A Book Review: Hemingway’s Girl

Lauren8 Comments

Before my massage last Saturday, my mom showed me a list of books she wants to read.  Sidenote: It was handwritten on three sheets of lined paper because my mom is cute like that.  It was mostly classics.  You know, stuff you probably (or should’ve) read in school, like Fahrenheit 451, To Kill a Mockingbird and Animal Farm.  A lot of it was stuff I haven’t read but want to!  Classics are classics for a reason.  They’re the backbone of our literary history!

The book I just finished was so not on that list.

7

You know, I should probably stop assuming anything by or about Hemingway means I’m going to love it.  That assumption might work nine times out of ten, but that tenth one might turn out to be horribly boring and hard to get through because you’re thinking “Is anything interesting going to happen?!” the entire time you’re reading it.  Case in point: Hemingway’s Girl by Erika Robuck.

This one is about a girl named Mariella who works for and is also attracted to Hemingway, who happens to be married at the time.  Turns out he’s attracted to her too but there’s that whole being married part and that other part where Mariella meets and falls in love with another guy.  The whole thing takes place in Key West and can I just say I like European Hemingway way better than Key West Hemingway.

Overall, the entire book was just so… vanilla.  The story wasn’t interesting, the characters weren’t captivating, the writing wasn’t fine-tuned.  Plus there was that part where Robuck decided to have Mariella and Hemingway refer to each other as “Papa” and “Daughter” and it got majorly weird.  Oddly enough, the last few pages of the book were told in letter-format and I actually kind of liked that.  I’m a sucker for a good letter-style book.

In other words, if you come across this one, skip it.

*****************************************

What was the last really good book you read?

What was the last really bad book you read?

Do you have a favorite “classic”?

In other news, my mom and I just decided to create a two-person book club to take down those classics!

Weekend Things

LaurenLeave a comment

I know you’re all on the edge of your seats, wondering if the salad-in-a-jar I posted on Thursday night was a success.

Well… it totally was!

IMG_7803

Between this and Joey’s surprise suggestion that we should walk to grab some Friday morning iced coffee, I was in a pretty good mood to start out the weekend.  Life is fun when you’re always eating awesome things 🙂

IMG_7804

Now that it’s May, the weather is warmer (except that the forecast is rain for the foreseeable future…) and summer is right around the corner, I am like TACOS.  All day, every day.  Which means reinstating Taco Friday.  Huzzah!  We made these Korean-Style Beef Tacos with Quick Pickled Slaw and they were just okay, but I give us an A+ on the actual steak.  For two people who don’t cook meat that often, we’re not bad at it.  (If this was Instagram, I’d totally insert the “OK” emoji here.)

IMG_7806

I had a facial-massage duo on Saturday (tough life) and grabbed lunch with Mom in between.  We very obviously needed lunch dessert and I very obviously chose a glittery white chocolate tartlette.  P.S. There’s macarons and macaroons but they’re different things that are pronounced the same?  I’m so confused.

IMG_7813

I spotted this giraffe graffiti outside my parents’ office and kind of loved it.

Following my day of relaxation, I headed home to where Joey had been fixing electrical stuff and being the world’s most perfect husband.  For real, we’d had a very conveniently placed outlet not working for OVER A YEAR and he finally got it fixed.  I could do without texts that are like “hope I don’t electrocute myself,” but I’m SO excited that he got it working.  Oh and I walked into the house, JUST as the horses took off at the Kentucky Derby <– good timing!  We ended the night at a viewing party for the fight.  I won $40 and now I think I’ll quit my job and become a professional gambler.

IMG_7811

We had Sunday morning brunch plans with Bobby and Becca, so we were in line for the Linger rooftop promptly at 10 AM.  I felt like we were part of a secret brunch club.  It ended up being beautifully sunny all the way through brunch so thank you, Gods of Patio Weather.  I got chorizo breakfast tacos (tacos, duh) and a Bloody Mary and all was right in the world.  I later asked Joey if we could go to Linger every weekend for brunch.  He said no…

IMG_7809

We spent the rest of the day at a family birthday party, then took ourselves home to nap because man, brunching and lounging outside makes you tired 😉

IMG_7815

Ended the night with dinner and got sucked into two episodes of Intervention before watching Mad Men.  My TimeHop recently brought up an old post of mine where I mentioned starting to watch Mad Men and thinking it was really boring but now here I am feeling so sad that the series finale is so close.  That show, way more than being about advertising or the glitz and glam of being a successful New Yorker in the 60’s, is about the relationships between characters.  Those scenes between Peggy and Roger (two characters who don’t usually interact much) this week were so perfect.

Happy Monday!