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| A minute or two into 2017 looked like this |
As I suspected, I read far fewer books for pleasure in 2016 than most previous years and, sadly, there were very few I really enjoyed. New books by favorite writers left me pretty cold. Several I read left no lasting impression. An exception would be The Castle Cross The Magnet Carter which wins the prize for worst title but possibly best new read of the year (not including, of course, The Bond). Scanning through the list I see some fine books I'd forgotten reading: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was pretty darned good as was The Door. And, of course, I always enjoy Trollope. Some re-reads surprised me: The Once and Future King was less romp and more sombre than I remembered. Looking forward, I think maybe I'll spend more time with Mr Trollope in 2017. And I'm hoping to have Nowhere But North in my hands by Valentine's Day.
Books of 2016
Gigi and The Cat
The Goshawk
Three Men In A Boat
Underground Airlines
Out of Sheer Rage
Nutshell
In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower
The Castle Cross The Magnet Carter
Swann's Way
The Eyre Affair
The Plot Against America
Lab Girl
The Once and Future King
The Noise of Time
The Farthest Shore
The Tombs of Atuan
A Wizard of Earthsea
Mothering Sunday
The Color of Magic
Orley Farm
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
Ten Little Indians
I Am A Cat
Obabakoak
The Door
The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or the Roly Poly Pudding
Wrong About Japan
Here Is New York
Frances Johnson
The Ladies of Lyndon
Foma Gordeyev
Phineas Finn
The Cat Who Came In Off the Roof
Saraband
A Strangeness In My Mind
Maigret and the Loner
Can You Forgive Her?
And a half dozen outstanding narratives read (and reread) for work:
Tracking the Wild Coomba
Owl
My Old Man and the Mountain
The Bond
Night Naked
Sixty Meters to Anywhere
For the first time in my nearly forty years of living in Seattle, I was at Seattle Center proper at midnight last night and, by gosh, it was a good time. The crowd was pleasant; the music, once the fireworks got underway, was good (lots of Bowie, some Prince . . . you get the idea); and the fireworks were pretty swell. Interestingly, the weather was perfect until the last fireworks faded and then it started to sleet which happily turned into snow pretty quickly. If, indeed, how you spend New Years Eve is indicative of how your following year will be, I'll be worried about the future and imploring a divine being I don't necessarily believe in for some helpful intervention, but pretty darned content with my own situation. Not much new there . . .
And, since I finally got some images off my phone (thanks, Scott) so I could post the fireworks photo, I share three random "life in Seattle" snaps from the last month or so:
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| Snowmen cream puffs at Bakery Nouveau. So darned cute! |
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| Oh, how I love Seattle. The internet password at a local coffee shop. |
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| Waiting at the vet, I noticed this line: "Revolution is generally well-tolerated." If only. |
Wow. I've never gone to the Center to see the fireworks, as it combines three things I loathe -- crowds, cold, and loud noises. Glad to hear it can actually be enjoyed by some folks! Lovely photo, too.
ReplyDeleteI was tucked up in bed in comfort, reading Wodehouse, and didn't even bother to get up to see the display on TV. I'm just not that excited about 2017, I guess.
FYI, the library has four copies of "The Bond" on order and I am first in line for one!
I am pleased about "The Bond"--I hope you will like it. I've often been bed-bound by midnight; there's nothing wrong with Wodehouse to see the year out--or to prepare oneself for 2017.
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