tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-132664402024-03-23T13:58:15.152-04:00Coasting AlongMusings from the world I call Janelleland.Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.comBlogger736125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-17524525883600189002021-12-29T16:47:00.009-05:002021-12-29T16:59:14.809-05:00Fifteen Reading Years, and the Hits of the Past Five.<p>I will hit a reading milestone in the next couple of days: fifteen years of keeping track of what I read, each new book that I finish (no re-reads are counted.). I wish I'd started recording my books earlier in my life, just for the pleasure of looking back and remembering, but that would probably be more data than even I would enjoy.</p><p>When I began recording my finished books in January 2007, I was entering the most prolific reading years of my life, from 2007-2015. I averaged 136 books per year in those years. In 2016, my reading fell off sharply for reasons I can't quite describe. I became much more addicted to social media and news sites because of the upheaval happening in the United States, and I became more interested in hearing other people's real-life stories, on blogs and Reddit and in comment sections, especially as the stories of women and people of color came much more to the forefront of our public discussions. And my eyesight and my attention span both went to middle-aged hell. Between 2016-2021, I averaged 44 books per year.</p><p> Every year I resolve to get my reading numbers back up, and every year I fail for various reasons, but it's okay. I re-read a great deal, and those books don't go onto my list, so I <b>am</b> still reading. It's still a joy, whether I pick up a library book, open a Kindle book on my phone, or pull a comfortable, beat-up oldie from my shelf.</p><p>I record and rate my books on <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/">GoodReads</a>. The five-star books from the first ten years (2007-2016) of my record-keeping are listed here on my blog: <a href="https://jscrappy.blogspot.com/2016/12/five-star-fiction.html"><b>fiction</b></a> and <b><a href="https://jscrappy.blogspot.com/2016/12/five-star-non-fiction.html">non-fiction</a>. </b></p><p>Here are the five-star reads from the past five years (2017-2021.)</p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Fiction:</span></b></p><p><b>Good Morning, Midnight</b> by Lily Brooks-Dalton<br /><b>News of the World</b> by Paulette Jiles<br /><b>The Weight of Ink</b> by Rachel Kadish<br /><b>The Hate U Give</b> by Angie Thomas<br /><b>The Poisonwood Bible</b> by Barbara Kingsolver<br /><b>America's First Daughter</b> by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie<br /><b>How To Stop Time</b> by Matt Haig<br /><b>Salt Houses</b> by Hala Alyan<br /><b>The Tubman Command</b> by Elizabeth Cobbs<br /><b>The Lost Man</b> by Jane Harper<br /><b>The Great Believers</b> by Rebecca Makkai<br /><b>Virgil Wander</b> by Leif Enger<br /><b>The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue</b> by V.E. Schwab<br /><b>The Distant Dead</b> by Heather Young<br /><b>The Last Time I Lied</b> by Riley Sager<br /><b>The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires</b> by Grady HEndrix<br /><b>Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison</b> by Lois Lenski<br /><b>Envious Casca</b> by Georgette Heyer<br /><b>The Nature of Fragile Things</b> by Susan Meissner<br /><b>The House in the Cerulean Sea</b> by T.J. Klune<br /><b>The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep</b> by H.G. Parry<br /><b>Hamnet</b> by Maggie O'Farrell<br /><b>V for Victory</b> by Lissa Evans<br /><b>Apples Never Fall</b> by Liane Moriarty<br /><b>The Reading List</b> by Sara Nisha Adams</p><p><br /></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Non-Fiction:</span></b></p><p><b>King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa</b> by Adam Hochschild<br /><b>Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson</b> by Jeff Guinn<br /><b>High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic</b> by Glenn Frankel<br /><b>What Is The Bible?</b> by Rob Bell<br /><b>Altamont: The Rolling Stones the Hells Angels and the Inside Story of Rock's Darkest Day</b> by Joel Selvin<br /><b>The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women</b> by Kate Moore<br /><b>If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat</b> by John Ortberg<br /><b>The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family</b> by Annette Gordon-Reed<br /><b>The Captured: A True Story of Abduction by Indians on the Texas Frontier</b> by Scott Zesch and Grover Gardner<br /><b>American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst</b> by Jeffery Toobin<br /><b>Calypso</b> by David Sedaris<br /><b>Slaves in the Family</b> by Edward Ball<br /><b>The Novel of the Century: The Extraordinary Adventures of <i>Les Miserables</i></b> by David Bellos<br /><b>Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again</b> by Rachel Held Evans<br /><b>Tender At the Bone: Growing Up at the Table</b> by Ruth Reichl<br /><b>Stories From Jonestown</b> by Leigh Fondakowski<br /><b>The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World</b> by A.J. Baime<br /><b>Once You Go In: A Memoir of Radical Faith</b> by Carly Gelsinger<br /><b>Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley</b> by Charlotte Gordon<br /><b>The Library Book</b> by Susan Orlean<br /><b>The Mirage Factory: Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles</b> by Gary Krist<br /><b>Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family</b> by Robert Kolker<br /><b>Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder</b> by Caroline Fraser<br /><b>This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing</b> by Jacqueline Winspear<br /><b>The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock: An Anatomy of the Master of Suspense</b> by Edward White<br /><b>Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage</b> by Anne Lamott<br /><b>Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times</b> by Katherine May</p><p><br /><br />In the past fifteen years, I have read 1,556 books. And 179 of those were five-star reads, the best and most memorable and most compelling. I always feel excited when a new year approaches and I wonder what wonderful new books will consume me. I can't wait to find them!<br /><br /></p><p><br /></p>Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-6987452573584635292017-10-31T11:00:00.003-04:002017-10-31T11:00:40.929-04:00Halloween cards.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-42977206026653184572017-04-22T11:21:00.001-04:002017-04-22T11:21:31.154-04:00Cards.I dug into my enormous stash of Anna Griffin supplies and made a bunch of cards last night for some of my spring and summertime birthday and holiday needs.<br />
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<br />Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-9865912590252372682016-12-20T18:13:00.003-05:002016-12-20T18:14:10.529-05:00Fourteen through seventeen.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-88580592409186721532016-12-14T23:14:00.000-05:002016-12-14T23:24:42.385-05:00Nine thru thirteen.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-88145724180530623402016-12-10T00:59:00.000-05:002016-12-10T00:59:07.736-05:00Statistics, odds and ends.So in a couple of weeks my ten years of reading will be over and I'll start a new year. In ten years' time, I have read 1,358 books (and will hopefully add at least one more to the total before December 31.)<br />
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The year in which I read the most books was 2008: 168 books. This was the year after I joined <a href="http://www.paperbackswap.com/index.php">Paperback Swap</a>, and I was reading and trading maniacally. (I was a member for six or seven years, and then I came to a point where the books I wanted to read were not the ones being traded any more. But I found some fantastic books through that site.)<br />
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The year in which I read the least books was this year, 2016. Right now my total stands at 69. One reason for this enormous drop-off (I have always easily broken 100 books every other year) was too much time spent following politics online, and another reason was an unrealized need for progressive lenses. I started reading more once I could see better!<br />
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I don't set reading goals. I like to let my desires and interests take me where they will. But I really do hope to do better than 69 books next year. I suspect reading will be a good escape in the midst of whatever 2017 holds.<br />
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I've listed my good reads, now what about my bad reads? I don't have a lot of one-star books on my list, because if a book is that bad, I usually just don't finish it. I have no qualms about dropping a book--or drop-kicking it! Several one- and two-star books loom large, though:<br />
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<b>The Elegance of the Hedgehog</b>, Muriel Barbery<br />
<b>Empire</b>, Orson Scott Card<br />
<b>The Ladies of Missalonghi</b>, Colleen McCullough<br />
<b>Little Bee</b>, Chris Cleave<br />
<b>The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte</b>, James Tully<br />
<b>A Handful of Dust</b>, Evelyn Waugh<br />
<b>The Astronaut Wives' Club</b>, Lily Koppel<br />
<b>Olive Kitteridge</b>, Elizabeth Strout<br />
<b>The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane</b>, Katherine Howe<br />
<b>The Storied Life of A.J Fikry</b>, Gabrielle Zevin<br />
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These all went past merely bad into the realm of actively pissing me off, for being poorly plotted, under-researched, and/or just plain obnoxious. Fortunately, these books are fairly rare.<br />
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I'm excited to see what great reads await me in the next ten years!<br />
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<br />Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-27506844805032696402016-12-08T19:51:00.003-05:002016-12-08T23:26:08.230-05:00Seven and Eight.Here's my little snowman tart warmer I picked up at JoAnn's on Black Friday. I've always been a candle girl, and am new to the tart warmer, but I think I'm hooked.<br />
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And I took a close-up of our little tabletop tree. I got red tartan plaid bows at JoAnn's in the same Black Friday sale, so I decided to do the tree in red and gold. This required picking up some gold ornaments, gold snowflakes, red berry clusters and what not. The tree has red and white lights. And a big dark red bow on top. I don't love it like I did last year's, but it's quite pretty.<br />
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<br />Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-61028853552859688172016-12-08T13:53:00.004-05:002016-12-08T13:53:57.429-05:00Also-rans, non-fiction.Four-star non-fiction reads are still pretty awesome. Here are some of the ones I still remember and think about.<br />
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<b>Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall and Redemption of Brian Wilson</b>, Peter Ames Carlin</div>
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<b>The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio</b>, Terry Ryan</div>
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<b>The Glass Castle</b>, Jeannette Walls</div>
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<b>The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic</b>, Steven Johnson</div>
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<b>The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid</b>, Bill Bryson</div>
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<b>An Autobiography</b>, Agatha Christie</div>
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<b>Picasso's War: The Destruction of Guernica and the Masterpiece that Changed the World</b>, Russell Martin</div>
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<b>Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock-and-Roll's Legendary Neighborhood</b>, Michael Walker</div>
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<b>The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the End of the First Millennium</b>, Robert Lacey</div>
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<b>Never Have Your Dog Stuffed, and Other Things I've Learned</b>, Alan Alda</div>
<div>
<b>Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams</b>, Gary Giddons</div>
<div>
<b>The Perfect Summer: Dancing Into Shadow in 1911</b>, Juliet Nicolson</div>
<div>
<b>Travel As a Political Act</b>, Rick Steves</div>
<div>
<b>The Lincolns in the White House: Four Years That Shattered a Family</b>, Jerrold M. Packard</div>
<div>
<b>King, Kaiser, Tsar: Three Royal Cousins Who Led the World to War</b>, Catrine Clay</div>
<div>
<b>Richmond Burning: The Last Days of the Confederate Capital</b>, Nelson D. Lankford</div>
<div>
<b>Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife</b>, Francine Prose</div>
<div>
<b>The Day We Found the Universe</b>, Marcia Bartusiak</div>
<div>
<b>About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made</b>, Ben Yagoda</div>
<div>
<b>Bossypants</b>, Tina Fey</div>
<div>
<b>Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter</b>, Randy L. Schmidt</div>
<div>
<b>Philip and Elizabeth: Portrait of a Royal Marriage</b>, Gyles Brandreth</div>
<div>
<b>Van Gogh: The Life</b>, Steven Naifeh</div>
<div>
<b>Vita and Harold: The Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, 1910-1962</b>, Nigel Nicolson</div>
<div>
<b>A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception and Survival at Jonestown</b>, Julia Scheeres</div>
<div>
<b>The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend</b>, Glenn Frankel</div>
<div>
<b>The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece</b>, Anne-Marie O'Connor</div>
<div>
<b>The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah," </b>Alan Light</div>
<div>
<b>A Sting in the Tale: My Adventures with Bumblebees</b>, Dave Goulson</div>
<div>
<b>Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital</b>, Sheri Fink</div>
<div>
<b>One Summer: America, 1927</b>, Bill Bryson</div>
<div>
<b>The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things</b>, Paula Byrne</div>
<div>
<b>Digging for Richard III: The Search for the Lost King</b>, Mike Pitts</div>
<div>
<b>Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World</b>, Claire Harman</div>
<div>
<b>The Stranger Beside Me</b>, Ann Rule</div>
<div>
<b>Lady Bird and Lyndon: The Hidden Story of a Marriage That Made a President</b>, Betty Caroli</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-39826204577333110122016-12-08T01:01:00.003-05:002016-12-08T19:52:13.668-05:00Five and six.I'm getting behind in my journal because I'm having some snafus with my photo developing place. (Wal-Mart, of which I shall never darken the door again.) Here's the Christmas card we are sending to family and friends this year. (I had to chop it up to fit it on the page.)<br />
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And here's yesterday's entry, just a couple lines on the horrible weather and the coziness of having a tidy, dry, warm home. I put some tiny doilies on it to connote coziness!<br />
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<br />Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-86478696155640430992016-12-07T12:56:00.004-05:002016-12-07T12:56:57.858-05:00Also-rans, fiction.Looking back over my ten years of reading lists, there are many, many 4-star books. That's probably the largest category. And if I were to go back and re-read some of them, some would probably become 5-star books. And vice-versa.<br />
<br />
These are some of the fiction books I rated with 4 stars. I've picked the ones that really stand out in my mind as special and memorable, even years later.<br />
<br />
<b>The Red Tent</b>, Anita Diamant<br />
<b>Middlesex</b>, Jeffrey Eugenides<br />
<b>The Daughter of Time</b>, Josephine Tey<br />
<b>Cold Comfort Farm</b>, Stella Gibbons<br />
<b>Water For Elephants</b>, Sara Gruen<br />
<b>The Art of Detection</b>, Laurie R. King<br />
<b>Gilead</b>, Marilynne Robinson<br />
<b>Those Who Save Us</b>, Jenna Blum<br />
<b>The Portable Dorothy Parker</b>, Dorothy Parker<br />
<b>We Have Always Lived in the Castle</b>, Shirley Jackson<br />
<b>Under the Dome</b>, Stephen King<br />
<b>Ahab's Wife</b>, Sena Jeter Naslund<br />
<b>The Help</b>, Kathryn Stockett<br />
<b>People of the Book</b>, Geraldine Brooks<br />
<b>Dissolution</b>, C.J. Sansom<br />
<b>Dark Fire</b>, C.J. Sansom<br />
<b>Sovereign</b>, C.J. Sansom<br />
<b>Revelation</b>, C.J.Sansom<br />
<b>Homeland</b>, Barbara Hambly<br />
<b>Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter</b>, Seth Grahame-Smith<br />
<b>The Remains of the Day</b>, Kazuo Ishiguro<br />
<b>The Haunting of Hill House</b>, Shirley Jackson<br />
<b>Mrs. Dalloway</b>, Virginia Woolf<br />
<b>11/22/63</b>, Stephen King<br />
<b>The Language of Flowers</b>, Vanessa Diffenbaugh<br />
<b>The House Next Door</b>, Anne Rivers Siddons<br />
<b>Stettin Station</b>, David Downing<br />
<b>The Rose Garden</b>, Susanna Kearsley<br />
<b>Needful Things</b>, Stephen King<br />
<b>How It All Began</b>, Penelope Lively<br />
<b>The Blue Castle</b>, L.M. Montgomery<br />
<b>Atonement</b>, Iam McEwan<br />
<b>Little Dorrit</b>, Charles DIckens<br />
<b>Harvest Home</b>, Thomas Tryon<br />
<b>Brat Farrar</b>, Josephine Tey<br />
<b>The Ivy Tree</b>, Mary Stewart<br />
<b>The Dog Stars</b>, Peter Heller<br />
<b>The End-of-the-World Running Club</b>, Adrian J. Walker<br />
<b>Lincoln</b>, Gore Vidal<br />
<b>The Anchoress</b>, Robin Cadwallader<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Items of note: </div>
<div>
The four books by C.J. Sansom are the first four in his Matthew Shardlake series, about a crippled lawyer in Tudor England. Sansom really captures the fear and dread of living in the time when Henry VIII was embarking on the destruction of the Catholic Church in England.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Brat Farrar and The Ivy Tree appear next to each other in the order I read them...Tey's story came first, and Mary Stewart wrote her own gender-swapped version a few years later. This is a tale of assumed identity and inheritance, lots of fun in both versions.</div>
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Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-53475600777694953952016-12-06T19:37:00.001-05:002016-12-12T19:32:51.507-05:00Five-star Non-fiction.<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I read more non-fiction than fiction, and I generally enjoy it more, too. (There is SO MUCH bad fiction out there!) As my list shows, I like historical non-fiction and biographies/memoirs. Here are my five-star non-fiction reads from 2007-2016.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>My Life in France</b>, Julia Child</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>American Dust Bowl</b>, Timothy Egan</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life</b>, Amy Tan</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading: Finding and Losing Myself in Books</b>, Maureen Corrigan</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton: The First Domestic Goddess</b>, Kathryn <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Hughes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Books</b>, Aaron Lansky</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War</b>, Tony Hurwitz</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Greatness</b>, Joshua Wolf Shenk</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare</b>, Stephen Greenblatt</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World</b>, Lawrence Goldstone</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Children's Blizzard</b>, David Laskin</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>One For the Road: An Outback Adventure</b>, Tony Hurwitz</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before</b>, Tony Hurwitz</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness</b>, Karen Armstrong</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Through the Narrow Gate: A Memoir of Spiritual Discovery</b>, Karen Armstrong</span><br />
<b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Pagan Holiday: On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, Tony Perrottet</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million</b>, Daniel Mendelsohn</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Mornings on Horseback</b>, David McCullough</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Inextinguishable Symphony: A True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany</b>, <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Martin Goldsmith</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire</b>, Alex von Tunzelmann</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: A Jewish Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>New World</b>, Lucette Lagnado</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Charleston: A Bloomsbury House and Garden</b>, Quentin Bell</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father</b>, John Matteson</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Everybody Was So Young: A Lost Generation Love Story</b>, Amanda Vaill</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Reading Like a Writer</b>, Francine Prose</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos</b>, Jennet <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Conant</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazis, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century</b>, Edward Dolnick</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto</b>, Joan Reardon</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918</b>, Adam Hochschild</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks</b>, Rebecca Skloot</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University</b>, Kevin <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Roose</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption</b>, Laura</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Hillenbrand</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration</b>, Isabel Wilkerson</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Island At the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Forgotten Colony That Shaped America</b> , Russell Shorto</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Talking With My Mouth Full: Crab Cakes, Bundt Cakes, and Other Kitchen Stories</b>, <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Bonny Wolf</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind: A Bestseller's Odyssey from Atlanta to <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Hollywood</b>, Ellen F. Brown</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective</b>, Kate Summerscale</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Martha Washington: First Lady of Liberty</b>, Helen Bryan</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation</b>, Andrea Wulf</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr and the International <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Hunt for His Assassin</b>, Hampton Sides</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>You're Not Doing It Right: Tales of Marriage, Sex, Death and Other Humiliations</b>, <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Michael Ian Black</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Nothing To Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea</b>, Barbara Demick</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Twain's Feast: Searching for America's Lost Foods in the Footsteps of Samuel</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Clemens</b>, Andrew Beahrs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley</b>, Peter Guralnick</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley</b>, Peter Guralnick</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Under a Wing: A Memoir</b>, Reeve Lindbergh</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>My Father's Paradise: A Son's Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq, </b>Ariel Sabar</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II</b>, Keith Lowe</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief</b>, Lawrence Wright</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey</b>, Candice Millard</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President</b>, <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Candice Millard</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Johnny Cash: The Life</b>, Robert Hilburn</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra</b>, <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Helen Rappaport</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Wright Brothers</b>, David McCullough</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Sinatra: The Chairman</b>, James Kaplan</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania</b>, Erik Larson</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World</b>, <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Matthew Goodman</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson</b>, S.C. Gwynne</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love and War</b>, Annia Ciezadlo</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Tea With Jane Austen</b>, Kim Wilson</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Olympics</b>, Daniel James Brown</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>I Must Say: My Life As a Humble Comedy Legend</b>, Martin Short</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came To Be and Why It Endures</b>, Maureen <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Corrigan</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Paris Without End: The True Story of Hemingway's First Wife</b>, Gioia Diliberto</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>How To Be a Tudor: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Tudor Life</b>, Ruth Goodman</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the World</b>, Paul Collins</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Jane Austen's Country Life</b>, Deirdre Le Faye</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride</b>, Daniel <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>James Brown</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography</b>, Laura Ingalls Wilder</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter</b>, Kate Clifford Larson</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life</b>, Ruth Franklin</span><br />
<br />
<br />Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-80020156960822413072016-12-05T15:06:00.001-05:002016-12-07T13:00:07.610-05:00Five-Star Fiction.<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">As this year comes to an end, I am also coming to the end of a 10-year period of recording every book I read. I started in January 2007, and it has been a really fun and rewarding pastime--and helpful, too, as I become more forgetful about what I have and haven't read!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I want to spend the next few days talking about the stats and details of what I have read in ten years' time. I record my books at <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/">GoodReads</a>, and while I don't review them, I do rate them on their five-star system.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I am really picky about the fiction I read. And I read a lot of disappointing fiction. So for me to give a book five stars...it has to be wonderful. Now I have to say that some of these books have really stuck with me over the years, and others are barely memorable to me now. But I felt "five-star-ish" about each one of these when I finished it!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here are my five-star fiction books from 2007-2016.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>March</i></b>, Geraldine Brooks</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Emancipator's Wife</i></b>, Barbara Hambly</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>Year of Wonders</i></b>, Geraldine Broooks</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>First Among Sequels</i></b>, Jasper Fforde</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>Thus Was Adonis Murdered</i></b>, Sarah Caudwell</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Shortest Way to Hades</i></b>, Sarah Caudwell</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Sirens Sang of Murder</i></b>, Sarah Caudwell</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Sibyl in Her Grave</i></b>, Sarah Caudwell</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>Above Suspicion</i></b>, Helen MacInnes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>Alas, Babylon</i></b>, Pat Frank</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Constant Princess</i></b>, Philippa Gregory</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>River of Darkness</i></b>, Rennie Airth</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>Moloka'i</i></b>, Alan Brennert</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Widow's War</i></b>, Sally Cabot Gunning</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Book Thief</i></b>, Markus Zusak</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>Mistress of the Art of Death</i></b>, Ariana Franklin</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Great Gatsby</i></b>, F. Scott Fitzgerald</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Given Day</i></b>, Dennis Lehane</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>City of Shadows</i></b>, Ariana Franklin</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>Major Pettigrew's Last Stand</i></b>, Helen Simonson</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>Marvels</i></b>, Kurt Busiek</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>Alice I Have Been</i></b>, Melanie Benjamin</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>Queen Lucia</i></b>, E. F. Benson</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>What Alice Forgot</i></b>, Liane Moriarty</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon</i></b>, Stephen King</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Shining</i></b>, Stephen King</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Age of Miracles</i></b>, Karen Thompson Walker</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Art of Fielding</i></b>, Chad Harbach</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>All the King's Men</i></b>, Robert Penn Warren</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>Doc</i></b>, Mary Doria Russell</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Cuckoo's Calling</i></b>, Robert Galbraith</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Husband's Secret</i></b>, Liane Moriarty</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The End of the Wasp Season</i></b>, Denise Mina</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>Crow Lake</i></b>, Mary Lawson</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Aviator's Wife</i></b>, Melanie Benjamin</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry</i></b>, Rachel Joyce</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Hypnotist's Love Story</i></b>, Liane Moriarty</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Light Between Oceans</i></b>, M.L. Stedman</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Center of Everything</i></b>, Laura Moriarty</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>Station Eleven</i></b>, Emily St. John Mandel</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>All the Light We Cannot See</i></b>, Anthony Doerr</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>Gone Girl</i></b>, Gillian Flynn</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>Mind of Winter</i></b>, Laura Kasischke</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>Those Who Wish Me Dead</i></b>, Michael Koryta</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Invention of Wings</i></b>, Sue Monk Kidd</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>Life After Life</i></b>, Kate Atkinson</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>Duel: Terror Stories</i></b>, Richard Matheson</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>Endless Night</i></b>, Agatha Christie</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Girl With All the Gifts</i></b>, M.R. Carey</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>Big Little Lies</i></b>, Liane Moriarty</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Song of Hartgrove Hall</i></b>, Natasha Solomons</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>The Swans of Fifth Avenue</i></b>, Melanie Benjamin</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><b><i>Ross Poldark</i></b>, Winston Graham</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <b><i>The Wild Girl</i></b>, Kate Forsyth</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <b><i>Descent</i></b>, Tim Johnston</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> <b><i>Miller's Valley</i></b>, Anna Quindlen</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Items of note:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The four books by Sarah Caudwell are, sadly, the first and only four books of her Hilary Tamar mystery series. She passed away before she could write more. If you are an Anglophile, if you like wordy, smart-alecky protagonists, and if you secretly think you're smarter than most of those around you...this is a series you will enjoy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-88124772958901839822016-12-04T23:40:00.003-05:002016-12-04T23:40:36.073-05:00Planning.I've never put a December calendar in my JYC album before; this seemed like a good year to do that, as it will be a busy month. I'll add things as they pop up, too.<br />
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<br />Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-78236875268290893692016-12-03T10:03:00.002-05:002016-12-03T14:13:44.810-05:00Waiting and receiving.For December 2, the theme is generally Advent-related, although as always, class participants are able to stretch the idea as far and wide as they choose. I generally do stick to Advent, since that has been an important part of many Christmases for me, and I decided to use the cover of my Advent devotional for this year. It's a really good one so far.<br />
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December 3 is about a remembered special gift. Gifts are one of my love languages, and I often do remember things I've given and things I've received, but Christmas gifts are a little hazy in my memory. Plus, I've written about most of the stand-out gifts in past journals. But yesterday, the memory of a certain coveted pleated blue tartan plaid skirt came into my mind! I've lost contact with the friend who gave it to me, but I hope she remembers it fondly, too, and the times we wore our matching skirts to church.<br />
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<br />Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-87570189498403736562016-12-01T15:03:00.003-05:002016-12-01T15:04:17.929-05:00Journal Your Christmas 2016.This will be my tenth mini Christmas album, done under the auspices of scrapbooker Shimelle Laine's Journal Your Christmas class. Every year's album is different, but every year's process is the same: start off with a bang on December 1, and then abandon it somewhere around December 21 (usually when we go home to Ohio for the holiday.) Then when we come back, I am completely over Christmas and end up grudgingly finishing up the last pages sometime the following December.<br />
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This year has proven to be no different, so far...I am trying to finish the December 21-25 pages from 2013 and 2015. (I didn't do a 2014 album, or I am sure I'd be patching up that one, too.)<br />
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We're heading for Ohio again this year on December 22. I'm going to try to do better this year and get the dang book done after Christmas!<br />
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December 1st's entry is focused on a "manifesto"--I don't go quite that militant in my approach. This year I want my focus to be hope. I struggle with hopelessness quite a lot in my life, and the past several weeks (post-election) have been extra-hard. I know that many of the people around me are struggling, too. Last year I wanted to be a blessing to others during the Christmas season, and this year I want to "be joyful in hope" and spread some of that around as best I can.<br />
<br />Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-37867555565031288622016-11-29T03:44:00.000-05:002016-11-29T04:00:18.753-05:00Sweetness.I've spent an hour or so tonight updating this blog, removing old links, cleaning up posts and changing the template and style a little bit. Insomnia really helps one get meaningless tasks done.<br />
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I haven't blogged regularly in more than five years, mostly using my blog as a photo hosting site for various projects. Lately I've been feeling a desire to journal or write my thoughts down somewhere; I've looked at journals to buy and wondered if I was ready to actually write again. Coming here to my blog to get it ready for this year's Journal Your Christmas entries, it seems obvious that this is the place to do that once again.<br />
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The past three years have had a great many pains for me and for some of the people that I love. I've been wondering if this is the middle-aged turning point, where your friends begin to get ill, where you start going to more funerals, where your body makes creaks and pains it didn't before, where change seems to happen far more quickly than you're prepared for. I turned 46 a month ago. I was 34 when I started this blog. I've become a different person in many ways, sanded down at the edges, softer and more loving, and a little more hopeless sometimes, too.<br />
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I'm hoping that the thoughts will begin to flow again and that I can start capturing more moments that I want to remember. I have lost a lot to forgetfulness in the past couple of years and I can't afford to do that.<br />
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We spent Thanksgiving in Ohio with Todd's family, and did our Christmas celebrating at the same time. My niece Gianna mentioned that she had never baked and decorated cutout sugar cookies before (despite being an eager baker), so we gave that a try on Friday night.<br />
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I didn't have my tried-and-true sugar cookie recipe with me; it only exists in a printout in my recipe binder, nowhere online. So we used a well-rated recipe from Allrecipes, which I can't find or I would link it. It was pretty good. We rolled the cookies out using powdered sugar instead of flour, since the dough was not very sweet. I think that helped the taste. Gianna made a big batch of royal icing, which I had never used before, and we made a bunch of colors and squeezed them out of ziploc bags. The icing was hard to control, but the end effect was pretty amazing. (I usually use a powdered sugar + milk frosting which doesn't give the polished look of royal icing.)<br />
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Gianna and Evelyn mastered it almost immediately and made really creative cookies, using toothpicks to create feathered and swirled effects. Anna, who is a bit of a perfectionist, got frustrated early on and went to watch a Hallmark Christmas movie with Grammy. I just love baking with these girls and seeing how their skills grow. When we were together for the Fourth of July we made our traditional Flag Cake, and I hardly had to help them at all--a far cry from the first year we did it, when they were young grade-schoolers, and I was running ragged trying to divide up the tasks evenly and help them each step of the way! That was in 2009. Gianna told me this weekend that Flag Cake is one of her great childhood memories (at the ripe old age of 15) and that made me happy.<br />
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Here's my tried-and-true sugar cookie recipe:<br />
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Eva's Sugar Cookies<br />
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2 cups unsalted butter, softened<br />
2 cups sugar<br />
3 eggs<br />
2 tsp. vanilla<br />
1 tsp almond extract<br />
6 cups flour<br />
1 tsp. baking soda<br />
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In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, vanilla and almond extract until light and fluffy. In another bowl, combine flour and baking soda and add gradually to butter and sugar mixture until combined, Bake in preheated 350-degree oven on parchment-lined sheets for 8-10 minutes until light brown at the edges.<br />
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This makes 12 dozen cookies, a ridiculous amount, so I usually halve the recipe. I use one extra-large egg as "half" of the three eggs. And I put a few drops of almond extract in the icing, too.<br />
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<br />Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-43339755839057630072015-12-17T17:12:00.001-05:002016-11-30T18:47:42.485-05:00Journal Your Christmas 2015<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-16927275401285606792014-09-02T01:02:00.001-04:002016-11-29T02:23:26.126-05:00Bible journaling.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-78232209083127212862014-08-30T13:01:00.001-04:002016-11-29T02:23:56.464-05:00Bible journaling.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-84816105547755163202014-08-26T17:02:00.001-04:002014-08-26T19:06:20.886-04:00Journaling Bible.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-13944836371772898042014-01-08T16:58:00.000-05:002016-11-29T02:24:55.132-05:00Little me.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-44120131615039892052013-12-03T12:48:00.001-05:002016-11-29T02:25:36.999-05:00JYC 2013.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-62049753427168702992013-11-11T12:44:00.004-05:002013-11-11T12:44:47.032-05:0030 Days of Thankfulness.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-1509997657853737882013-09-16T13:48:00.001-04:002013-09-16T13:48:38.890-04:00Cards.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13266440.post-72909593140021955592013-09-11T18:10:00.000-04:002013-09-11T18:10:44.961-04:00Flowers.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14776732256533621007noreply@blogger.com0