I'll take some coffee with my milk, please.

It has been SO SLOW at work lately, so I read two books the past few days.

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr came highly recommended by my father. It just recently came out, so I could only get it from the library from their "7 day only" loan shelf because all the other copies were out. This novel is set during the lead up and the final days of WWII. It follows two young people, a blind girl living in Paris and a German orphan boy. Each "chapter" is only a few pages or less and vacillates between their narratives. The writing and descriptions in this book is are so lovely even when writing about the atrocities of war. I very much enjoyed this book - highly recommended for everyone. 

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan is a fun one I picked up on the recommendation of someone in my book club. I liked that this book had a vaguely magical aspect without anything magical happening. The narrator is a young man who had recently graduated from college and promptly lost his job in the recession. He becomes a clerk at a 24 hour book store in San Francisco. Eventually he notices that some of his customers are acting curiously and taking out books entirely written in code and he sets out to discover what is happening. This was a very fast and interesting book! 

My dad asked me to post some pictures of the IX Building location that I have been working at lately: 

Click to keep reading!

looking up

Hello! It's rainy and gross here (but not cold like in Woods Hole where there is the possibility of anywhere from 2 - 22 inches of snow coming).

I read three books these past two weeks, but I'm only going to tell you about two because the one I read  last night/today was free on the kindle - I finally learned how to get ebooks! - and not worth talking about.

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett took me about two weeks to read because it was almost 1,000 pages long. I was shocked that enjoyed it so much! Normally I am not into books that are so long and although I love love love historical fiction, the novel is about building a cathedral which sounded suspiciously boring to me. However, this really is Follett's masterpiece and I will never look at churches the same. Although the book revolves around the cathedral being built at the Kingsbridge Priory (England, early 1100s), the story jumps around and focuses on different characters who are all somehow involved: Prior Phillip, the master builder Tom and his family, Tom's step-son Jack, William and his allies who want to destroy the cathedral, the beautiful Aliena, etc. so you get architecture, fights and wars, a love story, revenge, curses. I hauled that book around with me everywhere I went, very worth it.

The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey focuses on a modern day police investigator who is laid up in the hospital. While there he begins an historical investigation into the disappearance of the two princes in the Tower of London, supposedly killed by Richard III. I won't spoil all the details but I am thoroughly convinced that Richard did not do it and I am very pleased because I always liked him and wished that he was less of a murderous jerk. Really clever book, lots of interesting historical facts and a very important reminder not to believe everything your history book (or history teacher!) tells you.

I've been very excited about taking photos of birds lately!

This little guy I saw while I was home over break. From my online research I think that he is a Cedar Waxwing.

click read more to see more birds!

It's the most wonderful tiiiime of the year!

Hey y'all I'm home! Keegan and I got in late Friday night, 11 and a half hours of driving, didn't hit a lot of traffic, ate a lot of snacks, not bad all around. 

I read two books last week:

Dreamer's Pool by Juliet Marillier is a YA book about a young woman who is thrown in prison (time period unknown, but they ride horses so... Medieval?) and gets offered a deal that she can escape if she spends the next 7 years helping anyone who asks for help instead of seeking revenge on the guy who got her thrown in jail. There's some royalty, some magic, some forests involved. The book was a nice diversion from worrying about Christmas presents or lack there of! 

I then read Trapeze by Simon Mawer which I loved and I reccomend to all. It's a fictionalized story of the real women in WWII who were sent undercover into Nazi occupied France to help with the Resistance.  I love reading and learning about the world wars, so this novel was right up my alley. 

Not a book but still awesome, Serial, a spin-off of The American Life by NPR, just ended. It's a podcast, so only online, but you can download them to your device or comp through iTunes or listen online at serialpodcast.org/

A reporter reexamines a 15 year old murder case of a teenager girl in Baltimore. Her ex-boyfriend is currently serving life. The story is compelling and exciting and really made me think about the criminal justice system in America. 

In other news, I crafted so much this week!

I painted a moon phases design onto the back of a over shirt I bought at Salvation Army last month:

First I cut out some templates and chose my colors of fabric paint. I used an old cereal box for the cardboard, draw a circle using a bowl, and then decided how many moon phases I wanted to do. Tulip is my favorite brand of fabric paint.

Weekend in the City

I went to NYC this past weekend to visit some friends from Mount Holyoke! It was really fun to see them, but almost as exciting to take the train. I love trains: no car sickness, you can nap without crashing, generally comfy seats…

When I got into the city I had a few hours to kill, so I got lunch at  SweetGreen (http://sweetgreen.com), an amazing salad shop - I highly recommend the Earth Bowl. I also tried blueberry basil lemonade, which was interesting but not my favorite.

Then I hung out in Bryant Park for a few hours, people watching and sketching.

I walked by my favorite store obviously:

And finally my friend Maria got out of work! She is a publisher-in-training at Simon & Schuster, this spring she will have her first crop of books coming out (it will say HER name on the inside!). This is great for me because she gave me a pile of new things to read.

I met up with my friends!

Saturday was rainy but we went to the farmers market anyways and got snacks.

(donuts part 1)

But it cleared up later and we went for a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge!

We checked out this cute coffee shop/ boutique based on the name alone: Fair Folks and a Goat

http://www.fairfolksandagoat.com

It was a really cool place! I would hang out there if I lived in NYC.

Saturday night we went to the First Night exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, I felt very cultured. Outside we got to use these massive high powered telescopes to look at the moon! It was amazing, I felt like a child again.

Sunday morning we got Dough Donuts!

http://www.doughbrooklyn.com

They were amazing but so filling. We split each into 4 pieces so we could try all the flavors:

top l-r: orange hibiscus, toasted coconut, dulce de leche

bottom: lemon poppy, chocolate earl grey, dark chocolate sea salt

Not pictured in the supper I had on Saturday night at Cent'Anni (http://www.centannibrooklyn.com/#new-page)

They make home made pasta and sauces there, I am now really inspired to learn how to make meatballs!! Maria and I both got pasta with ragu, italian sausage, and veal meatballs. Crazy good.

Because of all the excitement I have not been reading as much, but I did just finish The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. It was so suspenseful and awesome. I love novels that manage to do parallel stories well! Margaret Lea gets the opportunity of a lifetime to write the biography of the acclaimed author Vida Winter. The only catch is that Margaret is not the first to try to write Miss Winter's story, as the author always invents new tales to tell about her past. However, because of a tragedy the two women share, the truth comes out in bits and pieces, stringing everyone along. The book examines what it means to be a family, particularly what it means to be a twin. I highly recommend it.

Now who wants to go see Gone Girl with me this week?!? I can't wait!