Tina Fey's Bossypants

I just started reading this last night, and I'm already half way through the book. This should tell you something because, even though I am somewhat of a fast reader, I was sleeping a majority of the time between then and now.

I was especially interested in reading this because I have recently become hooked on her show 30 Rock thanks to Netflix. There are certainly many similarities between Liz Lemon and her actual life, and I have yet to go more than a few minutes of reading without laughing aloud. It can be a little crude at times, but always in the funniest way possible.

Here's a brief excerpt from her commentary on the "ideal American body image":

“But I think the first real change in women’s body image came when JLo turned it butt-style. That was the first time that having a large-scale situation in the back was part of mainstream American beauty. Girls wanted butts now. Men were free to admit that they had always enjoyed them. And then, what felt like moments later, boom—Beyoncé brought the leg meat. A back porch and thick muscular legs were now widely admired. And from that day forward, women embraced their diversity and realized that all shapes and sizes are beautiful.

Ah ha ha. No. I’m totally messing with you. All Beyonce and JLo have done is add to the laundry list of attributes women must have to qualify as beautiful. Now every girl is expected to have: Caucasian blue eyes, full Spanish lips, a classic button nose, hairless Asian skin with a California tan, a Jamaican dance hall ass, long Swedish legs, small Japanese feet, the abs of a lesbian gym owner, the hips of a nine-year-old boy, the arms of Michelle Obama, and doll tits. The person closest to actually achieving this look is Kim Kardashian, who, as we know, was made by Russian scientists to sabotage our athletes.”

If you're looking for a fun, funny, easy read, this is a must. If it doesn't have you laughing or at least smiling ridiculously to yourself by a few pages in, something might be wrong with you.

(Or you might just be a little classier than I am, so I guess that's ok too.)

Now Reading: Freakonomics

Things you always thought you knew but didn't.

"Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime?"


Ok, I'll be honest here: Some of you may be LESS than interested in this book. I'm majoring in Marketing with an Economics minor, so this stuff is kind of interesting to me. I have lately even wished I would have thought sooner to just do a double major in Econ.

Either way, I can PROMISE you that it's not some boring "Business book". Even those lose my interest after a few pages. This book is full of real life situations that are not only interesting to read about, but also make you feel like you're gaining something intellectually.

For example, is anyone aware that many real estate agents may not be getting you the BEST price when selling your house, because for every extra $10,000 you earn on your home, their commission only increases by, on average, a mere $150? How about that when looking to buy a house, you should be weary of phrases like "charming" and "good neighborhood" and "well maintained"?

I don't blame you if you're still not interested... but if you are, even a little bit, I'd definitely recommend this book!!! The authors also recently released Superfreakonomics, so I'll be needing to check that out soon as well.



(Side Note: New recipe post on Wonderland Kitchen for PEANUT BUTTER PIE! If you like peanut butter, I promise you'll like it. It's the perfect cool summer dessert, and really not too hard to make!)

Book Recommendation: Go Ask Alice

Go Ask Alice, penned by an "Anonymous" author, is reportedly a real life recollection of the events of a young girl's life in the late 1960's. Many have questioned this, and it has since been categorized as a "fiction". It is said that this book was originally written, and not found, as a "warning" of the perils of drug use, but it comes off as nothing more than a beautiful and often heartbreaking story of the struggles of this young girl.

The story is written in diary format from the view of an unnamed girl going through what many people experience in high school: self image, acceptance, peer pressure, sexuality, and so much more. She receives her first hit of LSD unknowingly in a Coke can at a party and is there after thrown into a roller coaster of drug abuse, recovery, and relapses, as well as her many relationships with not only boys, but also friends and family.


Go Ask Alice is a VERY quick read. Given that it's written from the point of view of a struggling teenager, it is no literary master piece, but it does elicit such empathy on behalf of the author. The imagery is so wonderful that you cannot help but feel as though you understand exactly what she is going through at any point, despite perhaps never having done any of these drugs at all. I definitely recommend it: to teenagers, college students, twenty somethings, even middle aged parents dealing with their own troublesome teens.

Advice: If you have trouble starting out with it, believe me, just keep reading. Some parts can seem too brief while others may appear to ramble on, and some entries may leave you in confusion until they are explained a few pages later. It does all eventually come together, and is followed by an epilogue which is merely a small paragraph that may be the most emotionally loaded part of the whole book.

Book Recommendations

I always see people asking for suggestions of different books to read, and I LOVE reading so I thought a recommendation post might be fun. I read all sorts of stuff, but among my favorites are autobiographies of anyone a little bit scandalous, Sci-Fi stuff involving Vampires/etc, and Murder-Mystery type fiction (A lot of detective type stuff). Unless you're really curious, or actually looking for some books to read, I don't blame you if you don't make it through this whole post.

For Autobiographies/Memoirs:

The Dirt- Motley Crue
Kiss and Make Up- Gene Simmons
TommyLand- Tommy Lee
The Heroin Diaries- Nikki Sixx
Tweak- Nic Sheff
A Piece of Cake- Cupcake Brown
(This one is an AMAZING story. This girl was abandoned, shifted from foster home to foster home, raped, addicted to drugs, got pregnant as a teenager, and even worked as a prostitute, and ended up as a very successful lawyer!)
A Wolf At the Table- Augusten Burroughs
(Same guy from 'Running with Scissors. Intense, bizarre, emotional, but very good.)



Fantasy/Sci-Fi Books: (Nowhere near as "Geeky" as it may sound)

The House of Night Series- P.C. and Kristin Cast
(This is more or less like Twilight mixed with Harry Potter. Directed more towards younger readers, but entertaining none the less.)

The Sookie Stackhouse Series (Starts with "Dead Until Dark")- Charlaine Harris
(This is the "Southern Vampire" series True Blood is based off of. I started the books first, and as expected, they're much more detailed than the show, and I think I like them a little better.)

Author Mario Acevedo: Starting with The Nymphos of Rocky Flats, these books are pretty much about anything and everything supernatural, all rolled into one. Vampires, Zombies, Aliens, Werewolves, etc etc.
(Not to mention, as you probably could have guessed by the title, they've got a very sexual element to them.)

For Murder/Mystery/Detective Fiction:

Anything by Stuart Woods or James Patterson.

Woods' books have gotten a little more brief and not as good lately, but if you start with some of his earlier Stone Barrington or Holly Barker books, they're fantastic. Lately most of his separate series have kind of mixed together. For Patterson- I LOVE the Alex Cross series, and there are like a million books in that.

Tess Gerritsen is also a great author with books like The Bone Garden and The Surgeon.

Other:

Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns- Khaled Hosseini
(These are set in the middle east and are SO good, and I can almost guarantee they will make you cry. I truly think they are must reads, though.)

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs- Chuck Klosterman
(Pop Culture commentary at it's finest)

ANYTHING BY CHUCK PALAHNIUK. Seriously, I love it all. But two of my favorites were Lullaby and Invisible Monsters.

Candy- Luke Davies
(Yeah, like the Heath Ledger/Abbie Cornish movie, only WAY better.)

My Horizontal Life and Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea- Chelsea Handler
(This woman is ridiculously funny. And these are all real life stories. If you watch her show you'll appreciate them even more because you realize the crazy things she says about her life are all true. She also just released Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang, but I haven't read that yet.)

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell- Tucker Max
(Male equivalent of Chelsea Handler, only maybe more of an asshole. You're either going to be completely offended by this or laugh so hard when you read it that you almost pee your pants. Go to TuckerMax.com for an idea of the "stories" you'll be reading. He also releases his 2nd book, Assholes Finish First, in September.)

And just another reminder that the giveaway is still going on!

I'm sure you didn't notice, but I finally decided to spell giveaway without the hyphen. Yes, I am that OCD that every time I made a post I wondered if that was how I should do it or not, and finally decided I didn't like that, and went back and changed it in all recent posts. Haha. This is my life.