IF YOU ARE A BABY BOOMER: BOOKS AND MEDIA TO REVISIT

When was the last time you were asked for ID?
My last time was at the Kingdome-double proof I am a baby boomer.

Do you remember card catalogs and no talking in the library?

How about rotary phones?

Getting up to change the channel? Fortunately, I only remember there being 5 or 6.

Books to revisit:

Movies to revisit:

Books for Beachcombers

It's finally summer, though, this year, it has felt like summer for quite a while…  Time to hit the beach!   Give yourself a mini holiday: walk a shoreline, build sandcastles with your kids and splash your feet in tide pools while observing the crabs, starfish and gulls. Take advantage of our rare run of warm weather to enjoy the luxury of endless nearby beach options.  You could set a goal to visit a different beach each week.  Here are a few books that may inspire you to explore the wonders Puget Sound has to offer and get creative with the treasures you find on the sand.  Don’t forget your sun screen!

My tangled reading web

Usually I come up with a blog post theme by looking at what I've been reading and figuring out some way that they can be wrangled into a category.  Problem is, in the last several weeks, I've been reading such a random assortment of books that I can't come up with any theme.  I'm a little bit worried that my book suggestions this week are so disjointed that no matter who you are, you are bound to be offended by one of them.  So:  I decided to draw a chart showing how I stumbled across my reading choices:

Am I the only one with such a random process of finding the next book to read?  Tell me how you chose your latest stack of books.

Summertime Fun!

School is almost out and with it comes summer vacation season. I am sure we have a few readers for whom summer break means fantastical European tours (!), but I would be willing to bet that for most, summer vacation involves sticking much closer to home. Lucky for us we live in such a beautiful place, with such beautiful places to explore!

I grew up camping. The tent-in-the-woods-no-bathroom kind of camping. I have lots of wonderful memories of our weekends in the woods - Rock collecting, river swimming, marshmallow stick hunting. My few bad memories all have one thing in common - RAIN. Waking up in a wet tent is the worst! Maybe this is why I prefer cabining as an adult...

Whatever your outdoor style may be, hiking, camping, cabining, or glamping, we have books to get you in the mood.

Not ready to go outside quite yet? Curl up with a movie!

Celebrating Dairy Life

by Marina

Jersey calf picture from flickr

I’ll admit it. I’m one of those people that’s swayed by a pretty face. Especially when there are big brown eyes involved. Every year I take a trip to the Evergreen State Fair, step foot in the dairy barn and "ooohhh" and "awwwww" over all the pretty babies (and their moms).

Not that I want you to think that I was randomly thinking of cows (although, sometimes . . . uh, well), there is a reason for my sharing. Besides the fact that it gives me the excuse to post a random cute calf photo. June is National Dairy Month! And I’ve put together a booklist of several books I’ve read (or intend to read) that pertain to life on a dairy farm or various guides for owning and running a small scale dairy herd (cows or goats) and what to do with what they produce--milk! I’ve also thrown in a few fiction titles that showcase life on a dairy farm (for better or for worse).