About Jessica

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  What to do with visiting teen in Seattle?

  0 0 If he's into EMP, take him to Viretta Park on Lake Washington Blvd and point out the former home of Kurt and Courtney next door. You could do a "death tour" and hit Hendrix in Renton, then Viretta Park, and finish with Bruce and Brandon Lee's graves at Lakeview Cemetery. If you're willing to take a day, you could do a day trip to Whidbey Island and go to Fort Casey State Park and walk around-- even if he's not into military history, it's pretty cool to climb through the bunkers and look at the ocean. Afterwards, get lunch or an early dinner in Coupeville, then catch the ferry back. Jessica answered in Other Entertainment about 1 year ago Answer, comment & read 7 more answers »

• Follow Following 1 I just found a mortgage default notice taped to my door addressed to my landlord. Now what do I do? Jessica asked in Other - Finance & Legal about 1 year ago 4 Answers by Kip Waddle, asteria , capicola…

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  Recommendations for a wedding songs?

  2 0 My processional was the Chris Cornell version of "Ave Maria", our recessional was James Brown's "I Got You (I Feel Good)", and our first dance was Mark Lanegan's "I'll Take Care of You". I got a smartmouthed comment from my mom about "Ave Maria" ("you know that's about a virgin, right?"), but whatever, it fit us and our life together very well. Jessica answered in Weddings about 1 year ago Answer, comment & read 13 more answers »

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  best wedding reception venues in Seattle?

  1 0 It's been almost eight years, but I still get compliments on our wedding/reception: we held it at the Seattle Aquarium. Ceremony was on the back of the pier at sunset, the reception was primarily held in the tide pool room, and the DJ set up the dance floor in the underwater dome, but music was also piped in to the tide pool room. We had a lot of family and friends with kids attending, and the aquarium provided staff at the tide pools to talk to guests about the animals. Jessica answered in Weddings about 1 year ago Answer, comment & read 5 more answers »

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  Mothers versus Freddy: Its tuna good for pregnant women or not? "They" say oily fish are good...but don't eat them because of the mercury? Huh?

  0 0 What I've gathered from pregnancy-safety.info is that for most tuna, the recommended limit is three 6-oz servings per month. Which is hard, because it's been a steady craving throughout my pregnancy. Jessica answered in Little Fishies about 1 year ago Answer, comment & read 4 more answers »

• Comment on emily's answer…

  1 0 Julia Quinn's historicals (find her Bridgerton family books) are great "gateway" romances-- she's got witty dialog and believable characters. I also really suggest Loretta Chase (Lord of Scoundrels or Miss Wonderful) are also good "gateway" romance novels. A friend suggested Jennifer Ashley's The Madness of Lord Ian Mckenzie to me and I blew through it last weekend-- the heroine is a widow, the hero has what seems to be high-functioning Asperger's, and it's set later in the 19th century (there's bustles and trains mentioned) than most historicals I read. I loved the very non-traditional twists on the main characters, and I thought the hero's experience with Asperger's was well-written. Laura Kinsale does wonderful historical romances, but damn, they're usually pretty intense. For contemporaries, I loved Lisa Kleypas' contemporaries (a trilogy about a Texas oil family, start with Smooth-Talking Stranger and watch out for the domestic violence in Blue-Eyed Stranger), and Jennifer Crusie is always a good bet. I also liked Victoria Dahl's contemporaries set in Colorado. To stretch it a bit into YA, Megan McCafferty's Sloppy Firsts/Jessica Darling series is great, very funny and a five-book series about Jessica Darling and her on-again-off-again relationship with her boyfriend/not-boyfriend. Nora Roberts, while very much a cliche, writes some good romances-- I'm working through Montana Sky and I can see why she's one of the most-purchased authors in history. She's also active in the romance community and quick to call out less-desirable aspects of it (the 80s rape-tacular romances, the insistence that every heroine be a virgin whose magic hoo-ha is the only cure for the hero's wandering mighty wang). I second the suggestion to hit up Smart Bitches, and, if you want a good and irreverent overview of romances, they have a book called Beyond Heaving Bosoms that's available through SPL. When I can't find something to read, I hit their A reviews and work my way through: http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/categories/category/reviews_by_grade_a/ Out of the pink ghetto, Jane Austen and High Fidelity are great romances. Remember, basically any book in which two people meet and fall in love can be called a romance, it just depends on how much of the story it takes up. Jessica commented about 1 year ago

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  I'm looking for some excellent YA literature - what would you recommend?

  0 0 A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray! Have you read the most recent Weetzie book (Necklace of Kisses) or FLB's "adult" novel, Quakeland? My favorite YA rec that I haven't seen here (Sloppy Firsts is my all-time favorite) is Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison-- it's the first in a series of ten and the narrator is a gloriously bratty and self-centered 14-year-old British schoolgirl. Jessica answered in Book Recommendations about 1 year ago Answer, comment & read 11 more answers »

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  I need some distraction!

  2 0 Have you tried Anne Bishop's Daughter of the Blood? It doesn't info-dump about the world in the first 50 pages-- you have to keep reading to figure out how it works-- but it's a matriarchal society in which the god-king figure is Satan. The female characters are strong, sometimes fucked-up, and the male characters are the same. What about Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Dart? Sexy courtesan spy in an alternate-history Europe with a very detailed world. The first trilogy (Kushiel's Dart, Kushiel's Chosen, and Kushiel's Avatar) are great fun, the second trilogy has just as interesting characters but is a bit more formulaic, and the third and current trilogy is... best for die-hard readers. Are you into urban fantasy-type stuff? Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire books are what True Blood is based on, and Sookie is much more fun in print. Each book is 300 pages or less, there's ten of them, and they're great kill-an-afternoon books. Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson books (about a mechanic in the Tri-Cities who can turn into a coyote) are also pretty good, and Mercy is not a great fighter-- she gets her ass kicked but is usually more of the run-and-hide type. These aren't quite in line with the authors mentioned, but you did want light and interesting female characters, and that's often what draws me into a series. Jessica answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago Answer, comment & read 8 more answers »

• Comment on hayden's answer…

  1 0 I bookmarked that list! I just finished The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, and it wrecked me. It's about the last "innocent" in an all-male world, and his discovery of what actually happened and his attempted escape from his community-appointed fate. I sobbed through the last 30 pages because I'm a softy, but it was amazing and I've shoved it at everyone I know that loved The Hunger Games. Jessica commented about 1 year ago

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  Books whose content doesn't match their reading level?

  6 0 I was that precocious 8-year-old reader and my parents let me read almost anything that wasn't by Jackie Collins that I could get my hands on. I would definitely suggest L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables (and the seven sequels), as well as any of her other books-- I'm 30 and I still turn to Marigold or Pat for comfort reading. You could also try Frances Hodgon Burnette's A Little Princess or The Secret Garden, or any of the books by Jean Craighead George (there is an attempted rape in Julie of the Wolves, but I didn't pick up on it when I read it in elementary school). If she's into fantasy-ish books, Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn is thoughtful but not overly-adult. I'd also suggest pointing her towards Tamora Pierce's fantasy novels, most of which feature female protagonists who fight gender restrictions. There is some very muted sex in the third Alanna book (and it's not with the man she ends up marrying), but it didn't phase me when I read them. Patricia Wrede's Dealing with Dragons series is great, as is anything by Jane Yolen. She could also try some of the fairy tale retellings from Robin McKinley (be wary of Deerskin, as it freaked me out when I read it at 14). Honestly, my parents were less picky about what I picked up-- I remember my mom yelling at a book fair lady who told seven-year-old me I was too young to read an Ellen Emerson White book. Mom felt that if I thought I could read it, I could certainly try. That attitude came to an end pretty quickly when I was twelve and found the trashy romances at the public library, though. Jessica answered in Books & Writing about 1 year ago Answer, comment & read 8 more answers »

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