simplyalexandra's Reviews (890)

3 Stars - I recommend if you are looking to move toward a plant based diet or spice up your menus!

This book is such a fun and approachable way to spice up your menu and add healthful meals to your daily life. The cover is immediately bright and fun, the pages are too, filled with pictures and energy as is Stiles's writing. You can tell that Stiles has a real zest for life and for cooking. She breaks it all down for you in her chapters, from her "food rules" to what supplies she keeps on hand, greening your home and kitchen, to making cooking a task you complete (and enjoy!), and of course her delicious sounding recipes! (I haven't been able to try any out yet!) From drinks to soups, salads to desserts... this book has it all.. and boy does it all look amazing. This book is your go-to guide on all things yummy, nourishing, and energy boosting. I can't get over the gorgeous and fun design - complete with little doodles and pretty fonts. If you're looking to move toward a plant based diet, or just explore new nourishing recipes, I think this one is definitely worth a read.

It may not be a well known fact about me, but it's certainly not one I'm hiding. I'm a sucker for Debbie Macomber books. She writes her stories like a RomCom, or a Hallmark movie (many of her xmas books have been made into (much worse) Hallmark movies...) but the books almost always leave me feeling hopeful. They're really good when the world is in a particularly bad state... ha

This book is part of a series about knitting. Yup, knitting. I don't knit... at all. I just picked up the first one one day... and I loved it. Pretty much all of the books in the "Blossom Street" series are about a woman or two who have landed on hard times, found themselves lost in life, etc. But they pick themselves back up with the help of community. Some of them have more focus on the knitting group than others, but overall they're just really happy, easy, fun books.

This book comes later in the series (the order has almost no consequence...) when a lawyer expects to make partner, but unexpectedly gets fired instead. She takes the time of unemployment to find herself, and build a life outside of work. She starts going to the gym, re-kindles an old friendship, starts knitting hats for premises at the hospital, and volunteers to rock the newborns. This book was definitely one of the cheesier, but also one of the least happy of all the books. It didn't have the usual charm for me, and I thought the ending portion was really weird. : /

I won't lie. This one started a little slow for me. It's very wholesome, lots of sisters... etc. I liked some of the imagery of the dancing, and the gardens, and the balls. But then all of a sudden, plot happens. It's sort of a mix of Little Women, Edenbrooke, and something dark and creepy. For those who missed this when I intro'd it... this book is a re-telling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses. It follows the Azalea and her younger sisters as they navigate grieving their mother's death. While in mourning, they can't do their favorite thing... dancing. So, when they discover magic in the castle and find a way to dance at night, they don't realize what kind of magic they are playing with. One part fairy tale, one part regency-esque tale, a little bit of darkness. Overall, this book was pretty good! I think reading it more quickly would probably help with fluidity. I think the regency-esque part was done well. I liked the parts with the sisters and the various suitors. The darker part left a little bit lacking for me... like I wanted just a little bit more from it. But I'm not sure what. Overall I think it's a pretty solid 3.5 - 3.75 stars. I would recommend it if you like retellings and regency.

4.5 stars - I recommend if you like to read lifestyle books, especially those related to health and wellness. It contains a lot of questionnaires and activities, so I also recommend it if you like that kind of thing, and if you have the time to put into that reflection. I don't think I would have appreciated it as much had I not done them.

This book is a comprehensive lifestyle book by Kate Hudson that encompasses what she calls her "four pillars of health" and breaks them down into detailed and inspiring chunks. She focuses on nutrition, physical activity, mindfulness, and play. She also uses a tool that she calls her "drawing board" where she records a lot of what she is doing, eating, thinking, how she's feeling, and also reflections on the various activities she mentions.

This book is filled to the gills with questionnaires and activities for your own "drawing board" that really help you think about the "four pillars", where you are, where you want to be, and progress you are making. I think that is part of why it took me SO long to read! I love to do introspective journaling like that. I took tons of notes as well along the way.

Overall, I can say that I appreciated that her strategies are not super radical or unattainable, but they aren't entirely run-of-the-mill either. She talks a lot about her own processes, progress, and strategies for staying healthy and happy. I like that she holistically includes the mind as well as the body. She gives tons of great real-life examples, and actively admits when these steps were hard or not, or when she had to be tough on herself, and that you will get out what you put into these processes. I appreciated that at the end of the book she put in a sample week's worth of workouts, meals, etc. from her own life.

I am also kind of a sucker for Ayurveda, and it was fun to read how she incorporates that into her life along with advice from nutritionists, psychologists, etc. It was very interesting and gave me a lot of great ideas on what I wanted to do with my own journey to wellness.

4 Stars - I recommend this if you like quick YA fantasy, or books related to time-travel. It's pretty fluffy, and somewhat predictable, but it's a fun little escape to read. The books get progressively more interesting and detailed as you go along the series as well.

I liked this series more and more as it went along. Still very fluffy, but fun.

4 Stars - I recommend this if you like quick YA fantasy, or books related to time-travel. It's pretty fluffy, and somewhat predictable, but it's a fun little escape to read. The books get progressively more interesting and detailed as you go along the series as well.

I liked this series more and more as it went along. Still very fluffy, but fun.