Sunday Summary - 7.31.22
There was no Sunday Summary last week, because I was wrapping up a 5 day girls trip in Florida! We visited the beautiful beaches of along Highway 30A, and enjoyed some much needed quality time since we’re a crew of long distance friends. This week I checked back into reality, sadly, but we have some exciting trips on the horizon that are keeping me motivated!
Read
This month I couldn’t put books down! I read a total of 5, and I’m not mad about it!
Amazon releases a selection of 5-6 books each month from a variety of genres for Prime members to download for free. I selected this book in May or June, and it follows the granddaughter of a beloved hotel owner who passes away. Ivy (the granddaughter) returns to NC from NY to handle her grandmother’s affairs, reconnects with old friends, and discovers untold truths of her grandmother’s past. It’s a really unique story that hops around in time and kept me really engaged (even though the family tree gets a bit complicated!)
This is the sequel to Dial A for Aunties, a book I enjoyed well enough last summer to rate it four stars and excitedly anticipate the sequel. I’m sad to say this was a bit of a letdown. The plot really stressed me out and was somehow even more unrealistic than the first book. Harsh review, I know, but I legitimately had to skim the last 20 pages, because it was driving me bonkers. No one would act like this at their wedding! (If you’ve read it, you know what I’m talking about. I just don’t want to spoil it for people who intend to read it.)
After reading Malibu Rising, I quickly added a slew of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s books to my reading list. This one explores the concept of parallel universes in the life of 29-year-old Hannah Martin. You’ll discover what her life would look like if she chooses to leave a party with her best friend or if she chooses to stay at a party with her high school boyfriend. I loved the creativity of this book, and this author creates some really lovable characters. Highly recommend! I snagged the kindle version of this one on sale for $1.99!
New Discovery
Speaking of books…I’ve been getting targeted ads on Instagram for Bookbub lately, so I finally decided to look into it. I discovered it’s a service that finds great deals on ebooks from your reading list for you. Pretty cool!
How does it work?
You create an account and set your reading preferences by genre. The service then generates a list of reading recommendations based on your preferences that you can add to a “wishlist.” If you have specific books on your radar, you can manually add books to that wishlist, too. Bookbub then scours the internet to find both free and steeply discounted prices on the ebooks from your wishlist. While I haven’t seen discounts on new releases (yet!), I have discovered several interesting books that I was able to snag for free on Amazon. Don’t read on a kindle? No worries. It also scans deals from Apple Books, Barnes and Noble, Google, and Kobo(?).
That being said, you’re purchasing the books from other retailers, not Bookbub — this service just helps you spot the deals and navigate to them easily.
Pros and Cons
Con - I currently use Goodreads to find new books and track my reading progress. Bookbub doesn’t have an integration feature with that service, so you’d likely be maintaining two, duplicate lists.
Pro - Goodreads doesn’t have a “book deal” feature, so I typically wait weeks and weeks to rent best sellers from my library via the Libby app for free. This service allows me to snag free or super cheap books to read while I wait for the new releases to be available.
Semi con - Bookbub alerts you of prices drops via email, so this will likely add to the neverending marketing emails filling up the promotions folder of your inbox. I updated my settings to “once per week,” from the default “once per day.”
Recipe Spotlight
This week we went shopping mid-week, which kind of threw us off. We had the Cajun Sheet Pan Shrimp boil from The Defined Dish’s first cookbook earlier this week, and this delicious salmon bowl from Half Baked Harvest last night. I’ve included my notes on that meal below along with our dinner for tonight and some diet updates.
Crispy BBQ Salmon Bowls with Peach Jalapeno Salsa from Half Baked Harvest
Photo from Half Baked Harvest
The spice rub makes a LOT, so you can decrease everything by roughly 1/2 teaspoon.
It calls for one avocado, but I’d double it. The salsa is really spicy, and the avocado helps neutralize things a bit.
If you don’t like spice, use just one jalapeno and seed it. We used 2, unseeded because we like heat, but it was a little overwhelming!
Black Bean Burgers from The Modern Proper
We’re having these tonight, so I don’t have any insights to share other than it looks delicious, and we’re subbing the buns for butter lettuce wraps.
Diet Update: I’m still avoiding wheat, baker's and brewer’s yeast, and dairy a majority of the time. I’m giving myself some grace when eating out and traveling, but I’m not going all in on those 3 things at any given time, if that makes sense. After a few weeks, I feel like dairy has the smallest impact on how I feel. Wheat and Yeast are the bigger culprits, but the experiment continues!
Top 5 Favorites of the Week
Quarter zip sweatshirt - Is it over 100 degrees consistently? Yes. Am I still wearing sweatshirts inside? Yes. It’s a comfort thing - can’t explain it. I went up 2 sizes to a M, and it’s ultra cozy and looks nicer than $25.
Pull-on shorts - With how insanely hot it’s been, I can’t comfortably wear denim shorts. I’ve been reaching for every version of pull on, easy breezy shorts, and these have been my most worn. They’re true to size, but the waistband is snug (not “squeeze your guts out” - more like legging, compression-like feeling.) I love the length, too!
Full body workout (Free!) - After vacation, it’s always hard for me to work up the motivation to exercise. Rather than dive into an intense Peloton workout, I started off slowly with this full body, no equipment workout from LA Thoma (aka, the wife of Grant Gustin, aka The Flash, my guilty pleasure TV show on Netflix.) I thought it was great, and I was sore for 3 days afterward!
DWTS Pro Dancer Lindsay Arnold talks Pay, Performance & Profession of dancing - I’ve been a DWTS fan for a while, and I was pleasantly surprised when I stumbled upon this interview from Trading Secrets, a podcast hosted by Jason Tartick (from Becca’s season of The Bachelorette.) He has a finance background, and dives into the BTS of money and careers from a variety of industries. This particular episode touches on the money aspect of DWTS, which was super eye-opening and something I’ve always wondered about.
Spray nozzle - I feel like I’ve officially reached adulthood with this spray nozzle recommendation. This thing is super high quality, has 10 settings, and is $10.99. I’ve been using it to water our landscaping every morning, and I love that you don’t have to hold down a spring loaded handle. It has a little on and off switch, instead.