AuntiePam

peeayebee, I wish Jon would have played that straight -- the point was lost in all the distractions. Iran-Iraq-Cheney-Bush-Halliburton connections are complicated enough without adding pipes and hats and a stupid balloon. Give me something that I can share with Facebook friends who think the problems in the Middle East started with our "Muslim" President.

I'm late to the party too. I thought it was going to be like that last Harris book, which I thought was comically awful. Plus, Mads' upper lip creeped me out -- bad childhood memory, or something [shudder]. Not sure why I gave it a try but I'm glad I did -- except that I worry about the writers' mental health. I thought the mushroom "farm" was bad, but now I'm watching episode 9, with the totem on the beach. Scary that people can imagine such horrific stuff! But good that they have a safe outlet. Hoping to catch up before season three starts.

It's more disturbing that -- according to the article -- Gates agreed to do it. I saw the Affleck segment but don't remember anything about it. Hard to understand Affleck's concern. No one blames anyone for stuff their ancestors did.

The only explanation for the change in Ava's feelings is that she didn't want to go back to prison. Her experience was horrendous and she had no reason to think it would be any different the second time. And there's the pregnancy -- she'd give birth in prison and the child would be raised by someone else. That plotline never made much sense to me either. As was said above, they had nothing on her to justify a long prison term. A good lawyer could have helped her, but nobody ever suggested legal counsel for her -- not that I can recall. It's another failing of season five.

BCharmer, me too -- he's not old enough to be playing alone so far away from the house. No human predators around, but it looked like snake country to me.

After thinking about it for most of the day, my favorite part was Boyd refusing to pick up the gun. Of course he knew that he didn't have a chance against Raylan, but he also knew that another killing -- even a justified killing -- would ruin Raylan. Boyd did him a favor.

The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon -- supernatural/haunted place/old mystery, etc. The writing is very simple and straightforward -- almost too simple -- everything's right there on the page. But a couple of scenes gave me goosebumps and I like goosebumps.

I'll admit I'm not a deep thinker, but I've never seen Boyd and Raylan as two sides of the same coin. Raylan occasionally breaking the rules on his job doesn't come close to what Boyd's done. Except for that Nicky Augustine thing, and that was an end justifies the means situation. They both have father issues and big egos and think the rules don't apply to them and they use people, but Raylan's never been all that "dark" to me. Maybe it's my own superficial shortsightedness, seeing as how he's the protagonist of the show. That's how he started and that's how he's ending, in my view anyway.

I think that's on purpose. Boon is consciously or unconsciously playing roles -- a wild west gunfighter with Raylan in the pizza place, a gangster from the 30's in the scene in the diner with the hat, a a little bit of Wilem Dafoe from Wild At Heart tossed in when he's around Loretta. He's watched too much TV, that's for sure.

Thanks for the explanation about Markham's money. The "bill of sale" Raylan wrote said I give "this man" my property. Why didn't he write the guy's name? Seems odd, unless it'll be a minor plot point in the finale -- that gang from Deliverance fighting each other over that piece of paper.

What I don't understand -- and maybe it was explained earlier in the season -- is why Avery Markham brought $10 million in cash to Harlan. Is it dirty money, and that's why he can't deposit it in a bank, or several banks? And if it's dirty money, why do the feds care if Boyd (or anyone) steals it? Seems like the cash was just a trap for Boyd, a writer's trap.

I'm disappointed that Hildur didn't tell Jules that yeah, there's something medical going on with Liam. Instead she leaves Jules and Frank thinking their son's psychotic -- which he is, but it's not his fault. So Fortitude has a hospital and a research center? It was too easy for Markus to remove Shirley's body. Nobody locks up behind them? I get confused about the locations. Does Elena have a home separate from the hotel? Elena and Carrie are living at Carrie's house?

Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold. Science fiction, been hearing about it for years, hesitated because it's the first in a series and if I like it, I'll have to buy the others. Mixed blessing. Too early to say what it's about -- story starts on a planet other than Earth and there are conflicts. Humans! Can't take them anywhere!!

You wouldn't think so, especially since the reasoning seems to be "You and your dad aren't getting along."

The language lady on public radio said this week that the misuse of "literally" is becoming accepted, because we all understand that they don't really mean "literally". I think she's giving the speakers way too much credit.

Reading a biography of Florence Harding, William Harding's wife -- quite a woman, definitely the power behind that throne. Also reading http://www.amazon.com/Kings-Earth-Jon-Clinch/dp/1481175408/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid= -- not sure if the coding works, Kings of the Earth by Jon Clinch. It's the kind of book I've seen referred to as "white fringe", stories of people most of us pity and/or avoid but wonder about. "How can they live like that?" It's wonderful.

And the "penetration with a foreign object" could have been a sex toy. So she's in a coma because she was beaten up?

I don't understand why the detectives are saying Gwen wasn't raped. Did they say that the DNA collected from Gwen didn't match either of the suspects? If so, I missed it.

This reminds me of Crash, the worst movie ever to win the Oscar. It's better than that (anything would be), but it's so Dick and Jane. I'll keep watching for Timothy Hutton and W. Earl Brown, who I didn't recognize at first. I kept saying "Where's Dan Dority?" Three episodes in, we have enough back story. Now let's see if the writers can give us some depth.

I've only watched the first episode so maybe this isn't fair criticism, but I think there's too much on the screen. We're being told too much, too soon. It looks like the show will be one to watch for what happens, to solve the mystery. It needs more subtlety, or something. We were hit over the head (no pun intended) with the ME's description of the first victim's injuries, Bosch has an almost physical reaction, and then he revisits the grave -- yeah, we get it, he cares. There are too many scenes with Bosch ignoring his boss's instructions. On an even shallower note, the female cop has the dullest red hair I've ever seen. If it's a wig, it's awful, and if it's real, that's even worse. Get some highlights, girl! I did like seeing all those familiar faces, especially Herschel and Marlo.

I haven't read it, but one Amazon reviewer said that the legal aspects of the slap were resolved about halfway through the book. The impression from reading the reviews is that the book's focus is on the effect of the slap -- how the differing reactions affected this family's relationships.

Ailianna, I thought maybe that scene with the judge was like a pretrial mediation/settlement conference. But if judges spend that much time on piddly cases, when would they have time to hear a real case?

It's difficult to know where to focus my attention, so I'm closely watching everything and everyone. The gorgeous cinematography is almost distracting. Man, that's a beautiful place. I'm liking all the scenic turnouts, if that's what they are -- small parking lots facing onto gorgeous views of mountains and glaciers. Carrie and her dad in the tent -- a noise that sounded like thunder. Moving glaciers make noise -- spooky and disconcerting.

Well, that's it for me too. How tone-deaf does a writer have to be to think that anyone would care about Connie? She's not even interesting enough to dislike. The legal stuff is ridiculous, even by TV standards.

Agreement on several of these: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, I loved the footnotes -- full of wit and energy, unlike the rest of the story. I gave up on the book but then read a review that helped me appreciate it enough to finally finish it. But it's not a favorite. Too fluffy, or something. Dumped the Harry Potter series when I started noticing all the adverbs, especially in the dialogue tags. No one just "said" something. It was all angrily, quietly, sadly -- the emotions were in the tags, not in what was actually said. Tad Williams -- too much padding, but interesting stories. In one of his series, maybe Dragonbone, I noticed that the second and third books include summaries of what happened before. So all I had to to was read the summaries, and then read the last few pages of the last book. Saved a lot of slogging! Margaret Laurence -- love her. I think being old helps. Liked Lord of the Rings but didn't read the books until after the movies came out -- I think that helped. I have too many Did Not Finishes to mention. Sometimes I bail on the first page.