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  • Tag: reading

    • the last bookstore

      Posted at 8:51 am by jasminedesirees, on August 18, 2015

      On our way from Phoenix to San Francisco last weekend there were 3 things I wanted to do. One of them was to stop in at The Last Bookstore in L.A.

      I read about it a couple of years ago, and had been wanting to go, but the last few times I was there I ran out of time. This time I was looking for any excuse to break up the interminable dross of 11 hours in the car, and it was just what I needed.

      The Last Bookstore is in downtown L.A. As soon as I walked through the door, I was struck by what a cool place it was. It’s very big and open with rows of book shelves (obviously), and a big art installation made from paperbacks along one wall. The back right corner is dedicated to old records, and the entire upstairs section is more books, and art displays from local artists.

      There is a little stage/nook area where people were cuddled up reading in big comfy chairs.They often do author readings at the store. There were so many books I wanted to get, I could have spent hours in there, but unfortunately I only had a few minutes. I ended up picking Before I Die, a closer look and compilation of all the Before I Die projects walls, all over the world.

      I’d heard of the project a few years ago and had been wanting to check it out. It was between that, Letters of Note, a book based on a blog I’ve followed for ages, and an amazing looking veggie cookbook, but Before I Die won out in the end.

      We ended up stopping at Griffith park for a picnic afterwards so I got to spend a couple of hours lounging in the sun reading, before we headed to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery to watch Vertigo. It was a perfect few hours in L.A.

      IMG_20150530_133428

      Posted in books, California, exploring, Los Angeles, travel, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged before i die, California, reading, the last bookstore

    • the girl’s guide to hunting and fishing

      Posted at 8:35 pm by jasminedesirees, on June 8, 2015

      I just finished reading The Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank.

      It was beautifully written, following a girl, and in some cases, peripheral strangers to her life, through different stages from childhood, through adolescence, and into adulthood. Each chapter focuses on a different time in her life.

      My favourite thing about this book was that it didn’t offer everything right up front. There is a lot you don’t know about the main character, even by the end of the book. It doesn’t go into minute detail about everything that’s ever happened to her. Every chapter is a little glimpse into her life, sort of like creeping on the Facebook page of a random stranger.

      Some of my favourite quotes from the book:

      “I opened the blue box, and there was a velvet one inside, and I opened that. I looked at the ring. It was platinum with one diamond. It was just the ring I would’ve wanted, if I’d wanted a ring from him.”

      “We are all children until our fathers die.”

      “‘You can’t really blame him for that,’ Henry says. He tells me that the best man I will ever find will be attracted to other women. I hear this as another fact I am too old not to know. More proof of how unprepared I am to love anyone.”

      “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”

      You can find the book here.

      Posted in books | 0 Comments | Tagged books, inspiration, melissa bank, novels, quotes, reading

    • how to be parisian wherever you are

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on April 20, 2015

      I just finished reading “How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are: Love, Style and Other Bad Habits”. It was a super quick read, I finished it in a couple of hours, but I really enjoyed it. It’s written by 4 Parisian women, and gives some insights into their lifestyle, fashion, which stereotypes are true, and why they do some of the things they do.

      Most of the things in the book are probably highly subjective, as Parisian women are most likely just like women from everywhere else in the world, sharing similarities and differences with each other and everyone else, but there were a few passages in the book that I especially liked:

      On aging:

      “In truth, more than wanting to look young– which is but a fleeting illusion–they want above all to become the best possible version of themselves, outside and in, at any age.

      In their mind, a single rule outweighs all others: enjoy the face you have today. It’s the one you’ll wish you have ten years from now.”

      A Mother’s Advice on Love:

      “Just because you only have one life doesn’t mean you should be afraid of wasting it.”

      On fashion:

      “The signature item is a gift that a woman gives herself depending on her age, her taste, and the size of her purse. It is a symbol of independence and freedom which states ‘I bought this for myself. I earned it and it makes me happy’.”

      “Find ‘your’ perfume before you turn thirty. Wear it for the next thirty years.”

      You can get the book here.

      Posted in books, inspiration, quotes | 0 Comments | Tagged books, fashion, how to be parisian, quotes, reading, style

    • #girlboss

      Posted at 12:30 pm by jasminedesirees, on February 12, 2015

      Just finished reading #Girlboss by Sophia Amoruso, the founder and CEO of NastyGal.com. It was a great, quick read, and I would definitely recommend it.

      The book details how she started and expanded her company, and has a lot of great career advice from her, and from other female entrepreneurs.

      A few of my favourite quotes were from the Portrait of a #Girlboss from Christine Barberich, Editor in Chief of Refinery29:

      “In terms of striking out on my own and being brave in my convictions, I learned that mostly by being freelance. I don’t think you can truly know what you’re made of until you are in charge of your days. How you use that time, and the work you pursue, teaches you so much about who you are and what you can become.”

      I liked that a lot because I am working freelance right now, but I think it applies to how you spend your time in general. Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day, and how you spend your free time, whether it’s having Netflix marathons, or working towards your goals, is probably going to determine how successful you are going to be.

      “As hard as it is, stop caring so much about what other people think. Find a way to hear what you want. Recognize what is your dream. And then put everything you have into that: your work, the relationships you surround yourself with, the food you put in your body. Everything you have control over in your world should feed that dream.”

      So, so true.

      Posted in books | 0 Comments | Tagged books, career, career advice, Christine Barberich, nasty gal, reading, sophia amoruso

    • we were liars

      Posted at 12:54 pm by jasminedesirees, on December 11, 2014

      I just finished reading We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. The ending wasn’t quite what I hoped it would be, but the writing and the style were so beautiful, I couldn’t get enough.

      I started it in the afternoon, and finished it by the next evening. Without giving anything away, here are some of the passages I liked best.

      “IN EUROPE, I vomited into small buckets and brushed my teeth repeatedly with chalky British toothpaste. I lay prone on the bathroom floors of several museums, feeling the cold tile underneath my cheek as my brain liquefied and seeped out my ear, bubbling. Migraines left my blood spreading across unfamiliar hotel sheets, dripping on the floors, oozing into carpets, soaking through leftover croissants and Italian lace cookies.”

      “I suffer migraines, I do not suffer fools.”

      “If you want to live where people aren’t afraid of mice, you have to leave the palace.”

      “Someone once wrote that a novel should deliver a series of small astonishments. I get the same thing spending an hour with you.
      Also, here is a green toothbrush tied in a ribbon.
      It expresses my feelings inadequately..
      Better than chocolate, being with you last night.
      Silly me, I thought nothing was better than chocolate.
      In a profound symbolic gesture, I am giving you this bar of Vosges I got when we all went to Edgartown. You can eat it, or just sit next to it and feel superior.”

      You can buy the book here.

      Posted in books | 0 Comments | Tagged books, E. Lockhart, reading, we were liars, writing

    • goldfinch

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on September 8, 2014

      I just finished reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. I really liked it, I’d definitely recommend it. I really had no idea what the book was about before I started it, so I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen.

      Isn’t it funny how when you read a book that someone recommends to you, or go to see a movie, one of the first questions people ask is “what’s it about?”. As if we only want to see a movie or read a book if we already know what’s going to happen.

      The book takes places across several decades, and in many different places, so it’s very unpredictable, and I thought the ending was perfect, which is not something that I say about endings very often.

      Especially towards the end of the book, everything is very tense and you are sure everything can only end in complete catastrophe, but then there is a deliciously simple but completely unforeseen twist.

      This excerpt was on of my favourites:

      “Because here’s the truth: life is catastrophe. The basic fact of existence– of walking around trying to feed ourselves and find friends and whatever else we do– is catastrophe. Forget all this ridiculous ‘Our Town’ nonsense everyone talks: the miracle of a newborn babe, the joy of one simple blossom, Life You Are Too Wonderful To Grasp, &c. For me– and I’ll keep repeating it doggedly till I die, till I fall over on my ungrateful nihilistic face and am too weak to say it: better never born, than born into this cesspool. Sinkhole of hospital beds, coffins and broken hearts. No release, no appeal, no “do-overs” to employ a favored phrase of Xandra’s, no way forward but age and loss, and no way out but death….And maybe it’s ridiculous to go on in this vein, although it doesn’t matter since no one’s ever going to see this– but does it make any sense at all to know that it ends badly for all of us, even the happiest of us, and that we all lose everything that matters in the end–and yet to know as well, despite all this, as cruelly as the game is stacked, that it’s possible to play it with a kind of joy?”

      The Goldfinch plot centers around a famous painting. The story contained a lot of discussion about art history, and different artists and painting styles, which was really interesting to me.

      I had been wanting to check out Khan Academy for awhile, so I went on there once I finished the book, and saw that one of their courses in an intro to basic art history, so I’ve been working my way through that in my spare time.

      They also have math, history, and science courses, and courses on taking test like the SAT’s, LSAT’s, and GMAT. Definitely check it out if you feel like doing some book learnin’.

      Posted in art, books, quotes | 0 Comments | Tagged art, art history, books, donna tartt, goldfinch, khan academy, reading

    • a house in the sky

      Posted at 8:46 pm by jasminedesirees, on February 25, 2014

      I recently finished reading A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout. The memoir describes her time traveling the world as a freelance journalist, and her eventual kidnapping by Muslim extremists in Somalia, where she was raped, beaten, and held for ransom for over a year.

      Amanda is a Canadian girl, she grew up only a few hours away from me, so this story hit home for me even more. She came from an unstable home, and moved out as soon as she was old enough. She spent time as a waitress in Calgary, and managed to save a lot of money. She had never left the country, or done any traveling, but she booked herself a ticket to South America, where she traveled around for months.

      She began returning to Calgary to earn enough money to travel, and then spending six months at a time away traveling the world, eventually making her way to the war torn countries of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, where she began working as a freelance journalist and photographer as a way to earn more traveling money, even though she had no experience or schooling.

      From there, she went on to Somalia, hoping for her “big break” as a journalist. After only 3 days in the country, she was taken.

      It was a really great read, I knew what the memoir was about before I started reading, but even though I knew where her story would eventually lead, I was still envious over her travels, and entranced with her descriptions of her adventures and all of the amazing places she was able to visit.

      It was difficult to read about her terrifying ordeal, every time it seemed like things were about to turn around for her, they would actually get worse, but she was very brave, and lived to tell her story.

      Amanda still travels the world, and she started a non-profit foundation to help provide education and aid in Kenya and Somalia.

      You can order A House in the Sky here.

      Posted in books, travel, Uncategorized | 0 Comments | Tagged A House in the Sky, Amanda Lindhout, books, Canada, Journalist, memoir, reading, Somalia

    • read me

      Posted at 6:03 pm by jasminedesirees, on January 2, 2014

      Now that the holidays are over and I’m back from vacation, I’m kind of excited to do nothing. This time of year always makes me reflective, and I tend to want to stay home, make plans, and focus on projects and things I’d like to accomplish over the upcoming year.

      We just got back from Mexico last night, and with only two days until the weekend, there isn’t really anything that sounds better to me than snuggling up under my new fuzzy blanket with a mug of hot tea and reading a good book.

      Here are some that I am excited to read in the next little while. I wish I was patient enough to try and wait my turn and get them from the library, but since patience isn’t among my many virtues, I will likely end of paying $10.00 each and downloading them onto my Kindle.

      Instant gratification may be expensive, but it is oh so sweet.

      The Summer We Read Gatsby– Danielle Ganek

      We are Water– Wally Lamb

      Manuscript Found in Accra– Paulo Coelho

      I am Malala– Malala Yousafzai

      Ordeal– Linda Lovelace

      Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy– Helen Fielding

      Posted in books, life | 0 Comments | Tagged books, bridget jones, Gatsby, reading

    • the fault in our stars

      Posted at 12:42 am by jasminedesirees, on August 13, 2013

      I’m reading The Fault in our Stars by John Green, and I’m pretty much obsessed with it. I’ve basically given up eating, bathing and talking to my husband because I can’t put it down.

      I’ve always loved to read, but a lot of the time, books are somewhat predictable. You can tell right away what’s going to happen, or else it starts out really well and you start to get excited, and then the ending feels rushed and contrived, and it’s really disappointing.

      I should probably finish reading it, I suppose, before I write something about it, but writing a book is hard. Like really hard. It’s easy to get distracted, or to get pulled away from your original idea, and before you know it you don’t have any idea who your characters are, or why they are doing what they are doing.

      A lot of the time I will read a book and think “That’s not how I would have done it” or “I could definitely write a better novel than this.” It’s easy to criticize when it’s not your work.

      But sometimes I read a book like this one, and instead of being filled with questions or criticism, I am just utterly content because somewhere out there is someone writing the story exactly the way you would do it, and it gives you hope that it is actually possible to do, and to do well.

      It seems like all of the good stories have already been told, every movie you see is a sequel or a remake, every book you read follows the same plot lines and has the same type of character. But this one is special. I almost don’t want to finish it because either it will not be as good as I thought it was and that will be sad, or it will be, and then it will be over and that will be even sadder.

      Posted in books | 0 Comments | Tagged books, john green, novel, reading, Shakespeare, the fault in ours stars

    • i was trying to describe you to someone…

      Posted at 5:55 pm by jasminedesirees, on January 29, 2013

      Saw this on StumbleUpon the other day. Love.

      2193909590_2b2c1f151a_b
      Posted in inspiration, loveliness | 0 Comments | Tagged books, inspiration, loveliness, quotes, reading
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