The Book List - December

Happy New Year!  I always love a fresh new year.  It feels like a clean slate and I always have high goals for myself.  (Not that they all work out of course.)  I'm not sure what to think of this year so far though, as I haven't even had time to sit and prepare my 2015 calendar.  And that has been a tradition I have had since I was younger than Tabby!

Yesterday Tabby and I went to the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh to see a new exhibit called "Starring North Carolina:  100 Years - 3,000 Films."  First let me say that we aren't big movie watchers.  In fact, I don't think even seen a lot of movies since my 20s!  I had seen some of the movies represented, vaguely recognized many of the movies and TV shows, and never heard of a number of them.  Nevertheless, we both enjoyed the exhibit, as we like costumes and movie props.

Ever since I saw the movie The Last of the Mohicans in 1992, it has remained one of my favorite movies of all time.  (And it's one of the few movies I liked better than the book!)  So seeing Hawkeye's costume and a number of movie props, and reading information about the making of the movie, made this part of the exhibit my favorite:

(A portion of this movie was filmed at Chimney Rock, N.C., and they have a display from the movie there too.)

Tabby was thrilled to find her favorite droids from Star Wars:

But as we talked about the exhibits later - neither of us could remember what the Star Wars tie in to N.C. was!

Now, onto my book list from December.  I read a whopping . . . 3 books!  And actually I can't even say I read all 3 in December.  One I had been reading slowly and another I simply finished what I had already started months earlier.  December was such a HARD month.  Lilly's angelversary, the tense craziness of the Christmas season, some difficult family issues, and my own battle with depression.  I didn't always have the time or energy to get in my hour of reading before bed each night.  Whew.  So ... glad ... December ... is ... OVER!

Selections from One Thousand Gifts: Finding Joy in What Really Matters by Ann Voskamp - Shortly after Lilly died, I tried to read Voskamp's book One Thousand Gifts: Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are.  I had heard so many praises of this book.  But a couple chapters into it, I slammed the book shut.  I found the author's writing style so frustrating - she has an odd way of forming her words into sentences.  Plus I was at the part where she was dealing with her sister's horrific death.  Death death death.  I couldn't bear any more of it right then.  However, last year a friend told me that she had enjoyed Voskamp's smaller book, Selections from One Thousand Gifts because the excerpts were short and put with beautiful photos taken by the author.  I did by the Selections book and read a page or so a day.  It was much better, for me, in this way.  And the photos really were beautiful.  I also have been keeping my own blessing book where I write one or two a day.  (I am up to the low 100s and want to fill the book.)

Solomon riding a dump truck

 Iron Scouts of the Confederacy by Lee McGiffin -  This book was assigned reading with Tabby's online history course.  We both really enjoyed it.  The book is about two brothers who, during the War Between the States, join the Iron Scouts of the Confederacy.  The Iron Scouts job focus was to spy on the Yankees.  This book is full of adventure, action, loyalty, courage, and perseverance.  And the best part - it is based on a true story. 

Jar Jar Binks riding a dump truck

 The Home Ranch by Ralph Moody - This is the third book in the "Little Britches" series we have read.  My kids really enjoyed the first two, Little Britches and Man of the Family when I read them out loud.  But I stopped reading this one to them about 1/3 into the book, then later finished it on my own.  This book focuses on Ralph's summer working on a ranch.  Tabby and Hunter though, they just "didn't get it" in the part I read to them.  They don't know enough about cowboys and ranches for enough to make sense to them.  I hope they'll go back and read this book later though, because there were a lot of exciting things that happened in this story.  (This is an excellent series about the author's life, beginning when he was about 11 and his family moved to Colorado in the early 1900s.)

"Big Chewie" (Chewbacca) riding a dump truck

Finishing The Home Ranch on New Year's Eve brought my book total for the year up to 64 books.  That's one more book read than last year.  Very satisfying indeed!