A Few of My Favorite Things...for 2013

Holy time warp, Batman. What just happened here? Last time I checked, Halloween was just winding down, I was packing for a trip to Ireland, and life was be-bopping along as usual. Next thing I know, Rip Van Winkle here wakes up to find that both Thanksgiving and Christmas are over and I got left behind. (I checked to make sure it was still 2013....whew.)



Thankfully, I seem to have blocked the whole family-holiday-convergence thing from my memory. It's like childbirth. If you don't remember, you readily agree to host it the next year. It isn't until the first family argument breaks out that you suddenly remember the agony of these things. By then, of course, it is too late and you are condemned.

I did, however, get a good laugh this year perusing actress Gwyneth Paltrow's GOOP Gift Guide while killing time in a doctor's office a couple of weeks back. (And this is why you really should never leave home without your current book tucked in a bag somewhere.)  My reaction to her gift suggestion of a $100 slingshot by artist Christopher Jarrat can only be summed up as thus....



I couldn't help but notice that about the only item Ms. Paltrow could come up with in the price range of us mere mortals was an LL Bean tote bag. Now don't misunderstand me, I am a huge LL Bean fan (their kids' long underwear simply cannot be beat for quality and price), but the f*cking tote bag? That ugly-ass thing?

Needless to say, after I dried my tears of laughter I did get to thinking about some of MY favorite things from 2013. Unlike Ms. Paltrow, I won't be getting any kickbacks for sharing some of them with you, so you can rest assured I share with the true spirit of Christmas in my heart (or something like that...whatev).

1.  Poems by Heart App (Penguin)

This little app for your phone or tablet - released by Penguin Books last spring - is one of the cutest things I've seen in a long time. The app is designed to help you memorize poetry. Admittedly, I am not a huge poetry reader as many of you are well aware (ahem). But there are some poems I either once had memorized back in my school days or have always wanted to memorize and Poems by Heart helps you do just that.



The app is free and comes pre-loaded with four poems to get you started. If you'd like to try other poems (have a favorite?) you can peruse Penguin's in-app library and purchase others for .99 cents. The app takes you through the memorization process step by step, providing a male or female narrator (your choice) to read you the poem so that you can catch the cadence. As your skills progress you can even record yourself reciting the poem.



So while I conquered Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky in a mere twenty minutes, if you run into me on the street don't be surprised if you hear me reciting Tennyson's The Charge of the Light Brigade to anyone who will listen.

2.  Eleanor & Park, by Rainbow Rowell



Young Adult literature hasn't been endearing to me in a long, long time. Eleanor & Park brought back the magic and reminded me that very good YA still exists. If it hasn't been eaten by vampire and dystopian fan-fic knockoffs, that is. 


3.  National Geographic



Yes, a good old-fashioned subscription to National Geographic is still one of my favorite things. Of course these days National Geographic also includes a digital subscription in addition to the magazine that faithfully arrives in your mailbox each month. I mean, have you seen the sheer gorgeousness of their photos on an iPad screen? The beauty is amazing, not to mention the videos and online content available in the digital version. For a mere twenty dollars a year you get the actual magazine hard-copy, the digital subscription, plus access to all of National Geographic's online archives. Talk about bang for your buck.


4.  Elizabeth Fremantle



Have you heard of her yet? If not, allow me to introduce you to the author who wrote the best historical fiction debut of 2013. Her novel Queen's Gambit - the first in a proposed trilogy - was one of the smartest to hit the genre in years.



Published by Simon & Schuster, Fremantle's re-telling of Henry VIII's last wife Katherine Parr does everything right: it offers insight and wit while deftly sidestepping the ubiquitous fashion-show and bedroom antics that seem to have infiltrated the genre in recent years.


5.  Audible



I still love Audible. It's purchase by Amazon back in 2008 has actually enhanced this audiobook lover's haven. With steeply discounted audio narration available for so many of your Kindle books and Whispersync technology allowing you to seamlessly switch between reading and listening within the same book, what's not to love? The monthly plans start at $14.95 (yikes, the price has gone up since I first signed up for ten bucks a month) for one book each month but you can always choose from the more ambitious plans. Being traditional, I stick to the one-a-month gig and supplement with downloads from my local library as needed.


6.  The Son, by Philipp Meyer

2013 was the year The Western (yes, I used caps there) made a comeback and thousands of readers discovered just how powerful a well-written novel in this genre can be. Philipp Meyer tells the story of a filthy rich cattle-baron Texas family by using different points of view from successive generations. Meyer gave us the good, the bad, and the downright ugly side of the Texas frontier (and human nature) and proved that The Western isn't dead just yet.


7. Low-end Tablets

The entry of lower-end tablets to electronic's market may seem like an odd entry. But after years of having to switch between a Kindle e-reader and a Nook (the proprietorship of each, while understandable, was driving me crazy) or trying to read either Kindle or Nook books on a heavier iPad, the advent of the lower priced tablets was a boon.



Enter the 7-inch, less-than-a-pound tablet that sells for less than $100. Do I care if the gaming graphics suck? Hell no. Because I put exactly three (count them, three) apps on this little baby. The Kindle app.  The Nook app.  The Audible app.  Bingo, I had myself a sleek, light-weight little tablet dedicated ONLY to my books. All for less than the price of just one of Amazon or B&N's e-readers. All in one spot. All easy to access. Mine even has blue-tooth so I can keep listening to my audiobooks with my wireless headset. So take that, e-reader sellers.


8.  Life After Life, by Kate Atkinson

Without a doubt, this novel by Kate Atkinson was my favorite audiobook of 2013. In fact, I've often wondered if I would have loved the print version of this compelling story of Ursula Todd, born on a snowy 1910 night in the English countryside (over and over again) as much as I loved the voice of narrator Fenella Woolgar. Alas, I'm happy to never know.

9.  Penguin Book iPad Case


Available on Etsy for a wide range of electronic devices (and in several different colors), these cases are delightful. Made of hard plastic, they cover the back side of your device and garner more comments from people than you might imagine. And did I mention you can choose your own book title and author? 


10. Paperback Book Cover


Another Etsy find, I've been a fan of the WeeBeeStitchn shop for quite some time and own two of her suede embroidered book covers that I absolutely love to death. The designs vary so sometimes you have to wait for one pop up that you especially like or you can email the shop owner, I'm sure, to request something. She makes them in all different sizes - including e-reader covers - but I love the small paperback cover.



So that's it. Out with the old and in with the new, as they say. Stay tuned for an update of some changes you can expect around here for 2014.  Oh, and Happy New Year everyone. May it be filled with books.

20 comments:

  1. Much better than a $100 slingshot! Everything about Rainbow Rowell brightened my year this year (if you haven't read or better yet listened to Fangirl, please do so NOW). I have not forgotten your recommendation of The Son. I will someday get to that. And if I did not have the world's best audio book library, I would belong to Audible. But seriously 99% of what I want, they have, which is a beautiful thing!

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  2. I'm so glad you decided to come back. I found your blog just around Halloween and then, BLAM! You disappeared. I couldn't help but feel somehow responsible for your disappearance. This Blog Love can be a tricky thing...

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    1. Holy crow, I'm sorry! I get so used to thinking no one reads the damn thing anyway that I just meander off onto various paths and completely forget. Gots myself a handy new reminder for the New Year....look out 2014, you all are going to be sick of me! (And yes, Blog Love is a very complicated relationship, I do concur.)

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  3. I really have to get used to having little foreign objects in my ears and subscribe to Audible. maybe that could be a New Year's resolution. (so much easier than the usual "eat less, exercise more") Happy New Year!!!

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    1. Okay, the thingy in my ear part? Not so much. Admittedly I'm more of a speaker kind of gal. Which explains why I broke down and just bought a treadmill....the YMCA peeps were getting irked at my book selections and 'fuck 'em' just didn't seem to be an appropriate option. Bah.

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  4. Anddd I'm going to need a Penguin cover for my phone. It's unavoidable, really.

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    1. Yeah, what is it with me and Penguin? It's not as if they show me a lot of love in the book department. (Just saying, person-who-didn't-reply-to-my-one-ARC-request-in-a-year.) Oh well.

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  5. You have to wonder what people do with that slingshot. Yours is the second post that's mentioned The Son so I guess I need to dig it out.

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    1. Maybe I'm just nostalgic for Lonesome Dove? Sandy sent me off on a goose-chase for an old out of print western she swears by...I found a copy and will do a review. ;)

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  6. LOL! Goop. I subscribe but so much of what she has on there is expensive. $100 tshirts and the like. I am neat in appearance but there is no way I'd spend $100 on a tshirt, even if I were rich. I love her though, so I keep reading. I wonder if I eat like her, If I will look like her. You think? Her recipes are so sparse and always small bites.

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    1. She frightens me more than a little. It might be her choice of names for children. Regardless, she is the reason I have never watched Shakespeare in Love and I find myself rather resentful for that.

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  7. Lots of good stuff here! You can be my gift giving style goddess anytime!

    Loved, loved, loved Eleanor and Park!

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    1. If I was a writer - which, everyone breathe a sigh of relief here - I am not, I would want to write exactly like Rainbow Rowell. I'll even forgive her parents for the Rainbow thing.

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  8. I'll have to check out that western -- woops -- WWWWestern novel. :) I so applaud your economical tablet! I wanted a kindle a year ago for e-books, I got an iPad. Um yay. So THEN I got a talking-to because I didn't use my iPad for everything under the sun. Yep, still use my iPad for the kindle app and not much else.. till I just got a keyboard for it so maybe I'll use it more now. Not making any promises. Especially now it's a bigger PITA to read eBooks with the freaking heavy keyboard case.. I just never win. Sigh. Happy New Year!

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  9. You've given me ideas about how to increase my commitment to audiobooks.

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  10. So how come I never realized that I could enhance my National Geo subscription via my iPad?

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  11. You have never steered me wrong on a book choice and I look forward to your reviews this year! Thanks for all you do!

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  12. I REALLY like your suggestion for the low-end tablet, and wondered if you would share the details on the one you use. I just can't bring myself to commit solely to a Kindle or to a Nook, and this sounds like the perfect solution.

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    1. Tammy, I bought the Ematic HD Quad Core for something like $70. If I was to do it all over again, however, I think I would have spent a teensy bit more for one that had better audio quality given how much I love my audiobooks....this one has poor audio even with my headsets plugged in. Boo. But aside from that, I do love being able to open either my Kindle app or my Nook app and read my books from BN or Amazon at my leisure. I hated having to choose or the thought of having to buy both a kindle and a nook (and it's here that I should probably admit that we actually do have a nook and a kindle in this house...but I bought the nook for my husband and didn't want to borrow it and the kindles are the fire-types for my kids and those are for them, not me, dammit.) Anyway, you know what I mean, I'm sure. I wasn't going to buy two e-readers just because BN and Ammy can't get along. So. Most of the low-end tablets come pre-loaded with a ton of apps I didn't want/need. I just deleted what I could and moved what I couldn't delete into an unobtrusive folder. I downloaded the Nook app and the Kindle app and put those on the main page of the tablet. Voila. The battery life hasn't been too bad. If I read all day straight (and of course, as a public service to you all I did try this experiment), I got 5.5 hours of reading. Not too bad. Wouldn't be idea for an international flight, but it works for around the house with two kids who constantly interrupt and never allow me 5.5 hours of reading time, ha. So shop around. If you want good sound for Audible books, make sure it has good audio and pay more for it. If you don't care, take that off your list. I read reviews on Amazon before buying.

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