• The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Phillips (ARC) — Eerie and oh so readable! Look out for a review of this one in late July/early August.


• Bird Box by Josh Malerman — Solid backlist horror, though I wasn't impressed by the ending.


• The Wives of Los Alamos by TaraShea Nesbit — Quiet, atmospheric, and devastating are all words I'd use to describe this one about the wives of scientists involved in the Manhattan Project.


• Considering Hate: Violence, Goodness, and Justice in American Culture and Politics by Kay Whitlock and Michael Bronski (my review/thoughts)


• Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie — My second cozy by this juggernaut, and I liked it much more than my first.


• Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine (my thoughts/notes on seeing Claudia speak)


• Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume — I revisited this old favorite for the #BlumeAlong and was surprised by what I did and didn't remember! 


• The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey — I did this one as a buddy read with Katie from Bookish Tendencies and Emily from Backlist Books. We chatted on Thursday evening, and I hope to get a review up sometime next week! The short version: I loved it.


• Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson — Verse poetry for Books on the Nightstand bingo. I honestly don't feel knowledgeable enough about poetry or Greek mythology to review it, but I enjoyed the ride.


• The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley (my review)

On the blog:

• I got a little personal and talked about using books as an escape from the sometimes harsh realities of life.


• I hosted a giveaway of Claudia Rankine's excellent poetry/prose collection Citizen after loving it myself and getting the chance to see her speak. Congratulations again to Heather of Bits n Books for winning!


• I shared the three most fascinating facts I learned from Johann Hari's Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, an A+ read from May. If you have any interest at all in the American drug war, I implore you (again) to pick this one up!


• I unveiled my Books on the Nightstand bingo card and asked you all how you mix up your own reading habits.


• I waxed poetic about reading Judy Blume as a young gal in honor of this summer's #BlumeAlong, hosted by Kerry at Entomology of a Bookworm.


• I helped initiate another #flashreadathon after building a library stack that could crush my cat. Two of my ten reads in June happened during the readathon, and I call that a success!

In life:

• As already mentioned, I got to see Claudia Rankine speak as part of New Haven's International Arts and Ideas Festival. She was warm, charismatic and a fantastic reader. I feel so fortunate to have seen her for free and gotten my copy of Citizen signed. If she comes to a place near you, make the trip!


• I've trained a batch of brand new interns in my lab. It was a hectic first couple of weeks, but they're self-sufficient (and so productive) at this point. I mostly make sure they have what they need and don't burn things down these days.


• I watched the Chicago Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup for the third time in six years! (From my couch, that is.) I love me some hockey and bearded men on skates, and I especially love the Hawks because, y'know, Chicago.


• At the behest of Trish from Love, Laughter and Insanity and with some encouragement from Cass of Queerly Seen, I ordered my first Stitch Fix box! (If you want to know more about Stitch Fix, Trish wrote a pretty good overview of the program and shared two of her boxes.) I ended up keeping three out of the five items they sent me and am well on my way to a capsule wardrobe.


• My boyfriend and I have reached the halfway mark in our A Game of Thrones read-aloud to each other. We're having so much fun with it, and I will definitely be posting about it soon.

In July:

• By the time you're reading this post, I'll be at 30,000 feet on my way to Oregon, probably reading something from my carry-on. I'm so thrilled (and lucky) to start off my month on vacation!


• Birthday, birthday! Expect photos of woodland celebration at the Oregon Country Fair when I return.


• More books, of course! Who do you take me for?