beanie baby worm blog

Let me start off by saying, I like self-help books. And I don’t go into books assuming I will hate them, because to me, that’s a surefire way to ensure you will. So although I went into this book with a bit of grimness, it was more amusement and curiosity than anything. I kind of assume most authors of self-help books are a**holes to some extent, especially if they’re not PhDs or anything. Who else would be pompous enough to write a book claiming to improve your life if not someone who deems themselves worthy enough to do so? Manson is a blogger—formerly a dating advice one—and he’s by no means offering science-backed research or analysis on how to live a more balanced life. He just gets on a soapbox and preaches tidbits of wisdom he’s picked up during his life, with lots of swearing along the way. Original, I know. Okay, but enough of me sh*tting on the guy. This book isn’t a complete waste of paper. Some of the insights are pretty good, when he’s not bragging about the women he’s f*c...

The Manicurist’s Daughter came into my life at the perfect time. I had just come home from traveling overseas for a week, and being there for my family as we navigated some health issues my grandpa is going through. He helped raise me in a lot of ways, I will always be “baby” to him, the nickname he still calls me at times, albeit less frequently. I am still unable to completely articulate the grief I felt into words, the frustration and pain and acceptance or lack thereof is something that I know has changed who I am and how I experience life. It was almost difficult for me to believe that the pain I was feeling is universal, that everyone must come face to face with health issues, death, suffering of loved ones or oneself at one point or another in their life. I suppose experiencing heartbreak is similar, it is unimaginable how you navigated life before. It’s not exactly regret (i.e. “I wish I never had to feel this way”), but almost a more nuanced understanding of the world, our pa...

I read these at separate times, however they read as a direct continuation of one another because they’re essay collections with similar themes of being a woman and just recalling some of Ephron’s career and life. I found the essays charming, easy to read, and fast-paced. She’s witty, relatable, and ultimately I really respect her and her work, such as writing the movies Sleepless in Seattle, and You’ve Got Mail which I’ve watched with my family. I’m not a huge fan of romcoms, but I admire strong career-driven women and I feel that Ephron embodies that girl boss energy. But what do I know? I has no intention of picking up I Feel Bad About My Neck , because I read I Remember Nothing late last year and wasn't particularly affected or impacted, despite finding it mildly entertaining while reading. I didn’t DNF, which I would’ve done if I didn’t care for it at all. But I was doing some editing for my school’s literary magazine, and the contributor I worked with wrote about when she w...

I loved this book, and it was one of the highlights of my reading year. It truly encapsulates why we read for entertainment while also providing another big reason for reading: learning. Because I was hugely entertained by the sharp and fast-paced writing of the book, the high energy, high stakes feeling of being a chef or cook, the camaraderie and rapport amongst people in the industry, the love and passion for food, the hopelessness and frustration of being in such a difficult business. How it seems to attract the misfits, the weirdos, but the good and ugly in people seem to shine brightly in the midst of service and the epic journey through the industry that Bourdain takes his reader on. I’ll be honest, I don’t really know much about what goes on in a professional kitchen. My knowledge of cooking comes from YouTube videos of how to be a home chef, the tinkering with recipes I do in my own kitchen, the experience I accumulated since I was a child slicing ham and apples to put on top ...

I had no idea what I was getting myself into with this one. The cover did not catch my attention despite me knowing of this book's existence for a while, so I never bothered to read the inner flap until I saw it on a secondhand shelf. But I’m glad I read it despite being traumatized after. Honestly, this book is so difficult to read. It’s a book written by a woman, for women. I sort of agree with reviews that complain about its false advertising. This book isn’t about “desire” so much as about how abuse shapes desire and actions in a woman’s romantic relationships, also that the stories are almost all about white women living in American suburbia. But I don’t agree that these women’s stories are therefore less valid or valuable to understand and learn from, or that discussing their stories takes away from marginalized women’s experiences. Yeah, much work needs to be taken and done to create a more equitable environment to discuss abuse and sexism of all forms and from all groups, b...

Any book that discusses the Asian American condition is a win in my book. I really liked how this started off; it was emotional. Hong unearths so many memories of trauma and microaggressions, and similar experiences I’ve had, as she discusses her upbringing as a Korean American and her outlook on her experience with Asian immigrant parents. Each essay was punchy and really tied back to the title: Minor Feelings. It truly encapsulates the feelings that come with being Asian American—marginalized, but not that marginalized; traumatic, but not that traumatic. I completely understand where she’s coming from, and it’s so difficult to put into words because it feels like no one cares. We don’t have it that bad, but mostly because we are told to keep our heads down and work hard. So we do. But where does that get us? Thankless hours of labor and work, the model minority myth, abuse that is largely ignored, let alone the abuse that comes with having parents who pass down their generational tra...

I’m not really sure why I picked this up after reading The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by bell hooks and not really enjoying that either. I guess I am a victim of FOMO above all else. Ultimately, the same qualms I held about The Will to Change was present in this book and more. At least the former was about a lesser spoken about topic, the patriarchy and how we all contribute in one way or another. I valued it more so because there is not a lot of discussion about it in the market and I commended hooks for the venture into the idea. But we’ve heard all there is to hear about love at this point, to write another book where that is the sole topic is a difficult one to execute but I trusted that hooks would give some form of insight that is new or interesting, given that this has been one of the most popular books on the market lately. I even saw in a widely popular bookstore that this has been their best seller for weeks.  While the topic is universal and everyone can ...

I think it’s really hard for young people to feel hopeful about the dating scene. Left and right are horror stories that happen to even the best of people that we know, but I honestly don’t want to believe that we’re destined to be forever wasting our time and lives on horrible people and having a list of options in case the current situation likely goes up in flames like all the rest, being forever disillusioned to the romantic warm idea of love and acceptance in romantic relationships. This book came into my life at a time I really needed it and it did the trick to snap me out of my stupor of giving up on finding what I know I deserve. I know this is a love it or hate it kind of book, evident from reviews one may find online, but I loved it. It’s funny, down to earth, and straightforward, it seriously addresses real concerns that many women still have when it comes to dealing with dating and love, and simply losing hope with men. Most straight women are in relationships or situations...

I had to read The Goal , which is a business book about a man who has to save his production plant by seeing aspects of the inner workings of the plant in a new light and making unheard of changes for one of my major classes. I thought it was okay, but well done for what it was. It was written in a novel style and although the subject matter was kind of boring, the style kept me attentive through the end. It was very informative yet told in a palatable way, that even I, who does not know the slightest thing about production plants or managing a firm or company was able to follow along and understand. But my review and impressions of the book on it's own as it is, is not the point of what I took away from my experience with it. One of my goals this year is to do what I can, and have peace with the things I can’t, that are out of my control. I find my major coursework hopeless and dry at times, it's difficult to feel motivated or interested enough in the content to follow along w...

I was pleasantly surprised by Untamed . I've been ruminating on how to review it for a bit because I had and have so many varying thoughts, while reading it, in between reading it, and after reading it. There were moments when I thought Doyle is a mad scientist and thinker, others when I cringed, and some when she really made me think about my worldview and question all the labels and categories society has pushed upon me and I accepted as real, just the “way things are” which she refutes. I don’t agree with everything she said, but any book that makes me think as deeply as this one has my respect. I personally found the metaphor behind the title to be great and memorable, but I can see how some may find it cliché.  I expected this to simply be a motivational sort of book for good intentioned mid-aged women (shoutout Adele, who made an entire social media post about it), but she attempts to cover a vast amount of topics: feminism, addiction, eating disorders, race, parenting, socia...

I thought I’d give Roxane Gay’s most recently published work a shot despite previously reading and feeling ambivalent about her essay collection  Bad Feminist, due to its disjointed and unfocused nature. I have never read anything about body issues, eating disorders, or anything of the sort, so I was curious what this would entail. And I am so glad I did not put this book on the backburner or hesitate to read it, it was truly well written and carried an extremely important message. It’s times like these that make me so grateful for the existence of words and writing, as a means to view and understand others’ experiences so vividly, experiences I would have never been able to sympathize with if not for authors and writers' bravery.  Being a memoir, Hunger felt more cohesive and successful in conveying Gay's message to the world. Her pain. Her hunger. It feels as though Bad Feminist was just a prelude to the story she was keeping inside, waiting to be told, waiting for her to b...

I picked this up on a whim, as I usually read books that boast their accredited status, and this one did not seem to be as popular or well known as other self-help titles. But this ended up becoming one of my top non-fiction reads of all time, and I can confidently say that it has changed my life and perspective for the better. I enjoyed this a lot, as it was highly readable and didn't contain a lot of psychology or technical terms and context to distract from the methods and anecdotes that cut straight to the chase: How does one deal with the pain of living and the thoughts that tend to hold one down from living freely and happily? Boorstein provides a fresh perspective on what happiness really is, how elusive it is, how we cannot expect happiness at all times and ultimately how and why we should be okay with that truth, which will lead to more peace and, guess what, more happiness in our lives. I really liked how candid Boorstein chose to be, and how open she was about her own li...

This short volume was impactful as it is succinct, it’s obvious that this come straight from the soul and I commend Styron for attempting to convey and executing his desire to express the sheer pain he endured as a result of the spiral into extreme depression he experienced in his sixties. He is a very successful author, and his experience with depression is surprisingly common amongst artists and writers such as himself as he mentions in the book. He discusses his thoughts on the affliction that is surprisingly common yet little discussed or understood by the general population with a crystal clarity.  I’m grateful to have read this as an attempt to gain insight into the experiences of those who suffer(ed) from depression, or perhaps more aptly defined as melancholia by Styron, he reiterates that there is simply not a way for a person who has not experienced it to even comprehend the relentless mental and physical torment. He employs a lot of literary references such as Camus’ wor...

As an essay collection, I found Bad Feminist  valuable, the intro and conclusions were the most succinct regarding the title and what Gay means by it, which is also the most impactful and lasting sentiment of the entire book. I found what Gay has to say about trigger warnings and likability in female characters interesting, because why do we revere imperfect male characters as antiheroes but imperfect, “human” female characters as annoying? She also discusses the “weary woman”, sick and tired of the glazing over of male eyes when bringing up female grievances, begging for change and action ignored and diminished time and time again. Sacrifice at the expense of women seems never ending, in relationships and in life, biting tongues to keep the peace in trying to fit the mold of what a “good woman” should be seems to be the norm of our society. Does not fighting it make one a bad feminist? But when women reject complacency and voice all the innumerable ways we as a society fail women,...

I remember watching the video trailer for this book when it came out in 2017, and was enamored by the artistry of it. I was so inspired, and although I read his first book/memoir, Work in Progress at the time, I was unable to pick up Note to Self  upon release because the library was my only source of books, and it was too popular to get ahold of. So when I found this at a secondhand store, I was jolted back into my early teenage years, when I had held Franta and his writing in high regard as inspiration for my own writing journey.  While I was expecting his “highest of highs and lowest of lows” (I still remember those lines from the trailer giving me shivers) to be vivid, revelation worthy, shocking, or even twisted, a sort of glimpse into Franta’s mind and soul, but I received anything but. I was extremely disappointed by how shallow and soapbox-y his compiled observations were. On the back cover, he boasts that the book will contain him “spilled out on paper," but the thre...

I found The Japanese Mind to be informative, but repetitive at times. It consisted of a collection of essays discussing different topics relevant to Japanese culture. The central themes covered seemed to be group consciousness in every aspect of society, a widespread difference in what is said vs meant, and the simplicity and sadness tinged standard of beauty and art, which are all clearly explained with the history of Japan as an agricultural society comprised of tight knit and close proximity communities. This was due to the difficult terrain and weather conditions, as a result they focused heavily on group unity and the seasons as a means of surviving. So every chapter covers a prevalent concept in Japanese culture, explains it, and repeats how that topic falls into one of the aforementioned themes. I especially enjoyed the sections on folklore as a means of gaining insight on culture and female gender roles that continue to pervade contemporary Japanese society. I also found the d...