My Current Interest

           I’m really not sure how I came across Pride .   I don’t know if it was from the Milwaukee Film Festival catalog.   Or it could have been a recommended film on Netflix.   Maybe it was a preview in the front of another film.   As much as I like to know how I found something, in the end, does it really matter?   Probably not.   What matters is whether or not I think this is a good film.   I do.                 It’s 1984 and the miners of Great Britain are on strike.   They have been on strike for months, with no end in sight.   To help the cause, a man by the name of Mark Ashton (Ben Schnetzer) decides to form a group that will collect money for the miners.   The group is called Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners.   They are a group of gay men and a woman who figure out ways to collect money that will then be given to the miners, as they have been without pay for so long.                 While it seems giving the money they have collected away would be an easy thing t

Image provided by Kensington Books.         Okay, really?   What is with parents and pushing their children to get married?   Aiden’s mother is practically shoving him into marriage with Bailey even though they haven’t had their first official date, yet.   His mother, Juliet, is so bad, she’s already running around town planning their wedding.   This includes the wedding date.   If Bailey wasn’t the type of person she was, Juliet just might end up being the next murder victim.                It has been an exciting six weeks for chocolatier Bailey King .   She has been in New York City filming her new cooking show about how to make Amish candy.   As much fun as it was to be back in the city, Bailey is ready to go home.   She has missed her new home of Harvest, Ohio; especially her grandmother; the family’s Amish candy shop; and her boyfriend, Sheriff Deputy Aiden Brody.         Life gets off running for Bailey the moment she arrives in Ohio.   Actually, it was the night befo

           When I first saw the commercials for Book Club , I wasn’t sure what to think.   It looked like the movie could either be really funny, or really bad.   When I finally saw it, funny was the answer.                   It’s been years since four friends started their monthly book club as young women.   Now older, the women have gone through many different life events and stuck together through it all.                   Vivian (Jane Fonda) never married.   She owns her own hotel and moves from man to man.                 Sharon (Candice Bergen) is a judge, divorced, and has a son who has become newly engaged.                 Carol ( Mary Steenburgen ) is happily married to Bruce (Craig T. Nelson), who is retired.   Or at least that is how it appears to those on the outside.                  Diane (Diane Keaton) is a widow.   Now that she lives alone, her daughters are convinced she cannot take care of herself, and want their mother to move closer to them.          

Image provided by Acorn TV.             Oh, Agatha Raisin.   How I have missed you.   Yet, despite my missing you, you still drive me crazy.   If I feel this way watching, Agatha Raisin , how must the other characters feel having to deal with her directly?   It must be difficult being driven crazy by all Agatha gets up to, but loving her anyways.                       It has been a year since Agatha Raisin ( Ashley Jensen ) went off to find her runaway fiancé in Cyprus.   Now she is back in Carsley, and things aren’t exactly as she left it.   Gemma (Katy Wix) and Bill (Matt McCooey) are no longer together.   Sarah’s (Lucy Liemann) husband, the vicar for Carsley, is away doing missionary work in Nigeria.   New people have come to town.   And James (Jamie Glover), her ex-fiancé, has not returned.                 For the most part it’s okay James isn’t back in town.   He did leave Agatha at the altar, after all.   It is not revealed what happened between them in Cyprus, but it

              I kept going back and forth about whether or not I wanted to write about this book.   Every time I thought “yes”, one of the characters would tell the main character she was wrong for being who she was and what she looked like.   This bothered me every time it happened.   Yet, here I am, writing about this book.   That’s because, in the end, the story was too good not to.                                Josey Cirrini has spent most of her life caring for her mother.   As a child she was a terror.   Her behavior was so bad, people in her small hometown are still holding it against her almost twenty years later.   It doesn’t matter to any of them that after her father died, she vowed to make up for her behavior.   Since nine-years-old she has tried to make things up to her mother, but it doesn’t matter.   Everyone still sees her as the poor behaving child.                 The perception isn’t helped with the fact that Josey rarely goes out in the world.   If she did,

           I don’t know about you, but there have been times where I have seriously wondered why something or someone won the awards they did.   After watching Bohemian Rhapsody , I have no questions as to why Rami Malek won the Academy Award for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury.   He did a great job, and this is coming from someone who is very particular about who even sings the songs of Queen.   There is no doubt in my mind that Mr. Malek deserved all the accolades he received.                              It’s the early 1970s, and Farrokh Bulsara (Rami Malek), who will later change his name to Freddie Mercury, is struggling to find a direction in his life.   It is a fact his father points out regularly.   Then, on a night Freddie goes to see a band he likes, his life changes forever.   He finds out the lead singer has moved on from the band after their performance, leaving drummer Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy) and guitarist Brian May (Gwilym Lee) on their own.   When Roger and Brian

               While I don’t know if I would want seven older brothers myself, I certainly get a kick out of Angie’s, a character from the Cupcake Bakery mystery series.   With so many brothers, it will be interesting to see how they each appear in future books and storylines.                 Cupcake bakery owner Melanie “Mel” Cooper isn’t quite sure how she feels about her mother, Joyce, going out on a date.   It has been a while since her father died, but she’s still uneasy about her mother moving on.   To make the situation even more uncomfortable, Joyce insists that Melanie go dress shopping with her for the date.                 Despite Mel’s concerns, Joyce’s date happens, and it does not at all go as planned.   When she comes out of the pool changing room, instead of finding her date, Baxter Malloy, waiting for her, Joyce finds him dead.   Since she is the one who found him, this makes Joyce one of the main suspects.                  Her name is on a list that is not e

                 While I expected Loving to be a terribly sad movie and it wasn’t, the opposite turned out to be true for Goodbye, Christopher Robin .   It was a very sad film, but still one worth seeing.                         Playwright A.A. Milne (Domhnall Gleeson) is struggling with the horrors he experienced during the first world war.   His wife, Daphne (Margot Robbie), doesn’t understand what he’s going through, nor does she even want to attempt to.   A self-absorbed woman, life does not exactly go smoothly for Daphne and Milne.   When Daphne becomes pregnant, things become even worse.                 The delivery of her son, Christopher, was difficult.   Then, out of fear of losing someone she loves, Daphne declares she will not have any more children.   Nor will she become close to the one she does have.   All the care Christopher needs will be handled by a nanny.                 At first the Milne family and their nanny, Olive (Kelly Macdonald), live in London.   W

                       I didn’t know there was a sequel to Garden Spells until my mother told me.   The funny thing is, I told my mother about Garden Spells .   Now she’s the one to tell me about the sequel.   Sometimes things just work out that way.                                It’s been years since Sydney Waverly returned to her hometown of Bascom, North Carolina.   Now she’s married to her childhood friend, Henry, and is desperately trying to have a baby.   She’s also trying to understand her teenage daughter, Bay.   While Sydney desperately wanted to fit in as a teenager, being part of the popular crowd is not something Bay cares to do.   That does not keep her from having an interest in the most popular boy in school, though.   She feels they belong together.   How exactly, she’s not fully sure.   All she knows is that somehow they do.                 Across town, Sydney’s sister Claire has put her catering business aside in order to run a candy making business.   She’s

                    Finally!   Lindsey and Sully have been battling their relationship for a while, but in this book they finally figure it out.   It’s about time.                 As Library Director, Lindsey Norris thought it would be a good idea to have an amnesty day.   All overdue and damage fines would be forgiven as long as the book was returned.   The oldest book to take part of this program was a copy of The Catcher in the Rye that was checked out twenty years ago.   It was checked out by a teacher, Candice Whitley, the very day she was murdered.   Her death is an unsolved case, and Lindsey has the strange feeling the returned book is somehow a clue.                 Looking into the case isn’t easy, though.   Everyone Lindsey mentions it to has a very strange reaction because of the many bad memories it brings up.   During the time of the murder, some people were even chased out of town as people were desperate for someone to blame.   That’s why talking about it so man

                 What is with the men in the books I have been reading ?   In this series the men keep saying they love Molly for who she is.   Then they tell her to not be who she is.   In addition, they hide the relationship they have with her.   And they wonder why Molly gets mad.                 Private Investigator Molly Murphy thinks she’s doing the right thing when she reports a purse snatcher to the police.   Unfortunately, the snatcher is part of a dangerous gang.   Now that she has reported one of them, Molly’s previous boyfriend, Captain Daniel Sullivan , is worried about her safety.   To keep her away from the gang, he finds an opportunity for Molly to go undercover.   It will also get her away from the typhoid that is going through the city.                 Of course, things do not go the way Daniel expected.   His intent was for Molly to unmask two spiritualists who have been invited to a prominent family’s country home.   That is all she is supposed to do.   He

             When I like one series from an author , I have a tendency to try others they have written.   Sometimes I like these other series, sometimes I don’t.   With the first book in the Cupcake Bakery Mystery series, I found I liked it.                 It hasn’t been long since Melanie “Mel” Cooper and Angie DeLaura opened their cupcake bakery.   While things are going well, they are still in the early days of their business and need as much work and publicity as they can get.   That’s why Mel agrees to make cupcakes for her best friend and business partner, Tate Harper.   It is for his wedding.   Even though Mel completely dislikes the bride, she knows making the cupcakes for the wedding will help the business and be a good deed for a friend.                                 Tate’s fiancée, Christie Stevens, is an absolute terror, and not just about things having to do with her wedding.   A local fashion designer, Christie makes enemies at every turn.   About to be Tate’s

Image provided by Acorn TV.         Sometimes it takes seeing a preview to get really interested in watching a TV show or film.   I’d read about Love, Lies & Records before.   While I thought maybe I would try it some time, it didn’t grab me enough to watch right then.   Then I saw a preview and knew I wanted to watch this show sooner rather than later.           Senior Registrar Kate Dickenson ( Ashley Jensen ) has just been promoted to Superintendent.   It is an exciting opportunity.   One Kate received over her colleague, Judy (Rebecca Front).   It is not hard to see why Kate got the job.   She is warm, caring, and compassionate to everyone who comes into the Register Office.   It does not matter whether they come in to register a birth, death, or marriage; Kate is concerned about what is happening in their life.   This cannot be said for Judy.   She is very distant and by the book.   She does her job, and that is about it. Image provided by Acorn TV.     Still