Last week on FYFA (and in my life):
We had another fun week with Carmen, the Spanish exchange student who’s staying with us. It feels like we’ve been having a staycation, since we’re doing so many fun activities with her. So far, we’ve gone to the Bristol Renaissance Faire, a fun spy restaurant in Milwaukee (the entrance is hidden in a back alley and you have to either know the password or act goofy on camera to get in – and then the restaurant is filled with spy activities!), a nearby lake where we rented peddle boats, ice skating, to a painting place, mini golfing, hiking at Starved Rock, to the Sears Tower (technically the Willis Tower now, but no one here calls it that) and shopping in Chicago.
We have now officially confirmed that Illinois is the most boring state when it comes to nature – Starved Rock is the ONLY place to hike in the state, and it was pretty much a huge letdown. First of all, this is the sign that you see when you walk into the visitor’s center:
Doesn’t that sound incredibly appealing? I mean, who doesn’t want to go see waterfalls created from chemical-filled farm field run-off? Yes, the only waterfalls in Illinois are basically poisoned. Oh, and the view is … um … not the best. After all, someone decided that they should build a huge dam right next to the only pretty bluff in all of Illinois. I mean, the dam is kind of cool, but couldn’t they have built it a little bit further away, so it wasn’t in every picture taken from Starved Rock? The hiking can’t really be called hiking, either – most of it is paved in some way. Sigh. This is why I wish I lived in Colorado.
Anyway, here’s what you may have missed on the blog (only a couple of posts!):
- Top Ten Books that Took Me Abroad
- Reliquary by Sarah Fine – Review
Next week on FYFA:
- Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things and Dark Dreams and Dead Things by Martina McAtee – Review & Giveaway
- How to Keep Rolling After a Fall by Karole Cozzo – Review & Giveaway
- Supergirl at Super Hero High by Lisa Yee – Review
- Let’s Discuss – something bookish! 🙂
Book Blogger Birthdays and Blogoversaries:
Only one birthday this week. I hope you’ll visit Jackie and congratulate her on her special day! Also, check out the calendar to see what you might have just missed or what’s coming up. (If you want to be added to the calendar, you can always fill out the birthday/blogoversary form!)
- July 25th – Jackie @ Books & Tea‘s Birthday
For Review:
Great Discussions/Goings On Around the Blogosphere:
Here are some of my favorite discussions I’ve read this week:
- Anya over at Starships and Dragonwings asks What if DNF Was Your Default Option?
- Kristen over at Metaphors and Moonlight asks Should Books Have Content Ratings?
- Genesis over at Latte Night’s Reviews asks Where Are the Books on Bullies?
- Lory at Emerald City Book Review asks Do We Need Genres?
- Cait over at Paper Fury tells us How To Fabulously Get Started On Bookstagram
Other Current Giveaways on FYFA:
(Besides the ones listed above)
- Defending Taylor by Miranda Kenneally – Review & Giveaway
- The Siege by Mark Alpert – Review & Giveaway
- July Discussion Challenge Link-Up and Giveaway! – Link up your July discussions and enter to win!
- June Wrap-Up Round-Up Giveaway – Check out some June wrap-up posts and enter to win!
Pre-Order Deals:
- Pre-order THE TELLING by Alexandra Sirowy and get exclusive swag!
- Pre-order AS I DESCENDED by Robin Talley to receive bookmarks and stickers featuring the book’s beautiful cover, plus a signed bookplate!
- Pre-order FOREVER DOON by Carey Corp & Lorie Langdon and get some awesome exclusives!
- Pre-order STEALING SNOW by Danielle Paige to receive a compact mirror!
- Pre-order Sarah J. Maas’s EMPIRE OF STORMS to receive a ToG notebook and/or preorder THE THRONE OF GLASS COLORING BOOK and get a ToG coloring pencils set!!
- Pre-order YOU WILL KNOW ME by Megan Abbott and Little, Brown Books will send you a free copy of one of her paperbacks!
Even More Awesome Giveaways on Other Sites:
There are tons of giveaways going on around the blogosphere!
- Check out these YA Fantasy Freebies and enter for a chance to win a $60 Amazon gift card!
- Enter to win an ARC of BLUE TIDE by Jenna-Lynne Duncan.
- Head over to Read Write Love 28 for a chance to win a Preorder of Signs of You by Emily France! (INT okay as long as BD sends)
- Head over to It Starts at Midnight for a chance to win a complete set of signed first edition Air Awakens Hardcovers OR a Paperback of ANY Air Awakens Book; 2 e-book copies and Bookmarks
- Tonyalee over at Lilybloombooks has created a Middle Grade Madness link-up. Link-up your reviews of middle grade books (or comment on linked reviews) and enter to win one! You can link up July reviews on this post.
- Novel Ink is celebrating it’s 4 year blogoversary with a giveaway!
Lots of good stuff! Have any giveaways or great discussions happening on your site right now? Feel free to share them in the comments!
Yuck. Signs like that make me grateful I live in Colorado. There are a few places we can’t swim or fish because of E.coli and farm run-off, but for the most part, we’re allowed in the water. I did have to get the dogs vaccinated for leptospirosis, though. Drinking the creek water is a potentially deadly idea, but dogs don’t understand that.
I’m jealous – I want to live there too! We do vaccinate our dogs for lepto too, but there’s no vaccine for chemical crop run-off. While we were there I saw dogs drinking the water and kids playing in it, and all I could think of was that sign. I wanted to yell, “Back AWAY from the water, people!”
Splinter has a great cover. Signs like that make me not want to go in this place. It just seems like they want to chase people away.
Yeah, it’s practically a sign that says, “This is not real nature. You do not want to be here.” LOL!
Ha-ha, great sign! Well, at least there were no glaring spelling errors…I didn’t find any, anyway. LOL.
I do love the cover on Splinter. Hope you have a great week.
Here are MY WEEKLY UPDATES
The sign really makes you want to go out and enjoy nature, right? So appealing!
You make me feel like I need to get out and explore my own state a little more. I have lived her for 10 years and haven’t been to any “nature” sites in quite awhile.
You definitely need to take advantage for the sake of those of us who live in nature-deprived environments! LOL!
Ooh ooh you’ve been to the Safe House? Love that place, although I haven’t been there in years. I heard they remodeled it or changed ownership recently. Used to go there when I was in Milwaukee once ina while.
And Bristol as well-I’ve been wanting to get over there since I go to the Michigan festival but like to go to out of state ones too, when I can. Speaking of vacations, if you ever want to go somewhere different you could try northern Michigan- it’s beautiful in the summer,e specially the Traverse City and Sleeping Bear Dunes areas. It’s gorgeous there.
We were actually planning to go up to Northern Michigan this summer but then decided to host the exchange student and just stay home instead (we’d already done a vacation in Arizona for spring break, so we figured we weren’t giving up too much vacationing).
Aw, sorry the hiking was a bit of a let down. That DOES NOT sound fun! It does seem like you are doing lots of exciting things with Carmen though, so that’s great. I love exploring the areas around me and seeing what is out there. That spy restaurant sounds like such a good time!
-Lauren
Yeah, we didn’t have high expectations for Starved Rock, but it was even more disappointing than I imagined. Oh well – now we can say we’ve seen what little nature IL has to offer. 🙂
I love how the park sign doesn’t even mention that run-off from farm fields contain manure…what a lovely place to visit. It sounds like you guys are going on an adventure every day with Carmen. So, how did y’all get into the spy restaurant? Did you know the password, or did you act like a bunch of goofs in a back alley?
We acted like goofs, but that was okay – it was all part of the fun!!
Man, I really wanna be a part of your family this week! You’re doing so much fun stuff that is totally the kind of stuff I love to do! Aside from the hiking. I know you love nature, but I do not lol. And that restaurant sounds like so much fun! But the chemical-filled water thing cracked me up. That is pretty terrible.
I have the ebook of Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things and have been meaning to read it. But as usual, so many books, so little time. Have a great week!
Yes, we keep joking that we need to have exchange students here so that we can do all the fun activities near our house. I’ve lived in the Chicago area my entire life, and this is the first time I’ve been up in the Skydeck of the Sears Tower!
That park sounds dangerous indeed. I wonder why the state didn’t protect it more. The Spy restaurant sounds really cool. Glad you’re enjoying your exchange student.
It’s a shame, right? Unfortunately, I think all that chemical run-off must be going into the Illinois River too. It made me sick to think about it! (Plus, it was really dirty – people left tons of garbage like empty water bottles all over the place.)
Yeah, that sign doesn’t really make me want to go any further. 🙂 I need to make sure that I get to the Renaissance Festival in my town again this year. I’m going to try to go with a different friend this year. I’ve got my Blogoversary coming up in a couple weeks as well! Can’t wait! You can check out my Sunday Post in the link below!
I love the Ren Faire – it’s been a long time since we’ve gone, but we had so much fun!!
I actually love being able to visit my own city, and it’s been a while since I did that! Maybe I’ll look into doing that when we get back home a couple of weeks before school starts 🙂
I love hiking, and I’m so lucky that there are several trails both in my actual home-town, and in my away-from-home town as well. It’s freeing to go on brisk walks in beautiful nature.
Have a wonderful week and happy reading, Nicole.
It’s fun to have guests and explore your hometown with them as tourists!
Bummer about the parks.It does sound like you are having fun. The spy restaurant sounds pretty cool . What fun!
Ew. Well, I’m really glad they warned you ahead of time!! Still, gross. 🙁 Glad you’re having a great time with Carmen though! I bet she’ll go home with plenty of stories to tell.
Just come over to eastern Iowa, we have some lovely parks for hiking and picture taking. 🙂
Sounds like you’re doing a lot of fun things during your staycation. I hope Carmen is having a fun time too! That’s too bad the only nature place in your state was a huge letdown. We don’t have enough nature here either for a nice hike, unless you want to see civilization almost every second. I hope you’re having a great week!
The Sears Tower will always be the Sears Tower, I refuse to call buildings or places by their new names since our whole lives it’s been another. ? And that’s amazing how much you guys have gotten to do, what a fun summer!! But that’s a huge bummer about the hiking trails. When we use to live back there, we missed that aspect too. Have you ever been to Tahoe? There’s so many hiking trails here that I swear I’ll never be able to hike them all, but I’m going to try!?