Unqualified

It was when I googled Ben Indra (I didn't know who he was. And I still don't.), that I learned Anna Faris and Chris Pratt split up. 
I felt sad then reading anything she wrote about him and their marriage, especially the chapter she dedicates to what a fabulous guy he is. 

The things I could relate to in this book:

A high school teacher told Anna that based on an intelligence test score, she should be a secretary. (Because I sucked at science, a junior high science teacher told my mom I should go to beauty school.) 

Not being into weddings (There were 40 guests at mine). 
Staying into relationships too long, long past their expiry date, and always trying to make it work (I won't name names). 

The whipped cream in her hot chocolate comment when she was 13 that started her off on body image issues. (Where to start? Where to start? Just too many food and body remarks heard in adolescence to mention.) 

The things that were bothersome: 

She wimped out in the way she told her husband she was leaving him. It was callous and her excuses were lame. The first of many appearance of her selfishness - something she says a few times about herself. 

Faris is into singing her own praises. She even takes credit for discovering Chris's celebrity first and makes instances of fans approaching him about her. 

She repeats herself a lot. 

She likes to claim she's not about the Hollywood life, and makes many anti-Hollywood remarks. But how she went from her first husband to her second husband was a very Hollywood starlet move.  

I didn't find Unqualified to be as much about advice as a memoir by a comedic actress. It wasn't my type of read, and I didn't find her to be as humorous as she thinks she is.  

I received Unqualified in a GoodReads giveaway. 

Until next time,

Kara

First Snow, Last Light

Being born in the east coast (Nova Scotia), I was pleased to hear of Wayne Johnson's latest novel taking place in Newfoundland. Just like I enjoy reading a setting in Toronto, I'm also always curious to read stories from the Atlantic provinces. I also found Johnson's The Son Of A Certain Woman to be compelling, if not disturbing. I heard that it wasn't necessary to read the rest of the trilogy, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams or The Custodian of Paradise first. 

Johnson wonderfully developed the unusual story of a notorious St. John's family. I felt sympathy for teen Ned Vatcher when he came home from school to an empty house, and his parents never returned. He then lived with his sharp-tongued grandmother and mute & mysterious grandfather. 
Just like the landscape, Newfoundlanders are rugged and uncommon. Ned lived his life always searching for his disappeared parents. As an adult, he wasn't a personality I was drawn to though. Journalist and family friend Sheilagh Fielding was the most interesting, likable character. 
Just shy of 500 pages, this book was 200 pages too long. It dragged on, but luckily, we were given a satisfying conclusion.  

On love, Sheilagh tells us to "Never give all the heart" (W.B. Yeats). "Hold back something, just in case. Reserve an uncommitted space, however small, because the person will never be born who might not change. Leave something untainted by love, something that, in time, might redeem the rest."  

A passage about human nature that stood out for me was: "When virtue is tested, as ours was in those woods that night, it will not stand." 

"For even the most noble of souls, there is a set of circumstances under which the animal, or evil, will prevail. We are all such stuff as murder is made of." 

I received First Snow, Last Light in a GoodReads giveaway. 

Until next time,
Kara