Blogger Book Club - Olive Kitteridge

Welcome, Welcome!!
It's that time again!
Time for the Blogger Book Club link-up!

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For October 2013, the BBC decided to read and review Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout!

My thoughts?
I liked it! I really, really liked it! However, I did not love it.

I'm glad I read it, but it's not a book I'd necessarily read a second time.

The book actually feels like 13 short stories messed together only because Olive Kitteridge is featured in each story. Sometimes she's the main character and sometimes she's a supporting character, but all of the stories involve her in some way.

Now I don't mind a story with a depressing tone. I don't even mind a story that doesn't have a happy ending. However, this was a book full of 13 stories with depressing tones and no happy endings. After story 7 that became a bit frustrating and annoying.

What I did find interesting is that even though I was starting to feel depressed during the book, I also was able to compare Olive to people I know. She isn't a likeable character, but she reminded me so much of someone I know that I was starting to feel invested in the stories. The same goes for many of the supporting characters, I felt like I knew them! They were my old classmates, my extended family, my coworkers, and neighbors.

Having said all of that, my favorite part of the book was how well written it was! Elizabeth Strout is a wonderful writer! There were so many beautiful passages and the way some of her sentences flowed together, oh I just loved it! She made the characters feel real and she made you care about their stories, even when they were depressing the hell out of you!

So the big question - Would I recommend it?
Yes, but only to those who can handle depressing stories, because this book is 13 of them conveniently bundled up into one!

What did YOU think of Olive Kitteridge?! Link-up at the very bottom of the post! Link-up will be open for TWO weeks!

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For November's Book Club pick I decided to choose a book that is actually about to become a movie!

 The Book Thief by Markus Zusak! 

GoodReads description:

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.  

The movie The Book Thief is actually set to come out in theaters November 8th! Which is why this is BBC's November book! I'm planning on seeing The Book Thief in theaters Thanksgiving weekend!
Here's the trailer!

Can't wait, can't wait! The November link-up will be a little bit early because of the holidays!
November Blogger Book Club link-up will be Tuesday, November 26th!

Now link up your October BBC reviews on Olive Kitteridge below! :)

You're A Wizard, Harry!

I honestly had to contemplate for a full day what I was going to write about for this Harry Potter link up.
I LOVE HARRY POTTER!
Because of this, I could think of a million and one things to write about involving Harry. Yea, I'm that girl.

However way on back in June, I went to Universal Studios and visited The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It was amazing and I was seriously on a high all day long.
I know not everyone has been there and some even have no plans to go, so I decided for this link up I'm going to give you ten reasons why YOU NEED TO GO.

ONE >>
This is what you see when you walk into The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

The sign says "Please Respect The Spell Limits".. I die.

TWO >>
The train conductor who never breaks character.

Actually, all of the people working in the park never break character! It's unbelievable how much they act like they are actually in Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. It's really awesome.

THREE >>
The awesome HP treasures you can find simply waiting in line for a ride. 

Some of the pictures in this room move and talk to each other. Like full conversations between the paintings..

Top Left says "Notice from the Department of Magical Transportation".. I LOVED that!

FOUR >>
Everything about the Hogwarts castle. Everything.

FIVE >>
The hologram rooms in Hogwarts.
Dumbledore talks to you in one room..

And Harry, Ron, and Hermione talk to you in the next room.. And then they "accidentally make it snow" and then foam comes down on your head like snow.. And then Hermione yells at Ron. It's magical.

SIX>>
Hogsmeade.

Universal Studios Online has the coolest little virtual tour of Hogsmeade if you're interested! Click HERE! 

SEVEN >>
The cute shops and souvenirs.

EIGHT >>
Butter Beer. Oh my gosh, so delicious! A girl working at the gate told us to get our Butter Beer frozen and so we did and it's the best way to get it. So trust me, if you go, get it frozen. YUM YUM YUM!

NINE >>
The way you can see Hogwarts from almost everywhere else in the park!

TEN>>
WANDS & OLLIVANDERS!

Okay, we loved everything about The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, BUT one of the best things was going into Ollivanders. They only let 25ish people in at a time and they put on a little interactive show in there before they let you go into the place where you can buy wands. You aren't allowed to take pictures or anything inside because it's that awesome.

It's sort of a long wait, but do what we did and grab some Butter Beers while you stand in line and it'll be fine. Because this is a MUST. The little interactive show they put on is just.. beyond words.

Or if you just want to buy a wand.. clicky here.

Then when you get your wand, you can duel with me..

So now you know why you need to go.
Honestly, I could make this list a lot longer, but I'm cutting it short because it's getting rather long.. Just trust me and go.

Also, to feed your addiction, go read more Harry Potter posts today.. Just trust me. :)
Oh and remember to tell Kalyn, Morgan, Sara, Melissa, and Ashten what geniuses they are for making this link up. Let's write about Harry Potter every month! Yay :)

Wishin and Hopin..

As you're reading this I'm either driving home from St. Louis or I'm already home and missing St. Louis. (read about my spontaneous adventure here)

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I interrupt this blog post with an announcement.. The October Blogger Book Club link up will be this Thursday, October 31st. I know it's Halloween, so you can link up on Friday or whenever. It'll stay open for 2 weeks (assuming i can get the linky thing to work this time).

I just finished the book and I loved it!
I also think I might have chosen the book for November already. I'm a little excited because it seems to be a little bit more of what everyone wants to read! (although, i've loved stepping outside my box)

Back to your schedule programming.. 

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Since I'm a little sad I started thinking of things that make me happy.
The holidays make me happy. October-December are the best months, ever.
Everyone is all full of holiday cheer and there are tons of opportunities to see you families and there's CHRISTMAS MUSIC in every store and on every radio station.
Ah, I'm already cheering up just thinking about it!

Because it is holiday season, it's time to make a Christmas List..
Now, this isn't necessarily my whole list, but here are a few things I'm LOVING right now and wouldn't mind finding under a tree.. I'm just saying.. Hint hint to my family who reads my blog. Hint freakin hint.

Left: Kate Spade mug, because I mean.. duh. 
Right: I love so many of these Society6 iphone cases, but for some super strange reason I love this one the most. I have no idea why and I can't explain it to you, so don't ask!

Left: The mall in my city is currently waiting on the H&M store to open and I want this sweater. Like yesterday.. I really kind of want it in a mustard color, ya know, to pretend I'm fashionable.
Right: I've been looking for a reasonably priced gold watch for forever! Steph posted about one similar to this one and I fell in love! I need it, want it, gotta have it!

Left: I pretty much have to have this pillow cover. Actually, they have some of the best pillow covers ever. I laugh every time I think about having this one on my couch. I'm laughing now.
Right: I need this because I am such a Harry Potter nerd.

That brings us right into tomorrow's post!
Tomorrow I'll be joining some lovely ladies and we'll all be posting about Harry Potter.
Because.. duh.

Here's a sneak peek at tomorrow's post..

Mistakes, IUBB, and Spontaneity!

This has to be a QUICK weekend recap. I'll explain why at the end.

Friday.
I have no pictures because I don't want to remember. I had the best intentions for Friday. I was going to stay home, work on some blog posts, etc. etc.
Instead, I got talked into going out to the bars, where I met up with some old high school friends. That's where the night just turned weird. It became incredibly obvious why most of us aren't close friends anymore. So then I went home.
End Friday.


Saturday.
I spent most of the morning watching documentaries, because I'm an old lady now.
Then my sister and I went to the first IU Men's Basketball game of the season!

It was a special game because it was her college vs. my college. (mine won) #iubb
I also got to sit next to the cutest little boy and we chatted it up all night, then he didn't give me his number.. So now I'm heartbroken.

After the game we got some Taco Bell and I got to see my little brother's new room.
That Cardinals poster is basically the size of his entire wall, it's just hard to tell from this picture.
Clearly we hate the Cardinals in our family... Except that was me being sarcastic. In case you didn't catch that.

Then my sister and I went to our Aunt's and watched The Conjuring.

My favorite kind of horror movie! It scared me, it didn't make me want to vomit.
I just think the point of a horror movie is to scare someone, not to gross them out.


Sunday.
Okay so Sunday morning I got into my car and DROVE THE 4 HRS TO ST. LOUIS!!

HELLO SPONTANEITY!

I just decided that I had to be here while the Cardinals were playing in the World Series. Had to.

And so I came.
I stayed with my best friend, who you may remember from the last time I came to St. Louis (here and here)

We went to Paddy O's to watch the game. Along with half of the rest of St. Louis.

 Paddy O's is awesome because it's next door to Busch Stadium.

So once again, I'm in my happy place.
I also won't be leaving this happy place until tomorrow morning!
Game 5 in STL is tonight!!!

Co Cards!

Pretty Little Liars & Ravenswood. Boom.

Surprise!! I couldn't fall asleep last night.
Obvious reasons.

So after I finished game 1 of the World Series (i don't want to talk about it) I thought it'd be a good idea to clean up my DVR a bit. I knew there was no way in hell I'd be watching American Horror Story like I usually do on Wednesday nights, because.. No. Criminal Minds was also out of the running. Again, I hope for obvious reasons. So again.. No.

I went with safe.
I chose Pretty Little Liars and Ravenswood.

STOP READING NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ SPOILERS!  or if you just hate teen dramas

You've been warned. Sorry that I'm not sorry.

Let's start with this.. Does anyone have any idea what is actually going on in Pretty Little Liars anymore?! 
I feel like I need a cheat sheet.
Who is who? And who's good? Who's bad? Ali's alive? Is she the redcoat? Or who is redcoat? Or is Ali redcoat sometimes and sometimes it's someone else? What is the deal with Mona? Where did she go? Toby? Jason? Every hot guy who's ever been on the show?! Also, still confused about the whole Jenna thing. And don't even get me started on the whole Erza thing. (although, i love that plot twist! probably my favorite one on the show! i know i'm alone in this)

I mean we're in Season 4.. FOUR! Not only do I feel like we have no answers to any questions, I feel like the actual questions just keep piling on. And now I'm just.. confused.

To be perfectly honest, it's just kind of exhausting.
There are so many characters and so many story lines and so many plot twists to keep track of.
On one hand I'm annoyed with the show so much that I want to quit watching it.
BUT on the other hand, I'm addicted and I keep delusionally thinking that maybe the next episode good 'ol I. Marlene King will give us some damn answers.

sure, Marlene, sure..

Speaking of PLL, let's talk about it's new spin-off Ravenswood.

So the whole idea of this show had me confused from the minute they announced it.
They kept saying it was going to be totally different from PLL, but Caleb was going to be on it?
Also, they've showed previews for the 2nd half of PLL Season 4 and Caleb is in it.. So is he just going to bounce between shows all the time? That seems really hard to keep track of.. Especially since I'm still waiting on my PLL Cheat Sheet..

I digress..
So Ravenswood.. What?!
I truly believe that Pilot episodes are tricky, especially when it's a spin-off of another popular tv show and especially when a well liked character (Caleb) from Show A (Pretty Little Liars) transfers to Show B (Ravenswood).
Another example of this would be The Originals, a spin-off of The Vampire Diaries. I wasn't totally head over heels in love with the pilot, but I've loved every single episode since.
Because of this, I'm definitely planning on giving Ravenswood another chance to wow me.

I guess I don't really have anything else to say about Ravenswood because I'm not totally sure I even know what the show is about yet.. Which seems odd, right?


So there's that.
A whole post about 2 teen shows on ABC Family that I DVR.
Should I be embarrassed? Because I'm not.

Haters gonna hate.
Deuces.

My 1st Blate!

Things are looking different around here, right?! Don't you love it?! Whitney is amazing and a genius and she made shit happen. If I hadn't already loved her to freakin pieces, her pretty new blog design for me would have just sealed the deal! Ahhh, I just can't handle the happiness!

Oh and bonus, she can design your blog too! Clicky click click here and then you can be smiling as big as I am currently!

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In other news.. As I mentioned yesterday, this past weekend I went on my very first blate! (blogger date)

I had been trading emails, and then texting, and then snapchatting Jenny from Bad Luck Jenn for a little while now and on Sunday we finally met in person!

Oh and get this, we're probably the worst bloggers in the world and didn't take a picture of together. We were too busy chatting and then I had to leave in a hurry! So these are pictures we each took that day. Pretend it's actually us sitting together.

We planned this blate because we're actually only about a hour away from each other! Too close not to actually meet!

I meet strangers almost every single day for both of my jobs, so I wasn't actually nervous at all! She's only in Indiana for grad school and she doesn't really know a lot of people and everyone is a stranger to her! So she didn't seem nervous either! It made for an easy and fun brunch!

First of all, Jenny is actually from Alabama and yes, she has a southern accent. Aka my most favorite thing ever! It was the first thing I noticed about her as we yelled at each other across the street!

We had brunch as Le Peep cafe in downtown Indianapolis. It was delicious.

We spent a few hours talking about school, crazy house-selling problems, sports, scarves, and of course, bloggy things! Can 2 bloggers get together and NOT talk about blogging? No. I'm pretty much saying right now that it'd be an impossibility.

Overall, I'm so glad we did it! And I'm glad we're making plans for more!

AND I can cross the 1st thing off of my 30 Before 30 list! First blate, CHECK! Now who wants to be my 2nd?! :)