Tired!

 

Friends, I'm tired. 

I spent five days driving up to North Texas, playing with my young grandkids (Annie taught us how to play The Floor is Lava...very fun!), and then driving home. Once I got home, I saw that my dad, 95, needed help with his sweet wife, Rosa, 93, who has been sick since Thanksgiving and is now in the hospital. Rosa seems to be getting a little better every day, so I'm feeling cautiously hopeful. 

It won't surprise you, I imagine, to know that I didn't finish anything this week.

But I am still trying to read a little on these books...

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

Babel: An Arcane History by R. F. Kuang

The Tenant of Wildfowl Hall by Anne Bronte

Dubliners by James Joyce

Women Holding Things by Maira Kalman

All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings by Gayle Boss

Good Thing #1

I had a wonderful time with Annie and Wyatt.

Good Thing #2

I discovered a bookstore in Gladewater, Texas,

near Annie and Wyatt's house.

Good Thing #3

My friend, Rae of Powerful Women Readers, opened her bookstore in my town.

I'm happy you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. It's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below. 

All Creation Waits by Gayle Boss

I've been intending to join into these fun book memes for many years, and I've finally gotten around to trying these out on Fridays in December. If I am successful, I hope to continue participating in 2023.

Today's Featured Book 

All Creation Waits:

The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings

by Gayle Boss

Genre: Nature

First Published: 2017

Page Count: 75

My Thoughts: An advent book featuring creatures from North America? Yes, please.

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY is hosted by Rose City Reader. What book are you happy about reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) on BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY! Add the link to your blog or social media post and visit other blogs to see what others are reading.

Happy Friday and welcome to the FIRST LINE FRIDAY, hosted by Reading is My Superpower! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line.

"...When the sun’s light and heat wane, the natural world lets lushness fall away. It strips down. All energy is directed to the essentials that ensure survival. Engaging in Advent’s stripping practices—fasting, giving away, praying—we tune into the rhythms humming in the cells of all creatures living in the northern hemisphere...When that primal fear of the dark—of the end—begins to slide over us, animals unselfconsciously and forthrightly offer unfearful responses. They take in the threat of dark and cold, and they adapt in amazing and ingenious ways. They shape themselves to life as it is given...Each in its way says: The dark is not an end, but a door. This is the way a new beginning comes.The practice of Advent has always been about helping us to grasp the mystery of a new beginning out of what looks like death. Other-than-human creatures—sprung, like us, from the Source of Life—manifest this mystery without question or doubt. The more I’m with animals and the more I learn about them, the more I know they can be more than our companions on this planet. They can be our guides. They can be to us “a book about God . . . a word of God,” the God who comes, even in the darkest season, to bring us a new beginning..."

THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice. To play, open a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% on your e-reader). Find a sentence or two and post them, along with the book title and author. Then link up on Freda's Voice and visit others in the linky. 

Chapter 11 Wood Frog

"His arteries and veins are frozen canals, the spaces between his cells filled with ice crystals. His summer-supple skin has turned crunchy. His heart is silent as a stone. Not even the weakest current crackles in his brain. And he is not dead."

The purpose of THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers. THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. 

December 16th - 22nd - Which time of day do you prefer to read: morning, afternoon, or evening? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer)

Anytime...every time...all the time---morning, afternoon, and evening! 

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies in the World

I'm a competitive person.

I'm especially competitive about things that are probably not that important to most other people.

Like baking the world's best chocolate chip cookie.

It all started when I entered a cookie contest at my local Walmart, way, way back when I was a stay-at-home mom, maybe thirty years ago, and I won second prize for my chocolate chip cookie recipe. Note: That's second prize, folks, and this was at my local Walmart...and just exactly how many people actually entered the contest anyway? Mmm...

As a school librarian, I encouraged my students to read ten chapter books every year. The prize? An invitation to The Chapter Book Club Picnic where everyone got a sample of my Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever. 

Of course I had to bake a lot of cookies for those kids...

The Chapter Book Club Picnic

Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever (my own)

Over the years, I've tried many, many recipes of other people to see how their recipes compare with mine...

I tried the recipe from Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley in June of 2013. For many years, I replaced my personal Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever recipe with Lucy's. Lucy's secret? A pinch of salt on top of each cookie just before baking. I did a post about making this recipe here: In Which I Relish Relish and In Which I Reveal the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe.

Evaluation? Soft, buttery mid-size cookies with lots of chocolate chips and a hint of salt.

How to Bake for Beginners set me to making these cookies which I liked a lot. 

Evaluation? The author says it best: "Everyone has their own version of the best chocolate chip cookies! Mine is on the puffy side---chewy in the center and firm on the edges. These are not too dense, are studded with chocolate, and have a strong buttery flavor."

I became keen on Vallery Lomas' Life is What You Bake It as soon as I tried Lomas' recipe. Her recipe uses olive-oil and chunks of chocolate.

Evaluation? Chunky from the larger chunks of chocolate and a long-lasting moistness from the olive oil. 

How could I resist trying Paul Hollywood's recipe for chocolate chip cookies from his cookbook, Paul Hollywood BAKE: My Best Ever Recipes for the Classics? 

Evaluation? Uniform size and a brownie-like cookie.

My latest cookie recipe trial came from The Encyclopedia of Cookies, a book filled with hundreds of cookie recipes. 

Evaluation? A big, chewy cookie that retains its moisture for many days.

I'm sure I will continue my quest for The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies in the World to my last day. 

Maybe you have secrets? Hints? Tips? I welcome them all.

For more photos, link up at Wordless Wednesday, Comedy Plus, Messymimi's Meanderings, Keith's Ramblings, Create With Joy, Amanda's Books and More, and My Corner of the World.

Weekend Cooking was created by Beth Fish Reads and is now hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader (and Baker). It is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.  

Books on My Winter 2022-2023 To-Read List

What do I want to read this winter?

I have three books left from my Classics Club list that I plan (hope? have to!) to read in December:

Dubliners by James Joyce

Agnes Gray by Emily Bronte

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

I am planning to read these old titles in January and February:

It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis

My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

Here are a couple of new(ish) books I'd like to read:

Dinosaurs by Lydia Millett

A Career in Books: A Novel About Friends, Money, and the Occasional Duck Bun by Kate Gavin

Miss Cecily's Recipes for Exceptional Ladies by Vicky Zimmerman

We Are the Light by Matthew Quick

Babel or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution  by R. F. Kuang

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

And these sound ideal for winter, don't you think?

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.    

♫ ♪ ♫ It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas! ♫ ♪ ♫

What I Am Currently Reading:

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

Babel: An Arcane History by R. F. Kuang

The Tenant of Wildfowl Hall by Anne Bronte

Dubliners by James Joyce

Women Holding Things by Maira Kalman

All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings by Gayle Boss

Best Book Lists of 2022

I love to collect and peruse all the yearly best book lists that pop up at this time of the year. Here are some of my favorites:

New York Times: 100 Notable Books of 2022

NPR: Books We Love (2022)

The Washington Post: The 10 Best Books of 2022

The New York Public Library: Best Books of 2022

Time: The 100 Must-Read Books of 2022

Do you know of any more good Best Of book lists?

Last week I posted here at Readerbuzz:

Friday Book Friends: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, the Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

The Sunday Salon: I Read 125 Picture Books and 18 Nonfiction Books in November

Ten Good Books I Want to Reread in 2023: Books I Loved When I Read Them Long, Long Ago

Wordless Wednesday: The 2022 Texas Book Festival

I am in North Texas this weekend, taking care of my grandkids Annie and Wyatt.

Good Thing #1

Tree is up!

Good Thing #2

Christmas Village is set out!

Good Thing #3

Cookies are being baked!

♫ ♪ ♫ It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! ♫ ♪ ♫

I'm happy you joined us here at the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. It's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there. 

Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:

• What was your week like?
• Read any good books? Tell us about them.
• What other bookish things did you do? 
• What else is going on in your life?

Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.

        

My linkup for Sunday Salon is below.