Devil Wears Prada

So my Mom told me that I had to read this book… That it was hysterical and that she couldn’t wait to see Streep win an Oscar for the role.

Ugh.  It was well-written–that I can’t deny.  It was also one of the most depressing books I’ve read in a very long time.  I was a bit shocked that my mother would enjoy it so much.

First, there is the fact that my mother was reading a depressive tale about twentysomethings with issues that were all too closely related to my own (alcohol abuse, random sexual partners, lack of self-confidence and identity) and finding it funny.  I know I have kept alot from her in the past ten years, but my god.  Was she completely oblivious?!

Then there’s the story of the job itself.  I suffered from anxiety dreams the whole week I was reading the book.  I suppose that for someone who has never held a full-time job (not to slight her, just stating the obvious), the story of Andrea’s interactions with Miranda could only be seen as comical.  To me, just the opposite.  I felt constrained, trapped and wracked with fear.  All over again.

Maybe I am still just to close to those experiences… Maybe it takes time to see the humor.

Maybe it takes never having lived it.

I think it’s time to find a new job…

At least if I am going to stay sane.  I know that I am really good at what I do, and that working with the public is one of my greatest strengths.  But let’s face it.  The public?  Idiots.

Favorite Books

In no particular order…

• mila 18 – leon uris
• the kite runner – khaled hosseini
• stone junction – jim dodge
• the old man and the sea – ernest hemingway
• the red tent – anita diamant
• divine secrets of the ya-ya sisterhood – rebecca wells
• stiff – mary roach
• armageddon – leon uris
• into the wild – jon krakauer
• island – aldous huxley
• we – yevgeny zamyatin
• the alienist – caleb carr
• a short history of nearly everything – bill bryson
• siddhartha – herman hesse
• the man who mistook his wife for a hat – oliver sacks
• midnight in the garden of good and evil – john berendt
• you got nothing coming: notes from a prison fish – jimmy lerner
• true notebooks – mark salzman
• the secret history – donna tartt
• zero, the biography of a dangerous idea – charles seife
• things fall apart – chinua achebe
• my name is asher lev – chaim potok
• hiroshima – john hersey
• the chosen – chaim potok
• gandhi: an autobiography – mohandas gandhi
• the mother tongue – bill bryson
• the devil in the white city – erik larson
• the curious incident of the dog in the night-time – mark haddon
• bee season – myla goldberg
• the professor and the madman – simon winchester
• the great bridge – david mccullough
• ella minnow pea – mark dunn
• the ladies’ auxiliary – tova mirvis
• all-of-a-kind family – sydney taylor
• a door in the wall – marguerite de angeli
• tuesdays with morrie – mitch albom
• fish!: a remarkable way to boost morale and improve results – stephen lundin
• bridge to terabithia – katherine patterson
• lying awake – mark salzman
• the preservationist – david maine
• microserfs – douglas coupland
• be true to your school – bob greene
• zodiac – robert graysmith
• the old forest – peter taylor
• life of pi – yann martel
• black like me – john howard griffin
• johnny tremain – esther forbes
• walden – henry david thoreau
• the know-it-all – aj jacobs
• battle cry – leon uris
• on paradise drive: how we live now (and always have) in the future tense – david brooks
• live from new york: an uncensored history of saturday night live - tom shales

Everyone Needs a Home…

And now I have my little corner of this digital universe.