Shannon Kay's Blog

Did you know that you can put photos in your GoodReads reviews?

This year, I went to yallwest for the first time.

Happy New Year!

In November, I started reading the Earthsea books by Ursula K.

My oldest child, Guinevere, is a 12-year-old, and while there are some new challenges to tween parenting, it’s mostly pretty great.

We attended our second concert in as many days on Friday night.

Last night, we left the house and saw The Beths in concert.

The new Percy Jackson book came out this week, and I read it within two days, despite being quite busy and trying not to rush it.

The first 21st century Apple product that caught my eye was the pink iPod mini.

Read: August 6-29, 2023 Seasonal Vibe: Summer Time: 2020 and 1980’s Location: Cherry orchard in Michigan and New Hampshire Genres: Literary, Dual Timeline, Contemporary, Historical 346 pages | 🎧 Amazing audiobook Tom Lake is a gorgeous summertime literary…

I was intrigued when I saw Every Duke Has His Day by Suzanne Enoch described as Bringing Up Baby, in the style of Jane Austen.

I’m a seasonal planner, which means that I plan the upcoming season.

Enchanted to Meet You by Meg Cabot was a funny and enjoyable fantasy romantic comedy with excellent fall vibes in a cozy small town, perfect for the Halloween season.

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty is a great historical fantasy adventure.

I saw the Barbie movie today, and it was my first time in a movie theater since 2019.

Shortly after my birthday last month, I visited Half Off Books.

Fourth Wing was a wild ride.

After having the carpet installed on Friday, we were just waiting for the stuff from our bedroom that they packed out to be returned.

I finished The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry last night, and loved it.

Today is my 40th birthday.

Currently bouncing back and forth between two different books, one hardcover and one digital book.

It’s time to select my Book of the Month Club pick for May.

Scan the genres Look at the covers and titles Read the descriptions and recommendations blurbs Look up books of interest on Goodreads and Storygraph Check the number of pages (I don’t want my hard cover to be too heavy) Check the Book of the Month Club Re…

For the last few days, I’ve been focused on choosing new paint and carpet for the bedroom.

I finally finished this graphic novel.

Back in February, we discovered wet carpet in our bedroom.

I opened my RSS reeder to my newly formed folder of Personal Blog feeds and read a nice post on Zinzy’s website about her puppy meeting a cat.

It felt like spring this weekend!

Guinevere asked to ride a horse for her 12th birthday, so I scheduled a trail ride at Irvine Regional Park.

We went to a place called Let it Brie today, and I think it’s our favorite restaurant now.

Rainy days are perfect for reading with a cup of coffee!

Guinevere’s first pair of Pointe shoes got too small and it hurt when she tried to dance in them.

I’ve finished Chain of Thorns, and The Last Hours series of Shadowhunter books has concluded for me.

So I made myself an emoji subdomain.

The hills are green and flowering, and we took a little walk up the hill by the park.

I went over to my parents’ house.

I got this new mug, and I love it so much!

On our way to the car this morning, we saw a snail crossing the sidewalk.

I received a new Fujifilm X-T5 camera for Christmas, but I haven’t gotten to play with it much because our family was sick for most of winter break.

My husband got us tickets to The Postal Service & Death Cab For Cutie playing Give Up & Transatlanticism at the Hollywood Bowl in October.

Last night, I read a short story by Lucy Maud Montgomery(author of Anne of Green Gables) from 1903 called The Strike at Putney.

In the Northern Hemisphere, today is the day with the least sunlight, it’s called the Winter Solstice, and is often considered the “first day of winter”.

So you want an alternative to Twitter, and you’ve heard of Mastodon and the Fediverse, but you’re not sure what to do.

We normally go to the Christmas tree farm on opening day, but it was really windy, with a red flag warning.

October is here, and I’ve got my fall pumpkin mug and The Kiss Curse by Erin Sterling(sequel to last year’s perfectly halloweenish The Ex Hex).

Earlier this week, I celebrated my anniversary(with my husband) at a beautiful beach resort.

I love to find a local coffee shop, especially a local roaster while traveling.

I got my new bookcase assembled and started lining up my Book of the Month books in month order.

I loved all the different locations.

It was nostalgic, with depth.