My Favorite Things In 2016

2016 has, overall, been a pretty crappy year for the world at large. For me personally (devastating heartbreak aside), 2016 was full of good things. In an effort to stop wallowing and appreciate life, here are my favorite things in 2016 (in no particular order): 

• I quit my job! I very rarely use an alarm clock, I have time to prepare slow cooker meals in the morning and not think about dinner again until it's time to eat, my house is super organized, I'm working on a Mormon history project (so I have an actual real reason to read all of those Mormon books ...), I don't spend an hour and a half or more a day commuting, and I have two dogs as office-mates. It's awesome.
  
  
• I made pickles that taste just like my late grandmother's with cucumbers I grew in my garden. My grandmother was incredibly talented, so doing anything remotely close to her is an achievement in my book.
  
• Me quitting my job meant that we got to travel a lot more this year, including a month-long trip to Scotland and Ireland. (It was wonderful, but two weeks away from home is long enough). The trip included a visit to the Laney River in County Cork, Ireland, a place I've always wanted to visit.
• We got a National Parks Passport (the centennial edition to boot) and acquired several stamps. This is the nerdiest thing in the world, and I love it.
  
  
• We traveled to upstate NY to visit numerous religious history sites. This is not a trip my husband would ever endeavor on his own, and he was game for everything. He also encouraged and made the whole quitting my job thing possible, which is pretty huge.  
• I got to vote for my real-life Hermione.
  
• Favorite new guilty pleasure TV show: American Housewife
• Favorite non-fiction writer: Rebecca Traister
• Favorite new kitchen gadget: it's a tie between my new waffle iron and the Ball Tech Electric Water Bath Canner.
  
• We hired a house cleaner. Life changing. 
• It snowed in Portland two weeks in a row!
  
• All of my siblings were in the same place at the same time (and my husband finally got to meet them all), which is rare and wonderful. 
• Our niblings (and their parents) visited us in Oregon, as did many other friends. 

Read It: Talking as Fast as I Can by Lauren Graham

A few days before Christmas, my husband began (repeatedly) asking me what I was reading on my Kindle and when Amazon boxes arrived (a daily occurrence in our house, particularly in December), if I had ordered any books (another regular occurrence). I was confused by his sudden interest in my reading habits and a smidgen embarrassed -- of all the times to ask, he chose when I just happened to be reading TWO Shopaholic series books in a row. Seriously? He confessed that he was only asking out of concern that I was going to get the book that was already wrapped and under the tree ... Lauren Graham's new memoir Talking as Fast as I Can! It's nice when husbands are nosey out of sweetness, and I got to open a Christmas present early!

The only reason I had not already ordered this book is because I was still debating between the hardback and audible versions. Or both? It's probably going to be both. The book was definitely good enough, and having Lauren Graham read it to me sounds delightful. If you are also debating audio vs. hardback/digital, I will tell you that the pictures are important, but not so important that flipping through the book at some point won't do the job. 

Review: Lauren Graham is a delight, and this book is all Lauren Graham! If you are not a Gilmore Girls fan, this book is not for you. If you haven't watched Gilmore Girls, may I ask why? Go watch it. If you ARE a Gilmore fan, I especially whole-heartedly recommend this book. If you have yet to watch A Year in the Life, go watch it now and then read the last chapter. I wish I had read the last chapter right when I finished "Fall" on November 25 (that's right. I stayed up until midnight, watched "Winter" and "Spring," slept a few hours, and watched "Summer" and "Fall." I have neither a job nor children, and my houseguests seemed okay with me ignoring them), and I needed someone with whom to talk about all the feels. Reading Lauren Graham's experience coming home to Stars Hollow (and her reaction to those last four words) is worth the read.  

Things I Have in Common with Lauren Graham:

• I also feel guilty about using paper towels, so I compensate by using the smaller section perforated kind. 
• We both love Season 2, Episode 7 "Like Mother Like Daughter" because of the following scene (starts at 0:53): 

• She uses FreshDirect. 
• We both had the lead in the musical our junior year of high school, but not senior year. Fortunately, that was my performing peak, but not hers. 

Signs I've watched Gilmore Girls too many times: 

• Graham gets a few Gilmore details wrong (this I can understand - she has a life - but did no one fact check the manuscript?). Christopher doesn't get Lorelai a disposable camera to take photos at Rory's graduation. It is part of a gift basket for HER graduation; she uses it for the "graduate flanked on either site by her proud parents" photo. Oy with the poodles already. 

So, this one is a highly recommended fast read for Gilmore fans. Graham also mentions her novel, Someday, Someday, Maybe, several times, which I also read and enjoyed.

2012: The year in books

Stolen Innocence

Why Have Kids?

Beautiful Ruins

Gone Girl: A Novel

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President

The Book of Mormon Girl

The Abstinence Teacher

1861: The Civil War Awakening

Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power

Becoming Sister Wives

Devil’s Gate

Below Stairs

The Role (unpublished manuscript)

Caleb’s Crossing

The Secret Lives of Saints: Child Brides and Lost Boys in Canada’s Polygamous Mormon Sect

State of Wonder

Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing

Twilight of the Elites

The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted …

The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party’s Revolution and the Battle over American History

A LOT of gluten/celiac-related books that I won’t list here – let me know if you need recommendations.

Re-read:

Outlander series

Harry Potter series (minus Deathly Hallows)

So what does this list say about me?

·      Six books about Mormons and/or FLDS? Apparently my appetite for books about Mormonism and polygamy has not yet been met. It’s a great time to be interested in books about Mormons.

·      I like re-reading books, particularly series. I also re-watch movies and TV shows.

·      There is a small list, but longer than usual, of books I didn’t finish this year. Instead of trudging through just to finish, when half of the people in your book club won’t have finished it either, why suffer through the ones you hate? There won’t be a test! Being able to easily access eBooks from NYPL has added to this -- I feel much less pressure to finish books I didn't pay for.   

Books I’m currently reading, but won’t finish before 2013:

Peter the Great

Less Than Zero

The Murder of the Century

Book Backlog

I don't do this. I never do this! I start a book, finish it, and move on. I don't start a bunch of books and read them all at the same time. Or start books and abandon them, never to return again. Well, maybe I am usually reading a book club book, an audiobook, and one more, but that's totally manageable. And some books are just too terrible to finish. One of my favorite things about having a Kindle is that when I finish a book I can download the next one immediately! This system has been great - for years. 

And then Amazon introduced the ability to give Kindle books as gifts. 

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE getting Kindle books as gifts and am lucky that so many generous people love me and give me books. I just never thought that I'd receive all of the books on my Christmas Wishlist. And that I'd want to read so many of the Kindle Daily Deals. The "To Read" folder that mostly feels like a stockpile of books I can't wait to get to maybe sometimes feels like a stack of books I'm now obligated to read because they are on my Kindle. But first I have to get through the ones I've already started.

I shouldn't be so hard on myself. I've read 26 books this year so far! I remind myself that I spent a lot of time this winter/early spring beta reading a friend's manuscript. I care about correct comma usage -- a lot. Sometimes I don't feel like reading when I read a lot at work that day. Sometimes I'd rather read The New Yorker (or Entertainment Weekly). Or watch "Dawson's Creek." So, it's okay that I'm "currently reading": 

Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee

The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party's Revolution and the Battle over American History

How to Be a Woman

Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think

1861: The Civil War Awakening (audiobook)

Gone Girl: A Novel (audiobook) 

These are all books that I'm enjoying and want to finish. And I will. Especially the last one. For Book Club. 

2011: The year in books

I'm Down: A Memoir
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman
The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance
Saving Monticello
Before I Go To Sleep: A Novel
Inside Scientology
An Anatomy of Addiction
The Submission: A Novel
Year of Wonders: A Novel
Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons
People of the Book: A Novel
Mennonite In a Little Black Dress
The Happiness Project (*I didn't finish this book, but read enough to not recommend it)
The Language of Secrets
For the Thrill Of It
Bossypants
Unfamiliar Fishes
True Grit
The Magicians: A Novel
Born to Run (I read this book again hoping it would inspire me to run; it didn't)
Happy Accidents
Gone With a Handsomer Man
Misquoting Jesus
Stiff
Elegance of the Hedgehog
The Lonely Polygamist
Cutting for Stone
The Paris Wife

I had no idea I read so many novels subtitled "A Novel" this year. My favorites (and those I highly recommend): Bossypants, Year of Wonders, and Inside Scientology. I'm 30% through Devil's Gate (love the books about Mormons), so that might end up on 2011's list of favorites as well. Best wishes for a happy 2012!

Fast talking, ambulation

As much as I love books, I also really love television. And eating. And buying things. So the blog is branching out a bit. I'm not one to occasionally catch an episode of a series here and there. I either watch a show or I don't. I especially love watching shows in quick succession after they've been off the air for several years or catching up on the first (few) seasons of shows I didn't watch when they first aired (Gilmore Girls, Mad Men, Glee).

In the spring to fall of 2006, I read the same story, many times: there is no way two shows about comedy sketch shows (with numbers in the name) can be successful on the air at the same time. And it was true; 30 Rock is still rocking. As much as I love Liz Lemon (I really do), I also really loved the casualty of that needless battle, Aaron Sorkin's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. After recently watching the 22-episode series again (thanks, Amazon Prime), I'm sad all over again that TV audiences couldn't sustain both.

Matthew Perry, Bradley Whitford, Amanda Peet, Nathan Corddry, Steven Webber, this list of great performances goes on ... If you missed this one the first time, or petered out in the middle, give it another shot. The last few episodes are some of the strongest. I wish we had more than just one season.

To fill the void of Aaron Sorkin (and fast talkers walking down hallways) in my life, I started watching The West Wing (thanks, Roku). How have I never watched this show? I know, I know, I didn't read Harry Potter until 2009 - life is busy! I've only watched the first few episodes and my nerdy observations so far are: the couches in the Oval Office are spot on to the Clinton couches, but the POTUS's chair in the Cabinet Room is not taller than the rest. I'm sure anyone who has actually worked in the White House is distracted by countless inaccuracies. Those are the only two (replica) rooms I've worked with. If, like me, you missed out on this show but have always thought you should check it out, go do it. There's a reason it is so well loved.

Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik

I fully recognize that the title of this novel makes it sound quite ridiculous so I implore you, fair reader, to not judge this one on the title. Much of this novel sounds familiar: five neighborhood housewives start a book club in the 1960s and the book follows them through the subsequent decades of motherhood, bad marriages (seriously, terrible husbands), and finding work after the SAHM (stay at home mom) years, and yet, I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. A LOT happens. This one comes highly recommended from my book club (though we may have been partial to a group of women who could keep a book club together for over 30 years). If you are looking for a fun, light read, I really enjoyed this one.