Words of Wisdom for Your Wednesday
Tune in Tuesday: The Head and The Heart
Sometimes there are just songs that resonate with you in ways that can’t really be explained.
A few months ago I went to visit a friend of mine who lives in Connecticut for the weekend. On the drive back to New York, I was listening to my Avett Brothers Pandora station and the song I’m sharing with you today started playing and I was TRANSFIXED.
And I immediately hated that I was listening to Pandora because you can’t repeat a song in Pandora and I wanted to listen to it on repeat for the rest of the drive.
But luckily I can find it in a zillion other places. And so I’ve been listening to it A LOT and it still makes me feel things that I can’t quite explain, except for that I love it with a ridiculous amount of love.
So I hope that you enjoy “Down in the Valley” by The Head and The Heart.
Happy Tuesday!
Tune in Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Ginger at GReads!
Review: Between You and Me
Title: Between You and Me: A Novel
Authors: Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
Publisher: Atria Books
Release Date: June 12, 2012
Format: ePub via NetGalley
In Between You and Me, twenty-seven-year-old Logan Wade has built a life for herself in New York City, far from her unhappy childhood in Oklahoma. But when she gets the call that her famous cousin needs a new assistant, it’s an offer she can’t refuse. Logan hasn’t seen Kelsey since they were separated as kids; in the meantime, Kelsey Wade has become one of FortuneMagazine’s most powerful celebrities and carrion for the paparazzi. But the joy at their reunion is overshadowed by the toxic dynamic between Kelsey and her controlling parents. As Kelsey grasps desperately at a “real” life, Logan risks everything to try and give her cousin the one thing she has never known—happiness. As Kelsey unravels in the most horribly public way Logan finds that she will ultimately have to choose between saving her cousin and saving herself.—Goodreads
Celebrity is something that the world is strangely preoccupied with.
When I was a teenager, I was the same way—completely obsessed with celebrity pairings and their comings and goings and what they were wearing and who they were feuding with. But as I get older, and the paparazzi becomes more invasive, I’ve come to think of celebrity more as a burden than something that is glamorous and exciting.
And Between You and Me by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus (The Nanny Diaries) shows exactly that side of celebrity life. In a story that is a thinly veiled retelling of the Britney Spears story, we meet Logan Wade, whose life in New York is nothing to write home about. So when her long-lost superstar cousin Kelsey Wade calls and offers her a job to be her assistant, she decides to forgive and forget about all of the crap from their childhood and take the job.
Told from Logan’s perspective, we’re taken through Kelsey’s emotional and mental breakdowns and her dealings with the press, peers, business colleagues, and her OH-SO HIDEOUS OMG helicopter parents who operate as her business managers.
But throughout the highs and lows of Kelsey’s very public life, Logan and Kelsey rediscover their friendship, Logan gets her life back in order, and, if nothing else, meets a great guy.
Overall, this story is not necessarily a happy one. But McLaughlin and Kraus weave in their quippy dialogue and acutely perceptive, perhaps sympathetic, views of a life overshadowed by celebrity. Between You and Me is a fun read, and if you enjoyed The Nanny Diaries, then I definitely recommend you give it a read.
What’s Making Me Happy {14}
Why hello there.
This past week was tumultuous. I’m still adjusting at work, which will take time, but I put all this undue pressure on myself to be THE BEST EVER at it, which obviously takes time, but when I’m not I sort of freak out and beat myself up about it.
Which is not The Healthy.
So I spent part of the week mad at myself for not being immediately awesome at my job. And then I spent the other part of the week stressing about people moving in this week. Which is truly silly since all I really had to do was supervise the moving in. And I probably didn’t even HAVE to do that. I just did because it seemed like a nice thing to do.
1. IT’S JUNE!
Normally this would not excite me. But in this particular year it means that Boyfriend will be here in 27 days!!!!!! (For those of you who are new here, he’s living in Singapore for a year. He left in January. JANUARY.)
2. The Apartment Redesign Has Commenced!
Now that the old roomies are out and the new roomies are in, I can start redecorating! It’s going to be a bit of a process since I am not made of money (I know this is a shock to some of you. It will be okay.), but I’ve gotten a nice start and I am VERY pleased thus far.
This wall used to be red. NO LONGER. Goodbye oppressive red wall!
STRIPES!
New bathroom decor!
3. Wine bars
On Thursday of last week I met up with the NYC Kappa Delta alumni group at a wine bar off of Union Square and drank wine and ate hummus and cheese and then drank some sangria and just hung out. It was great.
4. Summer Fridays
Holy bazoo are Summer Fridays the best. THE BEST. I highly recommend you lobby to get them, if you don’t already have them.
And I’m very much looking forward to this next week because it’s BEA WEEK and there are so many fantastic bloggers converging on my city. I hope to hang out and squeal with and drink with and eat ice cream with ALL OF YOU. So hit me up. I’M AROUND.
I hope all y’all have had a lovely week and and relaxing Sunday!
TGIF: Let’s Talk About ISSUES.
SUMMER FRIDAY SUMMER FRIDAY SUMMER FRIDAY!
This means I work a half-day at work.
I love summer Fridays.
And on this Friday, Ginger at GReads! has asked:
Issue Books: Which books have you found to be very rewarding when it comes to tackling tougher issues?
I’ll be honest, I shy away from books that are marketed as “issue books.”
It’s not that I am an avoider or that I don’t want to live in my own little world where bad things don’t happen, but at the same time, I typically don’t want to choose to read a book that I know will make me a sad red panda.
Not that I don’t read sad books or books that deal with trauma/tragedy/other bad things. But I tend to appreciate these books more when they “issue” is seamlessly inserted into larger themes or plotlines within the book so that there are other things happening.
Take Saving June by Hannah Harrington, for example. Technically the book is about a teenager whose sister randomly commits suicide, but it’s also a road trip book with a lot of humor and a great soundtrack. So while the over-arching theme is dealing with suicide, there are a lot of other things going on, which I really appreciated.
I think another good example of this is Will Grayson Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan. This book actually has a lot of issues involved in it—coming to terms with homosexuality, the reality of socio-economics, and bullying. And again, while these things could combine to be really heavy and preachy, the book is funny and smart and clever and uplifting. It doesn’t hurt that the authors are AMAZEBALLS.
I’m sure there are tons of other books that go in this category. LIke John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, which I’ve owned since January but haven’t brought myself to read yet. One day, people. One day.
If you have any recommendations on issues books that aren’t too issue-y in presentation, I’d love to know them! Leave ’em in comments and enjoy your Friday!
Bethany Larson 