2024 Wrap Up

 

I'm not really sure where 2024 went. It feels like a long time ago that we ushered it in and yet it also flew by. It was a strange reading year for me and I ended the year in a real blogging slump. I couldn't seem to find a good way to follow all of my favorite blogs any more so I've been a very bad blogging friend to top it off. I'd like to say that will change in 2025; but, if I've learned anything over the years, I've learned not to make promises I don't know if I can keep. That said, let's wrap up 2024! 

Top Fiction Books: 

James by Percival Everett

Sandwich by Catherine Newman

Table for Two by Amor Towels

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell

After Annie by Anna Quindlen

Chenneville by Paulette Jiles

The Fraud by Zadie Smith

The Morningside by Tea Obrecht

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout

Long Island Colm Toibin 

Pete and Alice in Maine by Caitlin Shetterley

Top Audiobooks:

Chenneville by Paulette Jiles, read by Grover Gardner

The Maid by Nita Prose, read by Lauren Ambrose

Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond, read by Dion Graham

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell, read by Genevieve Gaunt

The Trackers by Charles Frazier, read by Will Patton

Long Island by Colm Toibin, read by Jessie Buckley

The Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrow, read by Gabra Zackman

Top Nonfiction Books: 

Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond

Life In Five Senses by Gretchen Rubin

The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamande Ngozi Adichie 

The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan

Madame Restell by Jennifer Wright

By The Numbers: 

I read a total of 80 books. Of those 84% were written by female authors, a record 58% were audiobooks, 81% were checked out from the library and 16% were from Netgalley (which goes to show that I read very few books from my own shelves!). 

Six of the books were part of series, six were works of fiction based on real people, and four were written by Omaha authors. Two of the books were short story collections and three were either prequels or sequels. Three were set during Covid. 

I tend to think of books as often being of more than one genre so these numbers will not total to 80: 

24 literary fiction

19 historical fiction

15: mysteries, nonfiction

11: women's fiction, U.S. history

5: fantasy, memoir, self-help

3 chick lit

1 each: Western, science fiction, biography, classic, dystopian

I read books set in: Greece, Italy, England, Dominican Republic, Poland, France, Australia, Ireland, and two set in Nebraska. 

The themes I read about included: diversity (a disappointing 10 books), family, social issues, mental health, friendship, war, the justice system, feminism, marriage, abuse, and grief. These tend to be themes I'm consistently drawn to so I imagine if I looked back over the years, I'd see the same things. 

In 2025, I'm not setting any goals. But I would like to read more physical books, more books that I already own, and to read more diversely. I'd also like to finish up the books I started as read-alongs in 2024 and maybe be part of more of those in 2025. 

What did your reading year look like for 2024? 

Life: It Goes On - January 1

Happy New Year! In the past couple of days I've been seeing a lot of memes that talked about what a dumpster fire 2023 was; I found myself nodding in agreement. Yes, yes, I thought, 2023 has been terrible. And then I looked back at pictures from this year and was reminded of all the wonderful things we did in 2023 and all of the fun we had. Was it the best year of my life? No. But it wasn't the worst year by any stretch of the imagination. It's so easy to get caught up in the mood of social media. Instead, I'd like to focus on the good things from 2023 so I can go into a new year feeling blessed and happy. 

Best Books of the Year: 

My reading slump continues (although I recognize that what I call a slump is still quite a few books by most people's standards); I only finished 56 books in 2023. Here are some real standouts.

• The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
• Tom Lake by Ann Patchette
• Crook Manifesto by Colton Whitehead 
• Beartown by Fredrik Backman
• The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Growl
• A Fever In The Heartland by Timothy Egan
• All The Beauty In The World by Patrick Bringley

Best Movies: 

We didn't get to the theater too many times in 2023 but I'm certain that these two movies would have stood out even in a crowd.

• Barbie
• Oppenheimer

Best Television: 

As you know, a lot of our television viewing is sports related but we also really enjoyed some series in 2023, as well. I finished Grace and Frankie, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Queen Charlotte this year. 

• The Nebraska volleyball match that set a world record for attendance of a women's sporting event. Until that very last match, the entire season was a joy to watch, but that match in the football stadium gave me goosebumps. 
• Ted Lasso - we are parsing out the final five episodes of the series to make it last longer
• Shrinking with Jason Segel and Harrison Ford is so funny but also deals with heavier themes
• Wednesday

Highlights: 

• Our trip in June to Alaska. I'm already planning a return trip, hopefully timed to see the aurora borealis. 
• A trip to Duluth/Superior to visit my sister and her family
• Helping Miss H move into her first place of her own. I had so much fun flipping furniture so that it would work for her and making sure she had everything she needed to make the place comfortable and very much a reflection of her. 
• Live Broadway touring shows: Six, To Kill A Mockingbird, Tina, and Les Miserable
• Two new tattoos, one symbolizing hope and the other family. 

Looking back over all the big things (to say nothing of all of the little things that brought joy to my life in 2023), helps me going into the coming year. Here's to a year filled with even more great books, great movies, great television, and life highlights! 

2022 Reading Recap

 

Yeah, yeah, I know most bloggers do their recaps in the final week of the year. But I never quite seem to have the time to do that. Plus, I'm usually scrambling to try to finish at least one book. So January 3 it is! 

In 2022, I finished 64 books, which is down some for me (and certainly no where near the 152 one of my book blogging friends read!). Still, considering that I felt like I was in a reading slump much of the year, that's not bad. 

And how does all of that break down? Here are some stats (although, again, nowhere near as well recorded as many of my blogging friends!): 

• Female authors - 46, male authors - 18. This is pretty normal for me. 
• Fiction - 50, nonfiction - 14. This might be a bit lower than my usual but kind of essential for me to back off the heavier stuff this year. 
• 42 of the books I read this year were checked out from the library, in print, ebooks, and audiobooks. 
• 15 of the books I read were through Netgalley, which is fewer than I often read but I was less inclined to put myself in a position where I was obligated to read books by a specific date. 
• 12 books were recommended to me by friends this year. 
• Only 1 book I read this year was set in Asia and only 4 in Africa. It's rare for me to have numbers that low. 
• Genres: 9 historical fiction, 19 literary fiction, 8 women's fiction, 12 mystery/thrillers, 3 science fiction, 1 book of poetry, 4 collections of essays, 5 memoirs, 6 books that included fantasy elements, 1 epistolary novel, 4 classics, and 1 collection of short stories.
• I read 8 books that addressed science in one way or another, 3 humorous books, 9 books that had elements of feminism, 2 books about grief, 6 books about family, 1 book about politics, and 13 books that addressed diversity. 

Usually I end the year by commenting on how I would like to read more of this kind of book or that, with scolding myself for not reading diversely enough or not reading enough classics, for simply not reading enough. I'm not going to do that this year. I read what I read and I'm going to do the same in 2023. I may, in fact, be even less deliberate about what I read and focus on reading what I'm in the mood to read. To redeem the joy of reading (more on that tomorrow!). 

Goodby 2021 - I'm So Over You

In my final post of 2020, I reflected on how tough the year had been and how happy I was to have it over. But I tried to focus on the good and look forward to a better year, certain that 2021 would be better. Then on February 11th, my mom sat down to take a nap and never woke up. 2021 became an entirely different year than I had been expecting. This year has been tough, right up to the end. But it hasn't been a year without some good and, as I close out 2021, I'm going to try to focus on that again. 

My family has, as you've probably noticed over the years, always been close. This year has brought us even closer. My sister, brother, and I text each other almost daily now, sharing what's brought us low and lifting each other up again, sharing good news and focusing on making life good for our dad. Our dad has learned to text and we're loving getting regular updates from him that often lead to long family text conversations. I think we all feel closer to my dad than ever. My husband has been a rock for me and for my dad; I don't know how I would have gotten through this year without him. Friends have shown astonishing kindness and it was a blessing to be reminded that there are so many good people in the world. 

I didn't get nearly as many projects done this year as I did in 2020 but I did complete a major project that I've been wanting to tackle for years. This desk took almost two months of work to finish but it was worth every bit of the effort. I tried the oven cleaner method on another piece and learned that not every project will be a home run. That one is going to require some more work when spring arrives!

My side of the family welcomed two babies this year. I have yet to meet either of these handsome young men but I'm looking forward to that in 2022. Thank heavens for FaceTime, social media, and texts for allowing us to watch them grow from afar. 

Although Mini-me and Ms. S moved thousands of miles away and we'll now be lucky to see them in person once a year, being so far away seems to have made both of them better at keeping in touch. We now get regular texts and calls and we are loving being taken along on their adventure. And keeping up with our rapidly growing grandpup! And both of our other kids are in really good places in their lives now as well. There's nothing more a parent could ask for. 

My reading took a hit this year and my blogging even more so. I haven't opened my blog reader in weeks and it's now been almost a month since I posted a book review. But I'm still reading and have given myself permission to give up on books and to not worry as much this year about reading the things I feel like I should read and to read the things that bring me comfort. Hence I'm ending the year with One Day In December by Josie Silver and starting the new year with Lessons In Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, neither of which requires a lot of brain power and I'm good with that. 

I'd like to say I'll be a better blogger next year. I'd like to say I'll teach myself to upholster so I can get all of these chairs I've bought for that purpose done. I'd like to say I'll lose 50 pounds and start exercising regularly. And I really would like to do all of those things. But one thing I've learned in 2021 is that nothing is certain. We need to be proud of what we have gotten done, let go of the things that we haven't done, and give ourselves grace. Which may just be my word of the year for 2022. 

Fare Thee Well, 2020!

 

I think we can all agree that the end of 2020 couldn't come soon enough. Between ugly politics, social unrest, and CoVid-19, it's been one of the most stressful years in a very long time. In this house, we've certainly had it better than many, for which we are grateful. Still, it's been a long, tough year.  

Even though this has been a year that has filled us with anxiety, fear, and stress, it wasn't all bad. As we learned to adapt, we found ways to be with my parents, do things new ways, and appreciate what we have. It's easy to look back on this year as one of the worst we've ever had, but today I'm trying to focus on the good things that happened this year. 

We learned that even though we couldn't hug each other, nothing could keep us apart. From parking lot dinners, to picnics, to driveway celebrations, we found ways to be together. And Zoom and FaceTime helped keep our family and my book club (when we couldn't meet on patios) talking. Even for this introvert, those human connections were vital.

We took advantage of all the free time we had to get some things done around the house. I stripped, sanded, and painted things we already owned, things I found on FaceBook marketplace, and things we were gifted. Some time and elbow grease gave several rooms a whole new look which was sorely needed, what with us being stuck in the house so much!

We made gifts and outdoor games - some easy to do, others a whole lot more work that took two of us to finish. And I finally got around to painting my office when my sister gifted me the mate to one of my antique bookshelves, which involved reorganizing and rearranging the entire room. 

Knowing we were going to spend a lot of time in the backyard, we painted, created a new light fixture, and planted a lot of flowers. We got a chance to see our kids, keep up family holiday traditions, learned what we like and dislike about working form home, and had some fun with the stadium cutouts we gave my parents for Christmas. 

Some reading slumps may have slowed down my reading at times, but I still finished 87 books this year. I had a hard time finding ten fiction books that were worth putting on a Top Ten list but I read a lot of great nonfiction and listened to a lot of great book readers. I won't list them here; you can see them in the tab above. Of the books I read 58 were written by female authors, 54 were checked out from the library, 39 were audiobooks, 25 were nonfiction, 15 were from NetGalley, and more than 20 were set outside of the U. S. The books included 10 about U. S. history; 10 mysteries; 2 each of fantasy/sci-fi, dystopian fiction, science, humorous, classics and political; 3 self-help; 5 that included religion; 14 women's fiction; 4 about social issues; 3 from series; 3 about immigrants; 8 collections of essays or short stories; 15 works of historical fiction; 3 true crime books; and 15 books about diversity. It was a good year of reading, even though I did a terrible job of reading from my own shelves, which should have been easy this year! 

I hope that you've found ways to make 2020 a good year and that you've been able to find joy. Here's looking forward to 2021. We've still got a long road ahead of us as far as the virus is concerned but I'm feeling hope now and that's such a nice feeling after such a difficult year. 

Happy New Year!

2019 Wrap Up - Finally!

This was meant to be done in the final days of 2019. Or maybe even the first days of 2020. Ah well, better late than never!

It took 2019 a while to take off, reading wise; but in the end, I'd read a lot of books that I really loved. In fact, it was so hard to narrow down my fiction faves to just ten that I accidentally left eleven on my list!  It was, unintentionally, the year of the woman. Books by women outpaced books by men 4 to 1 and the majority of my nonfiction reads were by or about women. I read, again unintentionally, the second most books I've ever read in a year, thanks largely to having re-upped my library card and being able to download audiobooks at long last; I listened to twice as many books this year as I did in 2018. And I read a record number of nonfiction books. I made great use of the library; about 60% of the books I read were from the library. That actually kept me reading faster because of the time constraint of those darn due dates!

It was an abysmal year, on the other hand, for reading classics and for being a part of the blogging community (or, for that matter, even being interactive with my readers). Goals, there will be goals for 2020! But first, the numbers:

Total books read: 106
Books by Women: 81
Books by Men: 21
Diversity: 24
Nonfiction: 34
Audiobooks: 30
Short Story Collections/Essay Collections: 7
Classics: 3
Library Books: 60

My top ten books in each category are updated on the tab at the top of the page. When I added the books I'd read by or about persons of color, I was surprised; I thought I'd done better. I think the reason I felt that way was because so many of the 24 books I read were so good they made my best-of lists; 60% of my fiction choices and 40% of my nonfiction and audiobook choices were by or about persons of color. That should be a good incentive to read more diversely.

Now, about those 2020 goals.

I'm not good at goals (or challenges, either; you'll notice I don't sign up for those any more). But, as always, in looking back over the past year, I definitely see some things I'd like to change. And, let's face it, it's a whole lot easier to make changes to your reading than to your exercise routine. So this should be too hard, right?

1. Read more classics: I love classics. I almost every classic I'd like to read. To push this goal along, I chose The Remains of the Day, a modern classic, as my first book of 2020. It being 2020, I'd like to read 20 classics this year and get back on track.

2. Read less: Ha! I'll bet you've never heard me say that before! But when I was putting my list of books read in 2019 into my journal, I honestly couldn't remember what some of them were about. Which isn't the end of the world when we're talking about books that I read just for escapism. But I couldn't remember some of the books I knew I had enjoyed reading. That's not good. It's not a competition; and even if it were, I don't need to win. I'm not sure how to intentionally go about achieving this goal, but I am 10 days into the new year and have yet to finish a single book. Maybe the key is just to, sometimes anyway, find other productive things to do with my time, like take up crocheting again. Or finally get around to painting my office and making it the beautiful space I've been wanting it to be for years. So I can go in there, put my feet up, and read!

My 2018 Reading Year

This has been a really weird reading year for me with a lot of reading slumps and a lot of times my reading time got cut into by time sucks, like games on my phones, Instagram, and Litsy. I've done a terrible job of keeping up with my blog reader, staying in touch with my reading community, and responding to comments on the blog. I've missed so many blogging events. I'm not sure that I can give ways that I'll make any of that change in the coming year; listing those kinds of things just seems to add another layer of stress to life and I'd rather move toward reading just for fun instead of the other way.

On the other hand, I've done really well in my reading in a lot of ways. Despite those slumps, I still read/listened to 74 books, which is a big increase over last year. Renewing my library card really helped with the audio piece as I'm finally able to listen when I'm not in my car. Here's how the year shook out:

Total Books Read: 73
Nonfiction: 15
Short Story Collections: 2
Mythology/Fairy Tales: 2
Written by Women: 53
Written by Men: 19
Classics: 6
Diversity: 9
Audiobooks: 23

I'm disappointed in the number of mythology/fairy tale books I read this year, as well as the number of classics. I'd also like to read more diversely than I did this year.

The Best of 2018 (some books may appear on more than one list):

Fiction:
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Circe by Madeline Miller
Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Lying In Wait by Liz Nugent
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
A Ladder To The Sky by John Boyne
The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Nonfiction: 
Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson
A Short Guide To A Happy Life by Anna Quindlen
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters In The End by Atul Gawande
Killers of The Flower Moon by David Grann
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
Five Days At Memorial by Sheri Fink
Heirs of the Founders by H. W. Brand
Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

Audio:
Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson
Born With Teeth by Kate Mulgrew
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Frankenstein, or Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Heading Out To Wonderful by Robert Goolrick

What books were your favorites in 2018? Would you make any changes to the way you read this year?

Best Books Read in 2017

This was meant to be part of December's Month of Faves but, as you may have noticed, December really got away from me blog wise. Still, it's always good to look back at the books that really made an impact in the past year.

FICTION:
Lincoln In The Bardo by George Saunders
News Of The World by Paulette Jules
Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
The Changeling by Victor LaValle
The Martian by Andy Weir
The Bones of Paradise by Jonis Agee
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrente
The Talented Ribkins by Ladee Hubbard
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

NONFICTION:
Shrill by Lindy West
Notorious RBG by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik
Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell
An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken
We Were Eight Years In Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Victoria The Queen by Julia Baird
Epic Measures: One Doctor, Seven Billion Patients by Jeremy N Smith

AUDIO:
Mr. Rosenblum Dreams In English by Natasha Solomon
Yes Please by Amy Poehler
Ruby by Cynthia Bond

HONORABLE MENTION:
The Woman In Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
Miss Burma by Charmaine Craig
What Is Not Your Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi
Love and Other Consolation Prizes by Jamie Ford

Of my favorite fiction books, Lincoln In The Bardo and News Of The World really stood out; Bardo in no small part because of its unique writing style and News because of Jules' amazing characters. The most surprising books on my lists are The Martian because it always surprises me when I really like a sci-fi book and The Changeling because fantasy is so far out of my wheelhouse but LaValle completely sold me. The most creative book I read this year was Ella Minnow Pea; imagine trying to write a book using fewer and fewer letters from the alphabet.

I "read" far fewer audiobooks this year so there were far fewer to add to my best-of list. Miss Burma is a book that has really stayed with me, particularly given the recent events in what is now Myanmar.  The book that by far and away made me the most uncomfortable was We Were Eight Years In Power. The book that made my heart hurt the most was An Exact Replica of A Figment Of My Imagination.

Best of 2015 - Finally

In prior years, I've made my best-of list before the very end of the year. Sometimes that's been fine. Other times, I've ended the year with a book I wish I would have put on the list. Like this year. Tana French's Faithful Place nudged out her The Secret Place at the end. I actually read four of her books this year and I liked all of them a lot. But Faithful Place stood out.

Some books appear on both my fiction and audiobook lists. My nonfiction reads were a big disappointment in 2015, very few standouts. Hoping to improve on that in 2016! The books are in no particular order other than that Station Eleven and Life After Life are definitely my two favorites books of the year. Were any of these hits with you?

FICTION:
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Faithful Place by Tana French
The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Last Night At The Blue Angel by Rebecca Rotert
Room by Emily Donoghue
The Book of Night Women by Marlon James
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami

NONFICTION:
Brain On Fire by Susannah Catalan
Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson
Tiger Heart by Katrell Christie

AUDIOBOOKS:
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
The Book of Night Women by Marlon James
Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Room by Emily Donoghue
A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Finn by Jon Clinch
The Girl Who Fell From The Sky by Heidi Durrow
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Froer

Farewell and Good Riddance to 2011

To say that 2011 has been a year I would not want to relive is a real understatement. It has been a very hard year for my family (although I must admit that it brought us even closer and served to remind us of how much we love each other) and it has ended with a professional quarter of the year that has turned my life upside down. On the first score, we are expecting nothing but good news in 2012 and on the second score, I'm hoping to have changed my work life soon to get a balance back in my life that includes having time for my family and doing the things I love (including blogging!).

My reading numbers were down considerably in 2011; I don't think that I'll hit 75 books read this year. I did succeed, to some extent, with the goals I set for my reading for the year. I managed to complete about half of my challenges this year but I largely blame my lack of success here on my inability to find the time to read for the past three months so I can live with that. I did read a lot more non-fiction this year and definitely increased the number of books set outside of the U.S. or written by non-U.S. authors (the fairy tale and myth reading certainly helped with this one!).  Given that I had read almost no historical fiction in 2010, that was another goal I met in 2011 even though I only managed to read ten historical fiction novels.

I read a lot of books I liked a lot in 2011 but very few that I would say I truly loved. Surprisingly, the vast majority of the books I loved were written by men, certainly a change over previous years. My top books of 2011 were:

FICTION:
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin

Safe From The Sea by Peter Geye

The Coffins of Little Hope by Timothy Shaffert

The March by E.L. Doctorow

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

NON-FICTION:
The Man In The Rockefeller Suit by Mark Seal

Cocktail Hour Under The Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller

Instant City by Steve Inskeep

This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust

The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn

For 2012, I'm hoping to get things turned around, reading wise. Some of my goals will remain the same, fewer challenges will be undertaken but mostly I hope to find more time for reading again in 2012. It brings a sense of calm to my life that has been sorely missing of late. And I miss getting to talk to all of you, so more time for blogging must be made in the coming year!

What was your favorite book in 2011? What are you looking forward to in 2012?

Wishing you all a very happy new year!

2010 Wrap Up and Looking Forward to 2011

2010
The best books of the year: In a year of quite a lot of really good books, there were a few that stood out.  You can see my top ten books of the year on the tab above.  But only a couple of books really stood out as books I loved and two of them belonged to Thrity Umrigar: The Space Between Us and The Weight of Heaven.  Also on that love list would be To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

What I read: I finished 89 books this year--29 fewer than last year which is a huge disappointment.  But when I changed jobs, I couldn't listen to books on CD at work any more and that accounted for about 20 of my books last year.  On the other hand, about 20 of my books this year were childrens books and probably shouldn't even be counted!

Challenges: I had both success in challenges (completing the Gilmore Girls Challenge, Our Mutual Reads Challenge, You've Got Mail Challenge and Everything Austen Challenge) and failures. Those failures hurt--I had every reason to believe that I could finish all of them.

Books for review: I had absolutely sworn that I was going to cut back on books I accepted for review in 2010.  Yet in the end, I read over 50 of them. Some of them were among my favorite reads, but the majority of them were, for me, only good and some were even really bad.

2011
Books I'm looking forward to: 


The Great Night by Chris Adrian (April)
Galore by Michael Crummey (March)
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (June)
The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier (February)
The Coffins of Little Hope by Tim Schaffert (April)
The Relief of Missing Children by Sarah Braunstein (February)

There is, of course, a long list of books that were published this year that I didn't get to and am looking forward to reading in the coming year.  But I'm most eager to get to the great books that have been patiently waiting for me to get to them that are in stacks and on shelves all over my house.  This year I will add far fewer books for review and tours to my reading.  Will you all please be kind enough to remind me of that periodically?  I'm always afraid I'll miss something great and always looking for those really unique stories. 


Challenges: So far so good on my goal to cut back on these in the coming year.  It helps to be in charge of one of the challenges; I've cut back on the books needed to reach the levels of the Gilmore Girls Challenge and added movies to the options.  I'm also participating in the Michener Challenge and the War Through The Generations Challenge.  If Our Mutual Reads extends into 2011, I'll do that one as well.  That's it.  No more.  None.  Stop me if I even suggest I'm thinking of adding anther one.

Fairy Tale Fridays: I'll continue with this throughout 2011.  Thanks to Mini-him for the Christmas gift of "Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales."  There are a lot of stories in it that I've never even heard of before.

Mystery March: This is something that I've been thinking of doing.  My mom and dad read a lot of mysteries and have been passing them along to me. It's time to make a dent in those.  I know I'll enjoy a month filled with them.

After not getting through 90 books this year, you'd think I'd be realistic and cut back and the number I hope to read in the coming year. But 50 sounds like so few and nothing else has that nice ring to it like 100 does.  But I'm not going to stress about it. The real goal is to make reading enjoyable in 2011!

Welcome 2010!

2009 went out with a blue moon--the second full moon of the month which just happened to fall on New Year's Eve this time. This picture was taken on the University of Kansas campus; what a fantastic shot!

I had every intention of posting a year-end recap but, like so many other things, it slipped away from me. New Year's resolution Number 1? Get caught up!


Top Books of 2009:
1. City of Thieves by David Benioff
2. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
3. The Housekeeper and The Professor
by Yoko Ogawa
4. Serena by Ron Rash
5. The Help by Kathryn Stockett


Honorable Mention:

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Mighty Queens of Freeville by Amy Dickinson
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennet
Gilead by Marilyn Robinson
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stout
The Last Beach Bungalow by Jennie Nash
The Unnatural History of Cypress Parish by Elise Blackwell

I read a lot of books that were out of my usual comfort zone this year and was rewarded with having many of them turn out to be amongst my favorites.

What I've Learned About Blogging Since I started In June:

1. Blogging is much more work than I had expected.
2. Blogging is much more fun than I had expected!
3. It will increase your to-be-read list tenfold--I will never, in my lifetime, read all of the books I want to read.
4. Awards are so much fun to get and a great way to get to know other bloggers. But it's so hard to pass them on; it takes a lot of time and you have to pick favorites which was so hard for me.
5. Blogging is a great way to meet people all over the world. I had no idea when I began that I would soon count people from across the country, from Finland, from Canada, and from Australia as friends. Nor would I have thought that this would give me the opportunity to talk to so many people in the book industry. This reason alone makes it worth continuing!

Goals For 2010:

1. Complete all of the challenges I signed up for. I feel a bit like I've been through all all-you-can-eat buffet line when it comes to challenges. I make have taken on more than I should have. Fortunately, if I "clean my plate" when it comes to challenges, I won't have to feel guilty.
2. I want to move my blog to a three-column format. This will involve getting my oldest, who is also the resident computer expert, to find the time to help me.
3. Read 100 books again this year. At the beginning of 2009 my goal was 50 books. I ended the year with 118 so I think 100 is definitely doable.
4. Get more organized--this one crosses into all areas of my life as a goal for the year.

Happy reading to you in 2010!