Grad School Is My Life Now

I am five and a half months into my one year grad program and I’m wondering where the time has been going. I am currently on reading week, which is an imaginary break where we kid ourselves into thinking that we’ll have to time to relax when really every moment is filled with writing presentations, papers, researching, and marking undergraduate mid-terms. Although I will say that I just spent yesterday entirely on the couch watching Being Erica on Netflix and eating sale Valentine’s Day chocolate… I enjoy living the chick lit stereotype sometimes.

I am happy to share that my proposal for my major research paper (MRP) was accepted over the holiday break! This means that I am officially writing about chick lit for grad school. Now I am in the middle of compiling the next step, which is a full bibliography for this 50 page monster I will be writing. I have a pile of really cool books. Although chick lit is still new in the real of academic research, there were a lot more books or anthologies than I thought there were. Additionally, I have chosen to look through the lens of postfeminism and confessional writing so the books keep getting more and more interesting. My school library is connected to three other universities so most of the time I have to put a call in for the books to be delivers… I love getting the emails that tell me they have arrived!

Other than my MRP I have had some interesting classes including a class on cosmetics and aesthetics that lead me to writing a paper about “pornification,” advertising, and postfeminism based on this image:

 

Now this term I am taking two film classes, one about digital cinema that has us watching films like Jurassic Park and talking about Star Wars. I kinda love grad school!

So, I’ve been thinking about this blog and my abandonment of it. I have been thinking how maybe my outlook needs to change for it at the moment. Because I want to start updating again but I know I don’t have the time for the kind of updates I used to be doing like reviews. So, for now, I’m loosening the concept of this blog. I want to talk about my MRP as it moves along and I will be reading books related to chick lit, obviously, so I will keep it in this realm. I hope that writing entries as I go will help keep me on track and be interesting for anyone reading. Maybe I can get things moving along on here again so that I can stop feeling compelled to write “I’m sorry I haven’t written” posts like I used to apologize to my diary for not writing when I was 8 years old.

I will leave it at that. Now, I am off to mark 50 midterms. The fun never stops!

 

Review: Picture Perfect

For Lauren Tate, a high-powered TV producer, sex, lies, and scandal make for a great movie-of-the-week, but when she becomes the target of a smear campaign, even the most salacious of Hollywood’s tales can’t compare to her real life drama. With her soon-to-be-ex-husband leading the effort to sully her reputation, and her former assistant threatening to snatch her hard-earned position at Timeless Television out of her hands, Lauren’s perfectly planned life quickly begins to unravel at the seams. 

Clawing her way back to the top of the TV food chain is no easy task, especially in an industry where backstabbing is a sport and gossip is a full time business. But Lauren learns just how cut throat showbiz can truly be when the hottest scandal in Tinsel Town turns deadly and the Hollywood hunk who’s stolen her heart is missing in action. Can she salvage her career, her reputation, and her love life? Or will Hollywood be the death of her?

Update: Wherein I Explain Where I Have Been

Well folks, it certainly has been awhile. My posting abilities have followed a slow decline with an ultimate halt in the last couple of months, my most regrettable moment being that I claimed I would blog through all of May, even declaring a theme and then NOTHING.  For this I feel I owe it to you (whoever might still be out there) and myself an explanation of what has been up and where I plan to go from here. Because bottom line is, I still love this blog and the things and people it has brought to me and I still have a lot to say on the topic of chick lit.

International Chick Lit Month

All my term papers are handed in and final exams written. Now I spend my days sleeping, re-watching Sex and the City, and discovering that there is an apartment somewhere under the month old dirty laundry and mac n cheese boxes.  Thankfully, I also get to come back to the pile of books that have been waiting to be read. Finally, I am just in time for International Chick Lit Month!

Last year Chicklit Club, Chick Lit is Not Dead, Chick Lit Central and Novelicious dubbed the month of May Chick Lit Month to highlight the goings on of chick lit authors and fans. I am excited that Chick Lit Month is back for 2012! In honor of this prestigious month I have decided to dub May Confessions month at Bitch Lit.

I had the good fortune of reading Sophie Kinsella’s Confessions of a Shopaholic for one of my English classes this year and loved every page of it! Confessional writing is a predominate theme within the chick lit genre and I plan to explore the uses and implications of it while I dive into my TBR pile.

So, dear chick lit fans, what are your Confessions suggestions and what aspect of confessional writing would you like to hear about?

Review: Recession Proof

Sometimes going after what you want is the hardest thing you will ever do…

Meet Helen. Smart, successful and obliviously trapped. For the past six years, Helen has given her life and her heart to her cushy corporate finance job and to Mark without question. However as the Recession sweeps the Nation, she is one of many left unemployed and with the burning question of what does she really want in life.

Recession Proof is a debut novel for anyone that has settled in their career and relationship but has discovered that what really matters in life is living it.

My Short Skirt is Not an Invitation: Anti-Street Harassment Week

The sun is shining and it is unseasonably warm in Southwestern Ontario. I gleefully shed my winter coat and boots, trading them in for the cute spring dresses that have been hibernating in my closet. I choose the blue denim-ish dress with the rolled up 3/4 length sleeves, skirt above my knees, and collar that, if I wore a small neck scarf, makes me look like a 1960s flight attendant. I finish it with my black ballet flats and the retro style brown leather handbag that I love so much.

I don’t often “do cute” but when I do, I revel in it.

But as I step outside and start down the street to catch a bus, my gleefulness is quickly replaced with unease. With every step carrying me closer to the busy main road, questions, frustration, and anger build in my head:

“Are You Ready to Be Strong?”

Today is International Women’s Day and to celebrate I want to share a bit about reading as a girl/woman and the woman characters from books and media that have (and do) inspire me.

Since starting this blog and diving into literature in the last year or so I have been thinking about my life experiences with fiction and imagination. As a girl I loved to read. I can remember keeping a flashlight under my bed so that after my parents tucked my sister and I into bed (oh the days of sharing a room!), I could continue to read under the covers.