Just for Fun: My Year In Books meme

Anne over at My Head Is Full of Books, a long-time blogging friend, resurrected a fun meme! Play along!

My Year in Books

Rules?

• Answer the questions with titles from books you read in 2024. (Some may end up being silly, others may seem overly serious.)   
• The goal is to have fun. 
• Participate by copying the questions below. Erasing my answers and inserting you own.  
• Once you've created your post, link it on Anne's post so others can see it, then visit others' posts to see how they answered the questions.
• Spread the word. Let's see if we can make this a thing again this year!

Questions:

In high school I was:  Bad Girls Never Say Die by Jennifer Mathieu 

People might be surprised: If Something Happens to Me by Alex Finlay

I will never be: Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall

My fantasy job is: The Last Ranger by Peter Heller

At the end of a long day I need: Look on the Bright Side by Lily Williams and Karen Schneeman

I hate it: New Orleans Mourning by Julie Smith

Wish I had: Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon

My family reunions are: A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

At a party you’d find me:  I Am Not Alone by Francisco X. Stork

I’ve never been to: Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune

A happy day includes: Sunshine by Jarrett Krosoczka

Motto I live by: Read Dangerously by Azar Nafisi 

On my bucket list is: Nowhere for Very Long by Brianna Madia

In my next life, I want to have:  My Beloved Life by Amitava Kumar  

 

 

 Join the fun and stop by Anne's blog to leave your link!

 

Or leave your answer(s) in the comments below.

Celebrate Mardi Gras at Home!

It's Mardi Gras Day! We used to live in New Orleans, so this is a major holiday at our house, as you may have heard in my video, Celebrate Everything, Big and Small. We usually celebrate on Saturday and again on Tuesday. Before the pandemic, we had an annual party with all the food, music, etc. on Saturday. With my immune issues, it's now a small celebration with our oldest friends, who lived in New Orleans when we did. We enjoyed takeout from a favorite local New Orleans restaurant (a husband and wife team who were both chefs in New Orleans, under two of the top chefs there!), plus lots of shrimp. Today, Mardi Gras day, we will finish off the season with our annual tradition of Popeye's at that same friends' house (yes, Popeye's is authentic Louisiana food). And, of course, we've decorated for the occasion, and I'm wearing purple, green, and gold with my beads on!

 

Want to join the fun? Here is a collection of ways to celebrate Mardi Gras, New Orleans, and Louisiana today...including food, recipes, travel tips, movies & TV shows, and, of course, some great books! You can also check out my column in Shelf Awareness from last year that features books about and set in New Orleans, Armchair Travel: Destination New Orleans. And if you prefer a video, check out my Recommendations for Mardi Gras Reathathon: Books, Movies, and TV Shows.

 

Great Adult Books Set In/About Louisiana (additional titles in my article linked above):

• The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder by Rebecca Wells, author of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood - I listened to Calla Lily's story on audio and laughed out loud & bawled my eyes out! It takes place in southern Louisiana, with plenty of local color.
• Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table by Sara Roahen - I loved this memoir about the food, history, people, and unique culture of New Orleans.
• Trail of Crumbs: Food, Love, and the Search for Home by Kim Sunée - although this food-focused memoir covers everyplace from Sweden to France to Korea, the author grew up in New Orleans, where the food culture impacted the rest of her life.
• Burn by Nevada Barr - part of her Anna Pigeon series, about a National Park ranger, this one is set in the French Quarter (where there's a National Historic Park). I haven't read it yet, but I plan to this year!
• Mardi Gras Mourning by Julie Smith - I first read this back in the 90's and am rereading it now for the Mardi Gras Readathon on Booktube. It's a classic detective novel, set in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, so the setting and atmosphere are great!
• The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate - outstanding historical fiction set in Loiuisiana, with a dual timeline in 1863 and 1987. It made my list of Top Ten Audios in 2023! 
• The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett is another excellent dual timeline historical novel, about twin sisters born in Louisiana. One moves to New Orleans and the other twin decides to "pass" as white and lives a very different life.
• Horse by Geraldine Brooks - in this historical novel from one of my favorite authors, some of the story takes place in 1800's Louisiana.
  

Middle-Grade and Teen/YA Books Set In/About Louisiana:

• Ruined by Paula Morris - a teen/YA mystery/ghost story set in New Orleans (the perfect setting for a ghost story!)
• The Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman - a compelling middle-grade historical fiction adventure (with a touch of time travel), where a girl from 1960 travels back to 1860 Louisiana
• Zane and the Hurricane by Rodman Philbrick - a middle-grade novel about Hurricane Katrina - powerful and gripping
• Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys - most people are familiar with her two YA novels set during WWII (Between Shades of Gray and Salt to the Sea), but this historical novel is set in New Orleans in 1950

Movies & TV Shows

• Chef  - a wonderful, uplifting movie about a family food truck that travels from Miami to LA, with a stop in New Orleans, of course! My favorite movie of the year in 2015.
• NCIS: New Orleans - though it's a crime show, it includes many scenes of New Orleans, mention of local restaurants and landmarks, and other local tidbits, plus some great local music. They usually do a Mardi Gras episode once a season, for extra fun. It's streaming on Paramount Plus (which used to be CBS All Access).
• Treme - we LOVED this HBO show, which we were somehow able to watch on cable at one point. You can see it now streaming on HBO Max or Hulu.
  
• You can also check out some classic movies and modern classics with New Orleans settings, like A Streetcar Named Desire and The Big Easy.
• Or tune in to watch parades and other scenes in New Orleans streaming live (or if you missed the parades, some great videos) at www.mardigras.com.

One of the locals in Louisiana

Travel
All this talk of Louisiana making you want to visit? I have written articles about visiting New Orleans  and Exploring Cajun Country - check them out and start planning your trip (plenty of food recommendations in both!). I'm certainly ready to go back!

Crawfish!

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry!
Notice that many of the books and movies about Louisiana are focused on FOOD? Yes, Louisiana - and especially New Orleans - is known for its amazing, unique food. This blog post on how to celebrate Mardi Gras includes my own recipes for some classic Louisiana dishes, plus food you can grab locally today and webcams where you can vicariously experience Mardi Gras - there are plenty of suggestions in this post that you can still manage to do between now and Tuesday. Or save it for later if you like - we eat this food all year round. 

NOTE that Zapp's potato chips - which you absolutely MUST try) have been bought out by PA-chip maker Utz, so you don't have to get them by mail-order anymore. We can now find them in local stores like Wawa here in Delaware or ordered on Amazon (Cajun Crawtator and Cajun Dill are the best flavors.)

 Laissez les bon temps rouler!

Me & my sons, about 10 years ago

My Big Book Summer Plans 2022

I have just announced the 10th year of my annual reading challenge, Big Book Summer Challenge, so I guess I should be the first to sign up!

I always enjoy tackling some big books in the summer, and I'm looking forward to doing it again and finally reading some of these bricks that have been collecting dust on my shelf (for this challenge, a Big Book is any book with 400 pages or more).

NOTE: Don't let my stack below intimidate you! You only need to read ONE Big Book over the next three months to join in the fun and participate in the challenge. This is just the way I like to do it, but you do you!

I definitely won't get through all of these, but I like to have some options to choose from. These are all currently on my shelves, waiting patiently to be read (along with many others!):

 

From the bottom of the stack:

• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (476 pages)
• Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly (433 pages)
• Sycamore Row by John Grisham (447 pages)
• Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King (522 pages) - one of the books we inherited from my dad!
• Lucky Turtle by Bill Roorbach (404 pages)
• Voyager by Diana Gabaldon (870 pages) - book 3 of the Outlander series.
  
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (511 pages)
• The Overstory by Richard Powers (502 pages) - left over from Big Book Summer 2021!

I know that looks like a huge stack--and it is!--but as you can see, many of my choices are in the 400-500 page range and several are fast-paced reads. Voyager will be my biggest chunkster of the summer (and those are big pages packed with dense text!), but I know I will enjoy it.

All of these also qualify for my Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2022. My shelves are overflowing, so this is good! One  of them will also count for my Back to the Classics 2022 Challenge.

I also devote my summer to listening to Big Audio Books. I have been pulling together a folder from my large audio backlog, checking online to see which print editions are 400+ pages. I just started my first Big Book of 2022 on audio, A Lite Too Bright by Samuel Miller (480 pages), first released in 2018, and so far, it is excellent.

Check out my 2022 Big Book Summer Challenge Video for more on what I plan to read this summer, plus some great suggestions that I enjoyed in past summers. You can also find more great Big Book recommendations on my Big Books! list on Bookshop. I have read and enjoyed every single book on that list, and it includes a wide variety of book types and genres--something for everyone!

 How about you? Are you up for tackling a Big Book (or two or three) this summer?  Join me and sign up for the 2022 Big Book Summer Challenge! The rules, details, and link-ups are on that page.

NOTE: You don't need a blog to participate--you can either leave a comment on the Challenge page or sign up in the 2022 Big Book Summer Goodreads group. Either way, first read the details on the Challenge page.

Join me in some bookish summer fun!

Fiction Review: Crimes Against a Book Club

Crimes Against a Book Club, a novel by Kathy Cooperman, was an unusual choice for my own book group, which usually chooses meaty, issue-driven novels or nonfiction, but we all agreed it was an entertaining and well-written novel with more depth than we expected and plenty of laughs.

Annie and Sarah are very different in some ways but have been best friends since their college days at Harvard. Tall, gorgeous Sarah went onto law school and now works 80 hours a week in a high-powered law firm, while Annie got her PhD in chemistry. She loved working as a research chemist but quit to be a stay-at-home mom to her three young children, which has left her a bit overweight and more than a little frazzled. Her life goes from stressful to crisis when she finds out that her son has autism and needs expensive therapies immediately in order to help him while his brain is still developing. Though Sarah's life looks glamorous from the outside, she is in her own kind of crisis, desperate to get pregnant but running out of options. She and her husband are now looking at IVF, but it's very expensive, and Sarah's high-stress job is not conducive to being in the best shape in which to get pregnant. Annie recently joined a book group, in an effort to meet people, in La Jolla, a suburb of San Diego (and not where Annie lives!) that is one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the country. She doesn't fit in with this group of women who are obsessed with their looks and their status, but they give her an idea. She and Sarah decide to launch a cosmetics business to earn the money they each need for their families. Annie will concoct a skin cream formula from cheap ingredients, and beautiful Sarah will hand-sell the cream to the wealthy ladies of La Jolla, under the guise of a private-label, exclusive brand from France, for $2000 a jar. The only problem is that Annie ends up adding a last-minute secret ingredient to the cream that makes it very popular but could also get them in a lot of trouble.

Seems like an amusing set-up, right? And it is, with plenty of humor right from the start, as Annie and Sarah set up their fake business and begin selling the women of La Jolla their expensive face cream. What surprised our group, who were mostly expecting a shallow story, was that the author provides some depth to the characters, including the seemingly superficial wealthy women. As the story moves forward, the stakes rise for Sarah, who begins to actually like some of the women she's conning, and for Annie, who is having trouble re-stocking her secret ingredient. As I mentioned, this is not our typical sort of choice for this book group, but everyone ended up enjoying it more than they expected to. It's a smart, funny, engaging story with a great sense of humor about friendship and aging.

320 pages, Lake Union Publishing

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Listen to a sample of the audio book, from the scene where Annie attends her first La Jolla book group meeting.

You can purchase Crimes Against a Book Club from an independent bookstore, either locally or online, here:

Or you can order Crimes Against a Book Club from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Booktopia 2018

Welcome, Booktopians! My mom and I at Booktopia 2018

If you were reading my blog around April and May, you probably got sick of hearing me mention Booktopia! My mom and I attended our third Booktopia this year. Here's a recap:

First, the basics. Booktopia is a unique annual event held the first weekend in May in Manchester, VT. It was started by Ann Kingman and Michael Kindness, the hosts of an amazing book podcast called Books on the Nightstand (it is now off the air, but you can still download old episodes). My mom and I went to Booktopia in 2015, the last year that Ann and Michael hosted it. Happily, the wonderful independent bookstore in Manchester, Northshire Bookstore, decided to keep up the Booktopia tradition on their own. My mom and I attended this unique event again in 2017 and then this year.

I say that Booktopia is unique because it isn't like any other book event - every single author who attends mentions that! This is not simply a reading by an author or a book trade show, like BEA, but an intimate gathering of book lovers and authors, together for the whole weekend. There are sessions where the authors each speak about their books and perhaps read a short passage, but those sessions are interactive, with lots of Q&A from the readers in attendance. So, it's more like a weekend filled with book club meetings with the authors in attendance!

This year, the featured books and authors were:
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• I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon
• The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
• The Optimistic Decade by Heather Abel
• My Life with Bob by Pamela Paul
• All the Beautiful Lies by Peter Swanson
• The Names of Dead Girls by Eric Rickstad
• Winter Sisters by Robin Oliveira
• My Ex-Life by Stephen McCauley
• The Anatomy of a Miracle by Jonathan Miles
• The Unmade World by Steve Yarbrough (guest speaker)

And when Chloe Benjamin got sick at the last minute and couldn't come, author Bianca Marais stepped in, with her new novel Hum If You Don't Know the Words (of which I've heard nothing but rave reviews so far!).

(links are to my reviews)

This year's Booktopia was even more fun for me because I had the opportunity to interview two of the authors ahead of time for Shelf Awareness, so I had already talked to them and gotten to know them a bit (and both were delightful!). You can read my interviews with Stephen McCauley and Heather Abel.

My mom and I with Stephen McCauley, one of our favorite authors

Friday night was a big dinner event, with all the authors and readers (the authors just sit among the other attendees) - we ate a great dinner, talked books, laughed a lot, played some killer book trivia, then ended the evening with a Yankee Book Swap.

Our group is ready for the Yankee Book Swap!

During the day Friday and Saturday, we attended interactive sessions with individual authors. Booktopia officially ended Saturday evening with a 10-minute talk from each author, on any topic they wanted. In between, we ate at the wonderful restaurants in Manchester, VT, chatted with our book friends, old and new (many of the same people return to Booktopia every year), and shopped at the fabulous Northshire Bookstore (the Booktopia fee includes a $50 gift card).

Heather Abel giving her wrap-up talk

All in all, it was another exhausting but satisfying Booktopia - it really is the ultimate event for book lovers! Start now to plan to go next May to join the fun! I'll post a link here on the blog at the start of the year when tickets go on sale. Hope to see you there in 2019!

Be sure to check out this article in Shelf Awareness on Booktopia, written from the perspective of the booksellers who do all the hard work to put it on.

Celebrate Mardi Gras!

A float in a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans, circa 1988

Happy Mardi Gras, ya'll!

Today is Mardi Gras day - we used to live in New Orleans, so this is a major holiday at out house! We had our annual party with a few friends (many of whom also lived in New Orleans when we did) on Saturday, and today, we will finish off the season with our annual tradition of Popeye's at a friend's house.

Want to join the fun today? Here is a collection of ways to celebrate Mardi Gras, New Orleans, and Louisiana today...including food, recipes, travel tips, movies & TV shows, and, of course, some great books!

Great Adult Books Set In/About Louisiana

• The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder by Rebecca Wells, author of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood - I listened to Calla Lily's story on audio and laughed out loud & bawled my eyes out! It takes place in southern Louisiana, with plenty of local color.
• Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at the New Orleans Table by Sara Roahen - I loved this memoir about the food, history, people, and unique culture of New Orleans.
• Trail of Crumbs: Food, Love, and the Search for Home by Kim Sunée - although this food-focused memoir covers everyplace from Sweden to France to Korea, the author grew up in New Orleans, where the food culture impacted the rest of her life.
  

Middle-Grade and Teen/YA Books Set In/About Louisiana:

• Ruined by Paula Morris - a teen/YA mystery/ghost story set in New Orleans (the perfect setting for a ghost story!)
• The Freedom Maze by Delia Sherman - a compelling middle-grade historical fiction adventure (with a touch of time travel), where a girl from 1960 travels back to 1860 Louisiana
• Zane and the Hurricane by Rodman Philbrick - a middle-grade novel about Hurricane Katrina - powerful and gripping
• Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys - most people are familiar with her two YA novels set during WWII (Between Shades of Gray and Salt to the Sea), but this historical novel is set in New Orleans in 1950

Movies & TV Shows

• Chef  - a wonderful, uplifting movie about a family food truck that travels from Miami to LA, with a stop in New Orleans, of course! My favorite movie of the year in 2015.
• NCIS: New Orleans - though it's a crime show, it includes many scenes of New Orleans, mention of local restaurants and landmarks, and other local tidbits. They usually do a Mardi Gras episode around this time of year, so check your cable On Demand.

One of the locals in Louisiana

Travel
All this talk of Louisiana making you want to visit? I have written articles about visiting New Orleans  and Exploring Cajun Country - check them out and start planning your trip (plenty of food recommendations in both!). I'm certainly ready to go back!

Crawfish!

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry!
Notice that many of the books and movies about Louisiana are focused on FOOD? Yes, Louisiana - and especially New Orleans - is known for its amazing, unique food. This blog post on how to celebrate Mardi Gras includes my own recipes for some classic Louisiana dishes, plus food you can grab locally today and webcams where you can vicariously experience Mardi Gras - there are plenty of suggestions in this post that you can still manage to do TODAY! Or save it for tomorrow if you like - we eat this food all year round. 

NOTE that Zapp's potato chips - which you absolutely MUST try) are now distributed up north by Herr's (I think they have other regional distributors in other parts of the nation, too), so you don't have to get them by mail-order. We can now find them in local stores like WaWa here in Delaware....though we still ordered an 8-bag carton for Mardi Gras!

Me & my sons, about 8 years ago

What Makes Me Happy

I've been tagged by Anne of My Head is Full of Books to complete The Happiness Tag.  Actually, Anne tagged me way back in August (this is why I don't normally do these kinds of things anymore!). It's taken me a long time to find the time to squeeze in an extra post, but Anne is a good friend, and I wanted to give a shout-out to other blogging friends as well! As Anne mentioned on her post, she and I feel as if we are real-life friends, even though we live on opposite ends of the country! I urge you to check out her blog - it is warm, interesting, and always entertaining.

Rules:
1. List 5 things that make you happy.
2. List 5 songs that make you happy.
3. List 5 bloggers that make you happy and let them know that they have been nominated.

OK, here goes...

5 Things That Make Me Happy

1. My husband and kids (now young adults)
2. Being outdoors (I am writing this on my back deck)
3. My friends, especially when I am able to enjoy the outdoors with my friends!
4. Travel - this goes along with #2 because we are usually camping & enjoying the outdoors when we travel! Though we also love to discover good food on the road.
5. Reading, of course! Nothing like losing yourself in an amazing book.

 5 Songs That Make You Happy

1. Happy by Pharrell Williams (makes me dance!)
2. I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor - an anthem! It came on the radio in my convertible yesterday, and I cranked up the volume and belted it out!
3. Bohemian Rhapsody or really, anything at all by Queen - not really a happy song (the lyrics are actually kind of disturbing), but I can't help singing along at top volume!
4. Best Day of My Life by American Authors - makes me smile - this one does have happy lyrics 
5. You Better You Bet by The Who - because it takes me back to high school and has really cool lyrics - actually, anything by The Who!

 (Honorable mentions to anything at all by ABBA or Billy Joel and most of the soundtrack from Glee) 

5 Bloggers That Make Me Happy
(keeping in mind that Anne, who nominated me, would normally be in my top 5!)

1.  Julie of My Book Retreat - she is another blogging friend who feels like a friend IRL. She's a mom, too, we share a lot of the same reading tastes, and I always enjoy visiting her blog.
2. Tanya of Mom's Small Victories - besides our love of books and being moms to boys, Tanya is also battling an immune-related chronic illness like me. I don't know how she finds the time and energy for such an amazing blog! We have so much in common - I know we'd have a blast if we met in person.
3. Ricki and Kellee of Unleashing Readers - though they are at the beginning of their motherhood journeys while I am almost done (though you are probably never done!), I LOVE Ricki and Kellee's contagious enthusiasm about books & reading, especially for kids. I always look forward to visiting their blog!
4. Beth Fish Reads - we both love books of all kinds, cooking, fresh produce, and eating tasty foods. Her blog posts always make me smile and are interesting and original. 
5. Tanya at Girlxoxo - I've been enjoying Tanya's blog for years. She is another mom who loves a wide variety of books (see a pattern here?). I am absolutely in awe of her polished, professional blog and gorgeous photos, and her posts are always unique and enticing!

Feel free to join in the fun even if I didn't tag you (it was hard to choose only 5!). It makes you happy!

Fiction Review: The Rosie Project

I was quite sick over the holidays, feeling awful physically and more than a little sorry for myself emotionally. I needed a cheer-up book – something light and funny to perk up my spirits. I found the perfect book sitting on my Kindle (that I’d been meaning to read for over a year): The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. It’s a light, sweet, smart romantic comedy that often had me laughing out loud and left me smiling and in a much better mood.

Don Tillman is a genetics professor at a large university in Australia. Though he is quite happy with his life and his job, he decides that he needs a life partner. Being an overly analytical person who likes structure (Don delivers a talk on the genetics of Asperger’s for a colleague but doesn’t recognize those very same characteristics in himself), Don creates The Wife Project, a 16-page questionnaire designed to narrow down the options. He figures that if he just finds someone who meets all of his criteria, she will be a perfect match for him. Questionnaire in hand, Don embarks on internet dating, goes on a group date, and even tries speed-dating, all with hilarious results.

Through his friend Gene, Don meets Rosie, a woman whom he quickly determines does not meet his criteria – she smokes, is perpetually late, and is startlingly spontaneous, messing up his carefully designed daily routine the very first day they meet. Rosie has an interesting problem, though, that Don can help her with – she is trying to find her biological father. Intrigued by the genetics problem – and by Rosie herself – Don sets out to help her. Along the way, Rosie introduces Don to a lot of new experiences and some new feelings, too.

Don Tillman is a lot like Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory, only with a specialty in genetics rather than physics and a little more likable. When his rigid ways meet Rosie’s whirlwind personality, the result is often rocky, sometimes sweet, and always very, very funny. I often found myself laughing out loud at Don’s reactions and the situations he and Rosie got into. At its heart, though, The Rosie Project is a love story, so it is also warm and moving. If you’re looking for a literary pick-me-up, this delightful short novel is the perfect choice. I finished it and immediately wanted to read its sequel, The Rosie Effect – I’ve already requested it from my library and can’t wait to meet up with Don and Rosie again.

295 pages, Simon & Schuster

NOTE: Originally written as a screenplay before being turned into a novel, The Rosie Project is now in development as a movie adaptation, still in script development. Who do you think should play Don and Rosie?

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!