Summer 2017 book wrap-up, Twitter style

*Maybe if I keep writing summer wrap-up posts, the infernal heat will go away.

23 books, summarized in 140 characters or less.

Unquiet Land by Sharon Shinn, 3 stars
My least favorite of the Elementals series. Boring love interests are a major downer.

Divinity of Women by Heather B. Moore, 4 stars
A nice read on the women of the Bible and Book of Mormon.

Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper, 5 stars
One of my word nerd heroes talks about life as a dictionary editor. It's fun and fascinating.

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton, 3 stars
A good mystery that is just spooky enough for a rainy weekend. But the ending ruined the good thing the book had going, IMO.

The Identicals by Elin Hilderbrand, 3 stars
A nice beach read. You read it, enjoy it, then forget it. Except I still think about it from time to time.

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard, 4 stars
A good read on the beauty and ruthlessness of nature. But don't read it if you need a plot.

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler, 3 stars
A character-driven book (why am I reading plotless books in the summer?) with an ending you'll want to discuss.

Be Frank with Me by Julia Clairborne Johnson, 5 stars
A young woman helps out an eccentric kid and his reclusive mother for several months. You'll be sad when it's time for her to leave.

Arcanum Unbounded: A Cosmere Collection by Brandon Sanderson, 5 stars
For those who just can't get enough of Brandon Sanderson, even though he does nothing but give us new worlds to play in.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, 5 stars
When you're stressed out, just go to Narnia. Problem solved.

Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis, 5 stars
The book I always enjoy but must rely on the movie to remember the plot.

*Note: I did not reread The Horse and His Boy because I hate that one. But I did review it.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis, 4 stars
My favorite symbolism of the entire series.

The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis, 3 stars
The adventures are starting to feel a little stale, but I reeeeally want to fly into Narnia like that.

The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis, 5 stars
Adored this one as a kid. Magic soil that grows anything you plant, flying horses, the birth of Narnia—I love it all.

The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis, 3 stars
It's also cool to see the death of Narnia. Still mulling over Susan's fate, though.

Switch by Chip and Dan Heath, 4 stars
I really wish the authors' names were Chip and Dale. But there's some cool ideas on how to enact change.

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, 3 stars
A timely refugee story with a hint of magic to it. A tad overwritten, though.

Landline by Rainbow Rowell, 3 stars
A magic phone allows a woman to talk to her husband in the past. WILL IT SAVE THEIR MARRIAGE?

The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner, 4 stars
A short (for Stegner) book about aging, basically. An excellent read, as his books always are.

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger, 4 stars
The root of all our problems: we don't do things together. Introvert me balks, but Junger makes some points that are hard to argue against.

Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George, 5 stars
A pretty great fairy tale YA book that doesn't get a lot of attention.

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks, 3 stars
Fascinating at first, but the case-study-after-case-study format gets wearying after a while.

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, 5,000 stars
If there ever was a perfect book, this would be it.

For more great book talk, head over to Modern Mrs. Darcy.

Summer 2017 wrap-up (covering mostly just the good stuff)

GUYS. Summer is almost over. I cannot express how big of a relief that is. I feel like I'm coming back to life, kind of like how normal people feel when spring starts to unthaw a long winter. I simply was not built for long, hot summers. Convention insanity doesn't help, either (more on that later).

It's become a tradition on this blog to have a summer wrap-up post every year. So consider this my "What I Did This Summer" back-to-school essay. Honestly, it doesn't look that different from the ones I wrote as a kid. (Only this one has pictures—erm, way more than I planned on sharing, sorry—because without pictures, you got nuttin'. Name that TV show!)

We went to swimming lessons.

We kicked off our sister party with swimming lessons, and I'll just say it was a much better way to spend a Friday morning than at the office.

SO CUTE.

The crazy thing is, 20 years ago we were the ones going to swimming lessons with our cousins.

Poor Tyrel, always surrounded by girls.

We went on vacation.

All of us but the Searles spent a week in South Dakota/Wyoming. Home to lots of blue, green, and brown—and not much else.

We went on a Tuesday, and there was still an alarming number of people there (which is why Shannan is not pictured).

I used to think it was super random that someone decided to carve people's heads into a mountain, but after seeing all those flat, smooth rocks, I kind of wanted to carve something into a mountain.

We spent the week in a cabin.

Our most successful vacations tend to be the ones where home base is a place we can claim all for ourselves.

We took walks and hikes whenever we wanted, because everything we needed was basically in our front yard.

The child had to be walked several times a day. During one walk she proceeded to pick up every rock she saw and stuff them in her pockets until her pants were literally falling off.

We found a rock that inspired us to stand tall and triumphant.

I was not as successful. Dang wind.

Turns out climbing a tree Yogi Bear style is much harder than it looks. Pretty much all I could do was jump and hold on.

Tyrel and I went to the top of the mountain. Well, Tyrel did. I almost made it to the top, but my fear of heights prevented me from moving past the low end of the top. So Tyrel skipped to the highest point while I sat in a safe spot and took selfies.

Many Dutch oven dinners were consumed, monitored by Kimberly and Jeremy. But mostly Kimberly.

And we can't forget Dad, the barbecue master.

I helped by taking pictures of fire.

And we did some other vacation-y, sight-seeing things, including visiting family who moved up here like 12 years ago (not pictured, sadly).

Rushmore Cave. This picture cracks me up.

This amusement park was awesome. It looked like some farmer/engineer guy built a couple roller coasters in his backyard. (In front of us is a bunch of farmland.) Not very many people were there, and the food was delicious. I'd give you the name of the park, but I kind of want it to remain anonymous so it's still deserted if we ever go back.

Oh, and since we had such picturesque surroundings, Shannan and I helped take pictures of the Balls family. I hereby proclaim them the cutest family ever.

We had a water party.

Whenever I picture the perfect summer day, it includes my entire family, an outdoor activity, and a barbecue. We usually have a water party on either Memorial Day or Pioneer Day every summer, and it's pretty much the best. See, sometimes I like summer.

Don't get in Bronx's way—because he will get you.

Noah had a little trouble aiming his squirt gun at first.

Tyrel's favorite part of the party. Every year.

I played softball.

As always, softball was one of the best things about my summer. I wasted my two good hits on the first game, but was much more successful at socializing than I've been in past summers. This year's team was special.

This was right after winning our stake tournament's semifinal, I think. It was an awesome game, complete with a miracle comeback. I just wish the photographer had waited until everyone was ready to take the picture. 

This next picture will give you a better idea of just how dedicated my ward was to softball this year, whether they were playing or not. (And this was after some of us—myself included—had already left.) Attendance at softball games was basically mandatory.

I survived Convention.

I didn't have time to be sad when softball ended (after a run in the regional tournament, which meant we got to play at the nice ballpark in Cottonwood Heights. It's rained three out of the four times I've played there), because Convention—the week I dread all year—was next up on my agenda.

I won't torture you with the details. These two pictures pretty much sum up the experience.

How I felt during that 72-hour work week:

How I felt when it was over (after I'd had a few days to recover):

The universe gave us an eclipse as a Monday-after-Convention gift.

I wasn't super excited about this "once in a lifetime" event, but pretty much our entire building emptied out around 10:30 Monday morning to watch the eclipse's progress, and I didn't want to be left out. My department ended up on the roof with 20-30 other people. Looking at the sun was fun, but my favorite part was when it cooled down 15 degrees and the sunshine dimmed enough so I didn't even need sunglasses. In case you forgot, I am not a fan of the sun.

I also enjoyed watching people from the buildings nearby come out in clumps to watch the eclipse. Even the golfers across the street took a break.

And, that's a wrap! Turns out it was a pretty good summer.