Last month marked 6 years of blogging on this website. Since starting this blog in June 2011, I’ve written over 100 blog posts about my life and travels. While I’ve been a little quiet during 2017 I have a list of posts to write, and of course a lot of adventures to recall!
The last time I wrote an anniversary post was two years ago in 2015, just after I returned to the states from the Dominican Republic. Since then, I’ve started a new job, and am quickly approaching my 2 year work-iversary, lived in three different apartments in New York City, traveled a little around the states, and have been back to the Dominican Republic three times, and to the U.K. once (way overdue post to come!) And blogwise, as many of you know, I am now “Lens by Sarah” with a new domain to match.
Here’s what I’ve been getting into lately:
Travel:
- Adventurous Kate, who has been all over the world, and moved to New York not too long ago. She is still sharing great content and traveling.
- This Battered Suitcase, whose writing style I absolutely adore. She is very real and I also love her Instagram stories.
Simple Living/Personal Finance:
- Mr. Money Mustache: in your face financial advice from someone who retired early and never looked back.
- Frugal Woods: lifestyle, finance and frugal advice from a couple who retired early to a Vermont homestead. I’m trying her Uber Frugal Month Challenge now, and not quite succeeding.
- Fumio Sasaki’s book “Goodbye, Things”: a quick read with Mr. Sasaki’s reasoning behind getting rid of most of his things.
- The Financial Diet: a lighthearted and honest collection of posts from young people trying to make it work.
Books:
- Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman – I fell hard for Gaiman’s otherworld, a dark take on the wonderland genre where the main character slips through the cracks into a dangerous world where he must prove his worth in order to return to the world he used to know.
- Similarly awesome: Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
- Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance – this memoir was sad but still full of hope. I’ve been to West Virginia which helped me imagine his situation. I didn’t LOVE this one but it was interesting to watch Vance’s path from poverty to success beyond his wildest dreams.
- Similarly depressing yet hopeful: Jeannette Walls’ ‘Half Broke Horses‘ or ‘The Glass Castle‘
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi – each chapter was heart-wrenching and ended as soon as you fell in love with a character. It tells the story of two sisters who were separated and the tale was woven through each generation.
- Similarly enthralling, and either told through different perspectives or different stories: Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
- Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel – the imagery from this book stuck with me even over a year later. In this dystopian novel, the main characters journey throughout a wasteland and all the loose ends tie together at the end.
- Similarly terrifying: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
As always, if there’s something you’d like to see here, leave a comment! Thanks for reading!
Lens by Sarah 