Of course I’m going to start with books. Have you met me?

These were two of my favorite novels this year, so much so that I picked both of them for my book club in September.

In part I loved them because they feature characters my age or near enough but especially because every one of them either have or gain absolute agency over their own lives (in Daphne’s case everyone else’s lives, too, unquestionably to their benefit). Pooley’s novel is a picaresque caper, Fletcher’s is about a life well lived over eighty-seven years and Florrie’s just getting started. Each novel has its own style, Pooley’s divinely comic and Fletcher’s consciously artful, but in both the message is clear: We’re not done until we say we’re done, so don’t say it and don’t let anyone else say it, either. Both reads are witty, fun, lively, and inspirational, and maybe even aspirational, too.

I also thoroughly enjoyed A Jewel in the Crown by David Lewis, was made one hell of a lot more aware of life as it was truly lived early on in the American West by Robert M.Utley’s High Noon in Lincoln, and have serious writer envy at the way Allison Montclair threw Iris and Gwendolyn into a 90-degree turn in the middle of a series in An Excellent Thing in a Woman.

And, she whispered seductively, you can’t find a better yarn than the first four books in my Eye of Isis series, set in Alexandria, Egypt, in 46 BC. Each features a different case assigned to the current Eye by her queen, Cleopatra VII, including the fourth and most recent book which puts our hero on the battlefield at Thapsus. With elephants. Which don’t always stampede in the direction you’d like them to.
Available in e and paperback, and wouldn’t a bundle of four make a nice gift for the reader in your life?

Non-book ideas:

Storyknife merch! I can personally attest to the zip front hoodie’s quality–it’s soft and lightweight and it holds up under multiple washings.

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The best kitchen gadgets I bought this year were…tweezers. On the left below, serious, heavy duty tweezers that will easily extract those blankety-blank pinbones from salmon filets. (h/t RobR)
Below right, cooking tweezers, as demonstrated in action by Notorious Foodie. After wiping the drool from my chin watching him use them to turn sautéing beef bits for some dish that looked orgasmically delicious, I ordered my own.

My go-to Christmas gift for someone who just moved into a new house. Everyone needs a good set of spatulas and these are attractive, virtually indestructible, and won’t break the bank.

The Yarn Attic in New Jersey has a terrific collection of yarn, knows how to ship, and their service is great. I heartily recommend the Lucero for the Jacques Cousteau watch cap, Yes, it’s pricey, but it knits up a dream at one skein per hat and I am assured by the dozen or so people I’ve made it for that it doesn’t itch at all no matter how long they wear it. And they love the sparkle.

Best. Slippers. EVER.

Any Liberty Puzzle is a beautifully-crafted gift that will provide hours of entertainment, but this one is my favorite.

The irregular border, the whimsey pieces reflecting the heron’s environment (the grasses!), the placement of those pieces (the creepy-crawly-slitheries right where they should be), the multiple mini-puzzles inside the larger puzzle, the laser-cut wooden pieces in weird and marvelous shapes that must be coaxed into place. Art and craftsmanship in one, and so well made it will last forever. Unless you set it on fire in sheer frustration. Which, though greatly tempted, I haven’t either of the two times I’ve done it.

Book Review Monday Chatter Storyknife The Harvey Girl bombas slippers Christmas gift ideas good reads kitchen spatulas kitchen tweezers Liberty Puzzles lucero yarn snorgtees storyknife merch the yarn attic