Oh the reading adventures I took during June, July, and August!

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Well we’re about halfway through the summer months at the time I start this, but this is a much greater head start than the past couple posts in this series, so I’m counting it as a win. June kicked off the summer adventures with a day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium with my parents and niece. The following Friday I went on an ATV ride with Dad in Tahoe National Forest (basically our greater backyard living in the California foothills), and then Ant and I kicked July off and celebrated our 10th anniversary in in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

We’re home and our next summer adventures are more low-key, but no less exciting: a local Bat walk and Talk and a Cheetah Experience at our home zoo in Sacramento.

And these are the books that accompanied me during these adventures!

I read five books this summer. Here are they are in the order I read them:

• Dakota Bones by Linda Hasselstrom (8/21/21-6/13/23/)
• The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom with Elizabeth and John Sherill
• The Stand (complete and unabridged) by Stephen King
• Smoke and Light by Kristin Ardis
• Write Here, Write Now by Linda Hasselstrom

Of this number:

• Completed: 4
• Still reading: 1
• Did Not Finish (DNF): 0

Books by the numbers:

• Owned: 4
• Library Books: 1
• Borrowed elsewhere: 0
• New Books (published this year):
• Ant’s shelves: 0
• Rereads: 0
• eBooks: 1

By Readership and Genre:

• Fiction: 2
• Non-fiction: 1
• Poetry: 1
• Fantasy: 1
• YA/NA: 1
• MG: 0
• Thriller/Mystery/Horror: 1
• Dystopian: 1
• Writing: 1
• Memoir/Biography: 1

My favorites of the season: Smoke and Light!

There may be spoilers. You’ve been warned!

17/30 // Dakota Bones: Collected Poems of Linda Hasseltrom

I found this collection of poems on our vacation to South Dakota last August (2022). After church, while our friend Monica explored Spearfish, Ant and I explored downtown Rapid City. And as we are wont to do on vacation, we found local coffee and ice cream and a bookstore. I bought two books from local author, Linda Hasselstrom, and I could have left with the entire shelf.

This collection was published in 1993 and Linda opens this collection of poems with a note about the poems she included. She had noticed after 10 years of those early poems being published that her writing had changed but she “chose not to revise or delete even poems [she] consider[ed] inferior and wished [she] hadn’t published.” Linda goes onto say that changing published work is similar to editing herself and the writer she was then in light of what she “knows now” (at the time this was published). And that is beautiful–to give readers and writers a glimpse into a writer’s journey through the very words they’ve written.

I do not read or write poetry regularly, but I loved that this was from a local South Dakotan author and it was different than a book of essays. It offered a perspective on South Dakota, writing, ranching, and the land that was beautiful and honest. I enjoyed it very much! Dakota Bones includes 118 poems broken up into five parts.

Some of my favorite are:

• “Walking Fence”
• “Hospital Talk”
• “Exists”
• “Cyllene”
• “Hands”
• “Planting Peas”
• “Settlers”
• “How to Find Me”
• “Flying Over the Badlands”
• “MacDuff: A Scot in the Country”
• “Wind”
• “Walking the Dog”
• “The New Hope City Bank”
• “Standing Stones”
• “The Poem You’re Thinking About Writing”
• “Traveling Poem”

There are so many good ones. I encourage everyone to make the trip out to South Dakota, visit the Black Hills, drive through Custer State Park, visit the presidents on Mount Rushmore, hike Spearfish, and find a book written by a local author. Actually, doing this, has inspired me to try and find the local authors section when we travel and either pick up a book by them and/or a book about the history of the place we’re visiting.

Buy the Book | About the Author | Mitzi’s Books

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18/30 // The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom with Elizabeth and John Sherill

I read this with a friend through the Rabbit Room’s book club. The first Zoom discussion happened on the first day of our road trip to South Dakota, so I listened to it while we drive through Idaho. That’s a fun memory! Unfortunately, I fell behind on attending the meetings live, but they’ve sent recordings and they’re on my list to watch eventually.

I think they did this book club in time with the limited cinema release. The Rabbit Room adapted this for the stage and then released a filmed version of that three dates in August this year. I didn’t love everything about it, but it would be very cool to see this live on the stage.

I’m really glad I read this. It was such a contrast to reading The Stand. The entire faith of the ten Boom family is incredible—humbling and inspirational. It’s truly an incredible story. I’m glad I read it.

Buy the Book | Corrie ten Boom House | Rabbit Room | Rabbit Room Theatre

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19/30 // The Stand, complete and unabridged, by Stephen King

Oh The Stand. I read this as part of Stephen King Summer this year. It’s the main reason I only read four books this season. It’s 1,1153 pages and it was a big, thick book to haul around with me. I didn’t bring it to work, but I did bring it on our South Dakota road trip.

Ant read this book–oh gosh, when we were renting the Rocklin apartment, so back in 2016/2017. It was the first Stephen King novel he had ever read. (We actually donated our copy to a Little Free Library sometime last year.) While he doesn’t like this novel, he does still enjoy Stephen King.

I was nervous. Because Ant doesn’t like it and and it’s just long, and I also really had no idea what to expect. But, I actually enjoyed it. I understand why Ant’ didn’t enjoy it and it’s a valid reason. The stand–the act of a stand, in the book–was different than I expected.

Also, reading the beginning part where everyone is coming down with the flu–it was very weird to notice every time I sniffled (lol) and I think in our mostly post-covid world, this wasn’t a stretch of the imagination. Actually, that’s a good question for Ant since he read it before covid was even in our brains: if he thought a world-wide epidemic taking out society in the 90s was unbelievable.

Just having read American Gods recently–and that book was good but some parts a mystery to me–I enjoyed The Stand more. It had more of the ending that I wanted from American Gods. Which I’m not sure is fair, but I may not have read American Gods at the right time for me and maybe that’s why it fell a bit flat? The two main things I didn’t like: how long it was and the scenes with violence (there was some skim-reading happening). But overall, I enjoyed The Stand. I rated it 4/5 stars on Goodreads. It would be interesting to see an adaptation of this.

Current rankings of Stephen King novels I’ve read:

• The Green Mile and Dolores Claiborne
• Four Past Midnight
• It
• Carrie
• The Stand

We’ve borrowed a handful from a friend: Christine, Bag of Bones (Ant read this), The Bachman Books in a collected anthology. We also own Cujo, which Ant has read. I’m really intrigued by Holly, which was published this past September, but it’s the third in her series.

It’s always fun to be apart of Stephen King Summer because it gets me out of my reading comfort zone. I look forward to what Laura picks for next summer!

Buy the Book | Meet the Author | Stephen King Summer

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20/30 // Smoke and Light (Rulers and Rebels, Book 1) by Kristin Ardis

First things first about this book:

1. I read it as an ARC as part of Kristin’s street team. First time being on a street team and it was so much fun!
2. This book isn’t officially releasing until March of 2024
3. Kristen set-up a Kickstarter campaign for this book from August 29th to September 14th and it funded in 20 mins!

I’m so proud of Kristin and what she’s done with this book. During the Kickstarter campaign, she did a couple Instagram Lives on the writing this book and why she decided on Kickstarter. It’s a an interesting possibility for those of us who are writers and looking for ways to publish.

Because this book won’t be released until next spring, I’ll share the official book blurb here:

A KINGDOM AT WAR.
A SEARCH FOR MISSING MEMORIES.
AND A TANGLED WEB OF LOVE, LOSS, LOYALTY, AND LIES.

After months of recovery, Khara Laveya is desperate to leave the medical wing and restore the memories she lost in a brutal rebel attack. Her responsibility to her kingdom as future Sovereigna is a looming distraction from reclaiming them.

Torn between duty and desperation, Khara is haunted by a mysterious grove that calls to her in her dreams. Finding the grove may lead to her missing memories, but venturing beyond the city walls is an act of treason. Worse, it risks another encounter with the ruthless rebel forces.

To enter the forest could mean death … or something far more sinister.

The secrets lurking in the shadows could destroy the life Khara has sacrificed so much to rebuild and unravel the kingdom itself.

After two months of reading The Stand (June 5th to August 5th), reading Smoke and Light felt like a breeze! It was refreshing to read Fantasy again and to delve into a world of rebels and rulers and magic mixed with science. I’m grateful I made the decision to join the street team and I got help champion this book. I’m excited for March 2024 and for the rest of the series =D

Meet the Author | Kickstarter Campaign

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We are deep into the fall season as I finish writing this (one month left!) and when it goes live and I can tell you that I went through a Contemporary YA kick. It was glorious. But now I’m kinda in that weird book funk. We leave for vacation in a few days and I know I need to bring something with me, but I just don’t know what. Well, I do. But I don’t own either of them. I really want to read Threads of Power, the newest book in the Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab, and the newest novel by Caroline George called Curses and Other Buried Things.

I also have all of the Year of Sanderson novels now, but they’re so beautiful and uniquely sized that I don’t want to cart one around on the airplane with me *facepalm*

So I’ve been carrying around three books with me for the last week or so, just around the house, to see which one I want to read. To the point where Ant finally rolled a dice to decide for me hahaha

All that to say, these are what I’m excited to read later this season:

• The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Middle England by Brandon Sanderson
• Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson
• The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson
• Buffalo for the Broken Heart by Dan O’Brien – I bought this when we visited Badlands National Park this summer
• Dragon Wing (The Death Gate Cycle, Volume 1) by Margaret Wiess and Tracy Hickman

I’m also on the hunt for Les Mis since I’m seeing the play in December.

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What was your favorite read of the summer? What you been enjoying recently?

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Writing Process Notes:

7/22/23 // 5:06pm-5:11pm. Dining room table while Ant napped, just before leaving for the Bat Walk and Talk!

10/7/23 // 8:53am-10:05am. Edwin’s coffee in Rocklin, soccer game playing in the background; Hadestown soundtrack.

10/25/23 // 10:09am-11:35am. dining room table on a write-in with Laci. Figuring out the book count of what I’ve read this year and fixing it in posts. Adding my thoughts to Summer Reads and *fingers crossed* posting it! Not published yet, but I added my thoughts on Dakota Bones.

10/25/23 // 9:19pm-10:04pm. dining room table. Ant finishing up the final episode of the Waco docu on Netflix and then Hobbit Hole quiet

10/26/23 // 9:18am-10:32. dining room table. Heads down prickle. Hobbit Hole quiet. Final word count: 2,208