Today starts my onslaught of reading challenges on my blog! Each of my online challenges (because yes, I do more than just online ones!) will have a specific page I intend to update throughout the year with my progress.
Wish me luck!
This page is for the "Share-a-Tea" challenge. According to the host, this is a challenge about slowing down and enjoying books and the tea we drink while reading them.
Here are the guidelines outlined on the site:
Which books count towards the challenge? Any book that you primarily read while drinking tea. Not every single page needs to have been read while drinking tea. (I'm not that strict!!!) But this challenge is all about celebrating SLOWING DOWN and SAVORING the moments. How many books? Is there a set minimum? This challenge is about QUALITY and not quantity. It's not about reading fifty books or even twelve books. This is an anti-rush reading challenge. Enjoy where you are in a book, and, engage fully in it. Live in the book. This challenge has a focus on SHARING. How can you share? Several ways: 1) When you sign up in a comment below, share one favorite tea and one favorite book. And if you've got one handy: a favorite quote. 2) If you write a post on your blog announcing the challenge (and making a place to keep track of what you've read), consider sharing a bit about yourself--your reading and drinking habits. You might consider a longer list of recommendations! 3) If you're on twitter, tweet me as often as you like. @blbooks OR @operationbible Tweet about favorite teas, favorite books, favorite authors, favorite quotes, what you're currently reading, what you've just finished reading, etc. 4) Consider adding me and fellow participants to your blogroll, and cheer on other participants by reading reviews and leaving comments. 5) At the end of each month, I'll publish a check-in post. You can leave comments sharing what you're reading, what you've read, tea recommendations, etc. Even if you haven't finished a book, you can share where you're at. Remember, it isn't about how many books you read per month!
My favourite tea is a stand-by Earl Grey (with a bit of honey), and my favourite book is Pride and Prejudice.
This challenge is different from my others this year simply because it is about slowing down. While I'm powering through my tbr stacks, I want to remember that!
1. Mary Green definitely counts as a perfect book to snuggle up with while drinking a cup of tea. Is there a more perfect "tea" book than a Regency? While I didn't drink tea reading it (I was in a hot tub, so was drinking something markedly cooler), the society in this book almost demands a lovely cup of tea.
2. A book I really slowed down with was Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon. I read it in more than one sitting, but I was sick for part of it, so I drank a lot of ginger echinacea tea. Other readings featured a glass of wine, but most frequently, just water. I was tempted to mirror the book and have strong, hot tea with a splash of whiskey, but I didn't try it.
3. A book I read quickly, but in a savoring-type way, was The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve. Kathryn, the protagonist, faces a lot of heartbreak, and at one point is wandering in the cold rain. I read that section on a day when I woke up to -37 degrees Celsius. So yeah, I had many cups of hot tea, as did Kathryn, so I'm counting this a share-a-tea book. (For the record, it was earl grey with honey, my favourite, and then green tea with lemon, my go-to.)
4. Somewhere in France was a great one to read with a cup of tea. Between domesticity and the war and England, it all fit with something classic. I tried a "Lady Londonberry" black tea with this one and thought it suited well.
5. The Book of Night Women by Marlon James is perhaps the most upsetting, difficult book I've ever read. I had just gotten "Lizzie Bennet's Wit" tea, made by "Bingleys Teas", in my monthly Pembertea subscription box. It might be my new favourite tea ever, and with all the discussions of herbal teas in the book, and with how upsetting it was, I needed something comforting. While it was prettier than this gritty narrative, it sure helped.
6. How do you not drink tea while reading Middlemarch? George Eliot's classic demands it! I was actually traveling, so I alternated between straight black tea (Early Grey, of course) and coffee (double double). I want to reread it with an actual teacup and something lovely and light, next time! (Though, since it was snowing in April during my travels, the stronger stuff suited!)
7. Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel, is a lovely story centered on the kitchen. I went with a "gunpowder gren tea", another inclusion from a previous Pembertea subscription box, as I thought it fit the Mexico locale.
8. I loved Olive Kitteridge. I went back to standard Earl Grey with honey for this hodge-podge of stories about a small town and the formidable woman who lives there. It was so beautiful, and one I know will stay with me for a long time.
9. It took me a long time to finish Longbourn, by Jo Baker, but it is a solid choice for Austen fans. I picked up some special blends from a local teahouse recently, and really enjoyed the "Hufflepuff" blend while I read this one.
10. I read The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck while lying by a river drinking a spiked peach iced tea. Why not? It counts, and I really enjoyed the hot weather.
11. I read 'Salem's Lot partly while outside on a lovely fall day, under a pile of blankets, while drinking hot apple cider my husband makes from scratch, and partly while drinking cinnamon tea in bed. It suits the book perfectly.
12. My final book for this challenge was I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. This amazing book by Maya Angelou was read sometimes with a glass of wine, but more often with some Ginger Echinacea tea, or as I call it, "sicky time tea", as I was fighting off a cold while reading it.
This was a fun challenge, and a good reminder to slow down and enjoy the books we read, and our lives and the world around us - literary and otherwise.