Musings

The day is finally here! After I finish putting together tomorrow’s newspaper, put the final touches on the copy for a special section next week, and walk through my notes for next Saturday’s newspaper… I am on vacation! I can’t even tell you how much I need this break, to just get away from basically [...]

Long-time blog readers may remember a few years ago when my sister, Jenny, and I read and reviewed each others favorite books. Jenny and I have vastly different reading tastes — she’s into chick lit and lots of YA fiction, which I’m more of a nonfiction and literary fiction gal myself — which made some, [...]

Time // 8:50 a.m.

Place // My sister’s couch in Minneapolis

Eating and Drinking // At the moment, a glass of water. But I hope we’re going to go out and get some fancy coffee and donuts soon.

Reading // I had to go look at my Goodreads queue to figure out what I’ve been reading this week! It’s been one of those sorts of busy, no time to settle in sorts of weeks. But I did finish two books, All the President’s Men by Carl Woodward and Bob Bernstein and Queen of the Ait by Dean Jensen, which is a June release about the two most famous circus aerialists in the 1930s. I thought it was awesome.

Yesterday I stared reading The Boys in the Boat by Danie James Brown, which is about the U.S. Olympic crew team in 1936. I have a total weak spot for historial sports nonfiction, so this one seems to be right up my alley so far. I’m also slowly making my way through Getting Things Done but David Allen and getting nerdy excited to try implementing his systems to get my life more organized.

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Game of Thrones (all the series), the Harry Potter series and The Hunger Games, so reader beware if you care about spoilers. Spoiler alert: I don’t.

I’ve never been the kind of person that gets too uptight about spoilers. If I’ve had the opportunity to read or watch something — the book is past the publishing date, the show has already played on television — then I don’t feel like I have much of a right to complain if I come across a spoiler. There’s nothing that makes me roll my eyes more than seeing a chorus of “Stop talking about X because I haven’t seen it yet!” come up on social media; if you’re worried about being spoiled, it’s your job to avoid it, not the rest of the world’s job to protect you.

It’s possible that I’ve adopted this attitude, however, because the person in my life most likely to “spoil” me is, well, me. My name is Kim, and I’m addicted to spoilers.

Time // 8:30 a.m.

Place // Back at my desk… it’s too chilly to be out on the porch today.

Eating // Nothing yet. But I am hungry. I might break in the middle of this to grab some food, but we’re pretty low on anything delicious right now. I suspect I’ll be going to the grocery store this afternoon.

Drinking // Lemon-flavored black tea.

Reading // I had a great reading week to follow up last weekend’s Readathon. Since last Sunday I finished three books: Divergent by Veronica Roth, The World’s Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagarne and Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon. The top quote above is by George Orwell from The World’s Strongest Librarian.

Today I need to finish Pain, Parties and Work by Elizabeth Winder so I can post a review for a TLC Book Tour tomorrow. It’s very interesting so far, so I’m excited to share more about it with all of you. After that, I’m not sure what I’ll read next, probably one of my library books (Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg or A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan — I decided I’m going to hold off on Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs until the October Readathon).

Time // 9:00 a.m.

Place // Today I’m coming to you from my old reading chair out on our porch. It finally warmed up enough that I can sit out here, which is so excellent.

Eating // Strawberries and a donut.

Drinking // Black tea, I can’t remember the brand or flavor.

Reading // I had a pretty good week of reading. I finished You by Austin Grossman on Thursday afternoon and finished a couple of other books during the Readathon yesterday — Frozen in Time by Mitchell Zuckoff and the audiobook of Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. I also started World War Z by Max Brooks, but didn’t quite finish it last night. I’m hoping to get though the last 60 pages or so this morning.
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After that, I'm not sure what I'll be reading. I didn't get as many books read during the Readathon as I wanted to, so I may try to read through another one of those books today, either Divergent by Veronica Roth (at my sister’s recommendation) or Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs.

Time // 11:30 a.m.

Place // My desk. Nothing exciting here.

Eating // Nothing at the moment. I’m trying to decide what to have for lunch after I finish the post.

Drinking // Egyptian mint green tea

Reading // It’s been a strange week, reading and otherwise. I haven’t really been able to settle into a book, so I’ve been dipping in and out of a few different ones — A Chance to Win by Jonathan Schuppe, Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed, Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon and You by Austin Grossman.

Tiny Beautiful Things, in particular, has been wonderful. I’ve been very, very out-of-sorts and depressed because of the weather here in Minnesota and all of the craziness happening in the world, but Strayed’s columns have been comforting.

Time // 9:40 a.m.

Place // At my very messy desk. I need a system for corralling paper.

Eating // Strawberries, powdered sugar donuts, and peach Greek yogurt

Drinking // Blood Orange Cinnamon tea

Reading // I had a crazy week at work, so I didn’t have as much time to read as I would have liked. I did finish Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins and the first section of Telegraph Avenue for #readchabon. Yesterday I also read a few chapters of A Chance to Win by Jonathan Schuppe, a book about a little league baseball team in Newark, N.J.

Time // 10:45 a.m.

Place // Back at my desk in my office, of sorts, in small town Minnesota.

Eating // A fried egg on toast, contemplating finishing off my Easter candy.

Drinking // Bigelow Lemon Lift tea

Reading // I should be reading The New Republic by Lionel Shriver because I am reviewing it for TLC Book Tours on Wednesday. But I’m actually reading Catching Fire because I watched The Hunger Games on Netflix last night.

Overall, I had a very productive reading week (mostly because I had a couple of books almost finished at the end of March that I actually finished this week): The Outsourced Self by Arlie Russell Hochschild, The Round House by Louise Erdrich and Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. I can’t wait to write reviews for all of these.