Time // How did it get to be 4:30 already?

Place // Reluctantly sitting at my desk after spending most of the weekend away from the computer. I’m going to make this quick!

Consuming // Raspberries and some water

Watching // My sister, Jenny, drove out to my small town this weekend so we could go see Catching Fire. We headed out to the local one-screen theater on Saturday night for a 7 p.m. show. But when they went to start the movie, we got sound but no picture. After waiting around for an hour, a theater employee told those of us who were left that they were having projector issues and wouldn’t be able to show the movie… ugh!

After some back-and-forth, Jenny and I decided to drive 45 minutes to the next closest town with a movie theater so we could catch the 9:40 p.m. showing. We made it. The movie was great. Then we had to drive home, getting us back through the door just after 1 a.m. I’m exhausted.

Reading // I finished one book this week, Smarter Than You Think by Clive Thompson. It was really interesting, and a wonderful companion to one of my other favorite books from the year, The Distraction Addiction by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang. I’m in the middle of Pinkerton’s Great Detective by Beau Riffenburgh, but it’s pretty dense. While I was being lazy this morning, I started some YA fiction, The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater.

Making // My brain has been a little fried today (see: Catching Fire adventure), so I’ve been mostly working on a craft project while watching football. Unfortunately, I can’t share a photo because it’s a Christmas present and I want to keep it a bit of a secret. After the holidays, I promise.

Blogging // As part of Nonfiction November, I shared a fiction/nonfiction pairing related to video games, along with mini-reviews of Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosch and Why Have Kids? by Jessive Valenti.

Promoting // This week is the last topic for Nonfiction November: sharing some new nonfiction you heard about this month. I’m excited to see what books fellow bloggers helped bring attention to this month.

Anticipating // For the first time in, perhaps, forever, I’m not going to be at home for Thanksgiving. My parents have been very supportive of the decision (which is so good because otherwise I would been feeling deeply guilty), but I’m still a little sad to spend the holiday away from my family. To help make up for it, I’m planning an entire day of reading — I’ve already got a pile set aside that I’m excited about.

Today I want to share a couple of quick reviews of books I read several months ago that I didn’t take any notes on (bad book reviewer!). I also didn’t have very strong feelings about either book, but liked them well enough that I can think of a few readers I’ll be suggesting them too. But enough with the qualifications, on to the reviews!

Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosch

Every time Allie Brosh posts something new on her hugely popular blog Hyperbole and a Half the internet rejoices. Touching, absurd, and darkly comic, Allie Brosh’s highly anticipated book Hyperbole and a Half showcases her unique voice, leaping wit, and her ability to capture complex emotions with deceptively simple illustrations.

This full-color, beautifully illustrated edition features more than fifty percent new content, with ten never-before-seen essays and one wholly revised and expanded piece as well as classics from the website like, “The God of Cake,” “Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving,” and her astonishing, “Adventures in Depression,” and “Depression Part Two,” which have been hailed as some of the most insightful meditations on the disease ever written.

I love the blog Hyperbole and a Half. Just love it. I’ve never felt like a piece of online writing was more true than the first time I read “This is Why I’ll Never be an Adult.” When I was approved for an advanced copy of Allie Brosch’s book of the same name, I may have squealed. Loudly. Whatever, I know you squeal at books too.

Overall, I thought the collection was a little bit uneven. The essays that hit were amazing, but some of them felt rough around the edges. I think the ones I liked best were those that used more illustrations than text. When Borsch focused more on writing (and hence fewer pictures), I didn’t think the essays worked as well. That said, I’m glad I read the book and plan to buy myself a copy the next chance I get, if only because I want to support Brosch so that she will keep on writing.

Why Have Kids? by Jessica Valenti

If parenting is making Americans unhappy, if it’s impossible to “have it all,” if people don’t have the economic, social, or political structures needed to support parenting, then why do it? And why are anxious new parents flocking to every Tiger Mother and Bébé-raiser for advice on how to raise kids?

In Why Have Kids?, Valenti explores these controversial questions through on-the-ground reporting, startling new research, and her own unique experiences as a mom. She moves beyond the black and white “mommy wars” over natural parenting, discipline, and work-life balance to explore a more nuanced reality: one filled with ambivalence, joy, guilt, and exhaustion.

I feel like even a mini-review of this book has to start with a few of statements of fact. I’m 27 years old. I don’t have kids. I don’t know if I want to have kids. I have friends with kids, friends who want kids, and friends who have decided they don’t want kids. And I don’t think any of those decisions are wrong.

Why Have Kids? was a pretty buzzy book when it first came out in 2012. As with other books about women and work and kids, there was a lot of criticism and cheering from various circles. Since I don’t, at this point, have strong feels about having children myself, I didn’t have a lot of strong feelings about the arguments in this book. I appreciated that Valenti was willing to look at commonly-held beliefs about having children and choices parents make in a new way. Women can’t make the best decisions for themselves and their families if we’re not willing to have those conversations.

Why Have Kids? was a good read, I’m just not sure what to do with the information right now.

Disclosure: I received a digital copy of Hyperbole and a Half from the publisher for review consideration. I checked out a copy of Why Have Kids? from my local library. 

Welcome to week three of Nonfiction November, a month-long celebration of nonfiction I’m co-hosting with Leslie of Regular Rumination! Throughout the month, we’ll be reading and writing about nonfiction, and encouraging other readers to join us through a series of post topics.

I had so much fun reading all of the posts from last week, when readers shared lists of nonfiction on a topic they’ve read a lot about. There were some great lists, several on topics I’d never even thought to read about.

This week we’ll be talking a little bit about fiction and nonfiction:

Book Pairing: Match a fiction book with a nonfiction book that you would recommend.

I have to admit, I struggled with this topic (which seems silly since I helped come up with it). I wanted to try and pair fiction that I loved with nonfiction that I loved equally as much. This proved a little challenging since a lot of the fiction I have adored falls along the science fiction/fantasy/mystery spectrum while my nonfiction often focuses on politics/journalism.

After some time staring at my bookshelves and comparing them to my Goodreads list, I finally came up with a pairing that I’m excited about: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and Extra Lives by Tom Bissell.

Ready Player One was one of my favorite books of 2012. The audio book was so good that I listened to is a second time at the beginning of this year. And I’m tempted to listen to it again over the holidays. It is a ridiculously fun book:

In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade’s devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world’s digital confines—puzzles that are based on their creator’s obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade’s going to survive, he’ll have to win—and confront the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

I’m not entirely sure what it is I love about this book, other than that it is just fun. Wade is a wonderful, self-depricating, genuine and lovable main character and his quest is just a rollicking fun read. I love that the book comes to a pretty nuanced conclusion about the importance of relationships and how they develop in real and virtual worlds.

Extra Lives is a more serious book than Ready Player One, but I think the books pair well together because author Tom Bissell comes to a similar conclusion about the role of video games in life that Ready Player One does (games are great, but real life matters too).

In the book, Bissell does a series of close readings of several popular video games — Grand Theft Auto IV, Fallout 3, Mass Effect — to give readers unfamiliar with video games a sort of overview of the gaming landscape. He writes about the increasing complexity of games, the limitations that games face as storytelling devices and as art, and the people who are responsible for the making of today’s most popular games. It’s a great blend of criticism, journalism and memoir.

I’m not really a gamer (although I dabble in some Nintendo DS and Wii games), but I’m really curious about how games work and about gaming culture. From that perspective, I thought this book was a perfect sampler of gaming, written by someone with a background in books — something I’m much more familiar with. Bissell is also not an unabashed champion of games and, in fact, is pretty pessimistic about the ability of games to transcend many of their inherent limitations. It was an interesting (and quick) audio book that I think is a good read for gaming beginners.

Another book on my TBR pile that I think matches well with Ready Player One is Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks by Ethan Gilsdorf. According to Wikipedia, the book is a mix of “travel literature, memoir and immersion journalism” that looks into various gaming subcultures including Dungeons and Dragons, LARP, medieval reenactments, World of Warcraft and Harry Potter. I think it sounds like a lot of fun, although since I haven’t read it I can’t say more than that.

Some housekeeping notes:

• Leslie is the host for this week, so head over to Regular Rumination to leave a link to your post and check back there Friday for a wrap-up.
• Don’t forget, you can include links to nonfiction reviews as well as discussion posts on this week’s post.
• If you’re chatting about nonfiction or sharing posts on Twitter, make sure to use the hashtag #nonficnov.

This month has been amazing. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone participating, commenting and reading. It’s been so much fun so far, and we still have two weeks left!

Time // It’s about 2:00 p.m. on Sunday… probably the latest I’ve put up one of these posts since I switched to this format earlier this year. It’s been a slow day. But in my defense (Do I really need to defend myself? No…), I have gotten all of my laundry done and vacuumed the floor in my office.

Place // My slightly tidier desk, in my much tidier office

Eating // Nothing for the moment, but I am excited to try the Chili Cheese Wheat Thins I impulse bought yesterday.

Drinking // Republic of Tea Apple Cider Tea (my current decaffeinated favorite)

Reading // Unfortunately, I had a hard time settling in to read (again) this week. Fortunately, that was because I was very busy, not because I wasn’t reading anything good. I did manage to finish two books, Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman and In Praise of Messy Lives by Katie Roiphe. I loved both of them.

I’m still in the middle of a couple of books, Going Clear by Lawrence Wright and Pinkerton’s Great Detective by Beau Riggenburgh. I can tell that both of them are wonderful, but they’re both slow reads. I’m in the mood for something quick, so I may switch it up this afternoon and try something lighter, maybe Paddle My Own Canoe by Nick Offerman or Smarter Than You Think by Clive Thompson.

Watching // The FOX Tuesday night comedy trio of Brooklyn Nine Nine, New Girl and The Mindy Project continues to delight me. I also love Sleepy Hollow and am finally caught up with Once Upon a Time. The previews for Almost Human are intriguing, but that may just be because I love Michael Ealy.

Listening // I need to start making time for audio books again. Since it got chilly (and I got lazy), I haven’t been running or walking much, a key time for listening. I did go on a bit of a cleaning spree this weekend, aided by the sounds of my pop rock station on Pandora.

Making // Last Sunday I made barbecue pulled pork in our slow cooker which was divine. We’re still trying to finish it up. I was going to make some quick Indian food tonight, but the boyfriend is stuck working a double shift and it seems a shame to cook just for me.

Blogging // In addition to my post on time/productivity books, I also posted a review of a book I thought was great, The Distraction Addiction by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang. If you like science/philosophy books and want to learn more about maintaining focus while still embracing technology, I highly recommend it.

Promoting // Nonfiction November has been amazing so far. I still can’t believe how many people wrote up posts for week two, be the expert. I’m so excited to see what people come up for this week’s discussion topic, pairing fiction and nonfiction.

Hating and Loving // I have a new gym buddy who has been getting me out to a weight-lifting class a few times a week. Today my butt and back sort of hate me for that, but it’s a nice change of pace and I’m glad to have some peer pressure to get to the gym more frequently.

Avoiding // The one chore I have to get done this weekend is cleaning the litter box… which I don’t want to do!

Anticipating // My sister is coming to visit me next weekend and we’re going to go see Catching Fire. I can’t wait! I’m also getting excited for the holiday season. Thanks to some tips Jenny (Reading the End) posted last year, I have ideas for nearly everyone on my list already. Huzzah!