January Reading

It started a couple of years ago as a New Year's Resolution to keep track of the books I read each month. So here I am again in 2013 with a list of the books I read in January. If you subscribe to my posts, they will come directly to your email inbox --just enter your email address into the box on the right hand side of the screen. And now for the books:

The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin (library) liked it
The Long Lavender Look by John D. MacDonald
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce (library) this is fiction, but let me tell you, if you want a book about walking and finding yourself, this was 100 times better than that Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan (library) This book was the basis of the movie, The Town. Very good, I 'll read more by this author
A Tan and Sandy Silence by John D. MacDonald
The Longest Way Home by Andrew McCarthy (library) So Andrew McCarthy has been a travel writer for publications like National Geographic Travel for years! Who knew?! A bit self-involved and whiny, but not any worse than the other brat packer books out there recently.
An Unmarked Grave by Charles Todd (library) I'm a fan, so I enjoyed this latest Bess Crawford mystery
Scarlet Ruse by John D MacDonald--working my way thru all of these in chronological order
Who Could That Be at This Hour by Lemony Snicket (library) love the vocabulary and references to other books
 Double Cross The True Story of D Day Spies by Ben MacIntyre (library) This is the second book by this author about Spies during WWII that I have read and I really like this stuff!
American Ghost by Janis Owens (library)liked it. What Sharyn McCrumb or Margaret Maron do for Appalachia, Owens does for BackCountry Florida
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (library) YA dystopian book, I liked it. Sort of "Are You There God, It's Me Margaret" and the world is ending at the same time!
Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter This book was the inspiration for the movie Shooter, starring Mark Wahlberg
The Confession by Charles Todd (library) Inspector Ruthledge mystery -fans of Downton Abbey might enjoy these post WWI mysteries
The St. Zita Society by Ruth Rendall (library) I am a fan and enjoyed this one had an "upstairs downstairs" feel to it

The Caller by Karin Fossum (library) Norwegian murder mystery so it was odd

The Last Girls by Lee Smith-- southern nostalgic, I liked it
Comstock Lode by Louis L'Amour-- believe it or not, this is my first Louis L'Amour, not counting one that I listened to on tape one year, my sister used to have a ton of his paperbacks, but I just had never read any of them. Found this one left behind on an aircraft and I needed something to read and it was in my bag
Evening by Susan Minot-- Maine nostalgic, I liked it

19 books read this month


Now I know that some of you are fans of Goodreads and I had been on it a couple of years ago and did not use it and for one of my new years resolutions I thought I would go and start using Goodreads to keep track of my reading. Well, I spent one night trying to add some books and so forth and I got so frustrated that I said ," Nope, not going to do it". This must have been why I did not use it years ago. I did not find it all that user friendly. And I like to think of myself as pretty computer literate. But if you like it great! Just not my cup of tea.

Monday's Postcard: Mysteries

I am especially fascinated with cards that depict things that no longer exist, like the "Gunther's Observation Tree" in Burien, WA and this rock formation called "The Snarling Tiger" in Puget Sound, WAI have tried to research and find out about the Snarling Tiger with no luck. However, there are a few references to Gunther's Observation Tree

The Observation Tree postcard is used and the postmark is for 1915. The Snarling Tiger postcard is unused and in excellent condition, but it is hard to pinpoint it's age. It has an undivided back which leads me to believe it is at least pre 1907. If anyone out there has any information about the snarling tiger rock formation on Puget Sound, please let me know!

Monday's Postcard: Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was Ryan's Mom's birthday. So I would send her a card like these to wish her a Happy One!

Monday's Postcard: Texas

Two very different views of Texas. Both of these cards were postmarked from 1942. Bluebonnets, the state flower of Texas and Oil Fields. Do you guys remember the opening to the movie Vacation? they have old postcards Vacation Opening Credits, it reminds me of my collection! :-)

Monday's Postcard: Seattle

When I first moved to Seattle, I started to collect antique postcards of the local area. I like to see how things have changed over the years. These cards are from the 1940's according to the postmarks on the back.      Here is a view of 4th and Pike Street in Seattle today:
View Larger Map

Books I read in December 2012

Well, we are coming to an end of another year of reading.

I read 213 books in 2012 compared to 250 books in 2011 and for those of you that are impressed with my totals, I must admit that I have a lot of down time in which to read. My job involves a lot of sitting around and waiting. I spend a lot of time in hotel rooms and if I can stay off the computer and turn off the TV, I can get a significant amount of reading done. At home, I do not have children or pets to distract me from reading. In fact, I can blame the wifi on the airplanes for my having read fewer books in 2012 compared to 2011. Many of my hours of reading are spent on my 4-5 hour flights to and from work. When they added wifi to the airplanes, I started spending more time on the computer and less time reading. I resolve to remedy that in 2013.

Books I read in December 2012:


A Night Too Dark by Dana Stabenow (library) Kate Shugak mystery, always a pleasure to read.
Stolen Prey by John Sandford (library) Love this author and the Prey Series with Lucas Davenport. I inhaled this one in 4 hours (402 pages) broken down to 3 hours during flight from SEA to PHX and 1 hour on the flight from PHX to LAX these were not working flights, I only get to read so much when I am sitting in that middle seat just like any other passenger :-)

Pioneering Palm Beach by Janet DeVries and Ginger Pedersen My friend Janet co-authored this book and it was very interesting tale of early Florida. If you have any interest in Florida history, this is a must read!!
 The American Way of Eating : Undercover at Walmart, Applebee's, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table by Tracie Mcmillian (library) liked it a lot...reminded me of Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Object Lessons The Paris Review (library) a collection of short stories--not so great
A Play of Piety by Margaret Frazer--this one takes place in/around a medieval hospital, so if you like that sort of thing (like the medical info in the Outlander books) you might want to give this one a read
Familiar by J. Robert Lennon (library) interesting, is Elisa delusional or in a parallel universe? Odd book but I enjoyed it
Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper by John D MacDonald
Dress Her In Indigo by John D MacDonald
Though Not Dead by Dana Stabenow (library) another Kate Shugak, I don't know how I got behind on these, but I am catching up :-)
On the Run by John D. MacDonald
My Mother was Nuts by Penny Marshall (library) I am a fan, so I really liked it
Orphan Trains by Stephen O'Connor (library) inspired by the Chaparone by Laura Moriarity I just wanted to learn more about the Orphan Trains. Very interesting.
Deadly Welcome by John D. MacDonald
The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham rereading a classic
A Working Theory of Love by Scott Hutchins (library) lots of great SFO imagery
The Vanishing Act by Mette Jakobson (library) odd, reminded me a lot of" The Light between two Oceans", just that it took place on an island with a lighthouse and had themes of isolation and death.
The Vault by Ruth Rendell (library) Love it!! I am a fan
Dare Me by Megan Abbott (library) very like Mean Girls or Pretty Little Liars
Restless in the Grave by Dana Stabenow (library) another great Shugak combined with the Liam Campbell character, so if you are a Stabenow fan this is a must read

20 books read in December

 Six of my favorite books this year have been:  
I am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley :Part of the Flavia de Luce series which I adore Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George :big fan of hers and I liked her YA novel too, The Edge of Nowhere
Working the Skies: The Fast Paced, Disorienting World of the Flight Attendant by Drew Whitelegg :just a great book about what my job is like!  
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn : so creepy
The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty : set me on the road to a lot more reading about Orphan Trains and Louise Brooks and the silent film era I learned a lot and I enjoyed the book a win-win.
 If Walls Could Talk by Lucy Worsley : just really interesting and well done for a nonfiction book

Monday's Postcard: Happy New Year 2013!

Happy New Year! For 2013, I am going to change things a little bit by using postcards from my collection that are vintage cards. I was getting tired of all the modern locations. So for one of my new year's resolutions, I will be digging into my extensive postcard collection for all my OLD cards, starting with these celebrating the holiday.

If you want, you can get my blog posts sent directly to your email address. I will be posting a vintage postcard every Monday and once a month I will be posting about all the books I read. So just enter your email address into the box on the right hand side of the page and you can get all the posts with out having to go look for them every week. Or you can just visit lhttp://www.amandafromseattle.com whenever you feel like it! :-)

Monday's Postcard: Wilmington, NC

Where I grew up, this was labeled the World's Largest Living Christmas Tree! It is a 300 year old Live Oak and covered with more than 4,000 multi-colored lights. So famous, it has a postcard made for it!! However, this year it looks like they will not be lighting the tree. They say that the oak is now too old to support the lights. Here is a link to a story about the tree.

Monday's Postcard: Salisbury, NC

My mom sent me this postcard several years ago. She wrote that I might want to think about planting a letterbox here! :-) I believe this is the Kerr Mill in Mt. Ulla, NC.

Christmas Ornaments

cross-stitch

Antique

crochet

It has been so much fun to get out all the Christmas decorations this year. I put the tree up a week ago, but I am finally going to blog about it. I inherited some great ornaments from my Mom and Granny and now more than ever, putting up the tree is a trip down memory lane as I unwrap each one. The ornaments on the red background are homemade. My mom crocheted around glass balls and the mini ones are cross-stitch. The glass ornaments on the green paper background are antique from the 1940's or 50's. I love their unusual shapes. And the colors are so faded after all these years. They have a lot of character.

Germany

Sweden

The next grouping of ornaments are all from my travels around the world. The horse is from Sweden. Santa in an airplane is from Germany. The Blue Delft Tree with the Windmill on it is from Holland. The mukluks are from Alaska and the little Asian girl is from Taiwan (I don't even think it is meant to be a Christmas Ornament, but I re-purpose stuff all the time, the Delft tree is on a key chain!) And finally, the little man is a Canadian Mountie from British Columbia!                                            

Alaska

Holland

Canada

Taiwan

I love handcrafted ornaments. I have several from craft fairs and art shows.The quilted ornament I got on a trip to the Amish Country in Pennsylvania. (the Santa behind it is a wooden carving from Thailand) Some  that I inherited from my mom include the beautiful angel  made of seashells and  this rustic wooden ornament. I have a couple of these and they are all different!   The knitted girl is from a trip to Hawaii!

Pennsylvania

Hawaii

Seashell Angel

Turned Wood

Harrods Bear

There are ornaments that remind me of family. This Harrod's Bear (another key chain) reminds me of trips to London with my Dad and I made this ornament with my Granny's photo on it especially to place on the Christmas tree because Christmas was one of her favorite holidays.

Granny

flight attendant

Then there are the ornaments that I get because of my job! I love my little flight attendant. I always have lots of airplanes on my tree. And it wouldn't be my tree with out some Nancy Drew ornaments on it! Of course this is only a small sampling of the ornaments I have. Each year I pick and choose a few old favorites, a few new additions from my travels and I rotate through them each year. There are so many and I can't part with them when they mean so much. It would take a 7 foot tree to hold them all!! The editing process adds to the enjoyment of trimming the tree in my opinion.

Nancy Drew

Santa on Airplane

But there are lots of ornaments that did not make it out of the box this year. Maybe next year!!

Monday's Postcard: Solvang

I first visited Solvang on a road trip with my family. Since then, Ryan and I have been back several times. It is a fun stop on the drive south from San Luis Obispo to Los Angeles.

Wild Card: Istanbul

A friend sent me this postcard from Turkey, still on my "to do" list.   Ryan has already been, something he likes to lord over me. It is pretty rare when he can say he has been somewhere that I have not! So he really likes to milk it for all it's worth. :-)

Monday's Postcard: London

Always a fun layover, I enjoy my time in London. I consider myself lucky that I get to spend so much time exploring this wonderful city. Although it looks like I won't be back here again until sometime in the Spring of  2013. No more international trips scheduled in the near future for me.

Books I read in November 2012

Great quote about books from Doctor Who! I was inspired by a new years resolution of friends of mine to keep track of all the books I read each year. So I have been posting every month a list of the books I read. We are almost to the end of 2012....

Books I read in November:


A Play of Lords by Margaret Frazer The players go to London!
A Play of Treachery by Margaret Frazer
Bright Orange for the Shroud by John D MacDonald
Your House is on Fire, your Children All Gone by Stefan Kiesbye (library) spooky
I watch therefore I am  by Gregory Bergman and Peter Archer (library) Philosophy from TV shows, yes it is possible! a bit of fun
The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly (library) liked, similar to Kate Atkinson and Elizabeth George
The Corpse in the Flannel Nightgown by Margaret Scherf --Ms. Scherf was a ghostwriter for one of the Nancy Drew mysteries and she also wrote many other mystery books under her own name during her short career
Strapless by Deborah Davis (library) I read Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner That Shocked a Nation  by Davis last month and enjoyed it so much I decided to read more of her work. This is about artist, John Singer Sargent.
The Forever Marriage by Ann Bauer (library) enjoyed it, would recommend
Inside Joss' Dollhouse ed. by Jane Espenson essays about the Joss Whedon TV show Dollhouse
When it Happens to You by Molly Ringwald (library)--I thought it was just okay
Niceville by Carsten Stroud (library) loved this one, very Stephen King-ish Creepy, but great characters I will be looking for more by this author!
The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman (library) history about the world before WWI, from my obsession with Downton Abbey and Maisie Dobbs and other WWI novels, this book gives you what the world was like before WWI
Bright Orange for the Shroud by John D MacDonald
Darker Than Amber by John D MacDonald 190 pages read in approx. 2 1/2 hours on flight from Seattle, WA to Charlotte, NC
One Fearful Yellow Eye by John D MacDonald
The Empty Glass by J. I . Baker (library) very film-noirish book about Marilyn Monroe's death
Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures by Emma Straub (library)
Broken Harbor by Tana French (library) thriller, I really like this author and each book gets better and better than the last

Pale Gray for Guilt by John D. MacDonald

20 books read this month

Monday's Postcard: New York State

Super cute map style postcard from my sister in 2001. I always enjoy the retro style map postcards.

Monday's Postcard: Champaign, IL

I had a layover in Champaign, IL in 1990 and I bought this gorgeous postcard at the airport.

Monday's Postcard: Yosemite

Still haven't been to Yosemite...another year goes by....

Wild Card: Munchen

A postcard from a dear friend who went to Oktoberfest in Germany last year!

Monday's Postcard: Vancouver Island

Closer to home, a waterfront view of Nanaimo, BC, Canada, if you have the chance, you ought to visit here too!! :-)

Books I read in October 2012

I should note that when I first got out of college, I would usually buy all the books that I read. I rarely went to the library. I did buy used, so that was good, but I did buy a lot of books in hardback as they were published. I also used to rack up a lot of debt!! Compared to now! I rarely purchase a hardback book that has just been published. I just cannot afford it. I use the library almost exclusively and rely on used bookstores (both brick and mortar and online)
Here are the books I read in October:

The Dark Rose by Erin Kelly (library) quite liked it, if you like Kate Atkinson or Elizabeth George modern British mysteries
Gilded Age by Claire McMillan (library) If you like Edith Wharton, this is an modernized House of Mirth
King Dork by Frank Portman (library) YA nerdy guy in junior high/high school and why he hates Catcher in the Rye --quite amusing I thought
Retirement Heist: How Companies Plunder and Profit from the Nest Eggs of American Workers by Ellen Schultz (library) I just kept getting angrier and angrier while reading this one
Gone by Cathi Hanauer (library) A woman's husband runs off with the babysitter/midlife crisis drama
Lulu in Hollywood by Louise Brooks (library) picked up after reading The Chaperone last month
A Purple Place for Dying by John D. MacDonald -I pack these paperbacks in my suitcase for easy reading on the road
A Play of  Dux Moraud by Margaret Frazer 2nd in this series and thoroughly enjoying these!
The Innocents by Francesca Segal (library) another modernization of Edith Wharton--this time Age of Innocence--I liked Gilded Age better and the original age of innocence better
Guest of Honor: Booker T Washington, Theodore Roosevelt and the White House Dinner that Shocked a Nation by Deborah Davis (library) very interesting!!
The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George (library) George tries her hand at a YA novel set in the PNW, I enjoyed it and hope for more!
Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult (library) Picoult also doing a YA novel with her daughter, okay
You are the Love of My Life by Susan Richards Shreve (library) depressing
A Play of Knaves by Margaret Frazer -just fun and easy paperbacks to read
The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian (library) super spooky ghost story
We Rode the Orphan Trains by Andrea Warren (library) Picked up after reading the Chaperone last month
House of Mirth by Edith Wharton-- reread because of reading The Gilded Age earlier this month
The Quick Red Fox by John D MacDonald--reading these in order of publication
The Pleasures of Men by Kate Williams (library) a Jack the Ripper-ish story
Double Image by Helen MacInnes (library) So I read this article about the best sellers from 1966 compared to today and this was one of the Best Sellers of 1966 (the 1960's books got often better reviews than the modern books when compared!!)

20 books read this month
Abandoned books: The Queens Lover by Francine du Plessix Gray --just did not grab me and was due at library, so I returned it without finishing it