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All of these series have been on my TBR for ages. Someday I do plan to read them!

1. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1) by Rick Riordan

2. A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1) by George R.R. Martin

3. The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner, #1) by James Dashner

4. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1) by Stieg Larsson

5. Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles, #1) by Anne Rice

6. The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1) by Patrick Rothfuss

7. Dune (Dune #1) by Frank Herbert

8. Foundation (Foundation, #1) by Isaac Asimov

9. The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle, #1) by Maggie Stiefvater

10. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, #1) by Alexander McCall Smith

If you’ve read any of these series, I’d love to hear your thoughts on them.

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Here are ten of my favorite words. I like the way they roll off my tongue.

1. Aurora

2. Idyllic

3. Moiety

4. Scintilla

5. Coalesce

6. Jovial

7. Onomatopoeia

8. Lagoon

9. Dulcet

10.  Zephyr

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Volcanoes were my geographic term of choice for this week’s prompt.

Who else was a little scared of volcanoes when you were a child? I saw so many cartoons about characters falling into them or suddenly being surrounded by lava that I think I believed people in real life experienced the same thing more often than is generally the case, too.

If you’ve ever seen lava or a volcano in person, I’d love to hear your stories about those experiences in the comment section below.

In the meantime, here are ten fiction and non-fiction books that include the word volcano in their titles.

1. A Volcanic Affair by Xanthia Rhodes

2. In the Shadow of the Volcano by Caryn Jenner

3. On The Volcano by James Nelson

4. Volcanoes: Fire and Life by Jon Chad

5. Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount Saint Helens by Patricia Lauber

6. A Private Volcano: A modern novel of science and imagination by Lance Sieveking

7. Aerial Geology: A High-Altitude Tour of North America’s Spectacular Volcanoes, Canyons, Glaciers, Lakes, Craters, and Peaks by Mary Caperton Morton

8. Volcano Watch (Forensic Geology #3) by Toni Dwiggins

9. Ring of Fire: An Encyclopedia of the Pacific Rim’s Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and Volcanoes by Bethany D. Rinard Hinga

10. The House on the Volcano by Virginia Nielsen

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I had some fantastic science teachers in elementary school, but my science teachers in later grades were unfortunately not so good at sharing their love of chemistry, biology, and other topics with their students in ways that I could relate to.

Luckily, adults have much more say in what they learn about, so I have rekindled my appreciation for science with books like these.

1. The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

2. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks

3. Cosmos by Carl Sagan

4. Ask Me Why I Hurt: The Kids Nobody Wants and the Doctor Who Heals Them by Randy Christensen

5. Darwin’s Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution by Rebecca Stott

6. The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars by Dava Sobel

7. The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization by Brian M. Fagan

8. The Vaccine: Inside the Race to Conquer the COVID-19 Pandemic by Joe Miller

9. My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road with Old Bones, New Science, and Our Favorite Dinosaurs by Brian Switek

10. The Killers Within: The Deadly Rise Of Drug-Resistant Bacteria by Michael Shnayerson

What did you think of science classes when you were a student? Can you recommend any other nonfiction books about science?

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Since traveling isn’t possible for me at the moment (kids, pets, COVID, the usual), I’ll stick to traveling via the books I’m reading.

Places I’d like to visit that I discovered in books:

The Continent from Andrezej Sapkowski’s The Witcher series.  I’d love to meet elves, dwarves, and of course, Jaskier!

Icewind Dale, home to Drizzt Do’Urden, Bruenor Battlehammer, and more interesting characters.

Romania.  This has been featured in many books, but Mark Edwards’ Follow You Home really reawakened the urge to visit.  Just as long as nothing insane happens to me, thanks.

This is a two-fer: Charlotte, North Carolina and Montréal, Quebec, Canada. Kathy Reich’s Temperance Brennan series has really made me want to explore both cities.

The futuristic version of the US and Canada as depicted in Sean Grigsby’s Smoke Eaters.  I mean, dragons exist in that world!

Not exactly a place, but I’d love to take a trip on The Heart of Gold – the ship from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.  I want to know what it’s like to experience the improbability drive for myself.

Dublin, Ireland.  Although, in Catherine Ryan Howard’s book 56 Days, the country is in COVID lockdown, it’s still high on my list of places to visit someday.

Burning Lake, NY, a small, but exciting little town featured in the Natalie Lockhart novels by Alice Blanchard.

North Devon as it appears in Ann Cleeves’ Two Rivers series.  Although, I’m not sure I’d survive the cold!

Bellamy Bay, the bustling little coastal town in Esme Addison’s Enchanted Bay series.  A town where mermaid magic is alive and thriving?  Count me in.

What are some places you’d like to visit, either in real life or through the pages of a good book?

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I must confess that I’ve barely read anything from my last few seasonal TBR posts due to a million other things going on in my life at the moment. Here are ten books I still need to pick up. If you’ve read any of these titles, I’d love to hear your thoughts on them.

1. This Wicked Fate (This Poison Heart, #2) by Kalynn Bayron

2. TJ Powar Has Something to Prove  by Jesmeen Kaur Deo

3. Gallant by V.E. Schwab

4. A Lot Like Adios  by Alexis Daria

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5. Unearthed: A Jessica Cruz Story by Lilliam Rivera

6. If This Gets Out  by Sophie Gonzales

7. Death of a Knit Wit by Peggy Ehrart

8. Coming Clean: A true story of love, addiction and recovery  by Liz Fraser

9. Rosie the Truffle Hound by Jessie Hartland

10. History Comics: The Stonewall Riots: Making a Stand for LGBTQ Rights by Archie Bongiovanni