Added to Wishlist

1. Orange Horses – Maeve Kelly.  A collection of short stories focusing on women.
2. Memoirs of a Spacewoman – Naomi Mitchison.  I came across this when I was putting together my Scottish Sci-Fi Authors post, and I’ve been itching to read it ever since.
3. The Long Way Back – Margot Bennett.  Another book I came across thanks to Sci-Fi Month.  The mix of colonialism and sci-fi in this has so much potential.
4. Gloriana, or The Revolution of 1900 – Florence Dixie.  A feminist utopian novel published in 1890 <3  Happily it’s available for free here and here (both sites are packed full of interesting titles, by the way).

 

1. Mongrels – Stephen Graham Jones.  A werewolf story by a Native American author.
2. The Professor in Erin – Lily McManus.  An Irish alternate history novel published in 1918 (I’m all about the vintage reads today!).
3. A Girl Called Owl – Amy Wilson.  The combination of the cover and the tag line on this is enough to grab my attention.

 

Articles of Note

• Maud Gonne in France.  I wish this article was… I don’t want to say better written, but… differently written, because I’m absolutely fascinated by the time Maud Gonne spent in France, and would love to read a book about it.  Something about this, written by the author of the book, has put me off though 🙁
• Scotland Could Offer Northern Irish Women Access to Free Abortions.  Gaun yersel, Nicola Sturgeon!  Seriously though, I really hope this happens because Northern Irish women are being denied rights afforded to their fellow UK citizens which is not okay.
• Alternate History Books by Women.  An excellent list which led me to Uchronia: The Alternate History Website.

 

Bookmarked Recipes

• Holly Jolly Jello Shots.  I’m thinking of doing these for dessert on Christmas day (this is my first year cooking a Christmas dinner!), but I’m not sure.  Thoughts?
• Five Christmas Bakes From the Inventor of the Cronut.  Luxury, luxury, everywhere!
• Honeycomb Crunchie Cake.  Jane’s cakes always looks so easy to make and so delicious.  I can’t wait to give this one a go.
• Blackberry and Lemon Gin and Tonic.  This is so simple and yet I never would have thought of it.
• Candy Cane Cocktail with Homemade Candy Cane Infused Vodka.  Yaaasss!!
• Triple Threat Peppermint Brownie Bits.  These look ridiculous.  In a good way.
• Candy Cane Fudge.  I feel like the crush candy cane might be to sharp/hard in fudge, but I’m so tempted to make this anyway.

 

Watching (Spoilers for Grey’s Anatomy and Project Runway)

I sprained a ligament in my foot last week, about fifteen seconds after leaving work, so I’ve spent a lot of this week lying down, trying to keep it elevated (so hard!).  I’ve done some online stuff, including most of my Christmas shopping.  I’ve been planning the things I’m going to bake for people for Christmas, and putting together my Christmas dinner plan (as previously mentioned, this will be my first time cooking Christmas dinner so it’s exciting!).  I’ve also been catching up with various television programmes.

First up was Grey’s Anatomy.  I’m such a sucker for Grey’s.  I know I should abandon it, but I can’t!  I’m actually really enjoying the relationship between Meredith and Riggs, but hating the over-the-top ‘DON’T LIE TO ME AGAIN’ storyline between Meredith and Maggie.  The Alex storyline has been dealt with really well, and that cliffhanger – argh!  The thing that’s really pissed me off, though is what they’ve done with Hunt and Amelia (sidenote: props to Kevin McKidd for featuring an Iain Banks book).  Amelia realising that she doesn’t actually want to have kids is such an important storyline, but Hunt. Doesn’t. Deserve. This.  He’s gone through a version of this, and I don’t want to watch him do it again.  I thought it was hilarious though that he completely forgot the fiancee he abandoned without any kind of word when he was trying to assure Riggs that he wasn’t a good guy.

I’ve also made it half way through the second season of Dark Matter and I’m liking it so far.  I wasn’t sure where they were going to go after the end of season one, but I think they’ve handled it well.  More Nyx please, is really my only proper comment so far.

And then there’s Project Runway.  As I’ve previously discussed, I love Project Runway to a possibly unhealthy level, so I was delighted to realise the new season had started and I had ten whole episodes to catch up on.  That delight increased when I saw that Dexter from Styled to Rock was in it.  What the flip is with Erin’s designs though?  The judges love her and everything she does is so… boxy.  You can get away with that to a point, but some of her looks are dreadful.  Like this one, that the judges loved but which looks like something a little girl would design.  Seriously, I feel like she only got away with it because of the fabric.  That ruffle gives me nightmares, guys.  Also, her embellishment is painfully unsubtle to me, which is maybe the point, but not something I enjoy.

Finally, I watched Virago: Changing the World One Page at a Time, which was amazing and depressing and inspirational and just brilliant.  And I’m not saying it’s on YouTube, for those of you outside the UK (it’s on the BBC iPlayer for those of you in the UK), but it totally is.  After watching it I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t own nearly enough Virago titles.