Post Christmas means it’s time for all the end of the year recaps and lists, lists, lists of Best Movies, Best Books, Biggest News Stories, and my personal favorite: Best Celebrity Humiliations (Who would have ever dreamed that Bill friggin’ Cosby could fall from grace with a larger and more blinding comet trail of fire and destruction than Justin Beiber?)
So, in the spirit of our need to quantify our experiences of the outgoing year, I am making a list of my own. A list called “All The Shit I Read This Year”. The good. The bad. The too confusing to categorize. Here they are: Happy New Year.
January: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Sometimes I want to read a book that is not too complicated or too dark, which is my usual repertoire. Jane is a sure thing for a feel-good book. I know there will be a happy ending before I read the first sentence of the first chapter and there is comfort in that. Like most Austen books, this one is about an unmarried woman and a misunderstanding which gets straightened out and leads to the unmarried woman getting married. A sweet and predictable way to start the year? Sure, why not.
February: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer. Part 2 of the Lunar Chronicles and current trend of modernizing classic fairy tales. This one centers on Little Red Riding Hood who has been revamped into a sassy French farmer/delivery pilot with a mean tomato pitch if you make her mad. These are fun and cute, but I admit, I don’t read these for myself but rather aloud to my kids who seem to like them. My favorite part of this book was my discovery, or rather re-discovery, of Croque Monsieur sandwiches….mmmm….
avy packard 