tymfos tries for second batch of 75 books -- the grand finale

Welcome to my thread! I like to chat about the books I've read and other topics that may come up, so stop by any time and comment. All visitors are welcome! (except for spammers)

I finished my first batch of 75 sometime in July, and have been working on another batch. I probably won't finish another 75, but we'll see how many I can read.

Here is the final thread for my first 75 books:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/117241
It includes a list of the first 75 books I read.

The threads for my second 75 attempt are here:

#1 http://www.librarything.com/topic/120897
#2 http://www.librarything.com/topic/124115
The titles of all my books for my "second 75" attempt are listed in entries just below this one.

A word about my ratings system: I don't have one. It's all a knee-jerk, flying-by-the-seat-of-the-pants effort. Each time I go through my library and note relative ratings of one book to another, I realize how arbitrary I am in granting stars. And if my average rating is rather high, it's because (except for more recent reads since I joined LT) I'm rating the books that are memorable -- and the good ones tend to stick with me! (Some books are memorable because they are truly awful, but I am fortunate to avoid reading many of those!)

Oh, since I'm running out of places to add bookshelves, I'm also doing the Books Off The Shelf Challenge:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/106328

I am finishing up the 11 in 11 Challenge.

current thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/121816

first thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/97388

These are my categories:

1. Pregame
2. Play Ball!
3. Leadoff
4. On-deck
5. Phantom players
6. All-Stars, MVP's, & Other Awards
7. Foul Play Territory
8. Fireballers, Rainouts, Steals, & Errors!
9. Away Game Travel Day (Cars, trains, boats & planes, etc.)
10. Team Physician & Front Office (Doctor, Lawyer, Indian chief)
11. Team Chaplain
extra category: Utility Players

The titles are all baseball related, but the books are NOT. There are all kinds of books.

This year, I have decided to simply give my categories names and NOT define them, and be free to use any books that can in any way fit the category name. I did a pretty good job of staying with my categories in 2010, but I was constantly tweaking the "definition" of what was included in several of them.

My plan was to do at least 7 books in each of these 11 categories -- a 7-11 challenge -- for a total of 77 books. (Thus I'd need just 2 more books than the goal for my 75 challenge, if I manage to fit all the books here that I read.) I've reached the minimum of 7 in each category, and now I'm aiming for 11 in each.

This month, I will be starting a 12 in 12 category challenge, and those categories will be listed here when I finalize them.

I will try to include most of the following information into my book posts:

Challenge Book #
Title:
Author:
Copyright/Year of original publication:
Genre:
Subject:
Setting:
Main Characters:
Series:
Dates Read:
Number of pages:
Off the Shelf (pre-2011)? Source?:
Category for 11 in 11 or 12 in 12 challenge:
How does it fit the category?
Alternate Category:
Theme of the Month:
Does it fit the Theme of the Month? How?
My Rating:
Notes:

I also have monthly themes. This is the list for 2011 (subject to revision):

January: "Cold white snow & ice of January"
February: "Black History Month"
March: "Spring Training / Mystery March"
April: "Autism Awareness Month" and "Support Your Library"
May: "May Murder & Mayhem -- & Motorsports"
June: "Justice (and injustice), Journeys, and Jazz"
July: "Big League Cities"
August: "Anything Goes"
September: "Series & Sequels"
October: "Halloween Horrors"
November: "Fill in the Blanks"
December: "Holiday Dinners and and Other December Disasters"

Like my categories, a book can fit a "theme" any which way it can: by subject or by words in the title or by setting . . . if there is any even tenuous link, it "fits."

Books Read in July: from the first 75:

72. Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane
73. A Morning for Flamingos by James Lee Burke (AUDIO)
74. Iron Lake: A Cork O'Connor Mystery by William Kent Krueger (AUDIO)
75. Jade Visions: The Life and Music of Scott LaFaro by Helene LaFaro-Fernandez

Books read in July -- 2nd 75:

1B. Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman
2B. Flip Flop Fly Ball by Craig Robinson
3B. Triangle: The Fire that Changed America by David Von Drehle
4B. Indian Summer: the forgotten story of Louis Sockalexis, the first Native American in Major League Baseball
5B. Murder at Fenway Park by Troy Soos (AUDIO)
6B. A Welcome Grave by Michael Koryta
7B. Cemetery of Angels by Noel Hynd

temporarily(?) abandoned
Faithful by Stewart O'Nan and Stephen King (non-fiction)

Books read in August:

8B. Ghosts of Boston Town by Holly Mascott Nadler
9B. A Stained White Radiance by James Lee Burke
10B. Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans? edited by David Rutledge
11B. The Eternal Now by Paul Tillich (devotional)
12B Nine Ghosts by R. H. Malden
13B The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the end of America's Childhood by Jane Leavy (AUDIO)
14B The Ship and the Storm by Jim Carrier
15B 33 Men: inside the miraculous survival and dramatic rescue of the Chilean miners by Jonathan Franklin
16B In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead by James Lee Burke
17B Home by Marilynne Robinson
18B Nemesis by Philip Ross (AUDIO)
19B The Eyes of the Amaryllis by Natalie BabbittBooks read in July -- 2nd 75:

Books read in September:
20B. Dancing Made Easy by Phillip DePoy
21B. Nemesis by Jo Nesbo
22B. Sacred by Dennis Lehane
23B. Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs
24B. Among the Heroes by Jere Longman
25B In the Woods by Tana French
26B The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly (AUDIO)
27B Midwinter of the Spirit by Phil Rickiman
28B Charm City by Laura Lippman
29B The Silent Hour by Lincoln Perry (AUDIO)
30B Trains of Discovery by Alfred Runte
31B Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
32B Lethal Legacy by Linda Farstein (AUDIO)
33B A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny

Abandoned:
Three Rivers Rising: A Novel of the Johnstown Flood by Jame Richards

Books Read in October
34B The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
35B The Summer Game by Roger Angell
36B Me, Myself, and Bob: a true story about Dreams, God, and Talking Vegetables, by Phil Vischer
37B Blackman's Coffin by Mark de Castrique (AUDIO)
38B Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King
39B The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff
40B City of Masks by Daniel Hecht
41B Midnight Rising by Tony Horwitz
42B I'll be Watching You by Charles de Lint (Halloween List)

books in progress:
The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd (audio fiction)
Scottish Ghost Stories by Eliott O'Donnell (e-book)
Addiction and Grace by Gerald G. May (ministry related)

Books Read in November
43B Thunderstruck by Erik Larson
44B Scottish Ghost Stories by Elliott O'Donnell
45B Addiction and Grace by Gerald G. May, M.D.
46B The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd
47B Growing Up Lutheran by Janet Martin
48B Once Upon a Fastball by Bob Mitchell
49B Bull Run by Paul Fleischman
50B The Chalk Girl by Carol O'Connell

Books Read in December
51 B Catherine the Great : Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie
52 B The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
53 B Tinder Box : The Iroquois Theatre Disaster 1903, by Anthony P. Hatch
54 B Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero, by David Maraniss
55 B Footsteps in the Dark by Georgette Heyer AUDIO
56 B The Whisperer by Donato Carrisi
57 B The Moonlit Mind by Dean Koontz e-book; novella
58 B Here's the Church, Here's the Steeple by Tempa Pagel
59 B Alan Kulwicki NASCAR Champion Against All Odds, by Fr. Dale Grubba
60 B Green for Danger by Christianna Brand
61 B A Christmas Story: The book that inspired the hilarious classic film, by Jean Shepherd
62 B Wishin' and Hopin' by Wally Lamb

abandoned
The Echoing Green by Joshua Prager

OK, I think I've got a handle on organizing this thread -- just need to post some artwork.

Welcome to the party!

By the way, my theme this month is Holiday Dinners and Other December Disasters (with childhood memories of the Great Turkey Oven Fire, the Thanksgiving Eve our refrigerator went on the blink . . . )

Terri- Congrats on the Final Thread! Hope you have some great books lined up!

I'm first? (ooops...Mark got in ahead of me) Well, Happy New Thread, Terri!!! I'm eager to see all of your reading listed. *sigh* I'd so like to have finished my first 75 in July. If that held true for a few years, I might be able to read all the books I've accumulated in a normal lifetime.

Wow, you guys are fast!

12 Hi, Mark! I have a few ideas what I'll be reading. I've already got three in process -- though I'm thinking of abandoning one for a different book.

13. Peggy, looks like Mark beat you to the "post message" button! Welcome to the thread.

Hahaha Peggy that's a good one. Hi Terri. I say starred but no need for that anymore:)

Hi, Bonnie!

Hey, folks, I have a request: Our library staff is looking for the perfect book to donate as a memorial honoring the late husband of our Head Assistant Librarian. We've decided that a good novel which involves military planes from WWI or WWII would be the ideal book to remember him by.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I have three books to finish in order to complete my 11 in 11 category challenge. I'm on a pace to conclude it by December 12 if I really push. I'd like to start my 12 in 12 challenge then.

Right now, I am on the last 50 pages of Catherine the Great : Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie. It has been a very good book overall. It actually fits my November "fill in the (challenge) blanks" theme, as the last in my category for ER books.

I've started Tinder Box : The Iroquois Theatre Disaster of 1903 by Anthony P. Hatch, which also looks very good and will finish off my category for disasters. And it perfectly fits my December Disaster theme: the fire occurred on December 30, 1903.

I also started The Echoing Green by Joshua Prager, as I need one more book in my "play ball" category to finish off my 11 in 11 category challenge. However, I am not enjoying it; the writing style is not to my liking. I find some of the sentence structure a bit convoluted -- grammatically correct, but convoluted, with too many "what was that?" read-over moments. (The verbs tend to get lost.)

So I think I am going to abandon it and read the book I really want to read for the "play ball" category:

Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero by David Maraniss. Not only does it fill the last baseball-related spot, it also fits my theme of the month: Clemente's tragic death in a plane crash on December 31, 1972 was truly a December disaster of legendary proportions.

ETA to add I just read a few pages of the Clemente biography, and the writing quality is superb. I'm definitely switching to it for my baseball book.

Challenge Book #51 B
Title: Catherine the Great : Portrait of a Woman
Author: Robert K. Massie
Copyright/Year of original publication: 2011
Genre: non-fiction / biography
Subject: Russian empress Catherine II
Setting: 18th century Russia
Dates Read: finished 12/1/11
Number of pages: 579 plus bibliography, notes & index
Off the Shelf (pre-2011)? Source?: Counts as off the shelf; LT ER book
Category for 11 in 11 or 12 in 12 challenge: pregame
How does it fit the category? early reviewers copy
Theme of the Month: is leftover from November's "fill in the gaps" category
Does it fit the Theme of the Month? How? finishes gap in pregame category
My Rating: 3.7 stars
Notes:

I enjoyed this book, and appreciated the scope and scholarship of it. However, I really didn't like the structure. In particular, I didn't like the last section, which consisted of more-or-less topical chapters, outside the chronological flow of the rest of the narrative. I'll have more to say when I post my formal review. It's quite possible that my longstanding love for Massie's book Nicholas and Alexandra led me to expect too much.

As far as personal reactions to the book, I started out really liking and admiring Catherine (especially compared to all the bozos who surrounded her in the years before she took the throne). In the end, the admiration dwindled somewhat. I think I had an especially difficult time stomaching what she did to Poland. (My husband's mother's family is Polish.)

I've just realized that I have one more book listed in my 11/11 category challenge than I do for this challenge -- even though EVERYTHING I read is supposed to be on these threads. I've double-checked the lists for my 11/11 challenge, and they seem to be in order, adding up to 127 books. So obviously I've missed something, because my original 75 here plus 51 would add up to 126. So I need to go back and compare lists and see where the discrepancy is. Rats!

The good news is that (unless we've moved into a parallel universe where 126=127) the book I just finished is #52 B (75+52=127), not book #51 B.

Found you and starred :)

Hi, Chelle! Thanks for stopping by!

I was wrong. We're not in a parallel universe -- but my last book wasn't #52B. Horrors -- I put the same book in two different places on my 11 in 11 challenge lists! I had it in both the Leadoff (first in series) category and the All-Star category (because it won an Edgar award).

You can bet that the entry I'll remove is the one in the Leadoff category -- giving me space to start another mystery series! If I have to cram an extra book into the next 12 days, that's my best shot. I still want to be done by the 12th if possible.

Hi, Terri. You've done a lot of good reading this year! And you've (almost) inspired me to make some modest goals for next year. Lazy/recalcitrant lout that I am, large goals cause immediate rebellion and refusal in my warped mind, resulting in some epic fails. Still, maybe just two or three goals?

Love the Terrible Tales of Holidays Past thoughts; the year our dishwasher leaked and soaked the dining room carpet on Christmas Eve springs to mind...

Don't you absolutely hate it when book lists, so carefully worked over, don't match? Arrrgh. Glad you found the glitch quickly.

Hi, Gail! The only way I make goals is if I make them really flexible. Like my themes and categories -- they can all fit a variety of books -- and I still allow for some wild cards. And I wouldn't have read as many as I have if I didn't count any kind of book, large or small, including audios.

Now, what was I thinking? In message 22, I said it would be easiest if I kept my twice-listed book in the "all star" awards category, and tried to read one to fill the "leadoff" (first in series) category? Duh! On my way home today, I finished listening to this year's Man Booker Prize winner, The Sense of an Ending, which didn't seem to fit anywhere when I started it. Plug that into the newly-discovered hole in my awards category, leave In the Woods in the leadoff category, and I'm back to only needing to finish two more books for my 11/11 category challenge. Why didn't I think of it sooner?

Challenge Book #52 B
Title: The Sense of an Ending AUDIO BOOK
Author: Julian Barnes
Copyright/Year of original publication: 2011
Genre: literary fiction
Subject: the vagaries of memory, history, and relationships
Dates Read: finished 12/1/11
Number of pages: n/a (audio)
Off the Shelf? (pre-2011): No, library download
Category for 11 in 11 challenge: "All Stars"
How does it fit the category? Man Booker Prize winner
Does it fit the Theme of the Month it fit's November, when it was started, because it filled a blank I found in my categories.
My Rating: 4 stars
Notes:

Through much of this book, I wondered "why is this a prize winner?" Oh the writing was lovely, and I did "get" the bit about how history (both the big picture and our own) is impossible to really see and know. But the story didn't seem like much of anything. However, somewhere in the final section of the book (roughly the last fifth) it all came together, and it really was quite marvelous.

I had the same reaction, Terri. I wondered what the big deal was, but then it came together at the end in a way that made it all worthwhile.

>25 tymfos:,26: I agree! So simple, and yet so powerful by the end.

Yes it packed quite a punch!

Terri- I am finally picking up my library copy of The Sense of an Ending and plan on starting it, in a few days. Glad you liked it.

Hi Terri, I just saw the mail send by you. No offense taken for a honest inquiry. I would like you to read the posts #171,172 dated Oct 31 posted on gennyt thread no 4 and make your own decision.

30 Welcome to my thread! I read the posts to which you refer, and have mailed you my thoughts in response.

29 Hi, Mark! I hope you enjoy it.

26,27,28 Hello Joe, Laura, and Bonnie! That is really a book where I'm glad I didn't give up after 50 pages. The ending really made the rest of the book much more meaningful.

My ER from the November batch already arrived! The Whisperer by Donato Carrisi. I can't believe it's here already.

hmmmm.......
wonder if it is sitting in my mailbox?
must check :)

Perhaps The Dancing Dodo by John Gardner to honor your Head Assistant Librarian's husband? Or Flyboys by James Bradley or The Fall of Fortresses. I'm not sure if any of these are readily available at the present time.

Go check, Kara!

Thanks for the suggestions, Linda!

Happy December. Don't you just love the new thread connector thingy?! Makes keeping track of my favorite people so much easier.

As for Holiday Dinners and disasters...I cooked my first turkey upside down. Which might not have been so bad, but I was serving it to my in-laws and it didn't make quite the domestic impression I was hoping for. ; )

LOL, Kim!

I can really relate to that story!

I love the photo you placed on top....

So.. how does that arrow thingy work, anyway?

Thanks for noticing the photo, Kath. I took that photo after a big snowstorm in 1983, in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia. No fancy camera -- just a cheap Kodak Instamatic. Once upon a time that was the main building of Combs College of Music, which is now defunct (the college, not the building). It is actually a color photo -- but all the snow and the color of the building and bare trees make it look almost like black and white photography. It's always been a favorite of mine -- I like the stark look of it.

Ah, the arrow -- you mean the thing to continue to a new thread? After you reach 200 posts on a thread, a link appears at the bottom of the thread which allows you to continue the discussion on a new thread. You just click that link, and you can set up a new thread by typing in a thread heading and making a post, and the link between threads is automatic -- you don't have to leave a message with a link to the new thread, one appears at the bottom of the old thread, as well as a link back to the old thread at the top of the new thread. If people have the old thread starred, the new thread will be starred, too, when they move to follow it. Someone complained that an old thread got un-starred, but I haven't noticed that happening to me. I'll have to check on that.

Challenge Book #53B
Title: Tinder Box: The Iroquois Theatre Disaster 1903
Author: Anthony P. Hatch
Copyright/Year of original publication: 2003 (centennial year of the fire)
Genre: non-fiction / history / disaster
Subject: Deadliest theater fire in US history
Setting: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Dates Read: finished 12/2/11
Number of pages: 234 plus photos, introduction, acknowledgment, notes, bibliography, and index
Off the Shelf? (pre-2011): No, inter-library loan
Category for 11 in 11 challenge: Fireballers, Rainouts, Steals and Errors (finishes category)
How does it fit the category? Fire
Does it fit the Theme of the Month Yes
How does it fit the theme? Disaster -- and it happened in December, too.
My Rating: 4.2 stars
Notes:

Long forgotten by most people in the US, the Iroquois Theatre fire of 1903, in Chicago, was one of the deadliest disasters of the 20th century. The exact number killed will never be known, due to confusion at the scene and in the aftermath, but approximately 600 people were killed in a conflagration which swept through the overcrowded, brand-new, hurriedly-opened -- and dangerously incomplete -- theater. The death toll was greater than from the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

Author Anthony P. Hatch shows us the theater's shortcomings in no uncertain terms. He also introduces us to people and practices involved in the construction of the theater and approval of its clearly premature opening. We also meet some of the victims and survivors of the fire.

Hatch quotes Dr. H. L. Montgomery, one of the first physicians to work on victimes inside the theater:
I was with the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War. I rescued one hundred and fifty people during the Chicago fire. I have seen the wreckage of explosions. But I never saw anything so grimly horrible as this.

Hatch also demonstrates how the tragedy shocked the nation and the wider world. At the time, it had a global impact regarding issues of fire safety in public buildings. It led to massive changes in fire codes, and the development of a number of safety innovations.

I found the book reasonably complete and quite engrossing. Where some of the facts were confusing, well there was great confusion and contradictions in the reports of the fire at the time. The book includes a section of photos, many from the author's own collection. Hatch began his research 40 years prior to publication, so a great deal of thought went into the project.

This is a fascinating look at a terrible tragedy, including the factors which led up to it and its aftermath. It's also a call to look at places of public assembly in our own time. How much safer are we in public buildings today? I keep reading books about famous fires and how they brought about changes in the fire safety laws. But then there's always another fire where the same kinds of mistakes were made.

Many thanks to the Altoona (PA) Area Public Library for furnishing this book to me at my local library via inter-library loan.

Thank you for the info (and for the blasted blue text.. sigh.. I think it looks intriguing )

I wondered where the photo came from :) kudos on a great shot.. with an interesting back story..

Great review! That book sounds really good. Hopefully you returned it to the Altoona library because that's one of my favorote libraries! You should come wander through it sometime. It's very nice!

Hi, Kath! Glad to provide the info. (And I know what you mean about the "blasted blue text" . . . too much of it around these threads ;)

Never fear, Carrie, I returned the book to our library yesterday, and the ILL person will be sending it back to Altoona this week, probably today or tomorrow. Perhaps someday I'll make a visit to the Altoona library myself!

BTW, I got an e-mail with an apology from the general manager of that hotel that upset me so much in Richmond. . . after I filled out a electronic survey from the hotel chain, detailing my displeasure.

Terri- Good review of Tinder Box! I'll have to add that to the list. It reminds me of Circus Fire, which was outstanding. Have you read that one?

Yes, Mark, I read Circus Fire several years ago, before LT (would that be BLT?). I don't think Tinder Box is quite as good as Circus Fire; I, too, thought that Circus Fire was outstanding. I think Tinder Box lacks some of the intensity of Circus Fire -- that one really got to me, as O'Nan's writing was just superb. It's a good comparison, though, as far as subject matter. Both disasters occurred at matinee performances, with a resulting large number of child victims, and involved major safety issues.

Isn't it great when you get a response to issues that you have experienced :)

I just heard on the Today show that a 9-year-old was suspended from elementary school because he was overheard saying to another student that a teacher was cute. That was considered "sexual harassment." Give me a break!

We have snow. I've been hearing sirens all evening, so I'm assuming that it's creating havoc on the roads. Our street is snow-covered. It was snowing so hard this afternoon that I couldn't get my car cleared off -- by the time I got all the way around it, the side I started with was getting covered with snow again!

My hubby told me about that boy getting suspended Terri. This hearkens back that time a few years ago when a six year old was suspended for kissing a little classmate. Some people just don't have an ounce of common sense.

Some people just don't have an ounce of common sense.

Bonnie, I think common sense is becoming a very uncommon quality these days! It's scary.

And the final book for my 11 in 11 Category Challenge!

Challenge Book #54 B
Title: Clemente:: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero
Author: David Maraniss
Copyright/Year of original publication: 2006
Genre: biography (sports)
Subject: the late Hall-of-Fame right fielder Roberto Clemente if the Pittsburgh Pirates
Setting: Puerto Rico, Pittsburgh and other assorted places
Dates Read: finished 12/8/11
Number of pages: 354 plus acknowledgments, sources, notes, and index
Off the Shelf? (pre-2011): Not pre-2011
Category for 11 in 11 challenge: Play Ball!
How does it fit the category? baseball
Does it fit the Theme of the Month? How? Yesl The untimely death of this great athlete in a plane crash on December 31, 1972 was truly a disaster
My Rating:4 stars
Notes:

It's hard to believe that it will be 39 years this New Year's Eve since an overloaded plane carrying Roberto Clemente fell into the ocean off the coast of his native Puerto Rico. This biography of the baseball great is not perfect. It's a little too long, and a little too heavy on the hero worship -- though the title gives fair warning of that perspective. The reality is that despite Clemente's flaws -- and the author does admit that there were some -- it's hard not to lapse into some hero worship regarding Clemente. The baseball stats alone are enough to dazzle -- 12 consecutive Golden Glove awards, 3000 base hits, .317 lifetime batting average. His untimely death at age 38 in a plane crash while personally escorting relief supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua -- well, that says a lot about the humanitarian aspect of the man, and why he is so admired.

Author David Maraniss does a good job helping to explain Clemente's life and character in the context of the times in which he lived. He gives insights into the factors which influenced Clemente's actions on and off the field, and those factors which influenced the perceptions of him by the the American media of his time. He reminds us of the impact of the language barrier and racial prejudice, especially in the earlier years of Clemente's career.

Maraniss also gives a fascinating account of the circumstances which led to the plane crash -- again, placing the tragedy solidly in the context of other events which were taking place at the time.

The book could have used some minor editing, but overall it was a satisfying read.

I heard the news about the boy, too and you are so right..

Some people just don't have an ounce of common sense.

It was YEARS ago now.. my kids were still pretty young. The library shut down story hour
because a three year old bumped into another three year old and she told her mommy that he
touched her inappropriately. So when the girls mom was threatening to sue, they stopped having story hour. I honestly don't know how it turned out, but they did start story hour again. Another example.. of
Some people just don't have an ounce of common sense.

Ridiculous! Some people!

And did you hear about the high school team in Massachusetts that lost a state football championship because a kid simply raised his arm in joy as he ran in for what he thought would be the winning touchdown? The touchdown was nullified for an illegal "celebration."

I can understand a rule designed to keep kids from the kinds of excessive celebration and taunting of opponents in ways that are thoroughly unsportsmanlike; but to expect kids to show no joy in moments of triumph makes no sense to me. What's the point of playing, if you can't take joy in your successes?

Are we all supposed to just become like computers and just go through the motions of life and spit out results with no expression of feeling whatsoever?

I won a book from the recent bonus batch of ER books. It's the new Stef Penney novel, The Invisible Ones. I loved her The Tenderness of Wolves when I read it early this year, so I can't wait to get this one.

I have had such incredible luck with LT's ER program. My library must be somehow in sync with however their secret algorithm works for picking book recipients.

ye gods.. no sense.. non atall atall

I won one too... Come In and Cover Me by Gin Phillips

eta the LT oracle says

LibraryThing thinks you will love Come in and Cover Me (prediction confidence: very low)
That cracks me up. It points all the way to the right enthusiastically but the confidence is low..
I enjoy the oracle .. lol it's fun :)

I won one too, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
by Katherine Boo; sounded fascinating to me, although probably rather dark. And I have had phenomenal luck with the ER program also.

Hi Terri, you remind me that I need to check those ER lists again. I've been taking a break. Not because I've been disappointed but because I've been trying to whittle down my books not add to them. I think I have it under control now so I'm ready for more free books!

Enjoy your snow. We had an inch on Tuesday, and that was good enough for me.

Terri- I also enjoyed The Tenderness of Wolves and requested her new one! Congrats on snagging it!

55 LibraryThing thinks you will love Come in and Cover Me (prediction confidence: very low)
That cracks me up. It points all the way to the right enthusiastically but the confidence is low..

That is pretty funny, Kath!

56 Hope you enjoy your ER book, Bonnie!

57 Donna, I hope you find something that you like in the ER batch, and manage to snag it!

I didn't see much in the ER batch this month that appealed to me. There were two on the list from a mystery series by Michael Robotham that looked like possibilities. I checked the first in series, Suspect, out of our library to investigate it It looked promising at first; it had a nice turn of phrase here and there, and an interesting protagonist -- a psychologist who has just been diagnosed with Parkinson's. It is reasonably well-written, and to be honest, the story isn't bad.

The problem is that it has one of my very least-favorite (and, unfortunately, all too common) plot devices: the protagonist who is wrongly accused of a crime by a thick-headed policeman. It takes a VERY good writer and story indeed to make me enjoy a book with that scenario -- James Lee Burke has done it, and a few others who immediately get put on my "must read the next one" list. This book isn't quite good enough to overcome my dislike of that particular story line. To make it worse, the thick-headed detective seems like a carbon copy of so many other detectives I've seen in similar story lines; in short, a bit of a stereotype. Needless to say, I don't think I'll bother requesting a book from this series. I've all but decided to abandon this one -- rare for me to quit a book over halfway through, but he just threw another plot curve at me that I didn't see coming and don't like at all.

58 Actually, Mark, I think I have you to thank for a recommendation of The Tenderness of Wolves, or I might not have read that one.

ETA to fix stupid touchstone

ye gods, another one I have on my shelf...

I currently am teetering on the edge of -- ooohh, no! -- a book funk. I currently have three books in progress:

1. I'm reading the above-mentioned Robotham novel, Suspect, which I'm considering abandoning.

2. I'm reading a biography of the late NASCAR driver Alan Kulwicki. I chose to read this now because this year's championship run by Tony Stewart is the first by an owner-driver since Kulwicki did it in 1992; I wanted to learn more about the last owner-driver to win the championship, and this is the only book I've been able to find about him. It's not the most well-written book I've ever read. It's not glaringly bad; the grammar is acceptable, I haven't seen any typos, there's nothing that's made me groan. It's just really odd what the author does and doesn't include, and where in the book he puts it. Also, after just reading a bio of Roberto Clemente, this makes two-in-a-row non-fiction reads that are bios of top sports figures who died in plane crashes. At least it fits my disaster theme for the month, but it's kind of a downer.

3. I'm almost done listening to an audio of Georgette Heyer's Footsteps in the Dark. This has been a nice little mystery -- a bit predictable in places, but enjoyable enough.

I am absolutely stalled as far as what to read next. I do have an ER book I should read, The Whisperer, and maybe I'll go on and give that a go now.

I also owe a review of Catherine the Great, which I keep putting off writing.

ETA touchstones

hope you can outrun the funk, Terri!

Thanks, Kath!

Aggravation! A brand-new, economy-sized bottle of laundry detergent fell off the washing machine and onto the laundry room floor. The bottle stayed intact -- but the lid shattered into zillions of teeny-tiny shards of plastic that flew in all directions. I found some that had flown out of the laundry room and all the way across the kitchen! The laundry detergent didn't run quite as far as that, but it made a HUGE mess by the time I found it. Have you ever tried to walk on a floor covered with laundry detergent? It was like trying to walk on sheer ice, only wet.

So I spent much of this beautiful morning in my laundry room, trying to clean up the mess. The washer had to be moved, because a puddle of detergent oozed underneath it. I'm still not done, just taking a break.

oh no!! Terrible!! So frustrating.. waste and mess and more mess.
I had one of those extra large bottles of fabric softener on my washer
a while back. It was knocked over and the lid not on as tight as it should
have been. Result was blue puddle all over the top and down the sides of the washer
and some on the floor. Much more contained! Annoying though.. so I sorta feel your pain...
at least a little of it. I can't imagine having it all over the floor!

:(

Thanks for the empathy, Kath! As crises go, it was really a minor one, but aggravating in terms of mess and waste. Definitely not how I wanted to spend my day off! But my laundry room floor is now cleaner than it's been in ages, and the air is heavily scented with the aroma of Purex all-natural "linen and lilies" laundry detergent.

The day improved quite a bit. After school, I took my son to see the pediatric nurse-practitioner in the next town for his asthma check. We decided to get much-needed haircuts after that. And my husband offered to meet us at a favorite restaurant for a dinner out! I had scampi shrimp with garlic pasta. Yum! And I came home to find that hubby had put up the Christmas lights on our stairway!

I'm now "washing" (rinsing!) some of the rags and towels I used to sop up the mess in the laundry room. Can't do too many in each load, as I fear that the sheer quantity of detergent would overwhelm the washing machine!

Terri- Sorry to hear about the detergent mishap! What a mess! I hope you can avoid the book funk! Fingers crossed!

Thanks, Mark! I think that, to avoid a book funk, I need to just pick out something I really want to read, regardless of whatever else I have started. I just can't settle on what I really want to read! Funny, I was so eager for December 12 to arrive to start my 12 in 12 category challenge -- and now I can't seem to get going with it! Seems downright silly.

That is so weird. I just came down from the laundry room where my big economy size detergent fell off of the dryer but luckily it fell on the side and only a small puddle formed. HHHMMM

Hi Terri, sorry about the laundry room spill, I haven't had that happen yet (fingers crossed), I have however left the plug in the laundry room sink that my washer empties into and had a full scale flood. I guess doing laundry with a book in the hand is just inviting disaster! At least you can enjoy the lovely smell. Glad the rest of your day went well.

Drat! I just hit the wrong button and lost my whole post. Try again . . .

71 HHHMMM . . .that is weird, Carrie! Are the laundry bottles ganging up on us? Glad you only had a small puddle to deal with.

72 Judy, I'll take my detergent mess over a full-scale flood any day. Ick!

I managed to get things done today that I'd planned, despite the disruption in the laundry room. I managed to vacuum several rooms. Crushing aluminum cans for recycling was actually kind of therapeutic, and I had time to stop and drop some things at the recycling center on the way to my son's medical appointment. I got a bunch of laundry done this evening, and did some cleaning in the kitchen.

Later, after my son and hubby had both gone upstairs, I took time to soak my feet in my favorite Avon foot soak -- sipping a mug of herbal tea and beginning a new and promising book. My new ER book, The Whisperer by Donato Carrisi, is good so far, if a tad grisly. I think it will be the perfect prescription for avoiding a book funk!

Glad to see that you are enjoying your latest ER offering. I'll have to throw it on the TBR mountain.

Go away book funk!! (Just helping out)

The Whisperer is still pretty good, Carrie. I'm over halfway through.

I've started another non-fiction book, Winter Blues: Everything you need to know to beat Seasonal Affective Disorder.

I finished an audio book (comments to be posted soon), and went online to the library website intending to check out a Christmas book or something from my wishlist. Instead, I saw an interesting book in the new titles which was #2 in a series, which led me to seek out the audio of #1 in the series -- which was available -- so I wound up checking it out. Think of a Number by John Verdon looks rather promising.

Just what I need -- another mystery/thriller series to follow!

December manages to produce it's own random acts of aggravation...
don't you think? I got a form from the DMV that needs to be filled out to
prove that I can see and that my heart is still beating.

Did not need that.. but .. hopefully that will be the end of it. ??

76 Hmm, never got one of those. I'm assuming that you can see, since you read so many books -- and don't do audio books! As for heart -- well, Kath, you certainly have heart! Did they think you were a zombie or something?

We have paperwork to fill out and turn in by Jan 1 in order to keep our son's present and future disability services -- limited as they are -- intact.

Does Scrooge work for the state of Pennsylvania or something?

Hi Terri, glad to hear you're liking The Whisperer, as I got it as an ER book as well. I hope to get to it fairly soon.

Actually, Scrooge resides in Illinois. If you're collecting social security and have a job and then lose it, in 48 states, you're entitled to unemployment as would any other unemployed person. In Illinois (and Louisiana), not so much.

79. I've got it! They cloned Scrooge! Or maybe not . . .


glitter-graphics.com

78 I think you'll probably like The Whisperer, Judy. I can quibble about some aspects of it, but am finding it pretty much a page turner.

Challenge Book #55B
Title: Footsteps in the Dark AUDIO BOOK
Author: Georgette Heyer
Copyright/Year of original publication: 1932
Genre: mystery fiction
Subject: a supposedly "haunted" old priory
Setting: England
Dates Read: finished 12/15/11
Off the Shelf (pre-2011)? Source?: No, library download
Category for 11 in 11 or 12 in 12 challenge: first book in 12 in 12: "Magical Mystery Tour"
How does it fit the category? mystery
Alternate Category: "What's Goin' On?"
Theme of the Month: holiday dinners and other December disasters
Does it fit the Theme of the Month? How? No.
My Rating: 3.3 stars
Notes:

This is a nice little old-fashioned mystery written in the 1930's about an old priory with mysterious happenings. Is there a ghost -- or is someone trying to frighten the occupants away? Parts of it seemed a bit predictable, but it was a pleasant book.

That could be the explanation......

Oh Terri I'm sorry about the laundry room disaster. I've never had that happen but our dryer sounds like it's on its way out. It makes the most un-Godly sound when it's running that you'd swear it was getting ready to take off. Hubby took it apart and thought he'd fixed it but...no dice.

Hi, Bonnie! Our clothes dryer is getting slower and slower to get the clothes dry. I assume it's eventually going to quit altogether. I suppose after almost 19 years, we've gotten our money's worth out of it.

Must be something in the air with clothes dryers..

86 I wonder if colder weather is harder on them, since there is generally a vent to the outside?

Challenge Book #56 B
Title: The Whisperer (Early Reviewer edition -- uncorrected proofs)
Author: Donato Carrisi
Copyright/Year of original publication: to be released in US in 2012
Genre: thriller / police procedural
Subject: the abduction and murder of children
Setting: There is no real indication in the text regarding where this book is set other than names and references to the weather.
Main Characters: Officer Mila Vasquez, criminologist Dr. Goran Gavila, Special Agent Sarah Rosa, Special Agent Klaus Boris, Chief Inspector Roche, Special Agent Stern
Dates Read: finished 12/15/11
Number of pages: 422
Off the Shelf (pre-2011)? Source?: ER book, counts as off shelf
Category for 11 in 11 or 12 in 12 challenge: Magical Mystery Tour
How does it fit the category? Mystery
Alternate Category: What's Goin' On
Theme of the Month: Holiday dinners & other December disasters
Does it fit the Theme of the Month? How? NO
My Rating: 3.2
Notes: Started strong, but deteriorated about 3/4 of the way through, becoming too implausible for my taste.

OK, I finished my latest ER book. I seem to recall it being described, somewhere, as creating "a sensation" in Europe. Well, it was sensational -- and I don't necessarily mean that in a positive way.

It deals with child abductions and murders, and revolves around the team assembled to try and solve the crimes. Mila is an emotionally damaged officer who is brought in because she's an expert at finding missing children. Dr. Gavila is a criminologist with some odd methods. The whole squad is an odd bunch of not particularly likable characters. They eventually move into "the studio," an old "safe house" once used for witness protection, as their base for solving the crime.

A lot of it was very good and suspenseful. It kept me turning pages with lots of plot twists. But at the end, it got too convoluted, and the final turns of plot made the whole thing totally implausible in my mind. And it really did fall into what I felt was almost crass sensationalism.

How to explain my reasons for feeling this way, without spoilers, is a major problem to which I have no answer.

One thing I can say is that -- at least as it stands in the proofs I read -- there is NO sense of place, such as I have enjoyed in so many other books imported from Europe. Geographical names are not used, there are a lot of references similar to "the next town" or "the village where she lives," etc. The story is obviously set in a climate that receives snow in February. Certain terminology gives clues -- calling fuel "petrol," for instance. You could argue that it's meant to give the feeling that "this could be happening anywhere." Or perhaps the lack of a sense of place is meant to echo the sterile, "away from the world" atmosphere of "the studio" which the investigative team uses as their base of investigations. But, then, I really didn't get the point of them moving into "the studio" either.

ugh! sorry to hear it. I recently read a stinker.. in fact.. it didn''t finish it. The one I started after isn't holding my attention either.. so I may move on again.. I have a cupe of ER books to get to myself :P

Kath, I seem to recall that some other folks in our group got this ER. I'd be interested in seeing how they react to it, and being able to message and discuss my reservations without worrying about spoilers, as I must in posts here and reviews. On one level, it was a heck of a good thriller . . . it just went too far for me to find believable.

I had this same plausibility problem with a book I read not too long ago -- not sure which one, can't quite recall, maybe the last Linda Fairstein that I read? It has to do with a perpetrator setting a plan in motion and the resulting issue of whether events can be expected to fall precisely in line with his/her plans once he/she is in a "hands off" position where things are pretty much out of his/her control -- especially with a lot of human variables thrown in. Does anything in life ever go quite according to plan -- especially complex plans? (Or are the bad guys better planners?)

I yielded to e-book buying temptation to download something seasonal. I bought Wishin' and Hopin' by Wally Lamb. Though several folks have said that there isn't that much Christmas in the book -- supposedly there is one scene of a Christmas pageant that is hilarious, and the whole book is supposed to be enjoyable.

I also bought A Christmas Story by Jean Shepherd, which gathers together Shepherd's short stories that were used for his screenplay of the movie classic. I never realized that the movie was based on previously-published short stories.

And I bought a short story for 99 cents called The Carousel (A Christmas Ghost Story), by James Cressford. By the time you take into consideration the pages used for the cover, title-page, and copyright notice, it was only 7 pages long. A decently creepy story -- nothing to write home about. Given how short it was, I am not counting it as part of my challenge.

After updating to the new e-reader software for my Sony, I just had to make sure it worked with our library's downloads. So I wound up downloading a Dean Koontz novella (actually a partial preview of his next novel) called The Moonlit Mind. And since the loan period for it was only one week, I really needed to get started reading it. It's a rather peculiar one -- but would you expect anything normal from Koontz?

Hi Terri - I'm also getting the new Stef Penny from the bonus batch - I'm really looking forward to it!

That's great, Joanne! Here's hoping we both enjoy it as much as I enjoyed her Tenderness of Wolves.

This Sunday, in many churches, the Gospel lesson is that of the Annunciation -- when the angel Gabriel visited Mary and announced that God had chosen her to be the mother of Jesus. As I was preparing a meditation on the text, this subject came to mind:

My most vivid memory of my first visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art was of seeing Henry Ossawa Tanner's magnificent painting of The Annunciation. (I loved it so much, I bought a print of it in the museum store.) It was painted in 1898 and purchased by the museum in 1899 -- the first of Tanner's works to hang in an American museum. Tanner was the first African American painter to achieve international fame as an artist. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1859, studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and died in Paris, France in 1937 -- having spent most of his working life in Europe to escape the racial prejudice of the U.S. The son of a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, he often painted religious subjects. Observations from his travels to the Holy Land added to the realism of the details in his works.

I'd really like to read a book about him! I see that our county library has one.


The Annunciation Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1898
(credit: digital image made available by http://freechristimages.org/biblestories/annunciation.htm)

Thank you for sharing the beautiful art and the information :)

I've never seen that painting. Thanks for posting it here. I'm a lover of art that has religious overtones; there's a lot of that kind of thing here in the culture of the Southwest. I dig how religion infuses art and vice versa. Tanner's painting is so interesting. The look on the subject's face can read in so many ways: fear, relief, peace...

Oh Tanner is wonderful!

Hi Kath, Mac, and Lucy! I'm glad you enjoyed the artwork.

No image on a computer screen can do justice to the real painting. It measures 57" by 71 1/2" -- almost 5 feet by 6 feet. I found it absolutely overwhelming!

ETA to add Mac, if you have a particular interest in art with a religious slant, there is a great deal of it -- at least of the Christian variety -- at the web site that I downloaded that image from, freechristimages.org.

Ohhh Terri I love that painting. I think I'll trot off to check out that website. Thanks.

You're welcome, Bonnie!

Challenge Book #57 B (a)
Title: The Moonlit Mind
Author: Dean Koontz
Copyright/Year of original publication: 2011
Genre: thriller/horror fiction novella
Subject: a runaway boy in the city, fleeing a terrible evil
Setting: alternates between "the city" (present) and Thoron House (past)
Main Characters: Crispin, Harley, and "the Phantom of Broderick's"
Dates Read: finished 12/18/11
Number of pages: 102 plus excerpt from related novel 77 Shadow Street
Off the Shelf (pre-2011)? Source?: No, library download
Category for 11 in 11 or 12 in 12 challenge: Spooky
How does it fit the category? well, it's kind of spooky!
Alternate Category: Magical Mystery Tour or What's Goin' On
Theme of the Month: Holiday Dinners and other December Disasters
Does it fit the Theme of the Month? How? Yes, though I didn't know it when I downloaded it. It features a
"feast-day dinner" that is more than a disaster -- and the story concludes on Christmas Day.
My Rating: 4 stars
Notes:

I downloaded this novella from the library on a whim to test my upgraded Sony PC Reader software's interface with our library download system. It turned out to be a pretty good, if bizarre, thriller -- and, in the end, somewhat appropriate to my theme of the month. It is a story with strong supernatural themes, as is often the case with Koontz. The story appears to be somewhat related to Koontz's latest novel 77 Shadow Street, an excerpt of which is included following the novella.

Crispin is a boy who is alone in the city, having run away from . . . what? The "what" is gradually revealed, as the story alternates between present and past -- and the resolution is surprising.

The novella is written in rather simple, straightforward prose -- I especially noted the contrast with the writing style of the novel excerpt which follows it. I think that reflects the fact that it is told from the POV of a child -- even though it is a child wise beyond his own years, and is written in third person.

I can detect a number of theological themes in this study of a decent boy struggling against a terrible, murderous, even blasphemous evil. But -- for those not theologically inclined -- it's also just a fearsomely good, bizarre, horror story.

The excerpt from the new book is tantalizing, too.

I know I'm extremely fortunate that my husband has a job that comes with health insurance for us. Really, I know that. Absolutely, 100 per-cent. But the denominational benefits office has a wellness program that we have to participate in to get certain health benefits.

Late today, someone from the wellness program called to ask how I'm doing with my diet and exercise program this week. Christmas week. The day of the library staff Christmas party. After a month of church activities, all of which seened to involve high-calorie food and which we were expected to attend. A week when it snowed, so I couldn't go walking.

Do you think I appreciated that call? :(

grrrrrrr...... humbug. . . .

My insurance and my husband's both have wellness programs. I get to do it twice. I'm halfway through my husband's but mine will be starting soon. Woohoo.

I read an article which said how common these programs are with businesses today, and how there is absolutely no statistical evidence that they reduce health care costs in the slightest.

I just know mine drives my blood pressure up every time I have to deal with them.

In past years, we had to fill out an online health questionnaire and we got a $25 per month health insurance discount. This year, and last too, I think, they just ask whether we smoke and, if not, we get that discount.

I don't think that filling out a form really saved anyone anything.

105 Our wellness program health form is much more involved . . . cholesterol readings, blood sugar, how much we exercise and to what level of intensity, weight, height, medical history . . . then they "recommend" activities we have to do if we want to qualify for maximum benefits. Diet, exercise, all to be duly noted online. Being on blood pressure medicine, I qualified for a "health coach" to periodically call and nag me into doing better. I rebelled. I'll probably have a trillion dollar deductible next year or something.

OK, I'm off to the doctor this morning . . . so I can get grilled about my diet and exercise for the second straight day in a row.

grrr

timing is everything an annoyance can become a super irritation if the timing is right :(

LOL, Kath, ain't that the truth!

Popping in to say Hi! Awful timing...to ask pesky questions about diet during December is just plain ornery!!

Hi, Kim! Awful timing, indeed.

My doctor was kind this morning. I did a pre-emptive "mea culpa," and she said, well, at least I hadn't gained much weight since the last time I was there. (I really like my doctor! :)

Your insurance company sounds, well, draconian. Seriously. We have a program where I go on the computer to a website where I record what activity I do (which includes just about anything including housework) and whether or not I ate 5 servings of vegetables/fruit daily. I do this a couple of times a week and earn points that translate into dollars, up to $500 a year. Last year I cashed a check for $483. Nice.

Bonnie, to be totally fair, that's actually not that far off from what we do, or can do -- except that I signed up for everything they recommended -- including the coaching, which was really aggravating. (Some peppy young thing telling me what to do!) I suspect the problem is "me" more than "them," that I make more of a chore out of it than it has to be. (Story of my life!) I could spend an hour trying to accurately calculate how much exercise I have for the week in each intensity category -- mild, moderate or intense. (Intense is not so hard to figure, though -- usually a big zero!) This is why I'm terrible at filling out any kind of survey or application.

And Kath was right -- timing is everything on these things. When they decide to do a survey -- be it a phone call or when I'm online with them -- they always pick the darndest times. Yesterday was a great example. Online, it's always when I've logged on to quickly enter data, and they pop a survey on that I have to complete before they'll let me enter my data, and I wind up late for something. One time they surveyed me when I was up against a deadline for entering coaching program info for the week. By the time I finished the survey it was after midnight and the week was officially over, according to their computer.

Sometimes it just feels like I'm being monitored by the Food Police. And I'm not the compliant type.

And I was being silly; they really won't stick me with a trillion dollar deductible next year. (Or at least, I don't think so . . .)

Our online survey asked all those things, too, but it was a snapshot in time. No need to follow up with changes etc. We haven't had to fill that out since 2009 anyway.

Well, we don't have to follow up or even do the survey -- if we're content with a thousand dollar (per each family member) deductible before they start to pay out if we're sick. A thousand dollar deductible seems kind of high to me for folks that are pretty healthy -- many years, I don't reach that amount of medical expense, and my husband almost never does. (And, yes, I realize that we're very lucky in that respect, too!) So it really pays to do the survey each year, and try to do the follow up stuff.

My fitness coach is pretty cool. She doesn't nag or anything. She asks what i do and what I can change. So far I'm supposed to walk a half an hour twice a week, drink more water and stop eating so many cookies in the evening. I try and do what she asks. I have to talk to her about 10 minutes every three weeks.

The coach was nice enough, I guess, but she just rubbed me the wrong way. She had this sort of rah, rah peppy cheerleader kind of personality. I guess I'm too much of a curmudgeon. She wanted me to walk half an hour five days a week, and eat three fruits and four veggies every day. The walking was fun when the weather was nice. I like to walk. But sometimes it just doesn't work with the weather --especially when it gets icy!

There were other pieces besides the health coaching things. The weight loss program gave me an overall diet to follow. Then I-don't-know-what-part of the wellness program sent me a diet for my blood pressure, and it was different from the weight loss diet, and both were different from what my doctor said to do.

I was supposed to enter my exercise into the exercise program logs, the weight loss program logs, and the coaching log. Each had a slightly different format and goals, and different timetables. It was time consuming. I actually thought I'd completed everything I needed to do with them for the year by the middle of last month -- then they called yesterday. :(

Enough of that! (At least from me.) I'm amazed to say that I am way ahead of most years as far as being ready for Christmas. I made it through all the busy activities that require bringing covered dishes and baked good -- the church suppers, the library staff Christmas party. The church bulletins are typed for Christmas Eve and the following Sunday, and I installed a brand new toner cartridge in the copier so I can run them off. I'm leading worship at two congregations this year for Christmas Eve, and my sermon manuscript is already prepared. The house is relatively clean. Most gifts are purchased, and I have plenty of paper and gift bags to wrap them. My son and I both have fresh haircuts. I've even scheduled an oil change for my car on Friday.

And in the process, I managed to not forget any of the family's doctor appointments this month, and I helped my son study successfully for a test in his most difficult subject -- this semester, it's Wildlife Biology. (He got an 82% on the test -- quite acceptable in my book!) He's raised his grade in Environmental Science up to a B+, a big improvement from last semester.

If I'm not exactly calm, I'm starting to feel a little less frazzled.

Well, they obviously didn't like my answers yesterday, because Health Coaching sent me another survey by e-mail this evening. GOOD GRIEF!!!!

Insomnia. I decided I was too snippy in the comments section of my reply to the above mentioned survey, and messaged my wellness plan with an apology and a "Merry Christmas."

I've got to learn to take things a little more calmly. Maybe instead of diet and exercise, my New Year's resolution should simply be to not be such a curmudgeon.

I had a favorite aunt who was really fun to be around for many years, but as she got to about the age I am now, she became very critical of every little thing. I fear I am starting to follow in her footsteps. Don't want to go there.

Hi Terri- I was just going to comment about you being up so early. Sorry to hear about the insomnia. I don't have problems with it but would not wish it on anyone.
Have a good day! Good luck with the curmudgeon resolution.

Thanks, Mark. You have a good day too!

I hate how things seem to pile up in December...
I think that could be part of your irritation.. not that you are getting to be like your aunt.. I think I am getting to be like her though :P
I have been pretty beeechy lately..

I have been having sleep issues, too.. can't sleep after 4 am or so ..
It isn't that I am going to bed earlier.. I don't sleep till 11 or so..
more of that holiday stress??

Good cheer to one and all!! (And could we just not talk about the trouble-sleeping-thing? Grrrrrr!)

122 They do pile up, don't they Kath?

123 Cheer to you, too, Kim! (yawn! did you say something about trouble sleeping?)

I keep popping onto LT every time I get a free minute. It's getting to be like a nervous habit. I love LT, but I've got to make myself stay away a bit more so I get more RL stuff done!

I too am popping into LT when I can.. 5 min here.. 10 there..
Adam was just in the shower.. he is out now so off I go..
hope all in well in Terri-land

>60 tymfos:: I found a hidden gem in the ER batch - In the Bleak Midwinter - an oldie but a goodie! And, yes, I was chosen. Yay!

So much good stuff here that I want to respond to. I hope the book funk is over. My only funk has to do with limited reading time. And when I do find some time, I'm not able to focus on what I'm reading. The Christmas grumpies are somewhat evident in our house, but I'm working hard not to succumb. The payoff comes today when Ben, Mary, and baby Haley arrive from Dallas. No one can be grumpy with a 15-month-old in the house to spoil.

I forgot what else I was going to comment on. It's that lack of concentration thingy! I'll just wish you a very Merry Christmas and go cook or clean something. ;-)

Merry Christmas, Terri!

(I'm glad that somebody else realizes that Koontz is a closet theologian!)

Terri- Merry Christmas to you and yours! Have a great holiday!

Merry Christmas Terri!

For the last few years our wellness progam at work consisted of attesting that we didn't smoke and filling out a form about our health at the beginning of the year. In 2012, with a new carrier, it's much more involved - we'll have to do a different *something* each quarter. I'm ignoring it for now, but I know I'm going to hate it. Such an intrusion.

Anyway, on a happier note,

I hope you and your family have a very merry Christmas, Terri!!!

125 All is well in Terri-land, Kath!

126 Donna, I'm fighting the lack of concentration thing, too!

127 (I'm glad that somebody else realizes that Koontz is a closet theologian!)
Peggy, I'm glad to see I'm not alone in that assessment of Koontz!

Merry Christmas to all of you!

130 but I know I'm going to hate it. Such an intrusion.
I think that's the real issue for me, Joanne -- it feels like an intrusion.

128, 129 And a Merry Christmas to you, Mark and Kara!

In fact, Merry Christmas to all, and appropriate holiday greeting to those who celebrate in other traditions. I doubt that I'll have time to get to a lot of threads to offer Christmas greetings, so let me at least say here that I hope everyone has a safe, happy, joyous, comfortable holiday.


glitter-graphics.com

Another piece of seasonal art:


Madonna and Child by Marianne Stokes (1908) from http://www.freechristimages.org/

Wishing you and your family the best for the holidays, Terri. I will be off LT for a couple of weeks, so I will look forward to catching up with you in January.

Merry Christmas Terri! May you keep the curmudgeons at bay in 2012!

Merry Christmas, Terri.

Merry Christmas, Terri!

Merry Christmas Judy, Bonnie, Linda, and Roni!

Merry Christmas Terri!

Merry Christmas Terri!! Thank you for sharing yourself with us on your threads. I enjoy them greatly. And cudos to all who posted these great Christmas images!!

mistletoe smooches!

Have a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Terri! Go Eagles!

Merry Christmas, Chelle, Kim, Carrie, Richard, and Darryl.

Eagles good news: they won. Eagles bad news: they're eliminated from the playoffs via Giants win today. The Steelers won today. They've clinched at least a wild card berth in the playoffs.

Christmas Eve worship was pleasant this evening, with candlelight and lots of traditional carols. Now I'm relaxing a bit with a glass of a local raspberry wine and (sort of) watching the Hawaii Bowl on TV.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Eagles bad news: they're eliminated from the playoffs via Giants win today.
sorry about that I'm a Giants fan :)

lol @ kara~

Too funny... I am just not a sports fan and so have no idea what our local teams are doing..

Hi Terri... ! Hope you are having a nice holiday season :)

145 I'm a Giants fan
I won't hold that against you, Kara! ;) My hubby is a Giants fan, too

146 Hi, kath! Holidays good -- but my internet access is not working so well right now. Driving me crazy! I could barely get to my threads today, let alone anyone else's. Hope your holidays are good.

Challenge Book #58 B
Title: Here's the Church, Here's the Steeple
Author: Tempa Pagel
Copyright/Year of original publication: 2007
Genre: cozy mystery
Subject: 200-year-old skeleton found in church steeple; newer body found in church entryway
Setting: West Newburyport, Massachusetts
Main Characters: Andy Gammon
Series: Andy Gammon #1
Dates Read: finished 12/26/11
Number of pages:297
Off the Shelf (pre-2011)? Source?: YES, purchased 2010 in Watertown, NY
Category for 11 in 11 or 12 in 12 challenge: What's goin' on
How does it fit the category? Mystery
Alternate Category:
Theme of the Month: Holiday Dinners and other December Disasters
Does it fit the Theme of the Month? How? Sort of. Historical part of mystery revolves around a disasterous fire in 1811.
My Rating: 3.3 stars
Notes:

This is a decent cozy mystery. My main complaint is how neatly the author wraps up the historical componenet of the mystery. This was obviously intended as the first in a series, bearing the notation, "An Andy Gammon Mystery," but the LT series feature shows no others in the series -- or even by this author. I'll have to investigate further. I would try another to see how the characters develop.

Challenge Book #59 B
Title: Alan Kulwicki NASCAR Champion Against All Odds
Author: Fr. Dale Grubba
Copyright/Year of original publication: 2009
Genre: sports biography
Subject: the 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup champion (series that is now Sprint Cup)
Dates Read: finished 12/27/11
Number of pages: 469 plus appendix & notes
Off the Shelf (pre-2011)? Source?: Yes, purchased 2010 from Amazon.com
Category for 11 in 11 or 12 in 12 challenge: Winner Takes it All
How does it fit the category? about a champion
Alternate Category:
Theme of the Month: December disasters
Does it fit the Theme of the Month? How? Sort of -- Kulwicki died in a plane crashe only months after winning the championship
My Rating:2.74
Notes:

In November, Tony Stewart became the first owner-driver to win the top NASCAR championship since Alan Kulwicki did it in 1992. So I decided it was time to read this book about the last owner-driver champion.

The author, Father Dale Grubba, knew Kulwicki and actually participated in his funeral. He did a reasonable job of portraying both strengths and faults, but his affection and admiration did come through.

In my opinion, the book was too long and contained almost excruciating detail regarding Kulwicki's early career. It could have used some stringent editing of the main text, allowing the reader desiring more detail to refer to the very complete appendix of Kulwicki's race stats.

The book generally lacked error in grammar and syntax. However, there were a number of places where I found the writing confusing; where backtracking or repetition muddled the narrative.
I also found it awkward that the writer referred to himself in the third person when describing his role in Kulwicki's funeral.

Most of all, I detested the amount of speculation as to Kulwicki's thoughts, especially during the final moment of his life on a doomed airplane, when none of us can really know what he was thinking. Just the facts, Father, please. The nature and timing of Kulwicki's death -- in a plane crash just months after winning the championship -- are sad enough without embellishment.

Well thanks goodness you won't hold my affection for the Giants against me! I would hate for them to come between our LT cyber friendship :)

Sorry about the Kulwicki book.....
The nature and timing of Kulwicki's death -- in a plane crash just months after winning the championship -- are sad enough without embellishment. so true!

have you read the Neal Thompson book Driving with the Devil?? my step dad has it and he really liked it. He also purchased a bottle of southern moonshine that was talked about in the book.

Kara, I aven't read that yet. I'll be on the lookout for it.

75 Challenge Book #60 B; Off-the-shelf challenge book #50!
Title: Green For Danger
Author: Christianna Brand
Copyright/Year of original publication: 1944
Genre: mystery fiction
Subject: murder at a WWII English military hospital
Setting: Heronsford, Kent, England
Main Characters: Inspector Cockrill, Postman Higgins, Sister Bates, Jane Woods, Gervase Eden, Esther Sanson, Dr. Barnes, Surgeon Moon, Freddi Linley
Series: Inspector Cockrill
Dates Read: finished 12/28/11
Number of pages: 254
Off the Shelf (pre-2011)? Source?: Yes, 2010 from some used book store
Category for 12 in 12 challenge: Doctor, Doctor
How does it fit the category? set in hospital
Alternate Category: Magical Mystery Tour or What's Goin' On?
Theme of the Month: Holiday Dinners and other December disasters
Does it fit the Theme of the Month? How? Sort of. War air raids causing buildings to collapse on people are a sort of disaster, aren't they?
My Rating: 3.6 stars
Notes:

This is a pretty good mystery set in a WWII British military hospital. The characters are introduced very cleverly via the postman delivering letters to the hospital from each of them; the author delves into the situation of each as they post their letters. (We shall encounter the postman again later in the story!)

We soon have a murder mystery with a limited number of suspects, all of whom are living and working together at the hospital. The puzzle is quite complex, and gives us an interesting slice of life in a WWII military hospital. The reader should be prepared for attitudes consistent with that time period.

Challenge Book #61 B
Title: A Christmas Story
Author: Jean Shepherd: the book that inspired the hilarious classic film
Copyright/Year of original publication:
Genre: humor
Subject: small town life in Depression-era America
Setting: Hohman, Indiana
Dates Read: finished 12/29/11
Number of pages: 97
Off the Shelf (pre-2011)? Source?: no, newly purchased e-book
Category for 12 in 12 challenge: American Pie
How does it fit the category? small-town life in America during the Great Depression
Alternate Category:
Theme of the Month: Holiday dinners and other December disasters
Does it fit the Theme of the Month? How? Yes; has story of especially traumatic holiday dinner
My Rating:3.4 stars
Notes:

This is a collection of the short stories by Jean Shepherd which hold the majority of scenes that were used (often in altered form) for the Christmas classic movie A Christmas Story. The movie was based, not on one story, but using scenes from several stories.

Not all the stories originally had a Christmas setting; for instance, the memorable scene of going to the Chinese restauraunt for Christmas dinner was originally written as an Easter dinner after destruction of their Easter ham, and the actual dinner was not described in the original story.

I need to see the movie again soon to better recall how the material from the stories was used.

I never read the book A Christmas Story but I love the movie!
"you'll shot your eye out!"
They played it here on a cable channel Christmas day, all day. I kept seeing bits and pieces of it and chuckled when I saw the Christmas turkey being demolished by the dog :)

At the time the movie was made, the stories weren't all in one book, though much of the material was in the collection, In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash. They were put together into the book I read after the movie was such a success. That movie is a hoot! :)

This has been a weird week. Internet issues, car trouble . . . a real headache. Reading has been a nice escape!

Hoping all the issues get resolved. Happy New Year, Terri!!

Thanks, Linda! Internet is working somewhat better, though still slow. Car is . . . well, I'm finding out that it's rather easy for dealers to get out of the warranties they offer on used cars! We'll see how this goes, give them a fair chance to make good before I start blasting them online. ;)

Sorry for the troubles....
Happy New Year to you Terri!!

Thanks, Kara!

One last book from 2011, finished just before midnight.

Challenge Book #62B
Title: Wishin' and Hopin'
Author: Wally Lamb
Copyright/Year of original publication: 2009
Genre: humor
Subject: growing up Catholic in the 1964
Setting: New England
Dates Read: finished 12/31/11
Number of pages: 133
Off the Shelf (pre-2011)? Source?: No, recently purchased e-book
Category for 11 in 11 or 12 in 12 challenge: American Pie
How does it fit the category? all-American growing-up story
Alternate Category:
Theme of the Month: Holiday dinners and other December disasters
Does it fit the Theme of the Month? How? Yes, Christmas pageant disaster
My Rating: 3.7
Notes:

This was a fun look at childhood during a simpler time. Good holiday read.

Happy New Year Terri. Internet troubles AND car troubles?? That sounds pretty awful. i hope things improve for you quickly.

do you have a 2012 thread yet?

159 Thanks, Bonnie!

160 Working on it right now!

ok...just didn't want to lose you :)
take your time

Thanks, Kara!

Happy New Year, everyone!

My new thread for 2012 is now open for business!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/129894