Finished The Dreaded Feast: Writers on Enduring the Holidays, edited by Michelle Clarke & Taylor Plimpton.
This is basically the anti-Christmas book, and if you have a dark sense of humor, odds are you'll love it.
The first essay is by John Waters, and it's my favorite of the bunch. But there are also essays from David Sedaris (but not, sadly, The Santaland Diaries), Augusten Burroughs, Hunter S. Thompson, Dave Barry, Robert Benchley, Mark Twin, Jonathan Ames and Chris Radant (the short story that inspired Home for the Holidays), plus a ton more.
Also, the cover is fantastic.
I read sixty books...well a few of them were audio books. Also I think the only reason I managed to read that many was because I read a lot of young adult or easy fiction. This is my defense letter...yes I read a Nicholas Sparks book and the House of Night series. One of my favorite books that I read this year was The Host by Stephanie Meyer...Stephanie is a terrible writer but she sure does know how to spin a story and she sure does know how to make you care about the characters. I feel like some people can be really snobby about the books they read but to be honest when I was in school and I had to read about things like moral luck and retributivism among other things like development and the cognition of an infant all I wanted was something easy to read to give my mind a break. So I dove right in to them. For the record I actually don't really like Nicholas Sparks and never have. I feel like he's really predictable in his writing like the fact that something tragic always happens in the story. For whatever reason The Last Song interested me and I quite enjoyed it. I'm reading Her Fearful Symmetry right now and I hope to finish it before the years is out but I'm not positive that will happen..anyway here is my list. I think my favorites were The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, Lonesome Dove, Thirteen Reasons Why and Psych Major Syndrome. I did not like Jessica Z. The ones with the * on it are rereads for me!
| Son of A Witch | Gregory Maguire |
| Lonesome Dove | Larry McMurtry |
| Jessica Z. | Shawn Klomparens |
| Eragon* | Christopher Paolini |
| The Host | Stephanie Meyer |
| Foever Princess | Meg Cabot |
| The Graveyard Book | Neil Gaiman |
| Eldest* | Christopher Paolini |
| Wuthering Heights | Emily Bronte |
| Keeping Faith | Jodi Picoult |
| The Princess Diaries* | Meg Cabot |
| The Silver Crown* | Robert C. O'brien |
| Little House in the Big Woods* | Laura Ingles Wilder |
| The Invention of Hugo Cabret | Brian Selznick |
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (U.K)* | J.K. Rowling |
| The Road | Cormac McCarthy |
| Marked (House of Night Series #1) | P.C. Cast & Kristen Cast |
| The Afterlife Experiments (School) | Gary Schwartz |
| The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks | E. Lockhart |
| Elsewhere | Gabrielle Zevin |
| Betrayed (House of Night Series #2) | P.C. Cast & Kristen Cast |
| Chosen (House of Night Series #3) | P.C. Cast & Kristen Cast |
| Thirteen Reasons Why | Jay Asher |
| The Beekeeper's Apprentice | Laurie R. King |
| Coraline | Neil Gaiman |
| Vanishing Acts | Jodi Picoult |
| The Hunger Games | Suzanne Collins |
| 3 Willows | Ann Brashares |
| Outlander | Diana Gabaldon |
| Vampire Academy | Richelle Mead |
| Certain Girls | Jennifer Weiner |
| Wake | Lisa McMann |
| My Sister's Keeper | Jodi Picoult |
| The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society | Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows |
| The Summoning | Kelly Armstong |
| The Wednesday Sisters | Meg Waite Clayton |
| Anne of Green Gables | L.M. Montgomery |
| Frost Bite (Vampire Academy) | Richelle Mead |
| Tender Morsels | Margo Lanagan |
| For One More Day | Mitch Albom |
| The Physick Book of Delieverance Dane | Katherine Howe |
| Best Friends Forever | Jennifer Weiner |
| Bad Girls Don't Die | Katie Alender |
| Along for the Ride | Sarah Dessen |
| There's No Place Like Here | Cecelia Ahren |
| Time of My Life | Alison Winn Scotch |
| Being Nikki | Meg Cabot |
| Evermore | Alyson Noel |
| Plain Truth | Jodi Picoult |
| Twentie's Girl | Sophie Kinsella |
| The Castaways | Elin Hilderbrand |
| The Last Song | Nicholas Sparks |
| Neverwhere | Neil Gaiman |
| Psych Major Syndrome | Alicia Thompson |
| Mr. Darcy, Vampyre | Amanda Grange |
| Practical Magic | Alice Hoffman |
| Catching Fire | Suzanne Collins |
| Unwind | Neal Shusterman |
| City of Glass | Cassandra Clare |
| Shadow Kiss | Richelle Mead |
Long ago, when I lived in Boston, my roommates and I had a problem with mice. Now, we were clean people, so it frustrated us that half a dozen mice had taken up residence in our house.
We set out traps and one morning my roommate Julia and I found a poor little mouse stuck to an icky sticky trap. Neither of us had the stomach to deal with it right after waking up, so we walked to Dunkin Donuts and had breakfast.
While we were gone, Kate and Hillary cleaned up the mouse.
Now, living back in California, I have no roommates. So if I go out for donuts, no one will be around to catch and clean up the mouse that is living somewhere downstairs.
I have GOT to get a roommate.
And I need a donut.
My head is absolutely buzzing with ideas and planning, goals, projects and lists. I should be a professional project creator. I have come to the conclusion that there are simply not enough hours in the day. What should one do? Sleep less? Hardly! But managing my time more effectively would probably go a long way towards helping me accomplish every harebrained scheme I think up.
What a delightful weekend we just spent. Sherlock Holmes was interestingly done and well worth a watch. I remember my mum reading Sherlock Holmes to me and my sisters at bedtime. The story of the speckled band scared the proverbial crap out of me. I remember reading the story to Jesse and Libby when they were still quite young (we were living in Hawaii at the time) and they were completely unruffled by it.
I wanted to go to the zoo today (yes, in December) but the snow was coming down thick and fast.
Todd didn't fancy negociating icy roads all the way to Indianapolis so we stayed close to home.
Ice skating wasn't the same without our English cousins but we're planning to get them stateside next winter.
- More love.
- Less weight.
- More yoga.
- More books.
- More exercise.
- More vacations.
- More fun!
These all seem totally doable.
Bring it, 2010! Bring it!
Finished Knit the Season by Kate Jacobs.
This is the third book in the Friday Night Knitting Club series, and it's as enjoyable as the other two.
Dakota is trying to balance the demands of the shop (Walker & Daughter) with her own dreams of being a pastry chef, as well as feeling like everything's changing. (There's a lot going on in this book, most of which are relative surprises.)
These books are pure comfort food, this one especially. Good book to read at Christmas. :)
