In My Good Books

So I've had a bit of a reading renaissance - I have successfully finished

• Georgette Heyer - Friday's Child - she is self explantory, one of my favourite authors
• Lalita Tademy - Cane River: Highly recommend this book...it's about slaves in Southern States of American from the late 1700's or so till it ends in 1936 - fictionalized account of the author's family - it really resonates!
• Rick Riordan - Percy Jackson series: I finished 2.5 books in one night - that should tell you how addictive the story is - the style of writing is ok but the story is fabulous - It basically takes Greek mythology, tells you it exists today and whoopie! you're off!
• P.G Wodehouse - Laughing Gas: Not his best  Novel-not-in-a-series but still a good read, predictable but good!
• Lynee Truss - Tennyson's Gift: Not fantastic but at least I can now name one work by Tennyson. Interesting to see how the author links up famous authors and artists from that time - Lewis Carroll, Tennyson, artist G.F Watts - It also introduced me to the art of Phrenology - one learns new things everyday!
• Kathy Reichs - Devil Bones: The main character in this series is Dr.Temperance Brennan - yes! That's right of the famous TV serial 'Bones' (I love that show and not just because David Boreanaz(a.k.a Angel from Buffy the VampireSlayer') is in it). I found it a little too technical for my liking but also learnt something new from the book about different religions like Voodoo and Santeria - always nice to know Roman Catholicism is not the answer to everything!
• Kathryn Fox - Skin and Bones: The best way to get hooked onto reading again is to read a crime novel -the gruesome and grisly ensure that you finish what you start so the habit begins! This was a onetime read but if I see a book by the author at an airport, would definitely pick up the copy!
• Malcolm Gladwell - Outliers: This was actually recommended to me by my cousin and though it's a fun read, I would not say it pointed out something that I had never heard of before - community is important, family support, etc etc
• Matthew Reilly - Seven Ancient Wonders: The book would be a one time read but for the amazing descriptions of the wonders espescially the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the fortress - These are fictional but still fabulous!. There are pictorial representations of the wonders as well which I thoroughly enjoyed.

What I also need to mention are the books that I have not finished in the course of the year:

• Joanne Harris - Rune Marks: the book seems interesting enough but cannot hold my attention to actually finish it
• Kim Edwards - The Memory Keeper's Daughter: Again, stuck at the quarter way point
• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - That Thing Around Your Neck: Luckily, these are short stories so I completed 4 but still have 5-6 to make my way through - Gaaah!
• Vikram Seth - A Suitable Boy: I started this book thrice over teh course of 2 yrs - one time even making it to a 100 pages but cannot cannot bring myself to do it! by the time, I sort out the characters, I'm like Gimme an MB!

Hi! My name is Curly and I am an addict.

It's true - I have a substance abuse problem as 'Carrie' says, except mine is nice smelling cosmetics and not footwear. I do have a mega collection of footwear as well but I don't think that's unhealthy - ok lets focus on one problem at a time here, shall we?
Back to my junkie status - I own more than a kilo of make up which is a lot for a girl who hardly wears any on a daily basis - I more than make up for that when I go 'partay' but....on a daily basis, I'm lucky if I get some kajal on. Then why on earth do I have 5 different eye liners, 6 shadow palettes, mascaras, lipsticks - one item of make up that I never wear as well as the many different powders and glitters and what not? and this is not even taking into account my obsession with lipglosses. However these are minor trangressions compared with the mother of my problems - creams, lotions and moisturisers (CLM for future reference). I have excessively dry skin - the kind that scales if left to it's own devices - thus I don't and smother it instead in every variety of CLM's I can find.
In the recent past, this has included:

• Johnson's Baby Lotion
• Baby oil
• Biotique massage oil
• Jergen's Summer Glow moisturiser
• Almond Oil
• Vaseline Intensive Care lotion with Cocoa butter
• Bath and Body Works Sweet pea cream
• Nivea
• Efaderm & Emoderm - these were dermatologist recommended
• Freeman's Caramel and Vanilla body lotion
• Freeman's Peppermint foot lotion
• Free Man Raspberry Hand Lotion

And there are different face and under eye creams - Yes! I need to use undereye creams!
This post was actually inspired after S commented that my christmas list has more creams than anything else and those creams were all recommended on the beautyaddict blog which is a site I'm raving about. I just wish I earned in dollars so I could buy half the things she talks about - I've never even heard of half the brands she talks about or half the uses of the products! It makes me wonder how shallow I am that the fact that Sephora has some special deal on excites me more that Barrack Obama winning the presidency!