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 | post-holiday book binge |
Yes, in fact, we ended up decorating the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. But we got dressed up first, which sort of made it seem like we had planned the whole thing, rather than that we just ran out of time. (Again: where the heck did December go?)
And now we’re enjoying a quiet week between Christmas and New Year’s, reading, playing games, reading some more, drinking lots of freshly-brewed tea, and reading. One of us is also furtively eating a box of See’s chocolates. (That would be me.)
Today’s book choices included Weekend Sewing and The Little Stranger for me, The Financial Lives of the Poets for Dane, The Mysterious Benedict Society & the Perilous Journey for Abigail, Fly Guy for Owen, Swish! for Audrey, The Pout-Pout Fish for Sadie, and Kenny and the Dragon for a read-aloud. Among others.
But the books piled on every available surface of my house got me thinking about what we’ve read this year, and about what we’re going to read next year.
I’ve read a bunch of great memoirs this year (not all of which were published this year): Alice Eve Cohen’s What I Thought I Knew; Vicki Forman’s This Lovely Life; Elizabeth McCracken’s An Exact Replica of a Figment of my Imagination; Julie Metz’s Perfection; Ann Patchett’s Truth & Beauty.
And fiction: Kristina Riggle’s Real Life and Liars; Alan Bradley’s The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Amazon says the next book in the series will be out in March! squee!); The Help, of course, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and, and… the list goes on. And on. Until we have no bookshelf space left and have to shelve the novels two rows deep.
Not that that stops me from asking: what should I be reading next? What books did you love this year? Did you get books over the holiday? Give books? Still wishing for something in particular? (I still want to read Hope Edelman’s The Possibility of Everything, and Jamie Ford’s Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. Oh! And Amanda Blake Soule’s Handmade Home.)
Hope your week is chilly and perfect for curling up with a blanket and a hot beverage. And a good book. Of course.
I loved The Help and The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie!
Also loved Olive Kitteredge by Elizabeth Strout…if you haven’t read that one, add it to the list.
I am panicked because I don’t have a book in reserve! I HATE not having a book on the ready when I finish one! So I’m slowwwwwwwly reading the end of The White Tiger (great read) and hoping to run to the book store today!
Ooh, I haven’t read it! Thanks! I don’t have a “next” book right now either, but Dane got a bunch for Christmas that I could easily pilfer.
Thanks so much for the mention! I just finished reading Columbine by Dave Cullen. Tough stuff but a great book. I also enjoyed McCracken’s book and I heard Jamie Ford read this summer. So glad to find you here!
Vicki, I LOVED your book, too.
Melissa, you are a woman after my own heart. Every book you ever mention seems to be exactly the book I need at the time. Hadn’t heard of Perfection or Truth and Beauty, but of course now they’re on my list!
Anjali, don’t you just love the internet?
I actually bought Vicki’s book right after you mentioned reading and loving it! I loved how This Lovely Life felt honest and unflinching and yet hopeful in outlook.
Vicki, I keep hearing that about Columbine. I’ll have to get ahold of it. Thanks!
When do you find the time to read??? I am so struggling with this. Three new books awaiting my attention, and every time I pick one up my eyes suddenly close in slumber. And that’s a best-case scenario.
[...] still thinking on that. But for this year: jammies and books and seven o’clock bedtimes don’t sound too [...]
Jen: one good thing about a nursing toddler = chance for mama to sit quietly and read a couple of times a day.
Or I might sit with a falling-to-sleep small person, in which case I’ll have a book and a booklight. Or I sometimes will sit on the floor where the kids are playing and read. Or, since I homeschool, I could declare it to be Silent Reading Time pretty much any time. 