Monday, August 11, 2014

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

In grade school fashion, I give you my essay: What I did on my summer vacation.


I went kayaking.
Watched five of my 7-year-old nephew's baseball games over the span of two days.
Went for four bike rides, totaling 33.5 miles.
Thought about running multiple times, but only logged one 3.6 mile run.
I binge-watched 12 episodes of Chicago P.D.
I read 5.5 books (finished the last half of a book I started Sunday today during lunch).
Enjoyed one fire in the backyard.

 

Went exploring at White Fish Dunes State Park.
Met my high school BFF's new baby daughter, whom I've been meaning to meet for the last four months.
Watched the Packer's practice, err, preseason game with friends.
Thoroughly enjoyed not having anything that I absolutely had to do.

And now it's back to the working world. Yuck. When's my next vacation?

Sunday, August 3, 2014

July reading recap

I may  have binged on Stephanie Plum last month. Why do I say that? Well, just keep reading and you'll find out.

I finished eight books in July that totaled 2,530 pages. That brings the yearly total to 48 books and 17,000 pages. I'm not kidding. It comes out to exactly 17,000 pages. For giggles, that means the average length of a book I read has been 354 pages. Anyway. Safe to say I'm well on my way to finishing my goal of 77 books in a year. Four more months to read 29 books. I think I can do it.

So what'd I read?

Hot Six by Janet Evanovich
Seven Up by Janet Evanovich
Hard Eight by Janet Evanovich
To the Nines by Janet Evanovich
Ten Big Ones by Janet Evanovich
Eleven on Top by Janet Evanovich
Paper Towns by John Green
Stronger by Jeff Bauman

I told ya I went on a Stephanie Plum binge. I can't help it. Those are fun, easy reads. Notice I did take a time out from Stephanie after I finished up No. 11. That's called restraint. I have it.

And now for the brief reviews, complete with number of stars given out on GoodReads. Follow me here if you’d like a more timely update on what I’m reading, what I think and what’s been added to my to-read list.

Hot Six ***, Seven Up ****, Hard Eight ****, To the Nines ****, Ten Big Ones *** and Eleven on Top *** by Janet Evanovich
These are short, fun and easy reads. They take me an average of three days to read.

 Paper Towns by John Green  ***
I like John Green's stuff, but I have to admit. This was not one of my favorites. Don't get me wrong. It was still good, but I've just read better.

Stronger by Jeff Bauman  ****
This is the story of the guy everyone remembers from the Boston Marathon bombing. We all saw the photo: The guy in the wheelchair with no legs being pushed away from the scene with the guy in the cowboy hat running alongside him. Jeff Bauman was the guy in the wheelchair and this tells his story, from the time leading up to the bombing to his recovery.

Now, if you'll excuse me. I'm on vacation this week and I've got a stack of books just waiting to be read. And yes, a few of them may feature Stephanie Plum. What are you reading?