Best Books of 2018

Another year, another list of my favorite books...

I read 127 books this year. Officially. Unofficially, I’d add at least 20 books to that number. I caved and got a Kindle Unlimited subscription and started using Overdrive a lot more so I borrowed lot of books I wouldn’t normally read, just to try them. Since I skimmed parts in a lot of them, I didn’t always count it as “read”. Anyway, back to the official list. There are 4 classics and 4 non-fiction on the list. I was going to say that’s 8 books out of my comfort zone reading, and maybe it is, but I think it’s more that I’m realizing that I do like a bigger variety of books, even though I definitely have my favorite genres. Even more surprising is that some of these made my best of list.

Lake Silence – Anne Bishop
I absolutely love the world of The Others and will be so sad when she’s finished writing these books.

From Sand and Ash – Amy Harmon
Lots of tears for this historical fiction set during WWII.

Frederica – Georgette Heyer
This one left me chuckling and I really liked it. I just always want a little more from her romances.

Parnassus on Wheels - Christopher Morely
Such a cute, feel good story about a woman who up and leaves her dreary life to run a mobile library.

The Drive: Searching for Lost Memories on the Pan-American Highway – Teresa Bruce
This one is a travel memoir that I just loved. I should read more travel books.

The Opposite of You – Rachel Higginson
This is one of the books I couldn’t quit this year. I kept coming back to it for comfort re-reading.

White Night - Ellie Marney
I love EM's writing. This book had me hooked from the beginning because Bo was such a nice guy.

Rough Justice – Kelley Armstrong
Pretty much everything I loved about the series is in this novella, plus none of the things that drove me crazy.

Lethal White – Robert Galbraith
I binge read this series and while parts of it were frustrating, I really liked it and this last book, so far, was great.

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster – Jon Krakauer
I was riveted by this tale, even though it happened over 20 years ago, it’s still an amazing and horrifying story.

Wait For It – Mariana Zapata
This is the other book I couldn’t quit. Huge book hangover. I haven’t actually stopped reading it since the first time.


Ghost Hunter series - Jayne Castle
I binge read a ton of Jayne Castle this year thanks to Overdrive and I can't say they are great literature, but I don't regret it a bit. I even bought my favorite to keep.


Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik
This one frustrated me a bit during the reading, although I swallowed the last 200 pages in a binge. Then I couldn't stop thinking about it.


Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand - Carla Kelly
I started reading CK this year and she wrote some fantastic romances. The characters in this one actually talk to each other a lot.

This Fallen Prey - Kelley Armstrong
This series just keeps getting better and better. I'm so ready for the next book to hit the shelves in 2019. Just in time for my birthday!

Merry Christmas

The good news: we got snow last night! I had about 3 inches on my driveway this morning and it's still coming down. It will be a white Christmas after all.

I was playing Christmas songs on my piano yesterday after church and I ran across the song The Christmas Waltz. I don't remember all the lyrics but the one line "It's that time of year when the world falls in love" got me to thinking about the Christmas's of my childhood and what a magical time it used to be. As opposed to now as a grown up living by myself and dad's gone and mom lives in a different house. I'm not saying it's bad now. But there is definitely a magic about Christmas when you are young. At least there was for me. It wasn't just presents. It was all the traditions of the holidays, from candy making and popcorn cakes, to puzzles, and family and friends. LOL - we still do a lot of that now. I don't know why being an adult makes it feel so different.

Regardless, I'm looking forward to the festivities tonight. My family is having a laid back dinner together and then we'll do presents. I made mom's sugar cookies for dessert. They are the shape of Christmas trees and snowmen and I made frosting so we can decorate them before we eat them. Then tomorrow I'm going to take it easy and enjoy the day off.

Krampus

So one of the most fun things we did on this trip was see a Krampus run/parade. I didn't know they were a thing until a flight attendant on our way to Munich told us about it. And then I was disappointed because we were going to miss the one in Munich. We found out from some people we met on our Nuremburg tour that there was also one in Salzburg.


The website was not accurate with the time so we waited for almost an hour before the thing started, but it turned out to be worth it. The parade was loud and chaotic and crazy and I LOVED it.


I took so many pictures and videos but most of them are crap. I was moving too much or people got in the way, or it was too dark or lots of reasons. Still I have enough for me to remember it. Those guys have got to be having so much fun. Seriously.

Germany and Austria 2018

I just got back from a trip to Germany and Austria. I went with my mom because we wanted to see the Christmas markets. I don't even recall how I realized they are a thing. But earlier this year when I really needed something to look forward to, I did a bunch of internet searching to figure out where I wanted to go and we ended up in Barvaria. We stayed in Munich and did a day trip to Nuremburg, a day trip to the castles in Fussen, and then went to Salzburg for a few days.

I've got to say that by time we left, I wasn't very excited and it's not the best trip I've ever been on but I did have a good time. The thing is, you have to enjoy Christmas ornaments and decorating to really enjoy looking at the markets. And it does get to the point that when you've "seen one, you've seen them all" because they all have mostly the same and then some different things in them. My favorite were the manger markets because they had everything you needed to make your own nativity set. I could have had so much fun with that one...but it would have been hard to get the stuff home. Instead, I stuck with a few ornaments.

Munich

I didn't take that many pictures, especially of the Christmas Markets, because it was hard to get good ones.

Nuremburg

Salzburg

I also wanted to see Dachau. It was a rainy morning when we went, which kind of seems fitting, since it was quite sobering. I thought it might be, but you can't really predict how you are going to feel. I felt truly terrible when I went into the Crematorium. My mom didn't even want to go near it and I don't blame her at all. I just think it's so important not to forget how it happened so we don't let it happen again.

I'm just going to say that our trip to Fussen was kind of a bust. Not anything we could prevent, because it was all weather related. We only went into Hohenschwangau because I didn't get advance tickets to Neuschwanstein and didn't want to wait in the lines. We liked Hohenschwangau so that was fun. We were then going to go up to Neuschwanstein and just not go inside, but snow and sleet started coming down and we heard the buses stopped running and that Mary's Bridge was closed. Plus, we had warm clothes but when you get wet, it's just not any fun. So I can say I've been there and I don't feel any need to go back even though I didn't get the full experience. 

Neuschwanstein

Hohenschwangau

Nymphenburg Palace

I'll save my favorite part of the trip for tomorrow.

Social Media Break

I have finished a 10 day “fast” from social media. I stayed off (almost) all of my social media sites, plus blogs and podcasts too.  

It was super easy to stay off Facebook. I’ve not been on it much anyway. Twitter was easy. Pinterest was fairly easy. I do have a lot of recipes saved there so I grabbed a few during the 10 days, but it was easy not to browse. Instagram was a little harder, though I did it. I have that set up so I can see pictures of things that make me happy and I kind of missed it. GoodReads was hard. In fact I just plain didn’t make it. I did not realize this, but I don’t think I’ve decided on a book to read without looking at reviews for years, at least not for stand alones and first books in a series. I replaced podcasts with some audio books from the library and I had a hard time deciding which ones based only on the synopsis on the library website. Plus, I wanted to post the books I read because that’s how I keep track of them. I do stay off GoodReads for days at a time when I travel or go on vacation, but I just didn’t like not using it while I’m home and in my regular reading pattern. Kind of crazy to think about it. So I while I did limit my usage, I didn’t stay off completely.

Also, I probably get on social media more at work than at home. Oopsy! That is a crazy realization. I replaced some of that time with reading the news or reading up about other topics online when I needed a break. I missed some of my book blogs but others blogs I found I could do just fine without. 

The whole point of this was to take a break and figure out which, if any, of my social media habits were making me unhappy or having a negative influence on my life.  The results? I waste a lot of time on GoodReads. I should watch that a little bit better. The sites that don’t make me happy or feeling a bit negative are Facebook and Twitter. I already knew that about FB, so months ago I stopped logging in very much, and then maybe in September, I turned off all notifications on my phone so now I have to log in to see them at all. I love it. Twitter is like my negative news feed and I’ve realized it more now. I know I have the ability to change what I see so I think some changes might be in order before I get back on it. If I get back on it. I need that balance between knowing what is going on in the world and my own sanity, but I can get news from other sources.

So I missed some social media, but some I can do without. I did not fill that time with other, good things, but hopefully, I got more work done. When I logged on to a bunch of sites again this morning, I just thought Huh. I’ve been wondering what I’ve been missing, but the answer is: not much.

A Fun Weekend

Last weekend I went to the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City for the first time. I’ve always wanted to go but with finding someone to go with and figuring out schedules and things, I just never did. So I went by myself and I had a great time.

I took Friday off work and hit the road around 10:00 am. On the way, I stopped to go shopping, and then a little later I stopped at the Cove Fort visitor’s center. A nice sister missionary took me through the place. When I got to Cedar City, I checked into my hotel and had enough time to go get something to eat and go figure out where to park on the SUU campus.

The first play I saw was The Liar. It was a comedy about a guy who can’t (won’t or doesn’t want to?) tell the truth and a case of mixed up identities. It was funny. It was written in the 1600s but translated into English and “updated” a bit for modern audiences. They rhyming speech was hilarious, as was the fun modern updates, such as a light saber duel.

On Saturday I was a little lazy in the morning but ended up at the Frontier Homestead State Park museum. I always love seeing any part of history and pioneers are a big part of my history. I liked the museum with the old houses, log cabins, and carriages, etc. Then I wasted some time on campus and went to my next play: The Foreigner. I have seen that one before and it was still so funny. They did a great job with it. It’s about a shy guy whose friend decides to help him out by telling people he doesn’t speak English. He then overhears all kinds of things. It’s funny, but also has a great message about the value of people, no matter where they are from.

After that, I drove back home.

I would totally go again, but I’d do things a little differently next time. First, I’d make it a 3 day weekend. It’s a lot of driving for 2 days. There were a bunch of things near Cedar City I thought about seeing, but didn’t really want to get back in the car for a drive. Making it into 3 days would help with that and give more time to see other stuff, plus go to the plays. I’d also look more into the festival itself. I did go to one orientation before my second play, but I didn’t realize the lectures and things they do, or the timing of them. It’s my own fault, but I would have liked to attend some of those also.  Plus, I didn’t actually see any of the Shakespeare, and I’d like to do that, especially if I could go to one of the lectures/orientations to become more familiar with whatever play I was seeing. There are only about 5 that I’m really comfortable with.

People keep asking me who I went with and I say nobody. I go to movies and plays and other stuff by myself at home all the time and I travel for work by myself but haven’t done a lot of solo travel for fun. As I do travel by myself I’m slowing seeing why people love it. It’s pretty freeing to do what I want to do and when and just going instead of having to find weekends that work for multiple people. The downside is not being able to split the cost of a hotel room, but I think I can handle that.

My Favorite Things, Fall 2018

Now that fall is officially here, and it’s almost October, I’m thinking of my favorite things, both old and new, that I’m ready for.

Music:

One of my favorite pieces of classical music is Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saens. Nothing says October to me like this piece. I’m pretty sure there is an old cartoon of skeletons dancing to this music somewhere and I can totally see it. (There is. I found it on youtube – it’s from the 80’s.) I also love The Village soundtrack around this time of year. It’s beautiful and haunting.

Perfume:

I am loving James by Rosie Jane. It’s supposed to be inspired by fall and I believe it. The scent is fig and gardenia, but I get a lot of fig when I wear it and to me it just screams jumping into a pile leaves.

As it gets a little colder, I have some more chocolate fragrances to play around with, including my favorite: Guerlain’s Elixir Charnel Gourmand Coquin. I don’t know why, but I like them best in Fall/Winter.

Books:

A few years ago I started reading books specifically for Halloween and I think it’s a fun tradition to continue. I have Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White on my list for sure.  I finished The Moonstone a few months ago and I really liked it so TWiW is a must read. I’m also debating on 2 other classics: Dracula or A Picture of Dorian Gray. Of course, I’ve got a bunch of mysteries of all sorts sitting on my bookshelves and I have an urge to throw in a little paranormal romance to round things off.  

Movies:

October is a great month for old horror movies too. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), The Birds (1963), The Bat (1959), and multiple other Vincent Price movies will all be watched.

Podcasts:

And of course, I will get out and walk a lot more now that it is cooling down. Walking means I listen to podcasts. I need to catch up on a few of my favorites: By the Book for comedy, Women Who Travel and Extra Pack of Peanuts for travel, Stuff you Missed in History Class, and You Must Remember This for random history, along with a few book podcasts.

It looks like it will be a busy October. I’ve still got work, friends and family, and theater to do also. I can’t wait.