Tag: Reading

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July Reads

Reading always takes me back to summer. Summer makes me think of reading on a blanket on my front lawn or buried in a book on family camping trips. Permanently glued to my camp chair in front of the campfire. Living in the Pacific Northwest under the recent smoke and devastation caused by this year’s wildfires, back in July we might have soaked up the blue sky and breathed more deeply the smoke free air. July seems like an idyllic place to be compared to where we are now. But we must remain in the present, never falling too far back or anxiously awaiting anything in the distance.

July was an amazing month for reading. I picked up books that brought me joy. I also found myself reading in beautiful places. I sat sunning myself from my parents newly cemented patio in Boise. My fiancé and I drove to Stanley, Idaho to camp, hike, and more importantly read from lake views of the Sawtooth mountains.

FICTION

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Prior to reading, I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy the format, as this book is written in free verse poetry. Being aware of the format I chose to read a physical copy rather than listen to the audiobook. I absolutely loved this book, devouring it in one day. Also note, this book is young adult fiction. 

Acevedo writes about real-world plane crash of American Airlines Flight 587 of November 12, 2001. Two months and a day after the 9/11 attacks, Flight 587 was revealed to not be terrorist related and to the media it was not newsworthy. The plane was flying from New York City to the Dominican Republic and all passengers on board were Dominican or of Dominican descent. The crash was devastating to the New York City Dominican and Santo Domingo community.

The story follows two girls, Yahaira living in NYC and the Camino living in Santo Domingo. The girls are half-sisters unaware of each other’s existence. Their father was on the plane that went down. He would spend summers in the Dominican Republic and the rest of the year in New York. Grieving the death of their father, they become aware of one another and eventually meet addressing family secrets, each of their Dominican identities, grief, and class.

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I stumbled upon this book from the library’s available audiobooks. The cover looked interesting. Recently, I have found historical fiction novels to be quite entertaining. Their ability to take me to a faraway place and escape my own four walls has been a much-needed break from reality. Ruta Sepetys’ novel follows a group of refugees during World War II who are fleeing East Prussia, Poland, and Lithuania. Their trek to freedom and safety takes them to a ship, the Wilhelm Gustloff.

The narration rotated between each of the main characters: Joana (a Lithuanian nurse), Florian (a Prussian art restoration apprentice), Emilia (a young Polish girl with child), and Alfred (an eager, somewhat delusional German). I love how the author creates a sense of family amongst Joana, Florian, Emilia, as well as some other refugees, each fighting for their own survival weary of who should be trusted.

The Wilhelm Gustloff, a real-world ship, was struck by three torpedos in January 1945. 9,000 lives were lost, 5,000 of them children, making it the greatest maritime disaster in history, and yet most people have never heard of it. A Soviet submarine took down the ship in the Baltic Sea. The Gustloff was overcapacity by almost 8,000 carrying over 10,000 passengers. As each character’s story unfolds, everyone moving closer towards the end and the untimely disaster. There is something about how a book or film builds in suspense when the reader or audience is aware of the outcome, yet none of the characters can anticipate the tragedy that is to come.

I enjoyed how the author wove in historical references. Beyond details about the Wilhelm Gustloff, Sepetys adds in details about the disappearance of the Amber Room, raided by the Nazis and rumored to have been loaded onto the Wilhelm Gustloff. The Amber Room was a chamber in the Catherine Palace in Prussia decorated with amber panels, gold leaf, and mirrors. It is said to be the “Eighth Wonder of the World” but to this day no one knows of the whereabouts of the room’s panels.

NON-FICTION

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Stevenson writes about the industry of incarceration in Florida. The Santa Rosa Correctional Facility set in the town of Milton, was built in the 1990s. It was built to house 1,600 people. Between 1990 and 2005 the U.S. opened a new prison opened every ten days. Prison construction and prison growth in America “made imprisonment so profitable that missions of dollars were spent lobbying state legislators to keep expanding the use of incarceration to respond to just about any problem” writes Stevenson.

“My years of struggling against inequality, abusive power, poverty, oppression, and injustice had finally revealed something to me about myself. Being close to suffering, death, executions, and cruel punishments didn’t just illuminate the brokenness. You can’t effectively fight abusive power, poverty, inequality, illness, oppression, or injustice and not be broken by it.”

“We have a choice. We can embrace our humanness, which means embracing our broken natures and the compassion that remains our best hope for healing. Or we can deny our brokenness, forswear compassion, and, as a result, deny our own humanity.”

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A happiness book in my happy place. I began reading The Happiness Project in January reading one chapter a month. Not in a rush. Slowly winding through it. Rubin embarks on her own year of happiness, each month with its own theme and challenges to inspire and evoke happiness. The book follows her on this journey, with twelve chapters recounting her month. In January, her goal was to Boost Energy (Vitality) and her challenges were to go to sleep earlier, exercise better, toss, restore, organize, tackle a nagging task, and act more energetic (she adds that studies show that acting energetic gives you energy).

I enjoy reading multiple books at a time, like having different voices I can converse with. Some books I read, others I listen too. I balance fiction and non-fiction so as not to be lost in too many different alternate realities at one time. I found myself craving to pick this up because Rubin’s monthly challenges are seemingly simple changes that can be made in our everyday lives that will have a tremendous impact on our lives. While participating in her own year of happiness, Rubin blogged about her year, encouraging readers to share their own happiness challenges, sharing them within each chapter.

Rubin identifies her own “Eight Splendid Truths of Happiness,” inspired by the numbered lists that pop up throughout Buddhist teachings. The truths are obvious and straight-forward, but she claims took a tremendous amount of thought. The below two were the ones that resonated most with me. Both focus on the power that lies within ourselves to arrive at happiness, rather than trying to find it through anything external.

The book directs the reader to Rubin’s website and blog for additional resources and guides to completing your own year of happiness challenge. I aim to look into these resources as I pursue construct my own happiness.

The Second Splendid Truth:

One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy;

One of the best ways to make other people happy is to make yourself happy.

The Fourth Splendid Truth:

You aren’t happy unless you think you’re happy.

Permission to Screw Up: How I Learned to Lead by Doing (Almost) Everything Wrong by Kristen Hadeed: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I absolutely LOVED this book. Kristen Hadeed is an unlikely entrepreneur. She started a cleaning business almost by accident. In college, she wanted an expensive pair of jeans. Knowing her parents would not give her the money for such a frivolous purchase, she answered an ad for a house cleaner. The job would give her exactly the amount for the jeans. She had zero experience cleaning houses, arrived with no cleaning products of her own, and told her new “client” it would only take three hours to deep clean their entire house, a huge underestimation. At the time she thought it would be a one-time event.

Fast forward a couple of years and Hadeed started her own company, Student Maid, a cleaning service that specifically hires college students. This book is Hadeed’s honest account of her entrepreneurial experience. In the book she reveals that she at first tried to write a book about millennials. Millennials are often criticized for being hard to manage, and she, as a millennial has successfully managed peer millennials and learned how to lead and motivate the group. That still wasn’t the right topic. She then set out to write a book on success, but that wasn’t it either. In reflecting on what made her a successful leader, Hadeed learned that it was all of the mistakes she made along the way. In a world filled with the pressure to be perfect or to only share your highlight reel, she recognized that the important message to share with others is to not be afraid to screw up. Make mistakes; those experiences are where we learn the most.

I studied entrepreneurship in my undergrad, love to read books on how businesses are built, and have attended my fair share of networking events. Stories like the ones Hadeed shares are not the norm. No one else is writing this book and sharing all of the ways they have screwed up as inspiration to others that success is often on the other side of failure. For me, listening to this book made me realize that I had to get past my own fear of failure. A fear I didn’t even realize existed. It is also about uncoupling failure from the fear that it will define you in the eyes of others. Let’s say you try something, it doesn’t go according to plan, then what? It is an opportunity to learn, grow, and think on your feet.

Girl Stop Apologizing: A Shame-Free Plan for Embracing & Achieving Your Goals by Rachel Hollis: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was another amazing book for the month. I read Rachel Hollis’ Girl Wash Your Face back in December. I love Rachel’s no bull-$h#! Her writing style is very honest and conversational. She reads her audiobook. I would listen on walks with Moxie and sometimes it felt like walking with a girlfriend dolling out much needed advice. My favorite thing in her book was the 10-10-1 plan for your dreams.

10 Years, 10 Dreams, 1 Goal. Hollis challenges you to think about your life in 10 years. Sit down and really think about it. Write down the details. What does it look like? Feel like? What are you wearing? Where do you live? Nothing is silly, because these are your dreams. Then write down the 10 dreams that would need to come true in order to become that person. She encourages you to write them in present tense. Rather than “I want,” write “I have,” or “I am” statements. This puts you in the mindset that you are already the person that you are working toward becoming. Finally, write down 1 goal that would bring you closest to your 10-years from now self. This helps you to focus in on and understand your why.

Running with Sherman: The Donkey with the Heart of a Hero by Christopher McDougall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Did you have any idea that there is a running race with burros? That is, donkeys?!? I didn’t. Christopher McDougall is most famous for another book Born to Run. In Born to Run, McDougall learns about the barefoot indigenous runners, the Tarahumara. It is an amazing book and one that will leave you thinking that you too can run 100-mile ultramarathons. Born to Run helped to kickstart the barefoot and minimalist running craze.

McDougall lives in Pennsylvania in the middle of Amish country. He rescues a donkey from an animal hoarding neighbor to which he named Sherman. The donkey was in such bad shape mentally and physically, the best thing McDougall could do was give him a job to complete. He took on rehabilitating Sherman through running. He heard of burro racing, a unique race where a runner and donkey race through the mountains together carrying packs that must include a pick, a gold pan, and shovel. McDougall wanted to see if they could train Sherman for the World Championship in Colorado.

Burro racing began in Colorado. In prospecting days, miners took donkeys with then to carry their packs. There are two rumors as to how burro racing started. One rumored that two miners found gold in the same location and raced back to town to stake their claim. The other rumor involves a couple of drunk miners in a bar in Leadville, Colorado.

Throughout McDougall’s story, he encounters assistance from all areas of his community. Farmers, Amish runners, badass lady long haul truck drivers, and others come together to help Sherman on his way to the Championship. It was an unexpectedly heartwarming story about the importance of our relationship with animals. They are lucky to have us, but we are even luckier to have them.

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May Reads

May 1 – 31: Road Trip to Boise, Idaho where we hiked, biked, and quarantined with my family.

“What a slacker!” I thought as I came to the realization that it is already July and I am just now posting my May Reading selections. Like many of you, time is moving throughout my life very differently these days. I usually describe myself as a planner, yet I am learning to embrace a more organic flow to my day. While spending time with my family in Boise, John and I made the tough decision to postpone our wedding, ensuring that our friends and family feel safe and healthy to travel when the time is right to celebrate together. I did spend plenty of time reading, I just didn’t spend any time writing.

Staying in has given us the opportunity to work on house projects. John has taken to woodworking and I am trying my green thumb in the garden. I feel grateful for the ability to do so. I have taken time to dive into books to better educate myself of the racism that exists within the United States and what can be done to combat it. I am listening to my body and more importantly my mind. Walking with Moxie. Reflecting. Taking breaks. Reminding myself to slow down. Reset. Relax.

I will be sharing more about our house projects, more readings, and want to read lists. Enjoy!

FICTION

Little Fires Everywhere: A Novel by Celeste Ng : 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

“All her life, she had learned that passion, like fire, was a dangerous thing. It so easily went out of control. It scaled walls and jumped over trenches. Sparks leap like fleas and spread as rapidly; a breeze could carry embers for miles. Better to control that spark and pass it carefully from one generation to the next, like an Olympic torch. Or, perhaps, to tend it carefully like an eternal flame: a reminder of light and goodness that would never – could never – set anything ablaze. Carefully controlled. Domesticated. Happy in captivity. The key she though, was to avoid conflagration.”

Elena Richardson follows the rules. She understands and appreciates the rules. Shaker Heights, where she lives, is a thriving community carefully planned out with immaculate lawns and excellent schools. Mrs. Richardson doesn’t believe that there are ways of doing things, but rather there is the right way to do things. She is primarily focused on raising their four children, each bound for an Ivy League education and great things. Enter Mia Warren and her daughter Pearl. Their attraction to Shaker Heights is the quality education for Pearl. They become members of the community in a rental owned by the Richardsons.

Mia is an artist and single mom doing her best to provide for Pearl. Elena mothers in the way she believes is best. The story unfolds while a family friend of the Richardsons attempts to adopt a Chinese-American baby left at a Fire Department. The friends of the Richardsons find themselves in the middle of a custody battle with everyone in town taking sides. What does it mean to be someone’s mother? Author Celeste Ng hits on many themes throughout the novel. What makes up one’s identity? The secrets we keep. How important is it to follow the rules? What rules should we follow? This is a story of the lives within a community that are woven carefully together, yet easily pulled apart.

I loved this book. I had heard from a couple of friends that this book was something they picked up and just couldn’t get into. It does have a slow start to set the scene. Ng cautiously introduces each of the characters in different lights, from different angles, having the reader craving for real action. Once the story picked up speed, I couldn’t put it down. This novel was chosen for Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club and as many of you will know has been turned into a TV series on Hulu. I enjoy reading books that have transitioned to the screen. They are usually never like what I imagined them to be in my head, but that is what I think makes them fun to enjoy. I get to paint my own picture and enjoy someone else’s interpretation of the characters.

Beach Read by Emily Henry: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As the month of May crept along, my book selections got better and better. This book, Beach Read, was chosen by my book club. This is a new book! It came out May 19th, so I went to downtown Boise and purchased at, Rediscovered Books, a local book seller. This book is light hearted and fun, as a beach read should be. If you are looking for a fun, flirty, and romantic novel then consider picking this one up. Swoon!

January Andrews and Augustus Everett are both writers, but of very differing genres. January writes romance novels and Augustus, or Gus as he is known, usually writes dark literary fiction where most of the characters don’t survive. They considered one another rivals in college, each fighting for the best book deal. January, suffering from writer’s block and the death of her father, gets out of town and quarantines herself in her late father’s beach house, only to find Gus doing much of the same next door. They strike up a bet to swap genres and see who can get published first. This involves teaching one another their craft. January teaches Gus the art of romantic date settings and Gus invites January along to interview sketchy survival death cult members. Guidelines of the competition state there will be no falling for one another. Will they be able to resist one another? Will either of them finish a novel? You’ll have to pick this one up to find out!

Regretting You by Colleen Hoover : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Another light and girly read, Regretting You also had themes relating to the complicated Mother-Daughter relationship. I picked up this book because I loved Colleen Hoover’s writing style in Verity. She creates an Alice in Wonderland effect for me, where I feel as though I fall into the looking glass or deep within the story she is telling. I have been known to devour her books. If pulled away from reading them, I find myself daydreaming about the characters and wondering what they are up to, as if they were real people I know. While my first introduction to Hoover was through Verity, I learned that she writes across a variety of genres and for both adult and young adult audiences. This is not something I am accustomed to seeing from many fiction writers – but am very impressed with her range.

This story bounces back and forth between Morgan Grant and her sixteen-year-old daughter Clara. Morgan would like a life for Clara different from her own. Pregnant at sixteen and married too young, Morgan felt as though she missed out on a lot. Clara believes her mother to be completely predictable (read: boring). She too wants a life different than her mother’s. Morgan and Clara disagree quite often. Luckily, they have Chris, Morgan’s husband and Clara’s father. He is the one to unite the family, amid their warring personalities. When Chris is involved in a tragic and suspicious accident, Morgan and Clara both struggle with how to go on living. For Morgan, support comes in an unlikely place, while Clara begins to date a forbidden boy. Secrets are revealed. Things aren’t what they seem. As I mentioned before mother daughter relationships are messy and complicated.

Red, White, & Royal Blue: A Novel by Casey McQuiston : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book was a fun rom-com and a bit steamy. If the premise of this book was read tabloid style, it would read something like, “British Prince Henry in love with Alex, son of the U.S. president?” This book is so much more than that. With the political failings of our current government, Red, White, & Royal Blue serves up more humanity, love, and reality than the one we are currently living in. The story follows Alex, whose mother is the first elected woman President of the United States in 2016. Much of his life he has been involved in politics and the tabloids. A scandal ensues when he and his sister attend a royal British wedding and Alex accidentally pushes his rival, Prince Henry right into the wedding cake. Everything is captured by the paparazzi. As damage control, their mothers, the POTUS and Queen of England, no less, force the men to agree to a truce. They will be best friends, or at least seem like best friends to the media. As they spend time together and actually get to know one another, a deeper connection develops. Their fake friendship quickly shapes into a secret romance, hidden from the world.

This queer love story made its way to the New York Times best-seller list in 2019. McQuiston’s pages are filled with modern pop-culture references, yet the themes are honest and relatable. What is the importance of love as it relates to your family, career, and in some cases, your family’s vision for you? How do you find the courage to be true to yourself and let go of the fear brought on by a world telling you to be anything but yourself?

NON-FICTION

The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, M.D. : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

In the Western world, we, the science minded, believe that thoughts and feelings are the results of the chemical reactions in the brain where happiness can be an outcome. The Dalai Lama flips this notion on its head and asks, “What if the chemical reactions in the brain are the results of our thoughts or feelings?” What if we choose happiness and this choice can influence our brain chemistry? What if we have that power? According to the Dalai Lama, happiness is the purpose of life. There was no more perfect time to read The Art of Happiness than two and a half months into a pandemic.

Locked down in my home, I read this with a Mindfulness Book Club organized through work. Every week I would gather with co-workers on a Zoom call discussing the Dalai Lama’s teachings. Originally published in 1998, the concepts presented are not new, yet they are things we Americans have a hard time believing and an even harder time practicing. A co-worker was reading this for a second time, reflecting on the timelines of our reading and that this is a book that can be revisited during trying times in life. In the book the Dalai Lama separates happiness from pleasure. He discusses the interconnectedness of the world and all of us in it.

The most important message I learned from this book is that happiness is something to be practiced. To be happy is to invest in your own happiness, to spend time and energy and brain space figuring out how to create the neural pathways in your mind to foster happiness. Like yoga practice or even athletics you are trying to learn or master, practice is the key. Happiness is a state of mind rather than something that happens to us. The First Truth of Buddhism is that life is suffering, pain, and misery. The Dalai Lama helps to explain that life is not without suffering. No one can go through life without experiencing it. Therefore, the practice of happiness in one’s life become that much more important.

Rather than think of myself as the victim of the pandemic, locked inside my house, I shifted my mindset. I am safe within my home. I am learning how to successfully work from home. I am leveling up on my technology skills. I am growing and learning. I am being challenged. How do I embrace these changes and create habits of happiness?

The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World : ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The right to: Spend your own money. Go to school. Earn an income. Access contraceptives. Work outside the home. Walk outside the home. Choose whom to marry. Get a loan. Start a business. Own property. Divorce a husband. See a doctor. Drive a car.

All of these rights are denied to women in some parts of the world.

I listened to the audiobook, which is read by the author, Melinda Gates. As co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, she has dedicated her work for the last twenty years to help people with the most urgent needs, all over the world. I loved listening to Melinda weave stories of the inspiring women she has met throughout the book. She addresses topics of child marriage, contraceptives, and gender equality in the workplace. She has found that in order to lift up societies, we need to invest in women.

One of her stories highlights the complexities of the issues faced when working to make significant change. In 2004, the foundation wanted to help lower HIV amongst sex traffic workers. They had a project with the goal to increase the education and use of condoms. The women claimed not to need more condoms or education on the use. They already had them and knew how to use them. They needed help with violence and domestic abuse. Not seeing the connection, the foundation at first declined. They did not want scope creep, which means to lose focus on the original intention of the project. As they continued their work to combat HIV, they set up safe meeting spaces for the women to drink tea together. In these spaces they began to listen to the issues the women are faced with. The women said they would use condoms if they did not get beaten when asking clients to use them or attacked by police if found carrying them. The women indicated that the only effective way they had found to stop a man bullying women, was with a large group of other women. If a woman they knew was being attacked, a whole gang of women could rush in and scare him off. So, the foundation created a hotline. A woman being attacked could text a 3-digit code and within minutes 12-15 women, a pro bono lawyer, and the media would come running to her aid.

“As women gain rights, families flourish, and so do societies… and when you’re working globally to include women and girls, who are half of every population, you’re working to benefit all members of every community. Gender equity lifts everyone,” writes Melinda. Her stories range from her time at Microsoft and challenges she has faced with inequality as a woman to helping women in some of the most impoverished parts of the world. Her humanitarian work is truly remarkable.

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February Reads

You may be wondering why my February post is appearing in late March… Life has taken a strange turn since my last post. My apologies on the delay, but now seems like a good time to share with you my recommendations if you, like myself, are trapped inside due to the COVID-19 STAY HOME advisories. In this time of caution, I’ve come to learn that when I focus on gratitude for the things I am still able to do, I am able to keep my mood positive as well. Luckily for us here in Oregon, the weather has been gorgeous and reading has been taking place outside in the backyard with stints inside by the fire when the rain comes. 

I would also like to note that below I have linked each of the books recommended to Portland’s Powell’s City of Books website. On March 17th, Owner and CEO Emily Powell wrote a heartbreaking letter to employees about having to make the hard decision to close their door and layoff most of their staff. Powell’s is not the type of business that can afford to pay wages and benefits while the doors are closed, as much as they wish they could. I cannot imagine Portland without Powell’s. For anyone who lives here or has visited, I think you know how special this place is to the city. If you are considering purchasing a book or two during your lock in, consider supporting this local establishment. As of the writing of this post they are offering free shipping on orders of $25 or more. Today I ordered a couple of books on my ‘To Read’ list, an enamel pin, and a 1000-piece puzzle of Multnomah Falls. 

Alright, let’s get to it!

The best book I can recommend from last month was The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. This book was selected as the March book for my bookclub. I finished this book in a day and a half. My fiancé John and I were headed to Mazatlán, Mexico for a wedding. I started this book on the plane ride down there and got to finish it poolside enjoying Mojitos.

Photo by my fearless BookClub Leader Cambry Leahy @learntoloveyourshelf .

The synopsis: A young magazine reporter Monique Grant is hand selected by Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo for a tell-all. Evelyn made her way to Los Angeles and to her career in show business in the glory of 1950’s Hollywood. Of the scandalous details everyone wants to know about are Evelyn Hugo’s reasons for leaving the business and the intimate details surrounding her seven husbands. Evelyn delves into actor rivalries, friendships, and love. Monique will learn the Hollywood drama, secrets, and her own personal connection to the legendary actress.

I couldn’t help but imagining some of the scenes described of old Hollywood to be like the one portrayed in Quentin Tarantino’s recent film Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. I loved this book and I was surprised by the twist. 

Next up, Verity by Colleen Hoover comes in a close second place for my favorite read of the month. Growing up, I was raised on Nancy Drew, so I have an affinity for Mysteries of any kind and this one was a page turner. Verity got my attention from the very first chapter. This was a hard one to put down and another book that I finished in about a day and half. It helped that I spent most of the day poolside with two for one mojitos, but regardless I recommend this to anyone who likes suspense novels. This book was selected as one of our book club books from last year that I never got around to reading. I am totally kicking myself for not picking it up earlier! I learned that author Colleen Hoover started writing without any intention of publishing her work. She has since published 19 novels across a variety of Young Adult and Adult genres. Many of her books have made the NY Times Bestseller List. 

The synopsis: Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish. 

I can’t give anything away. Just Read It!

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin was given to me by my mom. She has a Little Free Library near her house that has a rotating selection of bestselling books. She will often read or pass along the ones she has heard are good. This book was a hard one for me to get into. The plot is heavier than your typical murder-mystery. However, as I read, the characters grew on me and I found myself curious to know how it all unfolds. 

The synopsis: In New York City, 1969, four young siblings visit a psychic they hear about who can predict the day they will die. They keep the dates secret from one another, but each one is affected in different ways.

Fiction is my favorite genre to read. It helps me relax and sets my imagination free. Those three were my fun, fiction books for the month. I rotate back and forth between fiction and non-fiction books to add some variety to my reading. I enjoy reading non-fiction to learn about something or someone new.

If you need a good laugh, I recommend listening to books by comedians because usually the audio is read by the author. It’s equivalent to listening to them do 8-hours of stand-up comedy with more intimate hopes, dreams, and aspirations thrown in. I listened to The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer on audio. I admit that I was a lukewarm Amy Schumer fan after seeing some of her movies, but I had never seen any of her stand-up in full. I recently became a BIG fan of hers after watching her 2019 Netflix special Growing. I highly recommend.

A book that I added to my ‘To Read’ listed based on the recommendation of a friend is The Greatest Love Story Ever Told: An Oral History by Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally. If you don’t recognize them based on their names, think Ron Swanson from Parks & Rec. and Karen from Will & Grace. They are married in real life and they read this audiobook together. I’ve listened to quite a few books by comedians now, so I should do a whole post on this topic. More to come.

I found Anna Kendrick’s Scrappy Little Nobody completely relatable. She describes navigating her career through the performing arts. Originally from Portland, Maine she set out for Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. She shares what it was like to go from an unknown actress on the set of Twilight, to Oscar Nominated for her role in Up In The Air, alongside George Clooney. In a funny aside, she talks about struggling to afford to pay rent while also having a stylist hired as a favor to her dress her for the Oscars. The stylist recommends she purchase a pair of heels for “seven-fifty” and she replies with, “SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!”. Anna describes what it was like to go from struggling actress to star overnight. She recounts how the Oscar experience isn’t all glitter and glam. She is witty and outspoken. I found it easy to relate to her ambitious and sometimes neurotic mindset.

Lastly, I checked out Meb Keflezighi’s 26 Marathons: What I Learned About Faith, Identity, Running and Lifeon audio as a book to motivate me to start training. At the time I was training for the Nike LA Women’s 13.1 Half Marathon. I signed up with a couple of my girlfriends. We booked a hotel near the beach. We were excited to race and spend time together in the sun. We trained together some days, but on others when I needed to set out for 3-5 miles on my own, I had a hard time finding motivation. Portland’s rain and gray skies were not helping. Listening to Meb’s book on my solo runs helped get me out the door. Each chapter is a different marathon he raced in where he couples his experience in each race with the life lesson he learned along the way. Anyone who has attempted to run a marathon knows that the training takes more mental strength than it does physical. Meb shares how even he struggled with the thoughts of, “Why am I doing this?” while out on the course. He shares stories about injuries, self-doubt, and the importance of recovery. His book was inspiring for me. It served as a reminder to me (even before I was encouraged to stay put for a while) that having the ability to run is something to be thankful for. 

I hope you enjoy some of the list below. Feel free to take what speaks to you and ignore the rest. I will be posting my March Reads list soon.

My February Reads:

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Love Your Library <3

All Multnomah Library locations are closed Monday, February 17th 2020 for President’s Day.

Are you looking for more ways to live more sustainably, or simply to own less ‘stuff’?This Valentine’s Day weekend get to know your local library, send them some love and give yourself an extra high five for consuming less. You may even have a library near you in walking distance. You can visit the library and check out a physical book, download an E-Book or Audiobook straight from your phone, or go above and beyond and pay those late fees you forgot you had. <3.

Digital Library: E-Books & Audiobooks

Funding for Public Libraries come out of tax dollars. This is a service that you are likely already paying for. With the selection of digital copies of books, whether your preference be reading or listening, there is plenty to choose from. I check out books from the Multnomah County Library in Portland, Oregon. For Multnomah County and most other libraries, all you need is a valid photo ID to apply for a card. Here is a link to the many library locations around Portland. Once there you can apply for a card. After you have received your card and set up your PIN, you will have everything you need to access your account online at the library’s website. You can then access the Library catalog to check out or place a hold on E-Books and Audiobooks.

Three apps that my local library suggests borrowers use are: OverDrive, Libby, and Kindle. They can all be downloaded to your phone or tablet. I mostly listen to Audiobooks. I have used all three. I feel that Libby is the most user friendly.

Everybody Reads 2020: There There

What if everyone in Oregon read the same book? That is the idea that inspired the Everybody Reads community program, organized by Multnomah County Library and the Library Foundation. Each year one book is chosen. The library buys additional copies of the book to lend to readers. They also publish discussion guides, host events, and organize a reading by the author.

For 2020, the Library chose Tommy Orange’s debut novel There There as the 2020 Everybody Reads Book. Orange’s book follows 12 Native people in America on their way to a powwow. The book explores identity and belonging. There There was a 2019 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Fiction and made the top 10 Best Books of 2018 by the editors of The New York Times Book Review.

Tommy Orange will be speaking at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on Thursday, March 5, 2020 at 7:30. Tickets can be found here.

Summer Reading Programs

Summer is one of the best times to escape into a good book. Most libraries have Summer Reading Programs for kids, teens, and adults. These programs have prizes and giveaways to help motivate readers throughout the community. Here is a link to the Summer Reading Program prizes and winners from 2019.

Staff Picks

Not sure what to read? Your local library are filled with passionate staff readers excited to recommend their favorite books. Check out the Staff Picks from Multnomah County right now.

Used Book Sale

For Portland residents, the Multnomah County Library has a Used Book Sale two times per year, one in the Spring and one in the Fall.

Spring Used Book Sale

  • Friday, April 24, 6pm-9pm: Members Only Pre-Sale
  • Saturday, April 25, 9am-9pm  – Trivia Contest + Cash Bar 6pm-9pm
  • Sunday, April 26, 11am-5pm  – Educators get 50% off with Teacher ID
  • Monday, April 27, 9am-3pm – 50% off EVERYTHING or $25/box

Goodreads App

Enough about the library. Now, I have to tell you about my favorite app Goodreads! I use this app while perusing the bookstacks at the library. Goodreads is free and is filled with recommendations from other readers. I use Goodreads to create lists in the form of digital bookshelves. In the app, I have three different ‘shelves’: my Want to Read, my Currently Reading, and my Read books. My favorite shelf is ‘Want to Read’ which I often use to pick out my next read. The shelf can be sorted in a number of ways. The ‘Read’ list comes in handy for keeping track of which of the books I’ve read by my favorite authors. For some of my favorite prolific authors, like Chuck Palahniuk or Nicholas Sparks, it helps me to ensure that I’m not picking up a book I read years ago.

I used to write lists of books I wanted to read in notebooks or on scraps of paper. These scraps of paper were hard to keep track of. Some I shelved in the books I finished. Others may have been returned in library books.

The stats tracked by the app are amazing. At the end of every year Goodreads provides a visual report of all of the books you’ve read. For example it will show you the book voted most popular by other readers, the most reviewed book, your longest book, etc. You can also track your stats throughout the year. If you have a Goodreads profile, you can access stats through your profile. Once there click on ‘My Books’ and then select ‘Stats’. Here you can see your reading over time cut by books, pages, and publication year. One of my favorite features is the ability to set a goal for number of books read by the end of the year.

There is also a social aspect to the app. You can connect with your friends on Goodreads, see what they are reading, and keep track of their want to read shelf. My bookclub has used this to connect with one another.

Note: if you do download Goodreads, my first advice to you is to manage your notifications appropriately. I didn’t when I first downloaded it and was receiving hundreds of email notifications weekly from all of my friends adding books to their shelves. In short, turn them off.

If you are curious to what I’m reading now or want to read in the future, follow me on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/elysse.

Download the App

iPhone & iPad

Android

Happy Reading!

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January Reads

Here are the books I read in January:

Who doesn’t love traveling? Airplanes are one my favorite places to read. Traveling can also be one of the best opportunities to unplug from your digital lifestyle and dive into a good book… if you can just resist the urge to binge watch Game of Thrones or start a new TV series. This January, work travel provided me with plenty of reading time. Planes, train, and automobiles. I took advantage our long flights, including two different 9+ hour flights over the Atlantic, daily shuttle bus rides, and spending our layovers in the lounge. I listened to half my January books using the Overdrive App for audiobooks that I checked out from Multnomah Country Library.

Note: If you have a library card at your local library, be sure to look into Ebooks and Audiobooks before your next trip. This is a FREE way to bring books with you on your travels. You can read them on your iPad or tablet. Audiobooks can be listened to straight from your phone. It also helps to lighten your luggage.

I kicked off my new year with Greta Thunberg’s book No One Is Too Small To Make A Difference. Thunberg’s book is a collection of her speeches from the last couple of years. They include her 2019 address to the United Nations. Greta is a 17-year-old climate activist from Sweden. She was named Time Magazine’s 2019 “Person of the Year.” She wrote all of her own speeches. I was impressed with how passionate and well spoken she was for a 15 or 16 year old (at the time).

The First 20 Minutes was a book that my fiancé had been recommending to me to read for some time now. Running actually makes your knees healthier? This is the best news I’ve heard all year! I listened to this one on audiobook during my commute. Gretchen Reynolds references numerous sports science studies helping to dispel myths we have about sports and activity. John, my fiancé, loves this book for the study about HIIT (high intensity interval training) and the benefits of such workouts for endurance training. After reading it he developed his own “No Running-Running Training” to prepare for relay races like Hood to Coast. According to Reynolds and the studies in the book, athletes can achieve endurance benefits equal to that of running for 90 minutes by instead doing six INTENSE 60 second interval sprints on the CrossFit type assault air bikes. This study and a variety of others share the importance of moving our bodies for better overall health in the long run. My favorite study discovered runners in their old age actually have healthier knees than those of non-runners. Looks like I should keep running, running, and running, running!

Room and Conviction were my fiction books for January. Room had been on my bookshelf for some time and I was hesitant to start it, based on the heavy nature of the plot line. The book is about a young woman kidnapped and held captive in a backyard shed, or “Room” for seven years. She gives birth to a child while in captivity. Room is told from the perspective of her 5-year-old son. I love the narration and seeing the world through the eyes of someone discovering the outside and often scary world for the first time. Room was adopted for screen in 2015 starring Brie Larson. Her performance won her an Academy Award for Best Actress. I have yet to see the movie but may watch it later this year.

Conviction was chosen as our January Book Club Book. I was super excited about this one. I found it on on Reese’s Book Club list. Reese Witherspoon picks a book each month with a woman at the center of the story. Reese’s Book Club is a division of her media company Hello Sunshine. You can follow her on social media @reesesbookclub or follow #readwithreese. Denise Mina’s story is another creative use of storytelling. The book flips back and forth between the realtime plot line and a true crime podcast that Anna, the main character, is listening to. I’m a big fan a podcasts and true crime mysteries, so it had all of the ingredients I needed to be a good book.

Chuck Palahniuk’s Consider This was my favorite read of the month. Palahniuk is my favorite author, and in his new book he is dishing out advice for aspiring writers. Finally. I began this blog to share my adventures, be it running, reading, or travel. I also started this blog to dust off my writing skills. Reading anything by Palahniuk leaves me wanting more. The same goes for Consider This. He goes back and forth between doling out advice and sharing stories from his book tours, many of which I have attended in Portland, OR. If you have never been to any of his book tours, they are unlike anything you have ever experienced. If you are curious about them, many people have uploaded them to YouTube. There you can find a taste of his wild creativity. Be forewarned his content can be graphic in nature and people have been known to faint at his readings. Guts a short story from his novel Haunted has caused more than 100 people to faint in live readings. I could go on and on about my love for Chuck Palahniuk, but I had better save that for another post. In Consider This, Chuck shares insider tips for writers and his distain for author photos. He encourages writers to go out and find a workshop, to read their work aloud, and try “dangerous writing”, which is writing about a deep, dark secret or unresolved anxiety. Even if taking up writing is not for you, this book has some amazing stories and lists of fiction and non-fiction worth adding to your reading list.

Last year, I read Malcolm Gladwell’s Talking to Strangers and really enjoyed it. I think I actually flew through it within a couple of days. Other physical books by Gladwell have been hard for me to get into, so for Blink and Outliers thought I would try audiobooks. Both were available to borrow from the library right before I took off on my international work trip. In a world where we have so much data at our fingertips, Blink asks us to reconsider the importance of our first impressions and snap judgements. He also provides instances where snap judgements or “thin slices” were more informative than many months of deliberation and analysis. Psychologist Daniel Kahneman can observe a couple’s interactions for only a couple of minutes and predict if they will last. Outliers is also very interesting, but it I found it less inspiring to hear how the best hockey players happened to all be born in January or that there are underlying success factors that are responsible for the success versus hard work. I agree with Gladwell that it is a factor that we should consider when celebrating someone’s success, but I also think it is much harder to find such correlations. I commend him for the analysis he has done to find these so called “outliers”.

I listened to Between The World and Me and Ta-Hehisi Coates read it. It was a profound letter from father to son of the history of racism in America. Coates shares his own coming of age experiences and difficult lessons his son will have to learn in order to understand ‘what it is like to inhabit a black body’ in America. Coates does an excellent job of sharing his heartbreaking perspective, one that is easy to turn a blind eye to occupying my own ‘white body’ and ubiquitous systemic American whiteness. It gave me an opportunity to step outside my own body to feel his fear and experience his anger. Beautiful and painful. It is eloquently written, and I wish that I had the physical copy of the book to see how the sentences and paragraphs strung together. The author reads the book like poetry. Toni Morrison described this book as “required reading” and I very much agree with her. It is a short, but moving book, which attempts to enable the reader to walk a mile in another’s shoes.

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Reflecting on 2019

Reading was once my favorite.

Long before obligations and adult responsibilities crept into my life, I spent my summers reading on a blanket in the sun in the front yard. I devoured my “chapter books” filled with adventure, mystery, and high school drama. I loved Nancy Drew, The Boxcar Children, and Goosebumps. My mom challenged me to add in “The Classics” suggesting The Catcher and the Rye or Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl. Reading was encouraged. iPhones and social media didn’t exist yet. Life was simple.

2019 was the year I fell back in love with reading. Early in the year, my cousin invited me to join her Book Club. I agreed, but it was an extra-curricular activity I wasn’t sure I could fully commit to. I wanted to do it even if I wasn’t sure if I could find the time. Challenging myself to read more often and connecting with amazing women once a month could only bring good things. Before that, books would pop up into my life every now and then. I usually took the opportunity of a long plane ride to dive into a good book and power down my phone completely. I can usually get through two or three books during holiday break or a beach vacation. Reading Nicholas Sparks, on location, visiting my family in North Carolina is the best way to pass the day. Suntan, sunshine, and sea breeze.

I have been a fan of Goodreads App for a long time. I use it when I walk into any bookstore or library to remember what books I have been wanting to read. It helps you organize your books into “shelves”. I have three: Currently Reading, Want to Read, and Read. Every year the app would ask me to set a reading goal for how many books read for the year. In 2017, I read 6 books. In 2018, I set a goal to read 12. That is only 1 per month and I ended up reading 17. So in 2019, I set a goal to read 30 books. It was about double what I read the year before and I knew I would be more motivated than the year prior with the help of my Book Club.

Reading brought me back into the world I love. I was able to turn my ‘work-brain’ off and make room for more creativity and learning.

In 2019, I read 37 books! Now… I didn’t make it to every Book Club meeting, nor did I read every book we selected. I did read quite a few books outside of my comfort zone. I read books that I wouldn’t have chosen based on their genre or the cover art. Reading more brought me back to the world I once loved as a young girl. It has helped learn how to turn off my ‘work-brain’ and make room for more creativity and happiness to my everyday.

I usually prefer to sit and read physical books, but my schedule and the busy world we live in doesn’t allow me that luxury. Some of the books I completed last year were in the form of audio books. Listening to books on my drive in bookended my day before and after work nicely. In some cases, I was so interested to find out what happened next in whatever I was reading that I started listening to my books while running. Listening during a long run was able to take the place of a training partner when I couldn’t find anyone to join me.

My favorite audio books were the ones the author read, such as Michelle Obama’s Becoming, Scott Jurek’s North, and University of Portland Alum Kunal Nayyer’s Yes, My Accent Is Real. There is nothing more humbling than training to race only 26.2 miles of a marathon while listening to Scott Jurek’s 2000 mile trek along every step of the Appalachian Trail.

Ask For It and Myth of the Nice Girl were both books that boosted my confidence in the workplace. I learned tactics for negotiation and read success stories of other professional women asking for what they want when it comes to their career. I shared both books with co-workers and girlfriends who would also love the learnings shared.

For 2020, I set the goal to read 60 books doubling my 2019 goal. This will be challenging because while I did read almost 40 books last year, a goal of 60 books is a little more than 1 per week. If you have any book recommendations, please send them my way.

Here is the list of books I read in 2019:

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