favorite lines from the novel were delivered by their Dutch-accented waiter perfectly:

 

"Do you know what Dom Perignon said when he invented champagne? Come quickly! I am tasting the stars!"  and a moment later he adds "We have bottled all of the stars for you this evening, my young friends."

 

The reason Hazel and Gus travel to Amsterdam is so that Hazel can find out from her favorite author what happens at the end of his novel, An Imperial Affliction which ends mid-sentence. It can be inferred that it ends this way because the main character, Anna, has died, but Hazel wants the author to tell her what happens to Anna's mother, the Dutch Tulip Man, and Anna's pet hamster.

 

Watching the movie helped me to realize that Hazel needs these answers because An Imperial Affliction is representative of her own life - she needs to know that the people closest to her will be okay, will continue to live a happy life, after she is gone.

 

So, you might be thinking, "Bridget, why do you love this book so much?! You've done so many blog posts about it! It's time to write about something else!" That is true. (There are a plethora of posts by the way :)).

 

The answer to your question comes in two parts: 1) It's romantic. While watching the movie, I  couldn't keep the giddy fangirl smile off of my face during all of the gushy parts. 2) I love this book, and John Green (my friends say that if he was a 16 year old boy, they would all swoon after him in a heartbeat) for that matter, because he somehow knows how to combine all of those smart, deeply meaningful metaphors with the hilarity and reality of being a teenager. The Fault in Our Stars somehow manages to express everything I love about writing - the symbolism, the emotion, the ability to make a reader think and feel a certain way - in a style that is captivating, yet loose. It's a sad story, but not a sad book. TFiOS celebrates life, and the beauty that can be found within it, if we choose to look.

 

Read More

On My Nightstand: June



 

 

{An odd mix of classic literature and blockbuster contemporary}

 

Currently Reading

I am currently reading The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty. I went to the bookstore (in fact, I drove to the bookstore :)) a few weeks ago hoping to buy something in particular, but ended up coming out with something entirely different. I bought The Chaperone because of it's beautiful cover and of course because of the ever-deciding factor: the blurb on the back, which in a brief summary states:

 

Cora Carlisle, a traditional woman from Kansas, has volunteered to chaperone the beautiful, yet arrogant 15 year old, Louise Brooks to New York City. Louise is on her way to becoming the silent-film star of a generation, with her famous black bob with blunt bangs and lack of respect for convention. Cora has her own reasons for making the trip, but the five weeks the two spend together promise to change their lives forever. Set in the 1920s and drawing on the events of Prohibition and the movement for women's rights, The Chaperone beautifully illustrates women in this pivotal era.

Interested In
I am so excited to FINALLY go see The Fault in Our Stars movie tomorrow! I feel like I have been waiting for it forever, as after I read (and reviewed) (and read again) the book in 2012, I thought it would make a great movie. And now here it is! Just one day away! My friends and I can't wait to wear our TFiOS t-shirts, quote lines from the book along with the movie, and gush about how perfect Augustus Waters is (and of course, his metaphorically resonant cigarette).

Lately, I've been spending far too much time reading news articles about the book/movie. Here are some that I found interesting:

Video: On the TFiOS Blue Carpet - Today Show Interview
'The Fault in Our Stars' By the Numbers: Just How Huge Is This Movie Going to Be?
'Fault in Our Stars' Author John Green: Why He's 'Freaking Out' About Hollywood Success

John Green and His Nerdfighters are Upending the Summer Blockbuster Model
John Green: TIME's 100 Most Influential People 

 

Working On

Not even ten minutes ago, I concluded my research paper on Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse. The assignment was to write a literary criticism about a classic novel of our choice.  I discussed throughout my paper, how Woolf uses the distant Lighthouse as a symbol for the meaning of life that humans are always trying to somehow reach. Unlike other students in my English class, I enjoyed writing this paper, as it gave me a chance to analysis this book at a deeper level, and to learn new things about literature.

Here's my favorite passage from To the Lighthouse:

 

 "What is the meaning of life? That was all - a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years. The great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark..." -Lily Briscoe, page 161



Read More