Movies & TV
Q1 / 2022 Reading Recap
Well, as it turned out 2022 began as 2021 had ended — all work and no play, albeit with the addition of a hospital detour to boot. (Nothing serious, just way more painful and, all told, protracted, than it had any right to be.) So I’m back to posting one summary post for the first […]
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Helena Marchmont: Bunburry 4-6: Death of a Ladies’ Man / Drop Dead, Gorgeous / Murder in High Places
Blurb: Miss Marple meets Oscar Wilde in this new series of cosy mysteries set in the picturesque Cotswolds village of Bunburry. Here, fudge-making and quaffing real ale in the local pub are matched by an undercurrent of passion, jealousy, hatred and murder – laced with a welcome dose of humour. This compilation contains episodes 4 […]
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Raymond Chandler: The Little Sister
Blurb: “So you need help. What’s your name and trouble?” Private investigator Philip Marlowe’s latest client is Orfamay Quest. She’s come all the way from Manhattan, Kansas, to find her missing brother Orrin. Or at least that’s what she tells Marlowe, offering him just 20 dollars for his trouble. Feeling charitable, Marlowe accepts — though […]
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Amanda Quick: The Girl Who Knew too Much
Blurb: Amanda Quick (Jayne Ann Krentz) transports listeners to 1930s California, where glamour and seduction spawn a multitude of sins. At the exclusive Burning Cove Hotel on the coast of California, rookie reporter Irene Glasson finds herself staring down at a beautiful actress at the bottom of a pool. The dead woman had a red-hot […]
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Holiday Movies
Festive Tasks Master Update Post HERE Festive Tasks, Door 24 — Cherished Memories, Task 4: What’s your favorite Christmas/holiday movie that you can watch again and again? (This can be any movie that takes place during the holiday season, whether or not it’s in the ‘spirit’ of the season (i.e. Die Hard or Lethal Weapon). […]
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April 2021 Reading Recap
First things first: The persistent bug preventing followers / readers to comment on my posts straight off the post (i.e., other than by using the WP Reader) has finally been weeded out, thanks to my hosting service’s IT team … so you can, at last, comment even if you’re not using the WP Reader. (I […]
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Terry Pratchett: Eric & Moving Pictures (and a Reprise of the 2019 Good Omens Screen Adaptation)
In the good old BookLikes days (when they really still were good days), we used to have a Discworld group and associated book club, which had committed to reading the entire series in publication order, by way of bimonthly reads. We had gotten as far as Guards! Guards! by the time the site went down […]
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John Mortimer: Murderers and Other Friends
This book is the second part of Mortimer’s autobiography — or rather, his chapter-long essays on life, society, politics, the theatre and movie industry (with guest appearances by Gielgud, Olivier, Niven, Harrison, Guinness, and plenty of other luminaries), the law, justice (not the same thing at all), family, friendship, education, travel, and a whole host […]
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Book Editions and Licensing: A Matter of Regional Profit Centers
24 Festive Tasks: Door 2 – Guy Fawkes Night, Task 1: Start a (publishing) revolution! What would you change / reform / get rid of in the book world? One thing that is increasingly getting on my nerves are regionally restricted licenses, particularly when it comes to audiobooks (and movie / DVD formats). Surely in […]
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Classic Christmas Mystery Movie Binge
24 Festive Tasks: Door 21 – Christmas, Bonus Task #2: Watch a favorite Christmas movie. I binge-watched three of my annual favorite Christmas movies last night — Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, The Theft of the Royal Ruby (aka The Christmas Pudding), both starring David Suchet, and the Sherlock Holmes episode The Blue Carbuncle, starring Jeremy Brett and David Burke. […]
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Shaken *and* Stirred: R.I.P. Sean Connery — and Thank You!
He was, of course the first James Bond (and will always remain my favorite one). He was the original Highlander (there can be only one, and it sure as heck ain’t Christopher Lambert). He was Indie’s father. He was Col. Arbuthnot in the 1974 adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express. He was a lot […]
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Game of Thrones, Avengers Star Diana Rigg Dies at 82
(LONDON) — Diana Rigg, a commanding British actress whose career stretched from iconic 1960s spy series The Avengers to fantasy juggernaut Game of … Game of Thrones, Avengers Star Diana Rigg Dies at 82 R.I.P. What a loss, not just to the world of the performing arts.
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Josephine Tey: Inspector Grant Series
Having already read two books from Tey’s Alan Grant series (The Daughter of Time and The Franchise Affair) as well as her nonseries novel Brat Farrar in past years, and Miss Pym Disposes at the beginning of this year, I took the combined (re)read of The Daughter of Time and the play Dickon during the pandemic buddy […]
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Ian Doescher: William Shakespeare’s Star Wars – Verily, a New Hope
Verily, a Great Entertainment “CHORUS: As our scene to space, so deep and dark, O’er your imagination we’ll hold sway. For neither players nor the stage can mark The great and mighty scene they must portray. We ask you, let your keen mind’s eye be chief – Think when we talk of starships, there […]
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BL-opoly, Pandemic Edition – Third Roll
Well, at least I didn’t DNF my last 2 reads (but then, at least with the Christie I didn’t expect that to happen anyway). Still, since I collared another double, let’s play it safe (again) in this round … Original post: ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/2626318/bl-opoly-pandemic-edition-third-roll
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“Midsomer County”: A bit of English “Litscape” (Part 1)
… for Jennifer(‘s Books), Moonlight Reader, Portable Magic, and every other fan of the Midsomer Murders series … or of the English “litscape” at large. In their comments on Mike Finn’s review of Ngaio Marsh’s Scales of Justice, MR and PM said that England, to them, is more litscape than landscape, and Mike responded that […]
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“Midsomer County”: A bit of English “Litscape” (Part 2)
***** ALL PHOTOS MINE ***** Hambleden (Bucks.) Also featured in several Midsomer Murders episodes, most notably Blod Will Out (the church, post office and stores, and Stag and Huntsman pub); the pub also in Who Killed Cock Robin?, Down Among the Dean Men, and The Glitch. Hurley (Berks.) The cloisters and refectory next to […]
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“Midsomer County”: A bit of English “Litscape” (Part 3)
***** ALL PHOTOS MINE ***** The Haseleys (Little & Great) (Oxfordshire) The owner of this large private residence in Little Haseley, which became Melvyn Stockard’s house in Who Killed Cock Robin? and Noah Farrow’s home in Midsomer Rhapsody, sometimes makes their grounds accessible to the public. I was in luck — the gate was wide […]
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January 2020 Reading
January turned out a bit of a roller coaster in RL, continuing the course things had already taken in December: not quite whiplash-inducing, but with several sickness-prone twists and turns (for however much I’d expected them to materialize) surrounding one major glorious event (which was, however, truly glorious; even if this, too, was something I’d […]
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Favorite Dragons from Fiction and Mythology
24 Festive Tasks: Door 5 – Bon Om Touk, Task 3: Dragons and dragon-like serpents (imugi) are important to Korean mythology (as they are to that of other Asian peoples). So – which are your favorite literary dragons (fictional, mythological, whatever)? First things first: shout-out to the resident Fierce and Friendly Dragon! And speaking […]
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