The Lemon Life | online magazine offering a fresh perspective on post-grad life.

Words by: Shannon MacKay

Image by: Jason Ryall

Betty Crocker Quick and Easy Cookbook – $26.99

I bet Betty Crocker was a household name in your mom’s kitchen…and maybe it’s time to bring her into yours. It’s time to say goodbye to home cooked meals and residence food, stop buying mac and cheese in bulk, and use the kitchen for more than just additional storage space. Here’s a cookbook with quick and easy meals that you can make in twenty minutes, using no more than eight ingredients. I say nay nay to cook books that call for coriander seed and freshly ground nutmeg, because I’m more likely to order pizza than go out to the store in search of five different ingredients I don’t have just to make chicken. I bought a spice rack last year, and I haven’t used a single one that I didn’t already have in my cupboard. You’ve joined the ranks of the young and aspiring professionals so welcome Betty Crocker back into your life.

You Majored in What? - By Kate Brooks – $32.50

The eternal question. Throughout my English degree, I was asked if I wanted to be a teacher. My response was usually a grim and sardonic NO. Then I’d wait for the inevitable follow-up question, “What else can you do with your degree?” But, it doesn’t have to be this way. Kate Brooks dispels the job hunting myths that have plagued you since you declared a major, and examines creative techniques for putting your hard earned degree to good use. Someone once told me shortly after I started university, that most people don’t end up in a job that directly correlates with their degree. And that’s not a bad thing. So instead of panicking that you’ve potentially wasted four, five, six years of your life in higher education, read this book to learn how to use what you’ve already learned towards a successful career.

The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook  – By Ben Mezrich – Released July 14 – 29.95

Although this book is not released until mid-July, I’m so excited about this book that I’ve already pre-ordered it from Amazon. Two Harvard undergraduates started a database of all the female students on campus and successfully turned it into a networking system that has revolutionized the way people connect with one another. Forget MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn, no young adult is without a Facebook account. This is the story of a genius idea and the two students that started it all. Facebook has 200 million users worldwide and rumours suggest the asking price for this company has been as high as two billion dollars. So when you feel like you’ll never get that internship, that job, that promotion from your entry level position, read about how two students, younger than you are now, fostered a brilliant idea and brought millions of people closer together.

Overqualified – By Joey Cameau – 14.95

Nothing sucks more than writing resumes than writing engaging, interview-winning cover letters. I started writing very formal cover letters for internship applications and frankly, they were rather stiff. I didn’t stand out. Then after countless weeks of hearing nothing from prospective companies about an internship, I stopped caring. I figured, what I was doing wasn’t working, so I tried something else. That something else is the deeply personal, witty and off-the-cusp approach to writing cover letters offered in this book. Cameau advocates for throwing out your boring and generic paint-by-numbers writing style and colour out of the lines, sometimes even off the page. This funny collection of memories and experiences examines the painful period of life we are all currently (and begrudgingly) going through. Cameau shows us that we’re not alone in the struggle to find a career path in an ever competitive business world.

Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Extraordinary Book of Facts: And Bizarre Information – 22.95

So you’re smart and educated, but unless your audience shares your major sometimes it’s difficult to start or continue a conversation. You’ll be meeting a lot of new people, and instead of seeming like you only know a lot about one of two subjects, reading a book about everything and anything in invaluable. I doubt you’ll be able to talk about the disadvantages in a free market economy with a religion major or debate the importance of Charles Dickens with someone who has a degree in biochemistry, but you need more. And what you need is to pick up a book completely unrelated to the subject you can’t get enough of and pick up a book of facts, albeit random. They make seem useful, but knowing even just a little about something can get you into the conversation, and get you noticed. This book is a compliment to the rest of the series filled with short and quick facts that you can read in the bathroom, in transit or all in one sitting.

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