Book Week, Day 1: What should you be reading this summer? I have no idea...guides from around the internets

It's finally actually summer, which means that I do get a few chances here and there to read books that I haven't read before that also aren't cookbooks. I got to read (and finish) The Paris Wife while we were camping over two weekends ago, so that was big for me. But summer really lends itself to reading, which is why there are summer reading lists and programs at like every single library in the country. What I read tends to be, um, well I usually shy away from the best-sellers and the James Pattersons and the book club selections...mostly. I tend towards the NPR-recommended (yeah, really), graphic novels, and nonfiction.

So I won't tell you what to read. But here's what I'm going to do instead this week: I'll give you a few lists that some other people (other smart people) have recommended, talk about how the summer of 100 books is going, let you know about a few books I've read lately, tell you what I intend to read, and a few other fun surprises. Today, I'm tackling the "summer reading guides" part, so here goes nothing.

First, a little background on how I read: 
I'm always looking for something new to read, but it takes me a while to get into a book, and I've found that if I'm not engaged by a few pages in I'm not likely to enjoy it in the long haul (though this is not always the case...I do try to go about 50 pages or so before giving up hope completely). At this stage of my life too I have limited time to read and so if I'm not loving something, I'll no longer spend precious minutes of naptime trying to make myself get into something I'm clearly not digging. So instead I like to cast a wide net, have lots of options, and ditch what I can't deal with or get into right that second. Here are a few lists to provide yuo with literally hundreds of choices. Have at it, kids!

• Click on over to Modern Mrs. Darcy for the "Ultimate Beach Reading Guide," which she'll actually e-mail to you so that you don't have to troll around the internets all day. All you need to do is sign up. Plus, her reviews are usually so blessedly honest (she'll tell you if and why she puts a book down and doesn't pick it back up, even if it's a bestseller) that it's pretty refreshing. Highly recommended. 
• Wanna learn something new on your time off? Who doesn't? (Me. It's Summer. But I might give it a go anyhow.) Head to Science Friday's blog and take a gander at some great new and classic non-fiction, plus some sci-fi, if you're into that. I am, sometimes. 
• So do you know what you already like? Then use this handy-dandy guide from PureWow to find something similar from the list of "Literary Doppelgangers." Just click on the book you liked, and a book you might like as well pops up in its place. This is especially helpful if you are taking a last-minute trip and and are on your way to the library and have no direction (literarily speaking, of course), or don't want to do a lot of searching on your own. 
• And of course, Oprah's official summer reading list. This one's from last year (I'm still catching up anyway). I'm not generally the hugest Oprah fan, but I've got to tell you that her lists are great because they give you pretty good little snippets for each book, and there are a lot of good books that make the list every year. It's hard to sort through all of the new books that come out in the world every year unless you've got minions, and O's got them in spades, so I suppose it works.
• Oh, and there are also the classics, as compiled in this list by the Cincinnati Library. Most of these are great standbys, and things you should probably read anyway. But be wary: every year I try to read Anna Karenina (which didn't make this list) and forget that it's totally not beach reading, but by that time I'm stuck with whatever gossip rag magazines my mom and my sister have brought with them, and that's even more disappointing. Just remember that even though something is a classic, that doesn't make it beach reading. Some of these books are better kept for an evening when it's pouring outside and you've got a very large glass of cabernet sauvignon  (or cognac, or seltzer if you're knocked up like me I guess)  to keep you company. 

Also check with you local library. My library mostly has programs for little kids and school-aged folk, but lots of libraries have programs for adults too. The NY Public Library is pretty awesome for that sort of thing, but you know, you have to live in New York and whatnot.

Cooperstown...once again

Hubs took me on a long weekend in Cooperstown this past week for a belated birthday/Memorial Day celebration/much-needed rest. The trip included several strolls around town, super-competitive mini-golf, lengthy mud hikes, a little wiffle ball, and a few nights in which I got 12+ hours of sleep without even realizing it (for real, I totally did need it). Oh, and a few episodes of the new season on Arrested Development streamed and watched in bed on my iPhone. More on that another time. Now, for the highlights:

Hubs and I in obligatory iPhone self-portrait.

Council Rock Park, where Lake Otsego ends and the Susquehanna River begins. My favorite quiet romantic spot in the whole town, and also where I usually eat breakfast.

Another view of Lake Otsego (also known as Glimmerglass to those familiar with James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales)

Doubleday Field. Unfortunately, there were no games going on at this time (there was one the day before), but we did hang out there and eat breakfast one day to just admire the scenery. It's a beautiful, old-fashioned park, built in the days of the WPA!

Hubs and his pastry. He waved once he realized that I was taking pictures of him.

Another view of the park. Did you know that they shot some of the scenes from A League of Their Own here? I think I've told you that before.

Creepy fog near High Point State Park on the way home. It was a long, rainy drive back.

make yourself useful and...

start planning your vacation early.
like, really planning. pick a location. pick some sort of lodging-you have a million options here, ranging from campgrounds to all-inclusive resorts with everything in between. check out tripadvisor and the location's local chamber of commerce website for some lodging and activity recommendations. think about whether you'd like to drive or fly or take the train or bus or whatever.
will it be a family vacation? a girls' only trip? will you be going solo, or bringing your mate? all of these things factor into the kind of vacation you plan, how much you spend, and what you decide to bring.
make a realistic packing list based on where you want to go, and then give it a good once-over. what do you need that you don't have? wait until it goes on sale or clearance, and then pick it up. most things are seasonal and will be deeply reduced withing a few weeks if you play your cards right. if you have the list in advance and know what you need (like sunscreen, a new scarf, hiking boots, a new tent, a little black dress, whatever you need based on the vacation you plan to take), you can watch the sales and pick the items up on deep discount, saving you loads of cash in the long run. i grab sunscreen and beach towels when they first go on sale around memorial day, and then i don't need to worry about it for the rest of the summer. also i stock up on flip-flops at the old navy $1 sale and then have new pairs for every outfit for the entire year (whenever there's no snow on the ground, i wear them. i used to know a girl who wore hers even in the nj winters when the snow was a foot deep. i never understood that, but to each her own).
then, most importantly, set a budget and start saving. the kind of vacation (and the location) will help inform you as to how much you'll need to spend. think about what you'll spend each and every day on things like food, transportation, lodging, activities, and souvenirs. multiply that by the length of your trip, and then give yourself some wiggle room. it's always better to have too much than not enough, especially in a foreign country where it may be more difficult to exchange currency. also, if you're planning on staying at an all-inclusive resort, you can take out a few variables from the expense category.
then, once you've got a budget planned, start saving. a few dollars a week can really add up. i like to pay for vacations cash (besides the lodging, as most hotels and resorts make you use your plastic), so the hubs and i take money from side jobs, birthdays, and everything else we can scrounge, and literally put it into a piggy bank. no, we never outgrew this method, and it's super effective. if we want extra spending money, we try to put a dollar each into our piggy banks every day, more if we have it (and obviously less if we don't). that way we don't have to worry about where it'll come from the week before we leave.
also be sure to be honest with yourself. if you can't afford a two week tour of the european countryside, you may be able to afford a weekend at a bed and breakfast a state or two over, or a trip to a cabin at a state park for a week. "stay-cations" are becoming increasingly popular, and honestly, they're not bad. if you live in a metropolitan area, there are tons of things withing a half an hour drive that i promise you aren't even aware of. just do a little research and you can always find something. at this stage of the game, sometimes i consider a night at home with take-out a vacation in its own right.
we are planning a couples cooperstown, ny trip in april, and a family seaside park vacation in july (and hopefully another weekend away in october for our anniversary), and we've already started planning. i keep my packing lists and then just update them from year to year to make it easier on myself when the time comes to drag everything out. a little organization saves a ton of aggravation.
so where will you be you be going on vacation this year?

shopping and packing for vacation

in the coming days, we will leave for a much-needed vacation at the beach. thanks to our frenzied (but semi-organized) planning, we have almost everything set now: the house-sitter is coming to stay with the dog and cats and water the plants so that everything will be just as spiffy when we get back, the packing lists have been made (and most everything has been packed already), and (most of) the shopping has been done. we stay at a house about a block from the beach, only we don't go to that beach. it's expensive and kind of gross. if you've seen jersey shore, you know exactly what i mean, because we are a block away from the prestigious and storied shores of seaside heights. i can't complain though, because we are about 3 miles away from island beach state park, which is lovely, quiet, and super amazing, and also free because teddy's brother bought us state park passes for Christmas this past year. but the house that we stay in (the same one we've stayed in since i was about 4) is pretty much empty...no towels, no bed linens, no mitkas, and definitely NO AIR CONDITIONER! we actually had to leave last year because i was about a million months pregnant and, since air conditioners are not allowed, it was like 104 during the day and 97 at night...in the house. i thought it would get nicer so we stayed until about 10 pm when it didn't get any cooler and i couldn't take the heat anymore. i tried to be a trooper, mostly because i didn't want to sit in the car for another two hours and go home, only to come back down the next day like an asshole (but that's what i did anyway). that not withstanding, we have to take my tiny baby car since teddy's truck is too big to park anywhere, but we have to fit a whole house worth of stuff inside it, plus baby stuff, which everyone knows is at least 5 times larger than normal human stuff. so the bikes, the stroller, and basically anything bigger than stenni has to go with my mom in her SUV.
so my living room looks like a bomb hit it, my house is littered with stuff, and i still have to find my strapless bra, clean my bathroom, send out the entry blanks for the fair which should have been sent out two weeks ago (more on that later) , get to the gym, wash all my bedding and re-make my bed for our house-sitter, clean up the red room, do the dishes from last night, possibly sweep maybe, etc., etc,. etc.
it's funny to me to look at the life teddy & i live through the eyes of others. like our house-sitter, a dear friend/bandmate of teddy's, is taking care of everything for us, including all of the animals and both gardens. we took him on a walk-through of everything last night. i don't think two bottles of wine and pool privileges at my parents' house is enough repayment! but he's being a sport about it all...i think he enjoys the novelty of living semi-"off the grid" for a few days. he talks a good game, like it'll be a "vacation" for him too, but at least he'll enjoy doing it and it won't be drudgery (or at least it won't be drudgery for too long).
what could possible be teddy's last show with his current band is tonight, and i'm pretty bummed about it. i wonder if that chapter of our lives is really coming to an end. i remember before i got pregnant going with the band everywhere, coming home from brooklyn or the poconos or manhattan or wherever at like 4 am and loving every minute of it. i'll personally miss the skeezy little bars and whatnot. there was one in brooklyn i particularly liked, they had free drinks for an hour with cover and there was nothing but old vinyl seats ripped out of cars lining the walls. also there was never anybody there but russkis. ah well. i guess with a kid, that part of my life was really over anyway, but i can't imagine my teddy without some kind of musical outlet, and acoustic open mic nights is just not going to cut it (who goes to those after college anyway?).
when i get back i'm going to document my nj state fair baking, ag, and crafting saga...i've never entered anything in the handicrafts section before and i'm really nervous! we're also entering a zucchini in the biggest zucchini contest (we'll get beat, i know it, but that's ok...i just like to see our names!).
see you eventually!