Crafts:
I can finally post some things I made! A friend decided to not work where I work anymore, so I gave him a pattern from DefiantDamsel:
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| <knock...knock...knock> Penny? |
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| "London calling at the top of the dial..." |
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| Superstitions aside, this is too cute. |
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| "Ice is back with my brand new invention..." |
Movies:
I was only able to make it to a couple of movies this month. Sadly I can't admit that they were the best movies ever.
Don Jon looked like it would be pretty funny. And, I mean, sure, it was kind of funny. But mostly, I felt like my friend and I had accidentally gone to see as close to a porno as you can get without going to a completely different kind of theater. It's worth a watch to see Scarlett Johanssen be that uptight and Jersey...and it is kind of funny...just...don't watch it with anyone else around ;)
The Counselor was an interesting one. I don't think it's had great reviews (although, I don't read those unless I'm super curious), but I enjoyed most of it. It started off a little awkward (again, you probably want to be alone watching this part) and then went into to full on HOLY CRAP mode. I will never, ever look at Cameron Diaz the same again. Her role was way over the top and really well done...I didn't think she had that in her. Michael Fassbender and Javier Bardem are still good at whatever they do. Was it too much murder and not enough intrigue? Probably. But, like any story that captures your attention, you still think about it later, which made me like it more than most.
Books:
This month I feel like I didn't read as much as usual, but like I said at the beginning, it's been crazy. I did manage to read: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell, The Bride Wore Size 12 by Meg Cabot, The Wolves of Midwinter by Anne Rice, Seven Deadlies: A Cautionary Tale by Gigi Levangie, and The Coat Route: Craft, Luxury, and Obsession on the Trail of a $50,000 Coat by Meg Lukens Noonan.
Fangirl was my first read by Rainbow Rowell, despite having a different title on my Kindle. This book is about twin sisters who go their separate ways once they get to college. One writes fan fiction for their world's Harry Potter, "Simin Snow". She isn't happy to be without her twin, but slowly comes into her own, dealing with her issues, making friends with her roommate, having a misguided crush on her writing partner, and eventually finding a boyfriend by being her fanfic writing self. Her sister becomes a party girl who can't handle her partying and eventually realizes that having a twin who knows you inside and out isn't a burden, it's a strong bond that she should be grateful to have. As the two find each other again, they manage to sort out their lives while dealing with their parents and going to classes and keeping Simon Snow's fanfic world hanging on their words as to what happens next. This was a fun read and I'm looking forward to reading the other Rowell book I have.
You know, I do like Malcolm Gladwell, but I think this book sorted out what it is I like about him. I generally don't enjoy the themed books, but I do enjoy reading the individual essays. I liked this one well enough, but I'm glad I got it from the library instead of buying it. My favorite so far has been What the Dog Saw, mainly because there is no overarching theme to all of the essays. If you like his writing, you will like the book. I think I'll wait for the next random collection before trying him again though (it's also possible that I was overly excited to read it and set myself up for a let down, so maybe you should ignore me and read it yourself).
The Heather Wells series from Meg Cabot is just fun. Heather Wells was a tween pop star who lost all of her money when her mom ran off with her manager while her dad was in prison for fraud (or tax evasion or something like that). He pop star boyfriend dropped her for the next tween sensation and her label (owned by the boyfriend's dad) dropped her because she didn't want to sing songs written by other people for tweens. She ended up moving in with her ex-boyfriend's brother (black sheep of the family because he wanted no part of the pop scene and ended up becoming a private detective) and doing his accounts while also working at the college so she could attend classes for free. Every book includes a murder in the dorm where she works. Each one of these books has been highly entertaining...sometimes covering a darker theme, sometimes not. Mostly, it's just a fun read and would make a pretty fun tv series. This particular one is about planning her wedding and how it gets a little derailed by a foreign prince, her returning mother, and her crazy job at the Death Dorm (more murder). A happier ending than you usually get from a murder mystery...and the brief inclusion of Lizzie Roberts, another of Cabot's heroines from a different series (Queen of Babble).
The Wolves of Midwinter is the second in the Anne Rice series, The Wolf Gift Chronicles. I had broken up with Anne Rice somewhere around book 5 of the vampire series. The Wolf Gift brought us back together as she didn't try to cram her beliefs down my throat as badly as she had been doing. This second book in the series has made us break up again. Ugh. The wolf people were SUPER annoying. So much angst. So much theoretical questioning of existence. Again, I felt that she was trying to create an ideal world for a specific group to justify what she's thinking is correct for her own religious thinking at this time. Here's the thing...if I want to read religious philosophy, I'll get a book on that. Not a book about werewolves. Just no, Anne Rice. No.
Seven Deadlies was ok. I really liked The Starter Wife by her, so I was willing to give this one a shot. It was told from a teen's viewpoint as her college essay. It was not fantastic and I felt like it ended very oddly...and not totally in sync with the rest of the stories. The teen wrote about her babysitting jobs for the rich and famous and apparently worthless. She classified each story as one of the seven deadly sins. It was just ok. Probably wouldn't take a chance on another one like this though. No one was a character that you felt like you wanted to know more about, so I was glad it was short.
And now, a contender for best read of 2013, The Coat Route. I loved, loved, LOVED this book. A woman (journalist), Meg Lukens Noonan, reads about a man having a $50,000 coat tailored for him and is perplexed. Why in the world would you spend that much on one coat? You wouldn't even wear it every day. How could it cost that much? She set off to answer the hows and whys. The book is divided into the parts of work/labor that go into such a garment: fleece from the mountains in South America, buttons from old factories in London, hand designed silk from Italy, bespoke shops on Seville Row, the last of a long line of tailors from Sydney, and much more. The journey she makes is incredible. And I find myself thinking about this book a lot, even though I've been done for a while and have read other things. The market for hand made garments shouldn't be dwindling to nothing, but we are allowing it to do so with the ease of mass consumption of goods. It's cheap and easy to buy something in the Gap or Old Navy...it's even easy but not cheap to buy something couture. But in the end, those items weren't made specifically for you by someone who knows you and your shape and makes something to make you look and feel your best. It makes me sad to think about the apprenticeships and work study programs dying out in an effort to standardize and mass produce everything. I can't afford $50,000 for a coat, but I feel like it's a dream that shouldn't die. Read this book. It is really good. If you don't read it, there's a good chance that I'm getting it for you at Christmas...and I might quiz you later ;)
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