Monday, June 22, 2015

Where I've Been...And Where I'm Going

Hello, reader friends!  I hope you've hung with me while I went on a bit of a vacation.  While part of my absence was accounted for by an actual vacation for the last week, I've admittedly been a bit flighty 'round these parts for longer than that.

During the last few weeks of my race training, I was just too tired to get much reading (or blogging) accomplished.  Then the race happened, and I took a full week off from running, but instead of spending that time reading, I spent a load of time with my family and just loafed around, catching up on Netflix.  (Ain't no shame in my game.)

Then we left for vacation, which consisted of 1 day at Sesame Place in Langhorne, PA (basically preschooler crack. I was more tired this day than all other days combined):

Followed by 7 days in Cape May, NJ.  Which was 95% running around the beach with 2 very happy kiddos, and 5% reading and day-drinking:
Kindle, keys, beer, and baby monitor. CHECK.
That 5% was pretty amazing though.  I read ONE AND A HALF BOOKS during the week!  Unheard of for me these days.  The one I finished was Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan, and the one I half-finished was Day Four by Sarah Lotz...which my reader friend Julie alerted me to during vacation, because it's Lotz's latest release after The Three, which you may remember I ADORED last year.

(For my running compadres, I also managed 3 early-morning runs while on vacation...I even ventured onto the sand for the first time!  That is HARD WORK!  Not only because of the soft surface, but the slope of the shoreline near the water made it hard to balance.  Oh, and let's not forget the humidity.  Quite the sweat sessions, they were.)

Anyway, now I'm home, and looking forward to reconnecting with all of you.  I have some book reviews to write, and would also like to make time for a few bookish non-review posts that I've had in mind for a while.  I have only one book tour that I'm doing all summer, so I'm really looking forward to some free-range reading over the next few months!  I would also like to bring The Well-Read Runner back every few weeks, as I am in the midst of figuring out my next race plans...especially because I'm back from vacation and something needs to be done after I ate all that fudge and drank all that wine all week.  HA.

So, the moral of the story is...I'm back, so let's talk books!  :)

14 comments:

  1. Glad you had a great vacation and that you're back in the saddle running! And, running on the beach is SO much harder! Now I see why Rocky had to train there - ha! I'll be interested to hear your thoughts about Day Four...it's on my radar, but I haven't picked it up b/c I had mixed feelings about The Three.

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    1. Oh my gosh, SO much harder. It was a fun experiment, but I'm happy back home on my roads...haha. I'm 40% done with Day Four now...so far, I'm intrigued, but I've hit a bit of a slow spot and I'm hoping it picks up again soon.

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  2. Day-drinking! Sesame Place! Beaching! All very cool things of which I am jealous.

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  3. I live only 40-45 minutes away from Sesame Place and I STILL haven't taken my youngest one there (she's 4 now). I took my older two once, and they loved it. Now I'm feeling mommy guilt!

    Anyway, congrats on the race and getting back into reading. I read Commencement a few years ago. I remember liking the first half of it better than the second half, but I appreciated Sullivan's realistic portrayal of campus sexual assault.

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    1. Ooooh 4 is a great age for it! Your window hasn't closed yet! :)

      Agreed re: your thoughts on Commencement. The second half was not as smooth for me as the first, but I really like how Sullivan handled some serious issues in the book (rape, sexual orientation, etc).

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  4. I don't run on the beach anymore...the sand hurt me the last time I did it and it's just not worth it. Now I save it for walking.

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    1. Yeah, I never expected sand to potentially hurt me, but my knees were feeling all sorts of weird after I was done. Such an uneven/unpredictable surface.

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  5. Day drinking is one of my very favorite things, lol. We did a bit of that this weekend too. Played a little kickball, drank a few cocktails...ahhh.

    Enjoy that free range reading, girl. That's always the way to go for those of us who don't like that whole scheduled reading thing :D

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    1. It will be pretty cool when my kids are teenagers and I can day drink more freely. HA. :)

      I feel like summer is the perfect time for free-range reading! So much more relaxed. And I'm reading so much stuff that I've been dying to get to for ages.

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  6. Yay! I'm so glad you had a nice little break, Kelly; that's awesome! Also, kudos to your three early morning runs and running on the beach - it's tough! I can't wait to read your thoughts on Commencement. The books by Sarah Lotz are new to me; I'm going to have to check these out!

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    1. Yes, I would love to hear what you think of Lotz. Many people I've talked to really enjoyed her first book, but the ending tends to be a bit divisive.

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  7. That sounds like a wonderful vacation. We are due for a Sesame Place trip this summer and Cape May will always be a fave for us, since we had our honeymoon there. Where did you guys stay??

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    1. Lindsey, we stayed in a rental apartment in one of the old Victorian houses on Stockton Ave (near the intersection with Howard). 2 years ago we stayed in a condo at the Baronet which is right on Beach Ave. I love that so many of the rentals are both affordable and such a short walk to the beach! Not all beach communities are like that.

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