Tag: wendelin van draanen

5 Books I Wanted to Nominate for My Book Club’s Middle Grade Mystery Theme & the One I Did

So my book club is doing middle grade mysteries for October, and unfortunately, I can only nominate one book. One! This is sad for me because I have a lot of books that I could recommend because I want the people in my book club to read and/or talk about them. Just for context (do I need more context?), after I taught the detective literature course at my school last fall, I said my dream would be to teach the class again and focus solely on middle grade capers or puzzle books. (I was sick of all the murdering and violence in the adult literature.) The point is that this topic lives close to my heart. 

So, anyway, here are all the books I wanted to nominate for my book club to read and the one I did wind up nominating in the end.

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It’s Monday, and I’ve read a lot of books since my last post

I’m writing this post because if I don’t I’m going to be mad at myself tomorrow. I am two weeks behind!

1. So I was diagnosed with IBS a few years ago. I lost some weight, started exercising, and things were going better. But I have been having terrible flare-ups lately, and even though I have been eating less than normal (in part because of the flare-ups) and I am back to exercising regularly (I never really stopped since I was walking over 10,000 steps most days), I have gained weight and not lost it. And did I mention the terrible flare-ups? Anyway, so I talked to a doctor (not my regular doctor), and she told me to do the low-FODMAP diet, which I knew about and had read up on, but since I don’t do drastic diet shifts unless directed to by a doctor because of my history, I stored the information away. And now I have to use it.

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Maturity, man. Sometimes it’s all about aesthetics.

1. School starts next week. I am not ready.

Okay, I am a little ready, but I am mostly not ready. I am especially not ready to live that 7 a.m. class life again.

2. My friend Jasmine’s book came out. You may have heard of it:

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory

She did a launch party in LA at The Ripped Bodice, so I got the chance to hang out with her and a bunch of other super cool authors and non-author people, including one of my online friends who I kept trying to meet but our schedules just couldn’t get it together. But! On that day, it worked out! So, that was fun. (It was more than fun.)

Continue reading “Maturity, man. Sometimes it’s all about aesthetics.” →