My Current Interest

Monk Photo of series box cover taken by Kate Dorsey     There are times where the best thing on TV is old TV shows on DVD . Especially when political ads begin to appear during commercials. Even more especially when those ads are for elections over half a year away. When this happens, something much more pleasant to watch is definitely desired. Even if there is a murder an episode.                One of my favorite series to rewatch is Monk . I just watched the entire series, all eight seasons, again. Not in one sitting, of course. Eight seasons with about sixteen episodes per season, that would be a lot of sitting. No, it took me weeks to watch the entire series, and most of the time I was doing something else at the same time. Still, spending weeks watching a show I enjoy as much as I do Monk , it was far better than watching what I was finding on TV.      Former detective Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) wants almost nothing more than to be put back on the police force. The only thi

Love & Saffron Photo of book cover taken by Kate Dorsey      If you love food, this is the book for you. There are different descriptions throughout of the food the characters discover and try. Something people who are into food will probably love.      If you’re not a food person, Love & Saffron is for you as well. I say this being not a huge food person myself. I tended to zone out at the food parts, which is what made me think I would not finish this book at first. Then I thought how silly it would be to drop out on a book so quickly when it was less than 200 pages long. At least get to page 50. Which I did. Then I got to page 100, to page 150, and to the end. By keeping going, I found myself reading a great story about a beautiful friendship.                             It all started with a packet of saffron. Joan Bergstrom, a woman in her twenties, living in Los Angeles, sends it to a columnist she enjoys. The columnist is Imogen “Immy” Fortier. She lives outside of

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Photo of Blu-ray cover taken by Kate Dorsey      As the name suggests, there is a lot of battling in this final film of The Hobbit trilogy. A LOT. Pretty much the entire film is one battle or another. The Extended Edition adds even more.         At the end of Desolation of Smaug , the dragon Smaug ( Benedict Cumberbatch ) is on his way to Laketown to wreak his revenge. The townspeople are running for their lives; including the Master of Lake-town (Stephen Fry), who is trying to run off with the town’s gold. Bard the Bowman ( Luke Evans ) is in prison, doing whatever he can to break free.      With the inadvertent help of the Master, Bard is able to free himself. He runs to a watchtower where he tries to kill Smaug with an arrow. Except, Smaug’s scales are too tough for the typical arrow. Bard soon runs out of arrows, except for one.      Bard’s son, Bain (John Bell), brings him the Black Arrow. It is an arrow Bard’s ancestor used to wound

     I am very excited to find a new mystery series to read.  Every year I try so many.  Some stick while others don’t.  On occasion, I don’t even finish the first book.  Which is why I am happy I was eager to read Booked for Death all the way to the end.                               Charlotte Reed, owner of Chapters Bed-and-Breakfast, is holding a special week of events celebrating mystery author Josephine Tey.   The plan is for this to be a fun event.   Which it could have been had guest Lincoln Delamont not been so obnoxious.      With his obnoxiousness apparent, it should not come as much of a surprise that Lincoln is the one who becomes the murder victim.   No one got along with him.   Not even his wife and daughter.   Everyone involved in the event had a reason to kill Lincoln.   Including Charlotte.      For Charlotte the reason is blackmail.   Or at least attempted blackmail.   Lincoln insinuated he knew something about Charlotte’s great-aunt Isabella’s past; the woman

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Photo of Blu-ray cover taken by Kate Dorsey        Oh, my goodness.  The extended edition of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is incredibly long.  I started to wonder if it was every going to end.  All the additional parts lengthen this movie a lot.  There are full additional storylines; which definitely make this film something I have never seen before.      The beginning of The Desolation of Smaug has a completely new segment and story. There were always the scenes of the dwarves battling the orcs at the time when the dwarves lost everything. Only now, with the extended edition, we have Thorin Oakenshield II ( Richard Armitage ) watching longer as his grandfather, Thrór (Jeffrey Thomas), is beheaded by an orc.      We also get to meet Thorin’s father, Thrain (Antony Sher), who I don’t think is seen in any of the three movies before the extended editions. This time, we see Thrain talk to his son before leaving the battle. After that, he si