july book recap [100 words or less]

My New Years Resolution was to read at least 3-4 books a month which would have meant a total of 36-48 books read in 2018. I am currently reading my 37th book! That is so exciting to me and what might have started as a challenge has turned itself into my new norm. Reading is my own form of meditation and when I get lost in a truly good book, there's no telling when I'll get out of it. July was filled to the brim with those good stories and I'm really excited to tell you about them! 

In July I read: 

Kitchen Confidential
The Perfect Mother
Big Magic (Creative Living Beyond Fear)
Pretty Girls
Visible Empire
The Light of Paris


Kitchen Confidential 

Read the all-telling personal memoir of Anthony Bourdain as the next up and coming, best you've ever seen, crazy rockstar, hectic and dark life of New York's best chef they didn't know they had.

I took my time with this book. Not because it was difficult to read, but because two things happened... the first - I read this entirely in Anthony Bourdain's voice with his witty and unique sense of style and humor. I couldn't speed read and I definitely couldn't get distracted. I read it as if I were watching one of his shows and he were reading it aloud to me. That was reason number 1. Reason number 2 is because his writing raised my already high expectations of "perfect" writing. Never have I read a book with so many great references, analogies, stories and raw feeling. I laughed out loud and even physically covered my mouth! I ran into the kitchen to read a paragraph to Cade because it was so funny that it had to be shared. I don't too often read autobiographies/biographies/memoirs but I can say that if they were all written this well then I don't think I'd ever have to read anything else. I miss Tony and I miss his show. This gave me parts of him that were new and I felt happy about that. You don't have to know the service industry, you don't have to know food... you don't have to relate in any sense of the matter... You just have to take it all in, word by word and appreciate a good, nay, great thing.







The Perfect Mother 

A group of mom's who all gave birth in May have pegged themselves "The May Mothers" and try to meet up frequently to discuss life with their newborns. Winnie, a single mom from the group seems to be having a tougher time adjusting and so the group does what they think is best - they plan a girls night out! It was a great night until Winnie's son, Midas is taken from his crib. Now, with the help of fellow mom's Francie, Nel and Collette, Winnie must try to find what happened to her baby.

This is a tricky one to review. I will say that I give this book an easy 4.75/5 stars! The ending shocked me, the writing was phenomenal and the character development was just right. I'm afraid however, that if I say too much then it would give it away... So I'll simply say that this book surprisingly blew me away! I thought it was going to be painfully predictable. Thought. 

Big Magic 

Elizabeth Gilbert has given the world so many great novels, short stories and articles... She didn't need to give anything else but she did. In this book you will discover nearly everything that could've ever been thought of to help you live your absolute best creative life. From every corner, nook and crannie of this exciting world... you will close this book ready to do whatever it takes! 

Gilbert, through this book, gave a whole lot more than I was expecting by way of motivation and inspiration. She gave me the permission I apparently needed to do it my way and not care so much about what other people think of me (and I get it now - they don't think of me!). This book and You Are a Badass are the two best self-help books that I'll ever need. And I'm saying that now, at 28 years old with so much future left in self-help books. That is how confident I am that this book will stand the test of time. Read it, take it all in, take notes and when you need it, open it up and read it again! 

Pretty Girls

Claire and Lydia are two sisters living their own separate lives. Claire is married to a very wealthy man and Lydia had troubles in the past with drugs and forming bad relationships... The one thing they have in common is the grief they share over the murder of their sister, Julia twenty-plus years earlier. When something terrible happens, they are brought back together to see if they can answer the age old mystery - Who murdered Julia?

This was a page turner. If you enjoy mystery/thrillers then it should come as no surprise that a Karin Slaughter book is horrifying and gruesome. There were parts of this book that were difficult to read, but the truth in the matter is that it made for an intense story. Readers beware: there are some very graphic and detailed parts of this story. If you can handle that then I would highly recommend the read!















Visible Empire

Based on true events of a plane crash in 1962, this book delves into the lives of those impacted by the tragedy. In this book you will get to know characters from the wealthiest of Atlanta, to the poor black man just trying to get by in a very scary world and everything in between. With a main focus on Robert who is trying to navigate through a horrible dilemma he created, you will feel every emotion that he, and the city of Atlanta went through.

This novel was phenomenal. When I went into it I didn't realize that it was based on true events (good research, Renee!). However, I was immediately hooked on each individual character. Robert got himself in somewhat of a mess and in a strange way you can kind of feel for him. It wasn't difficult for me to form each character in my imagination as I read and by the time the story was over I wanted to ask the author (Hannah Pittard) to please write a Visible Empire II.













The Light of Paris

Madeleine is not happy in her (forced) cookie cutter lifestyle. Her husband isn't loving, her mom has high expectations for her and she can't do anything that she's truly passionate about. When she goes back to Magnolia to visit her mom she finds a chest in the attic full of her late grandmothers diaries. She begins to read them and get a feel for the woman she apparently knew nothing about it. In this story, you will go from Madeleine to Margie (the grandma) and see how similar they really are.

I'm just going to start right out by saying that this book is a skimmer. The author is very detailed in everything (and I really mean, ev-ery-thing). To someone who enjoys that, then this book is very much your cup of tea... For those like me, however, I skim. The story was good and the description about Paris made me want to go there even more, but other than that, the story kind of dragged in some areas thanks to the authors over-the-top detail. 
















There you have it! There were a couple other books that I started in July that I either didn't mention in this post, or started and didn't finish. Hopefully I can add those to an upcoming month to share my thoughts! For now though, I'm planning to read the following in August: 

How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are
Beneath A Scarlet Sky

I'm hoping to read more than just the two but there is so much going on this month that I'm trying not to set my own bar too high. Self-induced anxiety is for the birds and I'm slowly learning how to avoid it! 

Happy readings and thanks for following along!