A blogging break until 2016!

How's your schedule for the rest of November and December?  Mine is filling up fast.  My desire to blog is still almost non-existent.  So, I'm going to officially take a blogging break until 2016.  That way I won't be stressing about it.  I was out on my back porch a couple of mornings ago, drinking a cup of coffee and taking a picture of the morning fog (see above).  I found myself planning out my day and wondering when I would have time to write anything on this blog or get around to yours and comment.  And as I looked at the peaceful scene in my backyard and watched a deer munching under the trees, I thought...it's time for an official break.  

So, no stress.  No worries.  I'll revisit the issue as December comes to a close.  And I'll be around to see you guys as I can.  

Take care and have a wonderful holiday season!  

Bookish Nostalgia - November 2015

Hello everyone!  Happy November to you!  So how do you feel about November?  For me, it holds my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving.  Don't get me wrong.  I love Christmas, but Thanksgiving is my favorite.  And I never, ever, ever shop on that weekend.  It's all about being thankful, family, and maybe a little football.  Or maybe more than a little football.  OK, at our house, football is part of Thanksgiving Day.  First the Dallas Cowboys and then the University of Texas Longhorns.  Neither team is having a banner year at all.  Ah well.  Let's see what I remembered best or loved most in Novembers of the past 20 years.

November 1995 - Rosemary Remembered by Susan Wittig Albert - I think I shared in last month's post that 1995 was a time when we were not in our native Texas, but living in Portland, Oregon.  A wonderful place.  However, I was a bit homesick and November's favorite was the 4th book in this author's China Bayles series, set in the fictional Texas Hill Country town of Pecan Springs.  China is a former attorney and herbalist and all the titles have herbs included.  There are now 24 books in the series and I have read exactly 2 of them.  This one finds China investigating the murder of her accountant, Rosemary Robbins.

November 2000 - Dear Stranger, Dearest Friend by Laney Katz Becker - I've shared several times how much I like epistolary novels.  This book tells the story of two women who meet online on a breast cancer support website.  One is in New York and one in the Midwest.  They become great friends and offer each other the encouragement and love that they need at such a scary time.  A very touching book.  I think perhaps that it came out of the author's own experience with cancer.

November 2005 - The Healing Quilt by Lauraine Snelling - I don't really intend to read about women with cancer in November, but this book has a breast cancer storyline as well.  And I have shared that this time of year makes me thankful for so many things.  Perhaps that is why books such as this one and the previous one touch my heart in a special way in November.  The Healing Quilt is the story of Dot Cooper who has a project to raise money for a new mammogram machine for her town.  Her Aunt Teza's test results were inconclusive and Dot wants to help out.  She and her friends will make a wonderful quilt and auction it off.  As they sew, they share their stories.  Another sweet book about friendship and faith.

November 2010 - Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny - This is the 6th book in this author's Three Pines series starring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and it is one of my favorites (well, they are all my favorites, but this one is an extra favorite).  Not everyone likes the Penny books that are not primarily set in Three Pines.  This book takes us to Quebec City in winter where Gamache has gone to heal from injuries suffered in the previous book.  It has a lot of history included and I loved it.  Louise Penny spent a lot of time researching her story and I can remember her sharing in newsletters that she and her husband rented an apartment in Quebec City for several months while she worked.  And I love the cover - the melding of fall and winter - which is November, right?

We come to the end of my November 2015 Bookish Nostalgia.  I hope you enjoyed it.  I certainly did.  I love going back over my lists for previous years and finding which book I'd like to share with you.  Join me next month to see what I was reading in Decembers over the years.