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The 31 Days of December: Top 10 of 2021 childrens, middle grade, & adult edition

The year end review is here! Over the next three days I’ll be featuring three top tens including today’s childrens, middle grade, and adult edition, tomorrow young adult fiction edition, and Thursday’s graphic novels and manga edition. I have had to intentionally leave off young adult nonfiction since I have spent the year reading close to two hundred middle grade and young adult nonfiction titles for my work on the 2022 Excellence in Nonfiction Award and therefore cannot talk about them.

In no particular order, these ten books feature elements like lyrical prose, thought-provoking questions about life, and the necessary empathy to be a human being in this world. Whether it’s grief or loneliness, needing to find your purpose, or going on an adventure, these ten authors kept me riveted from start to finish.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 28, 2021 in Adult, Blogging, Childrens, Cover Love, Fiction, Middle grade, Miscellaneous, Reflections, Verse

The 31 Days of December: The power of storytelling

27 Dec

For the last few years, my Christmas ends with sitting quietly by myself in front of the television with either a cup of tea or a cream liqueur and watch the Call The Midwife Christmas special.

I do not watch television (generally watching things years after they’ve come out on Netflix while working out in the mornings), but when I do it’s both the news or Call the Midwife. It’s the only show that I am actually current on because I adore it as much as I do. Finishing last night’s episode with my RumChata, I realized why I love this sentimental, period piece which usually makes me cry at least once an episode– I can also watch the same episode multiple times and cry every time. It’s because it uses powerful storytelling. Which is the same as country music, which I grew up on and love to this day. And why I love books. The power of storytelling.

In this scene from the Christmas special, Lucille (a librarian from Jamaica turned English midwife) is about to marry Cyril, a mechanic who bonded over their shared roots and church during the first snowfall of the season the night before their wedding. The story arc has been seasons in the making once she came to Nonnatus House to live among the nuns and midwives who serve Poplar in London. Each episode tells a story which begins and ends with the voiceover of Vanessa Redgrave as the original Nurse Lee who wrote the original journals of her work as a midwife which the BBC has expanded to ten seasons and watchers are now in 1966. Not only is every episode a story, but each season and as a whole, ten seasons.

Simply put, I love a good story which is why Call the Midwife speaks to me. I am every bit as sentimental when I watch this show because I marvel at how it tugs at the heartstrings and makes you believe in all that is good. If you don’t believe me, I dare you to watch just one episode– any one of them.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 27, 2021 in Blogging, Shows

The 31 Days of December: Holiday vibes

26 Dec

Only recently did I create a bookshelf on Goodreads for seasonal/holiday reading because I don’t often seek them out intentionally or need to retrieve them often, however I’m finding I am more often. With that said, I know one person in particular, a coworker, who reads with holidays and seasons in mind. He first introduced me to Truman Capote’s three short stories (which I read as a collection): “A Christmas Memory,” “One Christmas”, and “The Thanksgiving Visitor.”

A few weeks ago we were again discussing holiday reading and he mentioned a tradition he has that includes Dylan Thomas’s “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” which I had never heard of and promptly put it on hold at my library. Serendipitously, it came in just in time for the holidays and I was able to settle in to read the short story on my couch, in my red and white striped pajamas at the foot on my tree, with a white cranberry mimosa. And it was delightful. I highly recommend the ambience and even more so, the short story itself which is exactly what you would imagine it would be from the title and the writer.

After this, I might be a convert to seasonal and holiday reading in a way that was never intentional before. All I know is that I now have a new memory and that one includes reminiscing about old memories and books.

I would love more season and holiday recommendations!

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 26, 2021 in Adult, Authors, Blogging, Childrens, Quotes, Reflections

The 31 Days of December: Blogs in the rearview

25 Dec

As the year-end lists will start to roll out here, I figured we would kick it off with my favorite blogs to write from this past year:

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 25, 2021 in Blogging, Miscellaneous, Reflections

The 31 Days of December: Book flood

24 Dec

It is Christmas Eve which means I’ll be celebrating with family today which includes homemaking pierogies and having meatless delights like clam chowder and mushroom soup, dill galumpkis, and of fish. Then after mass in the evening we’ll return to our house before we turn in for the night, awaiting Santa Claus. What I’m hoping for before we turn in, is a little bit of uninterrupted reading time with some chocolates which is exactly was Icelanders do for their annual book flood that most Americans know about by now.

Months before Christmas Eve a catalog goes out for Icelanders to pick and purchase books for one another that are exchanged on Christmas Eve before they retire for the night to snack on chocolates and read. For the book lovers, this is a dream though sometimes unattainable because it’s not as culturally ingrained as it is in Iceland. But one can try. I’m going to make the effort to do just that, even if for a short while.

If this is a part of your Christmas Eve, share it in the comments!

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 24, 2021 in Blogging, Events

The 31 Days of December: All the books

23 Dec

As the year comes to a close and I share my year-end lists like everyone else from my favorite blog post topics to my favorite books published this year, there’s also the year-end review of your reading in general which Goodreads conveniently packages up for users to review and share. One thing is apparent- it is not humanly possible to read all the books. It isn’t- simply because of the number of books published, life, reading habits, and everything in between.

This post had me laughing yesterday and prompted this topic:

Truly, I think that will be me haunting a library and reading all the books. It also reminds me of a Twilight Zone episode that a fellow reader and colleague was shocked I had never seen which I was able to watch; the episode was called “Time Enough at Last”- I could also relate.

So yes, I want to read all the books. Yet I know I can’t. But I also make sure that I’m enjoying what I’m reading, more so than ever which I’ve done better with after hearing Nancy Pearl speak many years ago. There are simply too many books, so why waste your time on a bad one? And you have your favorite authors and your favorite subjects so you make as much room as you can. You prioritize reading but you can’t let it take over your life in ways that feel daunting. It’s not another chore. It’s a hobby, it’s a pastime, it’s an education.

As we roll into a new year and you think about whether to set a reading goal, do a challenge, or simply read for enjoyment, remember it’s not always about all the books, but as many as you can fit in and around your beautiful life. Preferably with a cup of tea.

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 23, 2021 in Blogging, Miscellaneous, Reflections

The 31 Days of December: Best job ever

22 Dec

Yesterday was the kind of day that I’ll remember. We had been working with our specialized reading teacher throughout the last few weeks before our holiday break to have stories both fiction and nonfiction, short stories and picture books about the holidays. She wanted to count down the days with her groups and make it special but incorporate activities to build the skills necessary for students who are still learning to read. One of the last elements to put in place was some hot cocoa and coming in as a mystery reader with my favorite holiday picture books because you’re never too old to be read aloud to.

We organized the the urn for hot water and the teacher brought in some accoutrements (candy canes and marshmallows). Then I picked out my favorites: Snowmen at Night, Snowmen at Christmas, and Bear Stays Up For Christmas. The first two are part of a series by wife and husband, Caralyn and Mark Bruehner in which the paintings on each two-page spread of snowmen having fun (at night and at Christmas) have hidden items like a Santa face and T-rex. The Bear book by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman detail the hibernation of Bear who is staying up for Christmas with his woodland friends… until he falls asleep.

I read through the books with the small classes, talking through and asking questions before they refilled their hot cocoa and we rounded out the class with a YouTube tutorial on drawing a holiday character. First up, the elf. Second, a penguin. And third, the Grinch before my colleague came in to do the other classes because we like to share the fun.

This is the best job ever. We got to connect with a veteran teacher new to the high school who had a vision for the last few weeks before the holiday and we helped to make it happen and were able to partake in the fun. (Only to be tied with listening to our choir sing a handful of carols in the library eighth period).

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 22, 2021 in Blogging, Childrens

The 31 Days of December: Literary lunchbox

21 Dec

A fellow librarian colleague, Stacey Rattner, who I’ve mentioned in the past and I presented last month about how our reading lives as librarians affect our students’ reading lives. We asked questions to think-pair-share about and then coupled them with reading recommendations.

During one of these sections, we talked about having time/making time to read and Stacey shared that I read during my lunch period. Yes. Every day I read during my lunch period. Other than when my intern and I were eating together this fall or if I can’t take my lunch for some reason, you’ll find me with my feet on the opposite chair, eating my snack, and reading. And it was recently reinforced when I was listening to the audiobook Do Nothing: How to Break Away From Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving by Celeste Headlee that what I’m doing has work and personal benefits similar to this BBC article from 2019 that also references how brain breaks at work lead to happier employees and feelings of productivity. I didn’t start doing this because of these reinforcing studies, I did it because I knew it would help me detach for a brief time in the middle of the day and do something I loved. It resets me and I started sharing on my public Instagram my lunch time reading it, using the hashtag #literarylunchbox. They tend to be graphic novels or short nonfiction that I can either read in a period or over a few days.

Here are some of the titles I’ve read recently during my lunch period:

What do you do during your lunch break?

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 21, 2021 in Adult, Articles, Blogging, Fiction, Graphic novels, Middle grade, Nonfiction, Young Adult

The 31 Days of December: The best spot

20 Dec

If you’re a book lover, it’s not hard to love Macanudo, the daily comic by Argentinian comic Liniers, especially when he writes and draws his central character, Henrietta and her cat Fellini because the focus of most of those comics are about her reading. The comic from the other day was another perfect one: the good spot to read.

Where is your good spot? What is your good book?

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 20, 2021 in Blogging, Childrens, Reflections

The 31 Days of December: Dial a librarian

19 Dec

Taking advantage of being alone in the house on Saturday, I wrapped a few last presents to put under the tree while listening to an audiobook. As I looked over, I saw a chat message in one of my social media apps light up with a message. It was a coworker who was looking for a few book recommendations for his significant other.

What I liked about his plea, with a mea culpa of waiting until the last minute, was that he recognized that it was overwhelming to be in a bookstore and want to purchase a book for someone but that there’s too much. The paradox of choice. When I go into a bookstore, I know what I’m looking for. I’m usually never browsing because I spend my work days browsing professional magazines, blogs, publisher emails, etc. So I cannot relate to my coworker because even when I’m purchasing for others, I usually have titles, topics, or authors already in mind.

He was resourceful– he dialed a librarian. What expertise do you have that others would dial you up?

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Posted by Alicia Abdul on December 19, 2021 in Blogging, Miscellaneous