Happy New Year
Happy 2017 LJ-ers! How was your holiday? I hope you had a good one. Mine was a quiet one with family and friends. I had a whole week off work and I'm starting 2017 feeling very well rested and ready for what the year might bring.
I really enjoyed reading this year's Yuletide stories. Here are some of my favourites.
The Tree of Avonlea by Topaz Eyes. This Anne of Green Gables story sounds and feels so much like the books, that it feels like a extra piece of L. M. Montgomery. All the beloved characters are there. Anne, Diana, Gilbert, Marilla, Rachel. Matthew is remembered with deep love. Anne enlists the help of friends and family in her latest big project. There is Anne/Gilbert romance. Reading this made me remember just how much I loved Anne and her friends and her world when I was a kid.
A House For Me by pscoptera. I love Patrice Kindl's quirky YA books about unconventional heroines. This story is based on The Woman In The Wall, where the protagonist suffers from shyness and agoraphobia so extreme that she spends most of the book living inside the secret passages of her large Victorian house, hiding from her own family. The charm of the book comes from Anna's hilarious voice, which is offbeat, smart and terribly naive. Her attempts to interpret her family's lives and her own feelings and desires from her very limited point of view is super entertaining, and so is her personal journey throughout the book. I was so delighted to read this Yuletide sequel, which captures the charm of Anna's inner voice very well, and continues her journey into the outside world. Anna is no longer in the walls, and Anna's family is starting a new, very different life in an urban condo. Anna's new world is full of things and relationships she doesn't understand but is determined to navigate with her unique Anna style. I was cheering Anna on the whole way.
And All The Roads Are Blinding by moemachina. 10 Things I Hate About You is one of my favourite movies. I had some nostalgia for it this year and wanted to watch it again but Netflix wasn't helpful. Then Yuletide came along and provided this wonderful story that was tagged "Lovers to friends to lovers." Awesome! I got my fix of Kat and Patrick, and even better, it's a great sequel to the movie where the characters seem very close to the movie, but future versions of themselves, with a few more years of experience behind them. The story is funny and lighthearted and sweet and smart and it charmed me, just like the movie did.
Friday Night Bracing for Monday by Addison R (beyond_belief). Awesome, awesome Good Will Hunting sequel. It's been one of my favourite movies for years, and I was thrilled to read this lovely, ache-y, warm, grounded story that feels so true to the characters and their world. What happens to Will and Chuckie after the movie ends? Read and enjoy. I did.
Magic in the Mundane by sally (team_fen). One of my all-time favourite kid's books growing up is Margaret Mahy's The Changeover. I loved everything about it, from the vivid, lovable characters, to her excellent take on magic (unexpected, mysterious, fierce, emotional, dangerous), to her wonderful, unique, descriptive use of language. I was so excited to get a Changeover sequel, and Sally's is everything I could have hoped for. The characters feel like themselves but just a little older and a wiser. There are funny little reminders of Past!Events and old jokes from the book. But Laura and Sorry have come a long way, and their adventures now are of a different sort, though just as exciting and important.
And finally,
Never Stop Winning by Marks. Because I watched Yuri on Ice from start to finish over the holiday, and then immediately watched it again. It's lovely and ridiculous and sweet and silly, and it made me remember just how awesome men's figure skating can be. For the last bunch of years I've cared more about ice dancing. Virtue and Moir! Torvill and Dean! Great artists on the ice! But okay, men's figure skating... Pretty young men in sparkly costumes doing impossible jumps and spins, while skating out their feelings under unbearable amounts of pressure. Oh my heart! I can't wait for the promised sequel. In the mean time, here's this fun story about how the future might play out for Yuuri and Victor. Yay!
All the best to you in 2017! May it bring you lots of adventures, good days, peace and love.
I really enjoyed reading this year's Yuletide stories. Here are some of my favourites.
The Tree of Avonlea by Topaz Eyes. This Anne of Green Gables story sounds and feels so much like the books, that it feels like a extra piece of L. M. Montgomery. All the beloved characters are there. Anne, Diana, Gilbert, Marilla, Rachel. Matthew is remembered with deep love. Anne enlists the help of friends and family in her latest big project. There is Anne/Gilbert romance. Reading this made me remember just how much I loved Anne and her friends and her world when I was a kid.
A House For Me by pscoptera. I love Patrice Kindl's quirky YA books about unconventional heroines. This story is based on The Woman In The Wall, where the protagonist suffers from shyness and agoraphobia so extreme that she spends most of the book living inside the secret passages of her large Victorian house, hiding from her own family. The charm of the book comes from Anna's hilarious voice, which is offbeat, smart and terribly naive. Her attempts to interpret her family's lives and her own feelings and desires from her very limited point of view is super entertaining, and so is her personal journey throughout the book. I was so delighted to read this Yuletide sequel, which captures the charm of Anna's inner voice very well, and continues her journey into the outside world. Anna is no longer in the walls, and Anna's family is starting a new, very different life in an urban condo. Anna's new world is full of things and relationships she doesn't understand but is determined to navigate with her unique Anna style. I was cheering Anna on the whole way.
And All The Roads Are Blinding by moemachina. 10 Things I Hate About You is one of my favourite movies. I had some nostalgia for it this year and wanted to watch it again but Netflix wasn't helpful. Then Yuletide came along and provided this wonderful story that was tagged "Lovers to friends to lovers." Awesome! I got my fix of Kat and Patrick, and even better, it's a great sequel to the movie where the characters seem very close to the movie, but future versions of themselves, with a few more years of experience behind them. The story is funny and lighthearted and sweet and smart and it charmed me, just like the movie did.
Friday Night Bracing for Monday by Addison R (beyond_belief). Awesome, awesome Good Will Hunting sequel. It's been one of my favourite movies for years, and I was thrilled to read this lovely, ache-y, warm, grounded story that feels so true to the characters and their world. What happens to Will and Chuckie after the movie ends? Read and enjoy. I did.
Magic in the Mundane by sally (team_fen). One of my all-time favourite kid's books growing up is Margaret Mahy's The Changeover. I loved everything about it, from the vivid, lovable characters, to her excellent take on magic (unexpected, mysterious, fierce, emotional, dangerous), to her wonderful, unique, descriptive use of language. I was so excited to get a Changeover sequel, and Sally's is everything I could have hoped for. The characters feel like themselves but just a little older and a wiser. There are funny little reminders of Past!Events and old jokes from the book. But Laura and Sorry have come a long way, and their adventures now are of a different sort, though just as exciting and important.
And finally,
Never Stop Winning by Marks. Because I watched Yuri on Ice from start to finish over the holiday, and then immediately watched it again. It's lovely and ridiculous and sweet and silly, and it made me remember just how awesome men's figure skating can be. For the last bunch of years I've cared more about ice dancing. Virtue and Moir! Torvill and Dean! Great artists on the ice! But okay, men's figure skating... Pretty young men in sparkly costumes doing impossible jumps and spins, while skating out their feelings under unbearable amounts of pressure. Oh my heart! I can't wait for the promised sequel. In the mean time, here's this fun story about how the future might play out for Yuuri and Victor. Yay!
All the best to you in 2017! May it bring you lots of adventures, good days, peace and love.