July 27, 2023: Recommendations

Daily Diary, Day 1061:

In my continuing attempt to see how I can maintain a sustainable but interesting daily newsletter, I have decided to keep my Weekly Writing Intentions post on Saturdays, then start posting either an Historical or Science Fiction Tidbits post or a post about publishing for my Authors Corner every other Tuesday. Then, I will then do a Recommendations post every other Thursday, starting today.

TV watching:

As for movie watching, except for watching Asteroid City (which I posted about on July 23) we haven’t watched any movies in the evening this month, that I can remember.

We have spent most of the past month rewatching the show Orphan Black, and we are now on Season 4 of 5 seasons. By in large, this has really held up well, and it is truly an acting tour-de-force on the part of the actress Tatiana Maslany, who plays at least nine different characters, four of them primary roles (the show is all about clones.) Intellectually, I know it is the same actress, emotionally, I see them all as distinctly different people. And what is amazing is that--except for different hairstyles, clothing, and make-up--there haven’t been any obvious changes to the actress’s physical appearance, it is all in voice, expression, and body language.

We also finished watching Clatterford, and we were glad we bought all 3 seasons, because I know it is something we will rewatch, probably once a year, it is such a charmer. We are still watching Seinfeld over dinner, and when I feel I have the time, I have been watching Project Runway, Allstars at lunch. Most of my life clothes have never been of particular importance to be beyond wanting comfort, with styles I can wear forever. Since retirement I pretty much wear only sweat pants and tops that don’t look absurd with sweat pants, and except for a sewing class I took one summer at a local department store when I was still in high school, and 2 dresses I subsequently made, I’ve never been into sewing. But for some reason I have enjoyed this show from the beginning. My youngest grandson (12) is into sewing, making plushies, and his mother has signed him up for a sewing class this summer, so who knows, maybe he will be a fashion designer and all my years of watching Project Runway has all been in preparation for me being an appreciative grandmother!

Listening:

I spent most of the past month listening to The Last Camel Died, the historical mystery series. I found it amusing, but not sure I will buy other volumes. Currently I am listening to a book I don’t think I have read for over fifty years, Lot 49, by Thomas Pynchon. Loved it then, loving it now, and I also loved his books, V and Gravity’s Rainbow, so I might look into getting those volumes as audiobooks. I mostly listen to these audiobooks when cleaning!

The reason I haven’t been listening to audiobooks as much when walking is because my husband told me about a great podcast A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs that I have been listening to the past couple of weeks instead. If you check it out, I would suggest arranging the episodes chronologically, and feel comfortable skipping episodes. My rule of thumb is to listen to episodes where I recognize either the artist or the song that is featured. My husband said he basically started at episode 50, but I started at the beginning, when the podcaster started tracing the roots of rock and roll in genres like Louisiana Cajun music, country and western, and rhythm and blues in the 30s and 50s. I am learning a lot about music business in general, and I am amazed at how many of the old songs I recognize, but we are now in the mid-50s, with things like Sh-boom, and the first Elvis record, so it is only going to get better in terms of my own experience and memories.

Reading:

I am continuing to try to keep up with my magazine reading, but I stopped reading the mystery anthology that I wrote about last month. Instead, after reading someone mention Virginia Wolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, which reminded me that one of my favorite books I read in my 20s was her book, To the Lighthouse, and I decided this was actually a perfect book to read in those 10-15 minutes every night before we turned the light out. Mostly, when I read, I read fast, and a book like To the Lighthouse shouldn’t be read that way. It’s attraction isn’t in the plot (on the surface not much happens) but in the language, so reading no more than a couple of paragraphs at a time is fine. I will have to think about what other books like this from my past I would like to try reading when this is done.

Week after next, my plan is to do a recommendation post on some of the substack newsletters that I am enjoying (I just counted and I now have subscribed to 90!) Some don’t publish very often, some I find myself just skimming the beginning and not finishing, but there are some that I always read all the way through that I would like to share with you all.

And, as usual, I would love to hear what you all have been doing for entertainment.

I am trying to come up with an image I can always use for these recommendation posts, so you will be able to spot them. This one made me smile!

Hi, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series.

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