Melody She Wrote

Does it feel like Christmas has lost some of its magic? It does to me. The air used to feel different, every day special and seasonal. Now the December days are boxes to be checked off, desperately hoping the to-do list ends before the 25th. When I have the time to reflect, breathing in a choral carol as I gaze upon our lit but ornament-less tree, my thoughts inevitably turn to the lack of peace on earth, “for hate is strong and mocks the song. While it’s possible that Christmas has grown more commercial, complicated, and busy since my childhood--so many other things have--another possible truth is certainly at play: the magic of Christmas is for children. As an adult, you realize how much of the magic is designed for children. Practically speaking, adults are the ones making the magic happen. We see behind the scenes: the traffic, the lines, the dwindling bank accounts, the cooking, the wrapping, the calories… And we see beyond the scenes: the relational tension, the grief, the povert...

Fifty-eight books in 2023! Breaking all the records since 2013. ‘Twas a pretty even split between fiction and non. Two of the fiction books are re-reads ( Countess Below Stairs , by Eva Ibbotson, and Surviving the Applewhites , by Stephanie S. Tolan), and the rest are brand new to me! Some thoughts about this graph and the number of books: E-books continue to make up the bulk of my reading. I check them out from my local library (that is indeed a thing). And yes, I read them on my phone. If you can scroll Instagram, you can read a book on that oh-so-tiny screen. It's not that different. Print books once again got a bump from the online book club. I didn’t prioritize 30-minutes-a-day of print reading this year, but the habits I formed in 2022 carried over. Settling in for a chapter or two of a print book is now something I know to make time for! I set aside (quit) 18 books before finishing them. That’s more than twice as many as last year, which was its own record. I’m trying to get...