I woke up this morning and smelled snow. In the silence, I heard snow. Cranked open the shade and saw…snow. Thanks to lyricist Richard B. Smith, I was “walking in a winter wonderland.”

It looked pretty much like this, only a study in blue. Snow tires and front wheel drive got my sweetie out the door at 8 a.m. and slogging down the road to work. Sorry, honey. Them’s the breaks. I schlepped around the snuggy homestead in sweats, hoodie, and man socks slurping coffee and blissing-out on the view. The manly snowblower was tucked neatly in the garage waiting for…well…the man. Note to men: When you go out and buy the biggest, badass, monster snowblower you can find, expect that you will be the only badass operating it. Just sayin’. Later, I’d take out the other snowblower, our two-year-old Golden Retriever, and plow the backyard. But, a morning like this was made for reading — the slouched in a chair, wrapped in an afghan kind. This begs the question, “Whatcha reading?”

I just finished reading Anna Jeffrey’s Sweet Water. She’s a powerful storyteller, and I love her characters. Also just finished — John Grogan’s Marley & Me. It was funny and heartwarming. A few books in the TBR pile I’m looking foward to are: The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine, M.D., I’m Your Santa, a Christmas anthology by Lori Foster, Karen Kelley, and Dianne Castell, The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton, and Twilight’s Kiss by Marly Mathews.

So, what have you just finished reading that you loved? What’s hanging around your TBR pile? What’s your December read? Oh, and do you measure your TBR pile with a ruler or a tape measure? And, would that be metric or….

Elen