Pour One Out For My Homies

I Don't Eat Enough Breakfast

Which some people might find odd considering I eat breakfast every day.  But I'm pretty sure that breakfast foods are some of my favorite foods that I just don't get enough of.  For example, let me present to you the following image of breakfast:



It's Pastrami Benedict!!  It looks aaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaazzzzziiiiiinnnnnnnnngggggggg and yet, I've never eaten it??  Recipe found HERE btw.

This? I haven't had THIS before? Why?



You better believe I pinned this recipe...

All I know is that there will be some pancakes in my future....and probably some nice runny yolk eggs...

Maybe this is all coming up because it's 2 and I haven't gotten to eat lunch yet...

Books of 2013

I set a goal of reading 60 books in 2013 and I didn't quite make it.  For the 2nd year in a row, I hit 57..whomp whomp...so close, yet so far away....I blame 2 giant books that I spent a long time reading only to give up on halfway through (I'm looking at you "The Twelve" by Justin Cronin and "Inferno" by Dan Brown)...Overall, I feel better about my reading list this year than I have in the past but I still think there is room for improvement.  I'm hoping to be sent better books to review this year but I'm already off on a better foot this year simply because I requested to no longer be on the historical Asian fiction train....thank god...

So here is my list! In chronological order:

Think Twice by Lisa Scottoline

Faith by Jennifer Haigh

Kill You Twice by Chelsea Cain

Tiger Tiger by Margaux Fragoso

Motherland by Amy Sohn

Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

A Woman of Angkor by John Burgess

Head in Beds by Jacob Tomsky

Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

Nightwoods by Charles Frazier

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

Drinking and Tweeting by Brandi Glanville

Wonder by RJ Palacio

Poor Little Bitch Girl by Jackie Collins

Don’t Go by Lisa Scottoline

A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash

The Pillow Book of the Flower Samurai by Barbara Lazar

Post Mortem by Patricia Cornwell

Club Dead by Charlaine Harris

The Outcasts by Kathleen Kent

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Me Before You by JoJo Moyes

Six Years by Harlan Coben

Touch and Go by Lisa Gardner

Fly Away by Kristin Hannah

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg

Let Me Go by Chelsea Cain

The Tao of Martha by Jen Lancaster

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

Marbles by Ellen Forney

Meet Me at Emotional Baggage Claim by Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan

Always Watching by Chevy Stevens

Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead

Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen

The Lost Girls of Rome by Donato Carrisi

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

Time Flies by Claire Cook

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

Brooklyn Zoo by Darcy Lockman

Birdman by Mo Hayder

We Are Water by Wally Lamb

Goodnight Mind by Colleen Carney

Wonderkid by Wesley Stace

Here I Go Again by Jen Lancaster

E is for Evidence by Sue Grafton

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

The Silent Wife by A.S.A. Harrison

Here's the tally for how everything broke down:
Fiction: 47
NonFiction: 10
Audio: 3
Library Journal: 6
YA/Teen: 5
Library Book Discussion: 4 (although that seems really low so I'm wondering if I missed one that I read in previous years)

Top 5 Most Enjoyed Books: (in no particular order)
1) Light Between Oceans
2) A Land More Kind Than Home
3) Beautiful Ruins
4) Crazy Rich Asians
5) The Silent Wife
*Mockingjay is pretty much tied with The Silent Wife as I'll be damned if I didn't shed a tear or two on that series ending...
Also, I'm not saying they were the best books ever written, but they are the ones I find myself passing on to people over and over..

Top 5 Least Enjoyed Books: (in no particular order)
1) Woman of Angkor (SNORE)
2) Fault in Our Stars (this might be the first book for me where I think the movie might be better)
3) The Husband's Secret (Why does ANYONE like this book?? It's terrible!)
4) Brooklyn Zoo (Someone should have suggested that the author needs to decide if this is a textbook, a memoir, or just a whining diary)
5) Goodnight Mind (oh hey, if you're in bed and you're not tired, get out of bed. If you're not tired and you're not in bed, don't get in bed.  There. I've summed the book up for you.  Hope that was helpful.)

I've set my goal for 2014 at 60 books again.  I'm going to get it this year if it means that I need to call in sick to work for the last week of the year to power through books.  I also feel like this is the year where I might just read more for my own guilty pleaures...I really just want to read fun books right now...thrillers mainly...maybe it's because wedding planning is stressing me out and all I want to do is totally zone out into a book?  who knows...either way, don't hold your breath to see Ulysses or Moby Dick on my list this next year...

Anyone read anything great that I missed??  Anyone ready to slap me for hating The Fault in Our Stars?

Happy Valentine's Day Luvas