July has gone by fast, so it seems to us. It’s been a good month for books and we also discovered a television series and a few movies we enjoyed. Here’s the wrap up.
Birds / Thanks to Gregg, Mae, JoAnn and Deb for their suggestions about apps/books to identify birds. The Audubon Society app is now installed on both my phone and tablet. Going to add iNaturalist too. We see so many birds when we camp and a good guide can be hard to find.
Foodie stuff / We have had some good luck with movies lately and had a pizza night to watch one of them. A salad of romaine with fresh parmesan, tomatoes, toasted bread crumbs and a creamy dressing was a good accompaniment.
Movies and Books / I know I’ve mentioned enjoying the book News of the World. The movie was very good as well with only slight changes to the story. It’s a movie I could watch again one day. I'll also be looking for more books by Paulette Jiles.
Lisa Jewell has a new mystery coming out in September called The Night She Disappeared. Netgalley kindly gave me an advanced copy and I liked that one, told in different timelines and perspectives.
The police procedural Dead Man’s Grave by Neil Lancaster left me wanting more in this series. Lancaster was a police officer at The Met in London for 25 years so he has quite a bit of material for the series. This is set in Scotland.
A movie I can recommend, if you like true stories, is The Courier starring Benedict Cumberbatch. After the ending a script comes up telling what happened to all the people. The time period is the 1960’s during the Cuban missile crisis. Amazing.
Weather / Hating on this intense heat but it’s only July so... we better suck it up!
I hope wherever you are you are safe, healthy and happy!
Sharing with
Deb at ReaderBuzz for Sunday Salon and Deb at Kahakai Kitchen for Souper Sunday.
I enjoyed the movie version of News of the World, but nearly as much as the book. We'll probably watch The Courier once we're caught up on Unforgotten. Thanks for the rec!
ReplyDeleteWish we could take a bit of the heat off your hands. We're in the low 50s and it's overcast. Feels more like late fall or spring than summer!
Les, I hadn’t heard about Unforgotten, I’ll go check that one out. Your temperatures sound appealing!
DeletePretty much the only thing I miss about Memphis is the pizza place that was on the bottom floor of our apartment building! It was so good and while there are good pizza places here none are close and we can't take Will out around crowds most of the time. Being able to just run downstairs was super convenient! I haven't seen News of the World but I need to recommend it to Jason. He's been going through some serious movie binges lately. I have a hard time focusing so haven't really watched much with a plot in awhile but I have been getting bunches of reading done so that's a plus. I do miss movies and TV shows though. We just need it to stop raining here so we could go swimming more! It's finally decided to be summer (with a vengeance) but it seems like it just storms constantly!
ReplyDeleteKatherine, that would be very convenient to have pizza so close. We usually pick pizza up instead of eating in restaurants as it's our treat with on a movie night.
DeleteYou have rain? Please send me some!
Pizza and salad are perfect for movie night. That's our go-to meal on Fridays when we have family TV night.
ReplyDeleteMy husband got me the Birds of Kansas field guide and I have really enjoyed it this summer. I've been able to identify all kinds of birds near us. We had a Cooper's hawk visit our neighbor's birdbath which was very cool.
Enjoy your week!
Ooooh, I would like to see a Cooper's hawk. the Audubon app has been quite helpful here. I was wondering where yuo lived in Kansas, I used to live in Lawrence.
DeleteI live in Olathe. I lived in Lawrence during the mid-90s when I went to KU. Lawrence is still one of my favorite places! ♥
DeleteBoS - oh waht a small world! I haven't been to Kansas in over 38 years!
DeleteVicki, I think we are in for many months of this intense heat 😡 Sometimes I think we ought to have put a pool in instead of doing the remodel. But no, I’m loving the changes.
ReplyDeleteI hadn’t heard of About Hope. Oh, if you get a chance to read News if the World before you get the movie I think you’ll love it. It’s rich with detail & the ending is guaranteed to bring a few tears
I hear Merlin Bird ID is a good app too for identification.
ReplyDeleteNews of the World is still on my list to read before I watch the movie but I'm not sure that's doable right now.
The courier is on my list. Looks good. Thanks for the recommendations. I hope you have a wonderful week!
Heather, I had not heard of Merlin app, I didn't realize there were so many.
DeleteHonestly, I think you could read the book after the movie because there are so many other scenes not included in the movie. And the end...wow.
Man...I just polished off two different kinds of pizza from Casey's and wish I had your yummy salad to go with it!
ReplyDeleteDownloading the Audubon Bird Guide as I type this.
Jinjer, that Audubon app is very cool. Let me know about the birds you see!
DeleteYou are always welcome to share our salad :-)
A friend shared the name of a bird song app with me a few weeks ago, and you might enjoy that, too. It's called BirdNet.
ReplyDeleteNews of the World was one of my favorite books I read with my book club. We enjoyed the movie, too. Tom Hanks!
We are supposed to get a cool front this week and the temps are supposed to drop into the 80s. Maybe it's coming your way, too.
Deb, thanks for the tip about BirdNet. There is a nocturnal bird we can't seem to identify, maybe that will help.
DeleteOh yes, I like Tom Hanks in just about every movie.
We definitely like the same kinds of books. It is a long weekend here and so far it has been cold and rainy. Definitely not like our usual summers.
ReplyDeleteJackie, the weather seems to be very different all over but we could use some of your rain. The summer months here are usually hot but this summer it's been amplified. Ugh.
DeleteGlad you're enjoying the bird apps! We went to a brewery in CT last week and my daughter and I had a pizza with mashed potatoes and bacon on it. Everyone else was disgusted, but we both thought it was really good, lol. I need to get to News of the World soon...
ReplyDeleteJoAnn, it has an alert feature too so I can plug in a bird on a wish list feature. That sounds like an intriging pizza. I'd eat it!
DeletePizza and salad sound delicious. Thanks for sharing your salad with Souper Sundays. I still need to watch News of the World.
ReplyDeleteDeb, it was a pleasure to join in again!
DeleteI'll join you for any of your meals!! Hoping your summer isn't too hot. We seem to rotate been miserably hot and humid or thunderstorms.
ReplyDeleteBFR, honestly it's like PA in summer hee but we just don't get snow. And you are very welcome to join in on our dinners!
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