Greetings, all!
I have been down with a head cold (very unglamorous for a succubus, doncha know...) and, as a result, do not have any RR author interviews or pithy posts to offer this week. So I thought I'd just open up the wine cellar and pantry, light a roaring fire in my virtual fireplace, and offer everyone a comfy place to relax, eat and drink, and talk about what we all are currently reading, and what our holiday plans are for the next few weeks.
I'll start by heating up a batch of hot apple cider/whiskey toddies to go with fresh baked chocolate chip cookies and/or cider donuts (if you haven't had a cider donut, trust me when I say they are to die for). As for what I'm reading, a friend turned me onto Andrew Vachss, who writes modern noir. Not particularly romantic, but a girl's gotta get variety!
I finished reading the Contemporary set of Ravenous Romance's Escape to Romance collection on HSN. $25 and free shipping for six books? Sweet! If you have friends who love romance, check out the four sets: Contemporary, Paranormal, Historical and Sampler. My book Ripping the Bodice is in there, which makes me very happy!
As for holiday plans, I am going to try and catch up on my writing and visit family and friends in Los Angeles and San Diego. Christmas Eve will be spent baking cookies and watching movies. I'm hoping for a zombie Christmas Story! Heh.
What about you?
33 comments:
The HSN books are definitely a great deal--and there's a genre package for everyone. ;-)
Hmm, Bah Humbug. Ok only because i'm at work.
I am reading a Sherilyn Kenyon at the moment and it's going to be a mixed review. There are things I really like that make me realise why these books are so popular, and things that really irritate me.
I am of course giving several books this Christmas although some of them are audio.
Lisa! So nice to see you first thing in the morning! And Adele, I know exactly what you mean about Kenyon's books. I really enjoy them, but get the irritation part too. Usually just one or two things that pop up, like a character who gets pop culture references not knowing to take plastic off of a package of crackers...
I could use a little brandy -- bit of snow out there. My wimpy colleagues canceled classes left and right, but I was here and so were a good number of my students. Hmph. It's not as if this were Michigan snow! Puh-lease.
But some nice warm cognac in a hot chocolate would not go amiss!
As for holiday plans: there's my BIRTHDAY and already had one Yule party even though Yule is another week or so away and I have no plans for Xmas as it ain't my holyday.
One hot chocolate with a good cognac infusion coming up, Kate!
Dave's birthday is the 26th, so we'll be celebrating that as well. CHristmas isn't really our holiday either, but it does come with vacation time so I can see my family and friends in San Diego...
I have to attend (with luck, for the last time) the Modern Language Association conference which has always taken place the week between Xmas and New Year's, cutting short an already short break. At least it's in Philly this year and I can just go for an overnight. Much writing to do!
Didn't know Dave shared the Dec birthday annoyance. My grandmother's birthday was also Boxing Day.
Well I will take a coffee with Irish please.
We are christmassing at home thankfully. My brithday is the end of November and Mark usually has the tree up before my bday. Grrr. On the other hand it's useful if I want something big.:)
One Irish coffee for the lady! :-)
Yup, Dave is one day late from being holy. It's a bummer for him because his birthday generally gets lost in the Christmas buzz. We're trying to change that. Last year we actually celebrated it 8 months after the fact. Wait, that was THIS year. Oy...
Adele, you have your tree up already? Dang me!
For me, Christmas is the perfect time for a ghost story--or zombie tale. Yes it's essentially an English custom but I like it, and why not? With the wind currently howling like a damned soul in torment it's the perfect time for a good shuddery read.
So there's A PLEASING TERROR, a solid collection of all the stories and articles by the Cambridge scholar, M. R. James.
And there's THING OF DARKNESS, by Gladys Gordon Trenary (who wrote under the name of G. G. Pendarves). Quite enough to keep me occupied for the present. (But there are always more shadows in the wings...heheheheheh!)
Thank you for hosting us all today, Inara. I hope you kick that cold back where the sun don't shine. I think I'd like a whiskey toddy and cider donut this coooollld morning. Please continue to take good care of yourself. And Happy Birthday to Dave in advance.
LOL.
meh, my fella loves christmas and I indulge it. I'm a little bit humbug myself.
mmm, good coffee.
Zombies and horror at christmas are great Jack, I agree. Cold and dark and creepy, what better time.
Whiskey toddy and cider donut for my lovely Jack! I LOVE the way you think and am going to look up those books post haste! And I'll pass your b-day wishes to Dave!
Adele, I'm the same way... no wonder A Christmas Carol and the spooky ghost of the future was always my favorite!
I'm reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time for my January book club. I should be reading Middlesex for next week's but I don't want to. Anyone know a quick summary on it?
It's finally sunny here and strangely warmish. Horrible rains this morning, so I'll stick with the theme and have some cider if you please.
K.A., Philly? Where? When? If you have time, let me know, I'll drive in and maybe we can visit a pub together, :)
Cider for the lovely Isabel!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middlesex_%28novel%29 for a summation of Middlesex, btw...
I read The Man From the DIogenes Club by Kim Newman a month ago and recommend it highly!
Isabel, yes! I'm planning to go to the Belgian pub with a friend -- the more the merrier!
Middlesex? Or Middlemarch -- one of my all-time favourites! Eliot is a wonder.
It's still grey here; the promised rain has not come, so the snow remains, though the roads are getting cleared finally.
Oops, thought I had already posted this but forgot to hit publish.
Thank you, Dana! A PLEASING TERROR may be out of print by now butthere are several paperback collections of Dr. James work still available. THING OF DARKNESS is still in print from Midnight House. Ms. Tranery wrote in a quasi-Gothic style (which I know you will enjoy) though her terrors are NOT human inventions--rather the foulest things from Hell's Pits. Nor does "good" always triumph.
Headcold or no, you are still my favorite succubus.
LOL.
MR James is genius! I told my dissertation director that my fiction career was just my attempt to follow in James' footsteps (he, too, was a medieval scholar), but he still looked askance at my writing.
Is it too early for a martini? What am I saying?! Of course it's not!
I'm reading Hal Bodner's new release on RR, FOR LOVE OF THE DEAD, and I'm loving it.
Sniffle... thank you, Jack!
Margery! So nice to see you and it's NEVER too early for a martini here at Un:Bound!
Ryan, thank you for reminding me about Hal's new release! I've been dying to read it! No pun intended, I swear!
You couldn't have picked a better model, Margery. Economy of words was his strongest asset. he didn't waste words, nor did he concentrate on gore. (Such tactics were absolutely abhorrent to him.) Sometimes you don't expect it whent the horror kicks you in the teeth.
I defy anyone to find tales more shuddery than "A Haunted Doll's House", "Count Magnus", or "Martin's Close".
LOL.
...or "Oh Whistle My Lad, and I'll Come to You."
Hmmm...that last one sounds familiar, Margery. I foresee a trip to the library in my near future!
And as an Anglo-Saxon scholar of course "Casting the Runes" is one of my faves. It has been done a few times as films; Dana, you must know Night [AKA Curse] of the Demon with Dana Andrews. Cool movie. There were a couple BBC productions as well, and of "Oh Whistle" too.
Kate, I did indeed see that movie years ago, but I don't remember much about it. Time to revisit it!
I must needs be in transit for a bit, so please help yourself to food and beverage! I will be back!
No, no Middlesex by Jeffry Eugenides it's a Whitebread winner. Or Booker. Or Pultizer One of them. Book club title I didn't pick.
Am almost finished work, and have switched to my drink of choice, if you don't mind. Long day, not horrible, just looooooong.
I think I'll skip the book club choice and go for something lighter. Or at least more interesting. Ideas?
Isabel, I would recommend Chocolat by Joanne Harris! It's my...well...er... my bathroom book right now. I've read it several times and always enjoy coming back to it...
Well it is "a fine and private place" so while it's hardly a library reading room, it's more than adequate for the purpose.
In fact, I'd bet sveral of your correspondants (including moi!)have enjoyed this aspect of the much underrated "lavatory".
Or maybe you and I are just plain weird. ;-)
hee hee... I get very stressed if I don't have a book on hand in the bathroom. I've been known to read the ingredients of Comet and Lysol in a pinch!
Btw Dave may have been lucky to be born on the 26th. Some folktales would have it that anyone with the hubris to be born on the Lord's birthday would turn out to be a vampire or werewolf at least. (You were born on Roodmass, which is sort of appropriate for a succubus.)
On the other hand, Dave might just enjoy that kind of paranormal lifestyle.
My bathroom reading has long included The Bhagvad Gita and Autobiography of a Yogi (i.e. for years whenever I have moved, they have always ended up there) as well as Erik Davis' Techgnosis, which is best digested in small bits.
But I love Chocolat too!
On the loo I like silly funny books. We used to have Calvin and Hibbs in the loo when I lived with my dutch friend. Perfect.
Post a Comment