More reading: a cookbook, 2 self help books, and a political non-fiction book

I am saving at least $20/week this year by ordering all my books from the library. They email me when the books I want are ready to be picked up, and I have three weeks to read them. I feel like I discovered this huge secret money-saving life hack. Does everyone know about ordering books from the library?

Start right where you are by Sam Bennett. I liked it. She is trying to encourage you to do the work that will make you happy right away, even if it's only ten minutes a day. She uses the example of writing a book. She also assumes that the reader has read tons of other self-help books (which is really true in my case). So basically just start writing the book you want to write. Which is of course good advice, even if maybe pretty obvious. The book also mentioned a couple times to make sure you are drinking enough water. Smart.

5 Ingredients by Jamie Oliver. This cookbook made me realize how much I like the little bit of commentary that many cookbook authors include with each recipe. This book has none of that. I guess it turns out I want to know that you made these cookies when you had surprise guests over or that you made this smoothie when you only had a banana and some kale in your kitchen.

Quiet by Susan Cain: This is all about the difference between introverts and extroverts. I only had to read two pages before I was certain I am an introvert. She talked about how introverts tend to really dislike the beginning of a church service when you are encouraged to shake hands with the people around you. I truly thought everyone disliked that part of church. But maybe it's just the introverts? She also talks about "shy" kids, and how we are so pushy about forcing shy kids to break out of their shell. I was told that constantly at school when I was a kid. And it was always so annoying because I always felt so confident inside and also like I didn't need to be constantly speaking. Maybe we should leave the shy kids alone. I dunno.

This fight is our fight by Elizabeth Warren. Omg. If we lived in the states and could vote, I would be all over this candidate. I am more interested in American politics than is necessary because I listen to the Daily podcast most days. This book is about how the middle class is disappearing in the states, and how super rich people are getting more super rich. And about privilege. I found this book just so fascinating. Loved it so much more than I expected.

Baby shower time

These are actually pictures from two different baby showers I hosted for friends in the past 6 months. I LOVE hosting baby showers. I love prepping for them, talking about them, shopping for them. I also love that they are parties that you have at lunchtime, as opposed to nighttime (nighttime is for watching tv with jon these days). 

Now that I own the equipment needed to make these buttercream roses/peonies, I pretty much always want to make them. If you are prepared and have a couple hours without kids hanging off your leg, they really are not too hard. 

Without really realizing it, I have developed a kind of formula for baby showers.

- Favours: These are so not necessary, but I love doing them. I like to have this out of the way a week or two ahead of the shower. I sometimes do a little bag of lip balm and a mask and chocolate or something. For my sister's shower we did teeny succulents for each person. And for the most recent shower I did, I bought little makeup bags from the body shop that were filled with travel size lotions.

- Decorations: I used to love buying a few hundred balloons for parties, and making an arch with the balloons. I think balloons look amazing. But now, I just can't do it. So much waste! So now I have slowly added to my collection of tissue paper decorations, and just add to it a little at a time. Lots of the tissue paper decorations have been used for 5+ parties by now.

- Flowers: I always do at least 5 bunches of flowers. Sometimes my florist (who is also my mom :) will do a big centrepiece. Other times I will get 6 dozen tulips.

- Drinks: I usually always have mimosas and bubbly water. I do coffee and sometimes a cool cocktail or mocktail.

- Food: Really, the best parties for me are when a few people offer to bring something to eat. I try to do a lot of sandwiches and cookies and a huge cheese board. And I always order macarons. But then it's so nice when someone brings a salad, and someone else brings brownies. I always say yes when people offer to bring food.

- Games: I sometimes do these, sometimes not. If the crowd is more than 12 people, it can be hard to get a game going. But with a smaller group, it's fun to do a tasting (we did an orange juice tasting at the last baby shower), or do a little trivia game about the expecting mom. Whenever we do a game or activity, I find people love it. And I love doing prizes.

- Cake: Lately I am into making them, but in the past I have ordered really simple cakes from the grocery store and also ordered cute cake toppers from etsy. I also love to make a pavlova instead of a traditional cake. Cupcakes are cool too.

library list: a commencement speech, a memoir, and a novel

The other day at the library I had about 5 minutes to grab a few books. This is what I got:

Very good lives by J. K. Rowling
Ok, so this is not actually a book. This is a commencement speech she did for Harvard a number of years ago. So I read it in like 20 minutes. It was a great speech. She talked a little about privilege, and how anyone who is graduating from Harvard for sure for sure has it. And how failure is such a great thing, but you need to really be aware that your version of failure for your life might not be so bad when you compare it to someone living on the streets, in a country where the government recently killed your family. She used to work for Amnesty International in London, so she had specific examples of that.

The year of less by Cait Flanders
This is a blogger who got a book deal. I felt like the book was a little repetitive while not actually getting into the specifics of her life that I wanted to hear about.

The last romantics by Tara Conklin
I liked this novel. It is about four siblings who lose their dad when they are really young, and have to deal with a mom who is severely depressed. This is not a book I will be recommending to my coworkers (like this one-OMG), but I was engaged in it. Sometimes I like to have a sleeper book going while also flying through more interesting books on the side. This was my sleeper book for the last three weeks.