About the Author: Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell is hands down my favorite author. I am currently in the process of reading one of his books called 'Outliers'. In the mean time, I thought it would be interesting to learn more about the author. So here's what I found:

-Malcolm Gladwell was born in England, and moved to Canada when he was six.
-Was born on September 3rd, 1963
-He is a non-fiction writer and journalist

One interesting fact I learned about Gladwell was that he was a middle distance runner in high school. He won the 1500 meters title at the 1978 Ontario High School Championships with a time of 4:05.2 seconds, at the age of 14. According to Runner' World, "In college, Gladwell ran 3:55 for 1500 meters, which is the rough equivalent of a 4:13 mile." (Which is amazing!!)

Malcolm Gladwell is also a staff writer for The New Yorker and was formally a business and science reporter at the Washington Post.

That's a quick summary on Malcolm Gladwell! I learned a lot of new facts about him, and if you have never read any of his books, I highly recommend that you do! Even if you don't normally go for non-fiction books, give one of Gladwell's books a shot. I normally prefer fiction over non-fiction, so I was super surprised when I saw how much I enjoyed reading his books. One of the main reasons I enjoy reading Gladwell's books is because it makes you think and look at the world in a different way. Most of his points are things I haven't thought about before, and I absolutely love how much evidence and examples Gladwell always puts in his books. My two favorite books of his are: Blink and The Tipping Point.

Who's your favorite author? I love reading new books so if you have any recommendations comment them down below! :)

Here's a link to an interview Gladwell had with Runner's World:

http://www.runnersworld.com/celebrity-runners/a-running-conversation-with-malcolm-gladwell?page=single

In the picture above, Gladwell (right) is racing Dave Reid (left), who would eventually hold the Canadian record in the 1500 meters. Gladwell had actually beaten Reid in a few races in middle school and high school.

Book Review: Pizza, Love, and Other Stuff That Made Me Famous

My first post is going to be a review on the book: Pizza, Love, and Other Stuff That Made Me Famous. The book is written by Kathryn Williams, and overall, I would give it an 8/10. I give it an eight because I felt as if the author did not put enough details in some parts of the story. I also think that the title is misleading because Sophie, (main character), did not get famous because of pizza or love.  But I really liked how the book contained some recipes that were made in the book. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a light and quick read, and also if you are interested in cooking because I have learned quite a few cooking tips from reading this book!

The book revolves around Sophie Nicolaides. Her dad owns Taverna Ristorante, which is an Italian-Greek restaurant. One day, her best friend Alex tells her about Teen Test Kitchen, which is a reality cooking show. In order to get on the show, you have to try out by cooking a meal for judges. Sophie wins over the judges with her rosemary lamb chops, and is now one of the eight contestants on the show. Sophie is flown to Napa, California, where she spends seven weeks at the National Culinary Academy (NCA), prepping for the final round. The show winner will receive a scholarship to the NCA, and also an apprenticeship at Om, the restaurant owned by the show's  judge-producer and top chef, Tommy Chang. In the book, Sophie has to deal with drama and friendships while being on the show.

Attached to this post is a video with Kathryn Williams, the author. She talks about inspiration for the book, and why she wrote it. If you want to watch the video, I would skip to 0.24 seconds because that's when she starts to talk about the book! :)