Top 5 Songs for Singing Along
“Hold On” by Alabama Shakes
“Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen (duh)
“Some Nights” by fun.
“Feel the Love” by Rudimental featuring John Newman
“Super Rich Kids” by Frank Ocean
Top 5 Reality Shows About Love
Here Comes Honey Boo Boo
Real Housewives of Atlanta
Keeping Up with the Kardashians
Jersey Shore
Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta
Top 5 Non-Reality Shows That Are Better Than Their Recaps
Don’t Trust the B in Apt. 23
The Mindy Project
Nashville
Make It or Break It
Gossip Girl (This is kind of a lie–there are some great GG recaps–but, old habits.)
Top 5 Songs for Holding Hands
“Hey Ho” by The Lumineers
“Makes Me Wonder” by Concorde
“On Your Way” by the Alabama Shakes
“Let Me Be Him” by Hot Chip
“Ray Charles” by Chiddy Bang
Top 5 Books for Weekend Coffee Dates With Yourself
Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority by Tim Wise
From TimWise.Org: In America, being white has long meant never having to think about race. Whites have been able to assume that the culture, political leadership and their own neighborhoods would “look like them,” and the economy would work for them, so long as they played by the rules. Now, facing chronic economic insecurity, a multicultural pop culture, a black president and a future in which they will no longer be the majority, whites are growing anxious. This anxiety has helped create the Tea Party phenomenon and is characterized by the call to “take the country back” to a mythologized past. Using racialized nostalgia, the right seeks to enlist fearful whites in a movement for reactionary social and economic policies. But as Tim Wise explains, such an agenda will only further harm the nation’s people, including most whites. Only by embracing a progressive, multicultural future, can the hope of American democracy survive.
From The Book Smugglers: Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?
Bringing Up Bebe: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting by Pamela Druckerman (if you’re into kids, thinking critically about cultural socialization, or kinda fetishize the French)
From NPR: Druckerman says most French children, unlike many of their American counterparts, did not need to be entertained constantly by their parents.”I notice this when I go to the park in France, because I would usually arrive with a big bag of stuff to entertain my daughter the entire day, whereas the French mom on the blanket next to me would have just one ball, and she would talk to her friend. And the child would be happy,” Druckerman says. “French children seem to be able to play by themselves in a way.”
From The New York Times: …One day while Prue is minding 1-year-old Mac, a murder of crows swoops down and kidnaps him into the Impassable Wilderness. Doughty, brave-hearted Prue realizes there’s only one thing to do: head into the wilds and save the baby, Y.A.-style.Folding elements of real-life Portland into the story, Meloy lovingly describes the jungles to the north and the cobbled streets and elegant tree houses of the more civilized south. The result is a richly satisfying weave of reality and fantasy.
Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers by Anne Lamott
From The Tampa Bay Times: Lamott is, as usual, funny and self-deprecating: “People always told me, ‘You’ve got to get a thicker skin,’ like now they might say jovially, ‘Let go and let God.’ Believe me, if I could, I would, and in the meantime I feel like stabbing you in the forehead.” But that relates to her real point about prayer — in its best and purest form it takes us way past our own petty concerns.
I really want to read Wildwood now! And I am so with you on all of your music picks.