My Two Blessings

It's book week 31 and our 52 books quest is all about True Crime which is a genre with no middle ground—readers either love it or have no stomach for true examples of the darker side of human behavior. The modern genre started with Edmund Pearson in the 1920s and continues today in dozens of forms of media, from books to podcasts. Currently reading Qiu Xiaolong's Inspector Chen's # 7th book - Don't Cry Tai Lake "Chief Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Department is offered a bit of luxury by friends and supporters within the Party – a week’s vacation at a luxurious resort near Lake Tai, a week where he can relax, and recover, undisturbed by outside demands or disruptions. Unfortunately, the once beautiful Lake Tai, renowned for its clear waters, is now covered by fetid algae, its waters polluted by toxic runoff from local manufacturing plants. Then the director of one of the manufacturing plants responsible for the pollution is murdered and the leader of t...

Feeling ambitious, I decided to make the peach pie totally from scratch. An hour and a half later, from making the crust to pealing the peaches to fluting the dough edges. Not perfect or pretty but I did it. It was delicious!  I hadn't planned on July being my reread month but once I started reading the first book in the  Armand Gamache series, decided to read the whole series. Discovered there were a few in the middle I hadn't read so thankfully for Kindle Unlimited was able to read those.  Love the cast of characters, the mystery playing out in the midst of some personal crisis, how they solved the crime. After a while the descriptors attached to some of the characters got a little old but other than that, each story's killer was unique. There were some surprises and red herrings to throw every one off. All in all, enjoyed the series and now have to wait until November for #18 A World of Curiosities.  Started one of Jennifer Estep's newest series A Sense ...

  Greetings, Bat-fans. Well, this is it.  After seven years and two movies, we've reached the end of the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy starring Christian Bale, the series of Batman movies that brought the Dark Knight himself back to his darker roots and reinvigorated Batman for a new generation of audiences in an era where superhero movies were on the rise in popularity.  And THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, our movie we are covering, came out in the same year as THE AVENGERS, the very film that really ensured the superhero craze that is still going on to this day. Following the battle with The Joker and Harvey Dent/Two Face's death in THE DARK KNIGHT, Batman faces his greatest trial yet when Bane arrives in Gotham City to destroy it. The battle pushes the Dark Knight and his allies almost to the breaking point with Bane and his goons taking control of the city and threatening it with destruction, even Batman's taken out of commission for a time. But in the end, Batman gets back...

  Sorry for the delay, Whovians.  Today, we're here to discuss/review LEGEND OF THE SEA DEVILS, the Thirteenth Doctor's penultimate episode before the big one and the second special of 2022 after the New Year's Eve of The Daleks episode. In this serial, The Doctor, Dan and Yaz visit a Chinese town under siege from the Sea Devils and have to team up with a pirate queen in order to defeat them. Despite all the odds against them, they saved the world and defeated the group of Sea Devil pirates causing trouble while The Doctor's relationship with Yaz is explored even further. That's right, The Doctor and Yaz have become a couple, you gotta love these kinds of relationships and stuff. Anyway, what do I think of this episode? It's dang good, has quite the entertainment value like all Doctor Who episodes have to a degree. And nearing the end of her run, Jodie Whittaker has done an impressive job as the Time Lord. While it sure has been fun, the end is nigh again and no...

It week 30 in our 52 Books Quest and this week we celebrate Amelia Earhart day, National Tequila day, Culinarians day, All or Nothing day, National Love is Kind day, National Milk Chocolate day, National Lasagna day, National Cheesecake day, and last but not least. Paperback book day. Hmm, I think I'm hungry! My neighbor dropped off a bag of peaches from his garden today. I decided I should make lasagna as well as a peach pie this week, so off the the grocery store I went. And while I was there, I got to thinking how we have been in kind of a food rut lately and should pick up something different for a change versus the same ole, same ole. I ended up with a potpourri of items. I'm currently on #14 Kingdom of the Blind in Louise Penny's Armand Gamache reread and still enjoying the heck out of the series. "The investigation into what happened six months ago—the events that led to his suspension—has dragged on, into the dead of winter. And while most of the opioids h...

It's book week 29 in our 52 Books quest and highlighting Kenneth Patchen.  I bookmark things on my computer, buy cards with unique sayings, add books to my wishlist and I'll come across them later and wonder what was I thinking. What struck me at the time and why did I save it? This poem is one of those saved and forgotten. I was going through bookmarks, deleting those I don't use anymore and found it. Don't know when I bookmarked it, but I'm glad I found it again. Love the imagery. Reminds me of reading and rereading stories and getting something completely different out of them versus the first time. Sigh! So lovely. Fall of the Evening Star By Kenneth Patchen Speak softly; sun going down Out of sight. Come near me now. Dear dying fall of wings as birds complain against the gathering dark... Exaggerate the green blood in grass; the music of leaves scraping space; Multiply the stillness by one sound; by one syllable of your name... And all that is littl...

  It's book week 28 in our 52 books quest and it's all about southern fiction. I was born and raised in the south before we headed out to wild and wacky California. But my roots will always remain in Texas where I was born, then Alabama to Georgia during my formative high school and college years.   Yes, I was one of those who used to call everybody hon or sweetie or darlin. And dropped the g's on all words ending in ing. I had to work hard to lose the accent once we landed in California, however my southern accent still creeps back in when I'm tired or I hear someone speaking with a drawl.  But Y'ALL has stuck with me ever since.  And I bet y'all are wondering why I'm telling you this. Why our next 52 Books Bingo category, of course!  I have Fannie Flag's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Café on the nightstand for my southern fiction read.  I thought I had read the whole Armand Gamache series previously but I guess I was wrong.  Started wi...

 It's book week 27 in our 52 Books Quest and this month's crime spree is all about American Mysteries. I have a lot of those on my night stand.  Read  The Cat and The City by Nick Bradley. It's odd and intriguing but not my cup of tea.  Too crude and not very uplifting.  Good premise with cat tying all the tales together but the stories left me depressed On my nightstand:  Carlos Ruiz Zafon's second book in the Cemetery of Lost books - The Angel's Game.  I finished Shadow of the Wind and didn't remember any of it, so like reading for the very first time. Plenty of twists and turns and tales within tales.  Rebecca Zanetti's first book in her Deep Op's series -  Hidden Brandon Sanderon's third book in the Stormlight Archive - Oathbringer George Eliot's Middlemarch (not making much progress but hope to soon.