So, this post is a little late. Better late, than never, right?  I almost missed the first day of November, and my pledge to post once a day this month. It’s been an insanely busy, but also extremely fun weekend. This time before I head to bed is the first downtime I’ve had. I’m not upset :). It was all well worth it! I just didn’t want to miss post #1. I thought I’d share really quickly what I hope to get out of all this, since Saturdays and Sundays are set aside for “free writing”. The truth is, most…

Consider this a heads-up, but I’m planning on participating in NaBloPoMo in November! Most everyone knows about NaNoWriMo and the cheering squads that help make writing less of a burden for all of those people out there who need some motivation. I was happy to find out that there’s the same type of thing for bloggers! Let’s be honest. Blogging is great. It’s also exhausting, and time consuming. Sometimes ruts are fallen into. It happens. I need something to pull me out, and I’m hoping that participating in this will do just that! So expect next month to not be entirely…

Halloween approaches! I won’t lie. Halloween is one of my all time favorite holidays. Although it’s still second to Christmas in my heart, it’s still a holiday that makes me get all wiggly and excited. The thing that these two holidays share is a sense of whimsy. An excuse for adults to be kids again, just for a bit. I LOVE that! As a bookish person, one of the ways I love to celebrate is with some spooky reads. I get a lot of recommendations every year, and I actually have a list of reads I reserve just for the…

It seems I’ve been musing a lot about weather lately. The sad fact is that in my part of Southern California, we don’t really have a whole lot of “weather”. Sometimes it rains, a bit. Sometimes it’s windy, a bit. Most of the time it’s still and warm. I joke about it a lot on Twitter, but we in this area get very excited when there’s actual weather to be had! It’s currently raining, and I’ve opened up every window and door we have. The adorable part is that every other person who is currently home in our apartment building…

Although I’ve loved living in Southern California my whole life (especially the part of that where I moved to the beach), the one thing that I’ve always been envious of, is Fall. I mean a real Fall. Complete with turning leaves, crisp weather, and warm sweaters. If this year is anything like last year, it’ll be Halloween and 85 degrees outside at 9 pm :). I mean just look at that photo! Who wouldn’t want that? I guess it’s true that we all think the grass is greener on the other side. When my friends on the East Coast are…

I thought this meme was doubly appropriate today, since it is Wednesday after all. Ugh, that slump. You know, since March I’ve been trying to pull myself out of this reading/blogging slump and back into the full-force blogger that I usually am. Truth be told, I’m not winning at this. At all. Oh sure, I’ll get a wave of excitement for a few days. Then terrible TV calls my name, or that video game looks tempting, or I just want a nap, and suddenly reading takes a back seat. I realized that my blog is 5 years old. Yup, April marked…

*pads into blog and brushes away the cobwebs* Yeah, it’s been pretty quiet around here lately. I’m sure you’ve all noticed. In case you wanted to keep up with all things Jessica and Tina, here’s a little bit about where we’ve been. Jessica is proud to announce that, after working her booty off for an entire month, and neglecting pretty much everything for the sake of work, she was hired full time at her job! Now things have calmed down, and she’s trying her best to figure out how to deal with having free time again. Oh, and playing catch-up…

I’ve posted about this before, that dreaded DNF, but it’s been a while and my opinion on this has actually changed! Let me say that once, when I was fresh and new, I never left a book in DNF status. I always finished everything that I started. I’d wade through books that drove me crazy from beginning to end. Those were simpler times. Then, I wised up. Now I understand the power of that dreaded DNF status. It’s the power to say “Hey, you know what? This book isn’t working for me. There are lots of other things I want…

As I sit here with a mild sinus headache, my mind keeps flitting back to the book I just finished. We’ve all been there. You pick up a book, and it just hits home so hard that it won’t leave you alone. You think about it even when you aren’t reading it and then, when it’s over, it keeps replaying in your mind. Those kinds of stories are the ones I live for. Last night I finished Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. It absolutely blew me away. All I could think about was how expertly this book pried into…