End of Year Reading Recap

One of my favorite things about a new year approaching is setting up my reading goals and the admittedly ambitious long list of books to read during the year.  Of course, this also starts with a review of what I did and did not manage to read in the last year.  2009 was my most successful reading year, when I came very close to reading 100 books.  Since then the reading count has been roughly half that per year, but that exercise did expand my reading horizons to new genres and authors.  Over the past couple of years my reading goals have consisted of a set number of books per genre/category I have established (usually one per month or one per quarter depending on the typical book length).

For 2012, I read 40 books and 12,500 pages (yes, I keep track of the pages and yes, I know that is nerdy).  The books/series I read (and kept track of, there is always something I just pick up and read quickly and forget to add to the list) are listed below by category.  I also noted the annual goal for each category.  The Others category is really just anything I pick up and read during the year, but wasn't on the original list or fit into a category (sometimes I do make substitutions during the year).  Not surprising, two of the three this year are ones I read at least once each year.

WorkRelated: 4

Naked Airport: A Cultural History of the World's Most RevolutionaryStructure

Classics: 4

Lady Susan

Children’sLiterature: 12 books/series

Moon Over Manifest

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Hunger Games series

Little House on the Prairie series

Long Way From Chicago
Rent a Third Grader

Fiction: 12 
The Eyre Affair

The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

A Room with a View

The Family Fang

The Art of Racing in the Rain

Snobs

Non-Fiction: 6

In the Garden of Beasts

The Chocolate Wars

Angela's Ashes

Imperfect

BookClub: 12

The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society

The House of Sand and Fog

The Hunger Games

North and South

Unbroken

To Kill a Mockingbird

Crocodile on the Sandbank

Evolving in Monkey Town

Sarah's Key

Devotional: 4

Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World

Others

Witch of Blackbird Pond

Persuasion 
Book Thief

One thing I found interesting was the categories which are typically my favorites (Classic and Children's Literature) were the ones in which I completed the lowest percentage of the goal.  Just one Classic and it was the shortest novel on the list!  I suppose accountability serves well even for tasks you enjoy completing, because I was most compliant with my book club list: 9 of 12 read and I am about to start a 10th book, for which I attended the meeting but didn't have time to get/read the book in time. Nonfiction books are also becoming more of a favorite; those are the ones I am most likely to add to the stack when I go to the library for just one book.

I do not think there are any of these books which I would discourage anyone from reading, although The Family Fang is quite strange and definitely not for everyone.  These are my favorite discoveries this year and ones I would highly recommend:

1. Moon Over Manifest - the 2011 Newbery Award winner.  In addition to just being well written, the author utilizes flashbacks and mystery very well as a young girl discovers the history of the small and colorful town where she is sent to live during a year of the Depression.
2. In the Garden of Beasts – If you think you do not like non-fiction, I would highly encourage you to try an Erik Larson book; they read more like novels than non-fiction.   Devil in the White City was the first of his books I read and I enjoyed this one just as much.  Essentially a biography of the American ambassador to Germany in the 1930’s, this gives an interesting view of Germany during Hitler’s early days in power and events which lead to the beginning of WWII.
3. North and South – While the initial setting is similar in time, place, and situation to a typical Jane Austen era novel, shortly into this book everything relocates to a manufacturing town with very different characters…or maybe they are not so different after all.  The heroine is initially prejudiced to her new situation but discovers some unpolished jewels of humanity which leave her debating between which is better… North or South.  
4. Book Thief - A view of a typical small German town during WWII from the eyes of a preteen orphaned girl, but told by an unusual narrator, “Death”. Despite some unorthodox storytelling, like giving away the ending very early, and weightiness of the story, it really is a page turner. 

I suppose the favorites still hold true after all - two of these are classified as Children's/Young Adult (although I might argue that point on Book Thief), one Classic, and two are set in Germany before/during WWII.

Now onto 2013 reading goals...what is everyone else reading?

Santa Hustle

5K & Half Marathon in Galveston, Texas. Evan ran the half and Jacinda and I "ran" the 5K. Candy and cookies at the water stations. Fun start to the Christmas weekend!

Decorations Refresh

As I’ve documented on this blog before, my work decorations tend to be more seasonal/holiday than personal themed.  They can also be a bit over the top at times, so some of them take a bit of time to create and thus are often seen again the next year or so.  However, this fall I decided two of my holiday themes needed a break.  Both the Haunted Mansion (Halloween) and Gingerbread House (Christmas) had made three annual appearances.  Here’s their replacements for this year: Columbus Day (October) and Snowflakes (December).

Along with the pictures, a little background on each.

Columbus Day – The cute little Columbus on the outside wall was something I made for my mom’s classroom a long time ago…15 years at least.  Thanks to good storage and the wonders of lamination, he survived pretty well and served as the centerpiece and inspiration. 

If it is not very legible in the picture, the map is labeled with Spain and “Asia” aka. The New World.  Hanging in front of the map are the three ships, and yes, the Pinta was taking on water and on her side most of the time.

 

Snowflakes – Since snowflake decorations have long been a favorite of mine, choosing the theme was a no-brainer.  I found the perfect snowflake print wrapping paper at Walmart (great price for the amount, takes a bit to cover all of the walls inside and out).  The “snow” batting and white string lights were leftovers from previous decoration. 

While that total coverage makes an impact, my smaller outside wall space has created a need for always having something hanging from the ceiling.  A little internet searching found a science/cooking experiment that worked perfectly!  Check out the close ups of the two snowflakes. Here’s the simple steps to create these cool crystallized decorations:

1. Bend chenille stems (aka. pipecleaners) into the desired shape.  Mine were snowflakes, but you could make candy canes, wreaths, etc.
2. Tie a string to one end and tie the other end of the string to a pencil/pen.
3. In a large mouth jar, mix boiling water and a liberal amount of borax.  I probably used ¾ to 1 cup of Borax for a quart of water. 
4. Submerge the snowflake into the water solution, balancing the pencil/pen across the opening so the snowflake is fully submerged but ideally doesn’t touch the bottom or sides.*
5. Leave for several hours, overnight for best results.
6. Remove from jar and marvel at the cool creation!

*Note: If it is touching the bottom/sides, the snowflake get stuck to the jar.  I had a couple do this and it really wasn’t a problem to pull them loose.  So don’t let the size of your jar limit the snowflake size too much.  I used an assortment of mason jars, large candy jars, and large yogurt containers and each worked well. 

One interesting observation I made about these.  I had two basic snowflake designs: one with just a six point formation (snowflake 1) and another with the six points plus “Vs” added to each point (snowflake 2).  I noticed the first design came out solidly covered with small crystals, about the size of typical sugar, while the others grew much larger crystals akin to a rock candy look.  Although I like the second one better, the contrast is interesting.  

The tree is the same, with this year’s SWA ornament added to the mix.  Notice Tink fits in quite well with the theme also!