2023 Reading Challenge

I'm in a couple of virtual book clubs. One is Austen-related. The other is a local(ish) group managed by a shirt-tail relative of one of my friends. Here is this year's challenge:

1. Nonfiction book you know nothing about.

2. Book on New York Times bestseller list.

3. Book with a day of the week or month title.

4. Book with a person's name in the title.

5. Another read from an author you discovered.

6. Book that includes a map.

7. Book set in the 1990's.

8. Recommendation from a family member or BFF.

9. Book with Fate, Dream, Wish, Silver, or Dance in title.

10. Book set during summer.

11. Book with a number in the title.

12. Cozy mystery.

In other news, I'm keeping up with my January challenge for Zentangle and also with my Tangle A Day calendar. Knitting has been minimal but not non-existent this month. Thanks to all of the mountain cedar pollen, I'm using my inhaler every four hours and going through a little over one box of Puffs with lotion per week. I'm still dealing with intermittent food aversion, wherein I fix something that I know I like, take a few bites of it, and am suddenly done. I'm generally able to go back and polish off the leftovers within a day or two, but it's still more than a little unnerving.

That's all I've got for you today.

Books read in 2022

I've taken all of the books from the sidebar and copied them here to archive them.

1. 101 Things You Didn't Know about Jane Austen 3.5 stars

2. Magpie Murders 4.0 stars

3. Manga Classics: Sense and Sensibility 4.0 stars

4. The Mysteries of Udolpho (incredibly long audiobook) 2.5 - 3 stars

5. Atlas of the Heart (audiobook) 5.0 stars

6. When the Body Says NO: Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection 4.5 stars

7. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand (audiobook) 5.0 stars

8. I Have Been Buried Under Years of Dust: A Memoir of Autism and Hope (audiobook) 5.0 stars

9. French Braid (audiobook) 5.0 stars

10. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books 4.0 stars

11. From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life (audiobook) 5.0 stars

12. Vivid (Kindle) 5.0 stars

13. The Library of the Unwritten (vol. 1 in the Hell's Library series) - a re-read in preparation for vol. 2 - 5.0 stars

14. The Archive of the Forgotten (vol 2 in the Hell's Library series) 5.0 stars

15. The God of Lost Words (vol. 3 in the Hell's Library series) 5.0 stars

16. The Believer (Kindle) 4.75 stars

17. Jane Eyre (audiobook + print copy, for the French dialogue) 5.0 stars

18. Bookends: A memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature (library) 5.0 stars

19. The Lioness (audiobook) 4.0 stars 20.

Tuesdays with Morrie (audiobook) 5.0 stars

21. Bloomsbury Girls (library) 4.5 stars

22. The Jane Austen Society (library)4.5 stars

23. Come, Gentle Night (Kindle) 5.0 stars

24. Fool Me Twice (re-read; Kindle) 5.0 stars

25. Played for a Fool (Kindle) 5.0 stars

26. Rearview Mirror (Kindle) 5.0 stars

27. The Bookstore Sisters: A Short Story (Kindle) 5.0 stars

28. Peace Like A River (Kindle) 5.0 stars

29. Watching Amy (re-read; Kindle) 3.0 stars

30. Steal Like An Artist (re-read; Kindle) 4.0 stars

31. The Year We Stole Christmas (Kindle) 4.5 stars

32. On Edge: A Journey Through Anxiety (re-read; Kindle) 4.0 stars

I haven't completed any books for 2023 as yet. There's a Madeleine L'Engle classic that I'm not sure I've read before, which I'd begun reading here on my computer, and an audiobook on my phone. My goal is to read (or re-read) everything in both my Kindle stash and my Audible stash from oldest to newest and somehow wrangle both lists down to only show items which I've yet to read, without inadvertently deleting them. I'm reasonably sure there's a way to do that. I just don't know what it is at present, and I'd rather spend my spoons elsewhere.

I'm still croupy. The usual fall allergies have segued into a possible case of whatever virus is going around. I'm using my inhaler every four to six hours, drinking hot concoctions, eating spicy foods, etc., all to encourage the not-yet-infected contents of my sinuses to make like Elvis and leave the building. And, of course, the mountain cedar is now blooming.

I am so very thankful for my inhaler, which thanks to my Medicare Advantage plan is the only baseline prescription for which I am out of pocket, and for my reimbursement plan, which works differently than the one I had when I was working. This plan rolls over at the end of each year, so there is no "use it or lose it" penalty. I may very well end up with enough in that fund to cover cataract surgery in a few years or maybe even a liver transplant should I take up drinking again.

Which, of course, I am not going to do. Just in case you were worried.