Tag Archives: reading

yoga & what i’m reading

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Writing once a week is proving hard, so I’ll write about what I always want to know about y’all. First of all, I did Day One, Day Two, and Day Three of my yoga challenge, and it took me all week to do them. Looks like I am going to have to be better this week if I want to get this 14-Day challenge done in 3 weeks…yikes!

Meanwhile, I am trying to get some good reading done while I’m in-between book club books, a rare time when I read what I want instead of what I’m supposed to! Right now, I’m listening to Mindy Kaling’s first book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, which is read by her and therefore delightful. I will say, though, that celebrities-turned-authors are not my fave genre, and I’m glad I am listening to this instead of reading it…I miss the fiction story of it all. Maybe I should do some autobiographies.

I am also reading The Likeness by Tana French who wrote a book club book we read, In The Woods which was an awesome Law and Order:SVU-type book with partner love and intrigue. While I can I say I didn’t like how the first one ended, I will say I love the way French writes and I am enjoying the second one.

Next up, I want to read Midnight’s Furies, which is a book about India’s independence and the partition of Pakistan. Book Club is this week, so I’ll get a new assignment there, and I also am stumbling through the audiobook of Team of Rivals (I don’t love the narrator, she’s a little pretentious sounding to me) and I have Empire Falls next for an audiobook, too. I have an Audible subscription because I am in the car for about an hour and a half a day, so I try to make use of my time.

In other news, I am caught up on Limetown, Serial, Radiolab, and trying to find other podcasts to love – I also dig 99 percent invisible, and I know Katie will remind me of Pop Culture Happy Hour.

So that’s what’s up here. Happy Sunday, everyone!

xo

the longing of the soul

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Hey, all. I am doing this in a backwards manner because today is Ash Wednesday which means the beginning of Lent, so before I bore y’all with photos of my adorable nephew that I got to meet and spend time with this past weekend, I am going to tell you about my plans for Lent.

A few years back, I started using Lent as a focus point in my life, helping me get back on track to something that I believe is important to me. It may not be “religious” for me any more, but it is certainly a spiritual act. Last year, I used Lent to focus my exercise, vowing to move my body for 40 days.

This year, in keeping with my wants for myself this year, I am going to make time to read. I have reconnected to reading this year through my New  Year’s Resolution to read 52 books in 2014, and I think spending just 30 minutes a day will help me reach that goal.

When I was in college, I read all the time; I read on trains, on planes, on the way to and from work and class. When I moved to LA, my commute became king, and I now tend to drive everywhere. Although I sometimes listen to books on tape CD, I usually am focused on traffic after work so I listen to NPR or music.

But I’ve been trying to listen to spoken word more, by listening to podcasts (mostly RadioLab) when I run, and I have been trying to get to bed in time to read a book, not Facebook or Twitter or the millions of blogs I read.

I’ve really enjoyed reconnecting to my love of books, and I hope these 40 days, a mere 20 hours of my life, can really remind me to pick up where I left off in that novel rather than that TV show or that feed.

Do you guys do anything for Lent? Share it with me and we can help each other out these 40 days!

Happy (Ash) Wednesday, y’all.

some infinities are larger than others.

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I just finished reading “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green, and I have many feelings about it. I think it’s one of the best sad books I’ve read, and I am glad that we read it for Book Club. I won’t say much more about it because I want you to go read it because it’s a great easy read and because I think you’ll like it.

The_Fault_in_Our_Stars

I think one of my favorite things about reading a good book is how great it makes you feel, and how much it reminds you that you want to read more. After finishing this, I sat down for several hours yesterday reading Harry Potter (Number 6) because C and M and I are rereading the series. I am also reading Twelve Years a Slave (my lunch time nonfiction book) and The Goldfinch (my BFF-told-me-to-so-do-it book) and And the Mountains Echoed (the I really love this author and also my BFF said I’ll love it book.)

I have always been a person to read more than one book at a time, mainly because I like to be able to start and stop depending on my mood, weaving in and out of different worlds, times in history or the future, in different perspectives. I try to be reading the book club book, a novel, a nonfiction book, and sometimes throw in another novel (or two) for good measure.

This means I am never left thinking “Ugh I am tired and don’t want to read that sad book about slavery” because OH WAIT you’re also reading a young adult novel about wizards. When people ask me about it, how I read more than one book at a time, this is what I tell them: it’s like having your arsenal of unwatched TV shows queued up on your DVR. You watch multiple shows during the week, you don’t need to finish an entire season before you can move onto another show.

I assume the average person can keep straight the characters of a show (I don’t confuse Lady Grantham with Barney Stinson’s universe, and I don’t forget that Crosby is married to Jasmine in Northern California and that Leslie loves Pawnee, IN., and Ben’s butt, no matter what.) And so it goes. You read and you remember how much you love it, and pretty soon that’s all you want to do.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

 

Un’amica Stretta

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Like, for instance, we just learned the other day that un’amica stretta means “a close friend.” But stretta literally means tight, as in clothing, like a tight skirt. So a close friend, in Italian, is one you that can wear tightly, snug against your skin, and that is what my little Swedish friend Sofie is becoming to me.

**************

I am finally back from my road trip with Corelyn. We left last Saturday, April 23, and were on the road until Sunday, May 1. It was, as any road trip, a life-changing experience. We had a lot of adventures on the road, from the Grand Canyon to the Alamo, and I wouldn’t change a second of it.

On Monday, Corelyn put me back on a plane to LA. Neither of us cried, we just said goodbye, and I headed off. “I’m not going to watch you go through security,” Cor said, as we sat waiting as each moment ticked by. “So you don’t want to watch me inch forward and waive at me every one second?” I questioned. We laughed, but knew secretly we’d stay together every moment we could.

On the plane home, I started reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. The above paragraph is from that novel, in her “Italy” section. As I sat on the plane, headed home, I let a few tears go reading that section. Corelyn is un’amica stretta. She is my close friend, and I will wear her tightly, cliché or not.

I will miss her as she starts a new chapter of her life back east, but I know we will always be sorelle. In New Orleans, we stopped at a house that had been left dilapidated by Hurricane Katrina. An artist has repainted one of its walls and left a section for you to answer the statement, “Before I die…” I wrote “Open a restaurant.” Corelyn wrote, “With JP.”

I believe someday, I will open a restaurant with Corelyn. It will probably be on Apple Tush Farms, the farm I plan to have with K, SS, and M. And, my friends, we will all live happily. ever. after. For now? Filling the chapters in between with my California adventures that will restart this weekend after being away for so long. Wish me luck, loves.