And So The Year of (Mostly) Fiction...

turned into another year of (mostly) fiction. But nevermind that - mind the fact that despite a full time job, owning a photography business, and buying a house, I managed to read 35 books in 2009. At the start of this year I hoped to read just half of what I read in the year previous... and I somehow managed to surpass last year's total by one singular book.

For my listing pleasure...


The Noticer - Andrews
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - Brashares
The Second Summer of the Sisterhood - Brashares
Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood - Brashares
Forever in Pants: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood - Brashares
The Last Summer of You and Me - Brashares
Crazy Love - Chan
The Alchemist - Coelho
Love and Respect - Eggerichs
Walking with God - Eldredge
Love the One You're With - Giffin
Babyville - Green
Mr. Maybe - Green
The Beach House - Green
Second Chance - Green
The Other Queen - Gregory
The White Queen - Gregory
His Needs, Her Needs - Harley
Kite Runner - Hosseini
A Thousand Splendid Suns - Hosseini
Prodigal Summer - Kingsolver
Confessions of a Shopaholic - Kinsella
The Great Divorce - Lewis
Gift from the Sea - Lindbergh
White Fang - London
Wicked - Maguire
Twilight - Meyer
New Moon - Meyer
Breaking Dawn - Meyer
Eclipse - Meyer
Secret Life of Bees - Monk Kidd
The Mermaid Chair - Monk Kidd
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Shaffer/Barrows
Goodnight Nobody - Weiner
Chasing Harry Winston - Weisberger

Don't ask me how I did it. Because really, I'm not sure. I just know that reading is one of an arsenal of a few things which keep me "in the zone" and I guess this year I needed it more than ever.

So there it is!

This is More For Me, Than You

I've had three running lists going of what I read and can recall reading in 2008. For my own sake, I needed a space where they all could be together. If not for helping my memory, than for giving me recollection of what a lot of free time was good for and how nice it was to read because I wanted to and not because I had to.

So... here goes:

In A Sunburned Country - Bryson
Pillars of the Earth - Follett
Love The One You’re With - Giffin
Eat, Pray, Love - Gilbert
Jemima J - Green
The Other Woman - Green
To Have and To Hold - Green
The Boleyn Inheritance - Gregory
The Constant Princess- Gregory
The Other Boleyn Girl - Gregory
The Queen’s Lover- Gregory
The Virgin Queen - Gregory
Same Kind of Different As Me - Hall/Moore
Someone Knows My Name - Hill
On Writing - King
The Poisonwood Bible - Kingsolver
Into the Wild - Krakauer
Bird By Bird - Lamott
Grace (Eventually) - Lamott
Travelling Mercies - Lamott
And It Was Good - L’engle
Slave - Lewis/Nazer
I’m Proud of You - Madigan
48 Days to the Work You Love - Miller
Three Cups of Tea - Mortenson
Out of Solitude - Nouwen
The Last Lecture - Pausch
Julie and Julia - Powell
Intuitive Eating - Tribole/Resch
Me Talk Pretty One Day - Sedaris
Naked - Sedaris
Snowflower and the Secret Fan - See
The Shack - Young

Considering I'll have less than a third of the freetime I had last year to read this year... maybe I should shoot for half as many for 2009? Sigh.

Franklin, Oh, Franklin

Well, we better keep getting comfortable because this will be our home for at least the next year and a half (plus). After some (rather short) deliberations we decided the new lease being offered to us was more than we could pass up (who doesn't want to save a couple of hundred bucks in the long run, right?) and we'll be signing a new lease that will keep us in good ol' 1505 until the end of April, 2010. Crazy, huh? It feels like a huge commitment but we feel an equal amount of peace about it and are looking forward to settling in even more.

With the decision made, Cliff's now talking about painting the walls, buying new patio furniture, and boxing up all of the picture frames and odds and ends we have stacked in corners of our home (after they were graciously unpacked for us while on our honeymoon) and storing them in Cleveland. I have to admit, I like the sounds of it all and it would add even more to the "homey" feel most people say our apartment already has. I think patio furniture will be our first move because I spend a lot of my time there during the week, especially as the days cool off a bit, and the two of us love to wax theological/poetical/philosophical over our dinner until the the sun sets and the mosquitoes start tearing up legs. (That's when all the poetry flies out the window.)

One of our favorite things to do on the patio is read, and between the two of us, we're getting a lot of that done lately. Cliff's averaged about one book a month since the beginning of the year, which is a huge accomplishment for him as he's a thoughtful (not "slow") reader and busy, at that. I myself have read seventeen books since the beginning of May (I can't even recall what I did in the spring amidst comprehensive exams, finishing school, and the like... though I am certain I did some pleasure reading). That means I'm averaging close to one book a week, which isn't so bad I don't think.

And reading has been a great way for me to unwind from two years of predominately academic thinking. Not saying that's not good, because I am incredibly grateful for the sly gift that grad school was to me. But I also know that it sucked a lot of the creativity and free-thinking I once had out of me. So, I've been in a spell of "reservoir filling" - as I've come to think of it. Fiction has done me good along with it's alternation with some good solid non-fiction and now I'm trying to dig a little deeper theologically, coming back around the marrying of my faith to considerate, academic thinking. So, I'm a jumble of thoughts as usual and happily so. And this is my new home for sorting those kinds of things out, for the time being.