detailmuse ROOTs curiously through 2025

My main ROOT goal is to read 40 books acquired prior to 2025 -- likely lots of contemporary fiction, nonfiction and memoir, and volumes I’ve forgotten about. I’ll keep a list of the ROOTs in Msg#2 and non-ROOTs in Msg#3.

Update: I read 33 of my 40 ROOT goal, and 53 books total.

ROOTs Read in 2025:

Fiction
31. And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman (4)
29. The Spare Room by Helen Garner (4.5)
25. I Am Not Sidney Poitier by Percival Everett (3.5)
24. Britt-Marie was Here by Fredrik Backman (3.5)
19. Gotham Writers' Workshop Fiction Gallery (4)
16. No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister (3, DNF)
10. Foster by Claire Keegan (5)
6. Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy (3)
5. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (3.5)
1. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (5)

Memoir

Nonfiction
32. Taffy’s Tips to Teens by Dolly Martin
30. Bossypants by Tina Fey (4)
28. All I Know About Animal Behavior I Learned in Loehmann's Dressing Room by Erma Bombeck
27. Something from the Oven by Laura Shapiro (3)
23. Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors by Susan Sontag (3)
22. The Situation Room by George Stephanopoulos (4)
21. Evicted by Matthew Desmond (3.5)
17. How to Write Killer Fiction by Carolyn Wheat (4)
11. What Now? by Ann Patchett (3.5)
9. The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit (3.5)

Other
33. The New York Times Monday Through Friday Easy to Tough Crossword Puzzles Volume 6 (5)
26. Bellevue Literary Review: Issue 44 (3)
20. O.J.’s Legal Pad by Henry Beard and John Boswell, art by Ron Barrett (2.5)
18. Bibliotherapy by Nancy Peske and Beverly West (3.5)
15. You’re Only Old Once by Dr. Seuss (4)
14. The King Who Rained by Fred Gwynne (5)
13. All I Need to Know I Learned from My Cat by Suzy Becker (3.5)
12. Cat Naps: The Key to Contentment by (ed.) (2.5)
8. (unnamed)
7. Everybody Needs to Forgive Somebody by Allen R. Hunt (3)
4. Beautiful Hope by ed. (2.5)
3. Joy to the World by Chris Stefanick (DNF, 1.5)
2. The Little Blue Book 2024-2025 by (ed.) (2.5)

Non-ROOTs Read in 2025:

Q1
• Citizen: My Life After the White House by Bill Clinton (4)
• The Well Plated Cookbook by Eric Clarke (3)
• Cher: The Memoir Part One by Cher (4)

Q2
• Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green (DNF, 3)
• Cairn by Kathleen Jamie (3)
• Class Clown: The Memoirs of a Professional Wiseass by Dave Barry (3)

Q3
• Not My Type by E. Jean Carroll (5)
• Culpability by Bruce Holsinger (4.5)
• Big Dumb Eyes by Nate Bargatze (3.5)
• Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks (3.5)
• Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Cespedes (4)

Q4
• On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder (4)
• The Writing Life by Annie Dillard (3)
• Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton (4.5)
• No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson by Gardiner Harris (5)
• Papilio by Ben Clanton, Corey R. Tabor and Andy Chou Musser (3.5)
• Rear Window: The Making of a Hitchcock Masterpiece in the Hollywood Golden Age by Jennifer O'Callaghan (4)
• A Ferry Merry Christmas by Debbie Macomber (3.5)
• Abscond by Abraham Verghese (4.5)
• The Last Father-Daughter Dance by Lisa Wingate (3)

About my reading last year
Total books read: 61 (about halfway between the dismal counts since 2020 and my higher volumes pre-covid)
• Fiction: 34% (proportion of fiction up significantly this year)
• Nonfiction: 56% (including lots of biography and memoir)
• Other: 10% (e.g. poetry, lit journals, puzzle books)

Original publication date:
• before 2000: 21% (up significantly)
• 2000s: 7%
• 2010s: 15%
• 2020s: 57%
• Of ROOTs, the mean duration as a TBR in my library: 7.5 years (significantly longer; I ROOTed some older books)

• Paper copy: 46%
• e-Book: 54%
• Audiobook: 0 (!)

• Male authors: 33%
• Female authors: 51%
• Mix of genders: 16%
• “Favorite”-ed authors in this year’s books: Elizabeth Berg, Claire Keegan (new favorite!), Anne Lamott, Ann Patchett
• I’d like to read more by Ann Napolitano, Kurt Vonnegut

• Acquired 46 books in 2024
• Decreased my TBRs by net 8 (3%) in 2024
• Decreased my Your Library by 94 (17%) through donations in 2024

• I rated 52% of my 2023 reads at 4 stars or above (i.e. “good” to “great”) and another 30% at 3.5 stars (“okay”). I’m satisfied to report that I skimmed or DNF’d most of the rest.

Some books that have stayed in my mind:
What a Fool Believes by Michael McDonald and Paul Reiser
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan
Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Open for visitors, MJ? Welcome back and Happy ROOTing.

Happy New Year to you and yours!

Welcome back and happy 2025!

>5 connie53: Yes, just finishing some stats from last year. Welcome and thanks and everything good to you and yours too!

>6 Cecilturtle: Thanks and to you too, Cécile!

>7 detailmuse: And some nice stats!

Glad you have returned! Happy 2025 reading.

Happy ROOTing in 2025, Cécile

Happy reading 2025 😃

>11 Robertgreaves: Hi Robert! Not sure if you landed on a different thread than you meant but I'm glad you're here. Happy reading!

>10 cyderry:, >12 Ameise1: Welcome, and good reading to you too!

Hello, MJ, I finally found your thread. Thanks for visiting mine!

>4 detailmuse: Good stats! I hope you have a wonderful reading year!

that stat breakdown is awesome!

Cool stats, MJ! I see you’ve got Shirley Jackson and Claire Keegan among the memorable books, they were my best discoveries in 2024, too.

>14 atozgrl:, >15 handshakes:, >16 MissWatson: Welcome! Sometimes the stats prompt a, "Huh, really?" so it's useful data :)

>16 MissWatson: Oh interesting! I've have Keegan's Foster to ROOT this year.

>17 detailmuse: I’ve been given that for my birthday and hope to read it soon(ish).

Best of luck with your ROOTing, MJ!

>18 MissWatson: I hope we both like it!

>19 Familyhistorian: Welcome and thank you, Meg!

1. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, ©2022, acquired 2024

But the wicked have a different head for numbers than most. Any bad they do will end up on the side of never-mind. What's done to them weighs double.

In an homage to Dickens’s David Copperfield, a very likeable Demon Copperhead tells the story of his life, from birth to twentysomething, amid poverty and loss and addiction in recent-day Appalachia. It's heartbreaking, heart-warming and even funny, and I loved it.

Lortab was her name. Blessed, blessed lady.

Hi MJ, I'm so sorry I haven't commented on your thread already and we're 12 days into the year! I hope you're keeping well.

I have Demon Copperhead on my kobo, and have heard nothing but good about it. David Copperfield is my favourite Dickens book.

>22 Jackie_K: Welcome! The novel does make me want to read David Copperfield.

I like your 2024 stats - it sounds like an excellent reading year. I hope 2025 turns out just as well!

>24 Rebeki: Hi Rebecca, cheers to a great year!

I'm finishing some languishing "daybooks" (collections of short essays, some intended to be read one-per-day) and decided I will list them together in this single post as I finish them throughout the year:

2. The Little Blue Book 2024-2025, ©2024, acquired 2024 (2.5 stars)
3. Joy to the World by Chris Stefanick, ©2016, acquired 2019 (DNF, 1.5)
4. Beautiful Hope (2.5)
7. Everybody Needs to Forgive Somebody by Allen R. Hunt (3)
8. (unnamed)

January
Beginning total TBRs: 246
ROOTs read: 3
Other books read: 1
Books purged unread from TBRs: 1
Books acquired: 5
Ending total TBRs: 246
YTD ROOTs read: 3 (year-end goal=40)

hmm looks unchanged overall, but there was some ROOTing in the middle :) Which says a lot considering the time necessary to know exactly what is happening in the opening tyranny

>22 Jackie_K: >I hope you're keeping well.
A month after your post, I'm still figuring how to answer this. I'm physically well (we remain covid-cautious) and otherwise trying to funnel incandescent fury into meaningful action.

I just got a really nice copy of David Copperfield... Looking forward to reading it even more now!

>28 detailmuse: I know - I'm still stunned, and every day it feels like we're (ie the world) hit with something else emanating from you-know-who. I hope you're finding moments of respite as well as resistance.

>30 Jackie_K: Every day ... every hour, that is intentional chaos. I think some "compartmentalization" is helpful, so as to get actual respite!

>29 handshakes: Another nudge toward the wishlist!

5. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, ©2022, acquired 2024

An aging, grieving widow/mother bonds with an octopus at the aquarium where she cleans after-hours. I immediately loved the characters of the woman and the octopus, but I was far less interested in the woman’s friends, her co-workers and the townspeople, even as they developed the main plot.

6. Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy, ©2024, acquired 2024

And {pretty much any interaction with anyone} would mean talking. Being asked questions that rattle the doors she keeps locked.

An aging, grieving widow/mother bonds with a ... mouse, wait, that seems familiar! (see previous post) A few pages into this novella, I wondered if I should defer reading it until the prior book faded from memory a bit, but I forged ahead. I found the story slow, the characters un-interesting, and the plot less earned.

>33 detailmuse: My book club's choice for March so I'll have to start it soon

>35 Robertgreaves: Enjoy! I thought the author styled some good reveals.

February
Beginning total TBRs: 246
ROOTs read: 5
Other books read: 1
Books acquired: 4 (including 3 that were already in my TBRs but not entered into LT until now)
Ending total TBRs: 244
YTD ROOTs read: 8 (year-end goal=40)

Hi M.J. Just popping in to see what you have been reading.

>30 Jackie_K: I fully agree with Jackie.

>38 connie53: Already the damage is terrible.

9. The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit, ©2013, acquired 2022

Solnit writes essays about travel, history and feminism (perhaps most famous for "Men Explain Things to Me," a precursor to the term, “mansplaining”). I started this collection more than a year ago and now had fuzzy memories mostly of faraway travel woven with musings on Solnit’s troubled relationship with her mother and, later, her mother’s Alzheimer’s. I am not gripped by her writing, yet each essay invariably has a line or paragraph that takes my breath away. And so I look forward to more.

{A}t the poles themselves, there are not 365 days per year but one long night and one long stretch of light, and the sun rises once in the spring and sets once in the fall.

Before money, {anthropologist David} Graeber wrote, people didn’t barter but gave and received as needs and goods ebbed and flowed. They thereby incurred the indebtedness that bound them together, and reciprocated slowly, incompletely, in the ongoing transaction that is a community. Money was invented as a way to sever the ties by completing the transactions

Malcolm asked what each of us is still outrunning and whether we can tell when our predator has been extinct for ten thousand years.

{T}he disease was a road she was going to go down no matter what. All we could do was help her travel it as gracefully as possible and locate what pleasures and comforts were available along the way.

10. Foster by Claire Keegan, ©2010, acquired 2024

Here, a very young child is sent from a large family in poverty to live with an older couple on a farm. It’s a very short novella, nearly a short story. But through the young girl’s point of view we see so much awakening, and so much happens off the page that it satisfies like a much longer work (and I wish it were longer). Another beautiful story by Keegan.

Quick re-reads before donation to the spring library sale:

    
11. What Now? by Ann Patchett, ©2008
An illustrated essay-length book based on Patchett’s commencement address to graduates at Sarah Lawrence College. This advice has helped me when generating ideas for gift-giving and has potential for bigger topics now:

If you’re trying to find out what’s coming next, turn off everything you own that has an OFF switch and listen.

12. Cat Naps: The Key to Contentment by (ed.), ©2003
A little book of kitten photos with quotations; after five pages it seemed all more-of-the-same

13. All I Need to Know I Learned from My Cat by Suzy Becker, ©1990
A little book of amusing cat cartoons and captions

14. The King Who Rained by Fred Gwynne, ©1970
A wonderful children’s picture book of wordplay -- puns, idioms, homonyms

15. You’re Only Old Once! by Dr. Seuss, ©1986
On aging and health -- a picture book intended for the seventy-something-age crowd

16. No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister, ©2023, acquired 2024

I’ve liked (or loved) several of Bauermeister’s collections of linked short stories. Here, she links them through a book: the writer of the novel, the slush-pile reader at a literary agency, the audiobook narrator, a bookseller, several readers, etc. Like her prior collections, the stories are mostly standalone character studies. While interesting, they stopped holding my attention now and I DNF’d it after two-thirds. I later learned there are satisfying links between stories late in the book :( but I needed that spritz a little earlier to keep me going.

>42 detailmuse: ooooh i really like that quote! if only my brain had an off switch though... lol.

>44 handshakes: haha yes. I've heard that boredom begets creativity and found it true for me...though it's initially uncomfortable and tempting to find distractions.

17. How to Write Killer Fiction by Carolyn Wheat, ©2003 acquired 2004

A how-to about writing mystery, suspense and thriller novels, acquired when I was considering adding aspects of such to a project. Now, though, it was interesting from a reader’s perspective -- to see mysteries characterized as intellectually satisfying puzzles where the reader stays two steps behind the protagonist, vs. suspense/thrillers characterized as emotionally satisfying nightmares where the reader is two steps ahead (thus always the urge to warn the protagonist!).

March
Beginning total TBRs: 244
ROOTs read: 9
Other books read: 1
Books purged unread (or nearly so) from TBRs: 30
Books acquired: 6 (including 4 that were already in my TBRs but not entered into LT until now)
Ending total TBRs: 210
YTD ROOTs read: 17 (year-end goal=40)

>45 detailmuse: i've heard the same. i think that's why people find meditation so uncomfortable at first.

>48 handshakes: Meditation would be good for my current mind


18. Bibliotherapy by Nancy Peske and Beverly West, ©2001, acquired 2001

Subtitled, “The Girl’s Guide to Books for Every Phase of Our Lives,” this is full of book recommendations, commentary and reviews for readers from young-adult to middle age. Chapter themes include Coming-of-Age, Bad Girls, Bad Boys, Mother Issues, Inner Voice, Politics, Existential Crises, Midlife Crises. It recommends some classics, and is somewhat fun to browse, but is quite dated to the 1990s.

19. Gotham Writers' Workshop Fiction Gallery, ©2004, acquired 2005

A good anthology of 25 short stories curated by New York City’s Gotham Writers’ Workshop, with classics by well-known writers plus newer-writer entries (“newer” as of 20 years ago).

April
Beginning total TBRs: 210
ROOTs read: 2
Other books read: 1
Books acquired: 3
Ending total TBRs: 210
YTD ROOTs read: 19 (year-end goal=40)

20. O.J.’s Legal Pad by Henry Beard and John Boswell, art by Ron Barrett, ©1995, acquired 1995

During his 1995 months-long trial for double-murder, O.J. Simpson frequently made notes on a yellow legal pad at his seat in the courtroom. Everybody wondered what he was writing and here it is, satirized in all its doodles, alibis, and narcissism. I re-read it before donating my copy. I remember this being clever in 1995 but it’s much less so, now…and calls to mind the current global narcissist(s).

>52 detailmuse: sounds terrible and indulgent :(

>53 Cecilturtle: It called to mind an essay I read last year in At Large and At Small, wondering if our valuation of a writer (or subject) should affect our valuation of a written work. For me it does. I'm also discovering that I should read a book close to when it appeals enough to me to acquire it, as I'll likely be a somewhat different person later on.

>54 detailmuse: I've bought too many books to read "someday" only to find when "someday" arrives I'm just not interested any more.

I think Kindle did a survey and found that if you don't read a book within 3 years of purchase, you probably never will.

>55 Robertgreaves: Interesting. Does that study take all purchases into account or just kindle purchases?

Once in a while I select a book via LT's "A Random Book You Own" function, which helps me cut through the space-time continuum and read books that have been on the shelves for years.

>54 detailmuse: Yes, the author definitely affects the book for me too, and has affected who I will and won't read. Eg, I'm never going to read anything by JK Rowling, and have a couple of unread Neil Gaiman books which will stay unread now. It's similar to how I can't bear to listen to music by Wagner (although I was never a fan to begin with. Far too pompous and lumpy for me).

And I hear you re recent purchases. I'm definitely getting better at choosing books because I'm interested and keen to read it, rather than because it's a bargain. So far, reading even older purchases has been OK because of that, but I do look at my early ebook acquiring and there are quite a few books which I wouldn't bother with now if I was presented with them for the first time.

>56 rocketjk: It was a while ago now but if I remember rightly Amazon/Kindle announced this as an interesting factoid not expecting the outrage provoked by them tracking whether you actually read the Kindle books you purchased.

>58 Robertgreaves: for all Amazon's faults, I don't have a problem with that. Authors in KU are paid by numbers of pages read, so they have to track that.

>59 Jackie_K: I think this was before KU was launched and was presented in a context of Amazon "telling authors what to write" by noting at what point people stopped reading (or never started).

I resisted ebooks for a long time, both because I love the formatting and experience of a paper book and because I didn’t want all the data collected on my reading times, pace, highlights, etc. Then I started disliking clunky heavy hardcovers and tight-bound mass market paperbacks and started liking how easy ebooks are to read in the dark before sleep. Now I get most books on kindle and an LT tally shows I’ve read 75% of them … >55 Robertgreaves: and now I’m slightly motivated to read the 11 ebooks I’ve had longer than three years, haha so there, Amazon!

>56 rocketjk: You prompted me to try the Random Book and I had to repeat several times to get one from my TBRs…the pick interests me but now I can’t find my copy

>57 Jackie_K: I’m in a slump and getting close to trying an Artist’s Way-type reset -- writing to clear my mind, reading to delight it

21. Evicted by Matthew Desmond, ©2016, acquired 2018

Last month, a statewide library-sponsored Zoom presentation featuring Matthew Desmond prompted me to get to this book beforehand. His presentation was about poverty, and this book explores poverty’s intersection with housing eviction. There is some good information and memorable passages. But I had anticipated it to be more journalistic (i.e. the overall situation, the relevant history and laws, perspectives of renters and landlords), and I grew frustrated with what seemed like long, sometimes wandering, profiles of the various parties. I skimmed a bit.

22. The Situation Room by George Stephanopoulos, ©2024, acquired 2024

I loved The Gatekeepers by Chris Whipple, which is a history of the operational chiefs of staff to U.S. Presidents from Nixon up until Biden. I similarly liked this history of the high-security White House “Situation Room” and its use in managing crises during presidential terms from Kennedy through Biden.

23. Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors by Susan Sontag, the two essays are ©1977 and 1988, this book acquired 2023

In literature and in real life, stereotypes are often applied to patients diagnosed with numerous medical conditions and, infuriatingly, stigma follows. In two long, philosophical (and somewhat dated) essays, Sontag explores these metaphors in the context of tuberculosis, cancer and AIDS. More (poorly understood) disorders would make the list today. I skimmed a bit.

May
Beginning total TBRs: 210
ROOTs read: 4
Other books read: 2
Books acquired: 6 (includes one that was already in my TBRs but not entered into LT until now)
Ending total TBRs: 210
YTD ROOTs read: 23 (year-end goal=40)

>49 detailmuse: I've been utilizing mindfulness for the last month or two and it's been very helpful. I would highly suggest it if you can't get into meditation.

>66 handshakes: Very thoughtful of you to post this. I do have 365 Tao in my TBRs, and a friend just gave me a mindfulness daybook that is image-dominant and very accessible.

>67 detailmuse: perfect! That would be a great start.

Started several books in June but finished none :0 Tried to figure out what I'd done with my time and remembered that I'd found Thirtysomething (1980s TV drama) temporarily streaming on YouTube, and I re-watched all 85 episodes.

Hi MJ. Wow I've been away from your thread to long to read every post.

How are you doing?
Promise to visit more regularly.

Connie, thanks for visiting. I finally finished a book, so yay! Still so love to browse books, and for three that I want, I made a deal with myself that I'd acquire them after I ROOT those authors' prior releases that are already in my TBRs :)

>71 detailmuse: It sounds like your willpower is stronger than mine! I'm acquiring like a good 'un at the moment! :D (it is bringing me much joy, and mostly they're ebooks so I don't need to get stressed out about filling the house with more stuff).

>72 Jackie_K: Somewhere recently, I came across the line that book browsing/buying is a completely separate activity from book reading :)) As you said, much joy in it!

24. Britt-Marie was Here by Fredrik Backman, translated from the Swedish by Henning Koch, ©2014, acquired 2024

I wanted comfort so I turned to another Backman story of a prickly, perhaps neuro-divergent, Swedish character who resists being folded into a heart-warming community. And it became the first book I’ve finished in seven weeks! (followed by a couple of non-ROOTs, yay).

25. I Am Not Sidney Poitier by Percival Everett, ©2009, acquired 2010

Once you leave Atlanta, you’re in Georgia. {…} I made the short drive to the state’s edge in a quick dead sprint and fell into the next state, which turned out to be Alabama. Of course, I knew it would be Alabama, but still I don’t think anyone is ever quite prepared for Alabama, though I imagined it appropriate and decent preparation for Mississippi…

This smart, funny satire romps through racism in the recent American South. It chronicles the first decades in the life of Portia Poitier’s son, named Not Sidney, with supporting characters of (then-media-mogul) Ted Turner and a professor with the author’s name. Sometimes a little thin, a little silly (vs. funny), but I liked it. I wanted to ROOT it before acquiring Everett’s new release, James (a retelling of Huckleberry Finn, which I haven’t read).

>75 detailmuse: I like the sound of that one. Look out for the ebook of James, I got it a couple of days ago on Kobo for £1.99.

I suspect I'm going to like James much more than Huck Finn, which I struggled with.

>76 Jackie_K: I'm back and forth about whether to read the original before the retelling, leaning toward beginning with James. I do love events seen from multiple perspectives so maybe I'll eventually be motivated to get to Twain.

>77 detailmuse: I struggled with the unlikeability of pretty much all the characters in Huck Finn (apart from Jim, pretty much). I found it a bit of a slog, to be honest (and nothing like the TV versions of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer I remember from when I was a kid - obviously they will have been massively sanitised!).

>78 Jackie_K: So many "shoulds," so little time!


26. Bellevue Literary Review: Issue 44, ©2023, acquired 2023

Some good entries in this 2023 spring/summer issue of the literary journal -- most especially the linked “Mad Love” by Acamea Deadwiler, a short, devastating essay with a beautiful final turn.

Summer (June, July, August)
Beginning total TBRs: 210
ROOTs read: 3
Other books read: 4
Books acquired: 9
Ending total TBRs: 212
YTD ROOTs read: 26 (year-end goal=40)

Yes that's for three months! The three ROOTs were slightly better than "meh," but two of the non-ROOTs were terrific:
Not My Type by E. Jean Carroll, a memoir of her two defamation lawsuits wherein there was relatively little about the prez but lots of creativity, humor and optimism

Culpability by Bruce Holsinger, a novel about tech, including autonomous cars and chat-AI bots

>80 detailmuse: I kind of like the sound of the E. Jean Carroll memoir, and find her very admirable, but I must admit to avoiding books which feature that man. I just don't want him in my head any more than I have to (I realise that I have a significant privilege in that regard, being the other side of the Pond).

>81 Jackie_K: Yes 100%! Truly relatively little of him and, to her credit, almost nothing got into my head and none of it stayed. And the parts about his defense team etc are creative and funny. And she loves her friends and her plaintiff team. I think you can safely read it!

27. Something from the Oven by Laura Shapiro, ©2004, acquired 2011

This is a culinary history of home cooking in the mid-20th century US. It opens in the post-WWII/post-wartime-rationing 1950s at the turning point when refrigeration, gas/electricity and running water (and food like pre-plucked chickens!) had reduced the burden on homemakers. It then explores the 1960s rise of the food industry and processed/convenience foods (and homemakers' accompanying guilt and shame), and concludes with the 1970s semi-resurgence of from-scratch cooking via recipes and instructions from the likes of Betty Crocker, Irma Rombauer, Julia Child and others.

I cooked in the latter decades of what’s covered, and expected to love the reminiscence and insight. But it was dull reading and I’m not sure I learned anything new.

September
Beginning total TBRs: 212
ROOTs read: 1
Other books read: 1
Books acquired: 3
Ending total TBRs: 213
YTD ROOTs read: 27 (year-end goal=40)

28. All I Know About Animal Behavior I Learned in Loehmann's Dressing Room by Erma Bombeck, ©1995, acquired 1990s?

A collection of several dozen short essays that use animal behaviors as jumping-off points to look at everyday-life human behaviors. Bombeck's collections were bestsellers back in the day, and the topics here aren’t necessarily dated, but the style is less engaging than today’s humor/satire and I give it a "Meh."

October
Beginning total TBRs: 213
ROOTs read: 1
Other books read: 3
Books acquired: 8 (includes one that was already in my TBRs but not entered into LT until now)
Ending total TBRs: 217
YTD ROOTs read: 28 (year-end goal=40)

hmm need to ROOT 12 more over the next two months…it’s possible because I have some daybooks in process that will end with the year, and because I’ve been craving re-reads of some novellas.

29. The Spare Room by Helen Garner, ©2008, acquired 2009, now a re-read

This re-read was even lovelier (and more brutal) now than when I first read it in 2009. Garner just won the Baillie Gifford prize for nonfiction, I must read another by her.

>87 detailmuse: I wasn't familiar with Helen Garner before this week, but I'll definitely be keeping my eye out for her books now. Winning the Baillie Gifford is *massive*. That's a great review, MJ.

>88 Jackie_K: Thank you! The story had a tiny part about Helen's interactions with her grand-daughter, which now makes me want to re-read The Summer Book.

30. Bossypants by Tina Fey, ©2011, acquired 2011, now a re-read(listen)

My husband and I just (re)watched the 30 Rock series. I remembered this audio memoir and we enjoyed listening to it after the series. (I’ve been a definite Fey fan since my prior review below.)

>90 detailmuse: I read this book almost six years ago and enjoyed it very much.

>89 detailmuse: Oh yes, I'd happily reread The Summer Book too! I also remember enjoying >90 detailmuse: a few years ago.

>91 Ameise1:, >92 Jackie_K: Fey ended the book with musings on whether (then in her 40s) to have a second child...I see on Wikipedia that she did!

31. And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman, ©2015, acquired 2018, now a re-read

This tiny novella, nearly a short story, uses magical realism to tell a family story of love amid dementia. It’s a physically beautiful little book, a tender gift in the right situation.

Hi MJ. Catching up on threads a few per day. I have been neglecting LT for a while and I'm sorry.

So reading your thread from here on!

Connie, I'm glad you've been taking time, happy you're feeling like easing back in.

32. Taffy’s Tips to Teens by Dolly Martin, ©1964, acquired 1970, now a re-read

A guide for young teen girls about personal care and relationships, written by a syndicated columnist. It was a childhood favorite, I re-read it now for a project. Lots of focus on developing a pleasing appearance and behaviors; no attention to developing a girl’s skills and interests :(

November
Beginning total TBRs: 217
ROOTs read: 4 (all of which were re-reads that count as ROOTs but don’t decrease the TBRs)
Other books read: 2
Books acquired: 5
Ending total TBRs: 220
YTD ROOTs read: 32 (year-end goal=40)

>97 detailmuse: Goodness, that sounds very much 'of its time'. I do wonder if I were to go back and read the teen magazines I read how much of it I'd be shaking my head at. I do seem to remember lots of advice about how to attract a boyfriend and how to kiss well.

>97 detailmuse: acquired in 1970?!

>99 Jackie_K: I did some writing for children's magazines and I had much better ideas for the science-y ones than the social ones!

>100 handshakes: hahaha yes! I have two others I acquired even earlier, which I also long to re-read.

33. The New York Times Monday Through Friday Easy to Tough Crossword Puzzles Volume 6, ©2021, acquired 2023

A collection of crossword puzzles (ten each of Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs and Fri puzzles) that were printed in the newspaper in 2018 and 2020. The puzzles get progressively more difficult throughout the week (culminating on Sundays, which were not included here) and I’d wanted to see how different they felt. Results: Mondays were so easy that the rate-limiting step was writing in the answers; Tuesdays stumped me on just a few of each puzzle’s ~75 clues; Wednesdays I needed help with a few more; and Thursday and Friday generally frustrated me. I’m fairly new to crosswords and am looking forward to another volume I have in this collection series.

>97 detailmuse:. That sounds like the suck-faery paid you a visit, MJ.

Happy Days for you and your family.

I hope you had a lovely Christmas, MJ, and happy holidays.

It's been a long time since I visited. I hope your festive season is/was a happy one, MJ!

Connie, Jackie, Meg -- thank you, and to you, too! I lost a bit of fun December to oral surgery and a complication but am rallying now!

I'm finishing this year with 33 ROOTs out of my planned 40, eager now for a new run.

Happy 2026 to all!

Hi MJ, that sounds really painful. I'm having some oral surgery too in a few weeks. Not looking forward to that at all. See you in ROOTs 2026!

>107 connie53: Thankfully very little pain, and I hope the same for you!

>108 detailmuse: Thanks, that's good to hear!