SBTB Bestsellers: January 24 – February 6
Feb. 8th, 2026 10:00 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
smartbitches_feedThe latest bestseller list is brought to you by fresh snow, plush blankets, and our affiliate sales data.
- Tempests and Tea Leaves by Rachel Morgan Amazon | B&N
- The Bookshop Below by Georgia Summers Amazon | B&N | Kobo
- Grace & Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman Amazon | B&N | Kobo
- Book People by Jackie Ashenden Amazon | B&N | Kobo
- A Gentleman’s Gentleman by TJ Alexander Amazon | B&N | Kobo
- Soul Searching by Lyla Sage Amazon | B&N | Kobo
- Ready or Not by Cara Bastone Amazon | B&N | Kobo
- Never Been Shipped by Alicia Thomspon Amazon | B&N | Kobo
- Tourist Season by Brynne Weaver Amazon | B&N | Kobo
- How to Tame a Wild Rogue by Julie Anne Long Amazon | B&N | Kobo
I hope your weekend reading was magical!
What does the word "grocery" mean, no, really? [econ, curr ev]
Feb. 8th, 2026 12:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sidereaHey, does anybody happen to know the answer to this question?
Back when Mr B and I started doing joint grocery orders, I started analyzing our budget like you do. In the course of doing so, I discovered something I hadn't realized: about a third of my "grocery" budget wasn't food. It was:
• Disposable food handling and storage supplies: plastic wrap, paper towels, aluminum foil, ziplocs, e.g.
• Personal hygiene supplies: toilet paper, bath soap, shampoo, skin lotion, menstrual supplies, toothpaste, mouthwash, Q-tips, e.g.
• Health supplies: vitamins, bandaids, NSAIDs, first aid supplies, OTC medications and supplements, e.g.
• Domestic hygiene supplies: dish detergent, dish soap, dish sponges, Windex, Pine-sol, laundry detergent, bleach, mouse traps, e.g.
None of these things individually needs to be bought every grocery trip, but that's good, because they can add up fast. Especially if you try to buy at all in volume to try to drive unit costs down. But the problem is there are so many of them, that usually you need some of them on every order.
This fact is in the back of my head whenever I hear politicians or economists or social commentators talk about the "cost of groceries": I don't know if they mean just food or the whole cost of groceries. Sometimes it's obvious. An awful lot of the relief for the poor involves giving them food (such as at a food pantry) or the funds to buy it (such as an EBT card), but very explicitly doesn't include, say, a bottle of aspirin or a box of tampons or a roll of Saran wrap. Other times, it's not, such as when a report on the cost of "groceries" only compares the prices of food items, and then makes statements about the average totals families of various sizes spend on "groceries": if they only looked at the prices of foods, does that mean they added up the prices of foods a family typically buys to generate a "grocery bill" which doesn't include the non-food groceries, or did they survey actual families' actual grocery bills and just average them without substracting the non-food groceries? Hard to say from the outside.
When we see a talking head on TV – a pundit or a politician – talking about the price of "groceries" but then say it, for example, has to do with farm labor, or the import of agricultural goods, should we assume they're just meaning "food" by the term "groceries"? Or it is a tell they've forgotten that not everything bought at a grocery store (and part of a consumer's grocery store bill) is food, and maybe are misrepresenting or misunderstanding whatever research they are leaning on? Or is it a common misconception among those who research domestic economics that groceries means exclusively food?
So my question is: given that a lot of information about this topic that percolates out to the public is based on research that the public never sees for themselves, what assumptions are reasonable for the public to make about how the field(s) which concern themselves with the "price of groceries" mean "groceries"? What fields are those and do they have a standard meaning of "groceries" and does it or does it not include non-food items?
This question brought to you by yet another video about the cost of groceries and how they might be controlled in which the index examples were the ingredients for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but, as usual, not the sandwich baggy to put it in to take to school or work.
Back when Mr B and I started doing joint grocery orders, I started analyzing our budget like you do. In the course of doing so, I discovered something I hadn't realized: about a third of my "grocery" budget wasn't food. It was:
• Disposable food handling and storage supplies: plastic wrap, paper towels, aluminum foil, ziplocs, e.g.
• Personal hygiene supplies: toilet paper, bath soap, shampoo, skin lotion, menstrual supplies, toothpaste, mouthwash, Q-tips, e.g.
• Health supplies: vitamins, bandaids, NSAIDs, first aid supplies, OTC medications and supplements, e.g.
• Domestic hygiene supplies: dish detergent, dish soap, dish sponges, Windex, Pine-sol, laundry detergent, bleach, mouse traps, e.g.
None of these things individually needs to be bought every grocery trip, but that's good, because they can add up fast. Especially if you try to buy at all in volume to try to drive unit costs down. But the problem is there are so many of them, that usually you need some of them on every order.
This fact is in the back of my head whenever I hear politicians or economists or social commentators talk about the "cost of groceries": I don't know if they mean just food or the whole cost of groceries. Sometimes it's obvious. An awful lot of the relief for the poor involves giving them food (such as at a food pantry) or the funds to buy it (such as an EBT card), but very explicitly doesn't include, say, a bottle of aspirin or a box of tampons or a roll of Saran wrap. Other times, it's not, such as when a report on the cost of "groceries" only compares the prices of food items, and then makes statements about the average totals families of various sizes spend on "groceries": if they only looked at the prices of foods, does that mean they added up the prices of foods a family typically buys to generate a "grocery bill" which doesn't include the non-food groceries, or did they survey actual families' actual grocery bills and just average them without substracting the non-food groceries? Hard to say from the outside.
When we see a talking head on TV – a pundit or a politician – talking about the price of "groceries" but then say it, for example, has to do with farm labor, or the import of agricultural goods, should we assume they're just meaning "food" by the term "groceries"? Or it is a tell they've forgotten that not everything bought at a grocery store (and part of a consumer's grocery store bill) is food, and maybe are misrepresenting or misunderstanding whatever research they are leaning on? Or is it a common misconception among those who research domestic economics that groceries means exclusively food?
So my question is: given that a lot of information about this topic that percolates out to the public is based on research that the public never sees for themselves, what assumptions are reasonable for the public to make about how the field(s) which concern themselves with the "price of groceries" mean "groceries"? What fields are those and do they have a standard meaning of "groceries" and does it or does it not include non-food items?
This question brought to you by yet another video about the cost of groceries and how they might be controlled in which the index examples were the ingredients for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but, as usual, not the sandwich baggy to put it in to take to school or work.
Kickass Women in History: Arnarulunnguaq
Feb. 7th, 2026 07:00 amsmartbitches_feed
I don’t know why, but I am a total sucker for books about Arctic and Antarctic exploration. Bring me your frostbite, your scurvy, your long marches, and, above all, bring me my warmest pajamas and a hot cup of tea and we have what I consider to be the perfect ingredients for a cosy night in.
The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration (1897ish – 1922ish) and the many efforts to locate the Northwest Passage in the Arctic are simply crammed with stoic imperialist White men who suffer terribly for what, frankly, does not strike me as terribly good reasons. Perhaps my ability to read of their sufferings with ghoulish fascination stems from the fact that none of these guys needed to be either North or South in the first place. To borrow and bend a common phrase: you live by the poorly sealed canned goods, you die by the poorly sealed canned goods*.
Of course, in the case of the Arctic, people were already living there long before any White explorers staggered upon the scene. Yu’pik and Inuit peoples were instrumental in exploratory expeditions in the Arctic and, less directly, the Antarctic. I’ve already written about Ada Blackjack, an Inupiaq woman who survived on Wrangel Island alone for eight months after the other members of her party died.
Other Indigenous women often supported expeditions, especially Arctic ones, by sewing, skinning and preserving fur and leather and cooking. Taqulittuq (also known as Tookoolito and as Hannah), an Inupiaq woman, accompanied Charles Francis Hall on many expeditions including one in which she and some crew members were marooned for months and survived because of the skills of Taqulittuq and her husband. Many other Indigenous women accompanied and supported expeditions and were never formally recognized for their valor.
Arnarulunnguaq, the first woman to travel from Greenland to the Pacific, was born in Greenland in 1896. She related that when she was six or seven, her father, a hunter, died and the family became so desperate for food that they prepared to sacrifice Arnarulunnguaq so the the rest of the family could live, having one less mouth to feed. However, at the very last minute, her brother started crying and her mother decided not to kill Arnarulunnguaq after all. Arnarulunnguaq was (of course) powerfully changed by this experience. According to the explorer Knud Ramussen:
She says herself that the gratitude that she came to feel many years later, and the life she had almost received as a gift, has made her placid towards people.
Arnarulunnguaq married a hunter named Iggiannguaq (allegedly she had a previous marriage that failed because she was “too lazy,” a trait which truly does not match the historical records of her life!). The two planned to accompany Knud Rasmussen on his Fifth Thule Expedition (1921 – 1924). This trip involved travelling from Greenland to Siberia via dogsled. Iggiannguaq died before the trip commenced, and Arnarulunnguaq asked to be allowed to continue with the trip. Her cousin, Qaavigarsuaq Miteq, filled the role of hunter.
Arnarulunnguaq cooked, built peat shelters, sewed, and maintained skins and furs as well as helping with the dogs. She drove dog sleds, gathered specimens, and assisted with archeology. She also documented the trip in drawings. Rasmussen said of her that she had:
that good humour about her that only a woman can instil [and was as] entertaining and courageous as any man when we were out on our journey.
Rasmussen hoped to use the journey to document the lives of Indigenous people of the Arctic.
Danish anthropologist Kirsten Hastrup says that because of Arnarulunnguaq’s and Qaavigarsuaq’s influence:
…what resulted was a ‘collaborative ethnography’ because “‘he Polar Eskimos were no longer being studied but studying with him, and clearly Rasmussen sees the American Inuit very much through Inughuit eyes.’
After the expedition, Rasmussen took Arnarulunnguaq and Qaavigarsuaq to New York City. Arnarulunnguaq loved riding elevators and described New York city as the coldest place she had ever been. She married Kaalipaluk Peary, son of explorer Robert Peary. Like so many other Arctic Indigenous people, she contracted tuberculosis and battled it for years. In 1925, Arnarulunnguaq returned to Thule, where she died in 1933.
*Was the Franklin Expedition of 1845 (which has nothing directly to do with Arnarulunnguaq other than being an Arctic expedition) doomed by lead seeping into their canned goods? Lead poisoning was long thought to have been one of many trials that beset the men of the expedition, but according to Smithsonian Magazine, it was probably not a factor after all. More prominent factors were starvation, hypothermia, scurvy, illness, and exhaustion.
If you like exploration stories set in cold places, I recommend the3 following, with links to those that have been reviewed on Smart Bitches:
- The Arctic Fury by Greer Macallister. A novel about Arctic exploration placing a fiction group of women as the leads.
- Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic, by Jennifer Niven. A nonfiction book about Kickass Woman Ada Blackjack.
- The Damned, a horror movie about Icelandic Fisherfolk who are being picked off one by one by a mysterious assailant while battling cold and hunger.
- The Naturalist Society by Carrie Vaughn: a novel in which a gay couple who seek funding for their next Arctic expedition becomes involved with a widow who wrote ornithology papers using her husband’s name.
- Endurance by Alfred Lansing: A nonfiction book about Ernest Shackleton and Antarctic exploration.
- The Terror by Dan Simmons. A horror novel about the Franklin Expedition. Also a television series.
- Madhouse at the End of the Earth by Julian Sancton. A nonfiction book about the first ship to overwinter in Antarctica.
Sources:
(no subject)
Feb. 7th, 2026 12:53 amskygiantsFestivids reveals have SNUCK up on me they are happening TOMORROW and I have NOT had time to watch all the things I wanted to watch but! here are some things I very much liked anyway!
First, my own three (3!!!) beautiful vids:
Sharp Dressed Man, for Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born, a glorious celebration of Theatrical Fashion
Touch, for the film Phantom, tense & wistful lesbian tragic romance!
and Ready to Fight, also for Phantom, TRIUMPHANT KINETIC ACTION
I did not expect to receive vids for either of these sources and they are all beautiful and perfect to me!!
And now, an incomplete list of other vids I really really liked and/or was impressed by and/or laughed my ass off at:
who wants to live forever (17776: What Football Will Look Like In The Future)
Congratulations, You Survived Your Suicide (Disco Elysium)
Everything I Need and PC Dyke (Dykes To Watch Out For)
nothing and everything (Hamlet) (the SONG CHOICE)
The Man I Knew (Jesus Christ Superstar)
Here (Labyrinth) (THE SONG CHOICE!!!)
ASSHOLE (Looney Tunes)
Let's Get This Over With (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead)
Ya Ya (Sinners)
There Is No Ship (Steerswoman)
man (Victor/Victoria)
I hope some of you enjoy some of these as much as I did!
First, my own three (3!!!) beautiful vids:
Sharp Dressed Man, for Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born, a glorious celebration of Theatrical Fashion
Touch, for the film Phantom, tense & wistful lesbian tragic romance!
and Ready to Fight, also for Phantom, TRIUMPHANT KINETIC ACTION
I did not expect to receive vids for either of these sources and they are all beautiful and perfect to me!!
And now, an incomplete list of other vids I really really liked and/or was impressed by and/or laughed my ass off at:
who wants to live forever (17776: What Football Will Look Like In The Future)
Congratulations, You Survived Your Suicide (Disco Elysium)
Everything I Need and PC Dyke (Dykes To Watch Out For)
nothing and everything (Hamlet) (the SONG CHOICE)
The Man I Knew (Jesus Christ Superstar)
Here (Labyrinth) (THE SONG CHOICE!!!)
ASSHOLE (Looney Tunes)
Let's Get This Over With (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead)
Ya Ya (Sinners)
There Is No Ship (Steerswoman)
man (Victor/Victoria)
I hope some of you enjoy some of these as much as I did!
There's no boat to take me where all the stars go to cross the water
Feb. 6th, 2026 03:34 pmsovayIt has been snowing lightly and steadily since I woke this morning. Those five hours of sleep were the most I have gotten in a seven-day week. At the moment a sort of bleach-silvered effect has started around the overcast sun: it seems to make the west-facing windows across the street reflect mercury-green. There were sunshowers in the snowfall, but not while I was out walking.
( I caught the stone that you threw. )
I can tell that my ability to think in media is reviving because in twenty-six years it had never occurred to me to fancast Stefan Fabbre and all of a sudden I thought that, fair-haired, dry-voiced, the moody, unsteady one in the family, in 1976 he would have been in Clive Francis' wheelhouse.gwynnega has suggested that Millard Lampell deserves his own Library of America volume and I'd order it in a hot second.
( I caught the stone that you threw. )
I can tell that my ability to think in media is reviving because in twenty-six years it had never occurred to me to fancast Stefan Fabbre and all of a sudden I thought that, fair-haired, dry-voiced, the moody, unsteady one in the family, in 1976 he would have been in Clive Francis' wheelhouse.
gwynnega has suggested that Millard Lampell deserves his own Library of America volume and I'd order it in a hot second.Yes, The Muppet Show Reboot is Terrific
Feb. 6th, 2026 06:04 pmsmartbitches_feed
IT SUCKS when great shows are on the platforms of fuckass companies, but here we are.
The Muppet Show reboot was a direct hit of nostalgia, dopamine, and earnest joy that I needed and I was more and more charmed the longer I watched.
I’m old enough (ahem) to remember the original Muppet Show, and this reboot is faithful to the format while updating with jokes, references, and the presence of Sabrina Carpenter, whose resemblance to Miss Piggy is played perfectly, and who is somewhat of a Muppet herself.
Some folks just have Muppet energy. Carpenter has Muppet energy. Off the top of my head, Daniel Radcliffe, Robert Pattinson, the late Catherine O’Hara – they have Muppet energy. Eugene Levy pretty much is a Muppet, per my husband – that tracks. (Honestly this show might have been engineered in a lab for Adam. There is nothing, he says, that he has loved longer than the Muppets.) John Leguizamo, Bowen Yang, Biz Markie…Tim Curry has Big Muppet Energy, which is why he rocked so hard in Muppet Treasure Island.
These are performers who don’t take themselves too seriously, and who are seriously talented. (The “performers with Muppet energy” game is going to be playing nonstop in my house today.)
Carpenter was a perfect first guest and I liked pretty much every sketch she was in.
I don’t know whose idea it was to have her sing “Islands in the Stream” by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers but this was a God tier decision for a Muppet Show sketch. It plays off Carpenter and Miss Piggy’s similar aesthetic to Dolly Parton, for one thing.
And it was vintage (1983) but still lovely to listen to, and there is plenty of room for visual comedy because the song is replete with cheese and earnestness.
I think it’s in Dave Barry’s Book of Bad Songs due to the lyric, “I set out to get you with a fine toothed comb.” What the hell does that even mean?
While the Kermit voice is quite different, nothing else felt disconnected to the original – there were even Muppet characters I hadn’t seen in years, like Rolf and Beauregard. It’s a 30 minute sketch show with on stage and offstage plotlines, and it has the sharpness of SNL in its most impressive years, but trades skewering humor with bite for more wholesome and cheerful optimism, mixed with slightly bewildered theatre kid perseverance.
I hope it gets picked up, and I hope the same attention to tone and the relentless embrace of nutritious fromage remain.
So, yeah, if you’re looking for something nostalgic, charming, silly, and wholesome to watch tonight, you might really, really like The Muppet Show reboot. This is especially true if you grew up with the Muppets in one of their many showcases, and most especially for those of us who have enduring fondness for the original.
(no subject)
Feb. 6th, 2026 02:40 pmadoreSomething I'm grateful for recently is that I got a scholarship/free spot for a writing workshop series, Writing for Rage. My friends Trish and Venky recommended it to me. It's six sessions, and after the first two, I find myself better at experiencing my anger as anger rather than hardening it into depression. We were given journal prompts to write about in our own time:
How do you envision your rage? Envisioning how I want my rage to express itself. I want my rage to be powerful. Because I have felt the most enraged when I was made helpless, when control was wrested from me, and when I was unable to protect myself. I wish to be destructive with no consequences. My rage so powerful that I don't have to say NOBODY MESS WITH ME, everyone gets it. It's a foregone conclusion. And so nobody dares mess with me. Because whatever they do to me, my rage will do worse. I think of Kali. Vengeful rage that ensures there are no repeat offenders.
What would the world be like if anger was normalised? People would be more honest. It wouldn't be a matter of who is allowed to be angry, and at whom, and who isn't, who has authority over you and who doesn't. One's sense of when something is wrong would be sharper. Less guilt for making someone else uncomfortable when confronting them about how they made you uncomfortable.
This month's horoscope for Libra by Alice Sparkly Kat also talks about anger, with journalling questions about the safety of expressing it.
( February horoscope )
Questions for Libra for February 2026:
What happens in your body when you piss someone off?
My body feels like my life is under threat, even in a verbal confrontation.
TW: physical violence
My childhood consisted of physical punishments whenever my mother was angry, including beatings and one time when she strangled me. My body's reaction to anger directed at me now, as an adult, is a hangover from those childhood experiences when I felt scared for my life.
Is there anyone who you are comfortable pissing off?
Nope. I wish there was. This isn't just about being safe when their anger is directed at me, but about how willing they are to make repair efforts if we hurt each other's feelings. What if I am, but they aren't?
How do you want to make more decisions in those relationships where you are free to argue?
I don't think I have any such relationships. But if I did, I would try to understand why we each believe what we do. I would stand up for what I believe in.
How do you envision your rage? Envisioning how I want my rage to express itself. I want my rage to be powerful. Because I have felt the most enraged when I was made helpless, when control was wrested from me, and when I was unable to protect myself. I wish to be destructive with no consequences. My rage so powerful that I don't have to say NOBODY MESS WITH ME, everyone gets it. It's a foregone conclusion. And so nobody dares mess with me. Because whatever they do to me, my rage will do worse. I think of Kali. Vengeful rage that ensures there are no repeat offenders.
What would the world be like if anger was normalised? People would be more honest. It wouldn't be a matter of who is allowed to be angry, and at whom, and who isn't, who has authority over you and who doesn't. One's sense of when something is wrong would be sharper. Less guilt for making someone else uncomfortable when confronting them about how they made you uncomfortable.
This month's horoscope for Libra by Alice Sparkly Kat also talks about anger, with journalling questions about the safety of expressing it.
( February horoscope )
Questions for Libra for February 2026:
What happens in your body when you piss someone off?
My body feels like my life is under threat, even in a verbal confrontation.
TW: physical violence
My childhood consisted of physical punishments whenever my mother was angry, including beatings and one time when she strangled me. My body's reaction to anger directed at me now, as an adult, is a hangover from those childhood experiences when I felt scared for my life.
Is there anyone who you are comfortable pissing off?
Nope. I wish there was. This isn't just about being safe when their anger is directed at me, but about how willing they are to make repair efforts if we hurt each other's feelings. What if I am, but they aren't?
How do you want to make more decisions in those relationships where you are free to argue?
I don't think I have any such relationships. But if I did, I would try to understand why we each believe what we do. I would stand up for what I believe in.
Con Artists, Historical Romance, & More
Feb. 6th, 2026 04:30 pmsmartbitches_feedUnromance
Unromance by Erin Connor is $2.99 and a Kindle Daily Deal! Connor has a new book out this month that I’m excited for. I believe this is in the queue for Cover Awe and it was mentioned on Hide Your Wallet.
A recently dumped TV heartthrob enlists a jaded romance novelist to ruin romance for him—one rom-com trope at a time—so he never gets swept off his feet again . . .
Sawyer Greene knows romance. She’s a bestselling author of the genre—or she was, until her ex left her with nothing but writer’s block and a broken heart. But when she gets stuck in the elevator with a handsome stranger, she sees their meet cute for what it is: just a one-night stand. It might have worked, too, if they could stop running into each other.
Actor Mason West sees Sawyer’s reappearance in his life as a sign. Obviously, they’re meant to cure each other. Him of the hopeless romanticism that only ends in heartbreak—and tabloid trainwrecks—and Sawyer of her writer’s block. Their agreement is simple: 1. No (more) sex, and 2. No matter how swoony the circumstances, absolutely no falling in love.
It’s a foolproof plan–until Sawyer and Mason find that, once set in motion, some plots can’t be stopped—and that they might be hurtling towards a happy ending…
The Duchess Hunt
The Duchess Hunt by Lorraine Heath is $1.99! This is book two in the Once Upon a Dukedom series and wow, she’s about to be tits out in that field. The heroine is also named Penelope Pettypeace, which is a mouthful.
Hugh Brinsley-Norton, the Duke of Kingsland, is in need of a duchess. However, restoring the dukedom—left in ruins by his father—to its former glory demands all his time, with little room for sentiment. He places an advert encouraging the single ladies of the ton to write why they should be the one chosen, and leaves it to his efficient secretary to select his future wife.
If there exists a more unpleasant task in the world than deciding who is to marry the man you love, Penelope Pettypeace certainly can’t imagine what it might be. Still, she is determined to find the perfect bride for her clueless, yet ruthlessly charming employer.
But when an anonymous note threatens to reveal truths best hidden, Kingsland has no choice but to confront the danger with Penelope at his side. Beguiled by the strong-willed, courageous beauty, he realizes he’s willing to risk everything, including his heart, to keep her safe within his arms. Could it be the duchess he’s hunting for has been in front of him all along?
Dishonestly Yours
Dishonestly Yours by Krista and Becca Ritchie is $1.99 and a KDD! This is the first book in the Webs We Weave series. I mentioned this one in a previous Hide Your Wallet because I was tempted by the conwoman heroine.
Starting fresh is the only way Phoebe can escape a life of crime, but her best friend’s older brother complicates honest dreams in this gripping new series from the authors of the Addicted series.
Phoebe Graves grew up in a family where deception and seduction are as commonplace as breathing. The Graves and her best friend Hailey’s family have been on the run their whole lives, but after a high-stakes con job goes south, Phoebe and Hailey decide to run away and start over. The small Connecticut town they settle in seems too good to be true.
The biggest flaw in their plan is Hailey’s frustratingly handsome brother, Rocky, who insists on coming with them. Living honestly isn’t in his DNA, and his past with Phoebe is downright messy. He’s everything she wants, but nothing she can have.
Phoebe worries that Rocky will tempt them back into their old ways, where lying is second nature. She doesn’t want Rocky to mess up the new life she’s begun for herself. The longer she stays in town, the more she realizes what it means to have a reputation—and what a normal life with the man she loves could look like.
How to Steal a Scoundrel’s Heart
How to Steal a Scoundrel’s Heart by Vivienne Lorret is $1.99! This is book four in The Mating Habits of Scoundrels series. I’m not sure if we featured this on Cover Snark, but I definitely remember talking about that dog in the SBTB Slack.
In USA Today bestselling author Vivienne Lorret’s latest steamy romance, a determined debutante discovers that making a deal with a notorious rake might just give her more than she ever bargained for…
Ruined debutante Prudence Thorogood lost everything when she was ousted from polite society, including her inheritance. Now she’ll do anything to take back what’s hers… even if she has to steal it. Accepting a scandalous offer from Lord Savage seems like the perfect solution to disguise her criminal intentions from the ton. Until she discovers that there’s more to this scoundrel than meets the eye.
Leo Ramsgate, Marquess of Savage, has everything except for a heart. That organ dried up long ago after a devastating betrayal. Since then, he vowed never to trust or love again. He ensures that his dalliances are mutually satisfying, but always temporary… until he meets the reserved Miss Thorogood. Not one of his previous lovers has ever beguiled him the way she does. Not one has made him want to break his own rules. Not one has tempted him to keep her… forever.
Prue has every intention of disappearing from London after their affair ends. But her plan falters when she finds herself falling hopelessly in love with a man who may never love her in return. With time running out and so much at stake, she cannot help but wonder…
Crow in the Snow
Feb. 6th, 2026 03:51 pmbookscorpion posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
common_nature
I took a bunch of really nice photos of the crow army today - with the light reflecting from the snow, the details of their feathers come out so beautifully. Look at how blue/purple the big feathers are, edged by black, compared to the dark black of the smaller head feathers.
This is the boldest of them. He stayed juuuust out of arm's reach but didn't mind me kneeling down and stretching my arm out at him. He miiiight be Mr Roadside Pair but I don't think so, I think he is smaller.,,,
In which there are monstrous turnips (what, you want more than that?!)
Feb. 6th, 2026 02:30 pmspiralsheepScience! Always read the notes. Scientists hide all the funny stuff in the notes. From page 40 of 67 pages of notes, bottom of a long note 27 for chapter 8:
"In 1849, through exchange, Higgins gave the Yorkshire Museum 'fossil fishes from Lyme Regis'. Annual Report of the Council of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society for 1849, 20 (as well as donating a 'Turnip presenting a singular monstrosity of form' to the botany collections)."
Monstrous turnip! :D
Reading: on book 21. If anyone wants me to post a monthly list of my 4/5 and 5/5 books then please apply in writing to the management &c.
Friday Five:
( Q1-4. )
5. What does it take to make you happy?
The chain of tiny everyday pleasures: cozy bed, daylight, hot drinks that are absolutely perfect in their moment, truly soft comfy old clothes, whatever the plants are doing this week (e.g. mistletoe spheres high in bare branches), my birb neighbours (get out of my chimney you jackdaw b@$t@rd5! Note to self - get capping pot replaced), my human neighbours acknowledging each other but not intruding when in our shared spaces, the bus queue chats, &c.
Ecstatic joy is a wonderful bonus but I don't need it.
"In 1849, through exchange, Higgins gave the Yorkshire Museum 'fossil fishes from Lyme Regis'. Annual Report of the Council of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society for 1849, 20 (as well as donating a 'Turnip presenting a singular monstrosity of form' to the botany collections)."
Monstrous turnip! :D
Reading: on book 21. If anyone wants me to post a monthly list of my 4/5 and 5/5 books then please apply in writing to the management &c.
Friday Five:
( Q1-4. )
5. What does it take to make you happy?
The chain of tiny everyday pleasures: cozy bed, daylight, hot drinks that are absolutely perfect in their moment, truly soft comfy old clothes, whatever the plants are doing this week (e.g. mistletoe spheres high in bare branches), my birb neighbours (get out of my chimney you jackdaw b@$t@rd5! Note to self - get capping pot replaced), my human neighbours acknowledging each other but not intruding when in our shared spaces, the bus queue chats, &c.
Ecstatic joy is a wonderful bonus but I don't need it.
Friday Videos Like Irving Berlin
Feb. 6th, 2026 01:00 pmsmartbitches_feedI’m going to need to make a logo for Friday Videos, huh? Suggestions welcome!
This week’s Friday Video comes from Varian via the podcast Patreon Discord, and when I say I sent to everyone I know, I mean every person I could think of.
Please welcome Lizzy and the Triggermen performing Irving Berlin’s 1941 chart, “When That Man is Dead and Gone.”
You’ll want the good speakers for this one.
I also found a recording from April 2, 1941 featuring Al Bowlly and Jimmy Mesene, “Radio Stars with Two Guitars.”
Glenn Miller and His Orchestra also recorded it, as did Mildred Bailey and The Delta Rhythm Boys.
I love the Mildred Bailey version. I think I’ve listened to it six times this hour.
Happy weekend, everyone, and enjoy the Bad Bunny concert!
And, speaking of, a bonus video!
For those who are in Canada, and especially for those who are still moving around all this snow concrete, please enjoy this parody of Bad Bunny’s “NUEVAYoL” by Carlos Bolivar: INVIELnO!
It’s in Spanish, but here’s the first verse translated (badly) by me:
“If you want to be depressed
with sadness and pain
you only have to live
a winter in Canada.
If you want to freeze
with sadness and pain
you only have to spend
a winter in Canada.”
May your snacks be excellent and may your toes be warm!