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The Raw and The Cooked

Simple Meals + Honest Book Reviews + Practical Living

Five Books to Read This Summer

5 Books to Read This Summer | by Dara Boxer at Peonies and Bees

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve posted here, huh? How long can I blame it on the baby without looking lazy and neglectful of my own blog? A year? Cool!

OK SOoOO!! the last book I felt driven enough to post about was Tara Westover’s Educated back in April. Since then, I’ve finished close to 20 other books… which means lot’s of posts to come. However, they currently live in my head, and until I put pen to paper (or errrm fingers to keyboard?) here are a few that you don’t want to miss this summer.

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Flying Solo with an Infant: What I’ve Learned

Flying Solo with an Infant: What I've Learned by Dara Boxer at Peonies and Bees

Between the ages of 6 weeks and 19 weeks, I took Naomi on nine flights. Girlfriend racked up her frequent flyer miles, that’s for sure. Out of those nine flights, seven of those flights occurred within a 30 day span. And of those seven flights, I flew solo with the baby. No husband, no mother to help me out. That’s right. I went on seven flights alone with an infant, in 30 days. Here’s what I’ve learned.

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Educated by Tara Westover

Educated by Tara Westover | Book Review by Dara Boxer at Peonies and Bees

Let’s take a minute to talk about Tara Westover’s memoir, Educated. Since her debut book was released last February, it’s stirred up quite the buzz on the book scene. I can’t talk to anyone about books without being asked about Educated. This memoir was on the NYT Best Sellers List for a very, very long time. So I finally gave it a go and I’m thrilled I did… here are my thoughts and why I recommend this shocking and gripping and horror story.

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Our Breastfeeding Journey

This post is going to be deeply personal and will be a huge overshare, but breastfeeding is a beast, getting started feels impossible, and I feel very passionate about sharing openly and honestly about my experience so far. Every baby is different, and no one will have the same set of obstacles that we did, however, my hope is that maybe this post will help a new momma or a momma-to-be. As a word of encouragement. Or not to feel so alone with their own struggle.

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A Very Bingeable Read | Bonfire by Krysten Ritter

A Very Bingeable Read | Bonfire by Krysten Ritter | Review by Dara Boxer at Peonies and Bees

I’m going to tell you right off the bat, if you’re into mystery thrillers, you’ve read some variation of Bonfire‘s storyline a million times before: a girl from a small town with a cold disposition and strained relationships moves to the big city to become a lawyer / journalist / etc. Girl comes back 10+ years later to solve a mystery, or resolve tangled threads of her past, which usually involves one of the popular girls who went missing around the same time our protagonist left their small town….

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