It’s that time of year where I want to hop on a bus, train or plane and travel somewhere. “Anywhere! Anywhere!” And one of the best parts of traveling? Yes, the opportunity to see places you’ve never seen, but there’s also so much down-time. That beautiful, glorious down-time that makes for great reading time.
Today I’m sharing 10 of the best books about traveling. Read them while traveling or read them at home! I hope they stoke your fires of wanderlust. Continue reading
I had been doing a book club on the blog where we would read a book about minimalism or living small and then I’d report on it. I fell out of the habit because I got stuck on a book I just simply could not get through. And life is too short to read boring books, am I right?!?
I’d like to get back in the book club habit, but first I thought it might be interesting to take a break and talk about the books I read in December and January. These books have no theme, really. It was just what interested me. And sometimes that’s what I need. Continue reading
This month I read Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life. I “read” this book via audiobook. That may have colored my review. In this case, I enjoyed the reader’s voice. It was authoritative, yet personal– like a good chat with a long-time friend.
The first part of this book shared Josh and Ryan’s journey to minimalism. While I found that part relatable and quasi-interesting, I enjoyed the second part of the book much more. The second part of the book describes the five dimensions of living a meaningful life: health, relationships, passion, growth, and contribution.
I must admit, I have an easy time with the “stuff” aspect of minimalism. I love throwing stuff away. And I love a clean, sparse space. The “stuff” that I hold onto is mostly mental stuff. I get really caught up in the day-to-day junk that doesn’t add value to my life. This book helped me to reflect on what’s truly important and a little more difficult– the mental part of minimalism.
I did enjoy this book. It was a quick, worthwhile read, but I did have a few bones to pick. I think an issue with much of minimalism writing is that it is written by people who once made a great deal of money. The authors do admit they were once in debt, but they also had six figure incomes. Once you start exchanging unimportant large expenses for smaller ones, like a mortgage on a large house for rent in an inexpensive apartment, you’ll be able to cut expenses incredibly quickly. With a six figure income, you’ll get out of debt quickly and you’ll be able to save quickly. For most people, it’s not so easy. I wanted strategies for sustaining minimalism. What do I do when minimalism gets really hard? It often does. How do I contribute to my health, relationships, passion, growth and contribution when I have little time for myself? Not everyone can quit their full-time jobs. I want to hear from those single moms who found minimalism!
Maybe I need to write the answer. Maybe “Minimalism for busy people” will be my next book? 🙂
Have you read Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life? What strategies do you have for sustaining your minimalist lifestyle? Let me know in the comments.
love,
melanie
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Hey ya’ll, I’m a bit behind on the Book Club this month. What else is new? #storyofmylife. Anyway, we’ll be discussing Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much* on Friday.
If you have any suggestions for August’s Book Club pick, leave ’em in the comments!
love (and Happy Monday! ugh!),
melanie
*Affiliate link.
I’m a little late too the Book Club game this month. I apologize if you were waiting for the riveting discussion that I’m sure will ensue 🙂 I just had a lot going on and I know not all of it was essential. Ha-ha.
Anyway, this month I listened to the audiobook version of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less*. The author, Greg McKeown, has a lovely voice and if anything, listening to the audiobook favorably influenced my opinion of the book. That hasn’t always been the case when I listened to audiobooks in the past. See: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.
I wholeheartedly agree with the premise of this book. Most people chase everything instead of chasing the right things. The right things are the things in your life and career that will make the most impact. Unfortunately most of the tasks that we do are unimportant. It’s answering email. It’s picking up the dry cleaning. It’s filling out that form for the 5th time because someone lost it again…
I know on an everyday basis that most of the work tasks and many of the life tasks that I do are nonessential. I know that checking my email 394834923293 times a day doesn’t contribute to my productivity. I know that doing the dishes isn’t going to contribute to my big life goals. I also know that if I don’t do it, no one else will. Which leads me to my biggest problem with the book. I think that the principles are very difficult to apply to government, service or “worker-bee” jobs. It would be easy to say “no” to pursuing menial tasks if I was higher up the food chain. Unfortunately, much of my job is filling out forms and filling up the printer’s paper tray. Even if I did advocate for essentialism, I don’t think I would ever see an institutional change. It’s sad, but true.
I also think that as a person with a limited income, essentialism is difficult to apply to my personal life. Yes, I want to work on writing a book, but I can’t afford to pay someone to do my laundry, clean my house and cook my meals. That has to be done on an every day basis by me.
Although some of the principles of the book are going to be extremely difficult to implement, since reading this book, I have begun to question the nonessential things I can control. Do I really need a Facebook? No. And as soon as I download all of my pictures, I plan to get rid of it. I also reinstalled Rescue Time to keep me off of distracting sites. And I’ve taken off my email’s sound alert, so I don’t run to my email each time I hear the new mail ping. These little things have been extremely helpful, but I’ve yet to free up large chunks of time for essential projects.
Have you read Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less*? What did you think? How have you limited nonessential things in your life to make space for the important stuff? Let me know in the comments!
love,
melanie
P.S. July’s pick will be Scarcity: Why having too little means so much*. Feel free to leave suggestions for future books in the comments!
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Welcome to book club! Let’s settle in with a glass of wine (it’s Friday, right?!) and get to chatting! This month we read, The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential…in Business and in Life* by Leo Babauta. Leo is of Zen Habits fame and this is one of many books and articles that he has written.
Full disclosure: I again, listened to this book via Audible*. This time I didn’t mind the speaker’s voice so I don’t think that swayed my feelings towards the book, but I do think at times, I missed things because I’m not a naturally audible learner.
What I did grasp from the book were a few key concepts that, although very basic, have been helpful for me in achieving goals in the past. Although, when Leo listed how many goals he has achieved in the beginning of the book using these methods, I felt like I have achieved NOTHING. He’s written books, run marathons, grown his blog to hundreds of thousands of readers and so much more. He also has 6 kids and gets up at 4:30 am everyday. Crazy pants. Anyway, I think he really has something with the 3 “Most Important Tasks” (MITs) concept. I write down the 3 most important things that I have to do each day in my planner and my “MITS” always get done.
I also really liked his suggestion to start (almost comically) small when achieving goals. If you want to exercise everyday, start exercising for 5 minutes a day. It’s more important to establish the habit first than actually achieve results. I know that I would have trouble with this suggestion. I’m an over-achiever, but I’m going to try it with my next big goal.
Leo also suggests just pursuing one goal at a time. This would be the hardest suggestion for me to follow. I want to achieve so many things and I don’t want to wait an entire year to start the next goal. I want to both exercise every day and grow my blog. I don’t know if both would be possible by his standards.
I did like that his methods are easy to understand. Nothing is revolutionary, but nothing seems impossible either.
Did you read The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential…in Business and in Life?* Let’s chat in the comments
love,
melanie
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When I was in the earlier stages of this blog, I did a lot of book reviews. I tried to do one a week, but I got burnt out. I love to read, but the pressure of having to read so much in such a short period of time time really sucked the fun out of it. One of my oh so many goals this year is to read more– especially at night before bed. I usually spend much too much time scrolling through Pinterest or Instagram before I sleep. It isn’t good for me. In fact, I just read a study that it might be killing me! While I think that’s article is a touch sensationalist, I can’t deny that staring at a little blue screen right before I sleep isn’t as healthy as reading a good ol’ fashioned book.
Over the holidays I got the chance to finally finish up a book that I’d been reading for months. The book was entitled The Big Tiny: A Build It Myself Memoir by Dee Williams. Dee (I can call her right that? We’re friends now.) was one of the first (and most famous) pioneers of the tiny house movement. After she was diagnosed with a serious heart condition, Dee decided she needed a change in her life. While sitting in the doctor’s office, she read an article about a gentleman who built a tiny house and she couldn’t get it out of her head. The Big Tiny follows her story of building a tiny home, living in it and eventually teaching other people to do the same.
I think I live pretty small (188 square feet), but Dee truly lives tiny in 84 square feet. (That doesn’t count her loft, sleeping space, but still that’s super small.) Throughout this story I continually admired Dee’s courage. If I was a single lady, I don’t know if I would have ever taken the plunge into small living. I’d probably just rent an apartment and continue into the debt cycle forever. Dee figured out how to build an entire house by herself! She hammered and nailed and put up walls with a a serious heart condition. She’s one courageous lady.
I enjoyed that this book wasn’t a how-to manual, but at times I was a bit bored by the stories of Dee’s everyday life. Her life in the tiny house was interesting, but I found myself skipping through some of the stories about her life prior to the tiny house. But let’s be real, my everyday life is pretty boring too.
This book wasn’t a life changer for me, but it did inspire me to be more resourceful. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in tiny living.
What have you been reading lately? Let’s discuss!
love,
melanie
Is it too early to call myself a gardener? Probably. But I’ve been researching like it’s my job. Well, really, research is my job. It’s my day job… or my night job. I’m technically the evening librarian. Whatever works.
I recently took the Myers-Briggs personality test for work and it said that I’m a sensor which can mean that I like to give too much details and ramble. I need to control that. So without further ado, here’s what I’ve been reading in preparation for warm weather!
Growing Veggies
The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible
The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible gets great reviews on Amazon and was written with beginning gardeners as the intended audience. That’s me. And it claims to be the bible for vegetable gardener’s so I’m relying on this one heavily for a beginner’s reference guide.
The Timber Press Guide to Vegetable Gardening in the Southeast
I’m still very much the novice gardener, but I know that growing veggies in the Southeast will be very different than growing veggies elsewhere. This guide should help me with regionally specific information based on weather and climate.
Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening
What interested me about this book is how plants can naturally benefit from each other. Symbiosis is so exciting!
Grow Cook Eat has an ambitious scope; it covers gardening, recipes and storage of vegetables. I love ambition and I love that this book takes readers through the entire process of growing and eating your own food.
Preserving Veggies
I’m just as excited about growing veggies as I am about preserving them!
Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving 
Many of my beautiful readers recommended this book as the go-to guide to canning staples. As much as I love my library books, I think I’ll end up purchasing this one for reference.
Canning For a New Generation
Canning for a New Generation is an absolutely gorgeous book. The pictures alone make my mouth water! Something that isn’t always the case with canned food. The Ball book is more for classic canning recipes and I’m hoping this one provides something a little more exotic!
Food in Jars: Preserving in Small Batches Year-Round
I would love to can 20 pounds of pickles, but that just won’t work with my small space. I also love that this book emphasizes year-round canning. The author even explains how to can nut butters! I hope this book will carry my enthusiasm for canning through even the winter months!
I want to thank everyone for their kind gardening tips and book recommendations. I’m off to read and dream about spring!
love,
melanie
Mother’s Day will be here before you know it, so I started researching books to give to my own mama. In the process, I stumbled upon so, so many cute books for children to give to their moms as gifts. As a kid, I would have loved to give my mom a Mother’s Day themed book that I could read to her. Heck, I still might read her a children’s book and I’m 27, ya’ll. Who doesn’t love story time?!
Here’s my top 5 picks:
5. 
What NOT to Give Your Mom on Mother’s Day
Martha Simpson (Author), Jana Christy (Illustrator)
A list-based book that tells the story of a child giving his mother Mother’s Day gifts better suited for animals.
Easy-to-read for the beginning readers, but this book may be a little childish for kids over 6.
4. Mother’s Day Surprise
Stephen Krensky (Author), Kathi Ember (Illustrator)
Violet the snake is stumped! Her forest friends are all making gifts for their mothers for Mother’s Day. But Violet doesn’t have any arms or legs or teeth! What’s a snake to do?!
Reptilian-loving kids will love this story. We all know those kids! But they may point out that snakes do have teeth (or fangs) and Violet’s teeth are showing on almost every page. A small flaw in an otherwise cute story.
3. The Night Before Mother’s Day
Natasha Wing (Author), Amy Wummer (Illustrator)
One in the many and well-liked “Night Before” series, this book shows dad and the girls setting up a spa day and making a cake for mom.
What mom doesn’t want a spa day?! ‘Nuff said.
2. Little Critter: Happy Mother’s Day!
Mercer Mayer (Author, Illustrator)
Mercer Mayer books are true classics. And this book is no different. This time, Little Critter has a special surprise in store for Mom. This interactive book encourages kids to lift the flaps of the pages to see what Little Critter has created for his mom. Fun for kids that need that tactile stimulation!
1. We Love our Mom!
Jan Berenstain (Author, Illustrator), Mike Berenstain (Author, Illustrator)
And for my number one choice, my sentimentality won out. I have such fond memories of my mom reading my sister and I Berenstain Bears stories when we were small. She even had a special voice for each bear!
In this recent addition to the Berenstain Bears collection, Brother and Sister look for a way to show their mom they care.
My mom is definitely getting this one for mother’s day. Maybe with a spa gift certificate as a bookmark?!
What are you giving your mom on Mother’s Day?
love,
melanie
As promised, here is my birthday goals list. I was going to rewrite it, but hoping to turn over my “worry less” new leaf, I just scanned it in, straight from my journal. Keep me accountable, ya’ll!
love the (almost) birthday girl,
melanie
