Author: Allison Abate

Comedy

I Shouldn’t Drink While I Read

Allison Abate

Love in a Nutshell—Janet Evanovich and Dorien Kelly

Guys, I’m so far behind this from last summer. Yeesh.

Which means, that I also kind of don’t remember it because during the summer I have a tendency to read books that are lighthearted and silly, and what I lovingly refer to as “nonsense books”.

I love Janet Evanovichs work, she’s hilarious and after reading the description of this book, I DO kind of remember it.

It’s about a woman whose husband left her, she was fired from her job, so she goes back to her parents summerhouse “The Nutshell” to try to turn it into a B and B while working as a spy for a beer company to pay the bills.

Roughly.

I remember liking it, I gave it a solid 3 stars so I definitely thought it was funny and entertaining.

Good summer read. The end.

The Husband List—Janet Evanovich and Dorien Kelly

Okay, I’ll level with you. Even after reading the description of this book to remind myself what it was about: I don’t remember it.

But I also gave it three stars so I enjoyed it last summer!!! I must have.

God I have to start writing little reviews on GoodReads to remind myself later.

Like Hansel and Gretels trail of breadcrumbs so I can find my way back.

I might have to reread this because reading the description it sounds funny and interesting.

Too bad it didn’t stick in my brain. I must’ve been drinking too many Caesars at the cottage when I read this.

Hot Stuff—Janet Evanovich and Leanne Banks

Maybe I just shouldn’t read during the summer….

Or while drinking.

Yet another summer read where I don’t remember diddly. But this also got a 3 star rating from me on GoodReads!

Basically this book is about a girl who rents a room in a condo belonging to a drag queen. She’s then made to look after his dog because his apartment keeps getting broken into. Cate starts falling for some cop. There’s socialites and tyre salesmen, all in all, it’s the same kind of humour as her Stephanie Plum series.

Random

Classic M.I.A. Post

Allison Abate

Hey there sports fans!

So I’ve been inconsistent as hell lately. And yes, I realize I make a posting like this one every summer…fall…winter….spring….

But I’m human and sometimes daily life takes priority and I forget to write reviews for a year. SO there’s that.

Let’s see, what have I been up to recently? Mostly making things for my shop, conning myself into reading books to get out of my reading rut (Great Expectations was SO good that I kind of was left for awhile in a state of ‘This book isn’t good enough…this book isn’t good enough…” We’ve all been there.) and finally crawling my way back out.

It is my goal this week to get back on track with this and writing a bunch of new reviews and Keep Moving Forwards! …given that I’m a year behind on these things…*shrugging emoji*

Thank you for your patience (as ever) with my inconsistency.

But more items are coming to the shop soon and I’m hoping to open a more broad shop with Shopify and getting my act together in general.

Hope you are having a great summer and that you’re not in a book rut!

…did I just gypsy curse you???

Constant vigilance!

Allison

Comedy, romance novels

Full House–Janet Evanovich & Charlotte Hughes

Allison Abate

I need you to not judge me about these books.

Well, actually, no I don’t. I found them enjoyable and light and fun. Great summer books, shenanigan type plot, and romance thrown in.

My favourite kind of book!

So the start of this series is written about Billie Pearce, a single, divorced, mother of two, and a polo instructor Nicholas Kaharchek. Billie lets Nicks cousin DeeDee live with her while her kids are away for the summer, and all hell breaks loose.

It was funny and silly and just the kind of thing you need when you are day drinking at the cottage and warm in the sunshine and don’t want too heavy of a plot dragging you down.

That’s my favourite thing about Janet Evanovich books, they are clever while still being readable, and have adventure and thrills without being dragged down by clinical terms or police driven plots, and have romances that feel like that’s how they would actually happen, not the kind where they are running towards each other on a beach. (If that ever did happen you better believe that one of them trips and gets a face full of sand.)

Good old fashioned fun books.

janet

Fiction

Juliet, Naked–Nick Hornby

Allison Abate

Music lovers listen up: this book is for you.

It was however, not for me.

It drags on in the beginning and then only got really good around the last 50 pages.

I want to like Nick Hornby’s stuff, but I just don’t think it’s in the cards for me. My sister had an unpleasant reading of one of his other books as well, and I don’t know if I’ll carry on with his books unless someone can suggest one that I’ll really REALLY like.

Anyway, this book was about a couple, Duncan and Annie, where Duncan is obsessed with a singer by the name of Tucker Crowe that just disappeared after a heated fight with his girlfriend in a public bathroom. 20 years ago.

Annie eventually begins to correspond with Tucker Crowe after she voices her opinion on a fan website that contradicts what all his “true” fans are saying about his new album ‘Juliet, Naked’ where it’s the stripped down version of the original album he made.

This was an okay book. Don’t get me wrong, I like music, but like Annie, I’m not IN that world or obsessive about it. Not like I am the world of cross stitch (which I’m well aware sounds incredibly insane.) . We all have our things and music, while amazing and soul-healing, isn’t something I’m GOTTA HAVE IT about when it comes to records or albums.

I just love it in the sense of what it makes me feel when it wanders into my life.

This book was difficult for me to focus on because of that.

Which is why I say: it’s for music lovers. You’ll be into it. Maybe.

I don’t know your life. Constant vigilance.

juliet

Uncategorized

True Story Tuesday

Allison Abate

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I realize I’ve been fairly M.I.A. lately, but I’ve been working on some stuff for the store and working out more and generally living my life outside of the internet.

My body and brain hurt, but it’s all for the better!

Don’t worry about things in your way, or stalling your progress. Listen to the word “Yet” and you’ll get there soon!

Constant vigilance!

Biography, Thrift Store Saga

Through the Storm–Lynne Spears

Allison Abate

You read that right. I read Britney Spears’ moms book.

The funny thing about that is: 1) I could care less about anything Lynne Spears has to say.
and 2) I found this book in a thrift store (surprise surprise) and found a ticket stub for a flight somewhere with a girls name on it from high school! And it turns out it was her book for real.

Tiny world.

Anyway, this book was the autobiographical musings of Lynne Spears and on Britney’s life and what exactly went down in 2007 when Brit Brit lost her shit shit.

It was actually really nice to read a book from her moms perspective and even though I’ll never know the truth of anything because I don’t actually know this family, it was nice to think that this was all the truth and that her mom was really trying to tell her side.

Overall: good beach book, semi-interesting excerpts from Britney’s life (if you’re a fan that is.), and Mama Spears doesn’t pull any punches. I wouldn’t recommend it outright, but I wouldn’t tell you NOT to read it if you were in the mood for something like it.

You know?

Constant vigilance.

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Work it Out

Work it Out: The Word “Diet’.

Allison Abate

This year is the year I say ‘Goodbye’ to the word ‘Diet’. That word holds a lot more power than we think it does. What is a diet? A diet is a list of “Should’ and ‘Shouldn’t’. A diet is something to restrict yourself to. A diet is something you follow, PMS, and then everything is on fire and you don’t know how you ended up eating three bags of chips in a week, a jar of pickles, and a case of chocolate.

You black out and wake up in a stupor of “Oh shit. What did I do?”

And then I rip myself a new one, calling myself a failure, making myself feel like shit because I failed myself once again. It’s brutal. It’s a cycle I’m working on breaking.

At least that’s me. I tend to go on diets and think to myself “Well, I’ll just have ONE little bite” of the thing that diet says not to eat and then I’m down a rabbit hole looking like Gollum and swiping at anyone who tries to come near me.

So. This year I made a choice for my mental health (as well as my physical health) and decided I wasn’t going to diet anymore. Crash diets, juicing, cleanses, detoxes, any building that has the word “Herbal” in it is no longer for me. I don’t want to take “Herbals” anymore to help me lose weight faster. I don’t want to cut things from my life in order to lose weight.

I honestly, just want to stop thinking about losing weight in general.

I’ve added a lot of Body Inspirational women to my Instagram, I’ve gotten really into My Peak Challenge, I’ve started doing the grocery shopping in my house because then I’m in control of the goodies that come in. I’ve started cooking again.

I’ve taken a stand in a way. I’m in no way obese or a “health risk”. At least not according to how I feel in my own body recently. (Which thanks to doing MPC I feel a hell of a lot stronger. Yes. That was me patting myself on the back for getting my ass up.) I’m 5 foot 6, weigh 200 pounds (I’ve recently lost five. I expect more to get out of here because I’m currently menstruating and that usually means I’ve gained 5 pounds of pure water weight.) and have an addiction to coffee.

That coffee thing is really hard to beat when you work with kids, let me tell you. The 3 year old talks a mile a minute and it’s all I can do to keep up with his train of thought!

Anyway.

My point is: I’ve stopped dieting. And started planning. Which is it so fucking different from dieting let me tell you. I’m not starving, I’m not angry, I’m not looking for loopholes, sneaking fast food, or devouring carbs like a gremlin in the dark of the night.

‘Meal Plan’ sounds so much more positive than “Diet’. I mean, diet has the word ‘die’ in it. Come on.

But MEAL PLAN, dude, that’s a plan to eat meals. That sounds awesome! PLANNING TO EAT IS SO GREAT.

And some people will think that there’s barely a difference, because I’m still restricting certain foods. But I’m also trying to do intuitive eating, which is thinking about what I’m chomping on and how it makes me feel and my body feel. And let me tell you, pops are dead to me, certain candy is dead to me, I hate to say it, but potatoes are kind of dead to me (I’ll never give up on poutines though. NEVER.) and certain breads are goners too.

So that’s where I’m at this month with my working out and planning. It’s actually been really nice to be able to feel powerful again.

Do what you got to do for you, and you’ll only get stronger!

Keep moving forward!