My Favorite Books of 2010

I am the type of person that always has a book in my bag for my daily public transportation commute and I also make good use of my local library. Here are my thoughts on my favorite books of 2010 in no particular order:

• If You Have to Cry, Go Outside by Kelly Cutrone. I loved the no-nonsense attitude of Kelly Cutrone. I didn't know much about her until I watched her reality show (is it coming back?) on Bravo. This is a great book for a recent college graduate interested in working in the fashion industry or any teen/young female professional that needs inspiration on 'making it'.
  
• My Life in France by Julia Child. I was inspired to read this book after seeing the film Julie & Julia earlier this year. I have to say, reading about Julia Child's interesting years living in France with her husband was much better than the film. I admired her tenacity to keep plugging away toward her goal of completing her timeless cookbook despite setbacks. She seems like someone I would have enjoyed sitting down and having a cup of tea with if she were still alive.
  
• B*tch is the New Black by Helena Andrews. I loved Helena Andrews sarcastic humor and the way she described her interesting childhood and experiences dating as a young professional black woman in her essays.
  
• Cane River by Lalita Tademy. This historical novel based on the real-life occurrences of a woman's family during slavery in Louisiana was a compelling read. The author spent years researching her family to write this fictional version of her family's story.
  
• Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin. If you need a jump start to get your creative initiative going, this is the book to read. I have read a few of Godin's books and this one is my favorite so far. There are so many gems in this book, I think I might actually purchase it so I can reference it later.
  
• Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. This fast-paced and slightly disturbing thriller/mystery captivated me from the first page and I couldn't put it down until I finished it. I've already read the Girl Who Played with Fire and just picked up the final book in the trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. I'm already sad that there will be no more books from Larsson because he died shortly after completing the first three books in what was planned to be an ongoing series according to Wikipedia.
  
• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I didn't expect to like this book because (a) I don't really enjoy the circus, seeing animals in captivity makes me sad, (b) I didn't think I'd be able to relate to the protagonist, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book and read it pretty quickly. It was surprising that one of the most compelling characters in the novel was not human, and that's all I'll say in case you haven't yet read it.
  
• The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William Danko. I'm a little late to the game in reading this book because I have seen so many bloggers reference it over the last few years. Though I personally think the scope of the research of this book is limited, I really liked the major premise of the book; that you don't have to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth to accumulate wealth and that high consumers are not necessarily the rich folks in American society. The data presented in the book did present interesting stories and really made me rethink about how I perceive wealth.
  
• I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi. If you love the tone and content of Ramit Sethi's highly popular blog, than you'll like this book. The advice in the book was presented in a fresh way and I liked the slightly irreverent tone of his writing. I would purchase this book for anyone I know that is a recent college grad just learning to manage their money.
  
• The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins. After seeing a few bloggers reference these books, I decided to pick up The Hunger Games from the library. I didn't expect to like them because of the somber and disturbing premise of the books and the fact that they were written for an adolescent audience but I found the books very interesting and found myself rooting for the protagonist. I'm currently reading the final book in the series and am curious to see how the series will end.

As you can see, I read across the board from memoirs, to novels, to mysteries to self-help, but I have a penchant for memoirs. In 2011, I plan to read more books on investing and entrepreneurship, but I've gotten through a lot of 'must reads' on my book list in 2010. I recently heard a statistic that I can't exactly recall about the dismal reading rates of Americans which amazes me because I see so many people in D.C. toting around books and e-readers on public transportation. But I personally find that reading for fun (and information) makes me feel more well-rounded and makes for great conversation with friends, associates and colleagues. So, read up!

What were your favorite books of 2010?

Being Thankful

Thanksgiving is only a couple days away (where did this year go…)! In an effort to bring the year to a close on a positive note, I’d like to outline the things I’m grateful for this Thanksgiving:

• My health.
• My loving family and supportive friends.
• Being gainfully employed with great benefits.
• Slowly building my savings and retirement funds.
• Being weeks from completing my Master’s degree (whoop!).
• Living in a part of the city that I love in an awesome apartment.
• Being relatively young and having fun milestones to look forward to personally and professionally.
• Having been able to afford to travel for pleasure this year.
• I could go on, but I'll stop here.
  

I don’t often take the time to think about how many things I really have to be thankful for, so I plan to do this more often in the future. In general, I think it’s so easy to get caught up with focusing on what we don’t have and goals that haven't met instead of focusing on the considerable abundance many of us have in our lives. Life isn't perfect and things don't always work out as planned, but that's what makes it interesting!

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

Happy Dance for Annual Salary Increases

I recently received my annual salary increase which should be reflected in my next paycheck. I accordingly increased my retirement contribution to my 403b so I will still be meet the minimum threshold to be eligible to receive a 'match' contribution from my company. I really try not to increase my 'lifestyle expenditures' when I receive salary increases and allocate the money to different pots and pretend like the increase doesn't exist. I'm not the only one that needs the incentive of these little mental tricks, right?

My increase was actually reflected a bit late this year, so I will receive a small windfall from retroactive pay from my new salary. This small windfall will go straight to my travel fund which I’m still in the process of beefing up for my fall travel plans. This small windfall and annual increase called for a brief happy dance which I did during the day yesterday when no one was watching. Hey, I need to work exercise into my daily routine anyway and every little bit counts right? : )

September 2010 Goals

It's about time I get back into setting my monthly goals, so here are my goals for the month of September:

1. Apply for December 2010 graduation. I'm in the final stretch of graduate school, so I have to talk to my academic advisor and fill out the paper work to apply for fall graduation. It's amazing how fast two years fly by!
2. Save for fall travel 'spending money.' Though I paid for both trips I plan to take this fall (a 7 day cruise and a long weekend in Paris), I still have to set aside more money in my travel fund for spending money. I plan for most of my travel money to be spent on food. I truly have enough stuff; I can do without souvenirs, my main souvenirs will be photos : )
3. Order all of my FICO scores. I did check my credit report earlier this month via Annual Credit Report , but I haven't checked all of my credit scores this year. I will order them all and take a look at them.
4. Borrow some French language software from the library and start practicing. I'd love to purchase Rosetta Stone, but since that doesn't fit in my budget, I'll have to settle for borrowing some language software from my local library. It's been a long term goal to learn to speak French conversationally for a while and I've forgotten most of the French I learned to fulfill my foreign language requirement in college, so language software from the library will have to do for now. Once I feel more comfortable with basic conversation, I'll start attending French conversation Meet-ups. I never had the nerve to attend language Meet-ups in the past, but I plan to change that in the near-future!
5. Start exercising 3 times a week (again). Some how exercising has fallen by the wayside for the past few weeks (okay, months), so it's time to get back on track again. I'll do the 30 Day Shred though I don't think I'll to do it for 30 consecutive days, I'll alternate with Pilates and Yoga stretching. I'd also like to take at least drop-in dance class; one of the advantages of living in a city like D.C. is that there are quite a few dance studios.
6. Henna my hair. Henna which is traditionally used in Pakistan and other parts of the world to decorate skin is also used by many women as a natural dye and conditioning treatment. It coats (doesn't penetrate) your hair in red which will show up in varying degrees depending on your hair color and how long you leave on the henna. I can't tell any difference in my hair color which is very dark, but it was a great conditioning treatment! It's a little messy/time consuming, but I plan to do a henna treatment once a month. I have to order the henna (I used this brand the last time) and set aside a Sunday to do it.
7. Take clothes donation to Goodwill. I sorted through my clothes earlier this summer and set aside a bag of items I no longer need to take to Goodwill. I'm tired of looking at that bag in my hallway, so it has to go!

Happy Friday folks!

Non-Summer Travel Blues

I have done very little travel this summer. For the past few summers, I have gone on a few family weekend trips and at least one trip with my friends. I didn't realize how conditioned I was to think that summer means that it is time to travel! As I've mentioned previously, I do actually have a few travel plans for the fall and elected to pool my money toward those plans and turned down most of the travel plans offered up to me by both friends and family over the past few months. I even slowed down on visits to my hometown; it has been the norm for me to go home more frequently during the summer months since college. I didn't mind the idea of no summer travel at the beginining of the summer, but as the summer flies by (alarmingly fast might I add), I kind of wish I had some travel plans between now and the official end of the summer to look forward to. I might try to squeeze in a day trip somewhere close but that will be the extend of my travel until the fall. I love taking advantage of things going on locally, but personally, there is nothing like a nice trip (outside of the immediate area where you live) to look foward to.

Does anybody else that opted out of traveling this summer feel the non-travel blues as well?