Holiday meme

[jenett]

[snagged from various people: the text before the cut is all standard for this one]

Step One - Make a post (public, friendslocked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The post should contain your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fun ("I'd love a [fandom] icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is to make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.

- If you wish for real possible things, make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you.

- Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ so that the holiday joy will spread.

Step Two - Surf around your friendslist (or friendsfriends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part:

- If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use -- or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free, do it.

You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf -- to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not -- it's your call.

There are no rules with this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. Just... wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive. And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.



1) I'd like a brain that works right. I don't expect any of you can actually help with this, but putting it out into the universe is never bad.

2) Recommendations for nice predictable but amusing comfort reading that does not take much focus.

Things that count that I've been rereading recently: Mercedes Lackey, Dorothy L. Sayers, the Kerry Greenwood Corrina Chapman books, and I snagged a Rhys Bowen series that was fun at the library this weekend. Last weekend included the first three Monica Ferris books. Other stuff I've read that's already on my list for a reread: Other series by the above authors, Alan Gordon's Fool's Guild series, the China Bayles series,

My ideal books for this request
- have an interesting world (either fantasy or historical, or some place that is not my current life. Science fiction would be fine, but tends not to hit my other requirements as easily.)
- be in a series with repeating characters (because since I can't do anything else with my brain, I went through 6 books this weekend. More books are good.)
- have a fairly predictable emotional arc, and not *too* complicated a plot line. (See also: no brain.) Series mysteries are good for this reason.
- does not have a cast of thousands, because my brain isn't tracking that well right now.
- I tend to prefer historicals to contemporaries, but have a particular fondness for contemporary mysteries involving anthropology, museums, fiber arts, or herbs.
- Oddly enough, despite my undergrad training, I tend not to prefer historical mysteries set with religious characters. (There are exceptions, of course.)
- I am mostly not interested in the current round of urban-fantasy-with-vampires-or-werewolves-or-Fae series out there, though I'll consider exceptions if someone makes a plea for them.

3) Experiences:
The exhaustion part makes planning on much sort of hard, since I'm saving my energy mostly for work right now. But I have two weeks off at the end of the month, and intend to remove myself from the house at least occasionally.

So, if you were me, or can stretch your brain to think that way, what would you find soothing and refreshing that might be found in the Twin Cities? I do want to go see the Titanic exhibit at the Science Museum, but I'd like or maybe 2 other days or partial days with something amusing and intriguing. (Given my current issues with internal thermostat control, going to the zoo or anywhere else that involves a lot of outdoor time is probably not a good move right now.)

Budget of about $50, not including the Science Museum bits.

(And if you're local, and any of the suggestions amuses you and you might be free, feel free to say so.)

4) Objects:
I don't need much in the way of physical stuff at the moment, but am always happy for hair sticks suitable for holding up fine hair. (4-5" length tends to work best, 6" is manageable) and for things to put in baths. (Especially since I'm battling a lot of skin dryness.) Recommendations are just as good as the actual object :)

- Strong preference for natural materials, as I'm somewhat reactive to some of the common sufectants (including SLS, and my skin doesn't need help being dry right now). Fantasy Bath is great, for example.

- I prefer berry (or pomegranate), woodsy, or honey and vanilla scents at the moment: very sweet scents (pastry, most chocolate, etc.) don't do well for me right now. Fantasy Bath's Belladonna, Dryad, Persephone, and Currantly Unavailable are good examples of the first two categories.)

- I'd also love recommendations for dealing with very rough skin on the outside of both ankles (an ongoing winter issue for me, but it's starting much earlier than usual.)

I think that will do for now, though I may think of things to add.

Comments

[finch]

despite my undergrad training

What is your undergrad training? History or religion?

As far as feet/ankles, I have pretty rough feet myself, and I tend to go for a few minutes of soak right after a shower, a scrub with a pumice stone, and then a good rub with Lush's Fair Trade. Not cheap but so worth it IMO.

I'll keep thinking about your desire for books and see if anything comes to mind.

[jenett]

My undergrad degrees were music (less relevant here, but focused on theory/composition rather than performance) and Medieval/Renaissance Studies.

[alphaviolet]

I strongly recommend the book Beauty: The New Basics (for the last question).

[eeyorerin]

I have heard that slathering on lotion of any type and then wearing socks all night helps with that sort of thing, but have never tried it. There are an awful lot of "moisturizing socks" out there, though.

[jenett]

I've tried it, and it's not as successful as I'd like. (I also have a horrible time sleeping with socks on: I kick them off an hour or two into sleeping, and then wake up wondering why one foot is warmer than the other.)

[pameladean]

If you haven't tried calendula cream or lotion, I can recommend it for dry skin. It seems to have an actual healing effect rather than just kind of plastering the skin down and making it feel smooth. Jason makes a cream in a jar, and California Baby makes a (terrifically expensive) diaper cream that I used in desperation for a while. There's also a lotion available at co-ops that says something like "First Aid" on it, but I don't recall the brand.

P.

[hexeengel.livejournal.com]

For #2, tiy can check out my current favorite authors list. I own or have access to most of the books listed. Feel free to ask my opinion on any author/series/title.

[hexeengel.livejournal.com]

Umm, that "tiy" was supposed to be "you." That's what I get for typing one-handed while the baby sleeps on me :P

[spratt.livejournal.com]

For the ankle dryness, I might recommend something exfoliating, like apricot scrub or sea salt scrub, before bathing, then using a mildly exfolating soap (something with walnut shells, seeds, or pumice or something), and then following up with a hardcore moisturizer- something with waxes, oils etc. and then wearing socks to keep the moisture in overnight or during the day.

In terms of recommendations- I know you are wanting things natural, so you might be able to create the scrub from scratch, using coarse sea salt, grapeseed oil, and essential oils for fragrance if desired. Here's a recipe I found - http://www.knitlist.com/01gift/sea-salt-body-scrub.htm

My soap supplier makes a good exfoliating soap with pumice and mint, but is out at the moment- I found a link online to some natural ones without SLS- http://www.alpinenaturals.com/exfoliatingsoaps.html

And then for the moisturizer- I like Lush's Lemony Flutter or Glysomed for tough dry spots, but I don't know if their ingredient lists are a bit too long for your tastes. You can always use straight shea butter or cocoa butter. I like something a little bit waxier, but olive oil, grapeseed or other oils should work as well.

It'll take a couple weeks for the skin to fully soften up, and for the dry skin to slough off, but something like this, with additional spot moisturizing on extra dry days, should get it in nice shape. I get hardcore dry skin on my elbows, and have to tend to them once in a while.

[jenett]

I've got a sea salt soap from Chagrin Valley at the moment, but hadn't quite thought about trying it specifically there for longer yet this year. (See the no brain thing.)

[spratt.livejournal.com]

I totally get where you're coming from there. I hope the suggestions you get from this post help!

[brigidsblest.livejournal.com]

For the book recommendations, you might try Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Count St. Germain series. They're historical with mystery and fantasy elements thrown in (I say fantasy only because the main character is a vampire; however, he's not anything like the current crop of urban fantasy vampires). Repeating characters (two to four, depending on which book); there are 27 books in the series (more or less; 3 are a trilogy with one of the side characters, IIRC). Each book has a cast of 2-4 main characters and 4-10 secondary ones.

Here's a list of the books in chronological order by the events in the series (rather than the order they were published in):

http://www.chelseaquinnyarbro.net/biblio_s-g_chron.html

[jenett]

Oh, yes. I've read a couple, but not by any means all of them, and you're right that they'd keep me busy for quite a while.

[northlighthero.livejournal.com]

My all-time favorite author of Historicals is Diana Gabaldon. Her Outlander series has a small continuing cast of characters. She's fun, absorbing, and complex without being difficult reading.

And I've never caught her in an error of historical fact.

One twist; many of her books involve time travel, most often between the Jacobite era of Scottish history and late 20th-C contemporary.

The books tend to be physically large, though; I either get them as books-on-CD from the library or, sometimes, buy a paperback and tear it in half so I can hold up the weight (sigh).

[pameladean]

Books I read when it is too soon to reread Dorothy L. Sayers include Josephine Tey's msyteries -- there are six, I think, with the same detective, and then a couple without him and one where he has a very minor role and you don't see his viewpoint -- and Ngaio Marsh's mysteries. Marsh has some very odd views (so does Tey, but they don't impress themselves upon one in the same way because there are a lot more Marsh books), but her characters are good and some of the books involve the theater; those tend to be the best. Titles on request. I also read Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford books at times like this. The Marsh books can be nasty and violent, by my standards; the Rendell books can be unpredictably creepy and sometimes rather violent as well, but not so much. I don't read a new Rendell in the same spirit as I reread; I have to wear them down a bit before they go into the "reread when overwhelmed" pile.

P.

[jenett]

I like Tey very much (Read her *after* reading Elizabeth Peters on the subject, but the two of them made me a pro-Richardian, in an understated sort of way.)

(One of these days, I really ought to do a poll on "Which of these now somewhat obscure historical issues do you have a burning passion about?")

My father adored Marsh, and I've sort of bounced off him every time I've tried, but it's probably time for another round. And Rendell is a good rec.

(Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels is one of my standard re-reads, but I should probably figure out which of the Amelia books I am missing and replace them before I try to read the series again, and that takes brain. I know I'm missing the first one.)

[pameladean]

Tey made me a pro-Ricardian too, though I was rather dismayed to discover that she pretty much made up her orthodox historical textbook in order to demolish it. I just decide that it's an alternate universe, though, when I reread it. The charm of the discovery is still there, and the characters.

Marsh was a woman, though I often think she didn't like women much. Some of her books are not very interesting -- there's a whole batch about spoiled upperclass people where the whole situation being investigated is boring and her prejudices about class really show, even though she's lampooning the upper classes. She's icky on race, too, in that "this passes for good sense and anti-racism at the time" way that just makes you want to tear out your hair. She' has a lot of fat prejudice, too, though it only comes to the fore in one book.

The first two about Agatha Troy are good, though the murder method in the first is really horrible. And the ones set in New Zealand, where she was from, are mostly pretty good. And, as I said, the theatrical ones. Of the latter, the set Killer Dolphin and Light Thickens, which should be read in that order, are probably the best.

But she might just really not be your cup of tea. Oh, the other thing is that some of them are just amazingly slashy, but I don't know if that is appealing to you or not.

P.

[kyrielle]

For #2:

1) Have you read Dorothy Gilman's Mrs. Pollifax series? Set in our world (kinda), but it's the story of an older woman who applies to the CIA to work as a spy. It's fun, but reading candy.

2) It's a standalone, so violates one of your requirements, but The Color of Distance by Amy Thomson is an incredible book but also an easy read. It's capable of peeling back to be thoughtful but it's also capable of just being fun. (Technically, it has a sequel. The sequel is at best mediocre.)

3) I hesitate, but will mention. I'm biased: the author is a friend. But Seanan McGuire's new Toby Daye series is incredibly good. It is faerie in San Francisco, so - not sure if you want to check it out. If you do, it starts with Rosemary and Rue. Books two and three (A Local Habitation and An Artificial Night) are due out early and late next year, respectively. Having read the final copy of R&R and advance / proofer copies of the other two...they're good. IMO.

[jenett]

I bought Rosemary and Rue for work, but it is regrettably in that "I know this is a good book, but has a cast of thousands that I'm not tracking well" category at the moment.

(I think one of the reasons I'm bouncing off urban fantasy of this particular kind at the moment is that my brain *wants* to deconstruct the underlying mythological influences and can't work up the ability to do so, so I end up frustrated.)

But it's definitely on the reading list again once that stops being an issue.

[aedifica]

(Still had this post open in a tab, cleaning out old tabs, stopped to read new comments before closing this one.)

I second the suggestion of Gilman's Mrs. Pollifax books! And Jenett, if you want to borrow them I have most or maybe all of them.

[erispope.livejournal.com]

Things for dealing with winter dry skin - first of all, go to Home Depot or Loewe's or whatever big box hardware store, and get yourself one of those filter designed to take chlorine out of your shower water. You can also get ones designed to take it out of bath water, either by hanging from the bathtub faucet, or soaking a bit in the bath before you get in it, like a tea bag. It makes such a huge difference. And if you're not already running a humidifier, definitely invest in one.

Books to read - if you haven't started the Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, they should be up your alley. They are not a thrill a minute murder mystery whodunnits, but a quirky and charming little series set in the nation of Botswana. Each one is a very quick, light read, but there are ten in the series, and counting.

[jenett]

I didn't know they came for bathwater! (I only have a bathtub, no shower, though this is not a hardship as it's also a clawfoot bath.)

And I've had a humidifier, but it's been not working as well as it should, so am going to go invest in a new one. (The current one is cold mist, and I think warm mist really makes a difference for me.)

The overall house humidity doesn't seem to be unreasonably low (based on amount of static cat and hair are producing), however - but my skin's dry like it were a lot lower.

[erispope.livejournal.com]

http://www.inspiredliving.com/cuzn-water-filtration/bath-water-filter.htm is one that hangs off the faucet.

http://cusp-natural-products-inc.amazonwebstore.com/Rainshowr-Crystal-Ball-Bath3000-Dechlorinating-Filter/M/B0015TIEEE.htm floats like a tea bag.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Mysteries: Kate Ross (4 books) and Sarah Caudwell (4 books). The Ross are Regency but surprisingly well done, especially the one in Italy, and the Caudwell are Britain in the eighties and not like anything else.

Fantasy: Marion Zimmer Bradley, Darkover. The ideal reading for someone with little brain, this series stretches over many generations, with repeating characters (and repeating families) magic and culture clash. It doesn't matter much what order you read them in. Do not read any post 1990 as they were not written by Bradley and do not have the same compulsive fascination.

[jenett]

I have read most of the Darkover books, but not for ages, and you're right that they'd be an excellent thing for this. The other two are both welcome recs, thanks!

[aedifica]

Jenett, I can also lend you the Kate Ross books and the first two or three Sarah Caudwell ones, if you like.

[jenett]

Sure! Want to bring whatever comes to hand with you on Saturday?

[aedifica]

Is a plan! And I'll bring back your book at the same time--I've forgotten it the last time or two I've been over.

Books

[(Anonymous)]

Two authors I really enjoyed reading are Robert A. Heinlein and Tamora Pierce.

You probably know Heinlein, but if you don't, he was a huge science-fiction writer. His Future History series has character continuation, but each book can be read alone. However, he is a bit dated, as he is dead now and started writing in the 30s, but occasional mentions of using asbestos don't wreck a good story.

Tamora Pierce writes fantasy, though mainly set in a quasi-medieval setting, with a touch of magic etc. Her "Circle of Magic" series I particularly enjoyed - in fact it introduced me to spinning.

However, both of these authors wrote for young adults, so although I fit into that category, they may not be the thing for you.

Re: Books

[jenett]

I have read both of those! I've enjoyed some Heinlein, other bits (while I appreciate them in historical context) rub me wrong, though that's true of many authors.

I was a late discoverer of Tamora Pierce (partly because she started getting well known after I was a young adult, though I do read a fair bit of YA anyway.) I too loved Circle of Magic (it's very easy to sell me on school years + magic books), though I've been saving her others for the next time I really need a big burst of good series all in a row.