Christmas round up….2014

Patience and Fortitude, the world-renowned pair of marble lions that stand proudly before the majestic Beaux-Arts building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in Manhattan, have captured the imagination and affection of New Yorkers and visitors from all over the world since the Library was dedicated on May 23, 1911.

As the year rolls to a close I find myself making lists . Lists of what I have accomplished, what I goals I did not reach and what milestones I need to focus on in the coming year.   It is a time of celebration, to honor achievements and successes in the many forms  that they present themselves.

One of my benchmarks this year was allowing myself (without guilt) to read what I whatever I wished.  In the past, reading an adult book as a children’s librarian felt out of place and bordering on selfish.  In my currently position,   I have liberated myself from this notion. The second benchmark was to read a minimum of 50 books during 2014.

Thus, I give you my list of 2014 read materials.

1. Year of no sugar by Eve Schaub
2. Gaining ground; a story of Farmers’ markets, local food, and saving the family farm by Forrest Pritchard
3. Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living  by Doug Fine
4. Ground: A story of farmer’s markets, local food and saving the family farm by Forrest Pritchard
5. Plenty: One man, one woman and a raucous year of eating locally by Alisa Smith
6. Blessing the hands that feed us: what eating closer to home can teach us about food, community and our place on earth by Vicki Robin
7. Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and his years of pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami
8. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
9. The vacationers by Emma Straub
10. Good Grief: a life in a tiny Vermont Village by Ellen Stimson
11. Fourteenth goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm
12. The Organized mind by Daniel J. Levtin
13. Flash boys by Micheal Lewis
14. The feast nearby: how I lost my job, buried a marriage and found my way by keeping chickens, preserving, bartering and eating locally (all on $40 a week) by Robin Mather
15. Euphoria by Lily King
16. Tambora : The eruption that changed the world by Gillen D’Arcy Wood
17. The book of unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez
18. The third plate : field notes on the future of food by Dan Barber
19. Bread and Butter by Michelle Wildgen
20. Close your eyes, hold hands by Chris Bohjalian
21. All the light we cannot see by Anthony Doerr
22. We were liars by E. Lockhart
23. The boys in the boat: nine americans and their epic quest for the gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel Brown
24. Plutocrats: the rise of the new global super rich and the fall of everyone else by Chrystia Freeland
25. Growing a feast: the chronicle of a farm to table meal by Kurt Timmermeister
26. Lean in : women , work, and the will to lead by Sheryl Sandberg
27. Walden on wheels : on the open road from debt to freedom by Ken Ilgunas
28. Still life with bread crumbs by Anna Quinden
29. Food rules: an eater’s manual byMichael Pollan
30. I always loved you by Robin Oliveria
31. Belle Cora by Phillip Margulies
32. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
33. The supreme macaroni club by Adriana Trigiani
34. Good tidings and great joy: protecting the heart of Christmas by Sarah Palin
35. The apartment by Greg Baxter
36. The apple orchard by Susan Wiggs
37. This is where I leave you by Jonathan Tropper
38. Lisette’s List By Susan Vreeland
39. The beekeeper’s ball  by Susan Wiggs
40. Let’s get lost by Adi Alsaid
41. Landline by Rainbow Rowell
42. The dinner by Herman Koch
43. California By Edan Lepucki
44. Stories behind the great traditional Christmas by Ace Collins
45. Cabin: two brothers , a dream and five acres in Maine by Lou Urencek
46. Ice cream queen of Orchard street by Susan Jane Gilman
47. The Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dickerson
48. The Lobster Kings by Alexi Zentner
49. The Bees by Paul Laline
50. The secret life of lobsters: how fishermen and scientists are unravelling the mysteries of our favorite crustacean by Trevor Corson
51. Julia Child Rules: Lessons on Savoring life by Karen Karbo
52. Bollettieri: changing the game by Nick Bollettieri
53. Natchez Burning By Greg Iles
54. Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1922 by Francine Prose
55. The opposite of loneliness; essays and stories by Marina Keegan
56. Sweet expectations by Mary Ellen Taylor
57. The pink suit by N. M. Kelby
58. Leader’s eat last by Simon Sinek
59. Holidays on ice by David Sedaris
60. You are here: from the compass to GPS, the history  and the future of how we find ourselves by Hiawatha Bray
61. The sugar season: a year in the life of maple syrup and one family’s quest for the sweetest harvest by Douglas Whynott
62. Twilight of the Belle Époque: the Paris of Picasso, Stravinsky, Proust, Renault , Marie Curie, Gertrude Stein and their friends through the Great War by Mary McAuliffe.
63. The next America;  Boomers, millennial and the Looming Generational showdown by Paul Taylor
64. Love, Bake, Nourish; healthier cakes, bakes and puddings full of fruit and flavour by ROse Amber
65. A mad, wicked folly by Sharon Biggs Waller
66. Christmas bliss by Mary Kay Andrews
67. The pomegranate lady and her sons: selected stories by Goli Taraghi
68. The light between oceans by M.L. Stedman
69. The dirty life; on farming, food and love by Kristin Kimball
70. Mud Season by Ellen Stimson
71. Good Grief: Life in a Tiny Vermont Village
    by Ellen Stimson
72. The cheese chronicles : a journey through the making and selling of cheese in America, from field to farm to table  by Liz Thorpe
73. Delicious! : a novel byRuth Reichl.
74. America–farm to table : simple, delicious recipes celebrating local farmers by Mario Batali and Jim Webster 
75. Winter Street by Elin Hildbreandt
76. Mr Miracle  by Debbie Macomber
77. Bittersweet : a novel by Miranda Beverly- Whittemore
78. How we got to now : six innovations that made the modern world by STeve Johnson
79. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
80. The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
81. The Martian by Andy Weir

I might have superseded my initial goal. In retrospective, it was a year of reading the top best sellers and starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Library Journal.  And only one could be classified as a young adult novel.  Glancing over the list,  I continued my interest in farm to table/locivore themed non fiction bioptics with a few Christmas novels tossed in for good measure. However, it was a great year of reading and tea-with-lemon drinking.  Sigh.