Books I read in 2015

So, 2015 wasn't my best year for reading, but it wasn't my worst either. My selections were all over the place and I tried to hit different genres. Station Eleven was by far my favorite book of the year and About Grace my least favorite.


1. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn - The book was ok. The movie adaptation looks terrible. I just wouldn't have cast Charlize Theron in that role.

2. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

3. Yes, please! by Amy Poehler - I listened to the audiobook and I love when celebs narrate their own books. The guest readers made it even more amazing.

4. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson - Entertainment Weekly touted this as one of the best books of 2014. I thought it was just ok.

5. In One Person by John Irving

6. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr - The "it" book of the year. I loved that the chapters were short so it felt like I read a lot more than I really had each sitting.

7. We are Water by Wally Lamb

8. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel - Set in Michigan (!) and dealing with life after a flu virus wiped out 98% of the world. I absolutely loved this book.

9. About Grace by Anthony Doerr - The was nothing like All the Light We Cannot See and it dragged.

10. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins - Quick, entertaining read. Emily Blunt is starring in the movie adaptation.

11. Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling - I find her super relatable and entertaining.

12. Black Chalk by Christopher Yates

13. Pines by Blake Crouch - This is the first in a trilogy. The TV show Wayward Pines with Matt Dillon is based on the books.


Heading out on my honeymoon, I'm bringing fun, trashy books. Any suggestions for must-reads in 2016?

Books I Read In 2014

I'll be honest, this wasn't my best year for reading. Unless you count the six months I spent recording voiceovers for kids in Korea learning English. In that case, I read A LOT. I resolve to read a lot more this year, especially since I have literally stacks of books filling up my living room that I haven't gotten to yet. In the meantime, here is my paltry list of books I finished this year.

1. And the Mountains Echoed by Khalid Hosseini - This book was similar to "A Thousand Splendid Suns" in that it was a sweeping drama that covered several generations and locations. I like when books come full circle at the end and I like that this one didn't tie everything up in a nice bow, but left us with a sense of too little, too late.

2. Divergent by Veronica Roth - I read this because I knew the movie was coming out and was sorely disappointed. It follows the trend of a lot of YA books that are set in a dystopian future, but this one didn't grab me the way The Hunger Games series did. I actually just got around to seeing the movie last week and it was blah.

3. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami - I read this book as I was training for the Bayshore half marathon and it just made me realize that while I enjoy the calories you burn by running, I just don't have the passion for it like this guy does.

4. The Other Way Around by Sashi Kauffman - Full disclosure; this book was written by my good friend and former roommate. I am a fan of YA literature in general, but I usually am disgruntled by authors who try to write in a teenage voice. Sashi nailed it. And once I got over the fact that my friend was writing about the inner thoughts of a teenage boy, I really enjoyed it.

5. The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer - Entertainment Weekly talked this up as one of the best books of 2013, so I decided to give it a shot. It took awhile for me to get into, but it was interesting to think about how our lives actually turn out versus the teenage vision of us in the future.

6. One More Thing - Stories and Other Stories by B.J. Novak - This guy is an amazing writer and I read this book in just a couple of days.

7. The Ocean At The End Of The Lane by Neil Gaiman - This was a short, quick read, but it was really entertaining and I am still terrified of the babysitter that moves into the house.

8. Me Before You by JoJo Moyes - We read this for book club and although I thought it was a bit cheesy and predictable, it was really timely given the right-to-die debate that dominated the news this year.

9. We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas - Another sweeping drama that spans several generations. I've heard they're making it into a TV show, which I'm excited to see.

10. Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands by Chris Bohjalian - Let me start by saying this; I love Chris Bohjalian. I have read almost every one of his books and they are all so different and gripping. This one, however, fell short. Where Sashi Kauffman captured the voice of a teenage narrator, Bohjalian just didn't. I know that he has a teenage daughter and that he used her as inspiration, but the narration sounded forced and precocious. While it worked in "The Fault In Our Stars", it just didn't here. I had a hard time getting through this one.

11. The Book of Joe by Jonathon Tropper - I finished off the year on a high note with this one. I discovered Tropper last year when I read "This is Where I Leave You" and although the movie adaptation fell short, I fell in love with this author. The Book of Joe also deals with coming home again and repairing familial wrongs done in the past, but his language is just so vivid and creative that I find myself re-reading passages several times to admire his clever turns of phrase.


Books on my list for 2015:
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
We Are Water by Wally Lamb

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
Yes, Please! by Amy Poehler
Not That Kind Of Girl by Lena Dunham


What did you read this year? What is on your list for 2015? Happy reading!!

2013 Reading List

Here it is, folks. My reading list from this past year.

1. The Law of Similars by Chris Bohjalian
2. Blue Shoe by Anne Lamott
3. The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis
4. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Shephen Chbosky - Liked the movie a lot, but obviously liked the book better.
5. Tender to the Bone by Ruth Reichl
6. The Passage by Justin Cronin - The first in a trilogy of zombie books. The third isn't out yet. The first two books were so scary that I couldn't sleep for weeks.
7. The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes
8. The Twelve by Justin Cronin
9. Skinnydipping by Bethenny Frankel
10. Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan - Made me miss college.
11. Carry the One by Carol Anshaw - Read a lot of good things about this book, but I didn't really love it.
12. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - Have 4 hours to kill and some tears to get rid of? Loved this book and I can't wait for the movie.
13. The Gunslinger (Dark Tower, book 1) by Stephen King
14. The Girl She Used To Be by David Cristofano
15. World War Z by Max Brooks - The movie strayed from the book a LOT, but I learned a valuable lesson...during the zombie apocalypse, head north and pack warm clothes.
16. The Hottest State by Ethan Hawke - I went through a weird phase this year where I only read novels written by celebrities.
17. Someday, Someday Maybe by Lauren Graham
18. The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie
19. The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult - I had taken a break from her books the past couple years, but I really liked this one.
20. A Good American by Alex George - One of my favorites this year.
21. The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Steadman
22. Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
23. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
24. Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris - Thank God this series is over.
25. Inferno by Dan Brown
26. Beloved by Toni Morrison
27. Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky
28. The Piano Teacher by Janice Y. K. Lee
29. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn - Not as good as Gone Girl, but not as bad as people had said.
30. Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld
31. This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper - My favorite book of the year. His turns of phrase are brilliant and I would absolutely re-read this book. I have a stack of other books by him for 2014.
32. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Books I'm looking forward to in 2014: And the Mountains Echoes by Khalid Hosseini, The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer, Life After Life by Kate Atkinson and the Divergent trilogy.

Where have all the good shows gone?

You may or may not know this about me, but I enjoy television. I can't believe it is almost fall premier season once again. Unlike past summers where I pick a show or two from the early 2000s to catch up on, this summer I binge watched Scandal, Revenge, House of Cards and Orange Is The New Black. This is in addition to watching True Blood, The Newsroom, Under The Dome, Dexter and Breaking Bad.

Usually, at this point in the summer, I am anxiously awaiting the return of my favorite shows. This year is a little different. 30 Rock and The Office are over. Dexter and Breaking Bad are almost done for good. This is the first year that I haven't had a full Thursday night NBC lineup. Only Parks and Rec remains for my "comedy night done right". This is usually the time of year when I need to carefully read Entertainment Weekly's "Fall TV Preview" and pick out a bunch of new shows to try, but for some reason, I'm just not feeling it. The new Will Arnett show with Margo Martindale looks so cheesy and I just can't distinguish one spy drama from another. Last year I gave Revolution a shot and couldn't get through three episodes because I found the protagonist to be so annoying. Whose hair could possibly look like that without a hair dryer or curling iron?

My viewing schedule is looking a little light, and despite the fact that I will soon have two DVRs, I may not even need a second one! I'm sticking with my favorite shows; Homeland, The Good Wife, Parenthood and Parks and Rec, and am throwing in a few guilty pleasures like Scandal and Revenge. I could do without Elementary and The Mentalist, but I have big crushes on both Jonny Lee Miller and Simon Baker, so I'm really only in it for the eye candy.

Perhaps as the fall season gets underway, I will get inspired to check out new shows. I'm a big fan of Joss Wedon and will give his Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. a chance, but I just haven't had anything else yet grab my attention. I've posted my fall viewing schedule, but if anybody has suggestions for new (or existing) shows that I just have to check out, please let me know. In the meantime, I guess I'll have to find something else to do with all this free time. :)

What Are You Bingeing On?

I have a problem. I've had it for many years. Recently, I discovered that this problem not only has a name, but almost everyone else has gone through it at some point or another. My problem is called binge watching. Binge watching is the act of watching an entire season or series of a television show in a short amount of time, sometimes not stopping to shower or sleep.

My earliest memory of binge watching was in 2004. I had heard of 24, but had never seen any episodes. The new season was starting soon and I wanted to catch up. Back then, Netflix wasn't streaming yet, but you could get television shows on DVD. Over the course of 4 weeks (keep in mind each disc was only 4-6 episodes and I had to wait for the mail), I caught up on 2 seasons of the show. That's 48 episodes! I couldn't get enough. And when I couldn't wait for the DVDs to arrive via mail, I would head to the video store to see if I could get the episodes quicker. I remember being super embarrassed on a Saturday in July of '09 when I went to Videoport 3 times in one day to rent episodes of Rescue Me. I thought I could just wait for the DVDs to come in the mail. I couldn't. The clerk just smiled at me the third time I went in and said, "Gotta love Tommy Gavin."

A lot of the time, my binge watching has been to catch up on shows I had heard a lot about and were still airing new episodes, but I just hadn't gotten around to. I caught up during the off-seasons on Grey's Anatomy, Castle, Friday Night Lights, The Good Wife, How I Met Your Mother (7 seasons in the summer of 2012), Rescue Me and Downton Abbey. To be a true binge, you really have to watch several episodes in a row and it has to take the place of something else you should be doing (like going outside or working).

In other cases, I used my binges to take on shows that I had always wanted to see, but missed when they originally aired. This was the case with Battlestar Galactica, Veronica Mars, Alias, Arrested Development and, last month, Felicity.

But what happens when you can't maintain the binge? Maybe you start strong, but then a month has gone by, then two and eventually, you take that show off your instant queue. This happened to me with The Wire and The West Wing. And interestingly, I gave up on both halfway into the 3rd season. Is it binge overload? Would it have been better if I had watched those shows one week at a time when they originally aired? I think that's the sign of a true binge. When you can't get enough of a show. You stay up late, you call in sick to work, you order way too much take-out. You get super wrapped up in the characters and the show and when it's all over, you feel a little sad.

I'm looking for my next fix. Community and The Sopranos aren't streaming. Am I willing to wait for the DVDs? I hear great things about House of Cards. I know that I'll spend all day on May 26th binge watching the new season of Arrested Development. In the meantime, I guess I'll see what mood I'm in on the next rainy weekend.

What's your favorite binge show?



My 2012 Reading List

And here it is, my annual reading list. I'm including the audiobook I recorded, but not by name. It was a terrible book, but I would feel bad if the author ever saw this. Here goes:

1. The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht
2. Robopocalypse by Daniel Wilson
3. 11/22/63 by Stephen King: This books was great! Great historical lesson and entertaining read.
4. Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
5. Still Alice by Lisa Genova
6. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
7. The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
8. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
9. The Paris Wife by Paula Melaine - Another fun historical fiction read.
10. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
11. Alice I have Been by Melanie Benjamin
12. Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
13. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
14. Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins
15. Most Talkative by Andy Cohen - I listened to the audiobook. I highly recommend this read. Hilarious!
16. Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris
17. Mudwoman by Joyce Carol Oates
18. Crossed by Ally Condie
19. Wild by Cheryl Strayed - This made me want to go out and hike by myself for a month. Then I remembered I don't like camping.
20. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - Divisive ending, but I really loved it.
21. Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi
22. The Marriage Plot by Jeffery Eugenides
23. Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian
24. Defending Jacob by William Landay - Fun courtroom drama, great twist.
25. Maine by Courtney Sullivan
26. The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian
27. Home Front by Kristin Hannah
28. Audiobook I recorded - TERRIBLE!
29. Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell

Some of the books I'm looking forward to in 2013:

The Fault in Our Stars, Winter of the World, Carry the One and I want to finally finish the first book in the Fire and Ice series.

Fall TV In Review

We're officially about 2 weeks into the fall TV season and I'm ready to assess the shows I'm watching thus far. Warning: Spoiler alerts coming. If you aren't caught up, check back once you are!

Dexter: A- After an abysmal 6, Dexter is back with an amazing premise. FINALLY, Deb is in on it, and it couldn't be more uncomfortable. I was SURE that when Dexter called Deb for support that he was going to kill Louis and pretend he hadn't. But maybe Dexter really is going to change? According to TVLine.com, episode 3 has one of the best deaths we've seen in several seasons. So, maybe our protagonist isn't quite ready to put away the knives. Obviously, the Trinity season was the best there ever was or will be, but I like the way this season is going so far. The only hitch is his annoying son Harrison. Couldn't he go live with Rita's parents? I feel like trying to explain where he is each week is cumbersome.

The Mindy Project: B+ My most anticipated debut of the season, this show seems like it is written for me. Granted, Mindy's book made me feel like like she and I should (obviously) be best friends, but I am pleasantly surprised at the snappy writing and good character development of this show. I could do without her receptionists and the new nurse, but I have laughed out loud at several lines and I love the SNL alums who make cameos as potential love interests.

Nashville: A Ok, so we've only seen one episode, but man, does this show have potential. Connie Britton is fantastic, but I'm more surprised by how amazing Hayden Panettiere is. There is so much drama in this show and I am really excited about where this season is going. Plus, with T-Bone Burnett in charge of the music, there is actually something worth listening to.

Gossip Girl: No Comment. Yes, this show is a guilty pleasure and I have been watching it since day one. I only mention it because did anyone else hear Blair say in episode 1, "Serena isn't what I'd call 'Country Strong.'" an obvious reference to the movie Leighton Meester was in with Gwyneth Paltrow. A cute wink to those in the know.

Revolution: C- I always give at least a couple new shows a chance and this one didn't hold me past episode 2. I think J.J. Abrams found something special in Evangeline Lilly and Matthew Fox and any attempt to recreate that is a fool's errand. I felt this way about Alcatraz and despite claims that Revolution is the next big thing, I'm over it. The characters are too pretty and I just don't buy it.

Grey's Anatomy: A- I've stuck with this show for 9 years, and I am happy to say that it does not disappoint. There is nothing more effective than tragedy on a grand scale and to end last season with a plane crash and to begin this season with the death of a beloved character is the best thing they could have done. Although I've never been a fan of April, I'm interested to see what happens with her and Jackson and the Christina fugue state was interesting. And Meredith as the new Bailey? I love it!

30 Rock: B- This is the last season of my favorite show and I just want it to end with some of the greatness that we've seen throughout the years. I thought the first episode was a letdown. I couldn't care less about Kristen Schaal's Hazel, and for some reason, Kenneth only pops when he's a supporting player to Tracy or Jenna. The second episode was way better. I'm really hoping to see more of those great one-liners that made the show great initially. I did enjoy the word "slut" on Jenna's bachelorette t-shirt, which is an obvious reference to the episode where Cerie asks Liz and Jenna to be bridesmaids and Jenna says that the theme of the bachelorette party should be sluts.


Elementary: B- The only reason I don't love this show is because I JUST finished watching the British show Sherlock, which features an Asperger's (?) inflicted Sherlock Holmes played by Benedict Cumberbatch....I could not even make that name up. God knows I love me some Jonny Lee Miller (ever since the days of Hackers), but I'm not sure I prefer the recovering drug addict to the clever and funny! Sherlock of the BBC.

Parenthood: A If you had asked me a month ago how I felt about Ray Ramano, I would have punched you in the face and asked you never to speak his name around me again. Oh, how the tables have turned. Here were are, three episodes into the new season and I'm actually rooting for his character!!! I've never been a huge Monica Potter fan but with the development of Christina's breast cancer, I feel like I need to invest in Kleenex because I cry during the last two minutes of Every. Single. Episode. I agree with my parents that with so many storylines, it's hard to fit everything in and sometimes the episodes feel clogged, but who doesn't love Mae Whitman? And I think there is a potential love interest between her and FNL alum Matt Lauria (Luke Cafferty), which I am so psyched about.

Homeland: A I was a fan of this show before it won every single award possible at the Emmys. Damien Lewis is amazing, especially since he's British and you would never know it. But Claire Danes is really what pulls it together. I'm a little bummed that she's knocked up, only because it means the shots will get tighter and tighter as the season goes on and I feel like it will affect the character development a bit. The suspense each week is worth the price of admission.

Obviously, I watch many, many other shows, but these are the ones that I felt deserved attention. I am still waiting for the premieres of American Horror Story, Happy Endings and The Walking Dead, but I think I've got enough good TV to make it through the winter. Hit up the comments with your own assessments.