Lean In

Let it be known that I cannot remember the last time I have read a non-fiction book from cover to cover. This may actually have never happened…until Lean In. It was my dad who had begged me to get him a copy of the book, which I thought was strange. What does a very successful business man want to read a business woman’s ‘advice guide’ for? After reading Lean In, not only do I understand it but my respect for my father has grown. Before having read Lean In, he knew it was as important for men to be aware of certain concepts and issues and contribute towards making not just the workplace but the world an equal place for both men and women.

This book is geared towards men as much as it is towards women. Whether you’re just starting your career, almost finished with it, in the midst of it, raising a family, staying single, being a stay at home parent, or stacking shelves at your local grocery store—this is the absolute Must Read. Not just for 2013, but for life.

Bossypants

What do you do when you’re stuck inside a Barnes and Noble with nowhere to go for the next three hours?

You reach for Tina Fey’s Bossypants.

The Princess Diaries

I decided to revisit some of the funniest private moments of my teenage years by re-reading the entire Princess Diaries series by Meg Cabot these past two weeks. My first experiences with Mia were in the classroom or at my desk at home, tucking the book into a particularly large textbook and then being ‘studious’. Sorry Mom. Hey look, I graduated anyway! University too!

Mia Thermopolis isn’t your average teenager, role model, or princess. The entire series is filled with self-doubt, cringe-worthy embarrassing moments, and faux pas upon faux pas. But you know what. That’s life. It’s not that you have to get back up with flair or monumental success. It’s simply that you get out of bed, get dressed, and try again.

Cast Your Vote Here!

Exciting news, friends!

Caution: Elephant in the Room

I won’t bother to preface this post with an introduction to the topic of self-publishing. Whether you’re in publishing or not, the words have been bandied about plenty, especially after the success of 50 Shades of I-Can’t-Bear-To-Think-Of-It. I’ve read many an article on the subject and for the most part I’ve stayed strong to believing that self-publishing *on the whole* doesn’t do the individual or the industry many favors.

I recently read an article by Jonathan Bennett that had a sentence I just couldn’t shake:

“It used to be that waiting, rejection, indifference and silence were honoured and, indeed, essential aspects of professional, literary writing.”

Read the full article here.

It struck a major chord in my mind. I’ve always believed that there can be no success without failure. By all means, let’s have more opportunities in publishing. But if everyone’s written-word becomes worthy of publication (isn’t it already? Case in point: blogs) and sales, does the term success change? Of course. Will book snobbery be at an all-time high? You betcha. Most importantly, is the integrity of the work and, in conjunction the industry, compromised when there are no hurdles to jump and everything is permissible? I think so.

This post is not one where I choose to regale you all with my thoughts on self-publishing. I’m just curious to know what you think. What do you think self-publishing can do? Opinions can vary depending on whether you’re looking at it from a consumer, publisher, seller, or author point of view. I’d love to hear them all!

Inferno

“Dan Brown, you’ve done it again”. That was my thought not once but multiple times as I read his latest twisted tale, Inferno.

And the Mountains Echoed

The name Khaled Hosseini is synonymous with the thoughts of masterful, epic, heart-wrenching writing. His debut novel, The Kite Runner, haunted the world and is still quoted in every day conversations. When A Thousand Splendid Suns released, things were no different. Hosseini had left his indelible mark. Today marks the release of And the Mountains Echoed, his first novel in six years. It is nothing short of a written masterpiece.

A Fools Errand

I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the sequel to The Gypsy King. I had to wait a whole 15 hours to do so and there were some touch and go moments…but it was completely worth the wait. 

The Gypsy King

I can hear my co-worker and lovely friend, Amy, saying “I told you not to doubt me” as I write this post. Mainly because she’s been saying it to me all day. In her defense, it’s because I’ve been continuously texting her variations of “OMG!!!!”, “Holy balls of poo* this is amazing” and other such exclamations. Why? Because, dear friends, The Gypsy King is one great book.

A Beautiful Truth

Dear Colin McAdam,

 

What were you thinking? Getting into the hearts and heads of everyone with Looee’s story…

 

How did you manage to get into the mind of a monkey and portray the beautiful and the barbaric all at once?

 

How did it come to you? This idea of basic instincts, wants, and needs paralleled in the bodies of chimps and the hearts of humans.

 

You turned a biological study, a sociological fact, into a moving manuscript that transcends the concepts of truth and understanding.