Streamsong #5 Christmas in the Rockies

This was one of my favorite Christmas books as a child.

Since the end of November, we've had unseasonably warm weather, often in the 50's. We're breaking high temperature records every day and it has put me in mind of this poem from the above book:

"It's almost Christmas, and still no snow!"
Cry the woodland creatures. "We still can go
Out of our houses to search for roots
And seeds in the dry grass, and maybe shoots
Of fern and fennel that think it's spring.
We may find acorns -- 'most anything
That's good to eat may be in sight
For Christmas dinner, on such a night,
When the ground is bare of ice and snow,
And stars are bright, and the winds don't blow.
Hurrah for Christmas and still no snow!"

"It's almost Christmas, and still no snow!"
Sigh the townsfolk, wishing the wind would blow.
"Our doors are wreathed with pine and holly,
And our Christmas trees would look extra jolly
Blazing with lights -- if the snow came down
Deep and white all over the town!
Why doesn't the sky go wooly gray?
Why doesn't it snow for Christmas Day?
It's not like Christmas without some snow!"
Sigh the townsfolk, wishing the wind would blow --

BUT --
"Hurrah for Christmas and still no snow!"
Cry the woodland creatures, and out they go."
-- Kathryn B. Jackson

Have you all heard of the the superstition that you never stick a knife into the mast of a becalmed ship? Instead of a bit of wind, you end up with a hurricane.

Hope I'm not calling forth a blizzard by posting the above!

I'm Janet.

I've been a member of LT since 2006.

I retired in the fall of 2016 from my career as a technician in an NIH research lab. I'm now enjoying all the things I never had time to do.

I live in the Bitterroot Valley of western Montana along Skalkaho Creek. I'm about half way between Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks - so if you're traveling or vacationing in the area, I'd love to meet you.

What do I read? A bit of everything. I enjoy literary fiction, mysteries and the occasional feel good cozy. I'm slowly working my way through 1001 Books to Read Before You Die (actually 1300 + books since I use the combined version spreadsheet). I'm also working my way around the world in a global reading challenge. About half the books I read are non-fiction.

I have Appaloosa horses and raise a foal or two each year.

And what does one do when worrying about a several-year drought as well as what climate change will do the horse industry?

Well, I bought a new mare who arrived the day before Thanksgiving.



Meet Feather, whom I hope to use as a riding horse and a broodmare.

BOOKS READ 2021

✅ = Outstanding Book! ❤️ = Favorite

FIRST QUARTER

January

1. A Recipe for Daphne: A Novel - Nektaria Anastasiadou - 2019 - LTER - Global Reading: Turkey - digital - acq'd 2020 -
❤️ 2. Cane Warriors - Alex Wheatle - 2020; LTER; Global Reading: Jamaica; acq'd 2020
❤️3. Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre - Max Brooks - 2020 - library
❤️4. I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf - Grant Snyder - 2020 - library
✅5. Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most - Rachel Maddow - 2019 - RL Book Club - library
6. Cave of Bones - Anne Hillerman - 2018 - library
7. Archaeology from Space - Sarah Parcak - 2019 - library
8. Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World - Anand Giridharadas - 2018 - Real Life Book Club - library
9. Banker - Dick Francis - 1982 - (Reread) - Dick Francis group read; Root #3 - cataloged here 2006
10. The Lord of the Rings (Wood Box Edition) - J. R. R. Tolkien - 2012 - NPR dramatization, audio, ROOT #4 acq'd 2018
❤️11. When Stars Are Scattered - Victoria Jamieson, Mohamed Omar - 2020 - GN - library
12. This is What America Looks Like - Ilhan Omar - 2020 - library

February

13. Burn - Patrick Ness - 2020 - library
14. Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion - Jia Tolentino - 2019 - PBS Now Read This - January - library
❤️15. Migrations - Charlotte McConaghy - 2020 - Global Reading - Greenland/Denmark - library
16. Engineering Eden - Jordan Fisher Smith - 2016 - Glacier Conservancy Book Club - Reread - ROOT #5
17. On Tyranny - Leo Strauss - 2017 - Reread - library
18. The Great Pretender - Susannah Cahalan - 2019 - RLBC - library

March
19. Paradise - Toni Morrison - 1997 - library
20. Vesper Flights - Helen Macdonald - 2020 - library
21. Simon the Fiddler - Paulette Jiles - 2020 - library
❤️22. The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books - Edward Wilson-Lee - 2018 - Global Reading: Spain -library
23. The Devil's Cub - Georgette Heyer - 1932 - library - audiobook
24. The Long Petal of the Sea - Isabel Allende - Library Brown Bag Book Club; Global Reading - Chile (also Spain, Venezuela) - 2020
❤️25. Interior Chinatown - Charles Yu - 2020 - PBS/NYT Now Read This Book Club - library
26. Odds Against - Dick Francis - 1965 - Dick Francis group read - ROOT #6 - acq'd 2012 -
27. Bangkok 8 - John Burdett - 2003 - Global Reading: Thailand - library
28. People Before the Park: The Kootenai and Blackfeet Before Glacier National Park - Sally Thompson - 2015 - Glacier Conservancy Book Club; ROOT #7 - acq'd 2015

SECOND QUARTER READING

✅ = Outstanding Book! ❤️ = Favorite

April
❤️29. Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland - Sarah Moss - 2012 - Global Reading:Iceland - library
30. Lady Cop Makes Trouble - Amy Stewart - 2016 - library
31. Northernmost - Peter Geye - 2020 - Global reading: Norway - library
32. Grain by Grain - Bob Quinn - 2019 - library
33. The Lions of Fifth Avenue - Fiona Davis - 2020 - Library Brown Bag Book Club - library
❤️34. There There - Tommy Orange - 2019 - library
35. Escape from the Ordinary - Julie Bradley - 2018 - RCKN Outdoor Book Club - 2021 purchase -
36. Open Season - C. J. Box - 2001 - (Joe Pickett #1) - library
37. Nomadland - Jessica Bruder - 2017 - PBS Now Read This - library -

MAY
38. Network Effect - Martha Wells - 2020 - library
❤️39. Transcendent Kingdom - Yaa Gyasi - 2020 - Global Reading: Ghana - library
❤️40. The Teeth of the Comb - Osama Alomar - 2017 - Global Reading: Syria - library
41. An Obvious Fact - Craig Johnson - 2017 - library
42. Voices of Rivers - Matthew Dickerson - 2019 - Glacier Conservancy Book Club - purch 2021
43. Piranesi - Susanna Clarke - 2020 - library
❤️44. Concrete Rose - Angie Thomas - 2021 - library
❤️45. Tales From the Inner City - Shaun Tan - 2018 - library
46. Summer Water - Sarah Moss - 2021 - global reading: Scotland - library
47. Homo Deus - Yuval Noah Harari - 2016 - Library Brown Bag Book Club - Global Reading: Israeli author - purchased 2021

June
48. The Grizzly in the Driveway: The Return of Bears to a Crowded American West by Rob Chaney - 2020 library
49. The Missing American - Kwei Quartey - 2020 - Global Reading: Ghana - library
50. Velocity Weapon - Megan E. O'Keefe - 2019 - library
❤️51. Postcolonial Love Poem - Natalie Diaz - 2020 - library
52. Buffalo Jump Blues - Keith McCafferty - 2016 - Newcomers Book Club - library
53. The Left-Handed Booksellers of London - Garth Nix - 2020 - library
54. Mortal Fall - Christine Carbo - 2016 - Glacier Conservancy Book Club - library
✅55. A Promised Land - Barack Obama - 2020 - audiobook - purchased 2021
56. Remote Control - Nnedi Okorafor - Global Reading: Ghana - 2020 - library
57. Bonecrack - Dick Francis - 1971 - Dick Francis Group Read - library

THIRD QUARTER READING

July
58. The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier and more Creative - Florence Williams - 2017 - The Glacier Conservancy Book Club - library
59. The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go From Here - Hope Jahren - 2020 - library
❤️60. Homeland Elegies: A Novel - Ayad Akhtar - 2020 - global reading: Pakistan (Pakistani American author; partial location) - library
❤️61. Mary's Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein - Lita Judge - 2018- library
✅ 62. Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro - 2021 - library -
63. The Last Green Valley - Mark Sullivan - 2021 - Newcomers Book Club - purchased 2021
64. The Family Upstairs - Lisa Jewell - 2019 - Library
65. Hot Money - Dick Francis - 1987 - Library -
✅ 66. Caste: - Isabel Wilkerson - 2020- RLBC- purchased 2021

August
67. Legends of Micronesia (Book Two) - Eve Grey - 1951 - Reading Globally challenge - Children's Book (Micronesia) -ROOT #8 (not sure when acquired)
❤️68. The Anthropocene Reviewed - John Green - 2021 - library
69. Through Glacier Park in 1915 - Mary Roberts Rinehart - 1916 - Glacier Conservancy Book Club - Reread - ROOT #9
70. Apeirogon: A Novel - Colum McCann - 2020 - RLBC - library
✅ 71. Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope - Nicholas D. Kristof - 2020 - Library Brown Bag Book Club - library
72. Sleep Well My Lady - Kwei Quartey - 2021 - Global Reading: Ghana - Library

September
✅ 73. An Unnecessary Woman - Rabih Alameddine - 2013- Global Reading: Lebanon - library
74. A Recipe for Persuasion - Sonali Dev - 2020 - library 875. Anxious People - Fredrik Backman - 2020 - Newcomers' Book Club; Global Reading- Sweden - library
❤️76. The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race - Walter Isaacson 2021 - library
77. And the Mountains Echoed - Khaled Hosseini - 2013 - Global Reading: Afghanistan; audio and print - ROOT 2016
✅78. The Secret to Superhuman Strength - Alison Bechdel - 2021 - graphic non-fiction - library
✅79. The Psychology of Pandemics - Steven Taylor -2019 - kindle - purch 2021
80. How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House - Cherie Jones - 2021 - Global Reading: Barbados - library
✅81. The Cold Millions - Jess Walter - 2020 - Library Brown Bag Book Club - Kinde purch 2021

Fourth Quarter Reading

October
82. Woman of the Ashes – Mia Couta – 2015 – Global Reading: Mozambique (author, location) – translated from Portuguese – library
83. The Boat People - Sharon Bala - 2018 - Global Reading: Sri Lanka (Canadian author) - library
✅84. Autumn - Ali Smith - (British author) - 2016 - library
85. The Book of Lost Names - Kristin Harmel - 2020 - Newcomer's Book Club - Global Reading: France - Kindle purchased 2021
✅86. Nature's Best Hope - Douglas W. Tallamy - 2019 - library
87. The Choice: Embrace the Possible - Dr. Edith Eva Eger - 2017 - ROOT #10; purch 2020
❤️88. Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell - 2020 - Reread - (British/Northern Ireland author) LBB BookClub - purch copy 2021
89. The Other Side of the Bridge - Mary Lawson - 2006 - Global Reading: Canadian author; location Ontario - library

November
90. Fugitive Telemetry - Martha Wells - 2021 - library
91. The Highest Tide - Jim Lynch - 2005 - ROOT #11 purchased 2013
92. Through Glacier Park 1915-2015 - Chris Peterson - library
93. The Huntress - Kate Quinn - 2019 - Hoopla
94. Boundaries - Henry Cloud and John Townsend - 1992 - 10 page Acuff read - ROOT #12 acq'd 2014

December
95. Braving the Wilderness - Brene Brown - 2017 - 10 pages Acuff Read - ROOT #13 Acq'd 2017
96. Square Haunting: Five Writers in London Between the Wars - Francesca Wade - 2021 - library
97. Disappearing Earth - Julia Phillips - 2019 - Reread for RL Book Club - library
98. The Midnight Library - Matt Haig - 2020 - library
99. Under the Udala Trees - Chinelo Okparanta - Global Reading: Nigeria - 2015 - library
100. Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law - Mary Roach - 2021 - library
101. Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers - Chester Nez - 2011 - library - audiobook
102. Be Joyful (Philippians): Even When Things Go Wrong, You Can Have Joy - Warren W. Wiersbe - 2008 - ROOT #14 - acq'd 2020
103. Once There Were Wolves - Charlotte McConaghy - 2021 - library Global reading: Scotland - 3.8
104. The Edge of the Crazies - Jamie Harrison - 1995 - library
105. You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about… -
Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar - library
106. Soundtracks - Jon Acuff - 2021 - inspirational book - Hoopla
107. The Boys of My Youth - Jo Ann Beard - 1998 - library

**** 103 BOOKS COMPLETED IN 2021 ****

YEAR CATALOGED OR ACQUIRED
2 - 2006
1 - 2012
1 - 2013
1 - 2014
2 - 2015
4 - 2016
1 - 2017
1 - 2018
4 -2020
1 - ROOT not sure of date acquired
10 - 2021
71- library/ Hoopla

FORMAT
5 - audiobook
83 - printed books
6 - digital - read on Kindle


GENRE

- 61 - Fiction (may fit into more than one category)

1 - Black experience
1 - children's book
1 - General Fiction
25 - Global Reading
12 - Historical fiction
2 - Illustrated fiction
1 - Legends
15 - Literary Fiction
1 - Muslim experience
15 - Mystery/thriller
2 - Native American
4 - nature/outdoors
4 - Romance
2 - science fiction
1 - short stories
10 - speculative fiction
7 - YA

1 - comics
2 - graphic novel


- 34 - Non-Fiction (may fit into more than one category)
- 1 - agriculture/healthy eating
- 1 - Bible commentary
- 1 - biography
- 1 - Christianity
- 1 - coffee table/photography
- 4 - essays
- 1- global reading
- 6 - history
- 1 - inspirational/self help
- 9 - memoir
- 2- mental health/hospitals
- 3 - Native Americans
- 10 - nature/outdoors
- 1 - philosophy
- 3- psychology
- 1 - poetry
- 5 - politics
- 4 - science
- 3 - sociology
- 1 - writers and writing

- 1 - graphic non-fiction

AUTHORS

46 - Male Authors
52 - Female Authors
2 - Combination of male and female

60 - Authors who are new to me
38 - Authors read before

Rereads:
- Banker - Dick Francis
- Disappearing Earth - Julia Phillips - reread for bookclub
- Engineering Eden - Jordan Fisher Smith
- Hamnet - Maggie O' Farrell - 2020 - acq'd book 2021 for LBBBC
- Odds Against - Dick Francis (read pre LT?)
- On Tyranny - Leo Strauss
- Through Glacier Park in 1915 - Mary Roberts Rhinehart

Nationality of Author:
1 - Afghanistan
2 - Australia
1 - Barbados
2 - Canada
1 - Chile
2 - Ghanaian
1 - Great Britain
1 - Ireland
1 - Israel
1 - Lebanese/American
1 - Mozambique
2 - Somalia/Kenya/US
1 - Sweden
1 - Syria
1 - Turkey (?)
20 - UK -
58 - United States
2 - United States/Ghana

Birthplace or residence of Author if different from nationality:
1 - child of Jamaican immigrants
1 - Somalia

Setting of book if different than author's nationality:
1 - Scotland
1 - France
1 - Greenland, Scotland, Anarctica
1 - Iceland
1 - Norway
1 - Jamaica
1 - Micronesia
1 - Nigeria
2 - outer space
1 - Pakistan (partial location)
1 - Palestine
1 - Poland (Auschwitz)
1 - Russia
1 - Sri Lanka
1 - Spain
1 - Thailand
1 - Ukraine (partial location)
1 - US/India/Germany

Language Book Originally Published in:
96 - English
1 - Greek
1 - Hebrew
1 - Portuguese
1 - Swedish

Original Publication Date
1 - 1916
1 - 1932
1 - 1951
1 - 1965
1 - 1971
1 - 1982
1 - 1987
1 - 1992
1 - 1998
1 - 2001
1 - 2003
1 - 2005
1 - 2006
1 - 2008
1 - 2011
2 - 2012
2 - 2013
3 - 2015
7 - 2016
6 - 2017
6 - 2018
15 - 2019
32 - 2020
11 - 2021

The Global Challenge: Read five books from each of the 193 UN members plus a few additional areas. (Ongoing project over **Many** years!)

Thread here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/188308

COUNTRIES VISITED IN 2021


visited 20 states (8.88%)
Create your own visited map of The World

** Countries New for Me In 2021:

Barbados #1. How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House - Cherie Jones - 2021 - Fic (location, author) 9/2021
Mozambique #1 Woman of Ashes - Mia Couto - 2015 - (location, author), October 2021 - library
Republic of Palua: #1 Legends of Micronesia (Book Two)– Eve Grey - 1951 (also The Federated States of Micronesia, and Republic of the Marshall Islands).

*Countries Completed in 2021 - 5 books read***

Israel: #5. Homo Deus - Yuval Noah Harari - 2016 - NF - Israeli author - 5/2021

***Countries Read in 2021 Which I've Previously Visited - Working on Five Books per country!

Chile book 3. The Long Petal of the Sea - Isabel Allende - 2020 - Fic; (Chile - also Spain & Paraguay; Chiliean author) read March 2021
Ghana Book #2, Transcendent Kingdom - Yaa Gyasi - Fic (author, partial location) 5/2021
Ghana #3 The Missing American - Kwei Quartey - 2020 - Fic-myst: author, location 6/2021
Greenland - autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark - Book#1
Migrations: A Novel - Charlotte McConaghy - 2020 - Fic; (partial location- also Antarctica; UK author) - read Jan 2021
Iceland #2Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland - Sarah Moss - 2009 - Non Fic, location, UK author read 4/2021
Jamaica #3. Cane Warriors - Alex Wheatle - 2020 (YA fic, location, author of emmigrant parents) - 1/2021
Lebanon Book #3. An Unnecessary Woman - Rabih Alameddine - 2013 - Fic (location/Lebanese American Author) - Aug 2021
Norway Book #4. Northernmost - Peter Geye - 2020 - (Fic, location, US author) 4/2021
Palestinian Authority Book #3 Apeirogon - Colum McCann - 2020 (Fic, location, Irish author) 8/2021
Somalia# 2. When Stars Are Scattered - Victoria Jamieson, Omar Mohamed - 2020 (Somalia/Kenya) - fictionalized memoir; GN - read 1/2021
Somalia #3 This is What America Looks Like - Ilhan Omar - (Somalia/Kenya/US) - NF - 2020
Spain book 4. The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books - Edward Wilson-Lee - 2018 - NF (location, UK author) - library - March 2021
Sri Lanka #4 The Boat People - Sharon Bala - 2018 - Fic; (partial location, Canadian author)- library 20/21
Syria: The Teeth of the Comb - Osama Alomar - short stories - (location, author)
Thailand Book #4 Bangkok 8 - John Burdett - 2003 - (fic, location, UK author) read March 2021
Turkey #3. A Recipe for Daphne: A Novel- Nektaria Anastasiadou - (author, location, fic) - LTER - 1/2021

***Additional Books for Countries already Completed
Afghanistan: And the Mountains Echoed - Khaled Hosseini - 2013 - Fic (location, author) audio and print - 9/15/2021
Australia: Tales From the Inner City - Shaun Tan - 2018 - (illus fiction; Australian author)
Pakistan: Homeland Elegies: A Novel - Ayad Akhtar - 2020 - Fic: (Pakistani American author; partial location) - library

ALL COUNTRIES VISITED

CUMULATIVE : 96 countries visited


visited 96 states (42.6%)
Create your own visited map of The World

REAL-LIFE BOOK CLUB SELECTIONS 2021

January 21 -- Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas
February 25 -- The Great Pretender by Susannah Cahalan
March 25 -- A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende
April 22 -- The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis
May 27 -- Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari
June 24 -- Apeirogon by Colum McCann
July 29 -- Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
August 26 -- Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
Sept 30 -- The Cold Millions by Jess Walter
October 28 -- Hamnet by Maggi O’Farrell
November 18 -- Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips

BOOKS ACQUIRED 2021
30 Acquired
- 2 - Reading
- 10 - Read

1. The Complete Father Brown Mysteries - G. K. Chesterton - Kindle 99 deal 1/18/2021
Read 2. Engineering Eden - Jordan Fisher Smith - 2019 - Glacier Conservancy Book Club - 1/29/2021 - darnit! duplicate book!
3.
4.
5.
Read 6. A Promised Land - Barrack Obama 2020 - used audio CD's
Read 7. Escape From the Ordinary - Julie Bradley - RCKN Outdoor Book Club Read - April 2021
Read 8. The Voices of Rivers -Matt Dickerson - Glacier Conservancy Book Club - April 2021
9. Preordered: Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World - Katharine Hayhoe Releases 9/21 /21 (Ted Talk and climate change talk) - Kindle - ordered April 2021
10. Preordered: The Stone Sister - Caroline Patterson Releases 8/21
11.Read The Voices of Rivers - Matthew Dickerson - Glacier Conservancy Book Club 4/2021
12. Crossing Pirate Waters - Julie Bradley - 2020 - Part 2 RCKN book - 4/2021
13. Making Wawa - George Lang - 2008 - (talk from Traveler's Rest) - 4/2021
---
14. Indian Killer by Sherman Alexie - BPL/Chapter One
15. Living Gluten Free for Dummies - - BPL/Chapter One
16. The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd (misplaced this one when only partially read) - freebie BPL
17. Possessing the Secret of Joy - Alice Walker - 1001 books - freebie BPL
18. Jerk Barbeque from Jamaica - Helen Willinsky - freebie BPL
19. Dashing Through the Snow - Mary Higgins Clark - (I always like having a Christmas cozy or two to read in December) - freebie BPL
20. First Roots: The Story Of Stevensville, Montana's Oldest Community - The Discovery Writers - freebie BPL
21. Ridgeliner - Michael Punke - freebie BPL
And the Mountains Echoed - Khaled Hosseini whoops - already had this one
Read 22. The Last Green Valley - Mark T Sullivan - 2021 - New Book Club - July 2021
Read 22. Caste - Isabel Wilkerson - 2020 - Amazon - July 2021
23. Night Waking - Sarah Moss - 2011 -
*Reading* 24. When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through- Joy Harjo (Editor); 8/7/2021
*Reading* 25. The Big Book of Kombucha - Hannah Crum - 2016 - gift
Read 26. The Psychology of Pandemics - Steven Taylor - 2019 - Kindle - 8/2021
27. Read 27. The Cold Millions - Jess Walter - 2020 - Library Brown Bag Book Club - Kindle 9/2021
28. Read The Book of Lost Names - Kristin Hamel - 2020 - Newcomer's Book Club - Global Reading: France - Kindle
Reread 29. Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell - Library Book Club - Reread
30. When Two Feathers Fell From the Sky - Margaret Verble - 2021 - gift from msf
31. The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World - Peter Frankopan - 2020 - Kindle - NewComers Book Club

October 8 books total

82. Woman of the Ashes – Mia Couta – 2015 – Global Reading: Mozambique (author, location) – translated from Portuguese – library
83. The Boat People - Sharon Bala - 2018 - Global Reading: Sri Lanka (Canadian author) - library
✅84. Autumn - Ali Smith - (British author) - 2016 - library
85. The Book of Lost Names - Kristin Hamel - 2020 - Newcomer's Book Club - Global Reading: France - Kindle purchased 2021
✅86. Nature's Best Hope - Douglas W. Talllamy - 2019 - library
87. The Choice: Embrace the Possible - Dr. Edith Eva Eger - 2017 - ROOT #10; purch 2020
88. Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell - 2020 - Reread - (British/Northern Ireland author) LBB BookClub - purch copy 2021
89. The Other Side of the Bridge - Mary Lawson - 2006 - Global Reading: Canadian author; location Ontario - library

Source
2 - Purchased 2021
1 - ROOTS
5 - Library

FORMAT
- audiobook
7 - print books
1 - digital - read on Kindle app
- graphic novel

- 6 - Fiction (may fit into more than one category)
4 - global reading
- 1 - Mozambique
2 - historical fiction
2- literary fiction

- 2 - Non-Fiction (may fit into more than one category)
- essays
1- memoir
1 - nature
1 - psychology
- sociology

AUTHORS

2 - Male Authors
6 - Female Authors
- Male and Female authors

7 - Authors who are new to me
- Authors I have previously read
1 - Rereads

Countries Visited
1 - Canada
2 - England
1 - France
1 - Mozambique
1 - Sri Lanka

Original Publication Date
1 - 2006
1 - 2015
1 - 2016
1 - 2017
1 - 2018
1 - 2019
2 - 2020

These numbers include the library books that I have at home.

As of 11/1/2021 533 books on physical MT TBR
As of 01/01/2021: 522 books on MT TBR

5 Books Read in November

90. Fugitive Telemetry - Martha Wells - 2021 - library
91. The Highest Tide - Jim Lynch - 2005 - ROOT #11 purchased 2013
92. Through Glacier Park 1915-2015 - Chris Peterson - library
93. The Huntress - Kate Quinn - 2019 - Hoopla
94. Boundaries - Henry Cloud and John Townsend - 1992 - 10 page Acuff read - ROOT #12 acq'd 2014

SOURCE
4 - library
1 - ROOT acquired 2014

FORMAT
1 - digital
4 - print

3 FICTION (may fit into more than one category)
1 - general fiction
1 - historical fiction
1 - science fiction

2 NON-FICTION (may fit into more than one category)
1 - inspirational "success book"/ self help
1 - travel/coffee table photography

AUTHORS

3 - Male Authors
2 - Female Authors
- Male and Female authors

4 - Authors who are new to me
1 - Authors I have previously read
- Rereads

COUNTRIES VISITED
Russia

ORIGINAL PUBLICATION DATE

1 - 1992
1 - 2005
1 - 2016 (?)
1 - 2019
1 - 2021

These numbers include the library books that I have at home.

As of 11/1/2021 533 books on physical MT TBR
As of 01/01/2021: 522 books on MT TBR

8 BOOKS READ IN DECEMBER:

95. Braving the Wilderness - Brene Brown - 2017 - 10 pages Acuff Read - ROOT #13 Acq'd 2017
96. Square Haunting: Five Writers in London Between the Wars - Francesca Wade - 2021 - library
97.Disappearing Earth - Julia Phillips - 2019 - Reread for RL Book Club - library
98. The Midnight Library - Matt Haig - 2020 - library
99. Under the Udala Trees - Chinelo Okparanta - 2015 - global reading- Nigeria - library
100. Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law - Mary Roach - 2021 - library
101. Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers - Chester Nez - 2011 - library - audiobook
102. Be Joyful (Philippians): Even When Things Go Wrong, You Can Have Joy - Warren W. Wiersbe - 2008 - ROOT #14 - acq'd 2020
103. Once There Were Wolves - Charlotte McConaghy - 2021 - library 3.8

SOURCE:
6 - library
2 - ROOT
--- acq'd 2017
--- acq'd 2020

FORMAT
1 - audiobook
7 - print books

2 - Fiction (may fit into more than one category)
1 - fantasy
2 - literary fiction
1 - mystery
2 - Global Reading

5 - Non-Fiction (may fit into more than one category)
1 - Bible Commentary
1 - biography
2 - history
1 - memoir
1 - Native Americans
1 - nature/outdoors
1 - psychology
1 - inspirational

AUTHORS

3 - Male Authors
5 - Female Authors
- Male and Female authors

5 - Authors who are new to me
2 - Authors I have previously read
1 - Rereads

COUNTRIES VISITED
1 - England
1 - Nigeria
1 - Scotland (UK)

ORIGINAL PUBLICATION DATE
1 - 2008
1 - 2011
1 - 2015
1 - 2017
1 - 2019
1 - 2020
3 - 2021

These numbers include the library books that I have at home.

As of 11/1/2021 533 books on physical MT TBR
As of 01/01/2021: 522 books on MT TBR

And that's it! Welcome to my Holiday thread!

>2 streamsong: pretty!!!

How old is she?

Happy new one, Janet.

Happy new thread Janet. Fun to peruse your books that you have read this year!
>2 streamsong: Your new mare is a beauty!

Happy new thread!

Jim's post was your 1,00th post to your threads this year Janet.

Happy new thread, Janet!

>2 streamsong: Welcome Feather, what a lovely golden color.

Happy new thread, Janet!

>1 streamsong: What a sweet book and clever poem.

>2 streamsong: And what does one do when worrying about a several-year drought as well as what climate change will do the horse industry? Of course you bought a new mare. Congrats on Feather.

Happy new thread, Janet. Feather is beautiful!

Love the topper as well. I'm not familiar with the book, but have fond memories of Golden Books.

>15 fuzzi: Hi Lor. Thank you. Feather is three. I hope to have her off to a trainer's soon as she is not yet started to ride. I'm not sure my knee is up to starting one to be ridden under saddle. My stallion will be 20 this year which means he's nearing the end of his career as a sire. I'd love to acquire one more mare so I have three to breed to him this year, but to do so will mean I must sell several of the younger geldings first.

>16 PaulCranswick: Thank you, Paul! Thanks for stopping in.

>17 mdoris: Thank you, Mary. It's always good to see you.

>18 drneutron: Hi Jim and thank you!

>19 PaulCranswick: Thanks for keeping track of that, Paul. It's special that Jim made the magic post!

>20 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita, and thank you! Feather is a red dun. I'll be sending off genetics to see what other factors she carries.

>21 karenmarie: Hugs, friend Karen. You've made me smile as always.

The temps have fallen and we are supposed to have snow this week, so posting "Almost Christmas and still no snow" may have broken the spell.

Denton, a town of 200 people in central Montana had 24 homes burned by wildfire this week. Their main business, grain elevators where the grain harvested from surrounding farms is stored, where also destroyed.

>22 BLBera: Hi Beth and thank you. I still have my copy of this Little Golden Book. We had a box of holiday books that only made their appearance in December. It also included How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Madeline's Christmas as well as Pearl Buck's the Christmas Ghost which my mother had carefully removed from a magazine. As my kids grew, we added more including The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and many more.

What I'm reading now:

Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers by Chester Nez.



I'm listening to the audiobook. It was my nod to November being Native American recognition month, but since I'm no longer commuting to work, audiobooks take me longer. This one has many fine memories of growing up Navajo in the 1920's and 1930's and Indian boarding schools

The New Silk Roads: The New Asia and the Remaking of the World Order - Peter Frankopan for one of my book clubs.



Finishing up my reread of Disappearing Earth which was for a book club last month:


And although, I'm still debating on my ten page daily inspirational reading, I think I'll read Be Joyful by Warren W. Wiersbe whose author Lori had recommended as a favorite Bible study author a while back. It sounds like a perfect holiday study.



Next up:


.

I apologize for being so far behind on my reviews. This was my choice for the third quarter Global Reading topic, The Lusophone World: writing from countries where Portuguese is or was an important language.

I had never read anything from Mozambique and so am happy to add this one to my own global reading challenge





82. Woman of the Ashes – Mia Couto – 2015 – Global Reading: Mozambique (author, location) – translated from Portuguese – library

From the cover ” The first in a fascinating trilogy about the last African-led empire in Mozambique, by the Neustadt Prize-winning author.

"Mozambique. 1894. Sergeant Germano de Melo is posted to the village of Nkokolni to oversee the Portuguese conquest of territory claimed by Ngungunyane, the last emperor of the State of Gaza. Ngunglunyane has raised an army to resist colonial rule and with his warriors is slowly approaching the border village. Desperate for help, Germano enlists Imani, a fifteen-year odl girl, to act as his interpreter. She belongs to the VaChopi tribe, one of the few who dared side with the Portuguese. But while one of her brothers fights for the Portuguese Crown, the other has chosen the African emperor. Standing astride two kingdoms, Iman is drawn to Germano, just as he is drawn to her. But she know that in a country haunted by violence, the only way out for a woman is to unnoticed, as if made of shadows or ashes.

“Alternating between the voices of Imani and Germano, Mia Conto’s Woman of the Ashes combines vivid folkloric prose with extensive historical research to give a spellbind and unsettling account of war-torn Mozambique at the end of the nineteenth century.”

Well-realized historical fiction set in 1894 in a country, Mozambique, whose history I did not know. My favorite character was the very sympathetic 15 year old Imani, torn between cultures. She worked for the white man, Sargeant Germano del Melo, and seemed to have a bit of a coming of age crush on him while at the same time respecting her brother fighting for the African emperor. I loved the tribal wisdom, folklore and spiritual beliefs. 4 stars.

>27 streamsong: This one sounds really good. I read one by Couto that I really liked. Need to pick up more.

>28 BLBera: Hi Beth! I did enjoy Woman of Ashes. According to LT, it's the first of a three part trilogy called Sands of the Emperor. It looks like the third may be published, but not yet in English. I would also read more by Mia Couto.

Today I started The Midnight Library. So far, so good. Although the tags include depression and suicide, so far it seems to be a lighter subject. Right now I am in need of lighter subjects. :)

I gave up on In Search of the Mount Cleveland Five and returned it to the library. It's my first dnf of the year. I just could not get into all the technicalities of rock climbing. I found it interesting enough to continue, but it never called to me to pick up, and after, having it checked out of the library for three months, I could no longer renew it.

We'll see if I can get caught up on reviews by the end of December. It's always my goal, but I never seem to make it.

>1 streamsong: Hi Janet! you got me thinking about old Christmas books. Here is a very ancient one that I am about to pass on to my grandchildren (one of many as I have a huge pile of seasonal books). This is a Golden Book too!



The second picture is of the inside of the cover which captivated me as a child.
It is a book of stories and my favourite was Granny Glitten and her mittens. Granny would knit mittens in various colours but they always tasted like the colour they represented green/peppermint, red/strawberry. Yum for soggy mittens. What a great story!

Happy new thread, Janet!

>31 mdoris: lovely!

I hope your grands take good care of that antique.

>31 mdoris: Mary, Thank you for sharing that lovely book. The Christmas tree is amazing - I can tell how you must have treasured it to keep it in such wonderful condition.

And I *love* the story about the flavored mittens! How fun!

>32 bell7: Thank you, Mary!

>33 fuzzi: Isn't that a wonderful book, Lor? Did you have any childhood Christmas favorites?

>34 streamsong: I had, and still own, a board book of The Snow Queen. The front cover with a 3D panel is missing, but I refuse to part with it.

>35 fuzzi: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

83. The Boat People - Sharon Bala - 2018
- Global Reading: Sri Lanka (Canadian author)
– library


After ten years of Civil war in Sri Lanka, the Tamils have come out on the bottom. Their lives, livelihoods and families are gone. They have been forced into camps and retributions are common.

Is it any wonder that many are desperate to escape?

And so a ship arrives in the Canadian port of Vancouver, British Columbia with over five hundred Tamil refugees on board, hoping for new lives. Naturally, the immigration system is overwhelmed. The refugees are housed in former prisons with men, women and even children separated, while officials sift through records to weed out any who might be terrorists. To be sent back to Sri Lanka will be almost certain death.

The story is told from several points of view. Mahindan has survived the war with his young son. His story is the most complex as we see a dual time line skipping back and forth between the ten years of war and terrible loss and his time in the prison without his son, waiting for his refugee status to be decided.

We also see a continuing story of a young woman, an adjudicator determining the fate of the refugees. She has no experience in the field and her appointment came from political ties.

The last viewpoint is another young woman; a law student wanting to be a corporate lawyer and resenting the fact that her corporate internship has been disrupted as she has been loaned to one of the overworked lawyers providing legal help for the refugees.

I enjoyed this human face of the refugee crises. The story was based on true events that occurred in 2009 and 2010 when two shiploads of Sri Lankan refugees arrived in Canada.

The Boat People won several prizes and was the selection for Canada Reads in 2018. 4 stars

The Boat People sounds like one I would like, Janet. I will definitely look for this one.

Hi, Janet and happy new thread, a little late. I just skimmed your last two threads, to keep up with your horses, and realized how much I would have enjoyed them in more or less real time. I must stop by more often! Your reading list is quite impressive.

Ah well. There's always next year!

<38 I'll be interested to see what you think of it, Beth.

>39 ffortsa: Hi Judy! Yes, next year. :)

I always have a bit of depression this time of year. I've pulled out my SAD light to use while I'm on LT, and will try to get a bit caught up.

Another October review!



✅84. Autumn - Ali Smith - 2016 – library


Elisabeth’s quirky and neglectful mother often leaves her young daughter to her own devices.

Elisabeth becomes fast friends with her neighbor, the elderly Mr Gluck, and is introduced to a new world that opens her eyes to art, philosophy and conversation.

As she grows up, she loses touch, but on a return visit home, she learns that Mr Gluck is now in a care home. He is no longer verbal, but Elisabeth visits him and revisits their friendship in a stream of consciousness of wonderful memories. At the same time she is still dealing with her unorthodox mother.

There are many insights on aging – how the autumn of one’s life is green and golden and doesn’t look much different than summer. But as autumn progresses, winter approaches.

This is the first published in a quartet of books named for the seasons.I had not read Ali Smith previously. I plan to go on with the quartet and also perhaps other of Ali’s Smith’s work. It’s always fun to find a new author.

HI Janet, will you be making a "best of 2021" reading list sometime soon?

>41 streamsong: I read that one last month - a reread for me - and loved it all over again. I am currently reading Winter, but not loving it nearly as much to my disappointment.

Have a wonderful weekend, Janet!

Hi Janet - Autumn was my first Smith as well! I keep meaning to move on to the rest of the quartet, but library books have been getting in my way.

>42 mdoris: Hi Mary! Well, I've been keeping track of the 'bests' with hearts and green squares in my overall list. I'll probably have to do a 'best fiction' and 'best non-fiction' list.

I hope to finish a few more books between now and the first of the year (16 home from the library right now! Yikes!) so the list is subject to change. I always hope that the *next* book I read will be the best of the year.

>43 alcottacre: Hi Stasia! I'll get to Winter soon - hopefully in January. I'm a bit worried about it, if it continues the same story line. I went through the death of both my parents in the last few years, and don't want to relive that with Mr. Gluck. :(

>44 BLBera: Hi Beth! Autumn is such a wonderful book! I also want to read The Accidental by Ali Smith since it's on the 1001. I got a bit burned out on that list a few years ago, but do want to get back to it.

85. The Book of Lost Names - Kristin Hamel - 2020
- Newcomer's Book Club - Global Reading: France
- Kindle purchased 2021


Eva and her mother flee south from the Nazi roundup of Jews in Paris.

In free France, they find a cell of the French resistance smuggling Jewish children out of the country.

Once the resistance finds that Eva has forged quite believable new passports for herself and her mother, they recruit her skills in doing the same for the fleeing children.

There is a secret code hidden with a book so that the children’s names will not be lost forever. There is also a romance with a fellow forger, and of course, betrayal by a trusted ally.

The ending of the book has several unbelievable-to-me coincidences, although the book club that I read this with enjoyed this book. I thought the resistance’s work in creating new documents and papers was very intriguing. It’s interesting that to this day, there are children smuggled out of Nazi areas whose names were never recovered.

- new to me author
- Global Reading: France

So, after I posted the above review on the book page, I read another review that said that the 'Jewishness' of the book was missing and postulated that was due to the non-Jewish author. Interesting.

Thursday is our library's book club potluck and vote on books for next year.

I ended up nominating The Sentence by Louise Erdrich based on Beth's review and other comments on her thread.

I also nominated Nature's Best Hope about the importance of planting native plants and trees. I don't have much hope that this one will be chosen, but I thought it was fascinating. I'm working on the review for it right now - it will be the next one that I post.

Hi Janet! I hope your potluck dinner and books for next year selections are both successful. Our book club is still not meeting, but a book club friend visited two weeks ago and she and I agreed that we should try to start it up - one book every two months instead of month and those who want to participate can but those don't won't prevent us from having at least some form of book club.

>49 karenmarie: Hi Karen! Yes, there's nothing like talking about books! I love Library Thing, but in person book clubs are a different dimension.

Of course, it brings up Covid problems, too. Since this is a public book club sponsored by our library, there is no way to check on vaccination status, and since it's a potluck, there won't be masks.

It's a rarity to see people wearing masks in this area.

The other book club I belong to, the so called Newcomers' book club, also meets this week. We'll be discussing The New Silk Road - an interesting look at how China is expanding infrastructure, and loans into developing countries. China is on the move, for sure!

Happy Holidays, Janet! Happy New Thread! Hooray for Feather! What a beauty. Did you get any snow?

Have fun at your book club potluck. Let's assume that people in book clubs are vaccinated. :) I think The Sentence would be a good one for discussion.

>51 msf59: Thank you, Mark. Feather is beautiful but a bit of a handful. I may have been overly ambitious by buying her before trying to sell a few of the younger geldings.

We're finally getting a bit of snow, with 2-5 inches forecast today. It changed from sloppy snowyish rain to snow late yesterday afternoon, so I'm afraid it may be wickedly slick out there. Today's my routinely scheduled appointment to give blood. I know it's badly needed, especially after the tornadoes this past weekend in the southeastern US, but I'll see how the roads are this afternoon. Someone else (younger with faster reflexes) may have to be the road warrior today.

The ski areas are happy to finally be able to open, several weeks behind schedule. It change

HI Janet, Did you see there is a T of B list?
https://www.librarything.com/list/43337/all/2022-Tournament-of-Books#

>45 streamsong: Winter does not continue in the same narrative line as Autumn does, Janet. I will say that I did not like it as much as I did Autumn. I am shooting for reading Spring in either March or April.

>52 BLBera: Hi Beth - can't count on everyone being vaccinated, even at a book club, although I think the majority will be.

Montana in general and this county, specifically, seem to be going ever further to the right.

I woke up with a sore throat and stuffiness this morning. I've been out to several events and may have picked up a cold. I'll skip today's Newcomers' Book club with the discussion of The New Silk Road.

I'm glad you think The Sentence will be a good choice for my other book club.

>54 mdoris: Mary I had not seen LT's list for the Tournament of Books. Thanks for posting it, and thanks to the LibraryThingamabrarians who keep up with posting such great lists!

>55 alcottacre: Stasia, I'm glad to hear that Winter does not follow the same narrative thread as Autumn. My heart was just not up for it. Now, I can safely look forward to reading it - I'll pencil it in for January. I'll be adding Spring to my spring list, too.

✅86. Nature's Best Hope - Douglas W. Talllamy - 2019
– library
-

This is one of my favorite non-fiction books of the year. Before reading it, I was aware of the ‘native plants’ movement, but had no idea why native plants are vital to your backyard’s ecosystem.

It’s not enough to plant a tree in your yard and believe you are doing your best for the environment by capturing extra CO2.

A native tree may have up to 500 native insects that have evolved in the same area and are dependent on consuming the native flora. Without the native insects, specifically the native caterpillars, native birds will also have nothing to feed their young, as baby birds cannot digest the bird seed you’ve so helpfully put in your feeder to encourage more birds.

While planting a non-native tree may provide beauty and shade, the non-native tree may have no insects able to consume it. It’s the reason why some beautifully planted tree-lined city streets may be a desert for nesting birds. It’s also the reason that kudzu has taken off and growing unrestricted- so far there has been only one US insect found that eats it. And this insect also causes a dead-end as no birds native to the kudzu-infested areas eat this insect.

It all comes down to ‘connectivity’, and the ecological web that has evolved in a given area through tens of thousands of years of co-existence.

Removing a bit of your carefully landscaped but ecologically sterile lawn and adding a few native trees and plants as well as leaving some litter beneath them to provide habitat for insects is essential for both local and migrating birds. If you can convince your neighbors to do the same, you’ve got the beginning of what Tallamy has dubbed Homegrown National Parks.

Tallamy includes a list in the final chapter, outlining what steps we can take to begin the process of creating a more environmentally friendly yard beginning with baby steps that we can all achieve.

>58 streamsong: Just put that one on hold with a bit of a wait but sounds like one I would really like to read, thank you!

I hope it's just a cold, Janet. Take care.

>59 mdoris: Hope you enjoy it, Mary! I learned so much!

>60 BLBera: Thanks, Beth. I think it's just a cold - my throat is less sore today and I am stuffy - which is the way my colds always seem to go.

I'm taking lots of zinc and vitamin C, and will skip the bookclub potluck today and just take it easy.

I believe that Linda reviewed this one on her thread a year or two ago. It was the first book I read for my ‘Full Potential Course’ challenge which included reading ten pages of an inspirational/self-help/success book each day. I decided to concentrate on reading from the collection on my own shelves.



87. The Choice: Embrace the Possible – Dr Edith Eva Eger - 2017
- ROOT #10; purch 2020

Edith Eger was only 16 when she and her family were sent to Auschwitz. Although Edith’s slight stature made her appear younger than she was, she and her sister survived the initial “winnowing’ line and were sent into the camp to join what would eventually become work details. Her parents were sent to the other line – and probably gassed that same day.

Later that initial day she was made to dance for Mengele as she was a promising ballerina.

She survived the ordeal in the camp by the very thinnest margin. When the allies liberated the camp, Edith was found in a pile of bodies. Her back was broken and she could barely speak. Nevertheless, she was found and rescued and eventually regained her health.

It took her decades to become reconciled with her internment and she was even able to find forgiveness in her heart for her captors. She became a therapist and motivational speaker, urging people to look forward. She specialized in resiliency training and the treatment of PTSD.

These stories of WWII Jewish death camps are very hard to read. For me the stories of Jewish treatment by German citizens after the Jews were released are just as mind boggling.

Nevertheless, this a wonderful, inspirational book. Dr Egan lights the way with her story at a time I am struggling with all the current crises- pandemic, political and ecological. Hope can be found in the direst of situations.

>62 streamsong: Very good review Janet.

>57 streamsong: No, there is a completely different cast of characters in Winter.

>58 streamsong: That one sounds interesting. I will have to see if I can track down a copy.

>62 streamsong: I actually own that one. I just need to get it read!

>58 streamsong: ouch. You got me.

I try to leave the leaf litter alone until Spring has sprung: I have read about how many insects rely on the litter over the winter, and not all are icky stink bugs.

A couple years ago I photographed an unknown-to-me butterfly. It was identified as a species that is not common in my area, a Brazilian skipper. It depends upon canna lilies to complete its life cycle. I have a long row of cannas growing behind the house, and since reading that information I leave the dead leaves and stalks alone until the new growth appears.


Brazilian skipper

>62 streamsong: Thank you, Mary!

>63 mdoris: Hi Stasia! I learned a lot reading Nature's Best Hope. I hope you can find a copy.

I have about ten acres and probably almost half of it has native cottonwood trees. So I tell myself that I can stress less about having non-natives in my yard.

For the past few years, I have run over my fallen maple leaves in my yard with my lawnmower instead of raking them. Since the maples aren't native, I'm probably not helping the insect population, but perhaps helping the soil, anyway.

I hear you on owning books but not getting them read!

>67 streamsong: That is so cool, Lor! Thanks for sharing and the great photo!

>67 streamsong: you're welcome! And thanks!

Our riding mower died again, so we've been using the push mower exclusively this season. It has a bag, making it easy to dump the grass clippings in a big pile next to my compost bin. And once the sycamore got serious about dropping its leaves, I've been using the mower to chop and bag them. My yard waste pile is huge, decomposing rapidly, so I'm using the humus in all my gardens. And NO RAKING. 😁

Almost done with October reviews! As this one is a reread for my library book club, here is the review I left for it 2020.



❤️88. Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell - 2020 - Reread
- (British/Northern Ireland author)
- LBB BookClub
- purch copy 2021


After her mother died, Agnes’ father remarried. Her new stepmother despised her, so Agnes became a child of the fields, loving the woods and the natural herbal cures that her mother had pursued.

Until one day, her younger half brothers’ Latin tutor spied her walking with a hawk on her fist. Love followed, and so young William Shakespeare (although he is never named thusly in the story) married the slightly older Agnes, somewhat prematurely pregnant.

It’s a story of love and family and of moving through life. It’s also a brilliantly written portrait of grief that had me in tears and would make it hard for me to reread this book.

Nevertheless, the story and the writing make it one of my favorite books of the year.

>62 streamsong: Great comments, Janet.

I loved Hamnet and will definitely reread it. My book club chose it for next year. I'm so happy to see another fan.

I hope you're feeling better.

>68 fuzzi: LOL, Lor. Yes, NO RAKING is the key.

I do compost, but I've given up the gardening as the deer appreciated my efforts way too much. I'm thinking of a small greenhouse for tomatos and peppers and such. My efforts at growing them inside have not been successful.

>70 BLBera: Thanks, Beth. I really enjoyed my reread of Hamnet. I hope your book club loves it.

Thanks, yes, I seem to be pretty much over my cold, or allergy attack or whatever it was - scratchy throat, runny nose - I am so thankful it didn't develop into one of the nasties going around right now.

It started the day after I donated blood. I do the 'power red' donation, where they actually take two units of blood, keep the red blood cells and return the plasma. The stuff they return is cold - next time I will take a quilt along if I remember. But, you can only donate this way every four months, and by April I probably will have forgotten about it.

So, since nobody will notice unless I point it out (as I am so far behind with reviews), I will brag a bit and say that I did finish book #100 this week - Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach. I was expecting great things from it and was a little disappointed; but still, parts were great, parts not-so-much. Once again, the genetic CRISPER raised its head. I'm so glad I read The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race a few months back.

I'm currently reading a Montana-based mystery The Edge of the Crazies by Jamie Harrison as well as trying to finish Peter Fankopan's The New Silk Roads.

Today will be Christmas cards - there is supposed to be a storm moving in this afternoon.

89. The Other Side of the Bridge - Mary Lawson - 2006
- Global Reading: Canadian author; location Ontario
- library


Two brothers in conflict: Arthur and Jake Dunn. Arthur, the elder, is loyal and reliable, but slow witted, clumsy, a bear of a man. He was a failure in school and not allowed to enlist in WWII due to his flat feet.

His younger brother Jake is smaller, agile, much brighter, and his mother’s favorite. Jake shirked farm work and with his twisted character he loved to antagonize and humiliate his slower brother. He enjoyed creating situations where his brother was forced to save him.

And then one day, Jake and Arthur needed to take some cows across a bridge, but the cows were reluctant. Arthur was slowly coaxing the cows across, but Jake decided to cross underneath the bridge hand over hand. When it was obvious he couldn’t do it, he cried out to Arthur that he would fall. Arthur in disgust said “Good!”. Jake fell, broke his back and sustained other serious injuries.

After months in the hospital, Jake was released. He saw his brother wordlessly loving a girl named Laura. Jake made Laura love him, impregnated and abandoned her.

It’s also the story of fourteen years later with a high school boy named Ian, the son of the town doctor, hopelessly crushing on the much older Laura now married to Arthur.

Altogether, it’s a story of destinies and of life throwing curve balls and changing plans and dreams. I really enjoyed the relationships between the characters. I would read more from this author.

>71 streamsong: scratchy throat and runny nose are two symptoms of the Omicron variant.

Yes, I'm aware of that.

ETA: that's why I was very careful last week and skipped both book club events and wore a N95 mask the few times I went out for groceries or critter supplies.

On Sunday I felt the symptoms were gone, so I did attend the Christmas church service, still wearing an N95 mask, although I was one of the very few people in church wearing any sort of mask at all.

I also loved Nature's Best Hope, Janet and plan on buying a keeper copy for reference. I also loved Hamnet, one of my favorite reads of last year and I have The Other Side of the Bridge on my TBR.
You have very fine taste, Janet.

>76 msf59: Hi Mark! I should acquire a copy of Nature's Best Hope for my personal library, too. I was disappointed that it wasn't chosen by the library book club for next year, but that often happens when the book nominator misses the voting meeting.

Ah, fine taste! You're complementing yourself sit I often take your recommendations.

I've loved the Lawson books I've read as well, Janet. I read The Edge of the Crazies years ago and remember liking the series and being disappointed that there were only a few.

>78 BLBera: Hi Beth! I'll definitely look for more by Lawons.

The Edge of the Crazies is making me a little bit crazy! Hah! I've had to start a postit cheat sheet to keep the names separate. Too many distractions right now for 20 new characters?

90. Fugitive Telemetry - Martha Wells - 2021
– library
3.8 stars

This is the sixth in the series of Murderbot novels.

Murderbot is an enhanced not-human not-robot AI super Security Unit. He’s a snarky independent thinker and is the only one of his kind that has gained his freedom as an independent being.

As this novel begins, he and his Mensah colleagues are on a Preservation station when a human body is found.

Murderbot has agreed to work security on the station and to try to get to the bottom of the murder. As humans fear and distrust SecUnits, he is forbidden to access the stations’s security recordings. This makes his task much more difficult but he’s a keeping-his-promises kind of guy so he does it.

Murderbot turns from his usual protecting-by-combat role to super sleuth. As his favorite non-duty pastime is watching video show feeds, he has a backlog of detection shows to teach him. At the same time, he continues to juggle his growing relationships with both humans and non-humans and explore what it means to be both and neither in his snarky, hilarious way.

In 2013 I attended the Booktopia in Bellingham, Washington. We received a coupon feom a small indy bookstore there. One of the customers saw me browsing and recommended this book as the best book about the sound that she had ever read. How could I resist? And then it took me eight years to get it read .....



1. The Highest Tide - Jim Lynch - 2005
- ROOT #11 purchased 2013


Miles is a thirteen year old boy living on the shores of Puget Sound. He’s a kid that notices things – and has developed an eye for both marine edibles such as clams that he can sell to restaurants and to unusual specimens that he can sell to aquariums.

And then one day he finds a giant squid, which becomes the center of scientific interest.
Shortly afterwards he finds other marine life that really shouldn’t be there, washed up from the ocean depths onto the shoreline.

Absurdly. he finds himself the darling of a cult and also the center of media frenzy. At the same time, he is finding his way with his own friends. One of them is an elderly woman whom he helps to stay in her home. She also seems to have special knowledge of the sound and the ocean tides.

This is an interesting coming-of-age novel set in a novel environment. The setting is more than a character in this novel – the sound determines the lives of its human and nonhuman inhabitants.

4 stars. I could feel the salt on my tongue as I read it.

Janet wishing you and family all the best in 2022, with really wonderful reading too!

Hi hope your holiday is filled with love and laughter!

Hi Janet!

>72 streamsong: Congrats on finishing book #100. I haven’t picked up The Code Breaker since my heart attack, but it’s out and available. I’m going to regroup and start reading a chapter every day or so in the new year.

>81 streamsong: A mere 8 years? *smile*

>81 streamsong: This sounds great, Janet. I will look for it. Have a wonderful, healthy holiday.

Best wishes to you and yours for now and the new year!

Thank you all for decorating my thread with your beautiful wishes!

>82 mdoris: Thank you, Mary! My favorite kind of tree! Wish I could read the titles - Ha!

>83 Whisper1: Thank you, Linda! I hope yours is the same!

>84 karenmarie: Thank you, Karen. I just stumbled onto the fact that he also wrote Border Songs which has been on my mental tbr for ages.

>85 BLBera: Thank you, Beth. I hope you enjoy it. It seems to be one that Mark and I disagreed on.

>86 witchyrichy: Thank you, Karen! I love that porch!

>87 ronincats: Thank you, Roni, for the beautiful wishes!

92. Through Glacier Park 1915-2015 - Chris Peterson 2016?
– library


Having read Mary Roberts Rinehart’s Through Glacier Park in 1915, I was interested to read this book. I hoped it would give some enlightenment to Ms Rinehart’s actual path through the park, as well as a map or two.

Alas, I was disappointed. Ms. Rinehart’s journey is still a mystery.

Instead this book (rather randomly) documents places Ms Rinehart visited on her trek one hundred years earlier. Chris Peterson has published beautiful full color photographs of sights seen by Ms Rinehart – and it’s interesting to see how little they’ve changed in the hundred years’ time. This is an accolade to the effectiveness of the preservation done by our National Parks.

The photography in this book is beautiful. If you are looking for a coffee-table book of the spectacular Glacier Park beauty, this is the book for you.

If you are hoping to find out more about Mary Roberts Rinehart’s journey in 1915, you may be disappointed, as I was.

Have a lovely holiday, Janet.

These were our family ornaments this year and, despite COVID, a merry time was had by all. I hope the same is true for your holiday and here's to next year!!

Thank you Paul and Kim! It's good to see you both.

Berly, I love your ornaments!

Ok, so I have officially passed the 'more horses than I can easily take care of everyday' and into the ''having to stretch for it' phase. Stretching is good, but hard when it's 8 degrees F out there as it was this morning. Brrrr! Not impossible but not as easy or fun as it used to be.

I tell myself that days are getting longer, and eventually they will be warmer.

I just saw an amusing FB compilation of pets loving their owners' SAD lights. I'm trying to remember to use mine, so the next time I do, I'll have to see what Cree thinks of it.

93. The Huntress - Kate Quinn - 2019
– Newcomers’s Book Club
– Hoopla (First book read on library Hoopla account)


This historical fiction about WWII and the bringing to justice of Nazi criminals is told from various view and time points.

First, we meet Nina, growing up on the western edge of Russia, in an almost tribal situation. Her father is fierce and brutal, which makes Nina tough and determined. Eventually she flees her life. With nothing but sheer will and determination she learns to fly airplanes. When Russia joined WWII, they organize the only squadrons of women fighter pilots – a page of little known true history dubbed “The Night Witches’ by the Germans they successfully bombed.

Ian worked as a photojournalist during WWII, but now, after the conclusion of the war, he is working with his best friend to bring Nazi criminals to justice. His cases originally focused on criminals in Europe until the trail of the brutal woman who murdered his brother takes him to the United States.

And then we have Jordan, a young woman who longs to have a photography career, but is told by her father that such a career isn’t quite womanly and persuades her to work instead in his antique shop until she marries her very suitable fiance.

Jprdan’s father falls head over heels for a widow with a daughter. Although Jordan loves her new stepsister, she sees flashes of an alternate personality in her new mother and wonders what else is being hidden.
Then her father dies in a totally unexpected accident.

I enjoyed this view of WWII and its aftermath. The recounting of the Night Witches was fascinating.

The tracking down of Nazis in the 1950’s, in a time when most people just wanted the war to be done and forgotten was an interesting aspect.

Best of all, there was an abundance of strong woman characters. Were they atypical for their time, or have their stories, like that of the Night Witches, just not been told?

There are no stereotypical characters here in this action-centered story. I enjoyed it and would read more by this author.

>93 streamsong: This sounds like a good one, Janet. I will look for it.

It's cold here today, too. I just want to stay in the house and read. And yes, hooray for longer days!

>94 BLBera: Hi Beth! The Huntress is fun, but is more action oriented than growth oriented ... hmm how do I say that - not literary fiction, but an interesting read. If you find it, I hope you enjoy it.

Yesterday and the day before were awful darn cold. Today, it's up in the 20's F and feels much warmer. When it gets down to the temps it has been, I not only feed more hay to help keep them warm - the hay fermentation keeps them warmer than extra grain does - but I often give an extra feeding late at night. Yesterday the forecast was to go back to single digits last night, and then have a snow storm move in.

But I was just too tired to give them that extra feeding last night, no matter how guilty I felt. Luckily, the horse gods were with me, and it returned to the 20's during the night and the storm missed us.

Nevertheless, I am so sore and tired today, that it's going to be very quiet day for me.

Have not finished all my reviews by a long shot, but at least this is the last of the November reviews.

In taking Jon Acuff’s Ultimate Potential course, we were told to choose three small actions. One of my actions was to read 10 pages of an inspirational or self help book daily. I decided to read books off my TBR shelf and this was one of them.



94. Boundaries - Henry Cloud and John Townsend - 1992
- 10 page Acuff inspirational read
- ROOT #12 acq'd 2014

The author elaborates on the topic of boundaries from a Christian viewpoint. Often Christians feel that they must take on every request made of them. This book emphasizes that that is not a Christian viewpoint. You must take care of yourself in order to take care of others.

Several quotes that I saved will give the flavor of the book.

“Finding your life’s work involves taking risks. First you must firmly establish your identity, separating yourself from those you are attached to and following your desires. You must take ownership of how you feel, how you think, and what you want. You must access your talents and limitations. And then you must step out as God leads you. “ p 224

“Do not make an idol out of willpower.” P 225

“Although God wants us to respect his boundaries, he also says ‘Come let us reason together’ ”. Isa 1:18 p 240

And there are some statements that I have a harder time agreeing with:
“Some people will find out that the holy, just God of the OT isn’t so bad or scary. He just has very clear boundaries.” P 280

I will never forget how, when first challenged to read the Bible through when I was in 3rd or 4th grade, I was appalled, almost traumatized, to read how the OT God told the Israelites to not only kill the mothers but rip the babies from their wombs.

Anyway, whether I agreed with everything or not, it was an interesting read.

Forget your stresses and strains
As the old year wanes;
All that now remains
Is to bring you good cheer
With wine, liquor or beer
And wish you a special new year.

Happy New Year, Janet.