Faith Salie - You've Got My Approval!

As everyone who even knows me a little bit knows - I love a good memoir about a baller lady. When I saw that one of my favorite NPR ladies wrote a book, I had to read it! Faith Salie did not disappoint. Approval Junkie is funny, honest, and often resembles my life WAY too much. After reading this book I wish that I could call Faith up and be like "Hey girl, you're pretty fabulous. Lets go get mani/pedis and Starbucks."

Her book touches on so many issues that girls and women deal with today: not skinny enough, not pretty enough, waiting on kids, dating the wrong guy, and seeking approval in all the wrong places. She talks about her life so openly that it made me reflect on so many of the missteps that I've made over the years. Her life has followed a crazy route to get her to the happy and (hopefully) healthy place that it is now. We've all had our low points, but I continuously am amazed when women can write about those times in a way that can help other women (or men) find their own way. As I'm about to embark on the next chapter of my life, I'm glad that I'll be able to take some great advice that Faith laid out in her book.

I don't think most men would understand this book. But I think it could be a great way to start encouraging men to think about the added pressures that women have in today's world. Faith's memoir is, of course, about her life and her experiences, but this book is a look at the human condition. Faith provides insight into love, career choices, educational paths, and eyelash extensions. Faith, I totally approve.

Book provided by Blogging for Books.

Books, Cults, and Glowing Book Covers

So, because I'm a lazy person, I typically only review the books that I've been given for the sole purpose of reviewing. And then sometimes, I have to read for homework (Library Sciences what upp). And then sometimes, the books I have to read for homework are amazing. And then sometimes, I feel obligated to tell as many people as humanly possibly about how amazing said book is. This is that book. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan is amazing. AMAZING. Everyone stop what you're doing, go to your library, your local bookstore, Amazon, wherever. People - the cover GLOWS IN THE DARK.

Exhibit B. GLOWING

Exhibit A. Not Glowing

Get it? Because its a bookstore that never closes. just so genius.





Also, terrified me for a minute in the dark in my room before I put two and two together. For a brief moment I really thought I had stumbled into a magical world and was going to get to go to Narnia or something. No such luck I'm afraid.

Anyways, enough about the cover. This book has it all. You have your adorable dorky twenty something leading man who falls into a world of mystery and books. Cue the love interest, even dorkier twenty something lady who is infinitely smarter than our leading man, and rocks it. Cue the elderly man to lead them into the world of mystery. Also, they just constantly make Dungeons and Dragons jokes which actually had me laughing out loud to myself as I binge read this entire book on a Saturday morning alone in my jammies. NO SHAME. This book is hilarious and is full of mysteries. I'm not quite sure what I thought it was about before reading it, but I love books about books so I figured I would enjoy it. The story ended up being like a Da Vinci code mystery without all of the religious undertones. Basically it's great and everyone should read it. And try to get the cover that looks like this, so you can revel in the glow-in-the-dark-magic.

(Photo cred - Google Images, thanks strangers somewhere who took pictures of this book cover)