Month: December 2018
My Personal Literary Canon, Part 2: “Veteran” Readership
24 Festive Tasks, Door 5, Task 3: Tell us: What author’s books would you consider yourself a veteran of (i.e., by author have you read particularly many books – or maybe even all of them)? The authors by whom I’ve read the most books don’t coincide exactly, but substantially with those that I’d also consider […]
Read More
24 Festive Tasks: Holiday Book Joker
24 Festive Tasks: Door 23 – Hogswatch, Task 2, and Door 24 – Epiphany, Task 2: Tell us: Did you or any kids you know ever have a funny or weird (the good sort of weird) encounter with a department store Santa, um, Hogfather? And: Chalking the door is an Epiphany tradition in some places, to bless […]
Read More
Dinner for One
Reblogged from: Themis-Athena’s Garden of Books I know I’ve posted this before, but it simply isn’t New Year’s Eve without it hereabouts … Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1824964/post
Read More
Christmas Dinner with Mark Twain (the fictitious, all you can eat version.)
24 Festive Tasks: Doors 9 – Thanksgiving, Task 2 and Door 20 – Christmas, Task 2: Describe your perfect meal. What would you cook for the perfect celebration, or, what would you have your imaginary personal chef cook for you? And: Tell us: If you could share Christmas dinner with any author (dead or alive), […]
Read More
Three Wishes
24 Festive Tasks: Door 15 – St. Nicholas’ Day / Sinterklaas, Task 2: You are King / Queen for the day and can have 3 ‘wishes’: one for yourself, one for your community (any version) and one for the world: What are they? My three wishes, as we close out the old year and begin the […]
Read More
A Miracle? Maybe.
24 Festive Tasks: Door 14 – Hanukkah, Task 1: Have you had any miracles in your life? (Kids are a given.) Just enough change for tolls? Just enough gas to get you to the station? Been tragically late for a flight only to find the flight was even more tragically delayed? Nothing is too small […]
Read More
2018 Reading in 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 […]
Read MoreA Book (Figuratively) Burned in Effigy
24 Festive Tasks: Door 2 – Guy Fawkes Night, Task 1: Burn a book in effigy. Not that anyone of us would do such a thing, but if you HAD to, which book would be the one you’d sacrifice to the flames (gleefully or not)? The book I’m burning in effigy is the same as […]
Read More
24 Festive Tasks: PSA – Gävle Goat, Holiday Book Joker, 2019 Reading Plan and Reading Year in Review Posts, etc.
First things first: The Gävle Goat did survive this year! Here are the website, Twitter, and Instagram pages to prove it. So, I am going to add a bonus point to the score of everybody who guessed correctly. (If you did, please respond to this post or in the Bingo Group to confirm and make […]
Read More
2018 Airing of Grievances: Least Favorite Books of the Year
24 Festive Tasks: Door 19 – Festivus, Task 1: It’s the annual airing of grievances! Time to list the top 5 books that disappointed you the most this year and let us know why! I’ve been blessed with a pretty amazing reading year in which disappointments were few and far between — so it […]
Read More
Visiting Africa: A Bucket List (of Sorts)
24 Festive Tasks: Door 21 – Kwanzaa, Task 3: Tell us: If you could travel to Africa (for those living on the African continent: to a part of Africa that you don’t know yet): Where would you want to go? Thinking about this task, I realize that quite a few African destinations are sitting on […]
Read More
A Mother’s Day Memory
24 Festive Tasks: Door 11 – Russian Mother’s Day, Task 2: Do you have a favorite Mothers’ Day memory that you are happy to share? Photos welcome but optional. I usually give my mom a bouquet of flowers and take her out for lunch or dinner on Mother’s Day. One occasion I remember particularly well […]
Read More
Colin Dexter: The Wench is Dead
24 Festive Tasks: Door 21 – Kwanzaa, Task 2: In Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, the “Finis Africae” is the hidden center of the labyrinth which constitutes the monastery’s library, protected by a number of intricate, misdirecting devices. Tell us: Where have you recently encountered clever misdirection or a labyrinthine plot in a book? […]
Read More
Pumuckl’s Footprints, or, "Do you believe in Santa Claus?"
24 Festive Tasks: Door 23 – Hogswatch, Task 3: Which children’s myth / mythical character (Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, etc.) did you never believe in even when you were little? No “still believe” about it for me even by age 5, and by age 7 I was well over them all; Santa, […]
Read More
Favorite Holiday Tradition
24 Festive Tasks: Door 13 – Advent, Task 2: The holidays season is in full swing – tell us: What’s your favorite tradition? I don’t actually have one single favorite holiday tradition — to me the holidays are pretty much a multi-faceted package, and each one of the components is equally important; everything from Christmas […]
Read More
My Favourite Trilogy
24 Festive Tasks: Door 24 – Epiphany, Task 1: Tell us: What’s your favorite trilogy? I know Tolkien didn’t actually intend this to be a trilogy, but that is how it has come to be published — and it’s occupied the spot that says “favorite trilogy” to me ever since I first read it in […]
Read More
Jill McGown: Murder at the Old Vicarage
24 Festive Tasks: Door 18 – Winter Solstice / Yuletide, Task 2: Tell us: What book did you read this year that felt like it was never going to end? I’m going with the book I read yesterday for this: Mind you, this is by no means a bad book (I gave it 3 1/2 […]
Read More
Nine Candles
24 Festive Tasks: Door 14 – Hanukkah, Task 2: Light 9 candles each representing something you’re thankful for (share a picture with us; sharing anything else is optional). Some of the things for which I am grateful this holiday season: My mom and the fact that, at age 80 (just this year) she is […]
Read More
Vegetable Dinner
24 Festive Tasks: Door 21 – Kwanzaa, Task 4: Have a meal involving vegetables (= crops) and / or corn, or another form of traditional Kwanzaa dinner. Recipe suggestions here: https://kwanzaaculinarians.com/ Boxing Day very-late-lunch-going-on-dinner (“linner”? “dunch”?) was orange duck with potatoes, mixed vegetables (several different kinds of carrots, green beans, peas, and cauliflower rosettes), […]
Read More
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, […]
Read More