Books from Santa - MAILBOX MONDAY

Books from Santa! Unwrapping book presents Christmas morning is one of my very favorite things about Christmas. I got a nice stack this year. 

Did Santa bring you any of the books on your list?

The Great Man by Kate Christensen. Hubby gave me this because he said I asked for it. Go figure! I don't remember at all! It looks great, so I'm glad I put it on my list.

Scandinavian Noir: In Pursuit of a Mystery by Wendy Lesser. My law partner gave me this one. She knows me well and knew I would love it. It's part memoir, part fiction about a reader who loves Nordic crime writing.

Blackout by Candace Owen, from my mom who is a big Owen fan. 

The American Canon: Literary Genius from Emerson to Pynchon: Five Decades of Writing on American Literature by Harold Bloom. I do remember putting this one on my list and I'm glad Santa remembered.

Always Home by Fanny Singer. This is a new memoir by Alice Waters's daughter. Hubby chose it on his own and it was a good pick!

Truman Capote by George Plimpton. Hubby picked this one because he knew how much I enjoyed The Swans of Fifth Avenue. He didn't realize when he bought it that it is a signed copy, so that's an extra treat.

I got all these wonderful books from Santa but I wasn't so good at giving books this year, embarrassing to admit. I gave my sis a copy of Deborah Reed's new book, Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan.

And I got a book for Hubby because he specifically asked for it, James Madison: A Life Reconsidered by Lynne Cheney. 

But that was it. I was off my book-giving game this year. Another reason to look forward to 2021!

MAILBOX MONDAY 

Join other book lovers on Mailbox Monday to share the books that came into your house last week. 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 hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf.

Merry Christmas!

 

Wishing you a happy and blessed Christmas and a healthy New Year!

The Complete Father Brown Mysteries by G. K. Chesterton - BOOK BEGINNINGS

Merry Christmas!

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAYS

For those of you blogging on Christmas, we are her to chare the first sentence or so of the book we are reading, for Book Beginnings on Fridays, even though this Friday falls on Christmas Day. 

Like many of you probably did, I scheduled my post to post automatically, so I suspect there will be fewer links this week. But I will try to get around to visit all of you this weekend. Feel free to post your link whenever you get around to it. If you share on social media, please use the #bookbeginnings hashtag.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

I wanted to read something cozy this Christmas week, so I dove into my Father Brown omnibus, The Complete Father Brown Mysteries by G. K. Chesterton. I love them! I've seen a few television adaptations over the years, not many, but I have never read the books. 

Between the silver ribbon of morning and the green glittering ribbon of sea, the boat touched Harwich: and let loose a swarm of folk like flies, among whom the man we must follow was by no means conspicuous; nor wished to be. 

-- from the first story, "The Blue Cross," in the first book in the omnibus, The Innocence of Father Brown. 

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

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THE FRIDAY 56

Freda at Freda's Voice hosts another teaser event on Fridays. Participants share a two-sentence teaser from page 56 of the book they are reading -- or from 56% of the way through the audiobook or ebook. Please visit Freda's Voice for details and to leave a link to your post.

MY FRIDAY 56

Why should the gentlemen look at a chance waiter? Why should the waiters suspect a first-rate walking gentleman?

-- from "The Queer Fleet," which despite its title is not an LGBQT story since it was first published in 1910. 

Enjoy these holiday weeks! I'll see you next week for the first Book Beginnings on Fridays of 2021!

1 Day to Christmas!

 

2020 CHALLENGE: My Wrap-Up Post for the 2020 European Reading Challenge

 

WRAP-UP: COMPLETED

This is my wrap-up post for the 2020 European Reading Challenge. To link your wrap-up post, please go to THIS PAGE and add your link. 

To sign up for the 2021 European Reading Challenge, and I hope you do, please go to the main challenge page HERE. 

Unlike most reading challenges, the European Reading Challenge ends on January 31 of the following year. I just think there's so much going on at the end of the year with holidays and many people busy with work that it's nice to have the extra time to finish. You do not have to take the extra time. Personally, I finish reading all the books I'm going to read for the challenge by December and usually give myself January to do my wrap-up post and any reviews I still have to write (if I write them).

But I have the luxury of a few days off this year for the first time in forever so I'm doing my wrap-up post now. 

BOOKS I READ/COUNTRIES VISITED

I visited 10 countries for the 2020 European Reading challenge, which is pretty good, since I signed up for the 5-Star, Deluxe Entourage level to read five books. I don't get to compete for the Jet Setter prize because it's my challenge, but even if I did I wouldn't qualify because I didn't review any of the books! I read a lot in 2020, but I couldn't concentrate enough to review anything. 

I'm listing the countries in the order I visited them. Only one book from each country counts for the challenge, but I'm listing all the books from each country just because. It makes it easier to track from year to year, especially to see if I'm making progress on reading more books in translation.

Of course, most of the books are still from the UK. That always happens. 

GREECE: Circe by Madeline Miller. Ok, it was ancient Greece, but it counts. 

Prospero's Cell: A Guide To The Landscape And Manners of The Island Of Corfu by Lawrence Durrell

UK: Culture Counts: Faith and Feeling in a World Besieged by Roger Scruton

Home Fires by Kamila Shamsie

The Egyptologists by Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest

Party Going by Henry Green

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

The Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers

Warlight by Michaele Ondaatje

Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers

Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers

Lost for Words by Edward St. Aubyn

Never Mind: Book One of the Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn

Bad News: Book Two of the Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn

Some Hope: Book Three of the Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn

Mother's Milk: Book Four of the Patrick Melrose Novels by Edward St. Aubyn

At Last: The Final Patrick Melrose Novel by Edward St. Aubyn

Death in Holy Orders by P. D. James

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch

House of Trelawney by Hannah Rothschild

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym

The Adventures of Sally by P. G. Wodehouse

The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell

The Murder Room by P. D. James

English House Style from the Archives of Country Life by John Goodall

Something to Answer For by P. H. Newby

For the Sake of Elena by Elizabeth George

Room at the Top by John Braine

Just Like You by Nick Hornby

They Came to Baghdad by Agatha Christie

The Hanging in the Hotel by Simon Brett

Bridget Jones's Baby: The Diaries by Helen Fielding

The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton

The Stars Look Down by A. J. Cronin

NORWAY: The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

IRELAND: Days Without End by Barry Sebastian

The Likeness by Tana French

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

Country Girl: A Memoir by Edna O'Brien

FRANCE: Cheri by Colette

The Last of Cheri by Colette

Gigi by Colette

The Vagabond by Colette

The Shackle by Colette

France is a Feast: The Photographic Journey of Paul and Julia Child by Alex Prud'homme

Paris to the Past: Traveling through French History by Train by Ina Caro

The Stranger by Albert Camus 

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker

GERMANY: Less by Andrew Sean Greer

PORTUGAL: Night Boat to Tangier by Kevin Barry

SWEDEN: Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman

RUSSIA: Make Russia Great Again by Christopher Buckley, a very 2020 choice

Letters to Yesenin by Jim Harrison

Bend Sinister by Vladimir Nabokov 

ITALY: The Invitation by Lucy Foley

A Thousand Days in Venice by Marlena de Blasi

The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante

A Venetian Reckoning (aka Death and Judgment) by Donna Leon

All in all, I read 62 books in European countries or by European authors. I made some progress in venturing outside the UK, but still spent most of that time in France, Italy, and Ireland. 10 of the books were translated to English and the Nabokov book almost counts since Russian was his first language and Bend Sinister was only his second book written in English. 

My goal for 2021 will be to spend more time in Scandinavia and venture further into Eastern Europe. I hope to visit some countries I haven't been to before on the European Reading Challenge and read more books in translation.