OCTOBER ROOT - Progress Thread

DESSERT OF THE MONTH = STRUDEL






A strudel (/ˈstruːdəl/, German: ˈʃtʁuːdl̩) is a type of layered pastry with a filling that is usually sweet. It became popular in the 18th century throughout the Habsburg Empire. Strudel is part of Austrian cuisine but also common in the other Central European cuisines.
The oldest strudel recipes (a Millirahmstrudel and a turnip strudel) are from 1696, in a handwritten cookbook at the Wienbibliothek im Rathaus (formerly Wiener Stadtbibliothek).1

The best-known strudels are Apfelstrudel (German for apple strudel) and Topfenstrudel (with sweet soft quark, in Austrian German Topfen), followed by the Millirahmstrudel (Milk-cream strudel, Milchrahmstrudel). Other strudel types include sour cherry (Weichselstrudel), sweet cherry, nut filled (Nussstrudel), Apricot Strudel, Plum Strudel, poppy seed strudel (Mohnstrudel), and raisin strudel. There are also savory strudels incorporating spinach, cabbage, potato, pumpkin, and sauerkraut, and versions containing meat fillings like the Lungenstrudel or Fleischstrudel.
Traditional Hungarian, Austrian, Polish, and Czech strudel pastry is different from strudels elsewhere, which are often made from puff pastry. The traditional strudel pastry dough is very elastic. It is made from flour with a high gluten content, water, oil and salt, with no sugar added. The dough is worked vigorously, rested, and then rolled out and stretched by hand very thinly with the help of a clean linen tea towel or kitchen paper. Purists say that it should be so thin that you can read a newspaper through it. A legend has it that the Austrian Emperor's perfectionist cook decreed that it should be possible to read a love letter through it. The thin dough is laid out on a tea towel, and the filling is spread on it. The dough with the filling on top is rolled up carefully with the help of the tea towel and baked in the oven.

Do you have a favorite strudel?






Password is ROOTS

Adjustments were made this month reducing the group goal by removing those that were not actively participating - no ROOTS in the last 6 months. There were 15 members removed with a total of 519 ROOTS pledged. Now those of us that are really reading our own tomes can see our progress.

Percentages were calculated and a star awarded for those on target to reach their goals. More stars for farther toward their goal.
If anyone's number is incorrect, please let me know and I will make the necessary adjustments.
So go out there and dig those ROOTs.

alexa_d 79 / 90 ★★ 87.8%
Ameise1★ 16 / 10 160.0%
BENITA★ 67 / 55 121.8%
bragan 58 / 80 72.5%
brakketh 13 / 30 43.3%
Caramellunacy 5 / 12 41.7%
ChelleBearss 11 / 30 36.7%
clue★ 34 / 30 113.3%
Coach_of_Alva 43 / 75 57.3%
connie53★ 42 / 36 116.7%
crazy4reading 16 / 38 42.1%
curioussquared 33 / 50 66.0%
CurrerBell 29 / 100 29.0%
cyderry★ 102 / 84 121.4%
detailmuse 30 / 44 68.2%
DisassemblyOfReason 50 / 75 66.7%
enemyanniemae★ 60 / 50 120.0%
Erratic_Charmer★ 44 / 30 146.7%
FAMeulstee 147 / 150 ★★★ 98.0%
Familyhistorian★ 65 / 65 100.0%
floremolla 28 / 60 46.7%
fuzzi★ 112 / 100 112.0%
HelenBaker 41 / 54 ★ 75.9%
Henrik_Madsen★ 42 / 40 105.0%
h-mb 11 / 20 55.0%
humouress 17 / 30 56.7%
ILuvBookplates 2 / 10 20.0%
Jackie_K★ 61 / 48 127.1%
johanna414 13 / 25 52.0%
kac522 27 / 40 67.5%
karenmarie 42 / 45 ★★★ 93.3%
Kristelh 33 / 50 66.0%
KWharton 7 / 14 50.0%
LadyBookworth★ 12 / 12 100.0%
LadyoftheLodge★ 100 / 100 100.0%
LauraBrook★ 100 / 100 100.0%
leslie.98 56 / 100 56.0%
lilisin★ 73 / 50 146.0%
lindapanzo★ 42 / 36 116.7%
lkernagh 13 / 15 ★★ 86.7%
LoraShouse 16 / 20 ★ 80.0%
madhatter22 12 / 60 20.0%
Majkia★ 80 / 50 160.0%
martencat 16 / 27 59.3%
Miss_Moneypenny★ 88 / 50 176.0%
MissSos 12 / 25 48.0%
MissWatson 57 / 75 ★ 76.0%
mkunruh 16 / 50 32.0%
nebula21 30 / 35 ★★ 85.7%
Nickelini 18 / 20 ★★ 90.0%
rabbitprincess★ 60 / 60 100.0%
rainpebble★ 95 / 50 190.0%
readingtangent 40 / 48 ★★ 83.3%
Rebeki 21 / 24 ★★ 87.5%
Robertgreaves★ 84 / 84 100.0%
rocketjk★ 22 / 20 110.0%
sallylou61 42 / 48 ★★ 87.5%
si 15 / 16 ★★★ 93.8%
Tanya-dogearedcopy★ 36 / 25 144.0%
torontoc 25 / 30 ★★ 83.3%
vestafan 40 / 50 ★ 80.0%
wandaly 13 / 16 ★ 81.3%



LadyBookWorth, rainpebble, Erratic_Charmer, fuzzi, Majkia, cyderry, Benita, Jackie_K, connie53, Tanya-thedogearedcopy, Miss_Moneypenny, clue, enemyanniemae, lilisin, rocketjk and Ameise1 have reached their goal and were joined this month by Familyhistorian, Henrik_Madsen, Robertgreaves, LadyoftheLodge, rabbitprincess and LauraBrook .

Next in line to join them are:

FAMeulstee 98.0%
si 93.8%
karenmarie 93.3%

The goal for October is 2,472. We've already reached that number with the adjustment made by removal of those not participating in the last 6 months.
We need 352 to reach the promised land! Can we reach the group goal this month?

Whoa! Go us!!

I finished my first book for this month. I read Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest by Timothy Egan for the LT Nonfiction Challenge and finished it at lunch today. This book was written in 1990 and at the time Egan was the Pacific Northwest correspondent for the New York Times. Now he is a well known author of nonfiction books with a National Book Award winner to his credits. This book is in many ways a companion to Egan's later (1998) book Lasso the Wind.

The book starts with a chapter on Egan taking his grandfather's ashes to the headwaters of a river in the Northwest. It then morphs as Egan becomes interested in what has happened to the land that he grew up on and that his grandfather helped to settle. As Egan does the research he comes across one of the best books about the early Northwest that was written and Egan begins to follow the trail of Theodore Winthrop as Winthrop travels by foot, canoe, and horseback in 1853 from Vancouver, B.C. to Astoria, Oregon. Each chapter of Egan's book is about a different section of the trail as followed by Winthrop and Egan contrasts the past and the present as he makes his journey following the same trail. The two journeys turn out to be very different. Egan manages to maintain a fair hand in dealing with all the changes, but there are times when his own prejudices show. He laments the loss of estuaries, free flowing rivers, and most of all the old growth forests. At the end of the book he says, "The most economically distressed counties in the Northwest are those that depend on logging for their livelihood. The most prosperous are those that have unchained themselves from their mills." (p. 253) But at the end of his last chapter he says, "Standing above the Columbia today, the river that carries water from all parts of the Pacific Northwest to the ocean, uniting deserts and glaciers, forest and farmland, cities and sage country, I'm trouble by this paradox. Winthrop thought the land here would change a man, not the other way around; still, at the ebb of the twentieth century, we have yet to prove him entirely wrong." (p. 250)

There were times as I was reading this book, that I wondered if the statistics that he quoted would still be true because it is 30 years after the publication of the book, but in general I was pleasantly surprised to find that the book was still relevant and generally true. The biggest question I have is about the explosion of population that the Northwest has seen in the last thirty years and its effect on the environment. I would think that it has got to be the biggest problem for the area at this point in time.

I read Lasso the Wind last year and loved it and I had the same reaction to this one.

Wow, we rock! I'll do what I can to push us toward meeting the group goal this month :)

Congratulations again to all who have reached their goal and cheering on all those in line to join us this month.

Not sure if this is allowed, but I cut my goal by more than half so I could have some chance of reaching it. I still have to read as many ROOTs in these next 3 months as I've read all year, so it's still quite a challenge. I haven't been reading much this year due to some problems with my eyes, and I haven't been reading ROOTS lately when I do read. All the fault of some favorite authors who had new books, and Louise Penny, whose books aren't ROOTs for me. I pick up other books, but just want to go back to Three Pines instead. :)

>6 madhatter22: Shauna, sorry to hear about the trouble with your eyes. They are something that we definitely need to take care of since we only get one pair. I completely understand about wanting to visit Three Pines repeatedly. Hopefully, everything will be better soon and you can visit numerous places in the future!

Looks like we are doing well. Thanks Cheli!

Great dessert choice, Chèli! Strudel is something I have never made myself successfully, but I love eating it! Especially with nuts. On the reading front: I need to pick up my speed, but with two weekends away from home it will not be easy.

Wow. We are doing great!

I love strudel. I made it several times with my grandmother and we always had a good time getting the dough to be thin enough to see her oilcloth tablecloth through it. I have since made it, almost every Christmas, with my many nieces and nephews. They too love the trick of seeing the tablecloth through the dough. We always made ours in a circle instead of a log. Grandma did it that way, so it seems like a shortcut to me to see it in a log. It always amazes me that it isn't that hard to make - or bake.

Thanks for the stats, Chèli. Congrats to all the goal-reachers. Looks as though we might be finishing early as a group! :)

I've just added ROOTs #1-4 for October (#61-65 for the year) to all tickers. Starting the month with 4 really short ones is very satisfying!

I think it's time to start to think about next year.Do you have a suggestion for a theme?

Yes! Please!

>14 cyderry:

I’m so happy everyone liked my suggestion theme of desserts. It’s definitely made for delicious looking starts to each month. Living in Tokyo 2020 is the herald of the Olympics so it would be cool to feature sports but as the Olympics end in the summer it might not work as a year long theme.

>14 cyderry: Flowers?

Reporting ROOT # 43 for the year, # 1 for October.

Harten Sara - Thomas Olde Heuvelt

All Tickers updated.

>14 cyderry:, >17 majkia: I like the idea of having flowers as a theme. Another idea would be famous paintings, which would also be colorful.

I also like the flower idea.

>17 majkia: >19 sallylou61: Or paintings of flowers ;-))

>21 connie53: Oh, I like this, paintings of flowers.

Flowers are good, or butterflies...have we done butterflies?

I'm good with just about anything, especially nature-themed, thanks.

Look at us go! Holy cow!

I'll definitely be participating in 2020 as my book buying habits keep Mount TBR at roughly the same size despite how much I read this year :D

Another vote for a flower theme next year. My personal thread has a different flower as the month header so flowers here would be great.

Voting yes to continue

Finished my first ROOT for October. I have updated my thread and all tickers (but was having some difficulty with Touchstones).

I like the flowers theme or indeed paintings of flowers. I have strayed with two library books this week but starting on another root tonight.

I am looking very much forward to another year of ROOTing. Flowers are a lovely theme...

I will be participating again. I did a rough count of the number of books I have read this year and I am at 72 for the year and I have 69 of them listed as ROOTS. I know that I am over 75 in total but didn't look though all of my list so don't have an exact count. This LT and this group have helped me to up my reading game and enjoy doing it.

As for themes - I kinda like the Olympic one. There have been at least 12 modern Olympics (if you count the winter ones) so perhaps highlights from a selected group could be the topper. That said, I am happy with anything - butterflies, odd houses, weird rock formations, breeds of cows, etc. doesn't matter to me.

I have finished 2 more ROOTs -- I am still woefully behind my goal but am endeavoring to at least diminish the pile of ROOTs for next year...

You all have given me a lot of ideas for the theme for 2020. This could be a tough decision.

So we'll vote....

>29 benitastrnad: that is fantastic! I've been trying to concentrate on ROOTs as well, but not as well as you have done, percentage-wise.

>7 cyderry: Thanks, Cheli! :)

And I have been a bad, bad girl. Attended a new book fair to day and came away with 16 new books. I am delighted with my purchases though but will have to work hard to try and end the year with less books than I started. Next problem is where do I put them....

As a Brit I feel I should add a note of caution about the sudden outbreak of voting on this thread.... but then again!

On a upbeat note I've finished my 16th Root The Bedsitting Room and reached my target for the year!

Congrats >40 si:!!

I have finished another ROOT and have updated my thread and all tickers. While I am still behind in my ROOTing this year, I am still hoping that I will catch up somehow...

Finally added my first ROOT of October to all tickers: Pawn in Frankincense, by Dorothy Dunnett.

#26 for the year and first ROOT of October- review is on my thread and no tickers updated

Reporting first root for October, An Accidental Terrorist by Steven Lang. Now I have been again distracted by a library book, my 3rd this month...I need to read this quickly and get back on track.

Added my second ROOT of October to all tickers: An Advancement of Learning, by Reginald Hill.

I'm on a roll and have added my third ROOT of October to all tickers: Shrill, by Lindy West.

I finished my second ROOT for the month. Daughters of Mars by Thonas Keneally. Stylistically it was a bit odd - there were no quotation marks, and lots of dashes instead of commas. However, the ending was awful. The author tried a twist and that ploy just didn't work. It left me confused. If it hadn't been for that one thing I would have put it as one of my top fiction reads of the year.

Finished reading the thrilling nonfiction book by Donnie Eichar, Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident. It was a fantastic page-turner and with this, other than the Atwood dystopian trilogy I'm saving for later, I've finished off all the books from my Christmas TBR pile. What a fast turnaround from buying to reading books. Very exciting.

>49 lilisin:
Well - thanks for the book bullet.

>48 benitastrnad:. I note that I thoroughly enjoyed this book when I read it giving it 9/10. I cannot remember the twist you referred to but recently I picked up several more of his books and look forward to reading them one day.

Back with my second root for the month, Saraswati Park by Anjali Joseph. This was a very good debut book and another author to follow.

Another ROOT finished - my thread and all tickers updated.

#27 for the year and second ROOT for October- review is on my thread and no tickers updated

Will be finishing Yu Miri's Tokyo Ueno Station today which means I'll have yet another book to review even though I'm still not catch up on reviewing the books I read last month. On another note, however, it's a book I purchased this past Thursday which means I've read it within a week of purchasing. How exciting. I've doing quite well with that this year, I'm happy.

hope everyone is looking up thread and voting?

>56 majkia: Yup!

Another few ROOTs finished. My thread and all tickers updated.

Another root, Carry the One by Carol Anshaw. Not an uplifting read. the best bit about finishing is I get to choose a new book.

I've been away on holiday this week, and managed to finish 3 ROOTs while I was away (and hopefully a 4th later today). I've added all 3 to all tickers.

Finished ROOT 44 for the year, 2 for October

All tickers updated.

ROOT #3 for the month for me. I finished listening to One of Our Thursdays Is Missing by the indomitable Jasper Fforde. Like the others in the series this one was a literary hoot! This was the recorded version and it was very well done. Good way to spend a commute.

I did it - adding another ROOT (#8 for October, #69 for the year) to all tickers.

I only brought 3 ROOTs with me while I was away for a week so I only managed to read 3.

Added another ROOT to all tickers: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams.

Number 28 for the year and #3 for October- no tickers updated and the review is on my thread.

Number 29 for the year and #4 for October- I have been reading this book for a long time- review is on my thread and no tickers updated

>64 rabbitprincess: Such a fun book!

I have finished another ROOT; my thread and all tickers have been updated.

>64 rabbitprincess: Inspired by you I also read this. That's my sixth ROOT this month and there are still a few days to go. My own ticker is up-to-date, didn't touch the group ticker.

ROOT #9 for the month (#70 for the year) added to all tickers.

Finally catching up on some reviews on my thread and also finished reading Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima that I enjoyed, but will also now have to review.

I finished another ROOT last weekend. Shanghai Faithful: Betrayal and Forgiveness in a Chinese Christian Family by Jennifer Lin proved to be a wonderful read. My first 5 star read of the year. If you liked Wild Swans by Jung Chang then you will like this book. More about the Cultural Revolution and the years of Mao. It was a very well written book and full of modern Chinese history and culture.

>72 cyderry: LOL!!

>72 cyderry: 100% accurate.

>72 cyderry: Oh, this is so true.

>72 cyderry: That looks so familiar, ha! This will be a really bad or good, depending on your point of view, month for me on the acquisitions front.

Another ROOT finished - less than a week left in the month! My thread and all tickers updated.

Way back on Sunday or Monday I finished my 65th ROOT for the year: Lone Wolf, by Linwood Barclay.

And then today I finished Vol de nuit, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, my 66th ROOT for the year. Also very speedily read; I bought it at the end of June.

All tickers are up to date.

Another ROOT done. I listened to Wildcard by Marie Lu. This one is a sequel to Warcross so I am now caught up in the series and moving on to another ROOT.

Forgot to post last weeks root Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle. Hope to be back with one more before the end of the month.

Halfway through Spring Garden by Tomoka Shibasaki which should get finished before the end of the month as it's so short.

I had two good months of ROOTing, avoiding the library worked well.
September was great with 25 ROOTs and October even better with 29 ROOTs, so I reached and passed my goal of 150: a total of 176 ROOTs read at the end of October.
Next month the numbers will be lower, I went to the library last week and came home with 10 books.

All tickers updated.

>83 FAMeulstee: Congrats, Anita! That is an amazing number!

>83 FAMeulstee: Wow! Congrats!

>83 FAMeulstee: Congrats!

>83 FAMeulstee: Well done

Well I reached my goal of 30 books read from my book piles and towers.
#30 for the year and #5 for Oct!
Review is on my thread and no tickers updated.

>84 MissWatson: >85 majkia: >86 cyderry: >87 Robertgreaves: Thanks!
A large part of my reading was from my childrens/YA collection, still reading the last one: a childrens poetry anthology of 1,000+ pages.

>88 torontoc: Congratulations!

I knocked out another ROOT earlier this week. Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima is a short book translated from the Japanese about a young woman who is in the process of divorcing her husband and trying to cope with raising a toddler. I didn’t really enjoy this book very much. It simply wasn’t my kind of novel even though it had good reviews.

I read 2 this month for 36/30 and tickers are updated.

>90 benitastrnad:

Sorry you didn't end up liking it! At least it's short, right?

I'm reading Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa which is quite gripping and I'm wondering where it's going to go.

Here is my report for October 2019.

UpROOTED books: 7
ROOTless books: 7
Added to the TBR shelves: 1

The ROOTs were:

A Brief History of the Celts by Peter Beresford Ellis
The Truth by Terry Pratchett
The Sandman Volume 1: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman
The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Peter Ackroyd
In the Time of Madness by Richard Lloyd Parry
1984 by George Orwell
1666: Plague, War and Hellfire by Rebecca Rideal

ROOTs in YTD: 91

Tickers have been updated but hopefully not harmed in the making of this report.

I had 9 ROOT's this month. Turned out to be a good reading month for me. No tickers updated.

I have been making an effort to finish up some series that I have been reading before starting some others that are tempting me. For that reason I listened to 3 recorded books this month.

One of Our Thursdays Is Missing by Jasper Fforde - great puns! - 1 more to go in this series and I am done with it.
Wildcard by Marie Lu - this is a sequel to an earlier book - I hope she doesn't make this one into a series. Two tells the story nicely and wraps it up.
Planetfall by Emma Newman - this is book one in a series, and I don't think I will continue with this series. I didn't care that much for it.

I read six books this month. Some great reading in this list.

Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest by Timothy Egan - this was a great book. Egan's first.
Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally - an engrossing work of fiction with a horrid ending. What was that author thinking?
Shanghai Faithful: Betrayal and Forgiveness in a Chinese Christian Family by Jennifer Lin - This book is one of my top reads of the year and totally unexpected. An obscure academic work that turned out to be good reading.
Ghost Magic by Michele Forbes - reminded me of the work of Anne Enright. this was my lunch/work book
Uniform Justice by Donna Leon - book 12 in the Guido Brunetti series. I am determined to finish this series sometime, even though the author cranks out one a year.
Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima - written in 1979 and just now translated. Starts out like Murakami and ends up flopping - at least for me it did.

I thought I'd posted my update here at the end of last month but must have forgotten to click 'Post message' - ooops!

So I've added 14 today bringing my total to 42/60 for 2019. 18 books to go....

My final tally for October is 7 ROOTs, having just finished Treasure Island. Off to get a headstart on November...I still have 12 ROOTs to read.

I managed to finish the month with the audiobook of The Best of Edgar Allan Poe - perfect for Halloween :)
My thread and all tickers updated.

Well, I read 5 ROOTs in October but had to add 15 when I updated my personal ticker. Looks like I forgot to update it last month.

Added two more ROOTs to all tickers to finish up the month:

Cheer Up Love: Adventures in Depression with the Crab of Hate, by Susan Calman
The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, by Agatha Christie

Managed to complete another Root for the month, Corner Shop by Roopa Farooki taking me to 46/54.

November thread is up!

https://www.librarything.com/topic/312589

sorry, forgot to add my total into the mix. I read 8 ROOTs for a total of 68. Personal ticker updated.