Happy Friday! This week has been packed full with appointments, school, and general summertime yard excitement. It has definitely felt like summer this week! It’s been hot, humid, and generally uncomfortable. We even had a thunderstorm! And while thunderstorms are always welcome in my life, humidity is not. And yes, I know that you need one to have the other so there’s a life lesson hidden in there, whether I like it or not.
Back in the olden days, when I faithfully wrote in my blog, I reserved Fridays for sharing small moments of joy I experienced throughout the week. Well, I’m here today to do that again. Keep reading for some updates on flowers, my summer reading plans, and my progress with the Sarah J. Maas books.
Flowers are on their way!
Matthew started a ton of flowers from seed for me this winter and we’re slowly getting them hardened off and planted. This is a picture from last year – our plants don’t have any blooms yet and I felt like including actual pops of color in this blog post! Please forgive me.
We’ve put in a ton of impatiens and marigolds so far. We also ordered dahlia tubers for the first time and they have already started growing! There are so many other flowers and vegetables waiting to be planted and I’m hoping we can spend some time doing that today and on Sunday. Soon our buckets and plant boxes will be overflowing with flowers and I cannot wait. Planting flowers is a practice in optimism and it’s helping me get through these long days!
The Paperback Summer Reading Guide
Sara’s 2024 Paperback Summer Reading Guide came out earlier this month and the Fiction Matters hive has been buzzing! I’ve spent a lot of time poring over the guide, trying to narrow it down to my own summer essentials. It’s still overwhelming, especially since I set some big summer reading goals for myself in my last reading update. I want to read some fat fantasy books this summer – books to get lost in and that take ages to read. And still, there’s no better reading experience than with a group on the Fiction Matters discord channel!
So my summer reading goals have shifted a bit: find a balance between swallowing this whole guide and staying true to the plans I laid out before the guide was published. But a quick peek at my TBR on Notion tells me that I added 22 books from the summer reading guide so that’s going to be very hard.
My priorities for this summer:
- Exploring Samantha Shannon’s bibliography, including The Priory of the Orange Tree (I have started! I’m 25% through it) and The Bone Season series.
- The Light Years, which is the first book in the Cazalet Chronicles, and is included in the Paperback Summer Reading Guide. I actually hope to read the whole series this summer, which has come highly recommended from several blogging friends.
Knowing my priorities prevents my typical response to feeling overwhelmed, which is to freeze and do nothing! All of these books are in my possession as I type this post so I will always have something to reach for this summer.
Sarah J. Maas Completist
I started the Sarah J. Maas books back in February and have now completed them all. Now I feel a giant void in my life and am trying to resist the urge to start them all over again. What an experience! While the books weren’t great literature, they were so inspirational and full of strong, smart, and fierce women. I’m so glad I allowed myself to fall down this rabbit hole a few months ago; it’s opened up a whole new world and I have a new perspective on reading.
I’ve learned a lot about myself as a reader this year: 1) how much I love getting wrapped up in new worlds; and 2) I like romance! I am going to be very interested in my end of year stats when Goodreads tells me how many pages I’ve read because a lot of these books are extremely long, which I’ve avoided in the past. But I stopped counting the number of books I read each year back in…. 2022? 2021?, so it’s getting easier to focus on other aspects of reading and just enjoy the process. And I’m thankful for that!
This weekend will include working at the library, lots of cleaning in the house, lots of yard work, and hopefully a little bit of reading and stitching. How about you? Whatever your weekend brings – I hope it’s full of exactly what you need. Take good care!
The Cozy Burrow 
I am so impressed that you’ve got flowers started from seeds! I have started veggies that way but have rarely had luck with flowers (other than sunflowers, which I’m trying again this year — last year the bunnies ate them all). I’m also super impressed that you read all of SJM’s books in only a few months. That’s a LOT of reading! I didn’t get any official summer reading guide, but I do have quite a lot of books I’ve acquired through Little Free Libraries, Thriftbooks, and Kindle deals that I want to focus on this summer. I’ve got one book on hold at the library (Enter Ghost) but might take a break from putting things on hold so I can focus on what I already have.
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I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on Enter Ghost – it’s so timely and must have been difficult to write.
I love that you’re putting things on pause and will be reading from your own shelves this summer – I think that’s a great goal!
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I scattered a package of wildflower seeds last May but then my summer got sidetracked so I could only watch from the window as they tried to bloom without anyextra care or water. I figure it was a one year thing but they are back and it looks like I will have an even better crop of wild color this summer! Planting from seed is an amazing thing. Your reading adventure has been very fun to watch.
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I love that those flowers are coming back! How fun. I agree about how amazing it is to plant from seed – such a cool thing to watch!
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That is impressive that you read all of Sarah J Maas in what, 4 months? Sooo many pages! I also have to admit I’ve been a little judgmental of her books because of the tiktok hype; but someone did leave A Court of Thorns and Roses on the free shelf at work, so I’ll give it a go. Seems like good summer reading! I read The Light Years last year expecting to love it and finish the whole series, but sadly, I did not. I can see how this series could be loved though, I was just bored by the lack of big plot points. There is also some child sexual abuse that was just casually mentioned and then never resolved or brought up again (maybe in the later books? You’ll have to report back.) It seems like you are having a super fun time with your reading lately which is as it should be!
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YES! So many pages, but it’s really deceptive. The books just flew by! Thanks for your perspective on The Cazalet Chronicles and the warning. I’ll let you know if I decide to continue with the series and how that issue is addressed in future books.
ALL I want to do is read right now. It’s a good feeling but a little overwhelming. So many books!!
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What an awesome reading adventure! I really wish I could throw out seeds but where I’m at they wouldn’t do much.
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I imagine that throwing out seeds in your neck of the woods would be pretty useless, Tina. Ha!
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I am likewise so impressed with you seeds to plants! One thing this warm weather will do is boost those little babies right along! I predict blooms soon! Summer heat is on here too… sigh. I don’t like summer encroaching so early into spring but it seems as if nature has other plans!
Have a great long weekend!
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It was like we didn’t have a spring at all, Kat. Boo! But summer is here and I’m trying to be optimistic!
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What a lot of reading Katie. It’s fun to find new avenues – whether an author, a genre, or even modality. Last year I planted zinnias and cosmos from seeds right into the ground and those flowers thrived. I look forward to seeing all of your flowers. Gardening is an act of hope and faith.
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thank you, Jane! I can’t believe that summer has finally arrived and I hope you’re enjoying lots of flowers this year too!
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Yay for flowers! Flowers that have done well from seed for me in Tennessee: zinnias, nasturtium, cosmos, calendula, sunflowers, bachelor’s buttons. I’ve got some of all growing right now. Calendula comes back here too. Can’t wait to see what you grow!
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Amazing! I hope you’ll be able to share some pictures on your blog this summer. Flowers make for the best blog posts, I think 🙂
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I’m in AWE that you’ve read all of Sarah Maas’ books. WOW! (and that Matthew has started many of your flowers from seeds) I have my copy of The Light Years on my nightstand, not quite ready to commit to re-reading, but close 😉
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I know – I’m so lucky that he took the time to get everything started this winter. I always have the best intentions but never follow through with that sort of thing! He’s really good at it.
I’d love to read The Light Years with you but know that you have a ton of other books to get to! No pressure to join along — you can relive the series through Discord without actually rereading it!
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Lately I’ve been tempted to try A Court of Thorns and Roses. I keep hearing it is so good. I typically don’t read much fantasy. But recently I’ve gotten into it more and have read some excellent series this year. So I’ve been thinking maybe I might give this one a try to see what I think. The audiobook is free with Audible right now if you have a membership. I hesitate to buy the book in case I might not like it. So if I can snag the ebook at my local library that will be a win! I’ve really gotten into doing print + audio more this year.
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I think borrowing it is a great way to read the series! I borrowed the whole series from the library, but ended up buying the last book for my own shelves because I enjoyed it so much.
It’s so good to hear from you Karen! I hope all is well!
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I was able to get A Court of Thorns and Roses free on Audible. So I’m listening to it now. Almost halfway through. I like it pretty well so far!
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woohoo! I can’t wait to hear your thoughts when you finish it 🙂
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