Sarah's Top Ten Lists of 2013

Well it's that time again; we usher out the year of 2013 and ring in a new year and a clean slate for 2014.

2013 was a year that brought lots of accomplishments and also a lot of despair. From the Birth of the next King, to the death of a political legend, but we all can't forget what made 2013 what it was.

So here are a few top ten lists to end the year of 2013:

Top Ten Books of 2013

1. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

2. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

3. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

4. The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

5. Joyland by Stephen King

6. Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld

7. The 5th Wave by Rick Yancy

8. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

9. And The Mountain Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

10. Hunted by Karen Robards

Top Ten Movies of 2013

1. Monsters University

2. Despicable Me 2

3. Iron Man 3

4. Star Trek: Into Darkness

5. Before Midnight

6. The Worlds End

7. Enders Game

8. After Earth

9. Olympus Has Fallen

10. The Wolverine

Top Ten News Stories in Canada of 2013

1. Alberta Floods

2. The Lac Magentic Rail Disaster

3. The Senate Scandal

4. Fracking in the Atlantic Provinces

5. Rob Ford's Crack Addiction

6. Rob Ford's Lying in Council

7. Rob Ford's removal of Power

8. Rob Ford's Media Circus

9. Rob Ford's Bobble heads

10. Rob Ford

Top Ten Weather of 2013

1. Alberta Floods

2. Toronto's Torrential Rains

3. Bumper Crops in Alberta

4. More Flooding in Canada

5. Restoration of Global Water Levels

6. Prairie Winter that never really ended

7. Oklahoma Tornado Disaster

8. Ontario's Ice Storm

9. Winds in Scotland

10. Colorado's 1000 year flood

Top Ten Idiots of 2013

1. Rob Ford (Crack Addiction)

2. Doug Ford (Being Rob Ford's Brother)

3. Miley Cyrus (Twerking in front of Kids...NM, just leave it as TWERK'd)

4. Justin Bieber (Most Annoying Canadian)

5. Canada's Senate (Sheer Stupidity)

6. Barack Obama (Obamacare....more like Obamacrap)

7. Urban Planet (West Ed Mall for playing a song during christmas in public glorifying child sex)

8. Robin Thicke (Blurred lines...more like Blurred Creative thinking)

9. Seth McFarlane (for killing Brian the Dog from Family Guy)

10. Mark Zuckerberg (For creating Facebook)

Top Ten Most Eaten Foods in Canada of 2013

1. Sushi

2. Mac & Cheese

3. Big Mac

4. Pizza

5. Bacon

6. Hot Dogs

7. Chicken McNuggets

8. Spaghetti

9. Oh Henry Chocolate Bars

10. Cheddar Cheese

Top Ten Most Watched Cartoons of 2013

1. My Little Pony

2. Looney Toons

3. Phineas & Ferb

4. SpongeBob Square Pants

5. Transformers

6. Powerpuff Girls

7. Adventure Time

8. Winx Club

9. The Simpsons

10. Family Guy

Top Ten Alphabet letters of 2013

1. A

2. B

3. C

4. D

5. E

6. F

7. G

8. H

9. I

10. J

Top Ten Places to Visit in Canada 2013

1. Victoria, BC

2. Montreal, QC

3. Niagara Falls, ON

4. Charlottetown, PEI

5. Edmonton, AB

6. Wasaga Beach, ON

7. Thunder Bay, ON

8. Penticton, BC

9. Banff, AB

10. Halifax, NS

Top Ten Places NOT to visit in Canada in 2013

1. Regina, SK

2. Saskatoon, SK

3. Yorkton, SK

4. Brandon, MB

5. Winnipeg, MB

6. Dryden, ON

7. Smithers, BC

8. Prince Rupert, BC

9. Terrace, BC

10. Toronto, ON

Top Ten Resolutions of 2013

1. Quit Smoking

2. Lose Weight/Exercising

3. Paying off Debt/Bills

4. Better job/Career Change

5. Make New Friends

6. Travel to new places

7. Start A Family

8. Pay Off Mortgage

9. Try something new

10. Donate to Charities

Top Ten Songs of 2013

1. Blurred Lines (Robin Thicke)

2. Can't Hold Us (Macklemore)

3. Royals (Lorde)

4. Thrift Shop (Macklemore)

5. Wake Me Up (Avicii)

6. Get Lucky (Daft Punk)

7. When I was your Man (Bruno Mars)

8. Wrecking Ball (Miley Cyrus)

9. Roar (Katy Perry)

10. We Can't Stop (Miley Cyrus)

Top Ten 911 stupid calls of 2013

1. “I'd like to speak to someone about renting a fire truck to block off a street for a party."

2. A caller phoned 911 to get their date’s contact information so they could confirm details of their plans.

3. A caller phoned 911 to report a missed newspaper delivery.

4. Caller asks 911 if they can get the 'OK' to drive in the HOV lane because “traffic is backed up and they are late for an important meeting.”

5. Caller dials 911 to activate voicemail on his cellphone.

6. “I threw my phone into the garbage can and can't get it out.”

7. Caller dials 911 to ask for a morning wake-up call.

8. Caller dials 911 to ask how to call the operator.

9. “Can an officer come over to tell my kids to go to bed?”

10. “My son won’t give me the remote control.”

Top Ten Cool Gadgets that were Crowdfunded of 2013

1. Piper Home Security (Make-shift home security)

2. Matterform Scanner (Consumer 3D Scanner)

3. Beddit (Sleep Monitor)

4. Oculus Rift (Hyper-reality 3d Game Visor)

5. Lifx (Wifi Lightbulbs)

6. 3D Doodler (3d Pen)

7. Canary Home Security (Smartphone Security)

8. Smart watches (Smartphones for your wrist)

9. Scanandu Scout (Medical Tricorder)

10. Form1 (3D Printers now capable of making GUNS right at home)

Anyways, there are a lot more top ten lists we can make for ushering out 2013, so here is to the new 2014! May your New Year start with change and may you change the new year as well.

Take care all,

The Top 10 Books I Read in 2010

So…it looks like I read approximately 228 books in 2010. Lesson learned: KEEP TRACK OF THE BOOKS YOU READ AS YOU READ THEM! I had to look through my Goodreads profile (and of course I don’t have that little “date read” thingy set up) so I could guesstimate my total! And here are my top 10 in no particular order:


Raised by Wolves:
Adopted by the Alpha of a werewolf pack after a rogue wolf brutally killed her parents right before her eyes, fifteen-year-old Bryn knows only pack life, and the rigid social hierarchy that controls it. That doesn't mean that she's averse to breaking a rule or two.

But when her curiosity gets the better of her and she discovers Chase, a new teen locked in a cage in her guardian's basement, and witnesses him turn into a wolf before her eyes, the horrific memories of her parents' murders return. Bryn becomes obsessed with getting her questions answered, and Chase is the only one who can provide the information she needs.

But in her drive to find the truth, will Bryn push too far beyond the constraints of the pack, forcing her to leave behind her friends, her family, and the identity that she's shaped?




Alpha:
The unscrupulous new Council chair has charged Jace, Marc and me with trespassing, kidnapping, murder and treason. Yeah, we've been busy. But now it's time to take justice into our own hands. We must avenge my brother's death and carve out the rot at the heart of the Council.

It's not going to be easy, and loss seems unavoidable, but I have promised to protect my Pride, no matter what. With a target on my back and Marc at my side, I'm heading for a final showdown that can—that will—change everything forever. A showdown I'm not sure I'm ready for.

But life never waits until you're ready.

Radiant Shadows:
Hunger for nourishment.
Hunger for touch.
Hunger to belong.

Half-human and half-faery, Ani is driven by her hungers.

Those same appetites also attract powerful enemies and uncertain allies, including Devlin. He was created as an assassin and is brother to the faeries' coolly logical High Queen and to her chaotic twin, the embodiment of War. Devlin wants to keep Ani safe from his sisters, knowing that if he fails, he will be the instrument of Ani's death.

Ani isn't one to be guarded while others fight battles for her, though. She has the courage to protect herself and the ability to alter Devlin's plans—and his life. The two are drawn together, each with reason to fear the other and to fear for one another. But as they grow closer, a larger threat imperils the whole of Faerie. Will saving the faery realm mean losing each other?



In the Dark of Dreams:
She could never forget the boy with the ice blue eyes . . .

She was only twelve when she saw the silver boy on the beach, but Jenny has never stopped dreaming about him. Now she is grown, a marine biologist charting her own course in the family business—a corporation that covertly crosses the boundaries of science into realms of the unknown . . . and the incredible.

And now he has found her again, her boy grown into a man: Perrin, powerful and masculine, and so much more than human, leaving Jenny weak with desire and aching for his touch.

But with their reunion comes danger. For Perrin and Jenny—and all living creatures—their only hope for preventing the unthinkable lies in a mysterious empire far beneath the sea . . . and in the power of their dreams.





Heart of the Wolf:
Their forbidden love may get them both killed.

Bella is a red werewolf, sole survivor of the fire that killed her entire pack.

Devlyn is a beta male werewolf in a pack of grays.

Forced to flee her adopted gray pack when the alpha male becomes a vicious threat, she struggles to live as a lone wolf, until Devlyn, the gray male who rescued her as a pup, comes to bring her home.

When a local red werewolf goes on a killing spree, Bella and Devlyn must flee the murderer, the police and their vengeful pack leader. With the full moon rising, and her heat upon her, Bella can't resist the pull to her destined mate, even if means Devlyn will have to face the wicked alpha male in a fight to the death...




Brightly Woven:
Sydelle Mirabil is living proof that, with a single drop of rain, a life can be changed forever. Tucked away in the farthest reaches of the kingdom, her dusty village has suffered under the weight of a strangely persistent drought. That is, of course, until a wizard wanders into town and brings the rain with him.

In return for this gift, Wayland North is offered any reward he desires—and no one is more surprised than Sydelle when, without any explanation, he chooses her. Taken from her home, Sydelle hardly needs encouragement to find reasons to dislike North. He drinks too much and bathes too little, and if that isn’t enough to drive her to madness, North rarely even uses the magic he takes such pride in possessing. Yet, it’s not long before she realizes there’s something strange about the wizard, who is as fiercely protective of her as he is secretive about a curse that turns his limbs a sinister shade of black and leaves him breathless with agony. Unfortunately, there is never a chance for her to seek answers.

Along with the strangely powerful quakes and storms that trace their path across the kingdom, other wizards begin to take an inexplicable interest in her as well, resulting in a series of deadly duels. Against a backdrop of war and uncertainty, Sydelle is faced with the growing awareness that these events aren’t as random as she had believed—that no curse, not even that of Wayland North, is quite as terrible as the one she herself may carry.



Willow:
Seven months ago, on a rainy March night, sixteen year- old Willow’s parents died in a horrible car accident. Willow was driving. Now her older brother barely speaks to her, her new classmates know her as the killer orphan girl, and Willow is blocking the pain by secretly cutting herself. But when one boy—one sensitive, soulful boy—discovers Willow’s secret, it sparks an intense relationship that turns the “safe” world Willow has created for herself upside down.
Told in an extraordinary fresh voice, Willow is an unforgettable novel about one girl’s struggle to cope with tragedy, and one boy’s refusal to give up on her.







Ice:
When Cassie was a little girl, her grandmother told her a fairy tale about her mother, who made a deal with the Polar Bear King and was swept away to the ends of the earth. Now that Cassie is older, she knows the story was a nice way of saying her mother had died. Cassie lives with her father at an Arctic research station, is determined to become a scientist, and has no time for make-believe.

Then, on her eighteenth birthday, Cassie comes face-to-face with a polar bear who speaks to her. He tells her that her mother is alive, imprisoned at the ends of the earth. And he can bring her back — if Cassie will agree to be his bride.

That is the beginning of Cassie's own real-life fairy tale, one that sends her on an unbelievable journey across the brutal Arctic, through the Canadian boreal forest, and on the back of the North Wind to the land east of the sun and west of the moon. Before it is over, the world she knows will be swept away, and everything she holds dear will be taken from her — until she discovers the true meaning of love and family in the magical realm of Ice.



Waking the Witch:
The orphaned daughter of a sorcerer and a half-demon, Savannah is a terrifyingly powerful young witch who has never been able to resist the chance to throw her magical weight around. But at 21 she knows she needs to grow up and prove to her guardians, Paige and Lucas, that she can be a responsible member of their supernatural detective agency. So she jumps at the chance to fly solo, investigating the mysterious deaths of three young women in a nearby factory town as a favour to one of the agency’s associates. At first glance, the murders look garden-variety human, but on closer inspection signs point to otherworldly stakes.

Soon Savannah is in over her head. She’s run off the road and nearly killed, haunted by a mystery stalker, and freaked out when the brother of one of the dead women is murdered when he tries to investigate the crime. To complicate things, something weird is happening to her powers. Pitted against shamans, demons, a voodoo-inflected cult and garden-variety goons, Savannah has to fight to ensure her first case isn’t her last. And she also has to ask for help, perhaps the hardest lesson she’s ever had to learn.




Moon Sworn:
Some nights never end.

Some desires never die. . . .

She ventures where no one else dares—into realms of peril and pleasure. But will this next journey be her last?

Shape-shifting werewolf and vampire Riley Jenson is through with death–causing it, solving it, surviving it. Her soul mate, Kye Murphy, is dead–and at Riley’s own hands. Not even the seductive embrace of her vampire lover, Quinn, can fully ease her mind, for she has begun questioning everything that makes her Riley–including her job at the Directorate.

Now, the ritualistically slain bodies of ex-cons have started turning up. Reluctantly, Riley takes the case, but something even worse is waiting in the wings. For a vicious enemy from her past is determined to strip Riley of everything that gives her life any meaning: her lover, her brother–and even her own identity. Can Riley survive this ultimate assault? All she knows is, she must fight one last time to find answers, before everything goes dark forever…

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

My First Official Top 10 Lists:

Although I read many, many more than just the books I have listed here, I narrowed it down to the top 20 books released in 2009. The lists are in no particular order, and it took me a while to cull my book list down to just 20!

Top 10 Adult Books:
1. Bad Moon Rising – Sherrilyn Kenyon
2. Bone Crossed – Patricia Briggs
3. The Fire King – Marjorie M Liu
4. Red Kiss – Deidre Knight
5. Prey – Rachel Vincent
6. Dragons Prefer Blondes – Candace Havens
7. The Darkest Whisper – Gena Showalter
8. Frostbitten – Kelley Armstrong
9. Bound to Shadows – Keri Arthur
10. Dark Curse – Christine Feehan

Top 10 Young Adult Books:
1. The Awakening – Kelley Armstrong
2. City of Glass – Cassandra Clare
3. Shiver – Maggie Stiefvater
4. Wings – Aprilynne Pike
5. My Soul to Take – Rachel Vincent
6. Tempted – P.C. Cast, Kristin Cast
7. Fade – Lisa McMann
8. Fragile Eternity – Melissa Marr
9. Deadly Little Lies – Laurie Faria Stolarz
10. Hush, Hush – Becca Fitzpatrick

And just for fun, I thought I’d include the Top 20 Paranormal Books I’m looking forward to (that I can find release dates for):

Top 10 Adult Books:
1. Silver Borne – Patricia Briggs
2. Red Demon – Deidre Knight
3. The Darkest Passion – Gena Showalter
4. Scars and Souvenirs – Sherrilyn Kenyon
5. Waking the Witch – Kelley Armstrong
6. Moon Sworn - Keri Arthur
7. A Wild Light – Marjorie M Liu
8. Wild Fire – Christine Feehan
9. Chaos Bites – Lori Handeland
10. Blood Magic – Eileen Wilks

Top 10 Young Adult Books:
1. The Reckoning - Kelley Armstrong
2. Burned – P.C. Cast, Kristin Cast
3. Linger – Maggie Stiefvater
4. Crescendo – Becca Fitzpatrick
5. Gone – Lisa McMann
6. Radiant Shadows – Melissa Marr
7. Spells – Aprilynne Pike
8. Misguided Angel – Melissa De La Cruz
9. Demon Princess: Reign Check – Michelle Rowen
10. City of Fallen Angels – Cassandra Clare