Bookity

• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from Inkophile.
• Linkity from the Pen Addict.
• 10 online tools for authors.
• Roald Dahl’s Matilda at 30. (via The Mary Sue)
• Possible secret magical creature heritages of some Harry Potter characters.
• Bookish cross stitch patterns.

Think, Learn, Make, Do

• On doing “something you feel good about doing”.
• Read the whole thing.
• “Discover NASA technology in your life”.
• “All unwanted pregnancies are caused by the irresponsible ejaculations of men.”
• “This app will terrify you into wearing sunscreen”.
• Octopuses on Ecstasy.
• “Obama and Biden had a pact to stay silent on tRUMP, but it didn’t last long“.
• Maybe scientists don’t understand California’s fault lines as well as they thought.
• “Conservatives shook that Willie Nelson isn’t a conservative must have ignored his entire career“. (I mean, he covered “Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other”.)

Cookity

• Easy 5-ingredient black bean veggie burgers.
• Easy chicken potstickers.
• 17 easy veggie sandwiches.
• 10 no-lettuce salads.
• 10 easy vegan lunch box ideas.
• 10 Instant Pot recipes for “lazy cooks”.
• Pesto risotto with shrimp for one.
• Bloody Mary scones.
• Slow cooker pumpkin French toast casserole.
• Salted caramel sugar cookies.

Gluten Free

• Classic cheesecake.
• Chocolate chip monster cookies.

Artsy Crafty

• Linkity from knittyBlog.

Cool

• Tiny gryphons!
• “Street typists around the world“.
• Hannah Gadsby at the Emmys.

Wha…?

• Abandoned presidents’ heads.
• Sexy Handmaid Halloween costume.
• “…Presidential alert system that tRUMP will control.” And where to share your thoughts on this…

LOL

• The fiber arts alignment chart.
• Self care.
• Dragons in chairs.
• Warning: PUNS.
• tRUMPkin.

Teh Cute

• Red panda and baby! Baby red pandas!

Reading Update (Brace yourselves – have I mentioned that I read really, really fast when I’m in a reading mood??! It’s safe to say I was in a reading mood this week.)
The Watercolor Sketchbook Kit by Curtis Tappenden. I only have the book part of the kit ($1.49US at a thrift store), but it was an enjoyable overview of watercolor basics. You’d best look elsewhere if you want something that goes into detail.
Memory Zero, Generation 18, and Penumbra (Spook Squad 1-3) by Keri Arthur. Decent paranormal fantasy trilogy about a police officer who doesn’t remember anything about her life before age 14. Then everything in her life is turned upside down when it suddenly seems as if nearly everyone is out to get her. Delightfully free of sex (but not sexual tension), I wish things had been tied up a little more at the end of the third book. (The books were originally released in 2004/5, then rereleased with new covers a decade later.)
Detective Stories and Cry Wolf (Rivers of London 4-5) by Ben Aaronovitch. Good additions to the series – and I really appreciate the timeline in the back of these that shows you where each of the graphic novels fits with the other books.
Dirty Magic, Cursed Moon, Deadly Spells, and Fire Water (Prospero’s War 1-3, 0.5) by Jaye Wells. Good series about a cop who, as teenager, walked away from her life as the heir to a branch of the magical equivalent of the mob. She’s sworn off magic, but her fellow (non-magical) officers don’t really trust her. And then she gets a chance to work with the MEA – the federal Magical Enforcement Agency.
The Brimstone Deception, The Ghoul Vendetta, and The Myth Manifestation (SPI Files 3-5) by Lisa Shearin. Pretty good paranormal romance series about a Southern seer who works as an agent for Supernatural Protection and Investigation in New York City. Her boss is a vampire, his boss is a dragon, and her wanna be boyfriend is a goblin dark mage.

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“One fish, two fish, red fish, NIP FISH!” -Chaos

Welcome back to Art Journaling Monday! 🙂

• “She could not be reached.“
• Chocolate, art, run.
• Stars.
• Fitzgerald.
• Always summer.
• Circles.
• Backpack, imagination, bad business model.

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“…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Mayhem

Bookity

• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Cover snark from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from the Pen Addict.
• “The Mother of All Squids Builds a Library”.
• “Asimov’s Guide to Shakespeare exists and you need it“.
• Memoirs from former Obama staff members.
• “Reflections on the Typewriter Project“.
• 23 fantasy series for adults.
• 30 things you can make with an old book.
• Bookish tote bags.
• If you’re considering participating in Inktober 2018 and are looking for book-themed prompts, here you go.

Think, Do, Learn, Make

• Maybe it’s just plastic that’s the problem, eh?
• “Jet hand dryers are basically germ cannons, study finds“.
• This would be a most startling thing to haul in when fishing!
• It’s the 25th anniversary of The X-Files.
• “Celebrating the real-world ‘Scully Effect’“.
• “What can we learn from the universe’s baby picture?“
• “What if English were phonetically consistent?” (Could go in humor, too, but hey.)
• On toxic online communities.
• tRUMP tROLL.
• Thank you, President Obama.

Cookity

• 10 chili recipes.
• 10 ways to use a can of white beans for dinner.
• Smashed chickpea salad.
• Cauliflower pizza with lemon-infused tomatoes.
• Breakfast grain bowl mix.
• One-bowl apple bundt cake.
• Convertible chocolate cupcakes.

Gluten Free

• “Fudgy vegan banana-brownie cake you can eat for breakfast“.
• Pumpkin carrot cupcakes.
• Apple cake.
• “Wheat” thins crackers.

Artsy Crafty

• If you cat does poorly with a cone, maybe you need to make them a onesie.
• Linkity from knittyBlog.

Cool

• “Dotted line“.
• Montages from Twin Peaks.
• The Curiosity Rover’s selfie.
• Linkity from kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

• Well, that’s a little disturbing, actually.

Wha…?

• Just say no to roast-beef scented baths.
• Pumpkin spice latte deodorant.
• You can buy a 3-pound bag of cereal marshmallows and skip dealing with any actual cereal (see Lucky Charms).

LOL

• Oh, those darn automatic responses…
• Hmm. Apparently I was too busy reading (see below) to find anything funny this week.

Teh Cute

• Black kitty! Zebra and baby!

Reading Update
Typewriter: A Celebration of the Ultimate Writing Machine by Paul Robert & Peter Weil. Really interesting look at the early days of the typewriter, focusing on the amazing number of typewriter-related patents granted and the equally amazing number of typewriter companies that went bankrupt.
Soft Summer Blood (DI Liam McClusky #4) by Peter Helton. Cranky about how the book ended. And if this is how the series ends… Hmph.
Known Devil (Occult Crimes Unit Investigation #3) by Justin Gustainis. Ok paranormal thriller about a cop and his vampire partner trying to figure out what’s happening with a vampire mobster gang war.
The Eidolon by Libby McGugan. Good scifi suspense about research scientist whose project is suddenly and inexplicably shut down, right before he’s approached by a very mysterious figure with a job offer that seems too good to be true.
The Cracked Spine, Of Books and Bagpipes, A Christmas Tartan, and Lost Books and Old Bones (Scottish Bookshop Mysteries 1, 2, 2.5, & 3) by Paige Shelton. Pretty good mystery series about an American archivist who moves to Edinburgh to work in a very unusual bookstore. I’m having a bit of trouble suspending my disbelief at the amateur sleuth angle in this series and am concerned about spraining an eyeball from all the eye rolling I’ve been doing.

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“I’ve been looking and looking, but I just don’t see this ‘typewriter case’ you keep mentioning, Mom. It’s a mystery, I guess.” -Mayhem

Welcome back to Art Journaling Monday! 🙂

• Stamping.
• Meta season.
• Dog days magic tempest.
• People.
• Enjoy a little sunshine.
• Icarus? Or Crow Girl?
• This is who I am not.

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“Look into my eyes. You are getting sleepy. When I meow, you will unlock the kitty food cupboard and leave its door open.” -Chaos

Bookity

• New releases: Bob Woodward’s book on tRUMP comes out this week. Smart Bitches (romance), Tor.com (genre-benders).
• Linkity from Smart Bitches.
• Linkity from The Pen Addict.
• “Bullet journaling as a fantasy writer“.
• Free Harry Potter coloring pages.
• What people think librarians are about vs what librarians are really about.
• The (humorous) scale of English Romanticism. (“never go full Byron”)

Do, Make, Learn, Think

• I did not know this – Minnesota won’t give Virginia a Confederate flag it wants. 😀
• Meta post about ageism in fandom.
• Before and after photos of President Obama.
• Sounds like things got real at John McCain’s funeral…
• “Does your cat actually hate you?“
• “Nike reveals their ultra-inspiring Colin Kaepernick commercial“.
• You go, Kepler Space Telescope!

Cookity

• 17 one-pot dinners.
• 10 ways to turn a can of chickpeas into dinner.
• Sheet pan veggie frittata.
• Coronation curried chicken salad.
• 5-ingredient lemon bars.
• Chocolate chip cookies with all tahini and no butter.

Gluten Free

• Peanut butter protein cookies.
• On gluten free pancake mixes.

Artsy Crafty

• Linkity from knittyBlog.
• Knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

• Embroidery.
• The Minnesota State Fair Midway.
• A bike I saw in my neighborhood over the weekend.
• A sweet little Harry Potter ficlet. And an amusing Harry Potter ficlet.
• Yes this.
• Linkity from kmkat.

Wha…?

• A very toothy sculpture.
• Creepy old poster for the Minnesota State Fair. (Coulrophobia warning.)
• “Truck full of Axe body spray catches fire“.
• Trader Joe’s has a new talking wine.
• A Tokyo hotel has talking velociraptor bellhops at its front desk.
• :facepalm: (tRUMP warning)

LOL

• What if the singer just kept describing and describing and describing “Jolene” in the song?
• What could go wrong indeed…
• The cat who loved peaches.
• Oh snap!
• Cake Wrecked octopuses.

Teh Cute

• Baby tigers! Baby red pandas!

Reading Update
The Typewriter Revolution: A Typist’s Guide for the 21st Century by Richard Polt. Excellent look at typewriter history, pluses and minuses of various vintage typewriters you might be interested in, and the place of typewriters in today’s world. At times, the revolution/insurgency metaphor was a bit wearying, but it ultimately didn’t detract from how interesting and useful I found this book to be. Be warned, however, that this book might make you crave your own typewriter – I bought two during the two weeks I was reading it…
To Helvetica and Back (Dangerous Type #1) by Paige Shelton. Good cozyish mystery set in a typewriter repair/book restoration/print shop in a fictitious Utah ski town modeled after Park City.
Bookman Dead Style (Dangerous Type #2) by Paige Shelton. Good continuation of this mystery series about a typewriter repair/book restoration/print shop in a fictitious Utah ski town.
Comic Sans Murder (Dangerous Type #3) by Paige Shelton. Another good addition to this series – this is the most recent book in the series. Hopefully it continues for at least a few more books.
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur. I rate poetry based on how much it speaks to me – how much I can relate to it…
Rainstone Fall (Chris Honeysett #3) by Peter Helton. Ok mystery about an artist/private investigator in Bath. I’ve read a lot of mysteries in a very short time and they’re blurring together, but I think this one was first person and I just couldn’t relate to the POV character (even though his name was also Chris, lol).
Falling More Slowly, Four Below, and A Good Way To Go (Detective Inspector Liam McClusky 1-3) by Peter Helton. Pretty good mystery series about a hot mess of a DI who’s new to Bristol. I must say, the author makes Bristol sound like hell on earth. O.O

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“I don’t have any idea what typewriter case you’re talking about, Mom.” -Mayhem