It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Feb 29, 2016]

Happy Leap Day and Weirdathon Eve!! That's kind of fitting, isn't it? Things have been a little crazy for me this week. I've been working a lot of late shifts, which completely throws me off. And I've been working on a lot of Weirdathon related posts and planning, which is obviously time consuming. I've even managed to neglect my love, Instagram. I've been funneling my excess nervous energy instead into knitting and reknitting a specific part of a very complicated sock. I feel like I'm going crazy. I forget to drink water while I'm messing with it. I'm anxious right now, because I'm typing instead of figuring out how to fix the sock and I can see it from where I'm sitting. Ok, maybe this is getting too personal.

Really, though, that's how I've spent my week when I haven't been selling books or teaching the youth of America important Minecraft skills. I listened to TWO audiobooks this week while doing blog/sock stuff. The Argonauts was short and smart. I really liked it. The Winter People was longer and less smart, but it was definitely creepy and entertaining. I wanted to know what was going on, but some of the characters and plot didn't make a whole lot of sense. That's fine, though. I was spooked by it. Version Control was a paper book about time travel, and it was a total slump-buster, despite being 500+ pages.

Oh, also I got retweeted by Joyce Carol Oates. That was crazy and pretty much guaranteed to never happen again.

 

 

THIS WEEK I READ:

• Version Control by Dexter Palmer
• The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
• The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

CURRENTLY READING:

 

I totally lied in my Febraury Rundown and said I had finished One Day Soon Time Will Have No Place Left to Hide by Christian Kiefer. What I meant was that it's super short and I have today off, so it will be finished by the time February is over. I'm like ten pages in and like it so far, though I'm also confused by it. But in a delighted, I want to know what the deal is kind of way. And holding the tiny book is genuinely suck a pleasure.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Feb 22, 2016]

What a whirlwind week it's been! Book Bloggers Appreciation Week was a lot of fun. I only posted about it twice, but I visited SO MANY new blogs because of it. And I hosted the second twitter chat, which was a very intense, very good time. You guys have no idea how much I was sweating by the end of the hour. NO IDEA.

Oh! Also, Jenna from JMill Wanders and I got together for a second time and had a glorious evening eating Indian food, discussing the intricacies of the book blogging world, and forcing each other into buying books. Ok, I was the one doing the forcing. But I did buy The Unfinished World by Amber Sparks and The Vegetarian by Han Kang the day after. So there's my IRL book blogger appreciation for you.

All I finished this week was an audiobook I had started a while ago, as per Lauren of Malcolm Avenue Review's recommendation: Iréne by Pierre Lemaitre. The best part of it may or may not have been hearing all the French names and places pronounced correctly. I haven't looked up how these names are written down, because I don't want to know how badly I would've mispronounced them in my head. But anyway crime fiction is soooo out of my comfort zone, but I really liked this! It was all sorts of dark and had some delightful literary references. I'm definitely going to check out the next book in the series, Alex.

Reminder: The sign up page for March's Month-long Weirdathon is HERE. If you want to push your reading a little bit out of your comfort zone, there are SO MANY ways to win book money while doing it.

THIS WEEK I READ:

• Iréne by Pierre Lemaitre

CURRENTLY READING:

 

Ok, so I didn't really read very much of Version Control by Dexter Palmer this past week, but I read like 120 pages of it Sunday night. I just couldn't stop. The main character works at an online dating site and the commentary on online dating/the general digital life is so good. I just keep laughing. It reminds me of Mr. Splitfoot and You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine a little bit in how on point it is about our society. And the stuff about physics/time travel is just fascinating so far. Who knew there was a book that combined these two loves of mine?? This book comes out tomorrow, so be on the look out for my review!

What are you reading this week?

 

January 2016 Rundown

Coming back to book blogging regularly is probably one of the best things that could have happened to me right now. Apart from being the best time and encouraging to read more, it has made me super productive in other realms of my life and I've realized again what's important to me. AND I read a ton of amazing books this month that I wouldn't have otherwise. So thanks everybody for taking me back without question!!

This Tuesday I'm announcing a book challenge/event that's going to go down in March. I've spent a lot of time on it this month (in secret). It's going to be big and exciting and there will be MULTIPLE ways to win prizes. Stay tuned!! I'm really excited about it.

WHAT I DID

1. // Got back into the blogging groove. I feel completely uncomfortable with the word "groove" though and I regret that sentence.

2. // Participated in all sorts of readathons! Bout of Books and #24in48 were great.

3. // Spent time with a bunch of friends and hiked and ate a ton of sushi and stuff. Just the usual.

BOOKS READ

 

1. // A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin

2. // A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

3. // What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander

4. // Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

5. // Moonshot by Hope Nicholson

6. // City of Clowns by Daniel Alarcón

7. // The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

8. // Cursed Pirate Girl by Jeremy A. Bastian

9. // Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

10. // Spectacle by Susan Steinberg

11. // Not Dark Yet by Berit Ellingsen

Will I finish one more today?? Probably not. I'll just keep starting books.

 

MY BEST JANUARY POSTS

• Literary Aliens, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Our Extraterrestrial Overlords
• 15 Exciting New 2016 Releases
• 3 Dark & Weird Books of 2015
• Best Comics of 2015

BOOKS I PLAN TO READ IN FEBRUARY

1. // Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt

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

3. // Version Control by Dexter Palmer

THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO IN FEBRUARY

1. // Spending more time outdoors. Winter hiking isn't my favorite, but I've gotta for my sanity.

2. // Potentially visiting Chicago. We'll see what happens.

3. // Club Book is starting back up in Minnesota. I want to see Karen Abbott if I don't work!

 

 

Happy Upcoming February, everyone! Tell me about the best book you read in January!

 

Ten Bookish Resolutions for 2016

The Broke and the Bookish runs this business.

I'm typically not one to make resolutions, but at the same time I obsessively reflect on each year via an extensive question answering session and kind of evaluate what changes I want to make. And looking at my 2015 reading stats, it's hard not to think of some goals I'd like to set for myself.

READING RESOLUTIONS

1. // Take notes as I read. I created a new little book notebook for myself this year and I'm super psyched to use it. When I review books I sometimes forget the very important thoughts I had about them so like... why not write them down as I have them?

2. // Try to read 1 nonfiction book a month. I normally avoid nonfiction (excluding memoirs) like the plague, because I'm so slow at reading them and worse at finishing them. But in December I read The Hunt for Vulcan and remembered that I love learning stuff.

3. // Only buy 4 books a month! If you saw my 2015 stats, you learned that I acquired an appalling 187 books last year. Granted, I only bought 74 of them, but that is still FAR too many. I hardly read any of them! It's going to be hard not to buy books considering I work at a bookstore, but I think I can control myself if I'm actively thinking about it.

4. // Only put 3 books on hold a month. I read a shit ton of library books in 2015, but I also had a shit ton of library due date anxiety. I still have 20-something library books that I'm trying to work through. I just need to be less of a holds monster.

5. // DNF more books. Because I get really salty when I'm hate reading.

6. // Read comics the week I get them. The stack of unread single issue comics I have right now is pretty impressive. But it needs to go.

7. // KEEP IT WEIRD. So often I force myself into reading books that aren't super thrilling to me just because they're critically acclaimed. I love literary fiction, I love humans doing human stuff, I love beautiful writing just for the sake of beautiful writing. But I love that WITH some dark, bizarre shit thrown in. Need to stay true to myself and keep it weird. Because those are the kinds of books that get me out of slumps.

BLOGGING RESOLUTIONS

8. // Get back into a commenting habit. My schedule being different every week has really thrown off the schedule I used to have for myself with blog reading and commenting. It even threw off commenting on my own posts. I'm working on it!

9. // Write posts a week before posting them. This may be shocking, but I often write posts the night before I post them!! Hence any weird non-links or typos. But that stresses me out, so it's going to have to change.

10. // GO TO BEA! It's in Chicago, so I'll be there this year. Tell me if I'll see you there!

What are your bookish resolutions for 2016?

2015 Reading Stats & Challenge Update

2015 was a year of more reading surprises than I could have reasonably been prepared for. Half of my reading veered toward sequential art out of nowhere, and at the second half of the year reading slowed really really dramatically. Regardless, I got some pretty interesting numbers out of it all. Especially because at the beginning of the year I started low key keeping track of every single book I acquired. And boy are the results scary. Check it out.

GENRE

Unsurprisingly to anybody who has watched my reading, but surprisingly to me, comics took up 47% of my books read. Baby 2014 Julianne would have never guessed!! Something that's disturbing to me: the sci-fi number. I apparently only read 3 straight science fiction novels in 2015. I definitely felt myself falling into the self-inflicted "must read currently acclaimed literary fiction" feelings every once in a while and probably disliking books more than I would have normally (looking at you Fates & Furies). I'll be posting about reading goals/resolutions tomorrow and this has an influence on some of my 2016 plans.

SOURCE

I read 74 books from the library! What!! This has something to do with me wanting to "test out" comics in their volumes before putting them on my pull list. But I'm also just a holds monster.

BOOKS ACQUIRED

I'll save you the math. At the bottom there? I acquired 187 books this year. I thought it was kind of weird that I'm almost out of bookshelf space despite having received two big new bookshelves this year. That's a new book in the apartment every other day of the year. EVERY OTHER DAY. Some of them are ebooks, but still. This is a problem. Nobody needs that many books (is what I've been told). This is another thing that will be covered in my resolutions tomorrow.



And now...

CHALLENGES

I failed the TBR Challenge. Ok, moving on.

I finished Shaina's 12 Books of Christmas Challenge! It got dramatic and suspenseful at the end there. I annoyed my friends and family by desperately trying to finish two books on my birthday, but it was all worth it in the end. Here's what I read:

1. // Bitch Planet, Vol. 1 by Kelly Sue DeConnick

2. // You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine by Alexandra Kleeman

3. // Descender, Vol. 1 by Jeff Lemire

4. // The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho (audiobook!)

5. // ODY-C, Vol. 1 by Matt Fraction

6. // Slade House by David Mitchell

7. // Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein

8. // The Hunt for Vulcan by Thomas Levenson

9. // Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson (another audiobook!)

10. // Revival, Vol. 5 by Tim Seeley

11. // Moon Knight, Vol. 1 by Warren Ellis

12. // Three Moments of an Explosion by China Miéville

Thanks for hosting the challenge, Shaina! #12forXmas kind of showed me how useful audiobooks are and I'm going to try to integrate them more into my life. It was a good time.

Did you have any reading surprises this year?

 

My Birthday & Looking Back at 2015

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY, NERDS!! Your girl is 23 years young today and she is ready for some book presents. Or feel free to tweet as many cat related gifs to me as your heart desires.

READING THIS YEAR

I'm looking back now on my first post of the year. I was hesitantly reemerging in the blogging world from my weird hibernation, not unlike now. I had read 44 books in 2014 and marked that as my best reading year ever. Oh sweet baby Julianne, if only you knew what was in store.

According to Goodreads, I've finished 131 books in 2015. BUT you shouldn't fully trust that number. 62 of those were books with only words in them. 46 were graphic novels, and 23 were single issue comics (I like keeping track of everything, ok?) 

2015 was definitely the year of the comic for me. I discovered how much I liked them, and then I sort of felt this need to "catch up." Which ended up with me doing a lot of binge reading. In reality, catching up is totally unnecessary. Also, considering I was mostly interested in horror comics (of which there aren't nearly as many as, say, superhero comics), I actually am sort of caught up. Sooo my comic reading has slowed to a normal pace and I feel myself coming back to books with fewer pictures.

CHALLENGES

I do plan on finishing 3 books today, so I'm not going to post year-end stats quite yet. I have 100 pages left in a book of short stories, I'm halfway through a graphic novel, and I have one more graphic novel waiting for me. So that'll leave me at 12 books in December and will mean that I've completed Shaina's 12 Books of Christmas challenge! Which makes up for me failing the 2015 TBR challenge as dramatically as I did!

I'm also going to wait to talk about goals and plans for the new year, because I truly haven't thought about it yet. IT'S MY BIRTHDAY. But, what better time than now to announce my participation in Bout of Books 15? I hadn't realized it was starting January 4th, but I have way too much nostalgia not to go for it again.

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 4th and runs through Sunday, January 10th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 15 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

MY YEAR OVERALL

This year was pretty crazy. I graduated from college, I got my dream job as a bookseller at an indie bookstore, I moved into a new apartment in Minneapolis. What else? I was a bridesmaid, I met TWO book bloggers in real life, I started exercising (I only do push-ups because of All the Birds, Singing), I finished my internship at an animation studio, I went camping a lot, I went to California for the first time, made some amazing new friends, and was glam as hell throughout.

Overall, it was also a really good year for books and sort of for blogging. I had my best period of blogging ever during the first half of the year. But life tends to happen whether we want it to or not, and that caused me to drop the ball a bit at the end of the year. I also have a tendency to not read/blog as much between September and December FOR WHATEVER REASON. Oh well. At least I won National Novel Writing Month again this year. Not all is lost.

My Most Popular Posts of 2015

  1. // 5 Quirky Books to Make You Feel Normal

  2. // 10 Books Celebrating Diversity: A Guest Post

  3. // Top 10 Books for Readers Who Like Experimental Formats

  4. // Grapes of Trash: Dating & The Apocalypse

My Favorite Posts of 2015

  1. // Reading Kent Russell's Essays When My Dad is Dead

  2. // A Day in My Life: A Nonsense Drama of the Ages

  3. // Books And How To Read Them For Any Trip

  4. // 6 Reasons Why The People in the Trees is Perfect

Here's to lengthy post titles! Here's to even more words in 2016! Happy New Year, everyone!

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Dec 14, 2015]

Ok, it's clear that I'm still easing my way back into internet-ing. I'm trying my best, ok? My instagram book challenge game is strong, but I'm still trying to find time during my weird holiday retail schedule to actually sit down and blog. Good news, though: While listening to audiobooks, I finally finished my forever blanket! And it's glorious. Almost as glorious as crossing that off my to do list after so many years.

Sweet Pooks wouldn't stop rolling around on it when I tried to take the photo, TYPICAL

I now have 6 books down in Shaina's 12 Books of Christmas, so maybe I won't fail this challenge after all! This week I finished The Alchemist audiobook. It definitely got me in the heart a little bit and I liked some of what it said, but overall it was definitely too life lesson-y and spiritual for me. But I really miss hearing Jeremy Irons pronounce the word "omens" really strangely on a regular basis. I would listen again just for him. I also read the first volume of the comic ODY-C which was super weird and beautiful. If you like Homer and gender bending, check it out. Then I read Slade House by David Mitchell, which was a fun read and a little spooky, but not amazing.

THIS WEEK I READ:

• The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho
• Slade House by David Mitchell
• ODY-C, Vol. 1 by Matt Fraction

CURRENTLY READING:

So The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth is SUPER overdue at my library (sorry, Minneapolis), but I really really want to finish it. It's a very slow read, because the author created an old English-style language that it's written in for all 345 pages. At first it felt like I was constantly translating texts from my mom, but after 20 pages I pretty much got the hang of it. I'm way too invested now to just return it, so here's hoping it's as excellent as people say.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, Where The Hell Have You Been? [Nov 30, 2015]

Oh hey, guys. It's been a month and I've missed you and this blog so much!! I sort of disappeared without explaining myself, but if you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you might have figured out that I participated in National Novel Writing Month! And last night I won.

Isn't this graph horrifying? I couldn't think of an idea for the first week. Then I was lazy for the second. So basically I participated in National Novel Writing Two-Weeks, which isn't nearly as catchy. But this was my fifth year participating and I couldn't break my win streak. No way. Anyway, my novel is called The First Abduction and it's sort of a blend of literary fiction and science fiction, and I'm genuinely really excited about working on it more!

Granted, that's not the only reason I disappeared. I was going through some personal stuff, I was working too hard and too much, I had anxiety about a lot of things, I suffered some heart break, and I tried really hard to pick up all of my pieces before they could hit the ground. Reading just wasn't happening for me and it hadn't been since like September. (To be fair, though, I've literally always disappeared from the blog in the fall, so I should have seen this coming). But the experience of letting go of most of my obligations in order to catch up in NaNoWriMo (I was writing 5,000 words a day at least) was pretty incredible and led me to realize what stuff I really do want to prioritize in my life.

I've been working out. I've been more thoughtful about not eating cheez-its for every meal. I made quinoa for the first time (still really don't understand what it is, but that's fine). I made a smoothie that was green AND drank it. So basically, I'm even more white than I was before!! I want to make more things. I want to spend more time with my friends. I want to finish knitting this god damn blanket that I've been working on for the past two years.

NaNoWriMo is also rekindling the little reading flame in me. I hadn't done any creative writing since, well, November of last year really. And now that I'm peeking into books again, suddenly they're enormously huge learning experiences for my own writing. That had been true in the past, but I'd forgotten that aspect of reading. Now it's like these overdue library books have a rich new layer and I have a lot more motivation to actually read them. It's pretty exciting, tbh.

THE PLAN

This December I'm going to focus a lot of my time on reading, because it's something I really want to do now. I'm going to participate in Shaina's 12 Books of Christmas challenge (you can still sign up today!). I'll most likely be jumping over to Andi's #AMonthofFaves for some blogging inspiration as I ease my way back into blogging. On Instagram I'll be doing a photo challenge about my favorite books of the year. AND my birthday is December 31, so maybe I'll do something related to that! Or you guys can just send me a million presents, because you only turn 23 once you know.

So...What did I miss?

 

September 2015 Rundown

Getting big dramatic news on the last day of the month is becoming a trend. Last month I got my bookseller job offer on August 31. On September 30, I got approved for an apartment and immediately went to go sign the lease! I move in today, which is kind of crazy. I haven't even started packing my books, oh lord.

The book/blogging slump continued through September, unfortunately. Now that I'm moving somewhere new and can become an independent person again, I think my productivity and happiness are going to skyrocket. Fingers crossed.

WHAT I DID

1. // Got an apartment. FINALLY. Who knew it would be so difficult and unpleasant?

2. // Worked. A lot. But I like it. And I haven't made any horrible mistakes yet.

3. // Wow, I should really be packing right now. I'm glad that this is the thing I have to panic about instead of the never finding an apartment thing.

BOOKS READ

 

1. // Bull Mountain by Brian Panowich

2. // Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera

3. // After Perfect by Christina McDowell

4. // Rat Queens, Vol. 2: The Far Reaching Tentacles of N'rygoth by Kurtis J. Wiebe

5. // The Divine by Boaz Lavie

6. // Black Hole by Charles Burns

7. // Chew, Vol. 1: Taster's Choice by John Layman

8. // Lumberjanes, Vol. 1: Beware the Kitten Holy by Noelle Stevenson

9. // The Woods, Vol. 2: The Swarm by James Tynion IV

10. // Revival, Vol. 3: A Faraway Place by Tim Seeley

11. // X'ed Out by Charles Burns

12. // The Nobody by Jeff Lemire

 

MY BEST SEPTEMBER POSTS

• New Glasses & Books That Would Look Better With Them
• Ode To My Childhood Library
• Top Ten Books On My Fall TBR

BOOKS I PLAN TO READ IN OCTOBER

1. // The Determined Heart: The Tale of Mary Shelley and her Frankenstein by Antoinette May

2. // Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

3. // Three Moments of an Explosion by China Miéville

THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO IN OCTOBER

1. // Getting acquainted with my new neighborhood. This is going to be SO MUCH FUN. Minneapolis is a nice place.

2. // Walking to work. Living walking distance from the bookstore is going to be an actual dream.

3. // Visiting Chicago. Because I just can't stay away.

 

 

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

 

Ode To My Childhood Library

This post first appeared on Book Bloggers International as part of Library Love. Unfortunately, my old library referenced below just closed for renovation until late January, so I'm about to take an adventure into a new library in the city. But we'll always have our memorieeeees.

I'm not going to lie; I have a thing for big, overwhelming monsters of libraries. But ever since moving back to Minnesota from the big city of Chicago, I've found myself falling in love with the cozy little library of my childhood again. Sure, it doesn't have every book ever. But it's so cute! And you recognize the librarians because you've seen them since you were 7! And I'm really lucky that the Hennepin County library system has an amazing selection of books. It's SO QUICK about getting all my hold books to me.

Their fiction section isn't quite as big as their nonfiction section, but the librarians are constantly highlighting great books. Recently I saw My Sunshine Away by M.O. Walsh and Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle displayed. I'm so grateful that there are librarians who are clearly paying attention to interesting new books that are out.

The library also does a ton of cool stuff for kids. Like this tent to read in?? I know I'm an adult, but... can I please have a tent too? There are so many cool reading and art programs. I distinctly remember as a child there being a program where kids could apply to display a collection in one of their glass displays. It brought me such a sense of pride and achievement seeing my collection of Beanie Babies (because what else did 90's children collect?) on display for basically the entire world. I'm sure it was equally as exciting for everyone else as it was for me.

Overall, my library is just a really welcoming place to hang out. The chairs are comfy and there are wide open spaces to work, use computers, or just read. One of my favorite things is going to the library with my grandpa after getting lunch together. I'll pick up my (enormous amount of) books on hold and he'll sit for a while reading the new periodicals or checking out the new nonfiction books on display. Browsing at my library is so soothing and it's always nice to see a friendly, familiar face.

And if you didn't believe me when I said enormous amount of holds... Here's half of them.

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Sept 7, 2015]

My new job is the best time of my life. Working at a bookstore is actually just as good as it sounds like it would be. So yeah, I've spent this past week a little bit away from the internet as I've gotten adjusted to work at Magers & Quinn (by far the coolest indie bookstore ever). You can get paid to talk about books OUT LOUD. What?? Ok, I'll stop gushing now. I haven't had a lot of time to read, due to this, but I'm so glad I got to Lumberjanes. IT'S SO CHARMING. If you're interested in comics, this one is pretty fun.

Oh also, this week I'm going on a miniature trip to Chicago, so I'll still be slightly internet quiet. But at least I'm having fun, right?

THIS WEEK I READ:

• After Perfect by Christina McDowell
• Lumberjanes, Vol. 1: Beware the Kitten Holy by Noelle Stevenson
• The Woods, Vol. 2: The Swarm by James Tynion IV
• Revival, Vol. 3: A Faraway Place by Tim Seeley

CURRENTLY READING:

I just got Bull Mountain by Brian Panowich from the library last week. I'm about to actually start it. Katie from Bookish Tendencies promises that the first chapter will blow you away and I'm going to trust her. I haven't read anything gritty or Southern-y in quite a while, so I'm looking forward to getting into this book. I've only heard good things across the internet. Once I finish this one, I'll only have 15 more books from the library to finish. SWEET. (Somebody help me).

What are you reading this week?

 

2 Perfect, Magical Books For Times Of Transition

Transition comes in all sorts of different forms throughout life, and figuring out how to deal with them gracefully can be rough. Some are sudden, like the loss of a loved one or a break up. Some you have known about and planned for for years (graduation, a new job, etc.). Regardless, a change from this to that is awkward and painful when you don't quite know what "that" will bring or how exactly to get there. These are books that have healed me when transition has torn me in two. These books will make you think, appreciate what you have, and motivate you to move bravely toward change.

Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
Publisher: Vintage. July 2012.
Genre: Non-fiction
Pages: 353



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Life can be hard: your lover cheats on you; you lose a family member; you can’t pay the bills—and it can be great: you’ve had the hottest sex of your life; you get that plum job; you muster the courage to write your novel. Sugar—the once-anonymous online columnist at The Rumpus, now revealed as Cheryl Strayed, author of the bestselling memoir Wild—is the person thousands turn to for advice.

Tiny Beautiful Things brings the best of Dear Sugar in one place and includes never-before-published columns and a new introduction by Steve Almond.  Rich with humor, insight, compassion—and absolute honesty—this book is a balm for everything life throws our way.

I don't necessarily want to say that this book saved me, because I wasn't close to any sort of demise, but Tiny Beautiful Things came to me at a time when I needed it most. It took me out of a book slump, and it's still leading me out of a weird post-graduation anxiety slump/perpetual panic. Reading a collection of advice columns initially just sounded like a fun time. Little did I know that Cheryl Strayed was about to blow my perceptions about life and myself apart, and help give me the tools I needed to piece it all back together into something better. It was medicine I didn't know I needed.

Beautiful advice is given to those with small, but meaningful, problems, and those with earth-shatteringly brutal issues. Your breath will be taken away by these anonymous writers' ability to share themselves and try to change, as well as by how Cheryl Strayed always knows the right thing to say. Unlike most advice columnists, she's not afraid to share parts of her own life in her responses, for which I am grateful. I don't think any book has ever made me cry and be completely astonished and hopeful more than Tiny Beautiful Things. I will be returning to this book for years to come.

Hammer Head by Nina MacLaughlin
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company. March 2015.
Genre: Memoir
Pages: 240



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Nina MacLaughlin spent her twenties working at a Boston newspaper, sitting behind a desk and staring at a screen. Yearning for more tangible work, she applied for a job she saw on Craigslist—Carpenter’s Assistant: Women strongly encouraged to apply—despite being a Classics major who couldn't tell a Phillips from a flathead screwdriver. She got the job, and in Hammer Head she tells the rich and entertaining story of becoming a carpenter.

Writing with infectious curiosity, MacLaughlin describes the joys and frustrations of making things by hand, reveals the challenges of working as a woman in an occupation that is 99 percent male, and explains how manual labor changed the way she sees the world.

Deciding that you want to do something completely different from what you've been doing is awkward. After the phase of questioning all of your choices ever (paired with a bit of self-hate), you move into a phase where you either have to take a leap of faith or accept where you already are. Nina MacLaughlin wasn't entirely sure what kind of change she needed, but she knew she needed one. This is the story of her incredible leap into a career path she knew nothing about and the wisdom it brought her.

MacLaughlin's writing is fantastic. You can easily finish this book in a sitting. Somehow chapters about tiling or about building stairs aren't boring at all. And Hammer Head is rife with literary references and philosophy that manage to feel 100x more interesting than they do pretentious.

It's the leap itself that's scariest. Sometimes a story of how well it can all go is all you need to go ahead and take yours. You're going to have to eventually.


What books have healed you?

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Aug 24, 2015]

The book slump is official. It is so official and I have been lying to myself. Bout of Books sort of helped this past week, but I hadn't realized I'd only finished graphic novels and single issues of comics. I did SOME novel reading, just no finishing. Being at a hotel for work during the week also kind of threw me off a little. CHANGE IS WEIRD. Anybody have any tips? I just can't seem to focus right now. How do I make myself focus??

THIS WEEK I READ:

• Revival, Vol. 2: Live Like You Mean It by Tim Seeley
• Nailbiter, Vol. 2: Bloody Hands by Joshua Williamson
• Trees #12 by Warren Ellis
• Invader Zim #2 by Jhonen Vasquez
• Harrow County #4 by Cullen Bunn
• Sin Titulo by Cameron Stewart

CURRENTLY READING:

I started reading Tiny Beautiful Things by Ceryl Strayed during Bout of Books, and I LOVE IT. Strayed is such a good writer and her advice to people is so on point. I just sort of jumped around through the essays to see what I would think of them and it was a solid choice. Now it's sort of the only thing I can picture myself reading, so I'm going to rip right through it.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [Aug 17, 2015]

I totally didn't realize that I didn't really read anything this week. On Friday I got back from my camping trip at Great River Bluffs State Park. It was a great trip filled with hiking and visiting little towns. It was SO BEAUTIFUL. That part of the state is a driftless area, so it glaciers didn't shape the land (directly). It was super hilly, which is abnormal for Minnesota. But this is what all of the state looked like before the ice age. My geology excitement was real. Anyway, I read a bit, but not any substantial amount. I really needed a vacation. I still need one. Can I go back?

Now I'm on a trip for work for the next few days. I'm participating in the Bout of Books readathon this week, which you may have noticed, and I hope the weird new hotel setting doesn't make it hard for me to focus. Hopefully it will just be an incubator for reading. WE'LL SEE. Anyway, I'm happy to be sort of back on the bookternet.

THIS WEEK I READ:

• The Woods, Vol. 1: The Arrow by James Tynion IV - So good! Like Twilight Zone meets Ancient Aliens meets Twin Peaks meets some adventure story. I don't even know, it is just my brand of weirdness pretty specifically.

CURRENTLY READING:

I'm still reading Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. I'm still reading a ton of books I've started but never finished. You can see more about them specifically on my Bout of Books post. And keep looking there throughout the week for daily updates on my reading!

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [July 6, 2015]

As you may know, it was me and my boyfriend's two year anniversary a week ago. We just celebrated a few days late. As promised, I'm going to mention the cute shit. Several of his gifts definitely fed into my book problem. He got me two new bookshelves!! It was very exciting, because 1) I was out of book space, and 2) I fucking love putting furniture together. Actually SO MUCH FUN. And then I received a gift card to a bookstore, which will take him a few steps closer to buying me another new set of bookshelves.

We had fun. Oh, and Camp Nanowrimo has started! I've hardly started working on my novel. I'm just reading over the stuff that I wrote in November. We still have a number of spaces in our virtual cabin, so let me know if you want to join in!

THIS WEEK I READ:

• Gender Outlaws by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman

CURRENTLY READING:

I got Oyster by Janette Turner Hospital a month or two ago and I'm FINALLY going to read it. I don't know, I've been craving a book about a cult. Not that I've read one before, I don't think. But that sounds like a good time, right? And in the Australian outback? YES.

I don't know why, but right now I'm really leaning away from straight literary fiction. I really don't want to read about people and their relationships with other people. People and their relationships with aliens or magic? That sounds better. The first book in this series, The Killing Moon, was absolutely amazing. And I'm not a fantasy reader at all. The Shadowed Sun by N.K. Jemisin continues the Egypt-based dream magic weirdness with some new characters. PUMPED.

 

What are you reading this week?

 

June 2015 Rundown

What a fucking blur. I swear, June just started. I'm still getting my bearings in like every aspect. But I did manage to overcome an almost-reading-slump. God bless Saga. I read 9 books this month and I loved all but one. KILLER. Oh, and today's my two year anniversary with my boyfriend. AWWW. We would do something cute, but it's a Wednesday. Cute things will happen on Friday, though, and I'll report back if they're cute enough.

WHAT I DID

1. // I moved to Minnesota and started work. It's been both good and bad. Saying bye to friends in Chicago was bad, being reunited with friends from Minnesota was good. Work is hard. But I do like it here. For the most part. It's complicated, ok?

2. // I took my longest camping trip yet. And it was beautiful.

3. // I saw Modest Mouse live. For free. Tears were shed. I love volunteering for Rock the Garden.

4. // I played a lot of Animal Crossing. Don't hate. My town is actually the cutest.

BOOKS READ

1. // The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara - AMAZING. So dark. So immersive. Furious with myself for not reading this two years ago.

2. // Light Boxes by Shane Jones - What an odd and pretty little book. Dark and lovely.

3. // Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor - I need more Nnedi sci-fi in my life.

4-6. // Saga vol. 2, 3, and 4 by Brian K. Vaughan - Absolutely astounding comic series. Dying for more.

7-8. // Y: The Last Man vol. 1 and 2 by Brian K. Vaughan - Also excellent, just not as thrilling as Saga.

9. // The Wolf Border by Sarah Hall - Meh + pretty words.

MY BEST JUNE POSTS

• Why You Should Read Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
•  8 Books to Make You Cry
• Top Ten Books I've Read So Far in 2015
• Top Ten Anticipated Releases for the Rest of 2015

BOOKS I PLAN TO READ IN JULY

1. // A Cure for Suicide by Jesse Ball

2. // The Shadowed Sun by N.K. Jemisin

3. // The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra Newman

4. // Who knows??? I don't have a lot of specific reading plans this month. Here's to mood reading.

THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO IN JULY

1. // Camp NaNoWriMo! I kind of forgot about it until just now. I'm a four time National Novel Writing Month champion (by that I mean I wrote 50,000 words within November). I've never really done much with the summer version of this, but I'd like to focus on one of my novels again! Let me know if you're doing it too. Maybe it's not too late to be in a cabin together.

2. // Deciding if I should renew my lease in Chicago or not. Jk, I'm dreading making that decision. Somebody make it for me?

3. // Camping. I'll probably do more of it.

 

 

Happy July, everyone! Do you have more exciting plans than I do? Tell me about the best book you read in June!

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [June 29, 2015]

All photos currently unphotoshopped. SORRY BOUT IT.

This was my week off and it was GREAT, but unfortunately I have to be a real working person again today. That reality is rough. For four days and three nights, I was camping at Banning State Park in Sandstone, Minnesota. My woodsiness was so hardcore. I chopped my glorious stiletto nails into little square stumps just so I could like climb trees and eat raw squirrels or whatever (or so I wouldn't break another nail). It was a real cool place. There were abandoned remnants of a town. SPOOKY.

The hiking was glorious. So was the reading. Reading People in the Trees near a waterfall was unreal. Basically felt like I was in a jungle. And then my boyfriend and I read horror stories from After the People Lights Have Gone Off by Stephen Graham Jones over the campfire every night. I'm going to be real, they weren't all that scary. But they were definitely weird and a little creepy, if you're into more literary horror.

As glorious as this scene was, we totally walked in on a man who was bathing naked in the waterfall. I should've known something fishy was going on when I saw a pile of clothes just sitting atop the rocks. Luckily he hid in some bushes before a dad and his kids walked by.

We also stopped by the place where my summer camp used to be held almost ten years ago. I cried a lot. I have some severe camp feelings. And then right when we got home, The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer arrived in the mail. KISMET.

THIS WEEK I READ:

• The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara

CURRENTLY READING:

Gender Outlaws by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman is a collection of nonfiction essays, stories, comics, etc. written by transgender and genderqueer writers. I meant to read this in Chicago, but had to return it after only having read the intro. So far I'm very impressed by the important work in this book. I'm also delighted that it lines up with the marriage equality that has recently graced America. I think it's worth acknowledging that we still have a long way to go.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [June 22, 2015]

So last night a dream of mine came true. I saw Modest Mouse live! For free! They played Rock the Garden in Minneapolis and it was incredible. I don't want to say that I immediately started crying when they started with "The World at Large." Oh man, the whole set got me in the feelings.

Seun Kuti and the Egypt 80 also played. If you don't know who they are, Seun Kuti is the son of legendary Nigerian musician Fela Kuti. So seeing them live while finishing up Lagoon which is set in sci-fi Lagos, Nigeria was pretty fucking magical.

Side note: I'm also doing Books on the Nightstand bingo! It started Memorial Day and it ends Labor Day. I've kind of bullied everybody I know into doing it with me. Here's my card! If you want one, go here and you'll get a randomly generated card! It's a good time, I promise. Show me your cards!

So basically I want to do all of them except presidential biography.

 

THIS WEEK I READ:

• Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor

CURRENTLY READING:

My work week was so crazy, that I didn't get very far into The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara. I'm going camping this week, though and this is one of the books I'm bringing with me! I think I also need to find something creepy and forest-based. Anybody have any suggestions?

So this tiny weirdness is apparently surreal and poetic, so I think I need it. Light Boxes by Shane Jones is only 175 pages and it's about a small town that's dealing with a perpetual February. And February is like a god? Children are going missing. Shit's going down. And the town is going to fight back against February. After a slow reading week, I need some instant gratification. And its format is kind of experimental, so I'm down.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [June 15, 2015]

What a week it's been. It's been a little crazy getting back into a work schedule. I've been trying to figure out how to prioritize my time again. It's shockingly hard when you're not in school. At school and work for the past two years, I was constantly aware of what time it was. Because, you know, I needed to get out of wherever I was pronto and something was always due. Now time just kind of slips by. My work schedule's about to get a lot more regular, so maybe that'll help. I'm working on it.

I got stuck on a slow book all week, but now I'm finished and it's reviewed and I'M FREE. Bring me the alien books. Isn't Lagoon beautiful?

THIS WEEK I READ:

• Saga, vol. 3 by Brian K. Vaughan
• The Wolf Border by Sarah Hall
• Saga, vol. 4 by Brian K. Vaughan

So I didn't realize that Saga didn't have unlimited volumes for me to binge. It was quite a shock to realize there wasn't a volume 5 yet. Do I start buying single issues or wait until the end of the year for volume 5? HELP.

CURRENTLY READING:

I just started Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor and so far I LOVE IT. I've been craving science fiction. In the prologue, a swordfish is the narrator. And the swordfish gets crazy powers from an alien. YES.

Despite the FPSO Mystras's loading hose leaking crude oil, the ocean water just outside Lagos, Nigeria, is now so clean that a cup of its salty-sweet goodness will heal the worst human illnesses and cause a hundred more illnesses not yet known to humankind. It is more alive than it has been in centuries and it is teeming with aliens and monsters.

I sort of meant to read this one like two years ago, but it didn't actually happen. The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara seems like just the kind of weird and dark I need to speed my reading back up. I actually have it physically from the library. Honestly, ebooks are so hard for me to get myself to read. Anyway, now that I've read A Little Life, I know I can trust Yanagihara.

What are you reading this week?

 

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? [June 8, 2015]

Oh, guess what. I've moved to Minnesota! I've spent the last week packing, getting ready, and spending time with Chicago friends before I abandoned them for the summer. Hence the minor blogging hiatus. Yesterday was a ridiculous day of driving forever and I'm so glad to be kind of settling in finally. I'm TIRED, dudes.

me "enjoying" Wisconsin

I totally didn't finish all the library books I needed to before leaving Chicago. But I'm a master of library holds, so two of the ones I needed are already here in Minnesota. For the time being, though, I'll have to abandon the enormous, scary Danielewski book.

THIS WEEK I READ:

• Y: The Last Man, Vol. 1: Unmanned by Brian K. Vaughan
  
• Saga, vol. 2 by Brian K. Vaughan
• Y: The Last Man, Vol. 2: Cycles by Brian K. Vaughan

CURRENTLY READING:

I've only just started The Wolf Border by Sarah Hall, but so far I like it! It's about a zoologist who is tasked with reintroducing Grey Wolves to the English countryside. She's not into the idea and the Earl's questions for pushing the project are questionable. I'm excited to read more!

Because I actually can't stop. The comic series Saga by Brian K. Vaughan is just as amazing as everyone says it is. Waiting to start volume 3 was rough.

What are you reading this week?