Bookquarium

Omg SO MANY THINGS.     This is gonna be my catch-up post before I kick my own fluke into high gear and conquer my To Be Read List.    I have a HUGE pile of books I want to conquer this year, and I've read a couple already, but the true challenge lies ahead of me.  So, first off, I wanna say, reading has not come easily to me lately. I have depression and anxiety, which I know sounds weird for a whale shark, but humans aren't the only ones with problems.  I started the year by reading this awesome book called Otherwood by Pete Hautman.  This book was one sitting on a table at work for free. I love free books, don't you? As always, I love middle-grade fiction, which is a huge age range, but honestly, children are so varied in development, I think books like this are really special. This story is about two children linked by their families past, but also separated because of it. Literally, their dimensions split away from each other...

After completing my first 24in48 weekend, I am here to tell you – I super duper enjoyed it, folks.  I hosted this time, and managed to get my house clean-ish (as opposed to “wtf happened in here?” which it normally is – Elley was very nice about it being messy.) It being the two of us for the most part, and since it was well below zero, we decided to skip swimming at the YMCA and instead just do more reading. I read a TON. More than I did at last Dewey’s Readathon, I think. I liked this format a lot better two. Two days to read, but it’s more spread out and therefore more relaxed. (I don’t feel guilty if I take a few hours to go out to eat, or you know, sleep.) Plus they had challenges for Instagram and Twitter every couple of hours, which I enjoyed participating in. But I know, I know, get to them book reviews, girl. What did I read? No Country for Old Gnomes by Delilah S Dawson and Kevin Hearne Book two in the “Tales of Pell” series, this featured different charac...

The time is nearly upon us! The time for the 24in48 readathon challenge, that is! This week has been rather crazy (hell, this MONTH has been rather crazy) so I haven't had time to do the appropriate planning, or gathering my excitement, or any of that.  Instead, the beautiful Elley is going to show up at my house tonight, and we're going to do ALL the cooking. We've got our time scheduled out for reading, sleeping, going to do water aerobics at the Y (you bet your ass I bought a cute new bathing suit for the occasion), and eating all those delicious meals she's gonna teach me how to cook. I have a few books picked out for this weekend. No idea if I'll be able to finish them all, or if I'll, like last time, veer off into a totally different direction and steal Elley's books. The contenders are:                          I know, one measly romance on there. In truth, I will probably read more romances than an...

I LOVE the Netflix show Queer Eye . I never watched Queer Eye for the Straight Guy back in the day but the new show was fantastic. Five guys who are all confident in themselves not only as gay men, but as human beings, teaching other people - not just straight men, but all people and sexual identities) how to be their best selves through the art of food, hair, style, decor, and social suave. Basically I want these guys to be my best friends, and fix my life. As does everyone else who watches the show. So of course when the book fell across my desk at the library, I immediately had to request it. Even more advice on how to be a fabulous bitch from the five most fabulous bitches of them all? YES PLEASE. And I was correct. This book is everything I wanted and more. I want to purchase this book and own it for my home, in part because there are essential style and self care tips, delicious looking recipes, and wonderful pictures of the boys in their natural element.  What will...

I ADORE Jane Austen's stories. The romance! The tension! The period clothing! But here's the thing. I've never actually READ a Jane Austen book before. Sure I've read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which is the original P&P text, with Seth Graham-Greene's graphic zombie goodness sauced over the top of it, but I've never sat down with an original Jane Austen story and read it. I've just watched all the movies obsessively. (And yes, I do prefer Matthew McFayden over Colin Firth. Fight me.) Then ever-clever Elley said hey, why don't we spend 2019 reading all the Austen books, and discussing them over tea in fancy-ass teacups, like the romance-obsessed ladies that we are? That's my 2019 plan, y'all. Read the seven novels of Jane Austen. This month's is Northanger Abbey.   I've seen the fabulous movie, staring Felicity Jones and J.J. Fielding.  Basic premise:  Jane Austen's first novel—published posthumously in 1818—tell...

Hey Everybody!    I've been reading a lot of ghost stories lately, and not just because Halloween is the best holiday.  Ghosts fascinate many of us because they are something that not everybody agrees are real, but they give us chills none the less. Ghosts aren't always scary, and they aren't always something tangible. Ghosts can be the past, a feeling, or an idea. That's what makes me really excited about them, and horror in general.   Here are a few books about ghosts I've been reading.  Ghostlight by Sonia Gensler    This a good book. Here's the synopsis from Goodreads: Avery is looking forward to another summer at Grandma’s farm, at least until her brother says he’s too old for “Kingdom,” the imaginary world they’d spent years creating. Lucky for her, there’s a new kid staying in the cottage down the road: a city boy with a famous dad, Julian’s more than a little full of himself, but he’s also a storyteller like Avery. So when...

I am an extremely unmotivated person. I can be when I want to be, but honestly, I'd much rather be in bed with my cat and a book over almost anything else, so when it comes to stuff like working out, bettering myself, doing all those things people are "supposed" to do over New Years, I have failed every year. (Actually, all the way through junior high and high school, my NYE resolution was "get a boyfriend", and that never worked either.) This year, a very wise person ( coughELLEYcough ) said resolutions are crap because no one ever makes it more than a few weeks anyway, and then you just end up feeling bad about yourself because you failed. Instead, I will be making goals. Things that I hope to achieve over 2019, but won't necessarily beat myself up if I don't get to. Or thing I'd like to improve, but don't plan to dive obsessively into them full force (and then burn out in two weeks) because I know myself, and that's not how I roll. ...