BBBC: One Moment, One Morning

It is April 1st! Later this afternoon, Coach and I head off to Indianapolis for the Final Four festivities! I truly can not contain my excitement to see some of my beloved coach's wives and to make new friends while there!

This year's show will not be going down like last year (Wednesday; Thursday/Friday) but we still have some fun days and nights planned. I guess I can ensure that I am the first one in the hotel gym, since I have no excuses, lol!

For the month of March the Beauty Blogger Book Club read One Moment, One Morning by Sarah Rayner. This book was chosen by Rachel who blogs over at Love To Be Busy. Here is the synopsis of the book:

The Brighton to London line. The 07:44 train. Carriages packed with commuters. A woman applies her make-up. Another occupies her time observing the people around her. A husband and wife share an affectionate gesture. Further along, a woman flicks through a glossy magazine. Then, abruptly, everything changes: a man has a heart attack, and can't be resuscitated; the train is stopped, an ambulance called. For at least three passengers on the 07:44 on that particular morning, life will never be the same again. Lou witnesses the man's final moments. Anna and Lou share a cab when they realise the train is going nowhere fast. Anna is Karen's best friend. And Karen? Karen's husband is the man who dies. Telling the story of the week following that fateful train journey, One Moment, One Morning is a stunning novel about love and loss, about family and - above all - friendship. A stark reminder that, sometimes, one moment is all it takes, it also reminds us that somehow, and despite everything, life can and does go on.

 One Moment, One Morning is an emotional tale of love, friendship and loss as well as strength.Strength found within and between women, at that! The three women are involved in different emotional levels to the death, but in being brought together the incident allows them to examine their own lives in a different light and discover what is important and how they can make changes for the better.

Poignantly, this book had me mulling over so many things. First, it made me realize that I need to cherish those that I love on a more regular basis. Second, I questioned my calling in life, and my overall happiness in all the roles that I play. We only get one chance at this game called life, and I wonder(ed) how I may make my being more meaningful and support my family unit. Lastly, it made me think about becoming a mother and the struggles that will invariably ensue.  

This is no easy read, but it is one that I highly suggest. It will make you cry, laugh and rejoice. You will sympathize and pain for the three women, and then rejoice at the freedom that comes at the end!

Now, head on over the the other Members' blogs to see what they thought about the book!

Ashley - If You Give A Girl A Ring

Heather - Love To Be Busy

For the month of April we are reading "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. I chose this book after stumbling across Business Insider's "100 Books Everyone Should Read" list! This book is ranked #16 out of 100. I do see that it is a little long - sorry ladies - but it has received great reviews for many, many years! 

If you are a blogger, and are interested in joining our book club, please Contact Me to learn more. If you do not write a blog that is ok, because you can still join in on the fun!

Each month, one of the Beauty Blogger Book Club (BBBC) members will choose a book for the Club to read. At the beginning of the following month, we each write a book report/summary for our readers to enjoy and share the book for the following month!

Question of the Day: What did you think of "One Moment, One Morning?"

Michelyn Cynthia

BBBC: Beautiful Ruins

Wow! another month has passed which means, another book placed back on my bookshelf; technically archived on my Nook!

I was not surprised by the selection of this book, "A Beautiful Ruins," by Ashley of If You Give A Girl A Ring! See, she and her husband are avid travelers who recently returned from a trip to Italy! If you desire to visit Italy, head on over to her blog. Here are a few of her specific Italy-related posts: Food Lover's Guide to Rome; Being Venetian in Venice!; and Capri.

Ok, back to the book!

The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying.

And the story begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lot—searching for the mysterious woman he last saw at his hotel decades earlier.

What unfolds is a dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel, spanning fifty years and nearly as many lives. From the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Walter introduces us to the tangled lives of a dozen unforgettable characters: the starstruck Italian innkeeper and his long-lost love; the heroically preserved producer who once brought them together and his idealistic young assistant; the army veteran turned fledgling novelist and the rakish Richard Burton himself, whose appetites set the whole story in motion—along with the husbands and wives, lovers and dreamers, superstars and losers, who populate their world in the decades that follow. 

Gloriously inventive, constantly surprising, Beautiful Ruins is a story of flawed yet fascinating people, navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.

I will be really honest, at first I was not loving this book because it jumps between various story-lines which Jess Walter beautifully weaves together. This pregnant lady was merely overwhelmed with the various story-lines, but eventually got to a point where I could NOT put the book down; or rather, my Nook!

In tracking their journey, while also hopscotching through time and place, Jess Walter skillfully fills in the lives and loves of the characters we’ve met. I interpreted the title of the book, Beautiful Ruins, to mean that although life brings about many hardships, in the end they come together for a true purpose. Jess Walter does a fabulous job balancing his writing style with a mixture of pathos and comedy which seemingly stirs the heart. The amusement also rescues us from the all too human pain that is the heart of this complex and ever-evolving novel - and life, in general.
Now, go on and head on over the the other Members' blogs to see what they thought about the book!

Ashley - If You Give A Girl A Ring

Heather - Love To Be Busy

For the month of March we are reading "One Moment, One Morning" by Sarah Rayner. This book was chosen by Heather. I really look forward to reading this book. The BBBC has really widened my bookshelf - especially with books that I most likely would not have chosen on my own!

If you are a blogger, and are interested in joining our book club, please Contact Me to learn more. If you do not write a blog that is ok, because you can still join in on the fun!

Each month, one of the Beauty Blogger Book Club (BBBC) members will choose a book for the Club to read. At the beginning of the following month, we each write a book report/summary for our readers to enjoy and share the book for the following month!

Question of the Day: What did you think of "Beautiful Ruins?"

Michelyn Cynthia

BBBC: A Mad, Wicked Folly

It is the first of the month which means only one thing - Beauty Blogger Book Club (BBBC) January Review!

 

 Oh boy, now I may be slightly biased since I picked the first book in this new series, Beauty Blogger Book Club, but "A Mad, Wicked Folly" did not disappoint. Honestly, I read this book in 3 days!

Welcome to the world of the fabulously wealthy in London, 1909, where dresses and houses are overwhelmingly opulent, social class means everything, and women are taught to be nothing more than wives and mothers. Into this world comes seventeen-year-old Victoria Darling, who wants only to be an artist—a nearly impossible dream for a girl.

After Vicky poses nude for her illicit art class, she is expelled from her French finishing school. Shamed and scandalized, her parents try to marry her off to the wealthy Edmund Carrick-Humphrey. But Vicky has other things on her mind: her clandestine application to the Royal College of Art; her participation in the suffragette movement; and her growing attraction to a working-class boy who may be her muse—or may be the love of her life. As the world of debutante balls, corsets, and high society obligations closes in around her, Vicky must figure out: just how much is she willing to sacrifice to pursue her dreams?

I adored every single moment and page of this book! If you enjoy historical pieces or even smitten with Downton Abbey, then this is a book for you!

Vicky Darling, the protagonist in this story, embodies so many fabulous qualities - drive, determination, and a touch of naivety - that has you squirming in anguish for her given the times.  As the summary above states, Miss Darling gets thrown out of boarding school for posing nude in an all-male art class she's not supposed to be a part of. Her parents swiftly bring her back home, only to marry her off which is not part of her life plans. Miss Darling has desires to enroll in art school in hopes of becoming a famous artist, not merely a wife! Oh, and this is where the plot thickens because she falls in love with a working-class male and even joins the suffragettes, aka the female protestors endeavoring to win the right to vote.

I feel like I have spilled the beans about this story, but honestly have not. Obviously, I loved this book! Ending I will share that Miss Darling does claim her independence, by not marrying her parents' chosen husband and confessing her love for the commoner! Now, did she ever get into the art school?

Read the book to find out!

Now, go on and head on over the the other Members' blogs to see what they thought about the book!

Ashley - If You Give A Girl A Ring

Heather - Love To Be Busy

Jennifer - All Dressed Up in Love

For the month of February we are reading "Beautiful Ruins" by Jess Walters. This book was chosen by Ashley

If you are a blogger, and are interested in joining our book club, please Contact Me to learn more. If you do not write a blog that is ok, because you can still join in on the fun!

Each month, one of the Beauty Blogger Book Club (BBBC) members will choose a book for the Club to read. At the beginning of the following month, we each write a book report/summary for our readers to enjoy and share the book for the following month!

Question of the Day: What did you think of "A Mad, Wicked Folly?"


Michelyn Cynthia

Beauty Blogger Book Club

Happy New Year's Beauties! I have started yet a new series for you in 2015 - the Beauty Blogger Book Club!

After graduate school, I dived into reading for pleasure which was so pleasurable given five years of scholarly reading consuming my life. During that time, I honestly could not pick up a book for pleasure without my eyes crossing! I know, it is horrible to admit, but honest to goodness truth. Instead, I read many magazines and blogs for pleasure.

Well, it has been two years since I received my doctorate, and I have read many books for pleasure but I still desire to read even more books.

So what better way to accomplish this goal than to start a blogger book club!?!

I have recently teamed up with two of my blogger friends, If You Give a Girl A Ring and All Dressed Up in Love to launch this new series.

For our inaugural book I have chosen, "A Mad, Wicked Folly" by Sharon Biggs Walter.

If you are a blogger, and are interested in joining our book club, please Contact Me to learn more. If you do not write a blog that is ok, because you can still join in on the fun!

Each month, one of the Beauty Blogger Book Club (BBBC) members will chose a book for the Club to read. At the beginning of the following month,we will each write a book report/summary for our readers to enjoy and share the book for the following month!

Michelyn

Konfession Part Deuce

Last year I konfessed my love for the Kardashian family when I reviewed their book, Kardashian Konfedential. Well, a lot can occur in a year. I am not saying that I despise the Kardashian krew, but I am somewhat over them except for Khloe and Lamar :) Coach Kemp and I actually stole some of their ideas for our fabulous e-session a few months back....

bellowblue.com

But this is not why I am posting! I have another confessions, this time with a 'C.' I have a serious problem with trilogies. It is not so much the actual trilogy but the anticipation and angst that comes with reading trilogies. Jeeze, this post has many confessional parts but I must also confess that during my graduate career, my leisure reading pretty much consisted of gossip magazines, espn.com, USAToday, and of course my blogs (that is one reason why I started blogging). Since defending my dissertation and commencement in May, I have read (and re-read) many books including:

Currently Reading 3rd book

So my problem which I recently explained to my new co-worker (she probably thinks I am somewhat strange for my confession), is that while reading the third book in the triology I cannot contain myself and have succumed to reading the last chapter while in the middle of the last book. This is so tragic, I know, but I merely cannot handle the anticipation of the conclusion.

What is my deal?

Do I need to visit a doctor? (LoL)

It is really killing me. I truly cannot fight the urge to know what is going to happen at the end. This really cannot be sane! Does anyone else do this? Please say yes.

I must also note that I am having this "problem" while watching series with my husband. We haven't finished the last season of "OZ" because I demanded that Coach Kemp tell me the conclusion, which he did and then I decided that I could not longer proceed with the series. We recently finished the 4th season of "The Wire" and I again asked him about the conclusion. I think he has caught on to my antics and has refused to summarize the plot. Little does he know, that I ahve already searched the internet to learn what happends. I am oh so resourceful :)

Michelyn