Reading: Tina Fey: Bossypants     Tina Fey is pretty high in the Bookish Brunette list of icons (I’ll publish this list in full one day). She’s clever, funny and cool as hell. She also wears glasses and has brown hair – traits that make us, essentially, the same person.   Bossypants was in my pile of books that I was reluctant to read because everyone else was raving about them (see also: How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran). In these cases, my inner contrarian acts out and I find myself willing to read anything, including the back of shampoo bottles and People’s Friend magazine, instead of what I really want to read.   I caved late one night and purchased Bossypants to read on my iPad. Oh my, this book is good. It is like an inspirational handbook for every nerdy and ambitious woman out there, though I don’t think Tina would agree with that. She’s too cool to try and tell people how to live their lives. The book recounts Tina’s childhood and her early days in improvisational comedy. She is honest and direct when it comes to her success in the male dominated TV industry. Her account of the Sarah Palin phenomenon is hilarious in how it depicts the madness of a TV juggernaut alongside her anxieties over planning her little daughter’s birthday party.   Tina Fey has worked her ass off the get where she is on her own terms. I plan to do the same. Thanks, Tina.   Michel de Montaigne: On Friendship   I blogged about this dude a while back, when I was pondering my own tendency to be “on the fence” about certain things. I picked up a copy of On Friendship from the book market on the South[.....]

    Reading   Googled: The End of the World As We Know It by Ken Auletta   The end of the world as we know it? Is it? Really? If it is, I feel fine. Obligatory REM gag out of the way, I must stress that I’m not really buying the whole “Google/Facebook/Twitter has changed the world” schtick. Yes, they’ve changed some people’s lives, but there are still people who genuinely don’t give a crap. Take my Dad – his world is very much like it was pre-Google. He gets up, has a cup of tea, takes the dog for a walk, reads a book about sharks or Nazis, watches a documentary about sharks or Nazis, has another cup of tea, plays with the dog, reads the Screwfix catalogue… …you get the picture. The only people for whom the world really has changed are Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg and the dudes who invented Twitter whose names escape me. They are really bloody rich now and full of the smug satisfaction that comes with being told that you’ve “changed the world” on a daily basis. Bravo.   Everything “changes the world” now, just like every event is “historic” and every celebrity or handbag is “iconic”. I’m bored of it all. Here’s something that could change the world: perspective.   Rant over.   The subtitle is my only real beef with Auletta’s book; otherwise it is a really intriguing and inspiring story of how two nerds changed the internet (note: not “world”). His investigation is thorough and balanced, grilling Page, Brin and Eric Schmidt along with their rivals and former employees.   It is quite cute how utterly clueless, naïve and arrogant Page and Brin were when they first started out. They made rookie errors and had no idea[.....]

  What a birthday weekend! Not only did I get to go out and celebrate lots, I also got this beautiful new blog!   This is the new home of Bookish Brunette, designed and built by Tom and co. at Phoenix WS, thanks to funding from SPEED WM. It also features a beautiful illustrated header by the talented and fabulous Claire Goldthorp. The site and illustration are so perfect that I shed a tear of joy when I first saw it.   Have a look around and enjoy it. This is a pretty big deal for me as I’m finally starting to realise that anything is possible. Bookish Brunette started out as a mere mouse of blog, the voice of a girl who wasn’t sure what she wanted from life, other than to write. That girl is now a journalist and business woman, who has found that life really is what you choose to make of it.   My story isn’t spectacular, I haven’t had any real adversity to overcome other than my own self-doubt. But I know that there are millions of young men and women who share the same nagging doubts and worries. You know what? Sometimes we have them for good reason, other times they do nothing but hold us back from doing what we really want to do in life.   Enough of this self-help, motivational speak. Time for pictures of me posing in an outfit in Birmingham’s Brindley Place on my 27th birthday:   Top: The Kooples Jeans: Topshop Brogues: Topshop Satchel: The Cambridge Satchel Company Sunglasses: Topshop  Necklaces: Gifts   Before posing, me and Mark went to the launch party for Brewsmiths Coffee and Tea on Livery Street in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter. The place had a real arty and community orientated, friendly atmosphere. The owners, Dave and Kate[.....]

Book update: Dom Joly “The Dark Tourist”: This book was something of a landmark for me. It was my first ever e-book. I read it entirely on my iPad and found the experience to be wholly positive. My minor technological triumph aside, “The Dark Tourist” is a great book. Dark Tourism is tourism with a macabre twist; visiting places that are “off the beaten track” for good reason. The opening chapter sets the oddball tone for the book, with the tale of Joly’s ski trip to Iran. He then plays crazy golf in North Korea and gets crazy-drunk in Cambodia. It isn’t all fun and frolics though. His adventures are often countered with sensitive observations of countries bound by tyrannical regimes or recovering from past atrocities. Joly’s description of Cambodia’s killing fields and meetings with former Khmer Rouge officials are genuinely unsettling. When writing of his home country of Lebanon, there is a true affection. He depicts stunning landscapes baring the pock marks of war, and pokes fun at the national “trigger happy” mentality. His American road trip, visiting famous assassination sites, is intriguing but seems somehow less “dark”. Maybe this is because the places he visits are now common tourist traps. The strangest parts of the chapter are his observations of tourists visiting ground zero. Apparently, no New Yorkers want to visit. Are some things too raw and horrific to ever be seen as tourism? Is it right for sadness and suffering to become the fodder of an entertaining travel book? Caitlin Moran “How to be a Woman”: I didn’t want to read this. You know why? Twitter kept telling me to. Twitter brings out my inner contrary five year old. Tell me to do something and I instantly decide that I will not do it, even if I,[.....]

Some of you may have noticed that things are getting a bit more “fashion” around these parts. That’s because, after years of ignoring wise people’s advice, I’ve finally decided to “focus” my blog. Don’t worry, Bookish Brunette will never be a straightforward fashion blog; it is a part of me and I’m not exactly a straightforward fashion type of person! As a way of bridging any gap between the Bookish Brunette who frolics about in pink culottes and the one who has her nose stuck in a modern classic, I’ve put together a list of my favourite books about fashion. They are the sort of books that even the most po-faced fashion hater would struggle not to smile at. They are also a huge source of inspiration; the books that are stacked up beside me as I write about clothes. Fashion isn’t stupid or vacuous. It isn’t shallow – it is a part of who we are. It is intelligent, fun and powerful and these books reflect just that. Paul Smith: You Can Find Inspiration in Everything (and if you can’t, look again) The title of this book is something of a mantra for me. It is one the most beautiful books I own – with oddball layouts, pullouts, textures, posters, typographical tricks, old photos, crazy illustrations…it is like falling down a rabbit hole into the mind of a creative genius. After first reading the book, I remember hunting down the name of the design company responsible. From that point onwards I became fascinated by the work of Aboud Sodano (who also run a great blog, full of weird and wonderful arty happenings). They somehow managed to channel the spirit of one of the UK’s greatest fashion designers into every page. The pattern for a “Coat of Arms” sums up everything[.....]

(Please note that this is a change to schedule. Number 3 was meant to be Bill Bryson but, well, it’s nearly Christmas and as much as I love Bill Bryson my thoughts turn towards the whimsical at this time of year. Bill will get my attention at a later date, when I’m not so preoccupied with sugar-plum fairies, dancing polar bears in Santa hats and eating Twiglets.) If there is one thing that Nigella Lawson has taught me, in addition to how to lick a wooden spoon seductively* – purr, it is that Christmas traditions matter. There’s the annual Bookish Brunette and husband row over fairy lights and how the artificial tree looks like a slightly tapered pipe cleaner. There’s the baking of seven squillion mince pies before realising that no one really likes mince meat. There’s the excitement of cracking the first walnut of the festive period followed by searing eye pain as tiny shards of shell attempt to penetrate my retina. Then there is ‘The Jolly Christmas Postman’ by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. I can quote this book word for word. I can recreate Janet Ahlberg’s amazing illustrations in my head. It is my ultimate reminder of the magic of Christmas. Once I’ve finished the last page, Father Christmas seems real again. ‘The Jolly Christmas Postman’ was published in 1991 as a follow-up to the hugely successful (and equally wonderful) ‘The Jolly Postman’. Both books take place in a world where fairytale characters live side by side; kind of like in Jasper Fforde books but without all the homicide. Our leading man is a bicycle riding Postman who is rather jolly. He goes about his daily work of delivering correspondence to popular fairytale characters (totally want that job). In the first book he delivers, amongst other things; an[.....]

OK, there was no plan to post again today. However, I AM IN THE ZONE. Reading: 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense: The most intriguing scientific mysteries of our time by Michael Brooks Check me out! Reading science books; clever stuff, eh? Writing about science makes me nervous. What if Ben Goldacre stumbles upon my blog and exposes me as the thicko that I truly am? What if I sound like some pseudo-intellectual smart arse? Anyway, these fears are highly irrational, and science really dislikes things that are irrational. So I’ll just get on with it. The decision to read this book came after I’d drunkenly launched into my favourite ‘but how do they know?’ rant about science. This is essentially my adult equivalent of the toddler ‘But why?’ phase. It is infuriating for all involved, though at the time of ranting I’m normally so full of gin that I’m convinced that I’m on a par with Bertrand Russell in terms of my philosophical insights. After being humoured for a good 30 minutes by a patient and scientifically minded friend, he calmly told me that he admired my scepticism and recommended that I read this book. We then went on to win £3.00 on the quiz machine. These two facts aren’t related, but we rarely win more than £1, so it seemed worth a mention. I’m currently only three chapters in, and whilst I’m still a bit sketchy on the concept of QED, I’m finding the book very interesting. It is refreshing to read about things that science can’t currently answer.  The most exciting part is that scientists are challenging universally accepted principles in a bid to explain some of these mysteries. In the introduction Brooks describes how the scientific community will need a ‘paradigm shift’ in order to tackle some of these unanswered questions. This appeals to me[.....]