Happy New Year!

And so another year comes to an end. I hope it was a good one for all of you, and that an even better one awaits.

That is the extent of my rumination on the New Year.

I'm a little out of sorts, like I usually am between books. I finished Anne Calhoune's novella Breath on Embers a few days ago and was blown away by how good she is. I suppose I ought to just go and buy everything else she's written that I haven't yet read, but I kind of like keeping those for days when I'm really desperate for something good. I'm not actually desperate yet.

Actually, I've been reading a collection of Nora Ephron's writings called The Most of Nora Ephron, and it's really great. Most of us know her as the screenwriter for "When Harry Met Sally" (one of my all-time fav movies) and "Sleepless in Seattle." But she did so much more that I wasn't aware of, a lot of journalism, but journalism that's written with her opinions and voice. The articles about the women's movement of the late sixties/early seventies are particularly fascinating. So I've been reading that in bits and pieces while searching for my next book to devour. No luck so far, just a couple of not-so-exciting samples read. I may just have to go back to an old favorite and re-read it. Which isn't such a bad way to fill the time. I often find new things to appreciate when I do that.

My husband and I have both been home together for four days straight, give or take some outings and errands, and we've been getting on each other's nerves a bit. I've been kind of twitchy and I feel bad about it. But we still come together when it counts, like when it's time to watch TV. We recently discovered "Friday Night Lights," a show that went off the air in 2011. The amazing thing is that it's all about football and yet not really about football at all. It's just a beautiful, wonderfully written show and I want everyone to watch it. In fact, it's a great lesson in good writing, because (at least in the first season, which is all I've seen so far) all the drama comes out of the characters' experiences and feels real and authentic. It's people dealing with life and it's not over the top or more dramatic than it needs to be, just dramatic in the best sense of the word. It's also charming and really funny. It keeps me riveted. It doesn't hurt that Kyle Chandler is a hottie and there are a bunch of hot football players. My husband loves Connie Britton, who plays the coach's wife, and I love her too, so I don't mind. There's something for everyone.

Anyhoo, that's what I've been into since I last posted. That, and writing. I'll tell more about how that's going another time. ; )