Best Books of 2014

Well, I read 79 books this year. It’s down from last year’s 99 but I’m not complaining. As busy as I have been with relief society, I’m kind of surprised I got the 79 in. My average over the last 5 years is 80.5 so I’m right in line with that.  Anyway, this year I was supposed to read a classic, a non-fiction, and a Shakespeare play. I got the classic in by way of Maud Hart Lovelace’s “Emily of Green Valley”. I got some Mary Stewart, Daphne Du Maurier, and Agatha Christie in there also, all of which could probably be considered classics. I didn’t read any Shakespeare or non-fiction this year.  My reading time became precious and I was not in the mood to branch out all that much.  

My favorites this year (in no particular order) are:

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown – Holly Black: I just really loved this take on vampires. I also love the cover and title.

Fangirl –  Rainbow Rowell: Without a doubt the biggest book hangover and the biggest book-boy crush. I can’t even count how many times I’ve read this book this year. I loved it!

Fortune’s Pawn – Rachel Bach: I read the entire trilogy this year. I think the first book was probably my favorite but I just really enjoyed this whole “romp in space” series.

Night Broken – Patricia Briggs: This series has just been consistently good and from one of my very favorite authors who never seems to disappoint.

The Road Home – Ellen Emerson White: This is the final book in a series set during the Vietnam War. I loved it. Talk about being transported to another place and time.  It’s my second biggest book hangover and I’ve read it multiple times also.

Silence for the Dead – Simone St James: I’ve really enjoyed her books and I think this was my favorite yet. I’m not big into ghost or supernatural stories but I do like the way she does them.

Every Breath/Every Word – Ellie Marney: I’m counting both books here. I adored them. Fans of Sherlock Holmes should read them.

Blue Lily, Lily Blue – Maggie Steifvater: The third book in an amazing series and I’m going to be sad when it’s over.

Honorable mention goes to:

The Shape of Desire – Sharon Shinn

Murder of Crows – Anne Bishop

Dreams of Gods and Monsters – Laini Taylor

Dreamer’s Pool – Juliet Marillier

A Grave Matter – Anna Lee Huber

There are a bunch of other books that I really liked. I have noticed I’m stingy with my 5 star ratings but I have quite a lot of 4 star books on my list. 

Most Anticipated books for 2015:

Vision in Silver – Anne Bishop

Dead Heat – Patricia Briggs

The Shadow Revolution – Susan and Clay Griffith

Every Move – Ellie Marney

The Tower of Bann- Juliet Marillier

A Study in Death – Anna Lee Huber

The Other Side of Midnight – Simone St James

My only reading goal for next year is to just keep digging away at my TBR pile. I’ve come to terms with the fact that it will never go away and that I add books to it faster than I can read them.

Popcorn Cake

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is popcorn cake. My mom makes it every year. She gives a lot of small ones away to neighbors and friends and always makes me one to share with the people at work. Then the final one is for us to eat during Christmas when we're all together as a family. I love it. It's got popcorn, and nuts, and spiced gumdrops in it and it's held together with marshmallows (like a rice krispy treat). Yummy!

I had a great Christmas, spending time with the family and celebrating the birth of Christ. It finally snowed for us during the night on Christmas Eve so we got to really wake up to a white Christmas. My 2 year old niece and I went outside and tried to make a snowman. We did make a small one, but the snow was so fine and powdery, it just wouldn't stick together.

Now I'm ready to spend the evening curled up with some cocoa and a good book.

Merry Christmas! (a day late)

Cheesecake

This year I decided to get sick for Thanksgiving. I got a cold the day before and it stayed with me for over a week. It didn't help that the week after Thanksgiving I had to go to Kentucky for work. I'm finally feeling a lot better and wanted to post a picture of the cheesecake I made for Thanksgiving.

I got the recipe from this website. It was pretty easy to make and was very rich and tasty. My sister did the actual piping of the snowflake with the pattern provided on the website. I have to say it was a thumbs up all the way around. My mom had to take it to the dialysis center on Saturday to give away. We just don't have the people to eat it up and nobody could handle more than a small piece at a time anyway.

Christmas Comes Early

I was very excited when I got home on Saturday and found a package on my doorstep. Merry Christmas to me. I’m not even ashamed to admit I bought these books from the Australian publisher. I wanted them and didn’t want to wait. Plus, the US cover for the first book is not that great.  I like these covers better.

 

I’m dying to get to Every Word. I’ve already read Every Breath on my kindle and loved it. I also just got my copy of Blue Lily, Lily Blue from the library so I’m afraid that book might have to come first. It’s not a bad thing to have two books I really want to read waiting for me.  Next week I’m having a staycation and even though I’m rapidly filling up the time off from work, I should have plenty of time to get some reading done.

Haunted Houses

And by haunted houses, I don't mean I went to one. I don't really do scary stuff.

The family tradition is to make haunted houses around Halloween (aka gingerbread houses during the Christmas season). We always have a good time with it.

This year I made a graveyard. Or tried to. I promise that my two year old niece helped with mine. Evidently, she decided I didn't have enough candy on it. The halfway eaten candy corn is definitely from her. :)  I would never eat just half a candy corn.

Don't ask why my tombstones have "blood" dripping from them. It just seemed like the thing to do. Anyway, we had a good time and ate lots of candy. The kids got to take home their haunted houses and they will sit and dry out and then get thrown out and we'll do it all over again next year.

Autumn Days are Here Again

Woo Hoo! It’s officially autumn! The weather has been so perfect lately that I really don’t want it to change yet. But I’ve been getting antsy for fall weather to get here. I see the leaves starting to change colors and I’ve needed a slightly warmer blanket at night.

I’ve already got plans for how I’m going to hibernate through the fall/winter season. There are a couple tv shows I want to catch up on, books to read (of course), and baking to do. I’ve been looking for soup recipes to try and this year I think I’m going to try making my own hot chocolate just to see how it compares.  I think I’ll also work on finishing a couple crafty projects I have laying around. Really, this is my favorite time of year and I’m so happy it’s here again.

Living the good times

A few years ago I made myself a collage on a piece of poster board and titled it “My Motivation to be Healthy”.  I hung it up in my bathroom. It was my way of reminding me why I wanted to take care of myself both physically and emotionally. It’s full of pictures of places I want to travel, clothes, motivational sayings, family, books, tv shows… just things that I like.  It’s still got some space and every once in a while I’ll add to it.  I took a good look at it the other day and realized something. I’ve told myself for so many years that I will be able to do certain things or go certain places when I am a certain way or a certain weight, etc.  But there are so many pictures on that board that I’ve already done.  I’ve been to Italy, Machu Picchu, concerts…done things with my family.  There are still a lot of things on the board I haven’t done but it’s not because of what I weigh or anything else.  I just haven’t got to them yet.  I’m glad that regardless of what I tell myself, I haven’t let these ideas that I’m not good enough stop me from actually doing the things I want to do.  I’ve been living my life while I was telling myself that one day I’ll really be living my life.

Anyway, all those things on my motivation board are still really good reasons to take care of myself and be healthy and keep working towards it (and they really have helped motivate me). But instead of waiting for the good times, I’m going to be more diligent in realizing that I’m actually living the good times.