Went to the library book sale here but could only carry home a few books. Not much interesting anyway, but I got two Nameless novels (STRANGERS, VIXENS) and a collection of short stories by Jo Ann Beard. My fourth book was one I'd already read--and not that long ago so I will look to pass that one along.
Saw AMSTERDAM, but it was pretty awful. So many talented actors wasted. What happened to David O Russell?
Finished SHETLAND, and sad to see the end of Douglas Henshall, who played the heck out of Jmmy Perez. Finished THE PATIENT, which didn't end well for me. Looking forward to THE WHITE LOTUS tonight.
What are you up to?
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Read The Shadow Murders by Jussi Adler-Olsen and some short stories by Stephen Volk. Am also reading The Bones of the Earth by Michael Swanwick.
The Patient didn't end well for anyone. Been watching John Oliver, The White Lotus, Handmaid's Tale, A Friend of the Family, American Horror Story: NY, and Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities.
Got to see the Van Gogh exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Weather looks to be mild this week. And the Detroit Lions 1-6.
Diane and I drove back to Western NY yesterday from Ohio after spending time with Diane's sister who will turn 80 in a few months. While Diane and Carol did a lot of clothes shopping, I got a lot of reading done. The weather was great: 60's and sunny!
We returned home in time to see the Buffalo Bills defeat the Green Bay Packers in a sloppy game. Our nephew, who just turned 50, bought excellent tickets to the game and watched his favorite NFL team win. Nice Birthday present!
Today, I'll be going through the stack of snail mail, newspapers, magazines, and political mail that accumulated in our absence.
Tonight, from 5 P.M to 8 P.M. we'll be visited by plenty of ghosts, witches, and spooky creatures. Happy Halloween!
Further fixing and cleaning the Beast, which is the house and all its fragile components.
I seemed to be the first to put all the Shirley Jackson Award info (winners among the shortlisters) online, and that made for clickbait.
Handing out candy to any chilluns who dare! Philly area will get scattered showers at prime candy-gathering time. The year refuses to improve in small and large ways, though the best-record election predictor at American University thinks (and his interpretation of the 13 factors he uses for such scrying) as I do that the House will probably fall into GOP control by a small margin (and we'll be treated to Marjorie Taylor-Greene attempting to unseat the only slightly less despicable current GOP House honcho) and Dems retain the Senate, likewise tiny margin. Dems really should be doing better, and no little of that remains the neoliberal-dominated hierarchy's fault. "But would the progressives and populists throw the $!K/plate dinners, just like the GOP? Would they cheerfully pocket corporate slush? Well, probably, but we do it more Authentically! And what are these state-government elections and county councils you speak of?"
The new WHITE LOTUS got off to a decent start, though as I was watching it at 11:30p while flat on the couch, I had to rise to read the captions. AMERICAN GIGOLO came to a decent (season?) finale, and LET THE RIGHT ONE IN continues to be engaging as well, if not yet too surprising. The Showtime slate of Old Movie refurbishes may be all we have, if Epix continues to not develope much and HBO ends up running TAXI repeats at best, under the current management. I note John Oliver isn't making Nearly as many Warner Discovery jokes as he was AT&T jokes.
This will be the first year I will have no goblins and ghosts at my door. It was a mixed bag after Phil's death anyway. Yes, WHITE LOTUS seemed good. Last year it took me a while to warm to it but not this year. Raining here. It always seems to rain on Halloween.
Been a long time since I shopped in regular stores. Shopping online means I bought yellow shoes (I though more beige) and look like a duck. I will get down on my knees in thanks if we hold onto the Senate.
You should ring Jeff and Jackie's doorbell tonight. They have Godiva!
Another year, another birthday. I turned 76 yesterday. We celebrated with all the Chinee food in the world, cherry and caramel apple pies, three flavors of ice cream, a box of Crumbl Cookies, and a bunch of silly Halloween crafts. Becaue it was my 76th, the kids planned to surprise with 76 hmemade cookies in the shape of trumbones for us to decorate; the theory being that the cookies should last us well into Christmas season. Jessies and the girls were in charge of baking. It turns out that trumbone-shaped cookie dough going into the oven becomes completely different shaped and slightly x-rated cookies out of the oven, so that plan was jettisoned. Just as well. My birthday present to myself was a copy of PAPERBACKS FROM HELL by Grady Hendrix and Will Errickson, a book that I've been wanted for five years.
Since Erin was home for the weekend we did early voting. So sad to see Ron Desantis and Matt Gaetz (and various cronies) on the ballot. My magical thinking says my vote would help oust them, but the reality of living in deep-Red territory means my efforts are probably in vain. And the confusedly-worded ballot questions means that some pretty bad ideas will most likely be passed. At least I tried.
Gone pat the halfway point in my radiation treatment. So far, so good.
Reading this week included two Stark House books of Robert Silverberg's early "softcore novels" (a term he prefers to the more common "sleaze paperbacks"): LUST QUEEN/LUST VICTIM, originally as by "Don Elliott" and CONNIE/MEG, originally as by "Loren Beauchamp." I find it amazing that, as "Don Elliott" alone, Silverberg wrote over 150 full-length novels in five years -- and that's not counting the gazillion other books, stories, and articles he wrote.The consistency and the quality of these books are astounding. Also red Sax Rohmer's THE QUEST OF THE SACRED SLIPPER (my FFB), Lee Goldberg's BONE CANYON (the seconf Eve Ronin novel and a damned good one), Robert Bloch's tie-in TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE, and PRIMAL SPILLANE: EARLY STORIES 1941-1942 (which collected 39 "filler" stories Spillane wrote for the comics books to meet postal regulations, plus one additional tale that could have fit right in. I'm on the last chapters of MASK OF CIRCE by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, a science fantasy combining alternate worlds with Greek mythology. Coming up next should be a couple by F. Paul Wilson and Richard Osman's latest Thursday Murder Club mystery.
Rained like stink yesterday morning so no beach time. The kids had a good time carving pumpkins.
Have a great week, Patti!
Happy Birthday, Jerry. I will be 75 January 1. That means I have outlived Phil. I wonder so often what he would make of this world we are living in now.
George, Jackie was worried that you wouldn't be home and the children of Western NY would be left empty-handed and crying tonight.
Of the books read last week ,the most memorable was LIFE'S WORK, the memoir by David Milch, now sadly suffering with Alzheimer's. Obviously, his wife and others did a lot of the work putting the book together, but they had been recording his stories for many years. Clearly, he had demons (mainly stemming, it seems from his relationship with his father) for years, but he did some wonderful work on shows like HILL STREET BLUES, NYPD BLUE and DEADWOOD. Some great stories here.
We watched the first series (of 6 episodes) of the Swedish BACKSTROM, which we enjoyed. One thing I have to say about MAGPIE MURDERS - it has not made me regret that I didn't read the book. The real story with Lesley Manville isn't bad, but the book within the book part is a snore for me.
They turned the first of Val McDermid's Karen Pirie/Cold Case Squad books, THE DISTANT ECHO, into a series. There are three 90 minute episodes (on Britbox). There have, however, been many changes from the book, though the main outlines of the story remain. A young barmaid is raped and murdered and her body is discovered by four college students (three on the series). No one is ever arrested, though the young men are suspected. 25 years later there is a reopened cold case investigation (prompted, on television, by a podcast). Karen Pirie, a young Sergeant, is put in charge. Now, I am a big fan of the Pirie series but there are a lot of differences. The actress who plays her is only 29 and could pass for 10 years younger, for one. And in the book, she is far from the central character she is in the rest of the series. Still, it is worth a look.
Still watching the last series of THE SINNER, but not moved by it. The French Canadian THE WALL takes place entirely in Quebec City rather than the site of The Wall as in series one. A lot of unsympathetic characters in this one. Enjoying the German NORDIC MURDERS, each a separate but connected 90 minute episode. We watched the Poirot DEATH IN THE CLOUDS this weekend, one of Christie's better mysteries. We are never at a loss for things to watch. The half hour anthology show INSIDE NO. 9 has a lot of well known guest stars and always interesting (if sometimes very nasty) plots.
Happy Birthday, Jerry! My youngest sister's birthday was yesterday too, though she is only (only!) 61. I still remember her as a two year old. She was born a month before my bar mitzvah.
Yes, I gave up on THE SINNER when a whole new series of characters (at least to me who was possibly sleeping if they were on earlier) showed up midway through. And although I have always enjoyed Bill Pullman's laconic acting style, he really seems to be snoozing through this one.
Happy belated, Jerry! Birthdays just before All Hallows and on New Year's Day certainly beat birthdays on the anniversary of nuclear war. An air-punching 19yo at my parturition.
Patti, THE SINNER did add a new set of characters, as it tried to recomplicate and move forward. I enjoyed it, but Pullman's character did seem excessively out of it all.
There does seem to be some sort of preselected house pattern. I've given only to one set of parents and children so far, as others pass by. Halloween snubbing? First year that's happened, but perhaps it's indicative of new fears, or just the parents of the youngest children. Then again, as I sit here on a glassed-in porch, typing, looking a bit like John Fetterman's older, somewhat shorter brother, I may not strike anyone as too inviting...
Patti, sorry this all can remind you of the changes of the last several years. You, too, Jerry. And all the rest of us. As merry an All Hallows as the hallows will allow...
I just completed Season One of THE SINNER last night. Started season two and will see how it goes.
We drove to Minneapolis to visit Boy #1 during U of MN Parent's Weekend. We never do any of the U's planned activities. I told my wife we should book our own weekend to visit and avoid the higher hotel rates and traffic of a football game weekend. We did go by a bookstore and I bought a used Hard Case Crime novel and a history of The Kinks. I was sitting and flipping and reading the Kinks book and realized "It's only $1.75. Buy it."
I've been listening to Sinclair Lewis's IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE and cringing at the parallels to trump and how his comments on political races and politicians is the same now as it was in 1935 or 1035 or 2035.
I'm pessimistic about the statewide races in Wisconsin. But, I'm also optimistic about them. I suppose that is cautiously optimistic?
Addendum: We've been in our house about 17 years and the Halloween traffic changes each year. One friend lives in a housing development that always has a lot of younger families. Every year he records his trick-or-treat traffic by the half hour and then posts a chart.
Nerd.
My favorite season of THE SINNER was two.
I remember everyone reading IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE when Trump was elected. Who could believe things have gotten worse. We were lucky to only have an hour drive to AA for both kids.
THE NEW YORKER has an article about the villainous GOP behavior in PA. It's always been a potential red state once you leave Philly.
Well, as James Carville would remind you, way too prone to Alabama-like reactionaries between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, the latter having given way from a union city to a campus city. Penna's former Att Gen Josh SHapiro, who impressed my paleocon friend up in Boston in his previous career, is likely to rout the not so closeted nazi State Sen. (!) Mastriano. I still suspect that the snake oil that wets everything around Mehmet Oz as he passes will lead to Fetterman, even given his current deficit, getting the tap.
At least Lula Da Silva won. Now let's see the Brazilian government stand up to Balsonaro's tantrums. Or Netanyahu's attempts to slither back into office with the fascists he too closely resembles.
Yes, Brazil was a victory. May we have a few.
How could I have missed Monday, Monday and not even noticed until now? I think my mind is going. My daily patterns have changed since we have been walking some mornings, and today my only excuse is poor sleep.
We did start watching MCDONALD & DODDS this weekend, and liked it. I am in the middle of reading NINE PERFECT STRANGERS, and loving it but reading is going slow. I thought I wanted to watch the adaptation, but I don't see how they can do that well with the story.
I liked MAGPIE MURDERS (the book) but don't have the option to watch it.
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