Signed, Sealed, Delivered

HOLY CRAP!  It has been two freakin months since I blogged.  I can tell y'all missed me by the hoards of emails and texts I've been keeping at bay.  No, just kidding.  I don't think a single person noticed.

Sooo, here's what's new.

1.  Yes, I came up with a summer reading list.  It was a bunch of award winners, with a couple others thrown in, that I didn't manage to get to in the school year.  My list includes:

Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl's Courage Changed Music by Margarita Engle
This is a picture book and I happened to let a certain lovely young lady have a go at my copy before I read it.  I think she liked it.


The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, & The Fall of Imperial Russia by Candace Fleming
A young adult/older middle grade book about just what the title says.  It has been winning awards left and right.  I'll let you know what I think!


Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
Because I have never read it before!  I heard it isn't all that awesome but I'm looking forward to it.

The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart
So, honestly, I don't remember what this is about.  I know it won something so I put it on my list. But it has been awhile. I just started it and I am pretty sure this kid has cancer.  Not sure if I have it in me to read another tear jerker (TFIOS was enough for this lady!) so we'll see how it goes!

Nightbird by Alice Hoffman
Yep, for middle graders.  I freaking loved this book!!!  A little bit of magic makes its way into the Berkshires.  Just enough to make this a magical realism (my fave!) delight.


Special Delivery by Philip C. Stead
He was a part of the dynamic duo who brought A Sick Day for Amos McGee into my life.  Special Delivery lives up to the expectations that a Stead brings with it.  A little girl has a very special delivery for her lonely aunt, one that will make you giggle at the end.


The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
It's my Gabo book of the summer and I cranked it out straight away.  This book is actually nonfiction. It was a piece he wrote for a newspaper, quite controversial in its time, that tells the harrowing tale of a sailor who is thrown overboard and left at sea for a good 9 days.  My favorite line, "I think that an old sailor who has traveled the whole world can determine by the movement of his ship which sea he is sailing."  So. Freakin'. True.


2. In other news...I signed a lease for my apartment.  This is a HUGE deal because it is not a new apartment.  It is the same apartment and I signed a lease for a 3rd consecutive year.  Which means that is the longest I have lived in one apartment/home since I was...18!  That's a lot of rental deposits folks.  I have spent 16 years bouncing around and I know I will eventually move again...but it feels so good!

Roomies for one more year!
I'm so lucky!
(They're so special...)

3.  I am also staying in the same job for a 3rd year!  That hasn't happened since college!  The savings account is loving me so much these days.

Sign me up for one more year of fort building!!

My summer started off with a bang.  I met this fantastic person who will be coming home with me soon to meet the parents.  (Another HUGE deal!)  I have been on 4 trips since school started. Those range anywhere from 7 days to 1 day (a quick jaunt to NYC) and I am finally home for a bit.  I am hoping in this next week I will catch up on some blogging.  I really have been reading a ton of books, just haven't let you know about them yet.

Books and Ice Cream with the Monkeys

Spending time with Gram

Hat shopping with bella Bianca

NYC!!!!

Beach time with my LA fam

<3

Harmonicas and a road trip to Montreal
started the summer off right

Also, I've missed so many book events.  The Boston Book Festival just announced their lineup of presenters for the fall, including Margaret Atwood and Louis Sachar.  I hope you accept that with my sincerest apologies for abandoning you.  (Sorry mom!)

This happened!  Boys, books, and Dan Gutman!
Thanks Owen for the fab shirts!