skaBunny Thoughts

When I was a kid the best day of the year hands down was the day we would sign up for the summer reading program at the Denver Public Library. I couldn’t wait to fill in the map and earn my free pizza. As an adult I can now buy my own rewards, but I also I have this blog which means that I can challenge you all to a summer reading adventure. Read through to the end for something exciting.

For the Denver Public Library, their summer reading list is 15 books to be entered into win the grand prize. Below you have 15 of my reads from this year, specifically picked out for summer.

Daisy Jones and the Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid - There is something about music, the 60’s, and California that make me think of perpetual summer. This is a fun quick read and was totally unexpected.

A Man Called Ove - Fredrick Backman - Bring a box of tissue, this one pulls the heart strings. One of my favorites by Backman this story starts at an end and takes everyone on an adventure of starting over.

Mexican Gothic - Silvia Moreno-Garcia - This horror novel takes on the pulp fiction style of writing in the mountains of Mexico. As you follow the protagonist into the deep depths of a notoriously secretive family, you start to question your own sanity. Not for the faint of heart, but 100% worth the read.

The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides - Every time I try to find a way to describe this book without ruining the twist, I end up saying you need to read this book so I don’t give anything away. It’s a very adult thriller, but getting from the beginning to the end is worth the ride.

Back When We Were Grown Ups - Anne Tyler - This is a cute story about looking back while moving forward. It was unexpectedly charming.

With the Fire on High - Elizabeth Acevedo - Get out of the heat of summer into the fire of the kitchen with this challenging story of trusting yourself and growing up. It’s quick read and one of my favorites by Acevedo who has become one of my absolute favorite authors this year.

Homie - Danez Smith - This book of poetry starts with a disclaimer, Homie is a replacement for a word that has a long sordid history. I was blown away by this collection that covers race, life, and the experience of being black. I totally added this one to my list because I loved the cover and I will be adding it to everyone’s list because of the poetry it contains.

The Diary of the Serial Killer’s Daughter - L.A. Detwiler - This one is here for 2 reasons: A) there is something about a thriller in summer that makes summer more alive. B) true crime and summer go hand in hand. This story of a girl learning about her father’s “art” and it’s history starts with a bang and keeps you sucked in all the way to the end.

The Scorpio Races - Maggie Stiefvater - This young adult novel about a girl who enters a horse race because she doesn’t want her brother to leave her, is a challenging exploration of family and myth. Each character has so much to learn and so much that they share. A great introduction to Stiefvater’s work.

The Thin Man - Dashall Hammett - A former detective and his wife try to have a quiet holiday in New York City. Murder and mischief ensue and Mrs. Nick Charles is one of my favorite women in all of pulp fiction detective novels.

Know My Name - Chanel Miller - Back into non fiction for this memoir of pain and growth. So far there have been several books on this list that have people coming of age or to terms of an event, but this one was not only real, but also a moment in recent history that set off change through out the world. Miller is a clever and honest writer who doesn’t pull punches about how her trauma and the resulting court case effected her. You can read her moving victim statement online, though it is also included in the book. It’s a rough read, but it is genuinely brilliant.

Caste - Isabel Wilkerson - We cannot stop learning about the systemic racism that has continued to benefit a select few to the detriment of the many. Caste is one of my favorite books on this topic. Not only does Wilkerson use history, statistics, and personal experience in this complex discussion, she frequently challenges readers to really evaluate their own behavior. The book was truly illuminating and I will likely reread it this summer as we continue to fight for the rights of everyone.

Red White and Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston - Every summer needs some romance and while this is a book about 2 college age boys falling in love, you cannot even imagine the ride. Sit down, turn off your phone, and laugh as they navigate love on a grand stage.

The Death of Vivek Oji - Akwaeke Emezi - I really debated which LGBTQIA+ book I wanted to put on this list and I have many I could include, but the story of Vivek Oji was one of the first books this year that I felt totally blindsided by. This story of the aftermath of the brutal death of Vivek Oji is heart breaking and also beautiful. I felt like I was with each character as we learned who this child was and how everyone struggled with their own grief. It’s rough, but like Caste a brilliant story worthy of every beautiful summer day.

A Royal Affair - Allision Monclair - Who doesn’t want to attend a royal wedding? This is the second book in the Sparks & Bainbridge mystery series and it sends the ladies of the Right Sort Marriage Bureau on the adventure of a lifetime all for true love in service to the crown. This is charming and fun with a bit of mystery and romance along with the mystery.

So, there are 15 books here, and I challenge you to finish 15 books before the end of the summer. Keep a list and submit it to me via email, with the dates read and would you recommend, by August 15th, 2021 and you’ll be entered a to win 1 book of your choice. This is a US only challenge as I can’t afford international shipping. You can add in entries by tagging @sibbyreads on Instagram as you post pictures of what you’re reading. Only books and posts read/ made from June 1st through August 15th will be considered.

This is also an opportunity to diversify your reading list. Take a chance on an author or topic that you’ve found daunting in the past. Reread books you loved in the past and challenge the themes to see if you can learn anything new. Whatever you’re summer adventure, I’m excited to join you for the ride. Find me on August 15th with my list of 15 books I loved this summer and 3 I hated. It’ll be an interesting challenge.

Until next time adventurers -

You Can Find This Book And All The Others I Suggest On Audible Or From Your Local Library. Tag Me In Your Social Media Posts So I Can See What You Think.

Book Report #6

Daisy Jones and the Six center around a rock band of the same name and understanding why they broke up halfway into their second tour. Daisy Jones is the party girl of her time, after a horrible break up where he steals the song she’s written Daisy decides she can become a rock star. She tries on her own with little success, but when she joins up with The Six, it blows up. The chemistry between her and the lead singer is fire and everyone can tell that this whole thing is going to be big.

Through out the story you’re introduced to the other members of the band, their families, and the people who helped turn Daisy Jones and the Six into the sensation that it was. The story has it’s ups and downs, but like any good rock song it finishes with a bang. I listened to this as an audiobook and I loved every second.

While the story is pretty generic, band makes it “big” and then sex-drugs-rock n roll, Jenkins Reid really makes the characters come to life and you really get an opportunity to see who they are and who they wanted to be. While it seems like at times a disproportionate amount of time is spent on Daisy Jones, you really come to understand what it means to be a member of The Six and what their individual dreams, as well as the dreams of the band.

I do have things that I wish Jenkins Reid had done a little differently, but overall I thought the book was well put together, that the characters were interesting, and that the ending was satisfying - even if it was a bit more Hollywood and less Rock N Roll. I highly recommend this book.

Later - Lala

You Can Find This Book And All The Others I Suggest On Audible Or From Your Local Library. Tag Me In Your Social Media Posts So I Can See What You Think.

Book Report # 5

Forsaken Beauty by D.L. Snow tells the story of a queen, her child, and the people who must save her from those who would harm her. That’s it. It sounds simpler than the 10 hours it took to listen to the story would suggest, but really, that’s it.

Historically I haven’t read a lot of fantasy novels. They’re long, there is so much world building and they need a whole other book of maps, terms, and pictures for you to completely understand what’s going on. I very easily get bored and move on because I just get too confused and stop caring. Since I started grabbing everything that has a halfway decent title or cover I’ve read a lot more fantasy. It wasn’t really intentional, I just tried and it wasn’t the worst. Forsaken Beauty on the other hand, I mean…. it’s not the worst, but.

I spent a lot of the book wondering where the editor was. There was sometimes too much story and not enough action or sometimes the action was confusing and you just really wanted to go back to the story. I really loved the couple that take the princess in and raise her as their own. I thought they were charming, if a little one dimensional at times. I liked the princess, even if she spends a lot of time just kinda doing nothing and then all of a sudden she’s amazing and you have no idea where that came from. But overall, I don’t know that I’d read this book again or really recommend it to anyone.

More later - Lala

You Can Find This Book And All The Others I Suggest On Audible Or From Your Local Library. Tag Me In Your Social Media Posts So I Can See What You Think.

Book Report # 3

The Girlfriend by Michelle Francis is a slow burn psychological thriller about a woman who falls in love with a rich man. On a fancy vacation to the South of France (I think) he gets hurt and spends a great deal of time in a coma while the girl and his family try to go on without him. When he wakes up things get rough.

I’d like to know what they edited out of this book. I’d like to know what they edited out because I’d like to know what the story could have been. It was a long boring book about nothing. The characters are meh, the story is meh, and the results were well.. long. I think there was an opportunity for a decent story, but mostly what I remember about this book is thinking that the twist is a pretty slow twist.

Cherry, the titular girlfriend, is annoying and clearly calculating. She keeps making big decisions about what everyone else feels and she takes every opportunity to manipulate the people around her to make sure they all feel the way she has decided they will feel. Daniel Is boring. You’re supposed to be impressed by this rich, kind, giving man, but he’s just boring. I don’t know why Cherry thought it was a good idea to date him, they’re a horrible couple. Daniels parents suck. You don’t really feel bad for them when Daniel gets hurt and spends the first 2/3 of the book in a coma. And all of the side characters are basically sexy leg lamps.

I am probably being hard on this book, but it was really meh. I understand from the 30 seconds that I spent in a quick search that people like this book. I was not one of them.

More coming soon - Lala

You Can Find This Book And All The Others I Suggest On Audible Or From Your Local Library. Tag Me In Your Social Media Posts So I Can See What You Think.

Book Report #2

I read this book on the way to a date. The date was a disaster and I really honestly can’t say that the book was much better. So, here’s the quick summary of the Absinthe Earl by Sharon Lynn Fisher.

Victorian England finds that there is a war in Farie and this random earl and a scholar are on an adventure to save the world, only they don’t know it and they don’t know they’re about to fall in love. Really, that’s it. There are a lot of ups and downs and so many moments when you think that there is a decent chance that the book will end.

My major problems with the story are the pacing - the ups and downs have no real pattern and often when it seems like things should get better or worse they just stay the same, and the characters. Here’s the thing. If you’re going to write a romance novel you might want to make the characters likable or at very minimum you might want them to seem like they’ll actually fall in love. I spent a majority of this book wondering why they were together. It seems like so much of it was about making things work between two people who fell in love because they just so happened to be together.

The book was fine. It was something that filled the time and it was better than my date. The best part though was the reader. His voice is perfect for a trip into the land of Farie.

More next time - Lala

You Can Find This Book And All The Others I Suggest On Audible Or From Your Local Library. Tag Me In Your Social Media Posts So I Can See What You Think.

Book Report 1

While you sleep is the story of a woman dealing with the stress of family life and wanting to get herself back together. To do this Zoe Adams takes a trip to a remote island in Scotland and then needs to figure out how to be herself and then also how to deal with the townsfolk and the history of the island and a long standing mystery. There is sex, there is a haunting, there are creepy drug dealers, and a boy who wants his mother more than anything.

So, my feelings on this book now are the same as when I published my initial review on Instagram. It’s not the worst book I’ve ever read. It’s not the best, but I don’t know that I’d recommend it. Overall the book was convoluted and long. The sex scenes are weird and while the setting is immersive, it is hard to like any of the characters and what’s more it’s hard to really just get into the story. I wanted to offer the main character some really intense therapy with a really good therapist and I wanted to give the town some wifi.

This was the first book in a long line of small town family mysteries, but there were definitely better ones. I think the important thing to really know about this one is that it’s free and the sex scenes are graphic. It was a weird pick for my first book of the year, but it was the first book of the year.

More next time - Lala

You can find this book and all the others I suggest on Audible or from your local library. Tag me in your social media posts so I can see what you think.

A few years ago I wrote a speech for my speech class and I searched high and low for the quote or something that would teach me and everyone about how I felt about how I was growing. It was so hard. Like, I can’t even tell you murder hard. I searched Good Reads and at least 3 other databases, but everything sounded so pretentious or oblivious. I wanted something that said, I don’t know and I’m working on it. I found that from Madeleine L’Engle.

My self has been in constant flux for the last 11 months. I’ve changed so much of who I thought I was to become who I feel like I’m supposed to be. I learned that I’m still learning and I’m really excited about that.

So I wanted to restart this series with something that means something to me.

Happy Adventures,

I run two, soon to be 3 - you’ll find that announcement on social media when it happens, about my life. This one and another. Both blogs talk about topics that can be difficult and we don’t always have a lot of insight into. This one changes with my mood, but it’s always about me. The other blog is about my family and being a step parent (kinda).

I have spent years agonizing about writing this post. I’ve asked myself multiple questions and tried to decide if it is important to me to talk about this part. The thing that I struggle with is how much of my life do I live with publicly and what do I keep private? The more that I think about my world, the more it becomes important to me to celebrate my whole self and life as authentically as I can. I have spent a lifetime hiding behind who I have thought everyone else wanted me to be and instead of listening to myself, I have existed in the worlds someone else created.

I came out for the first time to a friend. We worked in the mall, we both practically lived in the building and we became close that Christmas season. We worked at the calendar kiosk and at separate clothing stores. She was someone that I looked up to. Her confidence, her style, her knowledge of herself as a whole person always impressed me and I so very desperately wanted to be like her. We were talking one day about all kinds of things and I said, I had this crush on a girl in high school, but I never knew what to do about it so I never did anything.

At the time of the admission, I didn’t have a word for how I am attracted to people. I know that when I asked adults about their views on the things I was thinking as a kid, I wasn’t well received. I know that they were responding to what made the most sense to them and I respect that. I also know that at 36, in the relationship that I’m in, living the life I’m living, hiding isn’t an option anymore.

Hi! I’m Hannah and I’m Pansexual and polyamorous.

Being Pansexual means that gender, biological sex, and gender presentation don’t typically have a lot to do with attraction for me. If I’m interested in someone it can be for any reason and it’s kinda great. I don’t wonder why I’m interested in someone I just enjoy that interest. I tend to date mostly guys, but that doesn’t mean that all of my relationships are strictly straight passing.

As for Polyamorous, well, this is where things get a bit more complicated. In the strictest academic sense, Polyamory, poly, is the practice of having more than one relationship. Basically it means that someone in the relationship can have multiple partners. For me I find that I can be happy in multiple relationships that allow me to express myself and engage in healthy growth with my partners. I find that I when I’m empowered to explore my own world I can make good decisions about what I want to do with my space and the people I allow in.

To be in a healthy poly relationship, it is important to focus on open communication, expectations, and have a good planner. I have found that for me, 3 relationships are kinda my max. I have a primary partner, my girlfriend, and someone I can hang out with and explore things I don’t always explore. That said, most often I date 2 people. My girlfriend and someone else.

My girlfriend is my live in partner and we’ve been together for a little over 2 years. We have no official anniversary and we are raising her two kids together. It’s a healthy relationship and we work hard at it. It doesn’t always make sense to the people around us, but it is ours and we like it.

I don’t plan on bringing her into my social media. As far as I’m concerned our kids and our relationship is pretty sacred. I don’t want it to fall into the hands of someone who doesn’t get it or wants to use it to hurt anyone. They’re my family and they are important to me and it is important to me to keep them safe.

I have a hard time with Pride in June. I honestly don’t feel like I fit in most of the time. I worry about the fact that for the most part my relationships have been straight passing. I understand that most people don’t understand my sexuality. I understand that my relationships for the most part are considered different, even in a world where poly is more mainstream.

In a world where everyone is a misfit. I honestly feel bad for feeling like I don’t fit in. But that’s where I am right now. The scary thing is that people who think and love like I do are still in danger. I wonder what my neighbors think when they realize that my girlfriend and I are together and I wonder if that means I can live safely or not. I wonder what it means for my kids, who aren’t normal either. It’s really important to me that my kids get to live the life they want and can love who they love. It’s one of the reasons I’ve become so loud about my support of minority communities.

Look, here’s the thing. If you kill one person, you kill the world. If you save one person, you save the world. It’s not as cut and dry as all that, but really this shit has to stop. We can’t keep treating people like they’re second class or worse and then getting surprised when they rise up to tell us that’s not ok.

BLACK LIVES MATTER.

NO PERSON IS ILLEGAL.

LOVE IS LOVE.

This shouldn’t be a surprise. There should never be any one who is treated or believed to be less. We should not kill or harm. This shouldn’t be a surprise. All people are valid. All people deserve to feel safe and loved. We the people deserve a world where we can live and love and be ourselves without fear.

Look this isn’t an easy blog to write, I’ve been working on it for days now. How do you acknowledge and live your truth when {a} not everyone is that lucky and {b} when you’ve spent so long hiding who you are from the world.

I love my life and my family. My kids are amazing and my partner is one of a kind. It’s not always easy, everyday I go to bed and I love myself more and I’m grateful for all of the things that have happened that have lead me here.

Today, RBG Died. One of the many things that I’ve learned from her is to speak up and speak out. Do what you can to do to speak up for those who can not speak for themselves. What I can offer with my limited time and emotional space is minimal, but I can speak. I have a voice and it is mine and I want to use that. To do that I need to take one other lesson from Ruth and say that I live my truth.

Till later Adventurers.

XoxO - HhG

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