Slumps.

It's been almost one month since the last time I blogged, but I don't have to tell all of you that. Something strange happened to me about the time we moved which I am fondly thinking of as a life slump. I shirked away from all previously enjoyable activities, becoming overly tired and unenthusiastic about everything. I stopped reading, blogging, exercising, taking Instagram photos, etc. etc! It's been really crazy actually because I can't come up with any valid reason as to why this is happening.

Well last week, I finally took a stand. Nothing changes if nothing changes, right? The first thing I did was call my sponsor (whom I hadn't talked to in over two months). We met up and started going over what I have been experiencing lately. It's hard to clearly explain, but there have been moments when I feel like all I have going on in my head is white noise. My brain feels fuzzy and I've noticed I've started acting out of character- misplacing things, unintentionally throwing things away and not remembering I did it (like our Duck's season tickets), and just finding myself really confused at some points. We talked all this over, and he recommended to me that I make a doctors appointment.

So I did that next. I'll be having my first physical in over 9 years next week (gulp, I know, I haven't had one since high school).

The final change I have made in my life in the past week is going to see a therapist. I think now that I'm two years sober, my head is screwed on a little tighter than it was when I first started the sobriety adventure. I have been hearing about all of these wonderful experiences some of the women in my life are having thanks to seeing a counselor, so I thought, hell, why not me? I've been talking about going to see someone for a while now, like since college, and after watching this TED talk, I knew I had to get my ass in gear.

I'm now in my late twenties and I have that feeling that I've watched my youth pass me by without being an active participant. Up to this point, I haven't worked hard for anything in my life. I don't know how I ended up with a college degree, but by the grace of God, I did. A lot of the time I feel like a ship without a rudder with no clear carved out direction. I'm hoping that by talking to someone who knows more than I do and has an objective view of what I'm going through, she can help give me direction and clarity. More than anything, I'm hoping that she can help me define what I want out of life, and how the hell I'm going to get it, because left up to my own devices, I'm screwed.

I feel that I'm finally to the point where I'm not satisfied with status quo anymore, I'm not satisfied with just having a "good enough job" and having a roof over my head, I want to challenge myself and push myself harder than I ever have before. I want to take the remaining years of my 20's and make up for lost time so to speak. My early 20's are lost to me in a boozy blurry haze and now that I have a handle on sobriety, I feel like I'm finally in a place where I actually can go the extra mile and push myself towards living the good life.

I don't know what this means for me, but I will try to share as many of my adventures, failures, growing points and Aha moments as I possibly can in the future. I'm ready for an exciting ride folks, buckle up!

Curly Craze

For the majority of my life I have been waging battle on my curly unruly locks. I have abused, dyed and fried my hair so many times. There was a point in time when I actually had a permanent professional straightening job which literally burned off a section of my hair in the back of my head. Humph.

I'm Erin, and I'm a recovering straightening addict.

I think with age, I have come to accept and even embrace my natural hair, I have not dyed it now in over three years and I no longer straighten or curl it on a daily basis. I'm still trying to figure out the right combination of products to use that will give it the optimal look, and my friends, I am coming closer.

A few days ago I posted about a Kiehl's product I had just purchased which I was going to do a review for once I got a feel for it. Well, it's a couple of days later and I absolutely love it.

It's the first time ever I feel like a product has lived up to the advertising or the hype around it. When you read "smoothing" "straightening" "moisturizing" etc etc, it's (in my opinion) usually BS. This time, I'm actually a true believer. I had a co-worker today tell me that I was having a good hair day (she's a hair dresser on the side and knows what "good hair" is) on second day hair. I've even had Ryan tell me my hair looks fantastic since using this product and he is literally the least observant/helpful boyfriend ever when it comes to make up/fashion/hair. I'll often ask, "Hey Ryan, which color looks better" if I'm out shopping and his standard response is "I don't know." ...(We won't even start down that rabbit hole)

So, what is so great about this product you might ask? Well, it actually defrizzes my hair. Like something good is happening with the combination of Argan Oil, Cocoa Butter and Sesame Oil. My curls stick together better and I don't look like a christmas tree at the end of the day (think triangle). My hair is so smooth and manageable I can't even really believe it myself.

So where is the catch you're asking. Well, in my personal opinion, I've definitely smelled many better things in my life. This stuff has a very natural scent, and by that I mean it smells like Hippies. The dirty sort. I think it's the Eucalyptus in it. It's an overpowering scent that I try to cover up immediately after my shower. Also, the shampoo doesn't lather all that much, which I have come to find is my bailiwick. I get annoyed if I have to really work the product into my scalp, or if I have to use a lot of product.

But would that dissuade me from not buying this product again? Never. I have found my miracle device. With a price tag of $35 for the set, I find it not to be too bank account unfriendly (reminder: this is all relative. This set doesn't seem too crazy since the last set I purchased was $68 total.)

I haven't tried this product out on my straight hair yet, so that will be interesting to see if my opinions are the same. I don't know how many curly haired mavens I have reading my blog, but I'm planning on doing a curly hair routine here in the future. But for now, I'm grateful for Argan Oil, it's a life saver!!

Summer Splurge

Whoody whoooo it's day three of BEDA, and I about shat my pants earlier today thinking I had forgotten to write yesterday. I was labeling myself an epic failure for not even completing two days of this 31 day challenge, but alas, I did write, and I am not YET a failure! Success.

Anyway, as you all might have caught in a previous post, I just got a raise recently. My first ever in my whole life. It's a pretty big deal. Before this raise, I was doing alright, meaning my bills were paid, I had food in my belly and I still had an iPhone in my pretty little hand, but I didn't have cash for much else, like saving, or in today's case, spending :) :) :)! So to treat myself with my first full raised paycheck, my momma came down from Olympia and we did some serious Portland damage.

Going into this trip, I had a few things in mind to get, mainly shoes and an outfit for an upcoming wedding I will be attending at the end of this month. Here's what I ended up getting! (I apologize in advance for the poorly lit, overly woody pictures- I worked with what I had.)

First stop today was NW 23rd, a wonderful area of Portland filled with a nice mixture of box stores and one of a kind boutiques. I've always had luck here, today being no exception. I found this gem at a consignment-like store called Crossroads Trading Co. where I always find the latest fashions at the cheapest prices. What I loved about this little nautical themed ditty was everything, and it was only $8.50. I think the phrase is, one man's trash is another man's come-up. I can picture this sweet roped tank with some red skinnies and my boaters. I'm on a boat bitch.

Next on NW 23rd, I scored this Kiehl's shampoo and conditioner combo. It's been a little bit since I've bought new product, I've been stooping to using Ryan's Treseme- oh the horror!! I was browsing around the interwebs one day and came across a video that was touting this set as some of the best for frizzy, dry, curly hair (I have all of the above), so I thought I would give it a whirl. It's called the Superbly Smoothing Argan set- I will post some updates as I have some prolonged use!! I will also take a moment to mention that they have some pretty spot on customer service in Kiehl's, the man who rang me up offered me all the samples I could take (I got the BB Creme!)

I'm not completely sure if I've mentioned this product before, I think I did when I was showing how to get real ghetto with it to try to drag out the product's life as long as possible. Anyway, I love this stuff. I mean, I have been dreaming about getting this liquid eyeliner back in my life. I kept putting it off until I could make a trip to Portland, but that was like four months ago. I have decided from here until forever that I am not a pencil eyeliner girl. I hate it. I mean really, I have this Smashbox eye pencil that I've been attempting to use for over 3 months now and I look like a 4 year old child that has gotten into mother's makeup. A goon. So anyway, I'm back to the Mac Liquid Eyeliner in Boot Black and I am here to stay.

Next it was on to the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. I about died when I saw this sweater. Anything with animals, I love. If this would have been a kitty cat, I probably would have loved it a little bit too much. But regardless, I just had to have this. It was marked down from $68 to $35. Boom. That's a steal of a deal.

Also from Nordstrom, I got this little peach to wear to the aforementioned wedding. Now, I was originally shooting for a cute little dress, but this is equally as amazing. It's a circle skirt by the brand Hinge that was $88 and I got it for $68. Typically I wouldn't go for anything that is poofy (being a girl and being all subconscious about weight and all) but this thing is a dream. It fits and flares in all of the right places and can be dressed up or dressed down depending on the occasion (work or play). I cannot wait to wear this later this month.

I don't know how they do it, but the little sassy minx that was helping me to my dressing room just happened to slip this tank top in along with a white one I had picked out for myself. I don't know that I even registered this color when I was looking at the spectrum on the rack, but I'm sure glad she got it to me by hook or by crook. You can't tell in this photo, but it is the most perfect coral/reddish delightful color you've ever seen. And it's just devine with my skin tone.

And finally, I got the most perfect white button down ever. From JCrew, my soul store. I told my mother today, if I could only shop at one store ever again, I woud choose JCrew (minus their pants, other than the Pixie pants). I initially wanted to venture in to check out their new Minnie pant (which like I said in the previous sentence looked like bulls*hit on me), but those didn't work out so I started the wander. Where I look and touch everything and want one of each. I've tried this shirt on before, but it was the beginning of summer (when I actually thought Astoria was going to have a summer- silly me) and I couldn't justify it. But now that it's fall at the Oregon Coast, this baby is all mine. It's going to look so perfect under sweaters (like the deer) or alone (tucked into the circle skirt) that I didn't even bat an eye at the $72 price tag. Well worth it my friends.


Well that's all for tonight! I'm going to go bask in the glow of my new clothes for a little while!!

Rental Rendezvous

Welcome to day 2 of BEDA! As I said in a previous post, I wanted to post pictures of the new place. Today is the day! Now, forewarning, it's a jumble of boxes and things yet to be put away. We have two or three rooms that look somewhat habitable, but other than that, it's chaos and destruction. It's very interesting going from about 11-1200 square feet to 800, if Ryan and I don't kill each other by the end of this, it will be a miracle. Much organization is to be done, I'll tour you through space by space and let you know my grand vision for each! Buckle up friends, here we go:

Outside, Patio:

To Do:
- Bird feeders outside the widows for the kitties to watch the pretties
- Get a better outside table, sell white wrought iron set
- Globe lights for the awning

Outside, carport/shed:

To Do:

- Put a firepit/seating area out behind the fence panel 

- Organize the shed with moving boxes, tools and things we don't need on a regular basis

- Move Ryan's motorcycle from the old rental to the carport of the new rental

Living Room: 

To Do:

- Add some bookshelves for my 10,000 unread books

- Get some artwork to hang above the couch

- Replace the chest we are using as a coffee table 

- Get a lamp to light the dark side of the room

- Get a shelf for the reading nook (?) and get artwork above reading chair

Kitchen/Dining Room:

To Do:

- Organize, get rid of the boxes (obviously)

- Get some greenery to grow on the deep window sills 

- Stool cushions

Bedroom: 

To Do:

- Move second dresser into bedroom 

- Get larger picture to cover the electrical box

- Picture to balance out the window on the left side of the room

- Get Ryan a night light on his nightstand

- Move mirror into closet

Bedroom Closet:

To Do: 

- Get a shoe rack 

- Hooks to hang all my scarves on 

- Larger mirror above Ryan's dresser 

Bathroom: 

To Do: 

- Get nautical shower curtain like this one

- Artwork above the toilet

- Something to put my straightener in 

Office: 

To Do: 

- Go through and organize all box content

- Bookshelves like these (in white)

- Configure room, thinking floating table (in the middle of the room) with the chair facing the entry way

- Sell dresser that's up against the right hand side of the room

- Artwork to balance window on left side of the room

- Table lamp 

Week in Photos: Weeks 28-31

Hello friends! It's been a while since I've done one of these! August is a special month for me, it's the month of the year that I got sober. My sobriety birthday is almost more exciting to me than my real birthday (my belly button birthday) is now. For that reason, I think I'm going to (try to) do a blog post a day for the month of August, starting with this one! I consider August a gratitude month, so in gratitude for you all I will be gifting you with lots of posts, I shall call it BEDA (Blog Every Day in August). Enjoy!

Tuesday, July 9th: These little things have been a long time coming. I swear I have been working on ordering these cards and our new KLEAN brochures for about two months now. From picking the right company to the card texture, colors and card weight, it has been crazy. It's finally a project I can put into the finished bin though. The end result is beautiful, and I have nothing but good things to say about the company we worked hand in hand with, Polk Riley based out of Astoria, OR. This was an entirely new experience for me, but next time I'll step right up to the plate when it comes to designing anything, it was great collaborating with another creative minded individual!

Wednesday, July 10th: In keeping up with the work themed pictures, I was really proud of myself when I cobbled these images together on my office wall (the reason you can only see this little bit of my office is because the rest of the place looks like it was hit by a tornado, serious). It all started with the wooden pelican picture that my dad gave the facility a while back, then I added the lighthouse pictures. I love the way it looks, all of the frames are old knotty weathered wood that give a very good texture to the room! Plus, I always smile when I look at it, and that's what counts, right?

Thursday, July 11th: Before work one day, Ryan and I had to go down to Pier 39 to meet with an internet guy to give him a check for the facility. I hadn't ever done much exploring down in that area other than going to the Rouge Ale House, so I had a few spare minutes to do some poking around while Ryan BS'ed with the dude. Little did I know, it was the old Bumble Bee Tuna factory! There is a museum there and everything, as well as some of the old machinery. They have turned the factory into office space that it filled with a bunch of fun funky businesses, including a coffee shop that sells Key Lime bread. Which I bought. And then devoured. In five minutes.

Friday, July 12th: I think I definitely took for granted before the fact that I had health insurance. After working at Enterprise I was able to get on my mom's policy until I turned 26, but after that I got the boot. I've been without insurance for about 9 months and even that short amount of time is scary. Thankfully, I got my own policy at the beginning of June, and I started taking advantage of it right away. My new dentist's office has the best view of any office out there, I swear it! I challenge anyone else to prove me wrong!!

Friday, July 12th: I swear one of the best things to come home to is a box from Amazon. Even better would be if I didn't know what was in it, but alas, I ordered all this myself. It all started when Ryan and I were having a conversation that he had never seen The Sopranos. No man of mine will not be a Sopranos fan, so of course I had to go out and purchase the first season. Well of course when you buy anything from Amazon, if you spend $25 or more, shipping is free. So since the season was only $13, that left plenty of money to spend on... BOOKS! Best day ever.

Monday, July 15th: On Saturday the 13th, my dad came down to Astoria to clean the carpets of our rental and to take our outdoor kitty up to Olympia for a brief period of time while we were moving. We have taken in a cat that was a neighborhood cat I think someone had left when they moved. I have been feeding it (note the "it" since I still haven't been adventurous enough to find out its gender) for about 6 months now and don't have the heart to leave her behind or take her to the pound (I don't think anyone would take her). So this is the message I got from my father on the Monday following her visit to Olympia. I'm not sure the process of committing the elderly, but I'm seriously considering looking in to that.

Saturday, July 20th: In the post previous to this one, you will see that Ryan and I had fallen in love with a house. It had so many things we loved, including this faceplate for the light switch. Ryan's Aunt Lady's spirit animal was an elephant so we took this as a sign that we had to get this house (she was also very into signs). I still haven't given up hope on this house, the elephant is still speaking to me.

Sunday, July 21st: During a Sunday Soprano's marathon, Marley just couldn't be bothered to sleep in the light. He dug his little kitty head deep into the blankets and napped like that for a long time.

Saturday, August 27th: Ryan and I were supposed to be packing our life's possessions on Saturday, but he wanted to take the morning to go golfing. So I slept in a little and boy cat and I read this entire book. It was a delightful way to start the weekend.

Saturday, August 27th: To recognize our last weekend together in our first place, I made Ryan do something we had never done before: Swing on the swings at the park in the back of our house. It's kind of a bittersweet feeling moving out of our house on Bond, it holds a lot of memories from the last year. The park is something we've always looked at out our back window, but have never gone to. Finally, I made us do it. I didn't tell Ryan where we were going, but we just went! We swung for about 10 minutes until Ryan declared his equilibrium was broken and we walked home, but not before snapping this winner.

Sunday, August 28th: We did most of our packing in waves so the cats didn't get very suspicious or freaked out about the whole process. On Sunday, Ryan promised he would pack the kitchen up and this was when boy cat started catching on. Obviously he wanted to help. This was what we were trying to avoid! Without opposable thumbs, it makes Marley very clumsy. Thankfully, we avoided major incident.

Housing Hiccups

Well, this post has been a long time coming. Last time I wrote about our housing situation, we were just about to close on our beautiful 1885 Victorian. So much has changed since then that I'll just have to start from there.

So if you remember,  we had put an offer on this beautiful abode: 

We had ordered the home inspection and from there, decided to go through with the house. The major concerns that were raised was with the heating system, an old, unknown furnace that looked as if it had never been serviced. Everything else (the slightly sloping floors, some of the dry rot on the exterior, the electric system, etc) could be dealt with at a later date, said the inspector. 

When it came time do doing the appraisal though, it was an entirely different story. What he found painted a rather grim picture. I have found this Home Condition Rating Scale to depict a little better what I am talking about. 

C1	The improvements have been very recently constructed and have not previously been occupied. The entire structure and all components are new.
C2	The improvements feature no deferred maintenance, little or no physical depreciation, and require no repairs. Virtually all building components are new or have been recently repaired, refinished or rehabilitated. All outdated components and finishes have been updated and/or replaced with components that meet current standards. Dwellings in this category either are almost new or have been recently renovated and are similar in condition to new construction.
C3	The improvements are well maintained and feature limited physical depreciation due to normal wear and tear. Some components, but not every major building component, may be updated or recently rehabilitated. The structure has been well maintained.
C4	The improvements feature some minor deferred maintenance and physical deterioration due to normal wear and tear. The dwelling has been adequately maintained and requires only minimal repairs to building components/mechanical systems and cosmetic repairs. All major building components have been adequately maintained and are functionally adequate.
C5	The improvements feature obvious deferred maintenance and are in need of some significant repairs. Some building components need repairs, rehabilitation or updating. The functional utility and overall livability is somewhat diminished due to condition, but the dwelling remains usable and functional as a residence.
C6	The improvements have substantial damage or deferred maintenance with deficiencies or defects that are severe enough to affect the safety, soundness or structural integrity of the improvements. The improvements are in need of substantial repairs and rehabilitation, including many or most major components.

With a USDA loan, a home is required to at least meet a  C3 or above, and our dream home came in between a C4 and C5 rating. Also with a USDA loan, the house must be a single family dwelling and because of the illegal basement rental, we no longer would qualify for the Rural Housing Loan. At this point, we were a little crushed, but we had come to expect this. The weekend prior to finding out the results of the appraisal, my dad had come down to help me pack and move some things as well as take a look at the house. While we were there, he basically told me to run, not walk away from the house. Without even entering the home, he had some MAJOR red flags. I took a picture of one thing we found while doing the walk around:

To give this picture some context, I'll tell you what exactly happened. My dad and I had just finished our second full walk around of the house, and we saw some grass growing out of the side of the house, like in the middle of a board. So I pulled on the grass. This is what happened. That is rot, and there were bugs. This is the weathered side of the house. Disaster. 

So needless to say, we weren't all that bummed when the house fell through. Seeing this, I knew this house was beyond our abilities and out of our budget. I only wish we had figured this out sooner so we wouldn't be out about $1000.00 for the home inspection and appraisal. Live and learn right?

During this learning process, our landlord had been told that we were looking into buying a home (bad Ryan). His reaction was to put our house on the rental market right away without us having given our last month's notice. Nice, huh? So at this point, we were given a deadline of moving out of our house by August 1st, with no prospects in sight. We started hounding the MLS website again, finding four new properties to check out. We also increased the amount of money we were willing to spend from $160,000 to $200,000. We both just recently got raises (!!!) and we wanted to see what we could find at a higher price point. 

So we set out about two Saturdays ago with open minds and big ideas. The first three homes were subpar, then we hit the jackpot. Literally we walked in the door of this house and just knew. This was the home for us. 

She's so lush and gorgeous and quirky and charming. We knew we had to have her. Everything about her just kept saying yes. From the little Hobbit doors:

To the fabulous door ornaments: 

And the amazing hardwoods throughout: 

We were giddy with the prospect of this house. It has beautiful bay views, wonderful upgrades and so much potential for expansion (unfinished basement). Also, we did the walk through with the owner since he was in between real estate agents at the time, so we got all of the insight and history about the house. The man who had previously owned it was married to a woman who loved anything and everything Disney, so the house was modeled after something that would be out of an old Disney movie (I think it was Sleeping Beauty- my favorite!). There was so much love for Disney that on the bathroom floor on the main level, there is a Mickey head etched into one of the black tiles! So amazing. 

Since we did the walk around with the owner, he had a chance to pull our real estate agent aside and communicate to her that he really like us and was flexible on the price. This was awesome to hear since this house was at the very top of our budget. So Ryan and I went home and thought about it over night and we just couldn't stop thinking about all of the possibilities, the feel of the space and how lovely it was. We knew we had to put in an offer. 

We decided to start low (since the guy paid 130k for it just one year ago) and put in an offer of $180,000, with seller paying all closing costs. This did not go over well friends. I think the fellow might need to look up the definition of "flexible" because his counter offer to us was that we pay the full asking price of $199,000 and he would pay closing costs. Whomp. Since we really wanted this house, we weren't going to just let it drop after one failed bargaining attempt. We're pretty persistent. We decided to offer $190,000 with him paying all closing costs. He countered with the same offer as before then stated that he wanted to wait two weeks on our offer of $190,000 to market it more with a new real estate agent before he accepted our offer, basically he's saying he would only accept a full price offer. 

WHAT THE F*CK!!!

That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard, Ryan and I were mild to severely offended. After some serious heart searching (getting our egos in check, checking our motives, checking our values) and talking to friends and family, we decided to drop the offer for now. Ryan's stepfather Dan said to me, "Erin, what house do you know of in this economy, in that town that has appreciated $60,000 in value in one years' time?" None is the answer. That's unheard of anywhere, let alone Astoria, OR. I'm still pissed the way everything shook out, I feel as if the guy tried to bait and switch us, say he was flexible to make us fall in love, then only accept full price (which we did seriously consider offering for about a two hour block of time). I can only speak for myself but it's left a pretty bad taste in my mouth. But something I've learned through the program of Alcoholics Anonymous is that everything happens for a reason. 

So for those of you who are still reading up to this point, you'll see that we're about a week away from being homeless with nothing on the horizon. Panic has set in at this point. I had a couple of sleepless nights. One of those nights I happened to be up at about 3:30 AM browsing around Craigslist. That's when I saw IT. By "it" I mean an 800 sq. ft. bungalow with one bedroom, office, wood floors, washer, dryer, dishwasher, two car parking and bay views. Done. Sold. Give it to me. I almost woke Ryan up to show him the place at that ungodly time of night. I waited though, and told him first thing in the morning. 

We had an appointment to look at it less than two hours later, and within two days, we had a key. It was such a whirlwind experience that I've had a hard time communicating to anyone about it. Today is the first time I've been able to take a deep breath (but not a full once since we still have a lot of cleaning left to do at the old rental). We moved everything in one day, my body feels like that of a 104 year old woman. It was such a surreal experience sleeping in a brand new place last night, I definitely haven't had time to process it all. 

I'm not sure what I can say this experience has taught me, but it was an interesting one none the less. Thankfully the place we have moved to has a month to month lease, still giving us the option to look at buying if we want to. We've talked about seeing if the Hobbit house sits on the market for a while, resubmitting an offer to see if cooler heads have prevailed, but who knows at this point. We're just thankful to have our kitties in one place with a roof over our head. 

And don't worry, pictures of the new place are coming soon!!!

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.