Hello, reader friends!  I hope you've hung with me while I went on a bit of a vacation.  While part of my absence was accounted for by an actual vacation for the last week, I've admittedly been a bit flighty 'round these parts for longer than that.

During the last few weeks of my race training, I was just too tired to get much reading (or blogging) accomplished.  Then the race happened, and I took a full week off from running, but instead of spending that time reading, I spent a load of time with my family and just loafed around, catching up on Netflix.  (Ain't no shame in my game.)

Then we left for vacation, which consisted of 1 day at Sesame Place in Langhorne, PA (basically preschooler crack. I was more tired this day than all other days combined):

Followed by 7 days in Cape May, NJ.  Which was 95% running around the beach with 2 very happy kiddos, and 5% reading and day-drinking:

Kindle, keys, beer, and baby monitor. CHECK.

That 5% was pretty amazing though.  I read ONE AND A HALF BOOKS during the week!  Unheard of for me these days.  The one I finished was Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan, and the one I half-finished was Day Four by Sarah Lotz...which my reader friend Julie alerted me to during vacation, because it's Lotz's latest release after The Three, which you may remember I ADORED last year.

(For my running compadres, I also managed 3 early-morning runs while on vacation...I even ventured onto the sand for the first time!  That is HARD WORK!  Not only because of the soft surface, but the slope of the shoreline near the water made it hard to balance.  Oh, and let's not forget the humidity.  Quite the sweat sessions, they were.)

Anyway, now I'm home, and looking forward to reconnecting with all of you.  I have some book reviews to write, and would also like to make time for a few bookish non-review posts that I've had in mind for a while.  I have only one book tour that I'm doing all summer, so I'm really looking forward to some free-range reading over the next few months!  I would also like to bring The Well-Read Runner back every few weeks, as I am in the midst of figuring out my next race plans...especially because I'm back from vacation and something needs to be done after I ate all that fudge and drank all that wine all week.  HA.

So, the moral of the story is...I'm back, so let's talk books!  :)

READERS!  HI!  I'M BACK!


First off, I hope you loved The Well-Read Vacay.  I pretty much go Internet-Silent when I go on vacation, but while I wasn't responding to comments/tweets/etc I did see all the lovely interactions happening on the guest blogs.  I hope you all adore Katie, Cari, Shannon, and Jennifer as much as I do, and continue to frequent their awesome bloggy blogs!

Second, where was I?  I don't usually post about the specifics of my vacation plans on the Interwebz beforehand, because I am a paranoid superfreak, but I will gladly share them with you now.  We rented a condo down in Cape May, New Jersey, and it was fantastic, though admittedly also hectic.  I actually had to leave last Saturday (with Small Fry in tow) without my husband, which was NOT the original plan. 

(**Potential buyers of our house should stop reading this post now and go do something awesome...like read a book!  WOOOO!**)

Okay, are they gone?  My husband had to stay home because the downstairs of our house FLOODED 3 days before we left.  And did I mention that we are trying to sell said house, like ASAP??  We have never, ever had flooding before, but Mother Nature chose THIS moment to gang up on us.  So dear Hubs stayed behind to dry out the house and replace the carpet so that the Open House and showings we had scheduled could go on.  Luckily, he did a fantastic job and was able to join us in Cape May on Tuesday.

(If any buyers DID accidentally read that, please rest assured that we fixed everything...AND it's all written up in our property disclosure now...nothing but honesty here, people!!)

Despite that hiccup, we had an awesome time playing on the beach, going to the zoo, eating too much candy/fudge, and hanging out with my brothers (who are in the Coast Guard and stationed in Cape May).  Oh, and stalking Tina Fey.  She was vacationing there last week too!  I was on a mission to make us meet, share witty banter, and become BFFs, but sadly our stars did not align.  Next time, T...next time.

In reading news, I actually managed to read 1.5 books, plus most of an audiobook during the drive (though I did take Cari's advice and left my Kindle in the condo during beach trips with Small Fry...very helpful!!).

So now I am off to unpack, and hopefully get these latest reviews written up for you soon.  Hope everyone had a fantastic week!