Favorite Books In 2011

Christmas Morning!

Christmas has passed, and mine was spectacular. I hope yours was too! And now, with 2011 creeping to a close, it's time for the traditional reading wrap-up! My tally at this point is somewhere in the low 60s, but since I'm spending the rest of 2011 on vacation, I'll probably add a couple more books to the list (I'm almost done with Jennifer Weiner's Then Came You, a rare grown-up read that I'm totally digging ... JW knows characters). You'll notice everything on my list is contemporary, because even though I'll make the brief foray into paranormal, contemp is my one true love.

Mostly Good Girls/Past Perfect by Leila Sales
This was a great year for me discovering new authors for The List. For those unfamiliar, The List is the collection of authors who I'll read anything that they write ever. John Green, Sarah Dessen, Courtney Summers ... and now Leila Sales. Her books are the embodiment of a fresh, fun voice, and I can't wait to see what comes next

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
I lusted after this book from the second I finished Anna and the French Kiss. It's one of the first books I've ever pre-ordered, and I ran home through a monsoon without an umbrella just to make sure I could get the Amazon box off my front stoop. Stephanie Perkins wrote one of the most swoon-worthy contemp YA boys I've ever read. Oh Cricket Bell ... sigh

If I Stay/Where She Went by Gayle Forman
It takes a lot to make me cry while reading. In fact, I think it's only ever happened to me 2 or 3 times in my whole life. So imagine my surprise when I'm sitting in my neighborhood burger joint, sobbing like a baby. I had to get my fries to go and bolt home before I thoroughly embarrassed myself! And if Cricket Bell is one of the most swoon-worthy boys I've ever read, I think Adam is THE most swoon-worthy YA guy I've ever read EVER. TEAM ADAM!

Fixing Delilah by Sarah Ockler
Sarah Ockler is another other author who joined The List this year. I picked up Fixing Delilah, then promptly moved on to Twenty Boy Summer. Ockler definitely sits on the shelf beside Sarah Dessen, writing really heartfelt contemporary. I already preordered Bittersweet!

Ten Things We Did by Sarah Mlynowski
I was on a trip and out of books to read, so I ran to the nearby Target and picked this one up. I thought I was getting just another fun, funny contemp, but what I found was one of the single most realistic depiction of teenage sexuality and the teenage sexual experience ... with hilarity and heart! Which is definitely why her tweet about reading my book seriously made my heart explode! This is one I'll definitely keep and reread (and probably study for my own writerly ambitions!).

Jingle Dog says "Merry Christmas! Now get these damn bells off me!"

In which I turned 29, but sort of missed it

I went a whole week without blogging. Eek! But life in my world has been pretty insane-o lately. First, Thanksgiving travel, which was fun and delightful. Then back to work, where I discovered I had a wicked bad inner ear and throat infection. Two hideous sick days and several prescriptions later, and I was feeling marginally better, just in time for my 29th birthday.

Yep, that's right, I'm now in my very last year of my 20s (sob!). To be honest, I'm not one who gets all in a twist about getting older. It just feels weird to be almost 30 ... that doesn't seem right to me. But ultimately what matters is how you feel inside, and I feel about 23. So take that, 29!

Since I was still a little sick, we skipped doing any kind of fancy dinner for my birthday and instead just ordered Thai takeout and went to pick out our Christmas tree. The holiday season has begun in my house!

Oh, and there was cake, of course! Triple chocolate mousse separated by layers of flourless chocolate cake, from my very favorite bakery, Flour.

Very funny, my dear!

If you want to give me a gift for my birthday (because duh, why wouldn't you?), head on over to Goodreads and add Meant to Be to your to-read list. And guess what? I've seen cover comps, and they're AWESOME! Soon that little brown box will have a real live cover in it.

Speaking of book news, my editor approved the outline for book 2, and I'll be starting that right around Christmas (when I have a glorious 10 paid days off for the winter break ... thanks Harvard!). I'll share some info on it as soon as I get the a-ok (publishing is so full of secrets!), but it's another book set during travel, and this one is told from two perspectives! I'm really REALLY excited to get started on.

Happy Holidaze

I'm in a post-Thanksgiving coma! 20 hours in the car round trip is EXHAUSTING, and I'm glad to be spending my Sunday vegging at home, reading Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling, and smelling homemade enchiladas cooking. I even made my own margarita mix (simple syrup with lime/lemon/orange zest, the juice of many limes, 2 oranges, and 1 lemons, plus tequila).

I'm also starting to get the house ready for holiday decorations. We're getting a REAL. LIVE. TREE. this year, and I'm psyched to cover it with ornaments and have the scent of evergreen fill my house. This will only be the second time we've had our own tree. It usually seems like a big production to put it up and take it down, when we're gone for the whole week around Christmas. But this year we're doing Christmas in Boston!

Decorating back in 2009

Our very first Christmas tree, Bloomington, IN

And yes, the Christmas music is on full rotation. Currently enjoying "Christmas Wrapping" by the Waitresses and "Christmas in Hollis" by RUN-DMC

Before I go, a huge thanks to Danya at A Tapestry of Words, who included Meant to Be in her Signed, Sealed, Delivered post on Thursday. So awesome to hear that people are looking forward to it! We're now officially less than a year from publication .. holy crap! SO. EXCITING!

Lights, please? It's time to get psyched for the holidays!

Tomorrow I embark on a road trip from Boston to Ohio with Boy and dog in tow. I've got my laptop with AC adaptor charger, my notebook with many pens, and 9 library books to make the trip totally awesome. I never dread a long drive. We'll make it as far as we can tomorrow, stop for the night, then drive the rest of the way Thursday morning.

I'm not a big Thanksgiving fan. I love food and eating, but I have a relatively small appetite, so the dinner portion of the experience goes pretty fast for me. And believe it or not, I don't really like leftovers (I know... if you ever see me take leftovers home from a restaurant, it's because I'm too polite to have the waiter throw away my food. Instead I take it home in a box, leave it in my fridge for a day, THEN throw it away ... I suck).

For me, Thanksgiving has always been a day where the entire family hangs out in the family room, the parade followed by football is on tv, we eat, we snooze, we might eat again, we might play a board game, but mostly we just hang out. And that's awesome, but for me, Thanksgiving is just really the starter's pistol that sets me off and running towards the best holiday of all...

I love Christmas! December is so full of excitement for me, kicking off with my birthday on December 2. I set the tradition long ago that my birthday is the day I deck my house out for the holidays.

First, there's Christmas music, which I'll start listening to on the way home from Thanksgiving, whether the Boy and the dog like it or not! Confession: I love love LOVE Christina Aguilera's version of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas! (warning, she gets a little off in this live version ... the album version gives me serious chills, though)

And of course, Mariah goes on heavy rotation:

I also love Christmas oldies, including "What Christmas Means to Me" and "Someday at Christmas" by Stevie Wonder. I'd share my Christmas playlist with you, but there's 167 songs on it... yes, I have a problem. No, I don't care to solve it.

But it doesn't just stop at Christmas music ... there's the Christmas movies, too!

I have an unending debate with my friend Patrick over whether or not Love Actually is a Christmas movie. I say absolutely yes (and so does Wikipedia!). He vehemently disagrees. Where do you guys fall on that one?

I also love watching Christmas Vacation ... enjoy this scene! (Not at work though ... NSFW due to language.)

I actually saw Elf in the theater, totally against my wishes, thinking it was just another stupid Will Ferrell kiddie movie. Oh how wrong I was. I love Elf! How could you not?

But the best of all....

A Charlie Brown Christmas. I love Linus, and during this scene my heart feels like it's going to burst from its chest and I get a lil tear in my eye. It's not Christmas until I've watched this very scene about ten bajillion times.

I'm also a big fan of All I Want for Christmas (an often-forgotten early 90s piece of awesome cinema), A Christmas Story, The Family Stone, The Holiday, It's A Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, Scrooged, The Muppet Christmas Carol (well, really ANY version of A Christmas Carol, except for the one with Jim Carrey ... no thank you), Rudolph and the stop-motion/claymation classics, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (ok, so not totally in the Christmas spirit, but I love it anyway).

Holy crap, just putting all this together is getting me so psyched up for the Christmas season.

BTW, one way I definitely WON'T be getting in the Christmas spirit? Black Friday. I've never participated, and I don't intend to. Ever. I will be trying to do the whole shop local thing for the holidays this year. I'll definitely be checking out my favorite local book shops to try and fill all my gift-giving needs!

So, what about you? Christmas music? Christmas movies? Baking Christmas cookies? How do you get in the holiday spirit?