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Category: Books & Entertainment

The Oscars – The Dusty Parachute Takes on The Academy Awards

The Dusty Parachute by Susanne Kerns 2 Comments

My husband and I love movies.  I mean we reallllly love movies.

The first show my daughter was ever allowed to watch on TV was the Oscars.  When most people were busy potty training their kids we were packing extra diapers so we could ‘movie-theater-train’ our kids.

We live next to the most amazing movie theater in the world, The Alamo Drafthouse, where not only can you eat and drink while you watch your movie, your tickets are for reserved seats (like at a play!), and we know the best seats in every one of their theaters.  (Not telling you because then you’ll go take them.)
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Top 10 Reasons to Visit The Dusty Parachute in 2015

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New Year’s Day is the perfect time to reflect back on the past year (while lying hungover on the couch eating stale Christmas cookies.) Many of the bloggers I follow are doing fun ‘Top 20 Posts of 2014’ lists. I thought of doing something similar but seeing as how I have only done around 30 posts since starting The Dusty Parachute a few months ago, that would be like saying “Come to the site & read everything!”

So, instead I’ve categorized some of my 2014 posts to help give you an idea of which ones you will enjoy most based on your interests.  Assuming that many of my 2015 posts will fall into these same categories, it also doubles as a “Top 10 Reasons to Visit The Dusty Parachute in 2015”.
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5 Reasons You Should Read The Shell Collector by Hugh Howey

The Dusty Parachute by Susanne Kerns 4 Comments

Hugh Howey’s latest book, The Shell Collector, was released this weekend and here are just a few of the reasons I think you’ll enjoy it as much as I did:

  1. You liked 50 Shades of Grey but prefer your S&M to stand for ‘Shells’ & ‘Mystery’.  The Shell Collector takes all the elements of a fun romance read, (sexual tension, a super hot leading man who’s completely loaded) and partners them with an important environmental message and the page turning mystery of ‘what is that Ness Wilde up to, anyway?”
  2. You loved the Wool/Silo series but always hoped Juliette would bust out of the silo and find a sandy (non-apocolyptic) beach to hang out on with an umbrella drink. (And if you have not read the Wool series, then you now know what you should be reading after you’re done with The Shell Collector).
  3. You have a deep, seething disgust and hatred for the oil tycoons of the world and have a secret fantasy of getting to be the one to wear a wire, expose them and send them to prison for the rest of their lives.
  4. You are worried about global warming and the irreversible effects on the environment and could use some hot love scenes to take your mind off of it for a while.
  5. You’re curious if it’s possible to have sex in a submarine. (Not telling – you have to read it to find out.)

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The Silent Victims of Our Loud Book Club

The Dusty Parachute by Susanne Kerns 18 Comments

Today marks the two year anniversary of our book club.

For the past two years, I have had the pleasure of meeting up every month with a group of seven of my favorite women to discuss a wide variety of books that we select as a group.  To give you an idea of the eclectic tastes of our members, here’s the list of the books we have read together:

The Night Circus
Tale of Two Cities
Visit from the Good Squad
Let the Great World Turn
The Husband’s Secret
State of Wonder
Wind up Bird Chronicles
The Book Thief
100 Years of Solitude
Reconstructing Amelia
Me Before You
Rebecca
Story of O
Never Let me Go
Defending Jacob
Where’d You Go Bernadette
And the Mountains Echoed
Forgotten Garden
The Good Dream
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A Tribute to My Amazing Husband (after 2 glasses of wine)

The Dusty Parachute by Susanne Kerns 3 Comments

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My husband’s first book was released today.

I had planned on making him a special celebratory dinner before he left to New York, but since I couldn’t go to the store after our daughter came home sick yesterday, we ended up having eggs for dinner instead.

I thought maybe I could squeeze some congratulations in this morning, (not a euphemism), but he got up quietly to take care of our daughter at 5:00 am when she was feeling sick again and had to work some timing miracles to get in to vote in today’s election before his flight left.  Before I could remind the kids to congratulate daddy on his big day, he was already reminding them to be nice to me on my birthday, in a few days.
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My parachute is dusty, and so is my ‘Parachute’ book.

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IMG_5007You know that my job search procrastination has reached a special level when I’m willing to go out and start cleaning the garage.  And you know the world is trying to guide you back to your job search when among the piles, you find a dusty copy of “What Color Is Your Parachute?”

I immediately note two things about the book: 1) It has clearly never been opened and 2) It’s the 2004 edition.  I try to recall when and why I acquired this book.  By 2004 I was already pregnant and I quit my job in 2005 with no intentions of working again for at least 4 years.  I can only assume that I bought it around my 3rd month of being a stay-at-home mom, when I was still building Excel worksheets to analyze feeding times, duration and volume consumed, (oh yes I did). Without a doubt, not working was a much bigger shock to my system than that tiny baby was and I have a feeling that even then, somewhere in my sleep deprived haze, I was anxious to start figuring out what my post-kid phase would be.
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