My reading plan for 2019

The year that is coming is going to be different than any other year before, so I guess my reading plan that I have for every year will have to change. My reading plan so far has been to read at least 2 books a month, so 24 books in total in a year, although I always read more, but my minimum is set at 24. 

For the year 2019 I have a plan of one book a month, so 12 books in total. But since I have no idea how my life will change, I won’t' be disappointed if I don't reach this goal. And children’s' books count to, or not? 

In regard of my blog, I don't think I'd have time to update it, but hey, I don't think anyone will miss it, since it was more for me than anyone else, I think, I have a feeling that I’m talking to myself. 

So, the true plan for 2019 is to have a good year and manage the new and exciting things without stress and go with the flow. 

To everyone who reads here I wish a happy new year!

China Glaze Ruby Pumps

If I would have to choose just one nail polish that perfectly describes Christmas and Christmas holidays, I would say Ruby Pumps by China Glaze.

 It is also the nail polish that I wear most frequently around Christmas and New Year. It has tiny red glitter in a red base. One coat leans more towards pink side, but with two coats it becomes the perfect sparky red.

 The application is ok, no problems with it whatsoever, here I applied it over the peel off base, because the removal can be a problem with all the glitter. I also put a top coat over for a shinier effect, without the top coat it becomes somehow dull.

 Just look at it, perfect Christmassy nail polish :)

 Have a great day and happy hollidays!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 113

Indignation is a novel by Philip Roth, released on September 16, 2008. Set in America in 1951, the second year of the Korean War, Indignation is narrated by Marcus Messner, a Jewish college student from Newark, New Jersey, who describes his sophomore year at Winesburg College in Ohio. Marcus transfers to Winesburg from Robert Treat College in Newark to escape his father, a kosher butcher, who appears to have become consumed with fear about the dangers of adult life, the world, and the uncertainty that awaits his son. Whilst at college, Marcus must traverse an American world that isn't his own: facing off against ardent Christian, Dean Cauldwell, and falling in love with the beautiful Olivia Hutton. 

Nail polish is from Essence, with the name Midnight Charm. The colour is dark blue with silver shimmer. The polish is quite old, and a bit thick so the application wasn't the best, but still manageable. Oh, and I needed just one coat for full opacity, which is great. 

Have a great day!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt.112

All the Light We Cannot See is a story about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. 

Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighbourhood, so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure's reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum's most valuable and dangerous jewel. 

In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure's converge. 

All the Light We Cannot See, written by American author Anthony Doerr, won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. 

The nail polish is from Essence, of course discontinued. Its name is Pink&Proud. The polish looks like a foil one and it's very pretty. I wouldn't say it's pink, its more on the violet side. It has tiny violet and silver shimmer so with the application it looks like foil.

Have a great day!

Jung: Couleur de peau: Miel

The graphic novel Couleur de peau: Miel tells the story of author Jung, who was born in Korea and adopted in Belgium. At the end of the Korean War, thousands of Korean children were adopted to the West, and Jung was one of them. He was a troubled child who could not find the right contact with his surroundings, so he ran into a fantasy world and drawn a lot. Luckily, despite adolescent problems, he managed to keep his life on the right rails. He returned to Seoul a few years later with a wish to find his biological mom or simply to check how much he feels at home in Korea. Adult Jung is so skilful in expressing his own story of the eternal search for identity, full of humour and personal insight. In order to address the sensitive issues of racial diversity, cultural identity, difficult period of growing up and narration in the ambiguous genre of auto-biography, the graphic novel presents an invaluable value for the age group of young adults. 

There is also a film that is a mixture between a documentary film and animation. Jung decides to return, for the first time, in South Korea, in order to breath the air of his home country, tread the land of his ancestors, and maybe find traces of his biological mother. This trip of reconciliation with his roots and with himself, shot as a documentary, leads our character to recall in animation. 

Have a great day!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 111

Jude Fawley is a rural stone mason with intellectual aspirations. Frustrated by poverty and the indifference of the academic institutions at the University of Christminster, his only chance of fulfilment seems to lie in his relationship with his unconventional cousin, Sue Bridehead. But life as social outcasts prove undermining, and when tragedy occurs, Sue has no resilience and Jude is left in despair. 

Jude the Obscure is a novel by Thomas Hardy, which began as a magazine serial in December 1894 and was first published in book form in 1895. It is Hardy's last completed novel. Jude the Obscure received a harsh reception from some scandalized critics and caused outrage when it was published and, as a result, was the last novel Hardy ever wrote. 

The nail polish is from Essence, an old, old one, with the name Mellow Yellow. The colour is pastel yellow, with a pearl finish. Because it's so old it's not in the best form, it's quite qoopy, but nonetheless, the application wasn't as horrible as I anticipated. 

Have a great day!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 110

After reading the first book in the First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie I was wondering when will the second book be translated in Slovene, since the first was published in 2017, but the book is far from new, being published in 2006, the second in the trilogy was published in 2007, so I was expecting it to be translated quite soon. And I was right, here it is right from the printers. 

What we are dealing whit in the second book Before They Are Hanged? Bitter and merciless war is coming to the frozen north. It's bloody and dangerous and the Union army, split by politics and hamstrung by incompetence, is utterly unprepared for the slaughter that's coming. Lacking experience, training, and in some cases even weapons the army is scarcely equipped to repel Bethod's scouts, let alone the cream of his forces. 

In the heat-ravaged south the Gurkish are massing to assault the city of Dagoska, defended by Inquisitor Glokta. The city is braced for the inevitable defeat and massacre to come, preparations are made to make the Gurkish pay for every inch of land ... but a plot is festering to hand the city to its besiegers without a fight, and the previous Inquisitor of Dagoska vanished without trace. Threatened from within and without the city, Glokta needs answers, and he needs them soon. 

And to the east a small band of malefactors travel to the edge of the world to reclaim a device from history - a Seed, hidden for generations - with tremendous destructive potential. A device which could put a end to war, to the army of Eaters in the South, to the invasion of Shanka from the North - but only if it can be found, and only if its power can be controlled. 

Now I can't wait for the final part of the trilogy. Hope it will be translated and published soon. 

The nail polish is from H&M, before they revamped their beauty line. It's called Pink Macaroon and it's a baby pink, application was ok, although some brush strokes are visible. 

Have a great day!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 109

Toru Okada's cat has disappeared. His wife is growing more distant every day. Then there are the increasingly explicit telephone calls he has recently been receiving. 

As this compelling story unfolds, the tidy suburban realities of Okada's vague and blameless life, spent cooking, reading, listening to jazz and opera and drinking beer at the kitchen table, are turned inside out, and he embarks on a bizarre journey, guided (however obscurely) by a succession of characters, each with a tale to tell. 

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami is many things: the story of a marriage that mysteriously collapses; a jeremiad against the superficiality of contemporary politics; an investigation of painfully suppressed memories of war; a bildungsroman about a compassionate young man's search for his own identity as well as that of his nation. 

On my nails I have a nail polish from Catrice and the line was Luxury Lacquers. The name is My Satin Ballet Shoes. Catrice changes their assortment so frequently that this polish is no longer available. With this one I used peel off base coat for easier removal. I like the nail polish and the colour, although I could apply three coats instead of two, it would look better I suppose. 

Have a great day!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 108

Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian, has finally run out of luck. Caught in one feud too many, he’s on the verge of becoming a dead barbarian – leaving nothing behind him but bad songs, dead friends, and a lot of happy enemies. Nobleman Captain Jezal dan Luthar, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, has nothing more dangerous in mind than fleecing his friends at cards and dreaming of glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the frozen North they fight by altogether bloodier rules. Inquisitor Glokta, cripple turned torturer, would like nothing better than to see Jezal come home in a box. But then Glokta hates everyone: cutting treason out of the Union one confession at a time leaves little room for friendship. His latest trail of corpses may lead him right to the rotten heart of government, if he can stay alive long enough to follow it. Enter the wizard, Bayaz. A bald old man with a terrible temper and a pathetic assistant, he could be the First of the Magi, he could be a spectacular fraud, but whatever he is, he's about to make the lives of Logen, Jezal, and Glokta a whole lot more difficult. 

Murderous conspiracies rise to the surface, old scores are ready to be settled, and the line between hero and villain is sharp enough to draw blood. 

All this and more is hapenning in the novel The Blade Itself, the first book in the trillogy The Fisrt Law by Joe Abercrombie. 

On the nails I have an old polish from Essence, with the name Where is the party? It's a duochrome and it was first such nail polish in my collection. The colour shifts from violet to green, but the change is subtle. What I don't like in this polish are the visible brush strokes. 

Have a great day.

What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 107

In this post we have a book that is not translated into English, although its author is very well known in Slovenia and also in other East European cities. I'm talking about Michal Viewegh. Michal Viewegh is one of the most popular contemporary Czech writers and the bestselling one. He writes about romantic relationships of his contemporaries with humour, and variously successful irony and attempts at deeper meaningfulness; he is sometimes compared to Nick Hornby by his fans. 

In the book Případ nevěrné Kláry (in Slovene Primer nezveste Klare) or The Case of Unfaithful Clara in English we have a detective who was hired by a novelist/writer to find out if his much younger girlfriend is cheating on him. And so things start to get complicated. 

On my nails I have O.P.I. in the shade A Grape Fit! It seems that it's not available any more, at least I can't find it on O.P.I official site. This is a strange colour, not my favourite. The application was ok, but I see that it already started chipping, although my nails are in better shape, but it was still in great condition after one day, which is a big achievement for me. 

Have a great day!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 106

In Amanda Michalopoulou's Why I Killed My Best Friend (original title Giati skotosa tin kaliterimou fili), a young girl named Maria is lifted from her beloved Africa and relocated to her native Greece. She struggles with the transition, hating everything about Athens: the food, the air, the school, her classmates, the language. Just as she resigns herself to misery, Anna arrives. Though Anna's refined, Parisian upbringing is the exact opposite of Maria's, the two girls instantly bond over their common foreignness, becoming inseparable in their relationship as each other's best friend, but also as each other's fiercest competition-be it in relation to boys, talents, future aspirations, or political beliefs. 

Nail polish is from Bourjois from the line 10 days no chips, which is discontinued. The number of this polish is 19. This line had these strange brushes that were cut sideways, but I could manage the application just fine. Once you get to know how to hold the brush the application is easy. My nails are not so brittle anymore, so this one stayed three days without chipping which is very nice for me.

 

Have a great day!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 105

God Is Not Great is the ultimate case against religion. In a series of acute readings of the major religious texts, Christopher Hitchens demonstrates the ways in which religion is man-made, dangerously sexually repressive and distorts the very origins of the cosmos. Above all, Hitchens argues that the concept of an omniscient God has profoundly damaged humanity and proposes that the world might be a great deal better off without 'him'. Whether you're a lifelong believer, a devout atheist, or someone who remains uncertain about the role of religion in our lives, this insightful manifesto will engage you with its provocative ideas. 

Christopher Eric Hitchens (1949 – 2011) was an Anglo-American author, columnist, essayist, orator, religious and literary critic, social critic, and journalist. Hitchens was the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of over 30 books, including five collections of essays on culture, politics and literature. A staple of public discourse, his confrontational style of debate made him both a lauded intellectual and a controversial public figure. He contributed to New Statesman, The Nation, The Weekly Standard, The Atlantic, London Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, Slate, Free Inquiry and Vanity Fair. 

Having long described himself as a democratic socialist, Marxist and an anti-totalitarian, he broke from the political left after what he called the "tepid reaction" of the Western left to the Satanic Verses controversy, followed by the left's embrace of Bill Clinton and the anti-war movement's opposition to NATO intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s. His support of the Iraq War separated him further. His writings include critiques of public figures Bill Clinton, Henry Kissinger, Mother Teresa and Diana, Princess of Wales. He also advocated for the separation of church and state. 

As an antitheist, he regarded concepts of a god or supreme being as a totalitarian belief that impedes individual freedom. He argued in favour of free expression and scientific discovery, and that it was superior to religion as an ethical code of conduct for human civilization. The dictum "What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence" has become known as Hitchens's razor.

Nail polish is from Essence from a limited edition and the name of polish is Jacob's Protection. From the name of this polish I believe you'd know what this limited edition was about :) The nail polish is a black base with blue shimmer. The application was ok, nothing more to say about this nail polish.

Have a great day!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 104

Blauschmuck by Katharina Winkler is not translated into English, so if I translate the title loosely it could be something like "blue accessory". Katharina Winkler is an Austrian writer and her book Blauschmuck was very well received and has also got several awards. In the beginning it says that the book is based on a true story. 

Filiz grows up in a Kurdish village in Turkey. She is twelve when she falls in love with Yunus, who is a few years his senior, and dreams of a life together in the West: "'How do we want to live, Yunus?' / 'In jeans, we'll wear denim pants in Germany.' "At 15, she marries Yunus - secretly and against the will of her father. But with the wedding also the dreams of freedom and autonomy burst: instead of jeans Filiz now wears burka; Together with the three children born in this marriage, she is exposed to the physical and mental brutality of her husband and mother-in-law. The family's emigration to the West does not change that either - for the time being. 

The hate I have for Yunus, a truly despicable man, and if you think this is a true story... 

The nail polish is from Essence, from a limited edition called Snow White. The big nail polish was red with the name snow White and there were also seven smaller nail polishes, meant to be dwarfs. Mine is called Grumpy, and it's a beautiful vibrant blue colour. The application is not the easiest but is manageable. 

Have a great day!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 103

The Days of Abandonment (original title I giorni dell' abbandono) by Elena Ferrante is a gripping story of a woman's descent into devastating emptiness after being abandoned by her husband with two young children to care for. When she finds herself literally trapped within the four walls of their high-rise apartment, she is forced to confront her ghosts, the potential loss of her own identity, and the possibility that life may never return to normal. 

For you who maybe still don't know this, Elena Ferrante is a pseudonymous Italian novelist. Despite being recognized as a novelist on an international scale, Ferrante has kept her identity secret since the publication of her first novel in 1992. 

The nail polish is from Essence from the line Show Your Feet, with the name In the jungle. Essence had one nail polish in this line with exactly the same name, except it wasn't the same colour. They did this a lot in the past. I think the first polish that I showed you with this name is way prettier than this, but I got this polish with a reason. And the reason being it was the exact colour of Zorro’s hair and I wanted to have nail polishes that would represent all of the Strawhats by the colour. I'm talking about One Piece. My excuse is, that I was way younger at that time (but One Piece is still the best). 

Have a great day!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 102

Money can buy you freedom. But what about happiness? 

When Jocelyne looks at herself in the mirror, she sees a middle-aged, married woman who runs a dressmaking shop in a small provincial French town and lives a very ordinary existence. But what happened to all those dreams she had when she was 17? 

Then she wins millions on the lottery and has the chance to change her life for ever. So why does she find herself reluctant to accept the money? To help her decide what to do, she begins to compile a list of her heart's desires, never suspecting for one moment that the decision might be taken out of her hands. 

The List of my Desires (original title La liste de mes envies) is written by Gregorie Delacourt, who I thought, don't know why, is a woman, but Gregorie is a man. What is your opinion about men who write about women like they really know how is like to be a woman? 

The nail polish is from Essence, from the old line Colour&Go with the name Free hugs and the colour is a true barbie pink and it looks nice on my hands now that I have a little bit of tan. The application was nonproblematic. 

Have a great day!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 101

Fruit of Knowledge (original title Kunskapensfrukt) by Liv Stromquist is a funny, powerful and eye-opening graphic nonfiction book about the female body and our love-hate relationship with it throughout history.

From Adam and Eve to pussy hats, people have punished, praised, pathologized and politicised vulvas, vaginas, clitorises, and menstruation. In Fruit of Knowledge, celebrated Swedish cartoonist Liv Stroemquist traces how different cultures and traditions have shaped women's health and beyond. 

Her biting, informed commentary and ponytailed avatar guides the reader from the darkest chapters of history (a clitoridectomy performed on a five-year-old American child as late as 1948) to the lightest (vulvas used as architectural details as a symbol of protection).

On the surface this is indeed a entertaining and amusing read (because of the writing style), but the stories presented are indeed horrifying, especially if you are a woman. I definitely recommend this book.

The nail polish is from Depend. There was a limited edition holographic line a couple of years ago. The number of nail polish is not visible any more, but with some research I think that my nail polish is number 2033 Ocean Blue. The holographic effect is so strong. it's one league better that the Catrice one, that I showed you last time. The bottle is so small though, it has just 5 ml of nail polish. The application was easy, and two coats were needed.

Have a great day!