my books. my life.

[Attention: If you scroll down, you will see a very rare picture of pregnant me.]

Good morning, everyone. Is it Sunday again? Really? Well at least I have something to show this week. I finished both an audiobook and a print book, started my baby registry (and ordered a crib curtesy of my visiting mother and stepdad), and I turned 29. I’m still pushing for Ireland for my 30th birthday. I can bring a 9 month old to Ireland, right?

My big gift this year was from Ben and his family: a green KitchenAid Stand Mixer. I haven’t been able to make anything too complicated yet but I did make a quick batch of chocolate chip cookies just to try it out. And they are delicious.

Isn’t it pretty?

I also received this wonderful shirt from my mom:

I should really start saving just in case he IS a Future Wolverine…

Also on my birthday (I love birthdays, so I am going to just keep talking about it…), I did the “Pic an Hour” project. For each hour of the day, I took a photo and shared it on tumblr and instagram. Here is the teeny tiny cumulative result:

And now I must run to spend some time with my family (and go to a Tigers/Phillies spring training game later!). Enjoy your Sunday. One less hour and all.

Time to wrap up February. This shouldn’t take long.

All I can say for February is thank goodness for audiobooks. Without them, I would have had two YA books to my credit this month. I read:

• Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
• Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandries by Neil deGrasse Tyson (audio)
• Torment by Lauren Kate (audio)
• Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley

Seeing this list makes me a little sad so hopefully March is a little better.  This month I also reviewed:

• Packing for Mars;
• When Elves Attack; and
• The Sisters Brothers.

With Brave New World, I introduced a new feature.  And I brought you a series of posts on series (see what I did there?):

• The sequels I am looking forward to this year;
• The series I need to catch up on;
• The series I need to start; and
• How I keep track of my various series.

Here’s to hoping March has a little less business and a little more reading.

I am still not reading. And I am almost out of books to review. So I really must start reading books again for the sake of the blog. Unless you want me to tell you about the various cribs and strollers out there. Because I have been reading a lot about that. As far as I can tell, I have a little over a week left of this busier-than-normal work life, so maybe I will start reading again soon. Then again, the end of this phase coincides with the beginning of my birthday celebrations and a visit from my mom. So maybe not. 

At least I am being productive in the rest of my life (when not on Pinterest – my latest obsession – at least). We are still jumping through all of the necessary hoops on this home-buying thing and we’ve begun both packing and purging our stuff. The books fell victim to our unforgiving sorting yesterday. Ben’s guess is that we’ve got about 200 books to give away (and I found someone who will take them all). We have a bit less space for our books in the new house so it was necessary. And we’ve started packing up the rest with the hope that starting now will make moving when I am 35-weeks pregnant a bit less stressful. Plus, it’s not like I’m reading them or anything.

I am off to go make this now. See, Pinterest is productive…

Life is so busy that these Sundays seem to be coming sooner than they used to. I haven’t read more than 20 pages this week so I have no reading update to give you. Still working on The Big Over Easy in print and Torment in audio. I also started Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley yesterday (on Ginger’s recommendation) trying to kickstart some weekend reading. But I ended up playing on the internet instead.

I can’t keep my mind from wandering when I read. It wants to be planning for the baby or planning for the house or planning for work (the most frustrating). I’m just letting this busy planning time run its course. If it means I read a little less, oh well. Life changes and you have to let it happen sometimes.

So laissez-faire Michelle may be around for a little while. Hopefully still bringing you a book review now and then.

I’m all apologies today. I once again find myself in the east coast with limited internet access so I am unable to do more than this WordPress app on my phone will allow. I also failed at blogging this week due to a crazy work week and big doings in my life (we have a contract on a house!). I can only promise to do better next week.

I managed to finish Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins and Death by Black Hole by Neil deGrasse Tyson this week. I am now reading The Big Over Easy – the first in Jasper Fforde’s Nursery Crimes series – and listening to Torment by Lauren Kate.

In case you missed it, I did give the world one blog post this week (because it was already scheduled) telling you which series I need to catch up on.

I have some busy times coming up but I do plan on actually reviewing some books this month. It just may be on a more sporadic basis. Sometimes life has to take over, huh?

January ended up being a pretty good reading month for me. Probably because I did all of those mini-reviews in December so I had to keep reading in order to keep blogging. Nothing like a little pressure to get me going. I read a pretty diverse pile of books as well (and look, Ben, only two YA books!).

In January I read:

1. The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar
2. Out of Breath by Blair Richmond
3. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling (audio)
4. The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker
5. Packing for Mars by Mary Roach (audio)
6. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
7. When Elves Attack by Tim Dorsey (audio)
8. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
9. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

In addition to the links above, I reviewed The Poisonwood Bible, and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. I also shared the authors whose next book I am anxiously awaiting, Ingrid Michaelson’s new album, and I posted my 2011 wrap-ups: reading stats and new goals; my favorite albums; my husband’s top ten of 2011; and my favorites of the year.

My favorite book this month was The Fault in Our Stars. Naturally.

I must go now and continue my weekend of doing grown-up things like going to the theater and buying houses and naming babies. But leave me a comment and let me know how 2012 started out for you!

 I missed my Sunday Salon last week when I was in St. Augustine without a computer and I almost missed posting one today since I’m out being a music video star. Well, not really. But I am out participating in my town’s lip dub music video. If you don’t know what I am talking about, check out this video from Grand Rapids. My town is doing its video to REM’s Shiny Happy People. Seemed like a fun way to spend a Sunday morning. Then, this afternoon, we are starting the house hunting process. I am totally growing up this year, huh?

My reading life is progressing pretty well. I finished three books this week: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, When Elves Attack by Tim Dorsey on audio, and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

 I am currently reading The Sisters Brothers by  with Jennifer and Cassandra and listening to Death by Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries by Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Anyone else up to anything fun today? Or reading anything interesting? Or just generally want to leave a comment of some sort?

Happy Sunday everyone. I think I am finally settled into the new year and I can just give you a regular old Sunday Salon today.

My big news this week is that I found out I am having a boy. Also, I already think he’s adorable and funny. If only we could come up with a name for him (boys’ names are hard). This whole pregnancy is kind of flying by and makes me think we should probably start thinking about things like “where are we going to live?”

In my book life, I’m back to reading pretty slowly, making my way through The Art of Hearing Heartbeats and listening to Packing for Mars (finally).

This week I reviewed The World We Found, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, and told you which authors I desperately want another book from.

And now I need to get ready for some kids’ birthday parties today. Isn’t it a bit early for this to be starting already?

It’s been awhile since I participated in Top Ten Tuesday, but I am a little in love with this week’s topic. There are the authors (not quite ten…) whose next novel I am very much anticipating. Which authors are you waiting on pins and needles for?

JK Rowling

Marisha Pessl

Justin Kramon

Eleanor Brown

Diane Setterfield

Jonathan Safran Foer

Trenton Lee Stewart

Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted by the fabulous The Broke and the Bookish.

I know everyone loves the end of year lists, but I personally like this post the best. I like looking back and seeing what my reading year looked like. So maybe this post is mostly for me, but I hope a few of you enjoy it as well. You can skip to the bottom if you just want to see my goals for 2012.

Some Numbers

Books Read: 93 (up from 76 last year)

100 books wasn’t really my goal, but when I saw it in reach, it unofficially became one. However, the pregnancy threw my reading for a loop and my numbers fell drastically the last three months of 2011 (it’s a sad day when reading makes you nauseous). All in all, I am happy with 93 and it is still my best year ever.

Print: 60
Audio: 33

Pages Read: 20,264
Average Pages per Book: 337.7
Average Pages Read per Day: 55.5
Longest Book: Habibi (672 pages)
Shortest Book: Our Town by Thornton Wilder (114 pages)

Audio Hours: 354.9 (almost 15 days!)
Average Length of Audiobook: 10.2 hours
Average Time Spent Listening to Audiobooks per Day: 55 minutes
Longest Audio: The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukerjee (20.8 hours)
Shortest Audio: Earth, the Audiobook by Jon Stewart (3.6 hours)

Fiction: 79
Nonfiction: 14

Rereads: 12

Female Authors: 67
Male Authors: 30 (2 books had both a male and female author)
New (to me) Authors: 57
Most Read Author: Jasper Fforde (6)

Target Age

Adult: 58
Young Adult: 33
Middle Grade: 2

Genre

Contemporary Fiction: 29
Paranormal: 14
Dystopian: 10
Other Fantasy: 9
Classics: 5
Memoirs: 4
Science: 4
Verse: 4
Gothic: 4
Short Story Collection: 3
Biography: 3
Other Nonfiction: 3
Graphic Novel: 2

Library books: 38
Review Copies: 23
Books from my existing collection: 22
Purchased in 2011: 10

Average Rating: 4.06 out of 5

Published in:
2011: 41
2010: 18
2009: 5
2008: 6
2007: 1
2006: 4
2005: 1
2004: 1
2003: 1
2002: 2
2001: 1
2000: 1
1900s: 11
1800s: 1

2011 Goals – How’d I do?

1. Read more during the week. I do most of my reading on the weekend but there is no reason that I can’t read for 30 minutes or an hour every day. [I did alright at this one in early 2011. Not so great the second half.]
2. Keep up with Goodreads. I’m going to just start from this point on and really try to use it. [Done!]
3. Read more of my own books. I read a lot of library books this year. I’d like to balance this out a little. [Fail. Fewer library book but more review copies.]
4. Along those lines, limit myself to two books on hold at once at the library. I hate when all 10 of the books I have on hold come in on the same day. [I did pretty good with this one.]
5. Use audio mostly for nonfiction and rereads. I enjoy these audiobooks the most and I really want to focus a little more on nonfiction and rereads in general. [All of my rereads were audio and I read a lot more nonfiction.]