Shannon Kay

Meeting Louis Sachar

Thu, 07 Aug 2025 23:00:00 -0700

I met Louis Sachar at Barnes & Noble in Huntington Beach, at a signing for his first adult book, The Magician of Tiger Castle. Louis Sachar is also the author of Holes. It was a delight to meet him, and hear him discuss his new book.

Louis Sachar and Shannon

Louis Sachar discusses his new book and answers questions at an event.

Sarah Beth Durst and Sangu Mandanna at The Ripped Bodice bookstore in LA

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 15:58:00 -0700

I got to see Sarah Beth Durst and Sangu Mandanna at The Ripped Bodice bookstore in LA. Their newest books came out on the same day! It was a delight to see them in conversation together as they talked about their books and writing process for cozy fantasy and romance.

Sarah Beth Durst, Me(Shannon), and Sangu Mandanna at The Ripped Bodice in LA.

I asked the first question! My question was about the seasonal vibe of their book. I think The Spellshop was a Summer book, and The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches was a Winter book because of the Winter Solstice.

Sangu said that if I thought Secret Society was Winter, then A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping is even more winter. But not, like, Christmas winter. Like grey January winter.

Sarah said that The Enchanted Greenhouse takes place in winter, but each greenhouse is like a little pocket of summer. But that the best time to read her book is whenever you need a little escape.

Here’s a group picture from moderator Dahlia’s Instagram stories.

I zoomed in to see myself better. I’m sitting behind a pink-haired woman.

Signing line selfie at The Ripped Bodice. Waiting to see Sarah Beth Durst and Sangu Mandanna.

Shannon's Summer reading list for 2025

Sat, 31 May 2025 12:00:00 -0700

Are you looking for something to read this summer? This list is a mix of old and new books that I can happily recommend. Not only do they all exist¹, but I have read them. They’re not all explicitly summer-themed, but I think they would be good for reading in the summer.

This list includes Adult, YA, and Children’s(middle grade) books, but I wrote these recommendations with adult readers in mind. If you have a child or teen in your life that would also enjoy the YA or kid lit suggestions, that’s a bonus. Maybe you can read them together!

I get some of my books from my Book of the Month box. If you want to join for $5, here’s my Book of the Month referral link. No other affiliate links are used. Links to author websites are used when possible.

Summer Reading Suggestions List 2025

My Salty Mary by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows
The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton
The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
The Dividing Sky by Jill Tew
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin
Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson
Holes by Louis Sachar
Secrets of the Nile duology (What the River Knows and Where the Library Hides) by Isabel Ibañez
This Night is Ours by Ronni Davis
The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson

Bonus Picks:

Series: Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Percy Jackson books are perfect to read or re-read in the summer because most of the books take place in the summer. This is a middle-grade book series that’s enjoyable for a wide range of ages. There’s also a recent adaptation of the first book on Disney+ with season two premiering December 2025. Here’s my suggested reading order for Percy Jackson books.

Non-fiction: On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

My Salty Mary

My Salty Mary by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows
Travel Location: the Caribbean
Historical Time: 1719
Genres: YA, Historical, Fantasy, Funny, Romance
422 pages • 🎧 Great audiobook

My Salty Mary might be the perfect beach read. It has pirates and mermaids, humor, romance, some “improved” history, and disruption of hierarchical systems. What’s not to love?

My Salty Mary by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows is a Young Adult alt-historical fantasy written in a comedic style.

My Review • GoodReads • Storygraph • Hoopla • Overdrive

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty
Travel Location: Indian Ocean
Historical Time: 12th Century
Genres: Historical, Fantasy, Adventure
483 pages

More pirates! The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty is a great historical fantasy adventure.

Amina Al-Sirafi is a middle-aged piratey sea captain who is persuaded out of retirement and away from her daughter. What she thinks will be a fact finding and rescue mission to recover the daughter of a former crewman turns into a full scale supernatural adventure.

My Review • Storygraph • GoodReads • Hoopla • Overdrive

The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love

The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton
Travel Location: England, Paris
Historical Time: Victorian Era (but fantasy)
Spice: Open door with more euphemistic language (mainly one scene)
Genres: Romance, Fantasy, Light Academia, Funny, Cozy, Historical
384 pages

The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love is a truly delightful book, with a perfect blend of magic, humor, romance, and a “historical” setting. It takes place in the summer, despite being a Light Academia book.

Summary

When a competition to become Birder of the Year is announced, rival professors Beth Pickering and Devon Lockley are forced to team up to have any chance of winning. They simply can’t trust anyone, including each other - for while all may be fair in love and war, this is ornithology!

My Review • StoryGraph • GoodReads • Book of the Month • Overdrive

The Blue Castle

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
Travel Location: Deerwood, Ontario, Canada (the Muskoka region of Ontario, where Montgomery and her family vacationed for a few weeks during the summer of 1922)
Historical Time: 1920’s
First Published: 1926
Genres: Literary, Romance, Social Commentary
250 pages • short chapters

The Blue Castle has social commentary, humor, tears, romance, and a wonderfully written cast of characters. Plus cats! I think this is as good a classic romance as a Jane Austen book, though it takes place about a hundred years later.

I’ve always been a fan of the Anne of Green Gables books, but I hadn’t read many of the author’s other books. The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery was published in 1926 and is one of her few adult novels. The protagonist is 29 years old.

When I finished reading The Blue Castle for the first time, I felt that I had been altered. I immediately loaned it to my best friend to read. Now I’m telling strangers on the sidewalk(in front of book stores) about it.

The Blue Castle is in the public domain, so you can get a free ebook at Project Gutenberg or Standard Ebooks.

My Review • StoryGraph • GoodReads

The Dividing Sky

The Dividing Sky by Jill Tew
Time: Future (2460)
Location: Boston, Massachusetts and New Hampshire
Genres: Dystopian, Romance, YA, Sci-Fi
346 pages • 🎧 Good audiobook

The Dividing Sky sang. It’s a dystopian sci-fi adventure, but also had cozy vibe moments, somehow. I’m still thinking about this book, months after reading it.

Summary

A cunning teen memory merchant falls for the handsome rookie officer on her tail in this swoony dystopian romance.

My Review • StoryGraph • GoodReads • Overdrive

Tom Lake

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
Time: 2020 and 1980’s
Location: Michigan and New Hampshire
Genres: Literary, Dual Timeline, Contemporary, Historical
346 pages • 🎧 Amazing audiobook

Tom Lake is a gorgeous summertime literary fiction. I loved the themes of theatre and family. During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns in 2020, a mother tells her three daughters about her past as an actress while they pick cherries in their family orchard. Most of the stories are about a summer production of Our Town in the 1980’s, at a theatre company called Tom Lake. And there is a lake!

The audiobook is narrated exquisitely by Meryl Streep.

My Review • StoryGraph • GoodReads • Hoopla • Overdrive

A Psalm for the Wild-Built

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
Genres: Cozy, Sci-Fi, Solarpunk, Novella
151 pages

Cozy Sci-Fi! Serving tea on some moon! An unexpected wild-built robot!

A Psalm for the Wild-Built is gently paced. Leisurely, but doesn’t feel slow. It’s a novella, so it’s quite short and a great choice if you don’t feel like you can commit to a long book.

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Great Big Beautiful Life

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry
Travel Location: Seaside island in Georgia
Historical Time: Contemporary, with flashbacks
418 pages • 🎧 Great audiobook

Summary

Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry.

Great Big Beautiful Life is a great book to read in the summer. It has nice seaside vibes and the romance with the two writers has a great rivals-style tension to it. The stories told by the old woman make it like a dual timeline book with lots of scenes from the past. I enjoyed the character-based mysteries.

Great Big Beautiful Life is Emily Henry’s new book for 2025. If you’ve read her other contemporary romances, I think you’ll like this one too. If you haven’t read any, they’re all standalone books so it’s fine to start with the newest. If you want to read one of Emily Henry’s older books, I suggest Book Lovers.

My Review • StoryGraph • GoodReads • Overdrive

A Novel Love Story

A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston
Travel Location: The cozy small town in your favorite book series.
Genres: Romance, Magical Realism
378 pages

A professor of literature finds herself caught up in a work of fiction… literally.

A Novel Love Story is Sweet, cozy, and magical. A book lover’s dream. Imagine getting lost in your favorite book’s cozy small town.

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The Spellshop

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
Travel Location: A cozy seaside town on a magical island
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Cozy, Cottagecore
376 pages

The Spellshop is a delightful cottagecore cozy fantasy. A librarian is hiding spellbooks with her talking plant companion. She makes and sells jam(and spells) on a small island with winged cats. Friendly townsfolk include a baker and a handsome man who takes care of merhorses. There is a romance, but I thought the friendship and found family aspects were more prominent.

My Review • StoryGraph • GoodReads • Overdrive

A Wizard of Earthsea

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin
First Published: 1968
Genres: Fantasy, Classic
183 pages

A Wizard of Earthsea is a fantasy classic first published in 1968. Short but impactful, this book is credited with being the first book with a “wizard school” in it.

I loved the themes of loving people in non-romantic ways like friendship and mentorship. We might call that “found family” now. This book also resists violence and militaristic solutions to problems.

Summary

Ged, the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, was called Sparrowhawk in his reckless youth.

Hungry for power and knowledge, Sparrowhawk tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death’s threshold to restore the balance.

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Good Dirt

Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson
Travel Location: South Carolina, Massachusetts, France

Historical Time: 2019, flashbacks to 1800’s and 1900’s

Genres: Literary, Contemporary, Historical, Multiple Timelines
352 pages • Short Chapters • 🎧 Great Audiobook

Good Dirt deals with serious topics, but is hopeful and easy to read. The “good dirt” was in relation to literally the land where you live, but also clay for making pottery. I enjoyed the stories of each ancestor, as well as the contemporary storyline which was a story about figuring out who you are as an adult. The chapters were short, making it easy to read “just one more chapter”.

My Review • StoryGraph • GoodReads • Book of the Month • Overdrive

Holes

Holes by Louis Sachar 233 pages

Holes is a really wonderful book. It touches on so many important themes in really accessible ways. It’s easy to read, but still compelling. I love the way everything works together in each character’s backstory for a really satisfying connection.

This book has dual timelines, mystery, humor, found family, and even a historical romance in it. It’s a good pick for summer reading, because it’s about camp!

Is this technically a children’s book? Yes. I read it for the first time when my sixth grade daughter had it assigned for class. I remembered liking the movie, but had never read the book, so I decided to read it with her. This is a great book whether you’re a kid or an adult. (If you do have kids you want to read it with, I’d recommend it for about age 10 and up.)

Summary

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the warden makes the boys “build character” by spending all day, every day, digging five feet wide and five feet deep. It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize there’s more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.

My Review • StoryGraph • GoodReads • Overdrive

Secrets of the Nile duology

What the River Knows and Where the Library Hides by Isabel Ibañez
Travel Location: Egypt
Historical Time: late 1800’s
Genres: Historical, Fantasy, Romance, Adventure, Young Adult

The Secrets of the Nile duology is a good blend of fantasy and historical fiction with romance and Indiana Jones vibes.

Isabel Ibañez’s lush, immersive historical fantasy is set in Egypt and filled with adventure, a rivals-to-lovers romance, and a dangerous race.

StoryGraph • GoodReads • Hoopla • Overdrive

This Night is Ours

This Night is Ours by Ronni Davis
Time: June 20
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
336 pages

This Night is Ours is a wonderful book about understanding yourself with friendship, some romance, and art. The characters and relationships feel very authentic. The book takes place all in 24 hours, on the Summer Solstice. It has teens chasing their dreams, and a summer carnival.

My Review • StoryGraph • GoodReads • Overdrive

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson
Travel Location: English Seaside
Historical Time: 1919
Genres: Historical, Romance, British
423 pages • 🎧 Good audiobook

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club takes place at an English seaside hotel during the summer after World War I. This book deals with societal change caused by the war and its end, but also has wonderful moments of fun, friendship, and romance.

Summary

A young woman’s life is forever changed in the summer after World War I when she befriends a group of independent, motorcycle riding women in a seaside town on the English coast

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Viral AI-Generated Summer Guide Printed by Chicago Sun-Times Was Made by Magazine Giant Hearst (Apple News) ↩

Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson

Wed, 21 May 2025 12:53:00 -0700

Seasonal Vibe: Summer
Travel Location: South Carolina, Massachusetts, France
Historical Time: 2019, flashbacks to 1800’s and 1900’s
Genres: Literary, Contemporary, Historical, Multiple Timelines
Read: May 19-20, 2025
Format: Switched between Book of the Month hardcover and Audiobook
352 pages • Short Chapters • 🎧 Great Audiobook

Good Dirt is the multi-generational story of an African American family going back hundreds of years and up to 2019. This American history begins with a woman being kidnapped from her village, and tells the story of generations of enslaved people and how they became “Freemans”. The jar made by one of the ancestors aids in the oral storytelling tradition of their family.

I got this book from my Book of the Month box. If you want to join for $5, here’s my Book of the Month referral link. No other affiliate links are used.

Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson
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Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

Fri, 16 May 2025 15:04:00 -0700

Today I finished reading Going Postal by Terry Pratchett. It was my first Terry Pratchett book.

Here’s a quote.

What kind of man would put a known criminal in charge of a major branch of government? Apart from, say, the average voter.

I look forward to sprinkling more of his books throughout my reading! There are many opinions on the internet about how to go about this. I’ve even been given this image showing the Discworld series and subseries.

The reading order flowchart for discworld. Find a full description at discworldemporium.com/reading-order

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

Sun, 04 May 2025 13:57:14 -0700

I listened to the audiobook for all of The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi, and it’s a fun sci-fi that’s a contrast to most of my other books. It’s just weird and imaginative, and there’s no romance at all.

I particularly enjoyed the audiobook narrated by Wil Wheaton for an easy, enjoyable listen. I finished this one while driving home from an event.

This is my second book by John Scalzi. I liked Starter Villain a bit more, but this one is fun too.

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 13:57:14 -0700

Seasonal Vibe: Summer
Travel Location: Seaside island in Georgia
Historical Time: Contemporary, with flashbacks
Read: April 24-26, 2025
Format: Switched between Barnes & Noble special edition hardcover and Audiobook
418 pages | 🎧 Great audiobook

Great Big Beautiful Life has nice seaside vibes and the romance with the two writers has a great rivals-style tension to it. The stories told by the old woman make it like a dual timeline book with lots of scenes from the past. I enjoyed the character-based mysteries.

Make Your Own Website

Mon, 10 Feb 2025 13:26:00 -0800

Now presenting, Make Your Own Website

This guide is intended to help beginners make their first website with HTML/CSS.

I originally wrote it for my daughter, then 12 years old, so she could make a website for a school project. I think it is now complete-enough for anyone to follow to get started making a personal or hobby site.

Wings of Starlight by Allison Saft

Fri, 07 Feb 2025 21:39:00 -0800

My 13-year-old daughter started reading Wings of Starlight immediately and waited anxiously for me to finish it. A romantic YA book prequel to Secret of the Wings? We both loved it.

“Discover the origin of the sweeping, star-crossed romance between the queen of Pixie Hollow and the lord of the Winter Woods.”

In 2012, when my oldest daughter was a toddler, a new TinkerBell movie came out. Secret of the Wings was the best one yet, and it featured Lucy Hale as the voice of TinkerBell’s newfound winter sister Periwinkle and Timothy Dalton as the voice of Milori, Lord of Winter.

I watched Secret of the Wings as an adult, and I thought it was good. When I saw the summary for Wings of Starlight, I immediately recognized what it was about before the characters were even named. I was excited! I told my daughter, who was now 13, and preordered it.

Read: February 4-7, 2025
Seasonal Vibe: Winter, but magically all the other seasons too.
Travel Location: Pixie Hollow

The Dividing Sky by Jill Tew

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 12:30:14 -0800

Time: Future (2460)
Location: Boston, Massachusetts and New Hampshire
Genres: Dystopian, Romance, YA, Sci-Fi
346 pages | 🎧 Good audiobook

The Dividing Sky sang. It’s a dystopian sci-fi adventure, but also had cozy vibe moments, somehow.

The way the dystopian world is set up really makes a statement about our priorities as a society. Highly valued “productive” workers outsource their emotional needs to a proxy. A proxy can watch a sunrise and share the memory with their client, to “save time” so that the productivity can continue.

This book has stayed with me. On multiple occasions, things in the real world have reminded me of this book and I had to think “where was that from?” before remembering that it was The Dividing Sky.

I’m so glad I took a chance on preordering this special edition book from Brave + Kind Bookshop.

StoryGraph • GoodReads • Overdrive

2024 Books

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 12:57:14 -0800

In 2024, I read 89 books! That’s more books than I’ve read in a year since before I had kids. That count does include re-reads which I didn’t always track in the past.

Here’s a non-comprehensive selection of books I read in 2024 that I loved and keep recommending.

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery 💖 📚
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst 💖 🦄
The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton 💖 🦄 📜 🤣
A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid 💖 🦄
Assistant to the Villian by Hannah Nicole Maehrer 💖 🦄 🤣
My Salty Mary by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows 💖 🦄 📜 🤣
Dungeons and Drama by Kristy Boyce 💖

Emoji genre key: 💖 romance 🦄 fantasy 📜 historical 🤣 funny 📚 literary

New NAS

Fri, 27 Dec 2024 12:57:00 -0800

We got a new NAS! It’s a Synology DiskStation DS1522+ to replace the DiskStation DS1511+ we’ve been running for over 13 years(solidly and beautifully).

I’m swooning over the stack of 22 TB hard drives we’ve installed and can hardly contain my excitement at seeing 100 TB of hard drives in my server.

It took a while to transfer everything from the old NAS(DiskStation DS1511+) and do a restore, but now we have things running on it easily that I was struggling with before.

I’m excited!

Christmas Tree Farm

Sat, 30 Nov 2024 12:57:00 -0800

Visiting Peltzer Pines Christmas tree farm to pick out our tree for this year.

Our Family Selfie

We had to take some photos with our tree!

Blizzard Halloween Party

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 11:57:00 -0700

Here’s a photo of my three kids at the Blizzard Halloween party this year in the traditional photo spot in front of the orc statue. I shot this photo at 1/15s on my Fujifilm X-T5 handheld and I’m really impressed with how it turned out. There’s some motion blur where my son is flapping his Ender Dragon “wings”, but besides that it’s quite sharp. The lens used was the Sigma 18-50mm 2.8 if you’re interested in that sort of thing.

My Salty Mary

Mon, 09 Sep 2024 23:00:00 -0700

Read: September 6-9, 2024
Seasonal Vibe: Summer
Travel Location: the Caribbean
Historical Time: 1719
Genres: YA, Historical, Fantasy, Funny, Romance
422 pages • 🎧 Great audiobook

My Salty Mary might be the perfect beach read. It has pirates and mermaids, humor, romance, some “improved” history, and disruption of hierarchical systems. What’s not to love?

I saved My Salty Mary to read during a beach weekend with my husband to celebrate our anniversary, and I think it was the ideal book to enjoy.

This might be the most Titanic(movie) references in a Lady Janies book yet, and I’m here for it. This series is amazing, and I love it.

The Spellshop

Tue, 03 Sep 2024 13:57:14 -0700

by Sarah Beth Durst
Travel Location: A cozy seaside town on a magical island
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Cozy, Cottagecore
376 pages

StoryGraph • GoodReads • Overdrive

Autumn 2024 Book List

Sun, 01 Sep 2024 13:57:14 -0700

Books that I might want to read this fall. This is not a reading plan or a goal, but just some of the books I’m considering for this season’s reading.

Books on My Physical Shelf

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs
The First Ladies by Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray
Weyward by Emilia Hart
Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid
This Spells Love by Kate Robb
The Wren in the Holly Library by K.A. Linde
The Love Elixer of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman
Children of Ragnarok by Cinda Williams Chima (sequel, Bane of Asgard, is out October 22)
The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young
The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic by Breanne Randall

Releases I Have Preordered this Fall

Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune (9/10)
Rewitched by Lucy Jane Wood (9/17)
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Wrath of the Triple Goddess by Rick Riordan (9/24) 📚
The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter (9/24) 🎄
The Wedding Witch by Erin Sterling (10/8) 🎄
What Does It Feel Like? by Sophie Kinsella (10/8)
The Dividing Sky by Jill Tew (10/8)
This Will Be Fun by E.B. Asher (10/29)
Where the Library Hides by Isabel Ibañez (11/5) 📚
The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong (11/5)

📚 This book is a sequel that I will drop everything to read as soon as it arrives. 🎄 These are Christmas/Winter Holiday books, so I plan to read them later.

Library Holds

Dreadful by Caitlin Rozakis
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen
A Daughter of Fair Verona by Christina Dodd
Dreams Lie Beneath by Rebecca Ross
A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab
The Hedgewitch of Foxhall by Anna Bright
Long Live Evil by Sara
Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller
A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal
Wormwood Abbey by Christina Baehr

Kindle Books

Babel by R.F. Kuan
The Hurricane Wars
Lore of the Wilds
The Grace of Wild Things
Long Live Evil
The Honey Witch
Halloween Vibes

I’d like to read at least one “witchy” romance in October
Rewitched by Lucy Jane Wood
Witchful Thinking by Celestine Martin
Hot Hex Boyfriend by Carly Bloom
The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen
A Witch’s Guide to Fake Dating a Demon by Sarah Hawley
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Not the Witch You Wed
Re-Reads
Jane Eyre
Books I’d like to read that have sequels coming out
The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon (sequel is out December 10)
Children of Ragnarok by Cinda Williams Chima (sequel, Bane of Asgard, is out October 22)
Sword Catcher
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir - I’ve had this book marked “to read” on GoodReads since 2015, and never gotten to it. There’s a new book in the same world coming out October

The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love by India Holton

Sun, 14 Jul 2024 19:00:00 -0700

Read: July 7-14, 2024
Seasonal Vibe: Summer
Travel Location: England, Paris
Historical Time: Victorian Era (but fantasy)
Spice: Open door with more euphemistic language (mainly one scene)

This is a truly delightful book, with a perfect blend of magic, humor, romance, and a “historical” setting.

I read the Book of the Month edition.

Summer Dance Recital

Sun, 23 Jun 2024 13:57:00 -0700

This weekend was the dance recital for my daughter, Guinevere. Guinevere is now thirteen and has been dancing since she was three. Guinevere has been en pointe in ballet for almost two years, and this recital was her first performance en pointe.

When I got to the theater and an usher handed me a program, I was surprised and delighted to see that it had a picture of her on the back from 2015 when she was four!

The picture from the Alice in Wonderland recital she performed in was there to promote this winter’s recital for the younger dancers, which is the Alice in Wonderland theme again. I was so excited when I saw her picture that I immediately told the usher “That’s my daughter when she was little! Now she’s big and en pointe!” I also told pretty much anyone that was standing nearby. I started to tear up a bit, thinking about how much she’s grown in nine years. When I got to my seat, I told the person sitting next to me all about it. When you put your three year old in a dance class, you don’t know how long they’ll want to dance. Sometimes they love dance, try lots of styles, work hard for ten years, and start doing ballet en pointe. If you want to see how far she’s come, here’s the video of her pre-ballet Alice in Wonderland dance at age four.

Nine years later, this is her pointe duet to the Pink Panther theme.

I still have this photo of four-year-old Guinevere from her Alice in Wonderland recital hanging on my wall.

Look at her now.

After the show, I was careful to take a picture of her with the program. I told a few more bystanders about it too.

This Night is Ours by Ronni Davis

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 13:45:00 -0700

Read: June 19-20, 2024
Seasonal Vibe: Summer! Takes place on June 20
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance

This Night is Ours by Ronni Davis was a wonderful book about understanding yourself with friendship, some romance, and art. The characters and relationships feel very authentic. The book takes place all in 24 hours, on the Summer Solstice. It’s a wonderful book I happily recommend for teens and up.

The Getaway List by Emma Lord

Sat, 15 Jun 2024 13:45:00 -0700

Reading this book was like hanging out with friends and exploring New York with them for the summer.

Seasonal Vibe: Summer
- Starts with a high school graduation and takes place during the summer after graduation.
Travel Location: New York City

There is a romance, but mostly this is a story about a group of friends figuring out what they love and what they want to do next. There’s also a really nice theme about books and writing, with the main two characters having bonded over a beloved(fictional) children’s fantasy series as kids. This is realistic YA fiction that touches on how people can use fantasy stories to navigate the real world and their relationships. There was also a theme about coding and app development that I was surprised to discover.

I started reading The Getaway List on the perfect day for me. I had just been to my youngest daughter’s preschool graduation and it was the last day of school for my older two kids, with my oldest daughter singing in the choir at the promotion for her middle school’s 8th graders. It had a perfect vibe for the end of the school year and looking forward to summer, and was a nice easy read for my tired mom brain.

Summer 2024 Book List

Fri, 14 Jun 2024 12:00:14 -0700

Just some books that I think I might want to read this summer. This is not an exhaustive list, or even a “To Be Read” list, but just a selection of books that I think I might read during the next season for a variety of reasons.

Books on My Physical Shelf

Funny Story by Emily Henry
This Night Is Ours by Ronni Davis
Dragonfruit by Makiia Lucier
Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs
Song of the Six Realms by Judy I. Lin (OwlCrate)
Children of Ragnarok by Cinda Williams Chima (sequel, Bane of Asgard, is out October 22)
Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen (OwlCrate)

Summer Releases I Have Preordered

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst (7/9/24)
The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer (7/16/24) - I’ve actually read the ARC, but didn’t want to leave it out.
The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton (7/23/24)
Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell (7/30/24)
My Salty Mary by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows (8/20/24)

Summer Romances with Summer Literally in the title

I’d like to read at least one of these

Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez - I actually just finished this book, but I hadn’t read it yet when I started this list.
This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune - this takes place on Prince Edward Island
Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan

More Books That Look Good for Summer

Expiration Dates by Rebecca Serle
Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson
A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall
For the Love of the Bard by Jessica Martin - A Shakespeare company in the summer
The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson - Historical Fiction

I Need More Fantasy Books

We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal- I read the first book recently
The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty - I’ve been meaning to read this series

Books I’d like to read that have sequels coming out in the fall

The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon (sequel is out October 22)
Children of Ragnarok by Cinda Williams Chima (sequel, Bane of Asgard, is out October 22)

Books listed total: 24 -1 ARC read -1 Summer Romance read = 22. Book Math.

Holes by Louis Sachar

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 13:57:14 -0700

My daughter’s sixth grade class was reading Holes by Louis Sachar. I decided to read it too since I had never read the book, but liked the movie.

This is a really wonderful book. It touches on so many important themes in really accessible ways. It’s easy to read, but still compelling. I love the way everything works together in each character’s backstory for a really satisfying connection.

My daughter, who is usually an all-fantasy reader, really liked it too.

It occured to me that this book might be considered magical realism. It’s mostly realistic fiction, with interspersed historical fiction, but the element of the “curse” could be a bit of magical realism. It also has a stealthy historical romance in it.

The Blue Castle

Sun, 26 May 2024 13:57:14 -0700

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery is one of those backlist classic books I’ve meant to read for years. I’ve loved the Anne of Green Gables book series since I was a young girl, but I haven’t read many of her other books. I read this mostly from an actual paperback book.

I think The Blue Castle is as good a classic romance as a Jane Austen book, though it takes place about a hundred years later. It’s one of the few adult novels that L.M. Montgomery wrote.

This book has social commentary, humor, tears, romance, and a wonderfully written cast of characters. Plus cats! This is a cat-friendly book. The chapters are short. There are 45 chapters in this book that’s about 250 pages long. If you’re looking for short chapters, this book has them.

“Fear is the original sin,” wrote John Foster. “Almost all the evil in the world has its origin in the fact that some one is afraid of something. It is a cold, slimy serpent coiling about you. It is horrible to live with fear; and it is of all things degrading.”

The beginning of the book is slower with lots of social commentary and introductions to Valancy’s family and her expected societal limitations. The social and religious commentary alone was riveting.

In many ways, I’m glad I read this book for the first time as an adult married woman and mother. I think I appreciated the nuance more than I would have ten years ago. I thought and talked about The Blue Castle intensely for days after I finished reading it.

The last 25% of the book is packed with reveals and emotional excitement.

Spoilers

I thought that the rose bush Valancy “attacked” at the beginning of the book would be blooming at the end, and it was.

I cried big tears at Cissy Gay’s story of her baby’s death, then for her own death a few pages later.

The only problem with this romance is that Barney Snaith is perhaps the worst name for a romantic lead I’ve ever heard.

I’m interested in how much detail is on the page compared to what we’re supposed to understand is going on off-page. In my experience, intimacy is rarely mentioned in a book like this. A “respectable” book published in 1926.

To “make love” means romantic speech or “sweet nothings” and seems to have no “bedroom” implications. I’ve read this in “older” books before, but it was especially noticeable here that this was still accurate. On the drive home after they get married, Valancy says she doesn’t “want him to make love” to her, and suggests that she just wants him to talk to her like usual. Then as soon as they get to the island, they have their first kiss. I think we are to understand from this first kiss, that they have an intimate physical relationship.

But I wanted you to talk. I don't want you to make love to me, but I want you to act like an ordinary human being.

Barney lifted Valancy out of the canoe and swung her to a lichen-covered rock under a young pine-tree. His arms were about her and suddenly his lips were on hers. Valancy found herself shivering with the rapture of her first kiss. "Welcome home, dear," Barney was saying.

And a bit later, this line.

And that little kissable dent just between your collar bones.

That sounds quite intimate to me. Interestingly, none of the “marriage of convenience” style tropes such as sleeping apart happened. That’s not where the romance is. A sweet and wonderful relationship is described for them, from companionship to implied physical intimacy. The conflict comes from the unknowns in his past as well as her assumed quickly approaching death.

All this, and still Valancy does not believe he loves her. She truly thinks he’s just been pitying and humoring her. This is frustrating to the reader but is not unbelievable given her emotionally abusive upbringing.

Thankfully, they sort it all out in the end.

The hypocrisy of her family! Ugh!

Links

Use Photos in GoodReads Reviews

Sat, 25 May 2024 00:15:14 -0700

Did you know that you can put photos in your GoodReads reviews? If you’re a “bookstagrammer” and also use GoodReads, adding one(or more!) of your photos to a review can let even more book lovers enjoy them.

Here’s how to do it.

Upload your photo to an image host. Some choices include Postimages, imgur, and Flickr. I normally use SmugMug because I have a paid account there for my photos, and embedding is allowed. I’ll use Postimages for this example.

After uploading your photo, copy the direct link to the image. GoodReads allows some HTML formatting in reviews and we can use that to add a picture.

Here is the HTML you need to embed the photo. Replace the LINK TO IMAGE with the direct link, and put in your own alt text.

<img src="LINK TO IMAGE" alt="BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF YOUR PICTURE" />

Here’s what mine looks like.

<img src="https://i.postimg.cc/76jG8W1R/20231010-11-06-05.jpg" alt="Percy Jackson and the Chalice of the Gods on a table next to a pink mug" />

Paste this code into your review on GoodReads, and save it. You can also click on “preview” to see what it looks like before you save. Paste the code wherever you want it to show up in the review. It could be at the beginning, at the end, or somewhere in the middle. It’s up to you.

Here’s my review with the photo embedded.

These are the formatting tips from the GoodReads review editor. This tells us which HTML tags are supported. Notice that you can also include links. You could link to your blog, Instagram account, or even the direct link to a specific Instagram post.

Goodreads allows some html formatting.

well formed web urls automatically get turned into links
link: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com">my link text</a>
link to book: use the "add book/author" link or [book: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]
link to author: use the "add book/author" link or [author: J.K. Rowling]
image: <img src="https://www.goodreads.com/image..." width="40" height="100" alt="description"/> (Width must be 0-400, Height must be 0-1000, alt is a description of the image. All three are optional, but recommended.)
bold text: <b>...</b>
italic text: <i>...</i>
underline text: <u>...</u>
strike text: <s>...</s>
exact spacing: <pre>...</pre>
blockquote: <blockquote>...</blockquote>
paragraph: <p>...</p>
spoiler: <spoiler>...</spoiler>

Note: tags must be properly nested, example:
OK <i><b>test</b></i>
Not OK <i><b>test</i></b>

Enjoy!

yallwest 2024

Sat, 06 Apr 2024 13:57:00 -0700

This year, I went to yallwest for the first time. That’s a Young Adult book festival in Santa Monica. I went by myself and had a great time meeting people and attending panels.

I brought two books to get signed, and both authors had lines that required wristbands. I was excited to get wristbands for both lines.

The first was Tracy Deonn. I brought my copy of Bloodmarked for her to sign. I was excited to receive art prints while I waited in line!

And here I am telling Tracy Deonn about my list of books with the word cariad in them while she signs my book.

Books with “cariad”

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

My second signing line was Tahereh Mafi, whose current series, This Woven Kingdom, I read for the first time in March. I brought my copy of These Infinite Threads for her to sign.

I then rushed to catch the end of an audiobook narrator workshop, which was a fun time for me.

I also got to meet Kamilah Cole, whose debut novel, So Let Them Burn, I was currently reading and near the end of. I was actually listening to the audiobook in the car on the way to the festival!

Kamilah was a delight to talk to. I told her that I was 80-90% through her book and really enjoying it, and she said “Oh, I’m so sorry!” and I think that was the first time I’ve had an author personally apologize for their book’s ending before I’ve read it.

I didn’t have a physical book, but she signed one of the blank bookmarks that I brought, and we took a selfie.

Here are the panels I attended.

OPENING KEYNOTE: JASON REYNOLDS & STEPHANIE GARBER

BIG FANTASY ON THE BIG STAGE Moderated by Ransom Riggs with Tracy Deonn, Adalyn Grace, Marie Lu, Namina Forna, Angie Thomas, and Adam Silvera

AFTERNOON SPOTLIGHT with Tahereh Mafi, Aiden Thomas, Ava Reid, Adam Silvera, and Hafsah Faizal

THE STORY OF THE NEVERENDING STORY Reinventing the Series Moderated by Amélie Wen Zhao with Lauren Roberts, Zoe Hana Mikuta, Kamilah Cole, Alex Aster, and Hamish Steele

YALLWEST SMACKDOWN Hosted by Ryan La Sala and Angela Montoya This all-star jam brings our cast of featured authors on stage as they play games and undertake shenanigans, all for your entertainment.

Almost Midnight

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 12:01:01 -0800

Happy New Year! I truly love Rainbow Rowell’s New Year’s Eve themed short story, Midnights, and I already have it in two other volumes of her short stories. This year, I was delighted to enjoy the story in this adorably small paperback, which also has unique illustrations that are not in the other volumes.

I also enjoyed Kindred Spirits, a story about camping out to see Star Wars Episode VII in 2015. I’m now somehow nostalgic for 2015.

Reading this tiny volume of two short stories by Rainbow Rowell today has made me think that reading a short story or novella is a great way to start my year with some low-stakes, low-choice book reading. A graphic novel could also work.

Books I Read In November

Sat, 02 Dec 2023 12:57:14 -0800

In November, I started reading the Earthsea books by Ursula K. LeGuin for the first time and read Iron Flame, the sequel to Fourth Wing from earlier this year, as soon as it came out. I also continued my Jane Austen read-through by reading Mansfield Park.

Books I Read In November:

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
The Tombs of Atuan (Earthsea Cycle Book 2) by Ursula K. Le Guin

Having a Tween is Actually Amazing

Fri, 17 Nov 2023 16:47:00 -0800

My oldest child, Guinevere, is a 12-year-old, and while there are some new challenges to tween parenting, it’s mostly pretty great.

She’s started reading the Percy Jackson books. Then she came home one day telling me about the classical Greek theatre she had experienced in her drama class. Now we can talk about Percy Jackson and Oedipus!

At school, while discussing an article asking whether students should use AI, she asked how AI was defined, and pushed back when the (substitute) teacher said after “checking” that, yes, video games and Google are AI.

In one of Guinevere’s classes, the students could play a trivia game against their classmates after finishing a test. She played against a boy who had the screen name “Imagine Losing”, and beat him twice. The boy got mad and said, “Just let me win! I have a reputation to protect!” She did not comply.

Hollywood Bowl

Sat, 14 Oct 2023 02:27:00 -0700

We attended our second concert in as many days on Friday night. It had been a while since I attended a live performance that didn’t star one of my children.

Friday night at the Hollywood Bowl was amazing. I thought I might burst into tears a couple of times. We were excited to hear The Beths play again, this time opening at the Hollywood Bowl before Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service for the 20th anniversary of tour of Transatlanticism and Give Up. We had tickets to this concert already and were delighted to discover that our recent favorite, The Beths, were the opening act that night. I got a pin from The Beths concert the night before, and added it to my Death Cab/Postal Service tote bag.

I have a gallery of more photos and video clips here.

It was so nice to hear both bands complimenting each other. I hope Liz Stokes was able to hear Ben Gibbard call her one of the greatest songwriters of her generation. I wish we could’ve gone to see The Beths play again this weekend!

The Beths at Lodge Room

Fri, 13 Oct 2023 02:27:00 -0700

Last night, we left the house and saw The Beths in concert.

My gallery of photos and a few videos from the concert.

Chalice of the Gods

Thu, 28 Sep 2023 11:55:14 -0700

The new Percy Jackson book came out this week, and I read it within two days, despite being quite busy and trying not to rush it. In the end, it was pretty short and very wonderful.

Chalice of the Gods is the coziest possible Percy Jackson book. It was reflective, sweet, and hopeful. It was funny, in the traditional style of Percy’s narrative voice.

It was a book of low stakes questing with no world-ending peril and really strong themes of family and friendship.

New iPhone

Fri, 15 Sep 2023 13:39:00 -0700

The first 21st century Apple product that caught my eye was the pink iPod mini. After the Apple event on Tuesday, I ordered the pink Apple Watch series 9. I’m really excited about it, and planning to pass my current watch down to my tween daughter.

I have a 13 Pro now and planned to upgrade, excited to move to the usb-c connector. I love the look of the pink iPhone 15, but didn’t want to give up all three camera lenses, plus the other new/pro features. I wish they’d make an iPhone Pro in pink! The Pro colors are pretty boring.

So I’ve been mulling for the past couple days about if I would be happy with the pretty!pink iPhone 15, or if I should go for an iPhone Pro as usual. I’ve decided to go with the iPhone 15 Pro(blue titanium), and I’m ready to preorder it in the morning. My tween was disappointed by my choice, though.

Tom Lake

Tue, 29 Aug 2023 12:00:00 -0700

Read: August 6-29, 2023
Seasonal Vibe: Summer
Time: 2020 and 1980’s
Location: Cherry orchard in Michigan and New Hampshire
Genres: Literary, Dual Timeline, Contemporary, Historical
346 pages | 🎧 Amazing audiobook

I’m the oldest of three girls, and I loved the relationship of the three daughters to each other and their parents. I studied theatre, and I loved the descriptions of the theatre. Auditions, rehearsals, the show must go on! I also related strongly to Lara’s relationship with her grandmother. I’ve definitely volunteered for things because my grandma told me to, and I grew up sewing with my grandma, and also my childhood best friend’s grandmother would sew with us.

The audiobook is narrated exquisitely by Meryl Streep. I also felt like the writing was so good, I would like to read it for myself. I kept listening to the audio because it was so good, but I loved the book so much, I ordered a special edition hardcover from Waterstones.

StoryGraph

GoodReads

Hoopla

Spoiler Section

Spoilers

The best friend's grandmother who sewed with us died of breast cancer when we were 13 years old. Oh, how I cried when this happened to Lara's grandmother.

Review: Every Duke Has His Day

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 12:55:40 -0700

I was intrigued when I saw Every Duke Has His Day by Suzanne Enoch described as Bringing Up Baby, in the style of Jane Austen. I love Bringing Up Baby, which is a 1938 movie starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and a Leopard. I grew up watching it, incorporated the song from the movie(I Can’t Give You Anything But Love) into my wedding ceremony, and had a framed Bringing Up Baby poster in my living room. I also like Jane Austen books.

In Every Duke Has His Day, an eccentric, scientifically minded Duke is watching his aunt’s pet poodle. He’s taking the poodle for a walk when a young woman’s near-identical poodle runs at them, knocking the duke and his poodle into a stream. They accidentally switch dogs, dogs are stolen, and adventure and romance proceed from there. The story takes place during the summer in London during the “Season”.

It was a bit slow to get into, but once I did, I really enjoyed it. The dialogue and banter were funny and engaging. It had multiple points of view, giving the reader a full picture of what was going on. There was also a Gaston-level villain, and a bonus commoner romance for a bit of upstairs/downstairs action. Good “swooniness”. Happily Ever After for everyone except the villain, even the pets. It had a 101 Dalmatians vibe too. It didn’t really have a Bringing Up Baby plot, though it had screwball comedy elements.

I couldn’t put it down and had to finish it before I could go to bed.

This is a “sweet” or “clean” romance with no “spicy” scenes.

Despite having read lots of classics throughout my youth, this may actually be the first contemporarily written “regency romance” that I’ve read. I actually had to look up British nobility rankings, because I wasn’t sure about the difference between, say, a marquis and a viscount. I’m glad I looked it up instead of just wondering if I had it right the whole time.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s press for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Seasonal Planning

Fri, 11 Aug 2023 05:02:23 -0700

I’m a seasonal planner, which means that I plan the upcoming season. This doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m planning based on the weather or the astronomical cycles. I am planning the seasons of my life and the year. This can include things like holidays, but also “back to school” and “summer vacation”.

I’ve struggled with a “planning” method that works for me, in part because I don’t usually plan detailed daily tasks or even weeks. Monthly planning would be closer, but even that isn’t quite right. The calendar month guidelines become frustrating when my kids’ school starts on August 29. Most of August is summer vacation time. The beginning of school will mostly take place in September. Planning seasonally allows me to flow from one season to the next.

Most of all, I want to prepare for the upcoming season and plan the next “things”. I also find myself wanting to remember what we did last year during this season. What did my kids wear on the first day of school?

Things I use for Planning

Calendar - My digital calendar is the thing that I go back to and use most in planning. I use Apple Calendar.
Note Taking App - When I want to make lists of things, I reach for a notes app. For the last few weeks, when the seasonal urge to plan the next part of life arrives, I’ve been using OneNote. Since I’ve been using Obsidian for my notes lately, I’m trying that out now.
Raindrop.io - I’ve started using Raindrop.io for bookmarking websites and articles, and even using it pinterest style to save things I like while browsing for a shopping quest. I love how it can display as a grid or moodboard, so I can save all the reading chairs I like together. I think Raindrop.io will be used a lot this season as I browse for things like kids backpacks, and later Halloween costumes and holiday gift ideas.

GoodNotes - I don’t actually use this often, but Iike the idea of it. I sometimes feel like I want to decorate my plans for the next season. GoodNotes is amazing if you need to take notes on a PDF. I know that lots of people enjoy using it for planning who like to handwrite and doodle things, but I actually dislike handwriting anything. I’m a fast typer and a slow hand writer.

Naturally, instead of planning back to school things right away, I began installing themes and plugins for Obsidian, to make my planning better.

Review: Enchanted to Meet You

Thu, 10 Aug 2023 13:57:14 -0700

Enchanted to Meet You by Meg Cabot was a funny and enjoyable fantasy romantic comedy with excellent fall vibes in a cozy small town, perfect for the Halloween season.

Enchanted to Meet You stars a witch named Jessica who lives in a small Connecticut town and owns a cute clothing boutique. The fun begins shortly before Halloween when Derrick comes into her shop and tells her about a prophecy that might involve her.

This book had delightful main characters as well as great side character friends. It also has some flashbacks to events from Jessica’s high school days, and has chapters from the perspectives of both Jessica and Derrick. Meg Cabot’s narrative style is friendly, light, and funny.

If you’re looking for a fun romantic comedy to read this fall, Enchanted to Meet You is a great choice.

Tropes/themes: fake dating, witches, small town in peril, Halloween season, forced proximity, mid-2000s high school flashbacks, dual timeline, multiple POVs, romantic comedy

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books for my digital Advance Reader Copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi

Sat, 05 Aug 2023 13:57:14 -0700

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty is a great historical fantasy adventure. Amina Al-Sirafi is a middle-aged piratey sea captain who is persuaded out of retirement and away from her daughter. What she thinks will be a fact finding and rescue mission to recover the daughter of a former crewman turns into a full scale supernatural adventure.

This book had a lovely, satisfying ending. Open ended with room for more stories, but not in a cliffhanger way.

I got my book from Book of the Month Club and read it in hardcover, as well as listening to the audiobook for some of it.

Barbie Movie

Tue, 25 Jul 2023 19:47:00 -0700

I saw the Barbie movie today, and it was my first time in a movie theater since 2019. I laughed. I cried. I brought my Legally Blonde 2 Barbie. It was an amazing movie, and I loved it.

We(My husband Jerrod and I) went to the theater to see the Barbie movie, and it was definitely worth going out to see right away. It was a Tuesday afternoon, and the theater was still filled with people dressed in pink!

I brought my Legally Blonde 2 Barbie portraying Elle Woods in Barbie form, and she literally sat in a cup holder.

Some thoughts: The Barbie movie beautifully portrayed what it’s like to play with your dolls. It explored being human, a girl, and a woman.

I’m obviously Greta Gerwig’s exact age, because I recognized, like, every Barbie. I looked it up, and yes, we were born the same summer in 1983.

Visually stunning, with amazing performances by every cast member.
It was a magical realism movie.
My “weird Barbie” was my All American Girl Barbie, which my little sister cut the hair off of, and drew on jewelry with a marker.
America Ferrera as the mom of a tween spoke to me.
My husband liked it too. He actually compared it to Star Trek and The Matrix. Jerrod said it reminded him of the beginning of The Matrix 4, but it actually delivered on the promise of the movie.

We like other colors, but pink just looks so good on us.

Thoughts with Potential Spoilers

Comparisons to The Matrix; Obviously the scene with Weird Barbie where she’s told to choose the high heeled shoe or the Birkenstock, but also the first scene with Ruth in the kitchen had vibes of Neo visiting the Oracle.
I love that Barbie defeated the patriarchy, and all the times they literally named Patriarchy.
Gloria (the mom) yelling out “Some of these are archival!” When Barbie’s outfits were being thrown out of the dream house. LOL.
“We make up things, like patriarchy and Barbie”
Ken got a good ending too. Even though he didn’t get the romance he wanted with Barbie, she encouraged him to go be his own person.
At the very end of the movie, Barbie was wearing pink Birkenstocks
I was happy I’d brought my Legally Blonde Barbie. Elle Woods would’ve loved this movie.

Links:

Interview with Greta Gerwig listing 33 films that inspired her for Barbie. It includes many of my favorites, including The Wizard of Oz, His Girl Friday, and The Philedelphia Story.
The Making of Biblical Womanhood by Beth Allison Barr Defeat patriarchy in the church with this book.

Fourth Wing

Sat, 01 Jul 2023 13:57:14 -0700

Fourth Wing was a wild ride. I enjoyed the dragon-centered fantasy adventure and the romance. The narrative style is a bit more crass and profane* than I prefer, but I was easily pulled in by the world, story, and characters. And, of course, the dragons! I think I hit the point of “can’t put it down” at about the 60% mark. I flew through it and preordered the sequel.

It feels like the entire internet is reading Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros this summer, which is definitely part of the fun.

*The narrative style was a big contrast to the book that I read before this, The Secret Book of Flora Lee, which is more of a lyrical, atmospheric prose style of book.

My Bedroom is Back

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 23:57:00 -0700

After having the carpet installed on Friday, we were just waiting for the stuff from our bedroom that they packed out to be returned. This morning they brought the pod back and moved everything back in and assembled the furniture.

There are still a lot of boxes of things to unpack, but I’ll be so happy to sleep in my own bed in my own room again tonight.

The new paint color looks really pretty, and the white ceiling is so much better than the stormy grey that it used to be. The room looks noticeably brighter! I’m so happy to have an end to this saga that started in February.

Here’s a picture of the newly painted walls and new carpet before the furniture went back in. For the “before” photos with the room lacking in walls and carpet, see my previous post.

The Secret Book of Flora Lea

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 19:33:00 -0700

I finished The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry last night, and loved it.

This book had…

Delightful literary references.
Scenes that moved back and forth between 1960 and 1939/1940
Characters that I loved
Descriptions of places that made me want to visit them.
A resolution that I couldn’t guess

Coffee: Yes Plz.coffee

My 40th Birthday

Tue, 06 Jun 2023 19:30:00 -0700

Today is my 40th birthday. I’ve completed my thirties.

Currently Reading

Sun, 04 Jun 2023 13:57:14 -0700

Currently bouncing back and forth between two different books, one hardcover and one digital book. I like them both, but I keep getting interrupted when I sit down and open The Secret Book of Flora Lea. For that reason, I’m further along in The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.

My birthday is this week! I’m hoping to celebrate with a little extra reading time.

Coffee: Colombia El Diviso Red Bourbon By Immigrant Culture via Fellow Drops. Brewed with Aeropress.

May Book of the Month Club Pick

Wed, 03 May 2023 12:57:14 -0700

It’s time to select my Book of the Month Club pick for May. I’m excited because this will be my 12th box, and I want the tote bag! I’m also excited about having a full year of books stamped with their months. Next month is also my birthday month. I’m really interested in The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry. I wish that was a main pick!

I was looking at The Collected Regrets of Clover or Paper Names, but I didn’t quite “vibe” with the book samples. I wasn’t originally considering Did You Hear About Kitty Karr by Crystal Smith Paul, and I can’t remember why. I went back and read the sample, and I liked it, so I’m going with Kitty Karr and Flora Lea as an add-on.

Here’s my box! I’m so excited for the tote bag!

How I Choose my Book of the Month Pick

Mon, 01 May 2023 12:57:14 -0700

Scan the genres
Look at the covers and titles
Read the descriptions and recommendations blurbs
Look up books of interest on Goodreads and Storygraph
Check the number of pages (I don’t want my hard cover to be too heavy)
Check the Book of the Month Club Reddit group to see what other people are picking
Read the sample excerpt in the Book of the Month app
Don’t “vibe” with any of the sample excerpts so far? Start over.

Paint and Carpet

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 19:00:00 -0700

For the last few days, I’ve been focused on choosing new paint and carpet for the bedroom. I knew that I wanted a light pink paint for the walls, so I picked a few colors that I liked and did test swatches on the walls in the room. The three colors that I sampled were Behr Pink Sea Salt, Behr Angelico, and Behr Stolen Kiss. I painted swatches on every wall in the room to test the color. It’s amazing how the same color can look so different on walls in the same room! All three colors were really pretty, but we decided that Angelico was too dark for this room.

We also need new carpet, and I’ve never chosen carpet before, so I wasn’t sure what to do. Some might suggest that we should consider putting in a hard floor for better resale value of our condo, but I definitely want carpet in my bedroom. Our contractor directed us to their carpet supplier, and we went to look at the different carpet options. I brought the paint chips with me and compared our top two paint colors to the carpet colors. We also touched and walked on the sample carpets to feel the differences. Since we’re not sure of the budget range, we picked a few options that we liked.

After much staring at the test swatches and doing a couple of second coats of paint, we’ve decided to go with Behr Pink Sea Salt for the paint.

My bedroom currently looks like this. For how this happend, here’s a previous post.

Now we just have some waiting to do while the restoration company makes the estimate and then the insurance company has to approve it. We’re still at a hotel and hoping to get back into our home soon!

Finished: Persepolis, The Story of a Childhood

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 23:00:00 -0700

I finally finished this graphic novel. I’d had to stop reading with less than 50 pages until the end and finally got the chance to sit down and finish it. This is the second graphic novel memoir that I’ve read. The other was George Takei’s They Called Us Enemy.

Some thoughts about Persepolis • A story of something in the historically recent past that I knew very little about • Told from a unique perspective • The graphic novel format is interesting and tells the story at a fast pace • A sad, difficult story with violence discussed • A cautionary tale about fundamentalism • Builds empathy for the people inside countries with oppressive governments who are engaged in war

I started reading Persepolis when there was a discussion about it among our district’s school board. The book had been approved by our literature review committee and gone to a test class. The last step was for the board to give final approval, but some school board members expressed concern about derogatory language toward women. The derogatory language? This happened maybe three times and always from the “bad guys”.

In the end, they approved the book. I’m glad that this book will be part of core curriculum for 11th grade students.

What Has Been Going On

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 00:09:00 -0700

Back in February, we discovered wet carpet in our bedroom. The water was coming from a common wall in our condo. It took days to find the leak and stop the water, mainly because the plumbers needed to enter other units. They finally tracked down the leak and shut it off, but we were left with wet carpet and walls that were wet with some holes in them.

After weeks of going back and forth, waiting for insurance to approve things, we finally got recovery started. Last night we checked into a hotel(paid for by the insurance) and this morning a crew cleared everything out of the room and tore down the wall. Yesterday felt like the longest possible day, getting everything ready.

They’re letting it dry and will check back on it in 3 or 4 days.

Hopefully reconstruction will happen soon after that. For now, the kids are enjoying the hotel breakfast.

Reply By Email

Wed, 12 Apr 2023 00:11:00 -0700

I opened my RSS reeder to my newly formed folder of Personal Blog feeds and read a nice post on Zinzy’s website about her puppy meeting a cat. I noticed that she has a “reply by email” link. It was just a normal mailto link to her email address. I made a short reply by email and thought that was a pretty nice way to comment.

I remembered that you can configure a subject for a mailto link, and thought about how I could set my Jekyll blog up to fill in a subject based on the blog post title.

I couldn’t quite remember the syntax for adding the subject to the mailto link, so I did a search. I found this nice tool for creating mailto links. I added a prefix to the subject, and used the Jekyll templating for page title. I use a forwarding email address that I can change in case it starts getting spam.

See the Pen Untitled by Shannon (@shannonkay) on CodePen.

I added the email link to the top of my comments html file. Now when you click on the “Reply by Email” link under my blog post, it will fill in the subject in with the title of the blog post you‘re replying to. It’s simple, but customized.

Spring Photos

Sun, 09 Apr 2023 17:32:00 -0700

It felt like spring this weekend! It was a beautiful day on Easter Sunday.

Kids: Beatrix (4), Caspian (6), Guinevere (12)
Camera: Fuji X-T5 (Viltrox 56mm F1.4XM lens)
Kids’ Outfits: Mostly last minute Target drive-up orders.

Riding Horses

Sun, 02 Apr 2023 14:16:00 -0700

Guinevere asked to ride a horse for her 12th birthday, so I scheduled a trail ride at Irvine Regional Park. It had to be rescheduled twice because of the rain. We finally got to go on our trail ride, and it was a beautiful day! Guinevere rode a horse named Gracie, and I rode Snip.

Let It Brie

Fri, 17 Mar 2023 13:57:14 -0700

We went to a place called Let it Brie today, and I think it’s our favorite restaurant now. This is our cheese board. Beatrix(3) loved the baguette slices with brie and fig jam.

Rainy Day Reading

Fri, 10 Mar 2023 10:29:14 -0800

Rainy days are perfect for reading with a cup of coffee! I’m currently reading A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. Cozy Sci-Fi? Serving tea on some moon? The promised robot hasn’t shown up yet, but it’s lovely so far.

New Pointe Shoes

Thu, 02 Mar 2023 19:07:14 -0800

Guinevere’s first pair of Pointe shoes got too small and it hurt when she tried to dance in them. It was hard to get an appointment for a fitting at The Pointe Shop, so we ended up with a fitting just a couple hours before her ballet class.

The pointe shoe fitter could tell her old shoes were too small before she even took them all the way out. Guinevere was quickly fitted for new shoes and we drove straight to the dance studio. We got there one hour before her regular ballet class, with two hours until she was supposed to do pointe.

I still had to sew on the ribbons and elastics. When she got her first pointe shoes, it took a long time to get the ribbons and elastics sewn on in the right places. Did you know that you have to sew those on yourself? You do. With her first shoes, it took multiple tries, many hours, and lots of consulting with her ballet teacher.

With two hours until she was supposed to dance in them, I managed to get everything sewn on in the right places on the first try. I’m really proud of myself. Dance mom level achieved! Now she needs to learn to sew them on herself.

Finished: Chain of Thorns

Sat, 25 Feb 2023 11:33:14 -0800

I’ve finished Chain of Thorns, and The Last Hours series of Shadowhunter books has concluded for me.

The anticipation for Chain of Thorns was at the forefront of my reading brain, and I had trouble thinking about what to read next after the “holiday book” reading season. Knowing Chain of Thorns was coming out at the end of January left me indecisive about other reading.

I enjoyed reading a book that I was so looking forward to. I didn’t rush it. But now I have a book series hangover.

After anticipating a book for two years, it’s strange for it to have ended. What do I do now?

Luckily, there are other new releases that I’m excited about this year, and of course the many books that are already available on my hopefuls list.

It’s nice that I have my “re-read” to fall back on when I need something to read for bedtime. I’m now on the second book in the Trials of Apollo series as part of my Percy Jackson book re-read. I’m excited about The Sun and The Star coming out in May. It takes place after the Trials of Apollo series, so I’m hoping to complete my Trials of Apollo revisit just in time to read that new book.

Emoji Subdomain

Wed, 22 Feb 2023 23:29:15 -0800

So I made myself an emoji subdomain. It works, which is really fun. But I guess I need to add it to my certificate.

Given the option, why would I not use a 🦄 subdomain?

You can try going to my homepage at the alternate subdomain 🦄.shannonkay.com

Update: Here’s how I set up the emoji subdomain.

To create an emoji subdomain, you need to get the punycode for the emoji. (Note that the punycode is different from the unicode.) I used Punycoder to get the punycode. Just paste the emoji you want to use into the “text” box, and click “convert to punycode”. You can now copy the resulting punycode from the punycode box.

The unicorn emoji 🦄 punycode is “xn–3s9h”(without the quotes).

Next, you can go to your domain registrar and create a subdomain. I use Name.com. When you create the subdomain, use the emoji’s punycode where you want the emoji to go. (For me, making a subdomain meant going to “manage DNS” and creating a CNAME record with the subdomain pointing to my website).

A subdomain is something like unicorn.shannonkay.com. To make it 🦄.shannonkay.com instead, create the subdomain xn–3s9h.shannonkay.com. When I did this, the emoji showed up in the Manage DNS list for the subdomain as soon as I added the DNS record.

To set the subdomain up with your hosting, add it to your your SSL certificate, etc. You’ll need to use the punycode version of the subdomain. But once you’ve done that, you should be able to type the emoji version into your browser and link to it from most places.

There are some downsides to the emoji subdomain. It’s not good for email, and places like Instagram don’t support using emoji in links. So it’s probably best not to have emoji in your only linking option.

The Green Hills of Winter

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 17:12:14 -0800

The hills are green and flowering, and we took a little walk up the hill by the park.

China From England

Sat, 04 Feb 2023 17:29:40 -0800

I went over to my parents’ house. Since we’re planning on having a tea party next weekend, my mom and I got out the china. I believe this china has been in my parents’ possession since my paternal grandmother passed away when I was 5(which was in 1988), but I think it’s been packed away for most of that time and I don’t remember having seen it at all. My mom may have used it for something when I was a child, but I don’t remember it.

This china was purchased in England by my paternal grandfather(who was in the Air Force during WWII). We got out the teacups first. I checked the bottom of the cup, and found the stamp. Royal Worcester, Made in England, Mayfair. I thought Royal Worcester was likely the manufacturer, and Mayfair was probably the name of the pattern.

I quickly did a web search and found the Royal Worcester Wikipedia page. Wow! It started in 1751 and is either the oldest or second-oldest English porcelain brand. I found a page on Replacements.com for the Mayfair pattern and started comparing the pieces that we had.

I also found the website for the Royal Worcester Museum, and learned that they once had a showroom on Curzon Street! I was like “That’s where James and Cordelia live!” (The Last Hours by Cassandra Clare).

New Mug

Wed, 25 Jan 2023 10:18:14 -0800

I got this new mug, and I love it so much!

Mug: Le Creuset L’Amour collection mug (Chiffon Pink)
Book: Anne’s House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery (hardcover edition from Aladdin books)
Coffee: Blue Bottle single origin subscription

A Snail’s Pace

Tue, 17 Jan 2023 07:51:13 -0800

On our way to the car this morning, we saw a snail crossing the sidewalk. When I returned from school drop off, the snail was still there and had progressed a few inches.

Photos

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 23:40:12 -0800

I received a new Fujifilm X-T5 camera for Christmas, but I haven’t gotten to play with it much because our family was sick for most of winter break. Then it was very rainy and cloudy most days. The sun is finally out again, and I took the opportunity to pull out the camera.

Beatrix was my only cooperative model.

I’m still figuring out where all the controls are. I’ve had a Fuji XT-200 and Canon DSLRs.

The Postal Service & Death Cab For Cutie

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 22:26:15 -0800

My husband got us tickets to The Postal Service & Death Cab For Cutie playing Give Up & Transatlanticism at the Hollywood Bowl in October.

I was excited! These are two of my all-time favorite albums.

I was alarmed to realize that they’re probably doing this concert because it’s the 20th anniversary of both albums. That stung a bit.

I’m still excited. I think I’ll preorder the t-shirt and the tote bag.

The Strike at Putney

Sat, 07 Jan 2023 14:58:29 -0800

Last night, I read a short story by Lucy Maud Montgomery(author of Anne of Green Gables) from 1903 called The Strike at Putney. It’s about a group of church ladies who are told by their church elders and minister that a missionary woman cannot speak in the church, because a woman cannot preach from the pulpit.

So they go on strike. They stop organizing socials to raise money, don’t set fresh flowers out in the church, or clean and dust the church. The organist doesn’t play, and no women sing in the choir.

You know if a woman isn’t fit to speak in the church she can’t be fit to sing in it either.

The Strike at Putney by L. M. Montgomery

The men last two weeks.

I was delighted to read this story from 120 years ago about women opposing patriarchalism in church.

Read The Strike at Putney

Winter Solstice

Wed, 21 Dec 2022 12:13:19 -0800

In the Northern Hemisphere, today is the day with the least sunlight, it’s called the Winter Solstice, and is often considered the “first day of winter”.

I like marking the seasons astronomically. As a lifelong Californian, I’ve always heard that we don’t have “real weather” or “real winter”. The astronomical seasons are about light.

It’s about light, not the weather or temperature.

I can get behind a story about light that’s being told all year long, and every year.

The light shines in the darkness.

And it’s a good thing that winter is about light, not weather, because today is our warmest day in weeks.

Total Daylight: 9hr 54min Today in Southern California.

Shifting Your Social Media

Fri, 16 Dec 2022 12:57:14 -0800

So you want an alternative to Twitter, and you’ve heard of Mastodon and the Fediverse, but you’re not sure what to do. Maybe you’re confused, or you’ve tried to join and given up. Lots of more extensive guides have been written. This is meant to help simplify the “getting started” process.

Short Version

If you want to join Mastodon, I recommend selecting one of the servers from my “short list” below. Small servers are good! Set up an account, then copy your username and paste it into your Twitter bio. Not the link, just the handle, like mine is @shannonkay@bookstodon.com

All you have to do to browse is go to the main page of your chosen server. Once you’ve signed up on a Mastodon server, you can follow and interact with accounts from any other Mastodon server, as well as many other places in the “Fediverse”.

The Fediverse is what we’re calling all of these federated websites that can talk to each other. Don’t let it confuse you, but there are lots of cool things about that, like an instagram alternative called PixelFed, that you can follow from your Mastodon account.

Finding Your Friends

I told you to paste your Mastodon handle into your Twitter bio, and here is why. You can use software to scan your twitter contacts for Fediverse handles. Pasting yours in the Twitter bio will let them find you!

~~Movetodon~~ seems to be down, but Fedifinder is working, so I recommend using Fedifinder.

You will have to authorize your Twitter account to use these. Fedifinder gives you a list of how many users are on each instance and if registration is open or not. Plus, it lets you export a CSV that you can import into Mastodon to follow them all if you want to.

Which Server Do I Join?

I think that choosing a server or “instance” is one of the biggest stumbling blocks for a lot of people who want to try joining the fediverse. I also think it’s one of the most fun things about browsing posts. I love seeing new servers in usernames, and like to go check out the website to see what it’s about!

Here’s a short list of Mastodon instances that I found of interest and thought people might like to join. These are mostly instances that I’ve seen being used by people or promoted as now open and welcoming new members. You can also see a huge list on Join Mastodon Servers, or try the Mastodon Instance Search Engine if you want to look at more options.

Joining a small instance is good! If you end up finding a different instance you prefer later, you can move your account.

I’ve linked to the about pages, so that you can see what they’re about. Clicking “local” will show you only posts from people on that instance.

The “Short List”

Zirk.us - Literature, philosophy, film, music, culture, politics, history, architecture: join the circus of the arts and humanities! For readers, writers, academics or anyone wanting to follow the conversation.
Hachyderm.io - Tech pros and enthusiasts
Historians.social - History
masto.ai - A general-purpose Mastodon server for all languages, owned by Stux.
CupOfTea.social - “Wholesome Content”
BlackTwitter.io - “Black Twitter”
WorldKey.io - Disney fans
Universeodon.com - Where the universe meets Mastodon.
mstdn.games - Gaming
Deacon.social - Christians of all backgrounds and faith traditions to build an inclusive and loving community. “The name deacon (διακονέω) means one who serves or “server,” and since this is a server, and our goal is to serve each other, the name is doubly appropriate.”
Artisan.chat - Artisans/Crafters
Vivaldi Social - ( @vivaldi.net) Hosted in Iceland by the makers of Vivaldi Browser. Everyone is welcome to join.

Books and Writing

Bookstodon.com - Welcomes book lovers and all things bookish.
Writing.exchange - A stable, long-running Mastodon instance for writers since 2017.
MastodonBooks.net - Your hub for fun and informative discussion related to books, reviews, currently reading, best in genre and of course authors.
Bookstodon by The Storygraph - Mastodon instance run by The Storygraph

Star Trek

Local

PDX.social - Portland Area
mstdn.ca - for Canadians
SFBA.social - San Francisco Bay Area

Bonus

Most Mastodon servers are run by volunteers. If you are able, please consider donating to your instance or joining their Patreon if they have one.

What About Apps?

You may have heard that the official Mastodon app is not good, but recent updates have been made and you might like it. One of the nice things about the open source nature of Mastodon, is that any developer who wants to can make a great app for it. I’m using Metatext and brand new app Ice Cubes on iOS. On desktop, I mostly use the default website of my server and haven’t had a problem. More apps for lots of platforms are listed on Join Mastodon Apps(scroll down a little for the third party apps). Lots of new apps are in development too, including devs who formerly made Twitter clients.

More Resources

This guide was meant to help you get started, and of course there’s much more to discover if you want to dive in deeper. Here are a some links for more detailed guides and more information.

Come Join the Fun in Mastodon — I Promise, It’s Easy! by podfeet
The Basics of Mastodon by Tom Merritt
How to get started with Mastodon by Mignon Fogarty, aka “Grammar Girl”. This guide has lots of tips for what to do once you’re on Mastodon.
Fedi Tips - An informal, unofficial guide for non-technical people who want to use Mastodon and the wider Fediverse
Mastodon Help
Crossposting between Twitter and Mastodon - Moa.party
Followgraph - This tool allows you to expand your connection graph and find new people to follow. It works by looking up your “follows’ follows”.
Mastodon Instances Search Engine
Inclusive Instances List
Fandom Instances List
Join Mastodon - the official website for the Mastodon project
Fedi.Garden - a fediverse instance directory.

Have Fun!

I hope to see you in the Fediverse!

Christmas Tree Farm

Sun, 20 Nov 2022 15:50:44 -0800

We normally go to the Christmas tree farm on opening day, but it was really windy, with a red flag warning. We visited the Christmas tree farm the next day, Sunday, instead. The old Peltzer Pines location in Brea closed after last year. We visited their farm in Silverado Canyon instead.

I got the mostly-matching floral boots for all the girls from the Target kids section.

You wouldn’t think that one day would make such a big difference, but most of the really good trees were already sold.

We picked a tree that was just ok. But the kids won’t care, and at least we still got to support our local farm.

October Reading: The Kiss Curse

Fri, 21 Oct 2022 12:46:17 -0700

October is here, and I’ve got my fall pumpkin mug and The Kiss Curse by Erin Sterling(sequel to last year’s perfectly halloweenish The Ex Hex). After a few chapters of The Kiss Curse, I was ready to get out my Halloween stuff.

This book has Halloween vibes! Sequel to last year’s book, The Ex Hex. The Kiss Curse is a fun Halloween themed witchy contemporary romance. Fast and funny with a tiny bit of mystery/suspense and a few steamy scenes.

Summary:

Gwyn Jones is perfectly happy with her life in Graves Glen. She, her mom, and her cousin have formed a new and powerful coven; she’s running a successful witchcraft shop, Something Wicked; and she’s started mentoring some of the younger witches in town. As Halloween approaches, there’s only one problem—Llewellyn “Wells” Penhallow.

Wells has come to Graves Glen to re-establish his family’s connection to the town they founded as well as to make a new life for himself after years of being the dutiful son in Wales. When he opens up a shop of his own, Penhallow’s, just across the street from Something Wicked, he quickly learns he’s gotten more than he bargained for in going up against Gwyn.

When their professional competition leads to a very personal—and very hot—kiss, both Wells and Gwyn are determined to stay away from each other, convinced the kiss was just a magical fluke. But when a mysterious new coven of witches come to town and Gwyn’s powers begin fading, she and Wells must work together to figure out just what these new witches want and how to restore Gwyn’s magic before it’s too late.

Other Birds at the Beach

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 10:48:11 -0700

Earlier this week, I celebrated my anniversary(with my husband) at a beautiful beach resort. One of the wonderfully relaxing things I got to do was read on the patio of our ocean view room. Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen was a perfect book for spending the last days of summer next to the ocean. I’m only about halfway through, but it has a wonderful late summer/early fall vibe. And yes, I made that coffee with my travel aeropress and hand grinder that I brought with me.

Travelogue: Coffee Break

Mon, 19 Sep 2022 15:58:27 -0700

I love to find a local coffee shop, especially a local roaster while traveling. We had our afternoon coffee break at Succulent Coffee Roasters. I bought some beans to take home.

New Bookcase

Wed, 14 Sep 2022 21:09:49 -0700

I got my new bookcase assembled and started lining up my Book of the Month books in month order.

People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry

Mon, 05 Sep 2022 00:33:59 -0700

I loved all the different locations. I had also recently been to Palm Springs in July(for my daughter’s dance competition) and really enjoyed all the jokes about how hot and ridiculous it is. A fun summery “rom-com”.

Finished: Tomorrow x3

Fri, 12 Aug 2022 23:23:52 -0700

It was nostalgic, with depth. I appreciate the themes of video games and theatre, and the friendship love story.

I actually related to a lot of things in this book. I married a game developer. I loved doing theatre in high school and college. I’m 9-10 years younger than the main characters, so their childhood and college years were a different timeframe, technologically, but most were timeframes that I remembered nostalgically.

I don’t know what the overlap is between those who have read this book and those who have participated in game development, but most of the reviews I’m seeing are from people who say they don’t know too much about games. That’s fine, but I’m just curious. Like, how many other people have read this book that have also, for example, opened Unreal Engine? Is it just me?

The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow

Thu, 04 Aug 2022 13:57:14 -0700

Wonderful! Different than what I expected from the description. This book felt modern and relevant to the times, but was also fantastic with sci-fi and fantasy elements. Fun and weird, but dealt with serious issues as well.

July Book of the Month

Tue, 12 Jul 2022 21:29:08 -0700

I’ve read a quarter of my July Book of the Month. I married a game developer, so I was excited to try a book about game developers, and I love the different time periods and locations so far.

Finished: Book Lovers by Emily Henry

Fri, 01 Jul 2022 19:57:11 -0700

Book and coffee pairing! Book Lovers was an ideal summer read.

My favorite part of Book Lovers was the many excellent book references and book loving quotes. Books are the best, aren’t they?

The funny writing in Book Lovers hooked me from the beginning, and I loved the characters and sister relationship. This book gave love to both small towns and big cities, and had a satisfying frenemies-to-lovers type romance.

Coffee: Rom Com by Proud Mary Coffee Roasters, ordered via Fellow Drops

June

Thu, 30 Jun 2022 02:52:37 -0700

I’m delighted by the embossing on my Book of the Month. It’s the last day of June! Where did the month go? 📖📖📖

Finished: The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle

Wed, 22 Jun 2022 11:24:29 -0700

The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle was a lovely book. It was told from the point of view of three different women in England during World War II. I loved getting to know each character and easing into the village. This book was filled with women helping each other, and included some sweet romance. I also enjoyed the detail about clothes rationing, “make do and mend”, and wartime “utility” design for clothes.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a historical fiction that wasn’t also a fantasy.

Reading Paper

Tue, 21 Jun 2022 12:07:22 -0700

I’m really enjoying The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle, my Book of the Month book for June! It’s been a while since I’ve read a first-time book in paper format that wasn’t for my kids, and it’s been really fun.

… #bookstagram #books #booksandcoffee #bookphotos #bookofthemonth #botm #booklover #theweddingdresssewingcircle #jenniferryan #igreads #booksta #historicalfiction

June Book of the Month

Sat, 18 Jun 2022 22:08:56 -0700

My birthday was earlier this month, and as part of my celebration I finally ordered a Book of the Month box. I selected The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle as my book of the month. I added on The Sound of Stars as well, a book which I’ve already read and enjoyed in ebook format.

The box was really cute, and I love these beautiful hardcover editions.

Saturday

Sat, 28 May 2022 13:39:16 -0700

I was planning to space out my re-read of Chain of Gold and Chain of Iron when I was expecting a November release of the final book in The Last Hours trilogy. Since the release date for Chain of Thorns has been moved to January 2023, I decided to just read the first two books now and enjoy them!

Read: They Called Us Enemy

Thu, 28 Apr 2022 12:01:24 -0700

This was a wonderfully presented graphic novel that told George Takei’s personal story of his experiences at Japanese internment camps during WWII. It was also a memoir of George Takei’s life after the war. The story from young George’s perspective was really affective. As a parent with young children, it was especially impactful to read about how the children viewed the experiences with innocence, many times thinking things were fun adventures. And how much the parents worked to keep it that way.

This is a subject that’s really underrepresented in US history. In my high school classes in the late 1990’s in California, it wasn’t hidden or ignored completely, but it was kind of a side note. I remember one conversation about it in class. We asked our teacher why they would do this to Japanese Americans, but not German Americans. I’ve been told a family story that my 2x Great Grandfather was German, never learned to read English and received the newspaper in German. He lived in Iowa. During WWII he had to register as a “resident alien”, but that was it. No one labeled him an enemy or relocated his family.

These recent-history stories are so important, and the personal memoir is so impactful. They Called Us Enemy continued past World War II, and included stories from George Takei’s life including meeting and marching with Martin Luther King Jr, and being cast on Star Trek.

I’m interested in the question of when people found out about Japanese internment camps! I was trying to remember for myself when I learned about them. I think middle school is when it was taught in school for me, but I also remember reading about it in a Baby-Sitters Club book. I remember a book where Claudia’s grandmother(Mimi) had a stroke, and Claudia learned that she had been in those internment camps. So I may have read that a little earlier than middle school.

Finished: The No-Show by Beth O’Leary

Tue, 26 Apr 2022 11:47:23 -0700

The No-Show was different and wonderful. The book is told from the perspectives of three different women; Siobhan, Miranda, and Jane. At the beginning of the The No-Show, I was most interested in the stories and backgrounds of the three women. Even when I wasn’t sure what to think about each woman’s interactions with “No-Show” Joseph Carter, I was invested in finding out more about the female characters.

The way in which everything was connected was so different from what I was expecting. I was enthralled. The characters were well developed with depths that I was excited to uncover. I did not predict what was going on in this book, and it was so much better than what I would have guessed.

After reading Beth O’Leary’s The Flatshare, I had been wanting to read another of her books. I couldn’t decide between The Switch and The Road Trip. When The No-Show came out recently, I decided to go right for her newest release.

I also consumed this book entirely through audiobook, because I had a backlog of Audible credits and I saw that one of the narrators is Evanna Lynch, who played Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter movies. They used a different narrator for each woman and it was really well done.

Spoilers

I was expecting the three women to run into each other and the man to be caught, or for there to be some mystery that they would solve surrounding his missing day. Maybe the man was a spy or had multiple personality disorder or something. That was nothing like what was actually in The No-Show.

I was ready for all of the characters to all come together at the New Years Eve party when it was revealed that they were all in different years!

The way all of the characters’ stories connected was really amazing. At some point before the end, I realized that something terrible was probably going to happen to Siobhan. It wouldn’t really make sense otherwise. That was pretty sad. But the way Joseph Carter and Jane’s stories were intertwined so that they ended up together was pretty cool. They both had so much trauma, they were able to be each other’s second chances.

The different years twist really reframed the whole first half of the book! I’m still going over things in my head and realizing how they fit together. The mysteries were explained in really satisfying ways that enriched the story rather than taking away from it.

This book is the opposite of Lost.

Coffee and Clockwork Angel

Sat, 23 Apr 2022 13:12:38 -0700

Coffee pictured with my gorgeous 10th Anniversary edition of Clockwork Angel. Unfortunately, I’ve completed my chronological-ish reread of shadow hunter books and I’m trying not to start re-reading The Last Hours yet, since the final book in that series is not coming out until ~~November~~ January.

I brewed a new coffee this morning from JBC via Fellow Drops, and it’s really good. I brewed a second cup this afternoon and iced it, which was also great.

Rainy Day Reading

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 12:47:07 -0700

Rainy day reading and coffee! It doesn’t rain much here, so when it does rain I’m excited. Until I have to go somewhere. I’m now reading Queen of Air and Darkness as part of my chronological-ish Shadowhunter reread. 🌧🌧🌧

Anne Books

Sat, 26 Mar 2022 23:37:16 -0700

I’m in the mood for classics. These editions of the Anne books are some of my favorite volumes. I feel like the designs genuinely reflect the books!

If The Fates Allow

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 12:57:14 -0800

I loved If The Fates Allow by Rainbow Rowell. This wonderful little story really spoke to me. It was such a relatable tale of our times. It took place during Christmas 2020. If the Fates Allow captured so accurately the struggle of having holidays and managing family during the pandemic. Another unexpected point of this story that I really connected to was the Nebraska grandfather. I was born and raised in California, but my grandfather was from Nebraska. He died about ten years ago, and while he was pretty different from Reagan’s grandfather, there were some things that reminded me of him.

When I read the line “He started carving the turkey with an electric knife that was probably older than she was.” I definitely had an emotional response.

I loved this short story so much. It really resonated with me and my pandemic response. I highlighted so many bits. My family was definitely Reagan for the last, like, 20 months or however long it’s been. I really identified with the struggle to keep my own family, plus the extended family, safe. I read it before Thanksgiving, which was my first family gathering since the pandemic started. I was a little nervous, and reading If the Fates Allow felt too close and raw at first, but in the end it was very cathartic.

Did you know that Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas was a wartime song about not being together on Christmas?

The original Judy Garland lyrics are

Have yourself a merry little Christmas Let your heart be light Next year all our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas Make the Yuletide gay Next year all our troubles will be miles away

Once again as in olden days Happy golden days of yore Faithful friends who were dear to us Will be near to us once more

Someday soon we all will be together If the fates allow Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow So have yourself a merry little Christmas now

Claudia and the First Thanksgiving

Wed, 10 Nov 2021 12:57:14 -0800

While reading the History Smashers book about The Mayflower, I remembered this Baby-Sitters Club book that I read as a kid. In Claudia and the First Thanksgiving, they put on a Thanksgiving play at the elementary school. They do lots of research to make it more historically accurate, but then parents get mad and make them change it to a “traditional” Thanksgiving story. They stealthily write “Censored” on all the posters.

That’s what I remembered from my childhood reading of this book. But I couldn’t remember what they did in the play that made people mad. I didn’t have my childhood copy, so I looked up the book and downloaded the Kindle edition.

Claudia and the First Thanksgiving felt surprisingly relevant to 2021. When I was a kid, I remember wondering why adults would censor and protest a Thanksgiving play with more historical accuracy. I’m now an adult with kids, and I definitely recognized those parents who are protesting more historically accurate critiques of those who came before us. 25 years later, we’re still having the same problems.

As far as what enraged parents and some faculty about their Thanksgiving play? They brought up women’s rights. They also stated that not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving and Native Americans observe a day of mourning. They pointed out differences between then and now. They got to keep the more accurate costumes and foods. I guess those didn’t anger the parents.

I’m actually looking at the book cover right now, and wondering if the cover artist read it. Lol.

I hadn’t read a Baby-sitters Club book since middle school, and didn’t have super high expectations for Claudia and the First Thanksgiving to hold up for an adult, but this book was kind of amazing. I remembered a surprising amount of weird details, like when Claudia decides to stir marmalade into her oatmeal, but also considers the option of grape jelly.

One thing that surprised me a little bit was the release date. Claudia and the First Thanksgiving was published in November of 1995, when I would have been in 7th grade. I’m guessing that I must have read this book very soon after its release. I think I started reading BSC books in 4th grade and kept reading them through 8th grade, so this was relatively late in my Baby-sitters Club reading era. I had definitely read at least one hundred Baby-sitters Club books in my life by age 14. I definitely learned about lots of things from BSC books, including diabetes and autism. Re-reading this book made me think we could understand each other better if only everyone read more books.

I’ve sometimes lamented my childhood reading era, and the fact that I grew up an enthusiastic reader in a pre-Harry Potter world. There didn’t seem to be as many new children’s books as there are now. I read mostly older books, but also lots of Baby-sitters Club Books. Maybe it was better than I realized.

History Smashers, The Mayflower

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 12:57:14 -0800

I’m a confirmed descendant of Mayflower Pilgrims William Bradford and William Brewster. I’ve been to Plymouth and seen the museums and the Mayflower 2. There wasn’t really that much in this book that I didn’t already know about the Mayflower Pilgrims, but it still kind of messed with my head.

I appreciated learning more about the Wampanoag than I had previously learned, and I thought this History Smashers book told a more complete story than may be familiar to many Americans.

I think the biggest revelation for me is that the very idea of the Pilgrim’s feast in 1621 being the “first Thanksgiving” is the most fictional part of all. Neither the Pilgrims, nor the Native people in attendance ever referred to it as a thanksgiving. Both groups did have thanksgiving celebrations and this was not one of them.

The idea of this mythologized “Thanksgiving” was brought out with a nostalgic lens during times of struggle and war, I guess with the hopes of increased unity. I can imagine them suggesting that if the Pilgrims and the Indians could get along and give thanks together, we can all get along too! This is, of course, presented without additional historical context and completely ignoring how things turned out in the years to follow.

I’d like to quote The O.C. now. Possible spoilers for The O.C. Season 2.

Ryan: Alright, look. Luke Skywalker was happy to find his dad, right? Even if he turned out to be Darth Vader. Lindsay: Ryan, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader fought each other with light sabers until one of them died.

My Contrary Mary (Review)

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 11:55:03 -0700

This was before coffee, dear readers. Although our research did reveal that in the ninth century, an Ethiopian goatherd named Kaldi noticed how excited his goats became after eating the beans from a coffee plant. So, really, it was before coffee was available in France, which we think is inhumane.

My Contrary Mary was a delightful expansion of the Lady Janies series to include Mary. The book is wonderfully funny with its combination of historical fact, fiction, and humorous commentary. I particularly enjoyed the “future predictions” that were actually movies. The characters were likable, and I enjoy how the arranged marriages actually contain people who like each other.

I highly recommend My Contrary Mary, along with all of the Lady Janies series. I look forward to the next Mary as well!

New Kindle

Sat, 30 Oct 2021 11:52:31 -0700

I finished reading My Contrary Mary today, and it did not disappoint. More of a review of the book will be coming soon. Life and kids got in the way of my finishing it sooner, but I was excited to finish reading My Contrary Mary on my new Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition.

The Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition is a nice upgrade from my older Kindle Paperwhite. Some points of improvement:

Modern charging standards, with a USB-C port and wireless charging
No ads!
The option to show my current book cover on the ad-free screen when it’s locked
A flush screen, not a screen that’s lower than the bezel (as on my previous Kindle)
Faster loading, and better responsiveness
Nice case that automatically locks and unlocks when I open and close it. (Wireless charging works through the case too!)
Audible support with bluetooth for headphones (though I haven’t tried this yet).

Overall, this Kindle is definitely worth upgrading to!

Finished: The Ex Hex

Mon, 18 Oct 2021 20:38:41 -0700

The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling was a fun, fast book that felt like an adult Sabrina the Teenage Witch plus Halloweentown(yes, the Disney Channel movie). I enjoyed this modern witch romantic comedy with a tiny bit of light mystery. I liked that it had chapters in the perspective of both main characters, so I really felt that I got to know them.

The Ex Hex was a light, non-scary book that had a nice vibe for Halloweentime.

I switched back and forth between the Kindle ebook and Audible audiobook editions, and both were good.

Summary:

Nine years ago, Vivienne Jones nursed her broken heart like any young witch would: vodka, weepy music, bubble baths…and a curse on the horrible boyfriend. Sure, Vivi knows she shouldn’t use her magic this way, but with only an “orchard hayride” scented candle on hand, she isn’t worried it will cause him anything more than a bad hair day or two.

That is until Rhys Penhallow, descendent of the town’s ancestors, breaker of hearts, and annoyingly just as gorgeous as he always was, returns to Graves Glen, Georgia. What should be a quick trip to recharge the town’s ley lines and make an appearance at the annual fall festival turns disastrously wrong. With one calamity after another striking Rhys, Vivi realizes her silly little Ex Hex may not have been so harmless after all.

Suddenly, Graves Glen is under attack from murderous wind-up toys, a pissed off ghost, and a talking cat with some interesting things to say. Vivi and Rhys have to ignore their off the charts chemistry to work together to save the town and find a way to break the break-up curse before it’s too late.

The Ex Hex on GoodReads

Chronological-ish Shadowhunter Reread

Sun, 10 Oct 2021 16:14:40 -0700

Earlier this year (March 2021), I read the most recent Shadowhunter book, Chain of Iron from The Last Hours series by Cassandra Clare. I loved it! I thought it might be my favorite Shadowhunter series so far. But there were some details from other books that I just wasn’t remembering. I’ve been reading Shadowhunter books since 2010, and in that time a lot has happened, including having three children. I’ve pretty much just been reading each book as it comes out. Some of them were read when I had tiny babies and my brain was fuzzy.

So I decided to do a Chronological-ish reread. It’s not feasible to read all the shorts in chronological order, but my plan is to read the main books in chronological order, fit the Bane Chronicles shorts in where they go because for some reason those shorts work out of publishing order more than the others, and also read The Eldest Curses series for the first time, slotted in where they go chronologically. I don’t intend to do all the short story collections chronologically, but did The Bane Chronicles that way because it actually worked pretty well. I also didn’t reread Chain of Gold and Chain of Iron, because that’s what I had just read.

I started with The Infernal Devices trilogy, read the Bane Chronicles short stories up until The Mortal Instruments, then moved on to City of Bones, etc.

Here’s the order

What Really Happened in Peru (The Bane Chronicles)
The Runaway Queen (The Bane Chronicles)
Vampires, Scones, and Edmund Herondale (The Bane Chronicles)
Clockwork Angel
Clockwork Prince
Clockwork Princess
Chain of Gold
Chain of Iron
The Bane Chronicles Part 2ish(up until the time of The Mortal Instruments)
City of Bones
The Course of True Love (And First Dates) (The Bane Chronicles)
What to Buy the Shadowhunter Who has Everything (And Who You’re Not Officially Dating Anyway) (The Bane Chronicles)
City of Ashes
City of Glass
The Red Scrolls of Magic
City of Fallen Angels
City of Lost Souls
The Voicemail of Magnus Bane (The Bane Chronicles)
City of Heavenly Fire
Tales from the Shadow-hunter Academy
The Lost Book of the White
Ghosts of the Shadow Market
Lady Midnight
Lord of Shadows
Queen of Air and Darkness

Shannon Kay

Meeting Louis Sachar

Sarah Beth Durst and Sangu Mandanna at The Ripped Bodice bookstore in LA

Shannon's Summer reading list for 2025

Summer Reading Suggestions List 2025

Bonus Picks:

My Salty Mary

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi

The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love

The Blue Castle

The Dividing Sky

Tom Lake

A Psalm for the Wild-Built

Great Big Beautiful Life

A Novel Love Story

The Spellshop

A Wizard of Earthsea

Good Dirt

Holes

Secrets of the Nile duology

This Night is Ours

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club

Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson

Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

Make Your Own Website

Wings of Starlight by Allison Saft

The Dividing Sky by Jill Tew

2024 Books

New NAS

Christmas Tree Farm

Blizzard Halloween Party

My Salty Mary

The Spellshop

Autumn 2024 Book List

Books on My Physical Shelf

Releases I Have Preordered this Fall

Library Holds

Kindle Books

Halloween Vibes

Re-Reads

Books I’d like to read that have sequels coming out

The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love by India Holton

Summer Dance Recital

This Night is Ours by Ronni Davis

The Getaway List by Emma Lord

Summer 2024 Book List

Books on My Physical Shelf

Summer Releases I Have Preordered

Summer Romances with Summer Literally in the title

More Books That Look Good for Summer

I Need More Fantasy Books

Books I’d like to read that have sequels coming out in the fall

Holes by Louis Sachar

The Blue Castle

Use Photos in GoodReads Reviews

yallwest 2024

Books with “cariad”

Almost Midnight

Books I Read In November

Having a Tween is Actually Amazing

Hollywood Bowl

The Beths at Lodge Room

Chalice of the Gods

New iPhone

Tom Lake

Review: Every Duke Has His Day

Seasonal Planning

Review: Enchanted to Meet You

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi

Barbie Movie

Fourth Wing

My Bedroom is Back

The Secret Book of Flora Lea

My 40th Birthday

Currently Reading

May Book of the Month Club Pick

How I Choose my Book of the Month Pick

Paint and Carpet