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Jun

For All This

I know it’s not Thursday, but I’m thankful. For faery books that make me smile and dive right in. For Fragile Eternity. Seth and lovely Dark Court imagery and themes about creation and choice. For Knife. The amazing, natural worldbuilding of the Oakenwyld and the sweet romance. For friends I can hand these books right off to, so we can talk about them ASAP. For thinking about the tropes–or "bulletproof kink"–that almost always work for me: artsy boys (or boys who are super-passionate about something besides the girl), mother/daughter issues, love triangles where the "right" answer isn’t totally obvious. Boarding schools. Girls who save themselves. Feeling stultified in a small/conservative town or family. Vulnerable-at-heart bad boys (see: Chuck Bass, Tim Riggins).I’m sure there are more… For naps. Air-conditioning. For pastels–but only in bedding–serene blues and pale greens and buttery yellows. Polishing a wooden endtable until it gleams again. For broccoli...

Jun

Question Friday: Wordplay Edition

Jessica

This post is brought to you by our total confusion at my mother-in-law’s insistence on differentiating between dressers and chests of drawers. Also, the more times you write "drawers," the stranger it begins to look. Coke/Pepsi: Soda OR pop? What you put on ice cream: Sprinkles OR jimmies? Furniture you put clothes in: Bureau, dresser, OR chest of drawers? In your living room: Sofa OR couch OR (ala my grandmother) davenport? Evening meal: Supper OR dinner? Bonus: What interesting regional slang did you grow up with? The two most striking examples from my childhood (in southern PA) are: "The milk is all." (All gone) "Go red up your room." (clean up)

Jun

Kittenfail

Jessica

It has been a very trying Monday. The good news is that we are still getting a loan and we’re still getting the house. The bad news is that it’s looking like we’ll have to postpone settlement by a few days. This means rescheduling the cleaners, movers, Comcast, furniture delivery, and my days off work. It means canceling my trip to the beach with my best friend’s family. It means a few more days of things being up in the air, a few more days living with half of our stuff packed up in boxes, a few more days of crazy-making uncertainty. I am the sort of person who thrives on routine and organization. Moving makes me anxious under the best of circumstances, even though this will be my 7th move in the 8 years since college graduation. I will be so relieved when this process is finished. But I am...

Jun

Recommendations

Jessica

I already posted about my most favorite new thing this week, Friday Night Lights. But here are some other things I highly, highly recommend: Mind-Rain. It’s an anthology of essays about Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies series. I finally read all four books in the series (Uglies, Pretties, Specials, Extras) in May and was blown away by the world-building. Characters are what grab me first and best. This series is definitely more action/adventure; Tally’s constantly jumping off things and flying around and fighting the man (or in this case woman). Since our heroine undergoes so many changes, it’s hard to feel like we really know her. I don’t think it’s surprising that my favorite book of the bunch was Pretties, where Tally’s romances and friendship with Shay are in the foreground. But I liked the series, and reading it analytically, I admired the hell out of it. Westerfeld creates an incredible sense of...

Jun

Friday Night Lights

Jessica

Sooo….I have a confession to make. I should be attacking my towering pile of books and working on revisions. But…well, Gentle Reader, I have discovered Netflix’s Instant viewing program. Subsequently, I have watched 8 episodes of Friday Night Lights in the last two days. I loooove this show. I cried through about half of the first two episodes because, holy cow, does it know how to play me like a fiddle. An underdog who loves his dementia-addled grandma. A honey-eyed bad boy with killer abs and an alcoholic mom. A run-down Texas town where football is religion. A sassy wife who argues with her husband under the table during a party. And that’s without even getting into Jason Street, who just about slays me. And the art direction…oh, my. Gorgeous. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania, not Texas, but football was a pretty big deal. My grandfather and...

For All This

Question Friday: Wordplay Edition

Kittenfail

Recommendations

Friday Night Lights

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