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!

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. 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. 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. 100

Clay Jensen comes home from school to find outside his front door a mysterious box with his name on it. Inside he discovers a series of cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker - his classmate and crush. Only, she committed suicide two weeks earlier. On the first tape, Hannah explains that there are 13 reasons why she did what she did - and Clay is one of them. If he listens, Clay will find out how he got onto the list - what he hears will change his life forever. "You can't stop the future. You can't rewind the past. The only way to learn the secret . . . is to press play." 

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher is a YA novel, first published in 2007, but got more publicity again after the television series 13 Reasons Why was released in 2017. The screenplay contains several deviations from the book, including, but not limited to, name changes, plot elements, and character personalities. 

The book received recognition and awards from several young adult literary associations, and the paperback edition reached #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list in July 2011. 

The nail polish is from Essence's limited edition, that was in stores a few years back. It was a summer limited edition with the name 50's Girls Reloaded and the nail polish has a name You're a Heartbreaker. The colour is blue grey with tiny silver shimmer. A pretty one. 

Have a great day!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 97

In the depths of winter a killer stalks the city streets. Two women are found drowned in their own blood. A third woman is hanged from a diving board. The crime scenes offer no clues, the media is reaching fever pitch, and the police are running out of options. There is only one man who can help them catch the killer. But Inspector Harry Hole doesn't want to be found. 

Deeply traumatised by The Snowman investigation, which threatened the lives of those he holds most dear, Inspector Harry Hole has lost himself in the squalor of Hong Kong's opium dens. But with his father seriously ill in hospital, Harry reluctantly agrees to return to Oslo. He has no intention of working on the case, but his instinct takes over when a third victim is found brutally murdered in a city park. 

The Leopard (original title Panserhjerte) is the eight book in the Harry Hole series by Jo Nesbø. And like all of his books that I've read I liked it very much. This book has a little less than 700 pages, but I've read it in three days, because it's just so captivating and I couldn't put it down. 

On my nails is nail polish from Essence, from the Show Your Feet line. I have to say that this line had some very pretty colours. This one is pastel blue with the name Pop Pastel Blue. The application is ok, two coats were needed for full opacity. 

Have a great day!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 96

A damaged survivor of the First World War, Tom Birkin finds refuge in the quiet village church of Oxgodby where he is to spend the summer uncovering a huge medieval wall-painting. Immersed in the peace and beauty of the countryside and the unchanging rhythms of village life he experiences a sense of renewal and belief in the future. Now an old man, Birkin looks back on the idyllic summer of 1920, remembering a vanished place of blissful calm, untouched by change, a precious moment he has carried with him through the disappointments of the years. 

A Month in the Country is a sensitive portrayal of the healing process that took place in the aftermath of the First World War. 

“If I’d stayed there, would I always have been happy? No, I suppose not. People move away, grow older, die, and the bright belief that there will be another marvellous thing around each corner fades. It is now or never; we must snatch at happiness as it flies.”  

“We can ask and ask but we can't have again what once seemed ours for ever - the way things looked, that church alone in the fields, a bed on a belfry floor, a remembered voice, the touch of a hand, a loved face. They've gone and you can only wait for the pain to pass.
All this happened so long ago. And I never returned, never wrote, never met anyone who might have given me news of Oxgodby. So, in memory, it stays as I left it, a sealed room furnished by the past, airless, still, ink long dry on a put-down pen.
But this was something I knew nothing of as I closed the gate and set off across the meadow.” 

Nail polish is from Essence, the line Show Your Feet, with the name Catwalk pink and it's a beautiful fuchsia with blue shimmer. A truly unique shade. The application was ok, no problem with it. 

Have a nice day!

WhatI'm reading + NOTD pt. 93

The Custom of the Country follows the career of Undine Spragg, recently arrived in New York from the Midwest and determined to conquer high society. Glamorous, selfish, mercenary and manipulative, her principal assets are her striking beauty, her tenacity, and her father's money. With her sights set on an advantageous marriage, Undine pursues her schemes in a world of shifting values, where triumph is swiftly followed by disillusion. Wharton was recreating an environment she knew intimately, and Undine's education for social success is chronicled in meticulous detail. The novel superbly captures the world of post-Civil War America, as ruthless in its social ambitions as in its business and politics. 

Edith Wharton (January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and designer. Wharton combined an insider's view of American aristocracy with a powerful prose style. Her novels and short stories realistically portrayed the lives and morals of the late nineteenth century, an era of decline and faded wealth. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1921, the first woman to receive this honour. Despite not publishing her first novel until she was forty, Wharton became an extraordinarily productive writer. In addition to her fifteen novels, seven novellas, and eighty-five short stories, she published poetry, books on design, travel, literary and cultural criticism, and a memoir. 

The protagonist, Undine Spragg, is a young woman, a superficially beautiful woman who glitters and consumes and believes herself to be entitled to everything she takes from others, because it's not really taking, in her view, it's more like receiving what she deserves for simply existing. And for that reason, it was hard at times to finish the book. Undine is such a despicable character; her selfishness is hard to stand. She gets away with everything and nothing bad happens to her, the only ones that suffer are the ones around her. 

Nail polish is Essence, from the line Show Your Feet, with the name Flamingo rose. The colour is pink with small glitter that is almost invisible on the nails. The application is not the best, I don't know, the nail polish just doesn't look nice on the nails. 

Have a great day!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 92

Libby Day was just seven years old when her older brother massacred her family while she hid in a cupboard. Her evidence helped put him away. Ever since then she has been drifting, surviving for over twenty years on the proceeds of the 'Libby Day fund'. But now the money is running out and Libby is desperate. When she is offered $500 to do a guest appearance, she feels she must accept. But this is no ordinary gathering. The Kill Club is a group of true-crime obsessives who share information on notorious murders, and they think her brother Ben is innocent. Libby must delve into her family's past to uncover the truth - no matter how painful. 

Dark places is the third novel by Gillian Flynn that I've read. And that makes it all of them which are translated into Slovene. Despite the various reviews I like her novels, they have just what I like in crime genre. Which one was the best out of three for me, hmmm, hard to say. Sharp Object was the shocking one for me, so it might stand out, but I liked all of them.

The nail polish is from Essence, discontinued, and would like to be duochrome, maybe you can see it, it tries to shift from brown to violet, but I would say that in the bottle it succeeds better. The name is Princess Prunella. Interesting colour nonetheless. 

Have a great day!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 91

Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality their lives are changed profoundly and for ever. 

Donna Tartt’s cult bestseller The Secret History is a remarkable achievement - both compelling and elegant, dramatic and playful. 

The Secret History is the first novel by Mississippi-born writer Donna Tartt and was published by in 1992. A 75,000 print order was made for the first edition (as opposed to the usual 10,000 order for a debut novel), and the book became a bestseller. 

Set in New England, The Secret History tells the story of a closely knit group of six classics students at a small, elite Vermont college, Hampden College. The story is an inverted detective story. One of the six students is the story's narrator, Richard Papen, who reflects, years later, on the situation that led to a unforgettable and dark occurrence. 

Nail polish is from Essence, of course discontinued, from a line that doesn't exist anymore Nail art magnetics. This is a magnetic nail polish, but I use it as a regular nail polish. This one has a name Hex hex and the colour is steel grey. The application was ok, I just wish that the brush streaks were less visible.

Have a great day!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 90

Here's a novel that is not translated into English (yet). The original title is Piaskowa gora which would translate into something like Sandy Mountain, and the author is Joanna Bator. Joanna Bator is a Polish novelist, journalist, feminist and academic. 

Sandy Mountain is a poetic name for a block of flats in a town in Poland. Through many small, seldom moving stories about women we get to see the portrait of Poland society after the war with its ethnical, religious, patriarchal mythologies. 

Nail polish is from Essence, from a limited edition called Rebels, the name of this nail polish is Mauve Like a Rock Star and the finish is latex, although I always put top coat over it, for fast drying reasons. The bottle is small and so is the brush, a really tiny one, so the application is a bit tricky. I like the colour, but seeing the pictures, maybe I should apply three coats instead of two. 

Have a great day!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 89

HHhH is a panorama of the Third Reich told through the life of one outstandingly brutal man, a story of unbearable heroism and loyalty, revenge and betrayal. It is a moving and shattering work of fiction. 

Two men have been enlisted to kill the head of the Gestapo. This is Operation Anthropoid, Prague, 1942: two Czechoslovakian parachutists sent on a daring mission by London to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich - chief of the Nazi secret services, 'the hangman of Prague', 'the blond beast', 'the most dangerous man in the Third Reich'. His boss is Heinrich Himmler but everyone in the SS says, 'Himmler's brain is called Heydrich', which in German spells HHhH. 

Lately I've been reading a lot of novels that are set during World War II and in some cases, like with the book HHhH, I came to a realisation, that I really know nothing. I shouldn't be so poor in contemporary history, I also had a subject at the university, but there are just some themes, that I don't know nothing about. Like the Operation Anthropoid for example. So HHhH is not just a brilliant novel, but it serves also for broadening the horizon. 

On my nails I have an old polish from Essence with the name Fateful desire. The colour is beautiful, but the application not so much. Most of my older polishes are ok, but this one became goopey, as you can also see from the terrible application (you can also spot my chopped nail), so I think now is the time to buy a new polish in this colour. Just your typical deep red, that is on the cooler side. 

Have a great day!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 88

Facing annihilation at the hands of the warlike Vogons is a curious time to have a craving for tea. It could only happen to the cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his curious comrades in arms as they hurtle across space powered by pure improbability--and desperately in search of a place to eat. Among Arthur's motley shipmates are Ford Prefect, a long-time friend and expert contributor to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; Zaphod Beeblebrox, the three-armed, two-headed ex-president of the galaxy; Tricia McMillan, a fellow Earth refugee who's gone native (her name is Trillian now); and Marvin, the moody android who suffers nothing and no one very gladly. Their destination? The ultimate hot spot for an evening of apocalyptic entertainment and fine dining, where the food (literally) speaks for itself.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is the second book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction "trilogy" by Douglas Adams and is a sequel.

The nails are very summery, not your typical colour for winter, but it goes well with the book. The nail polish is from Essence, an old one with the name Wake up! For an old polish the application is no bad.

Have a great day!