We’re home sweet home!
Although it will be nice to get back into a normal routine, we were really sad leaving Washington DC and my in-laws this morning. Eight days out there completely flew by, and it stunk seeing our vacation come to an end. 
I should really spend tonight unpacking, getting started on my massive to-do list, and taking down Christmas decorations (xmas decor on display after the holidays is always a little depressing, don’t you think?) but instead I’m going to enjoy what’s left of my vacation and finish reading New Moon. 
I started it on our first flight today and got swept away in the land of vampires and warewolves. Again. It’s my second time reading it, muwahaha!
OMG, that reminds me, I finally read The Help!
I’m not sure what took me so long – I think I believed it to be over hyped – but I was 1,000% wrong. I started it on our first flight out to DC last week, and finished it the same day. I do believe it was my favorite book of 2011!
Now I’m just dying to see the movie even though Emma Stone, who plays Skeeter, couldn’t be further from the skinny, awkward character I grew to love from the book.
Readers & viewers – what did you think?
It was also kind of neat that we saw the brand new Martin Luther King Jr Memorial out in DC this week, after I finished reading it.
Inspirational.
Striking.
AMAZING! 
What was your favorite book of 2011? Read any good ones over the holidays?
’til tomorrow!
Loved The Help, have yet to see the movie. I am starting The Girl w the DragonTattoo
I too read the book and it was the best book I read this year… which is something to say about me because it takes me forever to read a book and I read this in six months.
The movie was great and true to the book… of course it missed a few things so that it could be a movie, but it was great! Octavia Spencer IS Minnie. She’s that good!
The Kitchen House was also an amazing read — it’s about slavery before the Civil War. I read that right after I read the Help so it was interesting to see how things changed and stayed the same.
Also, I made 60 of your baked crab rangoon for NYE — I think there were maybe 6 left at the end of the night!! They were great =)
Oh, I also just finished “How to Love an American Man” — don’t judge a book by it’s title, it was a very sweet and touching story about the life and love lessons a woman learns from her grandmother.
my favourite book this year was definitely Room. I think it’s one of my all-time favourite books!! So disturbing and fascinating and clever. It was an emotional roller coaster. But if I’m still thinking about a book long after i finished reading it, then i consider it a gooooood book.
by emma donoghue
The best book that I read in 2011 was Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy. Has to be the funniest book about pregnancy ever!!!
You will not be disappointed in the movie! Very true to the book.
i loved the help! i think the help and the hunger games series were my favorite books of 2011!
I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with Emma Stone’s performance–I sure was!!! And I have to agree, The Help was a wonderful book. I read it when it first hit the stands and would now like to re-read it!
I read The Help last summer (and saw the movie) It was SO good. It was one of those books that I couldn’t put down. I literally sat there and read it cover to cover.
I watched the movie last week. I haven’t read the book, but I LOVED the movie! It was great!
Add this to my must read list… it’s growing by the day. I need to read The Help, The Hunger Games, and tons more. I’m the worlds slowest reader. I have too many blogs to catch up with, so my actual book gets pushed to the side. Right now I’m reading the Time Traveler’s Wife and I LOVE it.
Glad you had a good vacation
Also my fav of 2011!
I also was like you about “The Help” but i finished it in 2 days and loved the movie, even though i agree with you about Emma Stone, it is a great movie! I read Still Alice by Lisa Genova, it is a great book. Happy New Year!
You will actually love the person type casted for Skeeter. She was perfect. Actually all the characters were very well type casted. It was a great movie too.
I sadly didn’t read much of anything interesting in 2011- I blame it on having to read textbooks and required readings for college and reading curriculum books for my first year teaching…
I’m hoping to read more in 2012! My momma gave me “House Rules” for Christmas- it’s a NY Times Bestseller so hopefully it’s worth the read!
I loved the book but the movie was too glamorous. To me, the movie was shiny and it glorified the sad situation of the help in the south in the 1960′s.
I definitely approached The Help the same way. I figured it was over hyped and grabbed it for a trip to Mexico in September. I figured it would be a good beach read. Instead I was totally blown away and even passed the book onto Hubster, who also read it the same trip and loved it.
I knew about the movie and even had a picture from it on the cover of the book. So Emma Stone was firmly implanted as Skeeter for me. However, Hubster said the same thing you did – That Emma is not awkward or skinny enough to fit
I LOVED The Help, and just watched the movie this past weekend, it was great as well!
I read a TON, so it’s hard to chose one favorite book. One series that I was skeptical about that I ended up becoming obsessed with was The Hunger Games! So good!
My favorite books of 2011 was The Help and the Hunger game series. Great series!
I just finished this book a couple weeks ago and it is extremely high on the list of books I read in 2011, and I also loved the Hunger Games Trilogy. Thank you for posting the MLK monument photos, I would love to see it in person.
The Help was a great book, I can’t wait to see the movie. I spent my Christmas break reading (for the second time) the whole Twilight series. The movies are terrible, but I love the books! I have a crush on Edward Cullen, I can’t help it.
I loved The Help and thought I was going to hate the movie based on the trailer, but I loved it. I have seen it several times and think it’s a great movie. I just read The Violets of March and it was highly entertaining.
The Help (book) was one of my favorites, too. The movie was okay. I think I would’ve liked it better had I not watched it right after finishing the book.
The Hunger Games Trilogy is really good. I would definitely recommend reading those. The Hunger Games (movie) comes out in March, and I cannot wait!
The Help is one of my faves, too. I saw the movie a couple weeks ago and enjoyed it–a bit different from the book, but it had been long enough between my reading/seeing it that it didn’t bother me as much that they weren’t completely true to the book. It’s worth seeing, for sure.
Loved The Hunger Games series!
My favorite book of the year was Karen Kingsbury’s Leaving!
The Violets of March by Sarah Jio. AMAZING book. I knew from the moment I picked it up that I wouldn’t be able to put it down until I finished it. And…I didn’t
Hunger Games= Awesome! Such good books, I got them on my kindle all at the same time and I’m so glad I did! Funny too, I thought they needed to make it into a movie and so it was awesome when I found out they are! Now I have that to look forward to, since Harry is over and Twilight is winding down
Also I love Laurie Notaro’s books, I read “It Looked Different on the Model: Epic Tales of Impending Shame and Infamy” in 2011. I have read all her books and I am not allowed to read them in public because I start laughing while reading them 
This was my fave book of the year too! I adore Emma Stone and the acting in the movie was great. I think I enjoyed the book more, though, just because there’s never enough time in a film to share all of the details like a book. Still worth watching though! I’m currently reading (and loving) The Invisible Thread by Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski.
And the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial? Wow. Amazing photos, Kristin!
You should read “One Day.” I haven’t seen the movie, but the book was my favorite from 2011.
Its so hard to pick just one!! But I guess my top five would be Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett, The Help, and the Huger Games trilogy. All so very different, but all so very good!!
Ken Follett is one of my FAVES!
Read it. Saw it. Love it. The only book I’ve ever read where the movie is just as good.
You should read Half Broke Horses and The Glass Castle, both by Jeanette Wells. Very good, both are true stories of her family.