Staight Up and Dirty

Stephanie Kline writes her memoir to truly live up to its title. Without skipping a detail , Kline gives her readers a play-by-play of her life after her painful and heartbreaking divorce. Through numorous trysts with men, cocktails, and a phone therapist, Kline is eventually about to learn how to love herself, before anyone else. Kline's wit is sharp, and her humor transcends throughout the whole book. Although Kline's humor and "game face" in getting back into the dating game and the NYC lifystyle is impressive and even inspirational (as Kline's self-earned wealth allows her to enjoy a fantastic lifestyle even when down in the dumps) many people find her blunt descriptions and shameless secrets to be insulting and inappropriate. Personally, I give Kline a lot of credit for putting so much of her life into writing for the world to see. Overall, I feel that Kline deserves a lot of respect for pulling herself through a divorce and rediscovering love, but on the other hand, although her materialistic-ness decreased as the novel progressed, her somewhat overbearing references to money took away from the overall experience, making her struggles harder to take seriously. Maybe this is because her lifestyle has encouraged this sort of behavior, but I constantly had to remind myself that this was real, and not fiction. As a whole, the book was really enjoyable, but something that can only be relatable if the setting were extracted, and only the feelings remained- put together though, the high class city life is not something that can apply to every woman (or man), making the memoir seem a step up from something from the real life.

Be(Loved)

My research topic will be about Toni Morrison's Beloved. I am going to the explore the novel with mostly a historical lens, to see how and why Morrison incorporated specific historical events in the novel, and try to add in some of Morrison's personal history (her biographical facts) into that as well. Then I will be talking about how she uses her unique writing style to really bring the story out through the history and personal facts.

Judging a book by its title

Out of all the articles and snippets of actual novels that we read, the one that stood out most to me was Lost in Translation by Eva Hoffman. I really liked stories she provided to us- granted, I did read this one a lot more thoroughly than I did the others, but I still felt that the personal ways in which she told the stories gave her more credit as a writer as well as allowed the reader to comprehend as much as possible. Hoffman talked a lot about language- obviously, since her title was a derivative of it, I knew that language for her, particularly, the english language would be a big deal. Her command of the english language, both through using it and contextualizing it, was her greatest weakness. I feel like she grew to have such a spectacular command both of the language and expressing herself through it, from almost nothing was her greatest goal- and that in singularly focusing on such a goal allowed her to write such a novel. Through assimilating, there are many aspects of the culture that one has to get used to, but by focusing in on her acquisition of language, Hoffman masters it. I loved the parallel in the relationship in her discussion not being able to master the english language, to completely owning the language and making the reader understand in the final accounts.

Hogwarts is Real

JK Rowling is one of the most well-known, talented, and rich women in today's world- made famous for her incredible Harry Potter series turned multi-million dollar enterprise. Because of her, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (the setting of the better part of the series) has become real for many millions of children and adults alike across the world, myself included. In fact, when it comes to myself and Harry Potter, there is not much that is left unsaid. Ever since the third grade, I have been completely obsessed with the magical world of Harry Potter- not just the movies and the action figures, but the fantasy Rowling made real with her writing.
Okay, so maybe her writing style isn't revolutionlary, and maybe there won't be a Folger Rowling Library, but what she create with her writing is what has really made the difference. After only the third novel (there are seven), Harry Potter was "speaking" in sixteen different languages worldwide, and today the number has reached an incredible 42 languages.
It is for these reasons and more that I chose to follow JK Rowling's blog. She first thought of the concept of Harry Potter on a train, and started writing on napkins in a coffee shop. Rowling has come a full 180 degrees; writing on napkins and barely making ends meet, to being richer than the Queen of England. Her work has changed the lives of many like myself, and despite all of her new fame and money, she still keeps her fans first.
Although she doesn't update her blog every day, she does do so as much as possible, and also keeps up a "news" section, assuring that the "fandom" stays aware of what is going on in the world of Harry Potter. Her blog and website are totally unique, incorporating little things from the book and interactive sections for the visitors. In fact, a few times she had the site set up in a sort of scavender hunt, having the visitor search for particular things in order to find a spoiler in the end. I admire Rowling for a great many reasons, and I am absolutely in love with her work, so this is the most enjoyable and interesting blog I could find!

At the Beginning

Hey Everybody!!

Since this is just the first post, I'll just leave some important facts about myself to (hopefully) make future entries more clear.

1) I am obsessed to death with Harry Potter, JK Rowling, and anything and anyone affiliated with the wizarding world.
2) I'm from New Jersey (Only one out of the thousands taking over GW)
3) I'm a hardcore Yankees fan.
4) Go Giants!!
5) My favorite restaurant is the Cheesecake Factory
6) My favorite band is Guster.
7) I love singing- everything from our good old Britney Spears to Phantom
8) I plan on double majoring in English and International Affairs
9) I like long conversations and midnight walks on the beach- the Jersey Shore is more than its cracked up to be.
10) I love roller coasters. One has not lived until he/she has ridden Kingda Ka.

So that's ten things to love about me.