2020 in Facts and Figures
I already posted my main 2020 in Review and Looking Ahead to 2021 posts a while ago — only on my new blog (separate post to come) –, but I held back on my 2020 reading statistics until the year was well and truly over. And for all my good intentions when posting my mid-year […]
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Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to one and all, and may it be filled with wonderful books, lots of love and happiness … and then some! Let’s kick the bad times in the butt once and for all!
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Ngaio Marsh: Tied Up in Tinsel
24 Festive Tasks: Door 23 – New Year’s Eve, Book: Read a book about starting over, rebuilding, new beginnings, etc., or a book where things go “BOOM!”, or with fireworks on the cover. For this square, I decided to use my reread of Ngaio Marsh’s Tied up in Tinsel, which is a book where […]
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Looking Ahead to 2021
Since I posted my 2020 Year in Review post yesterday, I figured I might as well go ahead and follow up with the preview post for next year — again, taking the relevant “Festive Tasks” items as my cues. So, without further ado: 24 Festive Tasks: Door 19 – Hanukkah, Task 1: Time to […]
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2020: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
We’re still a month away from the end of the year, but my reading will probably consist mainly of Christmas books in December, and I hope and pray that life won’t come up and throw anything else at me in the final month of the year, either. So I might as well post my “Year […]
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24 Festive Tasks: Door 22 – New Year’s Eve
Door 22: New Year’s Eve / St. Sylvester’s Day Task 1: Tell us: What are your reading goals for the coming year? Task 2: The reading year in review: How did you fare – what was good, what wasn’t? Task 3: Bibliomancy: Ask a question related to your reading plans or experience in the […]
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Candace Robb: A Gift of Sanctuary
24 Festive Tasks: Door 22 – New Year’s Eve / St. Sylvester’s Day, Book: Read a book about an ending or a new start, where things go BOOM, with fireworks on the cover, set in medieval times, about the papacy, or where miracles of any sort are performed. It’s unlikely that Candace Robb’s Owen […]
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24 Festive Tasks: The Eight Final Holidays
The calendar’s eight final holidays and associated book tasks are: Door 17: Dec. 21 – Winter Solstice (Yule / Yaldā Night / Dongzhi / Soyal) Book: Read a book that takes place in December, with ice or snow on the cover, where all events take place in a single day or night, that revolves […]
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2018 in Reading Review, or, The Year of Listening to Mystery Audiobooks by Women Writers
24 Festive Tasks: Door 22 – New Year’s Eve, Task 2: 2018 Reading Year in Review. Tell us about your year in books: happy? disappointed? 2018 Statistics Total number of books read in 2018: 225 Number of as-yet unread books added to “owned books” TBR in 2018: 240 — plus the 100 or so […]
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2019 Book Goals and Book Lottery
24 Festive Tasks: Door 22 – New Year’s Eve, Tasks 1 and 3: Your 2019 Book Goals: what are they? And: New Year’s Book Lottery: Write the names of the first 5 books you’re planning to read in 2019 onto identical pieces of paper, fold them, place them in a bowl (or bucket, jar, box, […]
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24 Festive Tasks: Door 22 – New Year’s Eve
December 31, the last day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, is New Year’s Eve and, simultaneously, the seventh day of Christmastide. In many countries, the holiday is also known as Old Year’s Day or Saint Sylvester’s Day. The earliest known record of a New Year festival dates from about 2000 bce in Mesopotamia, […]
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Patricia Wentworth: The Clock Strikes Twelve
24 Festive Tasks: Door 24 – Epiphany, Book This came with high praise from both Tigus and Moonlight, so I knew I had a lot to look forward to — and I was certainly not disappointed! This is a New Year’s Eve story and the “family patriarch publicly announces ‘I know someone here has […]
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Stephen Brusatte: The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
Yet another overhyped book Reading Status Updates 8% Flat Book Society November read, and also my read for the New Year’s Eve square in the 24 Festive Tasks game. So far, it’s sounding good — at least you can tell the author is a scientist writing about the subject matter he’s studied. This makes me […]
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24 Festive Tasks: The Seven Final Holidays
As explained in this year’s Rules / Mode of Play post, we’re going to reveal the seven final holidays included in the card and the respective book tasks early on, so as to allow enough time to complete these books. The final holidays and book tasks are: Winter Solstice / Yuletide (December 21): Read any […]
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16 Tasks of the Festive Season: Final Tally
The Markers: Stack of Books: Books read Red Bows and Ribbons: Other Tasks completed Joker cards used: The Squares, Books and Other Tasks: Square 1: November 1st: All Saints Day / Día de los Muertos & Calan Gaeaf Book themes for Día de Muertos and All Saint’s Day: A book that […]
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Our Traditional New Year’s Eve Dinner: Wieners & Potato Salad
16 Tasks of the Festive Season: Square 16 – New Year’s Eve / St. Sylvester’s Day Tasks for Hogswatch Night: Make your favourite sausage dish. As it so happens, wieners and potato salad are my mom’s and my traditional Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve food. This year we cheated (store-bought instead of homemade potato […]
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Charles Dickens: The Chimes
16 Tasks of the Festive Season: Square 16 – New Year’s Eve / St. Sylvester’s Day Prophetic Bells Well, well — nothing like ringing in the New Year (albeit a day early) with Charles Dickens: What he did for Christmas in the story about the old miser Scrooge, he did again a year later […]
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The Medieval Murderers: The Sacred Stone
16 Tasks of the Festive Season: Square 16 – New Year’s Eve / St. Sylvester’s Day A Miraculous “Sky Stone” Book themes for Hogmanay / New Year’s Eve / Watch Night / St. Sylvester’s Day: a book about starting over, rebuilding, new beginnings, etc. –OR– Read anything set in medieval times. –OR– A book about […]
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16 Tasks of the Festive Season: Updates / Blackout
I’ve yet to read at least one book for some of the squares, but I’ve completed a minimum of either one book or one task for all of the squares, and in several cases, more. The Markers: Stack of Books: Books read Red Bows and Ribbons: Other Tasks completed […]
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16 Tasks of the Festive Season: Updates
I’ll be tracking my completed books, tasks, and points comprehensively here. The Markers: Stack of Books: Books read Red Bows and Ribbons: Other Tasks completed The Squares, Books and Other Tasks: Square 1: November 1st: All Saints Day / Día de los Muertos & Calan Gaeaf Book themes for Día de Muertos and […]
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