2024 Year in Review

Last year (2023), I tried a new "Year in Review" format. It was shorter and easier to write than what I had done in previous years, and felt fresher -- so I decided to keep it for 2024.  :)  The format/list of questions came from the long-gone scrapbooking magazine Creating Keepsakes, January/February 2013 issue (!). 

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1) What was the coolest thing you did or that happened to you last year?

Getting to meet and have dinner with Mel and her family in August. :)  

Having a patio lunch with five other childless/free women from the Childless Collective on a lovely Saturday in mid-September. :)  

Appeared in a World Childless Week webinar with Michael Hughes, chatting about our mutual love of genealogy and why we as childless people might find their family trees interesting. (You can view it here!) 

Read  "War & Peace"!  :)  One chapter a day for an entire year! (Check out the link for details -- you can do it this year too!)  

Connecting with a new friend via Ancestry -- not a relative of mine, BUT we share a family connection and distant cousins through marriage. We were born in the same town, a few years apart, my parents knew her parents, she knows several of my aunts, uncles & cousins -- AND she now lives in the same town where my parents live!  We met for coffee a few days ago & had a lovely chat about genealogy and people we both knew. (The world is much smaller than we think sometimes...!) (Bonus:  she's childless too!)  

2)  What major milestone(s) did you or a loved one experience last year?

My dad celebrated his 85th birthday in July -- and we got to be there to help celebrate!  :)  (See #3, below.) 

My sister got a new job (one with a significant pay hike) -- just before her 62nd birthday!!  Go, Sis!! 

Little Great-Niece celebrated her first birthday with a big party last spring.  :) 

AND -- we got a brand-new great-nephew just before Christmas!  A little brother for Little Great-Nephew (hmm, I'm going to have to rethink those pseudonyms, lol -- LGN #1 & #2?  Older & Younger??).

3)  What was your favourite celebration last year?

My dad's 85th birthday party. We just had a few neighbours in my parents' back yard for cake & coffee, and it was horribly hot, but (after not being able to spend time there or be present for any of his birthdays for the previous five summers) I was just so happy to be there!  (Also: thankful to celebrate another year with him, when so many of my friends have already/recently lost their parents...) 

Also: 

• Little Great-Niece's first birthday party (in early March) was fun. :)  I got some cute photos, especially of her and Little Great-Nephew sitting on the sofa together! (One of them has been my cellphone wallpaper since then!)  
• We had a "sprinkle" on Nov. 9th to celebrate the impending arrival of Little Great-Nephew #2/Great-Nibling #3 (who was born just before Christmas -- see #1). Great food, good company, fun spending time with Little Great-Nephew #1 (his older brother) & LGNiece. :) 

4)  What was your most memorable holiday of last year, and what made it special?

Christmas with my family is always memorable. I am well aware that my time with my parents is not unlimited, and so I appreciate the opportunity to spend time with them while I can -- especially for holidays like Christmas!  (Even when they drive me nuts sometimes...! lol)  (We're still here, and they've been bickering a little less than they were this summer, which has been nice...!  lol) 

Easter and (Canadian) Thanksgiving with BIL, SIL, the nephews and their families, were very special too. It's always fun just to be together, eat good food and see the kids. 

5)  What family vacation or activity was the most memorable, and why?

Being back "home" to visit my parents (and help celebrate my dad's 85th birthday) in July was memorable, particularly because I hadn't been there in the summertime since 2019!  

Our annual cottage weekend in September with BIL, SIL and dh's cousin & his wife was fun (as usual), even if with weather didn't co-operate. 

Here's to (hopefully!) travelling further afield in 2025...!! 

6)  What big goal did you or a loved one achieve or work toward last year?

We had new vertical blinds installed on all of our windows this spring!  (I know -- not really a BIG goal, but something we've been talking about doing almost since we first moved into our condo -- and we finally got it done!)  

7)  What's something that changed in your life last year?  (something new, a loss, etc.)

Both dh & I were told in late October by our family doctor that our cholesterol levels had reached concerning levels. (I'd been warned last year that my numbers have been trending upward over the past few years --but dh's ratio was actually higher than mine!)  We've been trying to eat better and get a little more active since then (although our exercise efforts have been derailed lately by colds, etc.). We'll redo our bloodwork in January to see if there's been any movement in the right direction... fingers crossed and knocking wood! Neither of us wants to add yet another prescription to our daily meds. (I'm already taking prescriptions to address my sluggish thyroid and high blood pressure.) 

8)  What was your favourite movie, book, album or song from last year, and why?

Haven't been to the movies (in theatre) since before the pandemic  :(  and I don't follow music the way that I used to either. I will be posting my 2024 Reading Year in Review shortly, and as I say there, it's hard to pick one favourite book -- but I've listed a few! 

9)  What world, national or local event or news story affected you most?

World:  The U.S. election. (Yes, I'm Canadian. It still affects us, big time.)  'Nuff said.  :p  

National: There will be a federal election in 2025 -- which the Conservatives are heavily favoured to win. I'll admit the current Liberal government has been disappointing in many ways -- but I am not (at ALL!!) convinced the Conservatives (whose current slant is MAGA Lite and whose leader I absolutely loathe) will do any better.    

Local:  I'm (still) furious about our provincial government's decision to close (and eventually move)  the landmark Ontario Science Centre (where dh spent hours & hours as a kid), then raze the original building (!)(no doubt to build more condos on the prime real estate) -- and the related push to redevelop the prime parkland/public space of Ontario Place, including a new/downsized version of the Science Centre and add a luxury spa with a massive underground parking garage (!). Dozens (hundreds?) of trees, carefully chosen & planted by the original site developers more than 50 years ago, have already been cut down. In general, the indiscriminate destruction of designated greenbelt lands, heritage buildings and well-established neighbourhoods in the pursuit of growth (and development dollars) has been a disturbing feature of the past several years.   

10)  What life lesson did you or a family member learn and take to heart last year?

Same as I wrote last year:  Life is short, and tomorrow is not promised. I am more aware of this with each passing year...! 

"The Mirror and the Light" by Hilary Mantel

"The Mirror and The Light" is the third and final installment in the Cromwell trilogy by the late, great British writer Hilary Mantel.  (The first two books:  "Wolf Hall" and "Bring Up the Bodies.")  I've been reading the entire trilogy over the past year in a "slow readalong" hosted by Simon at Footnotes & Tangents (dubbed "Wolf Crawl" by participants, lol). (I've also been taking part in another slow readalong Simon has been hosting -- "War & Peace" by Leo Tolstoy -- a chapter a day for the entire year!) 

The trilogy tells the story of Thomas Cromwell, who rises from obscurity as a blacksmith's son to become one of the most powerful men in England, and a right-hand man to King Henry VIII.  This volume picks up where "Bring Up the Bodies" ended -- after the beheading of Queen Anne Boleyn. Henry is newly married to Anne's lady-in-waiting, Jane Seymour, the daughter of a prominent family, who provides him with the male heir he craves.  But then Jane dies after childbirth, and Cromwell encourages Henry to marry the princess Anna of Cleves to secure a political alliance against the French and the Holy Roman Emperor. The marriage is a disaster, Cromwell's grasp on power begins to slip, and his enemies begin to gather round him...  

I fell behind schedule late this summer, and at one point, I was something like 10 weeks behind on my reading (!)(the daily vs weekly reading schedule & chats with "War & Peace" were an advantage in that regard). I started trying to catch up on the last half of the book on the plane trip to visit my parents over the holidays, and finished today. (Yay me!)  

These books are a magnificent achievement of writing -- absolutely spellbinding. Even though you likely know how everything turns out, it you still keep turning the pages.  I am so glad I finally got to read these books, with the benefit of Simon's expert guidance and the insights provided by fellow readers. FYI:  Simon will be re-running Wolf Crawl in 2025 for paying subscribers (along with War & Peace, plus several other books that will be free of charge) -- I highly recommend the experience! (And I'm considering whether to do it again...!) 

A TV adaptation of this volume, starring Mark Rylance as Cromwell and Damien Lewis as Henry, recently aired in the UK, and will be shown on PBS in North America in late March 2025. I'm looking forward to it! 

A solid 5 stars on Goodreads/StoryGraph. 

This was Book #37 read to date in 2024 (and Book #5 finished in December), bringing me to 82%  of my 2024 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 8 (!) books behind schedule to meet my goal. :(  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2024 tagged as "2024 books."    

"War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy

Like many avid readers (and English majors), I attempted to read "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy in my young and foolish years. (Attempted!)  I think it was the summer between second and third year university, and I had a shelf full of Penguin classics that I meant to read. "War and Peace" came in a boxed set of two volumes. I got about 60 pages in before I gave up. It was SO LONG -- and all those characters to keep straight!!  All those Russian names!!  

Then, late in 2023, one of my favourite writers, Rona Maynard, mentioned on a social media post that she'd just joined an upcoming "slow readalong" hosted by Simon Haisell. He'd been running a year-long readathon of "War and Peace" -- one chapter per day for an entire year -- on Instagram, and was about to repeat that feat in 2024, but this time on his Substack, "Footnotes & Tangents."  

I was intrigued. I was tempted. I thought about all my other (many) book club obligations, all the other books in my gargantuan To Be Read pile that I've been wanting to get to. Did I really need ONE MORE reading obligation??  

I caved in to temptation.  I signed up, downloaded a cheap (Kobo Original) copy of the novel to my e-reader, and (deep breath) opened it on Jan. 1st, 2024, and started reading. 

What a year it's been!  What a ride!  What a book!  

"War and Peace" begins in 1805, ends in 1820, and was originally published in 1868. At more than  1,900 pages (!!), the length alone makes it a daunting read.  Apparently "War and Peace," like many of Dickens's novels from around the same time, was originally published as a serial. This explains, perhaps, why it's so long -- were writer paid by the word back then?? But each chapter is a reasonable length -- seldom more than 12-15 pages long -- often with a pithy cliffhanger sentence!  

Consumed and pondered at the pace of one chapter per day, I found the novel to be entirely do-able and easily digestible. My enjoyment was enhanced by Simon's expert guidance, through his well-curated character list (which really helped to keep who's who straight, especially early on), weekly context/summary posts and (especially) the daily chat threads where readers discussed the chapter of the day with each other.  The comments were frequently thoughtful and insightful (and often witty and hilarious to boot). :)  Frequent refrain:  "I never thought I'd enjoy this book so much!" (Me either!)  

The novel is many things: there is romance, satire, history, family drama, long, rambling philosophical essays (which admittedly were boring at times, with many of us itching to get back to the stories of our main characters!), and many chapters in which Tolstoy takes Napoleon to task. (He clearly was NOT a fan!)  

"War and Peace" may not be the novel for you if you dislike ambiguity and crave clear-cut, happy endings. (It's a lot like real life in that way!) As a keen observation of human nature, and as a feat of storytelling, it's magnificent. 

To quote the title of another book that Simon frequently references (and which I'm hoping to read myself, now that I've finished W&P), "Give War and Peace a Chance." (lol) 

Seriously -- if you've ever thought about reading "War & Peace" -- this is the way to do it!!  If this post piqued your interest and reading W&P has been one of your longtime reading bucket list goals, Simon will be re-running the W&P (and Cromwell Trilogy by Hilary Mantel) slow reads in 2025 for paying subscribers, along with shorter readalongs for a couple of other books that will be open to all, free of charge. (I am seriously considering doing it again! -- and I am not the only one!)  Check out Footnotes & Tangents, if you're interested!   

(Content warning:  From an ALI angle, you should be aware that the book includes the death of a young woman following childbirth, an abortion that also ends unhappily, and a single childless character whose romantic hopes are never fulfilled.  There is also a wolf hunt that many in the group found difficult to read or skipped altogether.) 

Book:  4.5 stars on StoryGraph, rounded down to 4 on Goodreads.  

Readalong experience:  a solid 5 stars.  :)  

This was Book #36 read to date in 2024 (and Book #4 finished in December), bringing me to ??%  of my 2024 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 8 (!) books behind schedule to meet my goal. :(  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2024 tagged as "2024 books."    

"Major Pettigrew's Last Stand" by Helen Simonson

My Childless Collective Nomo Book Club co-host and I are always looking for potential books the group could read and discuss together. So when she told me she was currently reading "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand" by Helen Simonson and thought it might fit the bill, I decided that I would check it out too.   

I vaguely remember seeing "Major Pettigrew" on the shelves and hearing good things about it when it was first published, back in 2010.  As the story begins, 68-year-old retired  Major Ernest Pettigrew -- the very picture of a proper English gentleman -- has just learned of the death of his younger brother, Bertie.  (His wife, Nancy, died several years ago.)  Reeling from shock, he answers a knock on the door: it's Mrs. Jasmina Ali, a widow who runs the local convenience store, and she's collecting on behalf of the paper boy, who is sick. She quickly recognizes the Major's distress, makes him a cup of tea and stays to chat and offer her sympathy. 

This marks the beginning of a seemingly unlikely friendship:  the two come from very different cultures and different social classes, but they share a common bond of grief and loneliness, as well as a love of books. 

Of course, not everyone approves of this budding relationship -- including many of the villagers (who have been promoting one of their own single ladies as a perfect match for the eligible widower). It includes the Major's adult son, Roger, who works as a London financier, but has decided to rent a nearby cottage for weekends with his American girlfriend.  And it includes Mrs. Ali's young adult nephew, Abdul Wahid, a devout Muslim, who lives with her and helps her run the store since the death of her husband. There are a number of subplots interwoven throughout the book, including Abdul Wahid's estranged girlfriend and her young son (whom Mrs. Ali adores), a prized set of valuable antique guns that once belonged to the Major's father, the golf club's annual dinner and dance, and a proposed development of luxury homes on the estate just outside the village.  

Beneath the wry British humour and gentle social satire, the book deals with some serious themes, including grief and loss, family conflicts, clashes between generations, city versus country living, aging, classism, colonialism and racism. The writing is great, the characters are vividly drawn, and (bonus!) Mrs. Ali is that rare creature -- a warm and sympathetic CNBC character -- an older one, too!  

On the minus side of the balance sheet:  several of the characters, most prominently the emotionally repressed Major Pettigrew, seem solidly stuck in a rapidly fading past. I had to check a couple of times to remind myself that the book really IS set in present-day England! (My co-host thought the same thing!) Maybe I'm naive, but I cannot imagine anyone in Britain -- even 20 years ago -- would have thought the colonial Indian theme (including costumes) of the golf club dinner & dance was appropriate! -- or that the relationship between the Major and Mrs. Ali would have caused such a stir among the villagers. And the climactic scene of the book was a little melodramatic. 

For those reasons, I can't give this book a top rating. After some internal debate: 3.5 stars on StoryGraph, rounded down to 3 on Goodreads. 

(Apparently, the book was optioned for a film adaptation that, to date, has never been made. Too bad!  I think it would make a great little movie, or a mini-series on PBS Masterpiece.)  

This was Book #35 read to date in 2024 (and Book #3 finished in December), bringing me to 78%  of my 2024 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 8 (!) books behind schedule to meet my goal. :(  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2024 tagged as "2024 books."    

Odds & ends

• Well, the federal government has ordered Canada Post workers back to work as of today -- but the post office is warning that it will take quite a while to deal with the backlog of incoming and outgoing mail.  Too little, too late for Christmas cards & packages. The strike began more than a month ago, on Nov. 15th. I didn't even buy any cards this year, because I knew these things sometimes tend to drag on, and I didn't want to knock myself out trying to get them done (at an already busy time of year) when they might not even be able to be sent until well into the new year. 
• So for the first time in my adult life, I'm not sending a Christmas card. Not sure anyone will miss it!  (lol) but I always enjoy doing them and look forward to getting them in the mail (although the number I get has been dwindling over the years).  I posted about this on Facebook. (I'm guessing some of our friends & relatives outside of Canada probably didn't even know there was a strike going on.)  
• A few people have urged me to send out cards/letters (even via email) in the new year instead. I might, but it definitely wouldn't be until after the new year...! 
• I'm feeling a lot less foggy from my cold today -- but still coughing a lot (which has kept me awake at night for the last several nights). So I called our dentist's office this morning to rebook my rebooked appointment for tomorrow -- one less thing on my to-do list to deal with! I'll now be going there in early January. 
• The bruises and scrapes from my tumble last week are also fading, and should be just about gone by the time we fly to see my parents. (I haven't told them about what happened. "Why stir the pot?"  my sister said when I asked her if I should.)  
• Jody Day flagged this Substack post, saying "Sue Fagalde Lick NAILS it about the complex emotions on the effort/cost of sending gifts when you're a solo elderwomen... and the tiny amount of recognition or reciprocity we often see..."  (Partnered and/or younger childless women too, but I recognize it's especially difficult when you're solo and older!):  "Santa, I need some help over here!" 
• Jody also wrote a piece for the World Childless Week website that a lot of us might need/want to read right about now: "No Room At The Inn For People Without Children." 
• Y.L. Wolfe about being a perennial outsider in her new (and aptly named) Substack "On the Outside."  Needless to say, I could relate...!
• From the Life Without Children Substack: "Tears, Sweat and Blood — Seeking an Answer to Unexplained Infertility." Subhead:  "How an ancestor helped to solve the eternal question, ‘Why me?’ " 

#MicroblogMondays: Adding insult to injury....

Thanks to those of you who empathized over the fall I took last Tuesday. I have to say (again) just how lucky I feel. It was a scary experience -- but it could have been so much worse!  

I'm actually kind of amazed at how quickly I'm healing.  I still have a faint purplish shadow and some abrasions on my left cheek (which, at a glance, could probably pass for rosacea...!), but they're healing fast. There's another abrasion above my left upper lip that's healing too -- less and less noticeable every day.  It looks like I'm recovering from a large cold sore!  The lip itself is a lot better too.  The scrapes on on my hands are still noticeable, but they're gradually healing.  The bruises on my knees too, but they're not so noticeable under my clothes!  

I did feel a lot of fatigue for a couple of days afterward, which I chalked up to the shock & trauma. But then I started having a lot of sinus drainage (more than usual)... which caused a scratchy throat, and triggered coughing.  By Saturday, I suspected I was coming down with a cold. By the time I woke up on Sunday morning, I knew it. I developed an awful cough, had a crappy night, and feel pretty crappy this morning too. (Thanks a lot for passing it on, dh...!)(eyeroll) 

My first instinct was to take a covid test yesterday, which was, thankfully, negative. I repeated the test this morning (also negative). So I guess it's not covid, which is a good thing -- but it is still nasty! 

Then (yesterday morning), BIL called. It was Older Nephew's birthday. We hadn't heard anything about a celebration, either at BIL's or at their place -- not surprisingly, since Older Nephew's wife is less than a week away from a scheduled C-section! and obviously has other things on her mind!  ;)  Now BIL was proposing to drive up there with a cake, and they wanted to know if we wanted to come. 

Well, of COURSE we wanted to come! -- BUT. There was no way on this green earth that I was going to expose a 39-weeks pregnant woman to my germs. I always worry about any pregnant woman until the baby is here and I know both of them are okay -- but obviously, this is my niece-in-law (and Great-Nephew #2), which ups the worry factor considerably (not to mention the incredible GUILT I would feel if one or both got sick because of me!). 

So dh went with them, by himself -- and I stayed at home and felt sorry for myself, lol.  

What's REALLY frustrating is that this always -- always!! -- seems to happen right around this time of year. I don't know if it's because there are lots of bugs going around, if pre-holiday stress lowers the defenses of your immune system or what -- but THIS IS NOT A GOOD TIME FOR THIS, BODY!! 

It's a busy week ahead.  We'd planned to go to the mall this morning to do some more Christmas shopping, and get in some of that EXERCISE we're supposed to be getting (to lose weight & lower our cholesterol, along with eating better). Needless to say, with dh sick and now me, that hasn't been happening. I would say I'm 85-90% done shopping, but I still have two gifts and some more stocking stuffers to get.

I'm supposed to head back downtown to the dentist on Wednesday for the checkup and cleaning I missed.  Hopefully, I will be able to make that appointment, because I really don't want to postpone it until January -- but I'm having my doubts...!  (I'm pretty sure there was no real damage done when I fell last Tuesday, but it would make me feel better to have that confirmed ASAP.)  

Our new great-nephew is also arriving later this week!  Unfortunately, even if I was feeling better, it's doubtful we'll be able to see him before we head off for the holidays. :(  But the night before the operation, Older Nephew & his wife are bringing Little Great-Nephew (and the dog!) to stay with BIL & SIL, so we may be able to see LGN then -- again, so long as I'm feeling better.   

Based on the timeline of how dh's cold ran, I *should* be feeling better by the time we're scheduled to fly. I will, of course, wear a mask in the airport and on the plane. Too many germs around right now (and I don't want to add to them, or pick up any new ones!). 

Wish me luck...! 

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here. 

"Miss Buncle's Book" by D.E. Stevenson (re-read)

My D.E. Stevenson online fan group recently wrapped up our chapter-by-chapter reading and discussion of "Miss Buncle’s Book" (an early DES novel, first published in 1934), which began in early October.

(I first read this book not long after I joined the group back in 2014 -- my original 2015 review is here.  I re-read the book myself before our group read began, and that more recent review is  here.) 

Quiet, guileless, unassuming Miss Barbara Buncle has been forced to look for ways to increase her income, as her dividends have been rapidly shrinking (no doubt because it's the Great Depression).  She decides to try her hand at writing a book -- which turns out to be a thinly disguised portrait of Silverstream (the village where she lives) and its residents (all assigned different names, but still highly recognizable). 

Not only does Barbara's book (aptly named "Disturber of the Peace") immediately find a publisher, it becomes a bestseller -- nowhere more so than in Silverstream, where the enraged residents immediately recognize themselves and set out to learn the true identity of the author (who goes by the obvious pseudonym of "John Smith"). 

"Miss Buncle's Book" is a classic DES novel, often the first one by this author that people read.  Stevenson's books are very much products of the time & place they were written -- a little old-fashioned, perhaps -- but well-crafted, funny, charming romances, comedies of manners and family dramas featuring engaging characters and lovely descriptions of the natural world.  (This book in particular contains a lot of social satire!)  I can easily see this one as mini-series on PBS.  :) 

Stevenson wrote two sequels to "Miss Buncle's Book" -- "Miss Buncle Married" and "The Two Mrs. Abbotts,"  both of which are on our schedule of upcoming reads for 2025-26 (and both of which I previously reviewed here).  (My previous reviews of those books here and here.)  So is "The Four Graces," where Miss Buncle makes a brief cameo appearance. (My review.) 

Our next book, however, will be "Peter West" -- Stevenson's first published novel from 1923, which originally appeared in serial format, and was republished in 2013. It's the one DES book the group has not read in its 26 years of existence!  We'll begin in January. 

I wasn't on Goodreads the first time I read "Miss Buncle's Book" in early 2015, but I retroactively logged it and assigned it a 4-star rating. I kept that rating when I re-read the book earlier this fall, and it still stands now.  :)   

4 stars on both Goodreads & StoryGraph. 

This was Book #34 read to date in 2024 (and Book #2 finished in December), bringing me to 76%  of my 2024 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 8 (!) books behind schedule to meet my goal. :(  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2024 tagged as "2024 books."