Daybook

I'm (delightfully) in between writing projects, and I want to take advantage of this little bit of breathing space to work on some better writing habits. As in, writing more. Any more, really. I love writing, but I've come to the point where I nearly always find it torturous to fill word counts and meet deadlines. I feel like I need to rediscover joy in writing, and this is a good place to do it :)

reading
I've decided that 2017 is going to be the year that I actually put into practice something I've heard many times (and truly believe to be true): if I want to be a better writer, then I need to be intentional about reading good writing.

Duh.

So rather than spending all of my available reading time on the quick-fix entertainment of whatever fantasy and science fiction I can get my hands on, I want to read truly good writing. Fortunately for me there's a fair bit of fantasy and science fiction that is very well-written (you had better believe I'll be rereading the Lord of the Rings for--ahem--professional development this year). But I'm also expanding out of my comfort zone and trying to read a wider variety of genres.

I (finally) signed up on Goodreads to keep a record of what I've read and what I want to read. Come find me and be my friend and give me recommendations!

Here's what I've accomplished so far (full disclosure: several of these I started a long, long time ago and I was finally motivated to finish them so I could check them off a list. I love lists.):

The Blue Castle was amazing. I can't believe I've never read any L.M. Montgomery beyond the Anne books. I can't wait to read more of her novels now!

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was the January assignment for a book club I sorta/kinda joined (hey, yeah, I want to be in a book club! Wait, I'm busy... oh, was that tonight? Oops, was I supposed to read a specific book this month?). I had no expectations, but I wanted to be able to make the January meeting--and I really enjoyed it. Can't wait to discuss it with my book club ladies tomorrow night.

The Velvet Room was a recommendation from a friend with impeccable taste in books (thanks Megan!). I wish I would have found this book years ago--it would certainly have been a childhood favorite. Better late than never--it's on my long, long list for Colette some day.

I credit Not God's Type for inspiring me to want to work hard to become a better writer. Ordway's prose was elegant and lovely, and her story is simply amazing as well. 

And here's what I'm currently working on:

I'm reading The Green Ember to Michael for our school read-aloud, and we both love it. Unfortunately for me, he's often ready to be done after one chapter--and it takes all the self-control I can muster to not read ahead.

praying
For the intercession of Blessed Angela of Foligno, our family's patron saint for 2017. If you haven't already, check out Jen Fulwiler's patron saint generator--it's our favorite New Year's tradition.

listening

To Zoe Keating. I love cello as background music for reading or writing.

watching

Last Man Standing (on Netflix). Alex and thought the first season was hilarious, but so far we're not impressed with the second season.

family happenings

Alex and I celebrated our 7th anniversary. We had a delightful dinner & movie date. We're also trying to plan a weekend getaway up to Estes (where we honeymooned those many moons ago), but at this rate it's looking like it might be a 7 1/2 year anniversary present to ourselves this summer (all together now: better late than never!).

Colette is walking. She's not quite steady, but she's getting pretty good at it. She's 14 1/2 months now... the latest walker of the four of them, but the most adventurous. She also climbs everything. It's terrifying.

Michael turned 6 two weeks ago. I still can't believe it.

enjoying

Having a little space between writing projects. Long walks. Colette walking and starting to talk. Michael retelling Bible stories. Liam learning to read. John Paul sing songs. Reading as much as I can. Tea.

photo dump

merry Christmas from the Cranes!

cedar waxwing at my in-laws on Christmas day

danger girl

big boys (not pictured: Liam's helmet--but I promise he does have one!)

so big!

2015 Reading Accomplishments and Goals for 2016

Well, I didn't come any where close to completing my list from last January. I knew it was overly ambitious when I made it, but I didn't realize I would fall so spectacularly short. I read plenty of other books that weren't on the list to begin with, but mostly I slacked on all the nonfiction I had planned to read and (quite predictably) subbed in various kinds of fiction instead.

So here's what I read in 2015.

Nonfiction 
The Shadow of His Wings--Fr. Gereon Goldmann
This may win the award for best book I read all year. Talk about life not going according to your own plans. This is an incredible autobiographical account of a young German seminarian who was drafted into the SS at the beginning of WWII. I think I teared up at least once per chapter at the beautiful story of faith and sacrifice. Even beyond the amazing events of Fr. Goldmann’s experience in the war, it was fascinating to read about the war from the point of view of a German soldier who was utterly opposed to the Nazis. And then what he does with his life after the war left me even more amazed (but no spoilers…).  I cannot recommend this book highly enough!

Jesus, the Apostles and the Early Church--Benedict XVI
Compiled from homilies, so it is very accessible and short (for BXVI... put another way, it is only the second book of his I've ever actually finished, although I've started at least half a dozen).

Nurture Shock: New Thinking About Children--Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman
Great summaries of new/recent research in various areas including self-esteem, memory, sleep, etc. It wins so far for best child psychology/parenting self-help type book I've read.

Whole Body Barefoot--Katy Bowman
Humorous, accessible info about body mechanics and how to safely transition to minimal footwear. This book and all the amazing info on Katy's blog helped me through pregnancy with minimal back pain and fewer postpartum issues this time around than the last two!


Mysteries
(I accidentally went off on a serious British mystery kick last year... and it is most certainly continuing into 2016.)

Two For Sorrow--Nicola Upson
I was looking for Josephine Tey mysteries and found this. The ebook was available for checkout from our library so I read it while I was waiting for my hold on Daughter of Time to come up. It was an interesting mystery, but it seemed to be almost as much about same-sex relationships in London's 1920s/30s theatre scene as it was about a murder.

Daughter of Time--Josephine Tey
A unique take on a mystery novel--the detective is laid up in bed (broken leg? I don't remember) and passes his convalescence by attempting to investigate the alleged crimes of King Richard III. I found it very interesting and informative, but unfortunately I have forgotten all the history I gleaned from it.

Whose Body, Clouds of Witness, Gaudy Night--Dorothy Sayers
I read some of Sayers' essays in grad school, but I had no idea she wrote mysteries until Haley and Christy recommended Gaudy Night on the Fountains of Carrots podcast. I may have become slightly obsessed with reading every single Lord Peter Wimsey novel...

The Moonstone--Wilkie Collins
You know, just the usual book you decide you absolutely need to read because a character on one of your favorite TV shows mentioned in passing that one of your new favorite authors thought highly of it... or is that just me? Alex and I have been re-watching NCIS on Netflix, and in one episode McGee mentioned that Dorothy Sayers considered The Moonstone to be the finest detective story every written, and as I had recently fallen in love with her mysteries, well, obviously I had to read this one. It is conveniently old enough to be in the public domain, so thank you Project Gutenberg for providing instant gratification.


Fantasy
Lilith--George MacDonald
I thoroughly enjoyed Lilith. I'd never read anything from MacDonald before and definitely intend to read more. I'm not quite sure how to describe it... "Narnia for adults" certainly doesn't do it justice. If you want a book that tells you exactly what to think of it and explains everything as it goes along, stay away. I finished this one up late one night when I didn't particularly want to do any thinking for myself, and that was a mistake (I have since forgiven it).

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell--Susanna Clarke
I generally prefer my fantasy to take place somewhere else--but this book does a clever job of mixing fantasy and history; a “historical fantasy” rather than your usual historical fiction, if you will. Think Jane Austen meets Harry Potter… sort of. The story was a little slow to get moving, but it was so well-written and humorous that I didn’t mind. For the second half I could hardly put it down (much to my family’s dismay).  I thoroughly enjoyed it, and apparently there's a BBC miniseries in the works?

The Silmarillion--JRR Tolkien
It gets better every time--trust me!

The Elenium Trilogy--David Eddings
A favorite of my brother-in-law. I was excited for some new fantasy, but as I read I got this strange sense of deja vu. I finally realized I had read it before--probably five or six years ago--but it was almost as good as reading something for the first time because I didn't remember anything until it happened.

 Ascendance Trilogy--Jennifer A. Nielsen
Quick, easy, enjoyable.

Other Fiction

Little Women--Louisa May Alcott,  Caddie Woodlawn--Carol Ryrie Brink
We got these classics for our niece for her 9th birthday and that put me in the mood to reread them. I enjoyed both of them almost as much as I did in elementary school :)

The Rainmaker, The Client, The Broker, The Partner--John Grisham
I didn't read them all in a row. I enjoyed The Partner most and The Broker least.

What Alice Forgot--Liane Moriarty
I went into this one with zero expectations and I really, really liked it. I think I read this in fewer than 24 hours (and sacrificed half a night's worth of sleep in order to do so--I just had to know how it ended).

The Martian--Andy Weir
This barely beats out What Alice Forgot for my favorite fiction read of the year. Looking forward to seeing the movie... eventually...


And now that it's already February (how?!), here are my somewhat humbler reading goals for 2016. I'm taking the hint from 2015 and not trying to plan out my reading for the whole year--but these are the books I want to make sure I read. In no particular order:

Started in 2015 but not finished
Introduction to the Devout Life--St. Francis de Sales
Life of Christ--Fulton Sheen
Angels (and Demons)--Peter Kreeft

Fiction
More of Dorothy Sayers' mysteries
The Midwife's Revolt--Jody Daynard
Ready Player One--Earnest Cline
Father Elijah, Elijah in Jerusalem, and The Father's Tale--Michael O'Brien
The Divine Comedy--Dante

Non-Fiction
Diastasis Recti: The Whole Body Solution to Abdominal Weakness and Separation--Katy Bowman
The Temperament God Gave Your Kids--Art & Laraine Bennett
The Second Greatest Story Every Told--Fr. Michael Gaitley
Jesus and the Last Supper--Brant Pitre
Beyond the Birds and the Bees--Gregory Popcak
The Treasure of Homestake Gold--Mildred Fielder

Well... what else should I read? I'm ready and waiting for your recommendations to derail my goals for this year :)

2015 Reading List

Have I ever told you that I love to read? Like, panicky-stressed-out when I finish a book if I don't know what to read next? Never go anywhere without a book because what if I suddenly have 30 seconds of free time? Spent recess through most of elementary school reading on the playground and getting annoyed with classmates who came up and asked what I was reading because, hello, I'm busy?

True story.

So I love to read, but I'm kind of dysfunctional about it. When I start a book I tend to neglect little things like sleep, laundry, and dishes until I finish it. And that doesn't seem work so well with the whole parenting thing, unfortunately. I've taken to reading in spurts--I'll read a book or three, then I'll go for weeks without reading anything substantial. No bueno. I miss reading.

This year I was inspired seeing reading lists pop up on a bunch of the blogs I've been following. I've never made a reading list before, but I decided to give it a try. I'm so excited. Not only does this mean that when I steal away for a couple minutes to read I actually feel like I'm accomplishing something (don't you just love being able to check things off lists?), but this way I'll avoid that awful panic when I finish one book and I can't decide what to read next. 

This is only a partial list, because it is awfully light on the fiction, and I kind of thrive on my fiction. So any recommendations to slip in between some of that heavier reading in the second half of the list would be most welcome. It is probably overly ambitious even without adding any other books,.. I got somewhat carried away in my desire to take care of books I've been meaning to read for quite some time. Alex and I have this bad habit of buying books much faster than we can read them. And Alex is not helping matters by bringing home daily loads of books the school library is giving away. I think he has doubled the number of books in our house in the last few weeks. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, but if the library could give away a couple bookcases as well as all these books that would be fabulous.

So here is what I have so far:

Lilith -- George MacDonald (already finished it and thoroughly enjoyed it... may be adding more MacDonald when I need a break from the scholarly stuff)

Jesus, the Apostles and the Early Church-- Benedict XVI 

The Shadow of His Wings -- Fr. Gereon Goldmann

Angels (and Demons) -- Peter Kreeft

The Treasure of Homestake Gold -- Mildred Fielder 

Jesus the Bridegroom -- Brant Pitre

The Silmarillion -- Tolkien (a millionth-time reread, can you tell by the binding?)

Life of Christ -- Fulton Sheen

Ascendance Trilogy -- Jennifer Nielsen (read the first one last fall and thoroughly enjoyed it; our library finally made the other two available to checkout as ebooks)

Theology and Sanity-- Frank Sheed

A Pilgrim's Journey -- St. Ignatius of Loyola

A Theological Introduction to the Book of Psalms -- J. Clinton McCann

Kristin Lavransdatter -- Sigrid Undset (read it two years ago and may have liked it even better than Tolkien... maybe... possibly...)

Love and Responsibility -- JPII

Orthodoxy -- G.K. Chesterton

On the Reliability of the Old Testament -- K.A. Kitchen

no, Ignatius Press is not sponsoring my reading goals--but I wish they would!

Last year our family did a collective Big Year (it's a birding thing). We had so much fun with the friendly competition that this year we're doing a Big Year with books. Too bad I made this list before finding that out--I would have put much shorter books on my list! But I'm already loving reading with (a little) discipline, and looking forward to the accountability of having set actual goals (which now exist forever on the internet). I'm sure I'll be checking in to report on my progress. If not, you can just assume I got lost in Middle Earth and fell off the bandwagon.