Congrats to Nancy, who won Blood in the Water (An Act of Piracy #1) (2nd ed) by Tami Veldura! Tami is releasing Blood in the Water today.

Congrats to Kate, who won Holding the Edge (Cold War #2) by Keira Andrews!

Bookity

• New releases: Fiction Vixen (UF/romance)
• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.
• On adding fanfic to Goodreads. Discussion of that post. More discussion of that post.
• Fanfic and Goodreads page at the Fanlore wiki. (via Dreamer)
• Dear Author wonders what being a “good” reader means.
• Tolkien explained in four minutes.
• Neil Gaiman reads A Christmas Carol.
• Jane Austen spoilers. (via urrone)

Think, Do, Learn, Make

• About the NHL Mumps Outbreak. The NHL Mumps Song. The NHL Mumps Map. Sidney Crosby with the mumps, My Little Pony style.
• Why peanut butter is so sticky.
• What I’ve always suspected about the gym…
• Photos of the Panama Canal lock gates being installed.
• The Colbert Report set is on Street View.
• mental_floss shares their favorite scientific study titles from 2014.
• “2014’s top moments in Play-Doh form“.
• What if all the rivers the US were instantly frozen in the middle of summer?

Even MORE Gift Guides

• “For the lumbersexual outdoorsman“.
• For outdoorspeople.
• For “fledgling cryptozoologists”.
• For space fans.
• For dogs and their people.
• For the child-at-heart.
• For coffee addicts.
• For kids who cook.
• Food gifts that travel well.
• “DIY kits for the hands-on chef“.
• DIY tools and maker kits.
• Budget gifts that aren’t obviously inexpensive.
• Handmade gifts.
• Smart Bitches: Part V.
• Gizmodo’s guide to all their gift guides.

Cookity

• Chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies.
• Chocolate chip cookie bark.
• Candy cane cookies.
• Cthulumas cookies. (via maderr)
• Sugar cookie cake.
• Peppermint red velvet cake roll.
• N0-bake five-ingredient bon bons.
• 15 breakfast recipes.
• Smoky creamed kale.
• Butternut squash and sausage lasagna.
• Chickpea stew with spinach and sausage. (via The Kitchn)
• Nutella hot chocolate.

Gluten Free

• Chocolate cheesecake cookies.
• Candy cane sugar cookies.
• Gingersnaps.
• Chocolate cake mix.
• Rum cake.

Crafty

• Knit a cowl.
• Knit a holiday ornament.
• Knit a pocket gnome. (via CRAFT)
• Knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

• Blank action figures you can customize.
• Nobel physicist snowflake patterns. (via mental_floss)
• Star Wars snowflake patterns. (via The Mary Sue)
• Frozen snowflake patterns.
• Star Wars-themed holiday light show.
• NASA’s All About That Space parody.
• Cat-mas tree.
• Short films about a snow-loving dog, a house seeking freedom, a bad roommate, and “relationship problems and interdimensional physics“.
• Linkity from kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

• Mondrian sticky notes.
• Mirrored tea cups.
• Menoraurus Rex. (via Tor.com)
• Spacesuit-inspired jacket.

Wha…?

• The Snuggie is back.
• Creepy Santa Claus bread.

LOL

• Cake Wrecks is doing a “best of” the wrecks series: ugliest wedding wrecks, mean-but-funny, apologies, unintentionally erotic…
• Sir Ian McLellan and Cookie Monster.
• The Hobbit mashed up with The Office.
• Never look in someone else’s Documents folder. (Hover cursor/long-press for additional text.)
• US weather.
• Map of the introvert’s heart.

Teh Cute

• Baby bat-eared foxes! Dibblers! Baby otter!

Reading Update
The Magicians (The Magicians #1) by Lev Grossman. DNF at 65-70%. Pretentious. Feels like Harry Potter and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe crossover fanfic. I hate everyone in the book and can’t be bothered to pick it up again.

“No, no, nothing’s wrong. Why do you ask?” -Mayhem, whose superpower is looking pathetic – she makes the vet feel guilty for just entering the exam room!

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Congrats to Irene, who won Fire and Water by Andrew Grey! Fire and Water will be released by Dreamspinner Press on December 15.

Bookity

• New releases: Fiction Vixen (UF/romance) and AAR (romance)
• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.
• “Our bankrupt critical culture”.
• Is there a romance subgenre you think needs more books?
• Scifi/fantasy books by women of color. (via ofgeography)

And More Gift Guides…

• Smart Bitches: Part 4.
• The Mary Sue: Geek chic.
• Travel tools and organizers.
• Office organization.
• Home organization.
• Life-improving books.
• Not-too-expensive kitchen luxuries.
• For “budding chefs”.
• For music geeks.
• For those into science. Even more science gift ideas.
• A list of The Kitchn’s holiday gift guides.
• Ideas for knitted gifts.

Think, Do, Learn, Make

• 15 things you might not have known about The Matrix.
• Time lapse of the International Space Station being assembled.
• History of space travel via art.
• Free online access to Albert Einstein documents.
• There’s a cat cafe opening in New York, and it’s taking reservations.
• “The soaring US outbreak of vaccine-preventable disease, visualized“.

Cookity

• Elvis chocolate bark.
• Cookie butter.
• Pumpkin pie cookies.
• Eggnog marshmallows.
• 10 recipes using eggnog.
• Giant jelly donut cake for Hanukkah.
• Spaghetti squash latkes.
• Harvest salad with delicata squash and kale. (via The Kitchn)
• Salty maple squash with ginger scallion rice and turmeric Brussels slaw. (via The Kitchn)
• Roasted delicata squash, cauliflower, and chickpea curry. (via The Kitchn)
• Kale gratin.
• Avocado puff tart.
• Tom kha gai.
• Fresh cranberry scones.
• Gingerbread granola. (via The Kitchn)
• 10 recipes for Brussels sprouts.

Gluten Free

• Peanut butter banana cookies.
• 5 shortbread variations.
• 3 easy fudge variations.

Crafty

• Smart Bitches lacy cowl.
• Make your own Chuthumas tentacle wreath. (via Tor.com)
• Knitterly links from kmkat.

Cool

• Hand-knitted stop motion video.
• 35 space movies mashed into one video.
• Trailer for The Little Prince.
• Snowshoe snow art. (via mental_floss)
• Four-ton Rube Goldberg machine built by National Geographic.
• The Science Love Song”.
• Battle of Hoth in LEGO.
• Linkity from kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

• Cookie cutter for making wee gingerbread houses.
• Lawn dice.
• Rent an ugly holiday sweater. Or buy one from the ugly Christmas-sweater only thrift store.

Wha…?

• “Tweed jacket imbued with the scent of whiskey“.
• Beard baubles. (via mental_floss)
• Vomiting Santa sweater.
• Roaring Wookiee diary.
• We all knew there would be casualties from the TGIFriday’s mistletoe drone, right?

LOL

• Real-life autocorrect/typo.
• The importance of wording.
• “The forbidden Top Gun trailer“.
• Cake Wrecks that leave me wondering if the bakers/decorators even tried.

Teh Cute

• Black kitties who need homes! Baby tigers! Penguins and baby! Cuddly kitties! Baby porcupine! Baby lion! Lioness and baby!

Reading Update
Hockey Prospectus 2013-2014 by Timo Seppa, Ryan Schwepfinger, and Jesse Spector. Ok preview of the 2013-2014 NHL season, with a detailed section on each team. Probably most useful for serious hockey number crunchers or for those with a fantasy hockey team.
What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe. Delightful, humorous, and thought-provoking read in which Munroe answers a wide array of “what if…?” questions sent to him by blog readers and proves, yet again, that science can be fun. Now, if only Munroe would write a high school physics textbook…

“It is good to be free of the cone.” -Chaos (His cornea is completely healed!)

*creepin’ in the background* -Mayhem

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Congrats to tea58, who won Baited by Tami Veldura! Tami will release Baited today.

Congrats to Jess1, who won The Fifth Son (2nd ed) by Blaine D Arden! The Fifth Son will be released by Cayendi Press today.

Congrats to Sally, who won Stardust by Andrew Grey! Stardust will be available as part of the Dreamspinner Press holiday collection Celebrate! on December 1.

Randonymity

• Briefish linkity today because of my holiday weekend.

Bookity

• New releases: Fiction Vixen (UF/romance) and Tor.com (genre-benders, scifi, fantasy)
• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.
• Smart Bitches on ritual repeats – the books/movies/etc that you like to periodically re-experience.
• Dear Author on romance and emotional justice.
• Jurassic Jane Eyre.

Gift Guides

• Smart Bitches Gift Guide: Games.
• For aspiring scientists.
• Tech gifts.
• Consumer Reports (interactive).

Think, Make, Do, Learn

• What an astronaut’s Thanksgiving dinner looked like.
• “Why don’t’ woodpeckers get brain damage?“
• I gave up eating sprouts a few years ago when I noticed they kept reappearing in food recalls/food poisonings…
• What’s the longest train journey in the world?
• “21 rhetorical devices explained“.

Cookity

• Pumpkin maple coffee cake.
• Gingerbread cake.
• 5 turkey soups.
• Roasted potato breakfast nachos. (via The Kitchn)

Gluten Free

• *groan*
• Easy stovetop mac and cheese.
• Stuffed soft pretzel bites.
• Coconut cream pie.
• Apple crumble pie.

Crafty

• Knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

• Treehouses you can stay in. (via mental_floss)
• Two hours of deleted scenes from the original Star Wars trilogy.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation blooper reel.
• Making a sword… out of a nail.
• Planetary glasses.
• LEGO Guardian Building (Detroit).
• LEGO Birds set.
• Ravens.
• Linkity from kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

• Jacket that transforms into a neck pillow.
• One-button hashtag key.
• Millenium Falcon rug.

Wha…?

• Ornament shot glasses.
• Chewbacca rug. (via The Mary Sue)
• Odor-eating toilet seat.
• British bus that runs on food waste and human feces.
• Keyboard-shaped waffle maker.
• Oreo biscuits from Church’s Chicken. (via The Kitchn)

LOL

• 25 Thanksgiving autocorrects.
• Turkeys that don’t look like turkeys from Cake Wrecks. (nsfw?)
• Seriously.
• Naughty but cute kitty.

Teh Cute

• Baby penguins! Baby lions! Red panda! Baby cougar!

Reading Update
Casino Infernale (Secret Histories #7) by Simon R Green. Another ok addition to this series. Once again, only Eddie can save the family Drood and the world, blah blah blah.

“I disapprove of this bear and of the coworkers who sent it to you with all of those terrifying ‘Get Well Soon’ balloons.” -Mayhem

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Congrats to Melandra, who won Out of Time by Clare London!

Congrats to Ardent Ereader, who won Making It Pay by JL Merrow!

Randonymity

• I spent Wednesday evening in the emergency room with what they initially thought were kidney stones, but which turned out to be a ruptured hemorrhagic ovarian cyst. Yay, painkillers!

Contest(s)

• Blodeuedd’s giving away winner’s choice of one of any of the first nine books in Gini Koch’s Alien/Katherine “Kitty” Katt series, signed and personalized. Ends November 30.

Bookity

• New releases: Fiction Vixen (UF/romance)
• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.
• “Gauging other romance readers“.
• 10 famous authors’ houses.
• Smart Bitches holiday gift guide, part 1.

Do, Make, Think, Learn

• Learn a bit more about lake-effect snow. Time-lapse of Buffalo’s lake-effect snow in action.
• 12 tips for staying warm in the winter.
• Would Mattel have apologized if they hadn’t been publicly shamed online?
• Make some golden snitch ornaments.
• How well would a laser umbrella work?
• Trans-fat might be bad for memory.
• Impending worldwide chocolate shortage?!?
• “Farewell, enforcers: A eulogy for an NHL institution” and “Why the Connor McDavid fighting debate matters“.
• 17 old proverbs.

Cookity

• Polenta with Swiss chard and white beans.
• Southwestern butternut squash soup.
• Pumpkin pie smoothie.
• Pumpkin chocolate chip streusel cake. (via blue–spruce)
• Deep dish pumpkin meringue pie.
• 13 vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes.

Gluten Free

• Red velvet cake.
• Butternut pecan scones.
• Pumpkin butter cake.
• Easy pie crust and bourbon pumpkin pie.
• 12 gluten-free Thanksgiving recipes.
• Garlic pizza bread sticks.

Crafty

• The Smart Bitches two-hour scarf (knitting or crochet).
• Knitting linkity from kmkat.
• Cheryl put together a flowchart for automating yarn reviews.

Cool

• Nifty umbrella innovation.
• Starry Night from falling dominoes.
• Oil paintings of New York at night, animated.
• Video of the earth from space.
• Mulder and Scully to be available from Funko Pop!
• Linkity from kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

• Half teapot.
• Han Solo in carbonite shower curtain.

Wha…?

• “‘4D’ broadcasts will let hockey fans feel every hit from their couch“.
• Mistletoe drones in a British TGIFriday’s.
• Miniskirt that will display your tweets.
• Christmas-themed jellybeans and Christmas candy corn.
• Bubblegum-flavored broccoli.
• Bubble wrap glasses.
• “[American Hockey League] team VP has in-game prostate exam for men’s health awareness“.

LOL

• 10 text fails with bosses.
• 5 funny product reviews at Amazon.
• Complicated clothing care. (via urrone)

Teh Cute

• Baby buffalo! Cats sleeping in IKEA doll beds! Kittens! Lion and babies! Baby red pandas! Greater Malaysian Chevrotrain and baby! Lioness and babies!

Reading Update
All Clear (All Clear #2) by Connie Willis. No reviewette I write can possibly do this book (or really, the single book composed of Blackout and All Clear) justice. Amazing. Epic. Subtlety of detail that had me paging back to confirm something hinted. Love. Loss. Loyalty. Uncertainty. Hope. Humor. Tragedy. The triumph of the human spirit. Connie Willis has outdone herself with this amazing tale of time travel so deeply rooted in place. Her Hugo and Nebula awards for Blackout/All Clear bring her lifetime totals to eleven Hugos and seven Nebulas. Make sure you have both books on hand and clear your schedule for a few days…
Fire Watch by Connie Willis. Pretty good short that introduced us to the time-traveling historians of Oxford. When comparing this to Blackout/All Clear, you can really see how much Willis has honed her craft over the years.
To Say Nothing of the Dog, or How We Found the Bishop’s Bird Stump at Last by Connie Willis. Delightfully excellent romp through 1888 and 1940 with the time-traveling historians of Oxford. If you’re reading it for the first time, don’t be concerned when you have absolutely no idea what’s going on for the first quarter of the book. You’re in the narrator’s headspace and he has no idea, either.
For Heaven’s Eyes Only (Secret Histories #5) by Simon R Green. Ok continuation of this James Bond-inspired paranormal series. Yet another cliffhanger. Don’t be surprised when I suddenly stop reading the series, even if I have the next book on hand. Cliffies really piss me off.
Live and Let Drood (Secret Histories #6) by Simon R Green. Another ok continuation of this paranormal series. At least it wasn’t a cliffie!

“…zzzzzzzzzzzz…” -Chaos

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Randonymity

• Finished a Christmas gift:

• If you’ve ever wondered how hockey shapes players’ bodies, this will show you. *ahem*
• NSFW photo flashback to a 2009 snow sculpture…
• Random thought from me.

Bookity

• New releases: Fiction Vixen (UF/romance)
• Book and publishing news from Dear Author.
• Book linkity from Smart Bitches.
• On breaking up with an author you used to love.
• Vacuous Minx with “RT 2015: The romance-industrial complex at work”.
• On Kurt Vonnegut. Kurt Vonnegut quotes.
• LEGO The Hobbit in 72 seconds.
• Word counts of the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter books, to help you evaluate how long a fanfic really is.
• Texts from Jane Eyre?! (And that’s a contest that goes until noon ET, November 14.)

Think, Make, Learn, Do

• The comet landing as you’ve not seen it before.
• Best travel mug.
• Tips from an architect on building a pillow fort.
• “Double spacing after a period could reveal your age“.
• Canadian Arctic Archipelago – that’s a whole lotta island names.
• 8 things that aren’t quite cats.
• 52 myths/misconceptions, debunked.
• The year’s worst toys.
• Kids confused by a film camera.

Cookity

• 15 quick & easy vegetarian dinners.
• 10 Thanksgiving vegetarian main dishes.
• Chickpea bolognese.
• French green lentil stew.
• Korean tacos.
• Pork stew with white beans and butternut squash.
• Roasted butternut squash salad with sriracha lime dressing. (via The Kitchn)
• 15 hearty slow cooker meals.
• Caramel apple rolls. (via The Kitchn)
• Pumpkin pie pancakes.
• Cranberry ginger upside-down cake.
• Cranberry Newton bars.
• Maple pecan bars.
• Pumpkin slab pie.
• 10 fall pies.

Gluten Free

• Skillet lasagna.
• Bread stuffing.
• “5 gluten-free alternatives to bread stuffing for Thanksgiving“.
• Apple pie in a bag.
• Pumpkin pie with praline and coconut-pecan crust.
• Pumpkin chiffon cake.
• Tips for baking gluten-free cakes.

Crafty

• Knitting linkity from kmkat.

Cool

• Very sweet commercial about a boy and his penguin. There’s an accompanying knit kit. (via knittyBlog)
• Earth from the ISS.
• 27 geeky scarves. (via The Mary Sue) I can’t believe they skipped the double-knit Star Wars scarf and the DNA scarf.
• Calvin and Hobbes in LEGO.
• LEGO particle accelerator.
• Photo from the 1940 Armistice Day Blizzard in Minneapolis.
• Video of a road trip from NY to LA.
• Yes, this.
• Linkity from kmkat.

Cool or Wha…?

• Firefly Clue and Serenity Yahtzee.
• Hovering Tetris tower game.
• Space Invaders-themed mug.
• Creepy LEGO scenes. (via mental_floss)
• Portable turntable.
• 11 extreme toasters.

Wha…?

• How can you remake Being John Malkovich without John Malkovich?!
• Pizza Hut has a lot of new options. Consumerist tries 21 variations.
• Oreo churros.
• Doritos-flavored Mountain Dew. Stephen Colbert discusses the product.
• One-pint ice cream scoop.
• Peanut butter turned into diamond.
• Pepperoni pizza sheets. (via The Mary Sue)
• Bubble wrap suit.

LOL

• Editing fail in a peer-reviewed journal.
• Cake Wrecks on Sesame Street.
• A new Simon’s Cat!
• …I bet it is.

Teh Cute

• Black kitten! Black kitten! Margay and baby! Red panda and baby! Kitten! Kitten! Baby sea otter! Tiger and baby!

Reading Update
The Spy Who Haunted Me (Secret Histories #3) by Simon R Green. Ok paranormal thriller in which Eddie is teamed up with five other agents, who must work together and compete against each other to solve five great mysteries. The best part of this was Walker from the Nightside being one of the agents.
From Hell with Love (Secret Histories #4) by Simon R Green. Ok continuation of this paranormal thriller series. I would’ve been severely annoyed about the cliffhanger ending if I hadn’t had the next book on hand.
Blackout (All Clear #1) by Connie Willis. Very good story about the delightful chaotic time traveling historians of Oxford. Of course things go terribly awry. Be warned that this is the first half of a story and things stop at a precarious point, so have All Clear on hand to continue. *hopes that someone returns an ebook copy to my library very, very soon*

“Socks socks socks socks socks!” -Mayhem

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