The Sunday Post is a meme hosted by Kimberly of Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s an opportunity to share news, recap the week, showcase books and things we have received, talk about what’s coming up next week, and anything else you’d like! In addition, I feature what I’m reading, playing, watching, and/or listening to, showcase new additions to my TBR shelf, and discuss any other general geekery that I want to share.
News
The weather has not been very kind to us here in the Pacific Northwest. I grew up in southern California and my family used to vacation to the desert, of all places, every summer (and we still do!), but I’ll take a blistering 120-degree day in the desert any time over a humid 90-to-100-degree day in Portland! At least in the desert there are things to do to enjoy the sun while escaping the heat, like go to the pool; in Portland, our pools are indoors.
Oliver has been having a rough time with the weather. We don’t have air conditioning and our house is 10 to 20 degrees warmer than it is outside, and the heat has been preventing him from napping. (Fortunately he’s still sleeping great at night, though!) Between his exhaustion and discomfort in the heat, he’s back to wanting to be held all the time. I can’t blame him; I’d want some mommy comfort in his position, and from what my midwives told me, skin-to-skin contact with mom actually helps regulate the child’s body temperature, whether to cool it down or heat it up as necessary. You never realize how amazing the human body is until you have a baby!
For once I’m actually looking forward to the usual Portland weather. It’s supposed to go back down into the 70s next week. Phew!
In bookish news, the only book I am dying to have in my hands, Kingdom Blades by Melissa McPhail, the fourth book in the A Pattern of Shadow & Light series, is slated for publication in October as of Melissa’s last update, and with each week that we inch closer I get more and more excited! I can hardly wait! Even if October rolls around and all we have is an official release date, I’ll still be happy.
Book Reviews
The Magic Bunny by Paddy Comyn and Barry Sheehan
A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan (Memoirs of Lady Trent #1)
Other Bookish Posts
Fandom Mashup: Fellowship of the Ring, Do-Over Edition – You’ve stumbled onto THE ONE RING (WHAT THE HELL FRODO?! You had ONE job!) and now you need to take it to Mount Doom to destroy it. Who do you chose as your own Fellowship of the Ring?
Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books I Still Haven’t Read – Ten books that have been on your shelf (or TBR) from before you started blogging that you still haven’t read yet
Teaser Tuesday: When You Do Some Light Travel-Writing While On Your Search for Dragons – A peak at the clever little asides within Isabella’s narration of A Natural History of Dragons
Harry Potter Moment of the Week: New Arrivals at Hogwarts – Which non-Harry Potter characters would do well at Hogwarts?
Thursday Quotables: Sage Advice – Wise words on how to be happy from Elizabeth Bennet of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
Classic Fridays: School Reading – Books that I enjoyed in school and why, and the ones that I would add to my school’s reading list
First Lines Friday: Strange Sensations – “It was as if an ancient and comfortable presence left them, one that they had never noticed until it was gone…”
Non-Bookish Posts
Wordless Wednesday: Art That I Adore – What are some of your favorite pieces and genres? Which artist do you adore?
Around the Blogosphere
“Fox and cat are friends. ALLEGEDLY.” by Jenny Lawson at The Bloggess – Every post of Jenny’s makes me cry from laughter. This one had my husband and I both in stitches.
“Guest Post: Scared to Have a Second Child” by Lauren Plotkin of My Plot of Sunshine at Balancing Pieces – “I’m afraid I won’t love my next child as much as I love my first child.” It’s a fear I have, too, and a bit of my guilt over the thought dissipated in realizing I wasn’t the only one out there with the same concern.
What I’m Reading
I finished A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan this week, and it was amazing! (Review here.) It was the perfect adventure story and exactly what I wanted to read at the time, so I had a great time with it. I highly recommend it! Now I’m onto a historical fiction mystery, Labyrinth by Kate Mosse, the first book in the Languedoc series and set in 
Languedoc in 1209. I have the historical fiction genre to thank for my appreciation of history; it was definitely more interesting to learn through fiction than anything I ever learned in school! I would read about some interesting time period in a novel and want to learn more about it, and so would do my own research. I’ve already learned quite a bit about the historical region of Occitania from all the background research I’ve been doing to fully follow the story.
I also started Mansfield Park by Jane Austen as part of my ongoing mission to read all of Jane Austen’s novels. I’m not enjoying it quite as much as I did Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice just yet, but the characters are very amusing nonetheless, and I’m very fond of Edmund. I’m looking forward to seeing what Fanny’s future holds!
Oliver and I have been reading The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne. It’s a lovely Disney addition that my mother got for him last week. I was a Winnie the Pooh addict as a kid: every single morning, I would wake up at 3 AM (this early bird was up even before the worms) and read or watch old-school Steamboat Willie cartoons until The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh came on at 4 AM. The theme song is still suck in my head. I of course owned the complete storybook and all the Pooh movies, as well. Naturally, Oliver has already watched some of those old Pooh shows and films and owns two copies of Winnie the Pooh, the one we’re currently reading and The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh — probably just as much for my benefit as for his!
The great thing about having kids is that you get to give them all the best parts of your childhood and then some, and make it even better and brighter than yours was. I have never experienced anything more enjoyable than making Oliver and Violet happy.
Fortunately I didn’t add any new heights to Mount TBR this week! I’ve got enough on there to read for a few lifetimes as it is!
What I’m Playing
Pokemon Go has been a great excuse to get out of the house and go for long walks with Oliver, especially on toasty days like the ones we’ve had lately, where I’d rather do anything but.
In Warcraft news, Legion drops in two days and my Demon Hunter is almost ready!
I’m off to play some more before the baby wakes up!
literary leisure 
The humidity is the worst. I hope it cools down for you soon. Love that cover of Kingdom Blades, and I’ll have to check out your Fandom Mashups post too. And I love the old Winnie the Pooh stories- awesome and that movie is a classic too.
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Ugh the humidity here has been awful as well! We have AC at home, but I don’t have it at work. Trying to teach HS kids when its 90 degrees and there is no AC? Yeah, they are as cranky as babies!
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I’m from the soggier, more temperate part of the Pacific Northwest (more north!), and I love visiting Portland, but oh man, not in the summer! Just can’t stand that heat!! 😥
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