Our house is all decorated for Christmas now, complete with lots and lots of strings of Christmas lights. (Christmas lights are my favorite part of the decorations. In fact, there are a couple strings that stay up in my house year round!) Now we just need the weather to get with the program. I don't know what it's like where you are, but it was 60 degrees here in Michigan yesterday. Normally we're buried under half a foot of snow by this point at least!

Blessings by Anna Quindlen (Very heart-warming story about an abandoned baby and the lives she affects.)
The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith (If you like British humor, you would love this book.)
The Importance of Being Earnest and Four Other Plays by Oscar Wilde (I did it! It took me two months, but I finally made it through these five Wilde plays!)
​Scarlet by Marissa Meyer (Is it possible that the second book is even better than the first? Hope the trend continues through the series!)

Grave Consequences by Lisa Bergren (I am done with all of my 2015 reading challenges! That means I can read whatever I want for the rest of December! Starting with this second book of a trilogy that I've been dying to read.)

Return to Me by Lynn Austin (Another book I've been impatiently waiting to read.)

Over Thanksgiving weekend, my family and I took a trip down to Detroit (technically Grosse Pointe Shores) to visit the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House. Edsel was the only son of Henry Ford. He raised his family of four children in this mansion on the shores of Lake St. Clair.

This is the gatehouse and garage, where the cars (all Fords, of course) were kept.

This is the playhouse given to Edsel and Eleanor's only daughter, Josephine, on her seventh birthday.

This is the house. It was built in 1927 and is about 20,000 square feet.

This is the one picture I snapped of the interior before I was told that I couldn't take pictures inside the house.

The house was fully decked out for Christmas. This is a glimpse of one of the many Christmas trees, viewed through one of the many leaded glass windows.

I participated in a lot of reading challenges this year. And amazingly, I completed them, too! In an effort not to flood all my awesome readers with a bazillion wrap-up posts, I'm aiming to cover several challenges at a time. So here is the first round​!

Hosted by The Worm Hole

These are the books I read for each category:

A word including "ing" in it: The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean
A color: The Yellow House by Patricia Falvey
A familial relation: Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
A body of water: Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen
A city: A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck
An animal: The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis

Hosted by My Reader's Block

These are the books I read for each color:

Blue: The Turquoise Ledge by Leslie Marmon Silko
Red: Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong
Yellow: The Yellow House by Patricia Falvey
Green: ​The Green Glass Sea by Ellen Klages
Brown: Sorcery & Cecelia, or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot by Patricia Wrede & Caroline Stevermer
Black: The Black Reckoning by John Stephens
White: ​The Hidden White House by Robert Klara
Any other color: Pat of Silver Bush by L.M. Montgomery
An implied color: A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

I signed up to read a book from each continent, plus six more, for a total of 12. I tried to find books set in countries outside of Europe. This is what I read:

Africa: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba (Malawi)
Asia: Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong (China)
Europe: The Little Book by Selden Edwards (Austria)
Australia/New Zealand: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion (Australia)
North America: The Guardians by Ana Castillo (New Mexico/Mexico)
South America: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia)
The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley (Brazil)
The Last Bookaneer by Matthew Pearl (Samoa)
​Faith of My Fathers by Lynn Austin (Israel)
Turn Right at Machu Picchu:​ Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time by Mark Adams (Peru)
Xanadu: Marco Polo and Europe's Discovery of the East (Mongolia)
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban (Pakistan)

Hosted by the Chunkster Challenge website

This was a set-your-own-goal sort of challenge. I aimed to read 5 chunksters, which were defined as books longer than 450 pages. I actually ended up reading 9!

1. A Passion Redeemed by Julie Lessman (477 pages)
2. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (643 pages)
3. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton (549 pages)
4. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (644 pages)
5. The Great Bridge by David McCullough (562 pages)
6. A Passion Denied by Julie Lessman (475 pages)
7. The Cracks in the Kingdom by Jaclyn Moriarty (468 pages)
8. Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman (596 pages)
​9. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (608 pages)

Hosted by me, Smiling Shelves!

I was hoping to make it up to the next level, but I didn't quite get there. I still met the goal I set for myself in my sign-up post, which was the Spinelli level (anywhere from 30 to 44 points). I ended up with a total of 34 points.

1.  Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (3 points)
2. A Single Shard by Linda Sue Pack (3 points)
3. A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck (2 points)
4. A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck (3 points)
5. The Crossover by Kwame Alexander (3 points)
6. Hoot by Carl Hiaasen (2 points)
7. The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman (3 points)
8. Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (3 points)
9. Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (3 points)
10. Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (3 points)
11.  Holes by Louis Sachar (3 points)
12. The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg (3 points)

I read quite a lot of books in 2015 by authors I had never read before. It made this list of some of my favorites rather hard to narrow down!

Merry Christmas, everybody! I know, it may be a little early for that. But our church's Christmas concert was yesterday, so I'm in the mood. That's always a time where I run around like crazy because I direct one of the children's choirs as well as the adult handbells. And about 18 other things. It makes for an insane hour and a half, but it's always tons of fun!

My 31 in 31 List - Update #1
​The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins - Review
​Introducing the Newbery Reading Challenge 2016 (Sign up to read some awesome Newbery books!)

Island of the Aunts by Eva Ibbotson (A cute story with lots of mythical creatures.)
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (I don't know why it's taken me this long in my life to actually read the book, not just watch the many film versions. Such a great story!)

Blessings by Anna Quindlen (I decided to DNF the Q-author book I tried earlier this week. So I went to the library to see what I could find for authors that start with Q. There aren't a lot out there! I'm hoping this was a good find.)
The Importance of Being Earnest and Four Other Plays by Oscar Wilde (Yeah, made no progress at all with this one this week, due to the aforementioned craziness. Hopefully I can find time this week to finish up the last play!)

The Diary of a Nobody by George & Weedon Grossmith (If I have done my figuring right, this will be my last book needed to finish all of my 2015 reading challenges!!)

Welcome to the third year of the Newbery Reading Challenge! Newbery and Caldecott books are fun to read - whether it's our first time experiencing them, or we're revisiting them from our childhood. If you want to challenge yourself to read more Newbery and Caldecott books this year, then you have found the right place!

Here are the rules:​

Each book you read is worth points. You get:

• 3 points for a Newbery Medal Winner
• 2 points for a Newbery Honor Book
• 1 point for a Caldecott Medal Winner (Gotta give the picture books some love, too.)

In addition to that, you pick a level to aim for:

• L'Engle: 15 - 29 points
• Spinelli: 30 - 44 points
• Avi: 45 - 59 points
• Lowry: 60 - 74 points
• Konigsburg: 75+ points

You can get to this level with any combination of points you want. You can read all Newbery Medal winners. You can throw in a few Honor Books. If you want, you can even read 75 Caldecott Medal winners! How you get to your point level is totally up to you. 

Also, anywhere in the point range for your level counts as completing that level. So for example, if you signed up for the Avi level and read 46 points' worth of books, then you have completed that level!

Challenge Guidelines:

• Rereads count (because you were probably a kid when you read it last, and your perspective on the story just might have changed since then).
• Audiobooks and ebooks count.
• And paper books count, too. :)
• All books must be read between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2016. Books begun before January 1 don’t count.
• Books can be used for other challenges as well.
• You don’t have to have a blog to participate. You can link up reviews from Amazon, Goodreads, etc., or just hang out with us in the comments!
• Reviews are encouraged, but not necessary. There will be a headquarters page for you to link up your reviews if you want to share your thoughts.
• Choose your point level. You can always aim for a higher point level, but you can't move to a lower one.

To join the Newbery Reading Challenge:

• Write a post (or a comment) stating your intention to join. Choose your point level. You can find the challenge button below to use in your post.
• Add your link to the Linky at the bottom of this post. Make sure you include the link to your sign-up post, not just your homepage.

Grab the Challenge Button!

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The Moonstone is a mystery. Depending on who you ask, it's possibly the first detective novel written. The moonstone is a very large diamond stolen from India. It's given to Rachel Verinder on her eighteenth birthday, and inexplicably disappears in the middle of the night. Renowned Sergeant Cuff from London is called in to solve the case, but even he runs into dead ends as he attempts to figure out what happened that night.

I love the way this story is told. It is divided into nine sections, each told by a different narrator. Franklin Blake, Rachel's cousin and the deliverer of the moonstone, has asked the major witnesses to record their recollections and experiences involving the diamond. The first large section of the book is told by Gabriel Betteredge, the Verinders' steward. He is a wonderful character to get to know, just the sort of English butler you would suppose - except he finds inspiration and wisdom in Robinson Crusoe. Each new section is told by a character with a distinct voice and personality. The variety of narrators is part of what makes this book so enjoyable.

The mystery will also keep you guessing to the very end. It's very different than today's mystery novels, which often owe more to action and violence than clues and investigative work. This is not an action-packed book. Yet for all that, it is difficult to put down as each narrator adds their piece of the puzzle.

The Moonstone is not a short book, yet it is a surprisingly fast read. The mystery and the characters combine to draw you into the story completely. This is one detective novel that you won't be sorry that you read!

Find it on: Goodreads  |  Amazon  |  Better World Books

Back in September, I posted a list of 31 things I hoped to accomplish in my 31st year of life. Since it's been approximately three months since then, I thought I would provide an update of those things I have completed or that I've made progress on.

#3: Visit ten more Michigan lighthouses.
My husband and I took a weekend away over Labor Day and saw 5 lighthouses. Somewhere on our camera we even have pictures of them all. . . We saw:
- Fort Gratiot Light (Port Huron)
- Lightship Huron (Port Huron)
- Peche Island Rear Range Light (Marine City)
- William Livingstone Memorial Light Station (Belle Isle)
- Windmill Point Light Station (Detroit)
- Bonus - Detroit Lighthouse Supply Depot (not technically a lighthouse, but still a cool thing to see)

#6: Read 50 books from my own shelves.
​I won't post a list here, but since my birthday, I have read 10 books that I own. Working on numbers 11 & 12 right now!

#11: Write a short story.
I've started a short story - while my students are working on their Creative Writing projects, I do too!

#12: Get my piano tuned.
Done in October!

#15: Visit Greenfield Village.
This was the other part of our weekend away in September. We spent Labor Day exploring Greenfield Village. Such a cool place!

#21: Create (and use) a Twitter account for Smiling Shelves.
Done! I created one for Dewey's 24-hour readathon in October. Haven't done much tweeting since then, but I enjoy reading everyone else's. You can follow me if you like - @SmilingShelves.

Those are the major ones that I've completed or made progress on. It's not quite as much as I thought it was, so these update posts are good idea to keep myself on track. I hope I can keep checking things off through the winter!