Our Shared Shelf- My Life on the Road

In January 2016, Emma Watson decided that she wanted to start a feminist book club. I really respect Emma Watson and was really excited when I saw that such a smart woman like her would be starting a book club that I could be a part of. In addition to that, I knew that her selections would be books that I would not pick up on my own so this would be a great way to challenge myself and read books outside of my comfort zone.

The first book she chose for her book club was My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem. I think that for these Our Shared Shelf posts, I’m not going to put a first impression. I’m predicting a lot of them would be “I don’t know this person” or “I would not have picked this up by myself.” So instead, I’m just going to share what I thought of the book.

Published Year: 2015
Publisher: Random House
Pages: 304

Amazon Barnes and Noble

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Gloria Steinem—writer, activist, organizer, and one of the most inspiring leaders in the world—now tells a story she has never told before, a candid account of how her early years led her to live an on-the-road kind of life, traveling, listening to people, learning, and creating change. She reveals the story of her own growth in tandem with the growth of an ongoing movement for equality. This is the story at the heart of My Life on the Road.

 What I thought

This book could be absolutely life changing; it has that kind of quiet power. It is one of those books that I wish we could require everybody in the world to read. While I think it would be beneficial for women, I think it would be even more beneficial for men to read. There are some really interesting stories and I think it does a great job at explaining feminism in a way that isn’t typically shared.

I will admit that I tend to tune out the news and I was never interested in history as a child, so I am kind of ignorant when it comes to lesser known (but still well-known and important) figures in history and politics. I also do not have any interest in politics, so I will be the first to tell you this is not a subject I am knowledgeable about. So, I had no idea who Gloria Steinem was. None. And I will now admit, after reading this book, that I am ashamed of myself.

Gloria Steinem is such a core factor of the women’s movement, past and present, and I think it’s sad that I never heard of her or knew who she was. I was a little worried that this book was going to be very preachy and anti-male but it definitely isn’t. It was so fascinating to not only be educated about who she is but to hear a lot of her stories about her life.

As a writer, this autobiography is obviously written as well as you would expect. I think my favorite thing was how she would write about different things she did (like talking on college campuses) and share some history about how she felt about the talks and different people that she traveled with. Then she would have a series of actual stories and interactions from her speeches. These were my favorite parts to read and I loved that she included her commentary about how those moments made her feel.

This book is so inspiring and so positive that I can’t praise it enough. I am honestly surprised by how much I feel like I learned from this book. I wish this has been out when I was younger and that I had been forced to read it. While I feel as though I have feminist values at heart I have never been one to act. This book makes me want to act and that is saying a lot.

This was such a great start to the book club! I’m really looking forward to reading more and I really hope that it continues!

Like I said, I think anyone and everyone, no matter age or gender, should read this book. I think it will teach so much about life and different perspectives which is something we need in the world right now. I would gladly buy this book as gifts fo…

Like I said, I think anyone and everyone, no matter age or gender, should read this book. I think it will teach so much about life and different perspectives which is something we need in the world right now. I would gladly buy this book as gifts for people just in hopes of forcing them to read it. I can definitely see myself buying this for my shelf, again, just so I can loan it out to people.  
 

Ten Books I've Recently Added to my TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke & the Bookish. Every week they put out a topic with a top ten list. I don’t always participate, but when I see a topic that I find interesting, I try to fill it out! Last week they had this list and I thought it was interesting since I have recently been adding a lot of books to my list

The Expat Diaries: Single in the City By: Michele Gorman- I read Match Me If You Can by Michele Gorman (Review here) and I really liked it. When I went to look at what else she wrote this one caught my eye and I immediately knew I wanted to read it.

The Lake House By: Kate Morton- This is actually our Book Club Book for February! I don’t know much about it but I’m excited.

Joyride By: Anna Banks- I found out about this book on another blog and added it to my TBR. I’m hoping to receive a copy of this to read and review soon. It

The Skeleton Crew: How Amateur Sleuths Are Solving America’s Cold Cases By: Deborah Halber- Like the rest of the world, I have been sucked in by Making a Murderer. I read an article (probably on Buzzfeed) on 10 books to read if you like making a murderer and this was on that list, as well as the next two books.

True Stories of False Confessions By: Rob Warden

Getting Life: An Innocent Man’s 25 Year Journey from Prison to Peace By Morton Michael

The Distance from A to Z By: Natalie Blitt- I am taking part in the Debut Author Challenge again this year. Every Sunday Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl does a feature of debut author novels. This was on a recent one and it really caught my eye.

The Marble Collector By Cecelia Ahern- Cecelia Ahern is one of my favorite authors. When I was in Gatwick Airport in London I (of course) walked into the book store and saw that she had a new book! I will read anything by her so I immediately added it to my list.

The Crown (The Selection #5) By: Kiera Cass- When I’m bored I go to barnesandnoble.com and check out their list of novels coming soon. Not only does this help with remembering that sequels are coming out, but sometimesI find new books I didn’t know about! I was really excited to see that the 5th book in The Selection series had a name, cover, and release date, so I added it to make sure I remembered to get it when it came out.

The Unexpected Everything By Morgan Matson- I don’t remember exactly how I heard about this book, but I did somehow find out that Morgan Matson was writing a new novel and I got really excited. Similar to Cecelia Ahern, I don’t even really know what this book is about but I knew I immediately needed to add it to my TBR.

I’m really excited about all of these books that I added and can’t wait to read them. Have you added any books to your TBR recently that you’re really excited about?
 

Library Anxiety

I have a problem. I am a library book over-requester. I have this tendency to request a lot of books from the library and put them on hold, and then, somehow, they all come in at the same time. This then causes me to have a case of Library Anxiety. Have you ever experienced it?
 

As you can see, I currently have 6 books out from the library! And they all came in during the same week. Add that to the fact that three of the books I requested are on a two week loan instead of 4 week and my library anxiety is running high!

I am not one who is ok with overdue fees, so I think that adds to my library anxiety. As a result, I feel pressured to read all of the books that I took out before I have to return them and then I don’t end up enjoying them as much as I would if I had more time to read them. Definitely a down side to library anxiety.

Over the past few years, I’ve tried to find ways to ease my library anxiety. So far, the best solution is trying to hold back on the amount of things that I put on hold. Obviously, that doesn’t always work. If I end up in a situation like this one, I try to prioritize. First, I look at the dates that he books are due. I then try to decide which book would upset me the most if I had to return it without reading it. Unfortunately, this doesn’t calm the anxiety 100%, but it does help a little. It also helps if I know that the books I have are able to be renewed, but unfortunately the ones that are 2 weeks usually aren’t renewable.

I’d love to hear your experiences with Library Anxiety! What do you do if you’ve experienced it?

Birchbox January 2017

In case you are unaware, Birchbox is a monthly beauty subscription box. It costs $10 a month and you receive multiple sample size item. These boxes allow you to try tons of new products that you may have never even heard of before. The other fun thing about Birchbox is that every time you purchase an item from their site, or review a product from your box, you receive rewards points! Once you collect 100 points, you get $10 off of your next purchase. These points definitely add up quickly between buying your box, and reviewing the products.

Each month, Birchbox allows subscribers to pick one of their samples. If you prefer surprises, you don’t have to pick one. You can choose to be surprised instead. They also offer full boxes that have been made by a guest. This month’s guest editor box was a Korean Beauty Box. The sample choices were the Eyeko Fat Liquid Liner, the IPKN Flash Cream Radiant Primer, and the TonyMoly Delight Tony Tint. I picked the Eyeliner because I wasn’t very interested in the other two choices and I was also interested in the liner since we were all supposed to receive it in a box months and months ago and never did. 

The products I received this month were as follows:
 

Amika Perk Up Dry Shampoo (Full-size $22)- This is another dry shampoo that is meant to revive hair and remove oils. While I’m getting a little bored with receiving dry shampoo as it doesn’t work well with my curly hair, I do LOVE the scent of this brand. For that alone, since it is residue free, I will use this product on my hair. Even if it’s just to spray it and make it smell good in the morning.

Whish Three Wishes Body Butter- Lavender (Full-size $24)- This product is pretty self-explanatory. I really dislike Whish products. I think their packaging is horrible and the smells always irritate me. This one smells like hospital soap and I am not a fan. I will say that the product itself is decent. It’s not overly greasy and seemed to moisturize my hands (I can’t say for how long as I literally tried this right before writing this unboxing). 

BioRepublic Skincare Pomegranate Cursh Illuminating Sheet Mask (Full-size $14.50)- This mask is meant to brighten skin and even tone. Yay! Those are two things that my skin needs. I have a love/hate relationship with sheet masks but I’m excited to try this. I think they are effective but because my face is small they are always awkward to wear. I definitely prefer other types of masks. Hopefully this is effective!

IPKN Flash Cream Radian Primer (Full-size $28)- This primer is meant to nourish and create a smooth canvas for makeup as well as having an SPF 15. I used this before a night out and it did seem to make my makeup go on smoothly. It also helped the wear time and kept my makeup on my face. It didn’t pill when I rubbed my face at all which was nice. It does have a pearlescent sheen to it, so if you are oily I can’t see enjoying it, but it would be nice on days when I feel my dry skin needs a little extra boost. 

Eyeko Fat Liquid Liner (Full-size $16)- This is a felt tip black liquid liner that allows a bolder line than other liquid liners. This is a really nice liner. It is very easy to manipulate and gives a solid, smooth black line. The nice thing about it being thicker is that it doesn’t look as wiggly when you draw the line. I don’t currently own a liquid liner so I’m excited to play around with this more.

Overall, this is a mediocre box. I’m excited about half of the products, but the other ones are kind of meh. I don’t feel like I’m ripping into this box to try the samples.

December Birchbox Update

(MALIN + GOETZ) Clarifying Clay mask- I’ve used this mask twice and I love it! The first time I used it as a spot treatment and it immediately cleared up my pimple. The next time I used it over the majority of my face and again, saw great clearing results. I will definitely be reaching for this whenever a pimple comes up.

Christian Siriano Silhouette Eau de Parfum- I honestly forgot about this perfume. I did really like the scent on first sniff, so I need to make sure I try it on some other events to really test the strength and staying power.

Gorge I’ll Make You Look Amazing Daily Spray- I don’t know how I feel about this product. It didn’t really seem to do much. My hair reacts better to conditioning creams than sprays, and that’s what I saw with this product. I think I’ll be passing this one on.

Gorge I’ll Make You Look Amazing Daily Spray- As I expected, this product is great. I really like the Coastal Scents Eyeshadows and this one delivered. I think the other colors I’ve received were a bit more pigmented, but they have really good staying power and I’ve found myself reaching for these colors on special occasions.

Jane Iredale Just Kissed Lip and Cheek Stain in Forever Peach- I brought this on my honeymoon and found myself using it on days when I wanted a little color on my lips but nothing I had to worry about. It was nice because it works almost as a lip balm, so I would reach for it for that instead of my lip balm. I might end up purchasing this one day.

Book Club January 2016

This month’s book club book was picked by Denise and is The Bitch Proof Suit by De-ann Black.
 

By: De-ann Black
Published Year: 2010
Publisher: Toffee Apple Publishing
Pages: 300
Amazon Barnes and Noble

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): When Blue (Bluebell) Byrne is up against the odds in the world of New York fashion marketing, she needs the ultimate in accessories - a bitch-proof suit. Her marketing experience has helped her create the perfect suit. She had it made by bespoke tailors, cut with twice the precision at half the price. No labels, no trends, just sheer cutting edge class.

The story starts in Manhattan. Blue is about to put her suit to the ultimate test when she vies against a boardroom full of conniving business rivals to win the top job assignment - to work in the company’s office in Dublin, Ireland, and settle a few scores at the same time.

The suit, her negotiating skills and gutsy determination helps Blue win the job. Within hours she sets off for Dublin. It’s the one place she swore she’d never go back to. Six years ago she’d left that city behind, along with Morgan Daire, the man who broke her heart, sure she’d never return. It had almost destroyed her once, but hell...she loves a challenge!

She’ll be working with the unspeakably glamorous and influential Verde Valmont, and Verde’s Irish assistant Emer. Blue will also be facing up to the formidable Dubliner, Morgan Daire, the man whose past is inexorably linked with hers. Then there’s her friend, Dublin designer, Murphy, an incorrigible rogue whose flirting causes jealousy and all sorts of trouble. She also encounters the sexy and handsome Sears Pearson, a New York coolhunter, who takes an interest in her. With Morgan and Sears vying for her attention, and Murphy causing misunderstandings, her love life is anything but smooth.

                                                             First Impressions

I thought the name made it sound like a cute book. I was intrigued when Denise shared the summary with us even though it wasn’t something I would’ve picked up on my own. The cover is also very blah and I wouldn’t have picked it up based just on the cover.

                                                              What I thought

This book was so frustrating. The beginning wasn’t bad. I liked the voice of the character and it seemed like a nice refreshing change from what I had recently been reading. Then I started learning everyone’s names and they are just completely ridiculous. I felt like the author just started making up the most ridiculous names she could imagine. Bluebell, Verde (pronounced Verdi), Sears, Magenta?! I know it’s petty, but things like that irritate me.

 Bluebell (aka Blue) is the main character. She is a futurehunter which is someone who searches for the future trends in fashion. She takes on the world with her Bitch-Proof suit. I feel like this aspect of the story was so weird. Like she was so protective about the suit, and it was almost like it had magical qualities but this wasn’t a book about magical things. It just seemed like it could’ve been part of a different story or if it had been toned down it would have made more sense. It just was odd.

Then on top of that, Blue moves to Dublin to work as a futurehunter and confront her past. The relationships in this story were just wonky. She claims that Sears was one of her closest friends when she was in Dublin the first time, but the minute she gets back he’s madly in love with her and she has no relationship with him whatsoever. On top of that is Morgan, who was her ex-lover and the reason she left Dublin the first time, and Verde who is her evil co-worker. The only person that I actually liked in this story was Muphy and he wasn’t in it much.

I just felt like this story was very underdeveloped with minimal character development and plot line. I wanted to like this book so much more than I did because I felt like it had great potential. But in the end it was boring and predictable and I found myself skimming to get to the end just to finish it.

                                                 What book club thought

It seemed like everyone was on the same page with this one. We all seemed annoyed with the same issues (mostly what I talked about above) and some additional issues came up as well. One of the members talked about how she didn’t understand what kind of company Blue even worked for. Was it marketing? A fashion company? It was a little unclear who exactly these future fashion ideas were going to, but I didn’t even notice this completely until she mentioned it. Some people seemed more annoyed than others, but it was kind of funny to have all the same opinion as we normally vary. There was one member who enjoyed the book more than the others, but I think the general consensus was that it was a cute story, but underdeveloped which caused a lot of irritation and general dislike of the book.

We did also discuss that the concept, if developed properly, could make a really fun Lifetime show. I think it would be similar in tone to UnReal in the level or drama and cattiness, so it could make some great trash TV. We didn’t discuss who we would pick to play the different characters, and because it wasn’t a heavy book we didn’t have many poignant questions.

Book Club for February

The Lake House By: Kate Morton

Amazon Barnes and Noble

Book Club Date: February 7th
 

Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer

During our Honeymoon, the husband and I made a brief stop in London. While there, I knew I wanted to get to a Boots to try some beauty products I had heard about. I watch a lot of British beauty bloggers so I had a short list of things I wanted to try. Number one on my list was the Collection Lasting Perfection Concealer. It costs about 4 pounds or about $5.75 and is absolutely raved about by everyone as a Holy Grail product. Considering I spend about $25 on my Estee Lauder concealer (which I love) I was excited to try such an inexpensive alternative.

Unfortunately, due to short amount of time I wasn’t able to make it to an actual Boots story, like I wanted to. So I hit up the one at the airport. From what I saw, this concealer came in 3 different shades. I was the darkest shade in Warm Medium. I debated getting Cool Medium which had pinker undertones, but I think overall my skin is closer to the warm with the yellower undertones. I think it’s nice that they have options of two different types of medium. I also loved that I was able to swatch the different shades in the drug store which you can’t do in the US.

Let me start off by saying that this concealer is seriously impressive for the price (even though the packaging is not.). I completely understand why people love it and rave about it and keep one on hand at all times. However, I do have some issues with it which I will explain.

I think this concealer is almost an exact dupe for the NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer. If you are a fan of the NARS concealer and have a chance to try this one out, I would highly recommend you pick this up. While I think this is a major pro, at the same time, for me it was a con. I have dry skin and often have psoriasis patches on my face which I like to cover up with concealer. Because of this, I need a very creamy concealer with almost a wet consistency. That is why I didn’t end up loving the NARS concealer. It was too dry for me and would often cling to my dry patches.

I love this concealer for my spots though! I think that it is great with its staying power and coverage. Especially considering it’s so inexpensive! Next time I’m in London (this summer!) I will definitely pick up a few for the future.

I don’t think it’s a great all around concealer though. It’s a little dry for the under eye, and like I said, it does cling to dry patches. I was so excited I was able to try this concealer out and it will definitely stay in my bag. I might finally become a girl who uses two separate concealers since I like how well this covers (and continues to cover) my pimples and dark spots. I don’t know if it lasts for 16 hours like it claims, but it definitely lasts through a work day!