Fall Reading

Another season, another busy few months, another too ambitious reading list. This fall's list is far too extensive, but I'll be happy to read even a handful of these books when I have a chance between classes, work, and anything else going on. There are a bunch of recent and upcoming releases that I'm really looking forward to getting to in between reading for school (such as Little Fires Everywhere, Artemis, They Both Die at the End, and Sing, Unburied, Sing). I'm also excited to continue flying through Megan Whalen Turner's fantastic Queen's Thief series, hopefully picking up more Margaret Atwood and Neil Gaiman, and reading some books that feel perfect for fall.

Whitney Museum

From a summer Sunday spent at the Whitney Museum with Shae, my favorite museum and photo partner -- photos from the museum's terraces, mostly from the outdoor installation.

Summer Reading in Review

Unfortunately, my summer has just ended for me with the start of school this past week. I'm hoping to continue reading as much as possible during this semester, in addition to my heavy school reading list, but for now I'm thinking about the books I read this summer. Unsurprisingly, I didn't read everything on my ambitious summer reading list, but I did read 35 books this summer, so I'm pretty pleased. I'd like to think I made a dent in my extensive list of books to read and my piles of books in the rooms at school and at home, but I probably balanced out all progress by just adding more and more books to the list. Getting a library card in the spring has also made me even more of a book hoarder - I constantly have a long list of holds and a stack of library books to tackle. Anyways, I read some excellent books and it was a wonderful three and a half months of reading overall, spent in sunny parks and at the beach, on the subway and lazy days in bed. It was great to get a lot of time to dedicate to reading, as well as to see that my big jump out of a long reading slump in the beginning of the year was not a short-lived return to reading book after book. I did reread a handful of books - finishing my reread of Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Cycle, listening to Stephen Fry's audiobook of the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes by starting with A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four, and flying through Ally Carter's Heist series once again - but the rest were new releases and books that had long sat on my to-read list. So here you are - a reading roundup highlighting almost half of the books I read this summer, complete with thoughts and recommendations.

Homemade Pizza

My dad and I have been attempting various methods of cooking homemade pizza pretty much every time I come home. Part of the problem is figuring out how long to cook the dough, and the question of using the oven or our grill, and the debate between a pizza stone, cookie sheet, cast iron skillet... It goes on.

We started out with store-bought dough, canned sauce, and a variety of cheese and toppings, but we've branched out to homemade dough and sauce. Finding the right dough recipe was part of the problem, but I'm no stranger to looking at and trying a thousand recipes for one thing (case in point: my previous searches for the best chocolate cake recipe and easy cinnamon rolls, and my ongoing searches for the perfect yellow cake recipe and a chocolate chip cookie that best fulfills my criteria).

I still have some pizza dough recipes I'd like to try - such as a sourdough base - but this one was good, and quick, and very simple. A handful of ingredients, only 15 minutes of rising, and a thin crust.

Also, I put herbs and garlic into the very dough of my pizzas, and that really made it even better.