What I Read While I Was Camping: Weekend #1, at Camano Island

I, like any other PNW-born-and-bred human being, love a good camping getaway. And why wouldn't I? I'm also a big fan of kombucha, family members with REI memberships, and very large trees.

But even so, when my mom announced to the family early last Fall that her marathon of early-morning campsite procurements had yielded not one or two, but FOUR family reservations planned across the course of Summer 2021, I have to admit... I felt a little intimidated. 

Until I remembered, of course, that my all-time favorite summer past time - just ahead  of Camping - is Reading as Many Books as Possible. That's when I realized that this was actually an opportunity for a very unique blog series. 

So while the world is opening up again in a joyous middle-finger at the (hopefully, blessedly) retreating back of a global pandemic, I figured I'd keep you up to date on where I'm going, and what I'm reading while going there, especially if said places I'm going are the kinds of places with a fire to roast mallows and a home with several (years-old, broken) poles holding up its duct-taped tarp walls. 

And the first trip I took, took place just this past weekend. 

Where we went: Camano Island State Park

The view of the water, just across a road from our campsite. Not only did this view provide for small moments of serenity throughout the weekend, but it also was the perfect place to view the Strawberry Moon!

Camano Island is a little North of Seattle, and around a two-and-a-half hour drive from Tacoma. Coming home was even easier, at two hours, and that's including the I-5 closure that had us pivoting to take 405 instead. Contrary to what you might think, this excursion doesn't require a ferry ride, as you can easily drive the full distance.

The Island has plenty of things to do, including ziplining, axe throwing, and a highly-regarded brewery. A local cafe also serves what we were told were some of the best cinnamon rolls in the whole state of Washington. The campgrounds themselves, though, not only feature densely-packed trees and views of the water, but also a day-use area with plenty of space to park and spread out along the rocky beach for some wading. 

Recommendations: stay away from the too-steep, too-thin trails that run down to the water, and just take your car... not only will you be sparing yourself a potential twisted ankle, but you're also going to want to be able to haul some kind of awning, a few camp chairs, a cooler, and whatever water accessories you need. 

Unfortunately, because this weekend saw record highs throughout Washington, we didn't get all that much done beyond the campgrounds: sitting in the shade and spending time at the beach made for the perfect ways to beat the heat! 

What I packed:

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce #1), Alan Bradley

Emperor Mage (The Immortals/ Daine #3), Tamora Pierce

Dangerous Tides (Drake Sisters #4), Christine Feehan 

All three of these books were chosen with a purpose: two are specifically to fill spots in my Book Bingo - "Mystery / Crime" and "One of Two Books in a Series," the first two respectively - and the Romance is one of many from my big box of Paranormal bad boys. I figured that after a bit of a lagged start, I should actually pay a little more attention to all those plans I made back in May, and try to get some of those to-do list items checked off! 

What I actually ended up reading:

I actually finished Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley

Okay, so to be clear, I've attempted to start this read at least three separate times sometime in the last year. I liked the writing style, I liked the characters, I'd even liked how directly it jumped right into the conflict. And yet, it kept getting shunted aside in favor of other novels that managed to hold my attention just a bit more completely, until as a result of three separate attempts, I'd only managed to make it to about page 50. 

And then, wouldn't you know it? After taking it on this camping trip, bound and determined to give it a fair shake for real, I finished it all in just about one sitting. It was a good time, and an immersive read, that reminded me a lot of other kinds of Mystery novels I've enjoyed in the past.

I'm going to be updating things with a full-length review later on, but for now, I'll say I absolutely enjoyed this one, and my only detractions come from something small and dumb and unnecessary that really yanked me out of the story somewhere in the middle. Just a small anecdote shared by one of the characters, which could have easily been omitted or swapped for something different, that really just set off alarm bells for me in a moment. 

But like I said, more on that later. 

I got approximately halfway through Dangerous Tides, by Christine Feehan. 

Out of all of the books in my Paranormal Romance box, this one came out as almost absurdly daunting, for a pretty singular reason: a mass-market paperback with about 360 pages in it isn't all that rough from jump... unless, of course, the font being used is among the smallest I've ever seen. I even checked my paperback of Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora, and I think the fonts between the two are pretty on par. Especially because some of the Romances I've read most recently were pretty short, the denseness of this one kind of sent me for a loop.

I think if I had chosen a Romance that was a little shorter, I absolutely could have finished it this weekend: I had a couple of hours on a beach that were only spent reading, and with a more simple novel, I would 100% have made it through. That being said, the parts that I did read, I 100% enjoyed, and I've been making pretty good time reading it back at home, too. 

In terms of how the actual novel is doing, I think this is the first series from the box so far, for which I have looked up other titles in the series with the intent to purchase. Maybe once I'm done with the box, I will... I'm really enjoying reading about the Drake sisters, and would love to peruse more of their stories later on. Even if I think the two main characters in this one are pretty insufferable. 

Trip Highlights:

Honestly, getting a book and a half under my belt before the tail end of June was probably the highlight for me. I essentially was able to finish Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie in the first morning we spent at the campsite, and had I not been in such a hurry to get home, I have no doubt that I might have been able to tackle the rest of Dangerous Tides, as well! 

I love family reading time, and especially due to the ever-present heat, some of my favorite bits of this camping adventure came from just sitting around the campsite with my family, everyone with a different book in hand, quietly spending time together while wrapped up in our own little worlds. 

But with the sun and great company, there were plenty of options to have a great time on this trip, despite the heat and nearly ever-present mosquitos.

Poke fun all you want, but our family's first-night runs to Subway are some of my favorite small moments of camping. After being stuck in Seattle traffic for the drive up, simply being able to get to the campsite, take out the food, and eat before we even unpacked anything was a total win. 

Granted, some fam members needed to take a break halfway through to apply some bug spray - the mosquitoes were really digging on the humid, hot atmosphere - and I definitely wolfed down my sandwich in approximately five minutes, but it's an easy, small way to start off a camping adventure: eating at a table, all together. 

Nothing feels more like quintessential camping than breaking out a game to play with siblings, especially when accompanied by an array of snacks.

The four of us kids snuck away on our second night there, to catch the sunset at the rocky beach we'd spent a couple of hours at earlier that day. Clearly, other people had the same idea: the shore was lined with contented spectators, most of whom had left by the time the sun had made its final splash below the horizon of water.

What I'll finish off before our next camping trip:

Couldn't be more pleased about getting through Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, and I'm soaring through the rest of Dangerous Tides within the next day or so, if I have anything to say about it... but that still leaves Tamora Pierce's Emperor Mage, which I'm also hoping to finish off before some of the fam embarks on our next camping trip this Friday! If not, it will also be making its way along with me, as well as a couple of more titles, in order to keep checking those boxes off of my Book Bingo and Romance reading challenge. I've been gunning for some really solid nonfiction lately, so maybe a couple of selections from that arena? Granted, I had three library books come in this past week alone, so maybe a bit of a Kindle workout is in order... Whatever I end up reading, I know that it will be worth it just to have some time by the water, in the woods, and in the myriad of other beautiful places tucked throughout my home state. 

Have you been able to do any traveling this June? Do you enjoy camping? What sort of reads have you been starting your summer with? Let me know, in the comments below!

2021 Summer TBR Planning: Of Beach Reads and Bingoes, and Hopefully, Another Batch of Paranormal Romance

If you're currently living in Western Washington, like me, you might also be feeling like Summer came on a bit quickly: we had about two weeks straight of nothing but grey skies and the occasional deluge of rain, and highs in the mid-60s throughout the first couple of weeks of June. Then, bam! It's been nothing but sunny since then. It's supposed to be 97 degrees sometime over the weekend. And it's STILL only June. 

Nothing like Mother Nature to keep you on your toes. 

In all honesty, I didn't even realize that the "official" start of Summer had passed, until this past Monday morning. (I use "official" with the quotation marks, because everyone knows that Summer's true designated beginning is the second your youngest sibling makes it out of the building on the last day of school... and yes, this rule still holds true when your youngest is the only one left IN school, and is a college sophomore in standing.) It had just jumped up on me, I guess!

Now, there's nothing ahead of me but sunny skies, homemade Fudgesicles, and not one, but two new seasons of Bachelor franchise content. Will all passengers please turn off your brain and stow it away safely in the upright position; if you don't make it into July without at least one unfortunate tan and a new favorite alcoholic beverage under your belt, then you've been too slow on the entrance. You're going to have to gain at least four more gloat-y Instagram captions and a strange situationship with the only other age-appropriate option regularly attending your neighborhood pool to make up for that kind of lag. 

Thankfully, my four-years-old-and-falling-apart Birkenstocks have already managed to singe their presence into the tops of my feet, and I've discovered that vodka sodas are only more delicious when you pour pineapple juice and a double of homemade jalapeno-infused Absolut into them, so I've got my floaties on and am ready to dive in, feet first. 

Which means that it's time for yet another Seattle Public Library Summer Book Bingo! 

Here are just a few selections on the list I'm excited to get into, as well as a few more that I'm happy to shove in by whatever means necessary: 

It was on the list!!

Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson (Coming of Age) 

Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking, Toni Tipton-Martin (BIPOC Food Writing)

Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion, Jia Tolentino (Asian American or Pacific Islander Author)

Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America, Essays, R. Eric Thomas (Black Joy)

I Miss You When I Blink: Essays, Mary Laura Philpott (Collection of Essays or Poetry)

Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World #1), Rebecca Roanhorse (QTBIPOC)

The City of Brass (The Daevabad Trilogy #1), S. A. Chakraborty (Speculative Fiction)

Proud: My Fight for an Unlikely American Dream, Ibtihaj Muhammad (Sports)

Emperor Mage and The Realms of the Gods (The Immortals #3 and #4, respectively), Tamora Pierce (Two Books in a Series)

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce #1), Alan Bradley (Mystery or Crime)

I'll do what I want

There are plenty of ambiguous categories listed on this year's bingo sheet, too... ones I can exploit to fit whatever my mood reader-based whims compel me to pursue. 

For instance, "On Your Shelf" only requires the idea of having owned or been interested in a book beforehand - and let's be real, I've got plenty of those - while "Beach Read" involves the vague connotation of having at some point been consumed waterside. "Made You Laugh" is also cheerfully ambivalent to circumstance, while dual categories of "Recommended by Library Staff" and "Recommended by a Friend" are completely innocuous: to be clear, I think library staff would delighted at me reading regardless, no matter what I picked up, while shouldn't our friends, at their core, want us to be happy? Therefore, I feel like either of those categories carry with them few limitations. 

Oh, wait, and I forgot "Recommended by a Local Bookseller." But being that I buy so many books based on their excellent recommendations already, who's to say which of my past purchases was done at their behest? 

Regardless, here are a myriad and miscellaneous collection of books that aren't necessarily strictly tied to one category in particular, but which I am looking forward to shoving in haphazardly at my own heart's desire. 

At LEAST three or four more novels from my Big Box o' Paranormal Romance

The Ghost Bride, Yangsze Choo

The Nest: A Novel, Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, Stuart Turton

Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquivel

Whiskey When We're Dry, John Larson

An Agatha Christie / Aaron Elkin / etc. or two... you know, vacation mysteries! 

And, of course, I'm sure that there are plenty of whims that are going to strike me broadside at various points throughout the summer. The only requirement for those is a degree of flexibility and willingness to pursue the unexpected! 

But wait! There's more...

That all being said, there are a few spaces beyond those already attached to specific titles and those who could be easily filled in by a myriad of answers, so if anyone has any recent reads they're dying to recommend in these categories, lemme at 'em! 

I still have to pick out some titles for: 

• Small Press
• Activism or Social Justice (though I do have holds on both Mikki Kendall's Hood Feminism and Alice Wong's Disability Visibility at the local library!) 
• Cli-fi or Environmental Nonfiction (and same for Paolo Bacigalupi's The Water Knife or Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower!) 
• SAL Speaker (though leaning towards Ursula K. LeGuin's Left Hand of Darkness, Luvvie Ajayi Jones' Professional Troublemaker, or Circe, by Madeline Miller!)
• Olympic Host City 

What's on your TBR for this Summer? Are you participating in the 2021 Seattle Public Library Book Bingo? Let me know, in the comments below!