Visitors, Moving and Such

This blog is supposed to be about things I love, in case you couldn't tell by the title :) But let me fill you in on one thing I don't love so much: packing. I'm moving this weekend (don't worry, I'll still be in the city, just changing boroughs) and have barely made a dent in the packing I'm doing. Luckily I have until...2PM tomorrow. Yeah, ok, I'm screwed. Well, I tried. Sort of.

Something I like much more than packing? Visits from lovely friends. It's Restaurant Week in NYC, and my fabulous friend "Jo-B" is here. She's actually visiting another friend of hers, but I'm super thrilled to be doing dinner with her tonight. Then, hopefully, a trip to see "The Ugly Truth," starring Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl. It looks incredible! I'll let you know if I like it.


And last, but not least, book of the week: My Sergei, by Ekaterina Gordeeva. This is an old favorite. I first read it when it was originally published, as my grandmother was a figure skater who knew the couple. According to her, the book she had was personally given to her by Ekaterina, but she also can't remember how many popsicles she's eaten in a day, so I mean, I'm not necessarily going to take her word for it. Still, this NY Times bestseller is one of the most touching and heartfelt memoirs I've read in quite a while.


Have a great weekend!

Solar Eclipse

Today is the day of the solar eclipse, which happens to coincide with the new moon. Now I'll admit, this didn't really mean much to me yesterday, until my boss explained that for those who believe in feng shui, this is the perfect opportunity to improve your success. I don't really get the why, exactly, so I'll let Master Pun Yin explain it to you. But it's a great time to thank the universe, God, whoever/whatever you believe in for all the wonderful things you have received, and then make requests for the future.

It's really important that this doesn't become a wish list of things you want. Pun Yin suggests that you should offer the universe something in return for your requests that are fulfilled, and to make sure that you don't promise anything that you can't or won't follow through on. One thing we can all agree on is that no matter who or what you believe in, we can't take such blessings for granted.

This is supposed to work best if you're not eating meat today, so it's the perfect time to try out that vegetarian diet you've been considering.

I know this is little different from anything else I've posted, and I'll be honest, I'm a little skeptical. But I like the sentiment that Pun Yin makes at the end of her post. Today is a day to think nice, speak kindly and be respectful of others. And if we work together to do these three things today, maybe we can bring about positive changes to the universe ourselves.

Lost In Austen

I've spent the last 5 days in Maine, doing nothing but reading, sleeping, eating, and looking for moose (I saw a baby mooseling, by the way, very exciting). Now, you should know that as I live not far from The Strand, I have a stack of books about as tall as I am that I got for 48 cents and have not gotten around to reading. So I brought about 15 books with me, and finished about half.

Two of the books that were most interesting to me were Pride and Prescience and The Jane Austen Book Club. They were incredibly different, and I was drawn to aspects of both.



I loved the characters in The Jane Austen Book Club. One of the things I found most amusing and enjoyable was the fact that it was written in first person, as though one of the members of the book club was telling the story, although the person mentions every member of the club by first name, seldom revealing who is speaking. Only through a story is the narrator given up, and even then you are left wondering if that's really who narrated the entire novel. It's a very curious thing.

I was pretty unhappy with the ending though. It was definitely an Austen ending, that's for sure, but there's no need to refer to that same point in the course of the book. Any Janeite would pick it up for his or herself. This brings me to my other disappointment. I won't give specifics in case you want to read the book, or even watch the movie, but I was extremely bothered by the way the Sylvia/Daniel and Allegra/Corinne relationships were wrapped up. I felt that it was unrealistic and degrading to the members of the club who were involved in these relationships. Also, there were a few storylines that I felt never fully developed, and felt like hooks thrown in to grab the reader, yet never amounted to anything. It was rather disappointing. However, I loved the change in Prudie's spirits toward the end, and Jocelyn was a mystery I rather enjoyed unraveling. Overall, it was good, but not great. My favorite part was actually after the novel ended, where the author quoted other famed writers' opinions of Jane. Look up Mark Twain's if you get a chance...it's quite deep :)



Carrie Bebris' take on what happened after the Darcy's wedding in Pride and Prejudice was a total beach read, in a good way. It was light, witty, and very quick. Even though it was a mystery, it wasn't supremely out of the realm of my imagination that Elizabeth Bennet (now Darcy) would be curious enough to find herself in the midst of this chaos. I was a little baffled by the sci-fi/fantasy twist it took though. Very un-Jane, but it amused me nonetheless, and I definitely understood how that made it suitable for Tor, and it wasn't as noticeable during my read-through as much as after. Still I can't really recall a Jane Austen novel with supernatural elements. But I'd definitely read the rest of the series.



And I made it through a whole post without referencing vampires :)

Blood Coven Books

As it's been pointed out by my fabulous friend Erin (check out her blog here), I've been doing quite a bit of YA reading recently. This is mostly because YA novels are quick reads, and for the last few months, my attention span has been similar to that of a lawn gnome. As in, nonexistent. Anyway, I've been working my way through the Blood Coven series by Mari Mancusi, and I would definitely recommend it.


Mancusi definitely has a gift for campy horror, and her tone kind of reminds me of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie. Sunny's quest to find the Holy Grail after she gets vamped (due to a case of mistaken identity - the vampire in question was supposed to bite her twin sister) is sweet, funny and slightly awkward, in a good way. The characters are easy to relate to, and it's an original take on vampiric politics, as opposed to the same old "council that has rules and regulations with the oldest vampires who take out the youngest ones." Do I even have to say who I'm insulting there? I think not.




I may have liked Stake That even more than I liked Boys That Bite. Rayne is a lot more interesting to me as a character. I'm not sure why I like her more than Sunny (yup, their names are Sunshine and Rayne, haha) but it could have something to do with the fact that she has more of an attitude problem and definitely doesn't like being told what to do...I don't know anyone like that :) And she has a way more kick ass boyfriend. Not that the Holy Grail search wasn't romantic, but Jareth's origins are so complex and intriguing. And did we notice that Jareth never accidentally bites the wrong girl?



Girls that Growl was immensely entertaining. Only the goth girl would have an undercover assignment to become a cheerleader and save her arch nemesis/captain of the football team. Let's just talk about creative problem solving strategies for a sec. Rayne's technique for landing a spot on the team was very humorous, especially after she spent, oh, say, 10 whole minutes practicing and fell on her face during her try out. And I loved the development of friendships, especially Cait and Rayne's, and Mandy's admission about why she and Rayne parted ways years ago. The only thing that bothered me about the book was the Rayne/Jareth interaction. If I wanted to list to non-stop bickering, I would watch Jon and Kate Plus 8 or Dr. 90210. It definitely annoyed me a little. But other than that, I really enjoyed it.

The 4th book comes out in January...I'm not very good at this whole waiting patiently thing, but I'm trying, and luckily there are a whole bunch of other exciting things coming out in the meantime *cough Vampire Academy Book 4 cough* so hopefully it will curb my YA appetite until then. It's back to Sunny's POV, and I'm hoping it's just as good as the others.

Also, FYI, if you're interested, Barnes and Noble ordered a whole bunch of these books, so you should definitely pick them up and support Mari! Or, you know, the lib's good too.

Yumi Kim Friends and Family Sale

Great news! Yumi Kim is having a friends and family sale, and you're all invited! Here's the dirt:

Before we host our mega sample sale in a few weeks, we want our Friends & Family to get first dibs on YK's Spring/Summer goodies!

YUMI KIM is offering 50% OFF ALL Spring/Summer goodies online and in our shop!

ONLINE SHOP: www.yumikimshop.com

You must enter at check out discount code: ykfamily

Or you can mention the mailer in our flagship store in order to receive the discount!

YUMI KIM

105 Stanton Street

(corner of Ludlow)

Please pass the great news along to all your Friends & Family!

Post it on Facebook...Twitter it...help get the word out!!!

We have LIMITED stock and it's going FASSSSSST!

XOXO,

YUMI KIM

If you can get it, I recommend the vine floral jumper...totally hot.