Afternoon Tea (7/2/19)

Why Are the Democrats’ Bad Men Refusing to Step Down?

No Drips, No Drops: A City Of 10 Million Is Running Out Of Water

“Everyone uses Ravelry”: why a popular knitting website’s anti-Trump stance is so significant

Interesting commentary on the industry here: Netflix canceled One Day at a Time. Then a traditional TV network resurrected it.

Australian Gothic Literature

Afternoon Tea (1/30/19)

This is FASCINATING: The Hunt for Planet Nine

Ted Bundy Wasn't Special Or Smart. He Was Just White.

This is really interesting, about what Hitchcock learned from Du Maurier: The Peril of Marriage

5 New or Upcoming MG Novels Starring LGBTQ Kids

Queen Emma: wife of two kings, mother of two more

Morning Coffee (11/16/18)

FRIDAY HAPPY LINKS!

National Book Award winners!

The Dumplin' trailer looks great!

Aaaah: Lily James, Armie Hammer to Star in Daphne du Maurier Adaptation ‘Rebecca’

So cute: The British Royals Released New Family Pics

Well, this is exciting casting: J.K. Simmons Joins 'Veronica Mars' Revival

You have my attention: Jonny Lee Miller & Common To Star In Ursula K. Le Guin Adaptation ‘Nine Lives’

This is cool as art but also sort of upsets me as a person who likes order: This artist uses jigsaw puzzles, with the same die cut pattern, to make these terrific mashups

Intriguing: 'Somewhere Only We Know' By Maurene Goo Is Basically 'Roman Holiday' With A K-Pop Twist & You Can Start Reading Now

18 Thanksgiving Pie Recipes, Because You Gotta Have Pie!

Huh: Coffee or tea? The answer might be in your genes

Afternoon Tea (11/8/18)

The first year every state sent a woman to Congress, in one map

Only We Can Save Us: A Brief History of Jewish Superheroes, Real and Fictional

This ‘Psychological' AI System Mimics Religious Violence to Understand It

My Childhood as an International Cheese Smuggler

8 Modern Gothic Mysteries to Read Now

Afternoon Tea (3/27/18)

This is so interesting: On the Hunt for the Lost Wonders of Medieval Britain

The Great Norwegian Porridge Debate, Or Tradition Vs. 'Science'

Alive with artisans: Cairo’s al-Darb al-Ahmar district – a photo essay

A few steps (and mis-steps) in the early years of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto.

A Victorian Gothic Reading List

Morning Coffee (4/1/16)

Happy Friday! I am writing this on Wednesday; hopefully by the time you read it I will no longer be traveling but WILL be sleeping, because my flight is supposed to land at 12:37am Friday.

So: Friday happy links. None of these are April Fool's jokes so far as I am aware!

I am SO excited for Star Trek makeup.

!! Found: Two Secret Rooms in King Tut's Tomb

Unicorn fossils!

Ooh fun: The History of Cocktail Menu Design Let's go have cocktails.

Ten Knitting Patterns for Crafty Feminists

Perhaps your Friday could use this Leslie Knope compliment generator.

These stave churches are GORGEOUS.

St. George's Day in Bavaria has everything: Fancy horses! Sword dancing! Armor!

Hubble Photo Shows Galaxies Colliding in the Nightclub of Space

Fascinating: Wealth of Yorkshire: Historic probate records go online

The Strategic Penpals Who Play Chess by Mail

Perfect: Every Time The Narrator Very Nearly Has Tea In Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca

Morning Coffee (3/4/16)

Happy Friday!

It's been QUITE A WEEK, so I'm pretty sure you need shirtless Irish farmers snuggling baby animals. You're welcome.

This piece on what it's like to host a presidential debate has a lot of interesting logistics (my favorite!) and also a very heartwarming Hillary Clinton story.

Go JJ Abrams: "Bad Robot will reportedly work with its agency partner CAA and studios Warner Bros and Paramount to ensure women and minorities are submitted for writing, directing and acting jobs for the company in direct proportion to their representation among the US population."

The Outlander stars are being very pretty for Saks, and I plan to make a friend in New York and/or Los Angeles go take pictures of their Outlander-themed windows for me. (Or I guess they'll probably turn up online.) I LOVE DEPARTMENT STORE WINDOWS.

I'm not even that into video games, but this piece on video game market research was fascinating, if tonally odd - it seemed to spend a lot of time justifying the existence of market research in the first place, and surely that's a no-brainer? Anyway, I enjoy any article about GIANT DATABASES OF MINUTIAE.

Awards show best-dressed list, explained (Brie Larson's dress still looks like a weird optical illusion to me in almost every picture. Help.)

Someone try this and let me know how it is: Amazon Echo Now Lets You Investigate the Murder of Bruce Wayne’s Parents

STRESS-RELIEVING BALLET PUPPIES

Why yes, I do want to read about 16 Perfect Lip Balms. (My current lip balm obsession is Perfectly Posh's Santa Monica Smooth.)

How to Tell If You Are in a Du Maurier Novel: "You have escaped disaster, and things have for the most part ended well, and yet you cannot shake a sense of dread and foreboding.

Someone is crushing your spirit. You try as hard as you can not to inconvenience them while they do it."

Oscar Project 2016: Ex Machina

Movie: Ex Machina

A few minutes into Ex Machina, I suddenly realized - this was not really a science fiction movie. It was a traditional gothic dressed up in the trappings of sci-fi. I don't mean this as a bad thing, at all: if anything, I was more intrigued. Domhnall Gleeson as Jane Eyre to Oscar Isaac's tech genius Rochester? Sign me up. But though this was basically fun to watch, I wound up disappointed as the movie went on: it was well-made but very predictable, it didn't explore any of the philosophical issues it brought up on any but the most surface level, and the ending was unsatisfying (and/but the friend I watched with and I agreed that, the way things were set up, we couldn't come up with an alternate ending that would have satisfied us).

Other points of note:
1. One of the most coincidentally interesting things about the movie was the way the cast was made up of actors from much buzzier current movies (Domhnall Gleeson of Brooklyn and Star Wars and The Revenant, Oscar Isaac of Star Wars, Alicia Vikander of The Danish Girl). It was neat seeing them in these very different roles, and they all did fine jobs with what they were given.
2. I am in no way an expert on A.I., but I know enough about tech in general to often be annoyed by ridiculous portrayals in movies, and this was somewhat less ridiculous than most. I didn't yell at the screen about it, in any case.
3. However, I DID yell at the screen about the terrible sound mixing, and I am certainly not an expert in THAT, so that tells you just how bad it was.

Availability: Streaming on Amazon Prime.

Nominated in:

Visual Effects: While watching, I actually forgot that Alicia Vikander's character was being played by a human woman rather than REALLY A ROBOT so . . . yeah, I guess the effects are awardworthy!

Writing (Original Screenplay): Nope. Reasons above!

Morning Coffee (10/23/15)

Happy Friday!

Me elsewhere: Hey look! I'm really excited about this! I wrote a piece on Salem for the relaunch of Insatiable Booksluts! Also, my recap of last week's Haven, which - I'm really liking this season so far!

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - the stage play in the works - is officially a sequel!

Aaah, new Shameless trailer!

And new X-Files pictures! (I still haven't found a straight answer to whether the premiere title is a deliberate Knausgaard reference, which is apparently what I'm fixated on with this whole thing for some reason.)

I've been trying to figure out whether I could handle seeing Crimson Peak on the big screen - I'm a scaredy-cat - and also wondering if the heroine has any agency, and behold! Deanna Raybourn has answered all my questions, and I shall see the movie this weekend.

Related: Movie Yelling With Nicole and Mallory: Crimson Peak

I concur: Hulu has overtaken Netflix to become the best streaming service.

I don't know much about the publisher but this pun just delights me so: A Side of Relish: Little Pickle Adds YA Imprint

Rufus Sewell as Lord Melbourne? Yes please.

Heh. The Onion: MPAA Adds New Rating To Warn Audiences Of Films Not Based On Existing Works

Important: Craft-Beer Pairings for Halloween Candy (2015 Update)

What I Read: September 2014

(Sorry this is a little late. Reviewing all the new TV shows is eating my brain.)

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: I read this partially because of Frankenstein M.D., and it made me very worried about what's going to happen on the show. But anyway. This was very good, which I expected, but also very different from what I expected, somehow. It's clearly an essential book in a history-of-literature contextual way, but it was also an entertaining and surprisingly quick read. Give it a try, if you haven't!

Out of the Deep I Cry by Julia Spencer-Fleming (Rev. Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne Mysteries #3): This was a strong entry in the series, with a mystery that spanned generations and yet all tied together in a satisfying way. Clare is a compelling, complex main character, and her relationship with Russ is developing in an interesting and somewhat unexpected - if excruciatingly slow - way.

Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery (Emily Byrd Starr #1): An old favorite, reread this month for book club. Still love it!

Conversion by Katherine Howe: This one enthralled me from the start, with its combination of an historical Salem witch trials story and a contemporary mystery involving an outbreak of what seems like hysteria at a girls' prep school. I was slightly surprised to find that I liked the modern sections better - the historical chapters were fine, but I was always eager to get back to the modern story, and I think that's mainly because this was one of the most realistic-feeling portrayals of high school that I've read recently. I was also extremely impressed by both the book's fluency with social media - I don't think I've ever seen the term "subtweet" casually used in a novel before - and its depiction of a New England winter; it got the constant on-and-off of boots and coats exactly right.

The Iron Trial by Cassandra Clare and Holly Black (Magisterium #1): First of a very promising new series. Compelling, diverse characters, interesting magic system, and plenty of plot twists. Plus boarding school! I love boarding school books. Can't wait for the next one.

Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan (The Lynburn Legacy #3): A perfect end to the trilogy. Hilarious, heartbreaking, swoony. I already can't wait to reread them all. I don't want to say anything specific and risk spoiling the earlier books, because I want you all to read them. Start with Unspoken.

(Disclaimer: I know Sarah Rees Brennan, Holly Black, and Cassandra Clare. All books this month were either purchases or from the library.)

Morning Coffee (9/25/14)

My new show reviews continue: NCIS: New Orleans

And here are a few thoughts on the Sleepy Hollow premiere.

I'm very proud of the work my dad has done here: A Refuge and a Resource for Veterans

Here's yet another layer of the Emma Watson photo countdown hoax. None of this actually makes it better.

Nigella Lawson's next cookbook has a chapter called "Bowlfood" so therefore I AM IN.

How Gary Hart’s Downfall Forever Changed American Politics

I like Rebecca WAY more than I like Gone Girl but this was interesting anyway: The Original Gone Girl: On Daphne du Maurier and Her Rebecca

Whoa: Napoléon and Joséphine’s marriage contract sold at auction

Let's Talk About the Books You've Pretended to Read (Confession: I call Jane Austen my favorite author but I haven't read Northanger Abbey and I don't think I've ever finished Mansfield Park.)

Morning Coffee (9/22/14)

Here's my weekly TV news summary.

I don't know how I missed this Into the Woods trailer, but I'm super excited. And there's a creepy poster, too.

I don't always agree with Todd VanDerWerff, but he's always worth a read, and this is a good list of fall shows to watch and avoid.

Vox's Election Forecast hub is shiny.

Geeks have become their own worst enemies

Confession: This is the sort of thing that makes me clutch my pearls.

The New "Werewolf Cat" Highlights The Complicated Ethics of Breeding

Ten Things to Never Say to a Writer

Hee: The Gothic Novel 1790 – 1830: Index to Motifs

Morning Coffee (8/9/13)

Happy Friday!

I (uncharacteristically enough) posted two things after Morning Coffee yesterday, so if you missed them: here's why I liked Broadchurch and here's a rant about Doctor Who and the "fake geek girls" myth.

Sad news: Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Mertz/Barbara Michaels has died. I love her books.

Okay, back to Friday happy. Ooh, Mira Nair's upcoming Bengali Detective sounds fun.

Clarence House now seems to be Instagramming St. James's Palace, which is just delightfully meta.

Curiosity has been on Mars for a year and played "Happy Birthday" to itself. I can't.

Ooh, pretty university libraries.

An early short story by Stieg Larsson is being published, but they rather buried the lede here: the anthology it's in is called A Darker Shade of Sweden, just in case all the rest of those Swedish crime novels are TOO LIGHT AND HAPPY for you.

The Scholastic Book Club is back!

Monaco's having two royal weddings!

Morning Coffee (10/4/12)

No What I Watched today, because What I Watched was just baseball.

Useful single-use website: isitajewishholidaytoday.com

Here's your daily Rebecca update. This is fascinating.

After reading the book and seeing two movies I'm not sure I actually need to read a Girl with the Dragon Tattoo graphic novel, but this sneak peek is intriguing.

Here are all the Cougar Town title cards. Man, I miss this show.

Pop Warner team pays 10-year-olds to hurt other kids. Unfortunately, I can't say I'm surprised.

This take on Mumford & Sons is worth a read.

A Father-Daughter Dance Revives Charges of Discrimination

Here's a fascinating profile of a Spanish man who was identified as a Buddhist lama as a toddler.

First World War soldiers' bodies found in Dolomites

Morning Coffee (10/3/12)

Rebecca on Broadway: Cancelled again. Stop messing with my mind, Mrs. Danvers.

A children's clothing line called Flowers in the Attic? THIS IS SUCH A POOR IDEA.

John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John are releasing a Christmas album. Yes, this seems to be a real thing, and this is INCREDIBLE news.

Which candidate is better for crossword writers?

You know you want to read Glenn Beck's open letter to Matt Bellamy.

Look at these pretty costumes for The Tempest.

The potential winter storms have quite some names this year.

I know this isn't a final cast or anything, but WOW, this Into the Woods screenplay reading. Wow.

Morning Coffee (9/28/12)

Recently at TheTelevixen: I have a feature with Bree Williamson about her new role on Haven (starting tonight!). And I did not like The Neighbors.

This article about a high school female quarterback is pretty heartwarming if you can avoid thinking about how football may be permanently damaging these kids.

They're making a movie of Girls Like Us (about Joni Mitchell/Carly Simon/Carole King)! With Taylor Swift! I... I'm cautiously optimistic.

This liveblog of the Vogue September issue made me actually want to buy it, so there's that. But hmm, is it off newsstands by now? Not sure.

Rebecca update: Things look promising.

June Thomas points out that decent procedurals are actually pretty brilliant.

Is this the real James Bond?

Trailer: Wuthering Heights

I had entirely forgotten this movie was evening happening, and while my Bronte preferences come down on the Jane Eyre side of things (and - confession - I've never actually made it the whole way through Wuthering Heights), I am very interested in the choice to finally use actors of color to play Heathcliff, breaking with the whitewashing tradition of (quite fine! not their fault!) actors like Tom Hardy and Ralph Fiennes and Peter Davison and Laurence Olivier. Brava, Andrea Arnold. Maybe I'll even manage to read the book.

Book Recommendation: Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

One of my favorite books of the year - one of my favorite books in general, really - is finally out today: Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan. I liked it so much that I reviewed it on GoodReads, which is something I basically never do. Here's what I said:

This book was completely delightful. I laughed, I cried, I sent the author irrational emails in the middle of the night calling her horrible names . . . but in a good way! Because she created these characters and made me care about them so much and then messed up their lives in such deviously brilliant, awful, perfect ways . . .

Well, let me back up. In case you have not heard, Unspoken is the first in the Lynburn Legacy series about an awesome girl reporter, her imaginary friend who just might be a real boy, and their friends(...ish), banding together to figure out what they heck is happening in their sleepy little British village and how they and their families are involved in it. There's mystery and suspense and magic and romance and family secrets and friendship and a Gothic manor and creepy woods and a no-nonsense heroine and a hero with All The Feelings and basically everything you could want in a book.

You should read it. You really really should. Yes, you. Want to win a copy? Check out this Tumblr contest. Already bought a copy? Check out this Tumblr contest.

Morning Coffee (3/23/12)

Happy Friday! I had a dream about ordering a really exciting omelet, and then woke up and had no omelet, so I am sad.

Italian town outlaws death. Ha. Speaking of "adorable European laws," there's something going on in England with a pasty tax, and for all I know it could be a really serious issue, but the concept is cracking me up.

More adorable British people: Stephen Fry and Ian McKellan (who are both in the Hobbit movie) are paying the licensing fee so an old pub called The Hobbit can keep its name.

Is TV paying too much attention to fans?

Would you like to see Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean? Of course you would.

I really need to read The Secret History.

YA Rebecca retelling set at a boarding school? Yes, PLEASE.

Speaking of, Sarah Rees Brennan's got another hilarious Gothic retelling.

An adult Tom and Huck with a supernatural element? Um . . . wait, WHAT?

If I were casting a character based on Bill Clinton, Ciaran Hinds would not be my first thought, but I'm still really excited about this.

Book Thoughts: Unspoken & The Thief

Over at my book blog this weekend I have two not-quite-reviews. I ended up loving Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief, but my review is truncated because I don't want to risk ruining the magic of the plot for anyone. And I completely adored Sarah Rees Brennan's Unspoken, but my actual review will be posted closer to the release date in the fall. In the meantime, here are my first, excited thoughts.