september reading report

It's the last day of September, which means it's time for another reading report! I read A LOT this month, but 90% of it was for school. I was getting worried that all I would have for you is that I finished maybe a quarter of The Power Broker, but my long flight to Denver coincided with the release of Mindy Kaling's new book Why Not Me. I finished it in less than three hours. I loved this book so much. I love how conversational Mindy is in her writing. It's like she's the big sister I never had. I'm keeping it short and sweet today: If you read just one book this year, make it Why Not Me. It's such a great, fun read that will make you automatically feel happier.

For October, I'm still going to push through The Power Broker, and I'm also going to try to get through A Year Without Pants. It's relatively short and about something I love to read about, so it should be a doable goal. I also want to try finishing The Dirty Life. I have about a third left, and this is another quick, easy book.

PS: Is that picture really that blurry or is it because I'm not wearing my glasses while I write this? I'll get you guys a better picture that does the gorgeous Mindy Kaling justice.

august book report

There is something about that Amy Pohler book, because I still can't finish it after almost a year of sitting on my bookshelf. I really want to read it, but I'll read a chapter and move on with my life. But I tore through Go Set a Watchman in a couple of quiet weekend mornings, even with my mixed feelings on the book. Geez, maybe I should start reading fiction again…

I did like Go Set a Watchman, overall. I loved reading Scout's thoughts on the world around here as a 26-year-old who doesn't live in that community anymore. Maybe it's because I'm a 26-year-old who doesn't live in my hometown community anymore. Yes, seeing the changes in our beloved Atticus Finch was uncomfortable, but as we grow and learn more about our surroundings and the people around us, our interpretations of people change. I do understand the mixed criticism of the book initially, but after thinking about it we're seeing this story through the eyes of a 26-year-old versus the eyes of a much younger Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. I would love to see English teachers offer this book as a contrast to Harper Lee's classic to start debates on how worldviews change as we age.

If you missed the news, I went back to grad school last week after nine months off to finish my first graduate degree that I left in 2011. This was a very last-minute decision and will take time away from some of the goals and features that I have going on right now for the blog. Luckily, I'm easing into it with just one class, so my "read for pleasure" goal won't go away completely just yet. But it does mean that I might only list one book as a goal for the month.

I'm doing that for September, but my book choice is also a behemoth 1,300+ page biography on Robert Moses, an extremely controversial king of NYC urban planning in the 1950s and '60s. Obviously Yes, Please will serve as backup if I'm in urban planning overload, but we all know my track record there. I am supposed to get the new Mindy Kaling book halfway through September, so don't be surprised if that gets consumed in a weekend.

What were your thoughts on Go Set a Watchman? Do you have any books on tap for September? Let me know in the comments.

july book report + august list

You guys…I finished books this month! I'm actually reading books from beginning to end again and it feels great! I've found a nice shaded spot in the park across from work, and I read through lunch. I make sure I read an hour on Saturday and Sunday. I try to read at home after work some nights too.

I gave myself three options for July. I finished two of those books, and I also devoured three other books that weren't on the list. What can I say? I'm easily distracted by new and shiny.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
I don't know why it took me so long to get through this book. I really did enjoy it. Maybe I just wanted to savor it. Barbara Kingsolver does what I would love to do: eat locally (very locally, as in backyard locally) for a year. She grows seasonal vegetables, she raises chickens and turkeys, and she tries her best to sustain her family with food that doesn't have to cross many state lines. Thanks to my (very limited) gardening experience, I would love to have a vegetable farm that size in a state where you can actually grow seasonal foods. This book did inspire me to get a CSA membership for this winter to support one of our local farms. Yay local! 

Station Eleven
Oh man, I LOVED this book! I loved that everyone had flaws. I love that it was about survival and not love. I loved seeing how the world was *just* after the collapse, and then seeing what it had become years later. I thought I was done with fiction, but this book was such a great read. Now I understand why everyone was raving about it a couple of months ago. I wish I had trusted everyone then, because this book would have kept me occupied during that painful flight to Portland.

It Starts With Food
This book is the science behind the Whole30 method, and it's been sitting on my shelf for almost a year now. I'm not the best at blindly following rules; I usually need some reasoning behind why I'm doing something, and this book provides all the reasoning behind the Whole30. If you've been thinking about doing one of these but are afraid of the fat content (I'm looking at a few people I know IRL) this book will provide the science behind why eating fat isn't going to make you fat, along with why certain foods cause systemic inflammation and a whole ton of other information. Despite being heavy on the science, I flew through this book in a couple of days. It's really easy to read and understand.

The Whole30
This follow-up to It Starts With Food came out in April, and I wanted to get it for the cookbook aspect of it. It ended up being so much more, though. The first half of the book highlights so much information and answers almost any question that could come up during your Whole30. Some of the information is available on the website, but I don't want to rely on a website all the time. It's nice to have a sturdy physical copy of the information ready to go on my bookshelf.

Show Your Work
This was blog research, and the tiny book was finished in an afternoon. I almost didn't count it, but I did read a book at home that I haven't read before. A lot of the information Austin Kleon goes over makes sense, but sometimes you don't think of it when you're feeling stuck.

For the August list, you'll see a familiar choice and a couple new ones.

1. Yes, Please. I know, I know. I just need to finish it and stop getting distracted by shiny things.
2. All of the Light We Cannot See. This is a longer book, so we'll see how much I can get through.
3. Go Set a Watchman. Everyone else is reading this, so I guess I will too.

To make it even more fun, I'm not allowing myself to buy a new book, even a cookbook, until I've finished two of these. I need to stop being distracted by new things.

july reading list

Reading for pleasure is something I looked forward to all of grad school. I couldn't wait to dive into my stacks and stacks of books, everything from All of the Light We Cannot See to A Year Without Pants to Station Eleven to Yes, Please (no, I still haven't finished it). I was going to tear through book after book, catching up on years of reading.

Yeah…that didn't happen. I've finished two books in six months. I read for pleasure more in my last semester of grad school than I have since graduating. I blame Netflix. Ask me how many shows I've watched since December 13th.

I've decided to create a reading list for each month. I'm giving myself three options, and the goal is to finish two. At the beginning of the next month, I'll publish my reviews and list my options for that month. I'll get through my stash of unread books (my splurge in life) and maybe even get to the point where I can actually use my library card without feeling guilty. And I'll feel super productive if I manage to finish all three in one month.

Feel free to follow along with reading the books. It'll be like an informal book club! 

For July, I'm looking at these three books:

1. Finish Yes, Please (I'm only two chapters in)
2. Finish Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (I'm a third of the way through it)
3. Station Eleven

Have you read any of these books? What am I in store for? Let me know in the comments!

book review: #GIRLBOSS

Sophia Amoruso, the founder and CEO of Nasty Gal, released #GIRLBOSS earlier in 2014. I'm all about girl power business books, so I dove head first into what turned out to be a celebration of Sophia's unorthodox route to success. Don't get me wrong, I love it when people follow the less traveled route to success, but for me a lot of this book just wouldn't work in my life. Obviously I wasn't expecting Lean In round 2, but I was hoping for a little more substance in Sophia's book, such as really getting an understanding of business acumen and jargon when you're not a school-trained business person.

#GIRLBOSS is a fun, quick read, and it does have some nuggets of information for the younger crowd out there who haven't started their careers yet. However, if you're in a my position this book is a good chance to see business from a different perspective, which is always good.

Either way, do yourself a favor a check out this book.

book progress

I've finished three non-school books in October. I have read more for pleasure this month than I have since high school. Being able to escape school once in a while (or more) has really helped me manage my stress levels. This means that you great people will be getting bombarded with book reviews in the upcoming weeks. 

In September, I finished The Happiness of Pursuit, and you can find the review here.

October saw me finish Sophia Amoruso's #GIRLBOSS, Lena Dunham's Not That Kind of Girl, and Christian Rudder's Dataclysm (a great use of OK Cupid outside of dating). Over the course of the month, I've purchased a number of urban planning/politics/economic books (my first academic love) and I have Amy Poehler's book coming sometime today.

Coming up on the November reading list, I have The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work, Who's Your City?, Amy Poehler's Yes Please, and (maybe) Rise of the Creative Class Revisited.

December will have a focus on urban issues, with For the Love of Cities, The New Geography of Jobs, The Jungle, Death and Life of Great American Cities, and The Great Reset (can you tell I'll be done with school and on vacation most of this month?).

What books do you recommend checking out in the new year? I'm huge on urban planning and economics, open data/big data (especially with social issues), and anything written by a famous power gal.

PS: Links galore through my Amazon Affiliates account.

book review: The Happiness of Pursuit

Last month I devoured Chris Guillebeau's latest book, The Happiness of Pursuit, during a homework strike one weekend. I'm always looking for my next big project, so this was the perfect read for me. It also goes well with a pumpkin spice latte.

The subtitle for this book is "Finding the quest that will bring purpose to your life," and handily sums up the purpose of the book. Through many different interviews, Guillebeau is hoping that you find something to puruse that makes you happy. The book chronicles people who have visited every country in the world, people who set off to walk across the country, and someone who lives their life like a video game. The thread that ties all of these together is that certain people are at their happiest when chasing a (sometimes crazy) goal.

Each step of the quest-defining and completing process is touched on, including what happens after you reach your big goal. The Pursuit of Happiness is incredibly inspiring, and I found myself thinking up my next big quest to keep me occupied after graduation*. However big or small, Guillebeau sets out to show everyone that they, too, can complete a quest and find happiness along the way. 

This was a quick and easy read, and a book that I highly recommend to anyone who feels stuck in their current situation. You can tackle a huge, life-changing quest or choose to do something smaller to shake up your life. Either way, The Happiness of Pursuit can give you the inspiration to start and (hopefully) complete what you set out to do.

Rating: 4/5

*I'm planning on running/walking a mile day in 2015. More to come on that in December.

june cookbook roundup

Yes, I still buy cookbooks. Even with all of my food blog reading, I still love the idea of pulling out a physical book to help inspire me. All of the recipes are in one place (versus floating around my email inbox) and the pictures are just so pretty. I respond to a rad food picture like a toddler to something shiny.

Even though I love buying cookbooks, I don't know if I'll go on another buying binge again anytime soon. I've found some great gems this month that have already proven their worth and need to get more use before I switch to something new.

The Better Bean Cookbook by Jenny Chandler: I found this book through an NPR post and had to jump on it. I've been looking for interesting ways to use beans more, and this book brings new life into the lowly bean. This book is by no means a vegetarian and vegan cookbook. I'm looking forward to making some of the beans and pancetta/bacon recipes during my summer vacation. However, some of the ingredients get a little out of my price range or out of the local grocery store, which loses convenience with me.

Score: 4/5

The Blender Girl by Tess Masters: I got this free when I bought a blender, and it's made a great addition to my cookbok shelf. The smoothie section is probably the smallest section in the entire 300-something page book, so you're getting a lot more blender ideas for your money. The book also goes over many common smoothie and juice ingredients and helps you figure out your own combinations, which is great for me. Some of the recipes barely use a blender (I'm looking at you, salad section), but there was a lot more than I was expecting.

So far I've only made a couple of the smoothies, but I'm planning on testing the no-pumpkin pie soon. That'll be interesting considering I'm the queen of the pumpkin season.

Score: 4.5/5

The Cocktail Club by Maureen Christian-Petrosky: This book has rekindled my love for cocktails again! I've wanted to make more fresh fruit cocktails and just generally eliminate the excess added sugar that comes with pre-made mixes. This book focuses on a specific liquor and drink type each month and even provides recipes that match the palate and theme. I'm trying to follow the months the best I can, and I love that June is tequila in the book. I've only tried two of the June drinks and none of the food, but the drinks were amazing! I'm looking forward to trying new frozen drinks in July with my new blender.

Score: 4.5/5

The Oh She Glows Cookbook by Angela Liddon: I've been a big fan of Angela's Oh She Glows blog for a while now, but I sat on buying this book for a bit because her blog has so many recipes already. I finally went for the book on a whim and I'm so glad I did! Yes, this is a vegan cookbook, but very few of the recipes call for ingredients that require a trip to a specialty store. I've made five recipes from this book and never once stepped inside of Chuck's Natural Market. Everything came from my normal grocery store. Being an avid reader of OSG I knew this would be the case, but some people shy away from vegan cookbooks because of the strangeness factor.

Anyways…I highly recommend the Tex-Mex casserole and creamy avocado pasta from this book. You'd never believe that you're eating vegan food!

Rating: 5+/5

The Urban Pantry by Amy Pennington: I'm not going to lie…I'm a little disappointed in this book. It's smaller than I was expecting, and it focuses on very basic staple ingredient recipes. I don't know, it's just not as inspiring as the books above. I do see this book becoming an asset when I haven't been to the store in a while and need to pull dinner out of my you know what. I haven't tried any of the recipes, but they look simple enough. The barley risotto with mushrooms and leeks will help me (finally) use up an old bag of barley.

Score: 3/5

Do you have any cookbook suggestions? I have a soft spot for vegan books (especially anything by Isa Chandra Moskowitz), but I'm usually open to anything.