A friend had an extra ticket so I saw A BEAUTIFUL NOISE-a very weak book, but the music and choreography was good. I was in the minority among a sea of adoring fans. Sold out at the huge Fisher Theater.
Finished Megan's book EL DORADO DRIVE, which was great. Of course, I am her mother and it takes place in our hometown. But still, that kid can write. Also finished THE LIFE IMPOSSIBLE by Matt Haig, which I didn't much like. Magical realism has always eluded me.
Loved the movie EXHIBITING FORGIVENESS with Andre Holland. I think I rented it on Amazon. He should be nominated for an Oscar but the movie is probably too small.
Watching VERA and SHETLAND, one episode at a time. I have never had to wait for them before. (Britbox)
Josh and Julie had me over for a birthday brunch and I fell getting up from the table. Big bruise but no real injury.
How about you?
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Glen is going to his Annual Medicare Wellness appointment Monday morning, and then we will have lunch out, so I am putting up my comments early. We will be out at least half of the day. And the following Monday I have the same type of appointment.
Nothing much going on otherwise except that this year the dwarf Meyer Lemon tree that we planted in 2020 is finally giving me enough lemons to notice. We did move it out of the ground to a large pot about a year ago and have our tree people give it regular fertilization so that may have helped. In the tiny back area the tree gets no sun from October to April, which seems like that would be a negative. And I never knew that it would have lemons in the fall and winter.
I have THE LIFE IMPOSSIBLE by Matt Haig, I will let you know my reaction when I read it. I don't really understand magical realism.
On New Year's Eve and the next day we watched three MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 episodes: SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL, RIDING WITH DEATH, and LOST CONTINENT. That was fun. We have also been watching: MIDSOMER MURDERS and a lot of NUMB3RS episodes. And we started rewatching ELEMENTARY.
I finished reading two books since January 1st. First was PARTING BREATH by Catherine Aird, the 7th book in the Inspector Sloan series set in the fictional county of Calleshire in the UK. After I finished the book, I saw at Martin Edward's blog that Catherine Aird died in December 2024 at age 94.
The other book was THE TRAVELLING CAT CHRONICLES by Hiro Arikawa. I read it for the Japanese Literary Challenge but also because I want to read a book of short stories about cats by the same author (THE GOODBYE CAT). The cat (a male) tells the story and I liked the cat's voice. I kept trying to figure out what my cat would sound like if she was telling a story.
Glen is currently reading 188 WORDS FOR RAIN: A DELIGHTFULLY DAMP TOUR OF THE BRITISH ISLES, LED BY NATURAL FORCES. It is humorous and he is enjoying it. He got it through Blackwell's, it has not been published here yet.
He is also reading a short story book, GHOSTS OF THE CHIT-CHAT, edited by Robert Lloyd Parry.
Megan can, indeed, write, Patti! I'm glad you liked El Dorado Drive so well. I have to admit I've not read Matt Haig before. Not sure if I will, but it was good to read your take on it.
As one who has the equivalent of an Olympic Gold Medal in falling, I can attest that it's not much fun. Please don't do it again.
So, 2025 is here, and it brought with it a lot of rain and cold weather...a harbinger, perhaps. And today is the fourth anniversary of a bunch of yahoos, gullibles, and useful idiots storming the Capitol. I had hoped that we would put that nonsense behind us...silly me.
Anyway, I've been in the doldrums, doing little, and really have to snap myself out of it. I had my annual physical and my round of inoculations so I'm good to go for another year. One bright spot: yesterday, we celebrated
Adoption Day. It's been ten years since Christina and Walt adopted Jack, ten years of the joy, frustrations, and hope that he has brought into the family. I look at Jack and am constantly amazed ath how much I love him.
For Christmas Jessie got me a puzzle board for jigsaw puzzles. No more leaving the unfinished puzzles out for the dogs to eat the pieces! Jigsaw puzzles are the equivalent to crack cocaine for me. So I picked up a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle at the local thrift and, hoping that all the pieces were there, and started to assemble it. It turns out this is the puzzle from hell. Five days into it and It's only about three-quarters finished. Not much beyond that has been done this week.
I did watch some TV. VERA and SHETLAND, of Course, and I streamed five seasons of DALZIEL & PASCOE. (Jigsaw puzzles are not my only obsessive-compulsive failings.) As a result, I did very little reading this week, just a 1927 mystery thriller by John Wyndham, THE CURSE OF THE BURDENS, (written when he was 20, evidently influenced by the Wilkie Collins school of writing, and it shows), and THE SECRET LIVES OF MARRIED WOMEN, a Hard Case Crime novel by Elissa Wald. I also read the January 1955 issue of THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION, which I mined for my Short Story Wednesday post.
I have not counted up the number of books I read in 2024 yet, but here are the figures for the rest of the family: Christina, 52 (her actual reading goal for 2024), Erin, 143; Jessie, 113; Amy, 102 (122, if you count rereads), and Kaylee, 151 (including rereads).
And Newcat has discovered Sebastian, the Russian tortoise, and is spending much time with him as they stare ate each other through the glass division of his cage.
Have a great week, Patti! Stay safe. And no more falls!
Hope you are fully recovered.
We're on the road. We'll be in South Florida by late afternoon, I hope. For once our timing was impeccable. It was cold when we left and cold in the morning in Virginia and North Carolina, but otherwise dry. They are expecting a little snow in New York today, but we would have had a major problem in the DC/Virginia area.
This hotel had Amazon on the TV, so we watched the first episode of series 4 of ASTRID on PBS Masterpiece.
So far, gas prices seem like last year or maybe a little lower. Surprisingly, I paid less in New York - $2.99 a gallon - than Delaware or Maryland. The cheapest so far was $2.62 in Kenly, North Carolina.
We should be settled in by next week.
Jerry, while we were eating breakfast downstairs, I was thinking, too bad Washington didn't have this snowy weather four years ago. It might have helped.
I read 112 book, 48 of them short story collections this past year. 929 stories read was a record for me.
My orthopedic surgeon always ends our sessions with: "Don' fall."
Western NY is frigid this week with temps in the 20s. Most of the snow is falling south of Buffalo in the ski resort areas so they're happy. The Meyersons timed their trip to Florida perfectly. The schools are closed in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia as the Arctic Blast brings lots of snow.
Patrick also timed his flight from Houston to New York City perfectly yesterday. Today, hundreds of flights are being canceled because of the weather.
Some of the grocery stores here offer free delivery. Maybe you can order five or six gallons of distilled water and have them delivered. That should hold you for months!
I ordered a water distiller. It's just too stress-filled, seeing you has water and how I will get it. Last trip to store, they were completely out of it. Hope this works out. More later-off to Limber Up class.
Limbering class sounds like a good idea for me to look into as well. Barry Malzberg died as a result of a cascade of maladies triggered in part, at least, from taking a bad fall a couple/few months ago (he did love his outdoor morning walks). Glad yours wasn't so bad, Patti. The worst I've done (mostly on stairs) is come down hard on my tailbone, and I'd like to keep it that way.
Here in the Philadelphia burbs in NJ, we're getting a gentle snow, and temps in the 20s. Two workmen are trying to fix some corroded pipes in the house's steam heat, so the space heaters are revved up (but only can get us so far).
Our younger cat is particularly unthrilled with the sounds of pipe-cutting.
Amusingly, in moving books around today to get them out of the way of the work, I uncovered my copy of BUG-EYED MONSTERS, an anthology edited by Bill Pronzini and Barry Malzberg that Tracy cited recently on her blog, in mentioning Damon Knight's "Stranger Station", one of the included stories.
I'm sure the gentle, happy, heroic Drumpf supporters would've braved any elements to peacefully crush, pummel and bear-spray police and others, while setting up a gallows for Mike Pence. Truly heroes who deserve our thanks.
Patti, hope your water distiller is at least as easy as ours. One does need to clean the hard-water deposits out of ours, with some judicious application of citric acid...not the cats' favorite scent, to be sure.
And as pleasant a winter day as possible to our northern hemispheric band...do any antipodeans check in here?
Magical realism can lend itself to preciousness even more readily than other forms of fantasy, so all sympathies for those finding any given item more than a bit twee. And all fantasy can fall prey to twee or maliciously grim mopery at the drop of a spell.
Falling becomes so easy to do as everyone ages. My library has hosted some falling prevention classes. I fell last week on ice and had no injuries. When I do fall, I think I should not stick out my arms for risk of injury to hand, wrist, arm, or shoulder. Easier thought than done.
On Friday I went to Milwaukee to see a show by Kevin McDonald. McDonald is most famous as a member of THE KIDS IN THE HALL. He does a stand-up show that is stories about his time in the troupe. I think I had hear all the stories before from various recordings. I still had a very nice time, sat right in front of the stage, the ticket was only $30, and I was home by 10:30PM.
This is birthday month for our family with 3 out of 4 landing in January. Boy #2 had his birthday already and we visited to a new cat cafe and then out for dinner. #2 was also just listed on the Dean's List at U of WI. I cheered aloud
when my wife announced this. #2's response to my cheer was "Ugh. Stop it." The online UW Dean's List lets you sort by hometown and I was very glad to see 21 local high school grads listed. Boy #1 is likely on his Dean's List - like usual - and starts his final semester on January 21.
I went all the way through SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN and there was zero Megan content. I'll have to contact Overdrive and request they correct the cataloging error. Meanwhile, I started reading an actual paper book. I wanted to bring something along as I waited for the Kevin McDonald show to start and took a withdrawn copy of Martin Limon's G.I. BONES. I've been taking forever (20+ years) to start his series. Quite a good book so far. Our former City Manager said he was an MP in Korea. That would likely have been the late 1970s. I don't know what kind of crimes he had to deal with during his time there.
Meanwhile, I started the audio of EYE OF THE RED TSAR by Sam Eastland. Decent story set in 1928 Russia and about the murder of the royal family ten years before. I'm sure Russian historians have gripes about accuracy and plausibility.
I have enjoyed the Limon fiction I've read. Congratulations on your sons' academic success!
Manitoba is one place on the continent that isn't getting hit with major snowstorms although the temperature has dropped to around 20 below C. Still not our normal January so far. Went over my books I read list for 2024 and only four novels received my top four stars rating and two were older books from the early 2000s. Didn't count how many books I read, but it had to be over 100. Randy Wayne White made it back on my top ten list with his novel focusing on the Fort Myers area hurricane titled One Deadly Eye. He mentioned in a note that despite his home being hit, he didn't lose his collection of first editions. Yesterday I watched the latest Vera on BritBox. Just two more before the series comes to an end. Surprisingly, I have only read one book in the Vera Stanhope series by Ann Cleeves. Did read all the Shetland books and watch the TV shows. My New Year's resolution is to clean up my home office and donate all the books that are in boxes or piled on the floor that I know I will never read. That would at least be a start. Chapters/Indigo had a 30% off hardcovers sale that ran from Boxing Day until Jan. 1 so I had to make a visit. Managed to only buy three including one titled Rooms of Their Own subtitled Where Great Writers Write.
Megan may end up in Winnipeg making RED HARVEST in a couple of years if I didn't already report that. I only read 30 books last year if I don't count short stories and haiku collections. Todd, what kind of distiller do you have? Probably too late to change the order though. About half my group enjoyed THE LIFE IMPOSSIBLE and half did not. It's a large group-about 25 women and one man.
I landed on my butt but my one side hit the kitchen table falling. There was so little room between the table and the wall, I could have easily hit their space heater too.
After watching a few episodes of THE FRANCHISE on HBO I sure hope RED HARVEST has full funding and no studio meddling.
Our distiller is a Taiwanese brand item, with the English-as-second-language brand of MegaHome. Alice bought it, and neither one of us, after days of work and helping repairmen work, could remember that name, and it only took me a another half hour to go into the dining room (where we keep it) and look.
THE FRANCHISE has great fun with tentpole fantasy film and TV series and all the nonsense around them. RED HARVEST should be a grim/fun experience...
There is so much that can be done with RED HARVEST. Changing geography, time setting, characters to fit the abbreviated film version. I'm a rank amateur and can see ways the story can be altered. It will be really neat to see how professional story tellers adapt the tale.
I reread the novel somewhat recently and should do so again. I used to read and reread the Continental Op stories when I was in middle or high school.
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