#5FandomFriday - Make-Up Friday - Geeky Clothing and Accessories I Need

5 Fandom Friday is a weekly prompt challenge hosted by The Nerdy Girlie and Super Space Chick. This week, our prompt is "favorite stores to get geeky wears/wares." My answers to that question were very boring... um, Barnes and Noble? Campus bookstores? Instead, I'm revisiting an early prompt I missed - Geeky Clothing Items I Need Want In My Life.

1. Uhura's earrings - In the new Star Trek movies, Nyota Uhura (Zoe Saldana) accessorizes her Starfleet uniform with Alexis Bittar earrings that look suitably futuristic. I've been obsessed with these for a while now - such a subtle bit of geekery!

2. Sunnydale tee - Another subtle way to participate in fandom - anyone who's a Buffy fan would instantly recognize and appreciate this Sunnydale tee from Redbubble, anyone else will just think it's a high school they've never heard of.

3. Marauder's Map shoes - I'm not sure if I've ever shopped at Hot Topic, and I totally missed the point when it shifted from being a Goth kid store to a haven for geeks! These Harry Potter Marauder's Map sneakers are amazing.

4. Empire Strikes Back tank - Junk Food has a great collection of Star Wars tees, and this tank is so retro and cool. I would wear it to the gym, around town, and probably even try wearing it with a cardigan to school.

5. Raven Boys tee - Emgrav is a Society6 designer who creates quirky art based on Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Cycle books, and this tee is my favorite - each of the sketches represents something significant from the story, and it somehow manages to be creepy and cute at the same time (just like Blue Sargent's life).

What geeky items are on your wish list? What are the

geekiest things in your closet or jewelry box right now?

valentine's book tag.

Book tags are by far one of my favorite solutions to blogger writing block. When Ashlee from Her Geekery posted her answers to this tag, I knew I had to get on board, even though we're a little past V-Day now.

Standalone Book I Love

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater - Maggie is my favorite YA fantasy author, and in The Scorpio Races she takes the Celtic myth of the water horse and creates a tiny, magical world: the island of Thisby, where brave and foolish men race the dangerous creatures each November. The main character, Puck, is a tomboy who dreams of racing and hopes to hold her family together.

Dystopian Book I Love

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld - I fell in love with this series while I was still in college and I'm still amazed that it's not more popular. In the society where Tally lives, teenagers receive plastic surgery that makes them perfect and beautiful - but not everyone is on board with the procedure or the society's ideals. I loved that the series is really about Tally's relationships with her friends and how those ties are challenged as teenagers develop their own interests and passions and try to create an "image" for themselves in an world that is obsessed with appearances. I also enjoyed the standalone book Extras, which complements the series and serves as a commentary on our social media addicted society.

A Book That I Love But No One Else Talks About 

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi - This YA science fiction series is romantic and creative - Aria, a girl from the most technologically advanced part of society, where life is lived basically in virtual reality and people are protected from the elements, must brave the wilderness to find her missing mother. She meets and falls in love with Peregrine, who lives in a tribal society "Dwellers" like Aria consider savage. The worldbuilding, and the romance between Aria and Perry, are so compelling, and this series deserves just as much acclaim and fame as The Hunger Games and Divergent.

My Favorite Book Couple

Jamie and Claire from Outlander by Diana Gabaldon - I don't think I'll ever get tired of gushing about the Outlander series or my darling Mr. and Mrs. Fraser. These two are completely protective of and devoted to each other, and they don't hesitate to put each other in their place when needed. 

They have an electric love that spans time and distance, from the Scottish highlands to the royal court of Paris, and a romance that is both tender and passionate. Diana Gabaldon is one of few authors that can get me to read 800+ pages at a time, and I keep coming back for more.

A Book That Other People Love But I Haven’t Gotten Around To Reading

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson - I added this book to my to-be-read list after listening to Kristin from My Life as a Teacup's review on her YouTube channel. Just based on the cover art alone, it looks awesome, and the fact that it's about a supervillain's sidekick is so creative and unique - as much as I love swords and sorcery, I always enjoy sarcastic takes on the genre. I suppose until I do finally get my hands on the book, I should check out the original webcomic by Noelle Stevenson.

A Book with Red on the Cover

The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank - One of my all-time favorites, I discovered this bildungsroman, in the form of a collection of short stories, when I was in college, and the timing was perfect because I identified so much with a lot of what the main character, Jane, was going through. In the book, she deals with childhood friendships, changing relationships with her parents and brother, her first career in publishing, and several relationships. Bank's writing style is simple and funny, and Jane's voice came through as if the book was a memoir.

A Book with Pink on the Cover

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling - The book of essays that officially made me want to be Mindy Kaling's best friend. From her lack of athletic ability, to her move to New York, to "types of women in romantic comedies who are not real," to Irish exits, I laughed out loud so many times while reading this one The fact that I cannot currently call Mindy Kaling from my bathtub and share stories and giggles with her proves that we live in a fundamentally unjust world.

You Were Given A Box Of Chocolate, What Fictional Boyfriend Would Have Given Them To You?

Carswell Thorne from the Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer - Although the chocolates would probably be stolen and Captain Thorne would surely have some sort of ulterior motive in giving them to me, how can anyone resist a character who is basically a younger, sassier version of Malcolm Reynolds?

You Are In The Book Store, All Of A Sudden You Get Shot With An Arrow By Cupid. What New Release Will You Love? 

Nicole Burstein's Othergirl - this book came out in 2015 and sounds adorable. From Goodreads: "Louise and Erica have been best friends since forever. They're closer than sisters and depend on each other for almost everything. Just one problem: Erica has superpowers. When Erica isn't doing loop-the-loops in the sky or burning things with her heat pulse powers, she needs Louise to hold her non-super life together. After all, the girls still have homework, parents and boys to figure out. But being a superhero's BFF is not easy, especially as trouble has a way of seeking them out. Soon Louise discovers that Erica might be able to survive explosions and fly faster than a speeding bullet, but she can't win every fight by herself. Life isn't a comic book - it's even crazier than that."

lately in entertainment.

lately in entertainment - winter 2016

books.

The Mermaid's Sister - This book was charming in a way that reminded me of being read to as a child, and if the main character was a squirrel living in a dollhouse or the main character had a pet alligator I didn't question those things. It's a whimsical fantasy set in America in the 1800's (I think) and very different from the action-packed, dark paranormal romances that are so popular right now - it reminded me of Alice Hoffman's writing. The main character, innocent sixteen-year-old Clara, was dropped at her Auntie's mountain cottage by a stork, or so Auntie says. Her beautiful sister Maren, according to the stories Auntie tells, arrived in a seashell. Auntie just so happens to be a hedge witch with a pet wyvern. Though the family keeps to themselves to avoid freaking out the locals, they eagerly await visits from Scarff, an old trader with a wagon full of wonderful things, and his adopted son O'Neill, suddenly grown-up and handsome. Their cozy, offbeat lives are interrupted when Maren starts to become a mermaid - first, scales appear on her skin, then her legs begin to fuse into fins, and finally, she begins to shrink. Worried that she will die without the sea, Clara and O'Neill set out with Maren in a washtub. Along the way, they become tangled up with a traveling circus sideshow, its owners intent on keeping Maren as a star attraction, and Clara and O'Neill must outwit their captors. All the while, Clara struggles with her newfound feelings for O'Neill and her anxiety that she herself will someday become a stork and fly away.

Winter - I'd been waiting anxiously for the last book in the Lunar Chronicles series - Marissa Meyer had left us with so many cliffhangers in the third book, Cress, and added layers to the story in the prequel, Fairest. I've loved the way she weaves together the little details from each of the classic fairy tales - even the ones I'd forgotten since childhood - in a science fiction setting. I can't say much about the plot of Winter without giving away spoilers for the rest of the series. At the end of Cress, one character had been taken prisoner, another blinded, and Cinder had just added kidnapping to her list of crimes. This book's new character, Princess Winter, is Meyer's space-opera version of Snow White. She is beautiful, kind, scarred, and quite possibly insane - a side effect of her constant effort to suppress her inherited Lunar gift, mind control. Together, the characters must work to lead an uprising and defeat their common enemy, the evil Lunar Queen Levana. This book was filled with action, crazy plans that almost always went awry, Meyer's cheeky, Whedonesque humor, and enough romance to keep every ship afloat (Cress and Thorne 4EVA, y'all). There were a few times when I thought the book was almost over and then got surprised by how many pages were left (824 total)! I have loved this series, I'm very excited that it's been optioned for film, and I can't wait to see what Marissa Meyer does next.

Throne of Glass - I didn't fall into a funk after reading Winter because I quickly found a new YA series to obsess over, and I've been recommending it to all my fellow adult YA and fantasy lovers! I'd read about the Throne of Glass series on a few blogs and had actually had the first book sitting on my Kindle for a while, but hadn't been able to get into it. I finally pushed myself to get past the first few chapters, and I'm so glad I did! Here's the story: the main character, Celaena Sardothien, has been serving a brutal sentence in a salt mine when she is summoned by the captain of the king's guard and taken to the royal court. Formerly the most infamous assassin in the kingdom, Calaena has been chosen by the prince to compete in a contest the king is holding to choose a new Champion. By accepting, Calaena agrees to serve the king whose armies destroyed her people's homeland and way of life by outlawing magic - in exchange for her eventual freedom. Though she's been hardened by her years as a killer and abuse in the mines, Calaena begins to open up to Crown Prince Dorian, the captain of the guard who becomes her trainer and coach, and the mysterious foreign princess who has come to stay at court despite the tenuous balance between her country's freedom and the king's goal of complete domination.She also discovers that while magic may be illegal, it definitely isn't extinct. As

her opponents begin to fall victim to mysterious murders, Celaena and her newfound allies have to act quickly to investigate what evil is at work within the glass castle. I feel like Stefon from SNL when I tell people about Throne of Glass - "This series has everything: action, a sassy and intelligent heroine, PUPPIES, a playboy prince, romance, a brooding warrior, SHOPPING, fancy dress balls, swords, a library, magic, ghosts, and a secret passage!" 

movies.

Mockingjay Part 2 - My coworker Shannon and I stuck with our tradition of going to see the Hunger Games movies together after school. The movie does a great job of capturing the truly post-apocalyptic feel of the novel as Katniss, Gale, Peeta and their team make their way through the devastated Capitol to find and kill President Snow. The special and practical effects were great - one of the quirkiest characters from the book, Tigress, came to life perfectly on screen, and the Capitol's monsters were like something from a horror movie. Even though I knew the ending, the movie was full of suspense and included all of my favorite moments from the book.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens - I'm planning on seeing The Force Awakens again in IMAX, and I want to write a more detailed review/analysis after that. As a Star Wars fan since childhood, I was on the edge of my seat from the moment the Lucasfilm logo appeared on the screen, and got chillbumps when the yellow text finished scrolling and the camera dropped through space. A lot of critics have debated whether The Force Awakens is too similar to A New Hope in plot and pacing, but I thought the resonance made the story powerful, and I look forward to seeing Rey, Finn, and Poe continue their journey as the new heroes of the Star Wars universe.

Trainwreck - Finally got to see this total gem of a comedy. LeBron James cracked me up in every scene that he was in, and I was surprised by how actually sweet and real the relationship between Amy Schumer and Bill Hader was - I expected a raunchy comedy, but this one really did have a heart. Plus, no one told me John Cena played Amy's original boyfriend - you guys are all jerks.

Winter's Tale - This one had been lingering on our DVR for a while - I'd thought the trailers looked cool, but hadn't really been in the mood for Colin Farrell riding a pegasus through Victorian-era New York. I'm a sucker for the Victorian era and for magic, so I was quickly drawn in to the story of Farrell's character, a foundling on the run from a gang run by an actual demon played by Russel Crowe, falling in love with a spunky, privileged rich girl (think Rose from Titanic) who is dying of consumption after he tries to rob her house. The story takes a lot of strange turns, some of them kind of delightful (Will Smith plays Lucifer in a Jimi Hendrix t-shirt) and some of them just plain weird (Farrell's character's true love's father finally accepts him because he kept their house's boiler from exploding). While Winter's Tale has many gorgeous scenes and Farrell and Crowe play their characters well, the worldbuilding didn't seem quite solid enough for me to get on board.  I think I want to read the book this one is based on to see if it fills in the obvious gaps in the movie's plot.

What are you loving lately? Leave your recommendations in the comments!

my december in instagram with #5FFPhoto

I love Instagram - more than anything, it's the fastest way to document day-to-day life as it's happening - perfect for days that are too busy for journaling or blogging and adventures so spontaneous they don't get written on a calendar. This fall, I'd slacked off a little on my Instagramming, so I decided I needed a photo-a-day challenge to get me back on track. December photo-a-days are my favorite anyway (I'd participated in Fat Mum Slim's in the past), so when I saw that The Nerdie Girlie and Super Space Chick had created a #5FandomFriday photo challenge, #5FFPhoto, with a combination of festive and geeky prompts, I was all in. Since I started on December 15th, my photos were originally posted out of order, and I took two or three a day to get caught up. Here are Days 1-29 in order of the challenge prompts!

I hope you all had a warm, cozy, and joyful holiday 

season. Best wishes to you for a Happy 2016!