Happy New Year's Eve friends.

Before we ring in 2018, I wanted to share some of my favorite books of 2017. This year I read 57 books, and according to my Goodreads rankings, I only had a handful of true favorites. Those favorites were all fiction books. Overall I read a ton more fiction in 2017 because I needed an escape from the real world.



So here are the books I gave five-star reviews in 2017.

Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah
Kristen Hannah tells an amazing story and though this book was nearly 500 pages, I couldn't put it down and by the end I was sobbing. Firefly Lane tells the story of two best friends from when they meet in the 70s as middle schoolers and follows them through their lives through into the early 2000s. Each section of the book is broken down by decade and both characters just felt so rich and real.

First Impressions: A Novel of Old Books, Unexpected Love, and Jane Austen by Charlie Lovett
This was one of the best books I've read so far this year. Chapters alternate being telling a fictional story of how Jane Austen came to write some of her most famous books and telling the modern day mystery of the origins of the first draft of one of those books. While I did find the ending to be a tiny bit predictable in the mystery part, this book was a perfect read. I loved the characters and didn't want the story to end.

Darktown by Thomas Mullen
Holy crap was this book good. Not only did it have the twists and turns one would expect from a typical crime novel, but it also carried the plot line of the first group of black police officers established in Atlanta in 1948. This group of officers had very limited power, and when two of them find the body of a dead black woman, who was last seen with a white man, they aren't allowed to investigate the case. It's instead turned over to white detectives. Being in the deep South during that time period, you can probably imagine how well that went. This book was excellent as a piece of historical fiction, but I also found the parallels with what's going on today between police forces and black citizens to be particularly striking.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Loved this classic book, and the crazy terrifying world it portrayed. It's really interesting reading it in light of all that's currently going on politically, and that's all I'm going to say about that.

The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney
This was an awesome book that I couldn't put down. I read most of it in one night and was captivated by the inner workings of the Plumb family. Have a suspicion this will be one of my favorite books of 2017.

And here's my runner-up -- receiving a four-star Goodreads review.

Artemis by Andy Weir
After loving the Martian so much, I was eagerly looking forward to Andy Weir's second novel. Artemis brought back all my favorite things about Weir's writing -- a sassy narrator who pauses for asides to make sure the reader is clued in to what is actually happening or as is often the case to make sure the reader understands her sarcasm, a fast-moving plot, and all the twists and turns of action taking place in almost-zero gravity. If you liked the Martian, you'll like this follow-up novel that takes place on the surface of the moon.

If you're curious about what else I read and liked (or didn't like) in 2017, you can check out this nice round-up on Goodreads.

What's on your reading list for 2018? I always love adding new books to the "to-read" pile.

The holidays are some of my favorite times of the year. I love watching the neighborhoods near me transform with decorations and lights, and people just tend to be in better moods. Plus, it's basically the only time of year I can actually tolerate cold weather because it seems "seasonally appropriate."


My friend's beautifully decorated house.

This past month, I have jammed in a ton of holiday activities and watched an embarrassing number of holiday movies.

My friend and I kicked off December with a holiday movie marathon. I'm pretty sure we watched movies on Hallmark and Lifetime and dissected the various options available to us on Netflix. It was such a fun way to spend a Saturday. (And I highly recommend A Christmas Prince and Four Christmases and a Wedding, if you're still looking for some holiday movies to watch).

I also visited Hillwood Estate with some friends to see the holiday decorations. The home and grounds belonged to Marjorie Merriweather Post. You can tour the museum and visit the grounds any time during the year, but everything was decorated gorgeously at Christmas.









My December was also full of various holiday parties and happy hours.




Photo credit on these two goes to my extremely talented coworker Puthorn.

And a friend hosted a most delicious holiday dinner and fed us amazing food and then topped it off with adorable desserts.







I'm grateful that I got to have this much holly jolly fun crammed into one month. It certainly made for a busy December, and the month at times seemed to fly by.

Happy holiday season friends!

I've spent the holidays back home in Pennsylvania, where it's been a balmy 24 degrees just about every day I've been here. I've been drinking lots of tea, reading lots of books and snuggling under piles of blankets.


This is my apartment in DC, but things have basically been the same in PA

It's been a pretty relaxing couple of days. I've spent lots of time with family and definitely eaten way too much food.

I was hoping to get in some runs to counteract all the cookies. I'd even bought a new pair of running shoes at the end of last week, and I was excited to try them over the Christmas holiday. But with wind chills throwing the temperatures into the teens, I've opted for indoor workouts instead.

Twice this week I've gone to the pool with my mom to swim.

On the first day, I dug through a pile of workout sheets on the pool deck and picked one that seemed sort of manageable. Warm up + workout ended up being something like 2,100+ yards.



Boy did my shoulders and upper back feel that the next day.

When I hit the pool again later in the week, I did another 2,000-yard workout, but I built in a little more rest time between some of the sets. That seemed to help with some of the soreness the next day.

I was hoping to be able to tag along with my mom to her yoga class today because a drop-in class is only $5. (DC friends, can you believe that's how cheap a single class is?!) Unfortunately the class already sold out, but I'm hoping someone drops out and then I can snag a spot at the last minute.

Yoga seems like the right workout for me today. It'd be good to stretch everything out.

I'll be heading back to DC in the next day or so, but it's been really nice to have this week to just relax in PA.

Last time we talked hip things, I was able to run a bit here and there and had slowly started reintroducing some strength training through barre classes.

In good news, a lot hasn't changed on that front. I'm still able to run a bit, and I'm still trying to do some regular strength training or PT exercises to help stabilize my hip.

In order to get to a place where I could do any of that again my doctor put me on a short course of prednisone.



As the kids say, it's a helluva drug.

On the positive side, it seemed to completely knock out my hip pain. By day two, I could get out of my car, stand up from my sofa, run, walk to work, basically exist like a normal human, without pain.

So that's a huge win.

But prednisone can have some nasty side effects. I will be honest that the side effects I've experienced have been more the annoying variety than the dangerous variety. I'm not whining about any of this, more just documenting my experience.

First, I gained weight. This is a pretty universal side effect of prednisone. And while my weight gain has been fairly minimal since I wasn't on it for very long, it's making me feel uncomfortable. Even after being off this stuff for like three weeks, I'm still ravenously hungry and my weight is yo-yoing. I feel super bloaty and gross a lot of the time, even on the days I work out.

From everything I've read, I know this is really common and that eventually (hopefully) this weight will come off and I'll return to normal. But I did read it can take a while after you've been off the steroids. I look forward to whenever that is so I stop feeling so bloated and feel more comfortable again.

The second side effect deals with lady things, so coworkers, family members, friends who may generally be skeeved out by that should probably stop reading now. The rest of this post is definitely TMI.

Here's a random holiday picture for you to end on.



Cool.

Ok so this steroid also totally threw my period out its normal rhythm.

Last month it came 10 days early. TEN DAYS! That is bananas. It's basically half a cycle.

This month it's been in town for 10 days! That's like double its usual stay and I'm assuming that's also some of the reason I've felt bloated since basically forever now.

Also what's with the ten days in both of these scenarios? That's just weird.

So yea, prednisone -- great for knocking out inflammation and letting me be able to not have pain, bad for other major body systems.

I assume both the weight gain and the period issues will normalize in time. I just hope that doesn't take too long and doesn't mean my hip pain comes back because the steroid has totally worn off. Time will tell I guess.

I know I said in my last book round up that I was hoping to read more books in November than I did in October. And I guess I succeeded. I read three whole books in November compared to the two I read in October.

Not exactly the numbers I was hoping for, but my Thanksgiving ended up being busier than I anticipated, which cut down on reading time.

At least I enjoyed the books I read in November!



How to Be a Heroine by Samantha Ellis
This is a book for truly nerdy book people. It examines what we can really learn from all our favorite literary heroines (Jane Eyre, Elizabeth Bennet, etc). This was a quick and fun trip down memory lane. It also made me want to pick up old favorites or get around to reading all those classics that I haven't yet.

Saints for All Occasions by J. Courtney Sullivan
This was a great read about two sisters from Ireland who came to America and the sacrifices they each made along the way to establish themselves and their family. When one of their children dies, the sisters look back on all the decisions they made and how they impacted their relationship and the rest of the children.

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler
This book started off a bit slow. In fact, it took me four months to get through it because I kept putting it down and then picking it back up weeks later. But by the second half the book, I thought it got really good, and I didn't want to put it down. My heart broke for Zelda as she tried to deal with the diagnosis of her mental illness, and she was routinely forced to play second fiddle to her husband's attempt at stardom. While this novel is a work of fiction, it was an interesting look at what could have been going on in her mind as she tried to figure out who she was and find her own voice.

My December reading is already off to a solid start, so I'm hoping to wrap up this year with a few more books. If you have recommendations, I'm always interested!