Book Review: That Loving Feeling

That Loving Feeling by Carole Matthews

Blurb on the Back:

Ever wondered what you’d do if your relationship lost its spark?

Juliet Joyce has been happily married for twenty-five years. But with two children who treat the house like a hotel, a mother who’s just moved in and a father who’s announced he’s gay, Juliet and her husband Rick have little time for romance.

Enter Steven Aubrey – last seen twenty-six years ago, when he jilted Juliet on their wedding day. He ignites a passion in her that she though was long gone. But will Steven sweep her off her feet or can Rick rekindled that loving feeling they’ve lost? There’s only one way to find out…

My Thoughts:

Very, VERY, rarely do I find myself hating every character in a book. I think we found a winner here though. Actually that’s a lie, there are one or two characters that aren’t really significant that I don’t mind, but the majority of the characters I hate.

Some are hated because I feel like they were written with the intention of being disliked, but the others are just hated because I personally think they are idiots.

This is a story of a middle aged couple who are essentially going through a crisis of being bored with their relationship which has fallen into a stale sort of comfort zone. It’s a story which I am certain plays out on a regular basis in reality simply because relationships can have their rollercoaster type moments. Unfortunately (fortunately?) I didn’t really connect with the characters as it was very hard to understand where they were coming from. I’m not middle aged and I haven’t been married for 20+ years; it’s hard to sympathise (empathise?) with a character when you can’t really feel what they feel in a situation. That being said, I don’t doubt that I’ve reached a point in past relationships where I’ve felt something along those same lines of stale-comfort-zone.

I liked the story but I didn’t love it and that isn’t a criticism of the writer or the writing style; even the content would be ok, I suppose. My problem is that I have a strong dislike for these types of stories; Happily Ever After by Benison Anne O’Reilly was very similar in content and I hated that simply because you find yourself wanting to scream at the characters because you can see where they are going wrong and want them to know they are making the wrong choices. I guess that’s life really; if I had someone looking in on my life they’d probably have given themselves and aneurism for yelling at me so much.

Did I like the book? I felt it was unnecessarily long and draining but still somewhat enjoyable. I didn’t like the characters even though they had their own little quirks and they were interesting (I just hate them as “people”) but just for once, if I pick up one of these types of books, I want the characters to say “ok, my life sucks, but I’m going to do something to fix it right now instead of looking for a way out; if I’ve tried every possible thing to fix it and nothing works, then we’ll figure out a plan B AND I’ll be honest about it”. But that would hardly making for an interesting story right?

Rating: 2/5 Stars

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Damn you Dichotomy of Gender

 

A couple of weeks ago, a catalogue was distributed around the nation in which I live regarding a massive toy sale that occurs every year. Basically, this catalogue gets release around the middle of the year/end of financial year and parents go crazy stock piling toys for Christmas.

I for one love junk mail like this; I love flicking through the pages and seeing all the junk I could buy for myself (because I’m just a big kid at heart) and it’s not just limited to toy catalogues. I pretty much love all catalogues that enter my mail box except for the supermarket ones because I don’t need to see that broccoli is on sale; I don’t care for discounted broccoli but a giant Transformer Bumblebee, that’s a whole different story!

Upon my first flicking through the catalogue, it didn’t take me long to realise there was a huge problem. (For most, this wouldn’t be classified as a “huge problem” but for those of us who actually kind of like the idea of gender equality, it represents a little bit of a blip of the problem-radar).

Obviously, with such a big sale, the catalogue had to be divided into sections. It is this that I had a concern over. This catalogue was divided into the following sections: Pre-School Toys, Girls Toys, Boys Toys, Indoor Activities, Outdoors, Kids wear & More and Moves & Gaming. Now, I understand that with so much content there had to be a way to categorize the toys but I can’t help but serious despise the categorization of “girls toys” and “boys toys” especially because as a child, I would have clawed my way through crowds in order to get to the toys which according to this catalogue are considered “boys toys”.

I despise the fact that toys such as Kitchen and Shopping play sets with Pots, Pans, Groceries and cash registers are classed as girls toys, while power tools and Lego are identified as boys toys.

I will give credit where credit is due and recognize that some toys such as barbeques and some construction play sets were placed under the more ambiguous category of “indoor activities” but included only images of boys playing with these items. Again, credit where credit is due; at least these toys weren’t categorized under male or female play items.

Why do I have such an issue with this? I didn’t really want to write a blog post regarding this catalogue to be honest; it was only after viewing a photo of a friend’s young son playing with a kitchen set that I really felt like I wanted to get my thoughts down. Like I mentioned earlier, half the toys that fall into the category of “boys toys”, I would have loved to play with; there isn’t anything wrong with me, I’m quite confident in my female gender, I love all my girl parts and I just so happen to be attracted to males. I played with lego as a child, I also played with barbie dolls, I loved playing on the excavator truck play equipment at one my schools and I loved playing with playdo in the kitchen type play set I got as a present. While we’re on the topic of toys I had as a child: I hated most dolls and teddy bears, they gave me severe nightmares and still to this day cause me anxiety; I loved ambiguous, non-gender specific toys which gave me room to use my imagination and 9 times out of 10, I just loved the box the toys came in because it meant I go to turn those boxes into whatever my heart desired!

Back on the point; my issue with this catalogue is this: it concerned me that in this day in age we still feel the need to…I’m going to say influence the idea of gender roles. Girls have kitchens, baby dolls, super market play sets and toys which don’t require much construction because their place in society is to be the dutiful, mothering type and need to learn the domestic activities whilst boys on the other hand are geared toward more investigative, constructive, manual labour and adventure roles with toys such requiring more assembly such as Lego,  power tools & action heroes.

What if a child wanted to grow up to be a chef? Kitchen, Kitchenware and fake food all fall into the category of “girls toys”; sorry. What if a girl wanted to become an architect (or at a young age, perhaps she wanted to be a superhero!), Oops, apparently these all require toys which fall into “boys toys”.

I don’t have an issue with any of these toys, all these toys look like a whole world of fun (especially the Lego) I DO have an issue with the LABELS that have been placed on these toys; why in a society that should be moving forward (albeit slower than Australia is moving North) do we still insist on using such archaic labels for children’s toys?

And if you don’t think Children recognize what’s going on because “they are young”. Children aren’t stupid, most of them read or will learn to read and can identify when a catalogue says “boys” and “girls” toys. Give them some credit! They will learn these categories and they will grow and accept this ideology.

 

(P.S. My apologies for not having a strong argument; I really didn’t take as much times as I would have liked to really explore this issue and have supporting academic articles, this was more of a ranting opinion more than a substantive argument)

(P.p.s. Why am I apologising? This is my opinion, I take that apology back)

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Book Review: The Overnight Socialite

First of all, I have to apologise if any formatting issues occur with the publication of this blog post. My laptop kicked the bucket and so I’m using a very old, very glitchy, laptop that has many quirks; including, it appears, a very outdated version of windows live writer.

This week I read The Overnight Socialite by Bridie Clark.

The Blurb on The Back:

In this beguiling retelling of the classic Pygmalion, we meet Lucy Ellis, a Manhattan transplant who dreams of making it as a fashion designer but instead toils away on a Garment District assembly line. Poor Lucy is starting to think the unthinkable: maybe it’s time to pack it in and move home to Minnesota. Then, during a torrential downpour, at her most bedraggled and disheartened, Lucy meets Wyatt Hayes IV, man-about-town and bored Ph.D. anthropologist.

Wyatt has just been publicly dissed by New York’s reigning socialite, and boasts to his best friend that he can transform any woman – even a trailer-born nobody like Lucy – into this year’s “It” girl. Set against the gold-plated world of Manhattan’s social elite. The Overnight Socialite, a media sensation in its own right, puts a witty twenty-first century spin on a timeless story of transformation and unlikely love.

My Thoughts:

I really should read, and pay attention, to the blurb on the back. It wasn’t until I typed the blurb on the back that it all really sunk in what I had just read. Here’s the thing, I’ve never read Pygmalion but I generally know of the story and apparently I really should read it, (go figure) and so didn’t know at the time of reading The Overnight Socialite that this book is a modern day retelling. Essentially, I read the entire book thinking I was reading a scrip to a really bad sequel of She’s All That and basically imagining Rachel Lee Cook and Freddie Prinze Jnr in the lead roles of the book. This book, to me, at the time of reading, was She’s All That meets Gossip Girl (I never watch the latter but I’m very familiar with She’s All That and I confess that I did land up watching that movie upon completion of The Overnight Socialite).

There were some things that I liked about the book. I liked that it hooked me and I couldn’t put it down, even though I felt so negatively about it (remember, “I thought it was a really bad sequel”) but I generally liked the characters and was hooked into their personalities. I don’t know if it’s just me but I was really shipping two of the characters together (I won’t write any spoilers) but they didn’t land up together I wasn’t too impressed.

I, surprisingly, didn’t love the ending either. I mean it was good, it was all tied up nice and neatly but it just felt too neat, too abrupt and just too….clean. I was just expecting more of the ending, more action, more heartache,just MORE.

Is it a good read? Yes. Is it an easy read? Yes. Did I love it? Not as much as I would have liked. I liked the writing style of Clark, I just wanted more; I think I might try and read some of her other work and see just how creative she can be.

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Book Review: The Book of Tomorrow

 

The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern

The Blurb on the Back:

This is a story about how tomorrow can change what happens today…

Tamara Goodwin has everything she ever wanted and she never has to think about tomorrow. But suddenly her world is turned upside down and she has to leave her glamorous city life for a new one in the country. However, Tamara is soon lonely and longing to return home.

Then a travelling library arrives in the village, bringing with it a mysterious leather-bound book lock with a gold clasp and padlock. What Tamara discovers within its pages takes her breath away and everything starts to change in the most unexpected of ways…

My Thoughts:

I’m not going to lie, this books cover grabbed my attention and refused to let go. I am very guilty of judging books by their cover – if I don’t love their cover or there isn’t something beautiful artistic about a cover, then I tend overlook it; but this one, this book, had shimmering, elegant tentacle like arms – invisible to the rest everyone in the store except me – which reached out, coiled around my brain and refused to let go. I was hooked on the book before I had even picked it up.

Double whammy – it’s by the same author who wrote P.S. I love you which is basically on of my all time favourite movies and gave me the overwhelming urge to drop everything and fly over to Ireland.

I really loved this story; I love the elements of ‘magic’ – or the unexplainable – I loved the elements of reality mixed with scandal and mystery. It was one of those stories that you can quite easily become immersed in. I found myself needed to know what was going to happen next; I found myself needing to know what had happened in the past; and I found myself speculating on how the story was going to wrap up because toward the end you start trying to piece it all together and then you get to what I could only feel was a completely unexpected but well executed end of the story. I was left with a closed book and in awe of the ending. (I love twisted endings; that’s why I love Jodi Picoult books so much!)

The twists and turns within the story are gripping and unexpected. It’s a beautiful book a beautiful story and contains some really though provoking and inspiring messages. There were countless times when I would read a line and think to myself just how relevant or important that message was to me and it’s really reawakens that love of reading and writing.

Kerri Carrie Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

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To-Do List: Books

So apparently I’m back in the business of reading books. For a while there I didn’t want to pick up a book, I didn’t want to look at a book, I pretty much didn’t want to hear the word “book” being used. For some reason, every time I picked up a book and started reading the very first line, I would involuntarily start yawning and occasionally make audible noises similar to that of someone groaning because they are completely and utterly bored out of their damn mind. Essentially I was. Even the most exciting of books that I have read before, the classics that I truly love, were doing nothing for me. I just didn’t want to read.

There came a point in time, somewhere between seeing the second Hunger Games movie and last month when I decided I couldn’t wait any longer and I needed to know how the whole thing ended. I hadn’t read the first two books, I have only seen the movies, but the next part to the movie franchise is taking far too long (in my mind) and I quite simply needed to know what happened next. So I bought Mockingjay and painstakingly pushed myself to read the whole damn book. Essentially the book is how I imagined it to be so it wasn’t an overly difficult read, it’s just because my mind was so closed off to reading that I had to push myself to keep reading. I’m almost certain there’s at least one page in that book that I just sort of glanced over rather than reading it properly.

Either way, it helped. Since reading Mockingjay, I went on to read Cecelia Ahern’s  The Book of Tomorrow as well as Douglas Adam’s The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy. By read, I mean, I SUPER READ, because I managed to get through both books in 3 days. I’m not a fast reader, I never have been, so reading 2 books in such a short amount of time is an accomplishment.

To keep the momentum going, I’ve compiled a list of books that I have on my bookshelf that are yet to be read plus some books that I have just purchased (my birthday is coming up! It’s a present to me!) that I need to get through before the year is out!

First of all the books I already have:

Carole Matthew That Loving Feeling

Bridie Clark The Overnight Socialite

Jodi Picoult The Storyteller

 

The books I have just purchased from Book Depository

Giovanna Fletcher You’re the One that I want

Giovanna Fletcher Billy and Me

AG Howard Splintered

AG Howard Unhinged

Cecelia Ahern How to Fall in Love

Does anyone have any other book-reading suggestions?

 

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#100DaysHappy

Since finishing up with University last year, life has been somewhat up and down; more down than up really. With finishing up with studying it was time to find a job and after a month passed and then another month passed life just sort of got worse and worse. There’s only so many rejection e-mails a person can handle before it really starts to get them down. On top of all of that, I also lost complete focus in the gym and with my diet to the point that I can’t even force myself to drive to the gym; I just don’t want to be there, I don’t want to care, I don’t want to think about it, I just don’t want to know.

Basically, I’ve got that big black cloud hovering above me and it’s getting the better of me. I don’t want to let that be the case, I want to take back control of my own life and try to reenergize and re-motivate myself to exist in the world again as an actually human being rather than just a blob that float haphazardly through space.

Unfortunately for me, I chose a great week to take on this challenge. I was struck down with a cold last Monday and by Saturday I had lost my voice. It is now Tuesday and I am only just barely able to talk. In fact, I went to the shop earlier today and the sales assistant who was helping me gave me a sympathetic story about how she just got over her bout of laryngitis. So apparently this is actually going around. Excellent.

Never the less, I figure baby steps will be the way to go this week; well I guess it will be the goal for the 100 days, but I will endeavour to make positive steps and make them happy ones with the intention of getting happy!

Day 1 of #100DaysHappy

Get Organised!

I am horribly unorganised and it is probably contributing the problems I’m having. If I write things down and visually see them in front of me, maybe some of the stress I’m under will be relieved!

Weekly Planner

I purchased a planner from Typo (Cotton On) earlier today. This one was only $14.95 and I love the design; it was between this one and a more expensive one but I am currently obsessed with tattoo art and Day of the Dead/Sugar skulls – basically I had to have this planner! The pages are covered with patters and scribble-art work as well, so it really clicked with me!

Food & Fitness Journal

I’ve seen the Fitbook in Rebel sport every time I go in there and I’ve often umm’d and ahh’d about whether or not I should get it. Today I just figured, why not give it a go; I COULD make one myself, but this is less fussy and it’ll just force me to focus on the content rather than trying to make a pretty one myself. This one was $23.95 from Rebel Sport.

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Organisation Dilemmas

Over the weekend, the guy and I decided to rearrange the lounge room in anticipation for when we do a bit of home renovations and throw up a new wall to divide some of the space we have. With that rearrangement came the prospect of new bookshelves as well as having to take everything off the pre-existing shelving units, move the units, and then put everything back on the units. The guy knows perfectly well that re-shelving everything is my job and my job only.

If it were up to him, everything would just be put on the shelves with SOME consideration for where everything should go, but not an in-depth consideration of where things go and WHY they should go there.

You can see where this is going, I’m sure.

Half the battle during our move around was the prospect of getting new furniture, bookshelves and such. I’m not one to turn down a new bookshelf, because new bookshelves means MORE BOOKS! However, when it was posed to me that the new bookSHELF would be going on one side of the unit, I abruptly pointed out that that wouldn’t work because there needed to be new bookSHELVES either side. BECAUSE YOU JUST DON’T MESS WITH EQUILIBRIUM! My brain cannot fathom having ONE bookshelf on ONE side because then it throws out the balance on the other side. There has to be TWO. Fortunately, that idea changed after we got a new speaker set, so I wasn’t all that concerned. It did however become an issue again in the bedroom because the guy suggested we get a narrower set of drawers to go next to our current set of drawers and I vetoed that on the grounds that it would be, once again, messing with the equilibrium.

However, here I sit on the couch, staring at the shelving units we have, trying to figure out how everything needs to be. I have to consider the weight limit of each shelf; I have to consider keeping all the books by particular authors together; I have to consider how to keep a balance between one side of the unit and the other; and I have to make sure that when I sit on the couch everything just ‘works’ because if it doesn’t ‘work’ and I’m sitting there trying to watch a movie, something is going to irk me in the corner of my eye.

Right now, I’m considering whether having on side dedicated to ‘entertainment’ (DVD’s, subwoofer and a collection of pop vinyl toys) and one dedicated to books and reading is going to work. It’s not. I can tell you right now, because the book side is also home to board games, which technically fall under the jurisdiction of ‘entertainment’.

So. Either I was really good at Feng Shui in a previous life, OR I was bat-shite-crazy, with OCD, control issues, and a high chance of being institutionalised.

Please tell me I’m not the only one who gets anxiety when trying to organising shelves?!

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