December Recommendations, part 1

I also did manage to recommend something most days in December for DecRecs over on Mastodon. So I'm bringing that here too!

Dec 1:

Because I finished book #14 last night:

I am so full of love for the Benjamin January series of novels by Barbara Hambly that I want to grab people by their shoulders and yell "READ IT!" into their faces. But I will refrain.

Instead I'll say: it is, ostensibly, a "historical mystery" series, but that undersells it. It uses the experiences of a free man of color in 1830s New Orleans to explore issues of race, gender, class, power, solidarity, & identity.

That makes it sound too heavy-handed, but this is not a preachy series--those ideas are integrated into the stories themselves, driven by the choices the characters make.

So much of the focus is on the ways in which people with differing levels of power & social status both can & can't overcome the chasms between them through the bonds of friendship, respect, & love.

Add into that actually interesting mysteries, a unique setting grounded in meticulous research, & enjoyable prose.

They are the books of my heart!

Dec 2:

Christmas is no longer my holiday, but I am still listening to one Christmasy album, and no surprise that it's Loreena McKennitt. A Midwinter Night's Dream is a perfect album!

Imo, all Christmas albums should contain songs in multiple languages, many songs in minor keys, an a capella wassailing song, and generous use of a hurdy-gurdy. I want to feel like a medieval peasant shivering in the cold when I'm listening to a Christmas album!

Highlights include a danceable Good King Wenceslas, a suitably eerie Coventry Carol, and an absolute banger of a Berber-inspired take on God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen.

Dec 3:

I assume that most of you who are into podcasts already listen to Maintenance Phase but just in case you managed to somehow miss it:

Fat lady about town (her own description) Aubrey Gordon and journalist Michael Hobbes, two of the most delightful people around, do research deep dives into various topics regarding "health and wellness," most in the form of debunking by...actually looking at science!

Whether it's combating fatphobia, telling us the history of the Presidential Fitness Test and the food pyramid, debunking the 10,000 steps myth, or reading diet books from years gone by, they're equal parts fun and informative.

Mike is self-described methodology queen, so there's tons of examinations of the actual studies people cite all the time, and Aubrey brings an essential personal level of insight into the topics.

If podcasts aren't for you, they have transcripts, too!

Dec 4:

My personal favorite YouTube essayist (well, tied with ContraPoints) is Verilybitchie.

They create video essays about pop culture, with a focus on bisexuality, transness, feminism and queerness. Properties they explore include vampires, Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Barbie, Spiderman, Earthsea(!), and Tolkien.

Literally every single one of their videos is worth watching, even when you don't know the fandom they're talking about.

They're so fun and charming and thoughtful and I just love them so much!

Dec 5:

The Whirley Pop

If you, like me, llove to eat stove-popped popcorn but get consistently annoyed at how much of the popcorn either does not pop or burns, you need to buy you a Whirley Pop.

It's a large pot that features a handle that you crank to move the kernels around and coat them evenly with oil, meaning they almost all pop!

I use mine...at least three times a week, because I am a popcorn fiend who likes to eat an enormous bowl of it for dinner.

Dec 7:

Fandom talks a lot about how much they'd like to see more fictional women who are complicated, messy, and even ~bad~. Fandom should watch more movies from the '30s and '40s!

There are a lot of actresses who play those kinds of characters (pick a Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, or Barbara Stanwyck movie and you probably don't go wrong), but today I want to talk about a particular character who is, in some ways, a prototype of the dark female characters that came later.

Leave Her to Heaven is a 1945 film starring Gene Tierney as Ellen Berent, one of the great complicated protagonists(/antagonists?) of cinema. Some people claim this film is noir, but I strongly disagree. Instead, it's a psychological (melo)drama about a manipulative character, and it still hits hard in 2023.

It's also gorgeous to look at, with beautiful settings and costumes in Technicolor and doesn't drag at 110 minutes.

Dec 8:

Today I would like to recommend an artist whose work I have commissioned...the only artist whose work I have commissioned, actually!

#ShelfWornDrawn makes gorgeous art of people's favorite books. You tell him 8-10 books, pick a background color, and he sends you a high-quality print of your very own stack of books!

The spines are all drawn exactly like the spines on a real-life paperback edition of the book, which is delightful.

He also has some other fun prints + stickers for sale, so check him out!

Link 1: my pile of books so you can see what it looks like
Link 2: his Etsy shop
Link 3: his Instagram

Dec 9:

More art!

The artist Elizabeth Wade creates what she calls "story maps"--watercolor works that celebrate the physical landscapes of beloved works of fiction.

I own the Anne of Green Gables one but there are also maps of the Hundred Acre Wood, Neverland, Narnia, Middle-Earth, The Secret Garden, Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, Nancy Drew, Little House on the Prairie, Bible stories, Charlotte's Web, Mary Poppins, the Wizard of Oz, Star Wars, and MORE.

You can buy prints in different sizes or note cards, tea towels, and stickers.

I just think they're neat!

Dec 10:

My #DecRecs rec for today: a perfect movie for the holiday season.

The Shop Around the Corner is the movie that You've Got Mail was based on, so you already know its plot. Except that it's Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullavan instead of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan and it's set in Budapest during the Christmas season instead of New York.

And frankly I think it's a better movie than You've Got Mail, but that could just be me being biased.

It's just delightful and the highlight of Margaret Sullavan's short career and Jimmy Stewart is one of the great loves of my life.

If you're in the US and have cable (I don't, but some of you might!) Turner Classic Movies always plays it a handful of times during the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Dec 11:

I'm going to be totally and completely petty and take advantage of the fact that plagiarism is the current topic of conversation in fandom and recommend a great work of fannish history:

The Cassandra Claire Plagiarism Debacle

Written in 2006 by white_serpent in the bad_penny community on journalfen (which was a journaling community where a lot of people fled after various strikethrough incidents on livejournal).

It's an incredibly well-researched look into a notorious early aughts fannish incident involving someone who later became a successful, best-selling author. And it is fascinating!

And a bonus recommendation: donate to the Internet Archive/Wayback Machine! They're the only ones keeping our fannish history accessible on the internet!!!!