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: 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 :)

Dear Sunday: Feeling like spring

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.  

Last week was: my biochem exam, a sudden lack of work to due after the exam left me sitting at my desk bewildered. Isn't it always like that? You have so much work you're almost buried under it and then BAM just like that it all ends and you are suddenly wishing you had stuff to do? 

Anyway! Also last week: my friend and went to see Black Panther-- the first time in a long time that I went to an actual movie theater. It was an enjoyable experience even if there were plot holes big enough for cities to fall through. It was fun and I loved the characters. 

These past few days it has been in the high 60s and sunny and I CAN NOT WAIT for spring/summer to finally arrive. 

PS I bought this orchid a year ago or so and it finally bloomed last week! I'm so proud. 

The stars aligned: I was looking for my next nonfiction read AND my friend was telling me about this memoir that she absolutely loved (A Circle of Quiet) so I thought I would give it a go! I'm thinking about rereading (I KNOW) A Wrinkle In Time (same author) in order to maybe watch the movie when it comes out. It would be interesting to go back and read the book I read as a child since I would be coming in with such a wildly different perspective.

I also finally picked up Austenland! It might be cheesy, it might be cute, I might want to throw it across the room-- we shall see.

• Dear Sunday: Turning 25
• TTT: 5 Books I Wish I Could Read For The First Time Again
• Thoughts from places: San Francisco 

• Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite book quotes
• such a good prompt! I'm excited to share some of my favorites 
• January-February bookish wrap 

That's it for me! I hope you have a great week :)

Dear Sunday: Sunny California

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.  

As you read this post, I will be in California attending a conference! It is my first official/relevant conference in graduate school so it is at once exciting and nerve wracking. It'll be super fun to hear about the cool things going on in the field of biophysics, but also this is also an important time for me to network and plan out future job applications so there is that.

This past week has been busy, preparing for the conference (I'm doing a poster presentation), trying to work ahead/stay on top of things for my class (I'm missing four lectures AND there's an exam right after I get back), and cleaning the church since I'll be away for so long (till mid this week).

That all being said I have scheduled this week's posts (I KNOW who am i) so stay tuned! Also I should be posting some cliche California pics on my instagram (which you can see on the sidebar to the right!) so check back for that.

I realized that February was quickly slipping away and I hadn't started my nonfiction read of the month! So after conferring with my library's online catalogue (oh modern society how do I love thee?) and my Goodreads TBR list, I decided on The Kitchen Counter Cooking School: How a Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices into Fearless Home Cooks  where a cookbook author teaches everyday women how to have confidence in the kitchen. Thus far I'm really enjoying it!

• Dear Sunday: The most exciting eARC ever
• TTT: 5 Novels with Beautiful Relationships
• Discussion: Are Shorter Reviews 'Better'?
• thanks so much for your comments! It's fun to talk about blogging things with fellow bloggers. 

• Top Ten Tuesday: Anticipated Books That Were a Let Down
• this is a spin on the prompt books you no longer want to read in that these are books that I really wanted to read and wasn't overwhelmed when I actually read them
• Review: The Scribe of Siena by Melodie Winawer 

Well that's it for me! I hope you all are having a wonderful week :)