There are two days left in December – two days left in 2013! Ack!! As we all collectively freak out over that information, let’s take a look back at the past month. I’m linking up again with Leigh Kramer and sharing things that I’ve been into this month – kind of like a bunch of little mini reviews of all the media, food and other stuff I’ve been enjoying.

Books:

I’ve read four books this month! This may not sound like much but it’s kind of a record for me so don’t mind me while I cheer myself on. Here are the books I read and a mini review of each.

1. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (Nov/Dec Book Club Pick) – Finished December 9, 2013 – How do I even begin to describe this book? This book was intense and complicated and fantastic and occasionally awful, but not in a literary way so much as a “how many times are we going to torture, kill and humiliate this person?” kind of way. They say that a good author torments their characters? Well by that definition (and many others) Kate Atkinson is a VERY good author.Imagine if you could go back and relive your life over and over again – what things would you change and do differently? This is sort of the premise of the book and in the beginning the main character seems to just keep on dying every ten minutes in awful ways that made my mother heart hurt. But gradually she lives longer and longer and it oscillates between feeling like a story about all the ways you can die / be hurt / suffer and feeling like a story about all the ways we can survive / overcome / be better. It’s hopeful and despondent all at the same time. Make of that what you will! – Full Review –
2. Christmas at Copper Mountain by Jane Porter – Finished December 10, 2013 – This was a love story that required the tiniest suspension of disbelief as looking at it face-on, it’s pretty unrealistic. However, it’s Jane Porter so the writing is stellar and the characters really suck you in and I’ll admit that I finished the book in basically 2 sittings, unable to put it down.
3. Wish You Were Eyre by Heather Vogel Frederick – Finished December 23, 2013 – I thought this was a nice end to a really great series. It had a lot of the usual hijinx that we’ve come to expect from the mother daughter book club and some clever story lines that did a good job of tying everything together by the end. I’ll miss checking in on the Mother Daughter Book Club but I also felt like they ended it on a good note.
4. Daddy-long-legs by Jean Webster – Finished December 27, 2013 – This book sucked me in from page one. The main character is so amiable, interesting and intelligent and the writing style so inviting. It felt like talking to a very good friend and made for a book that was read quickly and deeply enjoyed. It’s hard to believe it was written 100 years ago, it easily could have been written today. – Full Review –

Right now I’m reading Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt which my book club will be discussing at the end of next month – I know that book came out ages ago and probably everyone and their brother already read it. Everyone and their brother except all us ladies in my book club! I’m really glad that our system of picking books allows us to read such a variety of books and that I finally have a good excuse to read this one!

Movies:

We saw two movies in the theater this month, which also rarely happens! My dad came to visit for Christmas which means we squeezed in a few extra date nights while he was in town. We saw American Hustle and The Hobbit 2.

I thought the cast in American Hustle did a really good job, but it’s kind of a strange movie so I’m hesitant to say how much I enjoyed it per say, though it was very well done.

The Hobbit 2 could easily have been an hour and a half shorter and there would have been no complaints from me, but I do get a small thrill from making fun of the Tolkein movies and this one had plenty of things to make me laugh, whether they were intentionally funny or not. My favorite thing was probably realizing an hour into the movie that Bilbo Baggins is played by Watson from the BBC Sherlock series and that Sherlock plays the giant dragon.

I bought Mean Girls on dvd this month and made my husband watch it with me so that he’d understand all the jokes and lines that I still quote many, many years later. Don’t tell anyone but he enjoyed it way more than he thought he would!

TV:

I don’t know if I have anything new to say in the world of tv. I was very happy that Alex & Sierra won the X-Factor this season and totally downloaded four of their songs on iTunes, something that I rarely do. Here’s one of my favorites:

Music:

I bought the soundtrack for Frozen finally. A month after seeing the movie, I still seem to have the songs from the movie stuck in my head and I’m not the only one in the house still humming along to Do You Want To Build a Snowman. So I used some of my Amazon gift card from Christmas to buy a copy. Looking forward to enjoying that with the kids!

Food:

My doctor and I were brainstorming ideas to curb cravings at my physical this month and one of her ideas was to drink a cup of tea at night. The warmth of the tea is relaxing and also expands your stomach to give you a sensation of being full – sounds ideal to this comfort eater who is always cold! My husband and I have added this small ritual to our evenings and really enjoy it.

My husband surprised me on my birthday this month with a marzipan birthday cake from a local bakery. It’s one of my absolute favorite kinds of cake and he completely surprised me with it so I was thrilled to say the least!

What have you been into lately?