Friday Link Dump: Puppy Gifs, Book Lists And Food Porn

Hello lovely readers! Sorry for the lack of posting in the last couple of weeks, it's been quite hectic in my real world. For instance, I turned 27 AND celebrated my first wedding anniversary. Cue musings on the shortness of life and other fun stuff. But you're here for links, and by golly, do I have some for you:

-BuzzFeed lists some books you should read in your 20s.

-Prepare to have your mind blown by the handwritten outlines of famous authors.

-The Review Locker compares the cast of three The Great Gatsby adaptations. It seems like the new one has some winners. I can't wait to see it!
 

-I'm really keen to see About Time, which looks like The Time Traveler's Wife in that it involves time travel and stars Rachel McAdams, but it's British and therefore more awesome.

-I've been watching so much Parks and Recreation, and it's great food porn. And amazeballs in general. You know what else is amazeballs? A Storm of Swansons, which is what you get when you cross Parks and Recreation with Game of Thrones.

-You can now insert Tobias from Arrested Development into your own photos and video. It's incredibly addictive and entertaining.

-Here are 100 insightful and often hilarious behind-the-scenes shots from famous movies.

-I wish the Disney Princess Academy would happen. I want to go to there.

-Taking your bra off at the end of the day really is the best feeling ever.

-When I discovered Owl Turd comics I was entertained for hours (well, many minutes, at least). Meanwhile here are what random tweets look like as a comic.

-Fashion in History is a pretty AND informative Tumblr.

-Pets on Roombas makes me really want a Roomba. And an adorable pet to ride it. 

-Richard Armitage with Cats is probably the best Tumblr in existence. Next to Puppy Gifs, of course.
 

-This dog waiting patiently for a treat made me giggle like crazy. So much adorable.

-George Takei is awesome. That is all.

Review: Innocence by Kathleen Tessaro

I was excited to read this book, but sadly it fell a little flat for me.

A friend lent it to me because we share a mutual love of love stories, and after I made her read If I Stay (and she adored it), she insisted I'd love this one. The story definitely intrigued me - switching between timelines, it tells the tale of Evie as she is at 18 and at 33. At 18, she dreams of being an actress, is best friends with the larger-than-life Robbie and swept up in a passionate affair with wannabe rock star Jake. At 33, she's living in a sharehouse as a single mum, teaching acting classes for amateurs at night and being haunted by the now-dead Robbie. How she went from one to the other is slowly revealed and it's this that kept me reading. I had no problems with the plot, really - but the characters drove me bonkers.

I had high hopes of falling for Jake and being swept away with passion myself, so I was very disappointed to find him extremely unattractive. Oh, sure, he's sexy - but he's also douchebag drug dealer/manipulative asshat (side note: can you tell I'm currently reading City of Bones?). He raves on about how Evie's everything to him, but that's clearly not true. He cares more about drugs, music and himself, because that's what he chooses over her time and again. I would even say his relationship with Evie is emotionally abusive; it's not her he loves, it's how she makes him feel and the power he has over her. Even their first sexual encounter (and the only one detailed in the book) seems less about passion and more about what he can do to her and get her to do to him.

All of this made Evie's obsession with Jake extremely frustrating; even 15 years later, she's no longer with him but he's still haunting her - perhaps even more so than the actual ghost in her life. She's floundering and clearly extremely unhappy, with her scraps of unmet dreams and lost love piled up in a box under the bed. Hence the haunting; Robbie comes along with the message to not waste life because you never know when it will end. At least, I think that was why she was there. It's never firmly established; in fact, the haunting takes a backseat to a bunch of other things so much that each time Robbie pops up, I was like, "oh, that's right, this is a ghost story." In the end, all Robbie proved to me was what a horrible friend Evie was, making me like her even less.

Robbie herself is a colourful character, which is one of the reasons I would've liked to see more of her - dead or alive. There were some other secondary characters that I also enjoyed - namely pretty much all of the people Evie lives with as an adult. Piotr the pianist especially caught my heart; from the moment he was introduced I found him so much more attractive than icky Jake. But he wasn't in it enough to make up for the horrible relationship that dominates the majority of the book. To me, Innocence was not a story about love, or even about ghosts, but about the damage we can inflict on others. Not quite the bubbly chick lit I was hoping for.

Rating: 2.5/5

Eye Candy
I pictured...

Rachel McAdams as Evie

Gillian Jacobs as Robbie

Colin Farrell as Jake

Adrien Brody as Piotr

My Book Boyfriend: Noah Calhoun

My Book Boyfriend, hosted by Missie at The Unread Reader, is an awesome meme highlighting the many fictional boys who make us swoon. This week I'm reliving my love of Noah Calhoun from The Notebook.

Why he's an awesome book boyfriend...

• He does everything he can for the woman he loves, and remains devoted to her and her alone his whole life. Even with 14 years apart, Allie apparently ignoring him, Allie's engangement to another man, Alzheimer's... he keeps loving her through it all.
• He's supportive, encouraging Allie to pursue her passions.
• He restores a house just for her. A freaking house. A beautiful freaking house where she can paint.
• He writes her letters for a whole year despite receiving nothing in return. 
• When Allie doesn't remember him due to Alzheimer's, he sticks by her, going by a fake name and reading the story of their love to her Every. Single. Day.
• He's played by the adorable Ryan Gosling in the movie adaptation - and is even more swoon-worthy in it. Seeing as this is my BOOK boyfriend, I'll stick to the book version of Noah (but the ferris wheel! The beach! "If you're a bird, I'm a bird..." Sigh. Such a great movie).

Swoon-worthy Quotes


"She was my dream. She made me who I am, and holding her in my arms was more natural to me than my own heartbeat. I think about her all the time. Even now, when I'm sitting here, I think about her. There could never be another."



"I am a common man with common thoughts and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I've loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough."



"We fell in love, despite our differences, and once we did, something rare and beautiful was created. For me, love like that has only happened once, and that's why every minute we spent together has been seared in my memory. I'll never forget a single moment of it."

"You are a song, a dream, a whisper, and I don't know how I could have lived without you for as long as I have. I love you, Allie, more than you can ever imagine. I always have, and I always will."

Related
Ryan Gosling + Rachel McAdams = Double the swoon. I'm still waiting for the day they'll get back together. In the meantime, I'll obsessively rewatch The Notebook plus the clip of their acceptance for Best Kiss at the MTV Awards (they could certainly teach RPattz and KStew a thing or two).