The Weird Sisters

I started and finished The Weird Sisters so quickly but now it has taken me weeks to write about it...typical, right! The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown was sent to me by my lovely aunt who works at Tattered Cover Book Store (the absolutely most fabulous book store in the world, located in Denver).

It is about a family deeply entrenched in Shakespeare, enough so that each daughter is named after a Shakespearean lovely and, at times, takes on the traits of the character. Roselind, Cordelia and Bianca have very little in common--having no sisters myself I always see those of my friends who do have sisters as having a built in best friend, but these girls are not nearly so close. Anyway, the story is well told with each character growing, changing, and becoming better in the end.

Being the geeky English major who has at least one huge Anthology of Shakespeare on my bookshelf, I loved the connection to his plays, but that it wasn't overdone. (Well maybe a little at the beginning, but as the story goes on the characters take over the action). Brown gave enough background that if you hadn't read Shakespeare you could still enjoy the story completely, but if you happen to be a Shakespeare buff you will probably really love her book.

Eleanor Brown has an easy to read voice and a unique style. The story was told by a narrator that was a kind of omniscient combo spirit of all three girls. It was all told in 3rd person but at times would say things like, "If only we'd been there to talk to her, to sooth those fears, to tell her that no, we could not have done it without her all those years..."She was able to jump into each woman's fears, thoughts, and joys but still make you feel like the story was told by all three in unison. Neat work!

I think my favorite part was that each woman was struggling with a character flaw and in trying to overcome it, they each slide backward. It wasn't like, "Oh hey, I have learned that am a crazy control freak. Ok I won't do that anymore! Viola, all better!" Each woman comes to see what they need to change about themselves and in the end does a pretty good job of it, but not without backsliding, regret, confusion, and some necessary self-loathing. It made them all very real and easy to relate to.

I would recommend you check it out. I would lend you my copy but it is Autographed by the author thanks again to my lovely aunt, so paws off, get your own copy! Curl up with a cuppa tea and enjoy the story and voice of this delightful book.

Office Organization Please

I am weird. I know it, and I'm okay with it. Like I LOVE home improvement stores--the smell of the wood and the lighting area, oooh and the paint colors...ahhhh. And I also LOVE office supply stores--all the little stickies and I adore desks, and really all things organizing like baskets and files. I am not sure where these obsessions came from but luckily I enjoy looking at these stores but don't end up buying much.

Anyway, when we moved, the first area I wanted to work on was our office. We have a large room called an "office" but really limited space in it for office stuff (because of the gun safe, Ms. PacMan Machine, and 80's Pepsi Machine...don't ask). We also only have a small desk that I found in a thrift store in San Diego and have finally just refinished so I wasn't ready to part with it and buy a bigger desk like we probably need.

Here are some pictures of before:

While the top of my desk isn't usually this messy, I will in all honesty admit this picture was taken about 3 months after we moved in and I had been simply setting my computer on top of all the papers and crap. Now if someone had been coming over I would have smushed them all into a pile and possible shoved some of them into the filing cabinet but these are true before pictures, sad as they may be.





I took most of my inspiration from Better Homes & Gardens January magazine. Especially for the filing system that we now have in place, which includes an Inbox and files for Do Now, Do Later, and Pending. I also added a Receipts folder and then hanging bins for each of us and for Filing. I found some pretty fabric to go with my color scheme so I covered some cheap plastic hanging bins from Target with the fabric so they look nicer.

The other big help was a label maker. I love label makers (part of my organization fetish) and Honey gave me one for my birthday a few years back and I truly was SO excited. In the office I made labels for everything! Greeting cards, different types of paper like Cardstock, Photo Paper, etc, and for all our filing. If I ended up on a desert island, I might want to take a label maker, just so I would have something to keep myself entertained.

Greeting cards and stationary.

A folder for each type of paper.

Throughout the years I have collected about 15 different types of paper...don't ask me how. And before, they were all over the place getting shuffled around and making a mess of the shelf under the desk. So now I put them all in their own labeled folder in mesh bin so they can be easily found and now take up way less space. 

I wanted to find a way to keep the cords for my printer, iPhone, camera, and charger off my desk and out of my way when not using them. I have seen the great idea on Pinterest where people use binder clips to keep cords neat, but my desk edges wouldn't allow that so I rigged some tacks and twist-ties to make little holders for my printer cord and charger cord. Then I found a great little box at Target in their $1 section for all the other little cords that hang about.

And finally I added a calendar, little cork board and white board as well as a cover for my ugly, beat-up, filing cabinet. In the end this is how it looks...

Yes I am loving it! It also makes me feel way more productive and once something is neat and organized, it is easier to keep it that way. 

Let me know if you have any questions or if you have any further recommendations. Hopefully all my notes made sense!

The Marriage Plot

I am going to preface this, as my first book blog post, that I am not sure if my friends/family care what books I read and if I liked them or not. I know there are a few of you who do, and the rest probably won't read my book posts, which is totally fine. I just love books and love to talk about them--which is why I NEED a new book club--so here goes!

I always ask for books for Christmas and usually get at least one. Easy gift with maximum pleasure potential, right? This year the book on top of my list was The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides. I have read his two other books, The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex, so his new novel attracted my attention right away. Not to mention it was about love and an English major. I mean what's not to like?

I would recommend it if:

• You are/were an English major, especially fond of Victorian literature
• After college you were distressed at the thought of never hearing about Derrida again
• You absolutely love Jeffrey Eugenides
• You like books that end just as they should, but don't really shock/move you

I really wanted to love this book. I loved Middlesex (one of the few books I read more than once), I loved the Virgin Suicides.

It started out strong mixing the confusion of graduating college, going through a breakup, being a slightly unemployable English major graduate, and having undefined romantic feelings for a friend. All good things that I can relate to and Eugenides wove the stories and feelings together very well. The story was fluid and the characters were likable. Madeleine reminds me of myself though I hope I wasn't as naive as she is, but probably was more so.

The rest of the book was okay. I was fairly excited to read each night but it didn't keep me up later than it should. The character of Leonard interested me most in his battle being manic depressive, but he didn't get a lot of voice in the story and so we see him only through his Madeleine's eyes (which weren't all that open or worldly...yes very much like myself at 22). I would have loved to hear more about/from Leonard but at least he did keep the plot interesting.

Of course I won't give away the ending...I guess I will just say it was kinda a let down. No emotional punch. I am pretty sure Derrida would not approve of the book at all. (Completely off topic, the assignment I was most proud of in all my English college courses was inspired by Derrida. Maybe another reason I started off this book thinking it would be fabulous.)

So in the end I liked the book, but I would guess it isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea and it isn't my favorite of Eudenides. It is kinda strange to write a book review again, and I am confident my college professors wouldn't give me high marks, but it is fun!

(This is where Honey, my husband, would shake his head and call me a Nerd.)