The World's Common Tater

I think unless my life schedule changes this will be a regular Saturday thing. It seems easier that way.

Life

I have dropped Monday from my volunteer schedule at the farm. I am now only there two days a week and I am not doing any facilities work. I hope that gets it back to being my happy place again.

I finally applied to be a substitute teacher at a local private school. Now I am playing the waiting game.

My original book club met last night for the first time in a long time. It was good to be out with friends again.

TV New and Views

HBO Max has canceled Gossip Girl.

The Last of Us was renewed.

The Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers, and Family Guy were all renewed for two more seasons.

The Recruit was renewed at Netflix.

We watched the first episode of Accused. I thought it was very good. I loved how they structured it so we didn’t know what the crime was until the end. Michael Chiklis was good as always. It is an anthology, though, so no guarantee we will like the rest.

I watched four episodes of That 90’s Show. I liked it, but I enjoyed seeing the old cast returns more than I did the stories involving the new kids.

Books

I finished three books this week.

My Remarkable Journey by Katherine Johnson – Johnson’s memoir details her life before and after NASA.

This was an easy, interesting read. I think it would be a good book for a high school assignment. It reads like a book written for something like that. I agree with one member of book club who said it lacked heart. She talks about her life in a very academic way. Even when she mentions the deaths of loved ones you don’t get a lot of emotion. As long as you are OK with facts and detail and not a lot of emotion, this is good for those who like memoirs and non-fiction.

The Eighth Detective by Alex Pavesi – This is a mix of mystery short stories and the story of an editor working with the author to republish the collection. As we go, we realize the author has a secret and the clues might be in the stories.

This was another book club book. No one in the group loved the book. One person hated it. I think it was a good concept, but lacking in execution. A couple of the short stories were good, but I found myself looking many times to see how much further I had to get to the end of the story. The ending was decent but seemed rushed with an extra detail that was wasted at the end of the book. If that reveal had come earlier it might have helped me care more about the main character.

Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris – I listened to the audio again of Sedaris reading his collection of essays.

I think I might have listened to too many of his too close together. I liked this one but found myself wanting to go back to listening to music more than when I listened to the others. I still laughed while listening. I would still recommend it. I just need a music break before going back to another book.

On Deck

I am about to start reading Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

Quantum Leap and La Brea return this week.

My wife will be out of town for work this week so I will finish watching Lincoln Lawyer and That 90’s Show. She does not watch these with me.

I will be watching and writing about the ALA Youth Media Awards Monday. They are scheduled for 9 AM ET.