December Curated Curiosities

Books! 📚Gifts!🎁 Recipes!🥧Interesting facts! 📰 An extravaganza of fun! 🥳

ChatGPT’s version of Merlin (which is not at all accurate despite multiple prompts). But this kitty IS cute. Also, this cat would surely catch on fire. As would all the presents. And what’s the point of the wood stack in the fireplace? So many LOLs.

A quick note: BOOKS make an amazing holiday gift 🎁 for someone you ❤️! And I have three of them to consider. If you want to gift yourself, In The Garden of Monsters is currently a $5.99 ebook deal! And if you want to give me a gift, a review of one of my novels on your favorite book site would mean the world to me. 🙏

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It’s the holiday season and the Christmas freak in me is reveling in fake trees, holiday parties and lots of glittery things. I love it…all the Ancient Roman pagan traditions wrapped up in new fangled incarnations. There are so many things that make me excited, or curious, or joyful, and that’s what this newsletter is all about today. First:

YUMMY

The holidays are a time of year when I bake more than I normally do. Some of my favorite recipes include:

• My grandfather’s famous sugar cookies (my favorite recipe of them all).

• Scappi’s Neapolitan “pizza” which is really a Renaissance fruit and nut pie.

• David Lebovitz’s ginger cake has been a holiday hit in my repertoire since he first posted about it in 1999.

• This year I’m going to cut a corner and try the King Arthur panettone mix and see how it turns out. Fun fact—panettone French toast is the best kind of French toast (also the best kind of bread pudding!).

• Emeril’s rum balls are also a must make!

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GIFT SUGGESTIONS

• For the baker in your life, this Raisenne electric dough proofer is wonderful, especially in the winter.

• Fastachi is my favorite place for fresh nuts and chocolates.

• The Reader’s Catalog at the New York Review of Books is my go-to for book related gifting. The NYRB Classics Book Club subscription is also a fantastic gift to give.

• Harvard Bookstore’s First Signed Edition Club is also a wonderful, unique gift for a book lover. I’ve been a member for years.

• For your friends who love food and who love to entertain, get them something from Big Night.

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JOYFUL

• Salvador Dalí created a number of holiday cards and images over the years between 1947 and 1965, including many for Hallmark. Here are three of my favorites. The first was once a Vogue cover too!

  

• Did you know that the original Rudolph movie was created in 1948 to advertise Montgomery Ward?

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DISTRACTING

• Books I’m loving right now:

  

  • Heather Webb and Hazel Gaynor - Christmas With The Queen

  • André Aciman - Roman Year

  • Mark Lawrence - The Book That Wouldn’t Burn (The Library Trilogy 1) (excellent on audiobook!)

• I’ve been playing a lot of Balatro. If you had told me a month ago I’d love a poker video game I’d have said you were nuts, but well, here we are. And Path of Exile 2 in early access has been fun.

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FASCINATING

• Why there are no bridges across the Amazon river.

• This picture of Joey Ramone at his high school dance.

  

• This man created an entire Colosseum out of chocolate!

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MY UPCOMING EVENTS

• TOMORROW! I’ll be at Belmont Books for their Truth or Tale event! This is going to be loads of fun…a version of two truths and a lie. Prizes will be awarded!

  

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Thanks for Joining Me

If you love food and love Italy, and haven’t read THE CHEF’S SECRET or FEAST OF SORROW, click the links to learn where to buy your copy! And now you can order IN THE GARDEN OF MONSTERS!

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