Guest Post: Diana

Today we arrive in New York, and so we asked our friend Diana from our city lights to share a little about this wonderful city. Diana is a great lady and knows her stuff.
- enjoy m&k
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New York City isn’t just a city; it’s an experience of a lifetime. There is nothing like actually visiting NYC, but the experience can be packaged and sold in a dish (the iconic cuisine- pizza!), for some it’s watching a movie (Hi, Woody Allen), and some, like myself, believe it’s reading. The best American writers come from New York City and now I know why- they have so much to write about! Below are my favorite books about New York or writers from New York.



The Godfather by Mario Puzo. The Mafia isn’t NYC, and NYC doesn’t represent the Mafia, but Puzo’s description of the Carleone family stays with you. After reading it, it’ll be an adventure of NYC you’d hope you’ll never experience  but so glad you read.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. I read this book at an impressionable age, and it has stayed with me forever. Esther Greenwood is a woman coming of age with and with poor circumstance, leads to a state of broken mentality. It's dark, and reminds me of the vulnerability we all have.

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger. Ok, so this isn't riveting literature. It's an easy read (I should warn you it ends nothing like the movie adaptation), but working in the top magazine in the world based in New York City makes any fashionista appreciate the book. It's bit grim, but the description of the City is worth the read.

Summer Crossing by Truman Capote. If there was one writer who would represent New York, it would be Capote. No, he wasn't born in NY, but most of his stories were based in NY. This story is a draft version of a young girl in love with life. It's not his best work, but what you're reading isn't just the story, it's absolute Capote in the raw.

Eloise by Kay Thompson- I'm totally jealous of Eloise. She lives in The Plaza hotel, and can have anything she wants, when she wants. She's a socialite without the snobbery. She's adventurous, unpredictable and imaginative, all with a touch of class a kid could exude. Reading her is an adventure at any age and a must read before going to the Plaza.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Another coming of age book based in NY but amidst all the digital reading, I will always own this on my shelf. This generation may have Gossip Girl but we had Holden Caulfied, the first teenager who attended prep school with a string of emotional problems we could all relate to no matter the measurement. Blair has nothing on him!

Honorable mentions: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzergerald, Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote, A Tree Grown in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, anything by James Henry.


I hope K&M have a blast and are able to return safely with their own adventures to share. Can’t wait! Best of luck to you both on your new journey ♥
Diana

i read: Making a World of Difference

My sister gave me this book for Christmas last year, and it took me a while to finally get around to reading it, but i'm so glad I did. Miles Roston's "Making a World of Difference" is a series of stories of "unsung heros" impacting lives around the world.

Wow, these stories are great. I think the most powerful means of change in society is the through the telling of people's real and inspiring stories, to encourage you that anything is possible. Miles travelled around the world, witnessing the work of a variety of people including, an old couple in Amsterdam giving an outlet for young kids to learn life-skills interacting with animals, a young guy in Cambodia teaching street kids to work in a high class restaurant, the man who started the Homeless Soccer World Cup, a young monk in Cambodia who started a school to educate marginalised children and many many more.

As an Australian, one story that really stood out to me was that of Paul Pholeros and Sandra Meihubers. This unlikely couple ended up working in an Aboriginal community in central Australia. For those of you who aren't aware, many Aboriginal communities in Australia, are on par with third world countries. It is a horrible disgrace for a developed nation like Australia, to ignore the bad conditions the original inhabitants endure. Paul, an architect, and Sandra, a dental nurse, ended up doing some incredible work along side the community, empowering them to transform the conditions. Paul worked along side the Aboriginal elders, to help discover what was truly needed, and help implement that to action.

'Before meetings with bureaucrats, [the elder, Yami] would say, "Don't use all your bullets. Keep a few for the kangaroo." And he'd relate that to a hunting story. He'd say, "Young blokes fire at anything that looks like a kangaroo. The finally when the kangaroo sticks his head up, you've got no bullets left. And you hit yourself using all your bullets up on rabbits." Yami would save his fire for the things that actally mattered. He taught me a lot.'

As with Paul in the quote above, I learnt a lot through this book. I learn that social justice can look very different to what I expect it to, and that the only way to bring change to this world, is to really listen and find out what need to be done. We all have our preconceived ideas about what we think people need, but with out really listening we can truly miss the mark.

-kim

i read: To Have and Have Not

Because I had so much fun doing the last book review for you, I decided to do another.



One of my favourite authors is Ernest Hemingway. I love his style of writing, and the beautiful scenes he creates in an era I wish I could have lived. I recently borrowed "To Have and Have Not" and once again fell in love with this talented author.

This book centers around a man named Harry Morgan, a fishing boat captain working around the Florida Key. Harry is a hard working man, who gets thrown and few curve balls and this story follows his response over the course of a few years. Hemingway has a way of truly of drawing you into the story and making you really connect with the characters. Each chapter changes from who it is written from the perspective of, which gives you multiple angles for the story.

We lay offshore about a mile in the dark. The current had freshened up, with the sun down, and I noticed it running in. I could see the Morro light way down to the westward and the glow of Havana, and the lights opposite us were Rincon and Baracoa. I headed her up against the current until I was past Baruranao and nearly to Cajomar. Then I let her drift down. It was plenty dark but I could tell good where we were. I had all the lights out.
"What's it going to be, Harry?" Eddy asked me. He was beginning to be spooked again.
"What do you think?"
"I don't know," he said "You've got me worried."

Although this book is very racist, calling people 'niggers' and 'chinks', you can ignore that and still enjoy the story. When I finished the final chapter I was nearly in tears with such joy shared in this book. I know that sounds over the top, but this book was just beautiful.

If you have never read any work by Hemingway, you should also check out "The Sun Also Rises" and "The Old Man and the Sea"
-kim

i read: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years

As part of my weekly goal setting using irunurun, I have been trying to read more regularly. I used to be someone who took ages to finish a book, and often lost interest because it was taking me so long. Well last week I finished a great book and I wanted to share a little about it with you as it impacted me so much.



Donald Miller is a lovely creative writer, and i have read a few of his books. His latest book "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" was such an empowering and challenging story I wanted to share a little about it on here, to inspire you to go read it as well.

To give you a little back story, back in 2003 Donald Miller wrote a book "Blue like Jazz" about his life story. This went on to become pretty popular, and Miller got contacted about making the book into a movie, which will be released next year. "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" picks up where Miller is editing his book to become the screenplay for the movie. To book follows Miller as he learns about 'what makes a good story' and how he implemented these writing theories into the way he lived his life.

Miller writes...

“We have to force ourselves to create these scenes. We have to get up off the couch and turn the television off, we have to blow up the inner-tubes and head to the river."

This may sound a little weird, but trust me, this book is full of inspiring stories of people Miller met, getting off their couch and beginning to really live life. Sometimes in life we need a little kick up the butt, to shake us up and not get complacent. To realise we need to seek adventure and not wait for a great life to come to us.

The following is a paragraph that really resonated with me about conflict...

"I was watching the news the other night, and they were still covering that story in Mumbai about the terrorists who when on a shooting ramage. The man on the news said that before the terrorists killed the Jews in the Jewish centre, they tortured them. I had to turn off the television, because I could see the torture in my head the way they were describing it. I kept imagining these people, just living their daily lives, and then having them suddenly ended in unjust tragedy. When we watch the news, we grieve all of this, but when we go to the movies, we want more of it. Somehow we realize that great stories are told in conflict, but we are unwilling to embrace the potential greatness of the story we are in.
We think God is unjust, rather than a master storyteller.

So, go on, go read "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" by Donald Miller.
-kim

ps. if you have read this book, i would love to know your thoughts. comment below and let me know what you thought of this book.