Scenes From a Vacation

On Life

My son and I just got back from an epic 2-week camping trip to Tennessee and Arkansas.  For 2 glorious weeks, I did not work on anything and did not check even one email.  Here are some pictures from the fun:

View from our campsite in Knoxville:

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Fun in the fountain at World’s Fair Park in Knoxville:

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The alligator farm in Hot Springs (aka the content of my nightmares):

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The only picture I got from the absolutely gorgeous Garvan Gardens before my phone died:

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And my son’s favorite part of the trip: the ducks at our campsite in Hot Springs.  They followed us around and wagged their tails. So of course he named them.  (From left to right: Jerry, Tina, Mr. Grumpy Gills, Bob)

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Read This!: BEEN HERE ALL ALONG by Sandy Hall

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Been Here All AlongBeen Here All Along by Sandy Hall

Summary: Gideon always has a plan. His plans include running for class president, becoming head of the yearbook committee, and having his choice of colleges. They do NOT include falling head over heels for his best friend and next door neighbor, Kyle. It’s a distraction. It’s pointless, as Kyle is already dating the gorgeous and popular head cheerleader, Ruby. And Gideon doesn’t know what to do.

Kyle finally feels like he has a handle on life. He has a wonderful girlfriend, a best friend willing to debate the finer points of Lord of the Rings, and social acceptance as captain of the basketball team. Then, both Ruby and Gideon start acting really weird, just as his spot on the team is threatened, and Kyle can’t quite figure out what he did wrong…
Reading this book is like being snuggled by a kitten. An adorable kitten. It’s the kind of book that you want to hug to your chest and feel the feels and then reread your favorite parts that make you a little teary but also make you sign with happiness.

What made me interested in this book initially was the story of how the author came to the premise: her editor challenged her to write something based on an amazing fan-made video of Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me” featuring two teenage boys. If you can watch that video and not want to read a story based on it, then you might not have a heart, FYI.

And man, does Sandy Hall deliver on the premise. Gideon and Kyle have been best friends since they were little. Kyle is bi, and dating a girl. Gideon has never thought about his sexuality. Until he realizes that he is gay. And in love with Kyle. Hall weaves the story from both boy’s points of view, along with that of Kyle’s girlfriend Ruby and Gideon’s brother Ezra. While the realities of homophobia and bullying play a part, this is decidedly not an “issues” book. For most of the people in Gideon and Kyle’s world, their sexuality is a no big deal. The challenges they face in their relationship are just like those of other couples – their own insecurities and pride get in the way, and they have to relearn how to trust each other. This is a sweet, wonderful romance story full of characters you will want to hang out with, perfect for fans of Stephanie Perkins and Natalie Blitt.

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Read This!: THE RAT PRINCE by Bridget Hodder

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The Rat PrinceThe Rat Prince by Bridget Hodder

Summary: The dashing Prince of the Rats–who’s in love with Cinderella–is turned into her coachman by the Fairy Godmother on the night of the big ball. And he’s about to turn the legend (and the evening) upside down on his way to a most unexpected happy ending!

Prepare to fall hard for noble, dashing Prince Char, sovereign of the Northern Rat Realm, who won his position through trials of strength and skill (and sausage-eating). Prepare to be charmed by the determined and lovely Rose de Lancastyr, called Cinderella by the evil stepmother who has made her a servant in her own home.

Rose may seem weak, but really she is biding her time, using her servant status to keep an eye on the rat poison she suspects her stepmother is trying to kill her father. Rose is aided by Char and his breed of intelligent rats, who have long been bonded with the Lancastyr family through an ancient spell by a goddess. When Rose makes a wish on an ancient ring, she awakens that goddess and sets into motion a series of events that will change her life and Char’s life forever.

Transformed into a human footman, Char must do everything within his power to keep Rose from marrying Prince Geoffrey, a violent bully and heir to the human throne. The friendship that Rose and Char had as human and rat quickly blossoms into love when they both have opposable thumbs. Rose gives him the name you know better – Prince Charming – and in a faceoff with Prince Geoffrey, Char demonstrates that he is a consummate prince.

This is a delightful twist on the familiar tale, full of characters you’ll want to get to know better. The two characters with the least agency in the traditional tale – the rat footman and Cinderella herself – become the drivers of change here. The worldbuilding is spot on, from the details of the rat throne room to rats’ travel arrangements through the sewers and relations with other rat kingdoms. Char’s point of view is especially delightful; after becoming human, he compares guilt to the feeling of having eaten a venomous lizard, and at one point he has to resist the urge to drop to all fours and scuttle through a crowd of people. Though light in tone, the story doesn’t gloss over the inherent murder, abuse, and cruelty in the tale, and so the conclusion is all the sweeter when our hero and heroine get their happily ever after.

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Read This!: THE KILLER IN ME by Margot Harrison

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The Killer in MeThe Killer in Me by Margot Harrison

Summary: Seventeen-year-old Nina Barrows knows all about the Thief. She’s intimately familiar with his hunting methods: how he stalks and kills at random, how he disposes of his victims’ bodies in an abandoned mine in the deepest, most desolate part of a desert. Now, for the first time, Nina has the chance to do something about the serial killer that no one else knows exists. With the help of her former best friend, Warren, she tracks the Thief two thousand miles, to his home turf—the deserts of New Mexico. But the man she meets there seems nothing like the brutal sociopath with whom she’s had a disturbing connection her whole life. To anyone else, Dylan Shadwell is exactly what he appears to be: a young veteran committed to his girlfriend and her young daughter. As Nina spends more time with him, she begins to doubt the truth she once held as certain: Dylan Shadwell is the Thief. She even starts to wonder . . . what if there is no Thief?

Ever since she was a little girl, Nina Barrows has shared the thoughts of another in her sleep. When she was younger, it was a comfort to slip into the boy’s mind. But then he grew up and started murdering people. Now, at seventeen, Nina spends her nights watching the boy plot untraceable murders and her days trying to track down his victims and prove to herself that the things she has seen are real. When she has the chance to disrupt a murder in another state, she enlists the help of her estranged friend Warren to drive through the night to get there in time. Warren is determined to help her see how she has been imagining all these frightening things – but then both of them are slammed with the truth of Nina’s connection to the killer. The point of view alternates between the haunted, determined Nina and the smart, wry Warren, with the shifts both building character insight and ratcheting story tension. I read the last quarter of the book in a late-night rush, then hid under the blankets with the light on. A psychological thriller deeply rooted in the relationships that define us, with gaspy twists that are one hundred percent earned.

THE KILLER IN ME is out now.

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Read This!: HOW TO HANG A WITCH by Adriana Mather

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How to Hang a Witch (How to Hang a Witch, #1)How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather

Summary: Salem, Massachusetts is the site of the infamous witch trials and the new home of Samantha Mather. Recently transplanted from New York City, Sam and her stepmother are not exactly welcomed with open arms. Sam is the descendant of Cotton Mather, one of the men responsible for those trials and immediately, she becomes the enemy of a group of girls who call themselves The Descendants. And guess who their ancestors were?  If dealing with that weren’t enough, Sam also comes face to face with a real live (well technically dead) ghost. A handsome, angry ghost who wants Sam to stop touching his stuff. But soon Sam discovers she is at the center of a centuries old curse affecting anyone with ties to the trials.  Sam must come to terms with the ghost and find a way to work with the Descendants to stop a deadly cycle that has been going on since the first accused witch was hanged. If any town should have learned its lesson, it’s Salem. But history is about to repeat itself.

In the 1690s, the Salem Witch Trials consumed the town of Salem, Massachusetts in a frenzy of accusations, mass hysteria, and executions. There’s a reason the Witch Trials still loom large in the popular imagination. They demonstrate the very basest bits of human nature: the instinct to raise oneself up by pushing others down, and the tendency of ordinary people to remain silent out of fear, allowing astonishing atrocities to go unchecked. In How to Hang a Witch, we meet Samantha Mather, modern-day descendant of Cotton Mather, one of the men responsible for the Witch Trials. Her coming to Salem triggers a series of events that parallel the horrors of the Trials, and she must work with the descendants of the accused witches and the ghost who haunts her house to break the cycle of violence they represent. Author Adriana Mather, herself an actual descendant of Cotton Mather, draws keen parallels between the Trials and modern-day bullying, demonstrating the ways that “group silence can be a death sentence”. Samantha is a fierce and winning heroine, and the setting and events of the story are presented with a creepy verisimilitude that had this scaredy-cat sleeping with the lights on. A terrific, involving read that is sure to ignite many discussions.

How to Hang a Witch is out now.

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