Links I Loved This Week – 01/20/2017

Here we are. It’s the week some of us have been dreading when all the bleep has hit the fan. I’ll be at the Women’s March in LA today to ‘grieve’ with like-minded people and stand up for what I believe in. I have to say, though, that my general feeling for the future is hopeful. There will be better times and we’ll have leadership we can be proud of again.

Having said that the bookish blog world is a perfect place to hide in for solace and entertainment when life is looking bleak. I thoroughly enjoyed reading through everyone’s posts and here, as usual, are some of my favorites!

• This week’s Top Ten Tuesday theme (hosted by The Broke And Bookish) was Ten Underrated/Hidden Gem Books I’ve Read In The Past Year Or So, which is the perfect topic to provide many new lesser known choices for your TBR. The posts I found closest to my reading taste were on: It’s A Long Story, Vivacious Reads, Confessions Of Carlisa, Lindsay’s Library, Opinionated Book Lover and Sarah’s Bookshelves.

• If you’re searching for the ultimate place from which to get TBR recommendations, however, look no further than this list of Every Book Barack Obama Has Recommended During His Presidency. I decided to add Fates And Furies by Lauren Groff, The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing and The Narrow Road To The Deep North by Richard Flanagan to my Goodreads per his recommendation.

• I loved this article on BuzzFeed about Daliyah Arana, a 4 year-old little girl who has impressively already read 1000 books and was picked to become the Library of Congress’ first every Librarian For The Day. The pictures from her visit were so adorable, and you just know that with her love for learning and bright mind we’ll hear her name again before long.

• Here are the individual book reviews I read this week that inspired me to add the titles they covered to my ever-growing TBR pile: the review of In Her Wake by Amanda Jennings on Novel Gossip (and It’s Book Talk) and the review of Little Deaths by Emma Flint on The Misstery.

• New book blogs I discovered this week include: The Book Wheel (courtesy of Parchment Girl), For The Love Of Words and Emma’s Bookery.

• On Tuesday I published a review of memoir Under The Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes, which I absolutely loved. It really brought me back home to Italy through all the delicious food Mayes described and the people of the small town of Cortona that she met along the way. I highly recommend it even to people who didn’t like the movie, because the memoir is quite different in plot and in feel.

• On Thursday I posted a review of News Of The World by Paulette Jiles. It was the January 2017 book club pick for Modern Mrs. Darcy‘s new book club, which I just joined last month. So far it’s been nice to have an online forum through which to discuss a specific title with others who are reading it alongside me. I’m looking forward to my first webinar for the book club scheduled for January 31st.

• I’m really excited to be participating in the Women’s March in Los Angeles on Saturday and have a very full weekend planned, so I’m moving my Hillary Clinton ‘protest’ book list to Monday. It’s been an interesting experience reading multiple books about her at once – moving from someone else’s analysis of Clinton’s life to her own words in Living History. I’m learning a lot about her background that I wasn’t aware of and so far I’m even more impressed with her.

• I’m also planning a review of 2016 National Book Award winner The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead for Wednesday or Thursday. It’s a book that I’ve been meaning to read for months, ever since the buzz about it started, and I can’t wait to finally get to it and see what I think!

• With regards to the week’s events I think The Bloggess and author of excellent anxiety memoir Furiously Happy Jenny Lawson says it well in her blog post This Week Is Hard, Y’All. The funny gifs helped me feel slightly better, and I hope they’ll do the same for you.

• I really enjoyed this article on The Guardian about 20 Small Changes You Can Make In Your Life that will make a significant difference. I already try to meditate everyday and do yoga when I have time, but I do want to try to incorporate more short walks into my day and I have been tempted to try tai chi for my anxiety as well.

• I’m still struggling a little bit with getting back on the horse when it comes to my morning routine and I’m wondering if a series of stretches in bed like these ones right when my alarm rings might help me avoid the inevitable one-hour snoozing sessions I seem to be stuck in. Can’t hurt to try.

• I want to switch my breakfast from my typical fruit and yogurt or peanut butter toast to something that is savory, healthy-ish (it can involve bread), transportable to work, and does not involve actual cooking in the morning (cooking ahead during the weekend is okay). Sending out an APB to see if any of you have a great idea/recipe to share. For now I’m thinking of some type of toast (of course) with ricotta or goat cheese and some kind of savory topping but I’m open to other directions.

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Any articles or blog posts from the book world that you really enjoyed this week? Share them in the comments!

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Please note this post includes affiliate links from Book Depository.