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Showing posts from October, 2023

Have Books, Will Travel

I am a born traveler. My very first photo, snapped at the hospital shortly after my birth, became my first passport photo. I boarded my first international flight shortly thereafter, and I have been traveling ever since. To date, I have visited 4 continents, 24 countries outside of the USA, and 31 states plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. My very patient husband jokes that I always start planning the next trip on the flight home (sometimes I actually start before that!). I think the planning is half the fun. Some of my favorite travel memories include family trips with my daughter and husband to Aspen, our honeymoon in Rome, Christmas with my parents in London, our little family's favorite beach trip to Puerto Rico, and my first solo adventure to Big Sky, Montana.  I am also an avid reader, reading more than 100 books every year and currently working my way through the Boxall 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list. I come by my love of books naturally. I was raised by a librar
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Spooky Looks

As a special Halloween treat, I'm excited to introduce my first guest blogger for this week's blog post. I hope you all enjoy my husband's post on scary movies as much as I did! Read his post below!  
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Goin’ to the Chapel, And We’re Gonna Get Married ... Gee, I Really Loved These Reads

Last month I traveled to Boston for the wedding of one of my dearest and oldest friends. I saw almost nothing of Boston in between delayed flights, the Friday night dinner, the Saturday ceremony, and the evening reception, but I had precious moments with two of my closest friends and their families. It has been years since the days where most of my travel days were devoted to attending out of town weddings and bachelorette parties. Those were always frenzied reunions with old friends or family, and while my husband and I found ourselves zipping around the country, we rarely had much time to explore the destinations we landed in for those celebrations. For anyone else packing a bag for a wedding weekend, I have six suggestions for you!   The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory is 100% wedding fun with more than a little smut rolled in. When political savant Alexa Monroe gets trapped in a hotel elevator with dreamy doctor extraordinaire Drew Nichols, the last thing she’s expecting is a l
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Banned Books Week 2023

October 1-7, 2023, is Banned Books Week in the United States, and book banning is currently on the rise. In the 2022-23 school year, PEN America recorded 3,362 instances of books banned. This number represents a 33% increase from the 2021-22 school year. Over 40% of all book bans occurred in Florida school districts, but my home state of Texas had the second greatest number of book bans with almost 19% of the total book bans in this country. The majority of banned books are written by women, people of color, or LGBTQ authors, and PEN America notes that many of the new entries on the banned books lists include books about physical abuse, health and well-being, and grief and loss. I am a believer that knowledge is power, so no matter what your take is on banned books, I hope you will join me this week in thinking about this topic. If you are inclined, choose a book on the banned books list to read on your own. If you are a parent of a school-aged child, make a plan for how you will han
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