Book of the Week: If You Have to Cry, Go Outside

I was so excited to receive a copy of Kelly Cutrone's new book, If You Have to Cry, Go Outside and Other Things Your Mother Never Told You, to read and review.  I love Kelly from The Hills and The City (and now her own show Kell On Earth) and its always been obvious to me that this is a lady who demands respect and is a real breath of fresh air.  Sure, she can be tough and critical at times, but it seems to me that she wants the best for (and from) her employees and she wants the people she's training to succeed.  So Kelly doesn't have a lot of patience for idiots and incompetence, I don't think that's one of her faults.

Part memoir, part advice book, If You Have to Cry is Kelly speaking directly to young women trying to succeed in their personal and professional lives.  If you're looking for behind-the-scenes gossip about her reality shows this isn't the read for you.  Instead, this is Kelly discussing how to deal with insecurities and fears and trying to impart some of the wisdom she's gathered over the years to others who aspire to succeed as she has.

"You can't truly feel joy if you've never felt heartbreak.  You can't really know what its like to be filled unless you've been empty." [p 48]

I'm not one for self-help books, but this one doesn't come across this way.  Its just frank advice, make of it what you will.  Kelly counsels you to follow your dreams and find your "tribe" -- people who share your dreams and encourage them, "but beware, tribal relationships are a two-way street.  As you forge your own tribe, you'll become a member of other tribes and, ultimately, if you're lucky, a tribal elder yourself.  This means you'll be compelled to give and give, even when nothing's in it for you."  [p 24]

"Women should spend as much time look for a religion of their own as they do trying to find a hot guy..." [p 75]

This book never seemed preachy to me, probably because Cutrone lays down her own life experiences as examples and seems sincere in wanting to share the lessons she's learned during her struggles and successes.  Kelly takes you from her childhood in Syracuse to building her own thriving business (more than once) through to her drug addiction and the joys and struggles of single motherhood.  The book--like Kelly appears to be--is smart and funny and wonderfully blunt.

"If anyone really wanted to change the world they'd bring in the fashion bitches because no one gets things done faster.  If we went about saving the world like we go about producing fashion shows, well, let's just say New Orleans after Katrina would have been sorted." [p 83]

via Fashionologie

"You look at your child and you just know from the beginning she's going to break your heart...You know she's going to steal your credit card and your cell phone and lie to you...But you love her and you want for her anyway and its the most beautiful, selfless love; you instinctively know you'd do anything for her regardless of what she chooses to do to you." [p 114]

If you like click here to browse inside.  Has anyone else read this one?  I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

4/5

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Alla Prossima

Book of the Week: This Charming Man

So, Monday morning again.  A good day if you're from New Orleans.  This week I read This Charming Man by Marian Keyes, the first time I've read anything by this author.  I have no idea how I've gone this long without discovering Keyes considering she's sold about a kajillion books and has apparently been translated in over 20 languages.

The charming man of the title is rougish and handsome politician Paddy de Courcy and the book explores the impact of one event (bachelor Paddy suddenly getting engaged) on four very different women.  There is stylist Lola who goes into a tailspin, retreating to the requisite quirky small town to lick her wounds and recover her sanity, understandable as she is Paddy's girlfriend but not his fiance.  Then there is Marnie, a troubled wife and mother, who has never really recovered from her first love (Paddy) and her twin sister, Grace, a journalist who wants the inside story on the engagement.  And finally, Alicia, the actual fiance who happens to be a blast from the sisters' past and just may be getting in over her head. 

I liked this book a lot, but it wasn't at all what I expected.  Keyes' crafts a story that is both poignant and literally laugh-out-loud funny, with the right mix of mystery, suspense and romance.  Keyes deals with issues that range from alcholism to abuse to adultery and manages to produce female characters that are more than just stereotypes.

The book begins with the following...

What!  You too?  I thought I was the only one. - C.S. Lewis

Everyone remembers where they were the day they head that Paddy de Courcy was getting married...I was extra surprised and that was even before I knew who the lucky woman was...Anyway, Jacinta Kinsella (boss) needed a quick piece on the engagement so I had to put my personal feelings to one side and be a professional. -Grace Gildee

It would have been nice if you asked me first. - Alicia Thornton

I was on the net, checking e-bid for owl handbag (by Stella McCartney, not just any 'oul' handbag) for a client to wear to a wildlife charity thing when I saw the headline...I went into shock.  Actually thought I was having heart attack.  Would have called an ambulance but couldn't remember 999.  Kept thinking 666.  Number of the beast. - Finnola "Lola" Day

Don't you dare be happy, you bastard.  That's what I thought when I heard.  Don't you dare be happy.  - Marnie Hunter

The structure of the book, with past and present events rolled out from the point of views of all four of the women, is interesting and its a testament to Keyes that all four voices are unique and even the side stories are engrossing. Personally, I enjoyed Lola the most.  Even unbalanced and sadly stuck on a man who never deserved her in the first place I found her sweet, funny and relatable.

4/5

I saw When In Rome this weekend (worth it just for Josh Duhamel who I have crushed on since he was Leo on All My Children) and I couldn't get over how cute Kristen Bell looked.  I also loved the Van Cleef & Arpels jewellery she wore, like the Alhambra sautoir necklace below.

Alla Prossima

Book of the Week: Spin

I was sent a copy of Spin by Catherine McKenzie and finished it in one sitting.  It was an easy read, but there is depth in the tale of struggling music journalist Katie Sanford. 

Katie's a sympathetic, if somewhat infuriating protagonist.  You can see she means well, has big dreams, but she keep self sabatoging.  Instead of moving on from university life Katie just keeps changing out groups of friends so she can keep pretending to be a graduate student.  This while most of her older friends--including best friend from childhood, Rory--have gone on to get "proper" jobs.

One can sympathize with Katie finding being "grown up" kind of hard to manuever and you cheer for her when she finally gets a break.  On the eve of her 30th birthday Katie lands an interview at music magazine The Line, her dream job.  Unfortunately, she blows it by showing up at the interview still drunk from the night before (she had only meant to go out for one drink...) 

After her disasterous interview Katie goes into a tailpsin, but when she's contacted by The Line about a new assignment she hopes she just might get a second chance.  Except that the assignment has nothing to do with the music magazine and, instead, is for their sister gossip rag. If Katie can ace the assignment she still has a chance with The Line. Katie is asked to go undercover in rehab to get the dirt on Amber Sheppard, the It girl actress who's downward spiral is front page news.  Shades of Britney Spears.  I found this part of the story--dealing with celebrities, paparazzi, and privacy--particularly timely considering our TMZ-obsessed society and paps erecting tent towns outside Tiger's rehab centre.

While in rehab Katie herself has to confront these issues while making unlikely friends and discovering things about herself she has never wanted to face.  Such as why she was chosen to be sent to rehab in the first place and the uncomfortable truth that perhaps she's not really doing all that much pretending.

First-time novelist McKenzie is a Montreal-based lawyer who has created an interesting set of characters and circumstances.  I really enjoyed the way McKenzie created a "soundtrack" for the novel (fitting considering Katie's job) and how she skewered romantic comedies while managing to serve up some romance herself.  Katie, Amber and the other characters in the novel are far from perfect and I think this is some of what is so appealing about them.  They struggle and they try their best to cope and love, very much like real life. 

I thought this was a great read and would highly recommend this story about friendship, truth, priorities and trying to find your way in life.

4/5


If you're interested, you can read an excerpt of the novel here.

Alla Prossima

Book of the Week: Pieces of Happily Ever After

One of the books I read this week was Pieces of Happily Ever After by Irene Zutell.  The premise of this novel is pretty familiar - husband leaves dutiful wife for younger, more exciting Other Woman.  Pretty much the nightmare of every devoted spouse, right?  In this case the suburban mom is Alice, and her husband is Alex,  a usually staid entertainment lawyer until he runs off with starlet Rose Maris (to me a mix between Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolie and J.Lo) and becomes slick Xander, a man his wife doesn't even recognize.

This novel could easily veer off into something we've seen before, but Zutell unfolds the story with restraint.  The characters are layered, the plot rings of real life not just unnecessary drama, and Alice is a heroine you can root for.

Not only does Alice have to contend with the paparazzi attention after her husband runs off with a superstar, but she also has her princess-obsessed 5-year-old daughter and Alzheimer-striken mother to contend with.  Their is loneliness and struggle and friends that come from the most unlikely places.  As for Alex all I wanted to do was yell at him to grow up! (and man up, while he's at it!)

Pieces is an interesting look into the end of a suburban marriage in the time of TMZ, the guilt and glory of motherhood, and the good that can happen when women pull together. 

4/5

Alla Prossima

Book of the Week: What the Dead Know

Laura Lippman’s What the Dead Know begins with the appearance of a clearly unsettled woman involved in a hit and run. The woman has no ID and no health insurance, but hints that she is the younger of the Bethany sisters, who were kidnapped thirty years before.

 The narrative jumps back and forth from past to present, with the woman revealing precious little of what she knows, only enough to keep her out of jail. Why won't she reveal the truth and the fate of her sister? What the Dead Know is a mystery – by the end I was eager to find out what happened to the Bethany girls and who was behind their disappearance – but it is also moving as a portrait of loss and grief.

What happens to a couple when their children disappear out of thin air? How does one cope when it seems that a daughter has resurfaced after more than three decades with more secrets than answers? Lippman tries to answer these questions in a novel that manages to be both gripping and touching.

4/5

Alla Prossima

Book of the Week: Baby Proof

I hope you all had a wonderful time celebrating the New Year!  Our weekend away was just what the doctor ordered (not literally, but you know what I mean...)  I even managed to squeeze in my reading - I've been pretty good at keeping up my at-least-one-book-a-week rate.  And while I'm no reviewer I thought it would be nice to share one of the books I've read every week here.

I read Emily Giffin’s debut novel, Something Borrowed, its sequel, Something Blue, and Love The One You're With, awhile back and enjoyed them. (Apparently Hilary Swank's production company has purchased the rights to the first two books). Somehow I didn’t think to read Baby Proof until recently. This book is similar to the others in style, but I enjoyed that it tackled something not often touched in chick lit – children and the women who don't want them.
 

I think there is still something very taboo about a woman who is absolutely sure she doesn’t want children.  I can imagine that for such a woman finding a mate, and constantly having the need to justify their lifestyle, can be both tiresome and frustrating. This is where Giffin’s heroine, Claudia Parr, finds herself at the beginning of the novel. Intelligent and successful Claudia is also dead certain she doesn’t want to be a mother. When she meets Ben and they hit it off right away she counts herself lucky. When Ben announces on their first date he doesn’t want children either Claudia knows she’s met her match.

Unfortunately for Claudia, a few years into their seemingly perfect marriage Ben decides he does want children after all, and that's when everything falls apart.  Baby Proof is about all that follows this fateful turn of events.  I enjoyed this novel, the only thing that didn’t ring true to me was how quickly both Claudia and Ben gave up on their love. As in life there are no easy answers in this book—like who is to blame for the break up, if anyone—but it would have been nice for Claudia and Ben to search a bit more for some solutions before giving up on what was, by all accounts, a happy marriage.



Alla Prossima

Book of the Week: A Vintage Affair

Hope you are all having a wonderful holiday!  My book this crazy week is A Vintage Affair by Isabel Wolff.

Phoebe Swift is a woman dealing with a career change (from vintage clothing expert at Sotheby’s to proprietor of her own vintage shop), recently divorced parents, a broken engagement, and guilt and sadness over her best friend’s death. To me this wasn't your usual formulaic chick lit book, because the novel is really about Phoebe moving on from an event in her life that has left her devastated and unable to want any real happiness for herself. And, yes, there is romance but its not the main focus of the story.

When Phoebe is contacted by an old woman looking to clean out her closets she meets Thérèse Bell and an interesting parallel storyline begins to develop. Thérèse is a woman nearing the end of her life who has also not fully dealt with the pain and guilt over losing a friend. Travelling back to World War II France with Thérèse helps Phoebe deal with her own demons and I think the older woman’s story adds a nice element to the tapestry of the novel.

"When you buy a piece of vintage clothing
you're not just buying fabric and thread --

you're buying a piece of someone's past."

- A Vintage Affair

I also loved how the vintage pieces were almost like characters of their own in the story. Like a series of “cupcake dresses” – bright American prom dresses from the 50s that Phoebe hangs on her shop walls like art – and the new women they are meant for.

I thoroughly enjoyed A Vintage Affair and taking the journey with Phoebe from death back to life.

4 out of 5

Alla Prossima