It is about to be very, very cold. A friend visited from Brooklyn. Well, she was actually here for a funeral but we had dinner. Her husband (now deceased) took writing classes with me in the 90s. I miss a lot of people nowadays.
I watched the four- part treatment of EMMA from 2009, which was excellent and am thinking of devoting myself to watching every version of Austen novels I can find online since there is not too much else. I did watch SEVERANCE and have still not make up my mind about it. A show like that has to stick the landing and will it? Also watching INSIDE NO 9, which is good enough. I don't demand too much from 30 minutes shows. I enjoyed BLACK TULIP but maybe not enough to watch a second series. Am enjoying ALL CREATURES.
Certainly the Lions didn't stick the landing. But man, it was a fun 17 games until that one.
About to start YELLOW FACE for one of my book groups. I would like to read a second book by William Shaw but it looks like the central character in BIRDWATCHER doesn't come back. Am I willing to pay $13 on Kindle because my library only has BIRDWATCHER. Listening to THE YEAR OF LEAR by Shapiro.
Delta has changed our flight BACK from Sarasota three times now. We should have flown into Tampa, I guess.
Going to see SING SING today. Been waiting for that to arrive here since the Fall.
What about you?
12 comments:
Tomorrow morning we are going to get blood tests that were ordered at our Annual Medicare Wellness appointments, and that plus breakfast plus grocery shopping could take a while, so I am leaving my comment Sunday night.
I think I could watch (or rewatch) all available adaptations of the Jane Austen books, well almost all of them. We do have some of them on disc.
The main character in BIRDWATCHER does come back, but it takes a while. However, you are right about the high cost of getting copies of the books, so it might not be worth it. I had to make an effort to find used copies.
Watching: We have finally started watching the 4th season of SLOW HORSES, but I can't think of any new we have started.
I read THE BENEVOLENT SOCIETY OF ILL-MANNERED LADIES by Alison Goodman. Glen and I were both interested in this book when it first came out, but it has been sitting in a stack of TBR books for a while and I was the first to read it. I enjoyed the Regency setting and the characters. The story is a good blend of historical fiction, mystery, and romance, and a lot of fun. I started reading one of Glen's mysteries from the British Library Crime Classics series, THIRTEEN GUESTS by J. Jefferson Farjeon. It is a country house mystery and I like it so far.
Glen is continuing to read THE DEMON OF UNREST by Erik Larson, but he has not started another short story book as far as I know. My next Short Story Wednesday post will be about three of his short story books of ghost stories and / or weird stories.
After a couple of warm days, an Armageddon-like storm is about to hit us on Tuesday and Wednesday. Well. Armageddon-like by Florida standards -- the predicted one to three inches of snow and ice has everybody ion a tizzy. Schools and county services have already been cancelled. Christina's third-grade student and all his classmates are excited at the thought of snow; most have never seen any. Anyway, it's kind of fitting that Hell would freeze over after today's Inauguration.
Today is also Martin Luther King Day. when we first moved down South, it was celebrated as Lee-Jackson (as in Stonewall) Day. Begrudgingly it was changed to Lee-Jackson-King Day, and eventually became Martin Luther King Day. Every time I think of that, I start humming the old Phil Harris song, "That's What I Like About the South." It's also the birthday of folk singer Leadbelly (something to celebrate) and the birthday of Nikki Haley, who is probably upset that SHE is not being inaugurated today.
Not much exciting has happened this week. The largest possum in the world got into our garage and he did not look anything like Pogo. Amy is starting classes to become certified as a vet tech. Newcat and Sage are beginning to explore (and occasionally use) their new cat tree.
Saturday was "Sisters Day," a monthly celebration where Christina and Jessie go off and do something fun together. This time it was trip to Mobile for some serious shopping, with Amy and Erin joining in. Too much money was spent. Then Saturday night Amy and some of her friends went to the Pensacola Ice Flyers hockey game; they have season tickets. It also happened that Jack was having a sleepover at a friend's house and that family decided to go to the game, making it Jack's first ever hockey game, professional or otherwise. It was an exciting experience for our little warrior. First it was Weiner Dog Race Night which thrilled Jack. Then both goalies dropped gloves, skated across the ice, and fought; goalies (at least down here) never fight. there several fights during the game and the home team won by at least five points. And absolutely amazing first game for Jack to go to. He was living his best life and we got as blow by blow description (literally) when he finally came home.
Tuesday in April are now scheduled. All of us will be taking a beginning art class at the local college. I'm sure that my lack of artistic ability will be having the instructor pulling out his (or her) hair.
Also, some great news: Mrs. Nelson's Candy House in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, can now deliver! Whenever we are in Massachusetts, there are two required stops -- Kimball Farm in Westford for ice cream, and Mrs. Nelson for fudge and chocolate lollipops (Christina is addicted to the lollipops; I think they make them with crack cocaine). She is over the moon that her favorite chocolate lollipops cam now be delivered by mail.
More to some...
Back again.
Britbox got a workout from me this week. I streamed the last two seasons of DALZIEL AND PASCOE, the first season of AFTER THE FLOOD, and watched the final episode of the current season of SHETLAND, as well as the documentary VERA, FAREWELL PET. Wondering how they are going to approach the second season of AFTER THE FLOOD, still not fully sold on Ashley Jenson's character (Douglas Henshaw is a hard act to follow). And I am mourning the loss of VERA. Not sure of what to stream next, but I am leaning toward revisiting REBUS.
I finally got a count on books read in 2024. Officially the number I recorded was 210, but the count is much higher than that. I saw that a number of books I read last year were not recorded for whatever reason, computer problem being the main culprit. Then, two days after I checked the document that listed the books I read in 2024, Word decided that the email account I have used for over a dozen years was not correct, and changed it -- substituting a dash for and underscore. I finally got that corrected and minutes later, documents vanished totally or partially. As it now stands, I evidently read only one book in 2024. GAAH!
Books read this week include Lynd Ward's classic wordless novel GOD'S MAN (if you can all it reading), which was my FFB this week. It's a forerunner to today's graphic novel, a Faustian tale told in expressionistic woodcuts, and well worth the effort. James Lee Burke's LAY DOWN MY SWORD AND SHIELD is an early Hackberry Holland novel of redemption. Hack is still traumatized by what had happened to him and what he had done while a prisoner of the Chinese during the Korean War, when he gets embroiled in a fight to unionize Texas farm workers. John Creasey's INTRODUCING THE TOFF (also published as IT'S THE TOFF!) was the first book of nearly sixty in the series. HUNT THROUGH NAPOLEON'S WEB by Raymond Benson is the sixth and final book in the Gideon hunt series created by Hard Case Crime's Charles Ardai. Lin Carter's science fiction novel THE THIEF OF THOTH was the first of three stories about Hautley Quicksilver, the galaxy's greatest thief in the 36th century (or millennium, not sure which). An interesting and ineptly written fun read that could have been written by a fanboy (which Carter was) by throwing every clever (and seemingly clever) idea on the page without much thought or editing. From a far future thief to the earl 20th century. we have MALAY COLLINS, MASTER THIEF OF THE EAST, a collection of three pulp stories from 1930 by Murray Leinster, a sure hand at this sort of thing. I did not actually read the 2000 book because current prices are prohibitive, but I was able to get all three stories in pulp reprint magazines, so I am counting this as a book read. Currently reading John Creasey's THE DEATH MISER, the first of his many Department Z/Gordon Craigie thrillers, and the third novel the author published. I'm also finishing GUN TROUBLE IN TONTO BASIN, ascribed to Romer Zane Grey, Zane Grey's son, and featuring Arizona Ames, the title character from one of Grey's novels. There is some doubt as to whether Romer Zane Grey wrote any of the western stories published in ZANE GREY WESTERN MAGAZINE attributed to him; most of the stories have been attributed to ghost writer Bill Pronzini & Jeff Wallman (including two of the three stories in this collection, Tom Curry, and Clayton Matthews. Romer did, however, write a Big Little Book based on the newspaper comic adventures of his father's KING OF THE ROYAL MOUNTAIN.
I will not be in D.C. today for the inauguration (held indoors because, as SNL put it, there would be too many people to hold it outside); will you? Have a great week as democracy sputters, Patti. Stay safe and stay warm.
I will not watch a minute of it although someone told me you are supposed to turn it on so you can turn it off in protest at 12. Haven't we learned yet that all of these marches and protests do nothing with a man like him. In fact, he probably likes any sort of attention.
I always get my bloodwork ahead of the exam so we can discuss it. Although that rarely takes place. We discuss the doctor's theories on various issues. All from Trumpland. An amazing amount of reading. If I counted podcasts and three daily newspapers, I would have a higher number than 35. Embarrassing .
I have to say, I am so, so tired of endless articles about whatever is the latest trendy show, from WHITE LOTUS to SUCCESSION to SEVERANCE now. Most of us do NOT have Apple + and have no interest in reading endless rehashes and analyses of a show we will never, ever see. Enough!
Now get off my lawn, I mean it.
/end pointless rant
So glad we're in South Florida and missing the snow and Polar Vortex. Our next door neighbor texted Jackie a picture last night of the street covered in snow. There is only a few inches, but the deep freeze will keep it bitter for the next several days. This is exactly the reason we started coming to Florida in the winters, to get away from the hideous weather. As for the weather down here so far, it's been good for us - mostly 70s or upper 60s, pretty decent for January. We had warm weather this weekend, around 80 both days, but it was very windy so felt very comfortable. This looks like a very rainy week (through Thursday, at least), cool and overcast in the 60s mostly. Still, compared with the teens and 20s in New York, I'll take it. And once this front goes by, there is no rain in the immediate forecast.
Mostly reading and watching television and going out for lunches (brunch once a week). We finished SHETLAND (series 9, I believe) and finished the second series of SHERWOOD last night. For me, there is no comparison to the first series. Good actors, but the sleazy gangster family story line, as well as the total incompetence of the Nottingham police, was a turn off. Good, though, that the main heroine was a Down syndrome woman, who not only killed one of the men who killed her mother, but turned in the drug dealers to police. Tell me, is it not the case in every British cop show you watch that there is a "family liaison" officer constantly checking in with the family? Well, this woman was left alone after the murders, and there was NO liaison officer at all, so no one even checked ONCE, when they would have seen the drug dealers operating openly out of their house. And it was incredibly obvious there was a mole in the police, yet it took all six episodes for the guy in charge to figure it out. Still, as long as there are people like Lesley Manvillw, David Morrissey, Philip ("Insp. Japp" ) Jackson (here very much against type as a criminal), Lorraine Ashborne, and Stephen Dillane, it is worth watching.
We're on the fourth series (one more in the works in Germany) of BABYLON BERLIN, now up to 1931. Also the third and final series of the Finnish ARCTIC CIRCLE. We started the British PROTECTION, with the ubiquitous Siobhan Finneran in charge of a Witness Protection division, which appears to havbe a leak too. On Britbox, I believe. We're enjoying ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL. We finished series 10 of SILENT WITNESS (out of 28!) and series 7 (of 10) of SPOOKS/MI-5.
I read the 600 page ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK by Chris Whitaker.
What William Shaw does is, continue the series with the same Kent setting, and the main character of THE BIRDWATCHER surfaces as a minor character in several books in the rest of the series. I also had trouble getting some from the library, and ultimately had too buy a couple in trade paperback.
We felt like idiots when we got to the lab for blood tests and they were closed for the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. The lab seems like it is part of the medical facility but it is a separate entity. OH well, we go back on Friday.
Then we went to breakfast and got trapped in the restaurant with a bunch of yahoos (loudly) watching the inauguration on the TVs.
I don't know anything about WHITE LOTUS or SUCCESSION but we see adds for SEVERANCE (second season) now whenever we are streaming shows, and I am very tired of them. Plus they make me NOT want to watch the show. We do have Apple TV+, mainly for SLOW HORSES.
I cannot believe it is so cold (and possibly snowy) in the part of Florida that you live in, Jerry. Or any part of the state I guess. We did have snow in Birmingham, Alabama in the fifties and it has happened more frequently lately, but that is further north.
Only quickly scanning through everyone's posts until I have time later today. I tried reading the captions of the inauguration speech while taking a work break. I lasted less than 30 seconds.
As of yesterday both kids are back to university. My job stays busy as we move forward with getting a library building expansion.
I listened to TENDER IS THE FLESH by Argentine author Agustina Bazterrica (forgot translator). A really dark horror novel about industrial and codified cannibalism. I think this hit BookTok over the past year and grew in popularity.
Started reading ...AND A HARD RAIN FELL: A GI'S TRUE STORY OF THE WAR IN VIETNAM. A true story but told with composite characters and name changes. Like most of the books I read, Both TENDER and ...AND were referenced somewhere, I put them on hold, and I don't recall what first made me interested in them.
FOR ALL OF MANKIND on Apple is sort of interesting. An alternate history of the space program where the Russians beat us to the moon.
Are either of your sons a liberal arts major, Gerard. if so what do you think of their education at big state schools?
I was happy to see Biden pardon plenty of people who Trump has vowed to "punish." I was sad to see Trump pardon January 6 insurrectionists who injured police officers. Sets a very Bad Precedent.
Western NY is headed into the Deep Freeze, too. Waking up to ZERO DEGREES is not appealing.
I'm looking forward to SECTION 31 on Paramont+ . Stay safe!
Everytime I cancel Paramount they seem to add a good show. But it always seems like i have to pay for Paramount and Showtime to get much.
Jackie is a big fan of Michelle Yeoh's outrageous character on Star Trek, so we'll probably watch it.
Neither of my kids are doing a traditional liberal arts degree, unlike both parents. One kid is aerospace engineering and the other starting computer science. #1 has been at MN quite a while now and seems to be doing very well. Their mom and I both went to small private schools for undergrad and then a large state school for grad school and the larger school, for me, were a bit of mystery. The hugeness is tempered by joining one of the many smaller groups within, such as a major or a club.
Plenty has changed since I was in school. For example, #2 skips several lecture classes because all the lectures are recorded and he will watch those rather than get out of bed early or trek to the lecture hall. I asked if students ask questions during the lectures and he said they do. But, if he has no questions - or can ask them later in a lab group - I understand why he would choose to watch online.
Clubs and groups are abundant at both schools as well. A definite benefit of a large group of diverse people.
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