 What's the deal with the black & white saddle shoes?  Click here for the story of our farm in Greene County, Iowa. Here's looking at life at Simple Serenity Farm  We've had very little snow so far this winter. Saturday morning, January 14, brought a reminder of just how pretty a light snow can be. Just over an inch fell in the wee hours, and the countryside was beautiful at wake-up time. Click here for larger format Earlier photos in this series
Iowa Hall of Pride Sam's Barber Shop Douglas T. Bates III, Attorney KMA Radio's ''Chuck & Don Show'' The Monks of New Melleray Abbey RELATED LINKS About Offenburger.com Biographies Want to Reprint? Want Updates? ARCHIVES Chuck Offenburger's columns Christie Vilsack's columns Carla Offenburger's columns Carla's book reviews Guest Columns Life at Offenburgers' Simple Serenity Farm --2003-2005 --2006-Now Our Iowa News Digest Along Our Way 
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What's Carla Reading?
After eight years of writing more than 200 book reviews, our reviewer says she's ''retiring'' What’s the deal with my “What’s Carla Reading?” book reviews? I haven’t written a book review since March 20 of this year. I should be totally embarrassed, but the truth is, I’m not. I’ve certainly been reading since my last review, which was of “My Life as an Experiment” by A.J. Jacobs. Twenty-two books to be exact – I just haven’t been sharing my opinions of them with all you readers. I’m sorry about that. But here’s the deal: I took a new job as community relations director at Greene County Medical Center in Jefferson in April and I’m writing a heck of a lot for it – media releases, advertisements, radio show scripts, department newsletters. And heck, I’ve written and edited a whole lot of copy for a totally revamped hospital website. When I get home from work, I simply don’t feel like writing anymore. I just want to curl up with a good book and read. It appears that I don’t need the writing outlet that my book reviews and my columns (they’re called “My View from the Porch”) on Offenburger.com have given me. So, as I was spending this past rainy Sunday afternoon reading in my living room with a nice “first fire” of the year fire in the fireplace, an idea occurred to me: I’m going to officially retire from doing the “What’s Carla Reading?” book reviews. Done. As I look through the Archives, I’ve been writing the book reviews – more than 200 of them – since March 21, 2003. Wow, since 2003? I can’t believe it. But that’s what it says, “March 21, 2003 – ‘The Corrections’ by Jonathan Franzen.” That was a book I wasn’t that crazy about, as I recall. It seems a bit ironic to me that my first review was March 21, 2003, and the last one I wrote was March 20, 2011. Nearly eight years to the day. Must be an omen. That’s enough, don’t you think? Here’s my compromise. I do enjoy writing the “My View from the Porch” columns, and I’ll continue to do that. Sometimes I’ll make those columns a book review, especially if I read something that really gets me excited. Additionally, I’m always open and willing to share my forum space with all of you. If you read something that gets you excited, by all means, write a review and submit it. I’ll agree, at the end of every year, to print a list of all the books I’ve read. My goal is always one a week – or 52 books a year. Sometimes I do better than that, sometimes I fall short. Certainly I haven’t reviewed all the books I’ve read over the last eight years. But the reviews have been a great way for me to stay on top of a wide variety of books and share them with a lot of people. And you’ve all been good sports about what I have written, and I appreciate that. You can find a listing of all the books I’ve reviewed, and direct links to the full reviews of those books, by clicking here. Take some time and browse that list. I bet you’ll find a good book or two to read in this list. Heck, I know I will spot a few I need to re-read. Happy reading! You can write the columnist at carla@Offenburger.com.
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