Backstory: This last weekend I got to go to the Gentlemen of the Road stopover in Guthrie, Oklahoma. For those of you who aren't familiar with the event, it's a music festival put on by Mumford and Sons in a couple towns that are on their way to the other locations on their tour. The one I attended was in Guthrie, a super cute old-Western town full of antique shops and a lot of that great Oklahoma culture (Did you know it was Oklahoma's first capital? You do now!).
(look how adorable!)
So anyway, the concert was absolutely fantastic (basically a religious experience- every band was outstanding), but that's not the point of this post. The point of this post is that antique shops are the best places to get some really cool books! During my spare time on this trip, I perused the bookshelves in the local shops, hoping to find something really special. Specifically, I was looking for some original Honey Bunch books. Growing up, I loved those books. My grammy and mom would read those books to my sister and me all the time, so those are really important childhood memories for me. Unfortunately, they didn't have any Honey Bunch, but I did find something just as cool!
(I love old books!)
Okay, besides the Honey Bunch books, I was also unhealthily obsessed with all things Nancy Drew. Like, I even wrote Nancy Drew fanfiction before I knew what fanfiction was. So imagine my surprise when I found a 1930s copy of The Mystery at Lilac Inn in freaking Guthrie, Oklahoma! I had to buy it! So I did. The pages are yellow and soft from years of use, and it smells deliciously like old book (which might be my favorite smell idk). Even the typing is beautiful, I'm still in book heaven looking at it now. But, my favorite thing about buying old books, this one included, is that there's usually some kind of writing in the front cover. Why don't people inscribe books anymore? I think we should bring that back.
(writting reads: Belongs to Laurie from Mom)
The other gem that I stumbled upon was an original copy of Heidi that belonged to a girl who lived a couple hours from my hometown. Once I saw that, I was absolutely hooked. The front cover is painted with little houses and horses, but the paint has dulled over time. And, inside the book, there's a beautiful illustration in vivid color by Maud and Miska Petersham! I'm obsessed!
(EEEEE!)
So there's that. I'm going to start stalking all my local antique shops now in hopes of finding more of these wonderful books, and I suggest you do the same. You never know what you're going to find. Maybe you'll find some Honey Bunch books (and if you do, I definitely want the name and location of the shop. I'm thinking it'd be a great gift for my grammy!). I didn't just buy the books, I got my dad some jarred jalapenos (because I'm an awesome daughter like that) and some merch (because duh), but these were my favorite purchases all weekend. I think I can safely say, this was a very successful weekend! :)
Now, here's what I'm going to be reading for next week's review. Make sure to check back for that!
Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell (which I think we can all relate to) (synopsis from Amazon)
In Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl, Cath is a Simon Snow fan. Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan, but for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.
Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.
Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.
Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.
For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?
Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.
Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.
Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.
For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?
-Annie
P.S. My YA book giveaway is still going on on Tumblr (http://books-anovelidea.tumblr.com/) until the end of this month! Yay, free books! So make sure to follow for that!
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