The Joyful House: 2021 Reader's Journal

It's already February and I haven't posted my 2021 Reading List yet--but I finally have time. Let's just say things have been busy; I calculated that I spent half of January in Charleston!

I read some good books this year. I can't believe the new year is already here, though (and we're a month in, actually--feels like January 3rd to me, still). I am putting my favorites at the top here, and then placing an asterisk beside other books that I'd recommend!

Ordering Your Private World (Gordon MacDonald)

I appreciated this book so much that I read it twice, and I think I need to read it again this year. It's a solid book on establishing your priorities and making sure your focus stays where it should in your external life AND in the interior life you lead....right up my alley. So much good, inspiring, honest wisdom here that I highly recommend it, and will be giving it to my children when they are older.

Extreme Ownership (Jocko Willink and Leif Babin)

What do two Navy SEALS have to share with a housewife from the rural mountains? Everything. I appreciated this book so much. It's written and marketed for business owners; Willink and Babin run a consulting company. However, I found it to be widely applicable to my own life. If you run a home and especially if you have children, you do need to have strong leadership skills ("owning" the things that are within your sphere) in order to keep things on track, and the wisdom that these men bring from the battlefield into "normal life" is so useful. I also liked Discipline Equals Freedom....it's so true. ;)

A Gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles)

It will be hard for me to write about this book without gushing. Although it sometimes feels written in the direction of selling the movie rights (and no doubt, it would make a fabulous film and I'm sure someone has already bought the rights!), it's still just so good. It follows the life of an aristocrat in Moscow who is sentenced to house arrest for LIFE in the Metropol Hotel. The way he lives, handles his life, manages his time, treats others, and ultimately raises a child is all so inspiring. I listened to it on Audible, but my husband gave me the book for Christmas, so I actually finished it on paper (going slowly because I didn't want it to end). Towles is a skillful writer with a perfect sense of timing, propriety, and tone. This was the best book I read this year, and since I also read Jane Austen, that's saying a lot!

Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe)

I was stunned by this book. Chinua Achebe's writing is spare and elegant but perfectly evocative. I envy his writing. I'm so impressed by his masterful use of the English language. It is set in 19th Century Nigeria and gives a look at the culture of the area at that time and the slow infiltration of Western influences. There was so much here that was distressing and disturbing, but also beautiful. Reading about some of the customs of the Nigerian clans of the time was riveting to me. A Gentleman in Moscow was my favorite fiction book of the year, but this was a close second.

Long Live the Queen (Bryan Kozlowski)

Bryan Kozlowski has such admiration for Queen Elizabeth and a superb knack for assimilating the information he has about her and putting it together into a highly readable, enjoyable form. I am an unapologetic fan of the Queen myself, so I was naturally drawn to this book and wasn't sure what to expect. I found it totally delightful, inspiring, and fun. Another one that I listened to and then decided I should own in paper form. :)

1. Placemaker: Cultivating Places of Comfort, Beauty, and Peace (Christie Purifoy)

2. Free to Be Ruth Bader Ginsburg: The Story of Women and Law (Teri Kanefield)

3. The Joy of Decorating (Phoebe Howard)

4. Deep Work (Cal Newport)-- which I'd started on Audible in December 2020. I must say, I don't recommend it for Audible listening, though (deadly boring audiobook), but the content of the book is quite good. One of my college acquaintances was featured in the book--surprise!--so that was very cool. I had no idea!

5. Before We Were Yours (Lisa Wingate)*--I read this book in record time, it was so absorbing. Based on the true story of Georgia Tann, a child trafficker and child abuser in the mid-twentieth century who ran the Tennessee Children's Home Society, it was an incredibly compelling story. It's also terribly sad to know that thousands of children and families suffered at the hands of this money-hungry, evil woman.

6. Ordering Your Private World (Gordon MacDonald)*--I read this one twice; LOVED IT

7. The Winter Garden (Kristin Hannah)* --I had never heard of the siege of Saint Petersburg even though I studied Russian Literature for a full semester in college. It was fascinating. And sad.

8. Can You Drink the Cup? (Henri Nouwen)*

9. Bella Tuscany (Frances Mayes)* -my relaxing, wandering read of the year. I love her observations on life in Italy. I read a lot of this poolside on our vacation at a resort in Williamsburg in the summer, lazily watching my children float the lazy river while meandering through the Italian countryside in my mind. And it was my top read for "before bedtime relaxation."

10. The Practice of the Presence of God (Brother Lawrence*) -a classic, a re-read

11. The Joyful Mysteries of Life (Catherine and Bernard Scherrar)

12. My Life in France (Julia Child) (Audible)-I loved this book and it inspired me to take my cooking a little more seriously--at least for a little while :) But the best parts of the book are her tales of life in France! Finn will enjoy reading it in a couple of years.

13. Girl with a Pearl Earring (Tracy Chevalier)

14. Extreme Ownership (Jocko Willink and Leif Babin)*

15. Younger Next Year (Chris Crowley and Henry Lodge)-in short: EXERCISE every day!

16. A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens) (Audible)--Finn and I are reading this together--we're not done yet! But I love it so far. Another review next year, perhaps ;)

17. A Gentleman in Moscow (Amor Towles) (Audible)*

18. Persuasion (Jane Austen) (Audible)*

19. The Right to Write (Julia Cameron) --I haven't finished it, but I LOVE this book so far.....

20. Discipline Equals Freedom Field Manual (Jocko Willink)*

21. Whiskey in a Teacup (Reese Witherspoon) --I thought I'd hate this book, but it's just very cute, and since I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Southerner, so much of it was laughingly familiar to me! Monograms, manners, music--yes, yes, yes

22. Broken Horses (Brandi Carlisle)

23. The Power of Less (Leo Babauta)*

24. Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe)*

25. Long Live the Queen (Brian Kozlowski)* (Audible)

26. How to Homeschool 9th and 10th Grades (Lee Binz) (Audible)

27. Looking Backward (Joyce Swann)

28. Harvard Schmarvard (Jay Mathews)*--a good book on college admissions with a neat list of 100 "hidden gem" colleges in the back. I'm sure I'll be re-referencing this book a lot in the coming years!

29. Cool Colleges (Donald Asher)--another good book that focuses on nontraditional colleges that may appeal to students who are super bright and have taken a somewhat "unique" path to education...ahem, homeschooling. It's a book for the "hyper-intelligent, self-directed, late blooming and just plain different" and I have to say that all of those adjectives apply to my Finn.

30. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone--JK Rowling (audiobook)

31. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets--JK Rowling (audiobook)

32. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkhaban--JK Rowling (audiobook)

33. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire--JK Rowling

As you can see, I'm also reading the Harry Potter series for the first time (well, I've read the first 3 books aloud to my children, but we re-listened on audiobooks, and I'm now reading The Order of the Phoenix myself, which is #5). The books get better as you go along, I think; I really didn't love the first two books, but The Prisoner of Azkaban was quite good, and things definitely start to get fleshed out and more involved in The Goblet of Fire. But I don't think these books are for young kids! I appreciate stories about the war between good and evil because I believe it mirrors reality--it's just that Rowling sets that very real war in a very make-believe world with wizards.

Plus plenty of Mary Oliver poems, The Bible, my devotional (Streams in the Desert, my all-time favorite)....etc!

Books I Read to or with my Children:

1. The Mysterious Benedict Society--Trenton Lee Stewart (January 2021 Book Club Choice--Annie)

2. Little Women--Louisa May Alcott* (obviously one of the best books of all time :))

3. The Children's Homer--Padriac Colum* (it took us half the book to get into it, and then we enjoyed this retelling very much! Well-written!)

4. The Trumpet of the Swan--E. B. White* (one of Annie's literature books)

5. A Wrinkle in Time--Madeline L'Engle* (February 2021 Book Club Choice--Mr. Pauley)

6. The Velveteen Rabbit--Margery Williams (read this to Annie b/c we realized she'd never read it. I can't read it without crying! I love this book. It's among my top favorite children's books. Such a timeless message. I am grateful for it--because I am getting "shabbier" and better-loved every year....and thus more real. ;))

7. The Wind in the Door--Madeline L'Engle (February 2021 Book Club Choice--we all read A Wrinkle in Time the first week of the month since it's so short, so we added another book!)

8. Macbeth--William Shakespeare* (wonderful, of course)

9. The Witch of Blackbird Pond-Elizabeth George Speare* (a book I LOVED as a child and didn't really remember; I had Finn read it for part of his literature this year and I re-read it, and loved it just as much this time as I had 30 years ago!)

10. My Side of the Mountain--Jean George (March 2021 Book Club Choice) (I liked it a lot)

11. Peter Pan--J.M.Barrie (a read-aloud for school....we didn't really love it, actually!)

12. Miracle on Maple Hill--Virginia Sorenson (I read this to Annie)

13. Heidi--Joanna Spryi (I read this to Annie)

14. Something Greater than Gold (about Eric Liddell, the Olympian and missionary--we enjoyed it so much)

15. Li Lun, Lad of Courage--Carolyn Treffinger

16. Nory Ryan's Song--Patricia Reilly Giff (good but a little too sad)

There are so many things that I read with my children that don't make it onto this list: poetry books, snippets of devotionals, tidbits from here and there, certain school books (I'm reading The Storybook of Science to Annie this year, for instance; or any of our beloved Genevieve Foster history books that I read....)

Perhaps this year we will pick up with our family book club again. We petered out last year when one of the children picked a Roald Dahl book because (I know this is heretical for a lot of fans of children's literature, so I apologize in advance!) I loathe Roald Dahl stories. Alas. Maybe we'll get going again, though!

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So that's it! My 2021 Reader's Journal.

Here are my previous years' journals:

Happy New Year, and happy reading!