Life Would Suck Without You by Jennifer Preuss

Life Would Suck Without You
by Jennifer Preuss

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Just released: May 14, 2017
Publisher: Facetious Books
Genre: Humor, Memoir
Paperback: 184
Rating: 5

First sentence(s):
"I heard you could use a friend." I was rehearsing the line over and over again in my head.

Zombie sighting:
The medication made Aidan such a zombie.
-page 125, chapter 16

When life makes no sense, and the world is going straight to hell, a girl knows she can always count on her best friends ...

There are all types of friends. Rich friends. Poor friends. Fair weather friends—and then there are Best Friends—your BFF’s. Meet Jennifer, a wannabe soap opera star, new to LA and waiting tables in Century City. She makes three new friends, and they turn out to be inseparable.

Together they go from one hilarious adventure to another; crashing concerts and movie star bars, lingerie shopping, and laughing about men’s shortcomings, all revealed through the razor-sharp, self-deprecating humor of the author. Life is good, even laugh-out-loud funny, and Jen discovers the real meaning of friendship. But when life throws them a cruel curve ball, which rocks them to their very core . . . is friendship enough?

A feel-good story that will make you laugh and cry, Jennifer Preuss’ comical and heartwarming book tells the tale of an inseparable group of four women who navigate their 20s and 30s, dealing with life, death and all the things in between.

My two-bits:

This is a quick read that gave me chuckles along the way.

Loved the friendships and stories shared in this memoir.

~*~
* review copy courtesy of author

Happy 4th of July

Sharing some red, white and blue books from my tbr pile...

Just Another Girl
by Elizabeth Eulberg
-YA
Amazon | Goodreads

It
by Stephen King
-Horror
Amazon | Goodreads

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley
by Hannah Tinti
-Literary, Mystery
Amazon | Goodreads
~*~
* image source: book with fireworks

Startup by Doree Shafrir

Startup
by Doree Shafrir

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Website
Facebook
Instagram
Tumblr
Twitter

Just released: April 25, 2017
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Genre: Contemporary, Humor, New York
Hardback: 304
Rating: 4

First sentence(s):
They came from all over the city in the predawn hours, a merry band of highly optimized minstrels in purple leggings and shiny headbands and brightly colored sneakers, walking the fifteen minutes from the L train or directing an Uber to the former spice factory in the no-man's-land between Williamsburg and Greenpoint.

Mack McAllister has a $600 million dollar idea. His mindfulness app, TakeOff, is already the hottest thing in tech and he's about to launch a new and improved version that promises to bring investors running and may turn his brainchild into a $1 billion dollar business--in startup parlance, an elusive unicorn.

Katya Pasternack is hungry for a scoop that will drive traffic. An ambitious young journalist at a gossipy tech blog, Katya knows that she needs more than another PR friendly puff piece to make her the go-to byline for industry news.

Sabrina Choe Blum just wants to stay afloat. The exhausted mother of two and failed creative writer is trying to escape from her credit card debt and an inattentive husband-who also happens to be Katya's boss-as she rejoins a work force that has gotten younger, hipper, and much more computer literate since she's been away.

Before the ink on Mack's latest round of funding is dry, an errant text message hints that he may be working a bit too closely for comfort with a young social media manager in his office. When Mack's bad behavior collides with Katya's search for a salacious post, Sabrina gets caught in the middle as TakeOff goes viral for all the wrong reasons. As the fallout from Mack's scandal engulfs the lower Manhattan office building where all three work, it's up to Katya and Sabrina to write the story the men in their lives would prefer remain untold.

An assured, observant debut from the veteran online journalist Doree Shafrir, Startup is a sharp, hugely entertaining story of youth, ambition, love, money and technology's inability to hack human nature.

My two-bits:

This was a good way to get an inkling of what goes on in modern day lives and loves set in the startup and tech worlds.

The story covers three women with different angles of being involved with social media and tech related businesses.

Cravings: Recipes for All the Food You Want to Eat by Chrissy Teigen

Cravings:
Recipes for All the Food You Want to Eat
by Chrissy Teigen

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Amazon
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Instagram
Pinterest of recipe pics
Twitter

Published: 2016
Publisher: Clarkson Potter
Genre: Cookbook, Recipes, Celebrity
Hardback: 240 pages
Rating: 5

Maybe she’s on a photo shoot in Zanzibar. Maybe she’s making people laugh on TV. But all Chrissy Teigen really wants to do is talk about dinner. Or breakfast. Lunch gets some love, too.

For years, she’s been collecting, cooking, and Instagramming her favorite recipes, and here they are: from breakfast all day to John’s famous fried chicken with spicy honey butter to her mom’s Thai classics.

Salty, spicy, saucy, and fun as sin (that’s the food, but that’s Chrissy, too), these dishes are for family, for date night at home, for party time, and for a few life-sucks moments (salads). You’ll learn the importance of chili peppers, the secret to cheesy-cheeseless eggs, and life tips like how to use bacon as a home fragrance, the single best way to wake up in the morning, and how not to overthink men or Brussels sprouts. Because for Chrissy Teigen, cooking, eating, life, and love are one and the same.

My two-bits:

Comfort foods with some asian flavors makes this one yummy one.

Good amount of photos of both the dishes and personal makes for entertaining eye candy.

Chrissy's comments and presentation of the recipes are personable and fun.

~*~
* part of Foodies Read Challenge (here)

Lovely Books and Things - 7.1.17

Lovely Books and Things
My Weekly Books and Films Update
Linking up with:
Stacking the Shelves (details)
Sunday Post (details)
Mailbox Monday (details)

~*~
Bought:

Istanbul
Memories and the City
by Orhan Pamuk
-Biography, Travel, Turkey
Amazon | Goodreads
GOT this for Diesel Book Club (here) - July book. Looking forward to some arm-chair traveling with this one.

Green Apple Books on the Park hosted a double author event with Gabe Habash and Julie Buntin. We were treated to a reading and Q&A of their latest novels. It was interesting to learn that Gabe started out with film and Julie with poetry before getting creative writing. Fun fact: they are a married couple.

Stephen Florida
by Gabe Habash
-Literary, Coming of Age, Sports (wrestling)
Amazon | Goodreads
THE wrestling element of this story is what draws me.

Marlena
by Julie Buntin
-Literary, Contemporary, Women's Fiction
Amazon | Goodreads
A mystery with ghost-like vibe makes this interesting.

The Children's Book
by A.S. Byatt
-Literary, Historical
Amazon | Goodreads
GOT this per member recommendation from Diesel Book Club (here).


For Review:

Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine
-Dystopia, YA
courtesy of Blogging for Books -Thanks!
Amazon | Goodreads
LIBRARY and books setting makes this intriguing.


AND watched: in theatre

Wonder Woman (xxx)
Director: Patty Jenkins
Story by: Zack Snyder, Allan Heinberg, Jason Fuchs
Screenplay: Allan Heinberg
Based on comic by: William Moulton Marston
Starring: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine
-Action, Adventure, Fantasy | imdb | my rating: 5
Before she was Wonder Woman, she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, trained warrior. When a pilot crashes and tells of conflict in the outside world, she leaves home to fight a war, discovering her full powers and true destiny.

SAW this twice. Kick-ass heroine steals the show.

Walking Distance (2015)
Distancias cortas (original title)
Director: Alejandro Guzmán Alvarez
Writer: Itzel Lara
Stars: Luca Ortega, Mauricio Isaac, Joel Figueroa
-Comedy, Drama, Mexico | imdb | my rating: 5
Fede suffers from morbid obesity and lives enclosed among four walls. When his brother-in-law Ramón shows him a camera, Fede also wants one. During a trip to the camera shop he meets Paulo, a lonely teenager who loves comic books. The three of them form a friendship that completely changes their lives. Walking Distance is a urban fairy-tale about Fede, a man who weighs 200kg, which is causing him difficulties to move around his house. When he finds an old photographic film, he decides to have it developed and thus to go out of his house. In the photographic lab Fede meets Paulo, a solitary comics lover who sells him a used camera. While spending time with his brother-in-law Ramon and Paulo, Fede discovers that photography is more than just a hobby. A friendship between the three men grows, changing their lives forever.
- Written by Pluto Film

Lovely film that tells a story of hardship, friendship and photography.

AFTER the film we were treated to a Q&A session with director, Alejandro Guzmán Alvarez.
-instagram photo by Aberswyth

Harmonium (2016)
Fuchi ni tatsu (original title)
Director/Writer: Kôji Fukada
Starring: Mariko Tsutsui, Tadanobu Asano, Kanji Furutachi
-Drama, Japan | imdb | my rating: 5
Toshio hires Yasaka in his workshop. This old acquaintance, who has just been released from prison, begins to meddle in Toshio's family life.

EERIE vibe to this one. This is one to watch at least a second time as there are lots of interesting subtle things going on to spin this story round.


AND watched: on DVD

My Life As A Zucchini (2016)
Ma vie de Courgette (original title)
Director: Claude Barras
Screenplay: Céline Sciamma
Contributing Writers: Germano Zullo, Claude Barras and Morgan Navarro
Based on novel: Autobiographie d'une Courgette by Gilles Paris
Starring: Gaspard Schlatter, Sixtine Murat
-Animation, Comedy, Drama, France, Switzerland | imdb | my rating: 5
Oscar nominated for Animated Feature.

After losing his mother, a young boy is sent to a foster home with other orphans his age where he begins to learn the meaning of trust and true love.

WELL deserving to be an Oscar nominee. Beautifully and whimsically made with a touching story.


Currently flipping through:

Noon on the Moon
by Luna Miguel
Editors Fiona Bryson, Ḳeren Tsiṭer, Keren Cytter
Illustrated by Vicki Khuzami
Contributor Art Projects Era
Website | Goodreads

The fourth issue in the Poetic Series is a seasonally themed special issue, a festive anthology composed of contributions from more than twenty writers and artists elaborating on everyones favorite and most controversial holiday in an unconventional and abstract sense. Artwork is provided in the form of a colorful collection of romance covers illustrated by Vicki Khuzami. The books title comes from a poem by Barry Schwabsky. Poetry and prose by Charles Bernstein, Gerry Bibby, Judith Goldman and Dorothea Lasky, Veronica Gonzalez Pea, Andreas Schlaegel, Karl Holmqvist and Sarah Wang, amongst others. The Poetic Series brings together works of poetry and literature in combination with visual art, introducing young as well as established writers concerned with challenging the boundaries of traditional forms of narrative.

UPON perusing the magazine rack, this romance cover caught my eye. When flipping through it more similar illustrations popped out which reminded me of the 80s Harlequin romance covers that I grew up with. So, yeah. Impulse buy ;-)

~*~
* comment and TELL me what you have acquired for your shelves recently

:-)