JANUARY ROOT - PROGRESS THREAD

In 2022 the theme that I have selected is a hybrid again. We will be looking at MOTHER NATURE and all her many talents and we will be also looking at how those talents can influence the places that we find to settle into with a good book.

January's tribute to Mother Nature is MOUNTAINS AND SNOW
I am showing mountain ranges from all the continents, but it seems strange that some appear to get more snow than others.

THE HIMALAYAS




CARPATHIANS


ALPS




GRAND TETONS


ANDES


MOUNT KILIMANJERO IN AFRICA


BLUE MOUNTAINS IN AUSTRALIA


QUEEN MAUD MOUNTAINS IN ANTARCTICA


Mountains aren't a requirement for Mother Nature to blanket an area with snow. She can dump inches in urban areas (paralyzing cities)





or she can just lay a dusting making the scenery seem peaceful and serene.



Whatever number of inches Mother Nature supplies, children will find a way to have fun!




They say that the color white is the presence of all color, so with snow we are starting with Mother Nature complete palate. What will future months hold?

Let me know what you think of this year's theme.

The goal for January is still being determined as people join the group. So far, January's goal is 211.

I will be updating the goals as they are added.

Goals so far:

benitastrnad 12
bragan 75
brakketh 50
ca_dmv 12
Caramellunacy 25
Cecilturtle 50
Coach_of_Alva 25
connie53 36
Cora-R 100
crazy4reading 20
curioussquared 55
cyderry 84
detailmuse 40
DisassemblyOfReason 100
enemyanniemae 70
FAMeulstee 48
familyhistorian 65
floremolla 40
fuzzi 100
HelenBaker 48
Henrik_Madsen 50
Jackie_K 60
janoorani24 20
justchris 50
kac522 75
karenmarie 30
Kristelh 50
Kwharton 12
LadyBookworth 30
lindapanzo 84
lilisin 80
LoraShouse 15
madhatter22 75
majkia 65
martencat 25
Miss_Moneypenny 80
MissSos 25
MissWatson 75
Nickelini 40
Quaisior 50
QuestingA 35
rabbitprincess 50
readergirliz 30
readingtangent 40
rebeki 24
ritacate 30
Robertgreaves 90
rosalita 48
sallylou61 24
si 20
Tara1Reads 52
torontoc 30
wandaly 18

>1 cyderry: thanks for hosting again, it's greatly appreciated!

Yay! We're back at ROOtin'! Thanks Cheli for everything.

Happy New Year. May we all have enough to eat and drink, clothes on our backs and roofs over our heads, somebody to love and books to read throughout 2022.

Happy New Year to everyone.

@Chèli: Love the theme and the pictures, excellent choice!

The Queen Maud Mountains are gorgeous! Great photos and theme for the year :)

Happy new year and Thanks for setting it all up again. Good luck everyone!

Happy New Year and happy reading

Great theme and pictures. Thank you Chèli.

Although I am torn between putting on my walking boots and heading for the nearest hill (with or without snow) and digging out the ROOTS about mountaineering. I know I have several....

Great theme and awesome pictures! Although we're expecting some 8 inches tonight here in Chicago, hopefully my car won't look like those black & white photos above. Those pictures remind me of the "big snow" we had here in Chicago in 1967. And the cars look that era, too.

Great theme for this year!! I'm setting the bar a little higher for myself this year and strive for 70 ROOTs. Looking forward to seeing everyone else's goals and reading choices.

Happy New Year to everyone. Last year's ROOT challenge put a nice sized dent in my book pile. Hoping to meet or exceed it this time around.

>1 cyderry: Thank you for setting up and hosting once again!

Thanks, Chèli, for all you do for this group. I'm happy to be back ROOTing again and am aiming for 24 ROOTs this year.

I think Mother Nature has helped many of us keep sane over the last couple of years, so she's a great choice for a theme!

Happy New Year everyone! My first ROOT for the year is The Black Rose by Thomas B. Costain No tickers updated but the review is on my thread.

Happy New Year everyone! My ROOT challenge is 20 books -- books I have had for more than one year.

Happy New Year, dear Readers, and thank-you, Chèli for organizing this community once again!
Also, Happy World Introvert day on this January 2.

I've finished my first ROOT: the very intellectual The Christmas She Married the Playboy by Louise Fuller. The title says it all, really.

Mother Nature must have approved of the choice for this month.
IT'S SNOWING HERE! Forecasted to get 3-6". I love snow!

I live in the Florida Panhandle and we had flurries last night! Missed it since it was at 3am but there are folks who posted it. Yesterday our temperature was 73. This morning, at the same time, it was 37.

Such a fun theme, Chèli, and a fabulous opening! Thank you for everything.

Love this theme, Chèli!

Thanks for hosting ROOTs 2022 and happy reading to all!

I’ve posted my first read of the year Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet. 1/40 for 2022. Ticker updated.

Thanks so much for organizing this group, Chèli. It really helped me last year, and I look forward to continued progress this year.

Love the theme! Looking at all the snow makes me glad to be home with a ROOT!

Great pictures and theme. Happy New Year! Glad I finally found you.

Stayed up late-ish last night to indulge in an audio snack: Doctor Who: Night of the Whisper, by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright, an audio-only entry in the "Destiny of the Doctor" series. My personal ticker is up to date.

And that's me out the traps too - my first ROOT of the month, and year, added to my own ticker.

Well, I have completed one ROOT (The Fingerprint by Patricia Wentworth) and haven't bought any new books yet, so January is off to a good start!

I love January when all books I own are ROOTs. Two down already.

First ROOT of 2022: James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. It was read to my class in second grade but this was the first time I'd read it myself.

>28 fuzzi: I had to laugh when I saw that title because whenever we visit my SIL's home in SC we always know we are getting close because of the water tower that is painted like a Giant Peach! We'll call and say "We passed the peach!" lol

>29 cyderry: I know where that is...been by it many, many times when we lived in Spartanburg.

Updated my personal ticker with my second ROOT of 2022: Nine Coaches Waiting, by Mary Stewart.

#1 is done for me! Blended by Sharon M. Draper. Middle grade about divorce and racial issues. I liked it, but not as much as the other book I've read by Draper (Out of My Mind).

Thread and ticker updated!

I've finally created my thread and ticker. I've decided to be more ambitious this year and made a target of 80 books/manga since I reached 84 last year. Let's read!

>1 cyderry: Hi Chèli, I just wanted to check you’d spotted my ticker in message #37 of the ticker thread, as I’m missing from the list, but can see that people who posted their ticker after me have been added. Looks like detailmuse (message #42 of ticker thread) is also missing.

>34 Rebeki: Got it! sorry about that!

>35 cyderry: Thanks! And no worries - you have a lot of us to keep track of :)

I've just added my second ROOT for January/the year to my own ticker.

ROOT 2 for this year Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh which I've had since 2011. My ticker is updated!

>37 Jackie_K: me too, my second ROOT was West From Home by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Finished my first ROOT for the year and for January

Met het bloed van mijn hart, deel 1 by Diana Gabaldon

Own ticker updated.

ROOT 2 is on the board: Golden Girls Forever: An Unauthorized Look Behind the Lanai by Jim Colucci.

I finished my first Root. Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver, purchased December 2013.

FInished ROOT 3 with Manifeste céleste by Canadian Pattie O'Green, a funny and irreverent look at New Age practices.

Thank you for hosting this group; you do such a wonderful job. The mountain pictures brought that sense of awe and majesty while the children playing bright delight to my heart. I am Cuernavaca reading with a good two feet of snow outside my window.

I've just added ROOT #3 to my own ticker - it's my first 5* book of the year, Robert Macfarlane's Underland: A Deep Time Journey.

Finished my second ROOT for this month: The Dutch House by Ann Patchett.

Took a longer lunch today to finish up my third ROOT of January: The Journeying Boy, by Michael Innes.

#2) Who Thought This was a Good Idea? And Other Questions You Should Have Answers to When you Work in the White House by Alyssa Mastromonaco. I'm so glad I read this after the 2020 election since it contained many funny or highly charged stories about the Obama administration. It came highly recommended but was just okay for me.

Third ROOT down: The Mystery of the Green Ghost, the fourth book in the middle school mystery series featuring The Three Investigators. I read these as a kid, and I'm enjoying the trip down memory lane.

I am sorry - I forgot to join the main group earlier this month. I am doing so now. My goal for the year will be 65 books from off my book shelves or titles out of my To Be Read list. I don't set up my own ticker I just follow the group ticker.

I have 1 title to add to my 2022 ROOT list. I listened to Circe by Madeline Miller. That means that I only have 64 more books to read from my shelves.

I've finished ROOT 4, The Story of French, which I've had since 2009. I loved it though, so I'll keep it as a reference on my shelves.

I have finished my third Root for the month: Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones, which I purchased in 2017.

I've added ROOT #4 to my personal ticker. Another good one: Year of the Nurse by Cassandra Alexander.

Just added my 4th ROOT of January to my personal tickers: Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor, Vol. 1: Revolutions of Terror, written by Nick Abadzis and illustrated by Elena Casagrande and Arianna Florian. I don't have much of an attention span today, so a comic book hit the spot.

Second ROOT of January ( on my way to 30 books read from my shelves that are over 6 months old) Th review is on my thread- no tickers updated

I have a ROOt to report - I finished reading Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker. This one is the sequel to The Golem and the Jinni and I have waited for four years for this book to be published. It was worth the wait!

Finished ROOT # 2 for the year and # 2 for January

Met het bloed van mijn hart, deel 2 by Diana Gabaldon

Own ticker updated.

I finished my 5th ROOT as well as identifying 7 books for purging. hoping to get a few more read this month.

I've just added ROOT #5 - sadly my first DNF for quite a while, but I read 2/3 of it so I think I gave it a good go.

ROOT 5 - Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng, solid but not worth all the hype in my opinion.

I've finished two books so far this year, one of which I have posted my thoughts about on my thread. The other I'm still working on.

1) John Wyndham : The Chrysalids
2) Fuminori Nakamura : L'Hiver Dernier, Je Me Suis Separe de Toi (Last Winter We Parted)

I'm currently reading Le Pere Goriot by Balzac which is a book I was 60 pages away from the end when I put it down many years ago, after realizing I hadn't absorbed anything. Now it's going much better and I'm very much enjoying it.

I'm also reading an Akutagawa Prize-winning, non-translated Japanese book called Nails and Eyes, that I'm also enjoying so far. It's told in quite a rare perspective which is creating quite the accusatory tone which makes me excited to see where it's going to take me.

Both books I expect to finish in January as they are both short and in any case, the Japanese read is a buddy read so I have much more (welcomed!) pressure to finish it.

I'm having a good month here - just added #6 to my own ticker.

I just finished #3 for January, People Who Walk in Darkness.

Added #5 to my personal ticker: Ten Little Aliens, by Stephen Cole.

Hi everyone, I forgot to pin this thread. So late to the party!

>1 cyderry: nice theme Cheli, but could I request of a picture of one of New Zealand's snow-capped peaks?

I can report 4 roots so far, A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, Collected Stories by Barbara Anderson, The White Masai by Corinne Hoffman and Back From Africa by Corinne Hofmann. The latter finishes with a trek up Kilimanjaro, so happy to see that featured in the snow-capped peaks. Happy reading in 2022 everyone.

Does this picture of Mount Taranaki satisfy your request?

Reporting ROOT # 3 for the year and # 3 for January.

De kelder by Brian Freeman

Own ticker updated

I finished ROOT #3, State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. I wanted to like it, but was not a huge fan.

I finished another ROOT this week. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal was a great good ride. I am not sure whether it was a mystery or chick lit, but it was a fun book to read. I hope that the author writes more books like this one.

6 ROOTs so far, that's a good start to the year.

Reporting ROOT # 4 for the year and # 4 for January.

Bij het licht van de maan by Santa Montefiore

Own ticker updated

I finished my 4th ROOT of January.

Hench - Natalie Zina Walschots, kindle edition purchased December 29, 2020.

This book had a lot of potential, but I was a little underwhelmed. I loved most of the supporting characters, but the main character just missed the spot for me. Her motivations were not evil enough, or virtuous enough for my tastes. I wanted her to either embrace the evil motives or have a stronger case for heroes being worse for the world than villains. Overall, it was an OK read. I would love to read a book from some of the other characters points of view.

>68 cyderry:. Thank you Cheli. Absolutely! The Taranaki region is one of our favourite places to visit. You're the tops.:-)

I got another ROOT this weekend. This one was for the Mystery Read-Along and it was Resistance Man by Martin Walker It is Book 6 in this series.

I finished ROOT 6 The Happy Isles of Oceania by Paul Theroux which I started in 2020 but never finished and ROOT 7Where We Belong by Emily Giffin, which I picked up in 2013.

Reporting ROOT # 5 for the year and # 5 for January.

Voortvluchtig by Karin Alvtegen

Own ticker update

Finished reading last night an untranslated Akutagawa Prize winner from Japan, 爪と目 (Nails and Eyes), and boy do I have a lot to say about this one! Hope I can properly sit down later on to write about it.

One more root finished, Reunion in Barsaloi by Corinne Hofmann, so my first series completed for the year 5/48.

Thanks for setting up the group again Cheli.
The mountains and snow theme is great. I think snow is best in pictures now that I'm too old to play in it.
I finished 2 ROOTs for January. I have updated my ticker. I don't update the group ticker - I'm afraid I'll mess it up. I hope that doesn't cause too many problems.
Thanks again

4 so far. Updating personal ticker and leaving the group ticker to the professionals.

Three so far and I hope to finish one more tomorrow.

Not quite satisfied with my ROOTing in January, but I have been bogged down by A Fine Balance from the library, and it took some time.

I finished my fourth ROOT, The Man in the Brown Suit by Dame Agatha.

Reporting 6 ROOTs read in January, 6/48.
My own ticker is up to date.

I finally read my first "root", as posted on my thread here, but I have forgotten my PIN number. I don't see a "I've forgotten my pin" link on the ticker website. Anybody know how to update a ticker pin? I've sent an email to the website via their "Contact Us" link, but thought I might get a quicker answer here. Cheers!

>86 rocketjk: I would just create a new ticker and then go to your thread and the ticker thread messages and REPLACE the code with the new code. All you have to do is edit the messages where the old ticker resides and overwrite with the new ticker code. Please do not create a new message in the ticker thread. If you have problems in the ticker thread, please let me know and I'll help you.

Reporting for January,{ where did the month go???}.
6 books out of 30.
Btw, love the theme cyderry!
Happy reading all!!

>87 cyderry: I'm not sure I'm going to be able to sign in to create a new ticker, since I don't remember my PIN and the site's liable to tell me that my email address is already in use by someone else, that someone else being me, the person who can't remember his PIN. Well, I'll give it a go and let you know how I fair in the morning.

>89 rocketjk:
That's not what cyderry meant.
Just create an entirely new ticker like you do at the beginning of the year. Create a new PIN for that ticker and replace your old ticker with the new one. Make sure you use the HTML from the new ticker, to replace the HTML from the older ticker in both your personal thread and the group thread.

I cleared out a ROOT from 2008(!) by finally reading Le Pere Goriot by Balzac. I actually read the majority of this back in 2009 but when I realized I wasn't absorbing any of the plot I put it down to save for later. That later is now and I thoroughly enjoyed it. So happy to have read it.

My ticker, on my thread and the ticker thread, is up to date for January. I won't finish another today, so 4 it is!

>92 rosalita: I also got 4 ROOTs done in January!

Personal ticker only updated.

I have finished 9 ROOTs in January, a feat I probably won't repeat in February. My own ticker is up-to-date, did not touch the group ticker.

>87 cyderry: & >89 rocketjk: I see. Most sites of this sort make you sign in first before you can do anything. I was thinking I'd have to sign in with my email and pin before I could make my new ticker. At any rate, yes, I get that to replace one ticker with another you have to replace the html of the old one with the html of the new one. I never had posted anything on the ticker thread this year, though. So now I'm all caught up.

A measly total of two ROOTs this month - somewhat distracted by non-ROOTS - tickers already updated 2/40 for 2022.

I finished my 5th ROOT of January, Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett.

Total of 5 ROOTs for January. My personal ticker is up to date.

Managed to read one more ROOT in January, total 7/48.
My own ticker is up to date.

My personal ticker is up to date with 6 ROOTS read for January. The 6th ROOT was This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal el-Mohtar and Max Gladstone.

>1 cyderry: You will probably pick me up when you end the month, I have a ticker posted. I'm not on the above list for 40 but I may have gotten my thread up too late.

I read six books this month and all were ROOTs. Probably won't get my thread updated until tomorrow though the ticker is right.

Here is my report for January 2022:

UpROOTED books: 5
ROOTless books: 8
Added to the treebook TBR shelves: 2

The ROOTs were:

The Crow Trap by Ann Cleeves
The Cadaver Game by Kate Ellis
Echoes of the Runes by Christina Courtenay
The Sea-Wolves by Lars Brownworth
Money From Holme by Michael Innes

ROOTs in YTD: 5

(Group tickers not touched)

I read 8 ROOTs in January getting closer to my goal of 65.

>96 floremolla: those bright and shiny books seduced you, hmm? ;)

I've added ROOT #7 to my own ticker, that's it for January.

FEBRUARY THREAD IS UP!

https://www.librarything.com/topic/339254

>106 cyderry: thank you!

Here is my January report.
I read 9 ROOT's so my ROOTing is off to a roaring start.

I read 7 hardcopy books. There were 4 novels and 2 nonfiction
Fiction titles were:
Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker
Erotic Stories For Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal
Resistance Man by Martin Walker
We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry

Nonfiction titles were:
Pilgrimage to the End of the World: The Road to Santiago de Compostela by Conrad Rudolph
Honey Bus:A Memoir of Loss, Courage and a Girl Saved by Bees by Meredith May

I had 3 Recorded books that were ROOT's.
2 Fiction and 1 nonfiction
Fiction Recorded were:
Circe by Madeline Miller
Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

Nonfiction Recorded was:
Spy Who Was Left Behind: Russia, the United States, and the True Story of the Betrayal and Assassination of a CIA Agent by Michael Pullara

I finished one ROOT in January and one yesterday, so I'm putting both in January:

It's been a slow start to the year -- I've only completed two ROOT books so far.

1. Black Plumes by Margery Allingham - finished reading on 1/27/22. I've had this book since sometime in the late 1980s - and remember it as one of my favorite Margery Allingham novels, but I honestly did not remember the plot, so I enjoyed reading it again. I give it 4 stars.

2. Intelligence and Crime Analysis: Critical Thinking Through Writing by David Cariens -- finished on 2/3/22. I've had this book since 2013. Good writing style guide for writers of intelligence reports, although the appendix with the entire report from the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 could have been left out. It was 220 pages, and not useful. Still a good reference book. 3 stars.

Two down, 18 to go!