Patricia’s 2012 Book Awards

83 books were read this year, although, as with the movie awards, that isn’t entirely true as I know I read at least one book (Ahem, the Art of Fielding Ahem, best book I read this year) twice.  83 books is a pretty good number.  Not too many, not too few.  You can read all of these reviews by clicking on the “Books” tag, or you can become my friend on Goodreads and find them that way.

Best book with no words on the page
The Disciples
James Mollison
Best holiday read aloud with your Significant Other
Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares
Cohn & Levithan
Best book set in Indianapolis, Indiana
and
Funniest cancer book I’ve ever read
The Fault in Our Stars
John Green
The “You’ve got 20 minutes?  Read this, it’s wonderful” Award
What now?
Ann Patchett
Incredibly boring book I slogged my way through and then couldn’t stop thinking about
Private Life
Jane Smiley
Book that inspired movie that is pretty much a scene-by-scene reproduction of the book
also
Author name that I love because it’s simultaneously 1)Hawai’i native pride 2)kind of hippie 3)makes me think of Thomas Jefferson
The Descendants
Kaui Hart Hemmings
Book with so many fine details I could give it 12 awards but instead I’ll just tell you to read it, dammit
Why we broke up
Daniel Handler
Really awesome YA kick-ass female character who I needed to get to page 150 before I fell in love, but then boy did I!
also
The “reading reviews of this book on Goodreads makes me think people are really weird” award.
Graceling
Kristin Cashore
Cookbook where I love not only the food but also the author’s syntax
Make the Bread, Buy the Butter
Jennifer Reese
Best use of old-fashioned photos as narrative prompts
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
Ransom Riggs
Most fabulous of the Anne of Green Gables books, especially if you can get the version edited by Lefbvre
Rilla of Ingleside
L.M. Montgomery
Best territorial Oregon story I’ve ever read
Trask
Don Berry
Hands down, the best book I read this year and perhaps so far this decade
and
Even if you don’t like baseball, you might want to read this
and
Excellent read aloud
and
How many awards do I have to give so you will read this book?
The Art of Fielding
Chad Harbach
Book about disaffected youth I almost gave up on because of attitude, but persevered and was rewarded by some rather amazing prose
Please Don’t Kill the Freshmen
Zoe Trope
Book I should have liked because it was full of elements I love, but didn’t really ever cotton to
The Sisters Brothers
Patrick DeWitt
Best Picture book that had me laughing aloud in the house like a crazy woman.
Chloe and the Lion
Mac Burnett & Adam Rex
Best mystery set in London
Sister
Rosamund Lupton
Most delightful Internet concept to be translated into book form
Dear Photograph
Taylor Jones
Funniest book I read that was written by a feminist
BossyPants
Tina Fey
Funniest book I read by a sleepwalker
also
Book I kept wanting to read aloud to Matt, but managed to restrain myself.  Mostly.
Sleepwalk with Me
Mike Birbigla
Best multiple perspective book I read this year
and
Best recommend by Ms. Sara K.
Wonder
R.J. Palacio
Best book to encompass every plot point that doesn’t involve aliens or guns
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Bronte
Most interesting subject award
The Man who Quit Money
Mark Sundeen
Book I adored as a teenager
Vision Quest
Terry Davis
Best YA book I read this year
and
Best historical fiction book I read this year
and
Best reason to relax the “no more WWII books” rule
Code Name Verity
Elizabeth Wein
Best reimagining of the Peter Pan story
Tiger Lily
Jodi Lynn Anderson
Best overall concept, excellently executed
Every Day
David Levithan
Best book I read set in a small Montana town
The Miseducation of Cameron Post
Emily Danforth

Patricia’s 2012 Movie Awards

It would be incorrect to say I watched 108 movies in 2012.  Because I watched TV series too, and they are marked down on the same list as movies.  Also, I saw a few movies more than once (ahem Magic Mike, ahem Moonrise Kingdom) and my list doesn’t account for that, either.  I have 108 entries on my “movies watched” list for 2012 and that uniquely qualifies me to give out awards.  So, without further ado, here are the 2012 Patricia Movie Awards.  You don’t like the awards I gave?  Well, that’s what the comments section is for.

If you want to read my individual reviews of each movie, you can use the search function, or scroll through the “three sentence movies” tag.

(In chronological order of viewing)

Best movie to flip the “Before Sunrise” concept on its head
Medicine for Melancholy
Best silent film of 2012
The Artist
Best version of Hamlet to exclude the “alas, poor Yorick, I knew him Horatio” line (note that I was NOT a fan of this action)
Hamlet 2000
Best series that had me regularly collapsing on the couch, weak from laughter 
Flight of the Conchords, season I
The movie in which I spent a lot of time staring at the actor’s cheekbones
My Week with Marilyn
Quality flick and totally recommended, but not so much if you want to relax after a stressful week
The Grey
Marilyn Monroe movie I liked quite a bit and much more than the 2012 movie about the making of this movie (see “cheekbones” award above)
The Prince and the Showgirl
Avengers Assembly movie which I found strangely moving on second viewing
Thor
Best hilarious and sweet movie about a family keeping secrets from each other
City Island
Avengers Assembly movie that has the best “How it Should Have Ended” short
Captain America
Movie where I finally “got” the Kenneth Branagh thing
Hamlet
Best movie I completely enjoyed while watching and then couldn’t tell you what the heck happened after it was over.
The Avengers
Best movie I would have enjoyed more if I hadn’t seen the preview so many damn times
also
Best performance by actor playing a hotel manager ever
Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Best guilty pleasure that did not hold up to a second viewing
Snow White and the Huntsman
Best use of 65 minutes of my time on a rather grumpy day
Glee, the 3-D Concert Movie, 2D version.
Best Horror Film I saw all year, and not just because it was the only horror film I saw all year.
also
Best use of “merman” as plot device
Cabin in the Woods
Movie who felt the need to tack on the traditional ending in a way that made me very grumpy
also
Best movie I got the boyfriend to watch the entire film only because he was worn out from a race
He’s Just Not that Into You
Most awesome incorrect Historical Fiction Action movie with hot/nerdy lead
Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter
Best movie you probably haven’t seen
A Perfect Getaway
Movie I liked much, much, much more than I thought I would
Five-Year Engagement
Best movie I saw this year?
also
Best movie that I was still thinking about long after the DVD ended
Winter’s Bone
Best overuse of adjective for underwhelming film
The Amazing Spiderman
Best movie I couldn’t really hear very well
Batman: The Dark Knight Rises
Best movie to launch me on a surpisingly delightful personal film fest
also
Best movie I saw four times this year
Magic Mike
Series that inspired the most gushing discussion emails rife with exclamation points
Downton Abbey seasons 1 and 2
Most surprisingly funny remake of 80s TV series
21 Jump Street
Best Adaptation of Shakespeare I saw this year
She’s the Man
Best movie with four main actors I really like
Stop-loss
Best dance film featuring a foster child as a main character
Step Up
Most surprisingly affecting movie
The Vow
Best probably correct historical fiction movie
The Eagle
Most perfect film in which my front teeth dried out because I was smiling the entire time
Moonrise Kingdom
Very interesting ensemble cast about a very interesting event
Battle in Seattle
Nicholas Sparks film I liked, even though I thought it was going to be very, very lame
Dear John
Worst film I watched in the Channing Tatum Film Fest
also
Film where Channing Tatum’s 10 minutes on screen were far and away better then the entirety of the film
The Dilemma
Best of the kind of “awesome woman” film I would love to see more of
Haywire
Movie I wanted to like, but did not
I’m Not There
Best movie with an interesting concept
Limitless
Best movie saw in a movie theater with no air conditioning on a 90+ degree day
 Men in Black III
Most surprising big, dumb action film that I liked
GI Joe, Rise of Cobra
Best movie made by my Public Radio Boyfriend
also
Best movie to accurately cover that post-college-figuring-things-out life stage
Sleepwalk With Me
Best comedy I saw this year
Friends with Kids
Best tense/dramatic movie you probably haven’t seen and would love
Take Shelter
Best movie to reassure me that wearing socks with my dresses during high school wasn’t lame, it was actually fashionable
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Best movie to practice deep breathing while watching
The Hurt Locker
Best “pretty good” movie that I bet you haven’t seen
10 Year
Movie with great concept poorly executed
In Time
Best Romantic Comedy I saw this year
Ira and Abby
Best movie with a female lead where said female lead is not prostitute, etc.
also
Highly recommended film
Trucker
Best boy-in-Scotland-instead-of-girl-in-Ozarks Winter’s Bone-type of film.
also
Film where subtitles are needed, even though English is being spoken
Sweet 16
Best movie with great sci-fi concept very well executed
(Note that this award is totally different than the award I gave to Limitless. Apparently it was a good year for cool concepts)
Looper
Best drama with lesbian couple I saw this year
also
Best “look it’s Peeta!” sighting
The Kids are All Right
Really mediocre movie that didn’t even have the decency to be bad enough to make fun of
The Trouble with the Curve
Best movie I resisted seeing for too long
The Savages
Best movie I was expecting the be okay, but was actually awesome
The Tourist
Best movie I watched even though the cover told me absolutely nothing about the story
Beautiful Thing
Best movie for setting and costumes
Anna Karenina
Best movie that I thought would be very tense (and it was) but also was quite funny in places
also
Best “toast” to come from a movie, ever.
Argo
Absolutely worst movie with female lead where she’s not a prostitute, but might as well be
Jolene
Best remake I liked better than the original
also
Second best “Look, it’s Peeta!” sighting
Red Dawn
Best TV series about High School, ever
also
Best individual performances by every actor making the collective whole amazing
Freaks and Geeks