I have an affiliate relationship with Bookshop.org and Malaprop's Bookstore 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. Read more on my affiliate page.
Welcome to my weekly update for December 22, 2024!
As a reminder, sign-ups are open for my 2025 Books in Translation Challenge and my Southern Literature Reading Challenge. These can be as easy or as difficult as you’d like, with the levels starting at just one book for a successfully completed challenge!
My husband and I drove up to Petrified Forest National Park this Friday and Saturday. I seem to remember someone telling us that it was an underwhelming national park but we loved it! The name is a bit misleading. We knew what to expect but anyone who just hears the name might think it’s made up of fossilized trees that are still standing. That’s not the case. The petrified wood is more like trees that fell and became fossilized in the silt they landed in.
The different colors of the quartz in the petrified wood were gorgeous. Even though it’s all rock now, we could still see the shape of some of the tree rings and some of the bark. We saw the “tree” with the biggest diameter in the park, which was about 9.5 feet (2.9 m) wide. Some of the intact logs were 120 ft or more (36.6 m) long.
The park is partially inside the Painted Desert. I’ve always loved that name but didn’t really know what to expect. It was beautiful too! The part we saw reminded us a lot of Badlands National Park in South Dakota and Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota but on a smaller scale. We loved all the colors and stripes in the hills that look like mounds of sand but aren’t.
Slideshow:
All images © Jennifer G. at Introverted Reader 2024
- The end of a petrified log
- View from the Blue Mesa trail
- View from one of the Blue Mesa overlooks. If you’re able to really zoom in, you can see some long petrified logs resting on top of some of the closer hills.
Posted:
American Christmas Stories, edited by Connie Willis: Book Review–4 Stars
Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, narrated by Tara Sands and Ryan Gesell: Book Review–4 Stars
Christmas Bliss by Mary Kay Andrews, read by Kathleen McInerney: Book Review–4 Stars
My sign-up post for various 2025 reading challenges. I hope you’ll join me in some of these!
Read:
Links go to my GoodReads reviews.
A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter, translated by Jane Degras–4.5 Stars
Amari and the Despicable Wonders (Supernatural Investigations #3) by B. B. Alston, read by Imani Parks–4 Stars
Wishin’ and Hopin’ by Wally Lamb, read by the author–4.5 Stars
Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell by Sy Montgomery, illustrated by Matt Patterson–3 Stars
Currently Reading:
Hogfather (Discworld #20) by Terry Pratchett
Noir (Noir Chronicles #1) by Christopher Moore, read by Johnny Heller
Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker, illustrated by Wendy Xu
Up Next:
Right now I have reviews for The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily (Dash & Lily #2) and A Woman in the Polar Night scheduled to post here this week. I may squeeze in one more.
I’ll start seriously reading my stack of graphic novels from the library once Christmas is past.
Happy holidays to all who celebrate!
What did your week look like?
Hosts:
Deb Nance at Readerbuzz hosts The Sunday Salon and Kimberly at Caffeinated Book Reviewer hosts Sun-day Post. Kathryn at Book Date hosts It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
14 Comments
Somewhere there’s a picture of me standing on one of those petrified tree logs when I was 9 years old. We went to the Painted Desert also and we went somewhere that they make paper. I’m glad you enjoyed your visit there and got some great pictures!
Wow! I’ve been away from blogging, and see I’ve missed a lot from you! Will have to go back and play catch-up. I have American Christmas Stories from the library (I’m a Connie Willis fan, too) but I started reading a collection of horror holiday short stories instead, and haven’t even cracked it open yet.
Looks like you’ve had some great travels lately. Good books along the way, too. Happy holidays!
https://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/2024/12/its-monday-what-are-you-reading-dec-23.html
We visited the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest NP almost a decade ago and was surprised the beauty. Hope you have a very happy holiday week!
I hope you have a wonderful holiday! We’ll be a quiet, small group at my parents, but that feels right and cozy.
Quiet, cozy holidays are perfect sometimes.
I went to that park briefly on my Harley ride to California. It’s beautiful. Wishing you the happiest of holidays!
Anne – Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post
Thank you!
I am off to track down both the Ray BrADBURY cHRISTMAS STORY (THAT COLLECTION HAS SOME GREAT AUTHORS) ignore caps sorry. And The woman in the Polar night. I was in Svalbard in the Polar night (and attacked by a polar bear while on a dog sled – it was quite the adventure that ended well with nobody dying, not even the bear. The tour guide was AMAZINGLY brave!. That all said it is the MOST amazing place and stunningly beautiful (and adapting with climate change – they are seeing the affects and some of the plants have change!!) So sounds like a great book!
Oh, wow! That sounds like an amazing trip! I’m glad no one was hurt!
Love your photos as you travel around. I’d be happy with the park visit for sure. Liked your Amari review. I have the first one waiting to be read, hopefully 2025 is the year.
I absolutely loved the first Amari book. I hope you enjoy it when you get around to it.
Love the pictures, looks like a great park to visit. Have a great week!
Thanks!