Return from Holidays and Teaser Tuesday

Hello, I’m back from spending Christmas and some vacation days at my older sister’s home in Illinois.  Snow followed me there – lots and lots of snow.  We stayed indoors mostly, played Settlers of Catan and other games.  We also ate plenty of good food.  I caught a cold which was unfortunate but didn’t take away the enjoyment of the holiday with family.  One of my favorite memories of this holiday season will probably be of Christmas Eve.  My sister and her husband live in the upstairs apartment in a house that has been converted into two apartments.  Their downstairs neighbors, two parents and a young teenage girl, have a piano and we joined them for singing carols together.

Book-related happenings:

My sister gave me Laurie R. King’s Touchstone as  Christmas gift.  For those of you familiar with Laurie R. King’s writing, this is not part of the Mary Russell series, but is a standalone book.  I read Folly, another one of King’s standalone novels, a while back and enjoyed it, so I’m expecting good things here too.

Also, when I returned home today, there was a package waiting for me!  Inside was A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions by Katharine Hayhoe and Andrew Farley.  I was one of five winners for a giveaway of this book hosted by Bookfoolery and Babble.  Her review of the book can be found here.  I am quite interested in the topic so it was truly a delight to win and I look forward to reading the book.

Since my last post, I have finished I Capture the Castle, read Now & Then by Jacqueline Sheehan and am almost done with Nechama Tec’s Defiance, which will be the source of my Tuesday Teaser:

The Judenrat and some ghetto inmates objected to all illegal activities.  They were convinced that hard work would result in their survival and any resistance would lead to death.  They argued that the entire community would perish because of a few “sinners.” (p. 97)