There is a special place in my heart for books that open my eyes to perspectives I’ve never seen before and make me think deeper. Without a doubt, this book is one of those. Having grown up in the Southern US and gone to public school, I was taught the…
Tourist spots, particularly in the US, often have a lot going on: flashy sights, fine dining, entertainment, shops, the works. But what about Bodie? This California ghost town has no restaurants, no gas station, no reenactments or stage shows. The only restrooms in the park are outhouses, with flush toilets…
Road trips were a staple of my childhood, with annual (at least) 12-hour drives to visit family. We listened to a lot of music — I still remember the first few songs of my dad’s favorite road trip playlist — but we also listened to audiobooks. And by “we,” I…
You can’t tell what it is from the road. Driving through a seemingly endless stretch of desert scrubland with distant purple mountains filling in the boundaries of the horizon, you notice the protective roof structure first. It looks like a UFO hovering over the desert. There’s something misshapen beneath it,…
Merriam-Webster defines perfectionism as “a disposition to regard anything short of perfection as unacceptable.”1 The expression of that can vary depending on the individual. I have been a self-diagnosed perfectionist for as long as I can remember, and it has showed itself in various areas of my life. With reading,…
“Anytime you want to know what it feels like to go to another planet,” says Dennis Sullivan, President of the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association, “you go to Bonneville Salt Flats.”2 He isn’t wrong. Stepping onto the 30,000-acre expanse of salt crust on the western edge of the Great Salt…
I’ve been reading for as long as I can remember. My parents still love to tell the story of when they got a call from my concerned kindergarten teacher because, instead of playing with the other children, I would spend recess sitting against the fence and reading every day. As…
About five years ago, I was leaving a local coffee shop and saw what looked to be a large birdhouse with a glass door, filled with books. I saw a plaque that said it was a Little Free Library and told me to “Take a book. Leave a book.” I…
Emily’s Recommendations Autumn days provide the perfect atmosphere for spooky and thrilling reads for me. Even the darkest books seem cozy with the slight chill in the air, changing leaves, and warm drinks. I tend to gravitate towards horror, thriller, and just generally darker books during this time. Mexican Gothic…
Think about how fast a week flies by. Then take a moment to sit with the fact that, if you live to be 80 years old (slightly above the average life expectancy in the US), you’ll get only four thousand of them. How do we make the best use of…