Sunday Salon: December 9, 2018

My life in books: 

 

• The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah--Fantastic historical fiction!
• Picture Us in the Light by Kelly Loy Gilbert--YA
• Educated by Tara Westover--Intense Adult non-fiction (memoir)

• DNF: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green--I tried, I really did, but I just could not get past about page 60 of this book. I will probably be the only person who can't finish it.
• Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris--Adult thriller that is super gripping and good
• A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi--YA with a great message

Challenges progress: As we approach the end of the year, I have got to start choosing books that satisfy challenges!

• Big Book Summer Challenge (complete)--I read 5 books longer than 400 pages this summer. This challenge is now done since summer has ended.
• Non-fiction (complete)--My goal is 20 books and I've read 46! 
• Literary Voyage around the world (complete)--Read books set in as many countries as possible. I have read in 40 countries so far, and in the past two weeks added none.
• Literary Escapes--Track the US states. I have read books set in 31 states so far and in the past two weeks added none.
• Read all of the ALA YA Award Winners (complete)--I have already read all of the winners!
• Motif Reading Challenge--The December motif is Winter or Holiday, but I haven't done this yet.

My life outside books:

Work:

It was definitely strange to be back to work after almost 2 weeks off (Strep and Thanksgiving), but it also felt really good and I feel like I am back on track after a month of feeling a drift.

Personal:
Not much to report.... I've got a bunch of Christmas shopping done in NYC over Thanksgiving so that feels good to be on top of it. Yesterday my mom and I had one of our totally efficient Murdoch women days where we did tons of errands and Christmas shopping and got everything done including things we thought we'd have to put off for a week.

Part of our errands took us to the "Corner Green" in our part of town where there is a memorial to those who died and did rescues during the Thomas Fire and the Debris Flow that devastated our area a year ago. Next to this memorial is a plaque thanking those that donated money to create the green space in 1993. I scanned the names and found that someone donated money in honor of President Mikhail Gorbechev. Don't you think that's funny?!

I bought my first fake Christmas tree and I must say it looks really good. It's only four and a half feet tall and came pre-lit. I planned on putting it outside, but when I got home, the instructions said it was for indoor only so now my part of our house has its own tree.