• Books,  Elevenses

    3 Books I’m Reading This October

    Our road trip has come to a close, so (hopefully) I should be able to start putting out more Blogtober posts now. Somehow, I’d imagined this road trip as a chance to get lots and lots of writing done, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve been sick pretty much the entire time. Combine that with 5 to 9 hours of driving a day, and I’ve been too exhausted to do much more than squeeze out a few freelance projects. This post is a little late, considering that it is already the 15th of October (oops!), but I thought it would be fun to do a quick round-up…

  • Books + Tea,  Elevenses

    Dark Whispers + Ginger Peach Tea

    I have been waiting for this book for a long time. Over a decade, to be exact. When I was in grade school, I was obsessed with unicorns. My best friend at the time shared this passion, and we were always sharing unicorn themed books and playing make-believe unicorn games. There’s a surprising lack of unicorn-related books in the book world, and one of our favorites was The Unicorn Chronicles, by Bruce Coville. We read the first two fairly quickly (review here), and then prepared to wait for the third installment. It never came. I distinctly remember asking about it every time I went to Barnes and Noble. But eventually, I grew up and…

  • Books + Tea,  Elevenses

    The Great Hunt + Montana Skies

    The crisp fall air is filtering through my window right now, and it makes me feel ready to curl up in a cozy sweater, with a blanket, a book, and a cup of something hot. Today, we will be reviewing Robert Jordan’s second installment of the Wheel of Time series, The Great Hunt, over a cup of herbal tea. Tea Review This week’s tea is called “Montana Skies.” It is a black and herbal tea blend with some distinct licorice notes. I’m not a fan of Anise in my tea, but the lightly floral flavor of this mix was surprisingly pleasant. Anise is a mild laxative, has anti inflammatory properties,…

  • Books + Tea,  Elevenses

    Eye of the World + Lavender Tea

    The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan is hands-down one of my favorite book series ever. Which is ironic, considering I haven’t finished it. I think I’ve gotten about as far as book six or seven, but this series is such a commitment to read that I’ve never had the time to sit down and finish it off. Recently, I borrowed book one, Eye of the World, from a friend who insisted that if I was going to reattempt the series, I needed to start from the beginning rather than where I left off. Eye of the World is probably my favorite book in the series (I’ve read it at least 3 times),…

  • Books,  Elevenses

    May Reading List

    I’ve got a pretty varied line-up of books this month, and I couldn’t be more excited! Finding reading time is becoming more difficult as Clark gets older, so I’m not able to finish books off quite as quickly as I could when I was feeding him ’round the clock with nothing to do but sit and read. Still, I’ve been able to squeeze in some time here and there. These books should be showing up in my Elevenses posts in the next few months (with the exception of Crossroads of Twilight because I’m reeeeally behind on reviewing the series), so if you haven’t read them and want to join in…

  • Books + Tea,  Elevenses

    The Unicorn Chronicles (Book 1 and 2) + Earl Grey Tea

    There’s a story behind this one. When I was younger, I was obsessed with unicorns. It was hard to find novels that featured them, but I read every one I could get my hands on. The unicorns I read about weren’t dainty, cute, pink maned creatures that pooped rainbows — the kind you see everywhere these days. They were beautiful and majestic, pure-hearted but also incredibly dangerous. I think it was that mix of beauty, purity and ferocity that made them my favorite mythological creature when I was young. At some point, I came across a series called the Unicorn Chronicles, written by Bruce Coville. There were two books, the…