While meaningful to me, I don’t know that my December readings would make sense to many people. In no particular order:
Adventures with a Texas Naturalist
Bedichek is one of Texas’ great persons of letters, in the style of Thoreau. I plan on reading his Karánkaway soon and am attempting to get an affordable copy of The Sense of Smell.
Themes I took away: pay attention to what’s around you and beware of unintended consequences.
Anne . . .
Montgomery’s Anne series is simply so uplifting that I thought I’d try to read them all (and I’m making good progress).
Themes I took away: resiliency and cheerful spirit.
Space station seventh grade
Spinelli is a Newbery winner, so when I found this in one of our neighborhood’s Little Libraries, I snagged it. It’s “ok”, but not as good as Maniac Magee.
Themes I took away: resiliency and accepting change.
Beowulf
Having grown up on my dad’s 1963 edition of Raffel’s Beowulf, I was initially skeptical of Heaney’s translation when I first saw it in 1999. Having purchased three copies since then, I am no longer loaning it out. Go buy your own (and if you have one of my copies, please give it back).
Themes I took away: duty and honor (and resiliency).
Cleveland Noir
I’ll read anything by Susan Petrone. You should, too.
On Trails
I’m a long-distance backpacker and this was recommended to me as something to think about. Paths, trails, things we follow, the tracks we make, the tracks we discover—not simply in the natural world but also in our cities and professions. Hmm.
Marshmallow Cafe
I still can’t make a marshmallow keep its shape using only marshmallow root powder, egg whites, heat and various sugars. This is the second time I’ve read this book. It’s a “feel-good” sort of book, but there are lessons of resiliency in it as well.
Books read in December:
Bedichek, R. (1947). Adventures with a Texas Naturalist. University of Texas Press.
Beowulf: A new version translation (S. Heaney, Trans.). (2000). Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Montgomery, L. M. (2014a). Anne of Avonlea. Tundra Books.
Montgomery, L. M. (2014b). Anne of the Island. Tundra Books.
Montgomery, L. M. (2014c). Anne’s House of Dreams. Tundra Books.
Moor, R. (2017). On trails: An exploration. Aurum Press.
Poe, E. A. (2016). The selected works of Edgar Allan Poe. HarperCollins.
Ruhlman, M., Headen, M. W., Habibion, S., McLain, P., Petrone, S., Grimm, M., McSwain, D., Vandiver, A. L., Conrad, S., Crook, A., Pulley, D. M., DiFrancesco, A., Belcher, J. D., Bialosky, J., Umrigar, T. N., & Stashower, D. (2023). Cleveland Noir. Akashic Books.
Spinelli, J. (2014). Space station seventh grade. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
Ward, C. (2020). Christmas at the Marshmallow Cafe (Ser. Delightful Christmas). AMMFA Publishing.
