It’s such a cliche to talk about how fast the year went, how weird it is to be starting a new year when it seems like we only just started 2009, and yet I can’t help myself. I’ve become that person. And the weird thing? I’ve become that person because it’s true. The year did go fast, and it feels like we did just start 2009. I’m sure with each year that passes, those things will become more and more true. Time stops for no one, and it laughs at us as it flies by.

For this Year In Review, I’m going to share some things I’ve learned over this year, both in my personal life and in blogging. To wrap everything up, I’ll talk about the best and worst books (for me) of 2009.

The one thing I’ve left out of this post is goals/resolutions, because goals are something that I form, tweak, and work on throughout the year, not something that I’m spurred to create because of a new year. So I could tell you what ongoing goals I have right now, but that’s not nearly as interesting as what my least favorite books were. In my opinion. The only goal I have at the beginning of 2010 is the same goal I had at the beginning of 2009: to read 100 books this coming year. I didn’t make that goal in 2009, but I’m hopeful I can do it in 2010!

What I’ve Learned (personal):

• As nice as it is to have a clean house before I leave for a vacation, it won’t kill me if this doesn’t happen.
• My dog Samson will never cease to have health problems.
• Dave is a great nurse.
• I still hate change.
• Taking the bus to work instead of driving my care gives me more reading time and helps keep me sane.
• Even someone who seems nice can send a hateful, vicious email.
• Also? Just because someone says something doesn’t make it true.
• A wedding dress waiting to be cleaned that hangs from a hook on the ceiling can be ignored — for a whole year.
• Peeing is a big milestone for someone who just had surgery.

What I’ve Learned (blogging):

• Bloggers really are as fabulous in person as you imagine they’ll be.
• Also, you never run out of things to talk about.
• As important as my blog is to me, sometimes it has to take a back seat to other things in life.
• The world won’t end if I’m not on Twitter.
• But the world is a lot more fun when I AM on Twitter!
• I can get rid of 100 books and still have a house full of books.
• Getting books in the mail never gets old.
• I will always be jealous of how fast some people can read.

My Favorite Books of 2009

These books are in no particular order.

• The Help by Kathryn Stockett
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
• The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams
• The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
• Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
• The Time of My Life by Allison Winn Scotch
• The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
• Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire by Margot Berwin
• Graceling by Kristin Cashore
• Fire by Kristin Cashore
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
• Good People by Marcus Sakey
• Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

My Least Favorite Books of 2009

These books are in no particular order.

• Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
• My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
• The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
• Water Ghosts by Shawna Yang Ryan
• Every Last Cuckoo by Kate Maloy
• Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
• The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Books I’m looking forward to in 2010

• The Victors by Suzanne Collins, the third book in The Hunger Games trilogy
• Tana Fench’s new book

Reading stats

• I read 72 books in 2009.
• Of those books, there were 27 male authors and 45 female authors, for a total of 72 books.
• 62%  of the books I read in 2009 were written by females, and 38% were written by males.
• 37 books I read this year were fantastic.
• Out of those 37 fantastic books, 14 were written by males and 23 were written by females, which exactly follows my overall reading habits: 38% of my favorites written by males, and 62% were written by females.

What were some of your favorite and least favorite books this year? Do you make goals for yourself at the beginning of the year? Did you read more or less than you’d hoped to?

Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea takes place in Tres Camarones (Three Shrimp), Mexico, a town similar to the one in which the author actually grew up in. Times are tough and one day the women look at each other and realize that ALL THE MEN have left to find better work in America. But where does that leave the women in the town? Vulnerable to bandidos (outlaws; bandits) who want to take over the town, that’s where!

After watching THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN at their local theater, some of the women decide it would be best to bring back men who can protect their town, men such as cops and soldiers. A group is formed that will cross into America, find some men, and come back to Tres Camarones.

The small group consists of Nayeli, 19, who has at least one connection in America with a boy who was a missionary in Tres Camarones a few years ago; Tacho, a very feminine gay man; Vampi, the goth girl; and Yolo, a girl who likes to read. They set off on the treacherous journey of going to America illegally. They start with a sketchy bus ride and eventually end up with a coyote who agrees to take them across the border. Nothing on this trip goes as they planned, anticipated, or hoped.

There’s an interesting juxtaposition in this book: All of the complaints Americans have about immigrants (i.e. Mexicans), Mexicans have about Hondurans:

These illegals come to Mexico expecting a free ride! Don’t tell me you didn’t have Salvadorans and Hondurans in your school, getting the best education in the world! They take our jobs, too….What we need is a wall on our southern border.

I liked that the author sprinkled Spanish words and phrases in the story, giving it a more authentic flavor and reminding the reader that the protagonists weren’t American, but I started feeling it was being overdone. There was one part where Tacho talks for 6 or 7 sentences in Spanish, and in the next line, I read this:

All the girlfriends noted that Tacho was venting his profound disquiet over their recent spate of bad luck and trouble.

Yes, that’s TRUE, but I felt like I was watching a foreign film where someone goes on and on and then on the subtitles I see: ”I said no.” I want to yell at the TV and say, “Okay, yes, maybe that’s the GIST of what the person’s saying, but I’m missing so much when you PARAPHRASE.” I’ll admit this was the only time I noticed the author writing a whole paragraph in Spanish, but I think the Spanish words sprinkled in the story could have been done a little less liberally.

One highlight in the book is the humor. Luis Alberto Urrea has a great sense of humor that comes across in his writing. I’m sure this would be a great book to listen to on audio as I’m sure it would make you laugh out loud. One incident in the book has to do with Tacho, who can’t help but find himself in bizarre situations, and he’s eventually separated from the group because when they’re caught by the border patrol, Tacho says in Spanish, ”La Mano Caido”, which sounds like Al Qaeda in English, so he’s taken to be interrogated. Urrea deftly plays on words, making the reading a lot of fun.

Nayeli is also a sympathetic character, determined to bring back men to protect her town as well as find her father who abandoned her family and who is now living in the United States.

All in all, this book didn’t work for me. It did, however, make me look at immigration slightly differently than I did before I read the book.

Also, I still want to read Luis Alberto Urrea’s The Hummingbird’s Daughter. If Into the Beautiful North doesn’t appeal to you, then perhaps The Hummingbird’s Daughter will.

Rating: 75 out of 100

Luis Alberto Urrea’s website

Other reviews:

medieval bookworm

The Biblio Brat

Booking Mama

worducopia

Beth Fish Reads

Drey’s Library

Book source: I received this book as a review copy from the publisher.

And one more thing? If you click on one of the Into the Beautiful North links and buy something from Amazon, I’ll make a commission! Mwahahahaha!! Maybe with the pennies I make I’ll be able to call someone who cares.

You can thank the FTC for this disclosure!

Last year, because blog traffic is slow around the holidays, I celebrated Festivus, which kicks off with the Airing of Grievances. Since only other bloggers are reading blogs around this time of year (’cause we’re crazy like that), it makes sense that we should get some things off our chest! Vent! Proclaim what is wrong with the world (or our families), so that we can start the new year with a clean slate ready for new frustrations.

Ready?

I’ll go first.

1. Stupid people. They’re everywhere.

2. Chase. Ever since my mortgage was moved to them, I’ve had problems. Problems that take HOURS to fix. And happen again the next month.

3. Irv Sutley, an active atheist who went around to county buildings where I work and demanded stars and angels be taken off of Christmas trees. Ironically, this happened the day I returned to work from my appendectomy, and I thought I was going to burst my newly healed scar, I was so angry. Before you cry separation of church and state, read about the issue here and note, “He [Rex Grady, a Santa Rosa attorney who teaches constitutional law at Empire College School of Law] cited another Supreme Court case in 1984 in which justices ruled that a municipal government’s holiday display, which included figures of Jesus, Joseph and Mary, constituted a celebration of Christmas but was not an official endorsement of religion or a particular faith.” I got so angry over this I ended up writing a letter to my County Supervisor.

4. Drivers who get impatient when I wait for a pedestrian to actually reach the sidewalk.

5. My computer is dying a slow death and I need it to hang on until January. Come on little buddy!

6. Blogs that are JUST for product reviews. Seriously, who reads those blogs? How do they get any traffic at all?

7. I’ve got a fungus on ONE toenail that is hanging on for dear life.

8. The only pants that are comfortable right now are my really soft pajama bottoms. Unfortunately, they’re not appropriate for work. Yay for being *almost* healed, boo for having to look presentable at work.

And I know, we’re celebrating Festivus, not Thanksgiving, but I’ve just got to mention that I have the best blogging friends in the whole world. I won’t name names, but you know who you are!

What’re your grievances? Have at it, because no one’s going to read this anyway!

Many of you may know about my recent appendectomy, but for those who don’t or who haven’t seen the pictures, I thought I’d tell the story. I have to warn you: I get graphic, I make inappropriate jokes (sorry, Dave!) and sometimes it might be vulgar. But you know what? Surgery, hospital, and recovery aren’t elegant, graceful, fun, or in any way allow you to keep your dignity.

(All of the pictures below were taken after I was admitted to the hospital but before I had surgery. Except for that last one.)

So last Monday evening, December 7th (the night of my birthday! What a fantastic gift I gave myself, as you’ll see.), I was feeling nauseous and had stomach cramps. I felt like throwing up, but I wasn’t surprised I didn’t because I have a really strong stomach. I’m so nauseous that I can’t sleep and don’t fall asleep until 3am, and had already decided not to go to work on Tuesday, because 3 hours of sleep? Really?

But when I woke up I had this terrible pain in my side, not a sharp pain, just an ache, and I couldn’t explain why. It felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. And I know Dave had punched me in the stomach the day before, but surely it wouldn’t hurt this bad?

So I’m laying on the couch (which isn’t comfortable, by the way. NOTHING is comfortable.), and Dave calls and says I should call the doctor because it could be appendicitis. First I call my friend, Ann Marie, because she’s had every sickness from A-Z, but I have no other symptoms associated with appendicitis other than the pain in my side. So she tells me to call my doctor.

I call Kaiser, and I get a condescending advice nurse who says, Is the pain mild, moderate, or severe? If it’s mild you can still go to work, do things around the house, etc, if it’s moderate you’re home from work but can still function, and if it’s severe you’re doubled over in pain. From her tone I knew I wasn’t severe, so I picked moderate. I mean, I wasn’t at work, was I? And SHE went through all these other symptoms with me, and while she didn’t seem too concerned, she gave me an appointment with my doctor that day anyway.

So I go to my doctor, and she puts me through a battery of tests and has blood work done and has my urine tested blah blah blah. But everything’s normal. The only thing wrong with me is I have a pain in my side. But my doctor sends me home with Vicodin, which I’m really grateful for (until I take one and it gives me a massive headache, then I’m not so grateful). When I leave the doctor I’m in severe pain, walk to my car with tears in my eyes, only to find that some asshole has parked so close to me that a piece of paper barely fits through the door when I open it. I’m in severe pain and I have to be a contortionist?! If I had any energy I would have written that guy a nasty note and left it on his windshield, but I didn’t, so I gritted my teeth and contorted.

The next day I’m in severe pain. My husband is out of town at a conference, so I call my friend Becky, who so kindly spends the next 10 hours with me, though neither of us anticipated it would take so long. So Becky saved the day!

The nurse I saw that Wednesday was really nice. I hobbled in at 11:00am, stooped over, clutching my side. She poked and prodded, and everything was fine, but I told her she was poking in the wrong spot. So I poked in the right spot and immediately tears leaked out and I yelled, BUT DON’T TOUCH THERE! She ordered more blood tests, so I had those done, then I went back to get the results from the nurse, who then sent me to have a CT scan. Boy was that a party.

For the CT scan I had to have liquid inserted into my anus. Then she injected me with some kind of dye that made me feel like I was peeing, but I wasn’t (oh good! I still have some dignity left because I haven’t peed my pants). Then she suggested I use the bathroom, where I subsequently peed the liquid out of my ass. Good times. Any shred of dignity I *might* have had walking out of the CT scanning room, I left in my recovery room after the surgery. Weeeee!!

It’s now 4:00pm, and I’ve been running around the hospital for 5 hours. Finally, FINALLY, when I go to the nurse to get the CT results, I find out I DO have appendicitis, and I’m so happy I almost cry. The pain will end! Boy, was I naive.

Surgery was Wednesday evening at 7:30pm, and Dave was able to make it home so I could see him when I woke up.

I can’t even tell you how much pain I was in Thursday. The doctor who did my surgery came to check on me around 10 or 11am, and I burst into tears. She asked if I take something at home that they should be giving me at the hospital. A joke! Except, she didn’t mean it as a joke. *sigh*

So let’s just say that Thursday was intense. I had really sweet nurses who let me take my time and who helped me as much as they could. The big deal when you have surgery is peeing. When are you going to pee! So they have this hat that sits under the toilet seat to catch your pee and measure it. Thursday was all about Can Trish Go Pee?

I had the best roommate on Thursday. She was a young girl, about my age, who’d 5 days ago had her gall bladder removed. She respected my need for privacy (did I mention I was in a lot of pain?), but was helpful when needed. For example, my hospital phone rang but I couldn’t get it because I couldn’t bend to where the phone was, so after a few rings she got it for me. Unfortunately, she was discharged Thursday evening, and by 10:30pm, I had a new, white trash roommate.

This lady looked about 50, but easily could have been 40. She came tooling in like this was no big deal, she does this all the time, oh, and don’t forget to try the red jello! Her sons (late teens, early 20s) quickly follow but are booted out by the nurse who needs to admit her and ask questions. From what I gathered, the woman came in because of pain in her stomach, and the doctors in the ER found bleeding in her stomach. When you’re bleeding in your stomach, they ask you not to eat anything. This lady was obviously not happy with that, but reluctantly agreed. Finally her sons come in, one of them bearing Carl’s Jr. My roommate scarfs down the food, saying something about how she’s not supposed to eat anything, but she’s hungry. I can’t stand the smell of fast food, I’m in pain, it’s late, and I’m tired. So I close my curtain. From around the curtain I hear this lady snidely say to her sons, Well I guess you should leave since SHE wants some privacy. Her sons stay for a little longer before she finally makes them leave, and the younger one storms out.

When the nurse comes back in to check on this lady, this lady says, Can you believe my sons, leaving so fast like that? And the nurse says, But you told them to leave. And the lady says, No I didn’t. And the nurse says, YES, you DID, I heard you. So the lady says, Oh…my youngest son is a prick, though.

And the best part? At some point amongst all this, the lady has to pee, but my hat hasn’t been emptied yet. That didn’t bother her though! When I brought it up to a nurse (I was PISSED (no pun intended)…this was my whole goal all day, to PEE, and this lady peed right over mine), the lady’s like, Oh, it’s okay, I peed on top of hers. HOW GROSS CAN YOU BE???

(Yes, I *am* THAT white)

So that’s my story. I’ve been recovering ever since, and I have to admit it’s taking me longer to recover than I thought it would. I haven’t been up to working or doing much of anything except resting, watching Gilmore Girls, and sitting at the computer (sitting in a chair is actually pretty comfortable).

Anyone else got any good hospital roommate stories? Because now I can commiserate.

The winner of When She Flew  was commenter #23, which is Angie! Congratulations, Angie! I’ve emailed you for your mailing address.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to write this review without giving away a lot of spoilers. If you haven’t read the book, feel free to skip down to my two sentence verdict.

I was really intrigued by the premise of When She Flew by Jennie Shortridge: a young girl, 12 years old, and her father, an Iraq veteran with PTSD, are found living in the wilderness. The girl, Lindy, is happy, healthy, and getting an education, but the police have decided that the father isn’t providing a good enough home for Lindy and wants to break them up and send Lindy to a foster home. One of the police officers on duty, Jess, doesn’t think this is right and disobeys her orders to take Lindy to Social Services. Instead, Jess reunites Lindy and her father and helps them escape.

The book alternates narration between Jess and Lindy. Lindy loves birds, so birds come up in various ways throughout the novel, and you’ll see Lindy’s passion for birds as she talks about them. Before Lindy and her father are taken away from her home, they have an owl that hangs around their campground and sleeps near them. Lindy followed a blue heron in the creek near their home, which is how she and her father were found out, because some bird watchers happened to see Lindy and were concerned about her welfare.

I loved the themes running through this book: Where, exactly, is home? What makes a good home? Must people accept modern technology to provide their children a good home? When do you obey orders and when do you disobey orders? How do you know what the right thing to do is? What makes a family?

There was a subplot that I didn’t think was explored enough. Jess has a daughter who she has a tense relationship with, at best. The reader is given a little background into their relationship, but I would have liked to have seen a little more development at the end, because I felt like the relationship changed around a little too quickly for all the history Jess and her daughter had between themselves.

The only other thing that I thought should have been explored more was Lindy’s dad’s PTSD. At one point her dad’s irrationality due to the PTSD put her in serious danger. PTSD was thrown in a little too lightly and never fleshed out as far as whether to take that into consideration when allowing Lindy’s dad to retain custody of her, or even how bad his PTSD was.

Overall, I enjoyed When She Flew.  I think there wasn’t enough of a balance between plot and character development, but it certainly didn’t make me enjoy the story any less.

Rating: 85 out of 100

Check out Jennie Shortridge’s website.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for allowing me to be on this tour! Below are the rest of the tour stops for the week; I encourage you to see what these bloggers think of When She Flew.

• Wednesday, December 16th:  A Novel Menagerie
• Thursday, December 17th:  Book Club Classics

Jennie Shortridge has graciously agreed to provide an extra copy for a giveaway! To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment telling me what your favorite bird is. Only one entry per person. Contest ends Saturday, December 12, 2009 at 11:59pm PST. US and Canada only.

Book source: As noted above, I received this book from the publisher via TLC Book Tours. Just so we’re clear.

And one more thing? If you click on one of the When She Flew links and buy something from Amazon, I’ll make a commission! Mwahahahaha!! Maybe with the pennies I make I’ll be able to call someone who cares.

You can thank the FTC for this disclosure!