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Without a Summer by Mary Robinette Kowal

We go hard

 

Monday night was a birthday continuation! We went to the Nets game at the new Barclays Center. And there was good sports and even better food to be had and I did my best to learn players' names. I had a beer! I got a team T-shirt! But then in the morning I read this article which made me feel like a BAD PERSON for having had fun and taken part in Brooklynsploitation.

"A Brand Called Brooklyn" by Norman Oder

But I think we'll go back.

My next book club pick, A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. Trying out some nonfiction. I need to pick this up this week once I finish reading Fingersmith (which I think would have been a great book club pick because in my head when I'm reading, I'm thinking "Holy eff guess what just happened!").


I've been trying to be a good citizen of my neighborhood, supporting the small businesses etc., by buying my books at The Community Bookstore.

O happy day

things that are great: corn dogs

Some occasions just call for fancy. Homemade, for the Super Bowl, using this nifty contraption.

Wouldn't you know this company also sells a pigs-in-a-blanket maker and a mini-donut maker?

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Available Dark by Elizabeth Hand

I learned a new word today: galeophobia!

Today's installment of "I learned a new word" comes from a personal place:


I have a huge fear of sharks, to the point where I was actually scared to google this word (I had my cursor poised over a new tab on my screen) for fear that a picture might actually come up. That would be really cruel of google.

I learned this from my daily Mediabistro email in a story about how the Shark Week App is the #1 thing this week or something. The above definition is from MedicineNet.com, but the word does not appear in Merriam-Webster, and dictionary.com is telling me that "galeophobia" means "fear of cats" (I do not have that fear! Kitty love!) so who knows if this is true. I'm shocked I've never heard the technical name of my suffering before.

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So Damn Lucky by Deborah Coonts

playing house

A long-held desire of mine has been to live in a place for long enough to warrant buying a pretty personalized address stamp like this one from Felt & Wire. Ah, dreams.

Nerd Shopping Spree

I got a little bit of a promotion at work today and on my lunch break proceeded to go on a nerd's version of a shopping spree to celebrate. I bought some tiny unnecessary gadgets at the Container Store and then went over to Paper Presentation on 18th Street, which is the greatest stationery store in New York City (and is quite possibly my favorite store, period). Behold, the wall of fancy pens!



This wall just makes me so happy. Their selection is a pen nerd's dream, because not only do they have the pen brand you like, but they have it in every color and weight, too. I spent $20 on pens. Including a splurge on not one but TWO silver metallic Sharpies (one for work and one for home). Because life is better when you have the perfect pen, right? Am I the only one still holding on to old favorite pens even though they have run out of ink? For sentimental purposes?



Next I went to B&N where I purchased two FULL-PRICED books, a thing I never do (hello, library, swap.com, used book stores, working at a publishing company and borrowing). I bought A Visit from the Goon Squad and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, both of which I will attempt to squish into my suitcase for vacation next week.

Freelancing

Action shot! Here I am freelancing.

40 Love by Madeleine Wickham

These are real.

Here are some other slightly terrifying Tor covers for books I've worked on. God love 'em.



This original cover of Man Plus is from 1986, and we redesigned and reissued it with this new cover.

But this is new! From 2010! Iorich by Steven Brust.

Forerunner

I'm working on a redesign of this book from the early '80s called Forerunner, and oh my does it have the most fanfrickintastic psychedelic, slightly creepy illustrations.

summer reading

Beach vacation is happening in two and a half weeks, and I'm thinking of tackling one loooong book...

Freedom
by Jonathan Franzen
(576 pages)

Until I Find You
by John Irving
(848 pages)

The Pillars of the Earth
by Ken Follett
(973 pages)

i heart brooklyn

Okay, I know I don't live there anymore, but the longer I live on the Upper East Side, the more I am looking forward to moving back to BROOKLYN in a year or so. Last weekend I went to the tantalizing mecca of handmade craftiness that is known as the annual Renegade Craft Fair in Williamsburg (where I got my much-loved scissors necklace two years ago). I bought this uber-Brooklyny print of an illustration by Claudia Pearson, whom you can find on Etsy here. She's British, but she loves Brooklyn, too! (SO MANY THINGS I LIKE.) It's a charming little row of brownstones, aka my dream home, and it's titled "Houses All in a Row." I can't wait to frame it and hang it on my wall...in Brooklyn.

Time needs wasting?

Awesome tumblrs (aka awesome at-work time-sucker-awayrs):

My Daguerreotype Boyfriend

Writers and Kitties

Currently freelancing

The Kosher Carnivore by June Hersh

Midnight in Paris in Clothes

Midnight in Paris is a fun, funny movie that will make you want to visit Paris, and if you are like me, it will make you covet the clothes Rachel McAdams's character, Inez, wears in the film. Nevermind that Inez is a shallow bitch! The cute dresses! Those wedges! That covetable watch and blush-pink purse! I was more focused on that.

Currently freelancing

After an amazing five whole days of no freelance work...

Past Continuous by K. Ryer Breese

Currently freelancing

Killer Elite by Michael Smith

Get-It-Done Guy's 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More by Stever Robbins

I know, "Stever"?