10. The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

2022 Newbery Award Winner

listened on Audible (used a credit for it)

2021

336 pgs.
Mid Grade SciFi
Finished 1/30/2022
Goodreads rating: 4.30
My rating: 4ish
Setting: 2060 New Mexico and 2400 Planet in another galaxy

My comments: This book was awarded the Newbery Medal last Monday, which sent me in a tailspin to obtain an audio reading asap.  It was read beautifully.  The cover is gorgeous. And it was an absolutely interesting piece of storytelling.  I'm not a big fan of folk/mythology/storytelling, and there were lots of places in the book where very important stories were told, stories that needed to be listened to in order to understand messages from Petra's grandmother, and then from herself.  I had to force myself to pay attention to these parts.  There seemed to me lots of repetitive places, and sometimes the story seemed to drag a bit. Creepy in places, sad in places, clever and adventurous in others.  Some of the pondering seemed more adult than child-centered. Lots to think about.  Good story, but I wouldn't have chosen it for a Newbery....but I never really like/agree with the Newbery choices, so ....

Goodreads synopsis:  There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita.

But Petra's world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children – among them Petra and her family – have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race.

Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet – and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity's past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard – or purged them altogether.

Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again?

9. Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren

listened on Libby, borrowed from library

2018
432 pgs.
Chick-Lit Romance
Finished 1/29/2022
Goodreads rating: 4.33
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary San Francisco, Berkeley, and Healdsburg, California

My comments: The setting was awesome, I knew everything they were talking about and could see it in my mind's eye.  Christina Lauren's storytelling gets better and better.  Not just the plot, but the way she weaves words together seems unusual for this sort of "chick-lit romance."  Bringing two time periods, 12 to 15 years apart, together, was done smoothly and deftly.  In the "then," two young people care intensely about each other, not pushing each other physically, but being able to talk about most everything without embarrassment.  And two 29-year olds in the "now," trying to make their way towards each other knowing that the caring is still as strong as it ever was.  This is a wonderful story, a true love story, as unbelievable as that might be!

Goodreads synopsis:  The story of the heart can never be unwritten.

Macy Sorensen is settling into an ambitious if emotionally tepid routine: work hard as a new pediatrics resident, plan her wedding to an older, financially secure man, keep her head down and heart tucked away.

But when she runs into Elliot Petropoulos—the first and only love of her life—the careful bubble she’s constructed begins to dissolve. Once upon a time, Elliot was Macy’s entire world—growing from her gangly bookish friend into the man who coaxed her heart open again after the loss of her mother...only to break it on the very night he declared his love for her.

Told in alternating timelines between Then and Now, teenage Elliot and Macy grow from friends to much more—spending weekends and lazy summers together in a house outside of San Francisco devouring books, sharing favorite words, and talking through their growing pains and triumphs. As adults, they have become strangers to one another until their chance reunion. Although their memories are obscured by the agony of what happened that night so many years ago, Elliot will come to understand the truth behind Macy’s decade-long silence, and will have to overcome the past and himself to revive her faith in the possibility of an all-consuming love.

8. Alone by Megan E. Freeman

Read on Kindle - it was in verse 

2021

404 pgs.
Middle grades/survival CRF
Finished 1/28/2022
Goodreads rating: 4.20
My rating: 5
Setting: contemporary-ish small town Colorado

My comments: A beautifully written novel in verse  Gorgeous words.  And an incredible story. I so wish there had been an additional five pages so that we could hear what had happened to her parents for the past three years.  Three years all alone in a deserted and abandoned Colorado town...at 12 years old, trusting yourself to figure out how to survive!  Wow!  I can't imagine kids not enjoying this, and I can't wait to begin reading it aloud to my fifth graders.

Goodreads synopsis:  When twelve-year-old Maddie hatches a scheme for a secret sleepover with her two best friends, she ends up waking up to a nightmare. She’s alone—left behind in a town that has been mysteriously evacuated and abandoned.

With no one to rely on, no power, and no working phone lines or internet access, Maddie slowly learns to survive on her own. Her only companions are a Rottweiler named George and all the books she can read. After a rough start, Maddie learns to trust her own ingenuity and invents clever ways to survive in a place that has been deserted and forgotten.

As months pass, she escapes natural disasters, looters, and wild animals. But Maddie’s most formidable enemy is the crushing loneliness she faces every day. Can Maddie’s stubborn will to survive carry her through the most frightening experience of her life?

7. The Loot by Craig Schaefer

#1 Charlie McCabe

listened on Audible

2019
329 pgs.
Adult Mystery Series
Finished 1/26/22
Goodreads rating: 4.08
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Boston & suburbs

My comments: A female explosives expert returns from eight years duty in Afghanistan and joins a private security company.  Of course, her trial and first experience with the company has her (successfully) dealing with a bomb. There are lots and lots of ludicrous, longshot kind of figuring-out-clues that would never happen  Oh well.  It was fast paced and interesting, and somewhat believable.  Yes, I'd read more of these, I liked the main characters.

Goodreads synopsis:  She fought for her country. Now she’s fighting for her family.

When Sergeant Charlie McCabe returns from fighting in Afghanistan, she hopes to leave the war behind. Instead, she comes home to a father whose gambling has put him in deep trouble with a violent loan shark. She finds work as a professional bodyguard, but to save her father, she needs to get serious cash together fast.

However, her father isn’t the only one who needs saving. When Charlie’s first client—a wealthy executive with a shady past—narrowly escapes a bomb plot, Charlie’s investigation leads her into the heart of Boston’s criminal underworld. Along the way, she stumbles upon clues about a diamond heist gone wrong that’s been unsolved for decades.

With the clock ticking and chaos descending, Charlie sees a solution to both problems, but it won’t be easy, and it won’t be pretty. A “normal” life may await Charlie on the other side of this mess, but part of her knows that the battle has just begun.

Kindle LineUp

I'm trying to read from my Kindle more often, not just from my iPhone, but I'm finding it difficult to access my library of unread books.  So I'm going to try to keep it up here.  This includes Kindle Unlimited.  There are LOTS more than I realized and many look super good!

Currently saved / Kindle Unlimited: as of 1/3/2024

Strictly Business (Kohl) 12/29/23

In a Jam (Canterbary) 12/29/23

Shadows of Pike Place #2 Thomas Austin (Black) 12/11/23

The Forgotten Witch (Dodge) 10/31/23

A Welcome Reunion: A Short Story (Berry) 9/17/23  AUDIO AS WELL

Lost Luggage (Tonge) 5/25/23

The Blue Bar (Biswas) 4/29/23  AUDIO AS WELL

Parting the Veil (Kennedy) 2/14/23   AUDIO AS WELL

The Singing Trees (Walker) 12/2/22  AUDIO AS WELL

Redemption Point #2 (Fox) 6/5/2022

Origami Man (#5 Gibson Vaughn) borrowed 7/16/21 AUDIO AS WELL

A Beautiful Work in Progress (Valerio) 9/2/17

A Brilliant Death (Yocum) 4/3/19

A Good Day for Chardonay #2 Sunshine Vicram 12/29/21 (plus Audio)

A Moment on the Edge: 100 Years of Crime Stories by Women (Elizabeth George) 2/5/17

A Shade of Vampire 2: A Shade of Blood (Forrest) 7/25/16 Read #1 and have on Kindle

A String of Beads (#8 Jane Whitefield) Perry 1/5/17

All the Beautiful Lies (Swanson) 5/17/18

All the Bright Places (Niven) 9/30/16

All the Dead Lie Down #3 Molley Cates (Walker) 12/30/16

Alone (Freeman) 1/15/22

An Ember in the Ashes (Tahir) 2/15/18

An Unsafe Pair of Hands (Dolley) 10/27/16

Artifacts of Death #1 Manny Rivera (Curtin) 9/18/17

Astonishing Color of After, The (Pan) 4/23/18

At First Light #1 Dr. Evan Wilding (Nickless) 11/24/21

Bailey and the Bad Boy (Linda) 5/25/22

Bat, The  #1 Harry Hole (Nesbo) 10/24/16

Be Frank With Me (Johnson) 11/2/16

Bel Canto (Patchett) 3/18/16

Bone Music #1 Burning Girl (Rice) 2/1/18

Boy from Reactor 4, The  #1 Nadia Tesla (Stelmach) 5/30/17

Braque Connection, The  #3 Genevieve Lenard (Ryan) 11/1/16

Broken Skies (#1 Broken Skies) Kay 9/30/17

Butterfly Garden, The  #1 The Collector (Hutchison) 1/6/17

Camelback Falls #2 David Mapstone (Talton) 2/18/16

Candid Life of Meena Dave (Patel) 5/30/22

Cockroaches #2 Harry Hole (Nesbo) 11/25/16

Cut to the Bone: A Body Farm Novel (Bass) 3/9/17

Daemon (Suarez) 8/12/18

Dante Connection, The  #2 Genevieve Lenard (Ryan) 8/9/16

Dark Highway #3 Jessica Shaw (Gray) 3/13/22

Dead Inside #1 Maggie Jameson (Holten) 11/23/21 READING

Dead Stop #2 Sydney Rose Parnell (Nickless) 6/20/22

Debt Collector, The  #1 Jack Winchester (Mills) 3/8/18

Demon Crown, The  (Rollins) 1/31/18

Dream Thieves, The  #2 Raven Cycle (Stiefvater) 11/16/18

Everything, Everything (Yoon) 11/2/16

Fallout #18 V.I. Warshawski 6/25/17

Finding Colin Firth: A Novel (March) 9/21/18

Fire Queen #2 Hundredth Queen (King) 9/25/17

Five Quarters of the Orange (Harris) 9/9/16

Gauguin Connection, The  #1 Genevieve Lenard (Ryan) 8/9/16

Girl Beneath the Sea, The #1 Underwater Investigation 4/24/20 Haven't Finished Yet

Grandma Gatewood's Walk (Montgomery) 9/6/18

Hades #1 Archer & Bennett (Fox) 5/17/17

Half Broken Things (Joss) 2/20/17 rec by Carol

Hangman #19 Decker & Lazarus (Kellerman) 9/6/17

Harm None #1 Davies & West (North) 9/8/17

Helsinki White #3 Inspector Vaara (Thompson) 6/9/18

Here in the Real World (Pennypacker) 3/26/20

Hidden in Plain Sight (Hopkins) #4 Serenity Amish 7/22/22

Hitman's Guide to Housecleaning, The  (Helgason) 1/12/14

Hokee Wolf (Viehweg) 9/26/17

Home Fire (Shamsie) 1/16/19

Hunt for the Dingo, The  (Nash) 5/18/18

Huntress Moon #1 Huntress FBI (Sokoloff) 2/25/18

If I Ever Get Out of Here (Gansworth) 4/7/18

Illuminai (Kaufman/Kristoff) 5/19/18

Innocent Blood #6 John Jordan (Lister) 8/3/16

Invisible Library, The  #1 Invisible Librry (Cogman) 11/20/16

Italian Villa, The (Sacerdoti) 2/1/22

Killer  Inside, The  #1 Jessica Daniel (Wilkinson) 12/5/16

King Tides, The  #1 Lancaster & Daniels (Swain) 7/1/18

Last Light #1 Beacon Falls (Lyons) 10/7/16

Last Woman Standing, The  (Adams) 6/6/16

Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster (Wilbanks) 8/15/18

Letters from Skye (Brockmole) 8/15/16

Lifelik3 (Kristoff) 6/24/19

Little Comfort #1 Hester Thursby (Hill) 11/25/18

Livia Lone #1 (Eisler) 1/6/17

Lost Hills #1 Eve Ronin (Goldberg) Have/n't Finished Yet

Louisiana's Way Home (DeCamillo) 4/27/22

Magpie Murders (Horowitz) 9/24/17 Started Twice...

Maizie Chen's Last Chance 2/8/22

Marsh King's Daughter, The  (Dionne) 8/22/18

Middle of Somewhere, The  (Yoerg) 8/7/16

Midnight Rambler #1 Jack Carpenter (Swain) 10/30/16

Midnight Winters #2 Midnight Trilogy (Hart) 12/21/18

Midnighters #1 The Secret Hour (Westerfeld)  1/7/17

Moloka'i (Brennert) 7/29/18

Moonlit Garden, The  (Bowman) 1/2/16

Murder in the Woods (Ickes) 1/4/20

Murder Under the Bridge: A Palestine Mystery (Raphael) 8/23/16

Muse: A Novel, The  (Burton) 11/25/16

Need to Know (Cleveland) 7/25/18

Neverwhere: A Novel (Gaiman) 3/21/18

Nightingale, The  (/Hannah) 10/12/17

No Mercy (Pierce) 

No Turning Back (Bush) 3/21/18

One Step Too Far (Seskis) 10/20/16

Onyx & Ivory (Arnett) 11/25/18

Past Crimes: A Van Shaw Novel (Hamilton) 11/17/16

Paths Between the Stars, The  #1 Many Skies /(Makansi) 12/29/21

Pistol Poets, The  (Gischler) 8/8/16

Priscilla and the Bishop's Gambit #3 Priscilla 8/5/22

Priscilla and the Snowfort #2 Priscilla 8/5/22

Priscilla the Princess of the Park #1 Priscilla 8/5/22

Priscilla's Picnic with the President #4 Priscilla 8/5/22

Real Men Knit #1 (Jackson) 5/25/22

Red Garden, The  (Hoffman) 11/9/16

Rest of Us Just Live Here, The  (Ness) 2/20/17

Reverand Finds His Calling, The  #1 Tony Wagner (Winskye) 3/17/16

Rhyme Schemer (Holt) 12/7/16

Ritual Bath, The  #1 Decker & Lazarus (Kellerman) 1/28/18

Round House, The  (Erdrich) 11/18/16

Running Dream, The  (Van Draanen) 9/3/17

Sadie: A Novel (Summers) 5/26/19

Searcher, The #1 Solomon Creed (Toyne) 4/12/17

Secret Lives of People in Love: Stories, The (Van Booy) 3/18/17

Secret Wife, The (Paul) 3/9/17

Secrets of Worry Dolls (Impellizzeri) 5/21/18

Self Help (Short Stories) (Lorrie Moore) 1/25/16

Serpent & Dove (Mahurin) 12/29/21

Seven Crowns (Everest) 1/14/22

Silent City #1 Claire Codella (SMith) 11/25/16

Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing, The  (Jacob) 7/23/18

Snow Like Ashes (Raasch) 9/9/16

Stripped #2 Jonathan Stride (Freeman) 1/8/22

Sundown on Top of the World (Alaska) #4 Hunter Rayne (Donald) 3/17/17

Tell No One (Coben) 7/4/18

Tenth of December: Stories (Saunders) 4/17/18

These Shallow Graves (Donnelly) 10/8/16

Thornyhold (Steward) 4/20/19

Tin God #1 Delta Crossroads Trilogy (Green) 5/30/17

Truth According to Us, The  (Barrows) 10/20/16

Truth of All Things, The  #1 Archie Lean (Shields) 11/30/16

Twelve Lives of Sa/muel Hawley, The  (Tinti) 1/12/19

Unbroken Threads (Klepper) 1/16/19

Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, The  (Joyce) 7/2/18

We Are All Made of Molecules (Nielsen) 11/20/16

Wednesday Sisters, The  #1 (Clayton) 9/9/16

Weight of Ink, The  (Kadish) 7/16/18

Wife 22: A Novel (Gideon) 10/6/17

Winterkill #3 Joe Pickett (Box) 9/6/18

Woman Left Behind, The  (Howard) 8/4/18

Year of Pleasures, The  (Berg) 11/13/16

Year of Wonders (Brooks) 2/7/18

Yellow Star (Roy) 12/21/16

You Go First (Kelly) 7/29/18

5. Cyber Count by S. L Beaumont

#1 or 2 Kat Munro (Don't need to read#1 if there is one before this...)

read on Kindle

2021
330 pgs.
Adult Police Procedural/Mystery
Finished 1/22/22
Goodreads rating: 4.30
My rating: 3
Setting: Contemporary London

My comments: This is all about cyber crime and crypto coin.  There are two major crimes being investigated by Kat and her cop sorta-boyfriend, Adam.  There are some really sleazy characters and it's written very simply (yet with lots of cyber crime info that I didn't care enough about, so it went in and out of my head).  Run of the mill.

Goodreads synopsis:  Has cyber-crime escalated to murder?

Forensic accountant Kat Munro puts her traumatic past behind her and begins dating journalist Connor O’Malley, whose investigations into online crime attract the wrong kind of attention. When a colleague’s teenage son goes missing, and his friend’s body is discovered, Kat finds herself working with DS Adam Jackson again.

The murder enquiry leads Adam to an exclusive London school where allegations of drugs, gaming fraud and child pornography abound. As he gets deeper into the investigation, Adam is forced to face issues in his private life while suppressing his feelings for Kat.

The faceless hackers become desperate, and Connor is found drugged with his research missing. Can Kat and Adam put the past behind them to solve a series of seemingly unrelated incidents before someone else becomes the victim of an elusive cyber-crime network?

4. Twenty Years Later by Charlie Donlea

listened on Libby/borrowed through library

2021
368 pgs.
adult mystery
Finished 1/22/22
Goodreads rating: 4.17
My rating: 4.5
Setting: mostly contemporary NYC

My comments: Oh my, talk about twists and turns and surprises!  This very complicated plot started off a bit slowly for me, but it was setting up the rest of the story really well, and once I got into it I was utterly fascinated.  And although we watch what unfolds through various eyes, each character is keeping information back, sometimes even falsifying it so we're always a little unsure of what - or why - something is happening.  There are two protagonists, Avery/Claire, a famous television investigative reporter, and Walt, a retired-in-his-forties FBI agent who now lives ... and drinks rum ... in Jamaica.  Throw in an ugly murder mystery, a woman killed on 9/11, an in-hiding hedge fund multi-millionnaire, and you have the beginning ingredients for one wild ride.

Goodreads synopsis:  Fans of Lisa Unger and Allen Eskens won’t want to miss this thrilling new suspense novel from the #1 internationally bestselling author of The Girl Who Was Taken! Hiding her own dark past in plain sight, a TV reporter is determined to uncover the truth behind a gruesome murder decades after the investigation was abandoned. But TWENTY YEARS LATER, to understand the present, you need to listen to the past…

The New York Times Best Thrillers This Season | E! News Recommended Books | Overdrive Biggest Books of the Month | Everything Zoomer, December’s Best Fiction

Avery Mason, host of American Events, knows the subjects that grab a TV audience's attention. Her latest story--a murder mystery laced with kinky sex, tragedy, and betrayal--is guaranteed to be ratings gold. New DNA technology has allowed the New York medical examiner's office to make its first successful identification of a 9/11 victim in years. The twist: the victim, Victoria Ford, had been accused of the gruesome murder of her married lover. In a chilling last phone call to her sister, Victoria begged her to prove her innocence.

Emma Kind has waited twenty years to put her sister to rest, but closure won't be complete until she can clear Victoria's name. Alone she's had no luck, but she's convinced that Avery's connections and fame will help. Avery, hoping to negotiate a more lucrative network contract, goes into investigative overdrive. Victoria had been having an affair with a successful novelist, found hanging from the balcony of his Catskills mansion. The rope, the bedroom, and the entire crime scene was covered in Victoria's DNA.

But the twisted puzzle of Victoria's private life belies a much darker mystery. And what Avery doesn't realize is that there are other players in the game who are interested in Avery's own secret past--one she has kept hidden from both the network executives and her television audience. A secret she thought was dead and buried . . .

Accused of a brutal murder, Victoria Ford made a final chilling call from the North Tower on the morning of 9/11.
Twenty years ago, no one listened.
Today, you will.
TWENTY YEARS LATER, to understand the present, you need to listen to the past... 

Knitting, Crocheting, and Quilting Patterns

Patterns:

Amigurumi Octopus

Linen Stitch Dishcloth

Bathroom Mat using leftover yarn tied together

Other Stuff:

Knitting Book Reviews

Picture Books About Knitting and/or Yarn

Yarn Bombing

Linen Stitch Dishcloth

 

I've made a million and a half dishcloths out of two different knitting patterns, and one crochet pattern.  I LOVE the look of this LinenStitch dishcloth, but I've done linen stitch before and I think it takes a much longer amount of time to complete.  I'm gonna try it anyway!

This pattern came from Kristen Kristek and is a free pattern that she shares on her website, kristenisms.wordpress.com.  You can find the pattern through Ravelry or here.

I think this will be prettiest in a variegated cotton yarn, not solid...

Amigurumi Octopus

Well...I have three buddies who are all learning to crochet.  All are super animal lovers and want to learn how to crochet little animals.  So I told them I'd teach them!

On Ravelry, I looked for a simple pattern that wouldn't frustrate anyone, and found this adorable octopus pattern by Sarah Hearn, found free on her blog!  Her blog is Esshaych.com and the pattern is found there. 

It calls for double knit, or light worsted weight yarn and a size E hook.  Easy peasy!  Our lesson/get-together will be a week from Tuesday, and hopefully I'll have some photos to show afterwards!  All I need to find are the buttons for eyes.

Trying to Make a DIfference

6 cat blankets for Cat Tail Farms

delivered 1/15/2022

(There would have been 7, but I didn't get a chance to sew in the ends of the brightly striped one yet.)

This week I've also knit two Valentine dishcloths, 2 Valentine scrubbies, and three bright red Scrubbers.

Movie - Spiderman: No Way Home

PG-13 (2:28)

Wide release 12/17/2021

Viewed Monday 1/10/22 (after karate) with T at the Carlisle Theater

RT Critic: 93   Audience:  98

Critic's Consensus:  A bigger, bolder Spider-Man sequel, No Way Home expands the franchise's scope and stakes without losing sight of its humor and heart.

Cag:  4/Liked it a lot

Directed by Jon Watts

Studio: Columbia Pictures

Marvel

Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jamie Foxx, Marisa Tomei, Willem Defoe, Alfred Molina, Andrew Garfield, Tobey Maguire

My comments:  First thoughts?  It was really long.  There were more fighting scenes than I personally like, but that's what draws a lot of people to it, I guess, especially some of the kids and young men.  I loved the comedy.  I loved the characters, especially Dr. Strange.   And I loved, loved, loved the way they brought back Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire (and since it was a total surprise to me, an exceptional addition!)  Every scene with the three Spidermen was exceptional.  And I've got to say that Tom Holland was just wonderful in the role.

     A huge delight was to be sitting next to Tristan and watch his enjoyment of the movie!  It's the first one we've seen together since the pandemic started and that was a real joy, since we used to go frequently before.

     Note:  Andrew Garfield is now 38 years old, and Tobey Maguire is 46!  Tom Holland is a cutesy 25.

                                 

RT/ IMDb Summary:  For the first time in the cinematic history of Spider-Man, our friendly neighborhood hero's identity is revealed, bringing his Super Hero responsibilities into conflict with his normal life and putting those he cares about most at risk. When he enlists Doctor Strange's help to restore his secret, the spell tears a hole in their world, releasing the most powerful villains who've ever fought a Spider-Man in any universe. Now, Peter will have to overcome his greatest challenge yet, which will not only forever alter his own future but the future of the Multiverse.

3. Mastermind by Andrew Mayne

#1 Theo Cray & Jessica Blackwell

listened on Audible

2021
332 pgs.
Adult Mystery/Thriller/Espionage
Finished 1/7/2022
Goodreads rating:  4.32
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Contemporary all over the world, actually

My comments: From the very beginning, none of the story has any actual believability, but if you keep tongue in cheek and think of this as a fantasy, it's quite intriguing!  It takes leaps and bounds, uses non-existent clues, gives head-scratching (and quick) pseudo-explanations for most things, and leaves the reader totally clueless in places, but it's still one heck of a ride/read!  The antagonist, Michael Haywood aka The Mastermind, has been toying with Jessica for years.  And bringing Theo and Jessica together was a stroke of genius.  Both are too smart (or believable) for their owns goods and they are certainly attracted to each other.  I enjoyed it!

Goodreads synopsis:  A mysterious electrical storm plunges Manhattan into darkness. As a strange, smothering fog rolls in, all communication crashes. In the blink of an eye, the island seems to vanish into a void.

FBI special agent Jessica Blackwood and brilliant scientist Dr. Theo Cray know this isn’t a freak accident. It’s a sinister sleight of hand. Their greatest adversary, a serial killer and cultist known as the Warlock, has escaped during a prison transfer in New York. A depraved master of manipulation, he promised the end of days. He’s making good on it.

One by one, cities across the globe are erupting in chaos as they disappear into the same black holes. Even for two ingenious trackers like Jessica and Theo, there’s still so much to learn about the pattern to the Warlock’s madness. The voids are just a warm-up for something bigger. To discover it—to stop it—Jessica and Theo must descend into the darkest of shadows—and minds. 

2. A Not So Meet Cute by Meghan Quinn

listened on Audible

2021
402 pgs.
Adult Romance
Finished 1/2/2022
Goodreads rating: 4.25
My rating: I didn't rate it - I read it, and liked some of it, not all of it...some was pretty good and some was pretty bad.....
Setting: Contemporary LA/Beverly Hills, CA

My comments: Huxley and Lottie. The usual. Why do I read these? An extremely handsome, buff, 35 year-old billionaire businessman with no girlfriend.....right....and petite, adorable, sexy 25 year-old from the lesser parts of Beverly Hills become fakely engaged (I love fake dating stories, I guess that's what pulled me in) for absolutely ridiculous reasons. The whole story was ridiculous, unbelievable, and extremely steamy. I DID like being inside Shame-on-me, I read the whole thing, all the way through the hugely descriptive (too) steamy parts to the HEA.  But it's a pretty charming cover, wouldn't you say?

Goodreads synopsis:  How did you two meet?

The quintessential question asked to every couple. And the answer is usually some bubbly, lovey dovey tale of being struck in the bum by Cupid’s arrow.

My meet cute (well not so meet cute) is slightly different. I was trolling a wealthy neighborhood in Beverly Hills, searching for someone to take me as their bride, you know, to make my arch nemesis jealous who consequently just fired me.

He was stomping around the block like some sort of gorgeous ogre, mumbling about a business deal gone wrong and attempting to finagle his way out of it.

And that’s when we bumped into each other.

There were no sparks.

Not even a hint of blossoming love.

But next thing I knew, I was scarfing down free chips and guac, listening to this man lay out all of his problems which led to his big ask . . . he wanted me to be his Vivian Ward, you know, from Pretty Woman--minus the frisky behavior.

We’re talking about living in a mansion, intimate double dates, and pretending we were head over heels in love . . . and engaged. Can you imagine?

The absolute audacity.

But people do crazy things when they’re desperate. And I reeked of desperation. So, I struck up a deal.

My one big mistake, though . . . big . . . HUGE? I accidentally fell for the incomparable Huxley Cane.

Movie - Power of the Dog

R (2:08)

Released 11/17, Streaming began on 12/1

Viewed probably early January at home, streamed for a short time on Netflix

IMBd: 7/10

RT Critic: 95   Audience:  82

Critic's Consensus:  Brought to life by a stellar ensemble led by Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog reaffirms writer-director Jane Campion as one of her generation's finest filmmakers

Cag:  5 It was a great, even wonderful movie, but I didn't love it (see comments below)

Directed by Jane Campion

Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst

My comments:  Talk about a powerful movie!  Slow.  And dark, very dark.  There's no joy at all in this, but it's definitely a thinker!  At first I didn't think I liked it much, and my end feeling is similar.  But it's a GREAT movie.  So hard to rate when you don't really like what happens but it's put together in a spectacular package.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Severe, pale-eyed, handsome, Phil Burbank is brutally beguiling. All of Phil's romance, power and fragility is trapped in the past and in the land: He can castrate a bull calf with two swift slashes of his knife; he swims naked in the river, smearing his body with mud. He is a cowboy as raw as his hides. The year is 1925. The Burbank brothers are wealthy ranchers in Montana. At the Red Mill restaurant on their way to market, the brothers meet Rose, the widowed proprietress, and her impressionable son Peter. Phil behaves so cruelly he drives them both to tears, reveling in their hurt and rousing his fellow cowhands to laughter -- all except his brother George, who comforts Rose then returns to marry her. As Phil swings between fury and cunning, his taunting of Rose takes an eerie form -- he hovers at the edges of her vision, whistling a tune she can no longer play. His mockery of her son is more overt, amplified by the cheering of Phil's cowhand disciples. Then Phil appears to take the boy under his wing. Is this latest gesture a softening that leaves Phil exposed, or a plot twisting further into menace?

This hits the nail on the head:  In The Power of the Dog, Jane Campion’s first feature since 2009’s Bright Star, two very different brothers come to blows about the best way to run their family’s ranch — and their lives — in 1920s Montana. Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) is greatly displeased when, during a cattle drive, his brother George (Jesse Plemons) becomes smitten with a widowed inn owner named Rose (Kirsten Dunst). She’s the mother of a sweet, gangly, effeminate young man, Peter (the extraordinary Kodi Smit-McPhee), and when she and George marry, Phil makes it his mission to bully and unsettle his new family members: Rose, because he thinks she’s after George’s money, and Peter because of his lisp and gentle ways.

This is a gorgeous, smoldering film with an all-star ensemble cast, anchored by Cumberbatch playing against type as the towering and quietly terrifying Phil. A haunting score by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood leads the audience through the awesome tableaus of the American West (New Zealand, technically) and drip-feeds us with a mounting sense of isolation and dread. It’s a slow build, and for most of the time, I had no idea where this was all heading — which only made its shocking but well-earned ending all the more gratifying. —Shannon Keating