Books

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The Year in Books

I am always happy when year end rolls around as all the media outlets share their best books lists. I always get lots of ideas for new authors and ideas to explore. If you are interested in what I’ve been reading this year – the image at the top shows my favorite books of the 105 I enjoyed this year. You can see all my reading by following this link to my 2022 Goodreads list, if you’re interested. I mostly...

My Reading Life

I am an avid reader and I love this time of year as every major magazine and newspaper seems to release their “Favorite Books of the Year” lists. I pore through them, adding books to my Goodreads “want to read” lists and downloading those I want to read first. The New York Times list is one of the first of the season, if you want to check it out it is here. At the top of this post is a...

Paul Theroux on México

Here is my gift to you – if you have not read On The Plain of Snakes – A Mexican Journey by Paul Theroux, buy it or download it or put a hold on it at your library, now. You can thank me later. Just don’t miss this book. I have read (and loved) most of Theroux’s books but this one is really special. His perspective as an elder and his serious curiosity and need to understand Mexico and Mexicans...

My 12 Favorite Books of 2014

Every year I like to share my favorite books with you. 2014 has been a great year for reading, and I see by my Amazon widget (at left) that I have so far read 91 books! I read a variety of books, from contemporary fiction to non-fiction, mystery and even this year a bit of sci-fi. So here goes, in no particular order… The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber is a story about a corporate colonization of...

New books by Mazatlán authors and artists

Mazatlán is a place that attracts people who are creative and I just realized lately that there are a number of new and upcoming books by local authors you would want to know about. At the top of the page is a photo from a new book by Mary Ruzich. Mary is a talented fiber artist who travels from Canada to Mexico and back each year, and her book,  Signs of Life is her year-long journaling-on-cloth of her experiences and...

My 10 Favorite Books of 2013

I always like to share my favorite books of the year – I hope you’ll enjoy at least some of them! These are in no particular order. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki – A strange and wonderful book about a writer and her husband in rural Canada, a Japanese teenager and her family, and time. Everyone I know who has read this book has enjoyed it, I think you will, too. I absolutely love A. M....

I love my life

I was talking to my best friend yesterday.She lives in San Francisco, where I grew up, and she and I have been best friends for forty-six years. I love her pretty much as much as I can love anyone. She loves to read. She loves to eat great food. She’s funny. She’s generous, sometimes even to a fault. She’s one of the last people in my life who actually knew my mother. She remembers things that I’ve already forgotten. ;She...

My 12 Best Books of 2012

I enjoy reading – mostly contemporary fiction –  and last year I read 83 books.  Here are my top 12 books of the year, in no special order.  I hope you find a few that you’ll want to read among them!  Disclosure: All book photos are linked to Amazon.com and are coded so I get credit if you buy one. You think 83 books is a lot? Here’s an article by a man who read a book a day in...

Summer diversions

I love summer. Yes, it’s hot, but it’s also quiet and mostly relaxing. I thought I’d give you some idea of what I’ve been up to. I made myself a messenger bag/purse using the tutorial here as a guide. I used an old pair of Paul’s cargo shorts and couldn’t be more pleased! What do you think? That’s the bag at the top of the post. I had gotten inspired to do some sewing from this wonderful website ReFashionista…. she...

My Favorite Books of 2011

I have been reading a lot of “best of” lists for the last week or so and thought I might share my favorite books of the year, too. I hope you’ll take a minute and enter your top book of the year in the form at the end of the post which should give us all more great reading suggestions! My list is not in any particular order… The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown – I love books about sisters,...

Shhhhhh… it’s quiet time.

Mazatlán is an interesting place to live because it has a lot of different phases. Carnaval is busy and noisy, Winter is filled with art openings, theater, fundraisers, and other social events. Semana Santa brings lots of tourists to the beaches. Summer school vacation means we can park on our street anytime. Summertime once the kids are back in school is very quiet. And I mean quiet. It’s still hot so people aren’t walking around town as much. All the...

The books of 2008

I have always been an avid reader.  One of my worries when we moved to Mexico was that I would struggle to find enough quality reading material to satisfy me.  I used several strategies to make sure I always had enough to read. I ordered from Amazon.  I used our local English library.  I traded with friends.  I bought books (a suitcase full) when I went to the US in July.  I bought books at Sandi Books in Guadalajara.  I...

Mazatlán or Teatlán?

Paul and I recently read the book Kissing the Virgin’s Mouth by Donna Gershten. The book is a novel about Mazatlán…which you will recognize easily, even though the author calls the city Teatlán. The main character, Magda, grows up in a poor family in one of the barrios of Mazatlán. Her father sells tejuino (a corn drink) from a cart. Magda is determined to get a better life for herself – but of course there were many bumps along the...

A Tree Grows in Mazatlán

  I am reading (it is amazing to me that I hadn’t read it before) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. It is a wonderful book, set in Brooklyn in the early 1900’s. I am loving it. The tree referred to in the title is one they called the Tree of Heaven. It grew in the worst possible soil and was the only tree that would even grow out of cement. I think México has a number of...

Here are a couple books to read…

  Mexico: The Trick is Living Here by Julia Taylor is an e-book available for sale at her website. I believe I had Googled “retire Mexico” or something when I ran across her site. I bought the book and have been enjoying it for the last couple of days…even though I am not too keen on reading books on the computer. She gives a lot of factual and anecdotal information. As a former resident of the Pacific Northwest, I feel...