The Book Blab: "Traveling With Books" (Episode 7 Show Notes)

You guys! Special surprise unannounced Episode 7 of The Book Blab! When I realized I was going to be in Utah with some downtime last week, I emailed Amy and said, hey, can we do an episode together? In person? We didn't know if it was going to work out until the day of, but it was so much fun to actually be in the same room talking books together. We filmed this last Friday, and tried out a new video service (Facebook instead of Blab) because it worked better with having us both in the same space. So it did not stream live here, but you can all enjoy the recorded episode and show notes below.

0:35 - Why Suzanne came to Utah

1:10 - Today's topic: Reading during travel

2:12 - How Suzanne and Amy plan their travel reading

4:09 - How travel converted both Amy and Suzanne to e-readers

5:30 - Suzanne's audiobook catastrophe!

6:45 - Tips for e-books deals

8:50 - Amy and Suzanne's favorite genres for travel

11:40 - Place-sensitive reading (reading books that are related to the place you're traveling to)

13:48 - Travel reading . . . with kids!

17:45 - Suzanne's fun tradition when she's traveling

19:05 - One more tip for traveling light even if you don't have an e-reader

20:30 - Quick poll: In general (not travel specific), do you prefer an e-reader or the hard copy?

22:10 - Two books that remind Amy and Suzanne of trips they went on (and that you'll enjoy whether you go on the same trip or not!)

• 22:50 - Suzanne's recommendation
• 24:45 - Amy's recommendation

27:00 - Conclusion 

Links and books mentioned in the show:

Modern Mrs. Darcy's Kindle Deals (5-7 new titles every day, usually ranging between $0.99 and $4.99)

Goodreads Deals (If you have a Goodreads account, you should already be getting handpicked deals in your inbox.)

BookBub (lots of free and really inexpensive e-books)

On Such Stuff: A random, free e-book that Suzanne took a chance on and really liked

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

The Monuments Men by  Robert M. Edsel

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

On Sunlit Pages: Review of The BFG by Roald Dahl

On Of Books and Blooms: Review of Watership Down by Richard Adams

On Such Stuff: Review of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

On Sunlit Pages: Review of Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Books I Read in June

Well, June was a bit slower on the reading front than May. I blame it on my mother. She was here for two weeks helping out, and for some reason it was more interesting to chat with her all day long than read. Also, I started a pretty hefty read half-way through the month that I'm still working on, so I don't get to count all those reading hours yet. Here's what I did get through:

Firestorm by Katie Robison

Finished this one up just in time to mini-review it for the giveaway! You can read more about it (and the whole series) here.

The Martian by Andy Weir

Finally! I've only been on the holds list for this one forever. Confession, I did see the movie first, but the book was totally worth reading. The science! Holy cow the science! Major, major props to Andy Weir for not just figuring out and understanding all this stuff, but presenting it in an admirably entertaining way in a fiction book. I'd be lying if I didn't admit to skimming a lot of the more technical descriptions, but I totally saw how it was necessary to the story and only added. Seriously learned so much. Also, really loved the character of Mark Watney. He's brilliant and funny, which is a pretty winning combination, but caution, he does have a mouth on him. I still definitely recommend.

Pippa of Lauramore by Shari L. Tapscott

Okay, so remember how I got a new Kindle last year? And then started subscribing to all those email services that send you daily updates on all the Kindle deals? Well, I totally try to restrain myself, but when a book is free, and it's an e-book, sometimes I have a hard time not clicking buy. So now I've got a bunch of these freebies sitting on my Kindle, and as I was scrolling through them the other day I realized most of them look terrible (probably why they were free), but this one looked promising, so I decided to give it a try. And guess what? It was totally a winner! Completely, surprisingly delightful. I would compare this book to a slightly lesser Shannon Hale-type princess novel. It's got a fun and spunky princess, a fairly developed fantasy world, and a host of suitors lining up for the princess's hand. Then ending ties up nice and tidily and happy (so if that kind of thing bothers you, well, don't read it), there's not much substance, but it was quite the enjoyable little fluff read. (Also, super clean.) Totally recommend.

And that's all I finished. We've got some travel coming up this next week, with both plane flights and road trips involved, and I'm hoping that will translate into some good reading time (but you never know with kids). That being said, I'll be taking the next week off of blogging (except for a maybe, possible, surprise special post later next week, but only if things work out... I'll let you know).

Happy summer reading folks!

Mid-Year Goal Update

I just want to thank everyone for the kind comments on my last post. Thanks for letting me get a little bit personal and spiritual here, and thanks for all the well-wishes on my family's behalf. I am so grateful for your positive support.

I know, I know, none of you could possibly care about how I'm doing on my New Year's Resolutions. You probably don't even remember what they are (oh look, here's a friendly link to remind you). Obviously this is all just for my personal benefit, because I always find it useful to give myself some mid-year accountability and motivation to keep up on my goals.

However, I was pretty low-key on the goal setting this year. I anticipated a rough year, so I was trying to be generous with myself and not set the bar too high. At this mid-year reflection point, I actually think I may have set the bar too low. I've already finished nearly every goal I set, so I think I'm going to have set some new goals, because I need something to do for the rest of the year (besides gestate a baby), right?

So here's the update:

The Longest Night

I had some grand plans over the weekend to write up my posts in advance for this week. I had several post topics in mind: a Father's Day reflection on masculinity (inspired by a book I read last month), a sweet little tribute to my husband reflecting on our eight years of marriage together (Monday was our anniversary), a half-year update on my New Year's resolutions...

But then this weekend happened, with a Phone Call on Friday night. One of those Phone Calls. The kind you spend your whole life dreading, but never, actually, really believe will happen to you. The kind of Phone Call that turned Friday night into the longest night of my life.

Me and My Body (Part 1 - An Announcement)

Conversations I've had with my husband:

Me: Ugh, I have a headache.
Husband: Go take a pill.
Me: No, it's not that kind of headache.
Husband: What do you mean, it's not that kind of headache? Are there different kinds of headaches?
Me: Yeah. There are dehydration headaches, which mean I just need to drink some water. Then there are sleep deprivation headaches, which mean I need to take a nap. Sometimes there are stress or tension headaches, they usually go away with some stretching and yoga. Then there are headaches when I'm sick, like with a cold. I'll take a pill for those ones. This is a dehydration headache. I just need to drink some more water.
Husband: Well, I just get headaches and they go away with pills.

~~~

Husband: (Grunts and looks uncomfortable.)

Me: What's up?

Husband: I'm not sure. I can't tell if I'm hungry, or if I need to go have a bowel movement.

Me: What? Those are completely different feelings! How can you not tell?

Husband: I don't know! Sometimes they're kind of the same feeling. I mean, it's all down there (gesturing vaguely toward his abdomen).

Me: ??? (Utter disbelief)

Giveaway! Windstorm Trilogy by Katie Robison

*This Giveaway is closed! A winner has been selected and notified (congratulations, Ann-Marie!). Thanks so much to all of you who participated.*

I mentioned on The Book Blab a few months ago that one of my most anticipated releases for 2016 was a book called Firestorm, the final book in the Windstorm Trilogy written by the incredibly smart and talented (and also my real-life friend) Katie Robison.

Well, yesterday (June 7th) was the big release day, and as part of the festivities Katie asked if I would be willing to be part of the Firestorm release blog tour and host a giveaway of the trilogy here on Such Stuff. Obviously it took me about 0.0 seconds to enthusiastically agree, and so I present, my first ever giveaway!

More details on the giveaway are below, but first, I thought you might like to know a little bit about these books and the awesome author behind them, so I've got a brief mini-review on each book, and then an extra fun little interview with Katie.

Books I Read in May

Well, guys. Let me finish up a Master's degree, and I will dive head first into the pleasure reading! May was an awesome month for reading, what with all the freedom I now have. But yeah, my reading this month skewed heavily toward the lighter, escapist fare. Just what the doctor ordered after finishing up my heavy papers on Shakespeare and Jonson. So, let's begin!

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

Not as strong as Goose Girl, which I read last month, but still quite a delightful and fun fantasy/princess story. The setting was a bit different, with some interesting world-building, that I enjoyed, but the characters and story lacked a little bit. I was especially annoyed with Lady Saren's behavior, although I understand she was supposed to be suffering from some sort of depression or PTSD or something, so perhaps I shouldn't have been so annoyed. The ending tied up a little too neatly, but of course that's how I wanted it to end, so I can't complain too much. Just good fun.