Time 2 Read: An Old-Fashioned Christmas

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Goodreads 2015 Reading Recap

A new year has begun. It’s probably time for me to talk about my Reading Journey 2015. It’s probably past time! But I spend a lot of time tracking my reading, so it is probably appropriate to take a few days to see where that journey took me! I’m going to start out looking at some numbers and how I did with my goals in reading and completing (or not!) challenges, and then take a few days to think about where I want to go in 2016.

I’m going to start today by looking at the actual books I read in 2015. I tracked these both on Goodreads and with a spreadsheet. If you are on Goodreads, you probably have already seen the pretty page Goodreads has prepared to summarize our 2015 reading journey. Sadly, though you can share a link on Facebook or Twitter, there is no way to preserve and share a copy of the full page. Maybe next year, Goodreads? I did capture a screenshot of the most important information, which I am sharing with you hear.

As you can see I read 59 book or a total of 20, 583 pages, or an average of 349 pages. (That jives well with a question I answered by an author earlier today, who asked if we prefer to read long books or short books. My answer was ‘medium books’ of ‘about 350 pages’!)

The longest book I read was Lone Star by Paullina Simons, coming in at 576 pages, and the shortest was a book of poems, Poisoned Apples by Christine Heppermann, coming in at only 107 pages.

The average rating I gave was 3.5 Stars, which is also good. It means I liked most of the books I read, and that I don’t just hand out stars easily. The most highly rated book by other people that I read in 2015 was Montpelier Today by Marylee MacDonald, with a rating of 4.33 Stars.

The most popular book of all that I read was The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins, read by 477, 545 readers, and the least popular book was An Old-Fashioned Christmas by Ellen Stimson, read by only 44 readers. These numbers are not all that surprising. These numbers are about readers and not ratings. The first came out early in the year with a lot of hype, and the latter came out only last month and had appeal for a very specific audience.

If you’d like to see more, take a look at my 2015 Goodreads Year in Review here!

This post turned out to be a little longer than I anticipated, so I am going to continue tomorrow with a post based on my reading spreadsheet.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Review: An Old-Fashioned Christmas

An Old-Fashioned Christmas

by Ellen Stimson

Why I chose this book? one can never get too much Christmas!

When I read this book? November 2015

Who should read this book? readers who love all things Christmas

Source: TLC Book Tours

Here is a synopsis of An Old-Fashioned Christmas from Goodreads

With its trademark snow, piney forests, sleigh rides and woodsmoke curling out of village chimneys, New England was practically invented for the Christmas postcard. It’s got your Christmas goose and the maple syrup with which to glaze it. It’s most of the reason author Ellen Stimson made Vermont her home. Here she shares recipes that have been in her family for generations, mixes up a cocktail or two, and invites readers to make their own traditions.

My Review

I’m not even sure where to begin my review. This book is such a comfy-cozy immersion into Christmas! From the first page, I knew I would love this book when I read this quote:

“We are the kind of people who decide where the Christmas tree might go before we buy the house. (Doesn’t everyone?)”

I know I do. The first thing I look for is where I will put the Tree and the next thing is where I will hide from the tornadoes — something I think the author could relate to. You see, the other thing that made this book such a comfortable read for me was the mentions to places the author had spent time that I recognized; Elsah, Illinois, Famous-Barr Christmas displays, and the ‘little steel town’ she grew up in just “east of the Mississipi.” I’m pretty sure I know which one that is, since there are only two that I know of, and the one I grew up in would be better described as a ‘manufacturing town with a steel mill”. But I’ve been to hers many times.

I loved how this book was set up, with each section beginning with a small family anecdote about Christmas. This led to a larger story with more detail about her family Christmas traditions and how they came to be. And then of course….the recipes! I’m not sure how many I will actually make, but just reading through them is a pleasure! And the are beautifully illustrated, as is the entire book. I get a warm feeling as I read about one of her soups and sitting by the fire! She also does a wonderful job selling the New England Christmas experience!

If you are a lover of all things Christmas, you will want to add this book to your collection. Then get ready to take a magical leap into a real Old-Fashioned Christmas!

About Ellen Stimson

Ellen Stimson is a bread-and-butter homecook…possibly more butter than bread. Her table is usually overflowing with friends, family, and folks who have come just to listen to her stories. Some of those tales made it into her bestselling memoir, Mud Season. She cooks and writes from a farmhouse in Vermont.

Visit Ellen at her website, like her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter.

My Rating: ★★★★1/2 4-1/2 Stars