Five Best Of 2012

Happy New Year, all! Here are a few of my very professional, very educated, very vetted assessments of all things 2012. 

Books

1. The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho 
2. History of Love by Nicole Krauss
3. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
4. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
5. Mockingbird by Sean Stewart

See all the books I read in 2012 here.  Also, I have an addition to my 17-word book reviews.  I read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Here's my review:

Tear-jerking but thoughtful novel about cancer suffering teenagers who speak with more eloquence than Dawson Leery. (Liked it. But I also liked Dawson's Creek.)

Movies (I have only seen 6 movies this year, so it's a small sample, but I enjoyed all of these.)

1. Undefeated
2. Silver Linings Playbook
3. Sleepwalk With Me (Confession: I did fall asleep for the last 20 minutes of the movie; seemed fitting.)
4. Life of Pi
5. Argo

(The other movie I saw was Moonrise Kingdom - very good as well.)

Meals (While I can't say definitively that these are the best meals I've had all year, these are some memorable [in a good way] ones.)

1. Bacon Blondie at Local Gastropub
2. The Prewitt pizza (with scrambled eggs) at Hog and Hominy
3. Mashed potatoes at Rizzo's Diner
4. Bologna Steak (aka Hamburger) at Robert's Western World (probably more about the ambiance and Miller High Lifes than the flavor, but it was memorable.)
5. Ribs at Central BBQ (will go on every year-end list until the end of time.) (And apparently Forbes agrees with me.)

This American Life Episodes (Welcome to Nerddom, population 1.)

1. Reap What You Sow (So, so good. I have gone back to listen to this one twice. It's about self-deportation in Alabama.)
2. Amusement Park (Funny and charming.)
3. Back to School (A study of GED vs. regular diploma. So interesting. Did not want it to end.)
4. What Doesn't Kill You (First two stories are great, but Act 3 is a train wreck for the ears.)
5. Heretics (This is from a couple years ago, but I heard a rerun of it recently, and I can't get over how good it is. It tells the story of a "fire and brimstone" pastor's changing beliefs.)