However, I have this neat little trick that if I don't have a set schedule (5:30 am, 11pm sleep routine) I end up awake all hours of the night and cruising in and out of sleep through most of the day- my dad says I get this from his side, a bunch of night owls apparently. Sometimes, I like it. Most of the time it means I am cleaning at 2am or painting my nails at midnight, the list goes on and on. So although I was in bed at 10pm on a Friday last night, here I am wide awake on Saturday, blogging at 1am.
With that said, I wanted to share some recent good-ness that I have ventured across. Michael's grandparents gave me this cookbook recently
The key words you should be aware of are "low in sugar, fat, and calories" while simultaneously being able to eat the things you love most. It has everything from cocktails to salads to desserts and tomorrow I will be creating the "Rotisserie Chicken Noodle Soup" as well as "Oven Fried Zucchini Rounds" (picture below). One of my favorite healthy snacks as of late are "Zucchini Chips": thin slices of zucchini baked at 450 topped with parmesan cheese. They are delicious and easy, thank you Mom! So I figured, why not make them a little bit more delicious with some bread crumbs right?! I will post pictures and tell you how they were tomorrow.
For the good stuff, I want to talk about Anna Karenina and The Paris Wife.
I want to start by saying that like every good English degree holder, I felt that I had to read Anna Karenina because it was a historical book and it's a classic...yada yada yada. I will tell you know, don't go there unless you have to. Basically, it takes place when divorces were just beginning to surface but were still scarce enough to "ruin" a woman if she were to divorce her husband. Well, Anna happened to marry a man who seemed like a good fit instead of her soulmate, had a son with him, and they both led their separate lives but were bound together through law. Until the day she meets Alexey Oblonky, whom she falls passionately in love with and they create a love child who she ends up despising. Long story short, her husband won't grant her a divorce so she can be with Oblonsky (I get it, he wants her to suffer they way he did) and she is a jealous, emotional wreck so she throws herself in front of a train. Did I ruin it for you? I hope not because it took about a million pages to get that point.
In the end I was honestly hoping more than 1 person would commit suicide, is that incredibly terrible of me? The low down being, decisions in life were no longer made based on obligation in society but by personal preference, feelings, love.
Here is my recommendation: read The Awakening and call it a day. Similar principles behind the plot and I'm not sure it's even 100 pages long. Personally, it changed my life in college; a real eye-opener on women in society. It really does boggle my mind how different women were treated decades ago, can you imagine not being able to make your own decisions? We wear certain clothes so we won't be judged could you imagine marrying someone so you would be presented a certain way in public? Sounds like a big barf-fest to me.
The Paris Wife
I will tell you right now, READ IT. I was absolutely smitten with this novel. McLain's writing style was simply amazing and the way she referenced Hemingway was surreal.
I should preface this by saying that a year prior to reading this book, I had spent an entire semester studying Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Willa Cather so Hemingway's style and works were quite fresh in my memory. McLain tells the story of Hemingway's first wife and how simple and happy their life was before he became a household name. My favorite part is also the part where the book takes a serious turn when they make the trip to Spain while Hem is in the midst of writing a new book (later to be titled Sun Also Rises) and McLain literally takes you into the exact examples that Hem uses in this book which I can only give her serious credit for- she had to spend hours pouring over his work trying to decide which parts to write about. Unfortunately, the book doesn't end how I wanted it to, if you know Hem you know he has 4 wives so it really can't get great (even though it's non-fictional she stays pretty close to the border). Hem ends up being 4 women deep and one unhappy ending later but at the very least Hadley ends up happy with a man who believes in monogamy.
I know the summary was short but I really don't want to ruin any details, the book is simply amazing and you would be crazy not to pick it up. McLain interlaces romance, ambition, betrayal, the Expat years and more into one amazing page-turner.
Recommendation: Read Sun Also Rises and then Paula McLain's The Paris Wife. When you're done with that I know you will be eager to read A Moveable Feast and perhaps A Farewell to Arms. Please be prepared, Hem isn't the most cheery of writers as he led a very depressed life full of alcoholism.
I loved Sun so much that I wanted to name my daughter after Bret (come on, a woman with balls like that? How could I not?!). I have this weird fetish of wanting to name my children after books that I love (I also like Bennet after the Bennet sisters in Pride and Prejudice, really I can't choose just one sister to name a daughter after).
Okay, I feel good about this post. Let me know if you check out either reads.
Cheers!
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