Category Archives: Year-in-review

Looking Back at 2022

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Considering how difficult 2022 was for me, I’m surprised and pleased that I was able to read as much as I did. And I certainly enjoyed and appreciated everything I read! Some of my reading was for pure escape. Some of my choices were made to help me understand better what my husband and I were going through with his medical journey. Some of the books were like a lifeline for me. All of it important reading in one way or another, but here are my top 5 favorites of the year.

  • The Birthday of the World, by Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, touched my heart with kindness and hope.
  • A Peaceful Retirement, by Miss Read, was the final book in her Fairacre series that I have been reading slowly over the years, enjoying immensely.
  • Persuasion, by Jane Austen, is my favorite of her books, and it was pure solace to read it again.
  • The Light We Carry, by Michelle Obama, filled my heart with hope, and has inspired me to pick up my knitting again!

But my favorite book of the year was a slim book of poetry that spoke directly to my broken heart. Living Without the One You Cannot Live Without was written by Natasha Josefowitz, just before and after the death of her husband, and it is the story of her loss and grief. I don’t know when I have ever connected so closely with a book. Her words described my own experience, and have given me a glimpse into the pathway that is unfolding in front of me. Her poetry now is a companion on my own journey, and I am so grateful that she was able to share her grief so honestly and with such elegant simplicity.

It is hard for me to say goodbye to 2022, but I look forward to another year of reading discoveries and connections, and for time spent with friends and loved ones sharing the books we are reading.

May you all have a healthy and happy 2023 filled with love and joy, and good reading!

Favorites of 2021

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I always enjoy reading posts about favorite books of the year. Here are my top five favorite reads of 2021. What were some of your favorites this year?

My Reading in 2020

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My reading in 2020 was comfort and solace, educational and life-affirming, and lots of fun. That’s not bad for a year of chaos, trauma, and losses of all kinds! As I’ve said many times throughout 2020, I am lucky to be a reader, an introvert, and retired! It made this fearful year of quarantine a lot less stressful.

Here are some of my favorite books read in 2020:

 

My two favorite series read in 2020:

 

Progress made on my Challenges this year:

I joined The Classics Club in March 2017 and made a commitment to read 50 classics in five years. At the end of this year, with another year and 3 months to go to meet this challenge, I have read 39 out of 50 books on my list!

Every year, I welcome Autumn by participating in the Readers Imbibing Peril challenge. This year was the fifteenth year for this challenge, and I read and enjoyed 8 books. Click here to read my reviews.

 

I also have a number of ongoing personal reading challenges that I enjoy. I call them my Reading Journeys. There is no time limit on my reading for these challenges, but they are all special genres, learning paths, and authors I enjoy. I love keeping track of them, thus the list below of my progress on each one!  Click here to see each of my omgoing Reading Journeys.

  • May Sunshine Light Your Day: I have read 5 out of 9 books.
  • Reading Pearl:  I have read 9 out of 32 choices.
  • Reading Miss Read: I have read 15 out of 37 books.
  • Reading Nevil Shute:  I have read 17 out of 24 books.
  • Wanderlust, Reading the World:  I have read 32 out of 196 choices.
  • Wanderlust, Reading the 50 States:  I have read 13 out of 50 books.
  • My Anti-Racist Education: I have read 25 books.
  • My Garden Reading:  I have read 32 books.
  • My Holiday Reading:  I have read 79 books.
  • B’s Reading Challenge:  I have read 1 out of 4 books.

And, finally, here is the link to my GOODREADS “Year in Books 2020,” with a list of all the books I read this year.

I hope your 2021 is full of good health, good books, and much happiness!
Happy New Year, my friends!

My Favorite Books of 2019

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2019 was such a great reading year for me. I read and listened to so many good books! But my favorite book of 2019 was the audiobook version of Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, narrated by Thandie Newton. I’ve loved the book since I first read it many many years ago, but this audiobook version was outstanding and it made me love the book even more.

So add this version of Jane Eyre to the nine books below for my TOP TEN for 2019!

So, dear friends, I wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR, and happy reading in 2020!

Looking Back at 2019

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Looking back at 2019, I am happy with my reading year. In addition to my usual reading,  I took on a number of challenges and enjoyed the books I read for each one. I love the journey of each challenge and the exposure to new authors, genres, and ideas that really expand my world.

Turning seventy years old felt like a big milestone and I wanted to celebrate it in some special way. So I put together a self-challenge called “EMBRACING SEVENTY.”  I created a 1949 list of books and movies– anything to do with 70. It turned out to be a fun research project. Here are the books I read, and the one movie from 1949 that my husband and I watched:

”WANDERLUST” was another self-challenge I put together this year in an effort to read more international literature. I read both children and adult books and liked the glimpses into other cultures. I will continue this challenge in 2020 and beyond.

For a second year in a row, I signed up for Adam’s 2019 OFFICIAL TBR challenge. Last year I read 4 books for his challenge, and this year I did the same. That’s 8 books that have been sitting on my bookshelf for far too long, so I’m happy to have been motivated to finally read them. Thank you, Adam, for hosting this challenge. I’ll miss it! Here’s my list of books read in 2019:

Dolce Bellezza’s JAPANESE LITERATURE Challenge always calls to me, and in 2019 I read one book and watched three Japanese films. Meredith always puts together a really classy challenge! My 2019 books and movies:

Films:

I had good intentions when I signed up for Rachel’s (@hibernatorslibrary) A YEAR of SHAKESPEARE Challenge this year. I was going to read three Shakespeare plays, but I ended up only reading one (which I enjoyed very much!). But I also read a lot of different books about that play, so it really was an immersive experience, and a lot of fun. Here’s what I read for this challenge:

A Shakespeare Comedy : The Winter’s Tale

READERS IMBIBING PERIL- XIV was a great challenge this fall! It’s one of my favorite challenges each year, and I enjoy it more and more each year!  I love mysteries and suspense novels, good book series and good TV mystery series, so I had lots of fun reading and watching movies!

PERIL the FIRST:

  1. The Lost One, by Mary Stewart
  2. The Little Sister, by Raymond Chandler
  3. Christmas in Absaroka County, by Craig Johnson
  4. Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
  5. The Religious Body, by Catherine Aird
  6. An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good, by Helene Tursten
  7. The Case of the Famished Parson, by George Bellairs
  8. Rose Cottage, by Mary Stewart
  9. The House on the Strand, by Daphne du Maurier
  10. Trouble in Nuala, by Harriet Steel
  11. Whiteout, by Ken Follett

PERIL on the SCREEN:

  1. 4:50 From Paddington
  2. Murder at the Gallop
  3. The Mirror Crack’d
  4. Murder Most Foul 

I joined THE CLASSICS CLUB in March of 2017 and agreed to read 50 Books in 5 Years. This is a great challenge, so well organized and with fun activities. I’ve always loved reading classics so it’s a perfect fit for me. As of right now, I’ve read 28 of my 50 books list. This year I read these classics:

Having time to read is such a precious luxury for me and this year has been full of reading joy. And now I’m looking forward to my 2020 reading.

For all my reading friends, may 2020 be a year of joyful reading for you, too!

The Best of the Best 2018

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I miss you, Mom!

In 2018, I read 97 books. That’s pretty good for me in a year of change and loss. My reading has been a real solace after losing my Mom in July. Dedicating some time each afternoon for some quiet reading was magical and helped to fill the silence of those times when I used to talk with her on the phone each day.

There were some terrific books among those 97 that I read. So I’ve picked out my Best Nine to put together in a collage…And then a photo of the cover of my Number One favorite of the year. Each of those “best of the best” books was a wonderful experience for me. The stories captured me, the writing deeply impressed me, or they were just plain fun to read. Or all of the above!

2018 was also a year I returned to reading challenges. I used to join so many different ones, and loved the variety of reading they introduced into my life. I haven’t participated in as many in recent years, but I enjoyed getting back to some very nice ones this year.  I am loving being part of The Classics Club! My 50-books-in-five-years goal is a lot of fun for me. I’m happy to say that since I started the challenge in March 2017, I have read 21 books from my list, although I haven’t finished posting reviews for some of them yet.

I also participated in The Official 2018 TBR Pile Challenge hosted for the eighth year by Adam (@roofbeamreader). Out of my list of 12 books that have been sitting on my shelves for years and years, I managed to read four of them. I’m happy about that even though it may look like another challenge fail for me. It IS four books that would probably still be sitting there, unread, so I consider it a success! I’ve signed up to continue on with this challenge in 2019!

In 2018, I returned to the Readers Imbibing Peril Challenge which I hadn’t participated in for a number of years. It was so much fun this time! I do love reading mysteries, so this turned out to be a terrific way to spend the Fall months. For that challenge I read ten books and completely enjoyed every one of them! I’m looking forward to doing that challenge again in 2019.

The Dewey’s 24-Hour Read-a-thons in April and October were highlights of this reading year for me, and I look forward to repeating those experiences in 2019 along with my other challenges!

My Best Nine of 2018:

 

And my NUMBER ONE favorite book read in 2018:

…was Michelle Obama’s book, Becoming!  I listened to her narrate it on audiobook and loved it. It was a book of hope and dignity, the story of her life so far. For me it was a breath of fresh air, and it renewed my spirit and gave me hope that we can become better individuals, better people, and a better nation. She didn’t preach, she just very honestly shared with us how she became the person she is today. And I admire that person more than ever because of her honesty and integrity.

Six Books

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Me on the Argentine pampas in 1967.

Although this has been a difficult year for me in many ways, a year of loss, it has also been a year of reading. Since July, reading has been my solace and a way to honor the memory of my special reading mother.  I have read 91 books so far this year, unlike in1967 when I only read six books!

1967 was the year I was accepted into the American Field Service (now known as AFS Intercultural Programs) as an exchange student to Argentina. I spent a year there, which was an absolutely incredible life-defining experience. It was not an easy year, especially in those days before computers, cell phones, and instant world-wide communication with everyone you know!  Letters often took two weeks. Phone calls home were wildly expensive so I only made one call home during the entire year. I was far away from home and relatively isolated as I went through the inevitable culture shock and adjustments to my new language and my new family. But after four months, I could speak fairly well, began to dream in Spanish, worked hard to begin reading in Spanish, and became more and more fluent in the language over the year. It was an amazing experience, to state it simply.

But one of the most difficult things for me that year, as an avid/obsessed reader, was that I had little access to books (in English), and, of course, my reading focus needed to be on learning and reading in Spanish. So over that year, I only read 6 books in English. Those six books are seared into my memory because each one was like a little oasis in the desert of my reading that year. It was very hard for me NOT to be able to read much that year, and it made me appreciate deeply the freedom of my yearly reading experience ever since. However, giving up reading-like-crazy for a year in order to have the experience of a lifetime…was so worth it!

Here are those six books:

 

 

Bookends

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My first read of 2017 was Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s, We Should All Be Feminists, so it was very fitting to read another short work by her, Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions,  to end my reading year. Wonderful bookends for 2017!

Click here to reread my review of We Should All Be Feminists. I feel even more strongly than I did one year ago, that this short book is essential reading for all! The word “feminist” is such a scary word to so many people, but this book gives you important understandings of why we need to set aside fear and open our hearts to the ideas of feminism which empower and enrich the lives of both men and women.

Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions was a letter written in response to a request from Adichie’s friend about how to raise her newborn daughter. Simply put, I wish this book had existed when my daughter was born 39 years ago. I did have some strong female role models that inspired and guided my parenting of both my son and my daughter, but this little book, so succinctly and eloquently written, would have been my hand guide. I decided that I will give a copy of it , along with the knitted blanket and baby sweater gifts I make for the new arrivals of family and friends. It would be a gift of love and caring for both the new family and for the future of our planet!

These two books were excellent bookends for a year full of conflicts, contradictions, and challenges to our national norms and priorities when it comes to families and the future. There is HOPE in these two books, and ideas that can make us better people making better choices.

A photo from 39 years ago! I am, more than ever, in awe of my strong, resilient, beautiful daughter!

Son and Grandson

A photo from 6 years ago. I am also in awe of the gentle and nurturing way my son parents his own son!

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Classics Club Catch-Up

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One of the nicest things I did for myself in 2017 was to join the Classics Club and set a goal of reading 50 classics in five years. (Click here to see my list of books chosen, and click on the graphic above to be transported to the Classics Club web site.) I am so glad I finally joined, and I’ve been happily reading some of the wonderful books from my list of 50. I have not, however, been very diligent about getting my reviews written! So in the next few weeks, I will be posting those missing reviews from my 2017 classics reading.

When the sun is shining and the temperatures are mild enough for me to spend time outdoors, I simply don’t spend as much time in my digital world. 2017 has been a year of gardening, walking long distances, and of soaking up vitamin D.  That’s my excuse anyway for my slow posting of reviews. But it is time to “catch up” with my responses to the classics I’ve read, and to continue on with my very enjoyable reading of the classics.

Forthcoming reviews:

  • The Rainbow and the Rose, by Nevil Shute (completed in April 2017)
  • Around the World in Eighty Days. by Jules Verne (completed in June 2017)
  • Persuasion, by Jane Austen (completed in December 2017)
  • The Secret Agent, by Joseph Conrad (Completed in December 2017)

Classics read and already reviewed this year:

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The Series of 2017

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“All the Books of 2017” is a December reading challenge created and hosted by Ann, from @annreads on Instagram.  I’ve almost completed the challenge on my Instagram page, posting a photo for most of the prompts, but I’m waiting until the very end of the month to post the last few prompts because I’m still reading like crazy and am not finished with this reading year of 2017!

Do you love getting caught up in a series? I do, and this was a year that I wanted to read or re-read numerous series. After the election of November 2016, I felt a tremendous need to revisit my favorite series of all time: The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien.  I love the books and have lost track of how many times I’ve reread them, but I also love the movies. I just wanted to re-immerse myself in Middle Earth, and it turned out to be a very healing place for me to spend time in 2017.  The Return of the King was definitely my choice for the prompt: “Best Conclusion to a Series.”


But I am enjoying reading a number of other series this year, as well. Some I’ve completed, and others on ongoing for however long they take.

I loved reading The Green Knowe Chronicles, by L.M. Boston, this year! They’ve been on my TBR list for many years and were a real treat when I finally got to them.

I’m almost finished with Jean Craighead George’s survival series that starts with the Newbery Award winning My Side of the Mountain. It’s been a fun series to read, and I understand better now why these books were some of the popular ones in my class library when I taught 6th grade!

Other series I’ve immersed myself in this year:

  • I’m just finishing the 4th book in my rereading of the Harry Potter series. I love this series even more this time around. Does it just get better and better each time you read it?
  • Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire series is fun to read. I’m somewhere in the middle of the series, with lots left to read, so I know I’ll enjoy it for a long time yet. 
  • New-to-me author, Nnedi Okorafor, is writing the Binti series, a very interesting and creative science fiction series. I’ve read two of them, and look forward to the third volume which comes out mid-January.
  • The most powerful series I read this year was by far the March graphic novels series, by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell. It’s an especially important subject today, and beautifully done.

I’m always looking for new (or old) series to discover, new worlds to immerse myself in. If you have some suggestions of your favorites, please let me know!

My Top Ten Reads of 2016

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2016 has been a good reading year for me. I was “back to my books,” so to speak, and that’s a lovely feeling! Here are the covers to my top ten 5-star reviews on my Goodreads challenge page this year. Although I really enjoyed all of the books I read, my favorite of the year was one I have read numerous times in my life: The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien. I will tell you the story of WHY it was my favorite in a separate post.

I hope that you enjoyed your 2016 reading. Happy New Year to each of you and best wishes for a wonderful reading year in 2017!