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Top 10 Best Books of 2022

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photo of woman reading book

What a year.

For me it was a year of perpetually feeling behind. As the darkest days of the pandemic faded into memory, coming back into real life proved to be a challenge for me. I am an introvert/homebody/bookworm at heart, and a part of me loved being stuck at home with all my books during the pandemic. As it became acceptable to leave the house again, all the socialization and travel plans that had been postponed for two years came quickly and urgently back to demand my attention faster than I was ready for.

Top 5 Classic Cozy Books for Winter

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Some Cozy Book Context When it’s wintertime, as it is right now in the northern hemisphere, most people spend a lot of time indoors. Sometimes it’s necessary: during the writing of the first draft of this piece, a “once-in-a-generation” winter storm is cause widespread power outages and delaying flights all over the country. As a … Read more

Top 5 Modern Cozy Books for Winter

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Some Cozy Book Context It’s winter in the northern hemisphere. As I write this, a “once-in-a-generation” winter storm is crossing the midwest into the northeast, grounding flights and cutting power. With or without a big storm, winter is the time to curl up on the couch at home. There’s a reason the Danish have a word … Read more

The 5 Best Books I’ve Read According to Goodreads

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I read a lot of books. Like, 100-150 books a year. (My best year was 159 books in 2020. I wonder why? cough COVID cough). And I’ve been a fairly active reader my entire life, meaning my total recorded book count is in the 700s. So the other day I wondered, what does Goodreads consider to be the best books I’ve ever read?

Try this new cutting edge productivity technique

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Less than a week ago, I got a new puppy. Needless to say, she’s adorable. She’s soft, cuddly, and rambunctious. I am taking a week and a half off my day job for us to get to know each other, so we’re spending a lot of time together. I’m so grateful to have these early days to play with her, learn with her, and bond as we make memories together.

A pro diver’s thoughts on the Apple Watch Ultra dive computer

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I’m an Apple kid for life. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area as Apple did: the first iPhone came out when I was in high school. I’ve had Apple products for as long as I can remember. Currently, I own an iPhone, 2 MacBooks (1 for work, 1 personal), an iPad, and yes, an Apple Watch.

I also dive for a living — I’m a marine biologist and scientific diver and do about 200–300 working dives a year.

So when it was announced that the new Apple Watch Ultra would be a fully functional dive computer, that certainly caught my attention. But I knew pretty quickly it was not the computer for me, and I’m here to tell you why.

I Did a Staycation. Here’s How You Can Do One Better

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My staycation was sort of an accident, bittersweet in its circumstances. It wasn’t meticulously planned out, or long-anticipated (the best vacations, IMO, are those that you look forward to for weeks).

I was grateful for the opportunity, but there are things I would absolutely change for the next time we try something like this. If you’re thinking about a staycation, check out my tips for how to make it really worth your while.

4 Reasons to Try Scuba Diving If You Haven’t Before

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Close your eyes and take a deep breath, filling your lungs, then letting it out slowly and controlled. Do you feel better than you did before that breath?
Scuba diving takes that feeling to the extreme.
Seriously. It’s like meditation that’s actually fun. There’s science behind this that we’ll get into later.
You may have seen people on the internet saying “OMG I JUST GOT CERTIFIED AND SCUBA IS THE BEST YOU HAVE TO TRY IT”— (I mean, I kind of agree but…) that sort of enthusiasm is way too overwhelming for me.
I wouldn’t call diving life-changing, but it is a valuable experience to have under your belt whether you go just once or start taking an annual trip. Maybe you’ll even experience an earthquake. Whatever happens, you’ll surface with plenty to talk about.
Let’s really dig in to what makes scuba diving a valuable life experience.

Best Nonfiction Books of 2021

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This book list was really difficult for me to narrow down. I read a staggering 90 nonfiction books this past year (thanks to repeated lockdowns), and the first draft of the greatest ones was a list of about 30. I painfully cut out some really enjoyable books. Those that remain are the best of the best.