Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Favorite Books of 2014

The GoodReads "Reading Challenge" is back and I have pledged to read 75 books in 2015.
Last year I missed my goal by only 10 books, but along the way found some new favorites. Here is a look at my best of 2014.

Favorite Book:
Wonder By, R.J. Palacio
You can't blend in when you were born to stand out.

My name is August. I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.

August Pullman wants to be an ordinary ten-year-old. He does ordinary things. He eats ice cream. He plays on his Xbox. He feels ordinary - inside.

But Auggie is far from ordinary. Ordinary kids don't make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. Ordinary kids don't get stared at wherever they go.

Born with a terrible facial abnormality, Auggie has been home-schooled by his parents his whole life, in an attempt to protect him from the cruelty of the outside world. Now, for the first time, he's being sent to a real school - and he's dreading it. All he wants is to be accepted - but can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, underneath it all?

Narrated by Auggie and the people around him whose lives he touches forever, WONDER is a funny, frank, astonishingly moving debut to read in one sitting, pass on to others, and remember long after the final page.


Favorite Author:
Fan GirlLandline, & Attachments By, Rainbow Rowell
Sometimes she writes about adults (ATTACHMENTS and LANDLINE). Sometimes she writes about teenagers (ELEANOR & PARK and FANGIRL). But she always writes about people who talk a lot. And people who feel like they're screwing up. And people who fall in love.






Favorite Series:
The Book of Life By, Deborah Harkness
After traveling through time in Shadow of Night, the second book in Deborah Harkness’s enchanting series, historian and witch Diana Bishop and vampire scientist Matthew Clairmont return to the present to face new crises and old enemies. At Matthew’s ancestral home at Sept-Tours, they reunite with the cast of characters fromA Discovery of Witches--with one significant exception. But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency. In the trilogy’s final volume, Harkness deepens her themes of power and passion, family and caring, past deeds and their present consequences. In ancestral homes and university laboratories, using ancient knowledge and modern science, from the hills of the Auvergne to the palaces of Venice and beyond, the couple at last learn what the witches discovered so many centuries ago.


The Cuckoo's Calling & The Silkworm By, Robert Galbraith
A brilliant debut mystery in a classic vein: Detective Cormoran Strike investigates a supermodel's suicide. After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Strike is down to one client, and creditors are calling. He has also just broken up with his longtime girlfriend and is living in his office.
Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: His sister, thelegendary supermodel Lula Landry, known to her friends as the Cuckoo, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.
You may think you know detectives, but you've never met one quite like Strike. You may think you know about the wealthy and famous, but you've never seen them under an investigation like this.
 

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The Maze Runner By, James Dashner
If you ain’t scared, you ain’t human.

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone.

Nice to meet ya, shank. Welcome to the Glade.

Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive.

Everything is going to change.

Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying.

Remember. Survive. Run.



Favorite Memoir:
Not That Kinda Girl By, Lena Dunham 
From the acclaimed creator, producer, and star of HBO's Girls comes a hilarious, wise, and fiercely candid collection of personal essays that establishes Lena Dunham as one of the most original young talents writing today.

In Not that Kind of Girl, Dunham illuminates the experiences that are part of making one's way in the world: falling in love, feeling alone, being ten pounds overweight despite eating only health food, having to prove yourself in a room full of men twice your age, finding true love, and, most of all, having the guts to believe that your story is one that deserves to be told.

Exuberant, moving, and keenly observed, Not that Kind of Girl is a series of dispatches from the frontlines of the struggle that is growing up. "I'm already predicting my future shame at thinking I had anything to offer you," Dunham writes. "But if I can take what I've learned and make one menial job easier for you, or prevent you from having the kind of sex where you feel you must keep your sneakers on in case you want to run away during the act, then every misstep of mine will have been worthwhile."
 


Do you see any books that you love, as well?
What are you excited to read in 2015?

Happy Reading,
Ashley 

Monday, November 24, 2014

Monday Motivation- Healthier Turkey Day




This Thursday is Thanksgiving and the kick off to the "Most Wonderful Time of the Year". So true and in so many ways, but not for your waistline. For some reason, we have gotten it in our heads that Turkey Day equals a day to binge on all of our favorite foods and regret it later. 

Here is some serious food for thought: People probably consume 3,000 to 5,000 calories around the Thanksgiving dinner table — yikes. While eating often takes center stage during the holidays, that doesn't mean we have to give up on good health. Check out these tips for a fit and healthy Thanksgiving without sacrificing any flavor or fun.


1. Exercise Early. I'm a huge fan of morning workouts and Thanksgiving morning is a key day to get it in early. Not only will it give your metabolism a boost, increase your energy for all the days events, but you will fell a little less guilty for eating an extra slice of  pie.
2. Be Choosy. Indulge only on the really special foods that you normally wouldn't see. Don't munch of something that you can make yourself any time of the year. Thanksgiving is my day each year to eat sweet potato casserole and pumpkin pie!   
3. Make Good Choices. Pace yourself if you decided to drink alcohol, keeping in mind there are fewer calories in wine than most cocktails. Try to drink a glass of water between each alcoholic beverage.  
4. Start a Healthy Family Tradition not Based on Food. Run a Turkey Trot, organize a sports game, trivia or board games, viewing Christmas lights, or a walk around the neighborhood. 
5. Avoid the Sugar Pushers. We all know who they are, whether its your Grandma or Aunt Sue everybody has a relative that thinks you are withering away. Just say NO! 

This Saturday the family and I started off our Thanksgiving holiday with me running in our local Turkey 10k. It was a beautiful morning to run, which was made even better when I crossed the finish line to find out that I placed 1st in my age division and 2nd overall female. 


With the girls out of school this week, we plan to take advantage of our time together. On the agenda is a ton of yard work (little hands are great for weed picking), Girl Scout meeting, and continuing my training. 

How are you planning to have a healthier Thanksgiving?

Run Hard, 
Ashley 

Monday, November 17, 2014

Monday Motivation- Official Crescent City Classic Blogger

 I am so excited to announce that I have been asked to join an inspirational group of bloggers for next years Crescent City Classic.


What is the Crescent City Classic? 
Since 1979 New Orleans has been host to one of the nations largest 10k's. With over 20,000 people gathering in Downtown New Orleans, it's an event that attracts everyone from international Elite Athletes to those who walk the entire route carrying cocktails or wearing bunny suits. Young, old, fit and not so, the Crescent City Classic was the first 10k to be televised nationally, and is, to this day, perhaps the most fun you can have over 6.2 miles.  The Classic has been praised in every major running publication as “one of America’s fastest 10k’s”, “the originator of the party race”, “an Easter Weekend tradition that should never be missed” and “a great race, on a beautiful course in America’s most unique city”.

This year is going to be first time attending the event and I'm so honored to be included with such a great group of bloggers. There's nothing like running a race with friends. I'm sure we are all going to have a weekend to remember in the "big easy". Make sure to check out all of there blogs and get inspired. 

Larisa @ www.larisadixon.com
Mindy @ www.roadrunnergirl.com
Kristin @ www.bamagirlruns.com
Nicole @ www.ndeckerrunner.wordpress.com
Lisa @ www.triouradventure.com
AMP @ www.ampruns.blogspot.com
Megan @ www.runninmysouthernmouth.blogspot.com
Holly @ www.Runninginfastforward.com
Cindy @ www.fattofitwithcindylaneross.com
Jen @ www.jenzenator.com/
Fred @ www.NOLArunner.com

This is my first Monday Motivation (on this blog) with the cold Winter weather working its way down South. The chilly air has been my motivation to get outside and get in the miles. I've quickly learned that I need to ask Santa for some warmer running gear (gloves, hat, full length pants, & thicker socks), but it wasn't too bad after I got going. I'm going to try sticking to my road miles and avoid the gym at all costs. Unless we have ice and snow again like last year, which is crazy considering I live in South Alabama.  


What's motivating you this week?

Run Fast,
Ashley