Irene's (atozgrl) Reading 2023 - Part 3

^Mill at York State Historic Park in Tennessee - posted in honor of the book about Sgt. York that I read earlier this year - picture taken June 2023

Hello everyone! Welcome to my third thread of 2023.

I am new to this group, so we'll see how well I do toward making it to 75 books read in 2023. I don't know if I've ever completed that many books in one year. If I have, it certainly hasn't been since I was in college.

Since I haven't contributed to threads in LT over the years, here's a little about me. My name is Irene. I live in North Carolina. I'm a recently retired librarian, retired in the middle of last year. My work in the library was mostly with systems and websites, not so much directly with books. I joined LT all the way back in 2008, and around 2010-2011, I was making good progress getting my library of books entered into LT. Then work and life got in the way, and I haven't been active on LT for a long time. I also haven't been reading many books, even though the love of books was why I got into librarianship in the first place. The problem is that I want long blocks of time to read books, and I didn't seem to ever have much, between commuting to work and back, fixing dinner when I got home, and being mostly brain-dead after all that. And weekends were taken up by chores that couldn't get done during the week. So I didn't have much time for reading long-form books. The reading I was doing was mostly magazines or online articles, all shorter form materials.

Once I retired, I started to get back into reading more books, now that I had more time available. By the end of the year, I thought I needed to find some way of keeping track of what I've read, so I don't accidentally re-read something I've already read. And, duh! Of course, I already had an account on LT. So I came back, and started adding or updating the books I had read in 2022. Unfortunately, since I hadn't thought of it earlier, I could only estimate the dates I finished reading.

Then while poking around LT some more and looking to see what's new and what I had forgotten, I stumbled across the 75 Books Challenge. I thought it would be an interesting challenge, so I decided to jump in. I'm not sure if I can complete 75 books, since I've only been reading about 1 a week for the last six weeks or so. That would get me to 50-odd books in a year, if I can even keep up this pace, which might get harder once the weather is nicer out. But it's worth a shot. At the very least, this will give me a place to keep track of the books I read this year.

As for the kinds of books I read, in recent years it has been mostly nonfiction, especially history. But I hope to get back into more fiction this year.

Looking forward to meeting more book lovers!

Also participating in:

1. The ROOT challenge
Link to my thread there: https://www.librarything.com/topic/348422#n8067900

2. 2023 Nonfiction Challenge (75 Books Challenge) 75NF
    - Favorite Pastimes in February
    - Empires in March
    - The Sea in April
    - May: Literary Biography - did not read anything for this challenge
    - June: Indigenous/Aboriginal Peoples/First Nations
    - July: Explorations and Expeditions - did not read anything for this challenge
    - August: The World of the Land, Trees and Plants
    - September: Family Ties (a family-based memoir)

3. Reading Through Time
     Quarterly Challenges (RTTQ)
        - Jan-March 2023: WWI (1914-1918)
        - April-June 2023: Between the Wars (1919-1938)
        - July-September 2023: World War II (1939-1945)
        - October-December 2023: 1946-Present
     Monthly Challenges (RTTM)
        - February 2023: Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!
        - March 2023: Notorious Women
        - April 2023: April Fool
        - May 2023: The Big City - Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
        - June 2023: the Fabulous Fifties
        - July 2023: Revolutions
        - August 2023: Immigration and Migration - did not read anything for this challenge
        - September 2023: School Days
        - October 2023: Tradition

I also joined a RL book club earlier this year, and have started reading books with that group.

Note: hat-tip to kac522 for the challenge codes.

Books read in 2023 - first half of year

January
1. The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, by Allison Hoover Bartlett. - ROOT
2. The Double Helix, by James D. Watson. - ROOT; Read to learn more for a class we're taking on DNA.
3. Dewey: the Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, by Vicki Myron. (re-read)

February
4. Dewey's Nine Lives, by Vicki Myron. - ROOT; 75NF; RTTM
5. The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse by Rich Cohen. - ROOT; 75NF
6. Fly the W: 2016 World Champions. - ROOT; 75NF
7. Seabiscuit: an American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand. - ROOT; 75NF; RTTM

March
8. Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli: the Epic Story of the Making of The Godfather by Mark Seal. - 75NF for Feb. (started in Feb., finished in March)
9. First to fly : the story of the Lafayette Escadrille, the American heroes who flew for France in World War I by Charles Bracelen Flood. - RTTQ
10. Sergeant York and His People by Sam K. Cowan. - ROOT; RTTQ
11. Cleopatra: a Life by Stacy Schiff. - ROOT; 75NF; RTTM

April
12. Intermittent Fasting for Women 40, 50 and Older: Natural Approach to Balancing Hormones, Losing Weight, and Reversing Aging by Kalina Keilah. - Early Reviewers
13. Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann. - RTTM
14. Witness to the Dark by Wolf Holles. - Early Reviewers

May
15. Raising the Hunley : the remarkable history and recovery of the lost Confederate submarine by Brian Hicks, Schuyler Kropf. - ROOT; 75NF
16. Historic Raleigh by Jennifer A. Kulikowski and Kenneth E. Peters. - ROOT; RTTM

June
17. The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order by Adam Tooze. - RTTQ
18. Ancient pioneers : the first Americans by George E. Stuart. - ROOT; 75NF
19. Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain. - Book Club

Books read in 2023 - second half of year

July
20. George Washington's First War: His Early Military Adventures by David A. Clary. ROOT; RTTM
21. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. - Book Club; RTTQ
22. Revolutionary Summer: the Birth of American Independence by Joseph J. Ellis. - ROOT; RTTM

August
23. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. - ROOT; RTTM
24. Wilmington's Lie: the murderous coup of 1898 and the rise of white supremacy by David Zucchino. - Book Club
25. Ribbon of Sand: the amazing convergence of the ocean & the Outer Banks by John Alexander and James Lazell. - ROOT; 75NF

September
26. Unbroken : a World War II story of survival, resilience, and redemption by Laura Hillenbrand. - ROOT; RTTQ
27. A Separate Peace by John Knowles. - RTTM (re-read)
28. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. - Book Club
29. The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw. - ROOT; RTTQ

Coding for stars.























Instructions at https://www.librarything.com/topic/129158#6620607

Welcome to my new thread, everyone!

Happy new thread Irene!

And a very belated Happy Thingaversary! It looks like you and I joined LT at almost the same time.

Happy new thread, Irene.

>8 humouress: >9 ArlieS: Thank you!

Yes, Nina, it looks like you signed up for LT just a few days before I did. It just took me a lot longer to get involved in the social aspects of the site. My loss!

Happy new thread, Irene. I just read your bio and noted your "concern" about not making hit to 75. I hope you know that no one here really cares. It's a target not an obligation. Some people read WAY more than that, some don't make it every year and some may never make it. I think the joy of this site is sharing what we do read and some about our lives with each other. This is my 17th year (I think) and the 75'ers have become very dear to me. Welcome and enjoy!!

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread, Irene.

>11 RebaRelishesReading: Thank you, Reba! Yes, I've heard that a lot. I know I won't make it to 75 this year, but I obviously chose the right group to join, because I've met so many wonderful people here. I'd need to switch over from all the nonfiction to a lot of shorter fiction to get to 75. But I'm still satisfied with the progress I've made with my reading this year. And the joy of sharing what we're reading is something I have really gotten out of this group. Thanks for the welcome!

>12 figsfromthistle: >13 PaulCranswick: Thanks so much, Anita and Paul! It's always great to see you here.

Hi Irene! Happy new thread.

>1 atozgrl: I'm not sure if I can complete 75 books, since I've only been reading about 1 a week for the last six weeks or so. That would get me to 50-odd books in a year, if I can even keep up this pace, which might get harder once the weather is nicer out. But it's worth a shot. At the very least, this will give me a place to keep track of the books I read this year. My take on this group: Quite a few of us read way less or way more than 75 books a year but are in this group for the friendship and chatting. I usually read around 100 books but have gone crazy the last two years. It’s all good.

>5 atozgrl: My dad was part of The Greatest Generation, never talked about the war except for 2 humorous stories related to food. In hindsight, I see that he had PTSD.

Happy New Thread, Irene. I hope you had a good weekend. Yep, our Cubbies went out with a whimper. Hey, at least we got to enjoy about 6 weeks of very entertaining ball by them. Hoping they can pull it together next year. No point bringing up the Bears again...sighs.

I plan on getting out and doing some birding this week. Beautiful here.

>16 karenmarie: Thanks, Karen! My dad only told us a little bit about what he did. Of course, he got pulled into the work at Los Alamos, and he wouldn't say much at all about that, because he said he didn't know what had been declassified. Fortunately, he never had to go into battle. I honestly don't know how anyone who served in battle can avoid getting PTSD.

>17 msf59: Thanks, Mark! It's a shame the Cubs' season had to end on such a down note, after they did so well to get back in the playoff chase. But they went back to losing a lot of one-run games like they did early in the year. The Braves didn't help by losing three to Miami and then a week later sweeping three from the Cubs. But they did give us those 6 weeks of exciting baseball and weren't eliminated until the next to last day. Before the season, everyone was predicting them to be out of contention and finish below .500, and the team showed they were much better than that. I hope they can keep it up next year. If they lose Bellinger, they'll have a lot of production to replace.

Sorry about the Bears. The Panthers are pitiful too.

I'm glad to hear you're having great weather. Have fun with the birding--I hope you get to see some good birds! We should have good weather here this week as well.

Wordle 835 5/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
🟨⬜⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
SLATE, ROBIN, UPPER, EVERY, MERRY

Connections
Puzzle #113
🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟩🟩🟩🟩

Happy new one, Irene!

>21 drneutron: Thanks, Jim!