Advent -- A Countdown to Christmas Tradition! 24 Days to Christmas

ADVENT: COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS

Since I started this blog back in 2008, I've counted down the days to Christmas with vintage holiday cards. It's now a tradition I look forward to and I hope you all enjoy it. I know this advent countdown has nothing to do with books, but most booklovers I know are like me and also love ephemera, like vintage cards. This is the 16th year I've posted an advent calendar here on Rose City Reader!

To see more vintage cards, click on the "Advent" or "vintage postcard" tags at the bottom of these posts (or bottom of the page) to find hundreds of images from past years. You will find Santas, Christmas trees, nativity scenes, elves, cats, birds, dogs, deer, ornaments, gifts, candles, bells, and lots more!

THIS YEAR'S THEME

Some years I have a theme, some years it's catch as catch can. This year I'm going for a wreath theme. I've never done wreaths before and I'm really into wreaths at my house right now.

Next task will be to tackle my real Christmas cards. Do you send them? I enjoy seeing all the new-fashioned cards with pictures, so I can see my friends and family. But I always end up sending a traditional boxed card, usually with a snapshot or sticker picture of me and my husband.

DECEMBER BLOGGING

I always plan to do holiday-themed blog posts every year, but never seem to get around to it. There's a lot going on in December! But I hope to do a little something more thematic this yea. I read Nigel Slater's The Christmas Chronicles in November to get me in the mood. Expect a review this month. 

Also, I have a stack of Christmas-themed books on my nightstand and Christmas audiobooks downloaded from the library. Every year I say I am going to read only seasonal books in December, but every year I get distracted by other books. This is my year! I have everything from holiday cookbooks to winter mysteries. I'm excited!

It is also the time of year to plan next year's reading challenges. I am hosting the European Reading Challenge again in 2025 and a TBR 25 in '25 challenge. I will get those posts before the end of the year, I promise!

What are your blogging plans for December? Do they include planning or posting any 2025 reading challenges?

Please join me tomorrow when the Rose City Reader advent calendar continues!

Home Library -- BOOK THOUGHTS

 

BOOK THOUGHTS

Home Library

The story of a library . . .

Back in 2009 when my husband and I bought a then almost-100-year-old house, I really wanted a home library. We could live with a dark, rabbit warren of a kitchen and a couple of outdated bathrooms, even with Burnt Sienna tile counters. Converting a bedroom into a home library was my priority. Well, along with getting rid of the asbestos pipe insulation in the basement. Before we moved in, we spent eight months on crucial renovations. And yes, the library was one of them.

We converted one of the bedrooms on the second floor by removing a closet and installing built-in book shelves on three walls. The fourth wall had an existing bay window that definitely had to stay. It was quite a project, made more difficult (no doubt) by my insistence on fixed shelving. Fortunately, we had an incredible architect/builder who designed the library and had a finish carpenter build the shelves. Each section of the shelves was built off site, installed as a piece, and then trimmed out with crown moulding, etc., when they were built into the walls. 

The big problem was that the section pieces wouldn’t fit up the staircase. All ten of them had to be hauled up through the window on a complicated, counter-balanced, sled-like contraption built for the purpose. It was quite a project.

After all that effort, we hit an impasse. I really wanted to hang art from the shelves, in front of the books. I love that look. My husband was adamant that I should never hammer any nails into the shelves. That made sense, given what it took to get the shelves in there. 

But since then, I’ve always had in the back of my mind the idea of hanging a picture or two on those shelves. The other day, I found a framed picture at one of my haunts. It was pretty, went with the room, and was lightweight enough for what I had in mind. Yes! It worked! I hung the picture from the wire on its back over a very heavy, well-balanced, bronze knickknack sturdy enough to hold the picture. No nails! And I can move it easily when I need to reach the books.

I have loved and used the library for 15 years. It is my favorite room in the house. Now I finally finished decorating the shelves the way I envisioned so long ago. The new picture is the cherry on top. It might seem like nothing to you or anyone else who sees it, but it makes me happy every time I go in there.

Rut or Routine? -- BOOK THOUGHTS

 

BOOK THOUGHTS

Rut or Routine?

I’m a creature of habit, for sure. There are some things I like to do over and over, the same way, for years. For example, I’m on a board that meets four times a year at an office in the suburbs. I may pass that building 12 or 15 times a year, but only after the quarterly board meeting do I regularly do three nearby things: (1) stop at the Cat Fanciers’ Thrift Shop, (2) pick up yummy things to eat at the Ukrainian grocery store, and (3) fill up with slightly less expensive suburban gas. I’ve been on this board for over ten years and have done those same things after every meeting.

So, should I branch out? Explore other things to do out that way? Break it up and run those errands on a non-board meeting day? Or should I stick with what I know makes me happy? I read an article once that stuck with me. It described some real study that looked to determine whether people were happier when, on repeated visits to the same restaurant, they ordered the same, favorite thing or they tried new things each time. The conclusion was that most people were happier ordering the same favorite and not exploring the menu.

That’s me to a T! I’m often up for some exploring and even a little adventure, but I love my routines. I’ll banish the idea of calling them ruts. Maybe I should call them traditions, not routines, because that has a nobler ring to it. What about you? Do you prefer a familiar routine or are you always finding and trying new things?

Why do I bring this up? Well, because on my post-board meeting rounds last Friday, I found this book at the Cat Fanciers’ shop. (I also found a beautiful pink and green porcelain tea cup and saucer, but my tableware obsession is a different topic!) The book, The Royal Secret by Lucinda Riley (called The Love Letter in the UK), looks terrific. It’s a mystery with a lot of suspense and some romance about “an ambitious young journalist [who] unravels a dangerous mystery that threatens to devastate the British monarchy.” Sounds like quite a yarn!

Book and Birthdays -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

Books and Birthdays

Today is my husband’s birthday so I baked his favorite German chocolate cake! 

I have other birthday plans in the works, but I'm going to take a book break first. I plan to put my feet up for a few minutes with this terrific book, Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by husband and wife writing team Laney Salisbury and Aly Sugo. I've only just started it and am completely sucked in. It’s mesmerizing.

Here’s a bit of baking trivia for you. Every time I make this cake for my husband, I am reminded that “German chocolate cake” has nothing to do with Germany. “German’s Sweet Chocolate” is a type of baking chocolate developed in the US by Samuel German in 1852 for his employer, Baker’s Chocolate.

A newspaper invented the recipe for German chocolate cake in the 1950s. It is a popular cake, mostly because of the coconut pecan frosting. But don’t try to order it in Germany! They don’t know what you are talking about.

I don’t know if German chocolate cake is even a thing outside the US. Is it?

To be honest, this is a "Perfect All American Chocolate Butter Cake" from The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. Hubby likes any chocolate cake with this frosting (which I make with toasted, unsweetened coconut and toasted walnuts instead of pecans). I find a real German chocolate cake to be a little pale and sweet. I picked this recipe because it isn't difficult and doesn't require the eggs to be separated. I am always put off by having to whip and fold in the egg whites separately.  

And to be even more completely honest, I messed it up. Despite baking chocolate cake for my husband at least a dozen times, not to mention baking in general for about 55 years, I had some kind of brain blip yesterday and put in half the butter! That’s why the layers are so thin. I was ready to start over and make another cake, but Hubby saved me from myself. He said he would like it no matter what, even if it was more like a giant cookie. Fortunately, we tried it this morning and it is good. A little dry, yes, but not bad. The frosting is delicious and saves the cake.

On Commingling -- BOOK THOUGHTS

BOOK THOUGHTS

On Commingling

Do you commingle your books?

 
My husband and I commingle our finances, and even our music CDs. But we would no sooner commingle our books as we would our socks!

The picture above is a snapshot of my husband's shelves in our home library. We may keep our books separate, but I get the lion’s share of shelf space. He gets this wall. I, on the other hand, get two walls in this room, another wall in a den downstairs, two built in bookcases in the living room plus a freestanding bookcase, a bedroom bookcase, shelves in my home office, and built in shelves in the kitchen for my cookbooks. 

The inequity in distributed shelf space is perfectly justifiable, even reasonable. I simply own and read more books than he does. He mostly reads history books, which are on these shelves. They are dense and big and take a long time to get through. He just finished a biography of Oliver Cromwell that, I swear, weighed four pounds. When he wants a “light” read, he turns to general nonfiction or adventure nonfiction. He loves a good shipwreck or mountain adventure. There is nothing he likes better than getting to the part of an adventure book where the explorer's journal notes, "And then we had to eat the sled dogs." 

When he does read fiction, which is rarely, he visits my shelves. I did get him to start reading Slow Horses right now, before we watch the show. However, he's already creased the spine, which makes me shudder every time I see it. I think I prefer it when he doesn't read my books, even if it means we can never share the experience of reading the same book. Unless I want to read about ship wreaks and sled dogs. 

There's another reason Hubby can't complain about me hoggin the bookshelf space. He has a vinyl LP collection (jazz mostly) that takes up almost as much room as my books. 

So, do you share shelf space with your family or do you all stake out your own territory? Or, as Anne Fadiman describes it, are you a lumper or a splitter?

It's My Blogiversary! 16 years of Rose City Reader

IT'S MY BLOGIVERSARY!

Rose City Reader turns sweet 16 today. I started this blog 16 years ago and it is hard for me to think it has been around for so long. I celebrated my blogiversary by taping an episode of the Rare Book Cafe, a book vlog you can find on Facebook here or Instagram here. Give them a follow!

I started Rose City Reader to keep track of all the book lists I was working on. I had finished the Modern Library's list of Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century. While working on that project, I found that there were many other book lists that appealed to me and I started to gather them up. Some were admitted knock offs of the Modern Library list, like the Radcliffe list. Some were prize winners, like the Pulitzer and Booker Prizes. Some were "must read" lists, like those compiled by Erica Jong or Anthony Burgess. I needed a place to keep the lists and track my progress in reading the books. 

As I went along, I added some lists of my own, like bibliographies of favorite authors and theme lists. I now have my own lists of Campus Novels, books with a French twist, books set in Venice, and others. You can find a list of all the lists I'm working on at the tab at the top of the page or here. I also started reviewing books in addition to listing them; participating in annual reading challenges; and playing along with a few weekly events, like Book Beginnings on Fridays, hosted by me here on Rose City Reader. 

Over these past 16 years, book blogging seems to have waxed and waned in popularity. Other social media platforms have lured away bloggers and potential bloggers with shiny new options, some which faded away themselves and some which are going strong like Instagram. I like both "bookstagramming" on Instagram and traditional blogging. Instagram is fast and short, but with pretty pictures. Blogging is less visual, but offers the opportunity for longer, hopefully more thoughtful, posts.  

My own blogging activity changes over time, depending on what else is going on in my life. Since I started my own law firm, I have had less time to blog. No kidding! But I plug along with Rose City Reader because I love it. As I spend less time in the office and my law partner takes on more responsibility, I look forward to spending more time reading and blogging.

2023 Reading Recap

2023 READING RECAP

Before 2024 is too far along, I wanted to do a little recap of my 2023 reading. I read 139 books in 2023, about 30 more than usual. You can find the list of all the books I read last year here. Below are some thoughts on my year of reading. 

FAVORITES

Picking favorite books is like being asked to pick a favorite grandchild! With that in mind, I have five grandkids, so here are five favorites from last year:

• Decline & Fall by Evelyn Waugh
• Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
• Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson
• The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury
• Mating by Norman Rush

OVERVIEW 

I mostly read fiction, but I thought I read more nonfiction in 2023 than I actually did. I have nonfiction books stacked on my floor because I have no room for them on my shelves. So I better make an effort to read more of them!

• 113 fiction
• 24 nonfiction
• two poetry
• 74 audiobooks
• 65 book books

GENRES

There's crossover here:

• 68 literary fiction 
• 47 classics
• 46 mysteries
• 22 historical fiction
• seven food books
• seven memoir
• three campus novels

MORE DETAILS

• 15 (major) prize winners
• nine rereads
• five translations
• 73 by men
• 68 by women

PUBLICATION DATES

• one from pre-1800s
• nine from the 1800s
• 26 from 1900-1950
• 33 from 1950-2000
• 64 since 2000 (before 2023)
• six new in 2023

CHALLENGES

I love reading challenges but only did three last year. 

• TBR 23 in '23: I finished the 23 books on my list. 
• European Reading Challenge. I read books from 12 different European countries.
• Mt. TBR: I read 63 books off my TBR shelves, in addition to my TBR 23 in '23 books, for a total of 86 books off my TBR shelves -- my best year ever! The main reason is that I concentrated on audiobooks that were already on my shelves as paper books so I could clear some space.

BUDDY READS

I really got into buddy reads on bookstagram for the first time. 

• eight Daphne du Maurier books with a Du Maurier Deep Dive group
• four Evelyn Waugh novels in a Waugh Together Now group
• four Somerset Maugham novels
• Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne as a Classic Buddy Read
• The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte for Victober
• War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy as a yearlong readalong with the Whisky & Perseverance group

BIGGEST SURPRISE

The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff. I highly disliked Fates and Furies so almost skipped, especially when I saw a sea monster. Glad I didn’t!

FAVORITE NEW-TO-ME-AUTHOR

Laurie Colwin. I loved Home Cooking and More Home Cooking and now want to read her fiction.

FAVORITE BY A FAVORITE

Ms. Demeanor by Elinor Lipman. This was a delightful rom com with a lawyer theme.

SERIES FINISHED

I have dozens of mystery series I want to read so made an effort in 2023 to finish series I've already started. I need to make room in my brain before I start any others. 

• John Banville/Benjamin Black’s Quirke: I read the last two.
• Colin Bateman’s Mystery Man: I finished the last one.
• E.F. Benson’s Mapp & Lucia: Not a mystery series. I read the final three.
• Anthony Horowitz's Hawthorne: I read the fourth one and am caught up until/unless he writes another.
• Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole: I didn't finish reading all of them, but they got increasingly more gruesome and scary. I read The Snowman last year and it was past the scary limit for me, so I am done with this series.
• Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club: I read all four.
• Louise Penny’s Three Pines: I read eight and caught up until she writes a new one.
• Dorothy L. Sayers’s Lord Peter Wimsey: I finished the novels a couple of years back and finally read all the short stories.

SERIES CONTINUED

• Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlow: I read The Long Good-Bye last year and have read several others. I love them but want to wrap up the series.
• Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot: I only read one last year, The Big Four, and have a long way to go. 
• Elizabeth George's Lynley/Havers: These are chunksters! I read six in 2023 and have nine to go before I'm caught up. 
• Susan Howatch's Starbridge: A series about the Church of England in the first half (or so) of the 20th Century. I read the fifth of six, Mystical Paths.
• Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther: Even though I don't read many WWII stories, I read the third one and plan to continue now that the stories are past the war and into the Cold War.
• Donna Leon's Guido Brunetti: I am not reading these in order, which is highly unusual for me. I read Aqua Alta last year, my ninth, and there are 23 others in the series so I don't plan to read them all. 
• Ian Rankin's John Rebus: This is a favorite, but I am ready to move on. I read seven last year and have three to go. 

SERIES BEGUN

• Anthony Horowitz's Magpie Murders: I will definitely read the second one, Moonflower Murders, this year and hope he writes more. 
• Blythe Baker's 1940s Cotswolds: I read the first, A Simple Country Murder, and liked it but have no plans to read more unless I find the next one in the wild. 
• Benjamin Black's Detective Inspector Strafford: I read Snow, a spin off of his Quirke series, and will continue if there are more books. 
• Alexander Campion's Capucine Culinary Mysteries: Despite the appealing premise, I didn't care for the first one, The Grave Gourmet, and won't continue.
• Nita Prose's Molly the Maid: I read The Maid for book club and plan to read the second one soon. 

That's a wrap! On to 2024! 

What bookish thing are you most looking forward to?

Christmas Books

CHRISTMAS BOOKS

One Christmas tradition I have — and I don’t think I’m alone in this — is to plan at least 100 Christmassy things I want to do in December and then abandon at least 80 of them when reality sets in. Prewrap the gifts with gorgeous ribbons and coordinating gift tags becomes shove everything into gift bags and write the name on the bottom with a sharpie. Bake all my own cookies and pies becomes buying shortbread and an almond ring from my favorite bakery and begging Hubby to make a gingerbread cake.

You get the idea!

One of my dream plans every year is to spend December in a cleaned and decorated house, in front of a fully decorated tree, a fire going in the fireplace, a warm adult beverage to hand, reading nothing but Christmas books. And then November fades away and I still have a dozen or so books I planned to read this year demanding attention. My list of Christmas books get set aside to “next year” like always.

I’m sticking with this tradition for Christmas 2024! 

This month, I seem to be reading a lot of mysteries. I am also finishing my last three book for the TBR 23 in '23 Challenge. By happenstance, the one I am reading now, Lord Peter: The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, has two stories in it set at Christmas. So I managed to get in at least a little holiday-themed reading. 

Also, this year I gathered the Christmas books I could find around the house into a stack for inspiration. I’m going to keep this stack on my bedroom table where I keep books I plan to read, like my TBR 24 in '24 books. That will remind me to get the others finished by the end of November so I can indulge my fantasy of reading these in December. I am particularly looking forward to that Nigel Slater Christmas book. I really love food books with a Christmas theme. 

See any here you’ve read or want to? Do you have any favorite Christmassy books? I'd like to get more books or at least make a list of possibilities here on the blog.

Favorite Genres -- BOOK THOUGHTS

 

BOOK THOUGHTS

Here's a question for you: What are your favorite literary genres?

I will read most genres (except horror and erotica), but I mostly read literary fiction and mysteries. Within those broad categories, here are my favorite sub-genres.

CAMPUS NOVELS: My favorite type of novel! I keep a list of Campus Novels here on Rose City Reader. I like them snarky and glib. My favorites are the three originals – The Groves of Academe by Mary McCarthy, Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, and Eating People is Wrong by Malcolm Bradbury. I also love David Lodge, Julie Schumacher, and Robertson Davies. My unpopular take? I didn’t care for Stoner by John Williams, although recently reprinted and quite popular. Too much of a downer for me.

CLOSED ROOM MYSTERIES: Country house weekends, creepy institutions, ships, remote locations, whatever. I love a mystery with a confined location and limited set of characters. Some of my favorite authors are Agatha Christie, P.D. James, Ruth Ware, and Lucy Foley.

AGA SAGAS: Nothing appeals to me more than a story about messy village life getting sorted by a friendly and competent, usually female, protagonist. Maeve Binchy was the queen of these books. I also enjoy Joanna Trollope, Rosamunde Pilcher, and Anne Tyler.

ADVENTURES OF WOMEN OF A CERTAIN AGE: I love stories about women about my age coming into their own. As with my campus fiction, I prefer funny over maudlin. Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan is a perfect example. I also like books by Erica Jong, Penelope Lively, Barbara Pym, Faye Weldon (when she isn’t too mean), and even nonfiction like Frances Mayes and anything by or about Julia Child.

MIDDLE-AGED MEN BEHAVING BADLY: I made this oe up, just like Adventures of Women of a Certain Age. But I enjoy this kind of book as much as campus novels. There’s often overlap between the two. So many of my favorite authors write these stories. Jim Harrison, Philip Roth, Kinsgley Amis, John Updike, Malcolm Bradbury, Howard Jacobson, Richard Ford, David Lodge, and Michael Frayn are all high on my list.

How about you? What are your favorite literary genres?

It's My Blogiversary! 14 years of Rose City Reader

IT'S MY BLOGIVERSARY!

Rose City Reader has been around for 14 years now, since 2008. The popularity of book blogging seems to have waxed and waned over those years. Other social media platforms have lured away bloggers and potential bloggers with shiny new options, some which faded away themselves and some which are going strong like Instagram. 

My own blogging activity changes over time, depending on what else is going on in my life. Usually it is my work that takes me away. Don't you hate it when your job interferes with your hobbies? But I persevere with Rose City Reader because I love it and look forward to "someday" when I can spend less time in the office and more time reading and blogging. 

24 Days to Christmas! An Advent Calendar Tradition

ADVENT: COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS

Today is December 1, which means it's time to post an advent calendar of vintage Christmas cards here on Rose City Reader! This countdown to Christmas with vintage holiday cards is a holiday tradition I've kept up since I started this blog in 2008.

I love holiday traditions and vintage ephemera. If you also like vintage cards and want to see more, click on the "Advent" or "vintage postcard" tags at the bottom of these posts (or bottom of the page) and scroll through hundreds of images from past years. You will find Santas, elves, trees, ornaments, birds, cats, dogs, squirrels, gifts, candles, bells, and lots more!

THIS YEAR'S THEME - OR NOT?

Most years I have a hodgepodge of images. Some years I have a theme. Last year I followed a theme of cards with houses on them, since it was 2020 and most of us spent most of the holiday season at home! This year I'm back to a mixed bag, since it looks like that is what the holidays may have in store for us this year! 

When it comes to real time Christmas cards, do you send them? I do! I still send old-fashioned cards out of a box, usually with a picture of me and Hubby stuck inside. Yes, I hear the voice of Christmas Past calling! I like all the design-your-own cards because I like seeing the pictures of my friends and their families, but I still love a traditional card with a festive picture on the front and, if lucky, a handwritten note inside. 

I did order printed cards from Zazzle for my law firm. My law partner and I wanted to send a card that didn't look too "corporate" and, since we both have cocktails in hand, I think we succeeded! (We were celebrating the successful resolution of one of our cases.)

DECEMBER BLOGGING

Besides this advent countdown, I don't do much Christmas-themed blogging. Do you? I don't really do Christmas-themed reading that lends itself to Christmas-themed blogging. Although I like the idea of reading Dickens in December so I'm rereading A Tale of Two Cities. 

December is also the time to plan ahead for 2020 reading challenges. I get excited about them this time of year, although with so much else going on, it is hard to get all the posts up before the end of the year. I really prefer planning in December and posting in January. 

I am hosting the European Reading Challenge again in 2022 and will get that post up ASAP, I promise! 

What are your blogging plans for December? Do they include planning or posting any 2022 reading challenges?

See you tomorrow when the advent calendar continues!

 

Rare Book Cafe - Guest Appearance

RARE BOOK CAFE - PODCAST APPEARANCE

I was a guest this morning on the Rare Book Cafe, a video podcast hosted by Portland rare books dealer Ed Markiewicz. I met Ed through Instagram because we are both here in Portland and both love books. I'm not a rare book collector, by any means, but I've bought some collectable editions from Ed's Montgomery Rare Books, and think he's a delightful guy.

I had a terrific time chitchatting with Ed and artist Mary Kay Watson about books, favorite authors, book blogging, and bookstagramming. We had a lively discussion! We dug down a bit into how traditional blogging differs from bookstagramming and the visual focus of Instagram. 

We also mused about whether bookstagram makes people more creative and if, as a digital platform, it is contributing to the death of the paper book. What do you think?

Click to watch the video. Follow the Rare Book Cafe on Facebook for more bookish conversations.

Mary Kay went on to discuss James Audubon and his bird paintings. That may seem like a 180-degree switch! But Audubon's bird paintings were originally made to order and delivered to subscribers who came to love his beautiful and informative pictures of birds. He went on to inspire Audubon Societies for the preservation of birds and their habitats. That is not unlike bookstagrammers who inspire their followers with beautiful pictures of books!

Mary Kay is the creator of the Tangled Shakespeare series, a retelling of Shakespeare plays in gorgeous illustrations. Check out her work!

THE RARE BOOK CAFE

Rare Book Cafe a weekly live-streamed program about antiquarian books, ephemera, and related materials, and the people to collect, curate, and sell them. The producers describe it as "the book lovers' rendezvous."

Usual topics include antiquarian books, rare books, collectible books, unusual books, vintage photographs, antique maps, rare prints, and ephemera. Guests typically include antiquarian booksellers, authors, collectors, and anyone else with an interest in these topics. 

Rare Book Cafe is live streamed every Saturday at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Facebook. You can find replays on YouTube and on the Rare Book Cafe page on Facebook.

It's My 13th Blogiversary!

 

Wow! It's my 13th Blogiversary! Rose City Reader started on this day in 2008, 13 years ago. That makes this blog officially a teen ager, although it feels more like a grandma in blog years. 

I've met a lot of friends through Rose City Reader over these years, but I've never done a Meet the Blogger post. Now that the blog is entering it's teen years, it's time for one!

13 THINGS ABOUT ME AND MY BLOG

• My name is Gilion with a hard G, like girl, Dumas, like The Three Musketeers.

• I live in Portland, Oregon because I love rainy days.

• I live in a 110-year-old house because I am a homebody and like puttering around.

• Hop on Pop was the first book I read by myself, when I was three, and I’ve had my nose in a book ever since.

• My parents encouraged me to read by paying me a dime for every book I finished and a quarter for every “classic” and the habit stuck!

• I'm more verbal than visual, so I was slow to join Instagram, but I finally did in 2017 as @GilionDumas (easy) and post mostly pictures of books, some of tabby cats, cocktails, and miscellany. 

• I started Rose City Reader when I finished reading the 121 books on the Modern Library's list of Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century and had turned my attention to other "Must Read" lists. I wanted a place to keep track of my lists. Soon I added Prize Winners and Favorite Authors. I can't resist a list! All the lists are in the right side column and the links at the top.

• My favorite books are literary fiction, classics, vintage mysteries, coffee table books about home decorating, food writing, books about books, many memoirs, some general nonfiction, and occasionally history. 

• I have too many favorite authors to list! You can find many of them in the lists in the right column or the tabs at the top. I'm working on adding more.

• According to LibraryThing, there are over 1,700 physical books on my TBR shelves. 😳 I get through 100+ each year, but that will still take me until I’m over 70, without buying another book, and we know that won’t happen!

• Like many English majors, I went to law school and have been a lawyer since 1992. My law partner and I represent victims of childhood sexual abuse, mostly adults now, in cases against schools, churches, and other organizations that allowed the abuse to happen. My husband is also a lawyer so we get along great!

• I host two challenges and one weekly event here on Rose City Reader. 2021 is the 10th anniversary of European Reading Challenge, which has been one of my favorite thing about this blog. I've met so many wonderful fellow bloggers though the ERC! The TBR 21 in '21 Challenge (or any version of reading a number of TBR books corresponding to the year) is new in 2021. There's still time to join both! I love the weekly event, Book Beginnings on Fridays, which has been going on a long time!

• Aside from actually reading books, blogging about books here on Rose City Reader has been my main hobby for 13 years. Blogging has brought me a lot of joy. I look forward to many more years here at RCR. 

PLEASE JOIN ME!

Mailbox Monday: The Nest and a Virtual Shopping Trip to the Arrangement, a Favorite Local Shop

Book shopping has been my retail therapy during corona time. I got one new book last week, along with some other cozy treats. Did you get any new books last week?



THE BOOK

The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney. The Nest was an impulse purchase for me, mostly based on the beautiful cover. It is a family story about a drunk driving accident that jeopardizes the anticipated inheritance of four adult children. The book is being adapted for a movie.

The Nest was one of the things I picked up on a virtual shopping trip I took to one of my favorite local shops last week. The Arrangement celebrated its 40th anniversary this month, although it wasn't much of a celebration since the store is not open right now because of coronavirus.

THE SHOPPING

One or two people are working at The Arrangement each day to take phone orders. It's a local shop, not set up with a full-on website for e-commerce. So I first got some ideas from pictures on their Facbook page and website. Then I called up and, after making sure the helper wasn't busy, we did a FaceTime call so she could walk around the shop and show me some specific things I had questions about. For example, I asked her to show me which 500-piece puzzles they had in stock, the size and scents of my favorite candles, and to show me the size of the little lemon plate I saw on the website. It worked great! My order was available for curbside pick up or local delivery. What a fun pick-me-up!

I'm inspired by the ingenuity of local businesses to stay in business when they can't be open to customers. Mail orders, sidewalk service, local delivery -- all these innovations are less than ideal, but if it gets a business over this rough patch, I'm willing to meet them half way.



MAILBOX MONDAY

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday!  This weekly "show & tell" blog event lets participants share the books they got the week before.

Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf host this fun event.

Mailbox Monday: Black Box by Gary D. Cole to Benefit CoHo Productions

Black Box by Gary D. Cole came through my front door mail slot the other day and I was pleased to see it. Book mail is particularly fun when we are staying home during this coronavirus pandemic!

Gary Cole was the co-founder of CoHo Productions, a theater company in Portland, Oregon known for 25 years co-producing exceptional theater.

Black Box is a novel set in the theater world, the story of an actress and the two men mesmerized by her charms.

Because CoHo Productions has to close during the COVID 19 crisis, Gary is donating the 100% of the proceeds of the sale of Black Box to CoHo Productions. For $25, the price of a CoHo Productions ticket, you get a paperback edition of Black Box shipped to your door. Go to the CoHo website here to buy the Black Box book or learn more.

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Black Box is Gary’s first novel. The lead character, Ned Prince, leads an enviable life. An acclaimed young writer and heir to an ample fortune, he spends a handsome allowance playing at working. But when tragedy strikes Ned’s father, leaving a depleted estate, Ned is forced to take a real job as a theater critic in Portland. He is mesmerized by an actress who has sold herself to a financier for a stage of her own – a black box. After all off-stage attempts fail, Ned resorts to theater to avenge his father and liberate the actress. Sparks fly when an actress, a critic, and a patron form a dramatic triangle whose ambitions collide, all within the confines of the “black box” theater – an unadorned performance space enclosed by black walls. Black Box contains mature content.

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday, a weekly "show & tell" blog event where participants share the books they acquired the week before. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is graciously hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf.

Gilbert ("Gil") George Geihs: August 8, 1939 – March 9, 2020

Yes, this is a departure from books. My dad passed away last month. He was a wonderful man and I want to post a tribute to him that will stay online. So here it is:

Gilbert ("Gil") George Geihs: August 8, 1939 – March 9, 2020

Gilbert George Geihs, native Nebraskan and long-time Oregonian, passed away on March 9, 2020 at the age of 80, after a short battle with AL amyloidosis.

Gil was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to Fritz and Dorothy Geihs, the middle of five siblings. He graduated from Central High School in 1957 and was still friends with many of his classmates more than 60 years later. He enjoyed his youth and told many hilarious tales about his childhood and high school years.

While attending the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Gil met Peggy Jean Herman, who caught his eye as the “Sweater Girl” of his Theta Chi fraternity. The two married during the Spring Break of their senior year in 1961 and remained married until his death. In 2011, they celebrated their 50th anniversary with a family reunion trip to the Bavarian village where Gilbert’s father Fritz was born and his family still owned a mountain inn. Gilbert was as close with his relatives in Germany as he was with his family in America.

After college, Gil and his best friend joined the U.S. Coast Guard, which was a big adventure to two young men from Nebraska. They served six months active duty and Gil got a lifetime of funny stories out of the experience.

Gil had a long career in real estate. In 1975, he started Progress West Corp., a successful commercial real estate company in Omaha. In 1981, looking for a milder climate, Gil and Peggy moved with their family to Portland, Oregon. Gil managed the commercial real estate holdings of Willamette Savings & Loan until it was dissolved in 1990. His most unusual job as a realtor was overseeing the auction of all the artwork from the bank’s branches and offices. After Willamette closed, Gil worked in commercial property management at Norris & Stevens in Portland until he retired in 2005.

Gil’s two daughters Gilion and Tennison were born in 1966 and 1968. He also took into his home Sina Mansouri, a foster daughter from Afghanistan, who lived with the family from age 14 until college. No daughters could ask for a kinder or funnier dad. He built them a backyard playhouse, a lemonade “store,” and the world’s most dangerous go cart. He won over their friends when he built a dune buggy from a VW Bug. When they were in high school and college, he let the girls and their friends have parties in his house, which made him quite popular. Gil remained close with all three daughters throughout their lives and Gilion and Tennison were with him when he passed away.

With his love of story telling and for explaining things, Gil was always popular with kids and young adults, many who now consider him to have been a mentor or father figure to them. Whether opening his home for a place to stay, finding a job, or diagramming a plan on the back of a napkin, Gil always made an effort for the young people in his life.

Visiting and reminiscing with family and friends were Gil’s favorite pastimes. He was a consummate storyteller and made everyone laugh with his quick wit and jovial humor. It seems like he always had a smile on his face and a sparkle in his eye. Gil and Peggy enjoyed many trips with friends or often to visit Bavarian relatives. The best trips were the ones with their daughters, like a trip to Austria and Italy last summer to celebrate Gilbert and Peggy’s 80th birthdays.

Gilbert is survived by his wife Peggy, daughters Gilion Dumas (husband, James) and Tennison Geihs, first cousin once removed Georg Geiss whom he considered a son, second cousin once removed Friederike Baliamis whom he considered a daughter, brother Paul, sisters Judy Douglas and Dorothy Stevens, uncle David Getzschman whom he considered another brother, and many nephews, nieces, cousins, and other family members. He was predeceased by his father and mother, foster daughter Sina Mansouri, brother Fred, brother-in-law Robert Douglas, and his favorite little doggies Frances, Stella, and Minnie.

Memorial services will be held in Omaha and Portland at a future date.

Blogiversary! Rose City Reader is 12 today!

It's my 12th blogiversary! I started Rose City Reader on March 20, 2008, and have been blogging along here for 12 years as of today. A dozen years of book blogging feels like a long time. I'd like to celebrate with a library cake like the one in the picture.

I started this blog to keep track of the book lists I love: Prize Winners, Must Reads, and a few of my own creation. The Modern Library's list of Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century got me hooked on book lists in 1999. By 2008, I had finished the 121 books on the Modern Library list (there are more than 100 because trilogies, quartets, and even a 12-volume series are counted as one book). I was inspired to tackle other lists, starting with knockoffs like Radcliffe's Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century and Erica Jong's list of Top 100 20th Century Novels by Women.

Soon I had too many lists going and needed an organized way to keep track of them. Google kept telling me to "click here" to start a blog so I tried it and 15 minutes later I had Rose City Reader. It was easier to start this blog than to set up an Excel spreadsheet.

Twelve years later, I'm working on 29 books lists and 43 bibliographies of favorite authors. I don't know if I will finish them all. In fact, I know there are books on some of the lists that I won't read. But I still have fun playing with my lists.

More than the lists, I use Rose City Reader to post about the books I'm reading, books that catch my eye, and author interviews. I used to post more reviews and hope to get back to reviewing more when I retire from my Dumas & Vaughn law practice. The author interview posts are my favorite because I love learning more about what goes into creating a book and how authors work and think.

Enormous thanks to everyone who reads Rose City Reader! Thank you for 12 years of blogging fun and please stick around!

Book Beginning: Losing Mum and Pup

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS
THANKS FOR JOINING ME ON FRIDAYS FOR BOOK BEGINNING FUN!

My post is late this week and I won't be posting a lot in the next weeks, I don't imagine. I'll get my Book Beginning posts up, but not many other blog posts for a while.

My beloved dad passed away this week, with his family there and his favorite Elvis gospel album playing.

Last summer, we celebrated Mom and Dad's 80th birthdays with an 80 is Greaty trip to Austria and Italy. Dad was in good heath and we all had a fantastic time. It was the last of so many wonderful family adventures we had with him over the years.

In October, he was diagnosed with AL amyloidosis. He did OK until he didn't. He went downhill fast and hard last week. We spent the last two days listening to him tell stories, map out all his "last wishes," and make calls to his friends and family. He was never in pain.

My dad was the funniest, kindest man I have ever known. He will be missed. RIP

MY BOOK BEGINNING

April 14, 2007, began well enough.

-- Losing Mum and Pup: A Memoir by Christopher Buckley. It's hard to focus on a book right now, so I am rereading Christopher Buckley's memoir about the deaths of his parents, William F. and Pat Buckley, who died about a year apart. It's a tribute to his parents but also a comfort for any adult going through the loss of older parents.

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

EARLY BIRDS & SLOWPOKES: This weekly post goes up Thursday evening for those who like to get their posts up and linked early on. But feel free to add a link all week.

SOCIAL MEDIA: If you are on Twitter, Instagram, or other social media, please post using the hash tag #BookBeginnings. I try to follow all Book Beginnings participants on whatever interweb sites you are on, so please let me know if I have missed any and I will catch up. Please find me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING




TIE IN: The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice is a natural tie in with this event and there is a lot of cross over, so many people combine the two. The idea is to post a teaser from page 56 of the book you are reading and share a link to your post. Find details and the Linky for your Friday 56 post on Freda’s Voice.

MY FRIDAY 56

She would have made a fantastic spy. She would have made a fantastic anything.

Describing his flamboyant mother, Pat Buckley.

Teaser Tuesday: Lara Tupper and Billy Lombardo

Both Lara Tupper and Billy Lombardo are showing up here for Teaser Tuesday because I missed last week so am doubling up.

(1) Lara Tupper has a new book out this month called Off Island that is my favorite kind of historical fiction novel, one that weaves in a contemporary story line.

In Off Island, Tupper creates an imagined history of artist Paul Guaguin, famed for his vibrant paintings from the South Seas, visiting an island off the coast of Maine. A hundred years later, a contemporary painter finds the paintings and letters Gauguin left behind, and learns maybe Guaguin also left a family in Maine.



TEASER

The tails  of the Pastor's coat flapped as he watched the sun sink behind the buffer island, a slash of red caught in the hermit's broken window. Like the light was stuck there.

Off Island by Lara Tupper, from Encircle Publications.

(2) Billy Lombardo's novel, Morning Will Come, launches this month as well. It's the story of a couple with three kids learning to cope after their oldest daughter disappears. I admit it sounds so sad I haven't dived in. But I've dipped my toes and it looks more hopeful than it sounds.



Morning Will Come by Billy Lombardo, from Tortoise Books.

TEASER

She'd loop her arm through his and maybe he wouldn't lock his arm, maybe he would loosen it and keep it there for the two-block walk to his apartment, Maybe he would say he missed her.

SLOW BLOGGING WEEK!

I didn't get much posted the past week because things have been hopping at work. Catlin Gabel, a private school here in Portland, released a report last month identifying nine child molesters who worked at the school from the 1960s to 2016.  My law partner and I specialize in representing sexual abuse survivors. We filed a lawsuit yesterday on behalf of one of the Catlin Gabel survivors.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by The Purple Booker. Participants share a two-sentence teaser from the book they are reading or featuring. Please remember to include the name of the book and the author. You can share your teaser in a comment below, or with a comment or link at the Teaser Tuesday site, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Hope for the New Year!

Over on Instagram, bookstagrammers are collecting #2020hopetitles, “book titles that reflect your hopes for 2020, whether they be personal or global.”

Mine are gathered here with my favorite cuddly throw blanket and Christmas tea mug from Dallmayr’s in Munich because one of my hopes for the new year is to spend more time curled up with a good book. But that’s always my hope for the new year and I don’t know that this coming year will be any different than years past.

Of course, with the 2020 US elections looming, the new year is gearing up to be even more acrimonious than ever. Two of my choices reflect my hopes for civility in public discourse and personal relationships. I have friends all along the political spectrum, from one end to the other, and my hope is we are all still talking by the end of the year.

The first book is Culture Counts by Roger Scruton, a series of essays defending what T. S. Eliot called “the common pursuit of true judgment.” I’m reading this now to remind me of fundamentals.

The next is Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age by Sherry Turkle. My hope is we could all talk more, tweet less.

Closer to home, my personal hope is that I spend more time with IRL friends in 2020, so I included Among Friends by M. F. K. Fisher.

I added these Los Angeles and San Francisco books to reflect my hopes for my job in 2020. On January 1, California opens a three-year “window” in its statute of limitations for child sexual assault that allows victims who were abused at any time in the past to bring claims against abusers or organizations. My law partner and I are filing at least 14 new sex abuse cases against the Boy Scout next week. There will be more. Many of our clients have waited many years for this law to change. My hope is that they finally get justice and accountability for the wrongs done to them as children.

And finally, I included Walk There! because I need surgery on my foot to fix a pinched nerve. Right now, walking feels like stepping on ground glass. So my hope is to get it over soon, successfully, and with a quick recovery.

How about you? What hopes do you have for the new year? Can you find book titles that reflect your hopes? Feel free to list your own titles, in a comment here, or on your own blog, Instagram, or other social media.