Monday, April 30, 2018

#gretchensbooks2018 - April





Another month, another dent made into my never-ending reading list. I didn't listen to any audiobooks in full this month- I had started one, but since it was from the library I had gotten halfway through and the next disc didn't work!

(Descriptions come from Amazon.com but all reviews are my own.  You can find previous book reviews here.)


25. Someday, Someday Maybe by Lauren Graham (4/5 ★)

Franny Banks is a struggling actress in New York City, with just six months left of the three-year deadline she gave herself to succeed. But so far, all she has to show for her efforts is a single line in an ad for ugly Christmas sweaters and a degrading waitressing job. She lives in Brooklyn with two roommates - Jane, her best friend from college, and Dan, a sci-fi writer, who is very definitely not boyfriend material - and is struggling with her feelings for a suspiciously charming guy in her acting class, all while trying to find a hair-product cocktail that actually works. 

Meanwhile, she dreams of doing "important" work, but only ever seems to get auditions for dishwashing liquid and peanut butter commercials. It's hard to tell if she'll run out of time or money first, but either way, failure would mean facing the fact that she has absolutely no skills to make it in the real world. Her father wants her to come home and teach, her agent won't call her back, and her classmate Penelope, who seems supportive, might just turn out to be her toughest competition yet. 


As a huge Lauren Graham fan, I had to read this book! I didn't have high expectations (because what are the chances that an actress can also write a good story that is not an autobiography?), but even if I had I would have been impressed. I read this book pretty quickly, because I did not want to put it down! It is set in the 1990s, so it was pretty fun to reminisce on that era of my life. Like do you remember when you wanted to go to the movies, and you had to call the theater to get the pre-recorded message stating the movies playing at what time they were playing at? Remembering that made me feel old...


26. Friend Request by Laura Marshall (4/5 ★)

"1989. When Louise first notices the new girl who has mysteriously transferred late into their senior year, Maria seems to be everything the girls Louise hangs out with aren't. Authentic. Funny. Brash. Within just a few days, Maria and Louise are on their way to becoming fast friends.

2016. Louise receives a heart-stopping email: Maria Weston wants to be friends on Facebook. Long-buried memories quickly rise to the surface: those first days of their budding friendship; cruel decisions made and dark secrets kept; the night that would change all their lives forever.
Louise has always known that if the truth ever came out, she could stand to lose everything. Her job. Her son. Her freedom. Maria's sudden reappearance threatens it all, and forces Louise to reconnect with everyone she'd severed ties with to escape the past. But as she tries to piece together exactly what happened that night, Louise discovers there's more to the story than she ever knew. To keep her secret, Louise must first uncover the whole truth, before what's known to Maria--or whoever's pretending to be her--is known to all."


I had heard good things about this book, I was going back and forth on this book as to whether I liked it or not as I read.  I kept thinking, "OMG this is so predictable" but then a plot twist would happen and it turned out better than I thought it would. It is set in London (and surrounding area) so the language was slightly different than what I'm used to which is a slight distraction, but didn't take away from the story. I liked that it flashed back and forth between the past and the present! If you like suspense, I would recommend this book!

27. Get Dirty by Gretchen McNeil (3.5/5 ★)


"The Breakfast Club meets Pretty Little Liars in Gretchen McNeil's witty and suspenseful sequel to Get Even. The members of Don't Get Mad aren't just mad anymore . . . they're afraid. And with Margot in a coma and Bree under house arrest, it's up to Olivia and Kitty to try to catch their deadly tormentor. But just as the girls are about to go on the offensive, Ed the Head reveals a shocking secret that turns all their theories upside down. The killer could be anyone, and this time he—or she—is out for more than just revenge.
The girls desperately try to discover the killer's identity as their personal lives are falling apart: Donté is pulling away from Kitty and seems to be hiding a secret of his own, and Olivia's mother is on an emotional downward spiral. The killer is closing in, the threats are becoming more personal, and when the police refuse to listen, the girls have no choice but to confront their anonymous friend . . . or die trying."

This book is definitely Pretty Little Liars-esqe which is why I think I originally started the series.  Back in the summer of 2015, I read the Pretty Little Liars books (which are awesome and differed from the show) and was looking for something to fill the void when I finished.  I read the first book of this duo, Get Even, that summer after checking it out from the library, but then I moved and had been unable to find this second book at the local library.  When I was in Minnesota over Easter weekend I only packed one book (rookie mistake) and read the whole thing before the weekend was half over.  I bought this book for seven bucks via iBooks and finished the whole thing before our flight touched down in Nashville on the way home. It was good, but since it had been almost three years since I read the first book, I couldn't remember exactly what happened in the first book, making it more difficult to completely understand this one.

28. Power Your Happy by Lisa Sugar
 (5/5 ★)

Lisa Sugar has an amazing job. She spends her days at POPSUGAR creating content about pop culture, must-have handbags and makeup, healthy recipes, and Instagram-worthy sweets. She manages an enormously successful, growing company with employees who love what they do. And her life is just as great at home. She and her husband have three daughters and she’s the number one soccer mom who loves reading bedtime stories every night.  
 How did she do it? By figuring out what her dream job was, taking risks, and believing in herself. And now she wants to motivate others to do the same. She wants to show them how to live colorful, interesting lives where every second counts.  She'll do so by sharing her personal and business story. Lisa knows that creating your dream job requires hard work, patience, and experience. She'll give advice, in big and small ways, about exactly how to do that, from starting a company to ditching a relationship that isn't working to becoming a fabulous boss. And with the great, accessible writing style that has made PopSugar such a hit, she'll make it fun!

This book was the perfect read for my current season in life. I'm so stuck in determining which career path I want to walk down, and reading this really broke down my next steps. I loved that it incorporated journal prompts at the end of each chapter. It's a great read, even if you're not trying to figure out your next steps in life.

29. Room by Emma Donoghue (5/5 ★)

To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world. . . . It's where he was born, it's where he and his Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits. 

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma it's the prison where she has been held for seven years. Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in this eleven-by-eleven-foot space. But with Jack's curiosity building alongside her own desperation, she knows that Room cannot contain either much longer.


Room has been on my "to read" list since 2013, so it was about time that I read it. From the very beginning, I couldn't help but continue to think how wonderful this author's mind is.  How creative she must be to think of all the activities that Jack and his Ma take part in in that tiny room. This was easily five stars, no doubt about it.  The story-line was great, but what I really loved is that even though it was a fictional story, it really make me think- about all the people who go through things like this, about kids who are locked up all their childhood - whether because they were kidnapped or abused - and what kind of psychological damage that does.

30. The You I've Never Known by Ellen Hopkins (4/5 ★)

For as long as she can remember, it’s been just Ariel and Dad. Ariel’s mom disappeared when she was a baby. Dad says home is wherever the two of them are, but Ariel is now seventeen and after years of new apartments, new schools, and new faces, all she wants is to put down some roots. Complicating things are Monica and Gabe, both of whom have stirred a different kind of desire.

Maya’s a teenager who’s run from an abusive mother right into the arms of an older man she thinks she can trust. But now she’s isolated with a baby on the way, and life’s getting more complicated than Maya ever could have imagined.

Ariel and Maya’s lives collide unexpectedly when Ariel’s mother shows up out of the blue with wild accusations: Ariel wasn’t abandoned. Her father kidnapped her fourteen years ago.

In bestselling author Ellen Hopkins’s deft hands, Ariel’s emotionally charged journey to find out the truth of who she really is balances beautifully with Maya’s story of loss and redemption. This is a memorable portrait of two young women trying to make sense of their lives and coming face to face with themselves—for both the last and the very first time.


Ellen Hopkins has been one of my favorite authors since high school.  I frequently check to see when she has a new books coming out (two this year!), but somehow managed to miss seeing this one's release in 2017. As soon as I'd realized my mistake, I had it Amazon Primed to my house ASAP. As expected, it was awesome! Her stories always come from multiple perspectives and end up connecting in the end; while I thought I figured out the connection, it still kept me guessing until the end!

31. Milk and Vine by Adam Gasiewski and Emily Beck (0/5 ★)

Parodying the popular poetry book Milk and Honey, Milk and Vine beautifully portrays the best vines of all time in this modern poetic format. Milk and Vine is truly a delight for the sensations, bringing back the riveting quotes we all laughed at together as a united internet community. 

Yeah this book was dumb.  So dumb that I'm not even going to link it for you to buy. I bought it because I was looking for Milk and Honey by Rupi Kapur and wasn't paying attention when I saw a great price and clicked "buy" on Amazon without another thought. Maybe if I would have been into Vine videos like at all this would have been better. Don't waste your time or money; if you really want to read this book you can have mine.

32. If You Don’t Have Anything Nice To Say by Leila Sales (3/5 ★)


Before we go any further, I want you to understand this: I am not a good person. We all want to be seen. We all want to be heard. But what happens when we’re seen and heard saying or doing the wrong things? When Winter Halperin—former spelling bee champion, aspiring writer, and daughter of a parenting expert—gets caught saying the wrong thing online, her life explodes. All across the world, people know what she’s done, and none of them will forgive her. With her friends gone, her future plans cut short, and her identity in shambles, Winter is just trying to pick up the pieces without hurting anyone else. She knows she messed up, but does that mean it’s okay for people to send her hate mail and death threats? Did she deserve to lose all that she’s lost? And is “I’m sorry” ever good enough?
I had high hopes for this book, but honestly, I was let down.  I always feel like a big part of fictional stories is to teach a lesson, and while technically there was a "moral" to this story, I don't think it was the right moral.. As I began reading the book, I thought to myself, "what a great way to teach about racial privilege, and about how white people will never understand what it is like to be any other race and experience the negative things they go through." But instead it basically was just about a white girl blaming the rest of the world for being mad at her when she posted something racist online.  Even in the end, all she learned was that even when bad things happen, we can move on from them. (After she attended a rehabilitation retreat that cost a pretty penny....#privilege). I received an advanced readers copy of this book, but it is released on May 1.



33. Unbreak Their Hearts by Donna Welch Jones (3.5/5 ★)

Marcy dedicates her life to saving women. She knows what it feels like to be bullied and raped. 
Marcy counsels and physically intervenes in the lives of abused women to set them free. In the back of her mind a promise persists. Someday she'll pay back the man who damaged her body and shattered her soul. Will you be there when Marcy gets her revenge?

This book got crazy right from the start. I was barely even introduced to the main character before something traumatic happened to her.  I hadn't read the description of the book before reading it (I had won it from Goodreads), so I wasn't entirely sure of what the plot was.  The traumatic thing happened, and then the book jumped to six years later with a totally different plot line.  I was definitely intrigued by the book, and it was a very quick read- I started it one night and finished in the next morning.


Reading Challenge: 33/52 books read in 2018

I am looking to read The Gender Game series next- have you read it? Kindle Unlimited is offering three months of Kindle Unlimited to Prime members for $1.99 and the whole series is available! What are you reading?


Stay tuned for The Gender Game reviews as well as the rest of May's books, coming to the blog May 29!

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

The Ultimate Guide to Nashville Murals (100+ Murals Around Nashville)





The neon lights of Broadway aren't the only thing that brightens the streets of Nashville.  One of my (many, many, many) favorite things about Music City, USA are the decorative murals EVERYWHERE! I love the night lights of the cityscape, but it can get pretty drab during the day with gray cement, stone, and brick everywhere, and murals are a great way to brighten up the aesthetics.

If you're looking for some great photo ops in Nash, I can (almost) guarantee this is the most comprehensive list of murals out there. I know this because I spent months scouring ALL THE BLOGS (and all the streets) in an attempt to find every single one.

So here you are, (almost) all the murals, organized by neighborhood(ish)!







THE GULCH


#WhatLiftsYou Wings
 
Located (roughly) on the corner of 12 Ave South and Pine Street, near a parking garage by Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe

Wall of Colors
Located down from the wings on 11th Ave South across from the Juice Bar

Green Wall
Located down from the wall of colors on 11th Ave South

Acoustic Skyline
Located on Division Street at A+ Storage

Colorful Mural
Located at the Barista Parlor on the corner of Magazine Street and Mansion Street

Guitar
  
Located at Carter Vintage Guitars


Blackbirds
Located at Carter Vintage Guitars

Guitarist
Located at Carter Vintage Guitars

Blue Design
Located at 12th Ave South and McGavock Street

Boy With Birds
Located at 8th Avenue South and Drexel Street

Storyville USA
Located 8th Avenue South and Palmer Place

Snake & Polar Bear
 
Located on Overton Street

Highway Men + Other Musicians






Plaza
 
Located at Plaza Artist Materials & Picture Framing on Middleton Street and 7th Avenue South

12 SOUTH


Make Music Not War
Located on 12th Avenue South, outside Epice Nashville between Kirkwood Avenue and Paris Avenue

Wildflowers
Located directly across from the Make Love Not War mural

I Believe in Nashville
Located across from Draper James on 12 Ave South, Address: 2608 12th Ave South

Draper James
Located at Draper James: 2608 12th Avenue South 

Believe

Located at Midtown Fellowship Church: 2415 12th Avenue South

Welcome to Predsville
Located at Flipside: 2403 12th Ave South 

Bike Mural
Located at Halcyon Bike Shop: 2802 12th Avenue South

Nashville Script
Located on the side of Corner Music, 2705 12th Avenue South

Animal Mural
Located at 12 South Taproom and Grill

Nashville Looks Good on You

Located behind Moda Boutique (Created by www.nash.tn)



EAST NASHVILLE



East Nashville

 Located at 600 Main Street

Nashville Wall
Located at 625 Main Street
Greetings from Athens of the South
Located at Greko Greek Street Food
Colors

Located across from Greko Greek Street Food at Jerry's Artarama


Pink and White Wall

Located outside Beauty Supply on Gallatin Ave

Spotted
Located at Spot's Pet Supply & Grooming: 1013 Gallatin Avenue

Microsoft Mural
Located at 1106 Gallatin Avenue

Bear
Located across from Five Points Animal Hospital on Forrest & 11th Ave S

Dylan, Cash
Located across from the bear mural next to the gas station (Note: this mural is no longer here, but is replaced with a different one.  The mural at this spot changes.)

Happy Endings Old Dominion
Located around the corner from the Dylan, Cash mural above (Note: this mural is no longer here, but is replaced with a different one.  The mural at this spot changes.)

World Peace
Located at 1200 Porter Road

Tomatoes
Located at the intersection of Porter Road and Eastland Ave

The Cobra Mural
Located at 2511 Gallatin Avenue

Cat
Located at Barista Parlor

Margo Price
Located across from Mitchell Deli

Colors
Located at Five Points Pizza

Tennessee Stars
Located at Mitchell Deli
Train
Located at Inglewood Hardware
Out East
Located at Jerry's Market
Monster
Located behind Jerry's Market

Octopus
Located at 604 Gallatin Ave, Nashville, TN 37206


Mas Tacos
Located at Mas Tacos: 732 McFerrin Avenue

Ground Mural
Located at Gallatin Avenue and North 11th Street


DOWNTOWN


Taylor Swift Education Center Mural
Its not an actual outdoor mural, but it is located in the Taylor Swift Education Center in the Country Music Hall of Fame

I Believe in Smashville
Located on Bridgestone Arena across from Tavern '96 on Demonbreun 

The Chalice
Located at Printers Alley and Church Street

Goddess
Located on 5th ave north and Commerce Street

Dog
Located on 6th avenue north near the Hermitage Hotel

As Long as the Grass Shall Grow by Johnny Cash lyrics
Located on 5th Avenue North

Country Stars
Located at 428 Broadway, outside Legends Corner


Johnny Cash
Located off Almond Street across from a parking garage

Guitars
Located on Bank Aly between 3rd Avenue South and Printers Aly
Arrows
Located on 5th avenue north

Woman
Located on 6th Avenue North and Church Street

Angel Baby
Located off 5th Avenue North next to the Arrow mural

Kindness Campaign
Located on Bank Aly and 3rd Avenue North

Random Designs
Located on 6th Avenue North and Church Street
Green Triangle
Located at SoBro Guest House


GERMANTOWN


Rolf & Daughters Mural
Located at 700 Taylor Street near 7th Avenue North

City Scenes
Located at Rosa L. Parks Blvd & Taylor Street, across from Werthan Lofts

Green Fleet Bicycle Shop Mural

Located at 934 Jefferson Street

Blues Singers
Located at Jefferson Street, between 26th & 27th Avenues

Elks Lodge Mural
Located at 2614 Jefferson Street

Kindness is...
Located behind the Juice Bar on Madison Street and 4th Ave

Harmony
Located behind the Juice Bar on Madison Street and 4th Ave

Ocean Waves (Private Commission)
Located at 5th Avenue North & Monroe Street


HILLSBORO VILLAGE


Dragon Mural
Located at 1801 21st Avenue South

Hillsboro Village Mural
Located at 1602 21st Avenue South


WEST NASHVILLE 


Sunflower Mural
Located at the Import Flowers building: 3636 Murphy Road (Sylvan Park)

Heiroglyphics
Located at Three Brothers Coffee: 2813 West End Ave

I Believe in Nashville
Located on Clinton Street and 4th Ave North on the Marathon Music Works building, down the street from Antique Archaeology
Thistle Farms 
Located at the Thistle Stop Cafe: 5122 Charlotte Ave

TailGate Beer
Located at TailGate Beer, 7300 Charlotte Pike

Take Flight Mural
Located at OFF the Wall Nashville: 28th Avenue North & Charlotte Avenue


The Dog Spot
Located at 5001 Alabama Ave


Avocado Mural
Located at Avo Nashville on City Ave

Spread Your Vibration


 
Located at EiO & the Hive


Food Nashville
Located on Charlotte Pike next to Richland Park

Legos
Located at Printers Press

Colors

Located at Printers Press

Dueling Cowboys 

Located at 24 Music Square West



Wish for Peace 
Located by Hugh Baby's BBQ on Charlotte Pike
Musicians' Names

Located at Exit/In

Musicians Wall
Located at Exit/In
Elliston Place
Located at 207 Louise Ave

Designed Parking Garage
Located at 207 Louise Ave

#BoxNash
Located at Title Boxing Club on Church Street
Merle Wall

Located near Mt. Nebo Baptist Church


THE NATIONS


Spread Love It's the Nashville Way
Located at Project 615: 1404 51st Ave North
Guido Van Helten Mural
Located near The Nations Bar & Grill
Two Boys
Located near The Nations Bar & Grill

Graffiti
Located at Music City Tents & Events

Located at Music City Tents & Events

Girl with Light 
Located at Music City Tents & Events

Unicorn 
Located at Music City Tents & Events

Suits 
Located at Music City Tents & Events

Out West Bird 
Located at Music City Tents & Events


The Nations
Located at Music City Tents & Events


Futuristic
Located at Music City Tents & Events


Moving Forward
Located at Music City Tents & Events


SOUTH NASHVILLE


Triangle

Located at the corner of 8th avenue south and Hillview Heights

Nashville Skyline
Located at Stratus Building Solutions

Untitled
Located at Grimey's

Snoop Lion (yes, that was written on the mural)
Located at the House of Blues
Prince
Located at the House of Blues

Flowers
Located at the House of Blues

Blooming Flower

Located at the House of Blues

Circle Design
Located at the House of Blues
Located at the House of Blues

Tri-Star
Located on the corner of Martin St and Humphreys St

Cassette
Located at 600 Benton Ave


Video Game

Located at Dozen Bakery


Life Can Be Sweet

Located at Baked on 8th: 1512 8th Ave South



If you know of any murals I missed, please leave the name and/or location in the comments so I can add them! The murals are constantly changing and new ones are popping up so I would love to continue to update this post.


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