Dear Sunday: Cubs win!

Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the Caffeinated Book Reviewer series.

I would like to blame the Cubs as the reason why this post is late. Their game against the Brewers went into extra innings last night-- luckily we won or else I would've felt bad staying up late to watch. In second place, I would like to place blame on the latest book I'm reading, which while not perfect, definitely had me hooked.

But anyway! Excuses aside, this past week was a good one. I managed to squeeze in a weekday bike ride. The weather is somehow cooling down so that's a bonus.

In other news, I signed up for a program at my university where a group of grad students go out to rural communities and talk about their research. I love talking about what I do, especially to people who might not super be into science. As either Feynman of Einstein once said (btw any quotable thing ever said ever regarding physics is attributed to one of these two men) if you can't explain your research to children then you don't really understand it. Claiming something is just too complicated to explain to a layman is merely inexcusable laziness on the part of the scientist. That program will get going once the semester starts, so I'm looking forward to that!

• Dear Sunday: The One with the Bike
• 5 Podcasts to Listen to Now
• Review: Secrets of a Charmed Life
• Stacking the Shelves

• What I read: July
• side note: can you believe that it two days it'll be August?!? like what. please. no. 
• Review: Eligible 
• warning: I did not really enjoy this book (my review might be a tad bit harsh) so....just to warn ya? if you love this book please drop by on Thursday and let me know why! 
• Stacking the Shelves
• most likely. who knows. 

That's it! How was your week? Do you shy away from harsh reviews or do you write them if the book deserved it? Inquiring minds want to know. 

Stacking the Shelves

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly series created by tyngas reviews where I talk about the books I've recently added to my ever growing bookshelf.

It's another electronic week over here y'all. My plans to go to the local library this past weekend got shifted around and, per usual, this week has been packed. It's so lovely to be able to browse my library's shelves from the comfort of my own couch. I picked up two e-books, and put holds on a couple more ((hopefully they don't all come in at once like holds have a habit of doing)).

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black || Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld 

I saw The Darkest Part of the Forest on someone's blog....I should make notes whenever that happens because I have no clue which blog I was reading! But someone wrote a really good review-- not overly praising the novel, but acknowledging its strengths and weaknesses and I was persuaded to give it a go. 

As the cover says,  Eligible is a retelling of Pride and Prejudice and I have a lot of opinions on it. Opinions that I will keep to myself until I finish the book (it's a quick read) and then I'll post a detailed review. I'm a fan of retellings, I think it is really interesting to see how authors interpret the context in which the novel was written and try to create something new that presents the same idea in a totally new context (spoiler alert: I'm going to write a post soon all about adaptations and retellings! stay tuned). 

That's it! Just two books for me-- I finished my two e-books from last week, so I allowed myself two books this week because I still have two real honest to goodness paper books from the library that have been wasting away on my shelves. I need to stop being distracted by shiny new books! 

What about you? /What books did you pick up this week? What's your favorite adaptation (brownie points if it's The Lizze Bennet Diaries)? 

Review: Secrets of a Charmed Life

Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner

Genre: Historical Fiction

Rating: 8 /10

Secrets of a Charmed Life is a historical fiction novel set in WWII London, and tells the story of two sisters as they struggle to survive during the brutal everyday horrors of a war and how they deal with the life-altering choices they both make. 

Secrets of a Charmed Life is a beautiful, heart-breaking at times, well researched novel, but its inconsistency and awkward timing keep it from being a great novel. In order to achieve what the author really wanted-- to watch as one childhood choice effects the person you become years later, to watch as a war long ended can still imprison you-- you would need at least 300 more pages. Instead, the author started out slowly and then tried to wave years away in a sweeping manner which felt inauthentic. I hate to harp on this fact, because in general it was a good book. It starts out great though, which left me feeling sad when it wasn't consistently great. 

While I feel like the author wasn't masterful at huge story arcs, she wrote about the war with a painful beauty. The characters were both interesting and fully fleshed out. They were lovable and frustrating. One of the main characters, a teenager when the novel begins, acts like such an annoying teenager-- which is perfect, because that's who she is. A ready-to-be-grown teenager who feels like every little thing is a now-or-never decision upon which her future hinges.

It was when time start to sped up, years passing by on each page, that the writing fell short. It's always a difficult transition to go from seeing every moment of a character's life to seeing the years flash by, and it didn't always click in this novel. 

Now don't get me wrong-- I'm glad I read this novel (even though it made me bawl. like goodness gracious y'all I never cry at books. and it wasn't even the actual story I cried at, it was a random, small reality of the horrors of the war that people had to go through.) and I think parts of it were really well done. 

I was a little disappointed-- and this is not the author's fault-- at the set-up. To be fair, I think I read the first line of the synopsis before deciding to read this novel because the synopsis always gives away the good stuff. I thought that this would be one of those novels that tell two separate stories separated by time. And it's not. Like not at all. This is a story about two sisters during WWII and the years after. The format of the story is that it's being told to a modern day woman but there is one primary story line. 

Overall, this was a good book-- it was just so close to being a great novel. Still, the author did many things tremendously well: the writing was beautiful, the plot was interesting, I was never bored, and the novel brought to light many realities of what it would be like to live in England during WWII. I would recommend this book to any fan of historical fiction with no reservations (okay except that whole time issue but really it wasn't a major roadblock). 

What about you? Have you ever read Secrets of a Charmed Life? If so, what did you think? Did you enjoy the second half of the book as much as the first half? 

5 Podcasts To Listen To Now

And now for something a little bit different!

I park about half a mile from where I work and stumbled upon podcasts a couple years ago to help my commute be more enjoyable. Every now and then I wander away and dabble in audiobooks, but I always come back to my favorite podcasts.

So whether you want to spice up your commute, make a long road trip go by quicker, or be entertained while you do the dishes, check out these five podcasts!

So you want a story...

Most podcasts that I know of are non-fiction, but I do have two favorite story-based podcasts. The Message is a relatively short fictional podcast about a group of scientists investigating possible alien communication. It features a wide cast and multiple locations so at times it can be a bit confusing. On the whole, however, I really enjoyed listening to it. Welcome to Nightvalue is by far my favorite podcast (non-fiction and fiction). It's been continuously running for years now, which means tons of backlogged episodes to catch up on! It takes place in an impossible desert town where sunsets are loud and secret government
agents watch your every move. I like to call it casual surrealism, and I love it. The plot lines are inventive and the narration is awesome. Give it a go! I recommend starting at the beginning but that's my mantra for any type of media be it a book series or tv series or podcast.

So you want to learn something...

If you want your commute/road trip to teach you something, then there are a ton of podcasts to do just that! History Chicks is run by two women, and they talk about an important female historical figure in hour long episodes. The series is extremely well researched and they present the stories in an engaging manner. I would recommend scrolling through the archives and picking one that sounds amazing (they've done Hatshepsut, Mary Antoinette, Mary Todd Lincoln, Mulan, Elizabeth Gilbert, etc). If you're looking for something more related to how technology interacts with our lives then Note to Self is the podcast for you! It's a NPR podcast about the social issues that come up with all this amazing technology which is being developed. They recently did an interview with the creators of Black Mirror which was really interesting. 

So you want to laugh...

My favorite talk show type podcast is definitely Dear Hank and John, which according to their tagline is, a comedy podcast about death. Hank and John Green are near legends in the YouTube world and they produce many really cool education YouTube shows ((which deserve their own post!)). You might know John from his books-- The Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns, and Looking For Alaska were all written by him. He and his brother host a weekly talk show where, in their words, they answer questions, give dubious advice, give you all the week's news from both Mars ((Hank's love)) and AFC Wimbleton ((English football team, John's love)) and always managed to talk about death in every single episode. I would recommend jumping right in and listening to the latest episode and if the people driving by don't think something is wrong with you as you walk on the sidewalk and laugh at apparently nothing, then, I don't think we can be friends. (kidding. kind of.)

What about you? What podcasts do I need to check out? 

Dear Sunday: The One With the Bike

Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the Caffeinated Book Reviewer series.

Since we've last chatted I've forced myself to put the Zelda game down and pick up my e-reader more. This, to the surprise of no one, has resulted in me reading more.This past week has been a record busy one at work for me-- and this week should also be jam packed. Wouldn't want to get bored, eh?

A couple of weeks ago, at my youth group (we call it a different name but y'all it's just youth group) I mentioned that I really wanted a bike, but that my budget wasn't looking so good. My new apartment backs up to a major trail and I really wanted to be able to ride a bike on it. My previous bike was stolen during college (they cut the lock. PSA: go ahead and buy those super tough bar locks that no one can cut. you'll thank me later) and I hadn't gotten around to finding a replacement. A week or so after that, my friend called me-- she had found a super cheap ($35), decently nice (barely used, crazy suspension, I think it's meant for like mountain biking), bike at a local garage sale and wondered if I wanted it. (to which I started squealing over the picture she sent and yelling yes please thank you into the phone) Last week was my first ride-- besides a super tough seat and some mild gear squeaking, it was perfect! The photo is from my 6 mile ride yesterday-- the trail system winds through a forest and gives the illusion that you have left the city far behind, even if you're still right dab in the middle of it. It's perfect. Once I get my stamina, I'll start to try longer rides-- my city trail connects to the state trail that literally goes across the entire state. So cool!

Anyhow! To the books:

• Dear Sunday: Slow Going
• Dollar Books
• Review: Lab Girl by Hope Jahren 

• A post on podcasts ((details TBD))
• Review: Secrets of a Charmed Life ((life for real y'all, I've actually already written it #goals))
• Stacking the Shelves ((this whole not-playing-Zelda-every-free-moment-I-have has resulted in me reading my books which means that I get to pick up new ones!)) 

How about you? Do you like biking? Or have you been wisely escaping the summer heat by staying indoors? ((yesterday's ride had a heat index close to 100 but like y'all I think I could ride a bike under any heat advisories because you have a constant breeze and the trail is mostly shaded))

Review: Lab Girl

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

Genre: Auto-biography

Rating: 8/10

As you may or may not know, I am a scientist. 

Man that still feels like a half-truth. Let me be more specific. I have a BA and MS in Physics, am currently working towards a PhD and am employed by my university to research biophysics. [[that makes me a scientist...right?]] 

In my undergrad, I never felt like a minority. It never felt like physics was some sort of boy's club that I was crashing, even if most of my classmates were indeed men. [[grad school is a different story but we are going to skip right on past that....]] However, in undergrad, I went to conferences geared exclusively towards women in physics, where we talked about what it was like to be a relatively new intrusion on an old institution. And while I never felt like my gender made any difference, I knew that might not always feel true. 

Women still have a unique path in the sciences-- a path that I don't hear much about. Recently, I was wondering what women who published papers did once they got married. Would she change her name? But then what about her scientific paper which no longer has her name on it? I wondered who I could ask this of, realizing quite suddenly that every professor I've had in graduate school has been male. 

What this all leads to is, when my aunt recommended an autobiography of a woman planet scientist, I was excited to give it a go-- even if autobiographies aren't my thing. I don't hear many stories about women making their way through a scientific career. My undergrad explicitly worked on diversifying the physics department, and though we were small, we had female and male physics professors. But at the time I didn't realize how lucky I was to have these women who's brains I could pick and thus neglected to ask their opinions and hear their paths. 

Hope Jahren made her career as a scientist back at at time when women were not always welcomed with open arms. Her book alternates chapters of her life with lessons on plants and trees, how they grow, respond to their environment, bear a winter's chill that would kill a human, and she weaves these botany lessons in with her story with a seamless grace. Her story is both heart-breaking and hilarious in part. There are many things she skips over-- her father inspired her to become a scientist, but she notes no communication with him or her mother once she left for college. Not that I can blame her-- she is bold in writing about her struggles with mental illness. I can't image how difficult it would be for someone is so characteristically reserved to write with such rawness. 

Her early career was difficult, full of 80 hour work weeks just to try and scrap by, a constant lack of funding leading to her best friend and coworker literally living in a car because there was no money to give him a decent salary. On the one hand it sounds like an awful future that I wish to avoid at any cost ((y'all I barely have enough passion to see a 40 hour work week in my future. no more.)) but I know that there is always more to a story that can be written down in a 300 page book. 

Overall I loved the book. When I read about a female scientist's career path there is a small part of me evaluating the story as a possible mirror for my own path forward-- which is why some parts of the book were terrifying, as she struggled and struggled to make ends meet, constantly working with no breaks to try and get new results. However if I let her story be nothing more than one story of one scientist making her way in the world, then it is complicated beautiful messy tale. 

Favorite Quotes

"I looked forward to my analyses with the same happy anticipation one brings to a baseball game: anything might happen, but it will probably take a long time."

"Instead, I would take a long, lonely journey toward adulthood with the dogged faith of the pioneer who has realized that there is no promised land but still holds out hope that the destination will be someplace better than here."

What about you? Have you read Lab Girl? What did you think? 

Dollar Books

If you've been reading my posts for a while now, you probably have noticed my odd penchant of not buying books. 

You see, I don't particularly like owning books. *gasps come from the crowd*

I know, I know, how weird right?? And don't get me wrong, there are some special books that I adore and am very glad that I own. But on the whole, I get 99.99% of my books from my trusty local library. Anything that my library doesn't have on hand I can either put on hold, or request through inner-library loan (fun fact, I found out about the inner-library loan system from a fiction book called Among Others where the main character uses it to get books her library doesn't have). 25 cents for it to be shipped to my library is a lot cheaper than buying the book myself.

Every now and then, though, I will buy books from thrift stores and/or the Dollar Tree. Last winter my family and I went on a cruise and before we did, we went to my hometown library, which paradoxically sells paperback books for 25 cents, and stocked up on reading material before the vacation. Most of the books I bought there I have since read and donated. I thought I would show you the cheap books which are currently gathering dust on my shelf (it's bad; they have enough metaphorical dust to make metaphorical dust castles. I need to read them soon!). 

I got The Tiger's Wife at my church's massive garage sell last year-- it was listed for 25 or 50 cents, I forget, and my friend bought it for me since I had no change with me.

I picked these two books up at Goodwill during college. I rarely read stories with Muslims in them, and I was trying to diversify my books ((does it work even if I don't read them? probs not))

Other books in the group:

• The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf
• Kabul in Winter
• Garden Spells
• The Creation of Eve
• Finding Nouf

Whew! Most of these books have sat on my shelf far too long-- I need to read them so that I can give them to friends/library.

Have you heard of any of these books? Which one should I read first?

Dear Sunday: Slow Going

Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the Caffeinated Book Reviewer series.

First off: the radio DJs need to stop talking about how summer is almost over. Like, y'all. It's still firmly July, not even close to sliding into August. I feel like my life is busy now (and I suppose it is), but this fall I'll have my normal research work, a microscopy course to take, and some intro physics to teach so can it stay summer for a little bit longer please? 

The rate at which I finish books has plummeted these last few weeks-- thanks to a move and also a new Zelda game (I'm a sucker for anything Zelda and this one is so cool). As I mentioned on my Stacking the Shelves post I was suckered in (like so many others) by Amazon's prime day sale and ended up with an Amazon fire tablet being dropped on my doorstep a couple of days ago. Thus far I'm really enjoying the convenience that an e-reader offers, even if I'm missing the feeling of paper under my fingers. 

This week I'm going to try and pump out more posts-- though Tuesday will once again be a post of my own creation as opposed to following a series. I may not have a recent book finished by Thursday (when I like to post reviews) but if not I'll find some interesting book I've read before to talk about!

• Dear Sunday: Back Home
• What I read: June
• Stacking the Shelves: The Electronic Version

• Dollar Store Book Finds
• Review
• Mayyybee a Stacking the Shelves-- if I somehow managed to tear myself away from my video game long enough to finish the books I already have. 

And that's about it! How about you? Any new shiny distractions in your life that are keeping you away from books? 

Stacking the Shelves: The electronic version

Stacking the Shelves is a weekly series created by tyngas reviews where I talk about the books I've recently added to my ever growing bookshelf.

I did it y'all.

I bought an e-reader. I know, I know-- how late to the party am I?? I actually owned a Nook, once upon a time, but it sort of fell by the wayside. You see, I'm not the biggest fan of e-books. I'm sort of a traditionalist, I like my books to be made out of dead trees-- there's really not a replacement for physically holding a book in your hands. 

But I also like convenience-- browsing my library's electronic shelf and then instantly checking a book out appeals to the lazy side of myself when driving all the way to the library seems like a time consuming hassle. 

So I was suckered into Amazon's prime-day sale and bought an ad-free version of the Fire tablet and it came in on Friday! 

And I've already checked out two e-books from my library so I thought I would share what those are :) 

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

If you've been following me for really any time at all, you might know that I don't read non-fiction. Every now and then one will catch my eye and I'll spend months slowly working my way through it, but on the whole I tend to stick to fiction. However, at my recent family reunion, my bookophile aunt recommend this autobiography of a plant scientist. As a scientist myself (how many degrees will I need before I feel like that term isn't an exaggeration?) I was interested in hearing about her life and journey. Thus far I'm liking it-- even if she does anthropomorphize plants a bit too much [[read: way too much]].

While I was electronically browsing through my library, two things repeatedly shocked me. One: that almost every book I searched my library had an e-copy. Two: they were almost always, without fail, already checked out. Like, what are the odds??


Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner

This was the first book I found that was on my to-read list and wasn't already checked out. It's one of those books that flits back and forth in time, telling two parrelel stories-- and that's about all I know. I'm excited to start it!

That's it! I'm still working my way through two actual-hold-in-your-hands books, so I didn't want to go overboard on my additions to my new electronic shelf. 

What about you? Do you have an e-reader? Do you prefer paper books? 

What I read: June

I'm linking up with The book date for this monthly review! 

Total Books Read: 10 (okay, technically more like 9.5 but hey, still more than May! not that this is a competition...)

Genre Breakdown

(it is actually not trivial to assign genres! I mean what if a murder mystery is set in the past? Does that automatically make it a historical fiction book as well? inquiring minds want to know)

Historical Fiction: 6

Murder Mystery: 4

Paranormal: 1

Sci-fic: 1

Anthology: 0.5 [[that's the one I gave up on]]

Audiobooks: 2

Ebooks: 0

Real honest to goodness paper books: 8

Island of the Innocent and Driven with the Wind by the Morris people




I finished the Cheney Duvall, M.D. series! Quite possibly the longest series I've read at eight books long. Luckily there's a follow-up series I just started.

                       

Dead in the Water and Styx and Stones by Carola Dunn

As always the Daisy Dalrymple cozy murder mystery series made up my audiobook contribution this month! I'm trying to catch up on some of my podcasts, but soon I'll have to download the next audiobook in the series. 

When Breaks the Dawn (Canadian Wilderness #3) by Janette Oke

A Study in Death (Lady Darby #4) by Anna Lee Huber

Books I've Reviewed

First Grave on the Right by Darynda Jones

I'll Eat when I'm Dead by Barbara Bourland 

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Check out my reviews on these books I read last month! 

Biggest Disappointment

Reader, I Married Him edited by Tracy Chevalier

I don't read many short stories, so that's always something I'm looking to improve. When I heard of this anthology populated by short stories inspired by Jane Eyre I was intrigued ((even if I don't remember actually ever reading Jane Eyre)). I didn't make it through the whole anthology-- I stopped because I wasn't liking any of the stories. 

Best Book I Read in June

Easy, hands down, no questions asked. 

That's it! All the books I read last month. This month is not looking so good as far as numbers go-- the move and vacation have meant that I actually haven't finished a book yet ((thus why there hasn't been a new review!)). I learned that I prefer to write reviews for books I just finished so hopefully by next week I'll have one up.

What about you? How was your June reading? Did you give up on any books?

Dear Sunday: Back Home

Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the Caffeinated Book Reviewer series.

This past week has been a busy, fun week, as after moving all my furniture into a new apartment (aka My Dream Apartment) I set off for a family reunion. Seeing my older relatives gave me an opportunity to pick their brains about their lives growing up. I learned small things (my grandmother used to clean churches -- just like me-- but for free-- not like me) and big things (my great-aunt vehemently denies actually /legally/ marrying her husband of 60-something years, I wasn't able to get to the bottom of that story). I'm fascinated by the past, always wondering what it was like to live in it, and how things have changed with time (my grandmother would wear lipstick growing up but no other makeup, it just wasn't popular). My relatives humored me, not quite understanding why I was so curious about what they considered mundane at best, private at worst, moments of their past.

Speaking about my obsession with the past: on my personal blog I wrote a post about stumbling upon a series of photos a WWII-era sailor sent home to his wife, complete with messages scrawled on the back. It was such a cool find!

This week's photo collage includes a perfect fluff-ball of a puppy a family friend just adopted, the best Northern BBQ I've ever eaten, a wild rabbit my cousin has tamed, and three cute little birds who live with said rabbit-whisperer cousin.

But anyway-- back to the book world!

...not much.

• Dear Sunday: The move
• It's Monday: What I'm Reading
• Review: Long Way to a Small Angry Planet

who knows. but here are some ideas...

• What I read: June
• Review: some book TBD
• Maybe a stacking the shelves?

Stay tuned! I have to say, I am missing the Top Ten Tuesdays a bit-- I'm looking forward to when that series is starting up again, sometime in August.

Well that's it for this late edition of Dear Sunday; I hope all is well with you, dear reader! Now excuse me while I go spend hours playing the new Zelda game my friend just loaned me :) [[breath of the wild for those wondering]]

Review: The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet  by Becky Chambers

Rating: 9/10

Genre: Science Fiction

Spoiler alert: I loved this book. We're talking about devoured every page can't wait to get the sequel type of love here. I went into the book with only the barest idea of the plot-- some woman hiding her identity gets onto a some type of spaceship. For me that's all I need to know. Often times summaries give away all the fun plot twists and rob me of the fun of finding things out as I go along.

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet is an inventive sci-fi novel that manages to create the feeling of an expansive universe, of which the novel comprises only a small corner. I love when novels can set up such a fully fleshed out world. The author had thought of complexities of inter-species interactions that many authors gloss over. Space is complex-- miscommunication would be often and with deadly consequences. Not every species shows love or respect the same way, not every species has the same familial expectations and often times the aliens in novels are close approximations with humans with only a few features changed. The complexity of different cultures that evolved on different planets is something this novel excelled at.

The plot doesn't have a racing tempo but the tempo fits the (no spoiler alert here) long journey the ship is on. Interspersed with the narrative are other types of communication-- meeting notes or personal logs or chapters from textbooks. One of the things I'm passionate about is using transmedia in modern story telling-- I'll have to devote an entire post to the novel transmedia techniques used in the Lizzie Bennett Diaries, a modern vlog-style version of Pride and Prejudice. Anyway! The point is print novels are really limited in their transmedia abilities, so I love when a traditional narrative is augmented by additional methods of communication.

I suppose I should address the things I wasn't so in love with-- because they did exist, even if they are far outweighed by the things I loved. The novel handles subplots with variable success. Something I expected to be a major plot point slid into a subplot and actually dwindled out, with only sporadic references to resolve the issue.

The characters are lovable and complex. I loved how different the captain was from a lot of captains-- more passive than aggressive more concerned about his crew members than his image. I feel like the author jumped around a tad bit too much in terms of character development. It would have perhaps been better to focus on one character for a bit longer and not jump around so much.

But all in all I recommend this novel whole heatedly to anyone who will listen. It was a fun read that never dragged and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. I can't wait to pick up the sequel at my local library.

What about you? Have you ever read The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet? What sci-fic novels do you love? Let me know!

It's Monday: what I'm reading

It's Monday: what are you reading? is a weekly series hosted by The Book Date blog!

Welcome to my first post in this quite self-explanatory series! I'm working my way through a couple books and thought I would share them with you-- I've mentioned them before but here's a little more about them:

A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella L. Bird

Man. Y'all. If I could invent a time machine (one that travels to the past because traveling to the future is already theoretically possible which thus makes it a tad bit boring) I would like nothing more than to travel with Isabella. This book is a series of letters she wrote to her sister while traveling through the American West in the 1870s. She is bold and adventurous, up for anything, never faltering even when she wakes up to her bed covered in snow due to a blizzard, or the fact that 'road' is a subjective term in the mostly undeveloped wild west. 

Non-fiction takes me ages to read but I am slowly making my way through this amazing travel memoir. Her writing is captivating-- it would be a fascinating read even without all the adventures. 

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

I'll be honest: between starting a draft of this post and hitting publish I actually finished the book. But! I still thought I would leave it here. I love this book so much. Like so much. I can't wait to write a review about how much I love it. I am so pumped that there is a sequel.

And that's it! Like I mentioned on Sunday, I'm in the middle of a move-- which leads straight to a family reunion, so I haven't had time to stack my shelves and start new books, as most of them are hidden away in brown boxes. 

You might be looking at the handy dandy widget on the side of my blog which lists my 'currently reading' books and then back to this list and then you might be a tad bit confused. You see, there are some books that have an almost honorary role on my list. They are books that I haven't finished but also haven't given up on, books that I take out every now and then and read a bit more of. 

Odd? Quite possibly. 

What about you? What are you reading? Do you have any honorary current reading books? Am I alone in this world? 

Dear Sunday: The Move

Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the Caffeinated Book Reviewer series. 

My new view!! 

Hello all and welcome to my weekly round up! I've been quite busy this past week getting ready for my move-- which officially started yesterday. My move is a rather chill three-day affair which I am definitely a fan of because moving is exhausting. But my new place is kind of my dream apartment so I can't be happier about where I'm moving to. Technically, my old apartment was a 'basement' apartment, which meant small windows, so I can not believe that a) my new place has a balcony and b) this is my view.

I have this upcoming week off work (which I'm so pumped about!!) which also means my posts this week may or may not get up on time. Road trips-- aka prolonged times where I am doing nothing but sitting in a car-- could be a great time to catch up on some blog writing! Alternatively, a family reunion doesn't exactly spell 'productive free time'. So, as always, we shall see.

• TTT: Best Books of 2017
• Review: I'll Eat when I'm Dead

• It's Monday: What Are You Reading?
• Review: The Long Way to A Small Angry Planet

Fun fact, the series we all know and love (Top Ten Tuesdays) is actually taking a summer break, so I'll be looking for new things to fill that space! I'm going to try out a cool Monday series I've seen bouncing around on some other blogs. 

It'll be so weird to leave my apartment for the last time, even if I love my new place. It'll take some time to get used to living in a new space-- I know for sure that at least once I'll find myself driving to the wrong side of town after work. But eventually all the kinks will wear out and I'll slip into a new routine with a new apartment and a new balcony. :)

What about you?? What are you doing for the holiday weekend? Perhaps something more traditional, like barbecues and pool parties? ((on July 4th I actually have the internet guy coming to bring my new apartment into the 21st century; evidently I'm not the most patriotic person)) I hope the weather is as nice where you are as it is here!