Winston helping out with filling the shelves with all of my books

It’s always been a dream of mine to have my very own personal library. One room or space dedicated totally to the beautiful display of row after row of booksbooksbooks. I’m certain I’m not the only one with this dream. Last year my husband helped make my dream a reality, and every day I enjoy sitting in my library when I work, write, update this site, hang out online and chat with longtime friends. The day we had the shelves installed and the books perfectly lined up inside them, my husband suggested we could expand to the adjacent wall for not that much money. He gets it. And naturally this means he’s given his blessing to me buying more books to a) get to the point of needing a second full wall full of books, and then b) filling that bookshelf up. In that spirit, I thought I’d show you the latest additions to the Parker Villa Library (I feel no shame in naming my library/office), and my latest to-reads.

When I’m cooking I often wish I didn’t have to rely on the internet or asking my husband to figure some simple things out. Like if I should add eggs to boiling water to make hard boiled eggs, or if you start the eggs in room temp water first and then let them boil with the water. Or I’ll find myself wishing I could just whip something up and not having any clue what to do, but still feeling inspired to do something. So I picked up this book in the hope that it’ll teach me enough of the basics that I’ll be able to get out of my comfort zone a little in the kitchen.
To go along with the theme of learning how to cook, I also picked up Plant Based Diet for Beginners because that’s exactly what my husband and I are. Currently we are transitioning to a more plant based, vegan diet (though we eat fish), and this presents so many new challenges in the kitchen and at the farmer’s market that I knew I would need help getting the basics down first.
I’ve watched multiple interviews with the authors on Rachel Maddow’s show and some of the late night shows, and I really could not help myself from picking up this title and adding it to my growing collection of political books from the recent and current election cycles. I just started reading this today and already it’s intense.
I was a HUGE fan of Newlyweds in the early 00’s and of Jessica Simpson back when she released her first single. I haven’t followed her career to much since she and Nick Lachey divorced, but I am super curious to read anything she writes about her experiences on the show, and how it impacted her life. I’m not too far in now and so far she’s been really forthcoming about her dependence on alcohol. I’m looking forward to reading the rest! And I’m crossing my fingers for some hot tea on Newlyweds.