One of the things I want to focus on this year is getting back to reading a lot more. I used to read all the time in years past, but that has somehow fallen away over the last couple years. This month I finished 3 books and started a couple others! Here are my January finishes:

When I picked out Melville as my New Year cast on, I thought about rereading Moby Dick as I worked on it. That expanded into a plan to read a number of books about whales and about the real-life tragedy that was the basis for Moby Dick. Essentially, I created a study unit for myself, because I am sometimes a giant nerd. So anyway, Whales: Their Biology and Behavior is the first book in my Moby Dick-related reading. If you are interested in learning a fair amount, but not too much, about whales, I highly recommend this book. There are chapters on whale evolution, biology, ecology, behavior, and much more. I really enjoyed it, and may well go through it again at some point.

The Lake Michigan Triangle is a slim but dense book on creepy things in or over Lake Michigan. UFOs, mysterious disappearances of boats and aircraft, possible cryptids, mysterious lights, and more. The book even embraces creepy things that are near Lake Michigan, such as cryptids in Chicago and coastal areas of Wisconsin and Michigan. I do like reading this sort of book on local spookiness, and this is one of the best ones I have found. It has a lot more actual substance that most of this genre, and is somewhat better written than is usual. If you like books on random mysterious doings and creepiness, I highly recommend this book!

Finally, Bliss on Toast is a sort of cookbook by Prue Leith, fabulous diva judge on the Great British Bake Off along with many, many other accomplishments. There are 75 recipes here, all of which are for different things on toast. She states right up front that the recipes are for real beginner cooks, but that other people might find them good inspiration or starting points for throwing together impromptu meals out of stuff they have on hand + toast. The book does not feature creamed chipped beef or similar meals that I associate with toast topping. These are somewhat posher things to put on toast. Some of them are basic, like Welsh rarebit. But there are also surprising things like roasted grapes and cottage cheese on toast. I would not have thought of it, but it looks pretty good! This book is probably not necessary. However, I love it and I’m keeping it. It is my first cookbook by Prue, but probably not my last.

What’s your favorite thing you’ve read recently?