What I Read in 2015

PSA from The Peace Mobile: After publishing my 14th post of 2015 last week, I noticed that in 2014 I also published 14 posts. 14 is a nice, even number, but I think I need to give TPM a little more love throughout the year! 14 posts is barely 1 post a month. I can do better than that! Like it or not, expect more posts from TPM in 2016! Without further ado, here is my 2015 book review!

I read 12 books this year, which is not a whole lot, but it's more than I've read since before college! (In college, no one reads for fun. Yikes.) I've been balancing my hours as a part-time contributing writer and a full-time operations manager to rekindle my love for literature, making it a priority to read more this year, especially the latter half. An easy way to tell that I've been reading (re: sarcasm) is by looking at my Instagram account, where I unintentionally documented my favorite lines, chapter titles, and book art. Which sort of inspired this review! I tried a lot of new things in 2015. This year I read a lot of well-known authors, but also experimented with poetry and audiobooks for the first time. I may not seem very critical, but it's because I was wowed by almost every book I read. There were only a couple books that didn't impress me. I made my own scale too, for your entertainment. You're welcome.

5 - Out-fricking-standing! //  Code for... Riveting; wept when I finished it; contained either valuable life lesson(s) or a crazy good plot.
4 - So good! // Code for... Entertaining, easy read, with like-able characters!
3 - I gave it my best shot. // Code for... It had its good, possibly great moments, but they were too short-lived. I  had to try really hard to be interested.
2 - Not for me // Code for... Maybe for someone else.
1 - No, thanks. // Code for... NO.

Other ratings:
LOL - the obvious, laugh out loud.
LMAO - Freakin' funnier than an lol, an LMAO label means the author is probably a comedian.
actual tears (of sadness) - I cried actual tears.
Totes relatable - The author was speaking my language.
Beautiful AF - (v. pretty prose or poetry)
WTF? - Can't believe the book went there.

Yes Please by Amy Poehler
5 - LMAO, actual tears, totes relatable
In case you've lived under a rock the past year, you should know Amy Poehler released a book in late 2014. I got my hands on it and devoured it in January, and I've been hungry ever since. Although I would classify this as a memoir, it's also non-fiction-y and self help guide-ish. She has sound advice on love, self-love, and probably my favorite, career. She tells fascinating tales from her days at Second City and Saturday Night Live. She tells us about her philosophy on raising children. She throws some sexist a-holes under the bus, which was particularly satisfying. Overall, Amy teaches her readers (by example!) to embrace their own weird selves.

An infamous IG post from my favorite chapter.

"You have to care about your work but not about the result. You have to care about how good you are and how good you feel, but not about how good people think you are or how good people think you look."  - Amy Poehler, my mother            

One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories by B.J. Novak
3 - LMAO
I gave this a 3 because it took me forever to read. Because I wasn't super interested. I tried, I really did. I love Novak as a TV writer, so I assumed that love would translate to books as well. Comprised of many short stories, the book did make me laugh several times, and Novak thinks in a quirky, profound way that most humans don't. Although that element was refreshing, each story was so short that I could not become fully invested. This one took me the better part of 2015 to reach the last page. Sorry, B.J. I still love you.
Favorite snippet:

This gets me every time.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed
5 - LOL, actual tears, totes relatable, beautiful AF
Cheryl Strayed is my newest hero and everything I wish to be as a writer. She is raw, hilarious, deep, sharp, and her stories are worthy of screen adaptation. Thanks to that particular screen adaptation, many people know the story of Wild. SPOILER ALERT: Strayed, wracked with grief, hikes the Pacific Crest Trail on her own, a feat for anyone, but particularly a young person, alone, with no hiking experience whatsoever. I felt like Strayed was telling her story directly to me-- this could be because I listened to the audiobook, ;) I held my breath when she encountered difficulty or terror on the trail. I laughed when she made a fool of herself. I cried when she finished. This is my go-to recommendation for any woman looking for her "Wild moment," which I consider the moment she drops everything and does what she needs to survive this life.

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
4 - LMAO
It's a bfd (big f deal) when a book makes me laugh out loud, MORE THAN ONCE. I listened to this audiobook, mostly while running, and giggled all over the track. Sedaris reflects upon his past; as a closeted gay child; a cocaine addict doing lines of dust off whichever surface he could find dust on when he ran out of coke; as a lover living in France with his partner. Each essay was vastly different, but equally as hilarious. Everyone needs a little Sedaris in their lives at least one time. I recommend the audiobooks too because Sedaris himself reads his work, and his diction is fantastic.

The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
1
Nope. Nope, and more nope. Such a disappointment. I thought I would love this since I loved Gatsby, but I despised all the characters. They were lazy, gluttonous, and completely worthless when it came to advancing the plot. They bickered with each other non-stop. They were whiny. They were annoying. I made it 3/4 of the way through and surrendered. I couldn't take any more! Sorry, Fitzgerald lovers. This isn't his best work.

The Vacationers by Emma Straub
4 - LOL, totes relatable
I am always mesmerized by writers who juggle the points of view of several characters, and Straub killed it. She was surprising too, because the closer we got to the climax, the more viewpoints she included. She crescendo-decrescendos if we're talking in musical terms. (I don't know the literary term for this). She started with the sole members of the Post family, added Lawrence and Charlie, finally Carmen, Joan, and Gemma, then whittled it back down to the Post family members. I related most to the character Sylvia because she is closest to me in age, but I had no trouble reading the other characters. Watch out for Bobby. He is a big, dumb player. And so is Joan. Give Jim a chance, though. The story was like a tasteful gossip column. It was juicy, and also a really quick read. I read at least 100 pages during commercial breaks during ABC Family's HP Weekend. Considering the setting of the book (the Spanish islands), this is either a great vacation read (imagine that) or a nice, warm story to get lost in during the bitter, winter months!

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
5 - WTF
In a good way. This book was hard to put down. Alas, I read it on my lunch break over the course of two weeks. When I finished, in a Panera, completely slack-jawed, I kind of felt like I needed therapy. The plot twisted and turned, and terrified me several times. Like, I was afraid to be in my own apartment. There isn't much I can say that won't give it away. So go read it!


All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
5 - actual tears, beautiful AF
Brilliant. Breathtaking. Heartbreaking. Most beautiful prose I've read in a long time. This book is a 2015 Pulitzer Prize winner in fiction! Every single detail, from dreams and landscapes to radios and war machines, was described with gorgeous but concise vocabulary. This is a very unusual love story set in WWII Europe, told over the course of many years and by many characters, organized in short chapters. I could barely tear my eyes away from the pages. I only wish Doerr had some mercy upon a couple of characters. I have an infatuation with WWII, so I recommend this novel to anyone with the same taste for historical fiction.

Another basic IG post.

We'll Always Have Paris by Jennifer Coburn
4 - LOL, totes relatable, actual tears
As a fellow writer with an obsession with European travels, I had experienced many of the same situations Coburn describes in this mother/daughter memoir. Coburn is the nervous type, and this translates well into self-deprecation and humor. That's the basis of the whole book; she is afraid of dying young, so she takes her daughter on long European vacations in case her time is cut short (aka We'll always have paris).

Blue Iris by Mary Oliver
poetry - 4 - beautiful AF
This was my first real dance with poetry. I read this and American Primitive before bed, a few poems each night, in hopes that Oliver's lovely words would send me sweet dreams. Oliver manages to take the most minute details from nature and spins them into magical, poetic tales. I was studying poetry because I decided I wanted to try it myself. Oliver was a great teacher, and I managed to churn out a few pieces, inspired by her style, and one was featured in a poetry forum, where I was referred to as a "poet" for the first time. I will always read Mary Oliver lovingly, knowing she was a huge inspiration for my own work, but I think anyone who enjoys reading should definitely give her books a try.

My favorite poem was Sunflowers, and here is an excerpt:
Come with me
into the field of sunflowers.
Their faces are burnished disks,
their dry spines 

creak like ship masts,
their green leaves,
so heavy and many,
fill all day with the sticky 

sugars of the sun.

American Primitive by Mary Oliver
poetry - 4 beautiful AF
I admire Oliver's poetry because she uses stunning language and writes brilliant lines and gestures, but does not waste a single word. One of my biggest pet peeves in writing is when an author uses big, fluffy words to try to sound fancy. "Do or do not. There is no try."

Heartburn by Nora Ephron
2 - LOL
I know Ephron is regarded as the ultimate feminist writer, but this was my first time reading her and I couldn't get into this one. I hope Meryl Streep and other fans can forgive me. The main character annoyed the hell out of me, and I found her to be a ditsy fool. I wanted to scream into the book at her. Which is unfortunate since this one is loosely based on Ephron's life. She did manage to make me laugh, usually in disbelief. I will definitely give her another chance in 2016!

Honorable Mention // Lenny Letter by Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner and contributors
This is not a book. If it was a book, I would give it a 5. It is a feminist e-newsletter facilitated by the ladies listed above. I've been a subscriber since day one, which was only a few months ago, and I read these religiously. They feature mostly essays and excerpts- fiction, poetry, politics, and interviews with powerful women we should know about. I promise, if you subscribe, they will cover something you care about. At some point. ;) I personally try to care about a lot of things, even when they do not pertain to me, because, that's like, how equality works and stuff. Go to http://www.lennyletter.com/ to subscribe. 'Tis free!

I had a pretty damn good 2015 reading year, considering there was only 1 book that disgusted me, and a couple that were sub-par, in my opinion. But you know what they say about opinions... The rest was quality material. *~no ragrets~*

Do you have any suggestions for 2016 reading material? Come at me, bro. (I call everyone bro)

To the Woman Who Taught Me to Play Piano

For Sharon Hawley

Dear piano teacher,

You meant so much to me in my childhood, but even more so to me as an adult. In my ever-changing home life, you were my constant. As I moved from house to house and switched schools, your home, your patience, and your love was always the same. I needed that, and I thank you.

It never occurred to me until recently, but I could read music before I could read my own native English, and that I owe to you. To this day, twenty years later, I remember my first piano lesson. You showed me the keys, and when you finished, I asked you, “But where are H, I, and J?” You laughed, delighted at my innocence. In your house I began as a 4’ tall 5 year old with no interest in the keys, and I grew in every way to a lanky 18-year-old with a vast love and adoration for music.

Dear piano teacher, I thank you for giving me lessons, even when my family had forgotten to pay you for weeks. Your graciousness taught me more than you will ever know. You trusted my family, and you always gave us a chance to pay you the following week. And when we finally caught up, it seemed that we were behind again. But you didn’t care about money. You wanted to give me a musical education despite anyone’s finances.

Thank you for having faith in my talent when I was eleven but played with the skill level of a 7-year-old. Thank you for your patience during those rocky years. It was because of your faith in me, that merely two years after that,  at thirteen I played at the level of someone much older. At recitals, I was your intro, playing simplified versions of the greats for years. It seemed like I was never going to improve. And then seemingly overnight I became the finale, taking the place of all your students I had looked up to before. Sometimes you let me arrange my own pieces, and again your faith in my creativity meant the world to me. I thought it was so cool when you let me combine a Broadway tune with a Christmas piece and let me call it “Christmas Explosion.” It was so quirky, and I have a feeling that not many other teachers would have allowed me to do something so outlandish.

Thank you for treating me like your own when you had no obligation to do so. Thank you for all the rides home from school, the ice cream stops before lessons, the Christmas gifts and birthday cards. Thank you for teaching me to read music; to play my favorite instrument of all. Music is a universallanguage. Music is love. And you taught me that. I love you.

Sincerely,

Your student always

The Peace Mobile Is Moving to Spain!

Pending Visa approval, I will be a resident of southern Spain from late January through early July in 2016!

The last two years I've given a "prediction" of the next year to come. In 2013 I said that 2014 would be a game-changer, and it was. Many events, both beautiful and devastating impacted my life and changed my point of view in a multitude of ways. In 2014 I said that 2015 would be the year of execution. In 2014 I did a lot of organizing and planning, and in 2015 I did a lot of achieving. I picked up two paid writing gigs and moved into an apartment on my own, without roommates, for the first time ever. I got a raise at my current job, and I completed 3 half marathons in three different states plus my first long-distance relay. Personally and professionally I made strides toward the life I wish to live.

I have a feeling that 2016 is going to be just phenomenal. I have so many goals to achieve. I want to see a new continent (Africa!), visit Portugal, Italy, Morocco, and Ireland for the first time, run a race in a new country, become fluent in Spanish, give full-time writing a heavy push, be a bridesmaid for the first time (actually, this one is inevitable, so the goal is to be a good one), be a better global citizen. I am out of breath just trying to fathom it all.

I feel that all my successes and all my failures have lead me to this decision. I will be a nanny for my absolutely gorgeous and endearing host family. A large part of my job will be teaching their young children how to speak English. Teaching, in any form, is an honor, and I know how important my role will be in their lives. In turn, I know how much more they will influence my life. I will also be attending class at a Spanish university, and I start class on my 25th birthday. I can't think of a better way to start my next year of life. In addition, my host city has a marathon in April, and you bet your sweetness that I'll be running it.

Leaving will be difficult. There are so many people I love. No one wants to up and leave their family and friends, but I know I am in the perfect time of my life for this opportunity. I am as unattached as they come right now. And six months really isn't that long in the grand scheme of things.

When I return in midsummer, I will have a fresh, blank canvas to start with, and for once I am happy to have no plans. I feel like the weight of trying to be successful has worn me down for so long, and now instead of aiming for success, I am aiming for happiness. Which is a success in itself.