2021

2021!  It's over! I was thinking of writing a post about January when I realized I wanted to write a post about last year.  So!

I gave up on the Wallander series.  I found out I enjoyed the Maisie Dobbs books.  Just as I did in 2019 (with the Midnight, Texas series), I spent the last little bit of the year falling headfirst into a new Charlaine Harris series.  The Aurora Teagarden series is such a treat!  

I spent a little time reading by the pool this summer and found out I enjoyed that quite a bit.  I love to drag a paperback novel around.  

I also started reading the Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly this fall, right around the time I started wearing bifocals.  Progressive lenses have made a world of difference in my knitting and my reading, and I have enjoyed a lot more projects and consumed so many more books once I wasn't suffering from eye strain.  I didn't even realize how bad things had gotten until they got better!

I dug in to the same old standby projects for maximum comfort knitting--Flax sweaters, vanilla socks, granny squares, and silly baby hats.  I tried a few new things here and there, but I didn't have much success of completing those projects unless I was improvising.  I benefitted from a couple of friends destashing and even had the magical experience of a friend dropping yarn onto my porch (!!!) because her friend had destashed it.

I have started looking at my own stash and pattern library and trying to figure out what I like knitting and wearing.  I also made a couple of sweaters for my daughter from highly modified patterns or from no pattern at all.

January

A Dying Fall. Elly Griffiths

Whip Hand. Dick Francis

Come to Grief. Dick Francis

A Time for Mercy. John Grisham

A Colony in a Nation. Chris Hayes

February

The Man Who Smiled. Henning Mankell

One Thousand Gifts. Ann Voskamp

C is for Corpse. Sue Grafton

People of Darkness. Tony Hillerman 

March

The Outcast Dead. Elly Griffiths

St. Patrick: A Biography. Philip Freeman

The Ghost Fields. Elly Griffiths

Under Orders. Dick Francis

April

The Woman in Blue. Elly Griffiths

The Dark Wind. Tony Hillerman.

The Stone Circle. Elly Griffiths

D is for Deadbeat. Sue Grafton. 

Refusal. Felix Francis.

May

The Lantern Men. Elly Griffiths

Dark Sacred Moon. Michael Connelly

Still Life. Val McDermid

June

The Watershed. Mark Barr

July

Flying too High. Kerry Greenwood

E is for Evidence. Sue Grafton

Murder on Ballarat Train. Kerry Greenwood

Maisie Dobbs. Jacquelin Winspear

Silent Voices. Ann Cleeves

August

F is for Fugitive. Sue Grafton

Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service. Carol Leoning

The Glass Room. Ann Cleeves

Death at Victoria Dock. Kerry Greenwood

September

God-Level Knowledge Darts: Life Lessons from the Bronx. Desus and Mero

The Green Mill Murder. Kerry Greenwood

October

The Ghostway. Tony Hillerman

Birds of a Feather. Jacqueline Winspear

The Nighthawks. Elly Griffiths

November

Camino Winds. John Grisham

The Moth Catcher. Ann Cleeves

This Will All be Over Soon. Cecily Strong

Mycroft Holmes. Kareem Abdul-Jabar and Anna Waterhouse 

December

Odd Jobs: 101 Ways to Make an Extra Buck. Abigail Gehring

Real Murders. Charlaine Harris

Black Echo. Michael Connelly

A Bone to Pick. Charlaine Harris

Three Bedrooms, One Corpse. Charlaine Harris

The Julius House. Charlaine Harris

Dead Over Heels. Charlaine Harris.

The Black Ice. Michael Connelly