Sunday Post #6

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer.  It's "a chance to share news, a post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog."

Reading This Week:

It's actually been two weeks since I posted, but as seems to have been the pattern all spring, they were BUSY weeks.  I did manage to get through some graphic novels, reading volumes 1-5 of Brian Vaughan's Saga.  I'm really enjoying it, and can't wait to get my hands on volume six, although I'm 14th in line at the library right now.  It's definitely not-in-front-of-the-kids reading, so I read them sitting in an Adirondack chair with a view of the ocean while on my writing retreat.  (Yes, that was bragging.  No, I'm not sorry.)  I also read Relish this weekend, which was pretty good. 

The penultimate day of school, I realized we had a little too much of The Girl I Used to Be left to read out loud, so I read the ending on my own, then summarized it for the class during our 12 minutes together the next day.  I regret not being able to finish it with them, but they REALLY wanted to know what happened, and asked good questions to keep my summary clear.  

I have been trying out a 3 month Book of the Month club subscription.  I was really disappointed in my first pick, so I passed the next month, then special-ordered a cheap ($9.99!) copy of Salt to the Sea instead of the next month's pick.  So I got my second book this month, Lindy Wolf's Shrill, even though I haven't loved any of the comedians' memoirs I've read (Tina Fay, Amy Poehler, Mindy Kaling).   The first parts of the book were amazing; a solid 4 star or higher read.  The latter parts were not as good.  The content was still smart and important, but it wasn't told as well and/or didn't feel as universal.  But definitely worth reading; both funnier and smarter than the others I've read in that genre.  

 I also read Because You'll Never Meet Me, which I've had from the library for awhile, and really enjoyed it.  Then I downloaded the ebook of Play Me Backwards when Riveted sent me a link to free summer downloads.  I had never heard of it, but found it pretty dang fun.  

So, depending on how you count the graphic novel series, that's either six or ten books in the last two weeks.  

Blogging this week:

This is only my fifth post in the last two weeks.  Have I mentioned I've been busy?  I really do think I'll do better now that summer vacation has started.  I analyzed the reading methods preferred by my students and asked you how you read, then I shared the books my students chose for me to read over the summer.  I posted the giveaway and scavenger hunt for the monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up that Nicole at Feed Your Fiction Addiction hosts--it's still on through Tuesday of this week!  You don't have to have participated in the link-up to enter!  That took me a LOT of time to put together, having never created a giveaway with Rafflecopter before.  I loved having the excuse to read all the posts though, and to think of a good question for each one.  The only post I got up in the past week was a Slice of Life post from the writing retreat.

I'm working on a few posts, and with my one year blogoversary coming up in a week and a half, I hope to put together some things related to that.  

Life this week:

Okay, yeah.  School ended, which is always a chaotic kind of event.  I'm moving classrooms this year, after three years in the same room, so it also meant a lot of boxing stuff up and using my rolling chair as a transportation device.  Then I left for a three night retreat at the beach, as I've mentioned a few hundred times.  It was AMAZING.  So much fun, so much work, so much relaxation, so much great conversation, so much fantastic food, so much not-doing-dishes.  Really wonderful people.  I loved it.

While I was gone, my daughter got bit by a random rat in our front yard, and my son almost had the police called on him by an irate neighbor.  (Different events, to be clear.)  And our bedroom door broke when a kid flew into it.  So those were all fun phone calls to field from the beach.  "Oooh, get her a rabies shot, and hey, I gotta go eat some risotto and bond with the other adoptive moms, okay?"

We were planning to bottle wine this weekend, and how my husband is throwing up, which is challenging since he's the one who actually knows what to do.  I just show up and follow directions.  My son's buddy's family is actively, loudly, and messily falling apart, so we have an extra kid over here for the weekend.

Life has been really INTENSE the last month or two.  I'm hoping for more of a breather in the next couple of months.  Happy almost-summer to all of you!
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