2016: My Bookish Year in Review

Books read: 86 (80 fiction, 6 non-fiction; 85 adult, 1 YA)

5-star books: 14 (definitely a record!)

Favorite book of the year: "Homegoing" by Yaa Gyasi. Superb writing, clever format, fascinating plot, timely topic. I loved everything about it and everyone should read it! (I won't mention it again because it would take up half the answers!)

Favorite historical fiction: It was an awesome historical fiction year for me and I can't choose just one -- and hell, I'm making this questionnaire up as I go, so I can do what I want, right?! I'll say it's a multi-way tie between "A Gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towles, "To the Bright Edge of the World" by Eowyn Ivey, "Letters to the Lost" by Iona Grey, "Burial Rites" by Hannah Kent, "Jane Steele" by Lyndsay Faye and "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr. (Those were all 5-star reads, by the way.)

Favorite mystery/thriller: "The Wolf Road" by Beth Lewis (more thriller than mystery, with an added post-apocalyptic element; I read way fewer mysteries than usual this year.)

Favorite sci-fi: "Dark Matter" by Blake Crouch

Favorite fantasy: "Uprooted" by Naomi Novik (no review for this one, but trust me, it was ah-maze-ing. Even if you don't normally read fantasy, you should check it out!)

Favorite women's fiction: a tie between "Maybe in Another Life" by Taylor Jenkins Reid and "The Things We Keep" by Sally Hepworth

Favorite non-fiction/memoir: "When Breath Becomes Air" by Paul Kalanithi, "Furiously Happy" by Jenny Lawson

Most unputdownable: "The Fireman" by Joe Hill, "Dark Matter" by Blake Crouch, "Uprooted" by Naomi Novik

Most disappointing book: "The Hike" by Drew Magary. Pointless plot and terrible writing -- ugh.

Best plot-driven novel: "Uprooted" by Naomi Novik

Best character-driven novel: "A Gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towles

Longest book: "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" (7 trillion pages... oh wait, it just felt like that. It was actually 782.)

Shortest book: "Saga" volume 5 (152 pages)

Favorite new author(s) discovered: Amor Towles or Eowyn Ivey; I'm so excited to read their previous releases!

Best debut: "The Wolf Road" by Beth Lewis or "The Atomic Weight of Love" by Elizabeth J. Church

Best series started: The Others urban fantasy series by Anne Bishop ("Written in Red" is the first book); the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik (starts with "His Majesty's Dragon")

Most pleasant reading experience: "A Gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towles

Most unpleasant reading experience: "A Little Life" by Hanya Yanagihara

Most over-hyped book(s): "The Couple Next Door" by Shari Lapena, "Be Frank With Me" by Julia Claiborne Johnson

Biggest let-down: I definitely gave some books lower ratings, but I had such high hopes for "Today Will Be Different" by Maria Semple; sadly, while it was ok, it didn't hold a candle to quirky, brilliant "Where'd You Go, Bernadette."

Most memorable character(s): Count Alexander Rostov from "A Gentleman in Moscow," Jude from "A Little Life"

I can't believe I waited until 2016 to finally read: "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr, "Maybe in Another Life" by Taylor Jenkins Reid, "The Royal We" by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

Novel that taught me the most: "The Last Days of Night" by Graham Moore, a great novel about the battle between A/C and D/C current and between Edison and Westinghouse

Most thought-provoking book: "Poor Your Soul" by Mira Ptacin, a wonderful, laid-bare memoir about an impossible choice, grief and moving on

Best worldbuilding: a tie between "Uprooted" by Naomi Novik and "The Fifth Season" by N.K. Jemisin

Most atmospheric novel: "The Forgotten Garden" by Kate Morton, "The Moor" by Laurie R. King (Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes #4)

Most underrated good book(s) I read this year: besides "The Wolf Road," I'd say "The Atomic Weight of Love" by Elizabeth J. Church (about a wife and aspiring ornithologist who follows her husband to Los Alamos, New Mexico, for his work on the atom bomb in the 1940s) and "Letters to the Lost" by Iona Grey (an absolutely fantastic dual narrative set in present day and WWII, told partly in letters)

Favorite book-to-screen adaptation: "Me Before You" -- I thought the casting was spot-on!

Favorite covers: apparently I read a lot of blue books this year! In no particular order...

A Very Merry Christmas Survey

It's the most wonderful time of the year, and my addiction to lists compelled me to put together a little holiday questionnaire. Feel free to use the survey on your own blog (just link back to me, if you please!) and make sure you leave your info in the comments so I can read your answers. If you don't want to fill out the whole survey, I'd love to read about how you celebrate the holiday season in the comments.
Merry Christmas!

Favorite Christmas song(s): My favorite song is "Carol of the Bells" by Celtic Woman, and I also love Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo." We actually got to see TSO live a couple years ago at Christmastime and it was so much fun!

As for general carols, I love "Jingle Bell Rock" and (even though I'm not religious) I've always liked "The First Noel." When I was little I loved "The Little Drummer Boy," which we had on vinyl album for the record player.

Favorite Christmas movie(s): "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" ("Shitter was full!" "I don't know, Margo!" "...the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse!") and "The Holiday." I totally want Kate Winslet's English cottage!

Rudolph, Frosty, the Grinch or Charlie Brown?: Tough choice, but I'll go with Rudolph. (Though now that I'm a grown woman, I find it appalling/hilarious how sexist some of the scenes are: "This is man's work!")

Best and/or most memorable Christmas gift you ever received: One year I asked Santa for a pogo stick and he came through! I also remember asking Santa for proof that he was real and he left me a reindeer bell, which is still in my stocking to this day.

Real tree or artificial tree?: Growing up we always had an artificial tree, but my husband's motto is "real tree or no tree." We used to get our trees from Lowe's or the parking lot tree stand, but the past several years we've gone and cut down our own. This year I'll miss the place we went in Ohio, Young's Dairy, which rewards visitors after their muddy trek through the fields with cocoa and popcorn, but here in Hawaii we'll go cut down a wacky-looking Norfolk pine, which is always fun.

What tops your tree? Star? Angel? Bow?: A clip-on aluminum boxer dog!

Do you send out Christmas cards? Do you go photo card or traditional?: For the longest time I sent out regular Christmas cards and hand-wrote a personal note in each and every one. After we got our fur baby, Conan, and got married, we'd take a family Christmas photo every year and include it in the card. But a few years ago I finally joined the masses and started ordering photo cards. Our beloved Conan passed away in 2014, so more recently I've made collages featuring some of our travels and adventures each year, plus one of our kitty, Lily.

Christmas 2012

When did you stop believing in Santa?: I'm pretty sure it was third grade. I was looking in our filing cabinet for something or other and of course I couldn't resist the folder labeled "Lindsay." In it was one of my Santa letters that should've been at the North Pole! Luckily my brother is eight years younger than me (he was born that same year) so I got the excitement of Santa for several more years!

Do you have any special Christmastime traditions?: Leaving "A Christmas Story" on TV all day. Watching "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" as a family (which has carried over to Jarrod and me watching it together every December). Driving around to look at Christmas lights. Also, my mom and I do our calendars together every December. We go through and write down birthdays, add stickers and reminisce about the past year. I also do up a calendar for my grandma, which is one of her Christmas gifts each year. Now my mom and I have our calendar date via Skype.

Do you have a favorite type of decoration -- snowmen, trees, Christmas village, etc.?: I love holiday decorations (and I mean every holiday)! I have some of everything, but I especially love reindeer. I also have a propensity for stuff with pine or holly adornments, and pinecones!

Do you have any sentimental decorations or ornaments?: I have a cherished 1989 Hallmark ornament of a white bunny stringing up cranberries. He's now adorned with a bit of glue -- I distinctly remember using him as a toy when I was little -- but he's my most favorite ornament and he always gets a place of honor on the tree.

White lights or colored lights? Big old-fashioned lights or mini lights?: Colored mini lights on the tree, colored icicle lights on the house.

When do you start decorating for Christmas?: I always put up my mini tree on Thanksgiving (which holds sentimental value for me because most of the ornaments came from my grandma -- my mom's mom -- who passed away in 2004) and the rest of my decorations sometime in the next week. We usually go get our tree the first or second weekend in December. I love Christmas, but I'm totally opposed to decorating before Thanksgiving. Part of the joy and fun of the season is the excitement and the anticipation and the expectation -- it only comes around for one month each year! Extending the season more and more makes it less special, I think.

Favorite Christmas treat: Anything and everything peppermint! Some particular favorites are the peppermint mocha from Starbucks and the peppermint chip milkshake from Chick-fil-a (which, sadly, I can't get in Hawaii). I also love baking chocolate cookies with peppermint frosting.

Do you like sugar cookies? Gingerbread cookies?: Nope, not really! But I love decorating them. (And, I mean, if they're right in front of me I'm not gonna turn them down.)

Do you say cocoa or hot chocolate? Do you like your warm chocolate-y beverage with marshmallows?: Cocoa girl here! Marshmallows occasionally.

What do you eat at your Christmas feast?: Ham, sweet potatoes and a slew of sides. And of course dessert! Last year I made a yummy Bailey's cheesecake. (It just occurred to me that this would be a fun dessert for an "It's a Wonderful Life" watching party -- Bailey's cheesecake, George Bailey...)

Do you open any presents on Christmas Eve or do you wait until Christmas morning?: When I was a kid we'd all open one gift on Christmas Eve, but now my husband and I usually wait until Christmas Day. As an adult, I'm all about delayed gratification.

Favorite Christmas-y secent:? Cinnamon!

If you could ask Santa for any gift this year -- and know that he'd bring it -- what would it be?: Plane tickets to visit my family in Colorado next Christmas. And, hey, let's go ahead and make them first class. Alternatively, a female brindle boxer puppy.