Space Station Mir

 Happy Top Ten Tuesday! I had to go through my Goodreads list, but I did find at least ten books I've read with complete sentences for titles! It's certainly an intriguing collection. One Fine Day the Rabbi Bought a Cross by Harry Kemelman Don't Overthink It by Anne Bogel My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman Fleishman Is In Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman I'm Proud of You: My Friendship with Mr. Rogers by Tim Madigan Embrace Your Weird by Felicia Day Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater

Again, honestly, I read more than I would have predicted with how busy I've been at work and with my doggo's surgery. She is done and a few days into her recovery, she's already standing on her leg a bit! There's a lot of care and work between now and projected full recovery but at least it feels like we're on our way. I've been coping with immersive reading when I can! Books Read This Month Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell (would not recommend) Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline ( a fun ride, v reminiscent of the first) Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders (see below) The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich (book club read, really enjoyed, adding more Erdrich to my list) The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline (potential book club read, historical fiction about an aboriginal girl taken from her family and two convict women transported from England to Australia, specifically Tasmania) Favorite Book This Month I mean, it was always going to be Victories G...

I'm back for Top Ten Tuesday this week! Since I missed last week, I'm going to do a few from last week's list (Places in Books I'd Love to Live) and a few from this week's (Books I'd Gladly Throw into the Ocean). I think the latter has probably been well-documented on this blog, but I'll try to come up with some new ones.  Books I'd Gladly Throw into the Ocean 1. Pamela by Samuel Richardson--Yeah, this might be my most hated book ever. It remains the only book I have literally thrown across a room. There were no oceans handy. The main character marries her employer-rapist. And this is supposed to be a good thing. Yeah. 18th century British values were NOT the best. 2. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner--Yeah, I just can't with Faulkner. Not only do I not understand him, but I just have no desire to. 3. Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and the Sublime by Immanuel Kant--I read this for a literary theory class in college, and it'...

I'm swamped with work, and not much relief in sight till May. Honestly, I'm surprised I got as much reading done as I did. Plus, it looks like one of my doggos is going to need surgery and I'm pretty upset, and between making appointments for her, me, and my husband...phew. Good news is I'm now half-vaccinated, as a teacher, and so is my husband, who also works in education. I get my second vaccine next week!   Books I Read This Month Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore The Last Watchman of Old Cairo by Michael David Lukas My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem (reread) Thoughts I'm so, so grateful that I got to read  Winterkeep,  the latest in the Graceling series that I've been following since 2012. I definitely tried to read slowly and savor as much as I could! I know I'll read it again too. I love Kristin Cashore so much and will read anything she writes for the rest of my life.  Reading  Winterkeep was  even more of a treat than I dared to dream....

 Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at That Artsy Reader Girl! This week's topic is a Spring Cleaning freebie, so I decided to go with cleaning-themed books I'm either interested in or have enjoyed. I'm not going to do any spring cleaning anytime soon since this is a busy time of year for me (as a teacher, I'm more likely to attempt big cleaning projects in January or June), but it's sometimes fun to read about it. Also to watch on Netflix re: Kondo and The Home Edit. Laundry Love: Finding Joy in a Common Chore by Patric Richardson Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson Chasing Dirt: The American Pursuit of Cleanliness by Suellen Hoy The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo (still sparks joy!) The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margareta Magnusson Outer Order, Inner Calm: Declutter and Organize to Make More Room for Happiness by Gretchen Rubin The Home Edit: A Guide to Organizing and Realizing Your House Goals by Clea Sh...

 Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at That Artsy Reader Girl ! Honestly, it's easier for me to think of characters whose jobs I don't wish I had. I don't want to be a defense lawyer. I don't want to travel through Mordor to throw the Ring into Mount Doom. I might want to be a librarian or a bookseller (assuming I could make a living), a writer or what I already am, a teacher. I want more of the jobs from cozy, safe types of books--although I threw a few nonfiction in too.  1. The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman Job: Bookseller 2. The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan Job: Owner of a book van/traveling bookshop 3. Playing with Matches by Hannah Orenstein Job: Matchmaker I wouldn't have picked this before I read the book, but the way she spends most of her time just looking at online profiles and then setting people up kind of sounded fun. 4. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers Job: Anything on a spaceship. I (almost) don't care! I could ...

A lot of speculative fiction this month, and I needed it. Also, rereading two of my favorite fantasy novels, Graceling and Bitterblue , in preparation for the next in the series, Winterkeep , which I am eagerly awaiting---5 of 34 on the library waitlist! It was my first reread of Graceling since I first read it in 2012 (!) but I own Bitterblue and have read it many times. I'm glad she's going to be a character in Winterkeep . A Traveler in Time is a book I picked up at a Chicago library sale, and have had for a while, but I finally read it. It's such a cozy story about time travel into the 1600s, but it was written pre-1930s, so for me, it's like time-traveling twice. The two Kevin Emerson books are the second and third in the middle-grade science fiction Dark Star trilogy which offers alternatively irreverent and profound interpretations of the space/time continuum, plus a meditation on personal and collective responsibility.   Books Read This Month A Traveler in Ti...

Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at That Artsy Reader Girl! I know I've done similar topics before, so while David Lebovitz or Jen Lancaster can always get me to laugh, I'm focusing on books I've read in the past couple of years. Happy reading! A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher Black Widow by Leslie Gray Streeter My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman The 100 Most Jewish Foods: A Highly Debatable List ed. Alana Newhouse Embrace Your Weird by Felicia Day Howl's Moving Castle by Dianne Wynne Jones The Boy Who Steals Houses by C.G. Drews Dear Mrs. Bird by A.J. Pearce Born a Crime by Trevor Noah To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han