Little Free Library Finds in Santa Cruz, California!!

First LFL Find in Santa Cruz

First LFL Find in Santa Cruz

Second LFL Find in Santa Cruz

Last Saturday, June 29, 2024, my husband and I visited Santa Cruz, California for the day in an effort to beat the inland heat. In fact, we have an excessive heat advisory this entire week with temperature reaching over 100 degrees five of the days this week. Our electricity went out for six hours this past Sunday and almost three hours on Monday.

During our visit to Santa Cruz, we found two Little Free Libraries. I exchanged books at both Little Free Libraries during our visit to Santa Cruz.

I loved finding both Little Free Libraries. However, I must admit that finding the first Little Free Library was most humorous as the LFL stewards had decorated their LFL to look like an outhouse... See middle photograph above.

After finding both Little Free Libraries, my husband and I visited the 135 acre UC Santa Cruz Arboretum & Botanic Garden. All green spaces and gardens are wonderful spaces, BUT I must honestly admit that I was underwhelmed with the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum & Botanic Garden. It's largely left sort of wild  and untamed looking giving the entire garden a mostly unmanicured look with the exception of a few areas that did look sort of more groomed and put together.

I liked the rock garden and the redwood forest areas the most, along with a small area near the staff building to be the most interesting areas to see and explore during our visit.

We'd been to The UC Berkeley Botanical Garden several times in the past and loved it immensely. I was kind of hoping the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum & Botanic Garden would be like the The UC Berkeley Botanical Garden in its own unique way... But alas, no!

Afterwards, we had a late lunch at a barbecue restaurant and a quick pit stop at the beach before returning home.

Top Ten Tuesday - Books with My Favorite Color on the Cover

 

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme hosted by Jana @ That Artsy Reader Girl. Top Ten Tuesday was originally created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Okay. the color GREEN is NOT my favorite color, but it doesn't seem like I see many books with green covers. So, I decided to highlight books with green covers instead. 

The below books are all ones I have read and reviewed. Click on the links below to read my review for each book. Thank you!

1. A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet

2. Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them by Jennifer Wright

3. Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction by Lisa Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson

4. The Memory Illusion: Why You May Not Be Who You Think You Are by Julia Shaw

5. Pandora's Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong by Paul A. Offit, M.D.

6. Topaz by Leon Uris

7. Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas by Jim Ottaviani

8. The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama

9. Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World by Aja Raden

10. Three Apples Fell From Heaven: Unfamiliar Legends of the Trees by Natalia Belting

We're Halfway Through 2024! Reading Update!

 

I can't believe 2024 is halfway over with already!! It seems like I say this every year... That time goes by too quickly. But, here we are halfway into the year!

Here's a quick reading recap to summarize my reading progress this year so far.

I've read 32 books so far this year! So, far most of them have been audiobooks. The break down is as follows:

Audiobooks: Twenty-five books

Physical Books: Five books

eBooks: Two book

My top ten favorite reads for the first half of the year are as follows:

1. Chasing the Sun by Linda Geddes

2. Overkill by Paul Offit M. D.

3. The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson

4. The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt

5. The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama

6. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

7. Eloquence of the Sardine by Bill François

8. A Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson

9. A Most Efficient Murder by Anthony Slayton

10. Fire Cider by Rosemary Gladstar and Friends

My reading goal for 2024 is to read fifty-two books. I am currently ahead of schedule in terms of my reading goals. Maybe, I'll end up reading more FAR MORE than 52 books, which would most definitely be a good thing.

How's your reading going so far in 2024? Have you been meeting your reading goals so far? What have been some of your favorite reads this year? Share with me in the comment section below!!