The World's Common Tater

It was another uneventful week here in Tater Town. I did watch one movie and finish two books, though.

Life

I did not attend church on Easter for the first time in years. It was partly due to the fact that I have not yet found a new church and partly because my wife was heading out that morning to help her mom after her scheduled surgery.

It was free coffee day at Wawa and Royal Farms gave me a free breakfast sandwich, so I did pretty well on free stuff this week.

I had nice, warm weather for my barn shifts.

Movies

We watched A Man Called Otto this week. I read the book for book club. I wasn’t sure how Tom Hanks would be in the role of a grumpy old man, but it worked. It was a very good adaptation. I laughed. Others cried. I would recommend it to both people who read the book and those who didn’t.

TV News and Views

The Ark was renewed at Syfy. We have been enjoyng the first season.

HBO Max will be merging with Discovery Plus and the result will now be called Max. The news came with the announcement of new Game Of Thrones shows and a Harry Potter TV series. I’m not sure how the actors for the Harry Potter show will fare in the shadows of the perfect movie cast.

Single Drunk Female is back on Freeform. I’m always afraid a second season won’t measure up to the first, but so far so good.

The Weakest Link had teams of twins instead of individuals for the season premiere. It was fine, but I hate when a show goes with a gimmick instead of sticking to what works.

Speaking of gimmicks – Survivor keeps adding in unnecessary twists instead of playing the game the way that made it one of the most popular shows on TV. Maybe soon they will realize the fans just want old-school Survivor again.

Books

I finished two books this week.

Black Wolf by Kathleen Kent – It is 1990 and Melvina Donleavy is on her first mission with the CIA in Soviet Belarus. She is on the mission because she has extraordinary facial recognition skills. While there, she becomes aware of a possible serial killer and eventually ends up his target.

There were several times I thought about giving up on this book. It meanders its way to its point. The mission is not really the main point of the book, but there is a lot of time spent on why she is there. It picks up once it focuses on the killer, her eventual encounter with him, and the reveal of who he is. I gave it three stars. It was OK, but that’s it.

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt – Tova works as a night cleaner at an aquarium to pass the time after the death of her husband. Her son Erik disappeared when he was 18. Marcellus is an elderly, very smart octopus who lives in the aquarium. Cameron is a 30-year-old who was abandoned by his mother as a kid and arrives in town looking for his father. This is their story.

I read this for book club. I said I wasn’t going to worry about finishing the book this time. Then I started reading and wanted to finish because I loved the book and didn’t want to stop reading. The big reveal and the end isn’t a shock, but it was fun getting there with the characters. I thought it was odd at first to have chapters narrated by Marcellus, but it worked because he was the character who knew more than the others. I would recommend this to anyone.

On Deck

I still have Megan on DVD from the library. It is overdue so I need to watch it soon.

The season finale of Abbott Elementary is this week. It is one of our favorite shows.

My wife leaves on a business trip tomorrow. My son has moved back while work is done on his condo. My reading and viewing will be off-kilter for a while.

I am reading Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.