What the Heck(s)?

I drafted this post quite some time ago (as in at least three YEARS ago). Yes, you read that correctly, but I'm making a concerted effort to post any & all drafts (hey- they were a good idea for a post at one time!)

I was going to sing the praises of the TV show, The Middle.

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Well, in the time that's passed since I started the post, the show went downhill. Went down the crapper. Jumped the shark. (And if you don't know the origin of that last phrase- check out the Wikipedia entry. Very interesting.)

I'm trying not to let the last season and a half (or so) of crap ruin the first six to seven seasons because they were good. Real good.

To be honest, I've had a tumultuous relationship with the show since the very beginning. A few people recommended that I watch it- my boss, John's coworker. So, I decided to give it a try.

I didn't like it.

I didn't think it was funny.

I just thought it was weird.

Some time went by and I was feeling generous (and maybe desperate for TV shows to watch), so I decided to give it a second try. I stuck with it and it grew on me.

I liked it. Then I LOVED it!

In 2016, for my birthday, John got me the first five seasons on DVD.

We binge watched them together and really enjoyed them.

So much so that I laughed so hard during one episode that I peed my pants!

The episode is The Safe. It's from Season 4.

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It's physical comedy- in trying to open the safe, Brick & Sue catapult it through the bedroom wall into the room next door leaving a gaping hole in the wall. (Which comes up throughout the rest of the series.) I don't know why, but every time I watch this episode, I laugh hysterically.

I've thought about going back and giving the last season and a half another shot, but it's not high on my list. I felt like the ending was a Three's Company episode on steroids. (If that makes any sense.) Too MUCH slapdash comedy and too much "oh, person A is the secret admirer but episode after episode, something happens to make it seem like person B is the secret admirer." I can only take so much of that and I felt like it was coloring my opinion of the series.

Have you watched The Middle? If yes, what is your favorite episode? What did you think of the last few seasons?

Before I get to the book reviews, I feel like the next book in line deserves to be promoted to the "main post." It's the third A+ book of the year for me so far, but if I could (which I can!), I'd give it an A++.

Book #34: The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

Summary: 1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has everything—beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses—but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, and puts her fluent German to use as a translator of decoded enemy secrets. Imperious self-made Mab, product of east-end London poverty, works the legendary codebreaking machines as she conceals old wounds and looks for a socially advantageous husband. Both Osla and Mab are quick to see the potential in local village spinster Beth, whose shyness conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles, and soon Beth spreads her wings as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts. But war, loss, and the impossible pressure of secrecy will tear the three apart.

Rating: A++. This is 600+ pages of GREATNESS. When I first got it from the library, I thought- ugh- 600+ pages? There will have to be a point in this book where it will hit a lull or I'll wish it was ending. NOPE. The premise of this book is captivating and each female character is amazing in her own right. (Power to the women!) If you read any book this year, I recommend reading this. 

BOOK REVIEWS 2021

Book #35: Cruising Attitude by Heather Poole

Summary: Real-life flight attendant Heather Poole has written an insider’s account of life and work in the not-always-friendly skies. Cruising Attitude is a Coffee, Tea, or Me? for the 21st century, as the author parlays her fifteen years of flight experience into a delightful account of crazy airline passengers and crew drama, of overcrowded crashpads in “Crew Gardens” Queens and finding love at 35,000 feet. Poole not only shares great stories, but also explains the ins and outs of flying, as seen from the flight attendant’s jump seat.

Rating: B-. I saw a snippet in Parade magazine about this title, so thought I'd give it a shot. It was meh. Some of the inner workings of being employed by an airline were interesting, but I found the memoir part just OK. (I really need to drop the memoirs...)

Book #36: A Death of No Importance by Mariah Fredericks

Summary: The woman no one sees, but who witnesses everything, is the ideal person to solve a murder... Invisible until she's needed, Jane Prescott has perfected the art of serving as a lady’s maid to Manhattan's elite. Jane takes up a position with the Benchley family – a family of ‘new money’– who cause outrage when their daughter Charlotte becomes engaged to notorious playboy Norrie, the son of the eminent Newsome family. When Norrie Newsome is found murdered at a party, Jane realises she is uniquely positioned to solve the crime with her access behind the scenes of high society. Many people held grudges against Norrie, and Jane knows that amongst both the upper classes and the city's underbelly, morals can become cheap in the wrong hands. As scandal and violence simmer beneath the surface of New York, can Jane solve the mystery that threatens to result in more deaths?

Rating: B. This is the first in Fredericks' Jane Prescott series. Set in NYC in 1910, this seems like it will be a good series. (I'm a sucker for a historical mystery). 

Book #37: Lowcountry Bombshell by Susan Boyer

Summary: Liz Talbot thinks she’s seen another ghost when she meets Calista McQueen. She’s the spitting image of Marilyn Monroe. Born precisely fifty years after the ill-fated star, Calista’s life has eerily mirrored the late starlet’s—and she fears the looming anniversary of Marilyn’s death will also be hers. Before Liz can open a case file, Calista’s life coach is executed. Suspicious characters swarm around Calista like mosquitoes on a sultry lowcountry evening: her certifiable mother, a fake aunt, her control-freak psychoanalyst, a private yoga instructor, her peculiar housekeeper, and an obsessed ex-husband. Liz digs in to find a motive for murder, but she’s besieged with distractions. Her ex has marriage and babies on his mind. Her too-sexy partner engages in a campaign of repeat seduction. Mamma needs help with Daddy’s devotion to bad habits. And a gang of wild hogs is running loose on Stella Maris. With the heat index approaching triple digits, Liz races to uncover a diabolical murder plot in time to save not only Calista’s life, but also her own.

Rating: B. This is the second in the Liz Talbot "Lowcountry" mystery series. The first one was a tad odd, but I thought I'd give the second one a shot. The whole Marilyn Monroe doppelganger theme was a step further down the weird path. If you like kooky, this series is for you.

Book #38: Black Widows by Cate Quinn

Summary: Blake Nelson moved into a hidden stretch of land - a raw paradise in the wilds of Utah - where he lived with his three wives:

• Rachel, the chief wife, obedient and doting to a fault.
• Tina, the other wife, who's everything Rachel isn't.
• And Emily, the youngest wife, who knows almost nothing else.

When their husband is found dead under the desert sun, the questions pile up. What are these women to each other now that their husband is dead? Will the police uncover the secrets each woman has spent her life hiding? And is one of them capable of murder...?

Rating: D+. Yes, I read two books by an author named C/Kate Quinn fairly close to one another. This author should NOT be confused with the Kate Quinn I sing the praises of above. This book was just plain odd. Steer clear.

I Have Questions...Lots of Questions (And Maybe Some Answers)

Let's jump right in, shall we? Some are rhetorical and some are legitimate.

• Why is Anna Duggar having a SEVENTH child?
• Admittedly I stalk her on IG. That whole family is a train wreck and I can't look away. I wish I had. Seven kids with pedophile...good idea! 

• Why do major league baseball games take 3+ hours to play?
• I thought they were trying to make these games go faster? No?

• Why in 2021 are some cancers still uncurable?
• Ugh.

• Why does my neighbor insist on revving his Mini Cooper whenever he drives away or drives into his driveway?
• Drives John crazy when I complain about this.😅

• Why did I think it was OK in my teen years to buy cute shoes...even if they only had them in a 1/2 size too small for me? (Had two podiatrist appointments already; bunion it is!)
• I'm thinking specifically of a pair of purple "velvet" shoes with pointy toes and tassels that came from Fayva (who remembers Fayva?) I take an 8. They only had 7 1/2. Sold! I'm paying for that now.

• Why did Secret discontinue the deodorant I've been using for YEARS?
• While I wanted to switch to a deodorant without aluminum, I wanted to do it on my own terms- not be forced into it.
• Have you tried Schmidt's? I tried using the Bergamot & Lime. I love the way it smells but it irritated my skin. (That was the stick. They have a cream, which I may try.)

• Why are newscasters insensitive/clueless when doing stories about people with disabilities?
• A story I saw on the local news the other night started with the newscaster saying, "So & so lives with Down syndrome..." Um, it's not a disease. I know I am extra sensitive about this topic, but I cringed big time when I heard that.

• Why are tray tables so stinking expensive?
• We've had our wood tray tables for years and they're starting to break down/get crappy. I did some Googling and say what? Over $100 for tray tables? Nope- you can hold your food in your lap!

• Why did the store that's less than two miles away from my house stop carrying my favorite wine?
• This is it, in case you were wondering- Toad Hollow Rose. 
• The "Wine Locator" says the store has it, but I think that's a big fat lie.

• Why does it take me months to publish a blog post?
• I started this post on 4/27 and am just publishing it now. 
• I thought about finishing and publishing the post I started about our master bath reno (you know, the one that happened two-ish years ago? 🙄), but thought that could simmer just a little longer.

I hope you've had a great 4th of July! Rainy and gray here in New England, so we laid low and John made chili in the Crockpot. (He makes a really basic recipe, which you can find here, but it's delish!)

I Want Claire Foy Back As the Queen!

 

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We started watching Netflix's The Crown a few weeks ago (I know, I know...so late to that party). At first I had mixed feelings- somewhat slow & dark setting (reminded me of the movie Lincoln, which was a two-hour nap for me).

However, over time the show really grew on me. 

Claire Foy WAS the Queen.

Vanessa Kirby WAS Margaret.

Matt Smith WAS Philip.

And then? The rug was pulled out from under me. 

Season three is a completely new cast. It's like a brand new show. While we've only watched the first episode of the season, I'm not feeling it. 

I had a similar feeling when the character Linda was cut out of the TV drama Blue Bloods. Different in that no one replaced her, but that same annoyed feeling. Needless to say that I basically boycotted Blue Bloods from that point on.. (And it wasn't the show's fault, either, according to what I read. The actress that played Linda wanted to leave. So, I probably shouldn't have taken my annoyance out with her on the whole show.)

I will soldier on with The Crown, however. My sister-in-law said she felt the same but after a few more episodes it was like Claire Foy didn't even exist.

We'll see!

BOOK REVIEWS 2021

Book #30: A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley

Summary: In the hamlet of Bishop’s Lacey, the insidiously clever and unflappable eleven-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce had asked a Gypsy woman to tell her fortune—never expecting to later stumble across the poor soul, bludgeoned almost to death in the wee hours in her own caravan. Was this an act of retribution by those convinced that the soothsayer abducted a local child years ago? Certainly Flavia understands the bliss of settling scores; revenge is a delightful pastime when one has two odious older sisters. But how could this crime be connected to the missing baby? As the red herrings pile up, Flavia must sort through clues fishy and foul to untangle dark deeds and dangerous secrets.

Rating: A. This is the third book in the Flavia de Luce series. If it's possible, I love each book in the series a bit more than the last! If you're looking for a fun series- this is it.

Book #31: Good Harbor by Anita Diamant

Summary: Good Harbor is the long stretch of Cape Ann beach where two women friends walk and talk, sharing their personal histories and learning life's lessons from each other. Kathleen Levine, a longtime resident of Gloucester, Massachusetts, is maternal and steady, a devoted children's librarian, a convert to Judaism, and mother to two grown sons. When her serene life is thrown into turmoil by a diagnosis of breast cancer at fifty-nine, painful past secrets emerge and she desperately needs a friend. Forty-two-year-old Joyce Tabachnik is a sharp-witted freelance writer who is also at a fragile point in her life. She's come to Gloucester to follow her literary aspirations, but realizes that her husband and young daughter are becoming increasingly distant. Together, Kathleen and Joyce forge a once-in-a-lifetime bond and help each other to confront scars left by old emotional wounds.

Rating: C. This was a disappointment. I've loved Diamant's books and thought I'd like this one since I live a hop, skip & a jump from the real Good Harbor beach. It didn't draw me in and I found it to be just mediocre.

Book #32: Candy Cane Murder by Joanne Fluke

Summary: This collection of holiday whodunits, featuring more than fifteen delectable recipes, includes Joanne Fluke's Candy Cane Murder, in which bakery owner Hannah Swenson, while dressed as an elf, finds murder on the agenda at Lake Eden's annual Christmas gala. 

Rating: B+. This is the tenth book in Fluke's Hannah Swenson mystery series. Maybe I liked it because it was only a novella? 🤣 It was a short, fun little story of Christmas (in June.)

Book #33: Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane

Summary: The tough neighborhood of Dorchester is no place for the innocent or the weak. A territory defined by hard heads and even harder luck, its streets are littered with the detritus of broken families, hearts, dreams. Now, one of its youngest is missing. Private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro don't want the case. But after pleas from the child's aunt, they open an investigation that will ultimately risk everything—their relationship, their sanity, and even their lives—to find a little girl lost.

Rating: C+. This is the fourth in Lehane's Kenzie/Gennaro mystery series. This series is somewhat more graphic/hardcore than the usual mysteries I read, but this one in particular was extremely graphic and disturbing, and not one of my favorites. (And I didn't see the movie, so I have nothing to compare it to.)

Closing in on 400

This is post 397 of my 13ish year old blog. There were times when I was gung ho and wrote almost 100 posts in a year and then there were years when I was in the single digits. I wish I had more discipline and wrote more frequently but I've come to accept that's just not the way it is for me. So, take the posts when you get them!

My employer gives two days off at the 4th of July holiday, so that makes for a lovely four day weekend! I plan to kick it off with a pedicure tomorrow, some errands, and perhaps taking a peek at a bedroom set that I've had my eyes on. The weather here in New England has been oppressive the past few days and we're in for a cooler weekend, which I'm ok with!

While the blog has my attention, I'll try to catch up on some book reviews, since I am SO far behind!

BOOK REVIEWS 2021

Book #25: Uncanny Valley by Anna Weiner

Summary: The book focuses on Wiener's transition from the publishing industry to a series of jobs at technology companies, and her gradual disillusionment with the technology industry. After switching between several companies, she finally settles on the open-source coding company GitHub as a customer service representative. Despite the demeaning nature of her work and the stressful nature of investigating potentially inflammatory or illegal posts on the site, she decides to remain due to the company's various perks, such as being able to work from home. Throughout the book, Wiener ruminates about the moral implications of data collection and manipulation amongst technology firms.

Rating: B. This was recommended to me by my friend Andrea and I'm glad I read it. I've been somewhat down on memoirs lately, but this was interesting. As someone who is a "non-tech" person working at a tech company, I could relate to some of the things that Wiener went through. It was a nice diversion from the books I usually read.

Book #26: The Garden Intrigue by Lauren Willig

Summary: Secret agent Augustus Whittlesby has spent a decade undercover in France, posing as an insufferably bad poet. The French surveillance officers can’t bear to read his work closely enough to recognize the information drowned in a sea of verbiage. New York-born Emma Morris Delagardie is a thorn in Augustus’s side. An old school friend of Napoleon’s stepdaughter, she came to France with her uncle, eloped with a Frenchman, and has been rattling around the salons of Paris ever since. Now widowed, she entertains herself by holding a weekly salon, and loudly critiquing Augustus’s poetry. As Napoleon pursues his plans for the invasion of England, Whittlesby hears of a top-secret device to be demonstrated at a house party. The catch? The only way in is with Emma, who has been asked to write a masque for the weekend’s entertainment. In this complicated masque within a masque, nothing goes quite as scripted—especially Augustus’s unexpected feelings for Emma.

Rating: C+. This is the ninth book in Willig's Secret Carnation historical fiction/mystery series. I generally enjoy the books but I found Whittlesby to be annoying.

Book #27: The Darling Dahlias & the Voodoo Lily by Susan Wittig Albert

Summary: Spring, 1935 finds the little Alabama town of Darling excited about their new local radio station, WDAR. But there are problems brewing at the newspaper, where a trio of new hires causes headaches for editor Charlie Dickens. ​That’s not the worst of it, though, as the Dahlias discover when the newest resident at Bessie Bloodworth’s Magnolia Manor is found dead. She had overindulged in a large and very rich chocolate cake—but was something else baked into that cake? If so, one of the Dahlias is likely to find herself at the top of Sheriff Buddy Norris’ suspect list. That would give Darling something to gossip about!

Rating: B. This is (coincidentally) the ninth book in the Darling Dahlias series. I love this era and the small town feel of Darling. The characters are whimsical and Wittig Albert is a great storyteller!

Book #28: Big Girl Small Town by Michelle Gallen

Summary: Majella is happiest out of the spotlight, away from her neighbors’ stares and the gossips of the small town in Northern Ireland where she grew up just after the Troubles. She lives a quiet life caring for her alcoholic mother, working in the local chip shop, watching the regular customers come and go. She wears the same clothes each day (overalls, too small), has the same dinner each night (fish and chips, microwaved at home after her shift ends), and binge-watches old DVDs of the same show (Dallas, best show on TV) from the comfort of her bed. But underneath Majella’s seemingly ordinary life are the facts that she doesn’t know where her father is and that every person in her town has been changed by the lingering divide between Protestants and Catholics. When Majella’s predictable existence is upended by the death of her granny, she comes to realize there may be more to life than the gossips of Aghybogey, the pub, and the chip shop. In fact, there just may be a whole big world outside her small town. 

Rating: D+. This is the first book in a long time that I seriously considered stopping reading. I got a few chapters in and I found it slow & dull. I forced myself to continue with a glimmering hope that it would get better (it didn't). I'm sad, because the story had possibilities but I really didn't like the way it was told/written.

Book #29: The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict

Summary: In December 1926, Agatha Christie goes missing. Investigators find her empty car on the edge of a deep, gloomy pond, the only clues some tire tracks nearby and a fur coat left in the car—strange for a frigid night. Her World War I veteran husband and her daughter have no knowledge of her whereabouts, and England unleashes an unprecedented manhunt to find the up-and-coming mystery author. Eleven days later, she reappears, just as mysteriously as she disappeared, claiming amnesia and providing no explanations for her time away. The puzzle of those missing eleven days has persisted. With her trademark historical fiction exploration into the shadows of the past, acclaimed author Marie Benedict brings us into the world of Agatha Christie, imagining why such a brilliant woman would find herself at the center of such murky historical mysteries. What is real, and what is mystery? What role did her unfaithful husband play, and what was he not telling investigators?

Rating: D. Two duds in a row! The sad part about this one is that I LOVED it up until the very end. I even recommended it to my cousin and then had to retract that recommendation. Talk about the most underwhelming ending...I can't think of a word other than "lame!"