Summer Reading List 2012

I just picked up a fresh batch of books from the library (my luck at the library being such that every book I've been on the wait list for comes in during the same week) so I've corralled together books I've started to read or hope to read this summer.  Here it is - the 2012 Summer Reading List - 

I've actually already read 2 books this summer.  So I kicked off the summer by reading Tina Fey's Bossypants by the pool on Memorial Day.  It was really funny although it did take me a couple of chapters to get into it.  I enjoyed the inside peak at SNL and 30 Rock more than the early chapters about her family life.  

After that I read The Garden Intrigue by Lauren Willig.  It's like, I don't know, the 10th book in her Pink Carnation series about (mostly) female spies during the Napoleonic wars.  This one also took me a few chapters to get into as I didn't love the characters at the start, but they grew on me and I ended up quite enjoying it (for the summer beach read it is).  Her books jump back and forth in time telling the story of a modern PhD candidate doing research in Britain about the characters of the historical part of the novel.  The jumping back and forth can be a little disconcerting, but all in all, a nice read.  

I'm looking forward to reading the following (pictured above) -

All of the Sherlock Holmes remaking made me want to read something from the original stories. I'm a fan of both the movies - at least the first one - and the super British contemporary adaption with Benedict Cumberbatch (what a delightfully British name).  Anyway, I jumped on paperbackswap.com and ordered the complete works.  I'm starting with "A Study in Scarlet", but let me know if you think there's a better place to start.  

Next is Geraldine Brooks' March which tells of the story of what Dr. March was doing while all those Little Women were holding down the storm front.  I've heard good things about the book and enjoyed Brooks' People of the Book.  I also have a book of hers about the plague on my kindle that I'm hoping to read at some point.  This was also a "free" paperbackswap acquisition.  

My church is having a women's book club during June and we're reading Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood.  I haven't read any O'Connor since college and even then I'm pretty sure it was only the short stories.  I have yet to make to any of the actual book club meetings, but I am reading along (and hope to make the next meeting).  So far it's a quick read and pretty dark and twisty, but I have underlined some interesting quotes like this one - 

"There's no person a whoremonger, who wasn't something worst first," Haze said.  "That's not the sin, nor blasphemy.  The sin came before them."

Makes you stop and think, huh?  At least it did for me which is saying something as I tend to inhale words trying to get through the plot and seldom let them steep.

Next up is book called Bond Girl by Erin Duffy which was mentioned like a 100 times in EW (Entertainment Weekly) over the spring.  It's about a recent college grad (spoiler alert: she's a girl who works at the bonds desk of a financial institution).  I got about 60 pages in before I had to bring it back to the library last time.  I decided to try again and see if I'm compelled enough to finish it.  So far, I feel it's a little shallow, but I'm also really interested in what life on Wall Street looked like prior to the economic downturn (and the author actually worked that and did stuff so should know).  

Yep, I read Charlaine Harris' vampire/werewolf/fairy/other weird stuff series (the series True Blood on HBO is based on these books).  I will say that I feel like the books are less racy/gory than what I've seen of the show, but maybe I just feel like it's easier to skim over it in a book instead of having it fully visualized on a show.  I think there's only one more book after this one planned which seems like a good idea. Time to reign the crazy in.  

The Orphan Master's Son is a (fictional) inside look at North Korea.  I'm totally interested/slightly scared  to read what it might actually look inside the world's darkest country.  I've read the first chapter and it's that kind of that shocked laughter type thing.  Like remember when you watched the first season of The Office?  I feel like it's bound to get equally more fascinating and horrifying.

And finally is The Lost City of Z (subtiltle: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon).  I saw this book on quite a few airport kiosk book stands a few years ago and had heard that Brad Pitt's production company had optioned the script at one point.  Not sure what happened with that.  (IMDB says "in development" so who knows what that means).  I actually just this minute (when I was flipping to the jacket cover to tell you something about it) noticed that there are pages of pictures inside which usually indicates some part of the book is actually true.  Turns out it's actually based on actual facts.  Go figure?  Still looks good. :)

So, that's the list.  Oh, and I also hope to read The Great Gatsby before going to see the movie.  How I escaped being an English major without reading any F. Scott is a mystery.  

What are you reading this summer?  I love recommendations!!!

Vacation Remix

Last month I was totally privileged (I never spell that word right on the first try) to go on an amazing vacation with one of my best friends.  She lives in Australia, so I hardly ever get to see her, but she was in Canada for work so we met up in San Francisco for a week of fun before she headed back down under.  

Day 1: Meet up at the airport where we're both totally exhausted.  Cassi from teaching for an intense 2 weeks and me from going to a support raising boot camp for work, then heading directly to the Avengers (totally worth it), and then packing, and then sleeping 4 hours, and then feeding the worms and the cats (dark shed with 1000 worms at 5 am - not my fave), and then driving to MARTA.

We got a great deal at the Intercontinental downtown and had fun shopping, walking around the city, eating sushi, sour dough, and cookies.  

Day 2: We packed up the car and had a great brunch at a local place before heading on up the coast to Bodega Bay.

Super Yummy Brunch

View from the rocking chairs at our Bodega Bay resort

Taking break from reading on the rocking chairs

Dessert at the hotel that night

Day 3: We had a very leisurely morning, set out and found a few vineyards and did a bit of tasting, came back and got a warm shell (think hot stone) massage at the spa, had dinner and started the nightly S'mores ritual.  It was Cassi's first time to have S'mores!  

Starting the fire

We found our own sticks (by poking around in their landscaping)

Day 4: After a few false starts, we finally made our way to Bodega Head where we walked along the cliffs of the coastline and looked for whales making the migration back up to Alaska.  We saw some right after we got out of the car, then we walked up and back, stopping along the way to look for more, splitting the ocean in half to have a keener view, and of course, didn't see any more whales until we returned to the parking lot.  Gorgeous view, though!!

View up the coast

Ready to look for whales

Along the path

So, so pretty

 And, of course, we stopped for more wine tasting on the way home.  This is called a wine surf.  

Sunset from our hotel

No day was complete without S'mores!!!  Way to take advantage of a room with a fireplace!!

Day 5:  Today we got up and headed off to Armstrong Nature Reserve (or something like that) to look at the Sequoias. They were amazing!!!  And, of course, there was an obligatory stop off at a couple of vineyards on the way home.  And then we went back to try out the warm shell massages for a second time.  

It's a long way to the top of these trees.

Getting ready for our last night of S'mores!!

 Day 6: It was time to end our vacation and head back to San Francisco.  We decided to take the scenic route along the coast back.  It was beautiful, but maybe not the best idea for 2 girls who both get carsick.  At one point, after driving on curvy twisty roads for well over an hour, a road crewman told us to take a detour.  I felt sick, Cassi had to pee, we were almost out of gas, I was trying to navigate off my phone, and the worker told us there no "close" gas stations - it wasn't pretty!  Fortunately, we found a town within a few miles and then were back on the sweet, sweet freeway. 

One of the places we stopped so I could get a bit of fresh air (euphemism for "not barf")

We spent the last few hours doing really important touristy things like -

getting our portrait made by a street artist

Dead ringers, right?

And stopping off at Ghiradelli!!!

Such a great vacation - I can't wait for our next adventure!!

Mother's Day...eh, Month?

Totally belated Mother's Day post but I've been meaning to give a little link love to these other fabulous women who posted great things in honor of mothers (and not mothers, and want to be mothers, and all the different types of women)


This is from a friend in China.  She's amazing.  And I LOVE this post. (seriously, click on this link right now) It's an open letter to pastors about the totally awkward stand-up if you're a mom on Mother's Day thing.  It's awesome, like in that make you cry kind of a way.  As is the follow-up one. 


And then over at Momastery with Glennon, she posted this excellent poem from Tina Fey's Bossypants. 


Enjoy!  And let me know what you think.