Bookstagram – Page 4 – …on the B.L.

Happy New Year

January 1, 2018 RaeAnna

Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Thank you all for following me on my literary lifestyle. It’s grown far more than my wildest dreams could have imagined. Really, I’m still very new; I began this blog a year and one week ago. So thank you! May we continue our journey for many years to come. This community I have become a part of through my blog, Bookstagram (Instagram), Twitter, Litsy, GoodReads, and more has expanded my life in so many ways. Part of me wishes I would have started doing this years ago. Better late than never!

Looking back at 2017: WOW.

I moved to Houston in October, 2016 with the intent to risk so much and dedicate myself completely to freelancing. I quickly realized: a) I lived in a city where I didn’t know anyone b) I had never not worked in an office or some job outside of the home, so what would I do with my c) I needed a hobby aside from reading and baking d) I was very bored and lonely. My best friend had been bothering me for years to start blogging about books. I was reading a lot in my new home. I posted a couple pictures on Instagram about my late night reading garnering far more likes and interaction than the previous four years had ever seen. The idea hit. I would start a blog and social media presence dedicated to books, which would give me something to do with my free time and all those darn books I read.

Here we are.

I spent 2017 reading, blogging, traveling, and spending time with my dog. I read a whole bunch of books with the intent of rereading books on my shelf and exploring authors of diverse backgrounds. I did very little rereading but a whole lot of diversity reading. My bookstagram took off like wildfire, and I started receiving books from authors and publishers, which is a bookworm’s dream come true really. I was able to travel all over the country seeing friends in Chicago, Iowa, Minnesota, Los Angeles, San Diego, North Carolina, Virginia, Washington DC, and more. I may be tired of road trips for awhile. I did a bunch of freelancing (shameless plug: I’m always open for more!). I adopted my dog, Beauvoir, in February naming her after the author and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. I tried to explore my new home, Houston, but I have so much more to see. I had some serious downs in 2017 specifically health troubles, but I have done everything in my power to keep it from holding me back from living a spectacularly exciting life.

With a little bitter sweetness I am saying goodbye to 2017 looking forward to 2018. After such a wonderful year, it’s hard not to be a little apprehensive of the year to come. I am looking ahead with optimism. My reading list is long and ever growing. I already have a few trips planned. I am going to start blogging with a new found vengeance because I love it, and I have a bunch of ideas!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to each and every one of you for following along, supporting, and enjoying this bookish thing I love so much. I look forward to another year full of adventures, books, friends, and new experiences.

RaeAnna Rekemeyer
Founder of Bookish Liaisons

Lifestyle

Merry Christmas

December 24, 2017 RaeAnna

Merry Christmas!

Well, Merry Christmas Eve! I have been in full holiday cheer for about a month and a half, so this is very exciting. I am spending the holidays with my parents in Ames, Iowa where I grew up. It’s the first Christmas I have been home in a very long time, so they are incredibly happy to have me. Beau is by my side enjoying her first Christmas full of treats and a big, shiny stick just for her in all the houses she’s been to!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are exciting but also bittersweet for me because it means the end of the season I love so much. This year is slightly different, however. Today is a very special day. It is the day leading up to the day epitomizing cheer, joy, and goodwill towards all! It also marks my one year anniversary.

On this day last year, I launched my blog, Instagram, and Twitter accounts. It was 2:30 in the morning on Christmas Eve when I finally clicked the launch button on all the accounts. I started off with exactly one follower: my best friend. She was sitting in the room with me as she patiently waited for me to finish up my new passion project before we headed to bed. I went to sleep thinking I would have a handful of likes and maybe a follower or two. I woke up to find over two hundred likes on my first post on Instagram. It ended up climbing all day long eventually topping out with over four hundred likes. How this happened on my first go: to this day, I have no idea. It would take me eight months to have another post on Instagram surpass my first one in popularity.

I chose Christmas Eve to launch because it is my favorite holiday, and I thought I would give myself several reasons to celebrate for years to come. I didn’t know it then, but it was a great decision. I have always found myself incredibly grateful on this day, and this community and experience has added to my appreciation of this beautiful world I live in.

I began this adventure with a review of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and a post of my bookshelves and tree. So I will come full circle with another post of my bookshelves and Christmas tree. As luck would have it, Christmas Eve is landing on #shelfiesunday!

I don’t have much to say other than:

Merry Christmas
I hope you receive armfuls of books.
Thank you for a wonderful year.
I am looking forward to seeing where this next year takes us.

In a year, this has evolved from a minute hobby with one follower and no hopes to something far more amazing and fulfilling than I could have imagined. I have loved every minute getting to know this beautiful community I am a part of. At the beginning, I knew next to nothing. I have learned so much with more still to learn. I can’t imagine my life without this venture of mine anymore.

Books

A Week in Winter

December 18, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 464
Quick Review How one woman’s dream brought a group of strangers together while they struggle through their own difficult situations.

A Week in Winter was her last novel and published posthumously in 2012 after her death in the same year. Binchy has written a multitude of novels, but this is the first I have read. In my opinion, it’s a wonderful novel to end an already amazing literary career.

Binchy was Irish and wrote about her country in A Week in Winter. Chicky Starr is from a remote town, Stoneybridge, in west Ireland. After moving to New York City in her youth, she returns to Stoneybridge, where she turns an old house into a beautiful hotel, Stone House. The town believes her crazy, but a few devote their time and futures into the dream. The dream comes to fruition when a hodge-podge group of people stay during the opening week.

The book is divided into chapters focusing on individuals lives and the events which bring them to the house. The characters are flawed and looking for respite or wholeness or the hotel has simply happened upon them. The hotel becomes a beautifully silent and simultaneously powerful character supporting each character through their personal journeys. The characters come from all walks of life and several countries in Europe. Some lives intertwine with others in close or remote ways. Binchy does not strive to have her characters adored. Like people, she writes them with various characteristics, flaws, and, at times, no redeeming qualities.

This novel isn’t a Christmas story, but it is a winter story. The perfect companion for a chilly evening, a fire, and a mug of something warm, or if you live somewhere warm, it will make you crave a chilly winter.

Memorable Quotes
“And anyway, there’s more to life than just sex and kittens.”

Title: A Week in Winter
Author: Maeve Binchy
Publisher: Anchor Books (Random House)
Copyright: 2012
ISBN: 9780307475503

Books

Eligible

November 30, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 488
Quick Review A hilariously modern reworking of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Sittenfeld turns something old new, while maintaining the integrity of the original.

I bought the book solely on my admiration for Sittenfeld’s short stories. Her ability to write is captivating. I picked up Eligible apprehensively because I abhor retellings or fanfiction. They are never done well. I can no longer say “never.” I have been proven wrong.

Pride and Prejudice is a universally beloved novel with themes still present in today’s society. That being said, it does not lend itself to modern reinterpretation. The status of women has changed a touch in the past 150 years. No longer are we dependent on men and marriage. How do you take a novel about five unmarried women and their ludicrous behavior and adventures which are incredibly relevant to their time and make it relevant in our time? Age them and a whole load of other things.

Set in Cincinnati, of all places, the Bennet sisters are unmarried and majorly dependent upon their ailing father and ridiculous mother. After a heart attack on Mr. Bennet’s part, Jane and Liz return home from New York to help care for him, when they meet surgeons Chip Bingley and Fitzwilliam Darcy along with the abhorrent Caroline Bingley. Chip comes from a famous family and was on a reality TV show Eligible (the equivalent of “The Bachelor”).

The characters personalities are all intact and even more vibrant than their original namesakes. Collins being the exception, I found him less dreadful than in Pride and Prejudice, maybe it’s because I know a good few of the modern Collins’ that I can tolerate him. Caroline, however, is truly oddious in a way Austen always implied. Sittenfeld split Wickham into two characters. Throughout the entire novel I was expecting one thing to happen, and was surprised when a vastly different something happened. In the original, it is understandable why all the sisters are at home doing a whole lot of not much because that’s what they did then, and they were young. I found it grating that four sisters in their twenties and thirties could be so lazy; Liz, of course, being the exception. Mrs. Bennet, in true form, was a neurotic basket case. I truly wanted to like Mr. Bennet more, but alas, he too had his faults. Enough said.

I finished the 500 plus pages in a day. It is a fabulous novel with real depth and wit. Sittenfeld took an untouchable classic and made it relevant.

Memorable Quotes
““That’d be like watching a burlesque show with one’s eyes closed.””
“Caroline was on Darcy’s other side and had spent midst of the meal curled toward him in conversation like a poisonous weed.”
““You have no idea how lucky you are that someone like him would settle for you.””
“If you really want to do something unselfish, adopt a seven-year-old black boy from foster care.”

Title: Eligible; A Novel
Author: Curtis Sittenfeld
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2016
ISBN: 9780812980349

Houston, On the Town

Tea Sip

November 25, 2017June 23, 2019 RaeAnna

Happy Small Business Saturday!

I decided to celebrate by making my way to a local small business. I have been meaning to go to for a long time, but I kept leaving town on trips. I pulled myself away from my very comfortable couch and books for the one thing I love almost as much: TEA!

I found out about the existence of Tea Sip through Instagram, of course. I followed them; they followed me, which automatically makes them cooler and more desirable in my book. It is a locally owned small business, which opened this summer – I think. Anyways… It’s new. It’s cute. It’s a tea store. What more could you want?!?!?

Tea Sip is located at 321 W. 19th Street Suite A, Houston. Or it’s in the Heights right next to Retropolis. If you’re in the area, you should definitely stop by. Not only are they a tea shop with the usual wares, they also have all their teas to go. So if you’re shopping in the Heights, grab a cup of tea (iced or hot) to keep you company.

It’s so cute! The windows are huge. Walking in there are tea cups and tea pots everywhere. Heaven, but I was incredibly self conscious because I’m clumsy and poor. I have been to so many tea shops, but I found a first! Most places have samples to taste and smell; Tea Sip does it different. All the packages of tea are labelled with a number which corresponds to a vial full of tea hanging up. It’s fun and unique! The tea pots are cute, but what really stands out are the cups and mugs. All kinds of different shapes and sizes ranging from classic to outrageous. My personal favorite were the cups and saucers in bright metallic colors. There are stamped spoons… I, of course, left with one one that said “Sweet dreams are made of Teas!” It’s true.

The employees are amazing. They were more than happy to answer questions and chat while we waited for my tea to steep. It is obvious they enjoy working there, or they’re incredibly good actors. Either way, I had fun!

Tea talk. I love tea. I have drank a lot of it in many parts of the world. I have come across weird teas. Tea Sip has some weird teas. I have a hard time buying weird tea without trying it. I’m not a gambler. I bought peppermint because a) it’s my favorite b) it’s hard to mess up. Before I learned of their tea-to-go, I asked what the best weird teas were they had. The two suggestions were Cupcake and a spicy one – I don’t remember the name. I love cupcakes. I love tea. I wasn’t convinced I would love cupcake tea. I love spicy, but since my gallbladder took its exodus from my body, spicy and I don’t get along. I decided to get cupcake tea to go, and my boyfriend got the spicy one. Apparently, the spicy one gets spicier the more you drink it. So I don’t know, but he enjoyed it. I LOVED the cupcake tea. It smells like a cupcake. It tastes like a black tea with a cupcake finish. It’s not something I would normally try or ever like, but it is amazing! Definitely try it. If you’re not in the Houston area, order it.

I left with a small bag of goodies. It took a lot of willpower to not leave with one of everything because the cups are so adorable. Since it’s the Christmas season, I held myself back. I will be back after Christmas… and I will be poor.

Tea Sip

321 W. 19th Street

Suite A

Houston, Texas 77008

346.701.8662

Books

13 Hours

November 16, 2017 RaeAnna

Read Yes
Length 320
Quick Review Six men put everything on the line to protect their fellow Americans during a brutal attack in Benghazi, Libya on the eleventh anniversary of 9/11.

Zuckoff writes an enthralling account of the men who protected an American safe hold in Libya on Sept ember 11, 2012. I had a hard time putting the book down once I got into it. As an American who watches as little news as possible when the word Benghazi is mentioned, it has an air of sadness to it. Although, I never really knew the particulars of what happened. To be honest, I would be surprised if many do. It is thought of as a sad moment in a sea of depressing incidents we live in post 9/11.

Zuckoff focuses on the six men who put their lives on the line that night. He wants the book to be impartial telling the events as the Annex Security Team remembers them with no political implication. It would be hard to call the book completely impartial because there were more people present that night than just the members of the Annex Security Team. It would have been interesting to hear their accounts of the night as well.

It’s hard not to begin the book optimistically because, like Titanic, the ending is already common knowledge. If it isn’t to you, I won’t spoil the depression.

Zuckoff makes it easy to get to know the Annex Security Team. He has an incredible ability to take himself out of the narrative allowing each man’s personality to bleed in when necessary while staying factual. Zuckoff spends a great deal of time describing people and places. The descriptions can drag a little over geography, but he includes diagrams making it possible to skim those sections to look at the pictures instead.

This is incredibly moving and a testament to the men who put their lives on the line to protect their country and their people. Their complexities come through in how they view the world, each other, and their superiors. It is always important to remember that heroes are people, and Zuckoff is able to portray this sentiment clearly throughout.

13 Hours is an important read for anyone who wants to be aware of recent history. Unfortunately, the events are not isolated, and similar attacks and atrocities happen all over the world to more or less media attention.

Memorable Quotes
“Oil had yet to be discovered, so no one wanted colonial responsibility for an impoverished, bombed-out Arab sandbox.”
“…telling each other that the United States had gotten its money’s worth for teaching them how to be soldiers.”

Title: 13 Hours; The Inside Account of What Really Happened
Author: Mitchell Zuckoff and the Annex Security Team
Publisher: Twelve (Hachette Book Group)
Copyright: 2014
ISBN: 9781455582273