What are you reading or watching?

Daily Diary, April 21:

First of all, want to thank all of you who have subscribed so far. Latest count this morning was 101 subscribers. Very exciting, but it does make me feel like I should up my game!

First, a quick recap of my day yesterday. Went to dentist for cleaning and discovered I need a crown on one tooth and maybe a different tooth extracted with an implant. Ugh! I am trying to have gratitude for the fact that my grandmother had a full set of dentures by my age, and my parents had “bridges” in their sixties—which were partial dentures. My husband has already had several implants so I know how the process goes. As far as getting the crown, my dentist has installed this new system where you get the crown within the hour…no temporary or coming back for later fitting. Very easy-peasy. Thankful for the new dental technology!

The fun part of the cleaning was when the new hygienist asked about the book my file said I was writing, so I got to tell her about my mystery series. She had already called herself a bookworm and she sounded sincerely interested in trying the series out, saying she loved mysteries, but had never tried an historical mystery. She was especially intrigued when she asked if they were out as audiobooks and I was able to tell her that the narrator was the wife of the dentist who started the practice she was now working for!! (I will talk about how that came about in some other post.)

The visit to the dentist, a couple hours talking to an old friend, and then the much longer walk I took in the afternoon since I didn’t get my morning walk, ate up much of the day. As a result, I didn’t get but 100 words written. Nevertheless, inch by inch, I will get the story written.

Now that I am putting some aspect of this daily post out on substack, I’ve decided to try concentrating my descriptions of books and shows I’ve been enjoying to Fridays posts—and ask that you share as well then in comments. Generally I will be sharing on mysteries and science fiction books/shows (which are my main form of recreational entertainment)a, but do feel free to share about whatever you have been enjoying recently.

I’ve just started an early Louise Penny audiobook, and I’m not sure yet how I like it, so I will reserve judgment on that. But this week my husband and I have watched two new mystery series. One, Annika, is on PBS. It is a cop show, but the department is the Scottish Marine Homicide Unit (crimes and deaths on any waterway). Because of Annika’s background, and the history of the region, there is a strong element of Scandinavian history mixed in with Scottish history that I found fascinating. The main actress is Nicola Walker, from the show Unforgiven, but in a more cheerful role. It’s got all the usual police procedural elements (interesting co-workers who we are getting to know, a difficult teenage daughter to complicate matters, lots of beautiful out-door shots) and the innovation is that Annika “breaks the fourth wall,” which means she turns and frequently talks to us, the audience. We’ve now watched 3 of 6 episodes and I’ve quite enjoyed them.

The second show was the new BritBox 3-part miniseries adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Why Didn’t they Ask Evans—written and directed by Hugh Laurie (who has a small role as well.) We finished watching last night. Interestingly, this winter we watched an earlier adaptation of the book as part of the Miss Marple series done in 2011, so I found myself doing a lot of comparing. I liked this version better (although this might be because it was closer to the original book…which didn’t have Miss Marple in it!). The two main protagonists were quite appealing, one of the villains suitably menacing, the red herrings not too obvious, and there were only a few odds and ends that had to be tied up by the obligatory explanations done at the end. So, all in all, a pleasant experience for people who enjoy English country-side Christie stories!

Have any of you watched either of these? If so, what did you think of them? And any other books or shows you are currently reading/listening to/or watching that you can recommend?

Here is another lovely set of roses from my daily walk. The alternating sunny weather and a little fog and drizzle the past few weeks has the roses coming out fast and furious in the neighborhood. Certainly brightens up my walk.