Okay, so by my clock it's very nearly Valentine's Day, and I've gotten so much love from my flist through the years that I thought it would be fun to share that by playing a few games.
The first (the serious one): spread your love! Rec something - fannish or not - that you think other people you know might enjoy! I'll go first, with one from each column.
Non-fannishly, I'm reccing ALL THE BOOKS by Frances Hardinge, an English author who I think deserves to be a household name. Her books tend to have fairly young tween and teen protagonists, and so there isn't a lot of romance or sex. What the books do have is a multicultural, political intelligence, and the worlds she draws are fascinating and complex - places you want to explore for far longer than the books take to read, though the books are rewardingly long. I especially loved the two-book series (possibly more!) Fly By Night and Fly Trap (Twilight Robbery in the UK) and the stand-alone book The Lost Conspiracy (Gullstruck Island in the UK). I'm saving her most recently published book, Face Like Glass, as a treat for myself.
Fannishly, have you SEEN this vid that posits that Mr. Collins is superfly? If you're anything like me, you will be incoherently giggling for hours after watching this.
And the second one (the not-so-serious one): tell us a story about the worst or silliest romantic (or attempted romantic) moment you've had! Brace yourself my story. About a year ago, I was in a chain takeout place, waiting for the guy at the pasta bar to finish making my lunch. As I'm standing there, and he's mixing peas, mushrooms, and onions into my penne with red sauce, he looks up at me and says, "You have bedroom eyes." Which I wasn't expecting, and it's a little inappropriate, but still a manageable encounter. And then he says, "Bedroom eyes, just like my mom." WHAT? I thanked him for the pasta and left, vowing never to return.
So, come on - share your recs and stories, and let's all have a great time sharing some love!
This same entry also appears on Dreamwidth, at http://innie-darling.dreamwidth.org/438254.html.
They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose . . .
Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is. | Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living. | A Love Story for this generation, Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common—a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart?
That doesn't sound nearly as awesome as the book really was. Or for a YA pick, the last book I read in 2013 got 5 stars in goodreads from me: Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher.
Silliest romantic moment? When I was in high school I was active in the chess club (dweeb! I know!) and went to a chess tournament at the Science Museum. In between matches, one of the other competitors invited me to wander around the museum with him and I agreed. It wasn't very crowded, and before long he drew me into a deserted corner and... kissed me! Well! That was unexpected! (I was probably 15?)
Aww, and that's a very sweet story, a nice one to share!
One of my colleagues who does divorces got a separation agreement today by fax. The subject line on the cover sheet was "Happy Valentine's Day."
(I did witness a very sweet moment, though. I stopped to let a late-teenaged m/f couple cross the street. We're covered in slush and epic puddles, and the girl was clearly trying to figure out how to get across the puddle in the dark without either soaking herself or hazarding a jump. The boy crossed it first, then got a foot in the snow bank and carefully helped her across. Then they walked across the street, holding hands.)
I'm so bemused by the way people handle divorces. There was a place near my grad school that offered drive-through divorces. I don't know if they have a Valentine's Day special, though!
Aww, that's sweet. It's nice to know romance is alive!
(Editing this to change the icon to a more appropriate one...)
Edited at 2014-02-16 10:50 am (UTC)
Speaking of comedy sketches, do you have/have you entered the drawing for tickets to the last Cabin Pressure recording?
I can't wait to see how John F is going to wrap this up, even as I don't want to hear the last episode because then that will mean that it's Well And Truly Over :(