To Post or Not to Post (And Books)

So it's been almost five months since I've posted here on the blog. I started writing a post about colorwork toward the end of May, but only wrote one sentence because I just wasn't feeling it. Since then, I've been pondering if I want to continue writing the blog. I finally decided that, at least for now, I do. With that decision made, I plan to write shorter posts highlighting my recent knitting, activities, events and travel, and to not try too hard to stick to a schedule.

So for today, I'm highlighting some of the books I've read this summer. Here goes!

Best Nonfiction Book

Wow, absolutely riveting! Carreyrou follows the rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes and her company, Theranos, that promised a scientific/health advance that it couldn't deliver. It is the perfect companion piece to the podcast, The Dropout, and the HBO documentary, The Inventor. I recommend all three.

Most Fun Book

A month-by-month illustrated journal of a year the author spent in a small Connecticut village on the Long Island Sound. Her musings are focused on life, nature, clothing, village events, weather, and a variety of other topics. The illustrations and Swift's writing are delightful! Recommended!

Best Fiction Book

What a fantastic, fantastic book! 

Marlantes tells the interweaving stories of Finnish immigrants in southwest Washington state from the early years of the Twentieth Century to the 1930s. His characters are loosely based on the beings in ancient Finnish myths that were collected into The Kalevala in the 1830s. This may sound a little Lord of the Rings-ish, but the plot plays out in logging camps, farms, canneries and fishing boats, as well as during the labor struggles and strikes of the period.

If you love a good story, filled with passionate, flawed, and engaging characters, get yourself to your local indie bookstore or library and get this book. You won't be sorry.

I am fortunate to live just five minutes away from Third Place Books, where I attended Karl Marlantes' kick-off to his book tour on July 9, 2019. He is as fascinating in person as his characters are on the page. 

Best Audiobook

Imagine a mixture of a sex, drugs and rock and roll memoir and the musical Jersey Boys, minus the music, and you have this novel. I loved it, and I can't imagine reading it in any other way than as an audiobook. The entire cast was fantastic, and Julia Whelan, one of my favorite narrators, tied it all together. Highly recommended!

So, what have you been reading? Let me know in the comments.

Bookish (and More than One Photo of the Week)

This was going to be my photo of the week more than a week ago, and somehow it never got posted. That's Mr. D, in a wonderful used book store, Eclipse Books, in the Fairhaven neighborhood of Bellingham. And what were we doing there? I was an attendee at Booktopia Washington, and Mr. D was there to hike and hang out with me when I wasn't in Booktopia sessions.

Booktopia is the brainchild of the two hosts of the Books on the Nightstand podcast, Ann Kingman and Michael Kindness. They have been podcasting about books and the publishing industry since 2008, and in 2011 they scheduled their first retreat for authors and podcast listeners at the amazing Northshire Books in Manchester, Vermont. Last year, they changed the retreat name to Booktopia, and they added two more locations, one in the middle of the country, and one in the west. This year Village Books in Fairhaven was the West Coast venue, and I was lucky enough to get in.

Here is a photo of Michael and Ann, about the only one I got of the two of them together:

Village Books was a super place to hold an event like this! It is a wonderful book store, with a friendly and welcoming staff. They really care about their customers, including those from north of the border:

Here is Booktopia Central, Village Books:

Attending Booktopia were seven authors, who presented in individual sessions during the day on Saturday and at the book signing event on Saturday night. They were: Peter Clines, Jonathan Evison, Ru Freeman, Caroline Leavitt, Rhonda Riley, Jan-Phillipp Sendker and Maggie Shipstead. Prior to the event, I read Evison's, Leavitt's Sendker's and Shipstead's most recent books (and earlier books by both Evison and Leavitt) and I attended their author sessions. It was wonderful to hear them discuss their books and their writing process and to have an opportunity to ask questions. I also had an opportunity to get a photograph of Caroline Leavitt's very cool boots!

The Saturday evening session was also wonderful, and it gave all of the attendees a chance to hear the authors whose sessions we didn't attend. I found Rhonda Riley's talk about her book, The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope, so fascinating that I bought it and had her sign it. I'm reading it now; so intriguing! I brought home a few other books, too, as you can see:

To sum up, I had a fantastic time at my first Booktopia, and I'm hoping that there will be many more in my future.

Goals Versus Resolutions: Part Two

Well, you heard about my knitting goals for 2012, so you are probably wondering about my other goals for the year.  Here they are:

1. Read more books. 

Before I started knitting in 2008, reading was the main thing I did in my spare time. Since then, the number of books that I have read annually has dropped drastically. Listening to audiobooks has helped to increase my totals over the last few months, but I also want to read actual, physical books more than I have been.

I have come up with a modest goal for the total of books to read this year: 42. In 2011, I read 35 books, so this is not a huge increase, and should be do-able. Ideally, I'd like to average a book per week, but I'm going to work on getting to 42 first. As I work my way though a reading year, I'll try to keep you updated on my progress and maybe even give a short review from time to time.

In addition to reading more, I also want to read more of the books that I own. My dear friend, Bonnie, gives me a Minnesota-themed book every year for Christmas, and while I have read many of them, there are still a few books on my "Minnesota shelf" that I haven't gotten to yet. You can take a look below at what's on the shelf; you might see something that you'd like. (I especially recommend the two books by Kevin Kling.)

2. Do a long walk or hike 50 times in 2012, and take photographs during all of them.

How do you like the way I combined walking/hiking and photography? This goal will certainly provide lots of material for the blog! It will also help me to keep in shape and to get out and explore the beautiful area that I live in. I also will get to spend some quality time with Mr. D. (We almost always have great conversations on our walks and hikes.)

I've already started work on this goal—we have gone on an extended walk in each of the last two weeks. I'll be posting about the first one in the next few days, but in the meantime, below is an advance peek at one of the things we saw. You will have to read my next post to find out where we were.