Mount TBR Reading Challenge

Having failed at completing challenges year after year (including an epic failure of my own Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge this year), you would think I'd have learned not to sign up for reading challenges at all. But I always have such high hopes for my future reading!

Bev of My Reader's Block is hosting Mount TBR Reading Challenge in 2012, a challenge that seems to be right up my alley since one of the things I've been trying to do lately is read more of my own books. There are six levels, starting at 12 books and working all of the way up to 100+ books. I understand that the idea of these things is to challenge yourself but I'm getting tired of failing! So, even though I'm confident that I can reach the Mt. Ararat level (40 books), I'm going to sign up for the Mt. Vancouver level (25 books). That still leaves me plenty of room for review books, other challenges and book club selections. I've had enough stress in my life this year...2012 is all about finding balance and removing as much stress from my life as possible!

Sunday Salon - November 27

For those of you who got to enjoy a long weekend, I hope you've enjoyed it. For those of you who had to work so that my family and I could shop for bargains (and, let's be honest, for the great fun we have when we all go off together to fight the crowds), thank you!

In Nebraska you never know what kind of weather to expect for Thanksgiving. There can be snow on the ground a bitter cold. That makes knowing how to dress for Black Friday a bit bothersome; you need a coat, hat and gloves outside but you certainly don't want them in the stores. Plus it puts a major damper on two of my family's annual Thanksgiving traditions. The field goal kicking competition never lasts as long and fewer of us are willing to go along just to be spectators. Also, the turkey trot (a treasure hunt for the grandchildren) must be done entirely inside.

But sometimes we get lucky and have one of those glorious fall days where there are enough spectators at the field goal competition to actually do the wave! One of my favorite Thanksgiving memories is of just such a day when my husband and I hosted Thanksgiving. All four of my grandparents were still with us and my grandfathers sat out on my deck playing cards. As much as I love my family in its current form, I never get through Thanksgiving without missing my grandparents!

We got lucky again this year and had a marvelous day which meant that it was nice enough day to also work in a lesson on Australian rules football. We were blessed to have with us this year a dear friend from Australia and her family who gamely participated in all of our American and family customs, including the turkey trot and field goal kicking. Wisely, they did pass on Black Friday shopping!


My uncle sent me this link to an article in the Chicago Tribune about why some of us have such a hard time giving up our physical books. I'm not necessarily one for the moldy smell (my allergies aren't wild about it for one thing) but I do feel my book in my hands. Although, I must admit that I'm thinking I may need a Nook Tablet so that I never have to worry about finding myself without a book as I was for two hours the other day when the locks on my work building malfunctioned and I had to sit in my car and advise employees as they arrived to go home until it was fixed. Such a waste of precious reading time!

Happy Thanksgiving *

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my readers and to the soldiers who, like those pictured above, are serving in the armed forces away from their families.

 

*In keeping with my current reading about the U.S. Civil War, I'm bringing you some Thanksgiving images from that war.

First Family: Abigail and John Adams by Joseph Ellis

First Family: Abigail and John Adams by Joseph Ellis
320 pages
Published: 2010 by Vintage Books
Source: my mom's copy was a gift from my dad

Guest Review From My Mom:

For some time I have said that the woman I most admire, without a doubt, had to be Abigail Adams.  So it was with absolute delight that I opened my birthday present from my husband and found this small paperback book about my favorite lady and her family.

There have been many books written about the Adams.  Separate books have been written for each of them; but, of course, both play prominently in the other’s book.  My husband suggested that I might not find anything new in this book, but it was worth a try.  And I did find new things–and new ways of interpreting things I already knew.

The author sets out to relate the 1200 letters that John and Abigail shared through their lives to the events that were going on in the country and the world.  John could be a cantankerous man, but he had the foresight to realize how much history was being created, and he wanted to make sure others knew–perhaps because he was vain and wanted to be remembered most prominently.  Thus he made copies and asked Abigail to make copies of all of the letters they wrote.  In those days mail often was lost and stolen but the copies still exist.

    “The happiness of our family,” Abigail noted in 1788, “seems ever to have
    been so interwoven with the politics of our country as to be in a great degree
    dependent upon them.”

John and Abigail spent incredible amounts of time separated while John went off to forge independence, peace with England, treaties with the Dutch, and later to serve as both Vice President (a job he hated) and President of our young country.  And through almost all of this, Abigail stayed behind raising the four children and running the farm, making huge decisions including inoculation for small pox.  And they both wrote letters–lots and lots of letters.

Other Founding Fathers had good marriages and are well-remembered today.  But none of them left a legacy as rich as the Adams with all of their letters.  And Ellis does a masterful job of weaving the letters and history into delightful reading and understanding.

I came away even more fond of this “saucy” lady and her strength.  She was a woman well ahead of her time.  She was well read, educated, and extremely capable.  And how she had to suffer while her husband and young son traveled the Atlantic and lived in Europe with no quick means of communication.  She carried and lost a stillborn child alone while John did what he thought of as his duty in Philadelphia. 

Ellis, a Pulitzer prize-winning author, quotes freely from these letters and has documented his work very thoroughly.  At times you want to shake John and tell him to quit thinking of himself and then you see him through Abigail’s eyes and through what he is doing for the country.  The book is well crafted, an easy read, and you do not have to know a lot of history to enjoy this little book.  I believe you will come away as an Abigail fan after reading letters and notes from their courtship until they both have lived out their lives.

Thanks, Mom - another great review!

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
272 pages
Published January 2010 by Penguin Group
Source: Bought this one

When Lillian was a little girl, her father left Lillian and her mother. Lillian's mother fell into books, spending day and night reading aloud, oblivious to everything around her. Lillian, in search of a way to bring her mother back, turned to food. She knew that if she made the right foods, she could bring her mother back to reality. When she discovered a little food shop operated by Abuelita, she discovered the true magic that the right kinds of food have.

Years later, Lillian owns her own restaurant. Once a month, on the nights that the restaurant is closed, Lillian opens her kitchen up for a cooking school, a place where she can show others what she has learned.

Tom has come to the lessons through a gift from his sister, a gift she gave him to help him deal with his grief. Antonia, a kitchen designer, is adjusting to life in America as she learns to show her customers how a kitchen can be much more than just a place to cook. Carl and Helen are a long-married couple working to rebuild their relationship. Young Chloe has lost what little confidence she had as her relationship with her boyfriend begins to fail. Claire is looking for something all her own, something that makes her more than just "the mom and wife." A computer wizard, Ian was sure he couldn't come to the class without knowing how to cook but learning how created more questions than answers. And Isabelle, who had years ago found an inner strength she had not known she had, is now dealing with the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.

Lillian will teach them all so much more than just how to cook. She'll teach them not just the essential ingredients in the kitchen but the essential ingredients in life. Along the way, they will bond in a way none of them would ever have thought possible.

I recently read Bauermeister's Joy For Beginners. This one is structured in a similar way; each of the characters is allowed their own chapter where they may or may not eventually interact with the other characters as Bauermeister explores their backstory. I liked it in Joy. I liked it even better in School where Bauermeister has interspersed the individual stories with the evenings in the school, bringing all of the characters together.

Of all of the books I've read about food the past few weeks, this is the one that most impressed me with it's ability to make the food it described come alive. Who would ever have thought a description of making white sauce could make me leave a book to go to the kitchen? Bauermeister has a unique way with words, bringing all of the reader's senses and memories a part of the book.

"...Lillian looked at the sauce, an untouched snowfield, its smell the feeling of quiet at the end of an illness, when the world is starting to feel gentle and welcoming again."

As with Joy, Bauermeister's has created a wide range of characters, some of which I connected with much more than others. Lillian's story touched my heart; Tom's story broke it, in no small part because of things that have happened in my life recently. Which, of course, is part of what makes one book affect people in so many different ways.

"For Lillian's mother, every part of a book was magic, but what she delighted in most were the words themselves. Lillian's mother collected exquisite phrases and complicated rhythms, descriptions that undulated across a page like cake batter pouring into a pan, read aloud to put the words in the air, where she could hear as well as see them."