Each Wednesday I share what my wife Kim and I are watching in terms of movies and TV each week in a feature called “What We’re Watching Wednesday.” This week, it’s not really either…yet as we’re watching trailers for upcoming movies.
These are a few trailers for upcoming movies that look like they could be good.
The first one is the one we really want to see: Spike Lee and Jordan Peele. We’re there. However, we also love Adam Driver, best known for his Riley as Kylo Ren in the new Star Wars movies, but whom we loved in Logan Lucky in a very un-Kylo Ren-like performance.
The second is one that I think looks good, but we’ll see. The third is Melissa Mccarthy in a rare dramatic performance. We have seen her do drama in St. Vincent and she was excellent. This new one looks promising.
What are you watching this week? Any trailers for upcoming movies you’re excited to see?
Each Friday I’ll share what I find myself listening to. It might be new. It might be old. This week, like last week, it’s new, as I will be, and am, listening to the new album 7 from Beach House.
So what are you playing on your virtual turntable this week?
Each Wednesday I share what my wife Kim and I are watching in terms of movies and TV each week in a feature called “What We’re Watching Wednesday.” This week, it’s shows set in Scotland.
I think it was last year that the BBC show Shetland premiered on Netflix. Kim and I slowly have been making our way through the series, and we’re now on Series 3, where the action definitely has picked up with guest stars Ciarán Hinds and James Cosmo, both of whom were in Game of Thrones. It’s not that the first two series were bad, but it feels like this one has stepped up the series’ game.
The next show, David and Olivia? Naked in Scotland, is on Amazon Prime. We saw a trailer for this and thought we definitely needed to watch this, so we did. We weren’t disappointed in the show itself, but unfortunately it’s only three episodes long. We almost wonder if the two creators, who also star in the show, aren’t hoping to sell the show to a larger network at some point. We sure hope someone picks it up, because it was, and is, really good. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a trailer for this show, but if you have Amazon Prime, definitely give it a try.
So how about you? Watching any good TV this past week? Movies you’d recommend?
Have you been using your library over the past month? What did you read? What didn’t you read? What are you waiting on? These were the questions of a meme called Library Checkout, originally started by Shannon of River City Reading, continued first by Charleen of the blog It’s a Portable Magic, and now by Rebecca Foster of the blog Bookish Beck. I’m joining in for this past month of April.
Read
The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown
Tangerine by Christine Mangan Friends by Carl Dennis
Wade in the Water: Poems by Tracy K. Smith
Colosseum by Katie Ford
The best of the lot was All Creatures Great and Small and Tangerine also was really good.
Returned Unread
Macbeth by Jo Nesbo
Sending Christmas Cards to Huck & Hamlet by Joseph Mills
Unknown Friends by Carl Dennis
Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
I had four all of my list for last month’s Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon, but I just never made it to them and I don’t know if I ever will, although maybe with the two books of poetry listed in the middle because they’re short.
Currently Out
The Sinner by Petra Hammesfehr
Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama
To be honest, I forgot I had these checked out from the Free Library of Philadelphia on ebook and I’ll see now if I get to them.
On Hold
Inspector Maigret Omnibus, Volume 1: Pietr the Latvian; The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien; The Carter of ‘La Providence’; The Grand Banks Cafe by Georges Simenon
The Gunners by Rebecca Kauffman
Essential Retirement Planning for Solo Agers: A retirement and aging roadmap for single adults and childless adults by Sarah Geber
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
Wonder Valley by Ivy Pochoda
All five are on hold at FLP too, with the latter two being on hold the longest, the Locke since March and the Pochoda since February! Both must be really good, I’m thinking, so I’ll wait them out.
Each Friday I’ll share what I find myself listening to. It might be new. It might be old. This week it’s new, with two of my favorite electronic musicians releasing new albums today: DJ Koze, the moniker of German producer Stefan Kozalla, with Knock Knock, and Jon Hopkins, a British producer and musician, with Singularity.
Here’s a song from each:
So what is on your virtual turntable to start this weekend?
We just started watching this tonight… And it’s actually pretty good. We’ll let you know what we think as we continue to watch more. We only watched the first episode but we’re looking forward to more.
Update Thursday night, May 3: We binge-watched the rest tonight. An almost perfect binge-watching show.
The month began with snow and ended with snow. At least, in both cases, it wasn’t an accumulating snow, but by this time, I’m usually mowing the lawn (not that I’m complaining, mind you). The month also had other highlights, for example, beginning with my wife Kim’s birthday and then ending this past Saturday with Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon. I started two new features here on the blog: What We’re Watching Wednesday and Saturday Snapshots. I read six books for the month, with the best being All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot. Our favorite movie this month was Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and our favorite TV show, Santa Clarita Diet.
On constant play on my phone was this:
Forward to May
I’m looking forward to warmer weather in May, which is supposed to start later this week, as early as tomorrow, getting up into the high 70s (Fahrenheit), and a four-day Memorial Day Weekend to end the month as I added on a vacation day to the end of the weekend. In the middle of the month, I plan on visiting my mother for Mother’s Day. As for books, I’m looking forward to continuing reading James Herriot’s works, with All Things Bright and Beautiful up next, and then All Things Wise and Wonderful. On Netflix, we have second seasons of Dear White People and Riverdale to look forward to and for movies, we both are looking forward to Deadpool 2. I haven’t seen Avengers: Infinity War but hopefully will this coming weekend (Kim’s not interested). On the music front, I’m looking forward to new albums by DJ Koze and Beach House, a song from the latter which I’ll include to wrap up the post:
So how was your month of April? Read any good books, seen any good movies and/or TV shows, listened to any good music? What was the highlight of your month? What are you looking forward to in May? Share in the comments.
Today I’ll be participating in Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon, for the umpteenth time. I know that I haven’t participated in every single one in the last 10 and a half years but I have participated in quite a few. No, I’ve never made it for 24 hours. I’m usually make six hours, if I am lucky, but that is okay; I’m reading more than I usually do in a week.
I’ll be keeping periodic updates here and on Instagram throughout the day. So follow along, if you want, in either or both places. As I mentioned last Sunday, here are the books from which I’ll be choosing for today:
All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown
Colosseum: Poems by Katie Ford
Dear Darkness: Poems by Kevin Young
Dove Season by Johnny Shaw
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Macbeth by Jo Nesbo
Poetry Magazine, April 2018 edition
Sending Christmas Cards to Huck & Hamlet by Joseph Mills
Shoot the Dead by Steve Wetherell
Tangerine by Christine Mangan
Unknown Friends by Carl Dennis
Wade in the Water: Poems by Tracy K. Smith
Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehishi Coates
You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me: A Memoir by Sherman Alexie.
Altogether, I have eight physical books, eight digital books, including one audiobook with deGrasse Tyson, and one digital magazine. I have six fiction, five nonfiction, and also five books of poetry in honor of National Poetry Month this month. I have 10 books by male authors, six books by female authors and one magazine with both genders represented as well as eight books by non-white authors. In other words, almost all of the food groups are represented. 😉 But really I did try to select diversely in terms of the authors’ ethnicities and genres.
The Plan
I plan on reading as much as I can, but I know that it won’t be for 24 hours. I seem to always have an unrealistic goal of reading for 12 hours, so I’m going to make it slightly more doable with 10 hours. I think I’ll start with something short, maybe the Brown or some poetry, before I pop out later this morning to grab chicken from a chicken barbecue a local drug and alcohol counseling center is having today. As for the rest of the day’s culinary choices, I have lobster bisque, deviled eggs (made by my wife), crackers and cheese, a little wine, ice cream, corn chips, and a new favorite (and unfortunately seasonal) snack: white cheddar crab-seasoned cheeseballs from Utz.
Stay tuned for what I choose in both books and food…
1 p.m.: First book finished, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown. Almost three hours of reading time. On to the second one.
Instead of a book, I next listened to a playlist of poetry on YouTube from the podcast Book Cougars from book bloggers Emily Fine and Chris Wolak. They asked friends to choose a poem to read for National Poetry Month, and here are their choices, along with others from Emily and Chris:
Between 6 and 7 p.m., I finished two books of poetry, Wade in the Water by Tracy K. Smith and Colosseum by Katie Ford.
And unfortunately, that is where my readathon ended…at 6 hours and 48 minutes of reading.
The reason, which is not an excuse, is that last night was a terrible night for my tinnitus. I won’t give you the long explanation, but will refer you to the American Tinnitus Association page on understanding the facts about tinnitus. After taking a mixture of essential oils made by my wife specifically to help with tinnitus, the tinnitus did lessen in volume, but finally I took a magnesium pill to help me go to sleep. So it was a relatively early night for me, especially considering my goal for the readathon was 10 hours, as I went to bed about 10:30 p.m.
Final tally: Four books. My favorite was Tangerine, with the other three only being “meh” for me. I will add that Tangerine wasn’t perfect for me, e.g. an overuse of sentences beginning with the word “And.” However, overall the writing was exquisite, more than overcoming the book’s imperfections.
So did you participate in yesterday’s readathon? If so, how did you do? What was your favorite book read? If not, what was your favorite book read this week anyway?
Each Wednesday I share what my wife Kim and I are watching in terms of movies and TV each week in a feature called “What We’re Watching Wednesday.” This week, it’s subtitles.
My wife and I don’t mind subtitles. In fact, to be honest, we prefer subtitles over badly-dubbed English. We like to hear the language in which the show or movie was done and to watch the lips match the words that are coming out of the characters’ mouths. For me, I think it began with watching early Jackie Chan movies. Lately, it’s extended to many shows on Netflix including a couple I’ve mentioned here on the blog such as Narcos and Money Heist.
This past week, we discovered together an Argentine comedy on Netflix that has been on TBS Latinoamérica called Psiconautas about a Spanish con man who flees to Argentine to start another con as a psychotherapist to a group of people at a cafe. We are only a few episodes in, but so far it is hilarious. The trailer below does not have subtitles, but you still get the idea:
On my own, I also discovered a Japanese anime show called Aggretsuko, alsoon Netflix about a red panda who works in an office, but has a secret life at night as a death metal karaoke singer. I’ll admit that I’m not really into anime, but the show came up as a highlight recently and I started watching it. As with Psiconautas, I’m only a few episodes in, but I’m enjoying it. In parts, it is a commentary on office life and being a young woman in a male-dominated workplace. However, I won’t lie: I love the death metal karaoke sections.
So how about you? Watching any good TV this past week? Movies you’d recommend? What do you think of subtitles? Like or dislike?
This coming Saturday is the next edition of Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon (click on the image to be taken to the event website) and I’ve been getting ready for the last few weeks. I’ve checked out a few books from the library and also have been culling my list on my Kindle so that I have a stack from which to choose. I do not plan on finishing all these books, but I do have a stack from which I can pick and choose what to read next. So without further ado, here is that stack, starting with a photo of the physical books, followed by a list of all the books, both physical and digital.
In alphabetical order by title, the books I have selected from which to choose are:
All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown
Colosseum: Poems by Katie Ford
Dear Darkness: Poems by Kevin Young
Dove Season by Johnny Shaw
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Poetry Magazine, April 2018 edition
Sending Christmas Cards to Huck & Hamlet by Joseph Mills
Shoot the Dead by Steve Wetherell
Tangerine by Christine Mangan
Unknown Friends by Carl Dennis
Wade in the Water: Poems by Tracy K. Smith
Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehishi Coates
You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me: A Memoir by Sherman Alexie
Altogether, I have seven physical books, eight digital books, including one audiobook with deGrasse Tyson, and one digital magazine. I have five fiction, five nonfiction, and also five books of poetry in honor of National Poetry Month this month. I have nine books by male authors, six books by female authors and one magazine with both genders represented as well as eight books by non-white authors. In other words, almost all of the food groups are represented. 😉 But really I did try to select diversely in terms of the authors’ ethnicities and genres.
This afternoon, I am hoping to finish All Creatures Great and Small, so that is why I selected the second one, All Things Bright and Beautiful, for the list. The deGrasse Tyson book, I started reading and listening to last year but haven’t gotten back to it yet. I think the same can be said of Daring Greatly. The poetry books and the poetry magazine, as I have mentioned, I am reading for National Poetry Month. Shoot the Dead is compared to Shaun of the Dead in its humor, so I thought why not? I think it was a Kindle deal as was Dove Season, The Hate You Give, and You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me. Chris Wolak from the blog Wildmoo Books highly recommended Tangerine in a review she wrote for criminalelement.com, so I thought I’d give it a try. Waking Lions was recommended by a patron at our library, and We Were Eight Years in Power was a gift from another blogger as part of a Christmas book exchange and is one I’ve been wanting to read for a while.
Are you participating in this coming weekend’s Readathon? If so, what are you including in your stack? If not, what are you reading that is good that you would recommend to me and my readers? Please share in the comments.
