December 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
In September: books read: 5; books out: 0; books in: 6; books on windowsill: 51
In October: books read 11; books out: 0; books in: 0; books on windowsill: 49

In November: books read 8; books out: 0; books in: 0; books on windowsill: 44
In December: books read 6; books out: 3; books in: 3

And here's the breakdown for December:

• I read two books from my list (Days without End, Sebastian Barry; Eleanor Olipant is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman)
• And one book I borrowed from a friend (Becoming, Michelle Obama)
• I read one children's book which was in our house already, and which I took to school once finished (The House with  a Clock in the Walls by John Bellairs)
• And read a book which Geoff got for his birthday (The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman)
• And one book which Alex passed on to me (Dreamwalker by J D Oswald)

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. John Irving, Avenue of Mysteries  (Waterstones Piccadilly, April 2017)
10. Siri Hustvedt, A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women (Waterstones Wimbledon, July 2017)
11. Lucy Worsley, A Very British Murder (Waterstones Oxford, August 2017)
12. Arundhati Roy, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (passed to me by Geoff, Feb 2018)
13. Sebastian Faulkes, A Week in December (Charity Shops, March 2018)
14. Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake (passed on by Geoff, April 2018)
15. Spark, Alice Broadway (Waterstones Wimbledon, April 2018)
16. The Mime Order, Samantha Shannon (Abe Books, May 2018)
17. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (charity shop, July 2018)
18. The Murderer's Ape, Jakob Wegelius (Waterstones Wimbledon, August 2018)
19. Islands in the Stream, Ernest Hemingway (Abebooks, Sept 2018)
20. Throne of Glass, Sarah J Maas (Waterstones Wimbledon, October 2018)
21. Hillbilly Elegy, J D Vance (Waterstones Piccadilly, December 2018)
22. Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi (Christmas present, 2018)
23. Theft, Peter Carey (charity shop, January 2019)
24. The Crossing, Cormac McCarthy (charity shop, January 2019)
25. And the Mountains Echo, Khaled Hosseini (charity shop, Harborne, April 2019)
26. Kate Atkinson, Transcription (Waterstones Wimbledon, May 2019)
27. Laini Taylor, Muse of Nightmares  (Waterstones Wimbledon, May 2019)
28. The Case for Jamie by Brittany Cavallaro (AbeBooks, June 2019)
29. The Red Queen by Christina Henry (Waterstones online, June 2019)
30. The Venetian Masquerade by Philip Gwynne Jones (Waterstones online, June 2019)
31. The Last Picture Show, Larry McMurtry (used book store, Laurel MD, August 2019)
32. The Reef, Edith Wharton (used book store, Laurel MD, August 2019)
33. Clock Dance, Anne Tyler (Phoenix Airport, Sept 2019)
34. Unsheltered, Barbara Kingsolver (Waterstones Brighton, Sept 2019)
35. The Wedding, Dorothy West  (Waterstones Brighton, Sept 2019)
36. Once Upon a River, Diane Setterfield  (Waterstones Brighton, Sept 2019)
37. Tamar, Mal Peet  (Waterstones Brighton, Sept 2019)
38. Fresh Water, Akwaeke Emezi (Waterstones Brighton, Sept 2019)

Dinner, 31/12/19: Roast Gammon, Mashed Potato, Cabbage

A request from Sarah for roast gammon - as I'm cooking vegetarian in January, it had to be before the end of the year, and as Liv is away visiting friends for a few days, this seemed like a good opportunity. 

Book 98: Dreamwalker, J D Oswald

I do actually have a few more chapters of this to read, but as it's nearly done, I'm counting it for December.  Only 98 books read this year - seems kind of a slow year for me, but as I pretty much read nothing in July, it's hardly surprising. This is the first in a fantasy series which Alex passed on to me; I think I'll enjoy the rest of it as well!  I think there are five - always nice to have more when you find a series you enjoy.

Dinner, 30/12/19: Brussels sprout and blue cheese pizza

Sounds weird, maybe, but incredibly yummy, and not hard to make. The Brussels are sliced very thin, and added raw, and we use a vegetarian blue cheese. The base is a bit of mascarpone.  Works really well!

Year Long Declutter, week 52 (736 items total)

This is the last official week of my year long declutter, though I do have some more to show as a year end bonus, as we helped Geoff clear out his closet this week...  And I might get rid of some things when I tidy up from Christmas.  Next year, I'm not doing it on a weekly basis, as I found it a bit annoying to blog. But I'm not sure what I will do.  To be fair, I don't really need to constantly declutter, because I do tend to do it as a matter of habit anyway, but I like the satisfaction of clearing out a drawer or a cupboard which is getting a little full of stuff. Maybe I'll just do it one month in the summer or something.  Who knows. Watch this space! I might try to do a 1-in:2-out policy for new things.  That's always a good idea...

Dinner, 28/12/19: Moroccan Spiced Chicken Wings, potatoes, broccoli

Trying to use up things in the house - like half a package of chicken wings in the freezer (we added another lot of wings to that to make enough).  As Olivia was out, it was an ok time to cook a meat dish.  I'm not cooking meat in January (I'm not forbidding people from eating it, but I'm going to cook veggie all month) so the carnivores in the family are happy I'm doing a few meat dishes before the New Year...

Dinner, 27/12/19: Christmas Curry

Geoff always makes a curry with any leftover meat on the day after Boxing Day - this year, we'd had roast pork (and turkey), so it was a pork curry.  Great taste!

Dessert...and then there was pie (were?)

 

Pumpkin AND apple, thank you very much.

Dinner, 25/12/19: Christmas

  

The classic - turkey, roast pork, bread stuffing, Yorkshire puds, carrots, parsnips, brussels sprouts, pigs in blankets, roast potatoes, gravy.  And a mushroom and chestnut wellington for the vegetarians.

Book 97: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Highly hyped books always worry me slightly, because I sometimes really disagree with the hype (cases in point: Gone Girl, My Sister's Keeper, Catcher in the Rye, others). And when I read the first chapter or two of this, I wasn't really sure - it didn't grab me straight away. However, by the time I got a few more chapters in, it was a different story. I think it's really hard to write a novel with a main character who is not immediately sympathetic, but this one is done very well, and you are quickly really involved in Eleanor's life and rooting for her to find happiness, rather than simply being "fine". Highly recommended.

Dinner, 22/12/19: Creamy Butternut Linguine; Cavolo Nero with Butterbeans

The butternut linguine was a nice idea - using roast butternut to make a sauce for the pasta - but it lacks bite - needs something more to zing it up.  The cavolo nero, slow cooked with some onions and garlic and then a bit of sour cream added and a tin of butter beans was excellent, though.

Book 96: The Secret Commonwealth, Philip Pullman

It's been a very Philip Pullman kind of week, between the finale of the (extremely good) adaptation of His Dark Materials on telly and reading the latest installment of the second trilogy set in the same world(s).  This was great, as I expected, though it's ended on quite a cliff hanger. Just wish I didn't have to wait so long for the concluding installment.

Year Long Declutter, week 51 (722 items total)

Another cull of earrings and necklaces. I have a lot of necklaces I don't wear much anymore (this is because for the past few years, we have had to wear lanyards with badges at school, which is fine, but it's weird to wear a necklace and a lanyard) but I still like a lot of them. These are ones which, for whatever reason, I wouldn't wear anyway. And the earrings are either novelty studs, which I never wear and some smaller dangly earrings, which again, just not be any more.

Dinner, 21/12/19: Chunky Broccoli and Potato Soup

We spent the day making cookies, etc for Christmas, so dinner needed to be something not too challenging. Olivia whipped up this soup from some leftover broccoli bits from the freezer, pureed in some stock, then chunks of potato, more fresh broccoli and some kale added in near the end. Very tasty!

Annual Christmas Baking Fest...

Mostly these are regulars or semi-regulars, though there are a few newbies - a soft ginger and orange cookie, which I think shall rapidly become a regular and a "double peanut cookie", which is nowhere near as nice as my regular peanut butter cookies, so won't make an appearance again. I added some wintery spices to my vegan GF flapjacks this year, and they are extra yummy, so I'll be doing that again for Christmas.

Dinner, 18/12/19: Filled Pasta Bake

Always devoured in our house in a matter of minutes...

Dinner, 17/12/19: Roasted Squash, Asian Coleslaw

One of the girls made up some Asian style coleslaw from a Hugh Fearnley Wittingstall recipe (we had a white cabbage which needed using) and I roasted a large pumpkin style squash with some herbs de provence.  There was bread as well. 

Year Long Declutter, week 50 (708 items total)

Here are a few things from the bookcase which we don't need, and a couple of cookbooks/magazines which I never use any more. Also, a couple of paper coasters picked up somewhere, two pots which are going back to Lush and a watch which needs a new battery, but which I find too big now (the face), so I've never replaced the batter - sending it to a charity shop.

Dinner, 14/12/19: Spaghetti Bolognese

I had to pop down to Brighton to pick up Sarah for Christmas today, so Geoff cooked something which we could eat, or not, when we got back, depending on what time we got home and how late we'd eaten lunch. And there are leftovers for the freezer as well, which is nice.

Book 95: Becoming, Michelle Obama

Been thinking about reading this for a while, and borrowed it from a friend recently. Guilt about not keeping it too long inspired me to give it a go - wasn't quite what I expected (in a good way) - much less political than I feared it might be (i.e. about politics), which was good. Nicely written, very readable. And I'm not a person who usually goes for biography or memoirs.

Dinner, 11/12/19: Mushroom Omelette, Potatoes

...or at least, it started as an omelette, but after sticking to the pan a lot, it was more of scrambled eggs. But it was still nice.

Dinner, 10/9/19: Creamy Sausage and Rocket Linguine

Book 94: The House with a Clock in its Walls, John Bellairs

A children's book which I had around the house - I read it as a bit of relief from the last book, and enjoyed it, though it's not among my very favourite of its type.

Dinner, 8/12/19: Roast Rack of Lamb, Brussels Sprout Tops, Potatoes & Sweet Potatoes

Lamb from the famers' market and brussels tops & potatoes from the veggie box. And we ate at lunchtime, as Alex had a concert in the evening... Crazy!

Book 93: Days without End, Sebastian Barry

I'd read The Secret Chord by the same author quite some time ago and enjoyed it. My sister-in-law read this with her book group and was talking about it, so I decided to give it a go.  To be honest, I had mixed feelings. There were some things I liked, but I found it hard to read (not difficult in an academic sense) and found myself sighing when I picked it up, rather than looking forward to it. 

Year Long Declutter, week 49 (694 items total)

A really exciting selection this week, clearing out the free bookmarks, etc that we seem to accumulate like there's no tomorrow.  The actual bookmarks will go to my classroom at school for the kids to use, and the things that are just ticket stubs from less interesting shows and films can go in the recycling.  And there's a broken sheep magnet that I decided to discard rather than repair.

Dinner, 7/12/19: Tamarind Chickpeas and Beans with Couscous

This is a recipe from John Whaite's book Perfect Plates in Five Ingredients (the couscous is my addition), though I used two types of green beans, because that's what I had which needed using.  The  actual recipe uses fish sauce, but it's easy enough to sub out for a vegan one if you need to, and it would still taste amazing, so I'm tagging it vegan.

Dinner, 6/12/19: Korean Style Prawn and Spring Onion Pancake

This is one that Geoff, Alex & I love. As neither of the girls would eat it (Liv is vegetarian, and Sarah doesn't like prawns), it's a perfect fit when there are just the three of us - obviously happens a lot more now that the girls are at uni!

Dinner, 4/12/19: Chesnut Mushroom, Fennel & Bacon Fusili

This was a nice combination. It toned the fennel down (I like fennel myself, but it's a strong flavour), while still retaining the basic flavour.

Dinner, 3/2/19: Hot & Sour Soup

A favourite, especially for the boys. We don't have this when the girls are home - Sarah's not a fan of soup, and Olivia is a vegetarian...

Dinner, 1/12/19: Roast Squash; Mushrooms with Taleggio and Thyme

I think it was an acorn squash - was in Sainsburys in a selection of "assorted squash" - but it looked acorny. The mushrooms were good - a different way of stuffing them than I've done before. (Spinach under there...)

Year Long Declutter, week 48 (680 items total)

Some more tote bags which are surplus to requirement - a few of them were freebies from uni open days, but we have lots, and they just make the drawer crammed. A few bits and pieces of jewellery which need to go. And some fruit and veg boxes for the recycling. I keep a few, but the stack was getting huge.

November Roundup

WHAT WAS FOR DINNER, NOVEMBER 2019

• 28th: Fend for yourself Thursday
• 27th: Creamy White Bean and Kale Pesto Pasta
• 26th: Parsnip, Carrot and Lentil Soup
• 25th: Vegetable & Tofu Stir Fry
• 24th: Leek & Potato Curry
• 23rd: Paneer Stuffed Pancakes
• 22nd: Salmon, Pak Choi, Mushrooms (G & A - K out)
• 21st: Fend for yourself Thursday
• 20th: Sweet Potato & Kale Hash with Baked Eggs
• 19th: Roast Squash; Spicy Roast Cauliflower & Chickpeas
• 18th: Potato & Leek Soup
• 17th: German sausages, sauerkraut, chips
• 16th: Vegan (mostly) birthday feast
• 15th: Out to dinner (Thai) for K birthday
• 14th: Fend for yourself Thursday
• 13th: Orichiette with sprouts and pancetta (Alex cooking, K out)
• 12th: Onion & mushroom frittata
• 11th: Moroccan spiced cauliflower soup
• 10th: Roasted vegetables, Yorkshire puddings
• 9th: pork chops, braised leeks and carrots
• 8th: K at school fireworks
• 7th: Fend for yourself Thursday
• 6th: Puy lentils, squash and kale
• 5th: K in Birmingham
• 4th: K in Birmingham
• 3rd: Stuffed squash
• 2nd: Jacket potatoes with toppings
• 1st: K out