Month: February 2021

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Reading Round-Up: January, 2021

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 January, 2021.

Death on the Nile (Hercule Poirot # 17), by Agatha Christie – I so enjoyed this classic installment of Hercule Poirot’s adventures. The great detective, looking for some rest and relaxation, heads off to Egypt for a Nile cruise. Of course, where Poirot goes, murder is sure to follow. When a beautiful heiress on her honeymoon is found with a bullet through her head, Poirot is pulled in to investigate the crime. A new adaptation of Death on the Nile, starring Gal Gadot as Linnet Doyle and the great Kenneth Branagh as Poirot, is scheduled to hit theaters later this year – I can’t wait!

The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters, ed. Charlotte Mosley – Like so many readers and anglophiles, I am fascinated by the Mitford sisters – especially my favorites, Nancy and Deborah. I’ve had this collection of their correspondence on my TBR for ages and finally got to it, via my kindle. The Mitford correspondence is voluminous – hard to believe, but this 850+ page collection represents only 5% of their total written communication. It was so interesting; the letters selected (by Diana Mitford’s daughter-in-law Charlotte) showcased the sisters’ different personalities and voices and provided a window into unfolding history. It could be uncomfortable to read (Unity’s and Diana’s letters gushing about Hitler were particularly disgusting) but it’s also important to see that angle of history so we can prevent it from happening again. Naturally, I enjoyed Deborah’s letters about her friends the Kennedy family much more, though!

The Provincial Lady in London (The Provincial Lady #2), by E.M. Delafield – Looking for something short and sweet after the epic long collection of Mitford letters, I decided to continue on with the Provincial Lady. In this volume, the PL is now a mild literary celebrity and her diaries follow her to a writers’ conference in Brussels, vacation in Brittany, and of course London. I especially enjoyed the family’s relationship with the holiday tutor, “Casabianca.”

Word from Wormingford: A Parish Year, by Ronald Blythe – After two weeks of long hours and stressful projects at work, I really needed something to relax my brain. A slow, seasonal meditation on the natural rhythms of the English countryside and the liturgical calendar in the Church of England was just what the doctor ordered. (Don’t @ me.)

The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, by Vice President Kamala Harris – Saved this one for Inauguration Week and it was the perfect choice. I really enjoyed our new Vice President’s memoir, in which she combines her personal story with her thoughts on policy. VP Harris, a former prosecutor, sees a lot of policy through a criminal justice lens, and that was interesting to read about. I loved every page, but it did suffer a bit in comparison to the last political memoir I read – A Promised Land. An unfair comparison, because no one, no matter how brilliant and talented a politician they are, writes like President Obama.

Bewildering Cares, by Winifred Peck – “It’s a tempest in a teacup, but we happen to live in the teacup.” Bewildering Cares follows one eventful week in the life of a clergyman’s wife in an industrial town outside of Manchester, during the first full year of World War II. Camilla Lacely, the protagonist, is a delight – a little frazzled, constantly being outfoxed by her one maid, worried about finances, and harangued by the grande dames of the parish about the firebrand curate, Mr. Strang. But Mrs. Lacely faces it all with good grace and her “diary” is a lovely, calming read.

A Fine Romance: Falling in Love with the English Countryside, by Susan Branch – Not sure how I stumbled across this, but darn glad I decided to give it a try! My Grandmama was a huge fan of Susan Branch’s books and artwork, but I sort of assumed she was just the littlest bit too twee for me. (I have a high tolerance for twee, as is probably obvious by now, but for some reason I thought Susan Branch would be a bridge too far.) Y’all. I am appropriately chastened, because I loved this – handwritten, hand-painted scrapbook/diary of the author’s grand 25th anniversary trip with her sweet husband. It was one of those maddening books that you both can’t put down and simultaneously don’t want to end.

The School at the Chalet (Chalet School #1), by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer – Okay, speaking of twee. Let’s get one thing out of the way? High-brow literature this is not. Well-written? Well… it’s not awful. But fun, yes, atmospheric, yes, and just what I wanted to read – definitely. Perhaps it’s the times. This beginning of the Chalet School series took place when World War I and the Spanish Flu pandemic were very fresh in people’s memory, and maybe they just wanted a piece of fluff – Alps, Tyrolean lederhosen, and the comforting knowledge that everything is going to come right in the end. And in 2021, with the current pandemic stretching on and on and our democracy reeling from the body blows of the last four years (as much confidence as I do have in our current healer-in-chief) I also want comfort reading, and this is comfort reading. I intend to re-read it, and to continue on with the series in short order.

Well – eight books to start off the year, which in a long month isn’t exactly a high total for me. But January was a doozy, both at work and in life. Starting off the month with two 60+ hour workweeks, coupled with a coup attempt while I was at work just blocks away from the violence (and then driving white-knuckled home to Virginia) is just not a recipe for lots of pages. But things did pick up toward the end of the month, and even if the numbers aren’t especially high, there were still plenty of highlights. First of all, you can never go wrong in starting a year off with Agatha Christie. And then following her with Mitfords – as Debo would say, get on. Vice President Harris’s memoir was another high point (and it never gets old to say “Vice President Harris,” you guys), and falling in love with Susan Branch’s work was long overdue. So, a light month, but a good month!

How was your January in books? And life?

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (February 1, 2021)

Hello, friends, happy new week to you all. What’s new with you? What’s new here is that we have SNOW on the ground – snow! As anxious as I am for paddling season to begin, I have to admit I’m giddy about our current brush with winter. While unpacking after our move this summer, I found my snowshoes – never used, tags still on – and have been waiting impatiently to use them. Sunday was the day! But I’m getting ahead of myself. Last week was another doozy at work, but thankfully, this coming week presents a bit of a lull, which I plan to enjoy. Two briefs filed and several other projects advanced, and I needed a brain break. I got one. On Saturday, I ran to the grocery store first thing and when I got home, we headed out for a hike, as we do pretty much every rain-free weekend day. I wanted to check out a potential stand-up paddleboarding spot for once the weather warms up, so we drove out to Beaverdam Reservoir in Loudoun County. I cased the launch spot, and then we wandered the lakeside trail for a bit before turning around and heading home. Everything aligned for a good ramble – the kids behaved, we had the right snacks, everyone was properly attired; good all around. We’ll definitely be back, and I plan to bring my board out there as soon as it’s warm enough to SUP. The rest of Saturday was laid-back; I ran out to the garden center to stock up on birdseed before the “big storm” and set up a new feeder station when I got home, then spent the rest of the day reading.

On Sunday, we woke up to a blanket of white on the ground! Not too much snow – I think all in all we got about two inches; the prediction was four to eight, so it was a bit of a bust. But still snow! We spent the early morning watching the squabbles and dramas at the bird feeder, then went off to hike in the snow at Riverbend Park. Steve laughed at me for bringing my snowshoes, but I didn’t care! I finally got to use them, and it was hilarious and awesome. Rest of the day – so chill I don’t even recall what we did. The kids knocked around the house. I cuddled up under a blanket and read, and made multiple cups of rooibos tea to keep my hands warm. (The heat in our house is weirdly uneven – very comfortable upstairs, in the bedrooms; downright chilly on the main level of the house; frigid on the sub-level where Steve likes to watch TV.) And that’s about it! Some cooking, lots of staring at the birds.

Reading. Don’t get too excited – this was a good reading week, but not as epic as it appears from the gallery. I’ll explain. I started the week off with the January chapters of a couple of books I am reading month-by-month all year long: Orchard and The Almanac 2021. Had intended to begin the year with them, but work and life craziness intervened, but I couldn’t let the first month of the year end and me already behind. Then went back to Bewildering Cares and finished it up – I enjoyed it. Next, on to the highlight of the week – A Fine Romance: Falling in Love with the English Countryside, by Susan Branch. My Grandmama loved Susan Branch; I didn’t think she was necessarily for me, but after A Fine Romance I’m a convert. Saturday evening and most of Sunday was dedicated to The School at the Chalet, which I’ve been meaning to read for some time now. I know it’s not exactly highbrow literature, but whatever – I thought it was good fun, or as the Chalet Girls would say, simply “ripping.” Finally! Ended the weekend curled up with My Family and Other Animals. It’s COLD here; I am expecting a few days in Corfu with the Durrells to warm me right up.

Watching. On the hunt for something to watch for our family “movie nights” (which are really TV show nights) after finishing Big Crazy Family Adventure, Steve suggested The Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. We are halfway through the final episode of the show now – going at a rate of about an episode a night – and surprisingly, really enjoying it. I am on record as having no desire to go to Disney, but understanding that I will have to bite the bullet and take the anklebiters at some point in the near (but post-COVID) future – but when that day comes, we’re staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Mom has spoken. Oh, and we’re bringing Grandma.

Listening. More music than podcasts this week, actually. The one time that I really have for extended listening is my weekly trip to the grocery pickup. This week, instead of a podcast The New Pornographers came on, and I decided I wanted to listen to them for awhile, then switch to R.E.M. Steve and I were comparing notes on pandemic listening recently and discovered that we have both fallen down eighties (and nineties) music rabbit holes – namely, wallowing in what we liked in high school. Steve’s Spotify playlist has turned into Depeche Mode central. Meanwhile, I confessed to having Chronic Town on repeat. Steve nodded knowingly and said, “R.E.M. would be the sweet spot for you.” You can say that again.

Making. A new bird feeder setup. Recently we started having trouble with European starlings – rat birds. They’ve been ganging up on the little songbirds and hogging all my nice (read: expensive) Cole’s nutberry suet blend for themselves. BOO, starlings, get off my lawn. I ordered an Audubon “starling-proof” bird feeder and several bags of foods starlings hate (white-striped sunflower seed, peanuts in shell) and shuffled around the setup this weekend. I’ve now got an upside-down suet feeder for the woodpeckers (starlings can feed upside down, but they’d really rather not); safflower in everyone’s favorite tube feeder and the window feeder (blackbirds – like starlings – and squirrels don’t eat it); sunflower and peanuts in shells in the tray feeder (starlings’ flimsy beaks can’t cope); and the good stuff in the starling-proof feeder. They’re still around trying to get into trouble, but my hope is that they’ll get frustrated when the only food they like is out of their reach, and go bother someone else. Meanwhile the songbirds have no trouble hopping in and out of the caged feeder, and even the bluebirds have been able to get in and out, although they’re a little awkward about it. Success! It’s been a hoot watching the birds argue and squabble and re-establish their pecking order (pun intended) around the new feeders. Also, I am that crazy bird lady. Apologies to my neighbors.

Moving. A better week! Even though I had another busy one at work, I made time for myself – one outdoor run, two Peloton workouts, one regular (snow-free) hike, and a grand snowshoeing adventure. I had way too much fun with the snowshoes; hope we get another storm so I can use them again before spring.

Blogging. I have two good posts for you this week! January’s reading recap on Wednesday (it was a slow month, but there’s good stuff in there), and pictures from last weekend’s hike at Great Falls on Friday. That’s one that deserves its own post! Stay tuned.

Loving. You guys, I recently got this mug and I am obsessed. Rainbow Brite, Strawberry Shortcake, Jem, and She-Ra – all my girls – together on one mug. Shut the front door. The only sad thing is, somehow the bottom of the mug got chipped in the sink the first time I used it. But it’s still totally drinkable and totally adorable. If you’re an eighties kid, you need one.

Asking. What are you reading this week?