Author: readandwright1

Ah, Friday. This was a WILD week for me yet it went by so quickly! I think I’m so excited for the summer that I’m not too upset with how quick March is going. We have sooooo many excited things coming up, beginning at the end of this month! I cannot WAIT!

This week I did a lot of book shopping…whoops. I think I’ll share those in a more in depth, separate post but that very generous gift card I got for my birthday has gotten a work out! 

I wanted to mix up the Weekly Wrap Up a bit. I’ve been getting to know a lot of fellow readers so I think it could be fun to share a little bit more about what I’ve been loving this week, in addition to my books! 

Here’s what I read this week: 

Where’d You Go Bernadette 

Wow, I loved this book. As I said previously, this book was recommended to me for YEARS and every time I read the back I was like, “Eh, not for me,” and boy do I regret that. BUT I do think I was definitely ready for it this time around. Honestly, it was HILARIOUS and I loved it and I’m so so excited to post my full review of it on Monday! 

Currently: Nine Perfect Strangers, Outward Blonde

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty—I got this book for my birthday back around New Years and I started it in early January. But I just.couldn’t.get.into.it. I’m glad I’ve picked it back up in a different mindset because I’m enjoying it a bit more. Still, it’s a BIT slow and plotless for my taste, but I’ll do a full review when I finish it. 

Outward Blonde by Trish Cook—I’ve seen this one on shelves for a while. It’s a silly YA but like I said yesterday, sometimes you need those in your life! 

Loving: Iced Oat Milk Lattes—my current order is a decaf doppio over ice. I add my own milk and save lots of $$$

Show: Buffy the Vampire Slayer—When I haven’t been reading this week I’ve been rewatching Buffy! It might be my favorite show of all time (heart eyes for Angel)

Wanting: Summer—I NEVER want Summer. I love the fall, winter, and spring so much and I always have fabulous summers, but I’ve never craved it. It just get way too hot in the city. We have so many exciting things coming up and I can’t wait! 

Waiting For: Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep—this book comes out soon…well soonish. May 7, 2019. It sounds so good! 

Wedding: We’re in a bit of a valley of planning, which is nice. I’d say wedding planning comes in peaks and valleys; the peaks are stressful, but the valleys make it worth it. I love having the time to enjoy being engaged and have fun looking at different options for detail things. 

What were you up to this week? 

Alright, switching gears a bit from most of the books I’ve been reading recently with this one, but I figured I’d throw together a review anyway! Sometimes you need a light read and after Eleanor Oliphant, I needed something a little less intense. 

I have a deep love for YA books. I think reading them as an adult is great because it brings me back to those teenage moments—now I have SUCH a different perspective on love, life, relationships, school, the future. But when you’re 15 or 16, things feel HUGE. 

Haunted in Hollywood is not the best book I’ve ever read, especially in terms of writing style. The chapters kind of “dropped off” and then never landed. What I mean with that is Loey Lane would set you up for this big moment and with a turn of the page, what she just said would be irrelevant. For example: “The dog started barking at the door and immediately knew it was my ex boyfriend at the door, wanting revenge” to “When I opened the door, no one was there. It was just my mind playing tricks on me.” 

To me, that’s lazy writing. It’s not taking the time to thoroughly flesh out these moments for your characters. But, Loey Lane is such a sweet, fresh personality. I don’t follow her to much on Youtube; I’ve definitely seen a video but I’m not a “follower” if that makes sense. However, I do really appreciate her body positive message! 

I was drawn to this book because it was only $5 and I really, really love The Mediator series by Meg Cabot. I would say try and get your hands on that instead. This was cute, had great moments, but overall was just kind of an “eh, that was fun” read. Which is totally important and valid but I wouldn’t have read this if it wasn’t $5, you know? 

How do you feel about Young Adult fiction? 

I hope you all secretly love Wedding Wednesday as much as I do! It’s a nice break in my week to remind me of this exciting time during a really hectic period in my work life! 

I wanted to share an update on what we’ve done so far. When it comes to weddings, there are a lot of things to coordinate. I am a pretty organized person but I had no.idea. how much went into wedding planning. 

Venues: The first thing we did was decide on our venue for our ceremony and reception. We are going to be getting married in the church I grew up (and had all my other sacraments) followed by a gorgeous Black Tie reception right on the water. I am so excited for our cocktail hour, which will be outside followed by dinner and dancing in the ballroom! Our reception venue also has a caterer on premises, so thankfully we didn’t have to worry about that! 

Band: The second thing we secured was our live band! This is not important to everyone, but we really wanted to have live music. We chose a band my parents love! They’re based in NYC but travel to Connecticut for weddings frequently. 

Photographer: We lucked out and we were able to book my absolutely DREAM photographer. I am so excited; she’s fantastic and I fell in love with her work! 

Videographer: I didn’t really care if we had a video or not, but Nick actually really fought for it! I love watching them online but I wasn’t sure how much we would watch ours, but once I saw the product from whom we chose, I was like “That’s it, I need it!” And I’m so happy we will have it. 

Bridal Party: We asked our Bridal party to join us on our special day pretty early on, because we wanted to make sure they’d all save the date as soon as possible! We have such wonderful friends and I am so excited to have them stand by us as we start this new chapter! 

The Dress: I cannot believe it, but as of last weekend, I have my wedding dress! It is absolutely everything I could have ever wanted and I feel so lucky that my parents are willing to make this dream come true! I was really nervous about the dress process but once I finally started looking, I had so much fun! I did go to Kleinfeld and I really thought my dress was going to be from there, but then I went to a smaller boutique in Connecticut that has been in the area for over thirty years…and I fell in love! Both experiences were perfectly wonderful in different ways! If you want to hear more about my bridal appointments or experience at Kleinfeld, let me know! 

I’m now into the nitty gritty of detail oriented things. Paper goods, flowers, bridesmaids dresses. I want to make a vision board for it all but things keep getting in the way! 

Let me know if like this style or if it was too vague…I don’t want to give too much away to my friends and family who follow me here! It’s really important to both Nick and I that our guests have a memorable evening, since so many of them will be traveling so far! 

All images are from Google. I do not own them and did not take them. 

Usually if I find myself with time to spare and I’m not rushing home, I’ll stop into my favorite book stores. Roaming the stacks and adding to my TBR brings me endless joy. There’s just something about a bookstore, right? 

My favorite places to go in the city are spread out among the many neighborhoods I spend my time in. 

The Strand

A fantastic selection, great prices, and fun merchandise. Located right by Union Square, it’s a great place to check out on a sunny spring or fall weekend. The farmer’s market is one of the best in the city, but it is crowded. 

Bookbook

Located in the West Village, Bookbook is about as New York-y as you can get. It’s one I stumbled across and have loved venturing back to. Plus it’s a great area with lots of amazing restaurants and architecture. 

Book Culture

The Upper West Side is one of my favorite places. Between it’s location to The Park (Central), the unique eateries, and bright white walls, Book Culture is a great place to spend an hour browsing. Plus they have a GREAT children’s selection! Plus You’ve Got Mail took place on the Upper West Side. 

Barnes and Noble Tribeca

One of my day jobs in Tribeca, so as much as I feel like I’m betraying my You’ve Got Mail fantasies, I do spend a lot of my time at the chain bookstore. 

Honorable Mention—The Drama Book Shop

In January, the Drama Book Shop closed it’s doors due to skyrocketing rent. I miss it terribly, but it hopes to reopen in the fall in a new location. Lin-Manuel Miranda bought it with Tommy Kail, college classmate and director of Hamilton. 

Where do you buy books?

It has been a while since a book has surprised me. I had seen Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine on bookshelves for years but it was one of those books I always passed up for something a little “louder”. It wasn’t until Carly wrote a little review on how much she loved it that I decided to give it a fair chance. 

If I’m being honest, nothing frustrates me more than a book that is hard to get into. I want to be grabbed from the moment I read the first few lines, because that why I love to read; I love feeling the urgency to know what happens next and get to know the characters on a deeper level. 

Eleanor is definitely an odd one. I don’t know what I was expecting exactly, but it was NOT this. I struggled in the first few chapters to understand what in the heck was going on. She was hard to love…at first. 

About 75 pages into the novel, I hit my stride with Eleanor. She was odd, but endearing. Intense, but passionate. And I really loved the character Raymond. I’m pretty Type A personality wise, so I was starting to connect with Eleanor. I didn’t get why she really was the way she was, but I could appreciate elements. 

But once Honeyman let us in on a few secrets, like Eleanor’s upbringing, I was truly intrigued. By the second half of this novel, I was trying to figure out when and how I could sneak in a few pages every hour. 

I don’t want to give too much away but I will say that if you’re struggling, push through. She’s worth it! I think it’s a fascinating commentary on the brain: mental illness, trauma, therapy. A lot of things we should be talking about are brought to light in this novel. I am so appreciative of that. 

Give Eleanor a chance. That’s all she ever needed from people. If you pick it up, let me know! 

Okay, this week officially flew. I hit some major blogging milestones for me and I’m feeling better and more motivated than ever—in all aspects of my life. I kind of love that this first week of March flew by. I had such a great weekend with the success of my mom’s surprise party and even had some awesome career opportunities come up. Audition season, you’re not looking so bad after all. 

I feel like I’ve finally found balance between the many hats I’m currently trying to juggle. We’ve made awesome strides on wedding planning, and I am enjoying SO MUCH sharing bits and pieces of on here—thank you for indulging me. Audition season is beginning to pay off, planning the bridal shower for my brother’s fiancé is at a stand still until we get all the RSVPs back, and I think my head is finally starting to feel like I have my financials under control. 

Nick and I are moving together (for the first time!!!!!!) this summer so between that, the wedding, the honeymoon and you know, normal living expenses, I was feeling STRESSED to the max. Thank goodness for my books, who always calm me down and pull me out of my phone and computer long enough to get a grip. 

Here’s what I read this week: 

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman 

Um, okay. I LOVED this book. When I started it last week, I was definitely nervous it was going to get put down but I plowed through after reading so many amazing reviews and I am so happy I did. Full review coming Monday, so check back then if you’ve been hesitant! 14/80 Read for 2019! 

Currently—Haunted in Hollywood by Loey Lane

I started this on my Thursday commute before a high stakes audition. Is it the most high brow read? No. But sometimes you need those light books to break up the intense ones, and Eleanor was DEFINITELY an intense one. If you liked the Mediator series by Meg Cabot (which I did—one of my favorite series of all time) you might enjoy this one, but I will definitely write up my full thoughts once I’m finished. 

I am really looking forward to this weekend. Our ring bearer is turning 5, so we have his birthday party on Saturday and then on Sunday it’s supposed to rain all day in the city. Do you know how excited I am? I am going to deep clean the apartment, do some wedding stuff, read, and work ahead on blog posts. I.cannot.wait. 

Happy Friday! xo

This review is a few weeks late, but I wanted to write up a comprehensive review of it anyway because I loved it SO much. 

Angie Thomas is the voice of the generation of police brutality. I am OBSESSED with her style and cannot say enough good things about her. I am going to go out on a limb here and say that On the Come Up ranks higher on my list of favorite books than The Hate U Give. I say that because it really showed me how a young black woman is living today. 

Like I say many times in my reviews, I am a cis gendered white woman who grew up in Connecticut. I had a very charmed life. I don’t have student loans, I have a supportive family and partner, and I have never feared for my life from authority figures. Please know I am aware that I have no authority to speak on these matters.

I loved The Hate U Give because it was so raw. I loved On the Come Up for the same reason, but its rawness is different than Thomas’ debut novel. 

Bri is an aspiring rapper. She’s 16, living in Garden Heights, and just trying to help her family make ends meet by utilizing her passion. But she’s been targeted by the security guards at her school. She experiences brutality at the hands of authority figures and she’s scared, angry, and fed up. She uses these feelings and throws herself into music. When the rap goes viral, Bri is an overnight success—but at a cost. 

Suddenly, her character is called into question. Her friends don’t know who she is anymore and neither does she, thanks to the labels now adhered to her name and the image her manager wants her to take on: a “hood rat, ghetto gangsta girl”. (This is a quote from the book; if I offend anyone, please accept an apology in advance and please educate me on proper quoting or terminology!). 

I loved this book because I learned a lot. I also felt like I can better understand what life in the projects is like and how kids need a way out but a lot of the time, they can’t take it because of family loyalty or financial desperation. 

Have you read On the Come Up yet? How do you think it compares to The Hate U Give? I can’t wait to watch Thomas’ career and I really hope she writes a sequel to On the Come Up, because I felt like she left us on a cliffhanger! 

The reason why I wanted to start doing Wedding Wednesday was due to many of my favorite bloggers also getting engaged in the same year as me! Like I said last week, none of my close friends are engaged right now so it’s been fun to have “virtual friends” who are going through the same process. 

I wanted to share some of the other blogger brides I’ve been following, but they’re not just brides, two of them are bloggers I’ve been following for years!

Sydney Carver aka Summerwind

I’ve been following Sydney for about 6 years, which is crazily enough a year shorter than my relationship with my fiancé. I found Sydney on twitter when I first created my account in 2009. I didn’t start reading her blog until Christmas break of my sophomore year of college. I was home, bored, scrolling through twitter and saw her link her newest post. I clicked on it and then spent the rest of break reading EVERY.POST. from the start of her blog. Kinda embarrassing but she introduced me to the blogging world! From there, I literally found the rest of my favorite bloggers! We are also getting married around the same time! She’s getting married late Spring 2020 and I’m early summer 2020. We have similar taste (and engagement rings!) so I’ve really loved her Wedding Wednesday posts! 

Krista Roberts aka Covering the Bases

I’ve followed Krista’s blog more closely since I moved in NYC three years ago. I found her through Sydney, like I said above, but have really become obsessed with her content since she got engaged! She’s having a Nantucket wedding in September 2019 that I think is going to be STUNNING! I also was inspired to start the process of created a custom wedding crest and monogram for us because Krista did and I absolutely loved how it immediately personalizes your day! 

Kate aka Lonestar Southern

I recently found Kate when I was shopping around for artists to create our personalized wedding monogram! I was traveling with Nick and fell into a whole of reading every wedding post she had written! Kate is a writer, meaning her posts are more than just pictures and captions; she really writes beautifully about her experiences and I appreciate that. Plus, her engagement ring is to die for. I’ve never seen anything like it! She’s getting married June of this year, so I’ll be said when her journey ends before mine! I’ve loved feeling like I had a June bride buddy. 

Honorable Mention: Mackenzie Horan aka Design Darling

Mackenzie got married in September 2017 but her wedding has inspired a lot of my overall vision! She was married on Nantucket and were not going quite that nautical or casual, but her wedding week events are very similar to ours! Plus her honeymoon seemed amazing and I am trying so hard to get Nick to go to South Africa as well! 

Do you have a favorite blogger? Bonus points if you can recommend any other blogger brides for me!!! 

March always feel like the antsy month. We’re still stuck in winter (it snowed 3 of the 5 days we’ve had so far) yet we’re desperate for spring. One of the best parts of living in NYC is the spring. I think this city was made for spring and fall. I love taking a few minutes to read outside in the parks all around, especially if I’ve been locked in an audition studio all day.

The sun is shining today but it’s going to be COLDDDDDDD this week. Sigh.

Also, have you ever been waiting and waiting for a book to come out and then the publication date is pushed back?! One of my most anticipated February releases had that happen and now I don’t know when it will be released. A first world problem for sure, but I was really looking forward to it! 

That inspired me to do a little digging to see what else was being released this month! I’m oddly excited about Prince Charming…which is out today! It sounds super cute and as we all know, I’m super into wedding things right now. *hides behind hands* And if you don’t know, I’m obsessed with Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle. 

What are you excited about this month? 

1. March 5, 2019–Prince Charming by Rachel Hawkins
2. March 12, 2019–American Princess by Stephanie Marie Thornton
3. March 12, 2019 Crashing the A-List by Summer Heacock
4. March 26, 2019 The Perfect Girlfriend by Karen Hamilton
5. March 5, 2019 Lovely War by Julie Berry

So…this book was…interesting. I don’t think there were any real innovative ideas if I’m being honest. I’ve heard from so many people that they were interested to find out what I thought of it; I think it’s one of those books that you either love or hate but you have to have perspective to figure out why people hate it. 

Frankly, Rachel Hollis annoyed me. I don’t like to judge but I think some of the things she discussed could have dangerous effects on impressionable young women. For example, Hollis and her husband had a rocky relationship for the first year they knew each other, and I just worry that girls will look at a successful woman and think that all they have to do is stay with a man even when it doesn’t feel right; it just doesn’t seem healthy to me. 

Like I said, I don’t like to judge, but just because it worked out for one woman does not mean it will work out for everyone and Hollis has such a following that I think it’s dangerous painting an idea like that. 

I could appreciate the bluntness in which she delivered her messages, but I just think everything was written from such a place of profound privilege it’s hard to take it seriously. 

I am also a white woman who comes from a privileged place, physically and emotionally, so her idea that we’re in charge of our own success and happiness was able to resonate with me, but I know that’s not the case for everyone. 

So, do I think this is worth the read? Honestly, not really. I kind of found it condescending, but I know that there are so many people out there who really loved it and found it to be successfully implemented in their daily lives. She even is releasing a second book, Girl Stop Apologizing, this year. But I even found myself skimming over a lot of her hyperbole and God-talk because it just didn’t seem genuine to me. I did enjoy hearing about their adoption journey, but again that is something not everyone is capable of doing. As you can tell, I basically have a load of mixed feelings about the book but I don’t think I’d ever reach for it again. 

The one important thing I was able to take away from the book was the idea that we set ourselves up for failure by telling ourselves “I’ll do it tomorrow” when we know we won’t. I am definitely guilty about that, especially when it comes to exercising and working out. 

Did you read Girl Wash Your Face? What did you think?