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Thursday, April 2, 2015

Bookish Nostalgia - April 2015


When I had my previous blog, My Random Acts of Reading, I did a feature now and then that I called Bookish Nostalgia.  I talked about books or authors that had been favorites at earlier times of my life - as a kid or a teen or my early 20's.  I had fun with it, but I kind of ran out of ideas and topics and I don't want to duplicate those.

Several of my favorite bloggers have their version of looking back at what they've read in the past.  Tina at Tina Says does this early each month.  She shares what she was reading in that month 10 years before and calls it Blast From the Past.  I love it and you should take a look.  A new-to-me blogger or one I found after I came back and began this blog is Cleo at Cleopatra Loves Books.  (You should read her blog too!)  She started a monthly event called Five of the Best.  In it, she highlights her favorite book from each of the last 4 years, plus the current month.  Again, lots of fun.  Some other blogs have also shared these "look backs" and I'm sure there are more that I don't know about.

I've decided to renew my Bookish Nostalgia tag, tweak the "looking back" and make it a monthly event as well.  I've shared that I've kept a book journal of my reads for almost all of the last 22 years, since 1993.  I thought I would check my journals and see what I was reading 20, 15, 10, and 5 years ago.  My reading has changed some over the years, but I was always more of a mystery reader than anything else.  However, not completely.  Some of the books are no longer in print.  Some authors are gone now.  It has been interesting to see how much I could remember about the books (in order to pick a favorite), but I also sometimes have a vivid memory of what was going on in my life at the time.  So, here's my first Bookish Nostalgia.  My favorite book from April of:



April 1995 - Desert Heat by J.A. Jance - The first book in her Joanna Brady series, set in Cochise County, Arizona.  About the widow of a deputy sheriff that takes her husband's place in law enforcement.  This series is still on-going and is up to 14 books.  A very good beginning.



April 2000 - To Play the Fool by Laurie R. King - 2nd book in the Kate Martinelli series about a homicide cop in San Francisco.  There were 5 books featuring this character.  Laurie R. King also writes the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes long-running series.



April 2005 - Colony by Anne Rivers Siddons - This is a family saga of a woman from the South Carolina Low Country who marries a Boston man and spends summers at his family's home on the coast of Maine.  Her mother-in-law is very domineering, but as time passes, the young woman adjusts and becomes more like her husband's mother than she would ever dream.  I just remember that I loved this book.  It's a little long, 640 pages, like any good family saga.



April 2010 - Paula by Isobel Allende - When this noted author's daughter, Paula, became ill and fell into a coma, she wrote this book about her family.  It begins, "Listen, Paula, I am going to tell you a story...".  I read and discussed this book with a reading group.  It's one I still remember so well, a very moving story.

Well, that's what I remember of the Aprils of years past.  Please let me know what you think of this feature.  And if you've read any of these books.  Thanks, as always, for visiting.

29 comments:

  1. Kay, I enjoyed reading this and yes, please continue with this feature as it's always interesting to read what other readers are reading. Plus, it's fun to reminisce about books, isn't it? :)

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    1. Thanks and,yes, I'm having a good time with it.

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  2. I love your post - thanks for the shout out about my Blast From the Past posts! One of my favorite thing about looking back over my journal is the vivid recollection I have of what was going on in my life while reading certain books. I can't wait to see this on your blog each month :)

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    1. Yes, I love that you always have a bit to say about what was going on in your life.

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  3. Looking Back at past books is a great idea. I started my blog and record keeping in 2013, so mine would have to be the recent past. Going way back and still with me is my enjoyment of Historical Fiction. Great post Kay!

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  4. Gosh, you go way back! I only started a record when I started reviewing in 2011, but I really regret that I didn't keep some kind of journal over the years, especially since my memory is so shockingly bad. Interesting choices - the only author I've read from these is Laurie R King, and not this series - I read The Bones of Paris and thoroughly enjoyed it. I've been meaning to read more of her stuff, and also to try Isabel Allende one day - sigh! If only there were more hours in the day...these posts are a real killer to the TBR!

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    1. I don't even remember why I decided to start writing down the books I'd read in a journal. It may be that I couldn't remember whether I had read a certain book in a series. Who knows? I do know that at this point, after 22 years of it, I wish I had done it all my life. I knew of a woman once who had kept a book journal since she was 8 or something and she was in her 50's. I'd love that.

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  5. I only started keeping a journal in 2001 or so and there was a year or 2 I took off when I first got married but I do need to go back through them. It's always interesting to see what I was reading. I loved J.A. Jance though I haven't read her in ages. I don't remember that one specifically but I'm sure I read it and enjoyed it. I've read and love Laurie R. King as well but haven't read any from that series. Great post! It's fun to see books other than the brand new releases. I'm sure there's so many I've missed over the years.

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    1. There were a couple of times that I quit for a while. So, if I continue to do this, there will be gaps. I did have fun going back and deciding which book stood out to me the most - that's what I considered the favorite. Yes, this will definitely be some backlist books. :-)

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  6. I love this feature and yes, please continue! I also kept a reading journal since my mid-20s and it's fun to look through that.

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  7. I remember loving Colony, too. It's probably my favorite Anne Rivers Siddons novel. Such a fun feature!

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    1. Thanks, JoAnn! Well, I'll try it again next month. :-)

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  8. I've never read any of these, but I have read many of Siddons' books. I'll have to pick up COLONY since I love me a nice, thick, family saga. I've only read one book by Allende (her first). I liked it, so I should check out her others.

    Thanks for recommending new blogs! I love this Bookish Nostalgia feature already :)

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    1. And thanks to you. Yes, I enjoyed this and look forward to doing each month.

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  9. Loving your nostalgic post and thank you for the shout-out! I'm particularly taken with the Isabelle Allande book, going on my TBR!

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    1. I'm so glad you started doing your feature and also glad I found your blog. You always have such good ideas to make my TBR so much bigger. :-)

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  10. It's odd - I read Jance's Beaumont series but for some reason missed out on the Joanna Brady ones. Thanks for the reminder. I think they even take place nearish where I lived in Arizona.

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    1. I think they are set in Bisbee maybe? Somewhere in the southern part. And I'll confess that I never read the Beaumont series. Not sure why - just never picked it up. LOL

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  11. I love this feature, Kay! And it's so wonderful that you've kept a book journal for so many years now. I wish I'd done the same!

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    1. And I wish I had done it always. I'd love to know what I read when I was 25 or 15, but I am glad I've done it for as long as I have. :-)

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  12. That is so so cool that you've been so faithful with your book journal! I've been using Goodreads for the past five years... Hopefully it will stay in use far into the future. If not, I'll have to print out my data and glue it into a notebook ... Not as charming as yours I'm sure!

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    1. I think that Goodreads would work just as well. My journals are not very detailed. Just title, author, date read - like that.

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  13. I've had Paula on my shelf for years and am always putting it off because I think it might depress me. I do not need books that depress me at this point in my life!!

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    1. No, I agree. Probably not a good choice for you right now.

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  14. I love this post and think maybe I'll do something similar. I tried to a few years ago, but got distracted by a book that I decided I needed to re-read (but never got around to doing so!). It would certainly be a nice way of digitizing all of my old reading journals. You know, just in case!

    As far as the books you mentioned, I loved Colony! What a good saga and again, something I'd love to read again someday.

    I vaguely remember trying to read Paula (perhaps with our little online group), but couldn't get interested. I remember reading the first few chapters about her daughter, but then it seemed to get pretty involved with the politics of Chile and I lost interest.

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    1. I think we talked about Colony in 2005 or maybe that's when you read it too. I'm pretty sure I knew that you liked it as well. Yes, Paula did have a lot of the politics of Chile because that was what she was involved in. You should do this as well. I know you have book journals that go back a long, long way.

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Thanks for stopping by! I am so happy to hear your thoughts and will respond as soon as I can. Happy Reading!