Saturday, February 22, 2025

Reading, watching and library loot

This has been a good week for book and movie arrivals here.  

Currently Reading / Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain (buddy read with JoAnn)





Just finished The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks - review here  and plan to read Pastoral Song soon.  


Also in bookish updates, The Classics Club. announced their Spin so I made my list of 20 possibilities.  It's my first time participating and it was fun making my list. My Spin List is HERE and I see (as of Sunday) the book I'll be reading is Brideshead Revisted by Evelyn Waugh.


Book Accessories / When I am not reading on a Kindle I can read anywhere but physical books require sufficient light in the evenings.  Recently I broke out my pretty book light and it's helping me get more book time late.

The horizontal position of this light works better than an older one I had with a vertical drop.  It also provides more light across both page surfaces.


Watching

Part of my library loot this week was Force of Nature and Severance.  In the mailbox was Cosmos.  Force of Nature followed the Jane Harper book of the same name, the second one in the Aaron Falk series. Set in Australia and I am looking forward to the next one.




Severance was completely weird and in the beginning we almost stopped watching.  But wow, after about 15 minutes or so things start coming together and we were hooked.  Such cliff hangers. Looking forward to season 2 when the library can order it...I am probably looking at waiting a year so please, no spoilers!

Cosmos was an independent film made on a shoe string budget about amateur astronomers.  The newest member of a team makes a discovery using radio signals from an unexpected origin.  This is set in England.

34 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Teri, I am looking forward to it. Now I need to update my next spin list and replace this title.

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  2. I've almost finished my spin book, so I might read Brideshead as my next CC pick. I like your book light!

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    1. Kelly, thank you, it's a great little light and helps me with evening reading. I still don't have the Brideshead boook, am waiting on the library so we may end up reading it at the same time.

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  3. Brideshead Revisited feels like something I should have read but haven't. I did enjoy the series from the 1980s a couple of years ago.

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    1. Joy, I'll post about it for BriFri as soon as can. Still waiting on the librarry to get my copy. Haven't seen the tv series.

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  4. You’ve reminded me I need to watch Force of Nature. You might also like to check out Scrublands (a mini series based on Chris Hammer’s novel) that has similar vibes if you can find it. I think it’s on Prime Video or AMC in the US.
    I like your light!

    Wishing you a wonderful reading week

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    1. Shelleyrae, I didn't know Scrublands was a series and I sure will look for it. I liked Chris Hammer's book very much.

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  5. The author of Brideshead Revisited---Evelyn Waugh---was a friend of the author of the book I'm reading, Love in a Cold Climate---Nancy Mitford. Love in a Cold Climate is a picture of the very rich in post-World War I England.

    I'm thinking about requesting Severance from the library.

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    1. Deb, I didn't know that, will certainly look for Love in a Cold Climate now. Be warned Severance is so weird in the beginning but we are hooked now!

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  6. Severance is intriguing, but I don’t know if we will watch the second season. It’s so darn creepy!

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    1. Olivia, it is creepy. But the ending....I need to know what happens next.

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  7. I really want to read The Shepherd's Life and Brideshead Revisited has been on my Aspirational TBR for awhile. One of these days I'll get to it! We are staying light on TV and watching Death in Paradise. We're on Season 3 now and have a way to go! I also just started High Potential which is a fairly new series and so far I'm really liked it.

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    1. Katherine, I enjoyed that book very much. I had some misconceptions aboutn the farming i the fells and it was very enlightening. Haven't tried Death in Paradise yet.

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  8. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on Brideshead Revisted. I've never read anything by Evelyn Waugh, and for a long time thought he was a woman. Cute little book light! It's much larger than some I've seen. Thanks for the heads-up about Force of Nature. I've read all of Jane Harper's books, but I don't think we've watched this particular movie. Will have to check my list... I wonder if my mom and Rod would enjoy Severance. We're just now starting season 3 of Reacher, which we love!

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    1. Les, I am eager to start the Brideshead book next month and I am slowly moving down the holds list. That book light rocks! I had one before that dipped down vertically and it would blind Doug if he were sitting on the sofa across from me. This one is perfect.
      I can;t wait for Reacher season 3, maybe the end of the year for us.

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  9. Nice update. Do you plan to do your reviews just on Goodreads, or will they be on the blog as well? I will look at your James Rebank review; I'm interested in farming /livestock books so this looks good. I hope you make it through Vera! WWI - hard times. We watched about 4 episodes of Severance Season 1 but still feel a bit on the fence, though I'm sure it gets better. We are into a new show Prime Target which is a bit thriller fun. And I like anything with Eric Bana! The movie Munich with him years ago -- blew me away and I've had a crush ever since :-) Enjoy your reading loot.

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    1. Susan, I will get through the Brittain book and I can't say it isn't interesting, it's the writing style. But I have not read about the WW I experience before.
      I think I will go ahead and post the Rebanks review on the blog as well as Goodreads.
      I've read almost all of Jane Harpers books and only bailed on The Survivors. Loved The Lost Man, that's book 3 of hers. I am hoping they will make a movie of that one but I bet they skip straight to The Exiles as it's the last Aaron Falk book. Eric Bana is good but they sure picked someone opposite of the way Falk's looks are described. I think Marc Warren of the show Van Der Valk would be a better pick as he is so blonde and pale.

      Severance does get better and gives you enough cliff hangers to keep watching, for us anyway.

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  10. I am contemplating putting together a Classic Club list and doing the spin! We'll see if I actually do or not!

    Have a great week.

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  11. I have Pastoral Song on my kindle but haven't read yet.
    Hubby and I watched the first episode of Severance and then took a break for a couple of weeks. Watched the second episode last night and will continue but probably on a weekly basis. Seeing so much good buzz about it but I'll wait and see for myself. We also watched the first episode of Reacher season 3. I hope you enjoy your reading and viewing this week!
    Mary @Bookfan

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    1. Mary, I have the hardcover of Pastoral Song from the library and the Kindle loan also just came through so I will get on one of those copies very soon. Look forward to your thoughts about the book.
      We can't wait to get season 3 of Reacher!

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  12. Very pretty book light.

    This book sounds interesting - Brideshead Revisted

    Have a lovely week.

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    1. Thank you, Elizabeth. I am loving that light.

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  13. I've never seen a horizontal book light , but that looks so much more functional than the vertical one I have! Finally closing in on the end of Testament of Youth (hit the 80% mark this morning).... will be glad to be done with this one, lol!

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    1. JoAnn, I ordered the vertical kind and this one pictured because mine died. I got it a while back and kept the pink one. You can get it in other colors too but the horizontal mode does light up so much of the book.

      You know part of what I don't like about this book Testament is we aren't able to have good conversations about the events. It;s hard to read, at least for sitting down and getting lots of reading done. I am almost done. Such tragedy.

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  14. I haven't read or watched any of these. I have never borrowed a movie from my library but I have the Hoopla App on my tv and watch movies on it. It comes in handy when I can't find the movie on other channels.

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    1. Vicki, getting DVDs from the library is the only way we can watch. No internet here. Alas...

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  15. You are reading such interesting books. I hope you enjoy them all. Love the book light.

    https://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/2025/02/its-monday-what-are-you-reading-mailbox_0622800866.html

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  16. I hope you enjoy your classic spin pick! I've heard good things about Brideshead Revisted (I really like the cover you posted). My husband likes to use my book light at night and I am not sure where it is half the time. LOL Yours is pretty! I had the same reaction to Severance when I watched the first season (still need to watch the second). I wasn't sure about it at first but ended up liking it quite a bit. I hope you have had a great week, Tina, and a wonderful weekend!

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    1. I grabbed a copy of Brideshead and am enjoying the beginning. That said, I see some library checkouts that have a due date coming up so I better evaluate which I need to get on first. Love that book light, you need to get another one!

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  17. Love your book light! My friend gave me one for my birthday and for the life of me I can't get it to work! I saw a flash of light one time when I was trying different things but now I can't figure out how to get the light to come on. I've read the little manual.

    I started with S2 of Severance but wasn't able to get into the episode. Might've just been a bad headspace day. I'll try again another time.

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    1. Jinjer, I got that light off Amazon a while ago. What i do is put things in my basket and then save for later. I get notifications when the price changes. It;s a great light and hope you get yours to work.

      Well I won't get severance until the library gets the DVD so, no spoilers please!

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