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Of course I’ve been thinking about new year’s resolutions. It’s that time, after all, however cliche it might be. I like beginnings, and I like choice. We have this whole new thing that we get to choose how to begin, how to fill . . . well, not to be too Hallmark card-y, but how to live.
A lot of the resolutions that have been bouncing around in my head are personal and uninteresting to anyone who isn’t me. And some are resolutions that I realize I make every year. Not necessarily because I fail to keep them in the previous year, but because I like to remind myself to keep going with them. Nothing’s ever really finished. One of those is not to shy away from making eye contact with people I walk by. (Unless they’re obviously crazy people, clearly.) The other is to continue to work on balancing my friends, my work, my family, and my alone time in a way that makes me feel that I’m doing my best by everyone.
But this year I’m also resolving to make time for some of the books that I own and really, really, really want to read, but haven’t yet. So here’s the list. I wonder how I’ll do!
-The Children’s Book by A. S. Byatt
-Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
-Marcelo and the Real World by Francisco X. Stork
-Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier (I promise, Angie, this is the year!)
-Bonk by Mary Roach
-Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (if I wait much longer, I think the shelf life of this one might expire)
-The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
-Jacob Have I Love by Katherine Paterson
-Ulysses by James Joyce (I read this one nearly 10 years ago in college, and am curious to see how a second time might go.)
Books read (for pleasure, not work!) in 2009:
1. The Woman Who Rides like a Man by Tamora Pierce
2. Lioness Rampant by Tamora Pierce
3. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
4. Asta in the Wings by Jan Elizabeth Watson
5. What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell
6. Paper Towns by John Green
7. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
8. Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
9. Fire by Kristin Cashore
10. Hate List by Jennifer Brown
11. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
12. Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner
13. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
14. The Truth about Forever by Sarah Dessen
15. The Maze Runner by James Dashner
16. The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening by L. J. Smith
17. Winter Dreams, Christmas Love by Mary Francis Shura
And that’s it. Which is less than half of what I read last year. Five were re-reads, so twelve were new to me. And only one grown-up book! You might ask why the number went down so drastically. Well, my submissions went up pretty drastically this year. Those numbers?
I counted 427 manuscripts in my submissions log for this year. (Of those, 196 were agented, and most of the rest were from writers who attended conferences at which I spoke.) Thank the technology gods for my Sony Reader!
I’ve made a lot of great music discoveries this year, either through friends, or concerts, or emusic recommendations (which are almost always spot-on). One of the best shows I went to was Jason Webley’s back pretty early in the year. I wasn’t familiar with Jason Webley at all before the show, but the amazing and lovely Colleen AF Venable was, and wanted to go. I’m so glad I did! Not only was Jason Webley absolutely fantastic, but he and Sxip Shirey also recorded a video for their song “Days with You” there. I watched from the audience, but anyone who was wearing party-ish clothes (including Colleen and another friend) went up on stage to be in the video. Maybe you’ll spot her in the crowd scenes.
And since I only once every few years get my act together to collect addresses and send Christmas cards, instead this year, I made a mix cd for my friends. It’s songs by bands I discovered this year. Not all of them are new songs, or new bands, but they were new to me in 2009. Or, in the case of the last song, one that I didn’t realized I actually liked until 2009, though I’d heard it long before. Here’s the list for you to enjoy!
1. Wake Up / Arcade Fire
2. Keep Yourself Warm / Frightened Rabbit
3. Contender / Pains of Being Pure at Heart
4. Speed of Sound / Chris Bell
5. You Are Free / Mates of State
6. Dominoes / The Big Pink
7. It’s Too Easy / Dave Rawlings Machine
8. New York City Heat / Dead Heart Bloom
9. Be OK / Ingrid Michaelson
10. Hellhole Ratrace / Girls
11. Icarus / Jason Webley
12. Island Garden Song / Mountain Goats
13. Upon Viewing Brueghel’s “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” / Titus Andronicus
14. Poker Face / Lady Gaga
15. Enjoy the Silence / Depeche Mode
Angie posted this meme earlier this week, and how could I resist? Compile a list of your top 10 favorite TV couples to share. These are in no particular order.
1. Josh & Donna, The West Wing
2. CJ & Danny, The West Wing
3. Bartlet & Abby, The West Wing
What West Wing fan didn’t feel all warm and fuzzy when Josh and Donna finally became a couple? I love watching the banter, the way they know each other so well, and the way neither lets the other get away with any crap. They can make each other laugh, and they are always there when needed. Josh is brilliant but arrogant, and a good friend; Donna is gullible yet savvy, smart, and can see right through him. A good tv couple, in my opinion, has loads of tension and what-if build-up. And two characters who challenge and complement each other.
And that’s why two more of my favorite couples also come from West Wing. CJ and Danny circle each other more obviously, maybe, than Josh and Donna, but the connection is still complex. And they are still two smart and funny people who get each other.
Then there’s the President and First Lady. Some of the best scenes in the show are when they’re fed up and yelling at each other, because it shows a strong relationship many years in, and with many problems and strains. They push each others buttons, but they, too, know that underneath everything is support and strength.
4. Veronica and Logan, Veronica Mars
This clip says it all, doesn’t it? Epic, volatile, dangerous, yet also vulnerable and sweet.
5. Rory & Jess, Gilmore Girls
Jess might be my favorite tv bad boy. He’s always been my favorite of Rory’s boys. He’s smart and is a reader, so can meet her on an intellectual level, but he challenges her goody-goody nature. And he just always kept coming back. In my mind, at the end of Gilmore Girls, Rory went off with Obama’s campaign, saw Jess during a stop in Philly, and they live happily ever after.
6. Ally McBeal & Larry, Ally McBeal
The favorite TV couple from the college years. Robert Downey, Jr. playing Larry completely won the hearts of me and my roommate. He and Ally are just so adorably crazy, in such compatible ways.
7. Scarecrow & Mrs. King, Scarecrow & Mrs. King
How can you not love an ’80s spy couple?
8. Roger & Joan, Mad Men
They’re funny, they’re challenging to each other, and they always know where the other stands. And who doesn’t love Joan?
Bromances. Sometimes the best couples are friendships rather than romances.
9. Seth & Ryan, The O. C.
I never really watched much of The O. C. because I couldn’t stand the girls. But every once and a while I’d turn it on and would be totally charmed by the friendship between Seth and Ryan. They’re hilarious, and such terrific friends.
10. Stefan & Damon, The Vampire Diaries
They so often make me laugh! I think their banter may be one of the main reasons I have gotten so into this show.
Two days ago, I opened up the little black moleskine I keep in my purse to make a note, and realized I had only one page left. I bought this moleskine just before I left for my junior year abroad . . . almost exactly ten years ago. And it’s one of the things, along with my wallet, keys, and a pen, that I always make sure I have with me before leaving the house.
Reaching the end made me stop to think about everything that has happened in life since I first cracked it open: the year studying in England, my first broken heart, graduating from college, moving to NYC to start my career, family dramas, world dramas, friends made and lost, apartment hunting and moving, books read, re-read, loved, recommended, or abandoned, discoveries of all kinds, friends and family members’ weddings & babies. Basically, the period of life in which I grew up. It’s neat to compare what’s written here with the journals I’ve kept during the last ten years, too. There’s a lot of telling in the journals, but the random snippets from the moleskine are just as revealing and memory-triggering. It’s full of notes from talks I’ve gone to, brainstorming for talks I’ve given, lines from articles or books I like, funny things friends have said, t-shirt ideas, lines of poetry (most of which never became anything more than that), illustrators I like, authors I want to read, shopping lists, and other random thoughts and observations.
Here are just a few:
words I like: chthonic, tiptoe, lamppost, unfurled
the curl of pianist’s back
open by chance or appointment
Umberto Eco: “‘who dunnit?’ is a theological question”
things i don’t have keys to
Ira Glass: “notice the people who won’t go away”
grocery list: milk, butter, eggs, whipping cream, raspberries, dark chocolate
shopping list: shelves, hammock stand, pillows
Friend: “I don’t like worms, but leeches concern me.”
At final Harry Potter book street party at Scholastic:
Woman 1: “So what’s going on here besides the book releasing?”
Woman 2: “Oh, the book releasing. That explains the capes.”
How do you share ebooks? If one sibling finishes book and starts another, how do you pass the finished one to other kid?
It seems that making mixes is summery thing for me. Here’s this year’s. Some new bands I’ve been listening to over the past few months, but also some favorite gems, which I feel are important in any mix.
1. “Be OK” / Ingrid Michaelson
2. “Wake Up” / Arcade Fire
I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since the Where the Wild Things Are trailer!
3. “Since U Been Gone” / Ted Leo’s cover
4. “Keep Yourself Warm” / Frightened Rabbit
5. “The Ancient Commonsense of Things” / Bishop Allen
6. “Icarus” / Jason Webley
Jason Webley’s show earlier this year was one of the best concerts I’ve been to in years.
7. “Island Garden Song” / The Mountain Goats
8. “Ceremony” / New Order
9. “Billie Jean” / Michael Jackson
I just can’t get it out of my head!!!!
10. “Jai Ho” / A. R. Rahman
11. “Wish It Well” / Dead Heart Bloom
12. “Look at Miss Ohio” / Gillian Welch
13. “The Crane Wife 3″ / The Decembrists
14. “King of Carrot Flowers Part 1″ / Neutral Milk Hotel
15. “King of Carrot Flowers Part 2″ / Neutral Milk Hotel
16. “Poses” / Rufus Wainwright
17. “Old Old Fashioned” / Frightened Rabbit
18. “Black Star” / Gillian Welch’s cover
19. “Days with You” / Jason Webley with Sxip Shirey
20. “15 Step” / Radiohead
21. “Martha” / Tom Waits
What? It’s a good song!
My absolute favorite place in anything I’ve ever read is the Murry’s kitchen in A Wrinkle in Time. There is something so warm and inviting about that kitchen. From the very first time we go there, with Meg, to have hot cocoa with Charles Wallace and her mother. The way the family gathers there, the way they–and we–all know that Mrs. Murry always has dinner cooking on a bunsen burner in her lab next door, the way that adventure also begins there. For we first meet Mrs. Whatsit in that kitchen, too. It’s a comforting oasis in the middle of a dark and stormy night.
There are a lot of other places I love in literature, too. Thinking about all of them, I’ve realized that they generally have two things in common. Either they are the places where the characters gather with their friends and loved ones, or they are the places where they go to be free and entirely themselves. As a kid, I definitely had a soft spot for any story in which the character had a place of his or her own–a place no one else knew about and was completely his or hers. It seemed so . . . luxurious, and even a little illicit.
My list of favorite places:
* The Murry’s kitchen, from Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time
* Mary’s secret garden, from, well, Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden
* Mandy’s cottage, from Julie Andrews Edwards’s Mandy
* Miss Honey’s cottage, from Roald Dahl’s Matilda
* the room with the wardrobe and Mr. Tumnus’s house, from C. S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
* the Garland’s house in Bloomsbury, from Philip Pullman’s The Ruby in the Smoke and The Shadow in the North (which made the end of the latter heartbreaking for so many reasons!)
* Gryffindor common room, from J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books
* the Dancing Dove, from Tamora Pierce’s Alanna books
* Terabitha, from Katherine Paterson’s A Bridge to Terabithia
* the truck in Lynne Rae Perkins’s Criss Cross
* Beauty’s room, from Robin McKinley’s Beauty
What are yours?
I am a sucker for a good romantic story. Good, believable, subtle, difficult, imperfect, sincere, understated romance. Sometimes this is the main plot of a story, but most often, it’s the secondary one. At any rate, in honor of V-Day, here are my favorite love stories.
For the grown-ups:
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Sexing the Cherry by Jeannette Winterson
Written on the Body by Jeannette Winterson
Possession by A. S. Byatt
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Much Ado about Nothing by Shakespeare
For the teens:
Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist by David Levithan
Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
Graceling by Kristen Cashore
Beauty by Robin McKinley
Sunshine by Robin McKinley
The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
The Truth about Forever by Sarah Dessen
Enna Burning by Shannon Hale
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Song of the Lioness quartet by Tamora Pierce
Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins
I keep a list of all the books I read–for pleasure, not for work–each year.
1. King Dork • Frank Portman
2. Good Masters, Sweet Ladies • Laura Amy Schlitz
3. Long May She Reign • Ellen Emerson White
4. The Plain Janes • Cecil Castelucci & Jim Rugg
5. The Secret Language • Ursula Nordstrom
6. The New Policeman • Kate Thompson
7. The Time Traveler’s Wife • Audrey Niffenegger
8. The White Darkness • Gerald McCaughrean
9. The Dollhouse Murders • Betty Ren Wright
10. My Louisiana Sky • Kimberly Willis Holt
11. The Red Queen’s Daughter • Jacqueline Kolosov
12. Spook • Mary Roach
13. The House of the Scorpion • Nancy Farmer
14. Wait Till Helen Comes • Mary Downing Hahn
15. Before I Die • Jenny Downham
16. River Secrets • Shannon Hale
17. Waiting for Normal • Leslie Connor
18. Little Brother • Cory Doctorow
19. The Underneath • Kathi Appelt
20. The Hunger Games • Suzanne Collins
21. Sun & Spoon • Kevin Henkes
22. Eclipse • Stephenie Meyer
23. Breaking Dawn • Stephenie Meyer
24. Just Listen • Sarah Dessen
25. The Thief • Megan Whalen Turner
26. Queen of Attolia • Megan Whalen Turner
27. King of Attolia • Megan Whalen Turner
28. The Lucky Ones • Stephanie Greene
29. The President’s Daughter • Ellen Emerson White
30. The Year We Disappeared • Cylin Busby & John Busby
31. City of Bones • Cassandra Clare
32. Harriet the Spy • Louise Fitzghugh
33. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks • E. Lockhart
34. Forest of Hands and Teeth • Carrie Ryan
35. Graceling • Kristin Cashore
36. Alanna • Tamora Pierce
37. In the Hand of the Goddess • Tamora Pierce
38. Winter Dreams, Christmas Love • Mary Francis Shura
39. The Monsters of Templeton • Lauren Groff
We bookish girls have lots of literary crushes. Here are mine . . .
George Cooper from The Song of the Lioness quartet by Tamora Pierce
Eugenides from The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, and The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner (hmm…I seem to have a thing for thieves)
Frederick Garland from the Sally Lockhart trilogy by Philip Pullman
Henry DeTamble from The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Captain Wentworth from Persuasion by Jane Austen
Remus Lupin from the Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling
Wes from The Truth about Forever by Sarah Dessen
Mel from Sunshine by Robin McKinley
And, okay, I admit it, I’ve got a few from the TV, too . . .
Josh Lyman from The West Wing
Jess from The Gilmore Girls
George from Grey’s Anatomy
I know you have your fictional crushes too…want to share them in the comments?
