With the holidays just around the corner (hoooooow????), I thought I’d make a little post with some of my favorite things from the year, then ask you all to share your faves, too. That way, if someone is looking for a last-minute gift, there will be some options!
It’s me, I’m someone, and I’m looking for gift ideas. :)
Here are some of my favorites from the year, with fair warning that there is definitely recency bias because the first half of the year was kind of a deadline blur.
Books
I try to keep my book rec page updated throughout the year, with varying levels of success, but I wanted to call out four of my very faves, in no particular order: Legends & Lattes, Fated Blades, Dance with the Devil, and The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches.
Reading this year has been very hit and miss for me, and while Goodreads assures me I’ve read forty-six books, it doesn’t feel like it, because there are probably that many or more just languishing on my Kindle, partially read. And most of the books I have read have been in the last six months, once my brain was far enough out of the deadline haze to focus.
Or at least kind of focus.
So my theme this years is cosy books. Fated Blades might not seem cosy on the surface, but a book from Ilona and Gordon is always a gift, and they manage to combine action and emotion in a way that rivets me to the page, so I’m counting it.
Dance with the Devil is maybe more cathartic than cosy—a found family working together to take down a tyrannical government—but it’s my list, so I’m counting it, too. Legends & Lattes felt like a hug in book form, perfect for fantasy fans, and The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches was absolutely jam-packed with found family feels and a simmering romance. Any of these would be excellent gifts for a reader in your life!
And if you’re looking for books about badass space princesses, close-knit bounty hunters, or rogue queens, I’ve also got you covered! ;)
Games
Mr. M and I typically play a lot of video games, usually co-op games on PC where we can play together. This year, we spent the most time in V Rising, No Man’s Sky, and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, all of which we loved. Then we restarted Terraria for the umpteenth time because why not?
But we also bought Steam Decks this year, which was a splurge, and suddenly, we could not only play all the games we already owned on PC, but we could also easily play single player games while still hanging out together on the couch. I played so much Littlewood, then Graveyard Keeper, and now I’m deep into Rune Factory 5. I have pet monsters and a farm and love interests and I get to go on quests! Best. Game. Ever. :)
A Steam Deck is not a small investment, especially when a Nintendo Switch is cheaper, but if you have a lot of games on Steam already, it is fun to be able to take them with you. I love my desk, but I spend a lot of time at it. Being able to play PC games elsewhere is really nice.
Other
My Black Friday impulse buy was a Ninja Creami for $100, which is probably what I would pay for it again because I’m cheap, so watch for a sale if you’re interested. But y’all, this thing is kind of magic. I dumped in a can of crushed pineapple, and AMAZING came out.
It’s not a traditional ice cream maker, in that it doesn’t slowly churn the mixture as it freezes. Instead, you freeze the mixture solid, then a powerful blade cuts through it, aerating and creamifying it. Apparently there is a professional tool called a Pacojet that does the same thing in commercial kitchens.
So far we’ve made strawberry ice cream, pineapple ice cream, and both peach and pineapple “sorbet,” aka canned fruit dumped into the freezer jar. Both ice creams were incredible, and the pineapple sorbet was divine, but the peach sorbet wasn’t quite sweet enough, probably because our canned peaches were in juice instead of syrup. If I make it again, I’ll probably add a little bit of sugar.
If you like Dole Whip (aka Pineapple Whip), then you’re going to love this thing. It’s not exactly the same, but it’s still soooooo good and all it takes is a can of pineapple.
But be warned: it’s LOUD. If you have thin walls, invite your neighbors over for some ice cream goodness or they’re going to curse your name for the few minutes it runs.
So what about you? What have you loved this year? Self-promo is allowed, but if it feels too spammy, I’ll remove it, so consider recommending others in addition to yourself. :)
Edit: If you include several links, your comment may go into moderation, but I’ll keep an eye on it and fish out the legit comments, so don’t worry if it happens!
I’ve been re-reading the Chronicles of Elantra and just finished “Cast in Eternity” which released the end of November. I love, love, love this series. The characters are old friends by now and falling back into their lives and adventures is like cuddling up before a fire with cocoa.
+1 I love this series and just finished chewing through Cast in Eternity. Wonderful recommendation.
Ilona Andrews | Patricia Briggs | Robin McKinley | Tamora Pierce | Penny Reid
These are my top 5 authors and I basically auto-buy everything they produce. I’ll add the link for Penny Reid because she’s prolly the least well-known. https://pennyreid.ninja/books/ She also opened her world up for other authors to play in and those books are here: https://smartypantsromance.com/books/ with a special recommendation from me for the books by April White.
This year’s best books for me (beside Eclipse the Moon of course :D ) were Ilona a Gordon’s Ruby Fever, Kim Harrisons last three Rachel Morgan books (American Demon, Million Dollar Demon and Trouble with the Cursed), Jennifer Esteps Only Bad Options and really really good was the Paradox series from Rachel Bach – I was pleasantly surprised with this series. I also enjoyed Deborah Wilde’s The Jezebel Files as audiobooks, it was really funny :)
I have read 3 of the 4 recommended titles and going to look for the 4th. Hmm does my Library own it. Loved the other 3 so I expect the 4th to be just as fun.
I’m sooo glad you’re reading “A Court of Thorns and Roses”! Don’t worry about being late to the party–I just picked them a year or two ago. Just wait until you read new series, Crescent City, it’s a rollercoaster!
I love “Take a Hint, Dani Brown”! It’s my favorite one out of the Brown sisters trilogy because it’s about an academic and I’m nerdy. :)
Enjoyed reading “The Blacksmith Queen” and all the tropes the author pokes fun at.
I absolutely concur with your book recs with the exception of Legends and Lattes, which I am now going to put on my tbr list. Love those 3 authors – they don’t disappoint.
Would recommend trying valheim on PC if you haven’t already.
We played it quite a bit a while back, but I think they’ve done some updates, so we need to check it out again!
This will sound a bit silly probably, but after visiting relatives in the UK this summer, the first thing I did upon returning home was to order an electric kettle. I bought a basic one with a large capacity the basically just boils the water and then shuts itself off with an audible click so you know when to pour it over your tea. There are fancy ones out there for a bit more money that you can select temperatures depending upon what type of tea you’re brewing, but I’m a black tea girl, so boiling works for me.
I *love* my electric kettle, so I don’t think it’s silly at all! 😍
So if you have a family of tea drinkers like mine, you might consider a tabletop hot water dispenser. They’re common in Asian families (like mine). Ours keeps up to 3 liters of water hot and ready for tea any minute of the day. If that sounds excessive, we have 3 people drinking tea and other hot beverages all day. Also super handy for stuff like Cup o Noodles (what can I say- we have teenagers) and cooking- you can jumpstart pasta this way, cut down on time to bring the water to boiling.
TL;DR – this doesn’t sound silly at all! And you can go even more hardcore!
I really loved Legends & Lattes, I can’t remember if it was you or someone else who recommended it to me first, but what a lovely and fun book.
Read a lot of other great books this year that escape me right now!
My spouse just asked me yesterday if I wanted anything special for Christmas and I said “Who me?” I do all the gift shopping for the family and I usually buy my own presents too. Guess I should think about it!