These are the 27 books I read in 2011. (Previous lists can be found here: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003)
The books are listed in the order I read them, oldest first, except for the 5 fiction books which I listed separately at the bottom. My favorite books were #’s 1, 6, 9, 16, 19, 22, and 25.
Nonfiction:
1. Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, Mary Roach
2. Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude, Neal Pollack
3. unSweetined: A Memoir, Jodie Sweetin
4. Hoda: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer, and Kathie Lee, Hoda Kotb
5. Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons In Life, Love, And Language, Deborah Fallows
6. Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy, Lindsay Moran
7. Psychic: My Life in Two Worlds, Sylvia Browne
8. How Did You Get This Number, Sloane Crosley
9. The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love, Kristin Kimball
10. Chocolate & Vicodin: My Quest for Relief from the Headache that Wouldn’t Go Away, Jennette Fulda
11. I Love You and I’m Leaving You Anyway, Tracy McMillan
12. Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture, Peggy Orenstein
13. Grindhopping: Building a Rewarding Career Without Paying Your Dues, Laura Vanderkam
14. Committed: A Love Story, Elizabeth Gilbert
15. The Wilder Life: My Adventures in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie, Wendy McClure
16. Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef, Gabrielle Hamilton
17. SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper, Howard E. Wasdin
18. My Year with Eleanor, Noelle Hancock
19. Sideways on a Scooter: Life and Love in India, Miranda Kennedy
20. Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West, Dorothy Wickenden
21. Across Many Mountains: A Tibetan Family’s Epic Journey from Oppression to Freedom, Yangzom Brauen
22. An Unquenchable Thirst: Following Mother Teresa in Search of Love, Service, and an Authentic Life, Mary Johnson
Fiction
23. Dancing for Degas, Kathryn Wagner
24. I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
25. Alice I Have Been, Melanie Benjamin
26. Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel, Jeannette Walls
27. The Help, Kathryn Stockett
My boyfriend and I are celebrating our one-year anniversary today. I’m so lucky we got this far — we almost blew it last year.
Paul and I met a few weeks after my 30th birthday in June 2010. I was hanging out in the basement of Capitol Lounge to celebrate a friend’s engagement (he was there with a friend; not part of my group). We went out twice over the next several weeks, but due to various complications — both of us having people in our lives that we needed to deal with before starting a serious relationship with someone else — we just…fizzled out. It’s kind of scary how easy it was. Paul invited me out for a third date that would have taken place on a weekend night in July; I told him I had something else to do; I sent him a text on Monday morning to see how his weekend had gone; he didn’t respond. And I never followed-up.
But I didn’t delete his number from my phone. Over the next several months, I ended things for good with the other guy, re-joined Match.com, and went on a few dates with completely unmemorable people. I thought about contacting Paul on numerous occasions, but something always held me back. With other guys I’d dated — especially someone I’d only been out with twice — I never would have contacted them again after such a long time. I thought that if I dated someone and it didn’t work out, I was supposed to forget about them. Move on.
In late October 2010, I eschewed that rule and decided to contact Paul again. I didn’t want to limit myself to a text and I didn’t have his email address, so I looked him up on Facebook and sent him a message. He responded the same day. He was friendly, glad to hear from me, and didn’t bring up the fact that we hadn’t been in touch for months.
We exchanged emails over the next week and finally met for our third date on a random Thursday night after work — November 4, 2010. We now refer to our first two dates as Paul/Zan 1.0 and everything that’s happened in the past year as Paul/Zan 2.0.
November 2010 to November 2011 has been the best year of my life, and I know next year (and beyond) will be just as memorable.
(Isn’t he handsome? I’m a lucky, lucky girl.)
Last week on September 1st, this blog turned nine years old. When I originally started this blog on September 1st of 2002, I was preparing to set out on my first round-trip cross-country drive from Virginia to California.
Nine years later, on September 1st of 2011, I was in a car, traveling from Washington, DC to my boyfriend’s hometown of Buffalo, NY. We spent a long weekend there and I had a terrific time. I met all kinds of wonderful people and saw all kinds of cool places, like…
…the Connecticut Street Armory…
…Delaware Park at sunset…
…and Niagara Falls at night.
Additional photos can be found in my Buffalo photoset on Flickr.
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In unrelated news, I received word the week before my trip that my dear friend Janet lost her baby at 26 weeks into her pregnancy. I had just seen her a few weeks before and we talked extensively about her baby plans. I was devastated to hear about her loss and continue to send love and support her way.
I’ve neglected to mention that my second nephew was born just over three weeks ago. This photo was taken when he was six days old.
(Welcome to the world, Ryder.)
He belongs to my younger sister, Angela. I understand that he likes to be a cranky-pants sometimes, but she’s happy to have him around.
