Top Ten Tuesday- Top Ten Books on my Summer TBR List

(Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly link-up from the blog The Broke and Bookish.)

This week, The Broke and Bookish is asking about the top ten books on your summer TBR (to be read) list.  I had a really hard time with this question, not because I don't have a huuuuge TBR list, but because I have so many to choose from!

1.  The Lost Art of Dress by Linda Przybyzewski- I already read this, but it was most definitely on my to-read list!

2.  The Mary Stewart books-I had a goal of reading all of them this summer, but now I'm second-guessing my abilities to read about 10 of her books along with everything else.

3. Gone With the Wind-After this was mentioned on the blog Girl With Her Head in a Book, I decided that I needed to get over my aversion to this book and read it this summer

4.  Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis-My dad read this recently and told me that it was fantastic, so I'm going to hunt this out and read it.

5. Evelina by France Burney-This was something that was on my Library Loot post about 4 weeks ago and I checked it out of the library, then forgot it, then considered checking it out again, and then forgot.

6. The Baker Street Letters- A book that the library annoyingly refused to put on hold because it was on the new book shelf.  I requested it again and I'm getting it soon

7. The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman-A book that, apparently, inspired some kind of controversy (must read up on it).  I saw the movie when it came out and really loved it, so of course, I must read the books.

And then I've discovered a new genre: memoirs that I actually like!  Remember how a couple of weeks ago I had about 3 memoirs on my Library Loot pile?  Well, one of them went missing on the hold shelf and the other just wasn't available, even though it was on the library website (grrr).

So, 8, 9, and 10 are all memoirs that I want to read.  I can't remember all of the titles.  The one I just got in the mail (you know that happy feeling you get when you see that brown, book-sized box?) is called Yes Sister, No Sister: My Life as a Trainee Nurse in 1950s Yorkshire.  It's a fabulous, pretty light book and I'm really excited to read it!

I have to mention as a side note, this is my 100th post!  Yippee!

Top Ten Tuesday-Top Ten Books Read So Far

Top Ten Tuesday (yes, I realize it's Wednesday, but I did most of the writing for this yesterday) is hosted by the blog Broke and Bookish.  I actually discovered this cool thing from two other bloggers, Girl with Her Head in a Book and The Emerald City Book Review.  So, the topic this week is Top 10 Favorite Books Read So Far This Year.  Here goes (I'm only going to mention books that I've reviewed since I've started blogging in March, because I have absolutely no memory of what I read in February and January).

1.  The Flavia de Luce Series by Alan Bradley- This wins, hands down.

2.  Unpunished by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

3. A Wilder Rose by Susan Wittig Albert

4.  Please Don't Eat the Daisies by Jean Kerr

5.  Brighten the Corner Where You Are by Fred Chappell

6.  A Room With a View by E.M. Forster

7.  The Egg and I by Betty McDonald

8.  Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

9.  The Emma Graham Series by Martha Grimes

10.  The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

I'm a fairly new blogger and reading through my old posts made me extremely satisfied.  I've read a lot of great books in just about 4 months!  I don't think that blogging changed how much I read, it's just that I have a record now.

Library Loot 6/5- Or, The Week of Memoirs

I'm here with this week's library loot.  For those of you who don't know, Library Loot is a blogger's collections of reads for the week that she/he has gotten from the library.  Library Loot is hosted by the wonderful blog, The Captive Reader.

Most of the books in my library loot pile are not yet in my library loot pile.  This appears to be the week of the memoirs.  I have a total of three!  As a rather memoir-averse person, this is strange.  But they all look so good.  Anyway, here are the books that are on my to-read-in-the-very-near-future list.  So, here goes:

1.  Her Royal Spyness- I just started this book and I'm really liking it!  It's the story of a young minor royal in the 30s who becomes a spy.  It's the first in a series.

2.  Yes, I Could Care Less: How to Be a Language Snob Without Being a Jerk- Looks funny.

3. A Girl Named Zippy- A memoir about a girl in Mooreland, Indiana

4.  A Nurse in Time- A memoir about a nurse in 1930s England.

5. Yes Sister, No Sister: My Life as a Trainee Nurse in 1950s Yorkshire- Yet another nursing memoir

So that's the rundown of what's on my library loot pile!  What are you reading?

Words I Love (And Wish Were Used More)

I was taking the laundry off the top of the line and over and over in my head I was happily repeating the word, "befuddle".  This might sound ridiculously strange, but sometimes I'll come across a word (doesn't have to be a new word) in a book and the word just strikes me.  I savor it as I go about my business and, usually, the word sticks with me for a long time.  Anyway, I thought I would share some of my favorite words.  Most of them aren't particularly extraordinary, they're just words that strike me as  fun to say (or think).

So here are my words that I think are really fun to say (and just fun words in general).  Thanks to Dictionary.com for the definitions.  The examples are my own.

1. Flack-  Eg. "He didn't get a lot of flack about his latest business decisions." It means "to publicize or promote something or somebody".  However, when I've heard it it always has negative connotations.

2. Defunct- Eg. "The computer that once worked quite well is now completely defunct."  It means, "no longer living; dead or extinct; no longer operative or valid".  I don't know why, but saying this word just amuses me.

3. Jabberwocky- Eg. "When Joe talks, it is merely jabberwocky." It means, "Invented or meaningless language; nonsense".  I have loved the Jabberwocky poem by Lewis Carroll for a long time, so this word is one of my favorites.

4. Mellifluous- Eg. "Everything she said was mellifluous in tone."  It means, "sweet or musical; pleasant to hear".  This word is just so fun to say!  I also love that it sounds like what it means.  It's not quite onomatopoeia, but it's awfully close.

5. Perspicacious- Eg. "Lucy is quite perspicacious when it comes to people's characters".  It means, "having a ready insight into and understanding of things."  I still remember the first time I ever heard this word in about 5th grade.  I was completely struck by how fascinating the word sounded and scurried off to ask somebody what it meant.

6. Tintinnabulation (yes, I spelled that without looking it up!)- Eg. "The tintinnabulation of bells filled the air."  It means, "a ringing or tinkling sound."  This word just sounds joyful, doesn't it?  I don't think I've ever used the word in sentence in real life, but it's a nice word to know.

7. Vicissitudes- Eg. "Ah, the vicissitudes of life."  It means, "a change of circumstance or fortune, typically one that is unwelcome of unpleasant."  It's just a handy word to have on hand when you're gripping and it's fun to say as an added bonus.

8. Avuncular-Eg. "Mr. Smith had an avuncular manner."  It means, "of or relating to an uncle."  Again, don't think I've ever actually used this.

9. Placebo- Eg. "Aunt Beatrice begged for her placebo pills every morning and night, little knowing that they did nothing".  It means, "a harmless pill, medicine, or procedure prescribed more for the psychological benefit to the patient than for any physiological effect."  Just a funny word.  I first read it in a science magazine in middle school.

10. Gormless- Eg. "Freddie is a gormless lackard."  It means, "lacking sense or initiative; foolish."  This word makes me grin every time I read it or say it (yes, I have used this word several times).  It's normally used with another archaic insult word because it's an adjective.  So you couldn't say, "Freddie is a gormless."  I think this might be my favorite word on the list.  It's quite handy as an insult when you're just enraged. I first heard this word in a children's book, The Penderwicks.  I am eternally grateful to Jane Penderwick for this great word.

Library Loot 5/26

Whew!  Well, I've finally got my Library Loot post together for the week.  I've got a good selection of books this week, mostly from the library.  The other new thing that I've got this week is several nonfiction things!  I just happened to find a bunch of great nonfiction books in the archives of this blog that I thought I must read.  So here goes:

1. What the World Eats by Faith D'Aluisio and Peter Menzel- This book came out quite awhile ago and I heard fantastic things about it, then promptly forgot it.  So now, I'm going to finally get around to reading this.

2. Unpunished- This dagblamed book is getting on my nerves.  It's been in my library loot pile for three weeks and I still can't get around to reading it.  This will be the week that I finally read it!

3. The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe by Theodore Gray- Recommended by the blog mentioned above.  I just thought this looked mildly interesting.  We'll see how it is.

4. Evelina by Fanny Burney- An interesting-looking book that I look forward to reading.  It's a funny 18th century novel.

5. Dear Enemy by Jean Webster- By the author who wrote the slightly more famous Daddy Long-Legs (which I need to read), this is the story of a woman who takes the role of superintendent of an orphanage.

6. The Baker Street Letters by Michael Robertson- I just recently finished the Sherlock TV show and loved it and then read the original Sherlock Holmes books.  I'm excited to see how this book turns out.

I feel like I got a good haul this week.  I'm excited to see how the books are!  And yet again, my interlibrary loan limit was exceeded.  Sigh.

Sunday Afternoon Thoughts and a Question

I'm sitting here planning my posts for the week.  I just wanted to drop in to let you all know that I'll be back tomorrow with my (more or less) weekly Library Loot post and then I've got a whole list of great books to review for you.  I've been enjoying spending a little of my Sunday afternoon lounging time planning for my weekly blogging.  I love blogging and for me, it is purely fun and relaxing.  However, it can get exhausting to have to think up what to write about, write it, then edit it, then add pictures/links/etc.  I've found that doing the rough draft on Sunday afternoon (including planning for pictures/links/etc.) makes my blogging during the week a lot less time consuming.  Then, I just have to edit and read through the post and add the pictures and I'm done.  However, if I change my mind about what I want to write about, then I've got this extra post that I've got to fit in somewhere.  But other than that small drawback, I really enjoy this writing method.

A kitty picture.  Just because.

So, for those of you who blog, how do you organize and make time for your writing?  Do you start each time you post with a fresh idea and do all your writing at once, or do you do something a little like I do?  And here's the other question:  Do you ever have the problem of forgetting about posts in drafts and then finding them weeks later?

For those of you who don't blog, how do you write other things?  Do you start something, then think about it for a while and finish it, or do you just write the whole thing start to finish in one blow?

I look forward to hearing from all of you!

A Wilder Rose

Last week, I was talking to my grandmother and she was enthusiastically telling me about this wonderful book about Rose Wilder Lane, the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I listened, exclaimed that it sounded wonderful, then promptly forgot about it.  However, she was persistent, and so now I've read the book, too.  And what a wonderful read it was!

A Wilder Rose is the fictionalized account of Rose Wilder's often-fraught relationship with her mother, particularly when helping her mother write the Little House books.  From unpublished diaries and letters, historians and writers are beginning to see that Rose Wilder pretty much wrote the Little House books herself.  Rose was a very skilled editor, journalist, and writer and had a lot of experience in the publishing world.  Laura, on the other hand, and pretty much no skill, but she had a lot of good stories. Laura and Rose's relationship when writing the Little House books is the basis of this book.  According to this book (and who knows how much of this is fictionalized and how much is really based on fact), Rose spent her whole life feeling like Laura didn't quite approve of her.  This feeling only intensified when, at the age of 3, Rose was left alone while Laura was sick.  Wanting desperately to help, Rose put too much wood on the fire and burned the Wilder's little house down.  Rose writes of still remembering that sickening realization of what she had done.  This was just the start of many years of severe poverty and hard living. Rose agreed to basically write these books for her mother with no credit because she always felt indebted to her parents because of all the loss they had suffered.

Rose Wilder Lane

Once Rose grew up, she was determined to make something of herself and so attended high school in Louisiana with one of Almanzo's (her father) sisters.  After that, she attended college and began a high-powered writing career.  She had a brief marriage which collapsed shortly after the death of her only son.  When the Depression came, Rose returned to the Ozarks to live with her parents.   That was when she had her mother began working on the Little House books.  The journey from a very unpolished memoir that Laura wrote to the polished stories that we know of today is a fascinating one.

The book is told by Rose to a young aspiring journalist who is living with her.  This made for some kind of confusing foreshadowing that I think the author could have worked a little harder to make clear.  However, that is my only complaint.  I was surprised at how different these well-known characters appeared to be.  Laura became a very different, but 3-dimensional, character.  This book portrays her as a very domineering, grasping, not-very-nice person.  But in spite of these less-than-perfect character traits, we come to identify with and pity both Laura and Rose through this story.

I recommend this book to anybody who has read the Little House books, which is a pretty large percentage of the population!  The story is well-told and gives the reader another perspective into these well-known stories.  I think that I am going to read a non-fiction book that has just come out about Laura and Rose's relationship.  I'll let you know what I think of it and how it compares to this book.

As usual, I have the amazon links for this book and the A Ghost in the Little House, the non-fiction book I'm going to read.


    

A Rainy Day

Today I'm enjoying the rain gently pattering on the roof as I work on inside projects.  I've spent every waking moment outside the last few days, so it's a nice break to be inside.  Here's what I'm doing/have done today (and a pretty picture I found for your perusal):

I love pictures of people reading.  This picture is by Deborah Bays.
It's called Summer Solitude.

• Listening to the Kingston Trio as I type this.
• This morning included a trip to a local store where I got pretty soap and earrings.
• Working in my cozy sewing room.  Sewing is the perfect pastime on a day like this.  I'm working on a flowery 60s wrap dress.
• Contemplating blog posts and what my writing goals are.
• Doings some furniture shifting
• Reading (of course).  I'm enjoying A People's History of the United States (the chapter about the beginnings of slavery) and Miss Bunting by Angela Thirkell

What do you like to do on rainy days?

Giveaway

Quick!  Quick!  The Midnight Garden, a blog that focuses mostly on young adult and middle grade fiction, is hosting a giveaway of L.M. Montgomery books published by Sourcebooks Fire.  As many of you know, I adore L.M. Montgomery, so you'd better bet that I went over there are entered at once.  If any of you are interested, head on over there.

Here's the link.  Enjoy!

There are two sets of books being given away: a set of the six Anne books and a set of six non-Anne books.  The books in the non-Anne set are Jane of Lantern Hill, A Tangled Web, The Blue Castle, Pat of Silver Bush, Mistress Pat, and Magic for Marigold.  Of these, I have only read The Blue Castle, so I'm pretty excited about this.

I'm blogging about this at the last moment, so you only have 15 more hours to enter this giveaway.  Good luck!

The Dead in their Vaulted Arches

You know those books where you finish them and have no desire to go back into regular life or read another book?  The book is still so present in your mind that all you want to do is sit and go over the book again and feel sorry that it wasn't longer.  Well, that was how the last Flavia de Luce book was for me.  I've read some great books recently, but none of them have stuck with me like this.  I read it in about two sittings in one day and it was wonderful.

I'd heard some bloggers mention that this book isn't like the earlier books and this made me a little worried that I wouldn't like it as well.  I definitely agree with them, this book is a little different from the earlier books.  The other books followed the pattern of a pretty classic mystery that Flavia solves by traveling around her little village finding clues and talking to people.  Along the way, of course, there is some family friction and little side adventures, but the point is solving the mystery.  Well, this final book doesn't follow this pattern at all.

As the story begins, the de Luce family is standing on the railway station waiting for their long-lost dead mother who wrecked in the alps (I think...but I can't absolutely remember where it was) when Flavia was a baby.  As they stand waiting, a tall man comes over to Flavia and murmurs, "You like pheasant sandwiches, too?"  Minutes later, somebody shoves him onto the railway and he is run over by the train.  As the family members begin to flock to Buckshaw, Flavia learns more and more about her mother and she begins to suspect that there is more to her mother's death than meets the eye.  Is it perhaps connected to the man who died on the railway tracks?

Alan Bradley wrote about Flavia's mother's death and the reactions of the family so beautifully; I found the funeral scene so heartbreaking that it gave me chills.  I tend not to like extremely emotional scenes in books, but this was so believable and understandable that I thought it was very appropriate. The ending surprised and pleased me and the loose ends were so nicely tied up that I was left feeling quite satisfied with Flavia's lot.

I don't just recommend this series.  You must read this series.  I'm even considering buying these and re-reading all of them, they were so good.  However, if you don't want to buy them, please, please, please check them all out of the library and read them.  I promise, you will be glad that you did.

And that's the end of the Flavia de Luce series.  I've heard murmurings about there being more books, but who knows.  On Good Reads, the seventh book is listed with a 2015 release date, so we'll see...
Oh, but please, Alan Bradley, I want more!

Here are the links to all the blog posts I wrote about Flavia de Luce:

http://bookandaquilt.blogspot.com/2014/03/flavia-de-luce.html

http://bookandaquilt.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-red-herring-without-mustard.html

http://bookandaquilt.blogspot.com/2014/04/i-am-half-sick-of-shadows.html

http://bookandaquilt.blogspot.com/2014/04/speaking-from-among-bones.html

And here's the handy-dandy amazon link, so you can order this straight away, if you so choose.

Growing Up Plain

This was one of those books that just kind of appeared in my house.  I have no idea what it's origins are, but it was a great book.  Growing Up Plain is the ramble-y reminiscences of a woman who grew up in a Conservative Mennonite (I was amazed that Wikipedia had a page on Conservative Mennonites! Dear Wikipedia, you know everything) home in the 50s.  Each chapter is just a string of stories, following Shirley Kurtz through her childhood all the way to college.  The book was really short-only about 75 pages- and I sped through it.

Now for my analysis of the book.  Kurtz is an extremely gifted writer.  She has a funny voice that comes through clearly in all of her books and the ability to make you understand a very niche viewpoint.  That said, the book was quite skimpy.  It felt almost like a book of memories that you would write down for your children to read and remember instead of a published book.  Kurtz occasionally went off on little tangents, analyzing a boy at school or the way the bishops behaved when she was a girl.  The wasn't necessary and I think that the book could have been made a little more concise if those parts had been left out.  I also think that this book would make a lot more sense if you at least have some understanding of Conservative Mennonite culture.  This is not a book for somebody who has never even heard of these people.  However, if you have read something before this or perhaps even know a Conservative Mennonite, this is going to be a very interesting and funny read.  Kurtz's stories are interesting and understandable to those who know about where she came from.

If you want to read this book (and I recommend that you do), but have no prior knowledge of Conservative Mennonites, start by reading An Introduction to Old Order and Conservative Mennonite Groups.  This will be good place to get started and then you'll really enjoy Growing Up Plain.
           

Ps.  I'm experimenting with using amazon affiliates program.  This means that if any of my readers follow this link and buy the product I linked to, I will get a small commission. I promise that all the opinions on this blog are still my own and amazon has not paid me anything to review a book one way or the other.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  I'll be more than happy to answer them.

Reading and Reading (Or Library Loot 5/13/14)

Today, I spent the majority of the morning sitting in a dental chair under general anesthetic.  This does not translate to wonderful writing of blog posts-just so you're warned in advance.  The surgery turned out great, but I still will be pretty much stuck on the couch or in the recliner for the next couple of days with ice packs on my face.  But do you know what that means?  It means I get a ton of free reading time!  No people interrupting me to explain something or go do something or ask me a question....just quiet reading and butterscotch custard.  Ah....

This blog post is going to be my (very late) Library Loot post, a weekly link-up from Captive Reader.
The books in this post aren't truly loot from the public library because, silly me, I didn't stock up on library books before my dental work.  However, I'm am lucky to have a large personal library and a few books left over from last week's haul, not to mention those Mary Stewart books I just ordered.  So here's my library loot for the week:

I think this should keep me engrossed for quite a while, although it might take me less time to finish these that I think.  Already, I've finished Growing Up Plain and Wildfire at Midnight.  There are going to be lots of book reviews on this blog very soon!

Card Game Bookmarks

A few days ago, I cleaned out our family's game chest.  Ahem.  That was quite the job, let me tell you.

The bottom of the chest, once all of the board games had been removed.

However, I got a sparkling clean, organized game chest out of it and something else...

I got bookmarks!  I am always on the lookout for pretty, interesting bookmarks.  Of course, scrap paper and business cards work fine, but it's always fun to have something a little nicer.  While cleaning out the game cupboard, I came across several sad cards.  They were from the vintage card game Authors.   (This game I linked to is identical to ours, except that ours never included anything so modern as a female author.  I mean, Lousia May Alcott?  Come, come!  She isn't great like old Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Robert Louis Stevenson, who, according to this game, looks like a drug addict.)  The cards were originally complete, but over the years, we've lost pieces and we almost never played the game, so I have relegated them to bookmarks.  I think it fitting that the authors cards are being used to mark books.  Even though the authors on the cards are ridiculously non-representative of all the authors out there, I am fond of the old dears and I'm glad they get a new job.

Anyway, I thought you might like to meet a few of the cards bookmarks.

I'm sorry it's so blurry.  The camera was being whiney.  But you get
the idea here.  This is R.L. Stevenson

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Washington Irving

Edgar Allan Poe...I can't decide whether he's looking grim
or just determined.

There are several others, but I didn't think you would want to see every single one of them.  I'm very curious as to when these were made.  Evidently a time where white male authors were THE author.  What do you think?  They make fantastic bookmarks!

Mary Stewart Series: Thornyhold

So do you remember this post where I wrote about those beautiful editions of the Mary Stewart books? Well I got a bunch of them!  I am so pleased and excited to have all this lovely reading material.  So unfortunately, my library books have be pushed most definitely to the back burner.  I started with Thornyhold because I remembered loving it.

It's one of Stewart's most fantasy-filled romance.  It is set in the 40s and is the story of young Gilly, who inherits an old house named Thornyhold from her cousin.  This cousin was labeled a witch by the surrounding village and Gilly is fast discovering that she may have some of the same talents.  She also has to deal with the jealous neighbor and her dimwitted son who are out to get her.  However, not everybody dislikes her.  She befriends a little boy who is amazed at her abilities to cure animals and falls in love with the boy's writer father.  Along with a very good plot, there are wonderful cozy descriptions of setting up housekeeping in a little country house.

I will probably not be reading many of my library books until I finish these Mary Stewart books, so this will be a blogging series.  I'd love to have any of you read these along with me!  And the pretty editions are by no means requisite.  Most libraries, I think, have a good selection of Mary Stewart's writing.  I highly recommend all of them.

A Letter to My Library

Dearest Library,

I really do adore you.  You are filled with fantastic, interesting books on pretty much any subject under the sun.  Many of those books are delightfully musty and smell of interesting places and times.  However, like most things, you have your faults.  I am writing to address the several small irksome things that bother readers everywhere.

A random lamb picture.  Meet Louisa May Alcott.

1.  Puhlease do not ever, under any circumstance, put the barcode right over the synopsis.  I'm not going to check out a book if I have no idea what it is about.  There have been many books that look very interesting, but are all covered up by stickers and barcodes, so that I can't see the cover and I can't see the plot and I can see about half of the author's name.

2.   I am begging you: don't get rid of the old, archaic books.  They are usually some of the most charming and interesting books.  I understand that they might not be as huge a crowd pleaser as vampire fiction.  However, the old dears have lived a long life and deserve a respectable old age on a nice library shelf, not pitched in the library sale bin.  If you keep them, I promise I will check them all out and read them cover to cover.

3.  Comfy armchairs- how would you feel about putting some really comfy armchairs in a cozy little corner?  I doubt that a squishy old armchair is any more expensive than the stiff chairs you have sitting rather awkwardly around.  That said, this is lower on the list than keeping the old books and the barcodes covering up important parts.  I understand that you have limited money, thanks to cuts in state funding, which is most definitely not your fault.

4.  I wish that I could have more book requests from inter-library loan.  Honestly, after 1/2 an hour with my book blogs, I have far more than 5 book requests.  I understand that if everybody got 100 requests, there would be no books left on the shelves.  But 10 requests?  Please?

And those, dear Library, are my simple requests.  However, I want you to know that if you don't fulfill my requests, I will still come faithfully every week.  I am so pleased with the great service that you do to my community.  One of the best services in the world is access to free books, wherever and whoever you are.

Your's Truly,
Clara

My First Poetry Reading Finished

The first book I turned to in my poetry reading month was a beautiful old book of poems by Longfellow.  I thoroughly enjoyed it, in large part because I am such a romantic and this poetry is nothing if not romantic.  Each morning, I sat down with a hot cup of something and read a few poems.  I was amazed how quickly I read through the book.

This isn't the edition I have, but it's all I could find.

I started with the first section, called Voices of the Night.  The poetry, mostly concerning nature, was so  pleasant to read.   The second section was my favorite.  It was poetry written by Longfellow when he was 19 and younger.  The poetry is so joyful and full of energy, and the tone is somewhat simpler than the first section, which was written when Longfellow was older.  It was interesting to see his writing progress.

As I read through this poetry book, I kept turning to the front, musing
about this picture of Longfellow's face.  Does he look
grandfatherly, or does he look stern and forbidding?  I can't decide.

I skipped over two ballads that Longfellow translated.  Next up was the Lord's Supper.  Since we are in Lent right now, it seemed especially fitting.  I might even pull it out again later on next week before Easter.  The other two pieces of poetry that I read were ballads.  The first, Evangeline.  I have a fondness for Evangeline because Anne of Green Gables makes reference to playing and reading Evangeline.  My last selection was The Song of Hiawatha.  I was amazed at how much I enjoyed it.  While I was reading it, I kept thinking, "This seems so familiar.  Why do I recognize this?"  Then I realized, I read this in 8th grade and remembered enjoying the tale put to poetry.  This morning I finished up by reading a few poems at the back of the book titled, "Miscellaneous".

Longfellow as a young man.

I'm starting a new book today, which seems fitting, as I'm starting a new year.  My birthday was yesterday.  I'd love to share pictures, but there are so many faces in them, that I think I shouldn't.  I will just say that it was a lovely birthday and, if I can find any food pictures, I'll post them.