Beantown Book

I hope you all had amazing memorial day weekends! The boyfriend and I spent the weekend touring Boston.  Boston is definitely a more serene city than New York City...we couldn't get over the fact that birds were chirping in the numerous trees lining the quaint cobblestone streets.  The only birds I have seen outside of Central Park in New York are pigeons.
For those heading into Boston in the near future, here were a few of my favorite things:
The Public Garden: The perfect summer reading location.

South End Buttery: Fluffy pancakes, Vermont maple syrup, savory eggs, and one of the best iced coffees I have ever had! Add that to the cutest decor, fluffy dogs ambling outside, and a picture perfect neighborhood of brownstones and beautiful city parks...love...

Injeanous: If I lived in Boston, this would definitely be my go-to jean shop.

Shake the Tree: I could browse this store for hours...

And what to read as you meander through the cafes and gardens of Boston? How about The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl? Nothing like a thriller that pays homage to Dante Alighieri that is set in Boston!

Happy Reading!

Friday Footnotes

Happy (Memorial Day Weekend) Friday!!!!

The sun is shining, my newly pedicured toes are loving flip flops, and it's a three-day weekend...Oh yes, it's a happy Friday indeed.  Here are some things I am loving on this holiday weekend Friday:

Graduations: The sentimentalities, the cliches, the tacky hats...

Cookouts: Family, friends, hot dogs...What's not to love?

Neptune Oyster: Heading to Boston for this Memorial Day Weekend and I can't wait to eat here. Looks delicious! The scallops look ridiculously good.

Maxi dresses: So my body looks like it is enveloped in a tent...nothing beats the comfort of this style on a humid summer day! Adore this one by Theory:

Happy Friday to all!!

Cooking Inspiration

So after (finally) booking our annual girlfriend's getaway tonight, my friends and I have begun our research on what we will do once we have arrived. While I don't (and honestly can't) cook, I am going to embark on a challenging adventure: a cooking class in Thailand.  Hopefully they plan to start with pad thai as that dish looks considerably like pasta, which is the one thing that I actually can make.  If we graduate to anything involving woks, time sensitive baking, or multi-step procedures-- I am in trouble.  

To get inspired, I plan to finish reading a book that I started ages ago and, while I really enjoyed it, I just never finished.  Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell ought to do the trick! Here's hoping that the old adage that "practice makes perfect" applies to my considerable lack of cooking skills...

Happy Reading!

A Dr. Seuss Lesson

I taught a lesson today that involved learning about allegory through Dr. Seuss' The Butter Battle Book and it got me thinking about how much I love Dr. Seuss. Not only are his books nearly synonymous with childhood reading, but they are smart, remarkably allegorical, as in The Butter Battle Book, and teach valuable life lessons. Love...

Someday, I definitely need to go to the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden in Springfield, Massachusetts.  Incidentally, this museum is very close to where I grew up making it even more probable that I will actually get there. Besides, who can resist frolicking among beloved childhood characters?! Speaking of,  I will have to drag my sister there as she is a huge Dr. Seuss fan.  We used to get in "arguments" every year at Christmas (and by "used to" I mean we still do) about these two (hideous) Dr. Seuss ornaments...

I am a girl who likes a coordinated Christmas tree. While some people think that kitschy, mismatched ornaments are cute, or that popsicle stick sleighs are enchanting, I admittedly am not that type of person. I like order by way of monochromatic colored ornaments and white lights.  Oddly, this is pretty much the only thing that I am Type A about in my life.  Closets be damned...give me an orderly Christmas tree!  For this reason, the large, brightly colored, stuffed animal "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" are just not for me.  My sister, who shares a similar passion for messy, disorganized closets, does not share my love of singularly colored, white-lighted Christmas trees.  Every year the feud continues as she prominently places "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" on the tree and I, ever so sneakily, remove them.  This goes on, back and forth until Christmas morning, when usually some sentimentality, or laziness leaves them in the last played position. Dr. Seuss, with his message of getting along, working things out, and resolving things nicely would probably not approve...

Book Expo America At Your Door!

The Yankees won and maybe it was the Frank Sinatra "New York, New York," but tonight I started thinking about all of the things that I love about this city...
While there are too many to name here, I can offer a slice of the many things that I think are amazing about this city simply by revisiting my day today.
One, I love the coffee from my favorite Brazilian coffee place Sugarloaf.  I can't help but stop there each morning en route to work. Unlike most coffee places, if you ask for milk in your coffee, they warm and froth the milk and spoon it over the top of your coffee in delicious fluffy layers.

Two, Central Park on a warm, balmy day.  The leaves on the trees have darkened to a rich, verdant green.  The shaded walkways through the park past The Boathouse, bicycle riders, Poet's Walk and various bodies of water all add up to the greatest commute home in the entire world.  Which leads me to my next favorite thing...

Waffles and Dinges. Yum...Not only does NYC offer the beauty of Central Park, but within Central Park there is the greatest food cart of all time...Waffles and Dingers. It does not disappoint. 

The people filled sidewalks and streets at all hours on all days of the week.  Love.

The New York Yankees winning and everyone singing "New York, New York" as they walk out of the stadium.
Ahhh yes...a great city indeed.
Perhaps this is why there are so many books written about New York City!? I will save that gigantic list of favorites for another post; however, in the meantime, let me share with you a couple of books that I am excited to read for a variety of reasons.
Today, at the Javitts Center was Book Expo America.  My librarian friend picked up a few books for me and I can't wait to read them and report back!

Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale looks intriguing...I'll let you know if it is.

I am also excited to read The Orchard by Theresa Weir.  Adore a good memoir.

Oh and I cant wait to read the young adult fiction that he picked up by Sara Cassidy called Slick...I am all for books that empower young women and this looks promising!

Planet of the Apes

First, I just have to say that I think I should totally get a new job as one of those people who chooses what books get made into movies because lo and behold...here comes The Help leaping from paper page to the big screen. Did I not predict this?! It's due out in theaters this August. So excited.

Lately, most of my reads have been travel books as I am trying to sort out my summer plans, but I am also in the middle of a book I am so enjoying. Sara Gruen (who is earning a name for herself with Water for Elephants) also wrote another book connected to animals that is equally touching and a great beach read: Ape House.  Apparently Gruen studied the language of apes at The Great Ape Trust in Des Moines Iowa which looks amazing. I so want to go and pretend I am Jane Goodall. Hmm...perhaps I am going to need to take detour through Des Moines at some point this summer.

On a serious note though, this is an organization that is doing great and important things. Be sure to check them out.

Happy Reading!

Friday Footnotes

Thankfully, beautiful weather is coming this weekend.  My umbrella has had quite the workout this week! On that note, here are some things I am loving on this Friday...
The brownie cupcake from Crumbs that was lovely with some MarieBelle hot chocolate that I picked up last time I was in Soho...

Mussels...As I have mentioned before, I love mussels so much. They completely remind me of summer and of the beach and there is just no happier thing!! I cannot wait for my Saturday night dinner plans at The Mussel Pot! There is even an adorable little garden in the back of the restaurant...can't wait!!!!

Peonies...
They might just be the world's prettiest flower. The ones (via Oh Happy Day) in this Paris flower market look delightful!

Those amazing things that you can seemingly do only in New York City like the NYC Rooftop Films...

What a great way to spend a balmy summer night!
Happy Friday!!

Decoding Doggy Dialogue

Some things about my dog I get. Other things are much of a mystery to me.  That's where the book Dog Sense: How the New Science of Dog Behavior Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet comes in. I am so excited to read this book so that I can start decoding Frenchie's behavior.  

I once heard that dogs have a linguistic command of approximately a two and half-year-old.  Frenchie definitely seems to understand a lot.  For example, we have a carrying case in which we transport him to and from CT.  Frenchie loves pastoral CT and his brother Max, who is the "son" of my boyfriend's parents.  When we say the word "CT" or "train," Frenchie immediately looks at the closet expectantly--waiting for his black bag to emerge.  Personally, I am not even sure that my friend's three-year-old is that good at making inferences. I am so excited to learn more about Frenchie's psyche and can't wait to read this book! 

Dream Locations

It has been pouring in NYC all week. While the flowers seem to love it, the people are getting kind of crabby.  The crosstown bus today was a scary place to be; a multitude of people crammed in with soggy clothes, wet feet, and pointy umbrellas.  While I love rainy day reading, I can't help but fantasize slightly about a beach, a cool ice tea, and a great book.  Last summer when I was in Vietnam in Nha Trang (great town if you're in the area!), my friends and I rented lounge chairs facing the ocean under large straw umbrellas and read all day after spending time working in Cambodia. You could order fresh and delicious sushi and tall glasses of iced tea as you poured over your book with the ocean waves crashing gently in the background. Sounds pretty good right about now...

Medieval Times

Currently Reading: A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin.
Not usually my genre, but loving this!

While the fantasy world of the novel is not Medieval, the weaponry, castles, and clothing completely remind me of Medieval studies...albeit with a little magic and the supernatural involved. So far though, I would completely recommend reading this novel; it is entertaining, suspenseful and I am totally hooked!

It also really makes me want to go to Medieval Times. I went as a child and it probably had more luster at that age, but part of me is thinking that I may just need to work a visit into my future plans.  It is, after all, just a New Jersey Transit ride away...

Post-Apocalyptic Fiction

One thing that I have always loved about reading is its capacity to transport readers.  The emotional reaction that a book can cause in readers is really quite remarkable.  Tears can be cathartic, laughter uplifting, and terror...well...it depends how you feel about being terrified.

I remember a couple of summers ago, my boyfriend and I went to Cape Cod for a relaxing week to get away from the frenetic, blistering hot city.  Both of us love to read and we spent hours on the beach tearing through books.  I had just read Cormac McCarthy's The Road, which, incidentally, is excellent, and had passed it on to my boyfriend.  He too loved it and became rapidly engrossed in its post-apocalyptic scenario that seemed distant and just the right amount of titillating against the backdrop of ocean breezes and bright unobstructed beach sunlight.  Then night fell.  Two New Yorkers, grown accustomed to the sweet lull of garbage trucks and halting city buses at midnight, sat in bed wide-eyed and terrified by the peaceful silence broken only by cicadas and distant breaking waves.  That was the night that the isolating terror of The Road felt a little too transportive.

It's a rainy Monday here in New York City which really set the mood for my latest fearful read. After reading her other novel, I totally fell in love with the writing style of Laura Kasischke and picked up one of her earlier books, In A Perfect World.  This book details the fall of the world we know in a plot trajectory that eerily mirrors contemporary world events.  I ripped through the book in one night optimistically hoping that the title was not ironic and the the warmly depicted characters might just make it against all odds...

Definitely a gripping and haunting read with endearing and flawed characters that make the plausibility of the terrifying hypothetical events even more realistic.

Finding Yourself in Italy

So, while I realize that many have an almost visceral reaction to Elizabeth Gilbert and her travel/memoir Eat, Pray, Love, I must admit that I sort of enjoyed the book.  I also enjoyed the beautiful visuals from the film.  There is something weightless and wondrous about taking off and seeing the world.  I am slightly more skeptical of that pursuit as a way to "find oneself," but, hey, it seemed to work for Elizabeth Gilbert. Having been to both India and Italy, I am definitely dying to go to Bali after reading the book. It looks like paradise...

I also wouldn't mind going back to Italy since I went as a broke student and remember my boyfriend and I sitting eating loaves of bread and drinking cheap red wine most of the time we were there.  It would be fun to go back and not stay in M&J Place Hostel in Rome, for instance.  I still shudder when I think about the shower drain in their bathroom...

If you have not been, Cinque Terre, Italy is one of my absolute favorite places on this earth still to date.  When we were there we stayed in a rented flat high on a hill that you had to weave through numerous cobblestone alleys to find and we also took an entire day hiking the trail through the five fishing villages.  The trail not only overlooked the incredible coastal views but wove through the sights and smells from the lemon trees and olive trees growing along the path.  Along the way, we climbed over jutting rock cliffs and crossed our fingers on more narrow parts of the trail breathing in fresh Italian air and the smell of adventure.
Ahh...travel is so seductive, no?

Old Time Baseball

Tonight the Yankees won 3-1. It was the perfect night for a ballgame. The weather was comfortable and cool and my 7th inning hotdog made me think it was summer.  Ahhh yes, the perfect Tuesday night.  As we sat at the game, we marveled at how fast-paced this slow-paced game has become.  If there is even the most minuscule lull in on-field action, the giant, blaring television screens blast music, games, and spectator quizzes. Music plays when each new player takes the field and, at the end of the 6th inning, when the grounds crew enters the stadium they transform into the YMCA boys.

In our attention deficit culture filled with millions of distractions fighting relentlessly for our attention, baseball has transformed to compete.
As I sat there tonight with a hotdog vendor yelling "Getcha hotdog here!" in one ear and Jay-Z in my other, I thought about my poppop.  While this seems like the antithesis of what might make one think of their grandfather, for me, I had a pang of missing a man who grew up in Queens, loved the Yankees and loved the old Yankee stadium.  I wondered what he would have thought of this perversion of his favorite sport.  That said, my poppop was a man who loved a good read as much as a good baseball game and who probably would have still loved baseball even at its accelerated pace.
I am sure that part of my love of reading comes from him.  Just as I remember his love of a good Yankees game, I also always think of him sitting on the porch reading the newspaper, or in his later years, as his obsession with biographies grew--whatever the latest biography was would rest on his lap as he sat, wool-sock-covered feet propped on an ottoman intermittently reading and "snoozing" in the living room. So while this post really recommends nothing in particular, I hope that you will all pay a silent tribute to those who have instilled a love of reading in you...

Happy Reading!

Cool Friends, Drinks, and Novels

On what was a lovely day, I met with one of my closest friends in the Gramercy area for a cool drink. Somewhere along gossip and catching up, we drifted to books and found we were both currently reading the same book.  Little Bee by Chris Cleave is a great read--though admittedly it took me some time to get into.  I was heartened to hear that my friend had the same experience.  That said, the plot gradually invests the readers and the book is an excellent read.

Happy reading!