A DREAM COME TRUE

My friend Sonia stopped in for a visit on Super Bowl Sunday.  She was travelling from Florida to Massachusetts, and she wanted to come see some old familiar sites, as it's been a while since she left the area.  It was really nice to see her, and we had a great time catching up with each other.

After the initial meet-and-greet in my kitchen, we moved into the living room by way of the dining room.  Sonia noticed the three very full bookcases at the end of the dining room and asked about them. 

"Those are the books I have listed for sale on amazon.com," I replied.

This huge grin lit up her face, and she said, "You finally got your bookstore!"

I was dumbfounded.  All this time I've been picturing my dream of owning my own bookstore as a building with bricks and mortar, feeling sorry for myself for not having achieved it when it had already come true, and I simply never recognized it.  I have got my bookstore, just not in the way I imagined it would be.

How many times has God answered my prayers or granted my wishes and I didn't see it because I was too focused on how I thought things should be?  How many signs have I missed because my eyes were blind to anything other than my vision? 

I'm trying to see the world with new eyes now, with an open heart and a listening spirit.

My dream has already come true.

THE BOOKS OF 2011

The Books of 2011

I'm quite disappointed in myself for the leanest reading year I've had in a long time. Confound that stupid Pioneer Trail, anyway! I read 146 books, totalling 40,885 pages, with an average page count of 280 pages per book. This is my worst finish since I began keeping track, and probably ever. I did get myself tangled up with 33oo+ pages of Louisa May Alcott's Works, which took nearly forever to read and neatly underlined why I have a tendency to avoid really long books--the more pages there are, the slower I read, despite any other mitigating factors such as how interested I am in the material, how big the print is, or how easy it is to read.

I could read a lot more if I stuck to shorter books, but I hate getting engrossed in a story only to have it end. That's probably why I'm so attached to series. My ideal book is about 300 pages. I try to keep my page average at 300, but it's hard when I read so many shorter books or listen to books on tape (where I count the book but not the page total for a number of reasons, such as how do you keep track of page total in an abridged edition? and because I listen to books almost exclusively when I'm driving--so I'm getting the benefit of listening to a book and keeping myself amused while doing something I don't especially enjoy). I also read a TON of storybooks in 2011, after spending the first half of the year in a second grade classroom and the last half of the year in an autism classroom. So there's a lot of reading that goes unaccounted for, except on my shelfari. I don't count magazines, either, and I do read a lot of those, but I'm not as OCD as I used to be about reading every article in every magazine I pick up.

Anyway, here's the list of what I read in 2011, with title, author, and page count. Feel free to comment!

JANUARY

New Chronicles of Rebecca--Kate Douglas Wiggin (277)
The Birds' Christmas Carol--Kate Douglas Wiggin (56)
Midnight Crystal--Jayne Ann Krentz (320)
The Maze Runner--James Dashner (393)
There and Now--Linda Lael Miller (248)
Weep Not, Child--Ngugi (136)
1st to Die--James Patterson (471)
Prayers for Sale--Sandra Dallas (305)
Promises to Keep--Karen Harper (376)
Kingdom Come--Gwen Davis (160)
The Witchcraft of Salem Village--Shirley Jackson (156)
The Darkest Edge of Dawn--Kelly Gay (374)
Lawn Boy--Gary Paulsen (89)
Gathering Blue--Lois Lowry (229)

FEBRUARY

Heart Change--Robin D. Owens (368)
Straight from the Hip--Susan Mallery (313)
Hot on Her Heels--Susan Mallery (376)
Blessed Is the Busybody--Emilie Richards (265)
The Undomestic Goddess--Sophie Kinsella, read by Katherine Kellgren (AUD)
Ecstasy in Darkness--Gena Showalter (502)
Cries from the Earth--Terry C. Johnston, read by Robert Foxworth (AUD)
The Young Oxford Book of Aliens--Dennis Pepper, editor (212)
Thunder Ice--Alison Acheson (145)
The Clockwork Three--Matthew J. Kirby (391)
Heart Journey--Robin D. Owens (354)

MARCH

A Time to Kill--John Grisham, read by Michael Beck (AUD)
Gods in Alabama--Joshilyn Jackson, read by Catherine Taber (AUD)
Matilda--Roald Dahl (240)
Fancy--Norah Hess (307)
Fancy Pants--Susan Elizabeth Phillips (497)
Billy Creekmore--Tracey Porter (311)
Singer in the Snow--Louise Marley (304)
Blue Dahlia--Nora Roberts, read by Susie Breck (AUD)
Danger Guys Hit the Beach--Tony Abbott (81)
Tornado--Betsy Byars (49)
Godzilla Ate My Homework--Marcia Thornton Jones (64)
Danger Guys Blast Off--Tony Abbott (78)
Dracula Is a Pain in the Neck--Elizabeth Levy (74)
Greetings from Nowhere--Barbara o'Connor (200)
The Diamond of Darkhold--Jeanne duPrau (285)

APRIL

Evermore--Alyson Noel, read by Katie Schorr (AUD)
Death Sentence--Jerry Bledsoe (419)
The Random House Book of Easy-to-Read Stories (251)
Ruthie's Gift--Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (164)
Stories to Tell a 5-Year-Old--Alice Low (147)
Wolves--Carolyn Otto (48)
The Worst Day of My Life--Bill Cosby (40)
The King of Torts--John Grisham, read by Dennis Boutsikaris (AUD)
Tomb with a View--Casey Daniels (292)
Speak--Laurie Halse Anderson (198)
Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball--Donita K. Paul (227)
Quest for a Maid--Frances Mary Hendry (273)
The Hundred Dresses--Eleanor Estes (79)
Presidential Pets--Laura Driscoll (64)

MAY

The Search--Nora Roberts (472)
Freckle Juice--Judy Blume (47)
The Gollywhopper Games--Jody Feldman (315)
The Doll in the Garden--Mary Downing Hahn (128)
A Veiled Deception--Annette Blair (246)
Larceny and Lace--Annette Blair (288)
The Bargain--Francis Ray (348)
Sarah Bishop--Scott O'Dell (231)
Water for Elephants--Sara Gruen (350)
Secondhand Spirits--Juliet Blackwell (325)
Listening for Leroy--Betsy Hearne (211)
What Child Is This?--Caroline B. Cooney (150)
Here to Stay--Catherine Anderson (422)
The Adventures of Captain Underpants--Dav Pilkey (123)

JUNE

19 Steps Up the Mountain--Joseph P. Blank (234)
The Searching Hearts--Dorothy Garlock (376)
Ralph S. Mouse--Beverly Cleary (160)
A Taste of Magic--Tracy Madison (292)
Big Trouble--Marianna Jameson (418)
The Girl Most Likely To...--Susan Donovan (340)
Ghost Liners: Exploring the World's Greatest Lost Ships--Robert D. Ballard (64)
A Game of Thrones--George R. R. Martin (854)
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah--Richard Bach (192)
The Sugar Queen--Sarah Addison Allen (276)
The Persian Pickle Club--Sandra Dallas (196)
Bubbles Unbound--Sarah Strohmeyer (341)
I'm in No Mood for Love--Rachel Gibson (373)
Nowhere Near Respectable--Mary Jo Putney (390)
Horrible Harry in Room 2b--Suzy Kline (56)
Two Tickets to Freedom--Florence B. Freedman (96)
The Boy Trap--Nancy Matson (108)
Sweetheart, Indiana--Suzanne Simmons (324)
Phi Beta Bimbo--Trish Jensen (336)

JULY

Nothing But Trouble--Rachel Gibson (377)
The Bride's House--Sandra Dallas (374)
The Girl Who Chased the Moon--Sarah Addison Allen (292)
True Confessions--Rachel Gibson (376)
Promise Bridge--Eileen Clymer Schwab (418)
Full Dark, No Stars--Stephen King (368)
Becoming Georgia--Emily Carmichael (327)
Intertwined--Gena Showalter (442)
The Finishing Touches--Hester Browne (427)
Promises to the Dead--Mary Downing Hahn (202)
Semi-Homemade Slow Cooker Recipes--Sandra Lee (233)
The Divide--Nicholas Evans (499)
Roadside Prey--Alva Busch (306)

AUGUST

Sarah's Key--Tatiana de Rosnay (305)
The Host--Stephenie Meyer (619)
If You Lived at the Time of the Civil War--Kay Moore (64)
If You Lived in Colonial Times--Ann McGovern (80)
If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620--Ann McGovern (80)
Thunder from the Clear Sky--Marcia Sewall (56)
If You Grew Up with Abraham Lincoln--Ann McGovern (79)
Willie, the Frog Prince--C. S. Adler (163)

SEPTEMBER

Black Blade Blues--J. A. Pitts (369)
Smokin' Seventeen--Janet Evanovich (308)
The Anything Box--Zenna Henderson (191)
Life As We Knew It--Susan Pfeffer (337)
The Dead & the Gone--Susan Beth Pfeffer (326)
Out of This World--Jill Shalvis (298)
Timepiece--Richard Paul Evans (236)
Hundreds of Years to Reform a Rake--Laurie Brown (391)
Texas Rain--Jodi Thomas (374)
North American Racer Snakes--Adele D. Richardson (48)
Kindergarten Read-Aloud Anthology--Harcourt (144)
Surprise--Houghton Mifflin (220)
This World We Live In--Susan Beth Pfeffer (239)

OCTOBER

Ghost Cadet--Elaine Marie Alphin (182)
Heart Search--Robin D. Owens (351)
Christmas at Timberwoods--Fern Michaels (362)
Dark Moon, Lost Lady--Elsie Lee (173)
Works of Louisa May Alcott (3,355)
Life Sentences--Laura Lippman (457)

NOVEMBER

The Unquiet--J.D. Robb, Mary Blayney, Patricia Gaffney, Ruth Ryan Langan, and Mary Kay McComas (408)
The Comforts of Home--Jodi Thomas (328)
Parasyte 1--Hitoshi Iwaaki (281)

DECEMBER

Freckles--Gene Stratton-Porter (238)
The Things a Brother Knows--Dana Reinhardt (245)
The Lost Children--Carolyn Cohagan (313)
Jokelopedia--Ilana Weitzman, Eva Blank, Alison Benjamin, and Rosanne Green (278)
Gabriel's Angel--Nora Roberts (288)
Finding Noel--Richard Paul Evans (305)
The Christmas Hope--Donna Van Liere (213)
Dead Reckoning--Charlaine Harris (325)
Emmy and the Home for Troubled Girls--Lynne Jonell (377)
My Best Friend's Girl--Dorothy Koomson
Magyk--Angie Sage (431)
The Truth About Forever--Sarah Dessen (393)
Jingle Boy--Kieran Scott (230)

TOTAL: 146 books, 40,885 pages

FRENCH TOAST CASSEROLE

I've made this recipe for parties and it's always very well received. It's pretty easy to make, and very flexible when it comes to type of bread, fruit, or nuts used. (A variation I like is to use cherries and almonds, and substitute almond extract for the vanilla.) I have one in the oven right now, which I made with sourdough bread and dried mixed berries.

If you're like me and forget to put something together the night before, just add a couple of extra eggs. Combine the egg mixture with the bread in an airtight bowl and shake it around for a couple of minutes so the bread absorbs the liquid, then carry on as if you'd just pulled it out of the fridge. The key is to make sure the bread is soaked through so it will bake soft rather than crunchy.

This is great to pull out of the fridge on Christmas morning, pop into the oven while opening presents, and have ready to eat when the kids are looking for the next thing to do. A sprinkle of cinnamon over the top is never amiss. Enjoy!

FRENCH TOAST CASSEROLE

1 loaf French bread, cubed or sliced
5 eggs
2-1/2 c. milk
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 c. chopped pecans
1/4 c. butter, melted
1/4 c. brown sugar
2 c. fresh or frozen blueberries

1. Arrange bread in greased 13 x 9 pan.

2. Combine eggs, milk, brown sugar, vanilla, and nutmeg; pour over bread. Cover; refrigerate overnight.

3. Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking; sprinkle with pecans. Combine butter and brown sugar; drizzle over casserole. Bake at 400* F for 25 minutes. Sprinkle blueberries on top; bake 10 minutes more until knife in center comes out clean. Makes 6 servings.

CHICKEN TETRAZZINI

I made this recipe for dinner last night, with a few moderations, and it was a big hit. I left out the mushrooms, as we have two fungi-haters here, but substituted frozen spinach. I had no sherry, so I used marsala instead, and that seemed to work well. I also used a full cup of half-and-half, and substituted Colby Jack for the swiss cheese. Additionally, I used up the rest of my French's fried onions (you know, the ones from that green bean casserole everybody makes at Thanksgiving) by sprinkling them around the edges of the dish, and I sprinkled paprika across the parmesan before I put the dish in the oven.

I guess I actually made a different recipe from this one, when it comes right down to it, but it tasted yummy, regardless. I would double this recipe, though, because it was barely sufficient to feed three hungry people. Maybe with side dishes and bread or salad it would be enough, but on its own, we'd have been hungry if my son had been home for dinner.

CHICKEN TETRAZZINI

3 T butter
1 8-ounce package sliced mushrooms
1 tsp. chopped garlic
1 14-ounce can chicken broth
1 1.8-ounce package white sauce mix (I used Bearnaise)
1/2 c. half-and-half
2 T sherry
1 c. shredded Swiss cheese
4 oz. dried spaghetti, broken in half
2 c. cubed, cooked chicken
1/4 c. grated parmesan

1. Preheat oven to 325* F. Butter a 2-quart casserole; set aside.

2. Mewlt remaining butter. Add mushrooms and garlic; cook and stir till mushrooms are soft. Transfer to bowl; set aside.

3. In same pan, bring broth and sauce mix to a boil. Add half-and-half and sherry. Stir in cheese until melted.

4. Add pasta to pan. Cook 8-10 minutes until pasta is al dente. Stir in mushrooms and chicken.

5. Transfer to casserole. Sprinkle with parmesan. Bake 30 minutes until heated through. Makes 6 servings.

DRAWN TO HISTORY

I think all of us who love history are drawn to certain times and places. Conversely, there are eras and locales that we instinctively shy away from for various reasons. We accumulate facts and details and are knowledgable about arcane bits of information that most people are completely unaware of.

For instance, if you have ever looked at dolls' hands, you may have wondered why they were molded the way they were, with the middle and ring fingers together and slightly curved inward toward the palm, while the index finger and pinkie were apart and mostly straight. Well, Godey's Lady's Book, the most popular magazine in America in the mid-1800's, had voluminous advice on how fashionable women carried themselves, whether seated, standing, or moving, right down to the way they held their hands. This position I've described was how one was supposed to hold one's hands while at rest. Dolls were designed to reflect the height of fashion, including the positioning of their hands and fingers, and that particular model has been in use right up until the present.

How do I know this? I read it in a book. Why do I remember it? Heaven only knows.

I tend to be drawn to times of hardship and rigor. I'm fascinated by historical tragedies of any kind, from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius to the Pilgrims' first year to the Donner party to the Titanic. I'm currently attracted to stories of America in the 1930s, especially the Dust Bowl and stories about how people made it through the Depression. My fascination with true crime makes this an interesting era for me, what with all the gangsters and Prohibition.

I also feel an affinity with Regency England. I don't know if it's something organic within me, or if it grew from constant exposure, because all the women in my family read Regency romances by the hundreds.

I don't gravitate toward brother-vs.-brother times of strife. I enjoy reading about the Civil War, but I don't enjoy Civil War romances, where the heroine is on one side of the conflict and the hero on the other. Those types of stories never resolve seamlessly for me, because the reconciliation of diametrically opposite beliefs doesn't ring true. Also, I guess it's natural, given how the war ended, but you rarely find stories where the protagonists are both Southern and everything ends well. Those are always tragic stories of loss and retribution.

Some chunks of English history are less interesting to me than others. I'm fascinated by the Tudors, the Victorians, and the Edwardians. I'll read about any era, really, but those are my three favorites.

Another thing that can pull me out of a historical novel is the use of accents. Ah do not lahk zee foreign ax-ahnts written out phonetically. (This is another reason why I don't like Civil War stories; I think it's a bit patronizing for modern white writers to try to approximate what they think slaves might have sounded like.) I guess I want it both ways. I want to know if the characters have accents or particular speech patterns, but I don't want to have to sound them out.

I admire the research that authors put into their writing. I love authors who respect their readers enough to validate their information and create a convincing universe in which their readers can immerse themselves. I remember being in a writing class in college, and one girl had written a historical romance. (Should I say "an" historical romance?) At first the professor seemed inclined to praise the story, but my friend and I began to point out the historical inaccuracies, much to the other girl's dismay. When the professor asked her why she had so many mistakes and anachronisms, she threw up her hands and wailed, "I didn't think anyone would notice!" A lot of my classmates were upset with us for being so mean to someone else (and causing her to get a less-than-wonderful grade), but even then, I took writing very seriously. Readers do not like to be patronized, and it bugged even then that this girl would assume that romance readers would be too stupid to catch her errors.

People who read history, even light historical fiction, take their reading seriously. They know their stuff. They want to be entertained by writers who also know their stuff.

WRITERS' WORD CHOICES

I've been working a lot on my book the last few weeks. I'm about halfway through the manuscript, and my reading partners seem to like it well enough. One thing I'm very aware of as I write is word choice. My friend Sue pointed out that I used the word "palatable" three times in one chapter. I haven't gone back to edit it yet (it's still handwritten in pencil on a legal pad), but I'll be thinking about what I was trying to say and how I can change up my words so they won't stick in the reader's awareness and pull him or her out of the story.

When you write a book of 200 or more pages, naturally you're going to repeat a lot of words. The trick is not to repeat words or phrases in a way that readers notice. For instance, if you use a really unusual word, such as fungible (which describes commodities that can be traded to satisfy a contract), it makes sense to use it once and then find another word. Of course, since I was reading a thriller that involved embezzlement when I encountered that word several times, perhaps there wasn't another choice, but it really stuck out and subconsciously, I was almost counting how many times the author used it.

Phrases are something to be aware of, as well. I have a tendency to pick up words and phrases that I hear other people use, and I'll use them for a while until something newer and shinier catches my attention. When I'm writing, I try to be aware of repetition, so if I say someone looked like she'd swallowed her tongue, the next time I'm trying to describe a character's expression of shock or surprise, I'll be scouring the wordwork for something that says the same thing a different way.

On a recent drive back to Georgia from Naples, FL, my aunt and I listened to Evermore by Alyson Noel. Nearly every time the main character reacted to something, Noel used the phrase, "I pressed my lips." The first few times we heard it, it was pretty funny, but that phrase grew to be painful before we reached the end of the last CD. This was not the only thing the author repeated. Every time the heroine asked the hero a question he didn't want to answer, "he shrugged." Those two phrases really worked my nerves. I don't know if my reaction would have been different if I'd been reading the story rather than listening to it, but I suspect not, because that's the kind of thing I tend to notice. At any rate, much as I enjoyed the story itself, I could not bring myself to read the second book in the series.

Another peeve of mine is when authors use the wrong word. If someone does something on purpose, they did it purposely, NOT purposefully. I've seen that one a lot lately, and boy, does it grate. I also hate when authors spell celebrities' names wrong. Two I've seen lately are Steven King and Stephanie Meyer. (Should be Stephen and Stephenie.) And why, oh, why cannot people get the use of me vs. I straight? Billy and I went to the store. Mom gave the candy to Billy and me. If you're not sure which one to use, people, for heaven's sake, take out the other person and you'll know which pronoun to use. It's really simple.

Writing is not always easy, I'll be the first to admit that. A little extra work on the writer's part, however, will make it a lot more rewarding for the reader.

RECIPES ALL ON ONE PAGE, PLEASE!

One of my favorite hobbies is collecting recipes. I love to try new ways to put my favorite foods together, and I am a pretty good cook. I get my recipes from cookbooks and cooking magazines (especially those digest-sized ones you buy at the supermarket checkout line--love those!), newspapers, websites, and wherever else I can find them. I have been known to tear a recipe or ten out of a magazine in a doctor's waiting room (especially if they have several of the same magazine), and have gotten some of my favorite recipes that way.

The problem comes when magazines scatter a recipe across a couple of pages, especially when you have to turn to a completely different page (at the back) to find the rest of your recipe. I find that really annoying, mostly because I've made more mistakes in copying recipes or following them when I've had to flip back and forth. If I'm reading a recipe (whether I plan to clip it or not), I want to read it all in one chunk, without having to flip to another page to see how it will turn out. Cooking magazines keep a recipe in its entirety on one page, but many of the so-called "ladies' magazines" are guilty of splitting recipes up.

A recipe is not the same as an article about the latest trend in makeup, a short story, or any Kardashian's advice on relationships, the pitfalls or celebrity, or how to keep all that junk in the trunk. When I'm reading those, I'm perfectly willing to flip to the back of the magazine to finish reading. However, a recipe belongs on one page, ingredients and instructions united. The only exception to this is a photo of said recipe, which can appear on the next page. Anything else is just making life harder than it has to be for everyone involved, but particularly the person trying to follow the recipe.

Magazine editors, take note: Recipes on one page, please!