karenmarie's eclectic reading - chapter 13 - last of the year?

Welcome to my thirteenth thread of 2019.

Here’s how much I love being retired:

It’s dilly! It’s the Lollapalooza. It’s the lobster’s dress shirt! It's the snail's ankles. It’s bonaroo! It’s the berries! It’s aces, snazzy, hot, smooth, sweet, swell, keen, and cool. It’s also the fox’s socks, the cat’s pajamas, the bee’s knees, the eel’s hips, the monkey’s eyebrows, the sardine’s whiskers, the gnat’s whistle. It's the razzmatazz and the chipmunk's cheeks. I do not miss working at all. Once again, I do happy dance every morning I don’t have to wake up to an alarm.



I read, am a charter member of the Redbud and Beyond Book Club, now in its 22nd year, am Treasurer for our local Friends of the Library (henceforth abbreviated FoL), and have now joined the book sort team on Tuesday mornings to sort donations to the book sales. I also manage our home, finances and etc. as my husband heads off to work Monday – Friday. I love having the house to myself to recharge my batteries and having huge blocks of time to read.

I have been married to Bill for 28 years and am mother to Jenna, 26, living about 3 hours away and working on a 2-year business administration program at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington. We have one kitty, almost 12-year-old Inara Starbuck. We’re now making Two Kitty noises for Christmas… we and Inara need more kitties in the house. We live in our own little corner of paradise on 8 acres in central North Carolina USA.

This year’s picture theme Children of the Family. Vanity, thy name is Karen for the last thread of the year. On the left, my maternal grandparents with me at 2 months, on the right, roly-poly little me at 6 months. My father always said that I was so chunky as a baby that they could prop me up in a corner of the davenport and I couldn't get down by myself.

…


I have met my goal of 100 books. Of those 103 currently read, I’ve read 55 of 45 for my ROOT goal and rather than have a pages goal am only going to count pages, not strive for pages this year, so have set a counter for 30,000.







A few quotes from one of my favorite authors. I plan on reading all her fiction works in published order this year. I give you Dorothy Leigh Sayers, 1893-1957, one of the most intelligent and articulate writers I have ever been privileged to read.

The popular mind has grown so confused that it is no longer able to receive any statement of fact except as an expression of personal feeling.

Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force.

A society in which consumption has to be artificially stimulated in order to keep production going is a society founded on trash and waste, for such a society is a house built upon sand.

Wherever you find a great man, you will find a great mother or a great wife standing behind him – or so they used to say. It would be interesting to know how many great women have had great fathers and husbands behind them.

My theme for 2019 is eclecticism – picking and choosing what to read from a wide variety of genres, styles, centuries. I always try to do this, but last year ended up being mostly American writers and mostly mysteries. Within the scope of my goal of reading what is fun and challenging yet pleasurable, I want to read more from my shelves – books I have acquired by non-US writers and that I don’t automatically go to when looking for something new.

This year hasn’t gone well eclectically speaking – almost exclusively English and American writers, almost all mysteries. I don’t anticipate balancing and next year’s theme will probably be ‘All American, All English, All the Time!’ so that if I do go out of my comfort zone it will be the exception to the rule.

Books Read

1. The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam 1/1/19 1/3/19 ****1/2 233 pages trade paperback
2. Nerve by Dick Francis 1/3/19 1/5/19 ***1/2 313 pages mass market paperback
3. The Body in the Transept by Jeanne M. Dams 1/7/19 1/8/19 *** 1/2 206 pages mass market paperback
4. Whose Body by Dorothy L. Sayers 1/8/19 1/9/19 **** 137 pages hardcover
5. Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers 1/9/19 1/14/19 **** 296 pages hardcover
6. Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston 1/13/19 1/16/19 ****1/2 121 of 176 pages Kindle
7. Kindred by Octavia Butler 1/16/19 1/18/19 ****1/2 306 pages hardcover **Kindle**
8. Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind by Ann b. Ross 1/18/19 1/20/19 **** 273 pages hardcover
9. The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett 1/20/19 1/22/19 **** 180 pages mass market paperback
10. Relic by Preston & Child 1/22/19 1/25/19 **** 468 pages mass market paperback
11. Reliquary by Preston & Child 1/27/19 1/30/18 ***1/2 464 pages mass market paperback
12. Last Friends by Jane Gardam 2/1/19 2/5/19 **** 1/2 205 pages trade paperback
13. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry 1/30/19 2/8/19 **** 420 pages hardcover
14. Freddie Mercury: A Kind of Magic by Mark Blake 1/5/19 2/9/19 ****1/2 206 pages hardcover
15. The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie 2/9/19 2/11/19 **** 207 pages hardcover
16. The Great Believers by Rebeca Makkai 2/11/19 2/13/19 ***** 2018 421 pages hardcover
**abandoned Octavia Butler's Kindred - a graphic novel adaption by Damian Duffy and John Jennings
17. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle 2/13/19 2/15/19 **** 211 pages trade paperback
18. A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle 2/15/19 2/16/19 ****1/2 211 pages trade paperback
19. The Arrival by Shaun Tan 2/19/19 2/19/19 **** hardcover
20. A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle 2/16/19 2/21/19 **1/2 278 pages trade paperback
**abandoned Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle - I did not care about Sandy and Dennys's story and do not care about any more of L'Engle's fiction
21. Waiting for Wednesday by Nicci French 2/22/19 2/26/19 **** 372 pages hardcover
22. Thursday's Children by Nicci French 2/26/19 2/28/19 ***1/2 336 pages hardcover Kindle
23. Friday on My Mind by Nicci French 2/28/19 3/2/19 **** 301 pages trade paperback
24. The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer 3/3/19 3/7/19 **** 315 pages mass market paperback
25. Dark Saturday by Nicci French 3/3/19 3/12/19 390 pages ****1/2 Kindle
26. Sunday Silence by Nicci French 3/12/19 3/13/19 **** 403 pages trade paperback
27. The Day of the Dead by Nicci French 3/13/19 3/15/19 ****1/2 404 pages trade paperback
28. Absent in the Spring by Mary Westmacott (Agatha Christie) 3/17/19 3/23/19 ***1/2 182 pages hardcover
29. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer 3/23/19 3/26/19 **1/2 185 pages trade paperback
30. Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers 3/26/19 3/29/19 **** 191 pages hardcover
31. The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers 4/1/19 4/8/19 **** 188 pages hardcover
32. The Documents in the Case by Dorothy L. Sayers and Robert Eustace 4/9/19 to 4/13/19 221 **** mass market paperback
33. Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney 4/2/19 4/15/19 **** 277 pages trade paperback
34. Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers 4/14/19 4/16/19 **** 192 pages mass market paperback
35. These Truths by Jill Lepore 1/5/19 to 4/22/19 ****1/2 789 pages hardcover 2018
36. Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler 4/16/19 4/24/19 *** 356 pages trade paperback 2003
37. Forfeit by Dick Francis 4/25/19 4/26/19 **** 282 pages mass market paperback
38. Devoted in Death by J.D. Robb 4/27/19 4/29/19 **** 323 pages mass market paperback
39. Brotherhood in Death by J.D. Robb 4/29/19 5/1/19 ****1/2 388 pages hardcover
40. My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite 5/3/19 5/4/19 **** 223 pages hardcover
41. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens 05/4/19 5/16/19 ****1/2 368 pages hardcover
42. The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers 5/17/19 5/19/19 ** 338 pages trade paperback, with 14 pages of afterward
43. Reflex by Dick Francis 5/20/19 5/22/19 **** 346 pages mass market paperback
44. Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney: Slavery, Secession and the President's War Powers by James F. Simon 10/24/18 5/22/19 (!) **** 11.5 hours, audiobook
45. Educated by Tara Westover 5/16/19 5/25/19 ****1/2 334 pages hardcover
46. The Lost Man by Jane Harper 5/25/19 5/28/19 352 **** pages hardcover
47. Malice: A Mystery by Keigo Higashino 5/28/19 6/1/19 ***1/2 296 pages hardcover
48. The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America by Matt Kracht 5/28/19 6/2/19 ***1/2 174 pages trade paperback
49. Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers 6/1/19 6/6/19 ****1/2 448 pages hardcover
50. Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger 6/6/19 6/10/19 **** 307 pages hardcover
51. The Dry by Jane Harper 6/10/19 6/13/19 **** 352 pages trade paperback, Kindle
52. Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger 6/13/19 6/16/19 **** 328 pages trade paperback
53. The Punch Escrow by Tal M. Klein 06/18/19 6/21/19 **** 356 pages trade paperback
54. Boundary Waters by William Kent Krueger 6/21/19 6/22/19 402 pages trade paperback
55. Case Histories by Kate Atkinson 6/30/19 7/5/19 **** 308 pages trade paperback
56. Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers 7/6/19 7/7/19 ****1/2 295 pages hardcover 1933
57. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman 6/22/19 7/12/19 ***1/2 474 pages mass market paperback
58. The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths 7/12/19 7/14/19 **** 327 pages trade paperback
59. MASH by Richard Hooker 7/14/19 7/16/19 **** 218 pages trade paperback
60. The House at Sea's End by Elly Griffiths 7/18/19 7/21/19 ***1/2 390 pages trade paperback
61. Circe by Madeline Miller 7/21/19 7/25/19 ****1/2 393 pages hardcover
62. A Room Full of Bones by Elly Griffiths 7/25/19 7/27/19 ***1/2 346 pages trade paperback
63. A Dying Fall by Elly Griffiths 7/27/19 7/30/19 ***1/2 392 pages trade paperback 2013
64. John Adams by David McCullough 7/17/19 to 8/1/19 **** audiobook 9 hours
65. The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffith 7/30/19 8/1/19 **** 374 pages trade paperback
66. The Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths 8/1/19 8/7/19 **** 370 pages hardcover
67. The Woman in Blue by Elly Griffiths 8/8/19 8/11/19 **** 368 pages hardcover Kindle
68. The Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths 8/11/19 8/15/19 **** 360 pages hardcover
69. The Dark Angel by Elly Griffiths 8/15/19 8/16/19 **** 345 pages hardcover
70. The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths 8/16/19 8/17/19 **** 364 pages hardcover
Ruth's First Christmas Tree by Elly Griffiths 8/18/19 8/18/19 **** 29 pages Kindle
71. The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths 08/18/19 8/20/19 ***1/2 328 pages trade paperback
72. I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron 8/21/19 8/22/19 **** 137 pages hardcover
73. Rat Race by Dick Francis 8/22/19 8/22/19 **** 216 pages mass market paperback
**abandoned David Copperfield by Charles Dickens nope nope and nope
**abandoned A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth 1/17/19 with the best intentions in the world, I always felt like this book was homework
**abandoned 77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz audiobook - couldn't keep track of the characters and got bored
74. Glass by Sam Savage 8/23/19 8/28/19 ***1/2 223 pages trade paperback
75. The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld 8/28/19 8/31/19 ****1/2 273 pages trade paperback
76. Break In by Dick Francis 8/31/19 9/2/19 **** 371 pages mass market paperback
77. The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers 9/2/19 9/7/2019 **** 280 pages hardcover
78. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North 9/7/19 9/13/19 405 pages trade paperback
79. The Story of Language by Dr. John McWhorter 9/1/19 9/20/19 ****1/2 audiobook 18.5 hours
80. The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz 9/19/19 9/24/19 **** 387 pages trade paperback
81. Bob by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead 9/24/19 9/26/19 **** 201 pages hardcover
82. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith 9/21/19 10/9/19 **** audiobook 16 hours
**abandoned A Woman in Jerusalem by A.B. Yehoshua
83. Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers 10/1/19 10/10/19 ****1/2 469 pages hardcover
84. 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shalak 10/12/19 10/15/19 **** 308 pages hardcover
85. Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep 10/5/19 10/25/19 ****1/2 279 pages hardcover
86. The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan 10/15/19 10/27/19 *** 369 pages hardcover
87. Busman's Honeymoon: A Love Story with Detective Interruptions by Dorothy L. Sayers 10/27/19 11/1/19 **** 381 pages hardcover
88. The Gospel in Dorothy L. Sayers edited by Carole Vanderhoof 11/10/18 11/1/19 **** 235 pages trade paperbook
89. Blue Moon by Lee Child 11/1/19 11/4/19 **** 356 pages hardcover
90. The Comforts of Home by Susan Hill 11/4/19 11/5/19 **** 305 pages hardcover
91. Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton 11/5/19 11/10/19 **** 1/2 308 pages hardcover
92. Bolt by Dick Francis 11/11/19 11/12/19 *** 312 pages mass market paperback 1986
93. Silkworm by Robert Galbraith 10/10/19 11/16/19 **** audiobook, 17.5 hours
94. Stuff Matters by Mark Miodownik 11/5/19 11/22/19 **** 231 pages hardcover
95. Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout 11/12/19 11/23/19 ****1/2 289 pages hardcover
**abandoned The Witch Elm by Tana French
96. Cutting Edge: New Stories of Mystery and Crime by Women Writers 11/11/19 11/25/19 *** edited by Joyce Carol Oates 238 pages trade paperback
97. Lord Peter: A Collection of all the Lord Peter Wimsey Stories by Dorothy L. Sayers compiled by James Sandoe 3/30/19 11/28/19 **** 469 pages (didn't read E.C. Bentley's Greedy Night parody.
98. Racing the Devil by Charles Todd 11/26/19 12/1/19 *** 341 pages hardcover
99. The Wimsey Papers—The Wartime Letters and Documents of the Wimsey Family by Dorothy L. Sayers - articles in The Spectator 11/4/19 12/4/19 **** 1939-1940 ~174 pages
100. Hangman's Holiday by Dorothy L. Sayers 11/15/19 12/7/19 **** 182 pages mass market paperback 103 pages not duplicated in Lord Peter
101. In the Teeth of Evidence by Dorothy L. Sayers 11/19/19 12/9/19 **** 221 pages mass market paperback 193 pages not duplicated in Lord Peter
102. The War Poems by Siegfried Sassoon 10/20/19 12/12/19 **** 139 pages hardcover, Kindle
103. The Gatekeeper by Charles Todd 12/2/19 12/15/19 *** 305 pages trade paperback
104. The Black Ascot by Charles Todd 12/15/19 12/27/19 *** 342 pages hardcover

Currently Reading:

A Divided Loyalty by Charles Todd 12/27/19 326 pages trade paperback, Advance Reader's Edition, 2020
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 12/3/19 374 pages hardcover 1859
Why Don't Woodpeckers Get Headaches? by Mike O'Connor 11/24/19 211 pages trade paperback 2007
Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith 11/17/19 audiobook 17 hours 2015

Books added - goal: Less than the 422 *winces* added last year. Note: Any books acquired before 1/1/19 but added now will be noted and not counted against this year's total.

January
1. Louise - Betrayed by Lisa Scottaline
2. Louise - If I Die Tonight by Alison Gaylin
3. Louise - Accused by Lisa Scottaline
4. BookMooch - Bookmooch - The Body in the Transept by Jeanne M. Dams by Jeanne M. Dams
5. Louise - The Snow Globe by Judith Kinghorn
6. Louise - Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult
7. Jenna - Freddie Mercury: A Kind of Magic by Mark Blake
8. Amazon - These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore
9. Habitat - The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
00. Kindle - The Dry by Jane Harper - acquired 11/19/18 added to catalog 1/13/19
10. Louise - Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult
11. Louise - Orchids For Dummies by Steven A. Frowine
12. BookMooch - The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan
13. Habitat - The Day of Atonement by David Liss
14. FoL Sale - Winny de Puh (Winnie the Pooh in Spanish) by A.A. Milne
15. FoL Sale - Cattus Petasatus: The Cat in the Hat in Latin by Dr. Seuss
16. FoL Sale - Gilgamesh: A New English Version by Stephen Mitchell
17. FoL Sale - Intensive Latin First Year & Review: A User's Manual by Carl A.P. Ruck
18. FoL Sale - The Last Days of the Incas by Kim MacQuarrie
19. FoL Sale - 1492: The Year the World Began by Felipe Fernández-Armesto
20. FoL Sale - Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World by Rita Golden Gelman
21. FoL Sale - Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter by Thomas Cahill
22. FoL Sale - How Language Works by David Crystall
23. FoL Sale - Latin Reader. First Part. by Friedrich Jacobs
24. Amazon - Last Friends by Jane Gardam

February
25. reconsidered from cull - The Red Breast by Jo Nesbo
26. Amazon - The Lost Man by Jane Harper
00. Bill - Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - acquired 12/25/19 added to catalog 2/21/19
27. Amazon - Thursday's Children by Nicci French Kindle
28. Louise - Every Fifteen Minuts by Lisa Scottaline
29. Louise - The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George
30. Louise - The House at Riverton by Kate Morton
31. Amazon - Dark Saturday by Nicci French Kindle

March
32. Amazon - Blacklands by Belinda Bauer
33. Karen - Are You Somebody? by Nuala O'Faolain
34. Amazon - Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
35. Amazon - The Comforts of Home by Susan Hill
35. Early Reviewers - Dubious Documents by Nick Bantock
36. FoL Spring Book Sale - Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith (audiobook)
37. FoL Spring Book Sale - Deep Dish by Mary Kay Andrews
38. FoL Spring Book Sale - Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
39. FoL Spring Book Sale - Brilliant by Jane Brox
40. FoL Spring Book Sale - The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War by Bruce Catton
41. FoL Spring Book Sale - Missing You by Harlan Coben
42. FoL Spring Book Sale - 95 Poems by e. e. cummings
43. FoL Spring Book Sale - A Gentleman of Fortune by Anna Dean
44. FoL Spring Book Sale - A Place of Confinement by Anna Dean
45. FoL Spring Book Sale - A Woman of Consequence by Anna Dean
46. FoL Spring Book Sale - Autobiography of Mark Twain by editor Harriet Elinor Smith
47. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Compact Edition of The Oxford English Dictionary: Volume III: A Supplement to The Oxford English Dictionary, Volumes I-IV by editor R.W. Burchfield
48. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Hidden Charles Dickens by editor Stefan R. Dziemianowicz
49. FoL Spring Book Sale - Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
50. FoL Spring Book Sale - Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones
51. FoL Spring Book Sale - One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde
52. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Stories of Jane Gardam by Jane Gardam
53. FoL Spring Book Sale - Amphigorey Again by Edward Gorey
54. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths
55. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Dark Angel by Elly Griffiths
56. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Ghost Fields by Elly Griffiths
57. FoL Spring Book Sale - Dashiell Hammett: Complete Novels by Dashiell Hammett
58. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Lazarus Project by Aleksander Hemow
59. FoL Spring Book Sale - Malice by Keigo Higashino
60. FoL Spring Book Sale - Death Comes for the Fat Man by Reginald Hill
61. FoL Spring Book Sale - Advice on Dying and Living a Better Life by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
62. FoL Spring Book Sale - Hillbilly Elegy by J.A. Vance
63. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Western Star by Craig Johnson
64. FoL Spring Book Sale - A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline
65. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Pursuit of Alice Thrift by Elinor Lipman
66. FoL Spring Book Sale - Peter the Great: His Life and World by Robert K. Massie
67. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer
68. FoL Spring Book Sale - Caravans by James Michener
69. FoL Spring Book Sale - Lightening Men by Thomas Mullen
70. FoL Spring Book Sale - Midnight Dreary: The Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe by John Evangelist Walsh
71. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Book on the Book Shelf by Henry Petroski
72. FoL Spring Book Sale - Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick
73. FoL Spring Book Sale - Crimson Shore by Preston & Child
74. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Pharoah Key by Preston & Child
75. FoL Spring Book Sale - Going Wrong by Ruth Rendell
76. FoL Spring Book Sale - The World According to Fred Rogers by Fred Rogers
77. FoL Spring Book Sale - Miss Julia Takes Over by Ann B. Ross
78. FoL Spring Book Sale - Adventures of the Mind by Saturday Evening Post
79. FoL Spring Book Sale - 1066 and All That by W.C. Sellar & R.J. Yeatman
80. FoL Spring Book Sale - Sixteen Short Novels by Wilfrid Sheed
81. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Teaching of Buddah by The Society for the Promotion of Buddhism
82. FoL Spring Book Sale - Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas
83. FoL Spring Book Sale - Whose Boat Is This Boat? by Donald J. Trump (by accident)
84. FoL Spring Book Sale - Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss
85. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester
86. FoL Spring Book Sale - Save the Date by Mary Kay Andrews
87. FoL Spring Book Sale - My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman
88. FoL Spring Book Sale - An Elizabethan Bestiary Retold by Jeffery Beam, Ippy Patterson, M.J. Sharp
89. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things by Paula Byrne
90. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler
91. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
92. FoL Spring Book Sale - Hidden Depths by Ann Cleeves
93. FoL Spring Book Sale - Telling Tales by Ann Cleeves
94. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Lost Letter of William Woolf by Helen Cullen
95. FoL Spring Book Sale - Bibliomysteries by editor Otto Penzler
96. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Penguin Book of Bird Poetry by editor Peggy Munsterberg
97. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Seventy-Seven Clocks by Christopher Fowler
98. FoL Spring Book Sale - When a Crocodile Eats the Sun by Peter Godwin
99. FoL Spring Book Sale - Tinkers by Paul Harding
100. FoL Spring Book Sale - A Guide to Jane Austen by Michael Hardwick
101. FoL Spring Book Sale - False Colours by Georgette Heyer
102. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson
103. FoL Spring Book Sale - Death Without Company by Craig Johnson
104. FoL Spring Book Sale - Kindness Goes Unpunished by Craig Johnson
105. FoL Spring Book Sale - Another Man's Moccasins by Craig Johnson
106. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Dark Horse by Craig Johnson
107. FoL Spring Book Sale - Junkyard Dogs by Craig Johnson
108. FoL Spring Book Sale - Hell is Empty by Craig Johnson
109. FoL Spring Book Sale - As the Crow Flies by Craig Johnson
110. FoL Spring Book Sale - A Serpent's Tooth by Craig Johnson
111. FoL Spring Book Sale - Any Other Name by Craig Johnson
112. FoL Spring Book Sale - Dry Bones by Craig Johnson
113. FoL Spring Book Sale - An Obvious Fact by Craig Johnson
114. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Dead of Summer by Mari Jungstedt
115. FoL Spring Book Sale - Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
116. FoL Spring Book Sale - The Complete Idiot's Guide to Kabbalah by Rav Michael Laitman Ph.D. with Collin Camright
117. FoL Spring Book Sale - Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
118. FoL Spring Book Sale - West with the Night by Beryl Markham
119. FoL Spring Book Sale - All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
120. FoL Spring Book Sale - Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
121. FoL Spring Book Sale - My Dream of You by Nuala O'Faolain
122. FoL Spring Book Sale - One Foot in Eden by Ron Rash
123. FoL Spring Book Sale - Dark Corners by Ruth Rendell
124. FoL Spring Book Sale - When the Music's Over by Peter Robinson
125. FoL Spring Book Sale - Corrupted by Lisa Scottaline
126. FoL Spring Book Sale - Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides
127. FoL Spring Book Sale - Low Country Boil by Carl T. Smith

April
128. Thrift Shop - Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers
129. Thrift Shop - Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer
130. Louise - Years of Dreams by Gloria Goldreich
131. Louise - Lovers and Friends by Camile Marchetta
132. Amazon - A Moment of Silence by Anna Dean
133. Larry - Hall of Mirrors by Christopher Fowler
134. BookMooch - When I Was Old by Georges Simenon
135. Louise - City of Endless Night by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
136. Thrift Shop - The Assassin's Accomplice by Kate Clifford Larson
137. Marelli IT guy - 5 years ago - The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh
00. Bill - Mastering the Art of French Cooking 2-vol set by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, Simone Beck

May
138. Bookmooch - Christmas Beau by Mary Balogh
139. Amazon - The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers - replacement for worn out copy
140. Biltmore Estate - Biltmore: An American Masterpiece by the Biltmore Company
141. Karen - The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdich
142. Karen - Killing Custer by James Welch
143. ER - The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of North America by Matt Kracht
144. Amazon - Spying on the South by Tony Horwitz
145. Jenn - Dreamer's Pool by Juliet Marillier
00. From Bill's Mama's desk - Quotable Women by Running Press

June
146. Bookmooch - Glass by Sam Savage
147. Amazon - Iron Lake by William Kent Krueger
148. Bookmooch - The Punch Escrow by Tal M. Klein
149. Amazon - The Unfortunate Fursey by Mervyn Wall
150. FoL Book Sort Team - free - The Ascent of Everest by John Hunt
151. Amazon - Boundary Waters by William Kent Krueger
152. Amazon - Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
153. Karen Crowell - The Five Red Herrings and Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers
154. Tamsie Hughes - The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers

July
155. Thrift Shop - Moby Dick by Herman Melville - World's Greatest Literature
156. Thrift Shop - Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray - World's Greatest Literature
157. Thrift Shop - The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper - World's Greatest Literature
158. FoL Book Sort Team - free - The Architecture of Los Angeles by Paul Gleye
159. Montana Karen - Hope Never Dies: An Obama Biden Mystery by Andrew Shaffer
160. Montana Karen - Birds of a Lesser Paradise: Stories by Megan Mayhew Bergman
161. Montana Karen - The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
162. Montana Karen - Modoc: The True Story of the Greatest Elephant That Ever Lived by Ralph Helfer
163. Montana Karen - Too Close to the Sun: The Audacious Life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton by Sara Wheeler
164. Montana Karen - Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World by Bruce Schneier
165. Montana Karen - I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai
166 .Montana Karen - The Pope's Last Crusade: How an American Jesuit Helped Pope Pius XI's Campaign to Stop Hitler by Peter Eisner
167. Montana Karen - The Gold of Exodus by Howard Blumm
168. Amazon - The Basque History of the World by Mark Kurlansky
169. Costco - Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
170. Montana Karen - Books on Fire by Lucien X Polastron
171. Jan - The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths
172. Jan - Purgatory Ridge by William Kent Krueger
173. Jan - This America by Jill Lepore
174. Peggy - The Pope Who Quit by Jon M. Sweeney
175. Peggy - The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George
176. Peggy - The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
177. Amazon - The House at Sea's End by Elly Griffiths
178. Thrift Shop - Pride by Ibi Zoboi
179. Thrift Shop - Jane Austen & The State by Mary Evans
180. Thrift Shop - Infinitesimal by Amir Alexander
181. Thrift Shop - Franny and Zoey by J.D. Salinger
182. Thrift Shop - The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen
183. Habitat - Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl
184. BookMooch - The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick
185. BookMooch - The Ice Princes by Camilla Lackberg

August
186. FoL book sort book - Why Religion? by Elaine Pagels
187. Amazon - The Woman in Blue by Elly Griffiths Kindle
188. Bookmooch - Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller
189. Amazon - The Woman in Blue by Elly Griffiths - hardcover
190. Amazon - The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths
191. Book sort - freebie - The Book of the Dead by Preston & Child
192. Cole Park Thrift Shop - The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash
193. Cole Park Thrift Shop - Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
194. Cole Park Thrift Shop - Portobello by Ruth Rendell
195. Cole Park Thrift Shop - Friday the Rabbi Slept Late by Harry Kemelman
196. Amazon - Ruth's First Christmas Tree by Elly Griffiths Kindle short story
197. Amazon - The Stone Circle by Elly Griffiths
198. Amazon - The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths
199. Book sort - freebie - The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe in One Volume
200. Circle City Books - The Western Star by Craig Johnson - trade paper to go with rest of my collection, offset by removing hardcover from catalog
201. Circle City Books - Slay Ridd by Dick Francis
202. Circle City Books - Proof by Dick Francis
203. Circle City Books - Risk by Dick Francis
204. Friend Sherry - Breaking Wild by Diane Les Becquets

September
205. Amazon - A Woman in Jerusalem by A.B. Yehoshua
206. Amazon - Clear Springs by Bobbie Ann Mason
207. Amazon - Beloved by Toni Morrison
208. Amazon - The Frozen Dead by Bernard Minier
209. Thrift Shop - Cemetary Dance by Preston & Child
210. Thrift Shop - The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz
211. Thrift Shop - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
212. Amazon - The Frangipani Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu
213. FoL Fall Book Sale volunteer book - The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
214. FoL Fall Book Sale gift book - In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
215. FoL Fall Book Sale volunteer book - These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer
216. Amazon - Bob by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead
217. Amazon - The Butterfly Girl by Rene Denfeld
218. FoL Fall Book Sale - This Simian World by Clarence Day
219. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Peking Man Is Missing by Claire Taschdjian
220. FoL Fall Book Sale - Free Reign by Rosemary Aubert
221. FoL Fall Book Sale - Unnatural Fire by Fidelis Morgan
222. FoL Fall Book Sale - Justice by Larry Watson
223. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Last Judgement by Iain Pears
224. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Last Basselope: One Ferocious Story by Berke Breathed
225. FoL Fall Book Sale - Southern Living Christmas in the Kitchen: The Ultimate Guide to Cooking for the Holidays by Southern Living
226. FoL Fall Book Sale - Detective Inspector Huss by Helene Tursten
227. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt
228. FoL Fall Book Sale - God Is an Englishman by R.F. Delderfield
229. FoL Fall Book Sale - On the Chocolate Trail: A Delicious Adventure Connecting Jews, Religions, History, Travel, Rituals and Recipes to the Magic of Cacao by Rabbi Deborah R. Prinz
230. FoL Fall Book Sale - Night by Bernard Minier
231. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Chalon Heads by Barry Maitland
232. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Romeo Flag by Carolyn Hougan
233. FoL Fall Book Sale - Under the Harrow by Flynn Berry
234. FoL Fall Book Sale - Aunty Lee's Delights by Ovidia Yu
235. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol. 1: Fort Sumter to Perryville by Shelby Foote
236. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol. 2: Fredericksburg to Meridian by Shelby Foote
237. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Civil War: A Narrative, Vol. 3: Red River to Appomattox by Shelby Foote
238. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin by Gordon S. Wood
239. FoL Fall Book Sale - Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
240. FoL Fall Book Sale - Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin
241. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Mislaid Magician or Ten Years After by Patricia C. Wrede
242. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Dry by Jane Harper
243. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Essential Art of War by Sun-Tzu Ping-Fa
244. FoL Fall Book Sale - The President Is Missing by Bill Clinton and that other guy
245. FoL Fall Book Sale - Murder at Longbourn by Tracy Kiely
246. FoL Fall Book Sale - A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers
247. FoL Fall Book Sale - Little Bee by Chris Cleave
248. FoL Fall Book Sale - Incendiary by Chris Cleave
249. FoL Fall Book Sale - Wait for Signs: Twelve Longmire Stories by Craig Johnson
250. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Wasp Cookbook by Alexandra Wentworth
251. FoL Fall Book Sale - War with the Newts by Karel Capek
252. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng
253. FoL Fall Book Sale - Graveyard Dust by Barbara Hambly
254. FoL Fall Book Sale - Books to Die For: The World's Greatest Mystery Writers on the World's Greatest Mystery Novels by John Connolly
255. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Punishment She Deserves by Elizabeth George
256. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Monster in the Box by Ruth Rendell
257. FoL Fall Book Sale - Copper River by William Kent Krueger
258. FoL Fall Book Sale - Valiant Ambition by Nathaniel Philbrick
259. FoL Fall Book Sale - Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney: Slavery, Secession, and the President's War Powers by James F. Simon
260. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester
261. FoL Fall Book Sale - December 6 by Martin Cruz Smith
262. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman
263. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Witch Elm by Tana French
264. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Master by Colm Tóibín
265. FoL Fall Book Sale - Entry Island by Peter May
266. FoL Fall Book Sale - Tulipomania : The Story of the World's Most Coveted Flower & the Extraordinary Passions It Aroused by Mike Dash
267. FoL Fall Book Sale - My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg
268. FoL Fall Book Sale - Mapmakers by John Noble Wilford
269. FoL Fall Book Sale - Open Season by C.J. Box
270. FoL Fall Book Sale - Sanditon, the Watsons, Miss by Jane Austen
271. FoL Fall Book Sale - Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany by Jane Mount
272. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Horns of Ramadan by Arthur Train
273. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Adventures of Gerard by A. Conan Doyle
274. FoL Fall Book Sale - Lawrence of Arabia and his world by Richard Perceval Graves
275. FoL Fall Book Sale - Double Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
276. FoL Fall Book Sale - Dexter Is Delicious by Jeff Lindsay
277. FoL Fall Book Sale - Signal Loss by Garry Disher
278. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Son by Jo Nesbo
279. FoL Fall Book Sale - Early Riser by Jasper Fforde
280. FoL Fall Book Sale - Lost Rights: The Misadventures of a Stolen American Relic by David Howard
281. FoL Fall Book Sale - Raylan by Elmore Leonard
282. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Disappearance of Sherlock Holmes by Larry Millett
283. FoL Fall Book Sale - Darktown by Thomas Mullen
284. FoL Fall Book Sale - Vermilion Drift by William Kent Krueger
285. FoL Fall Book Sale - The Geographer's Library by Jon Fasman
286. FoL Fall Book Sale - David O. Selznick's Hollywood by Ronald Haver
287. FoL Fall Book Sale - Kipling: A Selection of His Stories and Poems Volume I by John Beecroft
288. FoL Fall Book Sale - Kipling: A Selection of His Stories and Poems Volume II by John Beecroft
289. FoL Fall Book Sale - A Killer angels Companion by D. Scott Hartwig

October
290. Amazon - The Butterfly Girl by Rene Denfeld
291. Louise - Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
292. Louise - At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen
293. LT Early Reviewers Program - Cutting Edge: New Stories of Mystery and Crime by Women Writers edited by Joyce Carol Oates
294. Amazon - Lethal White by Robert Galbraith, audiobook
295. Amazon - Buddhism Plain & Simple by Steve Hagen
296. Book sort reject - creased covers and all pages, upper right - Descartes' Bones by Russell Shorto
297. Thrift Shop - The Wheel of Darkness by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
298. Jessica Adam - The Alibi Man by Tami Hoag

November
299. Amazon - Blue Moon by Lee Child
300. Friend Mark - Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson
301. Book sort reject - The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
302. Book sort reject - The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
303. Book sort reject - The Invisibles by Jesse J. Holland
304. Amazon - Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout
305. Amazon - The Nicholas Blake Treasurey Volume 2 by Nicholas Blake
306. Amazon - Kindle - We of the Never-Never by Mrs. Aeneas Gunn - recommended by MissWatson

December
307. Bookooch - The Vegetarian by Han Kang
308. Mark Dawson website - 1000 Yards by Mark Dawson
309. Mark Dawson website - Tarantula by Mark Dawson
310. Kindle - The Wimsey Papers—The Wartime Letters and Documents of the Wimsey Family by Dorothy L. Sayers
311. Karen - December 2019 - New Testament in Modern English by J.B. Phillips
312. Karen - December 2019 - Winter Solstice by Elin Hildebrand
313. Karen - December 2019 - Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl by Stacey O'Brien
314. Karen - December 2019 - This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral--Plus Plenty of Valet Parking!--in America's Gilded Capital by Mark Leibovich
315. Karen - December 2019 - Brisingr, or The Seven Promises of Eragon Shadeslayer and Saphira Bjartskular. Inheritance. by Christopher Paolini
316. Karen - December 2019 - Eternity Street: Violence and Justice in Frontier Los Angeles by John Mack Faragher
317. Amazon mistake - White Oleander by Janet fitch
318. Kindle - The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon by Siegfried Sassoon
319. book sort team - Prayer, and Some Mistakes About It. by David C. Cook
320. book sort team - Lost Crowns; or, Blooming Where Jesus Has Placed You. by David C. Cook
321. don't know - Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman
322. Christmas 2019 - The Sentence Is Death by Anthony Horowitz
323. Christmas 2019 - The Night Fire by Michael Connelly
324. Bill's - Three Novels of the Future: The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds by H.G Wells
325. Bill's - Children of Dune by Frank Herbert
326. Bill's - Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
327. Bill's - God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert
328. Bill's - Get a Life! by William Shatner
329. Bill's - More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide: Complete & Unabridged by Douglas Adams
330. book sort team extra copies - Luther by Scott Hendrix
331. book sort team extra copies - Devil in the Hole by Charles Salzberg
332. book sort team extra copies - The Low Road by Chris Womersley
333. book sort team extra copies - Murder on the Tracks by Bruce W. Most
334. book sort team extra copies - Framing Innocence: A Mother's Photographs, a Prosecutor's Zeal, and a Small Town's Response by Lynn Powell
335. book sort team extra copies - Killer Routine by Alan Orloff
336. book sort team extra copies - Diamonds for the Dead by Alan Orloff
337. Amazon - Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly
338. Christmas 2019 - The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
339. Christmas 2019 - Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
340. Bookmooch - The Teapot Dome Scandal by Laton MCartney
341. book sort team reject - The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim

Books culled goal: More than the 84 from last year.

The Harry Hole books by Jo Nesbo:
1. The Bat - hardcover
2. Cockroaches - paperback
3. Cockroaches - audiobook
4. Nemesis - hardcover
5. The Devil's Star - paperback
6. Redeemer - paperback
7. The Snowman - hardcover
8. The Leopard - paperback
9. Phantom - hardcover
10. Police - paperback
11. The Redbreast - paperback

12. White Noise by Don DeLillo - started it, didn't like it
13. The Body in the Transept by Jeanne M. Dams
14. The Shimmering Stones of Winter's Light by Constance Walker
15. A Man without Breath by Philip Kerr
16. Anvil of Stars by Greg Bear
17. Betty-Anne's Helpful Household Hints by
18. Billy Budd by Coxe and Chapman
19. Death of a Greedy Woman by M.C. Beaton
20. Death of a Bore by M.C. Beaton
21. Death of a Charming Man by M.C. Beaton
22. Death of a Dentist by M.C. Beaton
23. Death of a Dreamer by M.C. Beaton
24. Death of a Dustman by M.C. Beaton
25. Death of a Gentle Lady by M.C. Beaton
26. Death of a Hussy by M.C. Beaton
27. Death of a Perfect Wife by M.C. Beaton
28. Death of a Prankster by M.C. Beaton
29. Death of a Scriptwriter by M.C. Beaton
30. Death of a Snob by M.C. Beaton
31. Death of an Outsider by M.C. Beaton
32. Four in Hand by Stephanie Laurens
33. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
34. Hard Courts by John Feinstein
35. In the Hand of Dante by Nick Tosches
36. Jumping the Queue by Mary Wesley
37. Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon
38. Summerland by Michael Chabon
39. Summerland -audiobook by Michael Chabon
40. Teach Yourself Beginner's Dutch by Gerdi Quist and Leslie Gilbert
41. Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon
42. The Appeal by John Grisham
43. The Case of the Deadly Toy by Erle Stanley Gardner
44. The Case of the Fan-Dancer's Horse by Erle Stanley Gardner
45. The Case of the Howling Dog by Erle Stanley Gardner
46. The Case of the Substitute Face by Erle Stanley Gardner
47. The Case of the Troubled Trustee by Erle Stanley Gardner
48. The Final Solution by Michael Chabon
49. The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld
50. The New Yorker Album 1925-1950 by
51. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
52. The Royal Physician's Visit by Per Olov Enquist
53. You Can't Be Serious by John McEnroe
54. Fiddlers by Ed McBain
55. Abraham Lincoln:Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
56. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith
57. Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes
58. With the Old Breed by E. B. Sledge
59. The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean
60. The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond
61. Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym
62. The Orchid Affair by Lauren Willig
63. Kate Vaiden by Reynolds Price
64. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
65. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by Daviud Wroblewski
66. The Pink Irish Rose by Hazel Rash Fleming
67. Bliss, Remembered by Frank DeFord
68. Grafton Square by Alfred J. Batty
69. Dandy Dutch Recipes by Mina Baker-Roelofs
70. The Twelve by Justin Cronin
71. The Cherry Blossom Corpse by Robert Barnard
72. The List of Seven by Mark Frost
73. Pegasus Descending by James Lee Burke
74. Death of an Old Goat by Robert Barnard
75. The Seduction of the Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig
76. The Betrayal of the Blood Lily by Lauren Willig
77. The Deception of the Emerald Ring by Lauren Willig
78. The Masque of the Black Tulip by Lauren Willig
79. The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig
80. The Skeleton in the Grass by Robert Branard
81. A City of Strangers by Robert Bernard
82. Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle
83. An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L'Engle
84. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Yay!

85. A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle
86. A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle
87. Troubling a Star by Madeleine L'Engle
88. A Live Coal in the Sea by Madeleine L'Engle
89. Coffeemakers by Ambrogio Fumagalli
90. In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
91. Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer
92. The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo - re-culling
Joanna Brady series - won't read
93. Remains of Innocence by J.A. Jance
94. Dead Wrong by J.A. Jance
95. Damage Control by J.A. Jance
96. Judgment Call by J.A. Jance
97. Desert Heat by J.A. Jance
98. Outlaw Mountain by J.A. Jance
------------------------------------
99. Sleeping in the Ground by Peter Robinson
100. Miss Julia Delivers the Goods by Ann B. Ross
101. Miss Julia Paints the Town by Ann B. Ross
102. Miss Julia Renews her Vows by Ann B. Ross
103. Daddy's Girl by Lisa Scottoline
104. Career of Evil - culled damaged-box copy, kept one acquired in March
105. The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers - old, worn out copy, replaced
106. Malice by Keigo Higashino - mailed to jnwelch
107. Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer - outdated
108. In Too Deep by Cherry Adair
109. Out of Sight by Cherry Adair
110. Kiss and Tell by Cherry Adair
111. Hide and Seek by Cherry Adair
112. On Thin Ice by Cherry Adair
113. Edge of Fear by Cherry Adair
114. Edge of Darkness by Cherry Adair
115. Edge of Danger by Cherry Adair
116. Hot Ice by Cherry Adair
117. Hush by Cherry Adair
118. The Mercenary by Cherry Adair
119. White Heat by Cherry Adair
120. Night Fall by Cherry Adair
121. Night Shadow by Cherry Adair
122. Night Secrets by Cherry Adair
123. To the Limit by Cindy Gerard
124. Into the Dark by Cindy Gerard
125. To the Brink by Cindy Gerard
126. Under the Wire by Cindy Gerard
127. To the Edge by Cindy Gerard
128. Over the Line by Cindy Gerard
129. Show No Mercy by Cindy Gerard
130. Take No Prisoners by Cindy Gerard
131. Whisper No Lies by Cindy Gerard
132. Feel the Heat by Cindy Gerard
133. Risk No Secrets by Cindy Gerard
134. With No Remorse by Cindy Gerard
135. Beowulf, translated by Burton Raffel
136. Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L Sayers, old, worn out copy, replaced
137. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
138. A Widow's Curse by Phillip DePoy
139. A Minister's Ghost by Phillip DePoy
140. The Drifter's Wheel by Phillip DePoy
141. A Garden of Vipers by Jack Kerley
142. One Good Turn by Carla Kelly
143. Numbered Account by Christopher Reich
144. A Calculated Risk by Katherine Neville
145. The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder
146. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
147. Napoleon's Pyramids by William Dietrich
148. The Witch's Grave by Phillip DePoy
149. The Hundredth Man by Jack Kerley
150. The Death Collectors by Jack Kerley
151. Lord Peter Views the Body by Dorothy L. Sayers
152. Blood Brother by Jack Kerley
153. The Devil's Hearth by Phillip DePoy
154. America's Hidden History by Kenneth C. Davis - CDs - listened to, won't listen to again
155. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch - CDs
156. Cattus Petasatus: The Cat in the Hat in Latin by Dr. Seuss, translated by Terentio Tunberg (gift to Peggy)
157. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton - duplicate
158. Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas by Tom Robbins
159. The Killing of Karen Silkwood by Richard Rashke
160. A Gentleman's Mistress by Mary Brendan
161. Suddenly by Candace Camp
162. A Stolen Heart by Candace Camp
163. Secrets Of The Heart by Candace Camp
164. The Hidden Heart by Candace Camp
165. The Marriage Wager by Candace Camp
166. Miss Wonderful by Loretta Chase
167. The Lion's Daughter by Loretta Chase
168. Captives of the Night by Loretta Chase
169. Mr. Impossible by Loretta Chase
170. Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase
171. With All My Heart by Jo Goodman
172. My Reckless Heart by Jo Goodman
173. All I Ever Needed by Jo Goodman
174. One Forbidden Evening by Jo Goodman
175. Everything I Ever Wanted by Jo Goodman
176. Let Me Be The One by Jo Goodman
177. My Steadfast Heart by Jo Goodman
178. Beyond A Wicked Kiss by Jo Goodman
179. Lucky's Lady by Tami Hoag
180. Crazy Sweet by Tara Janzen
181. Crazy Love by Tara Janzen
182. Reap the Wind by Iris Johansen
183. Where Dreams Begin by Lisa Kleypas
184. Autumn Lover by Elizabeth Lowell
185. The Legacy of the Rose by Kasey Michaels
186. My Beloved by Karen Ranney
187. The Rescue by Suzanne Robinson
188. Annalise by Libby Sydes
189. Whisper His Name by Elizabeth Thornton
190. Velvet Is The Night by Elizabeth Thornton
191. You Only Love Twice by Elizabeth Thornton
192. Strangers at Dawn by Elizabeth Thornton
193. Love Only Once by Johanna Lindsey
194. Love Me Forever by Johanna Lindsey
195. 77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz - audiobook
196. Innocence by Dean Koontz - audiobook
197. John Adams by David McCullough - audiobook
198. Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power by Richard Carwardine - audiobook
199. No Excuses: Existentialism and the Meaning of Life by Robert Soloman - audiobook
200. Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson - audiobook
201. Paris by Edward Rutherfurd - audiobook
202. Skink--No Surrender by Carl Hiaasen - audiobook
203. The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad - audiobook
204. The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris by David McCullough - audiobook
205. The Help by Kathryn Stockett - audiobook
206. The History of the Supreme Court by Peter Irons - audiobook
207. The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh - audiobook
208. The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd - audiobook
209. The Rathbones by Janice Clark - audiobook
210. Transmission by Hari Kunzru - audiobook
211. West With the Night by Beryl Markhan - audiobook
212. Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling
213. A Meeting at Corvallis by S.M. Stirling
214. Against the Tide of Years by S.M. Stirling
215. On the Oceans of Eternity by S.M. Stirling
216. The Peshawar Lancers by S.M. Stirling
217. Conquistador: A Novel of Alternate History by S.M. Stirling
218. The Protector's War: A Novel of the Change by S.M. Stirling
219. The Sunrise Lands by S.M. Stirling
220. The Western Star by Craig Johnson replaced wit trade paperback to match rest of series
221. Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin
222. In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner
223. Foods that Hal by Maureen Salaman
224. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
225. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood Will never read it, will never watch the series.
226. West with the Night by Beryl Markham
227. A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline
228. Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
229. Virginia Woolf: A Biography by Quentin Bell
230. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
231. These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer - mass market paperback
232. A Letter of Mary by Laurie R. King
233. Pirate King by Laurie R. King
234. Sanditon by Jane Austen - upgraded to a better copy
235. Britt-Marie was here by Fredrik Backman
236. My Grandmother asked me to tell you she's sorry by Fredrik Backman
237. S. by John Updike
238. Terrorist by John Updike
239. Licks of Love by John Updike
240. The Bird Songs Anthology by Lee Beletsky
241. Memoirs of a Russian Lady: Drawings and Tales of Life Before the Revolution by Mariamna Davydoff
242. A Study in Sherlock edited by Laurie R. King - gift for friend Karen
243. Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan
244. The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan
245. The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan
246. Keeping Watch by Laurie R. King
247. Merlin by Norma Lorre Goodrich
248. King Arthur by Norma Lorre Goodrich
249. Dead in the Scrub by B.J. Oliphant
250. The Witch Elm by Tana French
251. A Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd
252. An Impartial Witness by Charles Todd
253. Cutting Edge edited by Joyce Carol Oates - ER short stories
254. Redemption by John Hart
255. Copper River by William Kent Krueger - duplicate

Statistics Through November 30

97 books read
8 books abandoned, 992 pages
1 standalone short story
29448 pages read
93.5 audiobook hours
Avg pages read per day, YTD = 88
Avg pages read per month, YTD = 2677
Avg pages read per book, YTD = 304
Avg rating of all books read, YTD= 3.97
Month-end TBR (incl started) 2145

Author
Male 32%
Female 68%

Living 68%
Dead 32%

US Born 38%
Foreign Born 62%

Platform
Hardcover 42%
Trade Pback 31%
Mass Market 15%
Audiobook 5%
e-Book 6%

Source
My Library 85%
Library or Other 15%

Misc
ARC/ER 3%
Re-read 28%
Series 59%

Fiction 89%
NonFiction 11%

Author Birth Country
Australia 3%
England 54%
France 1%
Israel 1%
Japan 1%
Nigeria 1%
US 39%

Original Decade Published
1920-1929 4%
1930-1939 10%
1940-1949 1%
1950-1959 1%
1960-1969 4%
1970-1979 4%
1980-1989 3%
1990-1999 10%
2000-2009 8%
2010-2019 54%

Genre
Biography 2%
Essays 2%
Fiction 14%
Graphic Novel 1%
Historical Fiction 2%
History 4%
Humor 1%
Linguistics 1%
Memoir 1%
Mystery 56%
Romance 1%
Science 1%
Speculative Fiction 8%
Thriller 4%
YA 1%

Next message is yours!

Happy new thread, Karen! And, don't we all have that photo (the roly poly, on the right)? I sure do! ;-)

Happy new thread Karen!

You might have been roly-poly, but you also look like an energetic and happy child. Are they sure you couldn't get off that davenport?

You have been doing well, meeting your goals this year.

Happy New Thread, Karen. How is Why Don't Woodpeckers Get Headaches coming along? I listen to the "Talkin' Birds" podcast each week and Mike O' Connor is regularly featured. A fun, informative guy. Check out the podcast sometime.

Happy new thread, Karen!

Happy new one!

I wondered where you had gone... the "old" thread was so silent.

Happy Christmassy 🎄 thread!

Happy New Thread, Karen!

Hooray for meeting your 100 book goal - as well as acquiring 100 fewer books than last year! as well as discarding so many! Looks like a very successful book year all the way around.

I'm glad Jenna is home and that you are having a good time.

I have never watched Schitt's Creek, so I've added it to the Netflix queue. I love watching series on Netflix - not much interesting on TV right now. Coupled with long dark evenings - oh, my. I'm glad the days will be getting longer soon! You'd think these long dark evenings would mean my house would be sparkling - Ha!- and my reviews for LT all caught up, but it never seems to be what I'm in the mood for in the evenings.

...there're chipping sparrows? I thought y'all freaked out when people ate songbirds and here are some named after the method by which (one presumes) they are prepared to be served on toast! ...weird...

Happy Dr. Demento Daze! *smooch*

>14 richardderus:, Ummm... I thought it was their chip-chip song.

Silly me.

Happy new one and congrats on 100! Glad Jenna is home. Happy holidays!!

>15 SandyAMcPherson: ...song...? They don't cawcawscreechcaw? Hm. I thought birders were just being cute when they said birds "sang."

Hi Karen, happy new thread my dear.

Happy New Thread, Karen.

Your description of retirement always makes me laugh, and makes me feel good about the shared enjoyment of it.

Fun baby photos!

Happy New Thread, Karen!

Happy new thread!

136 weeks until I join you in the Retirement Happy Dance.

Meanwhile, happy new and probably last thread of the year!

>7 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley. When Jenna was little, 26 years ago, her doctor told me he wanted her to be a ‘lean, mean, little machine’. So at 1 year old she weighed 19 pounds. But when I was little, I’m not quite sure what they wanted for babies. Roly-poly together, right?

>8 EllaTim: Thanks, Ella. I was happy, energetic, and except for ear infections pretty healthy. Once the baby fat came off, I was quite active – until I hit puberty, that is. Then the still-to-be-endured battle with weight began. I’m pleased with my reading goals. Yup, I am.

>9 msf59: Thanks, Mark! Here’s where I am in the Robins Are Not Boring chapter:

The robin is one of the most common birds on the continent. It is properly referred to as the American Robin, not because it is an overly patriotic bird but because it was misnamed by a group of early settlers. The British, still seasick from crossing the Atlantic and high on tea, named one of the firt birds they saw “robin.” They thought our robin looked much like the English (European) Robin, which, of course, is stupid. The American Robin is a ten-inch-long robust bird, while the little weenie English Robin is barely over five inches long and is rumored to be petrified of worms.

Thanks for the info re the “Talkin’ Birds” podcast.

>10 katiekrug: Thanks, Katie!

>11 figsfromthistle: Thank you, Anita.

>12 SandyAMcPherson: I usually stop my threads around 300 messages, give or take a couple, so it was time. Thanks, Sandy!

>13 streamsong: Thank you, Janet. Last year the 4 boxes from Karen added an extra hundred, so although I am absolutely down in numbers, I am not functionally down in numbers. Sigh. It’s these darned book sales…

We are having a good time.

>14 richardderus: RD, I almost made chipped beef for breakfast today but got lazy. We don’t chip the birds, either into breakfast food or with implants under their skin…

God! I remember so many good times in Redondo Beach listening to Dr. Demento. Fun times. *smooch*

>15 SandyAMcPherson: I’m clueless, Sandy.

>16 Berly: Thanks, Kim, twice. Happy Holidays to you, too.

>17 richardderus: The most irritating thing about bird calls is that they all have more than one, drat them, so you think you’ve heard a particular bird but NO, it’s another bird being cranky or in a weird or copy-cat mood. And don’t get me started on their markings because the little weasels change colors depending on season or if they’re boys or girls or if they’re juvenile or adult. It’s all very confusing…

>18 johnsimpson: Hi John! Thank you.

>19 jnwelch: Thanks, Joe. Glad you like my retirement warbling…

>20 ronincats: Thanks, Roni.

>21 quondame: And thank you, too, Susan.

>22 EBT1002: It’s nice to have a goal, Ellen, especially one that can be counted down. I am pretty sure this will be the last one of the year, and thank you.

Happy New Thread, Karen! You've kept us busy this year.
I do recognize the woman in the baby's face, which is pretty amazing, I think.
Hope you can take some time to breathe this almost-Christmas week.

Morning, Karen. Happy Monday. I am waking up to a light coating of snow out there. This I can handle. Not sure if I will venture out much today or not. Enjoy your day with Jenna.

>24 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy! I'm feeling frazzled, but hopefully a day to hang with Jenna and bake some cookies then go to dinner with friend Jan will get me out of my frazzle-funk. I'm not feeling 100% which may be contributing to it, but don't want to put off Jan again. Other than that I have book sort tomorrow, an optometrist appointment for Jenna as part of her Christmas present on Wednesday - exam and new glasses - and a Christmas luncheon on Thursday at Bill's work that he says it's okay if we don't come but know that deep down he'd be major disappointed if we didn't. Bleh.

>25 msf59: 'Morning to you, too, Mark, and happy snowy Monday. Inside is good on days like that, IMO, if you don't have to go out. Enjoy the books and down time.

Happy new thread, Karen!

>1 karenmarie: & >24 LizzieD: Agree with Peggy, at 6 months you are recognisable YOU :-)

Thank you, Anita!

I have a pic of my mother as a baby that looks eerily similar - when I find it I'll post it, round-headed plump babies that we were.

...
Well. Jenna and I co-opted one of Bill's book cases in the Media Room, if you'll remember from the pic I posted earlier this fall. Those books and Tom Clarke Gnomes are all safely put away and now my books are in the book case. Bonus - I thought they'd completely fill it, but as you can see there's still LOTS of room!!

...

I'm in!

I'm going to have to do some reading soon.

>28 karenmarie: I always applaud co-opting bookshelves and storing the doodads!

We have at least four xerox-paper-sized boxes full of Canadian pressed glass from the early 1900's stored. The books take up the space that the glass occupied. Much more satisfying. And easier to dust, with no hand washing, because guess who had to do that chore?

I'm also starting to eyeball a bookshelf with my fiction/fantasy which has too many books laying horizontally across the tops of the upright books. And here I had culled old reading material last year and made everything fit properly. I think Book-Gremlins sneak out of the drains at night and mess up the shelves with junk reading...

Morning, Karen. I had a great day off yesterday and topped it off, with finally seeing my first Short-Eared Owl. A lifer, of course. Details on my thread. It is funny, how something like that really stokes my interest, getting my mind buzzing, of where to go next.

Back to the chilly grind today...

>29 SomeGuyInVirginia: Hi Larry!

>30 weird_O: It’s hard to read instead of just gloat over your book sale acquisitions, isn’t it, Bill? Get crackin’!

>31 SandyAMcPherson: Hi Sandy! I have one shelf here in the Sunroom that is the Shelf of Family Memoribilia. While looking at it yesterday with Jenna, I realize that I had put two rows of books on it and doodads are proliferating on other shelves. Now I’ll move the books upstairs and re-consolidate the doodads to the one shelf.

Canadian pressed glass? Very cool. Except…. Books. I have some milk glass, but only have 2 pieces out, both given to me by friend Karen in Montana. Her great-grandmother’s, I believe.

Book-Gremlins are as good an explanation as any – I’ve always thought the books themselves sneak around at night and when I’m away. And some just adopt me. Very few leave, though. Good luck when you reorganize the shelf.

>32 msf59: Mark! A Lifer!!! Very cool, congrats. I hope your work day is uneventful. Do you still have the package helpers? We’ve had quite a few newbies deliver stuff to the house because they don’t know where stuff usually gets put. We’ve had to conduct some around-the-house searches recently and found packages near different doors.

Happy new thread!

Thanks, Jim!

>28 karenmarie: Ooo lurvely to have elbow room!

>31 SandyAMcPherson: They have a union lodge in my room, and train newbs with my shelves.

Feel like hammered bird seed. Tomorrow I see the pulmonologist to go over symptoms, get the sleep test scheduled (I both hope and expect), and inch one step closer to sleeping more than 3hrs at a stretch.

>28 karenmarie: Oh year- I forgot to say. In our house it's the Hummel figures.
>36 richardderus: All good wishes for successful treatment, RD. No more than 3hrs of sleep at a stretch is killing.

>28 karenmarie: wherein I ask a lot of personal questions. How did you convince him to give up his bookcase?! Also what's that color? I love deep colors. Why did you paint it that color? Is it because of the evening light or the daylight light? I still miss my dark navy blue walls from my old apartment. Very dramatic. They looked a deep Stony blue but at night they looked almost black.

>36 richardderus: I'm thrilled and only have 6 books from what was on the shelves that Jenna and I kept out, 8 books from the book sort effort today (books donated from a local indie, multiple copies, after keeping what we thought we could sell the rest were going to go to the thrift shop with no remunertion to us, so we get to keep any of those we want), and 17 from location S23 so I can get all my family memoribilia back on one shelf. So 31 will go upstairs tomorrow...

I hope your appt tomorrow goes well and that you get the sleep test scheduled.

>37 LizzieD: I do recall seeing Hummel figures in your house Peggy...

>38 SomeGuyInVirginia:

1. How did you convince him to give up his bookcase?!He doesn't know yet. I can't remember the last time he went upstairs. I'll tell him soon, promise. He prefers the TV downstairs (I bought him a 65" 4K OLED TV a year and a half ago, but even before that the 60" HD TV we had was better than the 21 1/2 year old projection system we have upstairs. And he doesn't listen to music the way he used to and doesn't need that room for music, either.

2. Also what's that color? I don't remember the exact color name, but it was a Duron paint. The trim and bookcases are gray. The rug is a darker gray than the trim with maroon/black streaks in it with a 10" black border all around. It is really quite nice.

3. Why did you paint it that color? I didn't. Bill chose the colors and they are truly gorgeous. I don't particularly like gray, but it was his room, his color choices. The room is acoustically pure - meaning that the room dimensions provide perfect acoustics and the paint has sand in it to muffle/or whatever the sound to remove echo-y stuff. Feels like sandpaper to the touch. There is only one double window in the one wall. The side walls have the recessed bookcases and the wall opposite the window has the projection screen.

4. Is it because of the evening light or the daylight light? It is because of no light under viewing/listening circumstances - the windows have blackout shades that are only open right now to get the books moved around.

The walls in your old apartment sound quite wonderful.

>39 karenmarie: "How did you convince him to give up his bookcase?!He doesn't know yet." ROFL!! Glad you have extra room, too. Hope you feel 100% sooner than later.

Hi Kim! Well, it's not my best moment, admittedly. I honestly think he won't mind, otherwise I wouldn't have done it. Time will tell.

Thanks - I feel almost 100%

...
Today I'm working on Christmas cards. I hope to get them done this morning. I need 35 wallet-sized photos of a photo we had taken at the family party on the 14th, so will take a flash drive to Walmart and order them. After that I'm taking Jenna to the optometrist for an eye exam and new glasses as part of her Christmas. Lunch out, picking up the photos, stuffing 35 Christmas cards, and then taking all 60 to the PO.

Morning, Karen. I see you were up early today. Maybe, a nap later? Yes, we are still getting parcel assistance but the volume was pretty light yesterday. Probably a lot more packages today. Very cold here today too, but we have a nice warm-up coming, that should last through Christmas.

'Morning, Mark!

Up early, all cards written and addressed. Those without pics stamped, return-addressed, and sealed. I'm on it!!

I hope the volume is manageable today. Yay for a warm up.

A nap is not out of the range of possibilities this afternoon...

I got my 50 or so Christmas cards mailed out, finally! They had a family picture. I'll try to post it on my new thread next year.

Love the bookshelf photo, the colors and the explanation of the surfaces.

>33 karenmarie: "gloat over your book sale acquisitions" OOOOh feelng feisty, aren't you!

I'm doing Christmas cards today, too. And some carpet cleaning (don't ask!). The first time through made a smeary mess so if it ever dries, I will be trying super duper pro-fessional grade certified stuff.

>44 The_Hibernator: Congrats, Rachel! I'll look forward to seeing the family pic next year.

>45 streamsong: Thanks, Janet. Feisty in a good way - not critical. Yup. Yay for your Christmas cards, too.

...
Jenna got an eye exam and new frames/lenses. We ate lunch out. We got wallet-size pics of our family photo, one last present from Jenna for her dad, and a watch battery for her Hufflepuff watch. Came home and added pics to the appropriate cards and sealed them up, moved all the books mentioned in >39 karenmarie: upstairs, except one Easton Press book that has been added to the other Easton Press books downstairs.

Off to the PO.

Tomorrow we're going to the shelter to see if there are any kitties that want to adopt us.

>28 karenmarie: It looks like someone needs to go book shopping. Happy new thread, Karen.

Happy new thread, Karen! >28 karenmarie: Empty shelf space? That looks like a challenge!

Morning, Karen. Sweet Thursday. I did see a Cooper's Hawk fly out of a hedge and into a tree, above me, yesterday. My only noteworthy bird sighting, for the route. Super quiet. Enjoy your day!

>47 BLBera: Thanks, Beth! Empty shelves do make me twitch a bit.

>48 Familyhistorian: Thank you, Meg! See above re twitching...

>49 msf59: 'Morning, Mark. How exciting re the Cooper's Hawk. I saw a hawk on the ground on my drive into town the other day, but it was a quick glimpse and I couldn't identify it. Unfortunately, the hawks are hanging around here a lot. At Louise's they're staking out her deck and keeping the feeder birds away. I've had two 'hawk attacks' recently - one was chasing a Cardinal and she crashed into the glass and died and the other escaped but it was a near thing.

Ordered my cards and I am supposed to get them any day now. Tomorrow I will print out the address labels and I have the stamps, so I should be good to go. I hope.

Happy Friday, Horrible, and a gorgeous weekend of glorious nothing-much ahead.

>51 Berly: Hi Kim! It's a labor of love, isn't it?

>52 richardderus: Hiya RD! We've been busy with a few things - decorating the tree, setting out all 32 of my Lladro Christmas bells, decorating the mantle, and getting two new kitties. (you can ignore the following).

...
Yesterday at the shelter we saw upwards of a half-dozen kitties who needed good homes, but chose a 1-year old mommie kitty and her 13-week old son. The shelter folks were so glad that we wanted both - they said that the kitties were a package deal. We were thrilled. The mommie kitty hung out on a hand towel in the guest bath for upwards of 3 hours yesterday - Jenna said that she was on the towel of destiny. Baby boy kitty hasn't come out of the Utility Room yet even though the door's been open, but Jenna was lying down half in and half out of the doorway and he sat on her for a while in the hall. He was a tad spooked by the ceiling fan in the Sunroom. This morning the mommie cat's been hanging out in the Library behind some books - we finally saw her peeking out about the 6th time we looked for her. Inara isn't particularly happy, but we didn't expect her to be and will give her extra love and affection.

...

This morning when I went into the Utility Room a wire basket filled with individual soaps that was on the back of the commode was down and scattered, and quite a bit of the water was on the floor and in the dry food. So now the dry food and water are in separate bowls far from each other.

Names are up in the air, although this morning Jenna challenged me to name my favorite family TV show without thinking and I said Firefly. I think we're going to go with Washburn (Wash) for the baby boy kitty because he's a ginger, but nothing seemed right for mommie kitty. Last night I was thinking about Ziva from NCIS for her and Jenna likes it. Bill's open to the ideas. His choices didn't appeal to me and I'm sure Peter and Harriet won't mean anything to him.

Send Washburn and Ziva thoughts to Bill!

>53 karenmarie: Aw, kitties! Rescue kitties are the best - I've had mine for about 12 years now. And good on you for getting both of them! And gingers too! I can't understand why some people are so against ginger kitties. I'm sure they'll settle soon enough and your old kitty will grow to like them.

>53 karenmarie: What a delightful addition to your family!

Congrats on the new additions, Karen! They are adorable. So good to be able to keep them together. All the cats I've had have been rescues and once Lexi is gone, I will get 2 more. I don't want to bring any new ones in at this point in her life (she will be 20! next month). She just lost her sister this past August and I am happy to just give her extra care and attention for what remains of her 9 lives. She deserves it. (But I already have a name for my next male cat...;-)

I am not going to try to get caught up. My excuse is the new hip that was installed last week. All went well and I am already better than I was pre-surgery. Looking forward to lots of gardening this spring. Meanwhile, time to read and get caught up on LT.

I hope you are well!

>53 karenmarie: Ah, kitties! How fun to get them when Jenna is there to appreciate them too, Karen.

Oh! Orange tabbies!!!!! You didn't see our brother/sister act (the little red meezles) Archie Sparks and Lulu the Peach. (The day after I concluded that Sparks was the right name for the boy, I realized that he was truly an Archie.) With their mother (mostly white with tabby splashes here and there) Willow, they occupy the back porch and sitting and little rooms. I love the names Washburn and Ziva although I'd love Peter and Harriet too. Congratulations all around and commiserations to Inara S. She will make her peace with them!
>56 jessibud2: WOW! 20 years for your Lexi!!!! I'm envious and desirous that any of our 5 might have such an extra-long life. Tully and his sister Hilfy Bit were nine in July.

>59 LizzieD: - Yes, 20 (more or less). When I brought the 2 home from the Humane Society in 2003, their paperwork gave their birthdates as January 2000 (for Lexi) and January 2001 (for Mia). I realize that as strays brought into a shelter, there is no way of truly knowing but I guess by their size and teeth, they can approximate their ages. The 2 I had previous to these 2 were litter mates, born under the bed of a friend so I knew their exact birthdates and they lived for 17, and 18 years, respectively. For what it's worth, my cats have always been indoor cats. I think that helps with the longevity. Mia used to love sitting on her lawn chair outside in the back with me in the summer, as I read. I always put a collar and leash on her when I took her out but (shh), I never tied the leash to anything. I guess she *thought* she was tethered so she never attempted to go anywhere except maybe explore the patio once in awhile. It was quite funny, actually.

Morning, Karen. Happy Saturday. Just finishing off my breakfast before heading out. The weather should be sunny and mid-40s. Not bad, for walking the route. Enjoy the weekend, with Jenna.

>54 PawsforThought: Hi Paws. I agree about rescue kitties. Inara was a rescue kitty in 2008. We were talking about two anyway, so it seemed like fate to me. Yay for your 12-year old. We are all gingers in this house – Bill ah, er HAD between-strawberry-blonde-and-auburn hair, I had strawberry-blonde and still have brown-with-red-highlights hair, and Jenna’s got Bill’s Mama’s beautiful auburn hair. So we love gingers, and already had one ginger, Magic. The pic of us is at Aunt Ann's on the 14th.

...

>55 quondame: Thanks, Susan! Mama kitty, still unnamed, is roaming the front of the house where Bill and Jenna are chatting. Baby kitty won’t come out of the utility room yet even though the door’s open, but did almost come out just now.

>56 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley. Good idea to let Lexi live out her life without new-kitty stress. Yay for already having a boy kitty name.

>57 witchyrichy: Karen! Congrats on your new hip and glad that you’re already doing better than pre-surgery. Yes, I’m well, thank you.

>58 Familyhistorian: We were going to get summer kitties until I took that part-time job, and so by then figured that Christmas was the perfect time. Jenna helped me pick them out and is already spending time with them.

>59 LizzieD: Hi Peggy. I’ll get to see the brother/sister act next time I’m there. Bill mentioned Willow and Zander for our newbies, but those aren’t their names. Glad you figured out Archie’s real name. I’m reminded of the poem by T.S. Eliot.

The Naming of Cats

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn’t just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
First of all, there’s the name that the family use daily,
Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo, or James,
Such as Victor or Jonathan, George or Bill Bailey—
All of them sensible everyday names.
There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,
Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:
Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter—
But all of them sensible everyday names,
But I tell you, a cat needs a name that’s particular,
A name that’s peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?
Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,
Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat,
Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum—
Names that never belong to more than one cat.
But above and beyond there’s still one name left over,
And that is the name that you never will guess;
The name that no human research can discover—
But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.
When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular name.

We’re still dithering around with names – Bill doesn’t like Ziva because of his attachment to the Ziva character in NCIS. Wash may still fly – we’re not in an awful hurry to name them, actually. Other names have gotten mentioned, but so far no go.

>60 jessibud2: That’s a riot about her thinking she was tethered. We live in the middle of nowhere and have a kitty door (currently closed) for easy in-and-out for the kitties. We don’t keep collars on them since they wriggle out of them if outside and stuck. We even had one kitty, Merlin, who was missing for a week and came home with no collar and gouges in her neck – she must have got caught up in barbed wire. Magic was 15 ½, Merlin was 18, Coco was 16, and Kitty William was 19 or 20, so I might keep them inside if Iived in the city, out here they all seem to thrive being indoor-outdoor kitties. Inara is 12 ½.

>61 msf59: ‘Morning, Mark, happy Saturday to you, too. Glad you’ve got a decent weather day.

We’re having a wonderful time so far. Kitties, Christmas decorations, hanging out, baking.

…
Today is errands with Bill. Jenna will stay home and play games on her PS4 while we’re gone but help bring groceries in when we return. We baked Pecan Puffs yesterday, enough for a small box for Louise and for friend Warren. I'll visit Louise today and am having lunch with on Monday. That left 8 for us… we each had one last night.

I have 2 Christmas presents and all the stocking stuffers to buy for Bill and Jenna, which I’ll do on Monday after lunch with Warren.

>62 karenmarie: - Karen, I put a photo of the (un)tethered Mia, on my gallery. She never had a collar or anything else on when in the house. I do live in a city, just moments away from busy traffic. Plus, I have a small outdoor space and one bird feeder. 'Nuff said. ;-)

>62 karenmarie: My 12-year old is actually either 14 o r 15 (they weren't sure at the shelter), the 12 years is just how long we've had him. Or is it 11? I can't recall.

We don't have any gingers at all in my immediate family. The only one I know of among relatives is a cousin. But red hair is fairly unusual here.
Lovely pictures, of both kitty and people.

Love the photos and the new additions to the household, Karen. The only mother-son combo of names that came to mind was Molly and Ron - the Weasleys in the HP books. "Molly" seems pretty good, but is "Ron" too weird for a cat? George? Fred? :-)

>63 jessibud2: Mia's gorgeous, and the pic of her on the lawn chair is sweet. My leash...

>64 PawsforThought: Some of our kitties have 'real' birthdates, some have acquisition dates. We usually celebrate the day a kitty came into our house. Thanks re the pictures.

I dated a 100% Greek guy in Connecticut who had a fair complexion with freckles and a medium-red hair color, with brown eyes.

Red hair pops up all over the place. I should actually finish a book that was given to me for my birthday in 2018, Red: A History of the Redhead.

>65 jnwelch: Hi Joe! Thanks. Molly and Ron would be good relationship-wise, but Bill and I had a good discussion on the way home from errands. He never minded Wash. He suggested Saffron, but she's a peripheral character from Firefly and even though our kitties aren't married to each, we're going with Zoë and Wash. Wash for Washburn. the character's alst name.

Heh. My mother named one of our cats George but we were sworn to secrecy - her maternal grandfather was named George and would have been highly offended.

My husband's official name is Frederick William, so Fred's out because when I really want to get his attention I call him Fred. I've also named my betta fish Freddie Mercury.

Zoë and Wash it is.

Off to visit Louise, goodies in hand.

>53 karenmarie: Lovely new cats! I do miss having a cat around the place although I suspect that the dog doesn't..

Hi smoochling! Soviet Santa says "Happy Yule!" Solstice Greetings to all. Read more here: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/soviet-santa

Zoe and Wash are nice short names. We tended to go with names from songs for our kitties. Sally was short for Mustang Sally. I guess that was because my ex was a musician. Sounds like your time before Christmas is full of good get togethers, Karen.

Greetings to my fellow biblio-geeks! It has been a privilege to chatter here with you.

A winter solstice is the moment in time when the Earth's tilt away from the Sun is at its maximum and the Sun's maximum elevation in the sky is at its lowest. Thus the ice crystals form magical lighting effects ~


Sundogs and a sunrise on the Winter Solstice

>67 SandDune: Hi Rhian! No stress for y'all, with just the dog. We have kitty stress, but it will go away soon. If we got a dog, I think it would kill Inara.

>68 richardderus: Thank you, RD! Very strange. I can't see it here, but copied the image location to a new tab and was able to see Soviet Santa. My first thought? Photoshop 45's image onto the cosmonaut. I know, I know... I've only had 1 sip of coffee. *smooch*

>69 Familyhistorian: Songs are a good theme, too. Not so much socializing, but what I/we are having is good.

>70 SandyAMcPherson: That's a beautiful image, Sandy! It's been a joy getting to know you this year, too.

...
I might go out today looking for stocking stuffers, but other than that there are no plans. All presents are wrapped except for consumables for Jenna and Bill that I'll buy if I go out today, otherwise tomorrow when I'm going out to lunch with friend Warren.

Coffee in hand, a bit of zooming around LT, then some reading.

>62 karenmarie: Love the photo of you three!

Morning, Karen. Happy Sunday. Slowly finishing up my first cup of coffee, as I revel in the pristine solitude, of the Man-Cave. Other than food shopping and a couple other easy chores, I should have a big chunk of the day devoted to the books. The Bears play tonight.

Enjoy your day!

Wishing you a wonderful Sunday, Karen.

>72 msf59: Thanks, Mark! Happy Sunday to you, too. Coffee, pristine solitude. Ah - Bill just got up. Jenna will soon follow, and then we'll let the new kitties out. Right now Inara has pristine solitude herself. she's on a blanket on the little yellow coffee table here in the Sunroom with me. I've heard Zoë and Wash noises from the utility room, but haven't wanted to disturb Inara's peace and quiet.

>73 PaulCranswick: Thank you, Paul!

...
My reading's taking a hit - Jenna home, holiday prep. I'm reading The Black Ascot by Charles Todd in anticipation of reading the next one, A Divided Loyalty, an ER book. I'm pretty sure I'm done with the series, so will have 20 out of 21 books to cull before year end.

ETA:Just told Bill that I co-opted his book case and he was fine with it. He did ask after a couple of books. I was able to assure him that they were safely taken care of.

>62 karenmarie: Love that poem, Karen!

Congratulations with your new kitties. That will have a good home with you!

Thank you, Ella! I've always loved the poem. Wash has been in the Sunroom with me, running over the keyboard, etc. I need to 'babyproof' the desk, I think.

Zoe and Wash are great names, Karen. Enjoy the holidays!

Thanks, Joe!

Morning, Karen. It sounds like you are enjoying those kittens. Another beauty here today, may reach the low 50s. Yah! And then I will be off the next 2 days. Double Yah!!

Feeders were hopping yesterday. The suet feeder has been a success. Like I mentioned before, we were afraid that the woodpeckers would have a difficult time, getting inside the cage but they are finding a way in.

Hi Mark! They're fun and crazy making in equal measure. Last night Zoë got in the Christmas tree - first cat I've had in the last 30+ years to be a Christmas-tree climber. I got her out of it safely and without light or ornament damage. Inara is less than thrilled, and we're trying to put them up in the Utility Room several times a day to give our 12 1/2 year old kitty a break.

Yay for the feeders hopping, especially the suet feeder. And I'm happy for you that you have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off!

>53 karenmarie: Lovely additions to your family, Karen.
Red female cats are rare, as most reds are male. I have only seen a red female once before in real life.

Hope you have a wonderful Christmas with your new kitties. They are adorable!

Or in other words, Happy Christmas! And have a great New Year as well.

>81 FAMeulstee: Hi Anita! Thank you. Come to think of it, I've only ever had male red kitties before - Taffy when I was young, and a very light orange Magic here in NC.

>82 ChelleBearss: Thank you, Chelle! Nice to see you.

>83 SandDune: Thanks, Rhian!

Have a comfy, caring, and very

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Karen, Bill and Jenna from both of us dear friend.

Merry Christmas, Karen, Bill and Jenna, and the kitties, from Jim and me.

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

Here's a fitting book to wish you a Very Merry Christmas!



Happy Christmas, Karen!

I hadn't heard of a female ginger tabby before either, Karen. Now, the cat climbing the Christmas Tree is something I know well. That's why we had wooden ornaments on our tree when we used to put one up.

Have a Merry Christmas!

>53 karenmarie: Two new gingers to the family! Congratulations! We have been talking about the possibility that our next feline might be a ginger.... but it will depend on what cat finds us when the time is right.

When Edgar was a kitten (and really for the whole nine years we had him) our Christmas tree was pretty much ornament-free on the bottom three feet or so. When he did manage to get an ornament down, I have to say he was pretty miraculously gentle. We would find an ornament on the other side of the room, sometimes in another room!, but never broken.



from Kauai where it is storming like it can only do in the tropics!

Have a great holiday, with the family, Karen!

I've never had a cat climb into my Christmas tree, but I am enjoying the daily antics of a friend's cat that seems to spend all his time in her tree (documented on FB of course).

Enjoy your new family members - and merry Christmas to Bill, Jenna and Inara, too.

Merry Christmas from Montana!



Perhaps I'll see you next year!

>85 quondame: Thank you, Susan! It’s been a good one so far – Santa visit for our 26-year old, stockings and presents, breakfast pizza, and now relaxing.

>86 johnsimpson: Thank you John! Sending love and hug to you and Karen.

>87 ffortsa: Thanks, Judy! Give Jim my regards.

>88 witchyrichy: Excellent sentiment, great bird pic. Thanks, Karen.

>89 EllaTim: Thank you, Ella.

>90 Familyhistorian: Bill did a bit of research the other day – 80% of gingers are males. It’s even more complicated with what type of male has to impregnate what type of female to get ginger boy kitties or girl kitties – suffice to say that we’re thrilled with our new kitty family. Thank you, Meg!

>91 EBT1002: You’ve nailed it, Ellen - what cat finds us when the time is right. You’ll know of course… We put non-breakable ornaments near the bottom and have had perhaps half a dozen down so far. And after the presents got distributed this morning, the tree skirt has become seriously skewed. It’s all good.

There were a couple of years when our trees were ornament free near the bottom, but that’s when Jenna was little!

Mele Kalikimaka me ka Hau’oli Makahiki Hou! My third-grade teacher was Japanese-Hawaiian, so we learned it early.

I hope the storming isn’t keeping you and P from having a wonderful time.

>92 msf59: It does not surprise me that you picked an owl greeting, Mark! Thank you and the same to you.

>93 streamsong: You’re lucky. We were/are lucky – there hasn’t been a repeat so far. Merry Christmas to you, too, and I am already talking Montana with Karen, and she’s already talking about a visit with you! We’ll make it work.

We’re in the lull between Christmas busy-ness. It’s time for me to catalog my two new books:

The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
Ducks, Newburyport

We’ll have prime rib at 6 p.m. with twice-baked potatoes, steamed cauliflower for Jenna and me and canned green beans for Bill. Then we’re going to watch Downton Abbey: The Motion Picture. The kitties were very thoughtful – Inara bought it with her credit card and Zoe and Wash wrapped it. (Well, actually, Mrs. Claus bought and wrapped it and Bill opened it.) Bill and Jenna’s happy expressions were totally worth it.

We watched 4 Christmas movies yesterday - It’s a Wonderful Life, A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Santa Claus, and the George C. Scott version of A Christmas Carol. We’re happily Christmas movie-d out.

Merry NC Christmas! Love the photo of you all in >62 karenmarie:. Congratulations on the new kitties! I knew there would be two!

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice, some other tradition or none at all, this is what I wish for you!



Love the new kitty pictures!!

Merry Christmas Karen!

Thank you for keeping me company in 2019.......onward to 2020.

Peace and Hope and Joy and Love to you and your family, dear Jenn! I hope that your Christmas day was wonderful and that you'll continue to celebrate this Christmastide!
Hooray for Zoe and Wash!!!!!
(Phoebe was our last indoor/outdoor cat. I can't tell you the number of hours that I spent searching the yard for her while she watched from some new hiding place. Dandy was allowed out on a leash in his old age. Otherwise, all our cats are house cats.)

>95 nittnut: Thanks, Jenn! I pretty much knew there’d be two, too…

>96 ronincats: Thank you, Roni! Beautiful graphic! And thanks re the kitty pics.

>97 SomeGuyInVirginia: Same to you, dear one!

>98 PaulCranswick: Thank you, Paul! You’re a wonderful person to keep company with and yes, onward to 2020!

>99 LizzieD: Thanks, Peggy! We had a super Christmas Day, culminating in Downton Abbey: The Movie. Bill had read a review or two of it, which basically said that if you’re a Downton fan it’s a 4, if you’re not it’s a 1. I can see that. For us, it was a 4.

We have a kitty door built into the exterior wall/inside hall, which is currently set to In Only and we let Inara out when she stands near a door. The new ones are too new to let go out – we’ll probably try Zoe on a leash in several or more weeks and Wash not for quite a while as he’s such a baby, then on leash first, too. It will be nice in about 4-6 months when we can leave the kitty door open again all the time.

Where we live there is no traffic, but of course there are natural predators. Kitties have gotten into fights with raccoons and opossums, fortunately always winning. There are coyotes, but the closest they are is at least half a mile away – I hear them yipping sometimes. Most neighbors keep their dogs leashed, and the ones who don’t live at the other end of our cul-de-sac subdivision and I don’t ever see them down here.

Of course on Thanksgiving we saw Louise’s dog Sookie, a rare sighting. She wouldn’t let Jenna pick her up, but Jenna alternatively lured and herded Sookie back to Louise. I called Louise as Jenna was going outside and the first thing she said was “Do you have my Sookie?” Jenna got her back home safe and sound.

…
This morning I’ve got a massage appointment. This afternoon the three of us are going to see the new Star Wars movie and perhaps have dinner out. Other than that, laziness will ensue.

calm and I could use some friends over here in this new joint...

The 2020 Group is up!

Merry Christmas Karen! Looking forward to staying in contact in 2020!

Enjoy the laziness!

>101 drneutron: Thanks, Jim!

>102 The_Hibernator: Thanks, Rachel! I'm looking forward to it too.

>103 richardderus: Laziness has been the driving factor today.

We did go to see the new Star Wars movie, then had dinner out, then chatted with my sister, niece/wife, and nephew.

Best wishes this holiday season!! See you in 2020! After I see the new Star Wars movie. ; )

Morning, Karen. Happy Friday! It hit 62 here, yesterday. Crazy, right? I was in shirtsleeves. I hope you are enjoying the mild weather too.

>105 Berly: Thank you, Kim! I love the map of Peace, Joy, and Love! And enjoy the SW movie.

>106 msf59: 'Morning, Mark! It is crazy - you were warmer than we were. Good for postmen and the heating bills, right? This morning we have some lovely fog. I saw a doe in the yard as I was heading to the kitchen to make coffee. Gotta fill the feeders this morning. First, though, coffee and finishing up the extremely lackluster The Black Ascot by Charles Todd.

Congrats on the new kitties. I am ready for a cat but my two old dogs would not adapt at this point. So, I am contented to watch the big dark cat that has adopted our farm. He sleeps on the front porch, keeps the mice down under the house and rolls in the driveway mostly to annoy the dogs, I think. We have dubbed him Barney.

Thanks, Karen! It's a kindness to not get your old dogs stressed. Yay for Barney, though. Our kitties are a lot of fun. Just now I was getting ready to start a load of laundry. Last spring I got a new washer/dryer and the top of the washer is glass. Zoe has been walking over it for a week now. I had it open to put clothes/tablecloths in and she stepped right in. She jumped out quickly, doesn't seem too traumatized by it, but I cracked up.

I just finished The Black Ascot and am getting ready to start the ER book that prompted this orgy of reading Charles Todd, A Divided Loyalty. I'm pretty sure this will be it because the formula is wearing rather thin for me.

Isn't it great to just loaf? I can like the loafy life.

Best reading year ever for me, if numbers of books read is the defining criterium. 109 completed, with The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster sure to be 110th.

Loafing is fun, agreed. Congrats with 109, 110 on the way, Bill.

Happy loaf-is-better-than-none day! *smooch*

>112 richardderus: Aack! Coffee on the screen guffaw!

Sort of loaf-y day for me, too. Strange how loafy days include laundry, cleaning and cooking. (Not to mention horse chores). I hope to get some reading done today!

>112 richardderus: *smooch* back to the pun meister.

>113 streamsong: Hi Janet! Laundry - check. Cooking - (well, re-heating) - check. Cleaning - baby check for straightening some stuff in the Sunroom and Utility Room. No horse chores here. Good luck with the reading!

On Christmas morning I looked out the Sunroom door and saw a big orange face peering in. By the time I got the camera he was already leaving, but we had an appropriately-colored visitor:



Zoe and Wash are both sleeping on the couch in the living room with Bill and Jenna. Wash was sleeping on the arm of the sofa next to Jenna, Zoe was in the other end. Wash has slept in the living room a couple of times, but this is a first for Zoe. And then Wash went over to Zoe...

>114 karenmarie: So cute!! : )

Hi Kim! Cute-i-tude reigns supreme. And Zoe is still in my corner of the sofa. I hate to move her when she's been so trusting today. She even let me skritch her belly.

>114 karenmarie: - Oh, they are so cute!!

>114 karenmarie: Aw, that's so sweet!

>114 karenmarie: Zoe and Wash look to be about the same size, Karen. Are they that way in person?

>117 jessibud2: Hi Shelley!

>118 PawsforThought: I thought so too, Paws.

>119 Familyhistorian: They are not the same size, Meg. This gives a better picture of their sizes relative to one another. This was on their first day with us. Zoe is on the left, Wash on the right:

I love that you have a Zoe now, as I lost my Zoe this spring at 17. They are both gorgeous.

>114 karenmarie: Love the kitties!

Morning, Karen. Happy Saturday. Chugging my second cup of coffee, so I can head out. Warms back up to 50 today, after a return to the chill yesterday. The mail volume has been super light. Like a switch has been thrown. Enjoy your day.

Please keep posting cute cat pictures and I will live vicariously through you.

I have been loafing since my hip surgery and loving every minute of it! I have been fortunate to not have any real pain, the weather has been gorgeous to encourage walking and I'm considering calling my financial guy on Monday to see just how early I *might* retire. You retired loafers are my role models.

>121 ronincats: Hi Roni! Ah, something (more) in common with each other. I lost our Kitty William in the spring, too. Thanks re our additions!

Funny story – my nephew has a dog named Zooey. Being a book reader I immediately thought of Zooey Glass from J.D. Salinger’s Glass Family short stories (some of the few short stories I like!). Ryan’s not a reader so I never mentioned it and never thought of how he named his dog. And because it’s Zooey, spelled Zooey, I thought it was a boy dog although I knew she’s a girl dog. We talked on Christmas. I explained our Zoe, and he explained that he named his Zooey after the actress Zooey Deschanel. So two female animals in the family, with different spellings of their name.

>122 msf59: Thanks, Mark! ‘Morning to you, too. Yay for a super light mail load. Enjoy your day – ours is errands, a friend visiting this afternoon, then some game or another tonight at 8 for Mr. Bill.

>123 witchyrichy: Okay, Karen. They’re already front and center on my first 2020 thread, which will be created on January 1.

Loafing is good, so glad you’re recovering so beautifully from your hip surgery. If you can retire early and it works for you and your husband, more power to you!

Unfortunately one of my best friends from high school (there were 4 of us) has apparently had to go back to work. It is wise to make sure it’ll work out financially before pulling the plug.

I've already added them to the Top 5 Reads of 2019 List, but thought I'd put them here, too:

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai - a rare rating

The rest are

Furious Hours by Casey Cep
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton
These Truths by Jill Lepore
Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston

Hi and Happy New Year Karen. Love reading about your cat adventures. The Great Believers was a five star read for me too. What a terrific book!

>125 karenmarie: - That's good to hear. I have The Great Believers on my pile (near the top!)

>125 karenmarie: I loved Hollow Kingdom! S.T. was a riot. Barracoon was interesting as well.

I've been tarting up reviews all day. So many I hadn't posted. I resolved to get batter about organization on a month-by-month basis.

Karen, if it weren't for you there would only be 4 people in the world that I would connect with online. You are a gifted, and interesting, and special. Every happiness, Karen, in 2020. Your loving friend, Larry.

>126 brenzi: Hi Bonnie! Thank you. Glad you lke the kitty adventures - right now I'm being purred to death and having things knocked off shelves. It's all good. *smile* I need to read more by Makkai.

>127 jessibud2: Go for it soon, Shelley!

>128 richardderus: I loved Hollow Kingdom so much I bought it for friend Karen in Montana, who hadn't heard of it. I keep telling her to join LT and I'll come catalog her books for her but so far she hasn't taken me up on it.

Frankly I didn't expect to like Barracoon and am glad I was wrong. Yay for reviews! *smooch*

>129 SomeGuyInVirginia: Larry, your friendship is a precious thing to me. I'm so glad we've met here - one of my goals is to meet in RL sooner than later. Aw shucks - you make me blush. Every happiness to you, too, for 2020.

...
Off to watch Clemson vs. Ohio State. I want Clemson to win. I love watching Trevor Lawrence play - Bill says it's 'cuz I think he's such a pretty boy, but he's such a gifted quarterback that his good looks are simply a bonus of eye candy to good football.

Happy for your continuing happy holiday, Karen! Love your Zoe and Wash!
You remind me that my oldest (and now deceased) cousin used to say that Dan Smith always had one piece of eye candy on his team to keep the women fans happy.
I'm getting a new book (!) recommended by a long-time rl friend .... The Dawn of Dragons by James A. Owen is a 2-in-1 fantasy in which the heroes turn out to be Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. I can't get her to say whether DL Sayers is also a character, but I'm looking forward to finding out.
Enjoy! Enjoy!

Hi Peggy!

Thank you re the kitties. They now have middle names - It's Zoe Rose and Wash Ryder.

How exciting for you - you'll have to tell me if DLS is actually in it.

Well, my eye-candy QB and his Tigers won, 29-23. Ohio State had the ball with 43 seconds to go, but the receiver zigged instead of zagged and a Tiger caught the ball for an interception in the end zone.

Off to bed! To read a bit, then sleep. It's way, way past my bedtime.

>125 karenmarie: Nice list. I am sure I will be including the Furious Hours in my top NF, of the year. I NEED to start drawing up my list. It is going to be difficult.

Morning, Karen. Happy Sunday. Gloomy and damp here, at the moment, but I hope to get out for a stroll, at some point. No sense, of watching my lowly Bears.

I copied this from my own thread- "I say we wing it, with Spying on the South. I know there are several other challenges going on next month, why add to them. I will keep it in my audio queue, so just let me know, when you are ready." How does that sound?

Jenna was up before me this morning and told me a "Fun Fact", prefaced by the fact that the Utility Room door is a pocket door: Zoe figured out how to open it. When Jenna came out this morning both newbies were lounging around the living room.

This is not good. I haven't had enough coffee yet to figure out how to deal with it.

>125 karenmarie: Karen's Top Five of 2019. I read These Truths and, like you, Karen, I'd rate it among my top reads. I scored The Great Believers at Goodwill, and I am prompted by your rating to shuffle it toward the top of the TBRs. Furious Hours was on my wish list, and I got it for Christmas. It was already at the top of the TBR.

Hi Bill!

You've got a lot of good reading ahead of you - I need to come visit your thread to see if you posted your Goodwill scores like you said you would.

>134 karenmarie: Long ago, we had a pair of marmalade cats (sibs!) who figured that very same thing (with winkling the sliding pocket door open).

Back in those days, you could buy these baby lock straps that had suction cups at either end to hold cupboard doors shut. Our "baby" figured out within a week how to unlatch them (since she was at the level of the cupboard and watched us more carefully than we knew).

When we put the ends so one was on the wall (on the outside) and the other end on the pocket door (when closed), it worked well to keep the cats corralled. The flexible joining piece let us pick the angle so we could accommodate the door trim. Here's a YouTube clip that demonstrates the concept ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPoF-jx_YPE

Hope this solves your problem! But hey, those kitties are so cute, hey?!

Hi Sandy! So are marmalade/ginger kitties smarter than other kitties? *smile*

We may end up having to do that, but for right now Bill found a bit of tapered wood that will slide in between the pocket and the door and keeps the door tightly closed enough so that I don't think Zoe will be able to pry it open, sly thing that she is.

They are having another serious attack of cute-i-tude:

>138 karenmarie: - Awwwwww! They sure look like they've settled in well and are feeling very at home.

>138 karenmarie: So are marmalade/ginger kitties smarter than other kitties?

Having only ever had the marmalade type, I don't know... but my brother has a black cat (with one white paw) and would strongly dispute the suggestion. His Kedi (cat in Turkish, so I am told) can pry the tightly-fitted lid off their biscuit tin.

:D

So cute. And smart. Can't help but love them even when they cause trouble. LOL

>139 jessibud2: Hi Shelley! They are acting more and more comfortable and in control!

>140 SandyAMcPherson: I've had lots of different kind of kitties and so far these two are the smartest. This doesn't particularly please me, because controlling them is going to be interesting. Zoe pushed open the door even with the tapered stick in place earlier today, but now I've got the stick back there AND a brick pushing against the door. I hear her trying but so far it's holding.

Heh. Prying the lid off a biscuit tin is pretty impressive.

>141 Berly: They're absolutely adorable. We're all totally in love.

^^Did you miss me up there?

Morning, Karen. Back to winter weather for the next 2 days, but it is supposed to rebound on New Year's Day. I went for a dune hike, at Indiana Dunes State
Park, National Lakeshore. At the Nature Center, they had feeders set up and I saw several tufted titmouse. They move quickly, kind of like chickadees. We do
see them here very often.

>133 msf59: Sorry, Mark! I read it, agreed with it, then didn't reply to it. I'll let you know when I'm ready to start Spying on the South. I hope you had a good day off NOT watching your Lowly Bears. I didn't watch my Disappointing Panthers either.

I'll be interested in seeing your Best of 2019 List.

I wish we had winter weather - it's 67F now, going to a high of 70F. Nice for the heating bill, but I don't like the idea of plants and bugs getting confused.

Yay for your dune hike.

...
First sip of coffee, trying to come out of the fog. Bill's back at work, Jenna's still asleep. Peace reigns in the kingdom.

Hi Karen. I can't get this pic to drag to my desktop so I can't post it as a pic but it made me laugh:

https://www.gocomics.com/whyatt-cartoons/2019/12/30

Certainly true for my old Lexi, lol

Hi Karen!

>138 karenmarie: Awww

>125 karenmarie: Fun faves list. The Great Believers was a knockout, for sure. Nice to see Hollow Kingdom on there; I loved it, too. It's so different, some LTers haven't liked it, and at least one I know Pearl-ruled it. Mark recommended it to me by saying I'd know right away whether it'd be one I'd enjoy or not.

Barracoon on the list surprised me. I'll have to take another look at it.

Hi Shelley!

That's so appropriate. Thanks for sharing. That's what Inara mostly does, although she does love to go outside for hours at a time. She came in soaking wet last night - spikey fur wet - because for some strange reason she loves being out in the rain.

For the new kitties I'd say it should be "Eat, Play, Sleep".

Hey Horrible. Grey and coldly rainy, so no way do I get out in it. Coffee, reading, who cares what's for lunch.

>125 karenmarie: I feel like I am pretty well read and then I see your best of 2019 list and realize I haven't read any of them. Onto the TBR list they go.

>144 karenmarie: I am also ready for winter weather. On our walk yesterday, we noticed at least one tree starting to set buds. And, while I no longer keep bees, I know it can be a problem for them as well as they start gearing up for spring. But, it is nice to have the doors and windows open.

>144 karenmarie: yeah, I like winter to be winter with some consistency. Helps the allergy profile, and it's always been a favorite of mine, even though I don't ski or snowshoe. Whenever people start to talk about moving south for the warmth, I think of going north!

>146 jnwelch: Sorry Joe! Almost missed you up there. Barracoon surprised me, too, frankly. I thought it powerful and so very sad.

>148 richardderus: Good morning, RD! Good alternatives to outdoors - coffee and reading. I just ate a late brekkie of bacon and toasted homemade buttermilk biscuits with butter, so am happily full for a while.

>149 witchyrichy: Some years are better than others re good books, Karen, and I'm very happy that I read those books this year. I hope you like them all.

Glad to hear that you're out walking with your new hip. Definitely not good to see budding trees. I want winter weather too!

>150 ffortsa: Hi Judy! You're right regarding allergies - both Bill and I have been sneezing a lot this last week or so. Winter is my second favorite season after all and I don't even particularly like going out in it as much as I used to.

...
Jenna and I wrote thank-yous and I just took them to the mailbox and now it's time for Yahtzee!

Those are beautiful cats, Karen.

Thanks, Rachel!

>136 karenmarie: I need to come visit your thread to see if you posted your Goodwill scores like you said you would.

Well? Did you? Did I?

I'm just an old white-bearded codger wearing a tattered sheet, trying to locate the men's room. Guess I'll be shown the way OUT by just about everyone tomorrow night.

Ta ta.

I did and you didn't. If come back over there, will there be a list?

*smile*

>120 karenmarie: That gives a better idea of their relative sizes, Karen. Although I bet Wash is catching up fast.

>125 karenmarie: I read and liked all of your 4.5 star books but haven't read the one you tagged a 5 star. Maybe that means I would like The Great Believers too?

Wash is coming along - I have no idea how big he'll get, but right now he's such a cute baby kitten that I'd kinda like that stage to last for a while. He did step in his own poo today and smelled to high heaven - Jenna and I washed his paw, leg, and, as Jenna puts it, his little' toe beans'. He didn't mind and was even purring - only the running water spooked him.

I read The Great Believers in February. I don't own the book so you can't find my review on the work page, but here's the link to it if you're interested: review of The Great Believers

OMG, the pics of Zoe and Wash are SO adorable. I'm sitting here watching a new (to us) BBC series called "The Doctor Blake Mysteries." It's a good series but I'm also showing kitten photos to P. We are both certainly missing having felines in the family.

I really loved The Great Believers, too. I need to go see what my "top 5" would be based on my ratings. I so often find myself looking at the list and wondering.... the 4.5- and 5-star reads don't always "stick with" me by the end of the year.

Hi Ellen!

Bill and I watched The Doctor Blake Mysteries and really liked it. But showing kitten photos is a sign if I ever heard of one. I wish you well as you work your emotional way towards another kitty.

I had 22 ratings of 4.5, of which those 4 stood out. But I also loved Where the Crawdads Sing, Circe, Educated, and Olive, Again just a smidge less. And of course had I thought about them on a different day the result may have been different.

Morning, Karen. We have an inch or two of snow on the ground. I have not missed it. I have some running around this A.M. Sue works until 1230. We might go see Little Women in the afternoon and then go for an early dinner. Sue is a bit under the weather, so we will see. A quiet one tonight.

I need to fine-tune my Best of the Year list. Lots and lots of terrific books to sort through. Banner year!

'Morning, Mark and Happy New Year's Eve! We didn't get snow, but it's only 35F here right now. Sorry Sue's a bit under the weather. I hope you have a wonderful day, whatever you end up doing.

I'll be interested in seeing your Best of the Year List, too.

Your new kitties are so cute, Karen. I'd like to get an orange cat. We are thinking of getting Leonard a friend. He is not very well socialized, being the only pet in the house...

It's almost 2020...do you know where your thread is? *smooch*

>162 katiekrug: Thanks, Katie! Leonard sounds like Inara. She's slowly becoming accustomed to them, though, only hissing/growling if Wash gets right in her face. New house for you, new kitty?

>163 richardderus: I do know where my thread is. It's in This PC/Documents/Books and LT/2020 first thread, 75ers.docx, just waiting for one last review before being posted tomorrow.

I'm stubborn, what can I say? It's not 2020 yet. *smooch*

Looking forward to scanning your wrapped-up stats for 2019. Mine are in the works. I saw you looking at the good doctor's stat post.

Reading the first of many sterling books for 2020, I am. I will be starting a thread over there just any time now...any time.

I enjoyed tailing you in 2019. Hope you didn't mind. :-)

Happy New Year!

Hi Karen my dear, wishing you, Bill and Jenna a very Happy New Year from both of us dear friend.

Happy new year, Karen. See you in your new thread!

>165 weird_O: Hi Bill! Stats to follow, see below. They’re so much fun, so informative, and so gratifying to me to just have them. Yes, I was looking at the good doctor’s stats – the inspiration for mine.

Yay for your 2020 reads. I didn’t mind you tailing me in 2019 at all. You’re swell.

>166 nittnut: Happy New Year to you, too, Jenn!

>167 Ameise1: Thank you, Barbara.

>168 johnsimpson: Thank you John. The very same to you, sent with love and hugs.

>169 jessibud2: Thanks, Shelley! A bit more tweeking and I’ll be ready to post in 2020.

First, of course, final stats for the year. I’ll post them in my shiny new 2020 thread, too.

Statistics Through December 31

104 books read
11 books abandoned, 1412 pages, 3.5 hours
31465 pages read
79.5 audiobook hours
Avg pages read per day, YTD = 86
Avg pages read per book, YTD = 303
2167 books tagged 'tbr'

Author
Male 33%
Female 67%

Living 66%
Dead 34%

US Born 38%
Foreign Born 62%

Platform
Hardcover 41%
Trade Pback 30%
Mass Market 16%
Audiobook 5%
e-Book 8%

Source
My Library 85%
Library 13%
Other 2%

Misc
ARC/ER 4%
Re-read 28%
Series 61%

Fiction 89%
NonFiction 11%


Author Birth Country
Australia 3%
England 54%
France 1%
Israel 1%
Japan 1%
Nigeria 1%
US 39%

Original Decade Published
1910-1919 1%
1920-1929 4%
1930-1939 13%
1940-1949 1%
1950-1959 1%
1960-1969 4%
1970-1979 4%
1980-1989 3%
1990-1999 10%
2000-2009 8%
2010-2019 53%

Genre
Biography 2%
Essays 2%
Fiction 13%
Graphic Novel 1%
Historical Fiction 2%
History 4%
Humor 1%
Linguistics 1%
Memoir 1%
Mystery 58%
Poetry 1%
Romance 1%
Science 1%
Speculative Fiction 8%
Thriller 4%
YA 1%

Good stats, Karen.

Well, I be dowsing the star on 2019. See you next year.

Morning, Karen. Getting ready to head out on a bird stroll at the Arboretum. I am glad I went to bed at 10. Grins...

>172 weird_O: Thanks, Bill! I had fun preparing them, as always. 'Dowsing the star' - I did a bunch of that last night. Last I checked, you hadn't posted your stats. I'll check again.

>173 msf59: 'Morning, Mark! Yay for a bird stroll. It's 29F here right now. First cup of coffee's going down easy. Yay for an early evening. I, on the other hand, stayed up 'til about 12:15 and figuratively speaking rung in the New Year!

Off to record the last two books I got yesterday - a Bookmooch book and a book sort team reject that sounds good - The Enchanted April by elizabeth Von Arnim.

And then I'll set up my 2020 threads.