Favorite Books I Read in 2012

In honor of the new year about to begin, I thought it would be a good time to "countdown" my favorite books that I read (or listened to) during 2012. Most are books that are a year or a couple of years old, ones that I couldn't get around to before this year. A few are much older, but here they all are, anyway, maybe for other grad students who hadn't had the time!

10. Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay (2008, 2009, 2010)
Loved these books -- loved Katniss, loved Peeta, loved all the characters, loved the social critique, loved the intensity, loved the world that Suzanne Collins created. I know they are made for Young Adults, but it didn't matter; they were so enjoyable.

9. Our Tragic Universe (2011)
A weird and cool story about stories; this book has a great voice in the narrator.

8. A Happy Marriage (2010)
One of the tear-jerkers of the bunch -- a beautiful account of a human relationship's beginning and ending.

7. Room (2010)
One of the most dramatic books I've read in recent years! The narrator is pretty memorable, too.

6. The Story Sisters (2010)
This story haunted me as I read it. Lush and dark, and full of feeling.

5. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2008, 2009, 2010)
I never wanted these to end!

4. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005)
The other big tear-jerker -- but also touching and uplifting.

3. Wicked (2000)
Elphaba is probably one of my favorite characters of all time.

2. The Leftovers (2011)
Smart and thought-provoking post-apocalyptic tale about the people left behind on earth after an event that resembles "the rapture," yet doesn't discriminate the religion, age, gender, nationality, sexual orientation or status of its... victims?  

1. The Marriage Plot (2011)
Wonderful story, with metadiscourse about the limits of romance plots in novels as well as a few memorable characters.

"I haven't taken leave of my senses... I've come to them" -- Merry Christmas to All!!!

Hello GSAS Grad.Life readers!
      I am hoping you all have a wonderful holiday. It is the season to be with family, and to remember what is important in life, and to be grateful for it.
     Congratulations on finishing the semester -- now it is time to celebrate! You've earned it!
My favorite traditions:

homemade pizza on Christmas Eve, jigsaw puzzles, homemade cookies, driving around to see the lights with my brother and sisters, watching Alastair Sims as Scrooge with my dad and mom, my mom's beautiful tree and my parent's beautiful Christmas village, listening and dancing to favorite christmas carols, singing and playing guitar with my husband at the family Christmas Eve party, matching PJ's from my mom for me and my sisters

.... love them all!!! What are some of yours? Here's my favorite scene:

Well... I will be back very soon with more posts -- back in the swing of things before the week is over! :) But for now, enjoy your holiday traditions and time off!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! 

Until next time, Liza

Answers to Yesterday's QUIZ!

ANSWERS to YESTERDAY'S Quiz! 
10 a. "I know you're not the real Santa Claus."
9    b. "It just needs a little love."
14  c. "I don't know anything!/ I never did know anything!/ But now I know that I don't know/ All on a Christmas morning!"
13 d. "But you know, the thing about romance is... people only get together right at the very end."
12 e. "That's pretty low, mister! If I had a rubber hose, I would beat you... "
15 f. "What the hell is that?"-- "It's a gun." -- "Are you sure?"
1    g. "Football? Football? What's a football?"
11 h. "You can mess with a lot of things, but you can't mess with kids on Christmas."
4   i. "You sit around here and you spin your little webs and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money."
2    j. "You're supposed to be the leading lady in your own life, for God's sake!"
6    k. "All their windows were dark. No one knew he was there."
3    l. "Promise you won't kidnap me and my brother and plant stuff in our brains?"
7    m. "Why haven't you learned how to button a coat?"
5    n. "Second, there are, like, thirty Ray's Pizzas. They all claim to be the original. But the real one's on 11th. And if you see a sign that says "Peep Show", that doesn't mean that they're letting you look at the new toys before Christmas."
8   o. "But... but maybe he's only a little crazy like painters or composers or... or some of those men in Washington."

Take the HOLIDAY MOVIE QUOTE QUIZ!!!!

I love Christmas movies! Here are a list of my favorites, plus a quiz. Match the quote to the movie! Submit answers in the comments or on FB! I will post answers in tomorrow's post. No cheating with Google! I will find out!* 

1. A Christmas Story

2. The Holiday

 3. The Family Man

4. It's a Wonderful Life

5. Elf

6. How the Grinch Stole Christmas

7. Scrooged

8. Miracle on 34th Street

9. A Charlie Brown Christmas

10 & 11. Home Alone, and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

12. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

13. Love, Actually

14. Scrooge

And, last but not** LEAST.........

15. Holiday in Handcuffs

Come on! Clarissa Explains it All and AC Slater?? TV movie gold!!! 

Quotes:
__ a. "I know you're not the real Santa Claus."
__ b. "It just needs a little love."
__ c. "I don't know anything!/ I never did know anything!/ But now I know that I don't know/ All on a Christmas morning!"
__ d. "But you know, the thing about romance is... people only get together right at the very end."
__ e. "That's pretty low, mister! If I had a rubber hose, I would beat you... "
__ f. "What the hell is that?"-- "It's a gun." -- "Are you sure?"
__ g. "Football? Football? What's a football?"
__ h. "You can mess with a lot of things, but you can't mess with kids on Christmas."
__ i. "You sit around here and you spin your little webs and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money."
__ j. "You're supposed to be the leading lady in your own life, for God's sake!"
__ k. "All their windows were dark. No one knew he was there."
__ l. "Promise you won't kidnap me and my brother and plant stuff in our brains?"
__ m. "Why haven't you learned how to button a coat?"
__ n. "Second, there are, like, thirty Ray's Pizzas. They all claim to be the original. But the real one's on 11th. And if you see a sign that says "Peep Show", that doesn't mean that they're letting you look at the new toys before Christmas."
__ o. "But... but maybe he's only a little crazy like painters or composers or... or some of those men in Washington."

Happy Christmas Eve!!!!! xoxoxoo Liza

*There's no way for me to find out.
**does not reflect majority of critical opinions.

Celebrate Post Non-Apocalypse with Post-Apocalypse Film Fest

Well, if you are reading this, it means the world did not come to a crashing end!
Celebrate with a post-apocalypse movie marathon while you are wrapping presents and cooking your holiday feast today. Here are my top ten:

1. The Stand (1994)
Amazing plague movie based on novel by Stephen King. Gets a little weird at the end, but pretty awesome concepts.

2. Independence Day (1996)
Most of the world has been wiped out by aliens... what is next for humanity?

3. The Matrix (1999)
Okay, to be honest -- I JUST saw this movie for the first time. But I loved it!

4. Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Who doesn't love the irony and satire of a good zombie movie?

5. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Who doesn't love a clever and doubly ironic spoof of the said ironic and satirical zombie movie?

6. Children of Men (2006)
Dark, intense movie about the world in disarray once women have become infertile.

7. WALL-E (2008)
A look at humans once they've wasted the Earth.

8. The Road (2009)
Amazing movie after an amazing novel -- the story of American survival after everything is wiped off the face of the planet.

9. 2012 (2009)
SO bad it's good-- the kind of hilarious but intense action that draws you in riveted.

10. The Hunger Games (2012)
The planet has undergone radical change, and the population has diminished, and resources are scarce. In this dystopian novel, the resources are controlled by The Capitol, which rules in tyrrany, doesn't treat its districts fairly, and forces them to participate in sacrificial games, in an arena, for public entertainment, as punishment for a rebel uprising 75 years before.

Mayan Predictions May Prevent You From Reading This

   

     I have scheduled this blog entry to post on Dec. 21, 2012 -- hopefully, you will be able to read it.

    Alas, jokes about the end of the world according to the interpreted Mayan calendar have had somewhat of a pall cast over them since last Friday's mass murder in Connecticut. In fact, jokes about not being here tomorrow simply aren't that funny anymore. 

    Still, writers are reporting and blogging about it; yet, most articles I have come across are reporting on the scientists and academics who are debunking the myth of Friday's alleged apocalyptic event. 

The Guardian writer Ian Sample spoke with one academic who tried to clear up the confusion:

John Carlson, director of the Centre for Archaeoastronomy at the University of Maryland, is one of only a dozen or so active researchers on the Mayan calendrical system. "I often get asked what's going to happen on the day. I say lots of things are going to happen. Some people will be born. Some people will die. A car headlight will burn out. There will be earthquakes, like there are every day. And none of this will have anything to do with the ancient Mayan calendar," he says. Lest there be any doubt, he speaks the next lines loudly and slowly: "There are no ancient Maya prophecies for anything to happen on this date. There. Are. None."

While Sample's interview with Carlson really does seem to take the fun out of the predicted apocalypse, its tone reflects, I think, the huge shift in the general attitude towards the myth since the events in Newtown. When twenty 6 and 7 year olds die by the hands of one, it really does feel like the world is falling apart, despite vows to move on and make something positive and generative come out of such devastation. And, much like when 9-11, or Columbine, or the Aurora shooting, or other terrible criminal and terroristic acts occur, when so many innocent and unassuming lives are lost, we question why we are here, and we think a little more concretely about how we can take even one day for granted on this earth. 

     So, if you are reading this now, I am glad, because it means we have lived another day, and may be granted the mercy to see another sunrise tomorrow. Enjoy this weekend with your loved ones, and happy holidays. Until next time, Liza

"GradHearts" Dating Service: All I Want for Christmas...is You.

    Just got word of a new dating site, called GradHearts. Free to join, it works a lot like Match.com and okcupid -- you know, a profile, a picture, some filters, a wink, a blink, and a nod. The catch is that you have to have a graduate degree (a Master's or a Phd) to join up!
    I went undercover and logged in, to see what it was like and report back to you, readers! To create your profile, you just have to fill out a quick "About You" survey, to help generate your profile. On the professional side, it asks for your degree level,  subject studied (arts, humanities, law, engineering, medicine, or sciences), and current profession. On the personal side, it asks for your date of birth, marital status, sexuality, politics, and religion. Next, you use a map to "locate" yourself, zooming in as far as your very street, if you want!
   After you enter your own stats, you then have the option to select what you are looking for in a partner -- with the same categories as above. Upload a 140 character statement about yourself, and then a more detailed paragraph, if you want, plus the all-important PHOTO, and then, viola! You're now officially a member of Gradhearts.

   The site is pretty new, so not much is out there on how well it works, or how interesting the dating pool is. Overall, I think it is an interesting idea, because sometimes it is indeed easier to date someone who knows what you are going through -- kind of like when Hollywood actors say it is easier to date another person in show business, because they understand that kind of life. However, some say you'll have more success dating someone who does something totally different from you -- so who knows! Weigh in on that point, if you want!
    Regardless of opinions on grads dating grads, and although I can't say first hand if the site will find you an eternal romance, or even a fun fling, I wanted to let the GSAS world know about it, in case you have a special holiday wish this year. :)