Book Review

I've been really busy lately so it's been awhile since I've had a chance to sit down & read a book. Second Time Around by Beth Kendrick was the perfect book to read in my downtime and would be a great summer beach read.

Second Time Around is about several college friends who get together for a mini-reunion every summer. After their 10th summer reunion, the friends unexpectedly inherit $1 million with the stipulation that they are to use it to follow their follow dreams & start over with their careers doing what they love and what they always wanted to do. The changes they encounter in their new professional lives lead to secrets and scandal from their past as well as second chances.

I think most women will be able to relate to this book because it shows the value of friendship and following your heart. The author does a great job of stringing together each individual storyline and tying it all together while adding humor to what can be a somewhat serious story at points. I loved this book & look forward to read more by Beth Kendrick.

Book Review

I've started reading a few books lately but haven't been able to get into them so I never finished reading them. I was super excited to start Hush by Kate White because I'd read several other mystery novels by her and she hadn't written one in a few years.

In Hush, Lake Warren is recently separated from her husband, Jack, who is suing for full custody of their two kids. She recently began working with the Advanced Fertility Center as a marketing consultant, alongside the flirtatious Dr. Keaton. But the morning after their one-night stand, Lake finds Dr. Keaton with his throat slashed. Lake is forced to lie to the police so she doesn't jeopardize her right to have full custody of her kids but they start to question her more about the murder. People at the clinic start treating her differently and she has several dangerous encounters. All Lake wants is to find out who killed Dr. Keaton so she can stop living in fear.

This book definitely lived up to my expectations and was a real page turner. I found myself saying, ok I'll stop reading at the end of this chapter, and before I knew it, 50 pages had gone by. I was shocked by the "whodunit" at the end, it was a great twist. This book held my interest from start to finish without any dull moments, and continued to be suspenseful to the very end.

Book Review

Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani is the first book in a trilogy about Valentine Roncalli, a 33-year-old who is an apprentice to her grandmother and their family's wedding shoe company, Angelini Shoe Company, that's been around since 1903. Unfortunately, the company is also on the verge of financial collapse. Valentine must save the company from disaster while also juggling her new romance with famous chef, Roman Falconi and competing in a shoe design challenge from a prestigious department store. This book takes Valentine to Italy on a trip with her grandmother where she learns new techniques and finds new materials for her one of a kind shoes while a family secret is also revealed.


Like most books I read, it was a fun, easy read with a great cast of characters. I was rooting for Valentine the whole time to be successful in her family's company but also in romance. The ending was a bit predictable but good. When Valentine and her grandmother travel to Italy, the author does a great job of describing Italy and it makes me very excited to go there in September for the first time. The second book in this trilogy, Brava, Valentine, recently came out and I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Book Review

The Morning Show Murders by Al Roker & Dick Lochte is the latest book I've read. Here's a quick overview of the book. Billy Blessing, a New York City celebrity chef who owns a restaurant and does a variety of segments on a morning show, becomes a suspect in a murder case after Rudy Gallagher, Blessing's executive producer on the show with whom he has clashed, dies after eating some poisoned food from Blessing's restaurant. Throw in an international secret that Gallagher was keeping along with a well-known assassin who just came into town, and before you know it, another murder strikes the morning show and Billy knows that someone is out to frame him.

The Morning Show Murders by Al Roker & Dick Lochte

If I had to rate this book, I would give it 3 stars out of 5. It was just so-so. I typically like a good mystery book because it keeps you hooked in with all the twists & turns and you're trying to figure out who did it. While this book definitely kept you guessing until the end, I had a hard time following some of the plot and characters. Most of the clues are there for you to figure out who did it, but they are not very obvious so after I read the book, I actually went back and re-read the parts based on how Billy figured it out. There was a bit of political aspect to the book as well with the international secret. I laughed at a few parts and enjoyed most of the characters, but all in all, I thought it was pretty slow-paced until the last third & didn't think it was more than an average mystery book.

Book Review

Wow, I really loved this book! The Overnight Socialite by Bridie Clark is a modern day take on My Fair Lady and Pygmalion. Lucy Jo Ellis is a midwestern girl who moves to Manhattan to live out her dream of becoming a fashion designer. Instead, she is stuck working in the sweatshops of the Fashion District. After a terrible night, Lucy runs into Wyatt Hayes IV, who has a bet going with his friend that he can turn any average girl into one of New York's most famous socialites. They have 3 months to make her over, get heads turning, and have her invited to the biggest & best parties. The ending is slightly predictable but good nonetheless.



It was one of those books where I didn't want to put it down! It's a fun, light read that you can breeze right through. The only thing I didn't really like was the ending because you can tell it was set up for a sequel. I can definitely see this book becoming a movie too. I also recommend reading Because She Can by Bridie Clark especially if you enjoyed Devil Wears Prada.

Another Book Down...

I just finished reading Nanny Returns by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. This is the sequel to The Nanny Diaries and picks up 12 years after the original book. You should probably read the original before the sequel though because a lot of the story deals with situations from The Nanny Diaries.

Nan Hutchinson was a nanny to Grayer X in the first book and now 12 years later, she and her husband, the "Harvard Hottie," have moved back to New York after living abroad. Grayer is now 16 and shows up one night on Nan's doorstep. She still feels guilty about what happened when she was his nanny and is dragged back into the drama of Mr. and Mrs. X and their new 7-year old son, Stilton. Nan is also busying starting her own consulting company and remodeling her house with her husband.

I found the book to be really slow during some parts but the last 100 pages or so I couldn't put it down because I was dying to know how it finished. The main characters are likable and it's hard to imagine people actually acting like they do in this book (think upper class of New York...aka The Real Housewives of New York) but they go into way more detail and description than is needed. Definitely not one of my favorites books (and I liked The Nanny Diaries better) but worth checking out and reading if you don't have anything else to read in the time being.

Bookworm

Besides running, one thing I really love to do is read. I enjoy reading all kinds of books but typically I either read "chick lit" or books about running. Every so often, I'm going to post what I'm reading and whether or not I'd recommend reading it because I know I'm always searching for good books.

Vision in White by Nora Roberts

Vision in White is the first book in a four book series called "The Bride Quartet" about childhood friends, Emma, Laurel, Parker, and Mackensie who operate a wedding planner company named Vows. Each has their own specialty: one creates beautiful wedding cakes, one arranges floral arrangements, one handles the books, and one is a photographer. Each book in the series will focus on one of the characters. Vision in White is about Mackensie, the photographer. I've never read any other books by Nora Roberts so I don't know how this compares but I found it to be a fun, easy read about friendship and romance. The second book in the series just came out last month, called Bed of Roses, and is about Emma, the florist. I already have another book to read but I'm sure I'll be reading that one too in the next couple weeks.

The Runner's Rule Book by Mark Remy

This is a quick, entertaining read for runners that discusses rules, etiquette, and behavior of running. There are some serious rules but a lot of them are meant to be humorous. Some of my favorites include:

Rule 1.4 Black Toenails are Badges of Honor
Rule 2.32 Do Whatever it Takes to Finish Ahead of a Costumed Runner
Rule 3.5 Save the Race Shirt for Post Race

Sushi & Beer

What we thought would be an uneventful weekend turned out to be quite busy for Todd and I. This past Friday night we went to my work holiday party at Columbus Brewing Company. It was pretty low key but fun to hang out with my coworkers, along with a few former coworkers who were also invited.

Saturday we spent the better part of the day visiting Chihuly exhibits (see post from 01/10/10). We also made a stop at the North Market to walk around and see if there was anything good to try/buy. We bought a waffle from Taste of Belgium, which was delicious and not what I expected it to taste like, as well as a loaf of bread from Omega Artisan Baking to have with our gnocchi for dinner that night. We also drove by the new Ohio Union on OSU's campus to see if it was finished (almost but not open yet, at least it didn't look like it) and made one last stop at the Beer & Winemaker's Shop where Todd couldn't resist buying a brew kit to make Holiday Ale.

So what do you think we did on Sunday? Yep, you got it, we made beer. I met Todd at his house early Sunday afternoon for omelets (egg whites, veggies, and fat free cheese for me though because of my low fat diet per my doctor....boo!!) and hash brown potatoes. Afterwards, the real adventure began!

Todd & I brewed our 3rd batch of beer. We had previously made an Amber and a Dunkelweizen so this time we made the Holiday Ale. It took almost 6 hours from the start to when we transferred the wort (it's not technically beer yet) to the fermenter. It'll still be a few more weeks until it's ready to be bottled.

After we added the malt extract & bittering hops

The longest step while brewing the beer is cooling it down to room temperature after it's been boiling for over an hour. Needless to say, my patience begins to wear a little thin during this step, but luckily on Sunday, we made sushi for dinner while we were waiting.

Our sushi in front with veggie tempura in the back

I plan on posting more in the next couple weeks about the whole beer making process from start to finish (with pics of course!) so stay tuned....


Also, for those ladies out there who need a good book to read, I just finished reading The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks. I've read quite a few of his books (he wrote The Notebook and A Walk to Remember among others) and really enjoyed this one. I definitely recommend it!

And I came home from work today and had a package from Amazon! It's the new book I just ordered called Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance. I'm pretty excited to start reading it because it got good reviews and it's perfect timing for my Boston training. I really am focused on trying to PR in April and I want to know that when the race is over, I gave it everything I could whether that's in my running, cross training, lifting, sleeping, and/or eating.