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. 

Reading on the couch behind the porch...

It is cold outside here in the Upper Peninsula. I wear a wool plaid scarf in the house.
I am finishing up my reading challenges. Read Harder, Pop Sugar and Advanced Pop Sugar. These challenges have really opened up my reading horizons. I have read amazing books this year that I might not have chosen without the prompts. #netgalley too. I have three books left. A book of social science~We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates, A western~News of the World by Paulette Jules, A book published in the year you graduated high school~I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. I’m reading all three right now. These are some of the best I’ve read. So, 2018 has been a good year in the books.

Sheets...

I just finished reading the delightful graphic novel, Sheets by Brenna Thummler. Beautiful
art. Lush coloring. Sensitive portrayal of a teen girl dealing with the loss of her mother.
She tries to save the family laundry with some help from other worldly friends. I have a connection with freshly laundered sheets. Reminds me of the smell of line dried laundry. #netgalley #Sheets #BrennaThummler

I am currently reading Ohio. Disturbing how current this story is. (netgalley)
Reading The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye. (Library) I don’t want to love Nordic Noir
but I do...

Saw Crazy Rich Asians movie with my daughter. 5 stars! Too much fun. I got up and danced
during end credits. My daughter might not go to the movies with me anymore.

No TV is interesting me at all. Not even preseason NFL.

Beach reads...

Summer 2018 has been booked solid. Company, camping, The Lion King at MSU, a friend’s 50th wedding anniversary, a cross country moving van drive (our daughter’s family), the beach and good books!
I read Love Letters to Jane’s World by Paige Braddock. A delightful revisit to a great comic. Jane and her friends are quirky and flawed. Stumbling through life with humor and a little angst.  #Love LetterstoJane’sWorld #netgalley

Reading on the porch...

                                          Barn and Silo near Texarkana,TX

I am reading to fulfill my book challenges for Pop Sugar and Read Harder. These book lists diversify
my reading. This month I have listened to Artemis by Andy Weir. An amazing future fic on the moon. Crime, an anti-hero with good friends and tension. Not quite The Martian but so very good.
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson satisfied the challenge, a book listed by a celebrity book club (Emma Watson). I loved how much she cared for her children and her partner. Extraordinary.
So #netgally in May.  Five Stars to Fredrik Backman’s sequel to Beartown. Us Against Them. The tender moments of love in ordinary lives. The kids suffer devastating violence and heartbreak. Kira and Peter grow apart in their grief. Hockey is central to this story but it is the people I will not forget. Bang. Bang. Bang. #fredrikbackman #usagainstthem

Saw Book Club with Dani and Joanie. We screamed and laughed out loud. 5 stars for fun!

So I am a little worried I am a book snob. I can’t read some authors. Just not enough content after reading Chris Cleave, Jesmyn Ward, Louise Erdrich, Annie Proulx, Anthony Doerr. You get my drift.
Then as I smugly scroll through Goodreads I get my comeuppance. I have read fifteen of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. The Raven Cycle Trilogy. Yeah. No snobbery here. I am actually blushing. My guiltiest pleasure. So. No.

Looking forward to reading on the porch in 2018..:

Looking over book challenges for the upcoming year I simply must get a few things off my chest. A few books, I guess.
I do not like or read self help books. No true crime. I’m not in love with murder mysteries. I am done with WWII. You have to admit WWII was very popular in 2017. So hopeless. The outcome is always the same. Politics, ugh, just ugh. I have yet to read a zombie apocalypse book. No mindless drivel, either.
 I am consciously choosing to read more books by women, people of color and different ethnicities than my own. I am choosing authentic voices. I have to work at not choosing vampires. Wait, what? (Nobody is perfect) Classics, memoirs, National Book Award winners, Pulitzer’s. I want to read all the good books. (Thoreau)
Last year was a good year for reading. Sing, Unburied, Sing. The Hate U Give.
But the  Princess Bride, ugh.
I am off to a good start. When Breath Becomes Air is very good. I did not want to read it because DEATH but it is brilliant. Rereading Oscar Wao. I hope I get over my fan fiction addiction.
No movies this week. Ice skating qualifiers for the olympics are fun to watch. I love French pair skaters Vanessa James/ Morgan Cipres.
There I feel better now.

Advanced Pop Sugar...

1. A book recommended by an author you love~Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Recommended by Cathy Lamb Humanity redeemed
2. A best seller from 2016~The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon ⭐️⭐️⭐️
3. A book with a family member term in the title~Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
⭐️⭐️⭐️
4. A book that takes place over a character’s life span~The Nix by Nathan Hill ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Heartbreak, a laugh, and 1968
5. A book about an immigrant or refugee~Brooklyn by Colm Toibin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
6. A book from a genre/sub genre you’ve never heard of~Saga by Bryan K Vaughn, Fiona Staples ⭐️⭐️⭐️Space opera/fantasy
7. A book with an eccentric character~600 Hours of Edward by Craig Lancaster ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Everybody hurts sometimes...
8. A book with over 800 pages~The Stand by Stephen King⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 823 pages
9. A book you got from a used book sale~A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest P Gaines⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Oh, God...
10. A book that’s been mentioned in another book~ Gilead by Marilynne Robinson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Mentioned in The End of Your Life Book Club By Will Schwalbe
11. A book about a difficult topic~Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Being out
12. A book based on mythology~The Scorpio Races by Maggie Steifvater ⭐️⭐️⭐️Waterhorse
The audio reader voices were magical.