What I read, watched and rocked out to in 2018!

2018 was a trying year. But of course, good times as well. 

Here's to a healthy, happy 2019 for all of us!
My next book comes out NEXT MONTH!

Below is my usual list of what I read, watched, and the many concerts I attended in 2018!

What were your favorite reads, shows or events of 2018?

BOOKS – 9

Broken Little Melodies by Jennifer Ann

Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

No Relation by Paula Carter

The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis

A Dying Machine by Mark Tremonti and John Shirley

My signed book by Mark Tremonti!

When We Touch by Tia Louise

 MOVIES – Total at the theater 6

Black Panther

Solo

Avengers Infinity War

Antman and Wasp

A Star is Born

Bohemian Rhapsody

TV

My fave network shows right now are Life in Pieces and Modern Family.

I also watched

Atypical -seasons 1 and 2
Ozark season 1

The Little Drummer Girl
True Blood – my favorite series of all time! Currently rewatching. (On season 5/8)
Bird Box

CONCERTS- Total –14

Papa Roach (16th time)

Daughtry

Buckcherry

Harry Styles

Foo Fighters

Niall Horan

Buckcherry

Buckcherry

Buckcherry (19^th time), Alien Ant Farm, POD, Lit

Tremonti

Tremonti and Ten Years

Kip Winger

Fight the Fury

Winger

Daughtry (8^th time)

And I even got to sing onstage again with Kip Winger this year!

Check it out here! https://www.instagram.com/p/BpKCMtTH0Q2/

Happy 2019 to you!

What I Read, Watched, and Rocked Out to in 2016

My blog has been rather dormant this year, but I have not been! I've been busy teaching kindergarten, editing my middle grade novel, being a distributor for It Works health and wellness products, momming my three awesome kids, and all this below!

Here is my annual list of what I read, watched, and rocked out to!

BOOKS READ
I mostly read in the summer or on school breaks, so the list isn't as long as I'd like, but I read some amazing books this year!

ROOM by Emma Donoghue  (need to still see the movie!)

YES, PLEASE by Amy Poehler

ONE TO KEEP by Tia Louise

ELEANOR AND PARK by Rainbow Rowell

WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON by John Green and David Levithan

EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING by Nicola Yoon

BLUE LILY, LILY BLUE by Maggie Steifvater

SIGN OF THE GREEN DRAGON By C. Lee McKenzie

THIS ONE MOMENT By Stina Lindenblatt

SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS by Ann Brashares 

THE RAVEN KING by Maggie Steifvater

PERFECT TIMING By Robin Mellom

SEVEN DEADLY SINS by Corey Taylor

 

THANKS FOR THE MONEY by Joel McHale

Oh! And looky! Here's me with that handsome and hilarious author/actor Joel McHale!

 

 

MOVIES WATCHED

I am happy to report that I read more books than watched movies this year!

 

Grease Live on Fox

Daddy’s Home

Trainwreck

Civil War

Magic Mike XL

The Secret Life of Pets

The Legend of Tarzan

Batman vs Superman

Bad Moms

Rogue One (Sigh. Very sad about Carrie Fisher.)

 

CONCERTS ATTENDED

And you know my huge passion for my rock music. Concerts are my therapy for sure. Here are the bands I saw live this year! (And a sidenote: been dancing to George Michael tunes for the last few days. What a loss for the music world!)

Justin Bieber  (yes, I have a teenage daughter)

Skillet (a five dollar concert- man, they rocked it!)

Buckcherry - 5 times!  (my total count of Buckcherry shows is 15 now)

Sebastian Bach

Me and the Buckcherry boys

 

Goo Goo Dolls/Safety Suit

Click HERE to see me singing with Doug, the lead singer of Safety Suit! :)

 

 

WHAT WERE YOUR FAVORITE BOOKS, MOVIES, AND CONCERTS OF 2016?

 



 

 

What I read, watched, and rocked out to in 2015

Happy New Year, friends! I hope 2015 was good to you, and I hope 2016 is even better.

2015 was busy. I taught kindergarten and reading, helped coach my son in basketball, went to three weddings in June, hosted a Spanish exchange student, chauffeured and watched my kids play sports, and traveled to Arizona, Iowa and Wisconsin. My newest picture book I'M A LITTLE GREEN WITCH was released in September. I became an It Works! distributor (I'm healthier!). And I finished the year wrapping up my rough draft of a middle grade novel on December 31. I'm determined to make more time for writing and improving myself in 2016.

Here is my usual what I read, watched and rocked out to throughout the year!

Books

 

Bark Until Heard by Becky Monroe

Paper Towns by John Green

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The Terrible Two by Mac Barnett and Jory John

One to Hold by Tia Louise

The Silent Wife by ASA Harrison

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

King of the Mutants by Samantha Verant

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Demon’s Ink By Kimbra Kasch

Into the Dark By Caroline Patti

Auggie & Me by RJ Palacio

 

Movies

Fifty Shades of Grey

Insurgent

The Spongebob Movie
Home
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Jurassic World
Inside Out
Minions
AntMan
Vacation
Goosebumps
The Outsiders
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (3x)

 

CONCERTS

Buckcherry for the 10th time

Papa Roach 2 times in January

Seether

Sixx Am/Apocalyptica

Taylor Swift/Shawn Mendez

Kip Winger (see below)

and Papa Roach (for the 13th time)/In this Moment/Pop Evil

What were some of your favorite

books, concerts, or movies of 2015?

 

 

2013

is so last year.
But a good one! I started working full days in Early Childhood this year. First time working a full school day since I had kids. It's so wonderful to see a child grow and learn so much in one year. Two picture books were released (ROCKABET and HOLD THE MUSTARD!). Thank you so much for your support! We took fun family vacations to Wisconsin, Grand Canyon, Vegas, Utah and Arizona. And three of my three children are currently playing on basketball teams (my favorite sport to watch!). So it was a busy year!

So busy I only read 14 books (but enjoyed them!).

Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn

The Duff by Kody Keplinger

Make It Morning by Jody Bainter

Tenth of December by George Saunders

The Truth About Letting Go by LTM
Alligators Overhead by C. Lee McKenzie
Life of Pi
Safe Haven
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Dragonfly by Leigh T. Moore
Fingerprints by Suzanne Casamento
All of You Christina Lee
Indiestructable Edited by Jessica Bell
Undertow by Leigh T. Moore


I watched these movies (as you can tell, comedies are my favorite).

Ted

Escape from Planet Earth

Life of Pi

The Hobbit

Monsters University

Man of Steel

One Direction: This Is Us (twice!)

The Croods

Despicable Me 2

Dumb and Dumber

This Is The End

GrownUps

GrownUps 2

Catching Fire

R.I.P.D.

And went to these concerts (as you can tell, Papa Roach is my favorite).

Papa Roach/Stone Sour/Otherwise

Maroon 5/Neon Trees/Owl City

30 Seconds to Mars

Papa Roach/Otherwise

Daughtry/Three Doors Down

Lita Ford/Dokken/Winger/Sebastian Bach/Ratt (see Kip Winger below!)

 

Papa Roach/Shinedown

P!NK/New Politics

Daughtry

 

 

Bought these new albums (all awesome but 2 faves are Buckcherry & Mike Sanchez).

Love Lust Faith + Dreams by 30 Seconds to Mars

Stars and Hotel Bars by Mike Sanchez

Confessions by Buckcherry

Hail to the King by Avenged Sevenfold

Baptized by Daughtry

What were your favorite books, movies and music in 2013?

2012 is so last year

But I read some amazing books and listened to some awesome music.
Here's the roundup.

BOOKS
I generally read YA and MG, but books for adults dominated my nightstand this year, as well as some amazing indie titles.  So many great novels. My fave book of the year? GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn. Fave new author of the year? Leigh T. Moore. And yes, I even read the Fifty Shades trilogy. In the words of Anastasia, "Holy crap!"

Here's what I read, yo.

Dance on Fire by James Garcia Jr

Cold Cereal by Adam Rex

This Burns My Heart by Samuel Park

On the Bright Side by SR Johannes

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Fourth Stall Part 2 by Chris Rylander

Pearl by Jo Knowles
Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris
All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris
Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James
Fifty Shades Darker by EL James
Fifty Shades Freed by EL James
The Color of Bones by Tracy Edward Wymer
Darth Paper Strikes Back by Tom Angleberger
Hourglass by Myra McEntire
The Classroom by Robin Mellom

The Truth About Faking by Leigh T. Moore

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
My Very UnFairy Tale Life by Anna Staniszewski
Rouge by Leigh T. Moore
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Sean Griswold's Head by Lindsey Leavitt
How To Survive Ancient Spells and Crazy Kings by Laura Pauling
String Bridge by Jessica Bell

MOVIES
On to movies. I'm  not a huge movie watcher due to lack of time, but I noticed I rewatched a lot of classics this year, and of course, movies with my kiddos.

Phantom Menace 3D

Weekend Pass

Hugo
Hunger Games

The Avengers

The Amazing Spiderman

Magic Mike

The Three Stooges

ET

Hotel Transylvania

Dumb and Dumber

Fletch
Breaking Dawn 2

This is 40

Christmas Vacation

Elf

A Christmas Story

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days

The Big Miracle

MUSIC
I love me some rock 'n' roll, so my top three rock songs of 2012 are these.

"Gluttony" by BUCKCHERRY (Got to hear this live a few weeks ago! Rated R btw.)



"You Waste Your Time" by TREMONTI  (Awesome guitar riffs, and I won a signed guitar from this guy last year, too.)


"Still Swingin'" by PAPA ROACH (I get see hear this song live in a few weeks! If you lika da zombies, this video reminds me of the last book of Carrie Ryan's zombie trilogy!)



What are your favorite books, movies or songs of 2012?

Genre Favorites Blogfest

Cassastar Ninja Alex Cavanaugh is hosting today's spectacular GENRE FAVORITES BLOGFEST! Fun, right? I didn't plan on blogging here this week, but I had to join the partay!

MOVIE
My go-to movie is a comedy. I love to laugh. Some of my all-time favorites include Old School, Vacation, and Elf. Some of the more recent movies that made me giggle are Bridesmaids and The Change Up. I want to see Ted. I heard that was a funny one.

BOOKS
I am all over the place with books. I love picture books, middle grade, young adult, and adult novels in all different genres. The only genre I generally do not read is non-fiction. I love a great story! Some of my all time favorite books are The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, Guess Again by Mac Barnett, The Hunger Games, The Outsiders, and A Time to Kill.

MUSIC
If you know me at all, you know that my favorite genre of music is ROCK! My last four concerts over the summer included

Daughtry and opener, new fave musician, Mike Sanchez

New Medicine (this is the bassist, Brady)

Buckcherry (for the sixth time!)

and Motley Crue (also for the sixth time!).

Rock 'n' Roll, baby!





GUILTY PLEASURE
I subscribe to Us Weekly and look forward to every issue. It's just my little slice of pure mindless entertainment. I sit outside on the patio or couch and zone out for an hour. I also read it to get celebrity book recommendations for my other site, Book Recs of the Rock & Famous, too!

Also, my guilty pleasure TV show is True Blood (Eric Northman, need I say more?)

How about you? What are your favorite genres?