VioletBramble's 2016 Category Challenge

Hi! I'm Kelly. This will be my 6th year in the Category Challenge. My 2016 challenge categories are named after the titles of Beatles songs. The Beatles have been my favorite musical group since before I was 2 years old. My challenge has 16 categories with no set number of books per category. As usual I have my reading list already picked out and most of my monthly reading already planned. I'll once again be picking the titles of the not-yet-planned books out of a TBR Book Jar, randomly, whenever I reach a point where I've finished all my planned reads for the month. I'm using a much smaller TBR jar than last year as most of my books are slotted for the GeoCAT or DeweyCAT.
Happy New Year and Happy Reading in 2016!!

A Day In The Life
memoirs, autobiographies and journals

1) M Train - Patti Smith
2) Travels With Charley in Search of America - John Steinbeck
3) The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls
4) The Odd Woman and the City- Vivian Gornick
5) Journal of Katherine Mansfield
6) Out of Africa- Isak Dinesen
7) A River Dies of Thirst- Mahmoud Darwish
8) Night- Elie Wiesel
9) The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts- Maxine Hong Kingston

reading list:
Out of Africa - Isak Dinesen ✔
Travels With Charley in Search of America - John Steinbeck ✔
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts - Maxine Hong Kingston ✔
Journal of Katherine Mansfield ✔
The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls ✔
A River Dies of Thirst - Mahmoud Darkish ✔
M Train - Patt Smith ✔
Night - Elie Wiesel ✔

Across The Universe ✔ ✔
books about science

1) The World Without Us - Alan Weisman
2) A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
3) The Origin of the Species- Charles Darwin

reading ist:
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson ✔
The World Without Us - Alan Weisman ✔
The Origin of the Species - Charles Darwin ✔

Baby You're A Rich Man ✔ ✔
The Blandings Castle books by P.G. Wodehouse

1) Leave it to Psmith
2) Uncle Fred in the Springtime
3) Blandings Castle

reading list:
Leave it to Psmith ✔
Blandings Castle ✔
Uncle Fred in the Springtime ✔

Birthday ✔ ✔
books by authors and poets with August birthdays. In August I'll read books by my August 22 birthday mates -- Ray Bradbury and Dorothy Parker

1) Poems of the Night- Borges
2) Dorothy Parker: Complete Broadway 1918-1923
3) The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
4) Birthday Letters- Ted Hughes
5) Dangling in the Tournefortia - Charles Bukowski
6) Dreamtigers- Jorge Luis Borges

reading list:
The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury ✔
Dorothy Parker: Complete Broadway 1918-1923 ✔
Birthday Letters - Ted Hughes ✔
Dangling in the Tournefortia - Charles Bukowski ✔
Dreamtigers - Jorge Luis Borges ✔
Poems of the Night A Dual -Language Edition with Parallel Text - Jorge Luis Borges ✔

Dear Prudence ✔ ✔
epistolary novels, letter collections

1) The Perks of being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky
2) Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates
3) Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot - Patricia C Wrede and Caroline Steverman
4) Letters to a Young Poet - Rainer Maria Rilke
5) God is an Astronaut- Alyson Foster

reading list:
Letters to a Young Poet - Rainer Maria Rilke ✔
The Perks of being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky ✔
Sorcery and Cecelia - Patricia Wrede ✔
God is an Astronaut - Alyson Foster ✔
Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates ✔

Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey ✔ ✔
mysteries

1) Suspect: #1 Karl Alberg - LR Wright
2) Corpse in a Gilded Cage - Robert Barnard
3) A Trick of the Light- Louise Penny
4) The Beautiful Mystery- Louise Penny
5) Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd - Alan Bradley

reading list:
Suspect #1 Karl Alberg - LR Wright ✔
Busman's Honeymoon- Dorothy L Sayers
Corpse in a Gilded Cage - Robert Barnard ✔

I Want To Hold Your Hand ✔ ✔
poetry

1) Without: Poems - Donald Hall
2) Ghost Girl - Amy Gerstler
3) The Dance Most of All: Poems - Jack Gilbert
4) Crown of Weeds - Amy Gerstler
5) Imagine the Angels of Bread: Poems- Martin Espada
6) The Wind Blows Through the Doors of My Heart- Deborah Digges
7) Directions to the Beach of the Dead- Richard Blanco
8) Refusing Heaven - Jack Gilbert

reading list:
Crown of Weeds: Poems - Amy Gerstler ✔
Ghost Girl - Amy Gerstler ✔
Directions to the Beach of the Dead - Richard Blanco ✔
Imagine the Angels of Bread; Poems - Martin Espada ✔
The Dance Most of All: Poems - Jack Gilbert ✔
Refusing Heaven - Jack Gilbert ✔
The Wind Blows Through the Doors of My HeartDeborah Digges ✔
Without: Poems - Donald Hall ✔

I'm Happy Just to Dance With You
fiction and nonFiction books about dance

1) Here At The End of the World We Learn to Dance - Lloyd Jones - 1/17
2) Forbidden Dance, Book 1 - Hanako Ashihara
3) Forbidden Dance, Vol.2
4) Forbidden Dance, Vol.3
5) Forbidden Dance, Vol.4
6) Cupcakes & Conversation With Professional Dancers - Cheryl Angear
7) Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet- Stephen Manes
8) Dancer: A Novel- Colum McCann

reading list:
Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet - Stephen Manes ✔
The Dancers Dancing - Eilis Ni Dhuibhne
Here At The End of the World We Learn to Dance - Lloyd Jones - ✔
Dancer: A Novel - Colum McCann ✔
Cupcakes & Conversation With Professional Dancers- Cheryl Angear ✔
Forbidden Dance, Book 1- Hanako Ishihara ✔
Forbidden Dance Vol 2 ✔
Forbidden Dance Vol 3 ✔
Forbidden Dance Vol 4 ✔

It Won't Be Long ✔ ✔
short story collections

1) Birds of America: Stories - Lorrie Moore
2) The Line Between- Peter S Beagle
3) After the Quake: Stories - Haruki Murakami

reading list:
The Line Between- Peter S Beagle ✔
Birds of America: Stories - Lorrie Moore ✔
After the Quake: Stories - Haruki Murakami ✔

Magical Mystery Tour ✔ ✔
fiction and nonfiction books about travel

1) Challenger Deep - Neal Shusterman
2) Mosquitoland - David Arnold
3) The Worst Journey in the World - Apsley Cherry-Gerrard
4) Railway Maps of the World - Mark Overden
5) Australia: True Stories of Life Down Under
6) Transit Maps of the World- Mark Overden
7) The Martian- Andy Weir

reading list:
Australia: True Stories of Life Down Under ✔
The Worst Journey in the World - Apsley Cherry-Garrard ✔
Transit Maps of the World - Mark Overden ✔
Railway Maps of the World - Mark Overden ✔
Mosquitoland - Davis Arnold ✔
The Martian: A Novel - Andy Weir ✔

Norwegian Wood
This category is for the book Kristen Lavransdatter by Sigrid Unset.

1)

Savoy Truffle ✔ ✔
fiction and nonfiction books about food
1) The Vegetarian - Han Kang
2) The Food of a Younger Land - Mark Kurlansky
3) Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation- Michael Pollan
4) Vegetable Literacy - Deborah Madison

reading list:
Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation - Michael Pollan ✔
The Food of a Younger Land - Mark Kurlansky ✔
The Vegetarian: A Novel - Han Kang ✔
Vegetable Literacy - Deborah Madison ✔

When I'm Sixty-Four ✔ ✔
books published in 1952

1) The Price of Salt or Carol - Patricia Highsmith
2) The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
3) East of Eden- John Steinbeck
4) Seven Years in Tibet- Heinrich Harrer

reading list:
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway ✔
East of Eden - John Steinbeck ✔
Seven Years in Tibet - Heinrich Harrer ✔
The Price of Salt or Carol - Patricia Highsmith ✔

While My Guitar Gently Weeps ✔ ✔
fiction and nonfiction books about music

1) Jim Guthrie: Who Needs What - Andrew Hood
2) Patti Smith's Horses
3) Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink- Elvis Costello
4) The Rainaldi Quartet- Paul Adam
5) The Fountain Overflows- Rebecca West

reading list:
The Rainaldi Quartet - Paul Adam ✔
Patti Smith's Horses (33 1/3)- Philip Shaw ✔
The Fountain Overflows - Rebecca West ✔
Jim Guthrie: Who Needs What - Andrew Hood ✔
Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink - Elvis Costello ✔

Within You Without You ✔ ✔
fiction and nonfiction about spirituality/religion

1)Buddha Da - Anne Donovan
2)The Tao of Pooh - Benjamin Hoff
3) Man Seeks God: My Flirtations With the Divine - Eric Weiner
4) God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything - Christopher Hitchens
5) Buddhism for Beginners - Thubten Chodron

reading list:
Buddha Da- Anne Donovan ✔
Man Seeks God: My Flirtations With the Divine - Eric Weiner ✔
The Tao of Pooh - Benjamin Hoff ✔
Buddhism for Beginners - Thubten Chodron ✔

Tomorrow Never Knows
open/unplanned reading

1) Uprooted - Naomi Novik- 1/16
2) Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness - Jennifer Tseng
3) Mr Lemoncello's Library Olympics - Chris Grabenstein
4) Weird Girl and What's His Name - Meagan Brothers
5) Spring Tides- Jacques Poulin
6) Raven Girl- Audrey Niffenegger

reading list:
Uprooted - Naomi Novik ✔
The Library at Mount Char - - Scott Hawkins
Weird Girl and What's His Name - Megan Brothers ✔
Spring Tides - Jacques Poulin ✔
Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness - Jennifer Tseng ✔

Planned Reading for the GeoCAT and the DeweyCAT

GeoCAT:
JAN: South America
Here at the End of the World We Learn to Dance ✔

MAR: Eastern Europe
The Historian

APR: Polar regions/Islands/Bodies of Water
The Worst Journey in the World ✔

MAY- North America
Travels with Charley in Search of America ✔

JUNE: Australia/New Zealand
Australia: True Stories of Life Down Under ✔
The Journal of Katherine Mansfield ✔

JULY: Central America, Caribbean
The Old Man and the Sea ✔

AUG:South Africa
Out of Africa ✔

OCT: Eastern Asia
After the Quake ✔
Seven Years in Tibet ✔

NOV: North Africa and the Middle East
A River Dies of Thirst ✔

DEC: Western Europe
The Dancer's Dancing ✔

DeweyCAT:

JAN: 000s
Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness ✔
The Library at Mount Char

FEB: 100s
The Perks of Being a Wallflower ✔
Mosquitoland ✔

MAR: 200s
Man Seeks God: My Flirtations With the Divine ✔
Buddhism for Beginners ✔
Tao of Pooh ✔
Dance of the Dissident Daughter
Shambhala

APR: 300-354
The World Without Us ✔

MAY: 355-399
The Food of a Younger Land ✔
Railway Maps of the World ✔
The Glass Castle ✔

JUNE:400s
Spring Tides ✔
Poems of the Night ✔

JULY:500s
The Origin of the Species ✔
A Short History of Nearly Everything ✔
God is an Astronaut ✔

AUG:600s
Cooked ✔
Vegetable Literacy ✔

SEPT: 700s
Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear ✔
Cupcakes & Conversation With Professional Dancers ✔

OCT: 800s
The Fountain Overflows ✔

NOV: 900-939
Transit Maps of the World ✔

DEC: 940-999
Night ✔
The Woman Warrior: A Memoir of a Girlhood Among Ghosts ✔

Happy New Year !! Belatedly.

Planned Reading for January:

DeweyCAT:
Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness
The Library at Mount Char

GeoCAT:
Here At The End of the World We Learn to Dance

RandomCAT:
Jim Guthrie: Who Needs What

other:
Uprooted

I now have all of those songs in my head simultaneously. :) Excellent theme! And what a cute photo of them up top! That must have been from around the time they were filming Help!

Yes, I've got a mash of songs in my head too - including Lucy...sky...diamonds ala William Shatner. ***shakes head*** can't stop the music ***Oh noes! Isn't that a Bay City Rollers song?***

Great thread. I've got short stories too. Looks like a lot of us do this year. It will be fun to compare notes, but I've decided to count ten stories as a book because I have a bunch of monster e-book compendiums!

Welcome to 2016! I see some interesting books in your lists of reads. Some are on my TBR already and I'll be waiting to see how you feel about them.

Great idea to use Beatles songs! I read The Historian last year and I'll be interested to hear what you think about it.

Quite clever categories!

Love your theme and categories!

The Beatles, how that takes me back in time...wonderful theme! Have a great year reading!

I love that picture in >1 VioletBramble: of them all reading! I know it's posed, but it's still brilliant!

A good use of a theme to match the categories. Good luck with your challenge!

Glove your theme!

Great to see your category challenge is up, Violet! Love the theme and looking forward to seeing what you think of the Blandings Castle books. I watched episodes of the TV series last year and found it great fun.... not quite Jeeves and Wooster but still a lot of fun.

Happy New Year, Kelly. Great theme, your song choices and pictures made me smile as I am a Beatle fan from way back! Looking forward to following along with your reading this year.

>21 rabbitprincess: Hi rabbitprincess! Thanks. Yes, I also think that the photo is from the Help! era. The length of their hair and the fact that the photo is in color would point to that time.

>22 cammykitty: Hi Katie! I hope I didn't give you an ear wig with all those songs. I can't remember any Bay City Rollers songs except Saturday Night. (hands in Bay City Rollers fan club badge) I remember that I had a crush on Woody and thought that Les was a conceited ass.
I'll be sure to check out your short stories. I can never read just a few stories - or a section - from a collection. I end up confused about which stories still need to be read. It's easier just to read the whole book.

>23 dudes22: Thanks Betty

>24 Chrischi_HH: Hi! I hope I actually do read The Historian. This is the third time I've had it listed as a challenge possibility. I have it planned as a GeoCAT read so the probability of finishing it this year is high.

>25 countrylife: Hi countrylife. Thanks for visiting.

>26 christina_reads: Hi Christina! Thanks

>27 MissWatson: Thanks Miss Watson. And thanks for visiting my thread.

>28 Jackie_K: Hi! If you like that one, here's another (probably equally posed):

>29 AHS-Wolfy: - Thank you. Good luck with your challenge.

>30 hailelib: Thank you.

>31 lkernagh: Hi Lori! I had no idea there was a TV series based on the Blandings Castle books. I'll have to look for them.

>32 DeltaQueen50: Hi Judy! Thanks. Who doesn't like the Beatles? Here's to a great reading year!

I'll be checking out everyone's threads after work tomorrow night -- and probably Thursday night. I'm determined to do better at keeping up this year.

What a great theme! Who doesn't love the Beatles?!

Wonderful theme! And some great reading planned. I'll be following along.

What a fun theme!

I had to laugh at myself. I didn't look very carefully at the first photo but since it looked so modern I thought they must have some relation to you. I thought about how they all had Beatle haircuts and...oh, wait! They are the Beatles!

Have a great year!

>35 -Eva-: Hi Eva! Thanks.

>36 VivienneR: THank you Vivienne.

>37 thornton37814: Thanks Lori.

>38 mamzel: LOL. At some point when I was young I believe my hair looked remarkably like Ringo's hair in that photo. We could be hair relatives. Thank you. I hope you have a great reading year as well.

Last night I went to see the Broadway show Allegiance . It stars Lea Salonga, George Takei and Telly Leung. It's about a Japanese-American family torn apart by their internment in the camps during WW II. It was very moving and I teared up a few times. The songs weren't amazing -- more narrative than stand- alone songs - but a few might stand the test of time. I have only ever seen George Takei in Star Trek and The Big Bang Theory. He's a much better actor than I expected. The comedic parts of his performance weren't a surprise, but I was amazed by his dramatic moments.

While I was in Times Square I noticed the header board at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was actually hard to miss it's silver glow. That glow made it somewhat difficult to photograph well. I did my best.
David Bowie was also one of my favorite musical performers since childhood. In the late 60s my mother used to put me and my sisters in bed and turn the radio on in our room. This is when I came to love the song Space Oddity and David Bowie. Since his death I keep hearing his songs in my head. Strangely, I'm hearing the French versions of his songs from the movie The Life Aquatic. Hmmm....
RIP Starman

>40 VioletBramble: - Love that playbill cover!

>41 VioletBramble: - David Bowie will be missed. What an amazing musician, artist and performer. RIP.

I like how you've set up your challenge, well done.

>40 VioletBramble: Great to hear that you liked Allegiance; it's on my list to see. I'm a big fan of George Takei.

>41 VioletBramble: Really nice to see your photo - it turned out great! Love David Bowie and definitely miss him.

>40 VioletBramble:
I've seen clips on his FB page - great to hear the whole thing is good.

>42 lkernagh: Hi Lori. The Playbill cover is pretty. The new ones have a photo of the cast. Not as pretty.

>43 LisaMorr: Thanks Lisa. I hope you get to see Allegiance before it closes in February. It's worth the trip to the city.

>44 -Eva-: Hi Eva. Hopefully they've filmed the play for later tv airing.

I'm hanging out in my apartment, riding out the blizzard of 2016. This yearly blizzard thing is getting annoying. So far we've gotten near 17 inches in my part of the city. I have to work tomorrow morning. I'm hoping, really hard, that by 6am the storm is over, the streets are plowed and some form of transportation that will get me off the island and to the city is up and running. Presently all buses and above ground trains are stopped and cars have to be off the roads. If the underground trains are still running by morning I will have a way to work. I just have to wait it out until then.
Any body else in blizzard territory?

1) Uprooted - Naomi Novik
Fantasy, Magic
Pages: 448
Rating:

2) Here At The End of the World We Learn to Dance - Lloyd Jones
Fiction, Dance, Argentina, New Zealand
Pages: 276
Rating:

3) Mr Lemoncello's Library Olympics - Chris Grabenstein
Fiction, Libraries, Games, Children's Literature
Pages: 278
Rating:

>46 VioletBramble: I'm in Virginia outside of DC and we've also gotten about a foot and a half of snow. We've been shoveling out the driveway and sidewalks all morning. It's still snowing, though, and we're finally getting the high winds they promised. Looks like we'll end up with another 3-6 inches before it's all over.

I'm also in NoVa...tried to go outside earlier and clear off my car, but I didn't get very far, what with the knee- and sometimes waist-deep snow! But on the plus side, I'm enjoying staying inside and reading! :) Also >47 VioletBramble: I'm very glad you enjoyed Uprooted!

Although it's snowing here in RI, I think we're just getting the upper edge of the storm as it passes by on it's way out to sea. I just saw the first snowplow go by. They are saying that where I am will be 6-10 inches. I'm supposed to go to a baby shower tomorrow so I hope things get cleaned up here too.

>49 VioletBramble: - I read the first of this series last year and am looking forward to this one later this year.

>50 japaul22:, >51 christina_reads: I saw on the weather channel that VA is getting hit hard. 30 inches in some places. We have had strong winds all day. I've called the recording for the islands aerial tram -- my usual mode of transportation to and from work -- and they are only on "slower than usual schedule" and not shut down. Which means the winds haven't been high enough to shut down the tram, at least. The governor told everyone to stay inside, that the danger of projectiles due to the wind is very high. That has not stopped people from taking their children out sledding in this.
My friends and family at the Jersey shore are dealing with flooding. We are waiting for high tide here.
Stay Safe!

>51 christina_reads: I did enjoy Uprooted. I should get to doing reviews early in the week.

>52 dudes22: Hi Betty. 6-10 inches was the original forecast for us. It keeps changing throughout the day. Now they're saying 20-25. Egads. I hope most of the storm passes you by. TV news says the storm already looks to be heading out to sea and winding down soon.
I'm trying not to worry. Getting to work tomorrow- or not- is completely out of my hands now. Ever since Hurricane Sandy they shut down public transportation and ban all cars on the roads for every weather event. But the hospital still expects the employees to make it to work. Magically. Maybe I can teach myself how to fly.
I just read Mr Lemoncello's Library in December. The second one is not as good, but equally enjoyable.

My daughter-in-law is a nurse manager at RI Hospital and I know she always has headaches during storms like this trying to manage who can make it in, who can't, and dealing with people who don't want to stay for some or all of another shift.

Tonight's weather report upped our prediction to 8-12 and it's still supposed to snow til midnight.

>55 dudes22: Every manager in every department in every hospital in the blizzard zone is probably dealing with staffing issues right now. Work called me at 8:30 to find out my situation. I know our charge nurse for tomorrow won't be able to make it in from NJ. Now, on top of praying that I actually make it in to work I'm also praying that I'm not in charge tomorrow.
It has mostly stopped snowing here. Hopefully it tapers off for you soon. Good luck with the baby shower tomorrow.

>56 VioletBramble: A friend of mine got moved to "on call" yesterday when she was supposed to work apparently.

Looks like you got in some good reading ... or was that before the blizzard?

>57 thornton37814: I'm not sure if 'on call" is better or worse. Best case --you never have to go in and get on call pay anyway. Worse case - they call you any time of the day/night and you have to get in no matter what the weather situation.

>58 lkernagh: Unfortunately all those were read prior to the blizzard. It's been a slow reading month. I think I'm in hibernation mode -- every time I sit down to read I end up falling asleep. Yesterday I had an accidental 4 hour nap from 5-9 pm.

4) Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness - Jennifer Tseng
Fiction, Asian American, Libraries
Pages: 281
Rating:

5) Jim Guthrie: Who Needs What (Bibliophonic) - Andrew Hood
Music, RandomCAT - book unique to you
Pages: 106
Rating:

>59 VioletBramble: - Ah, yes, hibernation mode. I do that this time of year too. ;-)

6) Without: Poems - Donald Hall
Poetry
Pages: 81
Rating:

7) Ghost Girl - Amy Gerstler
Poetry
Pages: 61
Rating:

Recap for January:

Books read in 2016: 7
Books off the shelf 2016: 6
Fiction: 4
NonFiction: 1
Poetry: 2
Female author: 3
Male author: 4
Pages read in 2016: 1531
Books bought in 2016: 2

1) Seven Years in Tibet
2) The MELT Method
3) The Farming of Bones
4) God is Not Great
5) The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
6) The Creative Habit
7) Dog Songs: Poems
8) The Voyage of the Narwhal
9) A Darker Shade of Magic
10) The Power of Myth
11) The Magician's Land
12) The Alchemists' Council
13) The Water Knife
14) Little Bea
15) The Help
16) The Bonesetter's Daughter
17) The Island of Dr. Libris
18) Arthur & George
19) An Instance of the Fingerpost
20) The Echoing Green: Poems of Fields, Meadows, and Grasses
21) Speak
22) 2666
23) Gateway to Fourline
24) On the Meldon Plain
25) The Broken Eye
26) The Long Way Home
27) The Beautiful Mystery
28) A Trick of the Light
29) Candide
30) Meatless
31) Love is a Dog From Hell
32) Lair of Dreams
33) Silvern
34) Brazen
35) Ink & Bone
36) River of Ink
37) The Calligrapher's Daughter
38) The Prime of Miss Jean Brody
39) How The Light Gets In
40) An African in Greenland
41) The Square Root of Summer
42) Harry Potter: Magical Places From the Films
43) Every Anxious Wave
44) Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
45) Station Eleven
46) Summerlong
47) The Nature of the Beast
48) The Bean Trees: A Novel
49) The Obelisk Gate
50) The Fifth Season
51) The Story of the Blue Planet
52) One Hundred Days of Rain
53) Goldenhand
54) To Hold the Bridge
55) The Complete Emily the Strange: All Things Strange
56) Buffy The High School Years: Freaks & Geeks
57) You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost)
58) Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd
60) The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier & Clay
61) The Resurrectionist
62) The Givenness of Things
63) Brown Girl Dreaming
64) The Witches
65) Goldie Vance
66) Londontown
67) Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay
68) March Trilogy - John Lewis
69) The Great Vegan Bean Book
70) The Solitude of Prime Numbers
71) Love in Lowercase

George Harrison
DOB: February 25, 1943

Planned reading for February:

DeweyCAT:
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Mosquitoland
Challenger Deep

RandomCAT:
Weird Girl and What's His Name

Group Read:
Between the World and Me

Other reading:

Buddha Da
M Train
start reading:
Kristin Lavrandatter
East of Eden

8) Weird Girl and What's His Name - Meagan Brothers
Fiction, YA, LGBTQ, Random CAT
Pages: 320
Rating:

I just went to the work page to read the reviews of Weird Girl and What's His Name. It sounds like it is both funny and sad and a bit traumatic. It goes on the wishlist.

HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR !!

>69 cammykitty: Katie- Weird Girl and What's His Name is all those things and more. I think that you'd really enjoy this book.

9) The Perks of being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky
Fiction, Epistolary novel, Mental illness, DewetCAT
Pages: 213
Rating:

10) M Train - Patti Smith
Memoir, Music, Travel
Pages: 256
Rating:

I will write reviews for the 10 books I've read tomorrow afternoon. My vacation started Sunday so I will finally have time. After I do laundry and get a much needed cranial-sacral massage.



Anyone watch the Today Show? Hoda K and Jenna Bush visited the pediatrics unit where I work for their Show Heart/ Random Acts of Kindness week. The segment they taped is supposed to be on some day this week. We heard it will be Wednesday but it's not definite. (the photo is of the sticker on the bag lunches they brought us)

Plus, the February Festival of Hot Chocolate has started. Yum!

11) Challenger Deep - Neal Schusterman
Young adult, Fiction, Mental illness, DeweyCAT
Pages: 308
Rating:

12) Mosquitoland - David Arnold
Young adult, Fiction, Mental illness, DeweyCAT
Pages: 342
Rating:

13) Between the World and Me- Ta-Nehisi Coates
NonFiction, Letter, Racism, Group read
Pages: 152
Rating:

Look like you are on a good reading roll. Love that string of 4 star ratings!

14) The Dance Most of All: Poems - Jack Gilbert
Poetry
Pages: 60
Rating:

15) Birds of America - Lorrie Moore
Short stories
Pages: 291
Rating:

>78 lkernagh: - Hi Lori. Luckily almost all the books I've read so far have been very good. Only one dud in the bunch. Unfortunately this year I'm even more rubbish than usual at keeping up and doing reviews.

Saraswati and my (tiny) 2016 TBR book jar

Planned reading for March:

DeweyCAT:

Man Seeks God: My Flirtations With the Divine
Buddhism for Beginners
The Tao of Pooh
The Dance of the Dissident Daughter
Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior
Buddha Da

GeoCAT:

The Historian

Recap for February:

Books read in 2016: 15
Books read in Feb: 8
Books off the shelf 2016: 13
Fiction: 9
NonFiction: 3
Poetry: 3
Female author: 6
Male author: 9
Pages read in 2016: 3473 (1942 in Feb)
Books bought in 2016: 4

16) Buddha Da - Anne Donovan
Buddhism, Scotland, Fiction
Pages: 330
Rating:

17) Man Seeks God: My Flirtations With the Divine - Eric Weiner
NonFiction, Spirituality
Pages: 368
Rating:

18) The Tao of Pooh - Benjamin Hoff
NonFiction, Spirituality
Pages: 176
Rating:

19) Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot - Patricia C Wrede and Caroline Steverman
Fiction, Magic, Regency England, Letters
Pages: 197
Rating:

>86 VioletBramble: Glad to see you enjoyed Sorcery and Cecelia! It's my gold standard for historical fantasy. :)

>87 christina_reads: Hi Christina! I was pleasantly surprised by Sorcery and Cecelia. Regencies are not my thing. I was worried that Regency +Magic would = another Jonathan Strange. I hated that book. I loved the magical world in this book and look forward to some day reading the sequel.

20) God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything - Christopher Hitchens
Nonfiction, Religion, Philosophy
Pages: 320
Rating:

21) Suspect: #1 Karl Alberg - L.R. Wright
Mystery, series, Felony&Mayhem
Pages: 245
Rating:

>88 VioletBramble: Oh, it totally makes sense that you'd be skeptical if you thought it would be like Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell! I much prefer the more lighthearted side of Regency + magic. Another one you might enjoy is Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho, which is also not like Jonathan Strange at all, even though it's marketed as such!

22) Corpse in a Gilded Cage - Robert Barnard
Mystery, England
Pages: 212
Rating:

>91 christina_reads: - Sorcerer to the Crown does sound interesting. I'll add it to the book list. Thanks Christina.

>90 VioletBramble: I didn't realize The Suspect was part of a series! I read it years ago and thought it must be a stand-alone, given the twist of the premise. I'll have to raid my mum's bookshelves and read it again (and maybe try some others in the series).

>94 rabbitprincess: Hi rabbitprincess. It looks like there are 2 or 3 more Alberg mysteries. Based on reviews here at LT they don't look as if they're very good.

23) Buddhism for Beginners - Thubten Chodron
Spirituality, Religion, Buddhism
Pages: 160
Rating:

24) The Vegetarian - Han Kang
Translated from the Korean by Deborah Smith
Fiction, Mental health, Vegetarian, Korea
Pages: 188
Rating:

Yeong-hye is a South Korean woman who decides to become a vegetarian after a haunting (and recurrent) nightmare. We are told her story from the point of view of three different narrators. Or, rather, we are told their versions of her story.
The first section is told by Yeong-hye's husband, Mr Cheong. He relates how he chose her for a wife because she was completely unremarkable. Mainly meaning that she would not draw attention to herself, disgrace him in any way or damage his career. After Yeong-hye's nightmare he wakes up to find her throwing out all the meat from the refrigerator. (eventually she discards all animal products) Vegetarianism is extremely rare in South Korean society. So is nonconformity. After she embarrasses him at a work dinner their relationship becomes more strained and increasingly violent. He eventually divorces her.
The second section is related by her brother-in-law. He becomes obsessed with Yeong-hye after his wife, Yeong-hye's sister, casually mentions that Yeong-hye has a mongolian mark on her buttocks. He is an artist who designs an artistic/video piece around his sister-in-law. He paints her, his artist friend, J, and himself in flowers, highlighting the mongolian mark, and video tapes them having sex. In one of the few instances where we hear from Yeong-hye she asks "Will the dreams stop now?"
The third section is told by In-hye, Yeong-hye's sister, after Yeong-hye has been admitted to a mental hospital. At this point Yeong-hye spends as much time as she is physically able doing hand stands. She believes that by standing on her hands she will take root and become a plant. In-hye see's in Yeong-hye her own struggles, their shared experiences of growing up in a repressed patriarchal society and her own desire to let her dreams take over reality.
Except for snippets of her nightmare and the flashback of a horrific childhood incident involving a dog we never really know what Yeong-hye is thinking or feeling. The other characters don't know how to respond to Yeong-hye and her emerging mental illness. They each respond to her behavior in ways that project their own desires onto her and never bother to find out what she needs/desires.

I received this book for free from the Early Reviewers program.

Recap for March:

Books read in March: 9
Books read in 2016: 24
Books off the shelf 2016: 21
Fiction: 14
NonFiction: 7
Poetry: 3
Female author: 9
Male author: 15
Pages read 2016: 5669 (2196 in March)
Books bought in 2016: 9

Here's a quote I enjoyed from my month of the DeweyCAT 200s ;books on religion:
From Man Seeks God: My Flirtations With the Divine by Eric Weiner
I also believe in words, in the power of words, and for decades my philosophy, such as it was, mirrored that of the great student of myth, Joseph Campbell, who when asked what spiritual practice he followed said "I underline books".

>89 VioletBramble: Four stars for God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything - I've had that book for a while and it was a on my list for this month, but I just didn't get to it. I need to get to it sooner than later I think.

>98 VioletBramble: Love that quote!

Bookworm from Dancers Among Us by Jordan Matter

Planned Reading for April

DeweyCAT:
The World Without Us

GeoCAT: Islands and Bodies of Water/ The Polar Regions
The Voyage of the Narwhal
The Worst Journey in the World

Other reading:
East of Eden - John Steinbeck

>99 LisaMorr: Hi Lisa. God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything is a very thought provoking book and very well written. It was interesting to read it in the middle of a month full of religious reading. If you get a chance to read it soon, do so.
I find it interesting that the touchstone coming up for this book tonight is The Chronicles of Narnia. Hmm..(typing that fixed the first touchstone)

>100 LisaMorr: I love it too. You probably have to be a writer to get away with saying that. I imagine if I answered that on a questionnaire or something people would think I was crazy.

>90 VioletBramble: I think you liked that one a little better than I did when I read it a few years back.

>89 VioletBramble: I read God is not Great a few years ago but recently added it to the tbr list so that I could read it again. I have always got a lot out of Christopher Hitchen's books. His early death was a sad loss.

Looking forward to your thoughts on The Worst Journey in the World!

Just catching up on your thread.
>101 VioletBramble: Yes, looking forward to what you think of The Worst Journey in the World.

25) The World Without Us - Alan Weisman
NonFiction, DeweyCAT, Earth Science
Pages: 416
Rating:

26) Letters to a Young Poet - Rainer Maria Rilke
NonFiction, Letters, Inspiration
Pages: 90
Rating:

27) Crown of Weeds: Poems - Amy Gerstler
Poetry
Pages: 86
Rating:

Gerstler is one of my favorite modern poets. This poem reminded me of a friend who was killed this past December:

The Wanderer

The wanderer's tongue thrusts out
of his mouth like something alive
independent of him - an eyeless
groping creature who knows bile,
the rubbery flavor of egg yolk,
and bitter tidbits of harbor barnacle.
Cloaked in his loneliness, he smells
of dogs mating and duckweed.
He seeks a hospitable fireside
before nightfall; failing that,
a haystack. The sky's white now;
it's trying to snow. Will he sleep
in a drift? It won't be the first time.
He recognizes important trees
when he sees them. His shoes
belonged to a man recently deceased,
a parting gift from the widow.
His eyes are the green of the sea
before it's waters get threatening.
A fruitful disorder characterizes
his mind. Remote groves and streams
feed and water his thoughts,
so his pulse is a torrent.
Tattered, thirsty, he's taking long
strides. The clerical crows
are his black-clad companions.
Under their influence, he believes
it's essential, every day, at all
costs, to make one's love known.

>103 thornton37814: Lori- I think I enjoyed The Suspect because it was a really easy and quick read compared to the other books I was reading.

>104 VivienneR: Vivienne - can you recommend a good Christopher Hitchens book to follow up God is not Great? None of his other titles sound familiar to me.

>105 rabbitprincess:, >106 VictoriaPL: - I am only a quarter of the way through the book so far. I've been looking forward to reading The Worst Journey in the World for years. I'm enjoying it. So far only a couple of horses and dogs have died.

Just checking to see if I can post from my new computer. (it's showing me a lock icon) I really hate figuring out how a new computer works.

In book news I finally finished The Worst Journey in the World

Good luck with the new computer!

>111 VioletBramble: Looking forward to your thoughts on Worst Journey.

>112 rabbitprincess: thanks rp. I will need it.

>113 VictoriaPL: hopefully I will have time to review sometime between now and Friday night.

28) The Worst Journey in the World - Apsley Cherry-Garrard
NonFiction, Antarctic exploration, GeoCAT
Pages: 573
Rating:

29) Imagine the Angels of Bread- Martin Espada
Poetry
Pages: 105
Rating:

A collection of autobiographical poems illustrating the experience of Hispanic Americans from the 1960's onward.
Here is a poem Espada wrote about the years he worked as a tenant lawyer:

Offering to an Ulcerated God

"Mrs. Lopez refuses to pay rent,
and we want her out,"
the landlord's lawyer said,
tugging at his law school ring.
The judge called for an interpreter,
but all the interpreters were gone,
trafficking in Spanish
at the criminal session
on the second floor.

A volunteer stood up in the gallery.
Mrs. Lopez showed the interpreter
a poker hand of snapshots,
the rat curled in a glue trap
next to the refrigerator,
the water frozen in the toilet,
a door without a doorknob
(No rent for this. i know the law
and I want to speak,
she whispered to the interpreter).

"Tell her she has to pay
and she has ten days to get out,"
the judge commanded, rose
so that the rest of the courtroom rose
and left the bench. Suddenly
the courtroom clattered
with the end of business:
the clerk of the court
gathered her files
and the bailiff went to lunch.
Mrs. Lopez stood before the bench,
still holding up her fan of snapshots
like an offering this ulcerated god
refused to taste,
while the interpreter
felt the burning
bubble in his throat
as he slowly turned to face her.

Recap for April:

Books read in April: 5
Books read in 2016: 29
Books off the shelf 2016: 26
Fiction: 14
NonFiction: 10
Poetry: 5
Female author: 10
Male author: 19
Pages read in 2016: 6939 (1270 in April)
Books bought in 2016: 13

Planned reading for May:

Dewey CAT:

The Food of a Younger Land - Mark Kurlansky
The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls
Railway Maps of the World - Mark Ovenden

GeoCAT:

Travels with Charlie: In Search of America - John Steinbeck

RandomCAT:

Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink - Elvis Costello

other:
The Price of Salt or Carol - Patricia Highsmith
The Odd Woman and the City - Vivian Gornick

30) The Food of a Younger Land - Mark Kurlansky
Subtitle: A portrait of American food - before the national highway system, before chain restaurants, and before frozen food, when the nation's food was seasonal, regional, and traditional - from the lost WPA files.
NonFiction, Food
Pages: 451
Rating:

Kurlansky came across these articles/essays written as part of a Works Progress Administration program, in government archives. The project was designed to create jobs during the depression.The articles are about the food and eating traditions in different regions of the country and were to be collected in a volume called America Eats. The project was scraped when WWII started.

31) The Glass Castle - Jeannette Walls
Memoir, Poverty, DeweyCAT
Pages: 288
Rating:

32) The Wind Blows Through the Doors of My Heart: Poems - Deborah Digges
Poetry
Pages:50
Rating:

the house that goes dancing

Not always but sometimes when I put on some music
the house it goes dancing down through the yard
to cha-cha the willows or up into town
to tango the churches.
the neighbors, appalled, they called the police.
The dogcatcher chases my dogs up the street.
Toward the house that goes dancing in raven black boots
or enormous bed slippers,
dragging one leg like an earnest old hunchback
through the midsummer gardens gathering garlands
to wrap round her roof, she goes dancing,
love's house she goes dancing her grief-stricken dance
for his unpacked suitcases, his detritus, his hair, his hairbrush,
his glasses, his letters, his toothbrush,
his closets of clothes where I crouch like a thief
when the house it goes dancing,
a stowaway hiding in big woolen coats,
the scent of his body, the smell of him rising.
We are shaken and dragged, we are rattled
and whirled past the ending, his passing,
who waltz out of town,
all our mirrors well shattered, our china, our crystal,
our lightbulbs, our pictures have crashed from the walls.
A magnificent mess! - The doors off their hinges,
the windows wide open.
Let his spirit let go now and his big broken heart,
neither sky nor horizon, neither clay nor this dust.
it's as if he went racing his horse
past the house as we dance him goodbye
as far as we can, as we call out goodbye with our hands
round our mouths, shouting and dancing,
dancing and calling to the edge of the world
through the fields

33) Railway Maps of the World- Mark Ovenden
Nonfiction, Maps, Travel, DeweyCAT
Pages: 144
Rating:

34) Patti Smith's Horses (331/3)- Philip Shaw
Music, NonFiction
Pages: 176
Rating:

35) Travels With Charley in Search of America- John Steinbeck
NonFiction, Travel, GeoCAT
Pages: 288
Rating:

36) The Price of Salt or Carol- Patricia Highsmith
Fiction, LGBTQ
Pages: 292
Rating:

37) Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink- Elvis Costello
NonFiction, memoir, Music, RandomCAT
Pages: 670
Rating:

38) The Odd Woman and the City- Vivian Gornick
NonFiction, Memoir, New York City
Pages: 175
Rating::

Recap for MAY:

Books read in May:9
Books read in 2016: 38
Books off the shelf 2016: 33
Fiction: 15
NonFiction: 17
Poetry: 6
Female author: 14
Male author: 24
Pages read in 2016: 9473 (2534 in May)
Books purchased in 2016: 21 (8 in May)

Paul McCartney ( birthday June 18th)

Planned reading for June:

GeoCAT:
Journal of Katherine Mansfield
Australia: True Stories of Life Down Under

DeweyCAT:
Spring Tides- Jacques Poulin
Poems of the Night A Dual Language Edition With Parallel Text - Jorge Luis Borges

Other Reading:
The Rainaldi Quartet - maybe for RandomCAT
The Line Between

Eeee! Macca! :)

I like the idea of a dual-language edition of poetry. Comparing translations with the source text is so interesting.

>130 rabbitprincess: Two of my friends are seeing Paul McCartney in concert on Aug 7. It's my first day back from vacation and I have to work until 8pm so I have to miss the concert. I'm so bummed. They'll bring me back a t-shirt.
I might actually learn some non-medical Spanish.

39) Spring Tides- Jacques Poulin
Translated by Sheila Fischman
Fiction, Translation, DeweyCAT
Pages: 237
Rating:

Teddy Bear is a translator of comic books for a newspaper. One day the boss asks TB what he would need to be happy. TB says he'd like to be alone on an island. Luckily the boss has an island and transports TB there to work in peace. TB is happy on the island with his numerous dictionaries and translation guides and the company of a feral cat he has managed to befriend. The boss becomes worried that TB is lonely. One day a young woman, Marie, and her cat are helicoptered onto the island (by the boss). Marie is just looking for a place in read in peace. The two introverts each live in one of the two inhabitable structures on the island. They are able to get their work and reading done without interruption and eat dinner together nightly. But the boss is still worried. He continues to bring people to the island: his wife,a professor, a comic book scholar, an author, an ordinary man and an organizer. The island becomes crowded and chaotic. TB gets no work done. But it doesn't matter because the last people sent to the island are there to inform TB of something that the boss has been unable to tell him. The comics that TB has translated have never been, and will never be, published in the newspaper. Since TB no longer has a job or a reason to be on the island, the others force him to swim away.
I always enjoy reading Poulin. This one left me going "what the...?" by the end. Highly recommended, although not nearly as good as Translation is a Love Affair.

40) Australia: True Stories of Life Down Under edited by Larry Habegger
Essays, Travel, Australia, NonFiction, GeoCAT
Pages: 364
Rating::

This book was not at all what I expected. I thought "true stories of life down under" meant that these stories were written by Australians. Nope. These are travel stories written by travel journalists. I have previously read about 1/3 of these essays in collections by the author or other travel essay anthologies. I'm giving this collection 2 1/2 stars, and that's only because I loved Tony Horowitz's book about Australia and two of those stories are in this collection. Those are always worth a re-read.

41) The Rainaldi Quartet - Paul Adam
Mystery, Music, Italy, Fiction
Pages: 312
Rating:

The first book in the Gianni Castiglione mystery series. Castiglione is a luthier- violin maker and repairer. When a close friend, and fellow luthier, Rainaldi, is murdered, Castiglione teams up with Guastafeste, a police detective and member of their monthly quartet, to solve the mystery. Adam clearly did a lot of research about violins and their history. The story is set in various locales in Italy and England, the meals are always described in ways that will make you hungry, it's fast paced even with very little in the way of real action and it all wraps up nicely in the end. Big plus of the Felony & Mayhem addition: very large print. Recommended.

Happy Summer Solstice!! Happy Winter Solstice to those in the Southern hemisphere. Today is also the full moon - the Strawberry Moon or Honey Moon. So go outside, enjoy the sun, set your intentions for the year and eat some strawberries.

Thanks for the inadvertent reminder that we have strawberries in the fridge! :) Yum!

>134 VioletBramble: I've had that one on my TBR. Thanks for the warning about the meal descriptions making you hungry! LOL.

>136 rabbitprincess: You're welcome. I hope they were tasty.

>137 VictoriaPL: Oh yes, the book is set in Italy. I've never read a book that was set in Italy that didn't make me hungry.

Today is my 9th Thingaversary. Initially I was't going to buy Thingaversary books this year since I'd recently bought a bunch of books that I won't get to read for a few years. But then I remembered that I have a recent Amazon credit from the ebook lawsuit with Apple. I used the credit to buy a bunch of ebooks for my Kindle, most of which are for next years reading list.
Thingaversary books:
Lair of Dreams- Libba Bray
Silvern- Christina Farley
Brazen - Christina Farley
Ink & Bone- Julian Eifer
River of Ink- Paul MM Cooper
The Calligrapher's Daughter- Eugenia Kim
The Prime of Miss Jean Brody- Muriel Spark

Happy Thingaversary!

Happy Thingaversary!

Happy thingaversary! And that looks like a good decision to spend your windfall on next year's reading.

Happy Thingversary! Lucky that you had that credit. I noticed TPoMJB was on sale the other day. Hope you got the low price.

Happy Thingaversary and happy reading!

42) The Journal of Katherine Mansfield - Katherine Mansfield
Journal, Unfinished works, NonFiction, GeoCAT
Pages: 268
Rating:

I couldn't get into this highly self-edited journal. Mansfield edited out so many days from her journal I rarely understood who she was writing about or where she was. Luckily her husband supplied some information before certain sections. The examples of her writing attempts in her journal were very good. So good that I look forward to some day reading her book Montana Stories. But since I already own that book and already plan to read it - eventually- I'm left feeling that reading this book was a waste of my time.

43) The Line Between: Stories- Peter S Beagle
Short stories, Fantasy
Pages: 231
Rating:

I bought this collection of short stories mainly for the story Two Hearts, the sequel to Beagle's novel The Last Unicorn. I enjoyed all the stories in the collection. Highly recommended for fantasy fans.

44) Poems of the Night A Dual -Language Edition with Parallel Text - Jorge Luis Borges
Poetry, Language, DeweyCAT
Pages: 224
Rating:

A collection of poems that explore the night, dreams and visions, mirrors and being aware of doing things for the last time. In this edition the original Spanish version of each poems is on the left side of the page and the English translation is on the right. It was interesting to compare the two versions, esp when the English version would use rhyming proper nouns and the Spanish version did not.

Raven Girl- Audrey Niffenegger
Fairy tale, Illustration
Pages: 88
Rating:

A modern fairy tale about a postman who falls in love with a raven. They have a daughter. The daughter is a raven trapped in a girls body. She dreams of flying. She finds a doctor willing to give her wings. There are misunderstandings and death. I thought the ending was inconsistent with the rest of the story.

Thanks, everyone, for the Thingaversary wishes. LT is not letting me list your names.

Recap for June:

Books read in June: 7
Books read in 2016: 45
Books off the Shelf 2016: 40
Fiction: 19
NonFiction: 19
Poetry: 7
Female author: 16
Male authors: 30
Pages read in 2016: 11,197 (1724 in June)
Books bought in 2016: 38

Ringo Starr
Birthday: July 17

Planned reading for July:

DeweyCAT:
The Origin of Species - Charles Darwin
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
God is an Astronaut- Alyson Foster

GeoCAT:
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway

RandomCAT:
Uncle Fred in the Springtime - PG Wodehouse

Happy belated Thingaversary and even happier book credit day. :)

Happy 4th of July!! Hope everyone had a safe holiday.
I spent my three day weekend doing projects - painting the kitchen table and chairs, sanding and painting a crate I put on top of the refrigerator to hold my cookbooks. (freed an entire shelf in one of the living room bookcases.) Finished two books.
It's raining a bit here in NYC so I decided not to stand outside by the river for the fireworks. They should be starting on television any minute now. I hate having to sit through all the musical acts that are opening the fireworks.

>152 -Eva-: Hi Eva! Thanks. Nice to se you around LT again.

46) The Old Man and the Sea- Ernest Hemingway
Fiction, Cuba, GeoCAT
Pages: 127
Rating:

Santiago, an elderly fisherman, hasn't caught a fish in over 80 days. But he senses that his luck is changing. One day he decides to go far out of the harbor. He manages to hook a very large marlin. That marlin tows him further out into the Gulf Stream for over 2 days. Santiago must endure the constant tension on the line, on his hands and on his back. His internal dialogue shows his respect for "his brother" the marlin.
One of the best survival stories I've ever read. Also the best Hemingway that I've read - the prose is simple, lovely, evocative and also virtually free of all the macho posturing of his other novels.

47) Leave it to Psmith- P.G. Wodehouse
Fiction, Series
Pages: 328
Rating:

Book #2 of the Blandings Castle series. I've previously read #1,3, and 4. The story centers around a group of people invited to Blandings for various reasons who are all trying to steal Lady Constance's £20,000 necklace. I was a little shocked that there were guns involved and that the theft went unsolved and unpunished. The story was funny and had very little Lord Emsworth - which is good - for me- as I find him an annoying character.

>155 VioletBramble: Yay! I am glad another reader read and liked The Old Man and the Sea. It's one of my favorite books. It unfairly gets a bad rap sometimes. I haven't liked some of Hemingway's other novels but I absolutely love this one and some of his short stories.

Happy Thingaversary and credit spending! Really making me want to go and spend mine on some books even though I know I won't get to them right away.

48) God is an Astronaut- Alyson Foster
Fiction, Space, Botany, Letters, DeweyCAT
Pages: 304
Rating:

49) A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
Science, History, NOnFiction, DeweyCAT
Pages: 540
Rating:

50) Uncle Fred in the Springtime- P.G. Wodehouse
Fiction, Humor, RandomCAT
Pages: 275
Rating::

51) The Origin of Species - Charles Darwin
Science, NonFiction
Pages: 466
Rating:

52) Blandings Castle -P.G. Wodehouse
Short stories, Series, Humor
Pages: 301
Rating:

A collection of short stories, 6 set at Blandings Castle, 6 Mulliner stories and 1 Bobbie Wickham story. My favorite Wodehouse so far, a lot less repetition than in his novels. Hopefully Bobbie Wickham shows up again in my reading - I liked her.

Recap for July:

Books read in July: 7
Books read in 2016: 52
Books of the shelf 2016: 47
Fiction: 24
NonFiction: 21
Poetry: 7
Female author: 17
Male author: 36
Pages read in 2016: 13,538 (2,341 in July)
Books bought in 2016: 43

I'm doing well in my fiction/ non-fiction balance but my female vs male author ratio is very bad this year.

Dorothy Parker 8/22/1893 **************** Ray Bradbury 8/22/1920

Planned reading for August

DeweyCAT
Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation- Michael Pollan ✔
Vegetable Literacy- Deborah Madison ✔

GeoCAT
Out of Africa- Isak Dinesen

Other reading for August:
I'll be reading books from my Birthday category, including one each from my August 22 birthday mates:
Dorothy Parker - Dorothy Parker: Complete Broadway 1918-1923 ✔
Ray Bradbury- The Martian Chronicles ✔

and these from some August born poets:
Dreamtigers - Jorges Luis Borges
The Birthday Letters- Ted Hughes
Dangling in the Tournefortia - Charles Bukowski

and I'm slowly making my way through East of Eden by John Steinbeck

In honor of Ray Bradbury's birthday I'm sharing this photo of the last of the Solstice/Christmas book cover marshmallow treat pops made by my friend Andrean. This one was my favorite. So pretty.

>165 VioletBramble: That looks too good to eat! Gorgeous!

>166 Jackie_K: Everyone who saw them said "They're too pretty to eat". I'm not sure if my sister ate the ones I gave to her or if she just kept them so she could look at them.

Looks like some good plans for August. And a very happy birthday to you when it comes!

>165 VioletBramble: Wow! Very nice. An early Happy Birthday to you!!

How cool that you share a birthday with such great authors. Also - happy early birthday to a fellow Leo! I'm off to see if any authors share an Aug 20th birthday.

>168 rabbitprincess: Thank you RP

>169 VictoriaPL: Thanks Victoria

>170 LittleTaiko: Thanks fellow Leo. You share a birthday with H.P. Lovecraft. (I have the B&N desk calendar -- it tells me author birthdays.) Not bad.

53) Dorothy Parker: Complete Broadway, 1918-1923- Dorothy Parker
NonFiction, reviews
Pages: 514
Rating:

A collection of reviews of Broadway plays written by Dorothy Parker for Vanity Fair and Ainslee's magazines. Parker reviews hundreds of plays, authors and actors, but all these decades later the only names that were familiar to me were Oscar Wilde, Lionel Barrymore, Roy Rogers, Helen Hayes and P.G. Wodehouse. Parker doesn't hold back her criticisms on voices unfit for musicals, histrionics and certain actors tendency toward "eyebrow acting". Parker disliked the patriotic plays that proliferated before and during the war but she loved a good mystery, esp. one that could make her jump out of her seat. An example of Parkers reviews:
By all means go to Girl O'Mine if you want a couple hours undisturbed rest. If you don't knit, bring a book.
There is even a brand new drop-curtain for the occasion, painted with the mystic letters: AßPO∆ITH, which most of the audience take to be the Greek word for asbestos

54) Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation- Michael Pollan
NonFiction, Food
Pages: 480
Rating:

Pollan tries his hand at, and explores, four different methods of transforming foods: FIRE (bbq), WATER (braising), AIR (bread) and EARTH (fermentation). I'm a vegetarian so the chapters on Fire and Water, which were almost exclusively about cooking meats, were of little use to me. Although I will be looking into Mediterranean clay pot cooking for vegetarian options. I did enjoy the sections on making bread at home and pickling vegetables. I may actually give both those methods a try at home.
I liked Pollans The Botany of Desire much better than this one.

55) Vegetable Literacy- Deborah Madison
Food, Cookbook, Vegetables, NonFiction
Pages: 405
Rating:

This gardening and cookbook discusses vegetables based on their family: carrot, mint, sunflower, knotweed, cabbage, nightshade, goosefoot and amaranth,( former)lily, cucurbit, grass, legume, and morning glory. Vegetables and herbs within the same family can be substituted for each other when cooking or preparing foods.Madison also gives tips on which vegetables and herbs can be planted in the same beds.The book contains 300 recipes, some of which I'll be preparing soon. (next week- rice with spinach, lemon, feta and pistachios)
Full of interesting information on vegetables. Plus beautiful vegetable photography.

I love your theme and organization - very creative!

While my Guitar Gently Weeps if my favorite Beatles song.

>175 ErinPaperbackstash: Thanks Erin. George Harrison is my favorite Beatle, so all his songs are among my favorites, but Here Comes the Sun is my absolute favorite song of all time. Sadly, I couldn't think of any books on my shelves that could make a category for that song.

56) The Martian Chronicles- Ray Bradbury
Short stories, SciFi, Fiction
Pages: 268
Rating:

A series of slightly interconnected stories about the colonization of Mars. The first stories are about Martians and their society and are the most imaginative. Once Earthlings -- and in these stories they are all Americans- colonize Mars things become less interesting. The Americans basically turn Mars into small town America in the 1950s. While travel between Mars and Earth seems a fairly rapid process - "we'll be there by tonight, finish packing" - they still communicate via telephone and hand written letters. The first stories have Martians and Earthlings interacting, disastrously. One story has them both existing on Mars in different times on the space-time continuum. Most of the stories occur after most of the Martians have died from small pox brought by the first humans. These stories were written in the late 1940s, early 1950s, so the technology and gender roles are dated. The Martians have some cool technology, the Earthling have rockets and robots. All the women are housewives or spinsters.
I enjoy reading Bradbury - he writes well and he always leaves you thinking about what you would do in those situations or he's reminded you of your childhood. This book made me a little sad that such a good author couldn't imagine a future with wonderful inventions or more for women to do than prepare dinner for their families.

57) Birthday Letters: Poems- Ted Hughes
Poetry
Pages: 198
Rating:

A collection of poems that Hughes published shortly before his death. All of the poems, except two, are addressed to his late wife, the poet Sylvia Plath. Most people reading this volume would probably be familiar, at least slightly, with the marriage of Hughes and Plath and her depression and death by suicide. I've read a number of reviews of this book and many reviewers have been vicious towards Hughes over their perception of his role in her depression and suicide and his selective publishing or destroying of her poems and journals.
This is the first time that I've read anything by Ted Hughes. I was struck by the intensity of feeling in these poems. Particularly in the poems reflecting the beginning of their relationship as students at Cambridge. It's not my place to question his motives in writing a collection about his late wife, I took these poems at face value and even though many of them were about depression and suicide I found the collection lovely and powerful over all. I look forward to reading more poetry by Ted Hughes.

58) Dangling in the Tournefortia- Charles Bukowski
Poetry
Pages:281
Rating:

This is the first Bukowski that I've read. Bukowski writes what is called "low life" poetry. His poems are about being out of work, drinking, puking, having sex with prostitutes and betting on the horses. I'm still not sure what I think about this collection or Bukowski's style. For now I'll give this 3 stars.

>173 VioletBramble:
I've had Omnivore's Dilemma on the to-read list for a long time, but this one sounds really interesting too, albeit in a very different way.

>180 -Eva-: - I was thinking the same thing.

>180 -Eva-:, >181 dudes22: If you like Pollan's writing you'll like the book. Omnivore's Dilemma is on my TBR list as well. It seems very similar to a couple of other books I've recently read about the processed food industry so I'll probably get to it later rather than sooner.

59) Out of Africa - Isak Dinesen
Memoir, Africa
Pages: 399
Rating:

Dinesen's memoir of the years (1914-1931) she had a farm and coffee plantation in Africa. The book is not as interesting as the movie. However; Dinesen's prose is lovely and descriptive. The kind of prose you want to take your time reading.There were many things that bothered me. The fact that the natives who lived on her land -- land that was their land prior to the colonization of Africa and the buying up of property by rich, white Europeans- were required to work for her on the farm/plantation or in the house, for a certain percentage of the year, in order to stay. Also, her descriptions of big game hunting and the casualness with which she and her companions slaughter animals for sport was nauseating.

60) Directions to the Beach of the Dead- Richard Blanco
Poetry
Pages: 64
Rating:

I first heard of Richard Blanco when he read his poem One Today at President Obama's inauguration in 2013. This is the best collection of poetry I've read in a while. The first section features poems about various cities visited by Blanco. Everywhere he wonders "could I live here?" The poems in the second section are also about finding home, in our family of origin and in families we create. Recommended.

61) Dreamtigers - Jorge Luis Borges
translated from the Spanish by Mildred Boyer
Poetry
Pages: 93
Rating:

An autobiographical collection of poems, prose poems. parables and stories.

Recap for August:

Books read in August: 9
Books read in 2016: 61
Books off the shelf 2016: 56
Fiction: 25
NonFiction: 25
Poetry: 11
Female author: 20
Male author: 42
Pages read in 2016: 16,242 (2704 in August)
Books bought in 2016: 47

(from the forthcoming book Tiny Dancers Among Us by Jordan Matter)

Planned reading for September:

DeweyCAT:

Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet - Stephen Manes
Cupcakes & Conversation with Professional Dancers - Cheryl Angear
Forbidden Dance, Book 1 - Hinako Ashihara
Forbidden Dance, Vol 2
Forbidden Dance, Vol 3
Forbidden Dance, Vol 4
Dancer: A Novel - Colum McCann

and maybe I can finally finish East of Eden by Steinbeck

62) Forbidden Dance, Book 1 - Hinako Ashihara
Graphic novel, dance
Pages: 192
Rating:

Aya suffers from stage fright/ performance anxiety after falling off the stage during a ballet competition. She believes that she is finished with dance. Then she sees a performance from the all male dance troop COOL. Aya is determined to dance again and become the troops first female dancer.
The story jumps around a bit and the illustrations are just okay. This volume ends on a cliff hanger.

63) Forbidden Dance, Vol.2- Hinako Ashihara
Pages: 192
Rating:
64) Forbidden Dance, Vol.3- Hinako Ashihara
Pages: 183
Rating:
65) Forbidden Dance, Vol. 4 - Hinako Ashihara
Pages: 192
Rating:
Graphic novel, manga, series, dance

Aya becomes the first female member of the ballet dance troop, COOL. She crushes on it's charismatic lead dancer, Akira. World famous British ballerina, Diana Roberts, comes to Tokyo to perform. She and Akira were friends at the Regents Ballet. When Diana is injured Akira returns to England with her. Will he return in time to dance in COOL's Anniversary Performance?
This series could easily have been contained in two volumes. Each book contained less of the ballet story as the series went on. Vol. 4 had only 50 pages of the dance story. The rest of the pages contain smaller stories- a related dance story, 2 teen romances, the author's move to Tokyo and her trip to England.

66) Cupcakes & Conversation With Professional Dancers- Cheryl Angear
NonFiction, Dance
Pages: 173
Rating:

Cheryl Angear interviews multiple male and female ballet dancers from various ballet companies around the world. She asks them all the same questions: what are you looking forward to dancing?, who would you most like to dance with?, who inspires you?,what is your daily routine?, if you could dance anywhere, where would that be?, which 6 famous people would you invite to dinner?, what do you look for in a dance partner?. My favorite question was: How do you prepare your pointe shoes? I was amazed by the many various ways ballerinas break in their shoes, how many pairs of shoes they break in in a day and all the sewing that it takes to prepare the shoes.

67) East of Eden - John Steinbeck
Fiction
Pages: 601
Rating:

Steinbeck's family saga that's rooted in a retelling of the Genesis story. The story follows two families in the Salinas Valley of California. The Trasks, relocated from Connecticut, are wealthy and own a large farm. Shortly after the birth of their twin boys, Aron and Caleb, Cathy Trask shoots her husband Adam and leaves him. She returns to her previous profession, prostitution. Adam is a broken man. Luckily, Adam has a Chinese man servant, Lee, who raises the boys and essentially becomes the mother of the Trask household. The Hamilton family emigrated from Ireland and are poor farmers and inventors living on land with poor soil. Sam Hamilton is known in the county for giving the best advice. The Trask and Hamilton families become friends and their stories intertwine. Sam Hamilton was actually John Steinbecks' maternal grandfather. John Steinbeck (as a child) actually makes an appearance in 3 or 4 later chapters and is occasionally narrating the story. This is a story of good vs evil and whether people are born evil or good or have free will to choose.
This is a brilliant book, beautiful, descriptive, sad and hopeful. It took me two months of bedtime reading to finish this book but it is definitely a book that should be read slowly and savored. Highly recommended.

I had East of Eden for quite a while before I finally dived into it. I was so amazed at how the story carried me along. It certainly didn't feel as long as it was.

When my daughter read Grapes of Wrath in high school we took a family trip to Salinas and visited the Steinbeck museum. We took a day trip to Monterrey whose waterfront had been greatly sullied by massive hotels which block access and the view to the bay.

>192 mamzel: - I didn't know that there's a John Steinbeck museum. My sister, niece and I are going to be traveling between San Francisco and Big Sur in November. I wonder if I can talk them into stopping there. Probably not.

68) Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear: Inside the Land of Ballet- Stephen Manes
NonFiction, Ballet, DeweyCAT
Pages: 912
Rating:

Manes spent a year with the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle. He shares their stories and fills the reader in on what makes a ballet company run. He speaks to everyone - the director, the dancers, the choreographers, the musicians, the music librarian, wardrobe, lighting, sets, everyone in the business office and the school of ballet, the ushers, the students, the truck drivers and many, many more.
I own this book on my Kindle so I had no idea it was 912 pages before I started reading. Luckily this book was fairly interesting or I would have given up on it, esp when I reached the second chapter that featured the orchestra musicians correcting the music score sheets. This book could have used a good editor but I would recommend it to people interested in the world of ballet.

69) Dancer: A Novel - Colum McCann
Fiction, Dance
Pages: 336
Rating:

A fictionalized biography of Rudolf Nureyev. Told in multiple first person narrative, it is often difficult to know who is telling the story. Sort of a mess.

70) A Trick of the Light- Louise Penny
Fiction, Mystery, Series
Pages: 351
Rating:

Seventh book in the Chief Inspector Ganache mystery series. One of Clara Morrow's frenemies is killed at the after party of Clara's first solo show at the Musée d'Art Contemporain in Montreal. Also, Clara and Peter's marriage finally implodes, which has been coming since the first book.
An excellent addition to the series.

Recap for September:

Books read in September: 9
Books read in 2016: 70
Fiction: 32
NonFiction: 27
Graphic Novels: 4
Poetry: 11
Female author: 26
Male author: 45
Pages read in 2016: 19,374 (3132 in September)
Books bought in 2016: 52

John Lennon October 9

Planned Reading for October:

GeoCAT:
Seven Years in Tibet
After the Quake: Stories

DeweyCAT:
The Fountain Overflows

RandomCAT:
The Library at Mount Char

>198 VioletBramble: Aw! I love him reading his own book :)

71) After the Quake: Stories - Haruki Murakami
Fiction, Short Stories, GeoCAT
Pages: 160
Rating:

>195 VioletBramble: - Oh dear, I have that one on my shelf. Maybe I should just get to it so I can finally be rid of it. I normally love his books too.

>201 LittleTaiko: Oh, don't go by me, many others gave the book 4 stars. But, in a month of books about ballet it was by far the one I liked the least.

Last week I went to New York ComicCon. Mostly because they added BookCon this year.
Friday was the BBC America Takeover at Madison Square Garden with the casts of Doctor Who, Class and Dirk Gently. And some very cute corgis. The second pic above is the stage full of Doctor Who cos-players. Third pic is a blurry look at the cast of Doctor Who with new companions Pearl Mackey and Matt Lucas. Last pic was taken at BookCon while waiting to discuss book villains. ( it was decided that Dolores Umbrage type villains are way worse than Voldemort type villains because they are right there, messing with you at every opportunity, and others often believe their facade of goodness)

I added a few books to the TBR pile:
Goldenhand
To Hold the Bridge
The Complete Emily the Strange: All Things Strange
The Resurrectionist
You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost)
Buffy The High School Years; Freaks & Geeks
Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd

Aaaaa!!! You were in the same room as Peter Capaldi!!!! :D So jealous!

>204 rabbitprincess: LOL, yes, we were in the same very large room, very very far away from each other.

>67 VioletBramble: East of Eden is one of the Steinbecks I've not read yet. I've loved the others, so I'll have to get to this one sooner rather than later. Thanks for the excellent review.

>203 VioletBramble:
Ooh, what a great place to be!!

>206 mathgirl40: I hope you love it. I love all things Steinbeck.

>207 -Eva-: Hi Eva!

I'm very far behind and will now attempt to quickly catch up:


72) The Beautiful Mystery- Louise Penny
Mystery, series, Canada
Pages: 390
Rating:


73) The Fountain Overflows - Rebecca West
Fiction, Music, DeweyCAT
Pages: 408
Rating:


74) Seven Years in Tibet- Heinrich Harrer
Memoir, Tibet, GeoCAT
Pages: 330
Rating:


75) Refusing Heaven: Poems- Jack Gilbert
Poetry
Pages: 92
Rating:

Recap for October:

Books read in October: 5
Books read in 2016: 75
Fiction: 35
NonFiction: 28
Graphic novels, etc: 4
Poetry: 12
Female author: 28
Male author: 48
Pages read in 2016: 20,664 (1290 in Oct)
Books bought in 2016: 63

Planned reading for November:

DeweyCat:
Transit Maps of the World

GeoCat:
A River Dies of Thirst - Mahmoud Darwish

Other reading:
finish: Thrice The Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd
start: The Martian and Kristin Lavransdattar

76) Transit Maps of the World - Mark Ovenden
DeweyCAT, maps, transit
Pages: 144
Rating:

>212 VioletBramble: Maps have always fascinated me. That looks like an interesting book.

>212 VioletBramble:
BB for me too!

>213 thornton37814: & >214 -Eva-: It's a pretty interesting book. I liked it more than Ovenden's other book that I read earlier this year, Railway Maps of the World.

November has been an interesting month so far. I got hit by a car one day on my way to work. I was more shaken up than physically injured. I'm doing fine now. Then I went on vacation to San Francisco and Monterey with my sister and niece to meet up with some friends who now live in California, and to see my sister run a half marathon for her 50th birthday. Monterey was beautiful. I stuck my feet in the Pacific Ocean for the first time. It was freezing. San Francisco had some flying books. And of course the US Presidential election and it's repercussions. Oy!
Oh, and I actually finished a second book this month:



77) The Martian - Andy Weir
Fiction, Science, RandomCAT
Pages: 369
Rating: :

The movie version has been out for a while -- I've seen it at least a dozen times- so, I'll assume most people know the plot by now. Mark Watney, astronaut, is left alone on Mars. The rest of the crew believes he is dead. Watney has to use his engineering and botany skills to survive until he can be rescued.There is a lot of science and engineering in this book. Sometimes there was just a little bit too much information. I did enjoy comparing the book with the movie. I was a little disappointed that they changed the ending for the movie. Disappointed that he did not get to "go Iron Man" in the book.
Recommended.

Flying books in San Francisco - "The Language of the Birds"

Glad to hear you are OK after the encounter with the car. That's scary! Also glad to hear you had a good time out west.

>216 VioletBramble:
Wow, good to hear your accident was more a fright than anything serious!

That whole corner of Broadway and Columbus is so beautiful!

>217 rabbitprincess: Thanks rp

>218 -Eva-: Thanks Eva. San Francisco has changed a lot since I last visited (1999). Broadway and Columbus was beautiful. I also liked all the heart statues around the city. Plus there was actual sweater bombing in the neighborhood where we stayed (Cow Hollow). I've read about sweater bombing but had never seen it before.

I read this one before vacation and forgot all about it:



78) Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd - Alan Bradley
Mystery, Series
Pages: 331
Rating:



79) A River Dies of Thirst- Mahmoud Darwish
Poetry, Journal, Palestine
Pages: 153
Rating:

Recap for November

Books read in November: 4
Books read in 2016: 79
Books of the Shelf 2016: 73
Fiction: 37
NonFiction:29
Graphic novels, etc: 4
Poetry: 13
Female author: 28
Male author: 52
Pages read in 2026: 21,661 ( a sad 997 in Nov)
Books bought in 2016: 66

Planned reading for December:

DeweyCat:
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
Night (also for RandomCAT)

GeoCAT:
The Dancer's Dancing (Ireland)
Kristin Lavransdatter (Norway)

>222 VioletBramble: - Oh! I like that picture!

Taking the morning to play catch-up on all the threads in the group and love seeing all the great books about dancing that you have been reading! I have two left feet and no sense of rhythm, which is okay because I am perfectly happy playing the role of an appreciative audience for individuals who can dance. ;-)

Wow on attending New York's ComicCon, and YAY for reading The Martian! That was my favorite read the year I listened to the audio-book. Brilliant story. I liked the book better than the movie.

>223 dudes22: Thanks Betty

>224 lkernagh: Hi Lori. I can't dance either. I do love watching dance. Reading about it is not as thrilling. All the dance reading did inspire me to go see Balanchine's Jewels at The New York City Ballet in October. It was beautiful.
I liked The Martian movie better than the book. If I had read the book first it would probably be different.

80) Night- Elie Wiesel
DeweyCat, Memoir, WW II, Judaica
Pages: 120
Rating:

Wiesel's memoir of surviving the concentration camp at Auschwitz. Horrific, heartbreaking and powerful. Highly recommended

81) Londontown: A Photographic Tour of the City's Delights- Susannah Conway
Photography, Travel, London
Pages: 224
Rating:

Kristen Lavransdatter- Sigrid Undset

My first-- and hopefully only-- dropped book of the year. This was my third attempt at reading this 1240 page book about the life of a woman in 14th century Norway. I really tried this time. I started in January and just decided to give up last week. I'm sure it's an amazing book; it just wasn't for me.

I'm a little late, but Happy Winter Solstice to everyone!!

Now the days start getting longer - YIPPEE!

>229 VioletBramble: Happy Winter Solstice to you too! It's one of my favourite days of the year.

>226 VioletBramble:
It's been on my Mt. TBR for a long time - I know it'll be great, but very, very hard to read.

Merry Christmas Kelly:

>231 VivienneR: The Summer Solstice is my favorite day of the year but I love the symbolism of the Winter Solstice. Time to start coming out of the dark.

>232 -Eva-: Night is a very quick read and compared to other books I've read about the Holocaust details of the horrors are kept to a minimum. Wiesel is mainly concerned with conveying his thoughts about what he has seen.

>233 dudes22: Thank you. Belated Merry Christmas Betty! Happy New Year!

I was a regular practitioner of yoga up until a decade ago when I developed bursitis in my hips joints. When the bursitis calmed down I would attempt to practice yoga, but the bursitis would flare back up again. Just as I was thinking of starting yoga again I saw Back to Yoga on the Early Reviewers list. Based on the title I thought this book would be appropriate for people who had practiced yoga in the past and just wanted some strategies on re-implementing a yoga routine into their busy lives. This book is geared more towards those just starting out. I appreciated the sections on the history and benefits of yoga. The descriptions of the poses were okay. I personally like more illustrations when it comes to descriptions of poses. I don't want to download documents onto my phone or scan QR codes to get better descriptions of the poses.

last minute catch up:



82) The Dancers Dancing- Eilis Ni Dhuibhne
GeoCAT, Ireland, Dance, Fiction
Pages: 296
Rating:



83) The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts- Maxine Hong Kingston
Memoir, Myth, China, DeweyCAT
Pages: 209
Rating:

2016 Recap:

Books read in 2016: 83
Books off the shelf: 76
Fiction: 38
NonFiction: 32
Graphic novels, etc: 4
Poetry: 13
Female author: 31
Male author: 53
Pages read in 2016: 22,510
Books bought in 2016: 71

A not so good male to female author ratio this year. I'm not sure why.
I hope to have my 2017 thread up tomorrow, once I get all my CATs in order.

Happy New Year Everyone ! See you next year.

Happy New Year to you too. *Off to find your thread!*

>237 paruline: Do you have a 2017 thread? I can't find you.