Congrats to Melandra, who won Out of Time by Clare London!
Congrats to Ardent Ereader, who won Making It Pay by JL Merrow!
Randonymity
- I spent Wednesday evening in the emergency room with what they initially thought were kidney stones, but which turned out to be a ruptured hemorrhagic ovarian cyst. Yay, painkillers!
Contest(s)
- Blodeuedd’s giving away winner’s choice of one of any of the first nine books in Gini Koch’s Alien/Katherine “Kitty” Katt series, signed and personalized. Ends November 30.
Bookity
- New releases: Fiction Vixen (UF/romance)
- Book and publishing news from Dear Author.
- “Gauging other romance readers“.
- 10 famous authors’ houses.
- Smart Bitches holiday gift guide, part 1.
Do, Make, Think, Learn
- Learn a bit more about lake-effect snow. Time-lapse of Buffalo’s lake-effect snow in action.
- 12 tips for staying warm in the winter.
- Would Mattel have apologized if they hadn’t been publicly shamed online?
- Make some golden snitch ornaments.
- How well would a laser umbrella work?
- Trans-fat might be bad for memory.
- Impending worldwide chocolate shortage?!?
- “Farewell, enforcers: A eulogy for an NHL institution” and “Why the Connor McDavid fighting debate matters“.
- 17 old proverbs.
Cookity
- Polenta with Swiss chard and white beans.
- Southwestern butternut squash soup.
- Pumpkin pie smoothie.
- Pumpkin chocolate chip streusel cake. (via blue–spruce)
- Deep dish pumpkin meringue pie.
- 13 vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes.
Gluten Free
- Red velvet cake.
- Butternut pecan scones.
- Pumpkin butter cake.
- Easy pie crust and bourbon pumpkin pie.
- 12 gluten-free Thanksgiving recipes.
- Garlic pizza bread sticks.
Crafty
- The Smart Bitches two-hour scarf (knitting or crochet).
- Knitting linkity from kmkat.
- Cheryl put together a flowchart for automating yarn reviews.
Cool
- Nifty umbrella innovation.
- Starry Night from falling dominoes.
- Oil paintings of New York at night, animated.
- Video of the earth from space.
- Mulder and Scully to be available from Funko Pop!
- Linkity from kmkat.
Cool or Wha…?
Wha…?
- “‘4D’ broadcasts will let hockey fans feel every hit from their couch“.
- Mistletoe drones in a British TGIFriday’s.
- Miniskirt that will display your tweets.
- Christmas-themed jellybeans and Christmas candy corn.
- Bubblegum-flavored broccoli.
- Bubble wrap glasses.
- “[American Hockey League] team VP has in-game prostate exam for men’s health awareness“.
LOL
- 10 text fails with bosses.
- 5 funny product reviews at Amazon.
- Complicated clothing care. (via urrone)
Teh Cute
- Baby buffalo! Cats sleeping in IKEA doll beds! Kittens! Lion and babies! Baby red pandas! Greater Malaysian Chevrotrain and baby! Lioness and babies!
Reading Update
All Clear (All Clear #2) by Connie Willis. No reviewette I write can possibly do this book (or really, the single book composed of Blackout and All Clear) justice. Amazing. Epic. Subtlety of detail that had me paging back to confirm something hinted. Love. Loss. Loyalty. Uncertainty. Hope. Humor. Tragedy. The triumph of the human spirit. Connie Willis has outdone herself with this amazing tale of time travel so deeply rooted in place. Her Hugo and Nebula awards for Blackout/All Clear bring her lifetime totals to eleven Hugos and seven Nebulas. Make sure you have both books on hand and clear your schedule for a few days…
Fire Watch by Connie Willis. Pretty good short that introduced us to the time-traveling historians of Oxford. When comparing this to Blackout/All Clear, you can really see how much Willis has honed her craft over the years.
To Say Nothing of the Dog, or How We Found the Bishop’s Bird Stump at Last by Connie Willis. Delightfully excellent romp through 1888 and 1940 with the time-traveling historians of Oxford. If you’re reading it for the first time, don’t be concerned when you have absolutely no idea what’s going on for the first quarter of the book. You’re in the narrator’s headspace and he has no idea, either.
For Heaven’s Eyes Only (Secret Histories #5) by Simon R Green. Ok continuation of this James Bond-inspired paranormal series. Yet another cliffhanger. Don’t be surprised when I suddenly stop reading the series, even if I have the next book on hand. Cliffies really piss me off.
Live and Let Drood (Secret Histories #6) by Simon R Green. Another ok continuation of this paranormal series. At least it wasn’t a cliffie!
“…zzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos
Didn’t know there were more Connie Willis other than Blackout. Must read. Also, must read more Amazon reviews. Who knew?
Chris- That lake-effect time lapse is scary- especially if you’re not far from Buffalo.
Chaos you have the right idea for this time of year.
Just hope your Weekend goes easier on you than Wednesday did.
Oh, poor you, Chris! Sending healing thoughts your way.
Damn, girl! So sorry to hear about the ER. Hope you’re feeling better.
Ouch! Sorry for your pain and suffering – hope the meds work well, and you recovery quickly.
Stay warm, wear a hat, omg, why did I not think of that 😉
Gosh, hope you are feeling some better by now – positive thoughts all the way from the UK!
Hope you are feeling better, ER visits are no fun.
And the Starry Night dominoes?? Fabulous.
Just read your post today. Wow, I hope you are doing fine and hope everything is healing well.
Egads! I’m behind on my reading! I hope you feel much better soon!
A recent post from sprite..pre-thanksgiving weekending
I’m intrigued with your championing of Simon Green’s Secret Histories series. I’ve tried his work before [I went to school with him many moons ago and felt it behoved me to do so 😀 ] but found it a bit disingenuous for my taste. Me-thinks I must give it another try. I can recommend his Drinking Midnight Wine, http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/simon-r-green/drinking-midnight-wine.htm however, it’s set in his [and my] hometown and as such is real fun for us locals 😀 .
Glad you’re feeling better. So right – thank god for painkillers 🙂
Ouch – hope you are all fully recovered now.