What I am Reading…

Not that you guys really truly care about what I have my nose stuck in these days…but maybe, just maybe,  you do.  What if you  just don’t realize you care or are slightly intrigued?  Or maybe you are looking for a new book to dive into.  If so, you have come here on the right day!  I hope to do these posts more often – maybe causing me to pick up my books more often instead of watching another Netflix something or other.  Just be aware…I always have around 4-7 books going at the same time.  Book ADHD.

If you have a book that you are like totally into, then leave me a comment and I will be sure to pick it up and give it a whirl.  I am always looking for new books to read or cookbooks to try.  Virtual book club maybe?  I don’t know.

p.s.  Also, I like ACTUAL books.  I like the feel, the smell, the texture, the cover.  I like to dog ear, underline, and bend the spine.  I like to buy books that are worn and loved by their previous owner.  I like to think about the person that read it before me, what was going on in their life when they read it, what did the story mean to them – was it life altering or just  a summer beach read to relax the mind, did they take it on vacation or read it late at night when they couldn’t sleep.  This is what I ponder when I pick up a book.  A Kindle, while handy, doesn’t provoke those thoughts.  It is a machine.  But a real live book…well, it holds more than one story. 

p.s.s.  I can be a bit of a romantic when it comes to books and libraries and used book stores….just a heads up!

from bottom to top….

 

Cutting For Stone

OK, so I do use my Kindle for one thing.  Samples.  Free samples.  The sample generally consists of at least one chapter to several.  A chapter or two will generally give you a decent taste of what lies ahead.  If by the end of the sample, I want to read more….I simply add it to my ‘wish list’ and then make my way to the used book store.  This works well for me.

Anywho, that is how I came about Cutting for Stone.  I am only several chapters in and I am truly loving Verghese’s novel.  What drew me to this book is that there is no apparent villain in the story beyond life itself.  I do not like thrillers or suspenseful novels.  I read to be transported, not scared to death.

The basic gist of this story is that it follows twin brothers that were orphaned when their Indian nun mother died during their birth, and their father, a British surgeon, abandoned them early.  To say the least, the affair was a secret.  The story unfolds from here….

I’ll give an update when I finish.

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened

Jenny Lawson is the author/blogger behind The Bloggess.  A blog that I have been reading for some time and has had me laughing until I have wept.

I have not yet opened this book, as the lovely U.S. Postal service just placed it on my front step last week.  I am waiting for a moment in time where I have nothing planned, as I am sure I will blow right through it.  Laughing, cackling, snorting, and giggling my way through.

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

Wanna cook real authentic Italian meals…get a cookbook written by a real authentic Italian.  I bought this book when I heard Anne Burrell (a favorite of mine) state that Hazan’s cookbook was spot on for authentic Italian recipes/techniques.  I then went to a cooking class with Loretta Paganini not a week later, and she not only sold this book, but is actually good friends with Hazan and recommended it.  So, while the cookbook does not have any pictures ( I like pictures, sue me) the recipes, techniques, and essential information is top-notch.

And yes, I read cookbooks like novels.

Joy the Baker

I LOVE JOY.  I love her blog.  I love her podcast.  And now I love her cookbook.  Not a big surprise.  I have made several recipes from her cookbook and let me tell you, the recipes do not disappoint.  Neither do the photographs or the stories behind each recipe.  Her voice and style of writing is easy, simple, and delightful.  Simply put, I want to be her friend.  We would be good friends, I am sure of it.  If only she didn’t live in LA and I in Cleveland.

I am meeting her in July.  Super excited!  I am such a dork!

A Life Worth Breathing

I was recommended this book by my yoga instructor.  She often reads excerpts from it before class and they always left me wanting more.  So I bought the book.  This book is to be read with a highlighter.  Or a pen/pencil.  You will take notes in the margins and dog ear pages.  You will come back to passages or chapters, rereading, recapturing the message.

Max Storm teaches ways to empower, to forgive, to strengthen, to show gratitude.  A life with meaning.  A present life.  Most of us do not go around talking about wanting to be more present or wanting to lead a more meaningful life….but I think we should, because I think we all, at one point in our life, have given it thought.  I know I have and do on a regular basis.  And I think it is a good thing.  We only have one life…and I think it would be time well spent to learn how to make it the absolute best.  This book is helpful in that…at least opening the discussion and shining a light on where to start the journey of living a life worth breathing.

Runner’s World Magazine

I read two magazines, from the first page (including Letters to the Editor) to the very last.  Runner’s World and Oprah.  I have many other subscriptions – all of which are food related, but none get read in their entirety, each and every month.

Runner’s World, while it has tips and tricks on running further and faster and tons of info on the latest gear, from shoes to sports bras, it also contains great pieces about people, ordinary and famous, fast and slow, winners and losers, heroes and nobodies, men and women, old and young…and how running has played a role in their life.  Talk about motivation to keep putting one foot in front of the other.  Even if not a runner, I would recommend reading…you might be lacing up and heading out before you know it.  You know, for a walk 🙂

Oh and I read my magazines when I am running on the treadmill.  It took some practice, but it is great talent/stupid human trick to have.

The Snowball:  Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

Warren Buffett’s biography.  One thing you should know about me, I love a good story about a person’s life.  I like traveling along side them as they maneuver through life.  Therefore, I love biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs.

This one is taking me awhile to get through, but I can say one thing, Warren Buffett is one of a kind.  At age 8, he knew more about stocks and bonds than I will ever understand.  From the get go, Buffett was finding ways to earn money, be it selling gum or weekly magazines to golf balls.  And then came the investing, which started early too.  No surprise.  He didn’t see money as something to earn and then spend, no he saw it as a ‘collection’ of sorts.  Instead of Pandas or stamps, he collected money.

Be you a fan of Warren Buffett or not, I recommend the read.

Investments, stocks, business….that is not why I am reading the book.  I don’t intend to learn anything, seeing how most of it goes over my head or has me running to Google to, well Google something or other.  I am more intrigued by his relationships with his family and friends.  Did you know that his mother was verbally/emotionally abusive?  Or that his wife left him in 1977 and they lived separately until her death in 2004?  Or that he lived with another woman during this time, whom he eventually married, after his wife’s death?  I didn’t.

I like to read a story about a person’s life.  The good, the funny, the heart warming, the ugly….I can only live my life.  I can only experience my good, funny, heart warming, and ugly.  But when I am reading a biography or a memoir, I am with Ben Franklin, sitting beside Thomas Jefferson discussing The Declaration of Independence, or with Einstein as he is wandering around Princeton’s campus.  Or I am in Omaha, Nebraska discussing stocks and bonds.

Half Broke Horse

The Glass Castle, Wall’s first book, was one of the best books I have read in the past few years.  And when Half Broke Horse came out, it went straight to my wish list.

Half Broke Horse is a memoir of sorts, about her maternal grandmother.  Well’s has a great writing style that brings to life, the time and the people.  This book begins in the early 1900’s in Texas and follows her grandmother, as she overcomes many challenges from flash floods and bad marriages to world wars and prohibition.  To say the least, this is one resilient woman.  While the narrator is a women and it is about a women’s life, I think this book would be a good read for both men and women.  As was The Glass Castle.

What are you reading?