Monday Malarkey

      

Recent arrivals:

• Not a darn thing. So, I've decorated the top of this post with a purple and green thing I painted-slash-collaged. I figured you get to see plenty of cats. 

Books finished since last Malarkey:

• The Long and Living Shadow by Daoma Winston
• Ungifted by Gordon Korman
• The Matchmaker's Lonely Heart by Nancy Campbell Allen
• South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami
• So Much Life Left Over by Louis de Bernières

Apart from The Long and Living Shadow, which was a stinker, this was a pretty good 2 weeks. 

Currently reading:

• How to Astronaut by Terry Virts 
• Golden State by Ben H. Winters

I just finished So Much Life Left Over and picked up Golden State because it was beside the bed, just to see if it was any good. Wow, it's a grabber and it's 12:30 AM but I can tell you I would love to stay up reading more. 

Posts since last Malarkey:

• Wish by Barbara O'Connor (book review)
• Klawde: Evil Alien Warlord Cat, Books 3 & 4 by Mariano and Chenoweth (book reviews)
• Fiona Friday - I want something (cat photo)
• Mini Reviews Once Upon a Goat by Richards and Barclay, Pastoralia by G. Saunders, and The Long and Living Shadow by D. Winston (book reviews) 
• The Matchmaker's Lonely Heart by Nancy Campbell Allen (book review) 
• Fiona Friday (cat photo) 

In other news:

We arrived on PBS about 15 or 20 minutes into the first episode of Guilt, last week, and were both utterly transfixed, although I skipped the second episode to take a bath and made the husband tell me what happened. Admittedly, I couldn't always understand the characters because of their accents (it takes place in Edinburgh) and I didn't bother putting up subtitles so there were subtleties that I probably missed but I thought it was loads of fun the way new and unexpected deceptions continued to unfold. 

It says "Season 1" on this image so I'm guessing that means there's more to come? At any rate, we're really enjoying this "darkly delicious tale of a botched hit and run." I think it's a great blend of suspense with dark humor. 

At some point, this week, I watched News of the World by myself because I figured my husband wouldn't be particularly interested in it. It's based on a book I've read not once but 2 or 3 times, so I've been curious about the movie for quite some time. 

I recognized some changes (I recall the captain being offered a gold coin for the job of taking Johanna to her relatives, for example, and there's no money involved in his journey in the movie) but there were times I couldn't recall whether or not the screenplay had deviated from the novel. 

I thought it was a decent, if not brilliant, adaptation and I enjoyed it but I definitely like the book better. 

Otherwise, I avoided the TV. Since I cleaned out the breakfast nook last weekend, and now I have to drag out supplies to do any artwork, I also haven't done much painting. In fact, the one thing I painted was a failure and went out with the trash, although I'm working on a collage (not the one above, which may or may not be finished). But, the cleaning job paid off when we were able to invite younger son and daughter-in-law over for Sunday dinner and we had this nice table with flip-up leaves (the table that used to be my art table) handy. My intent was to clean the dining room on Saturday but I was diverted by other tasks, and it was nice to actually use the breakfast nook for eating! I don't think that's every happened before in our 9 years at this house. We've always eaten in the dining room or on the patio, sometimes on the couch. 

Speaking of the patio, it was briefly cool enough for outdoor time so we sat outside for a bit on Saturday, yay! Unfortunately, the heat and humidity are back and eating outside was not an option, today (Sunday). The hint of a coming autumn was uplifting, short-lived though it was. I'm always happy to say goodbye to summer and hello to fall. 

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