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Archive for the ‘Bookshops’ Category

Friday Five – Extraordinary, Mundane Fall Bucket List

Posted in 31 Days, Alive, Beauty, Bookshops, Coffee Shop Road Trip, Dance, Denton, Food, Friday Five, Home, Joy, Mental Health, Music on October 18, 2024| Leave a Comment »

“My bucket list of little things aims to live every moment as if it’s my first. To find the glory in what a seasoned eye might falsely consider mundane.”
Andrea Gibson, Things That Don’t Suck (Substack)

It has been a long week. Nothing particularly bad has happened. I’ve just felt puny and tired. The weather, however, is gorgeous. It was 52 when I left home. I am wearing a light sweater!

Today, I need a list of things to look forward to this season that aren’t super ambitious but still give me ways to ground myself and remind myself that I’m alive and meant to be living and not just muddling through.

  • Buy a delicious cup of coffee and drink it while browsing a bookstore. Take all the time I want.
  • Take shorter, more frequent walks. Not everything has to be hard all at once. A little bit multiple times a day is better than pushing myself and getting too exhausted to do anything else for hours.
  • Keep my hands warm and nimble with piano and knitting.
  • Make soup without rushing. Pan roast the veggies slowly. Add one ingredient at a time. Fill my home with cozy smells.
  • Take drives. Drive down winding country roads just outside of town and find the few trees in Texas that know what time of year it is. Drive down my favorite streets and let the memories of every time I’ve been there before flow over me.

This is what I want my season to look like.

What are you looking forward to this fall?

Reflecting on reading this month (and hopefully beyond).

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Friday Five – Back Issues and Other Exciting Adventures

Posted in Books, Bookshops, Friday Five, Fun, Health on April 26, 2024| Leave a Comment »

It’s been a pretty chill week here overall. I mean, my back seized up (due to sleeping too long? Sleeping in the same position? Breathing too hard? Who even knows.) for the first time in my life, and that was unpleasant. I told the nurse taking my labs that it had never happened to me before and she said, “How old are you?” When I replied, “49,” she laughed and told me I was due. I’ve done a casual survey of people I’ve spoken to this week and can confirm that they all seem to think that’s a fair assessment. *sigh* Fine. 

Anyway, here are some things I ran across on the internet this week. Enjoy!

  • Stop everything and go to my friend Shadan’s Etsy shop, HappyHeartsBoxes. I can personally attest that she puts together the best gifts. Let her take the guesswork out of it for you.
  • I am a big proponent of the 3 Drink Theory, and mine definitely follow the caffeinate/alleviate/hydrate pattern. My most frequent trifecta at work is coffee, an espresso milkshake from The Market, and a bottle of water.
  • I’ve added the Aubrey app for more audiobook options. I’m most excited about the prospect of discussion questions included at the end of many of the books (great for book clubs when I’m in charge of leading) and the monthly listen-alongs! I think my first is going to be Alice in Wonderland in May!
  • I love this piece (and these book selections) from Lisa Bartelt. I, too, am (more) drawn (than usual) to dystopian or darker fiction these days.
  • I met Shawn and Maile at a writing retreat in Virginia a few years ago (I say a few, it was pre-pandemic…what is time…) and have followed their writing ever since. I can’t think of two people more well-suited to owning a bookstore and fostering a literary community. I’m so excited for them and their new adventure with Nooks, and if you’re in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, check it out and let me live vicariously through you.

I hope you all have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend!

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Musk Ox

Posted in Books, Bookshops, Church, Reading Challenges on April 22, 2024| Leave a Comment »

One of the prompts for Nowhere Bookshop’s 2024 Reading Bingo is “Your Roman Empire book.” That is, a book about a subject that you think of all the time – “a niche or specific obsession, interest or event that has a considerable impact or influence on someone.”

There are many topics that could fit into this category for me. My ideal home. Hygge. Neurospicy brains and the wonders of how they function. Mutual aid. Fair labor. Countries I could retire to that practice mutual aid and fair labor.

As I was pondering which of these topics I would choose a book to read about, an image sprang to mind.

A herd of musk oxen.

Any time someone does something sweet or says something kind, or any time I think of teamwork or community (which is quite often, especially given that a big part of my job is leading a team), I think of the humble musk ox.

The preacher of the church I belonged to for most of my 20s and early 30s was a great storyteller. One of my favorite stories he told was about these large, wooly creatures. Musk oxen aren’t particularly fast or agile. Their main predators – wolves and grizzly bears – could easily take out a musk ox on its own.

The problem for wolves and bears is that they can’t fight just one musk ox. At the first sign of danger, the herd circles up, facing outward. They put the young, the ill, and the injured – the most vulnerable – in the center of the circle to protect them. When the attack comes, the predator has to face all the strongest members of the herd.

It’s a pretty effective defense strategy and a good example of what a healthy community looks like.

There are many ideas I picked up at this church that I’ve had to confront and unlearn. There are several things I accepted as given when I was there that my current boundaries wouldn’t let me be a part of now.

But it is also true that these are the people who taught me how to live in community. They taught me how to be vulnerable enough to depend on others and how to be someone others can depend on, too.

They taught me how to be a musk ox.

And for that, I am forever grateful.

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January 2024 TBR

Posted in Books, Bookshops, Quiet, Reading Challenges on January 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Welcome to the first TBR of the year! In addition to my traditional reading of The Little Prince on New Year’s Day, these are the things I’m planning to read this month.

Book Clubs

In looking at my TBRs from last year, I noticed that the books that were left unread each month the most often were the ones from online book clubs when I had something else planned the night we met to discuss them (which was more often than not). So while I’m still maintaining my subscriptions to the Fantastic Strangelings and Happy Endings book clubs, and I shall remain a paid subscriber on Substack (a rarity for me) to follow Roxane Gay’s recommendations, I’m not going to list them in this section unless I’m actually planning to read and discuss them during the month in question. You’ll probably see them in other sections in later months, though, as I do eventually get around to reading them.

  • Night Will Find You by Julia Heaberlin – You know how readers have certain favorite authors? Book clubs have their faves, too. The first meeting of Brenda’s book club I ever attended was when Julia Heaberlin came as the guest of honor (I can’t remember if it was when we read Playing Dead or Black-Eyed Susans). We do enjoy her mysteries.
  • Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus – I may not read this one a third time (or I may…it’s so good), but clearly I am on a mission to get every book club to read and talk about it.
  • The Reformatory by Tananarive Due – Our choose-your-own-adventure in Follow the Reader this month is a book released in the last year. Haunting historical fiction is one of my favorite genres to read when the weather is bleaker. To balance (and also so I can get it back to Janelle soon), I’m also reading Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood. 
  • The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray –  The theme for Rise and Shine this month is mystery, so what better time to read one that needs to go back to the library soon? 

Reading Challenges

This section can be hard to organize succinctly. I thought about just listing all the books but why make it easy? Instead, since I often count the same book for different challenges, I will list the books I’m reading and then the prompts on each challenge they satisfy. 

Also, I have added another challenge because their Instagram handle is Overeducated Women With Cats (abbreviated OWC below). And also there’s Nowhere’s Book Bingo…so that’s happening. The Little Prince has already fulfilled the category of “a reread” on this one, so I’m off to a good start!

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

The Menopause Manifesto by Dr. Jen Gunter

  • A nonfiction book in an area you want to learn more about (OWC)

The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen

  • Read a cozy fantasy book (Book Riot)
  • A book you meant to read in 2023 (OWC)

One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle

  • Magical realism (52 Book Club)
  • A book set in a travel destination on your bucket list (POPSUGAR)

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

  • Title starting with the letter “K” (52 Book Club)
  • Read a book in translation from a country you’ve never visited (Book Riot)

Self-Care for People With ADHD by Sasha Hamdani, MD

  • By a neurodivergent author (52 Book Club)

Arrangements in Blue by Amy Key

  • A cover without people on it (52 Book Club)

Blackout and Whiteout by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and NIcola Yoon 

  • At least 4 different POV (52 Book Club)

River Sing Me Home by Eleanor Shearer – Recommended by and borrowed from a friend at church

  • Book rec from a friend (Nowhere)

Other Reads

I hope your year is starting off well, and I hope you get to read a really good book this month!

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Friday Five – A Musical Weekend

Posted in Alive, Books, Bookshops, Church, Friday Five, Fun, Home, Music on December 15, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Another busy week, another busy weekend. This one is going to be pretty exciting, though. Tomorrow is the dress rehearsal for our Advent/Christmas program at church, which we will present on Sunday morning. And then Sunday night, my band Wenepa is playing at Rubber Gloves at 8:30.

(I mean, it’s Chickasaw – not Cherokee – for “noise” and also we’re a quartet – not a quintet – but…close?)

I have not had a lot of focus this week (or for the last six months, but who’s counting), so I didn’t read as much as I wanted to. Here are some things I did finish/run across. Enjoy!

  • The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow – I had high hopes for this one. I had heard a lot of good things about it. But my overall impression? Meh. The storyline was okay. The characters were fine. I liked it enough to at least finish it. It just didn’t stand out. If you like historical fiction with some magic thrown in, you may enjoy it. 
  • To Fall in Love, Drink This: A Wine Writer’s Memoir by Alice Feiring – Alice Feiring is the reason I started drinking mostly organic, unfussed-around-with wines, and to this day, most of my favorites fit in this category. I tabbed so much of this book as she listed hundreds of wines to try and what she finds interesting about them. I also enjoyed the stories of her family and her career. It was a quick, informative, and fun read.
  • I want to go to all these places. 
  • I love this piece about making even mundane tasks or errands into an event. I mean, I’m not sure that I need to add another stop to errands, so I love the theme of the piece more than some of the specific details. Sign me up for at least one pasta/wine night a week at home with music and comfy clothes, though. I, too, like certain moments in that movie (Because I Said So) and that scene (as well as several other scenes…and Gabriel Macht…) for those same reasons. It looks like a good life.
  • AND OMG YAY JENNY LAWSON IS WRITING ANOTHER BOOK YAY!

I hope you have a fun and only-as-eventful-as-you-want-it-to-be weekend!

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To Sarah on Her Birthday

Posted in Books, Bookshops, Denton, Home, Joy, Lucky, Music, Nostalgia, Roots, Spiderweb on September 30, 2023| 2 Comments »

Besides my sister, there is only one friend I grew up with about whom I can say we are even closer today than we were back then.

That friend is Sarah.

We went to school together in Childress, and we hung out at school (and outside of it, too, when I was allowed). Even then, she was perpetually cool and always up for an adventure. We had very different experiences growing up, but Sarah has always been someone who can be trusted with my hopes and dreams (even when those dreams are a romance novel I wrote in 6th grade).

(Photo credit – ? Did Stephen take this picture?)

Years went by, and we saw each other around Denton occasionally, but then she invited me to a book club at her house. A chance to reconnect – and over books?! Of course, I’m in! I’m so glad she thought to include me, because the book club is wonderful, but even more than that, because she reached out, today I get to count her among my closest friends.

One of my favorite things about Sarah is her encyclopedic knowledge of so many fascinating people and things. I loooove learning new things, and I always learn something new around her. Without Sarah, I would not know…

…what deep listening is.

…that Booked Up (RIP) ever existed or half as much about Larry McMurtry (also RIP) as I know now.

…about Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s podcast Wiser Than Me. I’ve only listened to her interviews with Jane Fonda, Isabel Allende, and Ruth Reichl (three people, by the way, who would be in my top ten most coveted interviewees if I were to host such a podcast), and I’m hooked.

…and so much more. Sarah has a way of recommending things to me that she knows I’ll love. She’s an incredible listener and has an amazing memory. I can listen to her for hours.

(Photo credit – Kara Dry)

She is the first person I performed with at a Spiderweb event. In fact, she’s the first person I performed with (outside of church, if you count that) since grad school. I love collaborating with her; I think we work together pretty well.

Sarah is generous with her knowledge, her time, her home, and her coffee.

And her pets.

She’s one of the only people who has a standing invitation to my parents’ farm “whether I come with her or not,” according to Dad.

Sarah, I love you, and I’m so proud of you and all you have accomplished. You inspire me and feed me and love me so well, and I’m lucky we’re friends.

Also – shameless plug – everyone go to Molten Plains Fest in December. This is the second year Sarah and Ernesto have organized it, and it’s going to be AMAZING.

I love you, friend, and I hope your birthday (and every day) is fantastic.

(Photo credit – Ellie Alonzo)

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Friday Five – Less Weird Week

Posted in Books, Bookshops, Food, Friday Five, Reading Challenges, Seasons, Writing on July 21, 2023| 3 Comments »

One of my supervisors is moving to another department on campus after being in Housing for the bulk of his career, and today is his last day. So I’m actually going to put on outside clothes on my day off and go to the team lunch. Other than that, I’m spending a luxurious few days reading and relaxing before the chaos of August starts.

Also, I have an announcement! My affiliate page on Bookshop.org has just been verified, so full disclosure – the link to the book you see below and to most of the books in future posts will direct you to my shop. If you order from that link, I get a cut, and so do some local bookshops supported by the website. I am working on curating some lists of recommendations for those who visit my page, so feel free to browse while you’re there. Of course, your local library likely has copies, too, but if you plan to buy a book anyway, I’m happy to oblige. 

  • This weekend is the Dewey Reverse Readathon, which in my time zone runs from 7 pm tonight to 7 pm tomorrow. So after lunch, I may take a long nap and wake up just in time to have coffee and a snack before I begin. What a great day! I have been leaving the piles of each month’s unread TBR on the table in my office, so I’m mostly going to work on that stack during the readathon. That’s the plan anyway. I often go rogue during sessions, a course of action I highly recommend, especially when committing to many hours in a row. Gotta do whatever keeps me invested.
  • I always love reading Joy the Baker’s summer bucket list. And more sandwiches and all the summer fruits? I second that emotion.
  • Solito – Poet Javier Zamora tells about his experience migrating from El Salvador to the USA when he was a child. The descriptions are so vivid, making it easy to empathize with the scared little boy who leaves everything he knows to travel to where his mother and father live. I was in constant tension throughout the book. Hard topic but fantastic read.
  • I have been considering taking up bookbinding lately. Not really planning to make my own books (although…imagine the possibilities of making journals…), but I’m very interested in learning how to repair the bindings of old books I own or recover them (especially the ones I get from the library). I may play around with that some this weekend, too.
  • I have another engagement the weekend of Mountain Ash Press’s Writers’ Retreat, but you should definitely go if you can make it. At any rate, please consider contributing to their scholarship fund for writers who need a little help getting there. I hope to be able to attend future retreats!

Have a great weekend, friends!

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Friday Five – Seeking Balance

Posted in Books, Bookshops, Food, Friday Five, Fun, Mental Health, Work, Writing on April 14, 2023| Leave a Comment »

This week has been an experiment in balancing fun and rest. I took both Tuesday and Thursday nights off. Tuesday was very restful. I came home, laid down on the bed to cool off for a minute, and woke up four hours later. I got up, ate a bowl of cereal, watched an episode of Veronica Mars, and went right back to sleep. Last night, however, I couldn’t slow my brain down, so although I technically took the night off, I can’t really say it was relaxing. I finally just gave up and worked on a project I need to have finished soon.

Wednesday, we painted rocks at work (fundraiser for We Care We Count). That night, we worked on a percussion part that we’re doing on Sunday before choir practice, and then I got to go to this month’s Molten Plains at Rubber Gloves. The show was phenomenal. 

Tonight is cookbook club. I’m taking a lasagna skillet because I don’t have time to make a full lasagna in the slow cooker, and it is now officially too hot to turn on the oven in Texas.

Here are five things I enjoyed this week:

  1. A list of the best bookstores in every state that I found on Pinterest led me down the rabbit hole until I also found 13 beautiful bookstores I need to see. I like having lists like these in my proverbial back pocket just in case I find myself in one of these cities with an afternoon to kill. You never know.
  2. The Spite House by Johnnie Compton – The audiobook was great and appropriately creepy. It’s not scary in the jump-out-and-get-you way, but rather a slow, eerie burn, which is the type of scary I prefer. The fact that I could only listen to the last half of the book during the day is a testament to its spookiness. The story was well-told and moved along really smoothly.
  3. Balefire: Poetry for the End of the World by Elizabeth Wilder – I took a poetry class several years ago from Elizabeth, and it was so helpful. I enjoyed this collection. One of my favorite things about it is the spare use of language that marks every word as intentional and full. Added bonus – it’s free today on Amazon! I’m not sure how long that will last but grab a copy if you can.
  4. This is a succinct synopsis of some of the best advice I’ve heard about pitching to a literary agent. Just in case you or anyone you know is interested in that kind of advice. In related news, I’d be a great literary agent. *ponders*
  5. I love this piece on how to fight for your library, particularly as many are being threatened with defunding for simply operating as libraries are meant to operate.

Tomorrow is a busy day. I have book club at the library (we’re discussing paranormal fiction) in the morning. Then I have lunch with my friend Karla and a birthday party for another friend afterward. I’m practicing with Sarah during the evening for our performance next Friday. May definitely need a nap and a whole lot of downtime on Sunday. I took Monday morning off because we were going to go to the club, but we postponed that outing. Am I giving up my morning off? Absolutely not.

I hope you have a fun and relaxing weekend and find that beautiful, elusive balance!

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Friday Five – St. Patrick’s Day/My Birthday Edition

Posted in Books, Bookshops, Friday Five, Fun, Home on March 17, 2023| Leave a Comment »

The bats continue their festive seasonal costume choices at the office.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! AKA, the eve of my birthday. I’m off work today to rest up for the festivities tomorrow and I’m looking forward to my video chat with Maggie and Michelle tonight. But I wanted to drop in and give you some of the goodies that I’ve enjoyed in the last couple of weeks.

  1. I love the St. Marin’s series by ACF Bookens, and Hardcover Homicide is the first one I listened to on audio. I think I would have enjoyed that version better if I had listened to the series from the beginning. It’s hard to start audio versions on the 9th book – I already have voices in my head for the characters at that point – but it was a good reading. Anyway, the whole series is great fun, and I love how these characters have developed throughout it. Also, be prepared to add to your TBR list with every book. It will make you long to hang out in your favorite local bookstore or library even more than you already do. I look forward to reading the next one, but maybe I’ll order it in print this time.
  2. Speaking of things to add to the TBR, the 2023 longlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction has been announced. 
  3. Big Swiss by Jen Beagin – Oh, the wit! I really enjoyed this book. The characters are off their rockers and do some things that are ill-advised and sometimes downright startling. But there are also some really sweet moments and, while the main character stressed me out for a large portion of the book, I still found her likable. 
  4. I think one of my mini-goals for April is going to be focusing on creating a less stressful home environment. Specifically, I am targeting my dining area. I’ve currently dedicated the large table to getting the plants started for my patio garden for the summer (or let’s be real – as long as it lasts), but once they’re planted properly outside, I don’t want the space to just clutter up again. Ideally, I could buy some nice flowers to motivate me to keep it clear, but experience tells me that won’t deter me for long. It needs a purpose other than the surface I hurriedly clear off on the rare occasions I have more than two people over for dinner. I am considering turning it into a reading nook/project area, but I haven’t decided exactly what that looks like.
  5. If you are interested in fine-tuning your people skills, research shows that reading fiction can help you do that. As a former communication professor, however, I can verify that it’s probably NOT a good idea to send that link to someone and say, “If you would just read this and do what it says, we’d get along so much better.” That’s probably not helpful. Probably.

I hope you have a great weekend!

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Friday Five – Anxiety, TV, and Books

Posted in Books, Bookshops, Fiction, Friday Five, Mental Health, TV, Work, Writing on February 10, 2023| Leave a Comment »

After what was a glorious spontaneous week off due to an ice storm in Texas, we came back to work, Land of 10,000 Emails, this week. That has been less than glorious. But here are some things I’ve enjoyed despite being so far behind at work I may never catch up.

  1. Speaking of emails…“Hi, anxiety is a fucking prison that I can’t escape and now it has literally been ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY ONE WEEKS SINCE YOU EMAILED ME…” is the solidarity I need right now. Thanks, Jenny Lawson.
  2. So you know how everyone has been talking (for a couple of years) about how Only Murders in the Building is super cute? They’re right. Just a few episodes in, and I’m hooked.
  3. There’s nothing wrong with your personal library.
  4. Yep. Definitely hiring someone to lug around the boxes and boxes of books I own next time I move. Although, that was a pretty good workout….
  5. I finished Marissa Meyer’s Gilded last night. This is a retelling of Rumplestiltskin, and I really love what Meyer does with it. I had three versions going – ebook for reading on my desktop at lunch, audiobook for listening in the car, and a hard copy from the library for at home. Because once the story got going, I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next. I’ve already checked out the ebook of Cursed in anticipation of this need for the second part of the duology. Fantastic. Highly recommend.

Saturday, I’m performing some microfiction at a show at Deep Vellum. You should stop by if you’re in the area.

I hope you have a great weekend!

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