A Year in Books

I have always been an avid reader. On our family cross country road trips growing up I remember sitting in the back of the suburban with my nose in a book (or the local map if a book was not available). And as one author put it, I would gladly read a car manual if there is nothing else available.

This year, whether it was the extended maternity leave or my discovery of the library app that lets me borrow library books on my kindle, I might have gone a little crazy with the reading. Below is the list of books I read in 2018, in order. 

Enjoy!

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz

Scar Tissue by Larry Sloman
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
1984 by George Orwell
Bringing up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman
The Odyssey by Homer
The Future is History by Masha Gessen
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
The Assault on Intelligence by Michael Hayden
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak
Pick Three: You Can Have It All (Just Not Every Day) by Randi Zuckerberg
My Glory Was I had Such Friends by Amy Silverstein
The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas
A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
The Awakened Family by Shefali Tsabary
Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown
What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty
Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Social Creature by Tara Isabella Burton
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
The President is Missing by James Patterson and Bill Clinton
A House for Mr Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
Love and Death in the Sunshine State by Cutter Wood
The Girl Who Takes An Eye For An Eye by David Lagercrantz
Becoming by Michelle Obama
The Closed Circle by Jonathan Coe
Wonder by R. J. Palacio

Here Goes Nothing…

For those that are newer to the blog or those that have forgotten about my nomadic years of 2007-2009, I am a huge travel enthusiast and have made most major life decisions in order to see more of the world including: my profession, opportunities to work abroad and a spouse that is just as willing as I am to go someplace new. Over the years I sharpened my traveling skills, specifically my packing skills, narrowing down exactly what to pack so only the necessities were brought along and no space was wasted. A weekend required a small tote, a three week trip to Asia could be managed in a carry on. Packing for a trip was and still is one of the few skills I bring to my marriage. 

However, after having two beautiful kids my relationship with packing has changed significantly. If packing was a battle of space and efficiency I would definitely be losing. With kids you have to pack everything... and I mean EVERYTHING (I am pretty sure I packed the entire contents of Oskar’s room for our first trip abroad.) Unfortunately this is something no one warns you about and something you truly can’t appreciate or comprehend until you are stuck packing for a weekend trip with your newborn baby.

A few months ago, my friend Anjulee highlighted this issue after trying to pack for a weekend trip with her 10 month old daughter Lilah.  Her comment: forget Dr. Seuss’s Oh the Places You Will Go, one of us should write a book about all of the shit you have to pack when you travel with kids.  I made a mental note and began jotting down ideas and my formalizing my normal packing list.  Over Thanksgiving weekend the ideas officially formed into a rhyme/book and what started out as basic musing turned into a fully baked idea. 

And today I officially submitted my book to Chronicle Books to see if they are interested in illustrating and publishing my children’s book (for adults).  Chronicle Books is a local publishing house and have published some of my favorites including: All My Friends Are Dead and Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site.  And even better, they are one of the few publishing houses that accept unsolicited books. Due to this, I will only get a response if they like the book and their review process can take up to six months.  So stay tuned!  And if I don’t get a response, I plan to publish the book here in July!

Heather Does it Again

Last June my fellow mom friend spent the evening with Oskar, Martin and I photographing our evening routine.  The photos were GORGEOUS!  She subsequently took our holiday photos last year and she has once again made my day with the following photos of our family. 

I don’t know what filter or photoshop program she uses, but it is working… these photos capture the true Breuer Family.