random reflections

Best Books of 2016

Last year was the first full year that I kept track of my books on Goodreads. Previously, I used Shelfari, but they closed the site down and sent all of us to Goodreads. It was a frustrating transition. I finally got most of my books moved over, but it was impossible to get all the dates correct. I've gotten used to Goodreads, but never really liked it as much as Shelfari until the end of the year when they posted my end of the year stats. My goal for 2016 was to read 36 books (3 books/month). I read 10 m0re than that; probably a record since I started keeping track of what I read in 1986. The number of pages was rather impressive, too---14,330. Reading the Bible cover to cover last year did add a significant number of pages to the total. 

So, what can I recommend? I left the Bible out of the running, since it's a rather daunting undertaking. Very glad I did it; learned a lot, and am surprised at how much I remember when references to it come up, but not something most people are interested in pursuing.

The first book I read in 2016 was one of my favorites: 10% Happier by Dan Harris. My OLW last year was Mindful, and Dan's book about his exploration of mindfulness and mediation after having experienced a panic attack while reading the news on Good Morning, America was a great read. It's funny, insightful, and has one of the better lists of meditation practices that I read last year. 

When Breath Becomes Air was a devastating, but significant, read. One of the most important books I've ever read was Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. Kalanithi's diagnosis of terminal cancer just as he was completing his residency in neurosurgery shares the same philosophy about end of life issues as Gawande, also a neurosurgeon. Despite it's tragic end, it's an uplifting book, and beautifully written.

Our book group chose Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking to discuss last year. One of our members felt the research was just too encompassing (it's nearly 400 pages long), but I found it fascinating. I learned a lot about myself, and about both of my children.

I read a library copy of Convictions last year, and will reread it again this year since I now have my own copy. It made me think hard about what I believe and why. I'm not done thinking about this book or my convictions. It was probably the most thought-provoking book I read last year.

The couple that hosts our book group is responsible for putting out three titles from which the group chooses the next book. This is one Tracy and I proposed that did not get chosen, but I thought it was better than the one we read for book group---The Muralist by Shapiro. It's well researched, but clearly a novelized account of Georgia O'Keefe's life. Very readable, and fascinating.

This was another book that wasn't chosen by our book group. It's only the second book by Alice Hoffman that I've read. (She's prolific.) It's another fascinating novel based on a true story. It's about the mother of Camille Pissaro, one of the first of the Impressionists. His mother grew up on St. Thomas, an idyllic island, but one that thwarted her desires and ambitions. It provides an evocative look at the small Jewish refugee community on the island as well as the passionate and scandalous love affair of Pissaro's parents.

I'll read anything written by Ann Patchett. Her novel, Bel Canto, remains one of my all-time favorite novels. I thoroughly enjoyed Commonwealth, although I found it a bit harder to read due to a narrative that jumps back and forth in time over 50 years, chronically two families, bonded by the affair and eventual marriage of two of the parents. I started reading it on my Kindle, but ended up getting a library copy so it was easier to flip back and forth. Once I had a hard copy in my hands, it was a much easier read, and as always, well-written.

This was one of the last books I read in 2016, but I loved it, and wrote about it here. The even divide between non-fiction and fiction is pretty typical of a year of reading for me. I probably read a bit more non-fiction overall, but when I thought about the best books of the year, it turned out to be an even-split.

What were your favorite reads last year? I'm always looking for recommendations even though my "to read" list has more books on it than I have time to read. I keep moving them around, adding new ones, picking up another title at the library, and finding new interests.

A Big Project and a Smaller One

A Big Project

As 2016 draws to a close, I’ve been thinking about my One Little Word for 2017 and what I might want to accomplish. I’ve also started looking back at the intentions I set for 2016 as well.

The biggest project I set for myself this year was to read the Bible cover to cover. Several years ago, my brother-in-law casually mentioned that he had read the Bible cover to cover twice. It made me realize that what I knew of the Bible pretty much came from Sunday School as a child, and the weekly Lectionary readings at church. The following June, I purchase the NRVS Daily Bible and put it on a shelf. It sat there for a year and a half.

This year I read it. Little did I know that it would prompt much additional reading and study as the text raised many questions. I ended up reading, by my count, five additional books and parts of many others as well as taking “Introduction to the Old Testament” at the University of Rochester, and reading the textbook for that class. It was worth the time. I have a new appreciation for The Bible and it’s place in history and influence on so much of classical literature. And it’s propelled me along on my personal faith journey. Today I finished, and I’m wondering which book to pick up next for my morning reading time. I have a long list from which to choose!

Since it’s related in theme, I thought I’d also share a Christmas gift I made for a friend. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t read my blog, but in case, I waited to share it until she received it yesterday.

It's very similar in concept to the Valentine gift I gave her and my granddaughter last year. The little church is from Papertrey Ink's Petite Places line, and the path, trees, and lightpost are from the same line, "Walk in the Park." The glittery snow is from Art Glitter, "Faux Snow." The jar came from Michael's. Yesterday was a perfect day to give the gift although the snow here is anything but "faux." We've been hit with three bands of lake effect snow in the last few days, and although it's beautiful, it's been bitterly cold, and the roads have been treacherous at times. I never left the house on Thursday. By yesterday the roads were pretty clear, but this morning they are snow-covered again.

Here's a better look at the scene inside the globe. My friend was happy to have a more seasonal version of the candy jar, and expects to put some greenery and a battery-operated votive candle in it when the candy is gone. Think I'll try that, too, if I get one made for myself.

A Bookish Birthday

Yesterday was one of my college friend's birthday. Since mine was last week, we typically celebrate together which we did with another college friend a week ago. When I was in New Orleans I picked up two bookmarks for them at the Faulkner Book Store just off Jackson Square.It's an utterly charming shop, and Susan and I bought a book to share called Read This! Handpicked Favorites from America's Indie Bookstores. You can see Tracy (in the hat) and my sister-in-law, Susan, looking at a book. She took our joint book home with her, and I got it on Mother's Day to keep until July when the family gets together on Honeoye Lake.

Since I already had a bookmark for my friend, I decided a gift certificate to Barnes & Noble was in order. I recently got a new set of dies from My Favorite Things that creates a card front that lifts up. I knew when I saw it released that I could put it to good use.

I masked off the outer frame and used Simon Say's "Tiny Alphabet" background stamp on the flap. The other stamps are from Papertrey Ink's "All Booked Up," a set I've used over and over again for card making, gift wrapping, and scrapbooking. The banner and the circles that hold the twine are also part of the MFT die set.

And this is what you see when you lift the flap. The card is held down with the sticky "stuff" they use to attach it to the B&N gift card enclosure. Worked like a charm. 

My Month in Numbers (And more 'gators for Lady Ella)

For the last several years, I've wanted to join in with Julie Kirk and her month in numbers project. Earlier this year, she and I had a lovely email exchange about the project, but I never seem to be able to keep track of things. Since we were traveling a lot in March, I thought there'd be some interesting numbers, and started a list on my Notes app on the iPhone. Today I finally had time to count up some of the other numbers so here they are:

We drove 4,068 miles in March. That doesn't count the trip from Chicago back to Rochester since that happened in April. We drove through 12 states (PA, NY, MD, WV, Vir, SC, NC, GA, FL, Ohio, IN, AND IL).

We spent 14 days on the beach at Longboat Key, and I walked 92,450 steps over 12 of those days---averaging slightly less than my goal of 10,000 steps each day. We went on 3 excursions while we were in Florida, and 1 in Chicago (The Art Institute) which makes for 4 total. I collected 103 coquina shells which you'll hear more about later.

In Florida we went to the Arcadia Rodeo, Myakka River State Park and the Ringling Museum.

The beautiful courtyard at The Ringling Art Museum

I've linked to some previous posts about those trips, but Lady Ella said she'd be interested in some more alligator photos (as long as she was warned--hence the title of the post) Counting the earlier photo, that makes 4 alligators photographed. I think we saw quite a few more.  

I thought you might also be interested in the air boat we were on for the tour around the lake.

 

We ate out 26 times in March. The top three meals were at The Waterfront on Anna Maria Island, Cotton & Rye in Savannah, GA, and The Gage in Chicago, but none were bad! We celebrated 1 birthday.

I took 589 photos but that doesn't include the many duplicates and out-of-focus photos I deleted as soon as I uploaded them. There are still too many to print or scrap, so there's much more sorting to do. I wrote 16 blog posts, which is way more than I usually manage while we're traveling. 

My goal this year is to read 36 books, which averages out to 3/month. When we travel, I usually do better than that since I can read in the car. I read 5 books in March, all of which I enjoyed.

My favorite of the five was When Breath Becomes Air, a beautifully written, tragic memoir written by a neurosurgeon who was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer at the end of his residency, and died within two years of the diagnosis. Although tragic, it is ultimately an uplifting book with much in common, philosophically, with Being Mortal which I've recommended to almost everyone.

 

My Top Ten Books of 2015

There are a lot of BEST OF lists on the internet, and I thought I'd post one of my own before January got away from me. I read 36 books in 2015. I'd be able to finish more if I gave up a hobby or two, or spent less time reading blogs, but this seems like the right amount for now---an average of three books a month. When we're traveling I usually get more reading done, so that helps average out the months when I'm home and overcommitted. What interests me the most about this list is that it's heavily fiction. Only three of the nineteen non-fiction books ended up on my top ten this year. I think that's unusual. So here they are, though not ranked in this list from #1 to #10. That was simply too hard.

This was one of our book group books this year, and although I wasn't particularly excited about reading it, I absolutely loved it. Even though I knew the outcome before I ever started reading the book, I was on the edge of my chair, rooting for the team in almost every race. I was fascinated by the popularity of crew in the 1930's. A good friend of mine's son races competitively (he recently placed in the Pan-American games) and there are not crowds of thousands lining up to watch those races today. I also enjoyed the descriptions of how the boats were built, though one member of our group found that too repetitive. 

I was a bit reluctant to read this book, but I'm so glad I did. I would love to be part of a discussion group about it; the issues and themes are so complex and so important. The first two sentences are: "Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet." A young Chinese American girl has died, and slowly we begin to see from each family member's recollections a picture of her life at home and at school. The subtle communication that parents give their children, sibling rivalry, parent favoritism, quiet but effective bullying at school---there's lots to think about in this novel.

I'm not quite sure how I came upon this book, but I've recommended it to many of my friends. It begins in a small town in Turkey where a man's grandfather has died. When he travels from Istanbul to the family home, he discovers that his grandfather has left the family estate to unknown stranger in California. His travels to find the heir uncover a long and tragic history as well as a powerful love story.

It had been a long time since I read an espionage novel, and this is an unusual, but engrossing one. It takes place over a dinner in California between a former CIA agent and a current CIA agent who was formerly a colleague. I had to reread the ending twice to be sure I had gotten it right!

I'm afraid I usually think of Kristen Hannah as an author of "beach books," but this one got so much press that I decided to read it. I could barely put it down. It's the story of two sisters in France during World War II separated by geography, ideology, and circumstance. It's a tale of survival and love at the home front and on the lines from two women's perspectives. I probably need to reconsider reading some of her other novels.

This book is also set during World War II in Germany and France. It was another of our book group choices, and everyone in our group loved it. It's a complicated story of a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths cross during the war. It's beautifully written, suspenseful, and ultimately a story of redemption and goodness.

I'd read a lot of good reviews of this book, and was reacquainted with it when we visited the Northshire Book Store in Vermont this fall and saw one of their review cards. Shortly afterward, I found it on the shelf in our library and picked it up. Colm Tóibín writes masterful character studies. You won't find a lot of action, but you'll come to love the characters as they navigate their lives. Nora is newly widowed, the mother of two young sons, and trying to find her place in a world suddenly unfamiliar to her.

Shortly after I finished Nora Webster, I was in a lovely independent book store in Winnetka, and purchased a copy of  Brooklyn. It begins in the same Irish village as Nora Webster, and takes place before Nora Webster. I liked this book just as much as Nora Webster, if not more, and was delighted to discover it was about to released as a movie. Tracy and I saw it a few weeks ago, and although the book is better (almost always true), it's a wonderful movie as well, and now has received several Oscar nominations. This one is ultimately a love story, and that is the focus of the movie. Read the book first!

I wrote a long blog post about this book earlier. It transformed my daily planning, and I'm still using all I learned. You can find that post here.

I loved Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project, and was very disappointed in her sequel, Happiness at Home so I wasn't too sure about reading her latest. I'm glad I did. I learned a bit about myself (always a good thing), and found the research about how we create habits, break habits, and maintain habits both fascinating and helpful.

I've spent the better part of two days (with help from Tracy and the Goodreads staff) trying to export all my books from Shelfari to Goodreads. Shelfari will cease to exist come March, so I have no choice. It's been quite a process. At one point, over 900 books showed up on my Goodreads account, most of which I'd never heard or, let alone read. Over 100 books migrated with no date read. I keep a written journal as well, so I can at least identify the year, and I'm almost done updating that. I'll be glad when it's done! I still have to figure out how to get the Goodreads' widget on my blog. I really like the Shelfari one, so I'm bummed about that.

I'd love to know some of the books you enjoyed in 2015.

Two Cards for Keep It Clean and Simple

I have two cards today for the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Keep It Clean and Simple. Most of my cards would fit this challenge, but these latest two---one for a friend's birthday and the other for a friend whose husband entered hospice are definitely CAS.

First the birthday card. I bought a new stamp set by Penny Black , "Blooming Garden," while we were away. When I first started stamping years ago, I owned a few wooden stamps by Penny Black, but this is my first acrylic set. It's all florals. I'm taking a watercolor card class that starts next week, and I think the images will be perfect for watercoloring.

I love these poppies, and this time I colored them using Copic markers. I added a little Wink of Stella glitter to them as well, but try as I might, I could not get it to show up in a photograph. The sentiment is also from a new stamp set I found in Chicago by Avery Elle called "Oh, Happy Day."  The font for these sentiments if very different from anything else I have.

The next card was inspired by this one Cristina created for last August's Papertrey Ink release of "Mum's the Word. "I started with an embossed flat card by Paper Source, and masked the border to stamp inside.

The mum was stamped once, and then again without reinking. The sentiment which seemed perfect for this sad occasion is combined from "Boutique Borders: Sympathy" and "Winter Hills." All three sets are by Papertrey Ink.

When I heard about our friend entering hospice, it occured to me that we always seem to have at least one friend or acquaintance with serious health concerns. It's probably a function of our age, but too many of them are younger than we are. I count my blessings every day, and continued good health is top on the list.

Storytelling Sunday: Better Late than Never

This is my second post of the day, but I wanted to get this episode of Storytelling Sunday up before the link closes on Sian's blog. I missed last month, and there are only two months left for this year's theme of "Pick Your Precious."

When the year began, I made a list of some precious things I knew I wanted to write about. These books were on that list, but I couldn't find them. This weekend we pulled out a huge box from the attic of the books I saved from my classroom library when I retired. I don't ever recall using these books at school, but I must have taken them there for some purpose. I'm delighted to have found them.

E. B. White has been a favorite author since I was a child. Stuart Little was published three years before I was born, but my copy was purchased in 1953. My mother's inscription indicates it was bought in Chicago, probably on one of the many trips we made between Kansas (where we lived) and our relatives in Ohio.

I was four years old when Charlotte's Web was published. Four seems a bit young for Charlotte's Web, but my father read The New Yorker every week, and E.B. White was regularly published there. Thanks to my father, I have a first edition copy.

My parents inscribed my name and often the date in every book they purchased for me, and I have tried to do the same for my children and grandchildren.

I wish I had inherited my mother's beautiful script handwriting! As important as these books are to me, what they represent more than anything is the love of reading my parents instilled in me. My father read aloud to us nearly every night, and continued to read articles and short stories aloud to me even when I was in my forties! 

Here's a scrapbook page I made a few years ago that celebrates that love.

And here, on this Christmas Journal page from 2008, is a photo of my father reading to my brother and me at Christmas time in our apartment in Hays, Kansas.

It's clear that Charlotte's Web needs a bit of repair and I need to investigate how to do that without ruining the value of the first edition, but it's never going to be sold. I know for sure, Sarah will be happy to acquire it for her already large collection of children's books. She's a more avid reader than I am, and Caleb's first phrase was, "read book." It's a good sign.

Another Bit 'O Green

I don't usually post more than one card for a challenge, but here's another one for Simon Says' Bit 'O Green Challenge. 

We have a St. Patrick's Day birthday in our house, so this is the perfect color for a birthday card. The sentiment came from the stamp set included in the January card kit from Simon Says. and the patterned paper was in the scrap folder. I hand-cut the smaller sentiment and bumped it out a bit with 3-D tape.

We're off this morning with our friends to Niagara-on-the-Lake. We'll purchase tickets for a show at the Shaw Festival for our annual fall weekend there, have lunch at The Irish Harp, and most likely, visit a couple of our favorite wineries. It will be good to be away for a day, and the forecast is for sunshine and warmer temperatures! Yay!

Pass the Book

It’s been very busy here, and I have lots to share, but first I want to send on the next installment of Pass the Book. Melissa sent it on to me last month, and it’s definitely time to send it on its way. You can read more about the Pass the Book project here.

I have thoroughly enjoyed Sharing Your Story: Recording Life’s Details with Mini Books by Ali Edwards, and it has provided me with some amazing inspiration though not for mini books. As soon as I saw the front cover, I had an idea for a card. It didn’t take long to create, and I was quite happy with. That prompted me to go through the book looking at design ideas for cards. I ended up with quite a few new cards, and over the next few days I’ll be sharing them with you. I remember Mel did something similar with one of her Pass the Book reads.

Here’s the cover and the card it inspired:

On page 9, I found this:

Which inspired an anniversary card for dear friends:

I liked the word overlayed on the text paper and repeated the polka-dot pattern as well. Here's the inside:

And one more for today. On p. 14 I found this:

And created this:

I'm quite sure this is a design I'll use again and again when I need a quick card. Typically I list all my supplies, but both my kids are here this week so I'm going to cut this short. I do have a list of the supplies, so let me know if you're curious about anything I used.

I'll have more to share, but I’m ready to pass the book along. If you’re a fan of mini books, I’m quite sure you’ll enjoy the book. (I have jotted down ideas for several mini books as well.) And even if you’re not, you may find inspiration for layouts or other creative endeavors from the designs you’ll find here. If you’d like a chance to peruse the book, leave a comment here, and I’ll do a random pick on Monday, October 24th, and send it on its way.

Book Reviews

Ever since Rinda published her summer reading list, I've been meaning to do a book review post. Over the last several months, I've read several excellent books and thought I'd share them. I'm not going to write a long summary of each, but I will add the links to the Amazon reviews. If you click on the book it will take you there.

I didn't read this on my Kindle but I posted that image since it was the cover of the one I read from the library. When I was in my 20's and 30's I read most of what Ernest Hemingway wrote. I especially loved A Moveable Feast about his years in Paris. This is a fictionalized account, most of it told in his first wife's voice, of their marriage and the years in Paris. It was a quick and enjoyable read with lots of little details about Paris in the 1920's and the literary greats who lived there.

I did read this on my Kindle, and my requirement for an e-book is that it be compelling and easy to pick up if you don't read it every day. This certainly fit the bill. If you've read The Glass Castle, this book is the same gene, a story of beating the odds when you are born into a truly disfunctional (but nonetheless loving) home. I heard Liz Murray interviewed on PBS and knew right away I wanted to read this book. I wasn't disappointed.

This is our current book group book. We'll be discussing it next week. It'a memoir about a boy who grew up in Malawi. His fascination with physics and the great needs of his village compel him to build a windmill from spare parts he finds over time in a junkyard. But the story is more than that; the description of the famine in Malawi is heartrendering. This is another book about the resilance of the human spirit as well as one of a very inventive mind!

Sarah recommended this series of mysteries to us. I've read just the first in the series. I think Sarah has finished four of them and my husband has finished the first three. Maisie is a dectective in London. The series begins just after the first World War, and much of this book is Maisie's back story that takes place during the first World War. This was a very quick read. I like mysteries, but I especially liked this one because of the historical background and details of the time.

Jennifer Haigh will be one of the speakers at the 2011-2012 Arts and Lectures series here. I needed a book for the Kindle for our flight home last month and this was perfect. I could barely put it down. It's fiction, and the narrator is the sister of a priest in Boston who has been accused of child molesting. It's a riveting story of a blue-collar family from South Boston as well as a look inside the workings of a Catholic church and diocese.

I

I finished this book yesterday afternoon. It was one of the most profoundly moving books I've read in a long time. Little Bee comes to mind as the last book I read that was so moving (although some of my friends did not like that novel at all). Both books had sections that were very disturbing and hard to read. This book has a more hopeful ending, however. This is another author I heard interviewed on PBS, and it's worth listening to if it's on podcast somewhere. The narrator is a five year old boy who has been living since birth with his mother in captivity. The captor is a mean-spritied, evil man who abducted the mother at age 19 and has kept her locked up in a room he built in a shed in his backyard. It's based on a true story (but totally fictionalized) that took place in Ireland, but there are too many stories like this woman's here as well.

So what's on my list for the summer? It's a short list. We'll be away again this summer, and yesterday we signed a contract for a new kitchen. If all goes well with the local planning board, the demolition will start late this summer as well. I started Caleb's Crossing last night. I already know I'll like this book. It's by Geraldine Brooks; her People of the Book is one of my all-time favorite reads. I have Cutting for Stone on my Kindle, and I've read about 150 pages of the 688 pages. My friend, Peter, who we visited in Tucson (a former member of our book group) said it was the best book he'd ever read. It's been on my radar for a long time, but I never put in on my short-list because of its length. I'm glad it's there now; it will take me awhile to finish it, but it's exceptionally well-written and fascinating. Our book for July's book group is Freakonomics, not a book I would choose to read, but that's why I love my book group. I'm guessing that will be it for me this summer, although I do have a cross-country flight again for our summer trip. That's always good for a lot of reading time.