Month: January 2021

by

Reading Round-Up: December 2020

Reading is my oldest and favorite hobby. I literally can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t love to curl up with a good book. Here are my reads for December, 2020.

The Folio Book of Christmas Crime Stories, by Various Authors – This was a fun way to kick off the Christmas season! As with any short story collection, there were hits and misses for me, but overall it was a delight. Highlights included Agatha Christie’s “The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding” and Ellis Peters’ “The Price of Light.”

Village Christmas: And Other Notes on the English Year, by Laurie Lee – Contrary to what the title and cover might lead you to believe, this book is mostly not about Christmas. The caroling and winter scenes from Cider with Rosie appear at the beginning, but then Lee pivots to other topics, which are loosely organized by season (although not always related to the season in which he places them). Although mostly not Christmassy, this collection of essays and short pieces was enjoyable. I particularly liked the beautifully written portrait of the Lake District; the fascinating history of the Lords of Berkeley Castle; and all of the essays about Lee’s childhood village of Slad.

Slightly Foxed No. 68: Ring Out, Wild Bells!, ed. Gail Pirkis and Hazel Wood – An issue of Slightly Foxed is always a winner. The editors’ letter at the beginning is a treat, and the essays always leave me with a bursting TBR list. I particularly enjoyed a piece about pipe-smoking (who knew?) and the final essay, on writers’ superstitions.

Christmas at Thompson Hall & Other Christmas Stories, by Anthony Trollope – Just a little treat to scratch the Trollope itch between Victorian doorstoppers. This pretty little volume is part of the Penguin Christmas Classics collection, and it is vintage Trollope. The titular story – “Christmas at Thompson Hall” is a hoot, involving a case of mistaken identity and a mustard poultice. But the other stories are cracking good reads, too.

Wonders and Absurdities 2019, by Philip Rhys Evans – Having enjoyed the selections from Evans’ annual commonplace book, A Country Doctor’s Commonplace Book, I was excited when he started publishing his annual volumes through Slightly Foxed. This was a classic: it only took about 20 minutes to read, but I was giggling madly the whole time, and after a few snippets I had to run out of the room to read them aloud to Steve. That is a mark of a good commonplace book.

Portrait of a Murderer, by Anne Meredith – A bit of a darker one for Christmas – probably as dark as a Christmas mystery gets, in fact. Adrian Gray meets a violent death on Christmas Eve (or very early on Christmas morning) at the hands of one of his children. The problem is, quite a few of his children have a motive, and several had the opportunity. This isn’t a traditional whodunit; the reader learns early on the identity of the murderer, and then the book shifts to a fascinating, if unsettling, psychological portrait of the killer’s thoughts in the aftermath of the crime. I found it really engaging, but not sure I’ll be ready to re-read it very soon.

Christmas Crackers: Being Ten Commonplace Selections, 1970-79, by John Julius Norwich – Norwich is famed as a father of the practice of keeping commonplace books and publishing them (while it’s a longstanding tradition, I think he was one of the first to make his selections commercially available. This compilation of his selections from the 1970s was mostly evergreen, but there was a little bit of timely material that made reading it like opening a fun time capsule.

Round the Christmas Fire: Stories, by various authors – How could I resist a selection of stories from Nancy Mitford, P.G. Wodehouse, Stella Gibbons and more? Mitford’s offering was the Christmas Day chapter from Christmas Pudding, a book I read a few Christmases ago (or was it just last Christmas? 2020 has been a decade) and loved; and Wodehouse’s selection, Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, was my favorite of the book.

Silent Nights: Christmas Mysteries, ed. Martin Edwards – I decided on this one because Caroline Crampton noted on Instagram that it’s one of her favorites, as it features Dorothy L. Sayers’ short story The Necklace of Pearls. That was my favorite story of the bunch, as well, although there were a few other gems in there.

The Twelve Birds of Christmas, by Stephen Moss – I’d waited patiently for this one for nearly a month and when it finally arrived, I inhaled it. Moss reimagines the classic Christmas carol The Twelve Days of Christmas as actually being ALL about birds, and he presents a compelling case for each of the “days” referring to a different bird (i.e. “twelve drummers drumming” is about woodpeckers). Being a bird nerd, I loved every word of this.

The Twelve Days of Christmas: Correspondence, by John Julius Norwich – I am making a tradition out of reading this on Christmas Eve, by the light of the Christmas tree! It’s a very short read – only takes about ten minutes – but hilarious, and Quentin Blake’s illustrations are the perfect accompaniment.

An Englishman’s Commonplace Book, by Roger Hudson – Another one I read straight through on Christmas Eve; this is Slightly Foxed‘s new commonplace offering for 2020. I found it a good read, although not funny. Since one of the things I liked best about Philip Rhys Evans’ A Country Doctor’s Commonplace Book is the humor, I didn’t like this one quite as much. Still good, though!

A Country Doctor’s Commonplace Book, by Philip Rhys Evans – Perhaps it was coming off of An Englishman’s Commonplace Book, but this was even funnier than I remembered from last year. Every page had something on it that tickled me. A nice way to wind down a crummy year: laughter.

Winter Solstice, by Rosamunde Pilcher – One final Christmas read to wrap up the year. I enjoyed this, although not as much as September, which I read earlier in the year. There was plenty of detail about scenery, house decoration, and food – which is why I read Pilcher, let’s be honest. But not quite as much as in September, and I found the premise a little off-putting (in particular, the relationship between the two main characters, Oscar and Elfrida, just rang a little jarring to me). My other Pilcher pet peeve was in full display: thirty is not over the hill, and sixty is not elderly, Rosamunde. For Pete’s sake. But I don’t want to create the impression that I didn’t like Winter Solstice – I did, especially the descriptions of the sparkling cold Scottish landscape.

What a month to end a year of reading! Fourteen books, and you’d never know from this that I struggled with a pandemic-induced reading slump, on and off, throughout the year. I made a point of reading Christmas books this month – clearly – and ended up wallowing in twinkle lights for the entirety of December. There were some definite highlights, though. I think my favorite book of the month – probably not a surprise – was The Twelve Birds of Christmas. Revisiting A Country Doctor’s Commonplace Book is a highlight of every Christmas season, too, and it’s always a treat to read a new issue of The Slightly Foxed Quarterly. Good stuff all around! And now on to 2021 reading, and hopefully a better year in all respects.

How was your final month of 2020 reading?

by

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (January 4, 2021)

Morning, all. How were your New Year’s celebrations? Anyone else stay up until midnight? I did – couldn’t believe it. We actually snuck out of town for a New Year’s visit to my parents in upstate New York; we had been turning the idea of making the trip over and over in our minds for weeks, balancing the general recommendation to stay put against the considerations that we wouldn’t have to fly, the kids missed their grandparents, and my parents have been cautious throughout the pandemic. It was a low-key visit; both Steve and I had a lot of work to do to wrap up the year so we mostly sat at the dining room table, plugging away, while the kids raced cars and did art projects with my parents. We did escape for a socially distanced driveway hang with one family member, and a couple of short hikes – including the above ramble through the Pine Bush. Neither of the kids felt like coming along, so my parents ended up babysitting and Steve and I made it a day date – fun! We discussed needing to do more of those in 2021.

We drove back to Virginia on Saturday after breakfast and gained ourselves a day to regroup and get organized before the new week. I have a gauntlet of two extremely busy workweeks ahead – I’m dreading them – and it was good to have some time to grocery shop, meal prep, and get ahead on some work. I honestly don’t know how I am going to find enough hours in the day to get it all done, but the advance prep will help.

Reading. With all of the work and family time last week, I didn’t get all that much reading done – at least, not all that much novel-reading. I spent most of the week working my way through a stack of back issues of Adirondack Life, which I wanted to leave for my parents. But I did make a little time for reading one of my Christmas books – Death on the Nile, thanks Mom! – and finished it in the car on the way home on Saturday. After that I turned to The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters, which I had downloaded to my kindle before the trip. An 850-ish page non-fiction book seems like a strange choice for what will probably be a 65-hour workweek, but I swear there’s a method to my madness. I figure I’ll dip in and out, reading a letter here and a letter there whenever I have time to escape into the Mitfords’ madcap world. The collection starts in the 1920s; so far, I’m around the late 1930s and reaffirming what I already knew: Debo is definitely my favorite.

Watching. Whenever we’re at my parents’ house, we always watch Jeopardy – my dad and I competing for most answers shouted out before the contestants on the screen ring their buzzer. It was bittersweet this time, as the show approaches Alex Trebek’s final episodes. (Seriously, 2020. You were the worst.) On Saturday and Sunday nights, once we were home, we squeezed in a few episodes of Rick Steves’ Europe and grumbled about not being able to travel.

Listening. Not much – a couple of podcasts here and there while packing my clothes and the kids’ clothes and trundling to the garden center and the grocery store curbside pickup line on Sunday. The highlight: Lia Leendertz (author of The Almanac series) has a new podcast about the seasons; the first episode (“January”) is live and to say that I’m excited would be an understatement.

Moving. Erp. Busy week last week, busy two weeks ahead – movement fell by the wayside and I can feel it in my sore back and neck. A couple of hikes, that’s it. I’d say that I will make a point of doing better this week ahead, but to be honest, I’m going to be in survival mode until January 15. Any movement I manage to get in will be gravy.

Making. A lot of work product, a partially-unpacked suitcase, and a big pot of stew and bags of sliced veggies and romaine lettuce for the week ahead (because failing to plan is planning to fail, right?).

Blogging. I might be dreading the work week ahead, but I do have a good week of blogging – and by good, I mean bookish. December reading recap coming atcha on Wednesday, and Part I of my traditional three-part reading retrospective on the year just ended, on deck for Friday. Check in with me then!

Loving. Would it be a cop-out to say my leggings again? Yes? Then let me think. Well – I really loved the new Lia Leendertz podcast I mentioned up above. I already said it was a highlight, so won’t say too much. I listened to it while driving to the grocery store to pick up my curbside order, and it was like sixteen minutes of The Almanac, read by Leendertz in her gentle voice. Although I was driving on a heavily traveled road outside of D.C., I felt like I was wandering the fields and hedgerows of rural England. It was bliss.

Asking. What are you reading this week?

by

Hello, 2021!

Good morning, world! Good morning, 2021. To be perfectly frank, I wasn’t sure you were actually going to get here.

What do you have in store for us? A COVID-19 vaccine? A peaceful transition of power? A hug from my grandmother? A return to in-person school? Travel?

Friends, I hope that you had a wonderful New Year’s Eve, celebrating with your bubble. If you’re a drinker, I hope it included some really excellent champagne or cocktails or champagne cocktails or whatever your preferred concoction. I hope you are able to take some time this weekend to rest and recharge for what lies ahead. And I hope that whatever it is, 2021 is filled with joy, prosperity, and health for us all.

Cheers to hoping, cheers to all of you!