A Fabulous Book About...Moss? and Adios, 2020; and Annie's Shiny, Shiny Shoes

 

The best book I (almost) finished* last week was Gathering Moss. Now please don't run screaming from the room. Gathering Moss? A book about what? Moss, you say? I can almost hear you questioning my bookish judgment. It's my naturalist book club book for January, and it is about moss, but, trust me, it's scientific and it's poetic. You will fall in love with moss.

*I shall be reading the last page of several books, including this one, on January 1st, 2021, to start my new year with a bang.

The collection of Mary Oliver poetry read since April? Done.

My daily drawing book? Done.

The intro to classical music that I read while listening to each selection? Done.

War and Peace that I literally read every day for the last twelve months? Done.

I'm free. I can read whatever I want. 

Talk about reading-at-will. I'm darting between a book about ways people enjoy happiness around the world to my brilliant Classics Club spin novel to a book of quotes compiled by the Today Show's Hoda Kotb to How to Be Happy (or At Least Less Sad): A Creative Workbook....I'm all over the place, and I love it.

Waving a fond adieu to a departing year...eagerly greeting the incoming year...these have traditionally been some of the delights of being an ardent reader. 

To say goodbye (and, honestly, good riddance) to 2020:

The Best Books I Read in 2020

My Year in Books: Goodreads

My Life in Books, 2020 Edition (posting next week)

Small Joys of 2020 Tag (posting next week)

The 2020 Cybils Fiction Picture Book Finalists (posting next week)

Books I Meant to Read in 2020 But I Didn't Get To (posting mid-January)

New-to-Me Authors I Read in 2021 (posting late January)

To greet 2021 (O bearer of so much hope!):

First Book of 2021 (posting next week)

Books on My 2020-2021 Winter TBR

Most Anticipated Releases for the First Half of 2021 (posting early January)

Resolutions for 2021 (posting early January)

My 2021 Yearly Challenges

Don't know which challenges to take on? How about a choose-your-own-adventure sort of challenge from Modern Mrs. Darcy? Take a look at it here.

Bonnie at Bonnie's Books offers up Focus for 2021. Take a look at this poster and the first four words you see are your focus for 2021. Mine? LOVE. CONNECTION. PURPOSE. BREAKTHROUGH.

Good Thing #1: Annie's Shiny, Shiny Shoes

Yep, blame those shoes on her Nana.

Good Thing #2

I must have been a good girl this year.

An espresso/capucchino maker. 

Good Thing #3:

At last! An explanation for 2020: this Match.com commercial:

A Match Made in Hell

See you in 2021!

I'm happy you found your way to the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place for us 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.

The 2020 Virtual Advent Tour: Village Under the Christmas Tree

What is the Virtual Advent Tour?

Has there ever been a year that is better suited for a Virtual Advent? 

2020 has been a hard year for everyone, and the current world scenario doesn’t suggest the upcoming holidays are going to be any easier. We’re all thinking about how to celebrate differently at a time when tradition is particularly dear. But there are some annual events that can continue unabated, and the Virtual Advent Tour is one of them, hosted for the sixth time by Sprite Writes. 

As you likely know, the typical Advent calendar is a season-marking device, often paper, but sometimes crafted of other materials, to count down from December 1st until Christmas. Each day, you open a door to unveil a hidden scene or piece of chocolate or some other delight. The Virtual Advent Tour is a bloggers’ take on that. In our version, each morning Sprite Writes will point you to a post at someone’s blog in which they share something about their holiday season.

Village Under the Christmas Tree

It was my next-door neighbor who inspired me. Every year Marjorie Lawrence assembled a huge village on top of her piano. Well, no piano for me. Instead...under the Christmas tree.

I have everything arranged in groups.

The manger, next to the inn and the church.

The French Quarter, filled with cafes and bakeries.

The naturalist area with cabins and fresh fruits.

Our former workplaces, the city and the school. 

Way in the back, now that we are retired.

Lots of other fun spots, most of which have been gifted to me over the years: 

Puppet show. Ice skating pond. A greenhouse. A lighthouse. A carousel. A train. 

Do you have your own village? 

Have I inspired you to start one of your own?

Merry Christmas! Happy holidays!

Books I Hope Santa Brings

Rewild Yourself: 23 Spellbinding Ways to Make Nature More Visible by Simon Barnes

Yes, and...Daily Meditations by Richard Rohr

Small Space Garden Ideas

Baklava to Tarte Tatin: A World Tour in 110 Dessert Recipes

In Other Words: An Illustrated Miscellany of the World's Most Intriguing Words and Phrases

Pie Camp: The Skills You Need to Make Any Pie You Want

Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World

Bookopoly Board Game

Book Lover's Memory Game

First Lines Literature Coffee Mug

Peeramid Book Rest

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.

The Best Books I Read in 2020

The Best Books I Read in 2020:

50 Ways to Draw Your Beautiful Ordinary Life

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

The Common Good by Robert B. Reich

Strange Planet by Nathan Pyle

Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Every Day

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

Weather by Jenny Offill

L'assommoir by Emile Zola

Devotions by Mary Oliver

Paris in Winter by David Coggins

Around the World in 80 Trees

⁠
#favoritethings #christmasfavorites #postalongwithus #bookstagram #girlsofgxo #bookish #readersofig #readersofinstagram

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.

Join this year’s hosts  Girlxoxo and Traveling with T for our annual #AMonthofFaves blog event – a fun way to recap the year that was (Estella’s Revenge is taking a hiatus for this year). We have a schedule of topics planned out, so feel free to join in anytime for some or all of the topics. There will also be a link-up on our blogs so that we can all stop by each other’s posts to leave comments, high fives, good vibes and well wishes.

Year of Wonder, Jane Smiley, and the Largest Virtual Choir Ever Assembled

 

Generally, I read books, and I like them. Sometimes I read books, and I love them. And, even more rarely, I read books and I enjoy them. Year of Wonder: Classical Music to Enjoy Day-by-Day was a book that I read and I enjoyed. Year of Wonder is a compilation of short writings about classical musical pieces, one for each day of the year. I read the daily essay and then listened on Spotify to the musical selection. And I marked each selection that I especially liked and made a playlist of my own on Spotify. It was a delightful experience.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy...98% complete

The Novel Cure: From 751 Books to Cure What Ails You...42% complete

The Salt Path...36% complete

I heard Jane Smiley speak this week with Houston's Brazos Bookstore on Zoom. Happily this completely meshed with the arrival of Jane Smiley's new book, Perestroika in Paris at my house.

I really enjoyed our local book club discussion on Zoom. Everyone liked the book, The Lions of Fifth Avenue. Amazing!

Good Thing #1: 

While I was reading Year of Wonder, I ran across a day in which the featured musical selection was by a composer named Eric Whitacre. I learned that Whitacre started a Virtual Choir Project way before the pandemic, way back in 2010, and that his virtual choirs were on YouTube. I checked him out on YouTube, and ran across an interview with Eric Whitacre on Sunday Morning, a CBS news show, from earlier this year. I found it so lovely that I thought I'd share it with you here. If you'd like to hear the virtual choir for 2020, take a look here.

Good Thing #2:

I joined the FeederWatch project last week. In two days, I saw ten different species of birds, including the goldfinch above.

Good Thing #3:

We've finished our discussions about our favorite fiction picture books from 2020, and we have decided on our Cybils shortlist. I can't reveal anything until January 1st, 2021.

How was your week?

I'm happy you found your way to the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place for us 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.

The 2020 Virtual Advent Tour: Hang Some Mistletoe and Let the Kissing Begin!

 

What is the Virtual Advent Tour?

Has there ever been a year that is better suited for a Virtual Advent? 

2020 has been a hard year for everyone, and the current world scenario doesn’t suggest the upcoming holidays are going to be any easier. We’re all thinking about how to celebrate differently at a time when tradition is particularly dear. But there are some annual events that can continue unabated, and the Virtual Advent Tour is one of them, hosted for the sixth time by Sprite Writes. 

As you likely know, the typical Advent calendar is a season-marking device, often paper, but sometimes crafted of other materials, to count down from December 1st until Christmas. Each day, you open a door to unveil a hidden scene or piece of chocolate or some other delight. The Virtual Advent Tour is a bloggers’ take on that. In our version, each morning Sprite Writes will point you to a post at someone’s blog in which they share something about their holiday season.

Hang Some Mistletoe

How about this for an easy holiday tradition? Hang some mistletoe, and let the kissing begin!

My son, Jon, and his wife, Stephanie

My niece, Erin, and her husband, Greg

The next year Erin unexpectedly suffered a brain aneurysm and passed away.

My niece, Erin, and her son, Ethan, 8

This photo is priceless for all of us now.

My sister-in-law, Ruth Ann, and her husband, Kenny

My son, Ben, and his wife, Lisa

My sister-in-law, Chris, and her husband, Buster

Buster passed away in 2018.

My husband and I