Things to Do - BEST OF 2012

This whole post started out as a facebook string between friends - sort of a fun way to summarize 365 days. So I decided to expand on the idea and make my own best of list (plus I always like to read other people's lists). I originally planned on listing 10 in each category but the final calls we're stressing me out, so I moved to 12.

If you're feeling up to it, leave some of your own best of's in the comments or my facebook page. Id' love to see what other people enjoyed in 2012 (plus get some book/music/vacations ideas for the year ahead).

BEST BOOKS I READ IN 2012

FICTION
* Mo Yan's The Garlic Ballads: A Novel (previously reviewed here)
* Alice Munro's The Beggar Maid: Stories of Flo and Rose
* Anne Beattie's What Was Mine: & Other Stories (previously reviewed here)
* Helen Schulman's This Beautiful Life: A Novel (P.S.) (previously reviewed here)
* Sheila Heti's How Should a Person Be?: A Novel from Life (previously reviewed here)
* (Honorable Mention) - Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games


NONFICTION
* Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea (previously reviewed here)
* Beryl Barkham's autobiography (she was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west) West with the Night
* Tina Fey's autobiography - Bossypants
* Patti Smith's memoir of her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe and her early days in NYC - Just Kids (previously reviewed here)
* Joan Didion's heartwrenching memoir about the death of her husband and daughter - Blue Nights (previously reviewed here)
* Laurence Bergreen's biography of Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu (previously reviewed here)
* Jasmin Darnik's account of her mother's childhood in Iran - The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother's Hidden Life (previously reviewed here)
* (Honorable Mention) - Calvin Tomkins's profiles of today's top modern artists - Lives of the Artists (previously reviewed here)

BEST MOVIES AND TV I WATCHED IN 2012
* Argo
* Queen of Versailles
* Blue Valentine
* Margin Call (for the cinematography)
* Brave
* Bill Cunningham New York (available through Netflix streaming)
* If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (available through Netflix streaming)
* Puberty Blues (an Australian television show available through YouTube)
* Girls
* The Olympics
* The Mindy Kaling Project
* Mad Men Season 5

BEST CHILDREN'S BOOKS THAT WE READ IN 2012


* Grandpa Green (previously reviewed here)


* George's Secret Key to the Universe (chapter book)(previously reviewed here)


* The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore (previously reviewed here)


* The Amazing Adventures of BumbleeBoy (previously reviewed here)


* Princess Hyacinth - The Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated (previously reviewed here)


* King Hugo's Huge Ego (previously reviewed here)


* Very Far Away (previously reviewed here)


* I'm Bored


* Wynken, Blynken, and Nod (previously reviewed here)


* George and Martha: The Complete Stories of Two Best Friends (previously reviewed here)


* Black and White (previously reviewed here)


* The Watcher: Jane Goodall's Life With the Chimps (previously reviewed here)

BEST NEW-TO-ME MUSIC OF 2012
* Bombay Bicycle Club
* The Lumineers
* Monsters Calling Home
* LP's Into the Wild
* New Orleans' Playlists
* Milo Greene
* The Head and the Heart
* The Vaselines
* The Drums
* Andrew Bird's new album - Break It Yourself
* Tallest Man On Earth's new album - There's No Leaving Now
* Bob Dylan's new album - Tempest
* (Honorable Mention) - Stars' new album - The Theory of Relativity

BEST NEW-TO-ME LOCAL PLACES TO GO WITH KIDS IN 2012
* The Street Art Festival (this was seriously amazing, I hope it comes back) (Washington DC)
* The Adventure Park at Sandy Springs
* The Visionary Art Museum (Baltimore, MD) (previously posted here)
* Georgetown's New Waterfront Park, including boat rides from Washington Harbor (Washington DC) (previously posted here)
* The National Zoo's new American Trails exhibit and carousel (Washington DC) (previously posted here)
* Stories in Art at the National Gallery (Okay, so we've done this for a few years now, but each year features different artists so I'm still counting it as "new") (previously posted here)
* New Exhibits at the Building Museum - mini-golf in the summer; The Big Build in the autumn; Work, Play, Build in the winter
* Fantastic family-friendly exhibits at the Hirshhorn - Doug Aitken this summer; Suprasensorial this summer; Ai WeiWei this winter
* Gravelly Point, i.e. the airplane Park (previously posted here)
* Columbia Pike Library (Arlington, VA) - again, not exactly "new", but the kids' area now has comfy chairs and poofs and we practically lived there this summer
* Closing out Cox Farms (although this isn't exactly "new", this year was the first year everyone loved the dinosaur slide)
* National Geographic Museum's Birds of Paradise and 1001 Inventions Exhibits (Washington DC)

BEST VACATION PLACES IN 2012
* Toronto Island (Toronto, Canada) (previously posted here)
* Buffalo Botanic Gardens (Buffalo, NY) (previously posted here)
* Great Lakes Science Center (Cleveland, OH) (previously posted here)
* Brooklyn Bridge Park and Governors Island (NYC, NY) (previously posted here)
* Colonial Williamsburg (Williamsburg, VA)(previously posted here)
* The Frontier Culture Museum (Staunton, VA) (previously posted here)
* The Historic Sauder Village (Archbold, OH) (previously posted here)
* Disney World (previously posted here)
* Bethany Beach (Bethany, DE) (previously posted here)
* New Orleans (previously posted here)
* Ellis Island (NYC, NY) (previously posted here)
* Indian Echo Caverns (Hummelstown, PA) (previously posted here)