Tag: summer reading

Recent Reads

Lauren3 Comments

At the beginning of the summer, I set a goal to read six books.  We’re just 10 days into August and CHECK!  I marked that sixth tally on my Summer Bucket List on Saturday and it felt so good.  I mean it took me like four days to finish the last eight pages of that sixth book, but whatever.  Now, I’m in between books and it feels so wrong.  I’m waiting for Amazon to deliver this one to me tomorrow, so I guess I’ll just have to immerse myself in Olympic swimming until then.  Not that that’s hard.  PHELPS PHOREVER ♥

Here’s what I read this summer!

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The Life We Bury

So this book wasn’t perfect.  The main character was unexplainably DUMB towards the end, it all wrapped up just a little too neatly and I didn’t give a $#!% about the main character’s relationship with his neighbor, but I really really liked the main character.  I liked that he was tough but had the biggest heart and that it showed in the way he cared for his younger brother.  I do really wish we’d had more interaction with Carl, as he was pretty much the catalyst for the entire story, but overall I enjoyed this one.

Me Before You

Surprised the heck out of myself by liking this one quite a bit!  I saw the movie at an advanced screening a couple of months ago and even though everyone else cried through the entire ending, I was like “god this is cheesy!”  But then I read the book and it gave me so much more than the movie.  All the gaps were filled in, all the characters were so well fleshed out and okay, I still didn’t cry, but I got pretty close.  Fellow readers, are Jojo Moyes’ other books worth reading?

The Devil in the White City

Can you even believe the World’s Fair in Chicago existed??  It sounded incredible and the history nerd in me loved all the facts and behind-the-scenes information this book provided but it all seemed a little drawn out for me.  I got too much of a research paper feeling and not enough of a connection to any of the characters.

The Good Girl

This is the story of a privileged young woman being abducted by a complicated young man.  It’s also the story of a desperate mother, a failing marriage and a good-hearted detective.  The evolution of both of these central relationships was really interesting and Detective Hoffman was such an easy-to-root-for character but I didn’t particularly like the way this one ended.  Too much stock is placed on plot twists these days.  Also, Mia, the “main character” is almost exclusively shown through the eyes of other characters and I thought that was a really weird decision for the author to make.

The Nightingale

I liked this book a lot, though after this and All the Light We Cannot See, I think I need a break from World War II stories.  It’s all so heavy!  I loved the French aspect, the sister aspect, the strong female character aspect and the semi-twist at the end.  Prose-wise, All the Light We Cannot See is far superior, but this story was equally interesting.  Also, my mom and I were supposed to be reading this together and I’m fairly certain I’ll have forgotten the plot by the time she finishes it 🙂  (Just calling you out on the internet, Mom.)   

The Secret Life of Anna Blanc

So this was interesting… the author of this book actually lives in Denver and attended our book club meeting!  It takes place in 1907 L.A. and Anna Blanc is a spoiled desperate-not-to-end-up-a-spinster socialite, who secretly takes a job as a police maiden and gets wrapped in a serial killer mystery.  I wanted to like it, but Anna was just annoyingly stupid and never got any less stupid.  The author explained that she wrote her main character that way purposely and cited Scarlett O’Hara as inspiration and okay, that made me hate Anna a little bit less but this still wasn’t my favorite read of the summer.

I’ve got Reconstructing Amelia, For Whom the Bell Tolls and Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris on the brain for my next few reads, but what else do you recommend??

Weekend Things

Lauren1 Comment

I’m never sure how to proceed in the wake of tragedy.  On the one hand, it feels wrong to go on with regularly scheduled programming when our nation is grieving.  But then, in a small way, it’s also symbolic of what we have to do in times like these.  GO ON.  Hate is not the answer.  Terror will not destroy us.  Fear will not win.  I choose to believe that there are far more good hearts in this world than there is hatred and senselessness.  And so I’m focusing on the good and this weekend was good.

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We tried out a new pizza place for Friday dinner and WHOA.  Cart-Driver can’t be beat in the thin-crust artisan category and Fat Sully’s is a showstopper but Blue Pan, I think you’ve won my overall pizza heart.  I didn’t even know what Detroit-style pizza was before this, but I think it’s safe to say it’s my new favorite.  Would you just look at those crispy edges?!

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The rest of the evening was spent at Coors.  Let’s not even talk about how we were up two, with two outs and zero on in the top of the ninth and somehow managed to lose the game.  Instead, let’s talk about how they do this Tooth Trot every game and Joey gets so into cheering on someone dressed as a giant toothbrush.  His maturity astounds me 🙂

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Ugh, Saturday was just the best day.  And not because of anything life-changing, but just because it was summer and I ate breakfast (AND LUNCH) in the backyard and got to ride my bike to the Farmers’ Market.  And really, that’s all I need in this life to be happy.  Union Station just started hosting a Farmers’ Market so we rode over to check it out and I was delighted (and sort of surprised) to see how much produce they had!  I’m all for tents selling breakfast and lunch options but let’s not forget that FRESH PRODUCE is actually the point of a Farmers’ Market.

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I was seriously only going to allow myself to buy one item (Farmers’ Markets are not always easy on the wallet) but then I saw bunches of the illusive garlic scape, big pink radishes and the most gorgeous heads of MINI lettuce and couldn’t resist.  Then Joey forced me to buy some cherries.  Twist my arm, why dontcha? 🙂  I made a pretty lunch salad with our loot and felt infinite happiness.  Plus it gave me enough energy to brave the grocery store during Rockies game rush hour.

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The rest of the day was spent outside (shocking, I know) reading, while Joey built our second garden box.  I’m a bad wife and forgot to take a picture but it turned out SO GOOD and only took him half as long as the first one, so he’s pretty much a pro now.  I can’t wait to get them primed and prepped for actual plants.  We saw all these cute veggie seedlings at the market and it got us so excited to plant some of our own!  While Joey finished up, I headed inside and made us a Rhubarb and Raspberry Crostata for dessert.  Served it up with some ice cream later that night and it was the perfect end to a perfect day.

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Sunday started with a walk and breakfast with my parents.  We took them to Bacon and hoped for a good experience since it’s been sort of a mixed bag the past few times we’ve been by ourselves.  It’s not so much the food that’s off, but the service.  Our food seemed to take FOR-EV-ER but luckily, we were all too busy talking to notice it all that much.  We hadn’t seen my parents since we got back from Chicago so we caught them up on our trip and gave them some tips for their trip to San Fran/Oregon later this summer.

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Afterwards, I hit up Whole Foods — every time I leave that place, I’m thinking “get me outta here!” — then walked to pick up some more coffee beans for iced coffee and helped Joey prep some salads for the work week.  Got to watch the beginning of the Rockies game before heading off to yoga.  Yoga is good any time of year, but when you get to park on the other side of the bridge and walk over in that summertime sunshine, it just feels that much better.  We learned some new poses and it felt good to try something different, even if I looked like a mess doing it 🙂

Ended the night with more reading on the porch, Game of Thrones and a veggie and garlic scape pesto panzanella!  I’m all for a salad that involves cubes of bread and I only kinda still suck at poaching eggs.  Meanwhile, it’s Monday but I’m still gonna act like it’s the weekend, if you don’t mind.  Sending you all love, happiness and sunshine this week!