One of the drawbacks of reading books on a tablet is that you cannot take a pretty photo of a stack of eBooks or digital magazines. But, here is what I read in January:

Books

The Little World of Liz Climo by Liz Climo
I only recently discovered the adorable and funny cartoons by artist Liz Climo. I love the cast of animal characters and her gentle, deadpan humor. This book is a collection of Climo’s cartoons. You can see more of her work on her Tumblr.

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
I read this book as part of my effort to read more crafty and creativity books this year. Ms. Gilbert attracts a lot of critics with their claws out and knives sharpened because of her success with Eat, Pray, Love, but I feel much of the criticism leveled against this book is unfounded. It is written in a breezy, conversational style, as if Ms. Gilbert and I are sitting down for coffee together, but that is one of the strengths of the book. This is a woman who, despite being the author of a runaway bestseller, shares the same fears and insecurities that we do as creators. The highest praise I can give this book is that I could not read it for more than 20 minutes before putting it down because I had to go Make Something RIGHT. NOW.

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
I picked this up because my husband and I had tickets to see the world-premiere opera “Bel Canto” at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The opera was based on this novel, and I thought it would be nice to read the book first. The story is about a hostage crisis at a vice presidential mansion in an unnamed South American country. In the novel, the reader floats from one character to the next, seeing inside the thoughts and feelings of both hostages and terrorists. It’s a wonderful novel; I wept at the end. And, the opera captured the mood and feeling of the book pretty well.

Short Stories by Jesus by Amy-Jill Levine
This was the January pick for my church book club. It examines the common Christian interpretations of some the parables and attempts to place the parables back into their historical context. This is an academic book with many endnotes and references to obscure texts, so it is a challenging read for anyone who is not a Biblical scholar, although she does try to appeal to a wider audience through her humor.

Magazines
And, here is a list of the magazine issues I read this month:

October 2015 World of Interiors (I’m a few issues behind on this one!)
Jan/Feb 2016 Midwest Living
Feb 2016 CrossStitcher
Feb 2016 World of Cross Stitching
Feb 2016 Cross Stitch Collection

Friend me on Goodreads to see what else I’m reading.