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| Snow day for our grandsons and son-in-law |
Weather: Foggy mornings with clear blue skies in the afternoon. Cold but not freezing temperatures. We did have nearly a week of very cold weather where the temperature would not break freezing, but we didn't have any snow or frightening ice storms like some of my relatives.
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| Evidence of ice storm. Photos taken by my daughter who was visiting Oregon with her family. |
Related to Reading/Blogging:
1. Cybils Round 2 Nonfiction Judge
The seventeen finalists for the nonfiction category were announced on January 1st: seven elementary titles, and five each for middle grades and high school titles. I've read all the elementary and middle grade novels. I'm currently reading the second of five high school books. So far no clear winners have emerged in any grade level. Look for my reviews of these books after the winners have been announced on Feb. 14th. I'm piling up reviews as I finish the books.
2. One Big Book of 2024 Challenge
For the past four years I have challenged myself to read one big book each year, a book I have put off reading because of its size or dense topic. I give myself all year to read it.
This year's one big book is WOLF HALL by Hilary Mantel. I won't even think about starting this big book about Thomas Cromwell and the Tudor period in Great Britain until I am done with Cybils judging. At 650+ pages it is 100 pages less than the book I'm currently reading, so I don't know what I am worried about.
3. Book Club musings
My SOTH Ladies book club was postponed due to potentially bad weather. We are reading The Bride Test by Huong. It has quite a bit of sex in it which will be a real shocker for our older, church lady vibe. The RHS gals will be discussing The Covenant of Water by Verghese. We gave ourselves an extra month to read it since it is so long, over 730 pages. But I didn't start on it until last week and now I have been spenind every possible moment listing to the audiobook version. At 32+ hours it feels like I've moved to India and am part of the family's life.
4. January book reviews (so far, many others not published yet)
a. Babel by Kuang
b. The Twenty One: The True Story of the Youth Who Sued the U.S. Government Over Climate Change by Rusch
c. The Bride Test by Huong
5. Other blog posts
a. Favorite books of 2023
g. Classics Club Spin #36 (winning number announced Sunday)
6. Literary puzzle project
I completed this puzzle (below) this week. It is of 42 authors of classic literary works. As I worked the puzzle I realized I hadn't read anything by a handful of them. By the time the puzzle was complete I'd talked myself into at least exploring these "unread" authors' works to see if I should add them to my TBR. Several already are on my TBR list: Elizabeth Gaskell, E.M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, and Bram Stoker. I added titles to my TBR fro David Foster Wallace (those his most famous book is over 1000 pages, gulp!), Jack Kerouac, and Dorothy Parker, poet. I resisted the temptation to add James Joyce, Goethe, and Jean Cocteau to the list. Now we'll see if I actually read these new additions.
Good News -- Quick links
- U.K. Farmer controls flooding by returning creek to nature
- Meet India's Tree Man: a life time of planting trees has saved a river island
- Mouse tidies up a garden work bench (video)
- Life-saving vaccine could mean the end of breast cancer
- 177 Ways the World Got Better in 2023
- What Went Right in 2023...25 ways
-Anne
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