Book Chat - 1/16/2025

I only have one book to discuss today that I finished in the last week. I’ve already started the second one in the series of four.

 

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout

Lucy is a grown woman who came from a humble, yet abusive background. She overcame her troubles and moved away. Now, she’s lying in a hospital bed in a prolonged recovery and her estranged mother comes to stay with her for a few days. There are tensions between the two, and some are examined. However, they mostly spend their time gossiping about people from the past and giving the nurses silly names – all the while talking around the substantive issues. I liked the quirky characters. The book is by the author who also wrote Olive Kitteridge and Olive, Again. It was good.

 

Were supposed to get colder weather again next week. Yay.

 

MK out.

 

Move Monday - 1/13/2025

Today was a beautiful day where I was. How about you?

 

I watched a couple of flicks in the last week.

 

In His Three Daughters, the detached sisters return to their childhood home to take turns caring their presumably dying father. Longtime resentments surface and they are forced to deal with them. It was a good study of family dynamics. Natasha Leone, Elizabeth Olsen and Carrie Coon play the daughters.  Except for the wordy conversations by one sister in particular, I liked it. Y’all know how I feel about wordy and forced-sounding conversation, though…

 

Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum star in Fly Me to the Moon. Set in 1969, advertising executive Kelly Jones is hired to film a fake moon landing to be used in the event that the actual mission fails, without letting NASA know. Things become complicated when she falls for Cole Davis, the launch director. Ray Romano and Woody Harrelson are among the other actors who are in the movie. Colin Jost has a small part in the film. It was cute!

 

 

 

MK out.

 

 

 

FO Friday - 1/11/2025

 Y’all! I finished something in the new year!

The pattern is called Travel Hat by Robin Devine. I used Cascade 220 Superwash Aran in the Army Green color way. My knitting mojo has been pretty nonexistent, which is why I chose to make something little. Instant gratification can be a good jumpstarter.

Once again, I’m trying to play with yarn in my stash. I’m not promising a total cold sheep year, but I’d really like to knit with yarn I already have. 

I’ve already started another project. It’s another hat. I hope you’ll see it soon.

MK out.

Book Chat - 1/9/2025

The holidays are over for now. It’s a new year and I’m off to the races in the reading department. In the past week, I finished one book I had started before Christmas, but I put it aside during the festivities. I picked it back up on New Years Day and finished it a couple of days later. And then, I read another book.

 

The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley

Patrick reports for Guncle duty, five years after we left off in the first book. Patrick’s brother, Greg, is getting remarried and the kids are not on board. Before the big day, Patrick takes the children on a trip across Europe while trying to teach them about love. It was cute.

 

The Rent Collector by Camron Wright

A couple living at Stung Meanchey, the largest dump in Cambodia, eke out a living by picking over the trash for recyclables they can sell for food and medicine for their constantly ill child. Real people inspired this novel and there is a documentary about them called River of Victory. The book was very good. I’ll let you know about the documentary.

 

Stay warm, People! We are having winter over here in north Texas. I don’t know about you.

MK out.

 

Movie Monday - 1/6/2025

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa and Happy New Year to everyone! It’s even Epiphany, aka The Twelfth Day of Christmas today! It’s one of my favorite times of the year.

 

In Emilia Perez, a Mexican drug cartel boss hires an attorney to make his dream come true. It was pretty good. Selena Gomez plays the bad man’s wife.

 

I didn’t really like The Piano Lesson. It is another one of those stage productions adapted to film. They usually move at a weird pace, and this film was no different. I did enjoy Danielle Deadwyler’s performance as Berniece. She and her brother, Boy Willie, fight over the fate of a family heirloom – the piano.

 

In Housekeeping for Beginners, a childless woman ends up raising her friend’s kids. It was poignant.

 

Recently streamed series:

Bad Sisters Season 2 – AppleTV

The Big C – Paramount

Shrinking Season 2 - AppleTV

 

MK out.

 

 

Book Chat 12/30/2024

Before the end of the year, I wanted to catch up everyone with all the books I read in 2024. The total comes to 58.

 

Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

A retired tennis legend decides to come out of retirement to prevent a younger current player from taking her record. I loved it.

 

Pictures of You by Caroline Leavitt

Two women trying to escape their lives collide and one is killed. The one who survived is left with picking up the pieces of both of their lives. Good book – it kept my interest.

 

The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young

I bit supernatural, this book is about a woman trying to break the family curse. It bent my mind.

 

The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo

Forty years of a family’s story is told in flashbacks after a hidden member of the family is introduced. It was very good.

 

After You by Jojo Moyes

I reread this book, because it’s been years since I read the first one and I wanted to read the third. After the death of Will, the quadriplegic man she had cared for, literally and emotionally, Louisa tries to go on with her life, as Will had encouraged. I liked it.

 

Still Me by Jojo Moyes

Is the big move to the US the right one for Louisa? Will her long distance relationship with Sam survive? In the last installment of the trilogy, we find out. It was good.

 

The Medicine Woman of Galveston by Amanda Skanendore

A young, female physician faces hardships at the turn of the century. She joins a traveling medicine show to support her son. I wanted to read it because it looked like it was about #mybelovedG. Galveston didn’t come in until about the last third of the book, but it came in with a bang. It was really good.

 

The Collected Schizophrenias by Esme Weijun Wang

The book is a collection of essays about the author’s experience in having schizophrenia. It was interesting to read.

 

Summers at the Saint by Mary Kay Andrews

A widow running the family hotel faces losing it to her conniving brother-in-law. There’s murder; there’s romance; there’s mystery. I enjoyed reading it.

 

I’m not sure which book I’d say was my favorite of all the ones I read in 2024. Let me have a think, and I’ll get back to you.

 

MK out.

 

Movie Monday - 12/23/2024

Christmas is in two sleeps and today is Festivus! How is everyone doing? I’m over here waiting for Santa.

 

Blitz, starring Saoirse Ronan and Elliot Heffernan, is the story of a mother who sends her child from London to safety during the Blitzkrieg in WWII and his journey back. It was good.

 

Recently streamed series:

The Later Daters – Netflix

A Man on the Inside – Netflix

Happy Festivus, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy Holidays to all!

 

 

MK out.