Happy New Year! It's 2022!

Happy New Year! It’s officially 2022. We’re not back to blogging yet, but we’re getting ready for the New Year. We’ll see you later this month. Until then, have a great day, and happy reading!

The Cookie Book Tag (Round 4)

It's December 25th, so Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! I hope everyone has a great day. The year is almost over, and today we're going to do a book tag. It has been a year to the day since Adri and I participated in the Cookie Book Tag for the third time. And today, we're going to do it again to see how our answers do and don't differ. Before we begin, here are the more technical details about the tag.

The Cookie Book Tag was created by Nicole @ Sorry, I’m Booked. And you can check out the original tag post here: Sorry, I’m Booked, The Cookie Book Tag.

The rules…

• Link back to the person who tagged you + the creator of this tag 
• Pick a book that corresponds with the cookies theme 
• Have fun 
• Tag 1-3 people

Chocolate Chip: A Classic Book That You Love or Really Enjoyed (interpret classic how you want, it can be a classic written 100 years ago or 20 years ago)

Breana: The Lord of the Rings. I read all three parts this year, and I had a lot of fun with the story. It’s one of my favorites, and I’m glad I took the time to finally get it off my TBR list.

Adri: Treasure Island: fun little (but long) adventure book. If you’re looking for a girl-led remix of the story, then Clash of Steel is the book. I like the family based parts of each story.

Thin Mints: A Fandom That You Really Want to ‘Join’ AND/OR a Hyped-Up Book You Want To Read (your source(s) of a book being hyped can be from anywhere)

Breana: I have a couple of books for this one. In no particular order: Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan, Empty Smiles by Katherine Arden, and The Girl in the Lake by India Hill Brown.

Adri: I’m looking forward to Etta Invincible by Reese Eschmann.

Shortbread: An Author You Can’t Get Enough Of

Breana: Sarah Kuhn’s Heroine Complex series is a favorite of mine. I’ve read up to the current book; although, there was a novella I haven’t gotten to.

Adri: I have two for this one: the late Mary Higgins Clark and Jacqueline West.

Samoas/ Caramel DeLites: An Emotional Rollercoaster (this cookie was hard … so any book that made you feel more than one emotion, strongly. The choice of emotions is up to you)

Breana:  I have to go with You Can Never Tell by Sarah Warburton. I went back and forth between bewilderment and surprise at how the characters got from point A to B to C and to D.

Adri: Her Honor by LaDoris Hazzard Cordell was an emotional rollercoaster. There were moments of sadness, sometimes disgust, but there were those happy moments too. Out of all the books I read this year, this one was the wildest ride I’ve been on.

Oreos: A Book Whose Cover Was Better Than The Story OR Vice Versa, Where The Story Was Better Than Its Cover

Breana: There weren’t any overtly bad covers that I can think of. The one for Aristocracy by William Doyle is kind of plain, but it was a short and informative read.

Adri: Like Breana, I don’t really have a book that fits this category this year. But, if I had to choose one, it would be The Way to Go by Kate Ascher. This is because the newer paperback version has a more striking cover than the hardcover, which is what I have.

Tagalongs/ Peanut Butter Patties: A Book That Wasn’t What You Expected (good, bad, or just different, interpret how you wish)

Breana: A book that wasn’t what I expected it to be was Natalie Starkey’s Fire and Ice: The Volcanoes of the Solar System. Going into this book, I had the expectation of a tour of the solar system through volcanoes. The book does just that, but it also dug its heels into the topic and did a deeper exploration of volcanoes on earth as well as how what we know about them can help us understand what’s going on with the geological activity of other planets. It was one of the most fascinating books I’ve read this year.

Adri: When I buy old books from Better World Books (especially sewing and fashion), I usually estimate what it will be about. My recent purchase, The Vogue/Butterick Step-by-Step Guide to Sewing Techniques, was printed in 1989. It blew my mind, because it’s obviously for patterns, but the various sewing techniques help a lot anyway. It’s hard to explain.

Snickerdoodles: A Book You May Never Stop Rereading/ Loving

Breana: Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake. I’m so glad I just bought a copy of the book, because I know I’ll return to it again in the near future. It was another one of my favorite nonfiction reads of 2021, and it was all about fungi.

Adri: Techniques from Casual Clothes from Threads, because there are so many techniques and patterns I want to try myself. So of course I have to read it many-many times.

Bonus: Choose a cookie I didn’t list and make up a question!

Our question from 2018: Monster Cookies have bold flavors and a long and varied list of ingredients such as M&Ms, chocolate chips, peanut butter, oats, and even sometimes raisins. It’s like a handful of cookie types mashed into one monster of a cookie. So… Monster cookie: name a book with a bold and whimsical title or a book title with four or more words.

Breana: I have three for this one: We Hunt the Flame, Six Crimson Cranes, and The Brilliant Abyss.

Adri: Let Me Call You Sweetheart, The Genome Odyssey, Mom & Me & Mom.

That's it for today. We tag you to do the cookie book tag to see how your answers differ (if you've done it before). If you're curious about our original take on the tag and our second and third try at it visit the posts HERE, HERE, and HERE. 

2021 Favorites

 

It’s almost December 31st. And, as 2021 winds down, it’s also time to talk about all of my favorite things from the year. 

Movies & TV Shows…

Surprisingly, I didn’t watch too many movies or try as many new shows as I thought I would have. I mainly rewatched old favorites when I happened to catch them. What I have, in terms of first time viewing, isn’t enough for it to get its own posts. So…

Some movies: F9, Poltergeist (1982), Nightbooks, Red Notice, Birds of Prey, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Venome: Let There Be Carnage.

Some TV shows: Discovery of Witches season 2, SurrealEstate, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Gone For Good, Lost in Space season 2.

Books And Short Stories…

Generally, I liked most of what I read this year. I focused more on nonfiction as well as backlist titles and sequels that I’ve wanted to read. I didn’t get to all of them this year, but that just means I’m going into the New Year with a good-sized TBR list to keep me preoccupied. So, here are my favorite books from 2021.

Nonfiction...

• To The Greatest Heights by Vanessa O'Brien
• Aristocracy by William Doyle 
• She Memes Well by Quinta Brunson
• The Heartbeat of Trees by Peter Wohlleben, translated by Jane Billinghurst
• Fire & Ice by Natalie Starkey 
• Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake

Fiction...

• Exit Strategy , Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells
• We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal
• Tales from the Hinterland by Melissa Albert
• The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King by J. R.R. Tolkien
• The Case Study of Vanitas vol. 6, vol. #7 & vol. 8 by Jun Mochizuki
• Jelly by Clare Rees
• The Album of Dr. Moreau by Daryl Gregory 
• The Return of the Sorceress, Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno Garcia 
• Small Town Monsters by Diana Rodriguez-Wallach
• What Lives in the Woods by Lindsay Currie
• Mine by Delilah S. Dawson
• You Can Never Tell by Sarah Warburton 
• Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
• The Brilliant Abyss by Helen Scales
• Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You by Scotto Moore
• Dark Waters by Katherine Arden
• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
• A Swift and Savage Tide by Chloe Neill
• A Murder Yule Regret by Winnie Archer 
• Hollywood Heroine by Sarah Kuhn 
• It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Murder by Maria DiRico

The short stories...

• The Karyōbinga Sings To Jiro by Riyu Ando (Strange Horizons; Issue: 11 January 2021) Note: there is a podcast version of the story available from Strange Horizons
  
• Your Own Undoing by P H Lee (Apex Magazine, January 19, 2021)
• #Selfcare by Annalee Newitz (Tor.com, January 19, 2021)
• Judge Dee and The Three Deaths of Count Werdenfels by Lavie Tidhar (Tor.com, February 10, 2021)
  
• A Serpent For Each Year by Tamara Jeree (Strange Horizons, Issue 1 February 2021)
• Las Girlfriends Guide to Subversive Eating by Sabrina Vourvoulias (Apex Magazine; Issue 122, March 2021)
• Mouth by Sasha Lapointe (Strange Horizons; Issue: 1 March 2021)
• Masquerade Season by ‘Pemi Aguda (Tor.com; March 24, 2021)
• Mysteries of Visiocherries/Misteri Visciceri by Rio Johan (Strange Horizons; Issue: April 26 2021)
• Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory by Martha Wells (Tor.com, April 19, 2021)
• The Angel of Khan el-Khalili by P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com, April 28, 2021)
• The Life & Death of Mia Fremont: An Interview with a Killer by A.K. Hudson (Apex Magazine; May 4, 2021)
• Eilam is Forever by Beth Dawkins (Apex Magazine, July 6, 2021)
• Data Migration by Melanie Harding-Shaw (Strange Horizons; Issue: 12 July 2021)
• Survival, After by Nicole J. LeBoeuf (Apex Magazine, August 3, 2021)
• What Cacti Read by Mary Soon Lee (Strange Horizons; Issue; 26 July 2021) 
• Cocoon by H. Pueyo (Strange Horizons; Issue: 2 August 2021)
• Judge Dee and the Poisoner of Montmartre by Lavie Tidhar (Tor.com; September 15, 2021)
• Thread Count by Cynthia Gómez (Strange Horizons; Issue: Fund Drive 2021)
• Bespoke Nightmares by Carolina Valentine (Strange Horizons; Issue: 18 October 2021)

Music…

2021 was a great year for music. It seemed like most of my favorite artists had new music coming out, and I discovered a few new bands and groups I want to follow. Below is a list of all my favorite albums and EPs I listened to in 2021. There is no particular order.

• Alpha by CL
• Planet Her by Doja Cat
• Mini Mix vol. 1 and vol. 2, A Little Rhythm and a Wicked Feeling, and Mercurial World by Magdalena Bay
• Last Year Was Weird Vol. 3 by Tkay Maidza
• 1/f and Pink Noise by Laura Mvula
• If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power by Halsey
• Scaled and Icey by Twenty One Pilots
• 2000AND4EVA by Bree Runway
• The Bitter Truth by Evanescence
• Montero by Lil Nas X
• Harenchi by Chanmina

And that’s it. I hope everyone is having a great holiday season. I will see you all in the New Year!

Music Monday Christmas Edition: Baby Tate, Celtic Woman, The Whispers, Ahmari Lia, Nat King Cole

 Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Breana: With our break from blogging and the end of the year approaching, it's time for the Christmas edition of Music Monday! Today, we're sharing more festive music.

My pick this week is another song from Baby Tate's XMAS. It's called Last Xmas. Honestly, it's one of my favorites from this particular album. 

My second pick is Ave Maria by Celtic Woman. Recently, I caught one of  the more recent Celtic Woman specials when it came on TV.  I used to really enjoy the ones that came on during the holiday season. So I was a feeling little nostalgic for some of their older music. This is one of my favorite versions of Ave Maria.

Adri: Here's some more Ahmari Lia, All I Ever Wanted (This Christmas). I'm also listening to Nat King Cole's King Of Christmas.

Andrea: I'm listening to Kiss Me It's Christmas by Leona Lewis featuring Neo and Happy Holidays to You by The Whispers.

  

Have an amazing, safe, and Merry Christmas!

What are you listening to this holiday season?

Break Notice

Well, it’s that time of year again. With the New Year right around the corner, it’s time for us to take our annual break from blogging. Any posts that appear after this one were scheduled at a prior date. We’ll still be around on social media (like twitter, goodreads, and Instagram), as well as to answer comments on the blog. Until then, we hope everyone has a great holiday season, and we’ll see you in the New Year. Happy reading!