For my birthday, I...

[rachelmanija]

...Got up at 6:30 AM. AUGH. (I am doing emergency teenager-sitting for my downstairs neighbor.) Second night in a row of only six hours of sleep, too.

I have to do various work-related things today, including teaching a class. I will have to think of something nice to do to celebrate later. Perhaps a visit to Chantilly lies in my future...

I cannot believe that I am thirty-seven! I keep counting up from 1973 to see if perhaps I am mistaken. I feel about sixteen (all the better to write YA with, my dear,) or maybe thirty at the most. Maybe because sixteen was the point at which I was most certain that I was completely responsible and mature and a real grown-up, and I have never felt that certain since.

For my birthday, please comment with a book recommendation (with reasons why I would like it), description of the most awesomely bad thing you've encountered lately, link to music, photo of a baaaaby animal or cakewreck or exquisite vista, amusing anecdote, or some such pleasant item.

Comments

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

[cofax7]

I'm cheating by using my linkspam: horses in Iceland

Also, did you hear about how Glenn Beck got bumped from his rightful No. 1 slot on Amazon by a bunch of geeks and webcartoonists?

Re: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

[rachelmanija]

Yes (via your linkspam). That was hilarious.

[were_duck]

This creature wishes you a happy birthday and happy halloween if you're into that!

[rachelmanija]

AWWW! Is that a sugar glider?

[tigerflower]

HIPPY POPPY BTHUTHDAY!

This is a video about a baby hummingbird. It's pretty dang adorable: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvrcdQWzH-8

[cynthia1960]

OMG, so cute.

How about some baaaaaby doves?

[cynthia1960]

These baaaby doves were hatched in my backyard a few years back.

[gwyneira]

Happy birthday! Here are the tiger cubs at our local zoo, and it's even Halloween-themed. :)

[umadoshi]

I'm tragically lacking in cute things right now, but I hope you're having an excellent birthday!

[thefourthvine]

You're three weeks older than I am! Which gave me serious pause, because I have been assuming since my birthday last year that I was 38. But because you included my birth year in your post, I did some actual subtraction for apparently the first time in about a year and discovered that I am, in fact, 36, and about to turn 37. I feel like I've entered a time warp - I'm about to turn a year younger than I already was (okay, only in my head, but still). So there's an awesomely bad thing (my memory), and it has a hidden bonus. Over the next year, should you have a crisis of confidence, you can say to yourself, "But at least I KNOW HOW OLD I AM."

And for a book rec - I am a broken record, pretty much, especially with those who read YA. But have you read The True Meaning of Smekday? It is profoundly wonderful - funny, intelligent, incredible. Which is also an excellent description of its main character and narrator.

(Definitely go to Chantilly. There is no better way to celebrate a birthday than with magic in pastry form!)

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

I second the rec for The True Meaning of Smekday, although I would peg it as a step younger than YA (I have no idea what that category is generally called these days). In any case I read it to my son several years ago and we both enjoyed it.

[starlady]

I just got Moto Hagio's A Drunken Dream over ILL, and even if it's not the best manga she ever wrote (being a diachronic collection of shorts, it's definitely not her best), I've heard it's pretty awesome, and the book is really nicely put together.

Happy Birthday!

[minnaway]

Happy birthday!

Music! Have an acoustic version of Mumford and Sons' Sigh No More: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1PpeDRfxp4

[daidoji_gisei]

I would like to gift you with a photograph of the the Nebraska Sandhills, 19,600 square miles of wind-deposited sand dunes that were deposited on top of the world's largest aquifer and promptly nailed into place by native grasses.

[rosefox]

The book I'm recommending to EVERYONE right now is The Heir by Grace Burrowes, but a) it's not out until December and b) I have no idea whether you would like it. But here's my blog post about it, which might at least give you a sense of whether it's likely to be your sort of thing.

In the meantime, have big cats playing with pumpkins.

I hope you have a lovely birthday!

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

That is an especially good rec because I don't read genre romance unless it happens to get recced to me. Thanks!

Also... the tigers! So great!

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday! For your birthday, I recommend The Shadow of the Wind (http://spectralbovine.livejournal.com/219445.html) because I thought you were one of the people who recommended it, but I can't find a review. It is a Dickensian Gothic novel set in Barcelona about a man attempting to track down a mysterious author whose books are being systematically destroyed. There is one specific plot point that made me think of you, but it would be a spoiler. I do think you'd dig it.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Thanks! No, I've never read it, but I adore Gothics.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday!

I'll write up a dreadful book today in honor. :D

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I CANNOT WAIT!

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday! Remember, high tea tomorrow!

I used to have a bulldog, so a friend sent me the following link, in which a male bulldog first meets his puppy. It's funny at first, his body language evocative of 'what's this thing?' but poignant later when he wants to play, has a paw upraised to swat the puppy, then obviously rethinks the swat as maybe not a good idea. I was thinking about all the subtleties there, with respect to what we learned about horses a couple weeks ago.

http://cuteoverload.com/2010/10/25/doggie-daughter-debut-delights-dad/

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

High tea is, of course, one of the "somethings nice." Should I meet you all there at noon?

[thecityofdis.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday! For your birthday, I got you a:

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Not enough AWWW in the world!

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday!

This isn't the most awesomely bad thing to have happened to me lately, it's the most awesomely bad thing to have happened to me ever and I can't remember if I ever told you about it.

This was about 20 years ago, so I don't remember a lot of the details, but way back when I was in the SCA, I and a few friends went to a monthly Baronial meeting. Afterwards, when standing around discussing where to go to eat, the Baroness came over and said "We all have to go to the Waffle House from Hell. The service so bad!"

As it was nearby, we said "Sure!," piled into our cars, and went.

When we get there, about seven or eight of us, the restaurant is empty except for a couple of (most likely) regulars drinking coffee at the counter, talking with an older waitress whose name ought to have been Flo. We stand around for a while until she finishes her conversation and leads us to a couple of tables and dumps menus on the tables.

We sit there for a wile, perusing the menus. Nobody comes. We peruse some more. Nobody comes. And still some more.

Eventually a busboy wanders out of the kitchen with a pen and some paper napkins and asks us to write our orders down.

We do so. Eventually he comes back, gathers them up, and disappears into the kitchen. He comes out a while later, comes over to me, and says "We're out of Coke."

I order a Dr Pepper. He returns to the kitchen.

He comes back out a while later and says "We're out of Dr. Pepper."

I say, "So, what do you have?" He disappears into the kitchen.

He comes back a while later and says, "We have Sprite."

I ordered a Sprite.

I don't remember any more details, except that the service continued in exactly this vein for the entire meal, and we ended up laughing hysterically every time something new happened, I think scaring the busboy. When the whole thing was over, we overtipped him for providing the most entertaining meal we'd ever had in our lives.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I once went to a similar restaurant, but in India and not on purpose.

We (five or six of us) ordered from a rather extensive menu. The waiter listened to our entire order, then informed us that nothing we had ordered was available. (He might have gone back to the kitchen first; this was a long time ago and has faded into the depths of memory.) We reconsidered the menu and ordered again, and he informed us that none of that was available either.

At that point we wised up: "What do you have?"

"We have tandoori chicken!"

Six orders of tandoori chicken later, we were still trying to figure out if he was fucking with us or had merely figured that if we all happened to want the tandoori chicken, there would be no problem.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday! I will also be reviewing you an awesomely bad book.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Best birthday ever!

[skygiants]

Happy birthday! I think I may inadvertently have already provided the amusing anecdote . . . but as far as book recommendations, I will go with Frances Hardinge's Well Witched, which is a surprisingly chilling YA novel about three children who find themselves inadvertently turned into avatars of the creepiest sort of fairy godparent. Diana Wynne Jones-ish in several ways, including the way where the characters start out fairly unlikeable, but grow into themselves over the course of the story.

[chomiji]

I would recommend Marjorie Liu's "Hunter Kiss" trilogy, if you have not yet read it (I see you have read other Liu books that I have not). I have just finished it. The heroine, Maxine Kiss, is badass and loyal and has good taste in men (she would never fall for a sparkly vampire) and has vulnerabilities the way Onime-no-Kyo has vulnerabilities. And there is a very broken but awesome family-by-choice, and no one is what he or she seems, not even the crazy little old lady who grows pot under lights in the basement.

Also, lots of 80s rock makes its way into the book - for reasons that it would be spoilery to reveal.

It also made me laugh out loud on the Metro. Jame would appreciate Maxine.

(I am going to be writing this up soonish, I hope.)

[babarnett.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday! Here are baby animals a-plenty: http://www.photooutpost.com/photo-essay-baby-animals-part-1

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain - I had to get up at 6:45 to get an ultrasound.

I cannot believe that I am thirty-seven! I keep counting up from 1973 to see if perhaps I am mistaken. I feel about sixteen (all the better to write YA with, my dear,) or maybe thirty at the most.

And this, too. I thought it was utterly ludicrous when I turned forty last year - I certainly don't feel it. Sixteen sounds about right.

I have been reading a lot of things you recommended recently, which doesn't help, but one thing you might not have read is Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord. It has an amusing and unusual (in my experience) narrative voice which I rather enjoyed. I can't promise you will like it, but I am hopeful.

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

Oh, and if you don't know that The Broken Kingdoms is already available in stores, now you do. I am halfway through. This doesn't count as a rec since you were going to read it anyway.

[dawnybee.livejournal.com]

Happiest happy birthday wishes to you!

Por vu:

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday!

Have you read James' description of the first Flavia de Luce novel? It's about an 11 year girl who is an aspiring chemist solving mysteries in 1950, so if done well, it should be awesome. My copy is due to arrive today, so I should know by early next week if I'd recommend it to you, . http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/2711571.html?thread=51331091#t51331091

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

I've read it. It was fun. See James's description for why :)

[larryhammer]

Happy birthday.

Since I've already recommended (at length) Journey to the West,* I'll link you to this video of various random but very impressive stunts. It starts with a backflipping wheelchair and goes from there. (Pogo stick flips! precision soccer balls!)

* Includes canonical m-preg.

ETA: And now I can't remember if I told you my awesomely bad experience with the age of thirty-seven. That was the age at which I reread Lolita.

The bad part being that thirty-seven is the age at which Humbert Humbert meets Dolores. Face to face with the fact that I'd reached the age where I am a creepy older guy.

---L.

[akamarykate.livejournal.com]

How about an awesome review of some of Christopher Pike's awesomely bad books (http://www.foreveryoungadult.com/2010/10/28/christopher-pike-is-scarily-repetitive/)?

If you haven't seen the site before, I also highly recommend the monthly posts in which one of the bloggers breaks down Flowers in the Attic, chapter by chapter.

ETA: Happy birthday! (duh, me) I hope there is deliciousness and fun in your day.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I have fond memories of dramatic readings and mockings of Christopher Pike, both from nerd camp and from high school once I brought back the meme. Those are some awesomely bad books, all right.