Uniquely Yours Craft Journal

Dear Fellow Journalers,

“I have to admit I haven’t read that much”, ” well, not a lot”, “well some,”- do you see where this is going?

Do you have a Reading Challenge on Good Reads?

I start one every year. Sometimes I overshoot; sometimes I come close; and yes, sometimes I never get out of the gate! I know what you’re thinking. With all this free time, why the heck not? And, more importantly, why does she feel guilty about it?

Good Reads is a tracker of books YOU’VE read during the year. You set it up so you can change it. It’s not meant to be a sinister plot to get you to buy more books from Amazon or Barnes and Noble. So, you don’t have to feel guilty about only reading a bit.

So, it’s August, and I am no where near my original goal and my subjects are as eclectic as ever. This year, I spent a lot of time researching subjects. In addition to “pleasure ” and “just for fun” books, I read books about certain time periods.

I started writing stories again. At first it was a way to get through the isolation of Covid but then it became much more. So, what did I read or re-read?

When I’m writing a fiction story, I tend to read a lot of fiction, historical fiction and non-fiction books pertaining to the time period or theme. One fan fiction story for instance, “The Price of Honor” took place after the Civil War when people were still angry about the issues of the past five years. Therefore, the books I read and re-read were:

“The Red Badge of Courage” by Stephen Crane, “Cold Mountain” by Charles Frazier, “Sackett’s Land” by Louis L’Amour, “Confederate in the Attic” by Tony Horowitz “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott. My “fun ” book was “Murder She Wrote – Killing in a Koi Pond” by Jessica Fletcher.

Another story I wrote, “The Second Chance” was mostly researched with the help of Google! And finally, the story I’m writing now(no title yet) is about a school teacher whose one-room school house is in Wyoming territory in the late 1800’s. For this story, 8 chapters written so far, the books I an rereading are “Little House on the Prairie” by Wilder, “Far Away Home” by Susan Denying and “Letters of a Woman Homes reader” by Stewart.

What are YOU reading?

~Sallie