KATERINA : A MILLION LITTLE PIECES OF FAILURE

Katerina is Frey’s attempt to relitigate his Million Little Pieces nightmare.

Hello everyone and welcome back ! 

I hope each one of you that still has to suffer through piles of literature notes and a dozens of coffee cups on the dishwasher ( I love you btw, !) is doing well and if you’re struggling , I’m sending you my endless love and support. Let’s kill this back to school season fellas !!!

Now typically if you’re a follower of my blog then you probably know I don’t usually publish book reviews where I list a million reasons for you to not buy a specific book . However , today is the day . Today you are going to read one of the hardest and most judgmental reviews ever written by me .

The book we are discussing is Katerinaby the controversial author James Frey. If you don’t know his story , let me break it down for you in simple words :

James Frey is famous for all the wrong reasons. He thought he was clever enough to write a semi-fictional memoir called A Million Little Pieces that duped people into thinking it was entirely true, but instead ended up with a really furious Oprah Winfrey . 

A Million Little Pieces supposedly documented his own drug- and alcohol-fueled nadir and after promoting it on “Oprah” in 2005 , it became a bestseller. But everything turned into a nightmare for Frey when The Smoking Gun published a review reporting that many details of the memoir as well as it’s sequel had been forged including a violent clash with the police, a three-month prison stint and his scapegoating by the cops for the death of a classmate in a car accident. In James’ words , 17 publishers had turned it down as a novel because it didn’t sound as appealing as a true-life memoir of someone’s journey to sobriety.  

With these words being said , let’s dive into Katerina! 

In Frey’s situation, I tried to be an optimist and judge the book only on its creativity, style and narrative power. But after reading the book , I highly doubt it . 

Katerina is most obviously a fictionalized approach of James Frey’s life. His protagonist Jay narrates through two distinct eras of his life: when he was young, drug and horny in Paris (1992-93) and when he’s middle-aged and depressed in Los Angeles (2017). A mysterious Facebook friend request bring him back down memory lane and makes him live through painful memories again…

These novels typically don’t get published. But in the case of such a famous author (again, why?) as Frey, the novel has been presented to us ― in royal purple hardcover and an inside dust jacket festooned with a painting of a naked woman ― as a work of a misunderstood literary genius. 

So, this is a novel about Jay, is a successful and happily married but artistically thwarted 40-something writer in Los Angeles. He starts getting mysterious messages from someone in his past on Facebook, and they strike up a conversation. Meanwhile, he flashes back to his time in Paris 25 years ago, when he was a young college drop-out with a severe alcohol addiction , visiting museums, eating baguettes, having sex, blacking out and falling in love with a Norwegian model named Katerina, his enigmatic Facebook correspondent.

That leads me to my second major point with Katerina. Katerina herself. She’s a fantasy and a plot device. She’s also the only character in the novel I can guarantee never existed. She has long reddish hair, brown eyes and a slender frame. She likes books and art and cocaine (maybe that’s why she loved Jay ! ) . If I had to describe her in one phrase I’ll say she is just  the imaginary happily ever after James Frey never got but keeps dreaming of. 

Warning: 

In the real word there is no such a thing as girl who exists only to satisfy a young man’s needs.  Boys, don’t search for her !

Moving on , one of the most frustrating things about this book is the lack of punctuation . It’s like the book never got checked by a person who has basic grammatical knowledge and knows where to put commas and  dots . And that’s what got me to believe that this so-called book, is more of the dairy of an alcoholic or the essay of a patient in the AA meetings .  

Aside from the paucity of commas, Frey’s language is broad, nonspecific and obvious. His favorite words include classics like “life,” “crazy,” “pain,” “sex,” “art” and “love,” and he’s unafraid to reuse them, often many times on the same chapter (repetition all the way !) . 

It’s as though Frey can’t think of any fresh ways to say or describe things, so he resorts to repeating his words, hoping the repetition will stand in for throbbing inspiration. 

When he does use a metaphor or simile, he’s so proud of the result that he repeats those as well, even if they’re incoherent. Katerina is described, page after page, as having “thick pouty lips like cherry pie” and “brown eyes the color of cocoa,” though cherry pie isn’t pouty, and cocoa can present in any number of shades of brown.

Suddenly, I can understand Frey. It’s an annoying thing to be a writer but lack the tools to express oneself in writing. 

On the other hand , they were times where I enjoyed reading the character’s or more specifically the author’s opinion about 

matters like love, literature and being an artist :

“I dream of crazy crazy mad love the kind that starts with a look, with eyes that meet, a smile, a touch, a laugh, a kiss. The kind of love that hurts and makes you love the pain, makes you want the pain, makes you yearn for the fucking pain, keeps you awake until the sun rises, stirs you while you’re still asleep.”

 “When I look at art I don’t have to consider whether the work of art is fiction or nonfiction, whether it is a genre painting or literary painting, whether it is serious or commercial…. I want to make books in the same manner.” 

 “There are rules with books. What something is called, how it is read, rules of grammar and punctuation,” he writes. “I go to art when I think about how I want to write books. There are no rules in art. No governance.” 

Additionally , to the question whether James Frey can write or not , my answer is yes ! His style is a little neoteric with the telegraphic sentences and the random splashes of improvised poetry, but it’s still a style and it makes reading Katerina a smooth and easy to read novel. But that's it. 

Because if it would be reviewed by a harsh professional critic , it will be a toxic memoir distinguished as a fiction book that passes to the world stereotypical ideas and beliefs about life that everyone knows but chooses to ignore because why not ?

In conclusion , Katerina is a book that shouldn’t have been published but rather buried deep in one of the messy notepads writers keep when they start their journey in becoming the next Hemingway or Hugo . In my opinion this is not a novel neither a memoir but the diary of an alcoholic , drug-addicted man who prefers lying to the public rather than owning up to the failures of his life and not hide under the power of literature and poetry who many of us enjoy and love .

James Frey , you are a good storyteller but not a writer , not an author. You have the maybe-gift of making up stories and feeding them to people just like our grandma with her Snow-white fairytales . But we were innocent kids . You’re audience was just people being trapped in lies you thought it would not do harm to publish as truths.

2/5 

XoXo,

Miss Reader aka Leni

P.S I rated it with 2 stars because I love Paris and the mentions of the most beautiful city on the planet even though I don’t visit bars or clubs and chunk one whiskey bottle after the other , like water for the runner’s high .  

NO WINDOW SEAT : CREATE A READING NOOK

 Everyone needs their spot to read, right? 

As a child, every book-nerd has dreamed of having a window seat. It would be the perfect place to curl up and read for hours, covered with the scent of old pages. 

Unfortunately, nobody lives in a Hollywood set or in a Carrie Bradshaw apartment. However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t have your own, aesthetic reading nook! But because we want to be practical and realistic, you know that buying an entire bookstore and move-in is not a very approachable choice.

Luckily, I know a few ways that you can use and turn your bedroom into an ideal spot for a booklover without having to change the structure of your house. So grab a pile of your favourite books, a cosy blanket ( I love fall !!!), some other comfortable items and let’s get started, shall we? 

STEP 1: FIND THE RIGHT SPOT 

Reading nooks take very little space, and often an unused corner of your bedroom can be turned into a perfect reading spot. But make sure it will be like a natural extension of the room and not a separate section. Also, consider the amount of noise as well as the privacy it offers. 

STEP 2: COMFY AREA

Once you have found the perfect spot for you, you have to think about the seating you will include in your reading nook. First, consider the fact that you will be spending a lot of time there and despite the fact that everyone knows there is no perfect position to seat and enjoy a novel  ( trust me, I’ve tried everything !), it will be great to purchase a comfortable piece of furniture. 

You might love the more formal idea of a comfy chair along with a table and some bookshelves, while others prefer a more playful couch filled with quite a few throw pillows of your favourite book characters. It’s your spot after all! 

STEP 3: ADD SOME DECORATIVE LIGHTING 

You've need light to read, so why not add some pretty lights to your reading nook? Plus you can take awesome photos and post them on your IG and maybe use Pinterest for inspiration! 

STEP 4: CURL UP WITH A BLANKET 

In addition to pillows, every great reading nook has got to have a cosy blanket. And if you have the chance to get one with a book-inspired print, you should definitely grab this chance (a Harry Potter will be perfect ! ).

STEP 5: ADD A LITERARY-INSPIRED SCENT 

Lastly, no reading nook is complete without a fairy-scent candle ( during fall time, take and a mug of tea or coffee !).  

There are a lot of websites and shops where you can order packs of beautifully- smelling candles for every special reading nook! 

That's the post for today and I hope you will find helpful when you're setting up your own reading nook, now that fall is approaching (dancing excitedly!!!). 

Don't forget to leave me a comment or a picture of your own personalized spot !!

Xoxo,

Miss Reader. 

THE JOY OF ANNOTATING YOUR BOOKS

“OMG monster!! Satan!!!! I bet you dog ear your pages, too!!!”

  

It’s that time of the day when I take out the book I am reading for summer, and grab a highlighter. 

But that’s not normal. And then I realized that a few months back I would never do something like this. It’s something I started recently, it’s new, but throughout my entire life as a bookworm, picking up a highlighter before I start reading is more that extraordinary .

Before you start yelling about the harm I’m doing to my books, take a deep breath and let me explain why I started annotating out of the blue. From the beginning of my reading journey, I was always the person who would get a heart attack  every time I saw pages of books that I lend being “dog-eared “.  I was afraid of putting my fiction book inside my school backpack because I feared I would damage the cover. 

In the majority of my books there are no blemishes and if there are, I promise you I demanded a full-detailed investigation. In a few months, I went from treating a book like something too precious to annotating using highlighters . All of this started during April when I came across a post in the bookish community of Instagram where a girl was showing her fully-annotated edition of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

If you are part of the YA book community around social media , then you know that  books are these precious, beautiful story vessels that we must protect with our lives. 

They offer us so much, so we have to keep them clean and perfect. Even before I became a part of this online community, I was as paranoid about my books as now .But after I joined the book-blogging  community, a lot of my reading habits changed.

First, I started buying way more books than I could read,  because  it was what everyone else was doing. 

Now I have a TBR so big that it could be compared to the Eiffel Tower, but that’s a post for another day. I never wanted a pen or pencil to touch the pages, I didn’t want my paperbacks to bend, I didn’t want anything to get on the flawless hardcovers.

But let’s go back to annotating!

On one hand, highlighting and writing in the margins is a great way to interact with the text and leave a physical reminder of how a book made you feel at some point in your life. However, it’s hard to get over the mental block of writing in books. They can be expensive and it’s hard not to overthink what’s worth writing down. The question for most book -nerds is : how to annotate a book so your marks are done effectively? 

Annotation is the process of adding your own thoughts or insights into a book or text.

If you want to re-read a book, it’s always interesting to see what parts of a story were meaningful at a point in your life. It’s a snapshot of the person you are. 

HOW TO ANNOTATE A BOOK 

There are five different ways you can annotate. 

1. Sticky Notes
2. Hilighters
3. A good,thin pencil or pen.
4. A key and symbols .
5. Annotate with the student way.

STICKY NOTES

One of the lowest-pressure ways to annotate your book is by using sticky-notes and tabs. A lot of readers have fears about marking up their books and are very protective of them, so if you’re worried about making a mistake with your highlighting or writing, sticky notes are the best option. I recommend using the small plastic ones because they look the nicest and also aren’t too thick.

However, you will have to remember to carry around your pack of tabs wherever you carry your book. It will also help if you choose to color-code your tabs so they match your favorite quotes , scenes you love and words you don’t know and need the definitions . 

HIGHLIGHTERS 

Moving from sticky notes to highlighters – which seem scary for the majority of readers. The worst thing is when you have one that’s too thick and you can’t draw with it properly and you highlight too much of the passage or highlight it in a lazy manner. It’s also important to be confident about what you want to highlight, because if you take too long, the color will seep through to the other side. So be careful with the highlighter you’re using!

A GOOD THIN PEN OR PENCIL

A good pen is a must-have for anyone annotating a book. While some people feel completely uncomfortable with writing in their books because they’re scared it’ll look messy or they’ll make a mistake that they can’t erase, there’s nothing better than writing your thoughts to the side of the page. Some people prefer using a pencil, including me. 

But finding the right pen for this job can be tricky. The only pens I feel comfortable using are the ones that have extremely thin or small ballpoint tops. An advise from me is to refuse using liquid pens, like fine liners, because they bleed through the pages. Also it’s good to avoid writing close to the middle where the pages can get messy because your  writing may become sloppy due to the fact that there isn’t enough room for a ton of words. 

A KEY AND SYMBOLS 

Similar to using color-coded tabs, symbol-based annotation is a simple way to interact with your book.  Try to figure a personal book annotation key for yourself and assign symbols for favorite quotes (underline), confusing phrases (question mark) , etc ! 

ANNOTATE WITH THE STUDENT WAY

Lastly, here are some easy practices to annotate like a student:

1.  Underline main ideas or claims the author is making .What do you want to remember when you flip through it again?
2.   Circle words you don’t know and then define them in the margin.
3.    Put stars next to anything that gives you pause.  
4. If you’d like, write notes on what the text made you feel emotionally or question.

In the end , annotating books can be quite scary, especially for those who haven’t marked-up their books before. The important thing to remember is to be confident and do what you like with it. 

To me, annotating is a physical mark of love on a book and it shows just how much it means to you. I believe annotating is really fun and it feels like your actively participating in the reading experience rather than just passing through the pages. But at last everyone annotates differently, and that’s just my way of doing it! 

Xoxo,

Miss Reader

P.S Don't forget to follow me on my bookstagram page !

@teaandpicks

LET'S CONTROL YOUR BOOKSHELVES : A GUIDE IN ORGANISING

So, you can’t see the floor of you’re bedroom any more. The books you own are getting out of control. Here I have the solution! 

Ask any bookworm you know, and the answer you’ll get is pretty much the same. One of the central preoccupations in a bibliophile’s life is how to manage and keep your bookshelves tidy. Any major events in life, from moves to marriages, is an opportunity for decluttering — to look at your collection of books and be proud of the way you store them. But if you find yourself wondering on a daily basis if you’re able to tell the exact spot of any title at any moment and the answer is complicated, then “Houston, we have a problem “!

Their many ways in which you can organize your bookshelves but what everyone can agree on is that you have to shelve your books in a way that works best for you. Minimalist, orderly or eccentric, when it comes to organizing your books, only you know the perfect system for you.

In today’s post, I’m giving a complete guide as well as choices in which you can use in order to achieve a practical as well as an aesthetic-pleasing bookshelf. Trust me, it will guarantee you’ll always know where is what. ( At least that’s what I hope for everyone ).

 STEP 1: GATHER ALL THE BOOKS IN PILES TOGETHER

To begin with,  gather every single book we own in one spot, piling them on the floor. It helps in order to make informed decisions about what to keep and what to discard. You will also be able to view how many books we own, so that you can predict how much space you will need and maybe how many books you should declutter.

STEP 2: FORGET THE PHRASE “ BUT WHAT IF I WANT TO READ THIS SOMEDAY “?

Moving on, one of the biggest stumbling blocks for readers is dealing with the fear that we may want to read the book someday, so we are hesitant to part with it.

To this, I warn you that “sometimes” means “never.” Bookworms rarely pick up a book that has been sitting on their shelf for a while and either re-read it or read it for the first time, and because of this, it is okay to get rid of the book(s) in question. 

STEP 3: DISCARD ALL THE BOOKS YOU WON’T NEED, WANT OR MEAN SOMETHING ANYMORE

You can discard your books in several different ways. You can donate them to your local library or your local church’s garage sale. If they’re books you want to sell, you can take them to a near charity or thrift shop and also sold some using Amazon’s FBA program.

Even though everyone really loves to read in their house, it will feel like a weight lifted when you manage to finally get rid of all of the books we don’t truly love or read often! 

Now that you are done with the process of deciding what you’ll keep and what you’ll give away, it’s time to put all the books in their perfect spot on your bookshelves! Here are some ways that you can use to store the books neatly and have fun doing it (even though it’s hard !).

Alphabetizing, by Title or Author 

This technique is a perfect, uncomplicated way of organizing your books because alphabetizing ensures you’ll know exactly where each book you’re looking for is shelved at all times. At the same time, friends, family, or strangers who want to find something in your bookshelves will know how to do it.

The downside? It can take a while to add new books. This is actually a con for most of the options I will list below to help organize your bookshelves—you can spend hours getting them just how you want them, but as soon as you have a new set to add, you have moved a ton more books.

By Genre 

This is ideal for readers who don’t always know which exact book they want to read next. Organizing by genre is also great for anyone who loves to make book recommendations or lend from their personal library because similar titles will be shelved together. 

This option can be more intuitive than alphabetizing and it’s easy to find a book if you’re in a particular mood for one genre over another. It’s also a good way to organize your books if you don’t have a good memory for titles and authors (raise your hands with me ! )

You can arrange your books by whatever genres you want, such as:

• ·      Fiction
• ·      Mystery
• ·      Romance
• ·      Young Adult
• ·      Horror
• ·      Fantasy
• ·      Non-Fiction

However, if you have genre sections for mystery and detective, there would be a lot of overlap due to the fact that some books fall into more than one category. You’ll also need to decide how to organize them within the genre. You may break it down by genre and then alphabetize or colour code them.

Chronologically, by Date Published

It’s kind of a pretentious way to shelve your collection and to make it even more pretentious. The act of putting your books on the shelf in order helps you to remember history, and to get a better sense of which writers were writing and publishing at the same time, and perhaps influencing one another. In addition, nerds like me love this process and it’s also satisfying. 

On the other hand, this takes a lot of time. If you’re looking for ideas on how to clean out your bookshelves, you may be facing a two-week job to get this off your to-do list.

By Color

If you have a large number of books, this is an extremely exhausting way to organize your bookshelf. Readers who really love putting things in rainbow order, and have a small number of books that they know well, this could be a visually striking way to arrange some shelves.

There are a lot of fun ways within the colour-organizing category, such as arranging them into a pattern within the colour coding, or covering your books with wrapping paper so that sections are different from one another. 

You can check Instagram or Pinterest for inspiration! 

But, there are a few cons in this way. It isn’t very practical for the majority of bookworms, it can make it hard to find what you need. At the same time, it can be frustrating to figure out where to place each book. A red cover might be darker or lighter than the other red cover you own.

Autobiographically

It could be debated that every bookshelf, like every piece of writing, is autobiographical, but I can feel the tears rolling down my cheeks (emotional alert !) when organizing books according to different stages of my life. It's the most personal way for anyone to organize their books.

it interesting to think back on all the people—family members, teachers, friends, writers—who have influenced your reading. There is always a period where bookworms have the desire to return to a certain period of my life, a frame of mind, or even a particular person or place. Shelving autobiographically means a journey of self-examination

However, you’d also have to reckon with the fact that a certain number of books will always remain unread, and another, a larger percentage will never be reread.  Also, let me warn you that it would not only be impossible for others to find books on your shelves but for you as well.

There it is—the simple, complex, and fun ways on how to organize bookshelves with a ton of books.  How do you keep all your favourites organized and easily accessible?

Xoxo,
Miss Reader.