Bibliothèque Brett

Small blog hiatus for the next couple days… heading to LAS VEGAS for the holiday weekend!

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND! ENJOY!

Love.

strazzybooks:

I’m lucky enough to have this every day.

(Source: disneylanders, via the-gwendolyn-reading-method)

Harper Lee

Nothing feels as great as FINALLY reading a book that has been on my reading list for ages. I think I said I wanted to read this book about a year ago. I actually requested it from the library about 6 months ago and when I went to pick it up, I realized that I requested the book on CD. Yeah was not about to listen to 12 CDs; I don’t even have a Walkman anymore! So alas I had to wait a little longer to finally read this book. After all of this, I really wanted to love this book… but I can’t say I fell in love.

Honestly, the concept of this book is much more interesting than the actual book. Amina is a young woman living in Bangladesh and is basically a modern day mail order bride. Her future husband, George, meets her on a website catering to men who want an Asian wife. Awkward. Side note- can someone please write a book about meeting a husband on a sugar daddy website? I would totally read that. Anyways, George proposes to her fairly quickly and Amina soon moves to America.

There are some good twists in this book that I didn’t see coming so good job there. The characters (I’m looking at you George) were actually kind of boring to me. I didn’t care for the much. Even the fun/crazy cousin that I think we were all supposed to love just annoyed me. Seriously can we STOP with the stereotype of the free spirit relative? It’s getting really old.

So good plot (for the most part), boring characters and oh wait one more- lots of boring parts. I struggled especially getting going on this book. The first third of the book moves very slowly in my opinion. It then starts to pick up more around there. And the ending. UGH. Obviously not going to ruin anything for you guys here but I was not a fan. Talk about an anticlimactic ending. Would not really recommend this book to my friends or family. Although I swear it wasn’t horrible! Maybe if you are interested in stories of immigration and loveless marriages? I’m sure there is a market for that.

Currently Reading: Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Alright here is Round Two in this mini-series of blogs to books! Last week I covered cooking blogs so today let’s talk about DIY blogs. I really enjoy crafting and DIY projects. I recently made these rings and have it on my to do list to tackle this project. It’s fun to transform something plain into something fabulous. Here are a couple DIY blogs that were so amazing that these bloggers now also have books!

I Spy DIY
Obsessed with this blog by Jenni Radosevich. ispydiy.com is one of my favorite everyday DIY blogs out there. And best of all, I think most of the projects on here actually aren’t too hard. I’ve attempted the rings that I mentioned above and this bib necklace which came out great as well. And I plan on trying to make this necklace in the near future. Most of the projects are centered on fashion but there are some home and organizational improvement ideas as well. Jenni’s book I Spy DIY Style: Find Fashion You Love and Do It Yourself can be found here on Amazon. I also recommend checking out this page with a list and amazing photos of all the DIY projects available on her site! If you are looking for fairly easy, trendy ways to update your style, this book/blog is definitely for you!

Young House Love
How did I go this far in life without reading this blog? Thanks to my sister, I now count this blog (younghouselove.com), written by Sherry and John Petersik, as one of my weekly reads. This blog is fantastic but I think I really need to also own the book inspired by this blog, Young House Love. Stop whatever you are doing now, and click through here to see an AMAZING breakout of all the projects their blog features. It breaks it out into a variety of categories such as painting, decorating, and organizing. Literally anything you want to find as far as home improvement and decorations, you will find here. Currently my dream DIY project from this site is the beautiful stenciled office that they created. I would say the projects on this site range from easy to challenging (the stencil project being one of those challenging ones) but I think there is still a little there for everyone. Now all I need is a house…

a pair and a spare
This is another mostly fashion DIY blog (apairandasparediy.com) with a bunch of totally chic DIY projects. The author of this blog, Geneva has a great gallery of all her projects- definitely loving the pearl sunglasses right now. Her book, DIY Fashionista: 40 Projects to Re-Invent and Update Your Wardrobe is on my list to request from the library now! This blog provides me more with inspiration than anything else; even if I don’t wind up doing all the projects I want to, every time I read this blog, I leave feeling inspired.

What DIY blogs or books have you read?

The Newlyweds: Nell Freudenberger

Book review coming next week!

Divergent: Veronica Roth

Read my review here.

If you’re counting down the days until Allegiant, the Divergent trilogy ender by Veronica Roth, the wait until fall just got a little bit harder….

Friday Reading Inspiration: White Oleander by Janet Fitch

Easily one of my favorite books to read over and over again.