Not Just Hiking - December 2011

BOOKS
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea
Anne of the Island
by Lucy Maud montgomery
I read the first for book club and then just kept on reading. Like in my recent obsession with The Limberlost, I think I am drawn to the beauty and innocence of the writing and the characters. I am happy I have boys, but there are times I wish I had a daughter to share books like this with.

The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje
Called thrilling and deeply moving in a review that led me to this book. I found it neither. I found it plodding and boring. I finished it only because I had nothing else to read on the plane.

Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie
Leaps and bounds better than the other biography I read this year of a powerful woman leader. He even managed to make the Russian history compelling. I understand that there are many more sources for Catherine than for Cleopatra, but Massie made Catherine come alive while Schiff's portrait was two-dimensional.

11-22-63 by Stephen King
King scares me. Literally. I don't watch horror films and I don't read scary books. I prefer to sleep soundly in my bed while my active imagination and dreamworld is filled with pretty girls in Victorian gowns and magic and gardens. Seriously. I have never read King because he writes horror stories. But this was sitting there, un-checked out, on the library shelf. It called to me. I am so glad I answered the call. King can write. Page by page, I made my way through this novel alternately rushing through to keep the story going and going back and re-reading so as not to miss a thing. I loved this book! I'll put it second on my list of best books of 2011 (behind Saramago, but only by a hair). Should I read another? Which one won't give me nightmares?

MOVIES and TV
Miracle on 34th Street
My all time Christmas favorite. When the boys question the validity of the mall Santa, I have always maintained that the MACY'S Santa is the real one, the others are just helpers.

Suits
Not sure how much I liked this season of t.v. by the end, but the eye-candy was entertaining while wrapping presents.