SusieQ
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Posts posted by SusieQ
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Just an FYI for the Richard Osman fans-- he appeared on the second series of Taskmaster (link below). Taskmaster is a fabulous British competition show with Greg Davies as the "Taskmaster" and five comedians who vie for "prizes" . Sorry my explanation is so bad, but the show is great. And it has GREG DAVIES (anyone who watches Graham Norton will understand my excitement over Greg!)
(I wound up actually embedding the video, hope it works)
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10 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:
Again, thanks for the recommendation, I just read The Hot Rock, it was a hoot!
Glad you liked it. My favorite John Dortmunder books are "Good Behavior" and "Drowned Hopes". I love the whole gang of thieves. I'm sort of like Stan, but instead of talking about car routes I figure out the best NYC subway lines to take :)
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50 minutes ago, Driad said:
I wondered if Roy did finish Tina off, and used her phone to text Claire so Claire wouldn't go looking for Tina.
This series was entertaining, although the humor was mostly "What will go wrong next?" and "These characters are twistier than a barrel of fishhooks."
That's probably it. Pretty cold. But then again Roy was not your warm and fuzzy gangster😊😊
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Fun show. Glad Max got what he deserved, but Shelia needs to be punished, too. Let's hope the autopsy shows the excess drugs in Walt's body.
One loose thread for me -- what happened to Tina? I can't believe Roy just let her go after she was caught stealing the money. I know she texted Claire "sorry". I guess Roy felt he could always catch up with her and finish her off but he didn't seem the type who was so forgiving.
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20 minutes ago, stewedsquash said:
Who Is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews is a terrible book. So terrible that I am thinking about getting a twitter account just to torment the author about how terrible she is as an author of books.
A million times yes -- it was terrible (but I wouldn't go as far as tormenting the author). So incredibly farfetched. And it had so many great reviews. I've been bitten quite a few times lately with authors I respect giving great blurbs to mediocre or just plain lousy books.
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15 hours ago, Racj82 said:
I'm so sorry. I thought I attached the link.
Oh, that was fun! Thanks.
Best trivia moment, finding out that Linwood played Mary's husband in "Little House on the prairie "
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1 hour ago, Racj82 said:
For anyone curious or would like a deep dive into Malcom in the Middle - I just recently watched this retrospective. It's actually really informative and you see how the show was always moving towards that ending regarding Malcom.
Do you have a link? TIA
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3 hours ago, Luckylyn said:
I’m reading the nonfiction book Stephen Sondheim and the Reinvention of the American Musical by Robert L. McLaughlin which analyses the musicals Sondheim has worked on. I appreciated the musical theater history lesson it began with. Some things I was already familiar with but there are some new info and shows I wasn’t familiar with that I liked learning about before the deep dive into Sondheim. Right now I am up to the part where Gypsy is being discussed. It’s not a book to get a lot of biographical information about Sondheim. This author sicks pretty closely to analysis of lyrics and structure of the shows. I was disappointed by that but it’s still interesting to go so in depth in the shows meanings and impact. I would recommend the documentary Six by Sondheim to get more biographical information which includes some wonderful musical interludes with some great performers.
"Finishing the Hat" and "Look I Made a Hat" both by Sondheim might give you more info.
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37 minutes ago, sugarbaker design said:
Great place to start! BW, along with A Dark-Adapted Eye and Asta's Book, are my top 3 of the Vines, and the only three that I've attempted to re-read. I read them as they were published, in order, on loan from the library. I dearly miss the release of a new Rendell or Vine. Back when Tigerlily's Orchids was published, RR went on a promotional tour. I got to see her in a B&N in Manhattan. She read the first chapter of the book, adding so much humor in her telling, followed by a Q&A. She was quite charming, and very tiny! When I got the chance to get my book signed, I asked if she was working on a new Vine, she looked me square in the eye and said "Of course!"
Yes!!! Dark Adapted Eye! Those are my top three also.
I usually resist buying fiction because I just don't have anymore shelf space (already too full of non fiction and art and architecture books) but for BV I've made an exception and bought many of them. I should do a reread now that I know the endings and see how they piece together.
How lucky to get to meet her.
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11 hours ago, stewedsquash said:
I can't remember exactly how it is worded but when I put in a hold and it gives the wait time, there is a question mark that says What does this mean?, click it and it says that the you will move up the list at varying times depending on if the item is available because of being from another systems library, and people in that system will have first choice, even if they put in a hold after you. I am wording that badly but if you are a librarian, you probably know what I am trying to say.
Thanks you so much for this review. It really helped me decide to give this author (both names) a try. I think I am going to be like you, lean towards the Vine. And I am excited to start Asta's Book because I have gotten reviews that I think I would have written, if I liked the book.
Back in the 1980's when I was a teenager we had a tiny library that was only a room attached to the tiny town hall of our tiny, little town. The librarian was about 200 years old and knew everything there was to know about books. She always let everyone know what was available and tried to cater to their likes. I clearly remember her telling me that she could not for the life of her figure out what my category of reading was, so she just picked a bit of everything and hoped I would like it.
Happy to help. The first Vine book I read was Brimstone Wedding. And was I hooked! There are 15 Vine books and all but the last two were great (not that those two were terrible, but just not that great). Ruth Rendall books are also good and there are a lot more of them. I'm so happy to turn someone on to her.
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On 6/27/2021 at 12:00 AM, stewedsquash said:
Any insight into Ruth Rendell and her alter Barbara Vine? I am debating downloading Asta's Book by Barbara Vine from the library. I was led to it via a BookBub deal for Ruth Rendell, The Best Man To Die, which is a series (there is a waiting list for this one). The Barbara Vine book above is comparing her to Turow/P D James/Ian Larkin.
eta I deleted the question of what this author writes about because it came across as things I was interested in and that was not my intent. I am not interested in books that are gory or creepy.
Love both sets of her mysteries. The Vine ones are more psychological rather then a regular "who done it". I've read all the authors you mentioned above and Rendall is my number one. I think I've read everything she's written (she's passed away so no more books) and her very last few books did disappoint me, but otherwise she's wonderful.
Asta's Book (also called Anna's Book) is great. Her books are not gory or creepy but they usually involve a murder, but then most mysteries do, yes?
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51 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:
No kidding? Wow!
https://lawrenceblock.com/books/so-willing-collection-of-classic-erotica-book-23/
Block talks about them becoming friends back in 1959 and writing together. Fun read.
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21 minutes ago, sugarbaker design said:
Thanks for mentioning Westlake, he's one of those authors I've always wanted to pick up but for some reason I never did. My library system doesn't carry any of the Dortmunder books, but I just bought a used copy of The Hot Rock on abe.com for less than $5! Win!
Yeah, Westlake books are hard to get from my library, too. I bought up lots of them from Better World Books. BWB if you're not aware buys up "discarded" library books and sells most for under $5, with free shipping. All the books that libraries used to sell at their used book sales now seem to go to BWB. I've got books from libraries across the country. Kind of fun.
With Westlake be aware that these were written in the 70s and 80s so you know the drill.
And in my mind John Dortmunder is nothing like Robert Redford! But that's Hollywood for you.
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Love Block's Bernie series. Also have read most of the Scudder books but they are darker.
For comedic mystery/caper books, no one beats Donald Westlake. His John Dortmunder books are wonderful. They've been made into movies (The Hot Rock with Robert Redford(!!!) as Dortmunder) I remember reading Good Behavior and laughing out loud while riding the subway, thinking my fellow riders would think I'm nuts! Sadly, Donald has passed on so no new books.
And he and Block were well acquainted -- in their early days they wrote erotica together!!!
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How is Ally still with this guy? There must be some redeeming qualities that happen off screen because what I've seen of him would make me throw him out.
I'm no prude. "Fuck" comes out of mouth lots of times. But never calling out my kid with that word. Verbal abuse is abuse.
And while I don't condone violence Luke punching Paul was very satisfying.
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2 hours ago, Gigi43 said:
I get this forum is dead and I may be typing to myself but oh well! I'm over a decade late so why not. I'd heard about BB and always put it on my list of eventually checking out and binged the series for the very first time starting from Jan-til last night. I haven't watched El Camino yet but I assume anyway they didn't make a Jesse movie to kill him, I'm fine with having scanned the forum. I'm curious as to what others thought of the show/characters and am reading the old archived ones. I'm mad I didn't get on this show to post on the TWOP forums now back in the day.
The show was very "binge-able" with episode endings that hooked me to have to watch another, then another, appropriate given the nature of the show, I guess. I think my favorite episode was the s4 finale, though God knows I despised Walt for what he did to Brock. I don't care how much of a genius he is, there were factors that could have made Brock not survive. His heart or lungs could have been unable to handle it even if most others are fine. Brock seemed to be on a ventilator, he could have lost O2 just long enough to have brain damage or the vomiting could have caused him to aspirate. It's a suspension of reality that Walt was able to get to Brock to poison him while being on the run from Gus. It also seemed like he had the cig lifted from Jesse after Brock would have ingested it, which is a risk that Brock would be sick on time that Andrea wouldn't have called before the meet where the cig was lifted. Still, I didn't see it coming. I genuinely believed Walt even though I already was against him, I didn't think he'd poison a kid and Cranston sold it as one of the times Walt was a good liar. Maybe I need to watch again.
Going into the show I didn't know Walt would be straight up evil. I thought the whole run he was just gonna be this normal guy who got way in over his head, not become just as bad as the other bad guys. I hate him. It's good he tried to clear Skyler and in my mind once Walt heard from Badger and Skinny Pete that they hadn't heard from Jesse but Walt knew it was Jesse cooking, I think Walt knew Jesse was a hostage and Walt may have wanted Jesse dead, but not tortured. I think he went to confront the Nazi's knowing he was going to free Jesse, or maybe it's just wishful thinking given how much Walt manipulated Jesse through the series. The second lift of the cig, man Jesse really needed that hug and to find out it was a scam for a lift, when he was already on edge, then figuring out Walt poisoned a fucking child, no wonder he snapped and went to Hank. Walt owed it to Jesse to get him out of their. Still, it was emotional seeing Walt cover Jesse with his body from the bullets. Though I was still rooting for Walt to die (Bryan Cranston was amazing throughout.)
Jesse. My favorite character, along with Hank. Jesse trying his best to hold on to his soul throughout, and having his clear lines not to cross (children, specifically) and wanting to be the one who wanted out more was kind of closer to who I thought Walt would be as opposed to the guy who crosses those lines. Like Jesse, I was put off by Walt's whistling after talking about the murder of the little boy, Drew. I loved all Jesse's "bitches" but "this is my own personal domicile and I will not be harassed, bitch!" is my favorite. I wish Jesse and Junior could have met. That would be one awkward dinner. Aaron Paul was also excellent, they struck gold with the Cranston/Paul dynamic. Jesse's confession over killing Gale (poor Gale, he was just there to cook) was one of my favorite Jesse scenes.
I loved Hank. Yeah he was a dick to Marie after his shooting, but he was a good guy and a great detective, despite it being his brother in law all along. I didn't know the show was taking place in a two year time span, I assumed 5 seasons = five years so I thought in the beginning Hank would either die half way through, be really incompetent or turn corrupt. I love he refused to beg for his life. It's sad for Marie but Jack was in fact going to kill him no matter what, so at least he could go out with his pride. Marie was annoying but mostly just there to me. If they had ended up with Junior and Holly, I wouldda been okay with that.
Skyler. I don't like her but I don't hate her the way I did Abby Donovan or Carmella Soprano (I didn't actively root for Ray or Tony to die the way I did Walt to extend the comparisons of shows with bad guys/husbands as leads.) Weirdly, the more she turned dark as Walt did I did kinda respect she wasn't keeping her head in the sand and actually tried to make smart moves, even though giving Ted the money was dumb. I liked the scene where she played the ditz to the IRS. Though as far as buying Junior the car, both Walt and Skyler missed an obvious cover. Walt was overcompensating Junior with a nice car in case Walt wasn't there for his HS graduation because of the cancer and took out a crazy loan or something would have been a decent explanation. Plus, Junior is disabled, maybe Walt wanted to get him something because of that. That said, buying the car was a fuck you to Skyler more than it was about getting his son a car. He was fine with Junior being disappointed if it meant making Skyler look bad, In a way Walt did treat Jesse like a son because he manipulated and used Junior too, just to a far lesser extent. As much as I may have not liked Skyler (I did outright hate her when they made the tape blaming Hank and was fine if she died at that point), she didn't deserve the 'bitch mom' title. I didn't buy the 'making Walt look bad just wait for him to die' reasoning for Skyler not turning him in or leaving since the situation was extremely unsafe for her children to be in and she let Hank and Marie care for the kids knowing full well Walt worked with people who put Hank in danger. But still, I liked seeing Junior go to her defense against Walt in the end and Junior continuing to stand up to Walt refusing the money. Maybe he'll take the nearly 10mil later on. I liked Junior a lot and usually teenagers on these kinds of shows are awfully annoying.
Gus was a great, great, bad guy and I liked Mike despite he was a murderer. I liked Mike shook Jesse's hand in the end and liked him in his own way. Jesse wanting to do right by Kayleigh was also nice. If not for Brock and Mike, Jesse never would have turned on 'Mr. White' imo. Saul was a riot but I'm wondering if he's better in small doses as I consider binging BCS.
And in final on my dissertation of BB, the plane crash. At first I was just shocked but now... I don't know. Kinda outrageous and there should have been more on the ground damage and I can suspend leaps in reality a lot but Jane's dad being an air traffic controller so Walt's inaction lead to a plane crash was maybe a bit too much.
Great show, I wish it hadn't taken me so long to watch it. But it's not my favorite ever but now definitely up there.
So glad you liked BB. I, too came to it late and watched it all two years ago.
Just wanted to tell you to definitely watch Better Call Saul. As much as I loved BB, I loved BCS even more. At little less dark, much funnier. Bob Odenkirk is fabulous. Characters from BB show up. And one new wonderful character is introduced. It's killing me that I have to wait a year for the final season.
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PBS will feature an "American Experience" episode on LIW.
https://www.twincities.com. Twin Cities PBS takes a look at the woman behind the “Little House on the Prairie” books in a new documentary, “Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie to Page.” The documentary, which focuses on the pioneer and author, will premiere Dec. 29 on PBS.
In NYC it's listed for next Tuesday.
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4 hours ago, tres bien said:
About half way into A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne. I have mixed feelings about this book.
Earlier this year I read his book The Heart's Invisible Furies, which has been my favorite book of 2020.
I love, love, love Heart's Invisible Furies. Ladder to the Sky was an interesting read, almost like a train wreck you couldn't turn away from. Probably the most horrible protagonist I've ever come across.
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On 10/17/2020 at 8:01 AM, tres bien said:
I'm reading Asta's Book by Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell's pen name). I started it right after I ditched Love and Other Consolation Prizes by Jaime Ford, which I didn't like.
I didn't know anything about the author, maybe someone here mentioned her. But this book is so good, very hard to put down.
I had been reading a lot of crime/mystery and was ready to move on (hence the Jaime Ford book) but I"m glad I had this on my shelf and I'll definitely read more Barbara Vine.
Since she was a very prolific writer under both her names, I'll probably venture out into more.
Ruth Rendell (Barbara Vine) was a wonderful writer. I've read all her books (Rendell and Vine). Loved them all, some more than others. For me her last books weren't as good but overall a great body of work.
Her Vine books are more psychological and are some of my all time favorite books. I envy you getting to read them for the first time.
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On 9/5/2020 at 8:18 AM, tres bien said:
I'm currently reading The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne.
Athough I've only only read about a third of the book so far, this is the best novel I've read this year.
OMG, I loved this book! Also read by Boyne "A Ladder to the Sky". The protagonist in that one was HORRIBLE! But you couldn't stop reading.
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13 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:
If anyone wants to see Dann Florek (Donald Cragen) in another role, he is in an old episode of Hunter, also streaming on Peacock, from Season 4 (so about 1987, this was the Halloween episode, as I believe it fell on a Saturday that year! ETA: Google confirms!), called "Night On Bald Mountain".
And Richard Kiley, a.k.a. Larry from Three's Company, plays one of his brothers.
I think you mean Richard Kline was in Three's Company.I
Richard Kiley wasn't in that show. He was a great stage actor and was in the Broadway production of Man of La Mancha (sang "The Impossible Dream!!!) He also did tv and film but not TC.
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Quote12 hours ago, freddi said:
Awww, the monologue ending was so funny *and* sweet. Little girl on a "Make-a-Wish" visit chooses Mulaney ("but you can find me on the 405, I'm around...") and gets to meet Lin-Manuel Miranda during the day ("I don't know if he goes by 'Lin' or 'Lin-Manuel', but sure, let's meet him - Oh, LIN-<manuel>"). Then her confessing that LIN-<manuel> had been her first choice. Just Awww. And the "LIN-<manuel>" was perfect.
Just a correction, it's not the "405", rather the "4 or 5" meaning the NYC subway Lexington ave trains which are numbered 4, 5, and 6.
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Just had to tell you guys-- went to dinner this past Sunday and the restaurant had a poster that said "as seen in The Americans" . Turns out it the place where Philip kills the Afghan fellow, wounds his companion and then has to kill the busboy because the kid sees Philip without his wig. Gruesome episode (season 2, episode 1) that I've never forgotten.
Kind of weird that the restaurant is hyping it since it was so violent. But I guess any advertising is good.
I even checked IMDB and the restaurant is listed.
Ps, the food was great!
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10 hours ago, Starleigh said:
This is a few years late, but the last book you describe is by Bess Streeter Aldrich. I don't recall the title but it's the sequel to A Lantern in Her Hand.
I didn't realize there was a sequel to ALiHH. I read A Lantern when I was in 4th grade, too.Bought it from the book club (and I wasn't able to buy many book, alas) and I still have it somewhere. I still remember them living in a sod house, lots of natural disasters, etc.
Crs97 please let me know if the sequel is worth reading. Oh, and what's the name?
4 hours ago, Crs97 said:I just requested it from the library to see if it is the book I remember. Thanks so much!!!
Please see my post above. I put it in the wrong box.
Buying books or borrowing from the library? Which do you prefer?
in Books
Ah, shelf reading! I was the unlucky one who got to "read" the 700s. Putting that section in order was a bi##h. 732.7654 comes before 732.77, etc, etc. And the spines were so narrow, making the numbers hard to read.
I always wished my section was the 800s😊😊