Readings on my Radar

So I have noticed that y'all liked my book posts! Thank you! Thank you! *(bows dramatically)*

I thought a good idea would be to update you with some books I have my eye on. If I end up reading them I'll let you know but this is still a good way for me to give out some book reviews (endorsement or not!). Basically though, I hope you read them, tell me if they're good or not and save me a bucket load of time. BE MY PROOF READER PLZ CAUSE I'M TOO LAZY TO START BOOKS I WON'T FINISH.

So here's some books for you to read first, I expect an update by the end of the week:

1. Everything I Never Told You- Celeste Ng

This book is on my list basically because I can't read a list of book recommendations without seeing this on it. This can be a bad thing because it may not live up to the hype, but at the same time I put off reading Room for that reason and ended up loving it so that'll teach me to think I'm subversive.

2. Where Did You Sleep Last Night?- Lynn Crosbie

I read the back of this book while in a book store recently and haven't been able to stop thinking about it. I'm definitely in the mood for something a little less serious to read and who wouldn't want to be transported to an alternate universe where they're dating Kurt Cobain? No one, That's who.

3, The Bad Feminist- Roxanne Gay

I've heard some good things about this book and I am really interested in reading some different opinions on what it is to be a feminist so this book is definitely a must read for me.

4. They Left Us Everything- Plum Johnson

This book looks so interesting. I just think the idea of getting to truly know people who you've "known" for all your life is such a common thing that happens once people are gone. I'd love to see how this author portrays that.

5. All the Light We Cannot See- Anthony Doerr

I find World War II history fascinating and I think this story is a really interesting take on historical fiction. I already feel like I need to know what happens to the characters and I've only read the synopsis.

Now go forth and read (or dont'....whatever)

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
Readerrrrr, nothing but a readerrrr. Nothing but her head in the books (Oh no).

I'm Not Dead

...Just really boring.

I haven't been blogging recently because I'm not gonna lie...I'm really not doing anything too interesting. I have some more interesting things coming up soon, I promise. As for right now this is honestly all I've done:

Yup. I watched all of Chelsea Does. 

I also signed back up for rock climbing but I don't have pictures of that. 

So basically, just wanted to let you know I'm alive, boring, and yep, that's it.

This weekend I'm in a wedding, next weekend I'm going to Ottawa and the week after that I'm starting the Whole30 so things are about to get interesting around here.

Stay tuned.

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown

Human Sloth

Fun in the Sun

New Years eve was wrapped up very soon after midnight for us as we had an 8am plane to catch on New Years Day. It was pretty heart breaking to set our alarm for three hours on New Years Eve since we had a 4am wakeup call.

Don't let my airport face fool you, New Years Day was a struggle:

It took us a couple of days to recover from the lack of sleep but once we did we set out to have all the fun in the sun that we could.

I immediately got myself a manicure with my Mom while Jordan and my step dad went out and shot guns like a couple of true Americans. I thoroughly believe that it has been worth giving up my ability to type, text, or pick up bobby pins with ease so I could have these claws:

A real highlight of the trip was going to the Cat Depot. It's a sanctuary for cats who can't find homes. People can adopt the cats there but the greatest thing is that the Cat Depot gives them a place to stay until they find a home, unlike the pound that actually kills animals that cannot find homes after a certain amount of time. I am a cat lady who just so happens to live in a catless home, a tragedy, I know.

We stay in Sarasota and that was actually where one of the Ringling brothers chose to settle during the winter months so there is a great museum there on their property and we even took a tour of their mansion.

We also had massages, ate a lot, drank a lot, took bike rides, laid by the pool as often as possible and shopped (because I miss Target oh so much!).

<< This place was called Owen's Fish Camp and it was a freaking dream! The outdoor area was an amazing backyard with string lights, dreamy live music and a tire swing. Swoon swoon swoon!>>

 << Me and my Mom at Owen's on a suspended porch swing. Need I say more?>

All in all it was a very wonderful trip and it has been pure torture coming back to Canada where it seems that the snow is never planning to stop. Seriously, how could we have had such a mild winter until January and now it's just chaos?!

Bah humbug, winter, bah humbug.

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown

Summer Sister, Winter Wench 

Book Breakdown

As promised I felt the need to highlight a few of the all stars from my 2015 reading list so without further adieu....some books that deserve an honourable mention are (in no particular order):

1. Room- Emma Donoghue
I blew through this book in a little over a week. I fell in love with the characters and I truly loved seeing it on the big screen. Both versions were great. (**Caution: may convince you that your neighbour has kidnapped someone and is keeping them in their shed- no joke, we are now bona fide conspiracy theorists**).

2. Burnt Tongues- Edited by Chuck Palahnuik, Richard Thomas and Dennis Widmyer
Chuck Palahniuk is an all time favourite, so to find a group of short stories that he had hand picked was a dream, especially since I knew that short stories were where he got his start. Did you know Fight Club started as a short story?
Needless to say this book was amazing and a great way to read some young un-established writers. Some of these stories actually scarred me for life. If being scarred for life interests you make sure to read to read the short story "Ingredients" from this collection.

3. The Girl on the Train- Paul Hawkins
Ironically enough I read this entire novel on a train while we were in Europe. I also left it on a train to lighten my load while we trekked across countries. I did love it a lot so I wish I had kept it but I also love when I recommend it to people and they ask to borrow it because I get to tell them that I left The Girl on the Train...on a train.

4. Me & Earl & The Dying Girl- Jessie Andrews
I ate this book up. I had seen the preview for it and was dying to see it. I found out it was a book at 8:30 one night and I literally got up from where I was sitting, sped to the book store and showed up 10 minutes before the place closed and was "that person" who zig zags all over the place while the employees are trying to push people out. Two days later I finished the book and I'm very happy that I got on some book store employees' bad sides to do so.

Trust me though, I do have a couple of books I began and put down simply because I couldn't get into them. I'm definitely not immune to that.

Some of those include:
1. A Clock Work Orange- Anthony Burgess
Sorry world, I know I'll receive some flak for this one but I find it SO hard to get into books that don't use easy to digest language. My apy-poly-logies.

2. Just Kids- Patti Smith
I'm still in the middle of this one but I'm not finding that it's not really doing it for me. Life is too short to read books you're not in love with but who knows, I may pick it back up soon. I'm just still waiting for something exciting to happen!

I've also got a couple of books on the docket that I'm very excited to start. Those books are Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty and The Grownup by Gillian Flynn.

So stop reading what I'm writing and go pick up a new book!

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
Bibliophile

Books of 2015

I la-la-love to read. It is one of my favourite past times and I take great pride in my growing book collection, and the fact that I asked for a chair to read in for Christmas, or that I window shop obsessively on amazon.com. Ain't no shame in my book loving game.

<< As you can tell I was a big fan of my chair but on this day,
 apparently, not a big fan of showering >>

I am one of those people who makes New Years Resolutions (cue the groaning from the audience). I know, they're annoying and yes, I often don't complete them, but one of my resolutions that I have been able to keep up the last couple of years was to read new books. In 2014 my resolution was to read 10 new books, in 2015 it was to read 15. Maybe I can push for 20 this year?

I've had a couple people ask me where I get book recommendations since finding a good book is half the battle. A lot of the time I get them from buzzfeed.com, or through different instagram feeds, or simply from seeing a movie trailer for a film based on a book which I then find the need to run out and consume before the movie comes out. And there's always the tried and true method of finding an author you like and consuming their entire catalogue of novels.

Here are the novels I read this year (with links), maybe you can find some inspiration in them:

1. Gone Girl- Gillian Flynn
2. Sharp Objects- Gillian Flynn
3. Dark Places- Gillian Flynn
4. Sarah's Key- Tatiana De Rosnay
5. Burnt Tongues- Edited by Chuck Palahniuk, Richard Thomas and Dennis Widmyer
6. Landline- Rainbow Rowell
7. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl- Jesse Andrews
8. Fahrenheit 451- Ray Bradbury
9. Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight- M.E Thompson
10. Make Something Up- Chuck Palahniuk
11. The Girl on the Train- Paula Hawkins
12. The Night of the Gun: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of His Life. His Own.- David Carr
13. The End of Alice- A.M Holmes
14. Room- Emma Donaghue
15. Denton Little's Death Date- Lance Rubin
16. The Opposite of Loneliness- Marina Keegan

Don't worry, I'll be back with my list of honourable mentions from those novels and even to tell you about a few that fell by the wayside!

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown
Bibliophile