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Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl invited us to share “the most recent additions to my book collection” this week. My list doesn’t have ten books, so I’ll just share what did I receive.
I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe in beautiful Asheville, NC. I will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase merchandise through links on my site.
I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys (Signed copy!)–All of Ruta Sepetys’s books are fantastic so I really wanted this one, her most recent.
Another Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Every Day by Clemency Burton-Hill–I bought Year of Wonder after Deb at Readerbuzz posted about it a couple of years ago. I wasn’t great at listening to a song a day in 2021 but I tried again this year and I’ve successfully listened to 360+ pieces of classical music. I was thrilled when I saw the author had a new book coming out based on the same premise.
Poem A Day Volume 1, edited by Karen McCosker & Nicholas Albery–Early last year, I grabbed a copy of The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis, which had been languishing on my TBR list for more than a decade. I didn’t love all the poems (I don’t put work into understanding poetry; I either immediately like it or I don’t) but I liked starting my day with a piece of classical music, a poem, and my journal. After finishing that collection, I checked out another one. I didn’t like any of those poems so I returned it unread and the practice fell by the wayside. I hope this book will get me back in the groove.
The Best of James Herriot: Favourite Memories of a Country Vet–My mom knows how much I love James Herriot’s books so she brought this home for me from the community center where she volunteers. It has beautiful line drawings, annotations, and color photographs of the Yorkshire countryside Herriot describes so lovingly. (He wrote All Creatures Great and Small, in case you’re familiar with either version of the show. The latest season of the new show premieres on PBS in the States on January 8. Yay!)
The Adventure Book: Your Journal Around the World–So maybe it’s not strictly a book to read but it’s a bookish gift. I have a 50 States Traveled Journal so a journal for recording visits to different countries seemed like the next logical step. My husband and I haven’t visited a large number of countries but we’ve probably visited more than the average American. I look forward to recording past memories and making new ones.
That’s my list! Have you read any of these? Did you receive any books? Link up every Tuesday at That Artsy Reader Girl!
30 Comments
I have avoided between shades of grey because of the 50 shades hype – will go back and read it – I traveled in the Soviet Union back in the day – not to the gulags of course – hadn’t really heard of them – so will be interesting to read this.
I Must Betray You is really good; I hope you enjoy it
I’m really excited to read it. I’m glad to hear you liked it!
Adding Poem A Day to my TBR too! It looks great… And also wishing you a happy new year 2023!
Happy late new year to you too!
My son and I loved Herriot’s animal stories.
How awesome that you got a signed copy of Ruta Sepetys’ book! 😀 I’ve heard such great things about that one. I hope you enjoy all of these!
My TTT
I was super excited to receive it!
I love the way you describe poetry. When I was in school as an English major there were several classes I took focused on poetry, and it seemed no matter how much I tried to grow to like some poems, it never worked. My initial opinion stuck. I think that poetry is more prone to quick judgements like that compared with prose. I hope you are able to get back into that habit! It sounds like a wonderful way to start the morning.
Poetry feels visceral to me. I might gain a greater appreciation of a specific poem if I put in the work to pick and tease it apart. But the ones I really like are the ones that immediately speak to something within me or within my experiences.
That’s a good point. I can come to appreciate the craft in the poem more if I study it, and I’ll definitely understand the nuanced meaning more. But whether or not I “like” a poem is more of a gut isntinct.
I love James Herriot books, my dad used to read them to me as a kid. We never actually finished them all though, I think we only read the first two books in the series, maybe three? So I really need to get around to the rest at some point! I also love the new remake of the show, the new season is great, it came out in the UK in September 🙂
My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2022/12/27/top-ten-tuesday-400/
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve re-read the Herriot books. How nice to have the memory of your dad reading them to you. You should finish them someday!
Good to know that the newest season of the show is great! We’re so excited to check back in with them.
I definitely will try to! Hope you enjoy the new series 🙂
I would love to travel more, but that’s what is so wonderful about reading! We can travel to many different places.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/holiday-2022-book-haul/
Agreed! I’ll never see all the places I’d like to visit but my books will take me there.
I’m the same as you with poetry. I know what I like, and it’s usually something to do with nature. Mary Oliver’s poetry really speaks to me.
My mom gave me three books for Christmas, plus an Amazon gift card, which I immediately used to buy books (so I wouldn’t use it for things like Coleman lantern light bulbs, DampRid, or Seattle’s Best coffee…). I plan to blog about those books later next week. I rarely, if ever, get books for my birthday or Christmas, so this was a lot of fun!
Nature poetry does tend to resonate with me, though I don’t recall reading anything by Mary Oliver. I’ll have to look for her.
I have to be careful that my gift cards don’t disappear for practical things too. I’ve already had to exchange a shirt I bought my dad on Amazon and almost used my own gift card for that! Luckily I caught it in time.
So cool to get an autographed copy of the book! I hope you enjoy all of these when you get a chance to read them.
I was very excited to get a signed copy!
I don’t travel much, but I’ve always loved the look of travel journals. Hope you can make great use of it! And the song-and-a-poem-a-day books sound like a lovely way to kickstart an even lovelier day-starting practice.
Congrats on the signed Sepetys book; I’m way behind on hers but I’ve been impressed by the summary of every single release.
I’ve read all of Herriot’s books (albeit not for a while now), but this one sounds like it has some cool additions, nice.
tl;dr what an awesome set of gifts.
I highly recommend anything Sepetys has written, though I think my favorite so far is Between Shades of Gray. I wish a certain salacious series didn’t have such a similar title because Sepetys’s book is about a family in a Soviet gulag in Siberia.
I Must Betray You sounds very good and something different. My travel notes for years are scattered throughout several random journals…..not sure it’s worth the effort to consolidate, but even some kind of list would be helpful to keep dates & places orderly. Enjoy all your books!
Terrie @ Bookshelf Journeys
https://www.bookshelfjourneys.com/post/ttt-books-about-family
Part of the function of my regular journal is to just help me remember where we were and when as I document our travels on each monthly calendar. It can be hard to keep up!
Ooo! I Must Betray You! I want to read that one!
I’m very excited about that one!
I should see if I can find that book about James Herriot — I love his books!
My TTT list for this weekis here 🙂
It wasn’t necessarily a Christmas gift; my mom volunteers at her local community center and helps sort donations. She saw that one come through and brought it home for me. It looks fairly old but it’s in good shape and I look forward to diving deeper into Herriot’s world.
These are all fantastic additions to your shelf and I like how you will use some of them each day next year. I have been thinking about a collection of poetry to use for a daily reading since I saw Care at Care’s Books and Pie read a poem every day last year. I have Poem a Day Vol. 1 from a long time ago, and I also have Poem a Day Vol. 2 and 3. I think I will take a close look at these for 2023. I love your idea of starting the day with a piece of classical music, a poem, and your journal.
I find that the practice centers me and gets me ready for the day ahead.