Instead of just one day, here are some especially wonderful photos from our mid-winter vacation week to Florida.
Our family has 6 members: Teacher Daddy, Dr. Mama, Big B, Little L, Super J & Sister CC.
Tuesday, February 28, 2023
2023 February DITL: A Magical Vacation Week
Thursday, January 26, 2023
Saturday, December 31, 2022
2022 Reading Log, Quarter 4 (Oct-Dec)
My goal for 2022 was 65 books this year and ended Q3 at 45. Here's the final tally of books read this year:
Actual books:
46. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice. For my annual "it's October and I should read some classic thrillers". I didn't enjoy this re-read as much as I remember enjoying it the first time.
47. Before we were Yours, Lisa Wingate. About adoptions during the early 20th century, where children were stolen from impoverished parents and placed with wealthy families. Based loosely on actual happenings in Tennessee.
48. In Five Years, Rebecca Searle. A woman has a dream placing her 5 years in the future, carefully upsetting all her preconceived notions of what her life will look like. This was great to read how the dream came to reality, but not in the way she initially thought it would.
49. My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey, Jill Bolte Taylor. On the recommendation of a student, this is a memoir of a neuroscientist who had a stroke and recovered. Fascinating insight into what she experienced both during and immediately after the stroke. Her conclusion about the roles of the different hemispheres of the brain was a little far-fetched, but meshed with her experiences.
50. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury. A perennial favorite and I hadn't read it again in at least a decade. I'm glad I did. A masterpiece in a very slim volume, with insight and cautions for today's world.
51. It ends with Us, Colleen Hoover. A story of an abusive relationship, loosely based on the author's own mother's experience. A good read, however some of the character's immediate reactions, or explanations of why they acted in that way didn't mesh with the career she'd given them (like, someone who has done extensive medical training and specialized in neurosurgery would probably not be able to practice if they experienced blackout rages where they hurt the people around them-- that would have been triggered by the intense stress of residency/fellowship and the person would have either learned to deal with it or been discovered).
52. The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women, Kate Moore. I knew about this book and then listened to a podcast about it and finally read through. Incredible book, very carefully researched and these women were role models. They are why we have OSHA today and the safety precautions on the job, paid for with their health and lives.
53. River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile, Candice Millard. Historical narrative non-fiction about the British explorers searching for the Nile's source in 19th century Africa, but crucially highlights the important role that native African guides and porters played in the success of these colonial explorers/exploiters.
Books read to kids:
54. Pippi Longstocking, Astrid Lindgren. I thought this would be a nice, light read to the kids about an irrepressible young girl but ended up having to censor large parts of some of Pippi's stories for racist themes. Some classics don't age well.
55. Stuart Little, E.B. White. This one was much better for the kids.
E-book/Audiobooks:
56. The Bridgerton Collections, vol 1-6, Julia Quinn. I have watched the first 2 seasons on Netflix, so decided that I should probably read the novels. It seems the show has paralleled the books for the most part, and the rest of the series is pretty formulaic (there's a Cinderella-esque plotline in one, etc). Decent reads, nothing too thrilling.
57. The Death of Jane Lawrence, Caitlin Starling. Thriller mystery with some paranormal twists thrown in. Not sure I entirely understood exactly what was happening by the time the book wrapped up at the end. Sometimes the characters made me want to bang my head against the wall, always assuming the worst about others without even having a conversation! Ugh.
58. Darkfever, Karen Marie Moning. Have read different time traveling/fae series by her before, so wanted to try out this one. May dip my toes in for book #2 in the future.
59. Soulless, Gail Carriger. Victorian-era snobbishness meets vampires and werewolves with a sharp-tongued heroine who refuses to marry. I rather liked it.
60. The Iron Duke, Meljean Brook. Another steampunk/Victorian-type setting, only this time there had been an invasion of "the Horde" who used micro-robots to enslave the European population. Now they're dealing with the aftermath of freedom and traveling hijinks.
End-of-year comparisons:
In 2017, I read 55 books through the year.
In 2018, I read 70 books through the year.
In 2019, I read 57 books through the year.
In 2020, I read 61 books through the year.
In 2021, I read 69 books through the year.
In 2022, I read 60 books throughout the year (although I'm counting several series as one), so I'd say I met my goal for this year!
Tuesday, December 13, 2022
Thursday, November 17, 2022
2022 November DITL: Work @ Home and Basketball
Our Not-So-Little-Anymore L has decided to join a boy's travel basketball team. He's been asking for WEEKS to get some court shoes, and we finally managed it today!
Saturday, October 29, 2022
2022 October DITL: Mash-up
A DITL in which I take photos over the course of two days, stitching them together. Can you guess which photos are from Day 1 versus Day 2?
Saturday, October 1, 2022
2022 Reading Log, Quarter 3 (Jul-Sept)
At the end of Quarter 2 (June), I was at 26 books. Starting Q3 with...
Actual Books:
27. Generation Warriors (Planet Pirates #3), Anne McCaffrey. Apparently, she had "finished" this trilogy with a book I'd never heard of. It was... ok. I liked Sassinak the best.
28. Dune Messiah & Children of Dune, Frank Herbert. Following up my reading with my favorite books of the quartet. I still think Dune Messiah is the best. Will need to finish off with God Emperor of Dune soon, and apparently there are more books in this universe written by Herbert's son that I've never touched.
29. Wild Beauty, Anna-Marie McLemore. On Desiree's bookshelf. About a family of women who have plant-growing powers but have been mis-characterized as witches for generations.
30. The Jason Bourne Trilogy (Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy, Bourne Ultimatum), Robert Ludlum. I had previously read this trilogy when the movies were coming out. I thought I liked them better, upon re-reading they were tiresome and with a lot of circuitous logic.
31. The Rise of Magicks, Nora Roberts. Finished off the trilogy, the 1st book was the best.
32. Cinder, Marissa Meyer. Re-imagining classic fairy tales in a modern, cyborg world. It was passably good
33. The Tower & Hive series (The Rowan, Damia, Damia's Children, Lyon's Pride, The Tower and the Hive), Anne McCaffrey. Another good re-read.
34. The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett. LONG (over 1000 pages) historical fiction about the building of cathedrals in Middle Ages-era England. Some was decent, the characters were bland and one-dimensional.
35. Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption, Jennifer Cannon-Thompson and Rob Cotton. Memoir written from two perspectives: one a rape victim who mistakenly identified the perpetrator in a line up, the other an innocent man found guilty and imprisoned for nearly two decades.
36. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, Erik Larson. An in-depth overview of the Columbian Exposition of 1892 in Chicago and the serial killer operating in the midst of the fair.
37. The Silent Patient, Alex Michaelides. I could not put this book down. It was a page-turner and I was stunned at the end with the killer.
38. Verity, Colleen Hoover. A struggling author is tasked with finishing a multi-book series for an incapacitated author. During her research into the author's notes, she finds a memoir manuscript which shows the author is a pretty terrible wife and mother. Chaos ensues.
39. Harlem Shuffle, Colson Whitehead. I like this author's works. This one wasn't my favorite, but it was real and I could envision the characters and their environment and understand/identify with their choices.
E-Books/Audiobooks:
40. Still Life, Louise Penny. Listened to this on our family vacation to Hershey, PA. Great thriller, even though Jake guessed the murderer in the first hour.
41. The Other Side of the Sky and Beyond the End of the World (duology), Amie Kaufman. YA romance about two civilizations who diverged centuries ago and inhabit different regions of the world (sky versus ground). Interesting read about how the different cultures evolved and their oral/written history.
42. The Midnight Library, Matt Haig. A woman between life and death can choose to inhabit and experience different lives based on the multitude of different choices she could have made throughout her existence.
43. Child of Light, Terry Brooks. *Yawn* It passed the time, but I was not invested in the characters or their story line at all.
44. Grave Peril, Jim Butcher. Another audiobook to keep us awake through the long hours of driving here, there, and everywhere this summer. There's enough funny one-liners to keep us smiling, and the plot (while incredulous at times) is varied enough to keep things interesting.
Books read to Kids:
45. The Wild Robot and The Wild Robot Escapes, Peter Brown. It took us all summer (and all of September!), but we read through these two books with James and Celia.
I'm on track to reach my (revised) goal of 65 books for this year.
Comparisons for the end of Quarter 3:
In 2016, I had read 28 books at this point
In 2017, I had read 35 books at this point
In 2018, I had read 59 books at this point (nursing infant CC all hours of day and night!)
In 2019, I had read 39 books at this point
In 2020, I had read 43 books at this point
In 2021, I had read 55 books at this point
Sunday, September 18, 2022
2022 September DITL: Appointments and Soccer Thursday
A busy September Thursday full of appointments, work, school, and evening soccer
Wednesday, July 27, 2022
Wednesday, June 29, 2022
2022 Reading Log, Quarter 2 (Apr-Jun)
My 2022 goal is to read 65 books. At the end of Quarter 1, I had finished 15 books. Here's Quarter 2!
Actual books:
15. Infidel, Ayaan Hirsan Ali; memoir of growing up in an African Islamic family
16. The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler's Ghettos, Judy Batalion; narrative non-fiction of Jewish women resistance fighters who lived, worked, and fought back in various WW2 ghettos in Poland. Some survived, most did not.
17. Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens; This one is being made into a movie, thought I'd get a head start on reading it. Decent murder mystery.
18. The Nightingale, Kristin Hannah; Another WW2 women resistance story, this one fiction and set in France.
19. Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, Jon Krakauer; Another one to read in advance of a Netflix series dropping. I generally enjoy Krakauer's work and have read several of his books. This one did a little more historical referencing to the origins of the Mormon faith and mythology before analyzing how the Lafferty brothers went off the deep end into cultism.
20. The Girl with the Louding Voice, Abi Dare; a girl in Nigeria who is married off by her father, escapes into working as a housemaid, only to break free of that and pursue her own education.
21. Sassinak, Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Moon; a re-read picked up from my parent's house during a visit. Still just as good decades later.
Books read to the kids:
None. Super J had his own reading that he needed to do aloud each night, and those stories were generally pretty short.
E-books:
22. The Millennium Trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest), Steig Larsson. A re-read and still just as good.
23. The Witch's Kind, Louisa Morgan; Post-WW2 Pacific Northwest, a woman and her aunt who have magical blood adopt a half-mer baby; also some domestic violence woven in
24.The Widow of Pale Harbor, Hester Fox; a woman recluse suspected of murdering her husband (spoiler: she is partially responsible) and an actual murderer setting up victims in line with Edgar Allen Poe poems and short stories
25. Of Blood and Bone, Nora Roberts; 2nd in the pandemic-magic trilogy, this one is about the mythically foretold "the One" growing up and beginning training in both the martial and magical arts.
26. Duke of Midnight, Elizabeth Hoyt; finished last night so just in time. Romance with some smut set in 1700s England with all the class restrictions and lack of women's ability to do anything on their own. *yawn*
I currently have 2 books in progress (and didn't include 2 here because I'd rather list them as a trilogy as above), so I'm making decent headway toward my yearly goal. Once my summer course is finished (looking forward to Friday!), I should have more time in the hottest parts of the day to lazily read and get caught up. Also starting to read aloud to the kids again at night, so am excited for those books to join this list!
To compare, at the end of Quarter 2 in:
2016-- I had finished 17 books
2017-- I had finished 25 books
2018-- I had finished 37 books
2019-- I had finished 28 books
2020-- I had finished 27 books
2021-- I had finished 38 books
Monday, June 27, 2022
Friday, May 27, 2022
2022 May DITL: Summer Course and 5th Grade Fine Arts Night
It is the end of May... time for final concerts and summer term classes!
Thursday, April 28, 2022
2022 April DITL: Half of a Thursday during Spring Break
A Sunny Thursday during Spring Break where I forget the camera half the day.
Sunday, April 3, 2022
2022 Reading Log, Quarter 1 (Jan-Mar)
My 2022 goal for books is 65... just over 5 per month. Let's see how things stacked up.
Thursday, March 31, 2022
Saturday, March 5, 2022
2022 February DITL: Last Day of Florida Vacation
Day in The Life in Florida during Mid-Winter Vacation
Wednesday, January 12, 2022
Sunday, January 9, 2022
2021 Reading Log, Quarter 4 (Oct-Dec)
At the end of Quarter 3, I had finished 55 books (wow!). Starting Quarter 4 off with...
Actual books:
56. Bellwether, Connie Willis. Also wrote The Domesday Book. I didn't like Bellwether quite as well as that one, but an interesting premise for analysis of statistics.
57. Dracula, Bram Stoker. What can I say? It was Halloween...
58. Crooked Hallelujah, Kelli Jo Ford. Three generations of Native American women and their struggles. Interesting read.
59. The Night Watchman, Louise Erdich. Loosely based on her own grandfather's experience fighting against Congressional action to get rid of Indian reservations in the 1960s.
60. The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Jonathan Stroud (The Amulet of Samarkand, The Golem's Eye, The Gate of Ptolemy). Recommended these to Ben and of course had to read them again myself! Jake is working his way through them now for a second time.
61. The Harper Hall of Pern trilogy, Anne McCaffrey (Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, Dragondrums). Because I had a little extra time in December.
62. Stranger in the Village of the Sick: A Memoir of Cancer, Sorcery, and Healing, Paul Stoller. Borrowed from the Pharm Sci department library. Didn't like as much as other ones I've borrowed but an interesting premise on mind set and experience of chronic disease.
Books read to kids:
63. Farmer Boy, Laura Ingalls Wilder. I may also have promised them a trip to Malone NY to visit the Wilder homestead, but this never manifested in the fall. Perhaps a spring or summer trip?
64. The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story, Rudyard Kipling. Felt that this would be age-appropriate and Jamie would enjoy.
65. Disney Classic Storybook: A Treasury of Tales. The kids also needed to be introduced to some fairy tales. Next up-- The Grimm brothers! (Actually next is Charlotte's Web simply because we have it handy around the house).
E-books:
66. The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry, CM Waggoner. Interesting premise, queer romance, magic, drug addiction, monsters... This book had it all.
67. The Age of Witches, Louisa Morgan. Generational magic practice in Victorian England with all of its rigid gender rules.
68. Down Comes the Night, Allison Saft. Meh magical fantasy with standard tropes of not fitting in, redemption, and love.
69. Bone Crier's Moon, Kathryn Purdie. Much the same as above with a French-based mythology about souls needing to be shepherded (ferried) to the afterworld and star-crossed lovers.
How did I stack up in 2021? I had set a goal of 65 books on Goodreads, and I met that (with several trilogies thrown in to boot!).
In 2017, I read 55 books through the year.
In 2018, I read 70 books through the year.
In 2019, I read 57 books through the year.
In 2020, I read 61 books through the year.
In 2021, I read 69 books through the year (almost met the 2018 peak!).
Monday, December 27, 2021
2021 December: A Very Merry Christmas Day!
It was a whirlwind of a very busy, very merry, very happy Christmas Day!
Tuesday, November 23, 2021
2021 November DITL: Beauty & the Beast, Jr.!
It was the Middle School Musical this weekend and what a great show the kids put on!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)