BELLA KISMET

Throwback Travel Diary --  Leaving Palm Beach and heading to New York and then across the pond to Ireland! I recently went to Ireland for the first time. I had always dreamed of going to Ireland - the Emerald Isle . I knew nothing of Ireland though other than the superficial things I learned about American-Irish celebrations of St. Patty's Day. I knew there was much more to it though and wanted to learn. When I was in the Army and deployed to Iraq, I had stumbled upon an absolute gem of a book called  Round Ireland with a Fridge  by Tony Hawks sealed the deal for me -- I loved his book and decided Ireland was a must-visit. A friend ( fellow Soldier ) of mine who was stationed in Germany asked me if I wanted to go with him to ... somewhere in Europe. He asked where I wanted to go and I said, "Take me to Dublin!" Now, part of the reason for wanting to go to Dublin was that it was a shorter flight than traveling elsewhere in Europe. The further south I'd go, the ...

I love books so much that I am going to make this post a feature with links to individual books that have made it to my "favorites" list. Each book I list below will have its own post and a link where you can buy it. You can always buy them online through major merchandisers such as Amazon or Barnes & Nobles, but here are a couple of websites I found that list independently owned book shops in the USA and Canada. (1) Dr. Resmaa (2) Time Out's list of 2024  (3) IndieBound .  I only have a small group of friends who read as much as I do, and I'm well aware there are readers out there who power through books much faster than I do. But, love for books is still the same no matter how quickly or slowly the reader makes her way to the end of it. Many of my friends haven't picked up a book in years - school took the joy out of reading and they never found love in the written word. I find that unfortunate because reading, for me, is a mental escape. I can envision wha...