These are a few of my favorite things...right now

1. Melanie Shankle's new book.  Cannot even tell you how excited I am to read this.  Watch the amazing trailer here.  Click here to pre-order on Amazon.  (Why do they have pre-order available for Kindle?  I'm really not that worried about them running out of digital copies...)

2. The Barenaked Ladies' and Michael Bublé's song, "Elf's Lament."  I'm pretty sure it's what started the 99 percenter elves thinking about moving from the workshop to shelves.  Watch / listen here.  The album it's from, by the way, is my favorite holiday Pandora station:

3. Have you heard of Scribd?  I put it on my phone and have found some great reads that aren't available through my town's digital library and that I wouldn't have bought to avoid risking paying for a book I wasn't sure about.  The first great book I found there was Rookie Dad by David Jacobsen.  Hilarious.  Endearing.  Side note:  Howard says he's going to write a book about being a new Dad called "It's Downstairs."  The sequel will be, "Oh Nope - It's Upstairs."

And I also found this little gem on Scribd:  The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester.  It's a true story and the description detailing the interconnected trails of dictionary making (yes, dictionary making) and murder was just too intriguing / hilarious-but-probably-not-intended-to-be to pass up.  But then again, if I had to make a dictionary, I can see how murder would play into it.

Happy holiday weekend all!