Tag Archives: books

Good Omens!

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Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite books of all time. I actually still remember the first time I saw the book. I was killing time in the mall in Lexington, KY while my girlfriend(now wife) shopped and found it on a display. I will admit that at the time I was not really familiar with Gaiman at the time. The book seemed interesting, but I didn’t have the money to buy books, so I made note of the title so I could eventually get it from the library. I am glad I did. I loved it. I’ve gone on to read more Gaiman and Pratchett, but only Neverwhere comes close to Good Omens for me. That might be because I read Neverwhere right before my first ever trip to London. I love the city and probably love the book a little more because of that.

I eventually made my wife go with me to a Gaiman signing at Joseph Beth in Lexington so she could get extra stuff signed for me. He signed both Neverwhere and Good Omens(and eventually more and the National Book Festival in DC later). I eventually moved to DC and, of course, my signed books moved with me. Some time after I moved to DC, The Washington Post hosted a few book events and one of them was Terry Pratchett discussing Good Omens. I signed myself up and after a slight delay from a random DC bigwig motorcade got to the venue to see him, signed Good Omens in hand. He was very pleased when I met him to see the book was already signed by Gaiman and signed a response to his. The book is now one of my prized possessions. I’ve been anticipating this show for a long time. I don’t think my family understands why I’m so excited about it. I don’t think they will read this to understand it. They will just have to suffer through me making them watch the trailer and me talking about it until it finally airs.

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Some Ideas I’ve Had Recently

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I was talking to someone at work about TV crossovers and mentioned that Bret Harrison and Tyler Labine had appeared on another show as their Reaper characters. In Reaper, Ray Wise played the devil Ray Wise is now on Fresh Off the Boat as the dentist neighbor Marvin. I really want them to show up briefly on that show so that those if us who watched Reaper now know that Marvin is actually the devil.

Another, more mundane TV one – I want Blue Bloods and Magnum PI to crossover so Tom Selleck appears on the new Magnum as his Blue Bloods character. It seems wrong to have them on the same network and not find a way to have the Magnums interact.

There were two stories back to back this week on the news. One was about the Space X rocket. The other was about anti-vaxers. I feel like we could fix some issues by combining the two. Put the anti-vaxers on the Space X rocket and send them to colonize the moon.

This is one I’ve had for a while – Tinder for Books. A Tinder type app where you put in your info as a reader and then swipe left or right on the books. Connect with Amazon or a local library so when you swipe right you can either buy or place a hold on the book.

I think I’m a genius.

My Week in Books, TV, and Movies 3/1/19

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In an odd week for me, I actually have more screen to report on than books. I’m not sure that is a good thing.

Movies – I watched Night School this week. My expectations were low. I wasn’t expecting much more than the usual Kevin Hart plays Kevin Hart, but without The Rock to help make the move better movie. It was, indeed, Kevin Hart playing Kein Hart. I’m pretty sure that’s all he will ever be able to do. It was also a lot of Tiffany Haddish playing Tiffany Haddish. If you like Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish, this is the movie for you. If not, skip it. It did have a good supporting cast and there was more of a story than I expected. It wasn’t a bad way to kill a couple of hours on my morning off. It was better than cleaning toilets. They should make that the tag line.

TV – I recorded Whiskey Cavalier when it aired after the Oscars. The only part of the Oscars I watched was the Queen opener. I enjoyed the performance and I’m tired of people complaining who apparently think Queen should never perform again unless the can bring back zombie Freddie Mercury. We did watch Whiskey Cavalier. I like Scott Foley, Laren Cohan, Tyler James Williams and Josh Hopkins(a Kentucky guy!) and I’m a sucker for the romantic action comedy shows like this so I was predisposed to like it. Guess what? I did really like it. It was fun. I enjoyed Foley being the heartbroken romantic and Cohan being the hard, I don’t believe in love type. Tyler James Williams was good as the computer hacker they were both after and I’m glad he will be a part of the team going forward. It won’t win any awards, but I would recommend it. I’m watching the season finale of A Million Little Things while I write this. It has become one of my favorite shows.

Books – I didn’t finish a book this week I’m still reading How Long Til Black Future Month by NK Jemisin. Short story collections always slow me down. For some reason, it takes me a lot longer to read short stories than it does to read a novel. Probably because it’s easy to put it down once I finish a story and it’s harder to get into another story once I finish one I really liked. I am determined not to abandon it like I usually abandon story collection. I only have about 100 pages left. I can do this.

On Deck – I have Bohemian Rhapsody and First Man on DVD. I’m happy that AP Bio and For the People season premieres are this week.  After I finish the short story book I will continue reading If I Die Tonight by Alison Gaylin. I already had the physical book checked out and then got the e-book version when I found myself stranded somewhere without a book(a rookie mistake). I like what I’ve read so far and I’m looking forward to continuing the story.

My Week in Books, TV, and Movies 2/22/19

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It’s another week where I don’t have a lot to report as far as the screen goes. It’s been a while since I’ve watched a new movie. This means I will probably get all of the new movies from the library at the same time. I do have one new TV show that I forgot until just now. So, here is my week:

Movies – I don’t think I even watched an old movie this week. AMC had some 80’s movies on President’s Day and I considered watching them but changed my mind. It’s possible I’m forgetting some random old movie I watched while trying to do nothing over my weekend off, but I really don’t think so. It’s weird for me to have a stretch like this with no movies. Maybe I should just go to the movies.

TV – I always watch a lot of TV. This week it was mostly focused on existing shows I had on my DVR. I would have finished season one of Manifest but my wife got sucked into it while she was supposed to be working so now I have to wait for her before I can finish the season. We did watch one new how this week. Proven Innocent premiered Friday night. It is Kelsey Grammar in a legal drama. I like him and legal dramas, so we watched it. The premise – Rachelle Lefevre plays a lawyer who was found guilty of murder as a teen, went to prison, was exonerated and became a lawyer. She now works to free others who were falsely accused, focusing on cases of the DA who sent her to prison, Kelsey Grammar. I will probably give it a couple of more episodes, but  I will be shocked if it isn’t canceled quickly. I’m not a fan of Lefevre as an actress, so I’m not sure how long I can stay with a show with her as the star.

Books – I finished two books this week. The first was The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams. It is the first in a series about Bobby Dollar, an angel living on earth and working as an advocate angel. His job is to argue the Heaven side for the recently dead’s soul. Odd things start happening with some of those souls and Bobby is caught in the middle of it. I enjoyed it and will probably try to remember to read the next in the series. I do think it was a little too long and would have been better if 50 or so pages shorter. I also finished An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Soloman. It’s hard to explain the plot so I will share the synopsis from Wikipedia – “On board the generation ship Matilda (named for the Clotilda),[1] where the passengers have formed a society stratified along racial lines such that those with dark skin are relegated to lower-deck lives of servitude and harsh behavioral restrictions, Aster Gray is a lower-decks healer who must discover the hidden connection between her mother’s suicide decades ago and the mysterious death of the ship’s Sovereign.” It will be an interesting discussion at book club tonight as I really enjoyed it and I saw that two of my friends from book club have it one or two stars. I’m curious why.

On Deck – I have the DVD of Night School waiting for me at the library. I will likely have to watch that one alone as my wife is not a fan of comedies. Whiskey Cavalier premieres this week and it looks fun. I really like Lauren Cohan and Scott Foley. I’ve been looking forward to this one. I just started reading How Long Til Black Future Month? by NK Jemisin. I’m not sure if I will finish. I tend to abandon short story collections.

My Week in Books, TV, and Movies 2/15/19

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This week I actually have a movie, a book and a new TV show to write about. It’s been a while since that’s happened. One of the benefits of a three day weekend.

Movies – I didn’t watch any new movies this week. I have a couple of DVDs of newer movies but instead of watching them I watched random movies on cable. Friday I watched Footloose again because it was on IFC. I still love it. Saturday, I found Cooties and HBO. I always meant to watch it, but never did so I was happy to stumble across it. It’s a horror comedy set in an elementary school where a virus turns all the kids into crazed cannibals. The teachers, including Elijah Wood and Rainn Wilson, fight to survive. I enjoyed it.

TV – I spent a lot of time watching my normal shows and The Walking Dead returned, so there was a lot of TV this week. The one new show I watched this week was Miracle Workers on TBS. It is based on a book by Simon Rich. I really like Simon Rich. The show stars Steve Buscemi as God and Daniel Radcliffe as an angel in the answered prayers department. A young, idealistic angel is transferred to the department and wants to answer bigger prayers. Her conversation with God leads to his decision to destroy Earth and then to a bet. If they can answer an impossible prayer, Earth will be saved. I really liked it. I laughed several times. Buscemi is really good as God. Daniel Radcliffe and Geraldine Viswanathan are good as the angels. It’s a good cast with good writing. I say watch it.

Books – I finished On the Come Up by Angie Thomas. It takes place in Garden Heights, same as The Hate U Give(the events of THUG are mentioned), but with new characters. This one is the story of Bri, an aspiring rapper who lives with her recovering addict mom and underemployed college graduate brother. They struggle financially and Bri dreams of making it big to help them pay the bills. Her first song goes viral and attracts a lot of attention from bad places. I don’t know if I liked it as much as THUG, but it was close. Thomas is very good. I do think Bri’s story was more interesting and the stakes were higher when it came to her decisions. That might resonate more with some readers.

On Deck – I’m reading The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams. I might need to take a break from this one because I need to finish An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon by next Friday for book club and I haven’t even started it. I don’t think I will get to the movies I have on DVD, so I have no idea if I will watch a movie this week. Maybe I will get to True Detective at some point.

My Week in Books, TV, and Movies 2/7/19

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I’m back to spending a lot of time alone, so I’m back to watching more TV and reading a little bit more. I still need to work on balancing my time between screen and books, but after my day at work, it’s much easier to veg out in front of the TV than focus on a book. On to the review…

Movies – We watched Tag this week. It is based on a Wall Street Journal article about a group of guys who have been playing a game of Tag for years. In the movie, Ed Helms, Hannibal Burress, Jake Johnson, Jon Hamm, and Jeremy Renner are childhood friends who have been playing for 30 years. Renner’s character has never been tagged and the movie revolves around the others using his wedding as a chance to finally get him. It will never be nominated for an award, but it was fun and I would recommend it.

TV – I still didn’t watch anything new again this week. It was still a catch-up week for me. I watched multiple episodes of A Million Little Things and Suits. I stayed current on Grey’s Anatomy. We caught up on New Amsterdam and The Resident and now I have their storylines all mixed together and I can’t remember what story matches which doctor show. I was happy that A Million Little Things was renewed this week. I really like it. So far the only show I watch and care about that has not been renewed is All American. I don’t get how Dynasty was renewed and this one is still awaiting its fate. The big TV news this week was that Modern Family will end after next season. It’s probably past time for that to happen. I wonder if they will consider a spin-off like they did with The Middle before opting against it.

Books – I finished three books this week:

Merci Suarez Changes Gears by Meg Medina – The Newbery winner about a young girl who is dealing with being the poor kid at a private school and also her grandfather’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. It is a very good book aimed at upper elementary and middle school readers.

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo – The Printz winner about a high school girl who is a poet writing about her life living with a very religious mother, first love and reading her poetry aloud for the first time. I listened to the audio read by the author who is a former National Slam champion. If you can, do the audio for this one. It is very good and only three discs if you are old like me and use CD’s still.

Damsel by Elana Arnold – Ama is a damsel who is rescued from a dragon by the prince. She has no memory of anything before this and is told that this is the way of life. The damsel is rescued, marries the prince, has a son and then that son rescues a damsel and the circle continues. Ama resists not having a choice in life. It was good, but I hope the author didn’t think the end was a shock. I saw it coming almost from the beginning. This was a Printz Honor book.

On Deck – I’m reading On the Come Up by Angie Thomas. I have Mid90’s and Halloween on DVD from the library. Odds are my wife won’t want to watch them. Maybe this is the week I finally watch True Detective.

My Week in Books, TV, and Movies 2/1/19

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It’s another light week for me in terms of things on the screen, but I did finally watch a movie. You would think with so little to report screen-wise, I would have more to report in reading. I have no idea what I’m doing with my time.

Movies – I was about to say that I didn’t watch a movie again this week, but then I remembered that we got The Hate U Give from Redbox last Friday. My daughter and I both loved the book and wanted to see the movie before she went back to school so we decided to splurge and spend the $1.89 instead of waiting for the free DVD from the library. I thought they did a really good job with the adaptation. My daughter was mad that she thought they made the relationship between Starr and Khalil more than just friends because we wouldn’t believe she cared so much if they were just friends. I would highly recommend it.

TV – This is where all of my time has gone. I haven’t watched anything new this week, but I’ve watched a lot of TV. With our trip away and with my daughter being home, I am way behind on the shows I record and watch alone. I’ve spent this week catching up on shows like Grey’s Anatomy, All American and the random sit-coms I watch. Suits also returned this week so I watched an episode of that as well. I still need to watch several episodes of A Million Little Things, Vikings and Manifest and I still need to start the new season of True Detective.

Books – I finished the nonfiction book What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte. It was interesting, especially if you are from or have spent time in Appalachia. It was also interesting in that she had a lot of bad things to say about JD Vance and Hillbilly Elegy and linked him to people who were involved in eugenics. The Youth Media Awards were announced Monday morning at the ALA Midwinter Conference. I now have a lot of books from that list checked out from the library. I did finish one of them, The Unwanted by Don Brown. It is a graphic novel about the Syrian refugees and won an award. I was underwhelmed. The art was not fantastic and the text was OK, but not great. I’m not sure why it won an award.

On Deck – I still have no movies from the library. I did record Tag when it was on HBO last week, but I don’t know when I will have time to watch it. TV will still be filled with catch up. Maybe I will get to the first episode of True Detective this week. I’m almost finished reading the Newbery winner, Merci Suarez Changes Gears by Meg Medina and almost finished with the audio of the Printz Award winner, The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo and have a big pile of other award winners waiting so I will have a lot of books to talk about next week.

A Couple of Week of Books, Movies and TV 1/25/19

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I was out of town last week so I didn’t do any of my normal posts. Being out of town also means my reading and viewing habits were different than normal. There won’t be a lot to report even though this covers two weeks.

TV – My son really wanted to be back at the hotel in time to watch The Passage last week I was good with that since I read the books and really liked them. It worked out that we made it in time to watch. It also turns out that I was really tired and fell asleep before the show was over. I liked what I saw before I fell asleep. I think, though, that this entire season might only be the present day story and none of the better, future, storylines. We are happy that Victoria is once again airing on PBS. My daughter is a fan of British history and I’m a fan of having Jenna Coleman on my TV.

Movies –  We took two movies on our trip, but never had the time to watch them. That was a good thing since we discovered we did not have a DVD player in the room. It’s been a while since I’ve watched a movie.

Books – I read Wrecked by Joe Ide while on vacation. My family tried to shame me for only finishing one book while on the trip. They are right that my reading has slowed down lately. Maybe I’m getting dumber as I get older. Wrecked is the latest in the IQ series. I liked it and I really like the series. It’s refreshing to have main characters in a mystery series who are not cops are professional detectives. I finished The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay yesterday. It started out strong. A couple and their kid are on vacation in a remote cabin when a group of strangers appears and tells them the world is going to end unless the choose a member of the family to sacrifice. About 2/3 of the way in it fell apart and was a struggle to finish.

On Deck  – I still have no movies from the library. Maybe that will change soon. I’m about to start a nonfiction book called What We Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia. We will see if it holds my attention. I’m not a big nonfiction reader. I plan to watch at least one episode of the new season of True Detective. My expectations are low for that one.

I Don’t Have Time to Read(and other things)

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This popped up in my Timehop from 5 years ago. I still agree with past me. I’ve been reading less lately, but it is because I’m letting other things fill that time. I still have time to read. I just choose to do other things.

The World's Common Tater

Several times throughout the year a conversation will turn to the number of books I read(around 100 a year) and the other person will respond with a form of “I don’t have time to read.” Or a conversation will be about a television show and someone will say “I don’t have time to watch TV.” or the more popular “I don’t own a TV.” Most of the time, the implication is that I am obviously wasting time while they are spending all of their time on less trivial pursuits.  There is currently a conversation online about how they don’t understand why so much attention is being paid to a “stupid, violent game” like football. Someone actually said “Imagine how much better the world would be if we spent this much time talking about poverty, etc.” I’ve even had it happen with my Starbucks visits. Someone felt the need to point…

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My Week in Books, TV, and Movies 1/11/18

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I came really close to skipping this post this week as I don’t have much to report, but I decided if I’m going to do a regular feature it should actually be regular. That being said, I’m traveling again next week so there might not be any posts at all after Sunday. Maybe I will actually blog my trip and post each night with my pictures and such. I’m sure everyone is excited about that. It will be like those fabled boring travel slideshows in blog form. Yay! OK, my week:

Movies – I mentioned four movies in my post last week as on deck. I’ve watched none of them. I did watch Super Troopers 2 Wednesday morning before work. If you liked the first one you will like this one. If you didn’t like the first one I’m not sure why you would be watching the second one. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but it is a fun hour and a half. I liked the additions to the cast in this one. Rob Lowe is good as the mayor of the town. The three mounties are funny. It was a good way to be lazy on a morning off.

TV –  I’m not sure I watched anything new this week. We are at the end of the winter hiatus for most shows. This week and next is when shows return and new shows premiere. I did just remember I did watch one new show this week – Schooled. I have never watched The Goldbergs and had no reason to watch the spinoff until I heard that two of my favorite music people, Jaret Reddick and Kelly Ogden, wrote and performed the theme song. I recorded the show to hear the song and then decided to watch the full episode. I enjoyed it. I probably would like it more if I knew the character from The Goldbergs. I’m not sure I will record it and watch it regularly, but if it was on and I was home I might watch it.

Books – I finished Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly. I always enjoy his books and this one was no exception. This time he combined his longtime character Harry Bosch with a  newer character, Renee Ballard,  he introduced recently. It appears going forward the books will be a combination of the two. It makes sense. Bosch is older and retired and it is harder to realistically give him access to what he needs to solve the crimes. Ballard gives him police access and she is a good character. I like it.

On deck – We are traveling again next week so movies and TV viewing will likely go down and reading will go up. I am trying to finish Target by James Patterson before we leave so I have fresh books for the trip. The books I have set aside to take with me are Wrecked by Joe Ide, What You are Getting Wring about Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte and The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay. The good news is that if I read too fast and finish them before the end of the trip or if one or more of them suck, I can easily download something else from the library. I don’t read ebooks a lot, but that they are good for travel and for emergencies when you run out of print books.