A Year in Review

Hello, reader friends! 

I'm not sure about you, but I blinked and it went from Christmas to February. Can someone please help me find where January went? We had a whirlwind start to this new year {3 snowy weekends in a row!}, and lots of schedule changes in the Library, but I'm hopeful that February will be a calmer month. A new beginning to the new year, maybe? Now that we can catch our breath a little, it's time to get the blogging year started ...

Once upon a time, when I used to write a library column for the Archdale-Trinity News, the first piece of the year would always be a review of my previous year's reading. It seems fitting that the first blog post of 2022 should be a "year in review" of my 2021 reading ...

A few fun facts & figures:

• I read 88 books in 2021 - fewer than my official Goodreads goal of 100, but substantially more than I managed in 2020. A whopping 44% more, to be precise. I consider this a huge win.
• According to Goodreads, my average star rating was 4.0 stars - so I clearly read books I enjoyed, which is also a positive sign. 
• I did mark 2 books as DNF (or "Did Not Finish"), but sometimes bailing on a book is a victory of its own. Life is too short to keep plowing through books you don't like and/or are not what you need to read in that moment.
• One of the features I find interesting in the "Year in Books" that Goodreads compiled for me is the "most popular" and "least popular" book. Determined by the number of people who have shelved books on their own Goodreads accounts, my most popular read of 2021 was Lucy Foley's The Guest List (1,172,725 others also shelved it) while my least popular read was J.J. Dupois's Roanoke Ridge (only 394 others shelved it). 

Looking at my 2021 reading {especially compared to my 2020 reading}, I'm feeling good about my reading life and the books I pick up. Going into 2022, I've set my Goodreads goal at 100 again {it's such a nice round number}, and at the time of this writing, I've somehow managed to finish 9 books already! And enjoyed them all, so I have a good feeling about the rest of the year.

Stay tuned for updates on my reading journey - I can already tell there will be mini reviews and quite a few "Read Together" posts in the weeks to come!

How did your 2021 reading journey go? Are you making any changes going into 2022?

What's the best book you've read so far?

When a year ends ...

As the year draws to a close, it seems fitting to take a moment and ... think.

It's been another strange year, and even as we start to find new rhythms and schedules - start to feel something a little bit closer to "normal" - there are more uncertainties and hiccups that come our way. But we're making it, readers and friends, we're making it ... slowly and carefully and sometimes very tired, but we're making it. 

One day at a time. 

One book at a time.

We're not sure what the new year will hold for us here in the Library, but we do know there will be books. So many books. Methods of escape and a way to retreat from the current situation. Ways to learn about new things - or try to understand the world around us. Books that give us hope, make us smile (or cry, if you're in to that sort of thing). 

There will be posts and bookish challenges/games to play, and our furry friends will continue their antics and adventures. 

We will keep making it, one day at a time - one book at a time - together.

Holiday Hours

Our furry ambassadors are quite excited about the holiday season, and having a little too much fun playing with the Library's decorations:

They want to make sure everyone knows the Library's holiday hours too, so you can make sure you've got all the books and movies you may need! Here's our Christmas and New Year's closings: 

Friday Ramble

Not to scare anyone, but next Friday is Christmas Eve. Are you ready? I'm not 100% ready, but I think I'm getting there ... hopefully by this time next week, I'll have gotten all the loose ends tied up and can relax and enjoy the holiday.

Piano Covers of Disney Songs
Y'all. I stumbled across this on YouTube, and it's a game changer. As a lifelong fan of Disney anthems, and - in adulthood - a deep appreciation for the scores themselves, finding a collection of these performed in simple piano instrumentals? Yes please. So soothing, so relaxing. Perfect for listening to while working. (And there's a whole selection of videos with more songs!)

Treats & Eats (aka "Recipe Surfing")
Is anyone else deep down the rabbit hole of recipe hunting? I keep going back and forth between appetizer/finger foods and sweet treats ... This time of year always makes me want to get in the kitchen and start making delicious things - maybe it's the holidays and festiveness, or maybe it's the winter-time creeping in (hibernation season!). Here's a few that have caught my eye:

• Mini Macaroni and Cheese Bites
• Butterscotch Crunchies
• Cheesy Garlic Pull-Apart Bread
• Dark Chocolate Loaf Cake with Peppermint Cream Cheese Glaze

Winter Book Bingo
Did you notice? There's a new Book Bingo board up on our Instagram and it runs through the end of February. (You can also find all the details in this blog post). The prompts are fairly open-ended, giving you lots of freedom and flexibility in your picks. If you're stumped, stay tuned: there will be a post (or few) with ideas for specific prompts.

Winter Book Bingo!

The days are getting crispy (sometimes downright cold!), the nights are longer, and it's time for a reading diversion .... Book Bingo has returned!

This time, we're doing it a little bit differently ... The holiday season can be busy, occasionally stressful, and it's easy to forget to take time to breathe and savor the moments. Then, once those moments have all passed, the winter slump hits hard. So ... Winter Book Bingo to the rescue! 

The board will be "live" from now until the end of February, and there's a mix of prompts to choose from. You can read across a row for Bingo, or you can try to knock out the whole board. The hope is that joining in our bookish fun will help you take a moment to escape - to savor - to have some quiet "me time" while reading - and add a little something special to the holiday season and beyond.

The bingo board is posted below, but it will also be on our Instagram page!

If you join in, please tag us on Instagram @ArchdaleLibrary and use #ArchdaleReads so we can cheer each other on!

Read Together

There's something about finishing a book and knowing there's a list of other books that relate to what you've just read ... Especially when you read something that opens multiple avenues for further reading discoveries. Such was the case with one of my recent selections.

The Collector's Daughter (Gill Paul, 2021)

This is the story of Eve Herbert, daughter of the Earl of Carnarvon (you may know the family seat, Highclere Castle, aka Downton Abbey), and her role in the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb in the 1920s. The narrative takes place in multiple timelines, revealing what happened in the past as it impacts the events of the "present" (1970s, when Eve is the last remaining discoverer).
As someone who studied both Art History and History in college, I was mesmerized by the account of finding the tomb - and the later discussions about who and where the uncovered artifacts belong. 

Read Together:

A World Beneath the Sands: The Golden Age of Egyptology
(Toby Wilkinson, 2020)

The Visitors

(Sally Beauman, 2014)

Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle
(Fiona Carnarvon, 2011)

When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt
(Kara Cooney, 2018)

The Woman Who Would be King
(Kara Cooney, 2014)

Mirage: Napoleon's Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt
(Nina Burleigh, 2007)

Friday Ramble

Another Friday, another ramble ... Is anyone else confused by how fast time is flying this year? It seems like just yesterday it was mid-July, and now we're less than a week from Thanksgiving! It's a busy time for everyone, but here's a few rambling thoughts for you...

Festive Reading
Do you read Christmas/holiday books? If so, when do you normally start reading them? I try to wait until October 1st every year, but this year I actually started the last week of September - Susan Mallery has a new book, The Christmas Wedding Guest, and I managed to snag a copy on release day. 
Since then, I've read a few others, and have a nice sized stack waiting for me to get to ... There's something about holiday books - a special sparkle, a little extra magic (even when there's no "actual" magic involved). A friend recently asked me for a list of titles to help jumpstart her festive reading, so I'll share some here as well. [Note: some of these are newer releases and others are backlist; I tried to mix it up so not everything has a waitlist.]

• The Christmas Bookshop (Jenny Colgan)
• Christmas by the Book (Anne Marie Ryan)
• Twelve Dates of Christmas (Jenny Bayliss)
• Dashing Through the Snow (Debbie Macomber)
• Bonus: there's a Hallmark movie of this one!
• The Santa Suit (Mary Kay Andrews)
• In a Holidaze (Christina Lauren)
• The Mistletoe Promise (Richard Paul Evans)

The Olympics
It seems a little strange to be thinking about the Olympics already, since we just had the [delayed] Summer Games a few months ago, but ... I'm excited. The Winter Games are my favorite, and it's nice to have something exciting to look forward to in the wintry months post-holidays.

Book Bingo
Yes, Book Bingo is coming back! Our Winter board will go live after Thanksgiving and run through the end of February ... because adding a little spice to our reading makes hibernating more fun!

Personal Reading
I've read more so far this year than I did in all of 2020, and I am very pleased with that fact. I may be behind on my official Goodreads goal, but the most important thing is the reading mojo is returning, and I'm enjoying more books again ... Besides, there's still a month and a half left - who knows what I might manage to read in that time?