Books To Buy Right Now

I'll admit that most of my books come from the library.  Before 5 kids I bought a lot more of them, but now, not so much, because we need the money to feed them all....



In 2015 I started recording every book I read.  In the last two years I've read 215 books and most of the books I'd say get from the library.  Here's a small list of books you should buy for your personal library.  (In no particular order.)

1.  Being Mortal


This book will absolutely transform your thoughts on dying and end of life care.  I cannot recommend it enough.

2.  Inkheart series

I love this trilogy which focuses on a book- loving father and daugher (Mo and Meggie).  Mo can read characters out of a book (can you imagine the possiblities!) which swap places with someone in the real world.  Filled with both amazing and terrible characters, I feel like these novels are fresh and exciting even after all these years.  Note, there was a terrible movie made from Inkheart, and if you've seen that first without reading the book don't let it keep you away from this series.

3.  A Gentleman in Moscow


This book follows Count Alexander, an aristocrat who was put under hotel arrest during the Bolshevik reign in Russia.  You will be completely charmed by Alexander and his ability to deal with his situation in a graceful way.  It made me want to live my life better and more thoughtful.

4.  Lessons From Madame Chic


This is the story of the author's year in Paris and the lessons she learned from two specific women there.  I loved this book which really focuses on looking at your life and living the very best life possible all the time.  Ideas like using your best china, having routines that value guests, only wearing clothes that you love and fit you perfectly.  In a nutshell, quite possibly a book that focuses on first world problems of fairly privileged people.  But that doesn't make it shallow, it makes you thoughtful about how you live your life.  And that should be a perspective that everyone has no matter their lot in life.  She wrote two books that continue this "Lessons" series.  You could probably get the other two from the library.

5.  Four Seasons in Rome


A food memoir focusing on a family and their year in Italy.  I kind of have a thing for Italian food memoirs.  It makes me want to eat better and simpler, and also I just cannot get over the descriptions of the Italian countryside.  Like sign me up and move us overseas immediately.  Two other food memoirs worth your time and possibly your money for a hard copy:  Bread and Wine and 1000 days in Tuscany.

2017 Resolutions

I don't always do resolutions.  But this year I have two that I am going to strive really hard towards if you don't count my yearly resolution of reading 100 books.

The first is a joint one with Ava.  She is obsessed with the Laura Ingalls Wilder cookbook.  (Buy it, it's only $8 on Amazon.)  Apparently my love of the series has run into the next geneartion- I love it. So we decided to cook through the entire cookbook through 2017.  There may be a few exceptions, like blackbird pie, but if we can do it we will.

My second resolution is bigger and much, much harder.  My goal for 2017 is to not buy things made in China.  I have serious issues with China and their labor issues and lax in safety in a lot of their items, especially anything involved in kitchen items.  Check your local Target, almost all of them are made in China.... Chris doesn't think I can pull this off, and I admit it will be next to impossible, but I am willing to give it a go and do my best.  It will involve a lot of me remembering to look at labels and make sure that it doesn't come from China.  It will probably also involve me spending more for whatever item it is that I need/want.  An exception to this I am toying with is if I get something second hand.  It's not like it's a new item being generated in horrible circumstances, but I can't decide if I should make this exception or not.  You'd still have to weed out anything worrisome, like kitchen items, etc.  We'll see what I decide.

Here's to 2017, 2016 was good and hoping for a better 2017.