Interesting Things
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Summer Reading: What Makes the Perfect Road Trip Audiobook?
I am fascinated by the idea of “summer reading”, mostly because I don’t quite know why it is such a big deal. It feels like this time of year, more than any other, is the time when adults (and children) are inundated with book lists and reading challenges. Is it a holdover from our years in school, when summer was our time to take a break? I find that as an adult, summer is often when I am at my busiest and have LESS time for reading. Personally, I am the most interested in books are in the fall and winter, with a cozy fire, blanket and tea. My favorite…
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Happy April Fool’s Day: It’s Tricky Puzzle Book Time!
Happy April Fool’s Day! Quite honestly, I am not much of a prankster, although I do love seeing what people pull off as long as it isn’t directed at me. The community I live in has a tradition of high production pranks (think UFO on the local lake) that I have helped with in the past, and I do enjoy those! In honor of the “holiday”, I wanted to explore a fun, odd book niche with you all. Today, I am sharing a few puzzle books that set out to trick readers or need to be “solved” in some way. “Puzzle” mysteries and books told in non-traditional ways are fairly…
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What Makes a Great Field Guide? My Favorite Nature Books!
This past weekend, I was teaching a group of kids how to use field guides to identify and learn about the things you find in nature, and in developing this lesson, I had the chance to dig into some of my favorite nature guides and nature-ish books (and ended up ordering a few I wish I had!). If you have never thought much about this before, or don’t think you will be interested, don’t worry! Below there will be traditional guidebooks, but there are also chickens, some information about Sasquatch, and some poetry as well. Overall, the field guide-type books I love tend to fall into two categories. First, I…
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Book Bans: Why We Need to Care
Hello Everyone, Did you know that in 2022, there were over 2000 individual book bans implemented in the United States, covering over 1500 titles? Today, I am hopping on the soapbox a bit to talk about the alarming level of book banning that is currently happening right now in the United States. We should all be angered by this, and even if we don’t live in areas where this is an issue, it is still something we can help fight. Before I share some articles which do a much more comprehensive and well-researched job of talking about this than I can, I wanted to share a personal story about this,…
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Looking Forward: TV and Movie Adaptations Coming out in 2023!
One of the (few) joys of the mind-numbing array of streaming platforms is that everyone seems to be looking for the next great adaptation, and a lot of great books are being made into TV shows or movies. There have been endless adaptations over the last few years, including Ann Cleeves murder mysteries, new and glossy Agatha Christie renditions, great space operas like The Expanse and literary classics like Pachinko, Kindred or Station Eleven. I think it is fair to say that some of these are wonderful additions to their worlds, and some of them are….not. I’m not necessarily an adaptation lover in general. For me to want to watch…
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Better Book Challenges for 2023
Every year, I see New Year’s resolutions that focus on reading more. It may surprise folks, but I think the idea of setting yourself a goal of “reading more books” isn’t actually a great idea, especially if you are setting a number goal that is significantly more than you normally read. In fact, although I do faithfully put in my Goodreads reading goal and follow my own reading challenges, I usually set my goal to be a little less than I read last year, and I often add additional list challenges later in the year only when I realize I have already almost completed them. I don’t “challenge” myself, as…
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Exciting Books Coming Out in 2023
While I have made a concerted (and fairly successful) effort to read more back-list books over the past few years, when I look at my book statistics every year, close to 40% of the books I read are published in the current year and the year before (I can’t resist shiny things!). Below are some of the books I am most excited about digging into this upcoming year. Many of these are books by authors whose work I have already read and loved, but only one of them is a sequel, so there is plenty for everyone to enjoy! Realistic Fiction February – I Have Some Questions For You by…
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A Holiday Reading Vacation
There is a strange time of year when the “best of” lists have come out, but we still have some time before we actually start the next year’s reading/watching/listening. It means I can blow my Spotify up with Christmas music, watch some of the TV shows that I haven’t gotten to yet, but I when it comes to reading, I don’t always know what to do with December, especially as there just are not a lot of books being released this time of year. Some years, I use this time to “catch up”, to read the books I had meant to read and to finish books that I have been…
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Miss Marple: 4.50 From Paddington
Hello everyone, Sorry for the late post. I am going on vacation this weekend, forgot my personal computer, and didn’t get this out in time. Instead of a 5 fun things this week, please enjoy reading about my latest Miss Marple book! Miss Marple continues to be the BEST. Today’s installment is great, but I have to say this is the first time when my clear favorite was not the book but one of the TV adaptations (and it was amazing). The book I have today is called 4.50 From Paddington (also sometimes called What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw). The Book Overall, this was really enjoyable. One of the things that…
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Weekend Joys in Books and More: April 16th
Hello Everyone, I would be lying if I said I hadn’t been put through the ringer on a personal level this week, but I go into the weekend recognizing the value of the support that I have! There is something about this time of the year that is always hard, and the added stress of the tail end of the pandemic makes this weekend all the more welcome. I hope your week has been better than mine, and that these fun things help kick start your weekend well. This list also has a bit of a theme actually, and I hope you find it “out of this world”! 1.) Apparently…
