My 2013 Reads

Happy New Year! I just know that 2014 is going to be a great year!

My new year's resolution in 2012 was to read 50 books, which I did, but I decided I wasn't going to have a reading resolution in 2013. I did want to keep track of what I read, because what can I say, I like lists! 

1. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl*
2. Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
3. Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick
4. The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson
5. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare*
6. Just One Day by Gayle Forman
7. Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers by Dav Piley
8. Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
9. All You Never Wanted by Adele Griffin
10. See Jane Write: A Girl's Guide to Writing Chick Lit by Sarah Mlynowski and Farrin Jacobs
11. Save the Cat by Blake Snyder
12. Invisibility by Andrea Cremer and David Levithan
13. Bond Girl by Erin Duffy
14. Legend by Marie Lu*
15. Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg
16. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
17. Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
18. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by EL Konigsburg*
19. Open Road Summer by Emery Lord (coming April 15, 2014)
20. Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan 
21. The Lonely Hearts Club by me (there's a reason I had to re-read it!)
22. Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walters
23. Exile by Kevin Emerson (coming April 29, 2014)
24. When You Were Mine by Rebecca Serle*
25. Ink is Thicker Than Water by Amy Spalding
26. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
27. Love in the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block*
28. The Chapel Wars by Lindsey Leavitt (coming May 6, 2014)
29. United We Spy by Ally Carter
30. Just One Year by Gayle Forman
31. The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr*
32. Rotten by Michael Northrup
33. The Darkest Path by Jeff Hirsch
34. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart (coming May 13, 2014)
35. Only Everything by Kieran Scott (coming May 6, 2014)
36. Life by Committee by Corey Ann Haydu (coming May 13, 2014)
37. Noggin by John Corey Whaley (coming April 8, 2014)
38. The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith (coming April 15, 2014)

*denotes book club book

I'm not going to single out any particular book because I loved so many of these books. But I do have to say that I can't even get over how many AMAZING books are coming out in April and May. Every single one of them is truly wonderful, and I was honored to give blurbs to a few (Exile, Open Road Summer, The Chapel Wars, Only Everything, and Life by Committee). All of the spring books deserve to be put on your spring to-read list (along with Better Off Friends, of course). ;-)  

It'll be interesting to see how many books I read this year, I'm starting off by reading Kate Atkinson's Life After Life. What's on your to-read pile for 2014?

Happy reading! Elizabeth

My 2013 in Concerts

Hello again! I know, I don't blog for months and now TWO in two days?!?! And there'll be another tomorrow. Craziness!

As those who follow me on Twitter or Facebook know, I got to a lot of concerts. A lot. While I didn't match the 40 I went to last year, I did manage 28 this year which isn't too shabby!

1. Ra Ra Riot
2. Keane
3. Dale Earnhart Jr Jr
4. The Shins
5. Marina and the Diamonds
6. Frankmusic
7. Sir Paul McCartney (Brooklyn)
8. New Kids on the Block (with Boyz II Men and 98 Degrees)
9. CHVRCHES
10. Bronze Radio Return
11. Belle & Sebastian
12. Sir Paul (Milwaukee)
13. fun. with Tegan and Sara
14. Bon Jovi
15. Jake Clemons
16. Vampire Weekend
17. CHVRCHES 
18. The xx
19. The Naked and the Famous
20. Two Door Cinema Club with St. Lucia
21. Ghost Beach and Betty Who
22. Franz Ferdinand
23. Capital Cities and Fitz and the Tantrums
24. Ed Sheeran with Snow Patrol
25. Matt Nathanson
26. The Limousines
27. Ingrid Michaelson
28. The 1975 with Haerts

BEST CONCERT: No contest, Sir Paul McCartney. He's a legend. He plays for nearly THREE HOURS and, you know, he was a Beatle. Do I really need to explain this? I even flew to Milwaukee to see him because he announced his New York date later and there was no way I was going to miss him. And next time he tours I might do the same. He's PAUL McCARTNEY!!!

BEST NEW BAND: When I saw CHVRCHES the first time, they just had an EP out, but I was obsessed with their song "Recover." Then their album came out and it might be my favorite of the year. The second time was even more amazing, and I'm seeing them again in May. My favorite new band (closely tied with Walk Off the Earth whom I'm seeing next year as well)!

BEST NEW TRADITION: Ingrid Michaelson's Holiday Hop. My concert bestie Chris and I saw Ingrid Michaelson's Holiday Hop last year and it was so much fun, we went again this year. Ingrid and her band open the show dressed up as older people and do funny versions of Christmas carols, then she had another opener, then they come out and do a full concert. It was one of the concerts I was looking forward to the most and can't wait to go back again next year (plus, Ingrid has a new album out so I'll probably see her twice next year).

MOST TOUCHING MOMENT: Besides the ENTIRE Sir Paul concert, I have to say I was really moved when I saw Ed Sheeran play his first night at Madison Square Garden. I always love seeing people when they play the Garden the first time because it's such an iconic moment in their career. Ed got really choked  up when he got on stage for the first time. Nothing like seeing someone's dream come true!

There are so many more moments from this past year, but I've got to get ready to for New Year's Eve (and I've got one more book to finish reading so I'll be reading for tomorrow's post!!).

Hope you all have a fabulous night this evening and that 2014 will be the most magical (and musical) year yet!

XOXO, Elizabeth

The 2013 Holiday Card

Hi everybody! Hope you had a fabulous holiday, whatever you celebrate! I returned from ten days in Wisconsin and think I'm still in a food coma (so much cheese....). It wasn't until sweet Britta reminded me that I realized that I hadn't posted my holiday card this year. Not to brag, but last year's was pretty epic, so I knew there was no way to top it (click here to see past years). So I decided to not even bother. Luckily, I got to travel to some sweet places this year so was able to make a (lame) joke about being too busy. But then again, I'm in the middle of working on TWO different books projects (the already announced sequel to The Lonely Hearts Club and a secret project). 

So here you go! 

Also, yesterday's INSANE Packers game and my flight home made me forget that yesterday was The Lonely Hearts Club's FOURTH anniversary! Can't believe I've been a published author for four years. Thank YOU for making my dreams come true. Hope everybody has a WONDERFUL 2014!

XOXO, Elizabeth

Guest Post: The Apple of Amy Spalding's eye in INK IS THICKER THAN WATER

Hello everybody! Tomorrow is the release day of a fab new book by Amy Spalding, INK IS THICKER THAN WATER. I was lucky enough to get to read the book early and as Beyonce once sang, "If you liked it than you shoulda put a blurb on it." (That is how the song goes, right?)

There's so much I loved about INK IS THICKER THAN WATER: the characters, the humor, the cute boys (obvi), and THE APPLE.  While reading Amy's fab book, I actually got up and went to my computer to Google this movie that she puts in the book because I thought it was fictional. But it was not. And now I'm obsessed with it, but refuse to actually watch it until I can do so with Amy. So while I look-up flights to LA, Amy is going to introduce you to possibly the best worst movie ever. 

Take it away, Amy!

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Thanks so much to Elizabeth for having me on her blog! Elizabeth and I met at the L.A. Times Festival of Books earlier this year, where we quickly determined we were basically the same person, particularly our passionate feelings about karaoke.

But I digress!

I included lots of things I love in Ink Is Thicker than Water, like restaurants I love in my hometown of St. Louis, mid-1960s music (especially The Hollies' "Bus Stop"), and tattoos, but none of these can really compete with The Apple.

The Apple is a movie musical from 1980, but that makes it sound straightforward and normal, and, seriously? Nothing about The Apple is normal or straightforward.

I'm a huge fan of musicals and of bad movies (if you haven't seen Nic Cage's The Wicker Man, you're only hurting yourself) and yet I'd never even heard of The Apple, until several years ago. A roommate arrived back from a showing at The New Beverly theater, all but unable to describe what she'd seen. She best described it as "a disco rock musical about the dangers of disco rock set in the futuristic world of...1994". She bought the DVD and forced the entire household to watch it.

And I'm so, so glad I did.

The Apple is the story of Alphie and Bibi, two "naive" ("naive" always means "stupid" in summaries, doesn't it?) kids from Moose Jaw, Canada, who just want to be successful singers. When they cause competition for the evil music executive-slash-metaphorical-or-literal devil Mr. Boogalow, he recruits them into his "dark" "underworld", and eventually Boogalow takes over the...world?...with his government mandated music breaks. Thank god for a clever group of hippies and their leader, who arrives with one of my favorite deus ex machinas ever. EVER.

(SPOILER ALERT: IT'S A FLYING CADILLAC.)

Take a look at the trailer.

Well, this sounds bad, right? Maybe REALLY BAD? But the thing about The Apple isn't just that it's bad. It's so magnificently, mind-blowingly awful that it circles back around to being awesome. Every moment is either entertaining or hilariously confusing, and I must admit that I...I kind of love it.

Nathan Rabin over at the AV Club said, "The peculiar genius of The Apple is that every time it appears that the film cannot get any crazier, it ratchets up the weirdness to almost indescribable levels."

Take the title song, which features perhaps my favorite set of of lyrics in music history: "It's a natural, natural desire/Meet an actual, actual vampire."

Here's a song which is a great example of how heavy-handed metaphors can seem. PS This little ditty about speed gets stuck in my head on a fairly regular basis.

Seriously, despite how I'm compiling these clips to show you guys what an insanely terrible movie The Apple is, all I'm filled with is...a compelling desire to watch it again, and soon. Elizabeth, when are you coming over??

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I'm on my way, Amy! 

Thanks so much to Amy for stopping by and please be sure to pick-up INK IS THICKER THAN WATER, you won't be disappointed. And visit Amy  online at www.theamyspalding.com or on Twitter @theames - she gives good tweets!

Hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving! XOXO, Elizabeth