Grads

Grads

I would like to suggest a book from a MALS graduate for inclusion on your holiday shopping list. The book, Happy Pretty Messy: Cultivating Beauty & Bravery When Life Gets Tough, was written by Natalie Wise (MALS’10) and was published in February by Skyhorse Publishing.

As I started reading it was apparent that the book was written by a young extrovert. By not being in either category, I was not sure I could really relate to it. Instead, I found it mesmerizing. Never before had I read about that end-of-theworld feeling that one experiences in the middle of the night, ready to collapse into bed and suddenly realizing that your freshly washed bedding has not been magically wrestled onto your bed. I really thought I was the only one who did that. Since Natalie doesn’t mention it, I probably am the only one to experience remembering that the sheets are still wet in the dryer. Then there is her description of the importance and even sensual experience of a goosedown comforter and a hotwater bottle as necessary to survive a New England winter. To give you a better idea of what the book contains, I will quote from the book’s foreword.

“Ever needed a refresher course on how to be happy in life? Or maybe just a reminder that a little self-care is good for you? Happy Pretty Messy is an inspirational guidebook for women of all ages seeking to live with beauty and bravery in the modern world. As a modern lifestyle philosopher, author Natalie Wise brings her trademark poetic prose and modern-vintage aesthetic to finding and cultivating balance, j oy and depth of self in daily life. Filled with wit and fresh insights for the heart and home, Happy Pretty Messy teaches readers how to: thrive through tragedy, turn off your inner monologue and ‘get back to brave.’ Wise also shares her secrets to enjoying the ‘everyday arts’—such as keeping home, keeping in touch and creating memories. While other books do exist on these topics, Wise is one of the first to join all of them in a vintage-informed and modern-declared lifestyle that includes far more than just fashion and decor.”

Natalie writes that she came to the MALS program with the intention of writing children’s books but fell into poetry and nonfiction. She wrote apoetry thesis, and one ofher included poems was published in The New Yorker magazine! She then received a book contract, but between the two events her fiance died unexpectedly of a pulmonary embolism. Her life had changed as she wrote Pretty Happy Messy, and this is reflected in her book, along with her whimsical drawings and poetry.

Natalie has two new books, which will be published early in 2018. The first is The SelfDiscipline Handbook in January and then The Modern Organic Home in February. Her first book, Gifts in Jars, came out in 2016. From the description on Amazon, I understand that can include just about anything except moon rocks.

Jane Welsh

175 Greensboro Road, Hanover, NH 03755; (603) 643-3789; m.jane.welsh.gr@ dartmouth.edu