Blog Every Day In May: Book Love

I am a dyed in the wool bookworm.  Even my degree is in English & Film, so I spent four years in academia surrounded by poetry, prose, film and music, and I adore the written word as much as any English specialist I know.  After a few years in the wilderness I'm back into reading a lot for pleasure.  Last year I managed 52 books....this year I'm aiming for 62.

For this post I thought I'd write about the five books I love the most - the ones I'm always pressing on others.  Even this was tricky - there are many firm favourites that have not cracked this list - but five seemed like a good, solid number.  Succinct enough to force me to be decisive....long enough to allow some generosity.  My favourites, in no order bar alphabetical by title - asking me for one favourite is like asking a parent who their favourite child is - are:

Gone With The Wind*- Margaret Mitchell

I adore Margaret Mitchell's book.  It has is all - drama, history, romance, tension, one liners, humour, horror, redemption and cliffhangers.  I read this book, all 1011 pages of it, at least every other year and never fail to laugh, cry and rage along with it.  The sublime film is a fantastic complement to the text.

Join Me - Danny Wallace

This silly, quirky book is not only an enjoyable read, but also changed my life.  After reading Danny Wallace's book, I sent off my passport photo and joined his kindness collective/ cult/ ragtag bunch of friendly folk.  That was seven or so years ago, and since then I've met so many wonderful people because of this book - not least my darling fiancé (the friend who introduced us, the lovely Lou, is a Joinee!).  On its own, the book is fab.  As far as lifechanging tomes go, for me it's completely turned my world upside down.  In a truly special way.

Little Women - Louisa May Alcott

Eight-year-old me lived and died by this book, and thirty-something me still loves it.  I reread it every year over summer break and still cry at the crucial moments!  I have made peace with the fact that I'm more of a Meg than a Jo, and adore the portrayal of the the relationships between the March sisters.  Louisa May Alcott writes so generously and charmingly - it's a warm, cosy, familiar book for me.

Love is a Mixtape - Rob Sheffield

This book combines a cracking romantic story with music and mixtapes, so I was always going to fall for it hard.  Witty, wise and honest, it manages to wrench the heart-strings and raise a smile, often on the same page.

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

The big cahuna, which I did not read until my early twenties.  Jane Austen's writing I just love - her descriptions, her incisiveness, her wit - and her characters are never more stunningly drawn than in P&P (although Sense and Sensibility and Emma are both also firm favourites!).  A justified classic.

Good heavens, I love to read.  I am looking forward to finding some recommendations today on the other blogs taken part in #BEDM!

*brilliantly, this typoed as Gone With The Wine.  Possible autobiography title?

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Time for Karmageddon!

Wow, how this year has flown!  It feels like a mad whirl of work and Junior League and house buying and cats and travel and fun and friends and blogging and awesomeness.  And now it's December, and Christmas and Christmas break are right around the corner, and today is one of my favourite days of the festive season.

Because today it's Karmageddon.

I've been a member of Join Me, a kindness collective where we try to do a 'random act of kindness' every Friday, for about five years now, and I've made some truly amazing friends through it.

Every year, usually in December, we all get together for a fun day we call 'Karmageddon' here in London.  We have breakfast/lunch/dinner (it's a whole day thing, culminating in an evening of fun a frolics), we hug, we visit, we do random acts of kindness and tip many, many buskers.

It's always a delicious reminder of how great my fellow Joinees are.

And it's today.

Woop!

Looking forward to catching up with so many of my favourite folk.  Have a great weekend, all!

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My current reads

Bizarrely, over the summer my reading has slowed a little - it's like my brain wants to relax and play, and save the reading for termtime!  It may also be the fact that my 90 minute commute roundtrip has been missing....

Now, however, it's nearly back to work and I have lots of lovely reads on my pile awaiting my attention, including:

All That is Bitter and Sweet: A Memoir

The lovely Christielli read this over the summer and said she thought it would be very much my kind of book, so I've ordered it to dive into. It sounds like a pretty fascinating read, I must say!

 Charlotte Street

The latest book by Danny Wallace, he of Join Me fame/infamy.  I tend to really like his books - they are fun and zippy and hard to put down, so this should be a treat.
 
The House of Silk: The New Sherlock Holmes Novel (Sherlock Holmes Novel 1)

Confession: I've never read an actual Sherlock Holmes novel.  Excerpts like you wouldn't believe, but never a whole book.  I'm not the greatest fan of whodunnits and I genuinely think I just haven't ever felt compelled to pick the series up.  I'm excited to read Horowitz's treatment of the series though - maybe this will ignite a new passion?

The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health

I saw this book in Whole Foods the other day and thought it looked very interesting.  I've been making some pretty big changes to my approach to food and health over the last couple of months, and I thought a little reading on the subject would be helpful!

A Wrinkle in Time (Puffin Modern Classics)

A book I can't believe I haven't read yet.  On it.

So they are my reads for September - I am really going to have to work to achieve my goal of 52 books this year!  What are you all reading?

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Five Minute Friday: Community

I love Five Minute Fridays.  Just a lovely chance to take a break from it all and just write.  Head on over to Lisa-Jo's to find more samplings on the same theme.

This week's theme is....COMMUNITY.

GO.

I love community, the sense of belonging to something bigger, of feeling connected.

I love the community of my school, boys and teachers and parents all working together to encourage and achieve...the day to day sense of a common purpose, to help these wonderful young men achieve all they are capable of.  Looking around my classes I love the glowing feeling of knowing that these boys, these little creatures, are going to go on and achieve so much.

I love the community of friends I have - the letters, the emails, the late night cups of coffee.  Chatting about marriage and houses and babies and work over bottles of rioja or plates of pasta.  Feeling proud of my friends for their achievements - climbing Kilimanjaro, getting that big promotion, running that marathon.  Walking alongside them in the tougher times - jobhunts, break ups, bereavements.  Being so filled with joy for their happy times - weddings, babies, longed for adoptions taking place, successes and excitements.

I love the community of this little blog and of the blog world as a whole.  The fact that people read what I have to say is such a gift for one as verbose and filled with words as me!  I love reading what others are up to - what they are making, seeing, doing, thinking....

I love the community of Join Me - the raggle taggle bunch of folk, linked by a book and a promise to do a RAoK (Random Act of Kindness) every Friday.  These people have been such a gift to me, and their love and support and the friends I've made through Join Me are such a delight.

I love the community of JLL - of women coming together to make a difference.  In the past eight months I've met and made friends with a whole cohort of smart, talented, amazing women.  I love spending time with them and learning from them!

Last, but never least, I love the community of our little family unit, Matthew and I.  Two silly people, working together as a team.  Whenever I count my blessings he's right at the top of the list - how blessed I am to have a partner in crime like him!  And tomorrow, we move into our first home together.  Happy, happy, happy badger.

STOP

Huzzah for nearly weekend/almost moving time!
PS I'd love to have some questions for 'Ask Me Anthing', if you have a spare moment. PPS My book giveaway runs until Monday :)

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I'm learning.

When I was about fifteen, I had it all sorted. I was going to go to university, meet Mr Right, get married and pop out a passel of cute, curly haired, mega-talented kiddoes.

Even at Durham, aged 24, I'd tell long elaborate stories to Naomi, detailing all the wonder that was to come. 'All This At 35?' the headline would blare.

But you can't predict the future.

I've let go of a lot of things.

A few, I think I always knew were pipe dreams - living in New York, writing a bestseller, going with Leonardo DiCaprio to the Oscars (my over-active imagination is nothing if not ambitious!).

Others I saw pass like a breeze, ruffling the fabric of my life....married by thirty, becoming a lawyer, throwing myself into drama. It took a moment to realise they'd passed.

And now, at 31, I think I'm starting to appreciate why I had to let these things go. Because so many of the blessings that fill my life were never really on my radar. Who would have predicted I'd adore teaching little boys? That Join Me would bring me friends and love and laughter? That blogging would become such an outlet, a place to truly be myself, the reflect on the magical jouney we call life? That I'd join the Junior League and meet myriad kindred spirits? That I actually would end up living in London (one of the pipe dreams that did come true!)? That I'd fall in love with a man who challenges me and loves me and understands me?

It seems like sometimes letting go is exactly what you need to do to gain some real loveliness.

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Pictures that make me smile...20

Big Christmassy-New-Years hugs to you all!

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30 Days of Thankfulness: Join Me

I've been a joinee for almost five years. Five years of fun, laughter, good times, and hundreds of RAoKs (random acts of kindness).

I've met some wonderful people. Some inspiring people. Some people who have helped me to grow up....and others who make me sillier than I should be.

This group has brought me friends, inspiration, and even the man I love (Lou, a joinee, pictured above, first introduced Matthew and I. We first got together at my friend Siobhan's party. and first kissed in the flat of joinees Kate and Jason. See what I mean?).

I love these people. I'm so lucky to have found them!

(hee, wine!)

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Pictures that make me smile...11

Amanda (who I haven't seen in far too long :( ) and I, giving out sweets and free hugs in central London.

I love our yearly Joinee Karmageddon get-together and am very excited to see what's planned for this year!

I also super excited for the third annual Joinee Olympics next weekend - I've been unable to make this meet before so am excited to join in! Fun sports FTW!

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