More “Ask a Bookworm...

16. What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?
       Daisy Jones and the Six. It won a Goodreads Choice Award. Bestseller. I was so disappointed
       in the flat writing. It was a tell not an experience. Ugh!
17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?
       An American Marriage was excellent. Persuasion by Jane Austen surprised me. I was not
        expecting how good this book was. Her best, I think. Flowers For Algernon was better than I
         remember.
18. How many books did you buy?
       I am buying more than I usually do because of the challenges. For example, Mullumbimby an
       Australian book.
19. Did you use your library?
      Yes. The physical library as well as Overdrive which is access to my library online.
20. What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?
       #TheWaterDancer by #Ta-NehisiCoates  Of Course! Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
        Yes. So good.
21. What is the longest book you read?
      American Gods by Neil Gaiman-635 pages
22. What is the fastest time it took you to read a book?
       The LitPRG book I read, Awaken, I think I read in a day. Could not put it down. And I did not
        want to read it!
23. Did you DNF anything? Why?
      I wanted to DNF Cat Woman. But I had to read a super power book. Not my style. I don’t like
       humor books so I could have DNF’d Furiously Happy but I stuck it out.
24. What reading goals do you have for next year?
       Choose carefully. A few books this year I did not like but read them to satisfy a challenge
        prompt.
25. What was your most enjoyable book experience in 2019?
        Easy. Reading along side my teen grandkids. Flowers for Algernon, Monster, Fahrenheit 451
        I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. These kids are so smart and well read. They can discuss!
       
       

Book worm on the porch...

8. What was your very first baby book? The first book I remember reading was Robin Hood. I read it over and over. I was 4 or 5.
9. What is the first book you read on your own? Mrs. Mike. It was way too old for me. Around age 9.
10. How many total books have you read? In my lifetime? Or this year? 2019 I read 81 books. Most years I read between 60-80 books. I have reviewed 880 books on Goodreads.
11. Longest gap between books? I have gone a day or two between books but I need to read. Reading is my crutch.
12. Favorite genres? Literary fiction. Historical fiction or non fiction. Because of  book challenges I have been reading memoirs and have fallen in love. No self help. No true crime unless I have to. Don’t love humor.
13. What books make you happy? Any book well written. I especially like to read a book where the characters have a true human connection. Geraldine and Basil Couts for example.
14. What books have made you uncomfortable? Why? True crime. Violence. Horror. I don’t want to know how inhuman we humans can be.
15. Can you read anywhere? Moving vehicle, roller coaster? Yes. The back seat of a car. In the middle of an airport.

Ask a book worm...

1. What are you currently reading?
     Times Convert by Deborah Harkness and Annie Leibovitz at Work. These are my last two books
      of my 2019 book challenges.
2. How many books have you read this year?  Eighty-one books. But I have two more to finish.
3. How have your reading tastes changed from childhood? I would read anything as a kid. Adventure,
    Romance, my Mother’s book of the month club books.
4. Physical book or ebook? Physical book, of course, but ebook will do in a pinch.
5. Where do you love to read? In the blue wing back chair, in a little nook at the top of the stairs.
6. What is your ideal reading atmosphere? Background noise or silent? Alone or with others? Ideally,
     I like to be alone or with people who do not expect any attention from me. Silent is good but I can    
     tune anything out including the noise of a jackhammer.
7. Are you a writer? I journal. I review everything I read.

      I hopefully will answer a few more questions tomorrow. There are thirty. You know I love this.

December on the porch...

Finishing up #ReadHarder2019 and #PopSugar2019 Book Challenges. Of course I will be reading until midnight on December 31st. It’s how I roll. I read so many great books this year, guided by these challenges. I read a few I did not like. Daisy Jones and the Six, Cat Woman and Furiously Happy. Telling not feeling, super powers and humor. I just don’t get it. So, not the books, me.
I’m listing a few of my five star reads because I want someone to read these amazing books. In no particular order a few of the best books I’ve read in 2019.
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones. Mullumbimby by Melissa Lucashenko, I only read this because it satisfied a challenge, it was exceptional. TheWaterDancer# by Ta-Nehisi Coates netgalley#
Thank you. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. Blossoms in Autumn by Zidrou. A French graphic novel. Becoming by Michelle Obama.
The book I most enjoyed reading, because of the enjoyment Ivy got out of reading it with me is, drum roll please, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes.
My Goodreads page lists everything I’ve read this year as well as my review and rating for each book. So far 80 books but I have to finish three more. Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley, Annie Leibovitz at Work and Times Convert  by Deborah Harkness.

                                       Merry Christmas. I need to bake a little more. Shop for two more gifts.
                                       I’ve crossed “clean the house” off my list so I have time to finish my books.
                                       I have a concert to enjoy. Grandchildren to visit. Snow to shovel. A family
                                       dinner to host and one to attend. I mailed a hundred cards. No downstate
                                        party this year. We had Christmas in July instead at our camp...

The Proust Questionnaire on the Porch

I love answering an obscure questionnaire.

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
     Sitting down to a meal I have prepared with my daughters, my grandchildren and my dear  
      husband. They are a captive audience.
2. What is your greatest fear?
      An illness in my family.
3. What historical figure do you most identify with?
4. Which living person do you most admire?
      Michelle Obama. Her integrity. she cares, her devotion to her family.
5. What trait do you most deplore in yourself?
     My lack of drive when it comes to finishing a task.
6. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
     Greed, no question.
7. What is your greatest extravagance?
     I will buy the aforementioned grandchildren anything they want. No need involved.
8. What is your favorite journey?
     Pack up my camper and travel across the US to visit my favorite grandkids.
9. On what occasion do you lie?
     I am honest to a fault. I should tell a lie when it hurts someone’s feelings.
10. What do you dislike most about your appearance?
       I am short. If I were taller I would look less like a dumpling.
11. Which living person do you most despise?
       I find our current president despicable.
12. What is your greatest regret?
        I regret not traveling the world when I was younger with more energy.
13. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
       Ivan Nedeau, my husband. Through thick and thin. Always there for me. Our craziness matches.
14. When and where are you happiest?
      Anytime and anyplace I am with my family. Especially my grandchildren.
15. Which talent would you most like to have?
       I wish I were a talented writer.
16. What is your current state of mind?
       Positive.
17. If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?
       I would be motivated to exercise.
18. If you could change one thing about your family what would it be?
       They would not live so many states away from me.
19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
       Raising my children to be kind, loving people.
20. If you could choose what to come back as what would it be?
      An artist or a successful writer.
21. What is your most treasured possesion?
       My camera and lenses. The photos I take.
22. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
       Missing my family when months go by without seeing them.
23. Where would you like to live?
       Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. But no one else wants to live here with me.
24. What is your favorite occupation?
       Reading a really good book in a hammock on a sunny day.
25. What is your most marked characteristic?
       Red hair, I smile big.
26. What is the quality you most like in a man?
       Kindness. Happiness. Patience.
27. What is the quality you most like in a woman?
       Happiness. Kindness. Patience.
28. What do you most value in your friends?
       They still care even though they know my crazy.
29. Who are your heroes in real life?
       First responders. Service people.
30. What are your favorite names?
       The names of my ten Grands.
31. How would you like to die?
      My hubby said, “A firing squad!” I don’t think so.
       I want to be very old but lucid. I want to say goodbye to all my special people. Then slip away.
       I want my home to be clean and organized for the first time in my lifetime.

Reading on the porch...

First of all Coates writing is brilliant. 

I have read Between the World and Me and several of his Atlantic articles.

His fiction debut is magical, literally. Hiram is a slave with powers of memory and conduction. The Tasked are individual in their humanity. They suffer slavery but also pain and love. The Water Dancer is a moving, interesting novel.  #TheWaterDancer #Ta-NehisiCoates #NetGalley

Labor Day and aging...

There is an almost defunct town in the U.P. that celebrates Labor Day. It has been going on for at least 25 years. I think I have gone every year. The garage rock band of old friends of my husband played for the last time. Bittersweet. Age, cancer and diabetes has gotten to these people. They played and sang the same old songs so well. Our group are all in our late 60’s and 70’s. We really thought we would be the ones who stayed young forever. So many of us are gone. A younger crowd is taking over. In a good way. I guess.

I am always looking for a new good book and came across a NYT review of Maggie Brown and Other Stories by Peter Orner. The reviewer mentioned the nostalgia the stories evoked and recommended  a song, If We Were Vampires by Jason Isbell. He sings about not wanting to die because he loves his wife.  I get that. The song is good. I ordered the book.

I have a pile of books I am trying to get through. #TheWaterDancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates #netgalley
Is so good. I need to review it. Coates writing is brilliant, extraordinary. Half finished.
American Gods by Neil Gaiman is just good fun. Reading for entertainment. Lots of words. I finished
my book club read. Flight Behavior by Barbara Kinsolver. Second time I’ve read it. I can read her books over and over.
I am working on my Read Harder and Pop Sugar Challenges as well. Listening to a translation from Polish~Flights by Olga Tokarczuk. Man Booker International prize winner. It is an odd collection of random traveler stories. I like it. The reader is very good so that might be why I am so taken by the book. It satisfies the book written or translated by a woman for Read Harder.

I binge watched a series called Special on NetFlix about a man with cerebral palsy. Very good. I am slowly rewatching Schitt’s Creek. Too fast the first time through. I want to watch A Discovery of Witches and Dear White People if I can find the time. I went to three football games in one day this week. My granddaughters are cheerleading. A nephew playing. Listened to grandsons in Texas play on the radio. One of my babies is a Senior this year.

Reflections from a wicker chair on the porch...

Summer 2019 has been a busy one. Visitors from June11 til August 3. Including a camp out in Isabella for Aman Family Christmas in July. All ten Grands at various times. Azalea for nearly four weeks. The beach almost every day. Tea on the porch. I baked chocolate chip cookies, blueberry muffins and blueberry cheesecake bars as well as my banana cake. We celebrated our fiftieth wedding  anniversary with just our immediate family. Cade is turning 18 in a few days. The “four” Iris, Deve, Violet and Clay will all be 16 by 11/24. I love my family.

I am working on The Pop Sugar Challenge and The Read Harder Challenge for 2019. There are a few books I can’t get my head around. A business book, a litRPG book (what). I am broadening my horizons. I reread Flight Behavior by Barbara Kinsolver for a challenge and for the Nahma Book Club. It was even better than the first time around. Sometimes I like a reread of a book I loved because it is hard to pick really good books. My current read Pisces by Melissa Broder is inscrutable. Entertaining but what is it about??? Best books so far Flowers for Algernon, Where the Crawdads Sing and An American Marriage. I am in the middle of American Gods by Neil Gaiman. He has a way with words that I do appreciate.

I’ve seen a few movies, a little television. I loved only Poms with Diane Keaton and The Lion King out of several movies I didn’t really like. The only TV was Schitt’s Creek which is an exceptional family comedy. Funny and loving.

Reflections from the porch...

Christmas, like 2018, has come and gone. Only half of our kids made it this year. Our Floridians stayed home so Dad could work. Missed them. There was snow, snowmen, iceballs and skating. Cookies and so much food including chicken fried steak at camp. Movies. Mary Poppins and Holiday. Spider-Man and The Mule. Happy New Year. Welcome 2019. 

I read extraordinary books for my book challenges this past year. I enjoyed a reread of  Alas, Babylon

for The Nahma Bookclub. The Grapes Of Wrath hit me right in the heart. Of Mice and Men,too. Steinbeck’s writing is genius. I am filling out my book lists for The Read Harder Challenge and Pop Sugar. These lists really widen my horizons. I look forward to finding books as good as last years books. I am so disappointed by less than stellar writing. My current reads are George by Alex Gino, a middle grade book that has won a diversity award since 2009. The Best Bad Things by Katerina Carusco about an old west female detective. I am listening to To Shake the Sleeping Self by Jedediah Jenkins a nonfiction account of a man’s bicycle ride from Oregon to Patagonia. So far so good for 2019. I get anxious knowing that there are so many good books out there I might miss.