I spent a few peaceful, relaxing days at one of my favorite places: the Outer Banks in North Carolina (specifically Kill Devil Hills/Nags Head on this visit), a long stretch of narrow sandy beach with quintessential beach towns and quiet, not-so-crowded shores. It was a quick trip, but we had beautiful weather, I read four books, and I shot some film while walking around. However, I mostly had my phone and camera away in favor of books and lots of ice cream, and we didn’t do as much as we did last year, when we went to lighthouses and Jockey’s Ridge and so on — but here are some stray shots from a lovely few days in the Outer Banks.
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Film Diary: August-October
An overdue roundup of snapshots of August through October in Virginia on film — many, many days at home with books and food and light that started to disappear earlier, punctuated by little outdoor trips and many suburban walks.
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Winter YA Releases
In December, I nabbed several eARCS from Wednesday Books and St. Martin’s Griffin’s winter young adult releases. I tore through these alternately fun and moving novels while in a total YA contemporary mood. Also, just a shoutout to these covers — The Project and Amelia Unabridged have excellent ones. Thank you to Wednesday and SMG for the ARCs in exchange for honest reviews.
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Top Books of 2020
In 2020 I read 153 books — more than I’ve ever read in a year. The only other time I’ve hit 100 was in 2017, when I read 102. Usually I aim for 75, but this year I hit that during the summer, thanks to staying at home all the time. With lots of extra time on my hands while sitting around, I found the only thing I could really focus on was reading. I started flying through books, getting a ridiculous number of ebooks from the library (shout to my Kindle and Overdrive, the lifesavers of my pandemic experience). I was able to get to so many great 2020 releases as well as books that had been on my TBR for years, now that I had the time. Almost all of my TV and movie viewing this year were rewatches, but for once I only reread a handful of books this year (though I still love rereading books). It was tough to narrow down a top 10 list for this year, so I’m going with 15!
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Skyline Drive: Summer & Fall
Skyline Drive and Shenandoah National Park have long been one of my favorite parts of Virginia, luckily not too far from where I grew up. My family has made periodic trips out there for a scenic drive and walk, but I hadn’t gone in a few years. I kept missing the fall colors by just a week or two when I happened to be home. This year, finding myself at home for much, much longer than a weekend here or there, we started getting out more, finding parks in northern Virginia that we hadn’t gone to before. We also took advantage of this time to go to Skyline Drive, not once but twice — first in late summer, and then again at the peak fall foliage time.
In the summer, the view really lives up to the name of the Blue Ridge Mountains. While I can glimpse the faint blue ridges from afar year-round while driving around my hometown, the mountains are seriously blue when you get there too. Then in the fall, glorious fall colors frame the drive, transform any hiking trail, and blanket the valley below. I took film photos of both visits, and when I got the film back a few weeks ago, I was excited to compare the two sets of results.
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