Tag Archives: books

Caffeinated Links: The Factors for a Happy Relationship, 55 TV Premieres and Finales, more

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The official Tumblr fandom flag. I recognize Sherlock and Doctor Who of course looming large, and I’d assume offhand that the triangle thing in the upper right is Supernatural? Either way, good stuff.

TVLine has 55 TV Premieres and Finales in February.

The ultimate guidelines to a happy relationship, according to science. Most of them are useless. The Atlantic

Incandenza over at Pajiba’s Cannonball Read gives a fantastic review, pondering fantasy as a genere, of Patrick Rothfuss’ Name of the Wind, one of the best fantasy books I’ve read in my all too-short lifetime.

Grantland as usual wrote a long and wonderful review, of which these parts are my favorite –

“It’s partly that Beyoncé is just better than Magna Carta, obviously. But it’s also partly about the fact that she’s 32 and he’s 44 and suddenly that gap seems salient. Motherhood as a human hasn’t made Beyoncé the pop star seem all that momlike, but Jay suddenly seems totally dadlike. Works for a corporation, wears a suit, makes a lot of dumb jokes, tries to seem hip by talking about Homeland. His verse doesn’t ruin “Drunk in Love,” but the other night at a party I heard a DJ start the song there, without playing the first three minutes, and I wanted to throw things at him. You’d have to be crazy to think that’s the best part of the song. When Jay walked onto Beyoncé’s stage last night he looked like he’d somehow lucked into taking her to the prom. I love how he walks her down the stairs from the top level of the stage, holding her hand in that almost courtly way, and how the minute they hit the second riser, right when he’s saying “I’m Ike,” she lets go of his hand and just keeps going. She does a little catwalk, lets Jay kind of point at her butt and make a Not bad, eh? face — and then the instant his verse is over, she’s back in control of the whole scene. Jay’s once again just lucky to be up there reflecting her swag, doing that adorable little back-to-back surfboard dance. I loved the surfboard-dance part so much I wish it was a physical place, so I could build a church there and renew my wedding vows inside it. It was A Moment. One the show still cut away from, so we could see how much Taylor Swift was enjoying it.”

“Buckingham and Reznor made perfect sense. They share a passion for innovative recording techniques and writing hot, angry songs about witchy women.”

on Taylor Swift –

“Can’t a girl thrash at a piano like she’s been ravished by the muse/dance in the audience like everybody’s watching/awkwardly configure and reconfigure her hands to a hip-hop beat without having her every awards-show move scrutinized like the Zapruder GIFs? Sure, she’s been lyrically careless with the hearts of the people who have been careless with hers, and yes, she seems painfully aware that the camera’s dead, unblinking gaze is always trained on her, and, uh-huh, she does that thing where she pretends that every new accolade is as unexpected as being named grand marshal of the Three-Legged Rainbow Unicorn Parade when she knows she’s got so many gold statuettes at home she had to build a museum on the back acres of her Dream Garden. ..

And Taylor Swift, god love her, has already entered the Tori Amos–serious artiste stage of her career, where the only special effect needed is integrity. Taylor, your songs about Jake Gyllenhaal are great, but you are 24 years old. Bring back the hobos.”

Caffeinated Links: Atwood and Nesbø Retell Shakespeare, Blistering Book Reviews, Men Get Dumber When Women Watch

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Carolyn McCulley, one of my favorite authors, has a new book on success coming out RT

“The Norwegian thriller writer Jo Nesbø will write a retelling of Macbeth for the Hogarth Shakespeare series, according to a press release from the publisher. Nesbø is quoted in the release saying, “Macbeth is a story that is close to my heart because it tackles topics I’ve been dealing with since I started writing. A main character who has the moral code and the corrupted mind, the personal strength and the emotional weakness, the ambition and the doubts to go either way. A thriller about the struggle for power, set both in a gloomy, stormy crime noir-like setting and in a dark, paranoid human mind. No, it does not feel too far from home.” Hogarth has enlisted authors including Jeanette Winterson, who will retell The Winter’s Tale, and Margaret Atwood, who will retell The Tempest, for its series launching in 2016, the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.” RT

There is NOTHING I love more than a blistering book review

“On reflection, it might be quicker to list everyone Raphael loves, a roll-call that begins with R for Raphael and ends, a little abruptly, with R for Raphael” (nominated for Omnivore’s annual Hatchet Job awarding well-written critical/negative reviews) RT

The Atlantic putting the Academy Award noms with their customary succinct accuracy  –

“Finally, there’s Her, my choice for the best film of the year. It made out okay, with nominations for picture, screenplay, score, production design, and even a surprise nomination for “The Moon Song.” As much as I would’ve liked to see Scarlett Johansson nominated for best actress (or supporting actress, if necessary), that was always going to be a heavy lift given her physical non-presence in the film. But the Academy’s decision to pass on Joaquin Phoenix for actor and Spike Jonze for director—those are not to be forgiven. If one day in the not-so-distant future, our artificially intelligent computers turn out to be ill-tempered, more Skynet than Samantha, they will be able to point to these snubs as a rationale for their distrust—and ultimate eradication—of the human race.” RT

And finally, men get dumber when they think women are watching: “Unfortunately for men, this is a case of negative stereotypes containing a grain of truth. A pair of studies showed that when men were simply told that a female observer would be watching them perform a cognitive test, they performed less well, while women showed no difference regardless of the gender of their observer. Whether this is due to societal pressure for men to impress women, or a biological condition was not established.”  RT

AwesomeBox: Hobbit Sculpture and Princess Leia

This thehobbitpapersculpture(via)

and also, this

bts princess leia(via)

Quotidian

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Pride and Prejudice Pulp Fiction

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(RT)

Quotidian: Drink Coffee Be Happy

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Top 5 Websites

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Unfiltered 

1. Tumblr. Look. I get all my geek girl and fangirl cravings satisfied by Tumblr and then some. There’s a reason it’s seen an absolutely explosive amount of growth since it started. If you’re not on Tumblr, you don’t get it. If you are, you do. The corner I inhabit is a big ginormous world of people who love the Awesome, in this case the Awesome mostly being television and the occasional minor sci fi or fantasy flick like Star Trek or Lord of the Rings. In particular, we really really really love Friends, Doctor Who, and Jennifer Lawrence. There are GIFs, hilarity, quotes, trailers, news galore. And somehow it manages to be small enough that there’s a real sense of community, and large enough to take anyone who wants to in in a warm, slightly smelly, huge hug of fellowship and fandom.

2. The Atlantic. And now for something entirely different. When I’m not inhabiting my fangirl side and going mad for the latest Sherlock GIF, I get most of my world and health and some of my entertainment news from The Atlantic. The journalism is crisp, wide-ranging, often brilliant, and long-form without being overwhelming Wall Street Journal length. And unlike The New York Times, it’s free.

3. Buzzfeed. Buzzfeed is a time-warp that sucks in All The Things on the Internet. It is a glorious morass of time-wasting, informative, funny/sad/terrible/romantic/pointless, pop-culture-and-everything-else content. It is beautiful and terrible. It has lists to end all lists. That is all.

4. Lifehacker. Lifehacker is my baby. Lifehacker tells me how to live well, what not to buy, and provides hundreds of deliciously informative articles which I read, remember 0.5% of, bookmark and never look at it again. It is one of my life goals to write for Lifehacker.

5. GoodreadsLittle known fact: I once interned for Goodreads. And they are as awesome behind the scenes as they are, well, in front of them. Regardless, Goodreads is the perfect website for organizing, rating, and tracking the books you read – which for OCD bibliophiles like me, is perfect. I also get a fair number of book recommendations there from other readers. These days, I  probably visit Goodreads every other day.

And there you have it! Inside me is a fangirl, a bibliophile, a life-betterer, and a pseudo-intellectual.

Books

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Fault in Our Stars Art

I don’t know where it’s from but this Fault in Our Stars book art is lovely.

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Books

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