Last year I made a wish list of stuff I wanted for Christmas, this year I am making a list of stuff I already have but highly recommend for those of you looking for gift ideas this holiday season.  Yay for the spirit of giving!! (See, I’m growing as a person! Also, mom, if you’re reading this, I want cash and Starbucks gift cards but mostly cash.) If I was Oprah, these would be included in my favorite things. (For the record? If I was Oprah, I’d also give you a boat, a trip to Wilmington NC in the autumn, and a twenty-minute conversation with Matt Davis about sex, energy, and aliens.)

Voluspa ceramic candles. Here is how I know I’m not a real grown up: Sometimes I can’t afford food, and also sometimes I spend $30 on a candle. I can hear my mother lecturing me about my spending habits now, but whatever. These ceramic candles smell amazing, last ages, and just look really pretty on a shelf or a dresser. My favorites are the Macaron and Suede Blanco scents. Macaron fills the room with the smell of pastries, but it’s not sickly sweet or too strongly vanilla-scented, which can sometimes be stifling. Suede Blanco has a masculine cologne scent. Basically, it makes your room smell like a really hot sophisticated guy just left, probably on his way to go buy you something fancy. The ceramic candles are really pretty, and once they’re burned down the jars still look nice and are multi-functional. (This is how I justify the expense.) You can use them for pens or makeup brushes or whatever. Plus, when I am trying to make the last twelve dollars in my bank account last until payday, I can still feel fancy burning one of these. Read the rest of this entry »

Almost all of my favorite books fall into the YA category. A psychiatrist (or psychologist? whichever one is allowed to give you drugs) once told me I watch TV and read books aimed at teenagers because I was emotionally damaged at 15 and I subconsciously try to regress to my adolescent state. It’s likely that this is true. It’s more likely that YA books are just really good and that shrink can suck it.

“The Fault in Our Stars” is a really good book. I mean, it might not be for everyone, but it was totally for me. It’s a little overwrought and angsty and very teenagery, so… I don’t know, if you were emotionally damaged as a teenager, you’ll probably love it! And c’mon, who wasn’t emotionally damaged as a teenager.

I don’t know why they don’t put my review-blurbs on book jackets. I’m book-selling gold.

Anyway, I’m not really ready to write a full-on review, because I’m better at talking about books than writing about them, but I wanted to share some snippets with you guys. John Green’s prose is really melodic to me. Every time I read one of his books I want to get his words tattooed all over my body. (I also feel this way about Richard Siken poems, Lucksmiths lyrics, and select quotes from “Life as a House,” but hiding all that ink from my grandparents would just take way too much creativity, so I don’t.)

So, since I can’t get tattooed and I no longer have a physics notebook to write quotes in the margins of, I decided to put my five favorite quotes here. These may be slightly spoilery, but I don’t think they are, I think they’ll just make you want to read the book more. Read the rest of this entry »

I do not like New Year’s Eve. It’s a completely arbitrary holiday — congratulations, universe, you will now spend the next six weeks writing down the wrong date on all of your contracts, checks, and correspondence. Other than that, nothing will change. So why, in God’s name, do we all get dressed up in sequins and drink champagne and act like the thing that happens at midnight is going to be some big surprise that you absolutely can not DVR? Read the rest of this entry »