Books, Books, and More Books Minus Pics

I made some easy and some pretty lofty goals when planning out my Filthy Fifty list. One of them was to read 50 books this year...and children's books don't count. Now if you consider that the last time I read even 20 books in a year was probably before I had children...50 books was crazy ambitious.

Cass, daughter of mine...I don't know how you do it! She reads over 100 books every single year, right through pregnancy, two newborns and potty training.

If I'm being honest, after Jocie's death I simply lacked the focus to read anything. Even the grief books that showed up on my doorstep were nearly impossible to plow through. I was in the middle of reading The Passage by Justin Cronin when my girl passed away, and still haven't been able to pick it back up again.

I typically read everything in digital format and even listen to some on Audible. Michelle got me addicted to listening to great books, that's how I fell in love with Les Miserables. I also discovered Goodreads, a social networking/organizing site for readers. I love it! It keeps me inspired when I check in to see what my friends are reading and their recommendations! I am religious about keeping it updated. I have a few friends that are impossible to keep up with their mad reading skills. They go through books like I go through Diet Coke...Kate I'm talking about you! You are welcome to add me on Goodreads if you are interested in following what I read. No judgement though...sometimes I don't love everything I read, but I do read everything!

I tried to include a variety of genres on my book list. Somehow I missed the entire Outlander series that was popular years ago, so I read a few of those. Lots of pages, but fun to read. And confession...I have never read more than the first two Harry Potter books. Yikes...I can hear the outcry...blasphemous! So I read #3 and #4 of Mr. Potter and am in the middle of #5. I read classics as well as trendy new reads  from Nicholas Sparks, Dan Brown, and JK Rowling..errr I mean Robert Galbraith.

My favorite books from this year taught me so much about life, death and all the living and loving in between. I constantly used my digital magic marker to highlight quotes that resonate. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green sits atop the stack of my favorites. Sentences like “Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.”  and “As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.”  Speechless and touched by the end, this book reminded me what I have been missing from literature. The characters in Donna Tartt's Goldfinch kept me wrapped up in the story until the final word. Oh goodness...and Jodi Picoult's The Storyteller was stuffed with good stuff oozing from every page...

“Forgiving isn't something you do for someone else. It's something you do for yourself. It's saying, 'You're not important enough to have a stranglehold on me.' It's saying, 'You don't get to trap me in the past. I am worthy of a future.” 

“I don't know what it is about death that makes it so hard. I suppose it's the one-sided communication; the fact that we never get to ask our loved one if she suffered, if she is happy wherever she is now...if she is somewhere. It's the question mark that comes with death that we can't face, not the period.” 

“If you've lived through it, you already know there are no words that will ever come close to describing it, and if you didn't - you will never understand.” 

So here's the list...sort of sorted by genres! Marked with a "*" for my top ten faves!

Dystopian
Divergent by Veronica Roth *
Insurgent by Veronica Roth
The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

Science Fiction
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett
Under the Dome by Stephen King *
11/22/63 by Stephen King
One Second After by William R. Forstchen

Popular Bestsellers
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt *
Defending Jacob by William Landay *
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling (wink wink)
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walkter
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett
The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzsch
The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
Little Bee by Chris Cleave
Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple *
Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
The Lion's Game by Nelson DeMille
The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson
Still Alice by Lisa Genova *
The Disreputable History of Frankie Lando-Banks by E. Lockhart
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green *

Beach Read
The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks
Drums of Autumn Outlander #4 by Diana Gabaldon
Voyager Outlander #3 by Diana Gabaldon
The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult *
Dragonfly in Amber Outlander #2 by Diana Gabaldon
Outlander  by Diana Gabaldon
Now You See Her by James Patterson
The Distant Hours by Kate Morton *
The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult
Inferno by Dan Brown

Non Fiction
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller
Empty Mansions:The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark
Because I Said So! by Ken Jennings
Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan
Global Mom: Eight Countries, Sixteen Addresses by Melissa Bradford
(I know her and adore her...and was surprised to read about myself in her fabulous new book)

Fantasy/Fairy Tale
A discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Historical Fiction
New York by Edward Rutherfurd
Nefertiti by Michelle Moran

Historical Non-Fiction
The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom

Classics
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The Secret Garden by Frnces Hodgson Burnett
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L.Frank Baum
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
Les Miserables by Victory Hugo *

62 books...and counting...since I started almost one year ago. Can I hear a Holla and a What What!!! Now it's your turn...switch on your Kindles, open those paperbacks and get to reading, and if you have any good recommendations please please let me know in a comment! I have a personal record of 62 books to break for next year. Ready set read!

Going Home

It's creeping closer...this Filthy Fifty Milestone. As the calendar shows the month of November now, it's almost here.

Thomas Wolfe is responsible for saying "You can't go home again." The title of a novel he wrote referring to the passing of time and one's inability to return to youth and hopes and dreams.

During the late summer, I ventured to the small rural town I grew up in. Taking photos of some of the places I used to ramble in my childhood was one of the items on my Filthy Fifty list.

Difficult to see, since the reach of mature tree branches seem to block the view in nearly every direction, but this is the house where I grew up. That largest leaning tree on the left was planted when I was still in Elementary school. Usually late and running to catch the school bus, I would leap over the tree the entire first year it was growing here. Yellow brick, white stones, this house...the green grass I used to practice cartwheels and handstands, the sewing room Mom first taught me to stitch, the door that opened to my first date, the driveway where I parked my first car (it cost Fifty dollars), the place that always felt like home.

Dad has always been a "gentleman farmer"...farming for hobby and pleasure rather than a source of income. Cattle, horses, chickens, roosters, cats and dogs drifted in and out of my girlhood years on the farm.

The field behind our house has become the resting place for old automobiles.

The bee house. The story goes that the owner of the property before my parents, used to keep bees. And this was the shack he kept them in. Mom always told us not to play here given the condition of the rotting wood and missing roof. Enticed by the forbidden crumbling play house, my friends and I ignored Mom and often sneaked away to play here. One day we found an old frying pan that some unknown intruder had scrambled eggs in...we never went back.

My Dad's mother lived during the depression era, and consequently NEVER threw anything away.

I think Dad gets that from Grandma. A roll of barbed wire that might come in handy one day.

That's the old water tower in the distance...so many good stories.

Unfortunately for my parent's sake, I believe my brothers were responsible for much of the shenanigans here including the original batman painting on the water tower. The officials kept painting over it, putting up fences and security to keep the riff-raff out. Eventually they gave up and embraced the winged icon. If you can't beat 'em...join 'em!

More of the automobile graveyard. I think this may be the final resting place of Herbie the Love Bug.

Horses now roam among the old cars. Very friendly ones.

Manure spreader...enough said about that!

A glimpse up the dirt lane leading to the field and the corral. The old familiar bird sings to me along the dusty path and my mind flashes back to "rodeo" days. The time of year to brand the baby calves, de-horn the males and turn them into steers. Yikes!!!! I can still smell the memory and hear the bleating animals.

This is the church I attended as a little girl. This brick building replaced a very old building that was torn down to make way for a new and modern place of worship. I have the sweetest old restored church bench from the original church that sits in my dining room. You should have seen the years of disgusting gum from under the worn bench that Dean removed during restoration.

While it's true I grew up around farm country...I would never refer to myself as a country girl. The irony is...the older I get the more I seem to be gravitating towards my childhood ways on the farm. I currently own chickens, keep bees, plant a garden, and preserve tomatoes and corn and raspberry jam. Who knows, goats and horses are probably next.

I was shocked to see that one of my favorite places as a kid was still standing. Long since closed down...Isaacson's Store was the town's convenience store before 7-11 was even a thought. When the summer turned to unbearable heat, friends and I pedaled our Schwinn bicycles to Isaacson's Store for penny candy and Orange Crush to cool us off. My favorite penny candy was the little red filled licorices.

The Pepsi sign on the side of the store has faded to nearly nothing...but not my memories of this unique hometown country store.

Come to think of it, I don't believe that Thomas Wolfe was correct. But rather, maybe Frank Baum was wiser "There's no place like home." Home being the peace of a cozy rainy Sunday, the feeling when you pull into the driveway after being away for some time, a quiet kiss on the forehead of a sleeping child, or the warmth of a husband's arms. Home has been many places for me over these almost Fifty years, but the meaning of home is defined by simple, blissful moments like these. 

Count All the Bees In The Hive

Christopher Robin and I walked along

 Under branches lit up by the moon.

 Posing our questions to Owl and Eeyore

 As our days disappeared all too soon.


But I've wandered much further today than I should

And I can't seem to find my way back to the wood


So, help me if you can I've got to get

 Back to the House at Pooh Corner by one.

 You'd be surprised there's so much to be done,

Count all the bees in the hive.

Chase all the clouds from the sky.

 Back to the days of Christopher Robin and Pooh.

It's hard to explain how a few precious things

 seem to follow throughout all of our lives

After all's said and done I was watching my son

 sleeping there with my bear by his side.

 so I tucked him in, kissed him, and as I was going

 I swear that old bear whispered "Boy, welcome home".

Believe me if you can I finally came

Back to the house at pooh corner by one.

Back to the days of Christopher Robin

Back to the ways of Christopher Robin

Back to the days of Pooh...