First of all, HAPPY 4TH OF JULY to all my fellow Americans!  Exert your freedoms and do lots of lazy reading today!  (While eating too many hot dogs, of course.)

Mmmm,  bacon.

Well, as you can tell from all the excitement around here lately, June was totes chaos for the Well-Read Redhead and family.  June 3 my husband accepted his job offer, and since then we have put our house on the market, had our house flood, sold the house anyway, passed the home inspection, bought a new house, gone on vacation, put in my notice at work (last day August 1), continued to keep growing this baby in my stomach, and...I don't even know what else.  I'm sure there's something else.  I can't even keep track anymore.

The Best Big Bro on vacation last month

And yet, somehow I managed to read!  Reading is a very normal part of my everyday life, but in this particular case, I'm doing some back-patting to celebrate my efforts for the month.

The June 2013 Fave/Least Fave honors were hard to choose this month, but they go to:

June 2013 Favorite:  Cooked by Michael Pollan
June 2013 Least Favorite:  Please Look After Mom  by Kyung-Sook Shin

In total, I read/reviewed 5 books:
The Round House by Louise Erdrich
Cooked by Michael Pollan
Big Brother by Lionel Shriver
Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin
Everybody Has Everything by Katrina Onstad

I also posted one new Small Fry Saturday Review of  The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown.

In addition, we chatted about how much I sucked at Armchair BEA, you all got to enjoy The Well-Read Vacay (with awesome guest posts!: Shannon, Cari, Katie, and Jennifer), I actually finished two reading challenges, and I shared two important items of personal news (one and two).

I have another busy month ahead, as I finish up at work and we pack up all our belongings to get ready for our current house to close on August 8.  Then we have to move into a temporary rental until mid-September, when our new house closes.  Eek!!  Not to mention that Small Fry's 2nd birthday is this weekend, and on the 25th we find out if baby #2 is a boy or a girl.  If I can finish at least 5 books again this month, I get more back-pats for my efforts.  I demand it.

Have a great month, readers!

Readers, my apologies.  Especially those of you that just recently "met" me during my Armchair BEA introduction post last week.  I totally fell off the Armchair BEA map after that, thereby labeling myself as the equivalent of a juvenile delinquent in the book blogger world.  I wanted to participate more--cross my heart and hope to die.  But life got in the way, and...that's all I got by way of excuses.

However, I will be gracing you with 2 pieces of news in the next few weeks, which should somewhat explain my recent ineptitude in the blogosphere.  In the meantime, please feel free to speculate on what these pieces of news might be.  Winner's crown goes to the commenter who can come up with the most insane explanation.  Am I opening a gecko farm in Malaysia with Prince Harry?  THAT'S FOR YOU TO FIND OUT.

Anyway, I will continue posting my reviews and such like usual, and I have a special vacation-style series of guest posts coming up soon, so I promise I still have a lot to offer!  PLEASE CONTINUE TO LOVE ME, AS I LOVE YOU.


See you soon, lovahs.

Happy Tuesday, lovely readers!  I hope you all (or at least the US followers) had a great Memorial Day weekend.  I went kind of MIA around here, as we were busy traveling to my parent's house in CT, playing outside with Small Fry, and eating way too much food.

BUT, I am back this morning with my Armchair BEA intro post.  For my non-blogger readers, Armchair BEA coincides with the Book Expo America convention in NYC--a convention that I DESPERATELY wanted to attend this year, but due to finances and such minutae, was unable to do so.  So, the next best thing is Armchair BEA--an online "convention" for all the book bloggers that couldn't make it to NYC this week.  :)

Today is the Armchair BEA kickoff, and all participants are doing intro posts...so here are five quick questions/answers to tell you a little about me and the bloggy blog:

1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging? 

Many of you already know this, but: I'm Kelly.  I'm almost-not-quite-30.  I live in Upstate New York with my husband, my almost-2-year-old son (referred to here as Small Fry), and a very hairy dog.  I've been book blogging since August 2012.  I got into it because I already had a pretty long history with personal blogging, BUT I honestly found my personal life to be rather boring fodder for blog posts.  I've been a psychotically devoted reader for as long as I can remember, so I decided that books would be way more fun to write about than the home-buying process, or the trials and tribulations of breastfeeding.  (You're welcome.)

Me, Small Fry, and some actual fries.

2. What are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book you have read so far in 2013?

Currently I'm in the midst of two print books (Mama's Child by Joan Steinau Lester, and Cooked by Michael Pollan) and one audiobook (The Round House by Louise Erdrich).  So far I'm loving Cooked the most, CANNOT put it down.
Best of 2013 so far?  Hard to choose, but it might be Indiscretion by Charles Dubow.

3. Tell us one non-book-related thing that everyone reading your blog may not know about you. 

My first year in college, I was a Pathobiology major (which is a fancy way of saying Animal Microbiology, basically).  For one of the intro animal science courses, I had to train a sheep.  Do you know how impossible it is to train a sheep?  I spent weeks just trying to get a leash on my freaking sheep (who I named Eddie, after my younger brother, because it was so stubborn...I know, I'm a jerk).  Then I had to train it to walk in a straight line for an agriculture show.  Not to mention all the hours I spent shearing it beforehand.  Needless to say, by sophomore year I was a Family Studies major.

4.  If you could eat dinner with any author or character, who would it be and why? 

I have a lot of authors that I would love to meet, but they would probably make me so nervous that I'd be a terrible dinner date (I'm looking at you, Stephen King).  However, I am a fanatic for Michael Pollan's books, and he does not seem too intimidating, so I think I'd go with him.  Especially because his books are based on food--so who better to share a meal with?
As for fictional characters, I'd love to meet Lisbeth Salander, even though I'm quite sure she'd want nothing to do with me.

5.  What literary location would you most like to visit? Why?   

I wish that Derry, Maine was a real place.  I'd like to visit...for about 10 seconds.

Happy Armchair BEA, peeps!