Briefly | I didn’t get a chance to update last Sunday because I was in the Twin Cities for the weekend and we had a busy day — breakfast at a fancy donut shop, the Half Price Books Fall Clearance Sale (more on that later this week), a visit to my grandma at her new nursing home, and some other shopping for fall clothes. It was a good day!
Reading | It’s been a good, if slightly slow, couple of weeks in reading. I finished The Residence by Kate Anderson Brower, an inside look at the staff who serve at the White House. It was a random grab off the New Books shelf at the library, but pretty great. I was also really excited to get an ARC of my friend Chrissy Kolaya’s debut novel, Charmed Particles, in the mail. The plot is a little hard to describe — it involves theoretical physics, gentleman explorers, and local government controversy in a small town — but the novel as a whole was delightful. I can’t wait to write more about it. And finally, I just finished up Blackout: Remembering Things I Drank to Forget by Sarah Hepola. It was excellent.
Watching | Fall tv is back! While this doesn’t bode well for my participation in #15in31, I am looking forward to a couple of new shows. The premier of Quantico was delightfully silly, and I laughed a lot at Rob Lowe and Fred Savage in The Grinder. I’m reserving judgement for everything else.
Watching II | We went to see The Martian yesterday. It was great! Definitely a faithful adaptation of the book — Matt Damon was pretty much perfect as Mark Watney.
Listening | I finished Cinder by Marisa Meyer and started in on the second book in the Lunar Chronicles series, Scarlet. Good stuff, so far.
Making | Inspired by Amanda at Book Riot, I’m going to make a “Katniss Cowl” for a friend of mine. We picked out an awesome dark purple yarn that I can’t wait to start working with.
Cooking | Slow cooker pot roast! My favorite.
Blogging | Over the last couple weeks I shared some highlights of my trip to London, gave an update on my progress for the Read Harder Challenge, and decided I’m going to join Andi’s (Estella’s Revenge) #15in31 reading project for October.
Loving | I didn’t need new fall clothes, but new clothes can be satisfying. I grabbed a few new short from Old Navy that are making me happy (but I cannot find links online to share… so annoying!).
Avoiding | I’m still not happy about going into my (home) office. It’s such a mess and I have no motivation to do anything serious about it.
Wanting | I hope we get to stick with fall weather for awhile. It’s been chilly, but overall pretty nice. Winter can just wait.
Anticipating | I’d really like to get a bunch of writing done this morning. The Vikings don’t play until the late afternoon game, so I think I can get ahead on some work before settling in to crochet and enjoy the game.
Happy Sunday, everyone! What are you reading today?
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If you ever get a chance to stop in Fergus Falls, you should stop by City Bakery. They have delicious “fancy” doughnut creations. I recently went to a fancy doughnut shop in Seattle and they weren’t near as good! I’m a librarian in Fergus Falls and I love reading book reviews from someone who uses the same library system. It’s a lot of fun :).
Thanks for the recommendation, I love a good donut shop! And I like visiting Fergus Falls when I get a chance 🙂
Everyone is loving The Martian – we need to make the time to see it. I NEED new fall clothes but hate shopping for them.
Ooh, that Katniss cowl is gorgeous! Now I can’t wait to make it. I knit so I will have to find a matching knitting pattern – there should be one, right?
I cannot wait to see The Martian, but with a baby, movie plans are shelved indefinitely. We’ll have to see – maybe I can squeeze it somehow one of these weekends.
I can’t remember if I saw an all-knitted version from that Etsy shop, but I think Amanda linked to one in her Book Riot post. I hope you can get to the movie!
I didn’t realize The Martian was out yet! It sounds super fun, I’m looking forward to seeing it.
I also read Charmed Particles and saw the movie of The Martian, and liked both of them.
I like the title of the book over Hannah.
I can’t wait to hear what you thought of Charmed Particles — I really enjoyed it, so I’m hoping others do too.
Yeah we saw The Martian too. And thought it was entertaining. Damon makes a great Watney! Sorry that my team the Broncos had to play your Vikings. We barely won and it was b/c of much luck too. Whew.
That was a good game! I didn’t think the Vikings would win, so they fact they stayed in it that late made me happy.
That vest is awesome! I wish I could handle wearing knits around my neck. It looks perfect for midwestern winters.
I am so happy to hear Matt Damon is the perfect Mark Watney. It was the one thing I was most worried about with this adaptation.
Have a great week!
I can’t wait to see The Martian! And I completely agree about winter. I am loving this weather and if it could just stick around for like, I don’t know, three months or so, that would be awesome.
I’d be happy with fall until January 🙂 That’s not going to happen, but I can dream!
I haven’t read The Martian but can’t decide if I should read the book first and watch the movie – or just watch the movie already! I love the look of that Katniss cowl too 🙂
One of the girls who went to the movie with us hadn’t read the book and really liked it anyway. There’s a lot more in the book, but the movie does a great job capturing the big stuff and the spirit of the book.