Tune In Tuesday: All These Things That I’ve Done
Welcome to the first week of Tune in Tuesday: Random Playlists Edition!
Miss Ginger at GReads! has asked us all to choose songs or mixes at random from iTunes/Spotify/LastFM/etc. and share them with all y’all.
And I will be honest. I’m not so good with the making of mixes. So I’ll just share songs. Because I am boring. But I’m ok with that.
Right, so! This song is one thatI’ve actually been listening to quite a bit lately for seemingly no particular reason. Except for that it’s a freakin’ fantastic song.
And also, a freakin’ fantastic video.
Happy Tuesday!
Tune in Tuesday is a weekly meme hosed by Ginger at GReads!
Review: Welcome, Caller, This is Chloe
Title: Welcome, Caller, This is Chloe
Author: Shelley Coriell
Publisher: Amulet Books
Release Date: May 1, 2012
Format: ePub via NetGalley
Big-hearted Chloe Camden is the queen of her universe until her best friend shreds her reputation and her school counselor axes her junior independent study project. Chloe is forced to take on a meaningful project in order to pass, and so she joins her school’s struggling radio station, where the other students don’t find her too queenly. Ostracized by her former BFs and struggling with her beloved Grams’s mental deterioration, lonely Chloe ends up hosting a call-in show that gets the station much-needed publicity and, in the end, trouble. She also befriends radio techie and loner Duncan Moore, a quiet soul with a romantic heart. On and off the air, Chloe faces her loneliness and helps others find the fun and joy in everyday life. Readers will fall in love with Chloe as she falls in love with the radio station and the misfits who call it home.—from Goodreads
The hook that made me interested in this book is that a lot of the plot is centered on a high school radio station. As a girl with a father in the radio industry, I spent a lot of time in radio stations growing up. And, I thought it was a really different idea for a YA novel. Although radio is still definitely alive, there’s a lot of attention given to Spotify and Pandora and Internet radio. So the fact that this is set in an old-school radio station with a control board and a call screener and actual live shows instead of syndicated programming or audio-tracking, really intrigued me.
And although I never really connected with Chloe the way I wanted to (to be completely honest, I found her a little annoying), Welcome, Caller, This is Chloe is a really nice story about a girl learning to look beyond herself and pay attention to what’s going on with those around her—including her (former?) best friends, her family, and the new group of radio nerds she finds herself forced to work with.
And even though I didn’t adore Chloe—I found her a little cloying and did not understand her fixation on Duncan’s scarves—I really liked the journey she took. I loved the topics that Coriell chose to write about: divorce, drugs, teen pregnancy, the stress of family medical issues, and the pressure high school students face to start thinking about college and planning for a future when they don’t necessarily know themselves yet. Though that seems like a lot, Coriell writes about these topics subtley, never allowing the issues to overwhelm or overshadow the main story.
However, all of those topics coalesce in a way that allows Chloe realize that sometimes life isn’t about the beach and Mexican food and vintage shoes, and that there are more important things than being The Big Personality On Campus.
Overall, Welcome, Caller, This is Chloe is a quick, light read with a couple unpredictable moments and a whole lot of heart.
What’s Making Me Happy {9}
This has been a bizarrely great week.
To the point that it’s making me think something terrible is coming my way to balance out all of the goodness.
Let’s hope not.
But this is a shockingly busy weekend for me. My new roommate, Guy, who is one of Boyfriend’s best friends, and I are interviewing NINE people to be our third roomie. NINE PEOPLE.
Hopefully at least one of them is awesome and great and amazing and shiny and clean and perfect. That way will we not need to have a repeat week of posting on Craigslist/answering emails/schedulng times/cleaning the apartment.
Because, as fun as that all sort of is, it’s also really time consuming and really draining.
But on to the happy things!
1. New yoga studio!
© YoYoga NYC
This is probably très silly, but one of my biggest concerns about moving jobs is that I’ll need to find a new yoga studio. This makes me really nervous because 1) some of them are really expensive, 2) some of them are really intense, and 3) some of them are really uptight and full of people clad only in LuluLemon and I don’t want to feel ugly/poor when I do the yoga. In fact, that is the opposite of what I want to feel when I do the yoga.
But! I did a quick Google search and serendipitously found Yo Yoga, which is not far from new work, is $12 a class (cheap for NYC) and has a deck so you can do yoga outside when it’s nice out! Hooray!
3. TIMEPIECE
OMG YOU GUYS. So, the book that I made a whole bunch of ado about last year was Myra McEntire’s Hourglass which is awesome and great and you should READ IT. And then sequel, Timepiece, is out in June. UNLESS you have a Netgalley account, which I do, and then you can has it NOW NOW NOW!!!!!!! I really love technology, Egmont USA for allowing this to be released early, and to Ms. McEntire for allowing this to happen as well. *bissous*
4. New furniture!
Despite the fact that my current roommates aren’t leaving until the end of NEXT month, Guy and I have already bought two sets of shelves, a desk, a couch, a love seat, two side tables, and a coffee table for a grand total of $375. And these things are all in great condition and do not have bedbugs. So double win!! Let’s hope the new roomie search is as easy.
5. Punch Brothers
I got to get my bluegrass on Thursday night.
Punch Brothers real good live. I urge you to SEE THEM if they come to a town near you. Even if you don’t think you like bluegrass-sounding stuff, still go see them. Give them a chance. Because they are so charming and talented and vest-wearing and SO GOOD.
6. Being Disgustingly Cute
Y’all are all about to roll your eyes and vomit in your mouths a little because of how disgustingly adorable this is, but I’m good with that.
So, Boyfriend lives in Singapore right now. But a whole bunch of his friends are getting married this summer/fall, so he’s been getting wedding invites. And Friday morning I woke up to a text that said, “This is a momentous day in our relationship.”
Now, April 27th is not any kind of anniversary or anything like that for us so I was all, “huh?” And then he sends me a picture of a wedding invitation addressed to both of us. And he was all excited that we got “our” first piece of mail.
I KNOW. WE ARE THOSE PEOPLE. AND I LIKE IT.
So yeah. It’s been a good week.
I hope you have all had nice weeks as well and things continue to be loverly for everyone. And if they haven’t been great, then hopefully they will get great.
Happy Sunday!
What I’m Writing: The Problem with Almost Finishing
Heyyyyyy.
So. The thing about writing. Is that you have to do it.
NOT that I haven’t been doing it. I have been. But I feel like I’m sabotaging myself a little bit.
Which is stupid since I’m OMG SO CLOSE to finishing this first draft I’ve been writing for practically eons.
And though I’m itching to get it done so that I can send it to my peeps to read and get their comments back so I get do the slash-and-burn edits AND ALSO start writing this other story I’m so in love with in my head. But.
But.
I’m having a really hard time finishing. Not because I don’t like the ending or am having writer’s block. Nothing like that. It’s more of a I’m afraid of finishing it scenario.
Which I realize is completely mad. This should be exciting, right? I’m going to finish writing my first complete manuscript. This is THE THING I’ve wanted to do for since I can remember. And for some reason I don’t . . . want to.
I don’t know how to explain it. It really doesn’t make that much sense. Even to me. I just know that every time I sit down and think, “Self, you will have finished by the end of the week!” I’ll just end up staring at the screen, or I’ll type a few sentences out and then go do something else, even though I feel like writing.
And I know the only cure for this is to just do it. And that I’ll be glad that I’m done with it. I’ll feel accomplished. Proud. Let’s be honest, I’ll probably cry some, too. But it’ll be a good cry.
So I just need to sit down and do it. Because, as Brandy taught us, almost doesn’t count.
Now I just need to figure out when I’m going to sit down and do it. *le sigh*
TGIF: Getting Out of the Evil Reading Rut
Lalala. It’s Friday! Lalala!
That’s my Friday song. In case you were confused.
This week, Ginger at GReads! asks:
Reading Blues: We all get them from time to time. What helps you overcome those reading slumps when nothing seems to grab your attention?
I’m sure a lot of people want to hear things like, “Push through it!” and “Keep with it, it’ll get better!” But not from me. If you don’t feel like reading, then don’t do it. There’s no reason to force yourself to read a book because, more likely than not, you’ll end up not enjoying it because you’ll be thinking, “Geez, I wish I was doing ANYTHING other than this.” So, I prescribe doing whatever it is you feel like doing. Marathon a TV show on Netflix. Bake. Go outside. See a movie. Whatever it is that you want to do, DO IT. Eventually you’ll come back to reading. I promise.
And, you know, it’s possible that your reading rut lasts . . . awhile. I’ve had them last, like, a month before. But eventually you’ll be really bored one night and the episode of Supernatural you’re watching just isn’t keeping your attention, but you don’t really want to watch anything else and then you’ll look at your bookshelf and think, “Ah, yes. Hello, there old friend.” And you and reading will be back together. And you will be happy for the time away, because it will make you appreciate the reading more.
My other advice is this: perhaps it’s not reading so much as it is genre. Maybe you’ve read read seven dystopians in a row. Mix it up a little. Throw in a contemporary or a fairy tale or sci fi, just to change it up and keep everything fresh.
And also know this: it’s perfectly normal to go through a slump. Don’t compare yourself to other readers or bloggers. You need to do what’s best for you and if that’s taking a break, by all means take it. Don’t beat yourself up over it. Eventually you’ll come back to the bookshelf and you’ll be energized and excited and ready to read and review.
So that is my advice to you! I hope it is helpful and uplifting. But, if not, that’s okay too.
I hope y’all’ve all had a wonderful week and that you have whatever sort of weekend you want to have ahead of you!
Happy Friday!
TGIF is a weekly meme hosted by Ginger at GReads!
Bethany Larson 