Yes Please by Amy Phoehler

I read a lot of blogs and watch a lot of YouTube, and as a result I have read and listened to people talking about this book. My Instagram feed has featured people taking it in the bath with them or on the train for long journeys. If I'm honest I had no clue what this book was about at all, people raved about it and I just assumed that it was beauty related and therefore not an overwhelmingly interesting read. Don't get me wrong I like makeup as much as the next girl but reading a whole book about it isn't my idea of a good read. Anyway for this reason I never really felt the inclination to even Amazon search the title 'Yes Please!' out of curiosity.

How wrong was I! It wasn't until I read Essie Button's blog post called Buttons Book Club! (take a look by clicking here) where she was trying to involve her viewers in a book club this year. 'Yes Please' was this month's book and she was explaining how she was only half way through and found it hilarious. I really like her sense of humour so I came to the realisation that the book wasn't a beauty guru bore but instead was comedic. When she went on to say that she had heard that the audio book was amazing and hilarious and that she was going to listen to it as well. I was hooked on the idea of giving it ago. I love a good audio book me. Don't get me wrong I love the action of reading a physical book, and creating me own internal narrative. But I have found that my obsession with keeping books pristine (which is a while other story by the way) coupled with the fact that I travel to work using public transport, has pushed me towards listening to my books much more often.

Amy Phoehler herself reads it with the help of colleagues and friends on some chapters. She has  Kathleen Turner reading the sum up quote or lesson you could say which features at the end of many of the chapters. The fact that Amy reads allows for you to really connect with her and understand how she feels about the sentences she has written through her tone of voice. Unlike a reading of an fiction, the autobiographical nature of this book has you laughing along with her throughout.

Amy focuses on teaching us the lessons she has learnt about life and portrays them using her own experiences and adding a comical connotation to them. She takes you on a journey of how her life has unraveled from the beginning to the present. And gives you an insight into many different aspects of life, from making career choices, handling divorce and emotions, having kids and having sex. She encourages us not to give up on our dreams by using this quote several times throughout.

'It is not the thinking of the thing that's the thing, it's the doing of the thing that's the thing'

A large section of the book talks about her time on the American TV show Saturday Night Live. She was cast on the show for 7 years, it was the job she was working towards throughout her twenties while she was a part of the improvisation group United Citizens Brigade. Although she's a celebrity she stresses the fact that famous people are boring and parties with famous people are excruciating. She gives you and insight into how she is actually a normal down to earth woman with children to look after and a wage to make. The most enticing aspect of her personality as portrayed by the book is how humble she is.

She urges the reader to be a member of the 'good' people of this world. When she talks about helping others there was a quote she highlighted that stuck in my mind....

'People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people with never forget how you make them feel'

It's fun to hear her view on the world and her advice on how to survive the highs and lows it brings.

Imma leave you with my favourite quote from the chapter 'I'm so Proud of You':

'Emotions are like storms you just need to sit down and wait for the rain to stop'

A 21 Year Old Nostalgic...

Although most would say I am young in years, I have found out something recently about myself....I am very very very nostalgic. I itch to document every moment of my day, I want to make sure I remember every good memory and even some of the not so good ones.I'm a strong believer in learning from your past mistakes.

As I said I'm nostalgic, so about two years ago I started writing a daily diary. My first year was a total flop, I found myself not wanting to write in the days that may have been more painful to write, so I just dodged it. However last year, I did much better....I even started two extra journals! They focused on a concept completely new to me, a 5 year journal!

The Q and A: 5 Year Journal and One Line a Day: A Five Year Memory Book.

The Q and A Journal (found here for £10.49), asks you a question every day, it has 5 spaces on each page which allows for you to answer the same question 5 years in a row!. The questions can be very deep or very silly which makes it light and enticing at the same time. I really look forward to what I am going to be asked each day. I am now into my second year, so now I can see what I answered with last year. I try not to read that part until I have written in my answer for this year. It's really cool to see how you were feeling and how different your answers can be!

There are even Q and A Journals which span a 3 year period for kids, teens and couples!

The same goes for the One Line a Day Journal (found here for £8.39), however for this one you are just provided with five spaces on a page to sum up your day into a small paragraph. This is perfect for those people who don't have the time to write a full on diary entry but want to document the day all the same. Unless you are a nerd like me who wants to write in as many journals as possible every single day.

So, since I was younger, I have always written in diaries/journals. Mostly, when on holiday I would find a notebook and try to write every day of the holiday. I moved house not so long ago and I found those diaries, they made me cringe a hell of a lot though! I would start every entry Dear Diary and I would end by saying goodnight to it. I would go on about boys and how cute they were, and the arguments me and my sister would get into constantly.

Anyways, lets forgive my 10 year old self for her making me cringe a whole 10 years later and move on! I am happy to say that the writing of 3 journals a day has been able to abate my nostalgia for now! Although, I have to admit the starting on a scrapbook for this year is still not off the table. Hey don't judge!!

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Like many of John Green's books, this one follows a pattern. It lets you think you know what is going to happen and then all of a sudden, you are completely surprised and the story takes a path you couldn't have anticipated. Looking for Alaska, is set out in two parts, a before and an after. The chapters countdown towards an event in the before section and away from an event in the after section. The fact that the chapters are labelled in such a way made me instantly curious from the beginning, you want to know what the chapters are counting down towards and you spend the whole of the first half of the book trying to guess.

Looking for Alaska, is written in the first person, from the view of 16 year old Miles or Pudge ( a nickname he takes on very early on) who has an unhealthy interest in memorising the last words of famous figures throughout history. It follows him on a journey whereby he has decided to leave public school and enrol in his father's boarding school. From his first day at Culver Creek it is apparent that the days of friendlessness and being considered extremely odd, are behind him. He is instantly adopted into a friendship group who are not only extremely intelligent but send him in the direction of smoking, drinking and playing pranks on classmates and of course their head teacher named The Eagle. After all, that's what school is all about right?!

Each character is very complex in their own way, however none are as mysterious as Alaska is, the only girl in the group but also the definite instigator of all the unruliness I've mentioned. From the instant Miles meets her, he is infatuated with her. She is the most interesting out of all the main characters even Miles, because no-one really knows who is is not even us as the reader. The first section of the book is dedicated to witnessing Pudge as nicknamed by his new friends, tirelessly trying to get his head around who she is, why she has mood swings, why she hates going home so much. There isn't much more I'm going to say about Alaska because I don't want to spoil the story for you so I'm going to allow her, her mystery for now.

This book is a brilliant depiction of how we all make amazing friendships at school and those relationships are unlike any bond we make later in life. It shows the struggles we go through trying to figure out who we are at Pudge's age, all the pressures you are put under and the hard decisions you have to make.

A running theme shown by Green throughout, is the question all of us ask ourselves throughout our lives, what is the meaning of life and what is it that comes afterwards. It left me with probably more questions than answers but it really makes you think on a much deeper level and encourages you to make the most of each moment.

I found Looking for Alaska such an easy read, I didn't want to put it down and I had finished in within a few days. It's a nice travelling to work read as well.

So get reading, and write in the comments below what you thought!