In case you haven't heard about this upcoming release in 2019. Keep it on your radar, because I am pretty sure it is going to be the next great thing in happy-making contemporary fiction world. What book is this in case you haven't already seen the cover? It is...

Again, but Better

Release Date: May 21, 2019
416 pages

Shane has been doing college all wrong. Pre-med, stellar grades, and happy parents...sounds ideal -- but Shane's made zero friends, goes home every weekend, and romance...what's that? 

Her life has been dorm, dining hall, class, repeat. Time's a ticking, and she needs a change -- there's nothing like moving to a new country to really mix things up. Shane signs up for a semester abroad in London. She's going to right all her college mistakes: make friends, pursue boys, and find adventure! 

Easier said than done. She is soon faced with the complicated realities of living outside her bubble, and when self-doubt sneaks in, her new life starts to fall apart. 

Shane comes to find that, with the right amount of courage and determination one can conquer anything. Throw in some fate and a touch of magic - the possibilities are endless.

photo by Christine Riccio via Instagram

Beware of pickpockets they say, especially in France. I kept my cross body purse held with my hand tightly to the front of my body each time I walked the streets of Paris alone. Along the Seine was the only place that made me pause now and make me scream at myself to use my head. Still, all I can think of now is that it was a pretty good thing that at the time where I wasn’t using my head as much as I should have, high after spending a good hour or so in Shakespeare and Co., that I spoke terrible French and could understand it even more terribly.

The sun shone down on me as I walked along past street vendors and postcard sellers that sat in fold-able chairs and scrolling on their phones until a customer grabbed something off their cart. As I approached a few more to pass, a woman smiled and came up to me with a clipboard, and I think now, had I been in New York City, would I have paused?

Um, no. Definitely not.

I am the person who drags friends away from the sales people in the mall that try to get you try that new flat iron at their kiosk until you end up buying some sort of hair oil. Yet, I paused as she quickly spoke in French, pushing the clipboard towards me as if to sign a petition of some sort.

“Je…” I didn’t understand her, and held my purse tighter as after that millisecond of pause happened, I took a step or two forward. Keep walking, I needed to keep walking...and yet…



In that moment one of the two older men who were sitting in their chairs next to their carts of postcards and trinkets called out towards me and the woman who was already a few steps behind me, giving up in sort of a huff.

As I passed one of the older men, he ran a hand through his white hair and pointed after her, trying to explain. “Pickpocket,” he said.

Understanding must have shown on my face.

He continued to explain to me in slow French to just keep walking. Those who tried to get one to sign something like that usually would have swiped my purse while my hands were busy.

I nodded a merci and continued on. Thinking back on that moment now though, when I glanced down towards that clipboard that young woman was holding, it had quite a few signatures on it. I wonder how many did not simply keep walking.

A Warm Welcome

I arrived in Paris at the Orly airport to get onto the Orlyval, and then the metro. At one point, unsure if it was my stop I needed to get off at, I asked the woman across from me in the packed train if this would be my stop coming up. With creased eyebrows, she nodded. "Oui."

Getting off the train I looked around. It was most certainly not my stop. It was more certainly, an hour walking from the stop I should have waited to stopped at.

Back into the metro I went, the one ticket man there taking pity on me enough to have me purchase another new ticket to get where I was going.

Where is...Right there? Of course I knew that.

While in the Tuileries Garden walking back from my visit to the Effile Tower, I looked around and finally stopped to ask a girl who had her feet sticking in the fountain along with many others.

"Where is the Louvre?" I asked the line in my practice and re-practiced French.

Still unimpressed, she pointed over my shoulder. The Louvre was right in front of me.

Off to See the Mona Lisa

After finding the Louvre I wandered in through one of the halls and promptly got lost within the Greek marble statues. By the time I figured out how to get out and find the correct entry towards the statue of Nike, and eventually see the crowded room of the Mona Lisa, I was very dehydrated from a day walking in the sun without water. Weaving through the crowd I nearly passed out. Ultimately the six euro bottle of water was purchased.

Let this be a lesson to always stay hydrated, even when attempting to complete a very full itinerary.

Thank You, Highlighter T-Shirt Man

I got on the RER C heading out to Versailles out of the Notre Dame station. After asking multiple people who couldn't understand my terrible French, I ended up hopping on the next train. I sat by the window on the second floor of the train where it was barely even filled. The only others on the train with me were a group of men, scattered through the seats and yelling and loud French to one another. It was the loudness that back in the states I would assume also meant slightly intoxicated, even if it was only about eight in the morning.

I held my bag close and continued looking forward, hoping that I would be able to hear the muffled voice overhead that would tell me that I had made it out of Paris and into the royal city of Versailles. The voice overhead did say something and the last of the people, the men got off the train. Once they got off, they yelled back at me to do the same.

"Last stop. Last stop," they told me in broken English. And here I was hoping that I didn't look like a complete tourist of sorts.

Heart pounding I descending from the train and onto the gray cement platform, looking around where to go next. I was certainly not in Versailles. Asking a young girl waiting for her train, she knew I was supposed to be getting on the two. Where was the two? She could only shrug.

Looking around obviously more confused than I usually would let on, a large man in a bright orange t-shirt looked at me. He had a large gym bag across his chest.

"Tu vas à Versailles?"

"Oui!" I said right away, understanding as he spoke slow. I asked back, "Tu vas à Versailles?"

"Oui," he said. Pointing to the train across from us that people were finishing boarding.

I ran through the little tunnel connecting the two platforms and hopped on the train just before the doors closed. The man did behind me. "Merci." I thanked him. Oh, I still thank him whenever I think about the kindness sometimes we forget in the world around us when there are also scary loud possibly drunk French men also around us.

I See London I See France

As I walked down the street, I stepped over a sort of vent in the ground. The skirt of my purple floral dress flew up in the air, exposing whatever comfortable travel underwear I had packed before I could stop it, a true Marilyn Monroe impression. I yanked it back down to my thighs and walked that way all the way down the block until I was pretty sure whoever saw it happen wouldn't notice my reddening face.

A Fitting Flight Home

I sat in the airport, my head pounding, the back of my neck sweating as if an oncoming migraine believed that the best time to come on was while I was waiting for my last minute flight back from Paris to Marseilles. I continued to wait and want to puke as my flight was delayed...and delayed again...and again. I must have looked pretty bad considering the airport was packed and no one sat next to me while waiting if they could help it.

But I did make it back to my temporary home in Provence.

And now after plenty of these misadventures, I have come to terms more or less of getting lost. If it happens, we are going to get home eventually. Somehow.

With my class after the fantastically wonderful Carrières de Lumières, we made our way up to Baux castle in Les Baux de la Provence.

 This town I can only imagine had to have hosted a medieval film or two in its lifetime.




Then again though, I am not sure if I could have wandered as well through the ruins of the castle and lavender fields in such cumbersome day to day attire.

Ever since I read one of my favorite books, The Hating Game by Sally Thorne, I have been searching for the next romcom to make me excited to read and read and read. Honestly, I figured that I would have to wait until her next book came out, stranded in a reading desert wasteland until then, but then came along The Kiss Quotient.

Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases--a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old.

It doesn't help that Stella has Asperger's and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice--with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can't afford to turn down Stella's offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan--from foreplay to more-than-missionary position...

Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses, but to crave all the other things he's making her feel. Soon, their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic... 

From the first page I started reading one late late night, which was a very bad bad idea, I was hooked. Right off the bat, the characters were so perfect and sweet. Our main character, Stella Lane was perfectly unique and held a voice that I had yet not heard when it comes to a perfect romance such as this as she attempts to teach herself all she needs to know about relationships and sex. Since at age 30, at this point practice is what's going to make perfect, right? Thus, brings in our heroic Michael who also happens to be the occasional escort who is propositioned to help her out.




Of course, these lessons that Stella has in mind aren't all that simple. As they begin, a friendship and love interest quickly forms between the two that felt tangible to my the moment they were introduced, and only increased from there, making me root for Stella and Michael no matter how many cringe filled moments came by. Sometimes so cringey that I had to put the book down and take a deep breath for my secondhand embarrassment to subside.

In the end though, through the cringes and the laughs and all the emotions that brought this book together in a way I absolutely needed in this point and time; this book was about love and acceptance and I loved it.

I cannot wait to see what Helen Hoang writes next. Bring on the romance and the fluff and all the goodness.

...and the sweet Michael Phans of the world.

About the Author

If there is ever a memoir to read, this might be it. For the writing, for the story...I realize now why so many people in school years ago said it was one of the only books they read out of the class library. What I don't understand is, why didn't I?

Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict." Cooking a meal that would be consumed in fifteen minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever. Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town -- and the family -- Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home. 

Maybe it wasn't meant to come into my life until this moment. Maybe a lot of things I suppose, but after reading The Glass Castle, I am so very glad I was able to read this memoir that felt like a sort of real life fairy tale and nightmare all fixed into one big bowl of life.

This book no matter how beautiful though, this book is anything but a simple easy sort of story. Starting within Jeannette's childhood moments from when she was three years old and boiling hot dogs on the stove to staring up at the sky and claiming a star for her own, with the beauty came moments of rage from her drunken father who loved the family none the less and a mother who had the saying that art was worth more time than eating or getting food for the same family.

I breezed page by page of this life set before me in ink, no stopping until I reached the end.



By Jeannette's later childhood, set in Virginia where quite a bit of the book takes place near where the father grew up, along with her brother's and sisters this memoir turns into almost a survival story for a different sort of life not tangled in running from tax collectors and going hungry. Jeannette became determined to stay where she was. Determined to become successful, the kids banned together and forth even more memories and hope of a life they believed they deserved to live. I cheered them on through each step forward and back on their journey to New York City where the story continues on and on...

It is hard I think to review a memoir sometimes when you can or can't relate. It is not your life, but it is a moment to be glad you got a beautifully fractured glimpse into it.

I am glad to have gotten a glimpse into this story.





Recently a film came out based on the book. While I will admit to enjoying the memoir a whole lot better than the film, since I thought they took too romanticizing the life situations a little too much, the trailer is pretty great.

The school reading list. Just the thought it makes me say "ugh" and roll my eyes. No matter how much I love to read and have for so many years, the school reading list of the classics still managed to make my eyes glaze over if they were assigned vs. for pleasure reading. Still, so many of those books written up on the school syllabus throughout middle and high school yet a bad wrap. So, ever care to give a few another, or perhaps their first try?



Whether or not these books are on your required reading list this year going back to school, here a few great books that I ended up loving, reading them long after the bell rang for summer break.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

What's it About?

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession,” it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.

Why Must You Read it?

I am sure you have been the movie. The one with Leonardo DiCaprio? If not, DEFINITELY pick up this book right now and prepare for greatness. Great Gatsby seriously is one of the best American Lit novels from the first time I read it to now. A wannabe writer, a mysterious man, and a deadly love interest is sure to please.

The Giver by Lois Lowery

What's it About?

Twelve-year-old Jonas lives in a seemingly ideal world. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver does he begin to understand the dark secrets behind this fragile community.

Why Must You Read it?

This is a classic novel that reads like a favorite dystopian YA. Or utopia? You decide whether to see the world in black and white or let in color like Jonas begins to within a world where love is not quite concrete enough, but reason to fight and live forward in hope for a better world.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

What's it About?

A young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness -- in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.

Why Must You Read it?

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn seems to fly under the radar, but ever since I read it before entering high school, before I even knew it was a classic, it still manages to be one of my favorites as it enters the life of a young girl creating a portrait of beautiful life even in the cruel light it sometimes manages to shine on us.

Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood

What's it About?

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now...

Why Must You Read it?

If you are getting ready to binge the Hulu award winning series, best to pick up this story to prepare. The story haunts me to this day from when I read it one summer a few years ago and makes one really think about the world women live in today and if we are getting a little too close to becoming a Republic of Gilead. Luckily, we have plenty of people like Offred ready to fight back and question what is right. This is the dystopia for the feminist generation.

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

What's it About?

Anne Frank's extraordinary diary, written in the Amsterdam attic where she and her family hid from the Nazis for two years, has become a world classic and a timeless testament to the human spirit. Now, in a new edition enriched by many passages originally withheld by her father, we meet an Anne more real, more human, and more vital than ever. Here she is first and foremost a teenage girl—stubbornly honest, touchingly vulnerable, in love with life. She imparts her deeply secret world of soul-searching and hungering for affection, rebellious clashes with her mother, romance and newly discovered sexuality, and wry, candid observations of her companions. Facing hunger, fear of discovery and death, and the petty frustrations of such confined quarters, Anne writes with adult wisdom and views beyond her years. Her story is that of every teenager, lived out in conditions few teenagers have ever known.

Why Must You Read it?

Anne Frank's diary is an insight into the mind of a person that may have been never seen. When I read this book along with my class, there was not one of us who was bored or weren't as into the story and the history that went along with the life of Anne Frank as our teacher was. The writing is wonderful and so is the feeling of spirit Anne left behind in each word.

And my brother's recent must read you may have seen in a common high school classroom...

1984 by George Orwell

What's it About?

Among the seminal texts of the 20th century, Nineteen Eighty-Four is a rare work that grows more haunting as its futuristic purgatory becomes more real. Published in 1949, the book offers political satirist George Orwell's nightmare vision of a totalitarian, bureaucratic world and one poor stiff's attempt to find individuality. The brilliance of the novel is Orwell's prescience of modern life--the ubiquity of television, the distortion of the language--and his ability to construct such a thorough version of hell.

Why Must You Read it?

When I asked my brother why everyone must read it he gave to long of a reply to coherently type. Let's just say he loved it and thinks it gives a fantastic commentary not only of when the book was written, but society today. Plus, the plot was pretty awesome.



Has anyone else given those books left behind in high school libraries a second shot since they left, or care to now? Any favorites I left out in my tiny list?

While in Aix-en-Provence, one thing was necessary with early wake up calls; whether those calls be for adventure, or for an extra early art history class. What is that one thing you ask? Coffee. Though I am going to stand out as someone who might actually prefer my coffee back home to that of European brews (gasp), I still managed to find some wonderful coffee shops throughout my weeks in Aix on the go and while sitting for a few hours to get some much needed work done.

Columbus Cafe

A classic stop before class to get coffee or last minute work done, Columbus has plenty of coffee options hot or frozen which is great for when you want to cool off while also delighting yourself in a possible sweet treat. Even better? If you are a student, be sure to check out their student meal discount that includes a sandwich, drink, and dessert.

I recommend their dark chocolate chip cookie.

Mana Espresso

Run by an English couple, Mana Espresso is a cozy environment perfect for lunch or two sit with a preferred chai latte and slice of homemade cake.

Book in Bar

Yes, there is a bar in this bookshop. Or at least a coffee bar. Serving coffee, smoothies, milkshakes, and homemade pastry and slices of cake, Book in Bar is the place to go if you are looking to relax while being surrounded with your favorite paperback. Wifi not included, but the atmosphere fantastic for a bookworm such as myself. One could say I even spent a little too much time when I had a spare few hours to wander my favorite friends, or shall I say books, among the shelves.

Anticafe

For five euros an hour enjoy all the food and drink you like, and yes, great wifi connection too. Also I plus I found out a little late into my trip, they have ice!

If you are a student...

Be sure to check out if your school has a cafe of their own! Where I studied while abroad, though open a few odd hours a day there was a great spot where students could work and get a good cup of coffee for only a euro.


Though I only managed to hit a few of the great coffee shops and bars around Aix, no matter where you go, you are almost sure to find a place to sit outside and enjoy an afternoon people watching with an espresso, or my preferred cappuccino, in hand.

1. Prepare Yourself

When going away for your homestay, please remember: this is a person's home. Prepare yourself for the smallest of apartments to a house with kids and farm animals even. A person lives here and now you live here too! It may not be the luck of the draw five star mansion, but it is yours and your new host families together for the next few weeks.

2. Be Prepared to Learn

The language. The ways of the house, everything. You may have come to study abroad and have fun, but your homestay is definitely part of that. Keep yourself open to everything and make this part of a new, strange, yet exciting experience. Oh, and don't worry if you butcher the language for a while...or the whole time. You are learning!

3. Tell Them Things Up Front. Communicate!

Be polite, but also look out for yourself and tell your host family when something needs to change or you need something. I went a good three weeks afraid to let my final host family know that I didn't really eat meat. I had been shoving down perfectly good steak and not enjoying it. Just tell your family what you need. When I finally did I got a "ah, ok then."

4. Be Clean

Both body and room. No one likes a messy bessie. This includes your homestay parent(s).

5. Attend Family Meals

It's free food and usually, the food is pretty awesome. No one wants to be that person that doesn't show up to meals that are prepared with them in mind, only for their place to be empty at the table. This also is great to further get to know your host family and them to get to know you.

6. Respect the Schedule and the Time

When I got to my homestay, a rule was to not flush the toilet after 10 p.m. Strange rule, yes, but it was a old house, and the toilet was loud for my host mom and dad's bedroom next to it. Also when coming in late, try to be respectful and realize that it is you coming in late while everyone is sleeping. You are the only one that needs to be up in this moment. Shut the door slowly and try to be quiet.

This also helps not portray the college party animal American student stereo-type.

7. Say something when it's just not working

If you get to your homestay and things are just not working out, say something. Talk to your housing or student life adviser if the school has one. Take it from me, it is better to realize these things soon rather than later so you can get on with living your best homestay and study abroad life.

I used to think that Paris in a weekend would be perfect. I would see everything that I needed to and it would be the perfect amount of time.



I was wrong.

I could have spent a week there and still needed to see more or go back to that perfect spot next to Notre Dame and people watch again for just a few more hours.

But I managed it in a weekend, starting on Friday.

Friday

My flight landing mid morning, I decided to call Friday "tourist day." This really just means that I tried to hit all the major hot spots. Dropping my bag off at the hostel I would be staying in for the next two days up in Montmartre. I took the metro to my first stop I noticed after almost getting lost on my first metro experience on the way into Paris.

Notre Dame Cathedral

Of course I made sure to stand on Point Zero as well.



After reading Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, it was a must. Even if I still don't quite know where my own Etienne St. Clair may have been.

Shakespeare and Company

Wandering through the shelves packed with books and people, I spent a pretty great deal of time just waiting for a book to jump out at me. A sales attendant must have noticed.

"Can I help you with anything?"
"Um..." I looked around. "Can I stay here forever?"
She seemed to think about this. "Well, you can take your time."

She then helped me find and stamped my next read, She Came to Stay by Simone De Beauvoir.

Sainte Chapelle

Ever since I saw this beautiful place in photos whether it be on Instagram or in my art history classes, I knew I had to go and take in the gorgeous gold and color.

Eiffel Tower

After Sainte Chapelle came walking. A lot of walking. I walked for hours and man, my shoes got a workout. I walked all the way next, to the Tour de Eiffel.

Louvre

The much to see of course included the Louvre as I walked through the most beautiful gardens before it. In the heat of the very hot day, people sat all around in the grass and along the fountains, dipping there feat in to cool off.


Then of course I came upon the pyramid.


I also got lost. Who knew one could do so in the Louvre? Slightly dehydrated and thirsting for art, I still managed to see quite a lot, including of course, the Mona Lisa. I could only imagine that if I didn't see it, I would be berated by my family who would be asking all about my trip once I returned home.

Tip: after 6 p.m. on Fridays, those under 26 can get into the Louvre for free!

Saturday

On Saturday, after becoming obsessed on Netflix over a certain tv show while stressing over finals during the school year, I knew I had to take a bit of a trip while I was in Paris. Where to?

Versailles

My favorite room while inside of course was the fan favorite of the hall of mirrors, everything felt so magical in there. I felt as if I needed to be dressed in a big hoop skirt, prepared to dance in a ball. Of course, I was only in one of my sundresses and surrounded by quite a few others, but I managed a few steps of some ballet or another on my toes to make past Kings and Queens proud. Well, I at least thought so.

I am sure with gorgeous rooms and a view over the gardens like they had, it would be hard to be to impressed.

Sunday

Sunday plans were a little fuzzy for me, I won't lie. My first goal however?

Coffee.

KB Cafeshop

The tea house made this museum of romantic art even more beautiful. Under the sunlight it looked like a fairy tale sort of glass greenhouse.

Sacre Coeur

Since my morning walk turned into going a little longer than I already thought through Montmartre, I kept walking upwards. This time towards Sacre Coeur.




The view over Paris was definitely worth it to end my trip. I headed back down the hill and to my flight only for it to be delayed three hours, just in time.