Year-End Book Fest!
Books, Books, and More Books!
I’ll begin by wishing everyone a very Happy New Year! I hope your holiday celebrations were warm and fuzzy and full of friends and family.
My son and daughter-in-law, Dean and Marta, were visiting from Boston for a few days over Christmas, so my world was bright and sparkling! I served a delicious (if I do say so myself) seafood paella brunch to our extended “chosen family.” Then we all shifted location to J&J’s for a light dinner and our traditional Christmas games (of Janiene’s invention). First, “the kids” (aged nine to forty-something) hunted for pickle ornaments on the tree, then they followed a series of clever rhyming clues in a treasure hunt that took them all around the house. We finished up with a gift-ornament exchange game that involved dice-rolling and ornament-swapping and stealing. Laughter was abundant. The frosting on that Christmas cake was the crocheted “mini-me” dolls Janiene made for all nine of us! We’ve been gathering to share these traditions for about thirty years, but I don’t know that Christmas 2024 will ever be topped!
Books as a Family Tradition
The people of Iceland have a lovely December tradition. Jolabokaflod, which translates to "Christmas Book Flood," and is celebrated on Christmas Eve. People give one another gifts of books, but the essence of the tradition lies in the joy of reading those books together. I visualize mugs of hot chocolate or tea, homemade cookies, cozy blankets, and long hours of reading, both silently and aloud. Sounds like heaven to me!
Like Icelanders, my family has a long tradition of giving carefully selected books for Christmas. This year, after unwrapping all our presents on Christmas Day, Dean, Marta, and I each had a small pile of books at our feet! There were cookbooks, travel books, and many novels. For anyone who knows me well, this is not a surprise. Some of my most treasured possessions are the books on my bookshelves.
Many years ago, when my now forty-year-old son was about seven, we had a bit of a conflict around our book collections—a conflict of my accidental making. It was after Christmas, and Dean’s bookcases were literally overflowing into piles on the floor. I felt like he had outgrown his picture books. He was gobbling up chapter books, and he hadn’t touched those older books in ages. I thought I could clear out some space for the new titles by boxing up the old picture books to donate to the local library.
He came home after being out playing and immediately noticed that books were missing from his bookcase and questioned me. I explained my very logical and generous plan, but he was having none of it.
“My books are my life!” Dean insisted, hands on hips, eyes steely with determination. “You can’t give them away!”
Quickly acquiescing to what were obviously his very strong feelings. I put the packed boxes of books into his closet for safe-keeping. I/We have moved several times since then, and those books have made every move with me. Today, they sit on the bottom shelves of one of my office bookcases.
Goodreads’ Reading Challenge 2024 / 2025
Do you participate in the Goodreads.com annual Reading Challenge? If not, consider joining in the fun. If you do, let me know how you did in 2024 in the comments.
I challenged myself to read 75 books in 2024. I had read over 70 books in both 2022 and 2023, so it seemed like a no-brainer. But I didn’t quite make it this year! I only managed to squeak in 63 books! Some were old classics, some the latest hot titles, and lots in between. The largest genre was historical fiction (no surprise). What’s your favorite genre?
I just signed up for my 2025 challenge—72 books—kind of a compromise number—a little lower than last year, but still a stretch. And I already finished one—A Solitude of Wolverines by Alice Henderson! How many books did you challenge yourself to read in 2025? Let me know in the comments!
December’s Books
I read six books this month, many of which fit into more than one genre. One was set in the distant past, one across three historical time frames, one across one recently lived lifetime. One in the future and one in the here-and-now. Check out all my book reviews on Goodreads.
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco came recommended highly by Dean. It’s a multilayered historical fiction, but it’s also a very classic murder mystery. It’s like Agatha Christie went back to the Dark Ages and hung out in an eerie old monastery. To make it more interesting, it pretends to be taken from an ancient lost-and-newly-found hand-written manuscript from that time period. A mystery wrapped in a mystery tied with a bow of historical fiction. I loved the tangled threads and sense of discovery. 5*****
The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray. I had just finished Dray’s superb Becoming Madam Secretary and was lured into chosing another of her historical fiction titles—this one an epic saga. Three parallel stories stretch across time, all based on the lives of real women in three different historical eras. In the 1700s, there’s Adrienne, wife of the Lafayette, hero of two Revolutions, who is a hero in her own right. During WWI, there’s Beatrice Chanler, a rich American who rescues the dilapidated Lafayette estate along with scores of war orphans. During WWII, Marte, one of those rescued orphans living at the Chateau, plays an important role in the French Resistance. 5*****
Gloryland by Shelton Johnson came recommended to me as a possible entry in my big April-Earth Month project. (More on that later!) This is the historically realistic, but fictional, tale of a “Buffalo Soldier” named Elijah Yancy written by a Black American author who is also a National Park Ranger who spent decades working in both Yellowstone and Yosemite, home to the original “Buffalo Soldiers.” As someone who adores National Parks, I loved this insightful and inspiring book. 5*****
Gary Gerlacher’s Deadly Equation, like his previous Last Patient of the Night that I read last month, is a riveting modern medical thriller. Doc, the main character, reminds me of a Clive Cussler hero—filled with confidence in facing down evil villains, armed with unusual skills and tools, and infinitely lovable to other characters and readers… and funny. I tore through this book in one long day of reading! 5*****
Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling was also suggested as a possible entry for my Earth Month book lineup. A speculative climate-thriller set in the future, after catastrophic environmental events have reduced people to a variety of very uncivilized existences, the story throws different groups of survivors into direct competition for limited resources. The women come out pretty well, all things considered, but it wasn’t my cup of tea. 4****
This is a very clever one—Wordhunter by Stella Sands. It’s a contemporary murder mystery with a “wordy” slant to it. The eccentric young woman who ends up becoming the “detective” is forever quoting dialogue from books and movies, diagramming sentences in her head, writing backwards, and reciting weird bits of trivia. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but it may not be for everyone! 5*****
Joan’s Top Ten Best Books of 2024
People are always asking me to suggest a good book or two. So, here is my end-of-2024 list of ten! The books are in no particular order, they’re all in the top rung. These are books I read in 2024, not necessarily books published in 2024.
Eight women authors. One nonfiction. Six historical fiction. Two speculative fiction. One contemporary fiction. Check out all my book reviews at Goodreads.
The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry
The Measure by Nikki Erlick
An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
James by Percival Everett (Pulitzer Prize 2024)
Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray
The Women by Kristin Hannah
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
Which of them have you read? Do you agree with me? What would you add to the list that I left out? Let me know in the comments.
2025 OLLI Author Spotlight Interview Lineup Revealed
The 2025 line up for my Spotlight on Local Authors series at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Sierra College has been finalized, and what a lineup it is!
One Friday each month, via Zoom, I interview an interesting author. The cost is $5 for each session, and all the money goes to the Sierra College Food Pantry that supports Sierra students dealing with food insecurity. The interviews are fun and interesting. There are new authors and experienced authors, an audiobook narrator, a travel writer, fiction writers, and memoirists. Join me. Check out this link here.
Exciting Earth Month (April) Plans to Watch For
I’m working on plans for an Earth Month celebration of books related to nature. I’m putting together an eclectic collection of books, one per day for each of April’s thirty days, that celebrate Mother Nature in some way.
Adventure thrillers, speculative climate-fiction, hiking tales, lovely nature writing, historical fiction and nonfiction, and, of course, the classics. Think everything from Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and my own Force of Nature, to The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson and Tangles by Kay Smith-Blum.
It’s going to be fun. I’m working with author Janis Robinson Daly to put together a rich, playful opportunity to tune into Earth Month, Earth Day, and Mother Nature through a host of interesting books and activities.
Watch for more information as I get it figured out!
Welcoming in the New Year!
Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And auld lang syne?
Chorus: For auld lang syne, my dear, For auld lang syne. We'll take a cup o' kindness yet, For auld lang syne.
Auld Lang Syne means "times gone by" or "the good old days," so when we sing Robbie Burns' famous 18th Century lyrics we are singing, "We'll take a cup of kindness yet for the good old days," and we are waxing nostalgic about old friends and old times that we carry in our hearts.
January marks the birth of Scotsman Robert Burns, a rebel with a cause, and a hero of all rebels-at-heart, who was a working man's anti-establishment, singer-songwriter— the Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan of his day.
I read The Women and absolutely loved it. I’m a fan of Kristin Hannah. Now I’m going to check out the other books you listed!