admin – The Book Tea

Author: admin

The Artist’s Way

Posted on May 18, 2020 by admin

Recently I came across the idea of “morning pages” from a Youtube video. I had heard that writing in the morning was a great way to access creativity. So I googled “morning pages” and came across The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, a book older than me. I’ve always been interested in writing and would definitely say I’m a little blocked creatively. I decided to see for myself if the lessons in the book could help me find my most creative self. I feel like this is important, especially in this time of pandemic when it is easy to get blocked creatively from an overwhelming anxiety about the world. So, while everything around us seems to be mostly chaos I’ve decided to turn within and give The Artist’s Way a try. Every morning I am supposed to write three longhand pages about whatever comes to mind. I am also to take myself out on an “artist’s date” once a week. This second part might be a little challenging given the current situation, but I guess that will just need to be another exercise in creativity. Lastly, every week has different tasks to accomplish to help unlock the artist within. So, here we go. 12 weeks. A lot of writing. Probably some hand cramps and hopefully at least one creative breakthrough.

Here’s my creativity contract taken directly from the book:

“I, Rianne, understand that I am undertaking an intensive, guided encounter with my own creativity. I commit myself to the 12-week duration of the course. I commit to weekly reading, daily morning pages, a weekly artist date, and the fulfillment of each week’s tasks.

I further understand that this course will raise issues and emotions for me to deal with. I commit myself to excellent self-care, adequate sleep, diet, and exercise, and pampering for the duration of the course.

Signed,

Rianne

May 18, 2020

Review: Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

Posted on July 3, 2018 by admin

By the end of it all I just assumed no one ever told the truth, and that was when I started lying too.

I have been stuck in a reading rut for a little over a month now. I wanted to read but couldn’t tell what I was in the mood for and none of the books on my shelves appealed to me. Finally, a walk around a book store and picking up a book with a cute cover brought me back to reading. Luckiest Girl Alive caught my eye. The cover said it is soon to be a movie from Reese Witherspoon and I love me some Reese. This book is a good fit for a reading rut because it isn’t a difficult read. I got through it pretty quickly and it’s set in New York. For some reason I love books and shows set in NYC, even though I have never visited.

Luckiest Girl Alive tells the story of TifAni FaNelli (weird name I know). She is a woman living in New York who works as an editor at The Women’s Magazine, a thinly veiled version of Cosmo. She will soon marry a rich, handsome blue blood. Although she seems to have it all, Ani has a tragic past involving her attendance at the private Bradley School more than a decade before. Her past threatens to ruin her carefully crafted perfect life. The book explores those secrets she tries to hide.

I liked this book. It isn’t the best book I’ve read by any means but it has a generally good pace and a few good plot points that kept me interested. But, the characters fell a little flat. While there is a bit of a twist I expected something bigger and more shocking toward the end. Instead the book just ended, leaving me wanting. Ani is not a likable character, in fact she is a rather superficial mean girl. This doesn’t bother me as much as it does others. Honestly, we don’t get enough viewpoints from characters that aren’t likable. The problem with Ani is that she has legitimate reasons for being the way she is. But the author tends to gloss over some of her deeply ingrained insecurities. This leaves us with a surface view of Ani as a person. This is bothersome because the book is from Ani’s perspective. Even if the other characters don’t get to see her real inner turmoil, the reader should. There were glimmers of deeper characterization but the writing never quite got there.

Despite some flaws, the writing is decent. The events are tragic and I didn’t see them coming right away, although the hints spread throughout the book come off as a bit too deliberate. This is a good summer read for when you want to read but aren’t in the mood for difficult dialogue or complex characters. The addition of an essay written by the author about her real life experience, which informed a heavy event in the book, moved me more than the entire book that preceded it. Originally published in Lenny Letter, I recommend giving the essay What I Know by Jessica Knoll a read even if you don’t pick up her book. Luckiest Girl Alive is a good simple read as long as you don’t expect too much from it.

Summer Reads 2018

Posted on June 21, 2018 by admin

Happy Summer Solstice! In honor of the first day of summer here are the books I plan to read this summer. I’m being a bit ambitious here with nine books. I might read a few more because some are the start of a series. If I like the book I’ll likely read the next books in the series before some of my other picks. Let me know if you have any thoughts on my tbr list or have any other recommendations. I live somewhere with a pool this year so here’s to pool side reading and a summer full of books!

Yes Please by Amy Poehler

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Erotic stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal

The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

Unpopular Opinion: Ready Player One is Decent At Best

Posted on April 26, 2018 by admin

I’ll preface this review by stating that I am not a gamer in any sense of the word. Many people have tried for years to get me to like video games and no one has been successful yet. That being said, Ready Player One is a gamer geek’s wet dream. I picked up the book thanks to the recommendation of a friend and the hype surrounding the new movie. I wanted to love this book but alas I’ll call the book decent at best.

Ready Player One tells the story of Wade Watts, a teenager in a dystopian future. The world has exhausted it’s resources and people have given up trying to save it. Their only escape is inside a virtual reality world known as the OASIS. As the economic center of this world, the OASIS provides both livelihoods and entertainment. The stage is set after the game’s creator, James Halliday, dies and leaves a hidden Easter egg inside the OASIS. The first person to find the egg inherits Halliday’s entire fortune and a controlling interest in his company, Gregarious Gaming Systems (GGS). Wade and other ‘gunters’ are pitted against the Innovative Online Industries (IOI) corporation, who seek to win the egg and take control over Halliday’s company.

The book is filled with a plethora of (mostly 80s) pop culture references. These references are the soul of the book. To find the hidden egg, Wade must sort through Halliday’s obsession with the pop culture of his childhood. The references point to three hidden keys and gates that will unlock the egg. Characters constantly make off hand references to all things pop culture. You’ll find everything from Monty Python to 80s music and old arcade games. As more of a literary nerd myself, a lot of the references flew over my head while still managing to be a bit too in your face. It felt a bit like a pop culture test that I was failing. The heavy handed use of pop culture could inspire interest in readers to do some research. Research is necessary because it is unlikely anyone below the age of forty knows most of this stuff. But it feels more like the author tries to show how vast his knowledge of the 80s is rather than inspire others. It may have come across a little better if the references were fewer and better integrated. Often it felt like the references were thrown in for fun with no actual benefit to the storyline. The references did inspire me to find a YouTube playlist with every song mentioned in the book. I listened to the music while reading and it set the mood and I got a better idea of the scene the book was setting.

As for the storyline itself, it falls a little flat if you remove the pop culture references. The idea of people living inside a game has promise, but the execution leaves something to be desired. Wade (gamer tag Parzival) is struggling to find the egg and prevent IOI from taking control of the OASIS. IOI seeks control of GGS because to them the OASIS is chiefly a moneymaking operation. They believe the OASIS is wasting its’ potential by offering free access. Payment is still required within the game so the OASIS isn’t exactly an egalitarian haven either. IOI isn’t actually explained enough to be anything other than a big bad. This storyline has interesting parallels with the current debate over net neutrality but the story never fleshes it out. IOI is only one example of a novel whose characterization isn’t as complete as it needs to be. I never actually cared enough about any of the characters to be invested in the story.

The story tries to leave with the takeaway that “reality is the only place you can find real happiness”. Unfortunately, the entire book shows the exact opposite. The romance plot thrown in to illustrate this point rang hollow to me. The main character getting the girl at the end exists as the sole evidence of a better reality. The female character exists solely as a trophy for Wade to win at the end (a myriad of problems with this, but I digress). It felt contrived. The entire book exists inside the OASIS. Then the reader must believe reality is better when at the end of the book, the world is still in shambles. For me, the struggle for the OASIS against IOI had the most potential. It is wasted in favor of a romance that fails to prove its point. In the end, Ready Player One is a fun read with promise, but falls short of the sci-fi novels it often references.

Review: Bossypants by Tina Fey

Posted on March 27, 2018 by admin

You’re nobody until someone calls you bossy.

I might just have to get this quote put on a t-shirt. As a woman who has often been called bossy since childhood, that quote alone spoke to me enough to pick up this book. Lucky for me, the book as a whole has even more to offer. Bossypants by Tina Fey is a fun, hilarious book of solid life advice with everything from improv tips to (sarcastic) beauty advice.

I flew right through this book. It grabs you and entertains the whole time. I am a lover of sarcasm. It is the brand of humor closest to my heart and quickest to my head. Bossypants is a sarcastic ride through Tina’s life and career. The book made me laugh aloud at least once a chapter with its quick sarcastic humor that accurately portrays the plight of women in the workplace. It might seem odd to find good life and career advice from a comedy writer, but this book is full of gems that any woman can use in her own life. Fey includes advice for work, management, acting, motherhood and everything in between. The humor makes you feel comfortable reading about Fey’s personal details without feeling like you’re prying. After this book I am not sure even TMZ could bring Tina down.

Fey makes her own life feel relatable to the reader despite being a mega successful star. She grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania. She had self esteem issues and boy trouble and a crappy job after college. But it is the way she talks about her awkward self that makes you almost forget you are reading the words of an Emmy award winner. Her take on her own life makes you feel like if someone as silly and awkward as Tina can make it, then why can’t I? I am not usually a fan of self-deprecation but this book might just change my mind. She is delightfully self-deprecating when it comes to her looks and smarts and how she managed to be this successful. Hitting the right amount of self-deprecation while still acknowledging your own success is hard to do, but she manages to make you laugh with her and at her at the same time.

Within all of the witty banter and humor are some seriously good tidbits of advice. One of my personal favorites is her advice to collaborate instead of compete. She states that as a woman in any business people will try to make you feel like you are in competition with the other women, but this perception isn’t true. This is great advice because so often we are made to feel like we must be better than everyone around us to get ahead. Especially as there are fewer women in power positions it gives the perception that only a certain number of women will make it, when in reality we can collaborate to help each other out. Our success does not diminish the success of those around us. I also enjoyed her advice to “do your thing and don’t care if they like it”. Fey doesn’t have to specify who the “they” is for the reader to come up with their personal version. All of us have a “they” at some point in our life that will try to keep us down or stop us from being ourselves. In the end, it is “doing your thing” that will lead to a fulfilled life and Fey is a testament to that truth.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for good life advice in a book that is sure to make you laugh. Fey shows how staying true to yourself and not being worried about what other people think just might be the key to a successful life and career.

Lessons in a Quarter Life Crisis: Welcome to My Blog

Posted on March 15, 2018March 29, 2020 by admin

Hi, I’m Rianne and I recently turned 24. It was a strange day for me. I ended up having a nice weekend spent with my family and friends. Yet, I spent the morning of my birthday alone (except for my dog) pinning book lists on Pinterest to help with a quarter life crisis. What makes me think I am having a quarter life crisis? Well that’s a bit of a story, but here we go.

This is the first birthday of my life that I have not looked forward to. I have always loved birthdays. In elementary school I used to have these giant parties where the whole class would show up. Over time my parties and friend group got smaller, but there was always something to look forward to, turning 18 and becoming an adult or turning 21 and being able to legally drink. My last birthday I turned 23, which may not seem like a big birthday, but for me, born on February 23, it was apparently my “golden year”. I was convinced that my golden year was going to be better than the rough half of a year I had after college graduation. But the reality is I feel like I wasted an entire year of my life. The core of my quarter life crisis stems from the fact I am not where I expected to be in life. I am sure many of you can relate.

For me the postgraduate life has been a roller coaster that looks nothing like what I expected. I graduated from the University of New Mexico with a BA in Political Science and Criminology. I was summa cum laude in my department and in the university. Everything looked like it was lined up. I had an easy time getting a job in my field soon after graduating. I know this is not typical. But the first job I applied to, as a campaign field organizer, panned out. Before I knew it I had packed my bags and headed to work in Arizona. To say my first post college job left me disillusioned would be an understatement. I worked with and met some great people, but the hours were long and grueling, the pay was rather low, and as anyone living in the United States can tell you, the political environment was toxic. I got screamed at on the phone, had doors shut in my face, and worked myself to exhaustion. In the end, the pay out didn’t feel as rewarding as expected. So I left Arizona and came back home to New Mexico, feeling rather battered by my first venture out of state. It turns out I didn’t much like my field with the current political environment and I freaked out. After the freak out I completely shut down, hence the “golden year” of wasted time. I have worked temp jobs and jobs online but I have not felt any real joy or fulfillment in what I am doing. I felt lost.

For some strange reason my 24th birthday hit me hard. At my age my mom was ready to give birth to me, our birthdays are about two weeks apart. I constantly compare myself to everyone on social media. I am sitting still while they move to a big city, get married, get into grad school or land their perfect job. I berate myself for not living up to the potential so many people told me I had during my school days. In those comparisons I lost sight of what mattered to me and what makes me happy. On Friday, I woke up and started to think about what I enjoy. I always envied people who have a deep passion for something. My boyfriend is a photographer and my sister is a professional dancer. I admire their persistence in following their craft even as the world tells them to get a ‘real job’, whatever that actually means. But I thought I didn’t have a passion. One day my boyfriend asked me what I felt passionate about and I couldn’t come up with an answer. I had subconsciously told myself that I needed to be miserable. But then it hit me, I do have a passion, it might not look the same as those around me, but it is a passion nonetheless, books. I have been a huge reader since the minute I learned to read around the age of four. I was reading giant Harry Potter books by the second grade. I tested post high school in reading comprehension in the first grade. I am and always will be a reader. Books are where my first love lies.

I realized I lost a bit of the spark for books after four years of not having time to read what I wanted during school. Reading became a chore and when school ended I wasn’t doing it as much anymore. Instead I am glued to my phone or binging Netflix. I need that to change. So we come full circle. This blog is for me to pull myself out of this existential funk. Books have always helped me in rough times and in them I will find my center, hence the decision to start my book blog. Although college dulled my desire for reading a bit, one thing I miss is the chance to read a book and have a good conversation about it. So I thought why can’t I have that still? I came to the conclusion that I could, but this time in an online format. So I am going to read and write about what I read and hopefully you’ll tell me what you think too. I am not doing this for money or attention; it’s possible that I may be screaming into the void. But this blog is for me. So thanks for reading my long and probably too personal first post. If you have any suggestions of books that helped you through a rough time and you think I should read please leave them in the comments. I am looking forward to reading with you!