Reading three books at the minute and all are great: THE PROPHETS, REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES (audio) , and LONE WOMAN, which I think will have elements of horror eventually.
Yesterday, Josh, his wife, Julie and Kevin and I went to the brand new Hilberry Gateway Theater on Wayne State's campus to see CABARET. It is a gorgeous theater with great site lines, although the original building had its more homey charms. The musical was very well done. I had forgotten how sexual it was, sitting next to my 16 year old grandson.
Watching BEEF (on Netflix), PERRY MASON, SUCCESSION, TOP CHEF, and THE BIG DOOR PRIZE (Apple). Not sure about the first and last here. One too mean and one a bit sappy. But I like Chris O'Dowd and will probably stick it out.
What about you?
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Finished the Kind Worth Saving by Peter Swanson. Also read Dress Her In Indigo by John D. MacDonald. This one a reread. I find the Travis McGee novels a bit more dated than Ross MacDonald's Archer nooks, but still a lot of fun.
Watched Francois Truffaut's The Man Who Loved Women for the first time. Im think the only Truffaut I have yet to watch is The Green Room. Also watched The Tenth Victim, a Italian film based on a Robert Sheckley short story-The Seventh Victim. Not very good. On TV watching Beef, Bill Maher, John Oliver, Perry Mason, Lucky Hank. Also watching The Detroit Tigers who are terrible so far.
Love the warm temps coming this week.
Yeah, there are a few adult bits in CABARET. At least you didn't take Kevin to see OH, CALCUTTA!
Much cooler this week with occassional thunderstorms. Yesterday was in the high forties with a chill breeze. My Florida wardrobe (my only wardrobe now) does not include trousers -- only shorts. Brrr! Also polos and tees, no sweaters. I do have a light jacket, which I brought along to our annual outing at Blackwater State Park where we rent a pavilion. We also brought blankets.
It was a good outing despite the chill. Hamburgers and sausages on the grill, s'mores for dessert. Laughter and fun times. Activities included rock painting, cookie decoration, an easter egg hunt for the grandkids (five of whom are now in their twenties), and an art project. The kids went for a walk while we hid the eggs. Blackwater has walkways through the swampy areas and the kids spotted a snake hiding under a log in the water. Mark, who loves snakes, decided to check it out and hopped into the muddy water after taking off his shoes and socks. He thought it might have been either an ordinary water snake or a cottonmouth. It was a cottonmouth, so Mark caught it. The snake was not happy and Mark released it. Amy filmed the entire adventure on her camera.
Jack's soccer team won again, skunking the opposition, and Jack got an assist. It's early in the season and it's anyone's guess whether his team of 10-year-olds can keep up the streak.
Not much TV. Watched PERRY MASON, JOHN OLIVER, and WEEKEND UPDATE. Jack came into my room Saturday night and wanted to watch LYLE,LYLE, CROCODILE; he fell asleep about five minutes into it. I watched it for a few more minutes until I was sure he was out and switched to PERRY MASON. I prefer Perry to Lyle. Don't know why -- maybe it's an adult thing.
It was a Lee Goldberg week in reading: VOLUME 1 of Goldberg and Rabkin's THE DEAD MAN (three novels: FACE OF EVIL, RING OF KNIVES, and HELL IN HEAVEN; the first novel in the Fox and O'Hare series with Janet Evanovich, THE HEIST; and MR. MONK AND THE DIRTY COP. Also read Catriona Ward's Gothicky LITTLE EVE (a Shirley Jackson winner), Donald E. Westlake's CALL ME A CAB, Lawrence Block's THE BURGLAR IN THE RYE, Peter O'Donnell's Modesty Blaise novel LAST DAY IN LIMBO (my FFB), Stephen Graham Jones's DON'T FEAR THE REAPER, and Bill Willingham's graphic novel collection FABLES DELUXE #7 (I'm a big FABLES fan and this was one of the few I had not read previously).
Hope you have a fantastic week, Patti! Stay safe, stay well, stay warm.
So glad you enjoyed the show, even if it was a bit a awkward with Kevin there. And the books sound great, Patti. I've heard a lot of recommendations for Remarkably Bright Creatures.
Yes, it seems quite charming so far although it reminds me a lot of THE SHAPE OF WATER so far.
My mother loved Janet Evanovich because she loved humorous stories and there are not so many.
Are you streaming the Truffaut's, Steve or renting them from the library? Debating getting AMC to watch Hank but boy my monthly streaming rental is getting high.
We did watch the first episode of BEEF. Yes, it's mean but so far, definitely worth watching, even if just for the specificity of the time and place and Asian characters. Also watching PERRY MASON and YELLOWJACKETS, though I know if Jackie could decide by herself would probably drop it. Not really enjoying it, especially the post-crash stuff, in series two, though the actors are still worth watching, especially Melanie Lynskey and Christina Ricci and Juliette Lewis. The whole "cult/guru" thing leaves me cold and bored.
Also catching up on THE LAST OF US. The 81 minute third episode, "Long, Long Time," (the Bill and Frank story) was not only outstanding, but one of the best single episodes of a show of any kind I've seen in (yes) a long, long time. Just outstanding all the way around.
We got our taxes done, and we are getting back a lot more than we did last year, despite having to take quite a bit from TDA and IRA accounts. It worked because I have them withhold 20% for federal taxes.
Still watching our usual French (and other) shows on MHz, Britbox, Acorn, etc. We dropped CAPITANI in the middle of series two, though. Even at 35-40 minutes each, we disliked it and just didn't care. Jackie finished THE NIGHT AGENT, which she liked and I didn't. She is watching the second series of SHADOW & BONE now.
We've gotten only a couple of concerts coming up so far, but we are going back to the theater. We've seen two of comedian Judy Gold's one woman shows, including 25 QUESTIONS FOR A JEWISH MOTHER, and we have tickets for her YES, I CAN SAY THAT! for this coming Saturday's matinee. Also have tickets for PICTURES FROM HOME with Nathan Lane, Zoe Wanamaker and Danny Burstein at the end of the month.
Weather has been dry - very dry, with too low humidity - and mostly cool since we got home, but they are promising a big warm up this week. We'll see.
Reading EXILES by Jane Harper.
I am hoping BEEF doesn't escalate too much. And I can't help thinking they both are lonely people and this is a "friendship" more than a grudge match.
That was a wonderful episode on TLOS. I'd like to see more of those two but I guess we won't.
How I envy you the theater. Although I am going to see ALADDIN, SIX, SINGING IN THE RAIN in the next two months. We get the musicals but very few straight plays.
Diane and I are in Ohio. We helped Diane's sister Carol host a traditional Polish dinner on Saturday and then an Easter dinner for her family on Sunday. We leave for home tomorrow. The weather in Ohio has been cool and dry...just the way I like it!
Diane is reading LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY--her Book Club chose it for their book this month. Diane is enjoying it more than I did.
I'm busy reading Library books which I can't renew because other people have holds on them.
In my quest to reduce the size of my book collection, I took three boxes of Stephen King books, mostly hardcovers, to our local used bookstore. The guy who runs it practically did cartwheels. "These will all be sold by the end of the week!" he announced joyfully. Stay safe!
George, Jackie has been emptying her paperbacks - the ones she's already read plus others that she will never read now - and bagging and boxing them up. Some she put in the basement "library" - things people might well take like Lee Child and Nora Roberts - and others we will drop at the Salvation Army.
Jackie is way ahead of me. I'm gradually boxing up books I'm fairly certain I'm not going to reread (or are easily accessible if I do want to reread them). Stephen King is everywhere so why do I need two shelves of his hardcover books? More authors are on the chopping block: most of my Isaac Asimov collection (I'll keep his autobiography, FOUNDATION trilogy, and his collected short stories, but the rest can go), Arthur C. Clarke, and Dean R. Koontz. I figure by this time next year, I'll be forced to make some Hard Decisions about favorite writers like Heinlein, Herbert, and Poul Anderson.
I continue to do way more audiobooks than reading. I started a WWII memoir by a guy who was a medic in Europe. He toured his Division's path about 40 years later and wrote it all into one book, MEDIC!, which I have enjoyed but set aside and not gotten back to.
I downloaded an ebook of a STRANGER THINGS tie-in novel. I've enjoyed the other THINGS tie-ins. The authors have some free reign to explore existing characters and create new ones.
I've taken to John Connolly's novels mixing crime and the supernatural. The audio narration is decent except for some particularly grating voices for women and children characters.
Boy #2 had a nice day last week when he learned he scored very well on his ACT and was also accepted into the State Honors Orchestra. I took him on his college tours in IA - Grinnell and U of IA - and I enjoyed the tours a fair amount. No idea if he will apply to either school. At least he's established a baseline for what is out there.
Boy #2 is in the high school play that shows this weekend. My mother and in-laws are coming over for the performances. The play is a comedy called GHOSTCHASERS!. I could not sleep last night because I kept waking up because I was afraid the alarm would not go off. My wife did not sleep because she is doing the cast meal this Thursday for 50 kids, she was worried about food.
So many things to keep us awake. Congrats on the ACT score. After hearing the prices of private colleges-a lot around $60, 000 for just tuition, those state schools are a bargain. Although U of M is very hard to get into for instate students. Go figure.
Even since I moved on year ago, I have a dozen books to get rid of. I will walk them up to the library.
My post showed up as Anonymous. Have to quit posting in the middle of the night. Have copies of Truffaut's 400 Blows. Also have a set of 4 Truffaut films which contain Wild Child, Small Change, The Man Who Loved Women and The Green Room.
I have not seen enough Truffaut.
I am glad you are enjoying all of the books you are reading. I bet it was fun to see Cabaret on the stage. I have only seen the film.
I think we would enjoy the new Perry Mason after we finish watching the original shows. But we don't get HBO Max so don't know if we will ever try it or not. I did enjoy Matthew Rhys in The Americans.
In the last week, I read BAD FAITH by Aimee and David Thurlo. The main character is a nun in a cloistered monastery in New Mexico and the monastery has a Harley Davidson motorcycle and a retired police dog. I will read more of them someday. Also THE SO BLUE MARBLE by Dorothy B. Hughes. That is a weirder, more fantastic books than her noirish books, but I liked it a lot. Her first book, I think, published in 1940.
I haven't started a new book, but I read some short stories by Mick Herron from DOLPHIN JUNCTION, and I am still reading the letters of the Mitford sisters, plus THE ECHOING STRANGERS by Gladys Mitchell that I am reading as part of a group read.
Maybe you can get the DVDs from your library if you have a DVD player. I have only read IN A LONELY PLACE by Hughes, I think. Which is fantastic and very different from the also good movie.
Watched PIECES OF HER on Netflix. It is based on the Karin Slaughter novel. It will get your heart racing.
The new season of THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL starts Friday.
Now reading THE LAST BUS TO WOODSTOCK, the first novel in the Inspector Morse series by Colin Dexter.
Love all the books in the Morse series. I think i saw Pieces of Her unless it's a new title. Can't wait for MRS MAISEL. I think this is the last season.
We tried but hated PIECES OF HER. Even Toni Collette couldn't keep us watching.
Yes, this is the last series of MRS. MAISEL.
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