Rec-reating, Recovering, and Reviewing

I am still thinking about writing, and in fact even putting some thoughts down here and there, but after 10 days of rec-reating (as in recreation, not creation), I'm a little beat mentally. Why does that happen?

We drove more than 2500 miles over 10 days through New Mexico and Arizona, and I do want to share our experiences.  Here are a few sneak peeks:

And so, yes, I've been also been recovering -- restocking the pantry, doing laundry, returning phone calls.

But even while I roamed the country, I've been reviewing -- publishing book reviews over at 5 Minutes for Books and writing up some reviews of books that will post in the future, specifically books that I read on vacation (for what is a vacation without reading??).  Please check them out:

• A giveaway of several of Zondervan's fun new Bibles
• RL Stine's It's the First Day of School Forever (also with GIVEAWAY)
• A YA novel (audiobook version) that I enjoyed called What Comes After
• A sweet middle grade novel Nerd Girls: The Rise of the Dorkasaurus
• I have a trio of posts about the book and upcoming movie One Day:
  
  • The review of the book
  • An interview with author and screenwriter David Nicholls (with GIVEAWAY)
  • An "On Reading" post inspired by the book and the interview where I ask "Do you ever read classics when mentioned in other books?"