2015 Books in Review

At the beginning of 2015, I found a listing of 52 different types of books to read, and set one of each as my goal. I certainly read more than 52 books as I sometimes devour several a day, but alas, I did not complete that list of 52. Here is what I did accomplish, along with an occasional note about particular books.

1. A book with at least 500 pages. I remember that I first chose a book that for some reason did not finish. I can't even remember it's name. I ended up reading Outlander again, prompted by all the hullabaloo about the Showtime series. It was good, but I still am bogged down in the 3rd or maybe 4th book of the 7 book series. Whether I ever finish remains to be seen

2.  A classic romance. That was an easy choice - Much Ado About Nothing. That's such an easy choice with all the barbs sent back and forth between Beatrice and Benedick. And then there is Dogberry....when it comes to the movies, I can't decide if I adored Michael Keaton or Nathan Fillion declaring themselves to be an ass. Timeless and fun classic.

3.  A book made into a movie. Hmmmmm When the kid was stove up after his knee operation, we watched The Hobbit, which made me search for the original trilogy that I bought on Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey, California around 1970. At this point (12:14pm), I could use first breakfast, let alone second.

4.  A book published in 2015. Here I could list dozens, but will pick one of my favorites, Wait for Signs by Craig Johnson. I am an avowed Walt Longmire junkie and have been since I read the very first book in 2004. The television show (now on NetFlix) is just as wonderful as the books. I insist you real all the books and then binge on all four years of the show. There will be a test.

5.  A book with a number in the title.  Three Moons Over Sedona by Sherry Hartzler. After her husband dies in the arms of his mistress, a woman of a certain age runs away from the life she thought she knew, ending up in Sedona, Arizona. Not to be trite, there she finds herself....not the wife, the mother, the business owner..herself. The cast of characters is a fun one.

6.  A book written by someone under age 30. As far as I know, I failed on this account. Googling books that meet the criteria,I have read a number of them, just not this year, and was never inclined to pick one up for a re-read.

7.  A book with non-human characters. No contest here. A favorite re-read of mine, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, by Edwin Abbott Abbott. Besides, it's a book about one of Sheldon Cooper's favorite places to visit. I have read it several times over the years.

8.  A funny book. Here I must give props to my friend Andrea for suggesting R.L. Mathewson's Neighbor From Hell series of books. I laugh through every damned one of them, eat up the author's blog where she publishes shorts about the families, and do everything but stalk the woman. Books about men (and the women who love them)who have such voracious appetites, they get banned from buffets. Great, shorter funny reads, but definitely for the over 18 crowd.

9.  A book by a female author. This year I got sucked into Ava Miles books. I think I read every Dare River and Dare Valley book she wrote.

10.  A mystery or thriller. I read several Tony Dunbar books about his P.I. Tubby Dubonnet. There is a series of 8 and I have 6 of them, not all read yet.

11.  Book with a One word title. Here I must go back to a re-read, simply because I re-read it I think twice this year....Wallbanger by Alice Clayton One of the freshest, funniest chick-lit books I have ever encountered. Highly recommended if you like the genre. Highly.

12.  A book of short stories. This is tougher. I occasionally pick up The Stories of John Cheever, but have never read it all the way through. I did read One Page Love Stories: Share the Love by multiple authors. Picked it up because an author I follow had a story in it ans all proceeds went towards getting youth into books and reading. It was a mixed bag. Or you could look back on #4.

13.  A book set in a Foreign Country. This was easy because I am one of the author's first readers, and the book is English Ivy by Betsy Talbot. Takes place in London, Germany, and Spain. I am in love with Ruben.

14.  A non-fiction book.  My Cross To Bear by Gregg Allman. Interesting look into everything Allman Brothers, by the man himself. A must for his fans.

15.  A popular author's first book. Had to do some digging here, and I chose Christopher Moore and Practical Demonkeeping. It's a re-read because the first time, years ago, I had no idea it was his first. I love his irreverence in all that he writes. Pick up a book (or five) of his. You won't be sorry.

16.  A book from an author I love, but haven't yet read. R.L. Mathewson again, and Christmas From Hell. Came out yesterday and plan on finishing it today. I love the Bradford and James clans. They are a hoot.

17.  Book recommended by a friend. Another fail. Jenn recommended Sputnik Sweetheart to get started on the books of Haruki Murakami.  I keep starting then putting it down. Sorry, Jenn.

18.  A Pulitzer Prize Winner. I re-read To Kill A Mockingbird when the other Harper Lee book came out this past summer. No, I don't plan on reading the sequel. Saw enough reviews and want to keep my Atticus in a protected part of my brain.

19.  Based on a true story.  Bianca's Vineyard by Teresa Neuman. A beautifully written novel of an Italian family and the consequences of WWII and choices made. Beautiful prose throughout.

20.  From the bottom of my TBR (to be read) pile. Ordained Irreverence by McMillan Moody. This is a book I've had for several years, would pick up, read a chapter, then put it back down. Neither good nor bad, just nothing to keep me interested. I did finish it and took it off the bottom of the pile.

21.  A book my mom loves. N/A. She died in 2001 and I don't think she ever read anything except Photoplay magazine.

22.  A book that scared me. Anything I read this year by J.A.Konrath, which could be anyone of his books. I have them all and re-read them all often. Two particular favorites are Origin, and The List. I promise you'll never have a more fun time while being scared enough to not move from your chair because of what might be waiting around the corner or under the bed.

23.  A book more than 100 years old.  Memories of An English Governess at the Siamese Court by Anna Harriet Leonowens. You might remember the movie - The King and I.

24. A book based solely on a cover. Fail. I don't look at covers when buying Kindle books, because all too often the cover has nothing to do with the story/people/events inside. It's a particular pet peeve of mine.

25.  A book I cheated and didn't read in school.  I confess, Miss Mauldin, I only read the cliff notes for The Inferno. Purchased it last year and forced myself to read it....much of it out loud when I was home alone, just to keep me from falling asleep.

26.  A Memoir. My favorite baseball announcer, Denny Mathews and his book Tales From the Royals Dugout.

27.  A one day read.  Uhm, pretty much anything I read this year, unless it was one of those books like #25. On a good day I can chew off two or three.

28.  One with an antonym in the title. Cheating here, because last year I re-read Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil. Can't come up with a title for this year.

29.  A book that takes place in a setting where I would like to visit. This one is easy. Betsy Talbot's Wild Rose. Most of it takes place in a town on the shores of Lake Como in northern Italy. I'll never visit, but it would be the first place I went to if Beam Me Up Scottie ever came to fruition.

30.  A book written in the year I was born. Fail, but I have actually read a number of them. Several each by Isaac Asimov, Agatha Christie, and Rex Stout a Ray Bradbury, and a few others.

31.  A book that got bad reviews. I finished a re-read that I started in 2014....Wuthering Heights. I hate the book (but from time to time feel the need to punish myself with a classic I dislike), and was delighted to read the following review published in 1848 in Graham's Lady Magazine. "How a human being could have attempted such a book as the present without committing suicide before he had finished a dozen chapters is a mystery." Yup. Pretty sums up my view of Heathcliff and Cathy.

32.  A trilogy. Finally decided (somewhat against my own good sense) to read a Nora Roberts set, the Boonsboro Inn Trilogy. May I say it's nothing but three books advertising her own danged inn, her son's pizza joint and her husband's (I think) bookstore. Trite and b-o-r-i-n-g.

33.  A book from my childhood. What else but Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz?

34.  A book about a love triangle. Actually it was a three book series by Violet Duke, about a woman, two brothers, the young daughter of one of them, a disease that took the daughter's mother's life which is also present in the woman love interest, and might be showing up in the daughter. It's the Resisting series. Better than I make it sound.

35.  A book taking place in the future. I think this is a fail. Can't remember any.

36.  A book about high school. Jillian Dodd's That Boy, That Wedding, That Baby. I must have used an entire box of tissues wailing at something in each book. It follows three best friends thru school, college, and into their adult lives.  This is also going to count as my #38.

37.  A book with a color in the title. The Black Stiletto by Raymond Benson. A great thriller. Go for it!  Was mom really a successful and much feared assassin?

38.  A book that made me cry.  See #36.

39.  A book about magic. Again with the re-reads, this time a couple of Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden books. Always winners, and I don't even go for fantasy type books, but Harry...well...Harry is a grown up Harry Potter, living in Chicago and fighting demons from other worlds, all while making me laugh. There are 16 books and I am a few behind.  (makes note for 2016 purchases)

40.  A graphic novel. I must confess, I have never read a comic book novel for adults. Wouldn't even know where to start, since I even had to look up the definition to make sure it wasn't talking about porn.

41.  Book by new author. Betsy Talbot ventured into fiction last year with Wild Rose and English Ivy, the first two of five books about The Late Bloomers - friends of a certain age, all named after flowers and who had hippie mothers . The fact I did a first read on both of them before they were published make them even better, because seeing the writing process from draft to published project is fun. Lily's book is next and I can't wait to get my hands on it.

42.  A book I owned for a wile but never read. I have a few Lee Child books about Jack Reacher that I am waiting to read, since I do them in order. I'm sure I read at least one of them this year.

43.  A book that takes place in my hometown.  I was born in Kansas City, Kansas and one of our claims to infamy was William Radkay, whose life was chronicled in The Devil Incarnate: From Altar Boy to Alcratraz.  It was a fascinating, if somewhat amateurish read about the underbelly of both Kansas Cities, crime, and the mob in the days of Machine Gun Kelly and Pretty Boy Floyd.

44.  A book originally written in another language. Fail. A number of them from previous years come to mind, but none read in 2015,  Don Quixote, Les Miserables are the first two that I can think of.

45.  A book about Christmas.  Hello? I have an entire subset devoted to Christmas books on my Kindle. One of my favorites that I read every year is The Christmas Train by David Baldacci. I am in love with the book.

46.  A book by an author with my initials. Shirley Jump, The Beauty Charmed Santa.  As bad as it sounds, but it was a free Kindle book about Christmas, so I bit.

47.  A play. One of my favorites of all time..William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily A New Hope. Had to re-read it this year with all the Star Wars Hype. It doesn't get any better than this: "Alas poor Stormtrooper, I knew ye not,/ yet have I taken both uniform and life/ from thee? What manner of a man wert thou?" Or perhaps a quote from R2D2: "Beep, meep, beep, squeak, beep,beep, beep meep, beep whee!"

48.  A banned book. To Kill A Mockingbird still remains one of the most challenged books to date.

49.  A book based on or turned into a TV show.  Craig Johnson's series of books about Walt Longmire, the modern day sheriff of Absaroka County, Wy. See #4 for more information. (Yes. I am relentless about the books and television show. They. are. just. that. good.)

50.  A book I started and never finished. Back to #17.

Procrastination, Thy Name is Me

Somewhere, deep inside my brain, there is a mighty struggle going on. No, it's not the age-old battle between good and evil (although that was a great television show - all six episodes of it), nor is it one of right and wrong, lies vs truth, or even should I salt or sugar my tomatoes.

It has to do with my compelling need to be at least 15 minutes early for any event from doctors appointments to family get togethers (much earlier if it is a public event such as a concert , wedding/funeral, or sporting event), vs my complete tendency towards procrastination. Consequently I am my own push me pull you.

Before I retired, it manifested itself into my morning schedule. We had flex-time, wherein we were allowed to alter our start-time anywhere between six and 9:30 am. Obviously, the earlier you started, the earlier you went home, and for me, work started at 6am, so in the early days, the mister could get the kid off to school, and I could be there when he got home. It was a 35-40 minute drive, meaning I should leave home at 5:15, earlier if I wanted to park closer than 3/4 of a football field away (which makes a huge difference when the wind chill is -25F in the morning or the afternoon heat index is +112F.) Consequently, my original wake up time was 4am and my goal was to leave home by 4:50am, arriving at work around 5:30, securing the closest non-handicapped spot (still a miserable 50 yards from the door), and as a bonus, avoiding nearly all traffic along the way. My get-there-early DNA was pleased...maybe even smug.

The older I got, the more my procrastination tendencies conflicted with my get-there-early DNA and by the time retirement was near, my morning had altered to feed the horrid inner conflict. I showered, laid out clothing, and packed both breakfast and lunch the night before. I reset the alarm for 4:30, brushed my teeth, then dressed, did hair and minimal makeup, grabbed my lunch box and was out the door in 20-25 minutes.

Those were the days I went to the office.  Somewhere in there, part time tele-work was instituted and I took full advantage of work at home days. Unfortunately, on those days, procrastination took my brain hostage, as my alarm was reset for 9:15am (the kid was in middle or high school by then - certainly old enough to fend for himself so mom could get an additional 5 hours of sleep), and I, in robe and slippers, stumbled bleary-eyed, down the hall, logging onto the office website just in the nick of time. It didn't help that I had a min-fridge and coffee machine in the home office, so all I had to do was reach behind me to get juice, cheese, or put a pod in the coffee machine. I cannot begin tell you what having the two such diverse wake up times on alternating days can do to a person's soul. It was not pretty, and neither was I.

Two and a half years ago, I retired and made a list of all those get-there-early type things I never had time for - unfinished needlework from a cowboy Santa I started when the kid was 5 (he is going to be 25 in the fall) to a simply gorgeous crocheted blanket for my first niece's birth. She is now 16. The novel I started in 2005 was going to get completed. There were boxes of photographs and family stuff to sort thru, as well as genealogy inherited that needed more research. I also toyed with the idea of volunteering to become a story lady at one of the local elementary schools. I was even going to attack gardening again for the first time in years, as well as getting back to becoming the gourmet cook I used to be. I was even going to blog weekly.

That's when the old broad named Procrastination took one look at my ambitions and laughed right in my face. Loudly.She might have even snorted.

I have not touched a single piece of decades old needlework except to sort it and move it around. The 5,000 word novel is up to two parts - one with 17,000 words and another with 32,000, but melding them together is daunting and I keep editing and adding to established parts instead of meshing the stories together. The photographs are still in boxes (partially sorted), dad's genealogy stuff is still untouched on the shelf, the elementary school forgotten, gardening abandoned, and as for cooking, if dinner is even made, it more than likely is a frozen pizza that the mister puts in the oven. As far as blogging goes, none were written in 2013 and this is the 12th in the ensuing two years. All those pinterest pins I made?  Not even going there.

So.....if anyone can figure out how to force me into action, please feel free to kick me in the butt, since I evidently can't bend my leg to kick my own, although I do have an idea for a device that will do it for me. Unfortunately, I keep putting off building it.

Big Yellow Taxi

Forty five years ago, Joni Mitchell wrote a song called Big Yellow Taxi, which had nothing to do with one, except she rode in it from the airport to a hotel, opened up the curtains in her room, saw the beautiful mountains in the distance and the parking lot below her. “Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone. They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot.”

As I get older, and am forced to pay more attention to the mortality around me, I decided to reverse the ‘I don’t know what you’ve got portion’ in my life. It started when I lost my father in late January. Actually, it started when he lost his quality of life several years ago after a life threatening bout of double pneumonia after bypass and valve replacement surgery. He never really recovered and his life went to shit in the three or four years after. During those years, I have been to two funerals of friends since junior high, had another friend die in a car accident, have been notified of friends battling cancers of all types from lung and bladder, to ovarian, and bone, have watched friends battle dementia and Alzheimer’s with their parents, watched other friends lose parents, spouses, and children, and then this morning heard from my baby brother that next week he is having that ol’ ‘let’s put a camera in you and take a look at your heart because we think there is blockage’ procedure.  He mentioned that it was in late June when our mom died and also when our dad had his heart surgery that eventually led to his demise.  Scary as all shit.

So, my friends, please join me in ‘noticing what you’ve got.’

Watch the clouds form horsies and ducks in the sky.

Listen to the laughter of unseen children playing somewhere in the neighborhood.

Revel in the love people have for music, even if it’s not your cup of tea.

Worship the printed word in the form of books. 

Pray for others, and for yourself, and for the world to have more love and less hate.

Close your eyes and enjoy the taste of a freshly picked, red, ripe, and juicy tomato.

If it isn’t lightning, stand in the rain and laugh.

Dance in it if you can.

Say hello to a stranger – you might be the smile that lifts their darkness.

Perform many acts of random kindness.

Celebrate friends and family.

Celebrate yourself.

Quit worrying about later, because today is the present, and it is indeed the most wonderful present we can have. 

2015 Reading list and first book - CandyFreak

I recently saw a reading list that I have made my 2015 goal. It’s not full of book titles, but type of books, such as over 500 pages, a book taking place in my hometown, based on a true story, one with bad reviews, a color in the title, on that was published the year I was born, etc.  All in all there are 50 different types.

An additional goal is to review each one on Amazon, Goodreads (and here), something I quit doing about the time I started finishing books at 3am and then going to sleep.

Will I make the goal?  I know I will read many more books than that this year, but will I add variety to my reading or keeping with the same old formula?  Only time will tell.

Number one completed on the list was a book I started but never finished.  Started from page 1 and read completely through to the end, is Candyfreak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America, by Steve Almond.  I didn’t set out to read this book in particular, but last week, Garageman called me to his office (i.e. the garage) to listen to an interview on sports talk. You can imagine my total joy. As I listened to this very articulate and entertaining man talk about the book he had just written on football and why he both loves and loathes it, I became entranced. I decided to find his name (Garageman couldn’t remember) and the book (he couldn’t remember that either.  At the end of the program, he did remember that maybe the guys last name was Allman and 10 years ago or so, he wrote about all about candy, and his trip across America to small, family owned and run manufacturers and how the big three were slowing killing them off.

Eureka!  I had that book!  I started reading it, and for some reason never finished, so I did a little research and dug it out. (I also purchased Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto for later.)

Candyfreak made me squeal with delight, shake my head yes in knowing sympathy, and made my stomach pine and mouth water for all those pieces of sugary goodness that were mostly regional, and that are long gone, or very hard to find. It delves into the disgusting practices of the big three and how they pay retailers huge fees to stock only their goods, pricing mom and pop manufacturers out.  It led to discussions between Garageman and I about the lack of new candy and limited twists on the old, pathetic as they are, at least it’s something new.

I was thrilled to find my favorite hometown candy with its own chapter - Valomilk, and to this day it pisses me off greatly, that in order to buy a hometown made candy, I have to go to Cracker Barrel because of the stocking fees charged by grocery stores and encouraged by the big three.  I admit, for a long, long time, I was an M&M freak, but the minute I started watching NASCAR and saw that Mars sponsored a driver who must remain nameless in my household, I banned all Mars candy from crossing my threshold.  I still allow Nestle and Hershey, but no Mars products, since I protest not with signs and marches, but by withholding my dollars.

Anyway, back to the book.  It made me long for the days of Mary Janes, rock candy, root beer barrels, peanut clusters, buttons, wax fingers, and all those wonderful penny delights of my childhood. Thanks to Mr. Almond’s Freak Appendix, I now have websites to connect with certain candy fetishes, and I recently found The Vermont Country Store, who sells many of these same delights.  I’d give the book five thumbs up, but he said nicer things about other candy makers than he did Russell Sifers who makes Valomilks.  In my book, that makes Mr. Almond slightly suspicious.

Madison Avenue and Hollywood Lie

Everywhere I go, from print to internet to screen, I am bombarded with descriptions and images of how a woman should look. If I were to believe it all, men only want to be involved with women who are (and subsequently, women only want to be) young, 5’9”, 115 lbs., tanned, toned, long wavy hair (preferably blonde), blue or green-eyed, with a flawless and totally smooth and unlined/unwrinkled face, and with legs long enough to wrap around an elephant. Personality need not be included.  For a long time…a very long time…I bemoaned the fact, I was short, far from thin, had stick-straight brown to auburn hair, brown eyes, stumpy little legs, small mouth, and eyelashes that refused to lengthen and curl no matter what I tried. Around age 12 or 13, I even remember one of my father’s sisters telling my family that I might be passably decent looking if I just lost a few pounds and the glasses, and they agreed. When those who are supposed to love you the most find fault with your looks, it takes a toll.

I have always felt like less in the looks department, and then I grew up.  Granted, it didn’t happen until I was 50 or so, but I learned to accept me for who I am, and found out I’m one helluva person, and can actually clean up pretty good despite….no….BECAUSE of what are considered flaws by many.

Every extra pound on my body (and I fully admit I could lose a lot of them) represents a wonderful meal with family and friends, enjoyed by all.  They stand for the love we generate around the supper table, at weddings, after funerals, at Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and far too many birthdays to count.

I do admit to coloring my hair to get rid of a tinge of grey over my ears, but my hairdresser says only until my eyebrows start to turn, and then we shall go au natural.  I treat myself to facials, and use high quality facial products to keep my skin from becoming dry and leathery, but I will never use chemicals or surgery to change my appearance.  I am me. I am unique. I am wonderful and it is my flaws that make me so.

Every line and wrinkle on my face represents a memory of a tear shed, a worry worried, or a laugh shared.  Why would anyone want to delete those wonderful pieces of life to appear less than what they are? The latest fad is for men too, to undergo facelifts and Botox treatments.  Why?  Are all these people so shallow and vain that appearance is what counts most? That what’s inside is negligible?

How empty are the lives that deem this necessary.  That’s not a question, by the way – it’s a statement.  How freaking shallow and devoid of what really counts is your life that you feel it required to change your appearance in order to fit in to a perceived notion of who you should be, whether it’s your insecurities or peer pressure pushing you in that direction?

Stand straight, let it sag, bag, wrinkle, and pucker. Smile. Let the inner you shine and be secure in the fact that you are real, and not a caricature of who you really are. There is a tall, 27 year old, voluptuous redhead inside me, and I let her take over my 64 year old 5’1-1/2”, overweight outside.  Guess what? People see the physical me, and love that crazy redhead inside. I refuse to hide anything or be someone I’m not.

Go jump in a lake Madison Avenue and Hollywood, and take your unrealistic ideals with you.  I don’t need you.  No one does.

Be secure and comfortable in who you really are, for once you start changing to please others, you lose yourself in the process.