chainofclovers

Andy the Vampire Slayer by la_fono (The Devil Wears Prada, Andy/Miranda, PG)
Words-and-pictures for grown-ups, rendered by an artist who knows how to have exactly the right amount of fun.

The Very Secret Diary of Character X by pantone462 (The Devil Wears Prada, Nigel Kipling, PG-13)
Clever and creative, this story presents one of the most realistic looks at Miranda I've seen in a fic.

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Father by lupinotuum (Battlestar Galactica, Laura Roslin, Hard R)
This story follows Laura Roslin from her childhood until the Cylon attack. Although lupinotuum's characterizations of Laura don't always line up with how I see her, I believed this story intensely as I read. There's an unrelentless quality to the storytelling here, and the ingredients of Laura's power are beautifully rendered.

COFFEE
You know you've reached a new height of bourgeois I-don't-know-what when you're getting your Recipe for Cold-Brew Coffee from The New York Times, but I (mostly) love The Times and I always love caffeine and am choosing to embrace these facts without shame. Cold-brewing is a really easy process, and you can save a ton of money making your own iced coffee rather than buying it in a coffeeshop. One tip: I've been using paper coffee filters to strain the coffee concentrate, and they have a tendency to split open once they've been filled with too many coffee grounds. Either double up on the filters or dump out some of the grounds partway through, otherwise you'll end up with rather chunky concentrate and will have to start all over again. (If you're careful, you won't need to strain it twice.)

The finished product is also far less bitter than what you get if you refrigerate regular drip coffee. I usually take sugar in my coffee, but this is great black or with just a little milk and nothing else: a truly delicious recipe.

COMPLICATED SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS
Mustn't by somniesperus (The Devil Wears Prada, Andy/Miranda, NC-17)
This story was posted a while back, and given Telanu's well-deserved popularity it seems likely that everyone in the fandom has already read it. But an author's fame is no reason not to rec something great, and this story is fantastic. Usually, I find well-done, thoughtful stories of "forbidden love" to be either sad but hot or hot but sad. This one is just...sad AND hot, in equal, lovely doses. Telanu referred to it as PWP, and I think "Porn With Plot" is more apt than "Plot? What Plot?" in this case. Regardless of its classification, this is one of the best stories Telanu has written--and that's saying a lot.

Crash and Burn by ubiquitousmixie (The Devil Wears Prada, Andy/Miranda, Andy/Emily, Emily/Miranda, Andy/Emily/Miranda [!!!], R)
So, the first part of this story was written for me as part of Ubiquitousmixie's drabble challenge, but that's not (the only reason) why I like it. The author takes what could be a story about pure and simple lust and turns it into an impressive meditation on power--over the self and over others. These characters don't want to care about the consequences of what they're doing, but they do. The shifting points-of-view are gracefully written, and the women's separate experiences culminate in a truly stunning way. For a story about sex, each character is so intensely inside her own mind. Very striking piece.

BASEBALL, TRAIN STATIONS, AND REPORTER/PUNDIT LOVE
Holding Pattern and Peanuts and Cracker Jacks by thatfangirl (Murphy Brown/Rachel Maddow)
I have never watched "Murphy Brown" or "The Rachel Maddow Show" on a regular basis, I don't make a habit of reading RPF, and damn it if these aren't some of the sweetest, sharpest stories I've had the pleasure of reading in quite a long time. These stories are narrated so matter-of-factly: the characters don't take each other for granted, but they know and accept each other for who they are with a rare clarity. The author has a good sense of humor, and the talent to say a great deal--and well--in a relatively short space. I highly recommend these stories even to people who aren't especially familiar with the characters: you'll probably enjoy them if you've ever, say, eaten a hot dog or visited a museum or experienced more than one human emotion simultaneously.

"Miriam Princhek" by pin_drop (fandom: "Devil Wears Prada" [film], rating: M, pairing: Andy/Miranda)

Hot damn! This fic is fantastic, and it's (to my knowledge) the first fic the author has posted in this fandom, so I want to do my small part to make sure it gets read by as many people as possible. I don't want to give too much away, but it's all about lies and truth and power dynamics and the power of names, and it's sexy and psychologically rich and entertaining without a single gratuitous moment. It is very sad, but not hopelessly so, and its happy moments are the opposite of hokey. Definitely one of the best things I've read in awhile. Go read it, if you haven't already!