When folks think of James Bond, a lot of things can come to mind: a finely tailored tuxedo complete with cuffs; a vodka martini shaken, not stirred, and with a lemon twist if youre a literary purist; or sometimes just beautiful women in an exotic locale. Whatever vice or trapping you imagine for the character, chances are all of the above involves excitement. Action! Its been the appeal of the character from the very beginning when he sprang from author Ian Flemings typewriter.Yet the literary James Bond, it should be noted, is not the cinematic superhero he inspired. Flemings original 007 of the page was grittier, often meaner, and frankly more of a snob. But even then, he was still a fantasy alter-ego for the former lieutenant-commander of Her Majestys Royal Navythe guy introduced in the opening paragraphs of Casino Royale (1952) covered in cigarette smoke in the wee small hours of the morning in a French casino where he was about to win big.Which is why its so shocking, and perhaps illuminating, to see how Fleming ultimately reveals Bonds idea of an active Christmas Day near the opposite end of the authors literary output. While for most of Bonds career in Flemings lifetimewhich spanned 12 novels and two short storiesthe characters home life was notoriously kept circumspect, near the end of the road, the author was becoming a little more interested in exploring 007 as a man and an individual. He wanted to put more reality into the fantasy.This was most apparent in On Her Majestys Secret Service (1963), the second to last finished and published Bond novel in Flemings lifetime, and the one that is now celebrated for being among the most thrilling and despairing of the books. This is, after all, the adventure where Bond meets the love of his life, Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo (the future Tracy Bond). He marries her and loses her to his arch rival Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the same book, but not before some pretty dicey exploits along the Swiss Alps where Bond must escape Blofelds clutches on Christmas Eve by way of a hair-raising ski chase that ends with Tracy secreting James away to the sound of Christmas music.This sequence, it should be said, is recreated more or less faithfully in the 1969 film adaptation of On Her Majestys Secret Service, which leans into the holiday setting with an original Christmas song written by John Barry and Hal David. Yet even in one of the few Bond movies bold enough to end on a downer after Tracy is murdered on her wedding day, the film still glosses over the minute particulars that make the literary On Her Majestys Secret Service so revealing. Sure, a Christmas Eve chase across ski slopes is exciting but what about the day after such shenanigans when the cold light of (Christmas) Day arrives like some ghost haunting Ebenezer Scrooge? That is where the book truly offers a window into Bonds world and perhaps Flemings as well.A Very James Bond ChristmasWhile Fleming deliberately leaves vague what 007s Christmas plans might have been if he wasnt roped into infiltrating Blofelds winter sports stronghold, this omission might be the actual point. A character created to be a vicarious window into a world of high stakes espionage, glamour, and sex never needs to be home for Christmas because when he is the reality is so much more telling.Indeed, the chapters in question set on Christmas Day begin with Bond arriving from the airport out of Zrich, still reeling from his near-death experience and what might be construed as second thoughts about proposing marriage to Tracy earlier that morning (on the flight to London, he has a nightmare about attending a swanky aristocratic function with Tracy in top hat and tails). But thats all spur of the moment excitement. Reality sets in once back at home where he has no one to see him home for Christmas, save for his secretary Mary Goodnight.In the books, Miss Goodnight is far closer to what fans of the Bond movies might expect from Miss Moneypenny; she is Bonds office confidant and flirting partner, and the one who reprimands 007 at the airport by saying, As youre wrecking so many other peoples Christmases, I thought I might as well throw mine on the slag-heap with the others. Truthfully, she enjoys the distraction from lunch with her aunt, but the fact James can only condescend to her about not being home to stir the plum pudding (something she did weeks ago), reveals how little James knows about actual holiday life.Afterward, Mary drives James to first his flat, where he is unaware if his beloved landlady is celebrating Christmas or not, and then to the office where a skeleton crew awaits his debriefing report. Finally, he is shuttled to no less than Ms home in the country, which is revealed to be a stately little Regency era house on the Crown Lands by Windsor Forest. Bond spends the drive brooding over whether M got a special deal from Her Majesty as head of the British Secret Service since 007 knows his boss only earns 5,000 a year, which even in 1963 couldnt afford a home so near Windsor Castle.Ultimately, these chapters offer a curious insight into the personal lives of Bond and his employer. The two are perhaps closer than the first several books suggest, with Bond being greeted with an afternoon, James, Happy Christmas and all that, by M. The master of spies is at the time in his study and leisure, working on what we are told is the stock bachelors hobby of painting watercolors of English wild orchids. We are reminded that M was a vice admiral in the Royal Navy before retiring for British Intelligences new, segregated role in the post-World War II era. But he still lives the life of a seaman, if regrettably by trees instead of water. His devoted former chief petty officer, a man named Hammond, even followed M into private life, working with his wife as the great mans valet and chef, respectfully.Hammond is the first one to greet Bond behind a wooden door with a big brass ships bell on its frame (from Ms former command of the HMS Repulse). The situation becomes even faintly comical when, due to James last minute arrival on Christmas, Mrs. Hammond puts out traditional British Christmas crackers for their dinner.Throw them out, M bellows. Give em to the schoolchildren. Ill go so far with Mrs Hammond, but Im damned if Im going to have my dining-room turned into a nursery.So it goes that James and M reveal themselves to be two good old boys in their after-hours, as well as two confirmed bachelors who spend Christmas alternating between Ms study and dining room, each adorned with mementos of their former lives at sea. In the dining room, the walls are decorated by the evolution of the British cutlass; in the study various paintings from different eras of faded imperial glory blanket the surroundings.Everywhere there were mountainous seas, crashing cannon, bellying sails, tattered battle pennants, Bond observed. The fury of ancient engagements, the memories of ancient enemies, the French, the Dutch, the Spaniards, even the Americans. All gone, all friends now with one another. Not a sign of the enemies of today. The two even eventually reminisce about Ms earlier and more illustrious days in a period where Britains superpower status was still undisputed as masters of the waves.Over cigars and coffee, M continued with his stories about the Navy which Bond could listen to all daystories of battles, tornadoes, bizarre happenings, narrow shaves, courts martial, eccentric officers, neatly-worded signals, as when Admiral Somerville, commanding the battleship Queen Elizabeth, had passed the liner Queen Elizabeth in mid-Atlantic and had signalled the one word SNAP! Perhaps it was all just the stuff of boys adventure books, but it was all true and it was about a great navy that was no more and a great breed of officers and seamen that would never be seen again.Read more An Empire in Christmastime TwilightSuch is Flemings window into a festive Yuletide for agent 007 and his boss: two men who had no intention of celebrating Christmas one way or the other, but who find camaraderie while waxing nostalgic about the good ol days on the high sea.On the one hand, this quiet interlude between the action of On Her Majestys Secret Servicean interlude that is unsurprisingly excised from the film adaptationfeels like a concession for Fleming. When the author first created 007, he did so to invent a literary alter-ego who could do all the incendiary, or lascivious, things Fleming might have dreamed about. Yet, nearer the end of his life, the author seemed eager to invest some reality to the loneliness of a life in espionage and public service, two things Fleming knew all too well about.In fact, it is Flemings backstory that gives the sequence its other more intriguing contrast. It is indeed easy to draw a parallel between Bond and M and Flemings own personal relationship with Rear Admiral John Godfrey, the Director of Naval Intelligence during the Second World War, and the officer who recruited Fleming to the Admiralty where the future Bond creator became Godfreys personal assistant. These were two naval officers who were old enough to remember a world before Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinatedif only just so in Flemings case. But while the man who would create James Bond was but a boy when World War I started, Godfrey had been in the Navy for more than a decade, first entering as a cadet in 1903 and then going on to attend school at the HMS Britannia. By the time of the First World War, he was an officer aboard the HMS Euryalus.So while the fairly quiet Christmas at play is a window into Flemings estimation of the life of espionage officers and agents, its unabashedly romantic nostalgia for Ms youth paints a pained longing for the glory of the British Empire, and a time when naval power meant supreme power.More than a hundred years after Godfreys rise in the ranks, its a reminder of the turn of the 20th century imperial values that animated Fleming, and which to this day define the James Bond fantasy he created. And with a cup of coffee, a fine cigar, plus maybe a Christmas cracker or two secreted beneath the table, it has its own kind of antiquated charm to consider. Here is a relic of a bygone age. Merry Christmas, James.

A book is as flattering a gift as can be given. Hey, you! It says, I think youre smart! Against all the odds and distractions, you have the power to tune your brain in to this special frequency that whooshes you right out of Starbucks or off the night bus or your couch cushions or wherever it is youre sitting, and sends you straight into somebody elses imagination. Dude. Dude. Amazing.And thats before the actual book comes into it. Even ahead of your recipient turning to the back cover to see which specific story youve picked out for them because they are smart and cool and you know what they might get a kick out of, theyre already aglow with fellow feeling. If they read the book and love the book, then youve done it. Achievement unlocked. Ten out of ten. A perfect interaction.We cant buy you each the perfect book, but we can recommend the ones we hope youll get a kick out of. So thats what our writers have done below, with our selection of favourites published in 2024. For last years list, see here.I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones (Saga Press)Stephen Graham Jones is the undisputed champion of all things slasher. The author of over 25 books, much of his horror is an ode to the genre made famous in 80s grindhouse movies and the Scream franchise after that. Hes written books on the subject before 2024 also saw the publication of The Angel of Indian Lake, the Grand Guignol finale of his trilogy following final girl Jade Daniels. I Was a Teenage Slasher doesnt retread the same ground and Jones gives the genre new life and new extremely gory deaths by writing from the perspective of the killer. 17-year-old Tolly Driver, growing up and going nowhere in 1989 West Texas, narrates his memoir about that cursed summer when events beyond his control transform him from a lonely headbanging outsider into a mass murderer. Its a poignant, page-turning coming-of-age horror story painted in blood n guts and 80s hair metal. Tollys heartbreaking self-awareness, rich in irony and infused with Jones evocative recreation of a very specific place and time, will have readers wanting to puke, sob, and question what they know of justice. Theresa DeLucciThe Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Hodder & Staughton)Time travel exists. Its here, dont worry about it, the governments handling it. In Kaliane Bradleys excellent debut sci-fi novel (shes also a terrific writer of short stories), the powers that be launch a project not too dissimilar to the plot of Doctor Who serial The War Games and bring a handful of people from various periods of English history to 21st century London. To help the expats assimilate, theyre each paired with a local known as a bridge whos there to interpret the finer points of hygiene, air travel and YouTube, and to explain why 18th century sexual mores and racial slurs arent currently the vibe. Our narrator is a bridge paired with 1847, aka real-life Arctic Explorer Graham Gore, who was lost along with his crewmen in the Franklin expedition of that year. Gore is buttoned-up and scathing about many aspects of modern life, but his enjoyably quick tongue and sense of irony endear him. As does the fact that hes a total snack.This is a deathly clever story not only filled with great writing and wry observations on modern life, Englishness and otherness, but also with a proper mystery plot and a pretty hot love story. Its the complete package, in other words, something the BBC recognised when it ordered a six-part TV adaptation before it was even published. Louisa MellorI Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue (William Morrow)The premise of Natalie Sues sardonic debut nails the surreality of office work, where the stakes can swing from mundane to life-altering. Burnt-out Supershops employee Jolene Smith gets put on probation after its discovered that she appends scathing postscripts (in white text) to her emails. This questionable behavior lands her in sensitivity training with new HR analyst Cliff Redmond but also, through an IT glitch, grants her access to all of her co-workers emails, DMs, and other sensitive interoffice correspondences. Suddenly Jolene can eavesdrop on everyone she not-so-secretly hates, only to discover that they loathe her equally.While Jolene is tempted to go full Office Space and burn it all down, Sue instead plumbs the pathos of this awkward situation, forcing Jolene to confront the consequences of her quiet quitting while also linking back to a traumatic adolescent loss. Its one of the best recent meditations Ive read on how elder Millennials have been shaped to have a toxic relationship with work, while hitting upon whats kept us in these jobs: the people, from flirty romances to the co-workers wed initially written off who it turns out are in the trenches alongside us. Natalie ZutterThe Gods Below by Andrea Stewart (Orbit)There are few fantasy authors creating worlds and magic systems as fascinating or complex as Stewart (author of the critically acclaimed Drowning Empire trilogy). Now, in the first of a new trilogy, she creates a post-apocalyptic setting where mortals burned magical forests to create their civilization until it fell apart. A god has promised the world will be remade, one realm at a time, for the cost of half the lives of the populace; those who remain are transformed. Hakara is determined that she and her sister, impoverished though they are, wont face either pricebut when the pair try to flee into another realm as refugees, only Hakara gets through, leaving young Rasha to fend for herself. Ten years later, Hakara accidentally swallows a god stone and realizes that she can use magic she thought only available to the gods. Determined to be reunited with her sister, she joins rebels in a fight against their supposed savior deity, unaware that her transformed sister has joined that deitys church and taken on the mantle of a godkiller. Stewart delights in twists, and the complicated politics, with sisters on opposite sides of a rebellion, makes it unclear who to root forwhen truly, readers will want to root for them all. This is a strong series opener from one of the must-watch fantasy voices currently writing. Alana Joli AbbottWho says video games cant be educational? Certainly not history professor Tore C. Olsson, who uses Rockstar Games epic Western Red Dead Redemption II to teach a university course about the post-Civil War South. In this well-researched and easily digestible book, history buffs and game fans can follow Arthur Morgans misadventures through the lens of real American history. Red Dead is both praised for its depiction of this unique era of industrialist tycoons, mercenary Pinkertons, and the birth of Jim Crow, and forgiven for its mythmaking around the Wild West. Fans will come away appreciating the depth of Rockstars creative storytelling while learning that Americas true history was often even more violent. The audiobook is particularly perfect for Red Dead fans as its narrated by Roger Clark, the voice and performance actor for Arthur Morgan, who wears his vocal cowboy hat one more time. TDAll the Colours of the Dark by Chris Whittaker (Orion)Like those by Tana French (Dublin Murder Squad) or Jane Harper (The Dry, Exiles), a crime mystery by Chris Whitaker is a non-negotiable thing. Read it and your time wont have been wasted. Whitakers plots are meticulous, his dialogue skips along without ever tripping over itself, and his American settings are vividly drawn no mean feat considering that hes an Englishman who lives in the Home Counties instead of Missouri or Montana. The real draw though, are his characters. In Whitakers prize-winning We Begin at the End, you lost your heart to 13-year-old Duchess, and in All the Colours of the Dark, the same goes for Patch and Saint, the children whose lives become irretrievably marked by an abduction.Spanning several decades, All the Colours of the Dark is Great Expectations-like in scope (and twice its usual size, at 656 pages), and similarly shows how a boy grows into a man, making mistakes and righting them as best he can. Its a mystery thriller that ticks all the crime fiction boxes, while also being a thoughtful, even romantic novel about the lengths people will go to for love. Unputdownable. LMA Magical Girl Retires by Park Seolyeon (HarperVia)Award-winning South Korean novelist Park takes on the magical girl genre with a light tonebut a darkly pointed commentaryin this short novel about finding a place in the world. In debt and so disillusioned with her life that shes ready to end everything, the 29-year-old narrator is saved by destiny in the form of magical girl Ah Roa, a clairvoyant who believes the narrator is the Magical Girl of Time. The only hope for the planet, in the midst of the climate crisis, is for the Magical Girl of Time to save them. But though the narrator at once believes that she could have this meaning to her life, she also stumbles through activating her own powers, frustrated when the talisman thats supposed to help her takes the form of a credit card. What kind of magical girl is she, anyway? With manhwa-style chapter illustrations and tropes that could be drawn from the familiar comics genre, a lot of the style of the novel hearkens back to the popularity of Sailor Moon, but it also acknowledges a stark reality where those who gain the power of magical girls are the ones who face the greatest risk of harm and trauma. Park pictures a world on the brink of collapse, with no one paying the priceand shows what it might take for a millennial to not only survive, but to capture her own dreams and make her life worth living. AJARead more The Unmothers Leslie J. Anderson (Quirk)Folk horror for horse girls! This debut novel from award-winning poet Leslie J. Anderson is a slow-burn mystery with deeply unsettling shocks. In the aftermath of her husbands untimely death, a grieving journalist gets sent to a rural town to investigate a strange local story: a human baby has been born to a horse. The townspeople are suspiciously, deeply wary of outsiders for some reason and then corpses of man and beast start to pile up. Its enough weirdness to make any hero question their sanity and readers will follow suit, snared by Andersons careful plotting. Stories of female rage and pregnancy horror feel especially topical this year and The Unmothers touches on these topics with originality and gorgeous, ominous prose. TDHaunted Ever After by Jen DeLuca (Berkley)After years of transporting us to Marylands Willow Creek Renaissance Faire, Jen DeLuca whisks us south to Floridaspecifically, the haunted town of Boneyard Key, with punny businesses (Hallowed Grounds) and a year-round ghost tour. But this goes beyond mere kitsch; Boneyard Keys residents legitimately live alongside spectral citizens with unfinished business. This might range from former coffee shop owner Elmer texting new proprietor Nick Royer about the banana bread, to whatever otherworldly force is stopping new homeowner Cassie Rutherford from charging her damn laptop at homeeven if it does lead to a meet-cute with grumpy Nick.DeLuca does an excellent job establishing Boneyard Keys unique setup so matter-of-factly that were in on page one, never letting the premise take itself too seriously; yet its not all frothy fun, either. Cassies paranormal house pranks begin escalating into real danger and a disturbing possession subplot thats a grave metaphor for the toxic behaviors of past relationships that we unwittingly allow to haunt our new connections. Not to mention the book thoughtfully builds on the romance genres commentary on tourists, who treat Boneyard Key and its residents as flavors of the (spooky) month before going back to their real lives, versus those willing to put down roots, even if that soil is haunted. Good thing there are more Boneyard Key adventures to come! NZSo Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole (Little, Brown)After the war is over and the chosen one who saved the world has returned home, life goes on. But in Coles gorgeous debut fantasy, a YA novel thats the first in a duology, the war never truly leaves those who fought it. Sisters Faron and Elara freed their island nation from an empire that uses dragons in warfare. Faron, as the Childe Empyrean, is the only person who can directly channel the power of their gods; though the war ended when she was 12, she still carries their abilities, not sure how to balance the liar she believes herself to be with the saint her island sees. Elara, a gifted summoner who can use the strengths of relatives who have died, is determined to join the islands army, to serve her purpose as a soldier and be her own person instead of merely her sisters shadow. When Elara accidentally bonds with an enemy dragon, the queen allows her to go to the empires dragon rider academy in hopes of learning new information about their former enemy. Faron is determined to stop at nothing to break her sisters bond and bring her homenothing, that is, except killing her sister, as the gods order. Cole balances a story that is, at its heart, about the love between two sisters, with themes of loyalty, colonialism, the costs of war, and gods who are too divine to have empathy for humans. AJAHow to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang (Avon)There is nothing cute about the ways in which Helen Zhang and Grant Shepard meet: Not when her mother drives him away from the funeral for Helens sister Michelle, for whose death their hometown blames him. Not 13 years later, when he shows up in the writers room for the adaptation of Helens bestselling YA dark academia book series, worsening her imposter syndrome. And especially not when prolonged time in the roomsharing instant intimacies with other screenwriters in order to make the best possible TV showignites a forbidden attraction between them. This romance isnt cute, but its hot, and its dark, and its so raw you know everyone is going to get hurt in potentially irreversible ways.Its also a love letter to Hollywood, with Kuang affectionately rendering the eccentric rhythms of a writers room while reminding us that these are ordinary people with extraordinary talents. From a key confrontation at their star-studded premiere to the quieter but equally charged moments visiting holiday house parties in their hometown, Grant and Helen experience almost a fanfiction AU of their adolescence, as if the Prom King and the Brain had gone steady. But theres still room for Michelles ghost between them, and its up to them as adults to decide how to build a relationship around that forever empty space. Helen is a fascinating heroine, satisfyingly prickly yet often called on her shit. The subplot involving her strained relationship with her parents adds extra stakes beyond the genre-typical misunderstandings. This is just such a nuanced love story where neither person is entirely right, but that doesnt mean that whats between them is wrong, either. NZGreta & Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly (Penguin Books)Im not sure Ive loved any literary siblings more than this hapless pair. Greta and Valdin Vladisavljevic make Pride and Prejudices Bennet sisters look like romantic relationship pros, and the Brothers Karamazov seem happy-go-lucky and well-adjusted. Picture the meandering inner monologues of Mark and Jez from Peep Show, but queer, Mori-Russian, and living in present day Auckland.Rebecca K Reillys debut novel was originally published in New Zealand in 2020, but only made its way to the UK in 2024 so qualifies for celebration here. Its the story of two academically gifted but reality-impaired twentysomethings trying to carve out a space for themselves in their big, clever, international extended family, and grow into what will become their adult shapes. Its very funny, totally all over the place in terms of plot, and occasionally extremely wise. More importantly than that though, Greta & Valdin will keep you such excellent company while youre let into their alternating first-person narration, that youll miss their beautifully weird inner voices when theyve gone.- LMWe Also Recommend This Will Be Fun by E. B. Asher A cozy romantasy about getting the adventuring party back together. My Family The Memoir by David Baddiel A candid, funny, truthful and involving account of the life of Baddiels mother, her obsessions, and of losing his father to dementia. Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud A captivating cosmic horror novella about an asylum that tampers with inmates memories using lunar spider silk. The Tower by Flora Carr An excellent, atmospheric debut historical novel imagining Mary Queen of Scots 1567 year of confinement in Lochleven castle. Grief is for People by Sloane Crosley A frank, darkly funny and insightful memoir about friendship and loss. The Diablos Curse by Gabe Cole Novoa A standalone sequel to 2023s The Wicked Bargain, this is a YA pirate fantasy with an LGBTQ cast. A Sunny Place for Shady People by Mariana Enriquez A terrific selection of horror short stories about haunting from the talented Argentinian journalist and writer. Funny Story by Emily Henry Another wonderful romance from the author of Beach Read, Book Lovers and You and Me on Vacation. Joyful Recollections of Trauma by Paul Scheer A series of essays about coming to terms with the past and finding joy by The League comedian and actor. Mystery Lights by Lena Valencia An atmospheric and genre-bending debut collection of speculative short stories set mostly in deserts in the American Southwest.

Nothing says home for the holidays like curling up next to a roaring fire and turning on your favorite Christmas movie, a mug of hot chocolate in hand. The twinkling lights of your Christmas tree might be where your eyes wander first, but dont forget about the mantel! No matter how detailed your living room decorations may get during the holidays, its easy to overlook this spot once its festooned with Santa-ready stockings. But youll be surprised at how quickly you can twirl up your mantel with some garland and a few well-placed pieces of decor. Were not saying you have to go all-out with a Christmas extravaganza (though we certainly have ideas if you want to decorate every nook and crannylooking at you, porch, front door, kitchen, and staircase!). Small, natural decorations go a long way in spreading holiday cheer. So, regardless of howand how muchyou want add festive flair to your mantel, weve got ideas for you! To make it even better, a majority of these ideas include subtle DIY touches, meaning you can achieve your dream aesthetic without breaking the bank. Ready To Dive Into Decorating? Check Out Some Of Our Other Favorite Christmas Decorating Ideas...1Go for GinghamDavid TsayWhile the holiday season might conjure up images of plaids and tartans, gingham shouldn't be overlooked. In design maven Heather Taylor's California cabin, gingham sofas stay year-round, while perfectly mismatched gingham stockings go up for Christmas. RELATED: Heather's Cozy Cabin is All We Want for Christmas2Channel Coastal CharmErin Little, styling by Matthew GleasonIf your house is more seaside than countryside, you can lean into coastal accents like photographer Tiffany Mizzell did in her Maine home. Charmingly weathered buoys and carved sea captains pair perfectly with fresh garland. RELATED: This Festive House is the Epitome of a Coastal ChristmasAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below3Make Mini Music TreesIf youre gearing up to host your annual caroling party, or just love the music of the holiday season, pay homage to the theme with sheet music trees! This easy-to-craft DIY makes the perfect addition to any mantel. RELATED: Heres How to Make Fringed Sheet Music Trees4Trot Out the TrophiesDylan ChandlerIf youre looking to add some vintage flair to your mantel, try trophies! They twirl up easily when filled with sprigs of greenery and shine with perfect patina next to a happily lit Christmas tree. Holiday cards displayed in vintage flower frogs and stockings made of old French grain sacks add more vintage charm.RELATED: These Are The 100+ Best Places To Shop for Antiques Online, According To Our EditorsAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below5Go for Oversized GarlandDylan ChandlerNeed to make a statement over your fireplace, but dont have a mantel? Try hanging oversized garland, strung along the top and down the sides, to pack on the holiday charm. RELATED: Our Favorite Rustic Living Room Ideas That Are Classic, Cozy, and Modern6Live by CandlelightDavid A. LandIn this coastal living room cozied up for Christmas, glass hurricane candle holders and jars flank the brick chimneyand dont detract from the lush garland, fisherman knit stockings, or life ring wreath.RELATED: See More of This Cozy Coastal Christmas FarmhouseAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below7Craft a Card DisplayMarta Xochilt Perez, styling by Matthew GleasonTake a page out of the Turner familys holiday playbook and keep notes from loved ones proudly on display. Here, collected Christmas cards tuck right behind shaggy garland for a personalized seasonal display. RELATED: See How The Turner Family Makes Merry In The Mitten State8Stick to Classic Christmas ColorsNat Rea, styling by Matthew GleasonRed and green are staples of the Christmas color palette for good reason. In this Rhode Island home, Mom and daughter get red knit stockings while Dad and sons go for green. RELATED: See More of This Cozy Rhode Island SaltboxAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below9Start With Shimmering Candle HoldersBecky StaynerAdd a little sparkle to the mantel with these easy-to-create candle sticks. To make, all you need to do is hot-glue a variety of small ornaments to thrifted candle stick bases. 10Embrace Vintage ElementsLiz Marie BlogVintage can go a long way when it comes to decorating. Bottlebrush trees, postcards, and plenty of greenery make its mark on this Christmas mantel designed by Liz Marie Galvan.Get the tutorial at Liz Marie Blog.RELATED: See Inside Liz Marie's Stunning White FarmhouseAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below11Craft Shiny Brite TreesBecky StaynerMake one or make tenit doesnt matter. Youll display these festive sparkling beauties on the mantel year after year. To make: Cover Styrofoam cones (we used 12- and 15-inch cones) with ornaments, attaching them with hot-glue. Start with larger ornaments at the bottom, transitioning to smaller ones as you work your way up. Fill in any gaps with mini ornament balls. If desired, wrap the finished trees with vintage tinsel and beaded garland.RELATED: Up For More Crafts? Check Out These Kid-Friendly Christmas Craft Ideas!12Hang Handmade StockingsBrian WoodcockSerial renovator Holly Williams makes her familys stockings from vintage feed sacks and adds personalization with yarn, which conjures the same handcrafted spirit as her pioneer-built cabin.RELATED: See More of Hollys Charming Tennessee Cabin Is the Epitome of Rustic Christmas DecorAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below13Turn Blankets Into StockingsAnnie SchlechterMulti-hyphenate creative Nora Murphy used a series of old blankets, which had seen better days, to make these adorable fringed tartan stockings for her homes holiday mantel. Now they hang beautifully next to a lush garland of mixed greens. RELATED: Tour More of Noras Connecticut Home That Is 'Mad for Plaid' at Christmastime14Let There Be LightDylan Chandler, styling by Matthew GleasonIn need of a quick mantel refresh for the holidays or just looking to keep your decor simple this year? Take a note from this holiday scene and opt for glowing battery-operated candles, stacks of red books, and fresh greenery to make your mantel feel merry. RELATED: Tour More of This1830s Log Cabin That Hosts an Idyllic Old-Fashioned ChristmasAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below15Give Feed Sack Stockings a TryDavid TsayOld feed sacks, which you can find at your local antiques store or flea market, can easily be upcycled and transformed into cute stockings! In this western Michigan farmhouse, the repurposed stockings were paired with lush garland accented with cheery Shiny Brite ornaments and wintry paint-by-number paintings. RELATED: See More of This Festive Farmhouse Packed with Cute Christmas Decorating Ideas16Fill It With FirDavid LandThis Wisconsin cabins stone fireplace gets a classically cozy touch thanks to simple fir garland and campy red lanterns.RELATED: See More of This Cabin Nestled in the Woods That Delivers the Ultimate Cozy ChristmasAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below17Style Up a Starry NightBurcu AvsarA wreath in the shape of a star, cheery presents, and stockings made of old feed sacks create the perfect farmhouse Christmas scene for this festive mantel.RELATED: Love The Small Tree? Here Are Our Best Mini Christmas Tree Ideas18Keep It Simple and SweetAnnie SchlechterYou dont have to go over the top with your holiday decor! In this farmhouse living room, an unadorned arrangement of greenery and antique stockings adorn the mantel, making for a cheery display. RELATED: Our Favorite Farmhouse Decorating Ideas To Help You Create Your Dream Country HomeAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below19Accent With AmericanaDavid TsayA massive stone fireplace in this campy lake house gets some country charm from a wooden folk art American flag, vintage red camp lanterns, a lush garland, and some festive stockings.RELATED: Tour More of This California Lake Home Is the Ultimate Christmas Getaway20Hang a Rustic StarBuff StricklandThe Junk Gypsies transformed this vintage flea market star into the perfect holiday mantel piece and then styled it alongside fresh greenery (accented with cactus leaves) and gold star garland in their Texas Inn.RELATED: This Texas Inn Is the Only Place You Should Spend ChristmasCharlyne MattoxFood and Crafts DirectorCharlyne Mattox is Food and Crafts Director for Country Living.Anna LoganSenior Homes & Style EditorAnna Logan is the Senior Homes & Style Editor at Country Living, where she covers design and decorating trends, home features, and gift guides. She also produces home features and styles content for the print magazine. When she isnt working, can often be found digging around antique shops for the perfect find. Follow her adventures on Instagram!

Welcome toIndie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If youre a developer and would like your app featured, getin contact.Minizonesis a sweet and simple Mac app that allows you to glance at varying timezones across the globe, right from your Macs menu bar. Its a nice tool if you work remotely and have to communicate with coworkers across the globe, or regularly need to communicate with people in varying places.Top featuresFirst things first, the app offers a world clock, allowing you to easily see varying timezones that you set up. You can add tons of timezones, saving you the hassle of having to do mental math to convert timezones. The app also shows the flags of each country next to the timezone, providing a nice visual indicator.On top of that, Minizones also offers a time slider. For example, if you want to schedule a meeting in the future, you can quickly slide backwards and forward, allowing you to easily see what time itll be across the globe at the time you plan to schedule your meeting, event, or whatever else.Its also easy to customize timezone names and icons, in case youre tracking a timezone for a specific purpose.If youre looking for a quick menu bar app for your Mac, Minizones is a great one that solves an important problem for many people.Minizones is normally $3.99 on the App Store, but currently theres a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale for 50% off, making it just $1.99 until December 3rd. Minizones requires a Mac running macOS Ventura 13.0 or later.Follow Michael:X/Twitter,Bluesky,InstagramAdd 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

In recent past, Bluesky has been growing substantially. It quickly ballooned to over 20 million users, and at a point, the service was adding over a million users a day. Between the ban on X in Brazil earlier this year, as well as the results of the 2024 US presidential election a large group of people have been choosing to leave X. But, theyre not leaving for Metas Threads, the more popular X alternative at the time theyre going for Bluesky instead.Rise of BlueskyFor one reason or another, people are picking Bluesky over Threads. It could be the fact that they prefer the look and feel of Bluesky, or just that they dont want to support another social media platform owned by Meta and Mark Zuckerberg. Either way, the sudden rise of Bluesky is seemingly scaring Meta.Theres been a number of Twitter alternatives that people have tried using since Elon Musks acquisition of Twitter in October 2022, including Mastodon, Pebble (formerly T2), Bluesky, Threads, Hive Social, Post.news, and even Tumblr. Between all of those options, a number of them either completely shut down, or the companies failed to gain popularity and for a solid while, it was looking like Threads was going to be the only viable alternative. Until now.Threads had grown to over 200 million users since its launch in July 2023, and Meta probably thought they had this whole Twitter alternative game in the bag. While Threads was a viable social media platform, the company definitely hadnt put a lot of effort into actually catering to its users.For example, Ive personally never been a fan of how Threads doesnt allow you to switch your default feed from For You to Following. Sure, X does the same thing but Threads also hid the feed switcher by default, requiring users to tap on the Threads logo at the top to present that menu. They really wanted you to use For You.Now, both of those things arent the case, with the feed switcher being displayed prominently, and Threads is testing the option to set Following as your default feed.These are all small features that Threads couldve added at any moment, but chose not to. Now, these features are all here, probably to make the platform more appealing.Copying Bluesky featuresEveryone should stay away from meta as much as they can. View all commentsIn recent weeks, Threads has also copied a number of Bluesky features, including custom feeds and starter packs. Custom feeds allow you to create a feed of a specific group of people, allowing you to easily track one topic or community. Starter packs allow you to easily follow a group of people who all have something in common. These two features were key to Blueskys growth, and made it far easier to curate an engaging feed.Starter packs arent live on Threads quite yet, though the feature has already been discovered by reverse engineers. Custom feeds are already live on Threads for all users, seemingly.Competition is a good thingUltimately, its unclear whos gonna end up winning this Twitter alternative race, but one thing is clear Bluesky and Threads are the key contenders here. At the end of the day, I dont really care which platform wins, but this is an ultimate case of competition being a good thing. Meta wouldnt suddenly care about implementing all of these key user experience improvements on Threads if they had no reason to.Follow Michael:X/Twitter,Bluesky,InstagramAdd 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

"I'm not a full doomsday prepper, but I like the idea of being prepared for the unknown."DoomsdairbnbA man in Arkansas turned a decommissioned missile silo into a lavishshort-term rental property.But whether it was a wise long-term investment remains to be seen. As owner GT Hill tells Business Insider, he bought the silo for $90,000 in 2010, and then spent a whopping $800,000 over ten years to convert the space into a unique rental experience."Probably 20 percent of my interest was in the doomsday prepper aspect or the idea of preparing to survive in the case of a catastrophe," Hill wrote. "I'm not a full doomsday prepper, but I like the idea of being prepared for the unknown, including having food storage and some survival skills."The end product, dubbed Titan II, is a 3500-square-foot living space located in the middle of a 200-acre ranch and 150 feet below the ground. Hill says it's already hosted famous YouTubers, bands, birthday parties, and "even some swingers."And in case the end of the world is nigh, Hill will have the ideal place to seek shelter for himself and his family as long as it's not already booked up, that is."Being underground the place is typically cooler than a normal living space but extra blankets are provided," the Airbnb description reads.Location, LocationThe missile silo itself was decommissioned after Russia and the US signed a treaty in 1979 to limit their nuclear arsenals."They actually had to blow up the top of the structure and fill it in," Hill wrote. "So it was an underground structure, but completely buried."The ten years of hard work Hill put into the property included pumping out a tidal wave of water that had accumulated in the space."The place had asbestos and methane gas at the top of the control center, where the crew quarters were," Hill wrote. "I recorded videos of the whole process, and you can actually hear my voice change because of the methane in the air.""After spending $800,000, we're probably netting $80,000 a year in revenue from the place now that I rent it out on Airbnb," he added.In short, "it's not a great way to spend time or money," Hill admitted.Share This Article

Do not do this.Grave MistakeUK courts sentenced a man to 12 months in jail after he was found ditching his asbestos waste in a cemetery.Security cameras caught the man, 36-year-old Damian Barr, dropping off large hunks of what seems to be toxic paneling in a dumpster at the Foster Hill Road Cemetery in Bedford.The camera footage, which was captured in 2022, shows Barr disposing his carcinogenic garbage only feet away from headstones. Though Barr didn't seem to abandon his waste on any actual grave plots, the image of a dumpster full of pestilent junk so close to a human remains is unsettling while it's impossible to raise the dead, obviously, contaminating their graves with toxic waste certainly sounds like a good way to try.ZombielandOn a more serious note, carelessly leaving hazardous litter in any public place seems like an intuitively bad idea. That said, it's a common practice.Just this year, people were found dumping "bad [smelling]" trash at a cemetery in Northern Ireland, mattresses and rotting wood in a Wales cemetery, and tons of waste in a historically Black family gravesite in Pennsylvania."Illegal dumping and littering throughout is causing problems because the trash ends up in the fields, the trash ends up in the cemetery," Ken Slankard, a member of the impacted Pennsylvania family, told a local . The family says they first purchased the land in the 1910s, and it already contained graves for Black people born during slavery when they got it."Some people don't care that there's a graveyard there," family member Cheri Leach added. "It's disgusting."More on evading death: Scientists Intrigued by Drug That Extended Lifespans of Mice While Keeping Them Young-LookingShare This Article

Nov 30, 2024Mohit KumarRansomware / CybercrimeA Russian cybercriminal wanted in the U.S. in connection with LockBit and Hive ransomware operations has been arrested by law enforcement authorities in the country.According to a news report from Russian media outlet RIA Novosti, Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev has been accused of developing a malicious program designed to encrypt files and seek ransom in return for a decryption key."At present, the investigator has collected sufficient evidence, the criminal case with the indictment signed by the prosecutor has been sent to the Central District Court of the city of Kaliningrad for consideration on the merits," the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a statement.Matveev has been charged under Part 1 of Article 273 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which relates to the creation, use, and distribution of computer programs that can cause "destruction, blocking, modification or copying of computer information."He was charged and indicted by the U.S. government in May 2023 for launching ransomware attacks against "thousands of victims" in the country and across the world. He is also known by various online aliases Wazawaka, m1x, Boriselcin, Uhodiransomwar, and Orange.Matveev has also gone public about his criminal activities, stating that "his illicit activities will be tolerated by local authorities provided that he remains loyal to Russia." He was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury and has been the subject of a reward of up to $10 million for any information that could lead to his arrest or conviction.A subsequent report from Swiss cybersecurity firm PRODAFT revealed that Matveev has been leading a team of six penetration testers to carry out the ransomware attacks.Besides working as an affiliate for Conti, LockBit, Hive, Trigona, and NoEscape ransomware groups, he is said to have had a management-level role with the Babuk ransomware group up until early 2022. Furthermore, he is believed to have deeper ties with the Russian cybercrime group known as Evil Corp.The development comes a little over a month after four members of the now-defunct REvil ransomware operation were sentenced to several years in prison in Russia after they were convicted of hacking and money laundering charges.Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.SHARE

Nov 29, 2024Ravie LakshmananCybercrime / Cloud SecurityCybersecurity researchers are warning about malicious email campaigns leveraging a phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) toolkit called Rockstar 2FA with an aim to steal Microsoft 365 account credentials."This campaign employs an AitM [adversary-in-the-middle] attack, allowing attackers to intercept user credentials and session cookies, which means that even users with multi-factor authentication (MFA) enabled can still be vulnerable," Trustwave researchers Diana Solomon and John Kevin Adriano said.Rockstar 2FA is assessed to be an updated version of the DadSec (aka Phoenix) phishing kit. Microsoft is tracking the developers and distributors of the Dadsec PhaaS platform under the moniker Storm-1575.Like its predecessors, the phishing kit is advertised via services like ICQ, Telegram, and Mail.ru under a subscription model for $200 for two weeks (or $350 for a month), allowing cyber criminals with little-to-no technical expertise to mount campaigns at scale.Some of the promoted features of Rockstar 2FA include two-factor authentication (2FA) bypass, 2FA cookie harvesting, antibot protection, login page themes mimicking popular services, fully undetectable (FUD) links, and Telegram bot integration.It also claims to have a "modern, user-friendly admin panel" that enables customers to track the status of their phishing campaigns, generate URLs and attachments, and even personalize themes that are applied to the created links.Email campaigns spotted by Trustwave leverage diverse initial access vectors such as URLs, QR codes, and document attachments, which are embedded within messages sent from compromised accounts or spamming tools. The emails make use of various lure templates ranging from file-sharing notifications to requests for e-signatures.Besides using legitimate link redirectors (e.g., shortened URLs, open redirects, URL protection services, or URL rewriting services) as a mechanism to bypass antispam detection, the kit incorporates antibot checks using Cloudflare Turnstile in an attempt to deter automated analysis of the AitM phishing pages.Trustwave said it observed the platform utilizing legitimate services like Atlassian Confluence, Google Docs Viewer, LiveAgent, and Microsoft OneDrive, OneNote, and Dynamics 365 Customer Voice to host the phishing links, highlighting that threat actors are taking advantage of the trust that comes with such platforms."The phishing page design closely resembles the sign-in page of the brand being imitated despite numerous obfuscations applied to the HTML code," the researchers said. "All the data provided by the user on the phishing page is immediately sent to the AiTM server. The exfiltrated credentials are then used to retrieve the session cookie of the target account."The disclosure comes as Malwarebytes detailed a phishing campaign dubbed Beluga that employs .HTM attachments to dupe email recipients into entering their Microsoft OneDrive credentials on a bogus login form, which are then exfiltrated to a Telegram bot.Phishing links and deceptive betting game ads on social media have also been found to push adware apps like MobiDash as well as fraudulent financial apps that steal personal data and money under the guise of promising quick returns."The betting games advertised are presented as legitimate opportunities to win money, but they are carefully designed to trick users into depositing funds, which they may never see again," Group-IB CERT analyst Mahmoud Mosaad said."Through these fraudulent apps and websites, scammers would steal both personal and financial information from users during the registration process. Victims can suffer significant financial losses, with some reporting losses of more than US$10,000."Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.SHARE

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