RTW: September's best book

I didn't read a whole lot of books this month. Time sort of got away from me, I guess! But I did read one particularly awesome book this month, and that was BLUE FIRE by Janice Hardy. I reviewed it on YA Highway just last week, so I won't repeat myself, but I've been excited for this book since last October when I read THE SHIFTER, so I'm very, very glad it didn't disappoint. Of course, now I'm impatiently awaiting the third, but that's a good thing!

What was the best book you read this month? Visit YA Highway to share your link and see what others said!

RTW: Historical Era

This week's Roadtrip Wednesday question is: If you could travel back to any historical era for research purposes, which would you choose?

I really like history. You could set me in many, many different time periods and I'd be happy--as long as I got out before I got killed by the plague or a spear or something. But I have a few particular favorites:

Prehistoric Times

I don't know that this will shock anyone. They had the coolest animals back then. Some of them predated humans, but there were still cool ones when humans were around, too. Everything was so different back then. Everything was giant and dangerous and wild. And we really know so little about it compared to all the other time periods.

Medieval England

I know the plagues should turn me off, but this is a wicked fascinating time too. People were so...feral. They did crazy things like bleeding each other out to get rid of the demons causing illnesses, and they had the most insane, horrifying torture devices (actually there were horrifying torture devices all over medieval Europe and beyond). Even royalty were dirty and unsanitary. And what must it have been like to be a peasant? You weren't going to live that long, and you were going to work very hard and life all around was kind of uncool. It'd be interesting to see what it was like to be one of those grungy people living in that dirty world. Also, I have kind of a thing for castles--dungeons, in particular, and also hidden passageways of any sort.

Ancient Rome

I took this picture--please excuse my amateur photography skills

I have been obsessed with Rome for a long while, too. I don't know what to say about it really, it's just mind-blowing. They did horrible things to people too, I mean, gladiator fights? But I am pretty sure if I lived back then, I would be one of those psychotic people who swoons over the gladiators who win a lot. It's just somewhere I would have loved to see at the height of its glory.

Herculaneum

Right when Mount Vesuvius erupted. I would actually like to go a bit before the eruption, because no thanks to being made into an obsidian sculpture, but I would also like to go just slightly after, and see what it all looked like. Everything was buried under the lava, and I mean, holy crap! What must it have looked like, when the lava first cooled? So scary. And I wonder if there were signs a few days in advance that some people noticed and others passed off as nothing. I would also accept Pompeii as a location to visit, but when I was in middle school, we read a book about Herculaneum that was facts and pictures of preserved stuff, interspersed with this fictionalized story of right before it happened (thanks Mom, best fifth grade teacher ever!) And obviously I found it fascinating, if I still remember it.

Colonial New England

For real you guys, this picture of (part of) my parents' barn came up when I googled it!

Because I live here. Because it'd be way cool to go back to the late 1700s/early 1800s and stay in my own house, back when it was a B&B. It would also be way cool to see places like Salem, MA (during the witch trials--as long as I didn't get burned at the stake or drowned or anything) or Boston in its early days, or Plymouth when settlers first arrived. Everything from the 1600s to the 1800s is very interesting to me.

Those are, by no means, the only historical times that interest me, but (other than colonial New England which is basically just self indulgent) those are the times I'd want to write books set in, so that's where I'd go. How about you? Where would you go for the sake of research? 

Visit YA Highway and let us know!

Goals

In less than a week, I will be turning twenty-five. A quarter century. (I know, doesn't it sound scary when you say it that way?) I'm actually feeling pretty zen about this, which might surprise you if you saw how I reacted to turning twenty.

Since sometime in my early twenties, I've had three main before-thirty life goals: get married, have a baby, and have a house. More recently, I added selling a book to that list, because, why not be optimistic? Now, I have the baby, I'm getting married in March, and we'll see about the rest.

I hadn't thought too hard about this until lovely fellow YA Highwayer Lee Bross said something about making a five year plan on twitter. And they I thought, a five year plan? What a perfect time to do that. So I sat down, and I made one.

I like having goals because without having something to work towards, I tend to be a little all over the place. So now, I'm going into age twenty-five with new goals, one of them being not to worry so much about my age anymore.

RTW: DUFF kits!

In honor of the release of THE DUFF by our very beloved Kody Keplinger, we're packing our DUFF kits for this week's road trip.

What are DUFF kits?

"...comforting little collections that you can use on a relaxing night either alone or with friends. Things that are purely comfortable and fun and require zero pressure to be the prettiest in the room or the smartest or the funniest."

How do you make one? Put together:

1. Your favorite (very caloric!!!) drink
2. Your most comfy and old shoes

3. Movies featuring your favorite male actor
4. Your favorite junk food
5. Your most comfortable piece of clothing

(^I stole the above explanation of this week's RTW from Kate.)

So here is mine!

1) Chocolate milk. It's not just for twelve year olds.

2) My oldest shoes are pretty much the opposite of comfy. I'm not that into shoes in general, but I like giant fuzzy socks!

3) Pirates of the Caribbean for the deliciousness that is Johnny Depp, or The Princess Bride (Bonus! Love interest named Westley!)


4) Uh oh. I have to have a favorite junk food? I keep fluctuating between cheese curls and popcorn (with lots of butter--I don't do this the healthy way) and plain potato chips and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. OH and brownies with the ice cream. I could make all of those things into one big snack, right?

5) My pajama pants (which I may or may not be wearing right now...) and one of my many tank tops.


What would you put in your DUFF kit? Let us know at YA Highway!

RTW: Best book of August (spoiler free!)

This month, I'm kind of cheating, and I'm going to do three books.

The first is a predictable choice, and I'm sure MOCKINGJAY will be getting tons of RTW love this month (how could it not?!) I don't really know what to say about it, aside from this: while there were things I disliked and things I wish could have been handled differently, I found it a satisfying conclusion to one of the best trilogies I've ever read.

Awesome book #2: ANGELFIRE by Courtney Allison Moulton. It was really cool to read this book in ARC form. And Will easily joins my list of absolute favorite love interests. (And this is not a long list!)

Awesome book #3: HEX HALL by Rachel Hawkins. I won an ARC of this book in November, and I have now read it four times, the most recent of which was on my flight back from LA at the beginning of August. This book manages to be effing hilarious while also having a kickass plot. The fact that I've read it four times should tell you something.


So what was your favorite book that you read in August? Visit YA Highway to share!