My apologies

You guys, I've been so far behind on the blog and I am sad about it. Work has been exciting and busy and when I get home I'm usually so knackered I usually just want to sit on the couch with the dog and Josh and not do anything. I miss doing the blog stuff. But I will be getting better soon because November brings Sci-Fi November!, which is an event I thoroughly enjoy being a part of. Maybe that's just the thing I need to get my blog grove back on.

So let's just play real fast catch up on some things. Shall we?

Readathon didn't quite go as planned. Josh had a ton of essays that he needed to get corrected and he was feeling a little overwhelmed by the sheer volume of it. I told him I'd help him to correct a few, but that turned into a few hours of helping. So while it wasn't reading books per se, there was a lot of reading going on! Though I did manage to do a smidge of cheering and hung out on twitter a little bit. I was sad that it didn't go according to my plan, but I figure it's better to not have a cranky ass husband. (And also I made him buy me leggings and fro yo for my help. I was not going to give up readathon time for nothing, yo.)

I'm in the middle of two really interesting books right now and I can't wait to share them with you! I went and saw Miss Peregrine's pretty soon after it came out (with frequent LE guest contributer Jen) and there will be a review forthcoming. Which kind of fits for Sci-Fi November, so yay!

I'm really excited for this upcoming week because a)this past week at work was really busy and I felt like I dropped the ball a few times and that's a feeling I hate so I'm excited to put that behind me and WAY MORE IMPORTANTLY b) Quinn and I are going to Disneyland on Friday!

We have cousins in Southern California and one works for Disney and we're like "how have we never gone out there and done Disney with them?" So as an excuse, we're going for my upcoming birthday. It's will just be from Friday to Sunday and will include getting up at like, 4am on Friday morning to catch our flight but we are super excited.

Did you know that Ray Bradbury has a history with Disneyland? He does. There's even a "Halloween Tree" that is based on his same-named short story that I love with a deep and burning love. I re-read it every fall. Here's a little summary of his tree! Even though we will be there past Halloween I'm hoping I will still be able to find the tree itself. Stay tuned!

Anyway, I've missed you guys but I'm going to work hard at getting better at my balance. But there is much sci-fi talk and Disney pictures in the future!

Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon Warm Up!

A 24 hour readathon is on the docket for me and several several others this Saturday. It is a joyous ocassion that I look forward to when it rolls around! I wrote a warm up post this year which you can find here!

On Monday I will recap what and how much I read and how many terrible for me, but delicious snacks I consumed. It's the readathon way!



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Bookish ranT: "California" by Edan Lepucki - Spoilery

California is about a couple who realize that living in LA while the world goes to pieces is not a great idea, so they move to the wilderness and live there. I was thinking "Oh this sounds kind of like "Dog Stars" and I liked that book, I will give it a shot.I was excited to start read this book, but eventually the unbelieavability of parts of it lead to me liking it less and less.


Spoilers

-She doesn't get her period and assumes she's pregnant. Really? You're sure it's because you're pregnant and not because, like, you haven't gotten all of the calories and vitamins and whatever you've needed in the time you've lived in the wilderness and maybe your period is just peacing out? Really?

- Then she's like "oh I really hope I'm pregnant" but then takes a Valium that August offers her. I'm no medical expert but taking a powerful drug while pregnant can't be great for that  baby. And you know where a sucky place to live and have a hard labor or a baby that needs extra medical attention would be? The wilderness. (This part isn't unbelievable as much as like woooooow, no.)

-No people show up to try to acost them and take their supplies? You really only run into friendly folks? Because it's not like the same apocilyptic happenings that drove you out of the city wouldn't drive others and they might not be morally superior as these two decide they are? They try to kind of explain this one away but I'm not buying it.


- I would have been insanely angry with Micah. Like I'd eventually just be happy that he was alive but I'd be livid for at least 2 weeks.

-The turkey baster. Weird.

So, I guess I'm really just irritated to have it be so much potential and then it be squandered.

Anyone else read this one?

3rd year anniversary!

I realized last night that this is my 3 year blogiversary. 

Whoops.

So nothing big and showy this year, just a thank you for everyone who takes time out of their day to stop by this little piece of the book world to see what I have to say. It is a humbling and lovely thing.Especially when a couple of time as of late my posting has been inconsistent and absences often have no explanation.

Though the short explanation is:

If I have to decide between playing tug or petting this sweet little lady or going upstairs to write a blogpost, usually she wins. Though one of these days when she stop shedding her summer coat I will sneak her upstairs so we can snuggle AND I can write.

 I feel so lucky and blessed to be associated with a group of book people and book blogger people. I say it all the time but I think people who love books are the best kind of people. A wonderful group, the lot of ya.

Here's to more years of book reviews, goofy lists and silly GIFs.

My Love to all. -W

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Savoring a series or the "last Christmas present" scenario

This weekend I finally snuggled up to a book that had been on my TBR for a little bit. I was incredibly excited to read it, but I had let it languish on my TBR for a few extra months. Why? It's my "last Christmas present" coping mechanism.

I don't generally like detective novels, or open ended series', but I make an exception for Phillip Kerr's Bernie Gunther novels. Hard scrabble, bitter, but a little sentimental and soft Bernie Gunther is the policeman/hotel detective/Soviet POW/forced Nazi collaborator/man who has seen some sh*t that we all deserve. There are 11 books so far and now I have read them all.

 

Some of the covers are so baller and awesome but this one is bad. The lady face picture is way too big and I hate it when the name of the author is bigger than the title name. Hate. 

So even though I was excited about this novel I didn't read it right away. Hence, the last Christmas present.

Every Christmas when my sister and I were little we would ask our parents to tell us when we were opening our last Christmas present. That way we could take the time to really savor it. (Not that we were the type of kids who got mountains of presents and ripped through them all in 10 seconds, because we were not). So when I really like I character like Bernie, who I've spent a lot of time with, I try to savor each book and make it last because I never know when or if I will get to see him again.

However, when I got to the end of the book and read through the footnotes I saw this glorious phrase: "Bernie Gunther will be back in Prussian Blue coming out in 2017."

Turns out there's another present under the tree for this girl.

Does anyone else do this or am I weird?

First Friday Four - 4 Great Things About Fall

1. Scarves!

I love scarves. They make it look like you care about putting together an outfit and *accessorizing*  even if you definitely don't care. And of course, they are pretty and cheap and available pretty much everywhere!

 

2. Flamepits and Bonfires

These are actually great all year round, but especially enjoyable in the fall due to lack of bugs and snugly sweatshirts. The downside to the flame pits is a year round one, I always manage to get marshmallow in my hair.

 

 3. Clearance Halloween Candy

Candy is wonderful. The only thing that makes it better is when it's super cheap.

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4. Tea Drinking Season

I really like tea but I really only drink it when it's cool outside (or if I'm traveling internationally, I don't know, it's a weird thing I do). And I obviously will take any excuse to use my cute little manatea!

Book Review: "Rad Women Worldwide: Artists and Athletes, Pirates and Punks, and Other Revolutionaries Who Shaped History" by Kate Schatz and illustrations by Miriam Klein Stahl

Everything you need to know about this book is in the title. It is a book with little snippets about women around the world who are doing amazing things. A couple people you may already be familiar with: Frida Kahlo, Malala, etc. Some I know I had definently not heard of. There were a few that had been on my radar to find out more about them, and now that has become a serious need! Here are a couple of the women you will hear about:
 

Wangari Maathai - she realized that deforestation was destroying her home country of Kenya and was the first African woman to get the Nobel Peace Prize for "her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace".

Madres de la Plaza Mayo - There were some serious bad times in Argentina during the late 70s and early 80's ("The Dirty War") where several thousand people went missing (courtesy of the government). Mothers of the missing people would gather, wearing white handkerchiefs on their heads, and demand information about their disappeared children.

Josephine Baker - Miss Baker was a fooooooorce! Singer, dancer, Francophile, mother to a whole bunch of adopted kids from all over the world, civil rights activist and on and on.

Sophie Scholl - Sophie was a member of the White Rose, a nonviolent resistance group against the Nazis. Did this end well for her? No. Was she incredibly brave and a damn hero? Yes.

 

 

 This is just a taste of all of the interesting stories that await for you in this tidy book with interesting woodcut illustrations!  Pick it up!

 

 

This book was given to me for free in exchange for an honest review by Blogging for Books

 

 

Graphic Novel Review: "Something New: Tales from a Makeshift Bride" by Lucy Knisley

This was not my favorite Lucy Knisley. I love her food and travel based offerings the most, but this book is still valuable and if you have some engaged friends I would recommend you giving this to them!

The story details Lucy's relationship with her now husband, how they planned their wedding long distance, and their actual wedding day. The food sounded great, surprise surprise! 

Lucy is shocked by the mass commercialization of weddings and how there are so many things that you are "supposed" to do. It was definetly something I noticed when I was planning my wedding, but like Lucy I got to a point where it's like "Uh, no if it's not something you want to do you don't have to do it". Though Lucy went a little farther than me. Though looking back I would have made some changes, but really I have no regrets.

Another thing that Lucy brings up is her bisexuality. What happens to that part of her once she gets married (to a man)? Is it something that she stops being? Is it something that lies dormant in her waiting for years down the line to rear it's head and cause problems? It was something that she struggled with, and I think a lot of people do. Not necessarily the bisexuality part, but the "hey I'm yoking myself to this person forever and what does that mean for me as a person?"

There's stress, barn building, poutine, and all of the rest of the wedding details made better by Lucy's cute sketches and laid back style. When it's all said and done you feel kind of exhausted, but in a good way! 

My main critique of this book is that there weren't any of her manatee sketches which I love :)