BW52: 2016 is a wrap!

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!  Our reading year is once again drawing to a close.  I'm happy to say this year is ending with much gratitude and grace and I am looking forward with optimism to many new adventures in 2017.  We sailed the waterways of the world, dropping into different ports of call east and west of the Prime Meridian, then jumped off ship to explore North and South America.  Many of you chose to chart your own course and followed a variety of rabbit trails.

Where did your reading take you this year?  

How many books did you read and did you meet or beat your own personal goal?  Or did you get caught up in reading and forget to keep track like me?  *grin* 

What countries and time periods did you visit?

What were your most favorite stories?   Any stories that stayed with you a long time,  left you wanting more or needed to digest for a while before starting another?   Which books became comfort reads

What is the one book or the one author you thought you'd never read and found yourself pleasantly surprised that you liked it?

Did you read any books that touched you and made you laugh, cry, sing or dance.

Any that made you want to toss it across the room in disgust?

Please share a favorite cover or quote.

Congratulations on completing another reading year and thank you to all who followed our reading journeys.    Reading to me is as necessary as breathing and it is also comforting. It is an escape from the real world. I get rather crotchety without my books.  How about you?

I really appreciate you sharing your reading journeys with me. No matter what we read, whether it's fiction or nonfiction, literary or contemporary, historical or futuristic, a chunky book or a cozy, the most important thing is the reading.   I hope you had fun too as you followed your own reading paths and enjoyed your bookish journeys.  I look forward to 2017 and sharing another reading year with all of you.

Best wishes for a happy, adventurous, reading New Year!

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2017 52 Books in 52 Weeks

Courtesy of Lauren Conrad 

Are you ready to join me for another round of reading 52 Books in 52 Weeks?  The rules are quite simple and how you get there is entirely up to you.  It's going to be a gem of a year as we excavate for new as well as old reads.  Whether you like unearthing one book at a time or scooping up multiple books, burrowing in with a classic, digging into a chunky read or shining up one of those dusty books from your shelves, it all averages out in the end.  The goal is to read 52 Books. 

In the past few years, we've been across and around the world by foot, car, train, plane and sea.  To aid us in our journey this year, we'll be digging deep to discover the jewels of our reading world.  We have a variety of challenges to assist with our reading voyage this year including another round of 52 Books Bingo. 

Birthstone Bookology Reading adventure which will take us around the world and through different time periods from the ancients to the present.   You can go a variety of directions with this challenge. Read a book for each letter in the birthstone of the month.  Read a book with the birthstone or the color of the birthstone in the title. Find a book set in the time period or setting where the birthstone was discovered and/or mined.    

Dusty Mini challenge: Limit buying new books for 1 - 4 months and/or read 4 to 12 or more books gathering dust on your shelves prior to 2016.

Chunky Mini Challenge -  books more than 500 pages.

Well Educated Mind:  Continuing exploring the classics in 6 categories: Fiction, Autobiography, History/Politics, Drama, Poetry and Science.  

Plus we'll be doing a year long readalong of Susan Wise Bauer's The Story of Western Science as well as another round of 52 Books Bingo.  

The mini, weekly and monthly challenges are optional, Mix it up anyway you like.

So put on your hard hats, grab your shovels and pickaxes and get ready to explore.   

1. The challenge will run from January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017. 
2. Our book weeks begin on Sunday. 
3. Participants may join at any time. 
4. All books are acceptable except children books. 
5. All forms of books are acceptable including e-books, audio books, etc. 
6. Re-reads are acceptable as long as they are read after January 1, 2017. 
7. Books may overlap other challenges. 
8. Create an entry post linking to this blog. 
9. Sign up with Mr. Linky in the "I'm participating post" below this post. 
10. You don't need a blog to participate. Post your weekly book in the comments section of each weekly post. 
11. Mr. Linky will be added to the bottom of the weekly post to link to reviews of your most current reads.

I'm Participating in 2017

I'm Participating in 2017 

BW51: Happy Winter Reading Wonderland

Courtesy of Teresa

Winter is the king of showmen,

Turning tree stumps into snowmen

And houses into birthday cakes

And spreading sugar over lakes.

Smooth and clean and frosty white,

The world looks good enough to bite.

That’s the season to be young,

Catching snowflakes on your tongue.

Snow is snowy when it’s snowing,

I’m sorry it’s slushy when it’s going.

~ Ogden Nash 

It is a Winnie the Pooh day today -  quite rainy and blustery,  which is quite appropriate as Winter approaches us in the Northern Hemisphere while it is officially summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Whether you are ensconced all comfy and cozy next to the fireplace or sprawled out on a sunny beach, both are perfect places to read or dream.   Can I have a rousing refrain of this year went by way too fast.  I'll be taking the last two weeks off from lessons to prepare for and celebrate  Christmas as well as work on plans for another round of 52 books.  Of course,  we are going to do it all over again.  I'll post the 2017 52 Books in 52 Weeks announcement sometime this week as well as the I'm Participating link for you to sign up.

It is also time for our Winter / Summer Solstice mini reading challenge. What words come to mind during this season?  Solstice is the two times a year when the sun is at its greatest distance from the celestial equator.  So if you want to broaden your scope, try looking up synonyms for not only solstice but also celestial, equator, or sun to name a few.  Be creative and use one of the words in the Nash poem above.  Look for a book in your stacks with the word you choose in the title.  

Have fun following rabbit trails to the book of your choice. 

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BW50: Best of 2016

Time for our annual round up of best of the year fiction and non fiction book lists, from around the web.  Grab your computer, laptop, ipad or iphone, fix yourself a nice warm cup of tea or coffee and settle down in your comfy chair and browse through just a few of the web's offerings of the best of 2016.

NPR's Book Concierge - Guide to 2016's Best Reads

Harper Bazaar's 12 Best New Books of 2016

Bill Gates pick's Favorite Books of 2016.

Washington Post's Top Ten and Best Mystery and Thrillers and Best Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Chicago Tribune's Best Poetry Books of 2016 and Chicago Librarians Picks for the best of 2016

Huffington Post's Best Self Published Books of 2016

Council of Foreign Affairs anthology of nonfiction books from the east to the west, plus political and social, economical and scientific :   Best of Books 2016

The Economists wide array of non fiction and fiction - Books of the year 2016

New York Times - The 10 Best Books of 2016 from the editors as well as 100 Notable Books 

Smithsonian's Best Books about Science  and Best Art Meets Science Books of 2016.

Happy reading!

P.S.  Yes, we are going to do another round of 52 books for 2017!  

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BW49: Delectable December

Bake a Book 

Welcome to Delectable December, a month to celebrate a variety of events. From the arrival of Winter to Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, St Lucia Day, Boxing Day, and St Nicolas Day.  December is a wonderful time to curl up with a good book by the fireplace. Also a great time to gather in the kitchen, warm from baking and enjoy the results fresh from the oven. Experimenting with new recipes, fine tuning old, exploring foods unknown and chowing down on our favorite comfort food.

Every time I make stuffing or sauce for baked salmon or dressing for steamed artichokes,  hubby says this is the best one yet, what did you do differently this time. Make sure you write it down.  *grin*

Last week we talked about foodie books. Now we get to chat about cookbooks. Do you have a favorite cookbook or do you have a whole shelf of cookbooks to peruse?  Do you prefer surfing the web exploring sites such as  allrecipes.com or foodnetwork.com.  Do you print recipes and keep a favorites notebook.  Are you the create it from scratch type of cook?   Do you prefer to cook alone or the more the merrier?

Share your favorite cookbooks, recipes, cooking traditions or pictures of your cookbooks.


Happy cooking!

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BW48: Foodie Books

Thanksgiving is over and even though our tummies are stuffed with turkey and more, we're heading into the season of food.  All kinds of Christmas and Hanukkah and winter celebrations on the horizon so figured I'd present a mini challenge.  Pick a book with food in the title or about food. It can't be a straight forward cookbook because that's just too easy.   You have several ways to go with ingredients, seasoning, artistic creations, sensations, and other gastronomical delights. 

There are plenty of fun non fiction titles -  Cravings, Fresh off the Boat, Relish, In Defense of Food, The Man Who Ate Food, Relish and Salt, as well as plenty of fiction titles such as 

When in Doubt, Add Butter 

Or one of my favorite series which you can argue isn't food, but talks alot about food, The Coffeehouse Mysteries by Cleo Coyle.

On What Grounds

Or how about this delightful book full of magical realism and yummy recipes

Pomegranate Soup

I'm getting hungrier by the minute.  *grin*   Find all kinds of interesting books searching on  Goodreads for Foodie Books, Popular Food Fiction, Food in Book Titles as well as Bustle's 13 Books All Food Lovers Should Read, plus Bon Appetit's 20 New Food Books to Read.

~cheers~ 

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BW47: Happy Thanksgiving

I'm Thankful for You

By 

Joanna Fuchs

Thanksgiving is the appointed time

for focusing on the good in our lives.

In each of our days,

we can find small blessings,

but too often we overlook them,

choosing instead to spend our time

paying attention to problems.

We give our energy

to those who cause us trouble

instead of those who bring peace.

Starting now,

let's be on the lookout

for the bits of pleasure in each hour,

and appreciate the people who

bring love and light to everyone

who is blessed to know them.

You are one of those people.

On Thanksgiving,

I'm thankful for you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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BW46: Flufferton Abbey

In the Garden - George Goodwin Kilburne

I think we are all in the mood for something flufferton.  This post is brought to you by AggieAmy, one of our 52 Books Well Trained Mind Book a weekers, who kindly offered to guest post this week.

Flufferton Abbey is not a genre so much as a writing style.  A few genres lend themselves well to being Fluffeton books such as cozy mysteries, comedy of manners, romance, and historical fiction.  Everyone has their own specific thing they look for when they pick up a book and plan to spend time at Flufferton Abbey but there are a number of things that are expected:

• A happy ending – If you are crying at the end of the book it does NOT qualify.  A Flufferton book has the couple getting together, the mystery solved, the situation put right tidily.  If anyone has died during the course of the book they had better have deserved it.
• Setting – A lot of the charm in these books is being able to sneak away to someplace wonderful for a visit.  It’s easy to imagine that the cuppa tea we’re having isn’t really in our living room but the morning room of our manor house.  Gritty?  Realistic?  Downtown Detroit in the 1960’s?  Nope.  Not Flufferton appropriate. 
• Characters – We love these characters.  They have charm.  They make us smile.  We wish we knew them in real life.   
• Humor – A mandatory ingredient.  Some books have us laughing out loud in ways that make our family worry about our mental stability.  Some books have just an occasional chuckle.  All books have at least some. 
• Re-readability - Absolutely.  These are the books that we've read so many times that there are sections we've memorized. 

Where to start:

Georgette Heyer

                The Grand Sophy, Frederica, Venetia, Sylvester, Cotillion  

Jane Austen

                Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion

DE Stevenson

                Miss Buncle’s Book, Mrs. Tim Christie, Katherine Wentworth

PG Wodehouse

                My Man Jeeves, Something Fresh

LM Montgomery

                Anne of Green Gables, The Blue Castle

Angela Thirkell

                High Rising

Stella Riley

                The Parfit Knight

Susan Branch – a nonfiction present day version of Flufferton Abbey

                A Fine Romance:  Falling in Love with the English Countryside

Which ones have you read?  What authors would you add to this list?

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BW45: Bookish Babble

Come on in and have a seat.  I'm in the mood for some bookish babble.  Here in the U.S, daylight savings time is ending and we have finally reached the final act of the presidential election.  A modern Shakespearean tragedy in which we've been the captive audience of what seems to be the world's longest play. The curtain is slowly descending as the players take their final curtain call.  

Which reminds me, have you gotten a 52 books bingo yet?  Plays and fairy tale adaptations and non fiction reads will fill the bill.  In the mood to read presidential biographies, perhaps current affairs, foreign or domestic.  Or maybe you'd prefer a comedy or art.  The book blogging world is celebrating Non Fiction November so head on over to Doing Dewey for more fun and frivolity.

For a translated book, check out Halldor Laxness's Wayward Heroes which has been translated from icelandic and is now available through Archipelago books.  If you are squeamish about mysteries, try a cozy mystery instead. You can't go wrong when it comes to Arthurian stories with Mary Stewart or Marian Zimmer Bradley.  

My son has introduced me to Doctor Who and he insists I must call him The Doctor.  However, unlike me in which I'd watch every episode in order in a season, we've been doing it my son's way and sort of The Doctor's way, dropping in here and there. He's enthralled with the weeping angels right now and I haven't decided which Doctor I like the best yet.   I'm waiting for the 'mom, I gotta have this book' itis to begin.  Did you know Neil Gaiman, whose birthday is coming up this week on the 10th,  wrote three episodes for Doctor who - The Doctor's Wife and The Nightmare in Silver.  He just became a grandfather as well.

Mini Bingo challenge of the month - have a friend, family member, loved one or even query a stranger in the book store and ask them to pick a book for you to read. You may be surprised!  

Happy reading!  

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BW44: November Notions

I have an idea and my idea is this, I have an idea. *grin*   Welcome to November Notions - a month full of what?  Ideas, imagination, suggestions, discernment, angles, wrinkles, twists, preconceptions or postulations?  Or better yet...nonsense!   This is your month to make of it what you will.  Whether you are interested in traveling down the path of nonfiction, riddles and rhymes, or climbing up the mountain of hyperbole, exploring fictional caves of mystery and suspense, or diving into the ocean of laughter and romance, the world is yours to travel.

I think my ship got lost somewhere in the middle of the South Atlantic, but I've finally found the Rio de la Plata and the friendly port of Buenes Aires.  We are going to spend the rest of the year exploring South and North America and follow in the footsteps of our author flavors of the month - Julio Cortazar and Laura Esquivel.

A few years back I read Cortazar's Hopscotch, 

 Horacio Oliveira is an Argentinian writer who lives in Paris with his mistress, La Maga, surrounded by a loose-knit circle of bohemian friends who call themselves "the Club." A child's death and La Maga's disappearance put an end to his life of empty pleasures and intellectual acrobatics, and prompt Oliveira to return to Buenos Aires, where he works by turns as a salesman, a keeper of a circus cat which can truly count, and an attendant in an insane asylum. Hopscotch is the dazzling, free-wheeling account of Oliveira's astonishing adventures.

And by free-wheeling, they mean a stream of consciousness book in which you can read in chapter order or follow the random pattern set out by the author.  Same as the title, you will be Hopscotching around. According to the Quarterly Conversation:

The most remarked-on aspect of Hopscotch is its format: the book is split into 56 regular chapters and 99 “expendable” ones. Readers may read straight through the regular chapters (ignoring the expendable ones) or follow numbers left at the end of each chapter telling the reader which one to read next (eventually taking her through all but one of the chapters). A reading of the book in that way would lead the reader thus: Chapter 73 – 1 – 2 – 116 – 3 – 84 – 4 – 71 – 5 – 81 – 74 – 6 – 7- 8, and so on. -

If you haven't read it yet, now is your opportunity.  But be prepared to set aside all expectations, take your time, have a glass of wine or two and enjoy.

Laura Esquivel, a mexican author, is most well known for her story, Like Water for Chocolate:

A sumptuous feast of a novel, it relates the bizarre history of the all-female De La Garza family. Tita, the youngest daughter of the house, has been forbidden to marry, condemned by Mexican tradition to look after her mother until she dies. But Tita falls in love with Pedro, and he is seduced by the magical food she cooks. In desperation, Pedro marries her sister Rosaura so that he can stay close to her, so that Tita and Pedro are forced to circle each other in unconsummated passion. Only a freakish chain of tragedies, bad luck and fate finally reunite them against all the odds.

Esquivel has a revised edition of The Law of Love coming out May of 2017: 

New York Times bestselling author Laura Esquivel brings readers a tantalizing sensory experience with her wildly inventive novel of a love spanning many lifetimes. It’s the year 2200, and Azucena Martinez is a lonely astroanalyst living in Mexico City. She has finally repaid the karmic debts she accumulated during her previous fourteen thousand lives, and in recognition of her newfound purity of spirit, she will at last be permitted to meet her twin soul, Rodrigo Sanchez. But their perfect union is limited to just one night of bliss, as Rodrigo is framed for murder soon after and banished. As Azucena sets off in search for her lost love, she will trigger a chain of events that puts her in the midst of an intergalactic political uproar.

While you are meandering about the american continents, check out Top 10 Contemporary Mexican Novels,  22 Classic and Contemporary Female Latin Authors to read, as well as  10 Essential Latin American Feminists Writers and  Goodreads list of Latin American Literature. 

Happy exploring! 

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BW43: Happy Birthday Robert Bridges

Robert Seymour Bridges
October 23, 1844 - April 23, 1930 

In Autumn Moonlight

In autumn moonlight, when the white air wan 

Is fragrant in the wake of summer hence, 

'Tis sweet to sit entranced, and muse thereon 

In melancholy and godlike indolence: 

When the proud spirit, lull'd by mortal prime 

To fond pretence of immortality, 

Vieweth all moments from the birth of time, 

All things whate'er have been or yet shall be. 

And like the garden, where the year is spent, 

The ruin of old life is full of yearning, 

Mingling poetic rapture of lament 

With flowers and sunshine of spring's sure returning; 

Only in visions of the white air wan 

By godlike fancy seized and dwelt upon. 

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