Desperately Seeking Bookworm

On my quest to find a Pulitzer Prize winner worth my time I came across this gem, Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See . I know everyone in the English speaking world has probably read this book but me, so my review is somewhat invalid, but it  was fantastic! If I hadn't read The Girl on the Train last year this would've been my favorite read of 2015! There are not enough adjectives for me to describe how much I truly loved and appreciated this book. And while at times it was long and didn't make much sense it was 100% worth it! Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive...

Okay so I lost the little card that came with my box. Actually that isn't true, I wrote this, didn't click save and lost all my work. So this Birchbox post is not going to match the others, because I have no idea what I'm doing without that little cheat sheet of a card. The theme this month is 'Ladies First' for National Women's History Month (which is March). Overall this box was okay. When the sample choice video came out last month, I wasn't impressed, so really we had already started off on a bad foot. What I Got: Cartier Baiser Vole Eau de Parfum/ FS $106 (for 1.7 fl. oz.) Smashbox Photo Op Eyeshadow Trio in Filter/ FS $28 Cynthia Rowley Beauty Brightening Illuminator/ FS $28 Sample Choice: PARLOR by Jeff Chastain Volumizing & Texturizing Shampoo with Bonus matching conditioner packet Kiehl's Ultra Facial Oil-Free Cleanser/ FS $19.50 The Cartier perfume is very heavy. Heavier than I'd like it to be or want to wear. It...

A Book that Came Out this Year: The Expatriates by Janice Y.K. Lee Ugh what a downer. Usually I'll stop reading something if it doesn't grab me within the first 50 pages, and I didn't have to do that here because within the first 50 I was in. It was the middle 200 that really wasn't that great. The best way to describe The Expatriates by Janice Y.K. Lee is to take Little Earthquakes by Jennifer Weiner minus the breastfeeding and Mommy woes and add in an exotic local and kidnapping. Not that I don't love myself some Jenn Weiner, but I thought this was going to be 100% different. Damn you GMA, you pulled me in with a review and it was not like you said! Mercy, a young Korean American and recent Columbia graduate, is adrift, undone by a terrible incident in her recent past. Hilary, a wealthy housewife, is haunted by her struggle to have a child, something she believes could save her foundering marriage. Meanwhile, Margaret, once a happily married mother o...

A Book Set in Your Home State: Inside the O'Brien's by Lisa Genova Remember when I read Still Alice and I cried the whole book? Yeah I did that here too, but this time for different reasons. Lisa Genova's most recent book deals with Huntington's disease, which is a disease that has personally effected my family. My maternal grandfather died from this disease and it can still be active in my genetics today.  I don't remember much about him, bits and pieces and most of them involve him in the local VA hospital. There is actually a scene in the beginning of the book where the main character and his wife visit the Wang wing or section at MGH and they describe patients of Huntington's and I actually had to put the book down. I had memories I didn't even know I have come rushing back to me. This book was a challenge. A barely 300 page book typically takes me 3-4 days, but this took me around 10 days. It was that difficult for me to read.  I'm ...