When Things Go Wrong

I did not anticipate vanishing off the face of the internet for the majority of November. I also did not anticipate the outcome of our election. I’ve had friends become subject to harassment, I’ve had children hesitantly tell me that they are afraid, and I’ve found myself mostly despondent.

The night of the election, when things were looking really bad, I started up a bath and cried. I sat there for a long, long time. The optimist in me was sure that we’d see at least a couple typically red states turn blue to show that they were not going to put up with Donald Trump. I did not expect to see my own state of Minnesota, the only state that was blue during the 1984 Reagan election, a light blue. It was so fucking close. That is horrifying and heartbreaking.

The next couple days I had a lot of difficulties keeping myself from spontaneously crying. I cried at work, I cried at home. But Twitter was getting me amped up. There are so many people there who are also upset and ready to put up a fight. So many people compiling helpful resources and actionable things you can do to help. It was exciting, but I also think I jumped into it too soon. Obviously, we should not ever stop fighting for equality and protecting the environment, and all sorts of other things that are more pressing now than ever. But perhaps I should have given myself more time. A number of days after the election, I had the thought, “It’s good that nobody can really tell I’m of Jewish descent by looking at me.” Let’s read that again. It’s good that nobody can really tell I’m of Jewish descent by looking at me. It stopped me in my tracks. Nobody should ever have to think anything like this in a supposedly free country. We have come too far.

After that, I could hardly get myself to do anything. And, to be honest, I’m still struggling. I genuinely don’t think I’ve experienced feelings similar to this since my father died. I’m not trying to be hyperbolic, I’m just trying to say that this despondency and hopelessness feels so much like grieving a loved one. I’m grieving the progress I thought we were making and I’m grieving all the potential steps backward our country could take and I’m grieving for the feeling of safety my friends and family have lost here.

I want to apologize to my readers for not being present and for not responding to comments. I read and appreciate them all. I want to apologize to publishers & authors who have given me copies of books to review. I haven’t read more than 50 pages in the past 3 weeks or so.

I had every intention of following along with the routines I had finally put in place for myself. Everything just sort of fell apart this month. I haven’t read, I haven’t written (sorry, NaNoWriMo), I haven’t exercised, I haven’t talked to you wonderful bookish people, I haven’t done many of the things that make me feel good and enrich my life. I’ve spent WAY too much time playing Animal Crossing (if you want to visit my town, hit me up). Now, I’m left to slowly rebuild everything I had made for myself, but now I have to navigate with some new priorities. I don’t know if I’m ready, but I want to be. I have some relatively big ideas and goals now. I’m beginning to realize what’s really important and what I’ll regret not doing in my lifetime. I’m just going to take it a day at a time, making sure to do something for myself and something for somebody else each day. It’s time to rebuild and go further.

When people say, “Don’t just sit there, do something,” they’re urging you to act. But if the quality of your being is poor—if you don’t have enough peace, understanding, and equanimity, if you still have a lot of anger and worries—then your actions will also be poor. - Thich Nhat Hanh, "How To Sit"

I’m going to get myself back to a state of normalcy and health, but only to create a strong base within myself. I will never stop fighting. I refuse to let any of this be normal.

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Oct 31, 2016]

Happy Halloween, everybody! I've had a very spooky week of "being too sick to do anything" and "stepping on nails." I did no Halloween things this October, oops. I got some reading done during my sickness, but only through forcing myself because Hex was 10 days overdue and I was determined to finish it. Am I glad I did? Not particularly.

This is one of the imperfect iterations. It looks even better now!!

 Also I've been working on designing a knitted object for the first time. I decided to make a pair of socks despite having only made two pairs of socks in my life. I just love a challenge I guess. It's been a very humbling experience. I've had to undo it entirely three times. There are just so many different things to factor in and so much math to do. Good knitting takes supreme hesitancy, for real.

In other news, Nanowrimo starts tomorrow! I've participated in National Novel Writing Month 5 years now and won each time. I almost wasn't going to participate for a sixth year, but I can't help myself. I'm going to be working on the novel I started last year, which will admittedly mostly be rewriting it from scratch. I haven't done any creative writing in probably a year actually, so I'm pretty excited/horrified. Anybody else participating?? My username is ulianne if you want to add me as a writing buddy. I love word wars.

In case you missed it, I did a post last week that I loved and I want more people to read. It's 8 interesting new & upcoming books from Minnesota presses. I PROMISE you will want to read one, if not all, of them! Check out the list here.

THIS WEEK(S) I READ:

• Zero K by Don DeLillo (during the 24 hour readathon)
• Saga Vol. 6 by Brian K. Vaughan (24 hour readathon)
• The Red Car by Marcy Dermansky (24 hour readathon)
• Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

CURRENTLY READING: 

I'm at the beginning of Stony River by Tricia Dower, a novel set in the 50's, and it's VERY unsettling. I am not 100% clear what is going on with these strange characters, but I kind of like it.

Kelly Luce!! Her first novel, Pull Me Under, is coming out tomorrow. I meant to read it this week, but being sick kind of destroyed my schedule for reading and for work. So I'm starting it tonight and I CANNOT WAIT. I'm still not over how good the cover is.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Oct. 10, 2016]

I just got back from camping this weekend! It was absolutely freezing, but I'm still glad I did it. I need to try to prioritize going out into the woods every week or two, because it's really something that I love. Each time I do it, I'm devastated to leave. I did some knitting (until my fingers got too cold), did some reading, started nature journaling, and also ruined some shoes when we got a little too confident on a flooded trail. We had fun. And I finished the first page of my state park passport!

Last night I went to a publisher rep night for booksellers in Minnesota. It was great fun seeing other booksellers and talking to the publisher reps. And, of course, I learned about a ton of amazing, upcoming books. Below is a photo of what I brought home. I think very soon I might do a post about the great books from local publishers I grabbed. They sound AMAZING.

One more thing: I have an excited bookish project in the works that I can't announce just yet, but I should be able to in a week or two. I wish I could say more, but I cannot. PATIENCE, FRIENDS!!

THIS WEEK(S) I READ:

• The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson - one of the best books I've read this year

CURRENTLY READING: 

I started Scratch by Steve Himmer while I was in the woods. At night. Which is the best and the worst decision. This one's about a man who's trying to settle down, so he moves out to a rural area. He lives near a forest where - surprise - a shapeshifter also lives. It's fun so far, right now the story is being narrated by the shapeshifter. I have no idea where this one is going to go. It comes out tomorrow!

What are you reading this week?

 

September 2016 Rundown

October! Everybody loves the fall except me! I only love summer, end of story. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I can say that even though October sucks, it is AMAZING for books. I'll have a post of books to look for coming out this month within a few days. GET HYPED. Oh, and Wicked Good Reads is happening this month! Girlxoxo is running it and it's great because there are great book recommendations AND you get to make your own lists and share them! I'll be participating a bit sporadically every week, and I highly encourage you get in on it too! You can check out the schedule here. It's going to be a lot of fun.

September wasn't amazing for reading. There just wasn't really any good way to make it a priority. Our finances got FUCKED at the end of August, and all of September was recovery. Hotel drama in Japan, getting stuck in Hawaii, having to buy additional airline tickets when trapped in Seattle, a cat that wouldn't stop puking and the related vet bills, and our car getting totaled while it was parked and minding its own business were a lot of very bad things to happen to us all within the span of a few weeks. I was previously someone very uninterested in having a routine, for fear of staleness, but this whole time has been spent desperately working toward rebuilding a comfortable foundation. Enough money for food and manageable stress levels. Everything is ok now, so I'm hoping to be able to work reading in as a regular part of the daily routine. It's just been hard when I've felt like there are a million other things I need to do at any given moment that matter more toward my immediate survival.

Luckily, the books that I DID get to read were all great. Except for one, but that's fine. You win some, you lose some.

WHAT I DID

1. // Got a sort of promotion at the bookstore. This resulted in a fixed schedule which is doing wonders to my stress levels. I'm having fun knowing what days I have off. And not clopening.

2. // Got Litsy!! It's seriously so fun. (Again, my username is OutlandishLit. I want to make friends).

3. // Crafted a ton. At least in the last week or two of September, I've been a crafting fiend. Embroidery, weaving, crocheting yoga mat bags, knitting mittens, etc. It's nice to be excited about something so I'm riding the wave.

BOOKS READ

 

1. // The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson (AMAZING - Review coming this week)

2. // Children of the New World by Alexander Weinstein

3. // One Hundred Shadows by Hwang Jungeun

4. // The Subsidiary by Matías Celedón

BOOKS I PLAN TO READ IN OCTOBER

1. // Ghostland by Colin Dickey

2. // Nicotine by Nell Zink

3. // Scratch by Steve Himmer

4. // The Mothers by Brit Bennet

THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO IN OCTOBER

1. // Twin Cities Book Festival! I'm going to be working the Magers & Quinn booth this year and I'm VERY excited.

2. // Camping? I'm going to try to fit this in this coming weekend, because I'll be devastated if I can't camp one more time before horrible Minnesota forever-winter.

3. // Knitting cute things. Going to be cute af.

 

Happy October, everyone! Tell me about the best book you read in September!

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Sept. 12, 2016]

Who knew, routine might just be one of the best things that's ever happened to me. Even though I'm not quite in one yet, I have myself set up for it and I feel better about life in general already. And I suddenly have so much more time to read when I'm not working 12 hours a day three days in a row randomly! Oh, some bad news: Our car got totaled. The day after I finally scheduled a driving test for myself (yes, I only have a permit, it doesn't matter, let's not talk about it). So, admittedly, a lot of life/finances are really tough at the moment. But I'm working on not getting too down about it.

A couple days ago I finished two novellas in one day. I liked one of them quite a bit and I was ok with the other, but that kind of propelled me to keep reading. So later on I took myself on a foodless picnic in the park with a huge bag of books to peruse. It was so lovely! Except I also learned that I probably have allergies, because I had such a bad headache afterwards. GOD I'M SUCH A BUMMER. Ok, let me tell you about the book I fell in love with at the park below.

THIS WEEK I READ:

• One Hundred Shadows by Hwang Jungeun
• The Subsidiary by Matias Celedon

CURRENTLY READING: 

As expected, I'm still jumping around quite a bit in my reading. Though, yesterday, I landed on this mother fucking gem. I was really excited about it when I first got it at BEA, but as my reading has sucked in the past few months, I've told myself to temper my enthusiasm. But this is JUST AS GOOD AS I HOPED. Reading The Children of the New World by Alexander Weinstein is basically like reading the show Black Mirror. Except, maybe even better?? I'm almost halfway through this collection of short stories and I can't put it down. This feels so so good.

What are you reading this week?

 

Japan Journal #2: When Things Don't Go According to Plan

I've been home for 5 days or so, and I've had so much trouble getting myself to write this post. As a blogger, there's a lot of weird pressure to put a positive spin on everything for the sake of the reader. I kept getting stuck on how I was going to spin the last week of my trip to be some sort of positive learning experience. And I'm not even someone who aims to be "inspirational" or anything. I fully embrace negativity in most aspects of life and blogging. While I definitely learned a lot during my trip, that doesn't make some parts of it shitty. And that's ok. So I'm just going to take the time to write an honest post, because I think that's more valuable and interesting anyway.

If you missed part one, you can read it here. Buckle up, girls and boys. Where did we leave off?

A TERRIBLE THING HAPPENED

As some of you may know, I've gotten into CouchSurfing - a site where you can find free accommodation/friendship while traveling. I hadn't done any surfing, I had only hosted people and had wonderful experiences. For a month before our trip I spent AGES trying to nail down as much budget accommodation as possible and had 2 CouchSurfing hosts lined up for the last leg of the trip.

Ok, anyway, we took 7 different trains (9 hours) to get from Tokyo to Kyoto and went to our host's apartment. Within 15 minutes there, we felt so uncomfortable that we had to leave. The apartment was one of the most disgusting places I had ever seen in my life. Trash everywhere, things rotting, grime coating everything, and to top it all off - cockroaches. Kyoto isn't a poor, rural area. This is a big, modern city and the rest of the apartment building did not look at all like this guy's apartment. I don't have high standards at all, but it was unacceptable. I felt grossed out and I felt offended and I felt sort of duped. Why would somebody invite people into their home if it looked like this? You don't make money. It's completely voluntary. You can have literally any other hobby. Play a video game! Ride a bike!

So it's 11 pm or so and we're alone at night in a new city with nowhere to stay. I was really upset, both because of the circumstance and because I had spent so much time trying to find accommodation and I had fucked it up. I try not to be hard on myself, because he had 16 references and only one mentioned a messy bathroom. It's just hard to have plans that you worked hard to make fall apart. So I cried in my pajamas in a weird cowboy themed restaurant in Kyoto (surreal) for a few minutes then started looking for hotels. We ended up having to drop a surprise $120 to stay in hotels for the next couple days. A good thing that came out of it: I got to experience the public bath they had, which was one of the weirder/most relaxing times I've ever had. We had a place to stow our luggage and sleep, so we put everything behind us and focused on visiting many of the beautiful shrines in Kyoto. What's interesting about Kyoto is how much older it is than Tokyo. It felt very different.

Fushimi Inari Taisha was one of my favorite places in Kyoto. You may know it from the Thousand Torii Gates (the rows of red wooden gates featured in many photos). I didn't realize it was actually a mountain that you climb until I was too far in to turn back. It was hot as fuck, but I'm so glad we took the time to go all the way up and explore the little paths that ventured off the main path. There were wild cats living there!

Another shrine I loved was Kokedera, the moss shrine. It's smaller and less well known than the big ol' Kiyomizudera or the bamboo grove (both of which I went to), but it's sooooo enchanting. It felt like I was in another world. And now I really want to get some moss terrariums in my life. BEAUTIFUL.

At this point in our trip, we felt sort of lonely. Many people had insisted that that a lot of Japanese people would be coming up to us randomly to use their English or take photos of us, which is a weird promise to make anybody. And it totally didn't happen. Ever. It's hard to explain how isolating it is to be somebody who isn't Japanese in Japan. It's to be expected, of course, but it's really intense how separate we are. We're not necessarily treated badly or anything, we're just made to feel like we live in separate, impenetrable bubbles. A perfect representation of this loneliness was one day we were walking through a market and we spotted a white guy on a bike. He wasn't the first non-Asian person we had seen, but we also had learned on this trip that non-Asians are not always English speakers! SURPRISE! He spotted us and smiled, then I smiled, which made him grin even bigger and blurt "Hey, guys!" I hadn't seen someone so excited or outgoing in a long time. It brightened my mood entirely, and then he was gone.

I had scheduled one night where we'd stay in a hostel, and it ended up being one of our favorite nights of the entire trip. The owner was sooo nice and his friend introduced himself to us. He studied English, so he wanted to speak with us and we ended up chatting for hours into the night. A hostel guest from South Korea also joined us, and she was an absolute doll. It was really fun talking about the differences in our languages and cultures. In Japan there are vending machines literally everywhere outside with soft drinks, cigarettes, and alcohol. We told them that we have snack vending machines in America and everyone at the table started HOWLING with laughter. There was laughter abound that night.

OUR TRIP CUT SHORT

We had been alerted by our friend who got us buddy passes that people were getting stuck in the Tokyo airport for weeks, so very sadly we had to leave early and from the central Japan airport. Our plan had been to spend our last days in Tokyo, but, again, my plans were falling apart. It was hard. There were a lot of things I didn't take photos of, because I assumed we would be back. Since we had made friends with the hostel owner that night, I asked him if he had any openings at the hostel for one more night. He didn't, but he agreed to let us stay at his other property for a meager $30. I was so grateful.

After that night we headed to Nagoya and managed to fly out of Japan on the first available flight. And, WAY outside of our plans, it was to Hawaii! Getting to fly business class on an international flight almost made up for what happened next.

omg

We were stuck in Hawaii for 5 days. I know, I know, it sounds just AWFUL. But let me clarify. For one, there was the initial (and very long) "where will we stay for less than $300 a night" panic. Luckily, I found out that Lindsay from Lindsay's Library lives in Honolulu and she graciously let us sleep in her beautiful home. We stayed with her way longer than we should have, but she was so nice and made us feel so welcome. Every day at 4:30 am we went straight to the airport. And then we waited through all of the flights, getting our hopes up that we'd be let on and being crushed each time it didn't work out. If you're flying with a buddy pass, you never make any progress on the standby lists. You're always lowest priority. Also, when we first got to Hawaii I made the joke "I can't wait for the Hawaiian music that I assume plays all the time." The airport actually never stops playing Hawaiian music. I nearly went insane. Thankfully, one day we were able to go to the beach, and another Lindsay and her husband showed us around the island a bit. It was so lovely. I never thought I'd go to Hawaii, or at least I wouldn't until I was much older and richer. O'ahu is a beautiful island and I'm delighted we made new friends during our short time there.

Aloha, mother fuckers

But the airport wore me down so much that I was crying multiple times a day by the end of our lengthy lei-over. Delta help desks are much meaner and less helpful than one would think. But airport strangers are much kinder. A woman I was having a friendly conversation with about Hawaii and Japan and traveling shook hope back into me by giving me $100 while her husband wasn't looking, completely unprompted. She told me she was "being obedient." I'm not religious, but I can't help but start tearing up just typing this. People are amazing, you guys. They really are and I'm so grateful for everyone that I've had the opportunity to meet on this trip.

We did finally get out of Hawaii. Seattle was where we had our lowest moment, however. I'll keep it short. Delta's servers went down. Great timing, right? We got in at 11 pm. The flight to Minneapolis was at 12:50. Then it was delayed to 3 am. But we were still giddy, because it looked like there were plenty of seats and very few people on the standby list. The gate agents started working through the standby list late. We were two people away from getting cleared. They suddenly were unable to clear standby people for seats, even though there was plenty of room. The flight was about to time out, meaning they would have to cancel the entire flight if they didn't push out (look at all this airport terminology). They closed the doors on us even though there were ten seats open. I sobbed like a baby in public.

A bunch of flights were all cancelled and there was no way out. We caved and had to spend $400 extra on tickets to Phoenix then Minneapolis through a different airline. It was so dreadful, but I'm happy to be home. It was hard to adjust initially, coming from a society that's generally very quiet and polite then ending up at the Seattle airport where rude strangers are coming up to me or complaining loudly to nobody in particular about being stuck in the airport for a few hours (cry me a river). Honestly, my amazing time in Japan feels very far away now and I already want to go back. I'm so grateful that I had the opportunity to go there with good friends, for the time I had there, and for the people I met throughout the entire journey.


Maybe I will make a list of things I learned after all.

• So much about how airports work.
• I know so little Japanese.
• I knew enough Japanese.
• If something sounds interesting, but it's a little off the beaten path - do it.
• Start conversations with people. Meeting people was the best part of our trip and we did far too little of it. Only good things came from the conversations we did have. At a bar in Kyoto we met a random French man who we ended up going to the best tonkatsu restaurant in the city with. It was a great night. In Hawaii, we got $100 off a car rental just because we took the time to have a friendly conversation with the woman at the counter. You can find kindness anywhere you go, it's incredible!
• If you feel uncomfortable, do something about it. Fuck politeness, even in Japan.
• Don't ever think that things can't get worse. They totally can.
• When planning, severely overestimate how much money you think you're going to spend on a trip.
• Try the free samples.
• Don't take the tentacle sushi off the conveyor belt, it's not worth it.
• Let yourself sit still if you need to sit still.
• Press all of the buttons on the fancy Japanese toilet.
• Book bloggers are STILL the nicest people in the world.
• You can never prepare for everything.
• Take time to really appreciate every good thing in your day.
• Always bring duct tape with you.

If there's anything you want to know about traveling in Japan or about Japan in general, please let me know! I'm considering going more in depth about certain topics people are curious about. I certainly didn't get to cover everything in these journals.

Japan Journal #1: Tokyo

Sensoji in Asakusa. We got there early before the market was open.

Week one of my two week Japan trip is over! I've done a shit ton of stuff so far and explored a lot of Tokyo. My calves hurt just thinking about it.

Thank god most of the cats were squishy faced, munchkin cats, or both.

I slept through a level 5 earthquake my first night. I managed to fix my sleep schedule within one or two days. I visited the beautiful big temple and crazy market in Asakusa. I saw millions of wildly inappropriate anime girl figurines/videos/manga/body pillows in Akihabara. I avoided going to any maid cafes because NO. I visited Meiji shrine then shopped in the madness of Harajuku. Considered becoming gothic lolita for half a second then realized I would be too beautiful and I would have too many friends. I went to a mother fucking cat cafe and felt pure bliss. I wandered around bustling Shinjuku and checked out the street food in cramped Piss Alley. I went to a Japanese stationery store and a Japanese bookstore, fulfilling all my paper-y Japanese dreams.

Piss Alley, where the restaurants are outside and the space between the wall and the counter is about the size of a person

I took an hour train out to Kamakura and saw the Pacific ocean from the other side. I saw a giant Buddha. I then proceeded to play on the black sand beach, sit in the ocean, drink a can of some sort of pineapple alcohol from 7 eleven (on the beach, it's legal), experience more bliss than I did in the cat cafe, get my first jellyfish sting, and get peed on by my boyfriend for the first time (jellyfish related), all with Mt. Fuji in the background.

You can't see it because clouds, but Mt. Fuji is right above the right-most building.

I went to a conveyor belt sushi place where I had the most delicious salmon, tuna, and calamari I've ever had in my life. The calamari made me feel way too confident about tentacles, so I grabbed a tentacle sushi plate and almost threw up at the table. I'm still queasy about fish 3 days later, which isn't great when you're in Japan, but that just means I have an excuse for eating tonkatsu (fried pork, you have to try it if you haven't) every day. Like I need an excuse.

Our first meal in Japan was bentou boxes, featuring the beloved tonkatsu on the bottom and in the red bowl.

I went to the Pokemon Center in huge, busy mall where a Hawaii festival was happening and spent way too much money on stuffed pokemon, a weird pokemon bag, and a coin purse. Do I use coin purses? No. But do I love Inkay? Yes. I wandered through random markets by accident and got fresh melon bread from a bakery. I've walked by a million vending machines and I'm charmed each time I see one. I've eaten all sorts of strange snacks, mystery fish, and sodas with strange names (Lemon Squash and Orangina are the most delicious. Not into Calpis, believe it or not). I've gotten countless butt baths on fancy toilets. I caught a Farfetch'd in Pokemon Go (region exclusive, bitches. But you can maybe get it from an egg, I don't actually know). I almost played Pachinko, but I the minimum was $10 and I was willing to invest maybe $5. I've gotten used to Japanese money for the most part (why is $5 a coin??). I had sake at a Japanese bar, as well as the most delicious peach and kiwi sour. YUM.


I had an amazing experience staying at an AirBnB with my friends and getting to live off a subway stop right in the city for 5 days. I loved sleeping on the floor in a tatami mat room. I love the weird deep bathtubs. I love how beautiful rural Japan is. I love the seemingly haphazard placements of beautiful houses along small, confusing alleys. Everything here is so different, I don't even have words to explain it. I can list all of the factual things that are different, but that doesn't explain the feel or the smell or the beauty of this place. But I have been keeping a list of some differences that I find interesting that nobody had told me about.

DIFFERENCES I'VE NOTICED

• Streets are a free for all. You kind of just walk wherever you want to.
• Most people bike on sidewalks. They also don't say anything if they're behind you and need to get by.
• Blush is worn bright, unblended, and very high up on the face. A strange trend.
• There are caged areas for people to smoke outside, but smoking is still totally cool in restaurants, bars, hotels, etc. CONFUSING. Saw the chef at a restaurant smoking in the kitchen, because ~anything goes~.
• There are virtually no benches.
• There are also virtually no trash cans. When there are trash cans, they're very specific about trash v. different types of recycling. They're also mostly on the sides of big vending machines.
• I don't think I've seen a vending machine with food. Only drinks, beer, or cigarettes.
• Smiling at people on the street is not generally received well.
• In addition to on the subway, nap time happens at McDonald's. Still curious as to why this is.
• Public drinking is completely acceptable, but walking while eating is super rude.
• Single serving consumption seems to be the norm for buying just about anything. No bulk buying here. Or, at least, it's generally not a better deal.
• Most of the storefronts are wide open and people wheel goods out onto the sidewalk.
• Backpacks are often front packs!
• So many stores require you to take an elevator up to a different level on a huge building.
• You can buy anything at 7 eleven and they're open forever and you have no need to ever go anywhere else.

Yesterday we took a 9 hour collection of local trains to get out to Kyoto. We also had the most horrific experience once we arrived where we were supposed to stay. We opted for homelessness and ran the fuck out of there. What happened to your friend, Julianne in this new, strange city?? Tune in next time.

Leaving for Japan

Hey, everybody. I'm currently sitting in an airport waiting for my flight to Tokyo which is going to depart in an hour. I've never left the country before, so I don't really have any idea what to expect. I'm just so grateful to have the opportunity to visit a place whose language and culture I've studied for many years of my life (though off and on).

This is a journal I received ages ago (of course it's Tolkien-themed). I never used it, because I wanted it to be a travel journal. I've never left the country, though, and I haven't strayed that far from Minnesota. So it's blank.

I've always wanted to travel. I've done a ton of travel reading and learning about expat lifestyles. I've always felt restless when I feel too comfortable. Now I'm actually confronted with an experience where I'll undoubtedly be uncomfortable and confused a lot of the time. I'm about to get exactly what I want, and I'm interested to learn if how I see myself and my desires actually lines up with who I am. So, in short, this trip is a big deal to me for many reasons. Also, cat cafes.

I'll be going to Tokyo, then Kyoto (a much older city), then back to Tokyo before leaving. I'll be gone for two weeks. So the blog will be a little quiet with sudden random posts. There will maybe be one book review up within the next two weeks, but it will mostly be journals of my experience in a vastly different country from my own. Here's hoping some of the 700 kanji characters I've studied and learned before this trip will be helpful. Here's hoping I don't get too lost. Here's hoping I learn a lot. Here's hoping I surprise myself. I'm excited to fill my journal.

"Home is behind, the world ahead."

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [July 4, 2016]

Hello! I am back now from an anniversary camping trip I took. I hope you like photos, because I've got photos.

The park we visited was absolutely beautiful. I bum out a lot about how flat and boring Minnesota is, but Southern Minnesota almost completely makes up for it. I climbed up to a lot of very high places and my legs were always sore. It was GREAT. Until a raccoon ate all of our food and stole our tupperware. Oh well.

While camping, I finished up The Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay (review coming this week) and started The Last One by Alexandra Oliva. It's a thriller of sorts about reality tv, so obviously I'm there.

One more thing we need to talk about... The Gamification of My Life. It's a full blown thing at this point. To Shaina's recommendation, I started using Habitica with a bunch of other bookish ladies. Habitica is an amazing app/website that helps you form habits and get shit done, and it's also an RPG. You level up and collect virtual pets (my fave, of course) and complete quests, etc. It's really helping me figure out what's important and actually do those things. One of my goals for this week is figuring out consistent days to blog so I'll actually have regular posts again. YES!

A photo posted by Julianne :: Outlandish Lit (@_ulianne) on Jul 4, 2016 at 8:38am PDT

The gamification doesn't stop there, however. From a friend, I heard about the MN DNR Passport Club. I resisted for a while, but I finally had to sign up. For $15 I got a passport and a travel log. At each MN state park I visit, I get my shit stamped and eventually once I have enough stamps I get a free night of camping and a pin! If I hit like 70+ parks, I get a plaque or something. It's wildly dorky, but I'm so so charmed. Of course, my immediate reaction is to feel overwhelming regret about each specific park I could've gotten stamped had I gotten the passport earlier. It's like a video montage in my head of my great adventures in nature and what a waste they were. And it won't stop. Typical.

THIS WEEK(S) I READ:

• The Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay

CURRENTLY READING: 

I've been trying to catch up on books that were published very recently or that are coming out very soon, but I couldn't help myself from bringing a mid-July release, The Last One by Alexandra Oliva, on my camping trip. Again, it's about a woman named Zoo on a survival reality TV show. There are a bunch of challenges set up for them as they're pretty much alone trying to survive in a forest. Little do they know, some sort of apocalyptic something is happening in the real world. And nobody is around to tell them. I'M OBSESSED WITH THIS CONCEPT. I'm already hooked. #WelcomeToTheWoods

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [June 27, 2016]

My schedule is fixed!!! You don't have to hear me talking about schedules anymore!! I put out a request to my boss to potentially work less if it meant having a two day weekend. And she hooked me up! What a nice person. I'll still be teaching every morning until noon, but I'll only work after on two weekdays, then I'll work on Saturday too. So I'll have Thursday afternoon/evening and all of Friday for camping trips! And Sunday off randomly! I'm pretty thrilled.

This week I sort of got my reading groove back in the form of ultra-readable novellas and fun horror. I liked all the books I read well enough. Gotta keep this trend going. I've also been spending a lot of my time hosting travelers on the site Couchsurfing, where you can offer your couch up for free to people. I initially did it so I'd have references and potentially be able to couchsurf when I'm in Japan next month. But I actually really enjoy it. You meet such interesting people! I've hosted a man who made his own tiny house, a woman who was here for a wildlife biology conference, and two filmmaker/musician/coder/photographer/fighter/ridiculously spontaneous and delightful dudes originally from England and Sweden with so many stories to tell from their lives. It's a great way to make friends that you'll probably never see again.

THIS WEEK(S) I READ:

• Forest of Memory by Mary Robinette Kowal
• So Much for That Winter by Dorthe Nors
• My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

CURRENTLY READING: 

Despite having started and really wanting to continue The Girls by Emma Cline, I've switched to The Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay. I really enjoyed what I read when I first picked it up and now I'm getting back into it. This month kind of happened so quickly to me that I did notice books coming out. Or I'd see them in the bookstore then be like "weird, they changed what week they're being published." They didn't change what week they were published, I just lost track of time. Going to dig more into this creepy read this week while I'm waiting 45+ minutes for rides! Honestly, I love waiting/commutes. Perfect reading time.

What are you reading this week?

 

BookExpo America 2016

Whoa! It's been ten days since my last post. I expected a blogging break while I was at BEA, but right after returning home I got really debilitatingly sick. Like can't read, can't write, can't do anything sick. I'm on the mend now, so here I am with a very delayed update on my time in Chicago!

If you follow me on Twitter, Snapchat, or Instagram, you undoubtedly saw many many BEA updates. But in case that wasn't enough, here's a quick rundown of my three days at this bonkers book event.

There was a lot of this.

BOOK BAES

I'm going to come right out and say it, this super overwhelming event would have been kind of miserable had I not had a lot of book friends who were able to make it to Chicago. Even though I can definitely act confident and take care of business during big things, that doesn't mean that I'm having any fun. And I can 100% say I had a blast for all three days and it's all due to running around the booths with people I had been dying to meet/had met previously.

From left to right: Me, Rachel, Kerry, Emily

From left to right, top to bottom (excluding me): Sweet Shaina, Shannon, Liberty Hardy, Marisa, Kim

I met so many more people that were not pictured, and they were all great (Katie, Heather, Julie, Jessica, Catherine, Kristen, Beth, and more). I was lucky to go to several happy hours/dinner with these bad book bitches, as well as have lunch with Liberty Hardy and Amanda Nelson of Book Riot.

BOOKS & BOOTHS

Ok, enough gushing about the book baes. I wasn't hardcore enough to make a spreadsheet beforehand, but I did write some things on a piece of paper. I thought the amount of overlap of some of these signings and galley drops would definitely leave me missing out on some of the things I'd wanted to get in on. And I had prepared myself for that. But, surprisingly, I don't think I missed anything I had wanted to do. The size of BEA was kind of deceptive. Like it was absolutely huge, but after a certain point in one direction, it was just kids books, books in languages I didn't know, university presses, and remainders for bookstores to buy. So after checking it out once, there isn't really any reason to go back over there, narrowing the area in which you hang out significantly.

Every publisher I talked to was super super nice and accommodating. They were all excited to talk about their books and wanted to help get books to you if they were out of them. I was most impressed by the Graywolf booth (not just because they're Minnesotan). SUCH COOL PEOPLE.

I was also impressed by the in booth signings. At first when I heard people like Jonathan Safran Foer and George Saunders were doing their signings in booth instead of in the area specifically for signings, I was frightened. I had heard horror stories about this how wrong it went at Javits. But there was a pretty good amount of extra room near the bigger booths like Penguin Random House that allowed for the large lines. I didn't have to wait very long for anything.

Here's a photo of my explaining literature to George Saunders

There were a bunch of heavy hitters there as far as books go. Saunders' first novel Lincoln on the Bardo, Colson Whitehead's Underground Railroad, Alan Moore's (creator of Watchmen) first (enormous) novel Jerusalem. Etc. Etc. I came home with 30 books total, I think. Every day was fucking rough on my shoulders. Luckily beautiful Jenna of JMill Wanders drove me home, so I didn't have to worry about how much I was bringing home. But I also didn't want a million books, so I mostly controlled myself.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

- Shaina and I drank champagne that was probably not for us. They didn't fence it off and we didn't get yelled at sooooo it was probably fine. But we also looked very, very professional.

- Book speed dating! A fun idea that I was highly looking forward to, but kind of a clusterfuck. The idea is that you sit in groups at tables with a bunch of ARCs on them. Publisher reps come around and pitch books to you. After the publisher is done, you can take ARCs. OBVIOUSLY that is not what actually went down. Randos were showing up without having signed up then getting real mad about there not being enough chairs or books. A lot of publishers didn't actually have books there, because they didn't ship properly or something? Either the books didn't get there on time, or NY people didn't want to deal with shipping books to Chicago, so whatever. And elderly librarians are GRABBY. Pretty much everyone I knew at this event had some greedy mother fuckers at their table who didn't want to play by the rules. And my question is just like... why? You'd think these people never see books. Unreal. I also wasn't really interested in any of the books. OH WELL.

- I was given a sign to hold as I stood in a line. I was confused as to why I was holding it and what I was supposed to do with it after a while. But I do like having a false sense of power, so.

- Deep dish pizza. And seeing my friends. If you didn't know, I lived in Chicago for four years, so it was nice visiting a place I consider home.



I'm not going to say anything about the galley "scandal" and the rights of bloggers or whatever, because I'm already bored.


Tomorrow I'll be sharing some of the exciting new books I didn't know about before planning for BEA. GET PUMPED.

April 2016 Rundown

I know everybody says this, but I don't even know where April went. I feel cheated. What did I do with my time?? But I'm also so so grateful to be edging into warmer days and reading outside.

Anyway, general updates: I started using Snapchat again this month! I'm 4 years late, but it's a pretty good time. My username's uulianne, so send me pictures of your pets.

You also may have noticed on Twitter that I've started posting some clothing to Poshmark. I haven't announced this explicitly anywhere in public, but in July I'm going to Japan!! WHAT, I know. So I'm trying to save up more money so I can actually eat food while I'm there by selling some clothes. So if you like my outfits ever, NOW IS YOUR CHANCE TO OWN THEM. You can check out my closet here and if you use the invite code NQASG when signing up on the app, we'll both get fake money to buy clothes with. So it's a win win. Also, what size I wear surprises some, so PLEASE check out my stuff even if you think we're different sizes. And I have cute shoes. OK, THAT'S ALL.

WHAT I DID

1. // Started posting for the Magers & Quinn Instagram account. If you like my photos, you might want to follow the ol' bookstore. Your girl's moving on up in the world!!

2. // Went to the middle of nowhere with Jenna from JMill Wanders. The weekend writing retreat was a dream.

3. // Studied Japanese a whole lot. It really took up a lot of my time. Between relearning and learning new kanji, trying to remember words and interpret Japanese tv shows, and regularly chatting with Japanese people online, I've been a little Japanese oversaturated. I'll probably talk about my language learning process more in depth in the future, if that interests anybody.

BOOKS READ

 

1. // The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts by Laura Tillman

2. // Genius, Vol.1 by Marc Bernardin

3. // This Census-Taker by China Miéville

4. // Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel

This month was a record-breaking low in books read, but you probably understand why now.

 

MY BEST APRIL POSTS

• How To Lead A More Whimsical Reading Life
• How To Get Free Ebooks On Your Android Device
• Dewey's Readathon MiniChallenge :: #WeirdCoverHunt

BOOKS I PLAN TO READ IN MAY

1. // Zero K by Don DeLillo

2. // Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay

3. // Some Possible Solutions by Helen Phillips

THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO IN MAY

1. // BookExpo America!! If you're going to BEA, you must tell me. I'm so excited to be in Chicago again and to meet a ton of lovely bookish individuals.

2. // Camping? Will I have a moment free with which to do this? Your guess is as good as mine.

3. // Getting better at Japanese. Fingers crossed.

 

Happy May, everyone! Tell me about the best book you read in April!

 

March 2016 Rundown

March is over and so is the weirdathon! I know I sound like a broken record at this point, but it was SO MUCH FUN and so many more people joined than I had expected. We had like 60 people, what?? And none of them were related to me! So I'm pretty pleased with the month overall. I managed to fit a lot of weird books that I had been putting off for one reason or another. And none of them were horrible!

The weather took a turn (I knew not to fall for its warm bullshit early on) and I ended up inside a lot more than I wanted to be. But April HAS to be warm. Right??

WHAT I DID

1. // Had a really great time running the Month-long Weirdathon. I won't start gushing again, promise.

2. // I met a ton of cool authors. Karen Abbott, Celeste Ng, Roxane Gay (ok, Roxane Gay was April 6, but still pre-this post). How was March so great??

3. // Went to a caucus for the first time. I didn't really write about it like I had intended to, because I didn't actually stay for the caucus part. I voted in ten or fifteen minutes then left. But I am glad I did it!

4. // Started propogating my succulents! It was horrifying to behead some of my plants, but now two of the leaves are growing tiny baby leaves and they are SO CUTE. I'm making something grow!!

BOOKS READ

 

1. // A Guide to Being Born by Ramona Ausubel

2. // Songs of a Dead Dreamer by Thomas Ligotti

3. // Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbott

4. // The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector

5. // The Vegetarian by Han Kang

6. // Mislaid by Nell Zink

7. // Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail by Kelly Luce

8. // The Woods, Vol. 3 by James Tynion IV

9. // The Three by Sarah Lotz

10. // The Ice Twins by S.K. Tremayne

 

MY BEST MARCH POSTS

• All of the Weekly Weird-offs are AMAZING. Thanks, guest bloggers!
• 10 Fantastic Nonlinear Novels
• 15 Weird Dream-like Reads

BOOKS I PLAN TO READ IN APRIL

1. // Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel

2. // Trespassing Across America by Ken Ilgunas

3. // Some Possible Solutions by Helen Phillips

THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO IN APRIL

1. // Camp NaNoWriMo! I'm going to be real, I haven't actually started writing yet. But I'm working on a novel I wrote 50k words for in November. Tonight I'm looking over it and seeing where I should start with adding to it and sorting it out.

2. // Sunshine? I've got my fingers crossed.

3. // A writing retreat at the end of the month. Jenna of JMill Wanders and I (and a bunch of randos) are going to be in a cabin on a lake for a few days just to write. I'M SO HYPED. Shit's going to be dreamy as hell.

 

Happy April, everyone! Tell me about the best book you read in March!