The Jewish Book Fair began today at the Detroit Institute of Arts with Michelle Young talking about her book, The Art Spy, The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WW II Resistance Hero, Rose Valland who rescued much stolen artwork. The Festival goes on for a month. There must have been 500 people there.
Also saw Secret Mall Apartment and Roofman.
Watching Task, Low-Down, Baby Fever, Slow Horses. Has to be the best season of Slow Horses.
Sad that the Tigers are out of the series although they never played well after mid-July.
Still reading Black Cake, and trying to get started on Isola (Allegra Goodman).
Very sad about Diane Keaton. Certainly one of my favorite actors.
Still enjoying great weather. It's probably going to be gone with a thud.
23 comments:
I am commenting early because we have a friend from Stockton driving down to someplace in Southern California and staying with us tonight and we will be out most of Monday morning. Have been preparing for her visit and not doing much else. (including decluttering a closet which is a massive ongoing task) We are supposed to get two or three days of rain starting Monday night. THE ART SPY sounds good.
Glen finished reading REVENANT, a novella by Bill Pronzini, early last week. He always enjoys the books in the Nameless series. Now he is reading A VOYAGE LONG AND STRANGE: REDISCOVERING THE NEW WORLD by Tony Horowitz. Roughly, this book covers American exploration and settlement, from Columbus in 1492 to Jamestown's founding, and is part history and part travelogue.
I finished OH WILLIAM! by Elizabeth Strout last week, and I liked it very much. Now I am reading GUARDS! GUARDS! by Terry Pratchett. I have only read two other Discworld books. I have read about 50 pages so far and I am liking it. I did realize that was the 3rd book that I read in the last month that had no chapters. I like chapter breaks, the shorter the chapters the better.
Enjoy the visit, Tracy! As George has noted and I need to note, Pronzini has a new collection of "impossible crimes" out from Stark House, TALES OF THE IMPOSSIBLE, which might be worth drawing your husband's attention to, if it isn't already on his radar after George's review.
Busy times, Patti! I might finally bestir myself to a local bookstore's four writers with new horror books (aimed at diverse audiences) reading/chat session coming up...I've been watching TASK along among your citations...have you been catching the new (to US, at least) episodes of the Euro crime dramas on PBS? MATLOCK and ELSBETH started their new seasons reasonably well.
Or, alone among...I plead the hour. Patti. I overlapped for a year with Goodman (3 years younger, but I knew her slightly) in our Honolulu high school, and now we are perilously close to being able get what meager moneys Drumpf doesn't pilfer from Social Security.
Fell asleep early last night, and thus work up early...so, I've just watched the pilot episode of THE CHAIR COMPANY. I might like it better if I saw it under more auspicious conditions, but it's the kind of pilot (and, I suspect, series) that thinks that it's hilariously absurd, rather than unpleasantly so, if every character and most expressly the protagonist behaves on the level of our Pestilence-in-Chief in damned near any given situation. Imagine Drumpf as Josef K in THE TRIAL only in a retail back-office setting, and you have a close approximation.
Just heard about that show-THE CHAIR COMPANY. Looking forward to the Scorcese doc too. Glen has very eclectic tastes. OH, WILLIAM was one of my favorites.
The festival sounds great, Patti. I'm glad you got the chance to go. And I'll be interested in what you think of Black Cake when you've read it.
You persuaded your good weather to stop by my way all week, Patti, and I am much appreciative. I'm also saddened by the loss of Diane Keaton; such a remarkable talent.
It's been a very quiet week on the Panhandle. Christina and Walt (and Jack) headed out to Albuquerque in Walt's truck on their 27th anniversary to pick up the larger of Mark's things, as well as Bumblebee, his one remaining snake (snakes Lucy and Dana made it to our house a few of weeks ago when Mark dropped off the first of his things). Mark (now temporarily snake-less) will be following at the end of the month. Walt's truck moves a bit slower than Christina's car, and it took them almost 12 hours for the first leg of the trip; actually, it took longer because by the time our tired warriors hit their hotel, they discovered that it was the wrong hotel and that the one they had reserved was still 35 minutes away. Undaunted, they headed off the next morning, only to run over a traffic cone in Memphis, Texas, and to have a flat tire in Clarendon, Texas (population 1877; population with teeth 53). Photos of Clarendon that Christina sent showed a flat vista of nothingness; the photos did not show the fire ant nest by which they had the flat tire. Forty-five minutes later, the tire was changed and they then stopped off at a Buc-kee's to be sure it was safe. then off they went, eventually into New Mexico, and ten hours into the drive hit a wild rain storm in the desert. The second leg of their trip took 11 1/2 hours, but they made it. Truck loaded, they started the return home yesterday, and having a much better ride back, reaching their hotel about 7:30 PM. Today, finders crossed, they will be picking up Mark's twice-broke-down Jetta at a garage somewhere in East Doggiedoo, Louisiana, and will attempt to drive it back to Florida.
In the meantime, I am on animal duty, and I am proud to say that no animals have died on my watch...but I still have the rest of today to go through.
Beyond that, I have done little all week. Well, that's not true, because I did take some fabulous naps. Watched my regular television shows: SISTER BONIFACE MYSTERIES, ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING, HIGH POTENTIAL, RETURN TO PARADISE, KAREN PIRIE, and a few more episodes of THE BARON.
I only read three books this week. ROBBIE'S WIFE by Russell Hill had a great setting and well-written characters, but I was put off by the stupidity of the protagonist; the last half of the book moved quickly and ended with a twist. THE WOUNDED AND THE SLAIN was a typical David Goodis -- dark, despairing, and lyrical; Goodis can pull the reader quickly through his world of noir. BILLION DOLLAR RANSOM by James Patterson and Duane Swierczynski was a popcorn type of book; fast, entertaining, and facilely-plotted; don't look at the man behind the curtain or the illusion will completely crumble; lotsa super-short chapters you would expect from Patterson.
Have a fantastic week, Patti/ Stay safe and stay out of trouble.
Wow. Your road adventures continue, Jerry. Long trips bring out the worst in a car.
Yes, lots of other bookish activities, Margot. Wish I could get to them all.
Western NY finally received some much need rain. Our temps have been in the 60s. I've been busy moving all the books in boxes out of the garage before the snow starts to fall. I need more storage...
I agree with you on this FIFTH SEASON of SLOW HORSES. Just great!
Patrick is flying back to Taiwan today for another GOOGLE conference. Katie chose to work today (normally a holiday) so she can take Friday off and go to NYC to meet with a friend and go see some Broadway plays.
I have my yearly appointment with my sleep doctor today. I love my CPAP machine and I've been getting great sleep since I switched to the EVORA full face mask last year. Stay safe!
You raised two theater lovers. Megan goes a lot in NY.
We stayed home the last few days - Jackie was sick and then the nor'easter. That's one benefit of retirement, you can stay home if you want to. I have my 6 week follow-up eye check on Wednesday and will see if I need glasses.
Once the Yankees lost, my last hope (interest) evaporated when the Tigers and Cubs lost. It would have been a rerun of the 1945 World Series, Now I hope it is Seattle and Milwaukee, two of the five remaining teams that have never won. Seattle is the ONLY team never to get to the World Series, (Granted, Milwaukee was in the AL when they made it in 1982.)
We had a PBS Masterpiece/French (for the most part) night last night. First, a friend suggested the modern day MADEMOISELLE HOLMES, which didn't originally appeal to me, until I saw the star was Lola Dewaere, who plays Raphaelle in ASTRID. Yes, it was a little silly - Charlie Holmes is the great granddaughter of Sherlock -but Dewaere is always good, and we will give it another try. She plays a shy cop who seems to be bipolar, and blossoms after a car accident when she stops taking her medication. Her mood swings will be a problem, I'm sure. Two series so far, 6 episodes each, though I think only the first is on here so far.
The "Watson" to Holmes in the above, Samy, is played by Tom Villa, and Jackie discovered he had co-starred in the earlier MUNCH (also on PBS). Munch is "maverick" lawyer Gabrielle Munchovski (played by Isabelle Nanty), who manages cleverly to get her guilty-seeming but (of course0) innocent clients off. Villa plays her intern, whose father is the firm's biggest client. Again, we'll give this another episode. It ran for 5 series from 2016-2021, 34 episodes.
Third was the pseudo-French latest British MAIGRET series, filmed like the previous ones with Budapest standing in for Paris. This time it is modernized, with a young, hunky Maigret (Benjamin Wainwright). Both Lucas and Janvier are women now (Janvier is black), and Lapointe is Moroccan. His wife seems to be a nurse who is trying to get pregnant. As usual with these shows, the prosecutor is awful. He's no Michael Gambon but I managed to get through it without turning it off. I don't remember the book, other than the title - MAIGRET AND THE LAZY BURGLAR - so have no memory of how much was changed.
I read the fifth Thursday Murder Club book, not as good as the earlier ones with the boring cryptocurrency plot, but still worth reading - THE IMPOSSIBLE FORTUNE. And I'm reading John Scalzi's seventh Old Man's War book, the first in 10 years, THE SHATTERING PEACE, which I am enjoying a lot more.
Tracy, both Jackie and I agree with you - we prefer short chapters. That was one thing that drove me nuts about Peter Robinson's books, that he has 30-40 page chapters.
To clarify, it is Maigret's wife trying to get pregnant, not Lapointe's. Don't know if the latter has a wife. She does call him "Maigret" as in the books.
I should have known I would be up earlier (6:00ish) since we are sleeping on the sofa bed downstairs and our friend is upstairs in our room and of course the cat got us up. Even so we had a lots to do to reposition the couch etc...
We haven't started SLOW HORSES or KAREN PIRIE yet. Will probably start SLOW HORSES soon. We have watched one episode of HOTEL COSTIERA, which was OK.
I am only at book 4 of John Scalzi's Old Man's War series, ZOE'S TALE, and hope to read that before the end of the year. I did tell Glen about Pronzini's TALES OF THE IMPOSSIBLE, but we are just now checking it out. I have only read 26 of Pronzini's 40 plus Nameless series, so I would rather continue with those. But Glen has read all of them and might be interested in those short stories.
THE CHAIR COMPANY is not recommended by me, at least so far. The coming episodes clips seemed like more of the same. Imagine the level of anti-acting and -writing of THREE'S COMPANY only attempting Irony rather than Wackiness. Nope.
Tracy, ZOE'S TALE (and the previous one, THE LAST COLONY) are directly related to the new one, so when you get to it you'll remember them easier than I did, what with my having read them probably 10-15 years ago.
Jeff, that is good to know. I plan to get through the rest of the books in the Old Man's War series much faster.
Alice has done a lot better since she's been using here's as well, over the last couple of years. We'll see iwhat I'll need to do about apnea...
CBS's DMV is also not superb with the pilot...amiable, but neither too original nor likely enough (as in, a character embarrasses herself in hitting on a new colleague, so attempts to climb out of the employee washroom through a window, and that--you wouldn't guess this!--doesn't work out so well, hoo boy! I suspect, however, this one Might improve faster than THE CHAIR COMPANY will. (Spell "correction" decided I didn't mean "nor"...)
I never knew the OLD MAN'S WAR existed until my wife played the audiobook during out trip last week. Never knew until just now there is a series. Good news for me.
I started watching HALO on Netflix. Based off the shoot-em-up video game. Cannot recall why I started watching; I guess I was in the mood for middling scifi. I like the cast thought and was figuring Natasha McElhone looked great for a woman in her 60s. Nope, I looked her up and she is my age, about 54. There is also an incredibly tragic story of her husband suddenly dying when she was pregnant with their third child.
I've been listening to MYTH AMERICA: HISTORIANS TAKE ON THE BIGGEST LEGENDS AND LIES ABOUT OUR PAST but it's a bit depressing. Just constant replays, year after year, lies and racism. Published before the Racist Rapist's current term in the White House and that makes it more depressing.
Other than that one relative had a job interview and another had a negative biopsy. I mentioned to my wife a few days ago how well we have it: good health, health insurance, stable employment, smart children, safe city, no massive debt, so on, so forth.
Gratitude is good for your mental health!
Giving the second episode of CHAIR as fair a shot as possible...first 5-10 minutes still fingernails on a blackboard, by intent.
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