What I’m Reading: When Life Gives You Lululemons

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From the bookjacket:
New York Times bestselling author Lauren Weisberger returns with a novel starring one of her favorite characters from The Devil Wears Prada—Emily Charlton, first assistant to Miranda Priestly, now a highly successful image consultant who’s just landed the client of a lifetime.
Welcome to Greenwich, CT, where the lawns and the women are perfectly manicured, the Tito’s and sodas are extra strong, and everyone has something to say about the infamous new neighbor.

Let’s be clear: Emily Charlton, Miranda Priestly’s ex-assistant, does not do the suburbs. She’s working in Hollywood as an image consultant to the stars, but recently, Emily’s lost a few clients. She’s hopeless with social media. The new guard is nipping at her heels. She needs a big opportunity, and she needs it now.

Karolina Hartwell is as A-list as they come. She’s the former face of L’Oreal. A mega-supermodel recognized the world over. And now, the gorgeous wife of the newly elected senator from New York, Graham, who also has his eye on the presidency. It’s all very Kennedy-esque, right down to the public philandering and Karolina’s arrest for a DUI—with a Suburban full of other people’s children.

Miriam is the link between them. Until recently she was a partner at one of Manhattan’s most prestigious law firms. But when Miriam moves to Greenwich and takes time off to spend with her children, she never could have predicted that being stay-at-home mom in an uber-wealthy town could have more pitfalls than a stressful legal career. 

Emily, Karolina, and Miriam make an unlikely trio, but they desperately need each other. Together, they’ll navigate the social landmines of life in America’s favorite suburb on steroids, revealing the truths—and the lies—that simmer just below the glittering surface. With her signature biting style, Lauren Weisberger offers a dazzling look into another sexy, over-the-top world, where nothing is as it appears.

My thoughts:
I heard a lot of rave reviews about When Life Gives You Lululemons, and while I never read any of the other instalments of the Devil Wears Prada series I figured I’d give it a go. I’d only ever watched the movie version of The Devil Wears Prada, but I loved Emily’s character, so a book featuring her as one of the main characters couldn’t be bad!

When Life Gives You Lululemons was a fun and fast read, and I really enjoyed following the three women along on their journey together. Miriam was super relatable to me in many ways and I loved her relationship with Emily and Karolina. The trio kept one another in check wonderfully and their friendship is something every woman should strive to have. “I got your back but will call you out if you’re being an idiot” is definitely the kind of friendship I’m down to be in.

I never found the book to be overly predictable and found myself obsessively reading to find out what was going to happen next. My one and only gripe is that ending seemed a little rushed, as if Weisberger had a word-count to adhere to and needed to wrap things up before chapters got left out.

All in all, When Life Gives You Lululemons is a great summer read that is easy enough to follow along to without getting boring. I give it 4 stars out of 5.

Race Recap: Kamloops Marathon

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Upping your distance is no joke. After running a good handful of 5km races for the past 3 years, I thought it would be fun a good challenge to test my legs in an 8km race. I still don’t know if it was a good idea or not, but alas, I went for it anyway.

The Kamloops Marathon is actually a Boston Marathon qualifying race, so it’s a pretty big deal here in town. Kyle signed up for the half marathon, while Isla signed up for the 3km run. Kyle’s stepdad was doing the full marathon with a goal to qualify, so we were super excited to all be running a portion of the race with him!

Kyle was out the door suuuuuuuper early Sunday morning as the half and full marathoners left the start line at 6am.  While Isla and I didn’t have to head out the door until just after 7, I had a pretty good case of pre-race jitters and didn’t fall back to sleep when I heard Kyle wake up just after 4am. I didn’t plan on drinking coffee, but I figured a half-cup would probably do me good all things considered. I eventually showered and got dressed before waking Isla up to get ready at 6:15. (Norah stayed the night at my mom’s so we didn’t have to anger the honey badger!)

Kyle’s mom picked Isla and up right on time and we got to the race venue with about a half-hour for me to spare before my 8am start time. (Isla’s race started at 8:30.) I met up with a coworker of Kyle’s who asked if it would be alright to run with me and we wandered to the start line.

Now, I’ve never actually ran a competitive race with anyone before, but it was nice to have to company! She is a way more seasoned runner than I am, and I’m more than certain that I held her back. I had to take a lot of walking breaks because I was cramping in my diaphragm a lot, but she never left me in the dust. (The crazy woman worked a 12-hour night shift before the race and was going back to work another night shift that evening! Mad props to her, for sure!)

 

That last stretch was a doozy – lots of walking and thinking to myself, “Is it over yet?” I had to take one last walking break during the final stretch before giving that last push to the finish. Kyle was actually there at the finish line cheering me on, and it was what I needed to sprint across the finish line. (He finished his half-marathon with a time of 2:06:55!)

I didn’t quite make my goal time because of all the walking I ended up doing, but I’m still pretty happy with my time, especially for my first 8km race. It ended up being 48:23, so I think it’s a pretty good benchmark for next year!

After I had caught my breath, resisted the urge to barf my guts out (seriously), and hugged Kyle’s coworker for pushing me through, I met up with Kyle and we waited for Isla to come across the finish line! Kyle’s mom ran the race with her, and the word is that Isla did awesome on the course, only taking a few walking breaks and chatting almost the entire time! She finished with an official time of 23:47 and Kyle and I are so stinking proud of her!

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It wasn’t too long after Isla had finished that Kyle’s stepdad made his way across the finish line for the full marathon. He slayed it and finished with a Boston-qualifying time of 3:32:35! While he hasn’t decided whether or not he’ll apply to tackle Boston next year, we’re all super proud and inspired by him!

Isla and I hit up the pancake breakfast before we headed home to clean up, change, and get Norah from my mom’s. After Norah’s nap we headed down to Kyle’s mom’s for a well-earned pool party! It was the perfect way to end the day, for sure!

I look forward to doing this race again next year; the organizers did an amazing job setting up the course and I can’t thank them enough!

 

What I’m Reading: The Hate U Give

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From the book jacket:
The Hate U GiveSixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does or does not say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

My review:
I’m probably late catching the hype train for this book, but I finally had the chance to read it after hearing rave reviews and I’m glad I took the time to do so.

The Hate U Give covers an important issue in our world today – racism, but more specifically, police brutality. The book jacket breaks down the plot of the story in a pretty clear manner, and there’s no specific sub-plot or drastic twists and turns to the story. Still, I think it’s an important read for the YA audience it was intended for, and it opens your eyes in sense. While fictional, Starr stands for every person seeking justice for a wrongful death. She stands for every teenager just trying to fit in and figure out who she is. Her situation is the situation of many of the minorities living all over the world. When Starr was angry, I was angry, and reading her story made me open my eyes and think a bit harder about the bigger picture.

Politics aside, I really did enjoy this book although various scenes were a bit predicable. On the other hand, I also wonder if the predicability and stereotypes were used on purpose by the author to emphasize how brainwashed we almost are to how we view other races and cultures. I also wonder if they were used in such a way to make it easier for the YA demographic to understand and see. These are deep thoughts, people.

So, based on that theory, I’m giving The Hate U Give 4.5 stars out of 5. It’s still an important read and makes to think hard about who you are as a person and where you stand in society.

Side note: It will be interesting to see how this is receipted once it hits theatres in the fall. I’m not 100% sure I’ll go out and watch it in theatre, but I’m curious to see how they adapted it. From the trailer, it seems pretty true to the book.