flowers and books. again!

It was a great weekend, but somehow I managed to take exactly ZERO pictures of it. Oops. I guess nothing was particularly photo-worthy. Or I'm really lazy. Or something.

I spent most of the weekend daylight hours working in the yard. SHOCKING, yes? As a reward for my efforts, I have really bizarre tank top tan lines, insanely itchy eyes (and arms...my arms don't appreciate me touching azaleas or being in close proximity to poison ivy), and my yard looks super fabulous. Which will last approximately 14 seconds before the dandelions are 11 feet tall again and you can't tell I did a thing. Oh well. Garden-wise, things are moving along nicely. Our strawberries are ripe for the picking. The asparagus is doing well. The kale continues to be out of control (in a good way, if you like eating kale, which I do). The tomatoes (that didn't die in the late frost) are growing big and bushy and starting to flower and show the first little tomatoes! Herbs are growing. In all, things are moving right along and I look forward to harvesting lots of tomatoes and peppers in the next month or so!

Flower-wise, things are also looking good!! Nothing makes me happier than seeing the first blooms appear and seeing the dormant perennials spring back to life. I showed this little collage on Instagram last week, but it bears repeating. Right now most of the blooming flowers are purple and they make me really happy!!

Saturday night was Book Club! We have yet to come up with a better, cuter, and catchier name for ourselves, but that's okay. We still have awesome food and conversation, so I think that's more important. This is our third meeting (second book discussion) and it's quickly becoming one of my favorite things to look forward to each month!! We read and discussed This is Where I Leave You this month.

Source

We all found the book to be extremely hilarious and also extremely offensive. Luckily, we still had plenty to discuss. Much laughter was had by all. Despite its R-rated-ness, the book had some interesting themes, characters, and situations, so I can see why so many book clubs enjoy discussing it. But if your book club (or you) is opposed to being scandalized and reading things you can never un-see, so to speak...you should probably skip this one. At any rate, we had a great time hanging out, AND we picked a sure-fire home run for our next book!

Source

I read The Rosie Project a few weeks ago and loooooove love love loved it. I loved it. Do you get that? Love. It was one of the most fun and engaging books I've read in a long time, but not just complete fluff. There were also things deep enough to warrant discussing and dissecting. I've been dying to have friends read it so that we can chat and laugh about it together, so I was glad it didn't take much arm-twisting to get the girls to agree to read it for next month!! It's taking a lot of self-control for me to not just immediately re-read it now. I'm trying to wait a few weeks so it'll be fresher for our meeting. At any rate, it's only $1.99 on Kindle, so if you're looking for a delightful read, this is my recommendation for you. It's definitely 'light' enough to be a great beach read, there is pretty much nothing offensive about it, and you will seriously laugh out loud about fifty times and see the world a different way when you're done. 

I was lurking (the online equivalent of eavesdropping, I think?) in a conversation about quitting books the other day. Do you ever just stop reading a book? Or are you the type that totally commits and finishes even if you're hating it? I think I used to be more of the second type...but now I'm more firmly in the first category. There are too many books to be read to waste time on one I hate (or am bored with). I try to give them a solid chance...50 or 100 pages, maybe? But if you can't capture my attention in that amount of time, I just don't feel the need to stay committed. Sometimes, if I hear from enough people (or someone that knows me well and I trust their book judgment) I'll give it longer...last month Colleen specifically said that Red Rising really started getting good around page 125 so I should stick with at least til then. I appreciated that and she was right-- I probably would have quit if I didn't know I needed to hang in there til 125, but after that point I started loving it. (PS. When I just looked up Red Rising to get that link, I noticed that IT is only $1.99 on Kindle today also!! That is definitely a deal- it's usually in the $10 range. So just FYI, if you're in the mood for dystopia...hit that up!)

The book that first comes to mind when I think about quitting books is Anna Karenina. I have probably read 100 pages of that book three different times. I really want to read it. I want to care enough to keep going. And I just....don't. It's torture. And I'm not anti-Russian-books. I've made it through plenty of other hefty Russian novels that would make a high schooler weep. But I just can't get into AK. Matt read it earlier this year (it took him like 3 months) and I'm pretty sure he did it just to make me mad. Or something. But he finished. But I just can't bring myself to start it again. So long. So boring. So can't keep up with their names. 

Anyway, that said...just curious about how long other people give a book before quitting it (if you quit books at all). Also, do you judge books by their covers? I'll be the first to admit that I definitely do and it rarely leads me astray. So take that, stupid metaphor. You can learn a LOT about a book by its cover.

For instance, I bet that if I'd chosen this alternate cover image to show when I talked about The Rosie Project, you'd be much less interested in actually reading it:

Source

Or maybe not. Maybe you're more openminded than me. But I probably never would have read it if I'd only seen this cover. And I would have missed out. So...good call on the cover redesign, whoever made that call!
Hope your week is off to a great start!! And if it isn't...just read a book or something.