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Sunday, November 27, 2016

Sundays with Sarah: Book club for one

I'm finding so much comfort in print these days. Pretty paintings, elegant poems, dreamy magazines, and thought provoking books. Feeling the pages slipping between my fingers versus swiping and taping away at a screen just feels right at the moment, and I'm rolling with it. Here are a few things I am reading, have read, or simply like having on my bedside table to make me feel cool.
Everything pairs well with a comfy bed/couch/coffee shop and a warm mug of whatever your heart desires. 





 






Modern Romance, Aziz Ansari: This book is a perfect balance between science and comedy. Ansari presents straight up facts and stats with a comedic charm that is both entertaining and approachable. His observations are so personal yet so damn applicable to my life that I find myself nodding in agreement while I'm reading, a true crash course in love in the digital age. Spoiler alert: love is hard, but it can be funny and beautiful too. 
“That’s the thing about the Internet: It doesn’t simply help us find the best thing out there; it has helped to produce the idea that there is a best thing and, if we search hard enough, we can find it. And in turn there are a whole bunch of inferior things that we’d be foolish to choose.” 

Olive Kitterage, Elizabeth Strout: One character weaves her way through 13 separate stories, each of them completely individual yet so heartbreakingly real. Olive Kitterage is a beautiful book that inspects the drama of the human condition from many angles, all of them rooted in empathy and perspective. 
"But Henry was pretty irritating himself, with his steadfast way of remaining naive, as though life were just what a Sears catalogue told you it was: everyone standing around smiling.”

Brave Enough, Cheryl Strayed: A collection of her own quotes, mainly on the themes of love, forgiveness, and fear. Seems like everything in life somehow comes back to those three themes. This is a perfect coffee table or bedside book because it takes minimal brain power to get value from it, plus I dare you to try and not have some kind of introspective moment when reading thoughtful quotes. There is a sappy little heart inside of all of us!
“Don't surrender all your joy for an idea you used to have about yourself that isn't true anymore." 

East of Eden, John Steinbeck: I had to include this as East of Eden will be in my book club forever. My favorite book of all time, I can flip to any page to escape to Salinas for a chapter or two of peace. This is proof that sometimes you really should listen to your high school english teacher (except about The Last of the Mohicans, that book was just awful). 
“But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.”

Vogue & Harpers Bazaar: Two very different magazines, but I love them both for the excitement they bring each month when they land on my doorstep. The silky pages, gorgeous images and powerful juxtaposition between a seemingly superficial industry and female empowerment inspires and fascinates me. 


What I'm wearing:
Leggings: Gap Performance Cotton Colorblock leggings
Sweater: Old Navy Open-front Cardi

With love and papercuts,
Sarah Belle