Summer/Back to School Reading List: Part 2

Good morning everyone! For today's post, I wanted to dive in and talk a little about the rest of the books I read during my summer break and the ones that I finished reading carrying on into the first month of school. To see the first part of my summer reading list, check it out here. Let's get into it - there are a lot of books, so this might get a little long!

I finished The Vacationers during the Fourth of July weekend, and afterward I started on The Botany of Desire, a book that talks about the relationship between plants and humans, and how we manipulate plants to fit our various human desires. I had read a chapter (there's only four) of this book for a class I took last semester, and really love Michael Pollan's writing style, so I figured this would be a great book to read in its entirety. I thought this book was incredibly fascinating and explains so much history about food and our country. If you have any interest in genetically modified organisms/food, environmental science, gardening, or the history of food, definitely check out this book! It's long but totally worth it.

After finishing The Botany of Desire mid-cruise, I took a different route (albeit the cover makes it appear as though I have a thing for books about fruit) and picked up Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist. This was a suggestion from Amy Littleson and I really enjoyed every minute of this book. Niequist explores the everyday moments of life that we should really take time to celebrate and reminds us that we can't get caught up in regret, comparison, and jealousy - just a few of the problems of our materialistic and highly visible Internet world that can drag us down. Granted, this book does have a religious component, which I didn't mind, but for some it could be uncomfortable. Overall, I really enjoyed this set of short essays. Niequist writes the way I want to live my life, and recently I've been striving to live minimally, intentionally, and simply.

I have been doing lots of planning for my blog this summer, if you can't tell, and so I decided that it would be worth my while to pick up a few books that have been recommended time and time again for female entrepreneurs and influencers alike. This one, Leave Your Mark by Aliza Licht, has turned into a full time company, which I think is absolutely incredible. This book is full of advice not great for just bloggers, but also college students like myself looking to succeed in a work environment and maybe (hopefully) be my own boss one day. 

The last book I read this summer was Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple. It was probably my favorite read of the summer between its dynamic characters and its exciting plot. I love the way it explored relationships among family and friends, and that the entire book was written in diary entries, emails, and more! This was an incredible read that I would recommend to anyone and everyone - I suggested it to my mom as well and she just couldn't put it down!

Hope you all are enjoying school and back into the swing of things! Please bear with me as I figure out my schedule for the year and start setting up a routine... I have every intention of blogging three times a week like normal, but need to hash out some time that I can commit to writing posts. I'll be sure to keep you all updated, there are some awesome things in the works xox