Reading Archives - A Short Blonde

Reading Challenge | Book Five

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A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg

“You’re ready to marry someone, I figure, if you’re willing to go into debt with him.”

It’s time to discuss the fifth book in my reading challenge! I chose Molly Wizenberg’s first memoir, A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table for the book I’ve been meaning to read. Initially, I was reading from a loaned copy but within the first 15 pages I realized I wanted to own it. My flight to California for our road trip, was a few days away, so I quickly purchased a used copy on Amazon and shipped it to where Jordan was staying!

Molly is a two-time author, food blogger at Orangette, (circa 2004!), and podcaster. During the summer of 2014, I read Delancey, Molly’s second book. Delancey follows the opening of Molly and her husband’s pizza parlor in Seattle. But let’s not digress, we’re here to chat about A Homemade Life.

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2016 Reading Challenge | Book Four

Franny and Zooey

I chose read Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger for the category, “a book published before you were born,” in Modern Mrs. Darcey’s Reading Challenge. That is a pretty wide open category, but in high school I loved The Catcher in the Rye, so it seemed fitting to read another Salinger piece.

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Weekend Links / / Thirty-Eight Weeks

Weekend Reading

I’m sitting here watching an early season two episode of Gilmore Girls lacking any sort of motivation to empty the dishwasher and make our bed. People ask me daily if I’m over it, especially at thirty-eight weeks pregnant, and ready for this baby to arrive, but honestly I’m not. I’m already feeling nostalgic for his kicks.

In other news…

This week has been filled with a little more reading, a lot of Wimbledon tennis watching and a hair color refresh as all women who are about to go into labor should do something that’ll make them feel more like themselves.

This week has also been extremely heartbreaking and infuriating and as a white female I often don’t really know how to respond. I will leave you with one of Leslie Odom Jr.’s tweets, “I will live. I will work. I will make art. A life with love at its center is radical protest in the face of evil.” I’m praying for all those families who have lost loved ones this week in senseless shootings. We need heart change.

Onto the links!

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2016 Reading Challenge | Book Three

Here I find myself in May only having finished three complete books for my reading challenge for 2016. I think I might be the slowest reader who ever decided to tackle a reading challenge. I don’t know how people read four, five, even six books in a month. I’m lucky if I finish one! I’m equally terrible at reading while on vacation so even though I brought my next book on our California excursion I’m still not finished.

But I digress, let’s talk about a book I did finish: All the Light We Cannot See I won’t sugar coat things, I loved this book. My sister-in-law first mentioned Anthony Doerr’s best-selling novel to Jordan and I last year. We purchased a copy in the fall, intending on reading it together before bed, but first trimester exhaustion had me falling asleep hours before Jordan so there it sat, unread on my nightstand, for months!

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2016 Reading Challenge | Book Two

“It’s been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.”

When determining the different books I would read for my yearly challenge, I took it as an opportunity to fill in gaps. Anne of Green Gables instantly came to mind. While I’ve watched the movies countless times (PBS seemed to air Anne of Green Gables on a monthly basis when I was younger), I still hadn’t read any of the series. Now was the time!

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2016 Reading Challenge | Book One

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”

Their Eyes Were Watching God

For the first month of Modern Mrs. Darcey’s reading challenge I chose from the category, “A Book You Should Have Read in School.”

Now, I had didn’t know all the books that were considered required reading for high school, so I did what all good millennials do when up against a difficult conundrum: I Googled it. After scouring a few different lists I chose, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. It is a fascinating book. This part of American literature I know very little about, so it was fascinating to dive into it!

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Weekend Links / / Lately

Looking around, I can’t quite comprehend what I did this week. How did we reach the weekend? We don’t have too much planned for the weekend besides a little work, football, and hopefully a night out to see Gone Girl! Did you read the book? It was a thrilling read.

And here are my weekend links!

Make / / Earlier this week my friend, Teresa, and I swapped recipes on each other’s blog. I plan on gathering the ingredients to make her frittata soon! Also, Lindt dark chocolate with coconut is the perfect sweet treat.

Read / / I’m reading Julie & Julia after discovering it while unpacking, this blog that I’m rediscovering, and this magazine.

Listen / / Jordan and I have been listening to this playlist while working. He made it for our road trip to Nashville, so it’s full of fun, energetic pop tunes.

Watch / / Jordan and I don’t have cable here, so we decided to renew our Netflix subscription. The other night while browsing we landed on this sweet French film, Last Love, about a man reconnecting with life after his wife passes. It stars Michael Caine and Clémence Poésy. I love finding unexpected gems.

Also, I started Scandal and I’m not sure why I waited so long!

/ / What are your weekend plans?

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/ / Linking with Meagan.

Book Club: Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Wild Cheryl Strayed

“…I considered my options. There were only two and they were essentially the same. I could go back in the direction I had come from, or I could go forward in the direction I intended to go.” – Cheryl Strayed, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Reading and I are in a dysfunctional relationship. We have our highs and lows like any other couple: There are seasons where I have to turn down new books because there are too many good ones on my nightstand. But there are also low points where I wonder “Is the world filled exclusively with YA books about terminally ill vampire teenagers, living in a dysotopia future and fighting for their lives, while riding the roller coaster of love?!?”… Not that I haven’t read those books and maybe enjoyed one or two.

Anyway, earlier this summer I was in a drought. Books were letting me down and it was extremely frustrating especially with all of the travel coming up.

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Marie Antoinette and Magnolias

Ever since Jordan and I visited Versailles this year, I’ve wanted to learn more about Marie Antoinette. Sofia Coppola’s film Marie Antoinette was inspired by the book, Marie Antoinette: The Journey. My library only had the audio version but I enjoy listening to audio books anyway. Marie was the first name of all the girls in the family and she actually went by Antoinette. That was a surprise to me! Also, if not for an outbreak of smallpoxs that took a sister and left another unfit for marriage (lookswise) it’s possible that she wouldn’t have been married off so young. She originally wouldn’t have been the next in line!

Magnolia trees are my favorite. This particular tree was where I read many books during the warm months. I’m so glad that despite the up and down weather we’ve had this spring, the buds weren’t ruined! They are a very delicate tree and many years a late frost has taken the flowers too quickly.

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