Halfway

I’ve completed half of the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge. I’m not reading them in any particular order, but I’ve listed them according to challenge number here.

Challenge nos. 1, 2, 4:

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (challenge 1)

A Mercy by Toni Morrison (challenge #2)

Black Hat Jack by Joe R. Lansdale (challenge 4)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Challenge nos. 5, 6, 11:

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters (challenge 5)

A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James (challenge 6)

It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini (challenge 11)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Challenge nos. 13, 14, 17:

Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor by R. D. Blackmore (challenge 13)

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (challenge 14)

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine (chalenge 17)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Challenge nos. 19, 22, 24:

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, translated from German by A. W. Wheen (challenge 19)

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe (challenge 22)

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo (challenge 24)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Reading! 🙂

End of year report

This has been a rough year all around. No stitching or blogging mojo was just the start. On the plus side, I’ve had a sleep study and discovered why my CPAP machine wasn’t helping me. 🙂 Now I have a new machine, with a new pressure, and I’m sleeping better. I’ve decided it’s a sign of good things to come in the New Year.

On the stitching front, I’ve received a sweet, sweet ornament from Wendy. She and I have had a private ornament exchange the past couple of years, and I was determined not to miss it this year. Here’s what she sent me–

I always enjoy reading her blog posts about her garden and the birds that visit there. She made this one because she has robins visit her, and they make the sweetest song. I loved the ornament without the story. It’s that much more special now.

This is what I made her–

It’s a freebie I found on a blog somewhere. I’m not sure where. I’m usually better about noting sources. Wendy was organized and early with my ornament. I was unmotivated and late with mine. The good part about that is that after I finished my ornament, I was able to photograph both of them together.

I love that I was able to get this photo.

The one thing I managed to do last year was read, quite a bit more than I normally read. It’s nice to feel I accomplished something for myself during a rough patch. This year, I’m going to participate in Book Riot‘s Read Harder Challenge. There are 24 tasks, that run the gamut from reading a book according to an author’s age when published, to where the book takes place, to specific genres, to self-help (traditional to non-traditional, which is inspiring people in the Goodreads group to read cookbooks to help them and other non-traditional books to help themselves). It’s a very loose challenge, so if you don’t normally read 24 books in a year, a book can cover two or more categories to accomplish all the tasks. It’s entirely up to you. I’ll have the hardest time with the poetry task.  I’m excited for the New Year to begin so I can get started. Like cross-stitch, I seem to think I can finish the challenge in five minutes. I have a list of selections for each category (with some books listed in multiple categories). My goal is to read books I already own or to check out titles from the library. I don’t want to purchase books specifically to complete a task. Unless I simple can’t resist…

Happy New Year to all and happy stitching!

🙂