I’ve been struggling to find a way to post here regularly because I want to post, I intend to post, but by the time I get home from work in the evenings I have no motivation to post. I rarely turn my computer on at home and am usually too tired and busy to think about blogging.

Then I remembered that about 4 or so years ago I used to post a Sunday Bulletin where I would talk about my week and give short reviews of any books I’d finished. Great idea! This is something I can do every Sunday that is low pressure and still keeps me blogging and talking about books like I used to here. I do so miss being a part of this community and I want to return. A weekly bulletin is just the way I’ve been looking for to be able to do that.

Some of you may be wondering about my trip to England in October. Well, I didn’t get to go. I had to have my gallbladder out instead. Not a very fun alternative. And then I had complications, was hospitalized for four days and had to have two additional surgeries. I was out of work for a month and spent lots of time at home (sadly, not reading) recuperating. But I am mostly all cured now and am going to reschedule my trip to late April/early May.

Books finished this week:

Village Christmas by Laurie Lee – I bought this book after I saw it was the December choice for Emily’s Walking Book Club. I always like to buy a few Christmas themed books every year and this looked like a great choice – and it was. However, only the first two essays are actually about Christmas. The rest of the essays discuss various themes, but the overriding theme is change – mostly change to the landscape. Lee is an easy companion and his writing is friendly and funny so I didn’t mind reading the entire collection. It was a joy to spend time in his company and I now look forward to reading Cider with Rosie sometime in the new year.

A Tudor Christmas by Alison Weir and Siobhan Clarke – This pretty little book uses the twelve days of Christmas as chapters and starting points to educate the modern reader on how the Tudors celebrated Christmas. The authors detail many traditions that I had heard of but didn’t really know the meaning of (like yule logs, the Lord of Misrule, mummers) using poetry and song lyrics to illustrate the short chapters. I enjoyed learning about the origins of some traditions we still follow today and was grateful that we have done away with others (like making a boar’s head the center of our Christmas dinners). I recommend this if you like microhistories.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!