my top five: books I've read recently

1. So Here's the Thing by Alyssa Mastromonaco - This is Alyssa Mastromonaco's follow up book to "Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?" which was one of my favorite reads in 2017. She's brilliant and hilarious and for someone who was a Deputy Chief of Staff in the Obama White House she is incredibly relatable. As someone who suffers from a bowel disorder, her anecdotes about her struggles with IBS are at once painful to read about (because, BEEN THERE!) and reassuring. It's weirdly comforting when you know that other people suffer the same problems that you have and manage to lead a productive, awesome life in spite of it. She is literally one of the most awesome people on this planet and I highly recommend both of her books (plus every appearance she makes on podcasts, plus her twitter, plus her book events. Anything and everything Alyssa.)

Sidenote: She's also a very dedicated cat lady. I went to her book event last Tuesday which happened to coincide with Arrietty's birthday. When I was having my book signed I shared that excessive Crazy Cat Lady factoid with her. Her reaction was "F*ck yes!!" She made the book out to me and Arrietty and wrote "happy bday!" and told me that she makes cupcakes for her own cats on their birthdays! *dies* I was so excited to meet her and she exceeded my expectations.  I think I awkwardly said "I love you" when I left but I REALLY DO LOVE HER.

2. Saved on Sunday, Dead on Monday by Andy Ross - This is a short mystery novella filled with intrigue and nods to classic television, set in the world of a pimento cheese spread empire. This was a super quick read but I enjoyed it so much that I've been pestering the author on twitter to try to get him to write a sequel!

3. The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James - One of my favorite genres of fiction is "people stranded in space" and this is probably tied with The Martian as my favorite in the genre. It's about a young girl who is the last surviving member of a space mission. This is the very definition of a page-turner. I couldn't put it down! I also loved that it was science fiction set in a realistic world. When I read space fiction I don't actually like when there's too much world-building, so this was right up my alley.

4. The World As It Is by Ben Rhodes - I was trying not to make this list too Obama-memoir heavy, but looking over my 2019 reads so far, it really is mostly comprised of books by Obama staffers. I just love reading about behind the scenes and being transported back to an era that I honestly didn't appreciate enough while I was living in it. The World As It Is is the most policy-heavy memoir I've read thus far, but it was completely engrossing. I usually have this weird mental block when it comes to understanding foreign policy (specifically Middle East policy, it just seems so complicated to me) but Rhodes explained everything in such an accessible way that I suddenly found myself regaling my family with anecdotes about lifting the Cuban embargo over dinner. Rhodes book was also the first one that I've read that shows President Obama being frustrated sometimes, or moody. I am guilty of idolizing him and in a way it's almost a relief to know that he's only human.

5. Come As You Are by Walker Gibson - It's been a long time since I read a book of poetry, but when I stumbled upon this one at the Princeton Library book sale I couldn't resist. Most of the poems are fun and light, about subjects like outer space or Monte Carlo casinos. But there was one poem (actually it's the last verse of a longer poem) that really grabbed me and I've been a little obsessed with it ever since I read it. I memorized it and keep reciting it to myself to make sure it's still being properly stored in my mind.

Some people feel alone and lonely
To think this world's perhaps the only
Possible place where mankind clings --
They yearn for more unworldly things,
But if in all the universe
We're quite alone we could do worse
Than claim our own miraculous birth
On this elysian planet, Earth,
Where woods are green and warm and wet
With trumpet vine and violet:
The dew shines on the grass at dawn,
A rabbit bounds across the lawn,
And we can thank that lucky star
That makes this heaven where we are."

ps. I don't usually post reviews on goodreads, but if you just want to see what I'm reading, I do keep a running list of current reads/books I've completed on my account, here.

my last four books

In February I surpassed my goal of reading 2 books a month and read 4! yay!

First I read The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green, like everyone else on the planet. I heard about it on a "must read" list somewhere and bought it, then while it was in transit I started seeing it all over the place and was like "uh, do I really want to read the most popular book on the internet right now?" I also found out it was actually a young-adult book and started having second (triple?) thoughts. But... then it came in the mail and I read the first page and I was hooked. There are going to be people who review this book and put it down because the main characters are teenagers or because you have to go to the YA section of the bookstore to find it, but just don't listen to them. It's beautifully written, incredibly deep and philosophical (not just for a YA book, but for a book, period) and very touching. Yes, it did make me cry (I'm human!) but not in a sappy, deliberately-tugging-at-your-heartstrings, soaring music kind of way. It doesn't jerk your tears, it coerces them. Even if you don't usually like books that make you cry, give it a try.

The second book I read was BJ Novak's One More Thing. I pre-ordered this baby the day that it went up on amazon and lived off of the little teasers that were released online in the weeks before... the epic book trailer, Mindy Kaling and BJ Novak reading excerpts on NPR, sneak peeks on instagram. And when it finally came in the mail I was not disappointed. There were a few stories that I didn't particularly love but the ones that I did like I really, really liked. I absolutely loved his writing style (my favorite author is Kurt Vonnegut and I think some of the stories had the same stark, dry wit) but my favorite thing about the book was how so many of the stories were crafted around the notion of questioning a mundane thing that we all take for granted. My favorite story was The Man Who Invented the Calendar (the full story is available on The New Yorker, here) Either you've wondered these things before (Who exactly invented the calendar? And why the heck would anyone call a month February??) and BJ Novak is finally shining light on a lifelong pet peeve or you haven't wondered these things before and you're grateful to him for finally bringing them to your attention. Either way, he does a brilliant job of it and I wish I was a good enough writer myself to fully express how wonderful I thought his book was.

The third book that I read was The Great Mortality by John Kelly. The subtitle is "an intimate history of the black death" but it took quite a while to get intimate. The first two chapters or so trace the route of the plague across Asia and Europe in the mid 1300's, going into painstaking detail about which merchants entered which ports at what time and how many miles per week the disease trekked across the continent. It's interesting stuff, but I was expecting much more about the actual people who were affected and the way that medieval life was changed by the black death. The author got into that a little more once I was about 3-4 chapters in, but it was still surprisingly dry for a book about what is quite possibly the most devastating event in human history. My main qualm with the book, though, was how often the author would say something in the main body of text -- for instance, his incredibly interesting story about the first recorded incident of biological warfare -- and then when you consult the footnote you find a disclaimer letting you know that most historians believe the above statement to be inaccurate. Um, well why did you include it then? argh! All in all, I did end up liking the book but I'm definitely going to be on the lookout for a different book on this topic.

My last book for February was Tina Fey's Bossypants. I've read it once and then last month I listened to the audio book ... actually re-listened, so I've read this three times now I guess? I just really like Tina Fey, ok? Her book is absolutely hilarious and I highly recommend listening to the audio version if you have the chance. Her words are fantastic but hearing them in her voice with her various intonations is perfection. I was having a particularly rough couple of days when I listened to this and it cheered me up considerably, plus it gave me a little boost of determination and go-get-em' spirit. If laughter is the best medicine, you should definitely keep a copy of Bossypants in your medicine cabinet.

my last two books

I'm trying to read two books a month this year, and so far I've completed 1/12th of my goal! yay! I LOVE reading but I feel like it's something I need to deliberately make time for or I don't do it often enough.

I started off the year with The Postmortal by Drew Magary. I intended to read a chapter or two each night but two chapters turned into three, which turned into ten.. before I knew it I was up all night reading. I had ONE chapter left when I decided I was just too tired to keep going and I don't think I've ever been more excited to wake up.

The Postmortal takes place in a dystopian future where someone has found the cure for aging. It's something everyone probably dreams about at least once or twice (or constantly) but in Magary's book he finds every single possible thing that could go wrong with that discovery. Things you would never think of until you read them and you're like "Drew Magary, you wicked genius!" His writing is insanely funny and sharp and I'm pretty bummed that his only other books are about sports and parenting because I'm dying for another novel.

The second book that I read was Never Have I Ever by Katie Heaney. It's a memoir about her life (so far!) with very little romantic experience. Katie has never had a boyfriend and, well, neither have I. I know, you probably think it's really weird. But if you read her book (please do!) you'll see it's not so weird at all. Honestly, for most of my adult life I've felt like a total misfit because of my inexperience in the love department, but reading this book made me so much more comfortable in my own virgin skin. Katie is laugh-out-loud hilarious, self-deprecating, but also empowering. I've never felt more secure about that part of my life than I have after reading her book.

The similarities between our lives are so many that sometimes I was like, "wait, did *I* write this?!" (Then I reminded myself that, no, I'm not that good of a writer and I'm not nearly as funny or witty.) But seriously, everything down to the nicknames for our crushes (mine was "french fries" to my friends, hers "garlic toast") to the awkward first kiss (although I guess most people share that fun detail?) to the precise reason that she's still single -- a lack of interest from the opposite sex (I swear that I've never been hit on, though my friends think I must just be oblivious), a healthy dose of fear, satisfaction with being single, and Disney-movie-level high expectations of what love should actually be like. Or at least When-Harry-Met-Sally-levels. I know.

All of the blurbs about Never Have I Ever suggest that you'll want Katie to be your best friend once you've read her book, and they're not kidding. It's taking everything I have not to send her BFF necklaces, cross my fingers and hope for the best. I'm sure she must be getting tons of emails and letters from romantic amateurs who have come out of the woodwork to recognize one of our own. We should form our own club or something. Katie can be our queen.

Seriously, just read the book. Even if you're the Casanova of our generation, I promise it's a fun read and it'll make you laugh your socks off.

here's an idea: pet name book display

I thought it would be really cute to make a little display of books where the titles are my cats' names! It was like a scavenger hunt trying to find titles to represent each cat. I really lucked out with Hubble Bubble, since that's Mr. Hubble's nickname and the spine is so cute! I ordered three Chloe books on Amazon before finally finding this perfect one. I picked up the Arrietty book at the Japanese store in Epcot, and I've had the Hypatia book for a long time (my cat was named after her.)

Of course some names are definitely going to be easier than others -- "Chloe" turned up hundreds of results on amazon while my childhood cat "Jaspurr" is proving to be more of a challenge. This would be fun with kids names, too, or one book for each family member (pets included!)

While I'm on the subject of names, every once in a while I get asked where my cats' names came from so here's the backstory on each cat:

Chloe: I was 16 and just really liked the name Chloe. Her name at the shelter was Frosty because she had frostbite on her legs :(
Hypatia: Named after the mathematician, philosopher and last librarian at the Library of Alexandria. Her name at the shelter was Sara.
Hubble: Named after the astronomer and the namesake of the Hubble space telescope, Edwin Hubble. His name at the shelter was Max.
Arrietty: Named after the character from The Borrowers books, my favorite books when I was a kid. Her name at the shelter was Ghost.

bookworm

For Father's Day this year we spent the afternoon perusing the dusty shelves at a local used bookstore. I love having a geeky dad who likes the same things I do.. it makes his birthday and Father's Day even more fun because he plans activities that I love too! lol! It just wouldn't be the same if he was a golf and power tools kinda dad ;)

I ended up getting a couple books I had been looking for while we were there, including one on marriage & family in the middle ages. I'm so fascinated by that time period but it seems like most books about that era tend to concentrate on the wars or the royals, but I really wanted something about normal people and their day to day lives. This book seems to be exactly what I was looking for! I'm going to read it on the road trip. I'm intent on getting a lot of reading done while we're away, so I'm planning on bringing a hefty amount of books with me. Once I've sorted out exactly which ones I'm bringing I'll do a post!

I'm pretty sure that we're going to be hitting the road on Sunday morning and heading up to northern NY first. I am so excited that it's actually happening! I still haven't decided what I'm packing yet but my business-related stuff is all set to go and we already have the first part of the route mapped out! yay!! :)

dress & cardigan - forever 21 | belt - vintage | shoes - ebay | bag - modcloth

Guest post: vintage book collecting by Andi B Goode

Hello readers of the wonderful Kate Gabrielle's blog! My name is Andi (of Andi B. Goode) and today I'd like to share part of one of my (many) collections with you...



I'm a collector of many things and I feel like I'm always finding something new (to me) to collect. One of my collections is vintage books. I've always loved the illustrations for book covers from the 1940s and 1950s but my collection started when my dad's stepfather passed away and I spent a night at his house – one of the things I loved was his small number of vintage hardback books with great dust jackets. So my dad let me take a few and I started scouring op-shops and other places for them. My interest has dwindled somewhat but I still love the collection that I have so I've taken some photos to share some of my favourites with you, today.



I don't always know a lot about the books or the authors (I admit I've not read most of these!) and it's just struck me that I ought to do some research.



I love the pretty pink colour of this dust jacket as well as the spindly sketchy style of the illustration.



As a lover of vintage fashion I also find them appealing for their depictions of the fashions of the era in which the books were published.




The cover for The Melody Lingers is definitely one of my favourites! I love the vibrant colours and that great hat. I also just love the way the spines of these books look against one another.




But as much as I love the dust jackets for the hardcover books, I am most definitely a paperback girl through and through (for new or secondhand books) – I love their size and there is something just as appealing about a cracked spine as there is a pristine novel.



One of my favourite things about collecting is being able to share my collections, so hopefully you've all enjoyed seeing part of my vintage book collection. And this post may just start me off on another book buying binge...

Book Fair update!

I just added over 20 new (old) books to The Book Fair! yay! Lots of goodies in this batch, including a lot of Judy Blume and Beverly Cleary (including this version of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret with an AMAZING cover!)

Also, I recently got a bunch of Goosebumps and Baby Sitters Club books, so now I have BSC and Goosebumps themed Book Fair kits in the shop! :D

ps. Free US shipping on any two books with code TWOBOOKS

Introducing: The Book Fair!!!

I've been working on this for weeks and I am SO excited to finally share it!!

Remember the book fairs from elementary school? I looked forward to them so much! To a little bookworm like me, they were magical! I loved getting new books and fun school supplies that you could never find anywhere else but the book fair -- pop-a-point pencils that smelled like strawberry, bright rainbow erasers and silly bookmarks! And remember Book-It, the button program where you'd get free Pizza Hut after you filled up your button with stickers??

Okay, well recently I was getting really nostalgic and decided to recreate that magic for myself. While I was at it, I thought maybe I'm not the only one with a hankering for a good old fashioned book fair. So I decided to open a new etsy shop dedicated to the books that fueled our love of reading as kids and the book fairs that brought them to us!

It's stocked with vintage young adult books, some PDF printables and art prints (well, one print so far but I'm going to add more soon) but the thing I'm most excited about is the book fair kit! It includes a 80's-90's paperback, 3 corny but fantastic bookmarks, a pop-a-point scented pencil, a rainbow eraser, a booklet to keep track of the books you've read, and a button with 10 stickers to mark off each book you've read! And it all comes neatly packed in a canvas drawstring bag hand-stamped with The Book Fair logo I designed :D

Okay, I'm done gushing now! :D You can check out The Book Fair shop here if you're interested! :)

star stuff

Lauren posted this AMAZING book on her blog last week & gave me permission to share it here too! :D I think the only thing I love more than science graphics are old school science graphics (in this case quite literally old. school.) I especially love the graphic in the third photo down, with the caption "Look at a nearby object with one eye at a time and it will appear to shift and line up with different objects in the background" because I do that ALL THE TIME. Does anyone else? If nobody else says they do this in the comments, I'm going to come back later and delete that sentence so I don't look quite as crazy, just so you know...

Anyway, as much as I love science, my grasp on most of it is still pretty much elementary school level, so a book like this is right up my alley. As much as I want to understand the Biocentrism book I'm *trying to* read right now, I find myself re-reading every paragraph 10 times each time they bring up quantum physics. (Does anyone actually understand quantum physics? Oh my gosh.) There was one passage I read the other night that explained that the whole "if a tree falls in the forest when nobody is around, does it still make a noise?" question is stupid to begin with because the tree only exists if someone is there to see it. I started thinking, okay.. so does that mean that when I go to sleep at night in my bedroom, the kitchen doesn't exist anymore since I'm not there to see it? hmmmm? Right now I'm facing my computer, does that mean my bed isn't behind me anymore until I turn around to look at it? (just looked.. phew, it's still there!)

I actually looked. Like, that wasn't meant to be funny. It's seriously still there, I checked.

I think my grasp on this whole theory is really really bad because part of me thinks that if I got to sit down with a real quantum physicist and asked them about my whole kitchen theory, they'd laugh in my face.

I have no idea how this turned into a post about my lack of quantum physics prowess, except maybe that I'm typing this at 5am and I haven't been to bed yet? Oh, I schedule these posts, you're not imagining that it posted at 6pm. Of course when you turn around and stop looking at your computer, my post won't exist AT ALL. How about THAT.

pleasant surprises

Surprises don't happen to me very often, much less pleasant ones. I plan my own birthday parties because I'm always afraid my family would forget to do something for me. I rarely win when I play the lottery, and I hardly ever find an extra bottle of grapefruit juice hiding in the back of the cabinet when rummaging through our pantry in a fit of desperation. And so -- when I do get a surprise -- it tends to make me 10x happier than your average surprised person.

This was the case when I got the mail yesterday. I'd ordered "Don't Look Now" on Amazon in September after seeing the movie & loving it. I purchased the cheapest copy I could find, then sat back patiently and waited for it to arrive.. which it didn't. After a month and a half had passed, I contacted the seller and they shipped me a replacement. Lo and behold when it finally arrived I found that it's the movie copy of the book! My favorite film related thing to collect is movie-tie-in-books. Honestly! And I didn't even know that that's what this was! GAH! I'm so giddy about this it's kind of ridiculous, but really.. what a fantastic surprise! :D

Day 14 - a nonfiction book

Day 01 — Your favorite song
Day 02 — Your favorite movie
Day 03 — Your favorite television program
Day 04 — Your favorite book
Day 05 — Your favorite quote
Day 06 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 — A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 — A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 — A photo you took
Day 10 — A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 — A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 — A fictional book
Day 14 — A non-fiction book
Day 15 — A fanfic
Day 16 — A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 — An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 — A talent of yours
Day 20 — A hobby of yours
Day 21 — A recipe
Day 22 — A website
Day 23 — A YouTube video
Day 24 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 — Your day, in great detail
Day 26 — Your week, in great detail
Day 27 — This month, in great detail
Day 28 — This year, in great detail
Day 29 — Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 — Whatever tickles your fancy


I really read fiction more often than non-fiction, so this was pretty tough. I loved Pre-Code Hollywood by Thomas Doherty when I read it last year. I also really enjoyed Charles Boyer's biography by Larry Swindell and Joan Blondell's autobiography (disguised as fiction with names changed, but come on, it's non-fiction) Center Door Fancy. Once I finish Snakes and Ladders by Dirk Bogarde (the second installment in his autobiographical series) I'm sure that one will top my list as well.. so far I love the way he writes!

Day 13 - a fictional book

Day 01 — Your favorite song
Day 02 — Your favorite movie
Day 03 — Your favorite television program
Day 04 — Your favorite book
Day 05 — Your favorite quote
Day 06 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 — A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 — A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 — A photo you took
Day 10 — A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 — A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 — A fictional book
Day 14 — A non-fictional book
Day 15 — A fanfic
Day 16 — A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 — An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 — A talent of yours
Day 20 — A hobby of yours
Day 21 — A recipe
Day 22 — A website
Day 23 — A YouTube video
Day 24 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 — Your day, in great detail
Day 26 — Your week, in great detail
Day 27 — This month, in great detail
Day 28 — This year, in great detail
Day 29 — Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 — Whatever tickles your fancy

Just any book? (Is it just me, or did the person who made this up start running out of good ideas after Day 5?)

Well... my favorite author is Kurt Vonnegut, and my favorite book of his is Slapstick, which is a "fictional book". I have a hard time describing his plots without them sounding too far-out, so I just won't. A lot of people seem to think of him as a Science Fiction writer, but I really wouldn't classify him that way. His stories often have elements of sci-fi in them, like aliens or futuristic worlds or nuclear war, but they are works of literature, not dime-store science fiction.

Kurt Vonnegut is my dad's favorite author, too. I'm pretty lucky, I have really similar tastes in literature to my dad who happens to have like a million books so I have my own personal library in my house ;-D

I got this great silkscreen print (we have number 6 not 1, this photo is from his site) a few years ago for my dad for Christmas and it's probably the most cherished possession my family has.


I think when Kurt Vonnegut passed away, it was the saddest I've ever been over a celebrity death. A lot of his unpublished works were destroyed in a house fire, so it's unlikely that many new stories will be released anymore. To me, that's one of the saddest things ever.

Day 4 - my favorite book

Day 01 — Your favorite song
Day 02 — Your favorite movie
Day 03 — Your favorite television program
Day 04 — Your favorite book
Day 05 — Your favorite quote
Day 06 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 — A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 — A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 — A photo you took
Day 10 — A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 — A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 — A fictional book
Day 14 — A non-fictional book
Day 15 — A fanfic
Day 16 — A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 — An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 — A talent of yours
Day 20 — A hobby of yours
Day 21 — A recipe
Day 22 — A website
Day 23 — A YouTube video
Day 24 — Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 — Your day, in great detail
Day 26 — Your week, in great detail
Day 27 — This month, in great detail
Day 28 — This year, in great detail
Day 29 — Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 — Whatever tickles your fancy

My favorite book, hands down, is Main Street by Sinclair Lewis. I read it for the first time in 2008, when I was called for jury duty. I can remember sitting in the jury room, gasping aloud when one of my favorite characters died. I looked around at all of the strange faces, wishing one of them would ask me if I was reading Main Street... "oh, that's one of my favorite books!" they'd proclaim, and invite me to gush about the main character, Carol Kennicott and share in my heartbreak over the passage I'd just read.

Alas, nobody did that. During my lunch break, I telephoned my mom at work and kept her on the line for my entire break, emotionally describing what I had read in the jury room. From the length of our conversation and from the obvious importance I was giving the subject, one would think I had called her to sob over a break-up, or the death of a loved one! I was very attached to the story and the characters, and way more engrossed than I'd ever been in a book before.

And no book has ever stuck with me like this one; I feel as if the act of reading it was a life experience, something that happened to me that I'll never forget. The funny thing is that Sinclair Lewis isn't actually my favorite author -- that honor belongs to Kurt Vonnegut -- but I feel like Main Street belongs to me in a way that none of Vonnegut's books do.

I think that one needs a certain attitude about provincialism and modernism in order to really 'get' this book. But if you are like me -- from a small, slightly backwards town that doesn't understand you and that you don't understand... with a yearning for something bigger and more important -- this book could be just as powerful for you as it was for me.