What a year 2018 has been…

I started it bottle blonde and I’m ending it as nature intended: brunette.

I finished my Master’s.

I argued with far too many people on Twitter.

I read a truckload of books, too many to count, but here are the ones I particularly enjoyed – in case anyone is looking for random recommendations:

The Immortalists – Chloe Benjamin

Patronising Bastards – Quentin Letts

Lethal White – Robert Galbraith

The Nix – Nathan Hill

The Destroyers – Christopher Bollen

See What I Have Done – Sarah Schmidt

Priestdaddy – Patricia Lockwood

This could hurt – Jillian Medoff

Marlena – Julie Buntin

Sing, unburied, sing – Jesmyn Ward

The Chalk Man – C. J. Tudor

Grist Mill road – Christopher J. Yates

Death in Bordeaux – Allan Massie

Dark summer in Bordeaux – Allan Massie

Cold winter in Bordeaux – Allan Massie

End games in Bordeaux – Allan Massie

Magpie murders – Anthony Horowitz

Ill Will – Dan Chaon

Sharp Objects – Gillian Flynn

Narcissus and Goldmund – Hermann Hesse

Sapiens: a brief history of humankind – Yuval Noah Harari

Homo Deus: a brief history of tomorrow – Yuval Noah Harari

The Craftsman – Sharon Bolton

The death of Mrs Westaway – Ruth Ware

The woman in the Window – A.J. Finn

Snow Blind – Ragnar Jónasson

Mr Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore – Robin Sloan

The Marriage Of Opposites – Alice Hoffman

And my all-time favourite this year, and also the one I finished only yesterday: The improbability of love – Hannah Rothschild.

(I absolutely adored this book)

I did take too many selfies…I could say I’ll try to stop doing that but…who would I be kidding – I’ll most probably be as bad next year.

I ate too much generally (definitely far too much chocolate) drank too much alcohol but I worked out almost everyday. I took long walks on the beach and out in the countryside, I got lost among trees, I danced in my house, outside it, I laughed, I cried, I tried hard to remember that life is all too short and you’ve got to take the time to do the things that matter to you. I’m stating the obvious, I know, but who cares, it’s the truth.

2018 started with a real low: I lost my beloved grandmother in January, and ended with a high: there was a very special 2 year anniversary this December…such is life: pain & happiness and a range of other emotions in between.

Happy New Year to all of you lovely, lovely people – I’ve got high hopes for 2019.

*the pics are last week’s (19th) before a night out in London – I haven’t taken any selfies since…they might as well be the last ones to appear on this blog in 2018*