The books of August

I can not believe it's the last day of August! I feel like I just put up the last post and poof! It's that time again. I saw a couple of movies this month: Crazy Stupid Love and The Help. Crazy Stupid Love, I gotta say, had no pull on me when my friend asked me to see it. I thought it looked kind of funny, but imagined that all of the laughs would be in the same previews I had seen. I was delighted to be absolutely wrong. It was freaking hilarious! And while I've not been an avid Gosling fan in the past, I was struck mute...and possibly temporarily blind...by the glory of his possibly photoshopped abs. It was insane. There were times when I was laughing so hard I was crying and I couldn't talk. The Help was every bit as good as the book. Funny, sad, just a great, great movie with great performances.

I've been busy trying to get lots of crafts done as well. An ex-boss left my current place of work...he used to always tell people how mean and angry I was...which took everyone by surprise because I'm actually not. So, I made a joke of it and decided since he was the one who thought that, then he could take it with him:

The real question is why was I mean and angry...was it all those vampire books?

Later on in the month after his departure, I actually did feel both mean and angry. It made me think for a little bit and I decided to sublimate my rage through my inner artist:

I also made a few birthday gifts...I'll post those next month though...after people have received their gifts!

I did pick up a few books this month...all at Borders: The Last Summer (of You & Me) by Ann Brashares, It Looked Different on the Model: Epic Tales of Impending Shame and Infamy by Laurie Notaro, and Avec Eric by Eric Ripert.

The library got a lot more of my business this month...as did my stash of books scattered around the apartment. Here's what I read this month: The Man of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld, The Temptation of the Night Jasmine by Lauren Willig, Walks with Men by Ann Beattie, Let's Talk About Pep by Sandy "Pepa" Denton, Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby, Man Camp by Adrienne Broduer, The Family Fortune by Laurie Horowitz, Ransom My Heart by Meg Cabot and Mia Thermopolis, and Lips Unsealed by Belinda Carlisle.

First, the Sittenfeld book. I know I read Prep a long, long time ago and maybe I should've expected this style, but I'd completely forgotten. The story follows Hannah from elementary school all the way into adulthood. Every relationship is screwed up somehow...although maybe that's because it's all from Hannah's viewpoint. After seeing her dysfunctional family fall apart and slowly pick up the pieces, it's not like her life choices were unexpected. The relationship with her shrink seems to be the most stable one she has. I was glad that she grew throughout the book, but when it ends, you kind of feel like there should be a more positive resolution after all of that crap. You want that nice, neat, storybook ending all tied up with a pretty bow. But what you get is something more realistic and outlandish at the same time. Not a bad read, but makes me want to avoid that other one...what was it? Oh yeah, American Wife.

Another fun Lauren Willig book! I swear, this series might be my favorite. It's not one I actively seek, but when I remember it, I look, and there's always a new one that absorbs me. This one I should've read between the two I read last month, but it wasn't on the shelf at the library. I could sit here and gush and go on and on about how I enjoy her novels, but I want everyone to just go read them! You can see all the titles (and get the order of release) on Amazon. As a bonus, there's supposed to be a new one coming out in February. There's the modern love story, the historical love story (stories), the historical settings, and the mysteries. Just so much fun. When I start one, it takes all my will to leave the house if I don't finish it in one sitting.

Walks with Men was an odd little book. I knew nothing about it...I was looking to see if some other book I wanted was in and this was in a row nearby...it was very short and small and portable, so I checked it out. I never connected with the main character. She didn't seem to need the reader to do so. You felt bad for her at times, but then you were brought back to the reality that she brought it all on herself with her choices in men and her life. What it really did was make me think. I know I've made some INSANE choices when it comes to men, but like the character, I don't feel too bad about it. It happens; you move on. Granted, the ending was actually sad, but not a tear-jerker. Just kind of an awful way for it to all go down. And she got through it...just like we all do, all the time. While this one was a work of fiction, it could've easily been a memoir and I doubt I would've caught on that it was in the wrong place.

Salt and Pepa's here! Let's Talk About Pep...shall we? All I knew about S&P was that they were a ground-breaking female group and that I liked quite a few of their songs. Wow. She wasn't up to Vince Neil levels, but her choices? Oh my, her choices! What was she thinking?! Staying with men who repeatedly beat her?! It wasn't easy to read...and she knew it. She just told it like it was, said what she did, and kept moving forward to the next stage of life. She's clearly a survivor. Mostly what I got out of this book was that I needed to listen to "None of Your Business" on a repeated loop for about a week straight.

Juliet, Naked was so great! Totally Hornby. I just love the way he writes. The main characters start out on the road following the male's musical hero. The female, she's not as into it. They drift. She writes a thoughtful post for his blog about the musician. The musician contacts her and all of it comes together so well. You can visualize the characters and you like them all, even with their flaws and craziness. I really need to just re-read everything he's done. Sigh.

Man Camp was silly, but a decent read. Two friends in New York jokingly come up with a business for one of them to date men and tell the men what they do wrong so the men can become better mates. The dating thing only proved that the problems were too complex for one date and one review/advice meeting. They had to have a week or two to spend, showing these NY guys how to be real men and take care of women. Of course, being a work of fiction, everyone learns something, and everyone already had useful skills, and everyone lives happily ever after. Complete fluff, but sometimes, you just need fluff.

And apparently sometimes, you need more fluff because the next book I read was The Family Fortune. Jane Fortune and her family fall upon difficult financial times and Jane, being the level-headed one, becomes the focus as she's the only one in the family with a lick of sense and an actual job. Turns out the family has really done a number on her and it took this separation of them all to put it into perspective so she could get a real life...as she had the chance to do several years before instead of locking herself up with them. It was entertaining.

Another fluffy tale was Meg Cabot, writing as Mia Thermopolis (The Princess Diaries). Ransom My Heart was the story Mia wanted to write about a girl who decides to ransom a stranger to get money for her vapid sister who spent her dowry on trinkets...which wouldn't be a problem if said sister hadn't gotten herself knocked up by a wandering minstrel. Unfortunately for our heroine, she captures the returning man of rank, back from being imprisoned during the Crusades. Hilarity ensues. As does plenty of sex. This was a nice read and I liked most all of the characters (except the villains)...as I tend to do with all of Cabot's books.

Last, but not least, just an hour ago, I finished Belinda Carlisle's Lips Unsealed. If you didn't know, I love the Go-Gos. I bought this book a long time ago and have been waiting for a good time to dig into it. Apparently, the good time started last Saturday morning. Belinda has certainly led a life. She clearly wasted almost half of it in a fog of drugs and alcohol, but it did make for some excellent, gossipy reading. She could have dressed it up and made it less real, but she didn't, and I admire that. She told what she felt about a lot of my favorite songs (some were not her faves at all) and she talked about the band and her life as a musician afterward. It was nice to read that the songs were snapshots of their lives at the times...I think that's part of what makes those songs so fun...that you can feel what they were feeling and doing (although I guess you could also call that a contact high without inhaling). She also talked about what the drugs and alcohol were doing and how she couldn't face it. When I finished it, before I fired up the computer because I knew it was blog night, I knew that I'd be listening to the Go-Go's for a while, being really glad that she caught herself in time and got help before it was too late.

So that's August. September is going to be awesome, although I might not be reading that much. With that in mind, and the Go-Go's, I'll leave you with some lyrics: "Vacation, all I ever wanted. Vacation, had to get away..." It's nearly vacation time and I can't wait! See y'all later!