Book Club #3: The Catcher in the Rye

If you have not read this book, please do me and do yourself the biggest favor in the world and read this masterpiece. This is probably one of my favorite books of all time, and I'm re-reading this gem for the first time since freshman year. 

I'm about 100 pages, or two sittings, into this book. It was marvelous and beautiful and tragic the first time. It's even more so the second time around. I think when you read or watch something multiple times, you have the opportunity to enjoy the piece each time with a different perspective and it allows you delve deeper into the meaning and pick up things that you may have missed before.

Holden Caulfield. No words to describe this character. J.D. Salinger. One of my three favorite writers of all time. He writes like no one else, and his characters are just as vivid and alive as real people.

This tale, more than anything, is a psychological one. You may not relate to Holden 100% of the time, but what he says, how he feels, how deeply he feels, and his confusion and disillusionment between youth and adulthood is something that resonates with countless of readers. I think it's a mistake for readers to pass Holden off as simply complaining about a lot of things, that's not what Salinger was trying to convey. If you read carefully, if you really listen to Holden, you'll see his heart wrenching struggle and his sadness.

I'll go more into how much I love this book and why once I finish the re-read. I'm telling you, though. Catcher is a quick read and is absolutely worth every second you spend reading it.

Cybersecurity and Cybersecrets

This post was a long time coming. I have no idea why, but I have a healthy obsession with the lives of Snowden (as in Edward) and Assange (as in Julian). Which is weird, right? What these men did was treasonous, and wrong, and put the US in danger, right? 

Or what if what they did was an extreme form of citizen journalism or whistle blowing? Sure, what they did was risky and questionable/downright wrong legally speaking, but was it morally wrong? Are these men criminals? Or are they the ultimate martyrs for truth and transparency?

Personally, I think the latter is true.

Think about how the world would be today without folks like Assange, or Snowden, or Deep Throat and Daniel Ellsberg if we want to go back further into history. What if WikiLeaks didn't exist? What if the NSA leak was smothered before it lit aflame in the media and the public? What if The Washington Post never printed that article? What if the public never got to see The Pentagon Papers?

WikiLeaks: Exposed corruption in Kenya, "friendly fire" in Afghanistan, the US government's blind eye regarding reports of torture in Iraq during the Iraq War

Snowden: Exposed NSA's PRISM (and more) programs, use of metadata interception, and various international and commercial partners

Some may argue that this type of action, especially regarding WikiLeaks, is "aiding and abetting the enemy." But is that what it's really doing? Has the actions of Assange or Snowden put a major number or lives in danger? I think if that was the case, we'd hear something about the life-or-death thing blasting in the media. 

What is does endanger is the chance of governments getting away with questionable actions and it highlights the fact that "transparency" is to "government" as "classy" is to "Kardashian."

Governments denouncing Assage and Snowden? Snowden threatened with treason? Of course! They just got caught. You think that they're going to let him get away with it?

My point is that people like Assage and Snowden, like Deep Throat and Ellsberg, are brave. In the face of big, BIG punishments, they go out and they speak the truth, wether or not it wants to be heard or wether or not it is allowed to be heard.

And I know I shouldn't, but I can't help but find that honorable.

(This is here because I like Benedict Cumberbatch's face)

My Favorite Spots on the Internet

The internet is a BIG place, undoubtedly. It's like a whole new world! Here's a list of some of my favorite blogs, pages, sites, and anything else I can think to put on this post.

The College Prepster

I love this blog! Carly, the girl who runs it, started her blog while she was a freshman at Georgetown and continued it ever since, following her daily life journeys in NYC and any other place she goes. As the name implies, she is quite preppy. I adore her style! Not only do her clothing choices rock, she gives great wisdom about starting out your life after college and how to be a happy human being.

TIME's NewsFeed

All of the day's top news stories - political, economic, silly, and everything in between - are consolidated here. News Junkies rejoice.

Fan-Based Twitters

I follow character accounts from my favorite shows - particularly people from The Newsroom and House of Cards. As lame as that sounds, I really don't care. @WillMcAvoyACN, @MackMcHaleACN and @Frank_Underwood are three of my favorites.

The Londoner

Rosie, the girl who runs this blog, is amazing. Check out her blog if you want a peek at delish recipes, luxurious adventures around the globe, neighborhood goodies in London, and her awesome sense of style as a Brit. She gives great beauty tips as well! Warning though, you'll experience a tad bit of envy as you see her globe trot in her perfect bikini body on a glorious yacht, eating large amounts of expensive food.

tumblr

It's tumblr. I really don't need to explain more.

Unabashedly Prep

Oh lookie here, another Prepster blog! You know the "Prep in my Step" blog post I recently made? All those pics were from this site. Tons of street style, tons of inspiration. Give it a look!

The Beauty Department

Lauren Conrad's (or, as I like to call her, LC) two books, Style and Beauty, are literally textbooks for me. I've annotated them and post-ited them, I'm not even kidding. So when I heard that she was creating a beauty blog with new tips and tricks all the time, I was really excited. And I was not disappointed. Great tutorials, great DIY projects, and great inspiration and trend-watching posts. I came into the whole beauty-and-make-up game pretty late into my life. LC taught me how to do the Cat-Eye, how to put on mascara the right way, and about skin and hair care. Her beauty words are Gospel to me.

Go! Peruse the interwebs! Surf the net!

Book Club #2: The Fault in Our Stars

If you want to read a book that will make you laugh, cry, eyes widen with fear, heart glow with cutie-patootie love, your soul feel full and empty all at once, laugh while you cry, cry during your laughter, and ruthlessly rip your heart out of it's bodily cavity at the end of it all, then this book is your book.

I'm not even going to a give a synopsis. I just finished this masterpiece yesterday, I am still emotionally compromised. No other book has made me cry this much. No. Other.

Most importantly, what I love about this book is that it gets you thinking about the fragility and the finite-ness of your own life. It also gets you thinking about what love really is. Is it held in moments? Is it held in actions? Is it held most in your heart? Your mind? Your memories? Your thoughts? Your soul? Your gut-feeling?

It also gets you thinking about destruction and decay. The cycle of life, essentially. Everything in this world is created only to be destroyed. But is love an exception? Does love die? Or does it transcend time and space to leave behind a legacy, or a myth of what a great love really is?

I'd also like to start a petition to make every teenage boy read the beautiful words of John Green. Books like The Fault in Our Stars remind me of what love is. It gives me hope (probably a fruitless hope) that there are men out there who are above making 1:00 AM text messages in an attempt to woo a chick whilst drunk and/or faded, or giving false impressions and sweet nothings that mean absolutely nothing. I'm not expecting every teenage boy to be exactly like Augustus Waters (the main dude in the book), but maybe take one or two pointers on how to be a true gentleman in the modern world. (Such as: Display that you genuinely care about us and our feelings, simple things like that)

There's one quotation I will never forget from this book, as said by the amazing Augustus Waters:

"You don't get to choose if you get to hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you."

Love, summed up in one quotation.

READ THIS BOOK. THIS A COMMAND. READ IT.

A Prep in my Step

Full-Frontal Disclosure: Even though I am in no way shape or form a White-Anglo-Saxton-Protestant, I am a 100% wannabe-WASPy. 

Which is very bad. I know, but I can't help but fall in love with the whole vibe. Summers in Nantucket? Autumns/Winters in the city? J.Crew? Seersucker? Vineyard Vines? Sweaters? Blazers? Country Clubs? Prep Schools? I may have been born in the Philippines, and I may have been raised in SF and LA, but I'm pretty sure I left my heart somewhere in New York or Boston.

I can even take it one step further: I am a 500% wannabe-Londoner. A full-stop Anglophile. Earl Grey. Sherlock. Cath Kidston. Barbour. BBC. Oxford University (Oxford Union is better than Cambridge Union). Summers spent on sprawling green countrysides. London autumns/winters. Oxford Rowing (OUBC > CUBC). I know I just said that I left my heart in NY or Boston, but let's just say that 50% of my heart was also stashed in the depths of Britain. 

Whether it be in the US or the UK, there will always be a special place in my heart for all things fresh out of the Prep culture.

British Pubs are the Best Pubs: The Eagle and Child and The Bear are two of Oxford's best. I've had the privalege of going to both of them during my month in Oxford last summer! Pub Life, Grub Life.

Preppy and Studious... ;)

JFK's Residence in 1957

All photos from this lovely site.

Have a Preppy Day!

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