Reading Update

We just had an election here in Uganda, and we had two days off for it. Thursday for the voting and Friday for the counting, then the weekend for the announcing of the results and the -- we hoped not -- unrest. The government also turned off the internet. The combination of time off and no internet led to completion of many books. As it turned out, there was/is some unrest, and we are now going to be teaching online for a little while. This may lead to more reading? We'll see. I'm not thrilled about teaching online again, but more reading time is always a good thing.

 

Book #5 of the year was The Searcher, by Tana French. This is the beginning of a different series from the French series I read last year. I enjoyed it and look forward to the next one being available.

 

Book #6 was The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, by Kiran Desai. I expected to love this book. So many people had it on their favorites list for last year. I love many Indian novelists. Plus I had already read two Kiran Desai books and liked them both. I absolutely loved The Inheritance of Loss. And yet I found this book only OK. I actually had to force myself to finish it. I think a big reason for this was that I hated the Ilan plot and that took up soooo much of the book. I was glad I finished it because I liked the ending, but it was a big disappointment after her previous books. 

 

Book #7 was What Kind of Paradise, by Janelle Brown. I enjoyed this study of the good and bad sides of technology. It moved fast and that was kind of what was called for after Sonia and Sunny.

 

Book #8 was The Priory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon. This is the kind of fantasy novel I rarely read, but the occasional dragon-riding story has to be a good thing, right? Even at more than 800 pages, it kept me reading. At first I thought I'd never keep all the characters (all with strange names) straight, but I had no trouble.

 

Book #9 was The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, by Arundhati Roy. I had to take several runs at this one, and I also had to make myself finish it. It has brilliance in it, though. 

 

Book #10 was Philip Yancey's memoir Where the Light Fell. Yes, the Philip Yancey that's been in the news lately. It was still a good book.

 

Book #11 was what I listened to when I couldn't listen to podcasts (while washing dishes and doing laundry, mostly). It was Charlotte's Web, by E.B. White (and read by the author). This book is so good. If you haven't read it since you were a kid, you've probably forgotten how good.

 

Book #12 was Home Remedies, a book of short stories by Angela Pneuman. I went to college with her, and I had already read her novel, Lay It On My Heart. The stories are in the same physical and emotional universe. They are kind of like if Flannery O'Connor were writing about Kentucky in the 80s.

 

Book #13 was Halcyon Journey: In Search of the Belted Kingfisher, by Marina Richie. I love books that are part nature writing, part folklore, part memoir, and this falls squarely in that category. 

 

Book #14 was Theo of Golden, by Allen Levi. This was a book club pick. We couldn't meet last week because of the election, but when we last talked, we were all enjoying it! 

Poetry Friday is Here Today!

Welcome to Poetry Friday! Leave your links in the comments and I will round them up. I have comment moderation enabled so don't panic if your comment doesn't show up immediately. I'm on East African Time, which is currently 8 hours ahead of the east coast of the US. 

 

I've been rereading J. Drew Lanham's book Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts. I really recommend it; it's about birds, yes, but also about being Black in the United States. You in the northern hemisphere are past the solstice now, and moving into longer days, but this still seems appropriate for January. I live on the equator, but still as I'm writing this, it's a dark and overcast day at the end of winter break. The poem works for me today.

 

 

 

Soulful Warming

by J. Drew Lanham

 

cold creeps in

a gray chill settles

darkness fills

where sunlight falls

cardinal chants

in tangled bramble

towhee kick-scatters leaves

and care

take heart

grasp hope

feathers lighten

solstice's darkening burden

brightening briefest day

 

 

Tracey is in with her OLW for 2026, plus a Jorie Graham poem.

 

Good morning! I'm waking up to an inbox full of comments! Just published them all and now I'll round up for a while.

 

Jane hopes (rather than resolves) to share poetry all year. Looking forward to it, Jane!

 

Matt has posted about his 2023 book, The Thing to Remember about Stargazing, which has just won an award. He shares with us how this book came to be. Sometimes it's a circuitous journey! 

 

Jone is sharing her OLW for the new year! (Yes, Jone, I can read your comment, but sadly I once again can't access the post itself from my network. Wish we knew why!)

 

Robyn has written a sad, beautiful poem about Renée Nicole Good.

 

Michelle is thinking about Renée Nicole Good as well, and has written a haiku and a zeno.

 

Marcie has a photo and a haiku, and also shares her OLW for this new year. 

 

Jan is also sharing a poem about Renée Nicole Good; this tragic death on Wednesday of a young mom and fellow poet has touched many of us!

 

Tabatha is thinking of this same topic, and shares two poems, one about Eric Garner, and one about how we can respond in these times.

 

Karen is also grieving this loss, and has a Mary Oliver poem for us.

 

Carmela's post isn't live yet, it appears, so I'll come back later and link it. (That link is to the main blog, Teaching Authors.) She's written about a poetry workshop and a Chris Harris poem. 

 

Linda has made the switch to Substack! Congratulations, Linda! As always, she's picked a creative OLW and she shares a poem with us on her new theme. 

 

Rose is thinking about stargazing, teaching, and waiting. Beautiful, Rose! 

 

Linda's in with watching stars and grieving Renée Nicole Macklin Good. (Two of today's emerging themes together!) 

 

My ninth graders just left after the last class of the day, and I can see that people in the US are waking up because I started getting more comments! Good morning to you!

 

Irene has a poem for the girl in the mirror, plus she's started posting videos again with writing tips. Looking forward to watching! 

 

Margaret is introducing her OLW - or will she have a different word every month? She's got a poem about simplicity. 

 

Mary Lee is sharing Renée Good's award-winning poem, "On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs." 

 

Patricia is sharing an original poem, "The Year as a Letter."

 

Carol is looking forward to spring, and sharing some A. A. Milne. (One of my favorite poets from childhood - I can still recite some of the poems from the books Carol mentions!)

 

And the other Carol has written a poem about her OLW for 2026. Great choice, Carol, and best wishes in the weeks and months ahead!

 

 

 

 

SJT: OLW

Happy New Year! This is our first SJT (Spiritual Journey Thursday) for 2026, and today our host Margaret has asked us to share our OLW (One Little Word) for the year. Sorry to be boring, but I'm sticking to the same OLW for the fourth year in a row. The word, FEATHER, is serving me well and I still love it. 

 

Feathers, as I reflected here, here, and here, are light and beautiful, yet tough and multipurpose. If you find a feather on the ground, it means a bird has lost it, but as long as that bird is still alive, the feather will grow back. In fact, most birds do at least a partial molt once a year (and some twice). That's why birds look different depending on the time of the year and the time of life. So feathers are a symbol of change and resilience. I'm blessed to live in a country with gorgeous, bright tropical plumages, and I have collected feathers of all different shades, some shining with iridescence. 

 

I gave serious thought to changing my word to ANALOG this year, since I have been watching with increasing horror the way AI has been taking over people's experience of the world and creativity. Then I realized that birding is my ultimate analog activity, going outside, watching, listening, being present and enjoying what is around me in real time. What God created and gave us. 

 

I love this poem by Joyce Clement (I found it here). The birds that punctuate my days are different from hers, but birds do punctuate my days, too.

 

 

Birds Punctuate the Days

by Joyce Clement

apostrophe
the nuthatch inserts itself
between feeder and pole
 

semicolon
two mallards drifting
one dunks for a snail
 

ellipses
a mourning dove
lifts off
 

asterisk
a red-eyed vireo catches
the crane fly midair
 

comma
a down feather
bobs between waves
 

exclamation point
wren on the railing
takes notice
 

colon
mergansers paddle toward
morning trout swirl
 

em dash
at dusk a wild goose
heading east
 

question mark
the length of silence
after a loon’s call
 

period
one blue egg all summer long
now gone

 

Reading Update

So I'm going back to work today. We had visitors over our Christmas break and stayed quite occupied. Nevertheless, here is what I've managed to read so far this year.

 

Book #1 of 2026 was The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans. I noticed this turned up a lot on people's favorites lists for last year, and sure enough, it was a good one. I enjoyed it immensely. 

 

Book #2 was Jodi Picoult's 2007 novel Nineteen Minutes. It was painful watching the teachers in the novel ignore bullying every chance they got. Let's hope we're doing a little better in 2026.

 

Book #3 was Among Friends, by Hal Ebbott. Again I'll use the word painful, as this story looks at family dynamics, friendships, and what we're willing to tolerate from those we love.

 

Book #4 was Some Bright Nowhere, by Ann Packer, a heartbreaking novel about death. 

 

 

 

What I Read in 2025

Here's what I read this year:

 

Book #1 

Books #2-4 

Books #5-12 

Books #13-26 

Books #27-40 

Books #41-50 

Books #51-61 

Books #62-72 

Books #73-81 

Books #82-87 

Books #88-105

Books #106-113 

 

Book #114 was The Names, by Florence Knapp. I loved the three possible ways this story played out, each with its own sadness and tragedy, but each with its own redemption too. 

 

Book #115 was Wreck, by Catherine Newman, whose Sandwich I enjoyed last year. Again, this is a book about a life that's far from perfect, but still full of love and purpose.

 

Book #116 was a reread that I recommended to my book group, How Far to Bethlehem?, by Norah Lofts. I last read this as a teenager. I wish I knew what I made of it then! It's the Biblical Christmas story told from many different perspectives, and I enjoyed it again.

 

Book #117 was The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World, by Christine Rosen. This was thought-provoking and readable, and it encouraged me to think of ways to live an analog life going forward.

 

Book #118 was Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden, by Camille Dungy. (I shared one of Dungy's poems here in 2020.) This was a fascinating meditation on gardening, the pandemic, race, environmentalism, family life, and other matters. I bought it on deep discount for my Kindle recently, and since I own it, I'm sure I'll be rereading it. 

 

Books #119 and 120 are two I've read every year for a while:  Savor, by Shauna Niequist and You are the Beloved, by Henri Nouwen.  

 

 

Reading through these posts again as I was compiling the year's reading, I was impressed by how many times I said "I loved this book." I had a lot of great reading experiences in 2025. At the end of 2024 I said I wanted to read more paper books, and I didn't really do that. Again this year I want to attempt it. I honestly don't see much difference in the reading experience, except that I often don't remember titles of books I read on my Kindle, because I don't see the title every time I pick up the book to read it. But I do want to read paper books because they are accumulating, and they take up room, unlike the digital ones. Another note: thumbs up to reading with my book group. I've enjoyed that enormously this year. 

 

I'm glad I got in the habit almost 20 years ago of writing down all the books I read. I wish I had a list of all the books I've read in my whole life. This year I read some discussion online among people who were wondering if their habit of tracking their reading was actually detrimental to their reading. Some felt pressured to have high numbers of books finished; some felt they chose their books to be impressive or to read the shiny and new, or for some other purpose other than just wanting to read that book. I do sometimes wonder what a blog reader might make of my bizarre combination of choices, but then I tell myself that nobody is following that closely or caring that much. There's generally a reason I pick something up - maybe it was recommended by someone in person or online, maybe it's a topic I'm interested in or an author I love, maybe it was just available at the library without waiting.  But I can't always trace what the reason was, after the fact. I do resent slightly how controlled I am by my library holds; because they only last a short time, I hurry to read them first before they disappear from my Kindle. And that means less time to read books I actually own, whether digital ones or paper ones. I keep thinking I should stop putting so many holds on books, but then I keep doing it. As I'm writing this in late December I have 15 holds, plus nine books checked out on Libby (three of them already read). 

 

Reading Update

Book #106 of the year was Boleyn Traitor, by Philippa Gregory. I have been reading novels about Henry VIII and his wives since I was a teenager, so this story was familiar to me. It's about Jane Boleyn, who was married to Anne Boleyn's brother George. She survived her much more famous sister-in-law and lived to be a lady-in-waiting to several of Henry VIII's later queens. I always enjoy Gregory's books, and this terrible, tragic tale was no exception. 

 

Book #107 was a book group pick, the "fluffy" book I teased at the end of my November Reading Update. It was my first Karen Kingsbury novel, The Christmas Ring. I can't say I'm eager to read more Kingsbury, but the book was fun to read and discuss with my lovely book group. We even got together for pizza and Christmas cookies to watch the movie!

 

Book #108 was Hazel Says No, by Jessica Berger Gross. I enjoyed this one. In the first chapter, Hazel is propositioned by an adult who should know better. The rest of the book deals with the fallout of Hazel saying no, on her family, her dad's new job, her senior year of high school, and Hazel herself. 

 

Book #109 was The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World, by John Mark Comer. Comer gives lots of practical suggestions for how to be more focused on what matters and less addicted to what doesn't. I found it worth reading.

 

Book #110 was a reread, The Hours, by Michael Cunningham. I still found it brilliantly written. And it brought back the circumstances of when I last read it, which I wrote about here. 

 

Book #111 was The Heart of Winter, by Jonathan Evison. It's the story of a long marriage and all its ups and downs, starting with a difficult diagnosis of one of the partners and flashing back to moments all through their life together. I couldn't stop reading it. 

 

Book #112 was Audition, by Katie Kitamura. This was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and lots of people loved it. I hated it and wished I hadn't kept reading. I kept thinking it was going to start being worthwhile. It did not.

 

Book #113 was another family saga like #111, The Bright Years, by Sarah Damoff. The first part of the book was just OK. I almost stopped reading because it seemed predictable. But I was very glad I hadn't. It ended up being a beautiful and satisfying story about a family that struggled, but eventually found ways for love to break through.

Spiritual Journey Thursday: Silence

 

This month's host, Jone, shared this quote with us from Thomas Merton: "The world of men has forgotten the joys of silence, the peace of solitude, which is necessary, to some extent, for the fullness of human living." 

 

My life has a lot more silence in it than a few years ago, when we were a busy household. Now it's just my husband and me, and right now he's out on a bike ride as, in silence, I contemplate the idea of silence. There's a fan going in the room where I am, but other than that, there's very little sound. 

 

It's exam week, so it was a quiet day overall at school. Most days aren't like that, but today was. It's the calm before the storm. There are concerts coming up, and the Drama Club is performing, and Project-Based Learning, and lots of end of semester noise. But it's good to get a little break from that, to spend the day writing report card comments and grading exams, like I did today. 

 

This Advent song, with lyrics from the 5th century,  imagines a moment of silence as Jesus descends to earth. But like my quiet day, it's a brief moment, because the song ends with the whole heavenly host singing, "Alleluia, alleluia!" 

 

 

Check out Jone's blog to see what everyone else has posted!