Starleigh

There are also a lot of full episodes on YouTube now (free).

True. And assuming Richie was born a year later, and that he was about 6 or 7 when the show started, Laura was supposed to approximately 24 or 25 at the start of the show. But it's pretty clear to me that Sally was supposed to be older than Laura, especially with Laura asking Rob why she "never married all these years" and to me (for those times!) it sounds like a woman in her 30s.

In the episode "The Bottom of Mel Cooley's Heart" there are at least 3 references to Alan being married to Mel's sister, including one where Mel said Alan made sure he wasn't invited to his own sister's wedding. I guess the writers figured it would be a bit more dramatic and make Mel's situation a bit more precarious than if his wife were Alan's sister (you'd figure his own wife wouldn't stand for her husband being mistreated by her brother and she'd encourage him to get a job somewhere else). Going back to Sally's age, I was reading some comments on a youtube video yesterday and someone commented that Rose Marie was 38 when the show started filming. I think that age makes sense for Sally--she certainly isn't written as though she's the same age or younger than Laura, and she seems to be about halfway between Rob's and Buddy's ages. The video I was watching was "Sally and the Lab Technician" and Laura was asking things like, "Rob, why hasn't Sally ever married all these years" which certainly makes it sound as though she is older than Laura and not her contemporary (assuming Laura is supposed to be in her upper 20s or maybe 30ish based on Richie's age and her age when she and Rob married).

I read her memoirs a few years ago...I think she just had a very distinct voice. She started singing and performing at a young age, and she got a lot of attention because nobody expected a tiny little girl to belt songs out with such a powerful and adult sounding voice. At least according to her memoirs, it sounded like she led a vice-free life. (Although smoking wasn't considered a vice back then, was it??)

I think I read that the Mary Tyler Moore show was planned to be a more modern update on the Sally Rogers type character. So, I'd assume that Sally was meant to be somewhere in her 30s. I also would figure the "27" comment was meant to be sarcasm, the way people will say they are 29 or 39 in a joking way when asked their age. I also don't think they'd have such a young comedy writer on the team! Was Rob's age ever mentioned?(I know Mary Tyler Moore at first didn't want him to know her age because she thought he'd object that she'd be too young to play Rob's wife because of the age gap.) I assume he's in his 30s and Buddy is, like, 50ish?

My reading from this past weekend: I read Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum--it was sort of the anti sappy beach read-it had a kind of dark undertone to it which reminded me a bit of Big Little Lies, just with a beach/summer season setting. It was a good read. I also read Two Wars and a Wedding by Lauren Willig. It was set during the Spanish-American war, which is a bit different from the typical historical setting for war novels published these days. It was also a good read. I am waiting on quite a pile of new books, but my library is super slow at processing new books for some reason. I did get notified that the newest Sally Hepworth that I had requested just came in, so I'll have that to read this upcoming weekend.

Thank you to the people who mentioned the Agatha Christie bio by Lucy Worsley. I picked it up from the library based on your recommendations and read it yesterday. It is definitely worth a read, I enjoyed it very much. It also made me want to go back and reread a bunch of her mysteries, especially the Miss Marple ones (Worsley is quite obviously partial to those!).

I could not get into Killers of a Certain Age, which was a bummer. It's going to go back to the library mostly unread. However, I did enjoy The Villa by Rachel Hawkins. It was a quick, enjoyable suspenseful read.

I have that on hold from the library...I will give it a try, but if it doesn't grab me within the first chapter or two, I'll put it down. I haven't started it yet, but have Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourne. It's gotten really good reviews and word of mouth, so I am hoping it lives up to the hype. I read a couple of her historical fiction books years back when she was a new author, but I never really got into them. I'm willing to give her another try, though.

As a child, I just felt bad for Pa. Like, obviously they were just poor and doing their best but unfortunately they had a lot of bad luck (like grasshoppers etc). Of course, now I see it wasn't quite as simple as that. But, to give him credit where it is due, he was genuinely a hard worker. He wasn't gambling or drinking his money away--there were definitely references to alcoholism/gambling addictions in the books. (I love that Laura included that one of the first businesses/store fronts in De Smet was a saloon, btw. And I am pretty sure she mentioned some gossip at some point about a gambler whose family brought him out west because he just couldn't stay away from the gambling tables). I don't know if the Wilders were actually quite as prosperous as Farmer Boy makes it sound, though. IIRC, the whole family picked up and moved west when Almanzo was a young teen. I feel like they would have stayed on their farm if their farming was really that prosperous, with opportunities for all their children back in New York state.

Yes, in the book it's Melanie who Belle shares this info with....not sure about the movie. I've seen the movie a handful of times, but I've read the book probably dozens of times😁

Yeah, if the war hadn't happened, she definitely would have gotten past her crush. She probably would have been stuck married to Charles, though. Unless they had a longer engagement (no war bride pressure) and she would have come to her senses and broken it off.

Started reading The Hacienda by Isabel Canas. Just a few pages in, but it's got a definite gothic-Rebecca sort of vibe going on. I've also been rereading the Tillerman family saga, by Cynthia Voight. I read most of them years ago as a teenager but am liking them much more now, reading as an adult. Today I read Sons From Afar which is one of the last ones.

I've actually been reading a lot of memoirs this summer: Jennifer Gray's--best parts were her memories of making Dirty Dancing. Boring parts were the endless analysis and explanations of why/how/when/the aftermath of her nose job😆 Minnie Driver--felt bad for her when she described her childhood, but the "literary" writing style was a bit of a turnoff. Kellyanne Conway's--was curious mainly to learn more about her marriage. She didn't really go into detail, but reading between the lines, it sounds like they are separated (even if not divorced). Wasn't expecting to find her early years in her career so interesting, but I did. I didn't realize that she cut her teeth in politics by being a pollster and having her own company. She must know so many people in D.C. and the inner workings on both sides of the political aisle, though she didn't spill the beans on anybody (you just know she knows all the dirt!). The closest she came to it was trashing Steve Bannon. Kathleen Buhle (Hunter Biden's ex)--she really had only nice things to say about the Biden family. Sounds like Hunter struggled with addictions most of his life, and they really lived life on the edge (financially) for years. It ended on an upbeat note, though.

I read We Need to Talk About Kevin years ago, before it was "discovered" so to speak. I just randomly picked it up from the new books sections in the library and checked it out, with no prior knowledge or hype to get in the way. I don't remember much about the writing style, tbh, but I did find it to be a page turner that kind of gave you a shock by the end. But, if I was reading it now for the first time, with high expectations (not to mention, having so many horrific IRL tragedies that have happened since then in the background of my mind...being vague so as not to spoiler it), I have a feeling I wouldn't have liked it that much--it would have come across as a cliched stereotype--both characterization and narration style. I recently read Vacationland, the new book by Meg Mitchell Moore. It was ok. It kept my attention and was a good read, but something about it seemed so familiar--kind of like a deja vu read, like I had already read the same exact plot in a prior book. If it wasn't a brand new book, I'd have assumed I'd read it already and just forgot. It was a weird reading experience that I don't think I've ever had before. 🤔

I'm going to go on record with the unpopular opinion that I strongly dislike both of these authors. Nothing to do with them personally, I'm just not a fan of their books. Sure, I read the Judy Blume books growing up because I was a compulsive reader and read just about every single book in both the children's and YA section of the library, but something about her books just bugged me. And I tried reading Jennifer Weiner's first couple of books when they first came out, and the writing style bugged me too much to finish either. Also not a fan of her NYT columns! I think her fame went to her head, she always comes off as smug and arrogant to me. Obviously, YMMV. I realize I'm in the minority with these opinions😁

Just picked up a few reserved books from the library today. The ones I am most eager to read: Horse by Geraldine Brooks and the newest Riley Sager book, The House Across the Lake

Just put a library hold on the book "Truly Madly" by Stephen Galloway, about Vivien Leigh and her passionate affair with Laurence Olivier. The excerpt that I read focused on their relationship set against the backdrop of GWTW filming, so of course I immediately felt a deep need to read it😄

That sounds somewhat like the book Interstellar Pig by William Sleator.

Just got notified that both the newest Kate Quinn book, The Diamond Eye, as well as Simone St. James' new book Book of Cold Cases are ready for me to pick up at the library! I'm going to have a looong day at work tomorrow, so it's nice to look ahead to stopping off on my way tomorrow evening to pick them up:)

I have this on hold at the library but unfortunately, even though I am #3 on the reserve list, my library takes a looong time to process new books and put them into circulation. So, it may be a good few weeks before I get it. My favorite of her books is The Sundown Motel. As an insomniac, who was going through a particularly bad patch of sleepless nights when I first read it, I found it oddly soothing to read a story set during the night shift at a creepy motel, lol. Right now I'm rereading The Rose Code by Kate Quinn, and am enjoying it just as much as the first time around. I was happy to see she has a new book coming out soon.

This was probably the most fascinating bio I've read. Especially fascinating was that the author had interviewed people who personally knew LMM decades before this was published, only decided to hold off on the bio because she was working on getting the private journals published and felt those should come out first and be judged on their merits before readers could read the bio. If you've read LMM's private journals, it fills in a lot of gaps and puts a lot of it into perspective.

Yep, it's addictive. The first time I read it, I was 13. I took it out of the school library, started reading it in the afternoon after school and basically stayed up all night reading it. Like, literally. Kept reading till I finished it at 5 A.M. I'm sure I skimmed large swathes of the historical parts but the story between Scarlett and Rhett kept me mesmerized.

I recommend books by Carol Snow. I enjoyed them all. My favorite was Been There, Done That.

I've read most of her thrillers and actually liked some of them. No, they aren't timeless classics like LW but the writing style is clearly very Alcott and they aren't as trashy as you'd think based on Prof Bhaer. I don't remember the title but my favorite one was about the scheming governess who planned to seduce (not literally) one of the eligible bachelors of her young charge into marrying her. There was something very satisfying about that story.