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I mentioned in an earlier post, that I am going through a reading funk. Not so much that I am not reading but the books I’ve read recently have not given me life. I seem to have plenty 3-star just okay books. So far, only American Marriage has given me a tingle in my book parts.

I went to look at my Goodreads history to see what books I liked in the past to see if I could find a theme and make reading decisions that’ll lead to a book tingle and realized that in all my Goodreads history, I have only given 7 books 5-stars! So either I am reading not enough or I am just that stingy with my stars. Anyways, I thought it was a nice number and decided to share with you guys.

As a reminder, the major criteria to get a 5 star from me is to just have me engrossed and who knows? It could be a case of right mindset at the time I read the book. I’ve talked about two of the 7 here: Beartown and Year of Yes. Here are the other 5 in no particular order:

1. Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan: I was besotted with this book. The extravagance, the culture, the lightness and fun of it all. It’s being turned into a movie in August and I think it’ll be fun seeing the lavishness translated to screen but I am leveling my expectations in terms of the story line. A quick search tells me that I have apparently written about this book before here. That being said, I wasn’t as in love with the rest of the trilogy. There are many characters in the book and probably if you binge-read it, it won’t be so hard to keep up but I read each book as they came out with time in between and it was a little bit of work trying to remember and place the characters.
2. Daughters Who Walk This Path by Yejide Kilanko: I usually have issues with a lot of Nigerian authors for many reasons. Usually wordy, lots of translations and just the general vibe of trying to cater to an international audience. DWWTP was refreshingly different. A straight easy read, I was interested in the characters and the overall storyline that touched on topics oft not discussed among Nigerians.
3. Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur: I am not into poetry and never had the desire to read a book full of poetry but I was hearing good things about this and joined the (very long) wait list for it at my library and it was totally worth the wait. I loved everything about the book because I related to it. I liked how it had no structure and wasn’t uber serious/professional (the “I’s” were spelled as “i”). Combined with her illustrations, it worked for me. So much so that for someone who never owns books, I had to own this one.
4. Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue: Every time I talk about this book, I gush. I loved it so. I admit, I am a sucker for an immigrant story and this is one. The shock that comes with moving to a new country from Africa, getting used to it and doing everything possible to stay in this country, even when you realize you are basically living a bottom barrell life. How far do you go to stay? The book is basically about the “doing everything possible” to stay. Yet another immigrant tale that didn’t fail me.
5. The Hopefuls by Jennifer Close: I don’t expect everyone to react to this book like I did because at first glance this book looks like an easy breezy summer read but it really wasn’t. It uses two couples in the D.C. political scene as a backdrop for a plot that addressed so many things my friends and I have been talking about lately at this stage in our lives. The evolution of friendships, marriages, attitude to life, envy, feeling behind in life etc. It was an enjoyable read that also made me think  of the parallels in my own life. 

So there you have it. I really wish I had more 5 star books on my roster but alas. I’ll keep on working on it and maybe next year I’ll have 5 more to share with you. Wish me luck!

Taynement

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In one of our earlier posts, I wrote about my reading habits. This post is like an extension of that- a sequel, if you will (heh). I like to think of myself as a reader, but every time I say/think that, I feel a pang of guilt followed by “am I really?”. I see other people who I consider “real readers” and I don’t think I am anywhere close to being called one. I mean, people are reading 100+ books a year and I am noooowhere close to that.

See, I truly enjoy reading. I enjoy a compelling story line, I love being transported into a fictional world with fictional characters. Sometimes, in a world I can see myself living in and sometimes, in a world that would be a fantasy in my mind. I love a good handle on words especially in the form of quotes I find myself deeply relating to. I always have to have a book on hand at all times. In spite of this, I find my reading “impostor syndrome” kick in, in certain scenarios.

For one, when people get this dream like tone when talking about pages of books, loving the feel and the smell. Or when they say they feel sad when a good book is about to end. Nope not me. I don’t have any of these feelings. I don’t even buy books or have a desire to own them. Wouldn’t a true reader have authors they stan for and want to support by buying their books? People have books they say they reread because they love how it makes them feel. I don’t think I can recall any book I have reread more than once except maybe The Diary of Anne Frank (really love this book)  and I have no inclination to, as there are so many new books out there that I’d love to sink my teeth into.

I’ve seen people say how they take notes and highlight lines from books they read. I often wonder what they do with those notes especially since they read a lot there must be LOTS of notes to go back to. As you may have guessed, I don’t do this either. In more recent times, I have read more books I liked than books I loved. This could be seen as more of my fault based on my book choices but I try to read books that make year end lists and critically acclaimed and yea, not a lot fall in my love lists.

I remember traveling by road with some friends back in college and hearing sniffles from the back seat. I turned around to see my friend in tears. At the time, she was reading Terry McMillan’s “A Day Late and a Dollar Short”. I’ve never been moved to tears by a book. I am always taken aback when people mention a book has made them cry. Like, my brain can comprehend it for a movie or TV show but for books I think it’s different and it makes me wonder if I am missing that reader instinct yet again.

Overall, just like life itself there probably isn’t one way to be as a reader. We are all entitled to enjoy things the way we see fit so maybe I am just being dramatic about it all. I promise I do love reading! I just wonder a bit when I encounter other people with different reader characteristics than I do.

Taynement

*Leggy sidebar*

[I literally laughed out loud when I saw this post. Girl please, you’re always in the middle of a book or reading about books. You send me so many articles about books you think I would like. When you travel, you queue up audio books to listen to on your trip.

I never reread books, in fact, the only books I reread are the Harry Potter books. Reading is not a number games – it’s not the number of books you read but how consistent you are in doing the reading and I hope our blog is a safe place that people come to be whatever kind of reader that they are and enjoy whatever type of book that they enjoy. Wow, that got preachy really fast]

What do you guys think? What are some things you consider a “fraudulent” reader characteristic that you have?

Image from alamy.com

I love cookbooks. I buy them because they are pretty. I also love food. But more often than not, I rarely cook anything from them because – lazy. Most cookbook recipes require a number of specific ingredients that it just becomes a hassle. Again, lazy. But the cookbooks mentioned in this post are the exception. These are actually cookbooks that I have cooked from, multiple times. So much so that, I have incorporated most of the recipes as regular staples in the Leggy household:

Cravings by Chrissy Teigen – I remember when this book came out and it collectively got panned by food critics. It was pegged as nothing special and just another celebrity cookbook which I guess is true, it IS just another celebrity cookbook but this book is accessible. Accessible in that the ingredients are easy to find. I think the industry needs to wonder why cookbooks don’t sell that much anymore. They are expensive and we can basically just look up any recipe online these days. And that’s what makes this book different. The ingredients can be found in most local grocery stores

FAVORITE RECIPE: The Spicy Clam Pasta. It has become a signature dish at most of my dinner parties. I also love the Whole Fish recipe. It tastes fresh and herb-y and oh so delicious. This might not be “The Joy of Cooking” (the Holy Grail of Cookbooks) but it is still pretty good, standard wise. Also, the personal anecdotes that accompany each recipe will make you laugh. The book is very Teigen and I love it.

Cooking in Everyday English by Todd English – This was the first cookbook I bought when I moved into my current apartment with dreams of cooking every week and not eating out at all. Umm…yeah. That lasted about a month but within that month I cooked a lot from this book. I loved it and I think it was recommended to me by someone on Twitter a long time ago. I didn’t know anything about Todd English when I bought this book and frankly, I still don’t but like I said, I love this book. I love it because it’s as basic as you can get and a pretty good entry level/gateway into the cookbook world. I mean, he provides the most elementary information on cooking and assumes that you know absolutely nothing! There is even a chapter on SALT!

FAVORITE RECIPE: The Tequila-Braised Short Ribs. Absolutely delicious! Just typing that is making me want to make that recipe this week regardless of the fact that I have a refrigerator filled with leftovers!

MOMOFUKU by David Chang – When I was in college, I went to New York for spring break and ate at one of David Chang’s restaurant and have not looked back since then. I low key became obsessed with eating at all his restaurants, I’m going to Las Vegas at the end of the month and I’m trying to convince my friends to eat dinner at his restaurant there. Of all the cookbooks I own, this is probably the most high brow one. The ingredients are hard to find, I mean, he uses all the fat!!

I bought this book in college and I remember the first recipe I ever made from this book was the steamed buns (I looked up this creation on Instagram because I know I posted it on there in 2012 when I made it and wow, the struggle!), mine wasn’t as fluffy as the real one but dang, it was still good but I was in college and broke so my experiment with this book was put on pause till I graduated. I never recommend this cookbook to anyone though, it’s a little bit more complicated. I just like things that are a pain in the ass sometimes.

FAVORITE RECIPE: The Kimchi Stew. Besides being delicious,  it is the easiest thing to make from this book. Honorable mention to the Banh Mi, and of course, Ramen.

Do you buy cookbooks? What are some of your favorites? Let me know in the comment section!! I think it’s time I add to my collection!

Leggy

Book adaptations to TV or Movie Screen is not a new feat. It’s been happening since forever. From the obscure to the popular. Everyone is familiar with the Harry Potter adaptations, Hunger Games trilogy, Gone Girl (I am not sure if it was popular knowledge that it was a book).

Most recently, award shows have been dominated by the cast of Big Little Lies. The HBO mini series adapted from the book written by Lianne Moriarty (who I think is a pretty average, one note writer and this might be the best of her books but now everyone thinks she is great due to the series being great but I digress). The rights were optioned by Reese Witherspoon and it looks like this is going to be the norm moving forward as Reese Witherspoon and a number of other stars (e.g Lupita Nyong’o with Americanah or Kerry Washington with The Mothers) are going down this path and leaving us with a number of adaptations in our future.

Barring few exceptions, if I have read a book I usually end up not watching the movie and vice versa. Here are some books coming down the pike that I have read:

Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple: A book about Bernadette Fox, a quirky architect who doesn’t fit in with the other moms at her daughter’s school and who is married to a serious man. Right before a planned family trip, she disappears but because she is so eccentric and put off by people (she has a virtual assistant in India who does most things for her) is she really missing or is this one of her schemes to avoid the trip. The story shows the search by her daughter.

The book got a lot of accolades but for me it was just okay. I remember feeling annoyed a lot of the times and didn’t quite care for the ending. The movie will be coming out on Mother’s Day starring Cate Blanchett who I think is perfect casting.

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn: Camille is a journalist fresh out of a psych hospital and assigned a story about a string of murders in her hometown. Going back means facing her mother who is a hypochondriac and her much younger half-sister who she really doesn’t know. This leads to a journey back to her own childhood memories that unravel a number of family secrets long buried.

If you have read any of Gillian’s books you should know by now that she is one disturbed individual. Her stories get so dark and gory but I think she is a good writer so you are able to digest it and still be intrigued at the same time. This will be an HBO miniseries some time in June starring Amy Adams.

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan: This book takes us to a world full of unabashed, over the top wealth in Singapore. We meet Nick who is a professor in America but is practically a prince in his home country. We get to meet the very many members of his extended family who are so animated and full of personality – some good and some bad.

The first of a trilogy, I loved this book when I read it and found it very entertaining and hilarious in some parts. The wealth portrayed in this book was so lavish that it will be fun to see how it is portrayed in a movie. It comes out in August and will be starring Constance Wu.

The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas: A YA novel that mirrors current events in the world today, 16 year old Starr is a witness to her friend being shot by a cop and has to deal with the aftermath.

What I liked about this book was that it had no airs and was written exactly how I’d imagined the characters would. The conflict Starr feels being in her neighborhood vs. being with her white friends in her private school was very well conveyed and at some point, I forgot I was reading a YA novel. The movie has a slew of stars attached to it like Regina Hall, Amandla Stenberg, Common, Issa Rae to name a few. Looking forward to this one and hope it is done right.

Hello Sunshine by Laura Dave: Culinary star, Sunshine Mackenzie gets hacked and it is revealed that she is a fraud and her recipes are not hers. Some other secrets are revealed and she falls from grace and has to retreat from the public eye to find herself.

The premise sounds like it has promise but I found this book to be quite silly and the reveal unrealistic. Rights have been optioned but nothing else so no idea if it will be a tv movie or big screen movie.

Did any of this catch your fancy? Let me know which of these you would like to read.

Taynement

The book is based on a very minor character in the bible, Dinah. Only daughter of Jacob and Leah and sister of Joseph. If you are familiar with the Bible, then you know the backstory it is based on, which is Jacob and his four wives. Which started with him marrying sisters, Leah and Rachel and eventually adding on their handmaidens, Zilpah and Bilhah.

That is the back story and the rest becomes fictional as Diamant tells an engrossing story of being a woman in the biblical days. The Red Tent is told from the perspective of Dinah and is in reference to the tent where the women gathered during their period, where they gave birth and where they stayed to recuperate after. Traditions, stories and secrets were kept in this tent and bonds formed.

When I started the book, my slow self didn’t realize it was based on the bible (remember how I told you guys, I go in blind on books) and a few pages in was when I realized it. I was ready to drop the book because I wasn’t sure I was feeling it. I decided to keep on trucking and I am glad I did.

The author kept to facts in two areas – the generational tree/family members/characters and the big story about Dinah that was mentioned in the Bible where she was raped by a Prince and her brothers sought revenge – this is slightly tweaked in the book where Dinah is actually in love with the Prince.

I was truly in awe of how Diamant was able to form a whole community and life story for characters that were mentioned only in passing in the Bible. In fact, at some point I went back to Genesis to read how they were depicted in comparison to the book. I was fully engrossed in their life story and genuinely interested to see how it ended up.

In some ways, I see it as the anti-thesis of The Handmaid’s Tale where there is a group of women that aren’t being held down by the system and are instead empowered and encourage each other.

Just in case you were thinking that this book is a religious book, I would like to mention how it totally isn’t one. It just happens to be characters from the Bible. I was reminded while looking up something that the book was turned into a miniseries by Lifetime some time ago, so if you’d like to add the joy of viewing to your reading pleasure, that’s an option too.

I can see how this book could be polarizing. Either you like it or you don’t. But overall, I found it an enjoyable book and rated it 4 out of 5 stars.

Taynement

Mulling over our reading goals for the year had me thinking about how I seem like an unserious student while Leggy is the better focused student. Although I didn’t have any focused goals for the year, I dug deep to think of some reading/book related habits that I have since I like to consider myself an “avid reader”.

Come on in and lean closer let me share them with you:

• I don’t buy books: When I met Leggy, this young lady would tell me about books she was buying and I would be aghast and wonder how much she was spending. I don’t believe in buying books because I’d be broke. Every now and then I look up a book and I can’t even bring myself to pay $14.99 for a book. Might consider it if it’s a title I really want to read – as long as it’s under $5. The last few book purchases I have made have been via gift cards.
• Do not read books twice: Besides being a cheapo cheap ass, I also don’t buy books because I do not read books twice. I totally get people loving a book and going back to read it to relive the feeling they had or connect with the words on the page but not I. Thinking in that line, why would I buy a book that I’d never touch or glance at again?
• Avid library user: Continuing with the two points above, this is where my library habit rears its head. My books come from the library. I am a registered and avid user and would donate money if need be. Libraries are one of the most under utilized amenities that we have that is a huge blessing. What a resource! My library is so good that if they don’t have a book in stock, I can recommend it and I will have it within a week. So convenient. Leggy come tell the people how I changed your life:

(lol. I actually do not buy books anymore because of Taynement. I might buy the occasional book because of audible or a book subscription service that I have, but I do not remember the last time I went to Amazon or Barnes & Nobles and purchased a book that wasn’t a Cook Book. Use your library people! I can’t count the number of people who I’ve encouraged to sign up at their library because of Tayne. It has saved me a shit ton of money and I literally do not understand how I bought those many books as a student. I rarely even reread books!! So yeah, this is  the story all about how Taynement changed my life.                                                                                                                                                               – Leggy

(You’re welcome)

• Strictly E-books: Yep. I feel like a fraud because I honestly don’t have these strong emotional feelings such as when people say “I don’t want this book to end, I am so sad”. For me, there are so many more great books to explore that I can’t wait to start another, no time for sadness. Same goes for when people say they love the smell of books and the feel of turning pages. All great and romantic but not for this girl. Gimme an e-book anytime, any day. It feels so awkward to have a physical book in my hands, I don’t think I know how to hold and turn page and function. Okay that’s a bit dramatic but yea gimme the feel of a tablet any day. I think I read faster that way also.
• Audiobooks: I shunned audio books for the longest time and my friend tried to get me on it and I kept ignoring her. I finally tried it with my first ever being a self-help book and it wasn’t so bad. I tried with fiction and while I’d zone out some, I finally got used to it. Here’s the caveat. I only do audio books in my car while I am driving (way too much TV to watch when I am home), so it usually takes me a bit longer to get through because I don’t have a long commute unless I have to take a long distance trip. If you have been iffy about it, I recommend giving it a shot. They are particularly good for celeb bios especially when they read their own books

I don’t want to keep you guys any longer than you should be but those are a few of my reading habits. A little bonus habit is how I sneak in a bit of reading while watching TV, depending on the show. Some shows are “ear TV” and don’t necessarily require full attention so I am able to get some pages in.

What do you guys think? Relate to any of them? What are some of your reading habits that you’d like to share.

“You can love what you see in the mirror but you can’t self esteem your way out of how the world treats you”

Celebrity memoirs are always so interesting because I think a lot of them think they have a lot to say just on the basis of being famous. I almost always do celebrity memoirs on audio especially if they read it themselves. This is not exactly a memoir, she calls it “a collection of essays” so go into this with that in mind. I picked up Gabrielle’s essay collection right after I read “The Devil All the Time” by Donald Ray Pollock because I needed a palette cleanser after that really dark book.

This collection of essays starts with Gabrielle’s childhood in a very white neighborhood which they moved to against her mother’s wishes of moving to the more black neighborhood of Oakland, takes us through the mishaps and ups of her career, to rape, terrible marriage, colorism and a lot more. Union’s words are very clear and precise. Whether she’s telling you about trying to cure a yeast infection at home or about the Black Lives Matter movement. She has a strong voice and knows exactly what she wants to convey.

This book feels surprisingly honest. She doesn’t shy away from messy feelings and tells you exactly how she felt when she was negotiating her prenup with Dwayne Wade, to being a stepmother and heartbreakingly, details of her failed IVF cycles.

The writing style is super casual when she is talking about personal topics. Her tone shifts and becomes soap-boxy and impersonal when she tackles universal and politically charged topics but she always ended it on a personal or funny note which brought it back to base for the reader.

This book has helped me see Gabrielle Union in a totally different light. As a black women who had to learn to accept her blackness in the white dominated areas she has inhabited for most of her life. And as an actor who has had to advocate for herself when no one else was going to do it for her.

Whether she is telling us a story about Prince or having to put vanilla yogurt into her vagina via a straw, “We are Going to Need More Wine” overall feels like an authentic breath of fresh air from a celebrity that actually has something to say.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Have you read it? Would you recommend it?

Leggy

Taynement

Happy New Year, everyone!! With a new year comes more books to be read. My reading goals sort of mirror my actual life in that, I never have any set or intentional goals per se. I just have a general idea of the kinds of books I like and would like to read and if it comes my way, I will go for it. The actual goals I may have are maybe the number of books I’d like to read and that was because Good Reads made me and I picked a random number.

Part of the reason why my goals are flexible is because I don’t buy books and solely depend on availability from my library to determine what I get to read or not. The books I read are  based on popularity sometimes i.e books that are talked about a lot among critics or are generally just popular (the fear of FOMO is real) and recommendations from Leggy and another friend of mine (who I have concluded does not share my taste in books and yet I keep listening to her)

All that being said, I expect to have per usual a bunch of fiction and a handful of celeb autobiographies in the mix. Leggy keeps trying to get me to read fantasy novels but I don’t anticipate that it’ll happen this year 😀

Leggy

Funny, one of my goals this year is to make Taynement read “Red Rising” by Pierce Brown. This is the book I always recommend to people who want to make an entrance to fantasy and it’s definitely going to happen this year, even if I have to read it to her!!

Anyway, I always pick the number of books I want to read every year on Good Reads and then read anything that sounds good to me. Last year, I picked 70 books and I accomplished it even though I was stuck on 65 for the longest and really didn’t think I was going to make it. This year, I picked 70 again. I never know exactly what I’m going to read every year. At the beginning of every year, I max out my library holds (and Taynement’s) with books I’ve heard about and never got around to reading or books that made the year’s best books lists. Every year though, I try to think about what type of books I’d really like to read that year so that I can have a checklist in mind when looking for books that I might be interested in.

This year, I want to read:

• Books predominantly written by women – Especially by black women. I read a lot of epic fantasies and this is not a female dominated area at all, so if you do read fantasy and have come across great female authors that you’d like me to take a look at please leave a comment (p.s – I do not like fantasy books that are predicated on love.)
• Tackle a big classic –  I already know what big classic I want to tackle this year and that is “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas. The second option is “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy if I’m feeling generous because everyone knows I find Russian novels just exhausting!!

Other than that, I intend to read anything that sounds great.

Here’s to wishing everyone a happy reading year!

Do you have any reading goals for the year? Comment down below and tell us what they are!