Don’t forget to enter the contest for Cutting Out (Cutting Cords #4) by Mickie B Ashling! Closes 7 pm CDT, Tuesday, October 28.

Congrats to Lee T, who won Danny and Mike (2nd ed) by Valentina Heart!

Bookity

• New releases: Fiction Vixen (UF/romance) and Literary Escapism (UF/PNR)
• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.
• Dear Author on the isolated romance heroine.
• VacuousMinx on detoxifying her online life. (I’m still ok with not being on Twitter or Facebook.)
• The Economist on the future of the book. (via An American Editor)
• “The History of English” (video). (via Smart Bitches)
• “The secret sermon in every romance novel“. (via Emma Sea)
• Infographic on how reading is good for your body from the CBC and Canada’s National Reading Campaign.
• “How to kill your slash fandom in 5 steps“. (via Loederkoningin)
• Finalists for the National Book Award. (via blue–spruce)
• 15 gifts for “punctuation nerds”.
• Honest trailer for the Harry Potter films.

Learn, Do, Make, Think

• Consumerist points out that by shopping nearly anywhere, most of us will have our data hacked at some point.
• 19 unusual colors.
• A very brief history of the t-shirt.
• Hockey analytics masterpost.
• About black cats.
• What if? tackles no-rules NASCAR.

Cookity

• Vegan apple crisp.
• Homemade Oreos.
• Sweet potato cupcakes with meringue ghosts. (via The Kitchn)
• Butternut squash pie.
• Maple ice cream with pecan praline.
• Pumpkin spiced peanut butter cups.
• Pumpkin spice cinnamon rolls with maple glaze. (via blue–spruce)
• Hot cocoa brownie cake with pumpkin marshmallow frosting. (via puckling)
• Slow cooker vegan pumpkin curry.
• Sweet potato and spinach vegetable strata.
• Roasted sweet potatoes with apples, onions, and crispy sage.
• Butternut squash and roasted garlic hummus. (via The Kitchn)
• Avocado hummus. (via The Kitchn)
• Apple cheddar muffins.
• 15 pumpkin recipes.
• 10 breakfast dishes for serving a crowd.

Gluten Free

• Easy chicken and dumplings.
• Cream of (chicken) soup.
• Pumpkin crumb muffins.
• Starbucks-style apple fritters.

Crafty

• Knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

• A fake documentary on the Great Martian War of 1913.
• Fan remake of The Empire Strikes Back (video). (via mental_floss)
• LEGO ships in bottles.
• LEGO water mill.
• LEGOpolis.
• Layer-lapse of Boston.
• Some fine cabling on this skull sweater.
• Hmm. I think this hand-powered espresso machine might need to be part of my disaster survival kit.
• Linkity from kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

• Canned goods display in the shape of Batman.
• Hanging bottles in your fridge to save shelf space.
• Chicken and waffles cake. (via The Kitchn)
• Halloween cat masks.
• The Hockey Bobblehead Database.

Wha…?

• “Teens: Please don’t masturbate in the penalty box“.
• Thieves stole 18 tons of Crisco.
• 11 wacky things from the Neiman’s holiday catalog.
• Penguin mop.

LOL

• Commas are very, VERY important. (Thanks, Jase!)
• For the sake of argument… (Hover your cursor/long-press for additional text.)
• Lightsaber. (Hover your cursor/long-press for additional text.)
• “TL;DW 2.5 minuter summary of The Matrix trilogy” (video). (via Gizmodo)
• Pairing wine with your Halloween candy. (via The Kitchn)
• Best wifi network name ever?
• Cat principles.
• Black cat camouflage.
• A tiger and his pumpkin. Baby lynx and pumpkins.

Teh Cute

• Baby malamute howling (might startle your coworkers if you’re at work)! Cheetah and babies! Red panda and baby! Baby tiger! Kittens! Ocelot and baby!

Reading Update
Cited to Death (Jamie Brodie #1) by Meg Perry. Good mystery about an academic librarian who receives a puzzling letter from a recently deceased ex-boyfriend (a medical librarian) and encounters no end of problems as he tries to figure out the puzzle.
Hoarded to Death (Jamie Brodie #2) by Meg Perry. Pretty good mystery in which Jamie agrees to go on a hoarding show to help his ex-sister-in-law. While I really appreciated that Jamie and his boyfriend deal with issues in a realistic way, I got annoyed by how contrived the plotlines were.
Burdened to Death (Jamie Brodie #3) by Meg Perry. Ok continuation of the series as Jamie and Pete continue working on their relationship issues and it didn’t really feel as if the “mystery” had enough substance for the book.
Researched to Death (Jamie Brody #4) by Meg Perry. Good series continuation as both Jamie and Pete’s ex-boyfriends turn up, Jamie gets involved in a murderous search for an old book, and, of course, Jamie and Pete continue to work on their relationship issues. Fortunately, the mystery in this one was more substantial than in the previous book, although I think both mystery and relationship issues could’ve been edited down to decrease how repetitive and contrived things felt by the end.
Hidden (Alex Verus #5) by Benedict Jacka. Good continuation of this urban fantasy series about a London mage specializing in divination, although you’d think his specialty was finding trouble!
Hockey Abstract 2014 by Rob Vollman, Tom Awad, & Ian Fyffe. Very good explanation, using NHL examples, of the basics of hockey analytics. This edition builds on what was covered in the 2013 edition, including discussing where and why their predictions for the 2013-2014 season went wrong. I’ll definitely be rereading this to help all the concepts sink in.

“squirrelsquirrelsquirrelsquirrelsquirrelsquirrelsquirrelsquirrel!* -Mayhem

The squirrel is hard to see – it’s between May’s body and the curtain (but outside, fortunately!).