Books I Read In 2016

The list is a little light this year since I spent a lot of time reading baby books, but here we go. I hope to get back to reading at some point in 2017.

1. The Andy Cohen Diaries by Andy Cohen - A fun read on my honeymoon
2. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
3. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline - LOVED this book and can't wait for the movie!!
4. After You by JoJo Moyes - The sequel to Me Before You. Meh.
5. Bird Box by Josh Malerman - If you want to be scared to open your eyes.
6. Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
7. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
8. Wayward by Blake Crouch
9. Here's the Plan by Allyson Downey - I read this book because it was of interest to me, but also because I narrated the audiobook for Audible!
10. Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple - Fun book to kill time during the last months of my pregnancy
11. And Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris

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.