Books of 2005

With 2005 coming to a close, I've just finished reading the last book I'll be able to complete this year. After adding it to the list I keep, I was looking over the titles of all my 2005 books and was trying to decide which were the best/I enjoyed the most.

2005

1. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami)
2. A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive (Dave Pelzer)
3. The Five People You Meet in Heaven (Mitch Albom)
4. The Wedding (Nicholas Sparks)
5. The Art of Mending (Elizabeth Berg)
6. Hear the Wind Sing (Haruki Murakami)
7. After the Quake (Haruki Murakami)
8. High Fidelity (Nick Hornby)
9. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (Yukio Mishima)
10. The Stepford Wives (Ira Levin)
11. TickTock (Dean Koontz)
12. Naked Prey (John Sandford)
13. The Green Mile (Stephen King)
14. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
15. Chosen Prey (John Sandford)
16. The Testament (John Grisham)
17. Mysterious (Nora Roberts)
18. The Summons (John Grisham)
19. Scott Free (John Gilstrap)
20. A is for Alibi (Sue Grafton)
21. B is for Burglar (Sue Grafton)
22. C is for Corpse (Sue Grafton)
23. I is for Innocent (Sue Grafton)
24. H is for Homicide (Sue Grafton)
25. J is for Judgement (Sue Grafton)
26. M is for Malice (Sue Grafton)
27. O is for Outlaw (Sue Grafton)
28. The Zahir (Paulo Coehlo)
29. R is for Ricochet (Sue Grafton)
30. Fleshmarket Close (Ian Rankin)
31. a complicated kindness (Miriam Toews)
32. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (J.K. Rowling)
33. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
34. Payback (Fern Michaels)
35. Sleeping Beauty (Phillip Margolin)
36. True Believer (Nicholas Sparks)
37. At First Sight (Nicholas Sparks)

I can honestly say that there wasn't one that I didn't like. But the four that stand out the most for me are Mitch Albom's "The Five People You Meet in Heaven", Yann Martel's "Life of Pi", Paulo Coehlo's "The Zahir" and Arthur Golden's "Memoirs of a Geisha". Each of these four books are entirely different, and all rewarding/encouraging/enlightening in their own way.

They are definitely worth your while to pick up and read! :)

Happy Holidays

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas, and all the best for 2006!!!

HoHoHo!!

Nate & Auntie Verena

Blah. Nothing to write really. Just wanted to show off my youngest nephew! Was babysitting for the evening today.

Ever notice the crazy's come out at Xmas?

Oh, yes....Christmas is near....the crazy's are coming out in full....

It has been an interesting week at work to say the least...

One woman called, and I was the lucky one to answer the phone, and asked our our Mall Gift Certificates worked. I explained that if you had a $20 Certificate and spent $15 you would get $5 change back...well she got very upset at this and said "Well I guess I'll have to shop elsewhere!" So I said thank you and hung up. Not even three minutes later she calls back and asks to speak to the Property Manager...turns out that she was upset because if she bought a Gift Certificate for her Grandkid he could just exchange it for drugs.

Another lady called to complain that the Calendar Club has NAKED pictures of women on EVERY SECOND calendar!!! I personally went to look because I walk the mall 10-20 times a day and hadn't seen anything like that. Of course there are the normal swimsuit calendars and such, but nothing displaying naked women. And none of those are any more or less provocative then half the posters that La Senza has hanging in their window. So we gave her the number for the Calendar Club's (well actually Chapters) Head Office....let them deal with her.

We've had another few strange people in the office...luckily I've forgotten about most of them.

Neko is much healthier now! She's still on some medication, but the vet pretty much gave her a clean bill of health, and she's gained over a pound, is eating constantly again and is SUPER playful...so she's back to the normal Neko.

Ty and Nate came to meet me for lunch yesterday, and then went to see Santa, I'll have to scan the photo onto my computer so I can post it. Ty got a special hello from Santa when he came to his chalet....we'd already been waiting in line for 20 mins...so Ty thought that was cool and ended up not being scared when it came time to sit on his knee. Nate slept through the whole thing. After work I went to my sister's to help her bake some Christmas cookies...Ty kept asking me to go to his room and play and Nate if you put him down would only start crying again...so at midnight when I got home, we had only finished baking the one kind she had already started when I got there at 7pm and had made some rumballs....but that was it. Ty is doing super good with Nate though!

Here's a pic of me and my cuties!