Category: .Books & Art.

“I stood alone in the kitchen, listening to the dim electric buzz of the clock as it secretly counted the seconds, the minutes, the hours. Briefly, I fantasized about slicing my mother’s finger off with the electric knife that was hanging by its cord from the curtain rod.” – Augusten Burroughs. 

Hello!

Look for the ridiculous in everything and you will find it. – Jules Renard. I picked up another book by Augusten Burroughs a while ago; actually when I wrote the first review on the book “Dry”. I read Dry and it blew me away. However, when I started Running with Scissors I constantly compared it to the first one. Reading Burrough’s memoir I thought many times how he gets away with things he writes about. How can he write about these people the way he does. It is sometimes really weird and shocking. Or is it indeed all true? In Running with Scissors he writes about his family – his mother who wants to be a famous poet but struggles and does not get published and his father who cannot deal with his wife’s craziness and drank himself out of the marriage.

At some point, Augusten’s mother starts seeing a shrink, initially to fix her marriage. The psychiatrist puts her on pills and she gets addicted. I thought it was very strange when I read that the mother gives Augusten away for adoption to her psychiatrist who lives in some sort of halfway house with his family “The Finches”. I recently heard of a lawsuit against Burroughs from said family (real name Turcotte family) for invasion of privacy and defamation. Burroughs describes in his book that the Finches say it is okay to have sex between adults and children, the psychiatrist’s wife eating dog food on the couch while watching a movie and many other weird things. Burroughs plays spends time with one of the Finche’s kids and plays ‘doctor games’ upstairs while using an electroshock machine that just happened to not work at the moment they attached it to his head. Or the part when he lives with the Finches at age 14 and a pedophile starts hitting on him and they actually have sex. I asked myself many times if these things he mentioned actually really happened. But that the Turcotte family deny certain things Burroughs wrote about is understandable. I mean, wouldn’t you deny things like that? 🙂

The author has very dry dark humor which is sometimes rather disturbing. It seems that he neither made peace with his childhood nor with his adulthood. While keeping diaries throughout his teenager life in Boston, Burroughs has enough material to write many more memoirs I think. Overall, I did not know what to make out of this book. Did Burroughs make up all his stories? Was it true?  You learn that life goes on and that if he made it so far with all he has been through – you can make it too. I actually found an interview on NPR with Burrough’s mother. Listen to it here if you would like.

Whenever you read a book, do you go to the to the end of it to see the picture of the person who wrote it? Or check out the dust jacket?  Sometimes in awe, sometimes in shock, sometimes in love?  While reading Running with Scissors I actually had to look at Augusten’s picture several times and wondered how this man still looks so put-together and normal after all he had been through.

Click here to purchase “Running with Scissors”. I also share the link to the movie if you are interested. An update that I just found out about on Facebook: Augusten Burroughs wrote a new book indeed. “Lust and Wonders” that will be released in March 2016. Pre-oder it here. 

Thank you for reading my blog. 

“We leave the mission compound and drive across a packed mud square strewn with schoolchildren in blue uniforms. The walls of the cathedral, which looks as though it was transported whole from Belgium, are decorated with graceful cars of bullet holes and the roof sports car-sized holes. Ten masses a week are still held here, despite the fact that tiles from the roof fall on the congregation during services.” 

Hello!

So I am listing to Radio Congo while typing this article. Listen to it here. If you followed my blog for a while, you know that I will be traveling to Congo soon with my son to spend time with my husband who works there for the United Nations. Of course I am preparing myself mentally for this trip by reading whatever I can get my hands on. Especially about the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Kinshasa and what is going on there. This is how I discovered Ben Rawlence. He is awesome. I read his latest book “City of Thorns” and just got hooked. He describes how he lived and worked in Africa; also a lot what he has experienced. He also gives great insight on how the United Nations helps and operates in this country. “Radio Congo” is a great book if you get yourself prepared to travel to Congo. The author wrote mostly about Manono and Goma which is east of Congo and close to Rwanda. I will be in Kinshasa which is west. I attached a map so you know what I am talking about. Believe me, I had to look this up too.

I am a huge fan of travel writing. Rawlence travels the country by motorbike, canoe and mostly by foot and meets so many people who he then introduces and writes about in his book. Many are full of faith and hope that this war will end. I thought it was great how he met Colonel Ibrahim but I won’t give away any spoilers. The author knows his way with words and his collection of adventures in Congo are eye-opening.  The story ties nicely together, is interesting and makes you turn page after page in search for more. He met Jean-Baptiste who told him that “Radio Congo is the spider’s web that is holding this country together.” I believe it does, too.

Rawlence’s job is at Human Rights Watch and you get great information on what he needs to get done. You will learn about rebel groups in Uganda and Rwanda and many more major problems this country has. He describes real people and their daily lives and kindness which is somehow a recurring topic in Rawlence’s book. You discover insight on community centers, the local health service (scary!) and so many places he traveled where people have never seen a TV, car, or newspaper. When you decide to read the book, be prepared to read about serious expat views. Rawlence has seen it all! You will learn about curiosity and courage. You probably asked yourself how it is possible to live in a country where war is present on a daily basis for a long time. How do people do it? What do they eat? Where and how do they live? They simply try to survive.  Living one day at a time. The scary thing is, that nobody really talks about these people in Congo. You barely hear anything about it on the news.

Overall I would say that this is an awesome read. It is important to have hope and Rawlence shows in this book that one should try to preserve hope. Only like this, one can change circumstances in life into something better. He shows with his book that it is important to not give up. Not give up on yourself and not give up on these people in Congo either. I have written to Ben Rawlence asking him for some advice on traveling to Congo. Besides being very helpful he said: “Just do as the locals do and you will be fine.” Let’s see.

I attached an interesting lecture by Ben Rawlence on his work in Congo and Human Rights Watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Maom5W-ru6M

Thank you for reading my blog. 

“My book sat on the coffee table. I felt great. I felt frozen, completely frozen in my life. It would never stop being exactly like this. I was a great poet and I would always be alone. This was my curse. I took a couple of values and fell asleep on the big brown velvet couch that always felt like a casket. I always heard a little voice yell my name just before  lost consciousness. I thought my death would be this way. I loved it.” – Eileen Myles

How did I end up with this book? My husband sent it to me a couple of days ago because he thought I might like it. Cute! Before I start telling you if I indeed did like it or not I will give you a little insight on Eileen Myles. I actually never heard of her before. This made me think how many awesome authors are still out there that I have not read or never will? Damn… I want more time to read.

Eileen Myles was born in 1949. She is an American writer and poet who has written a volumes of poetry, nonfiction, fiction and plays. She also won a plethora of awards – the 2010 Shelley Memorial Award, Lambda Award for lesbian fiction. She also received several Arts Writers Grants. In this autobiographical novel she describes how, as a young artist, she struggled with drugs, alcohol and sex. Reading through the first fifty pages or so I found that Myles has had a similar life growing up as Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe.  Myles also describes in one of her short stories in this book how she met Allen Ginsberg. The cover of the book depicts Eileen Myles. The photographer is no other than Robert Mapplethorpe himself. (explained in her short narrative “Robert Mapplethorpe Picture” p.221)

What I loved about the book is that she writes in a candid style and very contemporary. Reading about her life is simply art. The way she wrote about her alcoholic father made me sad at points.

“Dad, the worst time ever with you was when Mary McClusky was over and you had your red lumberjack shirt on and you are lying down and you had those awful headaches which kept pounding and made you always look like you are going to cry, and you put your two fingers to your lips – were you talking on the phone lying down or were you watching a movie on teevee. You couldn’t talk and you kept making a that two-fingered gesture even though I felt like it wasn’t what you wanted I knelt down and kissed you in front of Mary. […] I think I just wanted to kiss you in front of Mary because you were lying there sick.” 

In the book you learn a great deal about her being a lesbian and how she dealt with it and lived out her sex life in the 70s in New York City. I like that the book has many short autobiographical essays but I must say that I had trouble getting into it at first. The first quarter of the book is nothing but sex, drugs, writing, art and lesbianism  – actually, the entire book is about sex, drugs, writing, art and lesbianism. Overall I have to say that I loved it. I am into the Beat Generation and I love most of the authors. I thought some of her sentences and paragraphs were insanely long but once I got into it I was fine. Sometimes I had the feeling she is writing a poem. It is really good writing and I have to say that after I finished this book I read a bunch of her poetry online. Oh, and thank you mon amour for the book. <3

I want to share this great interview of Eileen Myles about writing, New York City in the 70s and how poetry can help one to survive – if you would like to see.

Thank you for reading my blog. 

“You want to write a book? Make a song? Direct a movie? Decorate pottery? Learn a dance? Explore a new land? You want to draw a penis on your wall? Do it. Who cares? It’s your birthright as a human being, so do it with a cheerful heart. (I mean, take is seriously, sure – but don’t take it seriously.) Let inspiration lead you wherever it wants to lead you. Keep in mind that for most of history people just made things, and they didn’t make such big freaking deal out of it.” – Elizabeth Gilbert 

Have you heard about #1 New York Times Bestseller “Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert ? If you are into books and registered on a plethora of book review sites you know that this book is on the must-read list. Of course I read it. Not because of that list, but because I love Elizabeth Gilbert’s books and her way of writing. I fell in love when I read “Eat, Pray, Love” which was better than the movie.  However, the movie has Julia Roberts in it so win-win either way. Of course I picked up her book “Committed: A Love Story” after. And then all her other books. Feel free to ask questions about them. When I heard about her latest book I thought, wow, this book will be great. Simply because she might share some insight on what drives her to write awesome books and what sparks her ideas and why she is so creative. I consider myself a writer simply because I love to do it. In my childhood  I wrote short stories, my diary, scribbled something down and was into books. And my little blog here is just a place for myself to be creative. I live, I learn, improve and love to do so through great writers. Let’s dive into the book review.

After I read the first couple of pages I thought about Anne Lamott and her book “Bird by Bird”. Gilbert gives great advice on how to keep writing and be creative. Something inspires you and there is this urge to write or create you should simply do so and follow your intuition. You should not listen to others or worry what they might think of your work. She shares this great example of her friend Susan who started to “figure skate” by the time she was forty years old. She always wanted to be an ice skater and knew how to skate.  However, at some point as a teenager she felt that she will never be good enough. Not as good as professional figure skaters. She stopped skating. For a long time. The question Gilbert asks is, “Why bother, if you can’t be the best”? Her friend Susan turned forty and felt restless and in search of something. She asked herself when she was really happy in her past forty years and she knew the answer instantly. She put on skates and simple denied this inner voice; this voice  that used to say that she is not good enough and that she is crazy for trying to figure skate now. And she just did it. Does she still skate? Yep! Almost every morning before work. And she loves it! Will she ever become a professional figure skater? Most likely not but she does not care. This is when Big Magic happens I believe. Follow your dream, don’t give up.

Another very inspiring story she mentioned in her book was about her friend Eileen. She is heavily tattooed and just says things like: “I think I will get a new tattoo today.” Upon asking her what kind of tattoo and where she wants it to be placed on her body she simply says: “I dunno. I”ll figure it out when I get to the tattoo shop. Or I’ll just let the artist surprise me.” Gilbert now wonders, like many of us would. Can you just walk into a tattoo store without having a plan or an idea about what type of tattoo you would love to get? Eileen explained:

“My tattoos are permanent; it is just my body that’s temporary. So is yours. We’re only her on earth for a short while, so I decided a long time ago that I wanted to decorate myself as playfully as I can, while I still have time.”

In this awesome book you learn that you do not need anybody’s permission to be creative. You learn about this importance of being authentic. Are you curious about something? Follow along and see what you may find! Once you put your work out there and you trust yourself, it does not matter if you succeed or fail.

Overall, this book is different from any book Gilbert has written so far but I found it very helpful. I learned that it is not important what others think about you or your work. Actually it is YOU that is important. You and how YOU feel about you work. As Gilbert’s friend put it: “We all spend our twenties and thirties trying so hard to be perfect, because we’re so worried about what people will think of us. Then we get into our forties and fifties, and we finally start to be free, because we decide that we don’t give a damn what anyone thinks of us. But you won’t be completely free until you reach your sixties and seventies, when you finally realize this liberating truth – nobody was ever thinking about you, anyhow.” They aren’t. They weren’t. If you are supposed to create things, then you will create. And sometimes it is great to just show up at a party in a lobster costume. 😉

I love this video of Elizabeth Gilbert on TED if you would like to see

Thank you for reading my blog.

“Victor and I have very different definitions of what constitutes a clean house. Victor’s definition involves absolutely everything perfectly in its place (except for the eight thousand wires and extension cords sticking out from every electronic device in our house, which are all apparently invisible to him). It also includes all of this happening magically, without him actually ever being involved in the cleaning at all (except for the one time when I ran into the living room because I thought I heard him doing whip-its, but turns out he was just spraying furniture polish”. 

I read Jenny Lawson’s latest book “Furiously Happy” and thought that I have to pick up her first book as well. You find the quote above sort of confusing and still wonder what “whip-its” are? You are not alone. The entire book is written like this. With footnotes explaining words she comes up with. I have read somewhere that Lawson is compared to David Sedaris but she is definitely not a Sedaris alternative. I love David Sedaris. 😀

Lawson is funny. No doubt and I did have to laugh at points. But her way of writing made me dizzy. She is jumping all over the place; explains this and that and comes back to another explanation – then throws in a word like  “Snausages”. She tells stories about her childhood, about her high school years and how she met her husband Victor. She also writes about a lot of arguments she has with him (like calling  him while driving around in her car being   lost and she thinks the GPS is haunting her so she did not take it). Say whaaaat? Yes, it is that bizarre. While reading her book I thought that she does have potential to be a comedian but it seems she is so disorganized and all over the place. She mentions her editor a lot who pointed out that she cannot write certain passages the way she did but Lawson still kept them as she wrote them. Okay, this is funny once. But more than that… not really! It just seems her stories don’t come together in a way.

Overall I would say that initially she is funny but then the stories get boring. It also seems that she just sat down, wrote something and published exactly that. And the entire book reads like that. Many times I thought, “No way, she actually did not just write this”. Also, to me it seemed that many chapters were just fillers. She filled pages with post-it notes to her husband.  This book should not be called a memoir – or mostly true memoir. She simply wrote about moments of her life all mixed up with no real guideline. She writes something like “OKAY, so you liked this because you are still around. Fuck but why are you still here? You want to know how I did this and that? Or do you want to fucking leave? It is up to you….” And this goes on and on. Horrible!

Footnotes are fine but footnotes and explanations all the time are irritating. Also, as mentioned earlier,  the editor’s tips on how Lawson should rewrite certain chapters. Over and over! Annoying! Do you know who The Bloggess aka Jenny Lawson is? Check out her blog here.  I have browsed through her website a couple of times so I am familiar with her writing style. To me it seems that she just copied and pasted her blog into a book. Lawson explains that she is crazy and she does just whatever she wants; which is fine.  Most of the time she writes something and then she has this urge to clarify instantly what she just said. If you would ask my husband he would tell you that I love to exaggerate.  Lawson does it so much that it was exhausting to read and finish this book. She writes that “I was attacked by a bear last night!” You think: “Holy shit, no way….. how could this happen?” But what she really meant was that “I saw a stray dog behind a tree.” I would love to hear your thoughts if you read Jenny Lawson’s book “Let’s pretend this never happened”. Feel free to share your opinion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp6jr98GbHo

Thank you for reading my blog. 

“I have come to the conclusion that my passion for tidying was motivated by a desire for recognition from my parents and a complex concerning my mother. Being the middle child of three siblings, I did not get much attention from my parents after the age of three. Of course, this was not intentional, but being sandwiched between my oder brother and the youngest child, my little sister, I could not help but feel this way” – Marie Kondo

I am into decluttering and minimalism as you might be aware of by now. I have read a plethora of books on those subjects but this particular one kept on popping up in my inbox so I bought it and hopped on the Kondo-bandwagon. Everybody in this world – it seems has read this book. Three million copies sold it says on the cover on the book right? Well, let’s start reviewing it while it is still fresh on my mind.

If you have never read anything about decluttering or minimalism and want a book to start, you should start with this one instead. Joshua Fields Millburn is amazing.

Kondo has some great ideas to help organizing and help decluttering I think. But, since I have read so much about it already it seems to me that all she does is repeat herself and if she doesn’t, the book just seems strange. She is giving some advice here and there and the quote I put from the book just fits right into the weirdness. She loved organizing, cleaning and throwing things away since she was ten years old. Say whaaaat? Yep, I mean when I was ten, the worst thing was to clean up but it was all good because we did it eventually all together (my brother, sister and I) but we did not read magazines on changing our rooms, or re-decorating things.  One weird part about the book was when she explained what she does when she comes home after work. All her belonging have a place in her home. And she talks to them and thanks them for serving her this particular day. She says good night to some items, and usually takes all her things out of her purse to give the purse a rest or sort. She gives her socks a rest because they were on her feet all day long. Ahem… cough cough!

Marie Kondo also organizes and cleans houses and apartment and she described stories about her clients. When she arrives at a new client’s house she bows down at the entrance to greet the house and to say thank you for allowing her to clean it.  Also that if you clean and declutter it cleans the body of toxins. Well, in a way I think she might have a point but then again… not! Of course it is nice to make more room, clean up and to know where everything is. The way she writes I think she does not have children. If I would come home from work after a long day while dragging my son behind me,  all I really want is my husband, some food and a glass of red wine. I don’t really think about placing my purse at the “purse-place” after taking everything out of it so the purse and items can rest until the next day. Or bow down at the entrance to welcome my home. She mentioned also that she puts her dishes outside so she does not need a dish rack because the sunlight and wind can do the job. Plus you can “hang sponges outside, such as on the veranda” so they don’t sit around the sink I reckon. Where do you put your sponges after you cleaned the dishes? 🙂

I donated a lot of my clothing and even dropped of some books at the local library. However, folding my underwear and socks? I think this is for people who have all the time in the world.

So after watching this video you get a pretty decent picture of how this woman “ticks”.

Overall, although there are some helpful tips on how to clean, declutter and organize your life and home, this book is mostly funny. I am still thinking about all the sponged hanging outside to dry on my porch. So make sure you don’t hurt your sock’s feelings okay!

Does this book “spark joy”? Not really for me I must say. Maybe you would like to read it? Or you read it and want to share your thoughts? In any case, if you want my copy I will send it to you for free. 😉

You can order the book in German here. 

Thank your for reading my blog.

Advance Reading Copy Disclosure:

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review. I have not read anything else by Michelle Gable before but what drew my attention to this book the most was the cover and my love for Paris. This does not affect my opinion of the content or the book in my review.

“I believed Paris was the start of us. It’ the kind of city that makes you think of beginnings, or even juicy middles. Paris is a book to savor, in whole or in part, at any time and any season. At age ninety or at thirty-four, you can open any chapter and read from there”. 

I have been in love with Paris for a long time. I love the culture, food, lifestyle, people (they are not rude at all), little cafés and macaroons and simply walking all day long discovering the streets of Paris. When I saw the cover of the book I instantly fell in love. This is all you really need, no? Sitting in a café in Paris with a nice cup of coffee and a good book, observing people walking by and writing a bit. Well, I am getting off on a tangent again. Let’s dive into the book review.

Laurel Haley is nineteen-years old when she loses her fiancé in the Vietnam War. What can she do to deal with the pain of loss? She moved to England to start a new life, meet new people and hopes that times eventually heals all wounds. If you are into love stories this is when it gets interesting. Of course she meets someone new and they end up traveling to Paris together. Then there is a turn or jump in the book and you will get to know Laurel’s daughter Annie who wants to know who her father is and what happened to him. There are many things her mother did not tell her but why?

The story is beautifully told and keeps the reader captivated. I just read on and on to find out more. The funny part is that when you think you know what happens next it will surprise you even more how the author switches things around and keeps you interested in the plot. The reader will learn about the Duchess of Marlborough and how she is involved in the story. Or does Laurel play a part in the Duchess’s story?

Overall I enjoyed the book. I loved that there was a little history involved and a nice love story but not to cheesy. This book is definitely an enjoyable read for an evening on the couch with tea/wine and cookies/dark chocolate when it is raining outside. (This is how I read this book!) You will have 400 pages that keep you busy until the next morning. I recommend this book. Let me know if you pre-order it or want to read it.

Thank you for reading my blog. 

“I believe in movement. I believe in that lighthearted balloon, the world. I believe in midnight and the hour of noon. But what else do I believe in? Sometimes everything. Sometimes nothing. It fluctuates like light flitting over a pond. I believe in life, which one day each of us shall lose. When we are young we think we won’t, that we are different. […] How did we get so damn old? I say to my joints, my iron-colored hair.” – Patti Smith

Click here and listen to Patti Smith’s album “Horses” while reading if you would like. 

I read “Just Kids” by Patti Smith and instantly loved her and her style of writing. Of course I was so happy when her book M Train arrived in my mailbox, pre-ordered by my husband. (Je t’aime mon amour!) M Train was different than “Just Kids” (read my book review here) but oh so great at the same time. Smith has a way of being very honest and straight forward. I love to read memoirs – it is probably my favorite when it comes to literary nonfiction genre. Let’s dive into the book review. 

Patti Smith sits in this little café in Greenwich Village every day, has black coffee and simply writes. This by itself is already great and I can totally relate. Of course I googled this particular café; Café ‘Ino, but it closed a while ago. So she sits there, observes people and writes in her little notebook – sometimes even on napkins. Her stories and notes in the book are dreams, about travel, black coffee, some more black coffee, many memories, artists, art, photography and of course her voice through all of it. If you love to read and love to write this is your book. Then you do understand this feeling I am trying to describe when sitting in a café; as Patti Smith does, and just watch the world go by and be creative to write about it. One chapter for example was about Arthur Rimbaud who Patti Smith adored. She traveled to his graveside and wrote about her journey in a very beautiful way. She puts everything together very well – love, life, art, feelings, her ideas and imagination. She mentioned many books that she read so me as a professional reader (my husband loves this term) had to pick up some of her books she read to review. 

While reading M Train you will learn a lot about reading and writing but at points it is also about the “unbearable lightness of being” – and yes, I stole this one from Milan Kundera. This book is also for you if you love artists and art. You will discover her view on some of them and how her heart and soul opens up when she describes their artwork. Reading her book made me dream of having my own café or bookstore again. The way she describes what she eats in that little café made me almost smell and taste it. She is incredible with words. So what does the “M” stand for? Memory! 😉 

My husband purchased this book in hardcover which I thought was a good choice. The pages feel thicker than regular pages in a book. There are many pictures and Polaroid images  in it and my experience is that an e-book messes all these up. 

This book simply touched me in a special way. Purchase this book, take a little notebook and head to your favorite café. 

Also, there is this great recent interview of her I found on YouTube if you would like to listen. 

Thank you for reading my blog. 

Advance Reading Copy Disclosure:

Thanks to BloggingForBooks and the publisher for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review. I have not read anything else by Daria Song before but what drew my attention to this book the most was the cover. This does not affect my opinion of the content or the book in my review.

“What does the world outside of the clock look like?” she wondered. – Daria Song. 

I wondered recently what all this hype about coloring books is so I went to Barnes and Noble to see what is on the Coloring book market. I was surprised to find a plethora of these coloring books for adults; in fact an entire section at the book store with pencils and different color pens for you to get all color-crazy. On the display it said that studies have shown many times that coloring might be a great tool to fight stress because you simply focus only on coloring and don’t do much else. I think this could be indeed true. So what Korean artist Daria Song did was combing a really sweet story about a tiny fairy who lives inside a cuckoo clock and decides to see what is outside of her little house. She just discovers how beautiful the world outside is. The story is illustrated by great artwork in ink and ready for coloring.The details of the book are beautifully themed around great design, clocks, owls and other sweet characters. 

I don’t think I will use it for coloring but just keep as a really nice book to look at. The cover is gorgeous as well. The book is literally read in ten minutes because the author’s main focus clearly is the coloring. The quality of the paper used for this book is thicker than regular books and feels nice. I would almost think that you could use markers instead of colored pencils. However, I did not try it out because I don’t want to accidentally ruin it. Overall, this book is for you if you are a coloring enthusiast and when this is your thing to relax and unwind or take your mind away for a while. Or if you just want to clear your mind and meditation does not do the trick for you. Finally I want to share my two favorite pages of the book and this great blog that I follow. This woman is obsessed with coloring books. Check it out here. 

Thank you for reading my blog.