So this is me: 2023

The Connellys of County Down by Tracey Lange 12/4 (print/library)★★★★★

I did not expect to love this book like I did but wow. Could not put it down, stayed up till 3 am reading, wanted to hug it to my chest when I was finished and wished there was another book so I can find out what happens next with the Connellys.

Told from 4 perspectives, Tara who is being released from prison in the opening chapter. Brian, the detective who helped put her there and her siblings, Geraldine and Eddie. I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this story. I almost want to go back and read it again slowly savoring.

Flicker of Light by Katie Powner 12/7 (print/library)★★★★

My book club selection for this month. I really enjoyed it. Told from the perspective of Bea, a 21 year old college drop out who has to move back home with her father after her husband looses his job. Mitch, her father still reeling from the death of his wife a few years before. And his mother who is beginning to deal with dementia and a family secret she alone knows. It is a wonderful story of family, forgiveness and healing.

Once Upon a December by Amy E. Reichert 12/10 (print/library)★★★★

I thoroughly enjoyed this holiday romance with a touch of magic. I hoped to read it last year but didn't get to it. Jack is a baker in a magical Christmas alley where its always December and magically moves around the globe to different Christmas markets. Astra is a librarian in "the outside" who develops a connection with Jack. There's also a lovable dog called Bernie.

“Do you work in a bookstore?" -Jack
"Better. I'm a librarian". -Astra”

52 Book Club Prompt: 30. An Author with A Same Name as You

Want to Know a Secret by Frieda McFadden 12/10 (audio/hoopla)

Read for book club but didn't end up going because of not feeling up to par. The book was good though. Twisty and suspenseful.

Tara Road by Maeve Binchey 12/17 (Kindle/library)★★★

I mainly read this one to fulfill my set in Dublin prompt. Pretty sure I read it back in 1999 when it was Oprah's book club pick, Rhett even bought me the hard cover on a trip to the mall when he was home on leave after Mikayla was born. But I must have gotten rid of it somewhere along the line. That said I didn't really remember much of anything about the book at all. I found the first half pretty slow but enjoyed much of the 2nd half of the book.

52 Book Club Prompt: 47. Set In The City Of Dublin

The place had a big overrun garden, and an orchard even at the back. It was one of those houses that just put out its arms and hugged you.
And then Ria knew that it wasn’t a crush or an infatuation, it was love. The kind of thing she had only read about, heard about, sung about, or seen at the cinema.
“Nonsense, just be yourself. And never apologize or put yourself down. We are as good as anyone else."

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo 12/23 (audio/library)★★★★

I read this book to fulfill a prompt for the 52 Bookclub as a fair share of my late December reads were. It was a fairly easy listen, read by the author which I always enjoy. A YA novel telling the story of Emoni a high school senior, teenage mother who wants to be a chef.

52 Book Club Prompt: 17. By A Caribbean Author

...you can't control how people look at you, but you can control how far back you pull your shoulders and how high you lift your chin
I feel like I'm being pulled in a hundred different directions and my feet are stuck in cement.
Where we come from leaves its fingerprints all over us, and if you know how to read the signs of a place, you know a little bit more who someone is.
People say that you're stuck with the family you're born into. And for most people, that's probably true. But we all make choices about people. Who we want to hold close, who we want to remain in our lives, and who we are just fine without.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson 12/24 (audio/hoopla)★★★★★

This is a childhood favorite and I read it nearly every year. This year I listened to it on audio while wrapping presents and cooking on Christmas Eve.

52 Book Club Prompt: 6. Under 200 Pages

The Herdmans were absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world. They lied and stole and smoked cigars (even the girls) and talked dirty and hit little kids and cussed their teachers and took the name of the Lord in vain and set fire to Fred Shoemaker’s old broken-down toolhouse.
They looked like the people you see on the six o’clock news—refugees, sent to wait in some strange ugly place, with all their boxes and sacks around them. It suddenly occurred to me that this was just the way it must have been for the real Holy Family, stuck away in a barn by people who didn’t much care what happened to them. They couldn’t have been very neat and tidy either, but more like this Mary and Joseph.
"Hey! Unto you a child is born!" she hollered, as if it was, for sure, the best news in the world.

Christmas Karol by Faith Moore 12/26 (print/own)★★★★★

I received this book for Christmas from my parents, I started it that afternoon and finished it the next day. A modern retelling of A Christmas Carol. It is spectacular and I highly recommend. It brought me to tears.

Kindred by Octavia E Butler 12/28 (print/library)

I read this solely because of the 52 Bookclub challenge, I did not expect to like it much as I was not a big fan of the one book by this author I had read previously. However I did. It is not a feel good story- quite the opposite in fact as our main character is a Black woman living in California in modern (book was written in the 1970's) and ends up being transported back to a plantation in Maryland in the early 1800s. It was incredibly hard to read in some places. I can't even fathom the kind of cruelty that was simply accepted and thought good and normal during the time of slavery. I do think it is a worthwhile read and a reminder of the past as well as a call to do better and treat every human as such. Not as less then but that we all are indeed worthy and equal. It's a story that will stick with me.

52 Book Club Prompt: 48. A Book By Octavia E. Butler

Sometimes I wrote things because I couldn't say them, couldn't sort out my feelings about them, couldn't keep them bottled inside me.
Strangely, they seemed to like him, hold him in contempt, and fear him all at the same time. This confused me because I felt just about the same mixture of emotions for him myself. I had thought my feelings were complicated because he and I had such a strange relationship. But then, slavery of any kind fostered strange relationships. Only the overseer drew simple, unconflicting emotions of hatred and fear when he appeared briefly. But then, it was part of the overseer’s job to be hated and feared while the master kept his hands clean.
Time passed. Kevin and I became more a part of the household, familiar, accepted, accepting. That disturbed me too when I thought about it. How easily we seemed to acclimatize.
There was no shame in raping a black woman, but there could be shame in loving one.

Book of M by Peng Shepherd 12/29 (eBook/hoopla)

I started reading this back in 2022 but didn't finish it before the kindle book automatically returned to the library. I moved onto something else and never went back to it. Scrambling to finish filling in my prompts before the end of the year I remembered this one was in progress and thought I could quickly finish it. I found it on hoopla this time but sadly couldn't remember enough to just jump in and finish it since it had been so long. I had to go back and read it all from the beginning. That said I enjoyed it.

A dystopian story that takes place after The Forgetting begins to spread across the world. People lose their shadows and then their memories. Things in the world begin to change when the shadowless incorrectly remember things and change reality. Like for example remembering the handle of a hunting knife being green instead of brown...

I hope of all things, I forget you last, Ory. I hope I forget you even after I forget where we're going. I'd rather drive forever and never reach New Orleans, but still remember you.
No one escaped—either because they were someone who lost their shadow, or because they were someone who loved someone who lost their shadow.
there’s a difference between when the mind forgets and the heart does.

Total: 10 2023: 106

Kindle/Ebook: 2 Print: 5 Audio: 3

Library: 9 Owned: 1

Favorite: The Connellys of County Down and Christmas Karol

50 States: Pennsylvania (With the Fire on High) Maryland (Kindred)

Epitome of peace...

Hannah turned 17 on Monday! I'm not sure how this is even possible. Everyone was home to celebrate her day- we're gonna need a bigger table!

She was really excited about the 12 days of chapstick she got from Jake's mom.

I finished week 4 (finally) of my Springfrost crochet a long... 15 more stripes to go and then the border- which I am very nervous about. Have never done a crochet border before... but I really hope to finish it before New Years... we'll see 😅 I really love it though. I love the soft squishy feel of it, I love the peace of working steadily along and seeing the blanket grow.

I really want to finish it so I can start next year's Sungold CAL on time! Not that I will finish on time most likely.

I read this book over the weekend and found it positively delightful!

Friday was our Cook Book Club cookie exchange. Always a fun time!

Last night was my church book club- here is our new selection.

I'm very excited to read. I wish we could get a few more ladies to join us. I was feeling a little discouraged about it recently (there were just three of us last night) but who knows maybe in the new year I can recruit some more people...