Reading Hound of the Baskervilles in my way through the Holmes canon, and, man, was Holmes an inveterate name-dropper!

In relation to the death of Sir Charles Baskerville: "I had observed some newspaper comment at the time, but I was exceedingly preoccupied by that little affair of the Vatican cameos, and in my anxiety to oblige the Pope I lost ( Read more... )

Finished "Jewels: A Secret History" by Victoria Finlay.

Picked it up because of my jewelry obsession, and I read part of her book "Colors" and really enjoyed it. Have been working on "Jewels" for months.

Finished because it's really good. She has a great enthusiasm for her topic, and I like that her research takes her to many interesting places.  She ( Read more... )

Hung out with friends tonight and watched Season 3 of Black Books ( Read more... )

Posted my first rec to 221b Recs.  Maybe taking a more active role in fandom? More creative? I've also been commenting more.  \o/

"Americus" by MK Reed & Jonathan Hill

Teens growing up in a very religiously conservative town in OK. Kind of scary.  A fantasy series full of magic and dragons becomes the focus for the conservative forces as they try to protect their teenaged children from the forces of evil.

There was one particular mother who was the motivating force behind the ( Read more... )

The 3rd book in Mira Grant's Newsflesh Trilogy, "Blackout," is coming out in May 2012.  \o/.  Thinky zombie novels where the zombies are the catalyst, not the whole point. Really well done. I loved them, and I don't do zombies.

Must read me some Seanan McGuire (Mira Grant's primary identity).

"Alien Tango" by Gini Koch.

Why I read this: I read the first book in the series a while ago, and despite the less than stellar writing, found something attractive about it.  Picked up sequel to see if that would carry over.

50 page test:  Passed.

I finished it. There are currently 2 more in the series; I don't know that I can stand to read them.  ( Read more... )

Last night we watched "Dr. Strangelove:  Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb."  Dark, dark, dark, but very funny.  Truly a classic. 

Click to view

I can see why it succeeded as it did.  People had enough of being terrified by the cold war and the threat of nuclear annihilation in real life; they didn't need to see a movie that tried to do the same ( Read more... )

We went to a friend's New Year's Eve party this year, and he's a gigantic film buff.  We saw 3 films, all of which were ... odd.

"Wasabi"
(I only saw part of this.) Really funny.

Click to view

"Rare Exports"
A Finnish horror movie - very darkly humorous.

Click to view

"Underground" 
Surrealistic, chock full of symbolism, 3 hours long, and lots and lots of klezmer music. Again, ( Read more... )

I knit my niece a Christmas stocking this year.  My mom knit all 7 of us Christmas stockings when we were little, and my sister had the genius idea of she and I knitting them for our nieces and nephews (all 12 of them).  We (I) only got the one stocking done this year, but we have many years to come.  It was my first sock and was fairly successful ( Read more... )