what i'm reading.

i'm a really big fan of anne lamott (my MOH and i have this "road trip" and we've designated several people who can come with us. they're not people we actually know, but people we know we would like ... if we could just convince them to be our friends. anne was the first we invited on the road trip).

imperfect birds is her new book and I'm diving in! what are you reading? always looking for good books!

update: this is my best book of 2010, read it asap. xo

summer movie.

i don't know about you, but i'm REALLY excited to see julia roberts in the eat, pray, love movie (watch the trailer here!!) i also just read elizabeth gilbert's latest book, committed, and really liked it. don't read it if you're looking for eat pray love 2, but if you like her writing and are interested in marriage, it's pretty incredible.

homemade life.

the best description of this book is on the back flap, "in a homemade life, stories and recipes from my kitchen table, molly wizenberg describes a life with the kitchen at the center." more than that, it's a story of coming to better understand your father through the grief of losing him to cancer, finding the one you'll spend the rest of your life with over shared meals and just an incredibly well written memoir. it's a new favorite of mine-- and the recipes are fabulous -- especially jimmy's pink cookies on pages 132-133! happy reading.

newlywed home.

so, this year my valentine's day present came from lowes and i was soooo excited. (that sentence seemed impossible at one time). a few weekends before valentine's day, we were at lowes, and i saw this book. i started flipping through it and ryan could barely get me over to the manly tools section. turns out he was paying attention, because a few weekends later, i opened it!

Click to read more ...

truth & beauty.

in the category of my top three books of all time is definitely this one. in short, it's the best memoir of a friendship i've found. i can read it again and again. so, the next time you're craving a really good read, I'd humbly suggest "truth & beauty." p.s. if ann patchett's name is ringing a bell, she's most well known for bel canto.

Update on Tue, March 16, 2010 at 7:26 PM by tulips & flight suits

p.s. this book was just picked at real simple's book club!

listography

if you are like me, your life has two paper and pen issues:

1. you have endless lists

2. you have the best intentions to keep a journal, but don't quite get around to it.

thus, my go to gift since i discovered it has been listography. for list people, it's like the super bowl. and, because of the lists included, it becomes like a journal (personal fashion trends, favorite foods) i gave it to my newly-married friends for christmas-- how great would it be to have a book of lists you did together your first year of marriage? i gave it to my mom, because she is the queen of lists and taught me everything i know. there are more versions, including music and love here.

through the children's gate

in case you're looking for some good reading, here's one of my all time favorite's: through the children's gate by adam gopnik (don't you love his last name?!), a follow up to his amazing book: from paris to the moon. there's just something about the way he writes about being a father and new york city that made me look at both completely anew. the title refers to the fact that each of the "gates" to central park is named for a different group of people who might enter the park (scholars, hunters, explorers, strangers). the children's gate is at 76th street and 5th avenue and seems quite a magical place to enter, especially with gopnik as your guide.

hero.

  

a lot of people inspire me, but few as much as michael j. fox. the first movie i saw in a theater was "back to the future." michael has had even more of an impact on me off the screen than on the screen, through the michael j. fox foundation for parkinson's research. and on top of all this, he's written two incredible memoirs. they have very little to do with his acting career and so much more to do with running an amazing foundation, being a father of four kids, and his diagnosis with parkinson's. they are so authentic, funny and thought provoking. lucky man was his first, and his most recent always looking up, about optimism, is truly incredible. good books for some of these final cold winter days (the optimist in me believes surely spring is coming soon!)