Let's Bust a Recap : 2020

It's the last day of 2020.

Let's all just sit for a minute and appreciate that.

I don't have to go into detail about any of the ways this year has been an absolute dumpster fire, but I do want to remember a few of the sweetest things that happened this year. 

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- I got to spend time with every single member of my family this year. Seeing as my siblings are spread out all over the globe and two of them are actively serving in the military, this one's a big deal for me.

- My husband stayed healthy working in the ER all year, AND in November he began an awesome new job at the hospital he works at which is an answer to a prayer we've been praying for two years.

- My husband and I also celebrated eight happy years of marriage in May, and The Melting Pot opened back up for business just in time for us to have our traditional anniversary date.

- My newest nephew was born healthy after a safe pregnancy, and despite all the travel restrictions I was finally able to travel to Germany to meet him. (I'm here now!)

- I instituted weekly one-on-one dates with my four nieces who live near me and we've had the funnest times together.

- My dad retired as the senior pastor from our church of 25 years, and even though this is a bit of a mixed blessing, I'm so thankful our church has already found a new senior pastor we love and the transition has been good. I'm also happy my parents are so happy with their new place in life. Even though they left me.

- One of my brothers moved back to Florida after being away from us for a long time.

- In April, I had a five-day slumber party bash reminiscent of our middle school days with three of my best friends. Even though we didn't get to go on the trip we'd been planning for a year, we had the absolute best time with our revised 2020 version of events. 

- I surprised my sister who lives in Oklahoma by showing up on her doorstep on her birthday.

- My sisters and I started a book club. How on brand is that??

- And I read a lot of really great books this year.

2020 will probably live in infamy forever, but when I look back at this insane year, these are the things I want to remember. 

And since one of the things I want to remember is all the great books I read this year, let's get on to that. My yearly book lists and end of the year recaps are my favorite posts on this blog and certainly the ones I reference the most often. This year, my 2020 book list consisted of 21 books and I said in my first post of the year that I'd be aiming to read 24 books. I didn't get to five of the books on my list, but I ended up reading 41 books over all and that makes 2020 my second best reading year since I started tracking my reading back in 2015. (2018 is still my best reading year ever.)

So what did I actually read this year? I'm so glad you asked.

Rainbow Valley by L.M. Montgomery (re-read) : completed 1/12

Always a pleasure to visit the Blythe family and an Anne book is always the perfect way to begin a new year.

The Reckoning by John Grisham : completed 2/5

The first John Grisham I've read since high school, and it made me want to revisit all my old favorites. (Which you may find me doing in 2021.)

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett : completed 2/23

Really excited for The Secret Garden after having finally read and loved this one. I think my sisters are going to read it with me in our new book club.

All's Well that Ends Well by William Shakespeare : completed 3/2

I have so much fun writing my Shakespeare recaps, and this one was a riot.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis (re-read; read aloud) : completed 3/8

My husband and I continued our read-aloud of The Chronicles of Narnia and finished the series which was certainly a welcome escape this year.

Lies Women Believe by Nancy Leigh DeMoss : completed 3/20

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt : completed 3/30

My favorite book of 2020. I was 100% delighted by this charming little book.

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear : completed 4/6

Looking forward to more Maisie Dobbs! My parents liked this first one so much that I ended up getting them the first six books in the series for Christmas. 

Sisterchicks Down Under! by Robin Jones Gunn : completed 4/13

Charlotte's Web by E.B. White : completed 4/15

The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright : completed 4/17

Still stands as the most unputdownable book of the year.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston : completed 4/28

Being Known by Robin Jones Gunn : completed 4/30

The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis (re-read; read aloud) : completed 5/6

This one and The Last Battle were ones my husband had never read before so it was really fun reading these to him.

Of Mess and Moxie by Jen Hatmaker : completed 5/15

Not impressed. But her letter to her parents really resonated with me, and I loved that part of the book.

Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder (re-read; read aloud) : completed 5/27

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman : completed 5/30

Very pleased at how this one lived up to the hype.

John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit by James Traub : completed 7/7

James Herriot's Treasury for Children (read aloud) : completed 7/16

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren (re-read; read aloud) : completed 7/29

So fun revisiting this one after more than 20 years. (Still hard to admit I'm old enough to say things like this.)

Middlemarch by George Eliot : completed 7/29

TOO LONG. I can't forgive Evans for that. But a friend gifted me Silas Marner for Christmas and I'm looking forward to reading one of her (much shorter) popular novels.

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild : completed 8/13

Kathleen Kelly did not steer me wrong.

The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis (re-read; read aloud) : completed 8/16

Get Out of Your Head by Jennie Allen : completed 8/18

First book I read with my sisters in our new book club, and we also did the corresponding Bible study. The book and the study were a little disjointed, but both were challenging and the process of going through them together helped my sisters and me deepen our relationships with one another.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr : completed 8/26

Excellent. No surprise it's a Pulitzer-winner.

Cymbeline by William Shakespeare : completed 8/31

Not so much a tragedy, but thank goodness because I don't know if I could have handled a tragedy on the level of King Lear or Othello at this point in 2020.

This Momentary Marriage by John Piper : completed 9/8

I think this was the best choice for my proper introduction to Piper.

The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis : completed 9/16

Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver : completed 9/29

Favorite nonfiction book of the year. 

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury : completed 10/11

THE book to read in October. This was my choice for our sister book club.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry : completed 10/12

Still heartbroken over that beautiful dedication.

The Twits by Roald Dahl : completed 10/23

Loved my first Dahl books this year and very much looking forward to a deeper dive into more next year.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë : completed 10/26

This novel truly solidified my love for Anne Brontë. She's my favorite and deserves at least as much recognition as Charlotte and Emily.

The Witches by Roald Dahl : completed 10/30

Andrew Jackson by H.W. Brands : completed 11/22

My favorite presidential biography (and president!) to date.

The Masterpiece by Francine Rivers (re-read) : completed 11/27

Lyndsey's choice for our sister book club. 

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver : completed 11/29

The book I probably had no business reading this year (because I snatched it out of a Little Free Library even though I already had a book with me) but I'm glad I did anyway.

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank : completed 12/11

Recap coming soon. Just couldn't quite pull it all together before the holidays, but suffice it to say: this book certainly helped me keep a proper perspective in the midst of 2020.

Robert & Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Selected Poems : completed 12/20

Thanks to Whitney at The Unread Shelf and her Unread Book Bingo, I read my first complete book of poetry. I have a couple different shelves full of poetry at my house, and I have the best intentions to read them, but my approach to poetry thus far in life has been to read a random poem here and there. 

The Passions of Andrew Jackson by Andrew Burstein : completed 12/28

Interesting follow-up to the biography by Brands. Burstein attempted to reveal Jackson's psyche, and while I didn't agree with all of his conclusions, it was interesting to see the way a different author attached more significance to certain details of Jackson's life that another author hardly mentioned at all; and overall, my admiration for Jackson remained fully in tact—possibly even increased.

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia : completed 12/31

Not quite done with this one, but I'll definitely finish it today and a recap is coming soon!

As I mentioned in my Roald Dahl recap, 2020 turned out to be The Year of the Children's Classic for me, and that really seems perfect given all the craziness we've endured. Even though I've felt overwhelmed and distracted a lot this year, looking back on the books I read is somehow grounding and comforting. I'm really looking forward to reading more next year. My plan is going to look a little different so I hope you tune back in for that post. 

As always, I'd love to hear about what YOU read this year, and I'd especially love to hear some of the GREAT things that were part of your life in 2020. And if you're feeling discouraged or alone, please feel free to drop me a line via the Contact Me! box on the right side of the screen (scroll down and enable the "Web View" if you're reading from your phone). I would love to chat with you. 

Keep on Keeping On & Keep Reading the Best Books First!

Let's Bust a Recap : The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Y'all. Today is a big day. Today, for the first time ever in 2020, the To-Be-Blogged stack is cleared. We are officially caught up, you guys, and it feels so good. I'll probably be finishing The Diary of Anne Frank later today, but that is neither here nor there. For this brief moment in time, there are no books sitting in a pile, waiting to be blogged about before returning to their rightful homes on my bookshelves. Please, join me in a happy dance.  

I picked up this pretty, clothbound edition of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall at Powell's in Portland, OR a few years ago (yes, on the same visit I bought All the Light We Cannot See), and have been looking forward to reading it ever since. It was also one of the books on my 2019 book list and I had planned to read it with a friend which is probably the reason I did not end up reading it. (Sorry, Jen!) Don't try to understand how my mind works. It's a wild place. 

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë was originally published in 1848 under Anne's male pseudonym "Acton Bell" and was an instant success. The novel is framed as a series of letters from Gilbert Markham (to his friend, Halford) about the events surrounding his introduction and subsequent friendship with a mysterious young widow (calling herself "Helen Graham") who arrives at Wildfell Hall (an old abandoned mansion in the neighborhood) with her young son and a female servant. Markham is writing these letters in 1847 but is referring to the time Helen first comes to Wildfell Hall in 1827. In the course of his letters, he reveals part of Helen's diary (which she gave to him) which flashes back even further to 1821. As we read her diary, we discover that Helen fell in love and married young thinking she could fix the flaws of her man because people get better, right?

Wrong. She finally ends up running away from her husband with her young son in tow in the hopes of preserving them both from her cheating, alcoholic husband. 

While the contents of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall may not seem very shocking to us today in the 21st century, the sensation it created in Victorian society at the time cannot be overstated. A woman supporting herself financially was one thing, but a woman leaving her husband and taking their child with her violated social convention and early 19th century English law. Critics today consider it one of the first feminist novels, but at the time it was published, Anne got roasted. Even her own sister Charlotte tried to prevent the re-publication of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall after Anne's death saying, and I quote, "'Wildfell Hall' it hardly appears desirable to preserve." People have speculated about Charlotte's motives for this, but I intend to agree with the class that thinks she was a jealous old hag. (Except not actually old since she wasn't even 40 at the time.)

Anne defended herself against the critics of her day in a preface to the second edition saying:

...when we have to do with vice and vicious characters, I maintain it is better to depict them as they really are than as they would wish to appear. To represent a bad thing in its least offensive light is doubtless the most agreeable course for a writer of fiction to pursue; but is it the most honest, or the safest? Is it better to reveal the snares and pitfalls of life to the young and thoughtless traveller, or to cover them with branches and flowers? O Reader! if there were less of this delicate concealment of facts—this whispering 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace—there would be less of sin and misery to the young of both sexes who are left to wring their bitter knowledge from experience.

Okay, Anne! You go ahead with your bad self, girlfriend!

She goes on in the preface to stick it to the critics who suspected her feminine identity thereby dismissing her work, saying: 

I am satisfied that if a book is a good one, it is so whatever the sex of the author may be. All novels are or should be written for both men and women to read, and I am at a loss to conceive how a man should permit himself to write anything that would be really disgraceful to a woman, or why a woman should be censured for writing anything that would be proper and becoming for a man.

 I mean, she was sassy and I'm here for it.

A lot of critics, both in her time and even now, think the only reason her work has endured is through the reputation of her sisters and her connection as an author with them. I call foul. I intimated a few years ago after reading her first novel, Agnes Grey, that I thought her work was just as good (maybe even better) than Charlotte's and Emily's, and after reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, she has solidified her status as my favorite of the Brontë sisters. As opposed to their Romanticism, she was one of the few authors of her time who employed Realism and it rang true. During certain parts of Helen's diary where she is describing a party at which her husband and his friends are getting drunk, I was squirming with discomfort. She perfectly encapsulated the experience of being in that atmosphere. 

I loved Agnes Grey, but The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is Anne Brontë's true masterpiece. It's such a shame she died so young. (29!) I can only imagine what else she might have produced given more time and experience on this earth. I'm glad she's finally getting her time in the sun. I'm not the only Anne fan around these days. While The Tenant of Wildfell Hall isn't exactly a light, fun novel, I couldn't put it down and flew through it in less than a fortnight (as our Victorian authors like to say). If you're going to get into the Brontë sisters, don't sleep on Anne!

Have you read any of the Brontës' work? I still have Villette and Shirley by Charlotte to go, and I also have Emily's complete poetry that I haven't really gotten into yet. What's your favorite of the Brontë sisters' novels?

P.S. Shoutout to my husband's co-worker Amanda who helped me figure out which photo to post with this recap, and which to post over on my Instagram. Thanks, girl!

Let's Bust a Recap : Roald Dahl

Today's post is a 2-for-1, a BOGO if you will, because I have finally read Roald Dahl, and I read both of these within a week of each other. 

Yes, I said finally. I grew up watching Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but I had never actually read a single book by Roald Dahl until just a few weeks ago. Because he has written some of the best-loved children's stories of the 20th century, he's been on my LIFE LIST for years, but because he has written so many hits I've always been a tad unsure of where to begin or which books I should add to my library. 

Well, my husband solved that problem for me by getting me a fun box set of sixteen of his books for my birthday, and my friend Courtney and her kids unanimously decided that I should begin with The Twits. So that's exactly what I did.

The Twits was originally published in 1980, and by that time, Dahl was already a well-known author of children's novels. In it, we meet the awful Mr. and Mrs. Twit who spend their days pulling nasty pranks on one another. They keep a family of pet monkeys called Muggle-Wumps which they also mistreat, and on Wednesday evenings they like to have bird pie for supper which they make out of the birds that Mr. Twit shoots after trapping them on his tree with Hug-Tight Sticky Glue. In this hilarious tale, the birds and the Muggle-Wumps finally give the Twits their comeuppance in one of the most delightfully funny endings ever. 

The idea for The Twits was triggered by Dahl's hatred of beards which he desired to "do something against." The beginning of the book goes into painstaking detail of how disgusting Mr. Twit and his enormous beard are. I think the fact that Dahl wrote an entire book solely because of his aversion to facial hair is almost as funny as the book itself. 

The Witches was published three years later in 1983, and I chose to read this one because my husband gave me the box set when it arrived (instead of making me wait till my birthday) and I thought The Witches would be fun to read on Halloween. (Spoiler: I was right.) In this one, we meet a little boy who has gone to live with his Norwegian grandmother after the death of his parents. The boy loves his grandmother and all her stories, but his favorite is the one about real witches. His grandmother warns him that witches live in every country in the world and it is their one goal in life to kill children. (Dahl's children's books are notoriously macabre and darkly comic, featuring villainous grown-up enemies of children.) When the boy and his grandmother uncover the Grand High Witch's evil plot to kill all the children in England (and eventually the world), they have to work together to stop it. 

The Twits was fun, but I loved The Witches. Both books were funny and a little dark, and I think I really would have enjoyed them when I was younger (especially The Witches). 2020 seems to be the year of children's classics for me, and I'm not mad at it. I usually incorporate children's books into all my reading lists, but this year in particular I seem to be reaching for all the books I missed out on as a kid. I read for the first time and fell in love with such gems as A Little Princess, Tuck Everlasting, Charlotte's Web, Ballet Shoes, and The Little Prince. Not to mention I read Pippi Longstocking for the first time in over 20 years and the entirety of James Herriot's Treasury for Children. It's definitely been a sweet reading year for me.

But back to the matter at hand: I would absolutely recommend Roald Dahl. I don't see how you could make it through a read-aloud with your kids without giggling your way through, and even if you don't have any kids in your life to read to, these are fun ones to giggle yourself through. I'm looking forward to diving into more of his work next year, and I think the next one I pick up has to be Matilda because I loved the movie when I was a kid. But if you want to suggest your favorite, let me know!

What's your favorite book by Roald Dahl? Do you read or re-read children's books when life starts to go sideways? What's one of your favorites?

Let's Bust a Recap : The Bean Trees

Let me tell you a little story. 

Once upon a time, there was a girl who loved books. She took a book with her wherever she went. You could find her reading any time a pair of seconds popped up—standing in line to vote, waiting for a table at a restaurant, or even stuck in traffic. She made a list of books for herself to read at the start of each new year. She was always acquiring new books even though she had shelves full at home waiting for her attention. 

One day, she took her car to the shop for some routine maintenance. As was her custom, she had a book with her, a book she was more than halfway through reading. After dropping her little car off with the trusty mechanics, she walked to the nearby lake, found a bench, and settled in to read her book, the book she owned and had been reading for several weeks. 

It being a chilly morning with a brisk breeze coming off the lake, the girl, clad in just her hoodie and jeans, decided after about an hour of reading on the bench by the lake to change location in the hopes of warming up a bit. So she walked downtown, away from the lake, to sit in the sunshine by a beautiful fountain to continue reading her book, the book she brought with her, the book she'd been reading for the past hour. 

Alas, as she neared the lovely fountain in the center of town with the sunshine beaming down on her, the girl happened to pass a Little Free Library. Being the book-lover she was, she naturally detoured directly to the Little Free Library to have a look inside. Upon a few moments perusal, the girl found a book she had never heard of that looked interesting and she proceeded with this book, the book she had not brought with her, a book she'd never heard of, to a nearby bench by the pretty fountain and immediately began to read the new book leaving the book she'd brought with her completely ignored and rejected in her purse. 

That girl is me. 

And the book from the Little Free Library is The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. 

(And if you—like me—need every detail when being told a story: the book I originally brought with me was The Diary of Anne Frank, a book I still haven't finished.)

Not only did I procure and read this book at the end of the year while I was in the middle of reading three books and furiously trying to finish up books from my 2020 book list, it's now jumping in line to be recapped before three other books I finished in October. (Before I even knew this book existed.) 

Such is the life of a bookworm. 

Anyway, The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver was originally published in 1988 and was Kingsolver's debut novel. She has since gone on to become one of the most well-known authors in the United States (and world, to be honest). I also own her most famous book, The Poisonwood Bible, though it's one of the books sitting on a bookshelf in my house, waiting for me to read it. 

In The Bean Trees, we're introduced to Marietta Greer. Everyone in her hometown in rural Kentucky calls her Missy but she's determined to make it out of Pittman, and as soon as she leaves town, she decides she needs a new name. 

"I wasn't crazy about anything I had been called up to that point in life, and this seemed like the time to make a clean break. I didn't have any special name in mind, but just wanted a change. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me that a name is not something a person really has a right to pick out, but is something you're provided with more or less by chance. I decided to let the gas tank decide. Wherever it ran out, I'd look for a sign. 

I came pretty close to being named after Homer, Illinois, but kept pushing it. I kept my fingers crossed through Sidney, Sadorus, Cerro Gordo, Decatur, and Blue Mound, and coasted into Taylorville on the fumes. And so I am Taylor Greer. I suppose you could say I had some part in choosing this name, but there was enough of destiny in it to satisfy me."

In her '55 Volkswagen, Taylor heads west to make a new life for herself. But on the way, she ends up with a tiny Indian girl. When they finally settle in Tucson, Taylor finds community in a newly single mother, Lou Ann, and Mattie, the owner of Jesus Is Lord Used Tires. What follows is at the heart of this memorable novel about love and friendship, abandonment and belonging, and the discovery of surprising resources in apparently empty places. 

This novel hooked me from the very first page. Taylor's down-home, audacious voice was a delight to read, and the strong, tight female relationships highlighted throughout the entire story were a joy to discover. I will say that the book started to drag a bit in the middle for me, and I think Kingsolver could have used a bit of focus in that midsection. Certain points the author was driving at were a tad heavy-handed, even a little preachy at times. Not so in-your-face that I wanted to stop reading, but enough to make me roll my eyes a couple times. But the end was just as strong as the beginning and given that this was her debut novel, I can forgive the slightly scattered sections. Kingsolver's natural wit and wisdom made this book a pleasure to read overall, and I enjoyed it. I even got sorta choked up at the end.

I enjoyed The Bean Trees, and I'm glad I found it, but it's not necessarily a book I would shove into the hands of all my BFFs insisting they read it pronto (which I have been known to do). I would definitely recommend it if you're looking to start small with Barbara Kingsolver (The Bean Trees is less than half the length of The Poisonwood Bible), or if you're tired of romance and looking for a story with themes of friendship and family that make you proud of the human spirit. 

Have you read The Bean Trees or anything else by Barbara Kingsolver? Do you have any irrational tendencies like starting a new book you've never heard of even when you are literally in the middle of a different book that you actually have in hand?

Let's Bust a Recap : The Little Prince

It seems fitting to post my recap of The Little Prince today, the day that lives in infamy, the day the United States was drawn into WWII. The famous author and pilot, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, was grounded and living in the United States at the time Pearl Harbor was bombed. During his two years in the United States (between stints of flying reconnaissance missions in the French Air Force despite being far past the maximum age for such pilots and in declining health), he wrote this little novella that can't properly be classified as a children's book, nor a book for adults. 

That's because this book is for everyone. And up until a couple months ago, I had never read it. 

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was first published in the United States in 1943 in both English and French. Since that time, it has sold an estimated 140 million copies and has been translated into over 300 languages and dialects making it one of the best selling and most translated books of all time. My particular edition of this classic was translated from the original French by Richard Howard in 2000. It's been adapted into numerous art forms—not just movies and television but opera and ballet—and it continually draws new readers and reviewers selling about two million copies annually. How in the world it's taken me this long to finally read it is a true mystery, but I'm so glad it came to me in 2020.

From the back cover of my edition: 

A pilot stranded in the desert awakes one morning to see, standing before him, the most extraordinary little fellow. "Please," asks the stranger, "draw me a sheep." And the pilot realizes that when life's events are too difficult to understand, there is no choice but to succumb to their mysteries. He pulls out pencil and paper...And thus begins this wise and enchanting fable that, in teaching the secret of what is really important in life, has changed forever the world for its readers.

I fell in love with this book on page one when the narrator shows us his drawing of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant and describes how tiresome it is to be always explaining things to grown-ups. Actually, this book broke my heart even before it began with one of the most poignant dedications I've ever read, and quite frankly, the entire book is worth it just for Saint-Exupéry's dedication to his friend Leon Werth, in my opinion. But the story itself is chock-full of keen observations of the nature of man and piercing insights into the human condition. All of that along with Saint-Exupéry's simple illustrations make this a book you don't want to miss. The Little Prince fully embodies the quote by Henry David Thoreau that inspired this blog: "Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all." 

My little copy of this novella is particularly dear to me because my niece (who is not quite nine years old) gave it to me for my birthday this year. She remembered me mentioning months ago (maybe even more than a year ago) that I've been wanting this book for a long time and she found it herself at the bookstore and was so excited to give it to me that she couldn't even wait until my birthday. She loves to read, too, and it is the joy of my heart to be able to discuss books with her. This book will always have a special place in my heart because it was a gift of love from her. 

And if you haven't read it, get thee to a bookstore or library immediately and join the millions who have fallen in love with The Little Prince. This is definitely a book everyone should read and I can't think of a better time or place to read it than a quiet evening at the end of 2020 in front of your Christmas tree. 

Have you read The Little Prince? What's one of your most treasured books and why?