Tag: book du jour

Yelly Writes

Week 1 done!

Yelly

So, this is my first entry for 2019!

New year and new (recycled) resolutions. Have you written written down yours?

I’ve said I would, this year, do the following:

  • Write more (either blog or journal, although, great Instagram captions might apply?)
  • Read more
  • Get healthy (no that’s not a metaphor for me gaining weight, on the contrary, I need to lose weight, lower my blood sugar levels and move more)
  • Take more photographs (for the blog, for Instagram and for my personal development)
  • Finish the Instaretreat (I am such a good starter but a very weak finisher. I need help and motivation!)
  • Bake and cook more (and write about it, hey, it’s two birds with one stone! Yay me!)

I’ve been busy with real life and the past few weeks have been quite the challenge. I have been adjusting to my new meds (that’s another blog, in itself. But it takes courage to write it down for all and sundry to see. I’m not quite that brave yet!), and they make me really sluggish. But I’m trying to find ways to deal with the sluggishness and the excuses I make for being stuck in the inertia of inactivity.

The week started with me hitting the ground running. It was a short week, but was it ever so busy. The work just kept running and I just felt that some of the people I worked for were throwing stuff at me because they wanted to hold my attention for longer. I used to work for just one person but now that I’m working for 3 directors, someone feels a little less looked after. Bless! I can be magnanimous now but at times this week, I’ve had to bite my tongue and sit on my hands and give in to my desire to say, “Hey, I know what you’re up to, and I’m not falling for the rank-pulling! What are you, five?!” But I didn’t…and I am proud of myself.

I’ve put together a book list and I’ve started with a humdinger of a read. I’m reading Laura Purcell’s The Silent Companions. Have you read it? What are your thoughts? Unlike some people, I don’t mind spoilers because I do get stuck in and despite knowing the end, I still, somehow, get surprised (if there is an unexpected twist). Opinions are welcome! Oh and if you are reading something, what are you reading? I’m curious!

The kitchen in my tiny little flat has been busy this weekend. I’ve actually managed to make banana jam. Why banana jam, you ask? Because Alan and I went to Yotam Ottolenghi’s Spitalfields restaurant and I fell in love with the banana jam (it’s slathered on that lovely piece of sourdough on the the left in the picture below).

Alan found the recipe and I couldn’t believe something delicious only had 5 ingredients and it was so easy to do! I’ll have to remember not to scarf down my banana jam-laden piece of toast and take a photo for the blog (and my food IG account @yellyeats…yep, I’m not ashamed to self promote!). I’m told (by the blog I read it from) that this recipe isn’t in any of Ottolenghi’s books so if you’re interested in making it, the recipe I used Belleau Kitchen’s measurements and it’s ever so yummy. I will, however, take a page from Dominic’s book and tweak it so that it becomes my version of the recipe. I do have a few more bananas left so I guess that means I’m baking banana bread again!

In terms of health, I am going to charge up my Fitbit again and start counting steps again. I’m going for 10,000 steps or more every day. Fingers crossed!

I’ve got to stop now as I do need to finish washing up and making a fish pie for supper. It’s been a lazy weekend but a busy one too! What have you been up to?

Yelly Reads

New book alert!

Yelly

This book has sat in my Kindle for a while.  I loved the title and I loved what it professed to teach me.  BUT I’ve not had the courage to read it.  It will take a lot of courage to read a book that will probably suggest I do things that are completely alien to me.

I have always known that I am a person who cared too much about everything.  I’ve mostly ever really cared about other people more than myself (let’s face it, when you’re the eldest child you’re taught to consider other people, take care of other people, be a shining example and paragon of virtue for other people, be perfect for other people to look up to…etc., etc.!).  Mostly because during the times when I’ve actually put myself first, the resulting situations were disastrous and I ended up hurting so many other people.  So I usually steer clear from what I think are actions that might be construed as “selfish” and “putting myself first.”  Which is, in hindsight, probably why I feel like I’m in a state of arrested development.  It’s because I’ve put others first before wanting to do what I want to do.

In the last 18 months, I’ve come to realise that I do have to put myself first.  No one, not even the people who profess to love me (save a handful of people), have actually done what I’ve done for them: consider me before themselves.

I’ve read reviews about Sarah Knight’s book and I find my interest extremely piqued.  One review says it’s Oprah-esque wisdom with Amy Schumer swearing.  Now that sounds hilarious.

So…without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, the book that will be accompanying me on the train journey for the next few days.  See y’all on the other side!

tlcmofngafck

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Yelly Reads

Book du jour: Taming the Queen by Philippa Gregory

Yelly

I’ve finished another book!  Hurrah!  I am now catching up to my goal to read 24 books this year.  I am now just a book away from catching up!  Yay!

The book that I’m now reading is the next installment in the Tudor story beautifully written by Philippa Gregory.  She now writes about the last of King Henry VIII’s wives, the queen that survived him, Katherine Parr.

I’m about about 5 chapters in now and am quite pleased with my progress!  Here’s to more books, eh?

TamingtheQueenCan someone recommend what I should read next?  Any suggestions folks?

Yelly Reads

Book du jour: The Missing One

Yelly

So I finally finished Maria Kubica’s book The Good Girl.  It’s quite a good book and very nearly unputdownable.  I nearly missed my train stop several times in the course of reading the book.  It was very interesting because it wasn’t an individual’s story.  It shows how many individuals are affected by one extra-ordinary experience.

But mind you, the ending, the twist at the end, was very nearly unexpected!  A definite must read.

I’ve started on a new book now.  Determined to read 2 books a month.  I am still a book behind but at least I’m progressing!

The book that I’ve just started reading is about Lucy Atkins.  It’s called The Missing One.  It’s a daughter’s journey of discovery, of getting to know her mother after her mother’s death.  I must say it’s quite interesting because it’s several stories intertwined.  Plus there is a science-y bit that I find entirely interesting…it talks about killer whales, orcas.  When I was little, my dad and I watched this movie on TV called Orca, The Killer Whale.  It was about this whale that kills people in this village because fishermen killed his wife and unborn calf.  Does anyone remember this movie?  One scene has this woman hanging out of a house on stilts and the orca eats her leg…but just the one!

I wonder how long it’ll take me to finish this book?

the missing one book cover

 

Yelly Reads

The Good Girl

Yelly

I cannot remember why I thought this would be a good idea.  I’ve signed up to do a reading challenge on Goodreads.  I’ve set my goal to reading 24 books this year.  2 books a month.  At the time I set my goal, I thought it was really doable.  My commute to work is an hour long each way and I thought, “Great, I’ll manage 2 books a month!”  It’s not as easy as it sounds though!  I’m always worried about goals that I set for myself.  I almost always start something and never finish it.  It’s an annoying trait.  I tend to procrastinate to death, until I just get to my set deadline to find out I didn’t even get to the halfway point of my goal!

I’m already a book behind.  It’s April and I’ve only just started reading my 6th book!  I bought two books of the same title.  I read the other, and it was good read.  It was by Fiona Neill.  But this book is quite the page turner.  I even read it with Alan around on the train.  I think he feels a bit ignored when I read on the train instead of talking to him.  The book, at the moment is unputdownable!

If you get the chance to, read Fiona Neill’s book too, but read this one first.  Particularly if you liked The Girl On The Train.

Oh sorry!  I meant to say, I’m reading Maria Kubica’s The Good Girl.

The Good Girl by Maria Kubica

Yelly Reads

Now reading: The Year of Taking Chances

Yelly

I am so far loving this book!  I think it’s mainly because I can relate to each of the characters.  I am at a crossroads in my life where I want to gain a better perspective on all the aspects of my life: my relationships, my career, my passions and my life plan.  I’ve been constantly sighing and whinging about wanting to change things and yet I am plagued by an immobilising inertia that stops me from going after what I want.

This might just be the book that I need to inspire me!  Well, realistically, if it isn’t, it’s a brilliantly written book that is definitely entertaining! 🙂

The Year of Taking Chances

Yelly Reads

Book change: Practical Magic

Yelly

Sometimes you find that books are hard to read; sometimes because the pace is not quick enough or sometimes things move on too quickly for you to catch up, or sometimes because there are too many hard truths that you can relate to that reading has become uncomfortable, or sometimes it’s just not exactly the read you expected it to be.  I’m at that stage in reading Us by David Nicholls.  I love it, but I’ve hit a reading wall with it, so I’m putting it down for a while and coming back to it later.

I’ve started on a different book: Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman.  I read it once when I was in a “witchy” phase (chalk it up to taking anthropology and world history in one semester and working on a paper on comparative witchcraft!) but I don’t think I completely appreciated the book when I read it.  I loved the movie though (Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman in one movie with one heck of a soundtrack!).  The movie screenplay is different from the book but nevertheless, I loved the movie and the book.  I’ve started the book again and I am reading it with different (probably more jaded) eyes and a fresh perspective.  I knew why loved it then and I am enjoying it now.

There’s a twist to this as well: I’m reading an actual book!  The action of actually turning a page is priceless.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my Kindle (being able to carry a veritable library in one’s handbag is amazing!) but there is something beautifully interactive with reading an actual book!

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

Yelly Reads

Good read: Us

Yelly

I’ve actually started a new book – yes again!  Someone said that I was a quick reader.  I think it’s a sign that I’m stressed.  Reading is a bit of an escape for me.  I get to stop thinking about things that worry me and I get to wonder about someone else’s issues for a change – and I don’t have to worry.  I just have to read so that I see things unfolding.  It’s a good thing.

I’m reading Us by David Nicholls (he wrote One Day).  It’s about a biochemist whose marriage is failing.  But he and his wife decide that despite the fact that they are going to get a divorce, they go on a trip with their teenaged son and while on the trip, the son disappears.  I haven’t got any further than that though.

The story appeals to me though, because of the sciency bits.  One of the nerdy jokes that got me giggling to myself on the train (no doubt attracting weird looks) was the joke that said “The only acid in this house is deoxyribonucleic acid!”  As the main character is a biochemist, I wasn’t surprised that there was a lot about labs and research.  It made me smile when the Drosophila melanogaster was mentioned along with genetic mapping.  The Drosophila melanogaster is the scientific name for the common fruitfly.  I have first-hand experience with fruitflies because my dad is a geneticist and he was working on a project that involved fruitflies.  Fruitflies are a blight on Philippine mangoes and my dad was attempting to sterilise the fruitflies, so that they only produced female flies.  I don’t really know if my dad was successful, but it was because of this project that Drosophila melanogaster was a big fixture in our life for a very long time.

I’m still reading.  So the jury’s out.  But then again, I did get the book because it was a David Nicholls book and I loved One Day.  I am loving the book so far thought.  More so now because I seem to have found a connection with the main character!

Us by David Nicholls

Yelly Reads

Good read: Fractured

Yelly

I’m on a reading roll (non-bread, mind!)!  I’ve always had my nose in a book for as long as I can remember, but for the past several years, work has taken over my life.  I’ve been working and spending my non-working hours either baking or resting and completely vegging out (by watching TV).

But I’ve been reading a lot the past few months: I’ve finished the All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness (A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night and the Book of Life), the Languedoc Series by Kate Mosse (Citadel, Sepulchre and Citadel), Gillian Flynn’s books (Gone Girl, Dark Places, and Sharp Objects), The Cousins War Series by Philippa Gregory (The White Queen, The Red Queen, The Lady of the Rivers, The King Maker’s Daughter, The White Princess, and the King’s Curse), Me Before You by Jojo Moyes, and Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy by Helen Fielding.  Two weeks ago, I finished Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins.

On Friday, I finished another book.  Continuing on the amnesia-lit theme (Girl On The Train was mostly because the character experiences a sort of amnesia), I started on Fractured last weekend.  The premise was about this girl who has an accident and wakes up from it with a life that’s perfect and far from what she had before she had the accident and what happens after as she tries to figure out why her life is what it is.  Before this book, I’d been lamenting my reading speed.  But considering that I only read on the train after Alan gets off the train on the way to work, and on the way home, I read only until Alan gets home, my reading speed is relatively back to where it used to be.  The only downside is that I’m experiencing a twitching on the left side of my forehead!  My eyebrow and top and bottom eyelids are twitching too.  I’m constantly afraid that people will think I’m winking at them!

Fractured

I’ve got a book lined up for my next read.  It’s called The Book of You by Claire Kendal.  Bring on the daily commute!

But now, I’ve got to make Chinese coconut tarts!  See y’all later!