Books read in 2012

1. Travels with Charley: in Search of America - John Steinbeck
2. Belching Out the Devil: Global Adventures with Coca-Cola - Mark Thomas
3. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
4. Deconstructing Sammy: Music, Money, Madness and the Mob - Matt Birkbeck
5. Tupperware: The Promise of Plastic in 1950s America - Alison J. Clarke
6. His Way: the Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra - Kitty Kelley
7. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
8. Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
9. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
10. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
11. Partly Cloudy Patriot - Sarah Vowell
12. Unfamiliar Fishes - Sarah Vowell
13. The Coke Machine: The Dirty Truth Behind the World's Favorite Soft Drink - Michael Blanding

End of the year book survey 2011

2011 was a year I did a lot of driving and flying and listening to the same Sarah Vowell audio books over and over. I have at least one domestic flight and one international flight scheduled in early 2012. Expect to see Assassination Vacation on next year's list nine times.

Total books read this year: 107

Fastest Memoir to Read, Most Hilarious: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) - Mindy Kaling

Fastest Memoir to Read, Least Hilarious:  Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far - Bristol Palin (Also the winner of the 2010 book survey category: I Don't Believe She Wrote a Word of This)

Best Nonfiction: Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit - Barry Estabrook

Why did I think this would be interesting?: Eat Mor Chikin: Inspire More People - Truett Cathy

So many unanswered questions: Stories I Only Tell My Friends - Rob Lowe (Also the winner of the 2010 book survey category: He should definitely be in jail)

Too many answered questions: The Flags of the Confederacy: An Illustrated History - Devereaux Cannon

Why Did I Read So Many Books About Flags: What You Should Know About the American Flag - Earl Williams

Sarah Vowelliest: Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

Prettiest Hipster Nonsense: And the Pursuit of Happiness - Maira Kalman (It was great, actually)


Slate.com-iest: Moonwalking with Einstein - Joshua Foer 

Ugh: Freedom - Jonathan Franzen

Best Biography: Nellie Taft: The Unconventional First Lady of the Ragtime Era - Carl Anthony

Best Book by a TV Character: Pawnee: the Greatest Town in America - Leslie Knope

Funniest: Bossypants - Tina Fey


Saddest: The Lonely Lady of San Clemente: The Story of Pat Nixon - Lester David

I think it's cheating to count this towards my books read total: About half the list are audio books.

They should have called it The Girl With a Lot on Her Plate: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson

Worst of the Year: Comeback 2.0: Up Close and Personal - Lance Armstrong

Best of the Year: Bossypants - Tina Fey


First books of 2012: Travels with Charley, the Hunger Games trilogy and since I'm starting the new year with a plane ride, probably a Sarah Vowell audio book.

Treat Yo Self 2011

2011 wrap up. 

• I moved from one town to another. My brother left for a mission and I got his iPhone. And as you can see from the photo below, I really got into Instagram. 
• I flew to California three or four times to get cookies from Trader Joe's see my nephews.
• Books read total for the year: 98. Possibly 99 by December 31 or a smaller number if I remove all those repeated audio books (I drove a lot this year and have a small collection of audio books).
• I'll probably never remove them.

My parents moved to China for a mission and I got their house (temporarily). Long term house sitting for Republicans means I'm also a gun owner now. One thing about living by yourself that I've discovered is that EVERYONE who visits asks the same question. "Is it scary living on your own in this house?" This never stops being a weird and slightly condescending question, and it's not one I ever got living alone in an apartment. So I always want to say, not really, I've got like three guns. Which is a lie. I have a lot more.

I planted a lot of flowers, became a museum docent and remain confused by Pinterest. So, while I turned 28 and was twice mistaken for 18 this year, I am actually 80 years old. That being confused for 18 is not a back door brag, I firmly believe it was due to perceived immaturity and chin acne.

My sister, brother-in-law and three of my nephews moved to Norway. I'm traveling to Norway next spring to visit, so Instagram followers and any remaining blog readers are going to see all the Instagram'd Norway they can handle. My fifth nephew was born this August. He's now lived in Norway longer than he's lived in America, which means he's basically a Socialist. I recently decided I have six nephews because my sister's dog counts as one.

Parks and Recreation has been really good this year. It's a real shame not everyone in America is watching it, because I firmly believe all Americans can become united in having a crush on Ben Wyatt.

I went to five presidential libraries: Lyndon Johnson, George H. W. Bush, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. I saw three grave sites: Johnson, Nixon and Reagan (while Bush is still alive, I didn't have time to visit his future grave site). And I visited two birth sites: Johnson and Nixon.  

I tried raw okra, fried okra and fried snickers for the first time. One was tolerable, one was amazing and one was MIND BLOWING. Bonus points if you can correctly guess which was which.

So many different types of sparrows!

Since I quit Tumblr a few months ago, I'm going to update this more often. And by more often, I mean, whenever I have a blurry photo of a bird I want people to see.

I've always wanted to see Macon, Georgia.

I copied this from the Best Study Abroad Blog in the World. It is meant to be a 15 day quiz for Tumblr, but I'm going to complete it all here now. And I'm going to count places in the US as well as abroad.

1. Favorite place(s) you’ve been to - In the US, the north rim of Grand Canyon. Abroad, Normandy, especially Pointe du Hoc.
2. Where you’d like to travel next - Hong Kong. My parents are moving there to serve a humanitarian/welfare mission for 18 months. I'm hoping to visit them there.
3. An adventure/challenge you had while traveling or living abroad - One happened in Mexico and one in Carlsbad, California, but they both involved going on terrifying and iffy looking roller coasters.
4. A picture of you in another country - I can't find my flash drive with my France photos, otherwise I would have posted a photo of me with a cannon at this museum in France. I'm changing this question to "Where will you travel next?" and that is Branson, Missouri, a city I'm obsessed with for its ability to increase my chances of becoming a total square.
5. What do you bring with you when you travel? - A journal.
6. What does “home” mean to you? - My family together, making jokes about members of my family.
7. Besides people, what did/do you miss from home? - Diet Coke. Coke Zero is not the same, rest of the world. I love other countries and it's not a deal breaker, but it is the one of the few things that makes me feel patriotic.
8. A favorite food from another country/culture - I liked a lot of the food I had in France and I love Thai food, but the winner is THE BEST WAFFLE I have ever had, from the basement of  Manor in Geneva, Switzerland.
9. A song you like from another country/language - Ma Philosophie by Amel Bent, partly because I heard it at least three times a week in Paris. A music store in France also introduced me to my favorite band, Pink Martini.
10. A favorite foreign movie - One of the first Bollywood movies I watched, Rocket Singh - Salesman of the Year.
11. Did you have any milestones or “firsts” while traveling or living abroad? I visited two Catholic masses at Notre Dame and Sacré-Coeur.
12. Someone who influenced you to travel abroad - I misinterpreted this as someone who influenced you while traveling abroad, so my answer to that is my host in France, Sophie, who read every book she could get her hands on. Who influenced me to travel abroad, that was a poster in my school's study abroad office.
13. A favorite travel quote - "In Spanish there is a word for which I can’t find a counterword in English. It is the verb vacilar, present participle vacilando. It does not mean vacillating at all. If one is vacilando, he is going somewhere, but does not greatly care whether or not he gets there, although he has direction. My friend Jack Wagner has often, in Mexico, assumed this state of being. Let us say we wanted to walk in the streets of Mexico City but not at random. We would choose some article almost certain not to exist there and then diligently try to find it."-John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley.
14. What did you learn from traveling abroad? Don't swing your arm wildly for emphasis when giving a presentation on a paper in an art museum. Even if the painting is in a relatively dark corner of the museum.
15. Advice to someone who’s thinking about traveling to another country - Do what John Steinbeck said in #13. Know the bus schedule as well as you know the subway schedule.

It's up to me now. I'm Mr. Manager.

Here are my eleven goals/joke goals for 2011, not including getting a job, which is a very important joke goal (I'm still not sure if my mom reads my blog). Also, this blog is going to be at elisabethwrites.blogspot.com for now. My old domain name is expiring and I'm not planning on renewing it. I might even export the thing back to Wordpress if it ever starts looking easy to use.

1. Read more about the 11th president of the US, James K. Polk and learn anything about the 11th Vice President George Mifflin Dallas. Most of the latter will be watching a TV show about a paper company founded by a distant relative, Dallas.
2. Meet Alton Brown or Tony Blair who are both cute and would both be excellent at selling grape juice. I watched The Deal, The Queen and The Special Relationship. Michael Sheen playing Tony Blair while looking like Liz Lemon's ex-fiancé Wesley Snipes is about as close as I'm going to get to Tony Blair.
3. Play a game of mini golf at Peter Pan Mini Golf in Austin. 
4. I'm going to Washington D.C. in July. My goals for that trip: visit Colonial Williamsburg (and be disappointed and angry), visit the NMNH or NMAH and  take a tour of the White House and meet President Obama's dog.Revision needed. Instead of D.C. I will be going to visit a city outside of the US. More on that later.
5. Break in new hiking boots by revisiting the McKinney Falls State Park and trying to stop calling it the McKinley Falls State Park. And to stop asking the rangers what William McKinley had to do with Texas. Half done. I will never stop asking what William McKinley has to do with Texas.
6. Win a game of Scrabble or Scramble on Facebook.
7. Visit the LBJ ranch and Texas White House. Done. More on this later. I guess one of my goals should be to blog more.
8. In December I watched Tron Legacy and I loved it. My favorite parts were the dialogue and Michael Sheen's character.  In 2011 I will finally watch the original Tron. A terrible movie, but man how handsome was Jeff Bridges? How handsome is Jeff Bridges?
9. Revisit the (Good) Bush Library before August so I can look at dresses worn by former FLOTUS and former White House Press Secretary Allison Janney. Ditto what I said for number 7.
10. Commit to memory something eloquent and impressive to recite at fancy parties like the Gettysburg address or an episode of Arrested Development.
11. Get invited to any fancy parties.

Books read in 2011

1. Medium Raw: a Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook - Anthony Bourdain
2. Fortune and Glory - Brian Bendis
3. Americana and other poems - John Updike
4. Life with Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse
5. Spoken from the Heart - Laura Bush
6. Outliers: the Story of Success - Malcolm Gladwell
7. Don't Get Too Comfortable - David Rakoff
8. The Magician's Nephew - C.S. Lewis
9. Bitter is the New Black - Jen Lancaster
10. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
11. Decision Points - George W. Bush
12. Travels with Charley in Search of America - John Steinbeck
13. Comeback 2.0: Up Close and Personal - Lance Armstrong
14. The Horse and His Boy - C.S. Lewis
15. Prince Caspian - C.S. Lewis
16. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - C.S. Lewis
17. The Silver Chair - C.S. Lewis
18. The Last Battle - C.S. Lewis
19. Kapitoil - Teddy Wayne
20. Twenties Girl - Sophie Kinsella
21. Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure - Matthew Algeo
22. Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness - Reinhard Kleist
23. Being Martha - Lloyd Allen
24. The Devil Wears Prada - Laura Weisberger
25. How Did You Get this Number? - Sloane Crosley
26. Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things - Randy Frost
27. Freakonomics: a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything - Steven Leavitt and Stephen Dubner
28. I Was Told There'd Be Cake - Sloane Crosley
29. The Nanny Diaries - Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
30. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk - David Sedaris
31. Assassination Vacation - Sarah Vowell
32. My Fair Lazy - Jen Lancaster 
33. Julie and Julia - Julie Powell 
34. Nanny Returns - Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus 
35. The Wordy Shipmates - Sarah Vowell 
36. Kennedy Weddings: a Family Album - Jay Mulvaney 
37. Cleaving - Julie Powell 
38. The Partly Cloudy Patriot - Sarah Vowell
39. Me Talk Pretty Some Day - David Sedaris 
40. Holidays on Ice - David Sedaris 
41. When You Are Engulfed in Flames - David Sedaris 
42. A Christmas Story - Jean Sheperd
43. Take the Cannoli - Sarah Vowell
44. The Wordy Shipmates - Sarah Vowell
45. The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance - Elna Baker
46. Unfamiliar Fishes - Sarah Vowell
47. Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love and Language - Deborah Fallows
48. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Nixon by Gerald Gardner
49. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America - Barbara Ehrenreich
50. Bossypants - Tina Fey
51. Earth: The Book - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
52. Eat, Shop Austin - Kate Wellman
53. Love is a Mixtape - Rob Sheffield
54. This is a Book - Demetri Martin
55. The Flags of the Confederacy: An Illustrated History - Devereaux Cannon
56. What You Should Know About the American Flag - Earl Williams
57. I Was Told There'd Be Cake - Sloane Crosley
58. Unfamiliar Fishes - Sarah Vowell
59. Stories I Only Tell My Friends - Rob Lowe
60. This Land is Their Land - Barbara Ehrenreich
61. Don't Get Too Comfortable - David Rakoff
62. When You Are Engulfed in Flames - David Sedaris
63. Talking to Girls About Duran Duran - Rob Sheffield
64. Ice: a Memoir of Gangster Life and Redemption - Ice T and Douglas Century
65. Betty Ford: Candor and Courage in the White House - John Greene
66. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim - David Sedaris
67. Holidays on Ice - David Sedaris
68. Zombie Spaceship Wasteland - Patton Oswalt
69. Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far - Bristol Palin
70. Naked - David Sedaris
71. How Did You Get This Number - Sloane Crosley
72. The Wordy Shipmates - Sarah Vowell
73. Assassination Vacation - Sarah Vowell
74. And the Pursuit of Happiness - Maira Kalman
75. The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee - Sarah Silverman
76. Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit - Barry Estabrook
77. Nellie Taft: The Unconventional First Lady of the Ragtime Era - Carl Anthony
78. My Year with Eleanor - Noelle Hancock
79. Moonwalking with Einstein - Joshua Foer
80. Eat Mor Chikin: Inspire More People - Truett Cathy
81. Pawnee: the Greatest Town in America - Leslie Knope
82. Confessions of a Shopaholic - Sophie Kinsella
83. Shopaholic and Sister - Sophie Kinsella
84. Mini Shopaholic - Sophie Kinsella
85. Unfamiliar Fishes - Sarah Vowell
86. The Steal: a Cultural History of Shoplifting - Rachel Shteir
87. Happy Accidents - Jane Lynch
88. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim - David Sedaris
89. The Lonely Lady of San Clemente: The Story of Pat Nixon - Lester David
90. Holidays on Ice - David Sedaris
91. The Devil Wears Prada - Lauren Weisberger
92. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) - Mindy Kaling
93. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
94. The Wordy Shipmates - Sarah Vowell
95. Bossypants - Tina Fey
96. Assassination Vacation - Sarah Vowell
97. Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
98. Freedom - Jonathan Franzen
99. 101 Places Not to See Before You Die - Catherine Price
100. The Girl Who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson
101. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson
102. Reflections: Life After The White House - Barbara Bush
103. All the King's Men - Robert Penn Warren
104. Birds of Houston - B.C. Robison
105. I Like You - Amy Sedaris
106. Squirrel Meets Chipmunk - David Sedaris
107. His Excellency: George Washington - Joseph Ellis