Reading Challenge 2017

This year I started the PopSugar Reading Challenge right in January and worked pretty well on it for a while.  I didn't finish, but I did get 25 categories of the 50 covered.  I only allowed myself to count a book in one category, even if it would fit in more than one.  I also didn't count anything that I didn't finish...ooops!  And things like articles didn't count.  

Total for the year: I finished 43 books (low for me) with over 16500 pages read (low for me), but I feel pretty good about it.  The oldest book I read was published in 1939 (And Then There Were None) and the newest were published this year. The longest book was 662 pages (The Name of the Wind).  

REGULAR (24 of 40 finished!)

1. A book recommended by a Librarian
2. A book that's been on your To Be Read list for way to long
   City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett (452 pages, read in hard copy in April 2017, published in 2014, fiction--fantasy) How it fits the category? Three years isn't ALL that long, but I got this book for free when it was featured by its publisher at the ALA conference in 2014.  There was actually a really cool display/advertisement on a staircase...*so* clever!  It is a pretty neat book, with a setting that is kind of an alternate, fantastical future in India, Russia, and Asia.  
3. A book of letters
4. An audiobook
   Born a Crime:Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah (304 pages--8 hours and 50 minutes, published in 2016, narrated by the author, non-fiction--memoir) How it fits the category?  It is an audio book and I would recommend listening to this one instead of reading it.  It is like the author really is telling you stories.  Plus, the language, voices, and accents make it worth it.  
5. A book by a person of color
6. A book with one of the four seasons in the title
   Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracey Hickman (444 pages, read in hard copy, published in 1984, fiction--fantasy)  How it fits the category?  "Well," says Captain Obvious, "It has the word 'autumn' in the title, there."
7. A book that is a story within a story
   The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (662 pages, read in hard copy, published in 2007, in April 2017, fiction--fantasy) How it fits the category? The whole book is a story being told over two days/nights in the main character's pub in an out-of-the-way town.  Sometimes it is actually a story within a story within a story! 
8. A book with multiple authors
   Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews (260 pages, read on kindle and phone, published in 2007, read in December 2017, fiction--urban fantasy) How it fits the category? Written by a husband-wife team Ilona and Andrew Gordon.  
9. An espionage thriller
10. A book with a cat on the cover
    In the Hand of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce (264 pages, read in hardcopy, published in 1984, read in August 2017, fiction--fantasy, YA/middle grade) How it fits the category?  It has Faithful, Alana's magical cat on the cover, complete with violet eyes.  This is a re-read and an old favorite, but I had a hard time finding books featuring illustrations of cats...
    
11. A book by an author that uses a pseudonym
    Melusine by Sarah Monette (477 pages, read in hard copy in June 2017, published in 2006, fiction--high fantasy) How it fits the category? So....this book was written under the author's real name, but she also has written under the pseudonym Katherine Addison.  
12. A bestseller from a genre you don't normally read
13. A book by or about someone with a disability
14. A book involving travel
    The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith (273 pages, read in hard copy, published in 1955, read in June/July 2017, fiction-mystery/literature)  How it fits the category? The titular Tom Ripley travels to Italy on Mr. Greenleaf's dime, to get Greenleaf's wayward son Dickie to come home.  Tom travels to the small village in Italy, then around Italy with Dickie, then kills Dickie, then travels around pretending to BE Dickie, and finally leaves Italy for Greece under his own identity.  
15. A book with a subtitle
16. A book published in 2017
    Etched in Bone (#5 in The Others series) by Anne Bishop (397 pages, read in hard copy, published in 2017, read in March 2017, fiction-urban fantasy) How it fits the category? Erm...it was published in 2017.
17. A book involving a mythical creature
    Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton (314 pages, read in hard copy in February 2017, published in 2016, fiction-fantasy) How it fits the category? This is a fantasy novel--that has guns in it--set in a a desert.  There are mythical beasts roaming around, including djinn (genies!).
18. A book that you've read before that never fails to make you smile
    One for the Money by Janet Evanovich (320 pages, read in hard copy, published in 1994, read in July 2017, fiction--mystery) How it fits the category?  I first read this book the first time I worked at the bookstore--between 2003 and 2005.  The series was quite popular and I wondered what all the fuss was about.  I think these are pretty funny books, though this one had more violence than I remember from before.  I sort of love that cars keep blowing up, that she has a pet hamster, and that the hot private security guy keeps saving her.    
19. A book about food
20. A book with career advice
21. A book from a nonhuman perspective
    Silence Fallen by Patricia Briggs (371 pages, read in hard copy and read in April 2017, published in 2017, fiction--urban fantasy) How it fits the category? The main character is a non-human, a coyote shapeshifter.   
22. A steampunk novel
    Mission Impossible (London Steampunk: The Blue Blood Conspiracy #1) by Bec McMaster (380 pages, read on phone in November 2017, published 2016, fiction--steampunk urban fantasy?)How it fits the category? This is a bit of a silly book that is very cross-genre.  Sort of a procedural, steampunk, werewolf/vampire, romance book. 
23. A book with a red spine
    A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (416 pages, read in hard copy, published in 2015, read in February 2017, fiction--YA, fantasy)  How it fits the category?  Well, the spine of the book is red, like the cover :)
    
24. A book set in the wilderness
25. A book you loved as a child 
    The Woman Who Rides Like a Man - Song of the Lionness Quartet #3 by Tamora Pierce (253 pages, read in hard copy, published in 1986, read in July 2017, fiction--young adult, fantasy) How it fits the category?  I read this series when I was a kid and loved the girl-disguises-herself-as-a-boy story.  This and the Robin McKinley books (Blue Sword and Hero & the Crown) were favorites in childhood. The women were women that embraced all aspects of themselves, their strength, smarts, abilities, and ultimately their femininity, as well.  
26. A book by an author from a country you've never visited 
    The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood (308 pages , read on phone, published 2015, read January 2017, fiction--sci-fi, literature)  How it fits the category? Margaret Atwood is Canadian...and it sometimes shows through in this book.  Occasionally someone will say something that is much more Canadian than American, even though the book is set in the U.S.
27. A book with a title that's a character's name
    Alanna: The First Adventure - Song of the Lionness Quartet #1 by Tamora Pierce (274 pages, read in hard copy, published in 1983, read in July 2017, fiction--young adult, fantasy) How it fits the category?  Duh.
28. A novel set during wartime
29. A book with an unreliable narrator 
30. A book with pictures
     The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume 1 by Alan Moore (192 pages, read in hard copy, published in 1999, read in July 2017, graphic novel)  How it fits the category?  It's a graphic novel.  I'm still not a graphic novel fan, but I keep trying to find one that I enjoy.  This, at least, only took an hour to read.  It was a Amazing Book Club of Doom selection for the movie/book meeting month (where we traditionally eat pie!).  
31. A book where the main character is a different ethnicity than youSmilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg (469 pages, read in hard copy, published in 1995, read in February 2017, fiction--mystery) How it fits the category? The main character, Smilla Jasperson, is half Danish and half indigenous-Greenlander.  Raised in Greenland by her mother--mostly in a traditional, in-nature sense--she is a unique character...torn between the two very different parts of her.  The mystery involves the death of her neighbor, a little boy who is also part-Greenlander.  
32. A book about an interesting woman
    Trick of the Light by Rob Thurman (339 pages, read in hard copy, published 2009, read September 2017, fiction--urban fantasy) How it fits the category?  The main character, Trixa, is interesting in a number of ways: she owns a dive bar that she lives above, has a pet crow, has a semi-reformed-from-really-bad best friend, took in two "stray" teens who have psychic abilities and are now in their 20s, has an ongoing battle-flirtation with a vampire, etc.  And then there's the ending, which I won't spoil here.  
33. A book set in two different time periods:
    Future Shock by Elizabeth Briggs (272 pages, read in hard copy, published 2016, read January 2017, fiction--YA). How it fits the category? A group of teenagers are recruited to travel to the future in a type of corporate espionage.  They were supposed to be sent 10 years forward, but end up 30 years in the future and they discover that someone is going to kill them upon their return to the present. 
34. A book with a month or a day of the week in the title
35. A book set in a hotel
    And then there were None by Agatha Christie (264 pages, published in 1939, Read in December 2017 in hard copy, fiction--mystery)  How it fits the category?  I mean, technically the plot follows 10 guests at a private island house...but it is like a hotel, complete with staff. Read the book and saw the play for December bookclub and they varied quite a bit, including the ending.  
36. A book written by someone you admire
37. A book that's becoming a movie in 2017
    The Circle by Dave Eggers (493 pages, read on my phone, published 2013, Read in July 2017, fiction--maybe sci-fi?)  How it fits the category?  It was made into an Emma Watson/Tom Hanks movie this year.  Haven't watched it yet, but I will.  This story is pretty scary because it was written over 4 years ago and the way social media works has followed the path in this book.  :(
38. A book set around a holiday other than Christmas
39. The first book in a series you haven't read before: 
    Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (465 pages, read in hard copy, published 2015, read January-February 2017, fiction--YA, fantasy) How it fits the category?  This is the first of a duology that is actually set in the same world as a previous trilogy.  (But this is a separate book that can be read individually.) I've been meaning to read it since it came out.  In fact, I got it the week it came out because I stumbled upon it on Amazon.com and thought, "Awesome!"  It is a combo of fantasy and a heist story.  And certainly more of a book for teens than for younger readers--all characters are flawed, there is a certain amount of violence, and adult themes like abuse and prostitution that are handled in not-graphic, but effective ways.  I was lucky to get the sequel from a vendor for only $5 at ALA Midwinter this year.  
40. A book you bought on a trip
    

ADVANCED (1 of 12 finished)

1. A book recommended by an author you love
2. A bestseller from 2016
3. A book with a family-member name in the title
4. A book that takes place over a character's life span
5. A book about an immigrant or a refugee
6. A book from a genre/subgenre that you've never heard of
7. A book with an eccentric character
8. A book that's more than 800 pages
9. A book you got from a used book sale
    Ghosts in the Snow by Tamara Siler Jones (488 pages, read in hard copy, published in 2004, read Feb. to March 2017, fiction--fantasy, mystery) How it fits the category? I purchased this from a used book sale in Chapel Hill back when I was in grad school.  Turns out it is a cool blend of mystery, fantasy, and historical novel.   
10. A book that's been mentioned in another book
11. A book about a difficult topic
12. A book based on mythology

Blue Ribbon Recipe (literally!): Honey Chiffon Cake

Back in August I wrote about how I entered events and won a blue ribbon at the State Fair, so here (finally!) is the recipe for my blue ribbon.  

Since I'm not usually a person who bakes with honey, I wanted to find a good recipe to work with.  Who better to tell me how to bake with honey than the National Honey Board, right?  So my initial attempt while practice baking was with this recipe for a honey chiffon cake.  That cake turned out tasty, but much, much too dense for a chiffon (I mean, in my personal opinion).  So I decided I needed to work on it.  

Now, it is important to mention that some parts of baking are easy to play with.  Swapping nuts for chips or raisins, usually safe.  Making a full cake into cupcakes, super-doable with changes to baking time.  Making things healthier by swapping out some of the fats for things like apple sauce or smooshed bananas, can be done.  Other parts of baking are very easy to mess up, because baking is CHEMISTRY.  That's right.  Everyone who says that chemistry is boring and un-useful?  They are super-wrong, because the bread we eat, treats we love...they are all just chemistry that happened to work out right.  

So...when I started fiddling with the actual chemistry of the cake, I was a little worried about how it might turn out.  Fairly miraculously, my first try turned out really, really well.  Basically, I used some of the tricks of making angel food cake: using cake flour instead of all-purpose, adding some cream of tartar to help stabilize the egg whites, using the specific folding instructions to ensure that the egg whites are as undisturbed as possible, etc.  

The final version was delicious, light and fluffy, and garnered me some of the nicest compliments about baking skill (not just taste) that I've ever gotten.  Oh, and I won a whole $15 for my efforts!  (To put that into perspective, though, I spent more than $15 on honey for the practice and final versions. :)  ) 

When I went to see the cake, I was initially with an old friend and her parents, but I went back by myself to visit my cake and take some ridiculous selfies with it.  Because...well, I'm goofy as all get-out.  While there, a woman and her husband were also looking at Honey baked goods.  They gave me a questioning look when I started to take selfies and then asked if I wanted them to take a photo.  I was a little embarrassed, but said no, that I had promised my mom that I would take silly selfies with my cake.  The woman was surprised and asked which was mine, and was so happy for me when I told her the blue ribbon.  We started chatting and she is actually a judge for honey and regular baking (though not the chiffon cake this year).  She was obviously really excited to see someone young (well, young-ish!) competing...and being successful.  The chat was nice and so encouraging!    

Ooooo....look!  Blue ribbon!

Anyway, here's the recipe--the BLUE RIBBON WINNING recipe--if you want to try it for yourself.  

Ingredients:

You have to submit an actual recipe card with Honey entries for the MN State Fair, with your sweeteners highlighted.  

• 1 cup + 2 Tbsp cake flour (not all-purpose)
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• heaping 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
• 5 eggs, divided (whites from yolks)
• scant 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup honey (I used a clover/basswood honey from Pine County, MN)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Bowl #1:
   Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
   Whisk in cinnamon
3. Bowl #2:
   Beat egg yolks with sugar (I used a whisk to beat them by hand).
   Add honey and oil.  Mix well.
   Add lemon juice and vanilla.  Mix well.
4. Bowl #3: Using a stand mixer, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form
5. Add contents of Bowl #1 to Bowl #2 and mix well
6. Fold mixture into Bowl #3, using a large spoon or spatula.  Turn bowl and use 15 to 20 complete fold-over strokes.  
7. Pour into ungreased tube pan and even top of cake batter
8. Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick/cake tester comes out clean and cake springs back if lightly pressed,
9. Turn upside down to cool.  Cool completely before removing from pan. 

Entering into the Honey competition at the Horticulture building, before the State Fair opened.

Me outside the Bee and Honey room where the cake was on display.  My 90 year old grandma wondered why I took a picture of the woman behind me.  I don't think she's up-to-date on selfies! 

We're #1 (me and my cake, I mean)!

State Fair Baking 2016: I am a Blue Ribbon Winner!

Last year, after many years of talking about entering baking contests of various types, I finally jumped into the high-risk-high-reward (er...not really, though) world of competition baking.  I entered two things in the 2015 Minnesota State Fair Creative Activities-Baking contests: an angel food cake using Grandma's recipe and a snickerdoodle for the State Fair competition where everyone uses the same recipe.  Neither won a ribbon, but both were scored, so I was pretty happy (the rules state that in large lots all entries will be evaluated but only the top 25 will get a score).  Also, the snickerdoodles were amazingly delicious and mine were truly beautiful to behold.  I'll have to blog that recipe at some point.

For this year's State Fair, I submitted 3 things to the Creative Activities-Baking:

• Grandma's angel food (in the angel food category)
• Peanut butter quickbread (in the non-traditional quickbread category)
• Dundee cake (in Ethnic Baking-cakes)

After a co-worker mentioned that the competition for baking with honey--for the Honey and Bees Horticulture/Agriculture categories--was not as intense, I also submitted a honey chiffon cake.

I was very happy to have all my entries on display at the fair and to win two--two!--ribbons for my efforts.  My angel food won 5th place and my honey chiffon won 1st place (YAY!  BLUE RIBBON!!)

For anyone who is interested in trying something new, submitting to the MN State Fair is remarkably easy.  No need to enter at the county level, just follow directions, register online on time, and drop off your entry on the correct day.

Here's me, really late on Friday night, with my 3 entries (peanut butter in the foreground, Dundee cake in the middle, and angel food cake cooling in the pan). 

This year, the Saturday morning drop off for Creative Activities was complicated by rain.  Everything was covered in plastic, though, so it stayed dry.  I borrowed a friend's wagon for transport and made my way to the Education Building, where the drop-off entrance was located.

Seats in the wagon made it easier to keep my items separated.

OK.  I'll be honest: I actually made my way to the Creative Activities Building, which is connected to the Education Building and where the instructions said to go.  With the rain, though, they moved the entrance so the line would be mostly inside..  It was nice of them to do that, but their signage was a little lacking.  I walked right by the door and its tiny sign:

Here's the close-up of the sign.  Umm....that's really small.

When I was almost to the door, other competitors in front of me were turning around and we all went back to the correct entrance.  The sign from this direction was much more evident:

Much harder to miss the sign that was in this direction.

Inside, the line wound around.  Hilariously, there were stanchion posts but no ropes between them, and PEOPLE STILL LINED UP AND WOUND AROUND THEM PROPERLY.  It was one of the most midwestern things that I've seen in a really, really long time.  

    

   After winding around for a while, we ended up in the Creative Activities annex, where nice people officially took in our baked goods.  Everyone was very professional and super-efficient, and I even had to sign for what I was dropping off.  (I also had a whole conversation about how to blanch almonds with the ladies who helped me.  I encouraged them to do it themselves because it is so easy!)  

After waiting in line for about 40 minutes and then dropping everything off, I got a packet of yeast and the world's tiniest bag of Gold Medal flour for participating.  Honestly, why do they even make a 2 lbs. bag of flour?  It looked so cute and fit in my not-empty-at-all purse (a good thing, with the rain outside).  But it was sort of silly, too.   

On the subject of cute-but-silly, I was carrying a giant Mickey Mouse umbrella with ears on it.  It used to be my Mom's but she recently gave it to me.  It is spectacularly cute.  And, apparently, when I carry it I bring a smile to everyone's face.  Everyone that passed me--as I carried that umbrella and pulled that wagon--started smiling or smirking when they saw me.  Every. Single. Person.  One woman even stopped her car in the middle of the road, rolled down her window, and yelled out at me "Your umbrella has ears!"  Needless to say, I felt pretty good about bringing some joy to an otherwise gloomy day.

After the 3 regular baking items were dropped off the Saturday before the start of the Fair, the cake for the honey category needed to be dropped off on Tuesday morning at the Agriculture-Horticulture building.  I was working the late shift at work, so this was just fine.  Even better, there was no line.  OK, there was one guy in front of me, but when I walked up another Fair person came up to help me.  It was awesome.  Plus, the lady was very complimentary about my cake, which made me beam like a proud mama whose kid just won a race or got all As on a report card.

Here's the line.  The entire line.  

All in all, the Fair entering and competing experience was a good experience, and one that I will likely repeat.  And the ribbons make it all the more worth while!

Look at that shiny, yellow ribbon!

WE'RE #1 !!!!!  

My Dundee cake wasn't a winner, but it was winner-adjacent.

Peanut Butter Quickbread.  That pink 4th place ribbon wasn't mine...but maybe some day!

Fun fact: I ran spell-check on this blog entry.  Words that Blogger apparently doesn't know: "wagon" and "snickerdoodle."  Blogger's childhood must've been so sad!

Blog Anniversary!

Exactly one year ago I started this blog to keep track of my personal projects, baking experiments, etc.  It isn't private (which, if you are anyone but me and reading this, should be obvious) but it being public isn't the point at all.  In fact, at the time I just felt like I needed to record things so that I could prove to myself that I can--and do--do things, sometimes really well.  Putting these things out in the world rather than in a journal of some kind was just a way to share with a few people.

One year later, the original impulse is working! It's incredibly good for me to see some of the non-job things I've done all in one place--even if they were small and/or silly things.  And especially in a year that has been incredibly challenging in all sorts of ways.  

Moral of the story: the greatest pleasures in life are the little things we do.  So, do things that make you happy and give you a sense of accomplishment... And then remember those things and how they make you feel! 

2015 Reading Challenge

As a librarian, it seems that I get to hear a lot about what my friends and co-workers are reading, wish they were reading, wish they had time to read, etc.  Not surprisingly, most of us librarians do love to read.  Perhaps surprising to non-librarians, most of us don't get to read as much or as often as we would like...and we almost never get to read at work.

A lot of people I know are doing challenges where they are trying to read a particular number of pages or a particular number of books in 2015 (or in any year, for that matter).  I'm less concerned about that and more concerned with branching out in my reading and discovering some interesting things. So, like a good, modern librarian-type, I took to the internet to find a challenge list that spoke to me and my try-new-things goal for 2015.

I found this list on PopSugar (which is not a website I actually frequent) and it seemed like an excellent place to start. I'm going to update this blog entry with what I read in each category, as well as add them to my (brand new!) goodreads account so that I can track things.  I'm not saying that I'll get through the whole list of all different types of books, but I'll use this as a guide to read and explore new things, and to finally give myself an excuse to read some of those things that have been languishing on my to-read list.

Here's the list:


1. A book with more than 500 pages

2. A classic romance

3. A book that became a movie

4. A book published this year

5. A book with a number in the title

6. A book written by someone under 30

7. A book with nonhuman characters

8. A funny book

9. A book by a female author

10. A mystery or thriller

11. A book with a one-word title
Vicious by V.E. Schwab (364 pages, published 2013, read in hard copy checked out from library, finished 3 January 2015)
An interesting take on the idea of super-powers: what constitutes a "power," who has them, how they get them, and what powers people end up with. This was the Dec/Jan book for the Amazing Book Club of Doom.  

12. A book of short stories

13. A book set in a different country

14. A nonfiction book

15. A popular author’s first book

16. A book from an author you love that you haven’t read yet

17. A book a friend recommended

18. A Pulitzer Prize-winning book

19. A book based on a true story

20. A book at the bottom of your to-read list

21. A book your mom loves

22. A book that scares you

23. A book more than 100 years old

24. A book based entirely on its cover

25. A book you were supposed to read in school but didn’t

26. A memoir

27. A book you can finish in one day

28. A book with antonyms in the title
Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder  (320 pages, published in 2010, read on my phone, finished 8 Jan. 2015)
I was a fan of Snyder's Study series (starting with Poison Study) and thought the idea of Inside Out was very cool.  It is her first book written for a young adult audience and the main character is a young woman living in a dystopian reality where there is a literal hierarchy.  She is one of the "lowers"--the workers--but she works cleaning the air vent system, which gives her the opportunity  to explore higher levels.  I described it on my Goodreads account as "Sort of Cube meets Snowpiercer meets Hunger Games/Divergent."

29. A book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit

30. A book that came out the year you were born

31. A book with bad reviews

32, 33, 34. A trilogy

35. A book from your childhood

36. A book with a love triangle

37. A book set in the future

38. A book set in high school

39. A book with a color in the title

40. A book that made you cry

41. A book with magic

42. A graphic novel

43. A book by an author you’ve never read before

44. A book you own but have never read

45. A book that takes place in your hometown

46. A book that was originally written in a different language

47. A book set during Christmas

48. A book written by an author with your same initials

49. A play

50. A banned book

51. A book based on or turned into a TV show

52. A book you started but never finished