Belated thanks to my lovely friends for all the wonderful gifts and cards! I'm not certain who gave me the scarf (freakwoman, maybe?) but it's beautiful :) Arthur is also thrilled with everything he received for Christmas, although he ripped some of them open so quickly it was hard to find the tags and know who gave him what, so if I am vague in my ( Read more... )

I'm all Tudored out. I no longer have any interest in reading fiction, or watching movies or tv shows, set anywhere between Henry VIII and Elizabeth. Especially if the story concerns the royals. It's just so overdone. I tried a few months ago to read a popular novel with this theme (unnamed here because I'm fairly sure there's nothing wrong ( Read more... )

On the strength of a rec by eldritchhobbit, I picked up a copy of The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield yesterday. It's got elements of the best gothic fiction - historical setting, ghosts (maybe), convoluted family drama... and it's about stories and people who love them. It was gripping - I stayed up until 2 am to finish it. I very much enjoyed it, except ( Read more... )

( List of the books I read last year )

My mom (hi Mom!) pointed me at the Awful Library Books blog. Two public librarians in Detroit post book selections that should probably get weeded from the shelves (or at the very least, are funny). Cases in point:


( Read more... )

The Recently Deflowered Girl, an early work by Edward Gorey.

(My Gorey icons aren't in the rotation atm, woe!)

I've been on a mystery series kick lately, and am looking for more recommendations of series to try. I'm far from an expert on the mystery genre - read a bunch of Agatha Christie in my teens, not so much since then - but I know some of you are much more knowledgeable. I like historical mysteries as long as the history is relatively well-done. ( Read more... )

For those who are, quite justifiably, concerned about Amazonfail, I suggest reading these posts (via Making Light):

On Amazon Failure, Meta-Trolls, and Bantown by tehdely ETA: And this one where someone, falsely or otherwise, claims responsibility. (thanks to marnanel for the link.)
Why hasn't Amazon fixed things overnight? by sbissonIs this what happened? Maybe. It ( Read more... )

Happy new year, everyone! I hope that 2008 will be a great year for all of us :) We went out to mellybean71 and sultrysong's bash last night and had a lovely time, even though Steve's lungs got filled with cats and I started to turn into a pumpkin at about quarter to midnight. Still, it was a lot of fun, and the food was delicious as always ( Read more... )

So, as there seems to be some slight interest from the old f-list about what I was going to say concerning The Dangerous Book for Boys and its companion piece The Daring Book for Girls, I figured I'd write it up ( Read more... )