While an unlimited flow of cash might be the ultimate pal of someone who recently purchased a house (like me!), a much more realistic and almost as helpful best bud is your local library. 

Buying a house is exciting, and if it's your first one like mine, even more so. But it can also be daunting and a bit overwhelming, particularly if you plan on doing any renovations to your new abode. While the Internet can be a great source of decoration inspiration (thank you, Pinterest), it's not always the most reliable or easy for getting reliable professional opinions – design or otherwise. And if you don't have wifi hooked up at your new house (also me, for the time being), having a physical copy of a book to look at could also be more beneficial than having YouTube tutorials eat up all your phone data.

Since my fiancé Taylor and I will have had just over a full month to work on house before we move in mid-September, we're making all (or at least most) of the cosmetic changes we want on the main floor while we are still living at our apartment. This means a couple coats of paint in every room, new hardwoods throughout, a facelift for our fireplace and a few other odds and ends ... like a new roof and new gutters, but those aren't nearly as fun or glamorous. Here are a couple of books available at my local library that I've already paged through for some design inspiration (If you belong to a public library in Kenosha, Racine or Walworth counties, just click on the book to reserve your copy today).

It just wouldn't be right if my new home did not include some built-in bookshelves, and those will be in the works soon enough. While I'm not so confident in my personal aptitude for doing the job and will be paying someone else to do it (see why the unlimited flow of cash would be nice?), if you feel handy enough to do some woodworking projects yourself, your local library also has materials that will have that covered. Looking for some landscaping ideas and tips? Your library has that too! Plumbing basics? Check. From books about being your own contractor to The Everything Guide to Flipping Houses, your library has your back. Not to mention most also have a subscription to HGTV Magazine!

So if you've recently relocated, decided to finally tackle that DIY project or are unable to suppress your HGTV obsession any longer, make sure you add a trip to your local library to your to-do list. You, your house and your wallet will be sure to thank me! ​

Why did it take me so long to read Elizabeth Gilbert's 2006 bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love? To be honest, I have no idea. That's a lie — I do have an idea. I think it was part of the title. "Eat?" Sure! I love to eat. "Love?" Absolutely! But "Pray?" Eh....

I wasn't raised religious, nor have I ever become so. If there was an official list of things I hated (maybe I'll make one?), people trying to press their religious beliefs upon others would probably be a the top of that list. For some reason I got it into my head that this is what would happen during the "Pray" section of the book, but boy, was I wrong. In fact, I think I actually ended up enjoying that part of the book the most. I didn't find it religious it all, instead I found it spiritual — and spirituality is something that I can most definitely dig. And with over 10 million copies of the book sold worldwide, I'm obviously not the only one!

Well here we are – the end of the semester and the last of my weekly book reviews for my readers' advisory class. Out of all the genres we covered, I've read more of the nonfiction titles mentioned in the class than any of the other genre books we could choose from to review. I was a journalism major in undergrad and have always loved narrative nonfiction, so it's no real surprise that I've read a lot of it.

It's easy to identify what is nonfiction in comparison to fiction, however, how to distinguish nonfiction titles from each other is much more tricky. The narrative context plays a large role. Is the book written like a novel or does it read more like interesting facts presented as research? Can an "Average Joe" (or Jane) read it easily, or does there need to be more of a specialized education to understand the material? I think the easiest way to start to narrow down what sort of nonfiction book a person is looking to read is the subject, followed by time period and/or setting. The type of nonfiction (biography, memoir, essays, letters, etc.) also plays a large role. Pacing, characterization, story line and setting are all additional determining factors for suggesting nonfiction to a reader, just as they are for fiction.

This week's assigned nonfiction title was The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert, which I really enjoyed. It was rather scary though (much more of a "horror" pick for me than World War Z!) as it alluded to the likelihood of human beings causing the world's next major extinction. While I still really enjoyed the book, I found myself thinking that the pacing was a little slower than I would normally prefer, and the narrative context was a bit more scientific at times than I would have liked. However, these elements did not at all make me dislike the book. 

For the nonfiction book of my choosing, I selected Erik Larson's The Devil in White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America. Not only does the title sound intriguing, word on the street is that professional actor/dreamboat Leonardo DiCaprio and film genius Martin Scorsese will be reuniting for a film adaptation of the story, set to release in 2017. So naturally, I had to read the book before the movie comes out. Below is my review.

In addition to having a similar title, Joel Engel’s book L.A. '56: A Devil in the City of Angels hits on a lot of the same areas of interest as Larson’s 2002 work. Another telling of a true crime story occurring in America’s past, L.A. ’56 details Detective Danny Galindo’s quest to track down a serial rapist terrorizing the city’s young women. Detailing Los Angeles’ contentious racial relations during this historic time of segregation, L.A. ’56 is another real-life and historic thriller to be quickly read and enjoyed. Truman Capote's well-known work In Cold Blood also comes to mind as a gripping read-alike.

I apologize that I've only been managing to churn out one post a week for the past month, but the end of the semester is always such a hectic time! But now that I'm officially on summer vacation from school (for the last time in my life, might I add), I promise to update my blog much more regularly – well, after I get back from vacation on May 25th!

The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion & the Fall of Imperial Russia would be a great accompaniment to a middle school or high school history class, especially because it is a great illustration of how fascinating and interesting history can be when told from a narrative nonfiction point of view. The book was never weighed down by a bunch of dates or political jargon. It didn't feel like you were reading about stale or boring historical people and events, but rather it simply felt like an entertaining story.

This book has received a lot of acclaim, including winning the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction; and was a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book and a YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award Finalist. With or without the high praise, The Family Romanov... is an educational and exciting read that I would recommend to teens and adults alike!