Except it isn’t || Hello friends!

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

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It’s just like Spring Break, I told myself, grabbing a duffel bag off of the top shelf in my closet. Pulling out sweaters, t-shirts, jeans, dresses, stuffing them all inside.

Except, of course, it isn’t.

My craft supplies lined up next to my front door. Which ones would I need? How long before I tired of watercolor- should I also pack the acrylics? How much was too much? How could one fill time when the time was unknown?

It’s just like Christmas Break, I amended my thoughts as I grabbed my King Arthur flour and coffee grounds to take with me.

Except, of course, it isn’t.

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Hello, friends! It has been a while. A lot has changed, how are you? How is the blogosphere faring?

Me? Oh, I graduated my program last May, received my PhD in Physics, took a life-changing graduation trip to Alaska, somehow managed to land my dream job close to family, moved states, and started working in an entirely new area of science (say hello to a developmental neurobiologist?!).

So. You know. A lot has changed for me. And this past week created a whole lot more of that change. I work at a research hospital for sick kids— kids who are particularly vulnerable right now. As a non-essential research scientist I’ve been told to work from home right now (well, as much as an experimental scientist can work from home. I might learn every coding language out there just for kicks). And, facing the prospect of sitting in my tiny apartment alone for, well, forever, I decided to move temporarily back home and work from there.

Can y’all blame me? Look at the gardens here.

Free time is sweeping the nation right now, for better or for worse. I’m one of the lucky ones— working from home means I still get my normal pay, in addition to the novel gift of every night and weekend with no plans.

I’m joking— my college friends and I have been hanging out digitally since we all graduated five years ago so I am no stranger to Skype parties and digital binge-watching escapades and remote game playing. For us, nothing will be changing.

But I have time on my hands and things to say, so I thought I would resurrect my little ole book blog for the time being. I’ll post about the books I’m reading (how I got out of my most recent, never ending reading slump), the art I am making (my friends all need hobby inspiration right about now), and the thoughts I am thinking.

It feels good to be back. :)

Let me know: how are you doing? What’s changed the past year and a half I’ve been gone? 

Dear Sunday: Autumn Breezes

Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the Caffeinated Book Reviewer series. This week I'm also doing a brief Stacking the Shelves and have also linked up with tyngas reviews.

It's a Dear Sunday on a Monday Tuesday! Sorry that my blogging here has been so inconsistent lately-- last year of grad school is really keeping me busy. 

But in lieu of complaining or ranting or exalting my schedule I give you a glamor shot of my cat, Otto. I recently got a new phone (*remembers cost* *shudders*) the google pixel 2 and let me tell you the camera has blown me away! 

But onto the books!

 I picked up Who Moved My Goat Cheese? via an ebook loan from my library. I was looking for a cute cozy mystery and while it was a cozy mystery it wasn't very good (review to come!).

I received this book Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie in a surprise package my friend sent me last week! It looks just like my cup of tea.

• Dear Sunday: Mini-vacation
• TTT: 5 Foreign Netflix shows you need to check out 

• Top Ten Tuesday: Amazing books that you never hear about
• yeah no this one will also be a temporally confused post
• top ten thursday? yeah I should be able to write that post by Thursday?
• right life? *looks nervously at schedule* 

Okkayyy that's it for me in this terribly late Sunday post! I hope you are in a less hectic time of your life. I hope I'll be in a less hectic time soon. Okay bye.

Dear Sunday: Mini-Vacation

Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the Caffeinated Book Reviewer series. This week I'm also doing a brief Stacking the Shelves and have also linked up with tyngas reviews.

sunset outside my apartment :)

These past few weeks have been rough. What with school starting, classes to take, labs to teach, research to do, organizations to help run (yes I'm the sucker who agreed to help run two different organizations my 'senior' year of grad school), my second job to do-- well, it's been busy. Add in the fact I haven't had a weekend off in like a month, and well, let's just say I'm happy that it's Labor Day Weekend!

Not that I have any big plans for the extra day off, besides lounging and reading and lounging some more.

Which sounds pretty grand to me, I gotta admit.

Oh! And I'm hoping to use the downtime to get ahead on my blog posts so that hopefully I can publish on some sort of a schedule again.

O Pioneers! by Willia Cather

I was inspired to try this book by a contemporary of Laura Ingalls Wilder when it was mentioned in Prairie Fires.

The Disappearances by Emily Bain Murphy

So far I've been severely underwhelmed and disappointed by this lackluster YA novel but I'm tired of not finishing books so I'll try and read through it quickly.

• Top Ten Tuesday: 5 books I read in school
• in which I reflect on the age old question: can you ever enjoy a book you are being forced to read?
• Disliking Everyone's Fav || Ready Player One DNF Review
• in which I admit to disliking a book I wanted to like SO MUCH 

• Top Ten Tuesday: 5 Foreign Netflix shows you need to check out 
• get excited
• I have a knack for finding the weirdest shows on Netflix that causes my friends to pause, scratch their heads and go, wait. that's on netflix?
• perhaps another post
• or perhaps not!
• the universe we live in is a chaotic and unknowable place 
• so. there. 

That's it for me! For those in the US I hope you have a safe and relaxing Labor Day weekend :) 

Dear Sunday: A New Semester

Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the Caffeinated Book Reviewer series. This week I'm also doing a brief Stacking the Shelves and have also linked up with tyngas reviews.

It's been a while hasn't? 

This summer has been the summer of blog-breaks for me, apparently! These past few weeks I have: 

• gone to a biophysics conference, given a talk over my research to a room full of scientist I didn't know and
• survived!
• and not only that, apparently no one could tell I was SUPER EXTREMELY nervous?
• which is a win
• and there were a lot of people interested in my research and had some great questions!
• so yay
• flew out for a leadership summit for the Christian Graduate Fellowship group I'm a part of 
• and it was A BLAST
• and amazing
• and I played board games until like 2 in the  morning 
• so yeah it was perfect
• ran a science booth at the state fair
• the kids LOVED my physics demos and it was really a lot of fun watching them get so excited about electricity and magnetism 

Whew! This week school officially starts-- which is a tad bit arbitrary since I'm a grad student and work year round but I am taking a class and teaching a lab this semester (oh and JOB HUNTING) so it's gonna be a bit busy.

So I wish I could promise that I'm officially back in action and that there will be no more unexpected absences here....but yeah. No promises.

Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser

My library hold finally came in! Some of my friends who are massive Laura Ingalls Wilder fans recommended this historical nonfiction about Laura and everything that was going on in the country while she was alive. It's massive tome but it has been surprisingly riveting thus far.

I'm also 1000% happy that I'm living in the 21st century without, you know, devastating plagues of locust.

• Top Ten Tuesday: Books to get you out of a reading slump
• this will be an interesting post because recently I've been asking for books to get me out of a slump! 
• Nonfiction Challenge : 6 month update 

Okay that's it for me! I'm excited to be back in the book blogging world. I hope you are having a great week and if you're a student, welcome to a new semester! :) 

Dear Sunday: The Conference

Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the Caffeinated Book Reviewer series. This week I'm also doing a brief Stacking the Shelves and have also linked up with tyngas reviews.



This past week was busy with:

• coffee shops, 
• having a group of friends over to my new place for the first time, 
• singing,
•  going out to my favorite local restaurant, a place that decided that adequate lighting is overrated and keeps the lights so dim it's hard to see the food,
• drive-in movie theaters with friends, bundling up with a sleeping bag because it was cold in July what is this world we live in,  
• skyping with friends
• and also look at those hot air balloons that were flying outside of my apartment!

whew. 

Talk about a great and busy week! Perhaps that list is apology and explanation enough for my lack of posting? 

This coming week will be no slower. I leave today for a biophysics conference-- it's a smaller, more local one than the one I flew out to San Francisco for. Tomorrow I will be giving my first talk at that conference-- I've only ever done poster presentations so fingers crossed my talk goes well! Then at the end of the week I'll be flying out for a leadership summit for the Christian Graduate Student Fellowship that I'm involved with at my university. 

Whew. 

Oh look! A rare photo of myself! 

But more importantly look at my book! Record of a Spaceborn Few came out last week and my preorder came in and I'm SO EXCITED. This is literally the first book I've ever preordered and it's so pretty I kind of understand this whole book buying thing that all the other bloggers do. 

SO PRETTY

I'm not gonna lie not much went on last week:

• Dear Sunday: Settling In
• Top Ten Tuesday: 5 Book reading memories 
• featuring three AMAZING books and two so-so ones but all with MEMORIES
• sorry for all the shouting today

I'm not gonna lie there isn't going to be much here:

• Historical Fiction Mini-Reviews
• I'm only going to promise one post this week because I've basically already written this one and I haven't packed for my trip or for my other trip OH and also I need to grade exams because final grades are due OKAY I'll stop now 

That's it for me! I hope you have an amazing week however calm or crazy your schedule is at the moment! 

Dear Sunday: settling in

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



I moved into my shiny new apartment last week and have spent this whirlwind week unpacking and settling in. This beautiful lake borders my new complex, and I've enjoyed walking around it.

Last week I mentioned I was in a little bit of a reading funk and I thought I had found the PERFECT book to get me out of it: Red Rising by Pierce Brown.

Well. My current feels about that book are summed up by this xkcd comic:

So it's not going well. Maybe I'll get into it the more I read? It's a really highly rated book but seriously I think the xkcd quote is a direct line from the book.

• Dear Sunday: The Move
• Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite short stories/novellas
• Horror or Rom-Com? || The House on Foster Hill : A review

• Top Ten Tuesday: I remember reading these books! 
• yeah no I'm still brainstorming the title for this week's prompt
• like the prompt is rather interesting-- books were you strongly remember where you were/what you were doing while you read them
• but the title is still a work in progress
• Mini-Reviews
• turns out I have read some books recently (?) so here's a mish-mash recap of some of the historical fiction books I've been reading

That's it for me! Thanks for stopping by and let me know: are you reading any amazing books right now? This funk is starting to take hold...

Dear Sunday: The Move

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

It's (almost) happening! Logistical complications mean that I don't actually get to move into my new apartment today, as planned, but rather tomorrow. Silly lady booking every silly trailer in the silly U-haul store... 

But that's alright! What's one more day? I'm not gonna lie, the hotel life is pretty suite (yeah no I regret writing that almost as much as you probably regret reading that). 

I was at the library yesterday to get some grading done (oh the glamorous life of a grad student) and I wandered down the aisles looking for my next read but couldn't find it. Have you ever been in the mood where you want to read but then nothing sounds like what you want but then you don't know what you even want? That's currently my reading life. Any suggestions for a book to get me out of this funk?

I took things a little slow last week to ease myself back into the swing of things!

• Dear Sunday: Why I took a hiatus 
• Top 5 books in 2018 (thus far)

Hopefully this will all happen even with the move...*fingers crossed*

• Top Ten Tuesday: short stories/novellas
• I'm going to attempt a different spin on this topic this week.....stay tuned!
• Horror or Rom-com? || Review: House on Foster Hill
• yeah. get ready for this review. 

That's it for me! I hope you are having a great, relaxing weekend :) 

Dear Sunday: Why I took a hiatus

Dear friends:

It's been a while. How does this thing even work again? *taps on microphone*

Ah yes. Okay. So in case you haven't noticed, I took a little, ehm long break from blogging and the real surprise is that it had nothing to do with blogging. I didn't get tired or uninspired or anything like that.

 In order to understand my absence let me tell you a bit about myself: I hate spiders. As in can't-stand-always-find-someone-else-to-kill-them, hate spiders. Small spiders I can deal with, but when the get to be the size of my palm (or a little smaller) well, then, I'm out.

In light of this fact let me tell you something else that happened: I had a (minor) brown recluse infestation in my apartment. They would appear on my living room wall, on the wall near my bed, on the other wall in my bedroom-- well, you get the picture.

Twelve giant poisonous spiders in 4-5 weeks. Did I mention that brown recluses are poisonous spiders that are really hard to spray for? Ah, well, yes.

After a few weeks it became apparent that this spider issue was going to be an ongoing issue until winter and after trying to just live with it for a few weeks I made the decision to move apartments. It became impossible to enjoy my apartment knowing that it wasn't a question if I would have to kill another giant spider but when and where.

And while some people could totally live with that situation, I decided discretion was indeed the better part of valor, and made the decision to move.

So that move has been consuming most of my time-- I forgot all the annoying laundry list of tasks moving entails. Renter's insurance, forwarding addresses, utilities-- it's been busy over here. Add to that the yearly family reunion which takes place around July 4th and I have not had a spare moment to devote to blogging.

But all of that is about to change! Well, I mean, I still am dealing with the minutia of moving, that won't change. But the lack of time (will hopefully) change soon. The new complex I'm moving into is, well, actually certifiably new in that they aren't finished building it yet. While I'm waiting for the construction to be done, the complex is putting me up in the hotel they own. It's a super fancy (to me) long-stay hotel with a little kitchenette and maid service and free breakfast and I may never want to leave.

Being stuck in a hotel should give me ample time to get back into the swing of things around here! I'm really excited to blog again-- not only did my blogging suffer during the anxiety-filled-spider-filled-time my reading life also took a huge hit. (I didn't finish one book the entire month of June??)

Anyway that is my short  explanation of my sudden, rather long complete absence from the blogging world. I hope you all are well and I hope you don't have spiders ;)

:Thanks for reading!

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

Dear Sunday: Summer Heat

Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the Caffeinated Book Reviewer series.This week I'm also doing a brief Stacking the Shelves and have also linked up with tyngas reviews.




Ah yes, the summer heat. Nevermind that it is merely May; the high for today is a whooping 95 degrees. Not that I am in any way complaining! I much prefer this heat to the cold never-ending winter we saw.

This past week I've gotten back into playing Zelda: Breath of the Wild which is a game I started /months/ ago (a year ago? more?) but then didn't have time for it until recently! So that has been nice.

Onto the books!

                                                                 click on the covers to check the books out on Goodreads!

 My hold on Educated finally came in! I haven't started it yet but I am excited to.

I finally went to my library in person which meant I was able to pick up Abundant Beauty, a book I've been meaning to read for a while but I've been busy with all the e-book options my library offers.

• Dear Sunday: Spring Showers
• Traveling through time Austen style || The Jane Austen Project
• How To Hobby || Watercolor-inspired greeting cards

• Top Ten Tuesday: Book Worlds I want to live in 
• ARC Review: A Defense of Honor by Kristi Hunter

That's it for this late edition of my Sunday post! I got caught up this morning playing the aforementioned Zelda game and forgot to write this post in a more timely manner.

Thanks for reading! I hope the weather is pleasant for your holiday weekend! 

Dear Sunday: Spring Showers

Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the Caffeinated Book Reviewer series.This week I'm also doing a brief Stacking the Shelves and have also linked up with tyngas reviews.


This picture is from a walk I took last night in the forest that lies right behind my apartment. Luckily it turned out on my first try-- I was going to try more angles but some very persistent bees were buzzing over my head and I was forced to retreat.

Today is full of stormy clouds and threatening thunder so my nightly walk may not happen.

This past week was a busy one at work, as we had a collaborator come visit us. It was fun to have a different person-- and different perspective-- in the lab but it will be nice to get back to normal.

Speaking of getting back to normal I am hoping to finding a blogging routine again! Fingers crossed I can get back to following some sort of schedule.

click on the covers to check the books out on Goodreads!

 The theme of this week's Stacking the Shelves is ARCs I have no recollection of requesting appearing magically in my account. 

• Dear Sunday: Mother's Day
• Getting Lost in the Amazon || Review: Lost city of Z 

• Am I the only one who just isn't feeling the top ten Tuesday prompts? 
• this week is favorite character names but I don't have anything really come to mind so! I'll skip out on this week
• Traveling through time Austen-styled || Review: The Jane Austen Project
• How To Hobby : Watercolor
• this will be the second installment of my How To Hobby series, a series I started mainly as an instructional manual for my friend who wants to pick up more hobbies
• for this post I'll show some of my favorite super easy watercolor techniques that I use to make postcards! 

That's it for me! Thanks for stopping by :) 

Dear Sunday: Mother's Day

Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the Caffeinated Book Reviewer series.This week I'm also doing a brief Stacking the Shelves and have also linked up with tyngas reviews. 


This past week was lovely, as I started to settle into my summer routine at work. No classes to go to, just research to do. The campus is quieting down now that all the students are leaving. One the one hand it's wonderful having a quiet pretty campus to walk through but on the other hand summer is when everyone starts their massive construction projects so we'll see how that goes this year.

click me for goodreads!

 I have been meaning to read this book for a while now-- my digital hold would come in only to find me terribly busy buried in other books and so it would expire and I would place a hold again and I did this dance for a while BUT FINALLY my hold came in when I actually had time to read it.

It's definitely been interesting thus far.

• Dear Sunday: it's summer!
• 5 Beautiful Blue Book Covers
• 5 Star Reads I Found Through Other Blogs
• seriously have you checked this one out?
• I loved writing it; I loved combing through my Goodreads shelves and reminiscing how I discovered my favorite books. 

• Top Ten Tuesday: Books I disliked, but am glad to have read
• Getting Lost in the Amazon || Review: The Lost City of Z by David Grann

That's it for me! (perfect timing to, my coffee just finished brewing) I hope you have a lovely Mother's Day (for my US readers)! 

Dear Sunday: it's summer!

Dear Sunday is my weekly post participating in the Caffeinated Book Reviewer series.This week I'm also doing a brief Stacking the Shelves and have also linked up with tyngas reviews.

Sorry for the brief blog absence! Last week I faced my Comprehensive Exam which isn't actually an exam, but rather a comprehensive presentation over your research thus far and your plans for your next step. It's sort of a pre-thesis defense. Anyhow I was preoccupied with that looming over me, and didn't find the time to post here.

But now it's over! The exam felt like a final and that means it officially feels like summer around here.

The picture is of some yay-the-exam-is-over-now-i-can-chill watercoloring I did last week, which reminds me I need to write that How To hobby: watercolor post!

click on cover to go to goodreads!

Look what came in! I sent a interlibrary loan request for this book, which was published in India not too long ago. There was only like one copy of this book in the whole interlibrary system so I wasn't too convinced it would work BUT THEN my library decided to just buy the book and put me on hold (#ILoveMyLibrary). To my shock and immense surprise, the book came in a couple days ago and I have been loving it thus far.

• TTT: Books I Want to get my hands on early
• in which I talk about maybe pre-ordering my first book :o 
• I know, I know
• I'm behind on the book blogging times

• Top Ten Tuesday: book covers
• 5 Star Books I found through other blogs
• I'm super excited about this one!
• one of the things that surprised me about blogging was the amazing books I found out about through other bloggers
• I know, I know
• how was that surprising
• I should have expected that
• BUT I DIDN'T

That's it for me! Thanks for stopping by :)