2016 in books

If you haven't yet started using Goodreads, then do yourself a favor before the new year and set yourself a reading goal for 2017. Goodreads helps you track books you've read, keep a list of books you want to read and suggests books for you in genres you enjoy.

Last year I set my reading goal at 30 books. I had never read that many books in a year and I thought it would be a nice challenge. It proved easier than I imagined and I had completed 30 books by summer so my new goal became 50. And if I finish The Trespasser today, I will have met it.

I have NEVER read that many books, nearly over the course of my life much less in a single trip around the sun. I read poetry, short stories, memoirs, non-fiction, historical fiction, young adult, 1 series, and even a graphic novel.

It also may have helped that I joined my first book club this year so that forced me to read books I, otherwise, may never have picked up.

I spent most of my life thinking that what I read had to be historical and useful to me in my craft but that simply isn't true. I burnt through the first 3 books of The Selection series in less than 48 hours. There isn't much use for a princess competition in my line of work but man oh man did I fall hard into that world.

Here are some that I believe are worth your while. Also, take note, I don't often read books from the current year, some are but most are not.Also for some of them I've treated you to a few nonsensical words to encourage your readership of said book.

Fiction

Euphoria by Lily King

I mean the cover alone is enough reason to read it but it was my favorite book of the year.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Sisters, Africa. Missionaries, Crazy devout father. Enough said.

Historical Fiction

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

I recommend this to my students and always have to give the disclaimer that it is not what they think. Stalin's Soviet Union labor camps. One girls story. So good.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Slow to get started but probably my second favorite book of the year. A few years following the Bolshevik revolution, a former nobleman is confined to a hotel in Moscow.

Non-Fiction

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Just like The Daily Show: witty, honest, and important.

Between the World & Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The most important book of the year, in my mind. Made Drew read it too.

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

Want to be inspired to do that thing you've always wanted? This book'll do it.

Poetry

milk and honey by Rupi Kaur

oh so good.

Young Adult

The Selection series (books 1-3) by Keira Cass

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

The Making of Mollie by Anna Carey



Already on my list for 2017:

When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempest Williams

Truevine by Beth Macy

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon


What did you read this year that you LOVED? Or what's on your list for next year? Happy reading in 2017! I will likely be trying to figure out if Antoinette is going to find the trespasser as the ball drops tonight.

2015 Recap

2015 is coming to a close and I find it easier to think back on my year if I write it down. We've had a fun-filled year with it's fair share of ups and downs but here are some of the highlights of our year.


Books
My reading challenge for this year was to read 25 books. So far I've made it to 23. I'd like to think I could knock out a book a day these next couple of days and I'm sure as heck gonna try but it may not happen. I'm usually late to the game with books so it's not as if any of them are new this year but here's my list of books that are worthy of your time. They are quite varied: political, fiction, religious, Appalachian, cooking, you name it....it's on the list.


1. The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
2. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
3. On Writing by Stephen King
4. Gray Mountain by John Grisham
5. Deer Hunting with Jesus by Joe Bageant
6. Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans
7. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
8. Heritage by Sean Brock


Movies


I went to the movies exactly twice this year. Both times with my sister to see rated R female comedies which were funny but I'm not qualified to give you advice on movies considering I don't watch them.


Podcasts
I discovered podcasts this year and my life was changed forever. These are worth your time (as if you didn't already know).


1. Radiolab (the very best)
2. StoryCorps (duh)
3. Gilmore Guys (they break down every episode of Gilmore Girls, it's my guilty pleasure)
4. Serial (which I haven't actually listened to yet but I've heard only wonderful things about it)


Music


This year we bought a record player and started our collection of albums. We saw Old Crow in concert 3 times (Blacksburg, Denver, Roanoke).

TV
I may not know movies but I am an expert TV watcher. Aside from watching countless football games these are the shows I wasted precious hours binge-watching:


1. Drunk History
2. The Mindy Project
3. Sherlock
4. Parks and Rec
5. Orange is the New Black
6. Gilmore Girls for the 47th time


Animals
In 2015 a small fortune in vet bills (2 hip replacements, lots of pain meds, physical therapy, Lyme's disease test) and added some new outside family members to the farm. First 2 hens and a rooster, then 4 hens and minus one rooster. Do the math and we have 6 wonderful hens and said good riddance to a hateful old rooster who attacked all of us.

Food
We grew our largest garden to date and had the widest variety we've ever had. We ended the season with 10 cans of strawberry rhubarb jam, 15 cans of kraut, 16 cans of pickles, 4 cans of pickled peppers, 14 cans of salsa, 6 cans of tomatoes, and 40 cans of spaghetti sauce. We also put a good bit of asparagus, broccoli, rhubarb, corn, and zucchini in the freezer.

Travel
Our big summer trip was when I got on an airplane for the first time and we travelled to Colorado for a week where we hiked, camped, relaxed and decided we didn't want to move there.


We attended our first pro football game in Charlotte and watched Green Bay lose. Drew went to Italy for 2 weeks. We camped with family on Memorial Day. We spent a week on the New River with my parents. We had two weddings in Tennessee and my siblings and I spent a week in Williamsburg.

Here's a little video recap of the year

I hope you all have a wonderful New Years and a joyful 2016 filled with sweet friends, books to lose yourself in, travel to beautiful places, and animals to love on. What were some of your 2015 highlights? Books? Places to travel? Podcasts? Chicken names?

2014 Recap

2014 was one heckuva year.

Highlights

1. Graduated with my Master's Degree (and a 4.0 and a couple of awards....)

2. Accepted my 1st big girl job with benefits and the whole shebang

3. Moved to Floyd County
4. Read the whole Harry Potter series & became a believer
5. Saw Old Crow Medicine Show in concert (twice)

6. Added a new member to our family: Dolly

7. Started canning and composting and took our garden game to  whole new level.

8. Travelled to Pittsburgh & the Poconos in PA, caught a baseball game in Cincy, and spent our anniversary at the beach.
9. Said "see you soon" to friends and welcomed new ones into our lives
10. My sister married her best friend

11. Became godparents

12. Camping & hiking on Labor Day with family

13. Drew got a new tattoo
14. Rented a place and spent some time at Claytor Lake and the New River (thrice)
15. Drew did LOTS of hiking and I did a normal amount: various portions of the AT, along the Blue Ridge Parkway, Deer Cave & Red Fox Trail

 

As always spent a lot of time with family and friends. Lots of time reading and watching the Mindy Project and drank plenty of coffee and wine. Enjoyed my sleep, snuggles with Gracie, and getting to know some awesome teenagers.

 

 

Here's to 2015: a trip out west, a kick-ass garden, and immersing ourselves in this wonderful community. Happy New Year friends. It's a new year and it's never too late to do something you've always wanted. 

Resolutions

I don't make them. But I do try to do better than I did last year. And I try to get my shit together a little more each year. I've got a long way to go.

However, I was reading at this blog the other day about using January as your cleaning month. The only thing I have actually done is to clean up my inbox from all of those obnoxious e-mails and unsubscribing from them (Loft, Old Navy, Printstagram, Good Housekeeping, Ebay, etc.). And let me tell you, you will feel like a new woman (or man if Drew is reading this as my only male reader). Also, if you're like my friend Sarah you just need to clean out your inbox in general from the over 1,000 e-mails you're keeping "just in case." It stresses me out and it should stress you out.

Another thing Drew and I are doing this year is something I read on a blog whose name I can't remember but we are exchanging a list of 12 books we want the other to read and each month we're responsible for reading one. We have very different tastes.

Drew's all fantasy, sci-fi, and fiction. And I'm all historical, education, and non-fiction. So it shall be interesting. His first book is the Autobiography of Malcolm X and mine is the first of the Harry Potter's. Before you ask, the answer is nope. Never read them. If you know me you know my dear mama worried about wizardry/witchcraft/Halloweenie things in our youth. So that leaves my sister reading them at 20 and me reading them at 24. I hope they are still as magical at this age as everyone assured me they were in their tween years.

Other ways I'll try and better myself: being more thoughtful. I tend to get caught up in my business and forget that people are going through some serious stuff. Everyone remembers to check on you when your husband first leaves for basic training or when your divorce is freshly filed but what about in the months following. You still need a pick-me-up sometimes. My hope is to make more of an effort for all of my friends this year. Nine days in and it's a success. But we got a long way to go.

Also, the attempt to better myself that I know I'll break the fastest is the one where I say I'll try to enjoy cooking more. Yeah, it's all easy to research and prepare food when I'm sitting on my ass all day watching the Barefoot Contessa. But what about next week when I'm in class all day? I'll turn to Domino's, I just know it. But for now:

Chicken chimichimichangas (Drew insists on two chimis in his changa).

The filling and the finished product. Find the recipe here.

Dirty Dancing and other random thoughts

I'm watching Dirty Dancing as I type this, for the second time this week. Drew and I sat in my parents living room last Sunday morning (when we were supposed to be on the road back home) and watched it like we'd never seen it before. And just to tie it all together Drew and I did a little dirty dancing of our own on New Years. The Taylors drove to Roanoke and spent the evening/night/following day with us. I can never get enough of them. They're so much fun.

• I think I mentioned a few posts back that Drew and I joined the Y. I actually surprise myself at how much I enjoy going, and we even get a workout running walking there. However, after being all of like 8 times I don't know why I'm not seeing results. I mean in reality I know how crazy that is but it'd be nice if I did. Granted the Y has to compete with the 30 some sausage balls I consumed over Christmas and the fact that I've had Domino's four times in as many days.

• I always struggle to determine when I should take down Christmas. What is your usual routine? I mean, I have lots of free time right now so it would make sense but it still feels too early. It makes our house so homey. But if I'm being honest the real reason is that my Christmas tree would likely still have to sit in our living room because I have nowhere to store it. So....maybe I'll keep it up a while longer.

• Do I talk about New Girl too much on here?? Well at least I don't speak only in New Girl quotes like I do to my sister.

 

 

• And to finish out this random post I started reading A Little History of the World which is written for children but it is so lovely. I just smile every time I pick it up. Also, I started A Year of Biblical Womanhood on my Kindle. It has certainly inspired me to start studying women of the Bible more. Trying to get all of my reading in before I go back to school in a week and a half.

I hope you all had a wonderful New Year complete with dirty dancing (if that's your style). Here's to 2014!

2013 in Review

As I'm sure I stated last year New Year's isn't my favorite holiday. In fact, I dread it every year. Last year was the year I was crying in my sushi but I feel certain that part of me knew this would be the year I would lose my mamaw. I hope I can keep my shit together this year especially since we'll be celebrating with friends who maintain that New Years is their favorite. Perhaps I'll be more fun this year.

A Year in Review

In 2013:

We saw Mumford & Sons.

I became obsessed with Sons of Anarchy & New Girl

Welcomed the most precious baby girl into the world.

Became a Packer's fan (which after Sunday's game has worked out quite well!!)

Moved to Roanoke

Said goodbye to my grandmother

Drew started a new job

Got my second tattoo

Camped, hiked, gardened, and all of our usual yearly habits.


Here are some of my favorite picture memories from the year: