Sunday Sound-Off

Sound off: to voice one's opinions freely with force;
Synonyms: pipe up, shoot, sound off, speak out, spout (off), talk up 
Related Words:  bawl, bay, bellow, call, cry, holler, roar, shout, sing (out), thunder, vociferate, yell; articulate, enunciate 

Welcome to Sunday Sound-Off, a regular weekly posting about my reading life, my other than reading life, and life in general in Maine. I also encourage you to drop a comment sounding off about your week, your gripes, your reading life, etc.

While my posted reviews make it look like I'm not doing much reading, I've actually been quite immersed in the world of books for the first month of 2013. During January I finished 13 books, even though the  breakdowns don't always add to 13 because some were in two different categories.  For instance, I both listened to and read Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel.  So here's the January recap:

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Books Completed in January

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♪♪= audio
** = ROOT (Read Our Own Tomes)--AKA Books off my shelves (whether electronic, print, or audio- in my possession before 1/1/2013).
Links are to the book page in LibraryThing where you'll see my review if I did one.

1.** Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain .★★★★★
2.**The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney. ★★★ ½ ♪♪
3. Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death by M.C. Beaton ★★★ ♪♪
4.**The Richest Woman in the World by Janet Wallach ★★★ (really more like a 2.8) ♪♪and print
5. Dinner with Churchill by Cita Stelzer. ★★★★
6. **44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith ★★★ ½ ♪♪
7. **The Goddaughter by Melodie Campbell ★★★ ½
8. Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardener by M.C. Beaton ★★★ ♪♪
9. The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout ★★★★½
10. Crawl Space by Sarah Graves ★★★ ½ ♪♪
11.**Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel ★★★★★ ♪♪ print and audio (audio is the ROOT)
12. The Names of Our Tears by P. L. Gaus ★★★ ½ ♪♪
13. Where'd You Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple ★★★★ ♪♪
14. Temporary Sanity by Rose Connors ★★★ ½ ♪♪

Last Sunday, I spent 4 1/2 hours working on my Great Blue Heron cross-stitch, and I plan to do the same today.  I can easily do this while I listen to an audio book, so I can indulge in two guilty pleasures at once.  Our Maine weather has been decidedly wicked this week, temps all over the place, and snow, ice, mud, sun, rain, power outages, and trees down.  Thank goodness nothing lasts longer than a day, so we just sit back and enjoy the variety and the excuse to remain curled up with a good book.

For those of you who will be glued to the tube watching the Super Bowl, best wishes to your team.  Our family is divided right down the middle:  the west coast branch obviously is routing for the Niners (as are Mr. and Mrs. Tutu) but the Baltimore branch of course is cheering on the Ravens.  Whoever wins, it's bound to be a great game.  And yes, I CAN listen to an audio, do my cross stitch and keep an eye on the game at the same time.!!  Happy Sunday.