Month: November 2021
A Spontaneous Splurge
My BFF and I only went down to “that store” a couple of weeks ago (see Festive Tasks: Gifts post), but we decided before another wave of restrictions is going to hit in light of the rising infection figures and the new variant, we might as well go back to stock up on essentials. The […]
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Santa Cats
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Task 3: In honor of the depiction of Santa in Australian-style clothing, dress up your dog (or cat), or just use photoshop or another photo editing program, to dress up one of your pets as the Australian version of Santa Paws. Post the picture here – the zanier, the […]
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Margaret Oliphant: The Library Window
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Task 3: “Whenever five or six English-speaking people meet round a fire on Christmas Eve, they start telling each other ghost stories,” humorist Jerome K. Jerome wrote in his 1891 collection, Told After Supper. “Nothing satisfies us on Christmas Eve but to hear each other tell authentic anecdotes about […]
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Festive Tasks: Door 17 – Holiday Food (Tasks 1 – 3)
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE As for the other squares where I’ve completed several tasks in a single post (Gifts, Holiday Shopping, and Correspondence), I’m dividing this into several pages, one per task. Task 1: What’s your favorite seasonal drink? Can be alcoholic or virgin, complicated cocktails, festive punches / noggs or just […]
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THINGS SIMON’S CAT IS THANKFUL FOR (Thanksgiving Collection)
Happy Thanksgiving, Everybody!
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Festive Tasks: Door 3, Task 1 – Here Comes the Sun
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Task 1: How long is the longest day of the year where you live? How long is the shortest? Does your home town/country celebrate the solstice? Bonn does not so much celebrate the solstice as enjoy the longer evenings in summer generally. According to TimeandDate.com and Climate-Data.org, the […]
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Festive Tasks: Door 15 – Correspondence, Tasks 1 – 3
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Same approach as for Like for Doors 7 (Gifts), and 13 (Holiday Shopping): one page per task. Task 1: Do you still send holiday cards? Do you go for amusing, inspirational, or make your own? I used to love sending holiday cards and spent a lot of time […]
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Tessa Gratton: The Queens of Innis Lear
This was supposed to be the BL community’s first buddy read on the new site, but unfortunately it quickly ended up being a DNF for me. Though after nobody else seems to have liked all of the book, either, I at least don’t feel like a spoil-sport anymore. I guess that’s something after all — […]
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Edmund Crispin: Swan Song
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE As part of my Detection Club reading project, I am slowly and intermittently making my way through Edmund Crispin’s Gervase Fen series: not, so far, in publication order, which hasn’t made much of a difference in the books I’ve read to date, though in this particular instance […]
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Festive Tasks: Door 2, Task 1 – The Spirit of Christmas Perpetual
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Task 1: Holiday books often have covers that try to evoke a certain emotion in the reader. Post a picture, or a gallery of pictures, of holiday themed book covers that really appeal to you, and, if you want to, tell us why. A large part of what I […]
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Festive Tasks: Door 5, Task 4 – Charlie, the Gothic Romance Virgin Eater
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Task 4: (Cheeky) If you have a cat (or can borrow one from a friend), take a picture of him/her looking particularly fierce and ready to eat a naughty child. If you really want to go all out, photoshop a giant version of your cat onto a picture, prowling […]
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Nancy Mitford: Wigs on the Green
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE What a great read! It’s easy to see how Nancy Mitford’s witty and merciless skewering of her brother in law Oswald Moseley’s fascist movement (along with the Victorian attitudes of parts of 1930s British aristocracy) would have infuriated parts of her family and driven a lasting wedge between […]
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Festive Tasks: Door 13 – Holiday Shopping
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Like for Door 7 (Gifts), I’m going to divide this post into several pages; one per task. Task 1: What was the best or worst holiday “bargain” you ever indulged in? Did you get a post-holiday steal on something you’ve had your heart set on or really needed? […]
Read MoreA Saturday Afternoon in November
Also, I thought I’d do without getting yet another pair of holiday socks (and slippers) this year, but then they go and tantalize me with owls and kitties …
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Beryl Bainbridge: According to Queeney
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Festive Tasks, Door 7 — Gift Giving & Wrapping: Read a book with a cover that would make beautiful wrapping paper; or read a book that you would have enjoyed giving or receiving as a gift: This is less a fictional biography than a portrait of manners and […]
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Peter Temple: The Broken Shore
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Festive Tasks, Door 1 — Southern Hemisphere: Read a book set in the Southern Hemisphere, or that has a beachy scene on the cover. This is the first book of Peter Temple’s second series, after the Jack Irish books (set in Melbourne); here, featuring a burned-out cop named […]
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Catherine Aird: The Religious Body
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Festive Tasks, Door 11, Family Traditions: Read a family saga, a book about an especially dysfunctional family, or an entry into a series that focuses on one specific community. Huge shout-out to Moonlight Reader for recommending this series — this hit exactly the right spot for me. […]
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Martha Gellhorn: Travels with Myself and Another
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Festive Tasks Door 10 – Peace, Book: Read a book in which the ending of a conflict is a major theme. Gellhorn is a sharp observer and she has a way with words — I’d just wish she’d liked people and, for that matter, the places she […]
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Festive Tasks: Door 12, Task 2 – Snow Covers
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Task 2: Make us a collage or display of your favorite snowy book covers. Prepare to be snowed in …
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Christmas Gift Goodies
Since I just posted my 2021 Holiday Reading List, and seeing as today’s Festive Tasks square reveal is actually for a square called “Holiday Shopping”, CrimeReads’s 2021 Holiday Gift Guide sent me down another few rabbit holes. I happily took the plunge so you won’t have to … (or maybe you will, after all). You’re […]
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