Added to Wishlist

1. A Galaxy of Her Own: Amazing Stories of Women in Space – Libby Jackson.  Ladies in space!
2. The Blythes are Quoted – L.M. Montgomery.  I didn’t even realise this book existed until recently.  I also really want to read the unabridged Rilla of Ingleside from the same publishing series because, dude, why did no one mention Rilla was abridged before??
3. Abounding Might – Melissa McShane.  I loved the first book in this series but still haven’t gotten around to the second.  Despite this, it somehow makes sense to add the third to my wishlist.
4. An Enchantment of Ravens – Margaret Rogerson.  I’m completely sold on this cover.  The story sounds decent too 😉

1. Witchmark – C.L. Polk.  This is pushing my literary buttons left, right and centre.
2. Unbury Carol – Josh Malerman.  A hopeless cover but that’s not going to stop me from snapping up a new novel by Josh Malerman.
3. Children of Blood and Bone – Tomi Adeyemi.  THAT.  COVER.  THOUGH.
4. Dread Nation – Justina Ireland.  If this lives up to its potential, it’s going to be awesome.

1. The Dead House – Dawn Kurtagich.  Psychological shenanigans/horror, FTW!
2. Bloody Rose – Nicholas Eames.  This is part two of a series, but I’m so much more into the summary of this one than the first.  It’s like Rat Queens, but hopefully without a creative team that takes a softly, softly approach to wife beaters.
3. Above the Timberline – Gregory Manchess.  I have a thing for snowy novels and this looks like a particularly beautiful effort.
4. The Gilda Stories – Jewelle L. Gomez.  I’ve been a fan of the vampire novel since my teens so I’m not sure how I went this long without hearing about this lesbian classic (does it count if a book calls itself a classic?).

1. The Death and Life of Schneider Wrack – Nate Crowley.  Well, ‘A hilarious, thrilling, violent and weird ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ for the 21st Century’ is a bold statement.
2. Contagion – Eric Bowman.  Classic survival horror/sci-fi set-up and there can never be too many of them <3
3. Paris Adrift – E.J. Swift.  There’s a time portal in the keg room.  Because of course there is!
4. Apocalypse Nyx – Kameron Hurley.  I’m always on board with a protagonist whose go-to solution is punching people in the face.

1. Thin Air – Richard Morgan.  There’s no UK cover yet but Richard Morgan has a new sci-fi novel coming out!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2. Goblin – Ever Dundas.  I have a feeling this is a book that I’ll either love or hate, but it won the Saltire Society Literary Award for First Book of the Year this year so I live in hope.
3. Literary Wonderlands: A Journey Through the Greatest Fictional Worlds Ever Created – Laura Miller (ed.).  I hope this is as pretty as it looks.

Articles of Note

• Channel 4 Asked Some Average Brits to Guess Where the Northern Irish Border Is and the Results Were Ridiculous.  And then my head exploded.  But hey, we got out revenge in an RTE News Follow Up.
• People are Losing it Over This UK MP Getting So Many Facts About Ireland Wrong On Sky News Last Night.  The ignorance Britain often aims at Ireland is annoying as shit.  Learn which part belongs to you and have the decency to know some basic things about the part that doesn’t.  Stop conflating England, Britain and the UK.  Stop with the paternalistic colonial bullshit.  Just, stop.
• Johnny Depp Should Not Be In the Harry Potter Franchise.  Yup.  J.K. Rowling’s position on this is not cool.  David Yates’ position on this is super not cool.  Oh, and hey, here’s something that makes the whole thing worse.
• 10 Classic Reads for the Christmas Season.  How interesting that they’ve listed The Woman in White.  Which I have not read… (to be fair, I’ve only read two books from this list so I’m behind all around).
• 13 Truly Incredible Lines from the New Fifty Shades Book.  Why are these still being published??
• Great Comics by #ActualAsianComicWriters.   Cause it turns out that Marvel’s new editor-in-chief spent several years pretending to be Asian so he could write about ninjas.  Rage.  On a happier note, how good does Kingsway West look?
• The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2017.  As always, I’ve read exactly zero of these.
• Twitter Shares Tales of Badass Women from History.  I want to read biographies of all of them right now.  Here’s an article on some of the Irish examples that have been brought up <3
• Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek Movie Seems Like a Go.  No thanks.  Look, the comments about ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise’ give me hope, but can Tarantino make a film with optimism at its core?  Because, and I think people have been forgetting this a lot, Star Trek is fundamentally about optimism.  Deep Space Nine gave us a great version of how to take Star Trek and filter it through a dark lense, but do I really need the type of violence and dialogue that’s typical of Tarantino attached to Star Trek?  No, I don’t think I do…
• Women Have Been Banned from Facebook for Calling Men ‘Scum’.  WTF?  Why are white men a protected group on Facebook?  I’m not generally into calling people scum, but, like, disproportionate and nonsensical and, seriously, WTF????
• 11 Sci-Fi Books to Binge While You Wait for Star Wars: The Last Jedi.  Because there can never be too much sci-fi in your life.
• 16 Woman Scientists You Should Know.  So much to inspire, so much to exasperate.
• James Franco in Talks to Join Fox’s X-Men Universe with ‘Multiple Man’ Movie.  Hmmm…. I love Multiple Man and I’m definitely into him getting his own movie, but James Franco?  Reserving judgement on this, but hoping it follows one of Peter David’s X-Factor Investigations storylines.
• 12 Literary Cocktails to Pair with Classic Reads.  In my head, I am absolutely the type of person to loll about with a cocktail reading classic novels.  In reality, not so much, but I can dream.
• Nine Festive Films to Watch if You F***ing Hate Christmas.  To be fair, most of them work if you love Christmas, which I absolutely do!

Bookmarked Recipes

• Beer and Butter Chicken.  Um, yes please.
• Caramelised Onion Dip.  This is one of those recipes that I didn’t know I need in my life until I saw it.
• Homemade Apple Pie Vodka.  Would it be wrong if all gifts I gave in the future were just flavoured alcohols I’d made?
• Prosciutto-Wrapped Pork with Apple and Rice Stuffing.  I’m close to weeping looking at the image in this post.
• Gingerbread Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting.  If I hadn’t already told my Mum I’d make a Black Forest Gateaux for Christmas, I would definitely be making this.
• Fudge: Gin and Tonic, Gingerbread Swirl, Mincemeat Clotted Cream, Spiced Rum, Cranberry Orange White Chocolate, Snickerdoodle.  It’s been a few years since I made fudge for everyone for Christmas, so I’m thinking it’s time to whip some up again.  I don’t really know what a snickerdoodle is, but that’s not going to stop me from making a fudge version.
• Chocolate-Coated Cherry Cookies.  I can’t decide if these are going to be delicious or awful.
• Bacon Meatballs with Bucatini.  I can’t tell you how many meatball recipes I’ve tried in a seemingly never-ending quest to find homemade meatballs that I actually like, so fingers crossed for this recipe.  They’ve got bacon in, which has to be a good sign.
• Christmas Tree Cookie Pops.  So cute!
• Spiced Pineapple Rum Toddies.  Definitely making these in January.  It’s happening.  There will be no escape for the pineapple.  Or the rum.