Category Archives: must reads

4 design books worth your dime

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I’ve been waiting for this bad boy to come out for SIX months! It’s finally here, and it totally lives up to the hype. So many design books make me crazy – they’re impossibly perfect and offer no useful advice. If you’re curious, I made a list of the only 4 I’ve read that have actually been helpful during this reno. Great aspirational photos, ideas that can actually be pared down and recreated, plus oodles of real-world advice (snaps to Remodelista & Emily Henderson in particular for making this process slightly less terrifying).

You should probably just buy them all for yourself. Right now. In fact, here are some links:

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must reads: summer 2014

summer-must-reads

As a rule, I’m not much of a summer person – give me a crisp September morning over a blazing July afternoon any day. But one thing I can’t get enough of this time of year is the inevitable surge of fantastic new reads. Keep your Hollywood blockbusters (seriously, how many Transformers movies are we going to be subjected to?), and give me a cozy evening at my favorite local bookstore any day. best summer books

Just now, my bedside table runneth over, friends – especially since I’ve teamed up with my new friends at Diesel Bookstore, who are geniuses at helping me discover those lesser-known “indie flick” books that are serious gems. I can hardly wait to help you stuff your beach bag to brimming with any (or all) of my new favorites. This time, I’m breaking things up into two categories – Smart Reads and Beach Reads. Because, let’s be honest…when it’s August and you’re sitting by the pool, you don’t always want Shakespeare.

Read on →

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must reads: spring 2014

We are painfully overdue for a Must Reads, aren’t we? If I’m honest, it’s because the last few books I’ve read haven’t done much for me (and in some cases have been downright infuriating. Did anyone else read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle?!). But I’m pleased to tell you that I’m back on a literary high streak – a few of my favorites this month: spring 2014 books Read on →

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must reads: november

I have to warn you: there’s only one fiction title on this month’s Must Reads list. Not that there isn’t wonderful fiction to be found – my shelves are groaning with books I’ve yet to read – but this time of year is when the really wonderful eye candy books start to appear. The best cookbooks, design books, cheery gift books – all things you’d want to give someone for, say, a holiday that’s coming up on you faster than a freight train. I’m holding a few back for the holidays, but some are just too good to keep from you for one more moment.

Just promise me you won’t let the shortage of traditional page-turners deter you – whatever their genre, more than a few of these books are just begging to be read cover to cover.   Read on →

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must reads: august

I’ve realized summer is for books what fall is for television. There are an impossible number of truly fantastic titles in my review pile this month. So many, in fact, that I’ve been putting off this post because I quite honestly didn’t know where to start, or how to narrow my list. I’ve managed it, but it was quite the hat trick…and it’s still long. Luckily, you still have a few weeks left of those long, sun-drenched days, and I’m determined to help you spend as many of them as possible stretched out on a chaise lounge, reading a new book you can’t put down.  Read on →

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august essentials

It’s August! The official month of vacations and sunbathing…or, more realistically, grinding your teeth at work while you pretend to be productive. In celebration, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite time-wasting goodies guaranteed to get your summer mojo flowin’. Just add sunscreen! Read on →

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foodie finds: the best new cookbooks I can’t stop reading

While I may not love summer fashion, it’s hands-down my favorite season for cooking. Mountains of fresh fruit and veg at every farmer’s market, light summer pastas, pizza on the grill, making pesto out of just about anything…it’s exactly what I want to be cooking (and eating) all year long, but it’s just so easy in the summertime. This is the time of year when I let my CSA box dictate what’s on the menu for dinner, and honestly, I think I love the challenge of it. “Okay, gypsy peppers…what would one do with these?”

All this to say you’ll have to indulge my culinary wanderings a bit more this time of year. Because I’m devouring new cookbooks (and ingredients) as quickly as you’d chow down a plate of my homemade kale chips. My current favorites? I’m so glad you asked. Read on →

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must reads: june (aka: my summer reading list, part one)

Friends, it’s time to start compiling those summer reading lists! Truly, I look forward to my summer reads all year. I’m a positively voracious reader in these warm months – all that extra daylight finds me, more often than not, sunning myself on my deck, devouring my latest find. Every summer, I start out with a few sophisticated, smart novels and nonfiction picks, but by August, it’s all about the lazy beach reads. So, before this month totally gets away from me, allow me to present Part the One of my summer reading list: Read on →

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