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Gregor the Overlander (a Book Recommendation for Kids & Grownups Alike)

Cover of Gregor the OverlanderI love books, but I’m not a voracious reader.

I read regularly enough, sure. But when I hear of people who read over 100 books a year I get a little blank in the face. A hundred books a year? That’s two books a week. There is no way I could get through two books a week.

I’m naturally inclined toward non-fiction and read to stimulate thinking and connection-making. I read articles, essays, and blog posts, too, and punctuate the intake with long looks at the wall. It’s unusual for me to finish a single book in a week.

But all that think-reading leaves me looking for easy fun fiction, and for that I turn to kid-lit and j-fic. Stupid? Usually. Fun? Oh yeah.

Occasionally, though, I unearth a special gem. A book I began reading for mind-numbing fun turns out to be thoughtful, poetic, deep, or lovely.

Hunger Games was this way. I expected the usual YA fast-paced nonsense, and instead found an astute social commentary. This Suzanne Collins chick had my attention. So when I saw she had previously written another series, The Underland Chronicles, I decided to give it a try. It was clearly for a younger audience, but being recently inspired by Gretchen Rubin’s declarations of loving children’s fiction, I was undeterred.

I began the first book, Gregor the Overlander, with high hopes. But I was eyebrow-scrunching in doubt. After a few dozen pages in, I didn’t care about the characters or have any lingering questions moving me along, and it was full of rats and cockroaches. FULL OF RATS AND COCKROACHES!!!

But I have a bad habit of finishing books once I start them and kept going. And by the end, I’d found a new favorite series.

As I began the second book, I sent the first one to my ten year old play nephew and he nearly finished the second one before I did. He latched on to Gregor and was finishing a book about every third night.

A few days after that I threw a shout out on social media asking for book recommendations of this sort, and my friend Jesse suggested Gregor the Overlander and gushed about how much he thought I’d love it.

I do love it. And now I’m gushing to you about it.

Because though it’s full of rats and cockroaches (and bats and spiders, too). It’s also full of adventure and empathy and Good. It’s incredibly sweet, but clothed in bravery and chivalry that has my play nephew devouring the whole series.

If you find yourself wanting a fun kid read, or looking for one for a child, give Gregor a go. And let me know how it goes!

What kid/YA books to you love?

(and hey… if you read on a Kindle, you might like this tool that notifies you when books you want or authors you’re interested in go on sale.)

Find Your Happy Place with Rain Tracks (5 Faves less than $1 each)

Do you ever just need to cool out? Feel a deep exhale? Muffle the circus of everyday life?

Me too. Which is why it’s time to share my favorite time-tested rain tracks with you.  Most of the tracks below have been with me for 3-4 years now and offer everything from great white noise to sleeping help to ambient sounds for yoga and just all-around cooling out.

How I First Discovered Rain Tracks

I first discovered rain tracks several years ago when we moved to the Middle East. I was grieving the loss of my life as I knew it (though I couldn’t have said so then) and though an adamant lover of storms and rain, I woke up every morning in a glaring desert arabian village.

In the beginning, we studied Arabic at a small institute where we spent nearly four hours in class, each hour punctuated by a 10 minute break, with one 30 minute long-break (think Hidalgo, not Eat Pray Love).

As language is communicative, and institute classes small, my introvert quickly plunged into distress. At break time, when other students were chatting it up, I was searching frantically for my invisibility cloak.

I needed to find my happy place.

My blessed M-I-L had given me a pair of Bose headphones, and I used them to drown the babble with my new love: rain tracks. It was fantastic. I could listen to the rain, keep my head down, and (almost) pretend life was normal.

Initially it was hard to find good rain tracks that weren’t $7-$10 a piece. Some tracks had weird noises on them, some were too short, and some were just lousy recordings. Over time I’ve amassed a small collection of tracks that are around an hour long and about a dollar a piece.

If you’re looking for some good white noise or something soothing to work or read or write by, give one of these a try! [Read more…]

A Simple Rule for Saying the Right Thing in Tough Times

Have you ever heard someone say something shockingly inappropriate to someone who was going through a difficult time?

Just the other day someone relayed to me that a newly-widowed friend of hers has frequently been required to console other people as they mourned the loss of the person’s spouse.

Uhhhhhh…

 

There’s a good chance we’ve all said the wrong thing at one time or another, which is why I absolutely loved this article shared by my friend Jenny recently.

In this op-ed from the LA Times, Susan Silk and Barry Goldman offer a tangible filter we can use to make certain our comments are caring and not self-serving.

In any time of hardship, think of the people involved as a set of concentric rings, like a bulls-eye. The person who is most affected is at the bulls-eye, and people furthest from the situation are in the outermost ring.

Then assess what circle you are in, and determine if the person you’re speaking to is closer to the center ring than you or further out.

  • If they are closer to the bulls-eye than you, you offer a listening ear and comfort. ONLY listening and comfort.
  • If they are further away from the bulls-eye than you, you can share your own grief and hardship.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say a girl from your book club finds out her child has an incurable disease. For our purposes, she is the “Most Afflicted”.

Now figure out what “ring” you are in. Who are you to her, really? 

Are you her parent or BFF? Then you are in the closest ring. You can bemoan the injustices of the universe to whomever you please. To anyone, that is, except the Most Afflicted.

But chances are you’re neither of those. So… are you one of her closest friends? Think top 5 here. Would she say you’re one of her top 5 closest friends? If so, you can share your grief with someone further away from the bulls-eye. Just don’t do it to the Most Afflicted or her sister or her BFF.

And so forth and so on down through the nosy nosertons who have no business talking about it anyway.

Never dump inward. Silk and Goldman state it best:

“Comfort IN, dump OUT.”

What do you think of this “Ring Theory”? …Have you ever been the victim of inward dumping?

 

Fun fact from this post: [Read more…]

Home and Back Again

I can no longer tell which is “home” and which is “back again,” but this week the desert-on-the-water received me into its clutches with much sand and humidity. (At least the humidity cools things off enough for our window unit to keep the living room on the cool side.)

The past two weeks of preparing to come back to the desert were on the busy side. Between painting and furnishing our new stateside bedroom (did I mention we bought a house with friends this summer?), creating several new products for Serious Creatures (to be seen very soon!) and spending final moments with friends and family, my reading and writing time went out the window.

But now I’m back to my desert-dwelling self and my long hermit days.

Which reminds me of this Someecard I recently saw on Pinterest:

someecards.com - Sorry I've been a bad friend lately. I've been busy being an awesome hermit.

That made me laugh.

What have you been up to?

*The pics are from the Dude’s instagram. The first is the Muscat airport, the second is down in south Oman where he surfs.

Late Summer Re-Juve

This summer has been packed. Between working on the business, trying to fit an entire year’s worth of seeing people into a few weeks, and figuring out the logistics therein, it’s been like juggling monkeys.

But last Friday the Dude headed back to the sandbox and, as everything ground to a halt, I began to see how exhausted I was. And I remembered my friend Kayla’s post from this Spring about real restoration.

She talks about sleeping until you’ve had enough, and then wandering leisurely with family and enjoyments without suppressing particular activities just because they could be categorized as “work” by certain definitions.

Okay, that’s not precisely what she said. But it’s what I needed to hear and it’s what came through to me in her post.

When I’m needing to regroup, my instinct is to stifle certain activities because “I’m supposed to be resting.” When really, whether by writing or business planning or studying history or taking pictures or whatever, mental play is one of the most rejuvenating activities for me.

But only when I approach it freely and leisurely.

So last weekend I slept until I woke up refreshed (which was a LOT of sleeping) and read for fun and let my brain play with some business ideas that have been rolling around in my mind lately. And I’ve been more productive AND more healthy in the past four days than the past four weeks. Perhaps a little restoration goes a long way.

What about you? Are you in need of some re-juve? Could you make space for it this weekend?

How to Shop for Sunglasses

I hate picking new sunglasses. Almost as much as I hate posting selfies of selecting said shades on the internet.

Almost.

While my friends are looking all glamorous in their summer shades, I feel like I’m trying too hard. And being incredibly picky, every pair I try on has an “issue”: they’re too wide, come down too far on my cheeks, perch too far up on my head when I use them to hold back my hair, and so on and so forth etc., etc.

After moving the desert, however, something had to give. For one thing, having several pairs of sunglasses on hand is a need, because the Arabian/Persian Gulf sun thing is no joke and because sunglasses break at the least opportune times. For another thing, sunglasses are the penultimate accessory (next to handbags) for a culture of women who cover their outfits in black robes when they’re out in public.

Through attempts both more and less successful, here’s what I’ve learned about shopping for sunglasses:

  • Spend the money to get polarized lenses (you’ll be amazed at the relief to your eyes)
  • But pass on designer frames (unless it’s the name that is important to you, of course.) According to this article from WSJ, “For about $40… you can get a pair that offers 100% protection against ultra-violet rays. If you spend maybe $70 you should be able to get a pair with decent quality polarizing lenses that cut out glare. Beyond that, the medical benefits tail off pretty fast.” I suspect the quality of the plastic does, too.
  • Use the front-facing camera on your phone to see what you really look like in the shades. You won’t be viewing yourself through tinting, and it’s easier to conceptualize what other people see. (I imagine this would be especially helpful for those shopping for prescription sunglasses.)

For me, this list has landed me regularly shopping the 25% off section at the Sunglass Hut at Macy’s, especially eying Nine West and Steve Madden frames that have polarized lenses. The retail prices are generally $45-$70, but the discount makes most pairs come in under $50.

For those with a Macy’s card, you know those 20% off coupons you get in the mail? Those are also valid on full-priced Sunglass Hut glasses. Which opens up the entire selection at a similar discount.

And though I know Sunglass Hut is owned by “the man” of the sunglasses world, using the above criteria to buy frames from them is still my current M.O. Not only have I been really happy with the pairs I’ve purchased from them, but they will do lifetime adjustments and detailed cleaning for free.

How do you shop for sunglasses? Have any favorite stores or brands or tips?