Books Read in 2018

December - 9

67. Conversations with Rabbi Small - book 8 in the Rabbi Small series
by Harry Kemelman
fiction 1981
Kindle
reread
finished 12/31/18
American writer/American setting

66. Thursday the Rabbi Walked Out - book 7 in the Rabbi Small series
by Harry Kemelman
mystery 1978
Kindle 
reread
finished 12/28/18
American writer/American setting

65. Wednesday the Rabbi Got Wet - book 6 in the Rabbi Small series
by Harry Kemelman
mystery 1976
Kindle 
reread
finished 12/23/18
American writer/American setting

64. Christmas in Nuala- book 5 in the Inspector de Silva series
by Harriet Steel
mystery 2018
Kindle
finished 12/19/18
English writer/Sri Lanka setting (Ceylon in the story)

63. Christmas in London
by Anita Hughes
fiction 2017
Kindle
finished 12/18/18
Australian writer (now lives in US)/English setting

62. Tuesday the Rabbi Saw Red - book 5 in the Rabbi Small series
by Harry Kemelman
mystery 1973
Kindle
reread
finished 12/14/18
American writer/American setting

61. The Christmas Letters - A Novella
by Lee Smith
fiction 1996
reread
finished 12/8/18
American writer/American setting

60. Monday the Rabbi Took Off - book 4 in the Rabbi Small series
by Harry Kemelman
mystery 1972
Kindle
reread
finished 12/8/18
American writer/American setting

59. Sunday the Rabbi Stayed Home - book 3 in the Rabbi Small series
by Harry Kemelman
mystery 1969
Kindle
reread
finished 12/3/18
American writer/American setting

November - 8

58. Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry - book 2 in the Rabbi Small series
by Harry Kemelman
mystery 1966
Kindle
reread
finished 11/27/18
American writer/American setting

57. Friday the Rabbi Slept Late - book 1 in the Rabbi Small series
by Harry Kemelman
mystery 1964
Kindle
reread
finished 11/22/18
American writer/American setting

56. Still Life with Bread Crumbs
by Anna Quinden
fiction 2014
Kindle
library book
finished 11/19/18
American writer/American setting

55. Miller's Valley
by Anna Quindlen
fiction 2016
Kindle
library book
finished 11/17/18
American writer/American setting

54. Quiet Girl in a Noisy World
An Introvert's Story
by Debbie Tung
nonfiction graphic novel 2017
finished 11/16/18
English writer/English setting

53. Night Blind - book 2 in the Dark Iceland series
by Ragnar Jonasson
crime fiction 2015
print
finished 11/13/18
Icelandic writer/Icelandic setting

52. The Conqueror Inn - book 18 in the Bobby Owen series
by E.R. Punshon
mystery 1943
Kindle
finished 11/12/18
English writer/English setting

51. Ruth Robinson's Year of Miracles
by Frances Garrood
fiction 2018
Kindle
finished 11/1/18
English writer/English setting

October - 9

50. The Book of Stillmeadow
by Gladys Taber
nonfiction 1948
print
finished 10/28/18 (read monthly over the year)
American writer/American setting

49. A Front Page Affair - book 1 in the Kitty Weeks Mystery series
by Radha Vatsal
mystery 2016
Kindle
library book
finished 10/27/18 (another 3 day book)
Indian born writer - lives in the US/American setting

48. Rogue Lawyer
by John Grisham
fiction 2015
Kindle
library book
finished 10/24/18 (a three day book)
American writer/American setting

47. Even If the Sky Falls Down
by Susan Jackson Bybee
fiction 2015
Kindle
finished 10/21/18
American writer/South Korea setting

46. The Music Shop: A Novel
by Rachel Joyce
fiction 2017
Kindle
library book
finished 10/15/18 (another two day book!)
English writer/English setting

45. The Death of Mr Lomas - book 1 in the Inspector Knollis series
bu Francis Vivian
mystery 1941
Kindle
finished 10/13/18
English writer/English setting

44. The Word is Murder: A Novel - book 1 in the Detective Daniel Hawthorne
by Anthony Horowitz
mystery 2017
Kindle
library book
finished 10/9/18 (two days!)
English writer/English setting

43. Death in Dark Glasses - book 17 in the Thomas Littlejohn series
by George Bellairs
mystery 1952
Kindle
finished 10/2/18
English writer/English setting

42. No More Words 
A Journal of My Mother,
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
by Reeve Lindbergh
nonfiction 2001
print
reread
finished 10/1/18
American writer/American setting

September - 3

41. The Murder of a Quack - book 4 in the Thomas Littlejohn series
by George Bellairs
mystery 1943
Kindle
finished 9/22/18
English writer/English setting

40. The Dead Shall Be Raised aka Murder Will Speak - book 3 in the Thomas Littlejohn series
by George Bellairs
mystery 1942
Kindle
finished 9/11/18
English writer/English setting

39. Fatal Finds in Nuala - book 4 in the Inspector de Silva series
by Harriet Steel
mystery 2018
Kindle
finished 9/3/18
English writer/Sri Lanka setting (Ceylon in the story)

August - 5

38. Murder in an English Village - book 1 in the Beryl and Edwina mystery series
by Jessica Ellicott
mystery 2017
Kindle
library book
finished 8/30/18
American writer/English setting

37. Death Sends for the Doctor - book 27 in the Thomas Littlejohn series 
by George Bellairs
mystery 1957
Kindle
finished 8/23/18
English writer/English setting

36. Moving To The Country
by Reeve Lindbergh Brown
Reread
fiction 1983
print
finished 8/22/18
American writer/American setting

35. At Seventy
A Journal
by May Sarton
nonfiction 1984
print
finished 8/8/18
American writer/American setting

34. Dead Cold Brew - book 16 in the Coffeehouse mysteries series
by Cleo Coyle
mystery 2017
Kindle
finished 8/8/18
American writer(s)/American setting

July - 6

33. Dead Broke in Jarrett Creek - book three in the Samuel Craddock series
by Terry Shames
mystery 2014
Kindle
library book
finished 7/31/18
American writer/American setting

32. The Last Death of Jack Harbin - book two in the Samuel Craddock series
by Terry Shames
mystery 2014
Kindle 
library book
finished 7/24/18
American writer/American setting

31. A Killing at Cotton Hill - book one in the Samuel Craddock series
by Terry Shames
mystery 2013
Kindle
library book
finished 7/19/18
American writer/American setting

30. Murder at the Brightwell - book one in the Amory Ames series
by Ashley Weaver
mystery 2014
Kindle
finished 7/13/18
American writer/English setting

29. Heart Spring Mountain
by Robin MacArthur
fiction 2018
print
finished 7/6/18
American writer/American setting

28. Nigel
My family and other dogs
by Monty Don
nonfiction 2016
print
finished 7/1/18
English writer/English setting

June - 5

27. Claws for Alarm - book 8 in the Gray Whale Inn Mystery series
by Karen MacInerney
mystery 2018
Kindle
finished 6/23/18
American writer/American setting

26. Offstage in Nuala - book 3 in the Inspector de Silva series
by Harriet Steel
mystery 2017
Kindle
finished 6/16/18
English writer/Sri Lanka setting (Ceylon in the story)

25. Dearly Beloved
by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
fiction 1962
print
finished 6/14/18
American writer/American setting

24. Two Lives
by Reeve Lindbergh
nonfiction 2018
print
finished 6/8/18
American writer/American setting (other than descriptions of places her parents traveled)

23. Dark Clouds Over Nuala - book 2 in the Inspector de Silva series
by Harriet Steel
mystery 2017
Kindle
finished 6/4/18
English writer/Sri Lanka setting (Ceylon in the story)

May - 3

22. The Native Heath
by Elizabeth Fair
fiction 1954
Kindle
finished 5/26/18
English writer/English setting

21. A Murder is Arranged aka When Thieves Fall Out - book 8 (last) in the Inspector Richardson series
by Basil Thomson
mystery 1937
Kindle
finished 5/4/18
English writer/English setting

20. To Die But Once - book 14 in the Maisie Dobbs series
by Jacqueline Winspear
mystery 2018
Kindle
finished 5/1/18
English writer (who now lives in the US)/English setting

April - 3

19. Trouble in Nuala - book 1 in the Inspector de Silva series
by Harriet Steel
mystery 2016
Kindle
finished 4/28/18
English writer/Sri Lanka setting (Ceylon in the story)

18. The Milliner's Hat Mystery aka The Mystery of the French Milliner - book 7 in the Inspector Richardson series (though he is hardly in this one) by Basil Thomson
mystery 1937
Kindle
finished 4/24/18
English writer/English setting

17. Who Killed Stella Pomeroy aka Death in the Bathroom - book 6 in the Inspector Richardson series by Basil Thomson
mystery 1936
Kindle
finished 4/9/18
English writer/English setting

March - 4

16. The Dartmoor Enigma aka Richardson Solves a Dartmoor Mystery - book 5 in the Inspector Richardson series
by Basil Thomson
mystery 1935
Kindle
finished 3/29/18
English writer/English setting

15. The Case of the Dead Diplomat aka Richardson Goes Abroad - book 4 in the Inspector Richardson series
by Basil Thomson
mystery 1935
Kindle
finished 3/17/18
English writer/English setting

14. The Diary of Two Nobodies
by Giles Wood and Mary Killen
Illustrations by Giles Wood
nonfiction 2017
print
finished 3/14/18
English writers (Mary born in Northern Ireland)/English setting

13. Murder on the Bus - book 4 in the Inspector Cuthbert Higgins series
by Cecil Freeman Gregg
mystery 1930
Kindle
finished 3/3/18
English writer/English setting

February - 5

12. Stir It Up!
by Ramin Ganeshram
young adult fiction 2011
print
finished 2/26/18
American writer/American setting

11. Dear Susan
Letters to a Niece
by Ben Hartley
nonfiction 2011
print
finished 2/22/18
English writer/English setting

10. Snowblind - book 1 in the Dark Iceland series
by Ragnar Jonasson
translated by Quentin Bates
crime fiction 2015 (it is billed as a thriller but I think it is really more police procedural, so I'm going to stick with crime fiction)
Kindle
finished 2/21/18
Icelandic writer/Icelandic setting

9. A Far Cry From Kensington
by Muriel Spark
Reread
fiction 1988
Kindle
finished 2/7/18
Scottish writer/English setting

8. Mrs. Mike
The Story of Katherine Mary Flannigan
by Benedict and Nancy Freedman
fiction 1947
print
finished 2/5/18
American writers/Canadian setting (with a tiny bit in Boston)

January - 7

7. Silence - book 3 in the Inspector Celcius Daly series
by Anthony J. Quinn
crime fiction 2015 (first time I've used this term, I think. A better description than mystery)
Kindle
finished 1/31/18
Irish writer/Irish setting

6. After the Wake: Twenty-One Prose Works Including Previously Unpublished Material
by Brendan Behan
fiction and nonfiction published posthumously 1981
Kindle
finished 1/26/18
Irish writer/Irish setting (mostly)

5. Him & Me
by Michael & Jack Whitehall
nonfiction 2013
print
finished 1/22/18
English writers/English setting (with a few vacation spots)

4. Blandings Castle
by PG Wodehouse
fiction - short story collection 1935
reread
Kindle
finished 1/21/18
English writer who moved to the US/English and American setting

3. Whale of a Crime - book 7 in the Gray Whale Inn series
by Karen MacInerney
mystery 2017
Kindle
finished 1/13/18
American writer/American setting

2. The Young Clementina
by DE Stevenson
fiction 1935
Kindle
finished 1/8/18
Scottish writer/English setting

1. Brooklyn Wars - book 4 in the Erica Donato series
by Triss Stein
mystery 2017
Kindle
finished 1/4/18
American writer/American setting

I've thought for a while that Iceland might be my true home - this confirms it

Forget hygge. This is the word we book lovers are interested in - Jolabokaflod. I just read about it here.

There's an article here from a few years ago. Still another here.

Imagine living in a country of readers. Imagine living in a country where, when you are selling your house, the realtor does not suggest you take your books off the shelves. (Yes, I've heard of this)

And then there is this article from here. Sets me dreaming, I'll tell ya.

Iceland: Where one in 10 people will publish a book

By Rosie GoldsmithBBC News, Reykjavik

• 14 October 2013

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It is hard to avoid writers in Reykjavik. There is a phrase in Icelandic, "ad ganga med bok I maganum", everyone gives birth to a book. Literally, everyone "has a book in their stomach". One in 10 Icelanders will publish one.Iceland is experiencing a book boom. This island nation of just over 300,000 people has more writers, more books published and more books read, per head, than anywhere else in the world.

"Does it get rather competitive?" I ask the young novelist, Kristin Eirikskdottir. "Yes. Especially as I live with my mother and partner, who are also full-time writers. But we try to publish in alternate years so we do not compete too much."

Special saga tours - saga as in story, that is, not over-50s holidays - show us story-plaques on public buildings.

Dating from the 13th Century, Icelandic sagas tell the stories of the country's Norse settlers, who began to arrive on the island in the late 9th Century.

Sagas are written on napkins and coffee cups. Each geyser and waterfall we visit has a tale of ancient heroes and heroines attached. Our guide stands up mid-tour to recite his own poetry - our taxi driver's father and grandfather write biographies.

Public benches have barcodes so you listen to a story on your smartphone as you sit.

Reykjavik is rocking with writers. It is book festival time. Man Booker Prize winner Kiran Desai and Generation X author Douglas Coupland rub shoulders with Icelandic literary superstars Gerdur Kristny and Sjon. Sjon also pens lyrics for Bjork, Iceland's musical superstar.

"Writers are respected here," Agla Magnusdottir tells me. "They live well. Some even get a salary."

Magnusdottir is head of the new Icelandic Literature Centre, which offers state support for literature and its translation.

"They write everything - modern sagas, poetry, children's books, literary and erotic fiction - but the biggest boom is in crime writing," she says.

That is perhaps no surprise in this Nordic nation. But crime novel sales figures are staggering - double that of any of its Nordic neighbours.

So what has led to this phenomenal book boom? I would say it is due to a crop of darn good writers, telling riveting tales with elegant economy and fantastic characters.

Icelandic sagas

First written down in the 13th century, the sagas contain some of the richest and most extraordinary writing of the Middle Ages.

They often depict events known from the early years of Icelandic history, although there is much debate as to how much of their content is factual.

Full of heroes, feuds and outlaws, with a smattering of ghosts and trolls, the sagas inspired writers including Sir Walter Scott, William Morris and WH Auden.

Listen: Radio 4's In Our Time on sagas

Iceland's black lava riverbeds, its steaming, bubbling earth, with its towering volcanoes and fairytale streams also make it the perfect setting for stories.

No wonder JRR Tolkien and Seamus Heaney were entranced and Unesco designates Reykjavik a City of Literature.

Solvi Bjorn Siggurdsson, a tall, Icelandic-sweater-clad novelist, says writers owe a lot to the past.

"We are a nation of storytellers. When it was dark and cold we had nothing else to do," he says. "Thanks to the poetic eddas and medieval sagas, we have always been surrounded by stories. After independence from Denmark in 1944, literature helped define our identity."

Siggurdsson pays homage to Iceland's Nobel Literature Laureate, Halldor Laxness, whose books are sold in petrol stations and tourist centres across the island. Locals name their cats after Laxness and make pilgrimages to his home.

"When Laxness won the Nobel prize in 1955 he put modern Icelandic literature on the map," Solvi tells me. "He gave us confidence to write."

A combination of ash and the crash also put Iceland on the map.

The financial crisis - or "kreppa" - of 2008, which helped trigger the world economic crash, came first. The ash cloud from one of Iceland's many active volcanoes created a second in 2010.

"It made us less complacent and gave artists a creative shot in the arm - as Thatcher did for Britain," he grins. "We address politics too - it is not all about sagas."Hallgrimur Helgason - comedian, painter and writer - tells me the kreppa brought Icelanders down to earth.

But some fear a book kreppa, too. Iceland has so many writers there is huge pressure on publishers.

This time of year sees the "jolabokaflod", or Christmas Book Flood, when most books are published.

About now every household gets a book catalogue through the door. They pore over it like a furniture catalogue. Everyone receives books as Christmas presents - hardback and shrink-wrapped.

"Even now, when I go the hairdressers," Kristin Vidarsdottir, manager of the Unesco City of Literature project, says, "they do not want celebrity gossip from me but recommendations for Christmas books."

But it is a lock of blue hair which alerts me to the presence of Iceland's most famous celebrity. The singer Bjork attends several of the festival events.

"It is great to see you supporting writers," I say to her.

"It is a small place. We have grown up together," she replies. "We support each other."

If Bjork was, once upon a time, Iceland's biggest cultural brand, she is today joined by a whole bokaflod of authors.

Today's picture/Chimney decorations

From Christmas: the childhood stockings. The alike ones from a local yarn shop, way before the current knitting craze, and Michael's from a church fair, bought by his step-grandmother, Anna.

From the new year: a slate picture of garlic Margaret gave us a long time ago, and a Pontiac hubcap Tom gave me, also a long time ago, because my father sold Pontiacs. "Dollar for dollar, you can't beat a Pontiac." And then our two cast iron pans.

Trying something new - a home video

I have seen a little video icon next to the photograph one, and I thought I'd give it a try. I put this on my Facebook page today. This is the side yard, off the kitchen door. I fed the birds and they were just beginning to come to the feeders.

On this Christmas Eve

Just the words, 'Christmas Eve' give me a feeling of warmth, contentment, peace. When we are parents of young children - those are probably the most wonderful of all Christmas Eves. The little ones have gone to bed early and are so incredibly excited for the morning. The parents are often up late, putting together toys and wrapping the presents from Santa Claus.

Two grandchildren stories from today. These are the words my daughter-in-law, Estée wrote on Facebook:

Conversation between Campbell and I regarding cookies for Santa 
Me: I can’t wait to make cookies and leave them out for Santa tonight! 
Campbell: So Santa eats cookies at every house he goes to? 
Me: Yes, he needs the energy to fly all over the world to deliver gifts. 
Campbell: That's a lot of cookies. Too many cookies aren’t good for your body. 
Me: Well that’s right. Should we leave something else for Santa then? 
Campbell: Yes I think probably chips and hummus. 

Tonight Santa Claus will be pleasantly surprised by our offerings of cookies, and chips with hummus.

Isn't that just so delightful. It warmed the hearts of his grandparents, that's for sure.

And then this evening, a text from Margaret:

First night ever, Hazel told me to shh and not sing to her. She 'had to go to sleep.' Santa is serious biz.

Made the Nana cry to read those words.

We are expecting quite a big Christmas snow so Michael and Estée and the boys won't be coming up tomorrow. Tom and I will walk down the hill to Margaret and Matthew and Hazel's house and will celebrate with them. On another day, when the roads are good, we'll have our Christmas with the rest of the clan.

I'm feeling quite like Gladys Taber tonight as I sit alone in the living room with the Christmas tree and all the decorations and books surrounding me. I wish I had her gift with words, but I shall simply wish all my dear readers, my faithful readers the most wonderful Christmas and the very best of New Years.

Stillmeadow - December

Gladys begins her December chapter with words all too familiar to those of us who live in the country.

Living in the country in winter is not easy. It is not simply sitting by a log fire and reading that good book. It is no life for lazy people. 

She goes on to talk about being "snowed in" and losing power. She says the local people call it "the electric."  I have a very vague memory of that term being used when I was a kid, but I sure haven't heard it for ages.

It is never made very clear about when the husbands of Gladys and her friend, called "Jill" in the books, stop becoming part of the scene. I believe both couples broke up. There is one mention in this book of "urging my husband to bring in more wood."

Gladys has wonderful neighbors who do a lot of the strong-arm chores. Even though they have help, I greatly admire these women moving to what was then a kind of wilderness. I imagine Gladys' Connecticut like in the old movies such as Christmas in Connecticut and Bringing Up Baby - rural and remote. In her time it was becoming 'discovered' by various writers and celebrities looking for a simpler, quieter way of life.

and if there is anything a city-dweller can have half as pleasant as a filled woodshed, I know not what it would be.

And all these years later, I still feel this way. We don't have a woodshed, but we have a woodpile, and it is as good as money in the bank. Whatever weather comes our way, we can be warm.

Some people cut, split, and pile it themselves. Some buy it cut and split so just have to pile it. In the over forty years we've burned wood, we've done it both ways. Some years we've gotten log length wood and both cut it and split it. Some years we get cut, but unsplit. This year we got cut and split because there was a lot of work to do, and there wasn't the time to get wood ready.

Tom has a step-uncle who lives nearby. He is in his early eighties, and still puts up his own wood. He loves the work. He scoffs at old friends who hire people to do their yard work and then go to a gym for exercise. He would rather get his exercise doing real, necessary work.

Gladys writes of snow:

When the first snow arrives, I really give myself up to winter. The air comes cold and sharp and there is a quickening in the blood, a feeling that the seasons are rolling around quite the way they should, and all is well. 

 But in the city, snow is looked at quite differently.

In the city the street-cleaning department looks on snow as a crisis. There is always a terrible to-do over snow in New York. One would think New York was a tropical city, and snow an unheard-of phenomenon. Generally, before the snow is carted away there are various battles. The head of one department accuses the head of another department of inefficiency. Taxpayers write in to the papers about their streets. The mayor issues orders to car owners. The taxis never have chains; they skid into one another and the drivers get out and shout furiously. The snow is loaded in trucks with machines like hay loaders. Finally, as the last load roars away, the weather turns warm and it rains.

Because these essays were written during and after the Second World War, there are occasional mentions of the unease of those years.

Christmas is almost upon us before we get over Thanksgiving. Many simple folk like me are thinking long thoughts as we wrap the packages. We are still waiting for peace. We are insecure, when we have won the war. Civil conflicts exist everywhere, peoples are still starving, Labor and Management are embroiled in half the world. Nations still argue unsolved issues. Race prejudice snakes along every hidden byway.

Gladys' "long thoughts" focus on what individuals can do to make the world better. Loving one another, teaching tolerance to children, having faith in "all the human beings of tomorrow." She is a woman much like any of us today. We hope for the best, we try our best, we try to not get discouraged. There are always more good people than not even if they are never reported on in the news.

I came back from a trip to New York, tired and anxious about all those things which pile up when a housewife goes away. One of those lovely, early snows had been falling for hours, and I drove through a kind of lacy twilight down the winter road. I saw my friend walking away from Stillmeadow along the shadowy path, and she waved and said she had been to the house. I drove on, and there was the house in the sweet twilight of snow, and on the door the Christmas wreath she had carried over and put up. Deep green of pine, cinnamon brown of cones, a spray of gay little bells, and a flash of rosy ribbon.

"This," I thought, "is what I mean by Christmas! To come home, after absence, and find the gracious thoughtfulness expressed, the good and gracious warmth of friendship." 

All the books of 2017 - part two

Part one is here. 

9. I haven't read any books with a 'magical' setting.

10. As with # 2, I don't keep track of pages, but probably Jacqueline Winspear's In This Grave Hour.

11. From the first minute I read about Magpie Murders, I knew I wanted to read it, and that I would love it. I bought it from The Book Depository in November 2016 and read it ten months later. That's a long wait for something I couldn't wait to read!

12. I didn't finish any series this year.

13. I definitely read more mysteries than any other genre. This year I've read a lot of old ones, which I love.

14. Don't know what my last read of the year will be.

15. Favorite reads, in no particular order, would be:
How Many Camels Are There in Holland? Dementia, ma, and me by Phyllida Law
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
Stir: My Broken Brain and the Meals That Brought Me Home by Jessica Fechtor
The Song of Hartgrove Hall by Natasha Solomons
The Perfect Summer by Juliet Nicolson
The House of Unexpected Sisters by Alexander McCall Smith
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey

This has been a fun little activity. I hope to write a follow-up to my Half a Year's Reading post here, but we'll see how the time goes.

Today's picture and a Simenon quote

Outside the wind was still blowing from the north, and the daylight was uniformly cool and hard with, however, behind the massed cloud, a hint of yellow, which was like a promise of sunshine.

From the story, Seven Small Crosses in a Notebook
by Georges Simenon

Cookie Bars

Eleven years ago this month, when I'd been writing for just a couple weeks, I posted a recipe for Magic Cookie Bars. As delicious as they taste, I don't make them very often because they stick to the pan. They've cracked and broken as I've tried to remove them. But from watching the British cooking shows, The Great British Bake Off and The Big Family Cooking Showdown I've learned about parchment paper.

I've owned some for ages but used it for only a roasted potatoes dish. Why haven't I tried it for brownies, etc.? I have no idea.

This recipe is a variation on the one I posted. You may find it here. I chose to not use any nuts, and honestly we like the taste better.

First line a 9x13 pan with parchment paper. I cut off the excess.

Melt 3/4 cup butter on low temperature.

While it is melting, put one packet of graham crackers

in a plastic bag and roll them out to make crumbs.

Mix the crumbs with the melted butter and put in pan. Pour over the top one 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk.

Mix together 1 1/3 cups of chocolate chips with 1 1/3 cups coconut. I've begun using Guittard because of the non-GMO lecithin and the fair trade cocoa. Plus, they are delicious. I'd only heard of Ghiradelli but this is another San Francisco company that has been around for ages.

Sprinkle the chips and coconut mixture on top of the condensed milk.

Bake in a pre-heated 350º f. oven for 25-30 minutes.

I made these for Hazel and Tom's 4th and 67th birthdays this year, and they were much loved by all!

Just to be sure they were good before posting the recipe, I made them a couple other times lately!!

To have some food fun, visit Weekend Cooking this week and every week!

All the Books of 2017

I saw this on a fellow blogger's instagram, and was immediately interested.

I thought I'd do a few days at a time.

1. My first book of the year was Dead Sand, the first in the Lewis Cole series by Brendan DuBois. I wrote a bit about this series here. I love these books. I love the way the author writes. Pure pleasure reading them.

2. I don't jot down the number of pages in the books I read so I'm not positive, but I think the Little Book of Hygge was probably the shortest.

3. I can't really answer in the 'best sequel' category because I read so many series books. I'm always reading a sequel it seems, and I like them all so much that I continue on.

4. My favorite cover is the book I'm reading right now.

It is a photograph done by Keystone-France/Gamma Rapho. It is such a beautiful view of Paris where this collection of Christmas stories is set.

5. Ah, new to me favorite authors. Such a good year for this category. Brendan DuBois, Natasha Solomons, Josephine Tey, and Basil Thomson.

6. A tie for beautifully written book - one fiction, The Song of Hartgrove Hall by Natasha Solomons and one nonfiction, The Perfect Summer 1911, Just Before the Storm by Juliet Nicolson.

7. New favorite characters would have to be Lewis Cole and Inspector Richardson in the Brendan DuBois and Basil Thomson books.

8. I reread two books. Battles at Thrush Green by Miss Read and A Rumpole Christmas by John Mortimer. These are two of my all time favorite authors and it is always a joy to reread any of their books.

I'll come back and do the rest in a later post.

She likes the vac!

I'm very happy with my new Shark vacuum!

1. Even though I thought I wanted bags, I'm loving the ease of emptying the bagless vacuum. I couldn't change the bag in my old one. It was too complicated for me, so Tom did it. Also, no more expense for bags. I usually used one+ every time I vacuumed.

2. Hose is softer and more pliable than my old one.

3. Controls are simple and clear, and not many of them. In fact, the whole design is simple.

4. Easy to change it from doing bare floors to rugs.

5. Much lighter to carry up the stairs.

6. It is noisy, but I expect it has to be to be able to pick up dirt. Suction is good.

So, a great success!

The chosen vacuum

This is what I ordered today after reading your comments, and reading many reviews on the internet. I'll report back when I've tried it out. It is still a minor miracle to me that I can click a button and in two days a new vacuum will arrive at Windy Poplars Farm.

Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away Canister Vacuum (NR96)

Back again asking for vacuum recommendations

I first asked you about vacuums 7 1/2 years ago! Here is the post. Then I bought one, which I wrote about here. Well, I can't tell you exactly how long that vac lasted but I do know that we've had three or four more since then.They break, they don't work, blah, blah, blah. I can't remember all the companies.

I am 7 1/2 years older and and more tired. I hate hauling out the vacuum and dragging it around for hours. I am not an everyday vacuum-er. I like to do it once a week and be done.

I want a light vacuum.

I want a quiet one.

I want bags. I've tried the bagless kind and emptying them was a huge mess.

I want a canister. I can't lift the uprights.

I have a yellow Labrador retriever - the 365/24/7 shedder! As long as we are healthy, this is the only breed we ever want despite that one little problem! So, I need a really tough vacuum.

I am willing to spend the big bucks if all my criteria are met.

Many commenters on the earlier post recommended Dyson, but I've read negative things about that brand, too. I expect there are new models that have come on the market. I've been all over the internet and have some ideas, but I would really like it if you could tell me what you have (and love and hate).

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration. And sorry to bother you yet again!

If I sound agitated, that's because I am. Yet another vac went kaput today.

Stillmeadow - November

I've embarked on a year long reading adventure - Gladys Taber's The Book of Stillmeadow.

It is set up in monthly chapters, and that's how I'm going to read the book. I did much the same thing in 2011-2012 when I wrote about a book by Gladys and another by Rachel Peden. You may find those posts under A Year with Gladys and Rachel.

The book begins in November. Though so many people don't care for this month, it is one of my favorite times of year. I like the opening up of the woods, the quiet, the early darkness. Outdoor work isn't calling me and I can focus more on the inside, both of the house and my own inner self. It is a time for reflection.

I'm reading a 1984 reissue copy of The Book of Stillmeadow. It was originally published in 1948. The copyrights listed go from 1937 through 1947.

There is an introduction telling the reader how Gladys Taber ended up at this old farm in Connecticut that she named Stillmeadow. It's a lovely name, don't you think?

I've always loved books about city people who pull up stakes and move to the country to make a life there. Mostly they don't have a clue what they're doing, and yet they daily come to learn all they need to know. I believe the first series of books I read about this was Derek Tangye's books about moving to the Cornish coast and growing flowers. I mentioned him in one of my early postings. If you've not heard of him, this is a good starting place, and there's a wonderful Facebook page.

Gladys and her friend, called Jill in the books, were both married with children and living in New York City apartments when they began to dream about a place in the country. They thought at first that it would be a weekend place, but it became their life and the source of Gladys' many writings over the years.

I began to keep a kind of diary the year we found Stillmeadow. There were so many things we wanted not to forget and the family liked a journal to refer to. Sometimes it was recipes, directions for doing over the old furniture we had bought at the auction, notes about the puppies. And sometimes it was my own thoughts, a record of country living. It turned out to be a kind of potpourri of happenings at Stillmeadow.

And after nine years, it was filling so many scrapbooks that the cupboard was full. So I made a selection of the parts that would represent our life in the country and copied it out - a staggering task.

And now we have the Book of Stillmeadow.

As she begins the November entry, I was rather amazed to read something quite similar to what I wrote in my very first blog post. Had I read it in another Gladys' book, or did I come up with that thought myself??

At night, little faraway houses, never seen in summer, suddenly prick the dark with their lamps. 

She writes, "All the browns, a thousand browns, come out. Rust-brown, sand-brown, topaz-brown, and the faded gold of harvest fields." And she notes that in her Connecticut hills, "This is a peaceful, serene land, and never quite so peaceful as now, with the crops in, wood piled high, houses snugged down, brooks running slow with leaves. The days grow shorter. Dusk comes before we are finished with the day."

I think that's it. With all our capabilities and determination, we are still ruled by the natural world at least to some extent. I rather love it that I am not in charge of how long the daylight lasts. Even with a headlamp, or barn lights, you aren't going to pile wood. You are stopped. If we give November a chance, it can change us in profound ways by giving us the opportunity to look deep and maybe change some things that need to be changed. Things we don't even think about when the sun shines and "the livin' is easy."

In all her writings Gladys moves back and forth from her own personal world to the world at large. When she watched the sun going down,

My heart got to aching for all the sad people all over the world. I wanted so terribly to share the color and the peace and the serene fall of evening and the clean cold air coming up from the water. And I wanted families together, going quietly home at night. This, I thought, is what we must have in this world again, somehow. Not power and glory, not magnificence. Only freedom for folk to work and be at peace in their own lands.

She warns against "things."

Happiness is not upholstered in velvet, nor lighted by the push of a button. If we start a new wild scramble for material luxury, we shall begin a toboggan slide to destruction. I do believe in pleasant living, as much as our means afford - but I wish we could chart a modest course between overelegance and simplicity.

All these decades later and we are still striving. As the Talking Heads wrote, "Same as it ever was." Gladys Taber is a woman for all seasons and all ages. Her words are as meaningful today as when she wrote them. She offers solace and hope to the reader by showing us her deep and basic humanity, and her knowledge of what is important.

The house was warm and inviting when we got home, and smelled of bayberry and burning apple wood. And white moonlight began to sift through the windows. This time of year has so much comfort in it, when all is said and done.