Hello Friday

     Hi everyone. Happy Friday. It's been a mix of very cold days and just plain cold days at my house. And it seems most days we've been having wind. Of course they say next week we're in for some bitter cold days. What a month January has been so far. No January thaw yet. 😐

    It's time for Nicole's Friday Face Off and also for Gillena's Friday Lunch Break. I've still been cleaning out my art space so I haven't had much art time, but with all the cold, it's been a good time to do it. I am happy to be just about  done with a successful clean, reorganize and purge.👍 Of course, I should move onto my clothes closet which still has some work clothes in it (and I retired 4+ years ago) and even my books could use a good going through. 

   For faces today I once again have some pages from a holiday journal I made and finished right before New Years. Sorry to be sharing Christmas in mid-January, but hopefully by next week I'll have something new to share. And I really like this Christmas journal that  I made. 

    There's lots of faces today, as well as some dots so I'll also be joining Mia's Dots challenge at Art Journal Journey.

    To make these pages I used various papers, rubber stamps, water color paints, inks, markers, die cuts, TH people, stickers, ribbon, lace, washi tape, some Studio Light punch outs as well as some 49 and Market punch outs. 

     That's all for me today. Wishing everyone a great weekend ahead. 

Lots of Swirly Dots

      Hi everyone. Happy middle of the week to you. 

Today I have some dots to share. Dots is Mia's theme over at Art Journal Journey.

     The dotty background is made using some very old clear stamps and a couple of different ink colors. Then I used a bit of pink watercolor paint too. I added some bits of ephemera including a chipboard sun, some punched out buttons as well as a yellow arrow from an old game that was left in my classroom and that I scavenged the arrow (well  a few arrows) from. I stamped the quote. I am craving sunshine because it seems like we've had hardly any days when it stays sunny all day lately. I also finished my page with just a bit of white paint splashing. 

      I'm also still in art supply/art room cleaning mode. I'm glad to be doing it, but sometimes it seems like it isn't getting done fast enough. 😏

And did you notice the moon the other night?

Have a great middle of your week.

     

T Stands for Last Week

      Hi everyone. Happy new week to all of you. It's also once again time for T again over at  Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog. It's taken me what seems like forever to write this post as I had some annoying and suspicious pop ups that wouldn't go away. I finally figured out how to get rid of them, thankfully. Sadly I must have picked them up while reading the obituary of a former student who committed suicide. It's bad enough to read an obituary of someone in their early 20's never mind having the site then mess up my computer.  😖

     Last week flew by for me. It was a busy one, but not busy with things you'd take photos of. One thing on my list was  a little self- pampering. A friend had a free pass to an exercise club so I went with her and took my first ever water aerobics class. It was fun, and I felt great to get into the water. 

     I also went and had a massage, which I haven't done in many many years. I've got a sore muscle in my lower back that comes and goes. It's better when I can get out and move, but last week with the winds and cold temperatures (in the negative numbers whether you measure by Fahrenheit or Celsius)  it was too chilly to walk. Never mind over the holidays it was easy to go into lazy mode-grin.  I decided to splurge on myself and go get the muscle knots worked on. And it did help a lot. 😀 

    Otherwise I had a couple of other appointments (nothing very exciting), worked on giving my art area a good sorting/cleaning, and I watched a lot of old episodes of Project Runway.  I also kept the woodstove going and spent some time hunkered down with a good book next to heat.

    I have 2 drink related posts this week for T day. The first is some hot cocoa I made one day along with the last of some Scottish style shortbread I had made at Christmas. 

     And my second photo is this blackberry flavored ginger ale that I discovered at my sister-in-law's house. It only comes out seasonally, so I bought a case that also has regular ginger ale as well as cranberry flavored, which is also quite good.  And it's the prettiest color too.

     That's all for me. Wishing you all a happy T day and week ahead.  

Doodling Dots

      Hi everyone. Happy Sunday to you. I hope you're having a nice weekend. Our winds have finally died down after almost a week of constant blowing. We also had around an inch of light snow yesterday. Strange how south of New England they have more snow than us up here further north, but I need to watch what I say because I am sure there will still be some snow in the forecast as it is only January. 😈

      Last week with the very cold weather I spent a lot of time doing some deep art space cleaning so I went all week without making any art except for some doodling while I watched some TV at night. I keep a small journal and some markers tucked in under the couch so when I feel like doodling I can easily grab them.

     Today I'm sharing my doodle pattern page for Mia's Dots challenge at Art Journal Journey. When I watch TV and doodle I like to make patterns. I find it very relaxing, plus I can  play with color and design. My page today would make a great background for something, and it probably will in the future. 😏

   My husband gave me a hyacinth bulb that was rooted in a pretty little jar filled with water for Christmas, and it's already blooming. It's so nice to see this thought of spring ❤which seems like a long way off right now. 

    Otherwise there's not much else new so I will keep this post short. I should add that I will be linking to Gillena's Sunday Smiles also.

     Have a great rest of your weekend and start to the new week.

Reading Wrap Up 2024-The Best and The Worst

   Hi everyone. Today's post is more for me (and is me having fun  geeking out with some reading analysis data), but if you're interested in reading my analysis of  my 2024 books lists, then please continue. I'm changing  up my wrap up a bit this year, including some book photos as well as my thoughts.

I'll start with my 2024 reading stats:

total number of books: 113 

     a. number of mysteries: 51

           Agatha Christie's: 5

           mysteries that were NOT part of a series: 4

           all other mysteries: 42

     b. number of  fiction titles (not including mysteries): 32

             historical fiction novels (not counting classics): 13

             fantasy fiction: 5

             classics (not counting classic mysteries): 7

             other fiction: 7

    c.  number of non-fiction books: 30

            histories not focused on one person: 7

            biographies: 11

            science and natural history: 5

            travel experience themed: 2

            other non-fiction: 5

And some notes on my reading:

A. My most memorable  NEW to me books during the year not including mysteries: In some ways it's hard to pick  the best books. There were so many good ones in 2024. Although I've numbered these, that is only for the convenience of writing and reading. These books stand out in my mind as some of the most memorable ones I read.

1. 

Although I thought part 2-the post Vietnam War part- could have been more condensed because it dragged on a bit, the part set in Vietnam made me feel like I was actually there. 

2.

This book was a surprisingly good history of the Jersey Shore. Not only did it go into the horrible shark attacks, but I learned a lot about the time when going to the beach became a thing to do.

3. 

OK, this might be the best book I read in 2024. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the fact that I visited Greece and not just Greece, but the mountain village where my friend's grandparent's came from. This nonfiction book is all about life in a mountain village up to the second world war and then  during the the time the Greek communists tried to take over the country. Although parts of this book were actually difficult subject-wise to read about, the story is amazing. 

4.

If you like old Hollywood, this story of Hattie McDaniel made enjoyable historical fictional reading and if I hadn't known better, I would have thought  it was an indexed biography. 

                     5.&6.

The Fall of Giants is the first book in this trilogy of the 20th century, and the second book, The World in Winter, was as good. You can guess book 3 is on my list for 2025. They're LONG, but well worth it.

7.

This book about Catherine the Great was a well written biography. I can tell the author enjoyed his subject, and wow, what a life she had.

8. 

This book is about Mary Anning, one for the first fossil hunters and also new species discoverer. It was also well written and well researched. Not only did it talk about the science, it was a biography where I felt I got to know Mary  quite well. And considering Mary Anning didn't leave a whole lot of source material behind, the author found many other sources to write an excellent biography.

9.

This book was really well written with  characters that were very relatable. I also loved how it was set in New Hampshire, ties in women's lives,and shows how life is between locals and the summer people, which is still true today.

10.

Doris Kearns Goodwin is an excellent history writer, and I really enjoyed this view of 1960'a history from (mostly) her late husband's memorabilia and also including some of her own stories. Even better, she read the book.

B. Some of my most memorable or enjoyable mysteries and mystery series: These are my favorite type of books. Even though some of these are series, I will only show one from that series even if I read multiple books.  Also, the order is only because of how I added them, not in any order of best or worst. But here's some of my favorite single books or series from 2024.

     

     

**Notes on these mysteries if you're curious. The writing  follows from left to right, top row to bottom:

In order of photos: a) the newest Inspector Gamache by Louise Penny, b) I read several book to complete the Maggie Hope WW2 series,c)  Karen Baugh Menuhim writes the Heathcliff Lennox series which is a fun 1920's mystery series, d) A Talent for Murder is actually part 3 of a series but could be rad as a stand alone book and is set here in New England, e) Susan Hill writes a deep and at times scary police series set in England, f) Boys Who Hurt is the latest in this excellent Icelandic police procedural series, g) Ann Cleeves might be the new queen of mysteries; so far there are 3 Matthew Venn books which were all excellent, h) The Black Path is book 3 of a 6 book mystery set in Northern Sweden that can be pretty intense but is well done, i) Agatha Christie wrote so many good stories and it's amazing how she managed to switch them up,  j) I have a new Keigo Higashino book that is on my list to read-it's a great series set in Japan, and he has written several different series-I've read all for the Detective Kaga ones as well as the first 4 of the Inspector Galileo k) Anne Hillerman picked up her father's 3 main Navajo characters after he died, and I am so glad she did as these are great southwestern US stories,  l) We Solve Murders which is the new series but Richard Osman, and finally m) these Chet and Bernie dog mysteries are funny and boy, did the author create a dog (Chet) is is really believable. 

C. Series Reading in 2024: It was a good year reading series. Most of the mysteries I read were part of a series. How can you not like going back to revisit some new adventures with some known characters? I finished a few mystery series too: Maggie Hope,  Matthew Venn, the Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir Icelandic mysteries to date and until the new Inspector Galileo book came out in December both the Inspector Kaga and Detective Galileo series by Keigo Higashino too.

      

     Here's a few other series I either read completely or started and read a good chunk into the series. (I'm only showing the first book from the series.)

                            

     A few other series I read at least one book were the Phyllida Bright mysteries by Colleen Cambridge,  2 Lady Trent memoirs by Marie Brennan, and also one Donna Leon (I really need to catch up on this series since there are over 30 books and I've only read 4).

D.It was also a much better year than 2023 for Classics: I'll  start with these rereads, and I enjoyed seeing them again with new eyes. I just love rereading a book I haven't read in a long time.

                         

and moving onto some new to me stories from some classic authors I like.

     

E. And there were a few books I wish I had skipped and not spent so much of my time reading:

  

 Charlotte Illes Is Not  a Detective (was too young and I felt like a parent snooping on my kids while I read it), A Calculated Risk (was too much like The Eight but not as interesting a topic), and finally A Woman of No Importance (which I expected to be excellent but for me needed more depth)

F. Books  I read quite a bit of and then I didn't finish for various reasons: Besides the 3 books above

     

   The train book was a good book but after being away for 8 days on a trip, I could't get interested enough to pick it up and finish it. But maybe I will this year because it's not a bad book.

G. I didn't keep track of books I started and couldn't get into so I moved on before investing a lot of time in them. However, I bet it was at least 15-20 books.

H. Short stories: I'm not usually a huge short story/novella reader, but this year I seemed to read a few. Or at least more than most years. Here's a few I enjoyed.

      

The first 3 were single novellas, and the last one on the right was a collection. I also enjoyed reading a few Edgar Allen Poe stories right around Halloween.

I. Science/natural history books; This year I didn't read much in this category, which is surprising because I enjoy this type of reading. I guess every year varies. Here's some highlights, including a biography which isn't exactly natural history  but I'm including it here because it connects to the Gerald Durrell series. I really enjoyed reading the real story behind the Gerald Durrell's  stories of his years living in Corfu as a child, but that didn't lessen what I think of  Durell’s classics. 

          

J. Month(s) I read the most books: October and February with 11, but part of October's 11 books were with 3 shorter novellas and some Edgar Allen Poe short stories. In April I read 12 books, but if I remove a cookbook I had already read before, that also puts me at 11. 

K. Month(s) I read the fewest book: March. I listed 6 books, but one of them was on Greek and Roman mythology, which I only read the parts that were relevant for my Greece trip, so that really puts me at 5 books. 

L. Book Lengths: I read a few longer books. Gone With the Wind  was the longest one at 1,000+ pages in my old paperback. The 2 Ken Follett books were also long,  but those clocked in at around 31 hour listens, whereas Gone With The Wind clocked in at a little over 49 hours of listening.There were also a few books around 500 pages. My shortest books would be the novellas I read, either the Housemaid short story (which took me under an hour to read) or the Catherine Coulter fantasy books. I listened to 3 of those stories and they were around 2-3 hours each.

M. Reading Trends: In the last few years that I have been analyzing my reading, I discovered each of those years I had  some reading trends like World War 2 , Japan and even food themed books. This year my  2 reading trends were:

    -Books set in or related to Greece: 

      

      

       - Reading 51 mysteries  - I don't think I need to list any here

Goals for 2025: To get through some of the books I already have. Read some "different types of things-though I'm not sure what that means as of yet. Read and finish some more books from some series I have started. Read more travel style biographies. And read more classics.   

If you made it this far-thank you. Now I'm heading into  this new year of reading which so far has had a great start.