Category: Holidays

The Best Celebrity Books of 2019!

What’s better than a regular memoir, you ask? A celebrity memoir, that’s what! With the year winding down and the holidays right around the corner, now is the perfect time to snuggle up with a book that motivates you and pumps you up for the brand new year.

Here are some of our favorite Celebrity Memoirs to get you all excited; be it as a travel companion, or to keep you up on your couch as you take a break from the Christmas movie binge, they’re all here for you!

 

Me by Elton John

Image via Amazon

Elton John’s first ever official autobiography, Me, has won the hearts of millions of fans. The memoir explores fragments of his extraordinary life from when the legendary superstar was a shy, young boy named Reginald Dwight, growing up in the suburbs of London. In Me, Elton also talks about his drama filled life revolving around music, his drug addiction, finding love and becoming a father. This is a great read for anyone who’s a fan of the singer, or just wants to know how one man transformed his life and became the icon that he is now.

 

Inside out by Demi moore

Image via Amazon

Demi Moore’s long awaited memoir, coined as raw and emotionally charged, has garnered a lot of responses from both fans, and others. In her story, she speaks out about growing up and trying to maintain sanity in the constant scrutiny of the press and public, battling addiction and body image issues, as well as touching on her prolific movie roles and her long string of high profile relationships. In Inside Out, Demi exhibits constant resilience and tremendous strength, which has made her the strong woman she is today. Anyone reading it, can hope to get a dose of inspiration from the outstanding life of a woman who started off as just ordinary.

Home work by julie andrews

Image via Amazon

As her previous memoir, Home, did exceptionally well, Home Work is Julie Andrews’ follow-up memoir, which she released alongside the help of her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton. In this memoir, Andrews focuses on her life in Hollywood, and paints vivid images in the minds of readers as she describes her earliest hit movies like, The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins. Alongside Hollywood, Andrews also discusses her long journey tackling such a tremendously different and extraordinary life, embracing motherhood, step-motherhood, the start and end of marriages, all while discovering who she is and can be.

Queer eye: Love yourself. love your life.

Image via Bookstr

Who better than the fantastic men of Queer Eye to help guide us on the spectacular journey of self love and acceptance for the upcoming year?

While they have a book they released together, four of the Fab Five members have now launched their own, and we couldn’t be more hyped! Karamo Brown’s book, Karamo: My Story of Embracing, Purpose, Healing, and Hope, explores his life through the lens of culture, love and acceptance, while sweet Antoni Porowski’s awesome cookbook, Antoni in the Kitchen, offers us delicious yet easy recipes to keep us full for the upcoming year!

JVN never disappoints in the show, and neither does his fabulous, heart wrenching memoir, Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love, which is a real tear-jerker, but equally heart-warming and powerful and a definite must read. But the gorgeous Tan France’s Naturally Tan has to be my personal favorite, as he breaks boundaries by discussing what it was like to come out as gay in a traditional Muslim household, and in the end, marrying a Mormon cowboy from Salt Lake City. Now we just need the flawless Bobby Berk to gear up and launch his own book ASAP, so we can finally complete our collection!

The beautiful ones by Prince

Image via Amazon

The last mention in our list is the story of a star who may no longer be with us today, but has left a legacy that will never diminish. In this posthumous memoir, megastar Prince Rogers Nelson, tells us the story of how Prince became Prince. And about his relentless effort to self-create and how to master artistry. How his passing left this world with his timeless music. This book, with the work of his editor Dan Piepenbring, manages to capture all hearts.

So, there you have it. This master-list of highly influential and inspiring individuals, who took charge of their lives and became such powerful figures and should put you in the perfect mindset to conquer 2020!

Featured Image via Bookstr


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Seasons Greetings from Our Favorite Harry Potter Witches and Wizards!

Our holidays just became a whole lot more magical with the cast of Harry Potter wishing us a Merry Christmas!

Image via Pop Sugar

The ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ movie came out over eighteen years ago, while the book was published in 1997. And there was no faster way to warm our hearts during this cold season than seeing our favorite characters reunite and share their existing friendships on social media! 

The flawless Emma Watson was the first, with a black and white version of the ensemble of the cast — leave it up to Hermione Granger to waste no time! 

View this post on Instagram

Merry Christmas from us ☺️

A post shared by Emma Watson (@emmawatson) on

And the charming and cheeky Tom Felton shared a colored version of the picture, maintaining the rivalry between the houses by using the hashtag “#gryffindorVSslytherin” in his post.

But no one made us more sentimental than the adorable Neville Longbottom aka Matthew Lewis, who captioned his post as, “Roses between two thorns…”, referring to the pretty witches stacked in the middle of him and Tom Felton.

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Roses between two thorns…

A post shared by Matthew Lewis (@mattdavelewis) on

Bonnie Wright, the only represented Weasley in the photo, shared it on her Instagram as, “time turning”, which prompted Evanna Lynch to join the bandwagon  and say, “AS IF I’m not going to repost this 🙂❤️💚💙.”

Although nothing would have made us happier than seeing our favorite duo of Harry Potter and Ron Weasley join the rest of the clan, but maybe that would break the internet and we potterheads aren’t yet ready for that! 

Image Via Antena3.com

                                       

 

 

 


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Greta Gerwig’s Little Women Is All Modernity

Writer/Director Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women is coming out Christmas Day. Gerwig (Francis Ha, Lady Bird) has most certainly brought an important anti-patriarchal text to life for a whole new generation. Of course, it’s for all generations of film-goers. In an interview with Time, Gerwig explains how she used not only the text from Little Women but also drew from other books written by Alcott, even her letters, to write the script. In response specifically to the book, Gerwig says that she, “reread it as an adult and (she) was bowled over by how modern it was, how much it was about women, ambition, art and money. There were lines that could have been written yesterday.”

image via mental floss

 

 

As you may already know, the film has a powerhouse cast, with Saiorse Ronan playing Jo March, Emma Watson playing the humble Meg, Florence Pugh playing Amy, and Eliza Scanlen playing Beth. Across the street, peeking out the window is Timothée Chalamet as good ol’ Laurie, Laura Dern is playing dear Marmee, and Meryl Streep is the cold but well-meaning Aunt March. Could you ask for stronger actors?

 

image via bustle

What’s more, the characters eschewed in former adaptations are getting more attention. In the Time interview, writer-director Greta Gerwig says “Meg’s story doesn’t end when she gets married. She wants to be married and have children, but she is feeling like maybe she has made the wrong choice. That’s just as real a journey as anybody else’s. So I got to explore the most interesting part of Meg, which is what do you after you get the happily ever after?”

 

image via slashfilm

On Amy March:

“I found Amy to be utterly compelling and modern. From the time she’s a little girl, she is able to stand inside her own desires: I want to be the best painter in the whole world and I want to marry rich and I want a mansion. For so many female characters and for women in general, the idea that desire and ambition are shameful is everywhere. ”

 

 

image via Tumblr

On Jo March:

“I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know who Jo March was. I don’t know if I wanted to be a writer, which is why I liked Jo March, or Jo March was a writer, so I wanted to be a writer, too.”

 

 

It’s great to hear Gerwig identify with Jo, and also give so much attention to the other characters. It will be refreshing to see all of the girls in a multidimensional light. But what about sweet Beth?! We know how she meets her fate, but the in-between, and the character development? I guess we will have to wait until Christmas day!

 

Featured Image Via Flickering Myth


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Grinchmas Spirit Memes

The Holidays are upon us and what better way to ring in this wonderful season than with the man that hates it all, The Grinch. He is a hilarious classic character that has been around since 1955, and is not going anywhere anytime soon. So, here are some memes that best describe the Grinch in all his Grinchy glory.

  1. Understandable!

Image via Pinterest

Most of us can relate to this. The Grinch seems like he hates Christmas, but he really hates people so can we really fault him for that?

2. All of us Black Friday Shoppers!

Image via Pinterest

We all go shopping, and especially on Black Friday we tend to over shop, so we tend to forget to shop for others when we see something we might like. We can all admit we’ve made this face quite a few times during holiday shopping.

 

 

3. So True!

Image via Meme.xyz

That song, “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” does play quite often. So how can we expect the Grinch to think better of himself with this song on a constant loop?

4. Feelings, Feelings, Feelings! OH MY!

Image via Pinterest

Feelings can be the worst, can’t they? The Grinch hates anything that involves other people, so of course he hates feelings. Who wants to feel anything? They just get in the way!

5. ALL OF US!

Image via me.me

We all grew up to be the Grinch and that’s perfectly fine. We all experience these emotions at some point during the day, and that’s because like the Grinch, or sorta of like him, we’re human and we’re allowed to feel anything we want to feel.

Featured Image via quicklime

 

 


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4 Books to Read at Thanksgiving to Survive the Holidays

It’s the end of the year, and the holiday season is upon us. Recommence all family feuds, jealousies, battles, and drunken tirades about who has the nicer house and who was the favorite child growing up and so forth. If you seek to escape some of the mayhem I’ve got some good book recommendations, short stories, and the like below all related to Thanksgiving…but in a good way, trust me. Check it out.

Image Via Amazon

 

 

F. Scott Fitzgerald is most well-known for writing The Great Gatsby, but in his book of essays, The Crack-Up, you’ll find a hilarious list of joke recipes called “Turkey Remains and How to Inter Them with Numerous Scarce Recipes.” For example, I suppose you could “take one large turkey and add one gallon of Vermouth plus a demijohn of angostura bitters then shake.” How about #12? “Turkey with Whiskey Sauce. This recipe” Fitzgerald writes, “is for a party of four. Obtain a gallon of whiskey, allow it to age for several hours. Then serve, allowing one quart for each guest. The next day the turkey should be added, little by little, constantly stirring and basting.” This is how I treat post-Thanksgiving leftovers, don’t you?

Image Via Amazon

Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote the short story “Three Thanksgivings” about the difficulty of economic independence for women in the late 19th century. In this story, an older woman named Mrs. Morrison can no longer afford her big house and is being pursued by her children and a mean man named Mr. Butts (well done Charlotte) to give up her house and move in with them. Instead, Mrs. Morrison finds another way. If you’re interested, it’s a short but pretty good read for girl-empowerment on Thanksgiving.

Image Via Amazon

Rachel Khong’s novel Goodbye, Vitamin has nothing to do with Thanksgiving except family. It came out in 2017 and made almost every must-read and bestseller list, for good reason. It’s a fiction novel narrated by a just-jilted thirty-something named Ruth. In the introduction, it’s Christmas Eve and Ruth receives a call about a man whose pants are hanging from an illuminated tree. They are her father’s; he has been diagnosed with dementia. She has nothing to do but go back home and help her mother take care of him. This theme, however, of memory and forgetfulness plays out through the novel, with beautiful and sometimes hilarious prose. Her father, for instance, has kept a memory journal all these years of what Ruth said as a child. He reads bits and pieces to her: “Today we went over to your mother’s friend’s house for dinner. We’d asked you to be polite, so you said, ‘No more please, it’s horrible, thank you.’ ” There are other far more eloquent lines like, “What imperfect carriers of love we are, and what imperfect givers…that the reasons we can care for one another can have nothing to do with the person cared for.” Enough of me spoiling this book for you. Read it if you haven’t already.

image via Amazon

 

 

I’m going to go out on a limb and mention a book that has absolutely no connection to any holiday. It’s called Where the Forest Meets the Stars. There is a man who is an agoraphobic egg seller and an ornithologist in her twenties whose bout with cancer has left her feeling deformed and unsexy. Both are too afraid to love anyone. The woman is finishing her Ph.D. when she and the egg-seller both come across a runaway girl who insists on sleeping in both of their yards. She also insists that she is an alien made of starlight from a planet called Hetrayeh. You wonder halfway through if the book is actual science fiction and well, maybe it is, I will never tell you. I will warn you though that some parts are cheesy love-making, yes the book can be cheesy, even when the characters aren’t having sex, but if you like a joyful ending, then this book is for you. So go forth, and eat the delicious whiskey-interred turkey, and read these books!

 


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