read with lena

dear friends, how are we doing? can we all just take a collective deep breath together? * inhale * * hold * * exhale *. alright, that's a little better. it's been a little while since i've last written to you, and within the span of 3 (ish) months, our whole world has flipped on its axis. that may be a little dramatic, but i don't think i'm wrong in saying that the situation happening in the world is unlike what many of us has seen before. this global pandemic has quite literally changed the way we interact with each other and the rest of the world. i'm writing this as california--and most of the world--is on a shelter-in-place order. social distancing is what it's being called, but quite frankly, it's a quarantine, a lockdown of sorts, and i am not a fan. it may not be a surprise to anyone that i am an introvert (and a large one at that!) and would consider myself a homebody at heart. some of you may be thinking that this quarantine should be a piec...

another year has come and gone and with it is a list of books i finished reading within that year. 2019 was a big year for me...i did a lot of travel--both for work and for fun--but one of my biggest accomplishments was finishing my master's degree! if you're in school you know that reading for pleasure isn't really at the top of the list, hence my (embarrassingly) short list of books that i finished within the last year. i'm setting my sights higher for 2020, though, so let's hope this list is much longer next year! Strengths Based Leadership - Tom Rath i actually had to read this book for my strategic planning class, but ended up really enjoying it! we also took the strengthsfinder assessment, which this book discusses in depth. i would recommend it if you're into personality assessments and such. (any INFJ's out there? :)) The Rest of the Story - Sarah Dessen it is no secret that i'm a huge sarah dessen fan--i own pretty much her en...

dear friends, hello. it has been waaay  too long since i've typed anything on this little blog. almost three years, to be exact. a lot has happened since 2017. most notably, i started grad school and finished my degree--this year, actually!--and to tell you the truth, i have no idea how i did it. balancing work and school was not an easy feat and i look back thinking, how in the world did i do it? that's that main reason why i haven't posted very much. reading for classes doesn't really leave a lot of time for reading for fun. now that i'm done, though, i'm finally catching up with my TBR pile, which has grown substantially (but are we surprised?). i do want to dedicate more time to writing reviews, so be on the lookout for that. if all goes well, there should be one up later this week! happy reading! L

goodreads book breakdown: Imagine that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret—something with the potential to destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive. . . . Cecilia Fitzpatrick has achieved it all—she’s an incredibly successful businesswoman, a pillar of her small community, and a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But that letter is about to change everything, and not just for her: Rachel and Tess barely know Cecilia—or each other—but they too are about to feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband’s secret. holy moly, you guys. let me just start out by saying that this book packs the PUNCH at about the last 100 or so pages or so. maybe that's why it took me about 3 months to actually finish this boo...

goodreads book breakdown: Lang Leav presents a completely new collection of poetry with a celestial theme in  The Universe of Us . Planets, stars, and constellations feature prominently in this beautiful, original poetry collection from Lang Leav.  Inspired by the wonders of the universe, the best-selling poetess writes about love and loss, hope and hurt, being lost and found.  Lang's poetry encompasses the breadth of emotions we all experience and evokes universal feelings with her skillfully crafted words. i have definitely been on a poetry kick lately. from reading rupi kaur's beautifully written MILK AND HONEY at the end of last year and following some wonderful poets on instagram, (seriously, could they hit you in the feels any harder?), when i saw THE UNIVERSE OF US i knew i had to pick it up. time and time again i am always so awestruck about how writers can string together words that hit me so close to home. reading THE UNIVERSE OF US took me--no joke-...

goodreads book breakdown:  In 2013, food blogger and classical musician Molly Yeh left Brooklyn to live on a farm on the North Dakota-Minnesota border, where her fiancé was a fifth-generation Norwegian-American sugar beet farmer. Like her award-winning blog My Name is Yeh,  Molly on the Range  chronicles her life through photos, more than 100 new recipes, and hilarious stories from life in the city and on the farm. Molly’s story begins in the suburbs of Chicago in the 90s, when things like Lunchables and Dunkaroos were the objects of her affection; continues into her New York years, when Sunday mornings meant hangovers and bagels; and ends in her beloved new home, where she’s currently trying to master the art of the hotdish. Celebrating Molly's Jewish/Chinese background with recipes for Asian Scotch Eggs and Scallion Pancake Challah Bread and her new hometown Scandinavian recipes for Cardamom Vanilla Cake and Marzipan Mandel Bread,  Molly on the Range ...