Shaina Reads

A blurry photo of me, ostensibly doing field work in eastern Washington but mostly enjoying snow. Wow, hey, hello! A blog post. I've sort of forgotten what to do with this big, blank text box, so you'll have to bear with me for bit. Welp, the thing happened. I officially went blog silent. I knew graduate school would be a huge investment of...

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I'm so excited that I'm finally going to participate in the Social Justice Book Club, hosted by the lovely Kerry of Entomology of a Bookworm. I've wanted to participate since the club got started back in April, but the stars simply never aligned (read: laziness, moving, more laziness). Men We Reaped: A Memoir by Jesmyn Ward will be the last book club selection before the...

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Hi, everyone! To exactly no one's surprise, I've been devoured by my graduate program, and things are pretty great down here in its belly. Today marks the start of my second week, and I've already learned more about the social determinants of health and the American government's role in public health than I ever thought possible. Self-directed learning is the best, y'all. via...

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Many thanks to Heather of Bits & Books for turning me on to this weekly post! It's hosted by Christine over at Bookishly Boisterous. 1. I went on an outrageously beautiful hike in the North Cascades National Park this past weekend. Some friends and I hiked a 7-mile loop up, down and through the mountains, and none of the photos I took do it a bit...

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Good news, everyone! Litsy finally released an update for Android beta testers that allows me to post photos again, so this Litten is back in book-snappin' business. For those unfamiliar with the app, Litsy is most quickly summarized as Instagram for books. You can share interesting quotations from or fun facts ("blurbs") about your current read, and you can even post reviews, complete...

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It's been a hot thirteen months since I last participated in Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by the lovely folks over at The Broke and the Bookish. This week's topic is all about audio, and so I thought I'd split it up between my ears' two loves: audio books and podcasts. First, the books! Here are five books that were better via audio. (Disclaimer: I...

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It's finally arrived, guys: orientation week! My first official event is on Thursday, and it's only going to get busier from here on out. I met some of my cohort yesterday at a picnic in an awesome local park. It used to be the site of Seattle's gas plant, and some of the original structures remain. The rest of my weekend included a...

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I've been doing my best to steer clear of NetGalley lately. I haven't been making much time to write reviews, and, with a few month-old galleys gathering dust on my Kindle, I am a wee bit embarrassed to show my face around those parts. This didn't stop me from doing a bit of weekend window shopping (read: allowing my cursor to hover over...

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Many thanks to Heather of Bits & Books for turning me on to this weekly post! It's hosted by Christine over at Bookishly Boisterous. 1. Can I first just say how excited I am that I get to write a blog post in list format? Despite having some ideas for real, fleshed-out, non-list posts kicking around in my brain, they just aren't coming...

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Happy Monday, book buds, and happy Labor Day to my friends in the States! I've been unemployed for about a month now, so I have to admit that this whole three-day weekend thing means less to me than usual. I fully deserve any tomatoes you hurl my way. I forgot to update y'all about my Bout of Books progress last Monday, and suffice...

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I recently read two books that most struck me because they reminded me of, well, me. This is not to say they weren't good on their own merits, but the reasons they will ultimately stick with me are entirely selfish. The Ghost of Shaina Past - The Girls by Emma Cline If you haven't been living under a book-barren rock, you've seen The Girls making...

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Happy Monday, book buds! For many of you out there, it's no longer Monday, but I've got Pacific Standard Time on my side these days. At the very last second (read: this morning), I decided to take part in my third (maybe fourth?) Bout of Books readathon! Here's the lowdown for those not in the know: The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized...

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Greetings from beautiful, lush and sunny Seattle! My boyfriend and I arrived to his aunt and uncle's house at 3:00 AM Pacific Time on Monday after five hours of flight delays, a traumatized yet resigned Maude in tow. We collapsed into bed for the following few days, but we've finally adjusted to the time difference and have slowly but surely begun exploring our...

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I'm officially a quarter of a century old, and my birthday weekend was a smashing success. I ate and drank many wonderful things (including this carrot cake) and spent a lot of quality time with friends. Mostly important, I did not get trapped on a space station for the rest of my life—my group and I made it out with four minutes to...

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Hi, guys. In case you hadn't noticed, I have not been blogging. Not a darned word! In fact, I haven't even been reading all that much since July began. Gasp. Here's a handy-dandy list of what I've been doing instead: Gamifying my life with Habitica. Julianne mentioned recently that I turned her on to a habit-tracker RPG app and browser game called Habitica....

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Elizabeth Sanderson's son Tommy has gone missing. He was supposed to be spending the night with his friends Josh and Luis, tromping around their private Minecraft server, but a midnight trip into neighboring Borderland State Park has swallowed him up. Josh and Luis's lips are sealed, and it's only over the course of a few hundred twisty, ominous pages that the full truth...

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Goodness gracious, you guys, putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) has been a struggle lately. This isn't an entirely bad thing. My dedication to unplugging and chilling has taken root, and I've been catching up on good TV, spending time with friends, baking delicious treats, and starting and abandoning books with gusto. Still, I do miss bumming around in the book...

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I hosted my first ever #chillafathon this past weekend. I use the term "hosted" very loosely, since I basically stopped checking in on the hashtag by Saturday. I don't feel guilty, because this event was about making a concerted effort to take a load off. I'm not good at that by nature, and after a particularly trying couple of weeks and a brain...

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All right, y'all. It's been a week. My brain is currently home to a rich, simmering stew of anxiety. I will leave my job in 50 days, but, before that, I will run an eight-week internship program with all the bells and whistles and train my replacement. I will then move my entire life across the country and, just a few weeks later,...

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Those of you who've stuck around here for a while have witnessed my transformation from an adamant audiobook denier to a born-again audiophile. Nowadays, I always have an audiobook going in addition to whatever I'm reading in physical format. After listening to more than 15 books in just under a year, I've noticed a few specific situations in which audiobooks work better for...

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After struggling to dig in to anything over the last couple of weeks, I finally caught my stride and devoured the last two-thirds of Nicole Dennis-Benn's Here Comes the Sun. I am so grateful that I sat in on her panel at BEA, because her debut novel is stellar. Here Comes the Sun tackles the struggles of working-class women in Jamaica through the turbulent...

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