Wednesday Round Up – 12.25.19

Merry Christmas! I’m so happy to be here, bright and early, on Christmas morning and sharing my weekly reading and knitting with you. Presents are wrapped and under the tree, breakfast trays are in the fridge and waiting to be popped into the oven, and my three littles + my sweet husband are still sleeping. And I’m here, at my desk, with my notebooks scattered around, hot cup of coffee, and reading lamp.

It’s been another great week. Wednesday posts are my favorite of the week because I participate in two lovely linkups:

• Kat at As Kat Knits hosts Unraveled Wednesdays, a sweet community for knitters and readers; and
• Sam at Taking on a World of Words hosts WWW Wednesdays. The Ws are: What are you currently reading? What did you recently finish reading? and What do you think you’ll read next?

Reading

Finished This Week:

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Watching You was a total miss for me, but if you like thrillers then you might love it. It has a pretty good rating on Goodreads and is genuinely twisty and turny. If you’re a fan of Ruth Ware, then this is definitely a novel to add to your TBR. I think that thriller just isn’t my genre because I rarely find them thrilling. Give me a solid Agatha Christie novel and I’m happy!

Oh, The Starless Sea. Oh, what do I even say? I am so torn about this book! I LOVED it! In the beginning. I devoured the first half of the book, but had a much more difficult time with the second half. It’s full of so many references to other books and authors and it was a lot of fun spotting them. The characters are quirky and the settings are full of bookish delights. This novel is a love letter to Ravenclaws everywhere. But the second half became bogged down by my confusion, which was probably my own fault because I excitedly read the first half so quickly. I am going to read this again in a few years, because the world that Morgernstern created is so complex and rich that my simple brain couldn’t process it all. I’m so glad I read it because there’s so much to love here!

Currently Reading:

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I’m listening to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone on audio thanks to Nikki’s inspiration. I didn’t check out the electronic copy from my library’s overdrive system like I usually do. This time I got physical CDs from the library because I want to make sure I’ll have time to listen to the whole thing before I have to return it. I’ve had an awful track record with audiobooks lately and am hoping this will change the game for me! I expect this to take about six months, ha! But Harry Potters are some of the best books to read around Christmas so I’m looking forward to going back to Hogwarts!

I finally started Peace Like a River! I’m exactly 14 pages into it and have laughed out loud already, which is a good sign. But I’m nervous – it has started out with the same feel as Plainsong, which I didn’t love. I’ve given myself full permission to abandon this as soon as I deem it necessary. But I hope to fall in love with it. I’ll let you know my decision next week!

Reading Next:

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Last week I randomly found two bloggers who were reading Little Women and it dawned on me, hello?! Little Women is a great Christmas book! I hope to get to this one as soon as I’m finished with the Enger novel. Maybe even before? Because I’m feeling antsy about it!

Olive Kitteridge was on my up next list last week and she remains there still. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.

I read the whole Anne of Green Gables series about 10 years ago and I think it’s time to read it again! I proclaim 2020 as the Year of Anne! There are 9 books in the series and 3 books in the Emily of New Moon series. If I read one book a month, then I can finish both series in 2020! I’m jinxing this little plan by writing about it, but let’s just say that one could do that. Not me, of course. But it’s possible for a human to do that.

Knitting

My So Faded Pint Sized is off the needles! I still need to weave in the ends and then block, but I hope to be back with a totally finished project next Wednesday. It will feel good to finish this before the new year and to pick out a new project to start in 2020.

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The featured picture on this post is of my backyard last week. I’m working hard on my goal to include more of my own pictures on this blog, which means that I have to remember to take more pictures. Which also means that I have to practice my word of the year, being present. Everything is connected!

Merry Christmas. Be safe. Be warm. Be content. Keep a calm and quiet soul.