Whew! Well, I finally updated my Currently Reading page with everything I read in 2011, and the two books I’m starting for 2012.

I think I probably said this already last year (gah! Am I repeating myself already? I guess that’s what you get after running a blog for four years…), but I really like making a list of everything I’ve read. It’s fun to look back on (and think, gosh, was that just last year???) or to reflect on which books were standouts and which were not.

I woefully read very few book club books (like … er … one??? eek) – I vow this year to read more of those and get involved in the discussions. (When I don’t read the book I still go to the meeting for the wine and good company!) This year’s book club list looks great, so I’m really going to make more of an effort. I think I’ve read most of the romances I need to read for research on style and pacing, so now I can read a mixture of genres.

Anyway, did you make a list this year? What was your favorite standout book from 2011?

Rene auditioned for Orange County’s High School of the Arts today. She scored two auditions  — one for the Fine Arts Conservatory, and another (later in Feb) for TV/Motion Picture Conservatory.

 I was so proud of her as I saw her trudging toward the high-rise city school, toting her huge portfolio at her side, with all her paintings and sketches in it. It’s hard to put your work out there when you’re in a creative field — hard to be judged, especially when you’re young. (You create a thicker skin as you get older, but still it’s hard.)

And her odds at this school are slim, since she’s coming in so late to the four-year program (she’d be coming in as a junior). There has to be a spot open, and there’s no telling if there will be or not.

But … she trudged along anyway, that huge portfolio at her side, looking pretty determined about walking into her first art audition.

Even if she doesn’t get in, I’m really proud of her for trying.

That girl’s got grit. …

It’s that time of year again …

Here’s how Rene asked her date:

Over at Jenny Crusie’s blog, Argh Ink, she’s chatting with her friends and writing partners Anne Stuart and Lucy March (a.k.a. Lani Diane Rich) about various writing challenges.

I thought last week’s discussion and this week’s were particularly excellent — about writing the hero and writing the heroine in romance. (And then deciding which is your protagonist, which is a discussion my writing partner and I have all the time!)

Check them out if you’re interested:

The Three-Goddesses Chat: Heroines
The Three-Goddesses Chat: Heroes

She also has a great picture of Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ uber-clean writing desk! (That entry is just called “Thank God My Friends Don’ t Gloat.”)

So I’ve covered my newest obsession with two TV shows: Breaking Bad and The Bachelor.

Here’s my other guilty pleasure:

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

Yes, I’ve been a housewives fan for a long time. (I’ve even blogged about it before, here and here.)

Orange County was always my favorite – Not so much because I  like the women but simply because I KNOW ALL THOSE PLACES THEY’RE SHOWING! They film in Coto de Caza (right up the street from me), Rancho Santa Margarita (my town), and Ladera Ranch (down the street from me). So I know all those restaurants, all those shops, all the freeways I can see in the backgrounds, all those park benches, all those beaches, the schools they mention, and that lake they walk around is my lake. So that’s why the show is fun. We’ve seen them filming around town, and we’ve seen quite a few of the housewives out and about – I saw Vickie and Don in the parking lot at Lowes; Tamara and Simon at Target; Chris has seen Jeanna on a few occasions at Starbucks and Pavilions; and Ricky sees one of the sons at the gym. So that’s what makes that show exciting for me. But … 

The women themselves are actually quite horrible to watch and they seem meaner than on any other Housewives show, am I right? Just truly mean and vicious to each other. So it gets a little harder to watch each season – there’s not even a funny spirit about it anymore.

My new favorite Housewives show, though, is actually Beverly Hills! I’m really loving that one. I love Lisa and her biting sense of humor. And Jiggy – The Most Pampered Dog on Earth – so funny. And Ken putting up with Lisa but doting on the dog like a woman would. And I adore the Maloofs – Adrienne and Paul (well, Paul’s last name isn’t really Maloof, but gosh, who remembers it? Poor Paul.) They seem like the Voice of Reason on the show, and they keep it from feeling like it’s going to go off the rails like OC did. I’m annoyed by Kyle, but I like to watch her, and I can’t figure Brandi out. Camille is becoming a completely different person all of a sudden – after being The Queen Bee That You Most Wanted to Hate in the early seasons, she’s now seeming sort of sane and reasonable.  And Kim and Taylor are both train wrecks, but you actually feel that they’re going to get help of some kind (although knowing ahead of time the tragic turn that Taylor’s life is going to take is sort of uncomfortable and creepy, huh?). Anyway, Beverly Hills is definitely my favorite Housewives show, hands down.

How about you? Are you as addicted to any of these Housewives shows as I am?

Of course, Breaking Bad isn’t the only TV show I was hooked on this week. Superman and I have an embarrassing lineup.

I’m supposed to be writing fiction every night and getting my 4,000-words-a-week in, but instead I find myself in my PJs at a frighteningly early hour, snuggled under a chenille blanket next to Superman, handing him the remote so he’ll show me our long list of shows recorded and coming up. … oh joy, oh joy. … We even have a carefully choreographed routine to get HD shows early on a downstairs DVR while we record other shows at regular time on our upstairs DVR. …

Gah. It’s embarrassing, really.

So what are we watching?

I think they might deserve separate posts!

This one will be about The Bachelor. …

So I’ve seen about half the seasons of The Bachelor/Bachelorette. Sometimes I like them and sometimes I don’t. I can’t quite pin down what specifically makes me like a certain season and why I can shrug my shoulders at another, but I suppose it has to do with the outside drama, how hot I think the bachelor really is (or contestant bachelors are), and how much I think of the bachelorette (or contestant bachelorettes) as someone I’d be friends with, and therefore someone I’d want to find some kind of happiness in love.

(In other words, all the same criteria for a great romance novel!) 

But I definitely tuned in to this season because I watched LAST season when Ben got dumped during his proposal of marriage (egads!), and I really liked him and felt bad for him, so I was happy that he’d be the next bachelor. (Even though he’s not very hot. Kind of a boy-next-door, no?)

But I don’t know if he’s making for a very good bachelor this season – do you? I mean, he seems like a really nice guy, but nice guys aren’t all that interesting to watch on television. (And, of course, it makes me think about writing nice-guy characters, who I imagine can get boring to read on the page, too.) In real life, of course, you want a nice guy, but when you’re watching television with a glass of white wine in your hand, you’re sort of wanting something else.

Anyway, Ben is coming across as nice as he probably is, and I truly want him to find someone sweet, but the first two shows have been a little hard to watch. The first show – with all the introductions – was downright excruciating as the bachelorettes all had the lamest/silliest/goofiest things to say. And his reaction always looked like: “Uh … yeah …” I felt sort of sorry for him, thinking he must have gotten stuck with a bunch of crazy women to choose from, but he kept saying they were “great,” so … maybe he was just focused on their cleavage, I don’t know.

Then the second show was getting worse: The crazy was coming out even more, especially in that one woman who was just called a “Blogger” in NYC. I kept thinking she was going to snap at any second, and I was starting to feel really sorry for her, thinking she just should not be on TV. (And who can make a life as a “Blogger,” anyway? Was she independently wealthy or something? I might have missed a part of her story.)

Anyway, the second show was also difficult to watch because I kept feeling sort of maternal toward Ben, like “No, honey, don’t pick that one, she wants to EAT you…” and “No, sweetie, not her, she’s only in this for the GAME of it all; she doesn’t care about you at all…”

I just want to write Ben a letter and give him my recommendations. …

(Realizing, of course, that this was filmed earlier and I can’t save him!!!)

How about you? Are you watching The Bachelor? Does there seem like even one slightly sane woman for him to choose? (Maybe the red-headed one?) Should I just get back to writing my novel?

One of the things my son has been doing since he’s been home on winter break (especially this last week, since all his friends are returning to school) is catching up on favorite TV shows he’s missed all semester – Mad Men, How I Met Your Mother, Community, 30 Rock, and others.

I come home for lunch, and he’s there on the couch, watching HIMYM. I come home later, after work, and he’s still there on the couch, seven episodes later. …

Sometimes he’s gone to the gym in the middle of it all, but sometimes not.

One show that he got me hooked on, though, is Breaking Bad. And next thing I knew, I was the couch potato, sitting through FIVE EPISODES in one evening alone (yes, that’s right, I said five. And they’re an HOUR long. And this was AFTER dinner…). I was like a total addict. …

Part of it, of course, is that Breaking Bad is the master at cliff hangers. The last line of every show makes you sit up a little straighter and think omg-what’s-going-to-happen-now? And next thing you know, you’re searching for your Netflix remote, thinking omg-I-have-to-play-one-more-episode, even though you just told yourself you really need to get to bed.

And as a writer, I love watching a show with clever dialogue, unique characters, and terrific character arcs — always amazing to find this on TV.

Here are the top 5 things I loved about Breaking Bad:

1. The cliff hangers. Yeah, I got very little sleep this week, but those show endings were really awesome. Those writers know how to do it, man.
2. The movie feel. Seriously, did that pilot seem like a movie to you? I actually forgot, about halfway through, that I was watching a TV show. Seemed like a good movie, and I was kind of surprised when it wanted to wrap up in an hour. Contributing to the movie feel were the music, the beautiful cinematography, and the action-action-action scenes that were making my heart pound and my stomach tense up.
3. The arcing characters. Even in the first season, the arcs begin, and they all look intriguing. The science-teacher-turned-meth-cook is terrific, of course. Then there’s Jesse, the empty-eyed-meth-dealer-turned-guy-with-a-conscience. I like that the teen son who has cerebral palsy isn’t an automatically sweet, perfect kid for all the sympathy points – he actually has a mouth on him and some bite. The only characters who have seemed a little one-dimensional so far (but I hear I’m in for some change, here) are Hank, the DEA agent; and his drabby partner.
4. The humor. It’s dark. Very, very dark. But it’s good. The bathtub crashing through the ceiling was genius. And Jesse “trying out” the plastic container in Lowes to see if a body would fit. … And Walt “cooking” in his underwear. … Awesome stuff.
5. The banter. I love the banter between Walt and Jesse. At first it was sort of uncomfortable: I guess because they disliked each other so much and their exchanges seemed really filled with hate. But after a few shows, the banter became fun because they’d developed enough respect for each other that there was some feeling under it all.

I’m only on Episode 6, Season 1, so I’ve got a looooooooong way to go, but I’m willing to put in some time on this one. … (I foresee some late nights, under a blanket on the couch with Superman, catching up on Seasons 1-4!)

How about you? Are you a fan of Breaking Bad?

Our 2012 book club list is out! Here’s what’s on the agenda for our club this year:

• Jan 2012 – Autobiography of Mark Twain
• Feb – To Be Sung Underwater, Tom McNeal
• Mar – Tattoos on the Heart, Father Greg Boyle
• Apr – A Natural History of the Senses, Diane Ackerman
• [Skip May]
• Jun – The Paris Wife, Paula McLain
• Jun – The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes
• [Skip July]
• Aug – Ape House, Sara Gruen
• Sep – The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafón
• Oct – Legends of the Fall, Jim Harrison
• Nov – Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Jamie Ford
• Dec (Holiday Brunch) – Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann
• Jan 2013 – The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot

Have you read any of these? What’s on your reading list this year?

Here’s our 2011 book club list.
Here’s our 2010 book club list.
Here’s our 2009 book club list.
And here’s how we come up with our book club list each year.

This is always the sad part of Christmas — putting everything away. Yesterday, I took down the tree, put away the glasses and dishes, washed all the holiday linens, and took down all the wreaths. …

Today is putting away the pillows and decor from the downstairs, putting away the dining room items, and putting all the boxes back up in the garage.

Deep sigh. …

I always hate to see the season go. It’s so beautiful and glowing and sparkly …

Hope you all had a beautiful Christmas season, and a safe and happy New Year!

Here’s to an awesome 2012 for all!