Amber Lea > Recent Status Updates

I'm all about shitting on new age gobbledygook, but back off gardening, jerkface.

This is a lot like Partly Cloudy Patriot (a series of personal essays), which is exactly what I was hoping for. Sarah Vowell is a fun read.

I miss the economic prosperity of the 90s. I think I'm going to climb in bed and sleep for 10 years.

Oh god, the chapter on work. *anxiety*

Seriously, these stories are terrible. They barely make sense, and they have no point. It's depressing...and not in a way I can appreciate. And it's like I keep reading, wanting to know what happens...and then when I find out I'm SO DISAPPOINTED. Can I blame it on it being written in German in the 1800's?

Man, there's gluten in mustard? That's so fucked up.

omg, this chapter is about how Sarah Vowell is obsessed with Canada...I officially love her forever. "Canada took the path to sovereignty that is one of the most hilariously boring stories in the history of the world."

This is not part of the amazon lending library, but I did get a copy for free. This book also happens to be way less of a joke than the last one...but damn these e-books! I'm never going to read anything respectable again. My life is ruined.

"When you are done drinking this juice, you will look like you dunked your abs in a bucket of knives. Not really, but you get my point."

What is wrong with this guy?

"Many vegetables take on the shape and from of what they are good for in the body. If you look at celery, it looks like your bones."

Riiiiiiiight.

This guy is clearly not a medical professional. Also, I think he might be a little...special. That being said, this book still makes me want to juice shit.

The amazon lending library really sucks and I have a juicer so I borrowed this.

There's an entire chapter dedicated to the creep-factor of Tom Cruise.

I feel dumb and unaccomplished.

omg! "California is about the good life. A bad life there seems so much worse than a bad life anywhere else." The next paragraph after a visit to philly: "I went home feeling like the prettiest, most upbeat over-achiever in the world." YES! Perfect. "The nice thing about Philadelphia is that no one has moved there to find the good life in over 200 years."

This was originally written in German, and the translation isn't great. The use of the word "joke" is so awkward.

Let me just go ahead and distill down everything I have to say right now: Sarah Vowell is hilarious.

I figured out I can download reeeeeeeally old books to my phone for free and read them when I'm so bored I want to die. So I'm reading Grimm's Fairy Tales.

I don't have any genuine criticisms of this book so far. It's pretty much everything I would want a book like this to be.

So many jokes, so much history.

This book just went straight up Carl Sagan. Also, holy shit, it mentions Viktor Frankl.

Now we're getting somewhere.

I'm on page 60 and I feel like I'm still reading the intro. It's like, "Man, this book is so going to help your life...just you wait...when we tell you whats up...oh man." I'M ON PAGE 60! SPILL IT! I'm getting anxiety over here!

Oh god, my heartstrings.

The reason I fucking loved this book so much when I was in middle school was Hannah Tupper, the old Quaker woman who lived in the marsh. I related to her so hard (I've always had this imagine in my head of what I will be like when I'm old, and it's Hannah Tupper), and she was my introduction to Quakerism. Which if you know me, you probably know I have a not-so-secret obsession with Quakers.

Kit semi-secretly hates mass and bible study and she makes the puritans uncomfortable with her slutty sleeves and sinful play acting. I find that makes her very likable. The poor girl has no one to relate to in this new oppressive environment and she's forced to live in her head. This was my life when I was reading this book for the first time, growing up in a conservative town with conservative parents.

My favorite thing about this book is the writing style. You can tell it was written over 50 years ago because people don't use words this way anymore.
As far as the story goes, Kit is something of a mary-sue type character (in that all of her "flaws" are AWESOME) but...as an unapologetic Wesley Crusher fan...I love mary-sues, so shut up.

I read this book when I was 13 or 14 and I really loved it. Unfortunately, I don't remember very much about it, so I figured I would re-read it and see if it holds up.