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Due to the US holiday, there won’t be a Misadventure on Monday!

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Contests

• Jenre’s giving away an ebook copy of Changing Worlds by Cari Z. Comment by the end of May 26 (GMT) for your chance to win.

• The Erotic Romance Scavenger Hunt is underway (through noon CDT, May 28). Start from this post.

• Bronwyn Green’s giving away an ebook copy of Hit or Stay by Ninette Swann. Contest closes 7 pm EDT, May 29.

• Joder’s giving away an ebook copy of The Forbidden Claim by Kelly Gendron. Contest closes 11:59 pm CDT, June 1.

• Blodeuedd’s giving away a print (US) or ebook (elsewhere) copy of Alexander Outland: Space Pirate by G.J. Koch. Contest closes June 3.

Bookity

• New releases and more: Literary Escapism (UF/PNR), RR@H Novel Thoughts & Book Talk (various sorts of romance), and Book Lovers Inc (various sorts of romance).

• Book and publishing news from Dear Author. And from Smart Bitches.

• Who won this year’s Nebula Awards?

• Teach Me Tonight on “Fiction, controversy and the sexual double standard”.

• “The evolution of LGBT characters in comics, fandoms and YA lit”.

• Why are fountain pen sales increasing? (via Neil Gaiman’s tumblr)

• Commencement speech given by Neil Gaiman.

• Expanding bookcases.

• Jane Eyre necklace.

• Twelve famous writers and their favorite snacks.

• “How reading fiction can make you a better cook”. (via Lifehacker)

• “50 tips on how to write good”.

• 3-D Scrabble, anyone?

Ebookity

• Readlist is a webapp that can turn urls into ebooks.

• The image of self-publishing is improving.

• Humorous reasons to buy a tablet.

• Dear Author’s primer on the price-fixing lawsuit.

• Results of the Taleist survey of self-published authors.

Think, Learn, Do, Make

• Great white egrets are nesting in the UK for the first time. (Thanks, pao!)

• Imagine a world where all the ketchup pours easily out of the bottle, no smacking or shaking required.

• Ten gadgets you shouldn’t buy right now.

• Ten myths some religious people believe about atheists. (Here’s my favorite quote from the article.)

• How California strawberries are produced. (via The Kitchn)

• Hating cilantro might be genetic.

• How brain freeze works. (via The Kitchn)

• A majority of unemployed people in the US have attended at least some college. (via the mprnews tumblr)

Cookity

• Make your own (less luridly red) maraschino cherries! (via The Kitchn)

• Salted coffee caramel sauce.

• Strawberry-kiwi crisp. (via CRAFT)

• Kid-friendly vegetarian meals and snacks.

• Green pea pancakes with smoked salmon. (via CRAFT)

• Gluten-free pasta frittata with kale.

• Vegan gluten-free picnic recipes.

• Quinoa with chickpeas, asparagus, and fresh peas.

• Texas grapefruit cocktail. (via The Kitchn)

Brrrrrrity!

• Make ice cream in a food processor.

• Dark chocolate sorbet. (via The Kitchn)

• Buttery popcorn ice cream.

• 15 homemade ice creams.

• 10 nondairy frozen treats. 10 more nondairy frozen treats.

• 10 recipes mixing coffee and ice cream.

• 5 homemade ice cream sandwiches.

• 5 non-alcoholic frozen drinks.

• Easy frozen yogurt pops.

Crafty

• Crochet a seed bead bracelet. (via CRAFT)

Cool

• Use robotic arms to play with real cats – if you catch them awake! (Thanks, Cole!)

• Artistic cat serving dish (for serving people, not cats).

• Black cat tea set.

• Aw, that could be Mayhem!

• Avengers-themed cocktails. (Thanks, Alison!)

• Hooded TARDIS bathrobe. (via The Mary Sue)

• Matt Smith (Doctor Who) is going to carry the Olympic torch through Cardiff on Saturday, May 26.

• LEGO British birds. (via Apartment Therapy)

• Turn old diskettes into ships from Star Wars. (via CRAFT)

• Photos from Sunday’s annualar eclipse.

Cool or Wha…?

• Lawn Twister, anyone?

• R2-D2 hoodie.

• Star Wars-themed wall climbing holds.

• Video games brought to photographic “life”.

• Portable travel nightstand.

Wha…?

• Mix tape coffee table.

• Porcupine chair.

• Not for coulrophobics…

• Helicopter drops nearly 1000 hot dogs on Detroit… isn’t that going to be sort of nasty in the heat?!

• Knitted hamburger wall art.

• Cupcakewursts.

• I got nothin’. Ditto.

• “Nude” censorship towel.

• Flesh-eating bacteria and a penile implant… ewww.

• Meat balloons. (No, not condoms…)

LOL

• Stephen Colbert made Maxim’s list of the 100 most beautiful women in the world. 😀

• “What London is really like”.

• Another photo from my neighborhood…

• Or, as the case may be, Panther Princess Mayhem. 😉

• Tail assault! (via Piper Vaughn’s tumblr)

• Cat vampire.

• Cats suck at philosophy.

• Cat logic.

• What do cat owners think about?

Teh Cute

• Baby red wolves! Baby ocelot! Baby cheetahs! Baby maras! Baby dholes! Kitten! Baby fennec! Baby Pinsker’s hawk-eagle! Baby black bear! Baby penguins! Cheetah and baby! Baby lion! Baby lions! Kitten! Baby blue-footed boobie!

Reading Update
The Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger. Very good epistolary historical fiction about a 12-year old Jewish boy living in Brooklyn in 1940 who starts corresponding with the New York Giants third baseman, beginning a life-changing friendship for both of them. This was touching and funny and had me in tears at the end.
Gambling Men: The Novel by Amy Lane. ebook. Very good m/m romance about two guys who’ve been best friends and business partners since college, but suddenly up the ante to maybe being much more. I really enjoyed this… other than the pervasive sense of dread that things were going to become an angstfest at any minute. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.
Divide & Conquer (Cut & Run #4) by Abigail Roux & Madeleine Urban. ebook. Very good m/m romantic suspense in which Ty and Zane are kept continually off balance, by each other and by a series of bombings and bank robberies. I am very, very glad that I’d heard this was something of a cliffhanger and waited to read it until the next book was available.
Armed & Dangerous (Cut & Run #5) by Abigail Roux. ebook. Very good m/m romantic suspense in which Ty and Zane are sent to bring in Julian Cross (from Warrior’s Cross) for an old home week sort of read that ties things up well enough to end the series… but doesn’t.
Switch (True Colors #4) by Clare London. ebook short. arc. Very good steamy short m/m romance in which Zeke and Miles reconnect after Miles being out of town, returning just in time for Zeke’s gallery show.
Bomber’s Moon (Under the Hill #1) by Alex Beecroft. ebook. Very good paranormal m/m romance about a guy who contacts a paranormal investigator after an unsettling encounter with the Fae. This ends on a cliffhanger, so make sure you have the second book handy!
Dogfighters (Under the Hill #2) by Alex Beecroft. ebook. Good paranormal m/m romance that pulls together the threads from the first book for a dramatic, bittersweet finale. (There are three MCs, but only two end up together.) I think this book should’ve been part of the first book – and maybe it was at one point. There were also a few parts that felt as if they muddled rather than advanced the plot.
Learning the Ropes (Sex Sells #3) by Kim Dare. ebook. Good kinky m/m romance about an ad agency employee who’s assigned to put together an advertising campaign for a leather club owned by one of the agency’s partners. Although the employee isn’t into bdsm, he offers to do a scene so he has a better idea what the club is about.
Queen’s Man by KD Sarge. ebook. Good m/m scifi romance about Joss, a bodyguard who sees his one-night stand gunned down, then saves the guy’s daughter and spends the rest of the book protecting her, his boss, and his “stalker”. While it was a fun read, I couldn’t relate to Joss’ over-the-top perfection.
Event Horizon (Theo Bourne #2) by Evelyn Shepherd. ebook. Good paranormal m/m romance in which Detective Theo Bourne and his partner (in every sense of the word) Carlos Ramirez have to face both a mysterious mystical monster and Theo’s attraction to someone else.
Diva and the Frat Boy (Men of Holsum College #2) by Daisy Harris. ebook. Pretty good m/m romance about the rather serious president of a gay fraternity who finds himself unexpectedly attracted to a very flamboyant junior. While this story touched on issues like prejudice within the gay community, there wasn’t any real follow through. I also never got a sense of emotional connection between the main characters.
The City of Counts by Keira Andrews. ebook short. Short m/m paranormal about a tax accountant who meets a sexy guy while waiting at the DMV, then goes out with him. This felt more like a tease for a longer story than a complete story. 🙁
After the Fall (The Right Choice #1) by Talia Carmichael. ebook short. Ok short m/m romance about a bookstore owner who just wants to have sex with the contractor renovating his store, not start a relationship. But the contractor has other plans…
The Wolfing Way (Lifting the Veil #1) by Susan Laine. ebook. Ok paranormal m/m romance about a guy about to graduate from college who discovers he’s the fated mate of a werewolf and is afraid that all his choices are about to being taken away. As others have noted, this started promisingly, but deteriorated into near-purple prose and cliches.

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Stylized May is stylized! 🙂 (Embiggen for best effect.)