Music, Books, Miles, and Looks of July

Hello August!  7 months down, 5 to go!  This year is a-flying!

Music:
 

Drunk by Ed Sheeran - Melissa recommended this artist to me, and her recommendation was spot on!  I really like the beat of this song, which is irregular at times.  It's really catchy.  His whole album is really good!

 Books:

It was another strong month of reading for me!

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese - This is one of the best books I have read this year.  I will warn you, though, that it took awhile for me to get into it...  like 250 pages (out of about 600)...  But once I got into it, I had a hard time putting it down.  It's about a family of doctors that live in Ethiopia.  The story seamlessly travels from India to Ethiopia to New York and back to Ethiopia, and it was a really engaging read.

Paris, My Sweet by Amy Thomas - This is a charming memoir about an American girl that moves to Paris for a work assignment. Each chapter is centered around a sweet that France is known for. She weaves the story of her expatriate life in with the story of the various delicacies she tastes while living there. And most importantly, it honestly portrays the challenges of moving to a foreign country. It's a light, fast read that I'd recommend to any fellow Francophiles.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth - I was excited to check this out as it's the sequel to Divergent, a book I read and really enjoyed this winter. But I was pretty disappointed with the sequel.  They didn't do a very good job of bridging the 2 books.  Even though I had read Divergent fairly recently, I had forgotten a lot of details so consequently had a hard time following this book.  Also, there was almost too much action involved...  I am still glad I read it but doubt I will read the 3rd book...

The Shoemaker's Wife by Andriana Trigiani - This is the 3rd book I have read by this author, and it's my favorite so far. She does a great job telling the story of Italian immigrants who moved to the US to start a new life. The story spans from Italy to Manhattan to Minnesota, and moves through time, from the turn of the 20th century to the first great world war to WWII and beyond. Definitely a great read!

Miles:

I had a great month of running.  I increased my long runs fairly quickly but my body responded well so I think it was the right thing to do!  I ran a total of 120 miles, which I feel really really good about!


Looks:

I have 2 favorite looks from this month!

First off, my look from the day of Amber's wedding.

It's obviously a special occasions dress so is not a look I'll be repeating, but gosh I loved wearing that dress that day!  It was comfortable and flattering - which are not words commonly used to describe bridesmaid dresses.  ;)  I also was really happy with how my hair turned out!

Look #2 is a Target dress I wore the Saturday we were in Vancouver (and it's been worn multiple times since then!).

It's striped (of course), but I like that it's a non-traditional striped pattern.  I also like that it's asymmetrical (longer in the back, shorter in the front).