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 out of my fingers lately. A list it is for now.

2. Did you guys hear about #Diverseathon? I'm not sure who originally started the tag and event (and, in fact, I managed to completely miss the nasty tweets and YouTube videos that led to its inception, which I'm counting as a score), but the bookosphere is all about reading underrepresented authors this week. If you need some tips on where to start, my dear friend Memory put together a list of 37 reads under $5 by queer authors and authors of color.

3. On the subject of #Diverseathon, I found a book that would be perfect for it yesterday. I'm only 15 or so pages in, and I'm already sad about how relevant this 20-year-old book still is in regards to police brutality and people fundamentally misunderstanding white privilege.

Today in $2 thrift store scores. // #bookstagram #igreads #nonfiction #diverseathon #booksbooksbooks #amreading

A photo posted by Shaina (@shainareadsbooks) on Sep 13, 2016 at 10:02pm PDT

4. MY BOYFRIEND AND I FOUND AN APARTMENT THIS WEEK. We planned to stay with family and house-sit until October to save money when we first got here, but we were starting to worry about being able to afford our own place (and, in particular, affording our own place that wasn't, well, a dinky, miserable broom closet). Lo and behold, we found ourselves a perfectly reasonable, perfectly nice place this past Monday. I can even bike and (take a rather long) walk to school if I want to! I cannot adequately describe my relief. I am already plotting out creative book storage solutions.

5. I went on the nicest hike last Sunday with two of my best friends from high school and our significant others. It wasn't anything intense (3.5 miles roundtrip with only 500 feet of elevation gain), but it was glorious to get outside in the fresh air and look at some beautiful scenery.


I fell (though not from the log) and busted my ass in this creek. No regrets.

6. I start orientation for school next week, and I'm starting to feel the jitters. I know it's going to be awesome, but your girl doesn't do well with schedule/environment change at first. Relaxing and getting myself into the right mindset are top priorities this week.

7. After reading Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals and thinking a lot about how the food industry shapes dietary and nutrition recommendations in the United States, this New York Times piece about how the sugar industry diverted attention away from the link between sugar consumption and heart disease is entirely infuriating and entirely unsurprising.

8. I've been spending a lot of time poring over Scentsy's wax melt offerings lately. Have I ever once used a wax melt? Nope. Whatever. One of my blogger friends Elle is a Scentsy consultant, and I'm considering taking the plunge and making my new apartment smell freaking awesome. Plus, I could melt the wax in a fox or an owl! Don't you want to melt scented wax in adorable woodland creatures?