bookshoplaura

At a party recently where I was the soberest one there I got thinking about drink and my relationship with it. I was sitting beside someone who had already told me the same story four times and was just about to tell it to me again and I was trying to work the right amount of interest onto my face as the two glasses of wine I'd drank, had already worn off. Yes, drunk people are more annoying when you're not but also the thought that I'm like that after a few more glasses bothered me and not just that I've been like that and worse. It's not just about knowing your limit, it's about recognizing your limit when you hit it and successfully stopping there. It's only recently and I mean very recently that I have learned to pace myself because social situations often make me awkward and having a glass of something takes the edge off that nervousness.  The problem for me is that while I don't enjoy the taste of alcohol I have enjoyed the taste of drunk...

know this is the kind of thing that makes people not want to eat lunch with you but I am currently on a break from sugar. It's been two months and I'm not sure If I'm ever going back, does that sound a bit mad? probably. Had you told me a year ago that I could a full day without sugar I'd never have believed you. Before I cared about my health I was chocoholic and I ate so much sugar I'm pretty sure I was borderline diabetic. Not that I cared because Sugar was so damn delicious. Then suddenly I started to care and I made minor changes all the time until my diet became virtually unrecognizable from what it used to be and so did my body, you could say the lifestyle change came with its own rewards. Overall I was doing much better but chocolate was my achilles heel and I knew it. If I wasn't eating it I was often thinking about it or craving it and it's hard to be good when being bad is so damn delicious. I became pickier about what chocolate I'd eat m...

Recently I found myself trying on clothes just for the fun of it and I realised becoming fitter and losing weight hasn't just changed how I think of myself, it's also changed my entire shopping experience. Shopping is more fun as Skinny Laura. In case you're wondering why it took me 31 years to have such a revelation, well you're in luck. I won't keep you guessing. I was skinny up until I was twenty but back then I only knew skinny so I had nothing to compare it to and I wasn't at all confident so I didn't know what I had back then. Then I hit twenty, my metabolism slowed down and my weight slowly crept up without me really being aware of it. That was tough and I dealt with it in part by not really acknowledging it. Well all else fails there's always denial . My dad is fond of saying that denial is not just a river in Egypt but then again he does have a penchant for terrible jokes. I do remember though at some point in my twenties, when I went fro...

I found this book in o'mahoneys bookshop up in Limerick and I liked it so much I took pictures of my favourite parts. I had to choose between two books, one I really needed to buy and this one which I would have thoroughly enjoyed so I compromised and took some sneaky photos on my phone. Win for the week I think

What's so empowering about women that sleep around? Every time I go online I see something about the HBO show Girls There's a lot of talk of how brave actress Lena Durham is to be naked for so much of it when she's not in shape and how empowering the show is for women. So I gave it another shot, having previously watched episode one and dismissed it quite some time ago. I liked and laughed and cringed but I'm sure I took from it what I was supposed to. The show features four twenty somethings who are completely self centred, with no real direction in their lives and they sleep around a lot but don't seem to be happier for it and It got me thinking. How exactly does this empower me ? I understand the thinking that men have casual sex and get patted on the back for such an achievement but women are called sluts or worse for the same behaviour but I don't feel there's any need to applaud promiscuity on any level. Before you get your knickers in ...

Since Monday I have been on holidays from work. To stop too many people being on holidays at the same time or for too long our manager makes us take them in blocks throughout the year and as luck would have I accidentally booked mine during the Easter holidays. So far It's been three days and I'm not missing work even a little bit, in fact I think time is going too fast. I had plans for my Holidays, admittedly vague plans but they involved being quite productive and so far it hasn't come to fruition. It's like some imp is stealing all the hours in my day and I find myself yet again readying for bed wondering about all the many things I said I would achieve. So far my days off have consisted of a lot of reading, meeting people for tea and gym classes and I can't tell you what has happened to all the hours in between because it seems they have fallen through the cracks, never to be reclaimed. And as it happens despite my lack of productivity I'm quite ...

The last runaway - Tracy chevalier The book is set In Ohio in 1805, Honor bright has travelled there from England With her sister who had plans to Marry a man from back home Who had recently emigrated. Tragically her sister died before they arrived leaving Honor stranded in a strange community that she has difficulty making her home. It is a time before slavery was abolished although many break free and with the help of some in the community they make their way towards Canada and freedom. Here is where Honor finds herself torn. She is part of the Quaker community who In theory oppose slavery but in practice Are reluctant to break the law and incur the wrath of the local slave catcher. Honor must discover if she has the courage to follow her convictions and break the law in order to do what is right. Tracy chevalier has a wonderful Way with words. There is a flow to her writing that makes her books so easy to Delve Into. I will admit I held off reading this book because I ...

Beatrice and Virgil - Yann Martel The blurb "this is the story of a donkey named Beatrice and a monkey named Virgil. It is also the story of an extraordinary journey undertaken by a man named Henry. It begins with a mysterious parcel and ends in a place that makes you think again about one of the most significant events of the twentieth century. One you have finished reading it, it's impossible to forget' Having read and greatly enjoyed the life of Pi I had high hopes for the book but sadly It did not live up to my expectations. Despite the promising sounding blurb, the book is about a man Henry who finds himself stuck after he is unable to write a good follow to the masterpiece he wrote Several years ago. He receives a request for help from a strange taxidermist who is writing a play. The play seems to be A metaphor for the holocaust and its central characters are a monkey and a donkey and from the dialogue excerpts we hear it is reminiscent of Samuel Beckett's ...

I was thirteen when I was bullied for the first time and it left a bitter taste in my mouth. I'd just started going to a youth center that was for keeping teenagers off the street which meant it attracted a lot of people from the rougher parts of town and an oblivious thirteen year old me. While there I met a group of girls that I started to hang around with and one of them took issue with me so she told the other girls I'd been saying things about them and that I had a thing for one of the girls boyfriends ( for the record I didn't, he was a twerp and I was far too shy at thirteen to even think about kissing someone). They Believed her and cornered me in town and I'm not sure what would have happened if a guy who lived down the road from hadn't walked past and insisted on walking me home. I went home shaken and upset and told my sisters who were so angry that they warned off all of the girls, except one. They didn't know where she lived. A few weeks late...

Living alone is expensive, like really expensive but it's not without benefits. Before I decided getting my own place was the best way to preserve my sanity I had many years of flat sharing and in some cases endured seems like a better word. In College I initially shared with strangers, I was 24 and was put in with three eighteen year old  girls who had never lived away from home so that was an experience. For the most part they weren't that bad once you got past the part where one of them walked around drinking wicked ( blue pre mixed vodka) like it was juice  and honestly I wasn't much of a grown up so we got on ok and threw some decent parties except for the one where we all  left the apartment at the same time and someone threw our phone out the window. In the end we didn't have much in common, two of the girls were from the same small town where they spent their weekends fighting other girls and cruising the town to see  what was happening ...

Self Image is a fragile thing and most women I know (myself included) have a fairly poor view of themselves. I think I'm far too self critical, holding myself up to standards I'll never meet but I'm quite sure how to change that. It's hard because as women we are conditioned to believe certain things about ourselves from an early age and we are given specific ideas about what is and isn't attractive in a woman. Something must be going wrong somewhere along the line because I could gather far too many women I know in one space and you'd be hard pushed to find one who doesn't have some sort issues with self esteem. As a child growing up in the 80's I had a barbie, In fact I think I might have had several and when you really think about the message a toy like barbie is sending to young girls It's actually fairly horrible. Here is this plastic model of a woman that could never exist because her dimensions are completely unrealistic, her boobs too b...

Salt sugar fat: how the food giants hooked us by Michael Moss The blurb 'In China, for the first time, people who weigh too much now outnumber those who weigh too little. In Mexico, the Obesity rate has tripled in the past three decades. In the Uk over 60 per cent of adults and 30 per cent of children are overweight, while the United States remains the most obese country in the world. We are hooked on salt, sugar and fat. These three simple ingredients are used by the major food companies to achieve the greatest allure for the lowest possible cost. Here, Pulitzer prize winning investigative reporter Michael Moss exposes the practices of some of the most recognisable( and profitable) companies and brands of the last half century. This is an eye opening and explosive journey into the secretive world of the processed food industry that could change the way we eat. for ever. are you ready for the truth about what's in your shopping basket?' As I've become more intere...

One beer is equivalent to 136 burpees, yikes. If that's the case I am still back dating burpees owed from my college years and that's only from the beer. Now I haven't had a beer In over two years because for some bizarre reason I was able to acknowledge beer didn't agree with me (possibly because its not all that delicious ) long before I faced up to the truth that it's the wheat in beer and about half the other foods in my diet at the time that was making me feel ill ( I blame bread for being so delicious). Imagine if menus had a burpees equivalent instead of a calorie breakdown and the impact that would have on the food choices you make. For me it would have very little impact given how rarely I eat out but perhaps my fitness pal could add that feature to their app and it might revolutionise the way I snack, even more so if I was required to actually do the burpees after eating. In a way I'm almost glad this possibility does not exist seeing how much of a b...

I was listening to the radio the other day, I know, right !, and they were discussing some criminal in prison who's apparently reformed during his last two years in prison. He was convicted over some gang related killing ( I think, I'm not really a paying attention to the news sort of person ) but in the last two years he hasn't been involved in any violent incidents in the prison, he's furthered his education, gotten into fitness and has even taken part in the prison pantomime. Admittedly this is where I tuned in properly because the thought of convicts doing a pantomime made me chuckle. Then it for me thinking, this is supposed to be our prison system and its kind of a bit of a joke. A lot of people who go into prison later go on to reoffend and for them prison can be A social networking opportunity, a way to hone those skills. But then there's some Who do reform or at Least have the opportunity to do so. So from what I gather many prisons allow mobile phones ...

http://hellogiggles.com/this-is-rape-culture I read the above article on hello giggles blog but I think it's well worth a read, hidden among articles about what nail varnish is hot right now and what guy we should be looking at shirtless there are some interesting articles but the site is difficult to navigate so it is only by chance I came across this piece which looks at how attitudes in society are permitting a rape culture. This is an issue that has been discussed a lot over the last few years with the slamming of victim blaming, 'it's her fault for dressing that way' or 'if she had been drinking less' but it's recently come under the spot light again with the Steubenville rape case. Admittedly as someone who does not read much in the way of newspapers what I actually know about this case is fairly sketchy but from what I gather its about a 16 year old girl who was raped and assaulted while drunk at a party while several of her peers stood by doing noth...

When I was 20 I decided I wanted to live abroad and having childcare experience I started looking at au pair job postings online. I spoke some french so France was my first choice but I got offered a job in Lausanne, Switzerland I jumped at the chance. It seemed like a good opportunity, the kids were bilingual, the mum was Irish and they lived in an incredibly beautiful city I had never been to before. And in the end it was an experience I'll never have again which is both a good and a bad thing. My job was to mind the two children aged 4 and 5 from 8.30 am in the morning until about 7pm most nights and that included bringing them to and from school, cooking all their meals, entertaining them after school and bath time. all mine and at first it was a little scary as I hadn't really cooked before plus I was a vegetarian who had never cooked meat. I lived in the house in my own little room which consisted of a bed, a wardrobe and a small balcony whi...

Today I told my four year old niece that my birthday was yesterday and I turned 31 and her jaw dropped for almost a minute while she contemplated me being 'that old' and then she proceeded to count the ages I'll be next right up to 39 because after that i'll be one hundred, that was nice and made me feel very old indeed. And then I was back at my parents house later and ended up having a ridiculous argument with my dad that left me feeling 15 again although I wasn't screaming I hate you and slamming doors and It got me thinking that no matter how much you grow up, all it takes is a few hours back in your childhood home to bring that feeling that you've finally grown up to halt. So which am I? am I really really old and only several years from turning into dust (you have to love the honesty of small kids) or am I the disobedient child it sometimes feels like my parents view me as. maybe I'm neither or a little bit of both but it does make me glad that i...

Ten thousand saints - Eleanor Henderson Blurb - "Vermont, New Year's Eve, 1987. All Jude wants is to get high. All teddy wants is to get out. One of them won't live to see 1988. In the wake of this death,three teenagers will try to Find a way of honouring their lost friend. Is clean living the answer? Is parenthood? Or is it the simplicity of carrying out a last wish?" I found this book took a good while to get going and for the first 100 pages or so I was strongly considering abandoning it for one of several other books I was more excited about reading but I persevered and it finally hooked me. Henderson doesn't write a particularly likeable cast of characters yet I still found myself becoming invested in their stories. She sets the scene well, making you feels though you too were part of the punk 80s scene in New York and she has a vivid storytelling style. I thought read almost like it's as written for the young adult market but perhaps I was only se...