I hope you've stayed healthy, enjoyed family, and had some rest and relaxation too.
All the best to my blog friends. 2025 has been a roller coaster. Will 2026 be a tilt-o-Whirl?
Good luck everybody. Cheers
Here's a pic of my Nana Crowther and a snowman she crocheted a zillion years ago.
and that's Christmas. Family, memories. crafts, and love
Peace on Earth, Goodwill....
tis the season and I wish all my blog friends the best. Cheers my friends.
Joanne
Now, don't get too excited. This is a tough new world.
Four women, Beatrice, Dora, Marianne, and Otto are in Corridor Eight. They come from all walks of life, each have secrets, and they are driven for different reasons. They also find that there are still many restrictions for women.
cover blurb: The shadow of the Great War still looms providing a turbulent world to navigate. Misogyny is rife, influenza threatens, and the ghosts of war don't always remain dead.
The author obviously did plenty of research. She alternates with back stories for each young lady, and then gives us their daily lives at university. The history, traditions, and now the new paths being forged are presented well.
I enjoyed this book and were proud of these ladies. When you really think about that time period, these young ladies were quite bold and brave. This was my grandmother's era, back in the day in the U.S., and apparently she participated in suffragette parades. It's hard to picture, but The Eights brings the time period to life in England. Well done!
Simon Latch, a small town lawyer in Virginia, is struggling. He's doing the usual boring paperwork for folks, which isn't big income. He's on the cusp of divorce, so that price tag is hanging over his head. And he has a small gambling problem.
A widow, Eleanor Barnett, walks in and needs a new will. Her late husband was frugal but invested in Coca-Cola stock (he worked for them), and Wal-Mart. Otherwise, house is paid for and she lives a quiet life. Simon is filled with glee at this good luck. He does proper paperwork and counts on continued income for him when it's time to process it. She has no contact with her stepsons, and plans to give money to charity.
cover blurb - When she is hospitalized after a bad car accident, Simon realizes that nothing is as it seems. He finds himself on trial for a crime he swears he did not commit: murder.
I can't tell you more, but there are plenty of twists and turns in Simon's life. The Widow is a page turner.
Plenty of surprises abound. Enjoy!
This was a very intense, rather sad, but a wow movie. The acting was superb.
Directed by Chloe Zhao and based on the book by Maggie O'Farrell (who also co-wrote the screenplay with Zhao), Hamnet is a fictionalized version of the creation of the famous Shakespeare play Hamlet.
We watch William Shakespeare (a magnetic Paul Mescal - oh, his eyes) fall head over heels for Agnes (Jessie Buckley - tremendous). He's off to London to try to pursue this playwriting thing. She's home with children. She's a strong woman, known for her forestry skills and wildness. She has to deal with his mother, Mary (a strong Emily Watson). When Will's home, Agnes and he are a hot passion on screen.
Agnes has to deal with "the pestilence" when it hits her eleven year old twins - Judith and Hamnet. Alas, Hamnet ( a superb young actor Jacobi Jupe) dies (this is true in 1596). She mourns. She thinks Will doesn't care.
Only when she goes to London and witnesses Will's new play Hamlet does she realize the depth of his mourning. (cool fact - the young man playing Hamlet (Noah Jupe) on screen is the much older brother of the young actor playing Hamnet. Lots of talent in that family)
Have your tissues ready. This film is quite intense and just hits the gut at multiple times. Gotta love creative cinema. Kudos.
Tis the season here. Feeling festive. We have some projects going on out front (awaiting worker bees), so no decorations. Then Santa arrived (found him at At Home, on sale) and decided he could wave to everyone for now.
It's mid-December. Hope everyone is staying healthy and having some fun... and a Christmas cookie or two.
cover blurb - She discovers the pleasures of friendship, intellectual ambition, the intoxicating world of academic fervor, and rapid fire banter and fun. But youthful passion is unpredictable, and soon she finds herself at the center of a charged and intricate triangle. Choices will be made that alter these three lives forever.
Decades later, Casey's a successful novelist. She's married with children. But there's a surprise visit. Unexpected news. Now she needs to make amends, consider decisions made, and complete a circle from youthful bonds.
I read this fresh after the first related book. Lily King really knows how to write about relationships and actions and consequences. A very fresh twist took me by surprise and I found myself tearing up. (I swear Ray always walks into a room just as I'm sniffling over a novel).
I will say I heart both books, the characters, the plot lines, and the finale. Well done. (have a tissue ready)
In Writers and Lovers by Lily King, we follow Casey's fight to fulfill ambitions, balance demands of art and life, juggle two new very different men, and avoid crisis after crisis.
Casey is a likeable character, as are the two men in her life. But I wanted to shake her too. King does a good job of exploring artistic passion, ambition, and the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another. (cover blurb)
My grandnephew, Myles, now 8 months old, recognizes stranger danger.
This Santa dude - not having it!
Oh, this is one for the memory vault. On his wedding day, we'll pull out this pic.
Merry Christmas December everyone!
Cheers
LD and Joyce (front), begat Ray (right), who begat Chris (left), who begat Abby with Levi (age 2)
Whew!
Now we're planning for Christmas.
It did become a movie in 1983 with a cast of young up and comers - C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, and Diane Lane. Wow - quite the lineup of future success stories.
Great songs, voices, and the choreography was innovative and fabulous. Quite the production.
Support the Arts!
I do think the first Wicked was a tad better - it just had that truly original feel to it and better songs.
But this sequel got darker and I liked how it tied up loose ends on many issues. There weren't as many characters to track
I like musicals. I like big productions. I like fun cinematography. This was glorious on the big screen and I give Wicked: For Good a thumbs up. Enjoy it with a friend and then go to lunch afterwards to discuss.
I helped at the November Birthday Party Project at a local women's shelter. The month's theme was Care Bears and yes, there was a mascot. (see me above). When the Care Bear arrived, one of the birthday kids screamed and would have no part of this scary creature. The other two birthday kids were excited, and all of the other children ran up for hugs, pictures, and a magical moment.
We had Care Bear themed stuff to hand out, games and crafts to play and do, plus singing "Happy Birthday" for November. Then cupcakes. It was a noisy messy party - we always call it "controlled chaos". Kids left happy - a goodie bag in hand and hopefully a happy memory during their lives in transition.
Take a moment. CARE
We are fortunate and filled with gratitude for what we do have.
Rebel Rising by Rebel Wilson is an excellent memoir. I felt, as I read it, that she was just hanging out on the patio and talking to me. Quite a life. From Australia, a shy girl who just knows she's different and blossoms when acting. Incredibly poor, she becomes single mindedly focused on whatever task is at hand. She's enterprising. She plays tennis. She gets a law school degree. She has a gap year time in South Africa, and a bout of malaria.
She is candid about her weight, the journey in regards to her health.
She is candid about her late blooming love life.
She is really, really funny and I read this book with her Aussie accent in my head. Plus she's far from done - she's producing, directing, and acting. She's a rebel with plenty to say.
So many songs - I love "Cracklin' Rosie", "I'm a Believer", "I Am, I Said", "Play Me", "September Morn", "Song Sung Blues", and so so many more. What's your fave?
And of course - the showstopping "Sweet Caroline"... SO GOOD...SO GOOD...!
If the touring production comes to your town, check out A Beautiful Noise.
Good luck, Levi, in the Terrible Twos Phase.
Lauren and Ryan's marriage is out of sorts. They decide to take a year off to figure things out. The only rule is NO Contact at all. Lauren finds this very challenging. She's questioning monogamy, marriage, romance, fidelity, love, lust, and more. Key questions - what do you value? What are you willing to fight for?
I enjoyed this story and it does make one think about the whole concept of marriage. Taylor Jenkins Reid writes a good tale and obviously liked her characters. She's realistic with their flaws and helps them work through a tough year.
A worthy reading journey.
cover blurb -Lila Kennedy wrote a bestselling book about keeping your marriage alive. Now she's watching her ex-husband play happy families with another woman. Her very fractured family is forced to live under one roof and Lila thinks she's reached her limit. But what if the one person you couldn't forgive holds the secret to pulling your family together again?
Meanwhile, her agent is bugging her for her next book - hoping it will be about being single again and playing the field. Lila isn't feeling that free and easy. She's maybe seeing Jensen.
Her stepdad, Bill, moved in after Lila's mother died. He helped raise Lila. He's a help until he's not.
Her real father, Gene, a failed Hollywood actor, was never around. Suddenly he's at her doorstep - out of money.
And her daughters, Celie and Violet, are furious at their father who left them, and are now rather fascinated by this "new" grandfather.
What a mess. Lila has a lot to deal with and work through. Jojo Moyes is a solid writer who keeps the plot churning, the characters in play, and humor abounds amidst the messes of family life.
Well done.
cover blurb - Change is coming to Faha, a small Irish parish unaltered in a thousand years. Electricity is coming and the rain seems to stop.
Noel Crowe is seventeen, restless, and a bit excited when Christy comes to Faha. He has secrets and a past love here in Faha. Meanwhile, Noel falls in and out of love with three sisters - all out of his league.
cover blurb - Niall Williams gives us a tender portrait of a community - its idiosyncrasies and traditions, its paradoxes and kindnesses, its failures and triumphs - with a tender coming of age story.
I enjoyed the writing - Williams' Irish lilt and his meandering ways all lend a charm. Not a lot really happens and that's okay. It's just the journey and time spent in town - the gossip, the silences, the "scandal", and the time going to church, discussing church, avoiding church, and hoping the rains come again. That is happiness.
This was a nice jaunt, thanks to my sister.
Incredibly amazing place to visit. I hope you enjoyed this quick few days of blog posts as an overview.
