Welcome to 2019! Are you excited for the new year? Ready for it to be over? I finished my first Tessa Dare on January 1st. Here’s hoping I can keep that reading momentum because I felt like 2018 was a major reading slump for me.
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We all have our favorite Disney heroes. But I think we all have an appreciation for Fox Animation’s Anastasia and its hero, Dimitri. BuzzFeed has a tribute post for this cutie.
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Read It Forward has “reading horoscopes” for your zodiac signs. I’m an Aries and I liked most of what they recommended for me. What about you?
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Love cats? What about “ugly” adoptable cats? Then you might enjoy this tag on Tumblr. Fingers crossed that these kitties find their forever homes!
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I’m on the latest podcast episode of Not Now, I’m Reading! I’ve been Twitter friends with the hosts, Chelsea and Kay, for a while now. And it was so much fun finally getting together with them and talking about books. I hope you’ll give the episode a listen and check out the rest of their eps!
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Over the holiday break, I learned that Kelly Clarkson is the daughter-in-law of country music superstar, Reba McEntire. McEntire was part of this year’s Kennedy Center Honors and Clarkson performed a stunning cover of “Fancy”. I will admit that though I’m not much of a country music fan, McEntire’s music always reminds me of spending summers in my family’s pool while her songs played on the radio.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUZFhJCk6Ws
If you want more awesomeness, Cher was honored this year as well. Cyndi Lauper performed an amazing cover, but apparently, Cher had invited Lauper to the ceremony and she had lied about being out of town to surprise her.
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Don’t forget to share what super cool things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
The Pisces book recommendations were a drag (hurry up on that forecasted job, though, because the end of this month is looking grim financially…), but my moon and rising sign are Capricorn and, as is frequently the case, those recs were more my speed: an RBG biography, BLACK IS THE BODY by Emily Bernard (essays), and FOUR DEAD QUEENS by Astrid Scholte (YA fantasy). I’m going through the rest of those posts on a book discovery mission, stars be damned…
Although I don’t place much stock in astrology, the Libra recommendation that I seem most likely to read is Sally Rooney’s NORMAL PEOPLE.
Also, for old crones like me, “Fancy” can only mean the inimitable Bobbi Gentry:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8OLWp1xT9EA
I grew up in the ’90s and listened to country radio, so I’ve known and loved Reba’s version of “Fancy” since I was too young to understand the subject. So glad you linked to the Kelly Clarkson video; she did a fantastic job with it.
Welp, I don’t care about any books but romance so that horoscope thing failed XD
Thanks for mentioning your podcast guesting! I thought that podcast was dormant because player fm was showing it last updated 38 weeks ago, but since you mentioned it I searched again and got a more up to date feed! Huzzah!
I’ve seen Reba perform “Fancy” at least three times and have yet to figure out how she changed dresses mid-song. Kelly did a great job.
Those Virgo reading recs sound intriguing – I haven’t been reading a lot of non-fiction lately, so I’ll have to look into the recommended titles! Actually, I haven’t been reading much lately at all, so I could use some variety to break out of that slump.
I didn’t listen to a lot of country music growing up in the 90s. But Reba’s album Rumor Has It was one of the first cds I every bought with my own money. All because I was obsessed with the song “Fancy”. I love that song.
Yes, the Virgo reading recommendations do look interesting. The rest of my horoscope looks to be coming true in surprising ways already and this year is just getting started. Lol.
@DiscoDollyDeb: I agree regarding Fancy and Bobby Gentry. And I may be an old soul, but not chronologically. Lol. I discovered it because of a deep love of music of that era. I’ll check out Clarkson’s version.
Amanda-your first Tessa Dare! I found her through this website, years ago-and then worked my way through all her books. The humor in her books is what really caught me, I remember laughing out loud and thinking “I really need to read more romance books!”.
Thank you for that link to the Kennedy Center Honors. I’m a fairly recent Kelly Clarkson fan, I love her voice. One of my favorite things were the shots of the audience, it was great how into it they were.
As a resourceful Scorpio, the book recommendations pretty much left me cold. But I do enjoy travel & photography, so “My Tiny Atlas” is right up my alley. Preordered the paperback!
@DiscoDollyDeb & @Stefanie, check out Episode 004 of https://cocaineandrhinestones.com/bobbie-gentry-exit-stage-left. Very interesting podcast on Bobbie Gentry.
I always had a thing for Dmitri in Anastasia. Last year my daughter’s ballet class danced to Once Upon a December and I used that as an excuse to get tickets for the Anastasia musical over holiday break! I missed the John Cusack voice, but the character translated well to the stage. In fact, total swoonworthy scene added in where he remembers seeing her as a child in a parade (musical is different–no rasputin)
@Lorene Tolleson:
Already listened at least once maybe twice. I’ve listened to all the podcasts in that season, and I’m waiting impatiently for him to produce a second one. I may have mentioned this podcast on recommendation threads here. I’m also a bit of a fan of music history and history in general so straight up my street on all counts.
If you don’t like the suggested horoscope book list you could see if judging your sign by the astronomically exact date the the sun is in each constellation region, rather than usual astrological approximation. For example, by astrological convention Aquarius is Jan. 20-Feb. 18, but by the stars it is Feb. 16-March 11. To be sure, both those methods, in my case, give me results that sound like a lot of bunk.
To my eyes there is no such thing as an ugly cat. They are all sweet kitties who need just a little more TLC.
I lost my sole mate kitty Boo two years ago this Christmas and my heart is still broken. But I have a special soft spot for the unwanted.
Amazing covers (musically speaking)
Even though Kennedy Center seemed a bit less exuberant than last year’s (understandably so), you’re spot-on about the performances. The real highlight for me was Adam Lambert’s deconstruction of “Believe” into a somber ballad–I was only marginally aware of him as a non-AMERICAN IDOL watcher, and my jaw literally dropped at how good he was. (Someone needs to release a download somewhere ASAP.)