Spreading the word.
After many, many hours of reading, I bring you My Big Fat Yuletide Rec List. Thirty-five recs spread out over a wide variety of fandoms - 10 Things I Hate About You, Angels in America, The Time Traveler's Wife, the Bourne series, Bridget Jones' Diary, The Cutting Edge, Chuck, Constantine, The Fast and the Furious, Fringe, Hancock, the Kushiel's Legacy series, Live Free or Die Hard, Lucky Number Slevin, Newsies, the Ocean's movies, The Princess Bride, Psych, Pushing Daisies, Quantum Leap, RPF - Twilight, the Dark-Hunter series, Some Kind of Wonderful, Speed, Stranger Than Fiction, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Wall.E, The Watcher, and Wimbledon. Asterisks denote my personal best of the best.
10 Things I Hate About You
10 Things I Hate About You, Patrick/Kat. Ten things Patrick hates about Kat.
Many kisses after Kat's list of Patrick pet peeves, he returns the favor. The characterization is marvelous.
Angels in America
* I'll Find You In The Morning Sun. Prior Walter, up to 1991; with Belize, Louis and Hannah, the family he has created for himself.
The prophet and his flock, counting down the end of days. Astoundingly beautiful. I don't have words to say how much I loved this piece.
Audrey Niffenegger - The Time Traveler's Wife
* und mit Geistesstärke tu ich Wunder auch. Alba loves time traveling. She always learns something. She always finds something.
Alba is. A look at Henry's legacy and evolution made flesh.
Bourne Identity series (movieverse)
Easier. Being someone else is the easy part; it's Nicky she's having trouble facing in the mirror.
Post-Supremacy, Nicky tries to pick up the pieces. This is the unfolding of every "it'll get better" that anyone's ever heard, trying to live until it does.
Swimming.
Fragmented and jarring, which only adds to the mood of the piece.
Bridget Jones' Diary (movieverse)
Excerpts from Bridget Jones' Diary: January - April 1999.
Perfect Bridget voice, with none of the flaws of the second film.
The Cutting Edge
Foreplay.
a wonderful continuation of the movie, with beautiful characterization and a sweet, hopeful ending.
Chuck
Four Times Chuck Was a Hero by Being Nerdy.
Completely in character and totally awesome.
Constantine
The Spaces In Between. John finds himself wondering who and what he believes in, who and what he needs, who and what he is.
After everything changes, nothing really has. A beautifully bleak look at John's world post-movie, which isn't all that different than the way things were before.
The Fast and the Furious
Pursuit.
Past and present cases converge, and amidst them, Brian and Dom make amends. One of those great, rare fics that could be canon.
Fringe
Five Times Peter Talked to Olivia After Hours (And One Time He Didn't). Five times Peter Bishop called Olivia Dunham after hours, and one time he tried.
Great take on Peter, and with him as a cipher, I was more interested in Olivia than I've ever been watching the show.
Hancock
* Through a Glass Darkly, Mary/Hancock/Ray. When they get too close, when the way they were made forces them apart, they find ways to compensate.
Good lord, is this gorgeous. The author's written voice reminded me of reading Vincent Ngo's original script for the film, with all of it's elegant darkness and double-meaning. Beautiful look at what people do to hang on and get by, even when they're immortal.
Jacqueline Carey - The Kushiel's Legacy series
A Brief Interlude.
Told with all the grace and honesty that's always existed between Phedre no Delaunay de Montreve and Nicola L'Envers.
Joie. L'Envers ran his thumb over the red imprint his hand had left on the boy's cheek, smiling when the adept moaned and closed his eyes, exquisite in his vulnerability.
Barquiel L'Envers through Phedre's shrewd eyes, and she sees him for the ruthless, glorious bastard that he is. Even better, she's forced to agree with him.
Twelve Months, Plus One. Janvier to decembre in the Houses of Night Blooming Flowers.
Full of vivid, evocative language and imagery, much like the series itself.
Live Free or Die Hard
No Sleep Til Brooklyn. Picking up the pieces. Sort of.
Matt's on the slow road to recovery. McClaine isn't exactly Florence Nightingale. Great characterization and camaraderie here, with pitch-perfect voices. It's like a good road trip and a great mix tape, only with conversation and morphine.
Lucky Number Slevin
Be All My Sins Remembered. How Goodkat became Goodkat.
Once upon a time, Goodkat was just an apprentice. Marvelous backstory on this universe's linch pin.
Newsies
Not Your Kind of Business, Jack/David. David learns that sometimes it's better -- or at least, less embarrassing -- to let Jack keep his secrets.
An intriguing glimpse at David, and Jack through his eyes. Beautiful voices.
Ocean's movies
Youth: A Heartbreakingly Schmoopy Work of Staggering Genius. Danny and Rusty remember being young. Vaguely.
A slice of time that sketches the past in broad, beautiful strokes, and makes what should be sad into a hard-fought, well-earned rite of passage.
The Princess Bride
A Storybook Story. This was before Inigo's wound reopened, and Westley relapsed again, and Fezzik took the wrong turn, and Buttercup's horse threw a show. And the night behind them was filled with the crescendoing sound of pursuit.
"The End" is always the beginning of something else. Sweet, lovely look at the start of ever after.
* Paradise. Fezzik's idea of paradise involves counting words. Inigo's idea of paradise involves alcohol. Lots of it.
Oh, oh, this fic. It made my heart feel too big for my chest, and then made me reach for the DVD so I could imagine this future for my favorite giant, who is smarter than even he realizes, and his Spaniard, who would have been lost without a life's mission.
Psych
I've already recced a piece I betaed, Gus Goes For the Gold Star, but it wasn't the only masterpiece in this fandom.
* The Curious Case of That Time With The Thing, Shawn/Gus. Shawn kind of wanted to ask for a cookie, but he didn't think he'd like the taste of arsenic.
Whatever the identity of our mystery author, I'm positive this was written with a gazing ball and a Ouija board. Shawn is practically channeled into being here, and every single inch of it is sweet, hilarious Spencer perfection.
Pushing Daisies
It's a Purl!. Olive and Emerson team up against a scourge of nefarious bondage knitters.
Bondage. Knitters. Hilarious and kind of poignant, much like the show.
* One Minute, Counting. Ned opened his mouth, no doubt to say something self-evident and time-wasteful, like: 'You had a pretty bad fall there, Emerson'.
I told myself that I wouldn't play favorites with Yuletide. And then I read this fic. Dead-on Emerson and adorable Ned in denial, plus a cameo from the coroner. Perfection personified.
Quantum Leap
Just In Time. Sam leaps into a cop just in time to witness a death. Who's the murderer, and what happened?
Plays out like an episode, with marvelous character voices and an ending that packs a punch. Made me ache for the show's glory days.
RPF - Twilight
This Story Should Be Titled (Like A Fall-Out Boy Song). You must be thinking of someone else. I don't sparkle at ALL.
A stoned Stewart shares the wealth with a Stephanie-stalked Pattinson. It's funny because it's oh-so-plausible.
Sherilyn Kenyon - Dark Hunter Series
My Beloved Monster and Me: We Go Everywhere Together. Valerius Magnus, the stoic Roman general, is haunted by the one he could not have and the memories of those he could not save.
Aggrippina, before the light goes out. A tragic, haunting look at who Valerius used to be, and how he has become more.
Some Kind of Wonderful
Portrait in 3/4 Time. A rough sketch of his future.
And the start of something beautiful. There was a time, way back in high school, when I watched this movie at least once a week, and with good reason - it so accurately portrays the innate awkwardness in having a best friend of the opposite sex (and beyond that, tripping into love with them). This fic perfectly captures the start of what made these two so special, and the foreshadowing - the idea of what Keith would see in a truth-telling portrait of Watts - is a lovely touch.
Speed
* Walk the Wire, Jack/Annie. Alive and mostly okay.
After the fade out, life isn't happily-ever at all. Painful and plausible and so very, very fitting.
Stranger Than Fiction
Harold to the Infinite Power. In which Harold Crick is introduced to the concept of fanfiction and what it means to his life -- or, perhaps, his lives.
Meta done the best way possible. Clever and well-done.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Shorn of Their Illusion, Derek/Cameron. Seeing isn't always believing. Derek loses faith, and maybe himself.
Dark, tortured, and doomed. And he knows it. Nicely told.
Wall.E
And There Is And More. Wall.E and EVE work on rebuilding Earth and on something else, too.
EVE and Wall.E give birth to the next generation. Kidfic done oh-so-right.
Try/Fail? - False Binary. Binary observations on a Directive unfulfilled.
EVE, focused on her mission, finds something she wasn't programmed to look for.
The Watcher
Infinite Distances Halved, Joel/Griffin. Stone walls make more than a prison.
Hopeless and bleak, this is a beautifully twisted look at this yin and yang pair, and the nature of psychological warfare. Dead-on Griffin voice.
Wimbledon
In Dreams. After Peter marries Lizzie Bradbury, Deiter is left to cope with an unsettling revelation.
Oh Deiter, we hardly knew ye. This makes it a bit better. Haunted even in his happiness for his friends, and powerless to set himself free.
To all of these anonymous authors, thanks for the great reads.
10 Things I Hate About You
10 Things I Hate About You, Patrick/Kat. Ten things Patrick hates about Kat.
Many kisses after Kat's list of Patrick pet peeves, he returns the favor. The characterization is marvelous.
Angels in America
* I'll Find You In The Morning Sun. Prior Walter, up to 1991; with Belize, Louis and Hannah, the family he has created for himself.
The prophet and his flock, counting down the end of days. Astoundingly beautiful. I don't have words to say how much I loved this piece.
Audrey Niffenegger - The Time Traveler's Wife
* und mit Geistesstärke tu ich Wunder auch. Alba loves time traveling. She always learns something. She always finds something.
Alba is. A look at Henry's legacy and evolution made flesh.
Bourne Identity series (movieverse)
Easier. Being someone else is the easy part; it's Nicky she's having trouble facing in the mirror.
Post-Supremacy, Nicky tries to pick up the pieces. This is the unfolding of every "it'll get better" that anyone's ever heard, trying to live until it does.
Swimming.
Fragmented and jarring, which only adds to the mood of the piece.
Bridget Jones' Diary (movieverse)
Excerpts from Bridget Jones' Diary: January - April 1999.
Perfect Bridget voice, with none of the flaws of the second film.
The Cutting Edge
Foreplay.
a wonderful continuation of the movie, with beautiful characterization and a sweet, hopeful ending.
Chuck
Four Times Chuck Was a Hero by Being Nerdy.
Completely in character and totally awesome.
Constantine
The Spaces In Between. John finds himself wondering who and what he believes in, who and what he needs, who and what he is.
After everything changes, nothing really has. A beautifully bleak look at John's world post-movie, which isn't all that different than the way things were before.
The Fast and the Furious
Pursuit.
Past and present cases converge, and amidst them, Brian and Dom make amends. One of those great, rare fics that could be canon.
Fringe
Five Times Peter Talked to Olivia After Hours (And One Time He Didn't). Five times Peter Bishop called Olivia Dunham after hours, and one time he tried.
Great take on Peter, and with him as a cipher, I was more interested in Olivia than I've ever been watching the show.
Hancock
* Through a Glass Darkly, Mary/Hancock/Ray. When they get too close, when the way they were made forces them apart, they find ways to compensate.
Good lord, is this gorgeous. The author's written voice reminded me of reading Vincent Ngo's original script for the film, with all of it's elegant darkness and double-meaning. Beautiful look at what people do to hang on and get by, even when they're immortal.
Jacqueline Carey - The Kushiel's Legacy series
A Brief Interlude.
Told with all the grace and honesty that's always existed between Phedre no Delaunay de Montreve and Nicola L'Envers.
Joie. L'Envers ran his thumb over the red imprint his hand had left on the boy's cheek, smiling when the adept moaned and closed his eyes, exquisite in his vulnerability.
Barquiel L'Envers through Phedre's shrewd eyes, and she sees him for the ruthless, glorious bastard that he is. Even better, she's forced to agree with him.
Twelve Months, Plus One. Janvier to decembre in the Houses of Night Blooming Flowers.
Full of vivid, evocative language and imagery, much like the series itself.
Live Free or Die Hard
No Sleep Til Brooklyn. Picking up the pieces. Sort of.
Matt's on the slow road to recovery. McClaine isn't exactly Florence Nightingale. Great characterization and camaraderie here, with pitch-perfect voices. It's like a good road trip and a great mix tape, only with conversation and morphine.
Lucky Number Slevin
Be All My Sins Remembered. How Goodkat became Goodkat.
Once upon a time, Goodkat was just an apprentice. Marvelous backstory on this universe's linch pin.
Newsies
Not Your Kind of Business, Jack/David. David learns that sometimes it's better -- or at least, less embarrassing -- to let Jack keep his secrets.
An intriguing glimpse at David, and Jack through his eyes. Beautiful voices.
Ocean's movies
Youth: A Heartbreakingly Schmoopy Work of Staggering Genius. Danny and Rusty remember being young. Vaguely.
A slice of time that sketches the past in broad, beautiful strokes, and makes what should be sad into a hard-fought, well-earned rite of passage.
The Princess Bride
A Storybook Story. This was before Inigo's wound reopened, and Westley relapsed again, and Fezzik took the wrong turn, and Buttercup's horse threw a show. And the night behind them was filled with the crescendoing sound of pursuit.
"The End" is always the beginning of something else. Sweet, lovely look at the start of ever after.
* Paradise. Fezzik's idea of paradise involves counting words. Inigo's idea of paradise involves alcohol. Lots of it.
Oh, oh, this fic. It made my heart feel too big for my chest, and then made me reach for the DVD so I could imagine this future for my favorite giant, who is smarter than even he realizes, and his Spaniard, who would have been lost without a life's mission.
Psych
I've already recced a piece I betaed, Gus Goes For the Gold Star, but it wasn't the only masterpiece in this fandom.
* The Curious Case of That Time With The Thing, Shawn/Gus. Shawn kind of wanted to ask for a cookie, but he didn't think he'd like the taste of arsenic.
Whatever the identity of our mystery author, I'm positive this was written with a gazing ball and a Ouija board. Shawn is practically channeled into being here, and every single inch of it is sweet, hilarious Spencer perfection.
Pushing Daisies
It's a Purl!. Olive and Emerson team up against a scourge of nefarious bondage knitters.
Bondage. Knitters. Hilarious and kind of poignant, much like the show.
* One Minute, Counting. Ned opened his mouth, no doubt to say something self-evident and time-wasteful, like: 'You had a pretty bad fall there, Emerson'.
I told myself that I wouldn't play favorites with Yuletide. And then I read this fic. Dead-on Emerson and adorable Ned in denial, plus a cameo from the coroner. Perfection personified.
Quantum Leap
Just In Time. Sam leaps into a cop just in time to witness a death. Who's the murderer, and what happened?
Plays out like an episode, with marvelous character voices and an ending that packs a punch. Made me ache for the show's glory days.
RPF - Twilight
This Story Should Be Titled (Like A Fall-Out Boy Song). You must be thinking of someone else. I don't sparkle at ALL.
A stoned Stewart shares the wealth with a Stephanie-stalked Pattinson. It's funny because it's oh-so-plausible.
Sherilyn Kenyon - Dark Hunter Series
My Beloved Monster and Me: We Go Everywhere Together. Valerius Magnus, the stoic Roman general, is haunted by the one he could not have and the memories of those he could not save.
Aggrippina, before the light goes out. A tragic, haunting look at who Valerius used to be, and how he has become more.
Some Kind of Wonderful
Portrait in 3/4 Time. A rough sketch of his future.
And the start of something beautiful. There was a time, way back in high school, when I watched this movie at least once a week, and with good reason - it so accurately portrays the innate awkwardness in having a best friend of the opposite sex (and beyond that, tripping into love with them). This fic perfectly captures the start of what made these two so special, and the foreshadowing - the idea of what Keith would see in a truth-telling portrait of Watts - is a lovely touch.
Speed
* Walk the Wire, Jack/Annie. Alive and mostly okay.
After the fade out, life isn't happily-ever at all. Painful and plausible and so very, very fitting.
Stranger Than Fiction
Harold to the Infinite Power. In which Harold Crick is introduced to the concept of fanfiction and what it means to his life -- or, perhaps, his lives.
Meta done the best way possible. Clever and well-done.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Shorn of Their Illusion, Derek/Cameron. Seeing isn't always believing. Derek loses faith, and maybe himself.
Dark, tortured, and doomed. And he knows it. Nicely told.
Wall.E
And There Is And More. Wall.E and EVE work on rebuilding Earth and on something else, too.
EVE and Wall.E give birth to the next generation. Kidfic done oh-so-right.
Try/Fail? - False Binary. Binary observations on a Directive unfulfilled.
EVE, focused on her mission, finds something she wasn't programmed to look for.
The Watcher
Infinite Distances Halved, Joel/Griffin. Stone walls make more than a prison.
Hopeless and bleak, this is a beautifully twisted look at this yin and yang pair, and the nature of psychological warfare. Dead-on Griffin voice.
Wimbledon
In Dreams. After Peter marries Lizzie Bradbury, Deiter is left to cope with an unsettling revelation.
Oh Deiter, we hardly knew ye. This makes it a bit better. Haunted even in his happiness for his friends, and powerless to set himself free.
To all of these anonymous authors, thanks for the great reads.