A Confession

Although I am a reader, I rarely get any real reading done during the semester.

There. I said it. Well, I at least wrote it and hopefully someone will read it.

I would love to tell you that I get up before the sun to make sure I have time to ponder some CS Lewis and that I set aside an hour each night to stay current with contemporary, quality fiction. If I said either of those things, I would be lying.

My mornings are usually full of, "Time to get up!" and "WE ARE LEAVING IN 5 MINUTES! IF YOU ARE IN YOUR UNDERWEAR, THAT IS YOUR PROBLEM!" When I do wake up early, I tend to just sit on my couch in the dark and enjoy the quiet for a while.

My evenings are either spent with supper preps and cleaning up (or not cleaning up), or activities in town, or (I really hate to admit this) sitting on the couch watching tv with my family and trying desperately to stay awake until bedtime. I often fail at that last part.

So -- yeah -- no real reading happens during the semester.

Christmas break, though? THAT is my reading time. I've never enjoyed staying in bed after waking up, and I still wake up early, but I wake up and READ. It's absolutely delicious. Almost as good as the coffee and hazelnut creamer that's by my side. I spend most of the semester making note of what I want to read over my breaks. Sometimes Thanksgiving break lets me knock out a book, but it's usually filled with housework, cooking for Thursday, and getting Christmas decorations out. Christmas break is the true time for reading.

Here's my list for this year:

• The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton : I'm about halfway through this and I love it already. There's mystery and family secrets, multiple time lines, and an old manor in the English countryside. What more could you ask for?
• Remarkable Creatures: a Novel by Tracy Chevalier : Since reading Girl with a Pearl Earring, I've tried to read everything by Chevalier. She is one of my favorite contemporary authors.
• Half Broke Horses: A True Live Novel by Jeannette Walls : A prequel to The Glass Castle allows Walls to tell her grandmother's story. If you haven't read Glass Castle, I highly recommend it.
• Knit Two and Knit the Season by Kate Jacobs : The other thing I am very intentional about during breaks is knitting. It just makes sense to read books about it too. These books are follow-ups to The Friday Night Knitting Club, a book about a diverse group of women who wind up in the same knitting group and wind up being great comfort and encouragement to one another during several life crises. Good writing, knitting, and the importance of female friendship. What more could I ask for?
• True Grit by Charles Portis : Would you believe I've never read a western? Ever, ever, EVER? True Grit is one of the few John Wayne movies I like and I've been looking forward to the Coen Brothers' remake of the movie. (It hits theatres today, btw). Keith just finished the book and thinks I'll like it, so I'm going to have a first-ever experience and read a western! My Louis L'Amour loving mother would be proud of me.
  

That's my fiction/creative non-fiction list. There's still more. Stay tuned.