How Do You Like To Read???

How do you like to read? Do you read sitting up, laying down or something else?

Do you read multiple books at one time or stick with just one?

Do you like e-readers, physical books, audio books or a mix?

That's quite a few questions! You would think I was conducting a survey. If you haven't gleamed it yet from my blog maybe now you'll see that I really like to read! Currently I find myself in an odd situation for me. Normally I'm only reading 1 book at a time. Well I guess that's a lie. In the last year I have started listening to audiobooks. In the past I couldn't pay attention long enough to gain interest in the audio. My mind was always flitting to one thing or another and then I would get lost. I finally decided to listen to a book I had already read, Innocent Blood by James Rollins. From that point on I was hooked. Now when I am in the car by myself I usually have a audiobook playing.

As usual, I have digressed from the original point of this blog...

I find myself right now with 4 books, 3 different formats, 2 genres and 1 me.

Here's what I got going on: While in the car I'm listening to the Mindy Kaling book "Is Everone Hanging Out Without Me?". When I'm at work I have "The Program" by Suzanne Young on my desk. While at home during the daylight hours I'm reading "Red Queen" by Victoria Aveyard. Then to top it all off at night after the lights go out I'm reading "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken in bed on my Nook. I'm not sure I've ever read 4 books at one time. Maybe it's because none have grabbed my undivided attention, YET! I have high hopes for the three YA novels.

What are you currently reading right now? Have you read any of these four books? Let me know in the comments below.

...and just like that she's back!

I totally disappeared on you for a while! This summer was totally crazy. We had the best summer reading attendance ever and of course that made me very, very, very busy. Hopefully though, all will begin to take on a slower pace now. School starts in just a smidge over three weeks. That will bring with it a whole new round of busy, but at a slightly slower, less manic pace.

With the school year also comes the hope of cooler weather and FOOTBALL! I freaking love football. I am so excited to meet back up with my Fantasy League for our annual draft day. We seriously have the best time. I may never live down selecting Hoyer in the first round, but when I get ribbed with that I just show that I came in 4th last year and beat out 8 other people! I'm really hoping to bring home a first place finish this year. I was dead last the first year, 2nd the the second year and 4th last year. Look out STILL CONFUSED LEAGUE, I'm coming for you!

I did get a chance to review a few picture books this past week and I found two that are incredible and that I can't wait to purchase for my library.

The first one was called SNAP!  This was a delightful book full of water color drawings. I was mesmerized by how the author took something as seemingly as simple as a crayon breaking and come up with an entire story! I know my kids want to throw away crayons as soon as they break. This child though found a whole world of things to do with broken crayons. It was quite lovely and I am so very excited to add this to a storytime in the near future! This book is set for publication on September 22nd. I hope you will fall in love with it as much as I have.

The other book was called The Night Children. The illustrations in this book are very reminiscent of Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are". Usually the illustrations compliment the text, but this was really the other way around. The illustrations were quite simply amazing! I loved them so much. They stole the show in this picture book. This book is set for publication on August 18th.

I hope that you will love these two titles as much as I did. I reviewed a few other picture books this week, but they weren't anywhere near as amazing as these two.

Did you like today's blog? Have any comments or questions? Let me know in the comments section below! Have a wonderful day

I'm A Grumpy Bear...

...Yes I'm a grumpy bear.
A not happy, big and grumpy bear.

I downloaded the song this morning, "I'm a Gummy Bear" or "Funny Bear" depending on which one you listen too. Now I have it stuck in my head and decided to make up my own rhyme. My poor kids got the brunt of my "grrrrr-ness" this morning. Poor kids. I'll have to make it up to them. If you are one of those people that don't know what The Gummy Bear song is, well here ya go! You're welcome!

Other than being grumpy I've also decided that I need to start worrying about me and less about other people. No matter how much I think the world should be fair or how much I gripe about someone else it won't change anything at all. All it does is make me an even grumpier person. See what I did there. I brought it full circle.

Ugh! I had other thoughts but my mind is too flighty right now to get them all down.I hope you all have a great day and if you have the grumpys too, I hope that you can Shake It Off!!!

Let me know what kind of day you're having in the comments below! I also promise to have a new book review very soon. I'm kind of in a reading slump right now, but I have so much that I want to read too!

Wonderful World of Words

Wow! So as you may know, Summer Reading is in full force. I had just started this weekly tradition of giving you a wonderful and amazing word on Wednesdays when I was suddenly hit with the lack of time to get it done! So today I bring you a new installment of the Wonderful World of Words!

Today's word you will not find in any dictionary, and you may never find it in one, but it is a word that resounds with me!

Dunandunate

verb- “to overuse a word or phrase that has been recently added to one’s vocabulary”, or to learn a word and then use it incessantly. 

 

 

 For me I know that I way over use LOL...ugh! I can't get it out of my system. It used to mean something, but now its just the passing comment on any random post or text or anything. I know I over use like. When I first learned discombobulate, I used that word like crazy! 

Are there any words that you overuse or that you are just so very tired of hearing? What words or phrases need to be dropped from all use in today's vocabulary all together? Drop me a comment and let me know.

Snail Mail

In this day and age when communication is instantaneous it is so wonderful to receive correspondence via the good ol U.S. Postal Service! Letter writing seems to be a lost art. I want to make a better effort at sending out a little piece of happiness a couple times a month!

Some might say, what's the big deal? The big deal is that someone took the time to sit down and write me a letter. Paid around half a dollar to mail it and actually dropped it in a mailbox. There's a bit more energy and effort required to send a letter. To put a cherry on top of this I also received pictures! Actual hard copies of pictures! Once again, in this digital world we live in, who has time for real pictures?

Thank you Marcie for your little piece of sunshine that came in the mail today! I loved everything about it, from the sunflower yellow envelope to the awesome return address logo! Was that a stamp? If so where did you get it made? I will definitely be returning the sweet gesture in the near future!

Until a few years ago I had a box full of notes that Marcie had written to me. One of my greatest regrets is that the box got ruined In a move. In school that was the best way to to tell your friend something. Even if it was just to tell them how bored you were. Even better were the doodles you would inevitably draw in the margins. Of course what note wouldn't be complete without your current crushes name! Please tell me kids still write notes to each other and that it's not just text mesages!

When was the last time you sent or received some good old fashioned snail mail? When was the last time you passed a note?  I encourage you all to put a little effort in your communication this week. Make someone's day with a letter or note. Include something fun in it like confetti or use awesome stationary!



Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Midnight Ramblings

Its about 12:26am in my part of the world. Currently I have purple food coloring in my hair. This is what happens when I can't sleep; I do wierd things! I tried to go to sleep again, but my mind is reeling with every thought imaginable. I know if I pick up a book I'll be out in no time. I don't feel like reading right now though, so here are the thoughts circling in my head that won't go away.

1. I've always been the kind of person that believes what I'm told, especially if I don't know a lot about the subject. I take everything thrown my way at face value. I believed what was taught to me in school. I hate to think that history was altered to hide truths. This may make me naive, but I'll take being naive every day over being so jaded that I can't believe anything.

2. I don't understand why people are so hateful. How do people do ugly things to each other and not feel bad about it? How do people torture animals and just go on with their day?

3. This kind of links with number 2, my mind never shuts off. If I even think about doing something bad my mind will run through all the repercussions that could possibly come about. If I do something bad it takes me a very long time to stop thinking about it or have it rule my every waking thought. My conscious is always going and going and going....I have a very obsessive mind.

4. I'm not a very political person, but it drives me crazy how people blame one person for all their problems. People the president was elected. He is working with a government that resents him and won't work together to get anything done. Stop being such hateful and vindictive people and help work for change. I'm learning that people are just idiots.

5. Cospiracy theorists drive me nuts. Not everything is a conspiracy people. Sometimes things are real and true.

6. There has to be life on other planets right?

7. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I
always have, always will. I'm not hard to read. I don't try to hide behind subterfuge. I like people to be open and honest. However that being said, I don't like confrontation and will just about avoid it at all costs.

8. Sometimes I feel like a snake in the grass.

9. Do you people really believe that Jade Helm is real? Really? Is this why Texas wants to move all of its stores of gold within the state? Has anyone else read the story about the gold?

10. I'm so ashamed of the way people act. When did people become so self entitled as to think that every problem they have can be fixed by suing someone else.

11. Why do bad people make it hard for good people to do the right thing? You can't stop and help someone did a tire anymore for fear of being killed. You can't donate money to causes anymore because it's a scam. There are some really bizarre laws out there because some whacko person made it necessary.

12. All my life people have always said how depressing country music is. I wonder if they have ever stopped to listen to the lyrics of some of their favorite songs in any genre. The best music evokes feelings and a lot of the time it's depressing. That said, I love music and all the feelings it gives me. I can always find a song to fit any mood.

13. Have you noticed that most YA books are about 1 girl and 2 guys? Triangles make for the best mateial.

14. I am daily blown away by how talented people are. I'm not very talented. Thank goodness for pinterest! It has allowed me to piggy back off of some very talented people!

15. Have these ramblings gone on long enough? Maybe I can try to go to sleep again. I know a lot of those weren't even the whole thought that I wanted to express. I had better, deeper thoughts before I decided to actually get up and type them out.



Where are you? Are you even on planet Earth? Let me know in the comments below!

Where did the last few weeks go?

Wow, I bet you all think that I disappeared on you! It's been a crazy busy couple of weeks. At the end of each day I pretty much just fall into bed and pass out. I wake up the next day just to begin it all over. Thus is the life of a library worker. This is the summer season and the busiest 10 weeks of my entire year!

I feel as if I have abandoned my lovely books that I want to read. I promise soon I will return to them! My Nook is full of the promise of far away adventures. I've got a hard copy of Grey calling my name too.

As of right now there are three more weeks of summer reading left. I'm nervous about this week. I'm not sure how it's going to go. I have no performer this week. I have invited out several local agencies to come and show off their vehicles and tools of their trade to my kids of summer. I hope it goes off well, ice never done this before and I'm not sure it's organized well, but we shall see.

Here are a few pics from my last few weeks!

 I took this photo of my ever so photogenic kiddos today. They drive me crazy, but I love them!

 Thursday I took a day off work and my neighbor decided we needed to see Magic Mike XXL, I didn't fight it! This one was so much better than the first one! This was like a guy buddy movie, but made for girls! It was HOT!

I am announcing a slumber party for our patrons stuffed animals this week. These are our mascots: pig the cow and cow the pig!

 Fourth of July obviously!

 I had a spider guy come in to the library. I called this program "Face Your Fears!" The kids loved it! The response to this program was amazing! I'm in the background ready to hit the door!

The kids enjoying the spider!

My co-worker is enthralled by them!

 My daughter getting her pic with Ronald McDonald. He had nothing to do with our summer theme, but he is free so he's always worth it!

A few weeks ago I did my first Foam Glow 5K. It was fun, but I wasn't impressed. These are some of my favorite people pictured here!


What have you been up to? Let me know in the comments below! Happy summer y'all!