is everyone hanging out without me?

prompted by my friend, elyse, who loves mindy, i breezed through my first book written by a comedian and enjoyed every moment of it! is everyone hanging out without me (and other concerns) is a knee-slapping memoir which provides a bit of insight on mindy kaling as herself, not the emotionally-crazed-self-narcissist kelly kapoor from the office. it was the perfect read after a couple of serious narratives set during world war ii and in the 1800's midwest. 

the crazy part is while reading mindy's memoir, there were many time when i would nod my head and agree, that's exactly how i think about the situation too. in the end, i think i've determined that we have the same emotional IQ (if such a thing exists).

i think i'm going to try tina fey's bossypants next :)

the indifferent stars above

after enjoying daniel james brown's writing style (author of the boys in the boat) so thoroughly, i decided to check out another one of his works, the indifferent stars above: the harrowing saga of a donner party bride.

having never heard of the donner party, i was intrigued by the non-fiction narrative of 19th century settlers traveling west. about 30 minutes into the book, i said to kevin "hey, have you heard of the donner party before? i'm reading a book about their journey west". to this, he replied that he was familiar with the donner party, and proceeded to tell me what was a partial spoiler for the book (i'll spare the spoiler here). bummer!

in any case, i continued on with the book, drawn in by the unfortunate series of events which led to the harrowing journey for the donner party through the sierra nevadas in 1846. it was an amazing and eye-opening story, learning about life before the exploration westward, industrial revolution, modern hygiene, and technology. 

it makes me feel so incredibly lucky to be living in the present day.

the boys in the boat

i just completed one of the best books i've read in a while, the boys in the boat, a non-fiction narrative by daniel james brown. recommended by my friend rose, the writing style and underlying themes are reminiscent of laura hillenbrand's unbroken, one of my all-time favorite books/authors. 

both books are based on events which took place in the 1920-30s, although the boys in the boat focuses on the rise of the nazi militia while unbroken focuses on the battles in the the pacific. both books are written from the perspective of the protagonist, who incidentally both make it to the 1936 olympics in berlin, germany. both books captured my undivided attention and made it difficult for me to lift my eyes from the pages, the writing so descriptive that i felt like i was watching the poughkeepsie regatta from the eastern bank of the hudson river.

marist college did a great job archiving the history of crew and i managed to find the program and results from the 1936 poughkeepsie regatta where washington swept the freshman 2 mile, jv 3 mile, and varsity 4 mile races! what an incredible year ...

i've never seen a crew race before, but now i can't wait to see a regatta!

the everything store

today was amazon's 20th anniversary and they celebrated by launching an inaugural  "amazon prime day", a day where prime members could purchase select goods at steep discounts. while the deeply discounted products on amazon prime day were generally unappealing to most of the people i spoke with at the office and skewered by customers on twitter and facebook, amazon's daily sales were up around 80% by noon, as compared with a year earlier. shocking!

in honor of amazon's first prime day, i thought it was also overdue for a review of the everything store, brad stone's tell-all tale about the online retailer which started out in a garage (surprise surprise) in the then quiet little city of seattle.

this "biography" about jeff bezos and his company, amazon, is interesting, because it wasn't a sanctioned book by bezos, nor was he interviewed for this book in particular. the author, however, is very knowledgeable about the tech industry and mentions his various writing careers at the nytimes and bloomberg businessweek.

without giving away too much, in this book, stone goes into great detail about bezos's childhood, and draws many parallels with that of steve jobs, another silicon valley figurehead. he then 

japan journey: famous woodblock prints

japanese woodblock prints have been a topic of curiosity for me for some time now. i love the matte tones of the prints, the japanese subjects and landscapes, and most of all, the stories behind the prints. 

one of the most unexpected places where we saw japanese woodblock prints was at frank lloyd wright's fallingwater last april 2014. fallingwater is a home built partly over a waterfall that wright designed for the kaufman family in 1935 forty-five miles outside of pittsburgh. little did i know, but it turns out that wright was a dealer in the japanese art, and during his insolvent periods, including the time he was designing the imperial hotel in tokyo, his japanese art side business helped save his architecture practice during its less solvent periods, and practically financed taliesins 1 & 2.

so i decided to do a little digging online and recently finished andreas marks' japan journeys: famous woodblock prints of culture sights in japan.

the earliest surviving examples of woodblock prints from china date back to 200, when it was used as a method of printing on cloth. however, in japan, the earliest known woodblock printing dates from 764 when an empress commissioned one million small pagodas containing short printed scrolls to be distributed to temples. 

ukiyo-e (浮世絵), which literally translates to "pictures of the floating world", is a genre of woodblock prints and paintings that flourished in japan from the 17th through 19th centuries. among the most popular depictions were beautiful women, kabuki actors and sumor wrestlers, travel scenes and landscapes, and flora and fauna.

through the introductions and prints in marks' book, i was able to learn a little bit more about the culture and history of japan. as many of the subjects of the woodblock print makers are often major cities and sites in japan, it felt very much like i was quickly reliving some of my adventures in japan, in woodblock print.

here is a photo of perhaps one of the most iconic woodblock prints by katsushika hokusai, the great wave off kanagawa.

and through a little research online, i also happily learned that the brooklyn art museum has an extensive collection of utagawa hiroshige's one hundred famous views of edo.

harper lee & factoids

i learned today that the state of alabama started an investigation last month to the complaints of potential elderly abuse with regards to harper lee, 88, and her unexpected endorsement of her new book "go set a watchman." 

maybe i wanted to believe that people have the ability to change their minds. and maybe i wanted to believe in the goodness of people - that her attorney and literary agent would find it impossible to take advantage of this accomplished, elderly individual. but after reading this article and giving it a bit more thought, i'm not too sure if i'm just delusional. 

i'm rethinking my pre-order of the prequel, which is slated to arrive on july 14, 2015, and eagerly awaiting the results of the investigation.

best: we finished the last two episodes, including the finale, of gilmore girls. it was great to see the series in completion over the frigid months of winter, and share my adoration for these quirky, loquacious, loving characters with kevin.

worst: learning about the authenticity debate around the falling soldier photograph, arguably robert capa's most riveting and famous photographs taken during the spanish civil war. capa was well-known for embellishing and at times even making up stories, as he did with with the adoption of his name and image when he was a penniless, unknown hobby-photographer.

smile: stumbled upon a steinway & sons at the corner of 45th and sixth ave on my way home after work drinks. apparently it is an interim location, in anticipation of the third flagship showroom in nyc which will open in late 2015 at the former icp museum, one block south. it was closed when i stopped by, but i can't wait to pay them another visit and slide my fingers across the ivories.

factoids: i learned that the first steinway & sons flagship showroom was next to our previous apartment building at 71-73 east 14th street, between university place and fifth avenue. i wonder if it was in the building which currently houses reebok, and formerly, diesel. what a rich history new york city has!

the second interesting factoid: robert capa's brother, cornell capa, was the founder of icp. 

it feels nice to connect the dots.

the life-changing magic of tidying up

marie kondo's "the life changing magic of tidying up: the japanese art of decluttering and organizing" has been a really fun read! i first read about this international bestseller in a nytimes article a few months ago, and i found it hilarious that a woman was going through each item of clothing and asking "does this spark joy?" 

i was also intrigued that the book's existence and popularity suggests there are actually disorganized, messy japanese households. since when? from what i saw in japan, my japanese colleagues are always very put together, super-organized, and have extremely tidy desks.

while reading this book, i immediately thought about clothes in my closet which needed to be donated and keepsakes from my childhood and college years which could be discarded. although we are not yet at the point where we are ready to do a thorough konmari tidying up of the entire apartment yet, hopefully we can apply the konmari method and techniques in the coming months. 


she's totally right - i feel much happier and uplifted when i've employed some of her techniques and i think kevin and i are able to live happier lives with fewer distractions cluttering up the space around us. 

the most important takeaway for me from this book was to treat your personal items with respect. whether it's clothing that you wear on a daily basis and keep neatly folded or hanging in your closet, or clothes that you no longer wear, which should be passed onto a new owner who can take pleasure in it, or a gift that you've received which you keep hidden in the back of your closet, all personal belongings should be treated respectfully, and that i think is the basis for most of the lessons from her book.

two thumbs up for this quick read!

and yep, that tastiness is part of my second batch of levain copycat cookies. this time, i used ghiradelli's dark chocolate 60% cacao bittersweet chips. tasty, but not as sweet as the first batch, which used milk chocolate chips. i think i'm going to dial back the baking soda a touch next time as well to see if i can get the texture a little less cake-y.

american sniper

i love reading about historical accounts of many types so i was very excited when i picked up my copy of chris kyle's, american sniper. kyle writes in a colloquial style, inserting bits of his dry humor throughout the book, which allows the reader to feel closer to him.

chris kyle was born and raised in texas with a strong christian faith, riding horseback, and learning to shoot a rifle all before the age of 5, all things completely foreign to me. i've never known of or spoken with anyone who was faithful and patriotic, so learning about the people and events which shaped his life gave me food for thought. in his eyes, the order of importance was: God, country, family.

kyle, also known by the iraqi insurgents as the devil of ramadi, served four tours in iraq and was one of the most lethal snipers in american history, with over 160 confirmed kills. he's saved the lives of countless iraqi citizens and US militia, and contributed to the a number of successful offensives in the iraq war. to hear him describe in detail the thoughts and emotions which were going through his mind as he endured navy SEAL training and ultimately deployment in iraq; to learn about the different types of guns, explosives, and SEAL tactics used in DAs; and to learn about his struggles to be the protector of his country, his SEAL brotherhood, and a family man, was an honor. 

sadly, on february 2, 2013, a few years after his resignation from the navy SEALs and return stateside, he was killed by his marine friend who was suffering from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). the alleged killer, eddie ray routh, goes to trial next week. february 2nd is now proclaimed as "chris kyle day" by the navy SEALs, and it's coincidental that i finished his book on the second anniversary of his passing.

reading this book reminds me that we are living in this beautiful, safe country without serious fear for our lives ever, and we owe it to these men and women who volunteer to risk their lives on a daily basis in order to keep us safe.