Author: Jaclyn

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Raising Readers: Making the Leap to Chapter Books

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From the moment I found out that I was expecting Peanut, one of the things that I was most looking forward to doing with her – and any future sibling that came along, as Nugget later did – was sharing books.  I couldn’t wait to introduce her to the classic children’s books that I remembered listening to and thumbing through with my mom – books like Blueberries for Sal, Make Way for Ducklings, Go Dog Go, Angelina Ballerina and so many more.  But more than that, even, I was looking forward to sharing my favorite books for older readers.  Especially, of course, my beloved L.M. Montgomery.  As it turned out, I read Montgomery to her sooner than I expected – when she was only a few weeks old.  Perched on a chair next to her isolette, as lights flashed and alarms beeped all around us in the NICU at Fairfax Children’s Hospital, I read Emily of New Moon to her.  Together we journeyed to Blair Water and New Moon Farm, sitting in the garden with Emily, Ilse and Teddy and listening to Cousin Jimmy recite his poetry over a crackling campfire while the Wind Woman darted through the trees.

After she finally came home from the hospital, I read to her from my own books – Miss Read, mostly, but sometimes whatever I had checked out from the Fairfax County Library – and from Winnie-the-Pooh.  I knew that hearing my voice was good for her, and reading aloud was less awkward for me than pretending to make conversation with a baby.

It comes as no surprise, I’m sure, that as she got older she was rarely far from a book.  My mission to make a reader has been going very well indeed.

Now we find ourselves poised at two crossroads.  Peanut is on the cusp of a major breakthrough in her own reading abilities – she can sound out simple words, recognize sight words, and read very easy beginning readers on her own (when she wants to).  Getting to this point has been something of a battle, because while she loves books and would like nothing more than to be able to read on her own, she also is hard-wired to resist anything an adult appears to want her to do (don’t get me started on potty training; you don’t want to know how long it took) and she has stagnated a bit over her final year of pre-kindergarten, since she’s pretty much mastered the skills but the curriculum doesn’t have her moving to the next level yet.  I’m trying to work with her at home, but I have to pick my moments – if she’s hungry, tired, or interested in doing something else I just won’t be able to sell an easy reader to her.  (And who could blame her?  Reading A blue car.  A yellow car.  A red car.  A green car. and so forth… well, it’s not the most absorbing text.)

The second crossroads is – in our read-aloud time, we’re moving on to chapter books, more and more.  Peanut still asks for favorite picture books, and I’m glad to read them.  But she’s always had a long attention span for listening to stories (for instance, she has more tolerance for some of the epically long Robert McCloskey books – like One Morning in Maine and Time of Wonder – than her dad, who groans when she requests them, which happens quite often as both are favorites).  So little by little, we have been adding chapter books to the reading diet.

We started with Freckle Juice, by Judy Blume.  I had fond memories of it, and it was so short – it seemed like a good place to begin.  Most of the story went over Peanut’s head; she doesn’t have any freckles and the classroom storyline was a bit out of her experience.  But she felt like such a proud big kid with her book that was mostly words (and just a few pictures) and she started carrying it with her to school, coming home pleased as punch one day when a few of the older kids told her it was one of their favorite books, too.  It was easy to sell her on more chapter books after that, and I made a conscious effort to choose short ones with lots of pictures, to keep it fun and on her level.  The Princess in Black books have been a big hit, and so have some of the American Girl chapter books.  I took a leap of faith and pulled out Mr. Popper’s Penguins to read before we saw the show at the Kennedy Center in December, and we worked our way through it, a chapter at a time, as our bedtime reading for weeks.

Her most recent request – well, recurring request really, she begged for months – was for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.  I was a little unsure about that one.  The chapters are longer than what she’s been used to, and the end of the story (even the first book) is a little intense.  But I have the gorgeous illustrated edition, and she asked and asked and asked, so we jumped in.  Reactions have been a bit of a mixed bag.  Some of the chapters – especially at the beginning – have tested even Peanut’s superhuman patience for long stories.  And she waited, and waited, and waited, AND WAITED for Hermione to finally become friends with Harry and Ron.  (We’re there at last.)  I’m still not entirely sure if we will be able to actually get through the whole book – snuffing out her budding love for Harry Potter is the last thing I want to do.

But she’s taken to carrying her chapter books around and flipping through them, intently studying even the pages with no pictures.  (She says she likes looking at the words.)  And I told her that when she learned to read, she could read anything from the bookshelves at home – nothing will be off limits – and she threw her arms around my neck and screamed with joy.  And I think that’s half the battle.  The skills will come with time and patience.  The desire to read and the love of books – that’s already there, so I feel like 99% of the battle is already won.

Now is the part where I hit you up for recommendations.  What are your best tips for making the leap to chapter books?  And what are your favorite chapter books for budding readers and pre-readers with a long attention span?

 

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Reflections on Project 24

Last December, I thought it would be a good idea to sign on to Simon‘s Project 24 – a commitment to buy only twenty-four books for myself all year.  (Books gifted to someone else are exempt, and books that I receive as gifts are also exempt.)  Since I try to only buy two books per month anyway, I thought this shouldn’t be too terribly difficult.  I just wouldn’t utilize any of my exceptions.  And it seemed like a good idea, since my shelves were already looking… well, there was space, but not a ton, and my little urban townhouse is a pretty good size for my neighborhood but still not exactly what you’d call spacious.  At some point, I’ll run out of room for books – especially when you consider that the kids have a considerable library of their own now, and it competes with mine for shelf space.  (This both delights and horrifies me.  I love that they’re into books.  But I’m territorial about my shelves.)

So – long story short – I went for it.  And I did it!  I only bought, for myself, twenty-four books this year.  They were:

  1. The Red House Mystery, by A.A. Milne
  2. The Little White Horse, by Elizabeth Goudge
  3. Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery
  4. Anne of Avonlea, by L.M. Montgomery
  5. Envelope Poems, by Emily Dickinson
  6. Mary Barton, by Elizabeth Gaskell
  7. Wives and Daughters, by Elizabeth Gaskell
  8. North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell
  9. Anderby Wold, by Winifred Holtby
  10. The Land of Green Ginger, by Winifred Holtby
  11. Three Men in a Boat, by Jerome K. Jerome
  12. Before Lunch, by Angela Thirkell
  13. A Memoir of Jane Austen, by Edward Austen-Leigh
  14. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
  15. Father Brown Stories: Volume 1, by G.K. Chesterton
  16. Father Brown Stories: Volume 2, by G.K. Chesterton
  17. After Many Years, by L.M. Montgomery
  18. Sylvia’s Lovers, by Elizabeth Gaskell
  19. Ruth, by Elizabeth Gaskell
  20. 60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Washington, D.C., by Renee Sklarew & Rachel Cooper
  21. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Illustrated Edition, by J.K. Rowling
  22. The Blue Castle, by L.M. Montgomery
  23. Portrait of Elmbury, by John Moore
  24. Brensham Village, by John Moore

And that’s it!  Kind of – read on.

Reflections on the experience, and a confession or two:

  • I didn’t cheat!  I didn’t use any of my exceptions, and I was scrupulously honest about… well… some things.  For instance?  Father Brown Stories came as a two-volume box set.  The volumes are packaged together and have an illustration that spans both spines.  I could maybe have gotten away with calling it one book purchase.  But I didn’t.  And the hiking book – well, that is a book for the whole family.  I could have argued it wasn’t “for myself” and exempted it from Project 24.  But – again! – I didn’t.
  • I cheated a little.  While I abided by the letter of the rules, if I’m being completely honest I’ll have to admit that I didn’t always abide by the spirit.  I bought kindle books that were featured on the Modern Mrs. Darcy daily ebook deals emails.  (Never more than $2.99!)  I used my feminine wiles to get Steve to buy a copy of A Gentleman in Moscow for me when it became clear I wasn’t going to be able to finish my library copy by the deadline.  And in the run-up to Christmas, I ordered several out of print books, including a boxed set of five Jeeves books (as my friend Susan said in support of this bending of the rules: “Baby, this is Jeeves.  You do what you have to do.”) and handed them to Steve with instructions to wrap them up and put them under the tree.  This is probably against Simon’s rules.  But the thing is – when you come across a rare and out-of-print book, what are you supposed to do?  Clearly, there’s only one right answer.

  • Goddess bless the library.  I wouldn’t have gotten through this year without the library.  (That’s true of every year, of course.)  It’s a lot easier to keep to a strict book-buying budget/diet when you have more books than you could ever read just a few short blocks away, all neatly shelved in the neighborhood library.  Also, who are these people who claim libraries are irrelevant and no adult uses them?  I’d go broke without the library.
  • It’s a good thing the kids’ books were exempt.  Since buying gifts for other people doesn’t count toward Project 24, I made liberal use of the allowance to buy even more books for the kids.  I buy them tons of books – all the time – anyway, but I’d be less than honest if I told you that I didn’t enjoy their books, too.  I love a beautifully-worded, sumptuously illustrated picture book just as much as the next preschooler.  Quite a few of my “ooooooh! pretty!” book purchases this year ended up being children’s books.  After all, as C.S. Lewis said: “A children’s book that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s book at all.”
  • I don’t think I saved money.  Here’s the problem with a strict book-buying diet.  When you’re only buying a very limited, very small number of books for yourself over an entire year, it’s way too easy to justify those books being big, expensive Folio Society books.  If I only shopped at used bookstores and thrift shops, maybe I could have massively trimmed my book-buying budget.  But I fell into the deep, deep trap of rationalization: “I haven’t bought any books in almost two months!  I DESERVE this $70 out-of-print Folio edition of Wives and Daughters!”  If I hadn’t been restricting myself, I probably would have bought more $8.00 BL Crime Classics paperbacks and fewer hefty Folio editions of Gaskell.  Just saying.  And on that rationale, I’m off to eat some chocolate and cruise Amazon.

Have you ever put yourself on a book-buying diet?  Did you cheat?

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (February 12, 2018)

Sigh.  Does it have to be Monday?  Can we have another weekend first?  Ours was easygoing and low-key, matching the rainy weather outside.  I really want a do-over of Saturday – we had a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, which is never my first choice of activities.  (Being honest.)  I think the birthday honoree had a fabulous time, which is of course all that matters, but is there an adult on the planet who doesn’t leave that place with a headache?  On Sunday we mostly bummed around the house, but Peanut and I escaped during a break in the rain and headed to a friend’s house for a Wellie Wishers playdate.  The other mom and I had a lovely time chatting while the girls ignored their Wellie Wishers (which were just a convenient excuse, really) and spent their time emptying the dress-up drawers, filling the sink with bubbles and emptying a tube of toothpaste over Peanut’s head.  Good times.

  

Reading.  Such a good reading week, you guys.  I finished Thrush Green midweek and it was so delightful.  The last time I read it, I think I was too fresh from finishing Fairacre, and nothing else was going to live up to it.  On this read, I was able to approach Thrush Green anew and take it on its own merits and it was a joy.  Then I checked one off the longstanding TBR – I am Malala.  It was really powerful and just such a breathtaking reading experience.  Now I’m approaching midway through Portrait of Elmbury, my first Slightly Foxed Edition, and loving it.  There are a couple of sentences that are very jarring to the modern reader (isn’t that always the case? so frustrating) but overall, it’s lovely.

Watching.  The Olympics, of course!  I was ready – even had bibimbap for lunch on Friday.  We loved the opening ceremonies; we always do.  (Although, I have to ask, Ralph Lauren – WHY?  WHY with the work gloves, and the fringe, and just… oh, Hecate.  So, so bad.)  We were really excited to see an ADK boy take home a silver medal in luge.  Go ‘dacks!

Listening.  For about the first half of the week, I was flipping back and forth between Harry Potter and the Sacred Text and other podcasts, but midweek I switched to Audible and started listening to the first season of Home Front from BBC Radio.  So good!  I’d like to listen to it with a cup of tea in my hand while gathered around an old-timey radio in my living room.  But – well – it’s mostly Metro listening.  I suppose I could have a cup of tea if I listened to Audible at home, which I don’t.

Reminiscing.  Watching the winter Olympics always takes me back to 1998.  When the Nagano games were airing, I was an exchange student in Germany, and I watched most of the coverage with my host family auf Deutsch.  I always get a particular laugh out of my memories of watching some of the Games in a sports bar on top of the local hockey rink (after banging drums, stamping my feet and shouting my support for Adendorfer Eishockey) and giggling helplessly as my host sister’s friend Per-Ole climbed on top of the bar, raised his bier and shouted indignantly “Curling ist ein Frauensport!  Frauensport!”  Heh.

Blogging.  Bookish week coming up for you!  On Wednesday, I have some final thoughts on Project 24 (spoiler: it neither saved me any money nor taught me better habits) and on Friday, I’m chatting about starting to read chapter books with my budding bookworm.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  I mentioned it above, but just about ninety minutes into the first season I’m kind of obsessed with Home Front.  It’s a radio drama – full cast, of course – featuring several characters holding down the fort on the home front in a Kentish village during World War I.  Just a few episodes in and there’s a secret engagement, an even more secret pregnancy, an adulterous vicar, and two missing kids.  Gulp!  And the soldiers haven’t even left for the front yet.  Obsessed, I tell you.  The production is fabulous and I’m already hooked on the story.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

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12 Months of Trails: 2017 Recap

2017 was a great year on the trails!  Our hikes took us all around our local area, up to the Adirondacks and clear across the country to California.  As we look ahead to 2018 hiking – and I have some big plans for this year, as you know – I don’t want to forget all the fabulous trails of 2017.

January – Riverbend Park, Great Falls, Virginia.

February – Lake Accotink Park, Fairfax, Virginia.

March – U.S. National Arboretum, Washington, D.C.

April – Bluebell Loop Trail at Bull Run Occoquan Regional Park, Manassas, Virginia.

May – Mason Neck State Park, Lorton, Virginia.

June – First Landing State Park, Virginia Beach, Virginia.

July – Giant Mountain, Keene Valley, New York.

September – Joshua Tree National Park, Twentynine Palms, California.

October – Sky Meadows State Park, Delaplane, Virginia.

November – Stony Man Mountain, Shenandoah National Park, Luray, Virginia.

December – Jiminy Peak Ski Resort, Hancock, Massachusetts.

So, there we have it!  Twelve months of fresh air and trails across five different states (Virginia, Washington D.C., New York, California and Massachusetts).  Countless miles tramped, birds spotted, high fives exchanged and views enjoyed.

Here’s to another year of hiking in 2018!

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Six Month Sabbatical / Six Months to Live

Recently I was pottering around the internet, reading through discussion threads on the “Folio Society Devotees” page at LibraryThing, and I happened upon an interesting topic.  The original poster inquired: what would you read if you had six months off work (with presumably no other responsibilities) to spend entirely with your books?  And what would you read if you found out you had six months left to live?

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Two interesting hypotheticals!  The first – six months to just read – is every book lover’s fantasy, right?  (Although if I’m being honest, when I am dreaming of a reading sabbatical, it’s usually more like three years.)  I’ve had a few periods off work that averaged out to six months each – two maternity leaves, and a seven-month stint as a stay-at-home-mom – but I had other responsibilities during those times, and couldn’t just read.  I still got through quite a few books in those times, though.  I pretty much read whatever I wanted, which looked like a lot of classics, gentle fiction (i.e. Miss Read) and cozy mysteries.

But a six-month dedicated reading sabbatical would be a little different, I think.  While I’m sure I would spend at least some of it re-reading my favorites – like Jane Austen, P.G. Wodehouse, Edith Wharton and L.M. Montgomery – I think my main focus would be tackling my TBR in a really mindful and focused way.  There are still many classics I’ve yet to read, and I’d want to devote most of my reading sabbatical to them.  I’ve barely scratched the surface of Trollope, although I’ve adored the couple of books I’ve read from among his works; I’ve not yet read any Eliot other than Middlemarch (twice); and I’ve never read any Gaskell.  So they’d probably be my focus.  I don’t think I would use that time to make a targeted study of anything in particular, nor would I plan to create an end product – like a dissertation – I’d just spend time with great works of literature I haven’t yet experienced, and for the rest of the time, I would read through my bookshelves and luxuriate in having time to really enjoy authors like E.F. Benson, E.M. Delafield, Nancy Mitford, Angela Thirkell, Dorothy Whipple, and others.  (Six months?  I could spend my whole life on this.)

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As for six months to live – well, that’s a different question.  I don’t like to ponder mortality, so I tried to avoid thinking about it at first.  But I think I have a short, and maybe surprising, answer to the question: if I suddenly found out I had six months left to live, I don’t think I’d spend much of it reading.  Seems strange – I surprised myself a little – because I do love to read; it’s one of my favorite activities.  And it would be tempting to read feverishly and check books off of my lifetime TBR while I still could.  But – I don’t think that’s what I’d do.

If I had six months to live, I think I’d want to spend it traveling.  I’d want to see as much of the world, and have as many experiences, as I could with the time left to me – riding camels in Morocco; hiking the Swiss Alps and Austrian Tyrol; spotting elephants and lions on safari; kayaking with orcas and humpback whales; visiting every American and Canadian national park; wandering through the great cathedrals of Europe; eating sole meuniere in the Normandy restaurant where Julia Child had her first French meal; walking every inch of the 600-mile South West Coast Path around Devon and Cornwall…  I’d want to rest my eyes on natural and manmade wonders – not words on a page.  (Of course, if I had six months to live, I would probably be sick, so maybe all of this adventuring wouldn’t be possible – in which case I would likely turn to old favorites and childhood classics.)

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And I’d want to spend time with my family – especially my little folks.  I’d stroke their hair, pet their soft baby cheeks, and memorize every inch of their faces.  I would want them in my arms as much as humanly possible.  I’d much rather hold them than hold a book.

Shiver.  I like the first question better!

What would you read if you had a six month sabbatical?  And if you want to answer the second question – what would you read if you had six months left to live?

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (February 5, 2018)

Happy day-after-Superbowl-Sunday, friends!  (Or, as I like to think of it, No More Football For Months Day!)  We hosted a very small Superbowl party – just us, Zan and Paul, and Rebecca.  We all had a fabulous time eating yummy snacks (Zan brought veggies and hummus; Rebecca brought vegan queso, chips and guac, and a healthy chocolate chip cookie cake – made from chickpea flour and sweetened with dates; and I contributed tempeh chili, seitan Buffalo wings, jalapeno-cheddar cornbread, and a raw corn, tomato and avocado salad) and not really watching the game.  Well, the boys watched the game.  The girls watched the commercials and chased the kids around.  Nugget was excited to throw his (stuffed) football with Uncle Paul, and we all ended up tossing it around the living room and screaming with laughter.  It was just what the doctor ordered.  Well, until Nugget got overtired and started screaming with not-laughter.  The rest of the weekend was pretty low key.  On Saturday, Nugget and I went to Falls Church to check out Rebecca’s farmers market while Steve took Peanut to a friend’s birthday party.  I squeezed in an hour of work on Saturday morning, which felt like nothing at all, and Nugget and I did a big grocery run and a diaper bank drop on Sunday morning.  It was a good combination of errands and friend time, and I’m not ready for it to be Monday.  But at least we have the Olympics to look forward to!

  

Reading.  It was another fairly slow week on the book front.  Between working another 50+ hour week (which is becoming the norm) and then spending most of the weekend either socializing or running errands, book time was limited.  I finished Salt Houses mid-week, on the very last day of January.  As I mentioned in my reading round-up, it didn’t really do it for me.  It was a lovely book, but neither multigenerational family sagas nor linked short stories are my cup of tea, and this was both.  Next I turned my attention to Salvage the Bones, since it was due back to the library on Saturday and not returnable.  It was very hard to read.  The chapters on Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath were breathlessly enthralling and well-done, but the rest of the book was tough.  Part of it focuses on dog-fighting, and I had to skip those sections.  It was one I felt like I should read, so I did, but I didn’t enjoy the reading experience.  So it was good to turn, after that, to something warm and comforting – Thrush Green, which is actually a re-read for me.  I am trying to participate in the year-long #MissReadalong on Instagram, but am behind – Thrush Green was January’s book.  I enjoyed it last time I read it, but am loving it even more now that I’m a couple of years removed from finishing the Fairacre books and am not constantly comparing it and missing the characters from that series.

Watching.  The Superbowl!  Haha, just kidding.  I barely even looked at the commercials – I watched a few of them, but I was mostly engaged in getting the food ready or parenting during the party, so it wasn’t a big night in front of the TV.  Earlier in the week, when I was feeling fried, Steve and I watched the Bears Ears National Monument episode of Rock the Park, which was sad – it looks like such a special place, and it’s heartbreaking that our government has stripped it of federal protection.  Then on Saturday, looking for some comedy, we checked out the first two episodes of The Good Place, which was as funny and delightful as my friend Susan promised it would be, and we will definitely be watching more.

Listening.  I hopped around all over the place on my earbuds last week.  A couple of podcasts – The Book Riot Podcast, to stay current; the final episode of the first season of Annotated, which I had been saving; and several chapters of Harry Potter and the Sacred Text.  Some Forlorn Strangers, some Decemberists, and a few movements of Holst’s The Planets performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.  See?  I told you I was all over the place.

Moving.  Should I take this category out?  Other than some walking on the weekend, nothing.  Working these crazy hours is hard.  My beloved yoga and barre3 classes have fallen by the wayside, and forget about running.  I have some events I want to do this spring and summer, so I need to get back in the habit lest I find myself completely out of it when it comes time to start training.

Blogging.  Some bookish musing coming to you on Wednesday, and a quick (mostly pictures) recap of all the hikes from my monthly hiking project from 2017 on Friday.  Check back!

Loving.  Dates with Steve!  We have been wanting to add to our roster of babysitters, and we tried a new one out last week.  She fed the kids dinner, played with them and put them to bed, while we enjoyed a five-course Japanese dinner and then wandered over to a wine bar we’d not yet tried and split two flights of wine.  She did a great job, the kids had a wonderful time, and it was so refreshing to get a mid-week night out as just grownups.  Related: I love living in a walkable neighborhood!  Dinner was two blocks from my house and the wine bar was one block, and it really helped curb my new-babysitter anxiety to know that we were a two minute sprint from home if anything happened.  I don’t know if we’ll stay in our current neighborhood forever, but it sure does have some major points in the plus column.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

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Reading Round-Up: January 2018

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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, 2018…

Origin (Robert Langdon #5), by Dan Brown – Always fun to see what the first read of the year is going to be.  Brown’s latest is a romp through Spain, focused on the theme of science, religion, and the battle over who gets to definitively answer humanity’s biggest questions: Where do we come from?  Where are we going?  Brown delivers all the expected tangents into architecture, art history, literature, science history and anything else that happens to interest him (so that’s everything) but I was a little bummed there weren’t more references to the Mickey Mouse watch and Langdon’s swimming hobby.

 

Period Piece: The Cambridge Childhood of Darwin’s Granddaughter, by Gwen Raverat – I just recently became aware of Raverat, and she is a really fascinating character.  As the subtitle confirms, she is the granddaughter of Charles Darwin, and she grew up in Victorian-era Cambridge.  She was also a pioneering woodcut artist whose book illustrations carried a distinctive style, and she was one of the few women to become a successful artist in her own right.  Period Piece is illustrated with Raverat’s own wood engravings, which add great life and levity to the text, and she’s also a charming and engaging writer who looks back at her childhood with humor and fun.  I would normally hesitate to make predictions in early January – but I think Period Piece is going to be in my top ten books for 2018.  Just watch.

Letters to a Young Muslim, by Omar Saif Ghobash – Ghobash is (was?) the UAE’s Ambassador to Russia, and Letters to a Young Muslim is comprised of letters to his son Saif about everything from the roles of men and women in Islam and society, to extremism, to making up your own mind about matters of faith instead of placing blind trust in authorities who may deceive.  It was a beautiful and thoughtful book that reminded me a bit of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me (also letters, or one long letter, from a father to his young son).

 

Slightly Foxed No. 2, ed. Gail Pikris – I’m on a mission to read my way through the back issues of Slightly Foxed.  This is going to take some time, since they’re currently on issue 56.  But I’m loving the quest, because each journal is such a treasure.  Issue number 2 wasn’t my favorite – the heady novelty of issue number 1 has worn off but I didn’t think the journal had quite hit its stride yet, and the last piece, “A Subscriber in California Writes,” rubbed me the wrong way.  But it’s always a treat to spend time curled up on the couch with Slightly Foxed‘s lovely cream pages.

 

Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell – As I mentioned, I’m on a mission to read more classic novels this year, since they’re on my shelves and I’m craving their comfort.  I decided to start with a visit to Gaskell’s Cranford, a relatively short but lovely volume about the residents of an English village in the Victorian era.  The narrator, Mary Smith, is something of an outsider – more financially privileged than most of the residents of Cranford, but loving, protective and affectionate towards them – while never condescending.  Cranford is mostly a series of vignettes or interludes in the life of the village, as either observed by or told to Mary.  Aside from the fact that an alarming number of people die, it’s quite warm and fuzzy.  I’ve actually tried to read Cranford before and couldn’t get into it, and I’m not sure why – perhaps the time wasn’t quite right?  This time, I couldn’t put it down, loved every moment spent with Mary, Miss Matty, Miss Pole, Lady Glenmire and all the rest, and was genuinely sad when it ended.

The Republic of Imagination: America in Three Books, by Azar Nafisi – I think this is Nafisi’s latest (right?) and it’s basically the same format as Reading Lolita in Tehran, but focusing specifically on American literature and Nafisi’s immigrant experience.  Nafisi discusses three novels she considers as representative of the American experience – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Babbit, and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter – and devotes an epilogue to James Baldwin.  I enjoyed The Republic of Imagination, but didn’t love it.  I didn’t agree with Nafisi’s choices of the three books representing America – which is fine; as the writer, it’s her prerogative to choose, of course – and I found the narrative a bit disjointed and some of the connections she was drawing to be a bit tenuous.  A fun read, but if you’re looking to read Nafisi’s work – no question she writes gorgeously – go for Reading Lolita in Tehran instead.

Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – I just loved this short but sweet collection of “suggestions” Adichie put together in response to a friend’s question about how to raise her newborn daughter as a feminist.  Adichie opens by wryly noting how easy it is to dispense parenting advice when you don’t have children of your own (she has since welcomed a baby daughter) and then goes on to deliver 63 pages of absolute gold.  My favorite piece of advice was to encourage her to love books, because of course!  Books!

 

Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid – I was prompted to pick this one up despite all the hype, when I saw that President Obama had included it on his list of the best books he read in 2017.  I’m always a little nervous about hype, and generally magical realism doesn’t speak to me, but if President Obama says it’s good I’m willing to trust him.  Of course he was quite right – Exit West was enthralling and felt very relevant to today’s world, as it spoke to the global refugee crisis to which we are currently bearing witness.  I flew through it and just loved both of the main characters – fierce Nadia and sensitive Saeed – and their journey, which binds them together even as they are emotionally drawing apart.  Lovely and luminous.

 

The Witches of New York, by Ami McKay – Read on my BFF’s recommendation, The Witches of New York was definitely more successful than the last book she recommended to me (which I hated so much I actually found myself folding laundry in order to avoid reading, which NEVER happens).  Anyway, I really enjoyed this one.  You’re Beatrice Dunn.  You’re a witch, and you’re not to be trifled with.  This is the advice given to young Beatrice, shopgirl and communer-with-spirits, by her very slightly older witchy mentors, Eleanor St. Clair and Adelaide Thom.  Eleanor and Adelaide are the proprietresses of “Tea and Sympathy,” a small tea shop specializing in herbal remedies and palmistry in Gilded Age New York.  But as charming as the shop is, there is evil afoot and it is targeting their new employee.  So – this was the perfect combination of Rebecca’s and my reading tastes, because she can’t resist witches and I can’t resist Gilded Age New York.  It was a little slow in parts, there was some brutality just for shock value (not my cup of tea) and not every plot point was tied up as neatly as I’d have liked, but I did enjoy it very much.

Amina’s Voice, by Hena Khan – Amina Khokar has just started middle school and she has a lot on her plate.  Painfully shy, Amina clings to her best friend Soojin, but Soojin seems to be pulling away – about to become a U.S. citizen, she’s considering changing her name to Melanie, and she’s hanging around with Emily, a popular girl who made both Amina and Soojin’s life miserable in elementary school.  Life at home isn’t much calmer.  Amina’s brother Mustafa is on a collision course with their parents over basketball, and then her father’s much-older brother arrives from Pakistan for an extended visit to the family.  Amina’s parents are stressed out by the effort to impress their visitor, and Amina is worried about the Q’uran reciting competition that her dad signed her up for in order to show her uncle what good young Muslims he is raising.  But all of her worries seem small when her mosque is vandalized, which devastates Amina, Mustafa and the whole community.  Amina will learn who her real friends are as she and her faith community work to put the pieces back together.  This was a lovely story – luminous and sweet.  I wanted to gather Amina, Soojin and Emily up and give them all huge hugs.  But the biggest hug for Amina.

Jane Austen, the Secret Radical, by Helena Kelly – I had this one out from the library and was looking forward to reading it, when my friend Susan started it too – and suddenly a book I wanted to read just because became a fun topic for discussion and debate.  Susan and I could talk Austen for hours, and we narrowly avoided just plopping down at a table in the office café and bantering about Darcy, Knightley and everyone else for all of last Friday.  Kelly’s premise is fascinating: she says that far from being prim comedies of manners, Austen’s books are actually cleverly disguised political propaganda about the hot-button issues of her day: slavery, enclosure, aristocratic morals, the misadventures of the British East India Company, and more.  Some of her theories were fascinating (Persuasion as a metaphor for imperial fall, and also dinosaurs!) but others seemed completely bonkers (I’m sorry, but Harriet Smith is not Jane Fairfax’s illegitimate half-sister.  NO.).  My one complaint was the imaginative introductions at the beginning of the book and of each chapter, which were completely unnecessary, and I skipped over most of them.  The more academic parts, though, were well worth reading – even the kooky ones.

Salt Houses, by Hala Alyan – Salt Houses explores the life, movements, dramas and loves of a Palestinian family starting in 1965, with the wedding of their patriarch and matriarch, and extending to 2014.  Along the way, the reader lives through wars, displacements, and the smaller – almost petty – tribulations of family life in the latter half of the twentieth century.  It’s a beautifully written book, with luminous prose… but… it didn’t really speak to me.  This is entirely ME, and not the book.  Family sagas are not my thing, and vignettes are also not my thing, and a family saga written entirely in vignettes (a scene in 1965, then we jump ahead for one scene in 1967, and then one scene in 1977, etc.) is pretty much a guaranteed miss as far as I’m concerned.  I’ve heard wonderful things about the book and I can see why people loved it, but it wasn’t for me.  If you like linked short stories (which this really was), multi-generational family sagas, or both, Salt Houses will appeal.  If you don’t, you may want to look for something else.

Twelve books in January!  As you can see, my resolution to read fewer books in 2018 – aiming for a pace of one a week – is… not going well.  But I can’t complain, because what a month of reading.  50% of my books this month were by people of color, and I love to see a good percentage like that.  There were also some highlights.  Exit West was really wonderful.  I liked it while I was reading (blowing through) it, but it stayed with me quite a long while afterward and I didn’t realize until it was back at the library how much it had moved me.  Cranford was a delight, and so was Period Piece.  If every month of 2018 is as good (for reading, anyway) as January was, I will have very little to complain about, even if I don’t meet my goals of slower, more deliberative reading and more classics.

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12 Months of Trails: Theodore Roosevelt Island in January, 2018

Back on the trails!  It’s been so cold for the past couple of weeks that going outside felt like my eyeballs might freeze (which brought back some very unpleasant memories of walking between the parking garage and the office in Buffalo in January and February… and March… and April…) and we have not been spending any more time outside than absolutely necessary.  There’s been a lot of shivering on Metro platforms, typing in my coat, and downing cup after cup of green tea.  So I think I’m in good company when I profess a great deal of relief that the temperatures actually broke a few weekends ago, and it was possible to get outside for a hike.  It’s not just that I have cabin fever – even though I do – but I signed up for the 52 Hike Challenge this year, which means I have to keep up a one-hike-per-week pace all year long, and I was already behind after starting the year with two indoor weekends.  Well – I’m slowly catching up!

For the first hike of 2018, we decided it was fitting to pay homage to Teddy, everyone’s favorite rough-riding President, and we headed up the GW Parkway to Theodore Roosevelt Island.  Rebecca was confused when I mentioned that we were going to hike there.  Ummmm, she said, Roosevelt Island is in New York.  But there’s actually one here, too!  And now you know.  So what makes it Roosevelt Island, you wonder?  I’m glad you asked.

NO BIG DEAL JUST A GIANT STATUE OF TEDDY.

In a clearing at the heart of the island is a memorial to Teddy Roosevelt, where the conservationist president and enthusiastic Antiquities Act ninja is caught forever striding and waving to his fellow hikers.  (Nugget fell in love with the statute and was disappointed that he couldn’t touch it.  Get taller, kid.)  Surrounding the statute are large concrete placards with quotes from the great man himself.  The above – on “NATURE” – was my favorite, of course.

After our visit to Teddy, we set off to make him proud by hiking the circumference of his island.  The first part of the hike included river views, thanks to the bare winter branches.  And the occasional DC landmark peeking through the trees.  See the Kennedy Center up above?

We wouldn’t be us if we didn’t get a little bit lost, end up on a side path, and add distance and adventure through our lousy navigation skills.  This looks like a trail, right?

I don’t ever wanna feel like I did that day… Take me to the place I love, take me all the wayyyyyyyy

Oops, sorry.  I can’t walk under a bridge without singing Red Hot Chili Peppers.

YAS.

Eventually we found our way back to the trail, and soon the boardwalk through the marsh picked up, right where I remembered it.  As with so many other hikes that we haven’t taken since having kids, it looks like the boardwalk has been greatly improved since we were last on it.

Lovely winter wetlands.  (This view reminded me of Tifft Nature Preserve, one of our favorite hiking spots in Buffalo.  Another urban oasis of wetland that is beautiful all year ’round.)

We looped around the island and soon found ourselves loading back into the car to drive to hike #2 for the day (and the year) – haven’t had a two-hike day since Joshua Tree last summer!  It felt great to have trail under my boots again.

Have you been out enjoying the slightly-less-frigid weather lately?

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (January 29, 2018)

Yawwwwwwwn.  Monday already?  This weekend FLEW.  Last week was insanely hectic – I ended up working 65 hours, and while it was a great (and helpful) boost for me, it was also exhausting.  Work was life – waking up early, churning it out all day, rushing home to make it just in time to tuck the babies in, and then right back onto the computer.  In law firm life, weeks like that are a double-edged sword.  On the one hand, a few weeks of hours like that can make a big dent in billables for the year, and that’s definitely a plus.  On the other hand – I am wiped out.  At the end of the week, all I wanted to do was hang out and pal around with the little ones, so that’s what I did.  Saturday was the nicer weather day, and the kids had been begging for the zoo, so that’s what we did.  We weren’t able to see the elephants, because they were off wandering somewhere, but the cheetah habitat was finally open again, so that was a highlight.  In the afternoon, I squeezed in more work while the kids slept, but once Nugget rolled out of bed we headed over to his second-favorite playground (he felt like mixing it up) and both worked off our excess energy climbing on stuff, racing up and down the basketball court, and kicking a playground ball around.  Sunday was dreary and rainy.  I didn’t work, which felt weird after putting in at least a few hours for the past three weekends.  But I did get about five loads of laundry folded, and cleaned up my room and the family room.  Having those spaces neat and orderly feels like such a relief.  And now it’s back at it for another week.  Hoping for balance this week – I’d like to keep the hours going, but maybe with a little more sleep too.

 

Reading.  A slower week, which is very much as expected, given how much I was working.  I spent most of the week reading Jane Austen: The Secret Radical – pretty much just on my commutes and a tiny bit before bed each night, and I eventually got through it.  The best part was discussing it with my friend Susan, who was reading at the same time (and was a few chapters ahead of me).  We ended up chatting up a storm about it in the office cafeteria on Friday morning while the rest of our coworkers looked on, confused.  After saying goodbye to Jane, I picked up Salt Houses, which is due back to the library next Saturday and has holds, so it can’t be renewed.  I’m enjoying it, but finding it hard to get into given the way it jumps around in time.  It’s beautifully written, though.

Watching.  Very little watching this week – the theme is going to be “I was so busy working that I hadn’t time for anything else.”  But on Saturday night, Steve and I reinstituted our movie night tradition and finally watched Hidden Figures, which was as wonderful and powerful as expected.  I usually only watch TV about one night per week, but my brain has been so fried that I ended up watching TV on Sunday, too – Steve suggested an episode of Victoria, and it was just what the doctor ordered.  Albert’s note-taking on how to please a lady!  Victoria’s Bo-Peep bonnet!  Royal wedding hijinks!

Listening.  I’ve switched back over to Harry Potter and the Sacred Text.  I took a break for a few weeks after finishing Season 1, but the time seemed right to pop back in for Season 2.  I listened to the first episode during a commute and the second while folding laundry on Sunday.  Still totally obsessed with the Forlorn Strangers, too, and I’m also rotating through my favorite Decemberists albums because THEY’RE COMING TO D.C. IN APRIL and I HAVE TICKETS.  And the Andalusian tribes setting the lay of Nebraska alight, ’til all that remains is the arms of the angels…

Moving.  The only moving I did this week was running laps around the basketball court with Nugget.  Literally I think we probably ran about a mile that way.  But other than that – nothing.  See above: 65-hour work week.  I am hoping for better next week.  I need yoga back in my life.

Blogging.  January hike coming to you on Wednesday!  I can’t tell you how excited I am to start another year-long hiking commitment.  Spoiler alert: we walked under a bridge and I have had the Red Hot Chili Peppers in my head for a week as a result.  And then on Friday, my January reading round-up.  I am currently eight books ahead of the pace I need for my goal to read 52, so things are clearly going well.

Loving.  So, I got the iPhone x last week.  Steve has been bugging me to get a new phone since October (when Nugget knocked my old one out of my hands on Halloween and shattered the screen on the OTX cobblestones) but I wanted to wait until I was actually due for an upgrade.  The day finally came and I took myself down to the Verizon store and picked out a new phone.  But what I’m more excited about than the phone, is the case.  I got one of those Lifeproof cases!  Since I am notorious for shattering iPhones (Halloween was the third shattered screen I’ve had, and it already had a couple of cracks in it even before the trick-or-treating incident) I figured this was a good investment.  It’s shockproof, shatterproof, dustproof and waterproof.  The question is – is it toddler-proof?  We’ll find out.  But this week I am loving having a whole, non-cracked phone with actual battery life and an intact case.  It’s the little things, right friends?

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

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2017: A Year in Reading — Part III (Book Superlatives)

One of my favorite posts of  the year!  For the past several years now, I’ve been assigning cheeky high school-style awards to the books that I’ve read over the course of the year.  It’s always such fun to look back over my booklist and decide on things like “teacher’s pet,” and “prom queen” and “most likely to succeed.”  (Fun fact: I won a senior superlative in my final year of high school, but it was lame – “shortest.”  Blah.)  As usual, and just to be clear, these aren’t necessarily books published in 2017 (although some may be) nor are they all my favorites for the year.  They’re just the books that I think fit best into the categories of a typical high school yearbook, yes it’s completely ridiculous, and now let’s have some fun.

Brainiest.  I must’ve scanned through my booklist five times but there was no help for it – the smartest person on there in 2017 was Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose well-considered, thoughtful, intelligent plans for our country quietly wrecked me.  Her musings on history and feminism, her plans to improve our infrastructure, our economy, our standing in the world and the health and education of our children – imagine, we could have had all that.  Hillary is the 2017 valedictorian of my booklist and I’m off to cry again.

Best Looking.  From the purple and white clothbound cover and silver slipcase to the luminous interior illustrations – the approach to Moonacre, Maria’s colorful tower bedroom – and the sweetly evocative text, Maria Merryweather and The Little White Horse are gorgeous indeed.

Best Friends.  Jess, Megan, Becca, Cassidy, and Emma take the title this year, as they reconvene for one summer together as camp counselors before going their separate ways to college.  And of course, they deal with challenges from their campers and their surly boss the way their moms taught them – by starting a book club and reading some classic literature!

Class Clown.  I laughed until I cried at Alexandra Petri.  She’s the classic class clown – self-deprecating in the most hilarious way.  You haven’t really laughed until you’ve read her account of being hit on while wearing a Jabba the Hutt suit at a Star Wars convention.

Biggest Jock.  Beartown is a whole town full of jocks – hockey jocks, to be specific.  They run the gamut from mildly obsessed to dangerously so, and when the star player of the town’s junior team commits a horrible crime, they have to decide what is more important – hockey, or the young woman whose life he ruins.  Since it’s a town of hockey jocks, some choose hockey, and it’s chilling.  (I love hockey, but it is only a game.)

Teacher’s Pet.  When her neighbor brings a “guru” to town, Lucia Lucas sees no way forward except to steal the “guru” for herself and become his star pupil.  When he turns out to be a swindler, she’s disappointed but undaunted.  The image of Lucia in flowing white robes, holding court as a yoga instructor in her guru’s model, is hilarious.

Biggest Nerd.  Who wants to read a doorstopper of a non-fiction book about every aspect of the typical Victorian day down to the minutia of hair-dressing?  Me!  Me, please!  Ruth Goodman’s unabashed enthusiasm for the details of a departed historic era earn her the title of “biggest nerd,” and it is a title I bestow with great love and affection, because nerds are the best people, and everyone should love something.

Most Creative.  Mia Warren, avant-garde photographer, gets the title this year for her headfirst, tumultuous approach to photography and life.  I only wish we’d gotten to follow along with her career to the fame that we are assured she eventually finds.

Most Opinionated.  Ta-Nehisi Coates’ writing for The Atlantic is brilliant, comprehensive, and unfailingly honest and raw.  I invariably devour anything he publishes on The Atlantic online, so I’d already read a few of the essays in his collection of eight pieces published during the Obama Administration, but I gladly read them again.  Reading Coates has expanded my horizons in so many ways, and his take on the current events of the day is invariably complex, nuanced and thought-provoking.

Most Likely to End Up in Hollywood.  It was hard not to cheat on this one, because I read so many books last year that I know are destined for Hollywood because they’re in preproduction or further along in the process of being made into a movie.  But there’s no fun in predicting that Ready Player One will end up in Hollywood, because – duh, it’s already there.  So I’m giving the title to Willie Lincoln and the cast of characters he meets while lingering in the space between death and the afterlife in Lincoln in the Bardo.  I will say, as I believe I have before in this category, that if this is made into a movie I’m not going to see it.  I found the imagery upsetting enough on the page – I don’t need to see it played out before my eyes.

Biggest Rebel.  Nimona is the definition of a rebel – who else would saunter into a villain’s lair and insist on becoming his sidekick?  Of course, as the graphic novel plays out, it becomes clear that Nimona has no interest in playing by the rules that Lord Ballister Blackheart (villain) and Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin (hero) have set up to govern their interactions – and also that Nimona is way scarier than her boss, Blackheart.

Biggest Loner.  He’s a hero, celebrity, and one of a trio of code-breaking geeks as Parzival in the virtual world of The Oasis, but in “reality,” Wade Watts is as alone as you can get – huddled in his hideout, wearing his virtual reality goggles twenty hours a day.  You can’t feel sorry for him, though, because everyone else is locked away in their own virtual worlds, too.

Cutest Couple.  Ari Mendoza and Dante Quintana take this year’s prize!  The boys meet at a swimming pool and become best friends, their friendship lasting through major ordeals and self-discovery.  When they finally kissed, it was all I could do not to cheer (I would have, but I was on the metro, listening to Lin-Manuel Miranda gorgeously read the audiobook version).

Prom King.  Who is the mysterious guy that makes all the girls swoon?  He’s suave and sophisticated and you know he knows where all the best libations are hidden.  This year’s Prom King is Count Alexander Rostov.

Prom Queen.  The 2017 Prom Queen is even more mysterious than the Prom King.  Astrid Leong comes from a family so rich that they don’t even want their existence known.  She is effortlessly graceful and stylish – she makes Jacqueline Kennedy look like, well, the rest of us.  Astrid would be mortified to be elected Prom Queen, but she shouldn’t worry.  This isn’t exactly the gossip papers.

Most Likely to Succeed.  How does a regular young girl end up one of the President’s most trusted advisors?  Alyssa Mastromonaco is going to tell you all about it.  Her memoir of her rise from campaign worker to a senior White House advisor under President Obama is absolutely fascinating, and she also drops in her thoughts about professionalism, preparation, teamwork and more.  If you want to know how to succeed in any venture you choose, the road map is right here.

There they are – the 2017 class of superlatives!  They’re a rowdy bunch but they’ve given me a lot of fun over the past twelve months.  I wonder what the 2018 class is going to do with their time…

Do you give high school yearbook-style awards to your books, too?  Just me?