Bibliothèque Brett

I read this book at the end of 2012 and FLEW through it. I mean it was a stay up until 2am reading sort of book. Gone Girl began my obsession with all things Gillian Flynn. Unless you have been living under a rock, you probably have started to hear all about the upcoming movie. The full length trailer came out a week or so ago and I knew I HAD to reread this book.

Before I started Gone Girl again, I wondered if it would be as good the second time around. The beauty of this book really is the mystery and the suspense. Would it be the same the second time around? Naturally, it can't be AS good the second time... but it was still pretty wonderful. I found myself reading it during every free minute of my day.... still so addicting! 

Long story short, if you haven't read this book yet, 1) shame on you and 2) please read it immediately. Or if you already read it.... give it another read! And of course.... in case you missed it, here was my original review for the book. 

I’ll admit… I finished this book a couple weeks ago now. I’ve been out of town the past couple weekends so I’ve been having some trouble finding time to write. As you may remember, I mentioned having high hopes for this novel. The hype for this one was pretty huge- I’m pretty sure I saw this novel on 95% of the 2013 best fiction lists. I like to give these trendy books a chance; I mean people love them for a reason right?

Unfortunately, I don’t really get the hype behind Life After Life. It’s hard to explain… but I just didn’t really get it (and I hate when I don’t get books… it makes me feel dumb). First of all, full disclosure, this probably wasn’t the best book for me to read. A little background… I’m a pretty fast reader. That means I can make it through a substantial amount of literature in a short time, but on the negative side, that means that sometimes I miss things when I read. Usually it doesn’t matter too much as I pick up a majority of the material. But in this book, I think it was really a disadvantage for me since the novel jumps around in time from chapter to chapter.

Life After Life is about a British woman named Ursula. Ursula is born and dies right away (her umbilical cord gets stuck around her neck). But then, she is reborn. This happens throughout her life- she dies in a variety of ways and then comes back to life with the chance to change her life (and the lives of those around her). The book jumps around from year to year- back and forth, really all over the place. The majority of the book is setting during the two World Wars. I’m usually a fan of reading fiction from that time period but even that couldn’t redeem this book for me. It just jumped around way too much and was incredibly hard to follow.

So I know I said this already… but I just didn’t get it. The hype behind this book really baffles me and I half think that I totally missed the point or something. Such high hopes for this book…. So disappointing. Here’s to hoping my next summer read is a little better!

- Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

Currently Reading: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

“What would you do if you weren't afraid?” That’s one of the early questions that Sheryl Sandberg asks us in her inspirational novel, Lean In. If you haven’t heard of this book before, I don’t even know about you. People have been hyping up this book for a while now and I decided to take the plunge and read it. I’m not usually one for motivational business sort of books. I had visions of Good to Great in my head. Did not love that book. I usually have something against books that provide you with career advice. Typically to me they are a waste of time and just reconfirm things that I already know. But this book is different. And I LOVED it.

Sheryl Sandberg is the COO of Facebook and became well-known after she gave a TEDTalk back in 2010 about how women hold themselves back in the workplace. At first I wasn’t sure if this was going to be one of those books that just says pay women more! Or hire more women! Sheryl acknowledges that women have made huge strides over the past couple decades. I look around me at work and more often than not, I see more women in the room than men. But then I take a look at the partners at the firm and realize that it’s probably only about 5% women. Why is this? Why aren't there women in leadership positions? This book really dives into why there is this leadership gap. Sure there are some external factors that come into play, but more often than not, it’s internal forces that hold women back in the workplace.

It really opened my eyes to how some of my every day behaviors might be holding me back at work. Honestly, this book made me want to work harder, seek more challenges and enthusiastically pursue my goals. It’s easy to get complacent in our careers and think things are going just… ok. But now especially is not the time for women to get complacent. If there ever was a time for me to lean into my career, it would be now.

My favorite part of Lean In is that Sheryl does a really good job of combining statistics with real life examples. It’s easy to say oh do this do that, but Sheryl gives actual examples of how she has dealt with a variety of issues in the past. She gives concrete steps that we all can take to put ourselves in those leadership positions. She also gives great advice on having a work life balance, an issue that many women begin thinking about at an early age.

Great quote from Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg

Two cookbooks I've been making my way through this week-

America's Test Kitchen DIY Cookbook- really interesting DIY recipes if you feel like trying out something new- like making your own smoked salmon or mustard.

I haven’t read a memoir in a couple months now, so I decided it was time last week. I read about Wave after I saw it on a couple of reading lists. Sonali Deraniyagala’s memoir is about the devastating tsunami on December 26, 2004. Sonali was on vacation at a Sri Lankan resort when the tsunami struck. As unimaginable as it is, Sonali survives but in the process loses her husband, two sons, and her parents. I know. I’ve read memoirs about losing a sister or a husband but the fact that Sonali lost the 5 closest people in her life… I can’t even imagine that.

The novel starts with a description of the tsunami itself and what Sonali went through immediately after. It then jumps around in time a bit, taking us back to how she met her husband and when her children were born. We hear a little about her childhood and college years. The biggest focus of the novel is her road to recovery after the tsunami. This novel is about ten years after the tsunami yet Sonali admits she is still on the road to recovery. I don’t think it’s ever something you can get over- just something that you need to learn to live with every day.

Currently Reading: Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala

So I really wanted to read a book about something that I knew NOTHING about. So I decided to check out "Going Clear" which is about Scientology (click here for details). I got about 50 pages into this one but just couldn't stick with it.

A day at the beach (or even just at home on the couch) isn't complete without a good book by our side. For some of us, it's the only quality time we have to spend reading something that isn't work or news-related. Sad, we know, but that's exactly why we never mind multitasking during our downtime

Ok kind of loving this link from Refinery 29. Some great summer reads & outfits to match!

I actually added a couple books from this list to my summer reading list: - Save the Date: The Occasional Mortifications of a Serial Wedding Guest by Jen Doll - The Stench of Honolulu by Jack Handey -Everybody Was So Young by Amanda Vaill -Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

You might remember Beautiful Ruins from my review here. I read that one last summer... it was ok. Also how did A Hundred Summers not make this list? Boo.

The tag line for this novel is “A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption.” Never has there been a better tagline for a biography. Unbroken is the story of Louis Zamperini- Olympian, American hero, and all-around badass. I get a little hesitant about reading long historical biographies. Let’s be honest… a lot of the time they are boring. I’ve given up on my fair share of dry biographies (unless it has anything to do with Anne Boleyn- that’s my ish). That’s probably why it took me so long to get around to this book. I won’t lie- I thought the beginning was kind of boring. It took me about 30 pages to really start to get into it. But I’m glad I didn’t give up on the story quickly because it gets going pretty fast after that…

While the beginning is a little boring, you do need the backstory on where Louis came from. His early days as a little delinquent directly lead to his career as a runner in high school and on. The boy is fast; so fast that he makes it to the Olympics in Berlin. But then the war happens- World War II. This is probably one of my favorite time periods to read about. Something about how the whole country came together during this war just really gets to me. Unlike the turbulent ‘70s, America really stood up and all fought together. I trace back my love for this time period to when I had to put together a faux Victory Garden in fifth grade. Ah youth.

So like many young American men, Louis enlisted in the US Army Air Force in the early 1940s. We get a lot of backstory on the types of planes that the US Army used back in the day and the men that Louis enlisted with. This is when the novel really starts to pick up. If you don’t want to know what happens at all, I suggest you stop reading here. I usually don’t give this much away in books but I figure most people already know the basics of what happens in this novel.

Louis is on a plane flying over the ocean when mechanical failures cause the plane to crash into the Pacific Ocean. Louis and two other crew members survive the crash with little more than a couple supplies and a raft. Before the crash the book foreshadows how absolutely awful it was for those who survived crashes and were afloat in the ocean. Many died of starvation, dehydration, exposure… and then there was the worst case scenario- getting captured by the Japanese as they drifted west. Unfortunately that’s what happens to Louis. After surviving more days than you probably thought was possible at sea, Louis gets captured by the Japanese and placed in a POW camp. From history classes you might remember learning about how horrendous the Japanese POW camps were during WWII. This book completely backs that up and at times it can be pretty hard to read.