chicago

Things I Have Done, Am Doing, Want to Do, Etc.

Time for a list, don’t you think?

  1. This weekend I went to Chicago to visit my sister. It was a huge wake up call for me. I’ve got to figure out how I can fit more reading time into my day.
  2. My new favorite animal is the Sand Cat. They are so cute! An dangerous predators of course. But mostly cute. I spent most our zoo time trying to figure out how get one of my own.
  3. I came home bemoaning the lack of used book stores in TC. We went to 3 used books stores within a few blocks of each other! And they were all different and bizarre and amazing.
  4. Let’s talk bonsai trees. These things are amazing. They are so tiny and adorable looking but they are actually super old, wise, and incredibly strong. If I were a tree, I’d like to think I’d be a bonsai tree. Here are some of my favorites that I saw in the Chicago Botanic Gardens this past Saturday:

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So do I want to move to Chicago where I can be amidst the used book shops, sand cats, and bonsai trees all the time? Gah, I don’t know! I’ve been doing so much adulting today I can no longer do decisions.

This Month I’ve Read…

While trying to find a nearby apple orchard that also has a corn maze, I realized I haven’t posted about the Julie James series I am reading (those two things are related through a series of mental leaps I don’t expect you to follow). I have been devouring these books like pumpkin donuts all month, one right after the other, they are that good.

I met Julie James almost two years ago at the RWA Chicago-North Spring Fling conference. I got the fourth book in the series and had it signed by her. Though it took me a while to get to read it (my to-read shelf having expanded to an entire bookcase over the past year), I still remember what drew me to her books in the first place. It was the way she described the opening of book one, Something About You, in which the heroine is kept awake all night by a marathon booty call taking place in the next room – a booty call that ends in murder.

Obviously I had to read it. And the next one and the next. I’m now on the sixth and most recent book. I’m not sure what I’ll do when I finish it except hope that there’ll be another released soon!

Check out Julie’s books for yourself by following the link here!

Something About You by Julie JamesA Lot Like Love by Julie JamesAbout That Night by Julie JamesLove Irresistibly by Julie JamesIt Happened One Wedding by Julie JamesSuddenly One Summer by Julie James