books

The Mystery of the Old Clock

0
31 Aug 10

I’ve traded in my walk tonight to relive a bit of my distant past:

I found Season Two at the library Saturday and popped in the first disc last night. Funny how something I haven’t thought about for thirty-three years came screaming back at me when the opening credits rolled. Oh, I don’t remember any specific episode at all, but that beginning sequence? DUDE, IT WAS LIKE I WAS SEVEN YEARS OLD AGAIN. I had a huge crush on Shaun Cassidy (yes, that’s right and I’m not embarrassed by it or this simple fact: I owned all of his records) and Pamela Sue Martin (naturally). Parker Stevenson didn’t do a damn thing for me until I was about seventeen or eighteen. By then, I’d outgrown Shaun Cassidy AND Pamela Sue Martin, but watching them now, I can totally get back into that wee-lass-crush I had way back when.

Hopefully I’ll be able to burn through the five discs before Saturday, since I won’t be able to renew the set and I don’t want to pay late fees for it.

Coming up on strange cousin susan will be a post about Nancy Drew, the books, I mean. It’s been in draft form for months now and I haven’t gotten past the post title, but this might serve as its impetus. FUCKYEAHNANCYDREW!!

: books, me, myself, and i, television
: , , , ,

The Albizia theme

0
29 Aug 10

There’s obviously still some tweaking to be done and a few elements I neglected to add in last night when I made the unexpected but delightful theme change and yeah, it would be easy enough to sit here and play until I had to stop and get showered and dressed for my plans today, but I’d really rather take a hike through the canyon, finish listening to “The Host” and jump into either “The Golden Notebook” or “The Devil’s Queen.” The latter is fairly new to my growing Kate Reading collection and I’m really in a very Kate-Reading-centric place right now with audio books, so I suspect that will win the coin toss. In fact, I listened to a short interview she did with her husband about the Robert Jordan “Wheel of Time” series and I’m left with the thought that Kate Reading may be the audiobook answer to Nicola Bryant and her Peri Brown accent. I can’t tell if she’s British or not; I’ve read that she is and I’ve read that she isn’t (we’re talking about Kate Reading here) and this interview did nothing to convince me either way. She fades in and out of accents – both American and British – that it’s hard to pin it down. It’s sort of like Nicola Bryant! To be honest, I still have a hard time picking up any British accent slip-ups when I watch her in Doctor Who, though she does run the gamut of American accents. I think I’ve noticed New York, the South, and the Midwest (though nothing approaching the accent the sister’s got these days).

But back to the topic at hand, namely the new theme and not a discussion on audiobook narrators or companions and accents…I am not sure how I’m going to add in the rotating companion images, since there’s apparently very little editing one can actually do. Same goes for my stat counter, though as time goes on, I really care less and less about who found strange cousin susan how and for how long, so I might Fat Man that. I’m loathe to lose my rotating companions, though! However, luckily I found the css file to change the colors (no, it’s not in the stylesheet.css!), but that’s something I’ll work on later.

So, what do you think of the theme overall? I know the colors are a bit messy right now, since they totally don’t go with the background image, but if you can overlook that, do you like it? Do you not?

: books, digital
: , ,

The Religion

4
17 Aug 10

I just finished The Religion, which is about the 1565 Siege of Malta. It fed my recently-discovered love for history other than strictly the English variety. I didn’t know anything about it prior to reading the book, to be honest and don’t think I know much more now that I’ve finished it. That’s not quite true…I do know a bit more than I did and really, I recognized some of the historical names used in the story. And although I’ve never expected the Spanish Inquisition, I’m familiar with the larger tenents of it.

For all that, the book was quite enjoyable and has, as you may expect, whetted my appetite for more knowledge of the events leading up to it and the event itself. It also garnered a few passages I find quite beautiful, plus one I’d like to send to my BG1 in honor of her beloved lost Oliver. From what I understand, it’s the first in a trilogy and I’m already haunting Amazon and the library for the next installment.

If you’d written a book about the Siege of Malta, would you want a reviewer to have this to say about it?

The Religion is at once brutal and gorgeous, with a vividly detailed historical setting and emotionally complex characters. By the time you finish, you will feel as though you’ve lived through the siege of Malta!

–Jacqueline Carey, author of the Kushiel’s Legacy series

I don’t know about you, but that last bit in the review might give one reason for pause; is she saying the book is so tremendously accurate that it’s like the reader is RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ACTION or is she saying something else, something not so complimentary? Of course it’s the former, based on what precedes the statement, but still. I’m just sayin’.

On my reading list now is I, Claudius, which I am enjoying as much as I would. And I’d really like to pop in The Romans, that old William Hartnell second season Doctor Who serial, but my computer is being used as a crack pipe for Arrested Development, which I’ve decided is just that. CRACK.

So is The IT Crowd, for that matter.

: books, history, television

Doctor Who Annual 1974

2
14 Aug 10

Crap. I thought I had an image file of this.

But I don’t.

: books, television
:

Today’s update on my scraped knee

2
24 Jul 10

The only new thing to report is this: although the scrape is healing really well and I probably won’t have any lasting scars, it hurts more today than it has in a long time. Also, there’s a small area that seems to have split open just a bit and so there is blood. Not much, just a drop or two, but still. Ow. The outside of the cut has been super itchy – a good sign, I know, but I’ve got enough issues with itchy legs that I don’t need another one.

Juliet Stevenson
Juliet Stevenson

And in other news, I forgot to cancel my trial membership at audible.com (one free credit and a two-week trial period), so my credit card was charged sometime overnight. I used my free credit to download Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook, which I am enjoying immensely. There’s just something about Juliet Stevenson that I adore. I mean, she’s British, he’s quite beautiful, and she’s older (though not yet as old as some of the other older British ladies I adore to utter distraction) and there is some serious precedent for that type of Mickey Glitter adoration. I believe the only movie I’ve ever seen her in was Mona Lisa Smile, but that was enough. If I ran across something else she’s played in, I’d probably watch it. Juliet Stevenson’s narration of “The Golden Notebook” makes me think sometimes I’m listening to Honor Blackman, which is never, ever a bad thing in my book.

Kate Reading
Adorable Kate Reading

So, because I forgot to cancel the membership, I’ve downloaded another book: The Devil’s Queen, narrated by Kate Reading. I also grabbed a twelve-minute interview with her and Michael Kramer on their continued narration of Robert Jordan’s series called Wheel of Time. I’m not familiar with the series, but it was free. And it was Kate Reading. How can that be wrong?

I think I may have mentioned this woman could read off the multiplication tables and I would listen to her. What is it about women named Kate that make me willing to listen to such mundane things? KaTe Bush and the phone book, Kate Reading and the multiplication tables, Kate Hodge and…well, she doesn’t narrate anything that I’m aware of, but if she did, I’d listen to it.

: books
: , , ,

Stephen King’s IT

0
21 Jul 10

I’ve seen this made-for-television movie a handful times, but never before with the ability to screencap it. Until now.

I HAVE SCREENCAPPED THE LIVING HELL OUT OF THIS MOVIE AND I’VE GOT AT LEAST AN HOUR TO GO.

It’s been a while since I read the book, though I have to say I think I like the book better than the movie. That’s pretty much true of all Stephen King books. They don’t seem to translate well to the screen, big or little. The only caveat to that would be the original version of “The Shining.” That stupid miniseries from a few years ago can go pound sand. Whoever should have well enough alone.

The majority of the screencaps from IT center around everyone’s favorite clown, naturally. The second majority center around ANNETTE FREAKIN’ O’TOOLE because I have loved her for as long as I can remember, though I have not seen much of her work. But still. I adore her. Oh, and Olivia Hussey, though I like her mostly because she played Honor Blackman’s lover/cousin in “The Cat and the Canary” and who wouldn’t love that? “Romeo and Juliet?” Not so much, not really.

I guess this is a warning of sorts. Be ready for plenty of creepy clowns and adored-to-madness actresses in the near future. In other words, nothing much will change at strange cousin susan once I get the screencaps mirgrated to this machine.

: books, film, television
: , ,

The Painted Veil

0
8 Jul 10

I’m missing everything after the third disc? Kitty Fane’s just met the Mother Superior at the convent and heard how much the nuns admire what husband Walter Fane has been doing for them. Then, nothing. “This story is continued on Disc Four.”

WHERE IS FREAKIN’ DISC FOUR?

I’ve had this audiobook languishing on my hard drive for months and have now just started listening to it – or not, as the case may be. Kate Reading’s English accent had just started to grow on me and now, nothing. I hope I can find this again at the library this weekend.

And in case you were wondering, Kate Reading is the third Kate in my life. I’ve determined that I’m in love with her voice. I’ve also decided she could recite the multiplication tables and I would listen to it. No, seriously, that’s a true statement. She’s adorable, too. I’ve got only one picture of her and it’s tacked up on my bulletin board.

: books
:

  • categories

  • archives

Albizia Theme designed by itx