What I Read While I Was Camping: Weekend #3, at Kanaskat Palmer

Alright, already. We get it. Your family loves camping to the point where you're willing to do it four times in one summer. Enough! 

I'll admit, even we get sick of all of the trappings and trimmings of what a camping experience typically entails. The tents, with their confusing, interconnected pole placement. The tarps, which have to be spread out underneath the tent. The camp stove and it's mini propane hookups, the meal planning and its various picky-eater hangups. It's a lot to handle, especially back-to-back-to-BACK across the course of one summer.

Which is why for this particular adventure, we decided to forgo some of that particular baggage, and proceed with as minimal effort and maximum trunk space as possible. 

Oh yeah. I'm talking yurt camping. 

Where we went: Kanaskat Palmer State Park

Kanaskat Palmer State Park is located only about an hour from Tacoma, traveling the route along Highway 18 towards Covington and Enumclaw. It's not too far of a distance during the less crowded times of day - for instance, about a half an hour - but when things get a little stuffier, like during rush hour, the drive shakes out more towards about fifty to sixty minutes. 

The park itself is pretty far out from much by way of civilization. Sure, there's about a fifteen minute drive towards Four Corners Plaza in Covington - with a much-recommended assortment of restaurants, including a Farelli's Pizza - but the park is only located past a few sparse ranch-style houses. Most importantly of all: this is the first camping trip we've gone on so far this year which has yielded absolute zero cell reception... we're talking no 5G, no bars, no nothing. 

Which is a fair trade off for what you get: spacious, well-shaded campsites, decent coverage from the road, and a selection of well-constructed, well-maintained yurts, as well as regular campsites. 

I truly can't tell you enough about the yurts... they each come complete with a bunk bed (twin on top, double on bottom), and a futon that easily collapses out into another double bed, sleeping a total of five guests. They also have their own radiant heaters, ready for your use, overhead lighting by way of electrical outputs as well as a skylight, and a series of outlets to charge your electronic devices on. Again, the phone coverage isn't going to leave you much to do with your smartphone, but as a big fan of podcasts and picture taking, I definitely got my use out of them. While my brother and I conspired to spend at least an hour watching The Vampire Diaries on his tablet, we never got around to it... but it was nice to know that the option was there.

So if glamping's your game, this is certainly the campsite for you! 

What I packed: 

I've got a confession to make: remember how in my last two installments, I kept talking about how I was going to eventually read Emperor Mage? I decided what I really wanted to do, was spend time with it at home... and then proceeded to not bother picking up ANY BOOKS AT ALL for two weeks straight. Seriously, the last book I read was Disability Visability, which I talked about in my last installment! I know, I know... I'm pathetic (and remember when I said that I wanted to read TEN books this month? Puh-lease). 

So, I decided to put that book away altogether, and focus in on something different. More specifically, I mean other boxes on my Summer Book Bingo sheet: "Essays," "Cli-Fi," and "AAPI Author," more specifically. 

I Miss You When I Blink: Essays, Mary Laura Philpott

The Water Knife, Paolo Bacigalupi (on Kindle) 

The Ghost Bride, Yangsze Choo 

What I actually ended up reading: 

I spent the better part of a day working through The Water Knife. 

So, not only were we taking it easy glamping, but as it turns out, my parents were planning on having an even easier time of it: after arriving Friday evening, they bailed early Saturday morning to go home and shower. It was for a good cause - two events, both a wedding reception, and a memorial service - and they arrived back shortly before dinner on Saturday... which left me plenty of time to read through The Water Knife that afternoon. 

It's definitely not a new favorite genre, or style of writing, and it inspired some pretty tense campfire talk with other members of the family about certain habits and tropes of male writers in Science Fiction I find morally repugnant. But even with the difficult subject matter, difficult conversation, and honestly, me just banging my head against a wall trying to simply make it through to the end,  I ended up clocking in with more than enough time for lunch, an hour-long river walk, and a few rounds of crossword puzzles with my brother. Which, after this particular novel, was sorely needed. 

I got about a third of the way into I Miss You When I Blink.

Which is pretty impressive, when you consider that I only spent a little over an hour working my way into it, on Saturday night while making best use of our yurt's overhead lighting. 

Easy to get into, conversational, and friendly, this book is so funny and cleverly written that I probably would have managed to get even further into it, had I not been pausing quite so often to read a certain selection or paragraph for my brother. 

It's enjoyable, and engaging, and I know for certain that I could have finished it in even half the amount of time that The Water Knife took, had I used it. Instead, we decided that on Sunday morning - with a checkout time of 11am - to enjoy some oatmeal and conversation, practice some Words of Affirmation, and roll on out of there, in the hopes of getting unpacked and showered before noon. 

Trip Highlights: 

I think the major draw for Kanaskat Palmer - as a State Park - is absolutely its access to a gorgeous water system; more specifically, a series of various rapids systems through which you can sail a kayak, raft, or more. Unfortunately, this summer's heat snap has made things a little more difficult for anyone who enjoys the rivers and lakes of Washington, as the water levels have gotten more shallow. 

In truth, we didn't see anyone making use of any kind of watercraft, but they found plenty of other ways to enjoy it: fishing, sunbathing, and splashing were all frequent activities by families we spotted along the water as we took a river walk trail past some of the public areas for day use. 

 Hands down, one of my favorite takeaways from this camping trip, was playing a hotly competitive game of Trivial Pursuit, well until after it got dark.

What I'll finish off before the last trip: 

I'm absolutely stoked that I finished a square I was dreading quite as much as Climate Fiction, and am excited to quickly put that particular read out of my mind. 

Also, I'm really enjoying making my way through I Miss You When I Blink, so when I get a free afternoon, I'm really just planning on queueing up some ambient pop music, pouring some cold rose in a glass, and taking some time to read. 

Of course, eventually, I'm eventually going to make my way through Emperor Mage. Hopefully sooner rather than later, right? 

Have you gone camping yet so far this summer? Where are your favorite places to go? Let me know, in the comments below!

What I Read While I Was Camping: Weekend #2, at Deception Pass

So, quick query for you: when I mentioned that I was going camping two weekends in a row, did you believe me? Well, here I am, back in Tacoma and all the better for half-an-hour's worth of scrubbing off dirt and grime in the shower, following the promised three days spent out in the middle of the forest in a campground in North Whidbey. 

While we originally were planning on making it a four-day trip, we made the impulsive decision on Sunday, July 4th, that we might as well be home for Independence Day: at least that way, I wouldn't have to worry about my poor cat being spooked by all the fireworks! Granted, we made this decision at like 4 o'clock in the afternoon, so it's not like we were deprived of a beautiful, full day of hanging out in nature... and of course, getting another book in. 

Here's where we went, what we did, and how much I managed to read along the way! 

Where we went: Deception Pass State Park

Located on the northern half of Whidbey Island, WA, Deception Pass State Park is easily accessible by bridge, which means that despite my best attempts, I was once again deprived of a summer day ferry ride. Boo! 

But while the island itself is fairly easy to find, the state park itself was a little more difficult. Recommendation: follow your Google maps directions to the best of your ability, but once you start getting closer, keep your eyes peeled for some of the brown signs that designate the natural area. Your final turnout will be thanks to a nondescript brown street sign, at a random busy intersection. Make sure you don't miss it... and furthermore, make sure you're not trying to find your campground at night! 

This state park is equipped with towering old growth trees, several sprawling beach areas, a rentable ampitheater area, and great views of the waters around Whidbey. The campsites we stayed at were great, with a lot of room and tree cover, but not all of them are built the same way, so make sure you do a little Internet (or in-person) reconnaissance before you reserve your spot! 

Across the Fourth of July weekend there were a LOT of families present, with a lot of rambunctious kiddos, and a lot of noisy dogs. If you're looking for a quiet, tucked away campground, this probably isn't the fit for you, but if you're looking for a fun environment to take the family, it's a good match!  

What I packed:

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

Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America, R. Eric Thomas

Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the Twentieth Century, ed. Alice Wong 

You might recognize Emperor Mage from my camping list last weekend. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to read it over the course of the week, like I had originally intended, so I packed it along for the ride again this time! Here for It and Disability Visibility are - as you could have probably guessed - two more titles I plan on using to fulfill some squares on the Seattle Public Library Summer Book Bingo ("Black Joy" and "Activism / Social Justice," respectively), and I was absolutely in the mood for some memoir action, so those made the journey too. 

What I actually ended up reading:

I completely finished Here for It, by R. Eric Thomas, in less than 24 hours!

 It was only about 10pm on Friday night, and my parents were ready to go to bed. Thanks to the debilitating heat wave that closed out June, and what we were told by the rangers was a regional shortage of firehouse workers, there's a full burn ban in effect on state park lands through September, so any hopes we had of s'mores and campfire stories was absolutely shot; plus, with the relatively cold nights out there next to the water, they were looking to head to bed early to escape the cold. But for someone whose brain is hardwired to get tired sometime after or around 2am, that wasn't going to be in the cards for me. Instead, I decided to do a little bit of reading, in the hopes that my horizontal body position and limited access to my phone would trigger the insomnia-ravaged parts of my brain to say it was sleepy-time mode. 

Did it work? Absolutely not. I am a notoriously poor sleeper on camping trips, and for all my efforts, I received what I realized after the fact was an intense 3:30am panic attack in my sleeping bag, instead. But at least I got about four chapters into my book! 

I finished it all the next day, shortly after lunch, and in spite of the fact that one of my younger siblings drove in to join us for a day of hiking, beach walks, and camping hummus. 

I was able to tackle Disability Visibility, by Alice Wong, in about two sittings. 

Because Saturday had been such a successful day of reading for me, I was excited to jump into my next book right away. But, I ultimately decided to save the rest of the day for hanging out with my sister and enjoying a little bit of family time, especially when it came to spending some time by the water. 

So, Sunday dawned bright and early - because, again, I did not sleep, and the sun woke me up at my usually ungodly hours of 7am - and I got to reading as soon as my brain had decided to boot itself up again. 

What I didn't realize when packing these two books, was that I had inadvertently chosen two different, difficult kinds of personal testimony: Here for It details Thomas' personal journeys of being black in white spaces, and being gay in religious spaces, while Disability Visibility is a collection of firsthand accounts of various forms of abledness, and the ways they intersect with personal reflections on heteronormativity, cisgenderness, race, politics, and more. 

While both were engaging for different reasons, I tore through Disability Visbility with fairly singular-minded focus. With only a short break in the middle for a hike around the campgrounds, scouting out other enviable campsites with my mom, I quickly returned for the finish. In total, I read this in about two sittings. 

Trip Highlights:

There's never going to be a point in my life where my primary direction doesn't point towards the dinner table, and this trip had some of my favorites: hummus plates have rapidly become a part of my family's camping staples - because of their low amount of cooking time and exceptionally delicious payoff - and while we didn't take a lot of time for patriotic reflections during the weekend (because we banned our mom from packing a surplus of American flags with which to ring the campsites) I did make some Rice Krispies treats with colorful sprinkles on top. 

Something else to note: the campgrounds for this state park are absolutely crawling with various kinds of wildlife. During our stay we saw repeat instances of robins and crows, chipmunks, and as you can see in the picture below, plenty of rabbits! They were relatively avoidable campground buddies, and didn't cause much commotion around the tents, but it might be worth noting to cover up food that you have on the table, lest some particularly adventurous birds seek some sustenance of their own. 

Hands down one of the funniest animal interactions I had during this trip, involved a very unusual noise: while awake around 5am during one of the mornings on our trip - again, I am not a good sleeper - I heard what I thought was a large pig grunting. I couldn't believe that there would just be wild hogs venturing through an area that's as well-populated as Whidbey Island, state park or not, so I shot up in my sleeping bag and immediately zipped down the window. I couldn't see anything! But I knew what I had heard... so in the light of morning, after breakfast, I decided to do a little internet sleuthing, and found out that apparently, the Brandt's Cormorant - which are native to waterways and islands around the PNW - has a unique birdcall that sounds like an oinking pig! Sure enough, while down at the water around sunset that day, we saw a huge group of them clustered together around a partially-submerged rock a little ways out from shore. Not quite as fun to look at as baby rabbits - again, look at the tiny thing! - but still a very cool animal interaction. 

 Another camping trip, another state park... another beachfront sunset! This one was about as well-attended as Camano Island's, but had the distinct benefit of having a substantial amount more coastline from which to take in the view. My favorite places to watch weren't even along the rocky-sand coastline - the position most of the other observers took - but actually from some of the rocky cliffside trails afforded by the park. 

This was actually a fairly routine activity during our first camping trip, as well, but was much more often put into practice during our time on Deception Pass: what do you do when you deprive a lot of trivia-loving nerds a television and internet access across a weekend of camping? Get massively competitive about tackling crosswords. Handwriting be damned, my brother and I battled over who would serve as scribe during morning, afternoon, and bedtime bouts of crossword clues, and overall the experience has done perfectly well to put us back into practice after about a year of not doing any crosswords at all. 

What I'll finish off before the next trip:

I'm so happy that for the second weekend in a row, I was able to cross two more books off of my Summer Bingo sheet! After a less-than-auspicious start in June, I was glad to check off two titles before the fifth of the month... especially because - don't tell anyone - but I'm actually trying to see if I can get through TEN titles total in July. I know it sounds like a crazy attempt, but if I manage to keep up my track record for the next couple of weeks, with two books a week, I might just get it done, or at the very least, put myself in a decent position for August. 

Thankfully for my personal sanity and sleeping habits, we've got a bye-week from camping for next weekend, which I'm planning on using to spend time NOT confined to a tent with my parents and younger brother in the middle of nowhere. Instead, I'll try to do my best to not only tackle the much put-off Emperor Mage, but also tackle the fourth book in its series, Realm of the Gods, as well! 

That way, maybe I'll be able to pack a Romance or Fantasy or two for my next bout of camping, just to keep myself on a good schedule. After all, I'll need something engrossing to read during all that time I'm not sleeping. 

Any camping trips planned for your summer vacation? What have you been reading so far this summer? Let me know, in the comments below!

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!

Everyone Loves a Before and After: Spring Cleaning My Bookish Spaces

My room is a mess; there's no way around it. Ever since I moved home after college, I've made best use of the amplitude of space I've been afforded here, in my childhood home, by absolutely destroying it. 

There's books stacked pretty much everywhere. Clothes to donate haphazardly collected underneath coffee tables, stacks of candy piled on top of the extra cake stands sitting in the middle of my room, and piles and piles of fabric ready for various sewing and embroidery projects quite literally stuffed underneath chairs like I've got something to hide (What I'm actually hiding: the fact that I haven't actually worked on a sewing or embroidery project since before Covid hit). 

More annoyingly, I have junk collected in front of my bookcases. I have four total sets of bookshelves where I keep various kinds of books, and every single one of them comes complete with some kind of impediment to obscure half of the titles from closer inspection. 

There's absolutely nothing right about this, at all. 

So, thanks to the inspiration given by an inundation of Spring Cleaning videos and time lapses on Instagram and YouTube this month, I've got the opportunity to add my own tidying up to the mix. And because I've got a lot of plans for this summer - including Sewing, Reading, and the amplitude of toilet paper rolls and seed packets stacked up haphazardly on the crowded end of my desk - I've finally found the motivation to get it all assembled into some semblance of organized. 

At least this way, I'll maybe have enough room to stop double-stacking all of my bookshelves. 

There are two areas in particular I'm hoping to organize:

#1. The area in front of my TBR, Mystery, and Middle Grade bookshelves. To Do:

• Clean out everything that's been piled there to donate, and, you know. Donate it. 
• Move chair a little ways forward, so you can actually access all of the bookshelves more easily.
• Find a better place for all the wrapping paper and gift stuff, which really doesn't need to be next to your bed, and / or bookcases. Maybe nearer your desk? 
• Amend the lighting situation so it works a little better, maybe by adding an extra lamp? That way, you also might not look like the palest girl in the world on FaceTimes / Zoom meetings. 
• Clean off the coffee table next to your chair so you can actually use it. 
• Figure out where to put the Big Box of Paranormal Romances so it's not just sitting in the way. I don't mind it being out in the open - I've got nothing to hide! - but at least make sure you don't have to worry about shredding part of your ankle on the rough cardboard in the mornings when you open your windows.

#2. The area in front of my other Bookshelves, as well as the Pile of Junk behind my chair, and Further Mess gathered on my desk. To Do: 

• Where are you going to put the sewing stuff??? 
• Clean off the top of the desk so you have more space, so you feel like you can actually work on it again. 
• Consolidate and reorganize all crafting supplies, so as to be better contained in one space. Also, do you really need to keep ALL of the acrylic paint in your room?
• Move all postage / cards / postcards into one condensed location, as if this will actually compel you to follow your gut and starting sending out regular letters to your friends, like you've been meaning to do for the past year in Quarantine
• Honestly, just clear out area underneath the desk, while you're at it. There's a lot of Scrapbooking stuff under there. 
• Move more of the board games into the garage so you don't feel like you're courting death whilst standing in front of your shelves.
• Move chair and coffee table so you can better access the books on the lower shelves of the white bookcase, which will hopefully also be easier to look at now all of the Junk will be moved.

And no matter what I accomplish in both areas, there's one last thing I'm going to have to do to designate each side as clean: go through the titles I have collected there, and see whether there are any I'm interested in donating. 

I'm pretty good with that last bit in regards to my TBR shelves, which I comb through regularly. Thanks to various personal habits - like a regular round of speed-dating my shelves about once a month or two, which I wrote about most recently here and here - I've got some practice un-hauling books I haven't read, that I can still recognize aren't for me. It's getting rid of past reads that I usually have more of a problem with.

But I have to. The situation, as it stands, is untenable: I have four tall bookshelves all around my room, but also no available space to stick new reads. I can read down my TBR shelves, for sure - whether I'm very good at that, is a completely different question - but that won't mean anything if there's no room nearby for me to put them. 

And as a general side note: before you ask why I have so many armchairs and coffee tables all collected in my room, please know that between the long coffee table, two end tables, long couch and two armchairs, they all come courtesy of my Grandma Loretta, who passed in 2015. The original idea was that they'd all simply hang out in there until we could find some additional space to store them - our storage unit is crammed full of holiday decor, and the garage is similarly stuffed - but no one's really moved out and claimed them. (Plus, I now feel very protective of them, and have been known to yell at siblings for mistreating the upholstery / putting shoes on pillows, so no one else has really proved themselves worth of them, either.) 

AFTERMATH

Three weeks, it took me. Three weeks. I've been writing this blogpost since the 6th, and now look at what day it is. Look at how much time has passed. I'd be positively aggravated with myself, if the room didn't look so darn good! 

It's honestly incredible how much more room it feels like I have in here now. Granted, I did move a ton out - Arts and Crafts supplies are now solidly collected downstairs in the laundry room, and all that I keep near my desk are Calligraphy, Scrapbooking, and Journaling stuff - plus I also donated a total of two and a half grocery bags of books, an additional three of which are waiting to make their way towards worthwhile homes, but still. It's positively cavernous in here. 

The desk area is, by far, the most inviting part of it all. Its insane to have this long of a desk, and feel like you're not able to utilize all of it. I also can now access the outlet in the wall, so that should it be necessary, I could actually do something as radical as - gasp! - charge my laptop over here. Can you imagine?

The Sewing Stuff has all been moved, with my sewing machine, to a space tucked in next to my hanging closet. Is it still a lot? Sure. But I found and cleaned off an old plastic set of drawers we had sitting in the garage, and it all fits in there! Well, most of it. There are still a few bags filled with miscellaneous detritus piled up alongside. That's where the Gift Wrap has managed to find a home, too. 

(A brief note: my younger sibling boldly exclaimed, when she saw this new set-up, "You didn't clean, you just moved the mess around!" And while it's true that my Sewing and Gift Wrap leaves... a little to be desired, it's a far, far improvement from what this all looked like before I got started. I've even got the pictures to prove it!) 

On the other side of the room, the sitting area near the window is a much more relaxing place to be, as well. I can easily access all of the books, there's no piles and piles of miscellaneous material cluttering the areas underneath the coffee table, and with the addition of a "new" lamp - rescued from disuse in my parent's room, and given a brand new lampshade to wear - it's honestly much easier to actually read. 

Granted, there is still a little bit of a pile-up near the chair, though nowhere near where it used to be. The Barnes and Noble bag simply holds the contents of tee shirts and sweatshirts ready to be donated back to my sorority, for which I am an alumnae advisor, come the Fall. I'm more than willing to hang onto them for a little while longer, when I know that they'll be headed for such a worthy home. 

And so, my room is finally clean! Ish. Definitely ish, because there's still a ton of junk piled up on my dresser, and I haven't dusted anything - least of all, all these blinds - in, like, over a year. 

But still! I can use all of my bookshelves again, my armchair is ready for reading, and my desk, for writing. I couldn't be more pleased to go into the summer with a personal space ready for holing up in, shutting out the sunlight, and remaining my well-sheltered, hermit crab self. 

Have you made any changes to your space this Spring? What areas of your own have you made into a sort of book nook? Let me know, in the comments below!

Top Ten Tuesday: My Ten(-ish) Most Recent Reads

                    "Top Ten Tuesday" is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl!

April was actually, for me, a pretty exceptional reading month. The entirety of Spring usually is, as the sunny days start pulling me out of a winter-long reading slump, but these past few weeks proved especially beneficial. In total, I started about ten books, DNFing two of them, and still being in the process of reading two more. Then, in the last 24 hours, I tacked on another title to the list. 

That's not half bad, for someone who managed to finish all of one book back in February! (My success is no doubt thanks to the reading hacks from my Lawful Good and Chaotic Neutral blogposts this past month, too.) 

So, here's a sentence or two each about what I managed to read in the month of April... plus one bonus installment from May that I managed to read in less than a day, because yes, it was, in fact, that great. 

cover to cover

1. Rogue Protocol (Murderbot #3), Martha Wells

Murderbot continues to track down answers to his questions by following the classic "explore the abandoned space station" adventurer's track.

2. Exit Strategy (Murderbot #4), Martha Wells

Murderbot, now with answers, continues to track down his friends and rescue the humans from certain danger... again. 

3. 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice Inside My Head..., Dan Harris (audiobook)

Network news anchor kicks a drug habit and chronic anxiety by getting into meditation; spends the rest of the memoir trying to make Buddhist practices more palatable for Americans. 

4. Kitchen Counter Cooking School, Kathleen Flinn 

Perfect Food Memoir is perfect: when a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef decides to use her forces for good, to train a batch of novice chefs to make their kitchen a healthier, happier place. 

5. Wolf-Speaker (Immortals #2), Tamora Pierce 

Perfect YA Fantasy series is perfect: Daine begins to come into her own powers, while protecting the animals of a region from an environmental threat from the people who rule there. 

last month's sole completed romance read

6. Touch the Dark (Cassie Palmer#1), Karen Chance

The first in a now-twelve-plus installment Paranormal Romance franchise, a Chosen One is tasked with dealing with a bunch of absurdly horny vampires, an insurrection from Rasputin, and entirely too much info-dumping. 

(Read more of my thoughts on this novel and more, by checking out my most recent post here!) 

DNFs

7. My Fair Succubi (Succubi Diaries #3), Jill Myles (20.5%)

A Jessica-Rabbit-style newly-formed Succubus contends with the patriarchy, misogynistic angels, some missing halos, and a love triangle. (I wouldn't know what else happens, because I DNF'd.)

8. Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope, Mark Manson (audiobook, 26%)

Unconventional self-help guru is unable to help much of anyone figure out the sociological implications of Hope, because he's clearly got a lot going on himself. (I wouldn't know what else happens, because I DNF'd). 

still in the process

9. Best Food Writing 2017, ed. Holly Hughes

A collection of articles, introductions, and other similarly snack-sized pieces into a portable reader of some of the best Food Writing from 2017. But you could probably tell that from the title. 

10. King of Scars (King of Scars #1), Leigh Bardugo

Continuing on in the successful - and now Netflix-worthy! - Grishaverse, Prince Nikolai has some monster-adjacent stuff to take care of, with Zoya and Nina coming along for the ride. 

extra eleventh installment because I accidentally read a novel in the last 24 hours oops

11. Cemetery Boys, Aiden Thomas

Everything you've heard about this much-hyped YA Urban Fantasy book is correct. I had so much fun reading about East LA brujx, a ghostly teenage prankster, and a plot to unmask a murderer, that I was able to complete this read in less time than it usually takes me to write a blogpost! 

What's in your Top Ten today? Let me know, in the comments below!