Category: tv

more book recs and some pop culture babble

Ok, we are in the crunch period to the Royal Wedding Shenanigans (someone in my twitter feed shared the news that Eugenie & her dude have moved into another one of the cottages at KP, which makes everyone neighbors), the boys are making me crazy, and I need to go review some API doc with several non-native English speakers, so here, have the thing that has been keeping me sane recently some more Modern Royals recs:

A Princess In Theory, Alyssa Cole, might have the Best Premise Ever: Our Heroine, a grad student/former foster child on a shoestring budget, keeps getting these irritating emails about how she’s the Betrothed of the Crown Prince of Thesolo in Africa. Our Naledi, being a smart girl, ignores the spam. Except… it’s not spam. 😀 So, yeah, super-fun premise; super-gorgeous cover; fun, mostly fluffy, plot, seasoned judiciously with a little reality, angst and villains, requisite HEA ending. Prince Thabiso is a little oblivious to his privilege but not outrageously so; his right-hand-woman is awesomely cool (I hope she gets a sequel); and Naledi, the heroine, is a little vulnerable under her strength. All very good stuff with maybe a little bit of a rushed ending, but still, super-fun to read.

Royally Matched, Emma Chase, sequel to Royally Screwed, which I also liked, though I will say, the men of this family (the hero is RS’s hero’s brother) are about as far down the jackass line as I want to go. They (mostly) make up for it and get better, so there’s that.

The Princess Trap, Talia Hibbert – I feel like this one should come with content warning for abusive relationships, because, holy crap, does the prince in question come from one seriously bad, bad, bad family situation. He’s mostly still a functioning adult, but he comes with a lot of baggage and ends up dragging the heroine into it all. She’s pretty awesome, though. There should probably also be a smut warning, because there’s lots of (well-written and just a little on the kinky side) sex.

Royals, Rachel Hawkins, is out today and I am waiting for the d/l from the library, but I’m giving it a shout-out because RH’s #sexyhistory twitter threads have kept me going on more than one long, gray Tuesday. I’m waiting patiently for the whole War of the Roses thread, which will probably take weeks and weeks. (Today’s thread seems to be Queens Mary and Anne and their less than heteronormative emotional lives and the tangles in which Srs Historians tangle themselves to not admit said less-than-heteronormativity.)

Previous list here

And finally, a podcast: When Meghan Met Harry, which has been updating weekly since the beginning of the year, covering every wedding rumor, related event, and marginal possibility. If you only want to listen a little, grab last week’s ep with Tan from the new Queer Eye as special guest.

And speaking of, I am loving the new incarnation of Queer Eye, especially since they’re running around the ATL, *double* especially when they take their fabulous selves out into the wilds of OTP (Outside the Perimeter, aka, Red Country.) I don’t think there’s been an episode yet where I haven’t cried.

Also. Holy sh*t, I had ZERO inclination to see Venom, and the first teaser trailer did nothing for me, but then the second trailer dropped and TH (IN WELL-FITTING JEANS) came striding onto my youtube with his whole face visible (and scruffy, killmenow) and this is clearly a lost cause.

Alsoalso, I was going to write up my reactions to Infinity War, but I think they can be summed up as… (definitely spoilers) …

Continue reading more book recs and some pop culture babble

still moving on

I’m missing Mom today… I would have loved to have watched Jesus Christ Superstar with her over the phone last night. She’d have probably read through the first act, but she’d have been so there for Superstar (and Alice/King Herod!) She loved John Legend — there couldn’t have been many 80 year old, Italian Catholic widows who could have said that, but she was so excited when he won the Oscar.

I always have to remind myself that she fought a long time and went very peacefully in the end, but of course I ended up calling and sniffling/crying in my brother’s ear. For being a grumpy engineering/construction estimator (aka, more fond of numbers than feeeeelings), he took it pretty well, I thought (ie, he didn’t hang up on me.)

Other things happening…

We had a giant Indian street food luncheon at the office last week. I brought baked ziti, for the people who don’t do Indian. I mention this only because I got asked for the recipe from three different Indian engineers, so I thought I’d post it here, as well: The Food Lab’s No-Boil Baked Ziti. I’ll note that I used 2 jars of Paul Newman’s Tomato & Basil sauce + a small can of whole tomatoes that I squished into the pot to make the sauce. I’m not opposed to making sauce from scratch, but not when I’m starting the process at 5:30 a.m.

It’s a new quarter, so I’m starting a fresh page in my semi-bullet journal, copying over all the not-done items and seeing what else there is to deal with. My fun goal is to update my modern-day royal romance rec list in time for The Wedding. (Someone else might as well get something out of this thing I have for Harry & Meghan.) The non-fun, but still mandatory goal is to get the damn taxes done without an extension. I might even go wild and sort out my shoes so I can find pairs that are not boots since the weather might stop teasing and actually keep the spring-type options going. (My sympathies to everyone who woke up to snow this morning. I remember those days, when I had to wear boots and an overcoat with my frilly (mom-selected, but that goes without saying, right?) Easter dresses. This is why I put up with sugar in my iced tea now, jsyk.)