unpacking & recent reads

One of the things about moving is that you are forced to come to terms with exactly how many different kinds of flour you own.  I even got rid of some that was past its prime (amaranth, purchased for a long-ago tart crust) and my kitchen is still being taken over by flour.  All-purpose, whole wheat, whole wheat pastry, barley, buckwheat, bread, a whole-grain mix, plus a few tiny bulk bags leftover from creating the mix.  And I’m sure I’m forgetting at least one.

Anyway, I’ve moved successfully, and now the flours have their own colony on top of the fridge, reminding me to bake.  The first thing I made after unpacking (apart from regular ol’ meals) was a batch of whole wheat chocolate chip cookies from Good to the Grain – delicious!  They’re on the hard side (I’m having issues with kitchen timers) but oh-so-fabulous dunked in a glass of (raw) milk.  Makes me sound like some kind of health nut, except they’re just as sweet/chocolaty as regular cookies, plus a nuttier edge from the whole wheat.

The living room/dining room/kitchen area is really coming together and is nicely habitable, although the bedroom has been transformed from a cave to pleasant and cozy, with only a little unpacked nonsense.  And with a new low bookshelf for the entry hall, all is well in the shelving world!  My library books have their own spot by the door!  Which begs the question: what have I been reading?

• I just finished Crunch by Leslie Connor – review tomorrow!
• Before that I sped through Jenny Han’s The Summer I Turned Pretty (an unfortunate title for an interesting book – I still don’t particularly like Belly, but I’m interested to see what the sequel deals with.  What was up with the ending, anyway?  Review to come.)
• A while back I read The Forest of Hands and Teeth because Kitri told me I MUST and I listen to her.  I enjoyed it, although I didn’t love it like she did, so I picked up the sequel, The Dead-Tossed Waves. I read about 70 pages and gave up.  For one thing, I feel completely “meh” about zombies.  For another, I didn’t really like Gabry already, and we’d only spent 70 pages together.  I didn’t like Mary much either, but she’d had a tougher life and I had a little more sympathy for her.  Gabry’s horror at her friends’ punishments, for example, just totally rubbed me the wrong way.  Now I know enough about the books to be articulate if a patron asks for my opinion, but I was ready to move on.
• Before that, it was a trip down memory lane with Lloyd Alexander’s Westmark.  Gosh, I probably read it last in middle school.  I’m impressed with how well Alexander always holds up.  This book (the first in a trilogy) has a very different tone than the Prydain books (which I’m still rereading on audio) but the same masterful storytelling.  He makes it seem easy, and I feel like he must have been the kind of person who’d whip up a story while you sat around the camp fire.  Old school.

I want to get back into the habit of regular posting now that I’m moved and settled a bit – plus fall seems like a particularly bloggy time.  Time to start thinking about awards and sipping a cup of tea while you type.  No sunshine to call you outdoors.