My Current Interest

     Just as I did when I wrote about the first two seasons of The Crown , I start this post with a declaration.  As the characters in this show are based on real, living people; I want it clear all comments I make are about the characters, not the people themselves.      Some time has passed since the end of season two.   The characters are changing, which means the cast must change along with it.   Queen Elizabeth II ( Olivia Colman ) is facing new times as her children get older and society changes around her.   What doesn’t change is the family she has been battling from the start. Heavy is the Head... /Artwork by Kate Dorsey      Prince Philip (Tobias Menzies) is as cantankerous as ever.   He always has something to complain about, to the point he hardly lets Elizabeth get a word in.   Why Elizabeth doesn’t crack and tell him to shut up, I have no idea.   Philip always thinks he is right, and does ...

     Somehow, I managed to cram through The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill in under twenty-four hours.  The story moved very quickly, and all I wanted to do was keep reading.  Unfortunately, not everything was resolved in the end.  Which means I have to go out and get the second book in the series to see what happens!  I wonder if I will read it as fast as I did this one. At the Ring of a Bell /Artwork by Kate Dorsey      Things are not going well for The Bell in the village of Ivy Hill, an inn that has been in business for generations.   A year ago, its owner, John Bell, died.   As a result, the inn was left in the hands of his wife, Jane, a woman who never wanted to work there.        It was an inheritance that shocked John’s mother, Thora.   She had managed the inn for years.   Then, after John’s funeral, she went to live with her sister, leaving the business in Jane’s care.   Now she is back in ...

     My mom is the reason I read The Jane Austen Society  when I did.  Well, really it was Richard Armitage .  Every month I pick up this free magazine from the library called The Book Page .  I go through and mark which books I think are interesting so I can try them at a later date.  One month, a while back, one of those books was The Jane Austen Society .      It was listed in the audiobook section, and I didn’t pay much attention to who the reader was.  Then my mom asked me about the Richard Armitage book.  I had no idea how I could have missed a book by one of my favorite actors.      Well, it turns out the book my mom was talking about was The Jane Austen Society .  Mr. Armitage did not write the book, but he read for the audiobook.  Still, I knew I had to read this book sooner rather than later.      World War II has ended, and the small English village of Chawton is tr...

A Rose in Bloom /Artwork by Kate Dorsey      Disney’s Beauty and the Beast has always been my favorite animated film.  Maybe it’s the seeing the good under the unpleasant exterior I can relate to (I’ve always loved what many would consider “ugly” dogs).  Or maybe it’s because, like Belle, I love books (if I could have the library in Beast’s castle, I don’t think there would be strong enough words to describe how happy I would be).  There could be so many reasons why this animated film has been my favorite for so long.  But it is this love of it that made me hesitant about the live-action version at first.      When Disney’s live-action version of Beauty and the Beast came out on DVD, I was willing to give it a try.   It helped that Luke Evans was in the film, and I also like Emma Watson, so I knew there would be actors I like in it.   So, I watched it.   I thought it was pretty good, but didn’t expect to ever watch it ...

     There are times when my brain refuses to concentrate on anything hard or serious.  No deep analysis of feelings or situations.  All it can handle is something light and fun.  In times like this, all I can do is turn to cozy mysteries.  They are always just what I need.      Darby Piper is surprised when her business partner, Samantha Porter, tells her she is using her 60% ownership power to close their private investigator business and work at a nearby resort.   In fact, the declaration doesn’t even make sense.   Samantha is a dedicated PI.   There is no reason for her to want to close the business.   Especially when it would leave Darby both jobless and homeless.      With the possibility of losing all she has worked for hanging over her head, it is understandable Darby is upset about the position Samantha has put her in.   But the distress is nothing compared to what she feels when she h...

     Sometimes I come across a book that is just important to read.  That’s it.  It just has to be read because of the message it gives.  Today We Go Home is one of those books.      Larkin Bennett’s military career has ended and she is trying to find her way in civilian life.  This is not easy.  She is haunted by her experiences in Afghanistan, and blames herself for her friend Sarah’s death.      With no family to leave her belongings too, Sarah has left it all to Larkin.  Larkin has to remove everything from a storage locker, and when she does, she discovers an old diary.  A diary from the 1860s.      The author of the diary is Emily Wilson.  She begins the diary after her father and brother, David, leave to fight in the Civil War.  It is something her father gives her to record everything that happens on the farm.  A record he will read when he gets back.  ...

     It can sometimes be hard to watch a show when you know it’s already been cancelled.   Yet, with Beecham House , I still found myself absorbed with the story.   Which is funny, because I wasn’t planning on watching this show.   Yet, I still found myself not wanting it to end.      There are a lot of mysteries surrounding John Beecham (Tom Bateman).   He appears to be a man of money, but no one knows how he attained it.   He wants to start a trading business, but as an English man in 18 th century India, the Indian community around him wonder if he truly is independent from the British.   And then there is the biggest mystery of all.        Who is the mother of John Beecham’s child?             The truth about who mothered his child, August, is a secret John is determined to keep to protect his son.   Whenever anyone asks about August’s mother, he r...

     There is a debate out in the world as to whether Frank Sinatra should have been Sky Masterson over Marlon Brando in the film adaptation of Guys and Dolls .  While I am sure there are good arguments as to why Sky should have been played by Sinatra, I am 100% in the Brando camp.  I know he is not a perfect singer (something often referenced), but there is something about Marlon Brando that makes him perfect for the character of Sky.  It’s the way he looks at a person.  It’s the way he acts around others.  There is something about Marlon Brando no one else has that works perfectly for the character.  Plus, I’m not a fan of Sinatra.      Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra) has a problem.   He needs a site for an underground craps game, but no one will let him use their place.   Only one man will even consider it, and he wants $1,000 upfront.   Money Nathan does not have.      To raise the money, Na...

     For as long as I can remember, there has been talk in my family about how great it would be to go on a cruise.  We have seen many exciting cruises offered.  Some with themes, some without.  But as of yet, I have never been on one.  Maybe someday I finally will.  Just hopefully a calmer one than Jessica Fletcher went on. The High Seas /Artwork by Kate Dorsey      Jessica Fletcher has been given the task of performing lectures and writing a play, all to be presented during a crossing of the ocean liner the Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2).   She went on this exact same liner years ago with her husband, Frank, and is excited to be on the ship again.   There is some sadness she is not with her husband, but it is an adventure Jessica is looking forward to.      She cannot, however, say the same about writing a play.   Her success is with writing novels, not plays.   Despite what some may believe, writi...

Images provided by Kensington Books.      Sometimes with a series there is a book that puts me on edge.   I have a hard time reading it.   Sometimes I don’t finish it at all.   If I don’t finish it, I tend not to continue on with the series.      That is something that almost happened with The Poppy McAllister Mysteries .   I loved the first book, Class Reunions are Murder , but the second book I had a really hard time with.   There were so many annoying characters!   Something told me to keep going, though.   I found the annoying characters evened out, and I was able to finish Midnight Snacks are Murder .      Then came Restaurant Weeks are Murder .   I enjoyed this book, so I read the fourth, Theater Nights are Murder .   With this fourth book, I fell in love with the series all over again.   Now I am greatly looking forward to the fifth installment to see what happens next.   ...

Behind the Door /Artwork by Kate Dorsey      There have been a lot of Harry Potter marathons on TV these past several months.  Sometimes I watch.  Sometimes I don’t.  Sometimes I’ll watch one particular film, while other times I’ll watch another.  It really depends on how I feel at the moment.  In any case, I end up watching a lot of Harry Potter .      Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is a boy who discovers he is a wizard on his 11 th birthday.   He lives with awful relatives, and finds it a great relief to go off to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.   It is here Harry meets his two best friends, Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) and Ron Weasley ( Rupert Grint ).   Together, through seven years of school and eight films, these three friends work together to survive school and take down the infamous villain, Lord Voldemort ( Ralph Fiennes ).      These three have to survive school in more th...