Books of 2016

To have continuity of my reading lists - here is 2016.    I finally found time to read more again!   

JANUARY:
The Hiding Place (273)
Pretty Girls (421)
We Never Asked For Wings (310)
January Total: 1,004 
Book Count:  3

FEBRUARY:
Life As I Blow It (258)
The Young Elites (368)
Big Little Lies (512)
Has Anyone Seen My Pants? (289)
The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend (402)
Lost in the Sun (304)
Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World (277)
Surprised by Joy (253)
Finding Audrey (306)
The Fault in Our Stars (332)
February Total: 3,301
Book Count: 10

MARCH:
American Housewife: Stories (210)
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (352)
C. S. Lewis - A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet (449)
Food: A Love Story (354)
Legend (318)
Home Front (397)
The Interestings (482)
Where They Found Her (341)
Before I Go To Sleep (515)
A History of the World in 6 Glasses (311)
Recovering Redemption (211)
The Chamber (676)
Everything I Never Told You (298)
March Total: 4,914
Book Count: 13

APRIL:
Hollow City: The 2nd Novel of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children (400)
Orange Is the New Black (322)
The Girl's Still Got It (240)
When Breath Becomes Air (258)
April Total: 1,220
Book Count: 4

MAY:
Future Crimes (610)
The Forgetting Time (368)
Find Her (414)
Prodigy (386)
May Total: 1,778
Book Count: 4

JUNE:
Euphoria (273)
Looking for Lovely (149)
Library of Souls: The 3rd Novel of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children (465)
Multiply: Disciples Making Disciples (338)
Wedding Night (465)
I've Got Your Number (449)
June Total: 2,139
Book Count:6

JULY:
Counting by 7s (386)
Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World (335)
Live Fast Die Hot (273)
The Devil Wears Prada (448)
A Million Little Ways (226)
July Total: 1,668
Book Count: 5

AUGUST: 
The Opposite of Everyone (310)
Somebody I Used to Know (434)
August Total:  744
Book Count: 2

SEPTEMBER:
Crazy Love (226)
The Life We Bury (306)
What She Left Behind (337)
Twenties Girl (514)
Tell Me Three Things (336)
September Total:  1,719
Book Count: 5

OCTOBER:
The 100 Year Miracle (320)
Grey's Anatomy TV Series (Season 1-12) 
October Total:  320
Book Count:  1 
Grey's Episodes:  265

NOVEMBER:
Wonder (322)

Page Total: 19,029
Book Total: 55

Best of 2016

Best of 2016

Best Event:  Girls trip to Austin

Best Movie:  Gilmore Girls:  A Year in the Life  (yah yah not a movie, still the best!) 

Best Over-Played Song:  Cheap Thrills was the song that never seemed to stop playing on the radio.

Best Book:  Wonder

Best New-ity of 2016: M starting Kindergarten!!  Two kids in full time school! 

Most Shocking News of 2016:  Election Chaos

Events of 2016 in no particular order:
1. Gymnastics
2.  Ace excelling at reading challenges
3.  Happy Lungs!
4.  Vegas!
5.   Fun with the Sharks!
6.  Winning my Fantasy Football League
7.  Great Wolf Lodge with the fam
8.  Military
9.   12 year anniversary in Seattle with LH
10. Epic Mad Hatter Tea Party for M

10 Years

Very few days do I remember every moment so clearly.    Very few moments that I do are sad ones.   Today 10 years gone by is remembered and it is sad.   The day my dad passed.  Ten years gone already.     It seems so fast, but its not.   So much life has been lived since then.     He has 4 grandchildren he will never meet.    There have been so many milestones and moments I wish he was present for.    I carry him in my heart daily and every moment my son smiles I see my dad in him.  He has his eyes.      I am thankful for the years we had, but I won't lie that I wish we still had 10+ more ahead of us.    


You are missed.  Every. Day.

Best of 2015

Best of 2015

Best Event:  Back to the Future Party

Best Movie: Inside Out (I know I know I will have Star Wars fans out to get me, but truly this cartoon made me cry twice and such great layers to it!) 

Best Over-Played Song: Fight Song

Best Book: The Martian

Best New-ity of 2015:  Gymnastics - Both kids joined in 2015 and after the first session M went on to join a team to learn more skills

Most Shocking News of 2015:  Mom's surgery

MW's Words of the Year:  -ism
Jo's Word of the Year:

Events of 2015 in no particular order:
1. Gymnastics
2. CA Visiting x2!
3. Checking out of Children's
4.  Vegas!
5. Seahawks lose the Superbowl >_<
6.  Disneyland!
7.  First NFL Game!
8.  Epic Limo Birthday Night
9.  Walking my first 10k
10.  Seeing Star Wars on Christmas

Books of 2015

Completed in 2015:
The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness
Love Walked In
Secret Daughter
Outlander
The Nightengale
The Language of Flowers

The Girl on the Train

Love & Respect
The Social Animal

Unbroken

Me Before You

For The Love
After You
The Martian

I read a lot the first quarter of 2015 and then I watched a gazillion hours of tv.  :)    What I did read in 2015 was great - but my hope is to surpass this book count in 2016.  

Back to the Future Party

I love these movies!   Seriously spend a LOT of time watching them and for years I've known I wanted to host a BTTF Party on THE night that they go back to the future.   October 21, 2015.    Well thanks to the director's great foresight that this would be a 'thing'  - that day was a Wednesday!  Gah!   But we have great friends and that didn't stop us!  Much party and prop prep - including outsourcing the Flux Capacitor to my friend who REALLY should go into set design and prop making we had a 'real' working flux capacitor (well sort of, no time travel was attempted... probably because we were lacking the delorian.)

Yes we were equipped with the Cafe 80s which included the large TV screen of lots of 80s-riffic tv options,  re-hydrated Pizza Hut pizza (yes that center pizza is the original version)  and because well all the movies were so great - we just had a medley of all the fun.    Loving Husband even came as Bufford Tannen from the 1800s.  

We set up a photo booth at the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance which ended up being some comical entertainment.    

The Jennifers!

One cannot have a party with some outdoor specific elements to the party!    Such as the clock tower! ... and sleeping Jennifers at the party!  Because well she was asleep for MOST of the movie on some porch somewhere.

Needless to say 2015 may be devoid of functioning hoverboards,  flying cars, and rehydrators for our pizza - but it still is a pretty cool time and well the clothing really isn't too far out there.

Books of 2014

Completed in 2014:
Clutterfree with Kids
Sycamore Row
The Reason I Jump
7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess
How to Be Like Walt
North of Hope
Dad is Fat
Coming Back Stronger
Delancey
Monster
Best Christmas Pageant Ever

I should just realize that even with two book clubs and unending desire to read and soak up knowledge and stories of others - that my time as a wife, SAHM, part-time worker, business owner,  and friend ... and let's be honest excessive tv-watcher that I am just not going to get a lot read.  Oh well.    What I did get completed in 2014 - most of it was great!  

2014 was clearly the year of memoirs and biographies, which was interesting to take a look into people's journeys through life.   I really enjoyed North of Hope and one person's journey through grief.    My favorite book of 2014 (which I began 2013... 2012?) was How to Be Like Walt.   As a Disney fanatic, I loved the opportunity to get a fuller picture of Walt Disney's rise, creative process, and family life.    From the additional research that I read - this particular biography was amid the best.   I'd recommend it.     There were many other books in 2014 that were begun, some of which will be completed in 2015, others that will find their spot on the shelf or already have returned to the library.     

Here's to a new year of exploring literature!