Reading Room: Spectyr & Wrayth

I haven’t been to the bookstore and ages. In fact, it’s been so long that I can’t remember the last time my foot crossed the threshold of a bookstore that didn’t have used/thrift somewhere in the mix. So, it was kind of cool to hit Barnes & Noble this weekend after a random conversation we had on the bus about Robin McKinley’s Sunshine (I would buy it for her if she was interested in reading it, she declined). We both wandered around the store looking at books (she was all over the teen paranormal romance section. Yes, they have one! And I was camped out in science fiction and fantasy) and craft kits (you can buy a crockpot with a slow cooker cookbook… at B&N, y’all), Harry Potter gear (they are still selling it!) and all the cool new board games (Munchkins? Apparently, it’s a funny take on D&D) too.

We were winding down, just about to head out the door when I thought about a series, Books of the Order, that I had started when I still worked at the book warehouse. The first book was called Geist and I thoroughly enjoyed it. So much so that I was on pins and needles to read the next book… but life intervened and I forgot all about it. Well, today I got Spectyr and Wrayth, the second and third books in the series. I haven’t started the new books (I’ve got like five things going right now) but I’m excited to start them when I cross a few of my current reads off the “currently reading” shelf.

Are you reading anything good lately?

Lazy Days of Summer?

So, my plan was to write an awesome post about some cool things I’ve seen lately but life, in the form of six loads of laundry, intervened. I decided that I should stop procrastinating and get it done… Which I did.

I also finished the last book of the Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy (more on that in another post)…

… downloaded a new eBook called The Black God’s War…

… signed up for the email list for my friend Robin Burks upcoming debut novel Zeus, INC…

… played around with a photo editing app called Pixlr…

edited and added to some of my boards on Pinterest

… checked out the girly glam blog, This Is Glamorous…

… made two playlists on Spotify and listened to Nero’s Welcome Reality…

Um, but not necessarily in that order! Anyway, that’s what I did with my day off. I didn’t really do anything but I feel like that was a lot for one day! Until next time…

I Got It!

I’m sure that I was not the only design lover that was over the moon excited to hear that Domino Magazine was making a comeback in the form of special interest issues, right? So, when the news hit that Domino Quick Fixes had hit newsstands, I was practically doing cartwheels. Of course, I rushed out to a fee of my favorite stores to find a copy but… no one had it!

I don’t know if they were sold out or what but that totally bummed me out. I decided to try Lowes. A hardware store is not necessarily my first choice for magazines (I’m kind of a bookstore snob at heart) but I remembered that they do carry mags like Fine Homebuilding and This Old House Magazine. So I called.

They had it! I rushed over and bought it that day. All of you that loved Domino will understand how much joy I experienced holding this special issue in my hands. It, literally, was a dream come true. I want to thank the publishers for hearing all of our loud, long, heartfelt laments for this publication… and here’s hoping that the special issues are such a smash that a regular 10 issue a year run will result!

Until next time!

Love List

Here are some of the things I totally loved this week:

Penguin Classics has reissued books by F. Scott Fitzgerald with the snazzy, jazz age inspired covers designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith. I found out about them by reading the SpaceSays blog. There are six in all; you can find them on amazon.co.uk.

I was introduced to Help Remedies by Moo Cards. Their philosophy is to make taking medicine as simple and uncomplicated as possible. To that end they offer medications for common problems in straightforward, biodegradable packaging, each with only one active ingredient, and with short easy to read text explaining what you’d take it for. Right now they have about 7 products and a portion of every sale goes to charities for children in need of medical care.

Speaking of Moo… They are an awesome outfit that gives anyone the tools they need to brand themselves with business cards, postcards, stickers, and labels. Their printing service offers something they call Printfinity, which allows the user to have a different image or design on each card in the order. Too add value to the easy to customize products they offer is the fact that it’s super inexpensive – prices start at $19.99/100 cards (shipping is extra… but reasonable). Bonus points for checking out how this crafter uses Moo to distinguish her brand.

Also, I’ve become more active on Pinterest. I’ve been signed on for a while but I’ve never really used it because of the whole Android phone as computer thing I’ve had going on for the last year or so. I recently found a third party app that lets me upload pics to my boards, so I’m having lots of fun with that!

I think I figures out part of the trouble with my images. So finally, a complete post for you… years later. Hopefully, it’ll be a long time before I have this kind of issue again. See you Monday with a new media review. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Reading Room: The Hunger Games



I bought this over the weekend and started reading it just two short days ago… and I’m hooked! This book is pretty gripping considering how simply it’s written. I like the characters and I want to see them succeed. I don’t want to give anything away, so I’m not going to talk about the plot. Just go pick up a copy, if you haven’t already, and give it chance. It is good stuff.

On a side note: Does anyone besides me have that “now that I’m older, I don’t read as much as I used to” anxiety? Or is that just me. When I cracked open this book, I felt what like what that first gulp of water tastes like after you haven’t had one for a while. Quenching. Got to get to the library/bookstore more.

Sorry for late posting! Going to try to hit it earlier tomorrow… See you all then!

Reading Room: The Illumination

The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier.

Kevin Brockheimer’s book details the emotional and physical wounds that are highlighted by a phenomena dubbed “The Illumination”. In the world he’s created, every wound shines with varying shapes and intensities of light dependent on the injury’s severity.

The book is broken up into six parts, each part from the viewpoint of a character that has come into contact with a journal from the first section if the book. In the first section a woman accidentally cuts herself while opening a box from her ex-husband containing her alimony check. When she gets to the hospital, her thumb starts glowing with light, which she assumes is a hallucination from the drugs she’s been given. It turns out that everyone in the world is experiencing these illuminated wounds. When she’s readmitted a little while later with complication arising from her initial visit, she makes the acquaintance of a womb dying from injuries sustained in a car crash. The woman assumes her husband, who was driving the car, is dead and bequeaths the journal she kept of his mash notes to her during their marriage to the woman that cut herself. From here every character comes into contact with the book. The dead accident victim’s husband. The neighbor boy who believes the book is wounded and steals it from the husband.

Each section is filled with precise little details about people’s daily lives and the ways in which we inflict pain on each other. I’m finding this book both haunting and beautiful in equal measure and can’t recommend it enough.

Reading Room: The Hobbit

I was supposed to read this two months ago for my sister’s online book club but I didn’t get to it (for a number of reasons). I’ve got some time right now and I needed to take a break from Russell Kirkpatrick’s In the Earth Abides the Flame.

I’m not one of those people who remembers every last thing from childhood. I remember the highlights mostly and this book is one of the highlights. I remember being five, my sister was three, and being tucked under these bright coverlets that were a tropical floral pattern on one side and orange plush on the other while my mom read us pages from The Hobbit before bedtime. Only one other book stands out from that time (Jean Conder Soule’s Never Tease a Weasel) but this book made a lifelong impression that has informed my reading choices throughout my lifetime. Every story I truly enjoy has to have some element of the fantastical about it. If it doesn’t, it usually doesn’t satisfy.

So, I’m going back to my roots and reading this literary classic again. Happy hump day… the weekend is actively beckoning now. 🙂

Reading Room: The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack

I picked this up from the science fiction and fantasy paperback shelf at the library. It’s been sitting in a stack in the dining room while I’ve been reading (lately slogging) through Russell Kirkpatrick’s In the Earth Abides the Flame. I decided to ditch the latter for the moment and give this book, by Mark Hodder, a go.

I have only read a few pages but the writing is solid but easy to follow and the premise of a steampunk type escapade appeals to my love of adventure. Of note to me while reading the famous author blurb in the inside cover: Michael Moorcock (he’s famous for his Immortal Champion books) waxes poetic about his great a story this debut novel is. We’ll see. Still, that’s a hefty rec.

I hope your Thursday was fifty flavors of awesome! I’ll catch you tomorrow. 🙂

Reading Room: Sisters Red

I first saw this book when I was still in Seattle, working at the book warehouse. Its shelf location was right on the outside edge of a shelf which was a popular cart parking spot. Every time I parked there I stopped and picked it up and read the jacket. The cover is a showstopper! I literally couldn’t look away from it whenever I saw it.

The other day I was in one of those big box stores looking for the ReadyMade 100. I couldn’t find it so I decided to see what books were on offer and Sisters Red was there for only $7! I scooped it (along with the June 2011 House Beautiful… see this post for my favorite from that).

The opening scene is just as heartstopping as the cover, setting up a world in which werewolves, or Fenris, are terrifyingly real. The sisters of the title live with their grandmother, Oma March, in a house on a small town dirt road. When a stranger comes up the road one day their lives are changed forever.

Sisters Red follows in the tradition of updating a familiar tale (in this case, Little Red Riding Hood) with a modern sensibility. I don’t want to be one of those people who gives the whole plot away, so I’ll stop there… but I can’t recommend this book enough even though I’m only halfway through with it. If you like darker fantasy like Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely or even the last two books of the Twilight series – you’ll enjoy this read.

Happy Saturday reading (or playing)!

Wary Meyers Shop

I was introduced to Wary Meyers through a Domino magazine article on owners Linda and John Meyers. Their style was wildly eclectic and chock full of over the top exuberance. Not really my taste but there were some pieces that were too cool to ignore… and the amazing and starkly evident love for unusual thrift store finds struck a chord.

Opening spread if the Domino article.

A couple of years later, I’m floating through the book warehouse to pull a new book for an order. The title? Tossed and Found. It’s cover featured a well loved leather chair with a hot pink and gold lightning bolt sewn down the middle of the seat and seat back. I paused (which I only did for interesting covers, sort of a side obsession of mine) to flip through it – not realizing at all what I was looking at.

Cover of Tossed & Found by John. & Linda Meyers.

Yeah, I bought it and this:

Le French Dresser… amazing, n’est pas!?

KNOCKED MY SOCKS OFF. This project, Le French Dresser, is on my bucket list – it’s that cool to me.

So you can imagine my delight when while surfing for something completely other, I found the Wary Meyers blog AND news of their new shop. Yay! Below are some of my favorites.

Striped Sascha Brastoff vase – $35.

Blue industrial lights – Already sold!

Shigemichi Aomine Salad Fork & Spoon – $30 the set.

THE must have vintage book: I Married Adventure by Osa Johnson – $75.

Handpainted pillows (limited quantity) – $145 each.