Book Un-Hauling

Book un-haul you say!? What is this you say? Yes. I'm getting rid of a hefty amount of books. By this I mean nine books. Lets not get carried away. I have been seeing this trend lately on Booktube of readers making videos where they outline books/series they are giving away to charity. I'm jumping on that bandwagon too. When I went to look at Amazon tonight (to purchase more books obviously) I thought, "Wait a tick, how many books do I have sitting on my shelves now?" (for those that don't have Instagram, I will insert a picture here:)

I wish I could say picture encompasses all my "TBR" (to-be-read) pile, but sadly, no. When I saw it was upwards of 140 books, I thought, there is no way in hell that I still have interest in all of those. I read an article recently on my new favorite blog, Book Riot, that encouraged me to clear the shelves of books I've been holding onto for too many years. Most likely I will never get around to reading those and it's time to part ways.

So I wanted to do a quick little post about what I'm getting rid of and a short blurb as to why. I won't be including the covers in this like I would a normal book haul, I'm sure you'll all live!

Books Listed On Bookmooch:

1) Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger

When I was working at KLEAN towards the end, I was taking a lot of "sick" days, or a lot of personal days basically which calculated out to about two days per week. Whatev. What that allowed me to do was catch up on my Netflix and every show from the past 5-7 years that I had missed. This included the show "Friday Night Lights". I figure, I do really like the show and it's probably similar enough that I don't have to read the book. Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose.

2) The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

You know it's time to get rid of a book when you can't even put your finger on when you acquired it. Like I think this one might be a high school pick up, maybe even a gift from one of my parents? I don't know. In any case, I've been toting it around thinking at some point I'm going to be desperate enough to read it, but I can honestly say after fully reading the synopsis, that's never going to happen. Buh-bye.

3) Peace Like A River by Leif Enger

This was definitely a Goodwill purchase. Goodwill is a tricky one for me. They always have such a HUGE book section that is priced dirt cheap. The problem is, they never have books that are quite on my "to purchase" list. It's like, "Oh yeahhhh, I think I've heard of this book being good... mayyyybe I'll get it" which then turns into me carrying the book around in my hands throughout the store for an hour and I finally give in to buying it only to realize later that I'm probably never going to read that book. Oh American consumerism, you get me every time. At least it's for a good cause... right?

4) Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

This is one of those highly popular books that I always feel like I should have read. Like everyone else has, why haven't you? I get suckered into those quite a bit, though I will say if any book has an Oprah Book Club stamp on the front, I steer the eff clear. I've learned my lesson with She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb. For lack of a better phrase, that book SUCKED which says a lot since I read it in high school (well half read) and still have PTSD from it. Oprah may be able to do a lot of things, but recommend books she cannot. Anyway, I gave Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close to my mom to check out and she said it was weird and she didn't like it, so I'm sure my feelings won't be too far from the mark. Goodbye book.

5) The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

What sucked about buying this book was that it was at full price. In Barnes and Noble. When I was broke, broke, broke. I picked it up and put it back down within about 30 pages (my typical threshold for giving books a chance is 100 pages, but with this one I was bored to tears). I'm sure it's interesting and I'm sure a lot of people like it, but there are so many other books I would rather peruse before this. See yah.

6) Wicked by Gregory Maguire

I have had this book forever. At one point, when it came out back in 2000, I read almost 1/2 to 3/4 of it. I didn't have the steam to push all the way through. It's one of those that I kept saying to myself, "someday, someday, someday." But lets be real, it's 13 years later and I still haven't picked it up. Gone.

7) Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

See #4

8) The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

This was a Goodreads recommendation. In whole, I'm highly suspicious of Goodreads recommendations, or any non-friend recommendations in general. Like in magazines when they pick "the best make-up/hair product/whatever of 2013", how do I know it's not because that brand paid them the highest price to print that? I don't. And how do I know the publishers of said book aren't paying to increase visibility, thus the reason a book ended up on my recommendations page in the first place, not because I would actually like the book (my mind is a scary place my friends). Anyway, I'm suspicious of this book, I think it's a plant, and it's time for it to go.

9) Fablehaven by Brandon Mull

I'm fairly certain this book was written for the middle-grade set and after my encounter with the Percy Jackson series, I'm over it. I'm done. YA is where I draw the line. I'm two and a half short years away from 30 and it's time for me to put down the books for the tween set. I just can't do it. I'm just too old for you.

All in all, I feel pretty good about these choices. For anyone that knows me, I'm a purger. I love getting rid of things to make room for the new. That being said, the "new" will most likely be bought tomorrow. On Amazon. With my credit card. Huzzah!

Text Talk: Week Nine

Wow, it's been a while with very inconsistent updates. I think with work, housing woes and two major addictions to The Sopranos and Candy Crush, I've just been beat! On the plus side, I have smashed through quite a few books as of late. I'm on a roll folks!

Title: Ender's Game
Author: Orson Scott Card
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 324

Reaction: Yes, the whole time I was reading this book I was jamming out to Daft Punk in my head. This book is about a very talented child, Ender, who is responsible for saving the earth from an invading alien species. From six year old genius to the youngest war leader ever, you follow Ender's transformation through the entire process. This is a coming of age story that centers around war games, self discovery and political strife. I enjoyed the majority of this book, but it lost me a little at the end when the war had been fought and the dust was settling. Also, there was a lot of political and theoretical rhetoric that was kind of a turn off. These are young kids speaking like philosophers and politicians which goes a little too far into the realm of unrealistic for my liking. As a youth, I could never buy into Animal Farm or Lord of the Flies, and this book seems like it's trying to be like those. Overall though, the main heart of the story was endearing and likable, I definitely can't wait until the movie comes out this fall!!

Rating: B-

Title: Diamond Ruby
Author: Joseph Wallace
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 480

Reaction: It happened to be right around the 4th of July that I picked this book up. I wanted to read something that optimized the American traditions, something that was truly patriotic, and I found that in Diamond Ruby. Ruby is a girl who has been thrown into the role of sole provider for her family after a tragic set of events. This 17 year old girl is now responsible for her alcoholic brother and his two young daughters in the tumultuous 1920's. This is a story of the strength of a woman who defied the times and the opinions of others to succeed in a man's sport- baseball. Ruby takes us from a small booth on Coney Island, to the house that Ruth built in her rise to fame. At first I thought that, though the story is enjoyable, the premise was a little far fetched, but I started googling around and found out that in fact, there was a 17 year old girl who struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game in 1931. Ruby's story is loosely based around that historical incident. Pretty cool.

Rating: B+

Title: Alanna
Author: Tamora Pierce
Genre: High Fantasy
Pages: 274

Reaction: It has been a little while since I read a middle grade book. I think the last one was Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and I should have known from that experience that I have developed a little bit further than that in my reading abilities to enjoy a book of that caliber. I trudged through this book though and tried to appreciate it for what it was, unfortunately I found myself skimming large sections and not being able to enjoy what I was reading.

Rating: C

Title: Shadow and Bone
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Genre: YA Fantasy
Pages: 356

...Currently reading...

Books Added to the Library Since Last Time

Title: Along for the Ride

Author: Sarah Dessen

Genre: Contemporary

History Behind My Choice: All of the Booktubers I watch are in love with this author. After having read so many YA Paranormal/ Dystopian books, I'm looking to get into something different for a while. I think after reading my first Nicholas Sparks books, I've warmed up to this genre a little bit. I've been wanting to try a Sarah Dessen book for a while, so when this came available on Bookmooch, I swooped it up!

Title: Blood Red Road

Author: Moira Young

Genre: YA Dystopian

History Behind My Choice: From the readers I respect on Goodreads, this book has gotten some amazing reviews. It has a strong female lead who supposedly kicks some ass. I grew up watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so I'm always down for some girl vs. evil action.

Title: The Diviners

Author: Libba Bray

Genre: YA Paranormal

History Behind My Choice: I have read a Libba Bray book before and honestly, I wasn't all that impressed. Something about fairies and their "realm" that I just can't get behind. This book though, incorporates fortune tellers and the 1920's. What could go wrong with that combination? I've heard this is a great read and I'm willing to give Libba a chance!

Title: The Immortal Rules

Author: Julie Kagawa

Genre: YA Paranormal

History Behind My Choice: I think if you look at my genre choices for this haul, you'd see a pattern. The bad thing is that I think I'm a little sick of YA books at the moment, I haven't read anything great lately, but I'm just going to keep trying. This is a vampire dystopian book where vampires have taken over the human world. Ever since Twilight I've been a sucker (pun intended) for vampire books, so I'll be excited to give this one a go.

Title: Silver Linings Playbook

Author: Matthew Quick

Genre: Contemporary

History Behind My Choice: Ever since the movie came out and I discovered that it was a book first, I needed to get my hands on it. I hear this is a very delightful tale written by a talented writer. I'm excited to read some more contemporary literature!

Title: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Author: Sherman Alexie

Genre: YA 

History Behind My Choice: From anything I've heard about this book, it's humorous and heartbreaking. A coworker saw me unwrap this book and got so excited that I was going to absolutely love it. He owns a copy himself. 

Text Talk: Week 8

Well folks, my personal productivity level has hit an all time low. I'm on day three of coffee withdrawals, and boy oh boy, it's a doozy. I've been noticing lately that I've become a light sleeping rage-aholic and my only explanation is the amount of coffee I've been drinking. I've never believed it before that coffee is a mind and mood altering drug that is highly addictive, but I'm coming to understand that it's true. There have been so many time in these last few days that I've tried tricking myself into thinking it's okay to just have one cup. The justifying is CRAZY!! But even just after three days of no coffee, I'm sleeping better (as in the deep REM sleep) and I'm slower to react to things that would otherwise annoy me. Thank god, we were venturing into very dangerous territory, like when Ryan was taking Chantex to quit smoking.

All of that aside, I have been able to finish a few books in the last couple of weeks- my reading productivity still holds strong. I'm not going to lie, about a week ago, I had images of grandeur when I was going to partake in a 30 day reading challenge. I failed about four days in. The challenge was to read 300 pages a day (ha) which I changed to fit my lifestyle to 150 pages a day (still ha). One of these days I'll get on reading that much, but for now, I'm averaging about a book a week, sometimes less. Here's what I've been enjoying:

Title: Let the Right One In
Author: John Ajvide Lindqvist
Genre: Horror
Pages: 513

Reaction: I am so confused by this book, even still. I heard that people were saying it was one of the scariest books they've ever read... Nope. It is about a vampire, there are some overly graphic scenes (think Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) and there are some very tense moments, but I was ready to get the bejesus scared out of me. Oh expectations. This was very Swedish noir feeling, with subject matter that was very strange in nature. I don't know that at the end of the book I felt any resolve or real understanding of what I had just read.

Rating: C+

Title: If I Stay
Author: Gayle Foreman
Genre: Contemporary YA
Pages: 201

Reaction: On average, I don't know what a book is going to be about before I start reading it. I don't like to know, it makes it all the more interesting for me. I had a vague idea this was about a girl who was in an accident, but I didn't expect the sob-fest that ensued.  This was a very touching novel that I liked a lot more than I expected to, it's also ignited a drive in me to read more contemporary YA fiction. There is a second book that I am highly looking forward to reading soon!!

Rating: A-

Title: Ender's Game
Author: Orson Scott Card
Genre: Sci-Fi
Pages: 324

Reaction: I didn't read this book as a child like so many others. At that point, I wasn't into Sci-Fi, it didn't make sense to me. I remember sitting down with The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and being so confused on why so many people loved it. From that point on, I think Sci-Fi was off my list of respected genres, I was a book snob, even back then. But now that I'm a little older and I've seen Tron (and Ender's Game is coming to the big screen this fall), I'm ready to take this book on (Daft Punk plays in my head every time I pick this book up). I'm currently about 40 pages in, so I'll be back with my overall feel of this book later!

Books Added to the Library This Week:

Title: The History of Love
Author: Nicole Krauss
Genre: Contemporary
History Behind My Choice: I'm trying to remember, but I think this was a Goodreads recommendation. I saw it come on Bookmooch one day a few weeks ago and nabbed it without really thinking anything of it. I can't tell you what it's about (see above explanation) but I'm willing to give it a go.

Title: These Hidden Things
Author: Heather Gudenkauf
Genre: Mystery
History Behind My Choice: This was a booktuber recommendation, plus I always love a good mystery. It's not often mysteries center around a young female protagonist, so I had to pick this one up. As I've said before, I grew up on Earl Emerson books, so I'm always looking for something that's going to get my heart racing.

Title: Diamond Ruby
Author: Joseph Wallace
Genre: Historical Fiction
History Behind My Choice: A few months back I watched Field of Dreams again and I fell back in love with the idea of the American Spirit and along with that, the great American Pastime, baseball. I started Google-ing best baseball books, and here we go! This along with The Art of Fielding are what I have added to my collection. I just want to take a minute though to admire the cover of this book. It's a mix of everything Americana + Great Gatsby to some extent. Love.

Title: Alanna
Author: Tamora Pierce
Genre: Fantasy/High Fantasy
History Behind My Choice: I've been meaning to pick up a woman fantasy author for a while now like Ursula K. Le Guin or Tamora Pierce. Sometimes it's hard for me to get beyond the completely ridiculous covers, but this one seemed alright to me. After reading Name of the Wind, I've been wanting to get into another High Fantasy series, so I'm giving this one a try!

Title: The Golden Compass
Author: Phillip Pullman
Genre: Fantasy
History Behind My Choice: Last, but not least, I picked up The Golden Compass. I loved this book growing up, but I gave it away a while back. I have been craving a reread of this book, so when I saw this copy on Bookmooch, I swooped it up!

Text Talk: Week 7

I'll preface this by saying I have been buying much more than I have been reading. It's been easier to go out and buy a book at the current moment than it has been to get into reading one. I've been in what every book lover knows as the dreaded slump. Between working crazy hours and house hunting (as well as a serious Law and Order SVU addiction (I'm well into the 6th season)), reading has been put on hold. I don't know if it was that I loved my last read so much, Ready Player One, that I can't get into another book, but it just hasn't sounded appealing up until today. That's right, a whole week+ without reading a book. I'm falling off my game friends.

How I think I managed to climb out of the rut I found myself in was to go on Goodreads and peruse the books I have marked as "to-read-already-own". I walk by my mound of books on a daily basis, they are stacked in the landing into my bedroom, but I think I've become numb to them. I needed to refresh my mind as to what I have and what worlds I could be immersing myself in. I felt like I needed something light and airy (since it's been gorgeous weather here today) so I settled on this:

Title: Safe Haven

Author: Nicolas Sparks

Genre: Contemporary/ Love Story

Pages: 340

Reaction: I have never read a Nicholas Sparks book before. To be honest, I never wanted to be "that girl" who read the sappy crap and who swooned over everything Mr. Sparks produced. I judged those girls, harshly and critically without question. All books at Goodwill in Eugene a while back were $1.00. That's where I acquired this gem. I didn't think too much of it but I figured I would give it a shot. Since being in recovery I've definitely learned you can't judge a book by it's cover and to be weary of contempt prior to investigation. I'll tell you though, so far this book is exactly what I've been needing. It's hard to put down too! I'm liking everything about it so far!!

Books Added to the Library This Week:

Title: Atlas Shrugged

Author: Ayn Rand

Genre: Classics

History Behind My Choice: First, I will say that I didn't buy this book for myself. My wonderful boss purchased this for me since we've been talking about it for awhile. I heard that Atlas Shrugged has some wonderful female characters as well as a thought provoking tale. This is among one of Ryan's mother's favorite books, so there was no way I couldn't read it since I loved her previous suggestion (The Shoe Maker's Wife) so much. 

Title: If I Stay

Author: Gayle Forman

Genre: YA Contemporary

History Behind My Choice: This is another BookTuber rave. I've been trying to mix up some of my YA Paranormal/YA Dystopian choices with some YA Contemporary so that I don't get sick of the genre, and I'm not typically interested in Contemporary novels, but I thought I would give one a try. This one is also set in Oregon, so that's always a plus.

Title: Beautiful Ruins

Author: Jess Walter

Genre: Historical Fiction

History Behind My Choice: This was a Goodreads find. Every year they do a "Reader's Choice" best books of the year contest, and this was a nominee that had caught my eye under the "Fiction" category. I saw it at Goodwill today for $2.99 and I couldn't pass it up. Also I've been fiending for an Italy fix- I picked up and put down "Under the Tuscan Sun" in one day, like I literally shipped it out the same day I picked it up to start reading it, that's how bad it was. This book has scenes that take place in Italy so hopefully that will satisfy me!

Title: Hacking Harvard

Author: Robin Wasserman

Genre: YA Fiction

History Behind My Choice: This was kind of a Goodwill impulse buy, I really have no explanation for it other than I thought it sounded interesting and light. We shall see. I think what happened to me in Goodwill was the equivalent to what happens to me in Barnes and Nobel: I go crazy with all the possibilities! Thankfully though, the book prices in Goodwill are a lot more bank account friendly.

Title: Let the Great World Spin

Author: Colum McCann

Genre: Historical Fiction

History Behind My Choice: This was another Goodreads Reader's Choice nominees that caught my eye. From what I gather, it has interweaving stories that center around 1974 NYC when the tightrope walker walked between the twin towers. I've been seeing that the documentary "Man on Wire" was really amazing so I thought this might equally be as good (this is how my mind works...)

Title: The Time Traveler's Wife

Author: Audrey Niffenegger

Genre: Romance

History Behind My Choice: I don't think I really need to explain this choice. When I say (to my bookish friends) "Oh, yeah I haven't read that, but I've seen the movie", there are screams that go out. I'm finally on the bandwagon.

Title: Peace Like A River

Author: Leif Enger

Genre: Fiction

History Behind My Choice: Another random Goodwill grab/ Goodreads find. I've been being recommended this book for a long while now, I finally saw it in public and picked it up. I think it was the write-ups on the back that finally persuaded me. Yes, I'm a sucker, the publisher got me, hook-line-and-sinker. They only got me for $2.99 though! Mark that in the win column!!

Text Talk: Week 6

Well, my 80 book reading challenge for the year seems to be going down in flames. I think I've come to terms with it though. I would rather enjoy reading books than be driven by some arbitrary number that in the end won't really matter if the process wasn't fun. That being said, I've only finished two books in the last two weeks. Between work and looking into buying a house, plus my rapidly growing obsession with Law and Order: SVU reruns on Netflix, my reading time has been limited.

Here's what I've got:

Title: Delirium

Author: Lauren Oliver

Genre: YA Dystopian

Pages: 441

Reaction: I only finished this book about a week ago and it took me a little while today to remember what it was even about. Needless to say I gave this book a 3/5 stars. It was enjoyable while reading it but the story seemed similar to others I have read recently. I think I'll continue on with the series, but it won't be one that I'm rushing out to buy. 

Title: Ready Player One

Author: Ernest Cline

Genre: Dystopian/Sci-Fi

Pages: 374

Reaction: Just a fair warning, this is going to sound like a fangirl gush. I haven't read a book in recent memory that I have loved so much and devoured as quickly as I did Ready Player One. Imagine, if you will, a future where fossil fuels are nearly depleted, civilization has crumbled and every one lives in a virtual reality world. Human contact is limited to what you do online in "OASIS" through your avatar. You go to school, work, socialize, everything in a online platform. The creator of OASIS has just died and set forth a quest for anyone who can solve his clues to obtain his vast amounts of wealth and fortune (think Willy Wonka). Enter Wade Watts, a nobody with no money and born into a pretty crappy life. Through out the book, you follow him on his quest to solve the riddles and win the prize as he competes against everyone else in this virtual world. 

Okay, where I'm going to start raving is that this book centers around the 1980's geek culture. The creator of OASIS, James Halliday grew up during this time period and completely immersed himself in the 80's culture for the remainder of his life. There are so many references to some of my most favorite things: Ghostbusters, Pretty in Pink (I was raised on John Hughes movies), The Goonies, Star Wars, Pac Man, etc and so for ad infinitum. Not to mention some of the most amazing 80's songs were key highlights in this book. These were all things I grew up with too, so this was a wonderful walk through my own childhood. Also, video game consoles and the earliest versions of computers were a major component in my young life, so a lot of the early video games talked about in this book also brought back a lot of memories. I love the nerd culture, most wouldn't know this, but I do like to game every now and then. Sonic the Hedgehog, Zelda, Mario World, were all games that I loved playing growing up. Even to this day I'm a huge fan of all the Fable games, and my favorite game of all time is Kingdom Hearts. Anything that is an adventure with a good and noble storyline, I can get behind. This book was written like one of those classic games. It has everything a good adventure needs: an evil villain, a greater cause, nobility, human fault, a love story and an epic quest all mixed with the best parts of the 1980's, I mean seriously, need I say more?

For those of you who like to geek out like I do, I have a few documentary recs to go along with this book: Donkey Kong, Fist Full of Quarters and Indie Gamer. Donkey Kong Fist Full of Quarters is seriously one of the greatest documentaries I've seen. I even bought it I loved it so much. I have everyone I know watch it (if they want to remain my friend that is). I won't ruin it by even trying to explain it, just see it. And Indie Gamer is less about old school gaming, but more about independent game developers who are trying to get their games off the ground without having to go through a major corporation like Nintendo, Capcom, Atari, so on and so forth. Seriously some good stuff going on here. 

I loved this book. End of story.

Books Added to the Library This Week:

Title: Dash &Lily's Book of Dares

Author: David Levithan and Rachel Cohn 

Genre: YA Contemporary

History Behind My Choice: I've had this book on my list for a while, it's a contemporary set around Christmas. A lot of the BookTubers I watch have read this and said it was enjoyable. I'm not expecting a whole lot, but I got it from BookMooch because the same person had the next book that I was really excited to get.

Title: The Host

Author: Stephanie Meyer

Genre: YA/Science Fiction

History Behind My Choice: So after the whole Twilight craze, I had heard Stephanie Meyer had come out with another book. I didn't really pay it much attention. Don't get me wrong, I loved Twilight, but I was concerned it was going to be Bella, Jacob and Edward all over again, so I passed it up. Then, right before the movie came out, so many of my favorite BookTubers were saying they were re-reading it and that they absolutely loved it the first time around. So that intensified my need for this book. I tried mooching it from multiple people, it took about three months in total before it was available from a reputable user from which I got this and the previous book! I think I'm picking up this bad boy next. 

Title: Steve Jobs

Author: Walter Isaacson 

Genre: Biography

History Behind My Choice: This is the only book that Ryan has ever asked me to get for him. He's not much of a reader so when he requests something like this, I do whatever I can to facilitate him getting some good materials. He's got a major Apple obsession so I have a feeling he's going to nerd out on this book.

A Week in Photos: Weeks 18 & 19

Monday 4/29: A while back, in thanks for a framed photo we gave Ryan's stepmother Jenny, she sent me this wonderful handmade necklace. After meeting her in Florida and seeing her don a similar design, I thought I would give mine a go.

Wednesday 5/1: After getting back from Florida, before returning the huge suitcase our friend Jenn let us borrow, Marley decided to make a home out of it. I don't know what it is about our cat and suitcases, but they LOVE them! For about a week period, we had another suitcase on our dresser and Peanut would not leave it! But we finally got Marley's hideout back to it's owner, Ryan and I should probably think about getting our boy a kitty house.

Friday 5/3: One of our KLEAN Alum came by to say hello to us and bring in his most amazing dog. Maximus is a Boerboel, basically an African Mastiff. Ever since seeing the first Harry Potter, I have been in love with Mastiffs. I don't know that I would ever be able to have one, too much slobber, but Maximus is one amazing specimen. Such a handsome boy!!

Friday 5/3: My fabulous friend and sponsor Vern had his belly button birthday on the 3rd. For those who aren't in a 12-step program, it basically means he aged another year! Our friend Vinessa baked this fantastic cake which featured a Narwhalicorn. We celebrated with sushi in Seaside!

Friday 5/3: On our way back from sushi, it was pretty hard to miss the Coast Guard helicopter searching the coast line for something in the water. Living in Astoria has some downsides (as I have already mentioned on here numerous times), so it took about two hours for us to find out what was actually going on. Ryan was even trying to listen to the police scanner to no avail. Apparently someone had called in that a 13 year old boy had been skateboarding down by the river and had fallen in. In actuality, a drunk guy saw two kids skateboarding and heard something splash into the water and only one kid run away. He called it in, and thus, this situation ensued. Thankfully, no one actually fell in the water, it was a good display that if something were to actually happen, the Coast Guard would swiftly get into action!

Saturday 5/4: Nothing gets Ryan going more than me finding picture of his "awkward phase" and posting them on the interwebs. And nothing gets me laughing more than doing it. Ryan put on Facebook in response to this photo that he was breaking up with me, which his mother actually believed. Too good. I found this little gem buried deep in a pile of things that came out of the Acura Ryan sold to a buddy, this was a gleaming picture of him at the fine age of 18 when he was having his first college experience. So good.

Saturday 5/4: I have been eying these adirondack chairs for at least a year now. Ever since Ryan and I moved into our little house with a deck, I have been daydreaming about sunbathing on our porch. We acquired a set of ice cream parlor chairs and table about a year back, but the refurbishing process on that came to a halt when it started raining in the fall. Unfortunately I left them out all winter and ruined their new coat of paint and I can't bring myself to want to do it all over again. I'm thinking of just posting them on Craigslist now that I have these beauties. The red is just so happy and pops on our porch, and they are comfortable to boot!

Sunday 5/5: The problem with having indoor kitties is that they get so jealous when you're outside and they can't be! This last weekend in Astoria was probably one of the most beautiful I have seen since living here. It was in the 80's both days and we had the windows flung open throughout the whole house. This toys with our cats emotions though. I was sitting in the aforementioned adirondack chairs right near the window, only to have Peanut meowing and playing with my hair. Such is the life of a house cat. Time to get kitty leashes!

Sunday 5/5: Since it was so nice over the weekend, Ryan and I decided that on our Sunday date day, we would sit out on the porch and BBQ for the first time of the year! I know we probably could have BBQed through the winter under our covered patio, but we aren't that dedicated to the art. Ryan is a steak fanatic, so of course we picked some up at Fred Meyer. And this picture ensued.

Monday 5/6: Our boy cat doesn't like to be picked up. He actually starts making noises like "uuumph ummph" (because we think he has a deviated septum and can't meow like a normal cat). So sometimes, to torment him, we pretend like we're trying to catch a wild animal (which we are). On this fine day, Ryan was running around our room saying he was trying to capture a "kitty-tor". Like that show "To Catch a Predator". It was hilarious and Marley was having none of it.

Friday 5/10: The most exciting thing happened. I was finally able to mooch a book for Ryan! For those of you who don't know, I am a Bookmooch addict. For those who don't know what Bookmooch is, I can do a post on it later, an updated one from this one. Ryan had been wanting the biography of Steve Jobs for a while now, so it was just meant to be when I saw this guy come up! When it arrived, it was in really good condition and a hardback! Boom.

Saturday 5/11: One thing I love to do when I go home to Olympia, is check out the Capitol Campus. I grew up going there while my dad was working and there's something about it that is still magical to me. I have taken Ryan there plenty of times before, but this time I wanted to take him to the heated bench. For those who didn't grow up in Olympia, the heated bench is basically like it sounds, a big wooden bench that has air ducts underneath it that shoot up hot air. Unfortunately, the "heated" part of this equation was no longer working. Still, we were able to walk around the campus seeing all of the war memorials and checking out the colored fountain. I showed Ryan all of the places I used to roller blade when I was younger, and all of the spots I used to play hide and seek. It was a wonderful trip down memory lane!

Text Talk: Week 5

It's been a couple of week since I last updated you all with what I've been reading and purchasing. It's taken a while to readjust after coming back from a semi-vacation. I will say that I didn't get as many books read as I had hoped I would, but that's because I was too busy exploring Orlando! With this last weekend being as sunny as it was down here in Astoria though, I had plenty of porch sitting time to kick back and relax with some good reads.

Title: Last Sacrifice

Author: Richelle Mead

Genre: YA Paranormal

Pages: 594

Reaction: Okay, so I loved this series, like if I can get over the embarrassment of saying the words "Vampire Academy", then I would tell everyone (who likes paranormal YA) to read this. I do have to say that I was a little disappointed by this last book though. I think my main complaint is that towards the end of the series, it started suffering from "Twilight-itis" meaning that there was MAJOR love triangle action occurring, and as it was with Twilight, my "team" didn't win! (Still Team Jacob.) I finished this book on the flight to Orlando, and I sat there thinking after I closed the cover, "That's it? That's all?". Again though, I'd still give the entire collection of books a 4/5 stars. I enjoyed the experience of reading them, they are total low brow entertainment, but easy to divulge in, none the less!

Title: The Princess Bride

Author: William Goldman

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 398

Reaction: So everyone knows this is a huge cult classic. When I was younger, I knew people that were OBSESSED with this film, but I never got it! In Olympia where I grew up, we always had a summer film series in the park, and Princess Bride was a movie that was always shown, and always cheered at! I tried watching it on a couple different occasions, and I just couldn't get into it. I thought, now that I'm older, maybe I'll understand it a little bit better. Nope, still don't. I thought the writing was wonderful, I thought the intro by William Goldman was even better, and yes, I was duped into believing there was actually an author called S. Morgenstern, but this book just didn't resonate with me. I thought Buttercup was selfish and irritating, but Westly redeemed her. The supporting characters brought humor and interest to the story, but it wasn't enough for me to rate this book higher than 3 stars. Am I missing something??

Title: Delirium

Author: Lauren Oliver

Genre: YA Dystopian 

Pages: 441

Reaction: I am about 100 pages away from finishing this book. I always seem to do a running tally in my head of where I think a book is at during the reading experience. I've wavered between a 3 and 4 through the entirety of the book. I have a friend that highly recommended this to me, so I had to pick it up. At first, all I could think about was this book is exactly like Uglies by Scott Westerfield. Once teenagers in this world reach a certain age, they have a surgery that changes the course of their life forever (just like Uglies). As I have read further in the book, the similarities have ended and at this point I'm looking forward to reading the next installment in this series. More on it next week.

Books Added to the Library This Week:

So when I started writing this week's edition of Text Talk, I thought I wasn't going to have very many books that I added to my library since last time I wrote... Wrong. As I started going through my Goodreads account, I somehow added SIX books to the library!! I was flabbergasted. 

Title: The Baker's Daughter

Author: Sarah McCoy

Genre: Historical Fiction

History Behind My Choice: This book was recommended to me by Goodreads after I finished the Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani. It sounds to be one of those that interweaves many lives and tells a beautiful historical story. I saw it on Bookmooch one day and grabbed it up!

Title: We Need to Talk About Kevin

Author: Lionel Shriver

Genre: Contemporary

History Behind My Choice: I don't remember when I heard about this book originally, but it was one of those things that you gain knowledge of, then hear about it everywhere after that. It's like when you learn a new word and you hear it constantly from that moment on. Anyone with me on that? Anyway, this book is about a mother who's son was responsible for a school shooting. Chilling? Yes. Heartbreaking? Yes. I'm going to have to mentally prepare myself for this one!

Title: Ready Player One

Author: Ernest Cline

Genre: Science Fiction/ Dystopian

History Behind My Choice: This book has been HOT in the BookTube community recently. When I saw my favorite BookTuber Priscilla (TheReadables) do a review that said this is an amazing pop culture/ geek book, I knew I had to pick it up. Then when my favorite author, Patrick Rothfus simply stated "This book was f*cking awesome", it was on like Donkey Kong. I finally picked it up one of the times I was at Powell's recently. 

Title: The City of Ember

Author: Jeanne DuPrau

Genre: YA/Dystopian

History Behind My Choice: I saw a review for this book on BookTube, then when I read about it on Goodreads, it sounded like a young adult version of The Passage by Justin Cronin. Yes please.

Title: Divergent

Author: Veronica Roth

Genre: YA/Dystopian

History Behind My Choice: This was another book that was popular on BookTube a while back and a bookish friend of mine, Bree also recommended it to me. It was a book that I was waiting to drop in price, but after Florida (where I didn't spend very much money) when we went to Powell's, I decided to spring for it as well as previously mentioned Delirium. I'm holding off on reading this until the final book of the trilogy comes out later this year, just incase I want to tear through them like I did with Twilight. 

That's all I have for this week, I hope to get through with Delirium today and have a few other books to talk about by the next time I write! I'm expecting a few more books in the mail this week, so I'll have updates on that as well!