Books, Books, Books

I know I haven't been very good at consistently posting on this blog, and I blame a combination of real-life (school, debate, social life) and fake-life (writing) but I realized I had a decent batch of new book photos I hadn't shared so I decided to bask in their glory; I mean post about them.

First up is a batch of Canadian fiction from Penguin Canada.

A Tale For The Time Being by Ruth Ozeki is the only book in this post I've actually read, having finished it earlier today. It's been pretty much my main focus reading-wise for the last two weeks, and I'm hoping to share my thoughts about it soon... on another page though! More about in the near future.

The Perfume Lover by Denyse Beauileu is non-fiction meets memoir in the true story about how perfume gets made, and how one woman's beautiful night inspires a perfume. Finally, Creeps by Darren Dynes is a young adult novel set in Newfoundland about a kid being bullied and the girl who helps him escape it, until a moment of violence changes them forever.

Not long after, two more Canadian books showed up, the first from Harper Collins Canada, and the second from Random House Canada. In The Land of Birdfishes by Rebecca Silver Slayer is a novel about two sisters in Nova Scotia who go through the horrible only be separated, and what happens when one of them goes looking for the other years later. Supplying Salt and Light is a collection of poetry by Lorna Goodison that I've taken a sneak peak at and it looks to be very beautiful.

Finally, this week a surprise package showed up from Thomas Allen and Sons with some YA goodies. Unfortunately the first two books, What We Become by Jesse Karp, and Infatuate by Aimee Agresti, are both sequels to novels I haven't read yet so I didn't check out the synopsis since I didn't want to spoil anything. I'm trying to finish up quite a few series this year though so I may pick these ones once I do. 

Lastly, In Search of Goliathus Hercules by Jennifer Angus is the story of an orphan boy in 1890 who suddenly is able to speak to bugs. This is one where I'll probably wait to see what some readers I trust think, it doesn't initially appeal to me but the author is also an artist, and there are some pictures in the book, which I flipped through, and they're quite gorgeous– so maybe the novel will surprise me.

So, those are my books from the last two weeks. Has anything exciting found itself into your mailbox lately? What are you reading? Is there one of these you think I should pick up first? I admit In The Land of Birdfishes and Goodison's poetry is probably next!

Lies My Father Told Me Playlist

As my novel, Lies My Father Told Me, gets increasingly close to querying– my soft deadline was April and it's looking totally reasonable– I decided to share some of the music that helped me write it. I have a very specific way of listening to music while I write, one I recently learned I'm not totally unique in as Alex Brown does the same thing. But basically I have to listen to the same song on repeat dozens, sometimes even hundreds, of times. So for that reason my playlist is pretty short. The music has to blur away so I can focus on my own words and not the song, though it often does help to have the melody in the background, somehow it helps me maintain a certain mindset and keeps the flow of the novel for me. 

In sum, Lies My Father Told Me has been influenced by five different songs, which I listened to in the following order. They were all songs I hadn't listened to before writing this novel, though I have been drafting since November, so iTunes will tell me exactly how many times I listened to them also, which was basically only while drafting, although sometimes while drafting and actually procrastinating on Twitter. If I added up all the song lengths and multiplied I could maybe even figure out the approximate amount of time I've spent on Lies. That would be interesting. 

Anyway, I'm going to include YouTube videos so you can listen to songs where possible, even if there isn't an official music video.

My playlist is:

1. Intro by The xx (xx) - Listened to 166 times
2. Bigger Than Love by Benjamin Gibbard (Former Lives) - Listened to 50 times, although some of these times may have been when taking a break from song #3, and not all before.
3. Dream Song by Benjamin Gibbard (Former Lives) - Listened to 370 times, not entirely in a row because I sometimes come back to it even now, but definitely the majority of the times were one after another.
4. Home by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros (Up From Below)- Listened to 60 times
5. Fix Me Up (feat. Zach Sobiech & Sammy Brown) by A Firm Handshake (Fix Me Up) - Listened to 147 times 

Although much of the first draft was written listening to Intro for the self-titled CD by the xx, as these numbers make obvious, the major inspirational song for Lies My Father Told Me was definitely Dream Song by Benjamin Gibbard. It was such an inspiration that whenever I played it when my boyfriend was around, he would look at me and say I must be writing. And I was. 

There's something so amazing about how one kind of art can inspire another. If you write, do you have a repeat-addiction like I do? What music is inspiring your words lately? And even if you don't write, have you heard any of these songs? If not, definitely check them out. They are all a bit low-key, and all incredibly beautiful... just like the book they inspired, I hope! :)

Orly: Buried Alive

Alright so I had a lot of fun with my first nail swatch/review of Hampstead Gardens by Nails Inc., and last week I picked up a brand new polish by Orly– well not brand new as in from a new collection, but brand new as in I just purchased it, so of course I decided to give this polish review another go and maybe eventually my photos of my hands will get less awkward and claw-like.

The polish I was so excited to find is Orly's Buried Alive, which was on sale for $3 and my first time testing out an "official" Orly polish, since I own quite a few of their Quo line which is a lot easier to find in Canada. Buried Alive belongs to the Dark Shadows collection, inspired by the film.

Buried Alive is a rich, dark brown filled with an underlying gold shimmer that gives it some sparkle during the daytime, while keeping it professional-looking indoors. I also detected some coppery shimmer as well, which helps give depth to the brown though my photos aren't the best at capturing it.

 

While wearing it, I never picked up quite as much gold on my fingers as I did in the bottle, but working in a lab indoors all day, and being in the midst of a Canadian winter, means I might have missed out on the bright sunlight needed to pick up the glitter.

In these photos I'm wearing a quick-dry base coat by Revlon, two coats of Buried Alive and a quick Seche Vite top coat. It definitely needed two coats because it turned out kinda splotchy or streaky in some places after just one. Two coats was perfect for keeping my nails covered and giving it an even, opaque, colour. That said, the polish was a tiny bit thick, but I didn't have any problems applying it.

Honestly, I'm usually not a fan of browns but the gold in this one captured my attention and I'm glad it did. It's such a rich, full colour, and the gold shimmer just brings it to life and makes it something special without being totally flamboyant. I don't think I've converted over to brown nail polish, but I'll definitely be wearing Buried Alive again, and I'll be keeping my eye out for future Orly's in the bargain bin.

Do you have any brown polishes you're in love with? Have you found any awesome polishes in the bargain bin lately?

Nails Inc: Hampstead Gardens

I really love nail polish. Like really. So inspired by my lovely friend Kylie (aka ChicBananas) I've decided I'm going to try my hand at swatching the colours that I wear, just to show them off and give anyone who is interested a reference for what the colours really look like. 

First up is one of the strangest polishes I own. I bought this one, my first and only Nails Inc. colour so far, last summer, when I spending a week and a half in New York City with my best friend Laala and we stopped by a Sephora where I found it on incredible discount. It was only a couple dollars, and we both bought a bottle. I was instantly in love with this ugly-pretty shade, Hampstead Gardens.

I'd definitely describe Hampstead Gardens as an authentic mustard. It's a funny colour that tends to look more brown indoors than in natural light– I actually had a family member compliment me on it one evening, only to tell me it was horribly ugly the next day when they saw it in different lighting! That said, it definitely has tones of yellow in it that give it its unique colour. I have quite a few polishes, but I've never come close to having a dupe of this one.

In these photos I'm wearing a quick-dry base coat by Revlon, two coats of Hampstead Gardens and a quick Seche Vite top coat. The colour is really opaque, and I probably could have gotten away with one coat but I still always go with two. If you don't want it so shiny, it is wearable without the top coat as well, I just love the extra gloss.

I'm really impressed with the quality of Nails Inc. polish. It definitely lasts longer than many of my other polishes, even using the same top coat. If I could find more on discount, I'd definitely pick up more polish by them in the future. The bottles are usually about $10, at least in the US, but are only 10 mL in size which is a bit smaller than the average polish. I actually appreciate the size, as given the number of nail polishes I have, the likelihood of me finishing one isn't that great. Though I do have a few favourites that are at risk!

I would definitely consider Hampstead Gardens a love-it or hate-it polish, and I just happen to love it. 

What do you think about strange polish colours? Would you wear this mustard nail polish?

Happy things with which to end the week (3)

It's been a good but busy week! Work has been a lot of work, and I'm working on revising my novel some more (I'm at the halfway mark now, so hopefully it'll be done this week). I also got accepted for a really awesome opportunity, but I don't want to say anymore and jinx it. Once it's officially started, I'll be sure to share :)

My mailbox had some happy arrivals this week, two of which were surprises of the best sort, and one I had been excitedly expecting.

Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala, courtesy of Random House Canada, is a memoir about a woman whose sons, husband, and parents all died in the 2004 tsunami while they were vacationing in Sri Lanka. I've already started reading it, and it's just as devastating– but beautifully written– as I imagined.

The surprises were two young adult novels, The Wrap-up List by Steven Arntson and Delusion by Laura L. Sullivan, which showed up courtesy of Thomas Allen and Sons. I hadn't really heard much about either title, though The Wrap-Up List, about a world where Death sometimes sends a letter telling people to wrap up their lives before it's time to depart, and a teenage girl gets one, had made intrigued me and made it on my TBR before. Delusion is about a pair of teenage magicians, set during WW2. I'm not exactly sure if I'll be reading it or not, but it does have a very sparkly cover.

When I went to pick up the Thomas Allen books, it turned out my mail was at the wrong post office, and while I was at a different drug store I discovered they have a pretty massive nail polish collection. In the discount bins I found a ton of magnetic polish I wasn't interested in, along with this gem for only three dollars:

It's called Buried Alive by Orly. I've never owned a normal Orly polish before, because generally I can only find the Quo by Orly line here in Canada. But I love their glitters, and this unusual brown gold immediately caught my attention. I took some photographs of my current polish– a mustard by Nails Inc. to swatch for this site, and I'll probably do the same when I try this. That'll probably be tonight or tomorrow, depending on when I feel like removing my current chipped polish. I'm going to try to swatch my colours as I wear them from now on (and not just using my phone). I adore nail polish, and I'm trying to make this blog about things I like, and make it pressure-free and eclectic in a a way my book blog no longer is. Whatever I feel like sharing, that's what you're going to find here!

Now I'm back to a weekend of Game of Thrones– rewatching the TV show, not reading the books. I hope you had a happy week as well. If you had any happy things to share, I'd love to know what they are.