Books & Babes

Hey there friends! I'm back, with the lovely Allison and Becky, to talk about our favourite recent reads and what we're looking forward to digging into this summer. So get your Goodreads open and get ready to add some books to your TBR lists! (Psst...if we aren't friends on Goodreads yet, we should be! Add me here.)

*****

BRIE

As I was going through my read books in Goodreads, it quickly dawned on me that I’ve read a ton of books since we last met up. While I’m never one to turn down talking about a book (or books), I thought it best if I focused on the books I loved the most. 

FAVOURITE: I can’t really pick a favourite out of my favourites, since all 4 of these books were so incredibly different, yet I enjoyed all of them immensely. The Nightingale left me an emotional wreck during and post reading of it, but it was worth the heartache and all the tears. That book touched my heart, my soul, and I can’t imagine ever forgetting about it. Like Allison, I adore historical war fiction, and The Nightingale has now claimed the number one spot for me in this genre. The Love that Split the World is a YA novel and was so completely unexpected. A little bit of magic, spiritualism, time-travel, psychology and folklore, not to mention a serious nod to fans of Friday Night Lights, I really enjoyed this book (full review here). Me Before You was a re-read for me, and I enjoyed it just as much, if not more, the second time around. Now I just need to muster up the courage to get through the movie (cue all the tears). And lastly, The Thirteenth Tale. This book also touched my soul, but in a completely different way than The Nightingale. It’s a Gothic, historical fiction novel, and I think it’s the most beautifully written book I have ever read. 

LOOKING FORWARD TO: Finally reading the sequel to Me Before You, After You. The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson, because it sounds awesome and the movie is coming out staring Jason Bateman (love him) and I have this thing where I try really hard to read the book before I see the movie. Plus, I scored a hard copy for $3 at Chapters the other week.

*****

BECKY 

I admit that June was a slow reading month for me. I took my very first DNF of the year with The Book Thief. I usually love WWII era books, but after two attempts, I just was not loving this one. The Little Paris Bookshop was a book club pick and while it piqued my curiosity, it wasn't a page turner and seemed to take forever to get through. Then we hit The Royal We, from Brie's online book club, followed by Me Before You, and a page turning thriller, and suddenly my to-be-read pile was disappearing quickly. 

FAVOURITE: It's a definite tie between The Royal We and Me Before You. I adored both stories intensely. I guess you can say I'm a hopeless romantic with a soft spot for a good love story. However, I love a good thriller just as much and both The Farm and Remember Mia had me frantically turning pages to find out the truths of both stories. 

LOOKING FORWARD TO: I'm really looking forward to giving the much talked about The Nest a read while I'm relaxing on a mountain beach with my family in the next week. I think I'll be taking a trip to the used bookstore later today to see if I can find a copy of After You and then hitting up Chapters for any last minute summer reads I might need for vacation. 

*****

ALLISON

Oh. So it seems I didn't get up to a lot of reading in the past few months. I definitely thought I read more but I guess getting ready to move, packing, vacation, baseball season, and moving sort of got in the way. But, I have a shady back patio and a comfy chair and a new library card and I am ready for weekends indulging in great books.

FAVOURITE: If you know me - or have been reading this blog for a while - you know I am horrible at picking one favourite. Especially with three books I really liked and one I liked but a smidgen less; I feel bad for the one. Ok, big girl pants. I adore historical war fiction so it is no surprise I devoured and loved All the Light We Cannot See, Somewhere in France, and After the War is Over. Want to read Jennifer Robson? Read the books in order; they follow the same characters. Remember Mia was good but it has been compared to Gone Girl (um, no, it was nothing like it) so, I went in thinking I wouldn't love it because I LOATHED the sociopathic thriller that was Gone Girl. It was better than expected but not as great at the others.

LOOKING FORWARD TO: Jennifer Robson's third book, Moonlight Over Paris, and a whole slew of summer books I have on hold at the library.

*****

Have you read any of our favourite books? Thoughts?

Favourite summer reads?

What are you looking forward to reading this summer?

A Slice of Brie Book Club: The Royal We (& Next Month's Book Pick)

Hello Book Clubbers!

Even though I disappeared last month, I hope some of you still read June's book and are ready to talk about it! The Royal We, by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan has been on my to-read list for months, so I was pretty happy it was the book of choice this time around. If this is your first book club with us, then just a heads up that spoilers are fair game since this is a discussion (and not just a review). At the end of the post, I will have a few questions to get the discussion rolling, but you by no means have to answer them. If you have a blog post in which you reviewed or discussed The Royal We, there is a link up for you!

Also, there's a poll at the end of this post, so make sure you vote for next month's book! If you're new to A Slice of Brie Book club, in a nutshell, it's an online book club for fellow book lovers. A place to talk about a chosen book from the comfort of your own home/computer! Everyone is welcome (so tell your friends!), and you definitely do not have to have a blog to participate. Every month, we vote on which book to read for the following month. The poll will stay open until Monday night and I will announce the book next Wednesday. No commitment to join, but if you've ever wanted to join a book club, this is a great place to start!

*****

Ok! So on to The Royal We! You guys, I adored this book. Absolutely, 100% adored it. I'm not going to go into too much detail about what it's about, but in short, it's basically a fictional re-telling of the love story between Prince William and Kate, except in this case, their names are Prince Nicolas and Rebecca (Bex). The book spans over a decade, starting with how they met (Bex is an American and decides to take a semester abroad at Oxford, and Nick resides in her dorm), to all the in-between ups and downs of their courtship and relationship, and ending (and beginning) with the eve before their big wedding. Bex, with no doubt in her mind that she is madly, truly and deeply in love with Nick, can't help but wonder if everything she is giving up to be with him (her privacy, her normalcy, her job, her citizenship), is well, worth it. 

I'm not sure if I loved this book as much as I did because I have a serious crush on the real-life Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, but this book fulfilled that obsession I have with them. While the facts and events in this book are so different from things that actually happened during the dating years of Prince William and Kate, the similarities were enough that I couldn't help but picture them while reading. It was so exciting to be pulled into their world - a world I can't even imagine getting a glimpse of, let alone being a part of. The characters, while not without their faults, were all fantastic and everyone was so well developed. I truly felt transported into the pages of the story while reading it.

Of course, I also find the life of the Royals utterly fascinating and I enjoyed that look into what their life is most likely like to some degree. I especially enjoyed reading about all the work and effort that went into grooming Bex to become the wife of a Prince. I've always wondered how many people are truly behind the scenes in Kate's life and just how much "help" she has. Wouldn't it be wonderful if she had a blog (were she allowed to!)!? Or her own Instagram account? And by that I mean, an account where she posts the photos and gives us glimpses into her everyday life. 

But more than that, I just enjoyed this story. Even if there was no Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in which this novel got it's inspiration from, I still would have loved it. The love story had me in tears at times, and even the side relationships felt real and I was just as invested in all of them. I liked that things were often messy in their life and relationship and that their love spanned years, not just days and months. So much growing up was down in this book, and I feel like that's so rare in contemporary romance. 

QUESTIONS FOR YOU! (Feel free to discuss in the comments!)

1.  Would you be able to give up large parts of your life to marry into an establishment like the Royal Family? Is love enough? Well, let's be honest here, I'd love to be in Kate's shoes - I mean, I'm pretty sure we've all fantasized about what it would be like to marry a prince, haven't we?! I don't believe love on it's own is enough, but I truly felt convinced that what Bex and Prince Nick shared (love, friendship, honesty, compassion and loyalty) would get them through the toughest of days. So yes, in a similar situation, I like to believe I could marry into such an establishment given the right circumstance. 

2. What did you think about Bex's twin sister, Lacey? Do you think her reactions and how she handled herself in regards to her sister dating and marrying a Prince were justified? I had moments where I loved Lacey and moments where I wanted to shake some sense into her. I was horrified when she dropped out of medical school just to be a part of her sister's lifestyle. BUT, I also think it would be really tough to be the twin-sister of someone dating an actual Prince. It would be weird and I admit, I'm sure I would have major moments of jealously. I think Lacey made some very poor mistakes, but I think she needed to find herself and figure out a way to be more than just Bex's twin sister. 

3. Would you have given up your citizenship just because the Queen basically told you to? Do you think your citizenship is important enough to fight for, or is it a compromise that you would be able to make? This is the one thing that bothered me about the book. Not the fact that Bex decided to go ahead and sign the papers to give-up her American citizenship, but once she signed those papers, even though Prince Nick told her not to, it was never brought up again! I like to think, if I was in her shoes, my Canadian citizenship would have been more acceptable to the Queen, haha! 

*****

NEXT MONTH'S BOOK PICK

Here are the choices for July's book club pick. Feel free to vote, even if you aren't sure you can participate. Really, you can read the book at any time before we meet to discuss it, so you don't have to decide now if you will have time to read it or not! I will announce the winner next week and you'll have 4-5 weeks to read the book. 

Links to check out these books on Goodreads: Everything, Everything, Keep Me Posted, & Still Mine. 

*Local friends: the first two have copies available at the library, but the last one has a waiting list. 

And now to vote!

Happy voting! Don't forget to link up your posts so that I can check them out! 

...Is This Thing On?

Well, hello there! I have to admit, I'm feeling a little shy writing this post after a month long break. I know I said that my posting would be infrequent in June, but I didn't entirely plan to be so completely absent. There were a lot of things going on in June, and we had my in-laws for a good portion of the month, but overall, I think I just needed a bit of a break! It feels weird to just dive back into posting more regularly though, at least not without a little "catch-up/Hi I'm back/I missed you, did you miss me?" post. So that's what this is. To let you know I'm alive, I'm well, and I'm back! I've missed this space, and even though I tried to keep up with reading of other blogs, I've missed this community.

I also have lots of posts that are long over-due, like some book related posts and a couple of race recaps, but I will get to those in due time. For today, I thought I'd do a bit of a Currently type post, and remind everyone that tomorrow is Book Club Day and I'll be posting about The Royal We. You can read more here if you need a refresher, but I hope my absence didn't impede any of you in reading the book! I can't wait to talk about it!

Anyway...I'm not sure if I'll do a big recap of our month of June, but here's a look at what I've been up to:

READING

I read a ton in May, and a few good books in June. Basically, I was a reading machine. Which makes sense since time I would usually devote to blogging I spent reading. It's been nice to just blast through some books that I've been wanting to read for ages. Some of my recent favourites: The Nightingale (I was a blubbery mess for two days); The Thirteenth Tale (touched my soul); and Me Before You (a reread that I enjoyed just as much, if not more, the second time around).

EATING

My eating always seems to get out of hand when we spend time with Jim's parents. More cookies and chips makes their way into my home than I would like, and I even baked more this past month than I have in the last 6 months (a baker I am not). After Jen wowed us with these Lemon Creme Crumb Bars at Bachelorette night a few weeks ago, I made them myself, and while mine didn't look that pretty, they sure were tasty. I also made these S'mores Bars on the weekend, but I wasn't too impressed with them. I'm not sure what I did wrong. I followed the recipe exactly but they didn't turn out as soft and gooey as I was hoping for. And to balance things out a bit, I made these Lemon Poppy Seed Quinoa Breakfast Cookies, but I will not be making them again. They taste ok, but I feel like I'm forcing myself to finish them now so that they don't end up in the garbage. Because said recipe called for my purchasing a $14 dollar jar of Cashew Butter and there ain't no way I'm throwing that in the trash!

WATCHING

I binge watched the second season of Grace and Frankie on Netflix and I'm so sad I have to wait forever now for another season. I just love this show, and I think I liked this season even more than the first. We watched a few movies while my in-laws were here, including 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi and really enjoyed it. Plus, John Krasinski is in it and that should be reason enough for you to watch it!

EXPLORING

In June, we went to Waterton for a night, Canmore for the day, new parks, the zoo and we even took Sully to his first theatre movie.

ADULTING

Jim's dad helped us knock off some home renos, including a new privacy screen built onto our deck, and closest organizers built into two upstairs closets and our main floor closet. It's definitely handy having a carpenter for a father-in-law! Sully's new room has been painted, the new closet built and I found curtains I really like (no easy task!). Now we just need to move him in, which I think is going to require us dismantling his crib to get it through the doorways, something I am not looking forward to!

CONFESSING

I confess, I haven't been working out, and the last time I set foot in the gym was sometime in May. Motivation is clearly something I struggle with and it just doesn't come easy for me. I'd like to blame summer and the hot weather as I'm more likely to choose reading a book on the deck then heading down to the basement or the gym for a workout, but I know those are just excuses. I'm okay with it though. Maybe June was just an entire month for taking a break from life. Is that a thing other people experience? Sometimes when life feels like it's go-go-go, I just stop everything. I'm actually a bit amazed that I still read as much as I did, because even that hobby often sees a break from me when I'm overwhelmed by life just in general. This is starting to sound morbid and sad. Life is good; I don't really have anything worthy of complaining about. I think it's just a lack of managing my time well, and then trying to balance family time in June with me time. I will find my groove again...

ENJOYING

My days with Sully. This has got to be the most fun age ever so far. He's a delightful little chatterbox, and his ever-expanding vocabulary continues to amaze me on the daily. He still has an epic temper tantrum here and there, but for the most part, he's a pretty easygoing toddler. Right now, his current obsession is puzzles and he will literally do them all day if I let him. I've even pulled out some more difficult ones that I was saving for when he is older, and he completes them in minutes. Over and over and over he will do them. I have to admit, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree here. I LOVE jigsaw puzzles too, and when I do allow myself to do one, I become obsessed with it!

WISHING

That there was such a thing as a decluttering fairy. I feel like every corner of my house needs some serious decluttering and organizing action and I just don't even know where to start. So I don't. Nothing like dealing with a problem like ignoring it, huh?

LOOKING FORWARD TO

Being back! Hopefully finding some time to spruce this page up a bit (a long overdue goal), a wedding in August, and seeing my mom in a few weeks. I haven't seen my mom in months so we are long overdue for a visit.



Tell me something fun you did in June!