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Ryan and I decided that rather than going overboard (like we usually do) exchanging gifts this year, we’d give each other a list of three things that we wanted. I got a little excited about that, and wound up with nine. I only passed along three of them, though!

1 ::  I love how Creepy Dead Girl / Little House on the Praire this dress is!
2 :: New year, new Moleskin! I’ve already picked up a daily planner to keep in my bag, and haven’t taken the wrapping off of it yet. I love new notebooks.
3 :: After having them for almost five years, I’m still wearing my Frye boots almost every day. Maybe if I stopped buying ridiculous platforms I can’t walk in and got a pair of dressier heeled boots, I’d switch it up?
4 :: I posted about The Wild Unknown Tarot on Haute Macabre a few weeks ago, and it’s still so intriguing to me! I’m dying to see each individual card.
5 - 6 :: Photography art books!! I adore Francesca Woodman, and flipped through Dennis Hopper’s book while I was in LA a few weeks ago. It wasn’t until he passed away that I found out what an incredible photographer he was.
7 :: I wore knuckle rings for as long as I can remember – even as far back as junior high! I’d lose them all the time, and it was so hard to find replacements. I lost my last one almost a year ago, so I’m so happy to see them becoming trendy now so I can replace all of them again!
8 :: In love with this Kiehl’s Vanilla & Cedarwood scent. I’ve worn their essential vanilla oil for years, but it’s been discontinued – I bought out the local Saks stock of it, though! Aside from that, Ryan is super allergic to my La Petite Robe Noir perfume that I love so much. Every time I wore it, he would have a massive sneezing fit and allergy attack, so I had to shelve it. This, and the upcoming Haute Macabre perfume from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (!!!!!) will have to replace my usuals!
9 :: I’ll take all of the BloodMilk, please. Especially the new Nevermore Brooch, Persephone’s Jewel Part II ring, Djed ring, and the Lorraine cross. Thanks in advance, Santa.

What are you hoping gets left under your tree?!

John Dies At The End ::

This was easily one of my favorite books so far this year! I can’t wait to see the movie this winter. It’s weird and super funny, and holy shit fucked up (yes, I like that phrase). Basic plot summary is that John & Dave not-so-accidentally take a drug called Soy Sauce, which opens their minds up to other dimensions, and the hell that these other places are trying to create in ours. John & Dave are definitely not heroes, they’re not even terribly likable. There’s meat possession, a barfing one handed girl, and a ton of gore. It’s impossible not to like this book. I’m reading the sequel right now, so I’ll let you know how that goes (so far, so good).

Lost Souls ::

I really wish that I had read this for the first time around age 14 instead of 31. It was so full of teen angst and melodramatic super gawth eyeliner vampires that I was rolling my eyes and turning the pages at the same time. I suppose that’s what you get for reading an early 90′s super goth novel about LSD dropping vampires, a rock band in the middle of nowhere with a psychic guitar player named Ghost, an angry little goth boy that doesn’t know he’s half vampire, and a whole lot of French Quarter & Chartreuse loving homo-eroticism. As soon as I finished reading it, I handed it off to the just turned 19 busboy that works in my restaurant, that got his first tattoo this summer and tried to dye his hair blue. It was a darling and nostalgic for my Anne Rice youth read, but I won’t be breaking out the black lipstick anytime soon.

Haunted New Orleans

So.Much.Fun. I think that if you’re visiting NoLa, you should definitely read this, or any of the ten million other Here Are Some Ghost Stories About a Super Creepy Old City book. I’m the kind of girl that watches Ghost Hunters while on the elliptical machine at the gym, so I super dug reading about some of the strange happenings of my town. The author really should have done without her fictitious I Saw A Ghost openings to each chapter, but her summaries and historical accounts of the sites (and sightings) seemed legit enough. After finishing it, I walked around the French Quarter one afternoon past some of the building mentioned, so I definitely recommend this if you’re ever planning on coming to town!

Another Roadside Attraction ::

This is the third Tom Robbins book I’ve read, and the first I didn’t really care for. It had way too much hippie-dippie rants and took way too long to get into the actual plot. After about 200 pages, the two hippies living in a juice stand up in the North Western woods of the USA find themselves with a fairly important set of mummified remains, and it goes from there. I believe this was his first novel (please correct me if I’m wrong), and it seemed like he was still feeling his way around. I’m starting to wonder if Robbins is totally hit or miss, or you just have to be in the mood for his books.

Down and Out In Paris & London ::

Orwell’s account of being poverty stricken in Paris and London in the 1920s was fascinating. There is some debate as to how much of it is fiction and how much is autobiographical, but Orwell has insisted that each event actually did happen. He describes living off of next to nothing for weeks on end in Paris, monitoring each day’s allowance for food and necessities, and eventually finds work as a plongeur (dishwasher) in a hotel. There, he works backbreaking hours for next to nothing, and then bounces from that job to the next, until he eventually winds up back in London, absolutely penniless. In London, he is homeless and spends each day headed to the next spike house, traveling with various tramps and vagrants, looking for food and money. Whether it was fiction or not, it was an incredibly interesting book.

Ok! So, there’s that. I finally sat down and Stacked it all out! I’m just about to start another one by Gillian Flynn (the author of Gone Girl), and have been making my way through 1Q84 on my phone the last few weeks. I still am intimidated by the size of the hardcover copy I have, and would probably break my back carrying it around with me.  

I really do love hearing about what all of you guys are reading!

I’ve been saying for weeks how far behind I am on posting  a new Stacked! It seems like I kept getting too far ahead of myself and loosing track of what I had to say about each one, and then I got just a tiny bit overwhelmed. I completed my 2012 Good Reads Challenge (I’m at 55 finished for the year so far!) a few weeks back, and am in the middle of about three. I’ve got about half a dozen stacked up on my dresser waiting for me to open them, so I’m a little excited to see what I’ll wind up with for my first read of the new year coming up.

Girls to the Front ::

I really, really wanted to love this so very, very much. I wanted to feel super proud to be a lady, super proud to be not all blonde and booby and love things like making men happy and babies. Instead, this account of the Riot Grrl movement of the early 9os sounded like exactly what happens when a bunch of disorganized young ladies get together to do anything – it turns into a catty mess. So, sorry, 14 year old me, who had a Bikini Kill cassette and thought they were awesome (even though I didn’t really like them, I just wanted to like them because they were supposed to be what I liked – even though what I liked was L7, Hole,and Tori Amos). It told the story of the Olympia feminists forming bands even though they couldn’t play instruments, screaming and writing SLUT on themselves, and talking about their fucked up childhoods. No boys allowed, unless they were wearing dresses.

In my high school, there were these two girls that were the closest thing we had to Riot Grrls. They weren’t really punk, and they weren’t really goth, but they wore combat boots and baby doll dresses and were so super aloof, and that made them seem mysterious. More than anything else, they were just bullies. They’d make fun of me in the bathroom and in the hallways and were just nasty, mean bitches. Girls to the Front reminded me of those two girls, and it seemed like that was what the “movement” was comprised of. Girls that were too tough to be nice, too into their own shit to care about anyone else, and girls that were just way too cool for school.

It seems to me like the riot grrl movement should have been something great. It should have been loud and proud and still going, but rather than supporting each other, they just fought and were petty. I’m glad it happened, because it seems to have paved the way for things like suicide girls, and that played a huge role in my life for man years, but I’d rather listen to bands that do a little more than just scream and be purposely bad. Honestly, I was pretty pleased about the whole Courtney Love punching out the Bikini Kill chick.

This is where the awesome playlist that I need to put together should go! Instead, I’ve always been the worst ever at making mixtapes, so it’ll have to come later.

Recommend to me some awesome chick rock songs that I should include in it!!

The Drowning Girl ::

I’Inconnue de la Seine was a beautiful and unidentified girl that washed up on the shores of the Seine in the late 1800s. The pathologist on duty at the Paris Morgue was so taken by her beauty that he commissioned a death mask to be cast of her face. The mask later was reproduced and became popular decor with Parisian Bohemia, but the girl’s identity was never discovered.

What a strange, slightly disjointed, and wispy book this was. I say wispy, not meaning that it was light and airy, but that you were looking at it all through a veil. Told from the perspective of a schizophrenic woman, it jumps to and from reality, and multiple realities within. nothing as dramatic as, say, neverwhere, but more the confusion of a mentally ill girl. Something that could have happened in July happened also in November, but it was only one event that took place in two separate dates, and something that happened by a river really happened in a painting.

And it’s a memoir.

And it’s a ghost story, and a werewolf story, and a mermaid story.

And you should read it, and give it a shot, because it was actually quite enjoyable.

Then, I read some truly trashy Patricia Cornwell novels. They weren’t very good, and aren’t worth mentioning in any detail here. They’re my total guilty pleasure. Don’t judge.

Gone Girl ::

There isn’t too much I can say about the story that won’t give away major plot points, but I really was shocked at how much I enjoyed this book. A well off married couple moves to the sticks, and suddenly isn’t so terribly well off anymore. On their fifth anniversary, Amy, the wife disappears, and husband Nick is the prime suspect. It gets holy shit f@cked up throughout, and is super tense and suspenseful, and I read it in maybe two sittings. I’ve always been wary of Bestseller List books (other than my obvious Harry Potters, etc.), because they always seem to be dumbed down, but this was up there with A Secret History on the Best Mysteries I’ve Read List. Go get yourself on the waiting list at your library for this one!

I have a few more, but it seemed waaaayyy too much to put all into one post! I’ll put the next up in a day or so. For now, tell me what you’ve read lately!

I am embarrassingly far behind with everything on 523! And, on my to-do lists, and on Haute Macabre, and on my photography. I’ve been having one of those stretches where time just seems to get away from you, and none of your usual hobbies really get pushed to the front. What have I been up to?

1. LOS ANGELES!

We went to Los Angeles for Thanksgiving, and stayed for a few days after. It was great, full of friends and family and food. I sadly didn’t get to see everyone I had hoped to, but there’s always next time. I’ve got a massive pile of photos and scraps to sort through to post a recap here!

2. PALEO! 

After eating our way across LA, Ryan & I decided to get back on the Paleo routine. We’re giving ourselves one Cheat Day a week, and our first was yesterday. I feel gross today, and am looking forward to getting back into a week of juices, smoothies, and protein packed meals. My diet now is mainly Green Monster Juice, Pineapple, Orange & Mango smoothies, and bowls of spinach, lentils, chicken, & strawberries. I wrote about this diet a bit more extensively earlier this year, so I’ll save you the details for now.

3. READING!

There are so many books waiting for me to list them on Stacked right now that it’s ridiculous. I’ve read some really awesome stuff, and some not so awesome stuff that I couldn’t get past the first few chapters (don’t waste your time with The Last Werewolf That Learned to Write a Novel From a 16 Year Old Gawth or The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland Without Ever Trying To Shorten A Sentence Or Pretend Like She Wasn’t Rewriting Alice’s Adventures in Narnia). My favorites of the last few months have been John Dies At The End, Down and Out in Paris and London, and Gone Girl.

4. TIME TRAVELING.

Ok, so not really, seriously time traveling, but I’ve still been watching a lot of Doctor Who. I finally accepted the fact that David Tennant is gone, and that it isn’t really the biggest deal ever, since he was the tenth doctor, and I’m sure the forty years of Doctors prior to him meant lots and lots to other people, and I should just get over it and watch some new episodes. So, I did, and I’m enjoying them quite a bit. I’m still not that far in to Matt Smith’s (only about halfway through his first season), and I’m not loving Amy Pond as the companion. She’s a little too Look How Bold and Snarky I Am for me.

I am super excited to see Neil Gaiman’s episode, and I have had a few laugh out loud moments, so, Mister Smith, you might be growing on me, just a tiny bit.

And, as a side note, I have already bought myself three of the eight items I posted earlier.

5. Work, and Other General Things That Are Unexciting

Yeah… this one is super dull, but it’s a truth fact. Sometimes, things are just dull, and you’re running around doing errands and going to work and doing Normal Stuff. I don’t ever talk about my day job here (well … I work nights, but let’s not get technical), because I like keeping it as What I Do For Money and not How I Define Myself. I will say that I do work service industry, as you know, and sometimes it’s just exhausting, and when you’re not there you don’t really want to do much else. The past few weeks have been like that, and it’s caused me to neglect updating here, which I enjoy doing immensely, and neglect other parts of my creative brains. Maybe that means that I need to set a New Year’s Resolution to devote more time to my outlets, and less time to BBC sci-fi shows.

So, there you have Five Excuses For Why I Haven’t Been Updating. Pretty lame, right?