Fun and Games
Filched From Facebook: The Hospital Stay Mega Edition
Having had not too many better things to do with my time while laid up in a hospital bed than surf social media recently, I’ve compiled a minor collection of memes … I’m not going to overload this feed by posting them one at a time, but here’s a selection of some of what came […]
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Peace
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Task 1: What’s your favorite symbol of peace? The dove and the olive branch. Task 2: Have you got a spot, or a place, where you feel most at peace? Tell us about it (we promise, we won’t crash your paradise). These days, my apartment. I’ve had various […]
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Holiday Spirituality
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Task 1: Are there any places or events that are particularly spiritually meaningful to you this time of year? Share a picture or description with us. There are, and it’s put a damper on my Christmas not to be able to go there this and last year. Neither my […]
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Plum Pudding, Bibliomancy, Goblins and Other Charms
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Festive Tasks, Door 21: Good Luck Charms and Traditions Another multi-page post (as before, one page per task). Task 1: If you decorate for the holidays, when do you start putting up the decorations? When do you take them down? Are there any superstitions that you are aware of […]
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Festive Tasks: Travel
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Task 1: If you could go anywhere in the world, name your top 3 locales, and tell us why if there’s a reason beyond just wanting to go. I suppose if I’m to nail it down to three, it would be (in no particular order) Machu Picchu, An African […]
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Michael Connelly: The Dark Hours
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Festive Tasks, Door 3 — Light(s): Read a book with the sun, or festive lights on the cover, or a book that’s set somewhere sunny. Connelly’s (to date) most recent book of the Harry Bosch universe takes us back almost exactly a year, to NYE and early January […]
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Ngaio Marsh: Off With His Head (Death of a Fool)
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Festive Tasks, Door 19 — Community Traditions & Folklore: Read a fairy tale, or folklore story, or books based on either. Marsh’s third (de facto) holiday mystery, though not exactly set on Christmas but on and around Winter Solstice — because here her focus is on creating (with […]
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Holiday Music
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Festive Tasks, Door 8 Another multi-page post; as before, one page per task. Task 1: What’s your favorite type of music to listen to during the festive season? Rock? Classical? Opera? Country? Definitely classical. I have Classic FM playing in the background pretty much all year around anyway (when […]
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Personal Holiday Traditions
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Festive Tasks, Door 23 Task 1: How do you get through the festive season? Do you throw yourself in whole hog, are you happy to go with the flow, or do you hunker down and wait for it all to be over? Are you a traditionalist, or do you […]
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Holiday Movies
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Festive Tasks, Door 24 — Cherished Memories, Task 4: What’s your favorite Christmas/holiday movie that you can watch again and again? (This can be any movie that takes place during the holiday season, whether or not it’s in the ‘spirit’ of the season (i.e. Die Hard or Lethal Weapon). […]
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Holiday Lights
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Festive Tasks, Door 3 — Light(s), Task 2: Share some photos of your favorite light display, if you have them, or if you have a neighbor who goes ‘all out’, snap a photo to share. Our neighborhood is not an ostentatious one when it comes to Christmas light displays […]
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Two Christmas Mystery Short Story Anthologies
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Festive Tasks, Door 21 — Good Luck Charms and Traditions: Read a book from the fantasy genre, or one with something on the cover that refers to “luck”. Festive Tasks, Door 24 — Cherished Memories: Read a book with a split timeline, one that takes place in the present […]
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Martha Grimes: Jerusalem Inn
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Festive Tasks, Door 13 — Holiday Shopping: Read a book about someone who works retail, or that has a retail establishment on the cover (shop, café etc). Of all the early Richard Jury books by Martha Grimes, this is probably my favorite — not only because it’s got, […]
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Amy Pershing: An Eggnog to Die For
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Festive Tasks, Door 17 — Food & Drink: Read a book about food, or where the main character is a chef, gourmand, or bartender, brewer or distiller. Sigh. I think it’s fair to say at this point that food-related cozy mysteries aren’t necessary my kind of thing, at […]
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Jason Goodwin: The Janissary Tree
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Festive Tasks, Door 18 — Spiritual Practice or Religious Observance: Read a book with a split timeline — one that takes place in the present and one that takes place in the past — or a book where people from different ends of the spiritual spectrum (believers / nonbelievers, […]
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Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Festive Tasks, Door 20 — Travel: Read a book that involves the main character travelling, or a story involving pilgrims on a journey of faith, be it personal, or religious. (For example: Eat, Pray, Love would be about a woman on a journey of self realisation.) The Appointment […]
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Ngaio Marsh: Death and the Dancing Footman
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Festive Tasks, Door 15 — Correspondence: Read a book that includes a billionaire, a villain, or some other character who is especially smug or pretentious. This isn’t strictly a Christmas mystery — the holiday never gets an express mention — but it has all the trappings of a […]
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Ngaio Marsh: Tied Up in Tinsel
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Festive Tasks, Door 22 — Iconic Figures: To celebrate Santa Claus: read a book that qualifies as a comfort read for you. In a year of revisiting the better part of Marsh’s canon, what book could possibly qualify better as a comfort read? Seeing as this year might […]
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Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Festive Tasks, Door 16 — Charity: Read “A Christmas Carol,” or read a book in which poverty or hardship are significant plot elements. This is one of my annual Christmas rereads; one of the books I’ll never get tired of — in addition to listening to the audiobook […]
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Anthony Berkeley: The Wintringham Mystery
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Festive Tasks, Door 23 — Personal Traditions: Read a book that involves big changes for the main character. This is relatively early book by Berkeley based on a premise that, if I hadn’t found it in a novel actually published in the interwar era, I’d have declared flat-out […]
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