It’s the end of the year, so Linny and Nancy decide to do something a little different -- a year in review and a year to come episode. Linny and Nancy discuss their favorite things about our podcast. Nancy says she enjoys talking with Linny about the books and her viewpoints on them and also enjoys talking with the amazing experts and authors who join them. Linny felt the same way! Nancy remarks the number of times that experts revealed that the authors have been extremely accurate in conveying specific times and places. Linny said this has been a big year in reading for her because in 2023 she got a library card which thrilled Nancy to no end. Nancy says she has been waiting to ask Linny about the January book: Max Out Mindset. Nancy asks Linny how she has applied this book to her pickleball game. Linny reveals that she actually, in 2023, is actually now recommending books and did so with this book to a friend who is a high school coach. In terms of pickleball, Linny says the year has been a challenge because of her bout of vertigo, but that the book helped her get through it with reminding her the energy she is putting out and also her mantra of “reset.” Both she uses all the time. Nancy says she has applied MAX OUT MINDSET to her tennis game in her weekly goal setting for process in practice, strength training, and meditation. She said, however, the meditation has been a failure because she doesn’t seem to set aside the time. Linny suggested starting with shorter time periods, since she is fairly new to meditation, aside from when she did yoga. Nancy said she is still struggling with the whole idea of competition and is hoping her new beginners league will be good training wheels for her since it is very cooperative with switching out partners throughout the night. Everyone becomes friends! Nancy says her favorite books of the year were name because she loved them all. She said each one had a special place in her heart. For Linny, her favorites were MAX OUT MINDSET by Dr. Larry Widman and I AM A MAN by Joe Starita. Linny was deeply impressed by the story of Chief Standing Bear as told by Joe, who is an amazing writer. Nancy asked Linda if there was anything that surprised her this year about the books, the podcasts, or any guests. Linny said she was always surprised they were able to identify such amazing guests. Nancy said the May book, FAR FROM THE TREE, was a surprise because neither Nancy nor Linny said they had put it on the list. Turns out, it was a mistake by Nancy who had meant to add Lianne Moriarity’s THE APPLE DOESN’T FALL. Linny said she was glad for the mistake, though, because she enjoyed FAR FROM THE TREE and Nancy said she has talked to listeners who particularly enjoyed that book. So, it was a happy mistake. Linny said one listener asked, early on, whether the podcast was actually recorded on a front porch. Nope – Linny is in PA and Nancy in Nebraska. So, we use a platform we can see each other, at least. Linny and Nancy discussed how they look for books throughout the year and get suggestions from friends, agents and publicists, and elsewhere. Linny noted that this past year, they had decided to concentrate on greater diversity in race/ethnicity, culture, sexuality, and ability. Nancy unveils the January book -- The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery by Adam Gopnik. In The Real Work, Gopnik becomes a dedicated student of several masters of their craft: a classical painter, a boxer, a dancing instructor, a driving instructor, and others. Rejecting self-help bromides and bullet points, he nevertheless shows that the top people in any field share a set of common qualities and methods. For one, their mastery is always a process of breaking down and building up―of identifying and perfecting the small constituent parts of a skill and then combining them for an overall effect greater than the sum of those parts. For another, mastery almost always involves intentional imperfection―as in music, where vibrato, a way of not quite landing on the right note, carries maximum expressiveness. Gopnik’s simplest and most invigorating lesson, however, is that we are surrounded by mastery. Far from rare, mastery is commonplace, if we only know where to look: from the parent who can whip up a professional strudel to the social worker who―in one of the most personally revealing passages Gopnik has ever written―helps him master his own demons. Spirited and profound, The Real Work will help you understand how mastery can happen in your own life―and, significantly, why each of us relentlessly seeks to better ourselves in the first place. In February we will read The SHADOW OF THE WIND by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. This book was suggested by good friends of Nancy. It is set in Barcelona in 1945. In the book, a city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. Linny reminded Nancy that her husband lived in Barcelona for a year and loved the city. In March we will review Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. Nancy has already read this book and it is the One Book One Lincoln selection. After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago. Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors—until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova. Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late. Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible. Nancy said she cried at the end. Linda was wary about another book that will make her cry but said she’d get her tissues out.