02.2020 Life Recommendation // Try a Reading Challenge

Read more, read better, read harder -- are you up for a challenge in 2020? I set a goal for myself to read more this year (I read 9 books in January alone!) and have been thinking about taking on another challenge to expand my horizons of what I read. Book blogger GirlXOXO published a masterlist of different reading challenges you can try out here. I recommend Book Riot's "Read Harder" Challenge or PopSugar's Reading Challenge if you want to go out of your comfort zone and try some new authors or genres, or the Beat the Backlist Challenge if you have a mountain-high TBR pile like I do and just want to get through that before reading anything else!

Staff recommendation published in Crafton Public Library's monthly newsletter.

12.2019 Life Recommendation // Spend Time Alone

After taking a trip to the Mattress Factory by myself a few weeks ago, I thought that I wanted to write about the museum as my monthly recommendation. After all, the Mattress Factory is home to many visually-striking and thought-provoking pieces of contemporary art, from Yayoi Kusama's mod, infinitely mirrored room, to a collaborative work between an Iranian and American artist which replicates the Iranian artist's Tehran apartment unit as an exploration of the concepts of reality and spatial/national boundaries. However, while the museum's contents are indeed fascinating, what I want to recommend even more is to just take some time to do things with, for, and by yourself! I've always felt anxious or embarrassed going places if I didn't have a buddy—but learning how to be alone and do things on my own has been one of my biggest lessons of 2019. So, take yourself on a solo outing—maybe to the movies, or a concert, or a restaurant—go at your own pace, give yourself an opportunity to really get to know yourself, and experience the world on your own terms!

Staff recommendation published in Crafton Public Library's monthly newsletter.

11.2019 Music Recommendation // Buffalo Rose

I'm a big supporter of live music, particularly local music, and one of the coolest experiences in my opinion is getting to follow and support local acts as they come up and find their success. One particularly talented local band that I have had the honor to see many times over the last couple years is Buffalo Rose. They are a folksy, six-piece ensemble from Pittsburgh, and their music features chillingly beautiful three-part vocal harmonies spread over a lush landscape of strings to make an incredibly uniquely evocative blend of modern soul and classic bluegrass Americana. They just recently got signed to a record label and have been touring as far and wide as Chicago, New Orleans, and New York, so I am very happy for them as their success continues to grow! I would recommend checking out their tracks Natural Disaster, Born, and I Feel So Good, which you can find on Spotify, Youtube, or the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's database of local musicians, STACKS.

Staff Recommendation published in Crafton Public Library's monthly newsletter.