What I'm Loving Right Now

I just want to begin this post by saying that I hope I do not lead my readers to think that I am a product-obsessed person. I love "things" as much as the next girl, but after a while, I do get tired of bloggers (and tweeters) who are constantly discussing "things."  I like to shop (mostly online these days) but I also like lots of other things in life.  And I really limit what I actually purchase, especially these days.  I have a budget just like everyone else. If you ever think I'm writing too much about stuff, you have my permission to leave a comment and let me know! 

That said, some things are just too cute not to blog about, so here are some things I'm loving right now.

I adore these cards. Kate Spade is one of the best in the business at coming up with clever stationery. She had some holiday cards this past year that I just died over. I hope she brings them back this year (and I hope my budget is roomy enough)! 

I am slightly flipping out over these dinner plates from Anthropologie. I was very generously gifted with 4 of the dessert plates for Christmas last year. I absolutely am enamored with the dinner plates.  The cups and saucers aren't bad either. I am thinking these might appear on my birthday list. It's in September but who's counting?

Speaking of Anthro, I am still loving the raw gem trend that's happening right now. These earrings are darling. At nearly $100, they are definitely out of my costume jewelry budget, though. But they sure are pretty to look at.

My friend Kathryn recommended this book to me. It's one that I'd seen in the store several times, but just never purchased because I thought it might be a flop (and I think Paris-lit is easily overdone in the wrong way). But since she recommended it, I decided to give it a try. It is so good that I am purposefully making myself read it slowly so I do not fly through it as I tend to do. It is great so far. And the main character has one of my favorite names of all time.

I'm also loving several songs right now (country music haters, beware), including:

Mean

Taylor Swift

I've been pretty adamantly anti-Swift but I just love this song. Summer guilty pleasure?

Knee Deep 

Zac Brown Band 

(borderline obsession has been happening with this one since my last beach trip in November)

You Lie

The Band Perry

"That ain't my perfume...."

What are you loving right now, dear readers?

Good Reads

I've posted many a post on this blog about books that I'm currently reading, but I cannot recall ever having done a post on my all-time favorite books.  I happen to be re-reading one of my personal favorites, so I thought this would be a good time to share about some of my other favorites. 

Instead of posting about my favorites which are also classics, I thought I would post about my favorites within a genre.  These are not necessarily classic genres- they are ones made up by yours truly.

1. All-Time Favorite

My all-time favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

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If you've never read this one, then I reckon you need to get yourself to the nearest library or bookstore asap.  This is actually the book I'm currently re-reading.  I haven't finished it just yet, but I've been forcing myself to put it down so I don't stay up all night reading it.  I just think it is a beautiful story about human character, friendship, and life-long learning. 

2. Favorite Play

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams 

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I absolutely love all Tennessee Williams' works, but The Glass Menagerie is my favorite.  A Streetcar Named Desire is also a close second.  My parents actually met when they were working on a college production of Streetcar.  Kind of romantic minus the whole fictional-abusive-marriage thing.  

3. Favorite Children's Book

The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown

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Just a warning to the wise: I cannot read this book without straight-up bawling... and it is a children's book so you can probably imagine that it isn't very long.  This story is just such a precious tale of a mother's unending love for her child.  I think it might even top To Kill a Mockingbird as my all-time favorite book, but it's easier to categorize it this way (and people will judge me less).

4. Favorite Children's Series

The "Frances" Series by Russell Hoban

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This series was my absolute favorite when I was a little girl, so it still remains a personal favorite.  Frances is just such a normal little girl (even if she is a badger) and she deals with many of the same problems that other little girls deal with, including moral issues. 

Funny story about Frances: When I was a kid, my parents absolutely refused to help me with any school projects beyond answering my questions or making sure I had the right supplies.  They thought that it was my responsibility to do my projects.  (Truth be told, I think it was also a bonus for them that they didn't have to do anything.)  So, in second grade there was an assignment where we had to paint a pumpkin like our favorite book character.  Well, Frances was my favorite.  So I used watercolor paint (hey- I didn't know any better) to paint a pumpkin like Frances, who is a badger.  Basically you got a pumpkin that looked like it was rolled around in mud because watercolors don't really adhere to pumpkins.  Yeah, good times. 

5. Favorite Chick Lit

The "Shopaholic" Series by Sophie Kinsella

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This is definitely not in the category of best all-time "literature."  Not even close.  But, the shopaholic series is some of my favorite "chick lit." These books are light and funny.  For the record, Kinsella's other stand-alone books are also great- especially Twenties Girl.

6. Favorite Memoir

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

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I just want to say for the record that I read this book before it was so mainstream and before it was a movie- long before.  I wasn't jumping on a bandwagon with this one, I was just reading something I thought would be interesting.  Through this book, I realized that it is okay to not know what you are looking for.  In fact, sometimes it is better to live your life looking for something you aren't sure of than it is to live your whole life looking for one thing that really isn't the right thing.

7. Favorite Novel of the 21st Century

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

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I've reviewed this book on the blog before, but I really think this has been my favorite book of the twenty-first century so far. It is really wonderful if you haven't read it yet. 

8. Book that Really Made Me Think

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

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If you've lost someone close to you, I really highly recommend The Lovely Bones.  But, read the book and avoid the movie.  This book just gives really vivid insight into what heaven might be like.  I really loved reading it. 

By the way, the title of this post was semi-inspired by the goodreads site. If you are a reader, I recommend goodreads to keep track of what you've read.  The site is well-operated and well organized.

P.S.  A reader asked me to keep you guys posted on Leadership the Eleanor Roosevelt Way. It was definitely very good and insightful, but very heavy on the leadership theory.  I think it is a good, straight-forward read on Mrs. Roosevelt, but I would still like to read the Doris Kearns Goodwin book on the Roosevelts, No Ordinary Time, at some point. 

Weekend Recap

So, I spent the majority of my weekend in bed trying to get some rest so I can quickly recover from this cold.  Big thanks to those who left me comments on your best cold remedies!!

I am happy to report that I'm feeling a lot better, although not totally 100% yet.  I had to cancel my fun Friday night plans because I just wasn't feeling well and I didn't want to get my friend sick. But, I was able to go to a birthday party/ bar-b-que for a friend Saturday. It was so fun. Nice and low-key- my kind of birthday party.  My friend's roommates did a big cook out where they bought the "meat" and the guests brought sides.  I brought this potato salad recipe from Ina Garten. It was REALLY good. I highly recommend it.  It's made with olive oil, lemon juice, white wine and some other ingredients, plus fresh herbs. It tastes really fresh, not like the typical gloppy mayonnaise potato salads (although those can be good, too).  I didn't take any pictures, so here's a picture from the food network site. (By the way, I didn't put in the red onion and it wasn't missed.)

I spent the majority of the day today resting and reading for a class. I'm reading this book:

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The writing is not the best, but I guess it is typical for a non-fiction biography-style book on leadership style.  It is great, though, for anecdotes based on Eleanor's life, rather than being heavily intertwined with stories about FDR as well.  I'd recommend the book to any ER fans out there! 

Lastly, are you a fan of Brothers & Sisters? 

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After lagging for a while, it is getting GOOD again, in my opinion, anyway. It is like all the Walkers are back to their old ways. 

Have a great week! 

Bossypants

So, you might have heard by now that Tina Fey released her first book, Bossypants.

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I am not normally a fan of celebrity writers.  I mean, as much as I like Tori Spelling's reality shows, I have no interest in reading her books. And as much as I love Mean Girls, I really had no desire to read Tina Fey's book either.  Just not my preferred genre. And then I saw this poem that has been making its way around the internet. It is called "The Mother's Prayer for Its Daughter."  It is very smart and funny, so I thought I would share. I bolded my favorite part. Enjoy! 

First, Lord: No tattoos. May neither Chinese symbol for truth nor Winnie-the-Pooh holding the FSU logo stain her tender haunches.

May she be Beautiful but not Damaged, for it’s the Damage that draws the creepy soccer coach’s eye, not the Beauty.

When the Crystal Meth is offered, May she remember the parents who cut her grapes in half And stick with Beer.

Guide her, protect her

When crossing the street, stepping onto boats, swimming in the ocean, swimming in pools, walking near pools, standing on the subway platform, crossing 86th Street, stepping off of boats, using mall restrooms, getting on and off escalators, driving on country roads while arguing, leaning on large windows, walking in parking lots, riding Ferris wheels, roller-coasters, log flumes, or anything called “Hell Drop,” “Tower of Torture,” or “The Death Spiral Rock ‘N Zero G Roll featuring Aerosmith,” and standing on any kind of balcony ever, anywhere, at any age.

Lead her away from Acting but not all the way to Finance. Something where she can make her own hours but still feel intellectually fulfilled and get outside sometimes And not have to wear high heels.

What would that be, Lord? Architecture? Midwifery? Golf course design? I’m asking You, because if I knew, I’d be doing it, Youdammit.

May she play the Drums to the fiery rhythm of her Own Heart with the sinewy strength of her Own Arms, so she need Not Lie With Drummers.

Grant her a Rough Patch from twelve to seventeen. Let her draw horses and be interested in Barbies for much too long, For childhood is short – a Tiger Flower blooming Magenta for one day – And adulthood is long and dry-humping in cars will wait.

O Lord, break the Internet forever, That she may be spared the misspelled invective of her peers And the online marketing campaign for Rape Hostel V: Girls Just Wanna Get Stabbed.

And when she one day turns on me and calls me a Bitch in front of Hollister, Give me the strength, Lord, to yank her directly into a cab in front of her friends, For I will not have that Shit. I will not have it.

And should she choose to be a Mother one day, be my eyes, Lord, that I may see her, lying on a blanket on the floor at 4:50 A.M., all-at-once exhausted, bored, and in love with the little creature whose poop is leaking up its back.

“My mother did this for me once,” she will realize as she cleans feces off her baby’s neck. “My mother did this for me.” And the delayed gratitude will wash over her as it does each generation and she will make a Mental Note to call me. And she will forget. But I’ll know, because I peeped it with Your God eyes.

No Better Word than "Random"

This is going to be a random post. I'm just putting that out there right now.

So after getting back from Mardi Gras in New Orleans late on Monday, I've just been in kind of a funk.  I had a terrible assignment due yesterday for one of my classes and I'm about ninety-nine percent sure I did it wrong, but I didn't have time to fix it and it was so complex that I couldn't even make a good guess about what I did wrong. Blegh.  


I also need to wash sheets, shower, go to the grocery store, unpack, work on stuff for work and work on stuff for school.  In other words, coming up with great blog content has moved to the bottom of the list right now. I wish things were different, but that's sort of where I'm at right now.


I do have  a couple of random things that might be of interest to someone else, maybe. Haha. 

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I started reading Water for Elephants on the plane last Friday. To be completely honest, I had absolutely no interest in it. I kept seeing it in bookstores and online and it just never appealed to me. I only ended up buying it because it was less expensive than some of the other options on my Nook. 
Well let me tell you, it was so good! I bought it Friday morning on the plane and I could not put it down. I ended up finishing it that afternoon.  It was wonderful and I highly recommend it. And I have to say that imagining one of the main characters, Marlena, as Reese Witherspoon who plays her in the upcoming movie, was just perfect.  Reese fits the character perfectly and now I'm really looking forward to seeing the movie.

In other news, a family friend that I used to babysit texted me yesterday.  She's turning 11 this weekend.  She said to me yesterday- I cannot believe I'm going to be in MIDDLE school next year.  Well that makes me feel about a million years old considering I used to change her diapers.  Anywho, I asked her what she would want for her birthday. Her reply? "Anything Justin Bieber."  She also clarified for me that she likes Justin for his music, not just his hair. Haha. 
So I found this shirt on etsy that I think I'm going to order for her.

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What do yall think?  Hmmmm?

The Nook for Students

[By the way, if you haven't taken my survey yet about what you'd like to see more (or less) of on this blog, please click here to take it!  It is only four questions.]

I've mentioned before that I have a Nook and I really enjoy it.

Not only can you buy books without having to go to a store (big bonus for me... since Barnes & Noble or Target is kind of far away), but you can download said books practically instantly.

Well, recently I've taken advantage of another feature of the Nook- downloading PDFs.

This is the Nook charger that comes with the device when you purchase it. It works sort of like an Apple product- the charger's cord has a USB connection on one end, so all you have to do is connect the Nook to your computer using this cord.

I absolutely love this feature. Using my Mac, I can drag PDFs to my Nook and they download in seconds.  It is so much easier to read on the Nook for a long period of time than it is to read from my computer screen. And frankly, I spend enough time on the computer as it is. It is also much more portable- I can toss the Nook in my backpack or purse and take it with me just as I would with a book.

Best of all? I don't have to waste time, money, paper & ink printing out the NUMEROUS PDFs that are assigned in each of my classes to read each week.

Sorry about the orb from the flash!

One tip I have for those who want to do this is to name your PDF files in a way that makes sense to you.   For example, I name mine using the date the reading is assigned + the name of the document used on the syllabus.  This makes it easy for me to spot what I'm looking for in the "My Documents" folder of my Nook.  I'm sure you could even organize your files further and use multiple folders, but I haven't felt the need to explore that option yet. 

So just in case you are on the fence about e-readers- here's another great plus for you, especially if you are a student! 

Winter 2011 Reading List

 I'm not really into New Year's Resolutions, but I am trying this year to be more conscientious about using what I have- this includes reading some books currently sitting on my shelves before buying anything else.

So, with that spirit, here is my current reading list:

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

I bought this on my nook before the holiday and tried to read some of it on the plane ride home.  It made me sob and I'm pretty sure I got no more than 30 pages into it.  Like, I sobbed very, very badly.  So I stopped reading it on the plane (because sobbing in front of strangers is slightly embarrassing).  I haven't picked it back up yet because I know the rest of it will be very emotional, but I want to get through it this winter.

Le Divorce & Le Mariage by Diane Johnson

I bought these at a book sale last year and I've been wanting to read them for a while.  I loved the movie Le Divorce and so far I really like the book.  It has some great and funny observations about the French, which I miss from reading French books & articles during undergrad.

The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova

I started reading this last spring and for some reason, I put it down and didn't finish it, so I want to get back to this one too.

The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee

This is another one that I'm actually almost done with but need to finish.  

Amazon Student

Have you heard of Amazon Student?

It is a service offered through amazon.com that basically allows for students to get the "Amazon Prime" membership for free.  All you need to sign up is your school e-mail address (.edu).  

I signed up for it this week and I wish I had discovered it sooner. It allows you to get free two-day shipping on textbooks and a lot of other items! When I signed up for it, I also got an offer to sell back a textbook that I bought using Amazon last semester.  You just follow the prompts and ship your book (FOR FREE!) back to the seller, and get a credit for the refund amount.  

How easy is that?

If you are a student, I highly recommend signing up for Amazon Student.

Book Reviews

Here's an update on the books I read last week.

Mini Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella was pretty good.  If you've read the other shopaholic books, you will know what to expect from this one.  It definitely wasn't my favorite book by Sophie Kinsella, but if you've read all the other books, you should pick this one up too.  And it is clear from the ending of this book that there will be more of Becky (the main character) in the future.

The Help was really, really great.  If you enjoy books like To Kill a Mockingbird (my personal favorite), you will enjoy The Help.  When people described this book to me, they always described it as the tale of southern families in the 1960s told from the perspective of their "help" or maids, housekeepers, nannies, etc.  But it really is not just that at all.  There is a much bigger story line here and it is very moving.  I must admit I had a bit of trouble getting past the way the author chose to write in the voices of a couple of the characters, but after a while, I saw that it fits the book.  I highly recommend adding it to your holiday reading list.

I also said that I was going to finish reading The Nineteenth Wife on my break, but I didn't make much headway on that one.  I have to admit, the book has stalled out a little bit for me and I'm having a hard time getting back into it.

Thanksgiving Reading List

I'm sneaking away to the beach for a week to celebrate Thanksgiving.  A whole week- isn't that exciting?  I literally have not had a week off from "life" since my trip to Napa in April.  I'm thrilled!

Since it will probably be too cold to sit in the sand at the beach, I will be doing a lot of reading and trying to relax relaxing with my family.

Here's what will be on my Nook for the break:

I've been a longtime reader of the Shopaholic series and all of Sophie Kinsella's books.  They are definitely guilty pleasure reads and they always make me laugh out loud, literally.

This book I will actually be bringing with me in physical form (haha).  I purchased it at a book sale for like $2 last spring, but I haven't had time to read it yet.

I started this a couple of months ago and haven't finished it yet.  Once school got into full swing, I just haven't had the time.  I'm looking forward to finishing it on my break.

Have you read any good books lately? 

Good Reads

I thought I would highlight a couple of books that I read this summer today.

This was such a fantastic book!  It follows a community living on an island in the English Channel right after World War II.  The island was the only occupied section of England during the war.  After the war, a writer from London decides to write about the island. The book is written in the style of letters back and forth between the characters.  If you like historical fiction, you should pick this up!  I laughed out loud at some points, as the main character, the writer, is really funny.

This was another read I really enjoyed.  This is one of those books that follows a real historical figure and her life story.  Some of the details are a bit fudged historically, but that's why it is fiction.  The book is very entertaining to read, and it gives you a great peak into life in ancient Egypt, at least among the privileged folks.

Make sure to stop by tomorrow, I will be joining the Kelly's Korner home tour series tomorrow with my little "home office."

Economics 101

I've spent the majority of my day today catching up on reading for my economics course. My first introduction to economics was less than thrilling.  It was one of those awful undergraduate classes for me where you did the best you could on the tests, never fully understanding the concepts (okay, let's be honest- never getting close to understanding the concepts).  Many of my friends, who are intelligent and capable people, also took the same course, and I think it's safe to say we all just prayed we would make it out with a B. (For the record, I did make it out with a B, thank goodness!)

So, you could say that I was less than delighted to have to take more economics classes in my graduate program; however, much to my delight- I have really enjoyed my economics class thus far.  I can't say that I get everything 100% of the time, but once I work at it, I get most of it.  This is mostly due to my professor, I think.  Her style of teaching is non-intimidating and the way she explains concepts makes them easier for me to understand.  

To help us further understand the basic concepts of economics, she assigned this book:

Naked Economics, Available from amazon.com for $11.53.

I've really enjoyed this book, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is a bit confused about economics, the basics of a market economy, supply & demand, and so on.  The author, Charles Wheelan, presents the material in a way that he says even the "layman" can understand, and he does it with a surprising amount of humor.  I mean, if I admitted to laughing out loud while reading this book- would you judge me?  Because I did laugh out loud- maybe...

I haven't finished reading the book yet, but I look forward to doing so.  I hope my student friends out there in blogger world have also found some enjoyable reads this semester!