That’s actually not being very fair to myself. I made goals that weren’t achievable and that were a little too vague. So I’m chalking January up as a test drive and have set more detailed, specific goals for February that I feel I’ll be more successful at tackling, especially with the way my schedule has been with work. (Read: CRAZY.)

January was far from a fail. My first goal this month for 12 Changes in 12 Months was to eat out only once a week, forcing myself to cook more at home. Healthy for me and much healthier for my bank account. I can get into ruts where I get lazy in the morning, opting for going out for lunch on my lunch breaks at work which can cost me anywhere from five to ten dollars a day. Not exactly cheap, or in my budget.

The worst part about this going out for lunch thing is that I work in a mall. Sure, it’s an outdoor mall and I get fresh air when I leave the store which is always a good thing but on the way to many restaurants are cute stores like Anthropologie, LOFT and Francesca’s. And more often than not, I would end up buying something I didn’t need. Add on Starbucks coffees (you know, the latte and pricey varieties) and I was spending quite a bit of money on pointless things every week. So my goal of eating out only once a week eliminated eating out for lunch, thus eliminating all those extra purchases.

How’d I do? I was successful! I reserved my one meal out for dinners with friends, made a couple meals a week (sometimes with friends) and substituted eating sandwiches and reading a book on my lunch break in the breakroom of work. I’ve experimented with Thai Coconut Chicken Curry Soup, made spaghetti and meatballs and made some atomic green chili. I’ve read six books so far this year, thanks to that half hour of reading during the day and I have been able to save up far more money than normal. It sure feels good to have succeeded in this big resolution.

Of course having goals like China, New Orleans and St. Simon’s Island really helps keep my impulses in check and gives me a little extra boost of willpower. I’d love to find a way to make saving money in general as exciting as travel budgeting!

For February I am planning on focusing on a few more goals. This time I’m focusing on health to further promote the goals I’ve started working on in January.

• Stopping drinking creamer in my coffee
• Going to do my ten day veggie fast (it’s all those juice fasts I’m seeing all over Facebook, Twitter and Instagram! I’m mainly looking at you, Amy Thanks for the inspiration!)
• Run six miles a week. I’ve started running recently and it’s easier–and harder–than I expected. Easy in that I have been able to run almost two miles straight without really stopping or being in too much pain; hard in that the altitude is KICKING MY ASS. My lungs cry every time!
• An ongoing goal this year is to stop picking my nails. So far it’s been hard and while I’ve been using cuticle cream more often, I still haven’t slowed my bad habit.

We are having a snow day here in Boulder and I’m enjoying my me time on my sofa. Let’s just say this Friday off has been much needed after a hectic last week of the month at my job. Have a great weekend everyone!

“Happiness is a risk. If you’re not a little scared, then you’re not doing it right.”-Sarah Addison, The Peach Keeper

Two years ago this past weekend I packed up my bags and did something absolutely crazy. I moved across the country to a town, a state, that I had never stepped foot in. It was the final spontaneous act of a girl who had decided with two months notice to move out of New York City, travel Europe for three months and then a mere month after arriving back in the US decided to move to Boulder, Colorado after a couple conversations with a fellow blogger, Doni.

I arrived January 28, 2010 with absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into. I had never lived in a landlocked state, had never seen the Rockies outside of a trip to Wyoming six months prior and didn’t know anything about the town I was about to call my home. It was a huge risk but it wasn’t any bigger or smaller than the risks I had been taking for months earlier so it wasn’t that big of a deal to me. Looking back, I see just how risky it was and how lucky I am that it turned out so fantastically.

It’s been two years and life has been interesting. While I miss the energy of New York and my friends pretty fiercely, Boulder has charmed me in other ways–the beautiful sunsets, the generous, welcoming community, and all those fluffy puppies that wander into my job on a daily basis. I’m still trying to figure out my place here but I have made good friends, eaten ridiculously good food (thank god for a good foodie scene!) and have a beautiful space I call home. At first it was exciting, as all new things are, but then last year life became stagnant. I got bored.

I’m one of those people who love comfort. I actually really dislike being out of my element and uncomfortable, which may come as a surprise to some of you who know my love of travel and adventure. Or maybe you’re not.  A good example is the routines I picked up in New York: I always walked the same routes through the city and while they varied depending on where I was going, I always took the same routes to the places I frequented the most–school, work, shopping. I could guide myself along those streets blindfolded, if I had to. And it was comforting. It doesn’t sound very adventurous, it certainly doesn’t sound like I was trying anything new, but in my stress-filled life of constant stimulation, it was the one thing that had a calming effect on me, these silly routines I developed. It’s like the things I repetitively do–like pick my fingers, watch the same movie over and over again, listen to a song on repeat til I’m so sick of it I could cry. All this repetition is extremely comforting. But sometimes, I get too comfortable–and then I get depressed. Let’s wave at my November and December selves. Don’t give them too much attention, I don’t want them to think I want them to come visit again.

So I’m shaking it all up. I did it in 2009 when I quit my job and ran off to Europe, then moved here. 2010 was pretty wild but 2011 I got too comfortable in my ways here.

So in 2012, I’m shaking it up. I’m going to have adventures, the biggest being China. China is a huuuuge step outside of my comfort zone and there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t freak out a little bit about doing it alone. But I’m also RIDICULOUSLY excited about it. China isn’t the only thing that’s pushing the envelope of comfort for me. I mentioned some BIG FUCKING THINGS were in the mix the last time I wrote on here and while I still can’t mention them, they’re certainly scaring the bejesus out of me. But I’m going to do it if only because it scares me.

Another thing I’m doing is addressing those two left-feet-turned-backwards that I have. Oh, you know them. They don’t have any rhythm and most of the time it resembles the running man on crack. Yep, I’ve got those. My best friend here, Morgan, is a salsa instructor and avid dancer. I’ve been with her a couple times and have watched her dance–while clutching my vodka and soda in a death grip, shaking my head furiously at anyone who even thought about approaching me for a dance. The thought of tearing it up on the dance floor gives me hives.

So the other night I joined her at a local ballroom where her dance company was performing. I was watching the room full of people learning how to dance and Morgan was even spinning me around backstage, teaching me the basics which my feet somehow were actually getting. She has mentioned several times that I should come be her assistant–get free salsa lessons and do it all in front of people who have no idea what they’re doing either. She mentioned it again and you know what?

I’m going to do it.

I’m going to learn how to salsa dance. Even if I suck horribly at it, at least I’ll have tried.

Which is kind of my life motto at the moment. It’s not worth doing if it doesn’t scare you a little bit, right?

One big thing I will announce today is that not only is today the LAST DAY to sign up for my Valentine Gift Exchange (seriously. Do it.), I’m offering something I have not yet previously offered on my blog.

Sponsorships.

I’d love to give my readers the opportunity to spotlight themselves, whether it be their crafty store on etsy, their photography business or just their own personal blog. I often find new blogs by those that are featured in my favorite’s sidebars so I figured I should give back as well.

Some stats to work with:

• 180 Subscribers
• Approximately a 1,000 unique views a month
• 1,077 Twitter followers
• 53 Facebook fans
• 171 Instagram followers
• 93 Tumblr followers

If you’re interested in becoming a sponsor you have two options:

A 317 x 161 (pixels) banner ad for $20 a month

Update: I can also offer my meager graphic design skills if you’d like me to make you a banner. Just tack on an additional 10 bucks and I’ll make you one with one additional change/edit. 

I used to have big, crazy, stars-in-my-eyes dreams for my life. If you had asked me where I wanted to be at age 30 when I was all of 22 years old, I would have confidently spouted out how I would own my own (successful) design firm, married with possibly a kid (I was in a long term relationship at that point that was quickly heading in that direction, so, fair enough.), living in a house that I most likely owned. If you had told me then what my life was like now I probably would have laughed. Or cried. A lot.

Now I sit on 30′s doorstep, working in a retail job (about as far away from owning my own firm as possible), contemplating a career change, still living with roommates and as single as can be. With absolutely no life plan. When I even try to formulate a plan because it seems ridiculous that I have no plan for my life five years out–hell, I don’t even have one for a year out!–I get flustered, overwhelmed and then pretend I got distracted and forget about it. Until the next person comes along and asks me that question and then I inwardly panic about how my shit is not together and how am I supposed to answer that?!

You see, I was raised with this belief that by the age of 30 you should have everything in order. It’s not that I haven’t had this fantastic life–I have. It’s dotted with these stories that one day I will tell my grandchildren (you know, if I ever find a guy, actually settle down long enough to pop out a couple babies and hope those babies don’t grow up to be me and childless), stories that are ridiculous and fun and holy shit that actually happened to me. And while this collecting of stories is awesome and I wouldn’t trade my experiences in life for anything but it does makes me wonder just what happened to me along the way. Where my life dreams and goals went off to.

I wouldn’t put it past myself to start looking under sofa cushions and in cupboards to locate these missing goals, that’s about how far lost I am at figuring out what they are. I can’t tell you what I want to do career wise, that’s one big ol’ question mark hovering over my head, one that could produce migraines and potentially a bit of frustrated crying and I try to avoid doing that at all costs. But maybe I can start small, maybe that will give me some form of insight into where I want my life to go.

So what do I want? I want to grow as a person. Rediscover my self-confidence. Dig that creativity out from the hole it’s hiding under. Chill out with the road rage. Find a career I love, not just a job to tide me over until the next big thing. Figure out where my passions lie and then go there. Continue having adventures and create those stories but build a foundation here at home. Become more active. Develop meaningful, rich relationships. Start really saving money. Love again. And most importantly, I want to be happy. Happy with my life. And proud of all that I’ve created. That’d be nice too.

I always thought that by the time I hit 30, that the confusion and mess of my 20s would all be settled out and honestly, that my life would appear much more adult-like. I certainly never imagined myself where I am now, working where I do and how far off track I’ve become. I sometimes wonder if my moving to Boulder has anything to do with this (but that’s a topic for a whole other post). Life certainly has a way of throwing you curve balls. It’s how you get yourself out of them that counts.

Are you where you wanted to be by now?

Cooking with friends is the only reason I like cooking; cooking for just myself is never as fun which is why more often than not, I will make mac and cheese or a simple sandwich. So maybe it is with selfish reasons that I relish these meals made with Adriana but I do love the company and it keeps me from becoming a complete hermit like I’m wont to do during the winter.

The meal we made last week was born on a Superbowl Sunday many years ago in New York with two of my closest friends, Shareeza and Pearl. Actually, it was born on the Food Network earlier that week on one of Rachael Ray’s 30 Minute Meals and I decided I HAD TO MAKE IT.

Rachael Ray’s Chili Suizas Bake

First, I should say that this is most definitely NOT a 30 Minute Meal, especially if you follow her recipe exactly and make the salsa verde from scratch. That is exactly what was done that first time; it took the three of us nearly three hours to make the chili in my tiny kitchen using my magic bullet blender on the interesting little tomatillos I had never even laid eyes on before that day’s trip to Whole Foods.

It was one of the best chilis I had ever had, made all the better by laughter and there’s really nothing better than fresh salsa made from scratch. However, I don’t have all the time in the world and even with cutting out making my own salsa and substituting it with pre-jarred salsa verde it takes about an hour and a half to two hours to make. Unfortunately my kitchen, while larger than my New York City one, does not come equipped with an army of prep cooks who slice and dice everything into neatly, correctly portioned bowls for my use and I have a feeling even a good cook couldn’t accomplish this dish in half an hour. I’m onto you, Rachael Ray.

Last week Adriana and I conquered this dish (my third time) over a bottle of Clayhouse Adobe Red, a deliciously smooth blend of reds. I can’t tell you how much jarred salsa verde to replace the 12-16 tomatillos the recipe calls for, and I probably use too much which is why it has to simmer for so long to reduce, but either way, it is still my favorite.

A rule of thumb I have with this dish is that it always will be more spicy the second or third day after so how spicy it is the first night is always a gauge of how spicy it will be down the line of leftovers, which there will be plenty. When I cut into the poblanos last week, the spice went straight to the back of my throat without my even needing to put it in my mouth. I knew I was in for it and when we sat down to eat we both exclaimed how spicy it was.

Let’s just say it has become atomic over the past couple days and my tongue is still numb 4 hours after eating the last of the leftovers. I’m not the biggest spicy food lover but I make an exception for this dish. It’s delicious!

Chili Suizas Bake

(taken from foodnetwork.com)

Ingredients

• 3 large poblano peppers
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan
• 2 pounds ground chicken (I use turkey)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 12 large or 16 medium to small tomatillos, peeled, rinsed and halved (or 16 oz salsa verde in a jar)
• 1/4 cup cilantro, a handful
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 2 teaspoons honey
• Salt and pepper
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1/2 cup creme fraiche
• 3 cups lightly crushed tortilla chips
• 1 cup shredded Swiss cheese, about 1/3 pound
• 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese, about 1/3 pound

Directions

Oh Won’t You Be My (Blog) Valentine?

Fourth Annual Valentine Blog Swap!

Some of you know the drill, but for those of you who are new, or just need some reminding, here’s the gist: the swap is like Secret Santa, only for Valentine’s Day. I match bloggers at random; you will know who you have, but they won’t know who has them, just like you won’t know who has you. So when Valentine’s Day comes and your package arrives from your mysterious Valentine, you’ll be very pleasantly surprised! It’s a great way to spread the love, meet new people and find new blogs!

For the past few years I’ve had at least 100 people participate and it’s been fantastic! I can’t wait to host my fourth one and I hope that everyone who visits this site, whether you’re an oldie, a newbie, been referred here by a friend or stumbled randomly across this will participate!! Now, here are some rules and I DO expect them to be followed.

1. You cannot request who you will be matched up with, the random matching is the beauty of this game! Sometimes you get a friend which is awesome, and sometimes you make a new one!
2. Gifts will have a max purchase amount of $20. Don’t know what to get? Peruse their blog, find out their interests and hobbies or get them something that you love and think they’d love too. Get creative!
3. You don’t have to have a blog, twitter or even facebook! If you do not have any of these help a girl out and let me know some of your favorite things but don’t shy away just because you’re not a blogger.
4. SERIOUS PARTICIPANTS ONLY. I mean it. Participate only if you are serious about giving a gift in exchange for receiving one. It’s only fair for everyone involved and I don’t want to have to chase your ass down to get you to send someone their gift. Overall this experience has been a positive one and I’ve heard awesome things but every year there has been a handful of people who have their feelings hurt because they never received a gift. Please, please only sign up if you plan on giving, not just receiving.
5. If, after you sign up, you suddenly find yourself not able to participate AT ANY POINT (even if I’ve matched you up!), please email me at ashalah@ashalah.com and I will fix things. I will appreciate your honesty, as will your partner!
6. I apologize but this year I’m going to have to restrict the participants to the US and Canada only. I’d love to include everyone from around the world but it gets harder to match people.
7. If you wish, you can use the badge on your site to show off that you’re participating!
8. When sending your package, include a little note with who you are and where you blog!!
9. If you need to contact the person you have but don’t want to spoil the surprise, just ask me and I’ll do it for you!
10. HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!!!

To enter, please fill out this form by Midnight PST January 26, 2012.  Don’t worry, only I will have access to your information and promise promise promise no one other than me and the person who has you will see it.

If you have any questions or have any problems with filling out this form please email me at ashalah@ashalah.com. 

Are you ready? Let’s go!

The second week of 2012 has been a productive one. Currently I am…

• Goal setting like a mad-woman, thanks to Nicole’s awesomely fantastic goal setting worksheet. One of my goals is to be more consistent with blogging, more involved in the community and to not let my writer’s block get the best of me. If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been blogging more here. I’m hoping I can keep it up!
• I also just submitted my first post for 12 Changes, 12 Months (it’s not up yet). Don’t know what 12 Changes, 12 Months is? Well it’s Katherine and Stephany’s brain child where you commit to 12 changes that you wish to make this year and set to achieve one each month over the course of the year. So much better and easier to swallow than all these resolutions at once. Of course, combined with all these goal setting things, I’m amazing my head hasn’t exploded. Instead, I’m motivated AND READY TO ROLL.
• I am reading Tune in Tokyo, a book by Tim Anderson about escaping his stagnant life for one in Tokyo teaching English. It’s hilarious so far and it’s making me so excited to go overseas and putting far too many ideas into my head about moving overseas. My life was pretty stagnant last year and my desire to shake things up a bit runs me into dangerous territory where I could pick up and move at a moments notice, especially when reading about someone who did.
• I watched my first episode of Downton Abbey once I discovered that with my measly little antenna I actually can get PBS and am hooked. I’m making my mother send me the first season ASAP so I can catch up and then watch along with the rest of you. I love period drama.
• I have been to Oak twice in the past week. Oak is a new restaurant in town (which initially burned down after opening the first time) and I LOVE it. Mainly, the fried pickles which are the best I’ve ever had and if you need more reasons to come visit me, these should be one of them.
• I really could care less about football but the Broncos? Tim Tebow? Oh let me just hop on that bandwagon and say that last weeks game was AWESOME and that I’m totally hitting the bars this weekend for their playoff game against the patriots. I don’t really care for Tebow but the boy can play and it’s fucking ENTERTAINING. So yeah, Go Broncos!
• Colorado’s winter has been pretty schizophrenic. Last week it was 70 degrees, two days later snowing. This week boasted a lovely 55 degree day yesterday and today? Guess what? SNOWING and super cold. I love that it gets warm out but it’s such a tease.
• And now for the big announcement…I have been hard at work on a new project that has been in the works for two years and then finally was brought to fruition last month and launched…TODAY!

I want to welcome all my readers to my latest blogging adventure: The WanderScapes. I think it’s well known that I love travel, to the point of ridiculousness. You also know I have BIG PLANS this year for travel and adventure (another one of those 2012 goals), so I thought this would be the perfect year to finallyyyyyyy get around to putting up the travel blog I’ve always dreamed of having.

And now my head explodes from all the nerves about actually putting it up.

So please go visit and let me know what you’d like to see from it!

My usual beauty regimen–if you can call it that–consisted of the cheap variety. I usually used apricot scrubs bought at the local pharmacy and sometimes I would even splurge and get Cetaphil’s daily cleanser. I continued that same routine when I moved to Colorado but suddenly my usually oily skin became this dry desert and my skin was flaking. I started testing out with various (relatively cheap) facial lotions and haven’t had any lucky yet finding one that really  made any difference and improved my skin.

A couple months ago Simone France contacted me asking if I wanted to try their facial products. The first thing I read on their website was:

Have you tried every skin care line out there and nothing works? If so, you’ve come to the right place! No matter what your skin type, we can help you have a clear, glowing, younger-looking complexion for a lifetime. These products and the way you use them are totally unique – and so are the results!

It was like they were speaking right to me. So of course I had to try it out. The method to their products isn’t that you just go on their website and select things that you think  will work for you; they give you a questionnaire about your skin type and your current regimen and then their staff comes up with products that best suit your skin type based on your answers. Not only do they select them but I got a very lengthy email from a representative detailing why I should be using it, what the benefits would be and what I currently was doing wrong (but not quite phrased that way ). Shortly after filling out my questionnaire, I received a package with a morning cleanse called The Sandwich (consisting of Lovely Glow,–a moisturizer, a refining scrub and a bar of soap), some disposable cleansing towels and then a night-time routine (consisting of Rich Milk–a sort of moisturizing makeup remover and a toner) along with some line minimizer gel you can mix with the lotion.

And you can bet this all came with detailed instructions (thankfully, otherwise I wouldn’t have known what to do with myself!!). They meant business.

Guys? This stuff is amazing. I am all for not spending a lot on beauty products but in this case, I’m going to splurge on their products in the future. After two days of using the Sandwich (what you do is you put the lotion on first, then rub the scrub over your face, then lather up the soap and apply it over that. Rinse, rinse, rinse), I noticed a huge difference in the texture of my skin. It wasn’t dry anymore. There was no flaking! It felt smooth and even my pores were smaller. It’s been a month now and I’m completely hooked.

The nighttime regimen I’m not so good at keeping up with, though. I’m one of those horrible people who don’t (regularly. Or even semi-regularly) wash their face before they go to bed (I KNOW), so this has been a hard habit to break. But I have liked using the Rich Milk and the toner after work, pre-happy hour for a quick freshener-upper. One of my many many man goals this year is to get better at this whole nighttime skincare ritual so maybe I’ll start using it more! As for the line minimizer, I still look like I’m 18 so I’m not about to make myself look any younger. On a more serious note, though, I did find it a little too greasy but that may have been because I used too much? Either way, I only have tried that once!

Simone France was nice enough to give all my readers a 10% off promo code to use if they wish to buy their products! It’s: FT108.

Disclaimer: Simone France contacted me to test out and review their products on my blog. I was not paid in any way (aside from receiving free product) and my opinions are completely my own. I really do love this stuff. A lot. 

Let’s be honest. I’m not the most crafty person. I prefer having someone else paint my walls, hang my pictures and make my scarves. I’ve gotten better over the years but I still remember the apartment on 95th and Park Ave whose bedroom was only painted three quarters of the way up the wall until my brother finished off the top. (Technically, I’m really short. And terrified of ladders. And heights. And I hate taping.) I also remember a lot of projects that went unfinished.

Like that quilt I decided to make in High School. I think I finished two rows before giving up. (I blame trying to hand sew the thing–and let’s not talk about the disaster that was my attempt at learning the sewing machine.) Or when I tried my hand in jewelry making. I made my mom a necklace and one for myself that broke after a few weeks. I gave that up pretty quickly.

If a career could be made out of never finishing what you started, I’d totally be able to retire early.

I did prove in August of 2010 that I could finish something–if I had an audience. During VEDA ’10, I painted my old apartment’s living room wall and fireplace on camera. I had a lot of fun doing it and I loved that I got to share that with the internets. But since then my projects have been pretty minimal.  Sure, I’ve hung pictures on the wall and arranged my furniture nicely, but any other DIY projects have pretty much fallen to the wayside.

Until now.

I probably have been talking about redoing my dining set for over a year. I even have a quart of gray paint sitting in my closet from an inspired afternoon in Home Depot when I decided I really wanted a gray dining set. I have even collected probably a dozen discontinued fabric samples with high hopes they’d grace the seats of the four chairs. They’re scattered around in drawers and closets instead.

This dining set has been the bane of my existence. I have redecorated my living room and my bedroom over the past year and the dining “room” was the last thing I needed to complete. And then the other day my company cleared out about fifty discontinued fabrics and I managed to find four perfectly coordinated fabrics. The problem with all the other fabric swatches I have hidden all over my apartment was that they didn’t quite match. They are in pairs or in threes but they don’t all match.

These four were the motivation I needed to seriously start thinking about turning my dining set from bland to pretty fantastic. I picked out a few paint samples, asked everyone’s opinion and then proceeded to stress out in Home Depot because it just wasn’t right. I am an Interior Designer, with a specialty in color and I can pick out colors and fabrics for clients within minutes. But for myself? FORGET IT. I had to employ everyone in the Home Depot paint department and finally, I chose two colors, the two colors that I envisioned at the start of this project. A metallic vintage goldish silverish color and a dark brown.

Thursday happened to be a gorgeous 70 degrees and I took that opportunity to throw open all my windows, put on a tank top and started painting. It took me an hour and a half per chair and forty five minutes for the table–and a bunch of really sore butt and leg muscles from all the bending over–but over the course of my two days off, I managed to finish my dining table. And I didn’t tape it for any YouTube challenge (but there certainly was no way in hell that I wasn’t going to blog about it).

Below are the before and after pictures. Loving the transformation and it only cost me forty dollars to get a new-looking dining set!

My reading was kickstarted into gear with the first book in The Hunger Games trilogy which I found on my local Marshall’s shelves. I immediately snatched it up, knowing I wanted to read it before the movie came out. I was holding off watching the trailer until I read the books so I figured with it not coming out until March, I’d have plenty of time to read the three books.

Um.

It took me only four days to read them.

I may have finished the first book in two rather sleepless nights (and a morning)  and immediately ran to Target to get the second two books.  I might have set records with how fast I read those books and went through withdrawals upon finishing them. Granted, my body was thankful they were over because I did not sleep at all for those four days. They’re young adult but, like Harry Potter, I couldn’t put them down and just loved them. The characters, the writing, the plot…all of it was fantastic.

I’ll give you a little plot description but I can never do them justice. It centers around a teenage girl, Katniss, set the future, in a nation on what is left of North America. There are games called the Hunger Games, used to keep the different “Districts” reminded who is in charge and what can happen to them if they revolt against the Capital. Story of friendship, survival, is pretty suspenseful, yadda yadda yadda. You can probably get a better idea from reading the descriptions on the back of the book (but seriously, only read the first one. Don’t spoil the rest.)

It has been a while since I’ve really enjoyed a book, at least that much. They were the kind of books where I couldn’t stop thinking about it when I shut it for the night. The books that I told everyone that they must read and even forced a copy of The Hunger Games upon a good friend of mine (who immediately became addicted, too). So what I’m trying to say is…

You should read them. Right now. Go, I’ll wait.

The book I’m currently reading and have to rave about even though I’m NOT EVEN FINISHED WITH IT, is called The Book Thief. I rented it from the library on my Kindle and wow. It is so well written, so interesting and it does a wonderful job of bringing out those happy feelings as well as the very sad ones. It’s a different style of writing, almost like Jonathan Safran Foer’s style but not really. Markus Zusak does have Foer’s incredible talent of making the characters very lifelike, as if you were in their shoes.

It’s narrated by Death and tells the story of a girl, Liesel, living in Nazi Germany in World War II who loves books and happens to steal them. Hence the name of the book. It’s fantastic and it’s another one of those books that I keep telling people about and that they must read it.

I mean, the narrator “ruins” the ending half way through the book but you still love him for it. Even if the narrator happens to be Death itself. I am about 3/4 of the way done. I’ll let you know if it goes to shit in the last quarter.

The book I read just before this didn’t garner as much OMGIFUCKINGLOVETHIS as the other books did but it did lead to my ass-kicking-motivational-inner-speech I was given over the holidays. It is called The Last Werewolf, about…you guessed it. The last werewolf. Yeah yeah, I know there are tons of vampire related books out right now and while I’ve managed to read NONE OF THEM (that is right, I have never read the Twilight series–or watched the movies. I deserve an award for that accomplishment.), I succumbed to this book based on reviews from readers.

They were all right when they said it was really well written and had a very interesting, much more grown up plot. If you don’t like sex, especially if written about often and pretty graphically, then you won’t like this book. But I really enjoyed the book; it was interesting, almost realistic in the author integrated the werewolves and vampires into modern day life and I liked the characters. Which is pretty much essential for me to like a book–I have to freaking love the characters, which I did in all three of these books. (I guess you should say, all five if you count the trilogy?)

Those are my books of note, that I insist you go out and read. And since it is my goal to read at least two books a month, what are some books that you think I MUST read?

Update: I finished The Book Thief last night after writing this and well…incredible. I ugly cried the entire way through the last quarter of the book, to the point where I couldn’t read anymore. Despite being told–TWICE–how the book would end prior to the ending by the narrator. It’s a must read.

All images are courtesy of Amazon.com. If you want more info on the books, just click on the pictures! I linked up with their Amazon pages.