tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38390714017864127462024-03-18T16:54:55.683-04:00Read the Best Books FirstHannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.comBlogger678125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-38474764945384553682024-03-18T07:00:00.172-04:002024-03-18T10:21:43.825-04:00Let's Bust a Recap : Bucket List Family Travel<div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Okay, so I discovered <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@TheBucketListFamily">the Bucket List Family</a> back in 2019 while I was trying to decide if I wanted to have an Instagram or not (<b>*SPOILER*</b> I decided not to have one) and I've been following them ever since. I was mesmerized by their beautiful videos visiting the most amazing places all over this globe, and I came to have a real affection for this sweet family. Social media is really weird that way. There are people on this planet that I have never met and probably never will meet that I feel are friends. Like, my fictional book friends but they're real. It's weird. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">Anyway</i>, last summer they announced that Jess (the wife/mom of the family) had partnered with National Geographic to create this <a href="https://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Bucket-Family-Travel/dp/1426222238/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3HIREQNSATG7S&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.YUXdtqZykUgLGN2fa2vQMmSmGk3cysNmbkQ9blnc88w-WAUzAE9Ipt0T46ppPcd1ymKzN1AChMyOR7yTY4qXPlutC_VpGD3IMvXGl1IGjYM4T90nY94ORbGmANvOaCuA3oS6izRXj0bh0htCynB75bwpP70uwptMJAayiBYPF56COvuxD5s-OtBgY9vC20pnKugiAwBOjRrS7zm0w5x9ti7U7C6hlUR-rUtKvPsWZy4.fymxoxJ3Bv7dhcbmbDKr43zlnTAheCZcb1qdaVYoKPM&dib_tag=se&keywords=bucket+list+family+travel+book&qid=1710769023&sprefix=bucket+list+family+travel%2Caps%2C868&sr=8-1">Bucket List Family travel guide</a> and that the preorders would be opening to purchase it prior to its February 2024 release date. I immediately preordered and as a result, I got a signed copy! (Which has only reinforced this fictional friendship I have with this family in my head.) I fully expected this to be a beautiful coffee table book with lots of gorgeous photography and maybe a little travel inspiration from the 50 promised itineraries. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmb3Lu613BfeCEyVhFxtFmy5FRQ1hYOFzWoVNsinUko3WdGiDlN9riQTDWczxBTMkgeaST97qeImY4K1TNwgv6Xhh1I8k2Iev3zb-OTaC2xjUvcMjaUM0BmdFqNMK49iiRuaOxh4UD_nn1J_I5vOEZ3h9itJENrRXAjl6N1FQ6Iyf5VMSm2dDMN-AcSiI/s3367/IMG_1597.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2084" data-original-width="3367" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmb3Lu613BfeCEyVhFxtFmy5FRQ1hYOFzWoVNsinUko3WdGiDlN9riQTDWczxBTMkgeaST97qeImY4K1TNwgv6Xhh1I8k2Iev3zb-OTaC2xjUvcMjaUM0BmdFqNMK49iiRuaOxh4UD_nn1J_I5vOEZ3h9itJENrRXAjl6N1FQ6Iyf5VMSm2dDMN-AcSiI/w400-h248/IMG_1597.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>And it is.</b> What I was <i>not</i> expecting was to actually read every single word in this book from cover to cover. <b>Which I did.</b> Every caption on every photo, every word of all <i>51</i> itineraries. I read it all. And loved it. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I have been privileged in my life to do a fair amount of traveling, and while I'm nowhere close to the Gee family's impressive 90+ countries, I'm up to over fifteen now spanning five of our seven continents, and Cody and I have started our own Bucket List journey of <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/search/label/%23SeeAll50">visiting all 50 of these United States</a>. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZY1Gnd152NsrLFJr4wNS8sh_FNeigq5-gXsK0F20Dtt6AyQ1O0Cv5ysbtUmafEkN8n6nnmoCHi5MQRCREcqXWqlb9yVkSAlzEKVV1oVGwpvMb5nAbOU9BEaFL3fIWfaGu7Q8XJrgpxCQoLEGJ7Vg8HZ9XszuiLSnrNx7vjL00cbEN-AIpUhbndxY6l7g/s4032/IMG_1600.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZY1Gnd152NsrLFJr4wNS8sh_FNeigq5-gXsK0F20Dtt6AyQ1O0Cv5ysbtUmafEkN8n6nnmoCHi5MQRCREcqXWqlb9yVkSAlzEKVV1oVGwpvMb5nAbOU9BEaFL3fIWfaGu7Q8XJrgpxCQoLEGJ7Vg8HZ9XszuiLSnrNx7vjL00cbEN-AIpUhbndxY6l7g/w300-h400/IMG_1600.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But about the book itself: it starts with a very sweet foreword from Jess's husband Garrett and then an introduction from Jess. After that, the book is divided into three parts: Planning, En Route and on the Ground, and Where to Go. The Where to Go section is made up of 51 itineraries of amazing places to go and is the biggest chunk of the book—well over half. The book is wrapped up with a small epilogue and acknowledgements page. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I immediately felt a connection with Jess as I was reading her thoughtful book. We're about the same age and have a lot of the same values. I really appreciated how she incorporated the theme of service throughout the book and included organizations that they have worked and volunteered with in the different countries they've visited. My first international trip was a missions trip with my church and a lot of my international travel has been centered around service projects. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another thing I appreciated about the Bucket List Family Travel guide is how down-to-earth and transparent Jess is. She doesn't try to hide the fact that her family's unique circumstances have afforded them the ability to do things that a lot of people will never get to do in practicality, and she doesn't skirt around the fact that their lifestyle is not attainable for everyone. She also doesn't apologize for it, and she still gives common sense advice and tips and tricks for how to travel according to your own tastes and budget. Her 51 itineraries include trips for all budgets, all over the globe. Even though my husband and I do not have children, I found a lot of helpful advice in this book and would recommend it to anyone looking to get into international travel. You can benefit from Jess's travel experience whether you are single, married, with kids, or without kids. I like that her itineraries included several U.S. destinations along with destinations all over the globe so that no matter where you are in the world reading this book, one of these trips is probably attainable for you. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And the photography! I fell in love with this family through <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@TheBucketListFamily">their amazing youtube videos</a>, and with every turn of the page reading this book, I got to look at beautiful, full-color stills from their awe-inspiring travel. This book is sure to be a treasure for their own family, but it is visually stunning for everyone else too. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I would highly recommend the Bucket List Family Travel guide to anyone who likes to travel or who is looking to get started with more intentional traveling whether internationally or domestically. Since discovering this family, it's become a personal bucket list goal of mine to swim with whales which I did not know was even possible but I'm now obsessed with. In all actuality, I may never get to do it but I will continue to live vicariously through the Gees every time they go to Tonga and get to be in the water with those magnificent creatures. What a beautiful world we live in!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Jess, if you ever find yourself reading this little blog post, consider this your family's official invitation to crash our home anytime if you find yourself in our neck of the woods. We live in Western North Carolina in the land of waterfalls and would love to show you around! Thank you for sharing so much of your family with the world and bringing us along as you swim with whales and walk with penguins. <span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;">❤️💙💚</span></div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-53857307686912938092024-03-11T07:00:00.326-04:002024-03-11T16:03:08.214-04:00Let's Bust a Recap : The Merchant of Venice<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRTNWXw734SItxoXx75aONQxiOkC_Z46vuzyD4VwQmuSzVzy3QRbRwlMhXDKxr7WekDi_sRcQWyjxmKT2RPEUd7pOIVSUzfWKSNRiwVwca6-NlqVOQ9VVpNn0mGrVSDTcFBvOJYGN7W6RPP0xIh6e4hVdKF06ZApn6oMTkGNzRW-9ERbeYE0Lkza4cmiU/s1200/merchantofvenice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRTNWXw734SItxoXx75aONQxiOkC_Z46vuzyD4VwQmuSzVzy3QRbRwlMhXDKxr7WekDi_sRcQWyjxmKT2RPEUd7pOIVSUzfWKSNRiwVwca6-NlqVOQ9VVpNn0mGrVSDTcFBvOJYGN7W6RPP0xIh6e4hVdKF06ZApn6oMTkGNzRW-9ERbeYE0Lkza4cmiU/s320/merchantofvenice.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Look at me, coming through on <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2024/02/lets-bust-recap-tempest.html">my promise</a> and posting my recap of The Merchant of Venice just three weeks after my recent recap of <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2024/02/lets-bust-recap-tempest.html">The Tempest</a>. Are we proud of me? <i>Are we? </i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But all joking aside, The Merchant of Venice is a doozy and even though I don't usually do this, we're going to talk about some pretty problematic elements of the play before we get into it. I'm not the most politically correct person living my life out here, but even I was a bit uncomfortable reading about poor Shylock and did I Google "was Shakespeare an anti-Semite?" upon completing my reading of this play? Yes. Yes I did. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Debate still exists to this day on whether or not The Merchant of Venice is, at its core, anti-Semitic, but after reading it for myself, I'm coming down hard on the side of: it <b>DEFINITELY</b> is. Forcing Shylock to convert to Christianity was the final nail in the coffin. If that hadn't been his unfortunate end, I might not feel so strongly about it, but yikes. This play is not a good look for Shakespeare no matter how we try to spin it. It shouldn't even have to be said but let me just go on record right now and say anti-Semitism is awful and has led to horrible crimes against humanity. I will not tolerate it and would appreciate you keeping that in mind as you read the rest of this post. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Are we clear? Do you feel me? The unfortunate nature of Shylock's character aside, I enjoyed The Merchant of Venice and I'm ready to get into it. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The play opens on sad sack Antonio (our titular merchant of Venice) moaning about how depressed he is for no good reason to two of his buddies who are trying to cheer him up but are finally just like, "Peace out, bro, you're a total drag." Right as they're leaving, Bassanio arrives to hit up Antonio for some cash because he's broke as a joke and needs some capital to go woo Portia, this total hottie that he's completely in love with. And Antonio is all, "Of course, my guy. I don't have the cash, but I'll figure it out and set you up, <i>no problem</i>." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile on Portia's estate, she and her maid Nerissa are busy roasting all the suitors who have recently come trying to wife Portia up. As it turns out, Portia's dead dad left a twisted little caveat in his will requiring any marriage prospects she has to choose one of three caskets he left behind, and if they manage to choose the one with Portia's picture inside, they can marry her. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Because that seems reasonable. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But the crazy apparently doesn't fall far from the tree because Portia has one-upped her dad by also requiring any aspiring suitor to promise never to marry at all if they don't get to marry her. So right off the bat, we know Portia likes to play mind games. Like, sis is <b>not</b> a catch. Why are all these guys losing their minds over her?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Back in Venice, Bassanio and Antonio are making a deal with the Jewish moneylender Shylock to get a loan that Antonio will repay once his ships come in. Shylock hates Antonio because Antonio is basically a horrible human being, but agrees to loan the money to Bassanio on the condition that if Antonio can't pay up on time, Shylock can take a pound of his flesh instead. (His heart, guys, he totally wants to carve Antonio's heart out of his chest and watch him die. Kindof psycho, but okay.) Bassanio feels some kind of way about this, but Antonio assures him it's all good so Bassanio skips off with the cash to go court Portia. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So that's Act I. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Act II there is a <b>lot</b> going on and Shakespeare is setting a <b>lot</b> of stuff up so try to stick with me here. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">First of all, the Prince of Morocco has shown up seeking Portia's hand in marriage so she takes him to the three caskets—one gold, one silver, one lead—and he picks the gold one, but inside is a skull and a note that says "All that glisters is not gold." <i>Bummer, dude</i>. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We also have a scene with Shylock's servant Launcelot who gives a whole speech about how awful Shylock is and how he wants to run away from him. We get it, Shakespeare, Shylock is your villain. (But is he, though?)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We also meet Shylock's daughter Jessica in Act II, and she piles on even more with how she's ashamed to be her father's daughter and how she hopes her beloved Lorenzo will keep his promise to marry her so she can become a Christian instead of being stuck as a filthy Jew. (Like, wow. Okay already.) She commissions Launcelot to take a letter to Lorenzo secretly detailing a plan of how they can run away together. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, it gets a little muddy through this part with all the details of a masque that's happening that night, but basically Lorenzo gets the letter and then goes and gets Jessica who is dressed as a boy—shocker. Can we even have a Shakespearean comedy that doesn't involve cross-dressing? She's embarrassed about how she looks, but Lorenzo is all, "No baby, you're still hot to me." Neither of them have any shame whatsoever about stealing a bunch of Shylock's gold and precious jewels though. <i>Whatever.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Back at Portia's, the Prince of Belmont is next in line to play "Pick the Casket" and he chooses the silver one. Inside is a mirror. <i>You're out, my guy.</i> (I should add at this point that each coffin has a message on top and the silver one is basically "if you open this you get what you deserve" which makes the mirror thing pretty funny actually.)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So that's pretty much all the important stuff for Act II. Oh, except for the fact that when Shylock discovers his daughter has run off with Lorenzo, he's more concerned about the gold she took than the fact that she ran off. More stereotypical profiling, <i>blah blah</i>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Act III, we learn that all Antonio's ships are lost and he's not going to be able to pay back Shylock. His friends are with Shylock and ask him if he really plans to take a pound of flesh from Antonio. Shylock's like, "For sure." And they're like, "Yeah, but what good will it do you?" To which he responds, "I'll use it to bait fish." <i>Stone cold, my man.</i> Antonio's friends keep pressing him to which he gives an impassioned, and kind of beautiful, monologue about how he's human too and Antonio has always treated him like scum so why shouldn't he have his revenge. (This monologue is why the whole anti-Semitism debate exists. Is Shylock a sympathetic character or not??)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Back to Portia: Bassanio has shown up and is ready to play "Pick the Casket" but Portia is reluctant to let him because she actually likes him. He's all, "No, let's do this mother because putting it off is torture." She contemplates cheating, but finally decides against it and takes him to the caskets. He picks the lead one and everyone is happy that he gets to marry Portia. She gives him a ring and tells him never to lose it or it will ruin their marriage. Nerissa marries his buddy Gratiano and follows suit giving him a ring of her own. (Do you remember how we talked about Portia playing mind games? Remember this bit about the rings.) They're all partying hard when Lorenzo and Jessica show up with a letter telling them how Antonio is in jail and probably going to die because Shylock's ready to make good on their deal to take a pound of Antonio's flesh. Portia basically offers her entire fortune to her new husband Bassanio to go save Antonio's life. (And now we know why all these men were trying for her hand: sis is loaded.)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So Bassanio and Gratiano leave to try to rescue Antonio while Portia leaves her estate in the care of Lorenzo and Jessica telling them she's going to a monastery to pray for her husband. <i>As if.</i> Naturally, she has come up with a plan for her and Nerissa to dress up as men and go to the trial themselves. And then we have like a whole page of Portia bragging about what a hot guy she is. So there's that.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Meanwhile in Venice, Antonio is in prison and Shylock is vowing to cut his heart out. Everyone's like, "The duke will not stand for this!" But Shylock is all, "He better uphold the law or Venice will riot." I mean, Shylock is not wrong, you guys. He's psycho, but he's not wrong. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There is also a completely random scene in Act III where Launcelot is teasing Jessica about how awful it is that she's a Jew and it'd be better if Shylock wasn't her dad to which she responds that then she'd be a bastard and have just as much reason to be ashamed of her mom. Like a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't type thing, and then Lorenzo walks in and informs Launcelot that he got some poor girl in Venice knocked up before he left. <b>Which has nothing to do with anything, y'all.</b> Like, sheesh. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But moving on to Act IV. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now we're at court and every single person in the play is begging Shylock for mercy and he is like, "I will have my revenge." Bassanio has offered literally any amount of money to pay off Antonio's debt but Shylock is <b>not having it</b>. Antonio has given up all hope of living through this. And then a young doctor of the law (aka Portia) and his clerk (aka Nerissa) show up to judge the case. Portia then proceeds to also ask Shylock for mercy—he continues to adamantly refuse—and then she gives a speech about how the court cannot force Shylock to show mercy. They have to cut out Antonio's heart. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Shylock is all, "Finally."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then as he is literally pulling out his knife to carve out Antonio's heart, Portia pipes up with, "If you spill one drop of his blood, you are a dead man." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><i>What?! </i></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">She points out that the bond states he can have a pound of flesh, but it said nothing about blood and if Shylock—a foreigner—sheds one drop of Antonio's blood—a native Venetian—then the law says the state can confiscate all his land and goods. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Bruh</b>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So Shylock gives it up and says, "Fine, I'll take the money instead." To which Portia is all, "Nah, bro, you already publicly refused that offer." <i>And</i>, to add insult to injury, since they just proved that Shylock did all this as a plot against Antonio's life, the state can confiscate all his goods anyway. According to the law. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Antonio then tells Shylock that if he promises to leave everything to his daughter Jessica when he dies and if he will convert to Christianity, then he can keep his stuff. To which the duke then adds, "Take the deal or die." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So I mean, Shylock takes the deal. <b>Woof</b>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But that's not all. Next, we have Antonio and Bassanio and Gratiano basically groveling at Portia and Nerissa's feet asking how can they ever repay them, and naturally, they ask for the rings from Bassanio and Gratiano. At first, Bassanio is like, "No, my wife made me promise to keep this ring forever." but then he gives it to Portia (in disguise as a man, remember?) anyway. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So as Act V opens, we see Lorenzo and Jessica basically in the middle of a game <i>no-I-love-<b>YOU</b>-more</i> when everyone shows back up. Portia and Nerissa mess with their husbands heads for a while before finally revealing the whole story and then they all live happily ever after. Except for poor Shylock who has been done dirty once again by all these insane Italians. Even Antonio gets news that all his ships are actually safe so he's rich again. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I mean.....yikes, <i>yikes</i>, <b>yikes</b>. If Shylock's ancestry had been left out of it and he was just your basic bad guy, this would have been a super-fun play, but as it is? I just can't. Shakespeare, my guy, what's <b><i>up</i></b>?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Have you ever seen or read The Merchant of Venice? What's your take? Do you think Shakespeare meant for Shylock to be a sympathetic, nuanced villain, or was Willy just a straight-up hater?</div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-56013127299132255582024-03-04T07:00:00.116-05:002024-03-04T13:08:11.849-05:00Let's Bust a Recap : Riding Freedom<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIoOahTYVqJuSX7XKlkpW4UmUEwKjrxN7ER4LWBSfbLkGuur320ZnvMNbo3WIj1jz2ztVNsk3PT5PhK_BHaaku4baRP-m0TkVikzHc-7iTvA1N9VdLK1U8hI03IECfP2OZyrp1A4oThTDsnUKNkHSycQ9qSr3pzcPoVQqbMCvaMt2oLi6jfhnqD4A9s7c/s4032/IMG_1579.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIoOahTYVqJuSX7XKlkpW4UmUEwKjrxN7ER4LWBSfbLkGuur320ZnvMNbo3WIj1jz2ztVNsk3PT5PhK_BHaaku4baRP-m0TkVikzHc-7iTvA1N9VdLK1U8hI03IECfP2OZyrp1A4oThTDsnUKNkHSycQ9qSr3pzcPoVQqbMCvaMt2oLi6jfhnqD4A9s7c/s320/IMG_1579.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I recently pulled this middle grade book out of a <a href="https://littlefreelibrary.org/">Little Free Library</a> in my brother's neighborhood in LA. (I also went to <a href="https://www.lastbookstorela.com/">The Last Bookstore</a> and ended up having to ship all the books I bought back home to myself because I couldn't fit them in my luggage, but that's neither here nor there.) While most of the books I acquired on my trip will probably sit on my shelves for a while before I get around to reading them, this one I brought home specifically to read out loud with my niece and nephews so I found myself reading it this past weekend a mere week after I added it to my library. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And it was <b>so good</b>. When we finished the last chapter, I looked up at my niece and exclaimed out loud, "That was <b>such a good book</b>!" </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">First of all, Pam Muñoz Ryan dedicated her excellent book "To Women of Substance" and proceeded to name six such women. If you've been around any length of time, you know a good dedication will get me and this one did. The subject of her 1998 fictional biography is Charlotte "Charley" Darkey Parkhurst who lived from 1812 to 1879 and is thought to be the first woman to cast a vote in a presidential election in the United States—a whopping <b>52 years</b> before women were afforded the right to vote in federal elections in this country. Running away from the boys orphanage she was raised in when she was about twelve years old, Charlotte spent the rest of her life posing as a male in order to live independently and became one of the finest stagecoach drivers on the West Coast during the Gold Rush era of our country, despite losing the sight in one of her eyes after a horse kicked her. She managed to keep her female identity a secret her whole life and was only found out when her neighbors came to lay out her body for her burial. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I really appreciated Pam Muñoz Ryan's note in the back of the book explaining the facts we actually know about Parkhurst and what she added to flesh out her short novel. I was so pleasantly surprised by this book and enjoyed getting to learn about this little known historical figure who led such a mysterious and interesting life. My niece and nephew loved it too, especially looking at the illustrations by Brian Selznick that are sprinkled throughout the book. I grabbed this book thinking my niece would be interested in the horse storyline and ended up being fascinated myself by One-Eyed Charley and her brave life. I would have actually liked it to be longer, but given how little we actually know about Parkhurst, I think Muñoz Ryan did a wonderful job keeping it factual and to the point. I had so much fun reading this aloud with my niece and nephews, but would honestly recommend it whether you're reading it with kids or not. Great story, great piece of history. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Has a good book ever opened your eyes to a little known piece of history you wouldn't have learned about otherwise? </div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-80701684249527789222024-02-26T07:00:00.123-05:002024-02-26T16:44:54.502-05:00Let's Bust a Recap : The Secret History<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLXB3GIvPKpuMzOkIlQv6GIUOFmfVmBIsSBK3DqsPSPOfe86MQ6TMfdq506R8u518YqRArjU_bld_d5Hof7vxmUIGTx6nw8sFazCPa_HQYhzHsrZ0bOWJhD6Jg8mRdtetKtSon92MsHEtTRkfVBjg6Rve0BHhxT5O1dSCQhHetJXd0UhtmzQZSmgSOubk/s4032/secrethistory.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLXB3GIvPKpuMzOkIlQv6GIUOFmfVmBIsSBK3DqsPSPOfe86MQ6TMfdq506R8u518YqRArjU_bld_d5Hof7vxmUIGTx6nw8sFazCPa_HQYhzHsrZ0bOWJhD6Jg8mRdtetKtSon92MsHEtTRkfVBjg6Rve0BHhxT5O1dSCQhHetJXd0UhtmzQZSmgSOubk/s320/secrethistory.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Booooooo.</i> I can't. This one's a big fat "<b>no</b>" from me. If I was the type of person who could just quit a book without losing sleep over it, I never would have made it through this one. Like, once Bunny was actually dead, I could not stay interested. Are any of y'all fans of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0491738/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_psych">Psych</a>? Do you know the episode "Black and Tan: A Crime of Fashion" (S2, E15)? This entire book was like when they're interrogating that one model and he's just all, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kADfQejr_6w">"It was yellow. And boring. I don't know...just write down that it was lame."</a> Like, that could be my entire review. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I know, I know. I can already hear all the Donna Tartt stans coming for me to tell me how much I didn't get this book. Go ahead, knock yourselves out. I'm already on my way to the nearest Little Free Library to leave my copy inside for you. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But to give you just a little more than my obvious distaste for what many of my peers have deemed a modern classic: The Secret History was Donna Tartt's debut novel back in 1992, and it is now considered to be the mother of the niche sub-genre dark academia. It's basically about a tight clique of snobby Classics students and their weirdo professor at a preppy New England college in Vermont. We learn in the prologue that the entire book will be our main protagonist's reminiscences about the time he and his four pretentious classmates killed their other pal when he got too annoying after not being able to cope with the fact of an earlier murder the others had committed. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Seriously, the whole book is just Richard whinging on about the New England foliage and how the others hold their cigarettes and every single thing he ate, and when we finally get to the actual murder the inevitable downward spiral of everyone involved was just a whole mess of these whiney rich kids getting absolutely plastered and self-destructing. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To boil it down to one sentence: five unbelievably entitled kids kill their so-called friend in cold blood and technically get away with it but—<b>surprise!</b>—it ruins their lives. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>In 559 pages. </b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There were a few insightful moments sprinkled throughout the book, but on the whole I didn't think the writing was as great as everyone says it is, and I just didn't care about any of the characters. Their pedantic worldview and resulting behavior disgusted me, and I ended up dragging myself through the second half of the book trying to get it over with. What a slog. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Cannot recommend, would not read again. It's two thumbs down from me. Have at it if you will, but don't come crying to me when you realize it's been a giant waste of your time. I tried to warn you.</div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-40884540530928510952024-02-19T07:00:00.019-05:002024-02-19T07:00:00.138-05:00Let's Bust a Recap : The Tempest<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIXL9OfKOa0CugjWY_iDCpUKYnqljgHoB8VCjgqaV5Vtecoj3-M6X2Xdls8Mc703afiSROJBRvP-ZLhLRmsZBXQN6_MKcE9_jGsKJQKUjLtPKt4thVxgEiU7HDIO6P1JgpHcD3ymm8QtVD9o2Ay8DDR8kQqJbo5514ts89ar-2alWvAhd5r2GB_DpM/s265/tempest5.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="265" data-original-width="200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIXL9OfKOa0CugjWY_iDCpUKYnqljgHoB8VCjgqaV5Vtecoj3-M6X2Xdls8Mc703afiSROJBRvP-ZLhLRmsZBXQN6_MKcE9_jGsKJQKUjLtPKt4thVxgEiU7HDIO6P1JgpHcD3ymm8QtVD9o2Ay8DDR8kQqJbo5514ts89ar-2alWvAhd5r2GB_DpM/w242-h320/tempest5.jpeg" width="242" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">February has come and gone and <b>come again</b> and that means I'm a full year overdue for everyone's favorite playwright, <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/search/label/Shakespeare?max-results=20">Willy Shakes</a>. And consequently, that means it is also way past time for a new favorite blog post from yours truly. Because if there's any consistent feedback I've gotten since starting this blog, it's that you people are here for the Bard. So let me just apologize here and now for completely skipping the Shakespeare posts in 2023. Let's see if I can take a page from Prospero's book and conjure you up a good one today.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We open on a gnarly storm with a ship floundering at sea carrying Alonso the king of Naples and a bunch of his nobles. The ship is coming apart fast and the king and his son are literally begging God to spare them while the duke, Antonio, is busy cursing the ship's captain and crew for bringing them all to their deaths. As if they can control the weather. Or want to die anymore than anyone else on this ship. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Like, seriously, calm down Antonio.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But as it turns out, this isn't any ordinary storm. The next scene takes us to a nearby island where Antonio's brother Prospero has been living for the last twelve years with his daughter Miranda. As it turns out, that creep Antonio usurped his brother's position as Duke of Milan and had the king banish him. Prospero is, naturally, a powerful sorcerer and has conjured up this storm to take revenge on all his enemies. He has enslaved the island's only inhabitant, Caliban, and also a spirit called Ariel to do his bidding. So, I mean really, Prospero isn't the greatest guy either. Maybe Antonio wasn't that far off-base in having him banished. Poor Miranda, though, am I right? Sis is just caught in the crosshairs of a battle of toxic masculinity. Bless her.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anyway, the ship wrecks on the island according to plan, and, using his magic, Prospero splits up the survivors into groups on the island to carry out his vengeful plans. Oh and the captain and crew are put into a magical sleep until the end of the play because we can't be bothered with them. We have enough characters to keep track of as it is. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">First up, we have Ferdinand, the king's son who is stranded by himself so that Prospero can pick him up and manipulate him into an engagement with his fifteen year old daughter Miranda all the while lecturing them both about the value of chastity. Pretty rich coming from him. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then we have the court jester and the majordomo who run into Caliban and offer us our "comic relief" in the play by bumbling around the island together plotting their own little rebellion against Prospero. Like that's going to work out.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Next we have the group of lords including the traitorous king (Alonso), Prospero's backstabbing brother (Antonio), the king's brother (Sebastian), Gonzalo (an old counsellor who's just doing the best he can out here), and a couple of other lords who I didn't really care about. Basically, Antonio convinces Sebastian that they should try to kill Alonso so that Sebastian can become king. What good this is going to do them seeing as they are stranded on a desert island is anyone's guess, but the general idea is: everyone is plotting evil against everyone else. Except for poor old Gonzalo and the two young lovers Ferdinand and Miranda. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ariel comes and torments Alonso, Antonio, and Sebastian until they feel so guilty for their crimes against Prospero and each other that they all run off to wander around until we need them again in the play.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Act IV is basically Prospero instructing the island spirits to put on a masque celebrating the betrothal of Ferdinand and Miranda—while simultaneously continuing the lecture about staying chaste until the actual wedding—but it gets cut off when Prospero remembers that there are three dopes running around the island plotting to kill him. So there's that.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prospero orders Ariel to bring the nobles to him so we can have our big showdown. Ariel, by the way, has been begging Prospero the whole play to set him free and Prospero once again promises that once Ariel does everything he wants him to do, he will finally set him free. (I had my doubts that Ariel would ever be free of Prospero, but don't worry: he actually is free by the end of the play.) So Ariel sets off to do Prospero's bidding. In the meantime, Caliban, Trinculo, and Stephano are chased into the swamp by goblins. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ariel shows back up with the nobles and Prospero promptly forgives them. <b>What?!</b> What have we even been doing here this whole time? They basically restore Prospero to his rightful position as Duke of Milan. Ariel fetches everyone else and Caliban basically tucks tail and promises to be good, Prospero sends Trinculo and Stephano away in shame, Ariel is charged with blessing them with good weather for the return trip home, and they all leave. Ariel is finally free of Prospero, and Miranda and Ferdinand go on planning their happily ever after. Prospero asks us, the audience, to free him by our applause and the play is over. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Tempest is probably one of the last plays Shakespeare wrote and it's kindof a mess, but it was fun nonetheless. I read it in a day. It's an easy one to read, but it wouldn't be the first comedy I'd direct you to if you're going to read Shakespeare. It falls in the class with some of his other late plays which don't fit neatly into either the comic or tragic categories so it just feels like there is <b>a lot</b> going on the whole time. If it were up to me, I'd take Miranda and Ferdinand out of it entirely and let all those crazy guys die on the island with their plotting and scheming. But that's Shakespeare for you. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Next up is The Merchant of Venice which I'll probably read this weekend, and I promise I won't wait another year to post a recap of it!</div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-19703314891814022792024-02-12T07:00:00.119-05:002024-02-12T10:53:41.372-05:00Let's Bust a Recap : The Scarlet Pimpernel<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioGEF46jE60IuU_43Hhe2w7gv_sMBJjuprEwtRth1PazgpauzP_1tuySWz8rG8PH05PXZ3A3C91k05BDAwTjAlLvJ6STXXxJCnWO7zTjZEAdXOmCsYoIyBZTyBCUWNOIrpYdJOPTPQNV0lFm4vTqEsMRrnHh7I_iNnxwX6pNxH_cfrPfahqxBe7SBwfYY/s4032/IMG_1502.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioGEF46jE60IuU_43Hhe2w7gv_sMBJjuprEwtRth1PazgpauzP_1tuySWz8rG8PH05PXZ3A3C91k05BDAwTjAlLvJ6STXXxJCnWO7zTjZEAdXOmCsYoIyBZTyBCUWNOIrpYdJOPTPQNV0lFm4vTqEsMRrnHh7I_iNnxwX6pNxH_cfrPfahqxBe7SBwfYY/s320/IMG_1502.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Okay, so the very first book I drew out of <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2024/01/2024-book-list.html">the TBR Jar</a> was actually a book that was on <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/01/2023-book-list.html">my 2023 book list</a> but I didn't get around to reading it last year, and that is: The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy. What are the odds?! I don't have an exact count on how many slips of paper I put in <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2024/01/2024-book-list.html">my TBR Jar</a> but let's just say about 1 in 500.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And I'm so glad because this is one of the books I was slightly bummed I didn't get to last year. So many of my real-life friends have recommended this 1905 classic to me, and I totally get it. It was a page-turner. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Scarlet Pimpernel was originally a play co-written by the Baroness Emma Magdalena Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála Orczy de Orci and her husband Henry George Montagu MacLean Barstow—<b><i>phew!</i></b>—which opened in London's West End in 1903. The success of the play spurred on the success of the novel which allowed Emmuska and her husband to live out their lives in luxury. Emmuska (the name used by our authoress' friends and family meaning "little Emma") was born in Hungary and lived in Budapest, Brussels, and Paris before finally settling with her family in London when she was 14 years old. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Scarlet Pimpernel is set during the bloody French Revolution and centers on our titular hero who is a mysterious Englishman who, with his League of nineteen other brave men, cunningly sneaks in and out of France to rescue aristocrats from Madame la Guillotine and smuggle them into England. The novel also features our heroine Lady Marguerite Blakeney, a French actress and comedienne who has married Sir Percy and is the fashionable darling of British high society during all of this intrigue with the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel. She is put into an impossible position when a French agent demands that she help him learn the Scarlet Pimpernel's secret identity in exchange for the promise of her brother's safety. What results is an adventure of epic proportions and I loved every page of this daring, clever, romantic story. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With this play/novel, Orczy established the "hero with a secret identity" in popular culture and her Scarlet Pimpernel quickly led to the rise of such famous characters as Zorro, the Shadow, Superman, Batman, and countless others, and the trope remains a popular one in serial fiction today. Even Stan Lee who read this novel as a boy, said the Scarlet Pimpernel was "the first character who could be called a superhero."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I would easily recommend The Scarlet Pimpernel to anyone who is looking to read more classic literature but isn't sure where to start. This novel clocks in at under 250 pages, it keeps you turning them, and the language isn't too difficult to get into. Which makes sense given that English was not Orczy's native tongue. The prose is simple, even repetitive at times, and easy to read. I said it once already and I'll say it again: I loved this book, and I'm so glad it cropped up out of the <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2024/01/2024-book-list.html">TBR Jar</a> this year. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What's your favorite classic?</div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-10343939966720649042024-02-05T07:00:00.124-05:002024-02-05T07:00:00.129-05:00Let's Bust a Recap : Tom Lake<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGiMQzwIAoJtkGvTwc2A8J4sPRLveMTeJwFXvFnJfnfNoQGwEY4IjU73PI55ESURfEyCCdrl8RWf8KGFbsS0YOVZyE57_ua7l1rOjKCkhx8ZP4N33sMvNsmqti95XjPg0odEjYZOP1JLY6DLZEvciBsTgLrGvd8U1I94_wnZrfQyxbCMdxR9n84BKcCyw/s4032/IMG_1494.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGiMQzwIAoJtkGvTwc2A8J4sPRLveMTeJwFXvFnJfnfNoQGwEY4IjU73PI55ESURfEyCCdrl8RWf8KGFbsS0YOVZyE57_ua7l1rOjKCkhx8ZP4N33sMvNsmqti95XjPg0odEjYZOP1JLY6DLZEvciBsTgLrGvd8U1I94_wnZrfQyxbCMdxR9n84BKcCyw/s320/IMG_1494.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tom Lake is a brand new release from seasoned author Ann Patchett. It just came out this past August, and it's going to be a tricky one for me to review so let me go ahead and issue a spoiler warning right here and now, because my opinion of this novel turned on one point towards the end of the book, and there's no way for me to write this review without discussing that one sticking point. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So first of all, one of my longest and truest friends chose this book for our book club after she listened to the audiobook version narrated by Meryl Streep and loved it. I fully expected to love it too, and I did. Until I didn't. And then I <i>really</i> didn't. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But before I get too far ahead of myself: Tom Lake is set during the spring of 2020, and our main character Lara's three grown daughters have all returned home to their cherry farm in Michigan in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. As mother and daughters work on harvesting the cherries together, her girls coax her to tell them the story of her summer romance with famous actor Peter Duke when she was in a summer stock production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town at Tom Lake. The entire novel pivots back and forth between Lara's young life and the present day as she relates it to her daughters while they work. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here's the thing: I loved Lara telling this story to her daughters. I was living for every scene where the four of them were together. I was in stitches every time one of the girls tried to correct their mother about her own life story. I teared up at Lara's tenderness with them as they tried to make sense of this hard world we live in. As for Lara's story: meh. I could take it or leave it. She made a lot of terrible choices, but we all do. While I didn't agree with the worldview any of the characters seemed to hold, I could enjoy the story because I don't have to agree with everyone else's worldviews or have them agree with mine. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But then, in a twenty-one chapter book, we came to chapter twenty and the entire novel was completely ruined for me. In this particular chapter, Lara has finished telling her story to her daughters, but she privately reminisces on one other event in her life that she has never shared with anyone—not even her husband—and never intends to share with anyone. Except for us, the unfortunate readers. While the entire chapter was extremely off-putting and—there's really no other way to say it—disgusting, I could have forgiven its inclusion in the book had it not culminated in Lara having an abortion. When I got to this chapter and it ended with this tiny paragraph that all seemed so out of place in this story, I felt duped. I felt like the entire purpose of Tom Lake was for the author to respond to the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the U.S. and I had just read this entire novel to get slapped with the author's political agenda. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And I was not happy about it. I will say that it led to some really great discussion in our book club, but I cannot recommend this book to anyone unless you're the type of person who can actually skip a chapter of a book with no curiosity. (And if that's you: <b><i>how?</i></b>) I realize I just said in this very review that we don't all have to agree on everything, and I stand by that, but for me personally, abortion without any thoughtful exploration or commentary is an absolute dealbreaker and it soured me on Tom Lake and Ann Patchett which is triply unfortunate as I own two of her other books that I haven't gotten around to reading yet. (Bel Canto and The Dutch House, for any interested parties.) I may still read those one day, but if I do I'll go in with a certain amount of wariness I wouldn't have had before reading Tom Lake. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All said, Tom Lake was a miss for me, and I can't forgive Ann Patchett for chapter twenty. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Do you have any absolute dealbreakers that will ruin a book for you? </div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-12584638536426008662024-01-29T07:00:00.119-05:002024-01-29T07:00:00.161-05:00Let's Bust a Recap : The Wingfeather Saga<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWhvKYO8td_Yfq6ti2hTBKd1c2mcpyTSqmnrVnSCDPZKP6BY9vPpppk9A-8wEFoNIRmIGiA6w2CHEhZSXlr9pz0OFWcPJTavqbplotyCbYkPyfDUj8cmp2BDbksrHAfZL4jruEDFKnZG6E0ic5Gu7Grv7OJG2iW4Uacm1dO8zPPRryzucBGJzZH7B4Hhg/s4032/wingfeather.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWhvKYO8td_Yfq6ti2hTBKd1c2mcpyTSqmnrVnSCDPZKP6BY9vPpppk9A-8wEFoNIRmIGiA6w2CHEhZSXlr9pz0OFWcPJTavqbplotyCbYkPyfDUj8cmp2BDbksrHAfZL4jruEDFKnZG6E0ic5Gu7Grv7OJG2iW4Uacm1dO8zPPRryzucBGJzZH7B4Hhg/w240-h320/wingfeather.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So at the beginning of the month, I gave a little <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2024/01/lets-bust-recap-series-update.html">series update</a> detailing books in series I'm reading that can stand alone. But today, we're going to talk about the other kind, the kind you can't stop reading until you get to the end. Cody and I read this quartet of books aloud together last year, and we both give it an enthusiastic two thumbs up. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Wingfeather Saga by singer-songwriter Andrew Peterson consists of four books: On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness published in 2008, North! Or Be Eaten published in 2009, The Monster in the Hollows published in 2011, and The Warden and the Wolf King published in 2014. The books chronicle the adventures and transformations of the Igiby family in the fantasy world of Aerwiar as they discover secrets of their family history, flee the evil Fangs of Dang who are occupying their country, seek their place and identity in the world, and make a stand against the mysterious ruler Gnag the Nameless. The principal characters are the three Igiby siblings—Janner, Tink, and Leeli—but the series is peppered with other lovable personalities like Podo Helmer, Peet the Sock-Man, Sara Cobbler, the Florid Sword, Maraly Weaver, and Oskar N. Reteep to name a few. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, the first book in the series, starts off very whimsical and playful, introducing the world of Aerwiar and the Igiby family with lots of footnotes giving you quite a bit of history. (And don't miss those footnotes throughout all four books—they're a riot!) As the books progress and Peterson narrows in on the crux of the plot, however, each book matures until, by the end, I would classify this story as a new All-Time Favorite. I loved discovering this beautiful story along with Cody, and it is one I will come back to. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We had several friends continue to recommend this series to us, until one of them finally just bought them for us (thanks Greg!) which was the final nudge we needed to actually pick them up and start reading. The Wingfeather Saga has been compared to The Chronicles of Narnia which, I'll be honest, was a bit off-putting to me. In my opinion, The Chronicles of Narnia are in a class of their own and my friends were not doing Wingfeather any favors in my eyes by trying to put them in that class. To be entirely transparent with you: I still think Narnia is in its own class, but I would put Wingfeather in the same class with <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2022/08/lets-bust-recap-lord-of-rings.html">The Lord of the Rings</a> and <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2019/05/lets-bust-recap-harry-potter.html">Harry Potter</a>. Fantastic in every sense of the word. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For the sake of my friend Sheree over at <a href="https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/">Keeping Up With the Penguins</a>, I do just have to warn you that there is a devastating <a href="https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/does-the-dog-die-books-to-avoid/">dog death</a> in this series, and Cody and I majorly stalled when we hit it. When I tell you I bawled my eyes out and berated every friend that had recommended Wingfeather to me, I tell you the truth. But ultimately, The Wingfeather Saga proved its worth, and my dad is reading the first book now on my wholehearted recommendation. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All the stars for Andrew Peterson and his magnificent Wingfeather Saga. We loved it.</div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-25471763693281552972024-01-22T07:00:00.096-05:002024-01-22T07:00:00.135-05:00Let's Bust a Recap : Oh My Stars<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS3w28g9SjVSNC8BQ7cRfMsV6vaW5xdyYgXvpfcEhQBGBN4zBZ-W1tbrG55ZA7mF7ml8UB3dT1Ocoh7hAzEGqEsDygviGSVjBXkdk-0gJkdCiwvtxxDluEHAHwYjZUh0_Lz0g7sUe8xSbHDoOJGXPOFMyNTjxP37d-_ANo8JdQe7WeGRS4RtUrt14s1A0/s4032/stars.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS3w28g9SjVSNC8BQ7cRfMsV6vaW5xdyYgXvpfcEhQBGBN4zBZ-W1tbrG55ZA7mF7ml8UB3dT1Ocoh7hAzEGqEsDygviGSVjBXkdk-0gJkdCiwvtxxDluEHAHwYjZUh0_Lz0g7sUe8xSbHDoOJGXPOFMyNTjxP37d-_ANo8JdQe7WeGRS4RtUrt14s1A0/s320/stars.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sometime before Christmas back in <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2022/12/lets-bust-recap-2022.html">2022</a>, I was browsing a secondhand bookshop and came across this cute little number. When I peeked inside it and read the opening lines of the book, I was sold.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><i>"And it came to pass in those days, that a decree went out from my mother that I would be playing the Virgin Mary in the Dollar General drive-through Nativity whether I liked it or not. Never mind the fact that my name was not Mary, that I was not a teen, and, most importantly, not a virgin. Still, decrees from my mother were similar to those from Caesar Augustus: both had to be obeyed."</i></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I figured I'd bring it home and read it during the Christmas season, but then <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2022/12/lets-bust-recap-death-on-nile.html">the World Cup started</a> and pretty much all reading was forgotten. But last month, after I finished up <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2024/01/lets-bust-recap-miracles.html">Miracles by C.S. Lewis</a>, I decided to pull this one off the shelf and ended up finishing it the day after Christmas. This 2018 offering from Sally Kilpatrick follows your basic Christmas Hallmark movie storyline—big city doctor comes back to his small hometown and falls in love with the town's young widow after the two of them find an abandoned baby in the drive-through Nativity's manger while they're portraying Mary and Joseph together. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Hannah! Spoilers!</i> I know, I know, but seriously? You can see every "plot twist" coming from a mile away in this book, and you are very aware of where Kilpatrick is taking this story from the first chapter.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even having said that, Oh My Stars was a much more enjoyable reading experience than <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2021/06/lets-bust-recap-irresistible-blueberry.html">my last Hallmark book fiasco</a>. The characters were much better drawn, I liked the alternating viewpoints between our male lead Gabe and our female lead Ivy, and, although the ending of this story might not have been entirely realistic, it worked for me. I appreciated the way Kilpatrick created flawed but likable characters and the way she developed the whole story (even though it was totally predictable). Her writing isn't great, her storytelling leaves something to be desired, but she had the bones of a good idea and I was with her on the journey. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On a personal note regarding a pet peeve of mine: the editor has some explaining to do. This book was riddled with common spelling and grammatical errors on nearly every page which definitely detracted from my reading experience. But I don't blame Sally Kilpatrick for that. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All said, this was a fun book to pick up during the holiday season, and I wouldn't <i>not</i> recommend it, but I would probably steer you to something better if you asked for my opinion. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Do you like reading holiday-themed books during the holidays?</div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-56224803297366929052024-01-15T07:00:00.105-05:002024-01-15T07:00:00.167-05:00Let’s Bust a Recap : Miracles<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilhSUBdpKwNFwmHGaykYTOdrF1TxJwwqpn6hYsurB37MXTWPkJZgWaObrFHvasqbF21GpeGgeht6iLoJJ1fj_itLjkTyMRUnDei-Tj0hyphenhyphenok7K8Zob8FZFxplT5rmIkDY_Eevqu9Ejwx5OlfvSfuZhceDGS-21RqfUJsuVpFAc9D6cwD7PqTqKRyFXb_q4/s4032/miracles.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilhSUBdpKwNFwmHGaykYTOdrF1TxJwwqpn6hYsurB37MXTWPkJZgWaObrFHvasqbF21GpeGgeht6iLoJJ1fj_itLjkTyMRUnDei-Tj0hyphenhyphenok7K8Zob8FZFxplT5rmIkDY_Eevqu9Ejwx5OlfvSfuZhceDGS-21RqfUJsuVpFAc9D6cwD7PqTqKRyFXb_q4/s320/miracles.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Y'all. For the life of me, I <i>tried</i> to make this picture live so you could see the steam curling up out of that mug, but I <b>can not do it</b>. Your girl is stuck in the 20th century, and 97% of the time, I'm happy to stay there, but why couldn't this picture just do the little loopy thing it does on my phone and look all cute and cozy and steamy? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's fine. We're over it and we're moving on. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Miracles by C.S. Lewis was originally published in 1947 and revised in 1960, and the book covers the probability of whether Christian miracles recorded in the Bible really happened. While Lewis does talk about a lot of the principal New Testament miracles in this book, the bulk of his argument stems from the question of whether miracles are even logically possible from a philosophical point of view. Once establishing that, he then covers actual recorded miracles in the last three chapters. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And it's all brilliant. Even though a good two-thirds of this book is spent in defining terms and clarifying the difference between a "naturalist" and a "supernaturalist", every word is worth its weight in gold. I'm sure I'm getting to sound like a broken record when it comes to <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/search/label/C.S.%20Lewis">Lewis</a>, but I'm just always so dumbfounded by how smart he was. I'm certainly not the only one. English theatre critic and writer and one of Lewis' contemporaries Kenneth Tynan expressed his admiration for Lewis' genius saying, "If I were ever to stray into the Christian camp, it would be because of Lewis' arguments as expressed in books like <i>Miracles</i>." I can't think of much higher praise than that. Whether or not you agree with Lewis' beliefs, you have to respect the logic of his arguments. He is one of the most thorough thinkers and writers I've ever had the privilege of reading. He always follows a thought all the way through and argues it from every possible viewpoint. I always feel smarter <b>and</b> dumber after I've read something he's written. It's a gift. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There are also two appendices at the end of this book, and the second one—"On 'Special Providences'"—is worth the price of the whole book. In it, Lewis details the value of prayer and this dovetailed so nicely with <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/11/lets-bust-recap-praying-life.html">A Praying Life by Paul Miller</a> which I also read last year. If you happen to be browsing a bookstore and you come across a copy of Miracles, flip to the back and just read Appendix B. You won't be sorry.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I hope C.S. Lewis pops out of <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2024/01/2024-book-list.html">the TBR Jar</a> at some point this year. I think I threw his Space Trilogy in there, but it's hard to remember what all I put in that thing. Are there any authors you read that somehow manage to make you feel smarter <b>and</b> dumber all at once?</div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-87487576305423181082024-01-08T07:00:00.189-05:002024-01-08T07:00:00.138-05:00Let's Bust a Recap : Series Update<div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Over the past few years, I have started reading through several of the series I've accumulated. Some series are tailor-made to be binged like your favorite TV show on Netflix. Finish one book, pick the next one up till you've reached the satisfying, final conclusion. (I'm lookin' at you <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2019/05/lets-bust-recap-harry-potter.html">Harry Potter</a>, <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2022/08/lets-bust-recap-lunar-chronicles.html">Lunar Chronicles</a>, <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2022/03/lets-bust-recap-to-all-boys.html">To All the Boys I've Loved Before</a>, <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2021/08/lets-bust-recap-penderwicks.html">Penderwicks</a>.) I love a good immersive, unputdownable series. But then there are others. Books that feature the same spunky protagonist(s), but that don't necessarily need to be read in order. Each book can stand on its own. And when you come to the end of one, you can wait a while before you visit with that character again. These are the series I want to look at today. I kept putting this post off hoping to finish another <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2021/06/lets-bust-recap-sweetness-at-bottom-of.html">Flavia</a> and/or <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2022/09/lets-bust-recap-inimitable-jeeves.html">Jeeves</a> book by <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/12/lets-bust-recap-2023.html">the end of the year</a>, but it didn't happen and what with <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2024/01/2024-book-list.html">2024 being the year of the TBR Jar</a>, I'm ready to put these books back on the shelf and see where the winds take me.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLY7p4Hzwp0OmZkiQWqeTZOwnHI1eHmZ9b3Vj66T4ET2hTVuX7WCnqjgFkuODjzkNEXrwEYyVKhkN2OqOUsT2sqPsSuAwXkB_M2F0vamIdWNsymo1nVfQRxBI0yI8FHxKmWtPBRdfcrZH_eicj4CaNN96XRTnojVAKvNfGvGoYyKNnn6afWhhPBVLRtMw/s4032/series.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLY7p4Hzwp0OmZkiQWqeTZOwnHI1eHmZ9b3Vj66T4ET2hTVuX7WCnqjgFkuODjzkNEXrwEYyVKhkN2OqOUsT2sqPsSuAwXkB_M2F0vamIdWNsymo1nVfQRxBI0yI8FHxKmWtPBRdfcrZH_eicj4CaNN96XRTnojVAKvNfGvGoYyKNnn6afWhhPBVLRtMw/w400-h300/series.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">First up: Flavia de Luce. I picked up <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2021/06/lets-bust-recap-sweetness-at-bottom-of.html">the first Flavia book</a> back in March of 2021 right as we were in the thick of selling our house in Florida and packing up to move to North Carolina. I loved this little mischievous 11 year old right off the bat, and I ended up reading the second installment in her series in November of 2022. The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag (pictured above) was published in 2010, a year after the debut The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. In this episode of Flavia's exploits, a famous puppeteer turns up dead at the end of his own puppet show, and Flavia figures out that his murder is somehow connected to the suspicious death of a little boy from several years before. Can our feisty, poison-loving protagonist solve both cases? Of course she can, and Flavia was just as charming in this second novel as she was in the first, but I'll admit it took me a bit longer to get into this one. Because one of the cases involves the hanging of a five year old little boy, The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag was decidedly darker than The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. But even so, I'm still a fan of the series and looking forward to continuing it. I wasn't able to get to the third book—A Red Herring Without Mustard—last year, but we'll see if the TBR Jar turns it up in 2024. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Next up, we have the fourth installment in the Maisie Dobbs series. I first started <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2020/07/lets-bust-recap-maisie-dobbs.html">Maisie Dobbs</a> right after the world shut down in 2020. My parents have since read <b>all seventeen books</b> in the series, but I've steadily read <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2022/08/lets-bust-recap-maisie-dobbs.html">one a year</a> and am thoroughly enjoying them as they come. Messenger of Truth was published in 2006. Jacqueline Winspear has done a pretty admirable job of cranking a new one out almost every year since she started writing them and the final novel is set to be published this year. In this fourth chapter, if you will, Maisie is approached by an artist's twin sister after he falls to his death from some scaffolding on the eve of his major art exhibit. The police have ruled his death as an accident, but given the fact that the masterpiece of his show is missing, and no one knows what it even is, his sister is convinced there is more to his death. Here's the thing I'm coming to realize about the Maisie Dobbs books: they are set after the Great War and so far all of the mysteries that Maisie has been commissioned to solve are closely connected to the war. Without exception, these first four books have all made me deeply sad when I reach the end of them. I can't imagine that changing as we get closer and closer to the second world war. But despite the melancholy I feel when I read Maisie Dobbs—or perhaps even because of it—I think it's a phenomenal series, and taking it one book per year is the perfect pace for me. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Finally, I read the first book in The Mysterious Benedict Society series this year. This first book in what is now a series of five was published in 2007 and remained on the New York Times Best Seller list for over a year. I saw these books all over the place and finally added them to my wishlist after my sister Caroline recommended them after reading the first two aloud with my niece and nephews. My other sister Lyndsey promptly got them for me for my birthday, and Bob's your uncle, I was reading the first one last year. The Mysterious Benedict Society chronicles the adventures of four clever children who are brought together by the eccentric Mr. Benedict and given a top-secret mission which basically amounts to them saving the known world. While I did really enjoy this middle-grade novel and all the fun riddles the kids have to solve in their audition to join the Society, it took me a while to get into it and ultimately took me over two months to read. There was definitely a turning point where I had to know what happens but it took a while to get there. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All in all, I'd recommend any of these series and I'd love to see any of these come out of the TBR Jar this year. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">How do you approach book series? Do you like to binge them as fast as possible? Or stretch it out as long as you can?</div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-6456428584912580822024-01-01T07:00:00.098-05:002024-01-01T07:00:00.140-05:002024 Book List<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7aYDg78VTbh5w9jDvYTxD0cfl34_e8h4ap_6wCBzT_SxjZxudPiE4WcRyClV8JREQIvJuPRUXjYdtvaqXrjTSH6AjvUl-L4-IKE3AqvFp9uhpPJYnrdY5Vec8Zz48NoVajnuvAgh6CT6q4ok7qDiOC6WMwZRS-52a9qN8LcQdF67TkLUoMgxuWH8P0-M/s1180/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-31%20at%2012.01.19%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1090" data-original-width="1180" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7aYDg78VTbh5w9jDvYTxD0cfl34_e8h4ap_6wCBzT_SxjZxudPiE4WcRyClV8JREQIvJuPRUXjYdtvaqXrjTSH6AjvUl-L4-IKE3AqvFp9uhpPJYnrdY5Vec8Zz48NoVajnuvAgh6CT6q4ok7qDiOC6WMwZRS-52a9qN8LcQdF67TkLUoMgxuWH8P0-M/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-31%20at%2012.01.19%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Let's all take a deep, cleansing breath, shall we? Another year is gone and a brand new year is upon us. If you joined me <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/12/lets-bust-recap-2023.html">yesterday</a> in looking back at what I read in 2023, you know that I read more quantitatively than I ever have before. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And to be honest? It felt like it. A bit overloaded, borderline frantically trying to hit my secret goal each month. I read a lot of great books. I enjoyed re-reading my Christy Millers. Becoming a more frequent library patron was fun. But as I looked over what I'd read, I felt bummed about the books I <i>didn't</i> get to. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">What?!</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's time for a reset. I've decided to bring back an idea that seems like a lot of fun, but didn't work very well for me on the first go-around. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmu_M_fy4V3jByzFUtbanFhk-zojdjxaU8K9D_2zFvlIeCSFGQ6mWejCgyqgOLjFde2BaZkwO4l15fj6UqeJ-RCAyucdhclFcTMJAkkEYQby9DDPxZ5Ej2r_BazE_mZQ1RuTvHOVnXD9caaRPEL5iXsoL-7sHNYTGAjUW4H6riIrmlHIBmvYjGj4CvF9k/s4032/IMG_1413.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmu_M_fy4V3jByzFUtbanFhk-zojdjxaU8K9D_2zFvlIeCSFGQ6mWejCgyqgOLjFde2BaZkwO4l15fj6UqeJ-RCAyucdhclFcTMJAkkEYQby9DDPxZ5Ej2r_BazE_mZQ1RuTvHOVnXD9caaRPEL5iXsoL-7sHNYTGAjUW4H6riIrmlHIBmvYjGj4CvF9k/w480-h640/IMG_1413.jpeg" width="480" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That's right. We're bringing back the TBR Jar. I toyed around with this concept in <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2019/01/2019-book-list.html">2019</a>, but it didn't go very well. <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2019/12/lets-bust-recap-2019.html">I tried to do too much</a>. I made myself a list, I attempted my first online reading challenge, <i>and</i> I threw in the idea of this TBR Jar, and I ultimately only drew one title out of it all year long. So I scrapped it. But I still love the idea of drawing a title at random and letting fate guide my reading life. I went through my shelves and wrote down <b>hundreds</b> of titles that I haven't gotten around to reading yet and threw them all in the jar. (Or bucket as my brother laughingly called it when he saw it.) I made myself a teeny tiny skeleton list, <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2021/01/2021-book-list.html">á la 2021</a>, to stay on track with my <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/search/label/presidents">presidents</a> and <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/search/label/Shakespeare">Shakespeare</a>, but for everything else, I'll either be plucking a slip of paper from the Jar or cozying up with a favorite re-read (and—let's be real—probably a few books from the library). It ought to be real interesting, and I'm excited to see where the winds take me in 2024. Here's the skeleton list:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Franklin Pierce : Michael F. Holt</div><div style="text-align: center;">President James Buchanan : Philip Shriver Klein</div><div style="text-align: center;">The Merchant of Venice : William Shakespeare</div><div style="text-align: center;">Timon of Athens : William Shakespeare</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Cody and I have also chosen a few books we'd like to read aloud together, and I'll be reading through the New International Version of the Bible this year too. I'd like to get through about 24 books in 2024. There are several doorstops in the TBR Jar (like Les Mis, War and Peace, Moby Dick to name a few) so aiming for about two books a month seems like the most reasonable goal. We'll see what happens though. It's time to slow down and settle back in to a cozier reading rhythm and I'm looking forward to it. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #ea9999;">Cheers to you and cheers to 2024!</span></b> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Do you like to make resolutions at the beginning of a new year? </div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-25538197846485701372023-12-31T07:00:00.460-05:002024-01-29T08:22:16.801-05:00Let's Bust a Recap : 2023<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOMniP8Ot85rnxw28SK2yZckToNrcHFplC9Eln83CVzaj5RLEquqlKUe4Evd1ZgcObhNkyPevRX6ZkzsXXzHeo7kdxec_8E9d0hVlG_5MkqpKvXJOEB5O9iYfSLeCr2XF52_BZxDuHLOdARqrFucv66lLRbRTahmJ0THbtgYn9FIsR8g3Tf0O7-8slIn0/s2714/IMG_1410.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2714" data-original-width="2320" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOMniP8Ot85rnxw28SK2yZckToNrcHFplC9Eln83CVzaj5RLEquqlKUe4Evd1ZgcObhNkyPevRX6ZkzsXXzHeo7kdxec_8E9d0hVlG_5MkqpKvXJOEB5O9iYfSLeCr2XF52_BZxDuHLOdARqrFucv66lLRbRTahmJ0THbtgYn9FIsR8g3Tf0O7-8slIn0/s320/IMG_1410.jpeg" width="274" /></a></div>And just like that: here we are. Another trip around the sun behind us and now we're facing a brand new year. 2023 was kind of brutal. So much to be thankful for but all in all, I feel like I didn't sleep at all this year. And that's saying something because I've been an insomniac all my life. Cody started a new nursing job in May. His mom officially moved up to NC in July. My brother and his family <i>finally</i> moved to the mountain which is something we've been anticipating since <i>we</i> moved here in <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2021/12/lets-bust-recap-2021.html">2021</a>. I went to Florida <b>a lot</b> this year. Like, at least half a dozen times. And the end of our year was marked by unexpected loss. I've just kindof been hanging on for dear life. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As far as reading goes: I've read a lot this year. According to <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2023/82275334">Goodreads</a>, book-count-wise and page-count-wise I have quantitatively read more than I ever have before. As of this moment, I've finished 53 books this year (by the end of the day, we may up that to 54), and I currently have four books in progress. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>53 books, that's great! Didn't you have 40 on <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/01/2023-book-list.html">your list for 2023</a>? You must have finished them all!</i> <b>Ha. Good one.</b> I did read 26 books from <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/01/2023-book-list.html">my original 2023 list</a>, and began three additional ones (one of which we got tantalizingly close to finishing), but that leaves 11 books from <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/01/2023-book-list.html">my 2023 list</a> that I never even touched. I visited the library a lot this year, and in July I totally fell down <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/search/label/Robin%20Jones%20Gunn">a Christy Miller hole</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When I started making <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/search/label/book%20list">annual book lists</a> for myself back in <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2015/02/2015-book-list.html">2015</a>, I would also make a "secret goal" that I'd share at the end of the year. I haven't really done that for the past few years, but this year I decided to bring it back and my secret goal was to read four books each month. In <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2018/12/lets-bust-recap-2018.html">2018</a>, I made it my secret goal to read three books each month, and I barely scraped by but I managed it, so reading four a month seemed like a pretty big challenge. I came out swinging reading five books every month—<b>six</b> in February!—until May when I only managed three. And so, I failed the secret goal. May and November didn't make the cut, and December is still up in the air. We'll see if I can finish one more book before midnight. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Enough with the stats though. Here's what I read in 2023 and some of my thoughts about it. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ea9999; font-size: medium;"><b>January</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/01/lets-bust-recap-twenty-thousand-leagues.html">Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne</a></b> <i>(read aloud)</i> : completed 1/11</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Reading this aloud with Cody was a fun introduction to Verne and I'm excited to read more of his stuff.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/01/lets-bust-recap-polk.html">Polk by Walter R. Borneman</a></b> : completed 1/11</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I finished three more presidents this year! We're getting close to the Civil War.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/02/lets-bust-recap-emily-of-new-moon.html">Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery</a></b> : completed 1/24</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another lovely installment from the <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/search/label/L.M.%20Montgomery">author</a> of my beloved Anne books.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/02/lets-bust-recap-emily-of-new-moon.html">Emily Climbs by L.M. Montgomery</a></b> : completed 1/28</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/02/lets-bust-recap-emily-of-new-moon.html">Emily's Quest by L.M. Montgomery</a></b> : completed 1/30</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ea9999; font-size: medium;"><b>February</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/02/lets-bust-recap-skating-shoes.html">Skating Shoes by Noel Streatfeild</a></b> : completed 2/12</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I liked this one even better than <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2020/09/lets-bust-recap-ballet-shoes.html">Ballet Shoes</a>! </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/02/lets-bust-recap-live-your-best-lie.html">Live Your Best Lie by Jessie Weaver </a></b>: completed 2/15</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So fun reading a debut novel from someone you know in real life—especially when it's good!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The Tempest by William Shakespeare</b> : completed 2/19</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The draft for this blog post has been gathering dust in the archives since February. I'll get to it next year. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2024/01/lets-bust-recap-wingfeather-saga.html">On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness by Andrew Peterson</a></b> <i>(read aloud)</i> : </div><div style="text-align: justify;">completed 2/20</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This four-book series has been <b>fantastic</b> to read aloud together, and we <i>almost</i> finished it before the year was over, but alas: we have a few more chapters to go in the final book. Recap coming soon!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/05/lets-bust-recap-what-alice-forgot.html"><b>What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty</b></a> : completed 2/25</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another fun installment from <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2021/03/lets-bust-recap-hypnotists-love-story.html">Liane Moriarty</a>. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Surprise Endings by Robin Jones Gunn</b> <i>(re-read)</i> : completed 2/28</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ea9999; font-size: medium;"><b>March</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/05/lets-bust-recap-are-you-there-god-its.html">Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. by Judy Blume</a></b> <i>(library book)</i> : completed 3/6</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So nostalgic revisiting this, and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9185206/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_are%2520you%2520there%2520god">the movie adaptation</a> is maybe the best book-to-screen adaptation I've ever seen!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder</b> <i>(re-read; read aloud)</i> : completed 3/7</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Keep a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliot</b> : completed 3/20</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Read this like a devotional for the first three months of the year and it was wonderful. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/05/lets-bust-recap-howls-moving-castle.html">Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones</a></b> <i>(library book; read aloud)</i> : completed 3/20</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Maybe my most unexpected read of 2023. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/03/lets-bust-recap-zachary-taylor.html">Zachary Tayor by John S.D. Eisenhower</a></b> : completed 3/29</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ea9999; font-size: medium;"><b>April</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/05/lets-bust-recap-stephanie-garber.html">Caraval by Stephanie Garber</a></b> <i>(library book)</i> : completed 4/2</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thanks to the book club for my deep dive into Stephanie Garber this year. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/05/lets-bust-recap-stephanie-garber.html">Legendary by Stephanie Garber</a></b> <i>(library book)</i> : completed 4/6</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/05/lets-bust-recap-stephanie-garber.html">Finale by Stephanie Garber</a></b> <i>(library book)</i> : completed 4/16</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/05/lets-bust-recap-stephanie-garber.html">Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber</a></b> <i>(library book)</i> : completed 4/25</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/05/lets-bust-recap-stephanie-garber.html">The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber</a></b> <i>(library book)</i> : completed 4/29</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ea9999; font-size: medium;"><b>May</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/09/lets-bust-recap-roald-dahl.html">James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl</a></b> : completed 5/16</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/08/lets-bust-recap-its-not-supposed-to-be.html">It's Not Supposed to Be This Way by Lysa TerKeurst</a></b> : completed 5/20</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Probably my least favorite book of the year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/09/lets-bust-recap-cold-sassy-tree.html">Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns</a></b> : completed 5/31</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Followed by the best standalone novel I read this year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ea9999; font-size: medium;"><b>June</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/07/lets-bust-recap-undoing-of-saint.html">The Undoing of Saint Silvanus by Beth Moore</a></b> <i>(library book)</i> : completed 6/10</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Can we start a petition for Beth Moore to write another novel? Anyone with me?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/08/lets-bust-recap-storied-life-of-aj-fikry.html">The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin</a></b> : completed 6/21</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The most average book I read this year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/07/lets-bust-recap-if-you-want-to-make-god.html">If You Want to Make God Laugh by Bianca Marais</a></b> : completed 6/29</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Not as great as <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2022/12/lets-bust-recap-hum-if-you-dont-know.html">her debut</a>, but still a solid offering from Bianca Marais. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Island Dreamer by Robin Jones Gunn</b> <i>(re-read)</i> : completed 6/30</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ah yes. The slippery slope into the Christy Miller hole. I should have known I wouldn't be able to stop after Island Dreamer. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ea9999; font-size: medium;"><b>July</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/07/lets-bust-recap-all-my-knotted-up-life.html">All My Knotted-Up Life by Beth Moore</a></b> <i>(library book)</i> : completed 7/8</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The first of two brand new released memoirs I read this year. Who even am I?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>A Heart Full of Hope by Robin Jones Gunn</b><i> (re-read)</i> : completed 7/23</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>True Friends by Robin Jones Gunn</b> <i>(re-read)</i> : completed 7/25</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Starry Night by Robin Jones Gunn</b> <i>(re-read)</i> : completed 7/25</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Seventeen Wishes by Robin Jones Gunn</b> <i>(re-read)</i> : completed 7/29</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>A Time to Cherish by Robin Jones Gunn</b> <i>(re-read)</i> : completed 7/30</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Sweet Dreams by Robin Jones Gunn</b> <i>(re-read)</i> : completed 7/31</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ea9999; font-size: medium;"><b>August</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2024/01/lets-bust-recap-series-update.html">Messenger of Truth by Jacqueline Winspear</a></b> : completed 8/5</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Still marching slowly along through the <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2022/08/lets-bust-recap-maisie-dobbs.html">Maisie Dobbs</a> series. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2024/01/lets-bust-recap-wingfeather-saga.html">North! Or Be Eaten by Andrew Peterson</a></b> <i>(read aloud)</i> : completed 8/7</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/09/lets-bust-recap-roald-dahl.html">The BFG by Roald Dahl</a></b> <i>(read aloud)</i> : completed 8/22</div><div style="text-align: justify;">My favorite reading experience of the year by a long-shot. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/09/lets-bust-recap-ghosted.html">Ghosted by Rosie Walsh</a></b> : completed 8/29</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another book club selection. Most gasp-inducing book of 2023. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ea9999; font-size: medium;"><b>September</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare</b> <i>(re-read)</i> : completed 9/2</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also sitting in drafts. *sigh*</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2024/01/lets-bust-recap-series-update.html">The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart</a></b> : completed 9/16</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Started another mystery series this year. We've got several going now.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/09/lets-bust-recap-millard-fillmore.html">Millard Fillmore by Robert J. Rayback</a></b> : completed 9/21</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/11/lets-bust-recap-woman-after-gods-own.html">A Woman After God's Own Heart by Elizabeth George</a></b> : completed 9/27</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wins biggest wake-up call in 2023. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ea9999; font-size: medium;"><b>October</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/11/lets-bust-recap-year-down-yonder.html">A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck</a></b> : completed 10/5</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Probably the sweetest book I read this year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2024/01/lets-bust-recap-wingfeather-saga.html">The Monster in the Hollows by Andrew Peterson</a></b> <i>(read aloud)</i> : completed 10/6</div><div style="text-align: justify;">We could not put this one down. Probably our favorite of the quartet.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/11/lets-bust-recap-murder-of-roger-akroyd.html">The Murder of Roger Akroyd by Agatha Christie</a></b> : completed 10/9</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/11/lets-bust-recap-praying-life.html">A Praying Life by Paul E. Miller</a></b> : completed 10/26</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wins most helpful book in 2023.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ea9999; font-size: medium;"><b>November</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/11/lets-bust-recap-halloween-party.html">Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie</a></b> : completed 11/4</div><div style="text-align: justify;">If Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. wins best book-to-screen adaptation; <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22687790/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_a%2520haunting">A Haunting in Venice</a> is definitely the worst. Ugh.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/11/lets-bust-recap-curse-for-true-love.html">A Curse for True Love by Stephanie Garber</a></b> <i>(library book)</i> : completed 11/8</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/11/lets-bust-recap-woman-in-me.html"><b>The Woman in Me by Britney Spears</b></a> <i>(library book)</i> : completed 11/11</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I could not wait to get my hands on this one and it surprised more than one person in my life. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #ea9999; font-size: medium;"><b>December</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>A Promise is Forever by Robin Jones Gunn</b> <i>(re-read)</i> : completed 12/3</div><div style="text-align: justify;">To finish off the original Christy Miller series. I'm sure I'll be dipping into the Sierra Jensen books next year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2024/01/lets-bust-recap-miracles.html">Miracles by C.S. Lewis</a></b> : completed 12/16</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Recap coming soon.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2024/01/lets-bust-recap-oh-my-stars.html">Oh My Stars by Sally Kilpatrick</a></b> : completed 12/26</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Because why finish one of the books I'm currently reading when I can just pluck this cute Christmas book off my shelf instead?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If you paid attention, you'll notice I <i>still</i> didn't read David Copperfield this year, although I <i>am</i> ten chapters in so there's that. I watched <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2017/03/a-tuesday-confession.html">the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice</a> this week which prompted me to pick up my beloved copy of the book, and that is the book I may or may not finish today. We'll see. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All told, it's been quite a year and I'm looking forward to putting 2023 on the shelf and jumping into 2024. Tune back in tomorrow for my reading plans for next year, and have the happiest time bringing in the new year tonight with the ones you love. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYZt7Ky8yBe-Vo42BnGKsCRpLQ8Ayrcqx-T3LFMnsgVyrj6bQbJpvkbPtSpRSe-DF66U4lDttI9DPhiJgGMiMEe5pAVXt-RS5OaJA0ZOlWqXlJIODT8fNZjq7mKbGeaytN1QVkx7ix8r5J4WxLWLIN3TDvb0yW48F9sxp8IcE1agVfm-QovzLr64pwNuQ/s4032/IMG_8894.JPEG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYZt7Ky8yBe-Vo42BnGKsCRpLQ8Ayrcqx-T3LFMnsgVyrj6bQbJpvkbPtSpRSe-DF66U4lDttI9DPhiJgGMiMEe5pAVXt-RS5OaJA0ZOlWqXlJIODT8fNZjq7mKbGeaytN1QVkx7ix8r5J4WxLWLIN3TDvb0yW48F9sxp8IcE1agVfm-QovzLr64pwNuQ/w480-h640/IMG_8894.JPEG" width="480" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>How was your 2023?</b></span></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-44536855791222743582023-11-30T07:00:00.150-05:002023-11-30T07:00:00.134-05:00Let's Bust a Recap : Hallowe'en Party<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_gBZLdaOn0GDScZURCcCG4NvtvIf_R0409XUInwiLayCvpMgnjzE3JSnWAiyhyCXBM_sH8FupAmP0aEp7DTV0OmhJ2e-vmjv6Spwx_8fpudy2lmNHIo8yA6eYRsCvfKq3yDd8AidXMGi3TgkHlVQzDSMPLF_HyG0fOLeqn_P2GHfwYqEfO4i2EtovJe0/s4032/hallowe'en.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_gBZLdaOn0GDScZURCcCG4NvtvIf_R0409XUInwiLayCvpMgnjzE3JSnWAiyhyCXBM_sH8FupAmP0aEp7DTV0OmhJ2e-vmjv6Spwx_8fpudy2lmNHIo8yA6eYRsCvfKq3yDd8AidXMGi3TgkHlVQzDSMPLF_HyG0fOLeqn_P2GHfwYqEfO4i2EtovJe0/s320/hallowe'en.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">You knew it was coming, right? As soon as Kenneth Branagh announced his newest Poirot adaptation earlier this year, I was faced with a conundrum: I already had <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/11/lets-bust-recap-murder-of-roger-akroyd.html">The Murder of Roger Akroyd</a> on <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/01/2023-book-list.html">my 2023 book list</a>, but now, <i>obviously</i>, I needed to read Hallowe'en Party before seeing <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22687790/">A Haunting in Venice</a>. On top of that, shortly before hearing about the movie, I came across the book in a Little Free Library and had just added it to my collection. Literally. In February. Of this year. What's a girl to do? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Come October I nearly had a fit. I strayed from <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/01/2023-book-list.html">my list</a> freely and often this year, and, as evidenced by <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/09/casual-fridays.html">my little self-imposed check-in</a> at the beginning of September, I was feeling the crunch to actually read the books I had put on <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/01/2023-book-list.html">my list</a>. So I sat down with <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/11/lets-bust-recap-murder-of-roger-akroyd.html">The Murder of Roger Akroyd</a> and figured I'd just get to Hallowe'en Party whenever I actually planned to watch the movie. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Well, the same friends who had us over to watch <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2022/12/lets-bust-recap-death-on-nile.html">Death on the Nile</a> notified me immediately after seeing A Haunting in Venice come available on hulu that I better get to reading, because we were going to have another watch party. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Naturally, I obliged. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In this slim mystery, Hercule Poirot is called by a spooked Ariadne Oliver after she attends a Hallowe'en party where a child is drowned in an apple bobbing tub. The famous author of detective novels is a personal friend of Poirot's, and she begs him to come investigate the crime(s) for himself. The child had declared earlier in the day that she witnessed a murder and so Poirot's mission is twofold: solve the murder of the child, and determine if the dead child really did witness a murder and solve that one too. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Clever. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hallowe'en Party is one of Agatha Christie's much later novels published in 1969 and while it still had her telltale stamp of misdirection and numerous suspects, there was a maturity to this mystery that I thoroughly enjoyed. This is the first Christie novel I've read where I definitively figured out the <i>who</i>dunnit before the actual revelation, but the <i>why</i>dunnit still eluded me making the resolution as satisfying as any of her other books. Reading this one so close to <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/11/lets-bust-recap-murder-of-roger-akroyd.html">The Murder of Roger Akroyd</a>, I couldn't help compare the two, and this one was by far my favorite. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The movie on the other hand was the most ridiculous adaptation yet. In <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2017/11/lets-bust-recap-murder-on-orient-express.html">Murder on the Orient Express</a>, Branagh did a great job developing the suspects and laying out the mystery, but then royally screwed up the ending. In <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2022/12/lets-bust-recap-death-on-nile.html">Death on the Nile</a>, he dragged us through a horrendous adaptation but managed to end it perfectly. In <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22687790/">A Haunting in Venice</a>: it was a total free-for-all. Branagh basically took the character names from the book, lifted a few plot devices (like the actual Hallowe'en party, and the separate past and present murders), but then just made his own movie. Like, <i>why</i><i style="font-weight: bold;">? </i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I mean, honestly, <b>why?? </b>I really can't get over it. It was awful. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even setting the novel aside, the movie just wasn't great; although, much to my own surprise, I enjoyed Tina Fey in the role of Ariadne Oliver. While it's certainly not how I imagined her as I was reading the book, Fey did a great job with the role. While I cannot in good conscience recommend that trainwreck of an adaptation to anyone, I would definitely recommend reading Hallowe'en Party. I will warn you that there are several child victims in this one, but if you can deal with that, this is a great mystery. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And to end on a fun note: <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/search/label/Christie">Agatha Christie</a> dedicated this little novel to author <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2022/09/lets-bust-recap-inimitable-jeeves.html">P.G. Wodehouse</a>. <i>Because they enjoyed each other's books.</i> You know <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2020/12/lets-bust-recap-little-prince.html">I'm a sucker for a good dedication</a> and this one made me smile real big. How fun.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Still waiting for your Miss Marple recs over here!</div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-7403885942798024772023-11-28T07:00:00.095-05:002023-11-28T07:00:00.135-05:00Let's Bust a Recap : The Murder of Roger Akroyd<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhSOdS85yCeyG3nIuyz48Zo4TSFZxkKV97_n94Dk8brRmaUNTNCfIIUlSC_V9cxvzXDAH7Lyrp2enQm4KXfxAGXP02MSGWkxbDNYx6E1IHL0eedTja1vs5294nECeW-n3d3NW8R-6zXFDA2KYWJSsYa0l6m9Ks37O4da5d9j5ppO9oa5hwLYUFyWOtBuA/s4032/rogerakroyd.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhSOdS85yCeyG3nIuyz48Zo4TSFZxkKV97_n94Dk8brRmaUNTNCfIIUlSC_V9cxvzXDAH7Lyrp2enQm4KXfxAGXP02MSGWkxbDNYx6E1IHL0eedTja1vs5294nECeW-n3d3NW8R-6zXFDA2KYWJSsYa0l6m9Ks37O4da5d9j5ppO9oa5hwLYUFyWOtBuA/s320/rogerakroyd.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Murder of Roger Akroyd is one of the greatest mysteries of all time. And that's not just me talking. As recently as 2013, the British Crime Writers' Association voted it the best crime novel <b>ever</b>. Serialized in 1925 and published in 1926, The Murder of Roger Akroyd is Agatha Christie's sixth published novel and third to feature our favorite little Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Well, I finally got around to reading it this year, completing my little three-book box set of "The World's Favourite Agatha Christie" that I purchased back in 2017 in anticipation of <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2017/11/lets-bust-recap-murder-on-orient-express.html">Murder on the Orient Express</a> coming to the big screen. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And it was a rollicking good time. In The Murder of Roger Akroyd, Dr. James Sheppard is assisting Hercule Poirot in the investigation and keeping account of the details in his personal diary (á la Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes) so he is our first person narrator. Akroyd turns up dead in his study—stabbed—sometime after 9:00 one evening right after the good doctor has left his presence. The doctor along with Akroyd's butler discover him after a mysterious phone call placed to the doctor at home alerts him something strange is afoot. Through a series of circumstances, Poirot is asked to help with the case though he is trying to live a quiet retired life in this supposedly sleepy little village called King's Abbot. In what I'm coming to believe is the typical Christie formula, nearly every single person is a reasonable suspect, but never fear: Hercule Poirot cannot be stumped. In this novel, we get blackmail, poisonings, suicide, love triangles, a secret marriage: it's all in there! The crazy twist ending changed the game for the genre, and The Murder of Roger Akroyd is a perpetual fan favorite the world over. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">My personal favorite aspect of this particular Christie novel is Sheppard's spinster sister Caroline whom he lives with. She's an absolute riot of a character and she singlehandedly elevated this mystery for me. Christie herself acknowledged that this character was possibly a precursor to her other famous detective Miss Marple, so now I'm pretty determined to finally choose a Miss Marple novel for <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/82275334-hannah-hancock?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search%5Bquery%5D=christie">my next Agatha Christie book</a>. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While I had a lot of fun reading The Murder of Roger Akroyd and would definitely recommend it if you're looking for a good mystery, I wouldn't say it's my new favorite. As I alluded to above, I'm starting to see a pattern to Christie's writing: multiple credible suspects, a flood of clues and red herrings to overwhelm the reader, and a brilliant resolution. I think reading one or two <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/search/label/Christie">Agatha Christie</a> novels a year is probably a good pace to avoid burnout, but maybe I'm judging too harshly after only reading a few (this one was my fourth). I'll be talking about another of her novels later this week which brings my Christie Total Read to five. I have about twenty-five more sitting on my shelf, and I've decided I must get to Miss Marple next.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So which one should I read?</div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-33532835017193382802023-11-24T07:00:00.216-05:002023-11-24T07:00:00.150-05:00Let's Bust a Recap : The Woman in Me<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3q9iSnLPRuWTlYcML735wDXYd0zHyK3mxoTOCGhGO8i9dnq4ITarGUb20DAbDc90hiMlzgmO44fS3Go8FmwXziVTTPxRG9oNdhCiK5oWgEIulKPhVPuRq6lKFoK5GcOE8RlhTLBzfAeBkCHZH2ct-jA7bri0LAb77FhnWKXee6geB1XiE3aGOmV2zUt4/s1328/britney.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="1328" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3q9iSnLPRuWTlYcML735wDXYd0zHyK3mxoTOCGhGO8i9dnq4ITarGUb20DAbDc90hiMlzgmO44fS3Go8FmwXziVTTPxRG9oNdhCiK5oWgEIulKPhVPuRq6lKFoK5GcOE8RlhTLBzfAeBkCHZH2ct-jA7bri0LAb77FhnWKXee6geB1XiE3aGOmV2zUt4/s320/britney.png" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Alright, y'all, let's just get right into it. <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/07/lets-bust-recap-all-my-knotted-up-life.html">I'm not a big memoir girl</a> and more than one person in my real life was surprised by how anxious I was to read Britney Spears' buzzy new tell-all. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I grew up in a household that loved music. There weren't too many rules about what we could and couldn't listen to. But on the flip-side of that, my parents shielded us from a lot of pop-culture. I feel like their approach of not making anything a huge deal and keeping the TV to a minimum in our home gave me a really healthy perspective on celebrities. I never idolized them. I didn't have posters plastering the walls of my bedroom. I really never had celebrity crushes because, what's the point? I'll probably never meet those people in real life, right? So I can't really call myself a Britney Spears superfan or anything. Sure, I own <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0275022/">Crossroads</a> on DVD, and if you turned back the clock you could definitely catch my little middle school self dancing around to her songs. My friends and I would choreograph our dances and practice them like it was our actual job. (We weren't just dancing to Britney: pretty much anything with a fun beat—the Beach Boys, Steven Curtis Chapman, *nsync—got airtime too. It was a total free-for-all. The nineties/early aughts were a wild time.)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Growing up in the time that I did, I couldn't have missed the headlines even if I'd tried: <i>Britney's 55-hour Marriage! Britney's Custody Battle with K-Fed! Britney Shaves Her Own Head! </i>And how can an adult woman who makes such a ludicrous amount of money be stuck in this heinous conservatorship for over 13 years?? If I had been on social media during the #FreeBritney movement, you can bet that hashtag would have popped up on my profile here and there.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So when the news dropped that after finally getting out of the conservatorship, Britney would be publishing a memoir: I was all ears. As soon as the release date was announced, I requested that my library preorder it. (Actually, The Woman in Me is what finally motivated me to get my own library card.) And even though my librarian snickered at my overeager request, I ain't sorry because there are over 300 holds on it right now, and your girl was first in line. (Who's laughing now, Lisa?)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But to get to the actual content of the book: I knew it wasn't going to be some sunny-day picnic, and boy, was I right on that. Britney Spears has always seemed like such a genuinely sweet person to me which is such a strange dichotomy from her hypersexualized star persona. As someone who was thrown into the industry at such a young age, I don't think she was equipped to deal with how quickly she rose to fame or how massive that fame was when she got there. (I don't think <b><i>anyone</i></b> would be equipped to deal with that.) By the time she was 20 years old, she had paid off all her family's debts and was financially supporting them. But somehow at 26 years of age, her father was able to take over her life as conservator of her person <b>and</b> conservator of her estate. Every single person in this girl's life exploited her, and her own upbringing and naiveté did not prepare her to handle any of it. Britney is a few years older than me, but honestly as I was reading her memoir, I wished I could turn back time and just adopt her. She is literally begging <b>one person, <i>any</i> person</b> in her life to love her unconditionally and that breaks my heart.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As for the information she shares in The Woman in Me, Britney comes across as incredibly honest, but also exceedingly immature. (Like, her maturity may have been stunted as a result of being kept in an abusive conservatorship her entire adult life? Who would have thought?) I'm not gullible enough to believe that this memoir paints a completely accurate portrait of her life, and she does not delve very deeply into her mental health or if the conservatorship was necessary. It's very likely that she did need help (and maybe still does—have you seen her Instagram? it's a little unhinged), but I'm fairly confident her dirtbag father was the last person on earth who should have been in that role. Ultimately, I'm still left with a lot of questions about how the legal system could have failed her so egregiously. And unfortunately, I have to chalk that up to corrupt people with access to an ungodly amount of money. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Concerning the memoir itself, I'll be honest: The Woman in Me is not great. I think her ghostwriter did a great job of capturing her voice. But even so, can I get an editor in the house? It was rough going at times. It definitely reads like a teenager's very angsty, very disjointed diary.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ultimately, The Woman in Me left me feeling so very sad for Britney. I hate seeing humans be so horrible to other humans and that has been her entire experience in life. She still seems like the most honest-to-goodness sweet person, and I sincerely hope she finds real Love and full healing. She has announced Volume 2 of her memoir coming next year. I'm not sure I'll be as eager to read that one, although I do think the more space she gets from the conservatorship can only help. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Is there a celebrity your friends and family would be surprised to find you so interested in? And most importantly, what's your favorite Britney song? It'll always be <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIETqqjlOWo&list=PLm3_RXZecIbfJHMqhtm_V91NzO5WL91yi&index=18">Lucky</a> for me. <span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; text-align: left;">😭</span> (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlZaOu2vWDQ&list=PLm3_RXZecIbfJHMqhtm_V91NzO5WL91yi&index=3">Crazy</a> is a close second though.)</div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-974176804064956312023-11-22T07:00:00.103-05:002023-11-22T07:00:00.132-05:00Let's Bust a Recap : A Curse for True Love<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIH6ICYnDDjk3PiBaBuVuxxTiqyCnDU1yn6l_JqYccxnt4uLcMjjW-3NuzjIr5D2sotYRGGf1m19HPEFpwG7H21kJXueegMprwL9JGZ2-SiWsvCQU4yrIOrNGqQtJiJOmEKWvq50WScl9Cf1y31dqxvWhAdAOnofbdX-IpV-1VA6rDLCKwl-_9Dd7e814/s2560/curse.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="1684" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIH6ICYnDDjk3PiBaBuVuxxTiqyCnDU1yn6l_JqYccxnt4uLcMjjW-3NuzjIr5D2sotYRGGf1m19HPEFpwG7H21kJXueegMprwL9JGZ2-SiWsvCQU4yrIOrNGqQtJiJOmEKWvq50WScl9Cf1y31dqxvWhAdAOnofbdX-IpV-1VA6rDLCKwl-_9Dd7e814/s320/curse.jpeg" width="211" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Not only did my resolve to stick to <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/01/2023-book-list.html">my 2023 book list</a> fall apart pretty quickly when <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/11/lets-bust-recap-year-down-yonder.html">a friend lent me a book</a> in September, I completely failed at <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/09/casual-fridays.html">ignoring my library holds</a>. In fact, in the week leading up to the release of Stephanie Garber's newest book, I was checking my library account online every single day <i>just in case</i> they got it early. And when October 24th rolled around, and it still wasn't ready, I had a real internal struggle over what the line was between waiting patiently like a normal human being or pestering the librarians about why the book wasn't available yet. (Don't even get me started on the Britney Spears memoir; we'll talk about that Friday.)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But <i>finally</i>, I was able to get my hands on the conclusion to Stephanie Garber's Once Upon A Broken Heart trilogy. And you know what? <i>Yay</i> for that because it broke me out of a major reading slump I fell into during October. Even though I would still place this book—along with <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/05/lets-bust-recap-stephanie-garber.html">all her others</a>—squarely into the <b>"Trash But I Liked It"</b> category, I was glad to finally get the end of the story. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>What are you even talking about, Hannah?</i> If you're brand new, then you may want to head back to <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/05/lets-bust-recap-stephanie-garber.html">this post</a> from earlier in the year where I detailed my experience of reading Stephanie Garber's Caraval trilogy and the first two books in her Once Upon A Broken Heart trilogy. My book club chose Caraval, and I went way down the rabbit hole reading all the books Stephanie Garber has had published to date. In this much-anticipated end to her Once Upon A Broken Heart trilogy, we get shifting perspectives between Evangeline Fox, her husband Prince Apollo, and Jacks the fated Prince of Hearts. A Curse for True Love picks up literally right where The Ballad of Never After left us, with Evangeline in Apollo's arms right after he erases all her memories. As Evangeline struggles to regain her lost memories, Apollo is determined to end Jacks, but all Jacks cares about is protecting Evangeline from everyone who wants to kill her. And let me tell you: <b>EVERYONE</b> wants to kill her. For vague reasons I can only assume Garber created as an excuse to let Jacks keep coming to her rescue because it was very unclear why she was such a target. Can Evangeline figure out who is good and who is bad? And can she do it before irreparable damage is done?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of course she can, and you can see where the story is headed from miles away. Unfortunately, Garber's writing has not really improved. But I thought she did some clever things in A Curse for True Love, particularly with Apollo and the Tree of Souls. As expected, Evangeline gets her tidy, Happily Ever After, and Garber teases more stories to come in a ridiculously schmaltzy epilogue. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Despite the fact that I will never recommend these books to anyone, and I will probably never read them again myself, I enjoyed them for what they were, and A Curse for True Love was an entertaining end to the series. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Do you have any books that fall into the "<b>Trash But You Like It</b>" category? And are there any librarians out there who can explain to me why it took so long for supposedly preordered books to be available?</div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-26103353889123094182023-11-20T07:00:00.099-05:002023-11-20T07:00:00.153-05:00Let's Bust a Recap : A Year Down Yonder<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi3lqgOl72r5drDO18oBDTAIZFqIO2NagK4AiZHylzgUnSRO6lRT7VXdI-jQII7dheXdFjAX1twDwgMTkDgVywfKf1D4a81F-ETuwUpEMs3Co31sStlj59I-lQwBz9hJS10xYqr508WqJYQ2EMb__MU1npT6E6lSlW313fgEZqg4nozgYmcE5wtaqLdX4/s400/yeardownyonder.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="261" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi3lqgOl72r5drDO18oBDTAIZFqIO2NagK4AiZHylzgUnSRO6lRT7VXdI-jQII7dheXdFjAX1twDwgMTkDgVywfKf1D4a81F-ETuwUpEMs3Co31sStlj59I-lQwBz9hJS10xYqr508WqJYQ2EMb__MU1npT6E6lSlW313fgEZqg4nozgYmcE5wtaqLdX4/s320/yeardownyonder.jpeg" width="209" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Well <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/09/casual-fridays.html">my resolve</a> to stick to <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/01/2023-book-list.html">my 2023 book list</a> for the rest of the year did not even last a month. In return for <strike>making her read</strike> letting her borrow <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2018/02/a-word-for-wednesday_28.html">Anne of Avonlea</a>, a friend of mine lent me this sweet little 2001 Newbery Medal winner and I loved it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck was published in 2000 and it is actually the middle installment of a trilogy. I tried to get the first book, A Long Way From Chicago, from my library, but after waiting on it for a few weeks without it ever becoming available for me to check out, I decided to just go ahead and read this one. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Set in the midst of the Great Depression, fifteen year old Mary Alice Dowdel is sent downstate to live with her grandmother while her older brother goes out West to join the army and her parents stay in Chicago. Mary Alice is less than thrilled to be leaving Chicago to stay with her hard-nosed country grandma. But what follows is a string of laugh-out-loud funny stories that eventually bond Mary Alice to her grandmother in a hilariously charming way, and by the end of her year down yonder, Mary Alice doesn't want to leave her Grandma Dowdel to go back home to Chicago. We even get to see her come back years later at the end of WWII so that Grandma Dowdel can give Mary Alice away in the front room to her handsome bridegroom. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Richard Peck's delightful slice-of-life novel had me grinning from ear to ear, beginning to end. While A Year Down Yonder doesn't offer much in the way of a sustained plot, the episodic nature of this short, middle grade book brought to mind a lot of my all-time favorites like <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2018/01/a-word-for-wednesday.html">Anne of Green Gables</a> or <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2015/06/lets-bust-recap-little-women.html">Little Women</a>. Grandma Dowdel is a force to be reckoned with and it was gratifying to watch Mary Alice's perception of her no-nonsense grandmother change as the book went on. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This little book clocks in at under 150 pages, and it makes for a great reading experience either for yourself or aloud with some young'uns. It's got my enthusiastic stamp of approval, and I'll probably get the other two installments in the trilogy at some point in the future. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What's your favorite Newbery winning book?</div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-61866597148675594772023-11-16T07:00:00.219-05:002023-11-16T07:00:00.133-05:00Let's Bust a Recap : A Praying Life<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjlh3byVP1F91cD6fum2xR8aCF82GsW44tXdZOO-e1LX0sUuoIn3ZIF-bXZd3_E9Qi_LKrvxqwxt_GnHNmyEo4xv2lvkd8gy0KAKd0YR6d-fXO6K0EoRFwSBe-wCXG9WfZaegZ-XkZgO9iPZ938nXStjibq4QWIvmAONt9J5G0sd72z9n3NKWtciHm0ug/s4032/prayinglife.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjlh3byVP1F91cD6fum2xR8aCF82GsW44tXdZOO-e1LX0sUuoIn3ZIF-bXZd3_E9Qi_LKrvxqwxt_GnHNmyEo4xv2lvkd8gy0KAKd0YR6d-fXO6K0EoRFwSBe-wCXG9WfZaegZ-XkZgO9iPZ938nXStjibq4QWIvmAONt9J5G0sd72z9n3NKWtciHm0ug/s320/prayinglife.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Tuesday, I shared about <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/11/lets-bust-recap-woman-after-gods-own.html">my non-fiction pick for September</a>; today, I want to discuss my non-fiction pick for October. A Praying Life by Paul E. Miller was published in 2009, and when my friend <a href="https://teresawhiting.com/book-reviews/2021/1/19/the-12-best-books-i-read-in-2020">Teresa</a> recommended it as one of the best books on prayer she had ever read, I immediately added it to <a href="https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/ZMTAH6CCL0TC/ref=nav_wishlist_lists_1">my wishlist</a>. Not long afterwards, I received it in a book exchange I participated in during my two seconds on the Instagram. This is the same book exchange in which I received two <a href="http://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2021/10/lets-bust-recap-none-like-him.html">Jen Wilkin</a> books and may I just comment on how funny it is to me that during a public book exchange with strangers on the internet, I received three Christian non-fiction books from three different people? This was not a Christian book exchange and I did not follow strictly Christian book accounts when I was on Instagram. In fact, I wouldn't even have been able to tell you before the book exchange that the three people who sent me books were Christians! As my fictional friend <a href="http://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/search/label/Robin%20Jones%20Gunn">Katie Weldon</a> would say: What a God-thing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Anyway, my friend <a href="https://teresawhiting.com/">Teresa</a> was right: this is the best book on prayer I've ever read. (Admittedly, I haven't read all that many <a href="http://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2015/07/lets-bust-recap-power-through-prayer.html">books <i>exclusively</i> on prayer</a>, but hey, of the ones I have read, this is the best.) In A Praying Life, Paul Miller introduces us to prayer that regularly and consistently hopes, trusts, and expects God to act. J.I. Packer describes this book as "honest, realistic, mature, wise, deep" and Paul David Tripp says it's "a book on prayer that actually makes you want to pray!" Miller employs my favorite non-fiction writing tactic wherein he weaves together personal stories with practical advice to convey his message. His material comes alive as you read about how he has personally struggled to pray and how his circumstances have shaped his prayer life. I found this book illuminating from the very first page to the very last and while it may sound dramatic to say that this book revolutionized my thinking about prayer, that's exactly what it did. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As someone who came to know Jesus as Savior at a very young age and was raised in church by loving Christian parents, prayer has been an uphill climb my whole life. I have a hard time staying consistent in it, and I have often struggled with the question "What's the point?" There is a constant temptation to wait to pray until I have my act together, and Miller combats this tendency right out of the gate <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2018&version=NIV">by pointing to the Pharisee who would stand in the square and pray aloud contrasting him with the sinner who cried out for mercy.</a> The Pharisee seemingly has it all together in his prayer, but Jesus says the sinner is the one who goes home justified before God. The reminder that I must come to God like a child, the invitation to come messy, to trade my heavy burden for Christ's light one was a balm for my soul. None of what I read in Miller's book was new information, but somehow the way he connected the dots made me think about prayer in a way I never had before. In one instance, Miller describes his morning prayer time including interruptions from his autistic daughter and having a conversation with his wife in the midst of it. Instead of giving up or scrapping that particular time as a prayer failure, he showed how those interruptions and distractions directed his prayer time. The idea that letting what seem to me to be distracting thoughts actually open up a way for me to invite God into even more areas of my life was something I hadn't really considered. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another section of the book I really appreciated was Miller's handling of lament. Instead of just pointing the reader to the Psalms and encouraging them to pray the Scripture (which he does), Miller writes about times in his life where he was in crisis and shares what his prayers of lament about specific situations actually sounded like. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Miller also gives very practical advice on keeping a prayer journal and making prayer cards to aid in praying, and I know this is a book I will come back to for those commonsense tips and as a boon when I'm feeling discouraged about my failure to pray better. A Praying Life is a book I can't commend highly enough. It is encouraging, practical, and real, and I've already recommended it to people in my life. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When was the last time a new book gave you a fresh perspective on an old subject?</div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-22292174826149210482023-11-14T07:00:00.158-05:002023-11-14T07:00:00.157-05:00Let's Bust a Recap : A Woman After God's Own Heart<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR84eVirQzwryv96umPIE8BzqHOApjCmu9b6ZHXvFkP6xr5OLdzciKsoTELzoJlDaPtF4kQMLaXL9hJr9NtZ9he_6Zqiu7grcagZkmjSODj5ti5s5O1jtqiS3U3qb5BbeykDgLsE_3HWjL5JGNuXFevF9Vfn0Jgehchx2gIb0gUY3MH6NgpOvJEp050kc/s4032/awoman.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR84eVirQzwryv96umPIE8BzqHOApjCmu9b6ZHXvFkP6xr5OLdzciKsoTELzoJlDaPtF4kQMLaXL9hJr9NtZ9he_6Zqiu7grcagZkmjSODj5ti5s5O1jtqiS3U3qb5BbeykDgLsE_3HWjL5JGNuXFevF9Vfn0Jgehchx2gIb0gUY3MH6NgpOvJEp050kc/s320/awoman.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Well hello there. I know it's been a hot minute since I posted an actual book recap around here, and I'm jumping back in today with this non-fiction read from September. This book has been sitting on my shelf for <i>years</i>. And not just like, more than two years; I'm talking more than ten years. Easily. When I was in high school, a friend and I went through A Young Woman After God's Own Heart with a mentor at our church. That same friend chose this book for our book club to read together this fall. For me, it came in the middle of a real spiritual dry spell. With all the craziness of our lives this summer, my quiet time had become nearly non-existent, and picking up this book at the beginning of September felt like a sweet and much-needed reset for me.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A Woman After God's Own Heart by Elizabeth George was originally published in 1997, and this updated and expanded version was released in 2006. George's goal in writing this book is to share practical, scriptural insights on how any woman in any stage of life can pursue God's priorities in her personal life. While A Woman After God's Own Heart was written for "any woman in any stage of life", one-third of the book is specifically aimed at wives and mothers and I could easily see how a woman who is not in that stage of life but wants to be might not feel very helped by this book. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That being said: I personally found this book extremely helpful. To be blunt, the beginning and the end of this updated and expanded edition are not great, but the meat of the book when George gets into the nitty-gritty of daily life and her practical advice on how to pursue God's priorities was highly profitable. George's introduction and "Word of Welcome" seemed a little self-congratulatory to me, and the opening chapters came off a bit clichéd and very surface level. But the chapters on serving, following, and loving your husband were a stark reality check for me. Much like when I read <a href="http://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2016/09/lets-bust-recap-let-me-be-woman.html">Elisabeth Elliot's Let Me Be A Woman</a> a few years back, I immediately felt myself get defensive when I started to read about ways to serve my husband—specifically her practical tips about keeping the house clean and having a meal ready for him after a long day of work. <i><b>Who am I, June Cleaver?! Have we reverted back to the 1950s?!</b></i> But as I calmed down and took time to think critically about her advice, I came back to my own firmly-held convictions about my role as a woman and a wife. While the implementation of George's suggestions will not look the same for every woman, the heart of her counsel rings true. It was challenging for me to read her words and wake up to some of the ways I have slacked off in my God-given role, and it was clear how that slacking off had contributed to the dry spell I was in spiritually. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While George certainly doesn't pussyfoot around with her guidance to pursue God's priorities, she somehow does so gently. Right about the time I started to feel like I was failing on all fronts as I was reading her book, she softly reminds the reader that—to borrow the old Chinese proverb—"a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Throughout her book, George reminds the reader that something is better than nothing. Praying for five minutes today is better than not praying at all. Rather than berate myself for all the ways I could be doing better, I just need to do my best. What a sweet reminder.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Like I mentioned briefly, the end of the book also wasn't great. It felt like a bit of a sales pitch. Talking about the "legacy" of A Woman After God's Own Heart didn't really do much for me, and I don't think the "updated and expanded" version of this book added much to the original work. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But all-in-all, A Woman After God's Own Heart is a book I can see myself revisiting—at least in part—in the future. It came to me at a time when I really needed it, and it has helped me to reset and resolve to pursue God's priorities as a woman living in 2023. I would recommend this to any woman seeking to follow close after God's heart with the caveat that if you're particularly longing to be a wife and mother, this may not be the book for you right now. While I think this book can be helpful for single women, it may pour salt in the wound of a hope presently deferred. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Have you read any non-fiction that has been especially helpful to you lately?</div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-45884828709492650352023-10-31T07:00:00.087-04:002023-10-31T07:00:00.143-04:00Pumpkin Carving 2023<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibKivby_6Naxpbe3cwTpEN_xaUUVgpn5seQpl8wpjQkR0k5SJIPxkiq-KHN4nphDhhTFb1tHf0EWQqRcbgtlIVLFIYU8FejCXeucFSG1zG-ZPhknVMNgsbUtwNpIvoOXLJar9BPBfpva9SisO8voncTtkOKVu_Fu48YvJzQB6UAKrn225l02SFVuOzmaU/s4032/IMG_1047.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibKivby_6Naxpbe3cwTpEN_xaUUVgpn5seQpl8wpjQkR0k5SJIPxkiq-KHN4nphDhhTFb1tHf0EWQqRcbgtlIVLFIYU8FejCXeucFSG1zG-ZPhknVMNgsbUtwNpIvoOXLJar9BPBfpva9SisO8voncTtkOKVu_Fu48YvJzQB6UAKrn225l02SFVuOzmaU/w400-h300/IMG_1047.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>It's spooky season and you know what that means: <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/search/label/pumpkin%20carving?max-results=20">time to carve up some pumpkins</a>. For the past few weeks up here in beautiful western North Carolina, the leaves have been changing colors and it's been <b><i><span style="color: #0b5394;">freezing</span></i></b>, but over the weekend we had some very warm days which meant that yesterday we put on short sleeved t-shirts and went outside to carve our pumpkins in the welcome sunshine and crunchy leaves. Hallelujah! (Today, unfortunately, it is freezing again.)<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieYS8A6wcgiUUyEbMQ_CcjtGjbHOHjku3xE1MMGAzoS79VT013nG0Rb0EGB13IKXSjRUSG8A4AQ5PKnoZJ2qZbPZvjx77b0eqf-SQef5hH6VHvkC4Nvs22MOZ5haUtNadjTIzdhVRfXi3FjDxi2FIYGVXAE_1FABktAMPj5iMAG3YrwWNFnC7Iot3B4MY/s4032/IMG_1059.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieYS8A6wcgiUUyEbMQ_CcjtGjbHOHjku3xE1MMGAzoS79VT013nG0Rb0EGB13IKXSjRUSG8A4AQ5PKnoZJ2qZbPZvjx77b0eqf-SQef5hH6VHvkC4Nvs22MOZ5haUtNadjTIzdhVRfXi3FjDxi2FIYGVXAE_1FABktAMPj5iMAG3YrwWNFnC7Iot3B4MY/w400-h300/IMG_1059.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6YKAFWmz065tskhahi46QHCmc-HPiD0sbAGGiGEjt6PIlmarAYHwxSCAEE4w2zQ5utA-7Pj3GoRWuDa_lINrL_dVrEhgANZt7g0AuPX_Pag7qfhEA6dVnt3P8qDIpI0KLipsQsEW_GKz5OwFRceI8c8HdHyk2VJS2EGt1es6NsFlCuD40fh6tI3jCe5M/s4032/IMG_1063.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6YKAFWmz065tskhahi46QHCmc-HPiD0sbAGGiGEjt6PIlmarAYHwxSCAEE4w2zQ5utA-7Pj3GoRWuDa_lINrL_dVrEhgANZt7g0AuPX_Pag7qfhEA6dVnt3P8qDIpI0KLipsQsEW_GKz5OwFRceI8c8HdHyk2VJS2EGt1es6NsFlCuD40fh6tI3jCe5M/w300-h400/IMG_1063.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg977VUdukPZ0GXWhEW6iz4_DApX9HXBs7I6tAEY9aOdkfKvtWf_qlzozJG1KPtaBmejW2x3TogSPx2-KwF50u0A9ojB9ziLf2ds57g23y8bMNesks8QY18CbY9zcTD6svTNo2VoxVNybA4oMl6ctM6FQ8ECQ9j54c3RZW3X2koVj5SWHUCUmjV40iRE74/s4032/IMG_1067.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg977VUdukPZ0GXWhEW6iz4_DApX9HXBs7I6tAEY9aOdkfKvtWf_qlzozJG1KPtaBmejW2x3TogSPx2-KwF50u0A9ojB9ziLf2ds57g23y8bMNesks8QY18CbY9zcTD6svTNo2VoxVNybA4oMl6ctM6FQ8ECQ9j54c3RZW3X2koVj5SWHUCUmjV40iRE74/w300-h400/IMG_1067.jpeg" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEymrWxu2fkaziRMaPbFLhyphenhyphenGXUbovk-N0sHWd4-usTCemxLDkJ173UgftRCIb88_5gRXGIAQXdnkdDnSBrRKP9UfmErXcE8PyRCRaYGfKb3dkLJvZILXfC4U-5M7cfkd6jVikkUJHFyl6ofPg6l3B3HBKZZ-zisuoIsrVy77XOyrj5sFy8mTl3R6SX6kc/s1200/carving.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEymrWxu2fkaziRMaPbFLhyphenhyphenGXUbovk-N0sHWd4-usTCemxLDkJ173UgftRCIb88_5gRXGIAQXdnkdDnSBrRKP9UfmErXcE8PyRCRaYGfKb3dkLJvZILXfC4U-5M7cfkd6jVikkUJHFyl6ofPg6l3B3HBKZZ-zisuoIsrVy77XOyrj5sFy8mTl3R6SX6kc/w400-h400/carving.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><scooping pumpkin guts and carving them up></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPrwRj5r75JFXYgwaFsTznD0HMzHg6w03uDF1JBSncEvqHetuNZfUizYpbqMPUjlZiq5b137G3NjhTZxcLms1GSZzFGQQbPmP9AwH20gc6tmtQnZJ9LttOmvzJvAxD4W6vgAgoWTDgngSpr-Bu-gN1SrIw2RlDSFIB-ttEsBruEbwoewT5RYMmutkYgLs/s4032/IMG_1074.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPrwRj5r75JFXYgwaFsTznD0HMzHg6w03uDF1JBSncEvqHetuNZfUizYpbqMPUjlZiq5b137G3NjhTZxcLms1GSZzFGQQbPmP9AwH20gc6tmtQnZJ9LttOmvzJvAxD4W6vgAgoWTDgngSpr-Bu-gN1SrIw2RlDSFIB-ttEsBruEbwoewT5RYMmutkYgLs/w400-h300/IMG_1074.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0N5_cj8RXjHdJjNre_Yf5nLzMCSVywZG4PIjdFADMbI203iHMza_gLz1Itj8ie4qjHsKt9IqEVh7C6AVPDU7ZDX-anj4O_vIG2m4_JdhnyGvAfGfaD2bXQ2Lvegk_trkPQJEmLI4m_egYELjziWOTvRjXUNR2Z_iOsZfDSx4Qnd3FN4zHl_RyAgZw0qE/s4032/IMG_1102.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0N5_cj8RXjHdJjNre_Yf5nLzMCSVywZG4PIjdFADMbI203iHMza_gLz1Itj8ie4qjHsKt9IqEVh7C6AVPDU7ZDX-anj4O_vIG2m4_JdhnyGvAfGfaD2bXQ2Lvegk_trkPQJEmLI4m_egYELjziWOTvRjXUNR2Z_iOsZfDSx4Qnd3FN4zHl_RyAgZw0qE/w400-h300/IMG_1102.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: center;">This year we decided on bats. Creepy, sinister, Halloween bats. </span>Cody went for a classic bat flying out of a cave kind of look. I went for a scary bat perching on a skull. I think they both turned out great, but I really love how Cody's looks lit up. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7cc4oF_8OxRYqn7D0wVAtglPySbWHxq_81fETm148zNI-nwnHPBYNsa7AzOyac5LSJ5vvL-wA4A0lvwKHeYXKGCHEU_dpIqLl3GcwhYBzDEilbrCZg5VE65lKK0aSWExs5Jg8d0C1IspNN6F1Tx6Svie-YPAqBKRSK1nrGAFcP5xLfaHV0_tyUGRkgok/s1200/glowing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7cc4oF_8OxRYqn7D0wVAtglPySbWHxq_81fETm148zNI-nwnHPBYNsa7AzOyac5LSJ5vvL-wA4A0lvwKHeYXKGCHEU_dpIqLl3GcwhYBzDEilbrCZg5VE65lKK0aSWExs5Jg8d0C1IspNN6F1Tx6Svie-YPAqBKRSK1nrGAFcP5xLfaHV0_tyUGRkgok/w400-h400/glowing.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">(When you look at my pumpkin, what do you see first: the bat or the skull?)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDkCT_ibABF2_2hNbc_wWvWJ_ZHdMR1q3h8LKZSLqjuKPRt-h7o-9CMub1q7cvbIDpBEv4JUUEJ_8vzpz_NSKZPOwmvHYkCB5ekqC3NLOA2DfeTxo8TZ9kYBvESoRGpnz5HX59ytPbptMJDLZMCoif2_YoIZVnQD_CpZM5gLLYKaJtRuMgExDS-pddiKs/s2959/IMG_1100.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2959" data-original-width="2178" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDkCT_ibABF2_2hNbc_wWvWJ_ZHdMR1q3h8LKZSLqjuKPRt-h7o-9CMub1q7cvbIDpBEv4JUUEJ_8vzpz_NSKZPOwmvHYkCB5ekqC3NLOA2DfeTxo8TZ9kYBvESoRGpnz5HX59ytPbptMJDLZMCoif2_YoIZVnQD_CpZM5gLLYKaJtRuMgExDS-pddiKs/w295-h400/IMG_1100.jpeg" width="295" /></a></div><br /><div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400; font-size: large;">Happy Halloween!</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #ffa400; font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsUjeeaSyXKwUafjHzVrFqeO8ZQhk025EfD0UEx9ZbZhAyi6dipPw2tGC3am7mpseY8XYtMlSYdpRlvVbmqOFJPGJVlKKeX5opRkxD5dXFXMvxMWiJm7caSgZDXvPDuzstnJQJoTLiBfPZdoHXFeRuSwMkipLJUt8Y7xJB_njUJHB0nrtKZgBnhjMspXc/s4032/IMG_1106.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsUjeeaSyXKwUafjHzVrFqeO8ZQhk025EfD0UEx9ZbZhAyi6dipPw2tGC3am7mpseY8XYtMlSYdpRlvVbmqOFJPGJVlKKeX5opRkxD5dXFXMvxMWiJm7caSgZDXvPDuzstnJQJoTLiBfPZdoHXFeRuSwMkipLJUt8Y7xJB_njUJHB0nrtKZgBnhjMspXc/w400-h300/IMG_1106.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="color: #ffa400;">October 30, 2023</span></div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-18403208413730364532023-10-20T07:00:00.047-04:002023-10-20T07:00:00.147-04:00Casual Fridays<div style="text-align: justify;">Exactly five years ago, Cody and I were smack in the middle of a roadtrip of epic proportions. We flew from Central Florida to Seattle, rented a car, and made our way down through <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2019/01/washington.html">Washington</a>, <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2019/01/oregon.html">Oregon</a>, and <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2019/03/california.html">California</a> to San Jose where we turned in the rental and flew back home to Florida. One of the best trips we've ever taken although how in the world was it <b>five years ago</b>? Today I'm sharing this video Cody put together of our trip. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="438" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QSyR4ithbf0" width="529" youtube-src-id="QSyR4ithbf0"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">What's the best trip you've ever taken?</div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-22956265129825853472023-09-29T07:00:00.130-04:002023-09-29T07:00:00.144-04:00Let's Bust a Recap : Ghosted<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFh_CBl2aYj-5r_WpbGRZI3VIRM22Tdzvooy-xWKaxyrF7AjVMsmmOJWu8ROXaRufrxk7hd-I5R4A1iPf_VFb9AI4nq93QLQwK78d-lfaNROIhG1hkdX2E2CdEG7kafPM0i1B5ZUuXWOUahWNro87IZ-Dt6SFSv1fLLzhMiO7t4dQA2iWGHnfgNcB4Z6k/s4032/ghosted.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFh_CBl2aYj-5r_WpbGRZI3VIRM22Tdzvooy-xWKaxyrF7AjVMsmmOJWu8ROXaRufrxk7hd-I5R4A1iPf_VFb9AI4nq93QLQwK78d-lfaNROIhG1hkdX2E2CdEG7kafPM0i1B5ZUuXWOUahWNro87IZ-Dt6SFSv1fLLzhMiO7t4dQA2iWGHnfgNcB4Z6k/w240-h320/ghosted.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Reading Ghosted this year seems like a serendipitous work of kismet. I randomly plucked this cutie hot pink spine sporting that iconic little Penguin off the shelf at <a href="https://bookshelterfl.com/">The Book Shelter</a> this past spring while I was browsing the aisles on a quick trip down to Florida. I'd never even heard of it, but after reading the vague blurb on the back cover and then spotting the plug from <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/05/lets-bust-recap-what-alice-forgot.html">Liane Moriarty</a> on the front cover, I was hooked. This book was definitely coming home with me.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A couple months later, the book club and I were browsing the local Friends of the Library on <i>another</i> quick trip I had taken down to Florida, and Sydney ended up buying a copy of Ghosted, partly because she's fascinated by the concept of ghosting and she's admittedly a ghoster herself, and partly because I promised that I'd choose it for book club since it was my turn to pick next. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Choose it I did, and ended up reading it on my <b>next</b> weekend trip down to Florida in August. (I know, am I ever even <i>in</i> North Carolina? According to this blog post, you'd think not.)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In this 2018 novel by Rosie Walsh, Sarah has fallen head-over-heels in love with Eddie and after a perfect seven days together, he disappears off the face of the earth. Eddie won't return her calls, texts, facebook messages, smoke signals—she literally leaves no stone unturned in trying to contact him. Despite her closest friends trying to convince her that this is a normal occurrence on the dating scene, Sarah is convinced that something terrible is behind this ghosting, and she turns herself inside out trying to figure it out. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The novel begins <i>after</i> Sarah and Eddie's separation and is interspersed with flashbacks to their perfect week together, along with mysterious letters alluding to a devastating accident nineteen years prior involving Sarah's younger sister Hannah. It's compelling reading and Walsh did a masterful job of composing an absorbing page-turner. I audibly gasped at the shocking twist in the book. Did <b>not</b> see it coming.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ghosted was a super fun book to read, and a great one to discuss with the book club, but for all that: the ending made me grumpy. I haven't exactly been able to pinpoint why, but at the end of the book I just felt crabby. Perhaps a contributing factor is that Ghosted is at least the fourth book I've read this year that had a side character dealing with infertility. I think I'm a little burnt out on that front in my fiction and the timing of my reading Ghosted just wasn't great. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But ultimately, it's an entertaining, twisty, unputdownable novel, and if you're looking for something quick to bust you out of a reading slump, this might be just the ticket. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What's your top recommendation for a slump-busting book?</div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-49798320525020704892023-09-27T07:00:00.213-04:002023-09-27T15:42:51.457-04:00Let's Bust a Recap : Millard Fillmore<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4qy2xNcQgaxn15gBkhn2gsREK3vfeQguPgKQwwIDBfUz4X1canevqjEMWSwSwREZT6wx3zvOZKkB7uGP5Su7puo2PxLdc60Ala-wJWVnKGZ47Mj0wMg2iUs5dsLU_aHOte4m9MJSPwE2GKDHLhrHDivV1r9u8vKPxPsTN8Z9bgUrWIbNG7IFb3USu3X8/s4032/Millard.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4qy2xNcQgaxn15gBkhn2gsREK3vfeQguPgKQwwIDBfUz4X1canevqjEMWSwSwREZT6wx3zvOZKkB7uGP5Su7puo2PxLdc60Ala-wJWVnKGZ47Mj0wMg2iUs5dsLU_aHOte4m9MJSPwE2GKDHLhrHDivV1r9u8vKPxPsTN8Z9bgUrWIbNG7IFb3USu3X8/s320/Millard.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hey, hey: time for <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/search/label/presidents">another presidential biography</a> and we're on unlucky #13, Millard Fillmore. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Unlucky, you say?</i> Yes. Yes, I do because Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President by Robert J. Rayback is in the running for the worst presidential biography I've read to date, and that includes <a href="http://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2018/03/lets-bust-recap-james-madison.html">Cheney's</a> and <a href="http://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2019/07/lets-bust-recap-last-founding-father.html">Unger's</a> horrifically biased bios on <a href="http://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2018/03/lets-bust-recap-james-madison.html">Madison</a> and <a href="http://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2019/07/lets-bust-recap-last-founding-father.html">Monroe</a>. Unfortunately, my dislike for this biography on Fillmore has less to do with the actual authorial content and more to do with the physical published book, but we'll get to that later. First let's talk about Millard Fillmore himself. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Millard Fillmore was born January 7, 1800 (exactly 200 years to the day before my youngest sister-in-law). His parents were poor tenant farmers in upstate New York, and Millard was the second of their eight children. Fillmore was the very picture of a self-made man. Despite being born into extreme poverty, he worked diligently to get an education and eventually became a prominent lawyer in Buffalo, New York which is where he ultimately settled. He got engaged to Abigail Powers in 1819, but didn't actually marry her until 1826 after he finally was in a place in life to support a family. They had two children, a boy and a girl.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fillmore was passionate about local and state politics and by far the most interesting part of his career dealt with his time at the local and state levels. His heart was obviously in New York even as he served in the highest office of the land, and after reading about him and <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2021/05/lets-bust-recap-martin-van-buren.html">Martin Van Buren</a>, I've decided that New York politicians are their own special brand. He did also serve in the House of Representatives before being selected as <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/03/lets-bust-recap-zachary-taylor.html">Zachary Taylor's</a> vice presidential candidate and then succeeding Taylor in the presidency upon Taylor's untimely death about a year and a half into his presidential term leaving Fillmore the two and a half years left to serve out his time as president. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The defining event of Fillmore's presidency was easily the Compromise of 1850, and in particular Fillmore's defense of the Fugitive Slave Act within the Compromise. While Fillmore himself was against slavery, his understanding of the Constitution led him to believe that the federal government was precluded from taking an active role in ending the institution. His utmost desire was to preserve the Union and he considered that his foremost responsibility in carrying out the presidency. While it's easy to Monday morning quarterback this time in our nation's history and criticize the public men who didn't take a more active role in trying to end slavery, particularly the presidents immediately leading up to the Civil War, I think we have to take a harder look at the choices these men were faced with and realize it's a little more nuanced than, "Slavery is evil so every president that served while slavery was still a reality in our country must have been evil, too." Fillmore was the last president to achieve any sort of sectional peace with his presidency and while I wouldn't say that made him a good or effective president, it is <i>something</i>. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fillmore was the most <i>Whig</i> politician that actually got to serve as president, certainly more so than <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2021/10/lets-bust-recap-old-tippecanoe.html">Harrison</a>, <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2022/08/lets-bust-recap-president-without-party.html">Tyler</a>, or <a href="https://oldoriginalthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/03/lets-bust-recap-zachary-taylor.html">Taylor</a>, and after his presidency, the dying Whig party finally dissolved. Despite all their efforts to get Fillmore reelected in the 1852 presidential race, they failed. Fillmore did not particularly want to run again, but was very concerned about the preservation of the party and also about the potential for sectional discord if certain other candidates pressed their positions. Fillmore's time in national politics was most marked by his never-ending power struggle with New York boss Thurlow Weed and Weed's yes-man William Seward. Honestly, reading about their constant back-and-forth was exhausting, and their rivalry reminded me of every disgusting reality of politics. It's just always been bad, y'all. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fillmore was anxious about what to do after the presidency, publicly bemoaning the fact that retired presidents didn't get any kind of livable pension, and puzzling over what would be a fitting profession for an ex-president. He had settled on returning to his law profession in Buffalo, but the sudden death of his wife less than a month after he left office was a massive blow to him. Then a year later in 1854, his 22 year old daughter also suddenly died. He ended up running for president again in 1856, but when he lost to Buchanan, he considered his run in politics officially over. He then conveniently married an extremely wealthy widow in 1858, and the two of them became Buffalo celebrities hosting everyone who was anyone visiting upstate New York. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fillmore was the first president to live through the Civil War and for several years afterward. Shortly after the war began, he organized the "Union Continentals", a company in the home guard. While he still advocated the preservation of the Union, he was critical of Abraham Lincoln's leadership. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One final and somewhat random thought on Millard Fillmore: he was considered by the ladies to be an extremely attractive man. Take a second to scroll back up and look at his picture. Do <b>you</b> see it?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All in all, Millard Fillmore wasn't a complete bore to read about, but he was poorly served by this 1959 Rayback biography. For one thing, Rayback just tried way too hard. Fillmore is consistently ranked by historians as one of our very worst presidents and Rayback's praise of him and attempt to save his reputation came off a bit desperate at times. He padded the biography with a lot of extraneous information that didn't add much to the portrait of Fillmore. On top of that, this book was littered with typos, errors, and editing that made it difficult to read. The use of footnotes as opposed to endnotes was distracting and aesthetically unappealing. And my biggest personal pet peeve: the 23rd chapter was labeled as chapter 25 in the table of contents <b>AND</b> at the head of the actual chapter. <b><i>Who missed that?!</i></b> I'll be the first to admit that my reading of this biography suffered from big gaps of time where I left it untouched, but ultimately, it just is not one of the better presidential biographies I've read. Millard Fillmore would be a great candidate for an updated and in-depth biography, but I don't see that happening any time soon.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Next up—and chances are good I'll actually get to him before the year is through—Franklin Pierce. </div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3839071401786412746.post-77437494080537955722023-09-25T07:00:00.145-04:002023-09-25T07:00:00.134-04:00Let's Bust a Recap : Cold Sassy Tree<div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWGyFjrjTLqLiKQHALwKqtufShBMkm_9EseNsaj6kEYu5Lkw5_uVm773lp8w7iPHPqZyc1VgSm6_DIEwlT-U1s-d9MGRIMd0KSien8zhdgo3zeUkMzkAUW-HEwjp62Yl70pZE_QHLo7q9NUb7nDPwY4KtJBSTFXBRmvvaJy1pzP2GJTRtTnVgYTQuIFeU/s4032/coldsassy.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWGyFjrjTLqLiKQHALwKqtufShBMkm_9EseNsaj6kEYu5Lkw5_uVm773lp8w7iPHPqZyc1VgSm6_DIEwlT-U1s-d9MGRIMd0KSien8zhdgo3zeUkMzkAUW-HEwjp62Yl70pZE_QHLo7q9NUb7nDPwY4KtJBSTFXBRmvvaJy1pzP2GJTRtTnVgYTQuIFeU/s320/coldsassy.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I read Cold Sassy Tree back in May, but it is still <i>easily</i> my favorite book of 2023 so far and let me ask you something: why is it so hard for me to review books that make it onto my personal <i>five-star</i>, <b>All-Time Favorites</b> list? Does anyone else have this problem? Even when I look back at old posts on this blog, I feel like the books I've loved the most have the cheesiest recaps. Like the vibe I give is teenage fangirl writing to her (not so)secret crush. It's not cute, yet here I sit, trying to convince you that you should read this book immediately while also having my own personal misgivings about sharing this book with you because what if you don't love it and then we can't be friends anymore? </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I know I'm being extra and I probably shouldn't attempt blogging in the middle of the night, but what's a book-loving insomniac to do? Let me try to give you the general gist of Cold Sassy Tree, and we'll call it a day.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns was published in 1984 and is the coming-of-age story of our fourteen year old protagonist Will Tweedy set against the backdrop of rural small-town Georgia in 1906 and the shocking marriage of Will's grandpa a mere three weeks after the death of his beloved wife Mattie Lou. Rucker Blakeslee's elopement is made all the more scandalous given that he marries Miss Love Simpson, the pretty young milliner from his store who is barely any older than his two grown daughters <i>and</i> from Baltimore to boot, making her practically a Yankee. Never mind that it's a marriage of convenience because old Rucker can't be bothered to pay a housekeeper and Miss Love just wants a home of her own: <b><i>what will the town think? </i></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><br /></i></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I loved this book immediately (<span style="font-size: x-small;">as evidenced by my small existential crisis documented above</span>). Cold Sassy Tree made me laugh and broke my heart and basically accomplished everything a good book ought. The author, Olive Ann Burns, was born in Banks County, Georgia in 1924, and, starting in 1971, she began writing down all the family stories told to her by her parents. It was these stories that eventually became Cold Sassy Tree and the authenticity lent to the novel by the historical and autobiographical nature of Burns' family history made Cold Sassy Tree an absolute delight to read. It's such a searing portrait of small town Southern life. Reading this book was, for me, reminiscent of sprawling across my grandmother's bed during my own teenage years, and listening to her distinct Southern drawl as she related to me all our own family history and gossip. For that reason alone, Cold Sassy Tree will always have a special place in my heart.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Burns actually received so many fan letters pleading for a follow-up to Cold Sassy Tree that she began writing a sequel but died before she was able to complete it. The unfinished manuscript titled "Leaving Cold Sassy" was published a couple years after her death along with her notes, but based on the fact that she wasn't able to finish it and several reviews I've read, I don't plan to read it. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I'll definitely read Cold Sassy Tree again though, and if you appreciate a good coming-of-age story or you enjoy Southern literature, you should too. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Are you overprotective of the stories you love or is that just a me-problem?</div></div>Hannahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08425059907959428947noreply@blogger.com4