in Local History, My books, My local history newspaper column 604 Words

What I Tried to Read in November and How to Buy My Book

On the first Monday of the month I usually blog about the books I read the previous month. There was a good reason that didn’t work out this month. My local history book, Harrisburg, Did You Know?  Cabarrus History, Book 1, had been published and I couldn’t wait to announce it on my blog last week.

It was a good month for that to happen because I didn’t have any earth-shattering news about the books I read in November. Working toward getting several books published in the coming days and months left me little time to read.

Most of my reading time was spent on books about the craft of writing and history books I needed for research. Those aren’t necessarily the type books my blog readers want to know about.

Those books included Sketches of Virginia, by Henry Foote and Artisans of the North Carolina Backcountry, by Johanna Miller Lewis. The “Artisans” book was especially helpful as I worked on my novel.              

I tried to read some fiction. It just didn’t work out well – partly because of my time constraints and partly because the books I chose didn’t grab my attention enough for me to make time for them.

I started reading Less is Lost, by Andrew Sean Greer. I really enjoyed his earlier book, Less. It was humorous. Less is Lost is probably humorous, too. I only got to page 12 in the large print edition. I’ll check it out again later.

I started reading The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce. It is an odd story about a man who sets out one morning to walk to the mailbox. He’s worried about a former co-worker who has cancer and lives far away. Instead of stopping at the mailbox to mail a letter to her, he just keeps walking. I got to page 66 in the large print edition. He was still walking. I didn’t have time to read the next 381 pages to see if he made it to his destination.

I started listening to Mad Honey, by Jodi Picoult. After falling asleep too many times to count and having to re-listen to the first several discs, when I got to disc number four I seriously questioned why I was trying so hard. I don’t know if it was me or the book. It just didn’t work out. I’ve enjoyed other Jodi Picoult books I’ve read, but this one just didn’t work for me.

Until my next blog post

Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1 is available on Amazon in many countries. Here’s the link to it in the United States: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1888858044/ for e-book; https://www.amazon.com/dp/1888858044/ for paperback. (Thank you, Rebecca Cunningham for cluing me in that there’s a way to shorten those outrageously long URLs Amazon gives a book.! This looks much better. I hope the links work!)

In case you live in the Harrisburg area and prefer to purchase Harrisburg, Did You Know?  Cabarrus History, Book 1 locally instead of ordering it online, it is now available in limited numbers in Harrisburg at Second Look Books at 4519 School House Commons and at Gift Innovations at 4555 NC Hwy. 49. I’m pleased to announce that those local small businesses will have my book!

I hope you have a good book to read. If it happens to be Harrisburg, Did You Know?  Cabarrus History, Book 1, then all the better!

Remember the brave people of Ukraine.

Janet

22 thoughts on “What I Tried to Read in November and How to Buy My Book”

  1. Splendid Janet! I will be looking at Amazon Spain for the book. As a history lover I am quite interested and I am sure it will be a grand book to read. Have a lovely week and continue searching because writing is also searching, like painting and art, they share the same creative universe guided by God.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Thank you, Francis. I had a great day today. I visited and gave copies of my book to three more special people — one of them is 92 years old. I have delivered books to friends and people who helped make the book possible every day since my shipment arrived last Thursday. It’s been fun and gratifying. I hope to take a book to a 100-year-old lady tomorrow! She and her husband shared some of their memories with me when I was writing the articles for the newspaper. Most of the people who fall into that category have died, so it will indeed be a blessing if I get to visit her tomorrow or on Wednesday. I’m glad that Covid is under control enough due to the vaccinations that I can now give some of the people in person, which I couldn’t have done in 2020 or 2021. I am truly blessed. I wish you a lovely week. My sister and I hope to see our brother’s family this weekend. We haven’t seen our brother and sister-in-law since May 2019. So much has changed due to the pandemic and just with the passage of time during the pandemic. Being able to visit so many friends since last Thursday has felt a bit strange. It has helped me realize just what everyone lost during the pandemic. Visiting friends used to be such a natural thing to do, but now it fells odd. I haven’t found the words to express it. Oh — my book should be on Amazon Spain. I hope you’re able to find it either for Kindle or in paperback and that you’ll find some articles of interest. Thank you!

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  5. Oooops! I am so sorry I misspelled your named! That’s what I get for just writing from a poor memory. Do you have connections to Person County, NC? The landlady I had in Raleigh during graduate school was a native of Person County.

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  6. I was intrigued by the premise. It just wasn’t the right time for me to read it… or anything else, as it turned out. I’ll leave it on my TBR. Thanks for the recommendation!

    Liked by 1 person

  9. That is absolutely wonderful Janet. Being able to share your work with friends and elders who provided information is indeed a blessing. Enjoy it fully, just like visiting friends, which we all missed during the pandemic. I have been engaged with the process of getting my Spanish driving permit, which is not easy, so I’ve neglected many things as this has occupied a lot of my time since October, but soon I take the final test and hopefully it will be all over and I will certainly look for the book which I am looking forward to reading. Wishing you a great week ahead and happy moments visiting your brother and friends. All the best.

    Liked by 1 person

  13. That’s interesting. I’m not sure I’ve ever been to Person County. It must be one of just two or three of the 100 that I’ve missed. I just googled it and learned that one of its nine townships is name for your family, although it’s misspelled — or at least it is on the website.

    Liked by 1 person

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