I read the most inspiring book last week and have to say that this kick ass book is a total game-changer! The author published this classic in 1959 and it continues to remain relevant and something I should probably read every year.  I would recommend this book to anyone who is wants more out of life in terms of career growth and relationships because it holds the power to transform your mindset in your life. It’s a manual for success by building confidence in yourself because typically a person's thinking is always in the process of becoming small and marginalizing itself. The book is a powerful reminder of the great things that can be accomplished with the right attitude so I found it a very effective motivational tool. This is an absolute must read in how to create a success plan in life. The best part is he summarizes the main points at the end of every chapter. Here are some excerpts I found insightful:

"Blaming others is destructive. You gain absolutely nothing from "proving" that someone else is wrong. Have the courage to be your own constructive critic. Seek out your faults and weaknesses and then correct them."

Lunch - Black Rice Peanut Kale Bowl

Dark Places is the movie adaption of Gillian Flynn's book published before "Gone Girl." Per usual, the book is better than the movie because there’s simply too much going on in the book to condense into a two-hour movie which doesn’t come across nearly as dark as Flynn’s book reads. The movie is a puzzling thriller with a strong list of actors including Charlize Theron, Corey Stoll, and Drea de Matteo. Charlize plays Libby Day the sole survivor of a massacre in a rural town in Kansas. Having witnessed the murder of her sisters and mother in what appears to be a Satanic cult ritual, she manages to escape and later testifies in court against her teenage brother Ben. Twenty-five years later true-crime fanatics called the Kill Club enlist Libby to exonerate her brother Ben, whom they believe in innocent, but first they must convince Libby.

The chilling story has some similarities to Charlize's real-life experience as a teenager. When she was 15 she witnessed her mother shot her alcoholic and abusive husband in an act of self defense. Charlize has spoken publicly about it.

I was scared to start this book because of the topic matter and because the reviews were very melodramatic. But honestly only 2 pages were devoted to details of the murder, the rest read like a dateline investigation series of who done it. I was perfectly fine reading it at night in my dark bedroom. This book kept me guessing throughout as it kept switching back between narrators. I highly recommend this book as a great mystery!

 But how does a movie based on a bestselling book and starring A-list actors get dumped into an extremely limited theatrical run? It was released in April in France, then opened in the US 2 weeks ago with no publicity and will go straight to video. I guess the powers that be decided the film wasn’t made well enough to spend money on promotion so it’s only made less than $1 million at the box office so far. Check out the trailer: 


Check out my list of books coming out as movies this year.

                                                                                                          My air-conditioning seems to have a problem every summer. I have a little portable humidity reader in my bedroom that tells me if the indoor humidity is at an acceptable level.  When I saw how high the humidity was, I looked into cost effective ways to get it back down. Everyone I spoke to about the issue, highly recommended DampRid which I heard of before but found it at Bed Bath & Beyond. DampRid is a bucket filled with calcium chloride crystals which absorb excess moisture out of the air. The process works in that the crystals turn into a solid mass then they dissolve and liquid drips out of it. Once I opened up a tub in each room, my humidity reader said the humidity levels went down 10%.  In my closet, I used DampRid's Hanging Moisture Absorbers and look how much water has come out of it! I highly recommend this product!
Here are some tips everyone should know about keeping your home cool in the summertime.

1. Keep your blinds closed. Doing so keeps the temperature in your apt lower and saves you money on your a/c bill. You don't want the sun heating up your apt!

If you don't have a balcony or outdoor garden, a terrarium is a great idea for a house plant. Succulents are low maintenance, they just need some sun and a little water. Terrariums are easy to make, even if you don’t have a green thumb. I think it adds a beautiful touch to any room as the plants come in all kinds of colors. Since my living room is painted orange I wanted to create my terrarium around a vibrant orange moss. I recently read the book The Signature of All Things which talked about the world of mosses in great detail. Did you know 12,000 species of moss exist?
I really enjoyed the process of making my terrarium into its own tiny biosphere. I started off by picking the perfect container to build it in. The beauty of terrariums is that you can plant one in any container, the sky is limitless! Terrariums can be potted in cactus soil or sand. I arranged mine with a composition of different materials to create their own little world including colorful plants and crystals. I think the crystals create a great sparkle factor and natural beauty in my miniature landscape. I also added two airplants, also known as Tillandsia, which don’t require soil to grow. See they get all of the water and nutrients they need through their specialized leaves. In nature, air plants use their roots only for attaching themselves to rocks, trees, shrubs, and the ground. But in my terrarium I remove them once a week for a soak in water so they can absorb water into their leaves.

Succulents can thrive indoors in containers that don’t drain as long as they receive some light during the day and as long as you’re careful not to overwater them – a few drops of water once a week is really all they need. I also added some activated charcoal and pebbles at the bottom of the bowl to help with drainage and possible mildew issues. The more sun a succulents gets, the brighter it’s color. My plants only get morning sun from my window, but the species I have could potentially turn orange and red! And once a year they will bloom flowers! I love how they are sticking out of the bowl and spilling out.



Last summer on a business trip to LA, I walked by the vendor below on the street and fell in love with the succulents but thought how will I pack the spiky plant to take home? Well when I got home I showed this picture to my mom and she knew exactly where to get one locally and bought me a moon cacti. At first I kept it in a dark room and the cacti turned orange. That’s when I realized that it needed to be on a window to get sun. Once I put it there, it returned to its bright red color. I also spray painted the potter gold.