2nd Book: How to Murder Your Life| Cat Marnell

Back in 2014 one of my favorite guilty pleasure pastimes was to curl up in bed with my laptop and some chips and devour Cat Marnell’s most toxic parts of her life on XOJANE. A beauty editor who rose (and fell) in the ranks in Conde Nast and then found her way into a position at Jane Pratt’s “feminist” website as a beauty editor. Not your typical beauty editor of course Cat is a self proclaimed wreck. And she shares it all for our assessment or maybe her own therapy? With her incessant drug-use, her debilitating alcoholism, and ongoing battle with eating disorders, Cat openly uncovered something we never consider in popular culture: the functioning drug-addict and from her first article: I was hooked.  So, When I heard her hilariously titled How to Murder Your Life was coming out, I preordered it’s been sitting patiently on desk nightstand and TBR ever since.

Here’s the real thing I love about Cat: She is a goddamn relic. She reminds me with fondness of my youth. There was a great epic time in 2000s were thin bleached blonde #betches ruled the world in Juicy Couture sweatsuits, smeared lipstick, and stepping out of a car without panties on was a trend. Think about that for a second. Cat regularly mixes all type of drugs in the most exclusive clubs with a cast of famous characters while having less than 500 calories in her system on a fucking Tuesday. And yet she still manages to get to work the next day. Not only does she get to work, but she advises how you too can look work-appropriate after you’ve had long night of doing blow and drinking mojitos. From a personal standpoint: Cat is my best version of vintage New York Downtown trash that I still sort of live for. She is an era that is denying out. A true maverick who doesn’t give a fuck. And despite that I should probably hate her, I don’t.

With more self described white privilege than you can throw at her, Cat Marnell is horribly transparent which lends itself for me to see right through the reality of the situation. From her few articles were she quotes “writes beauty advice for party girls”, it’s not lost on me that if she even truly is writing for quote “party girls”, white should be included somewhere. No POC could ever act this way and still manage all the success she has amassed. Only a very pristine white woman could be allowed to proclaim themselves a mess and still managed this a this amount of second chances. Cat even already knows this. She’s quite a nuanced and underrated intelligent person. Maybe that’s part of it. Why I don’t find her irrupting, but rather compelling. She very self-aware and this makes for a great writer. Hopefully her self-awareness with make for a very juicy messy memoir with enough drugs and mishaps to carry me for days.

I bet Cat wouldn’t like it any other way either.

Join us this week to in reading this wonderful train-wreck How to Murder Your Life by my favorite party girl Cat Marnell.

You can find it at your local indie bookstore, or here if your lazy (like me) here.

Let’s connect friends on instagram @thricedclub and twitter @thricedclub

 

 

 

 

 

 

March Theme: Nevertheless, She Persisted| Three Memoirs By Three Women

March is my favorite month of the year. Firstly, it’s my birthday month. Secondly, here in NYC March is about when the weather starts giving us a break. It isn’t quite yet Spring, but slowly we start creeping into those 50s and 60s: that dewy Sweater Weather. Thirdly and most importantly it is Women’s History Month. To honor this important month of feminine excellence we will be exploring women’s stories told in their own words, a political act it itself. There is such great power in telling your #ownstory. Way too many impactful women have been erased from history, diminished as lesser, or horribly turned into maniac pixie dream girls. Not anymore! This month we will be reading three memoirs by three very different women. 

Credit to @elitexcellence

Emphasis on very different! This month we will be stressing the importance of a diverse array of women’s lives. It is not enough to have 30 women’s memoirs chart The NYT Bestsellers list by a bunch of thin blonde conventionally attractive white women writing about overcoming their professional hurdles, addictions to drugs, or eating disorders. Please don’t misread my candor here: I’m not saying this to shame anyone or diminish professional hurdles, drug addictions, or eating disorders.  One of my favorite memoirs will always s be Mayra Hornbacher’s controversial Wasted, a history of her battles with eating disorders and I look forward to reading another women’s memoir about that topic this month. Do you know why? Because those women’s stories are important and need to be told, but they aren’t the only stories. It is my aim and responsibility to celebrate a variety of women’s stories all across the spectrum. As there is a social responsibility to not ‘single story’ or erase the stories of disenfranchised and minority women, but rather uplift the variety. We living in the greatest time in human history for inclusion, so let’s look to actually achieving that.  (see: intersectionality) 

 

 Prolific activist author and Queen of the Memoir herself Maya Angelou once said that “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story”.  For National’s Women’s History month, we will aim to honor this ideology with these simple rules:

1. We will delve into the lives of three women not only with fine-tooth comb, but with hairpin delicacy.
2. We will try our bests to not unfairly judge the actions of women who may be different than us too harshly.
3. We will learn through their stories and hopefully empower us to express our own.

Our 1st book will be announced tomorrow around 9:00AM. Mark your calendars, get your coffee, and open those wallets. Although, this writer surely doesn’t need your money, let’s take the time to support another woman: A women of color. A fat woman. Okay no more hints! 

Question of the Month: The below are some of favorite memoirs of all time. What is your all time favorite woman’s memoir?  Let us know in the comments

Let’s connect friends on instagram @thricedclub and twitter @thricedclub

 

#BombCyclone: Stay Home and Read

BOMB CYCLONE sounds like a bad mid-year thriller starring a lowly damaged detective in a cold grey Boston town. That ones for free Hollywood. I see you Ben Affleck.