Fandom: THE OFFICE
Pairing: Jim/Mark (Jim/Pam)
Author on LJ: annakovsky
Author Website: annakovsky.com
Why this must be read: Hot, sad post-Casino Night fic; Jim's heartbroken and his roommate Mark just wants to help. I love how boy this feels: video games and drinking and when life just sucks.

"By the time they finish the game, they're completely wasted. Final score: Mark, 71, Jim, 6."

Things Jim Can't Remember

Fandom: YU YU HAKUSHO
Pairing: Hina/Hiei's dad
Author on LJ: n/a
Author Website: n/a
Why this fic must be read:

YYH fandom has dozens of stories about Hiei's quest for his sister and how being cast out as a Forbidden Child shaped his life. What we don't see a lot of are stories telling the other sides of the story.

Windswift shows us Hina after losing her child, and Yukina after forsaking her own people. She poses an interesting theory on why the Ice Maidens are so fiercely insular and gives us a vivid glimpse at how the birth of this child could have affected the women around him to the point that one died, and the other became determined to destroy her entire race.

( Read more... )

Fandom: The Pretender
Pairing: Jarod/Miss Parker
Author on LJ: anr
Author's Website: angstnromance.net

Why this must be read:

Ness has been writing Jarod and Parker for years, all about their sharp corners and the ways they clash, and always displays how fabulously they work together (when they both have the same goals in mind), even as they hate one another.

An Excerpt:

He's sitting on the floor in her kitchen when she gets home, his back against the pantry door.

"I swept," he says. "The house is clean."

"So domestic." Her suit is worth more than a small car; she doesn't join him on the floor.

Child's Play

Fandom: THE OFFICE
Pairing: Pam/Roy, Jim/Pam
Author on LJ: spamdilemma
Author Website: del.icio.us
Why this must be read: Gorgeously precise late-season two Pam, addressing her life in the wake of "Conflict Resolution". I love how this paints her relationship with Roy, both years ago and now, and how Jim figures in. All the little everyday pieces that fit together. Plus the writing somehow manages to be both spare and detailed; it packs a punch, gives Pam the complexity she deserves, and the reader a sense of promise.

"But Roy's talking over the radio, talking over her, and they're going so fast on an empty road. He laughs at his own punchline, one hand tapping against the steering wheel and the other gripping the back of her seat, and this is her life nine years back and forever ahead."

Try Not to Breathe

*sigh* So, there have been visiting relatives, and formatting issues, and now I appear to have lost portions of this overview, but I should be able to recover or rewrite them soon. In the meantime... Done! Please enjoy this...




Welcome to Twin Peaks



She’s dead. Wrapped in plastic.
—Pete Martell

Before Lost, Veronica Mars, or The X-Files, there was Twin Peaks. The brainchild of television writer/editor Mark Frost and film director/screenwriter David Lynch, the series was like nothing else on the air at the time: a mix of murder mystery, soap opera, slapstick, surrealism, science fiction, and horror that celebrated and subverted genre clichés. The music and cinematography were distinctive. The scripts were packed with references and non sequiturs. The cast was a mix of Lynch regulars, newcomers, and veterans emerging from “Where Are They Now?” obscurity. If ever a show was made to attract a cult following, it was this one.

Twin Peaks debuted in 1990 on ABC to incredible media coverage and strong ratings. For a while, it seemed like everyone in the country was asking, “Who killed Laura Palmer?” Unfortunately, the show lost momentum in the second season — Lynch and Frost were preoccupied with other projects, and the premature revelation of the murderer’s identity (at the network’s insistence) left writers scrambling to fill the gap. Many fans would argue that the series was rallying toward the end, but it was too little, too late. Although a write-in campaign spearheaded by an organization called Citizens Opposing the Offing of Peaks, or C.O.O.P, persuaded the network to air all of the completed episodes, it couldn’t save the show from the ax.

Fortunately, it’s not in the nature of fandom to let a little thing like cancellation stop it.

---

( It’s about secrets. — David Lynch )

Fandom: SUPERMAN
Pairing: Superman/Lois
Author on LJ: bodeewan
Author Website: Bodeewan's Sanctuary
Why this must be read: Good sex is all about engaging the mind, right? Then this psychological examination of Superman's emotional relationship with Lois Lane is very, very good. In this six-part series, bodeewan constructs a believable back-story that heightens the romantic tension between a man who's attracted to a woman, but fearful of the consequences of giving in to that emotion, and a woman who has to revise her "full steam ahead" philosophy in order to make a real connection with the man she loves. The intimate encounter slowly unfolds as they each struggle with their insecurities and presuppositions in a compelling, emotionally honest manner.

Precipice Part I
( links for parts II-VI )

Fandom: GETBACKERS
Pairing: Natsumi/Ban
Author on LJ: jmtorres
Author's Website: none
Why this must be read: Because it's fun to torture Ban! And he should have known better, really. This fic is anime-verse, set shortly after Episode 26 - if you're a manga reader, that's the anime version of the Hot Springs Episode; in that version Paul and Natsumi drag themselves to the resort with Ban and Ginji, and Natsumi proceeeds to beat everyone's ass at table tennis. She bets Paul a payraise and wins three times, then she bets Ban a month of lunches vs. "whatever you want". This was perhaps ill-advised on Ban's part. Hee heee.

"Why this?" Ban asked.

Natsumi's face emerged as she finished towelling her hair off. She unbelted the white bathrobe the hotel had provided. "Hevn-san said you had a forked tongue."

Ban blinked. "She meant I lie. All the time."

(untitled)