Categories
Books

Books of 2012

These are the books I finished in 2012:

1. Ghoul Interrupted / Victoria Laurie
2. Vision Impossible / Victoria Laurie (took almost TWO MONTHS, I’m not a big fan of amateur spy stories)
3. Succubus Revealed / Richelle Mead
4. Fair Game / Patricia Briggs (April–looks like it’s gonna be another bad year for books)
5. Buried Prey / John Sandford (5/5/12)
6. Let’s Pretend This Never Happened / Jenny Lawson (5/6/12)
7. The Silent Girl / Tess Gerritsen (7/7/12)
8. A Discovery of Witches / Deborah Harkness (7/12)
9. Shadow of Night / Deborah Harkness (7/12)
10. Lethal Outlook / Victoria Laurie (8/1/12)
11. Kitty Steals the Show / Carrie Vaughn (8/9/12)
12. Unholy Ghosts / Stacia Kane (8/27/12)
13. Monument 14 / Emmy Laybourne (9/5/12)
14. Marked / P.C. and Kristin Cast (11/10/12)
15. What a Ghoul Wants / Victoria Laurie (12/30/12)

Once upon a time, my list of books read in a year was three times longer than this, but it’s been getting harder and harder for me to stay interested in a story long enough to finish it. For instance, right now I’m about six (or ten?) chapters into Two Graves by Lincoln and Child. I usually LOVE Pendergast novels, but this one is leaving me bored and I’m having trouble pushing myself to pick it up again.

My favorite books this year were A Discovery Witches and its sequel Shadow of Night. They were long and rich and comforting and compelling and I can’t wait for the third book. I also enjoyed What a Ghoul Wants and Marked, and of course, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (Jenny Lawson is a hilarious goddess!). In general, though, it was an uninspiring year, filled with many more books that I lost interest in before the final page.

Fingers are crossed for a more prolific 2013. On deck are the new Dresden book, the latest Prey book, the last Women of the Otherworld book, and a few new things I picked up while trolling Amazon.

Categories
Gratuitous Picture Post News Travel

My Top Nine New Experiences of 2012

2012, like any year, had its ups and downs, and its own fair share of new experiences. Here’s my list of my top ten nine favorite new experiences of the year:

1. Becoming a Fairy Godmother

Riley's Baptism
That’s me, second from the left.

I’ve never been anyone’s godmother before (possibly due to lack of any religious affiliation or even belief?), so I’m very honored that my first official godmother title is for my nephew Riley. Of course, due to the aforementioned lack of religious anything, I prefer to think of is as a Fairy Godmother position, which fortunately suits my sister just fine. 🙂

Categories
Miscellaneous

New year, new opportunity to be a regular blogger again!

So my New Year’s resolution is to blog every day. Will it happen? I was pretty successful when I did the same thing a few years ago, so I have high hopes for 2013 (or as The Bloggess calls it, The Library).

I closed out 2012 with some flare…

New Year's Eve in Jess's kitchen
New Year’s Eve in Jess’s kitchen

…dancing to hair bands around a kitchen floor somewhere in Massachusetts. It was a good time and a great way to ring in a new year. The champagne wasn’t bad either. 😀

Other hopes for the new year include losing weight and getting fit(ter–“fit” is relative when you’re starting at zero); painting more and hopefully getting better at it; practicing pool more so that I’ll be better at the 8-ball tournament in Vegas this summer; and doing more new things. Somewhere I have a list of the new things I did in 2012; as soon as I find it, I’ll post it.