Books [Read] By Les

3/25/2016 Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden, 301 N Baldwin Ave, Arcadia, CA 91007, USA

LA Arboretum

as we come to another end of another week, I'm sitting at my desk at work bored out of my mind bummed that we're stuck here all day vs a half day like we've done every single year for the last 8 year because we're all of a sudden "corporate"..... so I've decided to post all these pictures from last weekends trip to The LA Arboretum so that i can beat the "I'm stuck at work because we suck" blues.

anyways, i cant believe that a) i have never been (although the Huntington Library is kinda similar) and most importantly that b) these little gems are hidden so near me!

B took me on Sunday cause we needed to be out and about walking and I'm sooo glad he brought me here. this place was beautiful and i cannot wait to go back.

hope you guys have a great Easter weekend! <3

life and other near-death experiences // camille pagan

published: 2015 // 242 pages

isbn: 1503945626

heard from: 3/21-22/2016

AMAZON:

Libby Miller has always been an unwavering optimist—but when her husband drops a bomb on their marriage the same day a doctor delivers devastating news, she realizes her rose-colored glasses have actually been blinding her.
With nothing left to lose, she abandons her life in Chicago for the clear waters and bright beaches of the Caribbean for what might be her last hurrah. Despite her new sunny locale, her plans go awry when she finds that she can’t quite outrun the past or bring herself to face an unknowable future. Every day of tropical bliss may be an invitation to disaster, but with her twin brother on her trail and a new relationship on the horizon, Libby is determined to forget about fate. Will she risk it all to live—and love—a little longer?

From critically acclaimed author Camille Pagán comes a hilarious and hopeful story about
a woman choosing between a “perfect” life and actually living.

---

i somehow have a month of free kindle books that ALSO includes audiobooks and since i pretend to be working about 7 out of 8 hrs a day, a lot of audio posts are coming your way!!!!

i have never heard of this author, i didn't look her up and i didn't bother to read the reviews on goodreads, i just dove right on in. this was a read solely based on the cover.
im going to just spoil it because....idk why not.

Lou has been diagnosed with cancer and i know i have bad memory but I'm not even going to pretend that i sort of remember the name of the cancer because its freaking hard to pronounce the name and well, we all have something better we could be doing instead of trying to remember/how to pronounce the thing.

....anyways, she goes home to tell her husband but he freaks out thinking its something else and it turns out that her husband of 8 (or was it 10) years is actually gay.

so of course this sends her spinning even more out of control.

she stabs him with a fork (on his hand), kicks him out, sells all their crap, hell, even the house and then leaves on a last hurrah vacation/trip.

her doctor (who majorly fucked up) told her she had about 6 months left and so she decided that after seeing her mother suffer, she wasn't going to go through that. she was going to go out with "dignity."

so she goes to, once again I'm not even going to try to pronounce the name, an island near Puerto Rico where her parents went once. she meets the pilot dude Shiloh who almost (not really, it was the birds fault) kills her. long story short they end up hooking up. but it was more than that....they fall in love.

all this stuff happens, she tells Shiloh and he eventually confesses that he's a cancer survivor and that she shouldn't give up at all.

her brother eventually gets to the island to talk to her and she finally tells him. he sets things in motion and she finally agrees to treatment.

so there's that.

finally she talks with her estranged husband, she moves in with her brother during her treatment and gets her shit together. (sorry, she just really pissed me off)

okay but you want the real spoilers!?
the end spoilers....what ends up happening spoilers?
here you go!!!!

turns out the doctor did indeed fuck up telling her she only had 6 months.

she finally gets treatment. she gets it under control. Shiloh ends up moving in with her and they get married and have twins. which is cool considering she couldn't have kids before.

the freaky part and i was like really?
she is having twin girls. her TWIN brother has twin boys.

too many twins on the dance floor! (flight of the conchords anyone?)

i know its genetic but THAT genetic!?

------

so yeah.

she frustrated me sooo much because she didn't get a second opinion. she just gave up and she, i feel like, didn't care about her father or brother and his family and what it would do to them. specially after their mothers death. she didn't fight! (and i know that made the story cause if she had then what...) but ahhh! like 90% of the time i wanted to slap her. and I'm going to write this and i hope you DON'T judge me because I'm a lover not a fighter...but i wish that at the end of it they would have told her that it was indeed too late cause she took her sweet ass time.

but yea thats it....as always theres stuff i left out. but basically, you get the gist of it.
now, what to ~~read~~ listen to next.

thanks for reading!

#lesreads on ig

random thoughts watching Paper Towns

-did the book really start with them finding a dead body? I don't member, i read it so long ago. But I don't think so.

-I'm a huge chicken. But watching this movie made me realize that!....you can build the courage to get into a scary place (it could be feelings....and what not but in this case im talking about a building) and then somehow manage to build up the courage to see it through.
But it's when it's time to get out that shit really hits the fan. Because you've managed to make it so far. And now you have to finish it. And that's when it's really scary. Cause that's when it can all go really wrong.

-think about the last person who broke you down. (And vice versa)
It took me 4 years to open up. and I'm still learning.
......so, here you are trying to mend the broken pieces but you're kind of afraid to open up.
So you used to love, idolize this other person and you think that you'll never be able to do that again.
But then one day, someone walks in and makes you forget the hurt. And isn't that an amazing thing?
How one person can wash all the pain away. And better yet, help build you up as well.
(I'm referring to how Margo shuts Q down. he's madly in love with her. But then one day he'll meet someone else and she will put Margo to rest and he'll feel for her more than he knew possible. And isn't it crazy that one person can come in to your life and do that!?) (And yes I know they're fictional characters, but you we get what I'm trying to say.)

-I read this book a while ago so I'm not super sure about the specifics cause horrible memory BUT I do know I like the book ending better. I like the bitchier end of Margo in the book vs the "sweet, I'm trying to find myself" Margo in the movie.
And also, Ben in the movie was my favorite character. He was the best.

-do you remember high school and that whole we're leaving our own separate ways feeling? Gosh, how naive I was to think that that was the end. Not the end of life but I mean, you see how they portray it in movies.....but I mean like it's so final.
If I knew then what I know now, I would have welcomed it with open arms.
Life as a grown up is amazing. Hard but amazing. And it seems so aahhh at times but that moment, honestly, it's nothing compared to what you face when you move on and start the real world. And it's weird that I feel that because I feel like I have yet to do something super major to prove that I am a "grown-up". But I guess what im saying is that that ending was sweet. Because I will never have that again. I might lose friendships and idk, a lot of other things but nothing will ever compare to that. In the sense that it will never be that sweet of a finale. (I could graduate college but I'm such an introvert that I speak to as little as people as possible so I don't see an attachment/leaving never seeing you again factor there)
nothing will end that easily and peacefully for me ever again.

Basically, watch the freaking movie (I'm not saying it's great) because if this is what it has me thinking at 3 am....what's it's guna have you thinking?

Sorry about my random thoughts but thx for reading!

Ps: I will re-read the book
Pps: please excuse misspellings and grammar errors. I'm 93% asleep.

after you // jojo moyes

published 2015 // 349 pages

isbn: 978-0-698-15204-5

read from: 2/26 to 3/17 // 2016

ILOVEMYNOOK!!!!

its funny how it went from "i have no idea what to say" about the first book to "all these ideas and thoughts going through my head and how do i get them out quickly without sounding like a hot mess" with this book.

let me start with this and make of it what you will.

do i believe that a second book needed to happen after the first one? absolutely not.
we know what the story was about and how it was going to end so...no. i had made my peace that we really didn't need to know anything further beyond that. i was thinking it was mostly about Will and Lou sort of but now that i read this book, i will admit it was nice to get closure to Lou and everyone else.
with that being said...as much as i think i would have been okay without this, i want to freaking send JM a fruit basket, a basket with whatever the heck inspires her to write and a basket of, i don't know, whatever else she wants cause i was laughing, crying and being angry all in one. and if a book can do that, then you know its a good one.

there were point where i was like really? does this really need to be happening, i could have done without this but then it sucked me back in.
it took me forever to finish this i guess because i wouldn't really devote time to it and i think it was maybe cause i HATED the idea of Lily buuuut i came around when it came to Lou and Sam stuff.

who are they?
tuun taaaa tuuuunnn!!! (imagine thats like a suspenseful, but not really, noise)

lets get to it.

sooo....its been about 2 years since Will's death.
Lou has traveled France and Paris and ultimately left because she was feeling burned out.
she's living in the loft that Will left her and has basically become an alcoholic.
from her loft, she and only she has access to the rooftop. so she gets drunk and goes up there every night.
one night however, she goes and manages to fall. from the fifth floor and if it wasn't for her neighbors crap, she'd be dead.
my first instant thought was, oooh girl, gonna end up like Will now aren't ya?
....she gets rescued but her life is still shit.

turns out she falls because she sees a young lady call out to her and that made her lose her balance (even though everyone thought she was trying to commit suicide).
she goes back home (to her parents) and stays there for bit.

blah blah blah.....
she goes back home. turns out the girl that caused her to fall is Lily.....SPOILER!!!!!! Lily is Will's daughter. the daughter he never knew he had. OVER but we know you probably read it. its okay.

to cut it short, Lily is a hot fucking mess.
Jesus, i HATED this character. she was such a freaking brat!
to cut it eeeeven shorter, Lily (okay basically mega spoilers as to why she's such a B so if ya dont want to know, skip ahead.....) is acting stupid and moody and drinking and smoking because she went to idk, a friends house where she played spin the bottle or something and it landed on this dude she was making eyes with, Peter. so the bet was that if she spun, she had to blow whoever it landed on.
lucky Peter.
her friends tell her she doesn't need to do it but in her head she wants to show them who the bad b is so she does it. and then Peter snaps a picture of her. and hes been bribing her for a good minute now. so whatever he wants, money, jewelry, whatever, shes been coughing up to keep him from posting that picture (oh what a time and age we live in.)

so she somehow makes her way in to Lou's home and Lou somehow feels that its her responsibility to protect her and take care of her. so when she has the final straw (because she took random people to her apt and they stole her grandmothers jewelry and hidden stack of $) and kicks her out, Lily is out living on the streets. its then that one of her stepfathers co-workers sees that Peter is bullying Lily and he buys him off for the phone. boom Peter is gone. now this creep sees the picture and basically wants to extort Lily for the phone/picture. he puts her up in a hotel and he uses that and the phone against her basically telling her that she needs to return the...what would you call it, not favor but i guess the "generosity" that he showed her for paying Peter off and giving her somewhere to stay.
...she freaks out runs away. shes missing for a few days....Sam finally finds her, calls Lou and gets her back.
up on the roof Lou knows but doesn't pressure her. she tells her her story in hopes that she will talk....and eventually she does.

so then they come up with this plan that YOU KNOW would never work in the real world and they get the phone back.

some more blah blah blah.
Lily meets her grandparents and you'd think she'd get a long with her grandfather more but nope she bonds with Camille more than anyone would have thought.

and that's it for Lily.
well, all that ill say. you still gotta read about her hot mess of a mom and how she ends up back to her old life.

Lily SPOILERS OVER

now, for Lou.
so she falls off her roof, gets saved, starts going to a support group where she meets Sam.
i wont tell you anything about him-ish cause that was a little baby plot twist that i didn't see coming but i thought was very used very well.
but long story short yes they do end up together. and i love there little love story. it wasn't easy but I'm so effin happy that she gets to be happy.

"I tried to show him that he was the answer to a question i hadnt even know i had been asking."

-Lou page 347

ill skip her whole work drama but i will spoil it and tell you that she ends up getting a job out of London with Nathan (!!!!! I loved Nathan!)

her sister Treena ends up moving with Thom to her flat in whatever city she lives in so she can have more opportunities for the both of them.

her mother basically finds herself in this book and realizes that theres more to life than just being a housewife. if I'm being honest, i didn't like the feminist twist to this. i didn't like that she labeled it feminism. why couldn't it just be about finding herself?
other than that it was pretty funny to see her bond with Maria and the fights with the dad over waxed legs (btw, who waxes their legs? i never have) and hairy armpits and all that were pretty funny and their reconciliation at the end was pretty sweet.

anyways, that's basically it.
i guess the big spoiler would be Lily and honestly i didn't know how i felt about her even needing to be created but i guess i can see how it all went together so i guess i liked her a little too.
...now i just need to wait for the paperback so i can go buy it at the dollar book store to have a complete set.

if ya read all my nonsense, thanks!
let me know, ill send you a starbucks giftcard as a thanks! lol

thanks for reading!
happy Friday!!!! <3

ps: when i say blah blah blah i meant it as...i dont want to throw in more spoilers. no way am i saying that there was nothing interesting in between...i just dont want to completely spoil the little things.

pps: as always, theres still A LOT of stuff i left out. i guess i like to spoil the big things and make ya wonder how they happened! ;)

ppps: NOW i definitely think there is no need for a book #3 buuuut if she happened to write one out on Lou and Sam and babies and idk wtf else, id read it. (but please leave it like this!)

#lesreads on ig

emojis // diy

hey guys!

just popping in for a suuuper quick diy!

i know emojis were the thing last year but i REFUSE to let them go.

they're too cute not to use them all the time!

B's sister is having a huge bday bash this upcoming weekend and i somehow ended up in charge of a few props (not these).

i wanted to make some emoji faces for her but i was 100% too lazy to try to cut perfect circles. or at least sorta perfect circles so i was going to let the idea go.

luckily, i ended up at ikea with my mom and i saw these and ding ding diiing! idea lights went off!

from then on it was suuuuper easy to finish em!

supplies:

-cork boards (the link above is for amazon. i couldn't find them on the ikea website but they are waaaaaay cheaper in store. like $3 and change.)

-brush. (brushes?) i used the one in the picture and a smaller one and would rinse in between colors. but really the big one was only used for the yellow and the small one was used for everything else.

-craft paint in colors needed. (i used yellow, red, black, baby blue. for the white i used a chalk ink marker cause i didn't have the paint)

super easy to make.
i painted them yellow and let them dry overnight.
then i just free-handed everything with pencil (except the hearts. i had a little cut out for those). the mistakes i made were easy to erase and you cant really see them once you erase them.

i made faces in both the front and back
I'm horrible at drawing so this was the best that i could do.
i cant wait to see how many people like these!!!
I'm super excited for that photo-booth.
and I'm not even kidding but I'm bringing a few of these back with me cause i love em!

thanks for stopping by!

(#lesdiys on ig)

me before you // jojo moyes

published 2012 // 369 pages

isbn: 978-0-14-312454-2 (pbk)

read from: 2/20-25/2016

id seen this book plenty of times but i never really thought to pick it up until my coworker was like "come on! read it so you can tell me what its really about cause i want to see the movie!!!" and so i finally picked it up (also after seeing the trailer) and now i cant wait to hate the movie!!!!

i feel sorry for B because im dragging him with me and hes probably gonna witness me ugly cry.

cant wait!

i think at this point everyone knows the plot of the story and therefore i don't really think im spoiling anything buuut lets get in to it.

amazon:

They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose . . .
Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.
Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.
A Love Story for this generation, Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common—a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart?

and now....

Louisa is this 27 y/o who is completely okay with her boyfriend (even though its gone to crap) and her job at the coffee shop (i cant remember the name, the buttery bun or something like that.)

anyways, it closes up and so now she needs to get a job because she's sort of a bread winner for the family (i can not tell you how much that pissed me off!!!!!)

she gets all these odd end jobs until finally she gets an interview for the position of a care taker.

long story short, she is hired to i guess you can call it, take care of Will.

except that not really cause how can you take care of a quadriplegic when you have no experience.

Will was in an accident that basically renders him unable to do anything for himself and because of his quality of life, he has decided that he no longer wants to live and has given his parents 6 more months and then its off to Switzerland to commit assisted suicide.

this is were Lou comes in to play.

because she is different from all others, full of life to cut it short, she is hired.

she is hired to show Will that there is reason to live even if its not how he pictured it.

she ends up overhearing his mother and sister talking about the whole Switzerland situation so she freaks out and quits.

then she ends up coming back.

she makes it her mission to take him on trips to show him that yes, life is still possible even if its different than you expected.

through out the book, they eventually fall in love but its cut short because Will still goes through with his plan.

i dont really know how to break it down because you kind of already know whats going to happen. its been out long enough and talked about enough that you already know.

there are really no spoilers i feel like that i can give you and i dont really know how to go about writing this post. { edit: there are 2!!! but ill keep em to myself ;) }

all i can say is that i felt really angry at the fact that Lou was kind of the bread winner for the family. i mean i get it. shitty situations and her father helped as much as he could but gah!

and her sister, i liked her a lot but at some points bugged me because i felt like she was excused for having a kid.

there was this hate that Louisa had for Will's mom and being one sided on the story i guess i can see why she felt that way but then there's a chapter from his moms point of view and i LOVED it.

its true, she's tried her ass off, maybe not in the correct way, but shes tried.

i feel like you can NEVER speak on behalf of someone else's life.

im pretty sure in real life it would kill a mother to know that her son doesnt want to live but at the end of the day, i can get up and walk away and not worry about the myriad of infections, pains, and problems that his wounds have caused. and i respect her for i guess giving Will his voice in his option to take his life even if she didnt give him voice in other aspects.

i really liked the book and im currently reading the second book so i cant wait to see what happens with Louisa....so far so.....

have you read the book ?

what did you think?