Covid, Doing Little, 2021 Books

I'm recovering from Covid and at the point where I really want to do something but have nearly no energy, either physical or mental.  It's a strange situation because I'm not one to sit and do nothing.  Sometimes life gets so busy I think, wouldn't it be nice to be able to just sit for an hour.  I'm not so thrilled now that I can do that. 

I finally picked up Cheddarback and began a little slow quilting.  And I've been reading.  And napping.  And just started taking walks again, such slow walks, around our neighborhood.  By all I've read, mine has been a mild case of Omicron.  (It felt like a sinus infection to begin with.)  I've been able to weather through it at home.  It didn't sink keep into my lungs though I do have a cough and I didn't lose my senses of taste or smell.  I haven't have much of an appetite.  I'm ready to feel good again.

We just took our Christmas tree down today but other pre-Christmas things are still cluttered around.  The nisse along with her patterns and papers sit in her box with unfinished neck scarf, Dear Prudence lays under the cutting mat awaiting a choice of binding and a trim, the Christmas wreath is still on the door, and a bag of Christmas gifts sits near the couch in the family room.   

I've missed all the end of year wrap-up posts (too late for that now) and all the planning for 2022 posts (I don't have the mental energy yet), but I thought I could share a list of (most) of the books I read last year.  I came up with a new system to rate them:  loved them, liked them, ho-hum, strongly disliked them.  I tried to include notes about language and intimacy and whether light fantasy.  I may have missed some language notes, though.  If you have questions I'll respond to comments or you can check goodreads for reviews.

I Loved These Books

• This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing: A Memoir.  Jacqueline Winspear
• South of the Buttonwood Tree.  Heather Webber (light fantasy)
• Hamnet:  A Novel of the Plague.  Maggie O’Farrell  (positively lyrical though the ending could have been stronger, one intimate scene)
  
• The Lake House.  Kate Morton
• Midnight at the Blackbird Café.  Heather Webber (light fantasy)
• The Kitchen Front.  Jennifer Ryan
• The Downstairs Girl.  Stacey Lee
• The Lost Spells.  Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris (breathtakingly beautiful)
• Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting.  Lisa Genova
• The Paris Library.  Janet Skeslien Charles
• The Lights of Sugarberry Cove.  Heather Webber (light fantasy)
• Every Secret Thing.  Susanna Kearsley
• The Dictionary of Lost Words.  Pip Williams
• The Dressmakers of Auschwitz: The True story of the Women Who Sewed to Survive.  Lucy Adlington (non-fiction, amazing ways the women worked together to save each other!)
• The Rose Code.  Kate Quinn
• The Keeper of Happy Endings.  Barbara Davis
  

I Enjoyed These Books, Worth Reading

• WinterFrost, Michelle Houts (children's chapter book with a nisse)
• The Gown: A Novel of the Royal Wedding.  Jennifer Robson
• At Home on Ladybug Farm.  Donna Ball
• Penguin the Magpie: The Odd Little Bird Who Saved a Family.  Cameron Bloom & Bradley Trevor Grieve
• Growing Up.  Russell Baker
• The Girl Who Thought in Pictures: The Story of Dr. Temple Grandin (children's)
• News of the World.  Paulette Jiles
• The Second Sister.  Marie Bostwick
• On the Wings of Morning.  Marie Bostwick
• The Last Garden in England.  Julia Kelly
• The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America.  Elizabeth Letts (non-fiction)
• Seven Perfect Things.  Catherine Ryan Hyde
• The Shadowy Horses.  Susanna Kearsley (some language)
• A Desperate Fortune.  Susanna Kearsley
• The Paris Apartment.  Kelly Bowen (some language in difficult circumstances)
• The Nature of Fragile Things.  Susan Meissner
• Pumpkin, The Raccoon Who Thought She Was a Dog.  Laura Young
• I'll Be Seeing You: a memoir.  Elizabeth Berg
• Hannah Coulter.  Wendell Berry
• The Keeper of Lost Things.  Ruth Hogan (some language)
• The Last Thing He Told Me.  Laura Dave
• The Last of the Moon Girls.  Barbara Davis (light fantasy)
• Never Fall for Your Fiancée.  Virginia Heath (a fun farce; some intimacy)

Good Enough, Not Fabulous

• The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.  V. E. Schwab
• The Uncommon Reader:  A Novella.  Alan Bennett
  
• A Piece of the World.  Christina Baker Kline
• The Promise Girls.  Marie Bostwick
• The Lost and Found Bookshop.  Susan Wiggs (placed here because of the ending)
• The Last Year of the War.  Susan Meissner
  

Books I Disliked and Wish I Hadn't Wasted My Time Reading

• The Lincoln Highway.  Alex Towles

I hope you're having a good new year!
--Nancy.