Spiritus Mundi

https://www.eloquii.com/customerservice-help?subViewFolderId=about_us&subViewId=about_us_main Photo from eloquii.com You should never feel forced to wear clothes that are baggy, ugly or too tight. Your wardrobe should encourage you to express yourself to the fullest extent of who you are and all that you want to be. In the last Self Love series post , I talked about Average Emily and her quest to find clothes that fit the body of the average American woman…and that fit her style, too. With the help of Whitney McGruder of  witandtravesty.com , I’ve put together a list of some of the most size-inclusive stores you can shop at. It’s easy enough to search the web for the best plus size stores, but what do those listicles really tell you? I don’t know about you, but seeing one cute shirt isn’t quite enough for me. Instead of that, I’ll be going in depth to see what these stores have to say about their sizing and purpose. I’ll do a price comparison of basic items and see ...

Reviews Without Spoilers is a series in which I review the books I've read without giving away any more than the inside cover plot summary would. I've read three novels by Markus Zusak. My first was The Book Thief (2005) , the world-renowned bestseller about a young girl growing up in Nazi Germany. It quickly became one of my favorite books of all time because I'm intrigued by historical stories, moved by the characters, and inspired by the writing style. Because I liked it so much, I went back and read one of Zusak's older books, I Am the Messenger  (2002) - it was thoroughly disappointing. I guess, somehow in the three years between novels, Zusak found what it takes to tell a compelling, realistic story. I'm glad he did! I discovered The Book Thief  in 2013, so I was a bit behind the times, but I adored it nonetheless. In 2016, I went to see Zusak speak near my hometown, and it was just wonderful. He was insightful, purposeful and honest. He seemed to real...

Reviews Without Spoilers is a series in which I review the books I've read without giving away any more than the inside cover plot summary would. It seemed like practically everyone was reading Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine  by Gail Honeyman. For some reason, perhaps the overwhelming popularity of the book or the silly-sounding title, I'd assumed this was a light, maybe even humorous novel. While there are certainly laugh-out-loud funny parts, my assumptions of this book were most definitely wrong. I'd gone in totally blind, not even reading a single synopsis before I started it. All I knew was that it was part of Reese's Book Club...which was likely another reason I thought it'd be a light story, considering the Hallmark-y-ness of the last Reese book I read, One Day in December (you can see my review on that book here) . I didn't even have the more-telling white version of the book's cover to go off of. So, if you'd like to be a bit more...

In  Self Love, Part 1 , I talked about the problems with the way we view obesity. One of the results of this is limited access to clothing. One of the most common names for girls in the US is Emily, so we'll use that name for the average woman in America. EMILY Emily is 5'4"; according to the CDC , the average waist size of a woman is about 38 inches. Look up a size chart to see what sort of clothes Average Emily would fit into. Some size charts strangely  skip over her; others just let you assume  what her size might be. The most valuable  apparel brands in 2018 were Nike, H&M, Zara and Adidas. In each of these stores, respectively, Emily would be a size XL, XL, nonexistent, and XXL. Average Emily should at least be able to find clothes in 3 of these 4 stores, so let's look at her options. As we do, let's remember that "average" includes a lot of people bigger and smaller than that 38 inch waist. So let's keep those other sizes in mind,...

Reviews Without Spoilers is a series in which I review the books I've read without giving away any more than the inside cover plot summary would. One Day in December  by Josie Silver is the book everyone has been posting about for the entire 2018 holiday season. If you missed out, no worries: I'm here for you (says the girl who didn't finish reading it until January). I'm glad I waited, though. A part of Reese's Book Club, this cozy love story is exactly what I needed to start off my year on a happy note. The premise of the story (as visualized in the cover art) is that girl sees boy while she's on a bus. Boy sees girl. They make romantical eye contact through the window, but boy misses bus. They instantly become obsessed with finding each other, which they do, but under very different circumstances. As you read, you'll hear from mainly girl's perspective (her name is Laurie), but you'll get some of boy's voice (Jack), too. I will say t...

Reviews Without Spoilers is a series in which I review the books I've read without giving away any more than the inside cover plot summary would. I'm not gonna lie - I sincerely love reading Dan Brown's novels. His are the only suspense/mystery books I really read. I appreciate the academic puzzle style that keeps me engaged in his fast-paced stories.  That being said, I think his latest novel,  Origin , missed the mark.  What I love most about Dan Brown's serial main character, Robert Langdon, is how he uses his career as a symbologist (and professor at Harvard) to resolve the strange situations he finds himself in. As is usually the case with the first of a series, I think the first Langdon novel,  Angels and Demons , is the best example of this. The other books do a decent job of utilizing symbology and code breaking, too, which is what keeps me invested in Dan Brown.  Origin , though, feels like it could have existed without Robert Langdo...

"I hate going to the gym and seeing those overweight people wearing leggings and workout tops. If you need to wear anything bigger than a large, you should just stick to baggy t-shirts and sweatpants." An old coworker said this loudly while standing directly behind me. And I wear XL. I interacted with this person on a daily basis, and I assume the best in her. She didn't direct this statement toward me, and I'll give her the benefit of the doubt by assuming she didn't notice I was sitting right in front of her. I don't begrudge her for saying it, nor do I think the statement makes her mean or stupid or anything like that. But that doesn't negate the fact that I had to leave to go cry in the bathroom when I heard it. I didn't confront her or say anything to anyone about her statement. Maybe that's why it hurt so much. Obesity is a taboo subject for most people. We avoid talking about it because we don't want to make other people fee...