Formally inviting you to my book club! Reading has been my number one hobby for as long as I can remember. I have so many recommendations, reviews, and thoughts to share. And I can’t wait to hear yours too.

June Book Pick: Lady of the Camellias By Alexandre Dumas Fils

This novel is what inspired the Oscar-winning musical Moulin Rouge. Lady of the Camellias tells the story of Marguerite Gautier, despite having many lovers, she has never been loved-until she meets Armand Duval.

Review:

5/5 Stars

I truly loved this book so much a beautiful, heart-breaking love story.Truly sad and realistic.I found the writing style truly mesmerizing, not at all austere on the contrary very easy to read.One scene that stuck out to me the most was in the cemetery where Armando sees Marguerite is one of the most powerful ones in literature. I wish people could still express themselves the way they do in the classics. After I got a few chapters in, I really couldn’t put this book down. I loved that it wasn’t simple and sweet, but love and jealousy and anger and fear and anguish are all balled up and spurted out. I read something that talked about how people were worried, at the time, that this would promote the “kept woman” way of life, or of men seeking after them. The narrator (and hence, the author) are very careful to explain that they don’t believe this to be typical behavior but that was a very exceptional woman. I found that amusing and wish that if there must be ‘bad’, that the ‘bad’ of our day was as pretty and clean as the ‘bad’ of theirs, in my mind it is. Marguerite Gautier is one of the most beautiful souls i have ever read about in the world of Classic Literature,and the carefree and young soul of Armand Duval is the one man who gives her something no other man ever have done. He is the one man who cares and cries for her well-being, has a passion that will never die…and will give her the gift of true love that becomes her very ruin.He refused to abandon her, she refused to stay with him.Marguerite and Armand proved to selflessly love each other, and Alexander Dumas knows in what state he still has his readers by the end:in complete tears.

FAVORITE QUOTE(s):
There really are SO many that I think it’s best if I limit it to 3 of my favorites and then have you read it!
– “he [God] had permitted her to die in luxury and beauty, before old age set in, that first death of courtesans.”
– ‘…the sort of witticisms that a certain segment of society finds charming but will always sully the mouth of the person who speaks them…’
– ‘Any man of twenty-five may achieve the victory of making her [a young virginal woman] fall in love with him whenever he wishes. To see the truth of this, just look at how they surround young girls with surveillance and ramparts!….But to be truly loved by a courtesan, that is a much harder won victory.’ 

August Book Pick: Sweetbitter

By: Stephanie Danler

“A heady first taste of self discovery, bitter and salty and sweet.”

Newly arrived in New York City, twenty-two-year-old Tess lands a job as a “backwaiter” at a celebrated downtown Manhattan restaurant. What follows is the story of her education: in champagne and cocaine, love and lust, dive bars and fine dining rooms, as she learns to navigate the chaotic, enchanting, punishing life she has chosen. As her appetites awaken-for food and wine, but also for knowledge, experience, and belonging—Tess finds herself helplessly drawn into a darkly alluring love triangle. In Sweetbitter, Stephanie Danler deftly conjures with heart-stopping accuracy the nonstop and high-adrenaline world of the restaurant industry and evokes the infinite possibilities, the unbearable beauty, and the fragility and brutality of being young in New York.

Read along with me I can’t wait to dive in <3

Cooking has always been a one of my favorite hobbies to share with the people I love. I thought I’d share one recipe a month that focuses on being dairy free. All recipes are tested multiple times by me, I hope you love them as much as I do. <3

(pls note not all of these are original recipes but tweaked to fit dietary needs, and some are passed down from family)

August‘s Recipe :

In honor of my birthday this month ill be sharing my famous moist vanilla cake recipe with a raspberry buttercream, I can’t count how many times I’ve been asked to make this cake for friends and family.

Moist Vanilla Cake

Ingredients

4 ounces unsweetened cashew milk to be mixed with the oil

3 ounces canola oil

6 ounces unsweetened cashew milk to be mixed with the eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean pod

3 large eggs room temperature

13 ounces cake flour

13 ounces granulated sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

8 ounces unsalted vegan butter softened to room temperature but not melted

Directions

IMPORTANT: This is the BEST vanilla cake because I use a scale so it turns out perfectly, If you convert to cups I cannot guarantee good results. Make sure all your (cold ingredients) butter, eggs, milk are at room temperature or a little warm.

Heat oven to 335º F/168º C . Grease three 8″x2″ cake pans

Place the 4 oz of cashew milk in a separate measuring cup. Add the oil to the milk and set it aside. To the remaining 6 oz of milk, add the vanilla and room temperature eggs. Whisk gently to combine. Set aside. Place the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Turn the mixer onto the slowest speed. Slowly add chunks of your softened butter until it is all added then let everything mix until it looks like coarse sand. Add your milk/oil mixture all at once to the dry ingredients and mix on medium (speed 4 on kitchenaid, speed 2 on the Bosch) for 2 full minutes to develop the structure. Set a timer! Don’t worry, this will not over-mix the cake. After 2 minutes, scrape the bowl. This is an important step. If you skip it, you will have hard lumps of flour and unmixed ingredients in your batter. If you do it later, they will not mix in fully. Slowly add in the milk/egg mixture while mixing on low, stopping to scrape the bowl one more time halfway through. Mix until just combined. Your batter should be thick and not too runny. Divide the batter into your greased cake pans and fill ¾ of the way full. Bake for 30 minutes and check your cakes. Insert a toothpick to see if it comes out clean. Remove the cakes from the oven and give them a tap on the countertop to release air and prevent too much shrinking. Let them cool on a cooling rack until they are barely warm. After cooling for about 10 minutes, place the cooling rack on top of the cake, placing one hand on top of the cooling rack and one hand under the pan and flip the pan and the cooling rack over so the pan is now upside down on the cooling rack. Remove the pan carefully. Repeat with the other pan. After the cakes are fully cooled, carefully wrap them in plastic wrap and place them into the freezer or fridge for about 30 minutes to firm up the cakes and make them easier to handle for stacking.

Raspberry Buttercream Frosting

vegan butter

powdered sugar

vanilla

pinch of salt

fresh raspberries

Beat softened butter until light about 10 minutes then add powdered sugar, vanilla and salt. Once light and fluffy about 10 more minutes, add in the fresh raspberries for a pretty pink color.

After your cakes are chilled, fill them with your favorite frosting and frost the outside. 

Enjoy <3

Beauty: I have a couple new skin products that I’ve been absolutely loving lately. Your skin will thank you, mine definitely did.

Sephora brand Glow Booster Mask this has vitamin c and orange extract for luminous glow and radiant skin. I like to leave this sheet mask on all night. I literally wake up with the craziest glow its insane.

The Caudalíe Instant Detox Mask tightens pores, removes excess oil. It really brings everything up to the surface and shrinks my acne. I love it, I also leave this mask on overnight rather than the 5-10 minutes it recommends, really makes a difference.

The Caudalíe Deep Hydration Moisturizer has hyaluronic acid, grape water and shea butter for deep hydration. This smells amazing and really does hydrate those dry matches on my face I highly recommend.  

What are your top 3 favorite skin care products?

Media:

My favorite movie this month I actually watched for the first time on the plane back from my very first Paris trip, The Witches of East Wick, The story’s heart is about the three witches and their relationship to each other. It and they change, grow and diminish throughout the work. The biggest outside force working on them is Darryl van Horne, an eccentric and wealthy inventory who buys an old mansion and proceeds to disrupt life for most everyone in Eastwick. But even then, the real questions are to do with how the witches react to him vis a vis one another, more so than he himself.

Van Horne is an interesting character. Though a figure of fascination for the main characters and several others, he’s consistently described unfavorably. Both his appearance and behavior are unattractive, and yet he magnetically attracts everyone around him.

What was your favorite film this month?

Literature:

My favorite read this month has been

‘From Blood and Ash’ by Jennifer L. Armentrout

There is action and violence, passion and romance, friendship and betrayal. It is the tale about a world where anguish leaves no room for light, where the Ascended wield their power like a poison-tipped sword and a kingdom that is forsaken by the gods and feared by mortals. Poppy, the Maiden is never to be touched. She is forbidden to socialize, to celebrate her birthdays, go to picnics, to defend herself because she’s the Maiden. She cannot live or experience anything she wants for herself without being reminded about her duty to the Gods. She doesn’t have the privileges everyone around her has. But she does exactly the opposite of what she’s expected to do. She does what she deems fit, consequences be damned. And things escalate when she meets the very attractive Royal Guard, Hawke Flynn. I gave this 4/5 stars!

What was your favorite read this month and why?

One Goal for August:

I’ve been setting a habit of accomplishing one singular goal each month to keep things simple. For August I want to be consistent with my Reading. I love using my A6 handmade Journal with the Hand Dyed Vegetable Tanned Leather in the shade Navy Blue, to keep track of all my favorite quotes and thoughts while reading.

What  is your one goal you aim to accomplish this month?

That is the beauty of it, you can use it for whatever you would like, Art, Diary, Junk, Planning. Previously I mentioned using my A6 specifically for morning pages and a common place journal. You might be wondering what those are…

Morning Pages is a specific type of journal used for a daily writing practice. It’s a tool for clearing mental clutter, tapping into creativity, and stimulating self-expression. What makes it unique, is its a daily practice you write in every morning, ideally as soon as you wake up. You write whatever comes to mind, without worrying about grammar, spelling, or making sense. The goal is to write a “stream of consciousness,” a continuous flow of thoughts. You write for 30 minutes or until you fill three pages.

Common Place is used to collect ideas, quotes, anecdotes, and other interesting pieces of information that someone finds inspiring or valuable. Unlike a diary where personal thoughts and experiences are recorded, a commonplace journal is a place to gather information and thoughts from external sources. It’s a way to store anything you don’t want to forget and revisit later. What’s makes this unique is its a collection of external ideas; It’s not a place to write your own thoughts or experiences, but rather a place to gather quotes, notes, recipes, song lyrics, and anything else that catches your interest. It’s for organization; While not strictly chronological, it’s often organized by topic or theme, allowing for easier retrieval of information. It’s basically a personal reference book; a central resource for ideas and knowledge.

Fun Fact: The Common Place journal has historical significance
and a long history, with people like Marcus Aurelius, Virginia Woolf, and Mark Twain keeping them.

Remember to not take it too seriously, this is supposed to be fun!

What are the romantics of life that you want to experience?

What are the three flaws you accept about yourself?

If you could divide your life in eras, what would those be?

How do I speak to myself when I’m struggling, how can I be more gentle?