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A Really Sappy and Slightly Obsessive Book Review – Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
I don’t want to jump the gun by saying this in April, but I may have already read my favorite book of the year. Funny Story by Emily Henry isn’t out yet (and I didn’t snag an ARC), so this verdict could change in a few weeks when I bask in the goodness of an inevitably gushy and devastatingly gorgeous romance, but there is already a very strong, very different contender for Favorite Read of 2024. My Storygraph review of Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir is “BRB FORCING THIS BOOK DOWN THE THROATS OF EVERYONE I’VE EVER KNOWN,” and since I finished the book on January 12th, I’ve mostly…
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Amsterdam Part Two
My heart is bigger and brighter in walkable cities. Ones with cobblestone streets and gray skies and brick buildings. Even in the cold and wind and mist, it’s full of life. Or maybe that’s just the espresso talking. I’ve loved this city since I was twenty-one. I’ve dreamed of her when I’ve felt lost, and I’ve missed her sparkle when I’m missing the friends I knew there. She is always in my back pocket when I need her. I am so lucky to have been able to meet her again, to reintroduce her to the woman I’ve become since we last saw each other. Somehow I am exactly the same…
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The Most Annoying Writer You Know: A Preliminary, Non-Sponsored Freewrite Alpha Review
Hi!! Writing you this review from my Alpha itself, while I’m watching Groundhog Day. This is a very important day for my college friends and me. But that’s not what this post is about. This is about this very fun writing tool I got for myself in an attempt to become someone who actually finishes her writing projects. Now, many moons ago, in one of my first posts on this website, I wrote about all the things I love about handwriting drafts as opposed to typing them on the computer. I am very much a pro-handwriter. I love it, and it’s really the main reason I have finished as many…
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My Hairdresser’s Spidey Sense is Tingling
I want to dye my hair pink again. I actually want to do this every couple of months, sometimes in smaller intervals. As a kid, I never really wanted to dye my hair, ever. It always got browner in the winter and blonder in the summer and I had a weird ombré-thing going on the rest of the year, which was cool with me. Then, when I was sixteen and visiting my best friend in Nashville, we rode our bikes to the store and got many, many lemons to juice and lighten our hair. We also bought Monster Energy drinks and watched The Crazies, which I still joke is a…
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Time for a Little ✨2024✨ Tomfoolery
Happy January! ‘Tis the season for setting unrealistic expectations for myself. Every year–for the last handful of years, at least–I’ve set a small list of goals. I prefer to see them as GOALS and not as RESOLUTIONS. Resolution implies I need to be fixed, and we all know I’m perfect. Kidding, obviously, I’m far from it, but the notion stands. Resolutions sound like something to repair, while goals are something to work toward. All about your wording! I post these goals on my Instagram stories every January 1st. I love it. It keeps me accountable, and to me, it’s simply fun. I love setting these things up for myself, and…
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real or not real?
Today I turned down all the lights, shut the buzzing air conditioning unit off, laid on the white duvet I once found comforting and safe. I used to love the empty promises and quiet monotony of hotel rooms: beige walls and confusing light switches, dry soap bars, and thin carpet. On the inside of the blackout curtains, I could have no idea where in the world I was. It was once my favorite feeling. Long days, short nights, and seeing you in the dimly lit hotel bar, waiting for me. I never knew where it’d be, or how often. The mystery made it fun. I’d come back from a panel…
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The Worst People You’ll Ever Meet – A The Secret History Reread
“The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation.” I read The Secret History by Donna Tartt in 2019. I’d read The Goldfinch in college and made it half of my personality. I started working for the studio releasing the film (I have other thoughts about that), and wondered why on earth I hadn’t read Tartt’s other work yet. So I did, and I once again became a changed person. I felt like I had soaked up The Secret History like a sponge. I thought I remembered all the important details. I assumed I…
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Wait, This Isn’t the 5SOS Song: A Babylon Ramble
A few weeks ago [one month actually, now that I’m getting around to putting this up for y’all], I took the plunge and finished off a full weekend of moviegoing with Babylon, written and directed by Damien Chazelle and starring Diego Calva, Margot Robbie, and Brad Pitt. I’ve since had a few conversations about the film, and the more I think about it, the more I have to say about it. Being that I don’t know how to shut up, I won’t. I’ll start by boiling it down. If you don’t want to read further, just stick to this paragraph. If this movie wasn’t as long as it is, or…
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Amsterdam
Summer was my season until I turned twenty-one. The warmth of the sun, the freedom of my daylight hours, and time poorly spent sleeping in. I loved the heat and getting sunburnt, lying still, covered in aloe until I could go around and do it all again. August Baby rules say summer is supreme. I’ve seen snowfall before, flurries and iron chill. Footprints marking my path in the powdery ground. Leaning over the back of a couch, getting lost in the swirling snowflakes as they find somewhere to stick themselves. I’ve seen April showers bring a May super bloom, a sea of orange and yellow in middle-of-nowhere California. Sunshine and…
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Ode to Movies: The Holiday
Ignoring the unfinished 2022 reflections document on my computer, it’s Christmas Eve, I’m in the middle of a Christmas movie marathon, and I’m trying to pack for my trip. The other night I watched my favorite movie of the season, The Holiday. Let me start by saying: thank you, Nancy Meyers. It’s been a cool minute since I’ve done an Ode to TV Shows piece (or any piece—look, it was a rough year!), and as I watched, I couldn’t get my mind off of all the reasons I love love love this film. I truly think it’s one of the best Christmas movies out there, sorry to Love, Actually. It…