June Reads: 50 Books for 2011

For some reason my reading picks up in the Summer. So I managed three new books in June (and some re-reads of course) and July is looking even better. Yay! My credit card bill? Not looking so good.

#12: Spoiled by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan - The fug girls wrote a book! The best celebrity fashion bloggers on the internet wrote a young adult novel, and it's fantastic. Brooke and Molly, who never knew they were sisters, have been thrown together as teenagers by their movie star father. It's Sweet Valley High meets Dynasty meets Beverly Hills 90210 meets every guilty pleasure you've ever loved. It's sweet and fluffy, and funny and poignant. If you love YA, and/or the fug girls, you should read this already.

#13: Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler - The first book in the Jane True urban fantasy series. Jane is bookish and yet scrappy and does a helluva job adjusting to her new paranomal heritage. Oh, and she meets a hot vampire. Which, of course, is like the beginning of every awesome book. Loving this series.

#14: I'm Not the New Me by Wendy McClure - Amazon has recommended this book to me for years, and the cover art has always appealed to me. But this isn't your average chick-lit novel. It reads more like a blog (which is what it's based on) so I kind of felt like it lacked a clear plot and ending. But I LOVED the retro Weight Watchers recipe cards and witty commentary that were included, and that's where the author's humor really shines.

Life List (100 Things I Want to Do)

Vacation in Hawaii
Take a photography class
Meet John Prine
Travel Scotland
See castles
Eat an In-N-Out burger
Have dinner in Little Italy
Go shopping at the Alight store in NYC
Have a Nathan’s hot dog on Coney Island
Visit Bremerton, Washington
Go on a cruise
Pay off all of our credit cards
Have my kitchen remodeled
Buy a Volkswagen Beetle
Have a swimming pool
Write a novel
Drive across the U.S. in an RV
Go to San Diego Comic Con
See a Broadway show
Take Cooper to Disney World (Planned! June 2013!)
Have a picture taken of Rob, Cooper and me that I really love
See the sunflowers in Tuscany
Open my own or work in a book store
Hire a maid service
Find a job I can do from home
Take the Jack the Ripper tour in London
Go on a trip with my mother and sister
Have an elfa closet
Become a professional organizer
Visit the M&M store in Las Vegas
Buy something at the Tiffany store in NYC
Go whale watching
Visit Deadwood South Dakota
Quit my job
Take Cooper to the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis
Open my own summer camp
Get my nose pierced
Resurect Jello Pudding Pops
Get a passport
Keep a plant alive
Find the perfect little black dress
Go to my high school reunion
Get back in touch with my half-brother
Go to the beach with friends
Fly first-class
Read 100 new books in a year
Be a vegetarian for a month
Go on a dinosaur dig
Adopt from foster care
Read the complete works of Zelda Fitzgerald
Go on an Etsy shopping spree
Spend a week by myself with no obligations
Learn to prepare a vegetable I never thought I liked
Take a road trip to Dollywood
Spend a month in the French quarter
Pose for boudoir portraits
Eat bread in Paris
Finish my college degree
Ride a mechanical bull
Inspire someone to do something new
Sunbathe in the Italian Riviera
Sleep more
Attend the Highland Games in North Carolina
Watch everything in my Netflix queue
Rent a beach house with my family
Take Cooper camping
Have Butterbeer at Universal Studio’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter (Planned! June 2013!)
Learn to pack light
Host a dinner party
Sit on a jury
Perform a karaoke solo
Write my will
See the Fall leaves in New England
Teach my sister to apply makeup
Throw a Halloween party
Have a pint in an Irish pub
Have a professional photographer take my twitter avatar photo
Make homemade ice cream
Have dinner at the Commander's Palace in New Orleans
Watch AFI's Top 100 Films of All Time (seen 28 so far)
Have a movie marathon weekend
Take a second honeymoon
Live in Central Austin
Rock pink hair
Wear a bikini, without having a "bikini body"
Make a living working less than 40 hours a week
Get to name an OPI nail polish color
Become a more mindful consumer
Spend more time with my grandmother
Take a vacation every Summer
Own every color of Converse
Get a sleeve tattoo of my favorite desserts
Take a pottery class
See Dolly Parton in concert
Have a big window-seat for reading and daydreaming
Be an extra in a movie or TV show
Send Cooper to college
Spend a weekend at a spa
Overcome my low-level OCD
Retire

"Eulogy on the Flapper"

I've never gotten around to reading any Zelda Fitzgerald, but after reading this quote from an article she wrote in Metropolitan Magazine, I think I must.

The Flapper awoke from her lethargy of sub-deb-ism, bobbed her hair, put on her choicest pair of earrings and a great deal of audacity and rouge and went into the battle. She flirted because it was fun to flirt and wore a one-piece bathing suit because she had a good figure ... she was conscious that the things she did were the things she had always wanted to do. Mothers disapproved of their sons taking the Flapper to dances, to teas, to swim and most of all to heart.