Still on an audiobook kick… but I think I’m out of my cookbook-reading phase. At least for now…

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Eat Like a Gilmore
by Kristi Carlson (cookbook) – Skip

I am a huge fan of Gilmore Girls, so this cookbook intrigued me. I was curious what a cookbook for the Gilmore Girls could be like since Lorelai used her oven as storage and they seem to subsist on coffee, pop tarts, burgers with fries and all things candy. But after reading the intro, loved the creativity of tying the recipes to certain dishes eaten on specific episodes of the show! Alas, none of the recipes really called me to action to create myself, so as a cookbook, I’d skip it.

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Happily Homemade
by Rachel Schultz (cookbook) – Skip

I believe I picked up this cookbook through Thrift Books (referral link) and after reading it, immediately put it up for grabs on PaperbackSwap (referral link). I can’t tell you much about it because it wasn’t memorable. I’m sure the recipes were fine, but maybe I’m just need a break from reading cookbooks?

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Born A Crime
by Trevor Noah (nonfiction, audiobook) – MUST LISTEN

If I made of list of best audiobooks I’ve ever listened to, this would be on it. To be honest, after I started listening to it, it was my husband was the one who told me Noah took place of Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. I had read that Noah was a comedian, so I guess I was expecting a comedic book/story. This is not. Well, not really. It’s his memoir of life growing up in South Africa – and it is a very interesting glimpse. I feel quite ignorant in my knowledge of Apartheid and the world afterward. I absolutely love Noah’s storytelling and hearing about what life was like for him.

Like the books The Girl with Seven Names and Love, Loss and What We Ate, I am always fascinated learning what it’s like to grow up in other parts of the world.

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The Goldfinch
by Donna Tartt (fiction, audiobook) – MUST LISTEN

This book seems to have such divided camps! You either love it or hate it, perhaps because it is such a long book. I chose it because it was highly recommended on audio and is 32 hours and 30 minutes long. Normally, I wouldn’t be able to finish such a book with a 3-day-per-week commute without some hefty library fines. But our 22-hr RT road trip to Michigan twice per year would do it! We finished a little over half the book during the first trip and then marked where we left off and returned it to the library. I reserved it again for our September trip and we were so looking forward to it.

I would agree that the book is slow in some parts, but I did love the narration. Boris was my favorite character! I am not sure if I would have felt that way if I would have read the book over listening to it. The movie adaptation is to be released in 2019 and my husband and I already have a date to see it.

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Braving the Wilderness
by Brené Brown (nonfiction, audiobook) – worth a listen

This book is so eye-opening in this day in age of political polarization and an we vs. them culture. In some parts, the author spent a lot of time explaining her research. I understand that this is the nature of the beast when writing a book on such a topic and establishing your expertise on what you are writing, but sometimes I just wanted to skip over that stuff.

There were so many takeaways about standing on your own and not having to pick sides because real life is more complicated than that. For instance, yes you can support police and first responders, but also expect to hold them accountable. If I had the book, I know I would have highlighted passages. In fact, I decided to listen to it twice, the second time when we needed something to listen to our last leg of our Michigan trip after we finished The Goldfinch. 

My husband isn’t in the habit in listening to reading these kinds of books, so he wasn’t a fan at first. But when she got into the topics of political polarization and the dangers of dehumanization, I found him nodding in agreement. I remember her saying, “It’s hard to hate someone up close.”

My advice: this is a book worth reading/listening to, but please be patient in the beginning if you have a hard time muddling through the research aspect.

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What’s the best audiobook you’ve listened to lately?
(Apparently, that’s how I’ve been getting my reading in as of late!)

Cheers~
Carrie