Last night I read The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson (famous for her short story The Lottery; I had to read it in high school, and I'm sure a lot of other people did too). I don't know if I've ever read another story that terrified me as badly as this one did, at least not in a few years. I'm talking bodily terror, heart palpitations, the whole shebang. And I loved it. I don't watch horror movies, because the sounds and visual depictions of the gore are not particularly enjoyable for me. So, I rely on books for my terror. I haven't been truly scared reading a book since I read through much of Stephen King's oeuvre during my first year of college.

What I need is this: recommendations for other scary novels. I'm not looking for horror novels, where you're grossed out by gore and the aftermath of a terrible event. What I want is a terror novel, where the fright is generated from the dread and anticipation of something you know is coming, before it actually happens. (See Wikipedia, "horror and terror", for what I mean.)

Anyone have any good recommendations?

Eh. Blogging hasn't been a priority for me, but I do like seeing the lists of the books I've read! 2011 was a slow reading year for me (no wonder! completed a master's degree, dating someone, working late a lot). However, I did read some great books!

My favorites of 2011:
The Thursday Next series, by Jasper Fforde. This silly series follows a "literary detective" through the book world as she solves mysteries that affect written books. Who changed the ending of Jane Eyre? Can the Goliath Corporation be stopped? And can the characters in Hamlet ever stop fighting? These were a lot of fun to read.

Bossypants, by Tina Fey
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, by Mindy Kaling
These two are memoirs written by comedy writers/showrunners on NBC's comedies 30 Rock and The Office. I've liked their work for years, and these books were very entertaining.

The Wilder Life, by Wendy McClure.
An examination of obsession with Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Little House on the Prairie books. The author traveled to the main sites (and some minor ones) that were important in the books, and juxtaposed the importance of those books in her childhood with her current travels.

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, by Siddhartha Mukherjee.
This nonfiction look at the history of the treatment of cancer was fascinating, for a lot of personal reasons. Well-written and compelling, it offers hope for the future while remaining realistic about the extent to which treatment can help (and the fact that, often, there are no treatments that will work for more than a few months).

These is My Words, by Nancy E. Turner.
You know how sometimes, when a book has been recommended to you over and over again, you just...don't want to read it? Because you don't want to follow the bandwagon? And then you read the book and it is as great as everyone says and you like it just like everyone thought you would? This is that book, for me. I've had it on my shelf since last Christmas, after a couple more years of having it recommended to me. It's a great book.


Complete list of books:

1. The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic, by Steven Johnson. Finished January 3. (Recommended by Sheila O'Malley.)
2. Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour, by Bryan Lee O'Malley. Finished January 17.
3. Matched, by Ally Condie. Finished January 17.
4. Zombies vs. Unicorns, edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier. Finished January 21.
5. The Lonely Polygamist, by Brady Udall. Finished January 26. (Recommended by the site By Common Consent, I think...)
6. Only the Good Spy Young, by Ally Carter. Finished February 27.
7. I Was Told There's Be Cake, by Sloane Crosley. Finished March 4.
8. The Total Money Makeover, by Dave Ramsey. Finished March 5.
9. The Restless Dead, edited by Deborah Noyes. Finished March 6.
10. Lost in a Good Book, by Jasper Fforde. Finished March 8.
11. The Well of Lost Plots, by Jasper Fforde. Finished March 12.
12. Something Rotten, by Jasper Fforde. Finished March 13.
13. How Did You Get This Number, by Sloane Crosley. Finished March 19.
14. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley. Finished March 27.
15. Slam, by Nick Hornby. Finished April 18.
16. Unhooked: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love and Lose at Both, by Laura Sessions Stepp. Finished April 24.
17. Thursday Next: First Among Sequels, by Jasper Fforde. Finished April 26.
18. Bossypants, by Tina Fey. Finished April 28.
19. One of our Thursdays Is Missing, by Jasper Fforde. Finished May 10.
20. The Lover's Dictionary, by David Levithan. Finished May 14.
21. The Passage, by Justin Cronin. Finished June 2. (Recommended by Dave.)
22. The Wordy Shipmates, by Sarah Vowell. Finished June 28.
23. The Wilder Life, by Wendy McClure. Finished June 23.
24. City Adrift: New Orleans Before and After Katrina,  by Jenni Bernal. Finished July 2. (I wanted to know more about New Orleans after I visited).
25. A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan. Finished July 13. (Because it won the Pulitzer.)
26. You Know When the Men are Gone, by Siobhan Fallon. Finished July 4. (Got it for free at ALA, and it was good!)
27. The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, by Siddhartha Mukherjee. Finished September 11.
28. Dies the Fire, by S.M. Stirling. Finished September 18. (Recommended by Dave.)
29. World War Z, by Max Brooks. Finished September 24. (Re-read, in preparation for Zone One.)
30. Zone One, by Colson Whitehead. Finished October 24. (A critically acclaimed zombie book. Of course I was going to read it.)
31. The Imperfectionists, by Tom Rachman. Finished October 30.
32. Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro. Finished November 1. (So bleak.)
33. Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America, by Leslie Knope (and the writing staff of Parks and Recreation). Finished November 12. (Because it's my favorite TV show. The book was as awesome as the show.)
34. Is Everone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), by Mindy Kaling. Finished November 13.
35. These Is My Words, by Nancy E. Turner. Finished December 4.
36. Reamde, by Neal Stephenson. Finished December 11. (Because I love Stephenson. Except for the Quicksilver trilogy. Those books really needed an editor; I only made it halfway (which was still something like 1500 pages.)
37. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the American Meal, by Eric Schlosser. Finished December 30. (This was a re-read, although I didn't realize it until halfway through. I picked it up again on the recommendation of a girl from my freshman ward at BYU. Just as good the second time.)
38. Blood, Bones, and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef, by Gabrielle Hamilton. Finished December 23. (Saw it on the new books shelf at the library. Too bad Hamilton is incredibly unlikeable, and spent the last third of the book justifying herself for her decision to divorce her husband. That ruined it for me.)

That's it--38 books. But, I'm okay with that. I had other stuff going on this year. 

I can't help but feel that so much of New Orleans, at least the parts that I saw, need to be seen to really be understood. So, this post will be mostly pictures. Enjoy!


Friday, June 24
The sweet potato fries at the diner I ate at on Friday night. I chose this place because it looked well-lit and like there weren't any drunk people there, and I was tired of drunk guys hitting on me. I also had a perfect Reuben--no pics because it was too delicious and I had to eat it immediately!

The well-lit diner. The Food Network was on the TV, so I didn't even have to feel weird eating by myself, since I had a TV to watch!


Hotel room. I stayed at the Chateau Le Moyne in the French Quarter, and it was wonderful to be right in the historic district so I could do some exploring on foot.


Swag from the first night of the conference. The exhibit hall was huge and filled with people who wanted nothing more than to give away their merch! I love free things.

Saturday, June 25

I spent most of Saturday in the exhibit hall (not many pictures, unfortunately!). As I started, I had a grand plan to walk by every exhibit (mainly because I wanted to get a billion free things). I may have been delusional. I made it about a third of the way through before my swag bag became almost too heavy to lift. But wait! The ALA made arrangements for USPS to have a temporary post office right there in the exhibit hall!


 A line of librarians who are cranky because there were only two registers in the entire "post office." I'm certain the line was at least this long at every point during the hours the post office was open. They were only offering Priority Mail shipping, which made the line go a little faster. This was taken the first time I went to the post office to mail myself stuff. I went three more times during the conference.





Sushi-grade tuna stuffed with crab cakes and covered with a crayfish etoufee, and jambalaya. It was amazing. If you're ever in New Orleans, you should visit Oceana in the French Quarter.



The St. Louis Cathedral, which is the oldest Catholic cathedral in the U.S. Isn't it pretty?



Many of the row houses had tons of plants hanging from the second floor. I love the way it looks.



The view from the front porch of the Beauregard-Keyes House, which was built in 1826. 














More French Quarter homes.


This lady had a pet goat on a leash. So cute!


View of the river.








The New Orleans Wax Museum was cheesy and awesome. Check out the gore in these!




Dinner. Some shrimp thing and then a seafood salad. Yum!



 

So. I'm dating someone really great (not the same guy as a couple of months ago). We've only been dating for a couple weeks. But it's way different than other relationships I've had. Way better in a lot of ways. I feel very lucky. I was praying today that I won't screw this one up with my insecurities and my minor craziness. I have no idea what's going to happen here, but I like him a lot. A LOT. 

Also, my roommate likes him a lot too. This is a big deal. She has this amazing gift of discernment and just has a sense about people. She didn't like the last boy much, and she was so right. She's happy about this one. It's reassuring to know that she thinks he's pretty great too. She has very high standards.

------

I have 8 more days to finish the work for my master's. I'm a little stressed about it. Luckily the boy is out of town on a business trip for 7 of those days, or I would never finish. MLIS 2011, baby!

------

Is this really my life? I can't stop thinking about how blessed I have been. Life is so good.

Um, yeah. Blogging hasn't worked out for me as far as consistency goes. But I still want to keep a good list of the books I've read this year. Here are the books I've read since May 31:

78. For the Win, by Cory Doctorow. Finished May 31.
79. On Royalty, by Jeremy Paxman. Finished June 5
80. A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving. Finished June 8.
81. The Dead-Tossed Waves, by Carrie Ryan. Finished June 10.
82. The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance, by Elna Baker. Finished June 10.
83. Forest Born, byShannon Hale. Finished June 12.
84. The King's Eqyal, by Katherine Paterson. Finished June 12.
85. 1968, by Michael Kaufman. Finished June 13.
86. Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded, by John Scalzi.
87. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.
88. Acting in Film, by Michael Caine. Finished July 13.
89. Tales from Outer Suburbia, by Shawn Tan. Finished July 10.
90. Prom Nights from Hell, various authors. Finished July 14.
91. A Working Stiff's Manifesto: A Memoir of Thirty Jobs, by Iain Levinson. Finished July 20.
92. Going Bovine, by Libba Bray. Finished July 21.
93. House Lust, by Daniel McGinn. Finished July 23.
94. Blood Secrets: Chronicles of a Crime Scene Reconstructionist, by Rod Englert. Finished July 25.
95. Frindle, by Andrew Clements. Finished July 26.
96. Sorta Like a Rock Star, by Matthew Quick. Finished July 28.
97. Knights of the Kitchen Table, by Jon Sciezka. Finished July 28.
98. Everything on a Waffle, by Polly Horvath. Finished July 28.
99. All My Patients Are Under the Bed, by Louis Camuti.FInished August 1.
100. I Have Lived in the Monster: Inside the Minds of the World's Most Notorious Serial Killers, by Robert Ressler. Finished August 3.

101. Blankets, by Craig Thompson. Finished August 4.
102. I Am Not a Serial Killer, by Dan Wells. Finished August 4.
103. Story of a Girl, by Sara Zarr. Finished August 5.
104. Born to Rock, by Gordon Korman. Finished August 5.
105. Election, by Tom Perrotta. Finished August 7.
106. Clementine, by Sara Pennypacker. Finished August 8.
107. Empire Falls, by Richard Russo. Finished August 19.
108. Feed, by Mira Grant. Finished August 19.
109. A Match Made in High School,  by Kristin Walker. Finished August 20.
110. City Chic, by Nina Willdorf. Finished August 21.
111. Leap Day, by Wendy Mass. Finished August 22.
112. The Gift of Fear, by Gavin de Becker. Finished August 26.
113. Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway. Finished August 26.
114. Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins. Finished August 28.
115. Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins. Finished August 28.
116. Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy, by Ally Carter. Finished August 29.
117. The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath. Finished September 3.
118. Because I Am Furniture, by Thalia Chaltas. Finished September 4.
119. Z for Zechariah, by Robert O'Brien. Finished September 4.
120. All the President's Men, by Woodward and Bernstein. Finished September 5.
121. My Man Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse. Finished September 11.
122. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, by Cory Doctorow. Finished September 12.
123. The Introvert Advantage, by Laney.  Finished September 19.
124. The Culture of Fear, by Barry Glassner. Finished September 26.
125. Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things, by Frost and Steketee. Finished September 29.
126. Bait and Switch, by Barbara Ehrenreich. Finished September 29.
127. World War Z, by Max Brooks. Finished October 3.
128. Packing for Mars, by Mary Roach. Finished October 9.
129. The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death, by Laurie Notaro. Finished October 17.
130. The Cold War: A New History, by John Lewis Gaddis. Finished October 19.
131. Be Thrifty (...not cheap!), by Pia Catton-Suntree. Finished October 21.
132. One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding, by Rebecca Mead. Finished October 21.
133. Y the Last Man: Unmanned, by Brian Vaughn. Finished October 21.
134. Life is a Banquet, by Rosalind Russel. Finished October 22.
135. Marie Antoinette: A Life, by Antonia Fraser. Finished October 31.
136. Tales of the Madman Unerground, by John Barnes. Finished October 31.
137. Don't Judge a Girl By Her Cover, by Ally Carter. Finished October 31.
138. Midwives, by Chris Bohjalian. Finished November 6.
139. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. Finished November 6.
140. Hate List, by Jennifer Brown. Finished November 7.
141. The City of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau.  Finished November 7.
142. The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde. Finished November 8.
143. Then We Came to the End, by Joshua Ferris. Finished November 17.
144. Machine of Death: A Collection of Stories about People Who Know How They Will Die, edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, and David Malki!. Finished November 17.
145. Hush, by Donna Jo Napoli. Finished November 29.
146. The World According to Garp, by John Irving. Finished December 5.
147. The Way Men Act, by Elinor Lipman. Finished December 11.
148. Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson. Finished December 26.
149. The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why it Matters, by Rose George. Finished December 29.
150. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, by Aimee Bender. Finished December 30.

If I had the time or energy, I would rate them. Unfortunately, I have neither.

Also, I'm dating someone awesome. I'm trying not to talk to much about it for fear I'll jinx it, but it's going really well. Hooray!

As of yesterday, my hair is shorter than it's been in years, and I love it!


Also, I can't act normal in self-portraits I take in the car.

It's been a good week! And then I dropped my iPhone in the toilet. So, you know. Comme ci, comme ca. (if only I knew how to do diacritics in Blogger!)

Here we go! A lot of these were for classes, and I'll link you to other reviews I've written if I have them. I also include them all on Goodreads (http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1642817) if you want to see what star rating I've given them. It's been a good year for books--I've liked the majority of what I've read.

Stats:

• 77 books (I'm totally going to beat last year's record, especially since I'm taking a children's lit class over the summer! Last year I only read 126 books.)
• Pages read for my Tween Lit class: 4814. Blog found here, project found here.
• Pages read for my Teen Lit class: 13,255. These page counts don't count weekly journal articles and textbook reading, by the way. This is just literature for teens that I read. Ha. I didn't realize it was quite that high. Blog found here.
• Top 5 favorite books of the year: 
• 1. Dairy Queen, by Murdock.
  2. The Actor and the Housewife, by Shannon Hale.
  3. Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life (and the rest of the series) by Bryan Lee O'Malley.
  4. Into the Wild Nerd Yonder, by Julie Halpern.
  5. Lips Touch: Three Times, by Laini Taylor.
     
• Booklists that haven't led me wrong yet: Printz Honor and Medal Books; Cybil Awards. I can trust that anything nominated for these lists is pretty great.
• Books I wish I could scrub from my mind because I hated them so much: Evermore, by Alyson Noel; The Princess Test, by Gail Carson Levine (I love her, I hated this book); Summer Boys, by Hailey Abbott.
• TV shows that got me through the semester (and which you should absolutely watch if you aren't already): Glee, Parks and Recreation, Community, LOST (oh, how I'll miss you! Catch it on DVD).
• Grades this semester (3 classes): A, A, A-. I feel pretty great about that.

1. The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatije.
2. We Who Are Alive and Remain, by Marcus Brotherton. An awesome follow-up read after you watch HBO's Band of Brothers.
3. Carter Finally Gets It, by Brent Crawford. A great look at the mind of teen boys. How realistic is it? I'm not sure--it felt real to me (as a non-teenage girl).
4. Dealing with Dragons, by Patricia C. Wrede. Re-read. Review here.
5. How to Say Goodbye in Robot, by Natalie Standiford. Review here.
6. Flash Burnout, by L.K. Madigan. Review here.
7. Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow. Re-read. Review here.
8. Candor, by Pam Bachorz. Review here.
9. Shakespeare's Secret, by Elise Broach. Review here.
10. Bodies from the Bog, by James Deem. Review here.
11. Declare Yourself: Speak, Connect, Act, Vote. Review here.
12. Dairy Queen, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. I loved this book. If you pick up anything on this list, it should be this one. Review here.
13. Angry Management, by Chris Crutcher. Review here.
14. Just Ella, by Margaret Petersen Haddix. Review here.
15. Spinners, by Donna Jo Napoli and Richard Tchen. Review here.
16. Into the Wild Nerd Yonder, by Julie Halpern. Another great one. Review here.
17. The Princess Test, by Gail Carson Levine. Review here.
18. Zel, by Donna Jo Napoli. Review here.
19. The Thirteenth Princess, by Diane Zahler. Review here.
20. I'd Tell You I Love You, but Then I'd Have To Kill You, by Ally Carter. Review here.
21. Airhead, by Meg Cabot. Review here.
22. The Actor and the Housewife, by Shannon Hale. I stayed up until 4 am reading this one, crying like a baby. Sooo good.
23. The Adoration of Jenna Fox, by Mary E Pearson. Review here.
24. Fairest, by Gail Carson Levine. Review here.
25. The Off Season, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock.
26. Front and Center, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock.
27. Into the Wild, by Sarah Durst.
28. Max Hamm, Fairy Tale Detective, by Frank Camusso. Review here.
29. Beautiful Creatures, by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. They get everything right in their creation of atmosphere. Review here.
30. Ibby's Magic Weekend, by Heather Dyer. Review here.
31. Queen Bee, by Chynna Clugston. Review here.
32. Arab in America, by Toufic El Rassi. Review here. 
33. Girl, Interrupted, by Susanna Kaysen. Review here.
34. Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits, by Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson. Review here.
35. Crank, by Ellen Hopkins. Review here.
36. Monster, by Walter Dean Myers. Review here.
37. Neptune Noir, edited by Rob Thomas.  Of course I loved it. How can you go wrong with analyses of Veronica Mars, one of the best TV shows of the decade?
38. Lips Touch: Three Times, by Laini Taylor. Review here.
39. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. Re-read.  Review here. 
40. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, by Jack Finney. For a book more than 50 years old, it stands up remarkably well. 
41. Criss Cross, by Lynne Rae Perkins. Celeste recommended this, and she's always right when it comes to book recommendations. Thanks, sis! Review here.
42. Schooled, by Gordon Korman. Review here.
43. The Tale of Despereaux, by Kate di Camillo. Review here. 
44. Evermore, by Alyson Noel. Review here.
45. Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney. Review here.
46. Fever 1797, by Laurie Halse Anderson. Review here.
47. Summer Boys, by Hailey Abbott. Review here.
48. Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life, by Bryan Lee O'Malley. So twee, yet so good! I can't wait for the movie. Review here.
49. Fantastic Mr. Fox, by Roald Dahl. Re-read. Review here.
50. Love, Football, and Other Contact Sports. Review here.
51. Pirateology, by Dugald Steer. Review here.
52. Parrotfish, by Ellen Wittlinger. 
53. Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend. The title explains it all. Review here.
54. Geektastic, edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci. Review here.
55. The Demon's Lexicon, by Sarah Rees Brennan. Review here.
56. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, by Bryan Lee O'Malley
57. Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness, by Bryan Lee O'Malley. How can you go wrong with a Smashing Pumpkins album as part of your title?
58. Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together, by Bryan Lee O'Malley
59. Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe, by Bryan Lee O'Malley.
60. Acceleration, by Graham McNamee.  Review here.
61. Head Games, by Christopher Golden. Review here.
62. American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang. Review here.
63. The Monstrumologist, by Rick Yancey. Review here.
64. Just Listen, by Sarah Dessen. Review here.
65. The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, by Jacqueline Kelly. A great book. Review here.
66. Body Bags, by Christopher Golden. Review here.
67. A Great and Terrible Beauty. Review here.
68. Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith. Review here.
69. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. Highly recommended. Review here.
70. The Case Against Adolescence, by Robert Epstein. 
71. The Postmistress, by Sarah Blake. 
72. Will Grayson, Will Grayson, by John Green and David Levithan. So gay, but so good. But, you know. Super gay. Take that into account if you want to read it. What was I expecting--it's David Levithan! That's what he does best.
73. An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green. Awesome. I went on a John Green binge and it was totally worth it.
74. Looking for Alaska, by John Green
75. Paper Towns, by John Green.
76. Fire, by Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson. Am I terrible if I admit that I only read the Robin McKinley parts? I had already renewed it 6 times at the library and I was ready to have it gone...The stories I read were great!
77. Rapunzel's Revenge, by Shannon and Dean Hale, illustrated by Nathan Hale. Awesome.