Space Station Mir

The books that sparked the most joy for me this year include a classic, a book published this year, two books in translation, and five works of nonfiction. It's been a year when I've sought diversion, too often in the form of Netflix, but when I have read, I've sometimes been fortunate enough to find escape and hope in stories both sprawling and small in scale. I don't think these books have anything in common except that they tell me that some people are who they are...and some people rise to the occasion.   Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at That Artsy Reader Girl! My Favorite Books Read in 2020 1.  Middlemarch by George Eliot My first George Eliot but it won't be my last. Kept me busy for the first few months of quarantine, especially when I didn't know what was happening with my job. Immersive and satisfyingly realistic. 2. Because Internet by Gretchen McCulloch Everyone should read this accessible fascinating book about how the Internet affects how we communicat

 Hanukkah is over, and I received a generous flood of books to curl up with this winter! However, I don't usually gift as many books as I receive, since the family members I gift for tend not to be as big readers as I am. I did get books for a couple people this year tailored to their interests, and at least one of them was a hit so far. I also apparently hit gold with a storytelling Thomas the tank engine for a toddler :-) When I do give books as gifts, I try to match the interests of the person I'm buying for. My friend also gave me a great tip that I haven't tried out yet, but she says she always buys new releases for people so she knows they don't have it yet! Genius! (Unless they've preordered, but still). But instead of trying to categorize everything (the-friend-who-has-all-the-books, the-friend-who-hates-reading, the-latest-WWII-books-for-dads), I wanted to share a list of books I love that I think would make great gifts in general, for any time of year. Boo

 Since I received an awesome book haul this Hanukkah (still three more nights to go!) it's an apt time to make my winter TBR! Lots of cookbooks on the list, plus some poetry and philosophy. Since I've got some time off from work, I can take time to go in-depth with my reading, if not my writing too! Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at That Artsy Reader Girl! Books on My Winter TBR Dessert Person by Claire Saffitz Walden by Henry David Thoreau (partial reread) Visible City by Tova Mirvis (book club) The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See (other book club) A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher Devotions by Mary Oliver

 Even if it isn't technically winter yet, it's definitely starting to feel like it. I've read a number of books in the past few years that give off those cold wintry vibes--and even though I'm not usually such a fan of the cold, I've been embracing it! Happy Top Ten Tuesday over at That Artsy Reader Girl! Wintry Reads The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell Lab Girl by Hope Jahren The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner

It's been (another) long month. It was sweet having Thanksgiving at home, just us and the pups. We got a meal to heat up from Boston Market and I made a homemade apple pie with our synagogue's Zoom bake-a-long. Even with just heating up, it took over an hour and a half, and you put everything in your own dishes, so I can see how easy it is to make look like a homecooked meal! Reading this month was mostly for my book clubs, but I got in a couple of books I've wanted to read as well, like the new release from Modern Mrs. Darcy blogger Anne Bogel, Don't Overthink It, and Exit West , which was hugely popular a couple of years ago. I don't know that it lived it up to the hype, but certainly has a fascinating concept at its core: worth thinking about and quite topical.   Books Read This Month Small Great Things by Jodi Piccoult (book club) Don't Overthink It by Anne Bogel The Rent Collector by Cameron Wright (other book club) Exit West by Mohsin Hamid Watching Call

Happy Top Ten Tuesday! Hanukkah starts next Thursday night, so I decided to put this list out to the powers that be this week. I'd been carefully cultivating this list for a while, and then I added the last half of it in one go, and discovered that all I really want right now is cookbooks, or more accurately, food history. That might not have been all I wanted in the past or all I want in the future, but hey, all we have is the present. We are who we are right now, and if we didn't already know that, many of us have had to learn this year. Top Ten Books I'd Like for Hanukkah Deacon King Kong by James McBride Man Fast by Natasha Scripture The Raven Boys box set by Maggie Stiefvater Walden by Henry David Thoreau, a trade paperback so I can write in the margins Devotions by Mary Oliver The Jewish Cookbook by Leah Koenig and Julia Turshen Vegetable Kingdom by Bryant Terry Zahav by Michael Solomonov Sababa by Adeena Sussman The Jemima Code by Toni Tipton-Martin