In for a warm spell here and then much colder temps. Watched the movie (Turkish and Croatian) FARAWAY on Netflix, a nice romance. Also THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF JERUSALEM (Netflix), BAND OF BROTHERS (Netflix), UNFORGOTTEN (PBS) and SEX EDUCATION (NETFLIX). Sorry to see the end of RESERVATION DOGS.
Started DARK RIDE by Lou Berney, listening to Donald Hall's (poet) essays on Hoopla, and the audible version of Megan's BEWARE THE WOMAN. Also about to begin VELVET WAS THE NIGHT Silvia Morena-Garcia for my book group.
What about you?
19 comments:
We are now into my favorite monthof the year and the weather has been gorgeous.Sadly, the front porch glider is broken and I'll have to wait for it to be repaired some time this week before I can truly enjoy the October weather. I did enjoy the beach yesterday -- clear sky, gentle breezes. warm sun, and frolicking dolphins. I don't know if this good part of October in Florida outweighs the the absolute beauty of New England in the Fall -- I do miss that foliage.
Jack has a couple of doctor appointments this week, and then is going in for his stomach operation on Thursday. there's a possibility of complications, so we're playing everything by ear. The girls are planning their last camping trip of the year later this month, and then they'll be off to new Orleans for a performance of WICKED. WAlt's planned photo trip to the Everglades has morphed into a swampy Thanksgiving adventure forChristina, Mark, Jack, and hime -- maybe they'll be able to catch a pythn this time arouns. I'm tentatively planning a trip to Massachusetts early in November to check in on my brother, who is losing ground to Alzeimer's rapidly.
Still no meaningful television watching, and there's a lot I should catch up on. Jack spends a lot of time in my room and we watch his programs together -- BELLA AND THE BULLDOGS (terrible), LEGENDS OF TOMORROW (which can have some redeeming originality), STRANGER THINGS (sadly we watched for one day only), and now. the lowest of the low, HENRY DANGER, which is so bad that even Edward D. Wood would blanch. I am learning never to trust the taste of an eleven-year-old boy.
Read two more Dave Robicheax novels by James Lee Butrk: THE GLASS RAINBOW and PEGASUS DESCENDING, plus one Elvis Cole book by Robert CRais, THE WANTED. Frank Belknap Long's science fiction novel MARS IS MY DESTINATION was sadly unfocused and not well thought out. I aslo read two science fiction collections: John W. Campbell, Jr.'s WHO GOES THERE? (also pubished as THE THING FROM OUTER SPACE to tie in with the classic movie) and THE HUMAN ZERO: THE SCIENCE FICTION STORIES OF ERLE STANLEY GARDNER. Rex Stout's THE LAST DRIVE was an early novel that closed out his apprentice years as a writer; it was published as a six-part serial in GOLF MAGAZINE over a hundred years ago and then was "lost," only to be discovered by Stout researchers in 2011. The novel (novella, really) was Stout's first attempt at a mystery story and a pat was used in his first Nero Wolfe book two decades later THELAST DRIVE was published as a separate title several years ago and, more lately as the lead in THE LAST DRIVE AND OTHER STORIES; frankly, some of the other twn early stories were far more entertaining than th title story. I enjoyed Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg's series about Fox & O'Hare, a female FBI agent and a slick con man, which ran for five novels and conintued for a few more after Goldberg dropped out. PROS AND CONS, the origin story to the series, was one of two e-Books added to the series by Evanovich and Goldberg. Good? Yes, but nowhrer near as elaborate as the novels. Coming up, FROZEN HELL, the earlier, much longer and quite different verson of Campbell's WHO GOES THERE?, as well as a pseudonomous "Gothic" thriller by Charles L. Grant and several of the wonderful Danny Dunn juveniles by Jay Williams and Raymond Abrashkin.
Enjoy your October, Patti! It's a beautiful time of year. Stay safe.
You've been doing some interesting reading, Patti! I think as the days get shorter (at least for me), reading gets more and more tempting.
I could enjoy Fall more if I had a balcony, a patio or any outdoor seating. But I do have huge windows that allow me to see the trees turning for miles. I'll be thinking of Jack all week.
Yes, Margot, I am not out after dinner hour very often now.
Diane was Deep Cleaning all week long in preparation for hosting her Cousins Reunion. Cousins from Florida, Syracuse, and Canada joined the other cousins in Western New York. Diane's sister drove up from Ohio to attend and help Diane.
Our weather has been unseasonable with temps 10 to 15 degrees above Normal. But, the leaves are turning colors so we know FALL is here.
Two weeks ago Disney and Spectrum had a fight. Spectrum took all of our Disney channels away until the dispute was settled. Now that it's settled, Disney+ doesn't work any more. All I get is a Blue Screen. I need to call Disney+ this week and get my service back. Plus, Disney+ raised their rates so I'm now paying for...nothing.
We have tickets to the Taylor Swift movie that's approaching fast. Stay safe!
I have that Lou Berney book - along with 7 others - from the library. Will get to it soon, I hope I like his writing a lot.
Not much going on here, as Jackie has had a bad cold (upper respiratory, not Covid) nearly all week, and hasn't left the house. We also had horrendous weather, rain all weekend and a little more Monday and Tuesday, then a deluge (6-7 inches) on Friday. Only 1882 had a wetter September, and July and August were fairly soggy too.
But this week we've turned the page and it could be sunny and 80 tomorrow and Wednesday. Go figure.
Got some reading done - the new Longmire by Craig Johnson, THE LONGMIRE DEFENSE (good one), the fourth Thursday Murder Club book by Richard Osman (THE LAST DEVIL TO DIE), Ann Cleeves's THE RAGING STORM, plus more Ed Hoch short stories.
The third series of the German/Polish NORDIC MURDERS (no, I don't know who came up with the title, though one of the main characters in the second and third series is Norwegian) is back on PBS, I believe. We're near the end of the Israeli HOSTAGES (second series is coming Octoober 24) on MHz Choice, and the silly WHO IS ERIN CARTER? on Netflix. The fourth episode, a flashback episode to her past life, is so far superior to the rest of the series it's like night and day. Her behavior is otherwise moronic.
Jackie is watching THE WHEEL OF TIME on Netflix (I believe). Most other shows as before. We did start watching the British NEXT OF KIN (Acorn?), which depends entirely on the idiotic behavior of its characters. Archie Panjabi plays a doctor, whose doctor brother is running a free clinic in Pakistan, until he is murdered by (who else?) Muslim extremists. This you need to take pretty much on faith, because we don't know who they are, what they want, why they killed him, or, basically, anything. The British government lies (shocker, right?) to get Panjabi to go to Pakistan to identify the brother's body, so they can follow her to her nephew, who may or may not be involved with the terrorists who killed his father. It only gets more far-fetched from there, as this doctor acts like the most moronic of "had I but known" heroines of yore. I may just let Jackie finish the rest on her own. It's easy to see why there was no second series.
In the 80s in Southern Wisconsin and I am sick of the hot weather. Sunday was the annual Fall Festival of Color. Some years a jacket is required, yesterday was shorts weather.
I listened to a another Ben Sanders novel and enjoyed it. Starting Colin Bateman's ORPHEUS RISING. Bateman is an expert at unsufferable protagonists with drinking issues and poor impulse control. This is a switch because it is a crime novel with ghosts and very unlike his usual novels.
Almost finished watching SWEET TOOTH on Netflix. Spectacular New Zealand scenery in that show.
My extended family has had some difficult health fallbacks and I'm thankful my own nuclear family been able to escape so much trouble and woe.
Started trying to read a print book with WORLD RECORD BOOK OF RACIST STORIES by Amber Ruffin and her sister whose-name-I-don't-recall-and-don't-want-to-look-up. Some amazing stories of what Ruffin and her family experience. But, Ruffin is irre-freaking-pressible and keeps on enjoying life in spite of the BS of other people.
I watched the first season of SWEET TOOTH and forgot all about it.
If I see a show was on a few years ago and didn't have a second season I rarely try it. Maybe i miss things that way. Great reading, Jeff.
Do I need tkts to Taylor Swift if I go on a weekday?
We liked the first series of SWEET TOOTH but couldn't get into the second at all.
I've been mildly surprised at the quality of the international production THE SWARM, which has been imported by the CW, bought just before the network has sold. Like it, but this near-future sf series about what climate-change inspires in our sea-life (inspired, probably, in part by whale attacks on small boats, perhaps in response to whaling) isn't a Must See so far. Caught the first new LAST WEEK TONIGHT last night, after an imported UK Max streaming series getting a preview on HBO, STARSTRUCK, which is pleasant and clever enough to watch but also less than compelling. Catching up with PROFESSOR T's second season via PBS. Will enjoy seeing a new LATE SHOW and LATE NIGHT tonight, and might even give KIMMEL a few looks during the commercials.
Donald Hall has also written some clever short stories over the years. If he's attempted longer-form prose, I haven't seen it, but shall Go Look. The Taylor Swift film might well sell out heavily in early showings, at least. Expect MAGAt pickets at the theaters. I enjoyed SEX EDUCATION on one or another of the channels, possibly even Alice's sub to Netflix some time back.
Best of luck to Jack and your brother, Jerry...and a quick recovery for Jackie, Jeff. (So many Js!)
Shall seek out the Ruffin book, Gerald. She has seemed quick to take offense at times, but if things were as default bad for her early on as this suggests, I can see where she's coming from.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Hall suggests Hall wrote some novels, or parts of them, but didn't ever seek to have them published. Two collections of short stories cited. To remain true to form as Mag Guy (not MAGA), he was the poetry editor for the early years of THE PARIS REVIEW.
George, someone with (at one point) 90-100 or so first cousins, not counting those who would be second cousins from the grandchildren of my paternal grandfather's first marriage, A Cousins Reunion outside of a public park (my mother's family has done so on a couple of occasions) might be at best unwieldy. Untenable as a Zoom gathering.
We went to get flu shots this morning and it went smoothly, except they told us that masks were required and the ones we took had problems with the elastic, but then they did not require masks anyway. We will be getting the Covid 19 vaccine in about a week and a half. And Glen has a couple of medical appointments coming up.
We still want to eliminate Netflix because we can't keep up with all the other services we have. But we want to watch two films on Netflix first, for sure, and maybe a few others that might be fun. Netflix is too expensive if we aren't going to watch it.
We watched a couple of movies this weekend: THE FRIGHTENERS with Michael J. Fox and Trini Alvarez (and many others) and STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME. I love that one; lots of humor. We will be finishing up DEADLOCH and ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING season 3 soon. Also only a few more episodes of the original PERRY MASON series to watch. We started POKER FACE and have watched a couple of episodes of LONDON KILLS and THE CHELSEA DETECTIVE.
I read MESSENGER OF TRUTH, book #4 in the Maisie Dobbs series, by Jacqueline Winspear. I liked it better than the first three books but still have problems with the series. I like the post-World War I setting; this one was set in 1931. And I like the idea of the series continuing into World War II, but I am not at all fond of the main character. I just started GREENWOOD by Michael Christie, set in Canada and by a Canadian.
This week Glen finished reading 1941: FIGHTING THE SHADOW WAR: A DIVIDED AMERICA IN A WORLD AT WAR, which he liked a lot. He is now reading SOLDIER, SAILOR, FROGMAN, SPY, AIRMAN, GANGSTER, KILL OR DIE: HOW THE ALLIES WON ON D-DAY. So he is sticking with World War II nonfiction for now.
The Hall essays are really pieces about his childhood and attending a baseball preseason camp so far.
Whenever I read references to lit on WWII and Canada, TracyK's comments above, I think about Farley Mowat and his war memoir AND NO BIRDS SANG. I listened to the audio about 20 years ago and greatly enjoyed. Mowat had a history of "enhancing" his memoirs but the storytelling was still great.
In the BIRDS Mowat recalls some of the correspondence with his father who was a traveling library dude with either the national or provincial government in CA. His dad published a novel and I keep wanting to track a copy down in print or electronic. Mowat wrote his father with praise for the novel but, in fact, did not think the book was so great.
Mowat Senior's job was to visit small, remote public libraries and give advice and professional aid to the library staff. Maybe Senior should have written about how those trips away from home involved Senior shagging many of his librarian hosts. The book would have sold better.
Gerard, thanks for the information on AND NO BIRDS SANG. I have been wanting to read something by Farley Mowat and had wondered about that book specifically. I will look into it more.
Yes, thanks Gerard. I will see if I can find that on Hoopla or Libby.
The streaming issues are a problem. Every time I almost give up on Netflix, a few things turn up like the new season of Lupin. And I am really enjoying THE BEAUTY QUEEN OF JERUSALEM, which is not about what it sounds like. Also BAND OF BROTHERS.
I got my Covid shot and my arm is sore but so far nothing major.
I did a quick look of Wisconsin library holdings for Angus Mowat and none of his fiction appears. But, there is a 1956 occasional paper from the Canadian Lib Association.
Farley's 1992 book of letters between himself and his parents during the war is still around, MY FATHER'S SON. The letters book is only available at the prison in Oshkosh.
One of Hall's couple of essay collections was all about baseball and kids, apparently.
Gerard...do prisons do interlibrary loans?
Glad the Covid shot isn't too onerous, Patti.
Farley Mowat, aside from the two or three books everyone used to see everywhere, was also an early contributor to the Canadian anarchist/libertarian socialist magazine OUR GENERATION, which initially was OG AGAINST NUCLEAR WAR, and Mowat was in those years briefly infamous for wanting to take pointless potshots at USAF nuclear-armed jets flying over his neighborhood. I had never been aware of his father before this discussion...PLAYBOY not the only repository of librarian sexual fantasy acted out, clearly (Hefner being a bookworm before his dissolution).
Prison libraries do a fair amount of ILLs as borrowers. Now I want to search for the stats but need to stay on task - although writing this comment is definitely off-task.
There is a brief (12.5 minutes) documentary of Mowat Senior from 1971. Bib record in OCLC says:
A film portrait of Angus Mowat, with commentary by his son, author Farley Mowat. At seventy-six, Angus still shows an enviable capacity for life, turning his hand to things that the leisure of retirement now makes possible. One of these is the rebuilding of an old fishing boat, converting it to sail. This is a picture of a man who has reached his later years with no slackening of interest in life, who finds a good and constant companion in nature, and contentment in the quiet isolation of his cabin by the shore
The rabbit hole grows deeper and I must now retreat.
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