Life Right Now #23

As I look outside my window: The air is a bit hazy but not quite as bright as it was yesterday. It’s still going to be hot today but slightly less than the over 100 degree temperatures of yesterday.

Right now I am: Getting to breakfast and my book fairly late as I slept in a bit. Very tiring week!

Thinking and pondering: Do I have enough supplies for coop this week? We are having a great turnout for our free, open house meetings, but that also means more supplies. I think I have enough, but I did order more sand and lava rocks just in case. (We’re making sedimentary rocks as one of the activities for the geology unit.)

On my bedside table: Hide by Kiersten White (super excited by this one); Lore Olympus Vol. 2; The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

On my tv this week: J and I are finally getting through The Umbrella Academy S3 (two episodes left!) and keeping up with Loot and What We Do in the Shadows. On Friday, the family watched Lightyear for our pizza and movie night. It was a decent kids’ movie.

Listening to: Catching up on my currently publishing podcasts. We did listen to an Eons episode on the way to art class on Thursday afternoon. That may become a routine.

On the menu for this week: Goodness! My meal plan is all out of sorts for the week ahead. Guess I will be tackling that after brunch…

On my to do list: I’ve got a ton of little computer-based tasks to take care of. I imagine finding new doctor for the kids is going to be the long, complicated one to finish.

Happening this week:

• Monday - School Day

• Tuesday - Schramm Geologic Field Trip; Trivia Night

• Wednesday - School Day; Science Class

• Thursday - Coop; Art Class; Library Book Bash (virtual)

• Friday - School Day

• Saturday - Home Day

• Sunday - Currently Reading Zoom Discussion of The Lincoln Highway

What I am creating: Nothing much at the moment, although my June and July Memory Planner pages are on my desk waiting for me. If only it wasn’t so hot upstairs in the afternoon.

My simple pleasures: A cold shower (seriously, it’s so hot!), seeing friends, sorbet (for us lactose-challenged folks)

Looking around the house: Even with a full week of schooling, the house doesn’t look bad. I need to pick up the living room, but that’s mostly coop supplies that are being organized.

From the camera: Our apple taste test was a last minute change to the curriculum but definitely worthwhile. I liked the Cosmic Crisp, Arthur liked the Fuji, and Quentin like the Gala.

Hotel Magnifique by Emily J. Taylor

Title: Hotel Magnifique

Author: Emily J. Taylor

Publisher: Razorbill 2022

Genre: YA Fantasy

Pages: 400

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR

All her life, Jani has dreamed of Elsewhere. Just barely scraping by with her job at a tannery, she’s resigned to a dreary life in the port town of Durc, caring for her younger sister Zosa. That is, until the Hotel Magnifique comes to town.

The hotel is legendary not only for its whimsical enchantments, but also for its ability to travel—appearing in a different destination every morning. While Jani and Zosa can’t afford the exorbitant costs of a guest’s stay, they can interview to join the staff, and are soon whisked away on the greatest adventure of their lives. But once inside, Jani quickly discovers their contracts are unbreakable and that beneath the marvelous glamour, the hotel is hiding dangerous secrets.

With the vexingly handsome doorman Bel as her only ally, Jani embarks on a mission to unravel the mystery of the magic at the heart of the hotel and free Zosa—and the other staff—from the cruelty of the ruthless maître d’hôtel. To succeed, she’ll have to risk everything she loves, but failure would mean a fate far worse than never returning home.

Now this book is totally my jam! We get a fun fantasy story featuring magic and the illusion of magic. I absolute adore books where the setting becomes a real character. The Hotel Magnifique itself is one of the most important characters in the novel. As Jani slowly uncovers the secrets of the hotel and the employees, I fell more in love with the hotel itself. My biggest complaint about this book is that we didn’t get to see more of the guest rooms and enchantments. As for the human characters, I loved Bel and his mysterious ways. I despised Alaister and his underlings (as you should). I grew to love Jani’s strength and commitment to her sister. I called the twist as it relates to character, but it felt appropriate instead of gimmicky. This book gave me big The Night Circus vibes but with much more action. Loved it!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Pachinko by Lee Min-Jin

Title: Pachinko

Author: Lee Min-Jin

Publisher: Grand Central 2017

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 490

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant--and that her lover is married--she refuses to be bought. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son's powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations.

Richly told and profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. From bustling street markets to the halls of Japan's finest universities to the pachinko parlors of the criminal underworld, Lee's complex and passionate characters--strong, stubborn women, devoted sisters and sons, fathers shaken by moral crisis--survive and thrive against the indifferent arc of history.

Unfortunately, this one really did not work for me. Everything was so dour and bleak that I never wanted to pick this volume up. I let it languish on my nightstand for days while I read other books. I dreaded having to go back to this very serious novel. And I definitely was not a fan of the time jumps. I don’t really enjoy the “sweeping family saga” genre of books and this one fits that to a tee. The writing was very detached and void of emotion during the most intense scenes. I forced myself to finish as we had picked this one for book club., but I was not fan at all.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Odds and Ends

Here's my randomness for the week:

• A bit nervous about today’s coop meeting. We are going to have 47 children!

• Deep into my current read and it’s giving me The Magicians vibes but with a faster moving plot.

• My Bachelorette predictions: Gabby will end up picking Nate and Rachel will end up picking TIno.

• I feel the urge to make a fun dessert this week, but do I have the energy?

• Currently looking at the giant stack of books for homeschooling week 2. It’s really a lot…

Next up on the TBR pile:

Inheritance by Elizabeth Acevedo

Title: Inheritance

Author: Elizabeth Acevedo Illustrated by: Andrea Pippins

Publisher: Quill Tree Books 2022

Genre: Poetry

Pages: 48

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

In her most famous spoken-word poem, author of the Pura Belpré-winning novel-in-verse The Poet X Elizabeth Acevedo embraces all the complexities of Black hair and Afro-Latinidad—the history, pain, pride, and powerful love of that inheritance.

Paired with full-color illustrations by artist Andrea Pippins in a format that will appeal to fans of Mahogany L. Browne’s Black Girl Magic or Jason Reynolds’s For Everyone, this poem can now be read in a vibrant package, making it the ideal gift, treasure, or inspiration for readers of any age.

Slim poem put to beautiful illustrations celebrating natural hair. I was moved by the words and the visuals. This would be a great book to have on any shelf and especially those of shelves belonging to little girls. There is such a celebration in these pages. I would love to hear Acevedo perform this piece accompanied by the visuals on screen.

Next up on the TBR pile:

August 2022 Life Goals

Let’s check in on July’s goals and my progress.

• Read 15 Books ✓

• Finish prepping curriculum for 2022-2023 school year ✓

• Visit Indiana (and on-the-way states) ✓

• Finish prepping for fall coop semester ✓

• Redo the Playroom ✓

• Put a pause on my library holds for second half of July-August ✓

August Goals: Sticking with just a few goals for the month as I know it’s going to be a busy one.

• Read 18 Books

• Kick off the Coop for the Fall Semester

• Make 4 Recipes for Our 52 Desserts

• Visit the zoo once

• Visit two state parks

Next up on the TBR pile:

Music Monday - Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Spitting Off the Edge of the World"

Digging this new song during this super hot week.

Next up on the TBR pile:

July 2022 Wrap

July TBR Pile (18/24):

1. BOTM: TBD

2. Bookworms BC: The Bone Orchard by Sara A. Mueller ✓

3. Bookworms BC: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel ✓

4. Bookworms BC: A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham ✓

5. Friend BC: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

6. Currently Reading Buddy Read: The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

7. Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility

8. Fantasy: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas ✓

9. Fantasy: A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas ✓

10. Fantasy: A Mirror Mended by Alix E. Harrow ✓

11. Fantasy: Wonderland edited by Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane ✓

12. Fantasy: Lobizona by Romina Garber ✓

13. Horror: The Fervor by Alma Katsu

14. Horror: The Haunting of Blackwood House by Darcy Coates ✓

15. Romance: Wicked Beauty by Katee Robert ✓

16. Romance: The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory ✓

17. Romance: Sweet Filthy Boy by Christina Lauren ✓

18. Science Fiction: Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki ✓

19. Kid Read Aloud: Wishtree by Katherine Applegate ✓

20. Kid Read Aloud: The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall

21. Classics: Address Unknown by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor ✓

22. Middle Grade: The Minor Third by Neil Patrick Harris ✓

23. Middle Grade: Wretched Waterpark by Kiersten White ✓

24. Poetry: 100 Essential American Poems edited by Leslie M. Pockell ✓

1,000,000 Page Goal:

Monthly Total: 6092 pages
Pages Remaining: 394,825 pages

Current Read - The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall; Hotel Magnifique by Emily J. Taylor; A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

Books I Gave Up On (0)

Books Bought/Received (5)

My BOTM selection was Tomorrow, Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin

At the library book sale, I picked up three books just for me.

• Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson

• The Bounty by Caroline Alexander

• Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

While traveling with popped into a cute little used book store in Peoria and I picked up Sabriel by Garth Nix.

UnRead Shelf Progress

• Starting Number: 335

• Books Read: 1

• Books Acquired: 5

• Books Unshelved: 0

• Finishing Number: 339

August TBR Pile:

1. BOTM: TBD

2. Bookworms BC: Already read

3. Friend BC: Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley

4. Currently Reading Buddy Read: The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

5. Currently Reading Buddy Read: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin

6. Currently Reading Buddy Read: Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

7. Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility

8. Fantasy: A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas

9. Fantasy: Hotel Magnifique by Emily J. Taylor

10. Horror: The Fervor by Alma Cats

11. Romance: Dirty Rowdy Thing by Christina Lauren

12. Historical Fiction: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

13. Kid Read Aloud: The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall

14. Kid Read Aloud: Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

15. Kid Read Aloud: Children of the Longhouse by Joseph Bruchac

Movies watched

• Tall Girl

• The Grey Man

TV Shows watched 

• Only Murders in the Building S2 - Still really loving this show.

• Stranger Things S4 - How am I supposed to wait two years for the next season?

• The Boys S3 - A little disappointed that they didn’t make the move I thought they would

• Last Week Tonight - Our constant

• Below Deck Med S4 - Seriously hope to see the downfall of Raygun as she’s terrible at her job.

• Below Deck Down Under S1 - Somehow I didn’t know about this one. Must watch!

• Holey Money S4 - Our delightfully silly show.

• The Umbrella Academy S3 - Finally started this season. Klaus and Five are still my favorites.

Comments - Lots of books read this past month, but it was definitely a mixed bag.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Wretched Waterpark by Kiersten White

Title: Wretched Waterpark (The Sinister Summer #1)

Author: Kiersten White

Publisher: Delacorte Press 2022

Genre: Middle Grade Horror

Pages: 256

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR

Meet the Sinister-Winterbottoms: brave Theo, her timid twin, Alexander, and their older sister, Wil. They’re stuck for the summer with their Aunt Saffronia, who doesn’t know how often children need to eat and can’t use a smartphone, and whose feet never quite seem to touch the floor when she glides—er—walks.

When Aunt Saffronia suggests a week pass to the Fathoms of Fun Waterpark, they hastily agree. But the park is even stranger than Aunt Saffronia. The waterslides look like gray gargoyle tongues. The employees wear creepy black dresses and deliver ominous messages. An impossible figure is at the top of the slide tower, people are disappearing, and suspicious goo is seeping into the wave pool.

Something mysterious is happening at Fathoms of Fun, and it’s up to the twins to get to the bottom of it. The mystery, that is. NOT the wave pool. Definitely NOT the wave pool. But are Theo and Alexander out of their depth?

Such a delightful middle grade horror book! This reminds me of a cross between A Series of Unfortunate Events and a Goosebumps. We are thrust into a mysterious adventure where Will, Theo, and Alexander have no idea what to do or how they got there. I loved seeing the three siblings attempt to navigate the strangeness of the waterpark. Even though the waterpark is very strange, I totally would love spending a day there. I flew through this book and cannot wait to read the next one once it is published.

The Sinister Summer

• #1 Wretched Waterpark

• #2 Vampiric Vacation

• #3 Camp Creepy

Next up on the TBR pile:

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham

Title: A Flicker in the Dark

Author: Stacy Willingham

Publisher: Minotaur Books 2022

Genre: Mystery Thriller

Pages: 357

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

When Chloe Davis was 12, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her own father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath.

Now 20 years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. While she finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she’s worked so hard to achieve, she sometimes feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. So when a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, that terrifying summer comes crashing back. Is she paranoid, seeing parallels from her past that aren't actually there, or for the second time in her life, is Chloe about to unmask a killer?

Ooof. This is not what I wanted tor read this past week. I was hoping for a good mystery/thriller, but this is just full of 2-dimensional characters and terrible tropes detrimental to women. Our main character sometimes act like she’s 19 and other times like she’s 30. There’s a big mixed bag to her behaviors. And then we see how she operates as a psychologist and there is just so many ethical violations that I couldn’t take her seriously. Worst yet, she’s painted as an addict popping pills and downing alcohol that leaves her in a fugue state for most of the book. Can we stop with this trope. Women can have lots of issues and baggage to deal with without resorting to drugs and alcohol. And some women are addicts and alcoholic without the issues and baggage. The book really paints Chloe as some “typical” damaged woman and I was very over it but the middle of the book. And then we get to the central murder mystery and I cannot believe how the plot resolved itself. I was so angry. One visit from Chloe to her Dad or even her listening to mother would have pointed Chloe to the real killer. Instead we get the big red herring of the fiancee. And don’t get me started on the fact that the fiancee never actually communicated anything with Chloe. All these people kept way too many secrets from each other and that resulted in multiple girls being murder. I just could not handle this book at all.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Sweet Filthy Boy by Christina Lauren

Title: Sweet Filthy Boy (Wild Seasons #1)

Author: Christina Lauren

Publisher: Gallery Books 2014

Genre: Romance

Pages: 418

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR

When three besties meet three hot guys in Vegas anything can—and does—happen. Book One of the New York Times bestselling Wild Seasons series from the author of the Beautiful Bastard series.

One-night stands are supposed to be with someone convenient, or wickedly persuasive, or regrettable. They aren’t supposed to be with someone like him.

But after a crazy Vegas weekend celebrating her college graduation—and terrified of the future path she knows is a cop-out—Mia Holland makes the wildest decision of her life: follow Ansel Guillaume—her sweet, filthy fling—to France for the summer and just...play.

When feelings begin to develop behind the provocative roles they take on, and their temporary masquerade adventures begin to feel real, Mia will have to decide if she belongs in the life she left because it was all wrong, or in the strange new one that seems worlds away.

I finally got around to starting the other early Christina Lauren series that I haven’t read yet. And my response is a resounding meh. I loved the setup of the surprise marriage in Vegas, but the book quickly went a bit downhill from there. I liked Ansel up until his secret was exposed. I could have dealt with his secrets and the fallout if we could have seen a good cathartic conversation. Instead, we get a quickie happy ending and I was annoyed. And then we turn to Mia and I just could not get behind her at all. Not a fan of her character at all. As a final note, I am going to say something very unexpected. I think this book might have had too many sex scenes… There I said it. Too many sex scenes in this contemporary romance.

Wild Seasons

• #1 Sweet Filthy Boy

• #2 Dirty Rowdy Thing

• #3 Dark Wild Night

• #4 Wicked Sexy Liar

Next up on the TBR pile:

Currently #13

Reading: I’m about halfway through A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham. It’s a murder mystery thriller that’s not really my jam, but It was a book club pick. I’m really scared that there’s going to be some big silly twist coming soon.

Watching: While at my mom’s house, I discovered that there was another Below Deck variation that I didn’t know about. This one is set in the waters off of Australia. I most definitely added the series and started watching it. Now I have two different Below Decks to watch during lunch.

Listening: Arthur has zoo camp this week and is gone from 9am-3:30pm every day. Already Quentin has taken the opportunity to be a little chatterbox with Arthur away. So many silly conversations with him!

Making: With the start of the new coop semester and the new homeschooling year, I’ve been making a ton of Facebook events.

Feeling: I’m being stretched mentally as well as physically. I’ve got a ton of plates to juggle to get the coop started off right. And my scar tissue has been acting up leading to more stretching and uncomfortable nights.

Planning: I’m almost got everything prepped for our first Homeschool week. I still need to gather some random supplies and make the day piles, but the rest is ready to go.

Loving: With the terrible high temperatures, it was nice to have a few days of lower temperatures. More exciting was the cloud cover. It really helped to not feel like we are on the surface of the sun.

Next up on the TBR pile:

We're Homeschooling - Year 3! Planning and Schedule

Our Schedule

So now I have the supplies, it’s time to start planning and gathering everything I want to do. I’m a Type A planner that always feels better with a good plan going in. I’m always up for flexibility and change in the spur of the moment, but I need a plan to reference when things change. I started with making a simple list of of the various curriculum we will be using.

I’m a big fan of time blocking, but we have multiple events outside of our house to account for. This coming year, we have our STEAM coop, coop art class, and science with a friend family.. My first pass at scheduling our day began with the outside items. From there, I came up with this basic schedule:

Next, I broke the week schedule down into days to better see if everything would fit. Arthur’s schedule is set and I am still tweaking Quentin’s schedule. I primarily use Roam to accomplish my day to day planning.

My next step was to create an overview calendar with our big themes. I used index cards cut into smaller pieces laid out on my desk so I could see everything at once and move things around. Very low tech solution, but sometimes paper really is better.

I was having trouble remembering if I was including all the pieces, so I created this weekly checklist to make sure. I’m certain that I will be tweaking this as the semester progressed. Right now this is what I have… (after taking this picture, I added Cooking and Q STEM to the checklist).

My last big planning step is to create very detailed lesson plans including videos, books, and details. This will be my second year using a special note talking app called Roam. I’ve been actively using Roam to collect all my notes, lesson plans, scheduling, and other miscellaneous items. (Also, you can see from the sidebar that I use Roam for a wide range of projects, not just homeschooling.) I’m still exploring the various tools on Roam and I’m sure that my planning with get more advanced and efficient as this year goes on. This screenshot is the start of our first week.

And that’s it! My planning and scheduling process seems very complicate but most of it is prep work before the year begins. Once we start, I mainly use the paper planner as reference and work inside Roam for the day-to-day planning. As usual, I tweak the process as I go along but this is my starting place.

We’re officially starting our homeschool adventure the first week of August. Starting August 8th, I’ll post a weekly wrap-up. I hope to do weekly updates highlighting our highs and lows on this journey.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Music Monday - Jimmy Eat World "Something Loud"

New music from one of my favorite bands! I’m so excited!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

Title: Light from Uncommon Stars

Author: Ryka Aoki

Publisher: Tor Books 2021

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 372

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR

Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six.

When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka's ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She's found her final candidate.

But in a donut shop off a bustling highway in the San Gabriel Valley, Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, and mother of four. Shizuka doesn't have time for crushes or coffee dates, what with her very soul on the line, but Lan's kind smile and eyes like stars might just redefine a soul's worth. And maybe something as small as a warm donut is powerful enough to break a curse as vast as the California coastline.

As the lives of these three women become entangled by chance and fate, a story of magic, identity, curses, and hope begins, and a family worth crossing the universe for is found.

This book defies a simple description or genre. There’s sone science fiction. There’s some fantasy. There’s some family saga, even if it’s a found family. We’re thrown into multiple lives without much extra information. The first section of this book is rough. We get details of familial abuse. We get details of sexual assault and some descriptions of sex work. Once Katrina starts to settle into life with Shizuoka, I started to settle into the story and really appreciate the book. We dive deep into the main characters and sit with their highs and lows. It’s the lows that really pull at the emotions. While I really enjoyed the story and characters, it does settle into a melancholy atmosphere that I appreciated. The writing style took a bit to get used to, but ended up being a an interesting concept. We get a bit of stream of consciousness as a variety of music is played. I loved how we get to read exactly how the specific music affects certain characters. I’m still processing all my feelings and thoughts on this book, but it was definitely a winner.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Lobizona by Romina Garber

Title: Lobizona (Wolves of No World #1)

Author: Romina Garber

Publisher: Wednesday Books 2020

Genre: YA Fantasy

Pages: 400

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Some people ARE illegal.
Lobizonas do NOT exist.
Both of these statements are false.
Manuela Azul has been crammed into an existence that feels too small for her. As an undocumented immigrant who's on the run from her father's Argentine crime-family, Manu is confined to a small apartment and a small life in Miami, Florida.
Until Manu's protective bubble is shattered.
Her surrogate grandmother is attacked, lifelong lies are exposed, and her mother is arrested by ICE. Without a home, without answers, and finally without shackles, Manu investigates the only clue she has about her past—a mysterious "Z" emblem—which leads her to a secret world buried within our own. A world connected to her dead father and his criminal past. A world straight out of Argentine folklore, where the seventh consecutive daughter is born a bruja and the seventh consecutive son is a lobizón, a werewolf. A world where her unusual eyes allow her to belong.
As Manu uncovers her own story and traces her real heritage all the way back to a cursed city in Argentina, she learns it's not just her U.S. residency that's illegal. . . .it’s her entire existence.

I listened to this on the way back from Indiana. While the book starts fairly slow, I was completely hooked by the time Manu finds herself in the Everglades and encounters a whole new world. This book tackles identity and family as well as cultural heritage, gender constructs, immigration, and body autonomy. Garber deftly weaves together a host of topics to paint a complete picture of one teenage girl. I loved imagining the various scenes (especially those that involved the tree) walking into Manu’s world. I most definitely need to read the folllow-up as this one leaves us on a big cliffhanger. And for the record, I totally called the identity of Manu’s father way before the reveal.

Wolves of No World

• #1 Lobizona

• #2 Cazadora

Next up on the TBR pile:

Summer Bucket List Update #1

Another season, another summer bucket list. In our town, it’s been feeling like summer for weeks now. I sat down with the kids the other day and they helped me come up with a list of activities for this season.

1. Complete the Library Reading Program ✓

2. Tour of Midwest Zoos ✓ - We saw four zoos in Illinois and Indiana on our trip last week.

3. Ice Cream Tour of Omaha

4. Louisville SRA ✓ - We’ve been there twice so far this summer.

5. Durham Dinosaur Exhibit

6. Trip to Indiana, Iowa, Illinois ✓

7. Cookout with Friends

8. Lincoln Day

9. Medieval, Pirate, and Prehistoric Putt - In progress. The boys went with J to Medieval Putt while I was gone at the end of June.

10. Redo the Playroom

11. Bird Watching Hike

12. Pam Nelson Farm

13. Lauritzen Gardens

14. 5 Splash Pad Visits - 3 done

15. 3 Movies at the Theater - 2 done

16. 3 Omaha Zoo Visits - 1 visit done

17. Craft/Art Day - Not yet, but we are going to The Makery tomorrow with coop friends.

18. Read 50 Books

19. July Movie Month!

20. Clear Out My Library Cart

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory

Title: The Wedding Date (Wedding Date #1)

Author: Jasmine Guillory

Publisher: Berkley 2018

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Pages: 317

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Summer TBR

Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn't normally do. But there's something about Drew Nichols that's too hard to resist.

On the eve of his ex's wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend....

After Alexa and Drew have more fun than they ever thought possible, Drew has to fly back to Los Angeles and his job as a pediatric surgeon, and Alexa heads home to Berkeley, where she's the mayor's chief of staff. Too bad they can't stop thinking about the other....

They're just two high-powered professionals on a collision course toward the long distance dating disaster of the century--or closing the gap between what they think they need and what they truly want....

I grabbed this one as my audiobook selection for driving to Indiana. I was looking forward to a breezy fun contemporary romance. This one was okay, but definitely not my favorite. Let’s start with what I did like. I liked the meet-cute set-up between Alexa and Drew. I loved that they both had jobs that they were passionate about. I loved the interactions between each of them and their friends. I was board with all that. Unfortunately, this could not completely make up for a few of my issues. My first point is not about this particular book, but I did realize that I don’t love listening to open door scenes. I would most definitely prefer to read them instead. With respect to this actual story, I didn’t love how abrupt the ending was. I really wanted more of a discussion between the two characters about the miscommunication they engaged in. I wanted both parties to have a more serious discussion of their hang-ups before the obligatory epilogue chapter. I also became very annoyed with Alexa’s constant disparagement of her body. It really got old really fast. I imagine that I will continue reading the series, but this wasn’t the strongest start for me.

Wedding Date:

• #1 The Wedding Date

• #2 The Proposal

• #3 The Wedding Party

• #4 Royal Holiday

• #5 Party of Two

• #6 While We were Dating

Next up on the TBR pile:

Odds and Ends

Here's my randomness for the week:

• We’re back home and I’ve got a huge list of things to accomplish before August 1st.

• Arthur’s got zoo camp next week and I need to make him lunches every day.

• So sad that we didn’t get to add any bald eagles to our summer count.

• But we did visit four different zoos on our trip.

• Coming home is always nice, but I do not love the laundry piles afterward.

Next up on the TBR pile:

100 Essential American Poems edited by Leslie M. Pockell

Title: 100 Essential American Poems

Author: Leslie M. Pockell

Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books 2009

Genre: Poetry

Pages: 304

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

The way we view our nation---its history, its traditions, even our distinctly American voice---is largely determined by our literature. In this rewarding and thought-provoking book are gathered poems that have been essential components of our common American culture, from the earliest days of our nation through canonic works of the nineteenth century and up to the present day. 100 Essential American Poems includes fondly remembered works by such familiar figures as Longfellow, Poe, and Whitman, and popular classics like "A Visit from St. Nicholas" and "Casey at the Bat," but it also features passionate outcries from poets like Paul Laurence Dunbar and Langston Hughes that highlight our ongoing national racial tensions, and poems by such women as Anne Bradstreet, Emily Dickinson, and Edna St. Vincent Millay that supply a distinctly female perspective on American life. Also included are the lyrics of such expressions of the American spirit as "Yankee Doodle," "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "This Land Is Your Land," in addition to a few surprises! The immortal poems and songs included here, each preceded by an illuminating headnote, will remind every reader of the richness and variety of the poetry of America and its people.

Meh. I am really not having a great reading week here. Two three star reads in a row. For this one, I was excited to read a variety of poets and styles. Instead, I feel like these are all the of the most well-known poems that appear in every anthology. And then we don’t really get very diverse in our poets and styles. Lots of the same over and over again. And we don’t really get any recent selections. I found a few gems in here, but overall I found the collection to be lacking greatly.

Next up on the TBR pile: