It was a good week, ya’ll. Lots of books, sun, hubby time, movies, and fun!

Book Binge:

I spent a lot of time on our jungle-like patio. An excellent place to read lots of books. Like…

• American Gods by Neil Gaiman — Finished. Such a good book.
• The Last Girlfriend on Earth: And Other Love Stories by Simon Rich — Finished it. SUPER funny stories.
• The Engagements by J. Courtney Sullivan — Reading an eGalley from the publisher — fantastic so far.
• Close My Eyes by Sophie McKenzie — Reading the prepub with Robin’s recommendation on the cover!

Bout of Books 7.0 starts tomorrow — goals/progress post will go up a little later!

Food Fun:

We discovered a Greek restaurant up the street (Phoenicia) and I ate so much food I thought I was going to explode. They have these amazing french fries covered in feta and a house ranch…oh em gee. And the gyro I got was HUGE. I mean, SO MUCH food for an excellent price.

Excellent Entertainment:

Girl Model — Have you guys SEEN this mess? This Ashley Arbaugh is a terrible person. Such a LIAR. And the people she works with are equally bad. I mean, who’s named Messiah? Is that an actual name in Japanese? The whole girls as cattle business is just disgusting.

The Great Gatsby 3D — I usually avoid 3D, but I’m very glad we didn’t for this one. It was SO cool. The film is pretty true to the book — right down to some of the dialogue coming right from the novel. I didn’t mind the music either, though a couple of times it completely pulled me out of the movie. One moment in particular is when Nick is riding into the city and they pass a car full of people dancing and drinking champagne — the music is such a recognizable Jay-Z song that it just wasn’t right. Other moments I liked it — there’s a part at one point where they use a remix of Beyonce’s “Crazy In Love” that was just perfect (of course, Jesse hated that part). Finally, the tiny changes Baz made to Nick made me think of Christian in Moulin Rouge (a movie I LOVE). So, I liked it, a solid B. Jesse gave it a C+.

Scandal — I finally broke down & watched the first season via Netflix. I NEED the second season NOW. I MUST know what happens. Such a fun show.

Web Wonders:

From Book Riot — a great post showcasing 10 articles worth reading re: The Great Gatsby (and now necessarily about the movie).

I toyed with BookVibe — it highlights books people are discussing on Twitter (with Facebook integration coming soon).

And I (finally) played around with Riffle — I don’t have any friends on it, but I do like that it asks you 20 questions.

Has it really been only a week since I last updated?! I feel like so much has happened!

1.) I finished my first giant granny square. It took a couple of weeks and I made a lot of mistakes, but I love that I finished it (no clue what I’m going to do with it though…). Now it’s time to try a few new squares from my fancy book filled with awesome patterns.

2.) At work I spiced up the Book Lists page. So excited about the cover widgets!

3.) I went to a baseball game. Definitely not the highlight of my week — thanks to the windiness of Thursday my allergies misbehaved on Friday. But it’s always nice to not sit at home on a Friday night.

4.) We dressed up our patio a bit with new cushions and some kind of spiky palm tree.

5.) I read a few books.

• Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld — I related to the main character, Kate. She has anxiety…she worries unnecessarily about her children. The book really made me question whether I should ever have children — so many books have made me question that lately. I think it’s because I’ve been thinking a lot about HAVING children. In theory, I think we should have them. In reality…
• From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg — I wasn’t sure if I’d read this one before…after finishing I’m pretty sure I read it MANY years ago. I’m still glad I read it again.
• That is Not a Good Idea! by Mo Willems — Definitely a little more twisted than expected.
• The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs by William Joyce — I didn’t love this one, but I think the movie Epic looks pretty cute.
• You by Austin Grossman — I get the Ready Player One comparisons, but they are not the same. Which is good…I’d be MORE disappointed if this was just a copycat. I did learn about this new-to-me EA ad: http://bit.ly/15PNYhp
• The World’s Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagarne — Fantastic book. Several laugh out loud moments, so many times where I wanted to share what I’d just read with someone! When I finished the book, I immediately headed to his website: http://worldsstrongestlibrarian.com/. It also reminded me a bit of Monkey Mind — illness/condition related memoir and how to cope/overcome it.

6.) Jesse finished American Gods this week and listening to him try to figure out what was going on inspired me to read it again. I took a break from it this weekend, but I’m back to it tonight. I found this fantastic site that has a list of all the gods mentioned in the book — impressive!

7.) It’s SUMMER BOOKS SEASON! I’m so not prepared for it to be summer and I’m not even sure what I’m looking forward to…BUT Publishers Weekly’s list is available here: http://bit.ly/151BLH0

Yay lists! And holy moly, it’s almost MAY!

Hello Spring! It’s been beautiful in Arizona the last couple of weeks. A little warm for March, but it’s better than a blizzard, right?! Nothing much has changed over the last week. Still love the new job. Still think I have the best husband on the planet (even if he does make me watch sports sometimes). Still reading the books. Still attempting to crochet. For specifics…

I finished Scarlet by Marissa Meyer. It was good. I’m not as googly-eyed about this series as some, but the writing is great and I’m always impressed with Meyer’s ability to weave in the fairy tale with her science fiction story.

I also read Parlor Games by Maryka Biaggio — a fictional biography (if you’ll allow that subject to exist) about “the most dangerous woman in the world”. May isn’t the most believable of narrators, but I liked to read about her travels.

Now I’m reading The Guilty One by Lisa Ballantyne — It seems I’m a fan of British Suspense/Mystery authors making their US debuts. I’m about a quarter of the way through and this is turning into one of those books that makes me question whether we should ever have children.

I finally bought a pair of jeans from Old Navy a couple of weeks ago for $20 and they’re working out OK. They aren’t perfect, but they’ll do for now. In my searching for the perfect jeans I found this website: makeyourownjeans.com. Anyone ever used them? I’m VERY curious about it…I mean, I’d love to be able to design jeans exactly like I want them (mainly without sparkly butt pockets).

One night this week Jesse started watching random Brunch at Bobby’s episodes via On Demand and he was inspired to make homemade granola. Sweet Baby Jesus, it is SO GOOD. It’s served us as both breakfast and dessert over the past few days. Again, it is DELICIOUS. Usually, I don’t even like Greek yogurt, but this combination is just perfect. Highly recommend giving it a try.

Finally, crocheting. I’ve made minor progress. Practice makes perfect though so I refuse to give up. I will make a useful potholder, dammit!

Anyone else Gramming with the Estella Society?

What a weird week. It’s my first time working a full weekend in about six years. It’s bizarre. I’m surprised how long it’s taking me to get adjusted to the new job. I’m loving it, but I’m still pretty exhausted more often than not. I think the biggest challenge is the turn-around from closing one night to opening the next day. I’m pretty sure I’ll never get used to it… :-/

I finished Heart of Palm by Laura Lee Smith earlier this week. It reminded me a bit of home — I’m from North Florida — and it’s a solid debut. I wouldn’t put it on my list of best books in 2013, but still good.

I started Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi, but it was a slow beginning. Does anyone else ever feel like they read a book faster when it’s the physical book? I started reading it as an ebook, but just couldn’t get into it. When my hold FINALLY came in at the library I switched to it and I feel like it’s WAY less draggy — I’m almost finished with the book. Maybe the first few chapters are slow to rev up OR some books make bad ebooks?

While I waited to regain some interest in Mafi’s characters, I remembered that I had an advance digital copy of the other Life After Life — the one by Jill McCorkle. I find it so interesting that neither publisher changed the name of these two Life After Life novels. I LOVED the Kate Atkinson and I’m definitely curious about the McCorkle. I’m not too far into it, but I’m curious about the characters and the place. From what I’ve read so far they’re VERY different books, but I can see how the title fits both.

I’m pretty sure I’ve managed to trace my recent reading slump back to Atkinson’s Life After Life and The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving — which I read right after it. Both were great books and now nothing is good enough. (Plus the whole starting a new job and the brain drain that comes with it which causes me to be a couch veggie when I get home.)

Played around with Versu — Goodreads kept showing it to me. The Versu people call it an “interactive reading experience”, but it’s really a choose-your-own adventure for the digital age. I’ve only completed the introduction story, but it has potential to be an excellent time waster.

Anyone else watching The Following? SO CREEPY! (It ALSO has a Claire…Claire is the new Elizabeth/Katherine.) Kevin Bacon is fantastic. James Purefoy is scary. Just awesome. When I was younger I had a brief fascination with serial killers and the behavioral sciences. I read about John Douglas and his captures, James Patterson’s early Alex Cross, and lots of Hannibal Lecter. Oh and that reminds me about a book coming out later this year: Confessions of a Sociopath by M.E. Thomas. The cover is creepy and the premise is pretty interesting.

And then to distract me even MORE from all the books…the new SimCity was released this week. There have been tons of issues and I need a new computer, but I’ve still spent hours playing it. I love being in charge of all those little Sims.

Sending happy thoughts your way, friends!

Finished A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchy. Good reading, there.

Six-second book review? Could it be a thing? Maybe fewer words, more #cats? vine.co/v/b6EFdQAAaDw—
Melissa (@melissarochelle) February 22, 2013

Read another one of those eOriginal short stories (is it eBooks that made this a thing?). This one, “Six Earlier Days” by David Levithan, didn’t really add much to the story, but I loved the original so much it was nice to have a few more days with A.

Started State of Wonder and while I’m enjoying it, I’m having a difficult time really getting into it. Only about 70 pages in right now…I’m distracted by things like shopping, TV, coloring and kittens.

Speaking of shopping, it stinks. I’m tall. Finding jeans that fit both waist and height is brutal. If I DO find a pair that fits, I then have to worry about how much those jeans are going to shrink when I wash them. THEN when I finally find some that work, I can NEVER find them in the store OR they have these horribly excessive sparkly-butt pockets. Big Star Maddie Boot Mid-Rise, I’m lookin’ at you.

Caught up on The Vampire Diaries and I’m not loving this season. This Silas thing reminds me of Caleb from Buffy — talk about stealing from one of the best shows ever.

Oh! AND I’m a giver for World Book Night! I don’t remember what I said on my application, but I’m still excited!

And Downtown Abbey…SERIOUSLY? Julian Fellowes is blaming this season’s sad times on the actors. They wanted to leave, so he just HAD to kill them off.

Has someone broken Julian Fellowes heart? Would someone please love him so he'll stop the cruelty. #downtonabbey—
Melissa (@melissarochelle) February 19, 2013

Tonight. The Oscars. FREAKIN’ LOVE JENNIFER LAWRENCE.

And now I’m tired. Have a great week!

I forgot that starting a new job is exhausting. My brain is chock full of new info and my body is getting used to a whole new schedule (I used to work M-F 8-5, now I do not). Not to mention getting used to talking to people all day — not something I mind, but something I have to adjust to. The county office had fewer than 10 people in it! So it’s been a busy week, but still pretty awesome.

Since I was pretty wiped out when I got home this week, I didn’t read much…I finished a great one, then attempted George Saunders short story collection…I didn’t even make it through the first page. Not sure what you call his writing style but it read like disconnected crazy person rambling to me.

So the great one I finished: Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life. Such a great read. I don’t re-read often, but I can’t WAIT to read this one again. I highly recommend reading a physical copy because I kept wanting to flip back and that’s one thing I’ve never been able to recreate with an eBook, you know?

Now I’ve moved on to The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison. When I first saw this listed as a readalike for Me Before You on NoveList, I thought…really? I’m halfway through now and I get the comparison. I also think it’s right up there with Matthew Quick’s The Silver Linings Playbook…I’m pretty sure Benjamin and Pat are long lost bros.

My niece came over for a sleepover on Saturday — we were BUSY. We had froyo, we went to the pet store (twice), we bought some books (still disappointed by these “recommendations” on my B&N receipt), made heart-shaped crayons, and had a little dance party. I’ve started playing around with the new Qwiki app — I love it.

Check out the @Qwiki I just created: Syd and Auntie time! qwiki.com/v/SQNqPAdT #Qwikified—
Melissa (@melissarochelle) February 10, 2013

After last week’s excitement of Destiny’s Child at the Super Bowl, I almost couldn’t handle some of the awesome Grammys performances…JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, ya’ll! (Also…JLo and her naked leg? Katy Perry’s crazy boob window. Rihanna and Chris Brown sitting next to each other? Speaking of Rihanna…was she drunk/high? Kelly Clarkson is amazing. Adele is adorable. And I still love Taylor Swift — she comes across as incredibly genuine. Every time I hear that Bruno Mars song I think it’s Sting, so that was a perfect performance. Carrie Underwood’s dress lights up…FANCY. PRINCE! — I saw him in concert once — And that’s about as far as I’ve seen.)

OH! And I finally caught up on this season of GIRLS — they are a mess. AND Revenge — love that show.

The end.