READ with ME! January
This month's READ with ME! selection is The Tao of Martha My Year of LIVING, or Why I'm Never Getting All that Glitter Off of the Dog.
Ok, so if you've never read anything by Jen Lancaster, then you are missing out. She writes about her own personal struggles and life in a highly engaging and hilarious way.
This particular book caught my eye because of the blog. Her idol is Martha Stewart and for a year, she decided to live by Martha's mantras and entertain, cook and craft in the way of Martha. As you can imagine, things are not always as easy as Martha makes them seem and the result is a lot of hilarious attempts at cooking and crafting.
As my blog adventure grows and I stretch myself to attempt new things, I can relate to Jen and can appreciate even in the failed attempts how just putting yourself out there and trying new things helps you grow as a person.
Throughout this book, which makes it different from her others, there is a very sobering storyline of the illness and death of her dog and how she comes to grips with it. If you've read any of her books, you know that her pets are a funny storyline just in themselves. This one did have some funny animal antics, but there was a lot of sadness as well. As a result, I didn't find this as humorous as some of her books, but I appreciated how the death and her Martha project helped her to grow and deal with this change in her life.
Jen has a website where you can see the many other great books she has written. She says that she is still pursuing her Martha mantra and on her website you can access her “Martha Monday” blog posts.
All in all, this was another fun read and I had a hard time putting it down.
