Feature Friday: Girl in Pieces and Wishes

Happy Friday! You made it! In case you were wondering, this is pretty much how my week was.

Image from Reddit

But on the plus side, I got to enjoy a really great book and go back and enjoy some of my very favorite music. So here's what I've been enjoying this week!

Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

Image from Goodreads

Guys, this book was SO great. I loved the way it was written and how it split chapters into easy to digest chunks because it does deal with some serious and heavy content. This is the story of a 17 year old girl named Charlotte Davis (Charlie) who is a girl in pieces. As the book opens, she's living in an institution as she recovers from a serious incident. As the story unfurls you learn that the incident was caused by self-harm and she's working with professionals to reach a stable point in her mental and physical health so that she may move on. I honestly don't want to tell you much more than that, because the story is so beautifully told that it seems a shame for me to summarize any of it. 

Glasgow's storytelling is so compelling and honest. The ways in which she discusses mental health, self harm, suicide, and drug and alcohol abuse allows though who are unfamiliar with these incredibly serious topics to understand and even empathize with Charlie as she works through her problems. I found myself relating with Charlie in some ways, rooting for her throughout the novel, and wishing that I could reach out and help her while I was reading. There were definitely some beautiful quotes that struck me as I was reading so I tweeted one and Kathleen Glasgow actually responded to my tweet! How neat is that!

@bookemblog I love that you quoted this! Thank you!! ❤

— Kathleen Glasgow (@kathglasgow) October 23, 2016

In short you should definitely read this!
10/10 charcoal drawings

Wishes-A Magical Gathering of Disney Dreams from Walt Disney World's Wishes Fireworks at Magic Kingdom

Y'all this is so corny but I don't even care. It's been a stressful week for me as I've been really digging into my Honors Thesis, so I've needed some seriously uplifting music to make the grind a little less taxing and this was it for me. I fricken love basically everything about Disney and Disney World. Disney World is where I have some of my fondest memories because that's where we've spent many of our family vacations (tbh we still do). So listening to the music from my all-time favorite fireworks show just gave me that little extra push to keep working on my thesis even though I was totally worn out. It's inspiring in the most cheesy of ways, but sometimes that's just what you need, you know? Plus that common tone modulation gets me every time. It's so ridiculous, but in the very best way. The whole thing just fills me up with joy but also kind of makes me cry (at least when I'm there and see the fireworks too. It's moving, so judge me). It takes all of the best parts of the best songs of the best Disney movies. What more could you really ask for?

10/10 Wishes