TELL ME EVERYTHING is Strout's most unusual book yet. In it she combines all of her characters from her other series and throws in a mystery. I love her books but I can see why other readers find them puzzling. Also saw the charming, lovable if not up to the predecessor THE WEDDING BANQUET. Lilly Gladstone steals every scene she is in as do the two elder ladies: Joan Chen and Youn Yuh-jung
Also loving THE PITT, OFFSPRINGS, HACKS, THE STUDIO.
Trying to get ready for Italy. This is not a good time of year for my knees and allergies.
Did you hear Megan and Laura Lippman are writing a TV series based on the Tess Monaghan books? Always loved them. Both also have new novels out in June. They will appear together at BOOKS ARE MAGIC in late June.
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Congrats to Megan, who always seems to be pushing the boundaries of well-deserved success.
I am not dead! Some grandfathers are "Gramps," some )God help us!) are "Pee-paw," but I am a grandfather called "Pop.' The tribe got a message from Kaylee around 3:30 this morning: "Pop is dead. Died after Easter services." to be followed by a hasty and embarrassed correction: "Pope, not Pop." Christina felt compelled to take a photo of me at 5:15 this morning and send it out as proof of life.
Our acrylic painting class is chugging along. The instructor is still abysmal and we still don't know what we are doing. This assignment this week was apparently a seascape. The instructor came in and just started working on one she had not finished. I'm having a great time painting (poorly) whatever the heck I feel like doing. she did emphasize that the horizon had to be a straight line, so I immediately did not do that. Toward the end of the class she came around to see what we were doing. she pointed at mine and said, 'What's that? A moon?" (It was round and yellow and in a dark sky. go figure.) I told her it was the Death Star and she nodded and moved on... We will be missing this week's class because of Jack's middle school band concert.
Amy turned 27 on Friday and we all went out to celebrate. I finally got to meet her new hidden boyfriend, Gavyn, and learned that he was not imaginary. Gavyn was evidently nervous about meeting the family and not many of us had met him. Unfortunately, Amy explained hos he spelled his name, "It's Gavyn with a 'Y.' " So now his official family name is Yavin To his credit he put up with us. He may even be Amy-worthy. Ivory, who works at the county jail, told us about being forced to pepper-spray a prisoner earlier that day, Good times.
Saturday, the tribe -- Jessie, Amy, Yavin, Kaylee, Ivory, Christina, and Erin -- headed off to the Big Easy for a performance of HAMILTON. Christina and Yavin were the only ones who had not seen or heard the musical before, so Christina hoped that she would enjoy it. She did.
Mark may be coming home for a few days in April. Or not. It's hard to pin that man down. He still has not heard about being transferred from the Brid section to the Reptile section, but he has been working at Reptiles on his days off for the past three months. They like him there and have given him a lot of responsibility, but the final decision does not lie with the Reptile people, but with politicians, so Mark is leery.
More to come...
I didn't know about the new series, Patti! I love the idea. I hope you have a fantastic trip!
Like the proverbial bad penny...
I watched the third season of REACHER. It was good but I felt as if they were trying to hard to make Reacher Reacher-like, if you understand what I mean (and you probably don't). LUDWIG remains enjoyable and now the cat is out of the bag about his secret. I caught the first two episodes of TOWARD ZERO and had a hard time realizing it was an Agatha Christie mystery. Too much personal angst among the very unlikable characters, everything is moving too slow, and the emphasis on "Zero" seems badly misplaced to me. The only bright spot for me is Matthew Rhys, and his world-weary, tortured character is revealed far too slowly for my tastes. As a drama the show is pretty good, but as a mystery it lacks a lot. I will have to steel myself to watch Part 3. The late night comics and HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU helped get the taste of TOWARD ZERO out of my mouth. HIGNFY has been renewed for a third season, huzzah!
It's been a short story week for me. I read two very good collections, Gerald Kersh's NiGHTSHADE AND DAMNATIONS (edited by Harlan Ellison), and Charles Willeford's THE MACHINE IN WARD ELEVEN, both very strange in their own way. Also read four anthologies. Leo Margulies's DAMES, DANGER, DEATH was a collection of hard-boiled mysteries (mainly from the mid-50s) and my FFB this week. NOOSE REPORT was one of a gazillion collections of stories from ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE, all sign by Hitchcock and edited by anonymous. Lester del Rey's BEST SCIENCE FICTION STORIES OF THE YEAR: FOURTH ANNUAL COLLECTION covered tales published in 1994. Another BOTY collection, THE 1977 WORLD'S BEST SF (also published as WOLLHEIM'S WORLD'S BEST SF: SERIES SIX), edited by Donald A. Wollheim with Arthur W. Saha has some great stories but, overall, did not impress me as much as the del Rey did.
Beautiful weather this week, but because of the holidays the beach was just two damned crowded. Interestingly, I just read that manatees are slowly migrating toward the Emerald Coast -- hope to see some one of these days. Whales have also been spotted around here, bit that has been raising some concern about migratory practices.
I hope you have a fantastic, allergy-free week, Patti. Stay safe.
I made it through 1 1/2 of Toward Zero and asked myself did I care at all and since the answer was no, gave up on it The only worse artist than me was my father and since he turned out not to be my birth father, I can't blame it on him
Thanks, Margot. But over the years I have found that most of these productions stall so I am not counting on it. She's been working on at leave another five as well. I live in fear of a report that lifelong use of Claritin will kill me.
Diane has read all of Elizabeth Strout's books and enjoyed them. Diane is sad hearing about the death of the Pope. Diane and her sister Carol went to Easter Mass yesterday.
Today, Diane and Carol are headed to the Galleria Mall to shop at J. Jill. I'm staying home and packing for out trip to return Carol to Ohio tomorrow. Katie is returning from London while Patrick is leaving for Japan. We're all in motion!
Have fun in Italy!
Yes, other than Florida and our summer trip with my cousins to New England, we feel our major traveling days are over, at least when it comes to Europe. We did fly to Arizona to see my sister in December, but I just don't see us going back to London any time soon. I hope you get through it unscathed.
The more I see of it, the more I appreciate how good THE PITT is, by far my favorite current show. We watch a lot of television (well, I think it's a lot), and now we've added Hulu & Disney + for 4 months to the rest. Plus, we're catching up with THE AGENCY and DARK WINDS On Demand. But nothing is close to THE PITT. If it was up to me, I'd watch it every night. We watched the first 6 (of 10) episodes of THE AGENCY before we left for Florida, but didn't have Showtime there. I didn't really love it then, and I'm not loving it now. Michael Fassbender is one cold customer. As a fan of the books, I just don't like DARK WINDS as much as many other people seem to. One of the key elements of the series' domestic part was that the Leaphorns couldn't have children, yet the entire second series was him seeking revenge for the death of his son.
We watched the first episode of NORTH OF NORTH (Netflix), the Canadian series set in the far north (well, duh), which was fun. It's good to have something lighter to watch. There's a little SCHIITT'S CREEK vibe, I thought.
Jackie liked the first episode of the French series THE ECLIPSE (Acorn) better than I did, but we'll probably keep watching. As the village prepares for a total solar eclipse, a moronic teenager takes his policewoman mother's car, finds her gun, and "accidentally" shoots it off while playing with it (because, as I said, he's a moron), and, voila! He "accidentally" hits his girlfriend, who (stop me if you've heard this before) disappears when the cops and ambulance get there.
Still watching REBUS (Ken Stott), SILENT WITNESS and SPOOKS (MI-5) on Saturday nights.
Finally got our taxes done before the deadline, and since I have them take 20% withholding on everything, we're getting back nearly $2,000. Also, as a retired NYC teacher, Jackie gets back the money we lay out for Medicare Part B every year, and we get back $900 for her union for prescription costs.
DEAD OUTLAW hasn't opened on Broadway yet, but it has been getting word of mouth for months. I generally prefer waiting for a show to open to get tickets, unless there is something I know I will want to see, like the new GYPSY with Audra McDonald, or the Sondheim show OLD FRIENDS, but Jackie wanted this from the start, so she got matinee tickets for this Wednesday.
Read four books this week, including THE DAY THE WORLD CAME TO TOWN (2002), about when Gander, Newfoundland briefly made the headlines after 9/11, when over 6,000 passengers were stranded there. Beautiful story, but sadly, I doubt it would happen these days.
Be careful out there, George.
It also reminds me of Reservation Dogs although RD was better to me.Wish Iived in NY sometimes but I doubt I have enough energy for it now. You have to get used to it when you are young.
I don't think I've ever read a Tess Monaghan novel. I should check.
I started reading EVERYTHING HARDER THAN EVERYONE ELSE: WHY SOME OF US PUSH OURSELVES TO EXTREMES after seeing it in the library catalog. NonFic by an Australian author who meets with bodybuilders, fighters, endurance athletes, things like that. It's interesting enough. The author seems to do some participatory journalism and did a brief steroids try-out for weight lifting. Mostly the book has been about people doing gonzo things and philosophizing on why they do. The philosophy is not all that interesting. And the performance artist reasoning is a lot of word salad. Still, I am enjoying the book. I have Ray Banks, Sara Gran, Anthony Neil Smith, and a Duane Switzeterkinskitopski in line.
I continue to watch a lot of WALKING DEAD. Now on Season 11. I don't know how many seasons exist. My wife asked, "Are you still watching zombies?" My response is, "Yes. And there are a bunch of spin-off series I can start on after this."
I enjoyed a three day weekend with a holiday day-off for Good Friday.
Kevin was very impressed with Madison and says it's #1 right now. MSU-James Madison would be a lot less. The other eight are mostly even more. Kevin and Josh watched the whole WD series.
I plan to read TELL ME EVERYTHING by Strout before the end of the year but I want to read more of her earlier books before then. I have THE BURGESS BOYS; OLIVE, AGAIN; OH WILLIAM! and LUCY BY THE SEA.
Is this a bad year for allergies everywhere? We are certainly having problems with them.
I have only read one of the Tess Monaghan books; I will have to read more of them.
WATCHING: We finished LUDWIG and liked it a lot. We are in the last season of NUMB3RS,and I will miss it when it is done. We will start the last season of THE CHELSEA DETECTIVE tonight. Also more of the usual, ELEMENTARY, MURDER SHE WROTE (now in the 8th season), and THE MENTALIST.
Glen is reading UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE by Thomas Hardy. He was interested in it because another book he read, A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY, was compared to it.
This week I read the second book in Ann Cleeves' George and Molly Palmer-Jones series. That was her first series and she wrote the first two books when she was living on an island with her husband, who ran a bird sanctuary or observatory there. The books in that series are set in locations related to birding. This one, COME DEATH AND HIGH WATER, is set on an island with a bird observatory. This book was better than the first book in the series, with an interesting group of characters and a more focused plot. There are eight books in the series and Cleeves wrote them between 1986 and 1996.
I have read a few of the Vera novels and the newer series about a gay policeman. She is a solid plotter. We read a lot of Thomas Hardy in high school. I think I have read all of the Tess books. Olive Kitteredge is my favorite Strout book but seeing the TV series probably influenced me. Even her fist novel, Amy and Isabelle, was terrific. Both Olive and Lucy are unusual characters.
Should mention that I just finished listening to Freida McFadden's THE LOCKED DOOR. My wife saw I had it and was surprised because it is a TikTok book and books on that wavelength are generally mediocre. LOCKED was mediocre as well. Plotting was iffy and characters not so well drawn. McFadden repeated herself a lot with phrases like "wrapped in his arms" and the main character had repeated mini-freakouts and errors in judgment. And a cookie cutter police detective that was just there to add some urgency and threat.
Oh well. I finished it.
Also Listened to WOOL by Hugh Howey. A SciFi novel that, apparently, was a pastiche of a short story and a couple novellas. Yet another post-apocalyptic tale with people confined in a space and getting into fights. Better than the McFadden book and I will read the second one in the series.
Glad Kevin enjoyed his UW visit. I'm sure he will do well no matter where he attends.
I a not exactly sure what a Tik Tok books means: romance, YA?
I think "Book Tok" (as in books getting a big demotic push from being discussed on Tik Tok videos) is what Gerard refers to ...
Thomas Hardy was one of those "assigned" writers I couldn't stand in high school. We read The Return of the Native. Hated it.
I'm going back to fill in the Lucy Barton books before I read the new one. I agree about Olive, so far.
Further congratulations to Megan and small favors here...our younger cat Whiskers has returned, as she was watching from the distance today while one of the neighbor cats ate the food we put out for Whiskers as a lure. Happily/sadly, our older, smarter, and more formidable cat didn't try to take advantage of her briefly free access to the TV room, the kitchen and the basement, the set of rooms with doors where we keep W so she doesn't pick a fight with her fellow feline...the latter has never lost a fight with her, but also doesn't relish them, hence the segregation.
Hm, now this login is getting hincty...
The people I know with cats speak about them a lot more than those with dogs. Do they respect their individuality? Are cats more interesting? It's a mystery to me.
Dogs are (usually) slightly (or very) less unpredictable. Of course, that depends on the cat, as well...our elder tabby is a very sweet cat, and intelligent, but has no use for our prodigal calico, who has learned (in her tough early life of being a small adopted street cat, well before we took her in) that a big loud offense is her best notion of a defense. Unfortunately for Whiskers, our tabby wouldn't put up with nonsense from cats even her own size or bigger, as our smart, usually sympathetic but top cat Anna (as the family who surrendered her to the pound named her) found out as well when she tried to bully the then newly-ours tabby, whom had been my parents' cat .into submission. (Anna died of cancer some years ago, well after she and the tabby reached a detente.) Neither Anna nor Whiskers can be said to have won a fight with her. But our tabby has reached the age where she doesn't much want to Have to fight, so we keep them separated. (Cats usually can be introduced to each other with minimal hassles...adopting them from pounds after a tough life or getting them directly as rescues from the streets (etc.), vs. a happy and relatively sedate domestic upbringing, makes a difference...a few of my birth family's cats were abandoned orphans, picked up as barely weaned kittens...one in a field near my mother's office, another abandoned on our street and six feet up a tree in our front yard, terrified. That one, Jean, would eventually love to knead my sister's head. sitting on the back of the couch while Claire watched TV.
Dogs can be neurotic, but they take to hierarchy rather more readily (usually) and thus will put up with their apes' acting like the boss.
I wrote a further comment about BookTok but the post disappeared, But, Todd is correct. TikTok fans promo their favorite author and novels. Colleen Hoover's recently huge explosion of popularity was from TikTok.
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