Book Recommendation Sunday: 'Isla and the Happily Ever After'

A few years ago, back when ebooks were still an experimental medium that didn't really hold a candle to real books, I bought Anna and the French Kiss on my Nook. It was late at night - long past closing hour for a brick-and-mortar store - and immediately got to reading. The next day, I finished the book and knew it was one of my all-time favorite stories. 

Before Anna, I wasn't crazy about Paris. I had been an Anglophile since I was 15, but France just didn't strike my fancy as much. Therefore, it's not an understatement to say that my entire view of the city (and country) changed after reading the book. Stephanie Perkins was able to show me a side of Paris that I hadn't seen before, didn't know existed and now would die to experience.

Her second book in the 'series' (stand-alone companion novels, really) Lola and the Boy Next Door was pleasant and enjoyable, but just didn't hit me as a hard as Anna's tale had. But last week, finally, after months and years of waiting - which I was happy to do because Perkins was so open with her readers about her struggles with depression and subsequently, writing - Isla and the Happily Ever After debuted.

In keeping with Anna and Lola, I had downloaded it to my Nook - which I now read mostly on my iPhone and iPad - and absolutely tore through the 258 pages in a day.

There is a reason Isla and the Happily Ever After it is currently touting a 4.43 rating on Goodreads. Let me tell you how much I love this book: roll up my love for New York City, Paris, and happily ever afters and you have my opinion about Isla. 

People were saying it is structured differently than Perkin's other books, but it is still the same theme. It's about Isla and Josh figuring out what they mean to each other. Whether they're in a relationship or not while that happens is irrelevant. It's still about friendships that change over the years, and how the choices we make define us. As seniors at SOAP, they're trying to balance living in the moment and planning for the future. 

As with her other novels, the book spans roughly a year, so it does move at a fast pace. But the characters develop and evolve as they should, and we understand how their motives change over the months.

I flew through the final few pages of Isla and the Happily Ever After because it was exactly what I could have ever hoped for for these characters. It was like adrenaline was rushing through me and I had to find out what happens next, turning page after page after page.

The only sad thing about finishing Isla is knowing I won't be able to see these characters in the context of another book. Alas, they're happy where they are, and that's good enough for me.

Buy: B&N | Amazon | Books a Million

Book Recommendation Thursday: 'The Nerdist Way'

I picked up Chris Hardwick's The Nerdist Way for a couple of reasons. I really like Chris as he appears on @Midnight and just generally around the web, and when I read the free Nook sample, as I am apt to do, I knew I would need a physical hard copy.

However you choose to read this book is not important. What is important is that you do, eventually, read it. Honestly, I didn't know this seriously qualifies as a 'self-help' book, it's more like a 'self-guidance' or a 'Chris Hardwick gives you a lot of motivational speeches with lots of CAPS' kind of book.

His book is broken into three parts: Mind, Body and Time. He is open about the fact he kind of screwed up a lot in his 20's and worked extremely hard to pick himself back up in all three aspects of life as he moved into his 30's.

The Nerdist Way could be read by anyone, but unless you're a 'nerd' (however you want to define the term is fine by me) many of the references to Doctor Who, Star Trek, Harry Potter and the 'nerdy' shows of generations past, might fly over your head. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

It might also behoove you, dear reader, to know that this book was written in 2011 and despite the fact that was only 3 years ago, a lot has certainly changed. The passage of time is one more thing to remember while reading this. Chris has had his life put together for a few years longer than it would appear, and that's fine.

The book is set up like a video game, wherein you create a character and are given character points at the end of each section. Hardwick also includes "Charactercizes" at the end of every segments and chapters, wherein he gives a few bullet points of summarization, tips on how to move forward, and guidance about how to take full advantage of his advice. He advises us to actually follow along with these, to actually write out particularly useful bits, add up our 'points' - as if we're characters in a video game - all with the end goal of becoming a better person beyond the pages of the book.

You can find Chris Hardwick's book in hardback, paperback, and ebook versions. If you don't want to purchase the book, one: tell me why not, and two: you can find condensed parts on the book's website.

Book Recommendation Sunday: 'What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding'

Do you like to travel? Do you like to read books? Have you watched shows like Chuck or How I Met Your Mother? Are you a human?

If you answered 'yes' to any of the questions above, chances are you would like Kristin Newman's What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding. While the title is a bit of mouthful (WIWDWYWD?) it doesn't even fully encapsulate the tales told and journeys taken inside it's 300-some pages.

As it turns out, Chuck and How I Met Your Mother are two of my favorite shows of all time. So when HIMYM producer, Kourtney Kang, tweeted her praise for the book a day before it's release, I rushed to check it out. Then I rushed to buy it. And I rushed to read it (I happened to be heading to the beach that week so that was easy.)

As a young woman who knows she wants to write for (or about) television and eventually travel around the world, this book affected me probably more than it would say, my father or my friends who have a more definitive life plan. Kristin's stories, particularly the one about about Israel, reignited the passion about travel in me that has been waning since life got in the way.

My dreams about taking a summer or semester to travel Europe got side-lined by the realities of working hard in classes and internships to ensure I landed a job straight out of college this January (ho-lyy shit). 

The title of the book comes from the fact that she was doing all of this traveling in her 20's and 30's, when her friends were suddenly getting married and having children. Anyone who knows me know that that is just not how I see my life playing out. I'm in no particular rush to settle down. I want to establish a career for myself first, spend time alone in New York City and/or Los Angeles, and then worry about find a partner and all that jazz.

I love the way Kristin traveled. She didn't do the touristy resorts or five-star hotels, but she never struggled to find a place to stay, food to eat or to meet new friends. While there was an emergency booking at the aforementioned fancy hotel on one trip, she spends her vacations renting apartments or hopping around the couches of the fine kiwis who took her in.

I've grown up in the world of Dateline, 20/20 and various missing persons reports on the news, so I have to admit that I'm not brave enough to venture to a country where I didn't know the language at all - like Kristin is more apt to do.

Alas, I do know conversational spanish, and have been teaching myself French and Czech. Hopefully by the 2016 Euro Cup in France I'll be fluent enough that I can travel alone to Paris. I've got it all figured out: one of the semi-final games is on July 4 weekend, so I'll take the day before the break and day after off work (granted I have the ability to, thankfully I don't get sick often) giving me a nice 5-day window to travel to Paris alone - finally.

Bottom line: buy the book, read the book, love the book, live the book. 

Book Recommendation Wednesday

Good evening everyone! I realized too late last night that I forgot to blog, but you know what? I'm ok with that. I'll commit to blogging regularly, but not everyday. I will figure out what will be my 'off' day soon, promise.

Meanwhile... I've been spending much of break catching up on my massive To Read pile. This past week I devoured Mad Women by Jane Maas. 

Being an advertising major, a major Mad Men fan, and someone who looks up to powerful women, I knew this book was a must-read and I was not disappointed.

The 1960's were a wild and raucous time in New York City, particularly in the advertising industry. Jane Maas, a full-time working mother of two, delves into her daily life as account manager at Ogilvy. From the truth behind three-martini lunches, to the amount of sex that was happening in the offices (and the suspiciously timed divorces and remarriages and promotions), she debunks the myths Mad Men has fostered, but cautions she didn't always know what happened at other agencies.

But she also goes into detail about her life once she clocked out at work and shifted into Mom-mode. Despite having Mabel, a full-time housekeeper Monday through Friday who did just about everything - from helping raise Maas' two daughters, to doing nearly all of the housework, Maas clearly worked just as hard at home than she did in the office - even mentioning slipping out of the office to watch her daughter preform at her school. Maas and Mabel's relationship outlasted Mabel's employment, and they have been there for each other, as friends, for years since.

Despite its reputation for having nearly perfect detail-oriented portrayals of the time period, she points out the few errors Mad Men has had. For instance, Peggy Olsen definitely would have worked everyday wearing a hat. And while Don Draper may drive into work at 9AM, only to be a few drinks in by 10AM, Maas says that the earliest people at her agency would break open the liquor was noon. But Ogilvy was a bit more conservative than the agency the show is based off of, Young & Rubicam.

I loved reading this book because I found such a heroine in Maas - she is strong-willed and could hold her own against some of the best advertising men (and women) of the past century. Funny and demure, her position as a powerful advertising women in a time when women were expected to go to college to graduate with a diamond ring on their finger and take on the role as housewife, Maas creates a role model out of herself for young professionals such as myself.