muddy21...along for the journey again!

For me, it's all about the journey and not so much the destination. This is my fifth year with the 75ers and I haven't hit the magic number yet, but I've enjoyed every minute of the ride! Real life tends to intrude on both my reading and my attention to my thread. Also, my record-keeping is inconsistent, contributing to my low numbers. I find the fiction talk here to be very helpful in my job, especially since my own reading is mostly (though not entirely) nonfiction - memoirs, nature, old house repairs, education/learning differences...

I enjoy the time I spend here and I'm always happy to entertain visitors, either on my thread or in person, should any of you make it to New England!

I'm muddy21 (my Runescape name), in real life, Marilyn, 59, living in New Hampshire about an hour from Boston. Divorced, two teenage sons, two indoor cats (Peachy & Moo Shu), a house built in 1771 & purchased by my gr-gr-grands in 1864. Working in a prep school (high school) library, recently completed a Masters in Secondary Education and trying hard to get into teaching. With one son in college and another headed that way next year, I'm sorry to say there's no possibility of retirement in sight.

I read, write, craft (mostly sewing & embroidery), and enjoy the outdoors (mostly birdwatching & walking), dabble with ideas of farming (grapes &/or hops), and work on family history projects. Last fall I threw caution to the winds and bought a summer cottage on Monhegan Island in Maine. I've been going birding there in the spring and fall for ten years or so and hope to be able to spend a bit more time there now, but it's more likely I'll be renting the house out as much as possible to pay its way.

My list from 2008 is on my blog at... http://www.hog-hill.blogspot.com/2010/01/books-i-read-in-2008.html
from 2009... http://www.librarything.com/topic/52810
from 2010... http://www.librarything.com/topic/80521
from 2011... http://www.librarything.com/topic/127496
from 2012.... http://www.librarything.com/topic/129308

A few particular favorites from 2012 were
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
The Forest Unseen: a Year's Watch in Nature by David George Haskell
What They Saved: Pieces of a Jewish Past by Nancy K. Miller
The Memoir Project: a Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life by Marion Roach Smith
And I Shall Have Some Peace There: Trading in the Fast Lane for My Own Dirt Road by Margaret Roach
My Reading Life by Pat Conroy

Books read in 2013...

1. Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology, James Patrick Kelly & John Kessel, eds.
2. Chapter After Chapter: Discover the Dedication and Focus You Need to Write the Book of Your Dreams by Heather Sellers
3. Hanging Ruth Blay: An Eighteenth-Century New Hampshire Tragedy by Carolyn Marvin
4. Red House: Being a Mostly Accurate Account of New England's Oldest Continuously Lived-in House by Sarah Messer
5. You Don't Have to be Famous: How to Write Your Life Story by Steve Zousmer
6. Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer
7. Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories by Sarah Orne Jewett
8. Be Different: Adventures of a Free-Range Aspergian with Practical Advice for Aspergians, Misfits, Families & Teachers by John Elder Robison
9. Objects of Our Affection: Uncovering My Family's Past, One Chair, Pistol, and Pickle Fork at a Time by Lisa Tracy
10. Sarah Orne Jewett (University of Minnesota Pamphlets on American Writers No. 61) by Margaret Farrand Thorp
11. The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
12. Garden Style by Penelope Hobhouse
13. Roadside Geology of Vermont and New Hampshire by Bradford B. Van Diver
14. I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had: My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High by Tony Danza
15. Military Brats: Legacies of Childhood Inside the Fortress by Mary Edwards Wertsch
16. What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World by Taylor Mali
17. Hen Frigates: Wives of Merchant Captains Under Sail by Joan Druett
18. Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan
19. On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes by Alexandra Horowitz
20. Outside the Bungalow: America's Arts & Crafts Garden by Paul Duchscherer
21. Final Settlement by Vicki Doudera
22. New and Selected Poems by Mary Oliver
23. the haiku year by various authors
24. Beadwork: A World Guide by Caroline Crabtree and Pam Stallebrass
25. My Name is Jody Williams: A Vermont Girl's Winding Path to the Nobel Peace Prize by Jody Williams
26. better than fiction: true travel tales from great fiction writers
27. The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett
28. The True Secret of Writing by Natalie Goldberg
29. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
30. Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake by Anna Quindlen
31. Thursdays in the Park by Hilary Boyd
32. Before the Wind: The Memoir of an American Sea Captain, 1808-1833 by Charles Tyng
33. One Hundred Years of Transatlantic Steam Navigation, 1838-1938 by H. P. Spratt (Science Museum of London)
34. Cats Are Not Peas: a Calico History of Genetics by Laura Gould
35. Encore: Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life by Marc Freedman
36. The Caged Graves by Dianne K. Salerni
37. The Distancers: an American Memoir by Lee Sandlin
38. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Welcome back!

Thanks! Good to be here...

I've found you for next year, Marilyn!

Oh, good! Did you decide on a thread of your own?

I'm wavering ... I like the idea of tracking my reading and chatting with folks, but I felt a lot of pressure this year to keep it up with reviews of every book. Once I got behind, it seemed hopeless to catch up which created more stress!

Hey, Marilyn! Glad you are back with us again. Happy New Year!

Oh, no magic number required - glad to see you here!

>9 alcottacre: Hi, Stasia! Nice to see you here - thanks for stopping by. How's school going?

>10 LauraBrook: Hi, Laura, nice to meet you. Thanks for stopping by. Come 'round any time!

#11 School is going just fine. I am on break right now.

I'm feeling a little jealous of our friends in the southern hemisphere and their talk of summertime. Since I had nothing better to do (!), I started browsing through some of my photos from last year. This one is of my two boys (shortly to turn 20 & 18, respectively). The picture was taken last summer on the lawn in front of the library in the town of St. George, Maine, showing you're never too old to enjoy a good swordfight...

I hope I never get too old to enjoy a sword fight!

Hi Marilyn, I'm adding a star to your thread. It's my small contribution to help your thread not fading :-)

Hi Monica - Thanks for stopping by! I found your new thread and dropped off a star earlier today between loads of laundry. Happy New Year's Eve!

Hi Marilyn - hope you and yours have a great year:)

Hi calm - thanks for stopping by. I look forward to seeing what you're reading this year.

Book 1
Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology, James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel, editors

This book was a revelation to me. I had no idea there was a genre known as "slipstream" until I picked up this book. Works in this category are variously described as filling the spaces between fantasy, science fiction, and literary fiction or as works that leave the reader feeling strange or disconnected from reality. They're less scientific than science fiction, less fantastical than fantasy, less horrific than horror stories. In short, it's much easier to say what they aren't than what they are. I'm not generally a short story reader but I enjoyed this collection very much. I would say my favorites (or should I say, the two that made me feel most strange?) were "Biographical Notes to 'A Discourse on the Nature of Causality, with Air-planes,' by Benjamin Rosenbaum" by Benjamin Rosenbaum and "The God of Dark Laughter" by Michael Chabon.

Book 2
Chapter After Chapter: Discover the Dedication & Focus You Need to Write the Book of Your Dreams by Heather Sellers

Book 3
Hanging Ruth Blay: An Eighteenth-Century New Hampshire Tragedy by Carolyn Marvin

This is undoubtedly one of the saddest tales I've read in a very long time. In 1768 Ruth Blay was thirty-one years old, unmarried and pregnant. The child was stillborn and the birth was unattended so there was no witness to the event. The hanging offense was that, rather than make the circumstances public, Ruth hid the body of her dead infant. In her time the act of concealment, of hiding the body of a deceased infant, was considered to be evidence of infanticide, of murder.

The author did extensive historical research and has put the story together in a very compelling way. She not only gives us a clear picture of the particulars of the case, but also presents a thorough discussion of the social and political climates of Ruth's time and discusses the impact she felt they had on the outcome of the case. It seems apparent that Ruth Blay's gender and socio-economic status were significant factors; the same continues to be true in many criminal trials, even today.

This story hit close to home for me, quite literally. The farm where Ruth Blay stayed and where her baby was born is just down the road from me, only a couple of miles as the crow flies. My house was built in the early 1770s and the names of the other people involved in her case, either as witnesses or bystanders, include the names of the original family that owned my house and other families whose descendants still live in the area. I had never heard of the case before I picked up the book at the library and I was glad that I had read it, feeling like I might have done some very small part to bear witness to Ruth Blay's short and tragic life.

A short book, at 112 pages, but not an easy read because of the subject matter. I found I needed to put the book down frequently but never doubted that I would finish it. Absolutely a worthwhile read, and not strictly limited to those interested in local or New England history, given the general discussion of the ramifications of political and cultural context.

#13... My husband taught at the School across the street from that dragon. It's one of the biggest tourist attractions in town. Interesting reading...not sure I'm familiar with "slipstream" but will be on the lookout if something looks like it might appeal. I'm not usually into fantasy, sci-fi, or such, although I did really enjoy Cloud Atlas. Have you read that? Does it fit?

Will you be giving us a hint about book #3?

Hi Tina - Glad you stopped by...I was pretty sure you would recognize the dragon. I bought a house on Monhegan Island last fall so I'll be up your way a bit more next summer than I have done in the past. Maybe we can meet up for a cup of tea sometime!

Cloud Atlas is one of the books on the slipstream list - I haven't read it yet, but I've meaning to for quite a while. Another one on the list is a creepy favorite of mine from high school days, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House.

I will be writing something up about Book 3 above. I just wanted to get it listed before it disappeared into the morass of my short-term memory sink.

Hanging Ruth Blay sounds like an interesting colonial history read. Since I had ancestors in the area at that time, I think I need to add that one to my reading list. Maybe I can read it before I go to New Hampshire in April.

Just stopping by belatedly to say hi and thanks for visiting my thread! I am interested to hear what you thought of Hanging Ruth Blay. I enjoy historical books written about Maine and New Hampshire is "close enough for government work" as they say in my neck of the woods!

>24 thornton37814: Lori, thanks for visiting. I've posted my comments above on Hanging Ruth Blay - I highly recommend it, especially with your particular interest in the area and the time period. I'm also interested in family history - I'd love to hear from you about your New Hampshire visit...perhaps we can organize a meetup and a local history tour!

>25 Cobscook: Cobscook, thanks for dropping by! The actual hanging occurred in Portsmouth, so right on the Maine line, really. Are you in the area? Maybe we can all meetup!

Marilyn, I'll be speaking at NERGC (New England Regional Genealogical Conference). I'm not sure how much spare time I'll have, but I could certainly meet up with anyone who attends the conference!

Book 4
Red House: Being a Mostly Accurate Account of New England's Oldest Continuously Lived-In House by Sarah Messer

#26 Very nice review of Hanging Ruth Blay. Onto the WL it goes.

I am actually over 5 hours away from Portsmouth. I live up in Washington County, Maine....near Eastport.

Book 5
You Don't Have to be Famous: How to Write Your Life Story by Steve Zousmer

Book 6
Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer
Review to follow - but the short version is that this is a fascinating look at both the neuroscience of how creativity works and at the social and cultural structures of how creativity works. Should be read by everyone everywhere!

Book 7
Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories by Sarah Orne Jewett
I can't imagine how it is that I've never read this book before! A novel, but one that we might today call a collection of vignettes, portraying life in a midcoast Maine fishing village at the end of the 19th century through the eyes of a visiting woman writer from Boston. Although the telling revolves around a variety of individual characters, the whole comes together as the individual pieces interlock to form a satisfying whole in the end. I was very sorry to come to the end of the book. Jewett's setting is a fictional fishing village but she spent a great deal of time herself in the town of Tenant's Harbor, home of the St-George-and-the-dragon scene pictured above.

This book contains what instantly became one of my top ten favorite sentences of all time....

"He had been on one of those English exploring parties that found one end of the road to the north pole, but never could find the other."

That is a great sentence!

#32: I thoroughly enjoyed Country of the Pointed Firs when I read it too, Marilyn. I am glad to see you liked it too!

Oh, great. Three book bullets. *shakes fist*

Book 8

Be Different: Adventures of a Free-Range Aspergian with Practical Advice for Aspergians, Misfits, Families & Teachers by John Elder Robison

A quick read with lots of worthwhile information to share. As the title says, you needn't be an Aspergian yourself to benefit from reading this. Its greatest value may lie in its ability to share some of the thought processes that lead to behaviors that may seem inscrutable to those who don't live the life. The author is the brother of Augusten Burroughs, whose works are widely known though I have not read them myself.

Book 9

Objects of Our Affection: Uncovering My Family's Past, One Chair, Pistol, and Pickle Fork at a Time by Lisa Tracy

The author and her sister were faced with the task of winnowing the household contents after the death of their mother, the last of the older generation. As nth-generation military brats they found that they knew more about their extended family through the stories bound to the household furnishings than about the people themselves. Tracy speaks eloquently about their attempts to fill in the gaps in what they know and the difficulties inherent in the task of letting go. My second read of this book and just as good as it was the first time around.

Book 10

Sarah Orne Jewett (University of Minnesota Pamphlets on American Writers No. 61) by Margaret Farrand Thorp

'Objects of Our Affection' sounds rather interesting. I think it will go on the wishlist!

>39 rosalita: I'll be interested to hear what you think of it, Julia, when the time comes. I grew up in the navy and I'm now the fifth generation living in my house. I never knew the people that lived here before me but I sure have an intimate acquaintance with their stuff! The book really hit home for me.

I loved Country of the Pointed Firs! Great review. I thought when I read it that the community described sounded so much like Eastport. Coastal Maine villages all have a lot in common when it comes to characters, scenery, and way of life.

I first heard about Sarah Orne Jewett here on LT and loved The Country of the Pointed Firs too when I read it a couple of years ago. What great discoveries we make through this group!

Book 11

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald. I started this book a few years ago but never finished it. I wanted to go back to it but couldn't remember the title or author until I ran across it the other day, purely by accident. Finished it but I'm a bit sad that I did. Enjoyed it all the way until the end which was true to life but rather sad.

Book 12

Garden Style by Penelope Hobhouse. Well, this was a lovely way to while away a winter day. If I just didn't have a foot of snow still on the ground I'd be inspired to get out there and start digging. Guess I'll have to be content with seed catalogs for a little longer!

Book 13

Roadside Geology of Vermont and New Hampshire by Bradford B. Van Diver. To be honest, I skimmed this rather than read it. The geologic history of the area in question (it's one of a series) is explained and observation points are suggested along roadways and highway cuts in the region. It's an interesting concept but there wasn't much information about my part of the state so it wasn't as interesting for me as it might have been.

Book 14

I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had: My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High by Tony Danza.

The story of Tony Danza's year as a high school English teacher in a Philadelphia public school. The project began as a reality TV show for the A & E network. After the first semester the network pulled the plug on the show because they felt there wasn't enough drama to keep a television audience satisfied, but Danza stayed on to teach through the end of the school year. An often heart-wrenching but ultimately uplifting and inspiring account of what confronts a first-year teacher in an urban public school.

Book 15

Military Brats: Legacies of Childhood Inside the Fortress by Mary Edwards Wertsch

A re-read but just as valuable this time around as it was before. A must for anyone who grew up in or is raising or working with children who are presently growing up in the military.

Wow, I had no idea Tony Danza worked as a teacher! That one sounds very intriguing.

It was really quite good - along the lines of Frank McCourt's Teacher Man.

We have the Tony Danza book at the library, and I keep meaning to read it. Thanks for the reminder!

Hmmm. Now I'm torn! I thought I'd pick it up, but then I saw the comparison to Frank McCourt. I have to admit that, even as a teacher only in my third or fourth year when I read it, I found his Teacher Man a bit condescending and simplifying, to the extent that I got incredibly frustrated reading it :( I do like Tony Danza, though. Hmmm.

Well, I think it is simplifying, because it would have to be to fit one year of teaching into a book unless the book was something along the lines of War and Peace or Gone With the Wind ;o) It seemed to me that Danza was pretty straight-forward about the ways in which his experiences were different from the average (as in, there was a tv crew filming in his classroom throughout the first semester) but he was also honest about the realities of adult political maneuvering within the school and his own emotional reactions to the job and to personal family issues he was dealing with outside of school. All memoirists have to choose their focus and there are necessarily lots of bits that get left out.

Book 16
What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World by Taylor Mali

A former teacher, now a poet and inspirational speaker, seeking to inspire more people to become teachers. A quick and enjoyable read, albeit a frustrating one for me. Despite all the conversation about the need for teachers it has proven to be a community behind locked and barred doors for this aspiring career changer.

Book 17
Hen Frigates: Wives of Merchant Captains Under Sail by Joan Druett

A fascinating look at the lives of (mostly North American) women (and children) who sailed the seas as companions to their ship captain husbands (a "hen" frigate was a ship with a woman on board). Taken largely from diaries, journals and letters of the women, this compilation gives a broad picture of the varied lives these women lived. Given the option of staying ashore and seeing their husbands for short periods of time at intervals of what could easily be two or three year stretches, these women chose to accompany their husbands to sea, oftentimes bearing and raising their children along the way.

Book 18
Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan

A look at the lives of a Boston Irish Catholic family who spend their summers at a seaside cottage in Maine, told in the voices of the family's matriarch, her daughter, daughter-in-law, and pregnant granddaughter. The characters are as familiar as our own families with all the character traits and flaws that make family so infuriating but so hard to leave behind. The varied voices serve as a steady reminder that for each of us reality is deeply colored by our own perceptions. Life may be what happens to you, but even more it's what you make of those events.

I don't think I'm in the mood to read another book set in a summer colony in Maine at the moment, having just finished Colony by Anne Rivers Siddons, but that one is already on my wish list, so maybe I'll get around to it next summer.

>56 thornton37814: I'm still feeling a bit conflicted about how I felt about Maine. The interpersonal relationships were realistically-drawn and the author was quite adept at portraying similar events from differing points of view. The setting I wasn't quite so taken with. I live in the area, though, so perhaps it all seems a bit too familiar to be interesting. I'll be interested to hear what you think of it when you get to it.

Book 19
On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes by Alexandra Horowitz

Book 20
Outside the Bungalow: America's Arts & Crafts Garden by Paul Duchscherer

Interesting comments on Maine. I tend not to enjoy the big sprawling family dramas so I think I'll give that one a miss.

Book 21
Final Settlement by Vicki Doudera

>60 Cobscook: Maine is intergenerational but not really sprawling - though perhaps a bit longer than it needed to be.

Book 22
New and Selected Poems by Mary Oliver

Hi There

I found your thread. I'll be back more often!

>64 Whisper1: Hi, Linda! Nice to see you and thanks for dropping by :o) Having a little trouble sleeping tonight - tried reading and couldn't concentrate so I'm up cleaning the kitchen at 3:30 am. Sheeesh!!

Book 23
the haiku year by various authors

An interesting concept, but for me it was a bit "meh" in the execution. The best parts were Steve Earle's Introduction and Tom Gilroy's Foreword. Worth a quick browse, in any case.

Book 24
Beadwork: A World Guide by Caroline Crabtree and Pam Stallebrass

Book 25
My Name is Jody Williams: A Vermont Girl's Winding Path to the Nobel Peace Prize by Jody Williams

Abandoned, page 160 out of 257. Meh.

Book 26
better than fiction: true travel tales from great fiction writers

Book 27
The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett

Book 28
The True Secret of Writing by Natalie Goldberg

Book 29
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Book 30
Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake by Anna Quindlen

Book 31
Thursdays in the Park by Hilary Boyd

Book 32
Before the Wind: The Memoir of an American Sea Captain, 1808-1833 by Charles Tyng

Book 33
One Hundred Years of Transatlantic Steam Navigation, 1838-1938 by H. P. Spratt (Science Museum of London)