Book Challenges on the porch...

Our Ten

Left to right: my mom's father, Michael, holding Margie,  Uncle Frankie, my mom's mother, Veronica, Marci, and my mother, Stephanie circa1945 (this pic made me cry)

Read Harder Challenge 2015 finished! I have to finish Wild by Strayed and Meet Me in Venice by midnight. 

READ HARDER 2015

A book written by someone under 25 ✔️St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell

Written by someone over 65 ✔️ Still Foolin' Em by Billy Crystal

Collection of short stories ✔️ Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Published by an Indie Press ✔️ Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

By or about someone that identifies LGBTQ ✔️ Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

By a person whose gender is different from your own ✔️ The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick

Takes place in Asia ✔️ The Kite Runner 

By an author from Africa ✔️ Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche

By or about someone from an indigenous culture ✔️ The Absolutely True Story of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexi

A micro history ✔️ The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

A YA novel✔️ Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

A sci-fi novel✔️ The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

A romance novel✔️ The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitsgerald

A book prize winner from the last decade✔️ All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Retelling of a classic story✔️ The Golem and the Jinni

An audiobook✔️ The Supremes at Earl's All You Can Eat

A collection of poetry✔️ The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Colleridge

Someone else recommended to you✔️ Meet Me in Venice

Originally published in another language✔️ A Man Called Ove

A graphic novel of any kind✔️ The Wormworld Saga by David

A guilty pleasure✔️ Shadows by J.R. Ward

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen

Wild by Cheryl Srayed

Family gathering on another porch...

Drove to Sparta, MI from the U.P. No snow here in snow country. White out conditions from the Mackinac to my brother's home downstate. Aman Family Christmas get together. Fun and games were had by all. We played Golf, Ten Grand, the kids played Pit and Spoons. Way too rough for the  Olders. The food was delish, the cookies and apple pies amazing. Really. Our kids kids slid down the same carpeted stairs as they had years ago. Same fun different children. I made family calendars as usual. We played a gift exchange game. The Youngers  opened presents with glee! I love spending time with my brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, greats, seconds and in-laws. We are a warm and loving bunch.

Book challenges...

 I finished The Absolutely True Story of a Part Time Indian. Checked off my Indigenous Culture book. I think this book should be required reading for all kids over 12. I am reading my micro history,  The Immortal Life of Herietta Lacks. Amazing and creepy. Fates and Furies, reading. I'm not sure I can finish my Pop Sugar. But there is a possibility... Read Harder, I'm still behind by four books...

December pics. Busy month!!

Old Barns...

I not only love old front porches, I love old barns. I spent a day with cousin Jeanne photographing in Cooks, MI. I am sad to see them crumble. New barns are not being raised these days. Reused and recycled, floors and furniture, but not rebuilt.  What will our landscape be without the barns of our fathers and grandfathers?

I am scrambling to finish two book challenges by the end of 2015. I need to read at least four more books. A micro-history and a self help...I am dragging my literary feet. I am reading Karen Russell's St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves (author under 25). Listening to The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennesey by Rachel Joyce. I wish a counseling unit was included with this book. It is making me cry. Christmas prep is a little overwhelming. I really was going to do a Tuesday Intro First paragraph but it is no longer Tuesday.