Category Archives: Books

I’m reading more cookbooks than novels these days but I at least wanted to check in one final time to wrap up the books I read this year. The grand total ended up around 39. Maybe I’ll squeeze one more in just to make it a round 40. Hmmm…something to think about.

I’m probably going to switch up my book reviews next year just because doing a monthly round up is feeling a little boring but I haven’t quite figured out how just yet. My fellow book nerds: I’m open to suggestions. Anyone write book reviews that you love? How do they keep it interesting? Anyway, here is a quick review of the last few books I read this year:

Little Children by Tom Perrotta – This was my suggestion for Book Club this month and I have to admit I was a little nervous. The last book I suggested for a Book Club was so hated that years later we are all still laughing about it. I thought this would be better, I enjoy Tom Perrotta, it got made into a movie — what could go wrong? And for the most part, nothing did go wrong. It was a really engrossing read. But it is a bit of a heavy book, so I would definitely say you have to be in the right mood.

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles – I think I’ve obsessed about this book enough on the blog. WHY HAVEN’T YOU READ IT YET?

White Jacket Required by Jenna Weber – Ah, man. I really didn’t love this book, and I feel kind of bummed about that because Jenna’s blog is one that I enjoy. While I rarely cook her recipes because they are so un-Paleo it’s not worth tweaking, I really enjoy her food photography, book recommendations, travel stories and perspective on life. But this book? Was a great concept but sort of missed on the execution. I feel like it suffered from really poor editing because the stories were disjointed and one chapter didn’t really lead into the next, but it was clearly NOT a book of stand alone essays. Also, I felt like things were portrayed a bit different than they were on her blog which is always kind of interesting. And the recipes either felt forced into the stories or they just completely didn’t belong at all. It was kind of a bummer actually, but I will still enjoy her website. I just don’t think every website translates into a memoir. I mean, HELLO, remember Dooce’s memoir?

StregnthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath — This book includes a personality assessment and then which determine your overall strengths. The book then breaks down strategies to take advantage of each strength in the work place. While it is definitely a professional book, I think is has a lot of practical application in life as well. I was not surprised that my most emphasized strength was “Acheiver.” The paragraph describing that theme was as follows:
You feel as if every day starts at zero. By the end of the day you must achieve something tangible in order to feel good about yourself. And by “every day” you mean every single day — workdays, weekends, vacations. No matter how much you may feel you deserve a day of rest, if the day passes without some form of achievement, no matter how small, you will feel dissatisfied. You have an internal fire burning inside you. It pushes you to do more, to achieve more. After each accomplishment is reached, the fire dwindles for a moment, but very soon it rekindles itself, forcing you toward the next accomplishment.

BWAHAHAHAHA! No one who reads this blog will feel surprised by that, I’m sure. Hey, at least I come by my crazy honestly. What I didn’t love though, were the suggestions for how to take advantage of this part of my personality. Two of the suggestions were just to “Understand you probably don’t need as much sleep as other people” and to “Accept that you will feel dissatisfied with things even when you are achieving.” I know this is about harnessing the “strength” of this theme, but I just didn’t love that it ended there. Like, really? I’m doomed to be a psychotic insomniac goal setter who will constantly disappointed? WHERE IS THE SILVER LINING HERE? 🙂 Anyone else read this book? What did you think?

Blackberry Winter by Sarah Jio — This book was just okay for me in the beginning. I wasn’t really sucked into the story, but as the mystery began to unravel I felt my page turning quicken. Not my favorite of Jio’s books but definitely a good fluffy book to curl up with on a rainy day.

*****

And that’s really it. Actually, now that I have confessed my achiever tendencies to you all (ha! confessed!) I can be totally honest with you and tell you that I am ABSOLUTELY going to read one more book to make it an even 40 for the year. Care to suggest one? 🙂

Well as it stands I’ve read 34 books towards my goal of reading 50 this year. (Originally it was 75, but well — that just WASN’T gonna happen.) 16 is probably a manageable amount of books to read for some people in the next two months, but something tells me during the holidays I won’t be finding the time to read two books per week. Stranger things have happened though. Like, hey, reading 5 books in October. When’s the last time I did that?

No idea.

Here is what I finished:

Perfect Bait by Michael Fowlkes – This book just sounded like it was going to be fast-paced and super thrilling. It ended up being a bit slow to start and more violent than thrilling. But at the end I did like some of the characters and the story was entertaining in parts. Lots of boat talk though, and I’m really not that intrigued by boats I guess.

Prospect Park West by Amy Sohn – I already told you all about this here. Super fun brain-candy. It is $6 on Amazon right now, and I will tell you straight that it is totally worth $2 lattes.

One Last Thing Before I Go by Jonathan Tropper – So most of Jonathan Tropper books are thematically about the same things: family dynamics, relationships with people, flawed individuals figuring their stuff out. And I guess in some ways this could seem repetitive, except that he just has such a way with words and such witty humor that I don’t really ever *feel* like his books are repetitive. Also: why I keep reading them.

I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This: Success Secrets Every Gutsy Girl Should Know by Kate White – I don’t know, sometimes I just like reading cheesy advice books. And since I am particularly fond of Kate White’s fiction, and I mean she was the Editor In Chief at Cosmo at one point, so I thought it might be interesting to thumb through. It was a super quick read, I finished it in about a day and half, but I didn’t find the advice particularly relevant because I am already pretty deep into my career. But I thought it might actually make a fun gift for someone just out of college, or potentially navigating the corporate world for the first time.

The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger — Okay seriously, WHAT THE HELL? I don’t even know why I picked up this book (Wait yes I do, it was because when I read about it here I thought, “Hmmm…might be intriguing.”) But the thing is, I don’t like graphic novels. Like, at all. Sorry, I just can’t get into them. And this one was…well, weird. And kind of dark. And sure it resonates with book lovers and has kind of a neat concept, but also…it’s just really freaking weird and I didn’t love it. Good think I just sat down and read it in one sitting.

*****

Clearly it was quantity over quality this month. The good news, November is already shaping up to be full of quality! Anything good you’ve read lately that you can’t put down?

My life is overflowing with books to read right now and as usual there is just not enough time to read the all. These, however, are the ones I’m most excited to get through.

1. Rules of Civility by Amor Towles – I’ve heard great things about this book which follows a young woman in Greenwich Village during the 1930s who has a chance encounter with a man that propels her into New York Society. Sounds like Real Housewives of New York: The More Literary Verison.

2. Best Food Writing 2011 by Holly Hughes – I always love these compilations of the best curated food writing from magazines, the internet, and sometimes surprising literary contributions. It’s always a mixed bag, I never love everything, but there are always a few gems. The new one just came out, but I haven’t even made my way through last year’s yet. I’m looking forward to doing so little by little.

3. Little Children by Tom Perotta – Both Garrett and I are reading this for Book Club and it’s our turn to host the dinner to accompany the discussion. The subject matter doesn’t sound to uplifting, so I haven’t quite come up with a menu, but I think I’m going to do lots of finger food since we are going to watch the movie version too when we all get together.

4. Ad Hoc At Home by Thomas Keller – Family style recipes made with fresh ingredients inspired by Keller’s casual restaurant out in Sonoma County. A surprising number of the recipes are Paleo to begin with, but regardless the cookbook itself is inspiring on a number of levels. I’m having fun checking out cookbooks for my own writing/design inspiration and this one totally delivers. When Michelle mentioned it recently I knew it must be worth checking out because that gal has good cookbook taste. And it totally delivers!

5. The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Goff – This is an older book that I just recently read about, and honestly I can’t even remember where, but I immediately put it my To-Read list. Something about it just sounds weird and appealing so I want to read it. You can read the plot summary here.

6. The Flavor Thesaurus: A Compendium of Pairings, Recipes and Ideas For the Creative Cook by Niki Segnit – I think the super long title sort of explains what this is about, but I picked it up on Mel’s recommendation a couple of weeks ago and it is right up my alley. (PS – that post is FULL of awesome foodie fun, check it out if you’re looking for some cookbook inspiration too!)

7. The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings – Just like I am a sucker for books about New Orleans, I will basically always read a book that takes place in Hawaii. Remember? Hawaii and I have a special bond. Also I really wanted to see this movie and generally if there is an award winning movie made from a book, I like to read the book first. (Isn’t the book usually better?) Anyway, I’ve been eyeballing this for a while and finally it has made its way to the To Read Queue. I hope it’s good!

*****

What’s on your nightstand right now?

By now I should have posted a September Book Update, but guess what?

I only read one book. And I already wrote about it so no need to beat a dead horse.

Loserville – Population: 1.

But. BUT! I am currently reading a very fun book: Prospect Park West by Amy Sohn. Have you read this? It is so much better than it’s cover. The cover is not AT ALL how I am imagining everything. I hate when that happens.

Anyway, it is taking me so long to read because I am doing that thing where I am only making time to read right when I get into bed at night, and that is never a productive idea to begin with because I have a special quasi-narcoleptic talent of being able to fall sleep basically the second my head even comes into the same room as my pillow. And as I mentioned yesterday, stopping caffeine isn’t exactly doing me any favors. I guess what I’m saying is I’m reading it about 5 pages at a time, but holy hell each night those 5 pages are so enjoyable!

It’s a bit of a satire about motherhood, celebrity and wealth in Park Slope, which I’m always sort of curious about because I read too much US Weekly. Here’s a thought, maybe I should put down the US Weekly and then I’d get more reading done, eh? That’s probably not going to happen. But anyway — Park Slope is sort of fascinating to me in the way that Los Angeles was fascinating to me as a Northern Californian when I lived there. And so is Amy Sohn. She’s one of those people I always catch myself reading about and thinking “Hmmm…I should check out one of her books.” So I finally did after reading this crazy piece on The Awl this summer.

I mean…SERIOUSLY??? WHAT???

Crazy article aside, so far this book is just the fun, trashy little novel that I think I need to get my reading groove back. that and (next up) the new Jonathan Tropper and I think I’ll be good to go!

Just chugging along slowly with my book reading, as usual. 28 books down on a goal of (hopefully)(but, let’s be honest, probably not) 50 books this year.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
I discovered and enjoyed Gillian Flynn last summer, and I definitely think she knows how to write a good sultry thriller. If you enjoy dark books, she will be right up your alley.

At this point, you’ve probably heard of this book. The fact that it was the “It Book” of the summer had me anxiously awaiting its delivery from the library, but because I had to wait so long and had heard from so many that there were shocking “twists and tricks” I think it affected my experience with it. Not that I didn’t enjoy it, let me be clear — I LOVED THE ACT OF READING THIS BOOK! It is the kind you read under the covers with a flashlight until way too late at night because you just HAVE TO FINISH. (So page turning, ohmahgawd.) But. I was suspicious of everything right from the start, so I think I there were parts that I over thought and maybe that killed a bit of the enjoyment. Also, the ending rubbed me the wrong way too, and I’m still thinking about it. But I would totally still recommend it (and have!) because the reading experience was so fun. I like a book that gets me all obsessed.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Read this for Book Club this month and had a mostly pleasant time with it. There were elements I really enjoyed about it: the fact that it is an epistolary novel (I’m a sucker for that) and the fact that it is a bit of a romance in it wrapped up in war + history (I always enjoy learning something while hearing a good story.) But I wasn’t IN LOVE with this book.

It was a bit slow to start, the narrator was somewhat irritating at times, and I just generally didn’t feel like busting out the jazz hands while reading it. Perhaps it was because I read in a short period of time and didn’t savor it. That said, it was fine. An enjoyable enough read. Great way to pass the time on a plane trip maybe? But as soon as I closed the book I had already forgotten about the characters. It did leave me wanting to pick up some more historical fiction though — so that could happen.

Hell or High Water by Joy Castro

Hmmmmm…this book. I’m still not really sure what I thought of it. I picked it up mainly because it was billed as a journalistic thriller about kidnapping in New Orleans. I have had New Orleans on the brain a lot lately and LOVE reading books set there. (If you’ve read a good one tell me about it!) It seemed like it would be a great read, but in the beginning I found the protagonist to be completely unrelatable. Her outlook on life and her odd behaviors just felt sort of one dimensional for a while.

My other problem was that the pace of the book was really choppy. I was hoping for a page turning mystery where the setting almost acted as a character. But it was not like that at all. The plot would move forward a bit and then there would be pages and pages of digression describing places in New Orleans or Post-Katrina observations. I’m not against hearing about all of that, but when it doesn’t move the plot forward at all or give much insight into an already unrelatable character it makes a book feel awkwardly disjointed. Also, the ending was ridiculous. RIDICULOUS.

Well then, I guess I do know what I thought of this book now, don’t I? 🙂

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

Completely coincidentally I read this book following Hell or High Water and it was also about New Orleans and Katrina. Though this one was VERY different. The thing about this book is that it has all the things in a book that makes you want to like it: brilliant structure, complex characters, gorgeous writing, and intelligent symbolism. But something about all of that just didn’t add up to an enjoyable read for me. Maybe it was the fact that I was coming off an oddly paced book about New Orleans but I just kept thinking “When is stuff going to start happening?” And I just never really felt like it did.

There were parts that I did enjoy, like the picture the author painted of some of the familial relationships, but I felt like a lot of it was heavy handed and I was not in the mood to be in awe of a book at the time. I was in the mood to read a good story. And this story, was just ok for me.

Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo

I read through this in about 2 days and I immediately wanted to get into my kitchen. Unfortunately there are a number of recipes in this book that aren’t Whole 30 approved and we were in the midst of that challenge at the time. In the last couple of weeks though, I have probably tried over half of the recipes and most have turned out fantastic. the funny part is, I didn’t really buy it for the recipes.

What originally drew me to this book was the idea that she has customized 30-day Paleo Meal Plans depending on what your health goals are. There are menus for fat loss, for autoimmune disease control, athletic performance, blood sugar regulation, digestive issues — I mean, quite a few options! But when I got the book I realized that it was much more than that. First of all, it is a HUGE book. They should tell you that on Amazon — it weighs like 10 lbs, I swear! 🙂 The beginning goes into the principles of Paleo in a really approachable way, but with lots of good scientific information. Then there are meals plans. Then there are recipes. It’s a great format. And even as someone who has been Paleo for years, I learned a few things.

*****

Did you come across an good reads this month?