August Book Update

I liked the way I kept track of my book reading last year, so I'm going to do something similar this year - just monitor books in and out, without any pressure to declutter or read things in order, etc. I'm once again setting a goal to read 100 books in the year - I read 102 in 2018. Otherwise, my only goal is to keep reading and keep enjoying books!

In January: books read: 9; books out: 2; books in: 5; books on windowsill: 59
In February: books read: 10; books out: 0; books in: 0; books on windowsill: 54
In March: books read: 4; books out: 0; books in: 0; books on windowsill: 52
In April: books read: 6; books out: 4; books in: 2; books on windowsill: 48
In May: books read: 10; books out: 0; books in: 3; books on windowsill: 48

In June: books read: 9; books out: 0; books in: 0; books on windowsill: 46
In July: books read: 2; books out: 0; books in: 0; books on windowsill: 46
In August: books read: 16; books out: 0; books in: 2; books on windowsill: 47

July was a crazy month with virtually no reading, and August was pretty mad, too, but as it happens,  lot better for reading. I spent the summer at my mother's house in the US trying to get her ready to move to Arizona.  At the start of the month, I read very little, though I did manage to get through a few very light titles. Just too tired at the end of the day to read much.  By a little later on, things were a bit better. And then we went on the road, lol.  Here's what I managed:

• I read a quartet of romances by Nora Roberts (The Last Honest Woman, Dance to the Piper, Skin Deep, Without a Trace)
• And a trio of romances by Muriel Jensen (First Born Son, Second to None, Third Wise Man)
• I re-read a few historical romances (Savannah Purchase  and Here Comes a Candle, both by Jane Aiken Hodge; The Smile of the Stranger by Joan Aiken, The Capricorn Stone by Madeleine Brent)
• I read/re-read a couple of mysteries in a series I'd read before (Shakespeare's Landlord, Shakespeare's Christmas by Charlaine Harris)
• I re-read a book I've read twice before - I had an extra copy of it at home for some reason, so it was a good one to take with me and know I didn't need to bring back. Such a great book (The Road, Cormac McCarthy)
• I read one title from my list, which I'd brought with me (The Music Shop, Rachel Joyce)
• I re-read one mystery  in the Dominic Felse series by Ellis Peters (Piper on the Mountain) and started another, but didn't finish it before I had to leave the book at my mother's - so busy and tired once we got to AZ that I didn't have much time to read at all.
• I bought a couple of books in a used book shop in Maryland, in case I needed more reading for the plane on the way home...

Here's the updated list of Books to Read in 2019. These are the books hanging out on my windowsill upstairs, waiting to be read. Or discarded. But hopefully, read. I started the year with 60 books on this list - you can see how long the books have been knocking around by the dates in brackets.

1. Ford Maddox Ford, Parade's End (Nov 2012 - birthday present - bought after the BBC adaptation - but I knew I wouldn't read it straight away as I wanted to let time pass from the adaptation.  Enough time has probably passed now...)
2. Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South
3. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (would be a re-read, bought shortly after his death - spring 2014 - as I was reminded how much I enjoyed it and I didn't seem to own a copy - think my old one fell apart, probably...) 
4. Daphne du Maurier, Frenchman's Creek (Waterstones Piccadilly - 2016? bought in principle for the girls, but thought I might read it again as it's been ages)
5. Daphne du Maurier, Jamaica Inn (Waterstones Piccadilly - 2016? bought in principle for the girls, but thought I might read it again as it's been ages)
6. Susan Barker, The Incarnations (charity shop, July 2016)
7. Orhan Pamuk. A Strangeness in Mind (Christmas present 2016)
8. Andrew Taylor, The Ashes of London (passed to me by Geoff after he read it, April 2017)
9. Mark Haddon (Introduction), States of Mind: Experiences at the Edge of Consciousness (Waterstones Piccadilly, April 2017)
10. John Irving, Avenue of Mysteries  (Waterstones Piccadilly, April 2017)
11. Mikhail Bulgokov, The Master and Margarita (charity shop, April 2017)
12. Jane Smiley, Early Warning (Abe Books, May 2017, after finishing the first in the series)
13. Siri Hustvedt, A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women (Waterstones Wimbledon, July 2017)
14. Lucy Worsley, A Very British Murder (Waterstones Oxford, August 2017)
15. Sebastian Barry, Days without End (Abe Books, January 2018)
16. Arundhati Roy, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (passed to me by Geoff, Feb 2018)
17. Bella Pollen, Hunting Unicorns (Kingston Hospital Charity Bookshelf, March 2018)
18. Sebastian Faulkes, A Week in December (Charity Shops, March 2018)
19. Jose Saramago, Blindness (Lisbon, April 2018)
20. Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake (passed on by Geoff, April 2018)
21. Spark, Alice Broadway (Waterstones Wimbledon, April 2018)
22. The Mime Order, Samantha Shannon (Abe Books, May 2018)
23. March, Geraldine Brooks (Abe Books, June 2018)
24. Salt to the Sea, Ruta Sepetys  (Waterstones Picadilly, July 2018)
25. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (charity shop, July 2018)
26. The Murderer's Ape, Jakob Wegelius (Waterstones Wimbledon, August 2018)
27. The Snack Thief, Andrea Camelleri (passed to me by Geoff, Sept 2018)
28. Even the Dogs, Jon McGregor (Abebooks, Sept 2018)
29. Islands in the Stream, Ernest Hemingway (Abebooks, Sept 2018)
30. Throne of Glass, Sarah J Maas (Waterstones Wimbledon, October 2018)
31. The Mistletoe Bride, Kate Mosse (charity shop, November 2018)
32. Milkman, Anna Burns (Waterstones online, December 2018)
33. Hillbilly Elegy, J D Vance (Waterstones Piccadilly, December 2018)
34. Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi (Christmas present, 2018)
35. Theft, Peter Carey (charity shop, January 2019)
36. The Crossing, Cormac McCarthy (charity shop, January 2019)
37. Elinor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman (Waterstones Wimbledon, January 2019)
38. Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng (Waterstones Wimbledon, January 2019)
39. And the Mountains Echo, Khaled Hosseini (charity shop, Harborne, April 2019)
40. Kate Atkinson, Transcription (Waterstones Wimbledon, May 2019)
41. Laini Taylor, Muse of Nightmares  (Waterstones Wimbledon, May 2019)
42. Emily St John Mandel, Last Night in Montreal  (Waterstones Wimbledon, May 2019)
43. The Case for Jamie by Brittany Cavallaro (AbeBooks, June 2019)
44. The Red Queen by Christina Henry (Waterstones online, June 2019)
45. The Venetian Masquerade by Philip Gwynne Jones (Waterstones online, June 2019)

Lunch, 31/8/19: Black and Blue Salad

This was a steak salad with less steak than you might expect in the US (which is a good thing) and lots of veggies and blue cheese - really excellent idea, and tasted great. The fact that we had only a bit over an hour drive time left also helped, I'm sure. Plus beer.

Lunch, 30/8/19: Whataburger

Brief stop today for lunch - just burgers (we've been avoiding really fast food) - but these were surprisingly good for fast food burgers. Not that I eat many fast food burgers to judge by, but still. 

Lunch, 28/8/19: Southern Fried Chicken

First day on the road - we stopped for lunch at the Southern Kitchen and I went for fried chicken. When in the south...

Dinner, 26/8/19: Catfish Po'Boy at Phillips, Baltimore

After our trip to the Aquarium, we went to Phillips for lunch (or whatever meal you have at like 3.30 in the afternoon) in the Inner Harbour - very Baltimore of us! I went for something truly Marylandish - Catfish. Yum. 

Year Long Declutter, week 34 (486 items total)

A variety of unwanted items from Sarah's various cupboards - a few of them have gone to school for my raffle prize box; some have gone to the charity shop. A few of the keychains were ratty and have gone in the bin.

Dinner, 25/8/19: Ledo Pizza

One last time to Ledo's Pizza. It's a Maryland thing.

Book 67: The Piper on the Mountain, Ellis Peters

Another from my mother's shelves. She has a Dominic Felse omnibus, so there will be three related titles!  I've read this before, but not in a while, and it's still a good read, even though I know the plot.

Dinner, 24/8/19: Chicken, Potatoes, Salad

Got back into the kitchen tonight - there's not much food (as we are leaving soon) or much cooking equipment (because Mom hasn't really cooked in years) but wanted to use up some of the things which are there, so did some sauteed potatoes and a bit of chicken breast. Preparing for lots of days of eating out/on the road, possibly with not a lot of choice.  Ah, the joys of moving!

Book 66: For my Daughters, Barbara Delinsky (re-read)

Another one from my mother's shelf. My mom reads mostly romance and crime fiction; this is a romance, but in the meatier, thoughtful vein. 

Dinner, 23/8/19: Salad from Cava

Steve and I ran a bunch of errands in the late afternoon/early evening (printer ink, tire pressure, other boring stuff), so decided to stop by Cava for some dinner bowls while we were in the neighbourhood - mine was spinach, rice & lentils with felafels and loads of toppings. Yum. 

Dinner, 22/8/19: BLT (Double T Diner)

It's getting harder and harder to eat in the house - today it was because the kitchen was covered in painting stuff - so we headed out to get something quick and easy, and ended up with sandwiches at the diner (Mom had a chicken pot pie). There might have been canoli brought home for dessert as well. Maybe.

Book 65: The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce

Been reading this one for a while. It was enjoyable, but also a little irritating - not really sure why. I liked the premise, maybe just the obstinacy of the characters was less endearing and more annoying - but not a lot, just a little. Still, it was worth reading, just didn't maybe like it as much as ...Harold Fry.

Lunch/Dinner 20/8/19: Veggie Omelette/Squid Ink Pasta

 

Today we spent a lot of time doing errands in preparation for the larger painting and other DIY tasks in the house, but also, the a/c hasn't been working properly, so it was really hot in the house - ok, not as hot as outside the house, but still, way too hot to want to add any heat to it by cooking anything. So we grabbed brunch/lunch out at First Watch and then went to Pasta Plus (which is an excellent local Italian place) for dinner. Luckily, the guy came out to fix the air conditioning, so by the time we got back from dinner, it was reasonably cool. Yay!

Lunch/Dinner: 19/8/19: Road Trip to Luray Caverns

 

So my friend Barbara and I took a semi-spontaneous road trip to Luray Caverns, and ended up eating both lunch and dinner out as a result. The lunch was a reasonable (and very inexpensive) Mexican meal in Luray, VA and for dinner we stopped at PaveMint Taphouse and Grill in Front Royal  - a barbecue joint and taphouse made from a converted petrol station. The food was excellent (and the beer menu extensive and interesting) and unlike many places I've been on this holiday, there was a selection of dishes suitable for vegetarians and even vegans (at a barbecue joint - certainly not what I expected!). We had meat, because it was a barbecue joint, but I was glad to see the choices on the menu!

Year Long Declutter, week 33 (472 items total)

These are some more items from Sarah's room - shoes which are either never worn, or worn out and some bags which fall into the same category -some just never used any more, some a bit beat up and ready to go.

Book 64: The Capricorn Stone, Madeleine Brent (re-read)

Historical fiction from my mother's bookshelf, something to pass the time in the evening.

Dinner, 18/8/19: Pasta Genovese

After a few days of being out at dinner (or eating leftovers after a lunch out,  as last night), we had dinner in again tonight - as we will only be here about 10 more days, I am trying to use stuff up and make simple meals.  Tonight I used some of the macaroni in my mother's cupboard, with some little potatoes and small green beans, plus a jar of pesto, to create a kind of Genovese dish.  It was fine, though the pesto was a little bland (I don't really know the American brands, so it's hard to judge).  

Lunch, 17/8/19: Mediterranean Veggie sandwich

Today we went to lunch with (or rather, at the house of) a friend of Mom's who hasn't been well lately and is still mostly housebound after an operation. We grabbed some lunch at Panera Bread on the way, and took it to her house to eat. I had this veggie sandwich on ciabatta - you can't see all the nice roasted veggies in there, but there were!

Books 61-63: Delancey Brothers Trilogy, Muriel Jensen

   

Read this trio of romances (they were ok) in some of the evenings when I was really tired and just needed something to keep my mind occupied.  Mixing it up with more challenging fiction!

Dinner, 16/8/19: Subs, etc out at Dixieland concert

We went to another of the open air free concerts they give at Wilde Lake Village Centre (and other village centres) in Columbia over the summer, so we grabbed some food beforehand - I just got a nice Italian veggie sub, with lots of veggies in a good sub roll. There was pizza on offer too, or salad, etc, but I was a little tired of pizza...

Dinner, 15/9/19: Spicy Hamburger & Macaroni Cheese Casserole, Salad

You may remember the macaroni  cheese earlier in the week - well, tonight I decided to spice up the leftovers with a bit of ground beef and some paprika and garlic. It worked pretty well. And of course, a salad.  There are still leftovers as well, though!

Book 60: The Road, Cormac McCarthy (re-read)

I brought this on holiday with me not because it's particularly holiday reading, but because we somehow had two copies of it at home, so I knew I could take it, read it, and abandon it. This is my third reading of this book and it's still as beautiful and awesome as ever. 

Lunch, 14/8/19: Pizza at Ledo's

Ledo's is a Maryland institution. Because I am significantly older than dirt, I remember when Ledo's was one restaurant (the original Adelphi one) with pizza also served at the Fireside Restaurant in College Park. Apparently, there are now nearly 100 franchises, so we didn't head down to Adelphi, but instead went to one just down the road from here (Fulton, MD). I am pleased to say, the pizza was just as awesome as one would hope. With all that pizza for lunch (we ate about half of it, saving the other half for lunch tomorrow), we just nibbled whatever was around the house for dinner...

Lunch, 13/8/19: Lunch at Great Sage

Liv heads back to London tonight, so we went out for one last lunch - back to Great Sage, a vegan restaurant in Clarksville which has excellent food. Liv had an oriental noodle soup, my mother had the ultimate nachos and I had a "BALT" wrap, which featured maple glazed smoked tempeh as the primary ingredient - first time I've eaten tempeh, I think, but definitely not the last. Excellent taste and great texture. I've been a big tofu fan for a long time, but the texture of tempeh is quite different as the soybeans are used whole.  You will certainly see more tempeh in my future cooking.

Book 59: The Smile of the Stranger, Joan Aiken

Another historical romance, fits my mood. Might switch to something completely different soon, though, as I am not quite so tired at the end of the day, now that we have got through a lot of the sorting out.

Dinner, 12/8/19: Mac & Cheese, Veggie Sliders

My mother had beef burger sliders, but Liv and I had some veggie burgers (Liv without the bread). Liv made herself some gluten free pasta as well, but Mom and I made up another of the many macaroni and cheese variation kits she still has in the house, to try to use them up rather than waste them. There is quite a bit leftover, so I'll have to think of something creative to do, later in the week. We also had salad, which isn't pictured.  Mom isn't a huge vegetable fan, and frankly, it's challenging to cook here, with only a couple of pans, so we're mostly eating salad for our veggies. And eating loads of crudites, and plenty of fruit...

Dinner, 11/8/19: Fish Tacos at Mi Casita

Dinner out with an old friend (and Olivia) - I had fish tacos. We always eat at the same Mexican restaurant when we go out because it's good and because it's tradition. Such a hardship!

Book 58: Shakespeare's Christmas, Charlaine Harris

Another in the Lily Bard series - pretty sure there's at least one book between this one and the one I read yesterday, but as my mother doesn't have that one, this one just had to do... It didn't matter too much that a few things had obviously happened in the protagonist's personal life between the first one and this one.

Year Long Declutter, week 32 (458 items total)

These are all things from Sarah's room - some unworn clothes (or rather, she no longer wears them) and some old books, and Brownie stuff. 

Book 57: Shakespeare's Landlord, Charlaine Harris

A mystery I picked up from my mother's bookcase - I've read this a long time ago, but didn't remember much about it. A good quick re-read, and she has another in the series to read next...

Dinner, 9/8/19: Tuna Melts, Salad

Liv and I spent the day downtown with Barbara at the new Museum of African American History and Culture and had a biggish lunch, so I wanted something quick and easy to feed my mum and me - Liv made herself some gluten free pasta with various vegetables...

Book 56: Here Comes a Candle, Jane Aiken Hodge

Another historical romance - again, a re-read.

Dinner, 8/8/19: Salad with Chicken/Veggie Sausage

We are trying to eat in when we can, though cooking at my mother's house is limited for various reasons.  So here's another salad variation - with some cooked chicken for those who eat it and some veggie sausages for those who eat them... Or in my case, a bit of both.

Dinner, 7/8/19: Soft Shell Crabs

Had dinner with Liv and my friend Jen at the Iron Bridge Wine Company, which is always excellent. I had tempura fried soft shell crabs (as I won't be back to Maryland much in future, might as well take advantage of it now!), while Liv had a vegetable paella and Jen had ravioli of some sort - artichoke, I think. Yum.

Book 55: Savannah Purchase by Jane Aiken Hodge

This is a re-read - a historical romance set in the American south just after the Napoleonic wars. Just about my speed at the moment (and Hodge always can be relied on to write well). 

Dinner, 5/8/19: Ravioli with Sausage Sauce, Courgettes

The ravioli came from Trader Joe's - they were roasted cauliflower and cheese inside and very nice. I made a sauce using the leftover tomatoes from the other day and the last of a package of sausages. Liv had veggie sausages and the other half of the leftover sweet potato.

Books 51-54: The O'Hurley's Quartet, Nora Roberts

Being at my mother's house isn't in itself tiring, but all the sorting, packing, donating, etc that we are doing while here is pretty exhausting, so my reading has been minimal and low effort. I grabbed these from her bookcase to read as they seemed about my speed at the moment.

Year Long Declutter, week 31 (434 items total)

Some CDs Sarah is getting rid of - there are actually more than 14, but we were both too lazy to count out fourteen for  a photo and photograph the other separately. Off to the charity shop. 

Brunch, 4/8/19: Huevos Rancheros (Victoria Gastropub)

Brunch out with some friends today - and later, a BBQ at some other friends' house - decided to blog the brunch photo as it was so pretty. 

Lunch, 3/8/19: Salad at Cava

Today we went for lunch at a make-your-own-salad/sandwich place which the waitress at Great Sage had recommended the other day (we were chatting about the lack of selection for vegetarians and vegans in US restaurants). This place was great because you could choose exactly what you wanted and build it up from the ground - so you could have meat or not, and lots of toppings. It was a great place to take someone who is a vegetarian and gluten intolerant (Olivia) and a meat eater (Mom) at the same time. Worked well for me, too, because while I do eat meat, I don't eat a lot of it, so I could choose something else easily.

Dinner, 2/8/19: Pizza

We went to a little free outdoor concert of oldies at Wilde Lake Town Centre in Columbia tonight with Mom and her friend Ron - we ate first at a pizza place nearby. They had a couple of nice veggie options (this was the veggie alfredo), plus they offered a gluten free crust, so Olivia and I shared this pizza.

July Round Up

WHAT WAS FOR DINNER, JULY 2019

• 31st: US Holiday (lunch out at Great Sage)
• 30th: US Holiday (sausages, sweetcorn, sweet potatoes)
• 29th: US Holiday (spaghetti with veggie sauce)
• 28th: US Holiday (veggie chili & sweetcorn)
• 27th: US Holiday (lunch at Panera Bread)
• 26th: US holiday - Macaroni Cheese
• 25th: US holiday (day full of travel - no real meals)
• 24th: Mexican black bean wraps
• 23rd: Salad with griddled courgettes and beans
• 22nd: Pasta with potatoes, green beans & pesto
• 21st: Courgette and Halloumi kebabs
• 20th: Roasted roots and pulses bowl
• 19th: Chicken Curry
• 18th: Fend for yourself Thursday
• 17th: Pasta alla amatriciana
• 16th: Sausages with caramelised turnips, cabbage (K away)
• 15th: Noodles with ginger and tamari (K away)
• 14th: Feta & Bean Salad, etc (Picnic at Concert) (K away)
• 13th: Summer salad (K away)
• 12th: Chickpea & Spinach Curry (K out)
• 11th: Fend for yourself Thursday
• 10th: Pasta with lemon and olives (K out)
• 9th: Tofu & Veg stir fry (K out)
• 8th: Baked potatoes, etc
• 7th: Lunch out at Wisley
• 6th: Tofu & Kimchee stir fry (G only, K & kids out)
• 5th: Sausages, celery, Potatoes (G &A only)
• 4th: Fend for yourself Thursday
• 3rd: Pasta with courgettes and lemon
• 2nd: Aubergine and Mushroom Curry
• 1st: Artichoke, Bacon and Cheese Tart