Author: Sarah Bringhurst Familia

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Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Am I still getting annoying viagra ads injected into my blog? Here’s some extra text to make sure this post is long enough to check:

“I am an excitable person who only understands life lyrically, musically, in whom feelings are much stronger as reason. I am so thirsty for the marvelous that only the marvelous has power over me. Anything I can not transform into something marvelous, I let go. Reality doesn’t impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls.”
― Anaïs Nin… Read more

Insurgent, Allegiant, Legend, Prodigy, One Light Still Shines, Children of Men, and For Darkness Shows the Stars

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

What do you think about the proclivity of YA authors lately for choosing one-word titles? Did it start with or predate the Twilight craze? I think it’s kind of fun, but will probably have a fairly short shelf life (sort of like how clever one-word URL’s are pretty much unobtainable nowadays).

Insurgent (Divergent, #2)Insurgent by Veronica Roth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book even more than Divergent, I think. It was a little action-packed for me, but there were some introspective moments too. Roth portrayed the effects of trauma on Tris very well. Although the idea that imprisonment, torture, and serving as the subject of experiments with hallucination-inducing drugs was effective therapy for said trauma is a little strange.… Read more

We Got Our Christmas Letter Out Before Christmas This Year!

Sarah Bringhurst Familia
Barely.

Special Note: I know that a lot of you are also on our mailing list (I mean email, of course; you didn’t think we were organized enough to actually mail something out, did you?). I apologize for the duplication and will eventually be able to bring myself to forgive you if our letter is not interesting enough to read twice. For those who are not on our email list of people who like us and would like to be (if such exist), it is not because we don’t love you. Give me your email, and I will add you.

Dear Friends, Family and other Special People,

It’s been one of those years where nothing happens.
… Read more

Oryx and Crake, Gregor the Overlander, The Maze Runner, Solstice Wood, and The Night Circus

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Here’s a tip for you: if you’re stressed out and reading to unwind, try to avoid apocalyptic dystopias. Because yeah, things could be worse, but wallowing in just how much worse might not actually make you feel better. Case in point below:

Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam Trilogy, #1)Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I hate to give this book a bad rating, since from a literary standpoint it’s likely a masterpiece. But it was so terrifyingly depressing that I could not finish it. Rampant genetic engineering resulting in disaster of the highest order? Check. Society rotted to the core by soulless consumerism?… Read more

Thanksgiving Menu – Florida (Take Two)

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

pumpkin cheesecake

Believe it or not, real life besides books has been going on too. Last week the CEO at the company where I work said he was not opening the office on Friday, so everyone would be “working from home” (his quotation marks, not mine). I was pretty excited to have a whole Thanksgiving weekend with the family.

Our Thanksgiving menu for this year was a little less ambitious than last year’s Thanksgiving menu, considering the fact that I work full time and Tony, while he is more organized than I ever was about everyday meals, has no interest in presiding over an elaborate, three-day cooking project.… Read more

Cloud Atlas, Beautiful Creatures, Lions of al-Rassan, Gifts, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Cloud-Atlas

The only thing worse than not updating your blog for two months is not updating your blog for two months and then just posting a bunch of book reviews. Lame, I know. Have I said this before? Because it sounds kind of familiar. You’ll notice that all the new books (as well as the three I’m in the middle of reading right now) are fantasy novels, and we all know what that means. It means that while my body and even my mind are busy efficiently accomplishing numerous tasks, my secret consciousness is vacationing and binging on escapist fiction. Yes, life has been a little hectic and crazy lately.… Read more

French Women, Tigana, Catching Fire, Mountains of Madness, and Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

French Women for All Seasons: A Year of Secrets, Recipes, and PleasureFrench Women for All Seasons: A Year of Secrets, Recipes, and Pleasure by Mireille Guiliano
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I picked this one up for free, and it’s been sitting in my bathroom for the past month, so I’ve leafed through most of it.

In the interest of full disclosure, I haven’t read the book that put Guiliano on the bestseller list, French Women Don’t Get Fat, although I was aware of its basic premise. It’s hard for me to imagine anyone really being able to take her seriously. Giuliano’s tone is supercilious at best. Her constant exaggerated descriptions of her own self-control (the chocolates she didn’t eat, the half of a banana she saved for later, etc.)… Read more

My Imaginary Well-Dressed Dog

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

If you can’t wait to meet My Imaginary Well-Dressed Dog, I just gave you the link, so go ahead. But if you’d like the explanation, here it is:

I think most of us have had at least some exposure to that reservoir of superlative fantasy, home of improbable D.I.Y. projects, and well of inexhaustible mommy-guilt that is Pinterest. Usually, it’s not really my thing. As you know, my style for birthday parties fits better under the “lazy parent” category than the “Pinterest perfect” one. And I’m not one to seek out unsolicited reminders of how awesome I could be if I only dedicated myself to the full-time creation and beautification of cupcakes, party invitations, and other crafty delights.… Read more

“It was the most beautiful, the most civilized city in the world . . . “

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

I spent a restless night last night, and every time I fell asleep I dreamed of Syria. I suppose it was because every time I turned on the radio yesterday, they were talking about Syria, much in the vein of this Onion article. And over and over in my head, I keep hearing the opening line of a sci fi story set in the Balkans that I read when I was a teenager:  “It was the most beautiful, the most civilized city in the world . . . ”

Damascus is neither, really. Except at certain times, and in certain lights.… Read more

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Oscar Wilde: Plays: The Importance of Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband, Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, Salome'Oscar Wilde: Plays: The Importance of Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband, Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance, Salome’ by Oscar Wilde

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have been an admirer of Oscar Wilde since adolescence, and I still find his mixture of social edginess, wit, and sophisticated (but ever so slightly wicked) wisdom irresistible. I actually listened to a delightful BBC production of these plays, plus a dramatized version of The Picture of Dorian Gray, and fell in love with Wilde all over again.

This time around, what I noticed was that his social and political commentary was right on, and as relevant today as when he wrote it 100 years ago.… Read more