I was completely mistaken thinking I could finished my book during my last trip. I don’t think I had a single 5-minute window of downtime to read. However, this month is looking very promising, and with the amazing weather coming, I can restart my favorite afternoon pastime of reading outside on the deck. I got an amazing tan reading Game of Thrones… For this Sunday, here were my favorite reads for the week:

• From Scout to Hermione: Bookworms salute their favorite heroines from Mashable. My personal favorite heroine from literature is Lisbeth Salander from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. She’s so raw and gritty, yet completely capable, multi-dimensional and the hero of the entire trilogy. Yes, heroines are fictional characters, not real people. But, how we chose to view them is a reflection of the qualities we’d like to see in ourselves.
• The Science Of Why You Should Spend Your Money On Experiences, Not Things from Fast Company. “Collect experiences, not things” is one of the best life lessons. No matter what happens, I have some pretty killer adventures up my sleeves.
• Change.org COO: 5 leadership lessons from my days as a coxswain via Fortune. Being a coxswain has been the most significant role I’ve ever taken on, and it completely changed the way I work and interact with people. For definitely the better and sometimes/rarely the worse.
• Touch by Claire North. My colleague from Australia recommended this to me. We both bonded over our love of Gillian Flynn, so this story about a girl who was brutally murdered and before she dies she is able to switch bodies with her killer. This one is at the top of my list for my flight to Europe.
• 10 Projects that Increase Home Value. This is definitely a grown-up read for the week, but more than half of these projects need to be done with our house in the coming 3-5 years. Not complete remodels, but the usual maintenance and face lifts. We love our house, and it helps to know that we are investing in it the right way.