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!

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. 99

Lust, romance, attachment... Anatomy of Love explores such questions as whether monogamy is natural, why we choose certain partners and why we might cheat on them. In this completely revised edition, anthropologist Helen Fisher adds a host of new data on the brain in love and on courtship in our digital age. She casts an original (and optimistic) lens on modern love, proposing that we are returning to patterns of romance that evolved in our primordial past. 

Helen E. Fisher is an anthropology professor and human behaviour researcher at the Rutgers University and is one of the major researchers in the field of romantic interpersonal attraction. 

The nail polish is from Catrice (discontinued) with the name Oh My Goldness! and in the bottle it looks like the China Glaze's Harvest Moon, but this one is not a foil nail polish like China Glaze, but it has tiny glitter. And for that reason, I chose a peel off base coat. The polish needs at least three coats for decent capacity, I'd say the more the better and for that reason I don’t like it. 

Have a great day!

What I'm reading + NOTD pt. 98

Young Pip Tyler doesn't know who she is. She knows that her real name is Purity, that she's saddled with $130,000 in student debt, that she's squatting with anarchists in Oakland, and that her relationship with her mother - her only family - is hazardous. But she doesn't have a clue who her father is, why her mother chose to live as a recluse with an invented name, or how she'll ever have a normal life. 

Enter the Germans. A glancing encounter with a German peace activist leads Pip to an internship in South America with the Sunlight Project, an organization that traffics in all the secrets of the world - including, Pip hopes, the secret of her origins. TSP is the brainchild of Andreas Wolf, a charismatic provocateur who rose to fame in the chaos following the fall of the Berlin Wall. Now on the lam in Bolivia, Andreas is drawn to Pip for reasons she doesn't understand, and the intensity of her response to him upends her conventional ideas of right and wrong. 

Jonathan Franzen's Purity is a grand story of youthful idealism, extreme fidelity in our morally complex times. 

Nail polish is from Catrice and is still available. it’s from the line Spectra Light Effect Nail Lacquer with the name Holo Enchantment. It is silver and it has a holographic effect that is not too strong but still visible. The application was a breeze, although I later found a bald spot on one of my nails, but maybe I bumped into something. The staying power on the other hand is very poor on me, not even a single day of perfect wear. 

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!