Extraordinary Means-Inspired Outfit

Hey, readers and fashionistas!

Have you picked up Extraordinary Means yet?  Go. get. it.  I reviewed it yesterday and it was such a great read.

When I was thinking about fashion inspiration from this book, I couldn't focus on just one character.  Lane, Sadie, Nick, Marina, and Charlie are such a solid group that I knew I had to focus on all of them.  And that led me to pajamas.

In the book, the group decides to go to a movie night at the school's gym.  But while every other student dresses in pajamas (as the tradition goes), Lane and Sadie's group wear fancy dresses and suits so that they stand out and have a night to remember.  So we never get to see them wear their pajamas together, and I would imagine that their pajamas would have major character.

So today I picked five t-shirts that I think these five characters would use as pajama shirts.  None of the characters would be fancy in their pj choices, but I do think they would want to make a statement.  And here are my choices:

Here's how I chose the T-shirts:

• Nick would be wearing the "World's Greatest DAD!" shirt because he would find it hilarious.  He'd want everyone asking him if he was really a dad (and the underlying assumption that he had gotten a girl pregnant).  
• Sadie would wear the Mrs. Peacock tee.  She and Lane have an ongoing Clue joke, and this would show him that she wanted that joke to continue.
• Marina would wear the Slytherin shirt.  She loves Harry Potter, and let's be honest--Slytherin has a major cool factor--it's dangerous and risky.
• Lane, of course, would wear the Stanford shirt.  Maybe at first because he didn't want to forget about his goals, and later because he wanted to remember that he had more to his life.
• Charlie would wear an Oregon Trail T-shirt.  Because he knows the severity of his illness, he would find humor in wearing a shirt from another past illness.  Who knows, maybe he would use the statement "You have died of dysentery" as a lyric for a song?!

So what do you think?!  Can't you see these characters proudly wearing these shirts into the gym?

This was one of my favorite fashion posts because I can totally see it.  And I really want the Mrs. Peacock shirt now!

Like any of these shirts?  Check out all the details here.

Thanks so much for checking out my Robyn Schneider Week posts!  What a fun week it has been!  Can't wait to see more books from Robyn down the road!

REVIEW: Extraordinary Means

Just a few days left of Robyn Schneider Week!  Today is a review of Robyn's new book, Extraordinary Means, and wow did it not disappoint!  Believe me, I had high expectations after reading her first book and was super excited to jump into this one.

So let's get talking about it!

• Standalone novel
• Realistic fiction

The Gist:

Tuberculosis is back as a full-on threat, and there is no cure.  Lane is a teen diagnosed with the disease, and he has been sent to Latham House, a boarding school/camp/medical facility that will keep him quarantined and monitored until he can return to society, a cure is found, or he dies.  Lane is devastated by this change in his life, since it means he likely won't receive early acceptance to Stanford, get to take his SATs, or graduate with his class as salutatorian.  But then he sees Sadie, a girl who used to attend the same summer camp as him, and he starts to see living in a new way.  And even though living with TB is horrible, being at Latham House might not be so bad.

What I Loved:

• The cover!  Robyn Schneider said at a recent author event that she thought the cover was "ok," but I love it!  So beautiful, eye-catching, and meaningful.  It even kind of matches Robyn's first book.
• The overall message of this book is beautiful and beautifully portrayed.  Put down the attitude of what you wish would happen and just LIVE.  The characters represented this so well.
• A perfect mixture of humor, romance, devastation, and suspense.  I'm not always a realistic reader, but I am falling in love with this genre because of books like this.
• Once again, the characterization is spot on.  I want to be a part of Sadie's crowd.
• The ending...still has me thinking about it.  And an ending should do that.

What I Didn't Love:

• There's a lot of internalization in this book--much more thinking than action for both Lane and Sadie.  I think I would have read faster if there had been more action.

My favorite quote:
"But I like to think of all those little moments that add up to the final one, because it meant that my death would be my own, the result of my life, and not just something that happened to me."

A great book--Robyn Schneider brought her A-game again!  Have fun reading it!

An outfit based off of Sadie's group of friends tomorrow!

My Interview with Robyn Schneider!

Today's post is probably one of my favorites ever, because it takes me back to the GREAT experience of meeting and interviewing Robyn Schneider.  Robyn's publicist was kind enough to give me time to talk with Robyn before a stop on her Epic Reads book tour.  Thanks so much to Robyn for this experience!

Robyn's new book, Extraordinary Means, will be reviewed here on the blog tomorrow (spoiler: it's so amazing!), and Robyn went on a small tour a few weeks ago to promote the book.  The book follows a group of students who have tuberculosis and are forced to live at a camp/boarding school while they await treatment, a cure, or possibly death. 

I just asked Robyn a few questions about the book and, of course, beauty products!  Check out Robyn's YouTube channel if you haven't yet! 

Enjoy!

Julia: So we're both kind of nerdy/quirky, but we're both also into fashion.  How do you combine those two worlds?  Usually nerdy people aren't fashionable, and fashionable people aren't nerdy, so how do you combine those two worlds?

Robyn: I think that nerdy people can be very fashionable.  If you're nerdy about the Victorian era, then you start dressing a little bit more Victorian.  You're into cameos, and granny boots, and you're into corsets.  So I think it just depends on what your nerd passion is.  If it's Star Trek, then you're probably not going to be the most fashionable girl, but it really depends on if your fandom relates to fashion.

Julia:  What are your top 3 beauty products?  What could you not go without?

Robyn:  I really like the Kevyn Aucoin curling mascara.  It rubs off with soap and water.  You can rub gently and it just peels off like glue, like the good kind of glue.  And then I guess I really like the Tarte cheek stains.  I think those are really pretty.  They're really subtle.  They look really scary in the tube, but it's like putting a push pop on your face.  And then my standby lip color is Revlon Just Bitten Kissable balm stains.  Cause they're really hydrating and they stay on.  And I like the orange color because it's bright and citrus.  They're better than most high-end balm stains.

Julia:  So in The Beginning of Everything, I feel like part of the underlying message is finding yourself when party of your identity has fallen apart or disappeared.  What is the message you're trying to get across in Extraordinary Means?

Robyn:  The message is that if you keep preparing for an ideal version of your life, you never really get to live your life.  If you keep saying "Well next year I'll be happy because I'll have ____ or I'll achieve ____, it's never going to happen.  I thought Lane's character represented a part of myself that I realized that I indulged in grad school in the wrong way, believing that I had to be a doctor and help people in that concrete way to be happy.  I was just putting off living my life because I kept thinking "Oh, well it'll be so long until I'm a doctor, until I'm helping people" and I just got very upset that I felt like I was wasting time.  And I think you can't really waste time, but you can spend it unwisely.

Julia: And I feel like bucket lists have become such a trendy thing, but it's all about doing something later, not now.

Robyn: It's like saying "I'll be happy once I've accomplished these things," and that's so dangerous.  We shouldn't make bucket lists, but we should list all the things that we've accomplished and maybe add 5 things to the bottom that they want to complete the list.  So we don't have lists that say "here are all the things I haven't done."

Julia:  So is Extraordinary Means partly autobiographical in some way?

Robyn: I think everything I write is hugely autobiographical.  I just take emotions that I'm having about something from my life and just translate it into emotions someone else would be having from something different in their life, but it's usually related.


Thanks again, Robyn!  I would definitely add this interview to a list of things I've accomplished!

Come back tomorrow for a review of Extraordinary Means!

The Extraordinary Means Tag

I love Robyn Schneider.  I love The Beginning of Everything (review to come soon!).  And I'm sure I'll love Extraordinary Means.  So when Robyn made a Tag video for the release of her new book, I knew I had to do it!  I love tag videos, so I thought it would be fun to make one with my friend Emily.

So here are our answers to the Extraordinary Means tag questions.  What are your answers?  Leave them in a comment below, or better yet, make your own video response!

Enjoy!