Reading List 2020

I should probably post books I've read each month but since I can't seem to manage it, this is my list for 2020.  There was lots of comfort reading this year, some I would call fluff, but not all.  I've included a few quotes and an occasional comment.  I put an asterisk before the titles of the books I really, really liked or loved.  Children's books are indicated by a vertical line in front of the title. 

JANUARY
* Grit.  The Power of Passion and Perseverance.  Angela Duckworth
Excellent!  We often consider talent the big thing but Duckworth points out that so many people are where they are not because they have natural talent but because they have grit – passion and perseverance, they never give up, are driven to improve, and hang-in-there.

Books by Lester L. Laminack  (Illustrator in parentheses.)
| Jake’s 100th Day of School.  (Judy Love)
| Saturdays and Teacakes.  (Chris Soentpiet)
| Three Hens and a Peacock.  (Henry Cole)
| The Sunsets of Miss Olivia Wiggins.  (Constance R. Bergum) 
| The King of Bees.  (Jim LaMarche)

Deep Creek:  Finding Hope in the High Country.  Pam Houston

FEBRUARY
The White Witch.  Elizabeth Goudge

MARCH
* The Whistling Season.  Ivan Doig 
The Sister of the Angels.  Elizabeth Goudge

APRIL  (Now reading books still out from the library or that I can find at the thrift stores because the library is closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.)
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane.  Katherine Howe

MAY
Work Song.  Ivan Doig
"It is surprising how persuasive you can be when talking into your own ear.”

Light a Penny Candle.  Maeve Binchy.
Lucia, Lucia.  Adriana Trigiani.   

JUNE   (Books from the library again, though slow to arrive!)
Back on Blossom Street.  Debbie Macomber
Morning Comes Softly.  Debbie Macomber
| Quiet.  Tomie de Paola
The Shop on Blossom Street.  Debbie Macomber
Summer on Blossom Street.  Debbie Macomber

| Button Up! Wrinkled Rhymes. Alice Schertle  (Petra Mathers)
Oh my goodness what a fun book!  The clothes talk, telling stories in rhyme about what they do.  My favorite:
    Bob’s Bicycle Helmet
    Bob’s on his bike / and I’m on Bob. / I’m Bob’s helmet. / I’m on the job.
    Bob burns rubber. / Bob climbs hills. / Bob does wheelies. / Bob takes spills.
    Bob skins his elbow. / Bob scrapes his knee. / Bob doesn’t hurt his head— / Bob’s got me.
    And if some day / the sky should fall / it will not hurt / Bob’s head at all.
    Bob’s on his bike again.  / I’m on Bob.  / I’ve got him covered.  / I’m on the job.

Blossom Street Brides.  Debbie Macomber
* The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living.  Louise Miller

JULY
| Nothing Stopped Sophie:  The Story of Unshakable Mathematician Sophie Germain.  Cheryl Bardoe

* The Late Bloomers’ Club.  Louise Miller   
“The antidote of envy is to rejoice in the good qualities of others.
“All the suffering that is in the world arises from wishing ourselves to be happy.  All the happiness there is in the world arises from wishing others to be happy.”

A Good Yarn.  Debbie Macomber
| Angels, Angels Everywhere.  Tomie DePaola
The Rose Garden.  Susanna Kearsley
The Echo of Twilight.  Judith Kinghorn
My Favorite Things.  Maira Kalman

AUGUST
* The Firebird.  Susanna Kearsley
“We cannot know a man's nature when all does go well with him, but when those people he thinks will assist him oppose him instead, then we know, for a man has the patience and humility that he shows then, and no more.”   [I have been thinking a similar thought for a while:  the truth of a person’s character comes out when he or she is in ill health, in pain, or under duress.]

September.  Rosamunde Pilcher
“Fear knocked at the door, Faith went to answer it, and no one was there.”

The Day of the Storm.  Rosamunde Pilcher

* The Water Keeper.  Charles Martin
Love “writes over the old memories.  Makes beauty out of pain.  Love writes what can be.”
“Don’t let your pain speak louder than your love.”

* Bellewether.  Susanna Kearsley

SEPTEMBER
| Tomie de Paola:  A Tribute to the Young at Heart.  Julie Berg
The Memory of Lost Senses.  Judith Kinghorn   (I disliked this book a lot!)
* Stay.  Catherine Ryan Hyde 
“We’re all just doing our best, even if it doesn’t look so good from the outside.  Try not to judge....”
“It’s really important... when you’re thinking bad thoughts about yourself, to remember that they might turn out to be wrong.”

OCTOBER
* Eat Cake.  Jeanne Ray   (Challenges, but told with lots of humor.)

The Pioneers:  The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West.  David McCullough

* The Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter.  Hazel Gaynor
* Allie and Bea.  Catherine Ryan Hyde
* The Book of Lost Names.  Kristin Harmel   

As Bright as Heaven.  Susan Meissner
“Home isn’t a place where everything stays the same; it’s a place where you are safe and loved despite nothing staying the same.  Change always happens.  Always....
“We adjust to it.  Somehow we figure out a way.  We straighten what we can or learn how to like something a little crooked.  That’s how it is.  Something breaks, you fix it as best you can.  There’s always a way to make something better, even if it means sweeping up the broken pieces and starting all over.  That’s how we keep moving, keep breathing, keep opening our eyes every morning, even when the only thing we know for sure is that we’re still alive.”

NOVEMBER
The Jane Austen Society.  Natalie Jenner
* When We Meet Again.  Kristin Harmel
* The Sweetness of Forgetting.  Kristin Harmel
| A Leaf Can Be....  Laura Purdie Salas.  (Violeta Dabija)   
* The Life Intended.  Kristin Harmel

DECEMBER
* | The Bookstore Cat.   Cylin Busby.  Illustrated by Charles Santoso
| Leaf Man.  Lois Ehlert   
Catching Christmas.  Terri Blackstock
| Andrew Henry’s Meadow.  Doris Burn
| Wee Gillis.  Munro Leaf.  (Robert Lawson)
Christmas at Harrington’s.  Melody Carlson
Where Angels Go.  Debbie Macomber
* The Book of Mormon
* The Christmas Angel.  Jane Maas
* Christmas at Thompson Hall.  Anthony Trollope
The Christmas Sisters.  Sarah Morgan
Shirley, Goodness and Mercy.  Debbie Macomber

When I want to know more about a book before choosing to read it, I usually check goodreads for a brief synopsis, reviews, and ratings.  I try to stick with books that have a 4.0 rating or above unless the book has been highly recommended by someone I know or has content that is of great interest to me.  And these days I have no qualms about not finishing a book (for any reason).

--Nancy.