18 books for 18 bucks

Can't get THAT at a bookstore or amazon, now can you?   :-P

I went to an awesome book sale today at a nearby library. And, in case you missed my post title, I got 18 books for $18!!!  All books- hardcover, paperbacks, whatever- were $1 each. How sweet is that??? Everything I got is in fairly decent condition, but for a buck a book, I can only expect so much.  :-D

I KNOW you want to know what I got, and you KNOW I'm gonna tell you!!!  :-)    I ended up with eleven hardbacks and seven paperbacks (I'm including an amazon link for each book, so you can get a better plot synopsis of each book- I wouldn't be able to do the same justice, lol!):

 

HARDBACK BOOKS:

*Brightness Falls, by Jay McInerney: A fiction novel about a very successful married couple living in Manhattan in the 1980s (I love anything and everything 1980s-related), and how the 1987 stock market crash turns their lives and their marriage upside down.

*The Chocolate Lovers Club, by Carole Matthews: A fiction novel about a group of four girlfriends who bond over life, love, and chocolate. Think Sex and the City with a lot more calories.  ;-D

*Never Too Thin: Why Women are at War With Their Bodies, by Roberta Pollack Seid: I think it's pretty self-explanatory what this one's about!

*Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany, by Bill Buford: An autobiography/memoir of a man's rise to the culinary top while working for Mario Batali.

*You're Wearing That? Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation, by Deborah Tannen: A sociology book about how to improve communication and the relationship between mothers and daughters. Not that I expect to really do this anytime soon, but it can't hurt to be informed. Plus, I LOVE Deborah Tannen. I think she's an excellent observer of interpersonal communication and a fantastic writer. I love her books. She uses lots of real-life examples, which I always love to read about.

*Echoes in the Darkness, by Joseph Wambaugh: A true-crime book about a murder that actually took place in my area in the late 1970s of a woman and her two children, and it's recently been in the news again because the accused killer (who was convicted but later released due to a legal or trial technicality, I'm not really sure of the details, but I know he was released), recently died of old age. This happened before I was born, but I vaguely remember hearing about it in the news here and there, and it was a Lifetime movie in the '80s.

*Not Much Just Chillin: The Hidden Lives of Middle Schoolers, by Linda Perlstein: A sociological look into the behavior and psyche of middle schoolers. The author spends a year with a group of middle school students in suburban Baltimore and observes their mannerisms, attitudes, thoughts, feelings, etc. I love all things sociological, so this interested me. Although I don't think anyone will EVER be able to understand ANY middle school... God, middle school was ROUGH! :-D

*Wolves in Chic Clothing, by Carrie Karasyov and Jill Kargman: A typical NYC chick-lit book about a jewelry store assistant who is befriended by a gaggle of rich Upper East Side socialistas, and she gets all caught up in their world and their lifestyle, and then a misunderstanding causes them to drop her like a hot potato. I've been watching a lot of Real Housewives of New York City lately, and it reminded me of that!  :-)

*Asking for Love, by Roxana Robinson: A collection of short stories about the lives of East Coast WASPs. Most of them are focused on family dynamics, from marriages to divorce to blended families and adolescence. I have another book by this author, This is My Daughter, and I liked it a lot, so I figured I'd give this a go.

*Rise and Shine, by Anna Quindlen: A fiction novel about two sisters trying to mend fences after one sister inadvertently wrongs the other.

*Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea, by Chelsea Handler: Chelsea's autobiography. I love Chelsea Handler, so I figured, for $1, why not?   ;-P

 

PAPERBACKS:

*Luncheon of the Boating Party, by Susan Vreeland: A historical fiction novel about the people who are captured in the infamous Renoir painting.

*Summer of '49, by David Halberstam: A nonfiction chronicle of the Yankees (particularly Joe DiMaggio) and the Red Sox (focusing on Ted Williams) in the summer of 1949. I'm guessing that was a big year for those two.  :-)

*Paris to the Moon, by Adam Gopnik: A memoir/autobiography about a writer from The New Yorker who moves to Paris for a year with his wife and infant son, and chronicles his experiences as life as an American in Paris.

*Among Schoolchildren, by Tracy Kidder: Similar to the middle school book by Linda Perlstein, the author spends a year observing a fourth grade classroom in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

*Thinking of You, by Jill Mansell: An Irish chick-lit author that is new to me! This is a book about how a woman's daughter going off to college (or as they say abroad, "university"), and how she copes with Empty Nest Syndrome (oh, and she happens to be single, so insert complicated love triangle here).

*Last Chance Saloon, by Marian Keyes: A novel about three friends in their twenties in Dublin. Marian Keyes is one of my faves- this is actually the first book of hers I've ever read, but I didn't have my own copy. And now I do!  :-)

*We'll Always Have Paris: Sex and Love in the City of Light, by John Baxter: Memoir/autobiography of a man who falls in love with a French woman in the early 1990s, marries her, and moves to Paris to begin a new life with her, and the story is about his acclimation to Paris, focusing on some particularly, um, interesting historical facts and themes, as the subtitle of the book suggests. Apparently the book gets a little tawdry here and there. I hope my innocent eyes can handle it.  :-D   Apparently I was on some sort of Parisian kick subconsciously yesterday! I'd love to visit Paris at one point in my life. And I wouldn't mind learning more about French culture in general. I've always thought French was such a pretty language. I've taken a little bit here and there in middle school and college, but I barely remember a word of it.

 

So yeah... I think I done good yesterday!!!   :-)   How are your weekends going? I had a crazy-busy day yesterday- besides the book sale, I ran a bunch of errands, hit up the gym, washed and changed my bedsheets, watched American Dreams on Netflix, etc. I was like Wonder Woman yesterday!  I have some stuff I need to get done today too- we're getting new carpeting in our apartment on Friday, so we need to have all of our books cleared off shelves, all knickknacks, DVDs, anything on a shelf, needs to be removed. The carpeting company with move the furniture for us, we just have to empty the shelves. Suffice it to say, my roommate and I have a LOT of books. To the point where we no longer have shelf room, and I have taken to stacking them along the wall (although I do want to get a new bookcase and plan on looking for one soon). While it's exciting and fun to get a new carpet (it's a totally different color and everything), it's going to be such a pain in the ass to pack all that stuff up, and then put everything back! Ugh! My roommate and I both took Friday off, and we have off Monday b/c of Memorial Day, so at least we have a four-day weekend to get everything back in order. Plus, this gives me a good excuse to get my spring cleaning on! But I want to get a good start on it today so I won't be stressing out about it all week.

But first I need to share my latest potato combo off, because I'm proud of it, and it brought me immense joy and happiness last night for dinner:

There was just so much love going on on this plate: grilled chicken, reduced-fat melted Provolone cheese, chopped spinach, sweet potato, oregano, Italian seasoning, pepper, crushed red pepper, organic ketchup on the side. Yum!  :-) Can you believe that's only three chicken breast tenderloins (which is the serving size, per the nutrition facts on Trader Joe's Frozen Chicken Breast tenderloins, which is what I buy)??? I shredded it to put it on the top, but still- it was LOT of chicken!!!! I enjoyed every bite. I love that these potato concoctions always look like they should be, like, a million calories, because they look so massive, but they're really not... this whole thing comes out to 300 calories! (Okay, 315 with the ketchup, but really!)   More importantly, it was absolutely delicious and healthy and satisfying.

Speaking of food, I'm off to make myself lunch and watch the ball game... GO PHILS!!!! Have a great rest of your weekend!  :-)