Fifteen Days: Day 15.theendz

A Story

Long ago and far away, because all good stories take place long ago and far away, there was once a group of students that lived in a Residence Hall in Chelsea, London for a very short and very beautiful period of time.  They spent many nights in silly states and many days weaving their lives together with the threads of shared experience. 

One student had bones made of rubber.

One student was the nicest guy alive.

One student had endless energy.

One student was the most popular.

One student was neurotic.

One student spoke in quotable quotes.

One student had the most caring heart.

One student was the star.

And one student was not ready to say goodbye to his friends and the city he had learned to call home.

And though they enjoyed themselves a great deal, and would have given anything to continue their journey together, all good things must come to an end—and their adventure was no different.

They had the future to look forward to and the memories of what had come to pass.  And for this, they were thankful.

So just like that, somehow simultaneously looming and without warning: it ended.

With all the love in my heart,

Josh

Fifteen Days: Day 14.penultimatez

Another person I have had the great pleasure of getting to know over the last few months, despite the fact that we come from very different backgrounds, have very different political attitudes, and had no reason to interact with one another.  Maybe it will always be a mystery why Rachel DeFoe and I even started talking.  Regardless, I am glad that we did because she is awesome.  She is from Texas and goes to Trinity in San Antonio.  Rachel has a lot of drive, a huge personality, and a work ethic like none other.  I think that’s why I have such mad respect for her: if she wants something, you better damn well know she’ll be getting it.

Rachel has a blog, for those of you that do not know her, where she has been blogging about her study abroad experience at intermittent points over the course of the semester.  Last night, however, she did something that I was looking forward to doing myself: acknowledging all of the wonderful people in this program and dropping a little note about them.  The ones who I am closest to over here already know how I feel about them, so I suppose it’s not that big of a deal that Rachel beat me to the punch.  However, I would like to repay the favor:

Rachel- You are effervescent and I don’t think that there’s any other way to describe you.  Sure, I could say that you are eloquent, motivated and motivational, gorgeous, intelligent, hysterical, and approachable, but I would rather just say you’re effervescent: it’s cooler.  Your charm and unyielding kindness is nothing I expected from a conservative, though I suppose that’s what is so endearingly wonderful about you.  You’re unexpected.  You’re a breath of fresh air.  You’re a good friend and I am so lucky to have met and interacted with you this semester.  So, in short, you’re awesome and I am a better person for having met you.  Nothing but love for you, my dear. 

Quick Summary of my day: Woke up late (too much cider and beer the night before, but cheers to Drew, Izzy, Steve, and Ben), had lunch, went to Harrods with Katz, Steve, Izzy, and Drew for some last minute London-ness, took a photo with Peter Pan, went to dinner at My Old Dutch, and came back to the room to unwind before our final day together tomorrow.

I have been looking forward to this post forever because it’s the second to last in the Fifteen Days series.  And why is that important, you ask?  Well, I’ll tell you!  I am obsessed with the word ‘penultimate’—have been since Lemony Snickett taught it to me in his 12^th novel in the Series of Unfortunate Events—and anytime the next to last item in a series comes about I get to word drop.  Ah!  Love it.  I love saying penultimate almost as much as I love saying insidious.  Go ahead; try that word…tastes good, don’t it!

Yes, Microsoft Office, I am aware that using ‘don’t it’ is not grammatically correct.  That little jagged green line is not going to force me into compliance so just put it away!  I wrote it that way for effect!

So, yeah, this is the penultimate post of the London experience.  It’s bittersweet.  Maybe even the definition of the word.  I cannot think of another adventure in my short lifetime that has compared to the one I have been on all semester here in this city—perhaps there will be nothing to compare it to even later on in my existence.  I imagine that studying abroad is rather anomalous; there’s little that matches the experience of being on your own in a whole other world.

I know I’ve said it before, but my god is it ever relevant now: I am so fortunate and this whole abroad thing has served as a much needed reminder that when we get opportunities as great as this, we need to run with them.  We need to embrace them and allow them to trigger personal evolution and change.  I like to think that I have done that this semester, that I’ve made the most of four months of my life and done the best that I could with all the circumstances surrounding them. 

In 40 hours, I will be gone from this place and I will never again sit in room 810 and look out over the city, the London Eye just out of sight.  I’ll never watch an airplane cruise against the clouds while the moon peeks out through the gray.  I’ll never see a man storm out of Londis and throw a piece of citrus fruit at a woman walking by and pushing a stroller…I guess I could live without that last one.

In all seriousness: I will be back in London, but living in this room is never going to happen again.  Really, I suppose that’s fine.  I mean dormitory living isn’t exactly the highlight of the experience.  I guess if you got as lucky as I did with an excellent roommate, it’s not all that bad—still, I won’t miss this twin-sized bed and the lack of independent space.

This post is dedicated to Drew, Rachel, Michael, Izzy, Emily, Emily, Steve, Jenny, Jamie, Jacque, Ben, Melinda, Kelly, Jennifer, Sara, Alex, Virginia, Stacy, Kori, Alyssa, Anne, Brandy, Taylor, Megan, Becky, Alec, Micah, Matt S, Christine Matt A, Dan, Miles, Garrett, Roy, Charlotte, Laura, Velma, Kristy, Jenna, Nicole and Alli and anyone that was very unintentionally left off this list.  Each of you has touched my life in various degrees of significance and I am thankful for everything I have learned from you.

I realized tonight, after walking in after dinner at My Old Dutch one last time, that seeing this view of London will happen one more time before it never happens again: my penultimate room with a view.

For the second-to-last time,

Cheers.

Fifteen Days: Day 13.profilez

Today I took my last final here in London which means that my academic semester is pretty much over!  I hesitate to say completely because there is a staged reading of our Playwriting text on Friday that we were responsible for creating, casting, and performing for the entire program before our final lunch together as a group.  To be honest, I am not too worried.  The actually writing portion of the class is over and now I feel 100% free.  I do wish that I hadn’t committed myself to a read-through this evening because I am ready to go out and DANCE!  Hooray, Walkabout!  (Side note: when I was waiting for Steve at the Temple stop yesterday—he’s always late so we’re constantly waiting for him—I was up on top of Walkabout admiring the beautiful view of Westminster.  It’s such a quaint little place.

So, yeah, I hope that I can have enough energy to get through a read-through, play catch up afterward, and then head out for another fantastic evening of fun in this beautiful, wonderful city.  There are only so many more times I can do that now, you know?!

Here’s what’s more heavy on my mind right now, even more so than the fact that I am leaving London very, very soon.  I cannot stop thinking about how I only have five classes left in my undergraduate education.  I have a January Term and one semester left until I will have a cap on my head and a degree in my hand.  A bachelor’s degree, nonetheless!  But then what happens?  I wish I knew.  I really wish there were some magic button that I could push and everything that is destined for me would flash before my eyes and the next step would just illuminate beneath my feet.  Alas, only in fairy tales and fantasy novels does that every happen.  The more I think about it, though, my life is pretty much a fantasy—great friends, great family, amazing stories—and it just seems all the more plausible that somehow I might just find my way.

You may or may not remember one of my first posts that very casually went through 6 of the first people that I met here in London through my program.  While they have stayed very close to me throughout this whole experience, it should come as no surprise that others have also found their way into my life.  I mean, I am REALLY awesome.  And so are Kelly Murphy and Ben Hertel.  Here are some mini-bios from my perspective.

Kelly Murphy is my long lost sister.  I forget who suggested that Kelly and I looked as if we could be siblings, but it has remained a running joke between us over the course of the semester.  What is not a joke is that Kelly and I are going toucan scouting in the rainforest next summer: Rainforest Excursion 2011!  Kelly was born and raised in Jersey which is just another one of the reasons on a now lengthy list to visit the East Coast.  She goes to Bucknell University which is on the Susquehanna River—I think—and she is involved in Greek Life there.  Here in London, she is referred to as CPG, or Classic Popular Girl because other than Brandy (everyone’s favorite) she is the most popular girl in the program.  Today, Izzy made a delightful pun when we walked in on Kelly napping at the center.  “CPG!  More like SleePG!”

Ben Hertel looks like Miles Duffy.  For those of you who are unaware of Miles Duffy, he was a former speech competitor of mine that was awfully talented.  Anyway, when I first met Ben, I actually thought he was Miles and was like, “WTF?  HOW CRAZY IS THAT!?”  Then it turned out that it wasn’t actually Miles—oddly, Ben worked with Miles all summer.  Weird, right?  Anyway, Ben is hilarious.  Like, real funny.  His bones are made from putty and his face is perfectly expressive.  Also, we’re both in love with extended hypothetical situations.  They’re the best, brotha!

Tomorrow: A note on Rachel DeFoe! 

A note to everyone: I love you.  I miss you or I will be missing you soon.

Fifteen Days: Day 12.gamez

Side note: I type all of these little blog posts in Microsoft Word first so that I don’t have to worry about losing everything because of my computer incompetence.  All right, I am pretty savvy when it comes to computers and technology in general, but still: better safe than sorry.  Especially since I have the tendency to wander away from any current website in favor of Facebook or Gamespot—even more so now that the Game of the Year nominations have been revealed!  OMG!  Yep, definitely going to talk about those at the end of this post.  If you’re not interested, too bad!  It’s my blog and I do what I want!

Side Note 2: ERICK PLATTNER GET VOICEMAIL OR ANSWER THE CALLS THAT LOOK SKETCHY!  IT’S ME FROM SKYPE.

Side Note 3: Adele and Kanye make my musical life.  Forever.

Enough side notes, they’re boring and don’t really add anything to the content of this blog. I think I will call them “other news” from now on…like this:  “In other news, I am drinking gin out of a jam jar with a splash of lemonade because it’s Tuesday.”  See, better right?

Today was a beautiful day in London.  Not particularly sunny, no, but certainly not the gloomy gray that usually occupies the sky.  I woke up fairly late, around 10:30, and remember feeling very well rested after an unusually irritable state of mind from the previous evening: see embittered blog of yesterday.  Today: much more chipper, much more me.

Last evening, Rachel DeFoe and her posse—yes, her posse, she’s that cool—made a delicious Christmas dinner for everyone to enjoy though I must say that the highlight of the evening came from her oreo balls that were, as the name suggests, balls of cookie, cream cheese, and chocolate.  Not disappointed.  Another wonderful moment was in the Christmas card I received from her.  I was truly touched and it was an incredibly sweet gesture.  Love that girl.

Also, I had a lovely moment with Izzy and Jennifer and Ben when the latter two walked into our kitchen in a drunken state brought on by a party at their bosses home.  What a treat!  Jennifer told sexy stories, Ben was…well, the ever delightful Ben.  He’s my fave…well, one of them anyway. We like to pretend that we are a bickering, divorced, semi-working-on-things couple and that Katz is our daughter that has spent a majority of her life living with just me.  It’s a good imaginary scenario.  And I LOVE imaginary scenarios.

Right: today kicked ass.

Following my early morning routine, I went to lunch with one miss Isobel Brown at the local favorite: The Stockpot.  Spaghetti and Meatballs was on special…are you kidding me?  How could I not enjoy that?  Iz ordered the carbonara, of course, and we had really good intentions of splitting half way through.  We just enjoyed our respective meals too much and a bite a piece from the other plate was enough to curb our hunger.

Following lunch, I walked on down to Temple—I say that like it’s nothing, but it’s really a good hour of a walk—and met up with StePHen Lee Briles for one of thee most nerdy things I have done in my life.  We stopped by the Royal Courts of Justice to watch a court appeal/trial.  First, we went for coffee and had a delightful chat about Katie Blinn, everyone’s favorite topic, and went to the courts to watch a case on heroin possession.  Yay!  Some dude had 37 kilos of the stuff at 64% purity.  How much does that amount to you ask?  £950,000.  Yep.  That’s a lot-o’-drugs. 

So we watched and then walked back to the res hall, all the while having a fantastic discussion.  Steve Briles: you’re the best.  We met up with Izzy and went to the National Portrait Gallery, but they closed the place down within 20 minutes of us being there.  Kind of a bummer—we will definitely be going back.  Steve split to go watch some rioting and Izzy and I ventured to Covent Garden in an attempt to go see War Horse.  Yep, ‘attempt.’ It was all sold out…again.  Bummer!  So we went to dinner at the Wagamama and then came back to the residence hall to enjoy the company of some of the greatest people you’ll ever meet.

Tonight: we’re probs going to play a game of Celebrity or Pass the Stack.  I am hoping for the latter, but mums the word!

OH!  I also had a freaky as dream last night (a couple of them actually), but the one I am thinking of now happened like this.  Ben and Steve and I were sitting on top of the Res Hall smoking cigars—ish, I know—and all of a sudden I was on top of Benson’s in Walker, MN.  I was all alone and then I jumped off of the roof and found my brother and his friend Jackson hanging out on the corner.  Naturally: we decided to burn down Bensons which turned out to be a portion of the moon.  Basically: we set the moon on fire and the Walker police blamed us for destroying the coolest part of our night sky.  I was very, very confused when I woke up… Yep, that was the end.  Just me, Erick, Jackson, and Wayne Tennis discussing the ramifications of burning down the moon.  Odd.

Okay, as promised, though I doubt you care—too bad, I do!!!—here are the nominees for the Game of the Year: Bayonetta, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Mass Effect 2, Super Meat Boy, Red Dead Redemption, Heavy Rain, Vanquish, Starcraft II, Halo: Reach, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

I have not played all of them, but I have watched them all enough to understand the basics of their respective greatness.  Therefore, I feel like I can pretty accurately give you a list—very little detail—of how I would rank these nominees.  Feel free to disagree, assert some support, or not give a shit as you please.  A double asterisk indicates that I have played the game

10.  Starcraft II – don’t care, don’t care, don’t care.**

9.  Red Dead Redemption – cool concept, just not something I feel stacks up to the rest.

8.  Halo: Reach – maybe the best Halo game? **

7. Heavy Rain – story seems epic, gameplay looks solid.

6. Super Meat Boy – I WANT THIS.  It looks like a great platformer.

5. Vanquish – okay, this game rocked.  I didn’t think that it was as great as the other four though.**

4. Battlefield: Bad Company – this game is terrifyingly realistic and has amazing replay…from what I hear…

3. Super Mario Galaxy 2 – probably my favorite on the list, to be real.  However, I don’t think that it’s overly original as the other two nominees which were just as fun.**

2. Mass Effect 2 – maybe the best RPG available right now?  Yeah, I think so. **

1 . Bayonetta – epic.  Creative, cool, fun, AMAZING replay.  Also: who new witches could be so delightfully sassy, hot, and charming?

Sorry about that nerd out moment.  Woops!

PEACE LOVE COFFEE

Cheers!

Fifteen Days: Day 11.examz

Finals have officially started in little ol’ London.  Yessir, they are alive and kicking.  I had my very first one this morning, actually, and I thought that it went quite well.  It helped that it was definitely for one of my favorite classes this semester: Pre-Raphaelites.  The exam was four sections, four essays.  It was very straight forward.  I like exams that reward for you attending class and taking notes.  If that’s all you have to do well, I’m happy.  Still, I was rather nervous.  You see, I have never taken a cumulative final in my life.  Nope, not one.  Most of my classes simply build on previous theories and examples covered in previous exams.  I guess their sort of cumulative, but not strictly so.  Anyway, the final for art history was 100% cumulative.  I was writing about things I learned back in September.  I guess it’s never too late to surprise yourself with how much you can learn in a semester.  Basically I have become a well of information for 19^th century artists in England.  I guess that’s sort of cool.

Useful?  Nah.  But, still, I enjoyed the class.

Speaking of classes that are over, we all got a text from our creative writing professor recently that was in response to our last in class exercise about what sharing our writing music felt like to us.  Of course, I was uncomfortable about the whole ordeal because walls are like my favorite thing ever, but I am guessing some of the other responses were pretty similar because most of Atima’s response was about never letting the world getting us down and always feeling the passion of life.  It was a little odd, admittedly, but it was quite a nice sentiment.  And it was nice to hear from a professor on my cell phone for a non-class related issue.  Really, it was about her caring enough to send us all a note saying: keep going, guys.  I’m a fan.

I have no idea what’s on the agenda for this evening.  Usually, My Old Dutch is part of the agenda, but most of us have other plans this evening and it’s not even £5 anymore now that the Christmas menu has rolled around.  Oh well, maybe we’ll hit it up late this week.  So other than NOT eating delicious chicken curry pancakes, I have no plans.  I think I will head back to ASDA in search of a cheap duffel bag.  I went on Sunday because they’re open 24 hours, but I guess that means open until 5pm.  Who knew?!

I AM READY TO SEE MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS IN THE UNITED STATES.  I keep reminding myself to be a sponge.  To just soak it all up because who really knows when this gets to happen again.  Believe, I am soaking it up, trying to stay upbeat, but I am so ready to be home.  Odd, right?  I wonder if anyone else that studied abroad before me felt like that with just 5 days left or if it was just a great sadness to be leaving the places they studied in.  Blerg.

Also: today I woke up to discover that I my oyster card has gone missing.  C’mon, 5 days before I’m leaving you have to just up and disappear?  I totally had you last night!  Just come back to me because I CANNOT afford to pay for travel by the day.  It’s just not going to happen, brotha.  I will be walking everywhere from now until the end of the semester.  I don’t mind, but I can definitely tell you that come Saturday night when I am eating B’Dubs, I am going to be straight up exhausted.

Oh, and Ke$ha isn’t happening.  Tickets got to expensive after I realized that I had done the order wrong.  My card was never charged and I never got tickets.  By the time my dumb ass realized this last week: tickets were way too expensive.  I guess I will just have to hang out with her after the concert.  Izzy made the connection that Drew is Taylor Swift and I am Ke$ha.  Sometimes I cringe at how accurate that comparison is…

My Mom moved into her new house this weekend and it’s a very exciting time for her.  Also, because she has moved in, that means that I have two new homes to celebrate Christmas.  My dad’s place will be a new one for me as well!  Weird, right?

Okay.  It’s Monday night in London:  Time to get my ass in gear and enjoy some of this beautiful city.

“I really can’t stay, I’ve got to go away, this evening has been so very nice.”  -GLEE version, please.   

Cheers,

Jish Pish Nish Fish

Fifteen Days: Day 10.winterz

I mean, I just, I mean.

If you were in London, you would want your last weekend to be fairly epic, right?

Right.  Not actually a question. 

Well, maybe epic isn’t the correct word for this weekend, and maybe it’s not fair for me to call these last few days my last weekend in London.  Kelly and I were at a café studying on Saturday afternoon and Emily just happened to be working at the same place.  When four o’clock rolled around and the three of us were sick of working, we decided to pack it in and head back to the residence hall.  “This may sound cheesy,” said Emily, timidly clipping along a pace or so behind me, bashful that what she was about to say might cause some eye rolling or over-the-top sighs.  “I’ve been repeating that one quote over and over in my head.  You know, something about it not ‘being the end of a journey, but the beginning of an adventure’ or something like that.”  I’ll give it to Emily: it was really cheesy.  But she was right.  She was absolutely right.  There’s no reason to focus on this Saturday and Sunday being the last weekend in London because we’ll be back.  If we truly love this place and this life as much as we have said, we will be back.

I will be back.  Maybe even for grad school?  We’re working on it!

Last night, following our Secret Santa exchange, we all went out to the Winter Wonderland experience in Hyde Park.  Basically, it was like a miniature State Fair, complete with delicious, terribly unhealthy food, overpriced alcohol, nauseating rides, and crowds upon crowds of people.  In short: it was a blast.  Plus, there were Santa sculptures and miniature holiday scenes set up all over the park which allowed for some impressive holiday shots of Kelly, Steve, Izzy, and I.  Fun times, brothah!

So we rode the bus back to the Res Hall and decided that, hey, it’s London: let’s drink!  So we started playing a rousing round of King’s Cup on the corner of Kings Road.  I mean, not literally on the road, we weren’t that out of it.  But, you know, the hall is sort of on Kings…Sorry…bad pun/moment/whatever.  And then we played another round.  And maybe three?  Can’t remember, really.  Then we decided it would be a good idea to take our joy to a pub in Chelsea so we took off for the Queen’s Head near Sloane Square.  Unfortunately, it had closed by the time we arrived and we were very disheartened.  So disheartened that I broke my key.  Woops!  And no, Anastasia Scott/Michelle Wallin, it was not an intentional key snap like when I broke my pencil in 10^th grade—six years ago, may I remind you—but a rather sad moment that was completely unwanted.  Sorry little key; I was never meant to keep you after all.

Right: Kelly and I walked on to the Tube Station because we wanted to go out instead of retreating.  So we walked.  We walked the whole block and a half (a long distance when you’re buzzing!) and realized that the tube was closed.  Wah wah.  So we decided to head back as well.  I am pretty sure we were heading back with the intention of going out when we returned, but somehow that didn’t happen.  Instead, we drunkenly bantered back and forth and then parted ways for the evening. 

Shortly after:  I accomplished my semester goal.  I SLEPT WITH IZZY BROWN, BROTHAH!!!  I mean: she fell asleep in my bed under my covers and I laid next her on top of the blanket.  Reportedly I only slept with my feet and head on my bed.  My torso was somehow off the bed.  I wonder if I am part bow as in ‘bow and arrow.’ 

Oh: and to answer those questions of yours: No, I was not involved with the riots here this week.  But!  I did get some pictures of the action!

Lastly: I got to have dinner with Tal tonight!  It was so awesome to see someone from home here in London.  Also, dinner was lovely and her friend, Chloe, was great. 

Starting book 11: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

In other news: double digit days start tonight in this series…I must be reaching the end of my journey.

“...I’d hoped you see my face and be reminded that for me: it isn’t over.” –Adele, in summarizing my feelings.

Fifteen Days: Day 9.bookz

It’s a great testament to the people I’ve become close to here that if you lined up the gifts exchanged during tonight’s Secret Santa Spectacular you would very easily be able to tell who belonged to each present; seriously, everyone did so well!  I was very happy to see that everyone left the room smiling not only because they liked what they got, but what they gave was appreciated.  So fantastic.

Secret Santa!

I had Jacque Donahue, who is nowhere near well these days.  She is suffering from a massive throat infection that is not getting better, and seems to be worse and worse with every time I see her.  No good: Get better, Jacque!  I found her some awesome purple and black silk/cashmere gloves and a little penguin bowling set that she seemed to enjoy; penguins are a favorite of Jacque’s.  Jamie was my Santa Clause and got me a card, a mug, and a book journal from Foyles, London’s most prominent bookseller.  She pretty much hit the nail on the head: I love books and I love coffee.  Done.

Speaking of books, I’ve read ten of them this semester!  This is not including the amazing plays I’ve read since being here, so I like to think that ten separate pleasure-reads is not too shabby.  Since I got a Foyles themed Christmas gift, maybe it’s only relevant that I share with you, in rank order, the books that I had the opportunity to read this semester!

10. The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart

It didn’t start off great.  The first book I read was by an author I’ve never heard of, but the cover and the inside slip managed to keep me interested.  So I figured, why not give it a shot?  Basically, it’s the story of a Beefeater’s collapsing marriage, troublesome job, the loss of his son, and the antics that ensue when living with an ancient tortoise—the oldest in the world, actually.  Overall, I thought there were some interesting plots, especially Mrs. Cook, the tortoise; and Hebe Jones job in the Underground Lost and Found.  What was lacking was serious captivation: I just found myself not caring about the mundane activities between Balthazar (main character) and his coworkers, wife, Queen, and zoo animals.  It just didn’t make me go: wow!

9. Sister by Rosamund Upton

You know when thrillers tell you that they’re the newest, freshest, and most innovative of their kind?  Well, chances are that’s a lie.  I was promised something unheard of in Sister and what I received was an okay book about loving your family to the point of no return.  Beatrice is missing, probs dead, and Beatrice doesn’t know how to find her.  So, naturally, she hops on the first flight home and works with the police to find her.  Tess was involved with some heavy material though, and her life may have been more complicated than Beatrice thought.  The title begs the question: how far would you go for family?  Let’s be real: everyone would go to crazy lengths to help their family, that’s not a question.  My question is: Why promise then not deliver.  I won’t lie, I was interested, but I didn’t think there was anything particularly new about Sister.

8.  A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks

I have already raved about this book in plenty of previous posts, so I won’t bore you with more details here.  Basically: 7 people, 7 days, 7 stories all take place the week before Christmas.  I thought that it was pretty great.  I especially loved Faulk’s weaving, Crash-like plot.  So why so low on the list then?  Well, to be fair, the list is pretty tiered.  Everything at ‘8^th’ and above is quality, quality reading.

7.  The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas

If I could describe my experience of reading Thomas’ novel in one word it would be: mindfuck.  Oh my god.  I was so blown out of the water, so in the deep end throughout the whole novel that I almost gave up at thirty different points.  But every time I tried, the book wouldn’t let me.  It just kept pulling me back in.  Like a curse, or something…  (if you read the book, you’ll get this joke and then laugh because I am funny)  The protagonist, Ariel, is a genius.  Thomas does a great job of making her readers feel like their smart by the end of the novel too.  Entirely cerebral, this is one book I would highly recommend to almost all of my family and friends.

6.  The Little Friend by Donna Tartt

Sometimes you fall in love with an author.  Sometimes you fall so in love with an author that you begin to obsess about everything that they’ve written.  Sometimes you fall deeply, madly, head over heels crazy in love that you email said author for a peek at what they’re working on for their 2012 novel.  Yeah, that would be me and Donna Tartt.  This lady: she writes.  She writes beautifully, impeccably well.  It’s like reading magic, nature, and love all at once.  The Little Friend is about a Mississippi girl that is on the hunt for the man who murdered her brother 12 years ago.  The story is about her, her best friend, and her somewhat incestuous family of the Deep South.  It was numbing and stunning and all together great.  It would probably be higher on this list, objectively, but it’s eclipsed by a book by the same author which makes it hard to live up to.

Not Pictured: The Psychology of Want

5.  The Psychology of Want by Darrel Banner

A friend lent me this book to read with the warning that I would be frustrated beyond words.  Well, I was.  I was also gripped, moved, and emotionally tossed about.  I cannot adequately explain what it was like to read this novel.  Basically, it’s about this college kid that has roommate issues, boy troubles, an identity crisis, a distant family, and a whole slew of turmoil building on his plate.  At some points: I thought I was reading a story about my life.  At others, I was eternally grateful for the family, friends, and love that I have around me at a very high constant.  Any book that can force me to laugh aloud and then crush my soul in a page is doing something right.

4.  Room by Emma Donoghue

Room was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize this year, but was unable to snatch the title away from The Finkler Question.  Well, if the Finkler Question was better than this, than it must be one hell of a read.  Room is about a mother and son in an 11 x 11 space and then one day: they get out of Room.  I know, it doesn’t sound great, but it’s told from the point of view of Jack, the five year old son throughout.  It’s immensely moving.  One of those books that you read very quickly and then sit back and think: wow, what a crazy world we live in.  Drew thought that maybe it was his new favorite book; it’s very easy to see why after reading such a great piece of literature.

Okay, so now it’s very difficult, especially since I decided to do all of this writing on a very impulsive whim.  The three left are all so good, so I may get the order wrong.  But, like most rank based judging, you just have to go with your gut…

3.  The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

I think this novel may have been marketed very poorly to the American public.  In the UK this novel is a work of adult fiction.  I remember seeing it in the US a while back as a young-adult or adolescent read.  I don’t think that it’s being correctly placed.  Zusak has written not only one of my favorite books of the semester, but one of my favorite books of all time.  I don’t like the thought of a teenager or youth breezing through this book without really appreciating the intricacy and taste level that The Book Thief brings to the table.  It is set in WWII Germany and is narrated by Death.  Following the life of Liesel, a German girl just coming of age, the novel follows her on a tricky path that is punctuated by love, loss, and more than a few instances of provoking, eloquent sadness.  I was moved, truly, to tears by this work.  Very experimental, very polished.  Props.

2. The Secret History by Donna Tartt

To be fair, when I wrote that The Little Friend was rated unfairly because it would be eclipsed by a book of the same author, I didn’t know that it would actually be in the top 2.  I just knew that it was going to be up there.  And The Secret History is: it’s up there.  It might just be good enough to be one of those shining, shimmering books in my top 5 of all time (oof.  That’s a list for another day.)  The Secret History is about a college student that finds himself at a new school with a group of very interesting, very unnerving friends.  In a private college in Vermont, there are a select group of students who hold a very tight knit bond.  A bond that is starting to unravel.  A bond that will become undone.  From page one, we know what’s going to happen, Tartt says it all in the opening line.  What we don’t know is that from that moment on, we will be spellbound.  The book is insane.  It’s dark, twisted, more than a little edgy.  I am so thankful that Izzy turned me on to her favorite book of all time: it’s fan-freaking-tastic.

1.  One Day by Dave Nicholls

This book made me cry on a public bus on a very busy route on a very busy day.  I was bawling on the upper deck, begging Nichols to give our protagonists one more chance.  Was my pleading answered?  I guess you’d have to read it to find out.  The book follows two people over the course of their 20 year relationship, encapsulating their lives and thoughts every July 12^th  (the UK equivalent of the US Groundhogs Day).  It’s a little mushy at parts, sure, and all you want to do is roll your eyes, but Dexter and Emma are so endearingly unlikeable that you cannot help but root for them with every passing year.  They’re just so great together.  Nicholls is smarter than that though, he doesn’t give his readers what they want until they’ve basically given up.  Even then, we’re not sure that he’s rewarding our patience.  I thought it was uproariously funny and staggeringly sad.  All I wanted to do was read the rest of his work: can an author really do their job better than that?

So, yeah, that was random and fun and cathartic.  I was going to stop after telling you what I got for Secret Santa.  Woops! 

For now, I am off to the Winter Wonderland Carnival in Hyde Park: it’s going to be a great evening in London, folks.

PS. If you were wondering, Zafón’s The Shadow of the Wind is still my favorite.

Cheers!