Books I read: February 2016

This was a weird month for reading for me. I had a hard time settling down with words on the page ans spent a lot of time watching The Good Wife and Fuller House and other such nonsense, but I listened to a lot of audiobooks. I have an influx of good books waiting for me on Overdrive that I need to get to, lest I have to wait 10 months to see them again though.

reread:

4. Shiver - Maggie Stiefvater (audio)

5. Linger - Maggie Stiefvater (audio)

6. Forever - Maggie Stiefvater (audio)

7. Sinner - Maggie Stiefvater (audio)

New:

(finished The Goldfinch - audio) BLAH.

 10. Manners & Mutiny - Gail Carriger Oh, cute fun. I love these books.

11. Shattered Past - Lindsay Buroker I feel like my wonderful Lindsay is getting a little formulaic in her "rough but earnest misunderstood male lead falls for the difficult woman and vice versa" thing she's been doing, but I still love her and will still read anything she writes. I just hope she gets back to the magic that kept us reading for 6 books before there was even a kiss. We don't need romance all the time, I swear it.

12. Wolves (Bring the Fire I) - C Gockel OOOOkay. I didn't realize "Loki series" meant Thor and Loki fanfic, and that's not what I signed on for. DNF.

3. 99 Days - Katie Cotugno I did not read the other book, I saw this in Target and thought it looked cute, didn't realize there was more to the story. I thought it mostly stood on its own though, and I liked it.

14. Court of Fives - Kate Elliott (audio) I loved this.

15. Black Wolves - Kate Elliott I'm having the devil of a time getting into this book, which is so strange to me because I have devoured her other books as easy, fun interesting candy. This one is more disjointed and I can't see to follow it. Will hope to finish in March though. I'm hoping to get sucked in late (I stopped to read All the Light bc of Overdrive expiration deadlines)

16. All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr I'm enjoying this but I'm not reading fast enough which is giving me anxiety because I had this on request since MAY 2015. It is beautiful though, I just need to dedicate myself to my craft of reading with more purpose. I'll finish in March.

photo friday

It’s been a busy week between work and home and baseball practice so I’m feeling far behind on life these days. I was invited to a friend’s house Thursday night and I didn’t even realize I didn’t confirm I couldn’t go until 20 minutes after I should have been there and I still haven’t made my apologies and I feel wretched about it (that’s next after I grind this out) (it’s not as bad as all that, it was for an essential oils class/party, but I feel bad about not giving her a firm yes or no, and I did want to see her)

So. Anyhow, here’s a few pictures that make up my week.

lunch with the birthday boy.

birthday cupcakes at the ball field

new bike

birthday time at the local arcade

hide and seek - can you find S's friend?

dress up is still a favorite activities

Francine cleaning my plate.

Okay, it's Florida and it's not snowing but shoot, COLD.

Target Valentines FTW.

What I read: January 2016

I meant to get this up on the first, as I'd like to get these up on every first, but man, life happens. Today was my due date, eight years ago. We went to a Superbowl party. Spencer stayed put.

Here's what I read in January:

 reread:
1. The Raven Boys - Maggie Stiefvater (audio)
2. The Dream Thieves - Maggie Stiefvater (audio)
3. Blue Lily, Lily Blue - Maggie Stiefvater (audio)

new:
1. Soulblade - Lindsay Buroker 
2. Fates and Furies - Lauren Groff (audio)
3. Kitchens of the Great Midwest - J. Ryan Stradal 
4. Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Patterson 
5. Big Little Lies - Liane Moriarty 
6. Six of Crows - Leigh Barduga
7. Simon and the Homo Sapien Agenda - Becky Albertalli
8. Case Histories - Kate Atkinson (expired before I got too interested, but I was a good 80 pages in. I'll try again)
9. The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt (audio) (still listening to in February, 32 hours is a lot of hours)

It was a good month for audiobooks, apparently. Good month. Good books.

Currently...

This week I’m going to do this currently thing from Katy ON the currently day! How about that? It also just so happens that I have half a Friday Five from last week that I never finished and I thought I’d get on this before I let any more time slip through my fingertips. You know how that goes.

Loving

My favorite work lunch currently.

Reading

I’m listening to The Goldfinch by audiobook. I kept putting off reading because everyone told me what a tome it is (it sat from the library on my nightstand for a while last year) and yes, it is 32 hours long, it’s good so far! (I’d tell you how far along I am, but Overdrive just updated and looks completely different. I shall investigate.)

 

I never got through Case Histories before it expired. I finally got more into the story but it never really grabbed me. I have the next Finishing School book awaiting me on the library queue and I downloaded Lindsay Buroker’s newest book so I’ve got plenty of fun books to keep me company. I also downloaded a couple 1.99 books that looked promising last night in a fog of exhaustion when I couldn’t sleep.

Watching

Did I tell you we got rid of cable? We so rarely watch television, we pared down to the basics until baseball starts again. So. I’m not watching anything? I started Making a Murderer last week but I haven’t picked it back up after turning off the tv to do something. My coworker handed over the Bluray of the sixth season of Downton Abbey, so maybe I’ll start that tonight.

Listening to

Besides The Goldfinch, we’ve been listening to a lot of Hamilton. There’s one specific song that I skip for the kids all together, but mostly I hope that they don’t pick up the sex parts and enjoy the rest of it. Spencer likes to read the liner notes though, so I’m sure he knows all the words, including “it’s hard to have intercourse over four sets of corsets”.

Thinking about

Pony baseball started! I am again, team mom, and so I’m currently thinking about how to get new dirt on our field, getting the ants taken care of, ordering pants, what kids weren’t at first practice. I need to write out one of my notoriously long emails to the parents spelling out times and dates and points of note.

Anticipating

I have to be out of town a couple days this week for work, and I’m anticipating that trip. I need to pare down my packing to basically a change of clothes, a toothbrush since it’s one of those small planes. Side eye, right here. I don’t want to go.

Wishing

There were more hours in the day. I’d devote some of the extra to work and some of it to sleep so I could enjoy the current time with my family without something in the back of my mind.

Making Me Happy

I’ve made some late night impulse purchases of Lularoe and Stella and Dot, so those impending packages make me happy.