September Recap 2015

How in the world is it October? I still feel like I’ve just gotten back from Spain, it’s hot and the entire summer is before me, but that was three months ago! In reality, this is the busiest time of the year, it’s getting really cold in New England, we’re facing a potential hurricane in the next week and I’ve already done so many fall things it’s not even funny!

Thankfully, built into this really busy month I had some time to relax. A few of us went out to visit my sister who lives in the middle of a national forest and it was a much-needed break from the business that is Boston. The above left photo shows the offices (far right), pavilion and kitchen (center) and the bunk house (left). It was beautiful and we went for two walks and I took a nap by the pond. The right photo is from like 6AM where we were on the office porch just relaxing because we can’t sleep in anymore! (For more pictures check out my Instagram: geowhaley.

Books and Bookish Things
In addition to visiting my sister out in the middle of nowhere, MA, we did other fall things. My bestie from growing up was in town so we drove her up to NH and stopped by Portsmouth. It was a great little town and I can’t wait to go back to visit it. While there, I of course visited TWO bookstores (RiverRun Books, photo below, and Book and Bar, a cool coffee shop/bar/restaurant AND bookstore!). There was at least one more bookstore I didn’t get to visit, but we were on a pretty tight schedule because it was Labor Day weekend and we wanted to avoid traffic on the way back, which we failed at spectacularly!

Labor Day brought the end of Books on the Nightstand Bingo! I’m proud of my effort and actually achieved one bingo, diagonally across from bottom left to top right. I thought I would get more, but I’m happy with the major accomplishment which was for the majority of the books I read to be from my TBR shelf. I’m still slowly chipping away, especially as I’m trying to keep my books from taking over everything, having moved recently. (I’ll have to get a photo of my bookshelf that Tim refinished for me, it looks AMAZING!)

This month I kept up the high pace of reading with a total of eight! Part of this is because I read a series (Covenant of Muirwood), but part of this is because I continued my research into the idea of “managing up.” I find when you start reading on a subject and you read multiple books they get easier to read each book. Thankfully, our public library system has a lot of books on this, so all of those were checked out and not purchased!

I might’ve gone overboard with galleys/review copy requests, but at least I read four of them! I also completed my last Jane Austen re-read for the Classics Club with Sense and Sensibility!

• Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
• Managing Up – Rosanne Badowski and Roger Gittines
• Northanger Abbey (Marvel Illustrated) – Nancy Butler, Janet Lee and Nick Filardi
• HBR Guide to Managing Up and Across – Harvard Business Review
• Doing Good Better – William MacAskill
• The Banished of Muirwood (Covenant of Muirwood #1) – Jeff Wheeler
• The Ciphers of Muirwood (Covenant of Muirwood #2) – Jeff Wheeler
• The Void of Muirwood (Covenant of Muirwood #3) – Jeff Wheeler

Recent Acquisitions
As I said above, I might’ve gone a bit overboard with galley/review copy requests this month. I somehow requested five, including the three Wheeler novels above I also received the Atwood and Aptowicz.

I’m not sure how, but somehow I failed to take a picture of Becoming Jane Austen. This is shocking because 1) Jane Austen, 2) book and 3) I’ve become obsessed with the #instabooks and #bookstagram hashtags. No idea how this happened, so Aptowicz’s book gets to hog the spotlight this month.

• Dr. Mütter’s Marvels – Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz
• The Heart Goes Last – Margaret Atwood
• Becoming Jane Austen – Jon Spence
• The Banished of Muirwood (Covenant of Muirwood #1) – Jeff Wheeler
• The Ciphers of Muirwood (Covenant of Muirwood #2) – Jeff Wheeler
• The Void of Muirwood (Covenant of Muirwood #3) – Jeff Wheeler

Hopefully, I can rein it in next month and focus on clearing my shelves. Expect to see quite a few series for the rest of the year as I read them and clear them out.

Culture Corner
Having been in New England for over six years now I like to think I’ve adapted. It’s cold enough and rainy enough I’ve had to break out my LL Bean boots for the year. But with the fall comes great fun! Last weekend, we went apple picking at Shelburne Farms, the oldest pick your own apple orchard in Eastern, MA. (We also visited last year.) So far I’ve made apple bread and apple crisp. I’m not sure what’s next!

Tim in a tree!

Shelburne Farms Orchard.

I also went to a gallery talk just yesterday at work. I of course had to go as the main source of materials is old books. The installation, “Out of Print” was a lot cooler in person than I thought it would be based on the artist’s website. There were a few things, reflective pieces mostly, that you couldn’t see on the website.

I’m also glad I stuck around for the talk, it was 10-15 minutes late. The way she spoke about her inspiration and where the idea for the works came from made the pieces a bit more meaningful. The top piece above, Book Shrine No. 15, was my favorite. Mostly because I got it and loved how the book covers automatically gave it the Asian inspiration. There was one piece, Silentium, I was hoping would be there, but it wasn’t. It was a neat experience and the fact it was book related made it better.

What’s Next?
I am in the middle of Atwood’s The Heart Goes Last and will dive right into Dr. Mütter’s Marvels, which will hopefully be the next Come Read With Me for October. After that, I have a few books I’m looking at on my shelves, but also a library book. Obviously there are TOO many books and not enough time!

I have a lot planned between now and the end of the year. I just booked holiday travel home and it feels like EVERY weekend between now and then is full. I’m excited for our cultural experiences over the next few months, we’re going to see La Bohème at the Boston Lyric Opera, Paula Poundstone at the Wilbur Theatre and Chris Botti, also at the Wilbur Theatre! And this doesn’t even include all of the friends events and birthdays and other holidays coming up.

How’s your fall shaping up? Any books you’re excited about? Or are you just ready for the chaos that is the holidays?