Thursday, August 24, 2023: Recommendations:

What I am listening to, reading, and watching.

Daily Diary, Day 1088

First a brief check-in, yesterday I had another medical issue that sent me to Urgent Care, but turned out as I suspected as no big deal, but my doctor wanted me to make sure it was no big deal. Apparently just one of the many side-effects of a chronic rare disorder I have been managing for over 30 years. This time, I suddenly developed a black left eye! Nice big bruise with no discernable cause, beyond the fact that all you have to do is breathe on me and I bruise, so probably rubbed my eye at some point too hard.

Anyway, this did eat into my productivity, but I plan to get some writing done today. Also getting excited about Dandy and the Dognappers going live tomorrow. You can still have the fun of it showing up automatically on your reading devices tomorrow, if you pre-order it now.

Meanwhile, here’s what I’ve been doing to entertain myself and can therefore recommend.

TV watching:

We are still watching the second season of Dark Wind (and I must say, having to wait a week for each episode is irritating, now that cable has trained me to binge watch!)  We completed the first season of Chelsea Detective and are looking forward to second season, which starts August 28. We were also sad that both Fisk and Reservation Dogs ended so quickly with so few episodes. I read somewhere that this was the last season of Reservation Dogs. I think there is a second season, but not yet available in US. We also watched the next Jesse Stone made for TV movie (even were willing to buy it) when I just wanted something straightforward, not too twisty, not too dark, with a smidgeon of humor in it.

As for new things to watch, both of us are really enjoying Deadloch, an Australian cop show on Prime, that features two female police, of very different temperaments, in a small town in the midst of a festival for lesbians. A lot of swear words (I don’t mind them, adds to the humor for me, but I know not everyone feels the same), but great humor and I still don’t know for sure who did the murders since there have been so many red herrings. We also just completed a mini-series thriller called Full Circle directed by Steven Soderberg, that we quite liked, and are now part of the way through another mini-series directed by him called Mosaic, another thriller.

Then there has been Murders in the Building which continues to be a real hoot, looking forward to watching this week’s episode tonight.

Listening:

I finished Josephine Tey’s The Man in the Queue, and I am almost done with a Laurie King’s The Murder of Mary Russell. Next, eI think I will listen to the latest in the Jackson Brodie series by Kate Atkinson, they only one I haven’t read. I do recommend her series, either as book in any format, or the TV show, called Case Histories.

Interestingly, I have found myself listening to audiobooks mostly when I clean, but I have continued to listen to the A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs podcast that I recommended last time. I am now up to 1957 and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Reading:

Finished Faulkner’s Sound and Fury, and I had intended to start on Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, but when I had my long spell last week in the ER, I turned to an old familiar, Willian Gibson’s first book Neuromancer. I absolutely love Gibson. When I am done with that, instead of the Austen, I am going to read The Dictionary of Lost Words, because several people have recently recommended it. As an author, we are always told that it can take up to 7 times to hear about a book to finally decide to buy it, in this case it took 3 times (smile.)

I hope these recommendations will give you something to try in the coming weeks, and next Thursday I will again turn to substack newsletter recommendations. Let me know if any of you tried out some of last week’s suggestions.

Photo by Brayan Espitia on Unsplash

In case you wondered, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. This is my newsletter reflecting on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully. If you aren’t already subscribed but are interested in doing so, you can subscribe for free by clicking the little button below. If you enjoyed this post, please do click on the little heart and/or share with your friends.