I don’t know how I feel being back on campus as an alum. It’s surreal. I’m here, but for once, there’s not anywhere I need to be, not anything I need to do. There’s no stress. The foliage hold their lush summer green. Autumn sneaks in a breeze. A few students mill around. Less than I would expect, but perhaps everyone is inside sick or studying (it’s that season again).
I’ve been stressed out of my mind this summer trying to set myself up for post-graduate life, and it’s caused me to become a shell of who I am. The apartment search and the job search are still in the works, but I’m learning to accept this process, and I’m gradually feeling more human again. I’m breaking from my summer routine of hiding inside, oscillating between applying to jobs and looking for apartments, and lying on the ground in defeat. I’m getting out and enjoying the simple pleasures in life, like a warm cuppa coffee, finishing a book, arriving somewhere at exactly the same time as the person I’m meeting, cooking dinner with my roomie, switching out my summer wardrobe for autumn, listening to podcasts whilst folding laundry, bad puns, perfect partially clouded days, learning a new song on the guitar, mooncakes, when friends buy me bubble tea, a good back stretch, and the warmth of sunlight after stowing away in a heavily air conditioned cafe.
– I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review. –
To be published by Minotaur Books on 02 Oct 2018
Goodreads | Amazon
Rose Gallagher might dream of bigger things, but she’s content enough with her life as a housemaid. After all, it’s not every girl from Five Points who gets to spend her days in a posh Fifth Avenue brownstone, even if only to sweep its floors. But all that changes on the day her boss, Mr. Thomas Wiltshire, disappears. Rose is certain Mr. Wiltshire is in trouble, but the police treat his disappearance as nothing more than the whims of a rich young man behaving badly. Meanwhile, the friend who reported him missing is suspiciously unhelpful. With nowhere left to turn, Rose takes it upon herself to find her handsome young employer.
The investigation takes her from the marble palaces of Fifth Avenue to the sordid streets of Five Points. When a ghostly apparition accosts her on the street, Rose begins to realize that the world around her isn’t at all as it seems―and her place in it is about to change forever.
“We’re going to brunch.” And that was that. Georgina and Victoria woke me from my saving-money-for-NYC-rent-by-being-a-hermit-so-that-I-don’t-get-tempted-to-spend-money-induced stupor and dragged me out of the apartment and into the city for a summer day of food, art, human interaction, and most importantly, more food.
– I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review. –
Published by Riverhead Books on 19 Jun 2018
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Pearl’s job is to make people happy. Every day, she provides customers with personalized recommendations for greater contentment. She’s good at her job, her office manager tells her, successful. But how does one measure an emotion?
Meanwhile, there’s Pearl’s teenage son, Rhett. A sensitive kid who has forged an unconventional path through adolescence, Rhett seems to find greater satisfaction in being unhappy. The very rejection of joy is his own kind of “pursuit of happiness.” As his mother, Pearl wants nothing more than to help Rhett—but is it for his sake or for hers? Certainly it would make Pearl happier. Regardless, her son is one person whose emotional life does not fall under the parameters of her job—not as happiness technician, and not as mother, either.
Last I left you, I had just announced that I was planning to move from Philadelphia to New York City. Right now I’m still in Philly, staying with my friend Georgina, but no fear, I’m still working on moving to NYC. A few days ago I shared my post “Back here,” vaguely explaining how I’ve gone back and forth on things and not much has changed, and today I’ll take you on that journey that has led me to the same place I was when I started. Here’s what happened in between!