BW52: 2016 is a wrap!

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!  Our reading year is once again drawing to a close.  I'm happy to say this year is ending with much gratitude and grace and I am looking forward with optimism to many new adventures in 2017.  We sailed the waterways of the world, dropping into different ports of call east and west of the Prime Meridian, then jumped off ship to explore North and South America.  Many of you chose to chart your own course and followed a variety of rabbit trails.

Where did your reading take you this year?  

How many books did you read and did you meet or beat your own personal goal?  Or did you get caught up in reading and forget to keep track like me?  *grin* 

What countries and time periods did you visit?

What were your most favorite stories?   Any stories that stayed with you a long time,  left you wanting more or needed to digest for a while before starting another?   Which books became comfort reads

What is the one book or the one author you thought you'd never read and found yourself pleasantly surprised that you liked it?

Did you read any books that touched you and made you laugh, cry, sing or dance.

Any that made you want to toss it across the room in disgust?

Please share a favorite cover or quote.

Congratulations on completing another reading year and thank you to all who followed our reading journeys.    Reading to me is as necessary as breathing and it is also comforting. It is an escape from the real world. I get rather crotchety without my books.  How about you?

I really appreciate you sharing your reading journeys with me. No matter what we read, whether it's fiction or nonfiction, literary or contemporary, historical or futuristic, a chunky book or a cozy, the most important thing is the reading.   I hope you had fun too as you followed your own reading paths and enjoyed your bookish journeys.  I look forward to 2017 and sharing another reading year with all of you.

Best wishes for a happy, adventurous, reading New Year!

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Link to your most current read and / or year end wrap up. Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post.

2017 52 Books in 52 Weeks

Courtesy of Lauren Conrad 

Are you ready to join me for another round of reading 52 Books in 52 Weeks?  The rules are quite simple and how you get there is entirely up to you.  It's going to be a gem of a year as we excavate for new as well as old reads.  Whether you like unearthing one book at a time or scooping up multiple books, burrowing in with a classic, digging into a chunky read or shining up one of those dusty books from your shelves, it all averages out in the end.  The goal is to read 52 Books. 

In the past few years, we've been across and around the world by foot, car, train, plane and sea.  To aid us in our journey this year, we'll be digging deep to discover the jewels of our reading world.  We have a variety of challenges to assist with our reading voyage this year including another round of 52 Books Bingo. 

Birthstone Bookology Reading adventure which will take us around the world and through different time periods from the ancients to the present.   You can go a variety of directions with this challenge. Read a book for each letter in the birthstone of the month.  Read a book with the birthstone or the color of the birthstone in the title. Find a book set in the time period or setting where the birthstone was discovered and/or mined.    

Dusty Mini challenge: Limit buying new books for 1 - 4 months and/or read 4 to 12 or more books gathering dust on your shelves prior to 2016.

Chunky Mini Challenge -  books more than 500 pages.

Well Educated Mind:  Continuing exploring the classics in 6 categories: Fiction, Autobiography, History/Politics, Drama, Poetry and Science.  

Plus we'll be doing a year long readalong of Susan Wise Bauer's The Story of Western Science as well as another round of 52 Books Bingo.  

The mini, weekly and monthly challenges are optional, Mix it up anyway you like.

So put on your hard hats, grab your shovels and pickaxes and get ready to explore.   

1. The challenge will run from January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017. 
2. Our book weeks begin on Sunday. 
3. Participants may join at any time. 
4. All books are acceptable except children books. 
5. All forms of books are acceptable including e-books, audio books, etc. 
6. Re-reads are acceptable as long as they are read after January 1, 2017. 
7. Books may overlap other challenges. 
8. Create an entry post linking to this blog. 
9. Sign up with Mr. Linky in the "I'm participating post" below this post. 
10. You don't need a blog to participate. Post your weekly book in the comments section of each weekly post. 
11. Mr. Linky will be added to the bottom of the weekly post to link to reviews of your most current reads.

I'm Participating in 2017

I'm Participating in 2017 

BW51: Happy Winter Reading Wonderland

Courtesy of Teresa

Winter is the king of showmen,

Turning tree stumps into snowmen

And houses into birthday cakes

And spreading sugar over lakes.

Smooth and clean and frosty white,

The world looks good enough to bite.

That’s the season to be young,

Catching snowflakes on your tongue.

Snow is snowy when it’s snowing,

I’m sorry it’s slushy when it’s going.

~ Ogden Nash 

It is a Winnie the Pooh day today -  quite rainy and blustery,  which is quite appropriate as Winter approaches us in the Northern Hemisphere while it is officially summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Whether you are ensconced all comfy and cozy next to the fireplace or sprawled out on a sunny beach, both are perfect places to read or dream.   Can I have a rousing refrain of this year went by way too fast.  I'll be taking the last two weeks off from lessons to prepare for and celebrate  Christmas as well as work on plans for another round of 52 books.  Of course,  we are going to do it all over again.  I'll post the 2017 52 Books in 52 Weeks announcement sometime this week as well as the I'm Participating link for you to sign up.

It is also time for our Winter / Summer Solstice mini reading challenge. What words come to mind during this season?  Solstice is the two times a year when the sun is at its greatest distance from the celestial equator.  So if you want to broaden your scope, try looking up synonyms for not only solstice but also celestial, equator, or sun to name a few.  Be creative and use one of the words in the Nash poem above.  Look for a book in your stacks with the word you choose in the title.  

Have fun following rabbit trails to the book of your choice. 

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Link to your most current read. Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post.

BW50: Best of 2016

Time for our annual round up of best of the year fiction and non fiction book lists, from around the web.  Grab your computer, laptop, ipad or iphone, fix yourself a nice warm cup of tea or coffee and settle down in your comfy chair and browse through just a few of the web's offerings of the best of 2016.

NPR's Book Concierge - Guide to 2016's Best Reads

Harper Bazaar's 12 Best New Books of 2016

Bill Gates pick's Favorite Books of 2016.

Washington Post's Top Ten and Best Mystery and Thrillers and Best Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Chicago Tribune's Best Poetry Books of 2016 and Chicago Librarians Picks for the best of 2016

Huffington Post's Best Self Published Books of 2016

Council of Foreign Affairs anthology of nonfiction books from the east to the west, plus political and social, economical and scientific :   Best of Books 2016

The Economists wide array of non fiction and fiction - Books of the year 2016

New York Times - The 10 Best Books of 2016 from the editors as well as 100 Notable Books 

Smithsonian's Best Books about Science  and Best Art Meets Science Books of 2016.

Happy reading!

P.S.  Yes, we are going to do another round of 52 books for 2017!  

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Link to your most current read. Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post.

BW49: Delectable December

Bake a Book 

Welcome to Delectable December, a month to celebrate a variety of events. From the arrival of Winter to Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, St Lucia Day, Boxing Day, and St Nicolas Day.  December is a wonderful time to curl up with a good book by the fireplace. Also a great time to gather in the kitchen, warm from baking and enjoy the results fresh from the oven. Experimenting with new recipes, fine tuning old, exploring foods unknown and chowing down on our favorite comfort food.

Every time I make stuffing or sauce for baked salmon or dressing for steamed artichokes,  hubby says this is the best one yet, what did you do differently this time. Make sure you write it down.  *grin*

Last week we talked about foodie books. Now we get to chat about cookbooks. Do you have a favorite cookbook or do you have a whole shelf of cookbooks to peruse?  Do you prefer surfing the web exploring sites such as  allrecipes.com or foodnetwork.com.  Do you print recipes and keep a favorites notebook.  Are you the create it from scratch type of cook?   Do you prefer to cook alone or the more the merrier?

Share your favorite cookbooks, recipes, cooking traditions or pictures of your cookbooks.


Happy cooking!

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Link to your most current read. Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post.