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LWD Book Club ~ August 2017

August 1, 2017 By Deanna Piercy 6 Comments

Here it is – the first of August already. Do you know what that means? It’s my birthday month! And it’s also time for the LWD Book Club August selections. Our theme for August includes back-to-school, routines and planners. Even if you don’t have a child headed back to school soon, for most of us, this time of year will forever feel like a new start. I’ve always liked the fact that my birthday falls this time of year. It’s a good time for me to re-evaluate my goals, and fine-tune or tweak my routines. It functions as a bit of a reset with a bit less pressure than the first of a whole new year.

Let’s take a look at the books I’ve chosen for August:

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Life With Dee!

LWD AUGUST BOOK CLUB SELECTIONS

The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod

I’ve been hearing so much about the concept of “the Miracle Morning”. I’ve even joined Miracle Morning Facebook community, although I must admit I’ve not interacted much yet. I’ve read some things about the Miracle Morning online but haven’t yet read the book. I think this is the perfect time to do so.

What if you could miraculously wake up tomorrow and any—or every area of your life was transformed? What would be different? Would you be happier? Healthier? More successful? In better shape? Would you have more energy? Less Stress? More Money? Better relationships? Which of your problems would be solved?

What if I told you that there is a “not-so-obvious” secret that is guaranteed to transform any—or literally every area of your life, faster than you ever thought possible? What if I told you it would only take 6 minutes a day?

Enter The Miracle Morning. What’s now being practiced by thousands of people around the world could perhaps be the simplest approach to creating the life you’ve always wanted. It’s been right there in front of us, but this book has finally brought it to life.

South and West: From a Notebook by Joan Didion

Last week I took a couple of days “off” and went to the city. I visited the OKC Museum of Art, bought a new purse, got to hold my cousins’ new baby, took a friend to dinner, saw a movie and checked out a bookstore my son had been raving about. What a lovely, lovely place. I could have spent all day and a small fortune there. I limited myself to three books, however, two of which I’m including in this month’s selections.

This first one is a small book but from what I’ve read so far I believe it will be rather intriguing. As an aspiring writer myself, I love the idea of keeping a notebook filled with bits and pieces from which to draw later. I have little snippets jotted down here and there but nothing so cohesive as a single notebook. Perhaps this will inspire me to do likewise. In fact, I bought myself a lovely journal at the museum bookstore which I believe will be perfect for this.

I was also interested because of the settings: California (where I was born and grew up) and the Deep South, starting in New Orleans (my favorite place).

Joan Didion has always kept notebooks: of overheard dialogue, observations, interviews, drafts of essays and articles–and here is one such draft that traces a road trip she took with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, in June 1970, through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. She interviews prominent local figures, describes motels, diners, a deserted reptile farm, a visit with Walker Percy, a ladies’ brunch at the Mississippi Broadcasters’ Convention. She writes about the stifling heat, the almost viscous pace of life, the sulfurous light, and the preoccupation with race, class, and heritage she finds in the small towns they pass through. And from a different notebook: the “California Notes” that began as an assignment from Rolling Stone on the Patty Hearst trial of 1976. Though Didion never wrote the piece, watching the trial and being in San Francisco triggered thoughts about the city, its social hierarchy, the Hearsts, and her own upbringing in Sacramento. Here, too, is the beginning of her thinking about the West, its landscape, the western women who were heroic for her, and her own lineage, all of which would appear later in her acclaimed 2003 book, Where I Was From.

When the English Fall: A Novel by David Williams

This book caught my eye as soon as I entered Commonplace Books. I’ve long been fascinated with the lifestyle of the Amish. Having also lived through the worrisome time period before Y2K when many feared a major collapse of the grid, this sounds like something right up my alley.

A riveting and unexpected novel that questions whether a peaceful and nonviolent community can survive when civilization falls apart.

When a catastrophic solar storm brings about the collapse of modern civilization, an Amish community in Pennsylvania is caught up in the devastating aftermath. Once-bright skies are now dark. Planes have plummeted to the ground. The systems of modern life have crumbled. With their stocked larders and stores of supplies, the Amish are unaffected at first. But as the English (the Amish name for all non-Amish people) become more and more desperate, they begin to invade Amish farms, taking whatever they want and unleashing unthinkable violence on the peaceable community.

Seen through the diary of an Amish farmer named Jacob as he tries to protect his family and his way of life, When the English Fall examines the idea of peace in the face of deadly chaos: Should members of a nonviolent society defy their beliefs and take up arms to defend themselves? And if they don’t, can they survive?

FACEBOOK BOOK CLUB EVENT

If you are on Facebook check out the LWD August Book Club “event”. We’ll be reading and discussing these books together. Check it out:

LWD BOOK CLUB ~ August 2017

PREVIOUS LWD BOOK CLUB CHOICES:

LWD’s Favorite Francophile Books

July 12, 2017 By Deanna Piercy Leave a Comment

I’ve amassed a nice little collection of books which help satisfy my Francophile longings. I’ll read most anything set in Paris or providing a glimpse of the inner workings of that elusive creature…the French woman. Here are some of my favorites.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Life With Dee!

A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle

I picked up a copy of “A Year in Provence” at our local used book store many years ago. What a charming story! I’ve since read other books by the author and enjoyed them all.

In this witty and warm-hearted account, Peter Mayle tells what it is like to realize a long-cherished dream and actually move into a 200-year-old stone farmhouse in the remote country of the Lubéron with his wife and two large dogs. He endures January’s frosty mistral as it comes howling down the Rhône Valley, discovers the secrets of goat racing through the middle of town, and delights in the glorious regional cuisine. A Year in Provence transports us into all the earthy pleasures of Provençal life and lets us live vicariously at a tempo governed by seasons, not by days.

Chic and Slim by Anne Barone

My introduction into the ways of the French woman began with this book. It’s not the most professionally written (or edited) yet it was one of the first books on this subject.

How do those chic French women eat all that chocolate, cheese and pastry — and all that delicious French bread — and still stay slim? They don’t count calories. Few go to a gym. Is their slimming secret chic personal style? In Chic & Slim: How Those Chic French Women Eat All That Rich Food And Still Stay Slim, author Anne Barone shares French secrets to dressing chic and staying slim. After a quarter century struggling with excess weight, in her mid-20s, Anne Barone used techniques she learned from chic French women to lose 55 pounds. With her Chic & Slim system — her translation of those techniques designed for life outside France — she has stayed slim more than 40 years. In Chic & Slim, Anne Barone shows you how, no matter where you live, you can eat as well, yet stay as slim as chic French women.

Joie De Vivre by Robert Arbor

This is a truly lovely book. Gorgeous photos and more…

When it comes to making the most of life, nobody does it better than the French. Now, with Joie de Vivre: Simple French Style for Everyday Living, an inspired fusion of art, style, and easy-to-implement ideas, anyone can feel like they spent a weekend in the French countryside, no matter where they live.

Renowned restaurateur Robert Arbor puts a refreshing emphasis on simplicity and accessibility, explaining the rituals and traditions that comprise a typical French day. Featuring dozens of simple, everyday recipes, Joie de Vivre captures the family meals, market trips, and charming domestic settings that make the French way of life so pleasurable. In eight chapters, illustrated with 85 full-color and black-and-white photographs, Arbor details how you, too, can achieve the simplicity and relaxing life the French treasure.

My Life in France by Julia Child

I’m a huge fan of Julia Child and thoroughly enjoyed this book about her time in France.

Julia Child single handedly awakened America to the pleasures of good cooking with her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her television show The French Chef, but as she reveals in this bestselling memoir, she didn’t know the first thing about cooking when she landed in France.

Indeed, when she first arrived in 1948 with her husband, Paul, she spoke no French and knew nothing about the country itself. But as she dove into French culture, buying food at local markets and taking classes at the Cordon Bleu, her life changed forever. Julia’s unforgettable story unfolds with the spirit so key to her success as a cook and teacher and writer, brilliantly capturing one of the most endearing American personalities of the last fifty years.

Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik

Haven’t we all dreamed of escaping our everyday life and moving to Paris? There are many memoirs out there about this very thing. This is one of the best.

In 1995, Adam Gopnik, his wife, and their infant son left the familiar comforts and hassles of New York City for the urbane glamour of the City of Light. Gopnik is a longtime New Yorker writer, and the magazine has sent its writers to Paris for decades–but his was above all a personal pilgrimage to the place that had for so long been the undisputed capital of everything cultural and beautiful. It was also the opportunity to raise a child who would know what it was to romp in the Luxembourg Gardens, to enjoy a croque monsieur in a Left Bank café–a child (and perhaps a father, too) who would have a grasp of that Parisian sense of style we Americans find so elusive.

Entre Nous by Debra Ollivier

If you’re looking for the best overall guide to what makes the French woman someone many of us admire, this is my pick.

Provocative and practical, lively and intelligent, Entre Nous unlocks the mystery of the French girl and the secrets of her self-possession. Why do French women always look inimitably stylish? How do they manage to sit in a café for a three-course lunch and a glass of wine…by themselves? How do they decide when they’re ready to let someone become a part of their very private lives?

Laced with practical tips, engaging sidebars, and essential observations about French women and their ways, Entre Nous is a delightful book that will help you take the best of all pages from the French girl’s book—the page that reveals how to really enjoy life.

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

I loved this one so much I’ve read it twice. I listened to the audio version the first time and then a couple of years later picked up a copy at the library book sale and read it. Excellent!

From Booklist

History is sadly neglectful of the supporting players in the lives of great artists. Fortunately, fiction provides ample opportunity to bring these often fascinating personalities out into the limelight. Gaynor Arnold successfully resurrected the much-maligned Mrs. Charles Dickens in Girl in a Blue Dress (2009), now Paula McLain brings Hadley Richardson Hemingway out from the formidable shadow cast by her famous husband. Though doomed, the Hemingway marriage had its giddy high points, including a whirlwind courtship and a few fast and furious years of the expatriate lifestyle in 1920s Paris. Hadley and Ernest traveled in heady company during this gin-soaked and jazz-infused time, and readers are treated to intimate glimpses of many of the literary giants of the era, including Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. But the real star of the story is Hadley, as this time around, Ernest is firmly relegated to the background as he almost never was during their years together. Though eventually a woman scorned, Hadley is able to acknowledge without rancor or bitterness that “Hem had helped me to see what I really was and what I could do.” Much more than a woman-behind-the-man homage, this beautifully crafted tale is an unsentimental tribute to a woman who acted with grace and strength as her marriage crumbled. –Margaret Flanagan

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

A list like this wouldn’t be complete with “A Moveable Feast”.

In the preface to A Moveable Feast, Hemingway remarks casually that “if the reader prefers, this book may be regarded as fiction”–and, indeed, fact or fiction, it doesn’t matter, for his slim memoir of Paris in the 1920s is as enchanting as anything made up and has become the stuff of legend. Paris in the ’20s! Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley, lived happily on $5 a day and still had money for drinks at the Closerie des Lilas, skiing in the Alps, and fishing trips to Spain. On every corner and at every café table, there were the most extraordinary people living wonderful lives and telling fantastic stories. Gertrude Stein invited Hemingway to come every afternoon and sip “fragrant, colorless alcohols” and chat admid her great pictures. He taught Ezra Pound how to box, gossiped with James Joyce, caroused with the fatally insecure Scott Fitzgerald (the acid portraits of him and his wife, Zelda, are notorious). Meanwhile, Hemingway invented a new way of writing based on this simple premise: “All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know.”

Hemingway beautifully captures the fragile magic of a special time and place, and he manages to be nostalgic without hitting any false notes of sentimentality. “This is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy,” he concludes. Originally published in 1964, three years after his suicide, A Moveable Feast was the first of his posthumous books and remains the best. –David Laskin

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

This one is rather different from others in this list but definitely worth the read.

From Booklist

In a bourgeois apartment building in Paris, we encounter Renée, an intelligent, philosophical, and cultured concierge who masks herself as the stereotypical uneducated “super” to avoid suspicion from the building’s pretentious inhabitants. Also living in the building is Paloma, the adolescent daughter of a parliamentarian, who has decided to commit suicide on her thirteenth birthday because she cannot bear to live among the rich. Although they are passing strangers, it is through Renée’s observations and Paloma’s journal entries that The Elegance of the Hedgehog reveals the absurd lives of the wealthy. That is until a Japanese businessman moves into the building and brings the two characters together. A critical success in France, the novel may strike a different chord with some readers in the U.S. The plot thins at moments and is supplanted with philosophical discourse on culture, the ruling class, and the injustices done to the poor, leaving the reader enlightened on Kant but disappointed with the story at hand. –Heather Paulson

Lessons From Madame Chic by Jennifer L. Scott

I absolutely loved this one and am looking forward to reading this author’s other books soon. If you’d like to read my review of this book, here is the link.

Inspired by Paris, this lighthearted and deceptively wise contemporary memoir serves as a guidebook for women on the path to adulthood, sophistication, and style. Jennifer Scott’s self-published success is now a beautifully packaged and fully illustrated gift book, perfect for any woman looking to lead a more fulfilling, passionate, and artful life.

If you’re a Francophile, too, I’d love to hear your favorites. Leave me a comment!

LWD Book Club ~ July 2017

July 1, 2017 By Deanna Piercy 5 Comments

I am really excited about this month’s LWD Book Club because our theme for the month is travel. We are going to have both a Francophile Week and an Anglophile Week, plus some general travel-related posts. Even though I won’t be visiting France or England this month (unless I win the lottery in which case plane tickets will likely be my first purchase), I can still take a little vacation within the pages of a book. I hope you’ll join me.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Life With Dee!

LWD JULY BOOK CLUB SELECTIONS

London: The Novel by Edward Rutherford

I’ve had this one on my bookshelf for several years now. I believe I bought it at a library book sale, or perhaps a used book store. At 800+ pages, this is one I’ve been putting off…simply because of the length. But summer is the perfect time to really dig into something lengthy.

Edward Rutherfurd’s classic novel of London – a glorious pageant spanning two thousand years. He brings this vibrant city’s long and noble history alive through the ever-shifting fortunes, fates, and intrigues of half-a-dozen families, from the age of Julius Caesar to the twentieth century. Generation after generation, these families embody the passion, struggle, wealth, and verve of the greatest city in the world.

Three Weeks in Paris by Barbara Taylor Bradford

I purchased this a few months ago at the library book sale. Summer is always a good time for some “light” reading. I think this will be a fun way to spend a few lazy afternoons. Besides, I’m a sucker for anything set in Paris.

The most romantic city in the world sets the stage for Barbara Taylor Bradford’s dazzling new novel, a spellbinding story of four remarkable women–each at a turning point in her life, each about to be changed forever by.…

Three Weeks in Paris

Hawaii by James A. Michener

My grandparents loved Hawaii and spent a lot of time there. They even owned a bit of property on one of the islands. My grandmother learned the hula and did quite a bit of dancing over there and I recall all her beautiful costumes hanging in their spare bedroom when I was a child. My grandfather was a Michener fan and for that reason I have picked up several of his books over the years. I’ve never read “Hawaii” but I’m looking forward to it.

NEW THIS MONTH!

If you are on Facebook check out the LWD July Book Club “event”. We’ll be reading and discussing these books together. Check it out:

LWD Book Club ~ July 2017

Do you enjoy reading travel books or those set in other countries? I’d love to hear some of your favorites. Leave me a comment and tell me what you’re reading this summer.

PREVIOUS LWD BOOK CLUB CHOICES:

LWD Book Club ~ June 2017

June 1, 2017 By Deanna Piercy 4 Comments

I’m back! Did you miss me? We are still in recovery mode following our 10th annual Happyland Music Fest. I’ll share some photos soon – hopefully tomorrow. We had the most amazing time. Everyone seemed to agree it was the best HMF thus far. But now it’s time to get back to whatever passes for “normal” around here. And since it’s a new month, that means it’s time for the LWD Book Club selections for June. Our theme this month includes gardening, pets/animals, and outdoor living.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Life With Dee!

LWD JUNE BOOK CLUB SELECTIONS

Gardening with Chickens by Lisa Steele

When I first started begging David for chickens he thought I was a little nuts. But in recent years it has become an extremely popular hobby. Raccoons got all of mine a few years ago but I’m plotting to get another little flock. Stay tuned.

Join Lisa Steele, chicken-keeper extraordinaire and founder of Fresh Eggs Daily, on a unique journey through the garden. Start by planning your garden and learning strategies and tips for keeping your plants safe while they grow. Plant with purpose, choosing from a dozen plans for theme gardens such as Orange Egg Yolks or Nesting Box Herbs. Or choose a design that’s filled with edibles – sharing the bounty with your family and your feathered friends. Then comes the fun part: enjoy the harvest, even let the chickens graze!

Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools by Victoria Twead

I can’t wait to read this next one. I adore humorous tales of people moving somewhere and exploring a totally new way of life. And if it includes chickens? All the better.

If Joe and Vicky had known what relocating to a tiny mountain village in Andalucía would REALLY be like, they might have hesitated…
They have no idea of the culture shock in store. No idea they’ll become reluctant chicken farmers and own the most dangerous cockerel in Spain. No idea they’ll help capture a vulture or be rescued by a mule.
Will they stay, or return to the relative sanity of England?
Includes Spanish recipes donated by the village ladies.

The Telegraph– “a colourful glimpse of Andalucían life. And a psychopathic chicken or two…charming…funny”

Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter

I became aware of this next selection because I have been following the adventures of the author’s sister for many years. Riana Lagarde used to have a blog which I adored. Now I have to be content with following her via her Flickr account, These Days in French Life. That is where I heard about her sister’s book, Farm City. I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope you will, too.

For anyone who has ever grown herbs on their windowsill, tomatoes on their fire escape, or obsessed over the offerings at the local farmers’ market, Carpenter’s story will capture your heart. And if you’ve ever considered leaving it all behind to become a farmer outside the city limits, or looked at the abandoned lot next door with a gleam in your eye, consider this both a cautionary tale and a full-throated call to action. Farm City is an unforgettably charming memoir, full of hilarious moments, fascinating farmers’ tips, and a great deal of heart. It is also a moving meditation on urban life versus the natural world and what we have given up to live the way we do.

Bonus selection:

The Backyard Homestead

This comprehensive guide to homesteading provides all the information you need to grow and preserve a sustainable harvest of grains and vegetables; raise animals for meat, eggs, and dairy; and keep honey bees for your sweeter days. With easy-to-follow instructions on canning, drying, and pickling, you’ll enjoy your backyard bounty all winter long.

I’d love to hear what you are reading right now. Leave me a comment!

PREVIOUS LWD BOOK CLUB CHOICES:

Inspiring Books ~ A Few Favorites

May 17, 2017 By Deanna Piercy 1 Comment

Ever since I can remember I’ve loved books. As a kid I spent much of my free time behind the closed door of my bedroom reading. I’ve always loved to escape between the pages of a book. Over the years I’ve encountered many, many books which I’ve loved and been inspired by. Here are a few inspiring books I’d like to share with you.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

I was a young adult the first time I read this but oh, how I wish I had discovered it as a child. In so many ways I identify with the main character, Francie Nolan. A quiet, sensitive, bookish child myself, I would have adored getting to know Francie back then.

Aside from feeling a kinship with Francie, however, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn inspires me with its sensitive portrayal of courage and hope in the face of poverty. I firmly believe that reading literature can make a person more understanding and empathetic. My experience with this book is part of the reason I believe that. Betty Smith masterfully mines the depths of poverty and its effects on the human spirit in such a way that I came away with a greater understanding, despite never having experienced it myself. That is what a truly great book can do.

“The beloved American classic about a young girl’s coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness — in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.”

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Another book I wish I had read at a younger age, To Kill a Mockingbird is one of those classics that I strongly believe EVERYONE should read. I read it to my kids and we watched the movie together (one of the few movies which does justice to the book). I re-read it every couple of years. Atticus Finch is the very embodiment of kindness, honesty, integrity and honor.

Several of my all-time favorite quotes are from this book, including these:

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.”

“Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another)… There are just some kind of men who – who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.”

“Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior – to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature.”

The “Have-More” Plan by Ed and Carolyn Robinson

I’ve mentioned before that in addition to my love of Paris I also have a thing for homesteading and self-sufficiency. In theory, anyway. While I’m not likely to ever do this myself I absolutely adore reading about others actually doing it.

About 20 years ago I started reading about homesteading in earnest. At that time I actually DID think we might pursue this ourselves, to some degree anyway. We bought our current home on 40 acres and it seemed like a good idea. To me, that is. David truly had no interest in this little notion of mine.

We did buy some cattle which we kept on my parents’ land along with theirs which allowed us some tax breaks as a “farm”. We were able to depreciate the cost of our tractor because of this farm exemption. Later on we bought a horse for our daughter and I raised chickens for a number of years. David went along with all this simply because he’s a good sport.

I’d like to have chickens again and I’m still hoping to plant at least a small garden this year. I’d like a small orchard, too. We have even been talking about putting some type of animal in the pasture where we used to keep horses. It hadn’t been mowed in years and was covered in small trees. David recently hired someone to mow it so theoretically we could put a few cows or sheep in there.

Our current lifestyle doesn’t really mesh with homesteading. We are very busy with our music foundation and we travel a lot. But who knows what the future holds? Still, I’m inspired by the folks who create a living, or even just supplement a job, from the fruits of their land.

“This classic guide to homesteading is based on solid, practical techniques that remain useful to everyone who wants to learn country skills and increase their self-sufficiency. By turns philosophical and instructional, Ed and Carolyn Robinson share their pioneering approach to efficiently growing vegetables, raising livestock, and building farm structures. Since it was first published in 1943, The “Have-More” Planhas inspired generations of homesteaders to make the most out of whatever land they have available.”

Living a Beautiful Life by Alexandra Stoddard

I first read this a couple of decades ago and thus began, in earnest, my pursuit of “a beautiful life”. Alexandra Stoddard writes eloquently of bringing elements of beauty into one’s home and creating a life of joyful rituals. I’ve since read most of her books, most more than once. Each time I am reminded that we truly can create a beautiful life with intention.

“With the publication of Living A Beautiful Life, Alexandra Stoddard originated the idea of creating an atmosphere of beauty and tranquility with simple touches that turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. As a world-famous interior decorator, she has worked her magic on interiors large and small, from mansions and embassies to cottages and studio apartments. Through her writing and lectures, she has encouraged millions to brighten their lives and their homes by turning mundane tasks into small pleasurable rituals that add beauty and joy to everything they do.”

I’d love to hear which books inspire you and why. Leave me a comment. I’m always interested in discussing books. 🙂

LWD Book Club ~ May 2017

May 1, 2017 By Deanna Piercy 4 Comments

A new month! That means it’s time for the LWD Book Club selections for May. Our May book choices reflect this month’s blog themes of self-development, creativity and happiness.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Life With Dee!

LWD MAY BOOK CLUB SELECTIONS

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

“Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places: a city bus. “The days are long, but the years are short,” she realized. “Time is passing, and I’m not focusing enough on the things that really matter.” In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project.

In this lively and compelling account—now updated with new material by the author—Rubin chronicles her adventures during the twelve months she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific research, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier. Among other things, she found that novelty and challenge are powerful sources of happiness; that money can help buy happiness, when spent wisely; that outer order contributes to inner calm; and that the very smallest of changes can make the biggest difference.”

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

“Readers of all ages and walks of life have drawn inspiration and empowerment from Elizabeth Gilbert’s books for years. Now this beloved author digs deep into her own generative process to share her wisdom and unique perspective about creativity. With profound empathy and radiant generosity, she offers potent insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives. Balancing between soulful spirituality and cheerful pragmatism, Gilbert encourages us to uncover the “strange jewels” that are hidden within each of us. Whether we are looking to write a book, make art, find new ways to address challenges in our work, embark on a dream long deferred, or simply infuse our everyday lives with more mindfulness and passion, Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy.”

Daring Greatly by Brené Brown

“Daring Greatly is not about winning or losing. It’s about courage. In a world where “never enough” dominates and feeling afraid has become second nature, vulnerability is subversive. Uncomfortable. It’s even a little dangerous at times. And, without question, putting ourselves out there means there’s a far greater risk of getting criticized or feeling hurt. But when we step back and examine our lives, we will find that nothing is as uncomfortable, dangerous, and hurtful as standing on the outside of our lives looking in and wondering what it would be like if we had the courage to step into the arena—whether it’s a new relationship, an important meeting, the creative process, or a difficult family conversation. Daring Greatly is a practice and a powerful new vision for letting ourselves be seen.”

PREVIOUS LWD BOOK CLUB CHOICES:

My Library Sale Book Haul

April 7, 2017 By Deanna Piercy 8 Comments

I never can resist a library book sale. I’ve been stocking my home library from these sales for many, many years. I used to come home with boxes full, especially during the years we were homeschooling. I’ve become much more selective these days, largely because my shelves are packed. Still, I always find a few new friends to take home.

Let’s take a peek at my recent library sale book haul:

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Life With Dee!

Library Sale Book Haul

Seven books. I can’t believe I limited myself to seven books…

One Fifth Avenue by Candice Bushnell

Acutely observed and mercilessly witty, One Fifth Avenue is a modern-day story of old and new money, that same combustible mix that Edith Wharton mastered in her novels about New York’s Gilded Age and F. Scott Fitzgerald illuminated in his Jazz Age tales. Many decades later, Bushnell’s New Yorkers suffer the same passions as those fictional Manhattanites from eras past: They thirst for power, for social prominence, and for marriages that are successful–at least to the public eye. But Bushnell is an original, and One Fifth Avenue is so fresh that it reads as if sexual politics, real estate theft, and fortunes lost in a day have never happened before.

Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach

With the grace of Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s Gift from the Sea and the wisdom of M. Scott Peck’s The Road Less Traveled, Simple Abundance is a book of 366 evocative essays-one for every day of your year-written for women who wish to live by their own lights. In the past a woman’s spirituality has been separated from her lifestyle. Simple Abundance shows you how your daily life can be an expression of your authentic self … as you choose the tastiest vegetables from your garden, search for treasures at flea markets, establish a sacred space in your home for meditation, and follow the rhythm of the seasons and the year. Here, for the first time, the mystical alchemy of style and Spirit is celebrated. Every day, your own true path leads you to a happier, more fulfilling and contented way of life-the state of grace known as… Embrace its gentle lessons, savor its sublime common sense, dare to live its passionate truth, and share its extraordinary and exhilarating gift with every woman you encounter: the authentic self is the Soul made visible.

Southern Living by Ad Hudler

Welcome to the utterly eccentric world of Selby, Georgia, where the folks sprinkle three things liberally over their daily lives: sugar, religion, and the wicked fun of Southern living.

Domestic Pleasures by Beth Gutcheon

Engaging, witty, and entertaining, Domestic Pleasures is a touching, piercing tale of love lost, found, and embraced once again.

Three Weeks in Paris by Barbara Taylor Bradford

Legendary storyteller Barbara Taylor Bradford presents a spellbinding story of four women transformed by old memories and surprising revelations when they meet again at a school reunion in Paris.

Joy Street by Frances Parkinson Keyes

A young woman brought up in a Brahmin family on Beacon Hill falls in love with a man from a very different background.

Poems of Byron, Keats and Shelley – selected and edited by Elliott Coleman

Does your local public library host sales? If so, do you buy books from these sales? In all the years I have been attending these sales I’ll have to say my best score was a complete set of the Harvard Classics in perfect condition. I can’t recall what I paid for them but I’m thinking it was around $50. Do you have a favorite book purchase? I’d love to hear about it!

LWD Book Club ~ April 2017

April 1, 2017 By Deanna Piercy 5 Comments

April 1st…April Fool’s Day…AND time for new LWD Book Club selections! Our theme for the month of April is homemaking and I’m really excited to share my book choices for the month.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Life With Dee!

LWD APRIL BOOK CLUB SELECTIONS

This month’s blog topic is a favorite of mine. However, it was hard to narrow the book choices to only three. In fact, don’t be surprised if there are some “Lagniappe” posts this month suggesting other books on the topic of homemaking.

The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield

This first selection is one I’ve read several times. I picked it up in a used book store or perhaps our local library book sale many years ago. It’s a favorite of mine and I’m looking forward to reading it again.

The Homemaker

“Although this novel first appeared in 1924, it deals in an amazingly contemporary manner with the problems of a family in which both husband and wife are oppressed and frustrated by the roles they are expected to play. Evangeline Knapp is the perfect, compulsive housekeeper, while her husband, Lester, is a poet and a dreamer. Suddenly, through a nearly fatal accident, their roles are reversed: Lester is confined to home in a wheelchair and his wife must work to support the family. The changes that take place between husband and wife and particularly between parents and children are both fascinating and poignant.”

The Art of Homemaking by Alison May

Our second selection for the month is a charming ebook by my friend and fellow-blogger, Alison May of Brocante Home. Her writings have been inspiring me in my role as a homemaker for a decade or more. Alison has been hard at work getting her books on Amazon which makes them easy to access. I have most of them on my Kindle app now and love reading a few pages here or there when I need a little homemaking inspiration.

The Art of Homemaking

“What Alison (of Brocante Home) has created is a step by step guide to re-inventing your housekeeping existence. A guide to making friends with your house so that it will hug you instead of kicking you in the teeth day after day and remind you, through the voices of housewives gone by, that the urge, or perhaps more significantly the need to keep house is neither anti-feminist, nor futile but is in fact exactly what we must do if we are to nourish our hearts and souls daily and in the long run create a beautiful museum of all that we were: women in control of our own environments and ultimately our destinies, because home is where we begin…”

At Home With the Jardines by Lilian Bell

And speaking of Alison, this last selection is one of her finds. She apparently shares my love of vintage novels with a sweet, home-based aspect. For years I have been snapping up books like this at library book sales. When I first moved to Oklahoma in 1980 I was utterly charmed by our local public library. It was no place to do any sort of serious research but it was liberally stocked with charming, old fashioned novels. Then they began “upgrading” the selection and selling off these vintage books at the biannual used book sales. I consider it my sacred duty to rescue these treasures, much to my husband’s dismay because I keep mentioning the need for him to build me some more bookshelves.

At Home With the Jardines

“I have heard of many curious women who do not enjoy housekeeping. I am free to confess that I do not understand why, unless they started out in life with the conceited idea that to bend their wonderful brains upon the silly problem of keeping a house clean and ordering dinners was beneath women of their possibilities on club essays. I often wonder if they attacked the proposition of housekeeping with the intention of seeing how much fun there is in it, of how much pleasure could be got out of making a home, not merely keeping house, and of feeding their conceit with the fuel of a determination to keep house better than any woman of their acquaintance. The simple but fascinating problem of how to make each room a little prettier than it was last week, would keep even an ingenious woman busy and interested in something worth while, and those of us who are sensitive to impressions would be spared the truly awful sight of certain incongruous rooms in handsome houses.”

(Available via the Gutenberg Project, too.)

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LWD Book Club ~ March 2017

March 1, 2017 By Deanna Piercy 5 Comments

A new month means it’s time for the LWD Book Club selections! We also begin a new theme for the blog. Let’s take a look:

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Life With Dee!

LWD March Book Club Selections

LWD’s theme for the month of March will be mindfulness, health and fitness. Two of our book club selections relate to those topics.

In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan

We live in a time in which we are bombarded with complicated and often conflicting nutritional information. By contrast, Michael Pollan’s advice is refreshingly simple:

“Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

I love his common sense approach to eating and highly recommend his books. In Defense of Food is one of only a couple of “diet” books that remain on my bookshelves.

The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation by Thich Nhat Hanh

I have been meditating off and on for a few years now. I still have much to learn but I definitely see the benefits when I do it. I looked for a book for beginners and this one was highly recommended. Let’s read it together.

In this beautiful and lucid guide, Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh offers gentle anecdotes and practical exercise as a means of learning the skills of mindfulness–being awake and fully aware. From washing the dishes to answering the phone to peeling an orange, he reminds us that each moment holds within it an opportunity to work toward greater self-understanding and peacefulness.

The Veins of the Ocean by Patricia Engel

I’m all about setting in the novels I read. If I won the lottery I would travel extensively. But since I keep forgetting to buy lottery tickets I indulge my wanderlust by reading. I’m looking forward to this one:

Set in the vibrant coastal and Caribbean communities of Miami, the Florida Keys, Havana, Cuba, and Cartagena, Colombia, with The Veins of the Ocean Patricia Engel delivers a profound and riveting Pan-American story of fractured lives finding solace and redemption in the beauty and power of the natural world, and in one another.

What are you reading this month? Do you plan to join me in any of my March selections?

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LWD Book Club ~ February 2017

February 1, 2017 By Deanna Piercy 2 Comments

It’s the first day of February. Do you know what that means? That’s right. New selections for the LWD Book Club! It’s also the beginning of a new theme for LWD blog posts.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting Life With Dee!

LWD FEBRUARY BOOK CLUB SELECTIONS

February’s theme here on Life With Dee includes frugal living and “going green”. There is so much overlap between these two topics that it only made sense to do them both together.

This month’s LWD Book Club selections all reflect the monthly topics this time.

I have read another of Sophie Uliano’s books, “Gorgeously Green” and enjoyed it. It’s no longer available on Amazon although you might be able to find it in your library. Instead I selected “Do It Gorgeously“, a handbook of sorts on how to make less toxic and less expensive products yourself. I’m looking forward to learning more about this DIY aspect of going green.

Do It Gorgeously

This next book was written by Beth Terry. She blogs at MyPlasticFreeLife, formerly known as Fake Plastic Fish. My daughter, who blogs at Retro Housewife Goes Green, became acquainted with Beth through a green blogging group several years ago. Beth included an essay about Lisa in this book and then invited her to speak with her at an event in Tulsa a few years ago. I went with her and we both had the honor of meeting Beth, going out to dinner with her after the event and then back to her hotel room where the three of us talked until 1 a.m. It was as though we had all been friends for ages. If you’re interested, you can read the blog post I wrote about it here: Plastic, Wikipedia and Field Trips.

Plastic Free

Many, many years ago when I quit my job as a R.N. case manager for a hospice company in order to homeschool our kids, I was highly motivated to cut expenses. After all, our income had been cut in half. That’s when I discovered The Tightwad Gazette books. Back then there were three of them and I own them all. Now they are available all in one book. Convenient and frugal! I consider this the bible of frugal living. Some of the ideas are pretty out there for my taste and these days I’m much more interested in eating a healthy, mostly organic diet than is reflected in this book. Still, there are hundreds and hundreds of worthwhile ideas contained in these pages.

The Tightwad Gazette

If you have any favorite books on frugal living or going green, leave me a comment and I’ll include them on the resource page I’ll do at the end of the month.

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