September wrap-up and Week in Review

Where did September go? Well, I made it through 30 books in September! There were only 2 days where I used the books I had finished that day as my count. And I read a couple of tiny children's books when I was down to the wire and really tired at the end of the day. But overall, I felt I gave it a good go to spice it up and read some different things like memoirs, self-help and some kids selections.

Here's how I read:

graphic novels and comics: 10

children/juvenile/young adult books: 19

non-fiction: 16

mystery/thriller/horror: 5

fantasy: 5

My favorites of the month:

1. The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

2. Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

3. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder

4. Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

5. All of the March books by John Robert Lewis

6. The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

7. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

I think I could do it again next year as long as I kept the same idea and maybe even allow myself to finish 30 in September rather than one each day. Thanks to Stacy for starting the tradition and look forward to next year!

Another great week with Fall in the air! This last weekend DH's friend from Taiwan came in for some work training and stayed the weekend. So we took her out to a dueling piano bar called Keys on Main and the a beautiful Fall hike on Sunday morning!

Books Finished: See above! I did it! I done did my challenge like an adult.

Books I'm Currently Reading: The Devil in the White City: Magic, Murder, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson. This is my third time starting the book and I can safely say I will definitely finish it soon! Scream All Night by Derek Milman. And I just started The Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero. It reminds me a bit of The House of Leaves book by David Mitchell.

Books Acquired: Daughters of the Lake by Wendy Webb, Easy Soups from Scratch with Quick Breads to Match by Ivy Manning, The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Saez, Swing Time by Zadie Smith, and American Like Me by America Ferrera.

Listening to: The Changeling by Victor LaValle, the podcasts Spooked Season Two from Snap Judgement and Lore. I'm hoping to start NOS4A2 by Joe Hill this week too.

Watching: I watched Mandy, and am working on Maniac on Netflix and more horror movies to come this month!

Making: More crocheted f-bombs! I think I finally have a pattern that works well for me. I'm also working on some hats and a little crocheted Frankenstein's monster!

Looking Forward to: Finishing up the Halloween decor for the porch and the final touches on my costume. And we may hit Oktoberfest in our area on Sunday. One of the local breweries makes a pumpkin beer on nitro and it is fabulous. I've been wanting to get up there just for that!

Week-in-Review and 30 Books in September Update--September 26, 2018

It's been a busy week! I meant to get this update out on Monday and here it is Thursday....

Finally made it out hiking on Monday to see some beautiful Fall colors in the local mountains with my friend Diana. It was gorgeous. It was rejuvenating and we enjoyed bathing in nature....and then on the way down the mountain we got a flat tire. But we were doing pretty good but someone stopped and helped us get the donut on. But it was worth it!

Happy Fall, everyone! I made my family celebrate with me this last weekend. I wanted to to an apple orchard and pick some delicious apples we could use to make something yummy. But the two farms we found were out of apples and were done for the season. So we hit the local store and bought some apples and made caramel apples. Despite the snag in celebrations we had a good time celebrating the coming of Fall!

Books Finished: See 30 books in September update below!

Books I'm Currently Reading: The Devil in the White City: Magic, Murder, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson. This is my third time starting the book and I can safely say I will definitely finish it soon!

Books Acquired: The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathon Haight, Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky, The Family Gene: A Mission to Turn My Deadly Inheritance into a Hopeful Future byJoselin Linder, The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between by Hisham Matar, The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin, Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward. And two how-to crochet books from a library book sale.

Listening to: The Changeling by Victor LaValle, the podcasts Spooked Season Two from Snap Judgement and Lore.

Watching: I just finished up Dark Tourist on Netflix, Atypical Season Two on Netflix. I am finishing off the new season of Insecure on HBO. And I just started Maniac on Netflix.

Making: I made Fall pumpkin cornbread with homemade honey butter over the weekend along with pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and tortellini soup! I also made fry bread tacos yesterday and plan on Thai fried rice this weekend.

I also am honing my skills to make more f-bombs. I need them good enough I'll feel comfortable giving them away as gifts! I also hope to make some winter hats soon.

Looking Forward to: We're going on another fall hike this weekend. DH's friend has flown in from out-of-country and wants to do some fun things this weekend. We also plan on hitting a local dueling piano bar and get some drinks.

30 Books in September 

Day 17: Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story by Peter Bagge. I knew she was the one who started Planned Parenthood and got birth control going but I had not heard much else. This was a great graphic non-fiction novel about her life, warts and all.

Day 18: Nighty-Nightmare by James Howe. My son is doing his fall book report on this one and wanted me to read it so I could help him out. It was quick and is apart of the Bunnicula book series.

Day 19: The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump by Michiko Kakutani. Short and too the point. I enjoyed her quotes from the past and how she likens it to our present day. Lots to chew on.

Day 20: Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison. I loved these short histories of each of these amazing women.

Day 21: March: Book One and March: Book Two by John Robert Lewis and Andrew Aydin. The whole series is an amazing read. I thought I knew stuff but reading these three books made me realize how little I truly know about this terrifying time.

Day 22: March: Book Three by John Robert Lewis and Andrew Aydin

Day 23: Animal Farm by George Orwell. Orwell is a brilliant story-teller. It was sad and depressing but spot on.

Day 24: The Pearl by John Steinbeck. I enjoyed Steinbeck's use of non-white characters and culture in this short story but overall it was a bit preachy.

Day 25: The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury. DS and I loved reading this book together. Bradbury using prosodic language tells all about the history of Halloween and the myths and rituals surrounding death from around the world. All done with excitement, mystery, and adventure. I was very impressed.

Week-in-Review and 30 in September Update-- September 17, 2018

Something has been going around in my son's school and area...whooping cough/pertussis. A lot of kids have been sick or parents are keeping them home as a preventative measure. Luckily, G only had a small cold from the previous weekend and was able to go all week! But I ended up getting a mild sinus infection. I think it's been aggravated from all the smoke from fires we've been experiencing here in Utah! Just a few days ago I could smell the acrid smoke and could hardly see across the street. We had a big windstorm over the weekend and it cleared a lot of it out, thankfully. But it's still burning.

G's school has a carnival fundraiser each year and has become quite a tradition in our family. This year was no exception. G got his face painted and tried out the huge plastic bubbles. I enjoyed the street tacos for only 2.50$. G's grandmother and a family friend visited this weekend as well and came along for the ride. G doesn't get to see DH's mother very often so it was really fun for him to catch up.

I also finished my first f-bomb crochet project. It's crap but I needed to finish so I could see a result and eventually see how far I've come as I keep going!

And Sunday was family game night! Takenoko...always a fun one!

30 Books in September

Day 10: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder-- This will be a classic. Snyder lays it all out with examples from fascism, communism, and Nazism from the twentieth century. Key things to look out for and ways to combat the destructive time we find ourselves in. It's one to keep on the shelves and reference often.

Day 11: Nimona by Noelle Stevenson-- This is an amazing young adult fantasy graphic novel. I loved everything about this world and Nimona. Read it. It's so good. There are a couple of really funny shark parts in this one.

Day 12: Seriously...I'm Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres-- I love Ellen! She's so funny and good-hearted on her talk show and everything else I've seen her in. She's a class act. But I did not like her book. It was boring. There wasn't anything truly personal in there and the jokes fell really flat for me.

Day 13: The Sand Warrior by Mark Siegel-- Another fantastic juvenile fiction graphic novel sci-fi. Can't wait for the next installment.

Day 14: Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl-- My weekend ran away from me so the last few days have been very small books! It's cute but Dahl just isn't my favorite author.

Day 15: Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr-- This is a tear-jerker. I learned about Sadako and the Thousand Cranes when I lived in Hiroshima for a year. But I finally decided to pick up the English kid's story about her. It's tragic and sad but an important story to learn from.

Day 16: The Elephant's Friend and Other Tales from Ancient India by Marcia Williams-- I love all of Marcia Williams' graphic novels on classic stories and fairy-tales and myths. She's a wonderful illustrator and funny too. I enjoyed this one right before bed.

Nala says hi!

Week-in-Review and 30-in-September Update

I'm really enjoying the book a day in September. I enjoy picking out my book for the day and setting out time to sit down and read. It's been a fun challenge! There were a couple of days that I had to stay up a bit too late to finish but overall I've been getting them done with time to spare for a few other books I'm reading as well.

I've been enjoying the cooler nights the last week or two. G and I have been taking some walks at night and talking. We've had some fun conversations.

Books Finished:

A book a day for my challenge and The Book on the Taboo of Knowing Who You Are by Alan Watts. I read this one over the summer with my friend. We do a little philosophy club together and this was our pick for the last few months. There were some interesting ideas on how to see ourselves as totally apart of nature and not separate from it. There were some nuggets of great insight. But overall it was a bit wordy and out of touch with pragmatically how the world is and not how we want it to be.

Books I'm Currently Reading:

• The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas-- a great YA mystery.
• Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl--It's weird but good!
• The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters--it's been awhile since I've read a good historical fiction novel with some creepy elements. Probably the last one was The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.

Books Acquired:

• Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching by Paula J. Giddings for my Kindle
• X-Files: Cold Cases by Audible
• Emma by Jane Austen from Audible
• Heresy by S.J. Parris for my Kindle

Listening to:

• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Spooked--a podcast put on by Snap Judgment

Watching:

I finally finished up The Alienist. I really enjoyed that show. Characters and world-building were fantastic. Caught up on Castle Rock! OMG only one episode left. The Sinner is getting good too. The WNBA finals are this week so I know I'll be watching those games. Making It finished up its season. What a fun show. I'm going to miss Amy and Nick and all the makers on the show.

Making:

I've been trying to cook more at home and last week I did really well. I made grilled salmon and fish tacos and one-pan chicken thighs with potatoes. Overall, it's been a good week. So yay me! This week will be leftover tacos, spaghetti and homemade meatballs! 

I also have plans to make chocolate chip pumpkin pancakes and start on my crocheting project for f-bombs!

image source

I don't know if it'll look exactly like this but I'm hoping something similar! I want to make a few of these for stocking stuffers and friend gifts--so my one friend who reads my blog may see this...surprise! But hopefully not...

Looking Forward to:

G has his school fundraiser carnival this Friday so he's very excited about that! I'm also looking forward to Fall. The Pumpkin Harvest beers from Blue Moon are out and I just love those so much. Pumpkin cookies and soon I'll be making chilis and soups and stews. We also just put up most of Halloween decorations cuz after Labor Day it's unofficially fall for me and that means Halloween.

30 Books in September Challenge:

Day 4: All's Faire in Middle School by Victoria Jamieson. This was a very cute graphic novel story on the anxieties and fears of starting middle school. I had a hard time with the parenting in this one but I know that wasn't the point so I tried to overlook that. Overall it's a great read.

Day 5: The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang. I loved this young adult graphic novel. The prince secretly loves to dress in women's clothing and he hires a young seamstress to make his clothes for him and to keep his secret.

Day 6: The Four Agreements by Miguel Ruiz. Some good principles to live by but he lost me in his metaphors and anecdotes.

Day 7: The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown. I had to read this way too fast so I'll be going back over all the things she wrote about. She's great.

Day 8: Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce. I've been wanting to read this one for along time. I'm so glad I finally picked it up for my challenge. Loved it!

Day 9: How to Fake a Moon Landing: Exposing the Myths of Science Denial by Daryl Cunningham. This was a non-fiction graphic novel. It's not bad. Wasn't my favorite but I liked the sentiment.

Week-in-Review and 30 in September: Days 1, 2, 3

I was out camping over the weekend so I had to limit myself to very small books for my 30 in September book challenge with Stacy! A lot of my books are small so I can feel good about my challenge and not make it too daunting.

We enjoyed a relaxing Labor Day weekend with friends by sitting around a fire most of the day and eating and drinking! Best kind of camping for me....

September 1st I was around a fire a lot so before bed I ended up reading the graphic novel/comic Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur vol. 1 by Amy Reeder. It's a super cute story and I really enjoyed Moon Girl and how she deals with all the anxieties of being young and not knowing where you fit in. The dinosaur was adorable!

September 2nd I read The Three Questions by Jon J. Muth to G before bed. It's a wonderfully illustrated read based on a story by Leo Tolstoy. In fact, all of Muth's illustrated stories for children are fantastic. They are upbeat and philosophical.

September 3 I finished off The Cutting Season by Attica Locke. The Cutting Season also fulfills one of my books in the R.I.P. XIII challenge!

So technically didn't read it all in one day but like I said before I've got to make the challenge work for me!

Watched:

The Lodgers: Interesting take on an Irish ghost story. I loved the setting and the accents. It was creepy and had a satisfying ending.

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane: Not a bad teen slasher flick that came out 12 years ago. I saw some familiar faces. The acting was so-so but the cinematography was great and the ending was weird and gross. So overall, not too bad but not one I'd rave about or watch again.

Christopher Robin: This was a very cute and light movie. I loved Eeyore! The whole family had a great time seeing these cute Pooh characters back on the screen.

Caught up on Castle Rock, The Sinner, and started The Alienist.

Looking forward to:

We have some good friends coming over for a BBQ on Saturday! It's been awhile since we've all gotten together.

30 in September!

A challenge has been issued! My wonderful blogging friend Stacy over at Stacy's Books has challenged me to read 30 books in September, a book for each day. She did this last year and I had so much fun cheering her on that I told her I'd be up for it the next year. Well, the time has come. I will be sticking to very small books, like all of G's books I could gather up from his bookshelves...and graphic novels from the library! Never fear, I did throw in some short classics like Animal Farm and The Pearl. But for the most part I'm sticking to the small stuff and see how I do. If I manage all right I hope to up the ante next year!

I also am going out of town a couple of weekends in September so I will have to be extra vigilant!

 So without further adieu here is my list in picture form. I do have more than 30 pictured but I wanted to have options! I also may do a few on my Kindle...

Nala couldn't resist helping me out with my piles! And another kitty to round it all out!

I will try to do regular updates but I can't ever be sure. But wish me luck and Stacy too and whoever else is crazy enough to join us!