Books

Book 539: The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue (Guide #1) – Mackenzie Lee

After seeing this over and over being the darling of the book blogosphere and reading the rave reviews of it I figured I should check it out. I read a lot of LGBT literature, a lot of young adult literature, and quite a bit of adventure literature so I thought why not. And although I wasn’t completely disappointed, I was genuinely underwhelmed and for once it wasn’t the mood I was in. I’ll start with the not-so-great and finish with what I enjoyed.

I’m a finicky reader at best and have curated a pretty good system of choosing the books I read, including taking into account books that fellow bloggers who have similar tastes to me read, but this one just didn’t click for me quite like others have. I kept to my usual style of not reading anything about the author or the book after I decided I want to read it. [Generally I get excited about a book/author and purchase/reserve something by them and then I let it sit for a while so that I can clear my palate.]

Continue reading “Book 539: The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue (Guide #1) – Mackenzie Lee”

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Updates

February Recap 2018

It has been a crazy month in Boston! We’ve had temperatures in the mid 70s (low 20s for you C people), and then have had it snow the next day! Both of the photos to the right are from two of the warmer days.

The top photo was the day it hit nearly 75° and I went for a walk that morning. It was sad to see how gross the harbor walk was and that I couldn’t walk the whole thing.

The bottom photo is from when I went out to do a resume/cover letter workshop with the group my sister works for, it was a beautiful day and by time I left after a few hours most of the snow was gone. I’m honestly surprised I haven’t gotten sick with all of it this year!

In addition we’re getting ready for our move (less than 10 days) and so that has added additional chaos to our lives which we don’t really need, but will be so worth it once I’m sitting on one of the decks in a chair reading a book and sipping a lemonade. Continue reading “February Recap 2018”

Books

Book 538: Quakeland – Kathryn Miles

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one when the publisher reached out to me about a few books way back in August of last year.* Quakeland caught my eye for the very reason any of those disaster movies (TwisterThe Day After TomorrowSan Andreas, Volcano, etc.) speak out to millions of people every year. We’re fascinated by the potential destruction and yet completely disbelieving that it could happen to us. Fun fact, it can and will at some point (maybe not the Volcano story line) but according to this and a lot of scientists earthquakes could!

The book started off a little slow after a powerful forward, but picked up pace the further I got into it, which was weird because the amount of science seemed to increase and I usually fall asleep when books get too technical.

Continue reading “Book 538: Quakeland – Kathryn Miles”

Books

Book 537: The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower #2) – Stephen King

I’m starting to see why people really like this series. I’m only two books in now (with pretty big gaps between the books), but I get it. And even with that crappy film adaptation—so far nothing in the first two books was in the film really—I’m being drawn in.

I’m struggling to write reviews of this as I’ve taken to heart what King writes in the forward that this is one long book/story broken across quite a few books. It’s some how barely moving forward but taking massive steps at the same time. This picks up not long after The Gunslinger and plows steadily forward. I’m still not sure I have any idea what’s going on, and I have no idea where it’s going, but so far I’m enjoying where King is taking me.

Continue reading “Book 537: The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower #2) – Stephen King”

Books

Book 536: The Self-Love Experiment – Shannon Kaiser

I received an unsolicited copy of this from the publisher and aside from the title making me giggle continuously (seriously it took about 200 pages before I stopped giggling), I figured everyone needs to be more “kind, compassionate, and accepting of [ourselves] so I thought I’d give it a go.* Unfortunately, it wasn’t for me.

It’s not even that the book was poorly written or that the subject matter is a bit too hokey for me it’s not. I’ve ready hokier things. I think for me it was the repetitive monotony of Kaiser’s vague references to things that she chose not to discuss (i.e. her former drug problems?). Why allude to them constantly and then not talk about them? Maybe she discusses it in another book, but for the number of times she mentioned it I kept waiting for that story and it never materialized.

Continue reading “Book 536: The Self-Love Experiment – Shannon Kaiser”

Books, Professional Development

Book 535: Nudge – Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

I’m really taking to heart all of the articles I read about the most successful people and I’m trying to read one nonfiction book that will teach me something every month this year. I just looked back on all my stats from the last year and I’ve averaged 16 nonfiction books a year.

I’m still not 100% sure what list I saw this on, but I picked up a copy back in August of 2016. It was probably when I started reading about the importance of mental acuity and keeping your mind sharp and constantly learning how to do new things. That or it was when I was dealing with some craziness at work and needed all the advice I could get! Pick any number of these books and you’ll see what I mean, specifically those dealing with conflict.

Continue reading “Book 535: Nudge – Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein”

Updates

2017 and January 2018 Recap

2018.01.14 Far from Boston.JPGIt has been a long time since my last recap and so much has happened.

I’m honestly surprised I’ve managed to keep this little blog going this year. I’m also incredibly proud I keep puttering along at my pace.

I’ve broken this post down into three parts, the first is my stats from 2017, the second is my January recap (seriously abbreviated) and the third is just some personal stuff to share why I haven’t blogged as frequently over the past few months and why there may be delays over the next few months.

Continue reading “2017 and January 2018 Recap”
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