July Reading

Not too much to say about the books read this month. Again I liked most of them okay, but didn't really enjoy reading any them, I couldn't get lost in them. At least in the first two fiction books I read I wanted to shake the main characters and tell them to just stop. Again I don't believe you have to like the characters to like a book, and I think you have to judge protagonists decisions as if they are true to that character and not something you yourself would necessarily do. But right now I'm feeling really tired to characters who act in a way that I can't relate to or understand.

Books I read in July:
• The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
• Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
• The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
• What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi
• You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment by Thich Nhat Hanh

Audio Books listened to in July
• Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan(worth listening too/reading even though I saw the Netflix series)


Movies & TV Watched in July:
• Jessica Jones Season 1
• Penny Dreadful Season 1 (don't think I'm going to continue with this one)
• Jane the Virgin Season 1

June Reading

Not a great reading month, I didn't really enjoy most of the books! I did enjoy and would recommend reading South Riding, but it was just so sad! No necessarily a bad thing but I just wasn't in the mood. My favorite from this month was an audiobook, First Bite, I thought it was fascinating, thoughtful, and refreshingly no-nonsense. I Await the Devil's Coming Was interesting because of the time and place it was written (by an 18 year old in Montana in 1901), it was sometimes funny and sometimes alarming, but I can't say it was fun to read (especially since I'd just read about the rest of the authors sad life in the books forward). I liked it but I doubt it would be for everyone.

What I read in June:

• South Riding by Winifred Holtby
• Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm by Thich Nhat Hanh
• From The Short Novels of John Steinbeck by John Steinbeck I read: The Pearl, The Red Pony, & The Moon is Down. I'd already read the others.

• The Seance by John Harwood
• Maisie Dobbs (Maisie Dobbs, #1) by Jacqueline Winspear
• I Await the Devil's Coming by Mary MacLane

Audiobooks I listened to in June:
• First Bite: How We Learn to Eat by Bee Wilson

Movies & TV Watched in June:

• Pretty Little Liars Season 6
• Jessica Jones (the first half of) Season 1
• Plus some Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown


How about you, did you read or watch or listen to anything good in June?

May Reading

I guess it doesn't look like I read very much in May, but actually the month was "bookended" by two long & dense, but wonderful books, one of which I ended up finishing in June. I adored Middlemarch, which surprised me because I've only tried to read one George Eliot book in the past and didn't care for it at all. I'm glad because 19th c. novels by women makes up 90% of what I &there aren't that many. I tried to read Daniel Deronda for book club and it was just a drag, I wasn't in the mood I really think you just can't be rushed with 19th century novels. I'd like to go back and read that again, and then work my way through the rest of her books, slowly.
The Ali Smith book was too Ali Smith & just not great. I'm definitely noticing that her best work is the most recent and the quality goes down the farther back I read, which makes sense.
I thought the The 100 Year-Old Man &ct would be a lark to read on the plane while visiting my family, but it was painfully tedious and annoying.
The Ruch Ozeki book though! I loved it, it reminded me of a Murakami book.


• Middlemarch by George Eliot
• The First Person: and Other Stories by Ali Smith
• The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
• A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Movies & TV Watched in May:

•More Friends Season 3
•Lady Dynamite: Season 1
•Grace & Frankie Season 2
•Chef's Table: Season 2
•Plus some Poirot

April Reading

It's funny to look back at what I've read in April because I feel like I've spent most of the month reading Middlemarch, but since I didn't finish it until May I can't even count it. I think my favorite book in April was the Barbara Comyns, all her books are so weird in a good way though. I read it hard on the heels of Voyage in the Dark, and they are similar stories in some ways, both main characters suffer hopelessness and poverty in early 20th century London, but they handle it very differently.
I think I remember people in college talking highly of Sophie's World, which makes total sense, if I'd read it as a 19 year old I would probably have loved it. Now though, not so much. Just as literature it's terrible, I think the same kind of thing could have been done without such a belabored story.
I absolutely loved The Age of Wonder, I highly recommend it if you looking for a good long audiobook to listen to! It covers some figures in science during one of my favorite historical periods (late 18th early 19th centuries). It's truly engaging, I absolutely love that it gives equal weight to some central women of the time, and discusses everything with real warmth and sympathy.


• Our Spoons Came from Woolworths by Barbara Comyns
• Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder
• The Accidental by Ali Smith
• A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit
• Pax by Sara Pennypacker
• I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai (read for my book club)

Audiobooks listened to in April:
• The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes

Movies & TV Watched in April:

Bob's Burgers: Season 5
More Friends Season 3
Documentary Now!: "Sandy Passage" (I'd like to watch more, just need to be in the mood)
Pee-wee's Big Adventure (I'd never seen it! It's so weird and good!)
Detectorists: Season 1: (SO GOOD)
Plus some MST3K, I forget which ones

March Reading

Early in March because of poor forward planning I found myself with nothing to read, o to remedy that I went crazy requesting books from the library off my "To Read" list. Of course they've all came in at the same time and I've got tons of books I want to read! The best feeling. I'd say my favorite book from march was "The Hundred-Year House". "Overdressed" had been on my list for a while, but I found it kind of underwhelming, I wanted it to be more in depth and hard hitting I guess?

Anyway, what I read in March:

• Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
• The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
• Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by Elizabeth L. Cline
• The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makkai
• French Milk by Lucy Knisley
• The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit
• Voyage in the Dark by Jean Rhys

Audiobooks listened to in March:
• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

Movies & TV Watched in March:

• Mad Men: Season 7 (final half)
• Heathers
• More Friends Season 2
• Agatha Christie's Poirot Series 1
• The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young

February Reading

Here's what I read in February:

• The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan
• The Case of the Gypsy Good-bye (Enola Holmes Mysteries, #6) by Nancy Springer
• The Bhagavad Gita
• The Tenants of Moonbloom by Edward Lewis Wallant
• There But For The by Ali Smith
• Crackling Mountain and Other Stories by Osamu Dazai

Audiobooks listened to in February:
• William Shakespeare: The World as Stage by Bill Bryson
• Will In The World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt
• The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins

Movies & TV Watched in February:
• The Great British Gardening Show
• Secret History of the British Garden
• Cooked: Season 1:
• NOVA: Decoding Neanderthals
• Awake: The Life of Yogananda
• Mad Men Season 7 (the final second half)

Did you read or watch anything good in February?

January Book List

January was a pretty good reading month for me I guess. The fact that I read two long books was balanced by the fact that the others I read where very fast reads. If I had to pick a favorite I guess it would be Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. I've read three books by her now and all have been page turners and at the same time almost agonizingly slow. She's good at building tension, but I end up spending so much time with her characters I grow to hate them. Although this might be intensional, since none of her main characters are quite likable. That might make it sound like I don't like her books, but I do and I want to read more!

Here's what I read in January 2016:

•Avenue of Mysteries by John Irving
•Slade House by David Mitchell
•Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
•Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
•The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline (Enola Holmes Mysteries, #5) by Nancy Springer
•Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

Movies & TV Watched in January:
•Inside Out
•Amy (documentary)
•Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (various seasons)
•The Warriors
•Friends (part of season 2)
•Tangerine
•David Attenborough's Rise of the Animals
•The Venture Brothers (started re-watching from the beginning. Like Bob's Burgers or Archer I re-watch this pretty frequently)

Have you read or watched anything in January that you would recommend?

What I read in 2015

It's time to look back over what I read in the last year, and I have to say it was a good year for reading! That's probably completely down to making time for reading in the evening not just the morning.
For whatever reason I think the books that especially stood out to me this year were The Encyclopedia of Early Earth, The Paying Guests, No More Dirty Looks, Beloved, The Table Comes First, At Home, The First Bad Man & How To Be Both, those last two are probably tied for my favorite books I read this year (surprisingly because I keep thinking I'm over Miranda July, and then she makes something so good!).
I finally read Willa Cather and loved her, discovered Sarah Waters who I will definitely be reading more of, and discovered a few "cozy armchair mystery" series' that got me though some stressful times. You'll see I don't count audiobooks with other books, this is a personal thing because I think the experience is different, but I did want to record them because I listened to quite a few this year.
I got recommendations from my parents, my parents' friends, my friends, youtube, and a guy at Powells who I sold some books to. A few of these were read for my book club.


• Dragonfish by Vu Tran
• Purity by Jonathan Franzen
• The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
• H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
• M Train by Patti Smith
• How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are: Love, Style, and Bad Habits by Anne Berest
• Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth
• A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
• Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
• Plumdog by Emma Chichester Clark
• Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
• The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf
• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
• The Scarlet Letter and Other Tales of the Puritans by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
• The First Bad Man by Miranda July
• The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan (Enola Holmes Mysteries, #4) by Nancy Springer
• Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
• Dune (Dune Chronicles, #1) by Frank Herbert
• The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets (Enola Holmes Mysteries, #3) by Nancy Springer
• The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches (Flavia de Luce, #6) by Alan Bradley
• Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
• Nightwood by Djuna Barnes
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• The Case of the Left-Handed Lady (Enola Holmes Mysteries, #2) by Nancy Springer
• Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures by Mary Ruefle
• Euphoria by Lily King
• The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather
• O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
• Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent: The Importance of Everything and Other Lessons from Darwin's Lost Notebooks by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
• Speaking from Among the Bones (Flavia de Luce, #5 ) by Alan Bradley
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
• Countdown City (The Last Policeman, #2) by Ben H. Winters
• World of Trouble (The Last Policeman, #3) by Ben H. Winters
• The Last Policeman (Last Policeman, #1) by Ben H. Winters
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing by Christiane Northrup
• I Am Half-Sick of Shadows (Flavia De Luce, #4) by Alan Bradley
• The Turnip Princess and other newly discovered fairy tales by Franz Xaver von Schönwerth
• The Lost Estate by Alain-Fournier
• The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
• The Vet's Daughter by Barbara Comyns
• A Red Herring Without Mustard (Flavia de Luce, #3) by Alan Bradley
• The Case of the Missing Marquess (Enola Holmes Mysteries, #1) by Nancy Springer
• My Ántonia by Willa Cather
• The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag (Flavia de Luce, #2) by Alan Bradley
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller (My Artwork is on the cover)
• The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce, #1) by Alan Bradley
• Skin Cleanse: The Simple, All-Natural Program for Clear, Calm, Happy Skin by Adina Grigore
• How To Be Both by Ali Smith
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• Essence and Alchemy: A Natural History of Perfume by Mandy Aftel
• The Empathy Exams: Essays by Leslie Jamison
• No More Dirty Looks: The Truth About Your Beauty Products and the Ultimate Guide to Safe and Clean Cosmetics by Siobhan O'Connor
• The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
• How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
• The New Moon With the Old by Dodie Smith
• The Town in Bloom by Dodie Smith
• The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg
• Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
• Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
• The Professor by Charlotte Brontë
• In Praise of Slowness: How A Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed by Carl Honoré
• Delancey: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage by Molly Wizenberg
• Shirley by Charlotte Brontë
• A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway (a re-read for me)

Audiobooks:
• The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt
• The Table Comes First: Family, France and the Meaning of Food by Adam Gopnik
• Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
• A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
• Yes Please by Amy Poehler
• At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson
• Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
• The Tipping Point : How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
• The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

Also, here is my "Year In Books" on Goodreads.

Here is what I read in 2014

What was your favorite book you read (or listened to) this year?

November Book List

Here's what I've read in November:

I was more in the mood for non-fiction this month, probably because I was distracted what with moving & I find it easier to pick up and put down non-fic after reading only a few pages without it breaking the flow of the story. I absolutely loved the Liz Gilbert book I have to say. I thought it was just a great pep talk, and one I kind of needed to hear honestly. I don't know if I agree with everything she has to say, but mostly it was so positive it made me feel good, while at the same time being very real. I kind of love Elizabeth Gilbert actually, she's so unashamed to be sincere and be a huge geek & I honestly find that kind of refreshing (I know other people may find that insufferable).
Mindy Kaling's book was okay, much the same as her last one, but somehow just not as charming. I think she's too busy and too mid-career, I bet she could do better in a few years after she's had time to process and reflect.

• Why Not Me? By Mindy Kaling
• Plumdog By Emma Chichester Clark
• Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear By Elizabeth Gilbert
• A Room of One's Own By Virginia Woolf
• Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times Jennifer Worth

Movies & TV Watched in September
• The Great British Baking Show Season 1 <3 <3 <3
• Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (episodes from various seasons)
• Master of None Season 1
• Friends (part of) Season2

October Book List

I feel like I didn't read much too much this month, although maybe it was more that I wasn't that invested in any of the books and was preoccupied with preparations to move. I thoroughly enjoyed the Adam Gopnik book though, I will definitely have to read more from him (or listen rather, I've found I really love listening to food related writing on audio)

•The Scarlet Letter and Other Tales of the Puritans By Nathaniel Hawthorne
•All the Light We Cannot See By Anthony Doerr
•The Beauty Myth By Naomi Wolf

Audio Books
•Stumbling on Happiness By Daniel Gilbert
•The Table Comes First: Family, France and the Meaning of Food by Adam Gopnik

Movies & TV Watched in October
• Friends Season1
• Doctor Who Season 8
• Morse Series 5
• The Berbs
• Tales From The Royal Bed Chamber

September Book List

• The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets (Enola Holmes Mysteries, #3)
• Dune by Frank Herbert by Nancy Springer
• Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
• The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan (Enola Holmes 4)by Nancy Springer
• The First Bad Man by Miranda July

Another mixed bag this month! I tend to read books that generally interest me and I want to read, but I like to have a cozy palate cleansers in-between.
I've decided to keep track of Audiobooks here (since I'm listening to more lately), but make them a separate list.

Audio Books
• The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler (read for my book club. None of us liked it!)
• The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism by Olivia Fox Cabane
• A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
• Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao by Wayne W. Dyer
• Yes Please by Amy Poehler

Movies & TV Watched in September
•Chef's Table Season 1
• Somm
•The Mind of a Chef (part of) Season 1
•Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries Series 3

A Few Things I'm Into Right Now

Chef's Table
Initially I wasn't too interested in this Netflix series, but I watched the first epode after I read a recommendation on a blog somewhere, and I was completely hooked in the first twelve seconds. Not only is it beautifully produced, with beautiful soundtracks, but it moving and inspiring (In the same way as Jiro Dreams of Sushi was, the series creator and producer is the same as Jiro). Really, it't not about food at all but about how people pursue their creativity and passions. You get the impression that each of the chefs profiled are doing exactly what they want to do, how they want to do it. They are totally free in their own way and it is so inspiring.

The Mystery Show
Again, I wasn't initially that interested in this podcast. I'd heard of it, but for some reason I had it in my mind that it was going to be something like Serial and that it was going to be weepy and depressing. I was so wrong and I'm so mad that I deprived myself of several months I could have been listening to this hilarious clever show! Of course since I came to it late that meant that I had the pleasure of binge listening to the whole first season. The way Starlee Kine approaches the world is what really makes this show charming and funny, she seemingly can get everyone she talks to spill an interesting story because she so genuinely wants to talk to them and is so interesting in what they have to say. I can not wait for season 2!

At Home: A Short History of Private Life By Bill Bryson
I listened to this on audiobook, which worked great for me because it kept me happy over many hours of working. I love this kind of history, how regular people lived, what they ate, how they slept, how they cleaned them selves and what their worries and interests were. It reminded me a bit of a BBC series I love by Lucy Worsley called History of the Home, but even more in depth and with all kinds of interesting historical tidbits. I foresee listening to this again a few times while I work.

July & August Book List

Since I've taken a little break from this blog this summer I decided to combine my July and August reading lists. July seems so long ago now! I think this list of books shows that I will kind of read anything and everything. I don't think that's a bad thing. There are definitely genres of books I prefer, but I really do enjoy lot's of things.
I included a few audiobooks here, generally I don't count them as "books read" exactly, listening is just not the same as reading, but I did want to keep track of them and lately I prefer listening to non-fiction rather than reading it. I absolutely loved the Bill Bryson book about the history of home life.

• The Last Policeman, Countdown City, & A World Of Trouble (Aka The Last Policeman trilogy read over the 4th Of July weekend) by Ben H. Winters
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
• Speaking from Among the Bones (Flavia de Luce, #5 ) by Alan Bradley
• Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent: The Importance of Everything and Other Lessons from Darwin's Lost Notebooks by Lyanda Lynn Haupt*
• O Pioneers! by Willa Cather
• The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather
• Euphoria by Lily King
• The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell (Audiobook)
• Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures by Mary Ruefle
• The Case of the Left-Handed Lady (Enola Holmes Mysteries, #2) by Nancy Springer
• Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell (Audiobook)
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• Nightwood by Djuna Barnes
• Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
• At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson (Audiobook)
• The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches (Flavia de Luce, #6) by Alan Bradley

Movies and TV watched in July & August:
• Parks & Rec (finished the series)
•Mad Men season 7.1
•Archer season 5
•Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown Season 1
•The Search for General Tso
•Ocean Giants series
•Wet Hot American Summer Season 1

June Book List

• The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
• The Lost Estate (Le Grand Meaulnes)by Henri Alain-Fournier
• The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales by Franz Xaver von Schönwerth
• I Am Half-Sick of Shadows (Flavia De Luce, #4)by Alan Bradley
• Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom by Christiane Northrup
• Beloved by Toni Morrison

June was a pretty good reading month. I bought The Turnip Princess in a moment of weakness at the book store a few months ago (I try not to buy new books, unless it's a new one by an author I really love and there's no chance of getting it from the library for months), mostly because of the title. I decided to make myself read all of it in one go as a penance, and I found that's actually more enjoyable that way than reading one story here and there. I think you have to get into a flow with reading fairy tales like these, to get into their world without being too distracted by rationality. That said a lot of these stories seemed like re-tellings of Brothers Grimm.
I'm definitely not buying any more books, but I did find a copy of Toni Morrison's Beloved in a "Free Library" box (do people in other cities have those? They are wooden boxes with a glass door on the front that people put on posts out in front of their house and fill with books. You're supposed to take one and leave one. They are usually filled with terrible books), and since I'd been hearing about her a lot lately I decided to take it and read it. I liked it a lot, it's a challenging read, but a good one.

Movies & TV I watched in June:
•Parks & Rec season 5
•Pretty Little Liars Season 5

June wasn't really a movie/tv month!

May Book List

•The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag (Flavia de Luce #2) by Alan Bradley
•My Ántonia by Willa Cather
•The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo
•The Case of the Missing Marquess (Enola Holmes Mysteries, #1) by Nancy Springer
•A Red Herring Without Mustard (Flavia de Luce, #3) by Alan Bradley
•The Vet's Daughter by Barbara Comyns

May was a pretty good reading month, At least I enjoyed myself! I continued my fixation with the Flavia de Luce series, reading the next two books. Again, they aren't great mysteries really, but they are fun and cozy I like Flavia so much. I realized she reminds me a bit of Amelia Peabody, from the series of the same name, she is also a whip smart and fearless solver of mysteries. In the same vain, I read the first book in the Enola Holmes series this month as well. I like it, though since it's actually is for kids it was pretty short, so the first books ends right before you start to get a sense for the characters and where it's headed. I'd like to read the next one at least to see if I actually like the series. Both of those series are pure comfort food which I guess I was in the mood for, but I also read My Ántonia, which actually wasn't as grim as I was expecting, it was absolutely lovely actually. There were grim parts and much of it was infused with melancholy but it was so beautiful, I can't wait to read more Willa Cather. I actually thought I had My Ántonia when I was younger but I now don't think I did, so I may never have read Willa Cather at all yet! It's so exciting to find an Author who you haven't read before but who you immediately want to read everything they've written. An absolutely grim read this month was The Vet's Daughter, which I guess I should have expect based on the other book I've read by Barbara Comyns. This one was just unrelenting. That said it was wonderfully written and I didn't want to put it down!
Then there was The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I think this is a book I would recommend people read even if they aren't interested in "tidying up" because it's just entertaining, the author is definitely slightly insane. Although, actually that's probably what makes the book so enjoyable! I think the most helpful information here is not to save things for "someday" because most likely someday is never going to come and that stuff will just be taking up mental and physical space. My favorite line is "you are never going to use spare buttons", so true! Throw them away!

Movies I watched in May:
•Dragonslayer
•Fed Up
•Chef
•Death Comes to Pembery
•Mad Max
•Mad Men Season7
•Over the Garden Wall
•Parks & Rec Season 4

"Skin Cleanse" and Minimizing My Skin Care

This book just happened to come on my radar right about the same time I as I was starting to think about cutting back on my skin care products and trying to live more minimally anyway, so of course the premise intrigued me.

Overall Skin Cleanse an easy fun read that advocates a more holistic approach to skin care, taking into account the effect food, lifestyle, and too-many products can have on your skin.
A big chunk is given over to nutrition information, which isn’t anything new, basically don’t eat junk & eat more leafy greens. I do think she does a good job of saying everyone’s skin is different and you should find out what works for you, though keeping a food journal and so on. She also includes some info on basic skin function, skincare, and some recipes.

For me this was mostly a motivational read and I cut back drastically on the things I was putting on my skin while reading, which I’d been planning to do already. I’ve noticed that my skin has had way more problems as I’ve started using more products over the last couple of years. I realized my skin was way happier back in the days when I used to just splash my face with some water in the morning and call it good.

While I’ve overhauled my skin regime I’m not exactly going product free, just simplifying. Simplifying appeals to me anyway, both ascetically and financially! I like the idea of not being obliged products and I’m getting more and more interested in making my own, so expect more of my DIY adventures here in future!

Currently my skin care looks like this:
AM: cleanse with water. Sprits my face with rosewater OR apple cider vinegar (I am slightly obsessed with ACV right now!). Apply argon oil. Apply SPF if leaving the house that day. Get on with life
PM: Cleanse with oil (still using Origins, but will switch to something cleaner/more simple when that runs out. Probably safflower?). Sprits face with rosewater or ACV. Apply argon oil and REN eye cream. THE END.

So far this is working out! All over little bumps have gone away completely (also a major help with this has been finding an spf face cream that my skin likes). I still get some hormonal outbreaks around my jaw, but they are manageable and it's way less stressful since I know why they are there and what is causing them.

April Book List

•Skin Cleanse: The Simple, All-Natural Program for Clear, Calm, Happy Skin by Adina Grigore
•The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce, #1)by Alan Bradley
•Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller
•Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
•The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag (Flavia de Luce #2)by Alan Bradley

I didn't read much in April, probably because I was working like a fiend. The longer light in the evening makes me more likely to work while the light lasts than cozy up with a book. I think the unexpected favorite this month was the Flavia de Luce series. I adore mysteries set in quaint English villages (my absolute favorite kind of "crime dramas" to watch as well) and I was just in the mood for, yes, some fluff reading. So far this series has been a totally enjoyable "cozy armchair" read. I also really enjoyed Skin Cleanse, but I'm going to do a whole post on that soon. Never let me go was great as well, but I knew it would be. I'd heard plenty about it and I've already seen the film version. I have to say the film is actually a really good adaptation, they both will haunt me equally. The main difference I'd say is that while the movie is more heavy handed, Ishiguro is so good at breaking your heart so subtly you hardly know it's happening until you realize that three days after you've finished the book you can't stop thinking about it.

I put a ton of books on hold at the library, and they all came in at once of course, so I have a lot to read in May!


Also, movies watched in April:
•Kindom of dreams and Madness (Miazaki doc)
•Song of the sea
•Bobs Burgers Season 4
•Broad City season 1
•Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Season 1 (only a few episodes, I couldn't get into it)
•Danger 5 season 1
•Parks and Recreation season3

March Book List

•The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
•No More Dirty Looks by Siobhan O'Connor & Alexandra Spunt
•The Empathy Exams: Essays by Leslie Jamison
•Essence and Alchemy: A Natural History of Perfume by Mandy Aftel
•Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
•How To Be Both by Ali Smith

March was much better than February for reading, I thoroughly enjoyed all the books I read! I hadn't planned on reading o More Dirty Looks because I figured it would be preaching to the choir, but I kept hearing things that make me finally want to pick it up. It ended up being a really fun book to read, quick and funny, and it made me enthusiastic again about greening up my skin care. It actually made me passionate about DIY skin care which I've sort of lost interest in in recent years. Now I'm all about it!
I think my favorite book of the month was Ali Smith's How To Be Both. I forget why this made it on my To Read list initially. Maybe because it was a Booker Prize finalist? Anyway, the description on Goodreads says it "is a novel all about art's versatility" which gave me pause because it seems like every book that describes itself as being about art usually ends up being incredibly cynical, and I just wasn't in the mood. I'm so glad I gave it a chance. This book is refreshingly not cynical at all, it's even enthusiastic and the characters are wonderful. It is slit into two distinct halves, with different plots and characters that somewhat overlap, and I could see that challenging people who just want a straight forward plot, but I enjoyed the second half just as much as the first. Highly recommended & I now want to read more of Ali Smith's work



And for good measure, Movies & Shows watched in March:
•Burts Bees (documentary)
•Parks and Recreation seasons 1-2
•House Of Cards season3
•Desert Runners (documentary)
•Maleficent
•Ozu's Good Morning

February Book List

•The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg
•The Town in Bloom by Dodie Smith
•The New Moon With the Old by Dodie Smith
•How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn


Wow, February was not a great reading month for me. After plowing though so many books in January I kind of lost steam in February, and also with the exception of The Encyclopedia of Early Earth I just didn't like any of the books I read this month!
I was not planning to read two Dodie Smith books in a row, but both holds came in at the library at the same time and you kind of have to take them as they come from the library. Plus I though they could be fun like I Capture the Castle, which happens to be one of my favorite books. Instead they turned out to be rather depressing slogs. Now I'm afraid to ever read I Capture the Castle incase I don't like it as much as I used to! How Green Was My Valley I thought I'd really enjoy, but it turned out to be completely cloying and insufferable. The bright spot was The Encyclopedia of Early Earth , which was magical and fun with inspiring artwork.

Normally I would list the movies I watched here, but you know I didn't watch a single movie in February!

February Favorites

Beauty: It's still a relatively new part of my routine so it took some getting used to but I've really come to love spritzing my face with the Andalou Rose Floral Toner.

Food: Salmon. All month A. and I having been going for a run on Saturdays and then going to the conveyer belt sushi place a few blocks away just to sit at the bar and eat plate after plate of salmon nigiri.

Reading: Really enjoyed The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg (more soon in my monthly reading list post).

Music: Cannot stop listing to ODESZA, especially this song, and this one. Also really loving this song by SZA.

Watching: I've still been trying to read in the evenings rather than putting on a show, but I still like to watch something while I eat dinner so I try to put on something short. I've been in the mood for either Bob's Burgers or Bee and Puppycat this month, both are so good and weird and make me laugh.
Youtube-wise been loving the videos from the beauty Youtuber l'amour et la musique this month. I've also really enjoyed discovering Chef Julie Yoon. Much like beauty videos I find watching cooking videos to be really soothing, and I love her happy energy!

Etc: My other favorite thing this month has been enjoying all the wonderful flowers and sunshine! Spring is about a moth earlier than it usually is, god knows what the rest of spring will be like if everything has already bloomed in February, but it sure is lovely out there right now.