While most people I know are crowding the supermarkets for baking supplies, I’m busting my chops at The Book Depository!
I have been busy, busy, busy with work, laundry, food, housework and homework (with a toddler snoozing on my lap as I type) that I’ve had no time to feed my brain.
This Christmas, I would like to be served:
1. The Women’s Home Workout Bible by Brad Schoenfeld
I have given up on ever going to a gym regularly but I must take up strength training! After a few successful yoga sessions at home, I think that it’s best I set up a home gym.
I’ve already got a set of dumb bells and a few basic gym routines. What I need are “secrets on the perfect at-home workout”, especially for women.
With this Bible, I can set up a personal home gym setup and get on with my daily workouts!
2. The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty
Doesn’t this sound like a really juicy mystery?
We all know about women’s secrets but a husband’s secret???!!! How many men do you know who will spill the beans on each other? None.
“The Husband’s Secret” is about a mom-of-three who stumbles upon a letter her husband wrote, which is “to be opened on the event of his death”…
I have been reading way too much women’s lit for the past few years that now, I’m wandering into male territory.
I have been soooooo bored that I checked out the husband’s books, which are mostly autobiographies, biographies, sci-fi and other non-fiction. I steered clear of the mind-numbing technical tomes, though, haha.
Ok, so the writer’s a woman but hey, Liane Moriarty’s book is about a man 
3. Moleskin’s Large Format 2014 Diary
Did you know that the The Book Depository also sells stationery? Well, I didn’t!
One who’s crazy over stationery, I am torn between a Moleskine’s large format 12-month weekly diary:
- a black soft cover with rounded edges and a ribbon bookmark
- an elastic enclosure – really useful to hold all kinds of paperwork in place!
- 144 acid-free pages and an expandable inner pocket with 225 adhesive labels to mark important dates and deadlines.
- Week at a glance on the left, lined area for notes on the right side
OR
a Cath Kidston’s 2014 Desk Diary
- I really like Moleskin’s elastic enclosure – will the Cath Kidston’s popper closure drive me nuts a few days into 2014?
- Then again, the beautiful floral designs, esp. this red one looks so cheery and gorgeous, I’d imagine I’m in an English rose garden each time I jot down an appointment or organze my day/week/month.
Quite a difficult decision, really, because with 2 kids in tow, I need practical stuff that works, not pretty stuff that drives me nuts hahaha.
4. Rick Stein’s India – Recipes from My Indian Odyssey
We’ve been watching quite a few cooking and travel shows but they appear the same after a while…
An Italian cooking show got us hooked one night and the kids learned how to eat olive oil with bread LOL
When that ended, I had to switch channels because the next one was Weird Foods or something equally scary and we got Rick Stein’s India.
The sights and sounds of busy streets on India caught the children’s attention and we watched this middle-aged British bloke trying out streets foods and hole-in-the-wall restaurants.
Although I think of diarrhea when I think of India, I can’t help but feel hungry as Rick wolfs down a mouth-watering wrap, yum yum.
However, I was tickled when I see him teach us how to cook curry at the end of the show!
I’ve seen Kylie Kwong’s Chinese cooking show, Jamie Oliver’s and Nigella’s too, which are stellar in their own right but a white guy teaching you how to cook Indian curry? That’s different and I like it.
And if I can go to India, I’d love to learn how to cook a real Indian curry!
I thought I was going to stop there but I found one last book to add to my TBR list:
5. Dan Brown’s Inferno
I read Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons and was completely enthralled by them despite the heavy criticism on the flights of fancy he has taken with history and works of art.
Since his books are “fiction”, I’m going to read them as that.
Besides, “history” is now being rewritten on a daily basis with the discovery of new facts and artifacts, I wonder if we should even categorize history under non-fiction anymore.
While Dan Brown came under fire for his interpretation of the back story behind the painting of the Last Supper, I thought that he created a new interest in art history, don’t you think?
Anyway, Dante’s Inferno was one of the books on my reading list, which never made it to the top and since Dan Brown’s done some homework, I’d kill two birds with one stone by reading his Inferno instead ho ho ho.
Thank you, The Book Depository, you’ve got my body, mind and soul covered this Christmas 
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