By Golly, Ollie!

  • How to Be Everything: a Guide for People Who (Still) Don’t Know What They Want to Be When They Grow Up by Emilie Wapnick

    How to Be Everything: a Guide for People Who (Still) Don’t Know What They Want to Be When They Grow Up by Emilie Wapnick

    5 comments on How to Be Everything: a Guide for People Who (Still) Don’t Know What They Want to Be When They Grow Up by Emilie Wapnick

    In kindergarten, I wanted to be either a tiger or a cowboy-girl. Throughout elementary school and high school, I wanted to be a teacher, a librarian, a writer, a publisher, an actress (despite my crippling fear of public speaking), a website designer, some unnamed profession that would allow me to afford a loft in a New York City high-rise and eat carry out every night because I didn’t want to cook or do dishes. In college, I had no idea what I wanted to be anymore. I think I still wanted to be a teacher, but I refused to admit it because it was the expectation whenever I told someone I was majoring in English. Maybe I wanted to be a technical writer. Maybe I wanted to be a translator. Maybe I wanted to do it all but couldn’t quite figure out how to make it work, which is why I wish How to Be Everything by Emilie Wapnick existed back then.

    There is no hiding it. How to Be Everything is a “self-help” book, but it’s not the kind of “self-help” book that you would be embarrassed to admit that you read…and appreciated. It’s full of personality, positivity, brainstorming activities, and challenges to help you put your dreams in motion. The book also presents four different models to help you take control and design your ideal career path that embraces your multipotentiality. Currently, I follow the Einstein Approach; it’s the idea that, for those who require stability, a person chooses a day job that is “good enough” but provides the means to pursue interests after hours– I’m an accountant by day and a book blogger/avid reader/writer/amateur cook/gamer girl/superhero by night. I’d love to take the Slash Approach though, which could mean having 2…3…4 different jobs but all of them embracing a different aspect of a person’s multipotentiality.

    How to Be Everything would make a great gift for someone entering college or someone entering the workforce for the first time because they’re just starting to design their lives and their careers. I would also say this book is great for anyone who feels dissatisfied in their job; maybe it will plant the seeds of change in a person’s life. For me personally though? I’m not sure How to Be Everything influenced my mode of thinking drastically; it was empowering though and validated what I already suspected about myself. At almost twenty-nine, I follow the Einstein Approach (unintentionally) for a reason. While I wish I could take the Slash Approach to my career, I’m not comfortable with the thought of throwing caution to the wind, sacrificing stability, and changing my career (anytime soon). I’m not sure what Jon and I would have to achieve before I felt comfortable stepping back from a job that is “good enough” to pursue a career path that satiates my curiosity and desire for creativity.

    About Emilie Wapnick

    Emilie Wapnick is a speaker, career coach, blogger, and community leader. She is the founder and creative director at Puttylike.com, where she helps multipotentialites integrate all of their interests to create dynamic, fulfilling, and fruitful careers and lives. Unable to settle on a single path, Emilie studied music, art, film production, and law, graduating from the Law Faculty at McGill University in 2011. Emilie is a TED speaker and has been featured in Fast Company, Forbes, The Financial Times, The Huffington Post, and Lifehacker. Her TED talk, “Why Some of Us Don’t Have One True Calling,” has been viewed over 3.5 million times, and has been translated into 36 languages. She has been hired as a guest speaker and workshop facilitator at universities, high schools, and organizations across the United States and internationally.

    Find out more about Emilie at her website, and connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

    How to Be Everything: a Guide for Those Who (Still) Don’t Know What They Want to Be When They Grow Up by Emilie Wapnick

    Released: May 2017

    [goodreads | indiebound]

    What do you want to be when you grow up? It’s a familiar question we’re all asked as kids. While seemingly harmless, the question has unintended consequences. It can make you feel like you need to choose one job, one passion, one thing to be about. Guess what? You don’t.

    Having a lot of different interests, projects and curiosities doesn’t make you a “jack-of-all-trades, master of none.” Your endless curiosity doesn’t mean you are broken or flaky. What you are is a multipotentialite: someone with many interests and creative pursuits. And that is actually your biggest strength.

    How to Be Everything helps you channel your diverse passions and skills to work for you. Based on her popular TED talk, “Why some of us don’t have one true calling”, Emilie Wapnick flips the script on conventional career advice. Instead of suggesting that you specialize, choose a niche or accumulate 10,000 hours of practice in a single area, Wapnick provides a practical framework for building a sustainable life around ALL of your passions.

    This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

  • A Day Off with Books & Tea

    A Day Off with Books & Tea

    4 comments on A Day Off with Books & Tea

    Yesterday was an ideal day off– simultaneously relaxing and productive. The kitchen is spotless and lemon-scented, all of the laundry is washed, the groceries have been purchased and put away, and I still had time to finish an enthralling cozy mystery, check out novels from the library, draft five whole blog posts, and sip a few mugs of Adagio Tea’s White Eternal Spring tea while appreciating the springtime breeze that danced through open windows.

    Adagio Tea’s White Eternal Spring tea is a blend of white tea, rose hips, pineapple pieces, mango pieces, cranberries, rose petals, apple pieces, hibiscus, blueberries, natural mango flavor, and natural pineapple flavor.

    When I open the bag, the dried tea leaves smell sweet, juicy, tart, and sticky (yes, sticky is now a scent). It makes me feel nostalgic, and I think of slurping on melting, fruity popsicles on a hot and sunny day. The flavor of the tea is very understated in comparison though, and while I appreciated that when sipping their lemon meringue green tea, this time I was disappointed that my tastebud’s were not bombarded with fragrant florals and juicy fruits. This is not to say the tea is bad, not at all. I still ended up brewing multiple cups and using up my entire sample. But, it didn’t live up to what I thought it would taste like, either. Drinking the White Eternal Spring tea plain is fine, but the flavors seem very middled. I suggest adding some honey, which actually helps to draw out the tartness of the pineapple flavor.

    A sample of this tea was provided by Adagio in exchange for an honest review.

  • Lemon Meringue Green Tea is the Cat’s Meow

    Lemon Meringue Green Tea is the Cat’s Meow

    4 comments on Lemon Meringue Green Tea is the Cat’s Meow

    You probably won’t believe me when I say I’m not that keen on lemon-flavored anything. Not after I baked that delicious Lemon Loaf Cake inspired by the Memory of Lemon by Judith Fertig. And definitely not after I raved about Lemon Soleil Tea from Adagio Tea. I’m not even sure I believe it myself, especially not after sipping Adagio Tea’s Lemon Meringue Green Tea. In fact, I can say with a certain degree of confidence that I am most definitely in denial about my love for lemon-flavored treats.

    Adagio’s Lemon Meringue Green Tea is a blend of green tea, apple pieces, orange peels, natural lemon flavor, marigold flowers, natural vanilla flavor, and natural creme flavor. Upon opening the pouch, I’m greeted by the zesty and sugary-sweet scent of the blend, which reminds me of both a box of Lemonheads and a box of Fruit Loops. But don’t let that intimidate you because the flavor of the tea is actually quite mellow compared to the scent of the dry leaves.

    I first enjoyed this tea hot and plain. I did not really taste the green tea as much as I would have expected, and yet I’m not actually disappointed by this. Instead, I taste bright citrus flavors with a subtle, undercurrent of creaminess (my spell check is trying to tell me that I meant to type “dreaminess”, which is kind of the same thing, right?). It’s the kind of tea I want to drink in February to remind me that world isn’t always freezing and dark as I stare mournfully out the window at mounds of snow and a sidewalk that was technically supposed to shoveled already according to the village ordinance.

    When this tea really shines though is iced and sweetened. Preferably sipped outside while reading a book on a perfect day like today– 77 degrees with a breeze, sunny, not a cloud in the sky. (Somebody pinch me! I must be dreaming!) It’s just like eating lemon meringue pie without the risk of over-indulging on too many slices. Plus, nobody judges you for going back for a second cup of tea, right?

    Adagio’s Lemon Meringue Green Tea appears to be a seasonal blend, so be sure to snag some before the end of springtime!

    A sample of Lemon Meringue Green Tea was provided by Adagio for free in exchange for an honest review.

  • The Illusionist’s Apprentice by Kristy Cambron

    The Illusionist’s Apprentice by Kristy Cambron

    5 comments on The Illusionist’s Apprentice by Kristy Cambron

    The Enemies of Versailles by Sally Christie is such a tough act to follow. Especially if the next book that is picked up is also of the historical fiction variety. How could anything even compare to a book that I’ve anticipated reading for months? Enter The Illusionist’s Apprentice by Kristy Cambron– a bit of a historical “whodunnit” set in 1927 Boston and on the Vaudeville stage. It had the ingredients to become an instant favorite, yet in the end, I just sort of felt like something was missing.

    I think the thing that frustrated me the most about The Illusionist’s Apprentice is it’s one of those stories that bounce around the timeline. The story opens in 1926/1927 in Boston. Then, six chapters later, we’re back in 1907 to reveal some small insight into one of the characters. A few pages later, we’re back in 1927 only to bounce back to 1924 in the next chapter for some more character insight. And so on and so forth. Part of me can appreciate what the author was trying to do; there were so many details in the past that seemed unassuming at first, but they ended up being totally relevant to the end of the novel. My biggest qualm was…I just felt disoriented. And I don’t think it’s through any fault of the author or the story; I think I just prefer more linear storytelling. I struggled to keep track of the timeline in Linda Lafferty’s the Girl Who Fought Napoleon after all. That being said, I also felt…well…bored? The timeline shifts slowed the pacing of the story down, sure, but what really frustrated me was that I finally discovered a novel that boasts being written about the jazz age that doesn’t revolve around/involve flappers, and I kept getting stuck in Wren’s sad childhood in 1907.

    What I was really sticking around for was Cambron’s writing and world-building. It was beautiful and atmospheric and full of intrigue both on and off stage. Plus, I was totally enamored by her choice to set the story against America’s Vaudeville scene, which is this jarring juxtaposition of gilt and grit and occasionally the grotesque. It’s a breeding ground for secrets and double lives and protagonist Wren Lockhart (illusionist, not magician) has them both; she’s a puzzle I wanted to unlock.

    It also made me want to listen to nothing but dark cabaret music for about a week straight, so I’ll leave you with this:

    The Illusionist’s Apprentice by Kristy Cambron

    Released: March 2017

    [goodreads | indiebound]

    Boston, 1926. Jenny “Wren” Lockhart is a bold eccentric—even for a female vaudevillian. As notorious for her inherited wealth and gentleman’s dress as she is for her unsavory upbringing in the back halls of a vaudeville theater, Wren lives in a world that challenges all manner of conventions.

    In the months following Houdini’s death, Wren is drawn into a web of mystery surrounding a spiritualist by the name of Horace Stapleton, a man defamed by Houdini’s ardent debunking of fraudulent mystics in the years leading up to his death. But in a public illusion that goes terribly wrong, one man is dead and another stands charged with his murder. Though he’s known as one of her teacher’s greatest critics, Wren must decide to become the one thing she never wanted to be: Stapleton’s defender.

    Forced to team up with the newly formed FBI, Wren races against time and an unknown enemy, all to prove the innocence of a hated man. In a world of illusion, of the vaudeville halls that showcase the flamboyant and the strange, Wren’s carefully constructed world threatens to collapse around her.

    Layered with mystery, illusion, and the artistry of the Jazz Age’s bygone vaudeville era, The Illusionist’s Apprentice is a journey through love and loss and the underpinnings of faith on each life’s stage.

    TLC Book Tours

    This novel was provided for free from the publisher and TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.

  • The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares

    The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares

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    Following my recent re-read of Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison, I decided to check out another book from my teenage days– the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares. To be completely honest, I only sort of vaguely remember this book despite its popularity and despite the movie, which of course I saw. I don’t have any specific memory related to this book, not like Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging at least, but I know I admired the depiction of a strong friendship and wished I had a Carmen, Tibby, Lena, and Bridget in my life.

    I felt something strange while reading the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I don’t know if “regret” is the right word, but I think it was something close to that. I’ve never been a social butterfly. In high school, I hung out with friends during my school days and my color guard performances, but aside from that I kept myself pretty secluded mostly communicating with friends through livejournal and AIM (AOL Instant Messenger for you youngsters out there). We rarely had slumber parties. We rarely went to the movies or the beach or the mall together. In hindsight, I feel like I missed out on creating a strong bond, a strong friendship. I was very much a Tibby Rollins, cynical and sarcastic, but without Carmen, Lena, and Bridget to balance her.

    At first, I thought, if I could go back and do things differently… but then I wondered why go back in time when I still have so much future ahead of me? Because, as embarrassing as it is to admit, even at the age of 28, I still find myself living vicariously through Carmen and Tibby and Lena and Bridget. [This is about the time when I realize that I need to create one of those “Thirty before Thirty” lists and put “make real friends” at the very top.]

    The four girls are hardly perfect. Sometimes they become so preoccupied by events that are going on in their own lives– discovering that a parent is about to get remarried, making a new friend only to find out she is suffering from a terminal illness, allowing themselves to become vulnerable to someone else for the first time, becoming intimate with someone before they were actually ready– that they say things that they later regret or they don’t see that another friend is working through something painful too. But, their friendship is so strong that it doesn’t take long before one of them can take a step back and forgive one another or realize that they are needed by a friend to console and to comfort and to help realign the world.

    Another strange thing happened during my reread of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants— I cried. Specifically when Bailey is in the hospital and Tibby realizes just how big of an impact this little girl had on not just Tibby but the people the duo had met that summer. I never cry when I read books, but I swear, adulthood has turned me into a weepy wimp.

    Naturally, I had to immediately rent the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie. It didn’t have quite the same effect as the book because I think their friendship seemed stronger in the book. But, I still spent the last twenty minutes of the film weeping (truly, adulthood has ruined me).

    If you’re looking for a contemporary novel focusing on friendship, the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is a must-read!

    The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares

    Released: September 2001
    Genre: Contemporary, Romance
    Age Group: Young Adult

    [goodreads | indiebound]

    Carmen got the jeans at a thrift shop. They didn’t look all that great: they were worn, dirty, and speckled with bleach. On the night before she and her friends part for the summer, Carmen decides to toss them.

    But Tibby says they’re great. She’d love to have them. Lena and Bridget also think they’re fabulous. Lena decides that they should all try them on. Whoever they fit best will get them.

    Nobody knows why, but the pants fit everyone perfectly. Even Carmen (who never thinks she looks good in anything) thinks she looks good in the pants. Over a few bags of cheese puffs, they decide to form a sisterhood and take the vow of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants . . . the next morning, they say good-bye.

    And then the journey of the pants — and the most memorable summer of their lives — begins.

About the Blogger

My name is Jackie, and I am a millennial / mother / Michigander / blogger / wannabe runner / accountant / local library enthusiast / gamer, kinda. This is a personal blog, which means I’m not entirely certain what you’ll find here, but it will definitely not show up on the first page of Google search results.