Gila's Favorite Books of 2015

It's a bonus "best of" edition of Steph and Jana's Show Us Your Books, in which we highlight our favorite books of 2015. Note that these are books I read in 2015, but that's not necessarily when they were published.

I thought about listing these in some sort of order, but they don't deserve to be ranked; they're all so different. So, in no particular order:


You by Caroline Kepnes - This book is crazy. It takes the reader inside the mind of a stalker/serial killer and somehow makes him likable. (My blog post about this book was in August.)


Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta - A YA novel that is truly a coming-of-age book. I loved the characters and the story. There's a follow up book (focusing on one of the other characters five years later) and I'm planning to read that one in 2016. (Also August)


Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty - 2015 was the year I finally read Liane Moriarty and I read three of her books. I enjoyed all of them, but if I have to choose, this is my favorite. Moriarty does a great job of weaving different stories together and I like to call her books "chick lit with a purpose." (November)


The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins - This seemed to be the "It" book in early 2015 and in my opinion, it lived up to the hype. The characters are unlikable but I didn't even care. This really kept me guessing and on the edge of my seat. (May)


The Martian by Andy Weir - This book made the list because I resisted it for months, thinking there was no way I'd like it, and then I was proven wrong. There's a lot of math and science that went right over my head but it didn't even matter. The story itself was gripping and the narrator was sarcastic and funny. (October)


Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult - I've always been a fan of Picoult. Many people talk about how formulaic her books are and that's somewhat true, but it's never turned me off. But this one is a bit different and had a twist that I wasn't prepared for. This book came to me at just the right time and while I know I said I didn't want to rank them, this would probably be my personal number one book of 2015. (June)


Are any of your favorites on this list? What books did you love this year?

Thursday Thoughts

HA! Today I made sure that Steph also did Thursday Thoughts before posting my own.

This week in cat antics: If you follow me on Instagram, you saw this picture from last night

"But Mommm, if you're in the kitchen 

that can only mean it's time for ME to eat!" #idontcookoften

(That cupboard is where the food is kept.)

Then he recruited reinforcements:

Speaking of pets, did you hear about the first litter of in-vitro puppies born at Cornell University? I was baffled by this until I read that it's not about puppies; it's about potentially saving other animal species. Still, if Michael Crichton were alive, he could write some scary book about it a la Jurassic Park. 

Last Sunday at church, our children's choirs presented their annual Christmas musical. Every year I intend to go and don't, but this year I dragged my lazy self out of the house, and I'm so glad I did! The director of children's music, Sally Beske, writes the words and music and this is the 20th year of these original productions. The theme was finding peace, and the lesson was that we all need to allow ourselves time to rest and to play, in order to make peaceful decisions. I can think of quite a few people who could stand to learn that lesson. We all received permission slips with an affirmation on the opposite side (written by the children). This may have been the best Christmas gift! I don't know that video will do it justice, but you can watch it here.

(borrowed from a friend's Facebook post)

I’m refraining from talking politics (at least for today) because I'm trying to keep this post happy, but I do love this meme:

A Trio of Books

I contemplated skipping this month's book post as I only have three books to talk about, but (obviously) I decided to go ahead and do it. Plus, I'm likely to forget these if I wait another month and I certainly won't be writing blog posts ahead of time!

This month Steph and Jana are giving away a $25 Amazon gift card and a $25 donation to Project Night Night, which provides homeless children with a security blanket, a book and a stuffed animal. I'd not heard of this organization, but I absolutely love this idea.


On to the books:


Burning Down George Orwell's House by Andrew Ervin - I read this for my real-life book club. It's about a guy from Chicago who is burnt out on life and work and decides to go off the grid so he travels to Scotland and rents the house in which George Orwell wrote 1984 (this guy is obsessed with 1984).  The book itself was good, but I don't know how great it was for a book club read. There wasn't a lot to talk about. My friend Lisa and I usually walk to book club together and talk nonstop about the books before we even get there, and this time neither of us said anything about it. But it was still entertaining and I gave it 3 stars.


The Truth About Him by Molly O'Keefe - This is the sequel to Everything I Left Unsaid, which I talked about last month. I downloaded this book almost as soon as it was released because of the cliffhanger in the first book. I'm still giving this one 3 stars, but it was kind of all over the place. I couldn't really get on board with the "dangerous situation" this time around.  Still lots of steamy sex, and also more of the standard "he/she deserves better than me," which gets pretty annoying. But Annie and Dylan's story finishes up, and apparently there's going to be a third book which focuses on a couple of minor characters whom we met in the first two books.


The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty (audiobook) - This one gets 4 stars. I listened to the majority of this while driving back and forth to Pennsylvania around Thanksgiving. The road trips themselves didn't get me through the whole book, so I was listening to bits and pieces until last Friday when I couldn't stop listening until it was over. It's not hard to figure out the "secret," and it's revealed fairly early on, so there are parts in the middle that didn't seem necessary, but the ending was quite unexpected. I very much enjoyed the reader; she did a good job of varying her voice for the characters.

Two twenty-one year-olds and a first grader

That's how old I am today. And I suppose depending on the first grader, you might not know exactly how old that is: I'm 48. It's funny how that age seemed so old at one time, and now it doesn't seem old at all.

First official photo. Resting bitch face, squinty eye
and possible gang symbol in full force.

We had a great weekend, full of friends but not photos. Friday night we had date night at one of our favorite restaurants, Trattoria Roma. We were there nearly three hours and it was as fabulous as ever.

Saturday was spent watching football with friends. Both of our teams lost, but it was a fun day nonetheless.


Sunday was church, rehearsal, lunch, baby shower and drinks with friends.


Just to make this post worth your while, here's another awesome baby picture:

Thursday Thoughts

Once again, I'm borrowing from Steph for Thursday Thoughts and just like last time, she didn't do them today. Ah, well...

I’m late posting because we currently don't have internet at home. There are houses under construction next to us and last week the builders cut our cable. For TV watching, that's OK because we have satellite (believe me, if I were without TV you'd hear me yelling no matter how far away you are). However, it does affect our internet service, and it seems that now the earliest it will be fixed is next Gwensday. This seriously blows. So I've had to go to the office to work instead of being able to work from home, and blogging gets squeezed in as time allows.

I saw this meme awhile ago and sent it to Aaron. The note says "I've already fed him, don't fall for his bullshit." Our cats pull this all the time and last night they totally punked me. I started to feed them and Aaron stopped me just in time because he had already fed them. Bastards.

I can’t believe I'm about to talk about Justin Bieber, but his song "What Do You Mean" is all over pop radio. Does anyone else think this is date rape about to happen? "What do you mean / when you nod your head yes / but you wanna say no..." Memo to the Biebs: No means no.

Damn you, Days of Our Lives, for sucking me back into your vortex. I had heard that Peter Reckell (Bo Brady, for those who don't know) was coming back to the show and I tuned in one day and now I'm hooked again. #boandhope4ever My new obsession probably won't last long because ... well, if you could see everything on my DVR just waiting for me to watch it ... But in the meantime I need to find out if Abigail escapes from Ben and has her baby. Don't judge.

Do you watch The Voice? If not, may I suggest you watch this video from Monday night's show. This guy Jordan is amazing and his performance is so moving. After last week's events in Paris and all the hatred being spewed on social media, I really needed this.

I can't really follow that.

Reading is Sexy

It's book linkup time!! I'm not sure why I keep trying to come up with unique titles for these monthly posts. I should just pick one and stick with it.

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty - This is the second Moriarty book I've read and I can't wait to read more. There's something about the way she unfolds the story that really appeals to me. This one is about three women whose children are in the same class at school but they bond over much more than that. I didn't guess the twist. I call this "chick lit with a purpose." 5 stars


Where'd You Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple (Audiobook) - 4.5 stars, but I rounded up because I listened to this all in one day while driving home from vacation and it pretty much got me through the drive. Going in, I wasn't sure how I'd feel about Kathleen Wilhoite as the reader, but I thought she did a fabulous job. This book is either told from the perspective of Bernadette's 15-year-old daughter Bee or through various emails, notes and letters, and Wilhoite was so good at changing her voice accordingly. And, she sings at one point and I had no idea she could sing, but after a Google search I learned that she's released two albums. The ending was pretty fantastical, but I thoroughly enjoyed the story as well as Bee's teenage attitude and exuberance.


Everything I Left Unsaid by Molly O'Keefe -  I received a free copy of this book from a Goodreads giveaway. This is the kind of book that my mom would have said to me "there's a lot of sex in there," and she would have loved it! So, fair warning, there's of lot of sex - phone sex and actual sex. There's also a good plot. I'm positive that when I got to the cliffhanger I actually said out loud "are you KIDDING me?" But of course that means I'll be jumping on the next book. 3 stars


Family Pictures by Jane Green - The first part of this book was very frustrating to me. I thought it was so obvious where it was going, but as it turns out, the book is about much more than the thing the two women have in common. It's really about the two women trying to keep their families together while also finding themselves in the wake of a terrible betrayal. I ended up liking it better than I thought I would but I like a lot of Green's other books better. 3 stars


The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg - This book is the first of a series involving a female FBI agent and the con man she's been trying to capture for years but is now forced to work with. This was a fun, easy read (I finished it in one day while flying across the country) and I'm looking forward to more of the books in the series. 4 stars


Phew! 5 books this month and none of them were awful! What have you been reading? And be sure to check out other bloggers' book recommendations with our hosts, Steph and Jana.

Shit Aaron Says, The Birthday Edition

In honor of his birthday today, it's time for more Shit Aaron Says!

Aaron: I lost my jeans
Me: How do you lose a pair of jeans?
Our friend Amy: This is why you don't have children.
(Note that he did eventually find said jeans.)


Me: I have something in my teeth.
Aaron: Well, we know it's not floss.
(Truth. I don't floss; Aaron does. A bit judgy, I'd say.)


Aaron (as the weather switches from summer to fall and he realizes he can wear his favorite combo of shorts and a sweatshirt): I like it. It keeps me warm and cool in all the right places.


After a choir rehearsal, it's nearly 10:00 and we haven't eaten dinner so we decide to go out to eat somewhere close to home.
Aaron (when we leave rehearsal): Where do you want to go?
Me: I don't know.
Aaron (5 minutes later, in the car): So where are we going?
Me: I don't know.
Aaron (after we get home and park the car): So where are we going?
Me: The Rossi
Aaron: I was thinking Haiku.
Really?

Happy Birthday, Aaron! I love you!

You can read the previous Shit Aaron Says here.