walking on travels

Books may be going digital, but I still love the smell of ink on paper. There is something so tangible and permanent about a printed book. Anytime I start planning a trip I grab at least one guidebook to feed the fervor that starts to build as plane tickets are bought, accommodations are narrowed down [...]

You may not achieve fluency, but there is a lot you can learn from travel memoirs that include a few words in a foreign language or translations of your favorite books. What better time to pick up a few new books than when you can sit in the sun and dig your feet in the [...]

Life has slowed down considerably in the past week. I know that isn’t the case for every pregnant woman, but a lot of us have to put life on hold for a few weeks as we bring a precious little person into the world. Some women are even put on bed rest for months on [...]

Dek can speak Spanish. Nothing is cuter than hearing the words “dinosaurio” or “muy suaves” coming out of my little boy’s mouth. Is he fluent? Hardly. Will he be chattering away with native speakers any time soon? Not likely. What he is doing is hearing new sounds. He is mimicking the words just like he [...]

I recently read an article on CNN Living titled Modern children’s books help families explore diversity. The very last book on the list caught my eye. I had never heard of it but the cover art had me captivated. All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon tells the tale of a family in a small, [...]

On Friday Dek and I headed over to the University of Washington campus to check out a special exhibit. In the basement of the Allen Library was a collection of vintage pop-up books on display for all the world to see. That is if you could find it. After a bit of meandering, two elevators [...]

I am slowly coming off of my Whistler high. The posts are almost done (I swear!) and we are headed up to Vancouver this Saturday for another long weekend adventure. As I flipped through my notes and pictures something dawned on me. We are going to a lot of Olympic sights this year, but never [...]

Ever since we got back from Whistler Dek has been obsessed with snow. He keeps asking where the mountain is, what happened to his snowman and why can’t we go ice skating every day? I needed to find something to tide him over until his next glimpse of snow. I turned to our local library. [...]

Star Wars. Cinderella. Firefly. Sailor Moon. All are being likened to Marissa Meyer’s debut novel Cinder. As you read through this first book in the Lunar Chronicles you can see sparks of Meyer’s influences and interests come to life. But this is no copycat novel. Although a loose retelling of Cinderella with wicked stepmother, a [...]