prison for jerks

Quick book recommendation: So, hey, those of you who have a kink for historical fiction with love stories featuring girl-dressed-up-as-a-boy-for-reasons-of-plot falling in love with dude-who-doesn't-know-she's-really-a-girl? (And don't lie, I know there are a ton of you.) Blindspot is a little slow for the first hundred pages or so, but once it gets going, it delivers on that plotline but good. You'll dig it.

I think it's time for me to start watching more Star Trek again, after taking a couple weeks off. I did "Operation: Annihilate!" yesterday and was well-pleased. I love me some Kirk angst, yessirree. I think I'm finally ready to watch Voyage Home, too, so woohoo!

(Thinking about Search for Spock some more, it turns out the "Jim. Your name is Jim" is an OTP moment for me right up there with large sections of Call of the Wild in Due South. MY HEART, YOU GUYS. MY HEART.)

Yesterday I had excellent cooking adventures! Spaghetti with oil and garlic and chickpeas for lunch, lamburgers stuffed with feta for dinner, and in the evening blackberry-raspberry ice cream. Nothing exciting today, but I might make more pickled garlicky red peppers tomorrow before work.

1. From The Knowledge of Water, which I'm currently reading:

Love made Milly nervous. Sex, that was easy; one sys yes, one says no; but when the person was in love, who knows where it ended. Milly liked things clear and definite; love, like stories, should have a beginning, a middle and especially an end. Love was depressing, a want without reason, a male want. I want the Mona Lisa to throw in the Seine. I want to own another person. I want you to write, dear. I want the moon.

2. Today I have reached the point in my job hunt where I lay on the couch and stared at the ceiling and did pretty much everything but burst into tears. Two major lifechanging important things happened to me this summer, and it is still going to go down in my memory as The Summer of Rejection.

3. Why is shirtless pete wentz in a bunny head with his arms outstretched hot? That should just be creepy. DAMN HIS EYES.

4. I think I'm going to go play the Sims 2 some more. Mmmmm micromanaging imaginary lives, why so satisfying?

5. taraljc's 101 Reasons to Love the Middleman. Seriously, if you are not watching this show, you are missing out. If you show up in a couple weeks being "omigod this is so good why didn't you TELL me" I will beat you with a stick, because you should consider yourself officially told. Bandom people, it is a snarky comics-loving art kid saving the world! What more do you want?

So the novel I just finished reading had SUDDEN SURPRISE HETCEST. If you're reading this journal, you probably know enough about me to assume that this would be a huge plus in my mind, but in this case you would be wrong. It was bait and switch, man! The author spent four hundred pages convincing me this dude and chick were totally OTP in every way, and then hey, they finally get engaged! And they have sex for the first time! And then it's like you can almost hear the alarm go off in the author's head, all "oh, shit, I have to wrap this up in the next fifty pages, how can I stave off the happy ending? I KNOW, THEY'RE SECRETLY HALF-SIBLINGS! GENIUS!"

So weak. So very weak. There wasn't even any interesting angst about being in love with her, either! Just automatic "ew, gross cooties, I must break our engagement and go off alone into the world." Bleh.

In other news, today we moved the final bits of my stuff back from Eugene. Stuff! I missed you! I have a bed and everything. And my books. Sweet, sweet books, never leave me again.

Last night I had a dream where cidercupcakes had written a novel that could basically be boiled down to "Napoleonic Wars meet Mr & Mrs Smith". It was pretty awesome -- competent married Regency spies wooo! -- and now that I have woken up I am kind of bummed it doesn't exist.

In the comments to the last entry I was telling kristiinthedark about how I was thinking about Ray and Fraser in a blackout. It would be while they're busy doing something, maybe for a case, examining some large and busy room or something. The lights go out, it's pitch black, Ray is twitchy and keeps moving around, bumping into things and cursing, until Fraser tells him to quit and stay in one place. Which Ray is probably bitchy about, but he stays still anyway, and Fraser asks him to keep talking, so he can find him by the sound of his voice (like Marco Polo). So Ray is standing still all alone in the pitch black and forced to just keep talking to himself about stupid things, until Fraser finds him, and that shuts him up because Fraser's right in front of him, so close you can feel the heat of his body and his breath. And then THEY KISS FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, in the dark, and it is awesome until the lights suddenly go back on again, and then they pull apart and are awkward and stupid and pretend for days/weeks that it never happened and don't talk about it at all.

Sigh. Booooooys.

In news that will shock absolutely no one, Paul Gross is still distgustingly attractive. Um, ignore the last one, though. Stick to the candids of "my god."

I spent an unhealthy amount of time yesterday looking through Amazon.com and making lists of all the dvds I would need once I was filthy stinking rich and things like food, rents, and debt were not an issue. Heroes! Arrested Development s3! How I Met Your Mother! Grey's s3! Deadwood! Rome! Doctor Who! NCIS! Joan of Arcadia! Newsradio! I want it all. Is that so wrong?

It's too hot for September, and I'm really really excited about my Latin textbook coming in the mail.

Here is the thing about Lord of Scoundrels:

Okay, first, I have a sort of pyramid of romance authors in my head, with them sorted out all the way from "omg brilliant!" to "not actually good at all, but it's a quick read and entertaining enough." Which, okay, the very top slot is pretty much just Laura Kinsale and Jennifer Crusie by themselves, but Loretta Chase is up near the top for me, because her stuff is always both well-written *and* really fun. So I was in a good place going into Lord of scoundrels! And it's not perfect or anything (the last third really drags, I don't love it as much as The Lion's Daughter or Mr. Impossible) but yes: fun! good! joy to read! Everything I want out of a romance, right?

But the thing that really put it over the top for me? Is ( Spoiler! )

Uh, apparently this is the entry where I babble about romance novels! Man, which reminds me that my dream romance novel is *still* a contemporary set on Antarctica. Scientists or mechanics or pilots! One of them would be a newbie, of course, with everything brand new and bizarre, and the other one would be experienced, someone who returns to the ice every year, can't stay away. And there would be geekiness and pure antarctic LOVE. Yes.

(People falling in love in polar regions is actually a button of mine that predates my due South love. It's just a really happy coincidence!)

Hi, you guys. I am actually really bummed out for no real reason lately. You want to do one of those memes where you tell me nice things? I need love.

I am reporting without comment.

So I was in Pennsylvania from Tuesday to Sunday night with my family; it was busy and surreal and sad and chock full of my loud and argumentative and bitchy relatives, whom I love a lot. I didn't really have any internet access. I've checked a few things on LJ, but you might as well assume that I am ignorant of anything that has happened the last week or so.

Here are some books I've read lately that I've enjoyed:

Avalon High by Meg Cabot; Devilish by Maureen Johnson; The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart; Holmes on the Range by Steve Hockensmith; Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder; Shine On, Bright & Dangerous Object by Laurie Colwin; The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig; Heat by Bill Buford.

Books are great. I need more of them to read now. *refreshes library website constantly to see if my holds have come in*

I find I don't have much to say, huh? Here, come and cuddle with me and tell me about pretty things.

You guys, I'm looking for book recommendations. What can you point me towards in the way of:

a) your favorite Arthurian-inspired novels
b) your favorite Trojan War-inspired novels
c) good mystery series (= likable hero/heroine with relationships that change and grow from book to book, along with the installments being good books on their own)

One of my books that came from my Christmas gift certificate from Amazon yesterday was The Lion in Winter -- aka, my favorite play of ALL TIME. I adore Plantagenets and Eleanor of Acquitaine, and have since I first discovered her in third grade, but this is something in and of itself. HEART.

( Christmas with the family )

Another year of reading! This year was really really heavy on romance novels, I find, and light on everything else. I didn't manage to keep track of all the graphic novels I read, however, which would skew the data quite a bit. Books I started and never finished, including collections of short stories, aren't included; books I read for school are only if I read and digested the whole thing. I actually thought my reading this year was pretty weak, all around -- no amazing discoveries like last year -- but looking back, there was still some really good stuff. My top five are in bold (cheating, by counting only one from a series).

Goal for next year: MORE READING YIS.

( Books Read, 12/13/2005 - 12/12/2006 )