• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (Latine, best out this week)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Knit a hat used by Norwegians in the 1940s to visually protest Nazi occupation.
• Heather Cox Richardson from January 21. And on January 17.
• “You’ve heard about who ICE is recruiting. The truth is far worse.”
• Debunking some myths.
• “Why everyone should still use an RSS reader in 2026“.
• Beautiful Craftsman.
• Nice school conversion.
• I’m not really a fan of tiled counters but the kitchen counters/backsplash are exceptional.
• I THINK it has potential, but there’s so much stuff it’s hard to tell.
• Converted 19th century church in which the Gothic architecture sits uneasily with the modern conversion.
• The beigest house in Utah?
• Disappointed in the three “libraries”.
• Deceptive not-stairs.
• “Nope” is the correct response.
• D’oh.
• Huh.
• Don’t do this.
• Even small children deserve railings on their stairs.

Harry blep.

A-tisket, a-tasket, Polly’s in a basket!

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (best out this week)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Ficlet that involves the Muppets.
• “60+ small tasks to defend the right to read“.
• “Side-eyeing science fiction’s love of empire“.
• Heather Cox Richardson on what’s happening in Minneapolis. And on f@scism.
• Planetary alignment, xkcd-style. (Hover cursor/long-press for caption.)
• Gorgeous.
• Lovely Craftsman.
• Very fancy converted bank.
• Converted stable in Paris.
• Very castle-eque.
• Own a historical landmark.
• Formerly an infamous spy house.
• You are not prepared for the interior.
• You’ll just have more and more questions as you look through the photos.
• Kind of tragic bed and breakfast.
• Castle fail. Only the room with the mural is good.
• Colorful but still awful.
• Too much tile. Among other things.
• The unholy use of Photoshop and AI.
• That “bridge” looks quite flimsy.
• Needs more railings.

Sleepy looking Polly.

Harry and the Very Big Yawn, part two.

Polly and Harry, looking vaguely disapproving.

• What I’m referring to in the title.
• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance, queer romance), Book Riot (nonfiction, best out in January), Reactor (YA SFF/H, SF, fantasy, romantasy, horror)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Linktiy from BookWyrm Knits.
• “40% of Americans did not read a single book in 2025“.
• Utah, no!
• “[A]lgorithm free internet music to discover and and diversify your music“.
• Very nice Tudor.
• Quite nice late MCM.
• MCM with a slightly odd interior.
• MCM with rocks.
• Round MCM.
• Cute cottage.
• Another cute one! And for that price, you’d be able to deal with the suspended ceiling and fluorescent office lighting.
• Nice but overpriced floating house.
• Houseboat on the Thames – quite lovely except the absolutely terrifying shower.
• Pretty nice not a treehouse in California.
• Converted school.
• A castle house where they actually tried for a medieval look inside.
• A house built inside the ruins of a castle.
• Very elegant, with towers.
• Manor with 13th, 16th, and 18th century additions. There’s a weird glass floor insert that I don’t like at all by the copper tub.
• Definitely unique – it comes with a geodesic dome, vintage convenience store, and plane wreckage.
• You’ll have more and more questions as you look through the photos.
• Not enough photos of this historic NYC mansion, originally owned by the founder of Arm & Hammer baking soda.
• Landlord “improvement”.
• Would absolutely not go down those stairs in socks.
• At least there’s a railing!
• No.
• Hmm.
• Give it a minute.
• Chaotic stairs.
• Higgeldy piggeldy stairs.

Harry and the Very Big Yawn.

Polly is very fond of the catnip banana.

• New releases: Gizmodo (SFF/horror), Book Riot (queer)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches. And more.
• The tiniest of ficlets.
• The Muppet Show will return for one night only on February 4.
• Perfect summary of 2025.
• Lovely converted mill.
• Converted power station.
• Converted water tower.
• Converted lighthouse. The inconvenience of doing anything to this place!
• Cute but tiny NOLA townhouse.
• You could own a Scottish castle and furnishings.
• Fun MCM, even if some of the wallpaper is just too much for me.
• Slightly unusual MCM.
• Somewhat mysterious MCM, although I’m pretty sure the built-in in the library is a couch.
• Very, very colorful.
• Very pink.
• Very dramatic interior.
• The interior of this one is crazy.
• Maximalist penthouse in which “[t]he ensuite is bigger than the kitchen.“
• Half of a duplex that’s sort of Victorian, sort of not so much anymore.
• Many oddities.
• Pay $2 million for an uninhabitable house.
• “[F]eckless use of tile“.
• Ditto.
• No railing.
• But why.
• Oof. If you roll out of bed, you’re toast.
• Just stop using shelving for stairs.
• Insufficient sturdiness detected.

Harry and Polly on my lap/legs.

Harry!

Polly on my shoulder/upper back.

No linkity next week on the 19th, as I have an event during my linkity-making time.

• New releases: Smart Bitches (queer romance, romance)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from BookWyrm Knits.
• The Ever Ginger.
• Ominous lack of billboard.
• A lovely one in Tuscany.
• Train car mansion.
• Colorful loft.
• Nice church conversion.
• Ok castle-esque house that’s a lot of house for the money.
• Very goth.
• I’m fascinated by the red pantry – even the ceiling is red. Just seems odd for a pantry.
• Most of the flooring is too loud.
• The “Whale Watch House” has one itsy bitsy gotcha.…
• D’oh.
• This is so odd.
• :facepalm:
• Needs a railing.

Polly looking vaguely disgruntled.

Harry grooming.

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance this week, romance last week), Book Riot (please note that Book Riot made a lot of their new release information subscriber-only, so this will be a shorter section going forward) (YA, queer, best out this week, YA comics/nonfiction), Gizmodo (SFF/horror)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches. And more.
• A comic about the color yellow.
• Learn about the Richard Montgomery.
• Baby hummingbirds.
• “Everything is becoming a bank“.
• Very nice Tudor with a pub basement.
• Quite nice MCM.
• MCM with very unique landscaping.
• You could own a resort with themed cabins, such as Alice in Wonderland and Snow White.
• Or you could own an entire little village.
• Extremely whimsical.
• Must like movie themed bedrooms.
• Intermittently very colorful.
• Lovely Victorian townhouse that needs some rehab – I bet that kitchen flooring contains asbestos.
• The inside doesn’t match the outside.
• Parts of it are cool, but things like the kitchen cabinets are very much not.
• The skinniest townhouse in NYC is not for the claustrophobic.
• Why are the doors on the 2nd story there? Is there supposed to be a deck or balcony?
• Must love mannequins since they come with the house.
• Why are there so many different patterns in the sun room?
• Converted National Guard armory.
• :blink blink:
• Oh my.
• Hmm.
• Haphazard.
• Finland stairs that look like they need a rope to navigate.
•  ????
• D’oh.
• I like how the little sculpture on the coffee table looks like he just fell off the stairs.

Polly, very focused on something outside.

Harry on my lap, deeply asleep.

No linkity next week because I will be doing family stuff during my linkity making time. There’s two weeks of linkity below – pace yourselves!

• New releases: Smart Bitches (queer romance, romance, more romance), Reactor (YA SFF/H), Book Riot (YA, more YA, best out this week, best out last week, horror, Latine books)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches. And more.
• A ficlet in progress.
• Cute ficlet.
• Great comic.
• The adventure of the picnic table.
• Knit or crochet a geode.
• 1980s memes.
• The origin of mansplaining.
• Cute one in Sweden.
• Another cute one.
• Lovely Tribeca townhouse.
• Converted grocery store.
• Converted tug  boat.
• Cute houseboat.
• The Panther House, a late MCM.
• MCM with an odd main living area.
• Grubby MCM with an amazing antique music theater.
• BookWyrmKnits, this is going to break your brain.
• Passive solar home with potential, although the floors desperately need to be refinished.
• Must love paneling, both painted and au naturale.
• A house with a tower. I didn’t think I could find wood planks (the paneling) disturbing and yet here we are.
• “Like a cartoon version of a [Frank Lloyd Wright] house” with bonus death stairs.
• Barbie themed townhouse, decor included.
• Gothic Revival with a lot of decor.
• Very Florida castle house.
• Fancy one in Utah with a dramatic video. (Thanks, Cheryl!)
• That seems like a lot of money for a house under a double highway bridge.
• This poor Tudor was remade based on a tacky perception of opulence.
• Allegedly cryptid themed cabin.
• What the hell. That’s obviously a teardown.
• “Man cave house“.
• WTF.
• Dang.
• Ankle breaker.
• Evil.
• No railing, too near/over tables…
• Umm.

Harry at the vet (routine annual check-up plus rabies update).

Polly at the vet  (routine annual check-up plus rabies update). Harry is absolutely the braver of the two siblings.

No linkity on Friday, November 14, as I will be busy during my linkity making time.

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (queer nonfiction, queer, YA, historical fiction, nonfiction, comics, SFF, genre specific, mystery/thriller/true crime, romance), Gizmodo (SFF/horror)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from BookWyrm Knits.
• Baby snow leopard destroying pumpkins.
• LEGO Star Trek anyone?
• This used to belong to Bela Lugosi. 0% spooky.
• Very nice late MCM and the source of the arty death stairs linked later.
• I like this one.
• Cute Tudor.
• Serenity in the desert.
• I hope whoever buys this doesn’t griege it up.
• Like this, where only the faintest whiff of the original Victorian is left inside.
• Interesting.
• LOTS of mosaics.
• Kinda hate the fireplace.
• I have questions about the sitting room, the kitchen, and the “circus room”.
• Well then.
• “Make stairs, not art”.
• Yikes!
• Eeeep!
• Hmmm.

Polly looking out the window from the back of the couch.

Intense Harry is intense.

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (YA, asexual, best out this week)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Learn more about the history of public libraries. (I recently read The Library Book by Susan Orlean and it was exceptional.)
• “Amazon before Amazon: The forgotten history of the Amazon Bookstore Cooperative” (Minneapolis).
• Amusing ficlet.
• Some literature humor.
• Some info about non-celiac gluten/wheat sensitivity.
• A fun performance of Bohemian Rhapsody – and it’s not the Green Day concert one.
• I wouldn’t mind living in this one.
• Lovely little desert compound.
• Very nice MCM.
• Another MCM – “an off-brand Frank Lloyd Wright”.
• Colorful little cottage.
• Castle-eque with 29 bedrooms.
• Unusual auto shop conversion in St Paul, Minnesota.
• Very interesting.
• It’s quite, um, dramatic.
• In the “you didn’t even try” category…
• Nope.
• I’m not liking that they’re laminate, which isn’t the best at supporting weight.
• Very awkward indeed.

Harry and Polly from above.

Sleeping Harry.

Polly!

• New releases: Smart Bitches (romance), Book Riot (YA comics/nonfiction, YA, dystopian YA, best out this week)
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• “We’re in a book affordability crisis“.
• Great progress is being made on preventing kitties from developing kidney disease.
• “Dimming the sun like a volcano” “climate fix“.
• Thanks, I hate it.
• Pumpkin whoopie pies.
• A 15th century tower castle.
• Lovely MCM.
• Very unique MCM.
• Decent MCM, especially for the price.
• Cute little place in the Catskills.
• Nice condo in the tower of a converted Baroque-Revival church – you would definitely get your exercise.
• This has some before and after photos.
• A very strange looking house.
• Very personalized.
• An interior/exterior disconnect.
• Entirely for the exterior paint, which is BRIGHT.
• What deals you can get in certain states…
• You’re going through the pictures, thinking it’s a nice rich person townhouse, and then you see the picture of the room with the green carpet and door. Wha…?
• D’oh.
• Huh.
• Mind the gaps.
• I hate this type .
• Infinite head bump generator!
• Trip over the lip and fall down the stairs.
• These can’t be real, can they?!
• Just say no to glass stairs.

Polly!

Harry!