Carry Over

Carry Over

Nightstand January 5, 2025

Hello and happy new year! I hope your year has started off great. Did you get lots of Christmas presents (books of course), travel or just hang out with family?

We had a very quiet Christmas and I really enjoyed having a bit more time off and just being able to read a bit more and catch up with family and friends via email and calls. My husband’s family sent us some goodies from Germany so that was so fun to have some German chocolates and other holiday treats to enjoy.

And, despite reading a bit more (actually my total books read ended up being 42 books) I still had a few books to carry over into the new year and so I didn’t do my traditional “first read of the year” post as I want to finish some of these before adding a new book.

This morning I did finish A Christmas in the Alps by Melody Carlson. Quite predictable but it was an easy and cozy Christmas novella. The other books I’m carrying over are Your Driver is Waiting by Priya Guns,  The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon and Dearly by Margaret Atwood.

Did you start off the year with some new reads or are you also carrying over some reads?

Here’s to a year of great books and stories!

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Favorites & Year in Review

Favorites & Year in Review

Nightstand December 31, 2024

It’s time for some reflection on the time spent discovering new authors, reading comfort reads and just the magic of words. So let’s take a look at my reading year:

Favorites in Fiction: Winter Solstice by Rosamund Pilcher, Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, and Maame by Jessica George.

Favorites in Mystery: All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby, The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman and Murder Road by Simone St. James.

The Numbers:
Total books read in 2024: 41
Books by women: 31
Books by men: 10
Fiction: 19
Mystery: 19
Graphic Novel: 2
Poetry Collections: 1
Books in translation: 6 (Japanese, Italian, Catalan and French)
Audiobooks: 19

I am carrying over three current reads into the new year. I can tell this was a year when reading took a bit more of a backseat because I didn’t branch out into other genres and mainly stayed with Fiction and Mystery. I also only joined one reading challenge, the Japanese Literature Challenge, which I did complete by reading one book. I typically enjoy participating in reading events like 10 Books of Summer, Women in Translation and Novellas in November but this year I didn’t read with any of those events in mind.

While this was far from my best reading year in numbers or even blog presence, I can’t complain about my reading because I read some wonderful books.

As far as reading plans for the new year, no plans! I don’t want to add more demands to my life and just want to welcome new books and stories. Will you be joining any reading challenges and/or have any goals?

Thank you for hanging out with me and sharing your love of books. I hope you’ve all had a great holiday and here’s to many happy moments in 2025. Happy New Year!

Smiles,
Iliana

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Yes, Still Here

Yes, Still Here

Nightstand December 19, 2024

Hello! It’s been quite a while hasn’t it? I hope you are all doing well and apologies for the silence over here but the last few months have been quite stressful and I’ve just not had the energy or enthusiasm to come to this space.

Unfortunately my work life was very challenging these last few months but thankfully it’s beginning to feel more normal. Still busy but not hair on fire every day busy! On top of that, I also find myself spending even more time with my mom so that doesn’t leave me with a lot of me time. Anyway, I know we all face demands on our time but sometimes we just have to step away from certain things until we can find that balance again.

With less time that also means I haven’t been reading as much but I have been keeping track of my books so I’m still planning on my wrap up reading post at the end of this month. Those are always so fun, aren’t they?

I have also been crafting here and there and I went down the rabbit hole of online creative classes. Art journaling, abstract acrylics, mixed media techniques, gel printing, you name it and there’s a course for it and I want to take it. Haha.. So just like reading, even if I can spend 10-15 minutes a day on something like that, then I want to do it because it does wonders for my mood.

So that’s a bit about what my life has been around here lately. I am taking a week off work next week so I’m super excited to get caught up on some personal projects (ok, maybe naps will be the highlight!).

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and are enjoying some great reads!

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